News
Charlie Kirk shooter remains at large. And, 9/11 families still seek justice
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Today’s top stories
Charlie Kirk, a Trump ally and right-wing activist, has died at 31 after being shot while speaking at Utah Valley University. President Trump announced his death and praised his political impact, condemning the left and the media for “demonizing” those they disagree with. Authorities, however, have not released any information about the shooter or their motive. Kirk launched Turning Point USA, an organization for young conservatives, at the age of 18. Federal and state authorities are searching for the shooter. Police released two people taken into custody after the shooting yesterday.
Charlie Kirk speaks on stage on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America
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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America
- 🎧 “It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Kirk to an entire generation of young conservatives,” NPR’s Stephen Fowler tells Up First. Fowler describes him as an “influencer, grassroots organizer … and all-around avatar for politically active online and offline Gen Z Americans.” Turning Point USA has grown into an integral part of the Republican party, and Fowler says it has a “big seat at the table” when it comes to shaping discussions about policy. Kirk was killed on the first of 15 planned “American Comeback Tour” events at college campuses. Kirk was hosting one of his signature events, where he would host big outdoor debates to face off against people who were ideologically and morally opposed to his views, which were often provocative and inflammatory.
Today marks 24 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Nearly a quarter-century later, the men accused of planning the attacks have still not faced trial. Many lawyers involved in the case doubt they ever will. The defendants, including alleged ringleader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, were tortured in secret CIA prisons, resulting in unresolved legal fights over what evidence is admissible. Thousands of 9/11 family members wait for a resolution as the case remains in limbo and the defendants are held at the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Brett Eagleson and Elizabeth Miller both lost their fathers in the attack. Though they are bound by their loss, they’re split on how they want to resolve the case.
- ➡️ New York City officials announced last month that they identified the remains of three more victims who died during the attacks at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. But 40% of the victims are still unidentified today. Take a look inside the lab that’s working to identify remaining victims.
Polish and NATO officials say they’re awaiting the results of a military assessment to decide on a response after Poland said NATO shot down several Russian attack drones that violated Polish airspace during attacks on neighboring Ukraine. It was the first time in the history of NATO that alliance fighter jets engaged enemy targets in allied airspace. Polish authorities say they found the wreckage of at least nine Shahed-style attack drones, which Russia uses in its attacks. A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office in Lublin, a city near the border with Ukraine, says that all of the drones found so far were unarmed so-called “dummy” drones, which are used by Russia to fool Ukrainian air defenses.
- 🎧 NPR’s Rob Schmitz says the mood in Poland is tense. He describes a lot of history and a fair amount of bad blood between Poland and Russia that continues to this day. In recent years, Stein says Russia has launched a variety of hybrid attacks on Poland, including weaponizing migrants and busing them to the Belarus-Polish border. Poland has spent a billion dollars on building a new fence on that border and spends nearly 5% of its GDP on its military — more than any other NATO member.
Deep dive
In this photo illustration, Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 (L) and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines fill their syringes at Borinquen Health Care Center on May 29, 2025 in Miami, Florida.
Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Image
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Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Image
Cold and flu season is upon us once again, and this year, there’s a lot of confusion around who can and can’t get the updated COVID-19 vaccine. The Trump administration claims that at this point in the pandemic, existing immunity removes the need for continued boosters. The new vaccines have only been approved for people 65 or older and young people who have other health issues that would make getting COVID especially risky. An advisory group for the CDC is expected to meet later this month and will issue formal recommendations for how the COVID vaccine can be prescribed. Here’s what you need to know in the meantime: 💉 The number of people testing positive for COVID and showing up to the ER for treatment rose steadily throughout July and August, but has now started to drop.
- 💉 People age 65 and older are the group driving deaths and hospitalizations from COVID.
- 💉 An estimated 30-60% of Americans have a preexisting condition, including obesity, asthma and diabetes, that could be complicated by COVID, based on the FDA’s previous parameters. It’s unclear whether the CDC advisory board will ratify these conditions.
- 💉 You could get a prescription for a COVID vaccine, but the pharmacist would still have to accept the prescription for you to get the booster.
Hear more answers to your COVID vaccine questions on this episode of Consider This from NPR.
Life advice
Deagreez/Getty Images; belterz/Getty Images; NPR
For many college freshmen, it can be overwhelming to be financially self responsible. You are finally managing your own budget, but you may have thousands of dollars in student loans. Financial educator Yanely Espinal says it’s crucial to set some rules and systems to set yourself up for success. On NPR’s Life Kit, she shares her advice for making sure you have enough money to spend at school without graduating with more debt than you need.
- 💰The general rule of thumb for student loans is that your total debt when you graduate should not be more than your expected annual salary at your first job out of school.
- 💰 Opening up about money with your new college friends can make you feel less alone or ashamed about your situation — and even generate creative financial solutions.
- 💰Before opening a credit card, shop around for the best interest rates and rewards. Try not to put things on your card that you can’t pay off in full by the due date.
- 💰 Create a written roommate agreement outlining financial obligations for shared costs.
- 💰 Apply to scholarships, even once you’re in college.
- 💰 If you can, start making payments toward the interest on your loans while you’re still in school.
- 💰 Consider getting a job near campus.
Get more money tips from Life Advice here. Subscribe to the Life Kit newsletter for expert advice on love, money, relationships and more.
3 things to know before you go
Mateo Arambula waits for his mother, Marisshia Sigala, to collect his things in March 2024 as she picks him up from Koala Children’s Academy after a day of work in Albuquerque, N.M., on Wednesday, March 20, 2024.
Susan Montoya Bryan/AP
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Susan Montoya Bryan/AP
- New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced plans this week to remove income eligibility requirements from her state’s child care assistance program, making universal child care free for all families. (via KUNM)
- A Martian rock sample collected by the Perseverance rover could show potential signs of ancient life, according to NASA, which published its recent findings in the journal Nature.
- Sabrina Carpenter’s newest album, Man’s Best Friend, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and all 12 of its songs are on the Hot 100’s top 40.
This newsletter was edited by Obed Manuel.
The maker of Canvas, the software used by thousands of schools and universities around the world, said on Monday that it had reached a deal with the hackers that recently breached its systems for the return of stolen data and the destruction of any copies.
ShinyHunters, a hacking group, had claimed responsibility for the attack on Instructure, the Salt Lake City-based company that provides Canvas to about half of all colleges and universities in North America.
The hackers said they had accessed the data of more than 275 million users at nearly 9,000 schools worldwide, including private conversations between students and teachers as well as personal identifying information such as names and email addresses. Canvas was shut down for hours after the cyberattack on Thursday.
The agreement, Instructure said in a statement, involved the return of the stolen data and confirmation that the data had been destroyed at the hackers’ end. Instructure added that it had been informed that none of its customers would face extortion as a result of the theft.
“While there is never complete certainty when dealing with cybercriminals, we believe it was important to take every step within our control to give customers additional peace of mind, to the extent possible,” the company said.
Instructure did not say what it had given the hackers in exchange for the return of the data. The company did not immediately respond to questions about the deal.
Canvas has more than 30 million active users around the world, according to Instructure. The platform is used by teachers and students for coursework management and communications. Instructure said the data compromised in the hack included usernames, email addresses, course names, enrollment information and messages.
ShinyHunters on Thursday claimed the attack in a message that appeared on students’ Canvas pages and was obtained by The New York Times. The group warned that it would leak an unspecified amount of data on May 12 if it did not receive a response from Instructure. In its May 3 ransom note, the group had threatened to leak “several billions of private messages among students and teachers.”
Not much is known about ShinyHunters, which is believed to have been formed around 2020. Its goal appears to be to obtain personal records and sell them. One of its high-profile attacks was against Ticketmaster in 2024, when the hackers said they had stolen the user information of more than 500 million customers.
Instructure said it first detected unauthorized activity in Canvas on Apr. 29, and again on May 7. The company said it took Canvas offline to investigate the breach, and also informed the F.B.I., the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other international law enforcement partners.
Instructure did not immediately respond to questions about whether any law enforcement agencies were involved in its dealings with the hackers. The F.B.I. advises against paying ransom to hackers, saying it does not guarantee data security and encourages attackers to target more victims.
The National Quarantine Center is located at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
Nebraska Medicine
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Nebraska Medicine
Sixteen of the 18 passengers transferred to the U.S. from a cruise ship where there was an outbreak of hantavirus arrived in Omaha, Neb., on Monday for evaluation after disembarking the vessel in Spain’s Canary Islands over the weekend.
Of the 15 U.S. citizens and one dual U.S.-British citizen who arrived in Nebraska, all but one are currently being housed in the National Quarantine Unit. That patient tested positive for the virus and was being housed in the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, officials said at a Monday news conference. The 15 people in the quarantine unit will continue to be monitored for signs of the illness.
Passengers carry their belongings in plastic bags after being evacuated from the MV Hondius after docking in the Granadilla Port on Sunday in Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands, Spain.
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
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Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Nebraska may seem an unlikely location to process these individuals, but it is home to the National Quarantine Unit — the only federally funded quarantine unit in the U.S. — and the separate Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. They are highly specialized facilities located at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and widely considered among the best in the world.
The $1 million, five-room biocontainment unit was dedicated in 2005. It was a joint project with Nebraska Health and Human Services and the UNMC. It is set up to safely provide medical care for patients with highly hazardous and infectious diseases and was used in 2014 to treat two doctors infected with Ebola. The National Quarantine Unit was completed in late 2019. It cost nearly $20 million, according to the Associated Press. Both facilities were used during the COVID-19 epidemic.
“We are prepared for situations exactly like this,” Dr. Michael Ash, CEO of Nebraska Medicine, said in a statement. “Our teams have trained for decades alongside federal and state partners to make sure we can safely provide care while protecting our staff and the broader community. We are proud to support this national effort.”
Two additional U.S. passengers on the cruise ship — a couple, with one showing symptoms of hantavirus — were transferred for monitoring to Emory University Hospital, where another advanced biocontainment facility is located.
When the biocontainment unit was first dedicated more than 20 years ago, the biggest concerns were anthrax attacks and severe acute respiratory syndrome, more commonly known as SARS, Dr. Phil Smith, who spearheaded the efforts at Nebraska Medical Center to create the biocontainment unit, told the AP in 2020. Smith died last year.
A hallway leading to rooms at the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Nebraska Medicine
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Nebraska Medicine
The quarantine unit features 20 negative-pressure rooms designed to keep potentially harmful particles from escaping by maintaining lower air pressure inside than outside the rooms. The single-occupancy rooms provide patients with attached bathrooms, exercise equipment and Wi-Fi, according to the medical center.
“We have protocols in the quarantine unit that provide for safe care of these of these persons, including just all the activities of daily living so that they can … have a comfortable stay but also have it in an area that’s protected and limits spread of the pathogen,” Dr. Michael Wadman, the medical director of the National Quarantine Unit, said at a Friday news conference.
The biocontainment unit, by contrast, is a patient-care space where people are able to receive medical treatment, Dr. Angela Hewlett, medical director of the biocontainment unit, told reporters Monday.
She emphasized that the facility — which has a 10-bed capacity — operates independently from the quarantine unit and has its own dedicated air-handling system. “We don’t share [it] with any of the rest of the facility,” she said, noting that the unit uses rooftop HEPA filtration and is designed “very differently” from what most people typically imagine in a hospital setting.
One of the rooms in the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit.
Nebraska Medicine
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Nebraska Medicine
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, speaking at Monday’s news conference, welcomed the recently arrived patients, who are among nearly 150 people from 23 different countries who were aboard the MV Hondius when the illness most commonly transmitted to humans through contact with infected rodents broke out. As of Monday, the World Health Organization has reported at least nine cases of hantavirus, including three deaths.
“We’re glad that you’re here,” Pillen said. “We’re going to ensure that you have the best world-class care possible.”
Pillen also sought to reassure Nebraskans that the facilities are safe and secure: “We’re working diligently to ensure no one leaves the security in an unsecured way at an inappropriate time,” he said. “No one poses a risk to public health, just walking out the front door of the streets of Omaha.”
The hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship has been identified as the Andes strain of the illness, one that can be spread, though rarely, from person-to-person, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can cause severe respiratory disease, with early flu-like symptoms.
“The Andes variant of this virus does not spread easily, and it requires prolonged, close contact with someone who is already symptomatic,” according to Adm. Brian Christine, the assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who spoke at Monday’s news conference. “Even so, we have taken this situation very seriously from the very start.”
“The risk of hantavirus to the general public remains very, very low,” he said.
The full quarantine period for hantavirus is 42 days, Christine said, but he added that the patients would be allowed to go home if they remained asymptomatic.
“Right now, the passengers that are all in the assessment phase — they’re going to be here for at least a few days while we do assessments and the coordination on what happens next,” he said, adding that they had the option to remain in the quarantine facility for the full period, for “the safest and most effective option for them.”
new video loaded: Americans Exposed to Hantavirus on Cruise Ship Arrive in United States
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Americans Exposed to Hantavirus on Cruise Ship Arrive in United States
Eighteen passengers who were aboard the MV Hondius, a cruise ship with a deadly hantavirus outbreak, landed in Omaha on a U.S. government medical flight. The passengers were being monitored at medical facilities in Nebraska and Georgia.
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We’re working diligently to ensure no one leaves the security in an unsecured way at an inappropriate time. No one who poses a risk to public health is walking out the front door of the streets of Omaha or beyond.
By Axel Boada
May 11, 2026
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