The tenuous ceasefire in the Middle East seemed to be holding on by a thread on Sunday as Israel and Iran exchanged missile fire for the first time since an agreement to end hostilities was reached in April.

Meanwhile, Israel said early Monday that it detected a missile launched from Yemen targeting the country, according to the Associated Press. Yemen is home to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. And Saudi Arabia sounded air warning sirens in an area close to an air base housing U.S. forces, the AP also reported, though that country said shortly afterwards that the danger had passed.

The escalation amounted to the most significant exchange of fire since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran was put on pause in April. The renewed fighting also threatened to undermine President Donald Trump’s negotiations with Iran as the U.S. president appears to be seeking a way out of a war that is unpopular with Americans and has sent gas prices soaring.

Trump called for de-escalation in a short Truth Social post Monday morning: “Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting.’”

“Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE!” Trump wrote in a subsequent post. “Final negotiations on “Peace” are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way. The Blockade will remain in place, and in full force and effect, until a “Final Deal” is reached. Things should move quickly.”

The fighting began Sunday when Israel launched airstrikes on Lebanon, which has been a sore point in the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran as Israel continues to pursue that conflict. Tehran retaliated by firing missiles at Israel, the first missiles launched at Israel in two months as the war reached its 100th day.

Earlier Monday, Israel responded by launching airstrikes targeting central and western Iran. Officials did not give details on exactly what had been struck.

“A short while ago, the Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran,” said the Israeli military.

The White House did not respond to messages about the Israel-launched strikes or whether they were done in coordination with the U.S. However, Trump, according to Axios, said he was going to call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “tell him not to strike back.”

If the two talked, Netanyahu apparently did not listen.

And Trump, in a series of interviews with the media on Sunday before the Israeli strikes on Iran, gave conflicting signals about whether peace negotiations were in trouble.

Fox News’ Trey Yingst said Trump told the news outlet regarding the Iranian missiles launched Sunday, “It’s certainly not going to help negotiations,” and he urged Iran to reach a deal.

But an Iranian official linked to the talks between the U.S. and Iran said that “a deal with President Trump is no longer feasible at this stage.”

The official blamed Trump for the current situation and the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon.

Before the Israeli attacks, Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday evening that Netanyahu “won’t have any choice” but to accept the deal the U.S. negotiates with Iran.

“I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots,” he said, adding the Iranian strikes on Israel were “not going to have any impact on the deal.”

“The deal may make it on its own merit, or not, but this will not have any effect on it,” Trump explained.

“I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Benjamin Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots,” Presiden Donald Trump said, adding the strikes were “not going to have any impact on the deal.”

However, if a deal fails, Trump told the Financial Times the U.S. would consider further military action and would continue the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.

“Number one, it would mean that possibly we would go in and take care of the rest of the place that we didn’t take care of militarily,” he said. “Or it would just mean that we would keep the blockade on Iran because the blockade has been probably more powerful than any attack that was ever made on that country.”

But a White House official granted anonymity to speak candidly told MS NOW Trump has underestimated the willingness of Iran to resume conflict.

“The recent negotiations with Iran in many ways have exposed a fundamental miscalculation” by the president and the White House, the official said, adding that Iran’s “erratic behavior” has heightened the situation with no imminent off ramp.

Earlier Sunday, the Israeli military, which launched the war against Iran jointly with the U.S. on Feb. 28, said sirens were sounded in several areas of the country and Iran confirmed it launched the missiles. “Tonight’s operation was solely intended as a warning. Should these acts of aggression continue, future responses will be broader in scope and will encompass all American and Israeli targets throughout the region,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement posted on Telegram.

In addition to Sunday’s fresh strikes, military clashes continued across the region and talks between the two sides have stalled, four Middle East officials and diplomats told MS NOW.

‘I think we’re very close’

Until Sunday, Trump had continued to say a deal is close. “I think we’re very close. We have a couple of points,” he told NBC News in an interview that aired Sunday. “They don’t even seem like big points.”

Over the weekend, U.S. commandos seized an Iranian oil tanker and shot down multiple Iranian drones. Clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in Lebanon also intensified.

Four Middle East officials and diplomats told MS NOW that significant disagreements remain. All of them spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the talks.

A senior official in the region told MS NOW on Friday that three issues remain unresolved: The sequencing of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, American demands regarding Iran’s nuclear program and Iranian demands to receive relief funds up front as part of the agreement.

A senior Middle East diplomat also said Friday that negotiations have regressed.

“There are no meaningful negotiations taking place between the two countries as they stand,” the diplomat told MS NOW.

Trump administration officials say talks are progressing and dismissed the statements from officials in the region. 

“This is grossly inaccurate, as MS NOW always is when they rely on mysterious ‘Middle Eastern diplomats’ who have no idea what they are talking about,” said Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson.

A Pakistani foreign ministry source with knowledge of the talks expressed optimism as well. They told MS NOW that this weekend’s visit of Pakistan’s interior minister to Iran was “extremely positive” and “Iran showed signs of progress towards agreeing on a framework.” 

Nicole Grajewski, an assistant professor at Sciences Po in Paris and an associate at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, told MS NOW that the continued military clashes between the two sides are not aiding negotiations.

“The persistent strikes between the U.S. and Iran across the region [are] hardly helping the situation,” she said. “If anything, it’s making it harder to separate the negotiations from a pending resumption of war.”

In Trump’s interview with NBC News, he threatened to bomb Iran’s enriched uranium if Tehran will not hand it over to the U.S. Experts have warned that bombing enriched uranium sends small radioactive particles into the air. The particles do not spread far but anyone entering the nearby area faces health risks. 

An expert told the BBC last week, “That’s because the uranium particles could become lodged in the cells, inside either your lungs or your stomach, and slowly, radioactively decay, and that will cause damage.”

Trump also said U.S. forces would seize Iran’s enriched uranium if Tehran declined to hand it over. U.S. and Iranian officials are currently negotiating a “memorandum of understanding that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and extend the current fraying ceasefire.” A second 60-day round of negotiations would focus on Iran’s nuclear program.

Military experts have warned that a U.S. commando raid to seize the uranium by force could last for days and potentially require American forces to build a landing strip. U.S. forces could be exposed to attacks from Iranian forces and could suffer high casualties.

Trump told NBC News that Iran has agreed to not seek a nuclear weapon, but he wanted an additional provision added to the agreement to ensure Iran cannot purchase one.

Trump said the Iranians pushed back “a little bit” on his demand. “And then they didn’t.”

Experts have warned that Iranian leaders have publicly promised for years to not obtain a nuclear weapon. They say such a pledge from Iranian officials cannot be trusted.

Iranian officials have continued to demand the return of up to $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets held overseas as part of the memorandum of understanding. Trump told NBC News he opposed any release of frozen Iranian funds until after the second round of negotiations had been completed.

Gregory Brew, a senior Iran and oil analyst at the Eurasia Group, told MS NOW that he was not surprised that two sides are digging in at this point in the negotiations. But he thinks a deal remains possible.

 “I think what that means is after a week of fairly rapid progress, movements have now slowed, as both sides dig into their respective positions,” Brew said. “My personal feeling is that this deadlock won’t last forever, there’s still a mutual incentive to reach a deal and that will keep negotiations moving.”

Jake Traylor contributed to this report.

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In an explosive interview with NBC aired Sunday, President Donald Trump cut the grilling short and left the set after peppering “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker with insults.

“You’re either crooked or you’re stupid,” Trump told Welker, who kept a cool demeanor despite the president’s barrage of disparaging slurs.

Moments before he attacked her, Trump — without providing any evidence — said he believes elections in the U.S. are rigged. Then he lambasted television news networks, singling out NBC, CBS and ABC.

“They’re crooked just like you’re crooked, your press is crooked. And ‘Meet the Press’ is crooked,” Trump said.

“To be fair, I’m not crooked,” Welker shot back. “But let’s continue.”

“Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough,” the president told Welker, who is the second woman and first Black journalist to helm the network’s flagship program.

Trump added, “Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”

It was not the first time Trump has berated a female journalist on the job covering his presidency.

In November 2025, he told Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey to stop talking, saying, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.” One month later, he told ABC’s Rachel Scott she was “the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place.” Last month, he called MS NOW White House reporter Akayla Gardner “a dumb person” for pointing out that the cost of his White House ballroom project had doubled since it was first announced.

He has also repeatedly lashed out at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, criticizing her for not smiling enough.

The wide-ranging interview, which was taped last week on a farm in Wisconsin, was interrupted by the loud sound of heavy rain on the metal roof of the barn where they met. Welker questioned Trump on his war with Iran, his “anti-weaponization” fund and the upcoming midterm elections.

On his nearly $1.8 billion fund aimed at compensating people who say they were wrongly prosecuted, including Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, Trump said “people were destroyed by dirty cops and by weaponization. Many of those people should be compensated.”

He described the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as people who were “being ushered into the building” by law enforcement.

A federal judge temporarily blocked the fund last month and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said last week the administration would not be moving forward with the fund, which faced bipartisan backlash.

When asked if the administration would pursue other avenues to revive it, Trump said he does not know what will ultimately happen and called Welker and her network “the fake dirty press.”

Despite campaigning on a promise to end foreign wars, Trump denied that he made such statements. He characterized the Iran war, launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28, as necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

When asked about the rising cost of living as a result of the war, specifically gas and fertilizer, Trump chastised Welker.

“Are you ready? Am I allowed to talk? You keep asking questions and you don’t listen to the answers,” he said.

“I love the farmers and the farmers love me,” Trump said, adding that prices will come down after the war.

Welker suggested to her viewers Sunday that she and the president had a cordial conversation Saturday, saying they both “acknowledged the complications” posed by the rain. “He agreed to sit down with me for another ‘Meet the Press’ interview,” she said.

The post Trump explodes at ‘Meet the Press’ host: ‘You’re either crooked or you’re stupid’ appeared first on MS NOW.

Iran said visas were denied to key members of its national soccer team ahead of the World Cup, which a U.S. official insisted was necessary so that Iran does not try to “sneak terrorists into the United States.”

In a post on X, the Iranian embassy in Turkey said “visas were denied to a large portion of the managerial and executive staff, technical advisers, and others” on its team.

“You have now escalated the deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team to its highest level,” the embassy said, accusing the U.S. of the “worst possible form of politically biased interference in sport” and “depriving Iran’s national team of its right to play in the World Cup under normal conditions.”

Iranian officials are accusing the U.S. government of violating FIFA regulations and breaching its obligations as one of the host countries of what is widely regarded to be the biggest sporting event in the world. The diplomatic standoff between the two countries comes just days before the World Cup is set to kick off and more than three months after the U.S. and Israel waged war against Iran.

A Trump administration official who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the subject told MS NOW in a statement that the visas “necessary for Iran to compete in the World Cup, including for athletes and necessary support staff, have been issued.”

The official added, however, “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretenses.”

The statement from the Iranian Embassy in Turkey came in response to a post on X by U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack praising embassy staff for processing visas for the Iranian national team.

According to The Associated Press, some of the team’s officials have not received visas to enter the U.S., which is co-hosting the World Cup with Mexico and Canada. Games are set to begin Thursday.

Problems with getting U.S. visas had already led Iran to move its World Cup training base from the U.S. to Mexico. But Iran is still listed on the official World Cup schedule to play its first two games in Los Angeles on June 15 against New Zealand, and against Belgium six days later before heading to Seattle to face Egypt. 

The Iran Football Federation’s secretary-general and its vice president were among 14 staff and officials without U.S. visas, AP said, citing Iranian state television. The federation reportedly accused the U.S. of “vindictive behavior.”

Emily Hung contributed to this report.

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The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recently announced it would freeze enrollment in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a literacy initiative that offers one free book per month for children from birth until five years old. More than 20 states provide full or partial funding for the program, which claims to have donated over 300 million books to kids in the U.S. and elsewhere. The beneficiaries includes 170,000 Missouri children, but the state’s Republican-dominated legislature decided to cut the program’s funding from $6 million to $2 million.

As a teacher and author for children, I know the consequences of these cuts are all too clear. I have witnessed firsthand what it looks like when children do not have access to books. Such a drastic cut to such an important service is more of the same as far as this country’s continued acts of political and economic violence against its own citizens.

The impact of access to books is also a symbolic one.

From literacy advocates to the American Association of Pediatrics to even the current U.S. government, everyone agrees that early childhood literacy is critical. According to Take Action For Libraries, a nonprofit political action committee, early access to books paves the way for a lifetime of learning, with more books in the home potentially leading to higher educational attainment.

The impact of access to books is also a symbolic one. I grew up in a working-class household and could feel, at a young age, that my family’s socioeconomic status did not measure up to that of many of my peers. We lived in a small walk-up apartment in Brooklyn; we spent most weeks surviving paycheck to paycheck. While many of my classmates and friends were in similar (or worse) positions, others enjoyed vacation homes, their parents’ new cars, and all manner of resources not available to the rest of us. Those kids could afford educational and enrichment opportunities. We had to hope and pray for many of the same chances — or settle for free alternative, if there were any.

But while my family did not have much, we did have books. Though my parents read little, they made sure the bedroom I shared with my sister was stocked with stories. We often devoured several books a week, having to resort to rereading them if we finished them before our next trip to bookstores or libraries (another institution currently under attack). Had Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library been available in the 1980s, there is no doubt my parents would have taken advantage of this program. And while families of any income can participate in Parton’s initiative, as with any universal social program those with the least will suffer from cuts the most.

It is a certain kind of person who sees early and easy access to books as a bad thing. Part of my role in schools involves visiting classrooms for teaching observations. I will never forget one school I was assigned to observe in rural Wisconsin. I sat at the teacher’s desk as he picked up the autobiography of Pakastani activist Malala Yousafzai. I expected each student to grab their own class copy so that that they could read along with him—so that they could huddle over the book at their desks, feeling its pages and connecting with the words in ways that every reader understands.

Some children had their own copies, likely furnished by their parents. But most did not. Instead, the teacher read his one copy aloud, while those without a book stared at each other, kicked each other under their desks, doodled in their notebooks, picked at their fingers, and participated in any other distraction they could think of – all because they simply could not see the words on the page.

Teachers (and our wallets) can only do so much – we are not magicians.

To be clear, that teacher was one of the most effective and engaging teachers I have ever known; he did the best he could with what he had available. I later learned that his school district did not offer its schools a budget for class sets of books. But to this day, I wonder what sort of opportunities those kids were given to develop a love of reading (if any).

Teachers (and our wallets) can only do so much – we are not magicians. To read books, children need access to them – the same type of access that Missouri is poised to take away from its own communities, and the effects can be observed in all corners of schooling.

The state’s decision comes at a perilous time for children’s literacy. According to the National Assessment for Educational Progress, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” reading scores for high school seniors fell to their lowest since 1992. Surveys have found that high school students are assigned fewer and fewer books to read. Children are reading, and especially for fun, less than ever. And schools’ overreliance on technology is likely to be exacerbated by the looming disaster that is AI.

Through no fault of their own, our children, our books, are in crisis. Free book programs should be considered a necessary component to all communities – like clean water and sanitation. Instead, Missouri’s decision to cut a beloved free book program, and any other state that follows suit, is only contributing to the challenges we currently face.

As a writer for children, I often visit schools to talk with kids about the importance of reading: “No one can take away your ability to read books,” I often say. What I don’t tell them is that there are so many groups, from politicians to legislators to self-proclaimed “parents’ rights” groups who are trying to do exactly that. If students become readers, they will know exactly what these people are trying to take away from them: Their ability to navigate the world as socially literate, informed, and empathetic citizens. Books, and access to them, is one of the few aspects of childhood that holds the potential to feel fair and equal. Is it any wonder that those currently in power wish to do away with it?

The post Missouri Republicans are taking an ax to Dolly Parton’s signature initiative appeared first on MS NOW.

Going into November’s midterm elections, Democrats have put together a strong message that the prices of food, gas, healthcare, housing and utilities are too high and that Americans need to elect members of the party who take their financial struggles seriously. And that message has been working. Since President Donald Trump was elected in 2024 and embarked upon a term that has unsettled even those of us who were expecting the worst, Democrats have consistently overperformed in special and off-year elections.

Just ask Mikie Sherill and Abigail Spanberger, the recently elected Democratic governors of New Jersey and Virginia, respectively. An April Fox News poll showed Democrats edging Republicans 52% to 48% on which party would better handle the economy. That was the first time Democrats have had an advantage on that question in 16 years.

Democrats may be walking blindly into a buzzsaw and risking giving away the advantage they have established over Republicans.

Given the party’s edge on this important metric, unless Democrats suffer a significant reversal in public opinion over the next five months, they should be considered likely to take control of the House after nearly four years in the minority. But preserving the party’s momentum rests on persuading voters that Democrats will take seriously the issue of affordability for everyday Americans. Our future success, including our hopes to reclaim the White House in 2028, will depend on us showing that we won’t just promise, but we will deliver.

But on one important issue, I fear Democrats may be walking blindly into a buzzsaw and risking giving away the advantage they have established over Republicans on who cares more about working Americans. The issue is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which guarantees Americans that their bank accounts are insured up to $250,000. Some Democrats have bought into the idea that there needs to be a dramatic expansion of those federal banking insurance subsidies, and they are joining Republican supporters of the industry’s push. The legislation was introduced by Sens. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., and currently it is being debated in the Senate Banking Committee. The bill, which would expand federally-backed deposit insurance guarantees for business transaction accounts from the $250,000 cap to as much as $5 million, is being sold as protection for “Main Street.”

But that’s far from the truth. More than 99% of Americans’ bank accounts are already fully covered by the FDIC’s $250,000 cap. It’s been quite some time since a good survey was done, but in 2016, JPMorgan Chase reported that the median small business held an average daily cash balance of just $12,100. There is little in the legislation, then, for most small business owners.

Indeed, the biggest beneficiaries of this legislation would be large corporations with treasury departments that are staffed to manage cash positions of this size. Those corporations already have plenty of options today to insure their accounts and to pay for those options themselves. Under this bill, they would instead get coverage backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.

That is to say, those corporations would get coverage backed by you, by me and by every other American taxpayer. The legislation was also written to benefit all but a handful of the largest banks in the country, including more than a dozen with more than $100 billion in assets each.

We lose when the party is seen as too cozy with Wall Street and other wealthy supporters.

By guaranteeing deposits at such a scale, the federal government would be stripping banks and large depositors of any incentive to manage risk, thus recreating the “moral hazard” that helped drive the savings and loan crisis that cost taxpayers more than $120 billion. That crisis followed the 1980 deposit insurance coverage hike. This bill would subsidize wealthy depositors and banks by socializing the risk of the next bailout onto every American taxpayer. 

The above is the economic argument against this bill. Now let me give you the political argument. Democrats win when we deliver our economic and affordability message. We lose when the party is seen as too cozy with Wall Street and other wealthy supporters. That perception of doing the bidding of the banks and not Americans struggling to make ends meet should make Democrats think twice about this legislation.

After all, voters never forget a bank bailout. The political damage of 2008 still reverberates today. The view that Democrats, who controlled Congress, were willing to rescue Wall Street while Main Street drowned was a generational wound.  The Democrats’ perception as being most concerned  about corporations helped fuel the tea party, the shellacking that was the 2010 midterms and a decade of lost ground on economic credibility.

We see from the elections Democrats have won since 2024 that middle-class Americans are trusting us to make their lives more affordable. Voting to put those same Americans on the hook for the next bank bailout would be a horrible way to repay that trust.

Democrats must not risk hurting their winning message on the economy by passing a giveaway for banking lobbyists and their wealthy clients.

The post Democrats can maintain their lead over Republicans on the economy if they don’t make this disastrous mistake appeared first on MS NOW.

A group of three families, on behalf of their transgender children, and two transgender young adults, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in New York seeking to block a subpoena from the Justice Department for NYU Langone to release their medical records and other personal information to the government. The filing is only the most recent in a slate of lawsuits led by trans kids and their families across the country, from Maryland to California. 

The timing of these lawsuits is notable as they come in and around Pride Month, a period intended for the celebration of queerness and to honor hard-won battles for social and legal acceptance. Instead, trans children, and their families, are living in fear and using time, energy and resources to protect themselves from the state for the perceived transgression of merely existing.

The timing of these lawsuits is notable as they come in and around Pride Month, a period intended for the celebration of queerness and to honor hard-won battles for social and legal acceptance.

The government’s objective in its subpoena, which bids hospital representatives to appear in court before a grand jury in June and present documents “sufficient to identify each patient” who as a minor received gender-confirming care of any kind dating back to 2020,  appears to be twofold: to deny healthcare to trans kids, by, among other things, citing billing to insurance companies as “fraudulent”; and to intimidate healthcare providers from providing gender-confirming care to transgender patients at all.

This tactic appears to be working as trans healthcare centers and clinics around the country shutter, making care increasingly hard to access. “In addition to concerns about how the government might use private health information, parents said they fear that their children’s records will be held up as part of an investigation that ultimately aims to deny them medical treatment,” The New York Times reported Tuesday.

While the DOJ told the Times that it does not respond to requests for comment on grand jury subpoenas or activities, the Times also reported that “[t]he government has said it is acting on the behalf of patients and families as it investigates whether health providers and drug companies have illegally promoted off-label use of medications or used fraudulent billing practices to secure insurance coverage for gender-related treatments to minors.”

The DOJ has based its investigations into gender-confirming care for trans youth in the Northern District of Texas, which is home court for a notoriously reactionary and partisan chief district judge, Reed O’Connor, and therefore “a venue favored by conservatives,” Reuters explains. In the past, O’Connor has taken initiatives to quash legal recourse for the subjects of his rulings, such as Rhode Island Hospital, which has been treating trans minors. “He…issued an injunction claiming to prohibit the hospital from seeking relief in the federal courts that oversee Rhode Island under threat of contempt. And he barred the hospital from ‘aiding and abetting’ any other party that might ask for help from these courts, including the children whose rights will be trampled by disclosure of their records,” Slate reported in May. 

In basing its investigation in the Northern District of Texas, the department can file requests for subpoenas — for medical records and private patient information in other states — in O’Connor’s court. This, as Slate reporting describes, is part of the DOJ’s wider attempt at “forum shopping key cases to MAGA judges across the country who are much more likely to reward underhanded tactics.” It’s a breach of the sanctity of state laws, variations of which have been an important part of this country’s legal framework.

The Justice Department has made the case that part of its investigation involves looking at trans healthcare providers’ use of off-label drugs, arguing this could be either fraudulent or illegal. Yet as the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality explains, off-label use is both “legal and common.” (For instance, Trazodone, while originally intended to treat depression, is often prescribed for other conditions, such as insomnia, bulimia, alcohol dependence or diabetic neuropathy.)

This is all to say that this administration is not just failing to take care of our most vulnerable populations, but it is actively targeting them. The fact that vulnerable children and their families are compelled to sue the federal government in an effort to have their constitutional rights honored says everything we need to know about this current political landscape. 

“Every week there’s something new,” one teenager targeted in the Rhode Island Hospital case, who was only identified by their first initial because their family has faced harassment and threats in the past, told WBUR. “One week, they try to ban care. Another week, you find out that they want to know your personal information.”

It is the job of any well-functioning democracy to protect children and other vulnerable groups. As a trans man, navigating the progressively hostile and reactionary medical, political and legal landscapes demands an enormous amount of energy, not to mention it produces a great deal of fear and anxiety — and I am in my 40s. I cannot imagine how much this state targeting of trans youth is derailing the lives of children who want and deserve nothing more than to simply be kids. 

The post Kids should be allowed to just be kids. This Pride Month, that’s getting harder. appeared first on MS NOW.

This is an adapted excerpt from the May 31 episode of “Velshi.”

Just search “utility companies” under news, and you’ll find a familiar story playing out across the country: report after report of skyrocketing electric bills and mounting public anger with service providers. Out-of-control utility bills have become another aspect of the country’s affordability crisis, driven by an industry operating with too little accountability.

Retail electricity prices rose 7% in 2025 alone, part of a nearly 40% rise since 2021, which makes it the fastest period of electricity price growth on record. The average household’s monthly electric bill has climbed from roughly $121 in 2021 to $156 today, marking a nearly 30% increase that outpaces inflation.

In the words of the American Economic Liberties Project’s Matt Stoller: “Where’s all the f&$*#ing money going?”

Meanwhile, utility companies continue to ask regulators to let them charge even more money. In just the first three months of this year, utility companies sought approval for $9.4 billion in rate increases. That follows a record-setting 2025, when they requested $31 billion, more than double what they sought the year before.

According to the consumer advocacy group Powerlines, “Today, nearly 80 million Americans are struggling to pay their utility bills, forgoing basic expenses like food, education, and health care to keep their lights on.”

In the words of the American Economic Liberties Project’s Matt Stoller: “Where’s all the f&$*#ing money going?”

For their part, the utility companies will point to extreme weather, aging infrastructure, the transition to cleaner energy and now the enormous power demands of data centers. And while that is real, it doesn’t add up — and it hasn’t for years. We have been paying more for years.

The government has increased spending on the U.S. transmission system fivefold over the past two decades. But if all that money were actually fixing the grid, why do we keep hearing the grid is unreliable? Why do we keep hearing we need even more?

The answer lies in the utility business model, the part most people never hear about. Most people assume utilities work like ordinary businesses. They don’t. A regulated utility does not primarily make money by selling you electricity at a markup. Nearly every dollar it spends on operating costs is ultimately recovered from customers through rates approved by government regulators.

The real profits come from something else: capital investment.

When a utility builds a power plant, transmission line, substation or other major piece of infrastructure, regulators allow it to recover those costs from customers over decades.

On top of that, the utility earns a guaranteed return on the money it invested. And that return is not trivial; for most investor-owned utilities, it falls somewhere between 9.5% and 11%. Compare that with what you earn in a high-yield savings account today, which is around 4% if you’re lucky.

According to the Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog group that calls for greater accountability in the utility sector, investor-owned utilities pocketed $244 billion in profit off customers from 2021 through 2024.

Here’s the breakdown of those costs, according to the group’s executive director: “If a customer has a $200 electric bill, something on the order of $30 isn’t paying for electric poles, or wires, or power plants. It’s paying a wealth transfer to Wall Street and the company’s executives.”

Now, it should be noted, this is an analysis that industry groups dispute. But consider the incentives that kind of business model creates. If you’re guaranteed a premium on every dollar you spend, what’s your next move? It is likely not fixing the grid or upgrading aging facilities; it’s spending more dollars.

Build more projects, deploy more capital. Whether those projects are the most efficient solution or even strictly necessary becomes a secondary concern.

That helps explain one of the strangest features of America’s electricity system. As Stoller puts it, utilities are “truly paid to fritter away money, to gold-plate and waste.” And, if that’s not bad enough, in some states these same utilities can spend your money on political activities.

According to the Energy and Policy Institute, in states where laws prohibit utilities from charging customers for political spending, consumers are saving hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Meanwhile, you, the average customer, are sitting around believing that paying more will lead to a better grid. That is the implicit bargain behind every rate increase. Customers are told that higher bills today will lead to a more reliable system tomorrow. Yet the opposite complaint seems to be growing louder every year.

The federal organizations responsible for monitoring the nation’s electric system have repeatedly warned that large portions of the country face increasing blackout risks as power demand grows and existing infrastructure ages.

Ultimately, the problem is that the system rewards spending itself: A utility that finds a cheaper solution earns less, and a utility that spends billions building — not fixing — infrastructure earns more.

As Stoller puts it, “They are willing to waste $1,000 to send an extra $60 to shareholders.”

Many experts argue that one of the most effective ways to lower costs and improve reliability would be to build more high-voltage transmission lines connecting different regions of the country.

Think of the electric grid as a national marketplace. Some regions have abundant, inexpensive electricity.  The Great Plains, for example, have some of the world’s best wind resources. The Southwest has enormous solar potential. Other regions, particularly dense population centers in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest, often face higher electricity costs and tighter supply constraints.

The obvious solution is to move more power between these regions. Done correctly, these projects can lower costs, improve reliability and make the entire system more resilient.

But that requires coordination. Large interstate transmission projects involve multiple states and multiple regulators, more oversight. And crucially, they don’t fit as neatly into the business model that rewards individual utilities for expanding their own assets.

As a result, utilities favor smaller local projects that are easier to approve, easier to build and guaranteed to generate shareholder returns.

Other countries have moved far more aggressively to build long-distance infrastructure capable of moving power across vast regions. Look at China, which has built more than 8,200 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in recent years. The U.S. has built a mere 375.

At this point, you may be wondering: Where are the regulators? After all, utilities don’t operate in a free market. Customers can’t simply switch providers when rates rise.

The entire justification for granting utilities monopoly status is that government regulators are supposed to act on behalf of the public. In theory, that’s the safeguard. In the real world, that has become part of the problem.

Consider a recent example in Pennsylvania. When the Pennsylvania utility PECO — a subsidiary of Exelon, the largest utility in the country — recently asked for a return of nearly 11%, far above the national average, it took the governor publicly shaming them to get it withdrawn.

Customers are told that higher bills today will lead to a more reliable system tomorrow. Yet the opposite complaint seems to be growing louder every year.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro called PECO’s proposed rate hike “pure greed.” In response, PECO said in a statement that the company “shares Governor Shapiro’s concerns about affordability and remains focused on keeping customer bills as low as possible while continuing to invest in safe and reliable service.”

The rising costs led Shapiro to launch a new watchdog to scrutinize utility profits.

But critics argue that many of the state commissions that are supposed to oversee these utilities have been effectively captured. The revolving door between regulators and utility companies means that today’s watchdog can become tomorrow’s utility executive, and vice versa.

At the same time, utility companies are often permitted to contribute money to the campaigns of officials involved in overseeing them. The result is regulatory capture, with the system increasingly serving the interests of the companies rather than the ratepayers it was designed to protect.

That’s why the industry’s response to virtually every challenge sounds so familiar. Need to strengthen the grid against storms? More spending. Need to accommodate renewable energy? More spending. Need to support artificial intelligence data centers? More spending. Need to improve reliability? More spending. And systems rarely reform themselves when the people involved are benefiting from the status quo.

Most Americans don’t understand the mechanics of rate bases, transmission planning or regulatory capture. They don’t need to. What they understand is that their bills keep rising. They understand that every year seems to bring a new explanation for why prices have to go up again.

For much of the 20th century, utilities were largely run by engineers. Their mission was straightforward: keep the lights on. Today, the system is run by financial engineers focused on returns on their investments.

Allison Detzel contributed.

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Gunfire erupted Saturday near a busy street festival in Ohio, wounding at least 12 people and sending some eventgoers scrambling for cover while others rushed to help the victims.

No suspects were in custody hours afterward, Toledo Deputy Police Chief Joe Heffernan said, and officials urged people who were at the festival to come forward with any photos or videos on their phones for possible leads.

The shooting happened near the Old West End Festival, an annual gathering of live music and home tours.

Heffernan said it appeared that at least two people fired weapons and they were “probably shooting at each other.”

Two of the victims were in critical condition, Heffernan added. The ages of the victims ranged from 14 to 61, with most of them in their early 20s.

“I am deeply concerned about the situation in Toledo tonight,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement. “Summer festivals should be safe spaces for families to spend time together without fear of violence.”

Multiple videos posted to social media showed people running amid the sound of gunshots and emergency officials tending to others who appeared wounded.

Fire Chief Allison Armstrong said it was difficult to get to the hospital due to closed roads and traffic from people leaving the festival, but emergency responders were able to transport all patients from the scene within an hour.

Kevin Berry was sitting in the neighborhood arboretum listening to live music with friends when he heard a handful of gunshots ring out.

“Everybody hit the deck,” he said.

When Berry looked back up, he saw a gun being tossed to the ground less than 50 feet (15 meters) away from him. Officers who were already on site for the festival responded immediately.

Berry, who has medical training and served in the Navy, walked around looking for anyone who might need help and saw at least five people with gunshot wounds.

“The folks who were hit were spread out around the arboretum area,” he said.

The Old West End Festival is a two-day celebration in Toledo’s historic district that includes live music, food vendors, home tours and shopping. Berry described it as the “kick-off to Toledo’s summer festival season.”

George Kral, safety director for the city, said officials were discussing with organizers whether it would continue through the weekend.

“This is one of the most iconic festivals in Toledo,” he said, “and it’s a shame that something like this had to ruin it.”

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A shooting near a community festival in Toledo, Ohio, wounded at least 12 people, and police said a search for the suspects was ongoing following an outbreak of gunfire that sent crowds scrambling for cover.

Two of the wounded were in critical condition, Toledo Deputy Police Chief Joe Heffernan said. He said it appeared there were at least two people firing weapons who were “probably shooting at each other.”

The Toledo Police Department said the shooting happened near the Old West End Festival, an annual gathering of live music and home tours in a historic district of the city.

The department said an active search was underway for those responsible.

“I am deeply concerned about the situation in Toledo tonight. Summer festivals should be safe spaces for families to spend time together without fear of violence,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement.

Multiple videos posted to social media showed people running over the sound of gunshots and emergency officials tending to others who appeared wounded.

Kevin Berry said he was sitting in the neighborhood arboretum listening to live music with his friends when he heard a handful of gunshots ring out.

“Everybody hit the deck,” he said.

When he looked back up, he saw a gun being tossed to the ground less than 50 feet (15 meters) away from him. Police officers who were already on-site for the festival immediately responded to the scene.

Berry, who has medical training and served in the U.S. Navy, said he walked around the area looking for potential victims who might need help.

He said he saw at least five people with gunshot wounds.

“The folks who were hit were spread out around the arboretum area,” he said.

The Old West End Festival is a two-day celebration in Toledo’s historic district that includes live music, food vendors, home tours and shopping.

Berry described it as the “kick-off to Toledo’s summer festival season.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Saturday denied assertions of voter fraud in the state’s primary elections, dismissing unfounded accusations by President Donald Trump of “big cheating.”

Bonta said in an interview on MS NOW’s “The Weekend” that there is no basis for the election fraud investigations in Los Angeles that federal prosecutor Bill Essayli said his office is conducting.

“There are no details, there is no specifics, there is no specific allegation of any individualized act of voter fraud,” Bonta said. “And every count, recount, hand count, court case and audit has shown time and time again — not just in California, but throughout this country — that there is no widespread voter fraud.”

Bonta said claims of voter fraud are “only a figment of the imagination of Trump and others who follow that conspiracy theory.”

Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California and a Trump appointee, announced Friday that his office is working with the FBI on “multiple election fraud investigations.” He said he was coordinating with Harmeet Dhillon, Trump’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, on an audit of California’s voter rolls, citing the state’s lack of a voter ID rule.

Essayli’s announcement came one day after Trump declared without evidence that there was “BIG cheating” by Democrats in California, citing the state’s well-known slow ballot counting process.

California law allows ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive within seven days. Voters are also allowed to verify their identity in person if their signature on the ballot does not match what’s on file. That, along with the enormous number of registered voters in California, means its ballot counting typically takes longer than other states.

That lengthy tally has been subject to repeated conspiracy theories of widespread election fraud, including from Trump, despite a dearth of evidence.

On Friday, an assistant U.S. attorney visited Los Angeles County’s main processing center, where ballots were still being counted from Tuesday’s primaries. County Registrar of Voters spokesperson Daylyn Presley confirmed to MS NOW that the prosecutor was given an overview of the county’s public observation program and a tour of the ballot processing operations.

A spokesperson for Bonta told MS NOW that the attorney general’s office sent a representative to the ballot processing center at the same time that the Department of Justice official was there. The spokesperson said Bonta wanted to have eyes on the ground and ensure “nothing crazy is going on.”

Bonta told “The Weekend” that his office sent its own monitor to the center “to be present, to observe, to ensure there was no interference or anything inappropriate.”

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Police have arrested the son of actor James Handy’s girlfriend in his death after he was found stabbed in the chest in Los Angeles, law enforcement said Thursday.

Officers responded to a home Wednesday morning after a 911 caller said, “I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin,” according to the The Los Angeles Police Department.

They found the 81-year-old who appeared in films like “Jumanji” and “Top Gun: Maverick” in the front yard stabbed in the chest and unconscious, according to police. He was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead.

Michael Gledhill, 44, who is Handy’s girlfriend’s son and lives at the home with his mother, told officers that he was the person they were looking for, according to police.

Gledhill was booked on suspicion of one count of murder, according to police. His bail was set at $2 million, according to jail records.

It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney. Jail records did not show an attorney for him and messages left with the county public defender’s office were not immediately returned.

Born in New York, Handy has been appearing in films and TV for decades and was known for his role as an exterminator in the 1995 film “Jumanji” and more recently as the bartender Jimmy in the 2022 film “Top Gun: Maverick,” according to IMDB. He’s also appeared in some of the top TV crime dramas, including “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “The Closer” and “Cold Case.”

“I could not have asked for a more talented, humble or gracious client and friend than James Handy,” Pam Ellis-Evenas, from the Ellis Talent Group, said in an email to The Associated Press.

CORRECTION (June 6, 2026, 11 a.m. ET): A previous headline on this article misidentified the person arrested in the fatal stabbing of actor James Handy. It was the son of Handy’s girlfriend, not his son’s girlfriend.

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ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Leo XIV acknowledged Saturday as he headed to Spain that he’s competing with another VIP in Madrid this weekend, and also declared his preference in the country’s biggest soccer rivalry.

Puerto Rican sensation Bad Bunny is performing two shows of his 10-concert Spanish tour in the Spanish capital.

Speaking to reporters aboard the papal plane, Leo acknowledged the Bad Bunny draw when he referred to anecdotal reports of a newfound spiritual awakening especially among young people in Spain.

The American pope said he understood that young adults are sensing a lack of meaning in their lives and mused that his visit might help “awaken” something in them.

“If they are confronted with the question ‘Do you want to go see Bad Bunny or do you want to go to see the pope?’ I think many will see Bad Bunny,” Leo said. “But I think there will also be a few here to see the pope. And that says something, you know.”

Leo on Saturday is opening a weeklong visit to Spain that, after Madrid, will also take him to Barcelona and the Canary Islands. He’s hoping to bring a message of unity in a country polarized with political and church scandals.

Leo was also asked about news that plans are moving ahead for his beloved Chicago Bears to move to Hammond, Indiana. The board of the team voted this week to move forward with a stadium development project in Hammond.

Asked if he had any words of consolation for Illinois, the Chicago-born pope quipped: “That’s out of my pay (scale).”

In other sporting comments, Leo confirmed he would root for the U.S. in the upcoming World Cup but showed his true team colors when asked about whether he would root in Spain for Real Madrid or Barca: “That’s easy,” he said. “The pope is for all teams, but Prevost is Real Madrid,” he said, referring to his birth name.

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Graham Platner needs to drop out of the Maine Senate race — and Democrats should be the ones to coax him toward the door.

When Platner first threw his hat in the ring last year, there was a reasonable argument for his candidacy — here was a political outsider with a fresh perspective who represented a new generation of political talent for Democrats.

But everything we have learned about Platner over the past several months suggests that he is a moral and political trainwreck, with enough skeletons in his closet to fill a graveyard.

Platner has been caught in so many lies that it’s difficult to take anything he says seriously.

Indeed, since Platner announced his candidacy last year, there has been an unceasing drumbeat of scandals about him. He filled a Reddit message board with sexist, racist and off-color comments. He has exaggerated his working-class background and appears to have spent most of his life living off handouts from his parents. But above all, there was the revelation last fall that he had gotten a Nazi Totenkopf tattoo on his chest two decades ago — and by his account only realized it was a Nazi tattoo in the fall of 2025, as he began his campaign for the U.S. Senate.

In recent days, the stories about Platner have taken on a darker, more troubling hue. Last week, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times revealed that soon after his marriage in 2023, Platner was caught by his wife sexting as many as a dozen women. His profile page on Kik, an anonymous social media site often used for dating, was still active.

Then on Thursday, The New York Times published an account of three former girlfriends of Platner who described him as volatile, unfaithful and physically threatening. One woman, Lyndsey Fifield, a conservative activist, reported that during an argument, Platner “twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out.” Another former romantic partner, Jenny Racicot, who is a Democrat, said of Platner, “This person does not respect women.” The Times spoke with several other women Platner dated who spoke well of him, including that “they felt safe with him” and remain friends with him to this day. Platner on Thursday told MS NOW’s Chris Hayes that “some allegations” in the Times’ article “are simply not true,” specifically, “anything alleging physicality, anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was.” Platner did acknowledge that he spent a good amount of time “struggling, not being a good boyfriend, certainly self-medicating with alcohol.”

Fifield also told the Times that Platner had joked to her about his Nazi tattoo — contradicting his denials — and even produced a screenshot from a group chat in August 2025 of her talking to friends about the Nazi emblem. Platner has said he didn’t know about the tattoo’s Nazi origins until months later.

Platner has been caught in so many lies that it’s difficult to take anything he says seriously. And every time Platner is caught, he makes the same excuse: that he was in a dark period after he returned from serving in Iraq. While one can sympathize with Platner’s post-war experiences, this justification for his past behavior should not and cannot excuse a pattern of consistently bad behavior that dates back years and was occurring as recently as a few years ago.

Yet none of these revelations have pushed congressional Democrats to call on Platner to stand down. In fact, some are rallying around him.

According to Rhode Island liberal Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the latest reports about Platner’s behavior toward women “seems like a lot of nothing.”

Where will Platner’s numbers be in November after five months of GOP ads hammering him?

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., called Platner’s behavior “wrong and toxic,” but that’s not stopping him from appearing at a rally with Platner in Maine this weekend. When asked earlier in the week about Platner, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has publicly endorsed him, offered a classic whataboutist defense: “Is he a saint? I guess not. I don’t know too many saints here”

Even New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who led the charge against former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken when he was accused of sexual impropriety, has refused to condemn Platner, telling reporters, instead, “We are still going to win Maine.”

Put aside the hypocrisy of national Democrats, who have long preached the idea of believing women when they claim sexual harassment or violence; none of this makes sense from a political standpoint. Recent polling suggests Platner has a narrow lead over Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

In a political environment that heavily favors Democrats and in a state that has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in each of the past three presidential elections, Democrats should be well-positioned to flip the Maine seat from red to blue. And this is the polling situation today, before Maine voters have fully digested the latest Platner scandals. Where will Platner’s numbers be in November after five months of GOP ads hammering him? That’s not even taking into account the very real possibility that more scandals will emerge. Quite simply, even if one thinks that Platner is a unique political talent — and there isn’t much evidence that he is — why take the risk?

Sticking with Platner is not only a dangerous political move, but it also opens up Democrats to charges of hypocrisy, especially when they attack Republicans for sticking with morally and ethically flawed candidates like Ken Paxton in Texas. And after all, if there is one party that should care about how a man treats women, both in public and in private, it’s Democrats. It’s not as if Republicans have much of a leg to stand on with President Donald Trump as their standard-bearer.

In an ideal world, Platner would recognize that he is a flawed candidate who is putting the Democrats’ chances of flipping the Senate in significant danger. But he appears more focused on his political aspirations than doing what’s best for the Democratic Party. His staff would tell him the same thing, but they seem more focused on covering up for his sins than doing what’s best for the party.

That’s why it’s incumbent on national Democrats to demand Platner drop out of the race, either before or after Maine Democrats go to the polls next week. They can look to Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who, even though she dropped out of the race, is still on the ballot. Or they can look to recruit the runner-up in the competitive Democratic primary for governor. At least that person will have been vetted by the media. But considering how politically vulnerable Collins is, the mood of the electorate and Maine’s Democratic tilt, seemingly anyone would be a better option than Platner and his heavy baggage.

Heading into November with Platner as their nominee risks Democrats losing both the Maine Senate race and their souls.

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The last time notable combat sports were held at the White House, former President Theodore Roosevelt was hosting boxing matches, including taking up opponents himself. In one bout, he even took a blow to the face that left him partially blind in one eye.

Despite President Donald Trump’s past forays into the world of professional wrestling, he won’t be the one in the ring at the UFC fight scheduled to be held on the White House South Lawn.

But before taking office, Trump had long-running relationships with prominent figures in the world of combat sports. From boxing events at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to his friendship with boxing promoter Don King, Trump has long sought to make his mark on sport.

The match at the White House — part of a slate of events to celebrate the United States’ 250th birthday (although not to be confused with the congressionally sanctioned events known as America250) — is scheduled for June 14. The date, coincidentally, is Trump’s 80th birthday.

During a press event in the Oval Office with the fighters earlier this month, Trump (displaying a disregard for well-known trademarks) promised the event will be “the greatest show on Earth.”

“It’s never going to happen again,” Trump said. “Never happened before.”

Renderings from the UFC show a 5,000-seat arena, currently under construction on the South Lawn, that will sit underneath a red, white and blue arch. The White House and the UFC said invited guests and members of the military will sit around the octagonal cage, while screens will be set up at the Ellipse to show the fights to roughly 85,000 fans. Weigh-ins for the fighters are expected to take place at the Lincoln Memorial.

In a recent interview with The New Yorker, UFC CEO and longtime Trump ally Dana White said the president had floated the idea of fights at the White House while attending a recent fight. 

“He leans over to me in the middle of the fight and goes, ‘We should do a fight at the White House,’” White said. “I said, ‘Yes. Yes, we should. I’m in. I’m in!’”

Ties to White and UFC

Before White took over the UFC in 2001, mixed martial arts fighting was banned in a majority of states across the country. Speaking in support of Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention, White said most arenas didn’t want anything to do with hosting UFC events. 

But, he said, Trump took a chance on the company and hosted the first and second matches of White’s promotion career at the Trump Taj Mahal. 

“Nobody took us seriously,” White said in a speech at the 2016 RNC. “Nobody, except Donald Trump.”

Over the course of their relationship, White has stumped for Trump at rallies, and he appeared again at the RNC during the president’s 2024 campaign, where White called Trump “the toughest, most resilient human being.” On election night in 2024, Trump invited White to speak on stage during the celebration.

Trump did a victory lap at a UFC fight at Madison Square Garden just 11 days after winning the 2024 election. In 2019, Trump made history as the first sitting president to attend a UFC match. Since his first term, Trump has sat cageside at seven UFC matches.

Trump last attended a UFC fight in Miami on April 11, where he walked out grinning and waving to the stadium crowd.

And while Trump sat cageside with White, Vice President JD Vance announced from Islamabad that 21 hours of peace talks had failed to produce a deal to end the war with Iran.

Past with combat sports

From the 1980s onward, Trump frequently has hosted, sponsored and attended boxing and pro-wrestling events, cozying up to big names like boxing promoter King and his clients Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali.

In 1984, Trump opened Trump Plaza, a casino and hotel, in Atlantic City. Soon after, he started sponsoring boxing matches at an adjacent convention hall where he hosted a number of Tyson fights. 

Trump later ventured into professional wrestling, hosting WWE events in the late 1980s and appearing at showcases through the early 2000s. He’s had a decades-long relationship with Vince McMahon, who co-founded WWE with his wife, Linda McMahon.

In 2007 and 2009, the WWE made contributions totaling $5 million to the Trump Foundation.

Linda McMahon has served in Trump’s Cabinet twice: as Small Business Administration administrator from 2017 to 2019, and as secretary of education in the current administration.

Throughout Trump’s multiple presidential campaigns, well-known combat sports figures have showed up in support. In addition to White and King, who attended the 2016 RNC, the late WWE wrestler Hulk Hogan stumped for Trump at multiple events during the 2024 campaign.

While speaking at the RNC that year after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, Hogan ripped off his tank top to reveal a Trump-Vance tank top beneath. 

“Let Trumpamania rule again!” Hogan exclaimed. “Let Trumpamania make America great again!”

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The Florida Legislature convened for a special session this week and passed Gov. Ron DeSantis proposal to put a gradual elimination of homestead property taxes on November’s ballot. As a legislator who represents a vibrant, diverse community in South Florida, I could not in good conscience support this measure.  I voted “no”  because the math does not add up and Floridians deserve honesty, not political theater.

The resolution would raise the homestead exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028, with a stated path toward full elimination of homestead property taxes. Florida is already one of nine states in the United States without an income tax.

Florida is already one of nine states in the United States without an income tax.

On the surface, getting rid of such property taxes might appeal to Floridians across the political spectrum. We all deserve affordability and the ability to make ends meet without taking on crushing debt or working multiple jobs just to stay afloat. Like Americans across the country, the people in Florida face an affordability crisis as the cost of groceries, housing, healthcare, gas and other everyday expenses continues to skyrocket.

Every single person in the communities I serve is feeling the pressure of rising costs, and I take that seriously. But this resolution does not solve that problem — it shifts it. It takes the financial burden off property owners and quietly drops it on the backs of renters and the most vulnerable communities we serve.

Republicans across the country, including many here in Florida, have talked for so long about lowering taxes or eliminating taxes that they seem to have forgotten that taxes pay for things that people need and that getting rid of taxes in such a haphazard way will cause pain for individuals and local governments across the state.

Under this measure, local governments across the state, including those in Miami-Dade County and across South Florida, stand to lose billions in revenue. That revenue pays for police and fire protection, public health services, infrastructure and the community programs that working families count on. The state’s constitutional prohibition on cutting first responder funding changes the basic fiscal reality: When you eliminate a tax base, someone else pays. And there’s no solution in place to make up for this massive loss and the impact it will have on communities and residents’ daily lives.

My district is home to hardworking families, seniors on fixed incomes, renters who will never see a dime of this tax break and small business owners who are already navigating an extremely difficult economic climate. They are not asking for a constitutional amendment that most benefits the wealthiest homeowners. They are asking for real, targeted relief that addresses the actual affordability crisis without gutting the services that keep our communities safe and functioning.

Property tax reform that is sustainable, equitable and helps the Floridians who need it most would get my support, but that’s not what this plan is.

When you eliminate a tax base, someone else pays.

We can expect Gov. DeSantis and his allies to paint this resolution as “cost saving,” but if the state’s voters approve the constitutional amendment in November,  the shift in tax burdens will hit many Floridians’ pocketbooks hard.

Florida is already navigating the aftermath of devastating hurricane seasons the past few years, with communities still rebuilding and local governments stretched thin. To introduce a structural revenue shock of this magnitude, one that disproportionately benefits high-value homeowners in wealthier zip codes isn’t just bad policy but a choice about whose recovery matters.

Just like the hype that surrounded Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill last year, we have seen this playbook before: A headline-grabbing tax cut gets framed as relief for everyday families while the fine print tells a different story. The president, for example has focused on the law’s provision on allowing certain tax filers who get paid tips to not pay taxes on them, but the law overwhelmingly benefits the country’s wealthiest Americans.

DeSantis wants to do away with home property taxes. Florida cities are alarmed. But special districts are more so. Mosquito abatement districts which receive all their funding from property taxes. Welcome back malaria!

— Michael McDonald (@electproject.bsky.social) 2026-06-01T10:22:44.517Z

 

Similarly, the exemption headed to Florida’s ballot helps those with the highest-value homes while, say, a senior renting a modest apartment would see nothing. A working family leasing a home would see nothing as the county budget that funds their children’s after-school programs, their neighborhood’s road repairs and their emergency services absorbs the blow.

Extreme anti-tax strategies like this are anything but “fiscally responsible.” The hidden cost is paid in crumbling roads, understaffed fire stations and shuttered public libraries — the very infrastructure that holds communities together. When revenue is deliberately starved from local governments, it isn’t abstract bureaucracies that suffer. It is the elderly neighbor who can no longer afford the ambulance response time that doubled, the child whose school lost its reading specialist and the small business owner whose street floods every rainy afternoon because the drainage system went unrepaired for a decade. A community that guts its own foundations doesn’t liberate its people — it auctions off their shared future to the highest bidder, leaving everyone else to pay the real price.

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Late last month, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten called for what would amount to a significant reversal of the education establishment’s embrace of technology when she suggested restrictions on artificial intelligence and electronic screens in schools. Though her call to action stopped short of a total ban, Weingarten said restrictions are needed “to harness the benefits of technology while mitigating harms.”

Schools have spent billions of dollars rushing devices into children’s hands. Such spending was especially high during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the results have been profound. As of last school year, 88% of public schools reported providing every child with a laptop, tablet or similar device. Just last year, the AFT partnered with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and others to launch a $23 million National Academy for AI Instruction aimed at helping educators use AI responsibly and effectively in schools.

All this tech has been a huge experiment on kids, and experiments can go wrong.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten

But in a May 27 speech at the National Press Club, Weingarten said, “All this tech has been a huge experiment on kids, and experiments can go wrong.”

Much of the debate over AI in schools has focused on the loss of students’ analytical skills, cognitive offloading and shrinking attention spans. Those are legitimate concerns. But we should pay more attention to another essential cognitive function being systematically engineered out of existence: boredom. 

Often misunderstood as a passive state, boredom is a transitional state that frequently precedes curiosity, imagination and original thought. Boredom is deeply tied to children developing the ability to think for themselves.

Doomscrolling social media and watching endless short video clips already make a state of boredom harder to reach. But there are still gaps where a child (or adult) can drift into boredom, and from there, imagination.

 

AI systems, however, anticipate the idle moment. They analyze our behavior and preferences to personalize content, predict our questions before we finish asking them and generate answers before we can wrestle with a problem. Every pause is filled before the mind has a chance to wander somewhere unexpected. Thus, they reduce the cognitive friction that often gives rise to insight. Psychologists call that friction a “productive struggle.”

To the student assigned an essay, the blank page creates a kind of discomfort. Where to start? Which ideas are worth pursuing? What questions need answering? If a person stares at the page long enough, boredom will eventually give way to emerging ideas. But when such writing is outsourced to AI, that discomfort disappears, along with the friction that sparks creativity.

For years, educators have treated boredom as an enemy of learning and something to be eliminated. The last thing a teacher wants is a disengaged or disinterested student, right? But there’s a difference between apathy and a boredom that triggers curiosity in the unoccupied mind. Boredom can provoke students to ask unusual questions, meander through half-formed ideas and try to solve problems or complete tasks in unconventional ways. But constant digital stimulation makes that less likely.

Boredom is not a bug in human cognition. It’s a complex neurological feature.

Boredom is not a bug in human cognition. It’s a complex neurological feature that can fuel introspection, invention and the activation of the brain’s default mode network. That’s the state associated with mind-wandering, reflection and original thought — and the occasional inspiration to dye our hair neon.

Bored children learn to tolerate frustration, entertain themselves and persist through uncertainty. Those are skills that adults who grew up before smartphones and generative AI didn’t have to work to acquire.

From Newton’s theories to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and Alexey Pajitnov’s Tetris, these creators were driven by the same impulse: to fill the silence of the mind with something new. But that requires having access to that idle moment, something AI and other technologies are actively patching out.

You’ve likely heard the counterargument: that AI, by automating mundane tasks, frees us for higher-level thinking and creativity. However, a a 2022 study found that five-minute, low-effort, low-distraction pauses boosted productivity by 7.12%. And in a 2012 study, researchers found that participants who completed a dull task later performed better on creative problem-solving tasks. That suggests “boring” tasks are not a waste of time but may enhance creative thinking.

Another recent study by Katy Tam and Michael Inzlicht published in Communications Psychology found that people are paradoxically more bored in the digital age than before it.  Technology, they found, is eliminating idle mental space and making people feel more bored when constant stimulation is not available. Various studies have shown that attempts to escape boredom contribute to problematic uses of digital technologies and declining mental health.

Weingarten is right that we’ve been running an experiment on children. But while we may track reading levels and test scores, we don’t know what happens to children who don’t develop the ability to sit in discomfort long enough for their minds to wander.

What are the long-term consequences when an entire generation is deprived of the opportunity?

Technology is eliminating idle mental space and making people feel more bored when constant stimulation is not available.

The antidote isn’t just reduced screen time, though that’s part of the equation. We need to embrace boredom, engineering it back into our lives, our lesson plans and the design of the technology students use.

Answers could include device-free spaces, unstructured school time, outdoor play, challenging students to solve problems that cannot be completed with digital tools, incorporating 15–20 minutes of daily meditative silence, increasing physical activity or deliberately introducing friction, latency and moments that prompt human reflection and ideation into the AI technologies we use.

We need to reclaim agency over the systems designed to eradicate boredom out of our lives. Weingarten must know that students will complain that they’re bored if their screens are taken away. And when they do, their teachers can tell them that’s the point and hand them a blank page. Because what comes next is what we’re trying to preserve.

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As the midterms approach, election officials across the country are preparing for a dangerous possibility: the deployment of immigration agents and other federal law enforcement officials to America’s polls.

Any stationing of federal law enforcement at polling sites is a heavy-handed attempt to intimidate voters. It runs counter to our founding principles, including that all of us are created equal, and that promise is fulfilled at the ballot box. When we cast our ballots, it doesn’t matter who you are, what you believe in or the amount of money  in your bank account. They all count the same — one person, one vote. 

As Nevada’s secretary of state, it is my duty to defend the constitutional rights of every eligible voter. That responsibility does not belong to one ideology or group of people — it belongs to all of us. Unfortunately, a growing number of elected officials disagree.

If voters are afraid to vote, many will stay home, and that is exactly what anti-democratic officials want.

The challenge we now face is anti-democratic forces running amok. President Trump and his anti-democracy allies seek to weaken our democracy to improve their chances of winning elections. They have repeatedly suggested deploying ICE agents to voting locations for that purpose — to sow discord and confusion. Whether or not these deployments occur, the mere suggestion is enough to create fear, chaos and doubt. This is particularly true in states like Nevada that were built by, and continue to grow because of, the contributions of immigrants.

Democracy only works when voters feel safe enough to participate. If voters are afraid to vote, many will stay home, and that is exactly what anti-democratic officials want. Rather than answer to the people, these extremists seek to pick and choose their voters.

I, along with my fellow pro-democracy secretaries of state, refuse to let this happen. The Constitution clearly bestows state and local authorities with the sole right to administer elections. Any attempts by the federal government to blur those lines are illegal, full stop.

States like Nevada have fought back against the Justice Department’s sweeping, illegal demands for private voter data, and we have won. My fellow pro-democracy secretaries of state and I will continue to take opponents to court and win cases because we are on the right side of the law.

We will continue to serve on the front lines to keep our elections free and secure, especially as the foes of democracy seek to weaken our elections. 

The law is clear: Sending federal immigration enforcement to the polls is illegal. If that happens, we’ll be ready. 

But while we pro-democracy secretaries of state will continue to protect elections and serve the people, it’s important to underscore that elections are run by public servants and volunteers around the country. These people, of every political affiliation, care deeply about ensuring that their neighbors, family and friends have a voice in our democracy. 

Americans deserve leaders who reinforce public trust, rather than those who peddle in rhetoric and policies that stoke fear.

County clerks and poll workers have endured years of threats, harassment and political attacks simply for doing their jobs. Contrary to what some in power want you to believe, these are not partisan hacks looking to put their thumb on the scale. They are your mothers and grandfathers, brothers and sisters, neighbors and community members. 

Americans deserve leaders who reinforce public trust, rather than those who peddle in rhetoric and policies that stoke fear.

For generations, our nation has recognized the importance of protecting voters from coercion. Our polling places are sacred civic spaces where Americans fulfill the hallowed promise of self government. They are not forums for political theater and gross attacks.

To every voter feeling afraid right now, know that you are not alone. We have power when we stand together. And if your neighbor is scared to go to the polls, offer to go with them. If you can contribute as a poll worker, please sign up to be one. A familiar face at a polling location can make all the difference for someone who feels like those in power want to silence them as they exercise their rights.

Every eligible American deserves to know that they can cast a ballot safely, securely, and without fear. That principle transcends politics, and so long as my fellow pro-democracy Secretaries of State and I are in office, we will continue to administer free, fair, and secure elections on your behalf.

The post Trump is threatening to send ICE to polling places. Officials like me won’t let him. appeared first on MS NOW.

Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner maintained that people in Maine continue to have his back as his past “gets dug up, litigated and weaponized” during a campaign rally Friday night, marking his first large public event since a series of allegations and personal controversies rocked his campaign just days before the June 9 primary. 

Platner told supporters in Bal Harbor that even as critics revisit his past and level what he described as false accusations, Mainers have stood by him.

“When hurtful things I said on the internet a decade ago came out into the public as I shared my personal journey through PTSD and darkness of recovery and accountability and growth, Maine had my back,” Platner said.

“Now as every single piece of that past and journey gets dug up, litigated, and weaponized, you have my back and when politically motivated serious and false accusations are made against me, Maine, you have my back.”

With primary day just days away, Friday’s rally served as an important test of whether Platner can reassure and mobilize supporters, while maintaining momentum in a race that has become one of the most closely watched Democratic primaries of the 2026 election cycle.

The Get-Out-the-Vote rally comes after a tumultuous week for Platner and a day after The New York Times published a report detailing allegations from several ex-girlfriends, including from Lyndsey Fifield, who said he repeatedly grabbed her hard enough to leave marks, pulled her from a taxi by the wrist during an argument and, in one incident, twisted her arm behind her back and held her in a room. 

Fifield told the newspaper that Platner never punched or hit her but said the incidents left her frightened. The report also included criticism from other women about Platner’s behavior in past relationships. Platner denied the allegations on MS NOW, calling claims of physical abuse “simply not true” and characterized them as politically motivated.  

Platner said on Thursday that there were aspects of his past for which he takes responsibility, including struggles with alcohol and difficult periods following his military service. However, he rejected claims that he physically harmed former partners and disputed allegations related to a tattoo that critics said resembled Nazi imagery. 

Platner also faced scrutiny about sexually explicit messages he exchanged with multiple women early in his marriage. He has publicly acknowledged sending the messages and apologized for his conduct.

Despite the controversies, Platner has retained the backing of several high-profile Democrats, all of whom view Maine’s Senate race as critical to Democrats’ hopes of reclaiming the chamber.  Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., joined Platner at the rally, underscoring continued support from prominent progressive allies despite growing scrutiny of the candidate’s past, though at least a handful of Democrats have expressed concerned.

Khanna briefly addressed the allegations against Platner, and praised his wife, Amy Gertner, for her resilience. He highlighted that the Senate candidate has been open about his struggles following military service, and argued “we broke thousands of young men by sending them into dumb wars.”

“Now, no one should make excuses for his past relationships, some of which were toxic and volatile, and no one on our side should attack the women who came forward,” Khanna said.

“He understood that those years that he came back were not the best years of his life. He was ashamed of some of the things he said and did, and then he, unlike others, took accountability for it, and he’s worked to be a better man, a better human being,” he added.

Khanna praised Platner as a candidate who has consistently backed progressive priorities, citing his opposition to the war in Iran, support for Medicare for All and willingness to challenge wealthy donors and billionaires.

“When it comes down to it, we showed up for Graham, because he has showed up for us,” he said.

Democrats view Maine as one of their best pickup opportunities in 2026 and believe defeating incumbent Sen. Susan Collins could be critical to their chances of reclaiming control of the Senate.

In his speech, Platner remarked on Collins’ own marriage and the lack of press she receives on it.

“Susan Collins hasn’t met a war she doesn’t like,” Platner said. “It’s no surprise because she’s married to a lobbyist who represents the defense industry. You don’t see as many articles about that.”

Platner also criticized Collins as a career politician, saying she “has given up some charade that she’s a moderate, that she stands up against her party. That she cares about her constituents more than she cares about those that donate money to her.”

“We see through it,” he said.

A Democratic victory in the state would flip a Republican-held seat and potentially provide a key vote in a closely divided chamber. Polling has also continued to show Platner leading both the Democratic field and Collins in a potential general election matchup.

“We’re gonna need to have each other’s backs,” Platner said “because we are in the fight of our lives.”

The post ‘Maine, you have my back’: Graham Platner tells supporters amid latest round of allegations appeared first on MS NOW.

Republican Steve Hilton will advance to the general election in California’s gubernatorial race, according to The Associated Press.

The former Fox News personality will now face Democrat Xavier Becerra, President Joe Biden’s health and human services secretary, in November for the seat of outgoing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Becerra was leading the field when the AP reported Friday that he would go on to the general election. As of Tuesday when about 88% of the votes had been counted, Becerra had 27.9% of the votes counted, while Hilton came in second with 24.9% of the vote, the AP reported. Democrat Tom Steyer was running third with 22.6%.

Becerra and Hilton will now move on to the November general election.

As the counting has continued, President Donald Trump has sounded off on the process, alleging that “Dumocrats” were “trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.”

Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman, a Democrat, moved into second place, pushing past reality TV star Spencer Pratt — a Republican backed by Trump — as the mail ballots were counted. Californians vote in large numbers via mail-in ballots, which can be postmarked on Election Day.

Becerra was California attorney general from 2017 to 2021 and was a member of Congress for more than 20 years. He made a late-in-the-race surge in polling at 25% in late May, after coming in at 5% in early March.

The race to succeed Newsom became wide open after former Vice President and California Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla, the state’s senior senator, chose not to run. The race was further shaken when some candidates who were gaining popularity became embroiled in scandals. Former Rep. Eric Swalwell, viewed as a potential front-runner, dropped out after facing sexual misconduct allegations, while former Rep. Katie Porter came under scrutiny over allegations that she bullied staffers.

Steyer is a billionaire and hedge fund investor who launched a Democratic bid for presidency in 2020, branding himself as a progressive climate activist.

British-born Hilton is a registered Republican who received backing from Trump. In a Truth Social post earlier Tuesday, Trump wrote that Hilton “will work with me and the Federal Government, the money will flow because I have confidence in him (but not any of the others!), and we will MAKE CALIFORNIA GREAT AGAIN.”

California has not elected a Republican governor since Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was first elected in 2003.

The next governor of California will inherit a range of challenges, including an unstable state budget, an affordability crisis and the fallout from ongoing clashes with the Trump administration over immigration enforcement.

The post Ex-Fox News host will advance in California governor’s race, facing Becerra for Newsom’s seat appeared first on MS NOW.

Donald Trump’s administration has been a boon to gun traffickers, and a new lawsuit seeks to shed more light on the illegal guns being used in crimes.

To those who followed along as the GOP attempted to kneecap the Obama administration with its “Fast and Furious” inquiries back in 2012, the fact that Republicans firmly support Trump despite his being a major enabler of gun trafficking will reek of hypocrisy.

ProPublica recently reported that Trump has gutted many of the policies the Biden administration implemented to combat illegal sales of guns — a crackdown that experts have said contributed to a decline in violent crime that occurred during Biden’s term and has continued into Trump’s.

One of the Trump administration’s regressive moves was to repeal a zero-tolerance policy of pulling licenses from gun sellers who engaged in illegal sales. Per ProPublica:

But the Trump administration, driven both by gun-lobby advocacy and its own political priorities, quickly set about undoing much of its predecessor’s moves to combat gun violence. It repealed the zero-tolerance policy, going so far as to invite revoked dealers to reapply for new licenses. It shifted hundreds of ATF agents to immigration work. And it scaled back on prosecutions for gun trafficking. The White House declined to comment, referring questions to the ATF and the Department of Justice.

ProPublica’s report noted that the effect of Trump’s moves could be felt in the years ahead:

The homicide rate fell further last year, but criminologists warn against complacency, because the illicit gun trade is a classic pipeline problem: The harm can take a while to make itself felt. Research has found that the typical “time to crime” for trafficked firearms ranges up to about three years, which means that any positive lag of the anti-trafficking efforts of the Biden years would still be in effect now, with any negative effects of the Trump pullback lying in the years to come.

The Trump regime’s trafficker-friendly agenda is at the heart of a new lawsuit from the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

The suit stems from the withholding of federal requests for information from gun dealers who have sold weapons that were used in violent crimes. These requests, which are known as DL2s and issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have been decried by the firearm industry.

“Americans deserve to know about the sources of firearms that are driving crime in our communities and what ATF is doing, or not doing, about it,” Brady Center President Kris Brown said in a statement.

The ATF did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.

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