Economic Fury Targets Iran Shadow Banking Facilitators

WASHINGTON—Today, as part of Economic Fury, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated 35 entities and individuals that oversee Iran’s shadow banking architecture, facilitating the movement of the equivalent of tens of billions of dollars tied to sanctions evasion and Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism. These networks allow Iran’s armed forces—including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—to access the international financial system to receive payment for illicit oil sales, purchase sensitive components for missiles and other weapons systems, and transfer money to Iran’s terrorist proxies.

“Iran’s shadow banking system serves as a critical financial lifeline for its armed forces, enabling activities that disrupt global trade and fuel violence across the Middle East,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “Illicit funds funneled through this network support the regime’s ongoing terrorist operations, posing a direct threat to U.S. personnel, regional allies, and the global economy. Financial institutions are on notice: Any institution that facilitates or engages with these networks is at risk of severe consequences.”

Today’s action is being taken pursuant to E.O. 13902, which targets persons operating in Iran’s financial sector, and E.O. 13224, as amended, a counterterrorism authority. These designations build on OFAC’s January 15, 2026 shadow banking action, which targeted the rahbar networks of Bank Melli and Bank-e Shahr (Shahr Bank).

Today’s designations expose and disrupt the Iranian regime’s mechanisms for receiving payments for oil and other commodities, thereby increasing costs and reducing revenue for the regime’s destabilizing activities, and exposes individuals involved in facilitating the regime’s abuse of the international financial system.

This action is in furtherance of the President’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2), which undergirds Treasury’s continued campaign of maximum economic pressure against Iran’s shadow banking, money laundering, and sanctions evasion networks. Since February 2025, OFAC has sanctioned approximately 1,000 Iran-related persons, vessels, and aircraft as part of this campaign.

Alongside today’s action, OFAC is issuing firm guidance to warn about the significant sanctions exposure related to making “toll” payments to the Government of Iran or the IRGC for passage through the Strait of Hormuz. These payments create sanctions risk for U.S. and non-U.S. persons, including financial institutions. For further information, please see FAQ 1249.

read moar:

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0477

New pictures of suspect in correspondents' dinner shooting emerge

The California man accused of opening fire outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner snapped a selfie before the attack, donned in black with ammunition strapped to his body, newly released images revealed Wednesday.

The images were included in a court filing detailing the government's opposition to any bail for Cole Tomas Allen, who is accused of attacking the annual gathering of Washington, D.C., journalists and government officials.

He's been charged with one count of attempted assassination of the president, interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition with intent to commit a felony and discharge of a firearm during a violent crime.

"Had the defendant achieved his intended outcome, he would have brought about one of the darkest days in American history," Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Jones wrote.

The evidence "of his guilt is overwhelming," the prosecutor added.

Allen photographed himself at about 8:03 p.m. ET Saturday, standing in front of his hotel room mirror "wearing a black dress shirt, black slacks, and what appears to be a red necktie, tucked into his pants," according to the court filing.

Prosecutors said the image showed the suspect "wearing a small leather bag consistent in appearance with the ammunition-filled bag later recovered from his person," along with a shoulder holster, a sheathed knife, pliers and wire cutters, the court document said.

Minutes later, Allen allegedly "rushed the screening checkpoint on the Terrace Level of the Washington Hilton with a raised shotgun," Jones wrote.

The court filing also included images of the shotgun Allen allegedly used in the confrontation Saturday, along with the knives and a loaded .38-caliber pistol.

After Allen allegedly rushed past a metal detector, a Secret Service agent "drew his service weapon and fired five times at the defendant," the prosecutor wrote.

"The defendant fell to the ground, was restrained by law enforcement and was placed under arrest," Jones added. "The defendant suffered a minor injury to his knee but was not shot."

A court-appointed defense attorney for Allen could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday.

"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," Jones wrote.

"It was, at its core, an anti-democratic act of political violence."

Allen got to Washington, with his legally purchased weapons, on an Amtrak ride from Los Angeles to Chicago and then from there to the nation's capital. The route Allen took is "famous for its scenic views of the mountains and deserts of the American West before traversing the vast expanse of the Great Plains," according to Jones.

Allen kept a "running note on his phone of his observations and thoughts" during this long journey, the prosecution said.

In contrast to the violent acts he was allegedly planning, Allen appeared to show great appreciation for the gorgeous scenes of America passing by his train window.

"He wrote that '[t]he southwest desert in spring Distant wind turbines looming like snowy mountains across the hazy NM desert,' that 'Chicago is cool; kinda like an Iowa small town was scaled up to LA size,' and that Pennsylvania’s 'woods are awesome (look like vast fairy lands filled with tiny trickling creeks in spring apparently,'” Jones wrote.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-pictures-emerge-suspected-washington-dc-gunman-rcna342696

Secretary Marco Rubio

@SecRubio

Met with UK Foreign Secretary @YvetteCooperMP on the occasion of the @RoyalFamily’s visit to the United States. We discussed the need for freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

https://x.com/SecRubio/status/2049535042888601874/photo/1

How a Supreme Court case could reshape the South's congressional representation

Louisiana voters and elected officials are waiting on a Supreme Court decision that could reshape voting in much of the South.

Why it matters: The case targets the Voting Rights Act, a key tool for challenging racially discriminatory election maps, and could allow Republicans to lock in more congressional seats across the South.

The big picture: Louisiana lawmakers, civil rights groups and other citizens have been in a back-and-forth over the state's congressional map for years.

In the latest chapter, a group of Louisianans who self-described as "non-African Americans" sued the state for relying too heavily on race for its current congressional map. Federal judges agreed, which set the stage for the Supreme Court to take on Louisiana v. Callais.

The intrigue: After deferring the case over the summer, the Supreme Court expanded its potential impact beyond Louisiana by asking lawyers back this fall to address the case's implications on the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, which deal with race and elections.

The implications lie with Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was intended to protect Black voters from disenfranchisement by preventing race-based voting discrimination.

A Supreme Court decision that chips away Section 2, as it seems poised to do, can extend far beyond Louisiana.

What they're saying: The Voting Rights Act "was the guardrail," said April Albright, the national legal director with the voting rights advocacy group Black Voters Matter.

If it goes away, "there's nothing left, because most of these red states also don't have robust protections for voting rights in their own state constitutions."

State of play: Black Voters Matter gamed out what that could look like.

It found that, if the Voting Rights Act gets stripped, Republicans could secure an additional 27 U.S. House seats, compared to 2024 maps. At least 19 would be tied directly to losing Section 2.

Those changes typically take years to play out but, Albright says, with the Supreme Court siding with mid-decade map rewrites, it's possible it could happen much faster.

Case in point: A recent Texas redistricting decision at least indicates the justices are already in the weeds on map matters.

In that case, Texas lawmakers had crafted a mid-decade congressional map favorable to Republicans. That map remains under contest, but the Supreme Court ruled it can be used for now even though it's "indisputable" that Texas passed a new map "for partisan advantage pure and simple," Axios' Megan Stringer reports.

"It defies our rule of law," Rep. Troy Carter, a Democrat who represents one of two majority Black districts in Louisiana, tells Axios New Orleans.

"Every time we have a change in the White House, are we going to go back and, likewise, change the demographics of our congressional seats? It's not what the framers of the Constitution intended."

What we're watching: The Supreme Court doesn't share details on when it'll issue rulings.

Louisiana voters head to the polls to select congressional leadership in 2026, and state lawmakers already held a special session to adjust next year's election calendar in hopes of an early winter ruling from the Supreme Court.

But ultimately, any decision timing is up to the justices.

https://www.axios.com/local/new-orleans/2025/12/10/louisiana-callais-supreme-court-voting-rights-act

1984 Electoral Map

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_United_States_presidential_election

Andrew Kolvet

@AndrewKolvet

LOL they really just said this out loud: "The challengers are going to have to say that there are no race-neutral reasons for this. And that's awfully hard, especially because of the partisan alignment between whites generally voting Republican and blacks generally being affiliated with the Democratic Party."

And there you have it, folks. Wonder why your communities have been overrun with a massive, unending, unfettered waves of legal and illegal immigrants? Because Democrats figured out a long time ago that they can’t win the votes of white Americans.

That’s the whole racket, accidentally admitted on live TV in a moment of panic after SCOTUS gutted Section 2 of the VRA.

https://x.com/AndrewKolvet/status/2049514052754309594

Arraignment hearing set for Southern Poverty Law Center in federal court

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbV1NocJZi0

Arraignment hearing set for Southern Poverty Law Center in federal court (May 7th)

An arraignment hearing will be held in federal court in Montgomery on Thursday, May 7, in the Department of Justice’s case against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

According to the indictment, starting in the 1980s, the SPLC began operating a covert network of individuals who were either associated with violent and extremist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, or who had infiltrated violent extremist groups at the SPLC’s direction. Unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website, according to the DOJ.

Attorneys with the SPLC filed motions on Monday requesting a transcript of grand jury proceedings and a court order requiring Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to retract a “false and unfairly prejudicial statement” he made on Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle shortly after the indictment was announced.

“Well, they communicated when they so chose, with law enforcement over the years. There’s no information that we have that suggests that the money they were paying to these informants and these members of these organizations, they then turned around and shared what they learned with law enforcement. To the contrary, or else we would have known, from their own words, that they had given this money to these guys. And we didn’t know,” Blanche said.

Addy Schmitt, an attorney representing SPLC, said in a filing on Monday, “The Court should exercise its authority to provide the relief necessary to protect the integrity of this proceeding.”

“The defense respectfully seeks an order directing the government to: (1) retract the false and unfairly prejudicial statement that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche made on Fox News regarding the allegations against the SPLC as a pretrial equivalent of a curative jury instruction; and (2) refrain from making any further false or misleading statements about the allegations in the indictment and abide by the rules prohibiting extrajudicial statements that prejudice SPLC’s right to a fair trial,” Schmitt said.

https://1819news.com/news/item/arraignment-hearing-set-for-southern-poverty-law-center-in-federal-court

Court Rules 2nd Amendment Covers Firearms Parts, Good News for Those Who Build Guns

What used to be a fringe hobby in the firearms world, building or customizing your own guns, is increasingly popular.

So, Wyomingites welcome a ruling by the federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, stating that the Second Amendment could apply to the buying, selling and possession of firearms parts without serial numbers.

AR-15 style rifles in particular can be built or customized to owners’ liking, using parts and accessories that can be purchased over-the-counter or ordered online.

“It’s like Barbie dolls for men. It’s all about accessorizing,” firearms enthusiast Nic George of Sheridan told Cowboy State Daily.

At issue is whether the purchase, exchange and possession of firearms parts without serial numbers fall solely under state commercial regulations, or has Second Amendment implications.

The 10th Circuit Court on April 23 ruled the latter, Casper Attorney Ryan Semerad told Cowboy State Daily.

Therefore, if charges are brought against somebody in connection to firearms parts, they could possibly challenge the case based on their Second Amendment rights.

Semerad said prosecutors can’t make a winning argument if they contend the case doesn’t bear on the Second Amendment.

In June 2023, Colorado enacted a law prohibiting the purchase, sale, transfer, and possession of un-serialized firearms, firearm frames or receivers, and the like, according to 10th Circuit Court documents.

“Three Individual Plaintiffs—Christopher Richardson, John Howard, and Max Schlosser—and two nonprofit Associational Plaintiffs—National Association for Gun Rights (“NAGR”) and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (“RMGO”)—sued the state for violating their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms,” according to the court.

A district court erred when it concluded that the Colorado law didn’t implicate that Second Amendment. Because it does, in fact, implicate it, the 10th Circuit Court decided.

“If you have a blanket prohibition, that it is illegal to sell or possess these sorts of gun parts, that is a matter of the Second Amendment,” Semerad said.

“The government can’t just say, ‘it has nothing to do with bearing arms,’” he added.

Custom-building firearms wasn’t a wild West, unregulated venture to begin with, said George, who’s been doing it for decades.

The process starts with buying a part that bears a registered serial number. That’s usually the action and trigger mechanism for a bolt-action rifle, or the lower receiver on an AR-15, George said.

An AR-15 lower receiver contains the trigger mechanism, safety and magazine release.

“Every firearm has at least one part that is aregulated piece. The piece without which it won’t function. That’s usually where the serial number goes,” George said.

To buy that part, a person usually must go through a licensed gun dealer and pass a background check.

“It’s just one part, but it’s like you’re purchasing the whole gun” from a procedural and legal standpoint, he said.

From there, buyers can add whatever barrels, sights and other parts and accessories they wish.

Years ago, gun enthusiasts had to have expensive equipment, like lathes, to make parts such as barrels in their own shops or garages, George said.

Now, parts such as pre-made barrels are readily accessible at reasonable prices, he said. So, it’s becoming more common for people to build their own hunting rifles, for instance.

AR-15-style rifles are essentially the king of modular firearms, Joshua Kinderknecht, the owner of Wyoming Tactical Firearms and W.T.F. Silencers, told Cowboy State Daily.

Plenty of people still go into shops or gun shows and buy finished rifles. However, given the abundance and availability of AR-15 parts and accessories, there’s a trend toward building your own, Kinderknecht said.

“It’s extremely popular, so it’s good to know (about the 10th Circuit Court’s ruling),” he said.

Once a gun owner has the lower receiver with the serial number on it, the possibilities are practically endless, he said.

There are a wide variety of barrels and stocks of various lengths to suit shooters’ want and needs, Kinderknecht said.

What’s an AR-15 lower can be matched with more than one upper receiver and barrel assembly, each chambered for a different cartridge, he said.

That’s like having several rifles in one, Kinderknecht said. All the owner has to do to switch calibers is move the lower receiver between the various uppers, he said.

“I’ve got one AR lower that I have three different upper receivers for. It’s really handy,” he said.

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/04/28/court-rules-2nd-amendment-covers-firearms-parts-good-news-for-those-who-build-guns/

Biden Admin Used ‘Benghazi’ to Hide $90M illegal loan to Planned Parenthood

Biden administration officials may have sought to dodge public records laws and congressional oversight by classifying taxpayer-backed loans to Planned Parenthood as “Benghazi,” according to findings by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.

Ernst, chairwoman of the Senate Small Business Committee, has been investigating Small Business Administration loans to the nation’s largest abortion provider under the Paycheck Protection Program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a letter sent Monday to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Ernst asked for a Justice Department investigation “for potential Federal Records Act violation by concealment and/or attempted concealment” of SBA records regarding loans to Planned Parenthood and loan forgiveness.

“What does Benghazi have to do with Planned Parenthood? It appears the Biden SBA used it as a codename to hide the $90 million in taxpayer funds they gifted to the abortion provider,” Ernst told The Daily Signal in a statement.

“I’ve already exposed the Biden administration’s blatant disregard for transparency, but this potential cover-up demands answers,” Ernst continued. “I’m calling for a DOJ investigation to determine if Biden officials were illegally concealing federal records over their egregious handout to Planned Parenthood.”

The 13-page letter from Ernst to Blanche, shared with The Daily Signal, shows examples of email communications from SBA personnel.

Benghazi is most well-known to Americans as the location of a 2012 terrorist attack on a U.S. compound that resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

“I write to ask the Department of Justice (DOJ) to open an investigation into the possible unlawful concealment and attempted concealment of federal records by President Biden’s Small Business Administration officials, and potentially their White House colleagues, in their official emails regarding Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider,” Ernst’s letter to Blanche says.

The letter shows that in 2021, Peggy Hamilton, then-SBA general counsel, and other administration officials used official government email accounts in what may have been an attempt to conceal records.

On April 30, 2021, Hamilton sent a message to then-SBA Chief of Staff Antwaun Griffin explaining what she meant by writing “Benghazi” earlier in the day. “Can I schedule a meeting so we can decision Benghazi (Planned Parenthood)?” Hamilton wrote. Griffin replied one minute later, “Yes, let’s talk Benghazi.”

All government emails can generally be accessed by the public through the Freedom of Information Act and the Public Records Act.

“Under 18 U.S.C. § 2071, an individual who ‘willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to,’ conceal any federal record can be fined and imprisoned for up to three years,” Ernst says in the letter to Blanche.

Ernst contends congressional or public-record requests seeking Planned Parenthood documents from the SBA would miss these records because they were being concealed as “Benghazi.”

“DOJ should investigate SBA officials’ record concealments related to a series of meetings and emails, including an April 30, 2021, email from Peggy Hamilton, the SBA general counsel, with ‘Benghazi (PPP/PPH) Decisions’ in the subject line,” Ernst told Blanche. “This email appears to be the originating email for what became a months-long thread about Planned Parenthood’s SBA loans and the entity’s loan-forgiveness requests.”

Hamilton went on to work as general counsel for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh until December 2025. The Daily Signal reached out to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh to obtain contact information for the story and also sent a message to Hamilton on LinkedIn on Monday seeking comment. Neither responded by publication time.

Griffin is a general manager at Amazon Business, which did not immediately respond to an inquiry for this story.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/04/28/bidens-sba-used-benghazi-code-to-hide-90m-to-planned-parenthood-senator-wants-doj-to-probe/

Russian oil facilities in Perm and Orsk struck as Ukraine's drones follow up Tuapse attacks

Oil facilities in Russian cities of Perm and Orsk were struck by Ukrainian drones overnight on April 29, local authorities and Telegram channels reported.

Russia's Defense Ministry reported on April 29 that its air defense intercepted 98 Ukrainian drones over the territories of the Astrakhan, Belgorod, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kursk, Rostov, and Saratov oblasts, as well as Russian-occupied Crimea.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed the attack on an oil pumping station near Perm, later on April 29.

In an operation led by the SBU's Alpha special forces unit, long-range drones struck the Perm linear production and dispatch station, which is owned by Russia's Transneft.

A massive fire broke out at the oil pumping station following the drone attack, it added. According to preliminary reports, nearly all of the oil storage tanks were on ablaze.

Independent Telegram news channel, Exilenova Plus, also reported that fires broke out at a Transneft facility in Perm Krai.‌‌

According to an OSINT analysis made by the Independent Russian Telegram news channel Astra, the station is used for receiving, storing, and pumping oil through main pipelines.

Perm Krai Governor Dmitry Makhonin confirmed a Ukrainian drone attack on one of the industrial sites in the region. He added that workers were evacuated and no casualties were reported.

According to Makhonin, a fire also broke out at a facility, and emergency teams were on the scene.

Transneft warned producers in September 2025 that they may have to cut output following a series of Ukrainian drone strikes. The pipeline monopoly handles more than 80% of Russia's crude oil output.

In Russia's Orsk, Orenburg Oblast, the Orsknefteorgsintez oil refinery was hit, Astra OSINT analysis also reported.

The facility, which supplies the Russian army, is designed to process 6.6 million tons of oil per year and is one of Russia's largest oil refineries.

Locals reported the oil refinery had come under attack, though no fires broke out, Exilenova Plus wrote.

Orenburg Oblast Governor Yevgeny Solntsev claimed on April 29 that Ukrainian drones "attempted to attack" several industrial facilities in the Oblast.

Solntsev added, citing the Russian Defense Ministry, that four drones were downed in the Orenburg Oblast.

The claims could not be immediately verified by the Kyiv Independent.

Ukraine has regularly targeted oil refining facilities in Russia to disrupt operations, hamper fuel supplies to the military, and strike at one of the Kremlin's main sources of war financing.

Previously, on April 28, Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery in the southern Russian city of Tuapse in the Krasnodar Krai overnight, Ukraine's General Staff reported.

Tuapse has faced intensified strikes over the past weeks, including strikes on the Tuapse oil refinery on April 20 and April 16, leaving multi-day fires burning in the Russian town.

After the April 20 strike, 24 storage tanks were destroyed, and four more were damaged, according to the General Staff. A fire ignited by the initial April 16 attack had been contained, but a second strike reignited it and significantly worsened the situation, with flames burning continuously since then.

https://kyivindependent.com/russian-oil-facilities-in-perm-and-orsk-struck-as-ukraines-drones-follow-up-tuapse-attacks/

>>24556265

>Company gets hacked

>"Muh AI muh deleted muh harddrives. Muh.