Top 5 US news stories
April 30 2026
Supreme Court Weakens Voting Rights Act, GOP Could Net as Many as 12 House Seats
Brent Crude Hits $126 as Iran War Drags On
House Renews FISA Surveillance, Sends Senate Tangled Bill
Big Tech AI Spending Soars Past $670 Billion as Investors Question Costs
Saudi Wealth Fund Pulls Funding for LIV Golf
Supreme Court Weakens Voting Rights Act, GOP Could Net as Many as 12 House Seats
The Supreme Court on Wednesday sharply weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in a 6-3 ruling that could net Republicans as many as 12 House seats, according to early projections. The court's conservative majority found Louisiana unlawfully discriminated by race when it created a second majority-Black congressional district to comply with the law, but stopped short of striking down Section 2 as unconstitutional. The decision is expected to trigger a Republican scramble to redraw majority-minority districts, especially in the South, potentially imperiling reelection prospects of some Black Democrats as soon as November's midterms. Voting rights experts and the court's liberal justices said the ruling effectively guts Section 2, which prohibits discriminatory gerrymandering against Black, Latino, Native American and Asian voters. The ruling lands amid an unusual nationwide redistricting war in which both parties have redrawn district lines between censuses to secure partisan advantage.
Washington Post
Brent Crude Hits $126 as Iran War Drags On
Oil prices surged Thursday to a fresh wartime high above $126 a barrel for Brent crude amid concerns the war in Iran could escalate and prolong disruption to Middle East fuel supplies. President Trump told Axios on Wednesday that the naval blockade of Iran's ports would persist until Tehran abandons its nuclear program, suggesting the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz is not nearing resolution. After the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady Wednesday, Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged the war had created significant uncertainty and said policymakers would need to proceed cautiously, warning that sustained energy costs could filter into airfares and other oil-dependent goods and services. At a separate Capitol Hill hearing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers the war has cost $25 billion and 14 American lives so far. Hegseth spent much of the hearing on the Pentagon's nearly $1.45 trillion budget request lashing out at members of both parties who questioned the conflict.
NYT
House Renews FISA Surveillance, Sends Senate Tangled Bill
The House narrowly approved a three-year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Wednesday, voting 235 to 191 a day before the mass surveillance authority's reauthorization deadline. The measure heads to the Senate packaged with a separate bill banning central bank digital currencies, a combination Senate Republican leaders called a nonstarter and that complicates final passage. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said both chambers would likely need to agree on a short-term FISA extension to allow more time for negotiations on the longer renewal, with both chambers set to break next week. Section 702 permits government collection of information on foreign targets overseas using U.S. communication systems but also sweeps up data on Americans communicating with those foreigners. The intelligence community has long described Section 702 as one of its most critical national security tools, a position echoed by House supporters during Wednesday's debate. The House proposal adds criminal penalties for unauthorized queries of American data and requires warrants for data collection but stops short of requiring warrants for content searches of already-collected information on Americans, a provision demanded by some lawmakers.
WSJ
Big Tech AI Spending Soars Past $670 Billion as Investors Question Costs
Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta and Amazon reported earnings Wednesday showing that artificial intelligence is driving sales growth even as their combined capital expenditures continue to climb at a steep pace. The four companies spent $410 billion on capex last year and are projected to top $670 billion in 2026, according to a Wall Street Journal tally. Morgan Stanley estimates the broader tech industry will spend $2.9 trillion on chips, servers and data-center infrastructure between 2025 and 2028. While AI tools are translating into revenue, the scale of upfront investment has investors wringing their hands over whether returns will justify the buildout. The 2026 capex figure exceeds the inflation-adjusted cost of nearly every signature U.S. infrastructure undertaking of the past century.
WSJ
Saudi Wealth Fund Pulls Funding for LIV Golf
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund will no longer bankroll LIV Golf after the current season, people familiar with the matter said, ending the upstart league's run as a Saudi-funded disruptor of professional golf. LIV is expected to inform players and staff of the decision by Thursday, sounding the death knell for a circuit that plowed billions into the sport and poached A-list players such as Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm beginning in 2022. The signal had been building for nearly a month, with PIF's recently released five-year strategic plan making no mention of the league as the sovereign fund shifts its investment focus. LIV is already in talks with outside investors but appears unlikely to survive in anything resembling its current form, after the Saudis absorbed billions in losses on tournament fees and player purses. PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp signaled before the news broke that LIV defectors would face accountability, telling reporters that rules had been broken and accountability would follow.
WSJ
APRIL 30, 1993: WORLD WIDE WEB ENTERS THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
On this day, computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee released the source code for the first web browser and editor, WorldWideWeb, into the public domain. By making his system royalty-free and widely accessible, he paved the way for the modern internet and a historic expansion of global information sharing.
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