“The Virginia Supreme Court on Monday will hear arguments in a Republican challenge to the redrawn congressional map that was approved by voters last week and could net Democrats four additional U.S. House seats. The case contends that the Democratic-led General Assembly violated procedural requirements by placing the constitutional amendment before voters to authorize mid-decade redistricting. If the court agrees that lawmakers broke the rules, it could invalidate the amendment and render last week’s statewide vote meaningless.” (04/27/26)
“Strikes across Ukraine, Russian-occupied territory and Russia killed at least 16 people, authorities said, as the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster prompted fresh warnings about the risks posed by attacks near the plant during Russia’s more than four-year invasion of its neighbor. The death toll from Russian drone and missile strikes on the city of Dnipro rose to nine, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said Sunday. One man was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the port city of Sevastopol, in [formerly Ukrainian, now Russian] Crimea, Moscow-installed authorities said Sunday.” (04/26/26)
“The U.S. military launched a strike Friday on a boat accused of ferrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, [murdering] two people, according to U.S. Southern Command. No U.S. military forces were harmed in the operation, it said in a statement on X late Friday. U.S. Southern Command shared a video showing a boat floating in the water before an explosion left it in flames. It said it targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes.” (04/25/26)
“Authorities in Tunisia have ordered a one-month suspension of the Tunisian League for Human Rights, one of the oldest rights groups in Africa and the Arab world and part of the National Dialogue Quartet awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, in the latest move raising concerns over a widening crackdown on civil society. The league confirmed the suspension in a statement late Friday, warning that the decision amounted to ‘a serious and arbitrary violation of freedom of association’ and ‘a direct assault’ on one of Tunisia’s key democratic gains. President Kais Saied has often cited foreign funding, which rights groups sometimes rely on, as a threat to Tunisia, using it to fuel a populist narrative and accuse his political opponents and social justice activists of being foreign agents and stirring unrest at home.” (04/25/26)
“A car bomb exploded outside a police station in the Dunmurry area of south Belfast late on Saturday after a delivery vehicle was hijacked and the driver forced to take it to the site, [British-occupied] Ireland police said on Sunday. The attack is the latest in a series of sporadic attempts by militant groups that continue to target police officers, decades after a peace deal largely ended sectarian violence in the region. … The car was hijacked in the Twinbrook area of west Belfast shortly after 10:50 p.m. (2150 GMT) on Saturday and a gas cylinder device was placed in the trunk, police said. The man was ordered to drive the vehicle to Dunmurry police station, Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton told a news conference. The vehicle was abandoned outside the front of the station, prompting police to activate an alarm and evacuate nearby homes, Singleton said.” (04/26/26)
“Independent researcher Giancarlo Lelli derived a 15-bit elliptic curve key using a publicly accessible quantum computer, in what Project Eleven called the ‘largest quantum attack’ on elliptic curve cryptography to date, albeit at a scale far below that used in real-world cryptographic systems. Project Eleven, a post-quantum security startup, awarded a 1 BTC bounty, currently worth over $78,000, to Lelli as part of its ‘Q-Day Prize.’ The bounty program was launched last year by the project to break elliptic-curve keys ranging from 1 to 25 bits before April 5 this year. … Bitcoin uses 256-bit elliptic curve cryptography to secure wallets, which is far larger than the 15-bit key broken in this demonstration.” (04/24/26)
“A federal judge in California has denied the government’s request to pause its appeal of a March ruling that temporarily blocked the Pentagon from labeling Anthropic as a supply chain risk. Justice Department lawyers argued earlier this week that the appeal should be put on hold until judges at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals hand down a ruling in another case regarding Anthropic’s clash with the Pentagon. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin denied that request on Thursday, noting that the D.C. case was brought pursuant to a different statute. … Due to a quirk in federal law, Anthropic was forced in March to file lawsuits in both Northern California and the D.C. Circuit when it challenged the government’s action designating it a supply chain risk. On April 8, a three-judge panel at the D.C. Circuit rejected Anthropic’s request to pause the designation, creating a court split.” (04/24/26)
“Explosions and sustained gunfire have been reported in Mali’s capital, Bamako, as armed groups launched co-ordinated attacks across the country. Mali’s military said on Saturday evening that efforts to repel the attacks were under way, and some militants had already fled. Fighting has also been reported around Kati, home to a major military base outside the capital, as well as in Gao and Kidal in the north, and the central cities of Sevare and Mopti. One analyst described it as the largest jihadist attack in years. Mali has for years been plagued by insurgencies by groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, as well as a separatist movement in the country’s north.” (04/26/26)
“Former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores can pay their attorneys with money from the Venezuelan government, ending a monthlong legal standoff. Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys wrote a joint letter to Judge Alvin Hellerstein filed Friday night saying that the Department of Treasury would amend a license allowing payments to the Maduros’ lawyers without violating U.S. sanctions laws. … On March 26, Maduro’s attorney argued that the case against them should be dismissed because they were unable to pay their attorney fees. The sanctions disallowed them from accessing funds from the Venezuelan government. Prosecutors had argued that they could use personal funds, but the Maduros argued they didn’t have any.” (04/25/26)
“In the late hours of Friday night, Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee scheduled a vote to advance President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve, shortly after the Justice Department announced it was dropping its criminal probe into the current head of the central bank, Jerome Powell. The committee vote will take place on April 29, putting megarich financier Kevin Warsh on track for full Senate confirmation by the time Powell’s term as Fed chair ends on May 15. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the banking panel, said in a statement early Saturday morning that ‘either the Republican majority is fooled easily or they are hoping to fool the American people’, arguing that the Justice Department only agreed to drop its widely condemned probe of Powell—for now, at least—to clear the way for Warsh’s confirmation.” (04/25/26)
