Talk of the Town
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Monday issued an administrative stay of a lower court order that had rolled back access to mifepristone nationwide.
The move preserves access to the abortion pill without the need for an in-person doctor’s visit.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(NEW YORK) — Rudy Giuliani is hospitalized in critical condition, his spokesman said on Sunday.
The 81-year-old former New York City mayor is critical but stable, spokesman Ted Goodman said in a statement.
The statement does not say what led to the hospitalization.
“Mayor Rudy Giuliani is currently in the hospital, where he remains in critical but stable condition,” the statement said. “Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he’s fighting with that same level of strength as we speak. We do ask that you join us in prayer for America’s Mayor — Rudy Giuliani.”
Giuliani served as New York City’s mayor from 1994 to 2001.
More recently, he was a personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, who wrote about Giuliani’s hospitalization in a social media post. The president called Giuliani “a True Warrior, and the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR.”
A spokesperson for Eric Adams, who was the city’s mayor from 2022 to 2025, noted Giuliani’s service in a statement.
“From his years as a federal prosecutor to leading New York City through its darkest day on 9/11, he stood with this city when it needed him most,” Adams spokesperson Todd Shapiro said.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) — The Indiana Hoosiers — 2025 College Football Playoff national champions — will visit the White House on Monday, May 11, according to a source familiar with the team’s plans.
It’s unclear whether former Indiana quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza will attend. Mendoza was the first player chosen in April’s NFL draft.
ABC News reached out to the White House about the upcoming visit but did not receive an immediate response.
Led by a late-game touchdown run by Mendoza, the Hoosiers’ undefeated season was capped off in storybook fashion this past January, when the team defeated the Miami Hurricanes 27-21 for their first-ever championship.
Indiana Head Coach Curt Cignetti is also expected to attend.
The White House trip is an honor bestowed to the championship winning teams in both college and professional sports. It’s often coupled with visits to Capitol Hill but the source couldn’t determine whether the team’s schedule would feature a trip to Congress.
President Donald Trump welcomed several NCAA collegiate champions to the White House last month.
The Hoosiers’ expected visit comes amid Trump’s efforts to “save” college sports. The president signed an executive order last month urging Congress to “expeditiously” pass legislation that addresses the future of competition and opportunity in all college sports, especially football and basketball.
Meanwhile, the Hoosiers championship also comes as name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals have been scrutinized by the White House and lawmakers in Washington concerning pay-for-play and player eligibility.
Looking to repeat as national champions, the Hoosiers finished spring practice last week with a reloaded squad that features top transfer portal pickups, quarterback Josh Hoover and wide receiver Nick Marsh.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced Friday that he will increase tariffs on European Union cars and trucks to 25% next week, claiming in a social media post that the EU is “not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal.”
“Based on the fact the European Union is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal, next week I will be increasing Tariffs charged to the European Union for Cars and Trucks coming into the United States. The Tariff will be increased to 25%,” Trump wrote in a post to his social media platform.
While the president did not specify what tariff authority he was invoking, it appears that the administration will use Section 232, which authorizes him to “adjust the imports” of goods that the secretary of commerce finds to have been imported in a manner that threatens U.S. national security.
Trump, departing the White House Friday afternoon, reiterated that the tariff was coming because “as usual, they were not adhering to the agreement that we have.”
ABC News has reached out to the White House for additional comment on tariff authority.
Trump, in his social media post, touted American automobile production capabilities, claiming that U.S. manufacturing plants “will be opening soon” and that “over 100 Billion dollars” is being invested, though he did not say where the alleged money was coming from.
“It is fully understood and agreed that, if they produce Cars and Trucks in U.S.A. Plants, there will be NO TARIFF. Many Automobile and Truck Plants are currently under construction, with over 100 Billion Dollars being invested, A RECORD in the History of Car and Truck Manufacturing,” Trump added in his post.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is seeking the participation of other countries to form an international coalition to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to an internal cable sent this week by the State Department to posts around the world.
Dubbed the “Maritime Freedom Construct,” the coalition would help with coordinating diplomatic efforts, including aligning on sanctions and information sharing to help with safe transit through the waterway, according to a U.S. official.
The cable called on diplomats to announce the formation of the new coalition and “ask for partner participation” by Friday.
The Maritime Freedom Construct would take steps to ensure safe passage, including providing real-time information, safety guidance, and coordination to ensure vessels can transit the waters securely, the cable said.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the cable.
“The MFC’s efforts will enhance maritime domain awareness and support the safe passage of commercial operators and their crews,” a State Department official said.
The United Kingdom and France have already launched a multilateral effort involving 30+ nations toward securing the strait that could eventually involve deploying military assets if a peace deal is reached, according to those countries’ governments.
However, last week during a Pentagon press briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mocked the European efforts, saying Europe might want to start having “less fancy conferences in Europe and get in a boat.”
He dismissed the U.K. and French effort aimed at ensuring the future security of the critical Gulf waterway as “silly.”
“Europe and Asia have benefited from our protection for decades, but the time for free-riding is over,” he said.
Shahram Irani, Iran’s Navy commander, called the U.S. blockade “piracy” and the U.S. as “maritime terrorists.”
“The Strait of Hormuz is closed from the Arabian Gulf, meaning they have no right of passage from there, and there is no entry. As soon as they come, operational and tactical action is taken against them,” he said.
He went on to call the blockade piracy and american actions as “maritime terrorists”
On Thursday, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned the consequences of continued disruptions to the global energy supply caused by the Iran war and the closure of the strait “grow worse with each passing hour.”
Guterres the worst-case scenario could be “the specter of a global recession” if disruptions to the strait continue through 2026. Even in the best case, if restrictions were relieved today, “supply chains will take months to recover” and warned that developing countries will be hit the hardest by economic instability.
According to the cable, the coalition will be led by the departments of State and Defense through U.S. Central Command.
The State-led component, based in Washington, D.C., will serve as the diplomatic operations hub, uniting partners and the commercial shipping industry. The Pentagon component operating out of CENTCOM headquarters in Florida would coordinate real-time maritime traffic and communicate directly with vessels transiting the Strait, the cable said.
“It will provide a platform to coordinate diplomatic actions and socialize and align economic measures designed to impose costs on Iran for disrupting maritime security,” the State official said.
ABC News’ Desiree Adib contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Senate committee on Thursday that dissent from the “cheap seats” in Congress sought to undermine the military’s efforts in its war in Iran only two months into the campaign.
“Defeatists from the cheap seats who, two months in, seek to undermine the incredible efforts that have been undertaken and the historic nature of taking on a 47-year threat,” Hegseth said in his opening statement.
The statement was nearly identical to what he told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday in the first of two hearings on the Pentagon’s 2027 budget plan in which he faces questions on the war in his first appearances before Congress since the war started in February.
The hearings were scheduled to discuss the Pentagon’s request for a $1.5 trillion budget for 2027, the most the Pentagon has ever requested. In Wednesday’s hearing, Jules Hurst III, the Pentagon comptroller, testified the war has so far cost $25 billion. The Pentagon has said it will ask for $200 billion in supplemental funding for the campaign.
In both hearings, Hegseth asserted the the U.S.’s “biggest adversary” in the war is from within.
“Unfortunately, as I said yesterday, and I’ll say it again today, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless naysayers and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” he said.
Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan pushed back against Hegseth’s assertion on Wednesday, telling him, “Mr. Secretary, you reserved more words and more time and more vitriol to condemn Democrats than you did for [Chinese President Xi Jinping] and for [Russian Federation President Vladimir] Putin combined. It’s pretty telling to me that you decided to use your words and your time for that.”
Leaving Thursday’s hearing, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said, “Secretary Hegseth seems to feel that by attacking the committee, he somehow is persuading the American people. “It’s exactly the opposite — his antagonism and seeming reluctance to tell the truth, I think, is doing this administration and the country a tremendous disfavor. And by refusing to come clean, give us precise numbers on costs, when we know that the true figures are higher than what has been told us, I think just undermines his credibility.”
Democrats and some Republicans in Congress have questioned the rationale behind launching the campaign against Iran, its endgame and the strains it has put on the economy and alliances with U.S. partners.
Hegseth was briefly interrupted by protesters during Thursday’s hearing.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared to agree with Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker’s assertion that Russia has tried to to undermine the U.S. operation in Iran.
“General Caine, there’s no question that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is taking serious action to undermine our efforts for success in Iran. Is there any question about that?” Wicker asked.
“I think there’s actions and activities. [I’m] mindful of the hearing room we’re in, but there’s, there’s, there’s definitely some action there,” Caine said. Wicker described the war against Iran as a success.
“While we all mourn the tragic loss of the 14 service members who have lost their lives in this conflict, we do so knowing the world is safer without a nuclear Iran,” he said.
But he noted the threat that Iran still poses.
“Most of Iran’s leaders are now deceased, but they and those who survived them have consistently sought violence against America, Israel, our Gulf allies,” Wicker said.
Wicker said Iran was part of an axis of aggressors with China, Russia and North Korea.
“This growing alliance cannot be denied,” the chairman said, adding later that “ties have never been closer among these four … dictatorships.”
Ranking Democrat Jack Reed said that the war has put the U.S. “in a worse strategic position,” pointing out that the Strait of Hormuz had closed because of the war and Iran’s nuclear material remained unaddressed and telling Hegseth his declaration of victory on April 8 was premature.
“Mr. Secretary, I am concerned that you have been telling the president what he wants to hear, instead of what he needs to hear,” Reed said. “Bold assurances of success are a disservice to both the commander-in-chief and the troops who risk their lives based on them. Our military has performed heroically. But military force without a sound strategy is a path to long-term defeat.”
Reed also said cultural erosion has taken place in the military and would lead to “lasting harm.” He pointed to Kid Rock’s recent “joy ride” with Hegseth in Army attack helicopters, the firing of several senior officers, and “troubling” statements he said the secretary had made about the conduct of the war.
“You have made troubling statements about showing ‘no mercy’ and ‘no quarter’ to the Iranians: orders that would constitute war crimes,” Reed said.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) — After months of resistance, the House on Thursday passed the Senate-backed Department of Homeland Security funding bill, which funds all agencies inside DHS except immigration enforcement operations.
There was no recorded vote requested.
The measure now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk now for signature — ending the record-long DHS shutdown after 76 days. Trump will sign the DHS funding bill later Thursday, according to a White House official.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he is nominating Dr. Nicole Saphier to be the next surgeon general.
Trump made the announcement on social media, calling Saphier a “STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention.”
Saphier is the director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth in New Jersey and a regular medical contributor on Fox News.
According to her profile on the Memorial Sloan Kettering website, she has experience “performing minimally invasive, image-guided procedures of the breast, kidney, pancreas, liver, thyroid and lymph nodes.”
Her nomination comes just two months after Trump’s previous nominee, Dr. Casey Means, appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee for her confirmation hearing.
During the hearing, Means indicated she supports vaccines but stopped short of recommending certain shots.
Means, who has a medical degree but does not hold an active medical license, appeared hesitant to say that some vaccines, such as the flu vaccine, prevent serious disease.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the HELP committee and is a physician, noted that two children died last year from measles and pushed Means on whether she would encourage parents to vaccinate their children with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Means initially stressed personal autonomy and responded that she supported vaccination and that every patient should have a conversation with their doctor about getting vaccinated.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) — Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on Thursday said that the Supreme Court’s ruling on Wednesday against the state’s congressional map means that the planned May 16 congressional primaries won’t proceed as scheduled as lawmakers consider drawing a new map.
“The Supreme Court previously stayed an injunction against the State’s enforcement of the current Congressional map. By the Court’s order, however, that stay automatically terminated with yesterday’s decision. Accordingly, the State is currently enjoined from carrying out congressional elections under the current map. We are working together with the Legislature and the Secretary of State’s office to develop a path forward,” they wrote in the statement.
Landry told at least some Republican House candidates in Louisiana that he plans on Friday to suspend the state’s primaries, according to multiple Republican sources.
A Republican source told ABC News that the governor called one candidate on Wednesday and said he is making calls to all of the candidates that he plans on Friday to suspend the election using executive power. The Washington Post was first to report about the governor’s calls.
The source said it was unclear if this will apply to all of the planned primaries, which include a closely watched Senate primary, or just the primaries for the House that would be impacted by a new congressional map.
ABC News has reached out to Landry’s office and the office of the Louisiana secretary of state.
The Supreme Court’s ruling on Wednesday reverses lower court decisions that said Louisiana’s map, drawn after the 2020 census, violated the Voting Rights Act because only one of six districts was majority Black. More than a third of the state’s voting age population is Black.
Those courts had ordered Louisiana to add a second majority-Black district, a process which in turn explicitly relied on race. In his opinion, Justice Samuel Alito said that move infringed on the rights of white voters under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
Absentee ballots in Louisiana have already been sent out, and votes have likely been cast, although early voting in person does not start until Saturday, May 2. Absentee voting is relatively limited in Louisiana and requires a valid excuse.
Democratic Rep. Troy Carter from Louisiana said on Wednesday at the Congressional Black Caucus press conference that elections are too close at this point for congressional maps to change.
“We are in the 2026 election cycle now. The Supreme Court has set precedent just four years ago in a case in Louisiana, they ruled the district to be unconstitutional, said it’s too close to the election now, therefore we will do it in the next cycle,” Carter said, later adding that “if precedent matters, then clearly this is something that will have to be taken up in 2028 cycle, not the 2026.”
But the Louisiana’s existing map cannot be used, according to the Supreme Court’s ruling. Technically the state could revert back to its original 2022 map with one majority-Black district or redraw a new map entirely. Some legal experts have argued Louisiana could still keep its current map for the May primaries.
On Thursday, Murrill put in a filing with the Supreme Court saying, “Louisiana currently ‘is prohibited from using SB8’s map of congressional districts for any election’. The Governor and Attorney General are thus working with the Legislature– which is in session until June 1 — to immediately produce a constitutional map and electoral process for Louisiana.”
On Wednesday, Landry praised the ruling, but declined to say if it would have an impact on those primaries or not.
“Look, I think that anyone who jumps to conclusions right now — I think it’s going to take us at least 24 hours to really pore through the opinion to understand what exactly that opinion is telling us,” he told reporters. But he left the option open to a map redraw: “I mean, look, the Supreme Court picked an interesting time to be able to drop that on us… the court decides to give it to us on the eve of the election. What are they telling us? Are they telling us we have to draw? Telling us we don’t have to draw?”
ABC News’ Devin Dwyer and Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(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.”
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
