Welcome to Thursday, April 30, 2026, with May nearly upon us.  It’s also National Bugs Bunny Day, celebrating the day the dwatted wabbit made his first appearance in 1938. And here it is, in “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Bugs first appears 46 second in, as wily as ever.

It’s also Adopt a Shelter Pet Day, National Bubble Tea Day, National Oatmeal Cookie Day (best to abjure these and have chocolate chip cookies), National Raisin Day (one reason oatmeal cookies are lame) and International Jazz Day,  Here’s Coleman Hawkins playing one of my favorites (and his most famous song): “Body and Soul”:

Finally, there’s a Google Doodle today celebrating Route 66: America’s most famous highway (and its remaining attractions), a road that’s largely been replaced and subsumed into other roads: It’s celebrated today because, as Wikipedia says, “The numerical designation 66 was assigned to the Chicago-to-Los Angeles route on April 30, 1926.”

When you click on the screenshot above, it shows the route of that road, which extends from Santa Monica in California to good old Chicago:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 30 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Trump has told his aides that the U.S. should prepare for a long blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which of course means a long war.

President Trump has instructed aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran, U.S. officials said, targeting the regime’s coffers in a high-risk bid to compel a nuclear capitulation Tehran has long refused.

In recent meetings, including a Monday discussion in the Situation Room, Trump opted to continue squeezing Iran’s economy and oil exports by preventing shipping to and from its ports. He assessed that his other options—resume bombing or walk away from the conflict—carried more risk than maintaining the blockade, officials said.

Yet continuing the blockade also prolongs a conflict that has driven up gas prices, hurt Trump’s poll numbers and further darkened Republicans’ prospects in the midterm elections. It has also caused the lowest number of transits through the Strait of Hormuz since the war began.

Since ending the major bombing campaign in an April 7 cease-fire, Trump has repeatedly walked back from escalating the conflict, opening space for diplomacy after earlier threatening to destroy the entirety of Iranian civilization. But he still wants to tighten the grip on the regime until it caves to his key demand: dismantling all of Iran’s nuclear work. On Monday, Trump told aides that Iran’s three-step offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and save nuclear talks for the final phase proved Tehran wasn’t negotiating in good faith, The Wall Street Journal reported.

For now, Trump is comfortable with an indefinite blockade, which he wrote Tuesday on Truth Social is pushing Iran toward a “State of Collapse.” A senior U.S. official said the blockade is demonstrably crushing Iran’s economy—it is straining to store its unsold oil—and sparked fresh outreach by the regime to Washington.

Trump’s decision represents a new phase of sorts of the war and highlights the fact that the president, who always seeks a quick and salable victory, is devoid of a silver bullet.

Unilaterally stopping the fight offers a quick exit to the conflict and relief to the U.S. and global economies. But Iran’s proposal last weekend would have allowed Tehran to set the terms of that off-ramp.

Restarting hostilities, meanwhile, would further weaken a battered Iran, but it would likely react by wreaking more havoc on Gulf energy infrastructure, bolstering the costs of the war. The blockade shrinks the Islamic Republic’s funds but commits U.S. forces to a longer deployment in the Middle East—with no guarantee the regime capitulates.

“Iran is calculating that its ability to withstand and circumvent the blockade outstrips the U.S. interest in preventing a wider energy crisis and potentially a global recession,” said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert and vice president of the Brookings Institution’s foreign policy program. “A regime that slaughtered its own citizens to silence protests in January is fully prepared to impose economic hardships on them now.”

Iran is making that calculation, but it’s risking political suicide in the hopes that the Hormuz blockage will wreak havoc on the entire world.  This, however, is probably the savviest move that Trump can make, and there’s always a chance—albeit a small one—that a population forced to suffer economic hardship on top of political oppression could revolt.  But as we know, the theocracy could give a rat’s patootie about the well-being of the Iranian people.

*It’s Noon in Israel explains the significance of the UAE’s withdrawal from OPEC.

It’s Wednesday, April 29, and the United Arab Emirates has announced its departure from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). As the group’s third-largest producer, the move is monumental. By way of comparison, it is akin to a permanent member of the Security Council leaving the United Nations—except, of course, the world actually cares about what OPEC has to say.

. . .So, why now?

Well, the oil market is vastly different from that of the 1970s. The first blow to the OPEC monopoly was that the U.S. now ranks among the world’s top three exporters of crude following the shale revolution in the 2010s. The U.S.’s impending control over the reserves of one of OPEC’s founding members, Venezuela, is another, and Operation Roaring Lion is the third. During the recent conflict, production policy was coordinated through OPEC, but in some ways it was every oil nation for itself: the Saudis had their contingency for bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, and the UAE had its own.

The exit also resolves a long-standing tension between the UAE’s rapidly expanding production capacity—which targeted 5 million barrels per day by 2027—and restrictive cartel quotas that forced the nation to operate roughly 30 percent below its capability. This is reflective of a fundamental difference in interests: Saudi Arabia requires crude prices near $80 per barrel to balance its national budget and fund Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious plans for the country.

Conversely, the UAE possesses a vastly more diversified economy and massive sovereign wealth funds. The UAE’s overall economic health is tied more closely to global macroeconomic growth than to the nominal price of a barrel of oil. By exiting OPEC and actively increasing global supply to lower energy costs, the UAE can deliberately stimulate the global economy, curb Western inflation and thereby bolster the returns of its own massive international investment portfolios.

Perhaps most interestingly, the withdrawal signals a deepening geopolitical rift with Saudi Arabia. Though the two nations have long clashed through proxies in Yemen and Sudan, the UAE is now charting a more permanent, independent course—one that hugs the U.S. and Israeli coasts rather than being bound to the Saudi winds. This isn’t just speculation; MBZ’s top adviser, often considered his mouthpiece, has grown increasingly vocal about his disappointment with the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council. But even when the relationship isn’t overtly adversarial, the UAE is clearly finished with regional conformity.

Well, this answers the questions I had yesterday about the significance of the UAE’s withdrawal.  As for the price at the pump, it portends a decline, which is not that important to me but may well be to truckers and some impecunious consumers.

*This is ridiculous: for the second time, a federal grand jury has laid charges against former FBI director James Comey (bitter enemies with Trump)—this time over an arrangement of seashells on a North Carolina beach! Here’s the photo as posted by Comey (via Jim Acosta on X):

Excerpts:

James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, was indicted on Tuesday over a social media post, signaling a renewed effort by the Justice Department to pursue charges against him after its bid last year ended in failure.

A federal grand jury in North Carolina charged Mr. Comey with making a threat against the president and transmitting a threat across state lines, according to court records.

The case, which centers on an image of seashells that Mr. Comey posted on Instagram, is the latest salvo in the department’s tortured efforts to satisfy the demands of President Trump to go after longtime targets of his wrath. Under the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, the department has sought to accelerate Mr. Trump’s retribution campaign after the president fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, in part, over his dissatisfaction with her effectiveness in bringing cases against his perceived enemies.

Mr. Comey vowed to fight the case.

“I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let’s go,” he said in a video statement posted online. Mr. Comey urged Americans to “keep the faith.”

. . .The new Comey charge stems from an incident nearly a year ago, when the former F.B.I. director, vacationing on the North Carolina coast, posted a photograph on social media showing seashells arranged to say “86 47,” combining the slang term “86,” often used to mean dismiss or remove, with an apparent reference to Mr. Trump, the country’s 47th president.

After an uproar ensued over the post, Mr. Comey deleted it, saying that he did not know that it could be seen as having a violent connotation and that he opposed violence of any kind.

Members of the administration, as well as Mr. Trump’s family, declared that the meaning of “86” was to kill, and that the seashell message amounted to a threat to assassinate the president.

According to court records, the case was assigned to Judge Louise W. Flanagan of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, an appointee of President George W. Bush whose courthouse is in New Bern, N.C.

I simply can’t believe that Comey meant “kill Trump” when he used “8647”.  It’s much more likely that he was simply calling for the removal of the President, or simply dissing him rather then asking someone to assassinate him.  (Some people think Comey was threatening to kill Trump by himself.)  And to make a federal court case out of all this. .  well, it’s ludicrous and a waste of time and money.

*The Supreme Court voted, with the usual 6-3 conservative/liberal split, to prevent Congressional redistricting along racial lines. According to the Wall Street Journal, this lessens “protections for minority voters”:

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sharply restricted states from using race to draw voting districts that help minority communities elect their preferred candidates.

The 6-3 decision, which divided the court along ideological lines, further weakens the Voting Rights Act and could prompt some states to attempt to quickly redraw their congressional maps before this year’s midterm elections, potentially eliminating safe Democratic congressional seats and converting them into districts that lean Republican.

“Allowing race to play any part in government decisionmaking represents a departure from the constitutional rule that applies in almost every other context,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion.

The case involved the congressional map in Louisiana, which has six seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The state, prodded by rulings from federal courts, drew two of those six districts to have a majority of Black voters. Voting-rights activists said the majority-Black districts were necessary for the state to comply with the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 law that prohibits racially discriminatory election rules.

But a group of self-described “non-African American” voters sued to challenge the state’s map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. They argued that considering race in drawing district lines—even if only to comply with the traditional understanding of the Voting Rights Act—violated the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on race-based discrimination.

Alito and the other conservative justices agreed. In doing so, they adopted a narrow interpretation of the central provision of the Voting Rights Act, known as Section 2.

Section 2, Alito wrote, applies only to state redistricting practices that “intentionally” discriminate against voters on the basis of race. It doesn’t prevent states from pursuing a “partisan advantage” in ways that may also reduce the voting power of large and geographically compact minority communities, he wrote.

What the disadvantage to blacks seems to be is that, by lumping them together with whites, it reduces their power as a group to vote for candidates more suitable to their ethnicity (this would be Representatives, of course, since we’re talking about federal law here). Apparently it’s okay to draw lines that favor parties, but not races. Since the two are somewhat correlated, the Court is drawing a fine line here, and I’m not quite sure why one is okay and the other not.  Lines should, in my view, be drawn just to contain equal numbers of people in each district, and that has been shown to be possible without gerrymandering.

*Trump’s megalomania, which compels him to slap his name or visage on everything, has now gotten his scowling mug on the inside of some (but not all) U.S. passports.

President Trump’s signature is set to be added to U.S. dollars. His name has been affixed to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. A plan to mint a 24-karat gold coin with his image is moving forward.

Now there are plans to release a limited-edition U.S. passport bearing the president’s likeness.

The State Department revealed the plans on Tuesday, saying that the new passports would be made available in commemoration of the country’s 250th anniversary this summer. A “limited number of specially designed” passports will be released, according to Tommy Piggott, a spokesman for the State Department. They will be available for any American citizen who applies for one at the Washington Passport Agency when the rollout happens and will continue for as long as inventory lasts, the department said.

Pictures of the proposed design, which Mr. Piggott said will feature “customized artwork and enhanced imagery,” show a serious-looking Mr. Trump above his signature in gold ink.

There will be no additional cost for the Trump-themed passports, the State Department said. It is unclear how many will be produced.

News of the passports was earlier reported by The Bulwark and Fox News.

The passport redesign is the latest example of the president or his allies pushing to put his name, image or signature on institutions in Washington and across the country. This year’s National Parks passes display his face alongside George Washington’s, and some of his administration’s initiatives, such as Trump savings accounts for children and TrumpRx, where Americans can buy prescription drugs directly, are named after him.

Here’s the new passport. It seems that Trump actually likes pictures of himsef scowling; perhaps it projects an image of determination and authority. All I know is that I’m glad my passport doesn’t expire until 2034.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej and Hili commiserate again:

Hili: Sometimes I have doubts.
Andrzej: It happens to me too.

In Polish:

Hili: Czasem mam wątpliwości.
Ja: Mnie się też to zdarza.

*******************

From Stacy; now why would anyone want to setal that sign? (I know, so you needn’t answer.)

From Things With Faces; a happy beam:

From Funny and Strange Signs:

From Masih; another peaceful Iranian protestor sentenced to death.  Somehow Trump has managed to leave such people out of his rationale for war, though he mentioned them in his initial announcement:

Iran’s Regime Sentences 21-Year-Old Karate Champion to Death for Protesting، Execution Imminent!

So let me get this straight;
Sasan Azadvar goes to a protest… and the regime’s response is not a debate, not reform, but a rope?

He isn’t a criminal. He’s a kid with medals, a… pic.twitter.com/L2Feijr9Md

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) April 29, 2026

From Luana; a bit of protest brewing on my campus. For some reason the size of the “demonstration” is miniscule:

The University of Chicago’s “Popular University” may not have many participants, but its rhetoric is hard to miss.

“Bring 🔻 the Intifada Home” is an obvious riff on the Weather Underground’s “Bring the War Home.” pic.twitter.com/icqDtySP9r

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) April 28, 2026

Emma answers a conundrum by saying that she’d sacrifice herself:

Different question that requires over 50% of people to voluntarily self-sacrifice for anyone to survive.

I switch to red – no dependents, not gonna repopulate the world, not about to cure cancer.

This iteration would solve the pension crisis 😉 https://t.co/KBNBJxCyih

— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) April 29, 2026

The #10 Cat stands up for Jews—sadly, in the face of a new anti-Jewish crime, which is being treated as an act of terrorism.

Attacks on Jewish people on the streets of Britain are attacks on us all. I am so incredibly sorry that these disgusting and horrifying things are happening. https://t.co/b2PJkQtXRN

— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) April 29, 2026

This seems to be real, not AI, despite an objection on “Community Notes”. But of course one can never tell (Grok says it’s real):

The laws of physics don’t apply to mountain goats. 🐐 pic.twitter.com/8j6FCUs9yX

— Earth_Wanderer (@earth_tracker) April 28, 2026

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial: I didn’t know they had a free monthly online magazine, but it looks, well, very instructional. I read “Children of Block 10” in the issue highlighted below:=

A new edition of “Memoria” – the online monthly magazine of the Auschwitz Memorial.

📖 It is available to read online or download as a PDF:https://t.co/2XRv6mAc22

Inside:
🔹 Nazi Party Membership Files Online
🔹 Children from Block 10
🔹 Auschwitz Museum acquires the original… pic.twitter.com/KiVPkyGaPb

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) April 30, 2026

Two from Dr. Cobb, heading back to the UK from Chile. First, a painting by Jacob DUCK, a Dutch painter:

Dividing up the spoils of war: Some soldiers. And their dogs. By Jacob Duck, whose day is today.

— Dr. Peter Paul Rubens (@peterpaulrubens.bsky.social) 2026-04-27T16:06:02.652Z

A crab feast:

Not sure what this crab 🦀🦑 is eating, but she's going to town on it. #crustaceans #nature #smallwonders #Maui #marinelife #nokings #love #eat

— Menestune (@menestune.bsky.social) 2026-04-22T06:33:33.194Z

Welcome to the Cruelest Day: Tuesday, April 28, 2026, and Great Poetry Reading Day. Here’s Dylan Thomas’s “Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines,” written when he was only nineteen. He died at 39 of lung ailments exacerbated by alcoholism.

Light breaks where no sun shines;
Where no sea runs, the waters of the heart
Push in their tides;
And, broken ghosts with glow-worms in their heads,
The things of light
File through the flesh where no flesh decks the bones.

A candle in the thighs
Warms youth and seed and burns the seeds of age;
Where no seed stirs,
The fruit of man unwrinkles in the stars,
Bright as a fig;
Where no wax is, the candle shows its hairs.

Dawn breaks behind the eyes;
From poles of skull and toe the windy blood
Slides like a sea;
Nor fenced, nor staked, the gushers of the sky
Spout to the rod
Divining in a smile the oil of tears.

Night in the sockets rounds,
Like some pitch moon, the limit of the globes;
Day lights the bone;
Where no cold is, the skinning gales unpin
The winter’s robes;
The film of spring is hanging from the lids.

Light breaks on secret lots,
On tips of thought where thoughts smell in the rain;
When logics dies,
The secret of the soil grows through the eye,
And blood jumps in the sun;
Above the waste allotments the dawn halts.

Here’s Thomas’s simple grave in Wales, which I photographed in 2010:

It’s also National Blueberry Pie Day, and National Kiss Your Mate Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 27 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Iran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. agrees to peace under certain conditions, which include no stipulations about nuclear enrichment or weapons.

Iran has offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country and ends the war in a proposal that would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, two regional officials said Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, which was passed to the Americans by Pakistan and would leave unresolved the disagreements that led the U.S. and Israel to go to war on Feb. 28.

With a fragile ceasefire in place, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. The U.S blockade is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store oil.

Oy, how many times have I heard that 20% of the world’s oil passes through the Strait? Doesn’t everyone know that by now? But I digress.

The Iranian proposal would push negotiations on the country’s nuclear program to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons.

The two officials with knowledge of the proposal spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations between Iranian and Pakistani officials this weekend. Iran’s proposal was first reported by the Axios news outlet.

The offer emerged as Iran’s foreign minister visited Russia, which has long been a a key backer of Tehran. It’s unclear what, if any, assistance Moscow might offer now.

Clearly Iran is a bit desperate, but given that Trump made the non-production of nukes the prime object of America’s war with Iran, this offer is a non-starter. And I can’t imagine what kind of offer would be.

*The WSJ reveals how ridiculously easy it was for people to gain access to the venue where Trump and other government officials were present at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

At the same hotel where then-President Ronald Reagan was shot 45 years ago, it was remarkably easy for a shooter to charge toward a ballroom where President Trump—along with his cabinet members and the reporters who cover his administration—were dining Saturday night.

The sprawling Washington Hilton, located about 1½ miles north of the White House, for decades has been home to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner because of its capacity to host a large crowd and the Secret Service’s familiarity with securing it. More than 2,500 people attended the event, including five of the top six officials in the presidential line of succession. Hundreds more gathered for parties that media outlets hosted on site before the main festivities began.

Despite a visible security perimeter and warnings of tight security, guests said they could enter the hotel through checkpoints on the surrounding streets by simply showing a dinner ticket or a copy of an invite to one of several predinner receptions. The tickets were reviewed by staff but weren’t scanned and there were no identification checks, attendees said.

“Upon entering nobody asked to visibly INSPECT my ticket nor asked for my photo identification. All one had to do was flash what appeared to be a ticket and they were fine with that,” said Kari Lake, a former Republican gubernatorial and Senate nominee in Arizona now serving as senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, in a social-media post.

Guests were able to access the Hilton’s lobby and lower levels without going through security scans, and only passed through magnetometers before they entered the ballroom where the dinner was held. It was easier to get into the dinner than many big sports events and concert venues.

With 1,107 guest rooms and suites, 47 meeting rooms and four on-site dining venues, the facility in the heart of the nation’s capital can’t be fully sealed off for a high-security event.

One of those rooms was booked by the 31-year-old gunman, who checked in the day before the shooting, law-enforcement officials said, giving him an even deeper awareness of the Hilton’s contours.

“He didn’t beat the security plan the night of the dinner. He beat it the day he made the reservation,” said Jason Pack, a former FBI official. “They built that perimeter to stop an army. Turns out all he needed was a room key.”

I wonder if the dinner will be held there in future years. If so, you can bet that security will be way amped up.  I’m wondering whether the suspect could have killed Trump if he had some kind of super-weapon, like a grenade launcher. (I’m not wishing that Trump had been killed, of course, but I’m also surprised that I haven’t seen people wishing that he was.) One could get all the way to the ballroom entrance without being checked for weapons (the shooter is accused of having a shotgun, a pistol, and several knives).

*Apropos, the suspect appears to have been compelled to travel across the country with an assassination plan out of hatred of Trump and his administration. It does not look like a set-up planned by Trumpites, as some blockheads have argued.

Before he embarked on a cross-country journey, Cole Tomas Allen offered the people in his life a series of explanations for his absence, according to writings that the authorities say he left behind.

He had a personal emergency, he told his colleagues and the students he was tutoring. He told his parents simply that he had an interview.

But Mr. Allen appears to have had a much different and much darker plan when he set out on a train from California to Washington, according to two senior law enforcement officials who say he is now in custody, accused of charging through security outside the White House Correspondents’ dinner, setting off a flurry of gunfire.

. . .The suspect, who the authorities have not publicly named but who was identified by the two officials as Mr. Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif., is expected to be charged with multiple crimes in a court appearance on Monday.

The writing the authorities attributed to Mr. Allen bounced between remorse for the deception of friends and family and gratitude for a lifetime of love and support. In it, he displayed outrage at the policies put in place by the White House, and alluded to allegations of sexual misconduct, saying that he is “no longer willing” to allow a “traitor to coat my hands with his crimes” — an apparent reference to President Trump, though the writing does not mention him by name.

. . . The writing said the suspect had come to the Washington Hilton looking for members of the Trump administration.

“Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” the writing reads, apparently referring to Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director. It was not clear from the writing why Mr. Patel was mentioned by name.

. . . The suspect is initially expected to be charged with two counts of using a firearm and one count of assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said on Saturday. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday in Federal District Court and additional charges are expected, she said.

Frankly, I’m surprised that, given that Allen shot a law enforcement officer (who luckily survived thanks to a bulletproof vest), he wasn’t himself killed by security. Or perhaps he was also trying to commit “suicide by cop.”

*Hezbollah has declared that it won’t disarm, which of course puts a serious wrench in the negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, besides violating UN Security Council Order 1701.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah declared on Monday that it would not lay down its weapons, a day after the authorities in Lebanon said 14 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday, one of the deadliest days since a truce was declared this month.

Naim Qassem, the leader of Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group, said in a written statement that it would not “relinquish its weapons or its defenses.” Israel has demanded Hezbollah’s disarmament as a precondition for ending its invasion of southern Lebanon.

But it is still far from clear whether the Lebanese government can rein in Hezbollah, whose devoted Shiite Muslim supporters and battalions of fighters have long made it Lebanon’s dominant military power.

In another sign of strains on the truce, the Israeli military said on Monday that it had attacked the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon. Those strikes were some of the deepest since President Trump declared a cease-fire in the country earlier this month.

Israel and Hezbollah have continued to trade attacks almost daily, although the fighting has mostly been confined to southern Lebanon. Israeli forces are razing Lebanese border towns there, part of an effort that could lay the groundwork for a longer occupation in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has also fired rockets and explosive drones at Israeli communities, as well as at invading Israeli forces. On Sunday, the Israeli military said a soldier had been killed in Lebanon, raising the death toll in Israel’s ranks in the current conflict to at least 16.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the 14 people killed in the Israeli attacks on Sunday included two women and two children, but did not give many other details, state media reported.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, accused Hezbollah on Sunday of “essentially disintegrating the cease-fire.” But while Israel has repeatedly bombarded south Lebanon, it has refrained from attacking Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

Were Israel to buck the truce entirely, it could run afoul of Mr. Trump, who personally announced the agreement and says he wants to invite both Mr. Netanyahu and Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president, to Washington for further talks.

Let’s face it: Lebanon has no control over Hezbollah, and Hezbollah has no taste for disarming.  As with Iran vs. the U.S. and Israel, it looks like an impasse.  I wonder what things will look like a year from now. Of course I asked that same question when Russia attacked Ukraine, and things are pretty much the same.

*A while back the Trump Administration based on advice of the CDC’s new “vaccine advisors,” dropped a recommendation that infants be vaccinated against hepatitis-B within 24 hours after birth. Two new studies now predicts that this dumb recommendation, part of RFK Jr.’s anti-vax crusade, will lead to a rise in infections and a substantial number of deaths. The paper, in JAMA Pediatrics, can be found here and here.

The Trump administration’s decision to drop the long-standing recommendation that newborns receive a hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth will likely lead to hundreds of additional infections among children, along with more cases of liver cancer, deaths and millions in added health care costs, according to studies published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics.

Federal vaccine advisers to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted in December to replace the universal birth dose with a recommendation to delay the first shot until at least two months of age for infants born to mothers who test negative for the virus — a change later approved by the then–acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pediatricians and dozens of medical groups strongly opposed the move, saying it was not based on evidence, and warned it could harm children and their families. Although medications can control hepatitis B, there is no cure for chronic infection.

The JAMA studies are the first to model the policy’s potential impact. One estimated that delaying the first hepatitis B vaccine dose by two months for babies born in a single year to mothers who tested negative — about 80 percent of the 3.6 million U.S. births annually — would increase lifetime health-care costs by at least $16 million.

“These 2 studies were exceptionally well done and rigorous in their approach, assumptions, calculations, and conclusions,” wrote Arthur Reingold, emeritus professor of epidemiology at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Public Health, in an email.

Reingold and other public health experts said the federal vaccine advisory committee should have considered this type of evidence before making its decision in December.

Instead, the panel departed from well-established standards, according to an accompanying editorial in JAMA Pediatrics. The committee failed to weigh key evidence, focusing on “theoretical risks of vaccines” while omitting data on the benefits of preventing chronic disease and death, the editorial said.

Eric Hall, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Oregon Health and Science University and a co-author of the cost study, said researchers shared a preliminary version of their findings in public comments ahead of the December meeting so committee members could review the data.

“We noticed that the committee did not have the evidence they needed to inform their decision,” Hall said. “But this group kind of blew past all that and didn’t make any effort to fill the evidence gaps that they might have had. They just went ahead anyway.”

Yes, these figures are based on data. I’ve been vaccinated against Hep-B for various overseas travels, and I am a firm believer in immediate vaccination after birth for this disease.  I don’t understand why the CDC doesn’t favor that at-birth vaccination—do they want people to die or something? Do they have hidden data that contradicts the results of these new papers?

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili seems to be becoming a “progressive”:

Hili: We are all oppressed.
Andrzej: I’m afraid you’re creating a critical theory of oppression.

In Polish:

Hili: Wszyscy jesteśmy uciskani.
Ja: Obawiam się, że tworzysz krytyczną teorię ucisku.

*******************

From Stacy:

From Terrible Maps:

From CinEmma:

From Masih. The English translation of the Farsi is this:

Every time I talk about the regime’s crimes, either I cry afterward, or I get a severe feeling of nausea, and from the psychological pressure, I start trembling. Lately, I have trouble breathing, and someone next to me has to remind me to take deep breaths. Sometimes I lose my words, especially in English, and I keep repeating to myself: Be strong! If you get so psychologically overwhelmed just from recounting these crimes, imagine how the victims must feel. Be strong and keep going for the voiceless ones whose hopeful eyes are on us. When I spoke behind the scenes of the Fox News interview about Salohe and Ahmad, 3-4 women from the news team cried and were shocked by the horrific scale of this crime. I was invited to a university to speak to students about Iran. Just this one crime was enough for the audience in the hall to realize, with wide-eyed and tearful stares, the dire and emergency state of the Iranian people. #Iran #DigitalBlackOutIran

هر بار كه در مورد جنايات رژیم حرف ميزنم يا بعدش گريه ميكنم و يا حالت تهوع شديد ميگيرم و از فشار روانى شروع به لرزيدن ميكنم. جديدا نفسم ميگيره و كسى كنارم بايد بهم يادآورى كنه نفس عميق بكش. گاهى كلمات رو گم ميكنم مخصوصا انگليسى ومدام به خودم تكرار ميكنم قوى باش!
اگر تو با بازگو… pic.twitter.com/DJcqjDLjE6

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) April 27, 2026

From Luana, who says that this is the future of Left media:

A photo of the summer 2025 interns at the Los Angeles Times should look relatively familiar to those of you who have seen similar photos of interns at other legacy media outlets.

Zero white males. pic.twitter.com/LpwwnMXbDq

— i/o (@avidseries) April 27, 2026

From Malcolm; cat chaos (I can’t guarantee its reality):

Cats are chaos.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/NAONAHOhOZ

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) March 7, 2026

Two from my feed. First, a stupendous voice:

Snow Raven is a member of the shamanic Sakha people from Arctic Siberia.

Her amazing voice takes its breath from traditional Sakha culture and is truly an instrument. pic.twitter.com/zkGCLILfX0

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 27, 2026

A playful orphaned elephant:

I will never tire of watching this beautiful video ❤️.

There is always one child that can’t behave!

Happiness is remembering when a baby Elephant tickled reporter Alvin Maunda with his trunk during a piece to camera for a report from Elephant ophanage @SheldrickTrust for a… pic.twitter.com/Q4fgiB6HTk

— PROTECT ALL WILDLIFE (@Protect_Wldlife) April 27, 2026

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial.

This Dutch Jewish girl was gassed to death as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was 11 years old. https://t.co/v6uYHKp4iJ

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) April 28, 2026

And two from Dr. Cobb, soon to return from Chile. The butterflies below are astounding; I had no idea they existed. Matthew says this is an example of sexual selection, but Wikipedia says that “the sexes are alike” except for a slight color difference.

This is NOT AI. These are green dragontail butterflies (Lamproptera meges), native to S & SE Asia.They compensate for undersized wings with long 'swallowtails' to generate lift.Butterflies that fly in cursive, swimming like fish through the air.(📷: Center for Biological Diversity)

— c0nc0rdance (@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social) 2026-04-23T23:58:51.052Z

And Matthew made the New Scientist crossword (5 down). Now this is fame!

This week’s New Scientist crossword. 5 Down

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2026-04-19T11:57:49.356Z

Welcome to the last Monday in April: it’s April 27, 2026 and National Babe Ruth Day, celebrating the man who many people consider the greatest baseball player of all time (Shohei Ohtani, who also both pitches and hits, may take his place!). It was on this day in 1947 that Ruth, dying of cancer, made a farewell appearance at Yankee Stadium,  Here’s a recording of his words on that day; the ravages of throat cancer is clear in his gravelly speech:

It’s also International Crow and Raven Appreciation Day, Marine Mammal Rescue Day, National Devil Dog Day (a cream-filled oval cake that my late friend Kenny used to get after dinner every night at William and Mary), World Tapir Day, National Prime Rib Day, and National Gummi Bear Day.

Here’s the world’s largest Gummi Bear. It weighed Weighing a total of 1728 kg (3810 pounds), and AI says, “This record-breaking candy measures approximately 2.2 x 2 x 1 meters and is equivalent to about 850,000 standard-sized gummi bears.”

Finally, I saw two bunnies on my way to work today. With eight rabbits’ feet in view, I thought it might be a lucky day, but the only thing I want is for my ducklings to return, and that ain’t gonna happen:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 27 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*It’s Noon in Israel suggests that Qatar, long a refuge for members of Hamas, isn’t going to put up with the terror group any more:

Traveling abroad comes with a standard set of anxieties: missed connections, lost luggage or, if you’re Israeli, a regional war erupting just before the holidays. But spare a thought for Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’ chief negotiator, who left his five-star exile in Qatar for what was intended to be a quick diplomatic trip to Cairo. After summarily rejecting a U.S.-backed disarmament proposal that offered a staged Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, he received a text message notifying him that he had been evicted from his luxury lodgings and was officially barred from re-entering the country. It is every vacationer’s worst nightmare.

It appears that Hamas’ latest bout of intractability has finally broken its patron’s back. After 20 years, Qatar is pulling its investment in the terror group. According to my sources, Doha will no longer play the role of host and negotiator, and most of Hamas’ leadership has already departed the country.

After two decades, the obvious question is: Why now?

The decisive turning point wasn’t Cairo, nor was it October 7—if anything, the latter represented a major appreciation of Doha’s investment. The breaking point was Operation Roaring Lion. After 16 agonizing days of silence, torn between their two patrons, Hamas ultimately issued a statement defending Iran’s “right of self-defense,” but asked Tehran to refrain from targeting “neighboring countries.” For Qatar, a nation whose sovereign territory was actively being struck by Iranian missiles, this relatively weak, delayed condemnation from the group they had been funneling cash and support to for decades was not endearing.

This isn’t just about moral clarity or hurt feelings. In exchange for their luxury accommodations, Hamas provided Qatar with a highly marketable service: terrorist mediation. Alongside their shared ideological alignment, this mediation is precisely why Qatar reached out to Hamas after the group’s 2006 electoral victory when the rest of the world cut contact. Doha cornered an unserved market. But the value of that service is in steep decline—not only because a new status quo is settling over Gaza, but because the primary consumer of Qatar’s service, the United States, has developed a distaste for such intimate terrorist ties.

About time, I say.  And perhaps this portends a lessening of all the encampments and pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the West. Don’t forget that at least a majority of Palestinians support Hamas, and they support the group over Fatah, the political party of Mahmoud Abass and the Palestinian Authority. This means that supporting Palestine means, by and large, supporting a territory whose inhabitants favor terrorism.

*Although people like P. Z. Myers have suggested that the attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was purely a set-up by Trump to cast him as a martyr and to tout his new White House ballroom, the evidence doesn’t support that at all.

Investigators were still working to determine the motive in the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner that sent Secret Service agents rushing President Trump from the stage inside a Washington hotel, the acting attorney general said on Sunday. But a preliminary review indicated that members of the administration, “likely including the president,” had been the target, he said.

Mr. Trump told Fox News that the suspect had written what he described as a “manifesto,” without offering details. The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” earlier Sunday that investigators gathering evidence about the suspect “know there were some writings” but cautioned that the analysis of his motivation could change.

The suspect, identified by two law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif., was taken into custody after the police said he ran through a security checkpoint and exchanged gunfire with the authorities inside the Washington Hilton on Saturday night. Officials said he did not reach the ballroom, where Mr. Trump, top administration officials and hundreds of journalists had gathered.

Late Saturday night, federal authorities in the Los Angeles suburbs surrounded a two-story home where records show Mr. Allen lives. Residents gathered nearby on darkened sidewalks as police helicopters circled overhead and law enforcement vehicles with flashing red and blue lights blocked the street.

The suspect was armed with knives, a shotgun and a handgun, the interim Washington, D.C., police chief, Jeffery W. Carroll, told reporters on Saturday night. Mr. Blanche said the man had purchased the two weapons he was carrying “within the last couple of years.”

There were no metal detectors set up at the hotel’s entrances on Saturday, and a secure perimeter was only established closer to the ballroom. Mr. Blanche defended the security at the event, noting that the suspect did not enter the ballroom where Mr. Trump, Vice President JD Vance and cabinet officials were among the guests.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The 31-year-old suspect in the shooting outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner is a Caltech grad who recently won a “teacher of the month” award.

Cole Allen, of Torrance, Calif., has been identified as the man suspected of opening fire Saturday night near the ballroom where President Trump was in attendance, according to two law-enforcement officials briefed on the investigation. Allen was armed with a shotgun, handgun and knives and was a guest at the Washington Hilton where the dinner was taking place, police said. One law-enforcement officer was wounded in the attack.

I doubt this is a setup. If the shooter was in on it, why would he risk the certainty of years in jail? And what if he actually killed the law-enforcement official rather than hitting him in a bullet-proof vest? No, you have to be nuts to broach a conspiracy theory like that.

*An athlete from Kenya ran the first official marathon under two hours, though unofficial sub-two-hour marathon had been achieved before:

Sabastian Sawe made history on the morning of April 26, 2026, when he crossed the finish line in a time of 1:59:30 at the 2026 London Marathon. Sawe, a 31-year-old from Kenya, became the first person to ever run under 2 hours for a marathon … officially.

The term “officially” is important here. Sawe isn’t the first runner to break the 2-hour barrier for 26.2 miles. That distinction belongs to Eliud Kipchoge, the most decorated—and arguably the greatest—marathoner to ever live.

In 2019, Kipchoge, 34 on race day, ran 1:59:40 at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in a tree-shaded park in Vienna, Austria. At the time, it was the fastest marathon ever run. But it didn’t count as a world record. That’s because standard competition rules for pacing and fluids were not followed.

Here’s a news report on the Marathon, showing Sawe’s victory and his reaction to the win (which also shaved 56 seconds off the world record):

*Canada is high in the standings for Wokest Nation in the World. From Canada’s National Post:

An Ontario town has been fined $10,000 and its officials ordered to complete mandatory “human rights” training after it refused to celebrate Pride Month.

Emo is a township of about 1,300 people located in the far west of Ontario, along the border with Minnesota.

In a decision handed down last week, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario ruled that Emo, its mayor and two of its councillors had violated the Ontario Human Rights Code by refusing to proclaim June as “Pride Month.”

The town was also cited for failing to fly “an LGBTQ2 rainbow flag,” despite the fact that they don’t have an official flag pole.

The dispute began in 2020 when the township was approached by the group Borderland Pride with a written request to proclaim June as Pride Month.

Attached to the letter was a draft proclamation including clauses such as “pride is necessary to show community support and belonging for LGBTQ2 individuals” and “the diversity of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression represents a positive contribution to society.”

Emo was also asked to fly an “LGBTQ2 rainbow flag for a week of your choosing.”

Borderland Pride then asked Emo to “email us a copy of your proclamation or resolution once adopted and signed.”

Although symbolic proclamations are standard fare in larger municipal governments such as Toronto or Hamilton, this didn’t happen all that often in Emo.

“The record indicated the Township did not receive many requests for declarations or proclamations or requests for display of a flag,” the subsequent Tribunal decision would read. In a single 12-month period they received only four — two of which were from Borderland Pride.

Tribunal hearings would also reveal that Emo doesn’t really have a central flag pole, aside from a Canadian flag angled over the front door of the Emo Municipal Office.

Nevertheless, Borderland Pride’s draft proclamation was tabled before a May 2020 meeting of the Emo Township Council, where it was defeated by a vote of three to two.

The claim of discrimination ultimately hinged on a single line uttered by Emo Mayor Harold McQuaker. When the proclamation came up for consideration, McQuaker was heard to say in a recording of the meeting, “There’s no flag being flown for the other side of the coin … there’s no flags being flown for the straight people.”

As Human Rights Tribunal vice-chair Karen Dawson wrote in her decision, “I find this remark was demeaning and disparaging of the LGBTQ2 community of which

Clearly the town is being punished for the whataboutery of Emo’s mayor, which may reflect bigotry, ir it may not. It may just reflect ideological neutrality.  Whatever the cause, a town should not be compelled to celebrate any sex or gender diversity and then fined if it doesn’t. O Canada!

*The WSJ reports on the ubiquity of AI videos these days, many of them using Chinese programs.

In a scene from Amazon’s biblical series “House of David,” human actors portray fallen angels and mortal women. The surrounding landscape—a moody tableau of steel-gray skies and jagged mountains—is the work of AI.

Of the 850 visual-effect shots in the show’s first season, 73 were built using generative artificial intelligence, including a tool developed by one of China’s most popular social-media sites. That saved money on expensive on-location shoots, according to Wonder Project, the studio behind the series.

From Hollywood productions to short social-media videos, video makers are increasingly using AI to create content that once required sprawling crews.

“As production costs fall, it becomes more affordable for creators to experiment and test new ideas,” said Zeng Yushen of Kuaishou, the Chinese company whose AI model was used in “House of David.”

China plays a big role in this business, though it wouldn’t be obvious to most Americans watching television or scrolling through videos on their phones. Chinese labs claimed seven of the top 10 spots for video-generation models on rating platform Artificial Analysis, competing with those from Google and Elon Musk’s xAI.

This month, a video-generation model called HappyHorse went viral after beating American rivals in blind quality tests. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba later disclosed the model was its own.

And Seedance 2.0, the latest AI video generator from TikTok parent ByteDance, won attention earlier this year for its ability to turn script prompts into realistic short-movie scenes. ByteDance’s Douyin, the Chinese sibling of TikTok, competes with Kuaishou’s video-sharing app, which has hundreds of millions of users in China.

Such platforms “naturally have large volumes of labeled short-video data that can be used for training,” said Tilly Zhang, a technology analyst at research house Gavekal. “This creates a data barrier that most companies cannot easily replicate.”

I don’t mind people using AI in movies or videos, but I think it’s incumbent on them to tell us when it’s used. It’s not like animation in which you know that it’s not reality. Instead, AI sometimes either represents itself as reality or could be mistaken for reality.  There outghta to a law, if not an ethical rule. I think the day will come when nearly all video made by professionals (and a lot by amateurs) will involve AI, and that’s a bit sad. They’re already resurrecting dead actors and putting them in movies.

*In 1990 the biggest art heist in history took place: in the wee hours of March 18, over $500 million worth of paintings were rem0ved at night from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.  Wikipedia totes up some of the stolen works:

The stolen works were originally procured by art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924) and were intended for permanent display at the museum with the rest of her collection. Among them was The Concert, one of only 34 known paintings by Johannes Vermeer and thought to be the most valuable unrecovered painting in the world. Also missing is The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt‘s only seascape. Other paintings and sketches by Rembrandt, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, and Govert Flinck were stolen, along with a relatively valueless eagle finial and Chinese gu. Experts were puzzled by the choice of artwork, as more valuable works were left untouched. As the collection and its layout are intended to be permanent, empty frames remain hanging both in homage to the missing works and as placeholders for their return.

The theft is unsolved. I’ve been to the Museum and have seen the empty frames. A missing Vermeer is totally sad.  Now the AP reports that there’s a book that says that the thieves have been identified, along with o0ther details of the heist (see the book here):

In 2013, the FBI said it knew who was responsible for the Boston museum heist but declined to name them, fueling speculation that persists today.

A former FBI agent who led the investigation for more than two decades is now offering the first detailed account of how investigators reached that conclusion — and publicly identifying the men he believes were involved. In a new book, Geoff Kelly traces how the artworks moved through criminal networks, where violence took the lives of key suspects and witnesses, and challenges long-circulating theories by revisiting key details.

. . . In the decades since the robbery, several people believed to have ties to the heist were killed, and another died under suspicious circumstances.

Robert “Bobby” Donati, a Boston mob associate long suspected in the case, was found stabbed to death in 1991, his body left in the trunk of a car after his home had been ransacked.

Years earlier, Donati visited the Gardner with another known art thief, Myles Connor, to scope it out for a robbery and said that if he ever took the museum’s Napoleonic finial, it would be his “calling card.” Years later, a jeweler told investigators Donati tried to sell a finial from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum but backed off, saying it was “too hot.”

A separate line of evidence centered on George Reissfelder, who investigators believe owned the getaway car.

Kelly tracked down Reissfelder’s brother, a retired military officer who had initially not believed his brother was involved. He broke down after being shown Manet’s “Chez Tortoni,” saying he recognized it as a painting he himself hung above his brother’s bed.

Reissfelder later died under suspicious circumstances. When investigators searched his home, the painting was gone.

Both men had ties to TRC Auto Electric, a Dorchester shop linked to Charles “Chuck” Merlino’s crew.

Kelly personifies the missing artworks and describes them as “perfect fugitives.”

“They don’t go to the doctor. They don’t get stopped for speeding. They don’t leave fingerprints,” he said. “They can just disappear.”

Unlike human fugitives, he said, artworks can also be copied.

Over the years, that has meant chasing down false leads — including paintings spotted in a Reno antique market, hanging in private homes and even one that appeared in an episode of the TV show “Monk.”

Because the works are so recognizable, it’s nearly impossible to sell them publicly.

“Stealing the artwork from the museum, that’s the easy part,” Kelly said. “Profiting from it, that’s the difficult part.”

He imagines the paintings will surface one day — outliving those who carried out the heist.

“I have no doubt they still exist,” he said

Of course they still exist, either hidden by the thieves or in some rich private collector’s hands. You don’t pull a job like that and destroy $500 million worth of paintings. Here’s “The Concert,” the Vermeer painting that was stolen:

And here’s the missing Rembrandt, which is a good one:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s acting like a mom:

Hili: You should throw that shirt away by now, the collar is worn through.
Andrzej: But I like it very much.

In Polish:

Hili: Wyrzuć już tą koszulę, ma przetarty kołnierzyk.
Ja: Ale ja ją bardzo lubię.

*******************

From Now That’s Wild:

From The Language Nerds:

From Strange, Stupid or Silly Signs,   I got no points here as I’ve done them all.

From Masih; Iranian officials and their offspring enjoy luxury while protestors get shot and blinded (sound up, and translations from Spanish welcomes):

Just yesterday and again today, they executed another Iranian while they send their children abroad to enjoy safety and luxury.

This is the son of another Islamic Republic of Iran official who served as a diplomat of the Islamic Republic in Venezuela.

We Iranians want freedom,… pic.twitter.com/pqAvFBVX1K

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) April 22, 2026

From J. K. Rowling. Biological men don’t belong in women’s prisons:

The Scottish government is responsible for this sexual assault. The Supreme Court has confirmed women’s right to single sex spaces, a ruling the SNP continues to flout. If the victim wishes to sue, https://t.co/iyohnrgVZN can assist with all costs. https://t.co/rnyKbWXhj5

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 24, 2026

Hasan Piker manages to excuse Hamas: it’s all about the “context”:

𝐇𝐀𝐒𝐀𝐍 𝐏𝐈𝐊𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄’𝐒 “𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐗𝐓” 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐌∗𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐓 𝐀 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂 𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋

Watch this exchange and understand: 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡.

A… pic.twitter.com/Pu4LsGsA0S

— M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) April 25, 2026

From Luana, and you can read the original story here. Do you suppose it will appear in the NYT? It seems to have been ignored by the MSM despite documentation.

This one is brutal, but a must read.

The Daily Mail just published testimonies of Gazan children being raped by Hamas-affiliated clerics at local mosques — and then threatened into silence by the Qassam Brigades.

A nine-year-old describes being led to mosque restrooms by a… pic.twitter.com/CH6jxGVuNw

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 26, 2026

One from my feed; the “community note” says that pelicans like this are common in Greece, but this one isn’t 37 years old:

A pelican, around 37 years old, shows up every day at a Greek restaurant to get its portion of fish. The bird has become a well-known local figure along the seafront pic.twitter.com/FqHAAANMag

— Nature Unedited (@NatureUnedited) April 26, 2026

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

This Dutch Jewish girl was gassed as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was four years old. She would be 88 today had she survived. https://t.co/VqBPPZHwAF

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) April 27, 2026

Two from Dr. Cobb. I like this first one:

Meanwhile at the grape factory… 🤣by Christopher Boffoli#art #FoodArt #tiny #vegan

— HansKI (@hanksi-art.bsky.social) 2026-04-26T13:43:08.239Z

And a sad tale of the death of Florida’s citrus industry. I used to collect Drosophila in Florida, concentrating on orange groves where flies were common:

Totally off-topic, but did y'all the know the Free State of Florida's citrus industry is basically dead??This is quite a story:slate.com/business/202…

— T. Greg Doucette (@gregdoucette.bsky.social) 2026-04-22T05:58:05.216Z

Welcome to Sabbath for goyische cats: Sunday, April 26, 2026, and the day o0f the Turkmen Racing Horse Festival:

The Turkmen Racing Horse Festival is annually held on the last Sunday in April. This year, it takes place on April 26. While it is an important holiday, one of national pride, it remains a working Sunday for many in Turkmenistan, with schools and offices remaining open. Before we plunge into the why of this holiday though, a brief geography lesson. Turkmenistan — not to be confused with the separate nation of Turkey — is a country located in the southwest region of Central Asia. Its neighbors are Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Iran, and Uzbekistan. It also touches the Caspian Sea, along its western border. Horses are an integral part of Turkmenistan’s history and culture, hence there is an entire season dedicated to horse racing. The pride and joy of Turkmenistan is the Akhal-Teke breed of horse, said to be one of the oldest breeds in the world.

Here’s a one-minute video abut the Festival:

It’s also Alien Day, celebrating the 1979 movie Aliens, and “Alien Day is held on April 26 because one of the planetoids or moons in the Alien films is named LV-426″. Audurbon Day (the illustrator and ornithologist, now in bad odor, was born on this day in 1785), National Pretzel Day, and World Intellectual Property Day (I just got a few hundred bucks because some bot stole from my trade books and got sued).

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 26 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

Breaking news: There was an attempt to assassinate the President at the White House Correspondents’ dinner, but it failed.

Investigators were working on Sunday to determine a motive in the shooting that sent Secret Service agents rushing President Trump from the stage at the White House correspondents’ dinner, an attack that raised questions about how a gunman was able to get close to one of Washington’s most heavily guarded events.

The suspect, identified by two law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif., was taken into custody after running through a security checkpoint and exchanging gunfire with the authorities inside the Washington Hilton on Saturday night. Officials said he did not reach the ballroom, where Mr. Trump, top administration officials and hundreds of journalists had gathered.

Late Saturday night, federal authorities in the Los Angeles suburbs surrounded a two-story home where records show Mr. Allen lives. Residents gathered nearby on darkened sidewalks as police helicopters circled overhead and law enforcement vehicles with flashing red and blue lights blocked the street.

The suspect was armed with knives, a shotgun and a handgun and had been staying at the Washington Hilton, the interim Washington, D.C., police chief, Jeffery W. Carroll, told reporters on Saturday night. He said that the authorities were still investigating whether the suspect had targeted the president, but that they believed he had acted alone.

Trump and Melania were escorted out of the event. A Secret Service agent was hit, but apparently saved by his bulletproof vest.

*Trump has called off further negotiations with Iran, canceling Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s trip to Pakistan:

President Trump on Saturday called off a trip by two of his top negotiators to Islamabad, Pakistan, just before they were set to leave for talks about a potential deal to end the war in Iran.

“I’ve told my people a little while ago, they were getting ready to leave, and I said, ‘Nope, you’re not making an 18-hour flight to go there. We have all the cards,’” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing.”

Steve Witkoff, the special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, had been scheduled to travel to Pakistan on Saturday, along with top aides to Vice President JD Vance. Officials in Pakistan have been mediating between the United States and Iran to try to end more than a month of war in the Middle East.

The cancellation of the trip is the latest sign that Iran and the United States are far from reaching a deal to end the war. A previous trip to Islamabad by Mr. Vance proved unsuccessful, and the Americans appear no closer to achieving the administration’s political goals, including convincing Iran to turn over its nuclear stockpile and curtail its future program. The two sides are also locked in a stalemate over control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply flows.

Mr. Trump’s decision came after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, who had been in Islamabad for talks with Pakistani officials, left the country and traveled to Oman. No direct meetings had been scheduled with U.S. officials.

After leaving Islamabad, Mr. Araghchi said in a social media post that he had shared with Pakistani officials Iran’s position on a “workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran.” He did not give details of the latest proposal. “Have yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy,” he added.

Given the distance between the negotiating parties, and the untenable nature of Iran’s demands, right now it seems useless to try negotiating. Let’s see what happens. Prices throughout the world will go up (gas prices in Chicago are already about $5.25 per gallon), so this remains a test of the ability of each side to play a game of what amounts to economic chicken.

*The NYT has an interview with three entitled people (including the wealthy and odious antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker) about why it’s okay to steal from capitalists: “The rich don’t play by the rules. So why should I?” Here we see the antisemitic content streamer Hasan Piker,  The NYT Opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman (daughter of graphic novelist Art Spiegelman), and New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino  discuss the circumstances in which they’d break the law to steal from the rich (see also the Free Press article on this unsavory trio; the NYT article is archived here). There is also a video.  We can assume that at least two of these discussants are rich. Piker is a multimillionaire, and The FP says that Tolentino:”lives in a $2.2 million brownstone in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn when she’s not at her second home upstate”, and Grok reports that Spiegelman ears a six-figure income as well as being co-owner of two NYC properties, including a SoHo condo. We can assume they are not starving, but they’re willing to steal—and not always for a good cause.

A couple of quotes:

Spiegelman: Would you pirate music from an indie band?

Tolentino: Is it 2005 and I’m using LimeWire? Because yes.

Spiegelman: I feel like every millennial has at some point.

Tolentino: I mean, I feel like, fundamentally, Spotify is kind of deleterious to the musician livelihood, and I use that, but then I go to the shows.

Piker: Yeah, I’m pro-piracy all the way, like, across the board. Would you pirate a car? Yes. You know, if you could.

Spiegelman: What would it mean to pirate a car?

Piker: It was just a classic thing back in the day. The government-funded antipiracy initiatives would be like: Would you steal a car? I’m like, yeah, sure. If I could get away with it, if it was as easy as pirating intellectual property, I would do it.

. . .Spiegelman: Yeah. Would you steal a book from the library?

Tolentino: Never.

Piker: No.

Spiegelman: Would you steal from the Louvre?

Piker: Yes.

Tolentino: I would not be logistically capable of executing such a fact, but would I cheer on every news story of people that I see doing it? Absolutely.

Piker: I think it’s cool. We’ve got to get back to cool crimes like that: bank robberies, stealing priceless artifacts, things of that nature. I feel like that’s way cooler than the 7,000th new cryptocurrency scheme that people are engaging in.

Spiegelman: Would you steal from Whole Foods?

Tolentino: Yes. And I have, under very specific circumstances. I will say, I think that stealing from a big box store — I’ll just state my platform — it’s neither very significant as a moral wrong, nor is it significant in any way as protest or direct action. But I did steal from Whole Foods on several occasions.

Tolentino steals from Whole Foods (she calls it “mircrolooting”), but only to give the food to others:

Tolentino: But I didn’t feel bad about it at all.

Spiegelman: And was part of it because of how you feel about Whole Foods as a corporation?

Tolentino: Yeah. It already felt like a bit of a compromise. At the time I was like, I had not been to Whole Foods. I had a bit more consumer discipline about where I was spending my money then, and I already felt like I was in the hole, even by shopping there. And it certainly felt, in a utilitarian sense, I was like, this is not a big deal. Right, guys?

. . .Spiegelman: There’s one thing that’s stealing when you are a teenager and you want the adrenaline rush. And part of it is about testing the rules and getting away with something. But what I’m seeing on TikTok and social media is people saying that they’re stealing from Whole Foods not just for the thrill of it, but out of a feeling of anger and moral justification. Because the rich don’t play by the rules, so why should I? And Jeff Bezos has too much money — he’s a billionaire — so why should I have to pay for organic avocados?

My friends and I have started calling this microlooting, because it has a slight political valence to theft, as opposed to just the thrill of getting away with something. Have you noticed this around you online? Have you noticed more people talking about stealing in this way?

Murder, they say, seems justified by many:

. . . Spiegelman: But then when you feel this much anger — and it doesn’t feel like there’s hope for it to be changed in a regulatory way — I think that’s when you get to things like Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing the C.E.O. of United Healthcare, and there being an outpouring of glee for murder online, because it feels like, finally, someone can actually do something about health care.

I think 41 percent of Gen Z-ers felt that murder was morally justified. But it’s scary to be in a society where people feel that murder is morally justified. And I’m curious how we thread that line.

Piker: Yeah. Friedrich Engels wrote about the concept of social murder. And Brian Thompson, as the United Healthcare C.E.O., was engaging in a tremendous amount of social murder. The systematized forms of violence, the structural violence of poverty, the for-profit, paywalled system of health care in this country — and the consequences of that are tremendous amounts of pain, tremendous amounts of violence, tremendous amounts of deaths. And that was a fascinating story for me, because Americans are very draconian about crime and punishment. They’re very black and white on this issue.

And yet, because of the pervasive pain that the private health care system had created for the average American, I saw so many people immediately understand why this death had taken place.

. . . Tolentino: One thing that should be legal that isn’t — it’s interesting, because I have to regularly explain this stuff to a small child, and have so thoroughly explained to her that some things are against the rules, but they’re OK, depending on who you are. And some things are not against the rules, but they’re not OK. There are so many perfectly legal things I do regularly that I find mildly immoral. Like getting iced coffee in a plastic cup. I find that to be a profoundly selfish, immoral, collectively destructive action. I have taken so many planes for so many pleasure reasons; I have acted in so many selfish ways that are not only legal, but they’re sanctioned and they’re unbelievably valorized, culturally. So, maybe things like blowing up a pipeline, let’s say that.

These are the people who will lead the Revolution, and who are active on the “progressive” Left.

*Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was demonized by the Southern Poverty Law Center a few years back, is glad that the SPLC has now come to a reckoning. The writes at the Free Press:

I was placed on an SPLC blacklist in October 2016. The document was called “A Journalist’s Manual: Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists.” My name appeared beside Maajid Nawaz, a reformed radical who ran a counter-extremism organization, and an array of figures also dedicated to combating Islamism and antisemitism, such as David Horowitz and Daniel Pipes. The list handed journalists a ready-made roster of 15 people whose views were to be seen as toxic. But to call it a mere reference guide is to understate what it was.

It was published at the peak of a jihadist campaign of terror against the West. The ISIS caliphate still held territory across Syria and Iraq. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was issuing hit lists of writers and cartoonists in its English-language magazine. In January 2015, two of AQAP’s followers walked into the offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris and murdered 12 people, some of them cartoonists whose offense was drawing. Ten months later, a coordinated ISIS cell killed 130 at Paris’s Bataclan theater and the cafés around it. Terror attacks in Brussels, Nice, Berlin, and Manchester soon followed.

This was the climate in which the SPLC chose to publish the names, faces, and affiliations of 15 people it accused of “anti-Muslim extremism.” The list endangered everyone it named. I know the threat of Islamist violence all too well. In 2004, a jihadist named Mohammed Bouyeri murdered my friend and collaborator Theo van Gogh on an Amsterdam street. Bouyeri shot him, cut his throat, and pinned a five-page letter to his chest with a knife. The letter was a fatwa against me. I have lived under armed protection for more than two decades because men with weapons and conviction want me dead—for apostasy; for writing about Islamist-driven antisemitism and the subversive actions of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups in the West; for drawing attention to practices such as honor killings and female genital mutilation; for arguing that Muslim women deserve the same protections under the law as other women.

The SPLC considers all of this beyond the pale, and accused me of using “the political bully pulpit to bash Muslims.”

Thus, an organization founded to combat bigotry chose to place me on a list together with others whose lives were already under threat from the same movements, just for having the audacity to combat Islamist bigotry.

Nawaz sued the group, and won. In June 2018, the SPLC settled for $3.4 million and issued a written apology. The field guide vanished from its website. No apology was ever extended to me or to the others unfairly placed on that list.

. . . But ruining reputations was, and remains, only one of many offenses.

In 2000, the journalist Ken Silverstein published a long investigation in Harper’s Magazine describing the SPLC as the wealthiest civil rights organization in America, one whose fundraising had grown to dwarf its legal work. CharityWatch later gave the organization an F for stockpiling donations it did not spend on its stated mission. Tax filings uncovered by reporters in 2017 showed millions in SPLC money parked in the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, and Bermuda. Think of it for a moment: an anti-poverty organization, headquartered in Alabama, hiding millions offshore while positioning itself as the nation’s moral conscience. That should have ended it. Instead, the donors kept giving, and the lists kept growing.

I’m surprised that Hirsi Ali didn’t sue the SPLC like Nawaz did. The organization apparently ran out of civil rights cases to prosecute, and so began sniffing out what they construed as “hate groups” that didn’t violate anybody’s civil rights.

*Speaking of the SPLC, the conservative National Review says that even if the government charges against it are bogus, “The SPLC was always awful” and “deserves to be shunned and marginalized” (archived article).

A grand jury returned an indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with financial crimes, suggesting that the organization — which claims its mission is to “dismantle white supremacy” and fight discrimination broadly — has secretly paid informants to participate in the groups it deemed “racist” or hateful, as well as organize activities under the guise of these groups, such as the “United the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. If the allegations are true, then it means that SPLC has been coordinating some of the very events it raises funds to fight against — and as anyone familiar with the organization knows, it then construes those demonstrations as representative of the entire right-wing coalition.

But here’s a challenge: Engage in a hypothetical and assume, purely for the sake of argument, that absolutely everything alleged in the indictment is completely false. Even if the SPLC neither committed financial crimes nor helped orchestrate bogus “hate” events to create bad optics for conservatives, the organization has long been deserving of ire. The SPLC is societal poison dedicated to disparaging any individual or group perceived as even mildly right-wing. Rather than bashing the SPLC because it allegedly misrepresented its organizational activities and use of funds, we should emphasize that the SPLC misrepresents everything all the time.

For those unfamiliar, the SPLC is well known for awarding the “hate” label to certain organizations or individuals. While these designations might seem negligible, they have facilitated actual hate: Floyd Lee Corkins II was motivated to attempt a mass shooting and “kill as many people as [he] could” at the Family Research Council’s headquarters, in part because he had identified the organization as anti-gay from the SPLC website.

One might have hoped such an awful incident would have prompted the SPLC to reconsider its “hate” labels, and that the mainstream media would refrain from referencing such designations carelessly. However, high-profile publications routinely cite the SPLC-issued “hate” badge as if it is some sort of assessment grounded in a rigorous methodology. An article will read as follows: “[Right-Wing Organization], which has been named a “hate group” by the SPLC, blah blah blah.” (See here for an example about the Family Research Council in the New York Times, which was published after the terrorist attack on the organization.)

The scandal raises urgent questions about the integrity of the SPLC’s broader work, particularly its influential Hate Map, which began as a tool for tracking armed militias and skinhead gangs. Over time, it expanded to include mainstream conservative and religious organizations such as the Family Research Council, Alliance Defending Freedom, Moms for Liberty, and the Center for Immigration Studies. In August 2012, a man named Floyd Lee Corkins walked into the Family Research Council headquarters in Washington, D.C., carrying a gun. A security guard named Leo Johnson stopped him and was shot in the process. Corkins told the FBI he chose his target using the SPLC’s map. The organization never acknowledged what its list had set in motion.

The SPLC promulgates falsehoods — or what progressives might call “misinformation” — not only when borderline defaming individuals and organizations, but in its attempts to refute the claims set forth by those people and groups. In one article, the SPLC insists that “sterilization” is merely “an alleged medical risk” (emphasis mine) of “gender-affirming health care for children,” which is based on “myths, pseudoscience, and flawed historical comparisons to eugenics.” The SPLC further asserts that children are not receiving procedures that would render them infertile, nor does hormonal therapy pose fertility risks. This is difficult to reconcile with the fact that a reality-television show revealed to the world that Jazz Jennings, a male, underwent (botched) surgeries to construct a pseudo-vagina before age 18. Then there’s all the scientific data and personal anecdotes about how hormonal therapy can lead to infertility. Even Planned Parenthood produced materials for students as young as middle-schoolers conceding that puberty-blocking drugs may have long-term fertility consequences, saying they “might change someone’s body permanently, like affecting whether they can get or cause a pregnancy when they are older.” In another post, the SPLC claims that “anti-transgender” and right-wing individuals rely on “junk science” and “disinformation” — ignoring piles of evidence to prove that the so-called studies in support of medicalized gender interventions are not only wrong, but entirely nonsense. (For more thorough descriptions of large-scale scientific reviews on “gender-affirming care,” see some of my reporting here and here and here.)

Like the ACLU (which still does good stuff), the SPLC was once engaged in a honorable mission, but that mission has become ideologically tainted. It’s not clear whether the government’s charges that the organization gave money to informants, enriching the very organizations it was spying on, will hold water. But even if they don’t, the SPLC has outlived its usefulness, and I would be glad if it disappeared.

*The AP’s reliable “oddities” section reports that three people in California donned bear suits and then damaged their cars, all to get insurance money by pretending that the damage was ursine rather than human. They were caught:

Three people in California have been sentenced for insurance fraud in a bizarre scam that involved someone dressed in a bear costume damaging luxury cars.

The California Insurance Department said the three used a person in a bear suit to stage fake attacks inside a Rolls-Royce and two Mercedes in 2024, then submitted fraudulent claims seeking nearly $142,000 in payouts from insurance companies. The department called it “Operation Bear Claw.”

Two Los Angeles-area men and a woman pleaded no contest to felony insurance fraud and were sentenced to a weekend jail program, followed by probation, the department said in a news release Thursday. Two of them were ordered to pay over $50,000 in restitution.

A fourth person faces a court hearing in September.

The group is accused of providing several videos from the San Bernardino Mountains of a bear moving inside the vehicles to the insurance companies as part of their damage claims, the department said. Photos provided by the insurance department show what appeared to be scratches on the seats and doors.

AD

A California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist reviewed the footage and concluded it was “clearly a human in a bear suit,” the insurance department said.

After executing a search warrant, detectives found the bear costume in the suspects’ home, the department said.

A news video showing the suit. Opposable thumbs!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, two geezers commiserate:

Hili: Once, the world was better.
Andrzej: Not exactly, but we were younger and stronger.

In Polish:

Hili: Dawniej świat był lepszy.
Ja: Nie bardzo, ale my byliśmy młodsi i silniejsi.

*******************

From Meow Incorporated:

From The Language Nerds (there’s one typo):

From Now That’s Wild:

From Masih; four Iranian women protestors waiting to be hanged (for protesting):

These 4 women receive death sentences simply for demanding freedom in Iran and right now sitting in prison, waiting to be hanged.
Where are the left and Liberal in America?
Why are the leaders of feminists movement so quiet?
Where are the progressive leaders?

So let me get this… https://t.co/5T2DF7gE8d pic.twitter.com/9g1FG3NMFD

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) April 22, 2026

From Luana:  I’m not a huge fan of Francis Widdowson, but it’s wrong, and a violation of free speech (which Canada apparently doesn’t allow) to demonize (and arrest) her for questioning whether the bodies of indigenous people have been buried when there is simply no evidence that this claim is true.

This is a political arrest. There are NO MASS GRAVES of indigenous students.
Questioning the narrative is heresy.
Shut people up by arresting them for trespassing. https://t.co/5RWlmOvyft

— Peter Boghossian (@peterboghossian) April 26, 2026

From Cate: a squirrel eating a chicken wing–in Chicago! I knew they were a bit carnivorous, but not this carnivorous!

This is in #Chicago.
They said he had a 6-wing, fried hard, with salt n’ pepper and mild sauce.
😂 pic.twitter.com/r9hUPU7gVj

— C.W. Harris (@cwharris773) April 24, 2026

Two from my feed: a crow helps the hedgehog cross the road. But did it get over the ledge?

A bird explains to a hedgehog that it has to cross the road so it doesn’t die. pic.twitter.com/WXtwAQUqE0

— The Figen (@TheFigen_) April 25, 2026

From Barry; a vampire cat:

“Hush now, be still. Soon you shall be one of us.”

— Uncle Duke (@uncleduke1969.bsky.social) 2026-04-24T12:58:07.644Z

Elephant kisses girl, girl gives elephant pineapple, girl kisses elephant.

Pure kisses… pic.twitter.com/4qbxKAdxO8

— Nature 🦜and Music 🎶 (@GuGi263) April 25, 2026

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial

This Hungarian Jewish boy was gassed as soon as he got to Auschwitz. He was 14 years old. https://t.co/BVvbt6RgoQ

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) April 26, 2026

From Matthew; Katie Mack is a physicist and science communicator.  See the link for the quoted post, which is about relativity being necessary to use GPS satellites accurately.

When Einstein developed general relativity the closest thing to a practical application that could even be imagined at the time was a slightly more precise description of where to look for the planet Mercury in the sky, and yet now we’d all be literally lost without it.Anyway: fund basic research.

— Katie Mack (@astrokatie.com) 2026-04-23T13:01:20.978Z

Welcome to CaturSaturday, April 25, 2026.  I just returned to the office, as our plane to Chicago from Savannah was late because of rain in Baltimore, and I didn’t get to sleep until nearly midnight.  I stopped by the duck pond on the way in and found Armon and the undocumented drake, but of course no ducklings, which is too much to hope for. I tried to feed Armon to reward him for his paternal services, but he was too busy chasing the other duck.  I didn’t expect to see baby ducks, as I don’t believe in miracles, but the pond looks very empty.

If readers have any wildlife photos, please send them in.

There will be a truncated Hili dialogue today, and perhaps posting will be light for a while as I get up to speed. Bear with me; I do my best.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 25 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The WSJ reports how fissures in Iran’s leadership are frustrating efforts to make peace:

Tensions between Iranian leaders over talks with the U.S. spilled into the open this week, highlighting how difficult it will be for President Trump to secure the diplomatic win he wants to end the war.

The disagreements were apparent in the first round of talks earlier in April. Mediators said Iran became vague when pressed by the U.S. for specifics on issues it had said it was willing to discuss, people familiar with the matter said.

It’s now becoming clearer that there are deep divisions within the country’s leadership over how far to go to strike a deal with the Americans—a concern as mediators scramble to arrange a second round of talks after the U.S. and Iran abandoned a planned meeting midweek amid rising tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will go to Islamabad for talks with Iranian officials, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday on Fox News. Vice President JD Vance will be on standby to travel in case there is progress in the negotiations, she said. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad Friday, but Iranian state media said no meeting was planned.

Tasnim, a news service affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, accused the U.S. of telling stories.

“There is basically no negotiation with the Americans at the moment, and Mr. Araghchi’s trip to Islamabad is not to negotiate with the Americans,” Tasnim said.

During the fighting, Iran’s leadership showed unity in its political messaging and maintained tight command and control over its armed forces. But that cohesion appears to be fraying as it turns to the task of securing sanctions relief by cutting a deal with the U.S., which likely will require making difficult concessions.

Clearly, regime change that gives power to the people is not on the table. All we can say is that any agreement between the U.S. and Iran will be difficult.  And I don’t think the U.S. should have folded a Lebanon cease-fire into the agreement, for that has nothing to do with Iran save for Iranian support of terrorists in other countries.

*I return to find more news of Jew-hating in American colleges. The UCLA Hillel hosted Shem Tov, an Israeli hostage who, after being kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival on October 7, had been held captive for five months before being freed in a prisoner swap.  What happened at the school? The UCLA student government condemned the appearance as “selectively platforming” Tov’s narrative in the face of Israeli genocide .

A campus event featuring freed Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov drew the condemnation of UCLA’s student government on Tuesday. In an open letter, the UCLA Students Associated Council said that bringing Shem Tov to speak to students “served to legitimize and normalize” atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon.

Shem Tov, 23, was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in Southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and held hostage in Gaza until his release in a prisoner exchange in February 2025. UCLA hosted him on April 14 for a Yom HaShoah event.

“While we affirm the humanity of all people impacted by violence, we reject the selective platforming of narratives that obscure the broader reality of ongoing state violence,” the student government wrote in the letter, which was addressed to the UCLA administration and UCLA Hillel among others. “Israel is currently continuing to carry out what has been widely identified by human rights advocates as a genocide in Gaza, while also expanding its illegal military campaign into Lebanon.

“In this context, elevating a single narrative, absent of critical political and humanitarian framing, serves to legitimize and normalize these ongoing atrocities.”

Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, UCLA Hillel’s director emeritus, called the statement “completely ridiculous.”

“You can’t present the narrative of your experience without it being called ‘one sided,’” Seidler-Feller said. “There has to be a counter-story to persecution. Is there a counter-story to killing people?”

A UCLA spokesperson defended the groups who hosted the event Wednesday and said the school would “review the process by which the letter was issued.”

“The event’s message was one of resilience and respect for human rights and dignity – a message we support,” the statement in part read.

“We firmly stand against violence of any kind. Omer Shem Tov spoke with students and other members of the community with the Chancellor and Dr. Felicia Knaul in attendance, and the event occurred without any disruption,” the school added. “We will review the process by which this letter was issued. The condemnation of such a peaceful event to share a story of resilience in the face of extreme suffering is antithetical to the values of our Bruin community.”

UCLA Hillel executive director Daniel Gold dismissed the criticism in Tuesday’s letter as antisemitic.

“Hillel at UCLA and Students Supporting Israel UCLA would like to apologize…for absolutely nothing,” he wrote in a statement. “Members of UCLA student government have once again shown they are anti-dialogue, anti-learning, anti-truth, anti-student and antisemitic.”

You can read the UCLA student government’s letter at the link above.

*Meanwhile, it’s encampment season again, and the first participant is Occidental College. It’s not in any news I can find, but Grok has culled this information on the “Rafah to Jenin liberated zone” just set up, complete with tents. Rafah, of course is the southernmost part of Gaza, and Jenin is in the West Bank, so they are encompassing all of the Palestinian territories.

A new pro-Palestinian student encampment was established at Occidental College (Oxy) in Los Angeles on April 24, 2026 (yesterday).

It is organized by groups including Occidental Students for Justice in Palestine (Oxy SJP) and described by participants as the “Rafah to Jenin Liberated Zone” (sometimes called “Rafa to Janine” or “Rafah-Jenin Liberated Zone”), occupying the campus’s Academic Quad—echoing the 2024 encampment site there.

Key Details from Organizer Statements and Videos

• Setup and appearance: Tents (green, white, yellow, blue) and a canopy have been erected on the quad amid trees and benches. Protesters (many in keffiyehs, some face-covering, sunglasses, or safety vests) are visible setting up, with Palestinian flags present. Banners include messages like “THERE ARE NO SCHOOLS LEFT IN GAZA” (with imagery of fire, an American flag, and a burning school building) and references to solidarity with Palestine.
  instagram.com
• Demands: The encampment calls for Occidental’s Board of Trustees to divest from companies tied to Israel/weapons manufacturing (described as “war profiteering” and “genocide”), as well as private prisons and ICE detention centers. Organizers frame it as renewing pressure ahead of a Board meeting, two years after the 2024 encampment. They describe it as building a “transnational community” in solidarity with Palestinians amid actions in Gaza, the West Bank (Jenin), Lebanon, and Iran.
  instagram.com
• Activities and invitations: On day one, students invited supporters to “sleep in a tent with us,” share meals, or drop off food/supplies. Planned programming includes community self-defense/ICE patrol training, a Torah study, workshops on “academia and genocide,” and discussions of the “student intifada.” One speaker noted campus police threats to involve LAPD but affirmed they are staying.

If you click on the tweet below (h/t Luana), you’ll hear a cowardly woman, face hidden by a keffiyeh, boasting about the encampment at “Oxy”:

🚨 BREAKING: An encampment has sprung up at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Activists are calling it the “Rafah to Jenin Liberated Zone” and say the encampment is animated by the same “social justice” values Occidental claims to uphold.

They are demanding divestment from… pic.twitter.com/RR92Hai4DO

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) April 24, 2026

*For reasons that aren’t completely clear, the mainstream media has within the last year or so embarked on a campaign to highlight the value of religion.  The NYT started a weekly newsletter about religion called “Believing“. It’s written by Lauren Jackson, who claims she’s a nonbeliever, but one who longs for there to be a god.  And although she’s supposedly an atheist, her lips are fixed firmly on the posterior of faith, osculating it vigorously.  (I read it so you don’t have to.) Now the Washington Post has followed suit with one called “Awakenings, whose motto is “Religion and spirituality are remaking America — and transforming lives. Encounter the new face of faith.”

One episode of “Awakenings” was posted yesterday, by Christopher Beha, a Catholic, former editor of Harpers, and author of Why I Am Not an Atheist (see my critique of his anti-atheism New Yorker article here). His new osculation is called, “I used to be a skeptic. This changed my mind.” (The subtitle is “Skepticism is tearing society apart. Belief is the answer”.) Beha begins by asserting that philosophy has failed to provide us with a shared basis of “certain knowledge,” but of course he’s wrong—he should be looking to science, not philosophy. Then he proposes faith as the nostrum for a fulminating skepticism:

This in turn makes it easier to appreciate the early modern fear of skepticism. The term increasingly calls to mind not just religious skepticism but vaccine skepticism, election skepticism and the army of “truthers” who coalesce around every major news event. These people often proceed not by proposing an alternative view but by “asking questions” that undermine the official narrative and make it difficult to believe in anything at all, which is precisely the skeptical method.

By now the dangers of this approach should be clear. Today’s great epistemic institutions — government, universities, media — face much the same crisis of authority that befell the religious institutions they replaced. While philosophical skepticism promised detachment and tranquility, modern skepticism has curdled into cynicism and despair.

What can be done to address this fact, particularly if the philosophers are right and there is no shared foundation of objective knowledge from which to proceed? Hume once suggested that even the most confident conclusions should be tempered by a “degree of doubt.” Looking around today, I’m more inclined to say that skepticism should be tempered with a bit of belief.

What I’m proposing is not a return to simple credulity or a slavish submission to authority, but rather a recognition that it is not really possible to survive on certain knowledge alone. Every person must take some things on faith, if only to open the door and go out into the world.

True, we take things on faith (like our doctor’s advice), but most often when we are relying on authorities who know their stuff.  But here’s Beha’s solution:

My own turn to belief eventually led me all the way back to the church of my childhood. I’m not suggesting that it will take others that far. But perhaps they could do with a bit more belief than modern society encourages. By the skeptics’ own lights, it takes belief to recognize the reality of the world outside one’s head, the reality of other people and the obligations that these realities entail. It takes belief to transcend despair and work for a better future. It takes belief to escape the cynicism and nihilism that seem the default mindsets of the day. It takes belief to put skepticism in its proper place.

Beha doesn’t seem to realize that there’s a difference in “believing” that a virus causes AIDS and a belief that a god sent himself/his son down to earth to redeem human sins by getting crucified. In other words, Beha doesn’t see the difference between belief based on evidence and belief based on wish-thinking).  But I’m still puzzled at the MSM’s love of religion? Whence the “God-shaped hole” that needs to be filled?

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej has given the garden (and the house) to the upstairs lodgers.

Hili: Our orchard is blooming again.
Andrzej: Not ours anymore, but it’s still blooming.

In Polish:

Hili: Nasz sad znowu kwitnie.
Ja: Już nie nasz, ale nadal kwitnie.

*******************

From CinEmma:

From Terrible Maps: a mnemoic for memorizing the Great Lakes:

From Masih, a “human story” that shows how horrible the Iranian regime is:

A nurse in Iran helped wounded protesters. The security forces killed her. Then abused her body. Then used her finger to unlock her phone and sent the images of sexual abuse to her husband.
Listen to her story and please on’t stop talking about Iran.
💔pic.twitter.com/cRhk95uaa7

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) April 24, 2026

If you subscribe to the Free Press, read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (here). She was named by them, along with Maajid Nawaz, as an “anti-Muslim extremist.”

“…the SPLC chose to publish the names, faces, and affiliations of 15 people it accused of ‘anti-Muslim extremism.’ The list endangered everyone it named. I know the threat of Islamist violence all too well. In 2004, a jihadist named Mohammed Bouyeri murdered my friend and… pic.twitter.com/FRtsBvDhDQ

— Eli Steele (@Hebro_Steele) April 24, 2026

From Malcolm: the difference between cats and d*gs:

Difference between dogs and cats..🐈🐾🐶😅

📹destynieIyn pic.twitter.com/HdoKQ4KunI

— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) March 18, 2026

One from my feed: Hem and a beloved cat:

American author Ernest Hemingway was undoubtedly one of the most famous cat lovers in the literary world, alongside Mark Twain, who adored cats so much that he avoided people who didn’t share his affection and even rented cats when he couldn’t bring his own on trips.

Many are… pic.twitter.com/Inrw3VHmVW

— Archaeo – Histories (@archeohistories) April 25, 2026

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

This German Jewish boy was gassed as soon as he arrived at Auschwitz. He was about nine years old. https://t.co/Iu4P39I21r

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) April 25, 2026

And one from Matthew, at a science festival in Chile: morning on the Space Shuttle:

"Day 068, Orbit 1054 — Opening the shutters in the morning: what a beautiful way to start the day! 🌍"– @esa.int astronaut Sophie Adenot #εpsilon 🎥 NASA/ESA

— ESA Exploration (@exploration.esa.int) 2026-04-22T12:38:22.088Z