World, US, Culture, Market, and Sci-Tech News Aggregation from MSM and Independent News
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As star correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi’s future at “60 Minutes” remains unclear, journalists at the legendary news show are being careful not to offend their new boss.
Following Bari Weiss’ controversial hiring as CBS News’ editor in chief, compliance is the name of the game.
A source close to the “60 Minutes” staff told Daily Kos the editorial team is hesitant to pick up the phone or answer texts from people critical of new management.
The nervousness isn’t unfounded. Alfonsi’s time with CBS has come into question after she openly spoke against Weiss and the editorial decisions coming from the top.
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Marina Volz, born Matthew Volz, is currently serving a 25-year sentence after being convicted of sex crimes against his own seven-year-old daughter.
A transgender-identifying New Jersey inmate convicted of sexually abusing his 7-year-old daughter is seeking a settlement with the New Jersey Department of Corrections after filing a lawsuit alleging officials denied him access to Wiccan religious accommodations while incarcerated in a women’s prison.
Marina Volz, born Matthew Volz, is serving a 25-year sentence after being convicted of sex crimes against his own seven-year-old daughter. Volz was sentenced in May of 2022 and initially housed at a men’s facility.
Two months later, he was transferred to a women’s correctional facility. State records reportedly continued listing Volz as male until 2023, when New Jersey updated the inmate’s profile to classify Volz as female.
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A massive system of ocean currents in the Atlantic that plays a key role in regulating Earth’s climate has been weakening for almost 20 years, according to a new study. Scientists say the slowdown stretches across a large section of the Atlantic Ocean and could eventually alter weather patterns around the world.
The research was led by scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science. Their findings provide some of the strongest direct observational evidence so far that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is losing strength. The results could help researchers improve climate models and better understand how ongoing climate change may affect the future.
“A weaker AMOC can shift weather patterns, potentially leading to more extreme storms, changes in rainfall, or colder winters in some regions,” said Shane Elipot, a senior author of the study and physical oceanographer at the Rosenstiel School. “It can also influence sea-level rise along coastlines, affecting communities and infrastructure.”
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This may be one of the more baffling and frightening stories you will hear about something happening at an airport and/or during air travel. Late Friday night, as the flight crew of a commerial airplane was beginning its takeoff at a major U.S. airport, the combination of what came to pass could only be described as chaotic. Luckily, almost everyone involved got through it unscathed, with just minor injuries. One man who made a careless choice was not so fortunate.
As I mentioned, the Frontier Airlines plane was gaining speed and preparing to leave the ground at Denver International Airport (DIA) when, unbelievably, they reported to the tower their plane had just hit “somebody” – that is, a person:
One person was struck and killed by a Frontier Airlines plane two minutes after jumping a perimeter fence and crossing a runway at Denver International Airport late Friday, the airport said.
The pedestrian, who has not been identified, is not believed to be an airport employee, the airport said in a statement.
Flight 4345, an Airbus A321, was departing from Denver en route to Los Angeles and carried 224 passengers and seven crew members, Frontier Airlines said in a statement. It was scheduled to depart at 10:39 p.m. local time.
As the plane was departing, “the aircraft reportedly struck a pedestrian on the runway during takeoff,” the airline said.
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Fulton County, Georgia — the epicenter of so many lingering questions about the 2020 presidential election — has a new problem on its hands. On May 4, 2026, the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections filed a 27-page motion to quash in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia asking a federal judge to quash a grand jury subpoena demanding the personal identifying information of thousands of county election workers and volunteers who helped administer the November 2020 General Election.
The original subpoena was issued under seal on April 17, 2026, by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina under U.S. Attorney Dan Bishop. It was served on the board around April 20 and required production of records by May 5. It seeks names, positions/functions, residential addresses, email addresses, and personal telephone numbers for essentially the entire 2020 Fulton election workforce.
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Iran has hanged an alleged US spy who Tehran accused of collaborating with the CIA. Erfan Shakourzadeh, 29, was hanged after being accused of espionage and collaboration with the US and Israel, according to Iranian state news.
It comes as Iran rejected the US plan to end the war, with Iranian media describing the deal as equivalent to “Tehran’s submission to Trump’s excessive demands”. A 29‑year‑old student from Tehran’s Iran University of Science and Technology, was executed after Iran’s judiciary accused him of assisting the CIA and Mossad—charges he firmly denied in a final message shared by human rights groups.
Arrested in February 2025 and accused of collaborating with hostile governments, he was reportedly subjected to nine months of severe physical and psychological torture in solitary confinement as authorities sought forced confessions. Please confirm details with a trusted news source.
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Hopes for a peace deal with Iran waned on Sunday, raising the risk that the global energy crisis will drag on and leaving the U.S. to weigh military operations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones industrial average fell 200 points, or 0.40%. S&P 500 futures were down 0.33%, and Nasdaq futures lost 0.28%.
U.S. oil futures rose 2.7% to $97.97 a barrel, while Brent crude climbed 2.7% to $104.01. Gold fell 0.76% to $4,695 per ounce.
The U.S. dollar was up 0.2% against the euro and up 0.14% against the yen. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was steady at 4.36%.
On Sunday, Iran responded to the U.S. ceasefire offer, saying talks must focus on permanently ending the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon.
Sources also told the Wall Street Journal that Iran proposed gradually reopening the strait as the U.S. lifts its naval blockade.
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A number of Labour MPs have come out demanding Keir Starmer resigns. A few of them aired their views on social media and on the media round this morning, here’s what they had to say:
Connor Naismith, MP for Crewe and Nantwich, hinted in a post on X that Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham could take the reigns.
Andy is the most popular Labour politician in the country. The suggestion that he wouldn’t be able to win in some of the seats Labour is currently struggling to win is just wrong.
Ironically, this is precisely why we need him back on the front line of national politics.
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Most of humanity has a great propensity to think in the short-term, but generally, long-term considerations — air pollution, deforestation and emissions, for example — just aren’t our thing.
That’s partly why scientists are deeply concerned about a recent SpaceX proposal to launch one million satellites — data centres — into orbit around Earth.
Their concerns range from losing the natural night sky, to losing access to space, to the environmental impact on our atmosphere.
At the moment, there are roughly 16,000 satellites orbiting Earth, 14,000 of which are active. SpaceX is responsible for more than 8,000 of them.
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Two health workers were among 51 people killed in the latest wave of IDF strikes on the country, Beirut has said
The Lebanese Health Ministry has accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of deliberately targeting medics during airstrikes on the country.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue to intensify despite a US-brokered ceasefire between the sides, which took effect in mid-April.
The latest wave of IDF strikes on Lebanon left 51 people dead, including two medics, the country’s health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
“The Israeli enemy continues to violate international laws and humanitarian norms, adding more crimes against paramedics, as it directly targeted two points of the Health Authority in Qalawiya and Tibnin, Bint Jbeil district, in two raids,” the statement read.
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The UK will deploy one of its warships to the Middle East as part of planning for a European-led mission to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz once there’s a stable ceasefire.
HMS Dragon, a Type-45 warship capable of destroying guided missiles, is likely to form part of the UK’s offer for the defensive naval mission, designed to reassure commercial ships attempting to pass through the waterway. Such a mission will only begin once sustained ceasefire or peace deal is agreed to.
“The pre-positioning of HMS Dragon is part of prudent planning that will ensure that the UK is ready, as part of a multinational coalition jointly led by the UK and France, to secure the Strait, when conditions allow,” a spokesperson for the UK Ministry of Defence said.
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CARACAS — CARACAS (AP) — Venezuela ’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday where she will defend her country’s claim to a mineral- and oil-rich region in western Guyana before the United Nations highest court in a dispute that has spanned decades.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague is holding a series of hearings with the South American neighbors which both claim ownership of Essequibo — a territory of nearly 62,000 square miles rich in gold, diamonds, timber and other natural resources, located near massive offshore oil deposits.
Venezuela has considered Essequibo its own since the Spanish colonial period, when the jungle region fell within its boundaries. But an 1899 decision by arbitrators from Britain, Russia and the United States drew the border along the Essequibo River largely in favor of Guyana.
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Housing will be based on students’ biological sex to adhere to federal guidance issued by President Donald Trump, UNC spokeswoman Christy Jackson told the Charlotte Observer.
“Executive Order 14168 directed federal agencies, including the Department of Education, to interpret sex-based laws based on biological sex rather than gender identity,” Jackson told the newspaper. “As a recipient of federal funds, UNC Charlotte must comply with applicable Title IX directives.”
The order states in p
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In today’s issue: Democrats are still in the driver’s seat toward winning back control of the House, despite suffering a major blow in Virginia on Friday and at least three GOP-controlled Southern states scrambling to redraw their midterm maps. The Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling overturning the results of the state’s redistricting referendum from last month invalidated a new congressional map that Democrats viewed as key to countering Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting efforts. …
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Khalid Al-Hail is a defector from the Qatari ruling establishment, the president of the Qatar National Democratic Party, and the country’s most prominent opposition spokesman. Now living in exile in the United Kingdom, he is a successful international businessman and the leading advocate for democratic reform in Qatar, known for exposing the regime’s state-backed influence operations and media manipulation abroad.
I can’t believe how petty this sounds, but I really think western socialists are frightened that the fall of the Ayatollahs will split their vote base. Why on earth else would people whose hearts bled for Palestine be back out in the streets supporting a regime which has matched the death toll of Gaza in just a few months? The clue is in the prevailing ideology of the Western intelligentsia. The signs have been visible for years.
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Scientists may have discovered a powerful new link between the gut microbiome, aging, and liver cancer. New research presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2026 suggests that restoring gut bacteria to a more youthful state could help protect the liver, reduce age related damage, and potentially lower cancer risk.
The findings come from a mouse study focused on the microbiome, the vast community of bacteria and other microbes living in the digestive system. Researchers found that giving older mice back their own younger gut microbes produced striking effects throughout the body, especially in the liver.
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Dante’s famous 14th century epic poem, “Inferno,” which is the first part of the Italian writer’s “Divine Comedy,” represents the first time a giant impact of a massive object falling from the heavens was envisaged, according to an expert in the specialized field of geomythology.
In the poem, the massive object in question is the Devil himself, Lucifer, who fell onto the Earth after being expelled from heaven. Yet, according to Timothy Burberry of Marshall University in West Virginia , this fall and subsequent impact is described by Dante in very similar terms to an asteroid impact.
Burberry is a professor of English and an expert in geomythology, a field which involves searching old folk tales, myths and stories for evidence of real geological events. Written between 1308 and 1321, Dante’s “Inferno” depicts the main character — Dante himself — being guided through Hell by the spirit of the ancient Roman poet Virgil.
In what is considered one of the greatest works in the history of European literature, Dante and Virgil travel to the Underworld, where they are taken across the River Styx to Hell by the ferryman Charon — in fact, two of Pluto‘s moons, Charon and Styx, are named after these details.
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US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran was still in place despite an Iranian attack on three American destroyers in the Strait of Hormuz that fanned fears Friday that the truce was faltering. The US military said it carried out strikes on Iranian military targets in response, although Tehran charged that it was Washington that had initiated the exchange of fire.
The latest violence threatens to unravel a fragile truce in effect since April 8 that brought an end to weeks of US-Israeli attacks on the Islamic republic, which has retaliated with strikes across the Middle East and by blocking the strait, a vital route for oil and gas shipments.
The United Arab Emirates said Friday that its air defences were “engaging missile and drone attacks originating from Iran”.
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The government of Bahrain announced Saturday that security authorities arrested 41 individuals allegedly tied to a network linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), marking one of the kingdom’s largest recent crackdowns on suspected Iranian influence operations.
According to a statement from Bahrain’s Interior Ministry, the detainees were identified as central members of the organization’s “main structure” operating inside the country.
Authorities said the arrests followed intelligence operations and investigations conducted alongside public prosecutors into alleged espionage activities involving foreign entities and support for Iranian aggression.
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Charged with federal crimes for allegedly making false statements to banks and making wire transfers in the names of companies that didn’t exist, the Southern Poverty Law Center hired Hunter Biden’s lawyer (among many others) and signaled an Orange Man Bad defense: Mean Donald Trump is having us prosecuted as a partisan attack, because we’re politically left and he’s politically right.
Previewing the strategy with an opening salvo on April 28, the SPLC’s small army of lawyers filed a 27-page brief (and do remember that page count) demanding that the courts protect their client against the DOJ’s cruel public lies on scary Fox News. The SPLC posted the whole brief on its website, and you can read it here. It claims that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has falsely claimed that the SPLC never told law enforcement about things learned from its informant program, when they actually did. Screenshot of the opening statement, after a long table of contents and table of authorities that took up five whole pages:
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A school district in Virginia is using a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) filter on its use of generative AI (GenAI) in schools to inject a race-focused lens into teacher and administrative decision-making.
According to documents obtained by Defending Education, Albemarle County Public Schools (ACPS), a far-left school district surrounding Charlottesville, and which includes Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, has built its GenAI policy based around its “anti-racism” policy, which is inherently discriminatory against white students in favor of other races.
“While schools should engage in good judgement and do their due diligence when it comes to Artificial Intelligence integration, the fact that the district is vetting AI based on its compliance with diversity, equity, and inclusion should be concerning for parents,” Rhyen Staley, Director of Research at Defending Education, told The Federalist. “By only allowing the use of AI and information sources that reflect a leftwing political bias, district administrators are setting a precedent that is harmful to the learning process and neutrality of schools.”
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CHONGQING, China — Three years ago, in the idyllic town of Woodside south of San Francisco, the United States and China held their first high-level talks on the dangers posed by artificial intelligence. President Xi Jinping and his longtime foreign minister appeared serious in their conviction that a channel should be a established between Beijing and Washington — a red phone for AI in case of emergencies.
They authorized a diplomatic effort that would begin in 2024 in Switzerland, only months before the U.S. presidential election. A large U.S. delegation arrived with high hopes that were abruptly dashed, according to four sources who attended the talks. The Chinese contingent dismissed American concerns over runaway AI as academic, almost theoretical, quickly turning the conversation to export controls seen in Beijing as yet another U.S. effort to hold China back.
“They naturally view any American diplomatic initiative involving limitations or restrictions of one flavor or another on a capability as being a trap,” Jake Sullivan, U.S. national security advisor under President Biden, said in an interview.
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In Iowa, Republicans face a potential bruising that could leave the red state looking pretty purple after November.
Once a bellwether, Iowa has jagged to the right recently. In 2024, Donald Trump won it by over 13 percentage points, making for the state’s largest margin of victory in a presidential election since 1972. And two years before that, in 2022, it reelected Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds by over 18 points.
In a normal election year, a Democrat would likely have little chance of winning the keys to Terrace Hill, the governor’s official residence. But with Trump’s war of choice in the Middle East and domestic prices climbing, this isn’t shaping up to be a normal election year. In fact, Iowa’s governor race may prove to be something of a bellwether for state executives across the nation.