01a Apocalyptic

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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.

An explosion in São Paulo killed one and injured several more Credit: Reproduction/Globonews
It is thought the blast was caused when a nearby gas pipeline was damaged Credit: AFP

Authorities said a 45-year-old man was found dead, while three other people were rescued from beneath the rubble.

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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called the nuclear phaseout a “serious strategic mistake” that left Germany short of firm power that turned the Energiewende into the most expensive energy transition on the planet. This is an early marker for a developing worldwide retreat from policies that sidelined nuclear power and demonized coal, oil, and natural gas.

 

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Canadian citizens are expressing outrage after a woman who was seeking medical attention for back pain was offered euthanasia before she was ever diagnosed. Now, a member of Parliament is citing the story of Miriam Lancaster as proof that Canada needs to stop expanding its euthanasia program.

Miriam told her story in a social media video as well as in a post on The Free Press called, “Never Kill Yourself: When I went to the doctor in Vancouver with back pain, she offered me assisted suicide; instead, I recovered—and went to Cuba!”

It started a year ago when Miriam woke up with back pain and went to the hospital. Before testing her or diagnosing her condition, the hospital staff immediately offered to help her kill herself.

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US President Donald Trump will arrive in China from May 13 to May 15 for a closely watched state visit that could shape the next phase of relations between Washington and Beijing. The trip marks the first visit by a sitting American president to China in nearly a decade and the first since Trump’s own 2017 visit during his first term.

Despite years of harsh rhetoric on China, Trump has continued to publicly praise Chinese President Xi Jinping. Just last week, he described Xi as a “good man” and a “smart man” with whom he has “a very good relationship”.

But behind the warm language lies mounting pressure. The summit comes at a moment when Washington is struggling to convert its military and economic power into diplomatic outcomes, particularly in the Middle East.

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When Donald Trump visits Beijing this week, the focus of think tankers and pundits will largely be on what the policy outcomes will be, and there is a tendency to lean towards the negative. Will China deepen the trade war? Will Trump bristle at Xi’s stance on the war against Iran?

But for the trajectory of the relationship between China and the United States, the summit could play a constructive role, facilitating a peaceful recognition of the shift in power dynamics between the two countries and globally. Perceptions in both countries of one another, and of the role each seeks to play in the world, will be shaped by the art of the summitry and what the meeting between the two leaders conveys.

Historically, high-profile summits have proven to be important turning points in U.S. foreign policy by mediating enduring tensions in bilateral relations. The 1959 US-Soviet summit humanized the Soviet Union and Nikita Khrushchev in the eyes of some Americans. The 1972 Nixon visit to China allowed pro-rapprochement sentiment to emerge and circulate in American public discourse, contributing to ongoing discussions and debates on diplomatic normalization for years following the summit. The 1985-87 US-Soviet summits between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev were crucial for transforming bilateral distrust into trust.

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Labour’s political opponents are un-British, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said as he made a final Hail Mary speech to save his job on Monday, while attempting to use boogeyman scare tactics over the so-called “far-right” to justify his continued presence in Number 10.

The answer to the country rejecting his Labour party at the ballot box with its worst election results in a century is simply to be more Labour than ever, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said at yet another ‘reset’ speech on Monday morning. Even as coup plotters break into the open to challenge his position, Starmer said clinging on to power rather than accepting his time is up is his “responsibility” while criticising people who notice the problems the country has, vowing to crack down on the right wing, and vowing to nationalise the steel industry.

A Texas couple is suing OpenAI, alleging their product, ChatGPT, led to their son’s overdosing on drugs after following the AI platform’s advice.

OpenAI released this statement, “This is a heartbreaking situation, and our thoughts are with the family… ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical or mental health care, and we have continued to strengthen how it responds in sensitive and acute situations with input from mental health experts…”

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Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) stands accused of exposing top secret information on CBS News’ Face the Nation. He was reacting after having attended a Pentagon classified briefing on the Iran War’s impact on stockpiled weapons. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is seeking legal counsel on whether charges can be brought against Kelly or not.

He told Face the Nation, “… the numbers are, I think it’s fair to say it’s shocking how deep we have gone into these magazines, because this president got our country into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline, and because of that, we’ve expended a lot of munitions, and that means the American people are less safe, whether it’s a conflict in the western Pacific with China or somewhere else in the world, the munitions are depleted. You may have seen me ask the Secretary of Defense this question about how long it’s going to take to replenish. We’re talking about years.”

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PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The death toll from a suicide attack on a security post in northwest Pakistan rose to 14 police officers, authorities said early Sunday. A self-proclaimed breakaway group of the Pakistan Taliban has claimed the attack.

A suicide bomber and several gunmen detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near the post in Bannu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, late Saturday, said senior police official Sajjad Khan. The attack triggered an intense shootout, and some officers were killed in the exchange, while others died later after the building collapsed.

Rescuers conducted an hourslong search operation using heavy machinery to retrieve bodies from under the rubble, Khan said, adding that three police officers were wounded in the attack.

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called for Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) to be investigated over his public comments about a classified briefing.

In a Sunday appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation, Kelly said it was “shocking” how deeply the U.S. tapped into its interceptor missile stockpiles in the war with Iran, along with other criticisms based on the classified briefing. Hegseth suggested that the senator may have violated the law over his comments.

“‘Captain’ Mark Kelly strikes again. Now he’s blabbing on TV (falsely & dumbly) about a *CLASSIFIED* Pentagon briefing he received. Did he violate his oath…again?” Hegseth said in a post on X, adding that the Pentagon’s legal counsel would launch a review.

Kelly retorted in a post on X, saying his own comments reflected those made by the Secretary of War at a hearing last week.

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France’s push toward centralized digital identity systems has suffered a devastating blow after hackers breached a government-run ID platform containing highly sensitive personal information tied to millions of citizens.

The compromised system is operated by France Titres, formerly known as ANTS.

The system handles some of the most sensitive government services in France, including passports, national ID cards, residency permits, driver’s licenses, and vehicle registrations.

Now, critics say the breach has exposed exactly why handing governments vast centralized databases of citizen identity information creates a dangerous single point of failure.

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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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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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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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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”.