“A French academic is under investigation for inventing a Nobel-style prize for philology in order that he could then go on to win it. Florent Montaclair, from Besançon in eastern France, was decorated with the Gold Medal of Philology in 2016 at a ceremony held at the National Assembly in Paris, attended by ministers and Nobel laureates. But the prize was a fiction, as was the body that supposedly awarded it, the International Society of Philology – both apparently dreamed up by Montaclair to burnish his academic credentials. Philology is the study of language through texts. Investigators in Besançon are now looking into the affair to see if any laws were broken, while the university where Montaclair taught for 20 years has suspended him indefinitely.” (05/06/26)
“Is Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) going to switch parties? That’s the scuttlebutt in Washington, D.C., according to Politico. He has been one of Trump’s loudest supporters among congressional Democrats, and with the GOP looking down the barrel of a catastrophic loss in the upcoming midterms, they are hoping to buy themselves a Senate seat—literally. It seems Sens. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and Katie Britt (R-AL) have been assiduously working on Fetterman. Donald Trump as usual cut to the chase and offered a huge sack of cash by way of a message delivered through Fox News contributor Sean Hannity: ‘Your job is to tell him,’ as Hannity recalled the conversation, ‘‘He’s gonna run as a Republican, he’s gonna have our full support, more money than he ever dreamed of, and he’s gonna win big.’'” (05/06/26)
“A man accused of firing a gun at law enforcement officers near the Washington Monument this week was walking along the path of Vice President JD Vance’s motorcade before the shooting and made a vulgar remark about the White House after the confrontation, according to a court filing Wednesday. Michael Marx, 45, of Midland, Texas, was shot multiple times during Monday’s confrontation and was in the back of an ambulance on his way to a hospital when he said, ‘F**k the White House!’ and ‘Kill me, kill me, kill me!’ as a Secret Service agent said in an affidavit. The sworn statement does not specify whether investigators believe Marx had a particular target.” (05/06/26)
“During President Trump’s first year in office, the United States reduced drug overdose deaths by over 13,000, compared to the previous 12 months. That is more than a statistic: it is thousands of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends and neighbors who are alive today because of the decisive actions taken under his leadership. Now, drug overdose deaths are lower than at any point under the Biden administration and nearly 40,000 lower than the previous Administration’s peak of almost 108,000. This result is historic, but it is not enough. We must continue fighting every day to save lives from the chemical war being waged on the American people by cartel terrorists. This week, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) will continue our work to save lives with the release of President Trump’s 2026 National Drug Control Strategy.” [editor’s note: I assume this was ghost-written, as no one with the brains to write it has the lack of brains to believe it – TLK] (05/06/26)
“Vivek Ramaswamy will run for the position of Ohio governor in November, after the staunch ally of US President Donald Trump emerged victorious in one of a series of primary contests held in the US Midwest. Projected results on Tuesday night showed the health-tech entrepreneur had defeated Casey Putsch to earn the Republican nomination. Ramaswamy – who gained prominence during his unsuccessful run against Trump for president in 2024 – said at a victory party that his plan was to ‘leave this state and this country better than we found it.’ Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Amy Acton, who ran unopposed for her party’s own nomination, told supporters she wanted to make Ohio more affordable again. ‘It shouldn’t be this hard,’ said Acton, who is the former Ohio public health director. ‘It is time to put working families first.'” (05/06/26)
“Officials and experts in Argentina are scrambling to determine if their country is the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has gripped an Atlantic cruise. The health emergency aboard the ship that’s moored across the ocean comes as Argentina sees a surge of hantavirus cases that many local public health researchers attribute to the recently accelerating effects of climate change. Argentina, where the cruise to Antarctica departed, is consistently ranked by the World Health Organization as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease in Latin America. Higher temperatures expand the virus’ range because, in part, as it gets warmer and ecosystems change, rodents that carry the hantavirus can thrive in more places, experts say. People typically contract the virus from exposure to rodent droppings, urine or saliva.” (05/06/26)
“Donald Trump has long called global warming a hoax, but his sweeping anti-climate agenda has stunned even many of his supporters. Since returning to the White House, he’s withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Treaty, rolled back critical greenhouse gas regulations, and opened up millions of acres of previously protected public land for oil and gas drilling. In response, big oil and gas companies have abandoned, without the slightest resistance, the showy public commitments they had previously made to climate transition. For example, BP has slashed green energy expenditures by 70 percent, Equinor has cut back its renewable capacity targets by almost 40 percent, and Chevron has reduced its carbon-reduction capital expenditures to about 5 percent of its total capital expenditures.” (05/05/26)
“Romania’s pro-European coalition collapsed Tuesday after lawmakers voted against Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, less than a year after he was sworn in, triggering fresh turmoil in the European country. The no-confidence vote was a blow to Bolojan, who came to power with the aim of ending one of Romania’s worst political crises in its post-communist history. The leftist Social Democratic Party, or PSD, and the hard-right opposition Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party, or AUR, jointly submitted the motion to Parliament on April 28. PSD withdrew from the coalition last month. On Tuesday, 281 lawmakers voted in favor and four voted against. Lawmakers from Bolojan’s center-right National Liberal Party, or PNL, and coalition partners, Save Romania Union party and the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR party, abstained.” (05/05/26)
“In 2016, then-presidential candidate Trump famously asked Black voters ‘What do you have to lose?’ Trump challenged African American voters to rethink their long-standing allegiance to the Democrat Party, which, he rightly claimed, took them for granted and had failed to deliver on the most pressing demands of African American families, including providing their kids with a good education. Steve Hilton, a Republican and former Fox News host, running to become governor of deep blue California, should be posing that same question to Golden State voters. California is one of the most expensive places to live in the country, entirely because of decisions made by Democrats who have controlled the state with a two-thirds supermajority in the legislature since 2018 and also occupied the governor’s mansion since 2011.” [editor’s note: It was one of the most expensive states to live in LONG before 2011 – TLK] (05/05/26)
“As reported in the Monitor last week, the recent U.S. indictment of 10 Mexican officials poses a key test for President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo: how best to balance pressures from its neighbor and largest trading partner with the domestic imperative to defend sovereignty – while also tackling cartel crime and serving justice for ordinary Mexicans? More broadly, this development also tests both countries’ determination to collaboratively pursue legitimate shared interests in a way that stabilizes rather than further disrupts already-shaky economic, political, and security relations. Last Thursday, President Sheinbaum said the U.S. request for extradition of the 10 officials did not provide enough evidence for arrests. Instead, she said, Mexican prosecutors would investigate the cases to determine evidence of criminality. Her declaration came in the wake of increasing unease after a roadway incident in late April pointed to CIA involvement inside Mexico.” (05/04/26)
