curated news excerpts & citations
Jennifer Rubin: We haven’t “taken out” anything except free navigation
Donald Trump keeps telling us he has wiped out the Iranian regime. “We’ve taken out their navy, we’ve taken out their air force, we’ve taken out their leaders,” he said last week. At various times he has insisted, “Their entire Navy is at the bottom of the Sea,” or claimed, “They have no navy, it’s been knocked out.” As CNN recounted:
The president has said for weeks that Iran had “no navy,” “no military,” “no air force” and “no anti-aircraft systems.” …
“They have no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100% annihilated,” Trump said. “We are unstoppable as a military force.”
And yet somehow this “sunk” navy last week was able to fire on three vessels, seize two, and maintain the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. It seems — shocker! — “taken out” does not mean, as the dictionary tells us, “to extract or remove,” it means to leave the enemy potent military assets. And “no” does not mean “none,” but rather “some powerful military equipment able to inflict real harm.” Even the Pentagon has let on that Trump was lying.
Janna Brancolini @ Daily Beast: Trump Aides Leak Fears of Toxic Stalemate
Kyle Stock and Lili Pike @ Bloomberg: From the UK to South Korea, Consumers Turn to EVs as Oil Prices Spike
Borowitz: Iranians Catch Jared Kushner Trying to Set Up Own Tollbooth in Strait of Hormuz
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – April 28, 2026
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But there is at least one other story behind the administration’s insistence on building Trump’s ballroom: the man desperately needs a win.His war in Iran has settled into a humiliating stalemate in which Iranian leaders appear to be calling the shots. Speaking to German students on Monday, German chancellor Frederich Merz said that the U.S. clearly has no strategic plan and that the “entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership.”
Gas prices are at their highest level in four years, with the average U.S. price for a gallon of regular at $4.18. Economist Paul Krugman noted in his Substack today that the world is currently using oil that it had in storage, but when that runs out, prices will rise enough to get rid of the demand for about 11 or more million barrels of oil a day. Krugman illustrated his article with a picture of an egg in a vise.
On Saturday, April 25, Gordon Lubold, Courtney Kube, Mosheh Gains, and Natasha Lebedeva of NBC News reported that the damage Iran inflicted on American military bases, radar systems, aircraft, warehouses, and infrastructure in the Gulf region was far worse than the administration has told the public and will cost up to $5 billion to repair.
On Sunday, Democratic senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts responded to reports from survivors that the U.S. military post in Kuwait where six service members died and at least 20 more were injured was unprotected.
One of the injured soldiers told CBS News that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s statement that a drone “squeaked through” was false. “I want people to know the unit…was unprepared to provide any defense for itself,” the service member said. “It was not a fortified position.” The senators asked Hegseth to explain by May 11 why the post did not have protection against drones and who was responsible for that lack.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Jung H. Pak @ Foreign Affairs: The Strange Triumph of Kim Jong Un
The 75th anniversary of the Korean Workers Party in October 2020 was not the festive affair that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wanted it to be. Despite the fireworks, military flyover, and procession of new intercontinental missiles, Kim appeared to wipe away tears when he approached the lectern and apologized to the crowd: “My efforts and sincerity have not been sufficient enough to rid our people of the difficulties in their lives.” … It was arguably the lowest moment in the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea’s 78-year history.
And yet, just five years later, in September 2025, Kim was beaming at a different military parade—in Beijing, where he stood with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. North Korean soldiers were now fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, North Korean trade with China had reached healthy pre-pandemic levels, and Kim had been welcomed into a unified cohort of leaders countering U.S. and Western influence. In a stunning reversal of fortune, North Korea today is ascendant in ways not even the most imaginative analyst could have predicted. Kim, whose grip on power has never been stronger, has transformed himself from a global pariah into a global power player in record time.
(Jung H. Pak @ Foreign Affairs more…)
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Hans Christensen: Orbán Complices Rush to Evacuate Hungary
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Brian Klaas: The Hidden World of Undersea Cables
The internet largely runs beneath the oceans. Here’s how it works—and why it matters.
(Brian Klaas more…)
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Dean Obeidallah: The WHCD incident is still being “staged” by Trump and here is what that means!
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Yes, Saturday’s WHCD event was 100% “staged.” But to be clear, I’m not saying the incident itself was orchestrated by Team Trump. That would require more credible evidence to reach that conclusion.But what is undisputed is that Trump instantly pivoted to use the WHCD incident into a stage crafted production to help him achieve his political goals. So yes, Trump has “staged” this.
(Dean Obeidallah more…)Dean Blundell: The Trump DOJ Filed a Truth Social Post in Federal Court Demanding The US Taxpayers Pay for Trump’s Ballroom, Citing “TDS.”
Allison Gill: Todd Blanche’s Unhinged Midnight Ballroom Motion
Rebecca Crosby and Noel Sims: Trump blames No Kings for assassination attempt
Brian Beutler: Trump Brings This Upon Himself—And Us
Garrett Graff: Is the Justice Department lying about Saturday’s “shooting”?
A central point of the government’s case doesn’t add up.
Ken Klippenstein: Cole Allen Hated the Democratic Party, Too
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Paul Offit: Collateral Damage
Recently, a pediatrician named Megan Prior posted a three-minute video on Instagram expressing her frustration:
“I just got out of clinic and I’m tired. I need to vent. I don’t want to come across like I am whining because I realize that I am lucky to be a pediatrician. But being a pediatrician has changed. My job feels different.”
Dr. Prior recalled a time when it wasn’t so hard to explain the value of vaccines.
“I spend so much more time counseling people on vaccines than I have done in the past. Ten years ago, I would tell people you’re getting standard vaccines today. Then I would give them handouts with the names of the vaccines, what diseases they cover, and side effects. Parents would review the handouts and that was that. Occasionally people would ask me an extra question or two or they’d google something, but it went well. It was easy.”
Katelyn Jetelina @ Your Local Epidemiologist: Triple the ticks, military ends flu vaccine, Vitamin K refusal and rotavirus surging, alpha gal trends, and good news
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Smantha Cole @ 404 Media: University Turned Professors’ Lectures Into AI Slop
ASU Atomic, a new tool in beta at Arizona State University, takes faculty lectures and chops them into extremely short clips, that AI then attempts to turn into learning materials.
Ed Zitron: AI’s Economics Don’t Make Sense
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James Eagle: 13 companies dominate 40% of the S&P 500
(James Eagle more…)
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE Accountability Project
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Ximena Bustillo, Jasmine Garsd @ NPR: Deaths of migrants in ICE custody hit record high under Trump
- April 16: Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt
- March 25: Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
April 1 – Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz @ AP: Death of a refugee left at a Buffalo doughnut shop by Border Patrol is ruled a homicide - January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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