“A New York rabbi was found dismembered and stuffed inside a bloodstained wardrobe after he was attacked and murdered by Colombian gangbangers. Nachum Israel Eber’s mutilated remains were discovered inside the abandoned closet after it was dumped on a street in Bogota on Sunday — just days after his family reported him missing, local media reported. The 51-year-old father, who was a member of the Belz Hasidic community in Brooklyn’s Boro Park, had traveled to the South American country earlier this month to help advise a congregation of Catholics who had converted to Judaism. Authorities started searching for him after relatives in the Big Apple reported he had suddenly gone silent and stopped answering their calls. Surveillance video captured Eber leaving his Airbnb just after 9 p.m. April 21 before he vanished without a trace.” (04/30/26)
“Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) announced Thursday that she will suspend her Senate campaign over a lack of financial resources, clearing the way for primary rival Graham Platner. … Mills, who is term limited as governor, jumped into the race late last year to challenge incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R) as a top recruit from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) But Platner, a progressive political outsider, has been besting Mills in polling and fundraising five weeks out from the June 9 primary, despite various controversies around his campaign. An Emerson College Polling survey released last month showed Platner leading Mills by about 27 points in the Senate Democratic contest.” (04/30/26)
“The first direct commercial flight between the United States and Venezuela departed a bit early Thursday on its way to the capital of the South American country, seven years after the U.S. Homeland Security Department ordered an indefinite suspension, citing security concerns. The resumption of a nonstop commercial flight between the two countries comes months after the U.S. capture of then President Nicolás Maduro in a stunning nighttime raid on his residence in Caracas in early January. It also comes a month after the U.S. formally reopened its embassy in Caracas following the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Venezuela.” (04/30/26)
“Brazil’s Senate dealt a political blow to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Wednesday by rejecting his nomination to the Supreme Court, the first in more than 130 years and a sign that the veteran leader is not popular among many important lawmakers as he seeks reelection. Only 34 senators voted in favor of Jorge Messias, who has been Brazil’s solicitor-general since 2023 and a close legal adviser to Lula, while another 42 rejected his appointment. Many of the latter, including presidential hopeful Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, celebrated in the chambers after the result. Messias, who also worked for former president and Lula ally Dilma Rousseff, needed 41 votes to be approved.” (04/30/26)
“The US is ‘studying and reviewing’ whether to reduce the thousands of troops it has stationed in Germany, President Donald Trump has announced via social media. His remarks came days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticised his approach to the war in Iran, suggesting that US had been ‘humiliated’ by Iranian negotiators. Trump said in a social media post late on Wednesday that a decision on troop numbers would be made ‘over the next short period of time. Then early on Thursday he rounded on Merz, saying he should ‘spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine (Where he has been totally ineffective!).’ The BBC has reached out to the White House for comment. The US has a significant military presence in Germany, with more than 36,000 active duty troops assigned to bases across the country as of last December.” (04/30/26)
“A full federal appeals court rejected Donald Trump’s request to rehear his appeal of an $83.3 million defamation judgment awarded to writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused the president of lying when he denied sexually abusing her. Trump has been fighting the multimillion-dollar penalty since a jury in 2024 ordered him to pay Carroll compensatory and punitive damages. The president is expected to ask the conservative-leaning Supreme Court to hear his case next. … The ruling marked the third and fourth times the full 2nd Circuit court had voted to deny en banc rehearing of rulings in this specific defamation case and fifth and sixth denial opinions it has issued involving both cases Carroll brought against Trump.” (04/30/26)
“Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday that she wouldn’t let the U.S. meddle in the country’s affairs, and that her attorney general would investigate allegations from a New York court indictment accusing 10 Mexican current and former officials of working with the Sinaloa Cartel to traffic drugs. The indictment named a number of sitting officials in Sinaloa, including members of Sheinbaum’s progressive Morena party, fueling a political firestorm at a time when Sheinbaum has sought to offset U.S. pressures while appeasing her own base. Shortly after, Mexico’s government said that it had seen extradition request from the U.S. for 10 citizens, without naming them. The highest profile official implicated was Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, a top Morena official and close ally of Sheinbaum’s mentor and predecessor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.” (04/30/26)
“Freedom of the press around the world has fallen to its lowest level in a quarter of a century, according to the leading Paris-based press freedom NGO, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), or Reporters Without Borders. Every year, RSF publishes a World Press Freedom Index used to compare the level of freedom enjoyed by journalists and media outlets in 180 countries. Its ranking uses a five-point scale to assess a country’s level of press freedom, ranging from ‘very serious’ to ‘good.’ For the first time since RSF started producing the index in 2002, more than half of the world’s countries fall into the ‘difficult’ or ‘very serious’ categories for press freedom – ‘a clear sign that journalism is increasingly criminalised worldwide.'” (04/29/26)
“The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) racked up a $1.2 million tab at D.C.’s five-star Salamander Hotel during a lobbying trip to oppose President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a new report from the Center for Union Facts (CUF) found. Social media posts show that SEIU members from around the country converged in Washington, D.C., between June 23 and June 29, 2025, to confront lawmakers and stage protests against the tax and spending cuts under consideration in Congress. Department of Labor disclosures logged on June 30, 2025, reveal that the union spent $1.2 million of members’ dues at the Salamander Hotel to cover a series of expenses labeled as ‘support for political activities.'” (04/30/26)
“The Minnesota House of Representatives introduced a bill that could penalize cities and counties for not flying the redesigned state flag. Members of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party pushed legislation Monday to reduce state aid to a county or city that ‘flies or otherwise makes use of a state flag other than the design of the state flag as certified in the report of the State Emblems Redesign Commission.’ If passed, the bill would go into effect in 2027. Fox News Digital reached out to Minnesota state House members and the speaker of the House for comment. The bill followed several cities and communities in recent years voting in favor of returning to the original state flag, which was adopted in 1893. On the same day the bill was introduced, the Inver Grove Heights City Council voted to join Elk River, Champlin, Zumbrota and Plainview in flying the original flag on city buildings.” (04/30/26)
