Every Black Republican Is Leaving the House, Erasing Diversity Gains

All four Black House Republicans are retiring after this year, a reflection of the striking and persistent lack of diversity in the G.O.P. ranks of Congress.

The New York Times

He recorded his quest for tariff refunds. It shows why billions may never get repaid

As he trudged toward the answers to those questions, Brown kept an audio diary that he shared with NPR. And his experience illustrates something that’s raising alarm bells among trade experts: the prospect that thousands of U.S. businesses may never get back the billions of tariff dollars the U.S. government promised to refund.

NPR

Google Has a Secret Reference Desk. Here’s How to Use It.

40 Google features to find exactly what you need, the alternative search engines that do things Google won’t, and the reference desk framework underneath all of it.

Card Catalogue

A Trump-branded nuclear power project thrilled investors. Then came the crash.

Corporate drama and a stock plummet at Fermi America are raising questions about the sustainability of the wider artificial intelligence boom.

The Washington Post

Trump’s Polling Free Fall

The president’s approval numbers are cratering as America’s cost-of-living crisis worsens

Rolling Stone

New Jersey governor is down to join redistricting wars, following Supreme Court gutting of Voting Rights Act

“Right now, we are looking at what’s going on and making sure that people know that the voting system is fair,” said Gov. Sherrill. “If Trump is going to try to attack fair voting across the country, then New Jersey is going to stand up so that we can create, you know, a counter-balance to whatever he’s doing.”

Democracy Docket

Why this tribe is buying up hundreds of acres of farmland — and flooding it

Tidal marshes are crucial nurseries for young Chinook salmon and a focal point for efforts to bringthese fish back from the brink of extinction. The Stillaguamish Tribe has been buying riverfront land in its traditional territory and removing levees to turn farmland into wetland with the hope of restoring Chinook.

NPR

How the Trump Administration Ended Independent Science at the E.P.A.

The agency’s prestigious research office spent decades doing scientific work insulated from political pressure. Now it’s being dismantled.

The New York Times

The Trump Administration Aims to Penalize Disabled Adults Who Live With Their Families

A rule change pushed by White House officials would slash benefits or end support for as many as 400,000 Supplemental Security Income recipients with Down syndrome, dementia and other disabilities whose parents or relatives receive SNAP benefits.

ProPublica

Louisiana early voting kicks off with confusion over election changes

“I went ahead and voted for who I wanted to vote for. If they don’t count it, that’s their problem,” said Betty Powers, who has participated in every election since 1968, outside an East Baton Rouge Parish polling location.

Nevada Current

Regional businesses say Iran war, Trump tariffs are increasing prices, hurting the economy

“Contacts across sectors highlighted escalating energy costs related to the conflict in the Middle East, with some describing fuel costs as ‘skyrocketing’ and others noting that this would further exacerbate already-high freight costs. Materials costs continued to rise, particularly for metals like copper, steel, and aluminum, with manufacturers citing tariffs as drivers. Two agricultural contacts reported fertilizer cost spikes, and one attributed this to the Strait of Hormuz closure.”

Ohio Capital Journal

Louisiana sued for suspending active election, nullifying votes to draft GOP gerrymander

A new lawsuit is challenging Louisiana’s extraordinary decision to suspend congressional primaries already underway — arguing the state is illegally nullifying votes and plunging an active election into chaos following the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act.

Democracy Docket

At 82, she’s jumping into the fight over immigration. Here’s why

“As you age, in spite of your good habits, your bodies fail,” Siebenaler said, flanked by a couple dozen seniors in raincoats and ponchos, a few with their rolling walkers. “Some assistance, of course, comes from families. But often that assistance comes from the caretakers.”

NPR

Candidates target Steyer, Becerra in free-wheeling California governor debate

In a chaotic debate Tuesday night in Claremont, Democrats targeted Steyer and Becerra and everyone sought a breakout moment. No one broke out of the pack.

Cal Matters

In Chicago, Prosecutors Fight to Keep Exonerated People from Clearing Their Names

Under State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, Cook County prosecutors have tried to block nearly every exonerated person who has sought a certificate of innocence. It’s another stark sign of how Burke has changed the official approach to innocence claims in the nation’s wrongful conviction capital.

Bolts

California’s Flawed Primary System Could Result in the Deep-Blue State Electing a GOP Governor

The state’s messy primary underscores the urgent need for ranked-choice voting in California — and beyond.

Truthout

Susan Collins says she will not alter her strategy after Janet Mills’ departure from Senate race

“I was and would be prepared to run against anyone. Now I know earlier who that is going to be unless David Costello makes an unexpected showing,” Collins said Friday during a tour of technical career and municipal facilities in York County.

Maine Public

What Does the Allred-Johnson Runoff Tell Us About Texas Dems? 

In a cycle rife with intraparty tension, a runoff in a newly gerrymandered district finds two mainstream Dems searching for an edge on the left.

Texas Observer

How cryptocurrency is ‘like subprime, but dumber.’ A new documentary showing in Portland offers some insight

Actor and author Ben McKenzie is originally known for acting in the The O.C. and Gotham but he ended up, somewhat accidentally, becoming the “Crypto Skeptic” guy and even publishing a book on it.

His new documentary ‘Everyone Is Lying to You for Money‘, has Ben as the central figure, unraveling the cryptocurrency industry. And he concludes that it’s all a scam.

OPB

SCOTUS Made It Easier for Anti-Abortion Clinics to Mislead Pregnant Patients: Analysis

“Crisis pregnancy centers” offer ideological counseling—not medical care. A Supreme Court ruling in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin may help to stretch the legal and regulatory loopholes that allow this deception.

Rewire News Group

Spirit Airlines ceases operations after escalating financial struggles

“It is with great disappointment that on May 2, 2026, Spirit Airlines started an orderly wind-down of our operations, effective immediately,” the airline said in a statement early Saturday. “[A]ll flights have been cancelled, and customer service is no longer available. We are proud of the impact of our ultra-low-cost model on the industry over the last 33 years and had hoped to serve our Guests for many years to come.”

NPR

Janet Mills’ Sudden Exit Has Democrats Asking: What Was Schumer Thinking?

“There have been a lot of questions raised about the decisions,” one Senate Democrat said.

Notus

Rural America Is Getting Blindsided by Something New

Rural America has long been where the rest of the country sends what it doesn’t want nearby: prisons, power plants, landfills. These days, two more intrusions have been added to the list: immigrant detention centers and data centers.

The New York Times

Mississippi Official Calls to Eliminate State’s Only Majority Black House District After Voting Rights Ruling

“It is my sincere hope that the United States Supreme Court will reaffirm the animating principle that all Americans are created equal and that when the government classifies its citizens on the basis of race, even as a perceived remedy to right a wrong, it engages in the offensive and demeaning assumption that Americans of a particular race, because of their race, think alike and share the same interests and preferences—a concept that is odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality,” Reeves, who last week proclaimed April as Confederate Heritage Month, posted on social media on April 24.

Mississippi Free Press

Graham Platner Handed Centrist Dems a Bruising Defeat in Maine

After throwing their support behind Gov. Janet Mills, party leaders are left doing an about-face on the insurgent candidate.

The Intercept

Banksy confirms new statue installed in central London is his work

The statue depicts a man in a suit hoisting a large flag.The flag’s cloth covers the man’s face, however, and his proud march appears to be courting disaster, as he steps off the plinth with no ground beneath him.

NPR

UAE Quits OPEC as War Upends Oil Markets and Gulf Tensions Rise

The UAE’s exit May 1 after six decades of membership is the culmination of years of tension with OPEC leader Saudi Arabia both over oil output policy and competition for regional political influence. It’s also the latest indication of how the conflict is reshaping global energy markets: While the UAE has talked in the past about quitting OPEC, Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said in an interview that the disruption caused by the war created an opportune time for the move.

Bloomberg

World’s Largest Digital Human Rights Conference Suddenly Canceled

RightsCon was delayed by Zambia’s Ministry of Information for “thematic issues” and problems with speakers.

404 Media

Illegal Miners Loot Amazon Rainforest for Critical Minerals

Global demand for critical minerals, used to build drones and electric cars, is surging, setting of a new wave of criminality in the world’s largest rainforest.

The New York Times

Germany Has the Cash to Revitalize Its Economy, but Can’t Seem to Spend It

Bureaucracy and capacity bottlenecks are delaying Germany’s $600 billion spending splurge

The Wall Street Journal

Germany says U.S. troop withdrawal ‘anticipated’, Spain and Italy could be next

“The presence of American troops in Europe, and particularly in Germany, lies in our interest and in the interest of the US,” the defense minister told German news agency dpa. Pistorius added that if Germany was to remain a transatlantic partner, it must work to strengthen the European pillar within NATO. The Trump administration’s announcement Friday that it would withdraw troops from Germany sparked concerns among European allies, raising fresh questions about the durability of the NATO alliance and America’s long-term commitment to the continent.

NPR

The Shrinking Space for Media Freedom

Today, global press freedom is more restricted than it has been in recent memory. In many places across the world, information is controlled by authoritarian regimes. Criticism of these governments, real or perceived, can land people in jail, or worse, and journalists often risk their lives to report on it. The 2013 Press Freedom Index and its accompanying interactive world map assembled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), shows a handful of countries shaded green (good) and yellow (satisfactory). Pull the slider across to 2025, and the map dissolves into an alarming dark red (very serious) and shades of mid to dark orange, with a few countries in northern Europe clinging onto that green space for dear life. There’s not a lot of yellow either, indicating that concern over press freedom is not alarmist: Things have, in fact, gotten worse.

The Conversationalist

Trapped in a kill zone for 177 days, his wife’s voice was his lifeline

While Roman Mongold, a Ukrainian soldier, was pinned down surrounded by the enemy for nearly six months, he traded voice memos with his wife with a commander’s help.

The Washington Post

Israel Said It’s Applying the Gaza Model in Lebanon. This Is What the Devastation Looks Like.

An entire street is leveled. Houses and shops are flattened, including a popular cafe. This is what is left of the town of Bint Jbeil, just a couple of miles from the Israeli border, nearly two months after Israel relaunched its ground offensive in southern Lebanon.

The New York Times

In the midst of an energy crisis, countries make plans to ditch oil, gas and coal

“Let this conference be the moment when ambition becomes action,” Colombia’s environment minister Irene Vélez Torres told the countries gathered for the opening plenary on Tuesday. “Let’s make this a turning point in history.”

NPR