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Tulsi Gabbard announced her resignation from the DNI post today, citing her husband Abraham's recent diagnosis with an extremely rare form of bone cancer. In her letter to President Trump, dated May 22, Gabbard expressed gratitude for the opportunity to lead ODNI for the past year and a half, with her departure effective June 30. ODNI Principal Deputy Director Aaron Lukas will serve in an acting capacity.
Kevin Warsh took the oath of office today as the new Federal Reserve chairman in an East Room ceremony, with Justice Clarence Thomas administering the oath. The Senate confirmed Warsh 54-45, largely along party lines, with only Sen. John Fetterman crossing over. Warsh pledged to lead a "reform-oriented" Fed, succeeding Jerome Powell, whose eight-year tenure concluded Friday.
House GOP leadership yanked a scheduled vote on an Iran war powers resolution Thursday after realizing it was likely to pass, with several Republican members absent ahead of the holiday weekend. The resolution, which would direct the president to remove U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran except for defensive operations, will face a vote when Congress returns June 2.
Americans in all 50 states are paying more than $4 a gallon for gasoline as the nearly three-month-long war with Iran continues to disrupt oil markets. The national average sits at $4.51 per gallon heading into the holiday weekend, with JPMorgan warning that $5 gas may soon become reality. Massive damage to Middle East oil infrastructure could keep prices elevated for months or years even after a ceasefire.
A Florida grand jury indicted former Cuban President Raul Castro and five co-defendants on charges of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and murder stemming from the 1996 shootdown of two civilian Brothers to the Rescue aircraft that killed four Americans. The USS Nimitz carrier strike group moved into the Caribbean the same day, and President Trump has hinted at further intervention against the Cuban regime.
The Treasury Department hit a group of Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese parliamentarians, state security officials, and financial operatives with sanctions for seeking to preserve the Iran-backed group's influence over Lebanese institutions and obstruct disarmament. Investigators allege the network laundered more than a billion dollars since January 2025 through Lebanon's cash economy and unscreened exchange houses, funding weapons smuggling and terror operations.
In the aftermath of his May 14 Beijing summit with Xi Jinping, President Trump declined to commit to billions of dollars in weapons sales to Taiwan, calling it "a very good negotiating chip." Trump warned Taiwan not to expect unconditional U.S. military backing if it triggers a conflict, saying he is not looking to "travel 9,500 miles to fight a war." Taipei is watching nervously as its defense-spending package narrows.
The international scientific committee behind the IPCC has officially retired SSP5-8.5 — the worst-case emissions scenario that powered more than fifteen years of apocalyptic climate headlines about vanishing coastlines and civilizational collapse. The committee declared the scenario "implausible" based on renewable energy growth, actual emissions trends, and existing climate policies, removing it from the framework that will underpin the next IPCC assessment.
Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb says the third-ever detected interstellar object to enter our solar system — 3I/ATLAS — shows an unexplained frontal glow that cannot be accounted for by sunlight reflection or standard cometary outgassing. Loeb suggests the gigawatt-level luminosity could theoretically be explained by nuclear power, and the object's trajectory is consistent with a "reconnaissance mission," though he stresses more evidence is needed before ruling out natural explanations.
Stephen Colbert's Late Show aired its final episode Wednesday night after CBS canceled the program, citing a "purely financial decision" — the show was reportedly losing the network $40 million a year on a $100 million annual budget. The cancellation became especially charged after Colbert denounced Paramount's $16 million settlement with President Trump as a "big, fat bribe" for the Skydance merger. CBS will replace the time slot with Byron Allen's "Comics Unleashed."
