“South Korean prosecutors on Friday sought a 30-year prison sentence for jailed former President Yoon Suk Yeol, alleging he ordered military drones to infiltrate North Korea in a bid to provoke tensions ahead of his short-lived martial law declaration in 2024. A special counsel team led by Cho Eun-suk said Yoon and senior defense officials orchestrated the drone incursions through military command channels to trigger a North Korean response and create a security crisis as justification for emergency rule. The team charged Yoon, former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and former Defense Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyung with offenses including aiding an enemy state and abuse of power.” (04/24/26)
“Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his military to ‘vigorously attack Hezbollah targets’ in Lebanon, two days after a ceasefire was extended by three weeks. Fresh Israeli attacks followed the directive, which came after at least six people were killed in strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday. Further cross-border exchanges between the two sides have strained the truce agreement, highlighting the precarity of the ceasefire. The agreement, which has seen a reduction in fire rather than a complete halt, was extended on Thursday after talks between the countries’ envoys in Washington. Earlier on Saturday, Israeli strikes on a truck and a motorbike in the town of Yohmor al-Shaqeef in the Nabatieh district killed four people, Lebanon’s health ministry said, according to Agence-France-Presse.” (04/26/26)
“A federal judge is raising concerns about whether Donald Trump’s attempt to sue the IRS for $10 billion can proceed, signaling she could throw out the case because the president oversees the government entities he is suing. Judge Kathleen Williams raised the issue in an order on Friday denying a request to delay the case amid possible settlement talks. She noted that Trump and the defendants — the Treasury Department and IRS — may not be ‘sufficiently adverse’ to one another for the case to proceed. … Trump, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and the Trump Organization filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department in January related to the unauthorized disclosure of tax information during Trump’s first term. A government contractor with the IRS pleaded guilty in 2023 to stealing the tax information of Donald Trump and other wealthy Americans and leaking it to media outlets in 2019 and 2020.” (04/24/26)
“The United States Geological Survey reports a preliminary magnitude 3.0 earthquake struck near San Francisco Zoo, CA on Saturday. The quake hit at 4:39 p.m. at a depth of 6.96 kilometers. This was followed by a preliminary magnitude 2.7 earthquake in the same area. That quake hit at 4:41 p.m. at a depth of 6.87 kilometers. There was no initial word on damage or injury resulting from the quake. More information on this earthquake is available on the USGS event page.” (04/26/26)
“Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek on Friday released a preview version of its long-awaited V4 large language model, allowing users to test its new capabilities and features. The release comes more than a year after the Hangzhou-based company introduced its R1 reasoning model, which rocked global tech markets due to its surprising performance and cost efficiency. Similar to DeepSeek’s previous model releases, the latest upgrade is open-source, allowing developers to download the code, run it locally and modify it in most cases. … DeepSeek also said that V4 has been optimized for use with popular agent tools such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenClaw.” (04/24/26)
“Tensions in the standoff between the U.S. and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz intensified Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he ordered the U.S. military to ‘shoot and kill’ Iranian small boats in the strait, while Iran pushed back on Trump’s claim there was a leadership rift in the Islamic Republic. … Trump also said Thursday evening that Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House. The standoff between the U.S. and Iran has effectively choked off nearly all exports through the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world’s traded oil passes in peacetime, with no end in sight.” (04/24/26)
“The Trump administration has moved to reclassify marijuana, more than four months after Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general to move it from schedule I to schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. The schedule I classification meant marijuana was alongside heroin, LSD, MDMA and synthetic opioids, whereas a schedule III classification put it in the same category as ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone. … rescheduling will not immediately legalize marijuana or affect the sentences of those incarcerated for possession.” (04/23/26)
“Ukraine’s drone wing says it has killed at least 12 officers and injured 15 others in a strike on a command post for Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Unmanned Systems Forces commander Robert ‘Madyar’ Brovdi confirmed the attack yesterday in [the formerly Ukrainian region of] Donetsk, and said Ukrainian forces used FP-2 drones manufactured by the Ukrainian defence company Fire Point. He said the command post hit in the attack is responsible for sabotage operations, building intelligence networks, recruitment, carrying out terrorist attacks and arson, and coordinating Russian proxy forces.” (04/24/26)
“A U.S. Army soldier has been accused of using classified information about the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to place bets on the prediction market Polymarket, federal officials said Thursday. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a soldier stationed at Fort Bragg who was involved in the planning of the operation, was charged with using confidential government information for personal gain. He allegedly made more than $400,000 in profits from the wagers. … Van Dyke allegedly created an account on Polymarket on Dec. 26 and placed about $33,000 worth of bets on markets about U.S. operations in Venezuela and Maduro’s ouster between Dec. 27 and Jan. 2. The U.S. launched the operation in Venezuela early on Jan. 3, capturing Maduro and his wife. The U.S. attorney’s office also accused Van Dyke of attempting to conceal his identity as the trades drew widespread scrutiny.” (04/23/26)
“Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon that killed a journalist on Wednesday were a war crime, Lebanon’s prime minister said. A journalists’ union said rescuers were prevented from accessing the destroyed building where the reporter was left trapped beneath rubble. Amal Khalil, 43, a journalist with the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, bled to death in the ruins of a building that was hit in an Israeli drone strike after Israeli forces’ gunfire prevented ambulance crews from reaching her ‘for nearly four hours,’ according to Lebanon’s Union of Journalists.” (04/23/26)
