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Press freedom worldwide is at lowest level in 25 years, watchdog group warns

April 30, 2026 / 6:44 AM EDT / CBS/AFP

Press freedom has fallen to its lowest level in a quarter of a century, Reporters Without Borders warned on Thursday.

The media rights watchdog also known as RSF cited as examples President Trump’s “systematic” attacks on journalists, and Saudi Arabia, which executed a journalist in 2025.

“For the first time in the (RSF) Index’s 25-year history, more than half the world’s countries now fall into the ‘difficult’ or ‘very serious’ categories for press freedom,” a statement said.

The average score of all 180 countries and territories that were surveyed has never been so low, RSF said.

At the same time, the share of the world’s population living in a country where the press freedom situation is considered “good” has plunged from 20% to less than 1%.

Only seven countries in Northern Europe, led by Norway, fall into this category.

The United States, which had already fallen from a “fairly good” to a “problematic” situation in 2024, the year of Mr. Trump’s re-election, dropped a further seven places to 64, it said.

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Beyond his attacks on the press — “a systematic policy” — the situation in the United States has been marked by the detention and subsequent expulsion of Salvadoran journalist Mario Guevara, who denounced the arrest of migrants, and by drastic cuts to funding for U.S. international broadcasting, the report said.

The steepest decline in 2026 was in junta-led Niger (120th, down 37 places), underscoring the wider decline in press freedom in the Sahel region seen in recent years as attacks by armed groups and ruling juntas have suppressed the right to balanced information from diverse sources, RSF said.

In some countries, the state of press freedom has hardly changed, like in China, North Korea and Eritrea — which ranked last for the third consecutive year, RSF said.

“Eastern Europe and the Middle East are the two most dangerous regions for journalists in the world, as they have been for 25 years,” it said. “This is reflected in the ranking of Vladimir Putin’s Russia (172nd), which has continued its war of aggression in Ukraine and remains one of the worst countries for press freedom.”

It said Russia “has become a specialist in using laws designed to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism to restrict press freedom,” and held 48 journalists behind bars as of this month.

RSF noted that post-Assad Syria saw the biggest improvement in press freedom, climbing 36 places in the ranking.

RSF is the acronym for the group’s original French name,Reporters sans frontières. It was founded in France in 1985.

伊朗最高领袖：美国遭遇“耻辱性失败”

2026年4月30日 19:36 / 联合早报

4月29日，张挂在德黑兰一条道路旁的伊朗最高领袖穆杰塔巴画像横幅。 （法新社）

伊朗最高领袖穆杰塔巴在“国家波斯湾日”发表书面声明称，美国遭遇“耻辱性失败”，伊朗将确保波斯湾地区安全，消除敌对势力的侵犯行为。

穆杰塔巴（Mojtaba Khamenei）星期四（4月30日）在声明中称，自2月28日伊朗与美国和以色列爆发战争以来，波斯湾和霍尔木兹海峡的局势已翻开了新的一页。

路透社引述他说，对霍尔木兹海峡进行新的管理将为所有波斯湾国家带来平静、进步和经济利益。目前，伊朗的波斯湾港口正处于美国的封锁之下。

Inside the GOP’s barely functioning Congress

2026-04-30T08:00:51.415Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/30/politics/congress-gop-dysfunction-johnson

Republicans will control Washington for at least six more months, but they’ve already lost control of one-half of Congress.

Marred by infighting in his razor-thin majority, Speaker Mike Johnson no longer has a functional majority in the House. GOP leaders are struggling to fulfill the chamber’s most basic role on issues from government funding to authorizing critical spy powers that President Donald Trump himself has demanded, all just months before a critical midterm election.

“We can’t really agree on much of anything,” Rep. Troy Nehls, a Republican from Texas, said on Wednesday as leadership was trying to convince members to clear a procedural hurdle on the House floor to move ahead on key priorities, including the surveillance program extension. “This is our time to actually pass conservative legislation. That the American people gave us the gavel. They gave us the White House. … They gave us the Senate. And we have squandered an enormous amount of time away. We’ve squandered these opportunities.”

Johnson has tried to blame Democrats for the chaos, but frustrations are rising inside the US Capitol and at the White House – with many pointing to the House disarray for prolonging a 75-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security that is threatening more chaos at airports in the coming weeks.

“The fact that this has gone on, what are we at? 70-something days? It’s a stunning testament to congressional dysfunction,” Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, an independent who formally left the party this year but still largely votes with the GOP.

And scrapped bills, venting behind closed doors and stalled floor activity this week has ratcheted up tensions in the conference.

On Wednesday alone, House GOP leaders held open a contentious procedural vote for three hours. They pulled one huge priority — the farm bill — from the floor and then brought it back hours later after a revolt from members. (“This place is insane,” Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky griped on X, when he learned of the switch.)

Late Wednesday evening, the House took a step forward in a GOP effort to fund immigration enforcement amid the ongoing DHS shutdown – a vote that succeeded but only after hours of arm twisting.

Johnson’s weakening grip on his members throws into doubt whether Trump and Hill GOP leaders will be able to deliver on any other major priorities ahead, including a funding package for the Iran war that could cost as much as $100 billion.

The speaker’s ability to keep his fractious House GOP in line was never simple in the smallest majority since the Great Depression. While he has tried to give his members space to work through their concerns, the mood in the chamber has dramatically soured in recent days. Republicans are coming to terms with Trump’s poor approval ratings, an unending war in the Middle East and spiking gas prices — with no apparent strategy in Congress to fix any of it.

Then there’s the group of increasingly rogue actors within the conference who are empowered in the narrow majority and seem willing to shirk both Trump and Johnson to achieve personal priorities — on top of a seemingly perpetual struggle with absences and ethics issues.

“Look, all it takes is two to shut this whole thing down,” House budget chief Jodey Arrington told CNN of the DHS funding standoff.

Rep. Steve Womack characterized the narrow majority as “chaos, that’s what we are.” “We are good at that,” the Arkansas Republican added.

Perhaps the biggest headache for leadership are hardliners like Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida or Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who have elevated their personal profiles as they force the House to take tough votes and join groups willing to hold up procedural ones. Then there are the scores of rattled Republicans in competitive seats this fall who are anxious to take big votes.

GOP Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who sits in one of those potentially in-play seats, has been pleading with his colleagues to simply agree to compromise for the sake of the party. If members don’t agree to a major attitude shift, he warned, voters would take notice – and potentially revolt in November.

“We’ve got to get together. We’re going to have a really hard, tough election. We’re either going to win by a little, lose by a little or lose by a lot. And we got a decision to make,” he said.

Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, who has spent 11 years across the Capitol, offered a similar reproach.

“I think my colleagues over there need to start playing team ball. Their behavior is starting to be noticed by people. We can’t blame Democrats for the dysfunction that is going on over there right now and it’s a really bad look for people going into at-risk districts in November,” the North Carolina Republican said. “They’re gonna live to regret it”

A floor outburst and a ‘test of the wills’

Just moments after Johnson and his team successfully quelled a three-hour floor revolt on Wednesday, the speaker was thrown back into tumult.

Rep. Zach Nunn of Iowa – whose state relies on biofuel that’s at the center of a contentious farm bill – stormed onto the House floor to confront the speaker and Luna for making side deals on the sprawling package.

As Johnson ushered Nunn and Luna into a private room, Luna shouted her own defense: “We want the farm bill with no pesticide provision!” (Luna later told CNN she’d received such “nasty” messages from some of her Republican colleagues that she felt the need to get Johnson involved to stop what she characterized as threatening behavior.)

The outburst on the floor was an extraordinary display of the many competing factions in Johnson’s party. Any agreement he makes with one bloc of members risks enraging a separate – but equally powerful – group.

That was not the Republican leader’s only headache.

Conservatives and party leaders have been embroiled in a tense standoff over a powerful surveillance law that teetered on expiration. In meeting after meeting over the last few weeks, leadership repeatedly sought to force the extension of the critical spy powers bill without making the changes pushed by conservatives.

“This is a test of the wills,” GOP Rep. Keith Self, one of the conservatives pushing for changes to the bill, told CNN on Wednesday. “Are we going to protect our American citizens or are we not? It’s that simple a question.”

Even President Donald Trump’s call for a clean reauthorization and direct pressure campaigns from CIA Director John Ratcliffe and White House adviser Stephen Miller did little to move the party.

When Johnson thought he had clinched a breakthrough last week, members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus privately scoffed. That hardliner group sent around a memo calling his latest proposal “weaker sauce in a new bottle,” according to a source familiar with the document.

Ultimately, those privacy hawk Republicans forced leadership to tack on an unrelated crypto measure to the must-pass spy powers bill – effectively tanking its chances in the Senate and upending the road to final passage just a day before the midnight deadline. Senate leaders, who looked on from across the Capitol, were left scrambling and ultimately suggested another short-term extension, which will only prolong the drama.

“This has been a game of chicken where neither side has wanted to blink,” a source familiar with the negotiations told CNN.

The two episodes underscore how Johnson has taken hits from all sides this week as he’s tried to maneuver bills in one of Congress’ most intense weeks of legislating so far before the midterms. He aimed to convince his members to reauthorize the critical government spying program, to back a farm bill measure and support a procedural vote that would eventually allow Republicans to end the DHS budget standoff.

But on all of those issues, Johnson was repeatedly forced to recalibrate his plans in real time. On the farm bill – which was expected to be the least controversial vote of the week – Republican leaders were forced to scrap plans to consider the bill altogether, with a slew of members still disgruntled over key provisions over biofuels and pesticides. But hours later, they were forced to reverse course.

“There’s a lot on our plates. It’s a lot of high stakes, and it’s one of the most controversial matters in public policy,” Johnson said of this week’s agenda as he entered the Capitol Wednesday.

Later in the day, he expressed optimism, despite having to forfeit agenda items this week. “You have very different opinions about all of these things across the conference from different regions of the country who see these issues differently. Sometimes it goes quicker than others, but we will get there,” he said.

Since he took the gavel in fall 2023, Johnson has navigated his slim margins and still pulled out at-times shocking wins, including a massive border and tax bill that earned him the reputation “Magic Johnson” in some circles.

“I don’t think it’s a leadership problem over here. Mike Johnson has won like the medal of honor legislatively three times,” Rep. Mark Amodei of Nevada said.

But that momentum has been blunted as the midterms approach and as Trump is engulfed in managing challenges at home and conflict abroad.

A record number of Republicans have announced they’re retiring. And many of those who are staying have been rattled by Trump’s coast-to-coast redistricting war.

Florida lawmakers, for instance, were so anxious about their state’s map redraw that a small gang of lawmakers recently forced GOP leaders to pull an endangered species bill from the floor out of concern it could hurt them politically in new seats, according to a person familiar.

Johnson’s job has only been made more complicated by Democrats’ eagerness to cause further pain for Republicans wherever possible. This week, Democrats were so furious at the Republicans’ struggle to set the weekly agenda – calling late-night meetings of the House Rules Committee only to postpone them at the last minute – that they pushed dozens of politically difficult amendment votes in that same hearing after a sarcastic comment from one of their GOP members.

“Bare margins make things more difficult. The family has a divergent set of views. Our friends in the majority obviously realize the more chaos they can contribute to, the better off – they think – for them in the fall. I see all those pieces coming together,” Republican Rep. Frank Lucas of Oklahoma, who’s spent 32 years in the House, told CNN.

On the other side of the building, GOP senators has been left scratching their heads.

Twice, the Senate unanimously passed a bill that would fund every part of DHS besides US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Customs and Border Protection, which were separately funded through the president’s signature policy bill last summer. But Johnson has sat on the legislation to reopen large swaths of the department for nearly a month as conservatives in his conference balked at putting anything on the floor that zeroed out immigration funding even as they understood the department would soon be covered by a GOP-only bill.

“I don’t think the phone lines go from the north to the south end of the building,” Amodei quipped of the lack of clear communication over how the funding would ever be passed in both chambers.

印尼鲸鲨研究发现两常年聚集地

2026年4月30日 19:50 / 联合早报

根据国际自然保护协会星期四（4月30日）公开的照片，研究人员2023年3月在印尼西巴布亚省拉贾阿帕特（Raja Ampat）群岛附近水域发现一头鲸鲨出没。 （法新社）

（曼谷法新电）一项针对印度尼西亚沿海数十头鲸鲨长达10年的追踪研究，揭示这一濒危物种的迁徙路线，并发现了它们常年聚集的两处热点区域。这为加强保护鲸鲨聚集的印尼相关海湾提供有力依据。

科学家指出，这项星期四（4月30日）在《海洋科学》期刊上发表的研究结果，填补了人们对鲸鲨认知上的关键空白。

鲸鲨虽名为“鲸”，实为鲨鱼的一种。它们面临海洋污染、旅游干扰和船只撞击等多重威胁，被国际自然保护联盟列为濒危物种。

鲨鱼身披斑点花纹、体型巨大，极具辨识度，但人们对它们如何在已知聚集点之间迁徒所知甚少。

印尼研究人员通过给印太地区的鲸鲨安装追踪标记，发现它们迁徒的路线和规律。印太鲸鲨约占鲸鲨总数的60%；10多年来，研究人员在印尼各地共标记了70头鲸鲨，其中部分被追踪了近三年。

研究报告主要作者莫哈末依克巴说：“我们实际上绘制并识别鲸鲨多种不同的迁徒模式……我们标记的鲸鲨曾穿越13个不同国家的海域和公海。”

印尼两个常年聚集鲸鲨的海湾兼具天敌较少和磷虾等食物资源丰富等条件，甚至还成为鲸鲨的育幼场。（法新社）

研究发现，印尼的两个海湾——巴布亚省的贞德拉瓦希湾 (Cenderawasih Bay)，以及松巴哇岛的萨利赫湾（Saleh Bay）常年都有鲸鲨聚集。

莫哈末依克巴指出，大多数鲸鲨聚集点被认为是季节性聚集点，但贞德拉瓦希湾和萨利赫湾“更像它们的家”，是固定栖息地。

研究认为，这两个海湾兼具天敌较少和磷虾等食物资源丰富等条件，因而成为鲸鲨常年聚集点，并有迹象显示，那里还可能成了鲸鲨的育幼场。

印尼已把贞德拉瓦希湾列为国家公园，它偏远的位置一定程度上抑制了旅游活动。但萨利赫湾是热门旅游目的地，且位于玉米种植迅速扩张、水产养殖业不断发展的地区。这两大产业都可能产生污染，从而影响水质并危害鲸鲨。

环保组织印尼保护基金会正与政府合作，推动今年内在萨利赫湾设立印尼首个专门针对鲸鲨的海洋保护区。

伊朗总统：任何企图在海上封锁伊朗的行动注定失败

2026年4月30日 19:52 / 联合早报

2月11日，伊朗总统佩泽希齐扬（中）在伊朗德黑兰出席伊斯兰革命47周年纪念活动。 （路透社）

伊朗总统佩泽希齐扬说，任何企图对伊朗实施封锁和海上限制的行动都注定失败。

伊朗国家电视台报道，佩泽希齐扬星期四（4月30日）在“国家波斯湾日”致辞时说：“波斯湾不是强加外国单方面意志的场所，只有沿海国家通力合作、互相尊重主权，才能确保这一区域的安全。”

他说，这条战略水道是伊朗民族认同不可分割的一部分，也是伊朗主权的象征。

新华社引述报道说，佩泽希齐扬称赞伊朗海军的英勇。

他指出，敌对势力已将施压领域转向经济和海上，将海上封锁和限制海上贸易航线的战略提上日程，以此向伊朗政府和人民施压。但任何企图对波斯湾实施封锁和海上限制的行为都违反国际法，威胁到波斯湾地区各国利益以及全球和平与稳定。

佩泽希齐扬警告，波斯湾地区的局势不安全都应由美国和以色列承担责任。伊朗继续坚持航行自由和海上安全原则，但对敌对国家除外。

White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting yields debates over security, new ballroom — but not guns

2026-04-30T09:00:50.791Z / CNN

By Eric Bradner

3 hr ago

PUBLISHED Apr 30, 2026, 5:00 AM ET

Gun violence Gun control Donald Trump Media

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President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House on April 25, after a shooting incident at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner.

Nathan Howard/Getty Images

Forty-five years before a gunman attempted to storm the Washington Hilton’s ballroom during President Donald Trump’s appearance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, another would-be assassin stood on the sidewalk and shot President Ronald Reagan in the chest as he exited the same hotel.

The location, and the presence of a Republican president, is likely to be where the comparison ends.

In 1981, gunman John Hinckley Jr. also shot White House press secretary James Brady, leaving him partially paralyzed. Brady would go on to become a leading gun control advocate — and the namesake of 1993’s Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which introduced mandatory background checks and waiting periods for handgun purchases. It was backed by Reagan, who publicly supported the measure in a 1991 speech despite being a lifelong National Rifle Association member.

Today, the gun control debate is likely to remain in neutral, even after a shooting near the ballroom where Trump, Vice President JD Vance and many of the nation’s top leaders were dining with the Washington press corps. The GOP remains entrenched, younger generations who have fought unsuccessfully for new restrictions for years are frustrated and the solution generating the most discussion is a more secure ballroom for the nation’s elite.

The gunfire Saturday night occurred in a much different political climate — after decades of failed attempts to ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, expand background checks on gun purchases and more following mass shootings. Those efforts have been championed largely by Democrats and mostly opposed by Republicans.

“This isn’t about, in my mind, changing the law or making the laws more restrictive around possession of firearms,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an interview earlier this week with CBS. “This is about law enforcement who are doing their jobs and a suspect who tried to do something and failed miserably.”

Blanche on Wednesday stood with gun industry leaders as he announced the Justice Department would seek to further roll back gun control measures, proposing a slew of new rules aimed at helping gun sellers more easily abide by the law. Blanche said the administration is “cutting unnecessary red tape, and we are replacing confusion with clear, straightforward language so that everyday Americans don’t need a law degree just to understand their rights.”

Entrenched positions in gun debate

James Brady, former White House Press Secretary under Ronald Reagan, departs after a news conference to urge members of Congress for progress on gun control legislation, March 30, 2011.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters/File

Kris Brown, the president of Brady, the gun violence prevention organization the former press secretary helped to found, said in an interview that parents across the United States fear that their children “are going to a White House Correspondents’ Dinner every day when they go to school” because of those legislative failures.

Brown argued that “even in challenging circumstances, something can always be done.”

“If you look at every major federal gun law that has passed in America, it’s passed on the heels of horrific violence — and in some cases, against elected officials,” she said.

In 2022, Congress approved the first major gun safety measure in nearly 30 years with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which passed in the wake of mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. It expanded background checks for gun buyers under age 21 and closed the so-called “boyfriend loophole” that restricts firearms purchases for those convicted of domestic abuse.

But Brown also said she is not “naive about the politics in place at the moment,” and contrasted Reagan’s support for Brady’s gun control push with Trump’s calls for a White House ballroom.

“It also does take leadership,” she said,

John Commerford, the executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, maintained in an interview that gun restrictions are not the solution.

The accused gunman was armed with a .38-caliber semi-automatic pistol and a 12-gauge shotgun, authorities told CNN – firearms that have not been targeted by recent legislative efforts to restrict the sale of semi-automatic rifles with high-capacity magazines.

Commerford noted that, according to officials, the alleged shooter traveled by train to Washington from California – two deep-blue jurisdictions.

“This individual lived in California, acquired firearms under their extremely restrictive standard, traveled to Washington, DC, which has very similar, extremely strict gun control, and then was stopped by what I would call adequate security measures,” he said, praising the Secret Service’s actions.

“Their layer of security worked. Watching the videos, was it pretty? No. But real time isn’t pretty,” Commerford added. “Everyone went home safe or is able to recover.”

He noted that some mass murderers have carried out their plans without firearms — pointing to the 2025 New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans in which a man drove a pickup truck through a crowd on Bourbon Street and killed 14 people.

“An individual hellbent on committing harm is going to find a way to commit harm,” he said.

A fight over ballroom

A construction crane is seen above the White House on April 28.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

There were few new conversations about ways to prevent gun violence following Saturday’s gunfire.

Instead, this week in Washington, a debate erupted over Trump’s proposal to build an ultra-secure White House ballroom, where bullets couldn’t pierce windows and the Secret Service would handle security.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation in December sued to block construction of the ballroom. A federal appeals court this month gave the Trump administration the green light to continue construction of what the president has said will be a ballroom that holds 999 people, overturning a lower court that had blocked the above-ground construction of the project. (Roughly 2,600 people attended Saturday’s dinner.)

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday that “obviously we do need to look at security measures.”

“This is why we need the ballroom. It really is. The president’s right about that. We need a facility that is secure enough to host events like this without having major national security concerns,” the Louisiana Republican said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York called Trump’s proposed ballroom a “vanity project” and sought to turn attention to the war with Iran.

“I mean, there’s obviously a lot of questions about how much it costs, how many people will be accommodated,” the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said of the ballroom.

Trump administration officials and Republicans who control the House and Senate indicated no new appetite for laws aimed at reducing the threat of gun violence.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday on Fox News that one individual disrupting “what is one of the bigger nights in Washington, especially when the president attends” is “kind of the world we live in right now.”

Generational differences

Guests take cover after President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were rushed out of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on April 25.

Evan Vucci/Reuters

When the shooting took place Saturday night, some observers noted that younger attendees in the Washington Hilton’s ballroom — people who had grown up with school shooting drills — quickly ducked under tables.

The response by young attendees at the dinner in the moment was “not surprising,” said Jaclyn Corin, the executive director of March For Our Lives — the pro-gun control group founded in the wake of the 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, where Corin was a student.

“A lot of young people are forced to live with this alertness, and so when something actually does happen, their instincts take over, and they know what to do,” she said. “And I interpret that as adaptation to a reality that should not exist.”

Polls in recent years have found about three-in-five Americans support stricter gun laws — and young Americans are largely in line with the overall population. A 2023 poll of 18- to 29-year-olds by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School found that 63% support stricter gun laws. It also found that 40% said they worried about falling victim to gun violence.

Mass shootings such as the 2012 killing of 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School and the 2018 slaying of 17 at a Parkland high school have been followed by campaigns for federal gun control measures, but those have largely failed despite the lobbying efforts of groups like March For Our Lives.

While the 1981 Reagan assassination attempt was a “understood by everyone as a complete shock and something that demanded a response,” what unfolded at Saturday’s dinner “was just another day of grim recognition of a pattern and not surprise at all,” Corin said.

“Today, we are living through a pattern that is both more frequent and also more lethal, and yet our political system has become more capable of absorbing these moments without consequence,” she said.

CNN’s Ariel Edwards-Levy, Jennifer Hansler, Ted Barrett, Sarah Ferris, Manu Raju, Lauren Fox, Riane Lumer and Ellis Kim contributed to this report.

Divers find wreck of iconic U.S. ship torpedoed in WWI, killing 131 on board: “Their final resting place is known at last”

April 30, 2026 / 7:41 AM EDT / CBS News

By Stephen Smith Managing Editor
Stephen Smith is a managing editor for CBSNews.com based in New York. A Washington, D.C. native, Steve was previously an editorial producer for the Washington Post, and has also worked in Los Angeles, Boston and Tokyo.

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An iconic United States military ship that was sunk by a German submarine in World War I has been discovered by a diving team off the coast of Britain over a century after it was lost, officials revealed Wednesday. The sinking of the Coast Guard Cutter Tampa in 1918 in the Bristol Channel killed 131 service members, the largest loss of life on any U.S. combat ship during the war.

The long-lost vessel was found by the British diving team Gasperados about 50 miles off Cornwall more than 300 feet deep in the Atlantic Ocean, the Coast Guard confirmed on Wednesday. The diving team had previously announced the discovery, declaring they had “finally cracked it” after a three-year search.

In the summer of 1917, six United States Coast Guard cutters were sent overseas on convoy duty for the war, and the Tampa was the only one that never returned. Under the command of Captain Charles Satterlee, the vessel es­corted 18 convoys, earning a special commendation for exemplary service.

The ship’s logs show that the crew’s morale was high and cited acts of selflessness. For example, an electrician once jumped overboard to rescue a drowning British officer and two medical officers once went to another ship to treat an injured boatswain. The crew even loaned the cutter’s ice cream freezer to another vessel without permission.

But the Tampa’s demise was sealed on the night of September 26, 1918. While sailing through the Bristol Channel toward a Welsh port for more fuel, it was torpedoed by the German submarine UB-91.

Tampa’s wreckage was recently located off the coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom, marking the largest single naval American combat loss of life in World War I. U.S. Coast Guard photo / Gasperados Dive Team

The Tampa sank in less than three minutes. U.S. destroyers and British patrol craft searched for survivors but all they found were a few pieces of debris and two unidentifiable bodies in naval uniforms. All 131 people aboard — 111 Coast Guardsmen, four U.S. Navy personnel and 16 British Navy personnel and civilians– were killed.

“When the Tampa was lost with all hands in 1918, it left an enduring grief in our service,” Adm. Kevin Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard, said in a statement Wednesday. “Locating the wreck connects us to their sacrifice and reminds us that devotion to duty endures. We will always remember them.”

In 2023, the Gasperados Dive Team contacted the Coast Guard about searching for the Tampa, and the military agreed to provide the all-volunteer team with information to help locate the wreck site, including archival images of the deck fittings and the ship’s wheel, bell and weaponry.

After three years of coming up empty, the dive team said last week that it would explore two more final target areas after receiving “new intel.” Three days later, team declared that the Tampa had been found.

“This discovery is the result of three years of research and exploration,” said dive team Leader Steve Mortimer. “Tampa is of huge importance to the United States and the relatives of everyone who died that day. Their final resting place is known at last.”

The Coast Guard said it’s now developing plans for more underwater research and exploration of the ship, using robotics and autonomous systems.

A historical photo of Coast Guard Cutter Tampa, which was lost in 1918 during World War I after being torpedoed by a German submarine. U.S. Coast Guard photo

Other shipwrecks from World War I have been discovered around the globe in recent years.

Last year, nine ships sunk by German torpedoes during World War I were found off the coast of Morocco.

In November 2024, military officials in England announced that a shipwreck discovered off the coast of Scotland was confirmed to be the HMS Hawke, a British cruiser sunk by a torpedo during World War I, killing more than 500 crew members on board.

About a month before that, the German World War I supply ship Titania was discovered by an expedition ship off the coast of Chile.

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King Charles and Queen Camilla to say farewell to Trump and First Lady Melania on last day of US state visit

2026-04-30T10:05:30.729Z / Reuters

By Reuters

April 30, 2026 10:05 AM UTC Updated 1 hour ago

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[1/3]WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 28: Queen Camilla, King Charles III, U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on day two of the State Visit of King Charles III and Queen Camilla to the United States of America, on April 28, 2026 in Washington, DC. Chris Jackson/Pool via REUTERS

WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) – Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla will end a four-day state visit to the U.S. on Thursday with a ​formal farewell with U.S. President Donald Trump and First ‌Lady Melania Trump in Washington.

The king is then expected to lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River in Virginia, a ​sacred site for many Americans where tens of thousands of ​the country’s war dead are buried, as well as ⁠two presidents and some former Supreme Court justices.

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The royal visit ​to the U.S., officially to commemorate the 250th anniversary of America’s ​Declaration of Independence from British rule, came at a time of tensions between Britain and the U.S., with Trump having criticized British Prime Minister Keir ​Starmer for what he says is his lack of help ​in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Charles and Camilla are due to fly to ‌Bermuda ⁠on Thursday evening, after attending events in Virginia.

The centerpiece of the royal visit came on Tuesday, when Charles addressed a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress followed by a state dinner at ​the White House ​hosted by Trump ⁠and the first lady.

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During the visit, Charles stressed the historical military and cultural ties between Britain and ​the U.S., as well as the importance of ​NATO at ⁠a time when Trump has been critical of the Western military alliance’s reluctance to provide military assistance in the Iran war.

On Wednesday ⁠the ​king and queen commemorated victims of the September ​11, 2001, al Qaeda attack on New York City, laying a floral bouquet at ​the memorial where the World Trade Center’s twin towers once stood.

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DeSantis’ redistricting fight gets major boost from his potential GOP successor: ‘Doing the right thing’

April 30, 2026 6:00am EDT / Fox News

Republicans and Democrats are locked in a nationwide gerrymandering battle for control of the House

Byron Donalds backs DeSantis amid Florida redistricting fight

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., says Gov. Ron DeSantis “is doing the right thing.” (Credit: Nicholas Ballasy for Fox News Digital)

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Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., rallied behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis while blasting Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and California Gov. Gavin Newsom over redistricting efforts.

DeSantis unveiled a new congressional map this week that could give Republicans four additional seats. If approved by the Republican-led state legislature, DeSantis would then have to sign it into law before it takes effect in the 2026 midterms.

“Governor DeSantis is doing the right thing,” Donalds told Fox News Digital. “I fully support what he’s doing.”

Following a push led by President Donald Trump, multiple states have advanced similar redistricting efforts. But Democrats argue the strategy could backfire.

REDISTRICTING FIGHT ERUPTS AS MARYLAND DEMOCRATS MOVE TO REDRAW LONE GOP HOUSE SEAT

Rep. Byron Donalds of Naples speaks during CPAC Latino 2025 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., on June 28, 2025. He is running for Florida governor in the 2026 election.(Al Diaz/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service)

Newsom said he hopes Florida’s redistricting effort signals the end of a nationwide push for untapped partisan advantages in redrawn congressional boundaries. Jeffries echoed those concerns, warning DeSantis could put Republican seats at risk.

Donalds said he is not paying attention to criticism from Democrats like Jeffries and Newsom.

“I don’t listen to Hakeem,” he said. “He’s a fake tough guy. I’m not listening to Gavin. He’s a terrible governor, worst in the country.”

“Nobody cares about Gavin,” he added.

FORMER DEMOCRATIC ADVISOR SAYS PARTY’S RHETORIC ON REDISTRICTING IS GETTING ‘A LITTLE OUT OF CONTROL’

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks at a press conference on Department of Homeland Security funding at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4, 2026.(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Jeffries and DeSantis have traded multiple jabs over redistricting, starting with Jeffries’ “F around and find out” warning. DeSantis responded by offering to pay for his trip to Florida, and Jeffries later called him a “lame duck.”

Republicans and Democrats are in a nationwide gerrymandering battle as they vie for control of the House of Representatives ahead of the upcoming elections. Both parties aim to win the House through redistricting.

Donalds argued Democrats have attempted similar map battles in the past, pointing to New York, where a Democratic-drawn congressional map was later struck down by the state’s highest court.

“Democrats have been doing this,” Donalds said. “They’ve been doing it for a long time. They tried to write four Republican members out of New York, and the only thing that stopped them was their court of appeals.”

MARYLAND HOUSE APPROVES NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAP AS SENATE LEADERS WARN OF RISKS

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks on stage during “Networth And Chill With Guest Governor Gavin Newsom” at the 2026 SXSW Conference and Festival at the Hilton Austin in Austin, Texas, on March 15, 2026.(Gary Miller/FilmMagic)

Last week, a congressional redistricting referendum spearheaded by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger passed, handing Virginia Democrats a key advantage.

California, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, Ohio and Virginia have already adopted new congressional maps, redrawing districts ahead of the 2030 census.

Republicans expect to add up to nine seats through redistricting in Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri and Texas. Democrats aim to add nine in California, Virginia and Utah.

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A special session began Tuesday with lawmakers now considering the maps.

Fox News Digital’s Leo Briceno contributed to this report.

Kiera McDonald is a Production Assistant for Fox News Digital.