x01 Archives
News Source
EXCERPT:
We have previously covered the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in great detail:
The latest development is that SPLC has filed a Motion to Dismiss the Indictment for Vindictive Prosecution, focused very heavily on public statements from Trump and others in his administration both before and after the indictment.
From the Motion:
President Trump’s triumphant statement on April 24, 2026, three days after an indictment was unsealed against the Southern Poverty Law Center (“the SPLC”), was the latest manifestation of a top-down, retributive campaign in which he directed his Justice Department to go after those individuals and groups he deemed his political enemies, including the SPLC.
To carry out the President’s directive, others in the Administration targeted the SPLC, which now faces criminal charges for exercising its First Amendment right to identify, report on, and criticize extremist hate groups. The Administration has falsely accused the SPLC of being “anti-Christian,” of aiding the Biden Administration’s “weaponization” of the Department of Justice, of participating in political violence, and, most recently, of helping to “rig” the 2020 election against President Donald Trump. These examples of this Administration’s animus over the past year culminated in the criminal charges against the SPLC—an indictment premised on conclusory accusations but devoid of provable facts or a proper statement of the law….
Then, after praising the indictment his Justice Department handed him, President Trump went further. He publicly proclaimed the improper political motive behind the case, branding the SPLC a “Democrat Hoax, along with Act Blue and many others” and claimed that when the allegations are proven “the 2020 Presidential Election should be permanently wiped from the books and be of no further force or effect!” 2 President Trump doubled down on these farcical claims on a nationally televised 60 Minutes interview a few days later. He falsely proclaimed that the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia “was all funded by the Southern [Poverty] Law [Center].”3 President Trump asserted that the SPLC had funded this “total fake” event “to make me look bad.”4 The SPLC’s efforts, according to the President, were “a part of the rigging of the [2020] election.”5
News Source
EXCERPT:
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, which has affiliations with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported that a potential memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Iran and the United States has not been finalized.
According to Tasnim, Iran has not notified the Pakistani mediator involved in the talks that any agreement text has been completed. The agency indicated that Iranian officials would inform both the mediator and the public once an MOU is ready.
This statement came in response to earlier reports on the same day from outlets such as Reuters and Axios, which described negotiators as having reached a draft MOU. Reuters reported that U.S. and Iranian negotiators had reached a memorandum of understanding concerning a 60-day extension of the existing ceasefire and the initiation of talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
News Source
EXCERPT:
A Russian drone struck an apartment building in NATO-member Romania, its defence ministry said on Friday, wounding two people in a city near the Ukrainian border.
“During the night of May 28–29, the Russian Federation resumed drone attacks on civilian and infrastructure targets in Ukraine, near the river border with Romania,” the Romanian defence ministry said, condemning an “irresponsible escalation”.
“One of these drones entered Romanian airspace, was tracked by radar as far as the southern part of the city of Galati, and crashed onto the roof of an apartment building, with the impact triggering a fire,” it said.
News Source
EXCERPT:
We are often best defined not by the company we keep, but by our enemies. Having the right—left—enemies tends to be a very good thing indeed, as it’s a reliable indicator we’re doing the right things with the right people and for the right reasons.
It’s not always easy, however, to know the motives of people, or nations, when we’re dealing with issues of technology and/or public policy. One such issue is the proliferation of data centers, necessary for the burgeoning AI revolution, but controversial for that and other reasons. Among them is the amount of water and power they require. This is particularly ironic because they tend to be built in sparsely populated states like Wyoming, which often have water usage and power issues. More densely populated states tend to have reflexive “not in my backyard” sensibilities.
News Source
EXCERPT:
On April 15, technology podcaster Dwarkesh Patel published a two-hour interview with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. For roughly forty minutes, Patel asked one question six different ways. The question was this: If American-made compute trains AI models with the serious cyber-offensive capabilities Anthropic’s Mythos Preview demonstrated — and that compute is sold to a strategic adversary — what responsibility does the seller bear?
Huang’s answers hovered a safe distance away from the question. AI is a “five-layer cake,” he told Patel, and ceding any layer to China would be industrial suicide. The Chinese, he argued, already have enough compute to do whatever they intend to do, so marginal sales do not change the strategic balance. By the end, Patel was visibly worn down. Huang accused him of arguing from extremes and of thinking in absolutes.
News Source
EXCERPT:
The United States and Iran reached an agreement on Thursday to extend their ceasefire and lift restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, sources told Reuters, though U.S. President Donald Trump has yet to approve it and Iranian state media said it had not been finalized.
According to four sources familiar with the matter, the agreement would extend the truce for another 60 days and allow traffic to flow through the strategic waterway while negotiators tackle difficult issues such as Iran’s nuclear program.
If approved by leadership in Washington and Tehran, it would amount to the biggest step towards peace since the conflict began on February 28. News of the possible agreement came after a round of tit-for-tat attacks between the two countries, the latest such incident since the ceasefire took effect in early April.
Trump has not yet approved the deal, the sources said. The White House declined to comment, and Iran has yet to comment on news of the proposed deal, which was first reported by Axios.
News Source
EXCERPT:
Anti-data center activists typically cite concerns about water usage, pollution, or the cost of building the data centers themselves.
Many individuals are sincere in their activism. But public opinion on data centers is likely being shaped by foreign actors, according to a report from the Bitcoin Policy Institute. (RELATED: CHRIS JOHNSON: AI Data Centers Can Win Over Skeptics. But It Must Learn From Fracking)
BPI’s head of research Sam Lyman explained Wednesday that China uses social media as a “gain of function for their propaganda” on The Hill’s “Rising.”
News Source
EXCERPT:
Iran has claimed that it has deployed a new air defence system to take down a United States MQ-9 Reaper drone near the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week. Iran’s state-sponsored media said the American drone– that costs between $16 million and $30 million per unit– was brought down near Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz using a locally developed system called Arash-e-Kamangir.
If the claim is correct, the interception marked the first combat use of the defence system named after the legendary Iranian character Arash-the-Archer. It would mean Tehran has retained its military capacity to repel US and Israeli attacks despite months of war in the Middle East.
Iranian media claimed the drone was brought down over regional waters during an operation to protect the country’s airspace and maritime borders. “This operation, which was carried out using a system with hidden capabilities, is a clear and decisive message from Iran,” Iran’s Fars news agency quoted unnamed officials as saying.
However, so far, no independent source has corroborated the Iranian claim of a new interception system.
News Source
EXCERPT:
A federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, recently handed down an 11-count indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to the Department of Justice, the SPLC secretly moved more than $3 million in donor money between 2014 and 2023 to individuals affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan and other violent extremist groups. To hide the trail, prosecutors say, the payments were routed through fictitious entities such as “Fox Photography.”
According to the indictment, a 55-year-old organization that built a brand on hunting hate has actually been bankrolling it. The temptation for conservative Christians will be to read that as simple vindication, and to a degree, it is. But that reading is too small. The SPLC did not collapse into alleged fraud because it found some exotic evil; it collapsed because it surrendered to an ordinary one. Fear is easier to sell than hope, and an enemy keeps the donations coming. This indictment is as much a mirror as a verdict, and the Church should be the first to look into it.
News Source
EXCERPT:
The US will continue to ramp up economic pressure on the island, sources have told the outlet
US President Donald Trump is set to escalate Washington’s economic pressure campaign on Cuba in an attempt to force regime change, Axios reported on Friday, citing sources. The island is already enduring near-total fuel starvation and daily blackouts stretching up to 20 hours.
The US has thus far opted for a phased campaign designed to choke Havana, but which avoids a direct military invasion, several unnamed officials told the outlet.
“The best way to describe it is ‘accelerationism,’” one senior official said, referring to the philosophy of hastening societal collapse. “But we don’t want to kill off the regime just yet. There’s a method to this. It’s in stages.”
News Source
EXCERPT:
The national average price for regular gas continued to fall on Friday, dropping to $4.391 per gallon, a 16-cent decrease over the past week, according to AAA.
Gas prices have trended downward since setting a high for the year on May 21 at $4.564 per gallon. Moreover, fuel costs have dropped every day this week, starting at $4.507 per gallon on Monday, Memorial Day, dropping to Friday’s current price point, an 11-cent drop in less than 100 hours. The decrease in fuel costs comes at a time when gas prices start to rise, after Memorial Day and the beginning of what is recognized as the summer driving season.
News Source
EXCERPT:
A Blue Origin rocket exploded on Thursday night as the company conducted a static fire test.
The New Glenn rocket, which was being tested at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, “experienced an anomaly” during a “hotfire test,” Blue Origin confirmed on social media, as reported by WOFL.
“All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more,” the post from Blue Origin added.
We experienced an anomaly during today’s hotfire test. All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more.
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) May 29, 2026
News Source
EXCERPT:
On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Katie Pavlich Tonight,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Leiter said that Iran has “1,700 centrifuges” capable of producing enriched material imminently, and those “have to be dismantled as well or at least completely taken out of the ability to be reconstituted.”
Leiter said, “[T]he best case scenario would be that they actually open it up as a result of any deal and turn it over, by inspectors that would come in, experts that would come in and assess that all of it has been removed. But it’s important to point out, they have 1,700 centrifuges that can produce nuclear weapons tomorrow — enriched material, I should say, tomorrow. So those have to be dismantled as well or at least completely taken out of the ability to be reconstituted.”
Earlier, he said that “we’re very confident, at the end of the day
News Source
EXCERPT:
SAN FRANCISCO: Artificial intelligence company Anthropic said Thursday (May 28) it had raised US$65 billion in a new funding round that values the Claude maker at US$965 billion, more than its archrival OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.
The latest fundraising round confirms Anthropic’s place as one of the most significant players in AI, with the startup led by Dario Amodei having drawn fans for its coding powers and state-of-the-art models.
Anthropic’s rise came by doubling down on delivering generative AI to enterprise clients rather than general users, the path initially chosen by archrival OpenAI.
News Source
EXCERPT:
President Donald Trump will meet with his Cabinet on Wednesday after Iran’s Mizan news agency reported the framework of a deal is in place.
As he prepares to talk with his top aides, Trump has been projecting confidence that he’s closing in on a deal that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and provide him a credible argument that Iran’s nuclear capability has been diminished enough to declare victory, winding down a conflict that’s been politically unpopular for Republicans.
Details over a nuclear agreement though remain unclear.
News Source
EXCERPT:
Violent clashes erupted outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey, on Wednesday night as anti-ICE agitators battled federal agents during the fifth consecutive night of escalating riots over illegal alien detainees being held at the facility.
Videos from the chaotic scene show far-left keffiyeh-clad protesters hurling cement blocks, wooden pallets, mattresses, traffic cones, and other objects at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents while screaming obscenities and encouraging officers to kill themselves.
The unrest comes as Democratic politicians in New Jersey continue amplifying attacks against federal immigration enforcement operations under President Donald Trump.
News Source
EXCERPT:
In April 2026, Canada surpassed 100,000 reported euthanasia deaths since legalization in June 2016. Canada doesn’t need to further expand euthanasia to people who are mentally ill but rather Canada needs to completely review its euthanasia killing program.
I have published more than one thousands articles on Canada’s euthanasia law, a law that lacks effective oversight, a law that employs vague terminology, and a law that provides complete legal protection for doctors and nurse practitioners who are willing to kill people, even in cases that are completely egregious.
On May 5, I presented to the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying, which is the parliamentary committee examining the extension of euthanasia to mental illness alone in Canada.
News Source
EXCERPT:
Americans are saving less money than they have in nearly four years as rising living costs strain household finances and force many families to rely increasingly on credit cards and debt to get by.
The personal saving rate dropped to 2.6 percent in April, according to new Commerce Department data, marking the lowest level since June 2022 and a steep decline from the 5.5 percent rate recorded one year earlier.
The savings rate measures the share of disposable income households set aside rather than spend.
News Source
EXCERPT:
OpenAI’s Sam Altman has said mass white-collar layoffs have not materialized, while Anthropic has warned of major disruption
The heads of two leading artificial intelligence companies have offered sharply different forecasts on whether the technology will trigger mass job losses. The split comes as as Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and other tech giants continue large-scale layoffs tied to AI restructuring.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on Tuesday that AI is unlikely to trigger a global “jobs apocalypse,” admitting that he had been wrong about how quickly the technology would eliminate white-collar jobs.
“I’m delighted to be wrong about this, I thought there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar jobs being eliminated by now than has actually happened,” Altman told Commonwealth Bank of Australia CEO Matt Comyn.
News Source
EXCERPT:
News Source
EXCERPT:
KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian drone that was part of an overnight attack on Ukraine crashed into an apartment building in eastern Romania, injuring two people, Romanian authorities said Friday.
In response to the crash, NATO member Romania asked the alliance for a faster transfer of anti-drone capabilities, the Foreign Ministry said, calling the drone’s flight a serious violation of international law.
Ukrainian forces shot down 217 drones overnight on Friday according to the country’s air force. In total, Russia attacked with 232 drones and one ballistic missile. Hits were recorded in 14 areas, the air force said.
The drone was tracked by radar in Romanian airspace and crashed onto the roof of a
News Source
EXCERPT:
The rivalry between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk has officially reached the Moon. NASA announced on Tuesday that it had selected Bezos’s Blue Origin to carry out the first in a planned series of three uncrewed lunar missions aimed at preparing for a future Moon base, handing the company a contract worth about $230M. The mission, expected no earlier than fall 2026, will use Blue Origin’s Blue Moon cargo lander to transport scientific payloads and test technologies near the Moon’s south pole. While SpaceX remains deeply involved in NASA’s Artemis programme, the decision marks a symbolic win for Bezos in the increasingly intense billionaire battle shaping the future of space exploration.
Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin takes centre stage in NASA’s Moon base ambitions
For years, NASA’s idea of building a long-term human presence on the Moon existed mostly as an ambition tied to the Artemis programme. Tuesday’s announcement showed the agency is now moving into the practical phase.NASA administrator and entrepreneur Jared Isaacman said the first three uncrewed missions will help test landers, rovers, cargo systems and survival technologies needed to support astronauts on the lunar surface in the future. More than a dozen additional missions are expected later as the agency works towards creating an operational Moon base sometime in the next decade.The first mission will target the Shackleton de Gerlache Ridge region near the lunar south pole, an area scientists believe may contain water ice. NASA sees the region as critical because future explorers could potentially use the ice for drinking water, oxygen production and rocket fuel.
News Source
EXCERPT:
Carroll is under investigation for perjury.
The Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into author and former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who accused President Donald Trump of rape in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room at an unspecified time in the 1990s. She was awarded a large settlement after a jury found Trump liable for battery in a civil trial, with jurors unanimously agreeing that Trump had “sexually abused” Carroll.
Bolivia remains in political turmoil as anti-government protests show no sign of easing – TRT World–
EXCERPT:
Anti-government protests demanding the resignation of Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz have continued as the country remains mired in crisis, local media reported.
Demonstrators have set up roadblocks and blocked highways at 59 locations across the country’s nine administrative regions.
Based on the latest road map published by the Bolivian Highway Administration, transportation has been disrupted in the Andean regions of La Paz, Oruro and Potosi, as well as in the central regions of Chuquisaca and Cochabamba and the eastern region of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
Attempts by security forces to reopen the 227-kilometre highway between La Paz and Oruro as part of an operation called the White Flag Humanitarian Corridor were met with fierce resistance from protesters, who reportedly threw dynamite sticks and stones at police.
News Source
EXCERPT:
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is starting to dismantle the legal industrial complex pushing for mass migration by cracking down on immigration lawyers who file fraudulent asylum claims.
DHS directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday to develop policies to go after the attorneys who aid and abet illegals obtaining legal entry and status in the United States fraudulently, under a law already establishing penalties for document fraud. DHS said that ICE attorneys will have “greater authority to enforce the law.”
“For many years, millions of illegal aliens have committed fraud in our immigration system. No place is this more rampant than in immigration court,” DHS General Counsel James Percival said. “Protection claims like asylum are intended to cover unique and narrow circumstances, but it is standard practice for immigration attorneys representing illegal aliens to assert that virtually every illegal alien is going to be persecuted or tortured in his or her home country.”
The move is in line with other Trump administration attempts to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for certain groups, but will ostensibly make it more difficult for migrants to successfully gain entry into the United States using pro-immigration lawyers coaching them on how to make false claims. Under such guidance, aliens often assert that their lives are at risk in their home country, when they are nothing more than economic migrants looking to take American jobs and access welfare programs.
ASYLUM FRAUD CRACKDOWN.
For years, MILLIONS of illegal aliens have committed fraud in our immigration system — and no place is this more rampant than in immigration court.
Now, thanks to this directive, @ICEgov attorneys have greater authority to enforce the law and STOP the… https://t.co/9yvFZjTlPC
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) May 26, 2026