Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Caitlin and Tim discuss the Israeli abduction of Global Sumud Flotilla activists hundreds of miles away from their territorial waters, US war plans for Cuba, Israel’s ethnic cleansing plans for Gaza, the billionaire propagandist who owns Politico, motherhood, misogyny, and more.” (04/30/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/04/30/podcast-gaza-cuba-global-sumud-flotilla-and-more/
Source: New York Post
“A New York rabbi was found dismembered and stuffed inside a bloodstained wardrobe after he was attacked and murdered by Colombian gangbangers. Nachum Israel Eber’s mutilated remains were discovered inside the abandoned closet after it was dumped on a street in Bogota on Sunday — just days after his family reported him missing, local media reported. The 51-year-old father, who was a member of the Belz Hasidic community in Brooklyn’s Boro Park, had traveled to the South American country earlier this month to help advise a congregation of Catholics who had converted to Judaism. Authorities started searching for him after relatives in the Big Apple reported he had suddenly gone silent and stopped answering their calls. Surveillance video captured Eber leaving his Airbnb just after 9 p.m. April 21 before he vanished without a trace.” (04/30/26)
Source: Fox News
by David Marcus
“Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., much like his mentor and predecessor, Sen. Mitch McConnell [R-KY] is a creature of that austere and august upper body of Congress who has completely forgotten his duty to Republican voters. It’s simple math. The Senate issue that the GOP electorate cares most about is passing the Save America Act, with its voter ID requirements and other election security measures, even if it means blowing up the filibuster. But GOP leadership insists that ending the 60-vote threshold and pushing this hyper-popular legislation through is simply impossible. Thune’s dilemma is whether his duty in this situation is to the institution of the Senate, whose rules and customs he seeks to preserve, or to the 95% of Republican voters shouting from the mountaintop to just pass the bill.” (04/30/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/david-marcus-sen-thunes-duty-voters-senate-colleagues
Source: SFGate
“The first direct commercial flight between the United States and Venezuela departed a bit early Thursday on its way to the capital of the South American country, seven years after the U.S. Homeland Security Department ordered an indefinite suspension, citing security concerns. The resumption of a nonstop commercial flight between the two countries comes months after the U.S. capture of then President Nicolás Maduro in a stunning nighttime raid on his residence in Caracas in early January. It also comes a month after the U.S. formally reopened its embassy in Caracas following the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Venezuela.” (04/30/26)
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The US is ‘studying and reviewing’ whether to reduce the thousands of troops it has stationed in Germany, President Donald Trump has announced via social media. His remarks came days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticised his approach to the war in Iran, suggesting that US had been ‘humiliated’ by Iranian negotiators. Trump said in a social media post late on Wednesday that a decision on troop numbers would be made ‘over the next short period of time. Then early on Thursday he rounded on Merz, saying he should ‘spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine (Where he has been totally ineffective!).’ The BBC has reached out to the White House for comment. The US has a significant military presence in Germany, with more than 36,000 active duty troops assigned to bases across the country as of last December.” (04/30/26)
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“A swing-seat congressional primary in Nebraska that’s already swarming with outside spending has a new twist with a familiar ring. Big money from a pro-Israel super PAC was en route to help its preferred candidate, but the ham-fisted attempt to conceal that support may backfire on its intended beneficiary, centrist New Democrat–endorsed candidate Denise Powell. Since mid-March, outside groups have spent $2.93 million (as of April 29) in Nebraska’s Second Congressional District, supporting Powell and opposing state Sen. John Cavanaugh, a populist candidate with an extensive personal and family political history in the Omaha region that the district encompasses. Cavanaugh had been the early favorite in the race for the open seat vacated by Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) and won by Democrats in the last two presidential elections. The nearly $3 million already poured into the contest is an enormous amount for the relatively modest media market of Omaha and environs.” (04/30/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/04/30/controversial-pro-israel-pac-launders-spending-powell-nebraska/
Source: SFGate
“Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday that she wouldn’t let the U.S. meddle in the country’s affairs, and that her attorney general would investigate allegations from a New York court indictment accusing 10 Mexican current and former officials of working with the Sinaloa Cartel to traffic drugs. The indictment named a number of sitting officials in Sinaloa, including members of Sheinbaum’s progressive Morena party, fueling a political firestorm at a time when Sheinbaum has sought to offset U.S. pressures while appeasing her own base. Shortly after, Mexico’s government said that it had seen extradition request from the U.S. for 10 citizens, without naming them. The highest profile official implicated was Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, a top Morena official and close ally of Sheinbaum’s mentor and predecessor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.” (04/30/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/sheinbaum-says-mexico-will-investigate-us-22234530.php
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“The Supreme Court striking down Democrat racism in the drawing of Congressional districts set off a predictable wave of panic across the Left [sic], as the concept of having to make a case to voters who aren’t simply blindly loyal to the party began to sink in. … they absolutely refuse to have a conversation with an American who will not bow down to their left-wing [sic] agenda. Why? Because they can’t. There is no case to be made by the Left [sic] to normal people, so they refuse to and have created districts of the obedient to serve the party, as nothing scares the hell out of a Democrat more than having to compete for anything based on merit.” (04/30/26)
Source: Fox News
“The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) racked up a $1.2 million tab at D.C.’s five-star Salamander Hotel during a lobbying trip to oppose President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a new report from the Center for Union Facts (CUF) found. Social media posts show that SEIU members from around the country converged in Washington, D.C., between June 23 and June 29, 2025, to confront lawmakers and stage protests against the tax and spending cuts under consideration in Congress. Department of Labor disclosures logged on June 30, 2025, reveal that the union spent $1.2 million of members’ dues at the Salamander Hotel to cover a series of expenses labeled as ‘support for political activities.'” (04/30/26)
Source: Fox News
“The Minnesota House of Representatives introduced a bill that could penalize cities and counties for not flying the redesigned state flag. Members of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party pushed legislation Monday to reduce state aid to a county or city that ‘flies or otherwise makes use of a state flag other than the design of the state flag as certified in the report of the State Emblems Redesign Commission.’ If passed, the bill would go into effect in 2027. Fox News Digital reached out to Minnesota state House members and the speaker of the House for comment. The bill followed several cities and communities in recent years voting in favor of returning to the original state flag, which was adopted in 1893. On the same day the bill was introduced, the Inver Grove Heights City Council voted to join Elk River, Champlin, Zumbrota and Plainview in flying the original flag on city buildings.” (04/30/26)