01a Apocalyptic
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The ‘cloud-native’ architecture of the last decade is built on a 20-year-old assumption: that state
lives in the database, and compute is stateless. If you want to scale, you scale the database
vertically (get a larger machine) [1][1] or design the database schema around partition the data
and you scale your application servers horizontally (add more
boxes). Any request can hit any server, the loadbalancer doesn’t care, and the database is the
single source of truth.
LLMs and agents are quietly violating this assumption, and making this architecture increasingly
hard to work with. Not all at once, but in three subtle ways:
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TAIPEI, Taiwan – President Trump is in Beijing for high-stakes talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The president is expected to confront Xi over China’s support of Iran.
The Chinese leader is sending a strong message of his own, challenging U.S. policies on Taiwan.
But the war with Iran especially looms large as the two leaders meet, with President Trump expected to press Xi over China’s support for Tehran.
“You’ve got to remember, China is supporting everything to Iran that it needs in this war except combat personnel. It is a comrade in arms. It is an enemy combatant,” said Gordon Chang, with Gatestone Institute.
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Xi Jinping warned Donald Trump that tensions over Taiwan could push the US and China towards “clashes and even conflicts”, according to Chinese state media reports on their closed-door meeting in Beijing.
According to a readout published by Xinhua, Xi told Trump that if the Taiwan issue is “handled well”, relations between the two countries could maintain “overall stability”.
But he cautioned that mishandling the issue would place the wider US–China relationship in “great jeopardy”.
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Key Takeaways
- Stanford School of Medicine has removed diversity, equity, and inclusion language from its website following a DOJ investigation into its admissions practices, prompting concerns about whether the changes are substantive or merely cosmetic.
- The medical school rebranded its diversity offices but maintained programs aimed at health disparities, leading some experts to criticize these actions as superficial and potentially misleading.
- Federal pressure has shifted the dynamics around DEI in higher education, pushing institutions to reconsider their diversity policies, which previously relied on government mandates for justification.
Stanford School of Medicine quietly removed diversity, equity, and inclusion langua
After the Virginia Supreme Court threw out a new congressional district map that eliminated four GOP seats, progressives want to purge the court and replace it with more loyal progressives. The plan is to lower the mandatory retirement age of judges to below the youngest member of the VA Supreme Court so they can put progressive activists in to take their place.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement have been using a Palantir tool to track far more than illegal aliens, critics allege. ICE has over 20 million people worldwide in a database that some suspect includes American citizens.
DHS told 404 Media, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is committed to achieving the nation’s mandate to clear the backlog of illegal aliens who pose a threat to the security of our communities. Like other law enforcement agencies, ICE employs various forms of technology while respecting civil liberties and privacy interests.”
Canadians are asking questions after learning in a foreign interference trial that the Canadian Royal Mounted Police have a secret security agreement with the Chinese Communist Party. The suspicion is that Canada’s cops are enforcing CCP laws against CCP dissidents living in Canada.
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Iran’s regime has executed a renowned 29-year-old aerospace scientist, as Tehran’s increasingly brutal internal crackdown intensifies amid growing fears of infiltration, sabotage, and covert warfare targeting the country’s military and scientific infrastructure.
Erfan Shakourzadeh was accused of spying for the CIA and Israel’s Mossad.
Iranian authorities hanged Shakourzadeh on Monday after convicting him on espionage charges.
However, human rights groups say Shakourzadeh’s conviction was based on forced confessions extracted through torture.
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A newly released NewsGuard/YouGov poll found that nearly one-quarter of respondents believe the assassination attempt targeting President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet at last month’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was staged. 45% believed it was real, and 32% were unsure.
Broken down by party affiliation, 34% of Democrats said they believed the incident was staged, compared with 23% of independents and 13% of Republicans.
The national survey of 1,000 Americans was conducted by YouGov from April 28 to May 4. It was commissioned and published by NewsGuard, a company that rates online media outlets for reliability.
About 1 in 4 Americans think the April shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner was staged according to a new survey.
Roughly 1 in 3 Democratic respondents said they believed the event was staged, compared with about 1 in 8 Republicans. https://t.co/h30QujSIO2
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 11, 2026
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Kuwait accused Iran of attempting a covert strike on a strategically vital island earlier this month, alleging that operatives linked to Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard tried to infiltrate a Chinese-backed port project in a move that threatens to reignite the already volatile Middle East conflict.
The explosive accusation surfaced Tuesday just hours before President Donald Trump was set to depart for Beijing for high-stakes talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, where the ongoing Iran war and global energy turmoil are expected to dominate discussions.
Iran has not publicly responded to Kuwait’s allegations. But the accusation adds to mounting fears that the fragile ceasefire in the region could collapse at any moment as tensions continue boiling across the Persian Gulf.
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Tens of thousands of workers marched through central Brussels on Tuesday as unions staged a nationwide strike against the Belgian government’s fiscal reform plans.
Protesters carried banners opposing pension reforms, rising fuel prices and austerity measures while chanting and making noise through the city centre.
Demonstrators were also seen holding signs criticising Prime Minister Bart De Wever and other government figures.
The strike disrupted public transport and air travel across Belgium as unions called for pressure on the government over planned economic measures.
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Agitators shouted “fascist” and obscenities over the weekend outside a Portland, Oregon, hotel where they believed FBI Director Kash Patel was staying, according to Fox 12 Oregon and several posts on social media. Patel was reportedly attending a friend’s funeral.
The agitators gathered outside the Sentinel Hotel in downtown Portland. Some of the videos were posted on social media on Saturday; others were posted on Sunday.
Portland (May 9) — @Tommy4Trump420 was assaulted at a protest outside the Sentinel Hotel where leftists allege that Kash Patel is staying. The conservative streamer has been repeatedly assaulted and has had his home and vehicles vandalized.pic.twitter.com/NDoMVHWAtV
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Hassan Abbas could face up to five years in prison after “pleading no contest to four felonies: disrupting public services, unlawful distribution of an abortion-inducing drug, identity fraud, and deception to obtain a dangerous drug,” according to Lucas County Prosecuting Attorney Julia R. Bates.
Bates “announced that Hassan-James Abbas, 32, reached a plea agreement May 6, 2026, before Judge Joseph McNamara.”
According to the Ohio Bar Association, “By entering a no contest plea, he does not accept guilt but acknowledges that facts laid out by prosecution in charging documents are true,” Samira Asma-Sadeque reported for People Magazine.
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Iran warned on Monday that its armed forces were prepared to “teach a lesson” to any aggressor after US President Donald Trump rejected Tehran’s latest counterproposal aimed at preserving the fragile Middle East ceasefire.The sharp exchange further raised tensions in the region and rattled global energy markets already strained by disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical oil shipping routes.Trump, speaking to reporters in Washington, said the ceasefire was on “massive life support” after dismissing Iran’s response to a US-backed proposal as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE”.
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Even if it wasn’t obvious before, it’s certainly been abundantly clear since the start of President Trump’s second term in office that Democrats have no qualms whatsoever about fanning the flames using outright lies and purposeful deception to the point it spurs their outrage mobs to take violent action in the name of “democracy” and “social justice.”
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Two Israeli soldiers were sentenced to several weeks in military prison for desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said.
Last week, a photo surfaced showing a service member hugging the statue in the predominantly Christian village of Debel, near the Israeli border, and placing a cigarette in the statue’s mouth. The image sparked outrage on social media and prompted an official investigation.
On Monday, IDF spokeswoman Ariella Mazor said the soldier posing with the statue and the soldier filming him were sentenced to 21 and 14 days behind bars, respectively.
“The IDF views the incident with great severity and respects freedom of religion and worship, as well as holy sites and religious symbols of all religions and communities,” Mazor wrote on X.
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Michigan Democrats are pushing a controversial new legislative package to begin euthanizing members of the public under radical “assisted suicide” laws.
The bills would legalize medically assisted suicide for certain terminally ill adults, adding the state to a growing list of jurisdictions embracing the slippery slope of so-called “death with dignity” laws.
The proposed legislation would create a “Death with Dignity Act” allowing adults diagnosed with terminal illnesses and given six months or less to live to request life-ending drugs from doctors.
Supporters frame the measure as compassionate end-of-life care.
Bishop Schneider: Synod report on homosexuality ‘crossed the line from orthodoxy into heresy’– www.lifesitenews.com
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Bishop Athanasius Schneider has said that a Vatican Synod on Synodality report suggesting homosexual “relationships” may not be sinful echoes the serpent in the Garden of Eden and has “crossed the line from orthodoxy into heresy.”
In an interview with Vatican journalist Diane Montagna, Schneider commented on the final report of Study Group 9, published May 5 by the Holy See’s General Secretariat of the Synod. The document was put together by one of the ten study groups established by Pope Francis in February 2024 in the context of the Synod on Synodality. The report from Study Group 9, titled “Theological criteria and synodal methodologies for shared discernment of emerging doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues,” suggested that homosexual “relationships” may not be sinful in themselves.
“In issuing the Final Report of Study Group No. 9, the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops has stooped to promoting the propaganda of a global sexual ideology that is being aggressively pushed in politics and the media worldwide,” Schneider told Montagna.
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Idea criticized by legal scholars
Democrats should push through legislation to lower the mandatory retirement age of Virginia Supreme Court in order to remove justices who ruled a gerrymandered map unconstitutional, a “democracy” scholar argued.
Quinn Yeargain, who uses “they/them/theirs” pronouns and whose real name is Tyler, made the argument on Saturday. Yeargain is the “1855 Professor of Law of Democracy” at Michigan State University, according to the scholar’s faculty website.
Writing at Downballot, Yeargain said Democrats should lower the retirement age to 54, outwardly saying the goal would be to remove the youngest justice who made what the professor considers the wrong decision.
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For decades, scientists searching for life beyond Earth have focused on one central challenge: identifying the right molecules to look for on distant planets and moons.
But new research published in Nature Astronomy suggests the answer may lie not in the molecules themselves, but in the hidden patterns that connect them.
“We’re showing that life does not only produce molecules,” said Fabian Klenner, UC Riverside assistant professor of planetary sciences and co-author of the study. “Life also produces an organizational principle that we can see by applying statistics.”
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Abortions in the United States are overwhelmingly done via the abortion pill regimen, a two-pill procedure that utilizes mifepristone to cut off progesterone from the developing baby inside the womb and then misoprostol to expel the dead baby through uterine contractions. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling on May 1 that essentially said mifepristone could only be prescribed with an in-person doctor visit. The U.S. Supreme Court has since lifted the ban for one week, and it is yet to be seen what will happen with the other half of the abortion pill regimen, misoprostol.
Pro-life groups cheered the 5th Circuit ruling, but here’s the thing: medication abortions can still be done with misoprostol only. Mifepristone is not needed. In fact, many countries have been using the misoprostol-only regimen for decades. And Planned Parenthood was immediately ready to ship out misoprostol pills as soon as mifepristone was no longer an option. One day after the 5th Circuit Court ruling, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Greater New York told the New York Times they had already started mailing misoprostol-only abortion pills.
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A protest sign outside Alabama’s statehouse on May 7.Kim Chandler/AP
In a stunning act of political partisanship, the Roberts Court on Monday night discarded its own precedents to green-light a last-ditch effort by Alabama to use a gerrymandered congressional map for the 2026 midterms. The move, which comes less than two weeks after the court destroyed the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais, will reduce Black representation.
Monday’s 6-3 order, divided along partisan lines, shows how Republican-controlled states can use the high court’s April 29 Callais decision as carte-blanche to shut Black representatives out of Congress. In Alabama’s case, precedent, court doctrine, and a damning lower-court ruling stood in the way of the state throwing out its current map containing two majority-Black congressional districts represented by Democrats. Monday night’s decision of the Republican-appointed justices to toss all that aside shows how the court has not only unleashed a new wave of racial and partisan gerrymandering, but is sweeping away any obstacles so that Republicans nab as many seats as possible this November—enough to potentially prevent Democrats from retaking the House.
“There’s something bizarre going on with the court making choices that seem to very heavily benefit one party.”
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A horrible situation. The victim was trans, but it’s not clear if that played a role in the crime.
ABC 7 reports:
Suspect at large after transgender college student stabbed to death in laundry room in Seattle
A student at the University of Washington in Seattle was found stabbed to death in a campus housing building, Seattle police said, and now authorities are searching for the killer.
The victim — a 19-year-old transgender woman — was found in a laundry room at about 10:10 p.m. Sunday, according to Seattle police.
“The circumstances leading up to the murder are under investigation,” police said in a statement on Monday.
Police said “officers are actively searching for the suspect” and they described him as a “black male with a beard, 5’6-8″ tall, wearing a vest with button up shirt, and blue jeans.” The university added the suspect is believed to be between the ages of 25 and 30 with a slim build and black hair.
The University of Washington issued an alert about the homicide at the Nordheim Court Apartments at 10:40 p.m. Sunday, saying, “If you are at Nordheim Court, stay indoors and lock doors and windows.” Around 1 a.m., the university said that the residents no longer needed to stay inside.
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A large group of teenagers on e-bikes allegedly ganged up on a man who was riding a scooter with his wife on the boardwalk in Huntington Beach, California, over the weekend — and kicked and stomped him and hit him in the face with a glass bottle, KTLA-TV reported.
The Huntington Beach Police Department confirmed to KTLA that a report was taken in connection with the incident, which occurred around 8 p.m. Saturday in the area of 103 Pacific Coast Highway.
‘Come here on Friday night, on Saturday night. … It’s chaos; it’s terror.’
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Texas police said they’re investigating the death of six people found in a boxcar by a Union Pacific employee at a rail yard on Sunday.
Police said they responded to a call of “multiple casualties” at about 3 p.m. A Webb County medical examiner said the dead included one woman and five men.
One of the other dead persons appears to be a teenager. Officials said they believe they are all from Mexico and Honduras.
The examiner identified the female victim as a Mexican national and one of the men as a Honduran national.
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Democrats must stop conceding that the only answer for various racist voting laws is that Democrats just have to vote more and harder and better.
We try to keep despair out of these pages, tough as the times are. That’s why I didn’t write about Friday’s Virginia Supreme Court’s decision striking down new voter-approved congressional maps for extremely dubious reasons (read Virginia political expert Carolyn Fiddler’s awesome explanation of the ruling here).
Coming after the Supreme Court (of the United States) decision invalidating Louisiana’s congressional maps for taking race into account, the Bayou State’s immediately postponing upcoming elections as a result, and Tennessee’s swift move to use the SCOTUS ruling to wipe a majority-Black congressional district literally off the political map, last week was the worst for voting rights since the court’s 2013 Shelby v. Holder ruling struck down two vital sections of the Voting Rights Act. I admit to not seeing much light down this tunnel that afternoon.
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A DEVASTATING explosion has destroyed 10 homes in Brazil, killing one person and injuring several others.
The blast happened in the early hours of Monday morning in western São Paulo.
Authorities said a 45-year-old man was found dead, while three other people were rescued from beneath the rubble.