May 4, 2026

x01 Archives

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It’s been 48 hours since the attempted assassination of President Trump and senior Cabinet officials at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Sadly, one network endeavors to deemphasize the words contained within the shooter’s manifesto, and hide his leanings from viewer consideration.

Watch as correspondent Matt Gutman papers over all of these important insights into the shooter, reducing his statements to his mockery of the security arrangements outside the D.C. Hilton:

MATT GUTMAN: In an email to family timed to be sent just before the incident, police say the suspect himself expressed surprise at the security footprint. He wrote “I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat. The security at the event is all outside… because apparently no one thought about what happens if someone checks in the day before.”

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The ongoing military conflict regarding Iran and the Strait of Hormuz may well mirror a future situation off-Earth — the use of cislunar space, the region between the moon and our planet. Think blockades, seizing of ships, impacts on the global economy, repercussions in terms of needed resources and markets, from fuel to high-tech semiconductors and production processes. Now turn your attention skyward and note that the U.S. Space Force is establishing a dedicated acquisition office to appraise the importance of the cislunar region for warfighting and national security.

In recent weeks, there has been palpable excitement over NASA’s Artemis 2 moon mission and the announcement of the space agency’s ambitious plans for human habitation of the moon. “In parallel, Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz, causing global energy markets to spike and everyone to notice, yet again, how vulnerable we are to accidents of geography,” said Marc Feldman, executive director of the Center for the Study of Space Crime, Piracy & Governance. “Sometimes, a pair of events contains a warning, if you are able to see it”, Feldman added.

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From illegal war on Iran to an inhumane fuel blockade of Cuba, from AI weapons to crypto corruption, this is a time of staggering chaos, cruelty, and violence.

Unlike other publications that parrot the views of authoritarians, billionaires, and corporations, The Nation publishes stories that hold the powerful to account and center the communities too often denied a voice in the national media—stories like the one you’ve just read.

Each day, our journalism cuts through lies and distortions, contextualizes the developments reshaping politics around the globe, and advances progressive ideas that oxygenate our movements and instigate change in the halls of power.

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For years now, astronomers have been witnessing what seems like an ever-growing puzzle regarding the early formation of the universe. According to recent findings, some supermassive black holes, with masses ranging up to one billion times larger than the sun’s, were formed within less than a billion years following the formation of the universe itself. This phenomenon is hard to understand according to current scientific explanations for the evolution of black holes. Normally, black holes are created when stars collapse and gradually increase in size. This is because the entire process requires time. However, recent findings made through the use of the James Webb Space Telescope point toward the opposite. There might be an unknown force behind their quick formation, and dark matter could be the answer.

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Speaking with CNN’s Manu Raju, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker discussed political violence in America after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The problem with his remarks is that he decided to blame the president, despite this being the third assassination attempt on his life. Rather than call out the left, which is the side largely responsible for much of the political violence in this country, he decided to slander Conservatives, as he failed to acknowledge any form of self-reflection.

According to Pritzker, it is the president who calls for political violence against the other side, so much so that he has called for jailing his political opponents. The problem with this, however, is that reality proves otherwise, so much so that the level of projection in his remarks is unbelievable.

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Anne Hathaway wanted a certain kind of person on set for The Devil Wears Prada 2. Which means she wanted a certain kind of person NOT on set for The Devil Wears Prada 2. But, you be the judge. The Left, once again, is insisting that all violence comes from the political right despite the fact that they have to twist themselves into knots to get there. Let’s see how much the Left has done since Trump’s reelection. Lee Zeldin faced off in Congress in an epic battle with the Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock. We’re sorry. We’re being told that’s Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro. Our mistake.

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During the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, a 26-year-old company commander’s unit was pinned down by a fortified hilltop. After frontal assaults failed, the junior officer made an extraordinary request: an entire battalion, four times the size of his own unit, for a jungle flanking maneuver. The regimental commander agreed. The surprise assault broke the Vietnamese defense. This company commander’s pedigree was as formidable as his tactics: His father was a founding general who had just retired as head of the Chinese military’s General Logistics Department.

Five years later, that same officer commanded the regiment tasked with the main assault at the Battle of Laoshan, the largest engagement of the Sino-Vietnamese border war. His attack plan, the military’s first complete infantry-artillery coordination plan since the Cultural Revolution, required massed artillery support far exceeding what any single regimental commander could normally secure. During a massive counterattack, his regiment held the line against six enemy regiments. His competence was real. So was the informal network of guanxi — the entrenched personal connections and reciprocal obligations — that put him in a position to demonstrate it.

The officer was Zhang Youxia. In January 2026, nearly half a century after his triumph in Vietnam, he became the most senior general to fall in General Secretary Xi Jinping’s unprecedented purge.

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LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff said Tuesday that he made a “serious mistake” by recommending Peter Mandelson be made U.K. ambassador to the United States, but denied interfering with the appointment process.

Morgan McSweeney told lawmakers on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that it had been “a serious error of judgment” to back Mandelson. The committee is investigating how Mandelson, a scandal-tainted friend of Jeffrey Epstein, was given the key diplomatic job despite failing security checks.

McSweeney said that “the prime minister relied on my advice, and I got it wrong.” He apologized to Epstein’s victims, saying “I am sorry for any part this controversy has played in causing further hurt or distress.”

McSweeney’s testimony came as Starmer faced more heat Tuesday over the appointment, with lawmakers set to vote on whether the U.K. leader should be investigated by a parliamentary standards watchdog over the ill-fated decision.

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The National Trust for Historic Preservation declined to end a lawsuit blocking President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche used a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to call on the litigation to be dropped.

“I write to acknowledge receipt of your letter requesting that the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States (“National Trust”) dismiss the above-captioned lawsuit,” National Trust senior counsel Gregory B. Craig confirmed to Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate in a letter on Monday. “The National Trust respectfully declines the invitation to dismiss.”

“The National Trust’s filings have repeatedly insisted that any injunction on ballroom construction nonetheless permit work to continue on the below-ground bunker construction you have represented to the Court is necessary to preserve national security,” the letter continued. “What Saturday’s awful event does not change is that the Constitution and multiple federal statutes require Congress to authorize construction of a ballroom on White House grounds, and that Congress has not done so.”

“Equally clear is that nothing in this lawsuit puts the personal safety of the President, his family, or his staff in any jeopardy. Indeed, after reviewing multiple secret security submissions by your office, the court concluded that the absence of a White House ballroom is not a matter of national security permitting those federal laws to be ignored.”

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A Wisconsin teacher was placed on leave following controversial comments in which he said he was “not impressed with recent presidential assassins.”

Kaukauna High School social studies teacher Patrick Meyer suggested that the four men who successfully assassinated a U.S. president — John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz and, Lee Harvey Oswald — must be rolling over in their graves after recent failed attempts to kill a president.

“I am not impressed with recent presidential assassins. It’s f—ing embarrassing! Booth, Guiteau, Czolgosz, Oswald must all be spinning in their graves! MAGAA (make Americans great assassins again)! Sad!” Meyer said in a since-deleted post on X, appearing to mock President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again, or MAGA, slogan.

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Cryopreservation, the process of preserving biological tissue by cooling it to extremely low temperatures, often sounds like something out of science fiction. In reality, scientists have been studying and refining this technique for nearly a century. Progress remained slow for decades, but that began to change in 2023, when researchers at the University of Minnesota successfully transplanted a cryopreserved kidney into another rat. That milestone demonstrated that frozen organs could one day be used in human transplants.

Despite that progress, preserving larger organs remains a major hurdle. One of the biggest problems is cracking, which can occur when tissues are cooled too quickly. These fractures can damage the organ and make it unusable, making crack prevention a critical goal for advancing organ preservation and transplantation.

A team at Texas A&M University, led by Dr. Matthew Powell-Palm from the J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, has introduced a new approach aimed at addressing this issue. Their research outlines a method that could reduce the likelihood of cracking during cryopreservation.

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Imagine an America where factories hum again, jobs return to towns long left behind, and the heartbeat of industry pulses stronger than it has in years.

Under President Donald J. Trump, that vision is becoming reality.

Democrats spent years pushing a narrative that manufacturing’s decline was inevitable, a so-called Trump Effect they blamed on him while their own policies accelerated the bleeding. Trump has ended that lie. American manufacturing is surging back, and the numbers prove it.

Republicans must recognize this triumph, especially now, as midterm season unfolds. They should defend it fiercely, for Democrats’ woke leftist base would dismantle every gain with vindictive speed if handed power again.

Manufacturing is expanding for the third straight month. Its key index posted the highest reading since 2022. New orders are rising for the third consecutive month as both American and overseas buyers seek U.S.-made products. Production has grown for five months running and is accelerating at a pace unseen before the disastrous Biden-Harris era. The Philadelphia Fed’s Manufacturing Index surged in April, beating forecasts.

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President Donald Trump continues to prioritize the passage of the SAVE America Act, keeping election integrity at the forefront in Washington. However, states are not waiting for Congress to act. Across the country, this shift has been building for years, and it is becoming harder to ignore.

The SAVE America Act should be passed because it aligns federal elections with the direction states are already taking.

Florida offers one of the clearest examples. Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed a state-level measure requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and directing officials to verify applicants using existing data systems. The approach mirrors what the SAVE America Act would do at the federal level. DeSantis said the law would “strengthen the security, transparency, and reliability of Florida’s election system.”

Florida is not alone. In Mississippi, Governor Tate Reeves signed the SHIELD Act, which requires officials to verify citizenship when individuals register to vote, including checks against federal databases and regular audits of voter rolls. Reeves called it “another win for election integrity” and made clear that the state intends to keep strengthening its system.

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HOPELESS Russian soldiers are reportedly shooting down their own drones and then disguising them as Ukrainian aircraft so they can claim battle bonuses.

It comes as horror claims emerge that Vladimir Putin’s soldiers are turning to cannibalism as they run low on provisions.

Russian soldiers are reportedly accidentally shooting down their own drones Credit: EPA
Miscommunication means firing units mistake their own drones for Ukrainian aircraft Credit: Getty

Russians shoot down their own drones due to coordination failures and administrative confusion, United24 Media reported.

But Mad Vlad’s desperate lads are then pretending to have taken down Ukrainian drones so that they can claim cash rewards.

Pro-Russian media describe the situation as a “time bomb”, expressing fears that nearly all of Putin’s drones could soon come under attack from his own hapless soldiers.

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Monday morning, First Lady Melania Trump urged ABC to pull the plug on late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel  in her first public statement reacting to his badly timed “joke” referring to her as “an expectant widow.”

The First Lady, along with President Trump,  Vice President JD Vance, and other top administration officials had to be evacuated from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., Saturday night, when 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, stormed a security checkpoint armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, a .38-caliber handgun, and multiple knives.

The suspect, who had booked a room at the hotel, fired at least one shot during an exchange with law enforcement before being tackled and apprehended near the ballroom entrance. One Secret Service agent was struck in the chest but sustained no serious injury due to a bullet-resistant vest; there were no other injuries.

Attendees, including journalists and Cabinet members, ducked under tables as Secret Service agents secured the area. Trump later stated he was instructed to go down on the floor and was escorted out, appearing to crawl during the evacuation.

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A New Hampshire lawmaker has formally left the Democrats and registered as a Republican, citing a growing divide between his personal views and the direction of the party.

State Rep. Dale Girard, who also serves as mayor of Claremont, announced the switch in a public statement.

The politician confirmed that he changed his party affiliation at City Hall.

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The shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night has renewed the fervor of another debate raging in the nation’s capital.

On Sunday morning, President Trump made a post on Truth Social renewing his call to complete the White House ballroom, a project that has been halted due to an ongoing lawsuit.

‘The White House ballroom is essential for the safety and security of the president, his family, his Cabinet, and his staff.’

Trump argued that the shooting over the weekend demonstrates why the president needs a secure venue to host large events.

“What happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE,” Trump wrote. “This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!”