The Headlines - King Charles Visits Trump as U.S.-U.K. Tensions Flare, and Airlines Ask White House for Help

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

Plus, how millions of people could become Canadian.  Here’s what we’re covering: King Charles Will Speak of ‘Reconciliation and Renewal’ During Address to Congress, by Michael D. Shear Charges Against Assassination Suspect Based on Shotgun Shell and a Screed, by Devlin Barrett, Zach Montague and Michael Levenson Investigators Seeking Attacker’s Motive Comb Through an Archive of Posts, by Amy Qin and Aric Toler Budget Airlines Ask Trump Administration for Billions as Fuel Costs Rise, by Karoun Demirjian and Lauren Hirsch Sergey Brin Moves to the Right, With a ‘MAGA Girlfriend’ by His Side, by Theodore Schleifer and Kate Conger Have a Canadian Great-Great Grandparent? It Could Make You Canadian., by Vjosa Isai and Matina Stevis-Gridneff Tune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, April 28th. Here's what we're covering. In Washington, King Charles III is making a state visit to the U.S., and it comes at a delicate time for the U.S.-UK. relationship. The trip was in the works for months. It's intended to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence. But there's a new weight on it now given the tensions that have flared between the two countries over the war in Iran. British Prime Minister referred to it as the U.S.'s' latest war of choice, that infuriated President Trump, who in turn called the Prime Minister a coward for not joining in. Now, British officials tell the times they hope the king can help smooth things over with the U.S. Trump has long been a fan of the monarchy and called the king a fantastic man. The centerpiece of Charles's trip will be a speech this afternoon on Capitol Hill, and it's only the second time in history that a British monarch has addressed a joint session of Congress. According to a preview of his remarks, Charles plans to say that the U.S. and Britain have, quote, always found ways to come together,

and he will highlight cooperation around NATO and the war in Ukraine. After the speech, Trump will host a state banquet for the king and Queen Camilla at the White House, and tomorrow the royals will travel to New York for a series of other events. The first count is attempted assassination of the president of the United States. Yesterday, prosecutors charged the man, they say, tried to carry out an attack at the White House correspondence dinner. Violence has no place in civic life. It cannot and will not be used to disrupt democratic institutions. Acting, Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters that the suspect, 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen, could face life in prison for storming a security checkpoint at the gala with multiple weapons. According to a federal affidavit, one agent who was wearing a bulletproof vest was shot in the chest during the attack, though the document did not say who'd shot him.

At the moment, authorities are still trying to establish what exactly motivated the alleged assassination attempt. The Times has learned that federal authorities are looking into whether some political posts on the social media platform, Blue Sky, are linked to the suspect. Some of the posts, which my colleagues reviewed, called President Trump a sociopathic mob boss and said his administration, quote, lies like it breathes. The username on the account was Cold Force, and writings that authorities say Alan left behind were signed off, Cole Cold Force friendly federal assassin, Alan. Meanwhile. If you look at the video of the gunman, he essentially tried to just sprint past security. get inside, essentially bum-rush the whole infrastructure designed to protect everyone there.

My colleague Devlin Barrett has been looking into security at the dinner and concerns about the effectiveness of the president's secret service detail, given that this appears to be the third attempt on his life. He makes it some steps past the first layer of security. But what happens very quickly, as you can see on the video, is despite how quickly the man is moving, he's very quickly stopped and tackled and handcuffed by the Secret Service. That all takes place in just a matter of seconds. And when you break down what actually happened and talk to security officials, what we've been told is that, you know, as far as we can tell right now, everything worked as far as the security perimeter that's designed to stop threats like this. And they did stop

this threat. He never even made it onto the floor where the ballroom was, where this event was happening. As the war in Iran stretches into its ninth week, one of the very visible strains on the global economy has been the effect on airlines. The price of jet fuel has doubled. The airline Lufthansa has canceled 20,000 flights scheduled for the summer in order to cut costs. United Airlines says it's also canceling some flights and raising prices. And budget airlines in the U.S. are now asking the White House for help. Yesterday, a trade group, representing those airlines, said it was asking the Trump administration for $2.5 billion to help offset higher fuel costs. The group said the airlines need the money to help stabilize

operations and keep ticket prices down. The White House hasn't said whether or not it's considering the request. Some budget airlines were struggling even before the war. Spirit, for example, is in its second bankruptcy in two years, and a lawyer for the company said last week that it could run out of cash soon. To try and stay afloat, it's now in separate negotiations with the Trump administration to secure a loan worth up to half a billion dollars, a deal that could result in the government owning up to 90 percent of the airline. That proposals faced bipartisan backlash in Congress. Republican Senator Ted Cruz called it an absolutely terrible idea, and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren asked, quote, what did the American people get out of this taxpayer bailout? The White House could

go around Congress, though. According to people familiar with the spirit negotiations, the administration has considered invoking the Defense Production Act to push it through. That would require President Trump to determine that bailing out spirit is a matter of national security. Silicon Valley has long had a reputation as a liberal hub, but in the last few years, a number of tech titans have been shifting to the right. Elon Musk, of course, went from saying he voted for President Biden to throwing himself full on into the Trump administration. Mark Zuckerberg, who President Trump once said should be jailed for life, became a guest at Mar-a-Lago and Trump's inauguration.

And the most recent billionaire immersing themselves in politics with a right-word tilt is Sergei Brin, the co-founder of Google. Sergey Brin has gotten very disillusioned with California politics specifically. He gave us a statement where he said, I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don't want California to end up in the same place. My colleague, Theodore Schleifer, has been covering Brin's shift.

He says the tech mogul once donated to liberal causes, but has seemed to grow more Trump-friendly and Republican curious recently. And he's particularly angry about California's proposed tax on billionaires. He's been throwing his money and influence into efforts to defeat it. We report in the story that all of this political engagement coincides with a new relationship he has with a woman named Geraldine Gilbert Soto or Gigi, who is very, very vocally conservative. She herself is called Trump her bestie.

She has shown photos of Sergey Brin wearing a red maga hat. She brought him to meet Ben Shapiro, the conservative podcaster in Florida last year. They do a lot of political stuff together, including attending a Trump tech dinner at the White House. So they just are really inseparable when it comes to politics. So the reason all this matters is that Sergey Brin is not just thinking things he is doing things. You know, he is one of the biggest political donors in the country. He's now put in over

$55 million into California politics the cycle. He is also organizing fellow billionaires to get involved. That's why all this stuff matters, because, you know, it's one man, one vote. But when you have $270 billion in net worth, you have a little bit more influence than average. And finally, you could soon be Canadian. Now, that's if, and here's the fine print, you can prove you have a direct Canada-born ancestor. The country has recently opened a route to citizenship for people who can show that lineage, and you can go pretty far back to do it, like a great-grandparent or even a great-grade or beyond. Millions of people could potentially qualify, and it's already attracting a lot of Canada hopefuls.

At the start of the year, the number of successful applications from U.S. nationals for Canadian citizenship by descent rose 50% from the year before. The change in policy is a result of a legal fight, and the process can be very bureaucratic, but the more inclusive pathway stands in stark contrast to other countries that have been tightening their rules. Italy, for example, used to offer citizenship by dissent without any generational limit, but it's recently cut that down to only people who have an Italian parent or grandparent. To apply for Canadian citizenship, people will have to show official documents or record,

to establish their ancestry. Genetic testing doesn't do it. And there's early evidence that people are beginning to try and dig all of that stuff up. The Nova Scotia archives used to get about 250 requests a year. It got 1,500 in just the last few months. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.