Utah authorities announced on April 1, 2026 that new DNA testing has definitively linked serial killer Ted Bundy to the 1974 abduction and killing of 17‑year‑old Laura Ann Aime. Aime disappeared after leaving a Halloween party on Oct. 31, 1974; hikers found her body about a month later in American Fork Canyon. She was bound, severely beaten, unclothed and investigators found a nylon stocking used to strangle her. Investigators had preserved evidence from the original inquiry and, using forensic methods acquired by the state crime lab in 2023 that can extract usable profiles from small or degraded samples, isolated a single male DNA profile that matched Bundy in a national law‑enforcement database. Bundy, executed in 1989, had previously acknowledged involvement but offered no verifiable details; the new match allowed officials to close the cold case. Utah County sheriff’s officials said the profile will be available to other agencies examining unsolved deaths potentially linked to Bundy. Family members expressed relief that investigators continued work on the case decades later.

A wave of tabloid reports culminating in a Daily Mail investigation on March 31, 2026 has published photographs and chat records alleging that Bryon Noem, husband of former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, led a secret online life in fetish communities including so-called “bimbofication.” The reporting says he shared selfies of himself cross‑dressed with exaggerated prosthetic breasts, made repeated payments to online models (reported totals exceeding $25,000), and messaged performers during Kristi Noem’s tenure in the Trump administration. A webcam performer, using the name Lydia Love, told British media she recognised Bryon and said he paid up to $25 a minute for sessions. Bryon Noem has declined detailed comment, texting only that he will speak “at some point,” and has denied that his activities posed a blackmail risk. Kristi Noem’s team said the family was “devastated” and “blindsided.” National security experts and former intelligence officials quoted in coverage warned such undisclosed activity could create coercion or counterintelligence vulnerabilities. There has been no public criminal or congressional inquiry announced and key elements of the reporting have not been independently verified.

Republican leaders and President Donald Trump signalled a two-track strategy on April 2 to end a nearly seven-week partial shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) while keeping pressure to secure long-term funding for immigration enforcement. Senate and House leaders John Thune and Mike Johnson announced they will first push a bipartisan Senate bill to fund most DHS components — including the Coast Guard, FEMA, CISA and support staff — while excluding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and much of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Republicans plan to pursue financing for ICE and Border Patrol separately through budget reconciliation, a party-line route that could be completed by the June 1 deadline Trump has set. Trump also said he will sign an executive order to pay DHS employees immediately; he previously used a similar order to restore pay for Transportation Security Administration workers amid severe airport delays. The House held only brief pro forma sessions on Thursday and took no substantive action, leaving the timing of final votes uncertain as many lawmakers remain on recess. GOP infighting and procedural limits on reconciliation create risks for the plan’s swift implementation and full resolution of the funding lapse.

A powerful undersea earthquake of magnitude 7.4 struck the Northern Molucca (Maluku) Sea off Ternate, Indonesia, on April 2, 2026, the US Geological Survey said. The quake, later revised down from earlier estimates of 7.8, occurred at a depth of about 35 km with an epicentre roughly 120–127 km west-northwest of Ternate. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and US tsunami authorities issued alerts for coastal areas within 1,000 km, including parts of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia; local agencies recorded small tsunami waves up to about 0.75 m in North Minahasa and smaller sea-level changes elsewhere. Indonesia’s meteorology agency and disaster authorities reported building damage in Ternate, Bitung and Manado, and at least one fatality in North Sulawesi. Dozens of aftershocks were recorded, the largest around magnitude 5.5. Warnings were later lifted after the immediate tsunami threat passed, but authorities urged continued vigilance in coastal communities.

A seven-month-old girl, identified by family as Kaori Patterson-Moore, was fatally struck by a stray bullet in broad daylight on April 1, 2026, in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. Police say the child was in a double stroller with her two-year-old brother when two men on a moped fired several rounds near the corner of Humboldt and Moore streets; her brother suffered a graze wound. The parents and other bystanders took cover inside a nearby bodega where CCTV footage captured the mother discovering the baby’s injuries. The infant was rushed to Woodhull Hospital and pronounced dead. Authorities reported the moped crashed a short distance away; one man was injured, taken to hospital and is being held as a person of interest, while the driver remains at large and is the subject of a “massive” NYPD manhunt. Police described the shooting as likely gang-related and said the firearm has not been recovered. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the killing a devastating tragedy and urged public assistance as investigators continue to seek the second suspect.