May 26, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Texas voters to settle marquee Senate, key statewide runoffs for both parties Tuesday

Voters on Tuesday will settle a marquee U.S. Senate runoff and a slate of other statewide office nominations that could reshape power inside America’s biggest red state and elevate the next generation of Texas political leaders. At the center is the Republican showdown between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who have bombarded each other over ethics, loyalty and character in one of the state’s ugliest fights in years. The contest has drawn national attention and more than $125 million in advertising by the candidates and their allies, making it the most expensive Senate primary in U.S. history. The winner will face the Democratic nominee, James Talarico, a state representative from Austin. Tuesday’s runoff ballot stretches beyond the Senate race. Democrats and Republicans also are picking nominees in congressional contests and statewide runoffs, including lieutenant governor and attorney general.

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In the Republican Senate race, Cornyn, who finished first in the March primary, is betting GOP voters still value his experience and electability. He has portrayed Paxton as unfit for office, hammering him over his impeachment by the GOP-led Texas House, other legal troubles and allegations of adultery. Paxton’s nomination, Cornyn said, could hand Democrats an opening in November. Paxton, meanwhile, has cast Cornyn as a weak, do-nothing Washington insider disconnected from President Donald Trump and the party’s MAGA base. Paxton also has played up Trump’s late endorsement, saying it shows who the president trusts to aggressively support his agenda. Most state Republican leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have stayed out of the divisive fight. Voters in both parties also are deciding who will replace Paxton, who is leaving the AG’s office after 11 years whether he wins the Senate runoff or not. The office is one of the state’s most powerful, in charge of defending state agencies and laws. It also has been a political springboard. Both Cornyn and Abbott served as attorney general. State Sen. Mayes Middleton of Galveston, who finished first in March, is backed by Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin has lined up support from Sen. Ted Cruz and many House conservatives.

A ‘vegan’ and ‘Tala-freak-o’: GOP prepares a furious general election messaging blitz against Talarico

In one of his first rallies since winning President Donald Trump’s endorsement in his Senate race, Ken Paxton told the crowd he wanted to try something new. The Democratic nominee, James Talarico, Paxton said, would be the “most radical US senator from Texas, maybe in the whole country, ever, so I wanted to test a few nicknames tonight and see if you can help me.” The suggestions from the audience started flowing as Paxton passed the mic around. “Low-T Talarico.” “Tofu Talarico.” “Tala-freak-o.” “Soy boy!” a man yelled out unprompted. The food references came from an already burgeoning Republican talking point — that Talarico is a vegan, which he isn’t.

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Yet Paxton brought it up repeatedly, delighting a packed crowd of supporters inside a suburban Houston barbecue spot as waiters shuttled back and forth from the kitchen with heaping plates of brisket, sausage and ribs. “We know that James Talarico would never come here because he doesn’t eat any of that stuff,” Paxton said. “We never had a US senator who didn’t eat meat, especially Texas barbecue.” Talarico was, in a word, “unqualified” to represent Texas, according to Paxton. The scene showed how Paxton is already pivoting to the general election ahead of Tuesday’s primary runoff with incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. Paxton — and Trump — are previewing a furious wave of attacks and mockery for Talarico, as Republicans prepare to rally around the scandal-scarred state attorney general and work to keep the spotlight on the Democrat instead. As Paxton spoke at Midway BBQ in Katy, TVs in the room showed Fox News replaying Trump’s comments earlier in the day declaring that Talarico “can’t get elected as a vegan in Texas.” Trump also called Talarico “a weird — a weird — candidate,” a comment that quickly made it into an ad from a pro-Paxton group. Republicans have also repeatedly brought up Talarico’s 2021 comment during a state legislative debate that “modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six.” One of the patrons at Midway BBQ took the mic to call Talarico “six-gender Jimmy.”

Former Waco attorney Adam Hoffman released early from jail

Former Waco attorney Adam Hoffman was released early from jail for good behavior. Hoffman, 49, began serving a 60-day jail sentence on April 27 for sexually abusing a young boy.

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He pleaded guilty April 16 to indecent assault and displaying harmful materials to a minor, both Class A misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail. His trial on first-degree felony continuous sexual abuse of a young child charges ended in a mistrial in June 2025 after jurors deadlocked 7-5 in favor of finding him guilty. The Attorney General’s Office reduced the charges in exchange for his guilty pleas. Visiting Judge Roy Sparkman doubled Hoffman’s original 30-day plea deal to 60 days at sentencing. Hoffman, who has since moved to Nebraska, is under a lifetime protective order prohibiting him from contacting the victim. He is not required to register as a sex offender based on the misdemeanor charges to which he pleaded guilty.

Some of Texas’s oldest barbecue joints close as meat prices skyrocket

If the Texas barbecue industry had an alarm, it would be the spreadsheet that Russell Roegels uses to track the price of brisket. On a recent morning, sitting at a quiet table in his suburban restaurant, he pointed to the number at the top of the column: $5.56. That’s the price he pays for a pound of the most important item on any barbecue menu in Texas. Over the past year, that number has risen 28 percent, a reflection of the spiking meat prices that have dented the pocketbooks of average grocery store customers nationwide. Inside the kitchens of Texas’s more than 3,000 barbecue purveyors, whose very existence depends on a plentiful and affordable supply of quality beef, the effect has been close to cataclysmal. Roegels, 53, grew up working at a barbecue joint and has run his own since 2001, serving some of Houston’s elite and their friends, including former president George H.W. Bush, NFL veteran Gary Kubiak and former Astros pitcher Andy Pettitte. He used to be able to offset the high wholesale cost by selling other meats and side dishes.

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But this year he realized that wasn’t enough. So Roegels made the risky decision to raise the price he charges customers for brisket by $2, to $35 a pound — a 6 percent increase — and hoped his clientele wouldn’t defect. “This is as bad as it gets,” he said of escalating beef prices. “Everybody’s at risk these days: You’re one bad week from closing.” Roegels isn’t exaggerating. The culinary crisis driven by skyrocketing meat prices has contributed to the closures of some of Texas’s beloved barbecue joints: Brett’s BBQ Shop to the west of Houston, known for its barbacoa tacos; Kirby’s BBQ to the north with its signature increasingly expensive oak-smoked brisket; Sabar BBQ, with its Pakistani fusion sausage, in Fort Worth; Wright On Taco & BBQ in East Texas. Owners and experts predict the closures will worsen this summer and continue for years, potentially reshaping the nature of Texas barbecue, which has drawn acclaim for its distinct regional varieties and craft-style preparation, winning Michelin stars for what was once considered gas-station fare. The reasons for the spiking prices are various, says Emily Williams Knight, president and CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association. Inflation, tariffs, meatpackers’ pricing, and a national cattle herd at its smallest in 75 years because of drought, labor shortages, high operational costs and dwindling ranch land have all played a part. And with the threat of screwworm looming just across the border, experts warn that the herd could be even further depleted in years to come.

State Stories

Trump endorsed Ken Paxton in Texas. But John Cornyn isn't going quietly.

After receiving a coveted Senate endorsement from President Trump last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton took an early victory lap. Paxton released an ad touting the endorsement before quickly pivoting to one targeting Democratic nominee James Talarico. He asked his rival in the Republican primary, longtime Sen. John Cornyn, to stop the negative attack ads for the final days of the ugly race. Cornyn responded with a definitive no. “Judgment day is coming for Ken Paxton,” Cornyn told reporters in Houston last week. Conventional political wisdom considers Trump’s 11th-hour endorsement of Paxton to likely be a final blow in what was already a difficult battle for Cornyn. If true, the longtime senator is going down swinging, in a battle he has said from the beginning was largely motivated by his disgust for Paxton.

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At his own rally in San Antonio, Paxton said: “We’ll have Tuesday and then we’re going to have a little race with James Talarico,” before testing out derogatory nicknames for the Democrat. He challenged the crowd, as he does at every rally, to name one of Cornyn’s accomplishments in office. Paxton and Cornyn are in a runoff for the party nomination, after neither won 50% of the vote in an initial March primary. Tuesday’s runoff election will be the latest test of the president’s power, as he has used the political muscle of his MAGA base to push out dissenting voices in the Republican Party. While Paxton’s campaign celebrated the endorsement, Cornyn’s campaign put out a press release listing all the headlines that called Paxton a gift to Democrats in the general election. James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, said he thinks the endorsement will give a final boost to Paxton. Old-school party stalwarts loyal to Cornyn may not like to admit it, Henson said, but polling and other data shows Paxton more in line with the party’s electorate. “Paxton’s alignment with Trump and the Trump era is a better fit for where the base is right now,” he said. “If Cornyn winds up pulling this out, it’ll be because he dug it out with superior resources and campaigning.”

Ebola concerns reach Houston as global outbreak intersects with World Cup travel

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said the Houston area is prepared and not in a state of alarm as officials monitor the global Ebola outbreak ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Hidalgo shared an update Monday, emphasizing that local, state and federal agencies are working to stay ahead of any potential risks while keeping the public informed. “We are OK,” Hidalgo said. Hidalgo said the county is building on its experience from COVID-19 and past Ebola cases, working closely with health leaders to refine protocols. “The World Health Organization declared a public health emergency over the current Ebola epidemic in the DRC and surrounding countries. The DC currently has 101 confirmed cases, although the suspected number of cases is much larger at around 900,” Hidalgo said.

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She is also pushing for better coordination at airport screening areas and more detailed data on incoming travelers. Hidalgo said seven Harris County residents who recently traveled to Uganda arrived back in the area over the past few days. All were screened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at Washington Dulles International Airport before traveling to Houston. None tested positive for Ebola, and none are showing symptoms. Officials expect more travelers from affected regions to arrive in the coming weeks, especially as the World Cup approaches. Houston is on the front line working to prevent Ebola exposure. Starting Tuesday, May 26, IAH will serve as the third screening point for US citizens returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries. The CDC said returning travelers will be escorted to a designated screening area where they will complete a questionnaire about their travel history and symptoms. They'll have their temperature checked and be observed for signs of illness.

Immigration courts are using a new tactic to speed up deportations. Dallas is next.

Immigration courts inside the Justice Department are drastically accelerating immigrants' hearings and bunch them together with the goal of issuing more deportation orders. The new and unprecedented tactic was shared with NPR by immigration attorneys and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a trade association that tracks trends in these courts. Immigrants are now being scheduled for massive master calendar hearings — or "mega masters" — that include 100 or more people at a time. That's up from two or three dozen people at a time that had been typical before for a first hearing. For many immigrants, this is their first appearance in court to try to make their case to be able to stay in the U.S. Attorneys say these new hearings largely target people without lawyers representing them. Those who show up late, or not at all, are receiving removal orders, further truncating the already-limited due process available to immigrants.

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"The major concern is that [since] this is going to be a group of people without attorneys, that they're not going to have gotten proper notice," said Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, practicing policy counsel at AILA, adding that courts often lack enough seats for hearings with so many people at once. "So it's almost like they are being designed to increase" how many people get deportation orders automatically, she said. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, the agency that runs the immigration courts at DOJ, did not respond to a request for comment on this new strategy. Lawyers said the practice had started in the Chicago, Boston and Chelmsford, Mass., courts and is soon to start in the Dallas Immigration Court. The effort comes as President Trump seeks to deport a million people a year — much higher than the 600,000 people the administration deported in 2025. Trump has also complained about the backlogs of millions of cases inside immigration courts, pointing to courts as an obstacle to rapid deportation.

ActBlue refuses donations for Texas Democrat accused of making antisemitic comments

Texas congressional candidate Maureen Galindo was cut off from a major Democratic fundraising platform and political action committee after a series of antisemitic remarks sparked widespread backlash within the party. ActBlue is no longer processing donations for Galindo, who is competing in a May 26 Democratic runoff against Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Garcia in Texas’s 35th Congressional District. Galindo has been embroiled in controversy over antisemitic comments. Most recently, she wrote in an Instagram post saying that she intends to write legislation to “turn Karnes [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.”

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“It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists,” Galindo added, accusing Garcia of being “paid by Zionist terrorism and trafficking.” She has also previously said that Jews run Hollywood and worship the “synagogue of Satan.” Democratic lawmakers and candidates have spoken out against Galindo’s comments. Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who are Jewish, said they would force a vote to expel the Democratic candidate “every single day” the House is in session if she wins the Texas seat. “Maureen’s insane, antisemitic views — including putting Americans in concentration camps — have no place in our Party or country,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement.

Austin takes another stab at density bonus program promoting affordable housing construction

Cranes are already a defining feature of Austin’s downtown skyline, but Austin City Council members on Thursday approved sweeping new development rules aimed at sparking more housing construction and making it easier for developers to build taller projects. While Austin’s housing market has cooled from the sharp price spikes seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, city leaders and housing advocates say affordability remains a top concern as the region’s population continues to climb. Over the years, the city has adopted strategies to encourage more housing construction, including density bonus programs, a zoning tool that allows developers to build larger, taller projects than normally permitted in exchange for “community benefits,” such as affordable units, sidewalks or green space.

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But the programs have faced ongoing criticism from both housing advocates and neighborhood groups, who argue the rules either do too little to encourage construction or allow projects that don’t deliver enough affordable housing in return. The overhaul creates a more manageable, citywide version of the density bonus program that city leaders say will be more effective at producing more housing and affordable units. It replaces Austin’s short-lived, controversial DB90 density bonus program, which gave developers a 90-foot height bonus in exchange for adding affordable housing, but led to taller buildings than some neighbors wanted and less affordable housing production than some hoped for. Still, some housing advocates remain wary that the new one will be successful in helping developers break ground, while opponents worry the new rules go too far. “Two steps forward, one step back,” said Greg Anderson, a longtime Austin housing advocate. “What was sad about last night is that we lost real potential for better zoning categories.” The approval followed a year-long review and revision process. Under the new rules, developers will be able to seek an additional 15, 30, 45 or 60 feet of height depending on zoning rules, the type of housing in a neighborhood and how close the site is to those houses. “This new tool has a range of options,” Council Member Ryan Alter told the Current. The 15-foot intervals better meet the scale and needs of the neighborhood, resulting “in much better outcomes for everybody.”

Colonial PGA event loses winners of 13 majors, including big-name Dallas stars

The field for this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club will be missing some big names, including two stars from Dallas. Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer and a former Highland Park and University of Texas standout, did not enter the Fort Worth PGA Tour event. Jordan Spieth, a Dallas native who also played at UT, joined Scheffler in skipping the event. Both have been fixtures at Colonial during their careers. Then the event lost two more major winners with the withdrawals of Brooks Koepka on Sunday and Wyndham Clark on Monday. Clark won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson on Sunday at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney. Those four players have won a combined 13 majors: Koepka (five), Scheffler (four), Spieth (three) and Clark (one).

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Scheffler and Spieth cited the PGA Tour’s hectic schedule that sandwiches in both Metroplex events amid majors and other signature events, the Dallas Morning News reported. “It’s just a rock and a hard place for myself and Scottie and guys who are local, who grew up here,” Spieth said after his round at the CJ Cup on Friday. Despite the departures, the Charles Schwab Challenge still boasts a solid field with seven of the world’s top 20 players: No. 9 J.J. Spaun, No. 12 Russell Henley, No. 13 Ludvig Aberg, No. 15 Robert MacIntyre, No. 16 Justin Thomas, defending champion No. 17 Ben Griffin and No. 20 Hideki Matsuyama.

Jason Villalba: How Texas cities should get ready for the Opportunity Zone Program 2.0

(Jason Villalba served three terms in the Texas House of Representatives. He leads the Texas practice and the governmental relations group at FBT Gibbons LLP in Dallas, and is the founder, chairman, and CEO of the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation.) Some of the most consequential decisions in Texas government happen without a press conference. The redrawing of the federal Opportunity Zone map, scheduled to be completed in Austin this summer, is one of them. The Opportunity Zone program, created in 2017, gives investors significant federal tax benefits for placing capital gains into projects inside designated census tracts. The first round of the program, launched in 2018, channeled roughly $100 billion into the selected communities. Version 2.0 of the Opportunity Zone program, made permanent last July under the One Big Beautiful Bill, will attract similar sums to be invested over the next 10 years. This summer, Texas will nominate approximately 600 new tracts for the program . The office of the governor, through its Economic Development and Tourism office, will make the final selection. The deadline for local jurisdictions to submit their nominations is June 26, less than six weeks away. The next opportunity to revise the map will not occur until 2036, a decade away. Time is of the essence for city halls around North Texas.

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The state will not weigh nominations in a vacuum. It will weigh them against one another. The tracts that receive the benefit will be the ones whose sponsoring cities arrive with a clean demonstration that the tract qualifies under the new federal eligibility rules, documented local commitments such as council-approved tax incentives, economic development corporation participation and an identified project sponsor prepared to deploy capital in the first two years after designation. Much of North Texas is well-positioned to participate in this process. Cities like Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, and Arlington have the staff, the standing relationships, and the institutional heft to command attention at the Capitol and the governmental infrastructure necessary to compete for the investment. Some of our suburban and exurban communities, however, do not have the necessary resources or preparation processes in place to fully capitalize on the opportunity. Smaller cities in the area, the ones now absorbing the region's growth in Ellis, Kaufman, Rockwall and the outer reaches of Collin and Denton, have the qualifying tracts, the necessary developers, and are exactly the kinds of communities the Opportunity Zone program is intended to support. But, they do not often have the bandwidth to assemble a competitive nomination in six weeks while doing everything else a small city has to do.

3 San Antonio Republicans fight to hang on in Trump’s GOP

By Tuesday night, three San Antonio Republicans could be the next to fall over their disagreements with President Donald Trump. The result would be a bench wiped clean of moderates — at the same time the party faces unusually tough November races. Trump has been on a tear against fellow Republicans who’ve bucked his power, fueling decisive primary upsets for U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and a slate of Indiana state lawmakers all earlier this month. Now headed into Texas’ primary runoff, such disagreements threaten to end the careers of three local incumbents who remained popular in this area, and are some of the only Republicans in the state with general election skills in their DNA. The new 35th Congressional District seemed drawn specifically for state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio), a popular retired firefighter who flipped a Democrat-held state legislative district within its boundaries.

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But Trump upended Lujan’s smooth-sailing congressional bid the day before voting started in the March primary, backing little-known U.S. Air Force veteran Carlos De La Cruz, who he now faces in a runoff. “They were supposed to stay out of it,” Lujan said of the White House’s decision — which he believes could jeopardize efforts to hold a seat Democrats are targeting in November. On Tuesday, Trump also rocked U.S. Sen. John Cornyn‘s (R-Texas) expensive reelection race, endorsing Attorney General Ken Paxton as runoff votes were already being cast. Now the president’s top political aides are attacking attorney general hopeful U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Dripping Springs) on social media as well, as Roy scrambles to defend his record. All three Republicans put much effort into building GOP power in stubbornly blue Bexar County. But in a year where some believe the whole state could be in play, they say the repercussions of their losses could go much further. “Democrats are energized because they see the first opportunity they’ve had since 1994 to elect a statewide Democrat … and Ken Paxton would hand it to him on a silver platter,” Cornyn told supporters Monday.

For Judge Barbara Lynn, ‘you must be present to win’

“I have many golf trophies that I picked up at the Dallas Bench Bar Conference when the real winners were not present,” Judge Barbara M. Lynn tells me, with plenty more pride than shame. She spent her career fighting for what’s hers. And when you do that for a half-century, maybe you get in the habit of taking all that and then some when opportunity presents itself. “I took the position ‘Must be present to win,’?” she says with a smirk. “So I have all these golf trophies.” She’s terrible at golf, but her bookshelves tell a different story. Lynn is admittedly overcompetitive. “Any game. Cards, board games. Any game of any kind,” she says, “I want to win. And there have been many examples of me trying to engineer victory.”

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If you’re trying to win a charity golf tournament, why learn to be a good golfer when all you really need to do is drink a bunch of gin martinis at the winner’s podium long enough to accept trophies on behalf of everyone else? Finding loopholes in the system was necessary for Lynn as she fought to enter a male-dominated field, and it’s a required skill for any good lawyer. You can tell she takes joy from the creativity the job requires. It’s become such a part of her personality that she can’t turn it off. If you drink every time you see the word “first” when you read the Wikipedia entry on Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn, you’ll be in a bad way within the first paragraph. She Kool-Aid Mans through every brick wall built in front of her. Her instinct is to take charge. Even during our conversation, there were a couple of times when I was ready to just hand her the interview and let her take over. “Aren’t you going to ask me what I’m doing now?” she says when I think the interview is over. Sure, it is technically “asked” in question form, but it is clearly not a question. Like your mom asking you if you’re about to take out the trash, and you know all the way down to your feet that the only answer is “Yes, ma’am. I’m on it.” It’s amazing how confident you think you are until a super-friendly lion with really fashion-forward statement glasses is facing you.

Austin teen released from ICE detention

Twenty days of detention by federal authorities came to an end last week when Austin high school senior Luis Fernando Cabrera was released to his family just weeks before graduation. “It feels awesome to be with my friends and family again,” Cabrera said in Spanish in an interview with Capital Tonight. “And I’m also thankful for all the support I had from the beginning.” The 18-year-old was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE) following a traffic stop earlier this month. Cabrera was on his way home from a closing shift at Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen when he was pulled over for an expired vehicle registration and then taken to the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center.

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Speaking outside his church during a celebration for his return on Sunday, Cabrera said there were times he doubted whether he would return to Austin. “It wasn't easy. I thought they were going to deport me,” he said. “I'd never been locked up before. I'd never had handcuffs on me, on my feet and on my hands. I don't know, I think a little bit longer, and I might have gone into a depression.” He also said the conditions at the detention center were inadequate for housing people for long periods of time. “The food is something that can't sustain a person inside. The times when they feed you are also not ideal for when one should eat,” he said. “And the hygiene… they give you used clothing and well, that's not adequate for a person who isn't a criminal.” Cabrera, who was born in Mexico to Honduran parents, came to the United States without authorization when he was 11. His parents say they fled political violence in their home country after being threatened by a legislator there, and Cabrera has a pending asylum case dating back to 2019.

Inside the Texas ranch where big-city professionals go to get dangerous

Though I have almost certainly deserved it on numerous occasions, I have never been punched in the face. My lone fight was a short-lived scrape on an elementary school playground with a snot-nosed kid whose name escapes me. It resulted in a draw, I’m proud to say, and my chubby cheeks were left bruise-free. During my 43 years, I have never owned a gun nor felt the need. Maybe I’m privileged, or maybe I’m just lucky. When I mentioned all of this to Travis Miller, an affable mountain of a man and a professional bodyguard, he said another word comes to mind: “naive.” For as long as he can remember, his world has been defined by danger. He grew up in a rough Philadelphia neighborhood, and threats were everywhere. His only way out was via the football field, where he battled his way to a college scholarship. Now in his mid-thirties, Miller protects demanding, high-net-worth clients, a job that requires him to not only think about danger, but also to exude it. We were chatting beside a luxury swimming pool on the back patio of an upscale ranch house, part of a seven-thousand-acre property an hour and a half southeast of Dallas.

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Here, surrounded by giant live oaks and rolling savannah, Miller’s company, Genesis Security Solutions, was putting on its first-ever retreat to teach “tactical leadership training,” which, I would soon learn, is corporatespeak for “how to handle guns and kill people.” I had come here out of curiosity, but also to carry out an experiment of sorts, one that had been arranged over the phone months earlier. At the time, I’d asked Miller if he could turn me—a soft-bodied man who tears up listening to humpback whale vocalizations on YouTube and gets excited researching new types of organic seeds for his backyard bird feeder—into a dangerous individual. “Absolutely!” he’d responded. The event had drawn around twenty professionals of all backgrounds, between thirty and sixty years of age, and cost $5,000 a head. Ever since Luigi Mangione allegedly gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan in 2024, Miller and other “executive protection agents” say, business is booming. Miller attributes the demand to increasing wealth inequality, political unrest, and multiple attempts on President Trump’s life. “Many people—whether they’re a billionaire businessperson or a corporate executive or an ordinary person dealing with a stalker—have realized that they want to take control of their safety and the safety of their loved ones,” he told me. “That might mean hiring someone like me, but it could also mean learning how to become dangerous on their own as well.”

National Stories

Trump to visit Walter Reed for the third checkup of his second term

President Donald Trump plans to go to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday for a medical and dental checkup, according to a White House official. This is the president’s third in-person doctor’s visit in a little over a year. He went to Walter Reed twice last year, in April and October. He also visited his dentist in West Palm Beach twice this year — first in January and then again earlier this month for a follow-up. Trump, who will turn 80 next month and is the oldest person to assume the presidency, routinely asserts that he is in excellent health, even as rumors about his health circulate. He made his promised vitality and energy a major part of his campaign for re-election, mocking his rival as “Sleepy Joe Biden.”

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But moments of apparent drowsiness and a noticeably bruised hand, which the White House has blamed on him shaking hands and taking aspirin as a blood thinner, continue to spark questions. The president was revealed last year to have chronic venous insufficiency, after he was examined for mild swelling in his legs. Trump told The Wall Street Journal during an interview published in January that “aspirin is good for thinning out” his blood and he doesn’t want “thick blood pouring through [his] heart.” His October visit was initially described by the White House as a scheduled follow-up, but Trump later told reporters that he had undergone an MRI. The exam was eventually revealed to be a CT scan of his heart and abdomen. “President Trump agreed to meet with the staff and soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Hospital in October. In order to make the most of the President’s time at the hospital, we recommended he undergo another routine physical evaluation to ensure continued optimal health,” Dr. Sean Barbabella, the president’s physician, said in a statement to NBC News. “As part of that examination, we asked the President if he would undergo advanced imaging — either an MRI or CT Scan — to definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues. The President agreed, and our team of consultants performed a CT Scan. As we revealed in the post-examination report, the advanced imaging was perfectly normal and revealed absolutely no abnormalities.”

Trump thinks bigger on Mideast as Iran framework brings criticism

President Trump expanded the scope of his diplomatic ambition over the holiday weekend, seeking not only an end-of-war agreement with Iran but also a pact to normalize relations between Israel and the broader Middle East. The normalization push could give Trump a way to cast any limited cease-fire and shipping pact as a larger regional success story instead of a climbdown, after defense hawks in his own party warned that a bad deal could tarnish his legacy. Trump also threatened to restart major hostilities. “Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are proceeding nicely! It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all—Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before—And nobody wants that!” Trump posted on social media on Monday.

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Negotiations with Iran have yet to produce a final deal despite White House claims of major progress, while Middle Eastern partners such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar are privately pushing back against Trump’s insistence that they join the Abraham Accords and establish diplomatic relations with Israel. Tensions rose on Monday as the U.S. sank two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ships attempting to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded by launching surface-to-air missiles at U.S. planes, prompting American attacks on missile launchers near Bandar Abbas, a U.S. official said. “U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” said Col. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for the command. The Trump administration is working toward a potential agreement with Iran that would fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the U.S. easing or ending its blockade on Iranian shipping, potentially ending one of the most significant disruptions to global energy supplies in recent history. The talks, however, leave unresolved thornier questions, including whether Iran would agree to major limits or dismantlement of its nuclear program—a longstanding Trump demand—and whether Tehran would receive broader economic incentives as part of any cease-fire arrangement.

The stock market and consumer vibes are saying very different things

Americans are in a decidedly bad mood. The stock market is decidedly not. This isn’t how it usually works. Instead, high stock prices have historically been associated with happy consumers, and vice versa. Here’s a look at what’s going on. Just how bad is sentiment? American attitudes just hit a milestone of sorts. On Friday, the University of Michigan reported that its index of consumer sentiment fell to the lowest level ever recorded in 70-odd years of surveys. Sentiment was already low at the start of this year, but it fell sharply after the Iran war began at the end of February and sent gas prices sharply higher. Until this year, the previous lowest level was in June 2022, when inflation was running at the highest level in decades. Friday’s sentiment reading was 10% below even that number.

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“Prices remain extremely high, labor markets have unambiguously weakened in the last four years, and now we’re in the middle of a war,” said Joanne Hsu, director of consumer surveys for the University of Michigan. “I don’t think the fact that we’re lower than June 2022 should come as a surprise to anyone.” Just how good are stocks? But if you look at the stock market, you would never imagine sentiment to be that low. Also on Friday, the S&P 500 notched its eighth consecutive week higher, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record close for the second day in a row. And it isn’t just that stocks are high. They also appear really expensive. The S&P 500 is clocking a valuation of 40.8, as measured by its cyclically adjusted price/earnings ratio. That’s a metric popularized by Yale University economist Robert Shiller, who won an economics Nobel in 2013 for his work on asset prices. The only other time it was above 40 in the 145 years of Shiller’s data was in the years just before and after the peak of the dot-com bubble in early 2000. The year 2000 was also when the Michigan sentiment index reached all-time highs. It has never approached even close to those levels since then.

Pope Leo compares AI threat to biblical ‘Tower of Babel’

Pope Leo XIV warned that artificial intelligence “threatens to normalize an anti-human vision” and said that the concentration of immense digital power in the hands of a few private actors must be countered. The pontiff’s encyclical letter—a text that is poised to define Leo’s papacy—reads like a sharp warning to Silicon Valley executives and humanity more broadly about the future of civilization as new technologies rapidly advance. The risk, he said, is that humans will be reduced “to mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency.” Leo used two biblical images to describe the choice humanity faces. “The primary choice is not between a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to technology, but rather between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem,” he wrote. In the Bible, the Tower of Babel symbolizes a top-down, grandiose project where decisions are driven by pride, profit and a push for homogenization, the pope suggested in his text. In the rebuilding of Jerusalem, diverse people worked together to rebuild the ruined walls and established a fraternal coexistence within them, he added.

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Leo’s encyclical has been long-awaited by policymakers, business leaders and different faith groups who see the Catholic Church, the largest Christian denomination, as a source of ethical guidance on tech policy. In so doing, the pontiff is specifically calling out the private actors who are building the AI systems that will transform society. “Leo sees the challenge of AI as a choice about its design, and about who gets to make those choices,” said Vincent Miller, a professor of theology at the University of Dayton, Ohio. The encyclical is inspired by the church’s thinking about what it means to be human, and draws on 2,000 years of moral and social teachings. It is also the product of a decadelong dialogue between the Vatican and Silicon Valley on the ethical and social challenges posed by AI. Conversations with scientists, political leaders and teachers led Leo to a disturbing conviction, the pontiff said Monday. “Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed, freed from the logic that turned it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death,” he said. “It must be at the service of all, and of the common good.” At the presentation of the encyclical, Leo was accompanied by Christopher Olah, a co-founder and safety researcher at AI firm Anthropic, which has tried to position itself as a proponent of AI safety. It is a central player in the AI landscape, showing rapid growth in its business and emerging as a flashpoint on questions of AI safety and national security.

Trump Tower in Georgia to be built on land part-owned by son of US sanctions-hit leader

A Trump Tower planned for the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, is to be built on land currently part-owned by the son of the US-sanctioned leader of the country, according to official records. The proposed skyscraper, a joint venture between a local consortium and the Trump Organization, which is managed by the US president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, will be on a plot whose current registered owner is the International Charity Fund Cartu. According to official records, the Fund Cartu is solely owned by Cartu Group JSC which, in turn, is 35% owned by Uta Ivanishvili, the eldest son of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire politician who is honorary chair of Georgia’s ruling party.

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Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is widely recognised as the de facto leader of the Georgian government, was put under US sanctions by the Biden administration in 2024 for “undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation”. Uta Ivanishvili, who is not under sanctions, owned 100% of Cartu Group JSC until 2024 but reduced his shareholding to 35% when his father, who is Georgia’s richest man, was subjected to US economic restrictions. It is not possible to identify the remaining 65% ownership of Cartu Group JSC today, as individual shareholdings of under 5% can be held anonymously. Under the sanctions regime, US citizens are prohibited from conducting business, processing payments, or providing services to Bidzina Ivanishvili personally without authorisation but there is an exemption relating to businesses controlled by him.

How business casual blew up the Libertarian National Convention

Live free or die, but would it kill you to wear a tie? That was the essence of Ben Weir’s plea ahead of the biennial Libertarian National Convention in Grand Rapids, Mich. In a May 15 post on X, Weir, 36, declared that he’d had it with the wacky costumes, which have long been a staple of political party conventions but seem particularly popular among do-what-thou-wilt libertarians. No more using a boot for headwear, as one convention mainstay named Vermin Supreme did. No more see-through clothing to promote government transparency. Weir, who is running for Merrimack County sheriff in New Hampshire and couldn’t attend the convention, wrote that he was calling on the party’s national committee to establish “a baseline professional dress standard for participation in official proceedings.” His proposal called for business casual attire, neat facial hair and closed-toe shoes.

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Perhaps the two major parties can allow their members to deviate from business casual, since they control the overwhelming majority of elected offices. A Republican or Democrat in a Dr. Seuss costume isn’t going to inadvertently hand the White House to the U.S. Pirate Party (which, yes, is real). Third parties don’t have that luxury. “We’ve been a party for over 50 years and we’ve never gotten a single federal candidate elected,” said Weir, who describes himself as a “punk/alternative guy” with tattoos and a nose ring. He isn’t against personal style, in other words. But when the biggest news out of your convention is a very big guy in a very small thong, your base probably won’t grow much. “I think a lot of libertarians are only libertarians because it gives them the mental freedom pass to break rules and be as crazy as they want to be,” Weir said. He’d rather the party focus on ideas that could appeal to swaths of Americans, such as abolishing taxation and expanding personal liberties.

America’s schools face a reckoning on digital devices

Just a few years ago, America’s public schools were rushing to get every child a laptop. Los Angeles middle school teacher Anna Soffer remembers it well: “The idea was that technology is the future, so we need to put tech in every child’s hands.” Now, the conversation has flipped. After pouring billions of dollars into laptops, tablets and learning apps, many schools are facing a digital reckoning. Classrooms have become saturated with screens, and a growing number of parents, teachers and school districts are saying it is time to scale back. “The Chromebook is just a world of distraction,” says Soffer, who teaches 6th?grade English and history. She favors pen-and-paper assignments but is required to use laptops and online apps for certain activities. “Every day, I’m battling, ’Who would you rather listen to, Ms. Soffer or Minecraft?’”

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The Los Angeles Unified School District, where Soffer teaches, recently became the first major school district to say it will stop giving devices to its youngest students. It is part of a new screen-time policy taking effect in the fall across the country’s second-largest school system. A sweeping resolution passed last month by the Los Angeles school board requires the district to eliminate devices until second grade; set daily and weekly screen limits for all higher grades; block YouTube on school devices; and ban the use of devices at lunch and recess in elementary and middle school. The district will also audit its education technology contracts, which the teachers union says amount to $1.6 billion. The Los Angeles crackdown is adding momentum to calls for reform emerging around the country. In many cases, parents lobbied a few years ago for school cellphone bans, which have now become the norm. Realizing phones weren’t the only classroom distraction, they pivoted to a new target: school-issued devices.

Copyright May 27, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved