NTD News Today

The man accused of shooting a U.S. Secret Service agent as he tried to breach security at a Washington dinner where President Donald Trump was present is expected in court on Monday to face criminal charges. Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, is scheduled to make his first appearance in Washington federal court, two days after authorities said they foiled an attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
Tech giants Elon Musk and Sam Altman are facing each other in court on Monday. Musk is suing the maker of ChatGPT, OpenAI, and its leaders, including CEO Sam Altman. Musk says he was deceived by the executives when OpenAI became a for-profit operation, after originally billing itself as a nonprofit mission. OpenAI’s lawyers counter that Musk is motivated by a compulsion to control OpenAI and prop up his own AI lab xAI, which he founded in 2023 shortly after OpenAI launched ChatGPT and sparked the AI boom.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on April 24 that a U.S. blockade on Iran is going global, adding that Tehran had a chance to make a "good deal" with Washington. Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. Central Command continues to maintain a strict blockade on all ports in Iran. Caine said 34 ships had been turned around as of Friday morning. He added that the U.S. military would continue to interdict Iranian vessels in the Pacific and Indian oceans.
President Donald Trump has extended a waiver of the century-old Jones Act for 90 days, allowing foreign-flagged vessels to transport fuel and other goods between U.S. ports to ease price increases triggered by the Iran war and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. The waiver applies to a range of goods, including crude oil, natural gas, coal, fertilizer, and refined petroleum products.

The U.S. Senate voted early on April 23 to advance a $70 billion funding blueprint for immigration enforcement agencies, moving Republicans a step closer to unlocking a party-line bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term. Lawmakers voted 50–48 in predawn hours to adopt the nonbinding budget resolution and send it to the House of Representatives, overcoming demands from Democrats for new restrictions on enforcement operations.
Trump said on April 23 that he has ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines to restrict traffic transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The president's post on Truth Social came shortly after the U.S. military seized another tanker associated with the smuggling of Iranian oil. The president said he would order U.S. minesweeping ships to continue to clear any mines that may have been set in the strait.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on April 22 about the department's fiscal year 2027 budget request. It's the sixth of seven hearings on that budget plan.
Virginia voters on April 21 approved a new congressional map that could boost the chances of the Democratic Party winning four additional U.S. House seats in November’s midterm elections.
Democrats are looking to offset GOP gains in Texas after its new map was drawn to favor the Republicans in Congress.

Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve, appears before the Senate Banking Committee for his nomination hearing on Tuesday. President Trump selected the former Fed board member in January as the next head of the U.S. central bank. Several issues will likely be on the agenda, including central bank independence and the potential path of monetary policy.
President Trump told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday that he did not want to extend a ceasefire with Iran, adding the U.S. was in a strong negotiating position and would end up with what he called a great deal. Washington has expressed confidence that talks with Iran will go ahead in Pakistan, and a senior Iranian official said Tehran was considering joining.