World, US, Culture, Market, and Sci-Tech News Aggregation from MSM and Independent News
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Bengaluru, India – In the sultry August heat of 2007, India’s government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was sweating over the future of negotiations with the United States over a landmark nuclear deal. The proposed agreement aimed to ease access to nuclear fuel and technology in exchange for greater international scrutiny of India’s facilities.
The problem? India’s communists – suspicious of the US – were opposed to the deal. And they were India’s kingmakers.
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As Catherine Salgado reported last week, Trump lambasted anti-MAHA Sen. Bill Cassidy, current chair of the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, for his leading role in tanking the recent nomination of Casey Means for surgeon general, presumably on account of her lukewarm enthusiasm for the current vaccine schedule.
(Cassidy is a tireless champion for all vaccines, including, as I have covered in depth before, the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns. Whether he truly believes in the safety and efficacy of these products is probably immaterial; the salient factor is that he’s up to his ears in pharma cash. According to Open Secrets, from 2019 to 2024, he raked in $1,313,974 in “donations” from PACs and individuals in the “Health Professionals” category and $712,504 from PACs and individuals in the “Pharmaceuticals/Health Products” category. I have written about this particular Swamp creature, his misdeeds, and the dire need to purge him from Washington extensively, including here.)
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The Center for Christian Virtue is prepared to pursue legal action after the group’s proposal for displaying three crosses on top of its building was rejected by the city of Columbus, Ohio.
The unanimous decision against the center, a 501(c)(3) family policy organization in downtown Columbus, was made on April 28 by six members of the city’s Downtown Commission, which laid out their objections in a staff report.
It’s a move that Aaron Baer, the center’s president, called “frustrating.”
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Vladimir Putin has threatened Kyiv with his most massive strike of the war if Ukrainian drones disrupt his major military parade in Moscow on Saturday. His defence ministry warned that civilians and diplomats should leave the city promptly if Volodymyr Zelensky attacks the Red Square showpiece, citing a rapid and massive retaliatory missile strike.
The Russian warning implies a hit by the hypersonic Oreshnik missile, which Putin boasts has the power of a full nuclear explosion even in its conventional mode. Putin said previously that using several such systems at once would be comparable in strength to a nuclear strike. His favourite newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda, warned today that Oreshnik also has a nuclear configuration.
Vladimir Putin has threatened Kyiv with the most massive strike of the war if Ukrainian drones disrupt his major military parade in Moscow this Saturday. His defence ministry warned that civilians and diplomats should leave the city promptly if Volodymyr Zelensky attacks the Red Square showpiece, citing a rapid and massive retaliatory missile strike.
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The U.S. military on Monday denied claims that Iran struck a U.S. Navy vessel as American forces now offer to guide commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, where hundreds have been stuck since the Iran war began. Tehran has blocked vessels that don’t receive its authorization.
Iranian news agencies, including the semiofficial agency Fars and the Iranian Labour News Agency, claimed that Iran had struck a U.S. vessel near an Iranian port southeast of the strait, accusing it of “violating maritime security and navigation norms.” The reports said the vessel was forced to turn back.
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Mars has lots of glaciers located along its mid-latitudes. We’ve known this for years thanks to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s (MRO’s) SHARAD sounder. But, despite all of the excellent data it’s managed to gather, SHARAD doesn’t have high enough resolution to accurately measure the boundary between the glacier itself and the rocky material that has been deposited on top of it over the course of billions of years. A new study, published in the journal JGR Planets, details a potential method of finding that boundary—by using a drone.
So what exactly does that boundary matter? Debris-covered glaciers (or DCGs) are a common feature on Mars. The debris that rests on top of them stops the sublimation that would otherwise cause the entire glacier to disappear into Mars’ thin atmosphere. But, we aren’t entirely sure how deeply buried these glaciers are. And if we’re to utilize the water they hold, either for direct astrobiological study or in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), we need a better idea of how much rock and dirt we have to dig through in order to access them.
SHARAD is great for tracking big macro features over the surface of the planet. But it’s not great for the nitty-gritty details of how much regolith actually covers a specific glacier. This is largely due to the fact that it’s around 300 kilometers away. In order to get that fine level of detail, we need something closer.
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As May 2026 unfolds, the world’s attention is fixed on a high-stakes diplomatic theater. By mid-May, President Donald Trump is slated for a pivotal two-day state visit to Beijing. This visit comes at a time when the Middle East is on a knife-edge.
The geopolitical landscape is defined by a grueling stalemate: the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed by Iran in retaliation initially for the U.S.-Israeli air strikes, and now a persistent U.S. naval blockade that has strangled the Iranian economy for weeks.
While indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran continue via Pakistani and Omani mediators, the “ground truth” remains volatile. Despite a shaky ceasefire, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps continues to broadcast defiance, signaling no intention of dismantling its nuclear enrichment facilities or its sophisticated ballistic missile program. At this critical juncture, the question isn’t just whether Trump can negotiate with Iran, but whether he can leverage China to force Tehran’s hand.
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A federal judge openly apologized in court to the man accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump after defense attorneys raised concerns about his treatment inside a Washington, D.C., jail.
During a May 4 hearing, Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui, who donated to Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign, questioned jail officials about the “conditions” facing defendant Cole Tomas Allen.
Allen is being held ahead of trial on attempted assassination charges.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine are holding a news conference Tuesday morning as the ceasefire in the Iran war faces serious tests. U.S. Navy destroyers on Monday fended off a sustained barrage of Iranian missiles, attack drones and small boats as they helped two commercial vessels transit the Strait of Hormuz.
“Iran cannot be allowed to block innocent countries and their goods from an international waterway,” Hegseth said at the news conference.
Hegseth noted that Project Freedom, the U.S. guiding of commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, is “separate and distinct from Operation Epic Fury.” He called the operation a “temporary solution” for the U.S., saying “the world needs this waterway more than we do.”
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Iran is accusing the U.S. of violating the fragile ceasefire agreement between the two countries after President Trump directed the U.S. Navy to ensure the safe passage of commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz. “The new equation of the Strait of Hormuz is in the process of being solidified,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher…
U. Michigan Commencement Hijacked By Anti-Israel Prof.– legalinsurrection.com
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A faculty commencement speaker at the University of Michigan used his spot to slam Israel. The president of the university said that those remarks deviate from the remarks submitted in advance:
@UMich Professor Derek Peterson shoutouts terrorist sympathizers during this morning’s commencement. Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/gaGIKDklGr
— Benny Shaevsky (@brshaevsky) May 2, 2026
I spoke about this on the Laura Ingraham show tonight:
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… A ceasefire by U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be on shaky ground after Iran launched strikes against the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. Central Command said it sank six Iranian small boats in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump later escalated the rhetoric, telling Fox News that Iran will be “blown off the face of the earth” if it targets U.S. ships that are protecting commercial vessels transiting the strait.
He also called on South Korea to support U.S. efforts after he claimed a South Korean cargo ship had come under fire from Iran. Seoul had not publicly responded as of the time of writing.
These developments have spooked investors. International benchmark Brent crude futures rose nearly 6% to settle at $114.44 per barrel, while all three major U.S. stock indexes dipped.
Some analysts are sounding the alarm, warning that global economies could be “sleepwalking” into a “big recession”, as investors continue to underestimate the impact of the oil price shock, according to Amrita Sen, founder and director, market intelligence at Energy Aspect.
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At a fundraiser in early January, Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo outright admitted to donors he wasn’t the most inspiring candidate. “I am not enough of a motor—uh, a motivator—as a governor candidate to get them off the couch,” he said on a recording obtained by the Nevada Independent.
“We have a couple ballot initiatives we’re going to initiate in order to get voters out,” Gov. Lombardo reassured the room.
But the governor had a plan to fix it. “We have a couple ballot initiatives we’re going to initiate in order to get voters out,” he reassured the room. One measure would mandate photos IDs at the polls, a policy that targets racial minorities. The other initiative would tap into a newer but no less virulent strain of right-wing grievance: “The second thing we’re going to do is this thing called Men in Women’s Sports,” Lombardo said at another event last October, referring to a Nevada constitutional amendment he proposed earlier this year that would ban trans girls and women from playing on girls’ school sports teams.
“Yay!” a few listeners responded. “Yeah!”
“That’s going to get people out to vote,” the governor continued. “Because, just from the groans in the room, I think they’re going to support it.”
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A panel of voters on Fox News suggested that Republican control of government and President Donald Trump were to blame for “very, very, very high” prices.
During a Fox News segment on Monday, host Harris Faulkner asked the voter panel how they would approach the midterm elections. One independent said that she was frustrated and might not vote at all.
“Well, honestly, what has been holding me back is I feel like the change that I was expecting from the president himself,” voter Mary Josephine explained. “I don’t feel in my everyday life, which is concerning to me. I still feel, obviously, that, you know, prices are very, very, very high. You know, if you’re going to the grocery store or just in general, because inflation still exists.”
“Unfortunately, now we have the higher gas prices, which really hurt, you know, everyday people in their pocket,” the voter added. “And I’ve voted my entire life. And the frustration right now is, it’s just unbelievable. Because what really changes? I just feel like that we’re kind of, you know, just, you know, kind of steering the ship in the same direction.
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Start with what might be called the epistemic layer—how we come to know things. People are increasingly relying on AI to know what is true, what is happening, and whom to trust. Search is already substantially AI-mediated. The next generation of AI assistants will synthesize information, frame it, and present it with authority. For a growing number of people, asking an AI will become the default way to form views on a candidate, a policy, or a public figure. Whoever controls what these models say therefore has increasing influence over what people believe.
Technology has always shaped the way citizens interact with information. But a new problem will soon arise in the form of personal AI agents, which can change not only how people receive information but how they act on it. These systems will conduct research, draft communications, highlight causes, and lobby on a user’s behalf. They will inform decisions such as how to vote on a ballot measure, which organizations are worth supporting, or how to respond to a government notice. They will, in a meaningful sense, begin to mediate the relationship between individuals and the institutions that govern them.
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The Elitist Media evening newscasts rightly accorded significant coverage to last year’s deadly Southern California wildfires. It is therefore unfortunate that they seem mostly disinterested in covering the arrest and revealed motive of the individual suspected in starting the Palisades Fire.
ABC and CBS did NOT cover the arrest of Jonathan Rinderknecht. ABC covered the end of the litigation between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, while CBS covered the Met Gala. There was simply no time to spare.
NBC Nightly News did cover it. Here’s the report in its entirety as aired on Monday, May 4th, 2026:
The sole report on the evening news of the Palisades firebug and his Luigi Mangione fixation aired on @NBCNightlyNews. More far-left violence exposed. pic.twitter.com/nwXbArLl3J
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) May 5, 2026
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A suspect is in custody and one bystander is recovering from gunshot wounds after a a security incident outside the White House on Monday afternoon. The incident caused a brief lockdown inside the White House as President Trump was meeting with small business leaders and taking questions from the press.
A U.S. Secret Service spokesman told reporters that the incident took place at approximately 3:30 p.m. near the outer perimeter of the White House complex.
Plainclothes officers and agents who patrol the area identified a suspicious individual who appeared to be armed. They then called for support from marked uniformed Secret Service police officers to make contact.
Upon contact, the individual fled briefly on foot, withdrew a firearm, and fired in the direction of the agents and officers. At that point, law enforcement engaged the suspect. “That individual was hit, he’s since been transported to the hospital. I have no comments on his condition,” the spokesman said.
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Shortly after she was fired as attorney general, Pam Bondi refused to appear before the House Oversight Committee to testify about her mishandling of the Epstein files, saying that since she was subpoenaed in her official capacity and was no longer in her job, she wouldn’t show up.
Now that she’s agreed to appear in her private capacity, however, she seems to be getting official representation from a high-level attorney at the Department of Justice. There’s fairly strong evidence that Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon—who is currently vying for Bondi’s old job—will somehow represent Bondi rather than Bondi hiring a private attorney.
If you’re wondering how this works, it doesn’t. Bondi is a private citizen and has insisted on being called in that capacity but somehow is also sort of still a government employee that our tax dollars should pay for representation?
A little timeline shows how Bondi and the DOJ continue to play reindeer games in an effort to protect President Donald Trump from any fallout over his longtime relationship with accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
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D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who was present at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and is prosecuting shooter Cole Allen (pictured above), stated emphatically that Allen was certainly aiming to kill not only Trump administration officials, but anyone who stood in his way, including the Secret Service agent who took a bullet.
While speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union Pirro discussed the evidence definitively proving that the bullet that embedded itself in a Secret Service agent’s body armor came from Allen’s shotgun.
US Attorney Pirro on Cole Allen: “It is definitively his bullet he hit at that Secret Service agent. He had every intention to kill him, and anyone who got in his way, on his way to killing the President of the United States. This was a premeditated, violent act, calculated to… pic.twitter.com/2J56aWqhzi
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 3, 2026
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Former FBI Director James Comey. Official FBI portrait.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche went on national television Sunday and made a simple point: the federal indictment of former FBI Director James Comey was the product of an 11-month investigation, and reducing the case to a single deleted Instagram photo misrepresents what prosecutors actually have.
Blanche appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press on May 3 and addressed the widespread criticism that Comey was charged over a beach photo showing seashells arranged as “86 47.” Critics of President Donald Trump interpreted the post as a harmless political statement. Supporters of the president viewed it as a veiled threat against the 47th president of the United States. Comey deleted the image.
Blanche said investigators developed a far broader evidentiary record than a screenshot.
BREAKING
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche says the DOJ’s indictment against former FBI director James Comey is NOT solely based on his “8647” social media post – there is more evidence yet to be revealed:
“This is not just about a single Instagram post. This is about a body… pic.twitter.com/d8FTyUuiqH
— Conservative Brief (@ConservBrief) May 3, 2026