Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche testifies during a House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on June 02, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department’s number three-ranked official suggested overnight in a since deleted post that the Trump administration would be moving forward with an alternative plan to compensate victims of claimed Biden-era “weaponization.”
The post came just hours after the acting attorney general committed to Congress that DOJ was scrapping plans for a so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
The fund was created in exchange for Trump agreeing to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS as well as two civil claims related to the Russia collusion investigation he faced during his first term in office and the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Stanley Woodward, the associate attorney general who signed off on the president’s controversial settlement, responded approvingly to a suggestion pushed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on X Tuesday that victims of so-called Biden-era “weaponization” could still be compensated through claims under the requests under the Federal Torts Claims Act.
“We’re on it.” Woodward posted at 10:45 p.m. Tuesday evening in response to Graham’s post. Woodward’s post was deleted Wednesday morning, and a DOJ spokesperson has not responded to ABC’s request for comment as to why it’s no longer on his X account.
The post comes just hours after acting AG Todd Blanche told House lawmakers that the administration was permanently scrapping plans for its “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
Blanche, however, under pressure from Democrats did not commit to putting the department’s position into writing.
Democrats could seek to seize on Woodward’s post as evidence the administration is seeking an alternate way to pay Jan 6 rioters.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass looks on as she greets customers at Pann’s Restaurant on June 01, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. With one day to go before the California primary, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass continues to campaign across the city. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — Votes are being counted in the closely watched primary election to determine Los Angeles’ next mayor.
Voters in the nation’s second-largest city had their choice of 14 candidates to choose from in a race that included incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, reality TV personality Spencer Pratt and city Councilwoman Nithya Raman.
ABC News projects that Bass will advance to a runoff, though it is currently unclear which candidate she will face in the runoff election.
During the campaign, candidates running for the top office in Los Angeles focused on a variety of issues afflicting the Southern California metropolis, including recovery from the devastating 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, homelessness, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and more.
While the primary is nonpartisan, Bass has served Congress as a Democrat, Raman is a self-described Democrat, and Pratt is a registered Republican.
Here is a rundown of the candidates, the issues and how the election will function.
The candidates
While 14 candidates are running for office, three front-runners have emerged in polls: Bass, Pratt and Raman met in the only televised debate of the race on May 6.
Bass, a Los Angeles native, entered politics in 2004 after a career in medicine as a physician assistant. The mayor served in the California State Assembly, rising to the speaker of the assembly before running for Congress in 2010.
She served six terms in the House as a Democrat before becoming the first woman and second African American mayor of Los Angeles in 2022.
Raman, running as a progressive, launched her campaign earlier this year, just before the deadline, and has been a member of the city council since 2020.
Raman, who holds degrees from both Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, describes herself as an “urban planner” on her website.
Pratt, who has generated headlines since announcing his candidacy earlier this year, is running as an outsider in the field. Pratt rose to fame in his 20s serving as a villain archetype on the hit reality TV show “The Hills.”
The former reality star has said his political ambitions were fueled by his association with the Palisades wildfire, which claimed his home.
The issues
No topic has been more prominent in the mayoral campaign than the Los Angeles fire response and recovery. When fires ravaged the region in early 2025, more than 10,000 structures were destroyed as more than 30,000 acres of the city burned.
Pratt has been the most outspoken critic of the city’s response. Bass has defended her actions while also admitting the city must learn from the fire. Raman has also criticized the “dysfunctional” response to the fires.
Homelessness, another key issue candidates have focused on down the stretch, was hotly debated on the debate stage last month. Bass has cited what she says are inroads on the issue, saying L.A. had seen a decrease in homelessness under her administration.
Raman’s campaign has stressed the importance of bringing unhoused people indoors, while Pratt has focused on what he sees as the core cause of homelessness: drug addiction.
The candidates also have different stances on what the city’s approach to ICE should be. Last year, ICE raids became a flashpoint for widespread protests across the city.
As mayor, Bass has pushed back on ICE’s presence in Los Angeles, saying in a press release in March, “Los Angeles will not stand for ICE’s fear, intimidation and unlawful targeting.”
Raman’s plan to address ICE in Los Angeles includes appointing a police chief “committed to protecting immigrants” and ensuring the Los Angeles Police Department “does not coordinate with federal immigration enforcement,” according to her website.
Pratt recently told ABC News the future mayor would not be able to work with ICE because of California’s sanctuary law status, adding, “I’m going to make the streets so safe the federal government is not going to need to come to L.A., because they’re going to be like ‘Wow this mayor has these streets safe and clean.'”
Other hot topics at play in the primary is the revival of Hollywood, LAPD funding, affordable housing and more.
How the primary works
According to the city of Los Angeles election code, the Los Angeles mayoral primary can result in either an outright winner or a runoff, depending on final vote tallies.
A candidate will be determined the winner if they receive a majority of votes in the primary. In the case that does not happen, the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff in the general election in November.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy April 23, 2026. (Photo by Byron Smith/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Ukrainian drones hit one of Russia’s largest oil terminals in St. Petersburg overnight into Wednesday morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, sending plumes of black smoke towering over the city as the landmark St. Petersburg International Economic Forum prepared to open.
Zelenskyy said Ukrainian long-range drones struck targets including the Petersburg Oil Terminal overnight — just under 700 miles from Ukrainian territory.
The latest round of “long-range sanctions,” as officials in Kyiv refer to Ukrainian drone strikes inside Russia, “yielded good results. Important facilities on Russian territory were hit last night,” Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram.
St. Petersburg is known as Russia’s “second capital,” and is a regular target of Ukrainian drone attacks given its political and economic significance, plus its role as a key export hub for Russian oil.
Video from the city showed attendees of the International Economic Forum arriving at the venue with clouds of black smoke hanging over the city.
St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said in a post to Telegram that “infrastructure facilities in the Kronstadt, Kirovsky and Krasnoselsky districts were attacked” by Ukrainian drones.
“Several facilities were damaged. Currently, efforts are underway to mitigate the consequences. Several people were injured. There were no fatalities. An operational headquarters is in operation. Forces and resources have been put on high alert,” Beglov wrote.
Conceived of as Russia’s version of Davos, the annual International Economic Forum gathers Russia’s political and business elite in St. Petersburg. Prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the event also hosted many international leaders.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to deliver his keynote speech to the event on Friday.
Robert Mims Cook — the head of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, who is overseeing President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project and his planned triumphal arch in Washington — is set to attend the forum, which would make him the first American official to do so since 2022.
High profile radical conservative influencer Candace Owens has also been invited to speak at the forum, while the pro-Trump right-wing influencers Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are also in Russia.
Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, said in a post to Telegram that temporary flight restrictions were introduced at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport during the overnight attacks.
Temporary restrictions were also imposed on airports in the Russian cities of Saratov, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod and Pskov, Rosaviatsiya said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a post to Telegram that its air defenses shot down at least 354 Ukrainian drones overnight into Wednesday morning.
Elsewhere, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said the capital also came under Ukrainian attack. The mayor said in posts to Telegram that air defenses intercepted at least 22 Ukrainian drones heading toward the capital on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Steps to the United States Supreme Court, Washington DC, America. (joe daniel price/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court has cleared the way for Alabama Republicans to use a contested 2023 congressional map that a lower court last week called “intentional race-based discrimination” in violation of the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution.
The move is a significant win for the GOP, allowing the state to eliminate one of two majority-Black districts occupied by Democrats, even as election experts and state administrators have warned of major confusion for voters with the late change.
Civil rights groups lamented the decision as a stark example of the impact of the court’s historic April decision in Louisiana v. Callais which rolled back longstanding voting rights protections for minority voters.
In an unsigned opinion Tuesday, the court’s conservative majority said the unanimous three-judge panel — which included two Trump appointee — in the Alabama dispute failed to apply “updated” standards the justices issued in the Callais decision for proving a political process is not equally open for minority voters.
The court said the panel “did not heed the presumption of legislative good faith” by concluding state lawmakers had “discriminatory animus.”
The court’s decision concluded that the judges also erred in blocking the 2023 map even though the minority voters challenging it could not provide an alternative map that offered the same political advantages sought by Republicans.
Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey praised the decision, and her office confirmed the state would hold a special primary using the new maps with redrawn districts on Aug. 11.
“The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed what I have said all along and that is that Alabama knows our state, our people and our districts best,” Ivey said in a statement. “Today’s decision is a win for the people of Alabama and our elections.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a lengthy dissent joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, accused her colleagues of “unleashing chaos” and “confus[ing] voters.”
The map change will require state officials to change the voter registrations of hundreds of thousands of voters in a matter of days and educate them on where to cast new ballots.
“Just as Alabama doubled down on racial discrimination, the Court today doubles down on chaos,” Sotomayor wrote. “Because I choose to defend the rule of law and the right of all Alabamians to participate equally in democracy, I respectfully dissent.”
In 2024, Alabama had been required to use a map with two majority-Black districts, one of which was won by Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures.
The new map could allow Republicans to flip Figures’ seat.
The NAACP slammed the Supreme Court’s decision as discriminatory.
“The Supreme Court continues to unleash chaos in our democratic process, and with this latest action, gives Alabama approval to use a congressional map that had previously been found to be intentionally discriminatory,” NAACP General Counsel Kristen Clarke wrote in a statement. “This is a Court that is stripping Black voters of power and voice at a speed that would put Jim Crow jurists to shame. Our message to communities remains the same — the best way to express dissent is by showing up at the ballot box this election season.”
-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
A sequel to War Machine looks to be in the works. Deadline reports that Netflix is moving forward with a second installment with director Patrick Hughes back at the helm. Hughes will produce and co-write the movie with James Beaufort. The outlet reports that star Alan Ritchson is likely to return for the sequel to the original film, which follows the final recruits of a Special Ops boot camp as they encounter a mysterious deadly force …
You can now watch the trailer for A24’s upcoming film, Onslaught. The action movie stars Adria Arjona as an army sniper and a mother who lives in a desert trailer park and fights to protect her family from genetically engineered super soldiers. Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard helmed the film, which also stars Alex Pereira, Drew Starkey, Rebecca Hall, Reginald VelJohnson, Michael Biehn, Eric Wareheim and Dan Stevens. It arrives in theaters on Sept. 4 …
The official trailer for America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders season 3 has arrived. The Netflix documentary series returns for its third season on June 16. It follows the 2025–2026 squad through auditions, training camp and the NFL season, offering a candid, behind-the-scenes look at the iconic cheerleading team …
When Jordan Davis made his third album, Learn the Hard Way, his intention was clear: to color outside the lines a bit.
As his latest hit, “Turn This Truck Around,” becomes his 10th career #1, he can rest assured his efforts paid off.
“I think the overall inspiration for this album really was to do something different, to do something that me and [producer] Paul [DiGiovanni] haven’t done, to kind of show influences instead of just talk about them,” Jordan says. “And I think we did that with a few different songs in this: ‘Son of a Gun,’ ‘Louisiana Stick,’ ‘Turn This Truck Around.'”
“I feel like it’s stuff that we haven’t done before,” he continues. “It’s a different sound for us, so that was really what we wanted to do, and I think we accomplished it.”
Learn the Hard Way marks its first birthday on Aug. 15, and featured his previous hits “I Ain’t Sayin'” and “Bar None.”
The album cover for Charli XCX’s new album Music, Fashion, Film features rocker John Cale, designer Marc Jacobs and director Martin Scorsese, three giants in their respective fields. Charli says being present while they were photographed together made her finally understand the word “shook.”
Speaking to Shaad magazine, Charli says, “You know how people use the term ‘shook?’ … I never really have felt genuinely shook before, I think. And once we finished that shoot, me and [photographer] Aidan [Zamiri] were just … it was like this out-of-body experience and I turned to him and I was like, ‘I think this is what shook means.'”
“Just to have these three legends in this room being willing to come together for this album cover … it was really cool,” Charli continues, adding, “It felt quite magical, and not something that I think I’ll ever really experience again.”
As for why Charli chose those three men, she tells the magazine she wanted to feature people she had “personal connections with.” She collaborated with John Cale on the soundtrack for the movie Wuthering Heights earlier this year, and she’s done three fashion campaigns with Marc Jacobs, the first person to ever ask her to do one.
As for Scorsese, she says, “I’ve been lucky enough to be able to sit down and have a few conversations with him about film, about his films and his encyclopedic knowledge of films.”
Charli then adds, “I mean, he doesn’t really need an explanation, he’s f****** Martin Scorsese and the fact that he wanted to do this … I felt really honoured.”
The 25th anniversary edition of New York’s Tribeca Festival gets underway on Wednesday with the debut of a documentary on Earth, Wind & Fire, followed by a performance by the legendary band. The festival closes with an Alicia Keys documentary, and in between, there are films focusing on everyone from Madonna, Sara Bareilles and Katy Perry to Peter Frampton, Travis Barker and Mumford & Sons, all of whom will make appearances.
“Musically related projects in movies or just doing concerts, it’s all great. Music is great, and the more we get, the better,” Tribeca Festival co-founder Robert De Niro told ABC Audio.
“And there are amazing stories about artists and their longevity and what they’ve gone through to be able … to sing their songs,” festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal adds. “And you just learn about different musicians and who they are as people and how they all work together.”
During one of the festival’s closing events, U2’s Bono will present the Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award to Bruce Springsteen for using his platform to “advance equality, dignity, and human rights.” Patti Smith will perform.
“What he’s doing is great,” De Niro says of Springsteen. “And he has a voice that’s very big … and he’s enraged the way … many of us [are]. So God bless him.”
The festival’s head of music programming, Vincent Cassous, says tapping stars like Madonna to do Q&As after their screenings, and acts like Earth, Wind & Fire to perform after theirs, is part of the festival’s plan to “make it something that you can’t miss.”
Cassou says the Frampton documentary will be a highlight, since the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer will make an appearance despite living with a degenerative muscle disease.
“I think it’s going to be one of the most emotional moments at the festival, for sure.”
A$AP Rocky on cover of ‘Vibe’ (Photo Credit: Jamil GS)
A$AP Rocky is a fan of his latest album, Don’t Be Dumb, although he believes people don’t fully realize how good it is.
“That s*** was fire, bro. They still sleep on it,” he says in an interview with Vibe, which marks its return to print for the first time in more than a decade. “I had to throw them off. The whole album ain’t ‘Punk Rocky.’ The whole album ain’t ‘Helicopter.’ The whole album ain’t just one kind of sound. Just play it, sit down, enjoy it, and shut the f*** up.”
Later in the interview, Rocky says he isn’t interested in conforming to people’s expectations.
“If they don’t get it, f*** it,” he says. “I’m making what I f*** with. I’m a chef. I’m cooking you these five-star dishes. If you don’t have this acquired taste, don’t listen to this s***. I’m not giving y’all McDonald’s and s*** no more.”
A tour, however, is where he knows his music will be appreciated.
“Imagine putting out a product, and then thousands and thousands of people [are] coming together to celebrate that product,” Rocky says. “That’s the s*** that I live for.” His Don’t Be Dumb World Tour is currently underway.
Don’t Be Dumb marked Rocky’s first album in eight years. Asked how he’s changed since 2018, he says, “a little bit of evolution and time.”
Although he doesn’t know what the next decade looks like, he tells Vibe, “Hopefully, knowing me, more than likely it’s still going to be music.”
He continues, “I don’t know what that’s going to look like, what that’s going to sound like, what my vibe is going to be, but it’s not going to be what I’m on today.”
