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Voters will also be choosing the first mayor of Starbase and two city commissioners. The candidates for all three positions are employees of SpaceX and are running unopposed.

As of Tuesday, 181 people had already cast early ballots, according to county election records, including the candidates for mayor and city commissioners. Musk, who is eligible to vote in this Cameron County special election, has not yet shown up in early voting data.

It’s not clear why Musk or SpaceX want to turn the area into their own city. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Remi Garza, head of elections for Cameron County, said counties are usually more limited in their authority over cities.

“They don’t have the ability to sort of control growth or set standards the same way the municipality could, where they could adopt city codes, building codes and things like that,” he said, adding that cities can exert greater influence over planning and development.

Musk first publicly discussed the idea of a city named Starbase in 2021. The coastal spot is where SpaceX builds its boosters and engines and launches its huge Starship rocket on test flights.

Having greater municipal control could ease some of the red tape around those activities. Earlier this week, however, Texas lawmakers voted against a bill that would have given SpaceX great control over public beach access near its launch facility.

Normally, SpaceX must obtain permission from authorities in Cameron County to close a highway and shut down public access to Boca Chica Beach and Boca Chica State Park to keep people safe during rocket launches.

The frequent closures have contributed to legal complaints against SpaceX, and have drawn protests from local residents and activists, including the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, the South Texas Environmental Justice Network and Border Workers United, as reported by CNBC.

A ship carrying aid and volunteers heading for Gaza was attacked by drones in international waters off Malta early Friday, the group organizing the mission said.

Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the aid group running the mission, blamed Israel for the attack but did not provide evidence for that allegation. NBC News’ reached out to the Israel Defense Forces and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but did not immediately receive any response.

The attack came exactly two months after Israel, on March 2, imposed a full blockade on the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza including food, medicine, and other critical supplies.

Freedom Flotilla Coalition posted video footage on X early Friday showing a fire on the Conscience — the name of the vessel hit by the alleged drone attack — with volunteers from over 21 countries having boarded in Malta for the mission to Gaza.

“On the morning of their scheduled departure, the vessel was attacked,” the organizers said in a statement Friday, adding that the ship issued an SOS distress signal shortly after armed drones caused a fire and a substantial breach in the hull.

“Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade (of Gaza) and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters,” the group added.

The Maltese government said everyone involved in the aid mission was “confirmed safe” after it carried out a rescue operation. “The vessel had 12 crew members on board and four civilian passengers; no casualties were reported,” it said in a statement Friday.

Images released by the Maltese government showed a tug vessel putting out a fire on a vessel following the alleged drone attack.

The Conscience was “17 kilometers from the shore of Malta, [when it] was attacked by two drones,” Yasemin Acar, one of the organizers of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, told NBC News from Malta shortly before the group posted the video online and a rescue operation was carried out on the vessel.

Acar said the struck vessel had initially been sailing with a flag registered to the Pacific island nation of Palau, but that the country’s government had removed permission for its flag’s use.

Before the rescue of those on board was successfully executed, Acar said that “there is panic… Of course, everyone is in shock. Everyone is scared.”

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said in a post on X Friday that she “received a distressed call from the people of the Freedom Flotilla that is carrying essential food and medicine to the starving Gaza population.”

“I call on concerned state authorities, including maritime authorities, to support the ship and its crew as needed,” she added.

Senior Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti accused the Israeli government of “behaving like a pirate” and “violating all international law with impunity” in a post on X Friday.

While Freedom Flotilla Coalition did not cite evidence for its allegations against Israel and the country’s government did not respond to the accusations, there have been previous instances of Israeli forces preventing activists from shipping aid to Gaza.

In 2010, a flotilla on a similar mission was stopped and boarded by Israeli troops near the coast of Gaza. Israeli forces’ use of force resulted in the deaths of nine people on board and multiple others were wounded, a panel established by the U.N. Secretary General said.

Since Israel launched its offensive in the enclave following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attacks, more than 51,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including thousands of children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose numbers are described as reliable by the World Health Organization.tt

Some 1,200 people were killed during the militant group’s attacks in southern Israel, with around 250 taken hostage, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.

International aid groups and NGOs have said that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached its worst level in 18 months and that aid systems are on the verge of collapse.

While Israel is obligated to meet the basic needs of the civilian population in Gaza under its control under international humanitarian law, the United Nations-run World Food Programme last week said it had run out of food in its warehouses in Gaza and warned of mass starvation in the besieged enclave that is home to more than 2 million Palestinians.

In video footage by NBC News’ crew on the ground in the Mawasi neighborhood in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, children stood in a narrow alley holding empty pots at the Rafah Charitable Kitchen — the only soup kitchen serving the displaced in the area. 

“We sleep hungry and wake up hungry. We eat nothing, only water to fill our stomachs,” 10-year-old Asmaa Al-Kurd told NBC News.

“I spend all my time waiting in line just to bring food for my family,” she added.

Marco Rubio’s reaches new heights in the Trump administration. The latest jobs report is expected to reflect the uncertainty surrounding Trump’s sweeping tariffs. Plus, a look ahead at the biggest storylines of the Kentucky Derby.  

Here’s what to know today.

Marco Rubio’s swift rise to a central spot in Trump’s orbit

Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s position in the Trump administration expanded again yesterday when the president announced he would take on the role of interim national security adviser. Rubio’s predecessor, Mike Waltz, will be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Trump said.

Waltz, a former Florida congressman, has been on shaky ground since he inadvertently added a journalist to a private Signal chat with other top national security officials to discuss military strikes in Yemen. Trump had initially nominated Rep. Elise Stefanik for the high-profile U.N. ambassador post but withdrew her nomination a few weeks ago, citing Republicans’ thin House majority.

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For Rubio, the new role adds to his list of responsibilities. He’s also the acting administrator for the diminished U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as acting archivist of the National Archives and Records Administration. Also noteworthy: No one has been secretary of state and national security adviser simultaneously since Henry Kissinger 50 years ago.

It’s a remarkable shift in fortunes for Rubio, who sparred sharply with Trump in the past and who risked being overshadowed early on in his second White House term.

Remember a few months ago, when Rubio took his first trip as secretary of state to Latin America? Then, he was caught off guard by drastic changes to foreign aid and Trump’s public backing for turning the Gaza Strip into a Middle East Riviera. Over the next 10 days, he was also blindsided by foreign policy pronouncements from top administration officials.

But things have changed since then as Rubio figured out a strategy to minimize such frustrations, adapting some of his foreign policy positions while endearing himself to Trump and his allies. He’s eating at noteworthy restaurants, attending high-profile events and making it a point to spend more time at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, according to more than a dozen senior current and foreign administration officials, congressional officials and others who are close to Rubio or the White House.

Foreign diplomats, too, have noticed the change.

Read the full story here.

More politics news:

• Trump’s immigration efforts have broken norms and bent the law — and all the cases have a distinct hallmark: speed.
• A Trump-appointed federal judge rejected the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans it alleges are members of Tren de Aragua.
• A growing fight among Republicans about the “SALT” tax deduction could complicate negotiations of Trump’s agenda bill.
• More than 20 state-level DOGE organizations have been rolled out, but they’ve so far taken a far lighter touch than Trump’s federal DOGE launch. Here’s why.
• Trump’s poll numbers are currently lagging. Come 2026, Republicans hope to rekindle the kind of energy he brings when he is on the ballot as the party tries to retain its majorities in Congress.
• Prominent Washington defense attorney Abbe Lowell and two vocal critics of big law firms’ deals with Trump are starting a new firm.

Jobs growth is likely slowing

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release its latest data today, with forecasts predicting 133,000 jobs added in April, lower than the previous month’s 228,000. The unemployment rate is anticipated to remain unchanged at 4.2%. 

Trump’s major “Liberation Day” tariff announcement exactly a month ago generated massive uncertainty and sent stocks tumbling in the weeks that followed, though markets have largely recovered from initial losses and major tech companies like Microsoft have sailed through relatively unscathed. Still, some of the worst impacts have only recently begun to appear. 

Tariffs aside, Trump’s other policies — from DOGE staffing cuts to immigration crackdowns — may be hindering job growth.

Inside the slow-grinding criminal case that let a man languish in jail for 940 days

A Mississippi man spent two and a half years in a county jail waiting for a trial that would never come, even after the police who accused him were arrested in the case. Reporter Jon Schuppe, who has covered the Mississippi Capitol Police extensively in recent years, shared his experience putting together this story:

“This is a story I never expected to write. In early 2023, while investigating a string of shootings by the Mississippi Capitol Police, I wrote to Sinatra Jordan, who was in jail on charges alleging he shot at police officers during a chase through downtown Jackson that ended with his friend shot in the head. He told me in a letter and in phone calls that he never had a gun. But it was his word against the officers’. I wrote a story about the case and moved on.

“Jordan kept calling me, though. Months, then years, passed, and he remained in jail without any progress in his case, or any clue when he might get a day in court. I began to see his ordeal as an emblem of our deeply flawed criminal justice system. Despite the constitutional right to a speedy trial, people all over Mississippi, and in other parts of the country, spend years in jail without being deemed innocent or guilty. Two years after we first spoke, I decided to return to Jordan’s story.

“Around that time, the case took an extraordinary turn. A grand jury indicted the two officers, charging them with aggravated assault for allegedly shooting Jordan’s friend and firing at Jordan. That led prosecutors to drop the shooting charges against Jordan, who pleaded guilty to another offense and was released after 940 days behind bars. When he finally walked out of jail, I was there to greet him. And with his help I obtained copies of evidence which showed investigators never found proof that he shot at the officers. Now the officers — who were released on bail — are waiting for a trial.”

Read the full story here.

Steve Kornacki’s guide to the Kentucky Derby

The 151st Kentucky Derby has a tough act to follow after last year’s three-way photo finish. But tomorrow’s race looks to have some excitement of its own. NBC News and MSNBC’s numbers guru (and horse racing enthusiast) Steve Kornacki looks at the big storylines heading into the race: 

⭐ The favorite: His name is Journalism and he towers above the field in at least one notable metric: speed figures. But his success in two key Kentucky Derby prep races were against tiny fields — just four rivals in each race. How will he perform against 19 foes?

🔁 Bob Baffert is back: The best-known trainer in horse racing will make his return to Churchill Downs after a three-year ban, and he has the backing of some of the sport’s most ambitious and deep-pocketed owners. But his crop of horses is down to just one: Citizen Bull, who likes to be in front but could be compromised if a hot pace develops. Baffert’s other entry, Rodriguez, was scratched late yesterday. 

🏇 The best storyline: Lonnie Briley was never supposed to be here. The folksy 72-year-old Louisianan has been training horses since 1991 and has had success, but mostly with cheap horses running for small prizes in racing’s backwaters. Until now. His horse, Coal Battle, has long odds in this race, but even Briley’s rival trainers will probably be smiling if he can pull off this one. 

See the full Kentucky Derby guide.

Diddy on trial: Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial begins Monday. Sign up to receive a newsletter with exclusive reporting and analysis throughout the trial.

Read All About It 

• The rollout of updated Covid vaccines this fall may be in jeopardy after a rule change by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in how vaccines are tested. 
• Sean “Diddy” Combs confirmed at a hearing that he rejected a plea deal in his sex trafficking case, paving the way for his trial to begin next week.
• Singer Jill Sobule, known for the 1995 song “I Kissed a Girl,” died in a Minnesota house fire Thursday morning, her representatives said. She was 66.
• The coach of a high school lacrosse team in New York where at least 11 players are accused of hazing younger members denied the team’s staff knew anything about the alleged incident before it happened.

Staff Pick: Pope Francis’ faithful followers

I am so delighted to publish these spectacular images taken by photographer Sam Gregg of the faithful congregants who attended Pope Francis’ funeral in Vatican City last weekend. Sam is a native of Naples and has spent many years documenting themes of religion and death in Italy. When the news of Pope Francis’ death was announced, I knew I had collaborate with him in some way.

Sam predominantly works in film, which presented those of us who work in a fast-paced digital news environment with a dilemma, given the time constraints of developing and printing the work. But with this story, I wanted to take the time to focus on the everyday people who traveled to see their leader be laid to rest and tell their story through their own words. The end result is a beautiful gallery of rich, colorful portraits from a special event that meant so much to so many. — Max Butterworth, deputy director of photography

NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified

Scalp acne can be felt but not seen on your scalp or hairline. The NBC Select team spoke to dermatologists about the best shampoo and hair care products with pimple-fighting ingredients. Plus, are you dealing with sensitive teeth? Drinking less soda and sparkling water can help, but these toothpastes for sensitive teeth will also alleviate discomfort.

Sign up to The Selection newsletter for hands-on product reviews, expert shopping tips and a look at the best deals and sales each week.

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President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Thursday to end public funding of National Public Radio and PBS to stop what he called “biased and partisan news coverage.”

The order directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to “cease federal funding for NPR and PBS” to the extent allowed by law. The order could be challenged in court.

“Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options,” the Thursday night executive order reads. “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”

Trump and his loyalists, including Elon Musk, have long complained that NPR and PBS are biased and promote left-wing causes, an allegation staunchly denied by executives at both organizations. Last month, Trump called for their defunding on Truth Social, calling them “RADICAL LEFT ‘MONSTERS’ THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!”

To date, NPR and PBS receive roughly half a billion dollars each in public money and earn money from sponsorship. NPR says less than 1% of its funding comes from public sources.

However, Trump said in the order that the CPB failed to follow the principles of fairness and impartiality that underpin its public role.

“Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter. What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens,” he said.

PBS and NPR did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.

In a statement last month, in response to a draft memo to Congress outlining the funding cut, an NPR spokesperson said: “Eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would have a devastating impact on American communities across the nation that rely on public radio for trusted local and national news, culture, lifesaving emergency alerts, and public safety information.”

Paula Kerger, CEO and president of PBS, said last month that an order to defund the organization would “disrupt the essential service PBS and local member stations provide to the American people.”

“There’s nothing more American than PBS, and our work is only possible because of the bipartisan support we have always received from Congress,” she added.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a Wednesday report that Trump’s executive orders in his first 100 days in office had created a “chilling effect and have the potential to curtail media freedoms,” including by restricting access to the regular pool of reporters who follow the president and reopening FCC investigations into networks, including NBC News.

Former NPR editor Uri Berliner resigned last month and wrote an essay for a right-leaning publication criticizing the network’s liberal position and lack of political diversity. However, he stressed he didn’t support defunding NPR.

The Trump administration has repeatedly blocked reporters from covering news at the Oval Office and ousted journalists from their working spaces at the Pentagon, in a string of actions critics called an attack on independent news organizations’ efforts to report on his administration.

Iran has to “walk away” from uranium enrichment and long-range missile development and it should allow American inspectors of its facilities, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday as a round of nuclear talks was postponed.

Rubio’s comments underscore the major remaining divisions in talks between the countries to resolve the long-running dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, with President Donald Trump threatening to bomb Iran if there is no agreement.

“They have to walk away from sponsoring terrorists, they have to walk away from helping the Houthis (in Yemen), they have to walk away from building long-range missiles that have no purpose to exist other than having nuclear weapons, and they have to walk away from enrichment,” Rubio said in a Fox News interview.

Iran has repeatedly said it will not give up its missile program or its uranium enrichment — a process used to make fuel for nuclear power plants but which can also yield material for an atomic warhead.

On Thursday, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that the scheduled fourth round of talks due to take place in Rome on Saturday had been postponed and that a new date would be set “depending on the U.S. approach.”

Rubio said Iran should import enriched uranium for its nuclear power program rather than enriching it to any level.

“If you have the ability to enrich at 3.67%, it only takes a few weeks to get to 20%, then 60%, and then the 80 and 90% that you need for a weapon,” he said.

Iran has said it has a right to enrich uranium under the terms of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It denies wanting to build a nuclear bomb.

Rubio also said Iran would have to accept that Americans could be involved in any inspection regime and that inspectors would require access to all facilities, including military ones.

British comedian and actor Russell Brand appeared in a London court Friday after he was charged last month with rape and multiple counts of sex assault.

Brand has always denied having non-consensual sex since the allegations about him were first aired two years ago.

On April 4, London police charged the 49-year-old right-wing wellness influencer with rape, oral rape, indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault in cases related to four separate women between 1999 and 2005.

Court documents detailing the charges stated Brand indecently assaulted a woman in 2001 by “grabbing her arm and dragging her towards a male toilet.” In another instance in 2004, he was accused of sexually assaulting another woman in Westminster by touching her breasts without her consent.

Brand’s appearance Friday came ahead of the first hearing of the case at Westminster magistrates’ court.

He was seen arriving at the courts in a black shirt unbuttoned down to his chest, black jeans, and dark sunglasses. Making his way through the main entrance, he was flanked by journalists and photographers on both sides, to whom he did not give any interviews or comments.

After he was charged, Brand in a video on X stated, “I have never engaged in non-consensual activity,” adding, “I am now going to have the opportunity to defend these charges in court and I’m incredibly grateful for that.”

The charges came after detectives began investigating in September 2023 after The Sunday Times newspaper and British broadcaster Channel 4 reported allegations that Brand had sexually and emotionally abused four women. 

Brand was accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse by four women. One of them said she was 16 (the age of consent in the U.K.) and Brand was 30 when they began a relationship that included abuse and sexual assault.

Born in Essex, Brand rose to fame in British television in the early 2000s, including a stint as a broadcaster on the BBC, from which he resigned in 2008 after he and his co-presenter made prank calls to British actor Andrew Sachs, which resulted in more than 42,000 complaints.

He later moved to Hollywood and starred in numerous films, including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” in 2008 and “Get Him to the Greek” in 2010.

He married pop star Katy Perry in 2010, but the couple divorced 14 months later. In 2017, he married Laura Gallacher, with whom he has three children. Last year, he said he had become a Christian.

Brand, who has since faded from mainstream culture, is an outspoken critic of American politics and free speech and regularly posts his views on his YouTube channel.

“These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies,” he said in another video on X posted in September 2023. “And as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous,” he said.

“The relationships I had were very absolutely, always consensual,” he added, before suggesting that the mainstream media may have an agenda against him.

WASHINGTON — A veteran activist of the Civil Rights Movement said he was notified by the Smithsonian Institution that items he loaned to the National Museum of African American History and Culture may be returned, amid a potential review of the museum’s collections ordered by President Donald Trump.

Rev. Amos C. Brown, pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, loaned two books to the Smithsonian, which have been displayed since the museum opened nearly a decade ago. One of his items is an edition of “The History of the Negro Race in America” by George Washington Williams, which was written in 1880 and is among the first books to document Black American history and racism in the U.S. The other is a Bible that Brown carried during protests alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The reasons given for the items’ return initially raised alarms that the Trump administration had begun to make visible changes to a museum considered to be a crown jewel of Black American culture.

Recent reports that the museum has already removed exhibits documenting the civil rights struggle are false, the Smithsonian said. The White House had no comment for this story.

However, the threat of changes to the African American museum has prompted strong responses from Democratic lawmakers, historians, civil rights leaders and education advocates, many of whom planned to demonstrate in support of the museum in the nation’s capital Saturday.

Brown, who counts former Vice President Kamala Harris among his parishioners, received an email last month from a Smithsonian official telling him that his items would be returned over concerns about their preservation due to museum lighting. Brown told The Associated Press he found the claim “a flimsy excuse for a museum.”

After the initial email to Brown, a different Smithsonian official reached out to him to express regret that the initial reason had caused a “misunderstanding,” Brown said. Instead, according to Brown, the official said Smithsonian archivists will defer to “a panel that will reconsider whether or not my artifacts should be there.” He said he was told this would be done for a wide range of historical artifacts.

Smithsonian officials did not respond to questions about whether such a panel has been formed.

After that interaction, Brown said a third Smithsonian official later reached out to him and scheduled a video conference meeting for Friday afternoon. He said he was not given the names of who would join the call, but was told it would include senior Smithsonian leadership.

The Smithsonian “routinely returns loaned artifacts per applicable loan agreements and rotates objects on display in accordance with the Smithsonian’s high standards of care and preservation and as part of our regular museum turnover,” according to a statement the institution sent to the AP.

“Recent claims that objects have been removed for reasons other than adherence to standard loan agreements or museum practices are false,” the statement reads.

Language of Trump’s executive order raised alarm

Concerns over potential reforms at the Smithsonian have arisen since Trump signed a March 27 executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The order argued that the Smithsonian had in recent years “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” and said the institution has “promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”

The order designated Vice President JD Vance and Lindsey Halligan, a senior White House aide, “to remove improper ideology” from Smithsonian properties, which include 21 museums and the National Zoo. The Smithsonian encompasses educational, research and archival centers meant to increase and spread knowledge. It manages more than 150 million artifacts.

The order cites several national parks and Smithsonian museums as displaying potentially objectionable content, including the African American museum.

The Smithsonian is governed by a Board of Regents that is chaired by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and includes Vance, members of Congress from both parties and major business executives and philanthropists. The board’s next meeting is scheduled for June 9.

Lawmakers, academics and activists fear the order could eventually influence the Smithsonian to remove artifacts, exhibits or research that do not conform to the Trump administration’s understanding of history.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sent a letter to Roberts warning that the order “seeks to whitewash our history” and “is cowardly and unpatriotic.” He compared the proclamation to efforts in “twentieth-century regimes like those in the Soviet Union and 1930s Germany.”

“We wouldn’t need African American history exhibits if America hadn’t been founded by excluding African Americans and distorting our image,” said Rep. Jonathan Jackson, whose father is Rev. Jesse Jackson, the politician and civil rights activist. The Jackson family is documented in multiple Smithsonian museums and said they have not been notified of changes to those exhibits.

“So this makes American history whole, and I think (Trump) should go and visit it before he attempts to erase and delete and distort that tradition,” said the Illinois Democrat. Trump visited the African American museum in 2017. After the tour, he wrote on social media that the museum was “A great job done by amazing people!”

Protests follow weeks of questions about the Smithsonian’s future

Civil rights leaders have organized in the wake of Trump’s order. A coalition of more than three dozen groups on Monday launched a “Freedom to Learn” campaign that will include a May 3 rally and march at the Smithsonian’s African American museum.

Among the partnering organizations are the NAACP, National Urban League, National Coalition for Black Civic Participation, Black Voters Matter, Movement for Black Lives, National Council of Negro Women and the Leadership Coalition for Civil Rights.

Predominantly Black churches have rallied to support the museum and staged protests and called for greater support for the museum in the wake of potential changes.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened to the public in 2016. It contains more than 40,000 artifacts documenting more than 400 years of African American history. The museum’s exhibits span topics including the everyday life and culture of African Americans and the community’s contributions to broader American culture, business, sports, religion and politics, as well as the impact of slavery, segregation and discrimination on the nation’s history.

Brown, 84, said he’d previously had a “positive relationship” with the Smithsonian over the items he had donated to the museum. As a youth activist in the civil rights movement, Brown organized alongside icons like King, activist Medgar Evers and congressman John Lewis. He criticized the institution for “operating in secrecy” about the changes at the African American museum.

“Behave. Be respectful. Speak truth to those who sit in seats of power,” Brown said of the proper response to any changes at the museum. “Let’s be kind and just. If we don’t, Dr. King was right — Martin was right — that if we don’t learn to live together, brothers and sisters, we’re all going to perish as fools.”

___

Days after a Canadian election that hinged on who would best stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump, he is at the center of an election in another liberal democracy.

Trust in the United States is plummeting in Australia, which votes Saturday amid global financial turmoil sparked by tariffs Trump has imposed on trading partners around the world including Australia, a U.S. ally and vital security partner in countering China.

As in Canada, Australia’s opposition conservative party, the Liberal Party, was primed to win before Trump returned to office, thanks to public anger over the cost of living and record-high home prices. But it has since lost support among voters increasingly concerned about how their government will handle Trump.

On Thursday, two polls showed the Liberals trailing the center-left Labor Party, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

His opponent, Peter Dutton, has pushed the Liberals further to the right since becoming party leader in 2022.

His nods to Trump include pledging to slash 41,000 public service jobs, proposing to reduce legal migration to Australia and appointing a shadow minister for government efficiency, prompting his opponents to call him “DOGE-y Dutton.”

Though Dutton says he’s his “own person,” his association with Trump appears to have become a liability among Australian voters, said John Blaxland, a professor of international security and intelligence studies at the Australian National University.

“Dutton, perhaps overenthusiastically, endorsed President Trump’s victory without recognizing how difficult that would make his position — not with the bolted-on right, but with the swing voters, the center of the center, where all elections are won in Australia,” he said.

A poll released last month by the Lowy Institute, a research foundation, found only 36% of Australians expressed any level of trust in the United States — the lowest in the annual poll’s two-decade history.

Blaxland described Trump’s disregard for long-standing alliances and his quid pro quo approach to U.S. foreign policy as “vertigo inducing” for politicians, policymakers and voters in Australia, where voting is mandatory.

The Trump administration’s “hyperrealist, short-term, transactional approach to its relationships is deeply unsettling and corrosive of goodwill,” he said.

Trump has treated Australia as just another freeloader, slapping a 10% tariff on all exports to the U.S., even though the U.S. generally runs a trade surplus with Australia rather than a deficit. (In a rare deviation, Australia reported Thursday that it sold more to the U.S. than it bought in the first quarter as investors spooked by Trump’s tariffs rushed to buy gold, one of Australia’s top metals exports.)

While 81% of Australians disapprove of Trump’s tariffs, the vast majority (80%) continue to say the U.S. alliance is important for Australia’s security.

Those numbers reflect the economic and security dichotomy Australia faces: how to balance its security ties with the U.S. and its trade interests with China.

Albanese has spent his prime ministership working to stabilize relations with China, which nosedived under the previous conservative government, prompting China to impose punishing trade restrictions.

China is Australia’s largest two-way trading partner, accounting for 25% of the country’s goods and services trade in 2023-24. The U.S. is Australia’s third-largest two-way trading partner and largest source of foreign investment.

If the United States, which has imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese imports, “really damages the Chinese economy, then that is going to have a major impact on Australia,” said Stuart Rollo, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney.

Rollo said he worries Australia could be caught in the middle if the U.S. tries to pressure its allies to reduce their economic ties with Beijing.

“So much of our future prosperity is tied with Chinese growth,” he said.

“For us to make the decision to disconnect from that — because we need American protection forever — that’s going to be a real cost to the living standards of Australians moving forward.”

Without the U.S., however, Australia would be cut off from critical military technology and far less protected against Chinese aggression.

Australia’s vulnerability was on display in February when the Chinese military conducted live-fire drills off the country’s coast, forcing dozens of commercial flights to reroute.

That’s why Australian politicians on both sides of the aisle say they remain committed to AUKUS, the security pact among Australia, the U.S. and Britain, even as Australians question whether they can still rely on the U.S. for their defense.

“We’re this kind of Anglo, European-transplanted community sitting on the edge of Asia, and [that] drives our fear of abandonment, which drives us towards the United States,” Blaxland said.

Under AUKUS, Australia is set to buy several nuclear-powered submarines from the U.S. as a deterrent against China.

But Australia would struggle to pay for those submarines without its trade relationship with China, said James Laurenceson, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.

“This is a big cost problem for a small economy like Australia,” he said. “We just can’t go all in on AUKUS, all in on the United States, all in on containing China and imagine that our trade with China, which is paying for our submarines, can actually be sustained. It can’t.”

Both Albanese and Dutton have downplayed any uncertainty around U.S. relations, but Laurenceson believes cracks are emerging in bipartisan support for the alliance.

“We’ll say that our security alliance with the U.S. is much more than just about one administration,” he said. “Yes, that’s true, but Trump is certainly challenging that.”

The CIA on Thursday released two social media videos inviting disillusioned Chinese officials to spy for the United States, seeking to take advantage of government corruption and repression in China. 

The cinematic, Mandarin-language videos released across multiple platforms resemble recruiting videos the agency has produced in the past few years aimed at encouraging Russians to share secrets with the U.S. Officials say the Russian-language videos have proved successful. 

Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to make China a top priority for the CIA’s intelligence gathering, and he cited the videos as the latest example of that effort.

“Today, the CIA released Mandarin-language videos aimed at recruiting Chinese officials to steal secrets,” Ratcliffe said in a statement.

“No adversary in the history of our Nation has presented a more formidable challenge or capable strategic competitor than the Chinese Communist Party,” he said, adding: “Our Agency must continue responding to this threat with urgency, creativity, and grit, and these videos are just one of the ways we are doing this.”

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday, a national holiday in China. 

Six months ago, the CIA released a text-only video in Mandarin explaining how to safely reach out to the CIA using the “dark web,” a part of the internet accessible only with specialized software. The video was viewed 900,000 times, agency officials said.

Although it is difficult to speak out because of China’s authoritarian government, more Chinese are volunteering to share information via the dark web, a CIA official said.

“If it wasn’t working, we wouldn’t be making more videos,” the official said. “We want Chinese citizens to know we always have an open door to them.”

The CIA official said the agency is interested in a wide variety of information from China beyond traditional espionage, including advanced science, military and cyber technology, as well as data and foreign policy secrets.

Appealing to party officials

In one of the videos, a young man portrayed as a junior Chinese Communist Party official dutifully accompanies a more senior official who is trying on new suits and shopping for an expensive watch. The junior official narrates the video, sharing his frustration with the wealth gap between the party elite and the rest of Chinese society.

“We dedicate a lifetime, but they are the ones to benefit,” he says. “We’re taught that by following the rules and working hard, we can change our lives for the better. But why is that only a few people can enjoy that kind of happiness?”

The junior official laments that the party promised prosperity for all, “but the gains of our collective efforts are indulged by a select few,” and he eventually concludes he “must forge my own path.”

As dramatic music builds, he walks out of his modest apartment. “The hardest part of a journey is the first step. It’s time I start working toward my own dreams,” he says as he taps a link on his phone to secretly contact the CIA. 

In a second video, a well-dressed senior party official attends a formal dinner while sensing his colleagues are maneuvering against him. He worries that he could share the fate of his comrades who have been ousted from power. 

“It is easy to become a memory,” the official says. “And much too commonplace to just disappear.”

He says he cannot allow his family’s fate to rest in the hands of party officials and predicts that “the whispers will grow louder.”

The official opts for “another way” for the sake of his family and contacts the CIA over a secure portal on his phone. “No matter what my fate will bring, my family will know a good life,” he says.

In February, Russia responded to the CIA’s Russian-language recruitment videos with its own in an attempt to persuade American “patriots” to share secrets with Russian spy services.  

U.S. officials have warned that Chinese and Russian intelligence officials hope to take advantage of the Trump administration’s reductions in the federal workforce. Their hope is to recruit employees of the CIA and other U.S. spy agencies who were recently offered buyouts to spy for Beijing and Moscow.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said on Thursday attacks by Republican President Donald Trump and his allies on judges were “not random” and seemed “designed to intimidate the judiciary.”

Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked Trump in March for urging the impeachment of a federal judge, laying bare tensions between the country’s executive and the judiciary as Trump’s sweeping assertions of power encounter judicial obstacles.

“The attacks are not random. They seem designed to intimidate those of us who serve in this critical capacity,” Jackson said at a judges’ conference in Puerto Rico.

Federal judges have said the Trump administration has failed to comply with court orders regarding foreign aid, federal spending and the firing of government workers. The administration disputes it has defied judges but has been critical of orders and judges that have blocked its actions.

“The threats and harassment are attacks on our democracy, on our system of government. And they ultimately risk undermining our Constitution and the rule of law,” Jackson said.

Jackson, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, did not mention Trump by name but spoke about “the elephant in the room.”

Her comments were cited in media reports from Politico and the New York Times, with Politico noting that her comments got a standing ovation.

The combative atmosphere under the Trump administration has raised concerns among some legal experts of a potential constitutional crisis.

The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority.