Associated Press: US claims progress in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, saying 2 merchant ships have transited

BY ADAM SCHRECK AND SAM METZ
Updated 8:41 AM PDT, May 4, 2026
World News

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military said Monday that two American-flagged merchant ships had successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz after it launched a new initiative to restore traffic. The United Arab Emirates meanwhile issued three missile alerts and authorities said an Iranian drone hit an oil facility.

The World’s Most Unbelievable Science Fiction Novel

By Tom Engelhardt

May 03, 2026

If years ago you’d pitched a novel where Donald Trump got elected president of the United States twice and hastened the world’s demise, the publisher would’ve mocked you. Yet here he is in the Oval Office for a second time, mucking everything up. He and his cronies are turning our beautiful planet into a dump truck… How lovely.

Physicists just found a tiny flaw in time itself

Science News from research organizations

Quantum weirdness may be quietly blurring time itself—offering a tantalizing clue to 

the universe’s deepest laws

Date: May 3, 2026

Source: Foundational Questions Institute, FQXi.

Summary: Physicists are rethinking one of quantum mechanics’ biggest puzzles: how fuzzy possibilities become definite reality. New research suggests that spontaneous “collapse” processes—possibly linked to gravity—could subtly blur time itself. This wouldn’t affect clocks we use today, but it reveals a hidden limit to how precise time can ever be. The findings open a new path toward uniting quantum physics with gravity.

Futurism: Meta Had the Worst Possible Response When Its Workers Were Watching Naked Footage of Its Ray-Ban AI Glasses Users

X-Rated Specs

The guiltiest possible look

Futurism

By Frank Landymore

Published May 3, 2026

In February, Meta contractors in Kenya told Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten that the company required them to review disturbing and sensitive footage captured by its Ray-Ban AI glasses.

Trump says the US will 'guide' stranded ships from the Strait of Hormuz

Special Series / Middle East conflict

May 3, 2026
By The Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States will launch an effort on Monday to "guide" stranded ships from the Iran-gripped Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump said, as two ships around the strait reported attacks.

Mark Carney’s 26+ trips abroad: A breakdown of the prime minister’s trade deals and travel after 1 year in office

Analysis

11 March 2026

Prime Minister Mark Carney is living up to his self-avowed globalist status. Since taking office exactly one year ago, the globetrotting former central banker has been outside of Canada 68 days, or 20 percent of his first year in office.

All Life on Earth Comes From One Single Ancestor. And It's So Much Older Than We Thought

Darren Orf
Sun, May 3, 2026
Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

• All life on Earth can be traced back to a Last Universal Common Ancestor, or LUCA.
• A study suggests that this organism likely lived on Earth only 400 million years after its formation.
• Further analysis also shows that this life form likely sported an early immune system, which means it was probably fighting off viruses.

Iran reviewing latest US reply to peace proposal, according to Foreign Ministry

Meanwhile, the average price of gas in the US is at $4.45 per gallon as the war continues to disrupt global oil supplies
Sun May 3, 2026

Here's the latest

• Peace negotiations: The Iranian Foreign Ministry said the US has responded to Iran’s newest proposal and that Tehran is reviewing Washington’s reply. The plan does not include any nuclear issues, the ministry said.

Trump viewed negatively on every issue measured in latest poll

Newsweek

Story by Jasmine Laws • 1h • 

President Donald Trump’s approval rating has hit the lowest point of his second presidential term, a new poll by ABC News, The Washington Post, and Ipsos shows. The poll, released on April 30, showed Trump’s approval rating at 37 percent, with a disapproval rating of 62 percent, which is a record high across both of his presidential terms.

The Whistleblower Who Uncovered the NSA’s ‘Big Brother Machine’

An unexpected visitor gave my team the evidence we needed to prove that the government was secretly wiretapping Americans.

By: Cindy Cohn

Trump says US to withdraw significantly more than 5,000 troops from Germany

Republican lawmakers: 'Sending the wrong signal to Putin.'
‘We’re going to cut way down,’ US president says, amid rift with NATO over Iran war; troop pullout plan faces bipartisan resistance
By Kirsten Grieshaber, Emma Burrows and AAMER MADHANI

Today, 9:22 am

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) — US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States will significantly reduce its troop presence in Germany, escalating a dispute with Chancellor Friedrich Merz as he seeks to scale back America’s commitment to European security.

Middle East war live: Trump says he 'can't imagine' Iran's latest peace plan is acceptable

MIDDLE EAST
Issued on: 03/05/2026 - 07:06
By:FRANCE 24/Paul MILLAR

US President Donald Trump said Saturday he was going to review a new Iranian peace proposal but said he doubted it would be acceptable, saying that Tehran had "not yet paid a big enough price". Trump’s comments came after Iran's Tasnim and Fars news agencies said Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan. 

Imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner in critical condition

Anastasia Tsioulcas

May 02, 2026

The Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence in Iran, has been hospitalized in critical condition after collapsing and losing consciousness in jail. 

What Democrats Can Do to Restore Voting Rights Post-Callais

The Intelligencer

By Ed Kilgore 

political columnist for Intelligencer since 2015

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Louisiana v. Callais, much attention has been paid to its impact on the midterms and the partisan gerrymandering surge we can expect in the last two years of the Trump administration. The decision clearly green-lights map-rigging by demolishing the legal obstacles posed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Thus it’s a huge gift to the Republicans who control the former Confederate states, where the VRA previously protected minority (and thus Democratic) voting interests to a considerable degree. The decision probably won’t be enough to let the GOP hang on to control of the U.S. House in November, but it could make the post-election landscape in Congress a lot friendlier to Republicans.

Trump jokes that the US Navy will takeover Cuba 'almost immediately' on the way back from Iran

News World Cuba

By Malek Fouda

Published on 02/05/2026

Trump appeared to hint at a potential military operation in Cuba after US forces “finish the job” in Iran. The comments come as Washington announced a set of new sanctions targeting the island nation on Friday, which Havana slammed as a form of collective punishment.

Opinion: Trump’s time-bending claim about the Iran war is truly absurd

There’s no “pause” button on the War Powers Resolution, and 60 days is not the same as 40 years.
May 2, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT
By Hayes Brown

The Trump administration told Congress Thursday that the legislative branch doesn’t need to worry about authorizing the war with Iran that President Donald Trump launched two months ago. The War Powers Resolution says that a president only has 60 days after deploying U.S. military forces to either fully withdraw those forces or get formal approval from legislators for the campaign to continue. Despite hitting that deadline Friday, the White House is now saying that as far as it’s concerned, the hostilities that began two months ago are “terminated,” leaving no reason for Congress to act.

NATO assessing details of US troop withdrawal from Germany

The US says it plans to pull about 5,000 troops out of Germany over the next six to 12 months as the feud with European allies over the Iran war escalates.
By Al Jazeera Staff
Published On 2 May 2026

NATO says it is assessing the details of the United States’s decision to withdraw about 5,000 troops from Germany, a key partner in the Western security alliance, amid tensions over the war on Iran.

Top U.S. & World Headlines — May 1, 2026

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.