JUST IN: Airline workers are beginning to put a legal barrier between ICE and passengers. Southwest employees have repeatedly refused to give ICE agents access to flights or passenger information without proper legal authority. In one Dallas encounter, a gate agent rejected an administrative immigration warrant and required a judicial warrant signed by a judge before allowing agents aboard. Employees also refused to let ICE view passenger information on their computer screens. The stakes are becoming increasingly real for travelers. Bay Area resident Chantal Morales Rojas was approached by ICE while returning to Oakland; her attorney says she had been legally working under federal employment authorization.

NEW: Texas is suddenly looking a lot less red. A new Texas Pulse/Texas A&M poll has James Talarico actually leading Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate race, while Gina Hinojosa is within a single point of Gov. Greg Abbott. Senate: Talarico 47% — Paxton 43% Governor: Abbott 46% — Hinojosa 45% Here’s the bigger story: Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat statewide in decades. One close race could be noise. Two major statewide races this competitive at the same time is much harder to ignore. Texas may actually be in play.

NEW: New Yorkers have started a trend of tagging Mayor Zohran Mamdani to report problems around the city and the fixes are happening so quickly that the videos are going viral. A dangerous playground hazard was repaired after a resident wrote a letter. A pothole was filled the same day it was posted online. And ahead of this week’s heat wave, the city installed temporary water fountains in Prospect Park. The message from City Hall: no problem is too small to fix.

NEWS: Trump has dropped the part of his $10 billion lawsuit claiming the BBC damaged his businesses after the broadcaster sought his financial records. His lawyers are now narrowing the case to reputational harm. Quite the coincidence.

BREAKING: Amazon has backed down after Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered the company to stop selling illegal and dangerous motorized vehicles in New York City. The move comes just days after Mamdani issued a cease-and-desist order following the death of 17-year-old Gabriel Nacato, who was killed in a crash involving one of the devices.

BREAKING: Justin Pearson has won the Democratic nomination for U.S. House in Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, AP projects. The Tennessee Three member is now one step closer to Congress.

🚨MAJOR BREAKING: A federal judge has officially thrown out the felony case against former Olympian Davey Hearn. Prosecutors admitted the Reflecting Pool damage was caused by a flawed, rushed installation; not by Hearn. The case is over.

NEW: New Yorkers have started a trend of tagging Mayor Zohran Mamdani to report problems around the city and the fixes are happening so quickly that the videos are going viral. A dangerous playground hazard was repaired after a resident wrote a letter. A pothole was filled the same day it was posted online. And ahead of this week’s heat wave, the city installed temporary water fountains in Prospect Park. The message from City Hall: no problem is too small to fix.

Fox News showed up at Dr. Anthony Fauci’s home. Whatever you think of Fauci, turning a private residence into the setting for political confrontation is a troubling escalation.

Sunday night, Anderson Cooper delivered his final report on 60 Minutes after 20 years. His verbatim, in the farewell interview: “I think the independence of 60 Minutes has been critical. I think the trust it has with viewers is critical to the success of 60 Minutes.” “I hope 60 Minutes remains 60 Minutes.” In December, CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss pulled a 60 Minutes segment on CECOT — the El Salvador prison where the Trump administration sent deportees. The segment had already been promoted as airing that week. The correspondent who reported the story, Sharyn Alfonsi, sent an email to staffers objecting. Her verbatim: “It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.” Weiss told staffers the next day she pulled the piece because it was “not ready.” David Ellison and Paramount Skydance bought CBS in 2024. Weiss was their first major editorial hire. Cooper officially says he’s leaving for family reasons. What he chose to say in his last seconds on air was about independence and trust.

In Tribeca, Manhattan, a two-story gallery is currently displaying every page of the Justice Department’s Epstein files. 3.5 million pages. 3,437 volumes. 17,000 pounds. The exhibit is called the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room. It opened May 8. It closes May 21. A blown-up photo of Trump and Epstein together is positioned at the entrance.

Five days ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that the President of the United States posts to Truth Social 8,800 times since returning to office. Forty-four overnight stretches in which he shared a dozen or more posts between 8 PM and 6 AM. The workflow, per WSJ sources: His 34-year-old executive assistant Natalie Harp brings him stacks of printed draft posts compiled from MAGA-aligned accounts. He approves them. She logs into his account and posts. WSJ’s verbatim: “Trump personally signs off on all of the content posted to his account.” Senior allies told WSJ they are privately angry that an unelected aide is helping shape the president’s public voice and that Harp reportedly does not run posts past the chief of staff’s office, the communications team, or national security officials. Among the posts later removed after public backlash: A video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. An AI image of the president as Jesus Christ. When asked about the Obama video, the president told reporters he did not notice the offensive imagery before approving it. A White House official blamed an editing mistake. The same WSJ reporting establishes that the president personally signs off on every post.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper, on air today: “Could President Trump receive money from the fund?” Cooper was talking about the $1.776 billion fund the Department of Justice created today. The fund came out of a settlement. Trump sued the IRS for $10 billion. He dropped the suit. In exchange, the DOJ created the fund. No defined eligibility criteria. No partisan requirements. Five-member commission appointed by the Acting AG. The President can remove any commissioner. Two months ago, a Florida man pardoned by Trump for January 6 was sentenced to life for sexually abusing two 12-year-olds. The police report says he tried to silence one victim by promising him $10 million. He said the $10 million was J6 restitution from the Trump administration. At the time, that sounded delusional. Today, the same administration created a $1.776 billion fund. To pay people who say they were wrongly targeted. He wasn’t delusional. He was early.

Yesterday, Megyn Kelly went on her podcast and called out the Trump administration for feeding Axios a fake war pretext on Cuba. Her words: “Cuba is not about to attack us.” “Cuba cannot keep the lights on or the ICU units in their hospitals powered.” She called the story “a bunch of bulls—.” Axios itself buried this line at the bottom of its own report: U.S. officials “don’t believe Cuba is an imminent threat.” The CIA Director was just in Havana. The DOJ is preparing to indict 94-year-old Raul Castro. Trump says we could “take over Cuba almost immediately.” Eleven weeks ago, the administration ran the same playbook on Iran. That war is still going.

Bari Weiss may be losing control of CBS News. According to Puck News today, Paramount-Skydance is in informal talks to strip her of day-to-day control over 60 Minutes, CBS Evening News, and CBS Mornings. CNN CEO Mark Thompson is being considered to take over. David Ellison met with him in recent days. Five months ago, Weiss killed Sharyn Alfonsi’s 60 Minutes piece on CECOT — the El Salvador prison where the Trump administration sends deportees. Alfonsi’s email to staffers: “It is factually correct. Pulling it now is not an editorial decision. It is a political one.” Weiss reportedly threatened to sue Alfonsi over the dispute. Yesterday Anderson Cooper left 60 Minutes. He had been on Weiss’s short list to anchor the Evening News. He turned the anchor job down. Then he declined to renew his 60 Minutes contract. Paramount’s official statement today: “Bari has the full support of Paramount and David Ellison. Reports suggesting otherwise are inaccurate.” Under the proposed restructure, Weiss wouldn’t be fired. She’d keep “broad editorial influence.” She’d just lose the daily TV control. The face changes. The CECOT story stays buried.