Global National: April 27, 2026 | Suspected WHCD gunman charged with attempting to assassinate Trump

♪♪

Charges this Monday night in this weekend's alleged assassination attempt against the US President. Why the White House is now lashing out at the media.

This kind of rhetoric about the President, the First Lady and his supporters

is completely deranged.

Plus, how Saturday's shooting is sparking security fears as the King and Queen arrive in the US. Massive cost cutting at Rogers, why the telecom giant is offering buyouts to thousands of employees. On the eve of the federal fiscal update,

why the government says it has good news. Plus, protecting kids online.

Time is up. We don't want any delays anymore.

Why parents and children are pushing the government to take urgent action.

Global National with Donna Friesen, reporting tonight, Jeff Semple.

Good evening and thank you for joining us. A 31-year-old California man appeared in court today charged with attempting to assassinate U.S. President Donald Trump. Investigators say he was heavily armed when he breached a security perimeter and opened fire during the White House Correspondents dinner in Washington on Saturday.

Make no mistake, this was an attempted assassination of the President of the United States with the defendant making clear what his intent was and that intent was to bring down as many of the high-ranking cabinet officials as he could.

This marks the third alleged assassination attempt against Trump in just the past two years. As Heather Yerkes-West reports from Washington, the White House is now lashing out at the media.

Cole Thomas Allen charged with trying to assassinate the U.S. president after a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday night.

That act, that horrible act was stopped because of the courage and professionalism of law

enforcement.

Officials will meet this week to review protection protocols around the president, who has now survived three assassination attempts. In a fiery media briefing, Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt said Democrats and the media were to blame.

This hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump, day after day after day for 11 years, has helped to legitimize this violence

and bring us to this dark moment.

While the President called for unity and praised journalists in the immediate aftermath of Saturday's shooting, he had harsh words for 60 Minutes correspondent Nora O'Donnell soon after.

I read the manifesto. You know, he's a sick person, but you should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I'm not any of those things. Mr. President, these are the government's words. Excuse me.

You shouldn't be reading that in 60 minutes. You're a disgrace.

First lady Melania Trump taking issue with a joke made last week by Jimmy Kimmel.

First lady Melania is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.

The president and first lady both calling for Kimmel to be fired. Melania Trump posting on X, his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America. It's time for ABC to take a stand.

The temperature needs to be turned down on all fronts, starting with the office of the president and his spokespeople in terms of reaction, and then also others who have influence in the media.

All of this happening as King Charles III and his wife Queen Camilla begin their visit here in Washington. Following the shooting there were calls from some in the UK government for the visit to be cancelled. But after a last minute security review Sunday, Buckingham Palace determined it would be safe for the visit to proceed.

Jeff? All right, Heather. And the King has now arrived there in Washington, so what should we expect from his visit this

week?

Yeah, Jeff, this four-day state visit began with a red carpet arrival ceremony at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, before heading to the White House where plans include afternoon tea and a garden party with 600 guests. Tomorrow the King is expected to address Congress, becoming only the second British monarch to do so. The visit is meant to celebrate the 250th anniversary of US independence, but it comes at a tenuous time for US-UK relations.

Trump supports the monarch, but has been at odds with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the US and Israeli-led war in Iran. There is also this cloud of the Epstein files that neither the president nor the king will be able to shake during this visit. With the king's own brother implicated in the documents, advocates have called on the

king to apologize to Jeffrey Epstein's victims while he's here.

Jeff?

Heather Eriks West in Washington. Thank you, Heather. Turning to breaking news now. Global News has learned that Canadian telecom giant Rogers is offering buyouts to thousands of employees as part of a major cost-cutting campaign. Our Mackenzie Gray joins us now from Ottawa.

So Mackenzie, what have you learned?

A senior source within Rogers Communication, Jeff, has confirmed to Global News that the company has launched a widespread voluntary buyout program for nearly 10,000 employees, including in their internet, wireless and cable divisions, but the sports and media sides, plus their unionized employees are not included. Rogers, which employs nearly 25,000 people, benefits from substantial federal protections

in the telecommunications field, but they, alongside Bell and Telus, control over 80 percent of the telco business in Canada. But even then, Rogers has long said that that side of the business is less lucrative compared to other ventures promising they would cut capital spending by roughly 30% this year, blaming government regulations. In a statement, Rogers told Global News they're taking steps to adjust their cost structure

to reflect the current business environment. Markets have generally been pleased with Rogers' recent moves. Their stocks up 40% year over year, and they made $438 million in the first quarter alone. In 2025, they added nearly 1,000 new employees, largely due to becoming the majority owners

of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the parent company of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Raptors. They also own 100% of the Toronto Blue Jays, whose run to the World Series saw their media revenues substantially increase. But their media expenses are also

going up big time with a new NHL national TV deal set to kick in next season. Costing $11 billion over 12 years, Jeff, double the past price.

Mackenzie Gray in Ottawa. Thanks. The Prime Minister has announced plans for this country's first sovereign wealth fund. Called the Canada Strong Fund, Mark Carney says it's meant to help finance major nation-building projects. Ordinary Canadians will be able to invest. But as Jillian Piper reports, there are still many questions and concerns over how it will work.

With a nod to a project that defined Canadian history, Mark Carney promising to give Canadians a stake in the future.

So today, we're proud to announce a new pillar of our plan, the Canada Strong Fund, Canada's

first national sovereign wealth fund.

The fund will own portions of major Canadian projects, including in energy, mining, technology and infrastructure. But Carney had no details on specific criteria.

There are certain requirements for projects of national interest, a designation and others, so it wouldn't be restricted to that. In my judgment, we'll consult on the specifics of that, so it's a broader range.

There's no timeline for when Ottawa's initial $25 billion will be spent, with Carney hoping to also partner with the private sector. National funds exist in Norway and several Gulf states, but one key difference is that Canada's fund will also allow individual citizens to invest, with Carney suggesting those contributions

would be protected from any losses.

We will make it easy for individual Canadians to invest in the fund.

But how that will actually work, the government won't say.

The details of the funds, how it's going to be, the liquidity, there's a lot of very relevant questions you have, but I would say this would be for a later time.

Allowing individual Canadians to invest with no downward risk means the government could end up using taxpayers' money if they invest in a loser.

Hopefully they're able to find fixes for these problems so that they're not creating sets of winners and losers.

The fund will operate as an independent crown corporation, but Conservative leader Pierre Pauliev is concerned about who exactly will benefit.

He wants to put another $25 billion on the national credit card to gamble on a liberal

slush fund that will enrich liberal insiders at the expense of hard-working Canadians.

The Finance Minister is estimating it will take months for the fund to be up and running, but the government is promising to provide some more details in the Spring Economic Statement

on Tuesday. Jeff?

Jillian Piper in Ottawa. Thanks Jillian Piper in Ottawa. Thanks, Jillian.

♪♪

The Liberals welcomed their newest MPs into the House of Commons today, after winning three critical by-elections earlier this month to give Mark Carney's government a majority. Newcomers Dolly Begum and Danielle Martin were sworn in after winning their respective seats

in the Toronto area. Well, Tatiana August is a familiar face to the party. She won her Quebec riding of Terrebonne by just one vote in last year's election until the Supreme Court ordered a redo. August then won her seat again by more than 700 votes. The Carney government is also preparing to table its spring economic statement tomorrow

afternoon. And despite months of economic uncertainty, the Prime Minister says the update will contain good news, a much lower than expected federal deficit. But as David Akin reports, the devil is in the details.

There will be good news tomorrow with the spring update on the fiscal situation.

Indeed, for the first 11 months of the 2025-2026 fiscal year, the deficit is $25.5 billion. That's less than a third of the $78 billion deficit forecasted in November's budget.

I think when people saw those numbers last fall, they saw them as being elevated and quite concerned about it. So the government coming, showing deficits that are lower, would be a good thing.

Former Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page says the lower than expected deficit is a result of the government being unable to spend the money it wanted to spend in the five months of the fiscal year left after it tabled the budget in the fall.

There's not that much time in that fiscal year to get that money out the door.

The Prime Minister explained it differently.

Because we're good fiscal managers.

The spring economic statement will contain updated targets on the plan to cut the size of the civil service. But experts are also hoping it explains how the government will find billions of dollars it needs for new spending on defense, spending that will have to happen if Canada is to meet its commitment to hit the NATO target of spending 5% of GDP on defense by 2035. Page says the government has not yet provided enough detail on its plans to meet that target.

I think we need to see a spending line in the fiscal update on national defense.

The other big economic variable, oil prices. As an oil producing country, high oil prices swell government coffers. But they could also boost inflation. Tuesday's budget update is expected to explain how the government will manage that uncertainty.

Jeff.

David Akin in Ottawa. Thanks David. And turning to tragic news from Toronto. A six-year-old girl has died after falling from an apartment window. Police were called to the city's North York neighbourhood just after 8pm yesterday. They found the child dead after falling from her bedroom window. Neighbours say she lived on the 28th floor.

An autopsy has now been ordered and the death is not considered suspicious. The push to protect kids online coming up. The growing calls for the federal government to act. Plus, from tech bros to foes. Why Elon Musk and the head of OpenAI

are duking it out in court. The federal government is facing mounting pressure to introduce its long-awaited online harms legislation to protect Canadian kids. The original bill died on the order paper after parliament was dissolved last year ahead of the election. Since then, safety concerns have been compounded by the advance of AI chatbots.

Today, child advocates, parents and many children themselves took to Parliament Hill with a message. Tarina Isry reports.

Canadian parents and children marched on Parliament Hill

demanding the federal government stop dragging its feet on the online harms bill.

I only have one message for the M.P.s and members of the government. Time is up. We don't want any delays anymore.

They want Ottawa to speed up the introduction of the legislation, saying it's long overdue and even more urgent in the age of A.I. There's no other product that's allowed to be on the market that harms our kids, that makes them sick or causes a death and gets a free pass.

The advocacy group Children First Canada organized the rally and wants stronger industry standards, an independent watchdog

and a duty for tech companies to report if kids are in danger.

Unregulation on AI or on social media in general can harm kids in really bad ways as we've seen for example Tumblr rage.

On Friday the head of OpenAI apologized to the BC community for failing to notify police about the school shooters disturbing activity on chat GPT describing scenarios involving gun violence. It's not clear if the new bill will cover AI chatbots. Canada says it's seriously considering new age limits on social media, something Australia, Denmark and Greece have all brought in.

One province isn't waiting for the federal government to act.

And that is why our government will ban social media and AI chat bots for

children and youth in Manitoba. Critics of social media bans say kids can usually find a way around them but it's becoming increasingly apparent that Canadians are no longer willing to accept the status quo of largely letting big tech try to regulate itself.

The trial centers on the birth of chat GPT maker OpenAI. It was launched as a non-profit startup back in 2015 with significant early funding from Musk. The company has since evolved into a private AI powerhouse now valued at more than $850 billion. Musk accuses Altman of betraying the organization's original mission and its founding principles. Peace proposal, Iran's new offer to end the war, still ahead.

Why U.S. allies appear to be losing patience with President Trump. Oil prices rose again today, with peace talks between the U.S. and Iran at a stalemate. But there are signs of movement. There are reports Iran is proposing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war. But negotiations over the country's nuclear program would have to be delayed. As Mike Armstrong explains, that may be a non-starter for Washington.

Iran's foreign minister has been busy, just not with negotiations. Fresh off meetings in Oman and two trips to Pakistan, Abbas Araci sat down Monday with the Russian president. Vladimir Putin praised Iran for standing up for its sovereignty and both men said they hoped a path to peace could be found. As for why negotiations broke down,

Araci told Iranian media the U.S. was demanding too much. Now, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz remains stalled. This is the view from Oman, tankers sitting idle, waiting for a signal it's safe to move. There are reports Iran is offering to reopen, as normally one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, in exchange for a ceasefire and an end to the U.S. counter-blockade. But that deal would delay talks on Iran's nuclear program and uranium enrichment, something

Donald Trump has laid out as his top condition.

They will not have a nuclear weapon.

It's very simple.

What I will reiterate is that the president's red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear, not just to the American public, but also to them as well.

Now, international frustration with the overlapping blockades appears to be growing. The economic impact is spreading as energy costs increase, driving up inflation. The UK is reporting its biggest drop in retail sales in decades,

while Germany is considering a stimulus package to help with its economic pressures. Germany's Chancellor Monday warned, quote, the Americans clearly have no strategy. Entering the conflict, he says, was ill-considered and there was never an exit plan. As for how negotiations are going, Frederick Mertz says the U.S. is being humiliated by the Iranian state leadership. Mike Armstrong, Global News, Montreal.

Mali's defense minister has been killed in a suicide bomb attack on his home, part of an unprecedented wave of coordinated strikes across the West African country over the past few days. Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels and Tariq separatists are behind the attacks, which have targeted major cities, airports, military bases and even the private homes of some senior politicians. The strikes mark a major blow to Mali's military government and to Russia.

Moscow supported Mali's military, which seized power in a coup six years ago. Mali's government then expelled UN peacekeeping troops and replaced them with Russian soldiers. Canadian troops also served as part of that UN peacekeeping mission in 2018. Putting differences aside for a common cause, up next, an historic meeting between the world's most prominent church leaders. We got a preview of the fun to come in just a few weeks as Canada gears up to host the FIFA World Cup with matches in Vancouver and Toronto.

And today, Toronto shared a sneak peek of its FIFA Fan Festival, where soccer fans can enjoy live music, games and food as the city hosts six matches during the tournament. Fans can book tickets to the space for free after the city recently reversed course on its planned $10 admission fee. As King Charles begins his state visit to the U.S., there was another important meeting involving a British and American leader today.

U.S.-born Pope Leo welcomed the first-ever female Archbishop of Canterbury, Sara Mollali, to the Vatican. Until recently, meetings between the leaders of the two Christian denominations were almost unheard of. And as Redmond Shannon reports, despite the centuries-old divisions between Catholics and Anglicans,

the two leaders are finding common cause.

The 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally.

Thank you for your hospitality.

You're welcome.

Welcomed by the 267th Catholic Pope.

A jar of honey from Lambeth Palace.

You're still a nurse.

Another historic moment for the newly installed first female head of the Church of England, which split from the Vatican five centuries ago.

I am deeply grateful. It is a joy and privilege to be received by you together with this delegation. Her words chosen carefully following the recent

tensions about war and peace between Pope Leo and the US President on a day Donald Trump hosts the ceremonial head of her church King Charles. However in a homily given in Rome on Sunday Mullally did echo Leo's advocacy for peace saying instead of making justice and peace a priority, we see terrible violence inflicted on innocent people in conflicts across the globe.

There are things that we will say that maybe be perceived as political, but I'm not a politician.

Standard behaviour. Christianity is a religion of peace. Jesus is preaching, he's teaching. Anglican priest Michael Corrin is a former Catholic who converted due to the Canadian Anglican Church's stronger support for same-sex marriage.

Leaders coming together, whether they're religious or political, has to be a good thing.

I have great admiration for this Pope. Although Pope Leo did note the ongoing divisions between the churches.

We must not allow these continuing challenges to prevent us from using every possible opportunity to proclaim Christ to the world together.

Malali told the Pope he would receive a warm welcome were he to visit the UK.

Redmond Channel Global News, London. And that is Global National for this Monday. I'm Geoff Semple. Tonight's Your Canada is Teeswater, Ontario. We love seeing your Canada, so please email it to globalnational at globalnews.ca. Teeswater, Ontario. We love seeing your Canada, so please email it to globalnational at globalnews.ca. Thanks for watching. Eric Sorensen will be at the anchor decks with you tomorrow. Have