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https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/trump-says-us-help-ships-stranded-strait-hormuz-tanker-hit-by-projectiles-2026-05-04/
DUBAI/WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - Suspected Iranian strikes hit several ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday and set a UAE oil port ablaze, as President Donald Trump's attempt to use the U.S. Navy to free up shipping provoked the biggest escalation of the Iran war since a ceasefire was declared four weeks ago.
Trump's new mission "Project Freedom", which he announced on social media overnight, was the first apparent attempt to make use of naval power to unblock the world's most important energy shipping route.
But at least in the initial hours on Monday, the gamble appeared to have backfired, bringing no surge of merchant shipping through the strait while provoking a show of force from Iran, which had long threatened to respond to any escalation with new attacks on its neighbours.
The U.S. military said two U.S. merchant ships had made it through the strait, without saying when. Iran denied any such crossings had taken place.
The commander of U.S. forces in the region said his fleet had destroyed six small Iranian boats, which Iran also denied. Admiral Brad Cooper said he "strongly advised" Iranian forces to keep clear of U.S. military assets carrying out the mission.
Iranian authorities, for their part, released a map of what they said was an expanded sea area now under their control, which went far beyond the strait to include swathes of international waters, including long stretches of the United Arab Emirates' coastline on either side of the strait.
South Korea reported one of its merchant ships had been hit by an explosion and fire inside the strait. The British maritime security agency UKMTO reported two ships had been hit off the coast of the UAE, and the Emirati oil company ADNOC said one of its empty oil tankers was hit by Iranian drones while trying to cross.

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Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan was ousted by a no-confidence vote on Tuesday. He criticized the motion as "false, cynical and artificial," stating that countries in crisis should consolidate governments instead of changing them.

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) played a key role in the vote after withdrawing from Bolojan's coalition due to dissatisfaction with austerity measures. The far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians, led by George Simion, is gaining support and has called for snap elections.

Simion maintains a close alignment with U.S. President Donald Trump and has made multiple trips to Washington, including attending last year’s inauguration.

He has positioned himself as a leading figure in Europe’s rising right-wing sovereigntist movement. Simion regularly organizes “Make Europe Great Again” conferences and keeps strong ties with prominent right-wing leaders such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and France’s Marine Le Pen.

If Simion’s party takes power, Romania would become a far more hostile and erratic partner for Brussels.

He rejects any attempt by the European Commission to impose its will on national public spending decisions.

Romania would opt out of funding Ukraine and would resist the bloc’s common migration policy.

“My hope is that we have a change in power … democracy is about alternating in power, so they have to do the democratic thing and let us govern … listen to the vote of the people,” he told POLITICO.

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Happy Cinco de Mayo! T.A.C.O.s for all, fresh from the White House!

https://nypost.com/2026/05/05/world-news/iran-hits-uae-with-drones-and-missile-attacks-as-trump-tries-to-reopen-strait-of-hormuz/

The United Arab Emirates has come under Iranian fire again as missiles and drones were detected on Tuesday morning, the country’s ministry of defense said.

“Air defense systems are currently responding to a missile threat,” the ministry said as it warned civilians to take shelter.

Tuesday’s attack marks the second day of Iran’s renewed attacks on the US-Israel ally, with its drones setting fire to tankers and the UAE’s largest oil storage facility on Monday.

Yesterday’s assault saw Iran fire 15 missiles and drones at the UAE’s ships and facilities around the Strait of Hormuz, Abu Dhabi officials said.

It was the first such attack since the cease-fire with Iran went into effect, with Tehran taking aim at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone, the largest commercial storage hub for refined crude in the Middle East.

“These attacks constitute a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable transgression,” the UAE foreign ministry said of the initial strikes. “We reserve the right to a full and legitimate response to attacks.”

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Funny how the media stopped talking about it when people stopped caring, but just a reminder that there is STILL a major blockade being enforced from Israel into Gaza, stopping trucks from delivering the bare minimum amount of food needed for starving babies and kids to get the minimum nourishment to survive. Basically Gaza is being slowly starved to death and the world forgot its even happening. If Israelis are so advanced they can blow up pagers and kill state leaders with precision strikes, why do they need to resort to starving millions of people daily to stop those evil Hamas terrrorists? This is disgusting fucking bullshit and I hope Israel burns and the top leaders including Trump are incinerated for thousands of years in hell when they die. FUCK YOU baby killing scum.
And that stupid compromised pedophile orange skinned fat retard decided to Bomb IRAN? Instead of IsraHELL? Holy shit what a gigantic faggot retard. Guess he tongued too many kids assholes and got caught so now has to be Netanyahus bitch until he dies soon of old soon shitting his pants.

https://themedialine.org/top-stories/gaza-flotilla-interception-tests-humanitarian-claims-under-fragile-ceasefire-framework/

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https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/trump-says-us-help-ships-stranded-strait-hormuz-tanker-hit-by-projectiles-2026-05-04/
Iran's military warned U.S. forces on Monday not to enter the Strait of Hormuz after President Donald Trump said the United States would start helping to free ships stranded in the Gulf by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Trump gave few details of the plan to aid ships and their crews that have been "locked up" in the vital waterway and are running low on food and other supplies more than two months since the conflict began.
"We have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site on Sunday.
The unified command of Iran's armed forces responded by warning U.S. forces to stay out of the strait.
Its forces would "respond harshly" to any threat, it added, telling commercial ships and oil tankers to refrain from any movement in the absence of coordination with Iran's military.
"We have repeatedly said the security of the Strait of Hormuz is in our hands and that the safe passage of vessels needs to be coordinated with the armed forces," Ali Abdollahi, the head of the forces' unified command said in the statement.
"We warn that any foreign armed forces, especially the aggressive U.S. army, will be attacked if they intend to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz."
U.S. Central Command said it would support the effort with 15,000 military personnel, more than 100 land and sea-based aircraft, along with warships and drones.
"Our support for this defensive mission is essential to regional security and the global economy as we also maintain the naval blockade," Admiral Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, said in a statement.
Hundreds of ships and as many as 20,000 seafarers have been unable to transit the strait during the conflict, the International Maritime Organization says.

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> Thread theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK_LN3XEcnw

https://nypost.com/2026/05/04/us-news/secret-service-says-officer-involved-in-shooting-near-white-house-as-trump-holds-business-event-inside/

Secret Service officers engaged an armed man near the White House on Monday in what turned into a shootout that left the suspect and a juvenile bystander injured, according to the agency.

The incident unfolded a few blocks south of the White House, along the National Mall and near the Washington Monument, when plainclothes agents on patrol “identified a suspicious individual that appeared to have a firearm,” Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn said during a press briefing.

After spotting the “visual print of a firearm” on the suspect, the plainclothes agents called in support from uniformed Secret Service police.

“Upon making contact, that individual fled briefly on foot, withdrew a firearm and fired in the direction of our agents and officers,” Quinn said.

Secret Service officers returned fire and struck the suspect, who was transported to a local hospital.

“We believe only one bystander was hit by the suspect,” Quinn said, noting the juvenile sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was being treated at a hospital.

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The United States is withdrawing 5,000 troops from Germany.

The Pentagon announced the decision Friday as a rift over the Iran war widens between President Trump and Europe.

A senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said recent German rhetoric has been “inappropriate and unhelpful.”

“The president is rightly reacting to these counterproductive remarks,” the official said.

Trump had threatened the drawdown after sparring with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Merz publicly stated the Iranians were humiliating the United States in talks to end the two-month-old conflict.

The withdrawal is expected to be completed over the next six to twelve months. It will return U.S. troop levels in Europe to roughly pre-2022 levels, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a major buildup.

A brigade combat team now in Germany will be pulled out. A long-range fires battalion the Biden administration had planned to deploy later this year will no longer deploy.

Germany remains the U.S. military’s largest basing location in Europe, with some 35,000 active-duty personnel, and serves as a key training hub.

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https://archive.is/9oHMu

Ryan Cohen, CEO of GameStop, has made an unsolicited offer to acquire eBay for about $56 billion, proposing $125 a share. This offer represents a 20% premium over eBay’s recent closing price. Cohen asserts that eBay could be worth much more, aiming to turn it into a major competitor to Amazon.

He revealed plans to finance part of the acquisition with a commitment from TD Bank for $20 billion. If eBay does not agree, Cohen is prepared to approach shareholders directly. He believes integrating GameStop with eBay could drastically cut costs and enhance earnings.

Despite GameStop's smaller valuation at around $12 billion, Cohen’s aggressive strategy hinges on potential partnerships for funding. Some analysts remain skeptical, cautioning against disrupting eBay’s successful turnaround.

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https://www.psypost.org/the-gender-friendship-gap-is-driven-primarily-by-white-men-not-a-universal-difference-across-groups/
For years, researchers have claimed that men’s friendships are shallower and less emotionally supportive than women’s, a pattern called the “gender friendship gap.” But new research challenges how universal that really is. Published in Sex Roles, the study finds that the gap is largely driven by white men specifically, not men as a whole.

Much of the work on the gender friendship gap has relied on predominantly white, middle-class samples, which raises an important question: do these patterns actually apply across different racial and socioeconomic groups?

Researcher Emily C. Fox revisited this assumption by taking an intersectional approach, examining how gender and ethnoracial identity jointly shape friendship experiences. Drawing on prior research suggesting that social context, marginalization, and cultural norms influence how friendships are formed and maintained, the author questioned whether the “gap” reflects a universal gender difference or whether it is concentrated within specific groups.

The study used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort, a large, nationally representative U.S. sample tracked over time. Fox focused on respondents who, in 2002, were between 18 and 21 and had identified a best friend who wasn’t a parent, romantic partner, or co-parent. The final sample included 1,765 participants across Black, Latino/a, and white ethnoracial groups.

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https://nypost.com/2026/05/03/us-news/dying-ex-rep-barney-frank-delivers-stark-warning-from-hospice-about-dems-swinging-too-far-left/

Liberal icon, former Rep. Barney Frank, who is dying of congestive heart failure, spoke out from hospice to deliver a stark warning to Democrats for swinging too far to the left on social issues — and said it will cost them with voters.

The 86-year-old former congressman, who is famous for fighting to legalize same-sex marriage and pushing to regulate Wall Street after the 2008 financial meltdown, hopes his lefty bona fides will help his message resonate with the far left.

“It’s precisely because I have been on the left that I have undertaken this,” Frank told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Many of us fought to get inequality on the Democratic agenda.”

“But the problem was, as we succeeded in bringing the mainstream of the left into a concern with inequality, we also enabled people who wanted to use that as a platform for a wide range of social and cultural changes, some of which the public isn’t ready for.”

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https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-intelligence-indicates-limited-new-damage-irans-nuclear-program-sources-say-2026-05-04/
WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that the time Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon has not changed since last summer, when analysts estimated that a U.S.-Israeli attack had pushed back the timeline to up to a year, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
The assessments of Tehran's nuclear program remain broadly unchanged even after two months of a war that U.S. President Donald Trump launched in part to stop the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear bomb.
The latest U.S. and Israeli attacks that began on February 28 have focused on conventional military targets, but Israel has hit a number of significant nuclear facilities.
The unchanged timeline suggests that significantly impeding Tehran's nuclear program may require destroying or removing Iran's remaining stockpile of highly enriched uranium, or HEU.
The war has stalled since the U.S. and Iran agreed an April 7 truce to pursue peace. Tensions remain high as both sides appear deeply divided, and as Iran has choked traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, blocking some 20% of world oil supplies and igniting a global energy crisis.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said publicly that the U.S. aims to ensure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon via ongoing negotiations with Tehran.
U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded prior to June's 12-day war that Iran likely could produce enough bomb-grade uranium for a weapon and build a bomb in around three to six months, said two of the sources, all of whom requested anonymity to discuss U.S. intelligence.
Following the June strikes by the U.S. that hit the Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan nuclear complexes, U.S. intelligence estimates pushed that timeline back to about nine months to a year, said the two sources and a person familiar with the assessments.

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https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/03/republicans-embrace-high-deductible-obamacare-plans-00902194
Hundreds of thousands of Americans have switched to health insurance that covers a lot less of their care this year.

Republicans hope a lot more will follow them.

The shift since January was driven by GOP lawmakers’ decision at the end of December to reduce the help the government provides to people who don’t get insurance through work, but instead buy it in the Obamacare marketplace. The reduction in those subsidies sent Obamacare customers searching for plans that cost less.

There’s a catch: The cheaper plans don’t cover the first several thousand dollars in sick visits, drugs and surgeries a patient needs. Nearly 4 in 10 Obamacare enrollees are in these “high-deductible” plans now, compared to 3 in 10 a year ago.

President Donald Trump and GOP senators want to encourage more to go that route by shifting remaining Obamacare subsidies, which are now used to reduce monthly premiums, into tax-advantaged savings accounts that come with the high-deductible plans. That would be very good for some — affluent people in good health who use the savings accounts to accrue wealth — but not so much for others: sicker and poorer people who incur medical bills they can’t afford.

For many Republicans, that’s a worthwhile trade-off, considering the plans also reduce overuse of the health care system and put downward pressure on prices. “The president clearly has said we need to send money to patients rather than insurers in the system, and building out policies that are consistent with that is important,” said Brian Blase, president of the right-leaning Paragon Health Institute and an adviser to Trump in his first term.

But the inequitable outcomes for patients trouble others.

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/u-citizenship-immigration-services-exposes-153043398.html

U.S. Citizenship And Immigration Services Exposes 100 H-1B Visas For DEI Jobs

A newly disclosed federal review found roughly 100 H-1B visa cases tied to diversity-related roles, fueling a political clash over how the program is used in education and public institutions.

An April 21 letter by Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Joseph B. Edlow, shared online by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), states that USCIS identified “approximately 100 cases” between fiscal years 2021 and 2024 in which H-1B petitions referenced terms such as “diversity,” “equity,” or “inclusion,” with roles appearing to be DEI-related to some degree, according to the agency’s response.

“I’ve spent the last year working with USCIS to root out and terminate H-1B abuses. We’ve worked together to expose how the Left weaponized H-1Bs into a DEI fraud factory. We’re shutting it down. Here’s the most recent data,” Schmitt wrote in the post.

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https://www.reuters.com/world/us/former-new-york-mayor-giuliani-hospitalized-critical-condition-2026-05-03/
WASHINGTON, May 3 (Reuters) - Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been hospitalized and is in "critical but stable condition," his spokesperson said on Sunday.
The spokesperson, Ted Goodman, did not immediately provide more details about Giuliani's condition or how long he has been hospitalized.
"Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he's fighting with that same strength now," Goodman said in a statement. "We do ask that you join us in prayer for America's Mayor Rudy Giuliani."
Giuliani, 81, garnered acclaim for his response to the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attack on New York City, earning the nickname "America's Mayor."
Giuliani worked as an attorney for President Donald Trump in his failed efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, an effort that led to criminal charges against Giuliani in two U.S. states and a defamation lawsuit from election workers. Giuliani has denied wrongdoing in the criminal cases.
Trump, in a social media post, called Giuliani the "Best Mayor in the History of New York City" and said he had been mistreated by Democrats.
Giuliani was previously hospitalized last year following a car crash in New Hampshire.

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https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/04/us/edmond-oklahoma-shooting-arcadia-lake-party-hnk
At least 10 people were taken to hospital after a shooting at a lake party near Oklahoma City Sunday night, police said.

No suspects are in custody, but there is no reason to believe there is an ongoing threat to the public, Emily Ward, a spokesperson for the Edmond Police Department, told CNN.

Officers responded around 9 p.m. CT to reports of gunfire at a party at Arcadia Lake, Ward said. Ten victims were transported by emergency medical services to hospitals across the Oklahoma City metro area, she said, adding the victims were in “various conditions.”

“The total number of victims is expected to change as additional individuals transported themselves to area hospitals,” police said in a statement on X.

Oklahoma City Police and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol also responded to the shooting. The Edmond Police Department is leading the investigation, Ward told CNN.

Authorities did not reveal the age range of the victims. Ward described the gathering as a “large party” and said many of those present appeared to be “young adults,” but police are still investigating.

Arcadia Lake is about 13 miles north of Oklahoma City in Edmond, a city of roughly 100,000 residents. The lake is a popular destination for picnicking, camping, fishing and water sports.