President Donald Trump announced a 5,000 troop cut in Germany, adding more is to come. He said, “We’re going to cut way down. And we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000.”
03 World
Leaders of the separatist movement of Canada’s western province Alberta claim to have enough signatures to trigger a vote on separation from Canada.
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Gunshots rang out not far from the White House Monday as a gunman fired on Secret Service agents.
The shooting took place around 3 p.m. at 15th Street and Independence Avenue, near the Washington Monument and about a half-mile from the White House.
The shooting involved agents with the Uniformed Division, Fox News reported.
Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn said that a bystander he called a juvenile was hit by the suspect’s gunfire.
U.S. Secret Service personnel are on the scene of an officer-involved shooting at 15th Street and Independence Avenue in Washington, D.C. One individual was shot by law enforcement; their condition is currently unknown. Please avoid the area as emergency crews are responding. pic.twitter.com/LNUTL2F3gM
— U.S. Secret Service Office of Communications (@SecretSvcSpox) May 4, 2026
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President Donald Trump revived talk of the United States smuggling arms to the Iranian people for the purpose of fighting the regime, suggesting that weapons were already on their way.
Talk of arming the Iranian people died down after speculation in the first weeks of hostilities, with Trump claiming weapons were sent, but that the Kurds took them all. In a Monday interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show, Trump openly labored over the question of whether to arm the Iranian people when asked if he was encouraging the public to protest, bringing up the January crackdown that saw the massacre of tens of thousands of protesters by the government.
“Well, look, the problem is you can’t — if you have five people with a gun, and 250,000 [without], the five people with a gun, assuming it’s used fast enough, which they do… they’re going to win. They have to, they don’t have weapons,” Trump said.
He then brought up the thousands of unarmed protesters who were killed in December and January.
“They lost 42,000, to be exact. 42,000 people in about a two-week period. Protesters, innocent, unarmed protesters,” Trump said. “So we’re not dealing with, you know, your typical people.”
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Russia on Monday declared a unilateral ceasefire with Ukraine between May 8-9, when Moscow holds its annual World War II Victory Day commemorations, and threatened a “massive missile strike” on Kyiv if Ukraine violated it.
Ukraine responded by declaring a truce of its own between May 5-6, saying it was “not serious” to expect it to observe a ceasefire during a Russian military holiday.
The quarrelling between the two sides comes with a lull in U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to end the war, as Washington shifts its focus to conflict in the Middle East.
Russian strikes killed nine people across Ukraine on Monday, according to Ukrainian officials, while a Ukrainian drone crashed into a high-rise building in an upscale Moscow neighborhood overnight.
“In accordance with a decision of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces, Vladimir Putin, a ceasefire has been declared from May 8–9, 2026… We hope that the Ukrainian side will follow suit,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a post on state-backed messaging service MAX.
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Russia lost more territory than it gained in Ukraine in April for the first time since a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the summer of 2023, an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed.
Moscow ceded control of about 120 square kilometers (46 square miles) between March and April, the ISW data revealed.
Despite the fighting at the front reaching a near stalemate, intense and deadly drone-dominated attacks have continued unabated in recent months, while U.S.-led talks on the conflict have stalled as the Middle East war grinds on.
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The leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah has reiterated the group’s rejection of an ongoing ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that was brokered by the U.S.
“There is no ceasefire in Lebanon, but rather continuous Israeli-American aggression,” declared Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem in a written statement Monday, vowing that Hezbollah would “remain patient and continue to resist.”
The Hezbollah chief argued that Israel “has not implemented a single step of the agreement, violating it more than 10,000 times, killing 500 civilians, wounding hundreds, destroying thousands of homes and livelihoods, and displacing people from their villages.”
Israel’s on-and-off war with Hezbollah escalated dramatically two days after Israel and the U.S. launched their joint strikes on Iran, on Feb. 28. A barrage of Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon and around the capital Beirut was followed by an ongoing ground invasion.
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The Trump administration has launched an investigation into New York City Public Schools over allegations that pro-Hamas activism by educators may have crossed the line into anti-Semitic instruction targeting Jewish students.
The probe was launched over allegations that teachers sought to sow “hatred toward Jewish students” during classroom instruction.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights confirmed it opened the probe after receiving complaints that teachers were promoting political messaging in classrooms and portraying Israel supporters as “genocidal white supremacists.”
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- The US fights to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as the UAE comes under attack in a test of Iran truce AP News
- U.S. Warns China Over Iranian Oil as Sanctions Fight Intensifies The New York Times
- Iran issues threat after Trump plans to guide ships through Strait of Hormuz Fox News
- Attacks in Strait of Hormuz, Gulf region imperil fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire The Washington Post
- Trump news at a glance: Middle East tensions back to the brink with president’s new threats against Iran The Guardian
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The debate over regulating artificial intelligence usually focuses on two competing visions. In Europe, lawmakers are writing detailed rules that govern how AI can be developed and used. In the United States, policymakers are taking a lighter touch, allowing companies, investors and consumers to shape the technology’s future.
But a new analysis from students at the University of Florida identifies a third force quietly shaping the future of AI in America: the courts.
As AI spreads faster than any previous technology, judges and juries are being asked to resolve disputes. In doing so, they are not simply applying existing laws—they are, case by case, defining what responsible AI use looks like. The result is a distinctly American form of AI governance: one built through the give and take of negotiations and legal processes rather than legislation.
So far, courts have mostly resisted treating AI as something fundamentally new. Instead, they have folded AI into existing legal doctrines, focusing on the humans and institutions behind the technology.
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The Trump administration just slammed the door on an effort by Cuba’s communist government to secure an economic lifeline while appearing to embrace reform. A May 1 executive order expands and sharpens longstanding American sanctions on Cuba, and appears to deliberately target a recent gesture at partially opening the Cuban economy. “All property and interests in property that are in the United States,” the order says, are barred from operating “in the energy, defense and related materiel, metals and mining, financial services, or security sector of the Cuban economy, or any other sector of the Cuban economy,” under the penalty of economic sanctions.
On March 16, in a bid for survival, the communist government of Cuba had announced a series of intended though vaguely executed reforms that would allow foreign investment in the island from Cubans living overseas. The reforms were to include a supposed expansion of private property rights. Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga said that the country was “open to maintaining a fluid commercial relationship with U.S. companies.”
Asked by email if the May 1 order was a deliberate response to the March 16 Cuban announcement, a State Department spokesman referred The Federalist to comments made on April 27 by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants. In a long discussion with Fox News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst, Rubio rejected the possibility of reform under the current Cuban government, describing Cuba as “a failed state.”
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British maritime risk management group Vanguard said authorities would investigate whether the damage might have been caused by an attack, a drifting sea mine or another external object.
In response to the incident, South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said on Tuesday it had asked Korean vessels in the area to move to safer locations and said authorities were in close communications with shipping companies and stranded vessels.
The South Korean government has said 26 South Korean-flagged vessels were stranded around the Strait of Hormuz.
In a post on the Truth Social platform, Trump said Iran had fired shots at the ship and other targets as the US launched an operation seeking to open the Strait of Hormuz to shipping.
He suggested it could be time for South Korea to join his new effort to help guide stranded ships through the waterway typically used to carry about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.
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Authorities are still investigating the reasons of the explosion, with negligence being suspected as a likely cause. Officials warned that the death toll is likely to climb as search and rescue operations continue.
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Bengaluru, India – In the sultry August heat of 2007, India’s government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was sweating over the future of negotiations with the United States over a landmark nuclear deal. The proposed agreement aimed to ease access to nuclear fuel and technology in exchange for greater international scrutiny of India’s facilities.
The problem? India’s communists – suspicious of the US – were opposed to the deal. And they were India’s kingmakers.
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Vladimir Putin has threatened Kyiv with his most massive strike of the war if Ukrainian drones disrupt his major military parade in Moscow on Saturday. His defence ministry warned that civilians and diplomats should leave the city promptly if Volodymyr Zelensky attacks the Red Square showpiece, citing a rapid and massive retaliatory missile strike.
The Russian warning implies a hit by the hypersonic Oreshnik missile, which Putin boasts has the power of a full nuclear explosion even in its conventional mode. Putin said previously that using several such systems at once would be comparable in strength to a nuclear strike. His favourite newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda, warned today that Oreshnik also has a nuclear configuration.
Vladimir Putin has threatened Kyiv with the most massive strike of the war if Ukrainian drones disrupt his major military parade in Moscow this Saturday. His defence ministry warned that civilians and diplomats should leave the city promptly if Volodymyr Zelensky attacks the Red Square showpiece, citing a rapid and massive retaliatory missile strike.
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The U.S. military on Monday denied claims that Iran struck a U.S. Navy vessel as American forces now offer to guide commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, where hundreds have been stuck since the Iran war began. Tehran has blocked vessels that don’t receive its authorization.
Iranian news agencies, including the semiofficial agency Fars and the Iranian Labour News Agency, claimed that Iran had struck a U.S. vessel near an Iranian port southeast of the strait, accusing it of “violating maritime security and navigation norms.” The reports said the vessel was forced to turn back.
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As May 2026 unfolds, the world’s attention is fixed on a high-stakes diplomatic theater. By mid-May, President Donald Trump is slated for a pivotal two-day state visit to Beijing. This visit comes at a time when the Middle East is on a knife-edge.
The geopolitical landscape is defined by a grueling stalemate: the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed by Iran in retaliation initially for the U.S.-Israeli air strikes, and now a persistent U.S. naval blockade that has strangled the Iranian economy for weeks.
While indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran continue via Pakistani and Omani mediators, the “ground truth” remains volatile. Despite a shaky ceasefire, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps continues to broadcast defiance, signaling no intention of dismantling its nuclear enrichment facilities or its sophisticated ballistic missile program. At this critical juncture, the question isn’t just whether Trump can negotiate with Iran, but whether he can leverage China to force Tehran’s hand.
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A federal judge openly apologized in court to the man accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump after defense attorneys raised concerns about his treatment inside a Washington, D.C., jail.
During a May 4 hearing, Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui, who donated to Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign, questioned jail officials about the “conditions” facing defendant Cole Tomas Allen.
Allen is being held ahead of trial on attempted assassination charges.