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A group of Senate Democrats are investigating an early March attack on U.S. troops stationed in Kuwait, where six service members were killed and another 20 were injured amid the U.S. war with Iran. The four Democrats – Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) – all members of…
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During the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, a 26-year-old company commander’s unit was pinned down by a fortified hilltop. After frontal assaults failed, the junior officer made an extraordinary request: an entire battalion, four times the size of his own unit, for a jungle flanking maneuver. The regimental commander agreed. The surprise assault broke the Vietnamese defense. This company commander’s pedigree was as formidable as his tactics: His father was a founding general who had just retired as head of the Chinese military’s General Logistics Department.
Five years later, that same officer commanded the regiment tasked with the main assault at the Battle of Laoshan, the largest engagement of the Sino-Vietnamese border war. His attack plan, the military’s first complete infantry-artillery coordination plan since the Cultural Revolution, required massed artillery support far exceeding what any single regimental commander could normally secure. During a massive counterattack, his regiment held the line against six enemy regiments. His competence was real. So was the informal network of guanxi — the entrenched personal connections and reciprocal obligations — that put him in a position to demonstrate it.
The officer was Zhang Youxia. In January 2026, nearly half a century after his triumph in Vietnam, he became the most senior general to fall in General Secretary Xi Jinping’s unprecedented purge.
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LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff said Tuesday that he made a “serious mistake” by recommending Peter Mandelson be made U.K. ambassador to the United States, but denied interfering with the appointment process.
Morgan McSweeney told lawmakers on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that it had been “a serious error of judgment” to back Mandelson. The committee is investigating how Mandelson, a scandal-tainted friend of Jeffrey Epstein, was given the key diplomatic job despite failing security checks.
McSweeney said that “the prime minister relied on my advice, and I got it wrong.” He apologized to Epstein’s victims, saying “I am sorry for any part this controversy has played in causing further hurt or distress.”
McSweeney’s testimony came as Starmer faced more heat Tuesday over the appointment, with lawmakers set to vote on whether the U.K. leader should be investigated by a parliamentary standards watchdog over the ill-fated decision.
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The National Trust for Historic Preservation declined to end a lawsuit blocking President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche used a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to call on the litigation to be dropped.
“I write to acknowledge receipt of your letter requesting that the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States (“National Trust”) dismiss the above-captioned lawsuit,” National Trust senior counsel Gregory B. Craig confirmed to Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate in a letter on Monday. “The National Trust respectfully declines the invitation to dismiss.”
“The National Trust’s filings have repeatedly insisted that any injunction on ballroom construction nonetheless permit work to continue on the below-ground bunker construction you have represented to the Court is necessary to preserve national security,” the letter continued. “What Saturday’s awful event does not change is that the Constitution and multiple federal statutes require Congress to authorize construction of a ballroom on White House grounds, and that Congress has not done so.”
“Equally clear is that nothing in this lawsuit puts the personal safety of the President, his family, or his staff in any jeopardy. Indeed, after reviewing multiple secret security submissions by your office, the court concluded that the absence of a White House ballroom is not a matter of national security permitting those federal laws to be ignored.”
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A Wisconsin teacher was placed on leave following controversial comments in which he said he was “not impressed with recent presidential assassins.”
Kaukauna High School social studies teacher Patrick Meyer suggested that the four men who successfully assassinated a U.S. president — John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz and, Lee Harvey Oswald — must be rolling over in their graves after recent failed attempts to kill a president.
“I am not impressed with recent presidential assassins. It’s f—ing embarrassing! Booth, Guiteau, Czolgosz, Oswald must all be spinning in their graves! MAGAA (make Americans great assassins again)! Sad!” Meyer said in a since-deleted post on X, appearing to mock President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again, or MAGA, slogan.
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Cryopreservation, the process of preserving biological tissue by cooling it to extremely low temperatures, often sounds like something out of science fiction. In reality, scientists have been studying and refining this technique for nearly a century. Progress remained slow for decades, but that began to change in 2023, when researchers at the University of Minnesota successfully transplanted a cryopreserved kidney into another rat. That milestone demonstrated that frozen organs could one day be used in human transplants.
Despite that progress, preserving larger organs remains a major hurdle. One of the biggest problems is cracking, which can occur when tissues are cooled too quickly. These fractures can damage the organ and make it unusable, making crack prevention a critical goal for advancing organ preservation and transplantation.
A team at Texas A&M University, led by Dr. Matthew Powell-Palm from the J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, has introduced a new approach aimed at addressing this issue. Their research outlines a method that could reduce the likelihood of cracking during cryopreservation.
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Imagine an America where factories hum again, jobs return to towns long left behind, and the heartbeat of industry pulses stronger than it has in years.
Under President Donald J. Trump, that vision is becoming reality.
Democrats spent years pushing a narrative that manufacturing’s decline was inevitable, a so-called Trump Effect they blamed on him while their own policies accelerated the bleeding. Trump has ended that lie. American manufacturing is surging back, and the numbers prove it.
Republicans must recognize this triumph, especially now, as midterm season unfolds. They should defend it fiercely, for Democrats’ woke leftist base would dismantle every gain with vindictive speed if handed power again.
Manufacturing is expanding for the third straight month. Its key index posted the highest reading since 2022. New orders are rising for the third consecutive month as both American and overseas buyers seek U.S.-made products. Production has grown for five months running and is accelerating at a pace unseen before the disastrous Biden-Harris era. The Philadelphia Fed’s Manufacturing Index surged in April, beating forecasts.
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President Donald Trump continues to prioritize the passage of the SAVE America Act, keeping election integrity at the forefront in Washington. However, states are not waiting for Congress to act. Across the country, this shift has been building for years, and it is becoming harder to ignore.
The SAVE America Act should be passed because it aligns federal elections with the direction states are already taking.
Florida offers one of the clearest examples. Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed a state-level measure requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and directing officials to verify applicants using existing data systems. The approach mirrors what the SAVE America Act would do at the federal level. DeSantis said the law would “strengthen the security, transparency, and reliability of Florida’s election system.”
Florida is not alone. In Mississippi, Governor Tate Reeves signed the SHIELD Act, which requires officials to verify citizenship when individuals register to vote, including checks against federal databases and regular audits of voter rolls. Reeves called it “another win for election integrity” and made clear that the state intends to keep strengthening its system.
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HOPELESS Russian soldiers are reportedly shooting down their own drones and then disguising them as Ukrainian aircraft so they can claim battle bonuses.
It comes as horror claims emerge that Vladimir Putin’s soldiers are turning to cannibalism as they run low on provisions.
Russians shoot down their own drones due to coordination failures and administrative confusion, United24 Media reported.
But Mad Vlad’s desperate lads are then pretending to have taken down Ukrainian drones so that they can claim cash rewards.
Pro-Russian media describe the situation as a “time bomb”, expressing fears that nearly all of Putin’s drones could soon come under attack from his own hapless soldiers.
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Monday morning, First Lady Melania Trump urged ABC to pull the plug on late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel in her first public statement reacting to his badly timed “joke” referring to her as “an expectant widow.”
The First Lady, along with President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and other top administration officials had to be evacuated from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., Saturday night, when 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, stormed a security checkpoint armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, a .38-caliber handgun, and multiple knives.
The suspect, who had booked a room at the hotel, fired at least one shot during an exchange with law enforcement before being tackled and apprehended near the ballroom entrance. One Secret Service agent was struck in the chest but sustained no serious injury due to a bullet-resistant vest; there were no other injuries.
Attendees, including journalists and Cabinet members, ducked under tables as Secret Service agents secured the area. Trump later stated he was instructed to go down on the floor and was escorted out, appearing to crawl during the evacuation.
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The Iraqi President Nizar Amedi has named Ali al-Zaidi as prime minister-designate, and tasked him with forming a government, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Iraq has reported.
Al-Zaidi was named earlier on Monday as the candidate of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of Shia parties that has a majority in parliament.
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A New Hampshire lawmaker has formally left the Democrats and registered as a Republican, citing a growing divide between his personal views and the direction of the party.
State Rep. Dale Girard, who also serves as mayor of Claremont, announced the switch in a public statement.
The politician confirmed that he changed his party affiliation at City Hall.
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The shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night has renewed the fervor of another debate raging in the nation’s capital.
On Sunday morning, President Trump made a post on Truth Social renewing his call to complete the White House ballroom, a project that has been halted due to an ongoing lawsuit.
‘The White House ballroom is essential for the safety and security of the president, his family, his Cabinet, and his staff.’
Trump argued that the shooting over the weekend demonstrates why the president needs a secure venue to host large events.
“What happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE,” Trump wrote. “This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!”
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The Israeli military began carrying out strikes in eastern Lebanon on Monday, expanding the scope of its bombing campaign during a ceasefire that has failed to fully halt hostilities with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
The strikes on Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley marked the first time the area has been hit since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire came into force on April 16, which significantly reduced the pace of attacks without entirely stopping the exchanges of fire.
Israel has continued to carry out strikes across southern Lebanon, and its troops are occupying a strip of the country’s south, destroying homes they claim as infrastructure being used by Hezbollah. The Iran-backed group, meanwhile, has kept up its drone and rocket attacks against Israeli troops in Lebanon and on northern Israel.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a new congressional redistricting map on Monday that could net the Republican Party four more seats in the House of Representatives.
Republicans currently hold 20 of the Sunshine State’s 28 seats, so if the new map is approved, it could increase to 24.
DeSantis told Fox News, “Florida got shortchanged in the 2020 Census, and we’ve been fighting for fair representation ever since. Our population has since grown dramatically, and we have moved from a Democrat majority to a 1.5 million Republican advantage. Drawing maps based on race, which is reflected in our current congressional districts, is unconstitutional and should be prohibited.”
“Our new map for 2026 makes good on my promise to conduct mid-decade redistricting, and it more fairly represents the makeup of Florida today,” DeSantis added.
Partisan lean of new Florida congressional districts:
FL09: 🔴 Trump + 17.7
FL14: 🔴 Trump + 10.5
FL22: 🔴 Trump + 10.5
FL25: 🔴 Trump + 9.1 https://t.co/CHL6rFGJIA pic.twitter.com/AIAEYhAUkG— OSZ (@OpenSourceZone) April 27, 2026
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President Donald Trump is trying to clear the field of several Indiana Republican state senators who previously opposed a congressional redistricting map by endorsing their challengers in the upcoming May 5 primary election.
In December, 21 Republican state senators joined their Democrat colleagues to block a redrawn congressional map that would have strengthened the GOP’s control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
‘Anybody that votes against Redistricting, and the SUCCESS of the Republican Party in D.C., will be, I am sure, met with a MAGA Primary in the Spring.’
The new map, which would have created two more Republican-leaning congressional districts, failed in the state Senate in a 31-19 vote.
Trump issued a warning to Republican state senators ahead of the vote, cautioning those who planned to block the map.
“Anybody that votes against Redistricting, and the SUCCESS of the Republican Party in D.C., will be, I am sure, met with a MAGA Primary in the Spring,” Trump wrote, adding that he would “do everything within my power to make sure that they will not hurt the Republican Party, and our Country, again.
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A Wisconsin brewery owner and former Democratic candidate is facing intense backlash after publicly rooting for the assassination of President Donald Trump in the immediate aftermath of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The incident, which forced the evacuation of President Donald Trump and senior officials, has reignited concerns about the real-world consequences of escalating political rhetoric, concerns only amplified by the reaction from Kirk Bangstad, owner of Minocqua Brewing Company.
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We’re almost to the end of April, and the liberals at PolitiFact have still not found one single Democrat utterance that is tagged “Mostly False” or worse in 2026. Instead, they’re rushing to defense of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in the aftermath of the Correspondents Dinner shooting. Amy Sherman’s article on Monday was headlined:
Hakeem Jeffries ‘maximum warfare’ comment was about redistricting, not a call to violence
None of the conservatives who raised the Jeffries use of “maximum warfare” were punished on the “Truth-O-Meter,” but Sherman made a list of “out of context” quotes:
“I heard Hakeem Jeffries say this week ‘its maximum warfare all the time,’” CNN conservative pundit Scott Jennings said April 26. “We have a violent streak on the left and a rhetoric problem on the left.”
The Republican National Committee responded on X to Jeffries condemning political violence on a Sunday political show, sharing a clip of his “maximum warfare” remark and asking if he will “apologize and condemn this type of violent rhetoric.”
Republican Reps. Andrew Clyde of Georgia and Randy Fine of Florida also criticized Jeffries’ comment, while Tim Young, a conservative pundit, said Jeffries “caused” this.
While Jeffries used those words, the soundbite lacks larger context.
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In a press conference minutes after the attack at the White House Correspondents Dinner, Trump took a more conciliatory tone towards the media, whom he has previously dubbed the “enemy of the people.”
But Leavitt, who was on stage with Trump at the dinner when the incident happened, said there had been “systemic demonisation” of the 79-year-old president.
“Nobody in recent years has faced more bullets and more violence than President Trump,” said Leavitt, who returned from maternity leave to host the briefing at the White House.
“Those who constantly, falsely label and slander the president as a fascist, as a threat to democracy, and compare him to Hitler to score political points, are fueling this kind of violence,” she added.
