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Inside China’s plans to fight in space
Satellite ephemerides data provided by Comspoc, a space situational awareness software company, and Spaceflux, a space domain awareness company. Historical launch and orbital data provided by Space-Track. Visuals were created for conceptual accuracy, but 3D models and points are not always to scale. Altitudes, when relevant, are to scale relative to the size of the Earth.
Additional work by Jana Tauschinski and Ian Bott
This handout photo released by the Iranian foreign ministry shows Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar (L) greeting his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi upon his arrival in Islamabad on April 24, 2026.
/Iranian Foreign Ministry/AFP via Getty Images/AFP
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/Iranian Foreign Ministry/AFP via Getty Images/AFP
Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Russia on Monday, after a whirlwind weekend of diplomacy, seeking to gain political leverage and foreign backing as peace talks with the U.S. remain on hold.
But missing from this flurry of diplomacy is any sign of a meeting between Washington and Tehran.
Abbas Araghchi was in Islamabad last week but left on Saturday, prompting President Trump to cancel the U.S. negotiating team’s own planned travel to the Pakistani capital.
Araghchi went instead to Oman – which is situated directly across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran – and met Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al and his Omani counterpart.
“Important discussions on bilateral matters and regional developments. As only Hormuz littoral states, our focus included ways to ensure safe transit that is to benefit of all dear neighbors and the world,” Araghchi said on X. “Our neighbors are our priority.”
For his part, Oman Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi said he had “a fruitful discussion on the Strait of Hormuz…. As two coastal states, we feel our shared responsibility toward the international community and the urgent humanitarian need to release the sailors who have been detained for a long time.”
“This requires intensive diplomatic efforts and practical solutions to ensure permanent freedom of navigation,” he added.
Araghchi also spoke by phone with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt.
From Oman, he ping-ponged back to Pakistan on Sunday, and on Monday Araghchi arrived in Russia, one of Iran’s major allies.
In St. Petersburg he is expected to meet with President Vladimir Putin and plans to “discuss war-related developments and coordinate positions,” he said, according to the state-affiliated Tasnim news agency.
In this picture obtained from Iran’s ISNA news agency on April 24, 2026, Iranians are seen at Suru Beach in Bandar Abbas along the Strait of Hormuz.
Razieh Poudat/AFP via Getty Images
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Razieh Poudat/AFP via Getty Images
Who has ‘the cards’?
While in Pakistan, Iranian media reported Araghchi gave Pakistani mediators a list of “red lines” for negotiations, including on nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump has repeatedly said the complete eradication of Iran’s atomic program is the key U.S. demand.
Over the weekend, Trump said: “We have all the cards. If they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us.”
Iran’s parliamentary speaker and lead negotiator took to social media to challenge Trump’s comments.
“They brag about the cards. Let’s see,” Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on X. He then presented a complicated supply and demand equation that he intended to show the economic challenges faced by the U.S.
A helicopter flies over the Red Zone area of Islamabad on April 25, 2026.
Asif Hassan/AFP via Getty Images
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Asif Hassan/AFP via Getty Images
But Iran is also facing the consequences of the U.S. Naval Blockade on its ports. Trump told Fox News on Sunday Iran has just three days of storage left before its oil pipelines explode from pressure, since it’s running out of ships to store it on.
Asked about that timeline, Amena Bakr, the head of Mideast Energy at research firm Kpler, told NPR that while Iran is running out of storage, it’s closer to 20 days at current production levels.
Bakr also said Iran has a southern terminal outside the strait of Hormuz that could be used for re-routing oil, provided they can get their ships there and bypass the U.S. blockade.
Aya Batrawy in Dubai and Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg contributed to this report.
The authorities took into custody a California man in connection with the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night.
The man was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif., according to multiple law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose the information.
Officials said a preliminary review of evidence indicated the suspect intended to target administration officials, most likely including President Trump. He was armed with knives, a shotgun and a handgun, officials said.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said the man was expected to be arraigned in federal court on Monday. He faces charges that include using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.
Here is what we know about the suspect.
He traveled from California.
Investigators determined that Mr. Allen took a train from Los Angeles to Chicago, and then from Chicago to Washington, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday.
The suspect checked into the Washington Hilton a day or two before the hotel was to host the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, Mr. Blanche said.
Federal authorities in Los Angeles said a search warrant was served late Saturday night at Mr. Allen’s house in suburban Torrance, Calif.
Investigators are searching for a motive.
Investigators have developed an early sense of the suspect’s apparent motive based on some information gathered from his electronic devices and from interviews with those who know him, Mr. Blanche said.
Mr. Blanche said investigators “know there were some writings” in the evidence gathered that, combined with initial interviews, led investigators to believe the man intended to target administration officials.
Mr. Blanche cautioned that investigators’ understanding of the man’s motives could change as the investigation continues.
Shortly before the attack, the man sent messages to his relatives denouncing Trump administration policies and suggesting that he intended to take violent action, according to a person familiar with the investigation. Other written material found in his hotel room contained similar statements, the person said.
In an interview with Fox News, President Trump said that the suspect had “a manifesto” and that he “hates Christians,” but did not offer further details.
He has connections to game development.
On Facebook and LinkedIn accounts that appear to be connected to him, Mr. Allen described himself as an independent game developer, posting about a game called “Bohrdom” that he released in 2018.
Described as “a skill-based, nonviolent asymmetrical fighting game loosely derived from a chemistry model that is itself loosely based on reality,” the game appeared to have almost no reviews and almost no followers before Saturday on its social media accounts.
A spokeswoman for the California Institute of Technology said that a person named Cole Allen had earned an undergraduate degree in 2017, but that the school had no other information to immediately disclose.
A student named Cole Allen graduated with a master’s degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills, in 2025, according to a statement from that school.
“The university cannot confirm if this is the same suspect identified in the April 25 shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner,” the statement read, adding that the university “unequivocally condemns this act of violence, as well as all forms of violence.”
He was described as a ‘completely average guy.’
Those who know Mr. Allen described him as an intelligent, mild-mannered man they had encountered as a neighbor or as a math and science tutor.
Dylan Wakayama, the president of a local nonprofit that runs a volunteer program for high school students, said several teenagers in the program had called, saying Mr. Allen had tutored them.
“I think all of us in Torrance are very shocked,” Mr. Wakayama said.
Max Harris, a senior at a local high school who had been tutored for several months by Mr. Allen, struggled to absorb the scene.
“He seemed like a completely average guy,” he said. “Like, I never would have expected anything like this from a guy like him.”
Attendees hid in and then fled from the Washington Hilton after shots were fired at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday night.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
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Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
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The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, an annual event that brings together top government officials and the journalists who cover them, descended into chaos on Saturday after shots rang out at the Washington Hilton.
Just minutes into the dinner, guests heard muffled popping sounds as a gunman attempted to charge past a security checkpoint.
President Trump — who was attending the event for the first time since taking office — was rushed out of the building by Secret Service agents, as were First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and a slew of cabinet officials.
The night ended with a suspect apprehended, a law enforcement officer injured and a press conference at the White House, where Trump promised the dinner would be rescheduled.
Hundreds of attendees, many of them reporters and lawmakers, took shelter beneath their tables amidst the chaos, before evacuating the hotel and — in many cases — shifting back into work more. Several NPR journalists were among them, and quickly jumped on the air to share their experiences and observations.
Here’s how the night unfolded, according to NPR journalists in attendance.
Shots rang out toward the end of the first course
Less than an hour into dinner, around 8:30 p.m. ET, attendees heard what sounded like gunshots coming from the back of the room.
“People were just finishing up their … salads, and plates were being cleared, when we heard this ‘bang, bang, bang,’” said White House Correspondent Franco Ordoñez. “And then, just, crash.”
Everything went crashing to the floor, Ordoñez said: plates, trays and people taking shelter.
While people didn’t know exactly what had just happened, attendees and staff alike knew to get down immediately.
“There were several members of the waitstaff who hit the ground next to our table, with one woman in particular just crying that she didn’t want to die — just terrified in that moment, in a way that I think I will always remember,” said Courtney Dorning, a senior editor for All Things Considered.
White House Correspondent Deepa Shivaram had a different vantage point.
Shivaram was one of the roughly dozen journalists traveling in the rotating presidential pool on Saturday night. During the dinner portion of the event, pool reporters were charging their laptops at tables in a hallway — closer to the security checkpoint where the shooting occurred — when they distinctly heard the sound of gunshots.
“We didn’t have eyes on what was going on, but it was very clear that something had happened,” Shivaram said.
Security agents hustled officials out of the room
Secret Service agents rush into the ballroom at the Washington Hilton as attendees shelter on the floor.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
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Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Videos from the scene show Secret Service rushing to the stage, where Trump was sitting with the first lady and vice president, mentalist Oz Pearlman — the night’s headliner — as well as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and White House Correspondents’ Association President Weijia Jiang of CBS News. All of them were hustled out of sight.
At that point “dozens and dozens” of security agents rushed into the ballroom, Ordoñez says, headed straight for the Cabinet members.
“You had Secret Service, you had officers in FBI jackets and DEA jackets,” he said. “I’m talking full tactical gear, literally jumping over people, jumping over tables, jumping over chairs.”
Within minutes they escorted out high-ranking officials, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, FBI Director Kash Patel, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
From the hallway, Shivaram saw armed Secret Service agents rushing those same Cabinet members into two small office rooms, “basically just trying to keep as many people safe as they could.”
“And then about four minutes after those shots rang out, I saw a Secret Service agent walk by and [they] said that the shooter was in custody,” she added.
Back in the ballroom, Ordoñez described an “eerie silence” and “a lot of confusion” among the attendees watching from the floor.
“As they were evacuated from the room, watching the security officers’ shoulders drop a little bit, I feel like our shoulders started to drop a little bit and our heads started to pop up,” Ordoñez says.
Attendees eventually made their way out
Guests depart the Washington Hilton amid a heavy police presence on Saturday night.
Ulysse Bellier/AFP via Getty Images
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Ulysse Bellier/AFP via Getty Images
Dorning estimates people in the room felt safe enough to emerge from underneath the tables after about four or five minutes.
“Everyone pretty much went into reporting mode as soon as they were up from the floor,” she said.
Many in the room whipped out their cameras to start filming, and made the rounds to glean and share details.
Ordoñez said initial reports from the other journalists and attendees he spoke with varied: Some heard three bangs, some heard five, and some said they could smell gunpowder.
It was still unclear at that moment whether gunshots had been fired in the room or outside the room. There were also questions as to whether the night’s programming would continue. Ordoñez said White House staffers told him they were unsure whether Trump was still in the building or planning to come back.
“First, we heard that President Trump was going to return and speak and the program was going to continue as scheduled,” Dorning said. “And then by the time we left the building, the event had been canceled.”
At 9:17 p.m., Trump wrote on Truth Social: “I have recommended that we ‘LET THE SHOW GO ON’ but, will entirely be guided by Law Enforcement.” About twenty minutes later, he posted they were leaving the premises at the recommendation of law enforcement and promised a press conference at the White House in half an hour.
Immigration Correspondent Ximena Bustillo said once it became clear the dinner was over, “it was a giant funnel out” of a relatively tight basement.
“Even just going up the escalators, they are like one-person escalators,” Bustillo said. “And [women] are all in long dresses down to our feet. So it’s not like there can be a very quick exit out.”
Politicians and reporters reconvene at the White House
President Trump address journalists, still in their black-tie attire, in the Brady Briefing Room after the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday night.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
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Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Shivaram, traveling in the pool, said Trump’s motorcade made the few-minute drive from the hotel to the White House with sirens blaring.
They arrived at the North Lawn about shortly before 10 p.m. ET, though reporters didn’t get a good view of him exiting the car.
A short while later, Trump spoke to reporters — many of them still wearing black-tie attire — in the White House press briefing room. It is named after James Brady, the former press secretary who was shot during the 1981 attempted assasination of then-President Ronald Reagan outside the very same hotel where the correspondents’ dinner is held each year.
Trump, flanked by Vance, Patel, the first lady and other high-ranking officials, said he initially thought the distant disturbance was the sound of a tray being dropped. The president praised the Secret Service and law enforcement for their quick response. He also thanked the press for their “responsible coverage.”
“This was an event dedicated to the freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press and in a certain way it did,” he said.
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