President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and key cabinet officials were evacuated from the White House Correspondents Dinner after shots had been fired Saturday night. Journalists were told to get on the ground, get under the tables and hide, for approximately five minutes, at the Washington Hilton. Cabinet officials began to return after journalists were notified it was safe to get up again. Staff announced the dinner would resume and Trump would return. Reporter Elizabeth Mitchell reported this from inside the Washington Hilton. This is a breaking news story and may be updated.

Summary The FAA announced the largest modernization of U.S. air traffic control since the jet age, replacing decades-old systems. Upgrades include new fiber wiring, radios, radars, and digital flight strips to improve safety and efficiency. Officials also emphasized a push to address staffing shortages, citing a surge of applicants for air traffic controller jobs. The U.S. Department of Transportation this week converted the atrium of its Washington, D.C., headquarters into a first-of-its kind exhibit featuring decades-old aviation equipment—and the new technology that is replacing it.  Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy hosted hundreds of aviation partners and industry leaders at Tuesday’s Modern Skies Summit, touting major upgrades to the nation’s air traffic control system. “This is truly the largest overhaul in aviation since the jet age,” Duffy said.  The future of air travel has arrived. Today, @SecDuffy announced groundbreaking new airspace software that will modernize America’s skies and dramatically REDUCE delays. The GOLDEN AGE OF TRAVEL IS HERE! pic.twitter.com/IkNaJz09E3— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 21, 2026 Thanks to funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill, the Federal Aviation Administration is upgrading and replacing wiring, communication equipment, radars, and electronic flight strips. FAA Acting Chief Technology Officer Rebecca Guy outlined changes to the four areas alongside Justin Ciaccio, president of Peraton’s National Aerospace Solutions section.  Wires: The FAA is replacing thousands of miles of copper wires dating back to the 1960s with high-speed fiber-optic lines. More than 50% of the copper network has already been replaced, which will prevent outages and ensure communication is secure across the entire system.  Communication equipment: Radios provide communication links between air traffic controllers and pilots, but antiquated equipment has led to static, crackling, and missed words. FAA officials said more than 3,000 radios have already been upgraded, with over 20,000 new radios scheduled to be installed by the end of 2028.  Radars: Many radar systems in use today were installed in the 1970s and are increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain. Under the modernization plan, more than 600 radars will be replaced to improve aircraft separation and traffic management.  Electronic flight strips: Many control towers still rely on paper flight strips to track aircraft movements. The FAA plans to digitize that process, with 89 towers expected to implement electronic flight strips by the end of 2028. This will reduce errors, improve efficiency, and ease controller workload.  With the new equipment in place, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford highlighted the importance of supercharging the air traffic controller pipeline. Out with the old, in with the new! An exciting day for American aviation as @SecDuffy and @FAA_Bryan detailed how we are making real progress modernizing America's airspace—while also looking ahead to the NAS of the future.We're delivering:612 state-of-the-art radars… pic.twitter.com/D5Q4nJ2wvK— The FAA (@FAANews) April 21, 2026 A record 8,000-plus people have applied for jobs in the troubled U.S. air traffic control system ​in the first 13 hours of a recruitment drive focusing on ‌individuals who enjoy playing video games, Duffy said earlier this month.  The FAA, facing a shortage of controllers in towers across the U.S., opened applications at midnight on April 17 to ​fill more positions, Duffy said.  After ​12 hours, the FAA had received some 6,000 ⁠applications. Posting on X later in the day, he said a total of ​8,004 applicants had filed in 13 hours, a rate of 10 every minute, marking ​the fastest pace ever for applicants seeking jobs as U.S. air traffic controllers.  Duffy said 7,252 of those applicants met basic qualifications, though they would still need to go through a rigorous assessment process.  “We’ve ​had a flood of young people coming in who want to be air ​traffic controllers,” Duffy said at the conference, calling the Trump administration’s effort to enlist people who ‌are video ⁠game enthusiasts “wildly successful.”  TRUMP ADMIN BREAKS U.S. RECORD FOR HIRING EFFORT FOR AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS In just 13 HOURS: 8,004 Americans applied to join our controller ranks — that’s over 10 applications EVERY MINUTE!EVEN BETTER, 7,252 applicants are qualified!This is now the FASTEST… pic.twitter.com/UwCbrUyDMr— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) April 17, 2026 Duffy said his team surveyed a group of current controllers and learned that most of them play video games, prompting the department to recruit from that “community,” he said.   “If you think just what these gamers are doing on the screens, and they’re talking and there’s a lot of things going on. They’re used to that, and that’s actually what you’re doing in a tower,” he said.  The U.S. air traffic control system is stretched thin. Many controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks, and the FAA’s air traffic control training academy has faced serious problems with retaining students.   The workload for controllers is also growing. Between 2015 and 2024, total flights using the air traffic control system increased by about 10% to 30.8 million, according to the Government Accountability Office, the U.S. government’s auditor.  Reuters contributed to this report.

A group of Christian doctors has helped more than 130 Ukrainian soldiers with severe facial injuries since 2023. The Vision for Ukraine medical mission is carried out by the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine (CMA Ukraine) in collaboration with American partners. The mission unites Ukrainian and American oculoplastic surgeons to help bring hope to injured soldiers. The mission’s doctors perform complex reconstructive interventions, which can involve everything from restoring facial bones to individual eye prosthetics. “For us, as an association of Christian doctors, this is also a matter of dignity … [not only returning] functions, but also a face, self-image, [and a] future,” Rudolf Myhovych, head of the CMA Ukraine, told me. “Vision for Ukraine is a mission of cooperation, medical brotherhood, and deep respect for those who defend Ukraine.”  The total cost of all surgeries and implants has already exceeded $750,000. Financing has been provided by international support of Leap Global Missions, Ed’s Friends, AROMS, Razom for Ukraine, and MedCAD. For many patients, these implants and reconstructive surgeries are a chance for a new life.  Serhiy’s Story A Ukrainian veteran named Serhiy returned to defend his country in 2022. That year, he lost an eye and sustained major damage to his skull when shrapnel hit his face. Serhiy got a standard eye prosthesis and returned to duty a few months later. In 2023, Serhiy was wounded for the second time by an exploding mine. Part of his foot had to be amputated. “It didn’t look great, of course,” he told me. “But at the time, that wasn’t the priority.” At the Kyiv Regional Clinical Hospital, CMA Ukraine doctors performed a complex operation on Serhiy’s face. This involved removing the old prosthetic structures, rebuilding bones, and preparing the basis for an individual prosthesis.  All of CMA Ukraine’s patients undergo CT scans in Ukraine. The scans are then sent to MedCAD in Dallas, which produces patient-specific implants. Based on the scans, a 3D model of the skull is created, and engineers work alongside surgeons to design custom titanium plates that are tailored to each individual patient. The implants are made of titanium, which is an expensive material. One implant costs $9,000 to $12,000, and this is without taking into account the work of the operating team and the hospital. However, patients of the Vision for Ukraine mission receive implants and operations free of charge. When the implants were installed, Dr. Jorge Corona, an oculoplastic surgeon from Dallas and a member of the mission, said, “They fit like a glove.” After seeing Serhiy, Nancy Hairston, CEO of MedCAD told me,“He looks great. You can see that he feels confident again, and he talked about his plans for the future. This is new life, new senses, and new hopes. [It’s] very moving” Arthur’s Story Arthur is a soldier and father of two. He received a bullet wound on the front line that completely changed his life. The bullet passed through his face and permanently blinded him. As part of the Vision for Ukraine mission, his facial bone structure has already been restored, and several stages of reconstruction have been carried out, installing individual titanium implants. Arthur (Illya Larionov) He also received eye prosthetics. While these could not restore his vision, they helped restore a sense of wholeness.  “My previous life is over,” Arthur told me. “Now a new one begins.” Artem’s Story Artem was injured multiple times defending his county. He received his fourth and most serious injury in 2022. The blast trauma damaged his face, vision, and hearing. He also lost most of his teeth. Recovery was a long process involving numerous surgeries.  “I wouldn’t call [them] surgeries,” he told me. “They were putting me back together piece by piece.”  Artem (Illya Larionov) During the Vision for Ukraine mission, Artem was fitted with custom 3D implants that restored his facial bone structure and functionality. Despite the difficulties associated with his ongoing rehabilitation, Artem says he remains motivated knowing that his two young sons waiting for him at home. His journey—full of pain, patience, and faith that life after injury is possible—is being made for his kids.  Previously, ophthalmology in Ukraine was a more limited specialty and did not include complex reconstructive surgeries on the eyelids and mucous membranes. “The war, paradoxically enough, gave impetus to the development of certain areas of medicine in Ukraine,” Stuart Seiff, an oculoplastic surgeon and member of CMA Ukraine, told me. “Thanks to the cooperation of Ukrainian and American specialists, this area is now actively developing. And now we already have specialists who are able to perform operations of such complexity without our intervention.”  Care for Each Patient The Kyiv Regional Clinical Hospital in Ukraine performs more than 100 operations every month. About 60% of patients are military personnel with mine and bullet wounds to the face.  “The injuries are different: sometimes the bone is damaged, sometimes the muscles, sometimes the participation of an ophthalmologist is required, sometimes a neurosurgeon,” Oleksandr Vasyliev, head of the maxillofacial surgery department of the Kyiv Regional Clinical Hospital, told me. “There are no universal solutions here. We do everything possible to ensure that the treatment is as effective as possible and that [each patient] can return to a full life.”  Members of CMA Ukraine (Illya Larionov) We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

The richest man in Mississippi, Tom Duff, and his brother James Duff, have been under a Justice Department investigation for potentially defrauding a federal pandemic-era relief program of $6.7 million since 2024, court records show. A lawsuit filed against the brothers by Relator LLC claims the two “looted the government” by filing “falsified loan documents to the Small Business Administration in order to obtain taxpayer-funded payments through the Paycheck Protection Program.” The case will move to Mississippi after a federal judge in March granted the Duffs’ motion to transfer the case. According to the documents, the brothers applied for the loans using their tire company, the Southern Tire Mart, which is valued at upward of $3.5 billion. Congress created the program in March of 2020 to keep businesses afloat as the global economy slowed to a halt at the outset of the pandemic.  As seen in court filings, the attorneys for the Duff brothers refuted the claims, arguing the lawsuit relies on “inflammatory rhetoric” instead of factual evidence. The brothers’ legal team noted that the California attorneys acting against them have filed similar lawsuits against other individuals, some of which have been dismissed by federal judges. They also claim the lawsuit is the product of trial lawyers looking to score judicial wins from the grey area surrounding pandemic-era government programs.   Matthew D. Miller, one of the brother’s attorneys, told Mississippi Today that he expected his clients to be “fully vindicated by the judicial process.” “The PPP loans were lawfully obtained, fully disclosed and reviewed by banks, the SBA and federal attorneys,” Miller wrote in a statement to the outlet. “This case is exactly the kind of parasitic, web-scraped lawsuit that courts have repeatedly rejected from this plaintiff. The allegations were also independently reviewed by the Department of Justice which, after this review, declined to intervene in this lawsuit.” The judicial proceedings could complicate the outlook of Tom Duff, who is rumored to be running for governor in 2027. “If he decides to run for governor, he’s absolutely among the top runners, if not the top runner,” said Austin Barbour, a state and national GOP strategist and lobbyist. Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson told the outlet that Tom Duff is “someone who could really excite all of Mississippi” as a candidate for governor. In recent months, the brothers have created the Duff PAC, which will be used to support candidates in the state’s gubernatorial race.

Many speeches will be delivered this year about the Declaration of Independence as we celebrate its 250th birthday.   However, I think the greatest was just delivered by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on April 15 at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas, Austin.   The force of Thomas’ words does not just result from his deep understanding of what the United States is about, and how the Declaration of Independence defines it.   The force flows from Thomas’ personal reality. He has lived what the declaration is about. His words are not just the product of thought and study, but of Thomas’ entire life experience.   Thomas grew up poor in America’s Jim Crow South.  But he says, “Despite the multiplicity of laws and customs that wreaked a bigotry, it was universally believed among those blacks with whom I lived and who had very little or no formal education, that in God’s eyes and under our Constitution, we were equal.”  “When you lived in a segregated world with palpable discrimination and the governments nearest to you enforced laws and customs that promoted unequal treatment, it was obvious that your rights or your dignity did not come from those governments, but rather from God,” he continued.  An ominous beginning for a future Supreme Court justice.  Thomas’ life, career, and education were trial by fire.   By the time he became chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the country had already been captured by progressivism, particularly on matters of race.   His principled adherence to the eternal God-given truths of the declaration, and refusal to fold to the progressive agenda—which he calls the “then-prevailing orthodoxy on race”—was a lonely battle, which left him under constant attack.   It was then he realized that carrying out the agenda was more than knowing the principles, but having the courage to fight, and even, if necessary, die for them.  Thomas notes that the principles stated in the opening of the declaration—“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights”—could have gotten nowhere without the last paragraph of the declaration.   There the signers conclude “We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”  “What changed the world,” per Thomas, “was not the words, but the commitment and spirit of the people willing to labor, sacrifice, and even give their lives” for what Lincoln called at Gettysburg “the last full measure of devotion.”  Thomas asks, “Do any of us have what it took for our young soldiers to storm Normandy Beach, to fight at Guadalcanal, to later fight at Chosin Reservoir?”  He discusses the emergence of progressivism, which challenged the core principles of the Declaration. As Thomas notes, its pedigree is not American but was born in 19th century Germany of Otto von Bismark.  It’s a worldview that rejects the notion that God-given truths govern our lives, but rather politics and government so-called experts.   It’s deeply ironic and unfortunate that the civil rights movement—a movement about human freedom, a movement about moving black people out from the distortions of political control, and to our regime of freedom defined by our declaration’s principles—itself saw progressivism as the answer to problems of race.  We are in a great struggle today for the future of our country.   The movement toward progressivism has delivered to us a new time with massive government, deficits, debts, and bankrupt entitlement programs. The assault of progressivism on the God-given principles of the declaration of Independence has also taken a great toll on our culture, with the traditional family and our birth of children in dangerous decline.   To restore the vitality of our nation, we for sure today need a “new birth of freedom.”  A good start for all is to listen to Thomas’ message.  COPYRIGHT 2026 CREATORS.COM  We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.