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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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In a new Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, Trump’s approval ratings sink deeper into the abyss on almost every issue, including the economy, cost of living, inflation and the Iran war.
“Trump’s overall approval now stands at 37 percent, largely the same as the 39 percent figure in February. But his disapproval has reached 62 percent, the highest of his two terms in office.”
Republicans overall still support him, but Republicans that lean independent, and Independents alone continues to crater.
He is oblivious to the suffering of the people in this country and no AI generated plan by Republicans to try to save the midterm elections will save him. Redistricting won’t save them either.
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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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President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans are quietly exploring whether Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) could be pulled away from the Democrats, as tensions between the Pennsylvania lawmaker and his own party continue to surface.
According to a report, GOP officials believe that even if Republicans were to lose several Senate seats in November, flipping Fetterman could help them maintain control of the chamber.
President Trump has reportedly made a direct pitch, offering his full endorsement along with potential financial backing if Fetterman were to switch sides.
At the same time, several Senate Republicans have begun engaging with Fetterman more informally, testing whether he might be open to distancing himself from Democrats.
Despite the outreach, Fetterman publicly pushed back.
“I’m not changing,” he said.
“I’m a Democrat, and I’m staying one.”
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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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There has been an interesting theory floating around that one of the reasons Donald Trump improved his standing with voters age 18-34 in 2024 was that the youngest among that age group were not old enough to remember how bad the first Trump term was, thus, they were susceptible to Trump’s campaign style of lies and promises that will never come true.
After getting the full Trump treatment for a year plus of his second administration, those voters have come back to Democrats in a big way.
Politico reported on a new poll of young voters from the nonpartisan Generation Lab:
It shows young Americans planning to vote Democratic in November by a margin of 52 percent to 19 percent. Broken down by party, the data indicates that the GOP has a significant base problem: Just 58 percent of young Republicans say they’ll vote GOP — with nearly a third selecting “neither” or “won’t vote.” By contrast, 85 percent of young Democrats intend to show up for their party at the ballot box.
Just as in 2024, deep discontent with the state of the economy is driving anger at the party in power. Now, 81 percent of young Americans rate U.S. economic conditions as bad or terrible — including 68 percent of Republicans. The younger the age bracket, the more optimism diminishes.
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The federal government paid out more than $338,000 to settle allegations of sexual harassment on behalf of House members or their offices since 2004 — far more than had been previously known — according to Rep. Nancy Mace and a person granted anonymity to describe data provided to the House Oversight Committee.
The panel subpoenaed the information detailing the government payouts after a March committee vote, seeking a full accounting of secret payouts made before the settlements were ended in 2018. Some of the payments have been previously reported, but not all.
Mace (R-S.C.) released a list of offices that had been implicated in the settlements, including former Reps. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) and Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) — all of whom have been previously publicly implicated in misconduct.
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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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Tuesday morning, President Trump did a brief telephone interview with Joe Kernen of CNBC’s Squawk Box. The subject was Trump’s prognosis for how the negotiations would proceed.
President Trump doesn’t seem to have high hopes. He points out that even though the Iranian leadership has stated it would not attend the new round of negotiations in Islamabad, it is participating, so long as the U.S. continues to blockade Iranian ports. Trump did not back off (see VIDEO: USS Spruance Lights Up Iranian Blockade Runner in a Formidable Demonstration of FAFO – RedState) and yet here we are. He frames their attendance as being under duress, “[T]hey just got the okay to go forward, which I knew they were going to do anyway. I mean, I don’t think they had a choice. They have to negotiate.”
Trump lays out a stark choice for Iran: “And you know, the one thing I’ll say is this: Iran can get themselves in very good footing. If they make a deal, they can make themselves into a strong nation again, a wonderful nation again. They have incredible people, but they seem to be, you know, bloodthirsty. They’re led by some very, very unfortunately tough people. And I don’t mean tough in a good way. I think it’s very negative for the country because we’re much tougher than they are — like not even close. But they have to use reason and they have to use common sense, and they can get themselves into a great position to make themselves into a great country, but a legitimate country, not a country based on death and horror.”
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Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley: The ship the U.S. seized in the Strait of Hormuz this weekend was headed from China to Iran and is linked to chemical shipments for missiles. It refused repeated orders to stop. Another reminder that China is helping prop up Iran’s regime—a reality that can’t be ignored (Haley).
Wall Street Journal: The Iranian cargo ship seized by U.S. forces in the Gulf of Oman this weekend is part of a fleet that often sails to China, one of Tehran’s most important backers—and includes vessels that have been accused of transporting chemicals for Iran’s ballistic-missile program. The ship, the MV Touska, visited the southern China port of Zhuhai twice in the six weeks before it was intercepted Sunday on its way to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, according to shipping analysts. The Touska ignored six hours of warnings from the USS Spruance, a guided-missile destroyer, according to the Pentagon
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An Iranian tanker called “Silly City” successfully reached the country’s waters despite a naval blockade and threats from a US Navy task force. According to reports from local media, the vessel reached a southern Iranian port overnight after passing through the Arabian Sea with full security and operational support from Iran’s navy.
“Despite numerous warnings and threats from the US Navy Fleet Group, the Iranian oil tanker Silly City, with the operational support of the Iranian Navy and in full safety, entered Iran’s territorial waters last night after crossing the Arabian Sea,” the Iranian military said in a statement on Tuesday.
Shipping industry intelligence site Lloyd’s List reported that more than 20 Iranian so-called “shadow vessels” had transited past the US blockade
The Strait of Hormuz in peacetime sees around 120 daily transits, according to the site.
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“Awesome,” Murphy said as he shared an article headlined “At least 26 Iranian shadow fleet vessels bypass US blockade.”
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy is cheering for the United States to fail in Iran because he hates the president. “Awesome,” Murphy said as he shared an article headlined “At least 26 Iranian shadow fleet vessels bypass US blockade.”
“A Democrat Senator is now publicly rooting for Iran. Did ActBlue start accepting donations from the regime’s oil revenue?” Said Montana Senator Tim Sheehy.
“The Democrats are rooting for Iran—literally,” said commentator Batya Ungar-Sargon. “Senator Chris Murphy may be the most psychotic example of this, but he is the apotheosis of a vibe that is utterly pervasive in the anti-Trump Left and Right. Donald Trump has a super-power: He exposes the most despicable qualities in his opponents, revealing them to be utterly beneath contempt.”
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The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
A former top Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday he had faced “constant pressure” from U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office to speed up the process to install his pick as U.S. ambassador, deepening a row that threatens the British leader.
A war of words over who should ultimately take the blame for appointing Labour veteran Peter Mandelson to Britain’s highest diplomatic post despite his past history and known ties to late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has piled pressure on Starmer, prompting calls by critics for him to quit.
Starmer has said he was “wrong” to appoint Mandelson to the role and has expressed regret, but on Monday put the blame firmly on officials for failing to tell him that a security vetting body had advised against his appointment — something, he added, would have stopped him from employing the new ambassador.
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TOKYO — Japan on Tuesday scrapped a ban on lethal weapons exports, a major change in its postwar pacifist policy as the country seeks to build up its arms industry amid worries over Chinese and North Korean aggression.
The approval by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Cabinet of the new guideline clears a final set of hurdles for many arms sales, including of a next-generation fighter jet and combat drones.
China criticized the change in policy, but it has been largely welcomed by Japanese defense partners like Australia and attracted interest from Southeast Asia and Europe.
Opponents say the change violates Japan’s pacifist constitution and will increase global tensions and threaten the safety of the Japanese people.
The new policy will “ensure safety for Japan and further contribute to the peace and stability in the region and the international society as the security environment around our country rapidly changes,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters. “The government will strategically promote defense equipment transfers to create a security environment that is desirable for Japan and to build up the industrial base that can support fighting resilience.”
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ŠIAULIAI AIR BASE, Lithuania — NATO intercepted Russian strategic bombers and fighter jets that flew over the Baltic Sea on Monday, a muscular display of air power on the alliance’s eastern flank away from the spotlight on the Middle East.
French Rafale fighters were deployed from a Lithuanian air base where they are stationed as part of a decades-long NATO air-policing effort. The fighters armed with air-to-air missiles joined jets from Sweden, Finland, Poland, Denmark and Romania. They all took to the skies to inspect and keep watch on the Russian flight, the French detachment said.
The Russian mission included two supersonic Tu-22M3s, as well as about 10 fighters — both SU-30s and SU-35s — that took turns escorting the larger strategic bombers, according to the statement.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the long-range bombers’ flight was scheduled and occurred in airspace over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea. The flight took more than four hours, the ministry said Monday on Telegram.
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An Indiana school counselor who was fired after discussing the district’s policy regarding “gender identity” with a reporter was awarded a $195,000 payout as part of a lawsuit settlement.
Kathy McCord, who has been an educator for 37 years, was dismissed after the South Madison Community School Corporation unveiled the new policy in August 2021.
The policy said that counselors and other employees were required to use “names and pronouns for the student that do not correspond with his or her sex” upon request of that student, according to a Wednesday release from Alliance Defending Freedom.
The policy sometimes “required employees to hide the new names and pronouns from parents,” the legal advocacy group said.
🚨HUGE WIN: Indiana counselor Kathy McCord—FIRED for refusing to hide students’ gender identity from parents—just WON a $200K settlement.
The district is paying up. The policy is DEAD.
Parents—not the state—are in charge of their kids. 👏https://t.co/bcCVg0wdPA
— American Principles Project (@approject) April 16, 2026
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Donald Trump may be considering a deal to allow Iran to continue nuclear enrichment in 10 years(Image: Pool/ABACA/Shutterstock)
Donald Trump is reported to be weighing up an option allowing Iran to resume uranium enrichment in a decade.
The US president has offered shifting reasons for the war in Iran but has consistently said a primary objective is ensuring the country will “never have a nuclear weapon”.
Iran has 440.9kg of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency.
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Hill Republican leaders are finding themselves in a never-ending crisis over the fate of a government spy law that has unleashed a bitter, intraparty battle within the House while also threatening to derail a host of other GOP priorities.
Republicans now have scant legislative days to build new plans to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. But President Donald Trump, GOP leaders and White House officials have failed to come up with a workable framework for months — and there is no agreement yet on the path forward.
Some House Republicans hope they’re in the final stages of massaging a multi-year extension that would incorporate some minor changes intended to pacify privacy hawks. Others are already predicting they’ll face the same internal schisms come April 30, when the current short-term extension runs out.
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The leftist Supreme Court justices are facing accusations that they literally put their conservative colleagues’ lives at risk because they were so beholden to Roe v. Wade and abortion on demand.
Liberal Supreme Court justices slow-walked completion of their dissents in the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, according to a new book.
They delayed its official release for 53 days even as the five conservative justices in the majority faced death threats and assassination attempts following the leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.
That’s according to a new report on Mollie Hemingway’s forthcoming book.
The May 2, 2022, leak of the 98-page draft to Politico triggered protests outside the homes of conservative justices, vandalism and arson at hundreds of pregnancy centers, churches and pro-life organizations, and an assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh and potentially the other conservative justices.
“Abortion supporters had an incentive to kill one or more of the justices in the majority to change the outcome,” Hemingway wrote in Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution. “Everyone knew that the leak posed a serious security risk for justices. Since decisions do not take effect until issued officially from the bench, the death of a justice before then could alter the result. The threat of assassination increased dramatically.”
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Chaos erupted in Wisconsin on Saturday.
On Saturday, nearly 1,000 animal rights activists attempted to storm a research facility in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin.
The research facility that the animal activists attempted to storm is home to a beagle breeding facility that has used some questionable research methods.
In response to the activists descending on the research grounds, authorities deployed pepper spray and rubber bullets.
Take a look:
Over 1,000 animal-rights activists assaulting Ridglan Farms again today, and getting tear gassed/rubber bullets by Dane County Sheriff.
News link: https://t.co/xDeBVovWUQ pic.twitter.com/PvvVJHGHDi— Dan Lennington (@DanLennington) April 18, 2026
Waves of tear gas: Peaceful animal lovers are being tear gassed, pepper sprayed, and fired at with rubber bullets at Ridglan Farms. At least a dozen activists have been arrested. Hundreds of others are on the property now trying to rescue the dogs. pic.twitter.com/7JYg8S2XhP
— Wayne Hsiung (@waynehhsiung) April 18, 2026
AP reported more on the incident:
About 1,000 animal welfare activists who tried to gain entry Saturday to a beagle breeding and research facility in Wisconsin were turned back by police who fired rubber bullets and pepper spray into the crowd and arrested the group’s leader.
It was the second attempt in as many months by protesters to take beagles from the Ridglan Farms facility in Blue Mounds, a small town about 25 miles (about 40 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Madison.
Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett, said in a video statement that 300 to 400 protesters were “violently trying to break into the property” and assault officers. He said protesters have ignored designated areas for peaceful protest and blocked roads to prevent emergency vehicles from entering.
“This is not a peaceful protest,” Barrett said.
The sheriff’s department said a “significant” number of people were arrested out of about 1,000 protesters at the site but did not give an exact total as they were still being processed as of the afternoon.
Protesters tried to overcome barricades that included a manure-filled trench, hay bales and a barbed-wire fence. Some protesters did get through the fence but were unable to enter the facility, where an estimated 2,000 beagles are kept, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
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On Saturday’s The Weekend: Primetime, MS NOW hosts Antonia Hylton and Charles Coleman Jr. combined for a remarkable escalation—from stylistic nitpicking to smearing an entire group of Christians as extremists.
After opening with a polished aside about Trump’s recent use of “God is good,” which she said had not previously been part of his ‘linguistic repertoire,’” Hylton quickly pivoted to a jaw-dropping—and wholly unsupported—claim: that Trump is surrounded by religious advisers who are “telling him that he is God,” or effectively God’s representative on Earth.
Hylton offered no evidence for the assertion, presenting it instead as her personal “read” based on following “extremist” Christian figures. But she didn’t name a single adviser making such a claim—let alone anyone literally telling Trump he is God.
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Data released by Pew Research shows that 9 percent of all US births in 2023 were to those that were here in the US illegally, or in the country temporarily.
Children born to illegal immigrant parents in the US were nearly 10 percent of all new births in the US in 2023, according to new data. The figures were published about data that came during the Biden administration, which had lax border policies.
New data released by Pew Research shows that 9 percent of all US births in 2023 were to those who were here in the US illegally, or in the country temporarily. The Supreme Court is currently considering the legality of an order from President Donald Trump that would restrict birthright citizenship from some of those born to foreign nationals in the US.
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Keir Starmer has ordered an investigation into any security concerns relating to Peter Mandelson’s tenure as UK ambassador to the US as he gave his side of events in a politically crucial statement in parliament.
“I know many members across the house will find these facts to be incredible,” Starmer told jeering MPs, after setting out how the Foreign Office opted to overrule the initial decision to refuse Mandelson’s security vetting without informing him and other ministers.
He said: “To that I can only say they are right. Throughout the whole timeline of events, officials in the Foreign Office saw fit to withhold this information from the most senior ministers in our system in government. That is not how the vast majority of people in this country expect politics, government or accountability to work, and I do not think it’s how most public servants think it should work either.”
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President Trump had criticized the pope on April 12 following remarks Leo made about ongoing global conflicts.
Vice President JD Vance responded to Pope Leo XIV’s comments downplaying the divide between him and President Donald Trump, after the pontiff called the reporting of the situation inaccurate.
Leo addressed the issue Saturday while speaking to reporters aboard the papal plane during a trip from Cameroon to Angola as part of an 11-day tour of Africa.
“There’s been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects, but because of the political situation created when, on the first day of the trip, the president of the United States made some comments about myself,” Leo said. “Much of what has been written since then has been more commentary on commentary, trying to interpret what has been said.”