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.

The New York Times [5/4/2026 9:13 PM, Minho Ki, et al., 148038K] reports the Secret Service shot and wounded an armed man on Monday afternoon just south of the White House in a burst of gunfire that also grazed a young bystander in an area packed with pedestrians, officials said. There was no indication that the man, who was taken to a hospital with multiple gunshot wounds, was targeting anyone in the executive complex, Chris McDonald, a congressional affairs official with the Secret Service, wrote in an email to Congress after the episode. “President Trump was not in any danger, and there is currently no known nexus between the incident and the White House,” Mr. McDonald wrote. A motorcade with Vice President JD Vance had passed through the area — a heavily trafficked route for official vehicles, as well as people visiting the nearby Washington Monument — shortly before the confrontation took place, officials told reporters. The condition of the armed man, who was not identified, is not known. A firearm was recovered at the scene. A 15-year-old boy who was shot was being treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, officials said. Matt Quinn, the deputy director of the Secret Service, told reporters that investigators think the boy was shot by the gunman, but he later appeared to hedge his earlier statement when asked again. “We’ll let the doctors figure that out,” Mr. Quinn said during a news conference near the scene. No law enforcement officials were injured. The episode began around 3:30 p.m. near the intersection of 15th Street Southwest and Independence Avenue, when agents walked up to a man “who appeared to be carrying a weapon,” Mr. McDonald wrote. As they approached, he ran off and shot at them, Mr. Quinn told reporters. The agents fired back and then apprehended the man, he said. The shooting took place a little more than a week after a gunman stormed a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and shot a Secret Service agent in an attack that officials said was targeting administration officials. On Monday, President Trump was holding an event at the White House around the time of the shooting. The Secret Service ordered reporters who were on the North Lawn of the White House to go into the press briefing room. CNN [5/4/2026 9:53 PM, Brian Todd, Josh Campbell, Kit Maher, 612K] reports that moments before the gunfire, Secret Service officers and agents who patrol the outer perimeter of the White House complex noticed "a suspicious individual that appeared to have a firearm," USSS Deputy Director Matt Quinn told reporters during a press conference. The man ran when uniformed Secret Service police approached him and he fired towards the officers, Quinn said. The officers returned fire, striking and wounding the man. Authorities are investigating whether the alleged gunman may have attempted to access a White House entry-point earlier Monday, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation. Based on a preliminary investigation, the suspect is believed to be a 45-year-old White man with past residency in both Maryland and Texas, the source said. He was shot in the torso and is currently listed in stable condition in a local hospital, according to the source. The juvenile bystander who was struck by the suspect was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Quinn said. A spokesperson for DC Police said the juvenile suffered a "graze wound.” No Secret Service employees were injured. Shortly before the shooting, Vice President JD Vance’s motorcade drove through the area where it happened — several blocks south of the White House complex — but the motorcade was not impacted, Quinn said. A source said Vance’s motorcade diverted from its intended destination out of an abundance of caution while his security team assessed the situation. President Donald Trump spoke at an event in the East Room of the White House shortly after initial reports of the gunfire. "President Trump was not in any danger, and there currently is no known nexus between the incident and the White House," Quinn said in a statement to CNN. The Secret Service briefly evacuated the White House press corps from the North Lawn where reporters do live shots, directing them into the briefing room. They were allowed to return about five minutes later.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [5/4/2026 6:09 PM, Sophia Solano, Steve Thompson, Amy B. Wang, 24826K]
Los Angeles Times [5/4/2026 7:05 PMV, Staff, 12718K]
New York Post [5/4/2026 6:04 PM, Victor Nava, 40934K]
Bloomberg [5/4/2026 9:25 PM, Myles Miller, 18082K]
Breitbart [5/4/2026 6:06 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2238K]
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The Hill [5/4/2026 4:41 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 18170K]
AP [5/4/2026 7:05 PM, Staff, 1257K]
ABC News [5/4/2026 6:14 PM, Meredith Deliso, 34146K]
NBC News [5/4/2026 6:03 PM, Raquel Coronell Uribe, Monica Alba, and Lizzie Jensen, 42967K] Video: HERE
Reuters [5/4/2026 9:43 PM, Kanishka Singh, 38315K]
FOX News [5/4/2026 5:04 PM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, 37576K]
USA Today [5/4/2026 8:16 PM, Joey Garrison, 70643K]
NewsNation [5/4/2026 6:56 PM, Steph Whiteside, 4464K]
NewsMax [5/4/2026 6:56 PM, Michael Katz, 3760K]
Blaze [5/4/2026 7:45 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1556K]
Washington Examiner [5/4/2026 6:48 PM, Brady Knox, 1147K]
Washington Times [5/4/2026 5:14 PM, Kerry Picket, 1323K]
Daily Wire [5/4/2026 12:06 PM, Jacob Wheeler, 2314K]
Daily Caller [5/4/2026 4:15 PM, Nicole Silverio, 803K] r

New York Times [5/4/2026 10:49 PM, Gaya Gupta, 148038K] reports the National Mall is one of the safest places in Washington, where tourists can take in the capital’s grandeur and residents can relax. The district that includes the National Mall, Ward 2, is among the least violent in the capital, according to data from the Metropolitan Police Department. That calm was punctured on Monday when a gunman exchanged fire with Secret Service agents near the Washington Monument, injuring a bystander. Last year, Ward 2 recorded the second fewest gun-related violent crimes in the city, according to the data, outranked only by the largely residential and predominantly wealthy Ward 3. So far in 2026, all types of crime have dropped in Ward 2 compared to the same period last year. Gunfire has occasionally erupted on the mall. Last October, a teenager was shot and injured near the National Air and Space Museum. In 2023, a 27-year-old was fatally shot outside the L’Enfant Plaza Metro Station in the early hours after Christmas Day. In 2009, an 88-year-old white supremacist opened fire with a rifle at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, killing a security guard. The history goes back much further, to a time when the mall was still an unrealized idea. In 1881, President James A. Garfield was shot by an assassin at a railroad station where the National Gallery of Art (and a plaque) now stands along the Mall’s northern border. He died weeks later. The site of Garfield’s shooting has transformed beyond recognition. In 1884, construction of the Washington Monument was completed. In the early 1900s, railroads were cleared and a plan to turn the area into a landscaped, symmetrical park was adopted. The National Mall, first envisioned by the French planner Pierre Charles L’Enfant in 1791 to embody the idea of democracy, was not considered officially complete until 2003, when Congress protected it from any future construction. It is that democratic public space, centuries in the making, that is now patrolled by National Guard troops. The Washington Monument was the first place they were deployed when President Trump ordered a federal takeover of the city last year, despite a lack of violent crime there and falling crime rates around the capital. Those troops can often still be seen posted around the monuments and posing with tourists.

The AP [5/5/2026 2:18 AM, Staff, 3760K] reports the U.S. military said it launched another strike on a boat accused of ferrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea, killing two people Monday. The Trump administration’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters has persisted since early September and killed at least 188 people in total. Other strikes have taken place in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Despite the Iran war, the series of strikes have ramped up again in recent weeks, showing that the administration’s aggressive measures to stop what it calls “narcoterrorism” in the Western Hemisphere are not letting up. The military has not provided evidence that any of the vessels were carrying drugs. The attacks began as the U.S. built up its largest military presence in the region in generations and came months ahead of the raid in January that captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He was brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges and has pleaded not guilty. In the latest attack Monday, U.S. Southern Command repeated previous statements by saying it had targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. It posted a video on X showing a boat moving along the water before a massive explosion engulfs the vessel in flames. President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and fatal overdoses claiming American lives. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.” Critics, meanwhile, have questioned the overall legality of the boat strikes. The Washington Examiner [5/5/2026 1:47 AM, Staff, 1147K] reports that "on April 19, at the direction of the commander of U.S. Southern Command, Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations," read the release. "Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," Southern Command reported. "Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action," noted the release. "No U.S. military forces were harmed.” Similar to the previous videos posted of U.S. military strikes conducted in the Southern Hemisphere, the black-and-white video showed a boat traveling in the water before a large explosion occurred as the boat was hit in the airstrike. There is a blurred image shown on the vessel, believed to be the two people who were killed during the strike. Sunday’s lethal kinetic strike was at least the 55th military operation conducted on suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Southern Hemisphere. There have been at least 187 people killed in the military strikes, according to a tracker by New York Times. Military action as part of Operation Southern Spear against suspected "narco-terrorists" and drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea, and later the eastern Pacific Ocean, began in September 2025.

Washington Examiner [5/4/2026 9:06 AM, Emily Hallas, 1147K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned over the weekend that his agency faces sweeping staffing challenges as it seeks to rebound from a historic shutdown. The DHS’s 76-day shutdown ended on April 30 after it set a record for the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. In the aftermath of the shutdown, which was sparked due to Democrats’ concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, Mullin said the DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency had lost over 1,000 employees due to the debacle. "We are also having a tremendous amount of morale issue," the secretary said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday. "So, we had a large turnover — just in CISA, we’re down 1,100 people.". CISA employed around 2,400 employees prior to the shutdown. It isn’t the only DHS agency facing staffing issues provoked by the shutdown. The Transportation Security Administration "was down 8%, which typically we have about a 4.6% turnover there," Mullin said. Over 1,100 TSA officers left their jobs during the shutdown. CISA director Nick Andersen testified in April that only 40% of CISA’s staff worked through much of the shutdown, before Mullin recalled furloughed staff in early April. Andersen said CISA’s ability to counter nation-state cyber threats amid the Iran war was "more limited than I would like," during the April 16 hearing.

Washington Examiner [5/4/2026 12:22 PM, Ramsey Touchberry, 1147K] reports weeks of bruising cross-chamber policy fights have blemished what has otherwise been a cordial and remarkably effective relationship between Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). Tensions are at an all-time high this Congress between the GOP leaders after capping off a record-shattering 76-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security and narrowly avoiding the expiration of the nation’s foreign spy powers and renewing federal government powers to surveil foreign spies. Disputes over the contentious issues exacerbated underlying tensions already boiling over on the party’s SAVE America Act voter ID bill. Thune and Johnson have navigated razor-thin margins to pass major components of President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda. But they’ll need to quickly iron out the wrinkles in their relationship if they’re to return later this month from recess and shepherd through another party-line reconciliation bill to fund their immigration enforcement priorities ahead of the midterm elections. "He has to do what he has to do," Thune said of Johnson to the Washington Examiner. "I know that, and he knows … the challenges we face over here.".

FOX Business [5/4/2026 9:03 AM, Staff, 7946K] reports Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., joins ‘Mornings with Maria’ to discuss the GOP push to fund ICE and Border Patrol, President Donald Trump’s call to end the filibuster and the growing probe into former FBI Director James Comey. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [5/4/2026 12:47 PM, Rob Crilly, 1147K] reports Republicans already face a gas-price shock, an unpopular war, and cratering approval rates for their president ahead of November’s midterm elections. Insiders say you can add another trap to the list: A looming vote on funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. While Donald Trump’s push to expel illegal immigrants is popular, poll after poll in key districts and states suggests voters have lost confidence in ICE. Why try to push through an unpopular vote when Republicans are already facing headwinds, said a source working for the campaign of a member in a toss-up district in California. "This is a vote you’d expect to happen if Democrats were in charge, a vote on something controversial that was difficult for Republicans to vote against or vote for, right?" the source said. "So they could use it going into the election against members in swing and toss-up districts.". Congress ended the Department of Homeland Security shutdown last week, passing a bill to resume funding. But it carved out the politically tricky question of money for ICE and Border Patrol, kicking it into a separate budget framework. Democrats are refusing to fund it unless there are reforms to the way the agencies operate. That means more votes on an agency that has seen its approval plummet after two protesters were shot dead in Minneapolis this year, amid a sweeping deportation push.

NBC News [5/5/2026 5:00 AM, Julia Ainsley, 43603K] reports Homeland Security immigration leaders disagreed so vehemently over how to accomplish President Donald Trump’s goal of deporting 1 million people during his first year back in office that during a meeting over the issue, handlers had to “clear the room” to defuse tensions, two DHS officials familiar with the meeting told NBC News. At the center of the disagreement were Caleb Vitello, then the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Rodney Scott, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. Scott and his top aides were pushing a plan that had been blessed by newly installed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The “master plan” as they called it, called for creating a National Incident Command Center that would combine the powers of ICE and CBP, along with the Defense Department, to coordinate surging immigration enforcement operations in cities across the U.S. The details come in my new book out Tuesday, "Undue Process: The Inside Story of Trump’s Mass Deportation Program." The operations would target immigrants who were already under orders to leave the country, and federal agents would be instructed to enter their last known addresses without judicial warrants. Those captured would be fast-tracked for deportation without appeal, the DHS officials said. At the time, Homeland Security was far behind pace to reach 1 million in a year, and proponents of the plan thought this was the fastest path to get to Trump’s promised “shock and awe” goal. But Vitello disagreed, the officials said. He argued to Scott and his aides that the last known addresses of the 700,000 people with previous orders of removal hadn’t been verified recently. He said he worried that U.S. citizens could get wrongfully swept up in the surges if agents entered homes without warrants, which require law enforcement agencies to show evidence to judges to gain access. The early warnings from Vitello and the rift between DHS leaders would later be on public display as Homeland Security surged federal agents to cities around the U.S., sparking protests and feeding criticism that their policies had gone too far and encroached on civil liberties. The feud over how to achieve Trump’s agenda would only grow, and the fallout eventually included Noem herself and her closest adviser.

Washington Examiner [5/4/2026 9:59 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1147K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection has achieved a remarkable feat under President Donald Trump, locking down tens of billions of dollars in funding for the largest-ever expansion of border security, while it simultaneously brought the number of illegal immigrant arrests at the southern border to 55-year lows for more than a year. The Trump administration has used messaging, diplomacy, and policy to bring about those low illegal immigration numbers, and it is pursuing plans to fortify the international boundary with tens of billions of dollars worth of barrier, technology, agents, and other resources. After a rocky few months of public relations challenges and sagging support for deportations, the Department of Homeland Security, under the new leadership of Secretary Markwayne Mullin, has pivoted to a quieter, more focused approach to fulfilling one of the president’s top agenda items. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott explained that a successful second term for Trump, and the nation, hangs on continuing to deliver results at the border and building up border security in a way that can continue to deliver results long after Trump leaves office. On the southern border, Border Patrol agents have a motto: "If you’ve seen a mile of the border, you’ve seen a mile of the border," meaning that no two miles of the 1,950-mile boundary are alike. That makes securing it that much more challenging.

Bloomberg [5/4/2026 3:49 PM, Augusta Saraiva, 18082K] reports President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is negatively impacting some US-born workers in heavily targeted industries like construction, according to a paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Areas that experienced particularly large increases in Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests saw a decline in work among US-born male workers, driven by those with a high school degree or less, the study found. The researchers also saw no evidence that employers increased wages to attract US-born workers to fill roles. The research casts doubt on the idea that stricter immigration enforcement would lead to more job opportunities for Americans, in part because foreign-born and native-born labor often complement rather than substitute for each other. “We show no evidence of positive effects of the labor market outcomes of US-born workers in immigrant-heavy industries,” authors Elizabeth Cox and Chloe East, researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, wrote. “If anything these US-born workers are harmed as a result.” The research highlights the chilling effect the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is having across the US — and the spillover effects it has beyond immigrant communities. From skipping work to keeping their children home from school and avoiding in-person shopping and social events, many undocumented immigrants are choosing to lay low in the wake of enforcement activity.

New York Times [5/4/2026 1:00 PM, Madeleine Ngo and Hamed Aleaziz, 148038K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security failed to effectively secure smartphones used by staff in its intelligence office, raising the risk of cyberattacks and unauthorized access to sensitive information, the department’s inspector general said in a report published Monday. The independent watchdog found that the department did not require certain security settings and allowed the office’s employees to download “high-risk apps” on mobile devices, including apps used for streaming or “associated with foreign adversaries.” The report underscores security vulnerabilities at an office that helps identify national security threats and provides intelligence to state and local partners. Although immigration has been at the forefront of the department under the Trump administration, it was created in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and has a broader mission of preventing terrorism and protecting the country from a variety of threats. In a letter responding to the report, the Department of Homeland Security said it concurred with the watchdog’s recommendations and that it had already made some changes to better secure its mobile devices. The department also cast blame on the Biden administration in a statement on Monday. “D.H.S. has worked diligently to fix the vulnerabilities Democrats created so that we can securely do our jobs in keeping Americans safe and secure in the homeland,” the statement said.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [5/4/2026 6:50 PM, Staff, 2238K]

New York Times [5/4/2026 6:15 PM, Mattathias Schwartz, 148038K] reports a federal judge slammed the Department of Homeland Security on Monday for making “erroneous and dangerous” statements after the department publicly attacked her for siding with a man it deemed “a violent criminal illegal alien.” Trump administration officials had not told Judge Melissa R. DuBose that the man she was about to release on bond, Bryan Rafael Gomez, was wanted for murder in the Dominican Republic. The judge, who was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., ordered the release of Mr. Gomez on April 28 after he filed a petition challenging the legality of his detention. Two days later, the Department of Homeland Security posted a news release attacking her on the basis of the information that it had withheld. In a hearing on Monday, Judge DuBose said the government’s decision to withhold information about the case amounted to “a serious breakdown in the ethical codes,” and that she would consider imposing sanctions on the Homeland Security Department for misconduct. “There was a decision made not to be truthful to the court,” she said. The judge received profuse apologies from Kevin M. Bolan, who leads the civil division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island. During the hearing, he said he was “very sorry and terribly embarrassed.” In a filing that attempted to explain what happened, Mr. Bolan said he was told by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that he could not inform the court about the pending overseas charge, and that he believed that “a legitimate law enforcement reason prevented disclosure.” During Monday’s hearing, he said he still didn’t know whether the information could have been released under seal, even though claims about the arrest warrant had already been publicly disclosed by the government elsewhere. He said that he regretted not having asked the court for more time. “There certainly was a massive breach of this court’s trust in this case,” Judge DuBose said. Homeland Security’s office of public affairs responded to a request for comment by resending the initial post with the attacks on Judge DuBose. “An activist judge appointed by Joe Biden released this wanted murderer back into American communities,” D.H.S. Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in the statement.

Politico [5/4/2026 5:12 PM, Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, 21784K] reports a federal judge said Monday that the Trump administration had put her security at risk by posting a “patently false” allegation that she knowingly released an ICE detainee with an international warrant for murder. Justice Department attorney Kevin Bolan profusely apologized to Rhode Island-based U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose for the press release posted last week by the Department of Homeland Security, which Bolan acknowledged “simply was not true.” Bolan said that he didn’t tell the judge about the foreign arrest warrant because Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials instructed him not to. The officials, Bolan said, were concerned that law enforcement in the Dominican Republic, where the warrant was issued, had not signed off on sharing that information. But DuBose noted that the Trump administration itself had publicly disclosed the existence of the warrant in a press release earlier last month. She also noted that the April 30 release slamming her — “Activist Biden Judge Releases Violent Criminal Illegal Alien Wanted for Murder”— remained online Monday. “The April 30th, completely erroneous and dangerous press release is still on their website,” the judge complained, adding, “It puts people at risk. It’s a threat to judicial security.” “I’m not trying to make this political,” the Biden appointee added. “It’s also very important that the public has the facts. As long as this particular post is out there, it’s setting up a false narrative.”

The Houston Chronicle [5/4/2026 5:22 PM, Alejandro Serrano, 2493K] reports that a group of civil rights organizations on Monday filed a new lawsuit seeking to stop parts of the law that would let Texas police arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The law can go into effect next week after a federal appeals court lifted a lower court ruling that had kept it paused for years. Senate Bill 4, as the law is known, created a state-level crime for entering the country without authorization and created pathways for state authorities to remove such people from the country if convicted. Courts have long held that immigration enforcement is the sole responsibility of the federal government, but with the state law, Texas Republicans sought to challenge that precedent. The Texas Civil Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, and ACLU argue in Monday’s lawsuit the law is unconstitutional because immigration law is exclusively the federal government’s domain and should preempt the state law. They are trying to stop four provisions of SB 4: the creation of a crime for re-entering the country without authorization, even if a person has since obtained legal status; granting state magistrates authority to order a person’s deportation; the creation of a crime for failing to comply with a magistrate’s order; and requiring that magistrates continue a prosecution even if a person has a pending immigration case such as an asylum claim. “Our fight against SB 4 isn’t over until justice wins,” Kate Gibson Kumar, of the Texas Civil Rights Project, said in a statement. “SB 4 is not only unconstitutional, but a vile law that uses our Texas resources to harm communities across our state.” The law can go into effect May 15 unless it’s halted by another court. Reuters [5/4/2026 5:48 PM, Nate Raymond, 38315K] reports that [groups ‌including the American Civil Liberties Union] filed the case in federal court in Austin, Texas, after the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on April 24 overturned a 2024 injunction that had blocked enforcement of ⁠the law. The injunction was granted in a lawsuit brought by Democratic former President Joe Biden’s administration along with the immigrant-rights groups Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, American Gateways and the county of El Paso, Texas. Republican President Donald Trump’s administration dropped the case, but the other plaintiffs pressed on, convincing judges prior to last month that Texas’ law unconstitutionally interfered with federal immigration enforcement and was trumped by federal law. The majority in the 5th Circuit’s 10-7 ruling did not address the constitutionality of the law, but instead held the organizations pursuing the legal challenge lacked standing to pursue their case. The case is L.M.L. v. Martin, U.S. ⁠District Court for the Western District of Texas, No. 1:26-cv-01170. For the plaintiffs: Cody Wofsy of the American Civil Liberties Union. FOX News [5/4/2026 10:06 PM, Landon Mion, 37576K] reports “Our fight against S.B. 4 isn’t over until justice wins," Kate Gibson Kumar, an attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, said in a statement. "S.B. 4 is not only unconstitutional, but a vile law that uses our Texas resources to harm communities across our state. The Texas Civil Rights Project will keep fighting to protect Texas communities from the wrath of S.B. 4.” Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, argued that S.B. 4 is "cruel and illegal," adding that the groups "will keep fighting it until it is permanently struck down.” "Every court to have reached the merits of laws like S.B. 4 has found them to be unconstitutional," he said.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg Law [5/4/2026 5:22 PM, Staff, 763K]

FOX News [5/4/2026 5:30 AM, Peter Pinedo Fox, 37576K] reports a trucking industry insider is warning about a deadly danger rampant on U.S. highways: unqualified, under-trained commercial truckers, many of whom are illegal immigrants and cannot read basic road signage. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Mike Kucharski, co-owner and vice president of Illinois-based JKC Trucking, issued an impassioned appeal for more investigations into the problem, saying, "This is just madness." "You wouldn’t put someone in a cockpit of a Boeing 737 flying from New York to California if they weren’t properly trained or couldn’t communicate clearly or speak English. The same standard should apply to our highways," said Kucharski. "Every day, truck drivers are driving alongside school buses, families and commuters just trying to get to work and back home safely," he continued. "When unqualified drivers slip through the cracks, that creates risk for our motoring public, and you can see that there’s accidents all the time." This week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into several commercial driving schools in the state for allegedly "endangering Texans by providing inadequate commercial driver training, including to non-English speakers." A statement by Paxton’s office said these practices violate federal law requiring basic English comprehension and Texas law mandating adequate training to operate a commercial vehicle.

San Francisco Chronicle [5/4/2026 6:26 PM, Ko Lyn Cheang, 3833K] reports that the Trump administration shuttered the Bay Area’s largest immigration court Friday, a move that’s almost certain to worsen the nationwide backlog of asylum cases. The San Francisco immigration court at 100 Montgomery St, one of two in the city, had more than 120,000 pending cases. It was the site of numerous ICE arrests and anti-ICE protests since President Donald Trump took office, including one incident captured on video where a protester was dragged by an ICE vehicle. Those cases will now largely shift to a court in Concord that was created two years ago to help deal with backlogs in the San Francisco courts, which heard cases across Northern California. The Concord court itself is short staffed, with only five judges despite the Department of Justice stating it intended to hire 21 when the court first opened, and a backlog of 60,000 cases as of December. A smaller San Francisco court at 630 Sansome St. with two judges that hears the cases of people held in ICE detention will remain in operation. The early closure of the 100 Montgomery court, which was expected later this year, will further slow asylum claims and other appeals for immigration benefits from people in deportation proceedings. The Department of Justice stated in a press release that the closure was based on cost-effectiveness — the court rented a space in a Financial District skyscraper — but former immigration judges have criticized the Trump administration for what they called “dismantling” of due process for immigrants.

FOX News [5/4/2026 12:47 PM, Alex Miller, 37576K] reports that Senate Democrats are launching a "free and fair" elections task force as Republicans struggle to move forward on voter ID and citizenship verification legislation. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus are set to join forces with the likes of former Attorney General Eric Holder, Marc Elias and others for the unit. Its creation came the same day as the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act ruling last week. That decision will likely supercharge the redistricting arms race already underway in states across the country. The task force’s creation also comes as Republicans have failed to advance the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act. "Donald Trump and the Republicans realize that if the election were held fairly, that the likelihood is that they would lose, and we would win, that we would take back the House, take back the Senate," Schumer said. "So they are doing all kinds of nefarious things, some of them legal, some of them not so legal, to try and overturn a fair result in an election," he continued. Schumer described the task force’s mission as seeking out "election threats," including actions at the administrative level by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), attacks on the First Amendment, foreign threats and militarization of law enforcement at the polls. Its inception is in response to what Democrats say is a "comprehensive effort" by President Donald Trump and his administration to undermine the upcoming election.

The Hill [5/4/2026 1:29 PM, Lindsey Granger, 18170K] reports that when you hear about a massive human trafficking and prostitution sting — 266 arrests in one Florida county — you expect disturbing details. But what stands out here isn’t just the scale. It’s who some of these people are, and what that says about a bigger pattern. Among those arrested: Craig Long, a self-described MAGA influencer with more than half a million followers. Someone who built a platform around political commentary and proximity to power. “He’s an influencer. He moves in big circles even with the president. This is a photograph of him with the president and his son not long ago.” That’s Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. He didn’t stop there: “Well there you go, you got arrested in a human trafficking sting. Influence that for a while.” And he’s not the only one raising eyebrows. Another man highlighted by investigators, in the same sting operation, Ryan Yates, has a history that connects to something much bigger: the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. “He was arrested in the January 6 Capitol riot. He entered the building illegally. He pushed against and battered police officers trying to get into the rotunda. He was sentenced to six months in prison, three months home detention, and then two years supervised release,” said Judd. “He says he’s unemployed, and then he got a blanket pardon from President Trump. Well we’re not giving him a blanket pardon, are we sir? I didn’t think so.” That’s not a minor footnote. That’s someone previously convicted in a violent attack on democracy, now showing up in a completely different kind of criminal investigation. There are multiple documented cases of individuals tied to January 6, many of whom were later pardoned, going on to face serious charges. We’re talking about crimes involving violence, threats and even child exploitation. Names like Andrew Paul Johnson, sentenced to life for child sex crimes, or Edward Kelley, convicted in a plot to murder FBI agents. Others were arrested for soliciting minors or making violent threats.

FOX News [5/4/2026 11:34 AM, Peter D’Abrosca, 37576K] reports a Pennsylvania man has been federally charged after the FBI said he made graphic death threats against a member of Congress, the member’s daughter and President Donald Trump between April 2025 and January of this year. According to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI in the Western District of Pennsylvania, Raymond Chandler III, who recently declared that he was running for U.S. Senate as a Democrat in the state in the 2028 election cycle, has been charged with influencing, impeding or retaliating against a federal official by threatening a family member and by threatening a federal official and influencing, impeding or retaliating against a federal official by threat. He allegedly left the first voicemail for the unnamed Congress member on April 18, 2025, an arrest affidavit says

FOX News [5/4/2026 11:26 AM, Ashley Oliver Fox, 37576K] reports Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche insisted Sunday that the indictment against former FBI Director James Comey rests on more than just an "8647" Instagram picture, saying new evidence would come to light in court to support the government’s claim that Comey’s post amounted to a criminal threat against the president. Blanche provided the remarks during a "Meet the Press" interview as he was grilled about the credibility of the high-profile case and whether it was politically motivated. The charges hinge on whether prosecutors can prove the former FBI director’s intent, a key legal threshold. Blanche signaled the Department of Justice will present broader evidence in court to support the charge while rejecting claims the prosecution was driven by President Donald Trump’s past clashes with Comey. "You prove intent like you always prove intent," Blanche said. "You prove intent with witnesses. You prove intent with documents, with materials. ... This is not just about a single Instagram post. This is about a body of evidence that the grand jury collected over the series of about 11 months.".

New York Times [5/4/2026 5:01 AM, Dean Ball and Ben Buchanan, 148038K] reports we come from different parties and have guided artificial intelligence policy under very different presidents. But we agree: A.I. has become so powerful that, along with its tremendous promise, the technology poses immediate risks to national security. The United States is competing with authoritarian powers for control of A.I.’s future. Yet the country lacks a strong plan to protect the nation from A.I.’s profound dangers. There are clear steps the government can take that both parties can agree on. But Washington lacks urgency. Unless we change course, A.I. systems will overwhelm the capacity of a distracted and sclerotic U.S. government to manage their development. We believe the United States can avoid this policy failure by quickly embracing a strategic blueprint for A.I. that leaders across the political spectrum can support. It’s not hype to say that A.I. is likely to be one of the most significant technologies in the history of our species. At the start of Joe Biden’s presidency, A.I. systems could barely put together coherent paragraphs. Today they score above expert humans on a wide variety of tests. We expect that A.I. systems will continue to get a lot better and help researchers to design still more-powerful A.I. systems, accelerating their progress. The recent announcement from Anthropic about its Claude Mythos Preview model showed how powerful A.I. tools are becoming. The A.I. developer said that Mythos can detect subtle errors in code — and has found thousands of critical vulnerabilities in the basic applications that make computers and the internet work. Some of these vulnerabilities were decades old, lurking in code long thought to be clean. In the wrong hands, Mythos and its successors would enable penetration of vital software and critical infrastructure across the United States, threatening power grids, hospital I.T. systems and the banking system.

Washington Post [5/4/2026 6:00 AM, Max Boot, 24826K] reports when the U.S. armed forces began blowing up suspected “drug boats” on Sept. 2, 2025, it was widely seen as a way not just to fight the war on drugs but also to put pressure on Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, who was in league with drug traffickers. Many expected that the lawless strikes — which amount to killing suspected criminals without trial — would end after U.S. forces captured Maduro at the beginning of the year. There was, indeed, a pause in such operations. After conducting the 34th and 35th boat strikes on Dec. 31, the military did not carry out another one until Jan. 23. But since then, the strikes have ramped up again. At least 19 more strikes were carried out between Jan. 23 and April 26 — an average of one every five days. That’s slightly slower than the rate before Maduro’s capture (one strike every 3½ days), but it’s still a significant tempo. In all, according to the Just Security website, there have been at least 55 strikes, with 174 reported killed, 11 missing and four known survivors. It has now become routine for U.S. Southern Command to post grainy videos online of boats being blown up, along with claims that “male narco-terrorists were killed,” even though the administration has not offered any evidence that even one of the people incinerated by U.S. firepower was engaged in drug trafficking, much less in terrorism. The administration is so averse to trying to prove wrongdoing in court that, when suspects survive a strike, they are released rather than arrested. Apparently, there is a secret Justice Department opinion justifying the strikes based on the fanciful premise that drug cartels are waging war on the United States. Why the increase in boat strikes? Partly it’s a matter of more resources: The New York Times reports that the U.S. military has assigned more fixed-wing attack aircraft and MQ-9 Reaper drones to U.S. bases in El Salvador and Puerto Rico as part of Operation Southern Spear. But there is also a greater willingness by the U.S. armed forces to engage in illegal conduct. Echoing the view of many legal experts, Brian Finucane, a former State Department legal adviser, told me, “These boat strikes — premeditated killings outside of armed conflict — implicate U.S. criminal laws prohibiting murder on the high seas, conspiracy to commit murder outside the United States, and murder under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.” Even many conservative legal scholars agree that, as John Yoo wrote in The Post in September, the boat strikes “violate American law and the Constitution.”

Daily Caller [5/4/2026 2:41 PM, Mary Rooke, 803K] reports that public opinion polls consistently show overwhelming support for deporting illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes. This is one of the most popular aspects of immigration enforcement. Seventy-five percent of registered voters support deporting criminal illegal immigrants, according to a Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll released in April. This support was bipartisan, with 73 percent of Independents and 63 percent of Democrats approving of these deportations. Additionally, the survey found that 55 percent of respondents favored "deporting all immigrants who are here illegally." Dems who now want to moderate on culture war issues still refuse to acknowledge how popular immigration enforcement is. Deporting criminals is a 75/25 issue with >60% approval among Dems. Deportations of all illegals remains >50% issue. So why then did the Trump administration soften its public stance on deportations? Well, of course (and this was essentially confirmed by new U.S. Department of Homeland Security Sec. Markwayne Mullin), the decision to tamper with the administration’s deportation efforts was a reaction to the bad press from the enforcement efforts in Minnesota. Still, the numbers don’t align with the move, and it’s not going to stop the radical left from assaulting immigration officers, like what happened Saturday in New York City. The DHS announced Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted an operation to arrest a criminal illegal immigrant from Nigeria with a violent rap sheet. Wilson Okeke has previous arrests for assault and criminal drug possession, according to DHS.

The Hill [5/4/2026 7:30 AM, Javier Hernandez, 18170K] reports since 1898, Puerto Rico’s status within the American constitutional system has been ambiguous — it is neither a state nor an independent country, but a territory under Congress’s full authority. This unresolved situation has led to ongoing legal and political contradictions, now more evident in national discussions about birthright citizenship. At the core of that debate is the Fourteenth Amendment, which grants citizenship to anyone born “in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” For more than 150 years, this clause has defined American citizenship. However, Puerto Rico does not align perfectly with this framework. Puerto Ricans primarily obtain citizenship under federal law — specifically the Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917 — rather than directly from the Constitution. This distinction goes beyond technical differences; it reveals a fundamental constitutional inconsistency. Puerto Rico is considered part of the U.S. for certain purposes but it does not fully participate in its constitutional framework. As policymakers reconsider the scope of birthright citizenship, Puerto Rico exemplifies how territorial ambiguity can obscure constitutional lines and complicate national policy. Puerto Rico’s political status is key to this discussion. Independence, for example, implies restrictions on automatic birthright citizenship. If Puerto Rico gains sovereignty, U.S. citizenship will not automatically extend to those born on the island unless it is inherited from a U.S. citizen parent. Instead, Puerto Rican citizenship would be regulated by Puerto Rican law and bilateral agreements with Washington.

Washington Times [5/4/2026 4:16 PM, Stephen Dinan, 1323K] reports ICE released an illegal immigrant wanted for murder in El Salvador into the U.S. without an ankle monitor or any other conditions of supervision, and now a federal judge is pondering what sanctions she can slap on the deportation agency. U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose was incensed when Homeland Security issued a press release last week accusing her of knowingly releasing the man, when it was ICE that had ordered the government’s lawyer not to tell her about the arrest warrant. She told the Justice Department, which is representing the government, that concealing the warrant from the court — even though U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had issued another press release revealing the arrest — was “misconduct from your client.” She said she would seek some punishment for the agency. “This entire situation fell down, basically, because there was a decision made not to be truthful to the court,” she said during a hearing Monday. Judge DuBose had ordered the release last week of Bryan Rafael Gomez, directing ICE to place him on conditions of supervision. But his lawyer, Melanie Shapiro, told the judge he was released without any restrictions, despite ICE calling him a “violent criminal illegal alien.” “He told me that when ICE brought him to Burlington to process him. They released him with no conditions, no ankle monitor, no requirement to report in, which is highly unusual,” she said. Kevin Bolan, the Justice Department lawyer handling the case, didn’t address that matter but repeatedly apologized to the judge for failing to tell her about the arrest warrant. He said he should have done more to delay the case or somehow let the judge know about the matter, even though he was under orders from ICE not to reveal the warrant. He said the Dominican Republic, where the warrant was from, hadn’t approved its release. “The government did not disclose that information to you, and so the press release that came out last Thursday took the position that somehow you knew about something we had not disclosed to you,” Mr. Bolan said. He said a simple Google search might have shown him the arrest warrant was already public knowledge. But Judge DuBose said she couldn’t square the gag order on Mr. Bolan with the fact that ICE had issued a press release more than a week earlier that revealed Mr. Gomez’s immigration arrest and the murder warrant. Judge DuBose was also miffed that the DHS press release hadn’t been taken down, despite the government apologizing for it being untrue. It remained the DHS website as of Monday evening, hours after the hearing concluded.

FOX News [5/3/2026 9:50 AM, Staff, 37576K] reports a 22-year-old man faces murder charges after two women were stabbed to death hours apart in Nassau County, police say. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Post [5/4/2026 7:02 PM, Chris Nesi, 40934K] reports an illegal migrant from Honduras let into the country by the Obama administration has been deported by ICE before she could be released back onto New York streets for trying to kill her newborn son, officials told The Post. Soili Xiomara Aparicio-Santos, of Long Island, was convicted in 2018 of second-degree attempted murder, first- and second-degree attempted assault and endangering the welfare of a child for attempting to smother the infant with a pillow. She was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but had her sentence reduced to 10 years on appeal. Local authorities cooperated with ICE and notified the agency about her upcoming release after serving eight years in a New York prison for the crime. "This monster attempted to KILL her own child the day he was born," said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. "The Obama administration released this attempted murderer into our country. Thanks to cooperation by law enforcement and our ICE officers, this barbaric criminal is out of our country. We need cooperation from state and local politicians to get criminals like this out of our country. Together, we can make America safe again.".

FOX News [5/4/2026 11:48 AM, Peter Pinedo, 37576K] reports that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ripped into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a crowd of anti-ICE demonstrators attempted to disrupt the arrest of an illegal immigrant accused of assault and drug possession, according to a local outlet. Mamdani, a prominent socialist and immigrant politician, told Gothamist on Sunday that he had not seen videos circulating online of the anti-ICE protesters at the hospital, but said, "I’ve said time and time again, ICE raids are cruel and inhumane." He added, "They do nothing to serve in the interest of public safety," per the outlet. Nine demonstrators were detained Saturday night after protests erupted in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood over ICE’s arrest of Chidozie Wilson Okeke, an illegal immigrant from Nigeria with previous arrests on assault and drug possession charges, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Mamdani was not the only New York City politician to criticize the ICE operation. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso posted on X that "ICE’s presence in Bushwick is deeply alarming." He encouraged followers to report federal agents, writing, "If you see ICE in your neighborhood, call or text the Hands Off NYC hotline." Reynoso applauded the demonstrators, writing, "To our neighbors who quickly mobilized last night, thank you for making it loud and clear that ICE is not welcome in Brooklyn." The New York Post [5/4/2026 6:44 PM, David DeTurris, Hannah Fierick, and Matt Troutman, 40934K] reports police arrested nine people after around 200 protesters gathered outside Wyckoff Hospital on Saturday night in support of Nigerian national Chidozie Wilson Okeke, who was brought there by ICE agents who’d taken him into custody. He has previous arrests for assault and criminal drug possession, sources said. The mayor said a video showing a police officer throwing a protester to the ground during the mayhem was "incredibly disturbing" and was under investigation. But Mamdani denied claims from lefty local pols that there had been operational coordination between ICE and the NYPD, after police officers responded to the protest. "Rather, they were responding to 911 calls regarding the protest outside of the hospital. And as I’ve made very clear that our laws leave nothing, no room for interpretation about the fact that our NYPD will not participate in civil immigration enforcement," he said.

FOX News [5/4/2026 1:25 PM, Louis Casiano, 37576K] reports that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani doubled down on his position to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after agitators protested agents outside a Brooklyn hospital over the weekend. The protest occurred while an illegal immigrant was receiving treatment over the weekend for injuries sustained while allegedly attempting to attack authorities. Mamdani, a frequent critic of ICE and the Trump administration’s deportation agenda, voiced his opposition after a video circulated online showing a New York police officer throwing a protester to the ground outside Wyckoff Heights Medical Center on Saturday. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Mamdani stated there was no coordination between the NYPD and ICE, noting that officers were specifically responding to the protest outside the hospital. "I’ve made it very clear that our laws leave no room for interpretation: our NYPD will not participate in civil immigration enforcement," he said. "And I’ve also been very clear about my views on ICE raids as a whole. I think they are cruel." The mayor then referenced the arrest of Chidozie Wilson Okeke, a Nigerian national who overstayed his visa and has previous arrests for assault and drug possession, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Okeke was detained "by armed federal agents without any active warrant," Mamdani said. "And this is incredibly concerning. It’s why I’ve said time and again that I believe ICE should be abolished." Fox News Digital reached out to the mayor’s office, as well as ICE and DHS, for further comment

FOX News [5/4/2026 11:37 AM, Staff, 37576K] reports that a violent anti-ICE mob clashed with federal agents in Brooklyn, New York, after the arrest of Chidozie Wilson Okeke, a Nigerian immigrant with prior criminal charges. Eight activists were arrested amid the chaos. Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned ICE raids, while Fox News contributor Hugh Hewitt criticized his stance. Hewitt also discusses Minnesota fraud and a Michigan Senate candidate facing backlash over past tweets. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [5/4/2026 6:04 AM, Staff, 37576K] reports that Jonathan Fahey, former DHS deputy assistant secretary, weighs in on anti-ICE protests in Brooklyn that blocked hospital entrances, condemning NYC Mayor Mamdani’s reaction. Fahey also blasts proposed New York bills that could release violent criminals, including serial killers like David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam," due to the "elder parole bill" for individuals aged 55+. These controversial bills raise serious public safety concerns statewide. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

USA Today [5/4/2026 5:48 PM, Irene Wright, 70643K] reports a double amputee from Georgia who was in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention for well over a year has been released, advocacy groups say. Rodney Taylor, 47, was born in Liberia and brought to the United States legally at the age of 2 on a medical visa, according to Georgia representative Lucy McBath. His name shot to the national stage when McBath described his case during a congressional hearing with then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem at the beginning of March. Noem was removed from her position shortly after. "Secretary Noem, you claim you are going after the worst of the worst. If you’re doing that, I would really be cheering you on, but this simply isn’t the case. That’s false," McBath said in the hearing. Taylor became a double amputee at the age of 10 to address severe limb deformities, according to McBath. He was convicted on a burglary charge at the age of 17, his wife said, but he was later pardoned by former Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue and he had no further interactions with law enforcement. He applied for a green card, and the process was pending at the time Taylor was taken into ICE custody last year. McBath said Taylor couldn’t get himself to and from the cafeteria, and had to rely on other detainees to provide him food. Taylor wasn’t able to shower most days, and when he was able to get a shower stool, he had to drag his body through mold and feces to enter and exit the shower area, according to McBath. Taylor also reported being sick on multiple occasions to his family during his detention and he did not receive medical attention. Noem said at the time she was unaware of Taylor’s specific case, but that all detainees had access to medical care and the detention centers were held to standards that are "the highest in the nation." There was no follow-up with Noem as she was moved to a new position in the Trump administration shortly after.

CBS News [5/4/2026 9:30 AM, Staff, 51110K] reports a man in ICE custody died last week at a South Georgia detention facility, officials said. ICE said Denny Adan Gonzalez, a 33-year-old Cuban national, was found unresponsive in his cell at the Stewart Detention Center on April 28. Staff began CPR and emergency crews continued life-saving efforts, but he was pronounced dead at 11:11 p.m. The suspected cause of death is suicide, though the official cause remains under investigation. Gonzalez had been in ICE custody since January 2026 after his arrest in December 2025 by the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina on charges of assault on a female and domestic violence. ICE said it has notified the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of Inspector General and the Office of Professional Responsibility. The Cuban Embassy and Gonzalez’s next of kin have also been notified, in accordance with policy. The agency said detainees receive medical, dental and mental health screenings within 12 hours of arrival, along with access to care and emergency services throughout their detention.

Breitbart [5/4/2026 2:45 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports an illegal alien is accused of raping an underage girl after plying her with alcohol in Charlotte County, Florida. "Here we are with yet another individual who couldn’t keep his hands off a juvenile," Sheriff Bill Prummell said in a statement on Monday. "I am running out of ways to say how disgusting sex crimes are, especially when there is a child involved," Prummell said. "To make it even worse, this individual is in the U.S. illegally … for now, anyway. This should not have happened, and my heart goes out to the young lady and her family.". According to police, 44-year-old illegal alien Melchor Hernandez Alcaraz allegedly gave alcohol to a 17-year-old girl and then raped her. Police were alerted to the alleged assault on May 3.

FOX News [5/4/2026 9:08 AM, Elaine Mallon, 37576K] reports Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker is urging state officials to pursue criminal investigations into federal immigration enforcement agents involved in Operation Midway Blitz, citing a report released by a commission he created to investigate federal agents’ conduct during the months-long investigation. Pritzker’s Thursday press conference unveiling the Illinois Accountability Commission’s recommendation to pursue criminal investigations into ICE and other federal agents came just over a month after he first vowed to seek criminal charges against Trump administration officials and law enforcement officers he said had "broken the law." "Our communities and our people were subjected to an unprecedented campaign of harassment, intimidation and brutality," Pritzker said at the news conference. "They deployed tear gas and smoke grenades against peaceful protesters and peaceful crowds and in peaceful neighborhoods. They committed flagrant and egregious abuses of power and force that went unchecked." The report was compiled by eight members who were appointed to the commission by Pritzker. Members of the commission include retired judges, a retired law enforcement official, former prosecutors and a nonprofit leader. The report pinpointed more than a dozen incidents involving federal agents as alleged instances of misconduct that warrant further investigation, including the death of Silverio Villegas González, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was shot and killed by ICE agents. "Governor Pritzker continues to refuse to do his job to protect his citizens from illegal alien crime and instead chooses to smear our law enforcement," Department of Homeland Security Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said. "Where is the investigation into his own policies that allowed Sheridan Gorman’s killer to be released from jail to go on and commit her heinous murder?" Bis slammed Pritzker’s calls for criminal prosecution as "nothing more than a political stunt."

Breitbart [5/4/2026 2:23 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested an illegal alien accused of torturing dogs at the animal shelter where he worked in Las Vegas, Nevada, Breitbart News has learned. On April 2, ICE agents took custody of illegal alien John Young Cotter Johnstone of the United Kingdom, thanks to cooperation with Clark County, Nevada, law enforcement officials. The day before being arrested by ICE agents, Johnstone was arrested by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and charged with four felony charges of willfully torturing, maiming, or mutilating animals. Las Vegas investigators probed animal torture allegations against Johnstone for a month. The probe alleges that Johnstone used shock collars on dogs at the animal shelter where he was employed and stepped on their leashes to force their heads to the ground. Johnstone also allegedly used some of the dogs’ leashes to swing them around mid-air. The animal torture was captured on video by the shelter, police say. "This disgusting criminal tortured dogs at the shelter where he worked," the Department of Homeland Security’s Lauren Bis said in a statement. "Thanks to the cooperation of Clark County officials who honored the ICE detainer, this freak is in ICE custody," Bis said. "Seven of the 10 safest cities cooperate with ICE. We need more state and local politicians to work with us to keep criminals off our streets and out of our country."

Reported similarly:
NBC 3 Las Vegas [5/4/2026 11:13 PM, Sara Sullivan, 43603K]

AP [5/4/2026 5:11 PM, Staff, 35287K] reports a man who was shot multiple times during an arrest by immigration officers in central California pleaded not guilty on Monday to federal charges that he rammed his vehicle into two agents, prosecutors said. A federal grand jury on Friday indicted Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, who has dual citizenship in El Salvador and Mexico, on two counts of assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and one count of damaging government property. Patrick Kolasinski, one of his lawyers, has said Mendoza panicked and tried to flee when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents blocked his car and that he did not intend to run over anyone. Kolasinski also disputed claims by officials that his client was a suspected gang member wanted in El Salvador for questioning in relation to a murder. Salvadoran court documents show he was acquitted of murder in El Salvador and Mendoza has denied ever being in a gang, his lawyer has said. He came to the U.S. in 2019 and has no criminal record, Kolasinski has said. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Monday that Mendoza has requested a jury trial. A status conference was set for July 27. The Department of Homeland Security has said ICE officers fired defensive shots at Mendoza after he tried to drive into them. DHS said the officers were conducting an enforcement stop targeting Mendoza, 36, on April 7 in Patterson, a city about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco.

Reported similarly:
Univision [5/4/2026 8:05 PM, Staff, 4937K]

Washington Examiner [5/4/2026 3:38 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1147K] reports the Trump administration has exempted foreign doctors from its travel ban against citizens of more than three dozen countries, a move that will allow medical professionals outside the United States to obtain visas, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Late last week, the DHS agency U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services updated its website to reflect the reversal of a January policy that had barred government employees from making decisions on green cards, visa extensions, and work permits for citizens from 39 countries included in the travel ban. "Applications associated with medical physicians will continue processing," the DHS told the New York Times, which first reported the development on Sunday. The change was made without any formal announcement. It comes as the U.S. faces a major doctor shortage. The Health Resources and Services Administration estimates a shortage of more than 113,000 doctors by 2028, ticking up to more than 141,000 by 2038. The policy change will only affect foreign medical workers applying from outside the country, not those already in the country, whose immigration status may also be in limbo. A total of 39 countries face either a partial or full ban on traveling to the U.S. Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in December that a forthcoming travel ban extension could include more than 30 countries, beyond the nearly 20 countries already on the list at the time. The full travel ban is in effect against Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and for individuals with Palestinian Authority documents. The partial ban affects citizens of Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Reported similarly:
Newsweek [5/4/2026 5:40 AM, Aliss Higham, 52220K]

ABC News [5/5/2026 5:03 AM, Laura Romero and Aaron Katersky, 34146K] reports twenty-year-old Edith from Guatemala has remained in her home with her 1-year-old baby Justin for weeks after selling her only means of transportation. "Being stuck at home, locked up inside, is very, very difficult for us," she told ABC News. Edith, a U.S. citizen who was raised in Guatemala and requested she only be referred to by her first name out of concern over her privacy, sold her car and spent her life savings to pay someone who she thought was an attorney to help her husband Dimas, who was arrested and placed in immigration custody in March. After Dimas, the undocumented breadwinner of the family, was quickly sent to a detention center in Georgia, Edith sought an immigration lawyer on social media, where a stranger recommended a supposed Florida-based attorney. "I was scheduled for a video call, and the woman who said she was a lawyer said that to get someone out of immigration detention, a habeas corpus needed to be filed," Edith told ABC News. Edith retained the woman and began communicating with her frequently. She completed documents the woman sent her, and began sending the woman payments. She even received documents that appeared to be from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the federal agency that oversees immigration services. "She began asking for money, $500, $600, $1,750, $4,000 for the bond, petition, copies [of forms]," Edith said. But last month, when the woman was scheduled to participate in a video call for Dimas’ initial hearing before an immigration judge, she never appeared on the call. Edith’s husband later told her that the judge said that the attorney wasn’t registered in the court system. After confronting the woman she had hired, Edith realized she had been scammed out of more than $10,000 -- her life savings. And with all her money gone, she was unable to pay for a legitimate lawyer to represent her husband, who last month was ordered deported by an immigration judge. Edith is one of many victims across the country that law enforcement and immigration lawyers say are being targeted by bad actors seizing on the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.

Daily Signal [5/4/2026 5:25 PM, Fred Lucas, 474K] reports that a federal judge appointed by President Joe Biden, with an activist past, last week blocked the Trump administration’s termination of protected status for Yemeni immigrants to the United States. Before serving on the bench, Judge Dale Ho of the Southern District of New York, who once jokingly said he has been caricatured as a "wild-eyed sort of leftist," was a lawyer for both the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where he litigated against voter ID laws and against verification of citizenship for voter registration. On Friday, he temporarily halted the Department of Homeland Security from terminating the temporary legal status of about 3,000 Yemeni immigrants. The termination was set to take effect next week. Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments about ending temporary protected status for immigrants from Haiti and Syria. "They are ordinary, law-abiding people who have been granted status to be here because the Government has repeatedly determined, in accordance with the TPS statute, that Yemen is subject to an ongoing armed conflict, and that, due to that conflict, requiring them to return would pose a serious threat to their safety," the judge wrote in a 36-page opinion.

Telemundo52 [5/4/2026 9:16 PM, Luis Treto and Elizabeth Chavolla, 61K] reports Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) beneficiaries who are in the process of renewing their permits are waiting in some cases almost half a year to receive an extension of their cases. A DACA recipient in the renewal process told Telemundo 52 that he lost his job and was forced to go out and sell food in order to survive. The young man says his DACA permit expired almost a month ago, and although he applied for renewal months in advance, the extension has not been processed and his employer fired him. He says he now has no other option but to find another way to make a living. For the past three weeks, the DACA recipient who identified himself as Cesar says he has been facing a dilemma: go out on the street to sell food and risk deportation, or stay at home and risk losing the home he bought with his mother and two brothers. “Something can happen at any moment, hopefully it won’t, but here I have to take risks,” said César. César has been a DACA beneficiary for 12 years and says he started the renewal process for his permit four months in advance, but almost five months have passed and he has not received the extension, and that is why he lost his job. “[I felt] sad at first, we didn’t know what we were going to do because my sister is also a DACA beneficiary,” said Cesar. Both brothers lost their jobs, forcing César to sell food on the streets with the help of his mother in order to get by financially. “I started selling hamburgers and seafood, but that was very difficult for me,” said Cesar. Originally from Zacatecas, Mexico, César arrived in the country at the age of four and is a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona with a degree in business administration. “What I did was start selling burritos from this cooler,” César said. Since then, César says he’s had to relocate his stand to different spots in North Hollywood after complaints from businesses. But with the help of social media, which has allowed him to share his story, his videos have gone viral and he’s received hundreds of dollars in donations from his followers. That’s why she wanted to give back to the community by donating food, and now she plans to start her own business when she receives her work permit. “If the burritos are a hit, I’ll either keep selling burritos or sell some other food,” said Cesar. Regarding the delay in DACA applications, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a statement: “Under President Trump’s leadership, USCIS is conducting more thorough vetting of applications from foreign nationals. DACA recipients are not automatically protected from deportation.”

Reuters [5/5/2026 1:04 AM, Michael Martina, 38315K] reports China is slowing its efforts to repatriate Chinese nationals who are in the U.S. illegally, a senior Trump administration official ​told Reuters, warning that Washington was prepared to increase travel restrictions on the country if Beijing didn’t reverse course. The new U.S. threat toward China ‌comes just days before President Donald Trump’s planned May 14-15 visit to Beijing, where, among other issues, he is expected to raise the deportation issue during meetings with his counterpart Xi Jinping. The trip is an important one for Trump, who is hoping to win trade concessions from Beijing that he can present to voters ahead of November’s midterm elections that polls suggest could deliver losses for the ​president’s Republican party. Since returning to the White House early last year, Trump has threatened tariffs and sanctions on numerous countries for failing to accept deportees, a central pillar of his campaign for the White House and hard-line immigration policies. China for years has resisted U.S. requests to take back ⁠tens of thousands of its citizens who have overstayed or illegally entered the country. When Trump took office, China had suggested it was willing to repatriate "confirmed Chinese nationals" following verification.But Beijing has said doing so takes time. After accepting about 3,000 deportees via charter and commercial flights in early 2025, China has scaled back cooperation in the past six months, the senior U.S. official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly about administration plans. China "refuses to fully cooperate with the United States to take back its citizens," the official said, calling it a violation of China’s international obligations and responsibility toward its people. The official said that if China didn’t increase cooperation on deportations, the United States would consider increased cash bonds ​accompanying visa applications, as well as denying more visas and blocking more entries at the border. "Inaction by the Chinese government will jeopardize future travel for law-abiding Chinese citizens," the official said. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Previously Beijing has said it opposes illegal migration, and calls it an "international issue that requires cooperation between countries."

Breitbart [5/4/2026 10:21 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2238K] reports roughly 1,000 child sex offenders in Tampa, Florida, have been nabbed by U.S. Border Patrol agents in the four months of fiscal year 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced. In a press release from CBP, it was revealed that Border Patrol agents, along with the Florida Department of Probation and Parole, arrested Troy Antonio Baldeo, 60, on April 17. The arrest of Baldeo, a registered sex offender, represented the 1,000th arrest for the Border Patrol’s Tampa Station. Baldeo, a Trinidad and Tobago national, was intercepted and arrested by CBP officials on December 7, 2015, at John F. Kennedy International Airport as Baldeo was reportedly trying "to board a flight to Trinidad and Tobago," according to the press release. After being "extradited back to Hillsborough" and convicted in July 2016, Baldeo was released from prison in December 2025. After being released from prison, Baldeo later relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, before going to Florida, according to the press release. "Supported by President Donald J. Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, this significant milestone is further proof that Border Patrol agents remain committed to making our communities safer by apprehending and removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens," Samuel B. Briggs II, the acting chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s Miami Sector, said. Baldeo, who was "convicted of five felony child sex offenses," also reportedly "overstayed his nonimmigrant visa in March 2016" and has been in the United States illegally. Other people whom the Border Patrol’s Tampa Station had apprehended included a Mexican national "determined to be a Sureños 13 gang member," and a Venezuelan national who is "wanted for financial crimes.” The Tampa Station, which "first opened in 1925 to respond to large smuggling rings entering Florida using Cuban fishing boats," is now responsible for "12 counties in central and western Florida," The Center Square reported.

Bloomberg [5/4/2026 9:54 AM, Joe Wertz, Mary Hui, and Lauren Rosenthal, 18082K] reports the 2026 wildfire season in the northern hemisphere is already roaring, and summer hasn’t even started. In the US, an abnormally hot and snowless La Niña winter has helped drive a sprawling drought across the Southeast and central areas of the country, turning prairies and swamps into bone-dry tinderboxes and accelerating the fire season’s onset. So far this year, flames have scorched more than 2,800 square miles. The number of fires is also running ahead of the seasonal average, with wildfires upending grazing and tourism across the US. Firefighting aircraft are already in heavy rotation — weeks ahead of schedule — and ground resources are stretched thin. Drought is largely to blame, said Tyler Roys, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather. More than a third of the US is experiencing severe drought or worse, and low snowpack in some parts of the West has raised concerns about the potential for significant fires there in the coming months.

CBS Colorado [5/4/2026 6:19 PM, Christa Swanson, 51110K] reports that changing conditions at the site of a coal mine fire in Colorado have prompted state officials to begin an emergency project to mitigate wildfire risk in the area. The Black Diamond Mine in Rio Blanco County has been burning since the 1930s. The coal seam fire, located approximately one mile northwest of Meeker, has been managed over the years to address hot spots and concerns. The Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety says that recent assessments have shown conditions that heighten the risk of wildfires at the site. According to the 2024 Mine Fire Inventory, a new area of activity has developed, with multiple high-flow-rate vents along the top edge of a 40-foot-tall cliff. Some of those vents reportedly extend away from the cliff face into vegetated areas where dead and dying trees were spotted. According to the CDRMS, there is evidence of increased surface temperatures. With the formation of ground fractures and the dry vegetation due to persistent drought, the division saw a need to take proactive measures. "Ongoing drought conditions have reduced soil cohesion, allowing more oxygen to circulate through fractured ground, which can contribute to underground combustion processes. These combined factors increase the potential for ignition if vegetation remains in place," said the CDRMS. On Monday, crews began a project to remove 1.5 acres of trees and grasses in the area. This will reduce the amount of fuel available to burn and will create a space that is easier to defend against potential wildfires.

Blaze [5/4/2026 3:00 PM, Cortney Weil, 1556K] reports a Pennsylvania man has been arrested after allegedly leaving a series of voicemails calling for the murder of President Donald Trump and other officials. Raymond Chandler of the Pittsburgh-area city of Wilkinsburg appeared in federal court on Friday on charges of influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a federal official by threatening a family member and by threatening a federal official and influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a federal official by threat, according to WTAE. An FBI affidavit claimed that Chandler left several threatening voicemail messages with a member of Congress between April 2025 and April 2026. Last Wednesday, just days after a third assassination attempt against Trump, Chandler allegedly told the congressperson regarding President Trump: What I want you to do is I want you to take a firearm. I want you to put it in your hand. I want you to walk into the Oval Office. I want you to put that firearm to the president’s head, and I want you to pull the trigger and I want you to kill him. I am petitioning you, Senator, for redress of grievances. My redress of grievances is that this president is awful. ... He’s a liar among all liars. He’s a great deceiver. He’s the antichrist. I want you to walk into the Oval Office with a gun in your hand. I want you to put it to his temple, and I want you to pull the trigger. That is what I want you to do as my agent. That’s what I want you to do as my elected official. That’s what I am petitioning you to do with my free speech. I want you to kill the president. I want you to assassinate the president. That’s what I want you to do. Now, Senator, are you gonna come after me? Are you going to try me because of my voice and what I said? The affidavit claimed the caller identified himself as Chandler and gave his address. The phone number associated with the calls was directly linked to Chandler via "publicly available information," the affidavit further claimed. Chandler is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on Friday.

NBC News [5/4/2026 2:18 PM, Gary Grumbach and Ryan J. Reilly, 2524K] reports a federal magistrate judge on Monday apologized over detention conditions to the man charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. “I am very troubled by what they indicate the conditions that you have been subjected to,” Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui told Cole Allen during a hearing. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It sounds like things have not been the way they’re supposed to.” Faruqui said he was concerned Allen’s treatment behind bars could lead the defendant to believe he was not getting a fair proceeding. “My concern remains if this is what’s happening in this case, what’s happening in every other case," he said. The judge moved forward with the hearing on Allen’s conditions of confinement even though his own attorneys had said it wasn’t necessary. Allen appeared in court wearing an orange jumpsuit. He scanned the room when he entered and occasionally nodded along during the proceedings. He has not entered a plea, but is expected back in court Monday for a preliminary hearing. After his arrest on April 25, Allen told the FBI that he didn’t expect to survive the incident, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballantine. “It’s clear he did not expect to survive it, which gives rise to potential concern for suicide,” Ballantine said.

Reported similarly:
Daily Caller [5/4/2026 3:48 PM, Nicole Silverio, 803K]
Daily Wire [5/4/2026 11:06 AM, Jacob Wheeler, 2314K]

Washington Examiner [5/4/2026 1:52 PM, Kaelan Deese, 1147K] reports that a federal magistrate judge on Monday repeatedly compared the treatment of White House Correspondents’ Association dinner shooting suspect Cole Allen to defendants charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, questioning why the man accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump was subjected to stricter confinement measures than accused rioters. During a hearing in Washington, D.C., Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui said Allen appeared to be "treated differently than anyone I’ve ever observed" in the city’s jail system, pointing to his years overseeing Jan. 6 cases as a benchmark. "I never had a Jan. 6 defendant put in five-point restraints or in a safe cell," Faruqui said, adding that even individuals accused of politically motivated violence were not handled as restrictively in his courtroom experience. The comments came as Faruqui scrutinized Allen’s placement on suicide-watch protocols at the jail, despite defense attorneys saying repeated mental health screenings found no indication he posed a risk to himself. Allen’s attorney, public defender Eugene Ohm, said his client was initially placed on full suicide watch and later downgraded, but remained under conditions that restricted phone access, legal materials, and personal items, including a Bible. Faruqui suggested the environment could be counterproductive, at one point remarking that the conditions "may induce someone to be suicidal," and pressed jail officials to explain the basis for the restrictions. A representative for the District of Columbia Department of Corrections, Tony Towns, said Allen’s placement was based on an "ongoing" psychiatric evaluation.

New York Times [5/4/2026 2:21 PM, Zach Montague, 148038K] reports a federal magistrate judge raised concerns on Monday that the man accused of trying to kill President Trump and top cabinet members at an annual press gala had been placed in unusually punitive detention for days while awaiting next steps in court. During a hastily scheduled hearing in Washington, Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui demanded answers about how the man had been placed on suicide watch, denied a number of basic services and held in what the judge called “effectively solitary confinement” for nearly a week, all while the government has been slow to establish key facts in the federal case against him. The man, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, had appeared in court last week, where prosecutors said they were charging him with trying to assassinate Mr. Trump and discharging a weapon while he stormed the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, an annual gala for journalists. The Justice Department also accused Mr. Allen of transporting guns, including a pump-action shotgun, from California to Washington, and plotting to kill a number of top officials in a predetermined order. Mr. Allen had been expected to appear in court later in May, but Judge Faruqui set a rapid hearing on Monday after Mr. Allen’s lawyers raised alarms over the weekend about the terms of his imprisonment. Among other things, his lawyers said Mr. Allen had been placed on suicide watch without a complete psychiatric evaluation and was regularly being held alone for as many as 23 hours per day. Tony Towns, an official from the D.C. Department of Corrections, told the court that the psychiatric evaluation process had been routine, adding that “every case is different” and that no final determination had been made on how Mr. Allen would be held moving forward. At the hearing, Judge Faruqui grilled Mr. Towns about how Mr. Allen had been placed under watch, stripping him of some basic privileges including visits, nonlegal phone calls and access to a Bible. Eugene Ohm, a federal public defender representing Mr. Allen, said he had been held alone for up to 23 hours a day — conditions that Judge Faruqui described as “effectively solitary confinement.” “I’m obviously very concerned about how we’ve gotten here,” Judge Faruqui said.

AP [5/4/2026 4:48 PM, Michael Kunzelman, 35287K] reports a federal magistrate judge on Monday pressed a jail official to explain why a man charged with trying to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and attempting to kill President Donald Trump was placed on restrictive suicide watch after his arrest. Officials at the city jail in Washington, D.C., removed Cole Tomas Allen from its designated "suicide status" over the weekend after his attorneys complained that he had been unnecessarily confined in a padded room with constant lighting, repeatedly strip searched and placed in restraints outside his cell. But the relaxed conditions didn’t satisfy U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui’s concerns that Allen may have received disparate, punitive treatment in violation of his due process rights. Faruqui noted that the D.C. jail routinely houses convicted killers and others charged with violent crimes without placing them on 24-hour lockdown. "It could drive a person crazy to be in that situation," he said. Faruqui apologized to Allen over his confinement conditions. In response to a news report on that apology, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro criticized him in a social media post that said Faruqui "believes a defendant armed to the teeth and attempting to assassinate the president is entitled to preferential treatment in his confinement compared to every other defendant.". Allen’s lawyers said he wasn’t showing any suicidal risk factors after his arrest. But a jail psychiatrist evaluated him and initially concluded that he posed a suicide risk, according to Tony Towns, acting general counsel for the city’s corrections department. "Every case is different, your honor," Towns said. Allen was moved into protective custody after the jail lifted the suicide prevention measures. His attorneys didn’t object to his new confinement status. They had asked the magistrate to cancel Monday’s hearing, but Faruqui forged ahead with it due to his "grave concerns" about Allen’s treatment in jail.

USA Today [5/5/2026 3:01 AM, Josh Meyer, 70643K] reports that, more than a week after prosecutors say a gunman allegedly tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and assassinate President Donald Trump, lawmakers, former Secret Service officials and security experts say that the official response leaves a broader set of questions unresolved. The Secret Service says its layered security plan worked in preventing the suspect from reaching the ballroom and wounding any of its VIP protectees, but much remains unclear about what happened outside the agency’s perimeter separating the annual event for about 2,500 people from the very busy Washington Hilton hotel where it took place. Some said Congress, at the very least, should hold hearings on the shooting, just like it did after the Secret Service allowed another would-be assassin to injure Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024 before being shot and killed by an agency counter-sniper. At the April 25 dinner, accused gunman Cole Tomas Allen − a guest at the hotel − was able to sprint through a metal detector at the outer Secret Service perimeter carrying a shotgun before stumbling, falling and being restrained by security personnel. Attending the event were not only Trump but also Vice President JD Vance, numerous Cabinet members and others in the presidential line of succession, all the way down to 92-year-old Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, called for an oversight hearing to determine whether the Secret Service deployed enough resources and did its job right − and whether reforms the protective agency had promised after the Butler close call were put in place. Hawley noted in a letter to its Republican chairman that the Senate Homeland Security Committee conducted a bipartisan investigation after Butler, held a public hearing, produced detailed reports documenting serious deficiencies and developed proposals to address them. "This was an important part of a broader effort to understand and fix what had gone wrong," including communications failures, technical issues and resource shortfalls, Hawley told Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. "The American people," he said, "deserve full transparency following yet another apparent assassination attempt of President Trump.” One attendee at the Correspondents’ dinner, Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, went even further in a post on X. "There (were) numerous glaring security issues," Lawler said, calling for "a complete and thorough" review of "how the gunman got from his hotel room into a secure area with numerous guns.” ‘The site was set up perfectly’. So far, the Secret Service is sticking with its official position that it did everything right in stopping Allen one floor above where the president and other protectees were dining with journalists and VIPs. Secret Service Director Sean Curran told Fox News on April 30 that the agency’s "multilayer approach" worked as intended. Allen did breach the perimeter, Curran acknowledged, but other uniformed officers and agents, a rifle team and "other assets" stood between him and the agency’s protectees. "We do a study. We do blast analysis. And from start to finish, you’re talking almost 355 feet from magnetometer to podium," where Trump was sitting, Curran said. "That’s a long distance to get to.” Taking everything into account, Curran said, "The site was set up perfectly.”

New York Post [5/4/2026 9:39 PM, Zoe Hussain, 40934K] reports a Secret Service employee was arrested and placed on leave after he was allegedly caught masturbating in front of guests at a Miami hotel, according to authorities and reports. John Spillman, 33, was charged with indecent exposure for the disturbing incident that unfolded at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Miami Airport and Convention Center on Sunday night, according to court records and WSVN. John Spillman, 33, was allegedly caught masturbating in front of guests at a Miami hotel. Hotel guests told investigators they were in the hotel lobby around midnight when Spillman allegedly followed them to their room, according to an arrest report obtained by the outlet. The guests then alarmingly spotted him "masturbating next to their room" on the sixth floor, and called hotel security, the report added. Security arrived to find the Secret Service employee with his "pants lowered and masturbating," investigators wrote in the document. Spillman is from Marble Falls, Texas, and is based in Washington, DC. He was in South Florida for a security perimeter screening detail at Trump National Doral for President Trump’s scheduled visit to the 2026 PGA Cadillac Championship, the outlet reported. He was off-duty when he allegedly exposed himself and has been placed on leave by the Secret Service pending the outcome of a criminal and internal investigation, the agency said in a statement to The Post. "The alleged conduct is unacceptable and stands in stark contrast to the professionalism and integrity that I demand of our personnel," Secret Service Chief Richard Macauley said in a statement. "This agency takes these matters with the utmost seriousness; consequently, the individual has been placed on administrative leave pending the results of this criminal matter and a complete and thorough internal investigation," Macauley added. Spillman was booked at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and ordered held on a $1,000 bond, according to inmate records. The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment. Spillman is slated to return to court on May 27.

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Breitbart [5/5/2026 12:47 AM, Paul Bois, 2238K]

San Francisco Chronicle [5/4/2026 5:40 PM, Aidin Vaziri, 3833K] reports that a 45-year-old cruise ship passenger was airlifted to a hospital Saturday after suffering a serious medical emergency aboard a vessel off the Northern California coast, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The passenger was aboard the Queen Elizabeth about 45 miles southwest of Shelter Cove, a remote Humboldt County community, when a crew member contacted the Coast Guard at 8:47 a.m. to request a medical evacuation, officials said. After consulting with a duty flight surgeon, who recommended the evacuation, Coast Guard watchstanders dispatched an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Air Station Humboldt Bay. The aircrew hoisted the man from the cruise ship and flew him to St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka. He was reported to be in unstable condition, according to the Coast Guard. Officials did not release the man’s name or provide details about his medical condition. The Coast Guard said officials stayed in regular contact with the ship’s crew to monitor the passenger’s condition until the helicopter departed safely with him.

Wall Street Journal [5/4/2026 5:40 PM, Angus Loten, 646K] reports a major critical infrastructure technology vendor says hackers who broke into its systems last month also breached some of its water, gas and electric-utility customers. Itron, a Liberty Lake, Wash.-based company that makes energy and water sensor devices for infrastructure and smart-city operators, said a hack disclosed in April resulted in “limited unauthorized access to certain customer-hosted systems,” according to a Friday regulatory filing. The company, which has thousands of customers in the U.S. and abroad, didn’t identify the affected customers or the extent of the access. Itron said it hasn’t found any evidence that customer-facing systems were affected by the breach. The update comes roughly a week after Itron said it became aware of unauthorized access to its own tech systems in mid-April. The company relied on data backup systems and contingency plans to keep its operations running, according to an initial filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. An investigation is ongoing, the company said Friday. Itron didn’t respond to a request for comment. The breach underscores long-running national-security concerns that water systems, power grids and other cyber adversary targets are only as secure as their vendors, cybersecurity experts said.

San Diego Union Tribune [5/4/2026 8:06 PM, Gary Robbins, 1257K] reports the San Diego Community College District said Monday it is battling a major cyberattack that began on Saturday and led the system to take some internet, email, websites and registration platforms offline while it is in the midst of enrolling students for summer classes. “The attack was detected immediately by the district’s IT security systems and no data has been compromised,” said Jack Beresford, a spokesperson for the district. “All the district’s (four) colleges remain open and most classes are continuing as scheduled. However, some operations such as bookstores and cafeterias may be closed as are some offices with employees working remotely,” he said. “The district is keeping students and employees informed via text, updates on the SDCCD Safe app, Canvas, and social media.” About 60,000 students will take classes during summer sessions at San Diego City, Mesa, Miramar and Continuing Education colleges. Later this month, the district will award its first bachelor’s degree-level diplomas to students studying cybersecurity.

Daily Caller [5/4/2026 3:01 PM, Harold Hutchison, 803K] reports a New Braunfels, Texas, woman arrested in January for setting fire to a county Republican Party’s headquarters was charged with terrorism, according to local media. Grace Carol Brown was arrested Jan. 22 by the New Braunfels Police Department on suspicion of arson and burglary after employees at the Comal County Republican Party headquarters discovered the building had been broken into and a small fire had been set on Jan. 14, according to a Jan. 23 release. A Comal County grand jury added the terrorism charge on April 15, the San Antonio News-Express reported. "Sadly, this incident is not isolated," Texas Republican Party Chairman Abraham George told the Daily Caller News Foundation after the January attack. "Similar acts of vandalism and intimidation against political organizations have occurred in other parts of the country, underscoring a growing and unacceptable trend. Violence and intimidation have no place in our communities or in our democratic process, and those responsible must be held fully accountable.". If convicted on the terrorism charge, Brown faces a 15-year minimum sentence under SB 1518, a Texas law passed in 2023, according to Hoodline. Federal and local authorities are still investigating the arson attack. "It is alarming that the radical left is increasingly turning to violence, terrorism, and even assassinations in their bloodthirsty quest for power," RNC spokesperson Zach Kraft told the DCNF. "Democrats, starting with James Talarico, need to unequivocally condemn political violence and urge their base to tone down the temperature and stop trying to kill President Trump and his supporters.".

Blaze [5/4/2026 11:08 AM, Dave Urbanski, 1556K] reports that two men wearing ski masks opened fire at a party near an Oklahoma lake Sunday night, and at least 13 people were hospitalized, according to reports. Edmond Police spokesperson Emily Ward told the Associated Press that authorities were notified about shots fired around 9 p.m. at a gathering of young people near Arcadia Lake. Arcadia Lake is just over 20 minutes north of Oklahoma City. Police told KOKH-TV that two men wearing ski masks opened fire during the party at Spring Creek Park near the lake. Ward told the AP that while no arrests had been made yet, she noted to KOKH that police are reviewing video from Flock license plate reader cameras in order to identify those responsible. The outlet, citing a hospital system spokesperson, said that 10 people were taken to Integris Health Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, and three were at Integris Health Edmond Hospital as of Monday morning. Integris Health told Fox News that six of the 13 victims have been treated and released, and of the seven who remained hospitalized, four were listed in serious condition and three were listed in critical condition. Ward added to the AP that "we’re kind of all over the metro speaking with victims and witnesses." "This is obviously a very terrifying situation, and we understand the concern from the public and those involved, and we are working extremely hard to find the suspects," she added to the outlet. The AP said police did not immediately respond to an email seeking information early Monday.

Reported similarly:
CBS News [5/4/2026 5:38 PM, Staff, 51110K] Video: HERE
USA Today [5/4/2026 9:40 AM, Natalie Neysa Alund, 70643K]
Daily Caller [5/4/2026 10:25 AM, Christine Sellers, 803K]

Washington Examiner [5/4/2026 10:55 PM, Brady Knox, 1147K] reports police continue to look for suspects in an Oklahoma mass shooting on Sunday that left at least 23 injured following a scuffle at an illegal party over the weekend. Eyewitnesses told the Associated Press that around 250 people attended the party at a campground that was advertised over the weekend. Jeremiah Smith, an attendee, told the outlet that fighting started when a group of girls started arguing over boyfriends, which escalated into a several-minute-long gunfight. "It just started a whole bunch of chaos," he said. At least 23 people were hospitalized, according to police. At least three were critically wounded. Despite the scale of the shooting, police still haven’t caught any suspects. The shooting was considered an isolated incident, and police believe there’s no danger to the public. Edmond Mayor Mark Nash said he would take "steps to review and strengthen park operations, permitting processes, and security measures." No reservation had been made for the party. Videos posted online shortly before the shooting showed dozens of young adults dancing. A flyer posted on social media advertised the "Sunday Funday" party as going from 6 p.m. to midnight. One of the event’s organizers told the Oklahoman the parties happened every Sunday and that no problems had been encountered previously.

Reuters [5/4/2026 11:14 PM, Steve Gorman and Keith Coffman, 16072K] reports the man accused of lobbing gasoline ⁠bombs ⁠at a pro-Israel rally in Colorado last year, ⁠killing one person and injuring about two dozen others, will plead guilty later this week to all 184 charges ​he faces in state court, according to his lawyers. The disclosure surfaced in an emergency petition filed on Sunday by attorneys for the fire-bombing suspect, Mohamed Soliman, 46, an Egyptian ‌national, as part of a separate federal hate-crimes ‌case pending against him. The motion seeks a U.S. District Court order to prevent six of his immediate family members - his ex-wife and five children - from being deported, ⁠at least until federal ⁠prosecutors decide whether to pursue the death penalty against him in their case. Removing them from the ​country, the defense argued, would deprive their client of his constitutional right to present his loved ones as mitigating character witnesses in a capital murder trial. According to that motion, Soliman offered to plead guilty in the federal case in return for a lifelong prison sentence, but the government has yet to decide whether to accept his proposal. In the state case, defense ​attorneys wrote, Soliman "will plead guilty to all charges" on Thursday under a plea agreement in which the Boulder County District Court will "impose a prison ⁠sentence ⁠of life without parole, plus at ⁠least 400 years.” Soliman’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters on Monday. A spokesperson for the Boulder County district attorney ​declined to comment. However, an online court docket ⁠for the Soliman case showed that a "filing of charges hearing" was scheduled for Thursday. Soliman is currently charged with 184 offenses stemming from the June 1, 2025, attack, including multiple counts of murder, attempted murder, assault and criminal use of explosives and incendiary devices. According to both prosecution and defense accounts in court records, Soliman tossed two Molotov cocktails at a group of people taking part in a peaceful rally in downtown Boulder organized to draw attention to the plight of Israeli hostages seized by Hamas militants ⁠from Gaza on October 7, 2023. Prosecutors said Soliman also used a makeshift blowtorch fashioned from a commercial weed sprayer during ⁠his attack, during which he yelled "Free Palestine" as the gasoline bombs he lobbed at the crowd burst into flames. Authorities identified a total of 29 victims, including some who were burned or injured while fleeing or close enough to be considered targets of attempted murder, according to the Denver Post. One victim, 82-year-old Karen Diamond, died of her injuries later that month. According to affidavits filed in court by prosecutors, Soliman told investigators after his arrest that he wanted to "kill all Zionist people" and had planned his attack for a year, though he delayed going through with it until after his daughter had graduated from high school.

Breitbart [5/4/2026 2:49 PM, Amy Furr, 2238K] reports that FBI Director Kash Patel wrote in a draft letter to the agency’s workforce that the bureau has been making changes employees have wanted for a long time, Fox News reported Sunday. "The reforms place a heightened emphasis on domestic security, including the creation of a multiagency mission center focused on domestic terrorism and politically motivated violence," the outlet said, adding, "Officials say the FBI has also deepened its collaboration with both law enforcement and private industry, establishing new partnerships with technology companies and creating formal channels for state and local agencies to engage directly with bureau leadership." In a social media post, Patel said the changes happened in just over a year’s time, writing, "After just 14 months, we’ve delivered a generational overhaul at the FBI. Cut the bureaucracy, crushed unnecessary approvals, moved over 1,500 agents and Intelligence Analysts out of DC and into the field offices where the mission belongs, and already saved more than $300 million by shuttering wasteful contracts." "We’re using AI for the first time across the bureau’s entire enterprise to stay ahead of threats and restoring the Bureau’s focus on protecting the American people," he added: In addition, the director has fired agents linked to former President Joe Biden’s (D) efforts to jail President Donald Trump while also revamping the FBI’s hiring process to have special agents ready to be on the job faster, according to Breitbart News.

NewsMax [5/4/2026 2:19 PM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 3760K] reports a federal judge ruled that a government contractor accused of leaking sensitive national security information to a Washington Post reporter can be released from custody under strict conditions. According to Politico, U.S. District Judge Michael Maddox acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations against Aurelio Perez-Lugones, describing them as "extremely grave," but determined that conditions such as home confinement, electronic monitoring, and a ban on internet use would sufficiently reduce any risk. Perez-Lugones, a Navy veteran, has been held since his arrest in January. Federal prosecutors sought to keep him detained, arguing he could still pass along classified material, particularly to Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, who remains employed. "The government has no way of knowing what he has retained and what he is able to provide to others," Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia McLane reportedly said during Monday’s hearing. "The person he was communicating with is still employed and has a willingness to accept classified and national defense information. ... The receptacle of additional national defense information is still available to the defendant.". The case has also sparked controversy over press protections after federal agents searched Natanson’s home in Virginia and seized electronic devices. The magistrate judge who approved the warrant, William Porter, later said he was not told about a federal law that limits search warrants for journalists’ records. Following objections from Natanson and The Washington Post — which warned the move jeopardized communications with more than 1,000 sources — Porter halted FBI access to the seized materials and said he would personally review them for relevance to the case. Prosecutors have asked another federal judge to intervene, but a decision is still pending.

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Daily Caller [5/4/2026 6:35 PM, John Oyewale, 803K]

Washington Examiner [5/4/2026 2:00 PM, Mike Brest, 1147K] reports that the Pentagon, under the Trump administration, is pursuing an expansive and widespread effort to become what it describes as an “AI-first fighting force.” The department has agreed to several contracts with various artificial intelligence companies over the last year or so to integrate their advanced platforms across the military’s classified and unclassified networks. On Friday, the department announced its newest slate of deals with SpaceX, OpenAI, Oracle, Google, Nvidia, Reflection, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services to use their services in classified settings. In announcing the deals, the department said it and these companies "share the conviction that American leadership in AI is indispensable to national security." The Pentagon also said the companies agreed to allow the department to use their technology for "lawful operational use." The man responsible for leading the department’s artificial intelligence charge is Emil Michael, the former Uber executive who is now serving as undersecretary of war for research and engineering. In discussing the new agreements on Friday, Michael said in a CNBC interview, "What we’ve learned since we started this effort at the Department of War is that it’s irresponsible to be reliant on any one partner.". Lauren Kahn, a former Pentagon official and now an analyst with Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, told the Washington Examiner, "It’s honestly a really good thing, and more than a good thing, it was an inevitability, it was a necessity." "It’s long overdue that the Pentagon has access to these systems," Kahn added.

Bloomberg [5/4/2026 5:15 AM, Matthew Bristow, 18082K] reports Colombians face a hard, familiar choice in this month’s presidential election: negotiate with violent criminals, or go back to war against them. Voters must decide whether to continue President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” strategy, which has brought seven drug-trafficking militias to the negotiating table, even as their leaders get rich from the biggest cocaine boom in history. The alternative is another US-backed military offensive of the kind launched by former president Álvaro Uribe more than two decades ago. Senator Paloma Valencia, a security hardliner and Uribe protégé, has emerged as one of the most prominent voices calling for an end to talks. Instead, she wants Donald Trump’s help to battle illegal armed groups — an approach that has gained favor elsewhere in the region. “No Colombian government can sort out the security question unless the US helps us,” Valencia said in an interview during a day of campaigning on the Caribbean coast last month. “Or unless somebody helps us.” At one campaign event that day, speaking in a sun-baked plaza in downtown Barranquilla, she pledged to hire 60,000 additional police and soldiers and send crime bosses to remote work camps in the sparsely-populated Orinoco basin. Giant “WANTED!” posters of guerrilla leaders, including some she says have plotted to kill her, flashed on a screen behind her. “We are going to hunt them down,” Valencia, who may become Colombia’s first woman president if elected, told supporters gathered beside a 300-year-old church. “No more impunity or freedom for violent criminals!”

Reuters [5/5/2026 3:33 AM, Staff, 38315K] reports the fragile truce in the Middle East was in jeopardy on Tuesday after the U.S. and Iran launched new attacks as they wrestled for control of the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military said on Monday it destroyed six Iranian small boats, as well as cruise missiles and drones, after President Donald Trump sent the navy to escort stranded tankers ‌through the strait in a campaign he called "Project Freedom". Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said in a social media post on Tuesday that the security of shipping and energy transit had been threatened by breaches of the four-week-old ceasefire by the U.S. and its allies. The strait is a vital thoroughfare for global supplies of oil, fertiliser and other commodities that has been virtually closed since the U.S. and Israel began attacks on Iran on February 28, causing price rises around the world. Several merchant ships in the Gulf reported explosions or fires on Monday, and an oil port in the United Arab Emirates, which hosts a large U.S. military base, was set ablaze by Iranian missiles. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has effectively closed the narrow waterway under threat of mines, drones, missiles and gunboats. The U.S. has responded with a blockade of Iranian ⁠ports. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Monday’s events showed there was no military solution to the crisis. He said peace talks were progressing with Pakistan’s mediation, and warned the U.S. and the UAE against being drawn into a "quagmire." The U.S. military said two U.S. merchant ships made it through the strait, without saying when, with the support of Navy guided-missile destroyers. While Iran denied any crossings had taken place, Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) said the Alliance Fairfax, a U.S.-flagged ship, exited the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz accompanied by the U.S. military on Monday. The commander of U.S. forces in the region said his fleet had destroyed six small Iranian boats, which Iran also denied. Iranian media quoted a military commander as saying U.S. forces targeted civilian boats, killing five civilians. Iran also said on Monday it had fired on a U.S. warship approaching the strait, forcing it to turn around. Iranian officials later described the fire as warning shots. Reuters could not independently verify the full situation in the strait on Monday as the warring sides issued contradictory statements. South Korea reported one of its merchant ships, HMM Namu, in the strait suffered an explosion and fire in its engine room, though no one aboard was hurt. A South Korean government spokesperson said it was unclear if the fire was caused by an attack. Also on Monday, the British maritime security agency UKMTO reported two ships had been hit off ‌the coast ⁠of the UAE, and the Emirati oil company ADNOC said one of its empty oil tankers was hit by Iranian drones.

AP [5/4/2026 1:13 PM, Adam Schreck and Sam Metz, 35287K] reports the U.S. military said Monday it battled Iranian forces and sank six small boats as it moved to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The United Arab Emirates, a key American ally, said it had come under attack from Iran for the first time since a fragile ceasefire took hold in early April. The attacks appeared to be in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest efforts to reopen the strait, a critical waterway for global energy. They came after the U.S. military said two American-flagged merchant ships had successfully transited the strait on Monday. The UAE Defense Ministry said Iran had launched four cruise missiles, with three shot down and one falling into the sea. Authorities in the eastern emirate of Fujairah said an Iranian drone sparked a fire at a key oil facility, wounding three Indian nationals. The British military reported two cargo vessels ablaze off the UAE. Breaking Iran’s chokehold on the strait would ease global economic concerns and deny Tehran a major source of leverage. But such efforts also risk reigniting the full-scale fighting that erupted when the U.S. and Israel first attacked Iran on Feb. 28, prompting it to close the strait.

FOX News [5/4/2026 10:55 AM, Staff, 37576K] reports that Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer announce the US initiative ‘Project Freedom’ to ensure freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump issues a stern warning to Iran against any interference with shipping lanes. Bryan Llenas reports from Tel Aviv on recent drone attacks attributed to Iran by the UAE, and South Korea’s investigation into a vessel attack in the volatile region. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [5/4/2026 12:09 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 18170K] reports that the U.S. military said Monday two cargo ships have passed through the Strait of Hormuz as the Trump administration seeks to regain control of the critical shipping waterway. U.S. Central Command confirmed the transit of the two vessels and said Navy guided-missile destroyers are now protecting vessels in the Persian Gulf after transiting the Strait of Hormuz. News of the safe passage follows Iran’s claims that it struck a U.S. naval ship with two missiles. Central Command denied the reporting and has maintained that military vessels remain free from attacks and have been successful in enforcing the naval blockade in the strait. Iran has continued to issue threats regarding safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz amid a ceasefire with the U.S. and Israel, posing a challenge to commercial vessels that rely on the choke point for international shipping transit. About 20 percent of the world’s oil supply passes through the body of water, and the conflict has led to a huge jump in gas prices in the U.S. and around the world. This has given Tehran significant leverage in negotiations with the U.S., even as its military has been battered by American military might. “Iran’s armed forces, just like in the 40-day war, will not allow passage to American combat forces, and any transit in the Strait of Hormuz will also not be permitted without authorization from Iran’s armed forces,” a military source told Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, a semiofficial outlet associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a post on social platform X translated from Persian by the artificial intelligence tool Grok.

Breitbart [5/4/2026 3:45 PM, John Hayward, 2238K] reports a South Korean cargo ship called HMM Namu reported a fire and explosion on Monday near the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump said on social media that the ship was attacked by Iran and invited the South Koreans to join his international coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz against Iranian terrorism. South Korea’s foreign ministry reported the explosion and fire aboard the Namu, which is flagged to Panama and owned by South Korean shipping company HMM. The ship was anchored near the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and was within the Strait of Hormuz at the time of the incident. The strait is bordered by the UAE and Oman to the south and Iran to the north. The ship has a crew of 24, including 6 South Koreans and 18 foreign nationals. No casualties were initially reported. The Korea Coast Guard said it was cooperating with maritime rescue agencies in the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar and has requested their assistance. According to HMM representatives, the fire originated on the port side of the Namu’s engine room and was followed by an explosion. The company said it was "not yet known whether the incident was caused by an external attack or an internal malfunction.". "As the engine room is located in the lower part of the ship, it is difficult to access and extinguish the fire. Firefighting efforts are therefore taking longer than expected," HMM said.

NewsMax [5/4/2026 1:54 PM, Solange Reyner, 3760K] reports that President Donald Trump said Monday that Iran targeted vessels linked to international shipping operations near the Strait of Hormuz, including a South Korean cargo ship. He called on Seoul to join a U.S.-led maritime security effort. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Iranian forces had "taken some shots at unrelated Nations with respect to the Ship Movement, PROJECT FREEDOM," a reference to an ongoing U.S. mission aimed at safeguarding commercial traffic in the strategically critical waterway. "Perhaps it’s time for South Korea to come and join the mission!" Trump wrote, suggesting broader international participation in the effort. The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage connecting the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, is one of the world’s most important oil transit routes. Tensions in the region have periodically raised concerns about disruptions to global energy supplies and commercial shipping. Trump said U.S. forces had responded to recent incidents by intercepting multiple Iranian vessels. "We’ve shot down seven small Boats or, as they like to call them, ‘fast’ Boats. It’s all they have left," he wrote, referring to small, fast-attack craft often used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy. Despite the reported encounters, Trump said there had been no significant damage to vessels transiting the strait, aside from the incident involving the South Korean ship. "Other than the South Korean Ship, there has been, at this moment, no damage going through the Strait," he said. It was not immediately clear when the reported incidents occurred or whether any injuries were sustained. U.S. defense officials have not yet released detailed information about the encounters.

Reuters [5/4/2026 4:36 PM, Gram Slattery, Jonathan Landay and Erin Banco, 38315K] reports U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that the time Iran would ​need to build a nuclear weapon has not changed since last summer, when analysts estimated that a U.S.-Israeli attack had pushed back the timeline to up to a year, according to three sources familiar ‌with the matter. The assessments of Tehran’s nuclear program remain broadly unchanged even after two months of a war that U.S. President Donald Trump launched in part to stop the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear bomb. The latest U.S. and Israeli attacks that began on February 28 have focused on conventional military targets, but Israel has hit a number of significant nuclear facilities. The unchanged timeline suggests that significantly impeding Tehran’s nuclear program may require destroying or removing Iran’s remaining stockpile of highly enriched uranium, or HEU. The war has stalled since the U.S. and Iran agreed an April 7 ​truce to pursue peace. Tensions remain high as both sides appear deeply divided, and as Iran has choked traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, blocking some 20% of world oil supplies and igniting a global energy crisis. Secretary ​of Defense Pete Hegseth has said publicly that the U.S. aims to ensure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon via ongoing negotiations with Tehran. U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded prior ⁠to June’s 12-day war that Iran likely could produce enough bomb-grade uranium for a weapon and build a bomb in around three to six months, said two of the sources, all of whom requested anonymity to discuss U.S. intelligence. Following the June ​strikes by the U.S. that hit the Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan nuclear complexes, U.S. intelligence estimates pushed that timeline back to about nine months to a year, said the two sources and a person familiar with the assessments. The attacks destroyed or badly ​damaged the three enrichment plants known to have been operating at the time. But the U.N. nuclear watchdog has been unable to verify the whereabouts of some 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%. It believes that about half was stored in an underground tunnel complex at the Isfahan Nuclear Research Center, but it has been unable to confirm that since inspections were suspended.

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