“Venezuela’s former opposition candidate Edmundo González called on Saturday for presidential elections as the five-month mark of interim President Delcy Rodríguez’s administration approaches in the wake of the U.S. military intervention that ousted Nicolás Maduro in early January. The 76-year-old former diplomat was recognized by several countries as the legitimate winner of the July 2024 elections amid a post-election crisis and street protests as the opposition alleged fraud. Electoral records that showed González’s victory over Maduro were deemed credible by international observers.” (05/30/26)
“The latest poll of the California governor’s race just days before the primary election shows Democrat Xavier Becerra widening his late lead. A sprawling survey published Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California asked nearly 40 questions on California and national issues and gauged voters’ preferences in the governor’s race. Becerra, who has climbed in recent polls, is the leading candidate with 23% support among likely voters in PPIC’s poll, despite heavy scrutiny from his opponents in the last gubernatorial debate. … Just behind Becerra in the recent poll is Republican and former Fox News host Steve Hilton, with 20% support. Hilton has consistently fared well in the polls and received an endorsement from President Donald Trump. … While Becerra and Hilton appear to be the leaders ahead of the primary, billionaire and Democratic candidate Tom Steyer is next behind the front-runners in the PPIC poll with 15% support.” (05/29/26)
“A federal judge declared a New Hampshire law that would have required new voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship because it is unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge Samantha Elliott wrote in the ruling, issued on Thursday, that New Hampshire House Bill 1569 would have made it harder for people to register to vote and cast ballots by removing methods for them to do so. The law would have required all new voters to provide a document proving citizenship, rather than attesting to their citizenship under penalty of perjury on an affidavit. New Hampshire state law already states that the form filled out and signed when registering qualifies as an affidavit, whether it is filed 30 days before an election or on election day, per state law, Elliott wrote.” (05/29/26)
“A Russian drone crashed into an apartment building in Romania early Friday, injuring two people and setting the building ablaze, exactly the type of spillover from the war in Ukraine that many in Europe have long feared. It was one of 232 drones and one ballistic missile launched by Russia against neighboring Ukraine, authorities there said, the latest nearly nightly attack against Ukraine’s power grid. An unknown number of these drones crossed over into Romanian airspace, its government said. ‘This incident represents a serious and irresponsible escalation by the Russian Federation,’ Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Oana-Silvia Țoiu said in a statement, promising to respond …” (05/29/26)
“A powerful New Glenn rocket owned by Jeff Bezos'[s] Blue Origin exploded in a spectacular fireball Thursday, sending billowing clouds of fire, smoke and flaming debris into the night sky in a tremendous conflagration visible for miles around. The explosion occurred around 9 p.m. EDT as engineers were counting down to a brief test firing of the New Glenn’s seven methane-fueled BE-4 first stage engines at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Blue Origin was gearing up for a June launch to put a batch of Amazon ‘Leo’ internet satellites into orbit. … The U.S. Space Force Eastern Range, which coordinates all launches from Florida, said in a statement that ’emergency responders are on the scene. All personnel have been accounted for and there were no injuries/fatalities.'” (05/29/26)
“The US and Iran reached a tentative agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz and start nuclear talks, according to US officials — though President Donald Trump has not signed off on it yet. Iranian officials have not yet commented on a potential deal. US Vice President JD Vance said ‘a couple of language points’ are still under discussion but the sides are making progress in peace talks. Sources say the tentative deal would begin 60 more days of negotiation on Tehran’s nuclear program.” (05/29/26)
“President Donald Trump has refiled his lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal’s publisher and two of its reporters over a July 2025 report on a lewd birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump’s name. Tuesday’s defamation lawsuit seeks $10 billion for damages and claims that the story had ‘glaring failures in journalistic ethics and standards of accurate reporting.’ … The president’s earlier lawsuit was dismissed last month, with a federal judge ruling that Trump failed to plausibly allege the newspaper acted with ‘actual malice’ when it reported the story. … The Wall Street Journal story published in July 2025 was about a collection of letters gifted to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003. One of the letters, the Wall Street Journal reported, bore Trump’s name and an outline of a naked woman. Trump has denied writing the letter.” (05/28/26)
“The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits increased marginally last week amid relatively low layoffs, despite the dragging war with Iran. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 215,000 for the week ended May 23, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 211,000 claims for the latest week. Claims have been tucked in a 190,000-230,000 range this year. … The unemployment rate is expected to have held steady at 4.3% in May. Continuing claims have dropped from last year’s lofty levels, though some of the decline is likely due to people exhausting their eligibility for benefits, limited to 26 weeks in most states.” (05/28/26)
“A U.S. judge on Thursday declined to block President Donald Trump’s executive tightening rules on mail-in voting in a loss for the Democratic Party, whose lawyers argued that it could disenfranchise millions of voters. The decision comes as Trump’s Republicans are locked in a tight battle to keep control of both houses of the U.S. Congress in the November midterm elections. … The executive order signed by Trump on March 31 directed his administration to compile a list of confirmed U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state and to use federal data to help state election officials verify who is eligible to vote. It also required the U.S. Postal Service to only deliver ballots to voters on each state’s approved mail-in ballot list, and required states to preserve election-related records for five years.” (05/28/26)
“U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has called for the United States to formally recognize Somaliland, saying stronger ties with Hargeisa would advance American security and strategic interests in the Horn of Africa. Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas and chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, told Fox News Digital that Somaliland’s location and willingness to cooperate with Washington make it a valuable security partner for the United States. ‘Somaliland promises to be a critical counterterrorism ally for the United States, both because of its strong willingness to partner with us and because of its unique location,’ Cruz said in a statement to Fox News Digital.” (05/28/26)
