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White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting again put Washington Hilton at center of presidential history

April 28, 2026 / 7:23 AM EDT / CBS News

By Katrina Kaufman

When shots rang out at the Washington Hilton as President Trump sat in the ballroom for the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday night, there were echoes of the hotel’s storied presidential history.

On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan nearly died after John Hinckley Jr. pulled out a .22 caliber revolver and unleashed six shots in 1.7 seconds, from a mere 15 feet away, as the president was leaving the hotel. He had come from addressing union members of the AFL-CIO in the ballroom, ending his remarks with a familiar line: “Together we’ll make America great again.”

Lead U.S. Secret Service agent Jerry Parr — who was inspired to become an agent after seeing Reagan play one in a film as a boy – acted quickly to throw Reagan in the limousine, according to Del Wilbur, author of “Rawhide Down” (Rawhide was Reagan’s Secret Service code name).

View of police officers and Secret Service agents as they dive to protect President Ronald Reagan amid a panicked crowd during an assassination attempt (by John Hinckley Jr) outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington DC, March 30,1981. Hulton Archive / Getty Images

But, said Wilbur, Hinckley’s sixth shot “slaps against the side of the limousine, flattens to the size of a dime, slips through a gap an inch and a half wide between the door and the door frame and hits Reagan.”

Bullets hit White House press secretary James Brady in the head — paralyzing him, D.C. police officer Thomas Delehanty in the back, and U.S. Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy in the chest.

Diagram depicts assassination attempt on Pres. Reagan. Reagan and three others (A,B,C,D) were shot in front of the VIP exit at the Washington Hilton Hotel by a lone assailant, who was captured on the spot near the exit. Bettmann

“It’s important to remember how close he came to dying,” said Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and senior fellow at the Reagan Institute, recalling how the president insisted on walking into the hospital despite his grave condition, then collapsed inside. “He rallied so the nation wouldn’t panic and think he was dying.”

The assassination attempt was a pivotal moment for the Washington Hilton – and for presidential security.

The Hilton’s presidential attraction

Journalists report from outside of the Washington Hilton Hotel on April 26, 2026. Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images

Since its inception, presidents have frequented the Washington Hilton. A wing-shaped building that looks like a bird in flight, the hotel was designed to attract them, featuring a secret passageway, safe room, and spacious ballroom.

The hotel opened 16 months after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. A few years later, the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner was held there for the first time and became a tradition that has continued ever since.

“So how do you get the president to go?” said Wilbur. “Well, you make sure he has his own entrance. They built a whole separate entrance on T Street. And it’s beautiful. There’s a spiral staircase down. There’s a personal elevator. And there’s a holding room down there for him that, at the time before all these great wireless communications, they had wired to communicate with the White House.”

“So that’s where they took Trump right after, to that holding room. No windows, subterranean, and they built that just to attract the president. And the president went there all the time,” he added. “There’s a safe hallway that goes from the bunker, that holding room, all the way to the top. It’s like his own hallway that leads from that to the speech.”

The ballroom is one of the largest in Washington, D.C. Presidents speak there several times a year – and have since Lyndon Johnson. In April 2024, then-President Biden appeared for three speeches in eight days. It has been home to the National Prayer Breakfast, the First Lady’s Luncheon, and inaugural balls.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama look at their photos on the wall at the Hilton Washington prior to the MTV & ServiceNation: Live From The Youth Inaugural Ball on January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC. David Hume Kennerly / Getty Images

Presidents Richard Nixon, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Reagan have all attended Inaugural Balls there.

Security adjustments made

But when Reagan was shot, there was a vulnerability point – as the president exited the hotel, he had to step outside to reach his limo. The Hilton later remedied that by constructing a bunker-like garage with a secure door, so the president is not exposed.

FBI agents are seen at the Washington Hilton after shots were fired during the White House Correspondents dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC, on April 25, 2025. Alex Wroblewski /AFP via Getty Images

“The assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan led to all sorts of changes in Secret Service security,” said Wilbur. “They started using magnetometers at all events. There had been a lot of pressure not to do that because it really disrupted events and kept politicians away from people. People complained a lot. Donors, especially, complained a lot. They started staffing differently. They even added magnetometers to the White House, where they hadn’t been before.”

Forty-five years later, Cole Tomas Allen attempted to rush through a magnetometer into the hotel’s ballroom in an alleged attempt to assassinate Mr. Trump, carrying a pump action shotgun and a .38 caliber pistol, according to an affidavit.

Allen’s alleged “manifesto,” obtained by CBS News, stated that “administration officials” were targets “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” with the exception of Kash Patel.

“Very unusual” pattern

It was the third alleged attempt on Mr. Trump’s life.

In February, Ryan Routh was sentenced to life in prison for plotting to assassinate him at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, during the 2024 election campaign. Thomas Crooks attempted to assassinate Mr. Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing his ear with a bullet, in July 2024.

“It’s very unusual to have multiple attempts,” said Troy. “Gerald Ford had two attempts in California in a one-month period. I can’t think of any recent president that’s had more attempts on his life.”

Reagan prayed for Hinckley after the shooting, expressing compassion for his would-be assassin in his diary. “I began to pray for his soul and that he would find his way back to the fold,” he wrote.

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity. His attempt to kill the president had been an effort to attract the attention of actress Jodie Foster.

His acquittal, which led to a public outcry, had an impact on the federal insanity defense — leading to a shift in the burden of proof. The Insanity Defense Act of 1984 changed the standard for insanity, putting the burden of proof on the defendant to prove insanity. In Hinckley’s case, prosecutors had to prove sanity beyond a reasonable doubt.

Hinckley spent more than three decades at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., before being released in 2016. His first television interview was with CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett in 2022.

“I feel terrible for what I did. I have remorse for what I did,” said Hinckley. “If I could take it all back, I would.”

Reagan returned for the first time to the Washington Hilton in September of 1981 for a charity ball, about six months after he was wounded in the assassination attempt. He did not mention the shooting in his brief remarks, but his limousine entered and left the hotel through the new garage entrance.

Mr. Trump has insisted that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner should be rescheduled within 30 days, with increased security.

On the night of the shooting, reporters gathered in the White House press briefing room, some still dressed in black tie.

“We’re going to do it again,” said Mr. Trump.

Trump push for state voter rolls rebuffed by courts as midterms near

2026-04-28T10:08:38.381Z / Reuters

April 28 (Reuters) – As the U.S. midterm elections approach, Democrats are winning legal challenges to the Trump administration’s push to obtain states’ voter rolls, dealing a blow to the president’s unprecedented effort to expand the federal government’s role in elections.

The Democratic-run states’ victories come as their party is locked in a fierce battle to take back both houses of Congress from President Donald ​Trump’s Republicans in the November 3 midterms.

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So far this year, federal judges in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Rhode Island have dismissed Justice Department lawsuits demanding those states’ voter rolls, including sensitive information like partial Social Security numbers.

Litigation surrounding U.S. federal elections has become common, with Democrats ‌and aligned voting rights groups generally challenging state laws they believe restrict the right to vote and Republicans and their allies challenging state voting practices they say leave elections vulnerable to fraud. Trump asserts, falsely, that his 2020 election loss was due to fraud.

But the Justice Department’s efforts to obtain states’ voter rolls highlight a new dynamic this election cycle: voting rights groups are increasingly finding themselves in court fighting against the federal government.

“This year, we have the added layer of the Department of Justice being perhaps the main player in voter suppression litigation,” said Lis Frost, a lawyer with Elias Law Group, which has intervened in the voter data demand lawsuits on behalf of voting rights groups. “This DOJ has taken on the mantle that was previously ​carried by right-wing organizations to try to argue that there are voters on the rolls that shouldn’t be there and to try to remove voters from the rolls.”

Frost’s firm was founded by prominent election lawyer Marc Elias, an outspoken Trump critic. The firm frequently represents the Democratic party and ​its candidates in court.

Four of the judges who dismissed the suits – three of whom were appointed by Democratic presidents and one of whom was appointed by Trump during his first term – found that the federal government did not articulate ⁠why it needed the unredacted data to carry out oversight of state voting practices. The fifth judge, Trump appointee Hala Jarbou of Michigan, said the Justice Department adequately explained the basis of its request but that the laws it cited did not require the state to hand over the rolls.

The U.S. Constitution assigns individual ​states the role of administering federal elections.

To be sure, the Trump administration could still prevail: it is appealing three of its losses, and 25 similar cases are pending. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, has said she is prepared to take the cases to the Supreme Court, where ​conservative justices hold a 6-3 majority.

In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “President Trump is committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections, and that includes totally accurate and up-to-date voter rolls free of errors and unlawfully registered non-citizen voters.”

TRUMP CALLS FOR ‘NATIONALIZING’ ELECTIONS

Since last year, the Justice Department has sent letters to nearly every state seeking their voter rolls, and asking for details about their procedures for removing ineligible individuals like deceased people, convicted felons and non-citizens. Seventeen states handed over their rolls voluntarily, Justice Department lawyers have said. The department sued dozens of states, including several led by Republicans, that did not comply.

In an interview with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” program on April 19, Dhillon said that the ​department had reviewed 60 million voter records so far and found the names of 350,000 dead persons and 25,000 people who lacked proof of citizenship.

Dhillon did not provide evidence that votes were cast for those names.

Trump and his allies have long asserted states are not doing enough to prevent voter fraud, even though state audits ​and academic studies have found it is rare.

Critics say Republicans are driven less by concerns over election security than by an effort to gain political advantage by narrowing the electorate, risking the disenfranchisement of eligible, often Democratic‑leaning voters.

Trump in February said in a podcast interview that Republicans should nationalize and “take over” voting, without giving details of what he intended.

Legal experts ‌say the steps ⁠his administration has taken in that direction are unlikely to survive challenges in the courts.

In addition to the losses over state voter rolls, three federal judges in separate cases have blocked Trump’s 2025 executive order requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and restricting the counting of mail ballots. The Justice Department is appealing. A March 2026 executive order restricting mail-in voting has also drawn legal challenges.

“He doesn’t have the levers, he doesn’t have the switch, there is nobody he can order to federalize the elections who will listen to him,” said Justin Levitt, a former Justice Department elections lawyer and current professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

But even if the Justice Department continues to lose in court, some legal experts said they expected Trump to point to the legal battles to try to sow doubt in the legitimacy of the midterms should Republicans lose. That would echo a playbook that Trump deployed after his 2020 loss, when he used more than 60 defeats in legal challenges ​to the election results to rally his base and undercut faith in the ​reliability of the vote.

“This is using the legal process, the law enforcement ⁠process to serve a propaganda role, to lead to destabilization and delegitimization of future elections like in 2026,” said David Becker, a former Justice Department election lawyer and now the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a non-partisan group that promotes voter participation and election security.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Trump’s claims have gained broad traction with the American public, with 46% of respondents, including 82% of Republicans, agreeing with the statement that large numbers of fraudulent ballots are cast ​by non-citizens.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CITES CIVIL RIGHTS LAW

In suing states to demand their voter rolls, the department has cited the Civil Rights Act of 1960. The law, passed to combat racial discrimination at a time when Southern states were ​destroying Black Americans’ voter registration records to cover ⁠up disenfranchisement, requires states to preserve such records.

But the judge who dismissed the lawsuit against California said the Justice Department’s request for the most populous U.S. state’s voter roll went beyond what Congress intended when it passed the Civil Rights Act and other voting laws.

The judge, David Carter, said the fact that the department had requested the data of so many states suggested that the federal government was seeking to build a nationwide database of voter information, rather than investigate alleged mismanagement by individual states.

“The Department of Justice seeks to use civil rights legislation which was enacted for an entirely different purpose to amass and retain an unprecedented amount of confidential voter data,” Carter wrote in a ⁠January 15 decision.

The Santa ​Ana, California-based judge said the Constitution requires that policy changes that could erode privacy and voting rights must be decided by Congress.

“It cannot be the product of an executive fiat,” Carter, who ​was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, wrote.

The prospect of a nationwide voter database has alarmed voting rights activists, who are concerned that the government is seeking to compare voter rolls with other sources of data to purge people it believes are not citizens.

But those other sources may not have up-to-date information on whether previously ineligible immigrants have since become naturalized citizens, said Renata O’Donnell, senior litigation ​counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit that works to expand voting access.

“People who should lawfully be able to access the franchise are going to be disenfranchised,” said O’Donnell, whose organization is representing voting rights groups that have intervened in several voter roll cases.

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Alistair Bell

白宫晚宴枪手被控企图刺杀特朗普

2026年4月28日 19:05 / 联合早报

白宫晚宴枪手被控企图刺杀特朗普

美国哥伦比亚特区联邦检察官皮罗（右）和代理司法部长布兰奇星期一在司法部的记者会上，展示枪手冲击白宫记者协会晚宴所携带的武器照片。 （路透社）

（华盛顿综合电）冲击美国白宫记者晚宴的枪手被控企图刺杀总统特朗普，如果罪成，可判处终身监禁。

持枪犯案的艾伦（Cole Tomas Allen，31岁）星期一（4月27日）被带上哥伦比亚特区联邦地区法院的庭室。他身穿蓝色囚服，双手反铐背后。

上星期六晚上，艾伦持枪企图闯入在华盛顿希尔顿酒店举行的白宫记者协会晚宴，出席活动的特朗普、副总统万斯等政要紧急撤离，艾伦随后被制服逮捕。

除了被控企图刺杀总统，他也被控跨州运输武器以及使用枪械实施暴力犯罪。他在听证会上没有回应这些指控。他星期四（30日）将再次出庭，法庭将决定是否继续将他羁押候审。预审听证会定于5月11日举行。

法庭文件显示，艾伦上周乘火车从加利福尼亚州来到华盛顿，上星期五（24日）入住预订的华盛顿希尔顿酒店客房。

检察官说，艾伦带着一支12号口径泵动式霰弹枪、一支点38口径半自动手枪和三把刀到华盛顿。

根据呈堂文件，事发时，艾伦持长枪冲过酒店内的一处安检站，一名特勤局特工向他开枪，艾伦倒地但未被击中。这名特工也被子弹打中胸口，因穿着防弹衣而无大碍。艾伦是在宴会厅上方楼层被制服。

法庭文件也证实，艾伦动手前向家人发送一封电子邮件，表达对特朗普政府的愤怒，并把特朗普政府官员列为目标。

美国代理司法部长布兰奇过后在记者会上说，调查员之所以认为艾伦的目标是特朗普，理由之一是他在电邮中以“叛徒”和其他贬义词汇指摘特朗普。

布兰奇也再度为晚宴的安保措施辩护。“执法部门没有失职……他们完全按照训练指定行事。”

艾伦在给家人的电邮中嘲讽酒店安保松懈，指安保措施集中在酒店外，“因为显然没人考虑过，如果有人提前一天到来会发生什么事”。

白宫记者协会晚宴属私人活动，数十年来一直在希尔顿酒店举行，以前从没出过事。协会每年都向在任总统发出邀请，今年是特朗普首次同意出席。

白宫办公厅主任怀尔斯本周将召集特勤局和国土安全部高级官员开会，检讨如何确保特朗普出席活动时安全。

原本打算在晚宴上致辞时抨击媒体的特朗普在出事后呼吁各方团结，但很快又继续攻击媒体和政治对手。

白宫新闻秘书莱维特星期一把这起事件归咎于所谓的“左翼仇恨邪教”（left-wing cult of hatred）。“那些不断错误地给总统贴上法西斯标签、诽谤他是民主的威胁，并把他比作希特勒以捞取政治资本的人，正在助长这种暴力。”

她说，这是两年内针对特朗普的第三次刺杀企图，“近年来没有人比特朗普总统面对更多的子弹和暴力”。

众议院民主党领袖杰弗里斯反唇相讥称：“这位所谓的白宫新闻秘书想要教训美国，教我们什么叫文明？滚吧。在对我们的用语指手画脚之前，先管好你们自己吧。”

Exclusive: Trump moves to accelerate deportations of migrant children in US custody

2026-04-28 05:00 AM ET / CNN

By Priscilla Alvarez

3 hr ago

PUBLISHED Apr 28, 2026, 5:00 AM ET

Immigration

U.S. Border Patrol agents speak to an unaccompanied minor from Honduras, 4, after she crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico on August 14, 2021 in Roma, Texas.

John Moore/Getty Images

The Trump administration is taking steps to accelerate the deportations of migrant children in US custody amid White House pressure to quickly move kids through the system, according to administration officials and lawyers for the children.

Immigration hearings, where a judge will eventually decide whether a child can stay in the US or be deported, are being moved up by weeks or even months, making it more difficult for attorneys to obtain immigration relief for kids in an already-cumbersome process.

Children as young as four years old are being forced to repeatedly appear in court and provide updates on the status of their case, at times without legal help, within a matter of weeks.

The frequent court hearings are alarming to kids who are just getting acquainted with courts and the immigration system. Children are frequently feeling “enormous pressure” and some wet their pants when they have to go to court, according to Emily Norman, regional director for the east coast at Kids in Need of Defense.

It’s the latest in a series of moves to focus immigration enforcement on minors who arrived in the United States unaccompanied or have returned to government custody because of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations that resulted in their guardians being detained. The push has raised alarm among attorneys and advocates who argue the rushed timelines could result in vulnerable children being sent back to the conditions they were fleeing.

“They’re all some combination of confused, scared and frustrated,” Scott Bassett, managing attorney of the Children’s Program at Amica Center for Immigrant Rights.

A 5-year-old who arrived unaccompanied to the US was scheduled for an immigration hearing within a week or two from arrival. In Texas, 300 children residing in shelters had their hearings abruptly moved up —sometimes with little notice. One case was moved up by weeks on a Thursday to the following Tuesday. Norman shared that a hearing scheduled for 2027 was suddenly scheduled for less than a week away.

Related article The Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry, New York, as seen from a drone on June 21, 2018. Ricky Flores and Peter Carr/The Journal News/USA Today Network/Imagn/File Exclusive: Beatings, restraints and isolation: Allegations of abuse at a migrant children’s shelter trigger federal review 10 min read

In a statement to CNN, Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for Department of Health and Human Services, said the department “is focused on resolving cases involving unaccompanied children as quickly and efficiently as possible, consistent with the law.”

“Many of these children are at risk of trafficking and exploitation, and in some cases are brought across the border by cartels under dangerous and coercive conditions. Moving cases forward helps disrupt those networks and ensures children are returned to safe environments as quickly as possible. Reducing time in custody also lowers taxpayer costs and ensures the system is operating as intended,” Nixon added.

A White House official told CNN the Trump administration “is working to disrupt cartel plots and humanely return trafficked children to their homes and families as expeditiously as possible.”

CNN also reached out to the Justice Department, which oversees the nation’s immigration courts, for comment.

‘They feel the walls are closing in’

Trump administration officials have frequently talked about the whereabouts of unaccompanied minors who entered the US under former President Joe Biden, arguing that thousands of them are missing and need to be accounted for. Former Biden officials and several experts in the field refute the claim that there are large numbers of children missing from the system, arguing that the claims are exaggerated or based on mischaracterizing data.

A U.S. flag lies on the ground while people protest hours after five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Alexander Conejo Arias, returned home after a judge ordered them to be released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, U.S. February 1, 2026.

Kaylee Greenlee/Reuters

But as the administration has touted its work to locate children, they’ve also moved toward placing kids on a path toward deportation if they can’t obtain relief in the United States.

Some children who arrived in the US alone and have been released to reside with a parent or guardian are being returned to government custody, joining more recent arrivals in shelters. As that’s happened, it’s become increasingly difficult for kids to be released to US-based relatives, leaving them languishing in custody for months.

Advocates and attorneys who work with children say the expedited immigration hearing timelines are exacerbating the already-difficult circumstances for kids who don’t know if and when they’ll be released, whether they’ll obtain immigration relief, and now, whether they’ll be deported before they can get any of those answers.

“It’s driving toward getting these kids out of the country,” Bassett said. “They feel the walls are closing in because they are.”

STREAMING NOW CNN Kids living with the fallout of immigration raids

Unaccompanied migrant children are an especially vulnerable population, often having gone through trauma in their home country or during the journey to the US. For that reason, attorneys say it takes time to build a relationship with them and understand their histories to eventually apply for the immigration relief they’re eligible for. But the expedited timelines undercut those efforts, they say.

“When you’re working with especially children who survive trauma, it takes time to build trust with them to get the information you need to get,” said Alexa Sendukas, a managing attorney at Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project who oversees legal services for immigrant children.

Once that relief is identified, though, it can be another several months to apply and obtain it to eventually ask an immigration to terminate removal proceedings. In the absence of that, the expedited hearings are headed toward a deportation order.

Long stays in HHS custody

Migrant children are spending nearly seven months in custody on average, according to the latest available federal data, far exceeding the time kids have previously been in custody.

Health and Human Services officials are tracking the longer stays in custody, aware of the toll it can take on children over time. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller also recently pressed HHS officials to move faster on cases to get migrant children out of custody and sent back to their origin country, a US official told CNN.

As of March, there were more than 2,000 migrant children in the custody of HHS, which funds facilities and programs across 24 states for the care of unaccompanied migrant children.

A sign is displayed outside of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) headquarters at the Hubert H. Humphrey Building on June 2, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Kevin Carter/Getty Images

The tight deadline, long stays in custody and uncertainty are weighing on children, some of whom are opting to voluntarily depart the country. Advocates and attorneys have argued that administration efforts should be focused on releasing children from custody to US-based sponsors such as a parent, as has been protocol, but that has become more challenging amid new restrictions over who’s qualified to receive their children.

“When we originally had our hearing, we had until June. I thought that was a tight timeline but doable. Now, they’re moving things up to mid-May without warning,” said Steven Wright, a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Immigrant Justice Center who is representing three unaccompanied minors.

One type of relief that often applies to migrant children is special immigrant juvenile status, which provides a pathway to a green card for youth who have been abused, neglected or abandoned. But to obtain it, kids must go to state court and ask for a finding from a judge that they fit the criteria, then take that finding to US Citizenship and Immigration Services for adjudication. That whole process can take months — and may, at times, be interrupted if a child is transferred to another shelter because of state rules.

“In order to stop the government from removing the kids, I need to have that SIJ piece of paper. And they’ve given me a deadline that’s made it extremely difficult for me to get that SIJ piece of paper,” Wright added.

US Supreme Court to hear claims Cisco aided Chinese human rights abuses

2026-04-28 10:07:25 UTC / Reuters

By Jan Wolfe

April 28, 2026 10:07 AM UTC Updated 8 mins ago

节点运行失败

A logo of CISCO sits outside the company’s house on the opening day of the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 20, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

Lawsuit says Cisco tech helped China target Falun Gong
Lower court breathed new life into the 2011 lawsuit
Trump administration sides with Cisco in the case

April 28 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday confronts a case with broad implications for human rights litigation in American courts, a long-running ​lawsuit brought by members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement who have accused Cisco Systems of facilitating religious persecution in ‌China.

San Jose, California-based Cisco is urging the Supreme Court to further limit the scope of the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 law that lets non-U.S. citizens seek damages in American courts for violations of international law. The court in a series of decisions since 2013 has limited the reach of this law, making it more difficult ​to hold American corporations legally liable for human rights abuses.

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The justices will hear arguments in Cisco’s appeal of a 2023 ruling that ​breathed new life into the 2011 lawsuit, brought under the Alien Tort Statute, that accused the company of ⁠knowingly developing technology that allowed China’s government to surveil and persecute Falun Gong members.

President Donald Trump’s administration is siding with Cisco in the case.

The lawsuit ​accused Cisco of knowingly designing and implementing the “Golden Shield,” an internet surveillance system used by the Chinese Communist Party to target dissidents. The plaintiffs ​allege that China used the system to track and then torture Falun Gong members.

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Cisco has called the allegations unfounded and offensive.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived the case and allowed it to move toward discovery, the evidence-gathering phase before a trial.

The Alien Tort Statute had been dormant for nearly two centuries before ​lawyers began using it in the 1980s to bring international human rights cases in U.S. courts. The Cisco case poses the question of whether ​the law creates liability for corporations that “aid and abet” human rights abuses, a form of what is called accomplice liability.

Cisco is arguing that the 9th Circuit ‌overstepped its ⁠authority when it interpreted that law as allowing for liability for aiding and abetting.

The decision of whether the Alien Tort Statute allows for liability for aiding and abetting should be up to Congress rather than courts, the Trump administration said in a brief, citing the significant foreign-policy concerns implicated by the law.

The Human Rights Law Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Washington, sued Cisco on behalf of a group of Falun Gong members.

A judge dismissed ​the case in 2014, saying the ​alleged conduct did not have ⁠a sufficient enough connection to the United States for the case to go forward. The case stalled for many years, in part because of a string of rulings in other Alien Tort Statute cases that made them ​harder to bring.

In a 2023 ruling, the 9th Circuit said the plaintiffs plausibly alleged “that Cisco provided essential ​technical assistance to the ⁠douzheng (crackdown) of Falun Gong with awareness that the international law violations of torture, arbitrary detention, disappearance and extrajudicial killing were substantially likely to take place.”

The Supreme Court is expected to rule by the end of June.

Falun Gong, founded in China in 1992, was banned by China’s government in 1999 after thousands ⁠of members ​appeared at the central leadership compound in Beijing in silent protest. The group has ​called for people to renounce the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Falun Gong members founded a right-leaning U.S. media outlet called The Epoch Times that has been heavily critical of the ​Chinese Communist Party and supports Trump.

Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Will Dunham

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

英王查尔斯三世访美安保严密

2026年4月28日 19:17 / 联合早报

英国国王查尔斯三世和王后卡米拉周一（4月27日）如期抵达美国，展开四天国事访问。这是查尔斯三世登基后首次访美，也是英国君主自2007年以来首次对美国进行国事访问。

由于美国总统特朗普日前出席白宫记者协会晚宴时遭遇枪击事件，查尔斯三世此行的安全备受关注，英美当局加大了安保力度。图为工人周一在美国国会山附近设置安全路障，为查尔斯三世周二在美国国会的演讲做准备。

白金汉宫说，此次访问旨在纪念美国独立250周年，同时彰显英美两国历史渊源与现代双边关系。预料，查尔斯三世将趁此行，修复因美伊战争而趋于紧张的英美关系。（彭博社）

英王查尔斯三世访美安保严密

2026年4月28日 19:17 / 联合早报

英国国王查尔斯三世和王后卡米拉周一（4月27日）如期抵达美国，展开四天国事访问。这是查尔斯三世登基后首次访美，也是英国君主自2007年以来首次对美国进行国事访问。

由于美国总统特朗普日前出席白宫记者协会晚宴时遭遇枪击事件，查尔斯三世此行的安全备受关注，英美当局加大了安保力度。图为工人周一在美国国会山附近设置安全路障，为查尔斯三世周二在美国国会的演讲做准备。

白金汉宫说，此次访问旨在纪念美国独立250周年，同时彰显英美两国历史渊源与现代双边关系。预料，查尔斯三世将趁此行，修复因美伊战争而趋于紧张的英美关系。（彭博社）

特朗普遇刺未遂 俄伊官媒疑借机放大阴谋论

2026年4月28日 19:31 / 联合早报

美国白宫记者协会晚宴上星期六（4月25日）发生枪击事件后，总统特朗普同日在社媒平台上，发布31岁嫌犯艾伦被捕的照片。 （法新社）

（华盛顿综合电）美国总统特朗普遭遇枪击未遂事件后，网络迅速充斥“自导自演”的阴谋论。分析指出，这些未经证实的说法不仅反映美国政治极化加剧，更被俄罗斯和伊朗官媒放大，进一步加剧美国社会舆论分裂。

上星期六（4月25日），华盛顿希尔顿酒店会场外响起枪声，特朗普和政府高级官员在特勤人员护卫下撤离。美执法部门仍在调查袭击事件，目前没有证据显示特朗普政府参与策划。

不过，一些反特朗普账号在没有证据的情况下，声称白宫策划这起枪击事件，目的是转移外界对不利新闻的关注，包括不受欢迎的美以伊战争。另有说法声称，特朗普欲借此争取公众同情，以应对支持率下滑和共和党可能在中期选举失利的局面。

虚假信息监测机构NewsGuard数据显示，单是在社媒平台X，有关阴谋论在事发两天内的浏览量已达8000万次。

敌对国家媒体放大阴谋论

伦敦战略对话研究所指出，枪击事件发生后，俄罗斯和伊朗官方媒体进一步放大相关阴谋论，包括声称袭击者与以色列军方有关。

虚假信息研究人员指出，这类叙事之所以迅速扩散，与美国社会对主流媒体的不信任、党派化信息消费，以及突发事件初期可靠信息不足有关。

政治极化助推阴谋论扩散

《华盛顿邮报》分析发现，约五分之一发布相关内容的左翼和自由派网红及政治人物使用了阴谋论语言。同时，部分“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）的网红近来也重新传播特朗普曾自导自演2024年刺杀未遂事件的虚假说法，显示支持特朗普的基本盘也开始松动。

研究阴谋论的学者罗斯柴尔德（Mike Rothschild）指出，“自导自演刺杀”的说法最初主要流传于自由派内容创作者之间，但随着部分右翼支持者对特朗普信心下降，这类说法也开始在右翼阵营传播。

罗斯柴尔德说：“这种说法把（特朗普）描绘成一个操控局势的人。这些所谓的‘证据’，要么是误解，要么是其他网络疯传的视频，甚至只是人们凭空编造的内容。”

白宫驳斥这些阴谋论。白宫发言人英格尔发声明称：“任何认为特朗普总统自导自演暗杀企图的人，都是极其愚蠢的。”

也有分析指，阴谋论持续扩散，还与社交媒体平台近年来缩减内容审核资源有关。部分平台的收入分成机制也鼓励网红传播耸动内容，以吸引流量并提高收益。

特朗普遇刺未遂 俄伊官媒疑借机放大阴谋论

2026年4月28日 19:31 / 联合早报

美国白宫记者协会晚宴上星期六（4月25日）发生枪击事件后，总统特朗普同日在社媒平台上，发布31岁嫌犯艾伦被捕的照片。 （法新社）

（华盛顿综合电）美国总统特朗普遭遇枪击未遂事件后，网络迅速充斥“自导自演”的阴谋论。分析指出，这些未经证实的说法不仅反映美国政治极化加剧，更被俄罗斯和伊朗官媒放大，进一步加剧美国社会舆论分裂。

上星期六（4月25日），华盛顿希尔顿酒店会场外响起枪声，特朗普和政府高级官员在特勤人员护卫下撤离。美执法部门仍在调查袭击事件，目前没有证据显示特朗普政府参与策划。

不过，一些反特朗普账号在没有证据的情况下，声称白宫策划这起枪击事件，目的是转移外界对不利新闻的关注，包括不受欢迎的美以伊战争。另有说法声称，特朗普欲借此争取公众同情，以应对支持率下滑和共和党可能在中期选举失利的局面。

虚假信息监测机构NewsGuard数据显示，单是在社媒平台X，有关阴谋论在事发两天内的浏览量已达8000万次。

敌对国家媒体放大阴谋论

伦敦战略对话研究所指出，枪击事件发生后，俄罗斯和伊朗官方媒体进一步放大相关阴谋论，包括声称袭击者与以色列军方有关。

虚假信息研究人员指出，这类叙事之所以迅速扩散，与美国社会对主流媒体的不信任、党派化信息消费，以及突发事件初期可靠信息不足有关。

政治极化助推阴谋论扩散

《华盛顿邮报》分析发现，约五分之一发布相关内容的左翼和自由派网红及政治人物使用了阴谋论语言。同时，部分“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）的网红近来也重新传播特朗普曾自导自演2024年刺杀未遂事件的虚假说法，显示支持特朗普的基本盘也开始松动。

研究阴谋论的学者罗斯柴尔德（Mike Rothschild）指出，“自导自演刺杀”的说法最初主要流传于自由派内容创作者之间，但随着部分右翼支持者对特朗普信心下降，这类说法也开始在右翼阵营传播。

罗斯柴尔德说：“这种说法把（特朗普）描绘成一个操控局势的人。这些所谓的‘证据’，要么是误解，要么是其他网络疯传的视频，甚至只是人们凭空编造的内容。”

白宫驳斥这些阴谋论。白宫发言人英格尔发声明称：“任何认为特朗普总统自导自演暗杀企图的人，都是极其愚蠢的。”

也有分析指，阴谋论持续扩散，还与社交媒体平台近年来缩减内容审核资源有关。部分平台的收入分成机制也鼓励网红传播耸动内容，以吸引流量并提高收益。

Xavier Becerra wants to talk about his experience. So do his rivals for California governor

2026-04-28T10:00:51.086Z / CNN

By Arit John

2 hr ago

PUBLISHED Apr 28, 2026, 6:00 AM ET

Xavier Becerra speaks during a gubernatorial debate at KRON Studios in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, April 22, 2026.

Jason Henry/Pool/Nexstar/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Xavier Becerra’s rise in the California gubernatorial race was made clear in a recent debate when a rival went after him.

“Mr. Becerra, you have all these lovely plans, but there are never any numbers, any revenue plan, any details, anything that pushes on the status quo,” former Rep. Katie Porter said during a discussion on lowering housing costs.

Becerra, as he’s done for much of his campaign, cited his experience to defend himself.

“That’s very rich to hear from someone who’s never had to actually run a government,” he responded to Porter.

In the wake of former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s exit from the governor’s race, Becerra’s campaign is drawing support as a potential safe harbor for Democrats lacking a clear front-runner. Becerra offers a long record in state and federal government as well as a steady, if understated, presence amid a race shaken by scandal.

A CBS poll published Monday had Becerra at 13%, with Republican Steve Hilton at 16% and Democrat Tom Steyer at 15%. The top two finishers in the June 2 nonpartisan primary will advance to the November election.

It’s a marked shift for a candidate who for months failed to catch on. The former congressman, California attorney general and Health and Human Services secretary only qualified for last Wednesday’s Nexstar debate due to a poll released a few days prior.

The question now is how he’ll withstand increased scrutiny from voters and rivals, particularly over his record at HHS and criticism from both inside and outside former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Candidates Matt Mahan (from left), Becerra, Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton during the gubernatorial debate at KRON Studios in San Francisco, California on Wednesday, April 22, 2026.

Jason Henry/Pool/Nexstar/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Becerra has already faced attacks on his record from San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and Steyer, the latter of whom released a new ad targeting Becerra.

“When you see that big of an explosion of movement towards Becerra, and there isn’t an underlying, quantifiable polling reason or explanation for it … you have to ask yourself the question, is this a durable, sustainable voting bloc?” said Mike Madrid, an anti-Trump GOP consultant based in California. “Or is it going to go away just as fast as it came?”

Becerra’s campaign announced he’d raised over $1 million in the week that ended April 18, a much-needed infusion. Last week, he was endorsed by more than a dozen state legislators, including Robert Rivas, the speaker of the State Assembly. On Friday, Becerra launched a seven-figure ad campaign.

Becerra’s campaign staff attributes his rise to smart planning and the candidate’s resume. They waited until late March to launch their initial TV ad and recently beefed up their social media operation.

Becerra argues that he’s already taken on many of the roles expected of the next governor, saying he’s balanced budgets and managed large, complex agencies as HHS secretary. As California attorney general, he sued President Donald Trump’s first administration more than 120 times.

“I’m running on my record, not on inflated promises,” Becerra told CNN earlier this month. “The experience that I bring to the table, no one has.”

But a long record can also be a gold mine for opponents. Allies say he’s a workhorse who avoids the spotlight and doesn’t care who takes the credit for wins. Critics, particularly those of his time as Health and Human Services secretary, said he wasn’t proactive enough in a critical role.

“All of them are going to work overtime to try to sully Xavier Becerra’s record,” Michael Bustamante, a senior adviser to Becerra’s campaign, told CNN. “We fully expect folks to do that.”

A rise through Latino politics

Becerra, the son of Mexican immigrants, was first elected to his Los Angeles-area US House seat in 1992, two years before California voters passed Proposition 187, which aimed to deny undocumented immigrants’ access to public health and education services. Prop 187, which was blocked by the courts, sparked a rise in Latino political power in the state that coincided with Becerra’s rise in California politics.

If elected, Becerra would be California’s first Latino governor in more than 150 years. While Latino voters aren’t a unified bloc, Becerra’s background and immigration advocacy could help him.

In Congress, Becerra helped write and pass the Affordable Care Act and was a longtime supporter of a single-payer health care system. Throughout his more than two decades in Congress, Becerra also focused on immigration issues.

Becerra greets supporters during a campaign event in Los Angeles on Saturday, April 18, 2026.

Jae C. Hong/AP

Becerra overlapped briefly in Congress with Swalwell, who was first elected in 2012. He said on CNN recently that he and other lawmakers had “heard rumors” about Swalwell’s behavior. Swalwell exited the governor’s race and resigned from Congress earlier this month after CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle reported on allegations of sexual misconduct against him that he has denied.

Moderators at last week’s debate asked why Becerra, who served two terms as Democratic caucus chairman, never sought to investigate those rumors.

“You hear rumors all the time about all sorts of things,” he replied. “Rumors are not facts, and the Democratic caucus is not a place that adjudicates those things. Law enforcement does.”

In December 2016, former Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Becerra as attorney general. Four years later, former President Joe Biden nominated him as HHS secretary.

Becerra, right, walks with then-Vice President Joe Biden at the US Capitol in 2016.

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc./Getty Images

Some chalked up his nomination to the Biden administration feeling pressure to add a high-ranking Latino official. In their book “This Will Not Pass,” journalists Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns described the selection of Becerra as a “hasty choice” designed to quell frustration among the Congressional Hispanic Caucus about the diversity of Biden’s cabinet.

“Obviously we were looking for a diverse cabinet, but I will say that Xavier jumped to mind,” Ron Klain, Biden’s first White House chief of staff, told CNN recently when asked about that reporting.

Klain said that Becerra was a “very logical pick” for the job due to his role in helping write and pass the Affordable Care Act, as well as his work defending it in court against the Trump administration as California’s attorney general.

A mixed record inside the administration

While Becerra was praised for his defense of the Affordable Care Act and abortion rights, some criticized his handling of the key crises the administration faced, from the Covid-19 response to his department’s handling of a record surge of unaccompanied migrant minors who arrived at the US-Mexico border. The children were placed in HHS custody, with some languishing in emergency facilities. Some Biden administration officials accused Becerra of lacking urgency in his response to the surge.

Republicans attacked Becerra over the emergency sites and what they argued was the hasty release of minors to US-based sponsors. Critics argued that thousands of children were unaccounted for after being released by HHS, though former Biden officials and experts in the field refute that.

Steyer targeted allegations that HHS lost track of minors in his new ad. “If you lose children, you’re not fit to lead California,” the ad states.

Becerra speaks during a news conference at US Health and Human Services headquarters on March 9, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Becerra’s campaign referred questions about his work at HHS to Klain, who fiercely defended Becerra’s work at the agency and is backing his gubernatorial campaign.

Klain said criticisms of Becerra’s handling of the surge of unaccompanied minors were “grossly unfair and grossly misguided.”

“There was no one who cared more about these children than Secretary Becerra,” Klain said. “He inherited a super, super tough situation, and worked night and day, day and night, to try to do the humane thing by these kids and get them reunited with their US family members.”

Becerra also faced criticism over HHS’ response to an outbreak of mpox, also known as monkeypox. Public health experts and leaders of LGBTQ advocacy groups accused the Biden administration and Becerra in particular of not acting with urgency to distribute the mpox vaccine.

“Becerra could not defend his record in Washington and a pretty abysmal record at HHS, from a slow response to monkeypox to losing track of tens of thousands of migrant children, some of whom were trafficked,” Mahan told CNN after a recent debate.

Klain said that while it took time to get the mpox vaccine from manufacturers overseas, the outbreak “was extinguished very quickly” because of Becerra’s leadership.

The increased scrutiny on Becerra has also mobilized some of his supporters, particularly in the immigrant rights community. Earlier this month, the board of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles, or CHIRLA, Action Fund unanimously voted to endorse Becerra after 60% of the group’s members recommended him. The group held a press conference Monday to push back on claims Becerra mishandled the efforts to place young migrants with sponsors.

Angelica Salas, the president of the CHIRLA Action Fund, said part of the reason CHIRLA members backed Becerra was that they’d personally seen him fight for them.

Some members who benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program said they remembered sitting next to Becerra in the US Supreme Court as he led a successful coalition of states defending the program against the Trump administration.

“I always say, a lot of people love you in public, but don’t fight for you in private,” Salas said. “We need people who state their love for us and don’t keep us in the shadows.”

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.