5 Big News Stories Overnight - Friday, May 1, 2026

New York: Epstein Suicide Note Discovered

The New York Times reports:

A suicide note purportedly written by Jeffrey Epstein in a Manhattan jail has been kept secret for nearly seven years, locked up in a New York courthouse.

A cellmate said he discovered the note in July 2019, after Mr. Epstein was found unresponsive with a strip of cloth around his neck. Mr. Epstein survived that incident but weeks later was found dead in the jail.

The note was eventually sealed by a federal judge as part of the cellmate’s own criminal case, according to documents and interviews. That means investigators scrutinizing Mr. Epstein’s high-profile death lacked what could have been a key piece of evidence.

On Thursday, The New York Times petitioned the judge to unseal the note, which said it was “time to say goodbye,” the cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, recalled. While Mr. Tartaglione mentioned the note on a podcast last year, the scrawled message has remained hidden from public view, even at a time of unprecedented transparency around the government’s investigations into Mr. Epstein. Since December, the Justice Department has released millions of pages of documents related to the sexual predator.

Washington: Hegseth blasts ‘feckless and defeatist’ questioning of Iran war cost

France 24 reports:

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday blasted lawmakers for their “feckless and defeatist” questioning of the cost of the Iran conflict during his first appearance before the House Armed Services Committee since the US and Israel launched the war. The hearing aims to discuss the Trump administration’s bid to boost the 2027 defense budget to a landmark $1.5 trillion. 
 

Soldier killed, 15 injured in Hezbollah drone attacks; IDF strikes in Lebanon

Times of Israel reports:
An Israeli soldier was killed, and three were moderately wounded in two Hezbollah explosive drone attacks in southern Lebanon on Thursday morning, as another drone launched by the terror group struck an artillery position on the border, wounding twelve other troops.

The slain soldier was named as Sgt. Liem Ben Hamo, 19, of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, from Herzliya.

A US-brokered ceasefire appeared to be falling apart as the terror group carried out several other drone and rocket attacks on Thursday. Israel, meanwhile, launched strikes on the terror group in southern Lebanon, saying it was acting against threats. Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes on south Lebanon killed nine people, including two children.

U.S.: Split Screen Economy

Bloomberg reports:

“This is a split-screen economy,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “AI is doing well and the middle class is squeezed.”

Reports from the nation’s tech giants yesterday showed how much money is being thrown at artificial intelligence. On Thursday, that cash-fueled engine was on full display, as new data from the Trump administration indicated inflation-adjusted gross domestic product increased an annualized 2% in the first quarter.

“AI can take the baton from a GDP standpoint,” said Michael Skordeles, head of US economics at Truist. “But the consumer is critical no matter what.” And while those consumers continue to spend, much of that is tied to spiking gas prices caused by the US-Israel war with Iran. Economists though see a risk of spending declining soon, as rising transport costs further inflame inflation. And the related disruption of fertilizer supply augurs higher grocery bills over time.

That in turn, warns Wells Fargo economist Shannon Grein, will lead to less discretionary spending. Simultaneously, job opportunities have dried up across much of the economy as more companies in the tech and financial sectors engage in mass terminations, a phenomenon increasingly driven by AI.

The World Cup has always been political, but it feels even more so now

Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

The history books don’t say whether fans in the 1930s wrote letters to newspapers telling athletes to stick to sports. But they do say that the World Cup has been a political event since the start, nearly a century ago.

Uruguay hosted the first edition in 1930 after its president hosted FIFA’s first president for a barbecue. Across the Atlantic, Benito Mussolini saw the event’s success, then used the next one in 1934 to glorify fascist Italy.

In 1978, Argentina’s junta ran a detention and torture facility less than a mile from the stadium in Buenos Aires that hosted the final. That was 40 years before the controversial trifecta of Russia in 2018; Qatar in 2022; and the United States, Canada, and Mexico this year.

So what’s going on right now isn’t new. It’s just that this time, the headlines are on these shores; and the country in the hot seat has been a democracy for 250 years.