“The Democratic National Committee released what it said was its full, unredacted autopsy of the 2024 presidential election on Thursday after months of mounting pressure on party chair Ken Martin, who was keeping the report secret. … Martin released the report, first obtained by CNN, but simultaneously issued a statement distancing himself from it and its conclusions. ‘I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards and it won’t meet your standards,’ he wrote in a Substack post. … The report has an unusual disclaimer, saying it ‘reflects the views of the author, not the DNC. The DNC was not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews, or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein and therefore cannot independently verify the claims presented.'” (05/21/26)
“The United States on Wednesday removed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, a UN expert on the Palestinian territories who has harshly criticised Israel, following a court order. A notice on the Treasury Department’s website showed that it had removed a sanctions designation on Albanese that had blacklisted her globally, making it impossible for her to use major credit cards or carry out bank transactions. Albanese, who is Italian, has been a relentless critic of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians in her role as the UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories.” (05/20/26)
“Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including gonorrhoea and syphilis have hit record levels in Europe, according to new data. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said both diseases had reached their highest levels in over 10 years in 2024. Gonorrhoea hit 106,331 cases – a 303% increase since 2015 – while syphilis more than doubled in the same period to 45,557. The health agency said ‘widening gaps in testing and prevention’ were partly behind the surge in transmission, and called for urgent action. ‘These infections can cause severe complications, such as chronic pain and infertility and, in the case of syphilis, problems with the heart or nervous system,’ said Bruno Ciancio, the head of the agency’s Directly Transmitted and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases unit. He said congenital syphilis cases – ‘where infections pass directly to newborns, leading to potentially lifelong complications’ – had nearly doubled from 2023 to 2024.” (05/21/26)
“Australian populist party Pauline Hanson’s One Nation said it wanted to create a Norway-style sovereign wealth fund and for the government to take a share of offshore production licences in federal waters as it unveiled its energy policy at the Australian Energy Producers conference in Adelaide on Thursday. One Nation has surged in popularity this year, winning its first House of Representatives seat, and has backing from Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart, who recently donated a plane and hosted dinners for the party. … Her plan would see the federal government take a 30% stake in offshore licences, share development and decommissioning costs, and retain part of production for domestic use, including fertiliser and fuels.” (05/21/26)
“The Philippine justice chief ordered authorities Thursday to enforce an International Criminal Court warrant for the arrest of a senator wanted on an alleged crime against humanity. He warned that anyone helping the senator evade a nationwide hunt would face criminal charges. Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa ‘is a fugitive from justice,’ Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida said in a news conference. ‘He should be brought to the ICC to face the charges.’ Dela Rosa is a former national police chief who enforced then President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown against illegal drugs that killed thousands of mostly petty suspects. The killings alarmed Western governments and human rights groups. Duterte, who was president from 2016 to 2022, was arrested last year and flown to the The Hague, where is he is on trial at the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity.” (05/21/26)
“In a blow to the White House, Senate Republicans will remove a $1 billion Secret Service funding request that would help President Donald Trump’s ballroom project from their immigration enforcement funding bill amid internal objections. … The decision to omit the security funding came after twin blows: Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled over the weekend that the provision didn’t comply with the strict rules governing what Republicans can put in their filibuster-skirting bill because it funded activities outside of the Judiciary Committee’s jurisdiction. And several GOP senators aired public concerns about including any ballroom funding in a bill otherwise dedicated to immigration enforcement.” (05/20/26)
“The US has charged former Cuban leader Raúl Castro with conspiracy to kill US nationals and other crimes over the downing of two planes between Cuba and Florida in 1996. The case unveiled on Wednesday – a revival of charges originally from 2003 – accuses Castro and five others in the shooting down of an aircraft belonging to Cuban American group Brothers to the Rescue and killing four people, including three Americans. Castro, now 94, was the head of the country’s armed forces and faced international condemnation over the crash.” [editor’s note: There’s significant debate over whether the aircraft were in the Cuban regime’s claimed airspace, but no debate whatsoever about the fact that they weren’t in the US regime’s claimed airspace. Also, let’s talk about the recent US regime’s publicly confessed murders of boat crews, also outside areas of US jurisdiction – TLK] (05/20/26)
“Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s Rosneft-owned Syzran oil refinery in Samara region overnight, Ukrainian military and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday. ‘Another Ukrainian long-range sanction against Russian oil refining – and we are continuing this line of action,’ Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app. … Two people were killed in a drone attack on the town of Syzran in Samara region, the local governor said, without mentioning whether any infrastructure was damaged in the attack. Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces said the attack caused a large fire at the refinery, whose annual processing capacity ranges from 7 to 8.9 million tons of crude oil.” (05/21/26)
“Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol from rioters on January 6, 2021, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to halt President Donald Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of political ‘weaponization.’ In a complaint filed in federal court in Washington, former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges alleged Trump has ‘created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.’ The lawsuit seeks a court order blocking payments from the fund, calling it ‘the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century.’ Trump settled on Monday with the Internal Revenue Service, agreeing to drop his $10 billion lawsuit over the leak of his tax returns during his first term. As part of the settlement, the Justice Department created the fund to compensate victims of political ‘weaponization.'” (05/20/26)
“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has said it coordinated the transit of 26 vessels through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, as talks between Washington and Tehran over the resumption of traffic through the narrow waterway remain stalled. ‘Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is being carried out with permission and in coordination with the IRGC Navy,’ the statement carried by Iran’s state-affiliated ISNA news agency said on Wednesday.” (05/20/26)
