Raymond Epps, a former Oath Keeper member, said he was the target of conspiracies over his role in US Capitol attack

A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit alleging defamation by Fox News, ruling for a second time against a former supporter of Donald Trump who claimed he became the target of death threats after the network broadcast inaccurate conspiracy claims about his involvement in the 6 January 2021 US Capitol attack.

Raymond Epps was wrongly accused by Fox of being a government operative who allegedly stirred violence around the Capitol that day in an effort to pin responsibility on supporters of Trump who were upset his first presidency ended in defeat to Joe Biden. According to Epps, formerly a marine and member of the far-right Oath Keepers group, the backlash from those reports led him and his wife to sell their ranch in Arizona and relocate to a recreational vehicle in an attempt to avoid the ongoing harassment.

Jennifer L Hall, a Delaware-based US district judge, ultimately sided with Fox by granting the network’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, concluding that Epps did not provide sufficient evidence showing Fox knowingly aired false information.

World Health Organization – which the US left under Trump – has been leading the response to the cruise ship outbreak

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed it is sending a team to Spain’s Canary Islands, where the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius is expected to arrive on Sunday, and US passengers will be evacuated to an airbase in Nebraska. However, experts say the US is unprepared for such a disease threat.

The CDCs limited role in responding to the hantavirus outbreak is raising questions, including whether it now has a diminished role in responding to health scares. Most of the response has been led by the World Health Organization (WHO), of which the US is no longer a member.

The hantavirus outbreak was reported to the WHO on 2 May; a notice issued two days later updated to seven confirmed or suspected cases. Three people had died, one person was critically ill and three others had mild symptoms.

Lawmakers file motion asking state supreme court to pause its ruling against the redistricting referendum.

After the Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved Democratic congressional redistricting plan, Democratic lawmakers in the commonwealth notified the court they intend to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Friday's ruling by the state supreme court delivered another major setback to the party's nationwide battle against Republicans for an edge in this year's midterm elections.

Democrats, led by House Speaker Don Scott and Attorney General Jay Jones, filed a motion late Friday afternoon asking the state supreme court to pause its ruling from taking effect while they appeal for an emergency hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Donald Trump used a government exemption to give a $6.9 million no-bid contract to his “pool guy” to repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to an ocean-blue color after complaining it “never looked great.”

The exemption is typically reserved for urgent situations to prevent “serious injury, financial or other, to the government”, according to documents reviewed in an exclusive report by The New York Times.

But Trump used the exemption to get the company, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, to quickly begin work on the memorial as part of an array of building projects and refurbishments taking place across Washington D.C. ahead of America’s 250th birthday this year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday said the agency had deep experience with the Andes strain of the hantavirus, offering assurance to the American public that there was low risk for a widespread outbreak.

The remarks from CDC officials come as headlines about the virus — which broke out aboard a cruise ship last month — have sparked fears of a COVID-like pandemic.

Officials speaking to reporters on Saturday stressed that transmission of the virus from person to person was rare and the risk to the American public remains "extremely low."

Hantavirus is typically contracted when humans come into contact with rodent urine, saliva or feces.

There's a dichotomy shaping up in this midterm election year. The national political landscape could hardly look worse for Trump and Republicans.

At the same time, the GOP is suddenly resurgent in the redistricting fight, getting significant wins this week in Virginia and Tennessee that could soften the blow they might have suffered without them.

Parent company of president’s Truth Social platform generated only $870,000 even as net sales were up 6%

The parent company of Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform – one of the president’s preferred communications channels – lost nearly $406m in the first three months of the year while generating a little over $870,000 in revenue, according to financial filings.

The Trump Media and Technology Group’s quarterly report for January to March 2026 showed that while net sales were up 6% year over year, the company took sizable losses related to other investments.

The vast bulk of the losses were “non-cash losses including unrealized losses on digital assets, digital assets pledged, and equity securities ($368m), accreted interest ($11.5m), and stock based compensation ($11.8m)”, the company said in a press release.

Donald Trump’s gerrymandering war of 2025-26 has taken several twists and turns. But Republicans now appear poised to emerge with an advantage.

That reality is taking shape after last month’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling spurred a slew of southern red states to start the process of drawing new GOP-friendly maps, and after Virginia’s high court struck down the state’s Democratic-backed map Friday.

Those twin blows mean this fall’s midterms appear unlikely to be fought out on a level playing-field, undermining hopes for a fair election.

The US’s withdrawal from the WHO – and cuts to the country’s health system – stymie officials’ response

The outbreak of hantavirus on the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius illuminates major gaps in the US public health system – a worrying sign for stopping this outbreak quickly and preparing for a potential pandemic of a more widespread pathogen in coming years, experts say.

Passengers and their close contacts are at risk of hantavirus and need to follow public health guidance, but the danger for most people is near zero, officials and scientists say. Experts expect more cases in this outbreak to be identified, but they are emphatic that a hantavirus pandemic is highly unlikely.

“This is not Covid, this is not influenza. It spreads very, very differently,” Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic management at the World Health Organization (WHO), said at a briefing on Thursday. “This is not the same situation we were in six years ago … It’s very different.”

The WHO has been coordinating a response with several countries. But Trump pulled out of the organization soon after taking office, and US leadership has been conspicuously absent in the global hantavirus response, experts say.