California Governor Gavin Newsom disclosed Monday that the Justice Department's public integrity section is investigating him and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom, with federal agents reportedly probing potential tax fraud and personal misuse of nonprofit funds. Agents have knocked on the doors of family friends and former Newsom employees, and the governor is calling it the weaponization of the grand jury process against a likely 2028 presidential rival. The probe follows similar DOJ actions targeting James Comey, Letitia James, and Adam Schiff.
A new investigation finds that nearly 1,800 of ATF's approximately 2,500 agents were reassigned over the past year to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement, gutting the bureau's capacity for its core gun-trafficking mission. Criminal referrals for gun trafficking fell 15% in 2025 as a result. Separately, the DOJ unveiled 34 proposed firearms regulatory rollbacks, including ending the requirement that dealers permanently retain transaction records and rescinding the Biden-era rule closing the gun-show loophole.
A Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and de Beaumont Foundation poll released Monday found only 50% of Americans trust CDC health recommendations, down from 77% just one year ago. The partisan collapse is especially striking: trust among Democrats fell from 92% to just 34%, while independents dropped from 77% to 47%. Notably, broad support for childhood vaccines held relatively steady — suggesting the backlash is directed at the institution itself, not the underlying medical guidance.
Federal immigration agents have begun approaching county election officials in Texas and North Carolina directly, requesting voter registration rolls as part of an alleged noncitizen voting investigation — bypassing state election authorities and standard legal channels. Local officials say the direct approach is unprecedented and raises questions about voter privacy and the legal basis for the requests. The effort is part of a broader administration push to cross-reference citizenship status against voter databases ahead of the 2026 midterms.
President Trump arrived at the G7 Summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, riding momentum from the Iran ceasefire as European Commission President von der Leyen announced a €90 billion support loan for Ukraine, covering roughly two-thirds of Kyiv's funding needs through 2027. Trump told arriving leaders the U.S. will now "focus again on Ukraine" with the Iran chapter closing. A dedicated Ukraine session is scheduled for Tuesday with Zelensky attending, and a Trump-Zelensky bilateral meeting is expected on the margins.
Four Ukrainian emergency rescue workers were killed and six others injured Monday in Kharkiv after Russian forces executed a deliberate double-tap strike, hitting first responders who had deployed to assist victims of an initial attack. The tactic, designed specifically to kill rescuers, is a documented Russian battlefield pattern. Across the broader front, 118 separate combat engagements were recorded in the 24 hours ending Sunday night, with the heaviest fighting concentrated along the Pokrovsk and Huliaipole axes.
Tournament favorite Spain was held to a 0-0 draw Monday by Cape Verde, an island nation with a population under 600,000 making its first-ever World Cup appearance. In Sunday's action, Germany demolished Curaçao 7-1, with Kai Havertz and Jamal Musiala starring. Curaçao — population just 160,000 — became the smallest nation in World Cup history to score a goal. The USA remains the tournament's most dominant host-nation performer after Thursday's 4-1 dismantling of Paraguay.
A peer-reviewed reanalysis is challenging one of ecology's most celebrated narratives — that wolf reintroduction at Yellowstone in the mid-1990s triggered a sweeping "trophic cascade" that changed river courses, exploded vegetation, and remade the entire park ecosystem. The new analysis found the original methodology significantly overstated the effect, with actual ecological impacts more modest and localized than the famous story suggests. The original study has been cited thousands of times worldwide and used to justify wolf reintroduction programs across multiple continents.
Researchers have developed an artificial photosynthesis system that automatically balances light harvesting and energy conversion without external power management, mimicking the feedback loops real plants use to prevent cellular damage from excess sunlight. The system could power low-energy sensors, environmental monitors, and remote devices entirely from ambient light with no batteries required. Scientists say the design may also significantly improve the efficiency of next-generation solar cells.
The United States and Japan have finalized a trade agreement locking in tariffs on Japanese goods — including automobiles — at 15%, a significant pullback from the 25% rate the administration had threatened. The deal gives Japanese automakers and exporters long-awaited certainty and removes a major friction point in Washington's relationship with its key Pacific ally. Combined with falling oil prices from the Iran deal reopening the Strait of Hormuz, economists say the twin tailwinds may provide modest but real consumer relief heading into the summer.
