Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

CBS News [5/17/2026 1:14 PM, Kaia Hubbard, 51110K] reports Senate Republicans are revising part of their plan to fund immigration agencies under the Department of Homeland Security after the Senate’s rulekeeper delivered a blow to security funds for President Trump’s overhaul of the East Wing of the White House, which includes his plans for a massive ballroom. After Democrats refused for months to fund DHS’ immigration enforcement agencies, Senate Republicans have been moving ahead with a plan to fund them through the budget reconciliation process, which allows the GOP majority to move forward without help from across the aisle. Earlier this month, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees unveiled the text of a $72 billion package to fund the immigration enforcement through fiscal year 2029 as they aim to get the package to the president’s desk by June 1. In addition to funds for immigration enforcement, the package would also provide $1 billion to the Secret Service for "security adjustments and upgrades," including to support enhancements related to the 90,000-square-foot "East Wing Modernization Project." Mr. Trump announced the makeover of the White House’s East Wing last July, which includes revamped underground national security and health care facilities, in addition to the ballroom. Republicans say security for the ballroom represents around 20% of the proposed Secret Service funds. But the Senate’s rulekeeper, known as the parliamentarian, determined that the provision funds activities beyond the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee and does not comply with the Byrd rule, Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee said late Saturday. "While we expect Republicans to change this bill to appease Trump, Democrats are prepared to challenge any change to this bill," said Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the top Democrat on the committee. "We cannot let Republicans waste our national treasure on a mission of chaos and corruption while turning a blind eye to the needs of the American people.”

FOX News [5/17/2026 11:04 AM, Eric Mack, 37576K] reports the Senate parliamentarian rejected the last item in the Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill — $1 billion in White House and Secret Service security funding tied in part to President Donald Trump’s planned ballroom. Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, considered nonpartisan since taking the role in 2012 during former President Barack Obama’s administration, ruled the funding provision could not be included as written under budget reconciliation rules, an outcome long expected from both sides of the aisle. Ryan Wrasse, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a social media post that Republicans would keep trying to revise the legislation to try to gain the parliamentarian’s approval. "Redraft. Refine. Resubmit," Wrasse wrote on X. "None of this is abnormal during a Byrd process.” The decision deals a blow to efforts to pass the money with a simple majority as part of a broader roughly $72 billion package focused largely on immigration enforcement after Democrats forced those budgetary items under the longest shutdowns in American history. MacDonough ruled that the security funding provision falls under chamber rules that require 60 votes to pass most legislation, according to the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., the Senate Budget Committee ranking member. "While we expect Republicans to change this bill to appease Trump, Democrats are prepared to challenge any change to this bill," Merkley said. The parliamentarian interprets Senate rules, including whether legislative provisions are permitted. While MacDonough is nonpartisan by Senate standards, she served as former Vice President Al Gore’s advisor in the Bush v. Gore 2000 election challenge that was resolved in the Supreme Court. "It was one thing when private dollars were building it," Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, told Fox News Digital before a closed-door briefing with Secret Service Director Sean Curran. "If you’re asking me for a billion dollars, I have some really hard questions.”

Reported similarly:
The Hill [5/17/2026 9:31 AM, Ashleigh Fields, 4464K]
Breitbart [5/17/2026 11:27 PM, Staff, 2238K]

FOX News [5/17/2026 5:45 PM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., criticizes the Democratic Party for their consistent policies to ‘eliminate’ I.C.E. and defund border protection, arguing these actions undermine national safety, on ‘Fox Report.’

Wall Street Journal [5/17/2026 3:13 AM, Michael M. Phillips, 646K] reports U.S. forces killed an estimated 20 Islamic State militants in a hotly contested corner of Nigeria, days after an operation that killed the group’s No. 2, U.S. and Nigerian officials said Monday. The U.S. airstrikes, near the northeastern village of Metele, were the result of close intelligence sharing between the Nigerian and American militaries, according to officials. “Terrorists who threaten our citizens, communities and national stability will be located and defeated,” Maj. Gen. Samaila Uba, a Nigerian military spokesman, said. “There will be no safe haven for terrorists anywhere in Nigeria.” Relations between the U.S. and Nigeria, a powerhouse in West Africa, frayed last year when President Trump accused the Abuja government of failing to protect Christians from Islamist militants. Since then, Nigeria has allowed hundreds of American troops to be posted to the country to train Nigerian forces and coordinate targeting of militant groups that have rampaged through the Lake Chad Basin for years. The U.S. has greater air capabilities than Nigeria, and has conducted the actual strikes. “The removal of these terrorists diminishes the group’s capacity to plan attacks that threaten the safety and security of the U.S. and our partners,” U.S. Africa Command said Monday. U.S. officials said no American or Nigerian troops were injured in the latest operation, which took place on Sunday.

Reuters [5/18/2026 3:29 AM, Akanksha Khushi, 38315K] reports the U.S. Africa Command said on Monday that it had carried out additional airstrikes against ‌Islamic State in northeastern Nigeria on Sunday in coordination with the Nigerian government. No U.S. or Nigerian forces were harmed during the strikes, AFRICOM said. On Saturday, the U.S. and Nigerian ⁠forces conducted an operation that killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the second in command of Islamic State globally, in the northeast of the African country, U.S. President Donald Trump and his counterpart in Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said. Tinubu said Nigerian forces worked closely with the U.S. military in what he ‌called ⁠a daring joint operation that dealt a heavy blow to the ranks of the Islamic State. Trump, who has previously accused Nigeria of failing to protect ⁠Christians from Islamist militants, thanked the Nigerian government for its partnership in the operation. Borno has endured an insurgency ⁠waged by Boko Haram and its splinter group Islamic State West Africa Province for ⁠17 years which has killed thousands and displaced 2 million people.

FOX News [5/17/2026 6:10 PM, Emma Bussey, 37576K] reports Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, ISIS’s shadow commander in West Africa, was killed May 16 using what an extremism analyst describes as one of the hardest forms of intelligence to detect, after decades being shielded by "deep local networks" across the region. While the killing dealt one of the biggest blows to ISIS’s global network in years, disrupting operations in northeastern Nigeria, the terror group’s top leader, Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, remains at large as Africa becomes the movement’s global epicenter. "There is no single ISIS ‘headquarters’ in Nigeria; ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province) operates dozens of small, shifting camps scattered across the Lake Chad islands and the Borno bush," Dr. Omar Mohammed, Senior Research Fellow at the GW Program on Extremism, told Fox News Digital. "Al-Minuki would have had no smartphones, relying instead on courier-based communications and constant movement between these small camps," he said. President Donald Trump’s explicit reference to "sources who kept us informed" points directly to human intelligence, or HUMINT — the hardest form of intelligence for a target to detect or counter, Mohammed explained. The precision strike successfully penetrated defenses that had been held for years. "He would have utilized deep local networks the Nigerian military has struggled to penetrate for over a decade," Mohammed added. "His operational security would have been severe," Mohammed said. "But two things eventually undo even careful targets: time generates patterns, and human sources are extremely difficult to defeat.” "Despite severe operational security, al-Minuki was ultimately compromised through persistent human intelligence," he noted. "Al-Minuki knew he was marked.”

Univision [5/17/2026 8:33 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports Alex Saab, accused of being a front man for Nicolás Maduro, and who served as a minister in his government until a few months ago, was deported to the United States from Caracas, the Venezuelan regime said in a two-paragraph statement. Saab, who once held a diplomatic passport, landed at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport on Saturday night after 9 p.m. He is being held at the Miami Federal Detention Center , a prison run by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. In a statement released on social media by the Administrative Service for Identification, Migration and Foreigners (Saime) of Venezuela, it was reported that " the deportation of Colombian citizen Alex Saab Morán was carried out on May 16, 2026. " According to Saime, the deportation was adopted considering "that the aforementioned Colombian citizen is involved in various crimes in the United States, as is public, notorious and communicated ." Saab was a very close ally of Maduro, for whom the Venezuelan dictatorship launched the "FreeAlexSaab" campaign to defend him and enthrone him as a hero of the revolution. Saab was previously imprisoned in the United States in 2021 on charges of money laundering and corruption . Venezuela negotiated his release in 2023, under the administration of Joe Biden. His presence in the US could indicate that he might serve as a witness in the legal case against Maduro in New York. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
Univision [5/17/2026 7:20 PM, Staff, 4937K]

FOX News [5/17/2026 9:10 AM, Efrat Lachter, 37576K] Video: HERE reports riding in a military convoy escorted by armored vehicles from Poland’s 18th "Iron Division" along the country’s nearly 324-mile border with Belarus, soldiers pointed toward dense forests where they say Europe’s newest form of warfare is unfolding. Polish officials warn illegal migrants weaponized by Russia and Belarus to destabilize NATO’s eastern flank are also making their way to the United States — part of what Warsaw calls an ongoing war against the Western alliance that has direct implications for American security. The border was once guarded mainly by Poland’s Border Guard and police. But after years of mounting pressure from illegal crossings, Polish officials say the army was deployed because the situation became too large and too dangerous to handle as a conventional immigration challenge. Now, the frontier is guarded in layers: soldiers, border guards and rapid-response forces. A temporary barrier built in 2021 has become an electronic fence backed by surveillance systems and military patrols. Polish officials say migrants trying to cross have come from countries including Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan and India. They describe the crisis as "artificial migration," saying the illegals are flown into Belarus from the Middle East, Africa and Asia and then transported toward the Polish border by Belarusian authorities in an effort to pressure and destabilize NATO countries.

Wall Street Journal [5/17/2026 3:43 PM, Staff, 646K] reports Congress’s debate over reauthorizing Section 702 surveillance authority is dominated by naivete about continuing terror threats. For the latest evidence on the latter, consider Friday’s unsealed complaint against Mohammad Al-Saadi for planning and carrying out terrorist attacks in Europe and the U.S. Terror attacks that are prevented get little attention, but this one deserves highlighting given its links to the war in Iran and that regime’s terrorist ambitions. The 32-year-old Mr. Al-Saadi is an Iraqi national who belongs to Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy militia, and has close ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Mr. Al-Saadi is charged with six counts of terror-related offenses, including a role in some 20 attempted or successful attacks. A statement from U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton’s Southern District of New York office accuses Mr. Al-Saadi of directing 18 terrorist attacks throughout Europe and claiming credit for two in Canada. Congratulations are in order for the law enforcement and intelligence agencies that cooperated on Mr. Al-Saadi’s tracking and capture. But the operation demonstrates that the jihadist threat hasn’t gone away, despite no major successful attack on U.S. soil for several years.

NPR [5/17/2026 7:00 AM, Rhitu Chatterjee, 28764K] Audio: HERE reports as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown stretches into its second year, researchers and health care workers say that it is creating a mental health crisis in immigrant communities. Data from one primary care clinic in Los Angeles, shared exclusively with NPR, shows a sharp rise in anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts among patients. "When we look at our data during periods of intensified enforcement, our screening data showed a clear rise in distress," says Sophia Pages, a licensed marriage and family therapist and executive director of behavioral health at Zocalo Health, a primary care organization with a network of clinics California and Maryland. Zocalo mainly serves Latino families on Medicaid. "Immigration enforcement is functioning as a real time public health stressor in the communities that we serve.” All patients at Zocalo get standardized screenings for mental health problems like anxiety and depression. Since the immigration enforcement agents began raiding farms and neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area in 2025, Pages and her colleagues have seen a sharp rise in symptoms. "More than half of the patients we screened had anxiety that was severe enough to interfere with their daily life, and nearly three quarters were experiencing depression," says Pages. And nearly 1 in 8 individuals struggled with thoughts of suicide, Zocalo found. That is more than double the rate of suicidal ideation in the general population. "What seemed to sit underneath it for many patients was this profound sense of helplessness," Pages says, because no matter how careful they were, by changing their routines, or staying home more, they felt like they can’t protect themselves or their families. "And that loss of control was deeply destabilizing and can intensify depression, trauma-related distress and suicidal thinking.”

Univision [5/17/2026 9:39 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports the US government is set to activate a new fleet of aircraft for deportation flights . The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the purchase of Boeing 737s, while activists criticize the expenditure amid economic uncertainty. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Univision [5/17/2026 10:29 AM, Shoshana Walter, 4937K] reports the meeting with the sheriff’s deputies was cordial at first. Axel Sanchez Toledo had called 911 in December to request from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in South Florida a welfare check of his 4-year-old daughter. He shared custody with his ex-partner and had been told that his daughter was ill, he told one of the officers while he was with his girlfriend and baby son. The agent asked questions of Sánchez Toledo, took his driver’s license and disappeared inside a patrol, according to body camera footage. When the agent returned to leave, he offered another resolution: he accused Sánchez Toledo of being undocumented and said he would be detained for ICE, court records show. Sánchez Toledo ran away, with the two agents chasing him. They used a Taser pistol with him, he was kicked and shot down, while his girlfriend begged the officers to stop. “Please, friends, I’m not a criminal,” Sanchez Toledo moaned, insisting he had documentation — a pending asylum case, his lawyer later explained. “I don’t want to leave.” “Now it’s too late, damn it!” one of the agents shouted. “He just wanted to know about his daughter,” his girlfriend cried. “Why should you do this?” The officer who arrested Sanchez Toledo was part of the Sheriff’s Office Task Force 287(g), an agreement with ICE that allows local police to enforce federal immigration law. As more local public safety agencies rush to join President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration raid, arrests like Sanchez Toledo’s reveal a rapidly changing public safety landscape: Routine interactions with police are leaving even some victims of crime and people calling 911 vulnerable to detention and arrest, The Marshall Project has discovered. Attracted in part by federal payments, more than 1,100 law enforcement agencies across the country have signed agreements with ICE, with the largest concentration in southern states. According to some estimates, the number of local officers empowered to make immigration arrests in the United States now exceeds the approximately 12,000 new ICE agents hired during this administration. Borrowing Trump’s manual, local officials have repeatedly said his goal is to pursue the “bad guys,” and have tried to reassure concerned residents by assuring them that it remains safe to call police. “Don’t be afraid of the Sheriff’s Office,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said at a community event last year. “If you are a victim of a crime, we will be there to help you. We are not there to deport him.” But in Florida, the state leading the country in number of agreements signed with ICE, Bradshaw’s agency serves as a clear reflection of how quickly the immigration offensive is spreading toward people seeking police help. Only about 150 of the department’s 1,500 officers are empowered to make immigration arrests, according to agency records, but between September 2025 and March they arrested an average of more than 60 immigrants per month, one of the state’s highest figures. Since signing the agreement, the Department of Homeland Security has paid the Sheriff’s Office nearly 1 million dollars in immigration-related refunds and other incentives, according to payment records obtained by The Marshall Project. In an email, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said Sanchez Toledo was now subject to deportation proceedings. The email also stated that “illegal immigrants are not welcome in the United States.”

Univision [5/17/2026 8:42 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports what began as a routine work job in a Chicago suburb ended up becoming an immigration nightmare for Miguel Barreno , a Spanish citizen who spent more than six months detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) , despite having agreed to leave the country voluntarily weeks after his arrest. Barreno, 39, finally returned to Spain on May 3, 2026, after being held in detention centers in Indiana and Kentucky since October 2025. His case has attracted attention because it breaks with the usual narrative of immigration raids in the United States: he was not Latin American, he had no criminal record , and he came from a European country allied with Washington. Even so, the migrant ended up trapped for months within the immigration system, which had become more restrictive after Donald Trump ‘s return to the White House. The Spaniard had arrived in the United States in November 2017 on a tourist visa. After losing his job in Spain, he decided to reunite in Illinois with his partner , Leticia Centeno, from Nicaragua. Although his immigration permit had expired , he continued to live and work in the Chicago area, where he led a stable life until ICE agents intercepted him during a raid as he was heading to work at an Indian food factory in Carol Stream, Illinois. "I felt panicked and very scared . I didn’t know if it was the police or who it was," Barreno recounted in an interview with Cadena SER . According to his testimony, immigration agents asked him about his expired visa , and shortly afterward he was transferred, "handcuffed and shackled," to a detention center in Indiana. There he spent nearly a month without clear information about his immigration status. In November 2025, he appeared before an immigration judge . Barreno quickly realized he had no realistic chance of obtaining legal status or grounds to request political asylum. Without U.S. citizen children or permanent legal ties to the country, he opted for voluntary departure , a procedure he was told would take only a week or two. But he never got out. Instead of being deported quickly, he was sent to another immigration detention center in Kentucky, where he spent about five more months locked up with common criminals: "There were only 12 of us migrants there, the rest were from the street. They were doing drugs and were alcoholics," he recalled. Barreno maintains that a possible administrative error caused both U.S. and Spanish authorities to delay his return for months. While he waited without answers, time continued to slip away inside the prison. "Every day I ask myself why I was there suffering for so long . I don’t understand it," he said. The case of the Spaniard also raised questions about the consular assistance he received during his detention. Spanish media reported that his family accused the Spanish consulate in Chicago of not expediting his case, although Spanish authorities later asserted that they did provide him with support and documentation to facilitate his return. After regaining his freedom and returning to Madrid, Barreno asserted that he has no intention of returning to the United States while Donald Trump remains in power. His deportation also prevents him from entering the country for at least 10 years . "Those months there were hell," he summarized. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

San Diego Union Tribune [5/17/2026 8:00 AM, Michael Smolens, 1257K] reports taking away a person’s U.S. citizenship is rare and, historically, hasn’t been easy to do. President Donald Trump’s administration nevertheless is pushing to denaturalize foreign-born American citizens accused of certain crimes. At the same time, his administration is slow-walking renewals and applications that threaten to put the future of two other groups of people at risk: young immigrant “Dreamers” trying to re-up their temporary legal status and immigrants seeking asylum. The moves raise his already-expansive immigrant deportation program to a new level. The Justice Department recently announced denaturalization cases in federal courts across the country against about a dozen U.S. citizens born overseas. Officials said they had committed serious crimes or immigration fraud, or had ties to terrorism. Should the people be found guilty of such accusations, serious punishment would seem appropriate, even possibly losing their citizenship. While that may not seem like a lot of cases, Trump has leaned into robust denaturalization campaigns before. During the first Trump administration, there were approximately 170 cases of denaturalization, about 42 per year, according to data from Hofstra University Law analyzed by the National Immigration Forum, while there were 64 cases, about 16 a year, when President Joe Biden was in the White House. Between 1990 and 2017, the U.S. government filed just over 300 denaturalization cases — or an average of 11 per year, according to CBS News. Among those targeted by the recently announced denaturalization crackdown are a Colombian-born Catholic priest convicted of sexually assaulting a minor; a man born in Morocco with alleged ties to al-Qaeda; a Somali immigrant who pleaded guilty to providing material support to al-Shabaab, a U.S.-designated terrorist group; and a former Gambian police officer allegedly involved in war crimes. The group also includes individuals who allegedly used false identities to apply for immigration benefits and a man who allegedly entered into sham marriages to commit immigration fraud. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche this month told CBS he believes there are “a lot of individuals who are citizens who shouldn’t be.” But he added that only “a very small percentage” of the approximately 24 million naturalized citizens should be concerned. The others don’t “have anything to worry about,” he said. Last year, Trump directed the Department of Justice to “maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings.” In a Thanksgiving Truth Social post, he said he would “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility” and people who are “non-compatible with Western Civilization,” in addition to those who commit actual crimes.

AP [5/17/2026 10:23 AM, John Hanna, 35287K] reports even as Democratic officials fight the effort in court, the Trump administration has run millions of voter registrations through government databases to determine their eligibility in a process that critics worry could end up purging valid voters from the rolls before the November elections. At least 67 million registrations, primarily from Republican-controlled states, have gone through a beefed-up verification program at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and tens of thousands of those have been flagged as potential noncitizens or people who have died. Some states allow only a month for people to prove their eligibility and others suspend it immediately. The scanning of state voter rolls at the national level is part of a broader effort by Republican President Donald Trump to federalize certain election functions and promote his messaging that elections are marred by noncitizen voting, even though instances of that are rare. Voting and civil rights advocates say the DHS system is error-prone and can mistakenly flag people who are eligible to vote. “If a voter is wrongly removed, by the time they learn about it and correct it, they may miss their opportunity to vote in that election,” said Freda Levenson, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. The group is challenging an Ohio law requiring monthly checks with the DHS system. Voters such as 29-year-old Anthony Nel have been caught in the middle. The native of South Africa, who became a citizen more than a decade ago, was flagged as a potential noncitizen when Texas ran its voter file through the DHS verification system. Nel’s local election office in Denton, north of Dallas, temporarily canceled his registration last fall while he was waiting for a new passport to replace an expired one. “I’m like, ‘You should know that I’m a citizen, that the passport exists,’” he said in an interview. Trump has been trying to overhaul U.S. elections, including calling for a federal list of verified voters, and his Department of Justice has pushed states to hand over unredacted voter information for mass checks through the DHS program known as SAVE. The Justice Department has sued states that refuse, saying the government is trying to ensure that they are complying with federal law and have accurate voter lists. States already take a number of steps to maintain the accuracy of their voter rolls. SAVE, short for Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, was created under an immigration law mandating that DHS help federal, state and local agencies prevent government benefits from going to noncitizens. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an arm of DHS, said more than 1,300 agencies use it.

New York Post [5/17/2026 12:00 PM, Kevin Cohen, 40934K] reports an April 10, 2024, an Army soldier named Samuel J. Meeks stood beneath a gazebo in Green Cove Springs, Florida, smiling for wedding photographs with a Chinese national he had just married. Four days later, federal prosecutors suggested the ceremony was less a union than a $35,000 security breach. Meeks, an active-duty soldier then-stationed at Fort Campbell, was a prize recruit for a Jacksonville-based ring led by Anny Chen, Yafeng Deng, and Hailing Feng. Between 2023 and early 2024, this trio didn’t just facilitate green cards; they functioned as a boutique concierge for foreign nationals seeking high-level access. Investigators recovered a "tactical manual" from the group — bilingual instructions detailing how to structure payments across multiple bank accounts to evade federal triggers and how to rehearse for a "staged" domestic life. The ambition of the Chen network was unique in its focus on the Department of Defense. While Meeks was their Army mark, the group had already successfully processed four former Navy members who pleaded guilty prior to the larger indictment. They specialized in exploiting the "presumption of trust" afforded to the military. By securing Defense Department identification cards for Chinese nationals, they weren’t just bypassing the border; they were providing keys to base access and secure installations. Jacksonville is an autopsy of a national security collapse: When the state treats a uniform as a walking testimonial of character, it creates a vulnerability that can be reverse-engineered for the price of a used Camry. The scale of this industry is no longer speculative. In Houston, Ashley Yen Nguyen — known as "Tyra" — ran a marriage-fraud machine that processed over 500 sham marriages, with Vietnamese nationals paying between $50,000 and $70,000.

Bloomberg Law [5/18/2026 5:05 AM, Andrew Kreighbaum and Eric Heisig] reports the Trump administration has issued thousands of fines against immigrants and has started taking people to court, seizing their tax refunds, and demanding payments for being in the US illegally, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis. The government issued 65,101 civil fines totaling more than $36 billion from the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term in January 2025 to mid-March this year, the Department of Homeland Security said. The Justice Department has sued immigrants to force them to pay the fines in more than 50 lawsuits beginning last September, the Bloomberg Law analysis of court dockets found. [Editorial note: Consult source link for extended commentary]

Univision [5/18/2026 12:22 AM, Staff, 4937K] reports thousands of asylum seekers faced deportation if they did not pay the annual immigration fee by May 29. Attorney José Guerrero warned that failure to pay could result in case dismissal and deportation proceedings.

AP [5/17/2026 9:04 AM, Julie Watson and Morgan Lee, 35287K] Video: HERE reports White sage burning, Norma Meza Calles gathers guests at a Mexican wellness resort into a semicircle facing Kuuchamaa Mountain and asks everyone to close their eyes and feel its presence. “This is sacred to us like a church for you all. The mountain is our healer, our psychologist,” said Meza Calles, a Kumeyaay Nation tribal leader who explains that in its creation story a shaman transformed into the mountain. “Here is where we gather strength to live in this difficult world.” Then she calls for a moment of reflection. But the silence is pierced by the crushing of rock. U.S. federal contractors have been blasting and bulldozing Kuuchamaa, which straddles both countries, to make way for new sections of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Indigenous leaders say that in the Trump administration’s rush to build border walls, contractors are desecrating Native American sacred places and cultural sites at an unprecedented pace, more than 170 years after the international boundary split the territories of dozens of tribes. Barrier construction has ramped up along the 1,954-mile (3,145-kilometer) border even as illegal crossings have plummeted to historic lows. Much of it began this year after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security waived cultural and environmental laws. In California, explosions on Kuuchamaa send rocks hurtling down its Mexico side. “We feel that in our DNA,” said Emily Burgueno, a California member of the Kumeyaay Nation, adding that “body” and “land” are the same word in the Kumeyaay language. Some tribal leaders met with DHS officials to urge them to protect Kuuchamaa and are looking into legal action. “No one ever consented or supported the use of dynamite on the mountain,” Burgueno said. The nation consists of more than a dozen tribes in California and Mexico’s Baja California. In Arizona, DHS contractors last month carved through a massive 1,000-year-old fish-shaped geoglyph called “Las Playas Intaglio.” The rare drawing, etched into the desert floor much like Peru’s Nazca Lines, was created on a lava field in what is now the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. The Tohono O’odham Nation said it had pointed out the site on its ancestral land for contractors to avoid. “This was a devastating and entirely avoidable loss,” Tohono O’odham Chairman Verlon Jose said in an April 30 statement. “There is nothing more important than our history, which is what makes us who we are as O’odham. The site was also an irreplaceable piece of the United States’ history, one none of us can ever get back.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that a contractor “inadvertently disturbed” the site west of Ajo, Arizona, on April 23, but it vowed to protect the remaining portion. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott is talking to tribal leaders to determine next steps.

Los Angeles Times [5/17/2026 5:07 PM, Brittny Mejia, 12718K] reports Tustin police have arrested a 47-year-old man accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend before fleeing to Mexico, the department announced Sunday. Officers arrested Juan Marquez on Saturday, in connection with the death of Sandra Fernandez, 42, on Thursday, the department said in a news release. Fernandez, an Anaheim resident, was found unresponsive by officers at the intersection of Yorba Street and Medford Avenue. She had suffered fatal gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. The department said its investigation revealed that Marquez, a Hawthorne resident, is a former boyfriend of Fernandez and waited for her near her workplace. After identifying Marquez as a suspect, investigators said they learned that he’d fled across the U.S.-Mexico border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, police said. After authorities obtained an arrest warrant for Marquez, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, acting on the warrant, detained Marquez as he returned to the country through the border checkpoint.

Univision [5/18/2026 2:28 AM, Staff, 4937K] reports Juan Marquez , Sandra Fernandez’s ex-boyfriend suspected of shooting her to death last Thursday in Tustin , was nowhere to be seen because he left that same day for Tijuana, Mexico, through the port of San Ysidro in San Diego, California. However, Márquez was arrested the next day by agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. There was an outstanding warrant for his arrest, and when the suspect attempted to re-enter California, he was immediately stopped. The confirmed information was provided by the Tustin Police Department , through a brief press release that it published on Facebook , on Sunday, May 17. Lieutenant Matt Nunley explained that the detectives’ investigation "revealed that the suspect, Juan Marquez, 47 , a resident of Hawthorne, is an ex-boyfriend of Sandra and was waiting for her near her workplace." Sandra Fernandez was 42 years old and lived with her three children in the nearby city of Anaheim. Her children, two boys and a girl, range in age from 5 to 21. They are from previous relationships and were not connected to the suspect. According to the Tustin Police Department investigation, on Thursday, May 14, shortly after 6:00 p.m., Fernández left his job at the nonprofit organization Families Together . He was walking toward his car, which he parked outside the building, when he was fatally shot. Several witnesses saw a suspect running from the scene, wearing dark clothing. The Hispanic mother was fatally shot, falling at the busy intersection of Yorba Street and Medford Avenue. At 6:11 p.m., emergency services received a call requesting assistance. Although medical help arrived, the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Detectives were able to identify Márquez and claim they confirmed his involvement in the shooting that took the life of his ex. Then, they requested the arrest warrant that they were waiting for in San Ysidro, achieving the arrest. Márquez has not issued any statements since he was arrested. He remains incarcerated in the Orange County Jail, charged with murder and without bail . [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

HS Today [5/17/2026 11:15 AM, Megan Norris, 38K] reports the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has taken its most concrete step yet toward formalizing its “TSA Gold+” public-private partnership model, releasing a pre-solicitation notice on SAM.gov on May 15, 2026, that includes a draft Performance Work Statement, evaluation factors, and an invitation to an Industry Day scheduled for May 21 at TSA headquarters in Springfield, Virginia. The notice, which carries a response deadline of May 25, describes Gold+ as “a transformative initiative to modernize aviation security at select U.S. airports through robust public-private partnership” and calls for integrated, outcome-based contracts covering workforce, technology, and maintenance, all under TSA regulatory oversight. The program is voluntary and opt-in for airports. Gold+ builds on the existing Screening Partnership Program (SPP), under which TSA-approved private contractors currently employ screeners at 20 of the more than 430 U.S. airports with scheduled passenger service. San Francisco International and Kansas City International are among the larger airports in SPP; most participants are small regional airports. The key distinction between the current SPP model and Gold+ is the scope of contractor responsibility. Under SPP, TSA owns and procures screening equipment while contractors provide the workforce. Under Gold+, contractors would manage both the workforce and the technology, including procurement, deployment, lifecycle refreshes, and maintenance of checkpoint and checked baggage screening systems. TSA would retain regulatory oversight, set security standards, conduct inspections and audits, and certify all screening equipment and procedures. TSA training standards, performance testing, and evaluations would remain federal functions under the program framework. Airports that do not opt in would continue operating under standard TSA arrangements.

Washington Post [5/17/2026 12:12 PM, Matthew Cappucci and Ben Noll, 24826K] reports back-to-back severe weather episodes are expected across portions of the Great Plains, the Corn Belt and the Upper Midwest on Sunday and Monday. Damaging gusts are the main hazard, though large, destructive hail and a few strong tornadoes are possible. The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center has outlined an enhanced risk (Level 3 out of 5), but Monday’s threat ticks up to a Level 4. Both days will feature a concerning overlap of ingredients that could support a few rotating supercell thunderstorms with significant tornadoes, including the possibility of some rated EF2s or stronger on the Enhanced Fujita scale. But it’s unclear what mode of storm will evolve. Will primarily squall lines form? If so, the predominant hazard will be strong straight-line winds with a lesser hail or tornado risk. If supercells form, a dangerous severe weather event may be in the cards. Saturday featured several reports of baseball-size hail in Grundy County, Missouri, with tennis ball-size hail to the west near Goodland, Kansas. A late-night squall line brought 80 mph wind gusts to the Kansas-Nebraska border. Despite the unsettled weather, May has been virtually quiet from a tornado standpoint across the traditional expanses of what’s known as Tornado Alley. Oklahoma has seen zero recorded tornadoes, and Texas has recorded only two; Texas and Oklahoma together typically average 74 tornadoes during the month. Persistent northwesterly flow early in the month entrenched a cooler, drier air mass across the Plains, but that is changing. Sunday and Monday represent the first appreciable tornado risk for the area in nearly three weeks.

CNN [5/17/2026 9:30 PM, Taylor Ward, 612K] reports after a quiet start to May, the atmosphere over the central United States is primed for an outbreak. A volatile stretch of severe thunderstorms is expected to unfold across the Plains and Midwest through Tuesday, bringing the risk of intense tornadoes — EF3 or stronger — destructive hail, damaging winds and heavy rain to a region where spring’s most dangerous storms often arrive with considerable force. May is notorious for severe thunderstorm outbreaks in the Plains and Midwest, and this one could live up to that reputation. This is a big shift from what has been a quiet start to the month, because of a jet stream pattern that has suppressed widespread severe storms until now. The tornado threat is significant Sunday and Monday. The storm threat shifts east on Tuesday. The weather pattern is also setting the stage for wildfires. There’s significant fire risk in the Southwest from Arizona to southwest Kansas — we’ll walk through some details on that threat after we talk about the timing for severe storms below. Storms are rapidly developing this afternoon across Nebraska and southeastern South Dakota. The afternoon storms will be capable of producing very large hail and strong tornadoes.

Telemundo [5/17/2026 7:58 PM, Staff, 2524K] reports Tim Walz mobilized the National Guard to support firefighters in rescue and evacuation efforts. One of the fires has already consumed more than 600 acres in the central part of the state, fueled by wind and drought. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Post [5/17/2026 11:10 PM, Dan Diamond and Dan Lamothe, 24826K] reports that, for decades, U.S. presidents have stood, waved and boarded Marine One — the call sign of whichever helicopter is transporting the president — as they prepared to depart the South Lawn of the White House. Now President Donald Trump is planning to alter that iconic image by building a permanent helipad, perhaps as early as this summer, according to three people familiar with the issue, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House planning. Unlike some other Trump construction projects, the helipad idea is one that has been under discussion for years. It’s viewed by some internally as an overdue solution to a years-old problem: The new generation of Marine One helicopters runs the risk of burning the lawn. The problem exists because the new helicopters, the VH-92A Patriot, manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft, have exhaust vents that aim heat down, making grass-scorching likely. As a result, the Marine Corps, which operates the helicopters used to transport presidents, has been unable to deploy the VH-92A at the White House, although it is used to support Trump’s travel elsewhere. The Marines, Sikorsky and Sikorsky’s parent company, Lockheed Martin, have spent years trying to find a solution. The VH-92A has been envisioned for more than a decade as the full-time presidential helicopter. The Marine Corps received the final VH-92A in its 23-aircraft presidential fleet nearly two years ago at a cost of about $4.95 billion, or about $215 million each, according to a 2019 report by the independent Government Accountability Office. But they have yet to ferry a president to and from the South Lawn. Officials instead continue to rely for that duty on older Marine One models, the VH-3D Sea King and the VH-60N White Hawk, that were originally set to be phased out three years ago. A Marine Corps aviation plan released in February said that the Sea King is now expected to remain in service through at least 2026, with the White Hawk expected to remain in service through 2030. Asked about the status of the new helicopters, the Marine Corps said in a statement that the VH-92A “continues to support administrative lifts of the President outside the National Capital Region.” The service also said it will ensure that its Marine One squadron is “appropriately resourced to fly all required missions.” It referred all questions about the possibility of a helipad to the White House. The White House did not respond to questions about the possible helipad. Spokespeople for Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky did not respond to questions about the possibility of a White House helipad, and instead touted the new helicopters’ capabilities. “The VH‑92A Patriot is a recognizable patriotic asset known around the globe for safety, security and reliability," Sikorsky said in a statement. The people with knowledge of White House plans cautioned that — like other Trump ideas — the plans to build a helipad could change before a formal announcement.

Reported similarly:
Wall Street Journal [5/17/2026 10:33 PM, Meridith McGraw and Marcus Weisgerber, 646K]

Breitbart [5/17/2026 3:25 PM, Amy Furr, 2238K] reports Massachusetts officials are asking the United States Navy for help in retrieving equipment from the site where a fishing vessel went down in January, leaving all seven crew members dead. In a letter to the secretary of the Navy, Gov. Maura Healey (D) and State Sen. Bruce Tarr (R) asked for assistance in recovering a video recorder and hard drive from the site where the Lily Jean went down, an incident for which investigators are still trying to find answers, Fox News reported Saturday. In a statement to the outlet, the governor’s office said, "Governor Healey is requesting the Navy retrieve a piece of equipment on board that could provide critical information into what caused the ship to sink. She has also requested that the Navy assess the feasibility of recovering the remains of lost crew members, in keeping with the wishes of each family.” The fishing community of Gloucester has been grieving the loss of those who died when the vessel sank as it was returning to shore with seven people onboard, Breitbart News reported January 31. A few days after the Lily Jean went down, search crews found a debris field, recovered one body, and also recovered an empty life raft from the area, per WJAR: At the time, Tarr said, "Every day, men and women leave ports like Gloucester to harvest the bounty of the ocean for the people of our state and our nation, carrying with them the very real risk of not returning home. The sinking of the F/V Lily Jean makes the consequences of that risk painfully real.” Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. Coast Guard are taking part in the investigation.

NewsNation [5/17/2026 3:14 PM, Leah Crowley, 4464K] reports Lakeville police are investigating after a pipe bomb was found Saturday afternoon near the edge of Egger Bog Pond. In a press release, the department said a person reported finding what appeared to be a bomb around 12:38 p.m. by the pond’s edge off Highland Road. The Massachusetts State Police Bomb squad responded to the scene and confirmed the object was a PVC pipe bomb. State police then safely disposed of the bomb. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [5/18/2026 1:11 AM, Michael Sinkewicz Fox, 37576K] reports an Arkansas man was arrested after allegedly threatening to carry out a mass shooting at his local Walmart if the country went into lockdown over the hantavirus outbreak, authorities said. Aaron Bynum, 20, of Oakland, was arrested Friday for allegedly making the threats, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. He was charged with first-degree terroristic threatening and harassing communications. Officials said the arrest followed an investigation into online threats allegedly made by Bynum on May 9. The FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received an electronic tip from an individual playing an online video game who alleged another player threatened to carry out a mass shooting at a local Walmart "if the country were locked down again due to the Hantavirus.” Authorities said the reporting individual provided the player’s gamer username along with an in-game recording of the alleged threats. Investigators said they subpoenaed the game’s parent company, which identified Bynum as the owner of the account. The FBI’s Fayetteville Field Office then alerted the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, and authorities executed a search warrant at Bynum’s residence Friday. Investigators said they seized Bynum’s computer and related accessories. Authorities said Bynum was taken into custody without incident and booked into the Marion County Detention Center on a $2,500 bond. The hantavirus outbreak tied to the MV Hondius cruise ship has sickened multiple people aboard the vessel, with WHO reporting as of May 13 that all cases then identified were passengers. As of May 13, the World Health Organization said 11 cases had been identified in connection with the outbreak, including eight confirmed cases, two probable cases and one inconclusive case. Three deaths had also been linked to the outbreak, and WHO assessed the risk to the global population as low. Canadian health officials on Sunday confirmed that one of four Canadians who returned from the MV Hondius tested positive for the virus. The Associated Press reported that the Canadian case brought the number of confirmed infections tied to the ship to 10, updating the earlier WHO count from May 13. While the outbreak has sparked comparisons to the coronavirus pandemic, Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel previously told Fox News Digital there is "no comparison," noting hantavirus is difficult to spread. The CDC says Andes virus, the strain confirmed in the MV Hondius outbreak, is the only hantavirus documented to spread from person to person, though such transmission is rare and generally requires close, prolonged contact with a symptomatic person. "It’s not airborne ... in terms of respiratory droplets hanging in the air," he said. "It’s very difficult to transmit.”

Reported similarly:
New York Post [5/17/2026 10:21 PM, Caitlin McCormack, 40934K]

Los Angeles Times [5/17/2026 5:07 PM, Katie King, 12718K] reports federal authorities say an Iraqi national has been arrested for plotting attacks on Jewish institutions in Los Angeles, New York and Arizona, intensifying fears over antisemitic terrorism on U.S. soil. Prosecutors allege Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi served as a commander for Kata’ib Hizballah and worked with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Officials say the undercover sting thwarted a planned attack on a Manhattan synagogue and undisclosed Jewish sites, including in L.A.. An Iraqi national was arrested Friday for what federal authorities have described as serving in a role with two foreign terrorist organizations and attempting to carry out an attack on a Jewish institution in Los Angeles. Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, is facing several terrorism-related charges alleging that he worked with Kata’ib Hizballah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. The federal Bureau of Prisons says he is currently jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Court records do not indicate whether Al-Saadi is represented by an attorney. "In the span of just three months, Mohammad Al-Saadi allegedly directed 18 terrorist attacks throughout Europe — including against United States citizens and interests — and planned to conduct a similar attack here in our country," FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said in a statement.

New York Post [5/17/2026 10:00 AM, Adry Torres, 40934K] reports Sinaloa Senator Enrique Inzunza Cazárez, who is facing drug trafficking and weapon charges, was taken into custody in San Diego by the Drug Enforcement Administration, multiple Mexican news outlets reported on Saturday. The Department of Justice and the DEA’s San Diego field office didn’t respond to a request for comment. Inzunza Cazárez, 53, who is among 10 current and former Sinaloa officials who were indicted by the United States District Court Southern District of New York on April 29, is said to have turned himself in to federal authorities in southern California. He is accused of narcotics importation conspiracy; possession of machine guns and destructive devices; and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. Inzunza Cazárez, a member of the ruling Morena party, has held office since August 2024 and previously served as the Secretary General of Sinaloa under Governor Ruben Rocha Moya, who was also indicted and stepped down May 2. According to the 34-page superseding indictment, the Sinaloa Senator conspired with the Sinaloa Cartel faction Los Chapitos – which is run by Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s sons, to import drugs to the United States. Inzunza Cazárez is accused of meeting with Los Chapitos leaders "and agreed on specific plans for the government in Sinaloa, under Rocha Moya, to support and protect the cartel for favors from the cartel that, in turn, help the defendants and other corrupt officials in power.” The Department of Justice alleged that Inzunza Cazárez and businessman Enrique Diaz Vega, who once served as the state’s Secretary of Administration and Finance from November 2021 to September 2024 and turned himself in to authorities in Arizona on Friday, assisted Los Chapitos leaders in installing dishonest officials to protect that cartel faction’s drug trafficking operations and acted as middlemen between El Chapo’s sons and Rocha Moya.

Daily Wire [5/17/2026 6:25 AM, Jacob Wheeler, 2314K] reports the FBI is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of a former U.S. Air Force intel specialist charged with defecting and sharing American secrets with the Islamic Republic of Iran. In February 2019, a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia indicted Monica Witt, a former U.S. service member and counterintelligence agent, on charges of espionage, including transmitting national defense information to the government of Iran. Witt served in the U.S. military from 1997 to 2008 and later worked as a U.S. government contractor until 2010, according to the FBI. Her combined military and private-sector experience reportedly gave her access to classified information at the "SECRET" and "TOP SECRET" levels, including the identities of undercover personnel within the U.S. intelligence community. In 2013, Witt defected to Iran and provided classified information to the government of Iran, according to the FBI. The Texas native is said to have defected after being invited to two all-expense-paid conferences in Iran that the Justice Department says "promoted anti-Western propaganda and criticized American moral standards," according to the Associated Press. Witt is accused of intentionally providing information that endangered U.S. personnel stationed abroad. Authorities also allege she researched on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran to help identify and target her former colleagues in the U.S. government. "Witt’s defection to Iran has benefitted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has elements responsible for intelligence collection, unconventional warfare, and providing direct support to multiple terrorist organizations targeting U.S. citizens and interests," the FBI said in a statement.

CBS News [5/17/2026 9:00 PM, Staff, 51110K] reports the World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern, after officials identified more than 250 suspected cases and 80 suspected deaths linked to the disease. Officials warned that the true scope of the outbreak could potentially be much larger than what has been reported so far, as health workers raced to intensify screening and contact tracing to contain the disease. The WHO said the outbreak fell short of the criteria for a "pandemic emergency," like COVID-19, and advised against closing international borders. Its emergency declaration said eight laboratory-confirmed cases, 246 suspected cases and 80 suspected deaths had been reported as of Saturday in Congo’s eastern province of Ituri, the outbreak’s epicenter. Two more laboratory-confirmed cases, including one death, were also reported in Kampala, Uganda within a day of each other. Those two cases were confirmed in people who had traveled from Congo and had "no apparent link to each other," according to the WHO. The Africa CDC has reported 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths in Congo, although regional health officials said at a news conference Saturday that they have identified upwards of 300 probable cases overall. Officials first announced the outbreak on Friday. Locals in Ituri’s capital, Bunia, said they were afraid for their lives amid frequent burials. "Every day, people are dying ... and this has been going on for about a week. In a single day, we bury two, three or even more people," said Jean Marc Asimwe, a resident of Bunia. Congolese Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said late Friday there have been eight laboratory-confirmed cases, and among them four deaths. Test results confirmed it is the Bundibugyo virus, a variant of the disease that has been less prominent in Congo’s past outbreaks. This is Congo’s 17th outbreak since Ebola first emerged in the country in 1976. Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal. The Bundibugyo virus has only been responsible for two previous Ebola outbreaks, according to CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Céline Gounder. One, in Uganda in 2007, resulted in 55 cases. The other, in the Congo in 2012, resulted in 57 cases. There are no approved vaccines or treatments for this strain of Ebola, Gounder said, noting "medical professionals seem very concerned about the possibility or the ability to contain this." The suspected index case in the latest outbreak is a nurse who died at a hospital in Bunia, Kamba said. He said the case dates back to April 24. He did not say whether samples from the nurse were tested, but said the person presented symptoms suggestive of Ebola. Uganda confirmed Friday an Ebola case that authorities said was "imported" from Congo. The person died at the Kibuli Muslim Hospital in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, on May 14. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had said it is concerned about the risk of further spread due to the proximity of affected areas to Uganda and South Sudan. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [5/17/2026 6:06 PM, Chinedu Asadu and Saleh Mwanamilongo, 12718K]
Telemundo [5/17/2026 9:44 PM, Chinedu Asadu, 162K]

Bloomberg [5/18/2026 12:01 AM, Janice Kew and Jason Gale, 18082K] reports ebola is one of the deadliest diseases on Earth. With a fatality rate as high as 90%, it’s among a handful of illnesses so dangerous that governments consider them threats to national security. A new outbreak in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which has spread to neighboring Uganda, has raised fears the virus could prove harder to contain because it involves the rare Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no approved vaccines or antibody treatments. On May 17, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern.” Congo has extensive experience responding to Ebola outbreaks. But years of conflict in the country’s east, weak infrastructure and growing strain on global health programs after US aid cuts could complicate the response. The current outbreak has been identified as Bundibugyo ebolavirus, a rare species first detected in western Uganda in 2007. Only two previous Bundibugyo outbreaks have been recorded — in Uganda in 2007 and eastern Congo in 2012 — meaning scientists know far less about the virus than the more common and deadlier Zaire strain. Most Ebola vaccines and antibody therapies were developed specifically against Zaire ebolavirus after the devastating 2013-16 West African epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people in the largest Ebola outbreak on record. The virus spread beyond Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone into neighboring countries and isolated cases appeared in Europe and the US. That leaves fewer medical countermeasures available for Bundibugyo. While doctors may still consider using antivirals such as Gilead Sciences Inc.’s remdesivir, there are no licensed vaccines or approved monoclonal antibody treatments specifically targeting the strain. Health officials say the outbreak may have circulated undetected for weeks before it was identified. The virus is spreading in Ituri province, a remote and conflict-affected part of eastern Congo more than 1,700 kilometers (1,100 miles) from Kinshasa. The area has poor roads, limited healthcare infrastructure and active armed groups.

Univision [5/17/2026 8:17 AM, Staff, 4937K] reports as President Donald Trump prepared this week to take off to China on an official visit in which he was accompanied by at least a dozen U.S. tycoons, in California the mayor of a small suburb of Los Angeles acknowledged her guilt in serving as an illegal agent who acted on behalf of the government of the People’s Republic of China. Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, was charged in April with one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government in the United States. He was accused of complying with instructions from Chinese officials, such as sharing pro-Beijing items, without prior notification to the U.S. government, as required by law. He reached a settlement with the Justice Department to accept the guilt of the charges. Wang’s attorneys, Jason Liang and Brian Sun, said in a statement that she acknowledges the seriousness of the charge and takes responsibility for “personal mistakes of the past.” The 58-year-old woman was elected in November 2022 to a five-member city council, from which the mayor of Arcadia is selected on a rotating basis. This suburb, 13 miles northeast of the city of Los Angeles, has a population of about 53,000 people, of whom about two-thirds are Asian citizens, and with a high concentration of Chinese residents. According to the Justice Department’s account, from the end of 2020 to 2022, Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 65, a resident of Chino Hills, worked under the direction and control of government officials from the People’s Republic of China and coordinated with U.S.-based people to advance China’s interests, among other things, spreading pro-China propaganda in the United States. Sun is serving a four-year sentence in federal prison after pleading guilty in October 2025 to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. At the time, Wang was engaged to Sun, his lawyers said. She has said that relationship ended in the spring of 2024, but attributes her mistakes: "her trust and love for, apparently, the wrong person", would have led her to "finally deviate from the road". Wang and Sun collaborated to manage the US News Center, a website that was intended to be a news source for the local Sino-American community. Wang and Sun received and executed directives from government officials of the People’s Republic of China to publish pro-China content on the website, the Justice Department said.

Daily Wire [5/17/2026 7:25 AM, Staff, 2314K] reports an American intelligence assessment leaked to Axios Sunday claims the communist regime in Cuba is plotting an attack against Guantanamo Bay, American ships, and maybe even Key West, Florida. The Cuban government has amassed more than 300 drones and has since started discussing using them to attack those sites, Axios reported, citing the intelligence. Axios did not provide any further specifics on the nature of the intelligence or where it came from. Momentum toward a U.S. military action in Cuba appears to be surging, with the Axios report serving as the latest piece of the puzzle. Thursday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Cuba to warn them against attacking the United States, and told government officials that they must abandon their authoritarian system to receive sanctions relief. The day before, it was reported the Department of Justice plans to unseal an indictment against Cuban leader Raúl Castro for his alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two humanitarian planes from Miami. The legal tactic mirrors that which was used against deposed Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, who the U.S. captured in January after indicting him for his role in narcotics trafficking.

Univision [5/17/2026 7:20 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez reacted to reports that Cuba had acquired military drones from Russia and Iran. While he did not confirm the information, he asserted that the country had the right to defend itself as tensions rose over potential threats to Guantanamo and Key West . [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Univision [5/17/2026 11:58 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports CIA Director John Ratcliffe ‘s visit to Cuba heightened expectations within the Cuban exile community amid reports of warships, drones, and military maneuvers near the island. Former U.S. Naval Intelligence Chief José Adán Gutiérrez analyzed the situation. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [5/17/2026 1:46 PM, Chandni ​Shah, 38315K] reports United States President ​Donald Trump ‌is expected to hold ​a ​Situation Room meeting on ⁠Tuesday ​with his ​top national security advisers to ​discuss the ​options for military ‌action ⁠regarding Iran, Axios reported on ​Sunday, ​citing ⁠two U.S. officials.

CNN [5/17/2026 3:49 PM, Alayna Treene, 612K] reports President Donald Trump met with top members of his national security team on Saturday to discuss the path forward on the Iran war, a source familiar with the meeting told CNN, a day before he said Tehran "better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them.” "For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! President DJT," Trump posted on social media Sunday. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and special envoy Steve Witkoff all attended the meeting at the president’s Virginia golf club, the source said. The gathering occurred just hours after Trump arrived back in Washington from a high-stakes visit to China, a nation with close ties to Iran. Trump has grown increasingly impatient with how Tehran has been handling diplomatic negotiations and remains frustrated with the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its impact on global oil prices. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump and his team held off on deciding how to proceed with Tehran during his visit to Beijing, with several administration officials telling CNN they wanted to see how the talks between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping played out before determining a path forward. In recent days, Trump has more seriously considered resuming major combat operations in Iran as a way to force them to a compromise to end the war, CNN previously reported, despite his preference to settle the conflict diplomatically. The Pentagon has prepared a series of military target plans should Trump ultimately decide to move forward with more strikes, sources familiar with the talks said, including targeted strikes on energy and infrastructure sites in Iran. Trump also spoke Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a spokesman for the prime minister and a US official told CNN.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [5/17/2026 9:49 PM, Joshua Klein, 2238K]
Washington Examiner [5/17/2026 1:56 PM, Molly Parks, 1147K]

AP [5/17/2026 11:15 PM, Didi Tang, 34146K] reports China has agreed to ramp up trade for U.S. agricultural products such as beef and poultry, buying at an annualized rate of $17 billion per year for 2026 and at that level for 2027 and 2028, the White House announced Sunday, two days after President Donald Trump returned from a high-stakes summit in Beijing where he sought to ease the impact on American farmers from the trade war he launched last year. China would restore market access for U.S. beef and resume imports of poultry from U.S. states determined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be free of the bird flu, the White House said. The deals are on top of China’s soybean purchase commitments last year. The agreements offer some hope to American farmers harmed by the trade war as they saw a major export market for soybeans and other products dry up. Farmers also are feeling new pressure from Trump administration policies — the war that the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran has curtailed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital trade corridor that has restricted global fertilizer supplies and sent those prices soaring. There was no immediate confirmation of the terms from Beijing. China’s Ministry of Commerce on Saturday said the two sides would "resolve or make substantial progress toward resolving certain non-tariff barriers and market access issues" regarding agricultural goods. The U.S. would "actively work" to address China’s concerns regarding detention of its dairy products, seafood, the export of potted bonsai, and the recognition of Shandong province as a bird-flu-free zone, while the Chinese side will "likewise actively work" to address U.S. concerns regarding the registration of beef processing facilities and the export of poultry meat from certain states to China, a ministry spokesperson said. The two sides also agreed to expand trade, including that of farm goods, through measures such as reciprocal tariff reductions on "a specific range of products," though the spokesperson did not specify the products. China, recognizing the link between food security and national security, has diversified its sources of imported soybeans, beef and other farm goods, turning increasingly to Brazil, Argentina and other countries over the U.S. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show China’s imports of U.S. agricultural goods peaked in 2022 with $38 billion but fell to $8 billion in 2025. These figures include nearly $18 billion in soybean purchases in 2022 and $3 billion in 2025. It’s not immediately clear how much more China would buy from American soybean farmers, who were hit especially hard in the trade war. China, traditionally the largest foreign buyer of American soybeans, stopped purchasing them altogether last year after Trump hiked tariffs on Chinese goods.

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