- Friday May 8th, 2026
- "It Is Not A Question of Who Is Right Or Wrong But What Is Right Or Wrong That Counts."
- --Geoff Metcalf
- Providing an on line Triage of the news since 1998
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World & Nation
Virginia Supreme Court tosses Dem-backed redistricting map, upending expected 10–1 edge
GOP lawmakers argued the map was an 'unconstitutional power grab'
The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday invalidated a new, voter-approved
redistricting map, delivering a significant victory for Republicans in
the state ahead of the fast-approaching 2026 midterm elections.
"We hold that the legislative process employed to advance this proposal
violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia," the
Virginia Supreme Court said in the ruling. "This constitutional
violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies
its legal efficacy."
The Virginia Supreme Court heard oral arguments last month over the
newly passed congressional map, which voters in the state approved by a
narrow 51% to 49% margin.
The ballot measure would have given the Democrat-controlled Virginia
legislature — rather than the state's current nonpartisan commission —
temporary redistricting power through 2030.
It was also expected to yield a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in
Virginia's congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge.
Republicans quickly sued to block the effort, prompting the state
supreme court to hear oral arguments last month.
US airstrikes hit tankers trying to break blockade of Iranian ports, official says
The U.S. military carried out airstrikes Friday on several tankers
trying to run the blockade on Iranian ports, a U.S. official told Fox
News.
The official said “these were Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC)...
massive, empty ships trying to make it back to Iran” and that they
“attempted to run the blockade.”
The official added that several tankers were hit.
These empty oil tankers could have been trying to make it back to Iran to buy more time for oil storage.
Oil Bets Ahead of Iran News Hit $7 Billion
A series of well-timed market bets on falling oil prices totalling as
much as $7 billion during March and April spread across multiple
exchanges and types of fuel and derivatives just before major Iranian
policy announcements by President Donald Trump, according to traders,
market experts and Reuters analysis of exchange data.
Alert: The Global System Is Changing and You’re Paying the Price... Read More Here
The size exceeds previously reported bets amounting to $2.6 billion,
which have already prompted the U.S. administration to warn staff
against using nonpublic information for financial benefit. The U.S.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is investigating, a person
familiar with the matter told Reuters in April, although the CFTC has
yet to officially confirm a probe is underway.
Trump admin releases highly anticipated files documenting UFOs, 'extraterrestrial life'
Release includes Apollo operator transcripts describing 'jagged, angular fragments' seen from the spacecraft
The Trump administration on Friday released a batch of
"never-before-seen" files and videos on Unidentified Anomalous
Phenomenon (UAP) as part of an effort to increase transparency on
government knowledge of extraterrestrial phenomena.
"The latest UAP videos, photos, and original source documents from
across the entire United States government are all in one place – no
clearance required. While past administrations sought to discredit or
dissuade the American people, President Trump is focused on providing
maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their
own minds about the information contained in these files," the White
House said in a statement to Fox News.
The release is a function of President Donald Trump's Presidential
Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE) program.
Photos from the initial disclosure, which a White House official told
Fox News is the first of a series of releases, show strangely shaped
objects captured on film during the Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 space
missions.
Tim Walz Minnesota forcing teachers to abide by ‘horribly disgusting,’ ‘crazy’ race standard, says lawmaker
Half of Minnesota children can't read, write or do math at grade level, state Sen Mark Koran says
Public school teachers in Gov. Tim Walz’s Minnesota are required to
abide by a "horribly disgusting" and "crazy" race standard that forces
them to assess how their "biases, perceptions and academic training"
perpetuate oppression, a state lawmaker said.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Republican state Sen. Mark Koran
pointed to the requirement as further evidence of how education in
Minnesota has "eroded."
According to Minnesota’s guidebook on "Standards of Effective
Practice," public school teachers hoping to be licensed by the state
must demonstrate that they have assessed "how their biases, perceptions
and academic training may affect their teaching practice and perpetuate
oppressive systems."
US Beef Producers Hope China Access Is on Trump-Xi Summit Menu
U.S. beef producers are hoping for a trade deal during the upcoming
leaders' summit that could renew licenses to export to China, where
they have been largely locked out since Beijing allowed registrations
to expire last year.
A casualty of the trade war between Beijing and Washington, U.S. beef exports to China peaked at $1.7 billion in 2022.
More than 400 U.S. beef plants have lost export eligibility over the
past year as permissions that Beijing granted between March 2020 and
April 2021 lapsed, according to Chinese customs data, accounting for
roughly 65% of the once-registered plants. Access for another three is
set to expire in June, the U.S. Meat Export Federation said.
WHCA Dinner shooting suspect Cole Allen targets DOJ in explosive bid to shake up case
Allen's attorneys cite Pirro's friendship with Trump and her presence at the Washington Hilton during the alleged attack
Attorneys for the man accused of attempting to kill President Donald
Trump on April 25 during the White House Correspondents' Association
Dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel slammed U.S. Attorney for the
District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro while demanding she recuse herself
from the case.
The nine-page motion to disqualify, filed on Thursday, argues that
Pirro, along with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and other
unnamed DOJ officials, have a conflict of interest that should bar them
from participation in prosecuting Cole Allen. It further says that the
entire U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, which is
currently prosecuting the case, should be disqualified.
Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, is accused of attempting to storm
the ballroom where the dinner was taking place while armed with a
rifle, handgun, knives and a large quantity of ammunition. Video
surveillance from inside the Washington Hilton shows a person
identified as Allen allegedly running towards a security checkpoint
with a 12-gauge shotgun, discharging the weapon once and falling to the
ground.
Kash Patel reveals the chilling holiday terror plots FBI federal agents quietly stopped
Kash Patel tells Sean Hannity the pressure to 'not miss anything' keeps him 'up at night'
Patel told Sean Hannity the bureau is 'always on the watch' for a
9/11-style attack after it foiled four major attacks over the holiday
season.
FBI Director Kash Patel revealed federal agents successfully disrupted
four major terrorist plots over the holiday season, but warned that
despite these wins, the constant pressure to "not miss anything" keeps
him "up at night."
Speaking on the "Hang Out with Sean Hannity" podcast, Patel said the
bureau is using new technology to prevent attacks, warning a future
9/11-style attack remains a concern.
"I can tell the American public, just look at the month of December
alone last year. We stopped four terrorist attacks in four weeks during
the holidays," Patel told Hannity.
Starmer’s Labour suffers huge losses as hard-right Reform gains in U.K. elections
Early
results Friday suggested sweeping losses that will heap pressure on
Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He said he had no plans to step aside
despite the “very tough” picture.
Early results
Friday from nationwide elections in Britain suggested a historic
drubbing for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party and sweeping
gains for hard-right Reform U.K., led by Trump ally Nigel Farage.
Though many
results were still coming in Friday morning, the overall picture will
heap pressure on Starmer, an unpopular leader beset by speculation his
colleagues may move against him.
“The results are tough, they are very tough, and there’s no sugarcoating it,” Starmer said Friday.
But he dismissed calls for him to stand down.
Round one of Iran fight went to the US military. But ending things is much harder
Project Freedom launched with guided-missile destroyers and over 100 aircraft as Iran harassed U.S. naval assets
By Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, (ret.)
On May 1, President Donald Trump sent letters to congressional
leaders declaring that hostilities with Iran "have terminated." The
statement was legally timed. The ceasefire imposed on April 7 has held
— no exchange of fire between U.S. and Iranian forces since that date.
Trump’s letter cited that record to sidestep the War Powers
Resolution’s 60-day clock, which would have required congressional
authorization or withdrawal of forces by May 1 — Day 62 of the conflict.
The legal argument is thin. The constitutional argument is weaker. But
the deeper problem is strategic: declaring the war "terminated" and
ending it are not the same thing.
As of this writing, the U.S. Navy is blockading Iranian ports. Project
Freedom — Trump’s initiative to guide hundreds of stranded commercial
vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz — launched Monday, May 4, with
guided-missile destroyers, more than one hundred land- and sea-based
aircraft, and 15,000 service members.
Iran’s military launched drones and small boats at U.S. ships on the
first day of the mission. The IRGC declared that any vessel transiting
the strait must coordinate with Tehran first. A nation at peace does
not deploy 15,000 troops to force merchant ships through a contested
waterway.
As Marcomentum sweeps the internet, Rubio, White House swear off 2028 talk
The secretary of state has won over
some former critics while Vice President JD Vance deals with President
Donald Trump’s shadow.
By Natalie Allison, Isaac Arnsdorf and Cat Zakrzewski
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was filling in at the White House press
briefing on Tuesday when a correspondent for a Christian television
network asked him to deliver a hopeful vision for America. Rubio didn’t
hesitate.
“We want it to continue to be the place where anyone from anywhere can
achieve anything,” Rubio said. “Ours is a story of perpetual
improvement. Each generation has left the next generation of Americans
freer, more prosperous, safer, and that is our goal as well.”
The clip went viral, helped along in part by Rubio’s own social media
account, which remixed the sound bite with dramatic music and footage
of him and President Donald Trump. The line about “each generation,”
played over a montage showing former president Ronald Reagan, Trump and
Rubio in order, had the distinct feeling of a campaign launch.
Taxing NYC’s rich is a poor idea — and could bring the Big Apple into financial turmoil
By Douglas Murray
“Tax the rich!” That used to be the sort of sentiment you might expect
from a student who’d just discovered a bit of Marxism and had yet to
pay their first tax bill. But now New Yorkers are lucky enough to have
a mayor who thinks this dumb slogan should be turned into policy.
Why is it dumb? For several reasons. Not the least of which is that it
is so misleading. Saying “Tax the rich” suggests that the rich aren’t
already taxed. In fact, the wealthiest people in this city already pay
more than their fair share of taxes.
As Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his merry band of Marxists must know by
now, the top 1% of New York taxpayers are responsible for almost half
of the total tax revenues of this city. To put it another way, 99% of
New Yorkers only cover 50% of the tax revenue of this city.
I suppose “Tax the 99%” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. And it
doesn’t play to that sweet cocktail of resentment and envy that always
underlies the policies of the far left.
Seattle’s socialist mayor doesn’t plan on limiting her attacks to the rich
Washington's new income tax was designed to be unconstitutional and records show the plan goes far beyond millionaires
By Jason Rantz
Seattle’s new socialist mayor, with the help of Washington state
Democrats, are running the wealthy out of town and they’re laughing
about it. Not because they’ll miss the tax revenue generated by the
wealthy, but because the wealthy aren’t the only targets.
Earlier in May, Mayor Katie Wilson appeared at a Seattle University
event and was asked whether she believed progressive taxes were an
"easy" solution to the region's fiscal problems. The question comes on
the heels of Washington Democrats passing the state’s first-ever income
tax, naively described as merely a "millionaire’s tax.".
"I think the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are
like super overblown," she told the cheering crowd with a laugh. "And
the ones that leave, like, bye."
A sitting mayor of a major American city just waved goodbye to the
taxpayers her city depends on, and the room thought it was funny.
