https://www.reuters.com/business/cnn-founder-ted-turner-dead-87-2026-05-06/

WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) - Ted Turner, the brash sportsman and entrepreneur whose ambition and instincts led to a media empire that included groundbreaking news network CNN, has died, CNN reported on Wednesday citing a press release from Turner Enterprises. He was 87.
No cause of death was given.

In September 2018 Turner revealed that he had Lewy body dementia, a degenerative nerve disease.
One nickname was not enough for a personality as roguish and bold as Turner's. He was known variously as the "Mouth of the South," "Captain Outrageous," and "Terrible Ted."
He became a billionaire by taking over his father's billboard business, buying a television station in 1970 and parlaying that into what would become a vast ground-breaking television group.
Turner became one of the most powerful figures in U.S. media and entertainment, his networks specializing in news, sports, re-runs, and old movies. But he did not stop there. He added the MGM/UA movie studio to his portfolio before making an even bigger move - merging his Turner Broadcasting System with Time Warner in 1996.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/01/trump-iran-congressional-deadline/

President Donald Trump claimed in a letter to Congress on Friday that hostilities with Iran have “terminated” as he reached a legal deadline that requires military operations to halt unless lawmakers authorize force.

Trump’s claim came as the United States continues to enforce a naval blockade of Iran and as he declined to rule out additional strikes on the country.

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires presidents to remove U.S. forces from any conflict that Congress has not authorized within 60 days of the White House notifying Congress of hostilities — a deadline that Trump hit on Friday.

Trump wrote in his letter to lawmakers Friday that the conflict has been effectively over since the United States and Iran agreed last month to a ceasefire.

“There has been no exchange of fire between United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026,” Trump wrote in the letter, obtained by The Washington Post. “The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated.”

- 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.

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.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.

https://utahpolicy.com/news-release/77358-lee-cosponsors-ban-on-child-sex-change-procedures-with-100k-penalties-fund-for-detransitioning-victims

Lee cosponsors ban on child sex-change procedures with $100K penalties, fund for detransitioning victims

U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) today cosponsored the Safeguarding the Overall Protection of Minors (STOP) Act with Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS). This landmark legislation bans gender transition procedures performed on minors, imposes strict civil penalties on perpetrators, and for the first time creates a federal compensation fund dedicated to helping victims detransition using the collected penalty funds.

“There are kids in America receiving life-altering gender surgeries before they graduate high school. There are kids being given hormone blockers that can cause bone loss, depression, and myriad other medical issues when they should be playing hopscotch and riding bikes,” said Senator Mike Lee. “Our kids deserve safe childhoods and informed consent, but instead they have harmful procedures pushed on them by predatory doctors who won’t have to live with the consequences. I’m proud to cosponsor the STOP Act to outlaw risky gender transition procedures on minors, empower victims to sue for damages, and award the penalty funds from criminal doctors to their victims as recovery compensation.”

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/06/business/mamdani-taxes-real-estate

New York —

No one likes higher taxes. But New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to tax wealthy residents’ second homes has elicited a highly emotional response from two of the city’s richest.

“Creepy and weird,” is what Ken Griffin had to say Tuesday at a conference about Mamdani’s campaign-style video touting the tax outside the hedge fund manager’s $238 million penthouse.

Steven Roth, the CEO of real estate giant Vornado, went further Tuesday on an earnings call.

“I consider the phrase ‘tax the rich’ when spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country, to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs and even the phrase, ‘from the river to the sea,’” Roth said, referring to the pro-Palestinian phrase that the Anti-Defamation League labels an antisemitic threat.

Mamdani announced a plan last month to tax New York City’s luxury second homes with market values above $5 million, saying it would fulfill his central campaign promise to “tax the rich.” He singled out Griffin’s penthouse as a prime example of the “fundamentally unfair system” that allows the city’s richest to store their wealth in homes that sit empty most of the time without paying city and state income taxes.

Business leaders have rallied to Griffin’s defense and said Mamdani’s video endangered his safety.

“We are all shocked that our young mayor would pull this stunt in front of Ken’s home and single him out for ridicule,” Steven Roth said. “The ugly, unnecessary video stunt is personal for Ken and sort of personal for me.” Vornado is one of the largest real estate companies in New York City and is currently developing a new office tower with Griffin’s hedge fund Citadel.

Jonathan Pollard, a former US navy intelligence analyst jailed for 30 years for spying for Israel, has said he will stand for election to the Knesset this year on a platform of ethnic cleansing.

Speaking to Channel 13 television, Pollard said: “I personally prefer the forcible removal of all current residents of Gaza, and the annexation of Gaza and its repopulation by us.”

Pollard was released on parole at the age of 61 from US prison in 2015 after serving 30 years for selling military secrets to Israel for money. He and his wife, Anne Henderson, were arrested in 1985 after Pollard passed a huge volume of classified documents to Israeli intelligence – enough to fill a 10ftx6ftx6ft room, by Pollard’s own calculation. In return he received cash and jewels.

Despite Netanyahu’s past support for him, Pollard has become a fierce critic of the prime minister. In his television interview, he said Israel was not winning the war it had been fighting since 2023 and called for new leadership with a clearer and sharper policy.

According to Channel 13, Pollard will enter politics as part of a new party, formed with Nissim Louk, whose 22-year-old daughter, Shani, was murdered in the 7 October attack while she was attending a music festival near the Gaza border.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/05/jonathan-pollard-israel-gaza-ethnic-cleansing