“Raúl Castro, Cuba’s low-profile former president and revolutionary guerrilla, appeared in public for the first time since being indicted by the United States for his alleged role in the 1996 downing of two civilian aircraft, official video released Saturday showed. Castro’s celebration of his 95th birthday with top officials and military leaders at the Ministry of Interior in Havana on late Friday offered Cuba’s socialist government an opportunity to close ranks and project defiance as the Trump administration escalates its pressure campaign on the fuel-starved island. State TV broadcast footage of Castro, clad in his olive-green military uniform, entering a packed theater to a standing ovation, followed by his grandson and bodyguard, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez, and Cuban President Miguel Diáz-Canel.” (06/06/26)
“A homeowner fatally shot an armed intruder after an exchange of gunfire inside a San Jacinto residence late Friday night, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office. … According to investigators, the homeowner was visiting a neighboring residence when he heard screaming and gunfire coming from his own home. The homeowner ran back to the residence and encountered an unknown male intruder inside the house armed with a shotgun, sheriff’s officials said. Investigators said the homeowner armed himself and confronted the suspect, and during the confrontation, the suspect allegedly fired multiple rounds at the homeowner, who returned fire and struck the intruder. The suspected intruder died at the scene, officials said, and no other injuries were reported.” (06/06/26)
We don’t go “web-only” with a FIREHOSE FRIDAY — no email or social media editions, everything at the site — very often these days. A few months back we switched to putting in a LOT of content every day and just formatting 60-70 items into those other editions, only showing the rest on the web site.
Today is one of those rare other occasions. I’ll explain why, but first, I’ll let you know that we’ll probably have AT LEAST 100 news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links lined up for you here at the web edition by the time you read this.
So, why? I’m traveling (I’m in Clearwater, Florida, a couple of hours from my home, accompanying my wife to a conference and hoping we can work a mini-vacation into the schedule), and when I’m traveling I’m working on a laptop at odd hours, etc. We still get just as much content in, but I sometimes make the call to go “web-only” both because it’s easier and because it’s always possible that some travel-related event will intervene while I’m trying to mess with all that formatting. So now you know.
Of course, whenever we go FIREHOSE FRIDAY on you, I also make it a point to mention that we’re a reader-supported publication and that you’re a reader. Not to put too fine a point on it, but last month I made about $100 and Steve made about $50 for our work producing the freedom movement’s daily newspaper.
I’m not complaining … but I also wouldn’t mind a drink with a little umbrella in it on this here “mini-vacation,” at the expense of whomever might care to buy said drink. The proxy cash bar is open at:
Have a great weekend, and if I’m not e.g. eaten by sharks after an unwise swimming decision powered by drinks with little umbrellas in them, we will be back with the regular editions on Monday.
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
“Hezbollah on Thursday rejected the latest ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Lebanese government, and the militant group demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as more fighting there hampered efforts to end the Iran war. The Hezbollah announcement came as Israeli strikes killed at least four people, according to local authorities, and a U.N. peacekeeper was killed in the crossfire. An Israeli soldier was also killed in combat in southern Lebanon.” (06/04/26)
“One of the three remaining criminal cases stemming from efforts by President Donald Trump’s supporters to overturn the 2020 election results appears headed back to a grand jury in Arizona. The case began in April 2024 when an indictment sought by Arizona’s Democratic attorney general charged 18 Republicans with forgery, fraud and conspiracy, accusing them of trying to undo former President Joe Biden’s victory in the state by 10,457 votes. In a decision released Thursday, the Arizona Supreme Court rejected Attorney General Kris Mayes'[s] request to avoid sending the case back to the grand jury. Mayes had hoped to continue pushing forward through the courts without having to start over at the grand jury level. … The ruling came after similar cases in Michigan and Georgia were dismissed by the courts and a special prosecutor dropped a federal case in late 2024 that charged Trump with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.” (06/04/26)
“The United States imposed sanctions Thursday on Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, his wife and three other individuals, in the latest move by the Trump administration to pressure the island’s leadership that drew immediate condemnation from Havana. … The new penalties come as U.S. President Donald Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba since ousting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January and then ordering an energy blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba. That has led to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.” (06/04/26)
“Hungary and Ukraine on Wednesday reached an agreement on the rights of Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarian minority, an issue that has long strained relations between the two countries. The deal will boost Ukraine’s longstanding bid to join the EU, with Budapest saying it would drop a veto by former Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Kyiv’s accession to the bloc if an agreement were reached. … The EU has now said it will move Ukraine, along with Moldova, to the next stage in their membership bids as it hailed the deal announced by [Hungarian Prime Minister Peter] Magyar.” (06/04/26)
“President Donald Trump marks the 500th day of his second term in the White House Thursday, but the milestone coincides with a poll showing his approval rating at a new low. The latest survey from The Economist and YouGov places Trump’s net approval rating at -25, down 1.1 points in a week, and reveals that only 35 percent of the American public approves of the job he is doing in the Oval Office, with a massive 60 percent disapproving and the remaining 5 percent unsure. The news magazine explains that the results make the president the most unpopular U.S. commander-in-chief since it began polling in 2009. … The survey finds that Trump is still most likely to receive support in red states that voted for him in 2024 but that dissatisfaction is now ‘widespread’ and is beginning to be expressed in locations he won two years ago.” (06/04/26)
“A performance artist in Hong Kong tried on Wednesday to honor the victims of Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown but was quickly stopped by police, the latest sign of the city’s shrinking freedom of expression. Sanmu Chen tried to tie a symbolic red thread to a street signpost in Causeway Bay, a busy shopping district close to a park that for decades hosted an annual candlelight vigil on June 4 to commemorate those who died in the crackdown that ended student-led protests in Beijing in 1989. Police officers stopped Chen and searched his bag before letting him go. Hong Kong was for decades the only place in China where a large-scale public commemoration of the crackdown was held. The massive annual vigils were banned in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and public acts to mark the Tiananmen Square killings have become increasingly sensitive in the city in recent years.” (06/04/26)
“A case of New World screwworm has been found in Texas six decades after the flesh-eating pest was largely eradicated in the United States, sparking an aggressive response amid fears about its potential impact on the livestock industry. The U.S. Agriculture Department confirmed the parasite was detected in the umbilical area of a 3-week-old calf in Zavala County. There have been no further cases detected, and efforts are underway to contain and eradicate it, the agency said in a statement Wednesday. New World screwworm is a parasitic fly that affects livestock, pets and wildlife, as well as people in rare cases. It lays eggs in open wounds or orifices, with the hatched maggots burrowing into and feeding on flesh. It’s typically found in South America and parts of the Caribbean but has moved north through Central America and Mexico since 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” (06/04/26)
