A man named Cole Allen, who appears to be the same person as the suspect in the shooting incident at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, D.C., April 25, 2026, is interviewed by KABC in Los Angeles in March 2017. (KABC)
The government argued earlier that Allen poses a grave risk of danger to the public for allegedly seeking to carry out an attack at Saturday’s dinner.
“This was a planned attack of unfathomable malice that risked the lives of hundreds of people whose only transgression was attending an annual event celebrating the media and featuring the President of the United States,” prosecutors said in a filing on Wednesday. “It was, at its core, an anti-democratic act of political violence.”
Allen, 31, faces three felony counts of attempted assassination of the President of the United States, transportation of a firearm and ammunition over state lines with the intent to commit a felony and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. He has not entered a plea.
The California native — who was carrying a shotgun, a pistol and knives — was tackled by law enforcement after Saturday night’s gunfire inside the Washington, D.C., Hilton hotel, where thousands of journalists as well as President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet were gathered for the annual dinner. Allen did not reach the ballroom, where the dinner was underway. A Secret Service member was shot during the incident, but the bullet hit the agent’s protective vest, officials said.
‘The Singularity: Ekleipsis’ album artwork. (Sparks & Shadows Records/Mutant)
Composer Bear McCreary has announced a new album featuring guests including Coheed and Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez, Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump and Slash and Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses.
The record is called The Singularity: Ekleipsis and is due out July 31. It’s the follow-up to McCreary’s 2024 album, The Singularity, which included collaborations with Slash, Slipknot’s Corey Taylor and System of a Down’s Serj Tankian.
Other guests on The Singularity: Ekleipsis include Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, The Police drummer Stewart Copeland and Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier.
Duplantier is featured on the album’s first single, “Black Box,” which is out now.
“I need more cinematic metal in my life!” McCreary says in a statement. “The Singularity: Ekleipsis builds upon the musical and narrative themes of my 2024 album The Singularity, and this time around it rocks even harder.”
McCreary is known for scoring projects including the TV series Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead and The Lord of The Rings: TheRings of Power, as well as the God of War video games.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office after signing an Executive Order April 18, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump doubled down on his claim that the term “86” is a “mob term” for a killing as former FBI Director James Comey faces a federal indictment over a social media post of seashells arranged to read “86 47.”
“’86’ is a mob term for ‘kill him.’ They say 86 him! ’86 47′ means ‘kill President Trump,'” Trump wrote in a social media post Wednesday night, before going on to assail Comey as a “Dirty Cop” who “knows this full well!”
Comey, who was indicted on Tuesday by a federal grand jury in North Carolina, made an initial court appearance on Wednesday after self-surrendering to law enforcement at the courthouse in the Eastern District of Virginia. Comey did not enter a plea.
The former FBI director, who was fired in 2017 by Trump during the president’s first term, faces one charge of threats against the president and successors, and one charge of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.
The indictment centers on a controversy that erupted nearly a year ago when Comey, in a since-deleted Instagram post, shared a picture showing the numbers “86 47” written in seashells on the beach with the caption “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
“EIGHT MILES OUT, SIX FEET DOWN! Didn’t he also lie to the FBI about this??? I think so!” Trump said on Wednesday night, describing his apparent interpretation of what the eight and six represent.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary, which lists several definitions of “eighty-six,” says the most common use for the informal saying is to describe a way “to refuse to serve” or “to eject or ban” a customer from a restaurant or bar. The dictionary says it’s often used as a way to say something has been removed. The American Heritage dictionary says the term may have derived as a rhyming slang for “nix.”
The origin of the president’s assertion that the term comes from the mob is unclear. A search of scripts from the American Film Institute’s top 10 gangster films shows no instance of the phrase being used, despite Trump referring reporters to mob movies on Wednesday.
“You ever see the movies? ’86 ’em’ — the mobster says to one of his wonderful associates, ’86 ’em.’ That means kill ’em. It’s — I think of it as a mob term,” he said.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said he did some of his own research on the term.
“I searched to the end of the internet last night, I can’t find one example where the number 86 had anything to do with any violent threat. So hopefully there’s more to it than just the picture in the sand,” Tillis told reporters on Wednesday. “Otherwise, I just think it’s another example of where we’re going to regret this because we’re setting a fairly low bar and political physics, like I’ve said around here for years, is what it is. For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction.”
Tillis later added, “maybe there’s deep history in the use of this word and communicating threats. I just can’t find it anywhere.”
The Department of Justice in announcing that the indictment that had been handed up said that “a reasonable recipient [of Comey’s image] who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States.”
And while the president has repeated his claim that Comey’s post was a call for him to be killed, Trump appeared to hedge when asked directly Wednesday whether he believed his life was in danger.
“Probably, I don’t know,” he said. “You know, based on — based on what I’m seeing out there, yeah.”
U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on April 21, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — After drama and delay, House Republicans narrowly approved a blueprint for legislation to fund immigration enforcement agencies, the first step in the GOP’s plan to reopen the Department of Homeland Security.
The party-line vote, which was held open for more than five hours, was called at 10:39 p.m. on Wednesday after Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leaders huddled with holdouts.
Reps. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Andy Harris of Maryland, Michael Cloud of Texas and Victoria Spartz of Indiana flipped their votes to yes after hours of discussion. Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, an Independent who conferences with Republicans, voted present.
The final vote was 215-211-1.
The budget resolution kicks off the drafting process of a bill that Republicans said would provide billions of dollars to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term.
Trump has set a June 1 deadline for Republicans to fund the immigration enforcement agencies.
Republicans are using reconciliation, a lengthy and complex process, to overcome Democratic opposition.
Democrats have said they won’t support funding for ICE and CBP without reforms to their operating procedures, after two American citizens in Minneapolis were fatally shot by federal agents earlier this year.
DHS has been shut down since mid-February, making it the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
The shooting at the White House Correspondents Association dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday rekindled the DHS funding fight. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the funding lapse a “national emergency.”
But it’s currently unclear when House Republican leaders plan to put a Senate-passed bill to fund the rest of DHS on the floor for a vote.
Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been identified as the man fatally shot at a home in Brookline on Dec. 15, 2025. (MIT)
(WASHINGTON) — The shootings in December that targeted Brown University and an MIT professor were “symbolic in nature,” according to a report released by the FBI.
Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a Portuguese national and a legal permanent resident who had been living in Miami, Florida, committed a mass shooting at a building on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, before driving north to Brookline, Massachusetts, to kill an MIT professor, authorities said.
Two students died and nine others were injured in the shooting at Brown University on Dec. 13, 2025, and Nuno F.G. Loureiro, an MIT professor, was shot and killed at his home in Brookline by Neves Valente, two days later.
The shooting at the Ivy League school, where the 48-year-old Neves Valente had previously been a physics graduate student, rocked the tight-knit community in Providence.
The suspect was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a storage unit in New Hampshire following a dayslong manhunt, authorities said.
“Based on analysis of the information and evidence gathered throughout the investigation, the FBI assesses Neves Valente’s victims were symbolic in nature,” the FBI said in a release. “Brown University as a whole and Dr. Loureiro represented to the shooter his personal failures and injustices he perceived were inflicted by others over time. By attacking them, Neves Valente was likely able to overcome his shame and envy by using violence to punish those communities that he perceived contributed to his downfall.”
Portugal’s Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) previously confirmed to ABC News that Neves Valente and Loureiro had studied in the school’s physics engineering program between 1995 and 2000.
The FBI determined Neves Valente had no criminal record and the shooting had no nexus to terrorism.
”The FBI has determined that Neves Valente was committed to conducting the attack and had completed his planning,” the report said. “He considered, planned, and prepared for the mass shooting at Brown University in increments over a period of several years in isolation, spanning multiple geographic locations. Neves Valente’s transient lifestyle, long-term planning, and social isolation provided little to no opportunity for bystanders to observe and contextualize the significance of his behaviors.”
The bureau’s report added, “The shooter lacked traditional support, such as family, peers, and authority figures, who would have been able to observe any potential warning signs and contact law enforcement.”
More than 1,327 audio files recovered after the shooting made by Neves Valente outline his thoughts for carrying out the shooting, according to the FBI.
“The FBI believes the shooter experienced a failure to thrive, long-standing suicidality, and his current situation was incongruent to where he felt he should be at this stage in his life. As his failures outweighed successes, his paranoia increased, compounding his continued inability to thrive, leading to him being mentally unwell and committed to dying. However, mental health stressors alone cannot fully explain the attacks that occurred.”
The FBI said they recovered guns at a storage facility used by Neves Valente in New Hampshire that matched the guns used to carry out the attack.
Ghost was among the winners at Wednesday’s 2026 Grammis, the Swedish equivalent of the Grammys.
The band’s latest record, 2025’s Skeletá, earned the prize in the hard rock/metal album of the year category.
Ghost, which formed in Sweden, was the leading nominee for the 2026 Grammis, receiving a total of six nods, though they only came away with one win. Their other nominations included album of the year and artist of the year.
Ghost has previously won four Grammis. They’ve also won one Grammy, taking home best metal performance back in 2016 for “Cirice.”
Paul McCartney and Wings released their second studio album, Red Rose Speedway.
Their debut album, Wild Life, was released under the name Wings, but Red Rose Speedway was credited to Paul McCartney and Wings, as it was believed that Wild Life’s pour performance was due to the public’s unfamiliarity with the band.
Red Rose Speedway hit #1 in the U.S. and #5 in the U.K., giving Wings their first commercial success. The album featured the future classic “My Love,” which went to #1 in the U.S. and #9 in the U.K.
The 50th anniversary of the album was celebrated with a special half-speed mastered vinyl release for Record Store Day in 2023.
Audrey Nuna, EJAE and Rei Ami of HUNTR/X at the ‘Billboard’ Women in Music 2026 gala, April 29, 2026 in Los Angeles (Rich Polk/Billboard)
Billboard held its annual Women in Music gala Wednesday in LA, and the voices of HUNTR/X — Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami and EJAE — were on hand to receive the Women of the Year award.
After performing their Oscar-winning hit “Golden,” the three took the stage to speak about what the award means to them as women in the music industry.
“Working in music is not easy. And as an Asian woman, the lack of representation was obvious to me,” said EJAE. However, she noted, “Music doesn’t see race or gender. It only asks for the truth. … I realized that as a woman, our power has never been in fitting in, but it’s our resilience to speak our truth.”
“From when I first started releasing music back in 2019, to this moment now, I really never identified with the boxes that Korean-American women were expected to fit into,” said Audrey.
She added, “So to receive this honor and represent a song in a film that affirms its notion that the world needs women to show up as their fullest, most whole selves — their weirdest selves, their smelliest selves, whatever it is — it’s rewarding beyond words.”
“Being a woman in this male dominated industry is honestly a** sometimes,” Rei told the audience. “We have to work twice as hard, with a smile on our faces, as the world nitpicks every part of our being. … It seems utterly impossible to exist.”
She added, “Our ability to persevere and show up is an absolute superpower. So, thank you to all the women in this room for using your superpowers to inspire, lead, and protect. We are not too much. We are not too loud. We are exactly who the f*** we think we are.
Tom Araya of Slayer performs at 2025 Festival d’été de Québec on July 11, 2025 in Quebec City, Quebec. (Scott Legato/Getty Images)
Slayer vocalist Tom Araya has been named the grand marshal for the Würth 400 NASCAR Cup Series race, taking place Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.
As part of his role, Araya will deliver the “Drivers, start your engines” command ahead of the race.
“Excited to be the Grand Marshal for the WÜRTH 400,” Araya says in a statement. “Slayer, NASCAR Reign in speed!”
Korn’s Jonathan Davis previously served as the grand marshal for NASCAR’s Penzoil 400 race in Las Vegas in March.
Slayer, meanwhile, is preparing to play a run of shows celebrating the 40th anniversary of their 1986 album, Reign in Blood. The dates begin in September.
Olivia Rodrigo Unraveled tour artwork. (Courtesy of Live Nation)
The Last Dinner Party and Wolf Alice are among the artists opening for Olivia Rodrigo’s newly announced Unraveled tour.
Wolf Alice will provide support for the first leg of the tour, running from Sept. 25 in Hartford, Connecticut, to Oct. 30 in Columbus, Ohio. The Last Dinner Party will join the bill in January 2027 for four shows at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, and then four shows in February at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
“When Olivia asked us to open for her on this very special residency we were honoured and thrilled beyond words,” says The Last Dinner Party frontwoman Abigail Morris. “Previously opening for her at Hyde Park in 2025 showed us not only that she is one of the most captivating and talented rock stars today, but that she has cultivated such a beautiful fanbase and we can’t wait to play for them again over these dates in LA and New York!”
Presales begin May 5 at noon local time, and tickets go on sale to the general public starting May 7 at noon local time.
