May 30, 2026

How America can remain the world's AI superpower

Staying ahead of China requires pioneering technology — and stopping Chinese AI from conquering the world.

“The future of American warfare is here, and it’s spelled AI,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared in early December. It wasn’t hyperbole.

Just weeks later, the midnight raid that snagged Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro was guided by artificial intelligence. The Pentagon reportedly used Anthropic’s Claude model, paired with Palantir’s command-and-control software, to map the physical and political landscape of that daring mission.

At the end of February, on the first day of Operation Epic Fury against Iran, U.S. planners again relied on AI to make sense of a sea of satellite imagery, drone feeds, signals intelligence and other data. The technology enabled over 1,000 precision strikes in the opening hours of the war, including some that killed top Iranian officials.

As Operation Epic Fury dramatically demonstrated, AI is increasing the speed, precision and lethality of conflict. The next great-power clash — a showdown, for instance, between the United States and China in the Taiwan Strait — could be decided by which side better integrates AI into its military arsenal and way of war.

Recent months have also revealed new AI-related vulnerabilities. Iran responded to Operation Epic Fury by targeting key parts of the AI “stack” — the infrastructure and capabilities underpinning the technology — on the territory of America’s Middle East allies, striking data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. It also threatened to destroy the regional facilities of Microsoft, Google and other U.S. tech firms.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/05/29/us-artificial-intelligence-supremacy-depends-taking-these-essential-steps/

May 29, 2026

Real-Estate Agents Are Quitting the Slow Housing Market

In fourth year of struggling market, even real-estate professionals who made it this far are reaching breaking point

Kim Taylor bet her career on the housing market.

In mid-2023, the real-estate agent launched her own brokerage with her husband, Gordon Taylor. The market in the Fort Worth, Texas, area had cooled from its pandemic-era frenzy, but business was good. Taylor started out with a team of seven agents and quickly brought six more onboard.

By 2024, high mortgage rates and prices were weighing on demand, and homes sat on the market. Most of Taylor’s agents had to find other part-time or full-time jobs to stay afloat. Her husband took a job last year working for a school district.

“We just became a bleeding artery,” said Taylor, who started working in real estate in 2015. “The last 11 months have been the hardest of my career.” She closed the brokerage this spring and joined another firm.

The slowest housing market in decades is stretching into its fourth year, and even real-estate agents who made it this far are reaching a breaking point. Most of them are independent contractors and get paid when a deal closes. With fewer sales to go around and homes taking longer to sell, more agents are ditching the industry or finding second jobs.

https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/real-estate-agents-are-quitting-the-slow-housing-market-d95fc524?st=iNaFGb&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

May 29, 2026

Inside Putin's $26 Billion Quest for Longevity

From mini-pigs and organ printing to cryotherapy and genetics, Russia’s president has turned antiaging research into a Kremlin priority

When Vladimir Putin was captured by a hot mic telling Xi Jinping that humans could achieve immortality by replacing their organs, some dismissed the exchange as eccentric small talk between aging autocrats.

In fact, during the conversation at a Beijing military parade last September, Putin appeared to be describing a Kremlin-backed longevity initiative that has become one of Russia’s flagship scientific projects.

Like Silicon Valley billionaires including Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman and Peter Thiel, Putin has long been fascinated with antiaging research. But in Russia, Putin’s quest to stave off decline is now a state priority relying on methods as wide-ranging as organ printing, harvesting mini-pigs and exposure to ultralow temperatures.

Last month, Russia’s government announced that scientists are developing a gene-therapy treatment aimed at slowing cellular aging as part of “New Health Preservation Technologies,” Putin’s $26 billion longevity initiative.

https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/putin-longevity-antiaging-92dee6e8?st=Ma7bka&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

May 29, 2026

Trump Goon Melts Down Over Trump's Reflecting Pool Leaks

Two prior tests to ensure the leaks in the pool were sealed were unsuccessful.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum lashed out at claims that the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial was already leaking as the Trump administration scrambled to finish the $13.1 million renovations in time for the Fourth of July.

The massive pool spanning more than 2,000 feet has had leaks for decades. President Donald Trump has vowed to fix it while bragging about other pools he’s built.

But according to documents reviewed by the New York Times, the contractor’s effort to seal the gaps failed in two trials earlier this month, leaving the Park Service and the company rushing to come up with a fix.

The Interior Department declined to say if a solution had been found before the Times report dropped, but afterward, Burgum fired back, accusing it of “TDS” or “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and claimed it “ignored the facts” in a lengthy 9-post rant on X.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-goon-melts-down-over-trumps-reflecting-pool-leaks/

May 29, 2026

A deported mother returned to the United States to bury her slain toddler

The funeral home doors swung open, and Wendy Hernandez Reyes inched toward the tiny white coffin cradling her 3-year-old son, Orlin. He lay frozen in a tan outfit and matching pageboy cap to cover his injuries.

The Department of Homeland Security had quietly allowed Hernandez to return to the United States late Monday, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers deported her to Honduras without him. Now she was being given three days in Atlanta to say goodbye. An ankle monitor tracking her movements blinked red above her black shoes.

When she saw the toddler lying in the satin-lined casket, she fell to her knees and began to wail.

“My God, why?” Hernandez cried. “Orlinsito, my son.”

Acting ICE director Todd M. Lyons claimed in March that Hernandez had “abandoned” her son to a “violent murderer” who killed him weeks later. ICE had arrested her after a sheriff’s deputy in Baldwin County, Alabama, stopped the car she was riding in with her sister to work. Contrary to Lyons’s assertion, Hernandez said she had begged ICE to deport her with Orlin. Instead, the child and his cousins were put in the custody of her sister’s estranged partner, Samuel Maldonado. He was a laborer who had been in the Honduran military and the father of her sister’s three young children.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2026/05/29/deported-mothers-anguished-return-say-goodbye-her-slain-toddler/

May 29, 2026

Becerra leads governor's race, with Hilton and Steyer in tight contest for second spot, poll finds

• A new poll shows former Biden Cabinet member Xavier Becerra narrowly in the lead of a volatile race with Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Tom Steyer also in contention in the June 2 primary.

• Democrats’ unusually slow ballot returns hint at either strategic last-minute voting or voter fatigue, despite record-breaking campaign spending.

On the cusp of California’s gubernatorial June 2 primary, a poll shows voters are closely divided among three candidates vying to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom at a perilous moment in history for the state and the nation.

Among likely California voters, 25% support Xavier Becerra, a Democrat and former Biden Cabinet secretary, according to the survey by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies that was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and released Thursday. Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator and British political strategist, has the backing of 21%, while 19% backed billionaire hedge fund founder turned environmental activist Tom Steyer, a Democrat.

The survey provided the clearest indication yet that the three have separated themselves from the rest of the field. Support increased for Becerra, Hilton and Steyer since the last Berkeley IGS poll in March. Becerra leapfrogged everyone. In early March, he wallowed near the bottom of the pack at just 5% support among likely voters, and now is the front-runner.

The other candidates floundered. Support for Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, dropped 5%, and he now finds himself in a distant fourth place. Former Democratic Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine dropped by almost half to 7%. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond — all Democrats — remained mired in the single digits.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-05-28/becerra-leads-governors-race-hilton-steyer-in-tight-contest-for-second-spot

May 29, 2026

SoCal teen is graduating from high school. And college. And another college

• Adelanto 18-year-old Hailey Contreras is graduating from high school and two local colleges.

• She participated in dual enrollment, which allows a high schooler to enroll as early as their freshman year and earn up to 11 college credits per semester.

• Contreras is heading to UC Berkeley this fall as an 18-year-old junior transfer.



As she walked home two weeks ago, Hailey Contreras carried in a plastic grocery bag all the accolades and graduation regalia from a high school and college career bursting with acclaim. Then it snapped.

More than 2 pounds of honor cords, pins, stoles and medallions — a stash rivaling that of a supreme Allied commander — crashed to the dirt outside the 18-year-old’s Adelanto home. That’s when the high school senior came to a realization.

“I was going to need a bigger bag,” Contreras said with a smile. “It’s been a busy year.”

Contreras is graduating from Hesperia High School on Thursday after graduating last week from Chaffey College, and she’ll graduate next month from Victor Valley College. She’ll have a high school diploma and four associate’s degrees to go along with a personal drive to maximize every second of her time.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-05-28/adelanto-18-year-old-hailey-contreras-is-graduating-with-four-degrees

The kids are all right.

May 28, 2026

Democrats Slap Sh*t Out Of Ugly F*ck Stephen Miller

More like this!

It is a new day and a new world, and that world is No More Mister Nice Democrats. Or at least whoever is running the Democrats’ social media right now is No More Mister Nice Democrats. But we are glad to see it, and any Democrat who still doesn’t understand what TEAM FIGHT is supposed to look like should take note: This is part of it! It’s not the whole thing, but it’s part of it!

World’s ugliest Trump Nazi Stephen Miller thought he had a very clever joke to make about James Talarico, now that Donald Trump-endorsed pig trash fraud dumpster Ken Paxton has won the Texas Republican Senate primary, paving the way for a total Talarico victory.

The Independent reports that The Democrats’ social media account “turned vulgar.” Forbes says the Dems “Post[ed A] Profanity-Laced Attack On Stephen Miller In Tawdry Exchange.” A tawdry exchange, oh my fucking stars! More like Stephen Miller posted, “Democrats made history in Texas by nominating their first transgender senate candidate” about Talarico, and the Dems responded, “shut up you ugly fuck.”

Correct!

https://www.wonkette.com/p/democrats-slap-sht-out-of-ugly-fck

May 27, 2026

Tesla driver infamous for California road rage attacks goes to prison for another one in Hawaii

A Tesla driver who became infamous for a series of road rage attacks captured on camera in Southern California is headed to prison after being convicted of a similar attack in Hawaii.

Nathaniel Radimak, 40, was previously convicted and jailed in Los Angeles over two incidents of road rage, during which he was seen threatening women with a pipe in 2022 and 2023. But after serving less than a year of his five-year sentence, he was paroled and released due to overcrowding.

Then last May, he was arrested in connection with an attack in Hawaii.

Honolulu police arrested Radimak after he exchanged words with an 18-year-old woman parking her car on Halekauwila Street, officials said.

Radimak was accused of getting out of his car and assaulting her and a 35-year-old woman before fleeing.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-05-26/tesla-road-rage-driver-sentenced

May 27, 2026

High-Level British Spy Warns of Expanding Russia Threat

The director of Britain’s electronic surveillance agency warns that Russia is only getting more brazen as battlefield losses in Ukraine mount.

As Russia fails to gain ground in the war in Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin appears to be pursuing a wider conflict in Europe, increasingly targeting critical infrastructure and supply chains, one of Britain’s highest-ranking intelligence officials said in prepared remarks.

“Russia is scaling up its daily hybrid activity against the U.K. and Europe,” said Anne Keast-Butler, director of GCHQ, the British electronic surveillance agency, which has been countering what she called the Kremlin’s “reckless sabotage and assassination attempts.”

Ms. Keast-Butler’s remarks are part of an annual speech she is planning to make Wednesday afternoon at Bletchley Park, where Britain’s code breakers once deciphered enemy signals during World War II. Now, intelligence workers sit in hubs across the U.K., gathering electronic intercepts and trying to stay one step ahead of adversaries demonstrating “increasingly brazen behavior,” she said.

Her comments come at a volatile time in the world as the war in Ukraine is in its fifth year, conflict in the Middle East destabilizes the global economy and President Trump continuously rattles the NATO military alliance — a central check on Mr. Putin’s aggression.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/world/europe/britain-gchq-spying-russia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.llA.r2nL.NukMl47eyg0S&smid=url-share