An adult escort who wrapped a client in cling film and filmed him as he suffocated to death has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Michaela Brashaye Rylaarsdam, a 32-year-old married mother of three, was paid $11,000 by Michael Dale for a fetish sex session at his home in California in April 2023.

Mr Dale, 56, reportedly asked Rylaarsdam to wrap him up “like a mummy” and requested that she glue women’s boots to his feet and pour adhesive into his eyes to seal them shut.

Rylaarsdam is said to have sat next to Mr Dale and filmed herself performing a sex act for her OnlyFans page as he struggled for oxygen. She eventually phoned 911 and attempted to resuscitate Mr Dale when he became unresponsive.

Police found Mr Dale with pink duct tape over his mouth and a plastic bag covering his head. His wrists, legs and fingers were also bound with duct tape and cling film.

A post-mortem examination found that he had suffocated, and concluded that the bag had been wrapped around his head for at least eight minutes.

Mr Dale’s room-mate told a court hearing that he overheard the victim pleading for her to stop, and that the victim had even offered her money to do so.
But they had no established "safe word" so the victim was BOUND to get into problems.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/08/onlyfans-escort-bondage-asphyxiation-los-angeles/

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202605097262
The Caspian Sea has emerged as a critical trade and military supply route for Iran as Tehran seeks alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz amid the US naval blockade, the New York Times reported.

According to the report, Russia has been shipping commercial goods and drone components to Iran through the landlocked waterway, helping Tehran replenish military supplies and sustain imports disrupted by tensions around Hormuz.

US officials told the newspaper that Russia is sending drone parts to help Iran rebuild capabilities after losing much of its drone arsenal in recent fighting. Iranian officials also said food imports including wheat, corn and cooking oil are increasingly being rerouted through Caspian ports.

Unlike the Strait of Hormuz, the Caspian is inaccessible to the United States militarily because only the five bordering states have access, making it an attractive route for sanctions evasion and military transfers, the report said.

“If you’re thinking about the ideal place for sanction evasion and military transfers, it’s the Caspian,” one expert told the Times.

- A broader measure that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons rose to 8.2%, up 0.2 percentage point.

- The so-called real unemployment rate jumped in large part to a surge in those employed part time for economic reasons, often referred to as unemployed. The level rose by 445,000 to 4.9 million.

- Average hourly earnings, another closely watched metric of labor market health, came in lower than expected, increasing 0.2% for the month and 3.6% on an annual basis, compared with respective estimates for 0.3% and 3.8%.

- April also saw another drop in the labor force and a decline in tech-related jobs in the low-hire low-fire environment that has prevailed since the early part of 2025.

- Revisions from prior reports were mixed: The February number moved even lower, down by 23,000 to a loss of 156,000. The initial report put the February job loss at 92,000.

- Economists increasingly have pointed to slower hiring as the primary source of labor market cooling. Sentiment indicators show tepid hiring plans in both the manufacturing and services sectors.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/08/jobs-report-april-2026.html

>Thread theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BekKhIP0Jks

https://nypost.com/2026/04/26/us-news/read-whcd-gunman-cole-allens-full-anti-trump-manifesto/

Accused White House Correspondents’ Dinner gunman Cole Allen sent a sprawling, crazed manifesto to family members about 10 minutes before Saturday’s attack, sources told The Post.

The 1,052-word missive obtained by The Post Sunday morning — signed Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen” — outlined his “rules of engagement” for the shooting and stated he believed it was his righteous duty to target administration officials.

Cole Allen’s manifesto in full:

> Hello everybody!

> So I may have given a lot of people a surprise today. Let me start off by apologizing to everyone whose trust I abused.

> I apologize to my parents for saying I had an interview without specifying it was for “Most Wanted.”

> I apologize to my colleagues and students for saying I had a personal emergency (by the time anyone reads this, I probably most certainly DO need to go to the ER, but can hardly call that not a self-inflicted status.)

> I apologize to all of the people I traveled next to, all the workers who handled my luggage, and all the other non-targeted people at the hotel who I put in danger simply by being near.

> I apologize to everyone who was abused and/or murdered before this, to all those who suffered before I was able to attempt this, to all who may still suffer after, regardless of my success or failure.

> I don’t expect forgiveness, but if I could have seen any other way to get this close, I would have taken it. Again, my sincere apologies.

> On to why I did any of this:

> I am a citizen of the United States of America.

> What my representatives do reflects on me.

>“I only wish to live my life in peace,” Leonardo Garcia Venegas said in a declaration.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/05/ice-keeps-detaining-the-same-us-citizen-again-and-again-and-again-hes-fighting-back/

>On the morning of May 2, Leonardo Garcia Venegas was driving home from a convenience store run in Silverhill, Alabama, when he noticed an unmarked vehicle following him. As he parked the truck outside his home, immigration officers approached him and tried to open the driver’s door. In a declaration submitted as part of a civil lawsuit, Garcia Venegas said the agents pulled him out of the car and onto the ground, and shackled his arms and legs. Garcia Venegas estimates seven or eight law enforcement personnel, including US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and local police—most of whom wore plain clothes and tactical vests—surrounded him. They asked him no questions.

>Garcia Venegas, a 26-year-old Florida-born US citizen, said he tried to show his Alabama STAR ID as proof of status, but the agents ignored him. They put him in the back seat of one of their vehicles, questioned him about his place of birth, and searched his wallet. He offered to provide his American passport, which was inside the house, but the agents refused. Several minutes later, they released him, but not before having dogs sniff the truck for drugs, according to the declaration. Garcia Venegas said the officers told him he had been stopped because the car he was driving was registered in the name of his brother, who is undocumented. (ICE didn’t respond to a request for comment before publication.)

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-revises-un-resolution-iran-china-russia-still-expected-veto-2026-05-08/
Washington has revised its proposed U.N. resolution demanding Iran halt attacks and mining in the Strait of Hormuz but the changes are unlikely to avert Chinese and Russian vetoes, diplomats said on Friday.
A Chinese veto would be awkward ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's trip to China next week, where the Iran war is likely to be high on the agenda.
An updated draft shared with Security Council members on Thursday afternoon and seen by Reuters removed a clause invoking Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, which allows the council to impose measures ranging from sanctions to military action.
However, tough language against Iran remained, as well as a clause that in the event of non-compliance the council would "meet again to consider effective measures ... including sanctions measures, in order to ensure the freedom of navigation in the area."
It was unclear when the council might vote on the resolution.
While the text does not explicitly authorize force, it does not rule it out, and "reaffirms the right of member States ... to defend their vessels from attacks and threats, including those that undermine navigational rights and freedoms."
A previous resolution backed by the United States that appeared to open a path to legitimizing U.S. military action against Iran failed last month after Russia and China exercised their vetoes in the 15-member U.N. Security Council.
Diplomats said the original version of the current resolution, drafted by the United States and Bahrain, and submitted to council members for review this week ran into strong Chinese and Russian objections.
A U.N. diplomat said that despite dropping the Chapter VII reference, which was also done with the last month's resolution, the new draft did not address Chinese and Russian objections.

https://nypost.com/2026/05/03/us-news/dying-ex-rep-barney-frank-delivers-stark-warning-from-hospice-about-dems-swinging-too-far-left/

Liberal icon, former Rep. Barney Frank, who is dying of congestive heart failure, spoke out from hospice to deliver a stark warning to Democrats for swinging too far to the left on social issues — and said it will cost them with voters.

The 86-year-old former congressman, who is famous for fighting to legalize same-sex marriage and pushing to regulate Wall Street after the 2008 financial meltdown, hopes his lefty bona fides will help his message resonate with the far left.

“It’s precisely because I have been on the left that I have undertaken this,” Frank told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Many of us fought to get inequality on the Democratic agenda.”

“But the problem was, as we succeeded in bringing the mainstream of the left into a concern with inequality, we also enabled people who wanted to use that as a platform for a wide range of social and cultural changes, some of which the public isn’t ready for.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/usps-proposal-would-allow-handguns-to-be-sent-through-the-mail/
Handguns could be mailed through the U.S. Postal Service for the first time in nearly 100 years if a proposed rule under the Trump administration takes effect. Democratic attorneys general in two dozen states sent a letter this week in opposition.

In 1927, Congress passed a law barring the USPS from mailing concealable firearms unless they were from licensed dealers in an effort to curb crime. In January, the Department of Justice revisited the 1927 law, calling it unconstitutional and arguing that it violated the Second Amendment, and urged the postal service to change its regulations.

The Justice Department said that as long as Congress chooses to run a parcel service, "the Second Amendment precludes it from refusing to ship constitutionally protected firearms to and from law-abiding citizens, even if they are not licensed manufacturers or dealers."

CBS News has reached out to USPS for comment.

Last month, USPS proposed a new rule that would allow anyone to mail concealable firearms like pistols and revolvers. USPS currently allows some firearms like long-barreled rifles and shotguns to be mailed, however they must be unloaded and securely packaged. Similar protections would be in place for handguns, which have evolved since 1927. The USPS said in a statement that it is reviewing public comments — which were due Monday — before making final changes.

USPS said it deferred to the "judgment" of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel "as to the lawful scope of this criminal statute and worked in consultation with OLC to develop the proposed revisions to our mailability regulations."

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/tennessee-republicans-pass-new-map-erasing-majority-black-us-house-district-2026-05-07/
May 7 (Reuters) - Tennessee Republicans on Thursday approved a new congressional map dismantling a majority-Black U.S. House district centered on Memphis, as several other Southern states seek to leverage last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision that severely weakened the landmark Voting Rights Act.
The move, greeted by loud protests at the state capitol, is likely to flip the Democratic-held seat in November's midterm elections, when Republicans' razor-thin majority in the U.S. House of Representatives will be at stake.
The new map splits Shelby County, the home of Memphis, a majority-Black city that played a critical role in the civil rights movement, into three separate Republican-leaning districts. The new lines could oust Democratic U.S. Representative Steve Cohen, who has represented Memphis since 2007. Republicans already control the state's other eight districts.
With President Donald Trump's encouragement, Republicans forged ahead despite protests at the state capitol and fierce denunciations from Democrats, many of whom decried the plan as racist.
"It is a form of Jim Crow terror," said state Representative Justin Jones, a Black Democrat, comparing the map to the racist election laws that restricted Black Southerners from voting prior to the 1960s. "You know what you're doing. It's shameful."
Republican lawmakers have defended the map, arguing it was not motivated by race but by partisan considerations alone.
"This gives us a unique opportunity for the first time in history to have an all-Republican delegation sent from Tennessee to Washington, D.C., to represent conservative values," Republican state Representative Jason Zachary said.