📊 Mali Violence, Congressional All-Nighters, and Tick Season

Coordinated attacks, dysfunctional governance, and unusual prevalence.

Apr 25, 2026

Greetings! Happy National DNA Day to those celebrating.

Let’s get into today’s top stories.

🌎 GLOBAL NEWS

An ariel view of Bamako, Mali, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo) — Source: Associated Press (AP)

🇲🇱 Mali’s war reaches the capital again. Mali’s long security crisis pushed back into the capital on Saturday. Gunmen attacked several locations in Bamako and other cities. The army said unidentified armed groups targeted locations and barracks. Soldiers were engaged in eliminating attackers. Officials later said the situation was under control. But control is a relative word in Mali. Sustained heavy weapons and automatic rifle fire were heard near Modibo Keïta International Airport. The airport sits about 15 kilometers from Bamako’s center. It is also near an air base used by Mali’s air force. Residents reported helicopters overhead. The American Embassy issued a security alert. It cited explosions and gunfire near Kati and the airport. Kati matters because it houses Mali’s main military base. Military ruler Gen. Assimi Goita lives there. Residents in Sevare and Mopti also reported attacks. Mali is fighting insurgencies tied to al-Qaida, the Islamic State group, and northern separatists. Saturday looked less like one attack than a warning about state reach.

A Palestinian man votes in local elections, the first in two decades in Gaza and the first in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Al-Ubaidiya, West Bank, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) — Source: Associated Press (AP)

🇵🇸 Palestinians vote inside broken civic machinery. Palestinians voted Saturday in local elections that felt both ordinary and impossible. In Deir al-Balah, more than 70K people were eligible to choose municipal leaders. It was the first vote in part of Gaza in more than two decades. It also came as Gaza remains devastated after more than two years of war. Voters used tents and donated buildings as polling places. Election officials called the single-city vote a pilot. The goal was to politically link Gaza with the occupied West Bank. Palestinians see both territories as part of any future state. But any discussion of public trust must name the cage around it. The West Bank remains under apartheid conditions, military occupation, and expanding illegal Israeli settlements. Gaza remains under what Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, and genocide scholars have credibly described as genocide. The International Court of Justice has also ruled Israel’s occupation unlawful and found genocide claims plausible. That makes municipal voting both small and enormous. People were choosing councils for water, roads, and electricity. They were also asserting political life inside systems built to deny it.

🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS

🏛️ Congress keeps governing after bedtime. Congress is turning exhaustion into operating procedure. The Senate stayed up past 3:30 a.m. after another marathon voting session. Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy said he was worried about members’ health. North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer called the dysfunction worse. The late-night grind is not new, but has now become routine. Leaders use overnight sessions to wear down objections and force action, as funding fights keep splintering both chambers. A Homeland Security breakthrough passed the Senate after 2 a.m. by voice vote. House lawmakers woke up angry and rejected the deal. The dispute left reopening plans unresolved. Surveillance powers also collapsed into after-hours improvisation. House leaders tried multiple versions and settled on a 10-day extension after 2 a.m. Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern asked who was running the place. Tennessee Republican Rep. Andy Ogles said the outcome was predictable. Congress is not just burning midnight oil. It is legislating in the smoke.

Garrison Gibson is arrested by federal immigration officers Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher, File) — Source: Associated Press (AP)

🚨 ICE arrests cool after Minneapolis. America’s immigration crackdown just hit a sudden deceleration. Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents dropped nearly 12% after the Minneapolis killings and a leadership shake-up. In December, ICE arrests peaked at nearly 40K nationwide. They were almost as high the next month. Then two American citizens were killed by immigration officers in Minneapolis. Concerns over heavy-handed tactics quickly grew. Top officials were reshuffled. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino was pushed aside after becoming the public face of the raids. Border czar Tom Homan was sent to the Twin Cities to reset enforcement. Arrests fell from 8,347 per week to 7,369 per week in the next five weeks. That is still far above much of Trump’s second-term baseline, also dramatically above Biden-era levels. The decline was not uniform. Arrests rose in Kentucky, Indiana, North Carolina, and Florida, but fell sharply Minnesota and Texas. Enforcement did not stop, but changed tempo after backlash met operational risk.

🗂️ MISC

This undated photo provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a blacklegged tick, also known as a deer tick. (CDC via AP, File) — Source: Associated Press (AP)

🕷️ Tick season arrives ahead of schedule. Tick season appears to be arriving fast, and doctors are uneasy. Unusually high bite numbers are already showing up across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an early advisory this week. Tick bites usually peak in May. CDC Lyme disease expert Alison Hinckley said the data already call for action. Emergency room visits for tick bites are running unusually high. The CDC tracking system shows the highest weekly rates for this time of year since 2017. That pattern holds in every region except the south-central United States. Ticks are arachnids, not insects. They can spread Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and alpha-gal syndrome. Lyme disease is the most common. The CDC estimates 476K people are treated for it each year. Connecticut is already seeing warning signs. State officials said 40% of submitted ticks tested positive for Lyme bacteria. Climate, mild winters, deer, and mice can all help tick populations expand. Tiny nymph ticks are coming next, and they are harder to see.

Participants lay face down on the grass during an integration circle at an ayahuasca retreat in Hildale, Utah, Oct. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski, File) — Source: Associated Press (AP)

🍄 Psychedelic retreats outrun the rules. Psychedelic retreats are becoming a business before becoming a regulated system. Hundreds of outfits now sell multiday drug-assisted experiences around the world. They promise healing, insight, and personal growth. Researchers warn the risks are real. A recent JAMA Network Open paper described potential physical, psychological, and interpersonal harms. No psychedelic is federally approved in America yet. President Trump signed an executive order directing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to speed reviews of promising psychedelic therapies. The only drug to reach the FDA so far, MDMA, was rejected in 2024 as a post-traumatic stress disorder treatment. Retreat drugs can include mushrooms, ayahuasca, MDMA, and LSD. Many remain illegal under federal law. Some operators imply religious exemptions, but only a few groups have formal legal status. Other retreats operate in countries such as Peru and Brazil. Experts say there are no industrywide standards for screening, staffing, emergencies, or follow-up. Yale psychiatrist Dr. John Krystal calls psychedelics a serious medical procedure. The market is selling transformation while safety still depends on the seller.