A Republican intern on Capitol Hill was tragically killed in a shooting on Monday night in northwestern D.C.
21-year-old Eric Tarpinian-Jachym was caught in the crossfire of a deadly "altercation" after 10 p.m., Metropolitan Police said.
The college senior had recently joined the staff of Kansas Rep. Ron Estes, a Republican, who released a statement sharing his condolences.
"I will remember his kind heart and how he always greeted anyone who entered our office with a cheerful smile," Estes said in a press release. "We are grateful to Eric for his service to Kansas' 4th District and the country."
According to police chief Pamela Smith, the incident began as an "altercation" between two groups of people. The shooting was targeted, but Tarpinian-Jachym was not one of the intended victims.
On Monday, around 10:28 p.m., police responded to gunshots in the 1200 block of 7th Street, Northwest. They found three injured individuals: Tarpinian-Jachym, an adult female, and a 16-year-old male.
"The preliminary investigation indicates that multiple suspects exited a vehicle at the intersection of 7th and M Street, Northwest and began firing at a group. The suspect vehicle has been recovered," Metropolitan Police said in a press release.
Tarpinian-Jachym was brought to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries Tuesday. The unidentified woman is in stable condition, and the teenager is still being treated for injuries to his spine.
Police say the teenage boy was likely involved in the confrontation that led to the shooting.
"The child, I can say, we believe was kind of engaged as part of the group," police chief Pamela Smith said at a press conference Thursday.
According to the latest data, crime in D.C. is declining compared to 2023, when the city had its most homicides in over a decade.
The 2020s crime wave placed public officials in danger, including Democratic Rep. Angie Craig (MN), who was assaulted in her apartment lobby, and Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar (TX), who had his car stolen at gunpoint. A former Trump official was murdered during a carjacking spree in 2024.
In May, a young couple who worked for Israel's embassy was assassinated by an extremist outside the Capital Jewish Museum.
Tarpinian-Jachym, of Gramby, Massachusetts, was a senior at University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he majored in finance with a minor in political science. He had only just begun a summer internship at Rep. Estes' office.
What a senseless tragedy.
Following the work of the Department of Government Efficiency to expose monumental amounts of waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending, there has been some legitimate frustration among those who believe Congress is not doing enough to cut unnecessary expenditures of taxpayer dollars.
The Republican-led House just took a small but important initial step to begin making some of the DOGE cuts permanent with the passage of a bill that would slash around $9.4 billion in dubious spending from the federal budget, Fortune reported.
Of course, many Democrats hyperbolically reacted as though the relatively modest cuts would eliminate critical life-saving programs around the globe, while some Republicans argued that the cuts weren't nearly enough to get rampant federal spending under control.
On Thursday, in a 214-212 vote, the House approved a bill that would rescind approximately $9.4 billion in previously authorized federal spending, per a request from President Donald Trump's White House.
According to the Associated Press, the recession request was submitted under the Impoundment Control Act, in which a president can notify Congress of their intention not to spend certain authorized funds, at which point Congress has 45 days to decide whether to approve or deny the request.
Notably, the recession process only requires a simple majority to clear the Senate rather than the 60-vote threshold that is typically needed to pass normal spending bills.
The AP noted that the White House further indicated that this request was likely just the first, and more was to come, probably in September, near the end of the fiscal year.
In a statement posted to X, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said, "Today’s House passage of this initial rescissions package marks a critical step toward a more responsible and transparent government that puts the interests of the American taxpayers first."
"Thanks to DOGE’s work, this package eliminates $9.4 billion in unnecessary and wasteful spending at the State Department, USAID, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds politically biased media outlets like NPR and PBS," he added. "This is just one of the multiple ways Republicans are codifying President Trump’s executive orders and DOGE’s findings."
Predictably, House Democrats howled about how "cruel" and terrible the proposed cuts were and ominously warned that they could result in disasters, disease, and death around the world, according to Fortune, but many Republicans pushed back against such fearmongering.
"Those Democrats saying that these rescissions will harm people in other countries are missing the point," House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) said. "It’s about people in our country being put first."
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) explained that the cuts targeted unnecessary expenditures on things like climate change and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and said, "Yet, my friends on the other side of the aisle would like you to believe, seriously, that if you don’t use your taxpayer dollars to fund this absurd list of projects and thousands of others I didn’t even list, that somehow people will die and our global standing in the world will crumble."
To be sure, the request to rescind roughly $9.4 billion in federal spending is just a fraction of the estimated $180 billion that DOGE has identified as wasteful, fraudulent, or abusive spending that should be cut from the federal budget.
That said, as both the White House and many congressional Republicans insisted, this bill passed by the House and forwarded to the Senate is merely an opening bid in a continuing effort to pare down the budget and compel the government to only spend within its means.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has accused Iran of not honoring its nuclear non-proliferation commitments for the first time in almost two decades. The declaration, alongside mounting geopolitical tension, has prompted speculation regarding potential military interventions by multiple countries.
Iran is accused of obstructing cooperation since 2019 concerning undeclared nuclear materials and activities at hidden sites.
The IAEA's governing board resolution was supported by 19 nations, while Russia, China, and Burkina Faso opposed it, and 11 members chose not to vote. Since 2019, authorities found evidence of unreported nuclear activity at three sites in Iran: Varamin, Marivan, and Turquzabad. This discovery raises alarming questions regarding Iran's intentions and its transparency in nuclear proliferation matters.
Iran has reportedly hindered inspections, eliminated evidence, and refused to address the IAEA’s inquiries. The agency has condemned Iran's uranium enrichment levels as unsuitable for nonviolent applications. Rafael Grossi, the IAEA Director, has expressed frustration over Iran's actions, emphasizing how diplomatic efforts over the past five years have been continuously undermined.
"It’s a very frustrating situation," Grossi remarked. He noted that while the agency continues its operations in Iran, the cooperation from the Iranian government is extremely limited.
Furthermore, Grossi stressed his commitment to encouraging diplomacy between the United States and Iran, expressing hope for political wisdom to guide them toward a positive resolution.
The situation has led the United States to take precautionary measures by withdrawing non-essential personnel from its embassy in Iraq. Similar options have been extended to American staff in Bahrain and Kuwait, indicating concerns about potential military developments.
Meanwhile, rising tension echoes in the Persian Gulf, where the UK Maritime Trade Operations Center has raised alerts due to the growing risk of regional confrontations.
While diplomatic channels remain open, the threat of military engagement looms as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump discuss responses to Iran's defiance. These discussions reflect a shared concern about the potential repercussions of Iran's nuclear activities on international security.
An Iranian official has announced that Iran will retaliate if the resolution is adopted by the IAEA. Plans are reportedly underway to decrease cooperation with the agency, activate additional centrifuges, and dismantle monitoring devices. These steps are seen as significant escalations in Iran's nuclear strategy.
Iran has dismissed the IAEA’s resolution as politically motivated and biased, signaling a strong rejection of the accusations made against it. This defensive stance adds fuel to the already charged international atmosphere surrounding its nuclear ambitions.
The last time the IAEA formally declared Iran non-compliant was in 2005. The current accusations highlight a deteriorated relationship over recent years between Iran and the international community, exacerbated by ongoing secrecy and lack of transparency.
As Iran and the international powers navigate this tense impasse, the outcome remains uncertain. The IAEA's declaration marks a significant moment in global efforts to contain nuclear proliferation. With diplomatic and potentially military options on the table, observers globally are watching developments closely.
Whether diplomatic talks can mend the growing fracture remains to be seen, with hopes pinned on peaceful negotiations prevailing over conflict. The international consensus is clear—transparency and compliance are critical to ensuring regional and global security.
President Donald Trump ordered the termination of Library of Congress head Carla Hayden just one year before her ten-year term was ending.
Hayden has been serving in the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution since 2016, when she was nominated by former President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate.
The reason for Hayden's firing appears to be related to her pushing of “radical” leftist agendas, according to complaints from conservative organizations.
A tweet from the American Accountability Foundation claimed that "The current #LibrarianOfCongress Carla Hayden is woke, anti-Trump, and promotes trans-ing kids. It’s time to get her OUT and hire a new guy for the job!"
That tweet went out hours before Trump's decision to fire Hayden was announced on Thursday night, suggesting that the White House is working with conservative watchdogs to sniff out radical leftists at every level.
In further evidence that Hayden is an agent of the progressive agenda, her firing was greeted with outrage from Democrats who flew into a rage over Trump's decision to fire a seemingly unimportant federal official.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was one of the first to come out to blast Trump's decision as "unjust" and an attempt to "whitewash" American history.
Jeffries railed against Trump by saying, “Donald Trump’s unjust decision to fire Dr. Hayden in an email sent by a random political hack is a disgrace and the latest in his ongoing effort to ban books, whitewash American history and turn back the clock. The Library of Congress is the People’s Library. There will be accountability for this unprecedented assault on the American way of life sooner rather than later."
Jeffries claims that Trump's firing of Hayden is an "unprecedented assault" on Americans' way of life, implying that progressive ideas like transitioning children are as American as apple pie.
Other Democrats quickly came to Hayden's defense, further lending credence to the idea that Hayden is a leftist ideologue using her position to push horrible progressive ideas.
Hayden has vigorously opposed parental rights groups' efforts to remove books about sexual identity containing explicit sexual content targeted at young people from libraries.
In defending pornographic books being distributed to children, Hayden wrote, "A children's book, and that's so helpful. I've had parents that I even work with, it just makes such a difference when you can share a book with a young person."
Leftists have pushed explicit sexual material and books containing progressive propaganda disguised as "sexual identity" education for years, and it's long past time for them to face serious consequences.
Hayden clearly endorses these ideas and, as such, has no place in the federal government. The fact that Democrats are so angry about her firing further demonstrates that she was doing real damage and had to be rooted out.
President Trump pledged to maintain tariff pressure on China, as he pushes to end America's steep trade deficit with its largest economic competitor.
During a combative interview with NBC's Kristen Welker, Trump said he sees little reason to dial back 145% tariff rates right now because China's economy is buckling.
"They said today they want to talk. Look, China, and I don't like this. I'm not happy about this. China's getting killed right now," Trump told Welker.
"They're getting absolutely destroyed. Their factories are closing. Their unemployment is going through the roof. I'm not looking to do that to China now. At the same time, I'm not looking to have China make hundreds of billions of dollars and build more ships and more Army tanks and more airplanes."
While Trump has signaled that he sees an off-ramp in the future, he made it clear to Welker that America will not make the first move. And he warned that some tariffs would remain permanent in order to incentivize companies to build in America long-term.
China has already exempted a range of U.S.-made goods, including some pharmaceuticals and microchips, from its 125% tariff rates.
"You're not dropping the tariffs against China to get them to the negotiating table?" Welker asked.
Trump responded, "No."
"At some point, I'm going to lower them because otherwise, you could never do business with them. And they want to do business very much. Look, their economy is really doing badly. Their economy is collapsing."
Trump objected early and often to Welker's "dishonest" framing as she needled Trump on the perceived downsides of his tariff war, at one point asking if Americans could expect to see "empty store shelves" in the future. Trump rebuked her for ignoring positive developments like a drop in gas prices.
"This is such a dishonest interview already. Prices are down on groceries. Prices are down for oil prices are down for oil. Energy prices are down at tremendous numbers for gasoline," Trump said.
Trump repeated his now-familiar argument about trade-offs, conceding Americans may need to pay more for certain "junk" products from overseas during a "transition period" towards a more resilient economy.
"I don’t think that a beautiful baby girl needs — that’s 11 years old — needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable. We had a trade deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars with China," Trump said.
When Welker pushed Trump to rule out a recession, Trump rejected the premise as absurd.
"Anything can happen," Trump said. "But I think we're going to have the greatest economy in the history of our country. I think we're going to have the greatest economic boom in history."
Country music legend Dolly Parton was married to her husband for 60 years, so it's not surprising that she opened up about how hard it is to be without him after his death earlier this year.
According to Fox News, Parton recently reflected on her life with Carl Dean on "Today," and became emotional when she opened up about the difficulties she's experienced in the wake of his passing.
Parton, now 79, held nothing back as she reminisced on her life with Dean, whom she met at 18 and fell in love with quickly.
The Nashville legend admitted that she's "fine" but has to learn how to adjust to new habits and routines now that Dean is gone. He died in March of this year, shocking the country music world.
Parton admitted that she -- understandably -- gets emotional when people bring up Dean's death, but manages to work through it and remember what they had.
"Oh, you know what, I get very emotional when people bring it up," Parton shared as she teared up. "But we were together 60 years. I’ve loved him since I was 18 years old."
She also revealed that she misses him dearly and praised him for being a wonderful husband and partner, especially throughout what one could only imagine to be an extremely hectic -- and successful -- music career.
"It’s a big adjustment just trying to change patterns and habits," Parton continued. "I’ll do fine, and I’m very involved in my work and that’s been the best thing that could happen to me."
She added, "But I’ll always miss him, of course, and always love him. He was a great partner to me."
Fox News noted:
The 10-time Grammy winner went on to express her gratitude for the love and support that she had received in the wake of Dean's death.
"I’m so thankful. I’ve gotten so many cards, letters, flowers, from all over the world," Parton said. "I had no idea Carl Dean was so famous," she joked of her spouse.
Carl Dean might have been married to one of the most recognizable and popular people in the world, but chose to stay far out of the public spotlight.
"My career being separate from my marriage is perfectly natural for us," she said during a 1977 interview. "We like it that way. It’s too right and too natural and too comfortable and too secure for it to ever be anything else."
Dean rarely gave interviews to the press, but when he did, he always spoke highly of his talented wife.
The two met at a laundromat in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1964, and married two years later. The rest was history.
Hunter Biden has dropped a lawsuit against a pair of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers who alleged he received favorable treatment from the Justice Department.
Without explaining why, Hunter apparently decided he had no choice but to voluntarily dismiss the case "with prejudice," meaning it cannot be filed again. The son of former President Joe Biden filed the lawsuit in 2023 against former IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler.
The former first son claimed that the duo had "targeted and sought to embarrass Mr. Biden via public statements to the media in which they and their representatives disclosed confidential information about a private citizen’s tax matters.”
In a statement, Shapley and Ziegler said Biden's reversal speaks volumes, with the pair noting, "It’s always been clear that the lawsuit was an attempt to intimidate us,” the two men said. “Intimidation and retaliation were never going to work. We truly wanted our day in court to provide the complete story, but it appears Mr. Biden was afraid to actually fight this case in a court of law after all.”
“His voluntary dismissal of the case tells you everything you need to know about who was right and who was wrong," they added.
The IRS whistleblowers went public in 2023 with claims of obstruction in the investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes. The men also claimed they faced retaliation for sharing their concerns.
The allegations fed Republican criticism of Biden's family and the "weaponization" of government in favor of Democrats. Hunter Biden would later accuse the DOJ of giving in to political pressure to file criminal charges against him, but Biden's claims of selective prosecution were rejected in court.
Biden almost received an infamously generous plea deal that later fell apart in front of a skeptical judge. He later pled guilty to felony tax evasion on over $1 million in foreign income from his business deals, only to receive a blanket pardon from his father, President Joe Biden.
In addition to battling criminal charges, Hunter has been involved in a number of civil legal vendettas against individuals and entities who have exposed him and his business dealings to scrutiny.
Hunter Biden recently won his bid to drop a lawsuit that he started against former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler (no relation to Joe Ziegler), successfully pleading financial hardship.
Lawyers for Joe Ziegler and Gary Shapley declared vindication over Hunter Biden's dismissal of his case against them.
"Hunter Biden brought this lawsuit against two honorable federal agents in retaliation for blowing the whistle on the preferential treatment he was given,” the lawyers said in a statement.
“Shapley and Ziegler did nothing wrong, never had to seek a pardon, and their actions have now been entirely vindicated once again," they added.
President Donald Trump appointed Gary Shapley to serve as acting IRS commissioner in April, but he was replaced just three days later.
Residents in South Chicago are up in arms over plans to build a luxury hotel near Barack Obama's presidential center, as locals fear being priced out by soaring rents.
The 26-story hotel would be located a short distance from the Obama Presidential Center - and right next to an affordable housing complex.
The development plans have poor tenants in South Shore and Wood Lawn worried about getting squeezed out by gentrification.
“When you got people’s rent going from $850 to $1,300. You’re telling people you don’t want them in the neighborhood,” said Dixon Romeo, an organizer with the Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition.
Obama - a former "community organizer" - has long fought to build a monument to his ego in the city where he launched his political career. His plans have plodded forward over the objections of local community groups concerned about displacement.
After years in limbo, the Obama Presidential Center is due to finally open in 2026. But the worst fears of the locals are already coming true.
One man who attended a protest Tuesday, Philon Green, said he was forced to move after rent nearly doubled.
"The rent went from $850 or $835 to $850 to now $1,300; that ain't right. That ain't right for really to upgrade in the apartment itself," the former Woodlawn resident said.
The investment firm behind the hotel, Aquinnah Investment Trust, wants to put it next to Island Terrace, an affordable housing complex. The hotel would have up to 250 rooms, retail and office space, 118 parking spaces, and 12 bicycle spaces, according to documents filed with the city.
The developer submitted an application in March to rezone the area, which is currently a shopping center.
“When you can fast-track a luxury hotel — while everyone around that hotel lives in blight, knowing that that’ll raise the price to push them out — you’re intentionally trying to gentrify a neighborhood,” Romeo said.
The hotel hasn't been approved by the city yet, but the developer has a powerful connection. Allison Davis, the head of Aquinnah Investment Trust, was Obama’s first boss out of Harvard Law School.
Obam, who now owns multiple homes - including one in Hyde Park, Chicago - has long presented himself as a champion of social justice and fairness for the poor.
But those ideals have proven to be quite shallow indeed, as the former president's notorious vanity takes precedence.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia bragged that he could kill his wife and never go to jail, according to a newly unearthed protective order.
The bombshell evidence supports President Trump's dark portrayal of the illegal alien from El Salvador, who has been widely described as a "Maryland man" in the press.
This is the second known protective order that was filed against Abrego Garcia over spousal abuse by his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura. A previously reported protective order from 2021 said Abrego Garcia punched, scratched, and grabbed her.
The 2020 protective order details numerous additional incidents of explosive violence, which included grabbing his wife by the hair in the car, smashing his kids' devices, pushing his wife against a wall, and threatening to kill her.
"I also have a [recording] that [he] told my ex-mother-in-law that even if he kills me no one can do anything to him,” Vasquez Sura wrote at the time.
The past reports of domestic abuse have come back to haunt Abrego Garcia, his wife - who is now advocating for his return to the U.S. - and Democrats who have rushed to defend the "Maryland father."
Trump and his White House team have described Abrego Garcia as a domestic abuser and criminal gang member. Police records from 2019 note that he was detained with suspected MS-13 members outside of a Home Depot, and officers interpreted his clothing as gang-affiliated. A police informant also identified him as a member of the gang.
Two immigration judges found the evidence of Abrego Garcia's gang ties persuasive, but he obtained limited relief from deportation back to El Salvador, where he claimed he was facing persecution by a rival gang of MS-13.
The Trump administration's decision to send him back to El Salvador - and Trump's refusal to bring him back - is at the heart of the current controversy.
The Trump administration has also pointed to a traffic stop in 2022 that led police to suspect Abrego Garcia was involved in human trafficking. Abrego Garcia was speeding in a truck owned by a convicted smuggler, and eight men were found in the vehicle with no luggage. But he was never charged over the incident.
The Supreme Court has said Trump must "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return, but the justices also reeled in a lower court that ordered Trump in no uncertain language to "effectuate" Abrego Garcia's return.
Trump's critics say Abrego Garcia, and other alleged gang members removed under the Alien Enemies Act, have been deported without due process. But Trump has said he is doing what he was elected to do by swiftly cracking down on illegal immigration and crime.
"The media continues to call him [Abrego Garcia] a victim while ignoring the real victims: the women he battered, the children he terrorized, and the communities he endangered," DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.
"Let us be crystal clear: Kilmar Abrego Garcia will never be on American streets again."
Massachusetts politics was rocked this week after state Democratic lawmaker was charged and arrested for fraud.
According to Fox News, Massachusetts state Rep. Christopher Flanagan, 37, now faces five counts of wire fraud and one count of falsification of records according to a bombshell press release from the Department of Justice.
Flanagan allegedly stole tens of thousands of dollars from a local trade association that he used to fund various personal expenses and political expenses.
He allegedly began stealing funds from the trade organization after experiencing difficult financial issues, according to the charges.
Flanagan's alleged illegal activities were committed through the Cape Cod-based Home Builders Association.
Fox News noted:
Flanagan served as the executive officer of the Home Builders Association in Cape Cod and received a salary and benefits ranging from $65,800 to $81,600 from 2019 to 2024, when he was working there. Flanagan also received $97,546 and $100,945 in 2023 and 2024, from his position as a legislator.
Flanagan reportedly began facing financial troubles in late 2021, which is when he allegedly stole 36,000 from the organization through a series of wire transfers.
Fox News added:
From Nov. 18, 2021 and Jan. 28, 2023, Flanagan wired anywhere from $1,500 and $10,000 on several separate occasions. The Justice Department said Flanagan used the funds to pay mortgage bills, pay down debt, and even used it to pay for personal psychic services.
Receipts show that Flanagan spent the money for personal and political reasons, including shopping trips to Best Buy and several other stores using the alleged stolen funds.
He was also accused of obstructing an investigation by the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance "when he attributed the source of a campaign mailer to 'Jeanne Louise,' a false persona that he allegedly created," the outlet added.
Christopher Flanagan, a 37-year-old Democratic State Rep from Massachusetts representing Cape Cod, was arrested on April 11, 2025, on federal charges of fraud. He faces 5 counts of wire fraud & 1 count of falsifying records, each carrying a potential 20yr sentence. 1 out of 250👀 pic.twitter.com/iwWEhFLMoh
— Meisha Tele (@frnnkdlxx) April 11, 2025
Users across social media reacted to the news of Flanagan's arrest.
"Massachusetts politicians should be preemptively thrown in jail upon election and only released after heavy consideration," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "Maybe in the future, report on a Mass Dem that’s not a corrupt scum bag."