An enormous fire broke out at the science lab on the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus on Saturday. Plumes of black smoke poured from the roof as the building was evacuated. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Watch below: Massive Fire Engulfs USF St. Petersburg Science Lab, No Injuries Reported A massive two-alarm fire tore through the University of South Florida St. Petersburg science lab on Saturday night, threatening the loss of decades of marine research. Thick black smoke poured from the… pic.twitter.com/mt8ee08hyo — Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 3, 2026 Fox News shared further: The school sent an alert reading: “Urgent Alert. Fire reported in MSL, Marine Science Lab. Evacuate building. Avoid area. Emergency personnel responding.” St. Petersburg Fire Chief Michael Lewis said more than 60 units and about 200 firefighters responded to the scene. Lewis said around 9 p.m. that the fire was largely extinguished but that the building is likely “a total loss.” “The entire roof has burned off,” he said, according to the report. The University of South Florida said Saturday evening the building will remain closed until further notice. “We have faculty members who have research labs there. This looks like total devastation, We’ve all been checking in on each other,” Interim Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at USF St. Petersburg Frank Biafora said, according to the New York Post. An update on the structure fire in the MSL building on our @usfsp campus. pic.twitter.com/GuM6l1SZmy — University of South Florida (@USouthFlorida) May 3, 2026 More from the New York Post: According to Biafora, the fire could have been much worse. “We are actually quite lucky that the wind is taking this to the east of us because we have residence halls and a whole lot of students on this campus,” he said. USF Sailing coach Allison Jolly said that the building’s age could have made it vulnerable to catching fire, the laboratory was built 80 years ago, the Daily Mail reported. “[The lab] probably lacked some of the modern fire prevention things… It’s one thing to have equipment ruined, but to have years of research go up in flames is so sad,” she said. Watch additional coverage below:

Two U.S. service members participating in African Lion 2026 have been reported missing near the Cap Draa Training Area in southwestern Morocco, U.S. Africa Command confirmed Sunday. The two Americans were reported missing on May 2 near the city of Tan Tan, a coastal area roughly 15 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. U.S., Moroccan, and partner forces immediately launched coordinated search-and-rescue operations involving ground, air, and maritime assets. AFRICOM said the incident remains under investigation and the search is ongoing. Two U.S. service members participating in African Lion 2026 were reported missing near the Cap Draa Training Area, near the city of Tan Tan, Morocco, May 2, 2026.https://t.co/7zxpKQRHfB — U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) (@USAfricaCommand) May 3, 2026 U.S. Africa Command released a statement confirming the disappearance and the scope of the response: Two U.S. service members taking part in African Lion 2026 were reported missing near the Cap Draa Training Area, close to the city of Tan Tan, Morocco, on May 2, 2026. The command said U.S., Moroccan, and other African Lion assets immediately began a coordinated search-and-rescue response after the report came in. The response includes ground, air, and maritime assets, underscoring the seriousness of the search and the difficulty of the location. The official update did not identify the missing Americans, their branches, their units, or the circumstances that led to the report. AFRICOM said the incident remains under investigation, the search is ongoing, and additional details will be released as they become available. At the time of writing, there was no official recovery update and no released casualty finding. That leaves the public record narrow, but clear on the active search. No names, service branches, units, or details about the circumstances of the disappearance have been released. AFRICOM has not disclosed any information about injuries or casualty status. African Lion is U.S. Africa Command’s largest annual joint exercise on the continent. The 2026 iteration launched in late April and spans multiple countries, including Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana, and Senegal, with U.S. troops training alongside partner forces across a range of military scenarios. U.S. Africa Command announced the start of the exercise just days before the incident: African Lion 26 launched in Morocco as part of U.S. Africa Command’s premier annual joint exercise with the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces and other partners. The exercise spans multiple host nations, including Morocco, Ghana, Senegal, and Tunisia, and brings together U.S. troops with African and allied forces for large-scale multinational training. The command has described African Lion as a readiness and interoperability exercise meant to strengthen collective security capabilities across the region. The 2026 version includes thousands of troops from dozens of nations, with training built around joint operations, partner coordination, and real-world mission sets. That scale explains why U.S., Moroccan, and other exercise assets were already positioned to join the search once the two service members were reported missing near Cap Draa. The launch release also framed the drill as a partnership mission, not a standalone U.S. operation. The Cap Draa Training Area sits in a remote stretch of southwestern Morocco near the Atlantic coast. The terrain and proximity to open water add complexity to search-and-rescue efforts, particularly when the cause and nature of the disappearance remain unknown.

Bill Maher spent a good chunk of his Friday night Real Time interview doing something Gavin Newsom clearly did not expect: making the California governor defend his own record with actual numbers instead of bumper-sticker slogans. Newsom came out swinging with the familiar line about California being the world’s fifth-largest economy. Maher was ready. He asked whether ordinary voters would say “good” about California’s gas prices and rent. Newsom tried to pivot. Maher kept pressing.

The Indiana Hoosiers football team will visit the White House after its historic undefeated season to win the national championship. The team is scheduled to make its visit on May 11. It’s unclear if Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner and #1 NFL Draft pick, will attend. The Indiana Hoosiers — 2025 College Football Playoff national champions — will visit the White House this month, according to a source familiar with the team's plans. https://t.co/8IUiswVRru — ABC News (@ABC) May 2, 2026 More from The Daily Hoosier: The tradition of championship sports teams visiting the White House and the president of the United States dates back to the 1800s. The undefeated Indiana men’s basketball team in 1976 was the first men’s college basketball team to attend a White House celebration; college football champions have gone to Washington since Alabama in 1961. IU will become the latest group to visit the White House. The Hoosiers sealed their title on Jan. 19, 2026 with a 27-21 victory over Miami (Fla.), at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. This is the first of two prominent public appearances for IU head coach Curt Cignetti in May. He will also drive the pace car at the Indianapolis 500 on May 24. According to NBC Sports, Mendoza will pass on the White House visit. Fernando Mendoza doesn’t plan to visit the White House with Indiana. https://t.co/9oKXt58foC — ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) May 3, 2026 NBC Sports explained further: The Heisman Trophy winner was asked whether he would take the trip, and his answer incorrectly stated that as the start of the Raiders’ organized team activities. Their OTAs actually begin a week later, on May 18. “I’m on the bottom of the totem pole here. I’ve got to prove myself,” Mendoza told reporters Saturday. “I can’t miss practice. I don’t have the calendar, but as a rookie, I don’t think that’s a good look. I want to try to best serve my teammates, and I don’t know if that’d be accomplishing that goal.” After all the hoopla following a Heisman, a national championship and becoming the top pick, Mendoza was eager to get back to it. All eyes were on him as he worked with some of his new teammates at the team’s rookie minicamp this weekend. “Out of all those great milestones, I’m really happy about these past two days, because it’s back to football,” Mendoza said, via Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Two U.S. service members participating in the African Lion 2026 military exercise have been reported missing near the Cap Draa Training Area in southwestern Morocco, and a full-scale search-and-rescue operation is now underway. U.S. Africa Command confirmed Sunday that the two Americans were reported missing on May 2 near the city of Tan Tan, close to the Atlantic coast. U.S. forces, Moroccan forces, and other partner nation assets from the exercise immediately launched a coordinated response involving ground, air, and maritime resources. AFRICOM has not identified the service members, their branch, or their unit. The command said the incident remains under investigation. Two U.S. service members participating in African Lion 2026 were reported missing near the Cap Draa Training Area, near the city of Tan Tan, Morocco, May 2, 2026.https://t.co/7zxpKQRHfB— U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) (@USAfricaCommand) May 3, 2026 U.S. Africa Command released a statement confirming the scope and details of the ongoing search: Two U.S. service members participating in African Lion 2026 were reported missing near the Cap Draa Training Area, near the city of Tan Tan, Morocco, on May 2, 2026. U.S., Moroccan, and other assets from African Lion immediately began coordinated search-and-rescue operations, including ground, air, and maritime assets. The incident remains under investigation and the search is ongoing. The command did not identify the missing service members by name, branch, or unit, and no recovery or casualty update had been released as of Sunday. African Lion 2026 is the command’s largest annual joint exercise, spanning Morocco, Ghana, Senegal, and Tunisia, and involves more than 10,000 troops from over 40 nations. The exercise is designed to strengthen collective security capabilities among the United States, African partner nations, and global allies, with a focus on readiness and multinational cooperation across the region. No further details about what happened have been provided, and no recovery update has been announced as of Sunday afternoon. BREAKING: Two U.S. service members are missing in southwestern Morocco following an annual multinational military exercise, sparking an ongoing search-and-rescue effort by U.S. and allied forces, officials said Sunday.The war games exercise, known as African Lion, started in pic.twitter.com/cCOXjPr35t— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 3, 2026 The incident occurred around 9 p.m. Saturday near Cap Draa, a training area close to the Atlantic Ocean in a region where the terrain ranges from mountains to desert and semidesert plains. African Lion is the largest annual U.S. joint military exercise on the African continent and has been running since 2004. The Associated Press provided additional context on the exercise and the circumstances: The two U.S. service members went missing in southwestern Morocco after taking part in annual multinational military exercises. The incident happened Saturday around 9 p.m. near the Cap Draa Training Area near Tan Tan, close to the Atlantic Ocean, where the terrain includes mountains as well as desert and semidesert plains.African Lion began in April and runs across four countries, including Tunisia, Ghana, and Senegal, and is scheduled to end in early May. The exercise includes active-duty members of different U.S. military branches, including the National Guard, Army Reserve, Air Force, and Marine Corps. More than 7,000 personnel from over 30 nations are participating across four host countries.In 2012, two U.S. Marines were killed and two others injured in a helicopter crash in Morocco’s southern city of Agadir while taking part in African Lion. There is very little public information about the circumstances surrounding the disappearance. Families may still be waiting for word, and no official update beyond the initial AFRICOM statement has been released. We will update this story as new information becomes available. Please keep these two service members and their families in your prayers.