“The U.S. military said it carried out what it called self-defense strikes on Iranian radar and drone control sites over the weekend, while Iran said it targeted an air base used in the U.S. attack as the two countries continued to trade strikes amid talks to end their war. On Monday morning, the Kuwaiti army said in a post on X that it was ‘currently responding to hostile missile and drone threats’ and that any sounds of explosions were the result of air defense systems intercepting attacks. It did not say where the attack was coming from or what was being targeted, but Kuwait hosts a U.S. air base that has previously been attacked by Iran and its proxies.” (06/01/26)
“In a surprisingly strong performance, right-wing outsider candidate Abelardo de la Espriella will face leftist candidate senator Iván Cepeda in a June runoff election to decide Colombia’s presidency, setting the stage for a battle over the country’s political future and the direction of its relationships with key international partners, including the United States. With more than 99% of the votes counted in Sunday’s first round of the presidential election, de la Espriella won the most ballots with 43.74% of the vote, falling short of the absolute majority required to win outright in the contest. Cepeda, representing the left-wing Historic Pact coalition, was in second place with 40.90%. The left Democratic Center candidate Paloma Valencia was trailing well behind with 6.92%, according to preliminary results released by the National Civil Registry.” (05/31/26)
“A Spain-bound United Airlines flight out of Newark turned around mid-flight on Saturday because a teenager named his Fitbit ‘bomb’ and it popped up on available Bluetooth devices, officials and sources said. The plane took off from Newark Liberty International Airport at about 6 p.m., but landed back at Newark by roughly 9:30 p.m after security was flagged to inspect a suspicious Bluetooth device onboard that showed up as ‘bomb,’ sources told The Post. The flight was turned around and landed back in Newark late Saturday after passengers were directed to turn off their devices and the alarming name remained online. It was later determined that the device was a name for a Fitbit owned by a 16-year-old on board.” [editor’s note: Obviously, even if a real bomber was going to use Bluetooth to control a real bomb, the device name would be “ThisDeviceIsTotallyNotABomb” – TLK] (05/31/26)
“The Libertarian National Committee has voted to disaffiliate the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, making one of the newly seated committee’s first acts a break with an affiliate that had become a serious point of controversy inside the national party. … A recording of the meeting, though sometimes hard to hear, shows national committee members referencing the New Hampshire affiliate’s public endorsement of Donald Trump during the 2024 election, its criticism of Libertarian candidates, and what the national party called a repeated promotion of ‘anti-libertarian positions’ at the national level. … The affiliate argues that the LNC acted without notice and without its representatives present, as well as without evidence that its current leadership violated party bylaws or libertarian principles.” (05/29/26)
“Ukraine launched fresh strikes on Russian energy sites overnight into Sunday, Russian authorities and media reported, while Kyiv denied Russian claims that a Ukrainian drone struck a key Kremlin-occupied nuclear plant. Drone debris set fire to a fuel storage facility in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, Gov. Yuriy Slyusar reported on Telegram on Sunday. He said residents of nearby homes were evacuated. The drones also damaged civilian infrastructure in Saratov province, also in southwestern Russia, according to Gov. Roman Busargin. Astra, an independent Russian news channel, said an oil refinery was on fire in the regional capital, Saratov. … Meanwhile, Kyiv denied Russia’s claims that a Ukrainian drone struck the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the largest in Ukraine and Europe.” (05/31/26)
“A novel pill helped people with advanced pancreatic cancer live longer, researchers report, raising hopes of long-needed better treatments for one of the deadliest types of cancer. ‘While not curing the cancer, it is a very large step forward,’ says Dr. Zev Wainberg, of the University of California, Los Angeles, who helped lead the study. The drug is called daraxonrasib and it blocks a mutated protein that fuels tumor growth in more than 90% of pancreatic cancer cases — a target that had eluded treatment for decades. The daily pills nearly doubled survival time, with fewer severe side effects, in a study that randomly assigned the experimental drug or more chemotherapy to 500 patients whose metastatic, or spreading, cancer had quit responding to prior treatment. The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago.” (05/31/26)
“Israeli forces have captured a strategic site in Lebanon across the Litani River, marking Israel’s deepest incursion into the country in 26 years. The capture of Beaufort Ridge, the site of a medieval castle, comes after days of intense fighting in southern Lebanon, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Sunday the seizure marks a ‘dramatic change’ in Israeli strategy. … ‘My instruction is to deepen and expand our grip on the places that were under Hezbollah’s control,’ he added. ‘The occupation of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic change in the policy that we are leading.'” (05/31/26)
“Five patients have recovered from a rare type of Ebola, the head of the World Health Organization said Sunday during a visit to eastern Congo’s Bunia, a city at the heart of an outbreak. ‘Four people will be discharged today and there was one that was discharged the day before yesterday,’ WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during the opening of a new Ebola treatment center in Bunia, the provinical capital of Ituri. ‘Of course, we’re still working on vaccines and treatments but that doesn’t mean that people cannot recover from Ebola,’ he added. … The health organization said latest official figures showed 906 suspected cases and 223 suspected deaths. Neighboring Uganda has confirmed nine cases and one death, the Ugandan Health Ministry said Friday.” (05/31/26)
“U.S. President Donald Trump will headline an event commemorating the nation’s 250th anniversary on the National Mall next month, organizers said on Saturday, after several musical performers scheduled to appear in the celebration canceled, citing concerns about its association with him. The concerts were planned as the opening ceremony of the Great American State Fair, a 16-day event running from June 25 to July 10, 2026. … the musical lineup has been hit by a series of cancellations. On Friday, Bret Michaels, the lead singer of the rock band Poison, became the fifth performer to withdraw from the concerts, saying that the event was not the nonpartisan celebration that he thought it would be. … ‘The fact is that I am, according to many, the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World,’ Trump wrote.” (05/30/26)
“The wife of Graham Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, said she is ‘really angry’ about reports that she had previously told her husband’s campaign he had exchanged sexually explicit texts with other women. ‘It makes me really angry, disappointed,’ Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, said in a direct-to-camera video released by Platner’s campaign on Saturday night. ‘And I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on.’ Gertner’s remarks came after The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that Gertner had told Platner’s campaign about the sexually explicit texts last year, near the start of his Senate bid.” (05/31/26)
