{"id":574738,"date":"2026-04-09T22:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574738\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T22:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:34:13","slug":"going-to-low-key-it-notus-news-of-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574738\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Going to Low-Key It\u2019 – NOTUS \u2014 News of the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good afternoon. This is the Final NOTUS newsletter for April 9, 2026. You can get it in your inbox every day by signing up here<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s free!<\/p>\n

THE LATEST<\/p>\n

Donald Trump said he\u2019s convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to scale back strikes on Lebanon, one of the sticking points that has snagged negotiations between Iran and the U.S. and kept the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed despite an apparent agreement to open it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke with Bibi and he\u2019s going to low-key it. I just think we have to be sort of a little more low-key,\u201d Trump told NBC News<\/a>.Netanyahu said in a post on X<\/a>: \u201cIn light of Lebanon\u2019s repeated requests to open direct negotiations with Israel, I instructed at the Government meeting yesterday to open direct negotiations with Lebanon as soon as possible.\u201dHe did not, however, say that Israel would cease its strikes: \u201cThere is no cease-fire in Lebanon,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Help is on the way: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, during an address in Washington, reflected on his \u201copen and candid\u201d conversation with Trump yesterday. He said that despite a \u201cslow\u201d start, European allies were now in lockstep<\/a> with the U.S. in its war against Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I see, when I look across Europe today, is allies providing a massive amount of support,\u201d he said. \u201cNearly without exception, allies are doing everything the United States is asking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google \u2018the Streisand effect\u2019: First lady Melania Trump held a bizarre press conference in which she addressed, for the first time, her and her husband\u2019s connections to Jeffrey Epstein, effectively launching the saga back into public consciousness after it had largely fallen out of the headlines.<\/p>\n

She denied that she had ever been trafficked by him, lashed out at media outlets that reported on interactions she and the president had with Epstein and his associates and called for Congress to hold a public hearing with his victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cGive these victims their opportunity to testify under oath in front of Congress with the power of sworn testimony,\u201d she said. \u201cEach and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public, if she wishes, and then her testimony should be permanently entered into the congressional record. Then and only then, we will have the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also indicated that there are likely more unindicted co-conspirators<\/a> who should face prosecution, contradicting the DOJ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

THE HILL<\/p>\n

House Republicans blocked Democrats from passing a war powers resolution to restrict Trump\u2019s military action in Iran. The seven-member group, led by Rep. Glenn Ivey, told reporters that they plan to force a vote when Congress returns from recess next week.<\/p>\n

Democrats are already lobbying their GOP counterparts to support the measure, NOTUS\u2019 Kadia Goba reports. Rep. Sara Jacobs, a Democrat from California on the Armed Services Committee, said some Republicans who stomached the conflict when it was an air war may turn against it now that Trump has massed American ground troops \u2014 Marines and Army paratroopers \u2014 in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

A trip to \u2018Alligator Alcatraz\u2019: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz went on a three-hour, unannounced oversight visit to the Florida detention center today. She told reporters that she wasn\u2019t allowed to talk to any of the nearly 1,500 people housed there, despite obtaining privacy-release forms from detainees.<\/p>\n

State emergency-management personnel who gave Wasserman Schultz the tour punted questions about the cost of running the site to an on-site ICE official, who refused to meet with her.<\/p>\n

THE ADMINISTRATION<\/p>\n

Survivors of a deadly Iranian attack that killed six U.S. service members are criticizing the Pentagon\u2019s description of the incident, the deadliest since the war began. They spoke with CBS News<\/a> and took particular issue with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s description of the drone as a \u201csquirter\u201d that snuck through the unit\u2019s defenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cPainting a picture that \u2018one squeaked through\u2019 is a falsehood,\u201d an injured soldier told the network. \u201cI want people to know the unit \u2026 was unprepared to provide any defense for itself. It was not a fortified position.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has put Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on what Bloomberg describes<\/a> as a \u201clow-risk messaging diet,\u201d which has seen the firebrand embrace more broadly popular policies and steer clear of divisive issues, like his anti-vaccine views, during a crucial midterm year.<\/p>\n

The outlet obtained an internal HHS memo issued earlier this year that instructed top officials to tout the department\u2019s efforts to promote fitness and higher-quality foods, tackle health-care fraud and invest in \u201cgold-standard\u201d research, while implicitly steering them away from unpopular changes to the department\u2019s vaccine recommendations.<\/p>\n

THE STATES<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s attorney general is launching a probe into OpenAI following allegations<\/a> that the company\u2019s chatbot, ChatCPT, helped a shooter kill two people last year at Florida State University.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI should exist to supplement, support and advance mankind, not lead to an existential crisis or our ultimate demise,\u201d James Uthmeier said<\/a>. \u201cAs Big Tech rolls out these technologies, they should not, they cannot, put our safety and security at risk.\u201dSTATEN ISLAND? DON\u2019T ASK. <\/p>\n

DC gives Harlem\u2026 Baltimore gives Brooklyn<\/p>\n

\u2014 Cardi B (@iamcardib) April 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Thank you for reading! Today\u2019s newsletter was produced by Kelly Poe and Andrew Burton. If you liked it, please forward it to a friend. If someone shared it with you, please subscribe<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s free! Got a tip or comments to share? Email us at finalnotus@notus.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n