Mamdani says if he speaks to King Charles, he'd tell him to return controversial gem to India

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that if he has a chance to speak with King Charles during a 9/11 memorial event in New York City on Wednesday, he will ask the British monarch to return a controversial 105.6-carat diamond to India.

Mamdani was taking questions from reporters when he was asked what he’d say if King Charles happened to stop and chat at the event, a wreath laying at Ground Zero to honor those killed on 9/11 ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks.

"You know, if I was to speak to the king separately from that, I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-i-Noor diamond," Mamdani said, after first saying that he was focused primarily on the evening's memorial event.

The diamond, which is now set in the crown of the Queen Mother that was worn by Queen Elizabeth, the wife of King George VI and mother to Queen Elizabeth II, has a controversial history.

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The Koh-i-Noor, which means "Mountain of Light," was likely discovered in South India in the 13th century and is believed to have changed hands countless times over the following centuries.

In 1849, the gem wound up in Britain’s possession following its annexation of the Punjab and forcing its 10-year-old king to sign the Treaty of Lahore, requiring him to hand sovereignty — and the diamond — over to the British, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

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The diamond became part of Britain’s Crown Jewels and was worn by several queens before it was set in the front of the crown of the Queen Mother worn by Queen Elizabeth, in which the gem has remained as it sits on display in the Tower of London.

India is one of several countries that have pushed for Britain to return the gem. Other countries laying claim to the famous diamond include Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.

So far, neither Britain nor the royal family has given any indication that the diamond would be returned.

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May Day protests to take place Friday as agitators across the US push 'Workers Over Billionaires' motto

Agitators and protesters are expected to gather in cities across the country Friday for May Day, boycotting work, school and shopping in demonstrations driven by the "Workers Over Billionaires" motto.

Nearly 500 organizations are planning more than 750 events, including roughly 200 virtual events, that will take place in New York, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles and other metropolitan cities.

"On May 1, 2026, workers, students, and families rally, march, and take action across the country to demand a nation that puts workers over billionaires, with many refusing business as usual through No School. No Work. No Shopping," May Day Strong, which is the main organizer of the demonstrations, describes the event. 

May Day’s roots trace back to the 19th Century, when Marxists, socialists and labor unions called for a day of strikes in Paris and later became a national holiday in the Soviet Union after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

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The first May Day protest occurred in 1886, with Chicago at the center of the demonstrations. At the time, several hundred thousand unions, socialists, anarchists and reformers took to the streets to advocate for the eight-hour workday. 

Several days later, the protests turned deadly. 

On May 3, 1886, violent agitators at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company clashed with police, who opened fire on the crowd, killing at least two, according to reports.

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The following day at Haymarket Square in Chicago, an unknown agitator threw a bomb at police, killing one officer instantly and leading to a violent battle that killed several more law enforcement officers and protesters. 

The riot became known as the "Haymaker Affair," and the events led to the executions and hangings of the Haymarket Martyrs, a trial which is still debated over injustice and controversy today. 

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has already endorsed the events taking place this Friday, saying that "meaningful solidarity and community resistance" are cornerstones of the historic demonstration.

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"Encouraging participation allows Chicagoans to honor our history while advocating for our future," Johnson said. "We look forward to a day of meaningful solidarity and community resistance to the forces trying to tear us apart."

"The history of May Day in America is rooted in Chicago," Johnson added. "It was in our city that workers organized around the simple demand of an eight-hour workday and raised the consciousness of a gilded nation through the Haymarket Strike." 

With the central theme surrounding the American worker against the billionaire class, economists are skeptical that a single-day boycott has any impact at all on large companies and the so-called elite.

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"If you're talking about [non-perishable activities], like going to the movies, you'll go see the same movie on Saturday," University of Maryland Economics Professor Emeritus and former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission Peter Morici told Fox News Digital. 

Morici noted that if consumers boycott purchases for a single day, they will purchase the same products and shop at the same venues regardless of a one-day strike.

"Somebody will go to store B instead of store A," Morici explained. "All this is a bad storm and a way for the left wing getting everybody riled up."

"It's not a hit on the billionaires," Morici added. "You're angry about your circumstances. So what do you do? You burn the place down and make your circumstances worse. The local shops that are going without a day. The very people they want us to patronize are the people that could get hurt."

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Speaker Johnson one step closer to renewing controversial spy program after conservatives fall in line

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is one step closer to averting a lapse in a controversial surveillance program after GOP privacy hawks fell in line to back a procedural measure amid weeks of infighting.

House lawmakers approved a test vote teeing up a three-year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for a vote on final passage as early as Wednesday evening. The procedural measure also includes a Senate-passed budget resolution funding immigration enforcement for the rest of President Donald Trump's term.

GOP leadership held the vote open for more than two hours as they worked to flip dozens of conservative holdouts. In order to get the rule adopted, leadership agreed to punt consideration of a third piece of legislation known as the farm bill, which includes agriculture and nutrition priorities.

Every Republican present ultimately voted yes during the marathon session in a major victory for Johnson. He could afford to lose just a handful of GOP defections given House Republicans’ razor-thin majority.

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The successful procedural vote came after a sustained lobbying campaign from the Trump administration and Republican leadership to sell GOP privacy hawks on an extension of the spy law.

"This is by far the most collaborative effort that I've seen on FISA, and we've had a number of these kinds of fights," Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, a leading FISA skeptic, told reporters earlier this week. "So I think it's a very collaborative work product, and that's why I say I support it."

"It's not to say I don't think there's other reforms that I would support, but I think this is a good win, and we should focus on a broader set of reforms that apply way beyond the scope of 702," the Ohio Republican added.

House conservatives also appeared to soften their opposition after leadership included language permanently banning central bank digital currencies (CBDC) in the procedural measure.

GOP privacy hawks have long pushed for adding a CBDC ban to a legislative vehicle, casting it as a necessary effort to ward off government surveillance.

But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has warned that any FISA renewal bill with CBDC language is "dead on arrival" in the Senate. 

"They know that," Thune told reporters Tuesday, referring to House Republicans.

The Senate could also move to pass a rival FISA plan and force the House to swallow it ahead of Thursday’s deadline to extend the spy law.

"FISA is critical to our national defense and our national security," Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told Fox News. "If we lose FISA, we lose the ability to defend this country the way that it should be defended. We use that information to find out what the bad guys are doing, where they're at, what they're looking to attack, what their strategies are."

"I know we've got folks out there that are concerned about protecting Americans and so forth," Rounds added. "We really need them to take a look at the other side of this, which is, are you going to hurt Americans?"

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Johnson is also seeking to clear the Senate budget resolution as soon as Wednesday evening.

Leadership has scheduled a vote on the measure, but it is not clear if House Republicans will support the resolution without modifications. Democrats are expected to line up in opposition to the measure, citing concerns about funding immigration enforcement absent sweeping reforms.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is still vowing to strip out controversial pesticide language from the farm bill, arguing it would block lawsuits against some pesticide manufacturers.

"On behalf of all the moms and dads that aren’t in office, I am not going to be bullied into supporting a bill that is providing protections and immunity to corporations that are responsible for giving children and adults cancer," Luna wrote on social media. "This is literally above party affiliation."

Trump has urged House Republicans to quickly pass the Senate’s budget blueprint to fund immigration enforcement.

"It is imperative that Congress immediately fund DHS and its critical operations to protect the Homeland," the White House Office of Management and Budget wrote in a memo to Hill offices on Tuesday that was obtained by Fox News Digital. "Failure to pass the budget resolution will jeopardize paychecks for the DHS personnel that keep the Homeland safe."

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Father of slain student Sheridan Gorman calls death a 'failure' after illegal immigrant's not guilty plea

Jose Medina-Medina, the illegal immigrant accused of killing college student Sheridan Gorman in Chicago, pleaded not guilty to all counts on Wednesday during his arraignment hearing.

Medina-Medina, 25, was arrested after he allegedly killed Gorman, an 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student, on March 19. According to the Department of Homeland Security, he illegally entered the U.S. from Venezuela in 2023, when he was apprehended but released into the country by the Biden administration.

During his arraignment on Wednesday, Medina-Medina pleaded not guilty to murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, aggravated discharge of a firearm, and illegal possession of a weapon. He also faces a federal charge of illegally possessing a firearm.

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Thomas Gorman, Sheridan's father, said after the hearing that her death "was not just a senseless tragedy. It was preventable."

"There were laws already in place, there were mechanisms already in place, and somehow they were not enforced in a way to prevent this from happening. This is not a policy debate, this is a failure," he said. "It's an empty seat at the table. It is silence where there used to be laughter. It's waking up every day knowing that your child is gone."

Sheridan's mother, Jessica Gorman, also addressed reporters after the hearing, remembering the daughter she described as "beautiful on the inside and out."

"She really mattered. And we're going to get justice for her," Jessica Gorman said.

Prosecutors revealed during an earlier detention hearing for Medina-Medina on April 3 that Gorman was with her friends at a Rogers Park pier when she looked around a lighthouse and saw Medina-Medina was there. Gorman then walked back toward her friends and mouthed, "There's a man behind the lighthouse," at which point Medina-Medina began chasing them.

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As Gorman and her friends were running away, Medina-Medina shot her in the upper back, according to prosecutors. Her friends continued running until they found a place to hide, then when they went to check on Gorman, she was unresponsive.

An arrest report obtained by Fox News Digital states that after the shooting, Medina-Medina was seen on video in his apartment building's lobby waiting for an elevator while he wasn't masked. A building engineer told police that he knew the suspect who had a "very distinct limp and gait."

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Images of the suspect were sent to a police database, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection identified the suspect as Medina-Medina. He was arrested at his apartment in Rogers Park, according to the arrest report.

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Retired Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy told Fox News Digital the video evidence against Medina-Medina is "extremely strong."

"Video evidence is extremely strong, because people can see with their own two eyes, they're not relying on the representations of a prosecutor or defense attorney. They can make their own judgment. In this case, there was heavy emphasis put on the video evidence. And I think this speaks for itself," Roy said.

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"Fortunately, in this case, there were cameras within the area of the murder and, you know, they were on it right away, so there wasn't a time gap," he added.

While Medina-Medina was in Colombia, he was shot in the head, which resulted in the loss of a portion of his brain and skull, leaving him to relearn basic functions, his attorney said. Medina-Medina's attorney said he has the brain development of a child and cannot read or write.

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Medina-Medina's attorney also said he suffers from epilepsy and still has bullet fragments lodged in his brain. The murder suspect turned himself in at the Texas border in 2023, where he was held in detention before being released. His attorney said that Medina-Medina had requested to be sent back to Colombia, where his mother had moved, but he was transported by bus to Chicago.

While Medina-Medina was in a shelter, he contracted tuberculosis, according to his attorney. He was treated for tuberculosis after being arrested on murder charges, which led to a delay in his detention hearing.

Court documents obtained by Fox News Digital show that Medina-Medina told officials he was living at Leone Beach Park fieldhouse in Rogers Park in 2023, which was being used as a city-sponsored shelter for migrants.

Medina-Medina was arrested in 2023 and charged with shoplifting after he allegedly stole just over $130 in merchandise from a Macy's in downtown Chicago. He failed to appear for court hearings related to that case, and an arrest warrant remained active until the alleged murder.

Fox News' Philip Bodinet and Patrick McGovern contributed to this report.

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Bears draft pick's sister, Kiera Thieneman, leans into attention with highlights from show stealing night

Last week’s NFL Draft produced, as is tradition during the annual event, a viral star. Kiera Thieneman, the sister of Oregon safety and Bears first-round pick Dillon Thieneman, was ready for the spotlight and it found her.

During an interview with the family on Thursday night in Pittsburgh after her brother was taken with the No. 25 overall pick, she stole the show. Clips of her looking on as her father answered questions were all over social media.

Kiera then found herself in Friday’s Screencaps, an honor that underscores the impact she had on this year’s NFL Draft. The reported member of Kappa Kappa Gamma at Purdue is now in the history books alongside many of the other draft-night attention grabbers.

Where she takes the newfound attention is really up to her. Look no further than former WAG Gia Duddy, who stole the show during her then-boyfriend Will Levis’ draft slide.

She’s had a much better career as an influencer than her ex has had as a quarterback in the NFL. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to turn the viral attention into success. Not everyone makes it. The NFL is a tough business.

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The first step to making it work is leaning into it. On Monday, Kiera did that. She announced that she’s "officially a bears fan!" and had a behind-the-scenes draft-night highlight reel to go along with the announcement.

That's a strong follow-up to first-round draft night success. I don’t know if this is the result of studying film or going off of instincts, but in either case, it's the sort of skillful display you're hoping to see out of a rookie.

There's a long way to go before the season gets here and stealing the spotlight on Thursday night during the draft doesn’t guarantee anything. Everything in the NFL is earned and nobody's going to hand you anything.

Now is the time for the Thienemans to get to work and prepare for their rookie season in Chicago. Best of luck to both of them as they enter the NFL.

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89-year-old man allegedly opens fire with shotgun in Greek capital, injuring 4

An 89-year-old gunman allegedly opened fire inside two Athens government buildings Tuesday, wounding at least four people in a rare outbreak of violence that rattled Greece’s tightly controlled gun landscape and ended with his arrest hours later.

Police said the suspect first stormed a social security office, went up to the fourth floor and fired, striking an employee in the leg. Officials said the gunman warned one worker to duck before pulling the trigger, though he didn't appear to specifically target the employee he hit.

"He went in, went up to the fourth floor, raised his shotgun, told an employee to duck and hit another one," Alexandros Varveris, head of Greece’s National Social Security Fund, told state broadcaster ERT radio.

The wounded man was treated at the scene, but the suspect fled and later opened fire again inside a courthouse in another part of the city, where several people were wounded.

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Authorities said at least three women, all court employees, suffered minor injuries from ricocheting pellets, while media reported that a fourth woman was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Surveillance video aired by local media showed a man calmly walking down the street carrying what appeared to be a short-barreled shotgun.

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Police later arrested the suspect near the city of Patra, about 130 miles west of Athens, and recovered the weapon.

The motive remains unclear, though state media reported the man left documents behind at the courthouse outlining his grievances.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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US Middle East ally strips citizenship from 69 in crackdown on pro-Iran support

Bahrain stripped citizenship from dozens of nationals Monday after accusing them of promoting pro-Iran sentiment online, marking the latest use of a controversial law that allows the government to revoke nationality for security concerns.

The interior ministry said 69 people — including some relatives of those accused — lost their citizenship for allegedly "glorifying" hostile Iranian actions and maintaining ties with foreign entities.

Bahrain said the revocations were carried out under Article 10(3) of its nationality law, which allows authorities to strip citizenship from individuals deemed to have harmed the kingdom’s interests or violated their duty of loyalty. Officials said those targeted — along with some of their family members — were all of non-Bahraini origin, a category that typically includes naturalized citizens rather than native-born nationals.

The move follows a directive issued days earlier by Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who ordered officials to act against those who "betrayed the nation" or undermined its security and stability, including reviewing whether individuals should retain their citizenship.

The Kingdom of Bahrain Tuesday sentenced five people to life in prison and 25 more to 10 years on charges of spying for Iran. The prosecution said 25 others were separately sentenced to 10 years each for supporting Iran’s "terrorist acts" in Bahrain.

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The decision comes as Bahrain grapples with fallout from Iran’s recent missile and drone strikes across the Gulf, including attacks on U.S. military assets in the kingdom. Officials have cast the citizenship revocations as a national security measure aimed at suppressing domestic support for Iran and cutting off suspected ties to foreign networks.

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Relations between Bahrain and Iran long have been strained, with Bahrain accusing Iran of backing militant networks and unrest inside the kingdom. The two countries severed diplomatic ties in 2016, and Bahrain’s role as host of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet has placed it on the front lines of the current confrontation, with Iranian strikes hitting near the base during recent retaliatory attacks.

Bahrain also is home to a sizable community of citizens of Iranian descent — often referred to as the Ajam — estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands.

Authorities have linked the crackdown to a wider campaign against what they describe as Iran-backed influence operations, including arrests of individuals accused of sharing videos of Iranian strikes, posting pro-Iran content, or communicating with foreign groups. Bahrain also has reported uncovering cells tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which officials say were tasked with gathering intelligence on sensitive sites inside the kingdom.

Similar crackdowns have been reported across the Gulf since the start of the conflict, with hundreds of people arrested in countries including the United Arab Emirates for posting videos, images or commentary about Iranian attacks. Authorities have cited national security and public order laws, warning that even sharing footage of strikes could expose sensitive information or fuel unrest.

The measures come amid a broader regional trend of governments tightening citizenship rules on security grounds. Kuwait, for example, has revoked nationality from more than 70,000 people since 2024, with officials there saying the program is aimed at addressing fraud.

The move has drawn criticism from the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, whose advocacy director Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei called it "the beginning of a dangerous era of repression" and said the decisions were imposed without legal safeguards or the right of appeal.

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