Nearly two dozen people were injured, including War Department employees, when two commuter buses crashed head-on at the Pentagon Metro Station Friday morning.
Authorities said that 18 people were transported to the hospital to get evaluated after the crash, and five people were treated on the scene, according to ABC&#8217;s <a href="https://wjla.com/news/local/buses-collide-head-on-pentagon-arlington-washington-dc-bus-crash-injuries-fairfax-county-connector-omni-ride-south-parking-lot-bus-terminal">7News DC</a>. Ten of those injured in the crash were War Department employees, authorities said. The crash occurred at around 7:20 a.m. ET at the south parking lot of the Pentagon Metro Station.
The buses were traveling at low speed, and most of the injuries were minor, but at least one passenger was taken to a trauma center with more serious injuries, 7News reported.
Video footage showed one of the buses driving on the left side of the road as the other bus approaches.
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Officials asked commuters to take alternate routes to the Pentagon as first responders and investigators remain on the scene.
The buses involved in the crash were an OmniRide bus and a Fairfax Connector transit bus.
This is a developing story and will be updated.

Pentagon Bus Crash

WATCH: Buses Crash Head-On Near Pentagon, Department Of War Personnel Injured

Car Crash

Department of War

Pentagon

U.S.

Washington D.C.

Two teenagers, including an 18-year-old girl, were arrested earlier this week and charged with plotting a major attack on one of the largest Jewish synagogues in Houston.
Authorities arrested 18-year-old Angelina Han Hicks of Lexington, North Carolina, on Wednesday and accused her of planning to &#8220;kill as many Jews as possible&#8221; in an attack on Congregation Beth Israel in Houston, the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-texas-synagogue-attack-plot-387b32d268fb0cd71c9415c418856a96">reported</a>. Hicks is accused of plotting the attack alongside two &#8220;male subjects.&#8221; The conspirators planned to murder Jewish worshipers by driving a vehicle through the synagogue on April 21, 2028, according to court documents.
It appears that one of the other alleged co-conspirators was also arrested earlier this week. The Houston Police Department announced on Thursday that a 16-year-old was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit capital murder in relation to &#8220;a threat directed towards certain Jewish institutions in our area.&#8221;
The Houston Police did not say the 16-year-old was arrested for a planned attack on Congregation Beth Israel specifically, but authorities in Texas&#8217; largest city said they learned about the threat on the same day Hicks was taken into custody in North Carolina. Court documents identified Hicks&#8217; alleged co-conspirators as &#8220;Teegan&#8221; and &#8220;Angel,&#8221; the Houston Chronicle <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/religion/article/houston-beth-israel-arrest-22221195.php">reported</a>.
Congregation Beth Israel, which also runs a school for pre-K through 5th graders, closed on Wednesday &#8220;out of an abundance of caution&#8221; after Houston police alerted the synagogue&#8217;s leadership to the threat. The synagogue reopened on Thursday.
The FBI <a href="https://x.com/FBICharlotte/status/2047385012278829223">said</a> that its Charlotte Joint Terrorism Task Force began investigating the alleged plot on Tuesday evening &#8220;after a tip to a North Carolina law enforcement agency.&#8221;
&#8220;This is an exceptional example of when you see something concerning, you say something to law enforcement,&#8221; the FBI added.
Hicks faces two felony charges of conspiracy to commit murder and felony conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon. Her bond was set to $10 million, with District Court Judge Carlton Terry saying on Wednesday that Hicks&#8217; detention is necessary to prevent her from getting &#8220;a chance to communicate with either of those [co-conspirators] or those who could relay a message puts lives at risk.&#8221; Hicks&#8217; lawyer said his client&#8217;s young age could be a major factor in her legal defense.
North Carolina prosecutors warned that while the alleged plot highlighted a date two years from now, there was &#8220;some concern that there could be an imminent event&#8221; targeting Congregation Beth Israel.
The arrests come as Jewish Americans face increased threats and just a month after a Muslim man in Michigan rammed his vehicle into the largest Jewish Reform synagogue in the United States in an attack that the Justice Department said was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/michigan-synagogue-terrorist-attack-was-directed-by-hezbollah-fbi-says">directed by Hezbollah</a>. Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old Lebanese national, was killed after exchanging gunfire with security guards at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan. One of the security guards was injured after he was struck by Ghazali’s vehicle, but no one else was harmed in the attack, which occurred near a daycare with dozens of children inside.

Jewish Synagogue/Angelina Han Hicks

Teens Arrested Over Plot To ‘Kill As Many Jews As Possible’ In Major Synagogue Attack

Anti-Semitism

Crime

Houston

Jewish

North Carolina

Texas

President Donald Trump commented on the federal charges facing the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) early Friday morning, arguing that the leftist group&#8217;s potential fraud &#8220;is another Democrat Hoax&#8221; that places the 2020 election results into doubt.
Trump made the comment in a <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116457972455781406">post</a> on Truth Social, marking the first time he has publicly addressed the allegations against the SPLC, which was charged earlier this week with multiple counts of wire fraud over its scheme to pay the leaders of multiple white supremacist groups in exchange for information.
&#8220;The Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the greatest political scams in American History, has been charged with FRAUD. This is another Democrat Hoax, along with Act Blue, and many others,&#8221; Trump wrote. &#8220;If it is true, the 2020 Presidential Election should be permanently wiped from the books and be of no further force or effect! Thank you for your attention to this matter.&#8221;
The SPLC, which started in the 1970s as an organization to push back against racism and segregation in the South, has been paying leaders of extremist groups for decades, according to an indictment unsealed by the Justice Department on Tuesday. The indictment states that the SPLC secretly used donor cash to pay so-called informants affiliated with racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, over $3 million between 2014 and 2023.
The SPLC is closely aligned with Democratic Party goals and talking points and has a political action fund that almost exclusively <a href="https://www.splcactionfund.org/endorsements/">endorses</a> Democrats in state and local elections in the South.
Between 2015 and 2023, the SPLC <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lefty-anti-hate-group-paid-white-supremacist-to-plan-infamous-charlottesville-rally-indictment">paid</a> a member of a white supremacist group that planned the &#8220;Unite the Right&#8221; rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, according to the indictment. The rally, which turned deadly when a man drove his car through a crowd of counter protesters, became the main reason behind former President Joe Biden&#8217;s 2020 election campaign. Biden pointed to the rally in his campaign announcement video, pinning blame on Trump and saying, “In that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime.”
The SPLC has also engaged in a campaign to label mainstream conservatives as &#8220;extremists&#8221; and has used its influence to pressure social media companies and the federal government to censor conservative voices. The SPLC was used as a resource by the FBI to identify extremists before FBI Director Kash Patel cut the bureau’s ties with the leftist organization last year.
In his post on Friday morning, Trump also called out Democratic Party fundraising platform ActBlue, which is under scrutiny over accusations that it allowed foreign contributions in American elections. Trump maintains that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election, which Biden won by over 70 electoral votes amid major controversy over mail-in ballots and ballot harvesting methods.

Donald Trump

Trump Hints At Major 2020 Move If SPLC Found Guilty Of Fraud

2020 Election

Democratic Party

Executive

Politics

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said on Wednesday that some lawmakers on the committee are in favor of a pardon for Jeffrey Epstein&#8217;s associate Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for Maxwell answering questions on her and Epstein&#8217;s sex trafficking scheme.
Maxwell appeared for a virtual deposition before the committee in February, but she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ghislaine-maxwell-will-only-testify-on-epstein-if-trump-gives-her-what-she-wants-lawyer-says?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Ghislaine+Maxwell+Will+Only+Testify+On+Epstein+If+Trump+Gives+Her+What+She+Wants%2C+Lawyer+Says">pled</a> the Fifth Amendment and said she would only testify on Epstein&#8217;s crimes if she was granted clemency. Maxwell&#8217;s demand has caused some debate in the Oversight Committee over a potential pardon, which would have to be granted by President Donald Trump.
“My committee’s split on that,” Comer told <a href="https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/04/22/congress/to-pardon-maxwell-or-not-00887823?nname=playbook&amp;nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&amp;nrid=5c65d8fa-b7c7-44e5-98d0-43e6086e71cd">POLITICO</a>. “I don’t speak for my committee.”
He did not name any of his colleagues who have voiced support for pardoning Maxwell, but he clarified that he is not on the side of lawmakers who want Trump to offer her the deal.
&#8220;I think it looks bad. Honestly, other than Epstein, the worst person in this whole investigation is Maxwell,&#8221; he said.
The lawmakers who support a pardon for the convicted sex trafficker appear to be on the Republican side of the aisle. Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said that Democrats are united in their opposition to a pardon for Maxwell.
“That would be a huge step backwards, and, quite frankly, so disrespectful to the survivors. She is a known abuser. She is a known liar,&#8221; Garcia said. “If the DOJ or Oversight Republicans are out there trying to negotiate some sort of pardon that is … not only a huge slap in the face to this investigation, to anyone, to the American public, it&#8217;s a part of a massive cover up.”
Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein acquire underage girls for sex, has been pushing for a pardon from Trump for nearly a year. The president was <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5541645-maxwell-pardon-trump-review/">asked</a> last October if he was considering a pardon for Maxwell and said he wasn&#8217;t aware that she had requested clemency. Trump added that he would &#8220;take a look at it&#8221; and &#8220;speak to the DOJ.&#8221;
After Maxwell refused to answer questions before the Oversight Committee in February, Trump was asked again if he would consider a pardon for her.
&#8220;It&#8217;s something I haven&#8217;t thought about,&#8221; he said again. &#8220;I&#8217;m allowed to do it, but it&#8217;s something I have not thought about.&#8221;
Last week, Maxwell&#8217;s lawyer, David Markus, told POLITICO that he remains optimistic that Maxwell will receive a pardon.
“I don’t know what the percentages are,” he said. “There’s a good chance and for good reason that she would get a pardon.”
Markus added that he has not yet spoken directly with the administration about Maxwell&#8217;s request.
&#8220;I don’t think now is the best time to do it, with everything going on,” he said, referring to the ongoing backlash to the Trump administration&#8217;s handling of the Epstein investigation. “We’re not on a full court press right now.”
The Oversight Committee, which has been conducting its own probe of the Epstein case, has interviewed multiple high-profile people connected to the convicted pedophile. Last month, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were grilled by the committee over their relationship with Epstein.
The Oversight Committee plans to interview Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in the coming weeks.

House Republicans/Ghislaine Maxwell

Behind Closed Doors, Some Top Republicans Want A Ghislaine Maxwell Pardon

Congress

Ghislaine Maxwell

House Oversight Committee

James Comer

Jeffrey Epstein

In the days following the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, rally, the Southern Poverty Law Center raged against PayPal for &#8220;essentially&#8221; becoming &#8220;the banking system for white nationalism.&#8221;
At the same time, the leftist group was secretly transferring donor cash into the pocket of a white supremacist leader who helped plan the racist event, according to an indictment revealed by the Justice Department on Tuesday.
In the days after the August 11, 2017, rally, which turned into a deadly affair, the SPLC urged PayPal to crack down on accounts linked to so-called hate groups. PayPal, which already had policies in place on preventing racist groups from using its platform to transfer money, took more action after the &#8220;Unite the Right&#8221; rally and agreed to cut off payments to 34 more accounts linked to the event.
&#8220;PayPal, one of the world’s largest online payment processors, was integral in raising money to orchestrate the event,&#8221; the SPLC <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/organizers-and-leaders-charlottesvilles-deadly-rally-raised-money-paypal/">stated</a> on its website in August 2017. &#8220;Organizers, speakers, and individual attendees relied on the platform to move funds in the run up to the ultimately deadly event.&#8221;
Keegan Hankes, analyst for the Southern Poverty Law Center, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/16/paypal-escalates-the-tech-industrys-war-on-white-supremacy/">told</a> The Washington Post at the time, &#8220;For the longest time, PayPal has essentially been the banking system for white nationalism. It’s a shame it took Charlottesville for them to take it seriously.&#8221;
On Tuesday, the SPLC was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lefty-anti-hate-group-paid-white-supremacist-to-plan-infamous-charlottesville-rally-indictment?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Lefty+%E2%80%98Anti-Hate%E2%80%99+Group+Paid+White+Supremacist+To+Plan+Infamous+Charlottesville+Rally%3A+Indictment">accused</a> of paying multiple people affiliated with extremist groups more than $3 million between 2014 and 2023 and hiding its activity behind bank accounts that were opened for &#8220;a series of fictitious entities.&#8221; One informant was paid more than $270,000 by the SPLC between 2015 and 2023 and had a major role in planning the &#8220;Unite the Right&#8221; rally in Charlottesville, according to the indictment.
The informant &#8220;made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees,” the indictment states, adding that the informant attended the rally &#8220;at the direction of the SPLC.&#8221;
A 32-year-old woman was killed near the rally, and 35 others were injured when a man drove his car through a crowd of counter-protesters. The &#8220;Unite the Right&#8221; event became a main talking point for Democrats as they sought to pin blame on President Donald Trump, who had just begun his first term as president seven months before. In 2019, Joe Biden announced the launch of his campaign for president, citing the racist Charlottesville rally as a leading factor behind his decision.
The indictment also states that over the past 12 years, the SPLC has paid members of white supremacist groups, including paying one person who fundraised for a neo-Nazi group around $1 million over a 20-year period.
“They use their donor network to raise money to purportedly dismantle violent extremist groups,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on Tuesday. “However, the Southern Poverty Law Center, used the money they raised from their donor network to actually pay the leadership of these very groups.”

The ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville

SPLC Raged At PayPal For Helping Fund Charlottesville Rally — While Bankrolling One Of Its Planners

Charlottesville

PayPal

White Supremacy

An informant who was paid by the Southern Poverty Law Center helped white supremacists plan the infamous &#8220;Unite the Right&#8221; rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, according to the Justice Department.
In an <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.almd.90264/gov.uscourts.almd.90264.1.0.pdf">indictment</a> made public on Tuesday, the SPLC stands accused of secretly using donors&#8217; money to pay leaders within racist groups. One of the SPLC&#8217;s informants was a member of the leadership team of a white supremacist group that planned the rally in Charlottesville, according to the Justice Department.
The informant, who was identified in the indictment as &#8220;field source 37&#8221; or &#8220;F-37,&#8221; was paid more than $270,000 by the SPLC between 2015 and 2023. The informant was part of a group chat created for those who were planning the &#8220;Unite the Right&#8221; rally, and the informant attended the rally &#8220;at the direction of the SPLC,&#8221; according to the department.
&#8220;F-37 made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees,&#8221; the indictment states.
The 2017 &#8220;Unite the Right&#8221; rally included a mix of alt-Right groups, including neo-Nazis and Klansmen. The rally turned deadly when a man drove his car through a crowd of counter protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 35 others. The rally and violence that ensued became a main talking point for Democrats who attempted to pin blame on President Donald Trump and Republicans.
Joe Biden pointed to the Charlottesville rally as the main reason for his decision to jump into the 2020 presidential election, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/11/27/1214460025/biden-uses-charlottesville-to-talk-about-political-violence-but-he-hasnt-been-th">saying</a> in his campaign announcement video, &#8220;In that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime.&#8221;
The indictment announced by the Justice Department this week provides multiple examples of how SPLC informants affiliated with extremist groups were paid more than $3 million between 2014 and 2023. The SPLC is also accused of hiding its activity behind bank accounts that were opened for &#8220;a series of fictitious entities&#8221; and making false statements about the bank accounts to keep the operation going.
One SPLC informant, identified as F-9, helped fundraise for the neo-Nazi group National Alliance. F-9 raked in more than $1 million from the SPLC over a 20-year period, according to the indictment.
Another informant, F-30, was secretly paid around $70,000 by the SPLC during a time period when the informant was also on the SPLC&#8217;s webpage that identifies groups and individuals that the SPLC labels as &#8220;extremist.&#8221; F-30 led the National Socialist Party of America and had previously led a faction of the white supremacist group Aryan Nation. The informant paid by the SPLC was also a former Klan member.
&#8220;In addition to directly paying leaders and others associated with the same violent extremist groups that the SPLC sought donations ostensibly to &#8216;dismantle,&#8217; the SPLC also used Fs to indirectly funnel money to other violent extremist group leaders,&#8221; the indictment states.
The SPLC is charged with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank, and one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
Many people on the Right have criticized the SPLC for lumping together white supremacists and neo-Nazis with mainstream conservatives. The SPLC was also used as a resource by the FBI to identify extremists before FBI Director Kash Patel cut the bureau&#8217;s ties with the leftist organization last year.

Lefty ‘Anti-Hate’ Group Paid White Supremacist To Plan Infamous Charlottesville Rally: Indictment

Department of Justice

The U.K. immigrant accused in the random killings of three people, including a Department of Homeland Security employee, was found dead in his Georgia jail cell Tuesday evening.
Authorities said that 26-year-old Olaolukitan Adon Abel, who was naturalized during former President Joe Biden’s administration, was found unresponsive by officials in his cell, according to the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. He was pronounced dead at the scene after authorities performed life-saving measures.
Officials have not released a cause of death as of Wednesday morning, but they do not suspect any foul play. Abel was found unresponsive by jail staff at 6:48 p.m. and was pronounced dead at 7:17 p.m., which was around the same time that a vigil was being held by family and friends of his victims, Fox 5 Atlanta <a href="https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/shooting-spree-suspect-found-dead-dekalb-county-jail">reported</a>.
&#8220;In accordance with agency policy, a standard internal review has been initiated to examine the circumstances surrounding this incident,&#8221; DeKalb County Sheriff Sheriff Melody Maddox said. County officials added that &#8220;there is no indication of criminal activity or foul play.&#8221;
Abel was charged with two counts of murder and aggravated assault after he went on a killing spree in Georgia earlier this month. Abel attacked three people at random on the morning of April 13, including stabbing and shooting 40-year-old Homeland Security auditor Lauren Bullis, who was killed as she was on a walk with her dog.
Bullis was the third person targeted by Abel that morning. The immigrant, who had an extensive criminal record, shot and killed Prianna Weathers, 31, outside of a Checker&#8217;s restaurant around 1:00 a.m. in DeKalb County. Abel then drove 16 miles to Brookhaven, Georgia, where he shot Tony Matthews, 48, outside of a Kroger store. Matthews died from his injuries on Sunday, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/17/us/lauren-bullis-prianna-weathers-atlanta-shootings">CNN</a>, meaning that Abel likely would have been hit with a third murder charge.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that Abel has previously been convicted of sexual battery, battery against a police officer, obstruction, assault with a deadly weapon, and vandalism. After the brutal killings, the Trump administration emphasized that it is prioritizing &#8220;measures to ensure individuals with criminal histories and who otherwise lack good moral character do not attain citizenship.&#8221;

Olaolukitan Adon Abel/Lauren Bullis

New Deadly Turn In Biden-Naturalized Immigrant DHS Murder Case

Death

Georgia

Immigrants

Murder

Florida opened a criminal investigation into OpenAI one year after a gunman killed two people at Florida State University in an attack he planned with &#8220;significant advice&#8221; from OpenAI&#8217;s artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, the state&#8217;s Attorney General James Uthmeier announced on Tuesday.
The gunman, whom The Daily Wire will not name, relied on ChatGPT to get information on firearms and when the most people would be present at Florida State&#8217;s student union, where he opened fire on April 17, 2025, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/us/florida-criminal-investigation-openai-chatgpt-fsu-shooting.html">reported</a>. The attacker also asked ChatGPT if a specific gun would be effective at short range, according to Uthmeier.
“If this were a person on the other end of the screen, we would be charging them with murder,” the Florida attorney general said. “We cannot have AI bots that are advising people on how to kill others.”
The criminal investigation will now run alongside a civil investigation into ChatGPT that the Florida attorney general opened earlier this month.
The 20-year-old gunman killed two people and wounded six others in the shooting. He was also a student at Florida State and is the stepson of a sheriff&#8217;s deputy in Leon County, Florida, which includes Tallahassee. The gunman, who survived a serious gunshot wound from responding officers, has been charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder.
The gunman appeared to be intrigued by whether a mass shooting at Florida State would gain nationwide attention and asked ChatGPT how the country would react to an attack on the campus, according to the Times.
OpenAI, which is led by AI entrepreneur Sam Altman, pushed back on Florida&#8217;s decision to open a criminal investigation and said the company &#8220;proactively shared this information with law enforcement&#8221; after it identified the shooter&#8217;s account.
&#8220;Last year&#8217;s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,&#8221; an OpenAI spokeswoman told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;We continue to cooperate with authorities. In this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity,&#8221; the spokeswoman added.
Uthmeier, a Republican, said at a press conference on Tuesday that he believes government &#8220;should only interfere in business activities when you have significant harm to our people,&#8221; adding, &#8220;This is that.&#8221;
The criminal investigation will focus on looking into whether OpenAI or any of its employees should face charges over the programming of ChatGPT&#8217;s answers.
The Florida State shooter is not the only gunman to rely on ChatGPT for information before opening fire on innocent victims. Earlier this year, a trans-identifying <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-shooters-use-of-ai-puts-chatgpt-ceos-push-for-ai-privilege-under-the-microscope">shooter</a> in Canada raised warning signs among OpenAI employees for conversations he had with ChatGPT on shooting scenarios months before killing his mother and brother and then going to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia, where he killed another six people, including five children.
The trans-identifying gunman&#8217;s messages with ChatGPT in June 2025 resulted in his account getting banned, but OpenAI did not report the conversations to law enforcement, The Wall Street Journal reported. OpenAI tells users that it hands over information to law enforcement &#8220;if required to do so to comply with a legal obligation, or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a legal obligation.&#8221;
Last year, however, Altman said that he wanted a policy passed to allow him to give AI users assurance that their conversations with ChatGPT would never be shared with the government.
“If I could get one piece of policy passed right now, relative to AI, the thing I would most like, and this is in tension with some of the other things that we’ve talked about, is I’d like there to be a concept of AI privilege,” Altman <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KmpT-BoVf4&amp;t=1911s">told</a> podcast host Tucker Carlson last September. “When you talk to a doctor about your health or a lawyer about your legal problems, the government cannot get that information.”
“We have decided that society has an interest in that being privileged and that a subpoena can’t get that, the government can’t come asking your doctor for it, whatever. I think we should have the same concept for AI,” he added.

ChatGPT

Criminal Investigation Targets ChatGPT After What Gunman Did With AI

Florida

Investigation

Mass Shooting

OpenAI

U.S. authorities arrested a Chinese national at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City earlier this month who is accused of traveling to Nebraska and taking pictures of military aircraft near Offutt Air Force Base.
Tianrui Liang also allegedly planned to travel to Oklahoma to photograph more military aircraft at Tinker Air Force Base, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/chinese-national-arrested-jfk-after-allegedly-photographing-us-military-aircraft-nebraska-base?lid=zeskeho3ui7f">reported</a>. The 21-year-old Chinese national is charged with violating U.S. law prohibiting people from photographing or sketching defense installations, according to court documents.
Authorities were first alerted to suspicious activity near Offutt Air Force Base after a person witnessed &#8220;a male holding a camera with a telescopic lens&#8221; near the military installation, according to an FBI affidavit.
Offutt Air Force Base is one of the most sensitive military installations in the United States and is the home of U.S. Strategic Command, which is <a href="https://www.stratcom.mil/About/#:~:text=Air%20Force%20Global%20Strike%20Command,United%20States%20and%20Combatant%20Commanders.">responsible</a> for nuclear defense and global strike operations. The base also hosts some of the U.S. military&#8217;s most powerful reconnaissance aircraft, including the E-4B &#8220;Nightwatch,&#8221; or &#8220;doomsday plane,&#8221; which is designed for military leaders or the president to use in the case of a nuclear war.
Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City is home to the Air Force Sustainment Center, which focuses on maintaining the Air Force&#8217;s &#8220;Weapons System Readiness.&#8221;
Liang was charged in Nebraska on April 3 and was arrested at JFK International Airport four days later. Liang was taken into custody just before he boarded a plane for Frankfurt, Germany, after which he planned to fly to Glasgow, Scotland, according to court documents. The Chinese national was in the United States on a non-immigrant B1/B2 visa, which authorizes temporary travel to America for foreign tourists or people on business trips or visiting family.
Liang told authorities at the airport that he had been previously questioned by law enforcement over the allegations, according to court documents.
Multiple Chinese nationals have been arrested in recent years for taking pictures near U.S. military bases. In August 2023, five Chinese nationals who were former students at the University of Michigan were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/5-chinese-nationals-accused-of-photographing-michigan-military-facility">caught</a> taking pictures of military equipment during joint training exercises between the National Guard and the Taiwanese military at Camp Grayling in northern Michigan, according to authorities.
Last December, a Chinese national was arrested for taking videos of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. He also took numerous photos of military equipment and the base&#8217;s perimeter fencing, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdmo/pr/chinese-national-charged-unlawfully-photographing-air-force-base-and-vital-military">according</a> to the Justice Department.

Chinese man photography

A Chinese Man Was Just Caught Photographing The U.S. Military’s ‘Doomsday’ Plane

China

Communist China

Espionage

Nebraska

Oklahoma

U.S. Air Force

U.S. Military

The Supreme Court’s liberal justices delayed releasing their dissents on the 2022 landmark abortion decision, brushing aside requests from conservative justices who faced threats following the leak of the draft decision, according to a new book from conservative author Mollie Hemingway.
In <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Alito-Justice-Reshaped-Restored-Constitution/dp/1541607139" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution</a>, which was released on Tuesday, Hemingway lays out how Justice Samuel Alito’s balance of principles and pragmatism delivered one of the most important Supreme Court rulings in American history. She also goes behind the scenes following the shocking leak of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision.
On May 12, 2022 — 10 days after POLITICO published the leaked majority opinion in Dobbs — justices met in conference to set the dates for the release of looming decisions. The Dobbs ruling was at the top of conservative justices’ minds during the conference.
“The majority opinion had been done for more than three months and was waiting only for the dissents,” wrote Hemingway, the editor-in-chief of The Federalist. “Alito asked the dissenters to make the completion of their dissents their priority because delay of the decision was a security threat. Abortion supporters had an incentive to kill one or more of the justices in the majority to change the outcome. The dissenters demurred.”
Justice Neil Gorsuch pressed the liberal justices to give a date when they could expect the dissents to be completed, but the liberals refused to set any date, according to Hemingway.
“Following the conference, Justice Elena Kagan visited Justice Stephen Breyer’s office,” Hemingway continued. “Though he had not yet said he would accommodate the justices whose lives were at risk by getting out a dissent, he was the member of the liberal bloc most willing to do so … Kagan remonstrated with Breyer not to accommodate the majority, screaming so loudly, observers noted, that the ‘wall was shaking.’”
In an interview with The Daily Wire, Hemingway called the liberal justices’ stunt “outrageous.”
“You had the actual justices having their lives threatened multiple times a day, their children&#8217;s lives threatened, their spouses&#8217; lives threatened. They had to move out of their homes. They had to wear bulletproof vests,” she added. “There was a man who was arrested for trying to kill Brett Kavanaugh and his family, and he said he wanted to take out three justices.&#8221;
&#8220;Delaying a decision because even though you know that abortion is not really mentioned in the Constitution you wish it were, even if it costs the lives of your colleagues, it&#8217;s outrageous and shocking behavior.”
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Just over a month after the liberal justices denied conservatives’ requests to release the opinion quickly, a man who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-arrest-armed-man-near-brett-kavanaughs-home-who-allegedly-wanted-to-kill-the-justice-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plotted to assassinate </a>Kavanaugh was arrested near the justice&#8217;s home.
Hemingway told The Daily Wire that if a plot to murder a Supreme Court justice had succeeded, any pending decisions would have been disrupted.
“It&#8217;s important that people know, had one of the left-wing activists succeeded in assassinating a Supreme Court justice, it would have changed the decision because a ruling is only official when it&#8217;s handed down publicly,” Hemingway said.
After weeks of threats against conservative justices and their families forced some, including Alito and his wife, to move to secret locations, the Dobbs decision was officially handed down on June 24 in a 6-3 majority ruling, with five of the conservative justices agreeing to overturn the precedent set by Roe v. Wade.
Alito penned the majority opinion that overturned the infamous Roe decision that found a Constitutional protection for abortion. Hemingway explained why Alito was the perfect justice to write the opinion for conservatives. Since Chief Justice John Roberts did not sign onto the majority opinion overturning Roe, Justice Clarence Thomas, the longest-serving justice, chose who would write the opinion.
“Thomas knew that it had to be done perfectly. It had to keep a majority together,” Hemingway wrote. “There had been previous efforts at the court to overturn Roe that had fallen apart. And so he chose Alito because he knew he would do it in a masterful way and that he would keep the majority together. One of Alito&#8217;s specialties is keeping a majority together even if that means sacrificing some of what he would want to happen in a decision.”
Hemingway&#8217;s book hits the shelves as rumors about a potential Alito retirement swirl around Washington, D.C., but Hemingway told The Daily Wire that she does not believe Alito will step down anytime soon.
&#8220;I think there are so many people who are trying to get Alito in particular to retire,&#8221; Hemingway said, adding, &#8220;I find pressure campaigns to be somewhat obnoxious and I don&#8217;t know why people do them exactly, but if you&#8217;re going to pressure, I think that people should consider pressuring the chief, John Roberts. He&#8217;s in his 70s. He&#8217;s the second longest-serving justice on the court after Thomas. And it would be probably better for the conservative legal movement to replace John Roberts than to replace either Thomas or Alito.&#8221;

Supreme Court

Liberal Supreme Court Justice Had A ‘Shocking’ Post-Dobbs Breakdown

Abortion

Samuel Alito

President Donald Trump pushed back on his own energy secretary&#8217;s gas price prediction on Monday as Americans continue to get pinched at the pump.
Trump said Energy Secretary Chris Wright is &#8220;totally wrong&#8221; after Wright told CNN on Sunday that average gas prices in the United States could stay above $3 into 2027.
&#8220;I think he’s wrong on that. Totally wrong,” Trump told The Hill.
The president added that gas prices would start dropping “as soon as this ends,” referring to the ongoing conflict with Iran.
During an interview on Sunday, Wright said he wasn&#8217;t sure when exactly gas prices would start coming back down, but predicted, &#8220;That might not happen until next year.&#8221;
“But prices have likely peaked and they will start going down,” Wright added. “Certainly, with a resolution of this conflict, you will see prices go down. Prices across the board on energy prices will go down.”
Gas prices appeared ready to drop late last week when oil prices tumbled to under $90 per barrel shortly after Trump and Iran announced a ceasefire that would allow ships to traverse the Strait of Hormuz. The agreement to open the strait, however, was short-lived as Iran said on Sunday that it was once again blocking ships in response to Trump keeping the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports in place.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard attacked two oil tankers over the weekend, and shipping traffic through the strait came to a standstill once again, CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/20/strait-hormuz-ship-tanker-oil-iran-war.html">reported</a>.
Brent crude jumped back up to over $95 per barrel on Monday morning, and average gas prices in the United States remain above $4 per gallon as of Monday afternoon, according to <a href="https://gasprices.aaa.com/">AAA</a>. Recent <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/poll-trumps-approval-rating-hits-second-term-low-economy-iran-war-rcna331462">polls</a> indicate that many Americans are <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3956">frustrated</a> with the sharp rise in gas prices that followed Trump&#8217;s decision to launch &#8220;Operation Epic Fury.&#8221;
Democrats have attacked the Trump administration over the rise in gas prices, with Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/world/middleeast/energy-secretary-gas-prices.html">saying</a> on Sunday, “Americans literally can’t afford the Trump presidency.” At $4.04 per gallon on average, gas prices are at their highest level since June of 2022, when President Joe Biden was in office.
Vice President JD Vance is expected to meet with Iranian officials in Pakistan this week for another round of negotiations as the ceasefire is set to expire at 8:00 p.m. EST Tuesday. Trump said on Monday that he feels &#8220;no pressure whatsoever&#8221; to secure a deal with Iran.
&#8220;Time is not my adversary, the only thing that matters is that we finally, after 47 years, straighten out the MESS that other Presidents let happen because they didn’t have the Courage or Foresight to do what had to be done with respect to Iran,&#8221; he said.

President Trump Holds Roundtable On The Ratepayer Protection Pledge At The White House

Trump Says His Energy Secretary’s Gas Price Prediction Is ‘Totally Wrong’

Chris Wright

Economy

Gas Prices

Iran

Democrats in Michigan nominated a Muslim attorney who has honored terrorists for a position on the University of Michigan&#8217;s Board of Regents.
At the Michigan Democratic Party&#8217;s nominating convention on Sunday night, delegates chose Amir Makled over incumbent regent Jordan Acker for a seat on the board that controls the university&#8217;s budget and leadership appointments, The Detroit News <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2026/04/19/jordan-acker-university-of-michigan-board-of-regents-amir-makled-wins-democratic-convention-vote/89691921007/">reported</a>. The contrast in the race could not have been clearer for Democratic delegates, who ultimately picked a Muslim who recently shared a post that referred to Israelis as &#8220;demons&#8221; over a Jewish regent who has faced antisemitic attacks.
Last June, Makled <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2026/04/09/university-of-michigan-regent-candidate-lawyer-amir-makled-deletes-posts-praising-hezbollah-leaders/89533176007/">shared</a> a post that called former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah a &#8220;martyr,&#8221; less than a year after Nasrallah was taken out in an Israeli airstrike. Another post shared by Makled honored Hezbollah official Abu Ali Khalil as a &#8220;martyr on the road to Jerusalem.&#8221;
In July 2025, Makled shared a post from Candace Owens, in which Owens referred to Israelis as &#8220;demons&#8221; who &#8220;lie, steal, cheat, murder, and blackmail.&#8221; The Muslim lawyer has since deleted those social media posts.
Makled secured the nomination over Acker, who has faced antisemitic threats from anti-Israel radicals following Hamas&#8217; attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. In December of 2024, Acker&#8217;s home was vandalized and damaged, and his wife&#8217;s car was spray painted with the words &#8220;Divest&#8221; and &#8220;Free Palestine.&#8221; Anti-Israel radicals also vandalized Acker&#8217;s law firm building, which police investigated as a hate crime, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/09/us/university-of-michigan-regents-vandalized-acker">reported</a>.
Last year, Acker, along with regents Mark Bernstein and Sarah Hubbard, were given 24/7 security due to threats from anti-Israel demonstrators. Makled represented anti-Israel students who were arrested and charged last year with trespassing and resisting arrest when police broke up an encampment on Michigan&#8217;s campus.
The nomination of Makled over Acker reflects a major shift in the Democratic Party throughout the country, which has seen multiple leftist Muslims elected to public office. That shift is on full display in Michigan this year as another leftist Muslim, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, is in a tight race for the Democratic nomination to the open seat for U.S. Senate. El-Sayed <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/19/politics/michigan-senate-democratic-primary">told</a> CNN over the weekend that Hamas is just as evil as the Israeli government.
The Michigan Democratic Party did not release the vote tally for Sunday&#8217;s nominating convention. For many statewide offices in Michigan, the Democratic Party chooses its nominees through delegates who meet to cast their votes at a nominating convention. Acker&#8217;s ticket-mate, Paul Brown, who has also called for punishment for anti-Israel demonstrators, was renominated to run alongside Makled in the general election.
Makled rode a wave of support from leftist University of Michigan students and campus labor unions to his nomination victory.
“This is beyond the support that I was expecting,” Makled <a href="https://www.michigandaily.com/news/administration/amir-makled-defeats-regent-jordan-acker-at-democratic-convention-to-run-alongside-incumbent-paul-brown/">said</a> after he was nominated. “This is the largest convention I’ve participated in in 20 years, and I’ve been coming to them since 2006. This really shows how much the Democratic Party has expanded the electorate and energized the base of what people want to see come November.”
Makled will face Republicans Lena Epstein and Michael Schostak in the general election on November 3.
Not all Democrats were enthused by Makled&#8217;s candidacy. Brandon Dillon, a former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, blasted Makled and <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2026/04/17/dillon-the-democratic-party-has-no-room-for-amir-makled/89665735007/">wrote</a> in a Detroit News opinion piece that Makled&#8217;s social media posts &#8220;reflect a pattern of extremism and bigotry, all of which should be disqualifying for someone seeking one of the most powerful positions in Michigan higher education and statewide office.&#8221;
Acker faced opposition from Makled and many within the Michigan Democratic Party for his desire to hold anti-Israel radicals accountable after they intimidated Jewish students and obstructed law enforcement officers. Acker also faced scrutiny just a few days before the Democratic nominating convention when The Guardian published a report on alleged messages sent by Acker on Slack that appeared to be sexual in nature and included obscene comments about a female Michigan student.
Acker said that parts of the messages sent to The Guardian appeared to be &#8220;doctored,&#8221; adding that Acker &#8220;has never been on Slack.&#8221; Acker told The Detroit News that the allegations published in The Guardian are &#8220;ridiculous&#8221; and &#8220;fake.&#8221;

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Zach Jewell