The Daily Brief - May 7, 2026
The latest on the Iran war, Epstein’s suicide note, hantavirus-hit cruise ship sails for Spanish territory, and more
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Iran Deal in the Works
The US and Iran are moving toward a temporary deal to halt the war, rather than the comprehensive peace agreement negotiators had been pursuing.
US and Pakistani officials — who are mediating — said the interim plan would formally end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and set a 30-day window to negotiate to resolve differences, including over Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.
Hantavirus Cruise Passengers
Health officials in Georgia, Arizona, and California are monitoring residents who returned home from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius before the outbreak became public. None have shown symptoms so far.
According to the ship’s operating company, 29 passengers left the MV Hondius two weeks ago, before the hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship became public. Six of the travelers were Americans.
The passengers got off at St. Helena, an island off western Africa, on April 24. The company said it had established contact with those passengers, but did not say whether any are infected.
About 150 people still remain on the ship, including 17 Americans. Three passengers have died, and the World Health Organization has identified seven cases overall. The WHO believes the couple who died were likely infected in Argentina before boarding.
The WHO confirmed the outbreak involves the Andes strain — a rare hantavirus variant. Unlike most hantaviruses that are transmitted to humans through exposure to infected rodent droppings, urine or saliva, the Andes strain can also spread from person to person through close contact.
SCOTUS Finalizes Voting Rights Act Judgment
The Supreme Court declined yesterday to reverse its decision to immediately send its April 29 Louisiana redistricting ruling back to the state, clearing the way for the state to draw a new map likely to favor Republicans.
The April 29 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais struck down a map that included a second majority-Black congressional district. The Court normally waits 32 days before formalizing a decision, giving the losing side time to seek rehearing.
But on May 4, the Court skipped that window at the request of the non-Black voters who had originally challenged the map. In the order, the Court explained that it wasn’t necessary to wait because the Black voters who had defended the newly-created district — known as the Robinson appellants — “have not expressed any intent to ask this Court to reconsider its judgment.”
But in their April 30 filing, the Robinson appellants had explicitly written that the Court “should afford Appellants the opportunity to consider seeking rehearing in the ordinary course.”
The Supreme Court offered no explanation for its brief, unsigned ruling of May 6.
Pope Leo Meets with Rubio
Pope Leo XIV met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Vatican earlier today. A State Department official confirmed they discussed the Middle East “situation” and unspecified “topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere,” but did not provide details.
Rubio, a practicing Catholic, has not himself criticized the pope, but earlier this week he defended President Trump’s remarks about him. When a reporter asked about Trump’s recent comment that Leo was “endangering” Catholics, Rubio replied: “I think what the president basically said is that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon because they would use it against places that have a lot of Catholics and Christians and others.”
President Trump has publicly attacked the pope, calling him “weak on crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy” after the pope criticized the war in Iran and the US military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Newsbreak
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Defamation Case Against Trump
President Trump asked a federal appeals court in New York to pause its ruling against him in E. Jean Carroll’s $83 million defamation case, as he prepares to ask the Supreme Court to let the federal government take his place as the defendant, a move that would effectively erase the verdict.
Carroll has won two civil cases against Trump in New York, both stemming from statements Trump made in response to her allegations that he sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s.
Trump made some of the defamatory statements in 2019 while he was in his first term as president, while others came after he left office. Trump is now arguing that he’s covered by presidential immunity for the 2019 statements, so any liability falls on the federal government, not him.
The DOJ this week filed a request to remove Trump as a defendant in the Carroll case and substitute the United States government in his place.
A three-judge panel previously rejected the substitution attempt because the DOJ made the request too late in the case. Trump now wants that ruling paused so he can take the question to the Supreme Court.
Trump has denied Carroll’s allegations.
South Carolina Moves to Redraw Congressional Map
South Carolina’s Republican-controlled House voted in favor of beginning the process of redrawing the state’s congressional districts.
GOP leaders said the new map-drawing process will start immediately, with a bill expected in the state Judiciary Committee today and a hearing tomorrow.
The state’s primary election is June 9, and the candidate filing deadline already passed on March 30. State House Judiciary Chairman Weston Newton (R) said the redraw would likely push back the congressional primary while state and legislative primaries proceed as scheduled, but he has not specified a new date or said whether the filing window would reopen.
Since the Supreme Court’s April 29 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, several states have begun efforts to redraw maps, including Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama. California has enacted a new map projected to give Democrats at least four additional seats, and Virginia has done the same, though a challenge is pending at the state supreme court for the latter.
Epstein’s Suicide Note
A federal judge unsealed a purported suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein that has been kept from the public for years.
The unverified note reads: “They investigated me for month — FOUND NOTHING!!! It is a treat to be able to choose ones time to say goodbye.” It continues: “NO FUN — NOT WORTH IT!!”
The note surfaced as part of the criminal case against Epstein’s Manhattan jail cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, a former police officer convicted of kidnapping and murder.
Tartaglione said he found the note in July 2019, after Epstein was discovered unresponsive with a strip of cloth around his neck. Epstein survived that incident but was found dead in his cell weeks later, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. A medical examiner ruled the death a suicide.
Why does Epstein’s note read like a tweet from Trump?
Please stop calling it “the Iran war.” Call it what it is: Trump’s War, or WWt (World War trump), or WW47.