May 2026 EVENTS

The US supreme court went out of its way on Monday to speed up their formal ruling, helping Louisiana Republicans redraw their congressional maps by allowing a recent ruling that gutted a key part of the Voting Rights Act.

The move comes less than a week after the court’s landmark decision striking down Louisiana’s congressional map and gutting section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Usually, the court waits 32 days to formally issue its judgment to the lower court. Louisiana asked the court to speed up that process, citing the urgency with which it needed to redraw its congressional maps. On Monday, the court agreed to do so.

“The date scheduled for the beginning of early voting in the primary election has already passed. The congressional districting map enacted by the legislature has been held to be unconstitutional, and the general election will be held in just six months,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote.

The decision offers more legal cover to Louisiana Republicans, who cancelled the 16 May Congress primary after mail-in ballots had already gone out to overseas voters. There is ongoing litigation challenging that decision, and the supreme court expediting its judgment could bolster Louisiana’s legal arguments for the need to hold new elections.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson criticized the court from departing from its usual procedure. There were only two times in the last 25 years, she wrote, when the court had expedited its ruling.

“To avoid the appearance of partiality here, we could, as per usual, opt to stay on the sidelines and take no position by applying our default procedures. But, today, the Court chooses the opposite. Not content to have decided the law, it now takes steps to influence its implementation,” she wrote. “The Court’s decision to buck our usual practice under Rule 45.3 and issue the judgment forthwith is tantamount to an approval of Louisiana’s rush to pause the ongoing election in order to pass a new map.”

She said the court’s majority “unshackles itself from both constraints today and dives into the fray. And just like that, those principles give way to power.”

Her statements prompted a forceful response from Alito, who wrote an opinion joined by fellow conservatives Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, saying that Jackson’s language was “baseless and insulting”.

On Wednesday, the White House released a new “United States Counterterrorism Strategy”, masterminded by White House “counterterrorism czar” Sebastian Gorka.

It identifies “Violent Left-Wing Extremists, including Anarchists and Anti-Fascists” as a security threat of equal severity to “Legacy Islamist Terrorists” and “Narcoterrorists and Transnational Gangs.” The administration will now apparently “prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist.”

“We will…identify their membership, map their ties to international organizations like Antifa, and use law enforcement tools to cripple them operationally,” the document says. 

The document also falsely blames transgender people for the shooting of Charlie Kirk. “Americans have witnessed the politically motivated killings of Christians and conservatives committed by violent left-wing extremists, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk by a radical who espoused extreme transgender ideologies.”

Gorka told reporters at a press conference Wednesday that the administration would “crush” any threat, “whether it is the cartels, the jihadists or violent left-wing extremists like antifa—and like the transgender killers, the nonbinary, the left-wing radicals who killed my friend, Charlie Kirk, we will take them on, head on.”

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), the House Committee on Homeland Security’s ranking Democrat, noted in a press release that the document completely ignores the far right, “despite years of data proving that right-wing extremism has presented the most persistent and deadly threats to Americans for decades.”

Instead, Thompson said, the White House had produced “a document full of fake administration counterterrorism ‘achievements,’ including mass deportations and more than 40 unauthorized and deadly military strikes on vessels in the Western Hemisphere. There are zero strategic objectives, lines of effort, or agency assignments.”

The Palm Beach County Commission narrowly approved a licensing agreement granting the Trump Organization control of the name “Donald J. Trump International Airport” with a vote of 4-3.

The agreement says that Palm Beach County is permitted to use the airport name, including on signage and merchandising, but does not hold exclusive rights. The Trump Organization retains the ability to use the airport name commercially elsewhere, can license the trademark to third parties, and can continue producing and selling its own branded merchandise.

The licensing agreement also provides that any goods sold at the airport must be through vendors pre-approved by the Trump Organization, and that it gives the Trump Organization the right to audit the airport’s books.

The Florida Legislature approved a bill in February that renamed Palm Beach International Airport after Trump. As the bill was moving through committee, DTTM Operations LLC filed trademarks for “President Donald J. Trump International Airport” and “Donald J. Trump International Airport” on Feb. 13 and “DJT” on Feb. 14.

Although the bill signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis says the name change from Palm Beach International Airport will take effect on July 1, the change still needs approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Tensions erupted Friday as Republican state lawmakers presented new election maps to eliminate one or both of Louisiana’s majority-Black congressional districts.

Hundreds of people came to the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee meeting to consider the new boundaries and give the public a chance to comment. Voting on the maps is not planned until at least next week. 

Committee chairman Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, called the hearing after Gov. Jeff Landry declared a state of emergency and suspended Louisiana’s upcoming U.S. House primary elections April 30, a day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the state’s existing congressional map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander against white voters. 

Sen. Gary Carter Jr., D-New Orleans, questioned Kleinpeter about ballots already cast and whether the votes would be counted. 

“Can you give the public certainty that those ballots will not be discarded?” Carter asked.

Kleinpeter said Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry was the appropriate official to answer his question, but she was not in attendance.

Kleinpeter told Carter he would make sure the secretary of state was made aware of his questions, and that she or someone from her office would attend the committee’s next meeting, which is scheduled for Wednesday.

Nancy Landry has declined to answer questions related to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, explaining that the case, Callais v. Louisiana, is still in litigation after being returned to the federal district court where it originated. There are also ongoing legal challenges to the governor’s order to postpone the U.S. House primaries.

The discussion grew heated when state Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, presented his map that eliminates both majority-Black U.S. House districts. Morris, who is white, said his proposed boundaries don’t prevent a Black candidate from winning one of the state’s six seats. 

“I didn’t draw it with the intention to draw it 6-0,” Morris said. “I left race out of it … It’s intended to comply with the Supreme Court in Callais.”

Carter questioned Morris about legislation the senator sponsored to eliminate the Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court and eliminate several of its judgeships. 

“Let’s look at the totality of your work,” Carter told Morris. “Your work has eliminated the elected seat of an African American in the city of New Orleans. Your work has eliminated the political power of numerous elected officials in the city of New Orleans.”

Morris said his legislation is meant only to consolidate Orleans Parish’s dual court systems for civil and criminal cases, the only one of its kind in the state.

Carter and Morris began speaking over each other, prompting Kleinpeter to call another recess, which cut off the microphones and the Capitol’s live video feed. 

“Put my microphone back on!” Carter yelled. “He’s suggesting he’s not racist. I suggest we look at his work.”

“You are out of line,” Kleinpeter said.

As Morris walked away, he turned to the spectators seated behind him, all against his proposals, and said, “Y’all need to shut up.” 

When Carter and Morris both left the committee room for another recess, Sergeants-at-arms stood guard on each side of the committee room’s two sets of double doors, refusing to let anyone enter or exit. 

Mike McClanahan, the NAACP’s state conference president, managed to open the door and try to enter, but guards physically forced him back into the hall and shut the doors.

McClanahan was eventually allowed into the room once the commotion had settled down. 

“This is the people’s house,” McClanahan said. “We have the right to hear every single thing, especially while the session’s going on in our house. So I was just trying to tell them, ‘Let the people speak. Let the people speak.’ Because we need to hear. We want to hear.”

Morris did not return to the hearing and did not respond to a phone call later Friday. 

The meeting went on for about six hours.

Before the second recess, all four of Louisiana’s Black congressmen, past and present, since the Reconstruction era spoke to the committee: current U.S. Reps. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans; Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge; and former Congressmen William Jefferson and Cedric Richmond.

Troy Carter’s 2nd District seat would be eliminated in the version of the map Kleinpeter has said lawmakers are most likely to advance. 

“Today, here in Louisiana we’re being tested and the whole world is watching,” Troy Carter said. “The question before us is not merely about lines on a map. The question before us is whether we will honor the principle that every citizen deserves equal protection of the law.”

Abortion, Every Day reports that Child Protective Services (CPS) has targeted mothers in multiple states who helped their daughters seek out abortions. In one case, CPS removed a teen from her home and threatened her mother with murder charges to stop her from getting an abortion. Another mother, one who lives in a state where abortion is legal, faced an investigation from both CPS and local police after helping her teen end a pregnancy.

In the first case, they were able to find and book an appointment with an out-of-state clinic, but CPS knocked on their door and took the girl from the home, without a court order.

The CPS caseworker also repeatedly threatened the mother, claiming she’d be charged with murder if her daughter had an abortion—and that her other child, a toddler, would be taken from her care.

The teen was only returned home after her mother retained counsel, and explained that the clinics required the girl to speak to them herself before booking an appointment. But that process took four days, by which time she had missed her appointment.

In the second case, a mother faced a CPS and police investigation in a Midwestern pro-choice state. 

The mother brought her daughter to the emergency room after helping her obtain a medication abortion. The 17-year-old developed a fever a few days after her pregnancy ended, and her mother sought medical care in case her daughter had an infection.

Because they had broken no laws, the mother didn’t think twice about sharing the fact that her daughter had an abortion. She figured it was important to tell healthcare providers all of the information possible.

The mother was then interrogated by a hospital social worker, who wanted to know where they had obtained the abortion pills. 

That hospital social worker called CPS and police, and both agencies opened investigations.

The CPS and police investigations ended up being closed—but not before the woman and her daughter were put through hell. 

Around ten "new" suspected victims have come forward in a French probe into the network of Jeffrey Epstein, a Paris prosecutor said Sunday.

France opened a human trafficking investigation after the US Justice Department in January released the latest cache of files from the Epstein investigation. 

French magistrates are seeking to investigate possible offences committed in France or involving French perpetrators who facilitated his crimes.

Top Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said around 20 suspected victims had made themselves known after she urged potential victims to speak up back in February, including around 10 new victims that they did not know of already.

A growing effort to recall Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill is gaining attention across the state, with long lines forming at petition-signing locations in cities including New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Two Baton Rouge women, Marian Gbaiwon Hills and Katilyn Steper, have filed statewide recall petitions  accusing Landry of showing a “pattern of actions and statements that undermine fair representation, misalign priorities away from community needs, and emphasize punishment over meaningful solutions.”

Juniper Blessing, a sophomore at the University of Washington and transgender woman, was found stabbed to death in the laundry room of her off-campus apartment building on May 10. A 31-year-old Bellevue man, Christopher Leahy, has been criminally charged with murder in connection with Blessing's death.

As of Monday, May 18, King County prosecutors have said there's currently no evidence that the killing was motivated by hate. 

An east Tennessee school board member who told a teenage girl, “God – you’re hot,” on video at a public meeting in April has been charged with assault.

On May 18, State prosecutors charged 59-year-old Keith Ervin under a Tennessee statute that outlaws “intentionally or knowingly [causing] physical contact with another [that] a reasonable person would regard … as extremely offensive or provocative”.

Tennessee considers that offense a class B misdemeanor, which upon conviction can carry up to six months in jail and a maximum $500 fine.

Ervin’s charge came after an April 2nd Washington county school board meeting where, in plain view of a camera capturing video for the public board’s YouTube channel, Ervin gazed at a female student seated next to him, placed his left hand on her right shoulder, and said, “God – you’re hot. Did you know that? Damn.”

She laughed uncomfortably as he leaned in and wrapped his left arm around her shoulders, continuing, “Where do you go to school at?” She provided the name of her school, and he said, “All right.”

Other people in the room could be heard laughing at the end of the exchange. And the Washington school district’s superintendent, Jerry Boyd, visibly smiled on the other side of the student.

Her father later went on social media and criticized Ervin’s behavior as “disturbing and inappropriate”.

In that statement, reported by Tennessee news outlet WJHL, the girl’s father said neither he nor her mother believed Ervin “should be anywhere near students” – and he expressed incredulity that the moment passed “without immediate accountability”.

Ervin provided his own statement to WJHL in which he contended he was not “always good with words”. He also maintained that he would not purposefully offend anyone, though he acknowledged the video of him and the girl looked bad.

Ervin’s fellow school board members voted to censure him during a special meeting called on April 8th as outrage surrounding his filmed remarks spread beyond Washington county.

The female student at the center of the assault case addressed the county school board directly at a May 7th meeting. She accused board members of cowardice while rejecting apologies from them, saying: “I do not forgive you.”

She added, “Thank you for teaching me that no one will stand up for me besides myself. Thank you for showing this community what you believe it means to protect our children.”

After he was charged in Washington county circuit court, Ervin was served with a criminal summons ordering him to appear at a hearing tentatively scheduled for 7 August.

Two white male teenage shooters opened fire at a San Diego mosque on Monday, killing three men in an attack police are investigating as a hate crime. The two shooters later died a few blocks away from the mosque due to self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

Authorities found evidence that the suspects engaged in “generalized hate rhetoric," San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said.

He declined to give more details, but said the “circumstances that led up to this” would come out in the days to come.

Among those killed was mosque security guard, Amin Abdullah, who police believe “played a pivotal role” in keeping the attack from being “much worse”.

“It’s fair to say his actions were heroic,” the San Diego Police Department chief said at a later news conference. “Undoubtedly he saved lives today."

The centre is the largest mosque in the San Diego County area and includes the Al Rashid School, which offers courses in Arabic language, Islamic studies and the Quran for students ages five and up, according to its website.

Police responded within four minutes of being called. As they arrived, gunshots rang out a few blocks away where a landscaper was shot at but uninjured. The shooters were found dead in a vehicle stopped in the middle of a road nearby.

The two teenagers suspected of killing three Muslim members of the San Diego Islamic Center Monday idolized prior perpetrators of such white supremacist attacks, according to a 75-page manifesto they allegedly wrote that's circulating online.

Both suspects appear to have contributed to the manifesto. In it they blame Muslims, Jewish people, immigrants, women, the LGBTQ+ community and the left for seeking to destroy white culture.

They also repeat the white supremacist Great Replacement Theory which says there’s a conspiracy to bring in nonwhite immigrants to end the country’s white demographic majority.

The pair sought to replicate the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand shooting where 51 Muslims were killed at two mosques.

The materials from the alleged shooters was shared on a Discord server then posted on another forum online, according to Jared Holt, a senior researcher at Open Measures who monitors the spread of extremism and other harmful content online.

The FBI said at a news conference Tuesday it is investigating the manifesto and videos.

The U.S. House passed a bill Wednesday (by a vote of 217-198) that would require parental consent before a public elementary or middle school can update a student’s pronouns, gender markers or preferred name on records in order to receive federal funding. 

The measure would also bar federal funding under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 that provides federal aid to schools from being used “to teach or advance concepts related to gender ideology.” 

Eight Democrats broke ranks with their party to vote for the Republican-led effort, including: Reps. Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Cleo Fields of Louisiana, Laura Gillen of New York, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state and Eugene Vindman of Virginia. 

Fifteen House members did not vote.

The bill would also require schools to get permission from parents before changing “sex-based accommodations” to allow a student to access a locker room or bathroom consistent with their gender identity. 

The bill now heads to the Senate.

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir published footage of Israeli security forces abusing international activists who were detained as they tried to sail to Gaza with aid.

The video includes images of dozens of men and women kneeling in rows, with their foreheads to the ground and their hands zip-tied behind their back. Ben-Gvir posted it on his social media account with the caption “Welcome to Israel” in English. He appears waving an Israeli flag, mocking and taunting the detainees, including shouting: “The people of Israel live” in the face of one bound man.

More than 400 activists from 40 countries, travelling on 50 vessels, took part in the flotilla. It set off from Turkey carrying food and other aid, in the latest attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Seven months after a ceasefire supposedly came into force in Gaza, hunger is widespread, most Palestinians live in tents or overcrowded shelters without adequate sanitation or access to clean water, and Israeli attacks are still a near-daily occurrence.

Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla in international waters on Tuesday and brought everyone onboard to Israel.

Three activists were taken to hospital as result of Israeli violence. They were subsequently discharged. Dozens of others have suspected broken ribs, resulting in breathing problems.

“The team reports systemic violations of due process, and widespread physical and psychological abuse by Israeli authorities,” the rights group Adalah said in a statement. 

Ben-Gvir’s video drew a rapid and furious response from countries whose citizens were onboard the boats, including the UK, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, in many cases from the top of government.

The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, one of the country’s staunchest allies, described Ben-Gvir’s behaviour as “despicable” and said the minister had “betrayed the dignity of his nation”.

“A Mother of a Revolution,” which was banned by a Watertown, Wisconsin school, was performed by the high school’s Wind Symphony at a special event Wednesday night at Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The church was filled to capacity for the performance, with some people turned away from the event.

The work is inspired by Marsha Johnson, who was a trans woman and a prominent figure known for her role in the LGBTQ movement and the Stonewall uprising in 1969.

Watertown school board members voted on May 12 to prohibit the selection from being played at the school’s concert.

That ban caught the attention of the composer, Omar Thomas, who traveled to Watertown to conduct Wednesday night’s performance of his work.

“To have a piece that is about a marginalized community, that is about the queer community, that is about the trans community, that is about the Black trans community, to have this kind of light and this kind of legs. If anything, I hope that it puts wind in the sails of the people that belong to that community,” said Thomas.

Some of those who took part in Wednesday night’s performance will perform Saturday at the Minocqua Brewing Company Tap Room in Madison.

40,000 people are under evacuation orders in Orange County California after a storage tank holding about 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate overheated and began venting vapors into the air at GKN Aerospace, which makes parts for commercial and military aircraft, in Garden Grove, California.

The tank could fail and crack, releasing the chemical onto the ground, or it could explode, Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey said Friday.

"This thing is going to fail, and we don't know when," Covey said. "We're doing our best to figure out when or how we can prevent it."

Officials ordered residents in Garden Grove to leave on Thursday and expanded evacuation orders Friday to residents of five other Orange County cities, Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster, after being unable to stop the leak overnight on the tank.

No injuries or deaths have been reported, authorities said.

Former congressman Eric Swalwell used $250,000 in campaign funds to pay his lawyer. Swalwell, who was running for California governor, suspended his campaign last month after allegations surfaced that he had sexually assaulted and sexually harassed several women — including junior staffers in his office.

Swalwell resigned from Congress two days later on April 14. 

Filings with the California Secretary of State’s office show Swalwell used campaign funds to pay $250,000 to the law office of Sara Azari, a New York attorney who has defended Swalwell on NewsNation, where she is employed as a legal analyst. 

In a major change to current policy, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Friday that foreigners who are in the U.S. temporarily and who want to apply to become lawful permanent residents, or green card holders, have to return home and apply there, except in "extraordinary circumstances." USCIS officers would decide whether applicants meet those.

"Nonimmigrants, like students, temporary workers, or people on tourist visas, come to the U.S. for a short time and for a specific purpose. Our system is designed for them to leave when their visit is over. Their visit should not function as the first step in the Green Card process," the agency said in a statement.

USCIS did not say when the change would come into effect, whether individuals would be required to remain in another country throughout the entire process, or whether the policy impacts foreigners whose green card applications are already underway.

In an emailed statement to the Associated Press the agency said people who provide an "economic benefit" or "national interest" could likely stay in the U.S. while others would have to go abroad to apply.