By Christine Coleman
Edited by Elissa D. Hecker
Entertainment
Universal Music and Believe Reach Settlement in Copyright Infringement Dispute — $500 Million Case Dismissed With Prejudice
After 17 months, Universal Music Group and Believe officially resolved their $500 million copyright infringement dispute. Both parties confirmed their lawsuit-ending agreement today, after the presiding judge stayed the case in late December. The litigants have not publicly disclosed the terms at issue, but they did move to dismiss the case with prejudice.
https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2026/04/03/universal-music-believe-settlement/
A folk musician had her voice cloned by AI – and her recordings claimed by a copyright troll. Welcome to 2026.
Murphy Campbell, a folk singer-songwriter from North Carolina, discovered in January that AI-generated covers of her songs had been uploaded to her Spotify profile without her consent. Then, in a separate incident, a user filed copyright claims against Campbell‘s YouTube videos via the Content ID access of gamma-owned distributor Vydia.
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/a-folk-musician-had-her-voice-cloned-by-ai-and-her-recordings-claimed-by-a-copyright-troll-welcome-to-2026/
Bill Ackman’s Fund Offers to Buy Universal Music in $64 Billion Deal
Billionaire financier Bill Ackman put forward his latest big bet by proposing a deal to buy Universal Music Group and move its stock market listing to New York from Amsterdam. Ackman said his offer would value Universal Music’s stock at about $64 billion. Under the terms of the proposal, a vehicle created by Pershing Square Capital Management, Ackman’s hedge fund, would merge with Universal Music, which would be reincorporated in Nevada and listed in New York
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/business/dealbook/bill-ackman-universal-music-merger.html
Irvine Wanted a New Concert Venue. But Not on Live Nation’s Terms
Irvine, a city of 300,000 about an hour’s drive south of downtown Los Angeles, was hoping to work with Live Nation to replace a popular amphitheater that shut down in 2016. However, the proposal died at a 2023 Irvine City Council meeting after the meeting evolved into a referendum on Live Nation and how it does business.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/arts/music/irvine-concert-venue-live-nation.html
Taylor Swift Lawsuit: Vegas Performer Asks Judge to Bar ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ Merch Sales
A week after suing Taylor Swift for infringing her "Confessions of a Showgirl" trademark, performer Maren Wade is now asking a court to bar the pop superstar from selling merch tied to her record-smashing latest album while the lawsuit plays out in court. The request comes in the form of a motion for an immediate injunction.
https://www.billboard.com/pro/taylor-swift-life-of-a-showgirl-lawsuit-judge-block-merch/
The Soundtrack to Philly’s Waning Gun Violence
Teenagers in Philadelphia say that music is key to helping them process the anger, grief, and loneliness that come with growing up around gunfire. A growing number of artists like Zayvion Hamiel (ZayMoney) and programs in the city aim to harness music to deter violence.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/headway/philly-teens-neighborhood-safety-music.html
Dealer Who Sold Ketamine to Matthew Perry Is Sentenced to 15 Years
Jasveen Sangha, known as the “Ketamine Queen,” who illegally sold the ketamine that killed the actor Matthew Perry, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Sangha pleaded guilty last year to five federal charges connected with Perry’s overdose. She faced up to 65 years in prison, but the government sought a sentence of 15 years, and Sangha’s lawyers asked for her to be granted supervised release after accounting for her time served.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/arts/ketamine-queen-sentence-matthew-perry.html
Jeff Shell Steps Down as President of Paramount
Jeff Shell, the president of Paramount, is stepping down after becoming ensnared in a legal battle with R.J. Cipriani, a high-stakes gambler. Shell’s departure caps weeks of simmering tension between the litigants. Cipriani accused Shell of leaking confidential information about Paramount’s business plans and Shell framed the claims as a brazen shakedown attempt, resulting in dueling lawsuits that have riveted the entertainment industry for weeks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/business/media/jeff-shell-paramount-rj-cipriani.html
U.K. Bars Ye Over Antisemitism, Months Before Major Festival Performances
The British government said that it barred Ye (Kanye West) from entering the country to play a series of concerts because of his history of antisemitism, leading to the cancellation of the Wireless festival in London. The move was the culmination of days of debate over the rapper’s entry into Britain after he announced that he was headlining the festival.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/arts/music/kanye-west-ye-visa-ban-wireless.html
Arts
Justice Dept. Resolves Broadway Touring Company Investigation
The Justice Department has quietly resolved a yearslong investigation into possible anticompetitive practices by Broadway Across America, a major player in the lucrative touring market for Broadway shows, saying that it decided not to prosecute the company. The investigation into theatrical touring was wide-ranging, but the resolution focused on an agreement between Broadway Across America and another entertainment company that restricted where that company could present shows.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/business/broadway-across-america-tours-justice-department.html
Europe’s Museums Confront the (Literal) Skeletons in Their Closets
European museums are grappling with the human remains in their collections that were used to justify debunked theories about race.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/arts/europe-museums-human-remains-museum-vrolik.html
Protests in Mexico Challenge Move of Frida Kahlo Trove to Spain
A storied collection of 20th-century Mexican art that includes a trove of paintings by Frida Kahlo is scheduled to leave Mexico in July, when it will be shipped to Spain as part of a deal between its Mexican owner and Spain’s Santander Bank. The agreement to move the collection has angered the country’s cultural elite, who argue that the move robs Mexicans of an artistic treasure and breaks cultural heritage rules that forbid important works from leaving the country long-term.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/arts/design/frida-kahlo-gelman-mexico-spain.html
Sports
Newsletter, Image, Likeness Vol. 179: The Executive Order That Tells Everyone Else To Do The Hard Part
President Trump signed his second executive order targeting college athletics. The new order, titled "Urgent National Action to Save College Sports," directs the NCAA to update or clarify its rules before August 1, 2026, across several categories, including eligibility, transfers, and compensation.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/newsletter-image-likeness-vol-179-executive-order-tells-heitner-zzxee/
To Fill Air Traffic Controller Shortage, F.A.A. Turns to Gamers
The Federal Aviation Administration is making a recruiting push aimed at avid players of video games, as the agency strives to fill thousands of vacancies that lawmakers have said leave the traveling public less safe. In recent years, video gamers have emerged as a target demographic for recruiters at a number of federal agencies, including the military and the Department of Homeland Security. They are welcomed for their hand-eye coordination, quick decision-making in complex environments, and ability to remain focused on screens for hours on end.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/us/politics/air-traffic-controller-gamer.html
Trump Was Watching a U.F.C. Fight in Miami While Iran Talks Collapsed
As Vice President JD Vance took a podium in Pakistan and said that no deal had been reached to end the war in Iran, Trump was in Miami watching a mixed martial arts fight. It was unclear whether the president knew that negotiations had failed by the time he entered the arena for the U.F.C. event. On his way to Florida, Trump said it did not matter to him if a deal with Iran was reached or not.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/us/politics/trump-ufc-iran-war.html
White House wants FIFA to change transgender policy, with Women’s World Cup guarantees on the line
The White House wants FIFA to follow the lead of the International Olympic Committee by issuing a policy that would bar transgender athletes from competing professionally in women’s soccer, with Trump yet to sign off on required government guarantees for a United States-led bid to host the Women’s World Cup in 2031.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7172280/2026/04/08/world-cup-trump-transgender-policy/
Riders Worry About Partial Shutdown of Penn Station During World Cup
When the World Cup comes to New Jersey this summer, the state’s transit agency expects to carry 40,000 soccer enthusiasts to and from each of the eight matches being held in the Meadowlands. That influx of fans will leave NJ Transit’s regular commuters barred from Penn Station for four hours before each match at MetLife Stadium. During those four-hour periods, only fans with tickets to that day’s match will be allowed to enter NJ Transit’s sections of Penn Station.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/nyregion/penn-station-world-cup.html
FIFA faces new crisis as SoFi Stadium workers in LA threaten strike action
With just over 60 days before the World Cup begins, FIFA has a new crisis on its hands: strike threats from thousands of workers at SoFi Stadium, the tournament’s host venue in Los Angeles. The union, UNITE HERE Local 11, that represents 2,000 SoFi Stadium workers, says major concerns remain for its members about the potential presence of ICE around World Cup cities and venues this June and July.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7181775/2026/04/10/fifa-sofi-workers-strike-threat-ice-infantino/
WNBA officially approves expansion to Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia
The WNBA is officially set to expand into three new cities by 2030. The league and NBA Board of Governors announced that they had formally approved expansion teams in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia. The Cleveland franchise is set to begin play in 2028, followed by Detroit in 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7185161/2026/04/09/wnba-official-expansion-cleveland-detroit-philadelphia/
Can the Premier League do more to combat violence against women and girls?
In attempting to understand the Premier League’s approach to preventing violence against women and girls, The Athletic found that there is a perceived gap between how the Premier League addresses violence against women and girls and other topics. While multiple Premier League clubs have launched initiatives to raise awareness of and prevent violence against women and girls, the engagement is inconsistent, and there is no league-wide campaign.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7143844/2026/04/06/premier-league-violence-women-girls/
The X account making NHL players rethink social media: ‘It’s pretty invasive’
The X account NHL Follow Tracker (@NHLFollowTrack) posts updates on who NHL players and teams follow and unfollow on Instagram. This account has offered a revealing look at NHL player interests, including potential romantic connections and political leanings. The account is growing and its ability to gain significant attention in certain moments has been noticed.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7178360/2026/04/08/nhl-follow-tracker-x-social-media/
A coach secretly filmed his women players undressing – yet he can still work in football
Using a miniature camera hidden in his backpack, Czech women’s football coach Petr Vlachovsky recorded 15 players showering and changing in various locker rooms before and after practice and matches. He was arrested in 2023, received a suspended one-year prison sentence and a five-year domestic coaching ban, and was found guilty of possessing child pornography material on his computer in May 2025. However, there is currently nothing stopping Vlachovsky from coaching outside of the Czech Republic.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7167630/2026/04/07/a-coach-secretly-filmed-his-women-players-undressing-yet-he-can-still-work-in-football/
Technology/Media
Judge Rejects Hegseth’s Second Attempt to Restrict Reporters at Pentagon
A federal judge rejected an attempt by the Pentagon to impose a new set of restrictions on journalists who hold credentials to cover the military complex, in another blow to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempts to control the media. The order, from Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, declared that the new policy was essentially unconstitutional.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/business/media/judge-hegseth-pentagon-reporters-rules.html
Trump Threatens Jail if Journalists Protect Certain Iran Sources
Trump vowed to pursue a “leaker” involved in disclosing details about the downing of a U.S. fighter jet in Iran late last week and indicated that the government would take action against an unnamed media outlet that disseminated the information. The threat to jail a reporter over the common journalistic practice of protecting a source is yet another escalation in Trump’s long-running campaign against U.S. news outlets.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/business/media/trump-jail-journalists-fighter-crew.html
Federal Court Denies Anthropic’s Motion to Lift ‘Supply Chain Risk’ Label
A panel of federal judges denied a motion from Anthropic to stop the Department of Defense from labeling it a security risk, a setback for the artificial intelligence company in its battle with the Trump administration over how A.I. should be used in warfare. In a four-page ruling, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said Anthropic had “not satisfied the stringent requirements” for a stay of the security risk label.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/technology/anthropic-pentagon-risk-circuit-court.html
Anthropic Races to Contain Leak of Code Behind Claude AI Agent
Anthropic is racing to contain the fallout after accidentally exposing the underlying instructions it uses to direct Claude Code. Anthropic representatives had used a copyright takedown request to force the removal of more than 8,000 copies and adaptations of the raw Claude Code instructions that developers had shared on the programming platform GitHub. The leak is a blow for Anthropic because it risks both undermining its reputation for safety and also revealing valuable trade secrets in the pitched battle for enterprise customers.
http://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/anthropic-races-contain-leak-code-115600081.html?guccounter=1
Trump Lashes Out at Prominent Conservatives Over Iran War Criticism
Trump assailed Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and two other leading conservative podcasters who oppose the war in Iran in a blistering 482-word Truth Social post that insulted his critics in starkly personal terms. The president reserved some of his sharpest attacks for Candace Owens and Alex Jones, two conspiracy-minded conservatives who in recent days have called for Trump to be removed from office. The president had faced weeks of criticism from all four media figures.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/us/politics/trump-tucker-carlson-candace-owens.html
Alignment Whack-a-Mole: Finetuning Activates Verbatim Recall of Copyrighted Books in Large Language Models
While LLM companies have claimed that their models do not store copies of training data, researchers have been able to show that finetuning the models can bypass the protections for training data, so they can expand plot summaries into full text, indicating verbatim recall of the books used to train the model. These findings offer compelling evidence that model weights store copies of copyrighted works and that the security failures that manifest after finetuning on individual authors' works undermine a key premise of recent fair use rulings, where courts have conditioned favorable outcomes on the adequacy of measures preventing reproduction of protected expression.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20957v2
OpenAI Buys Streaming Show ‘TBPN,’ Aiming to Change Narrative on A.I.
OpenAI said it had bought “TBPN,” a streaming show focused on technology and business, for an undisclosed amount and would continue to support it as the show promoted the business of technology and media. OpenAI claimed the deal would help it “create a space for a real, constructive conversation about the changes A.I. creates,” as public views of A.I. are shifting from skepticism of its capabilities to a growing fear of it
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/technology/openai-buys-tbpn.html
F.B.I. Arrests Ex-Army Employee Who Detailed Harassment to Journalist
Courtney Williams, a former U.S. Army employee, was arrested by the F.B.I. and charged with leaking classified information to a journalist who published some of her disclosures in a book and an article, where she described experiencing sexual harassment and gender discrimination during her time at Fort Bragg.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/us/army-leaker-fbi-arrest-courtney-williams.html
American Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq Is Freed
Shelly Kittleson, an American journalist who was abducted in Baghdad by an Iraqi militia allied with Iran, was freed after a week in captivity. The militia, Kataib Hezbollah, said in a statement that it had released Kittleson, “in appreciation of the patriotic positions” of Iraq’s prime minister, who had been negotiating for her release.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/world/middleeast/shelly-kittleson-journalist-iraq.html
Mutually Automated Destruction: The Escalating Global A.I. Arms Race
China, the U.S., Russia, and others have ramped up their contest over artificial-intelligence-backed weapons and military systems. The buildup has been compared to the dawn of the nuclear weapons age.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/technology/china-russia-us-ai-weapons.html
How Iran’s Information War Machine Operates Online
In late March, Iran circulated a video supposedly showing an American F/A-18 under attack. The video quickly earned millions of views online, demonstrating how Iran has exploited the global media ecosystem to propagate an image of military prowess. The New York Times has reconstructed how Iran was able to use overt and covert global networks alongside unwitting participants to spread its message through social media, state-affiliated news organizations, and American influencers.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/04/09/business/iran-war-online-influence-propaganda.html
General News
Artemis II Returned to Earth After Swinging Around Moon’s Far Side and Gives NASA Momentum in Renewed Moon Race
The successful conclusion of Artemis II sets NASA on a path to extend the agency’s achievements in space exploration, and, for now at least, the United States is ahead of China in a 21st-century space race. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch of NASA and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency were the first people to leave low-Earth orbit since 1972. Their journey captivated space enthusiasts and created new ones.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04/06/science/nasa-artemis-ii-moon-lunar-flyby
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/science/nasa-artemis-moon-flyby-photos.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/science/moon-astronauts-success.html
Republicans Unveil a $342 Million Battle Plan to Keep the Senate
The Senate Leadership Fund, the leading super PAC for Senate Republicans, is unveiling a nearly $350 million plan to preserve control of the Senate, aiming tens of millions of dollars at red-leaning states including Alaska, Iowa, and Ohio as the midterm elections grow more competitive.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/us/politics/republican-midterms-fundraising-super-pac.html
Only Trump knows why Bondi was fired as attorney general, Blanche says.
In his first news conference since being elevated to acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, who represented the president in a series of criminal cases, said “nobody has any idea” what led to former attorney general Pam Bondi’s dismissal, other than Trump.
http://nytimes.com/live/2026/04/07/us/trump-news-updates#section-130294599
Steve Bannon had refused to comply with a congressional subpoena.
The Supreme Court agreed to clear the way for the dismissal of the criminal conviction of Trump’s longtime adviser, Steve Bannon. The Court’s action came in response to a request from the Trump administration, which had asked the justices to help wipe out the conviction from Bannon’s record. Bannon already served four months in prison as a result of his 2022 conviction for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04/06/us/trump-news#supreme-court-bannon-trump
State Judges Turn to Guns in New Era of Judicial Threats
For judges across the country, threats and harassment have become an inescapable occupational hazard. The Department of Homeland Security issued a nationwide alert late last year to law enforcement agencies that the harassment of judges has surged, and the trend is likely to continue. Thousands of threats have targeted state judges in the past three years alone, among more than 14,000 broader security incidents involving state courts and their employees nationwide.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/us/state-judges-threats.html
With New Charter, Kennedy Redesigns Vaccine Committee and May Sidestep Court Ruling
The Trump administration published a new charter for the federal vaccine advisory committee that would allow Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reclaim his changes to national vaccine policy, despite a ruling last month by a federal judge blocking them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/health/cdc-rfk-jr-vaccine-committee-ruling.html
The Education Department said there was no precedent for terminating such settlements.
The Trump administration terminated multiple civil rights settlements aimed at ensuring transgender students’ rights to equal opportunity to an education, forcing school officials to choose whether to comply with the government’s interpretation of federal anti-discrimination laws or to abide by conflicting state statutes. The terminations are an escalation of the administration’s efforts to enforce Trump’s executive order that the government recognize only a person’s sex assigned at birth. Education Department officials said there was no precedent for the federal government terminating previously negotiated civil rights settlements with schools.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04/06/us/trump-news#transgender-students-civil-rights
How Trump Purged Immigration Judges to Speed Up Deportations
Judges are ordering an unprecedented number of people deported after coming under significant pressure from the Trump administration to do so or risk losing their jobs.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/us/politics/trump-miller-immigration-judges-purge.html
Trump’s Changes Lock Some Employers Out of H-1B Visa Program
Since imposing a $100,000 fee on new visas in September, the Trump administration has upended the H-1B program, a critical pipeline for a broad swath of employers ranging from big tech companies and consulting firms to hospitals and schools. The result has been a fundamental shift in who gets to benefit from the visa program.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/us/politics/h1b-visa-program-changes.html
Trump Administration Returns to Court for Yet Another Tariff Lawsuit
The Trump administration returned to court to defend the new 10% tax that the president has imposed on most imports. The outcome of the case could shape Trump’s tariff powers, and, in the event of a loss, could force the U.S. government to refund the money it has already collected.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/business/trump-tariffs-lawsuit-hearing.html
White House Secures Foreign Steel for Ballroom Project
ArcelorMittal, a European steel maker, is donating tens of millions of dollars of foreign steel for Trump’s new ballroom. The use of foreign steel for a ballroom may anger domestic companies and unions that are trying to promote the U.S. steel industry, considering that Trump promised to strengthen the U.S. steel industry and to impose stiff tariffs on foreign metals to shield manufacturers from overseas competitors.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/us/politics/white-house-foreign-steel-ballroom.html
Stung by Voters, Republican Legislators Move to Curb Citizen Initiatives
Voters frustrated by one-party control in Republican states over the last decade have increasingly turned to citizen-sponsored initiatives to enact policies that their legislatures won’t. They expanded Medicaid, adopted paid sick leave, raised the minimum wage, and safeguarded access to abortion. Now, the legislators are striking back, moving to make such initiatives much harder.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/us/politics/republicans-citizen-initiatives.html
Push to Expel Swalwell Could Touch Off Chain Reaction of House Removal Votes
The House could move within days to consider expelling Representative Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California, in light of sexual assault allegations against him. That could touch off a chain reaction of similar moves to purge accused offenders in both parties in a series of votes that, if successful, would not change the balance of power.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/us/swalwell-house-removal-votes.html
California Supreme Court Orders Sheriff to Halt Election Investigation
The California Supreme Court ordered Chad Bianco, a local sheriff, to halt an investigation into the 2025 election that prompted him to seize more than 650,000 ballots from a local election office. Bianco, a Republican from Riverside County and a candidate for governor, opened the probe into last year’s special election in late February after a group of election activists claimed that vote tallies did not match the number of ballots received. Local authorities swiftly debunked the report, but Bianco continued to pursue his investigation over the objections of the attorney general of California and the secretary of state
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/us/politics/california-supreme-court-orders-sheriff-to-halt-election-investigation.html
Justice Dept.’s Civil Rights Division Is Investigating Star Witness Against Trump
The Justice Department has assigned its civil rights division to investigate Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who outraged Trump four years ago after her testimony before Congress implicated him in the violence that erupted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The unusual move, directing a criminal case that appears to involve accusations of lying to Congress to a specialized unit that normally focuses on systemic civil rights abuses, aligns with the administration’s bid to find new ways to use the powers of the federal government to target Trump’s political opponents.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/doj-cassidy-hutchinson-investigation-trump.html
Texas Considers Required Reading List for Schools, Which Includes the Bible
Texas education officials are considering sweeping changes to English and social studies instruction that would put readings from the Bible on a new state-required reading list for millions of public school students. The changes would also bring a U.S. and Texas-centric lens to history, with less emphasis on world history, which some historians and progressive groups have opposed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/texas-considers-required-reading-list-for-schools-which-includes-the-bible.html
Idaho Cut Services for People With Schizophrenia. Then the Deaths Began.
The state of Idaho had embarked on a risky cost-cutting experiment, eliminating a set of Medicaid-funded services that were designed to deliver medical care to people with the most disabling mental illnesses. However, eliminating outreach to people with severe mental illness set off such a cascade of bad outcomes that Idaho legislators scrambled to reverse the cuts by voting to restore funding for the mental-health program.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/health/idaho-mental-health-act-cuts.html
Newly Obtained Video of Minneapolis Shooting Undermines ICE Account
This past winter, Julio C. Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan immigrant, was shot and wounded by an immigration agent in Minneapolis and then charged with attempted murder. Prosecutors later dropped their charges against Sosa-Celis in February. Video footage now raises questions about why it took so long for the government to drop the charges, because it contradicts the agent’s claim that Sosa-Celis beat him along with two other assailants.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/us/minnesota-ice-shooting-video.html
Mamdani’s New York: Chronicling His First 100 Days as Mayo
In his first 100 days as mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani crisscrossed boroughs, shoveled snow, paved concrete, slept very little, faced crises, and began a jubilant, if sometimes bumpy, transition from Albany backbencher to leader of the nation’s largest city.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/04/10/nyregion/zohran-mamdani-nyc-mayor-first-100-days.html
Gracie Mansion Suspects Wanted to Kill Up to 60 People, U.S. Says
In an eight-count indictment, prosecutors charged the two men who were arrested on March 7 outside Gracie Mansion in a terror attack with crimes that included providing material support to a terrorist organization and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. A notebook revealed that the men wanted to kill up to 60 people in the name of ISIS.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/nyregion/gracie-mansion-bomb-suspects-nyc-mayor-mamdani.html
Suspect in Gilgo Beach Murders Pleads Guilty
Rex Heuermann, the man accused of murdering at least seven women on Long Island in what became known as the Gilgo Beach killings, pleaded guilty, bringing a sudden end to a case that took investigators more than a decade to solve. Heuermann pleaded guilty to all seven murders, plus an eighth of which had not yet been charged.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04/08/nyregion/gilgo-beach-plea-deal-heuermann
War in Iran:
Iran War Live Updates: Trump Says U.S. Will ‘Blockade’ Strait of Hormuz After No Peace Deal Reached
Trump said that the United States will blockade the Strait of Hormuz, stepping up pressure on Iran after marathon peace talks between top Iranian and American leaders in Pakistan ended without a breakthrough.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04/12/world/iran-war-trump-talks-pakistan
Trump’s Threat to Wipe Out a ‘Whole Civilization’ Appalls Some on the Right
A growing number of prominent conservatives joined Democrats in condemning Trump’s warning to Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if the country does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/world/middleeast/trump-iran-threats-republicans-reaction.html
Trump Officials Try to Fight Foreign Disinformation They Once Dismissed
The Trump administration is scrambling to respond to a global information war with adversaries like Russia, China, and Iran. The information warfare around the conflict in Iran is just one instance in which administration officials appear increasingly worried that a growing number of anti-American narratives are taking root worldwide. To combat these narratives, the State Department ordered every American embassy and consulate this week to do more to push back against foreign influence campaigns, warning that they fueled hostility toward U.S. security interests.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/business/trump-foreign-disinformation-iran.html
It Will Take Months to Get Oil and Gas Flowing out of the Persian Gulf
Dozens of refineries, storage facilities, and oil and gas fields in at least nine countries, from Iran to the United Arab Emirates and beyond, have been targeted in strikes. As a result, 10% or more of the world’s oil supply has been turned off. Now, the timeline for bringing the Gulf energy system back to some semblance of normal is highly uncertain.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/business/energy-environment/iran-war-oil-gas-prices-energy.html
To Boost Military Budget, Trump Targets Popular Programs at Home
Trump is trying to eliminate a vast set of federal aid as he scrounges for ways to cut costs at home and fund a larger, more expensive military. Trump has eyed a series of potentially unpopular and divisive domestic spending cuts for the next fiscal year, in a move that may test the political appetite and financial health of a cost-weary American public. Even as voters grow frustrated with the economy, the president has proposed to scale back some of the very federal programs that are meant to ease families’ toughest financial burdens.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/politics/trump-budget-cuts.html
U.S. Government Moves Toward Automatic Registration for Military Draft
The government agency that keeps a list of draft-eligible men will begin automatically registering names later this year, abandoning a decades-old requirement that they register themselves. The change is drawing renewed attention as the U.S. war with Iran unfolds and raises questions about whether it might be a prelude to a draft.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/us/us-military-draft-automatic-registration-war.html
Hegseth Likens Easter Rescue of U.S. Airman to Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth likened the rescue on Easter Sunday of a missing American airman shot down over Iran to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the latest example of Hegseth invoking Christian theology in public statements about the war with Iran.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/us/politics/hegseth-religious-tone.html
White House Knew About Pakistan’s Cease-Fire Post on X Before It Was Sent
Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, posted a public plea on X for Trump to extend his Tuesday evening deadline for Iran. He then tagged Trump and other top advisers. However, behind the scenes, the White House had already seen and signed off on the statement before it was posted, a sign that the diplomatic channels were much more active than the message on social media suggested.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/world/middleeast/trump-pakistan-tweet-iran.html