Exiled ultra-conservative Venezuelan conspirator is looking for European fascists to support her vile cause

There is nothing more treacherous than a wolf wearing a sheep's fur pretending to be a fairy godmother

By Yiannis Damellos

April 18, 2026

MADRID — While Spain’s progressive Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, an outspoken critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, was hosting a summit of like-minded progressive leaders from around the world on Saturday, Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader María Corina Machado was addressing several thousand of her MAGA supporters at a rally in Madrid during her multicountry European tour.

Putin finally admits Russia’s economy is in trouble and grasps for answers, after warnings about a financial crisis have been piling up

 Economy  Russia 

By Jason Ma, Weekend Editor

April 18, 2026

Russian President Vladimir Putin made his concerns about the economy public as he vented frustration at aides and demanded they come up with solutions.

During a televised meeting on the economy Wednesday, he revealed that GDP shrank by combined 1.8% in January and February, adding that manufacturing, industrial production and construction were negative.

More than 38,000 women and girls were killed in Gaza between October 2023 and December 2025 – UN Women

17 April 2026

 PRESS RELEASE 

Six months after the ceasefire, and as regional developments shift global attention, UN Women warns that women and girls in Gaza remain at critical risk, calling for adherence to the ceasefire, international law, and the protection of women and girls, alongside unimpeded humanitarian assistance at scale

Cairo/Geneva/New York, 17 April 2026 – Six months after the ceasefire in Gaza, women and girls continue to face severe and persistent risks, as humanitarian needs remain critical and recovery conditions remain fragile. A new analysis published by UN Women shows that more than 38,000 women and girls—including over 22,000 women and 16,000 girls—were killed in Gaza between October 2023 and December 2025, representing an average of at least 47 women and girls killed per day.

Spain, Brazil, Mexico vow to boost Cuba aid amid US threats

POLITICS SPAIN

Karl Sexton with AP, AFP, Reuters

6 hours ago6 hours ago

The pledge comes amid a US oil embargo and Donald Trump's threats to invade the island. Leftist leaders meeting in Barcelona also spoke against the global far-right threat.

Activists Tear-Gassed at Failed Raid of Beagle Research Facility

Some 1,000 protesters tried to storm a private breeding and lab facility in Wisconsin in an effort to steal thousands of beagles that are bred for medical experimentation.

By Katie Benner and Taylor Glascock

April 18, 2026

Hundreds of animal rights activists in Wisconsin were thwarted by the police and private security guards as they tried to steal thousands of beagles from a facility that breeds them for sale to research labs and for experiments done on site.

Ohio’s nursing homes are dumping patients at homeless shelters

By JAKE ZUCKERMAN/Signal Ohio
April 17, 2026
The scene was concerning enough to prompt the homeless shelter staff to call the fire department.

A woman using a walker had shown up, incontinent and carrying “a large bag of medications.” She was diabetic, managing a tibia fracture and alcohol-related dementia, and she was “dumped” at the shelter, according to federal inspectors.

What is Mythos, Anthropic’s unreleased AI model, and how worried should we be?

The company says Mythos is too dangerous to release publicly. Cybersecurity experts agree the model's capabilities matter, but not all of them are buying the most alarming claims

By Chris Stokel-Walker

Edited by Eric Sullivan

In the wake of Anthropic’s announcement of its latest artificial intelligence model, Mythos, on April 7, the company has stood by an unusual decision: refusing to release it to the public. Not since OpenAI temporarily withheld its GPT-2 model in 2019 has a major developer deemed a system too dangerous for the public. More than a week later, that choice is still reverberating through finance and regulatory circles.

Scientist claims the universe has SEVEN dimensions

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

Published: 05:12 EDT, 17 April 2026 | Updated: 11:11 EDT, 17 April 2026

It might sound like something from The Matrix, but scientists now say that our universe has seven dimensions. In addition to the four dimensions we normally experience – height, length, depth, and time – physicists argue that there are three extra 'folded' layers of reality.

Did King Arthur really exist?

Archaeology
By Owen Jarus
Published 13 hours ago
The stories about King Arthur are almost certainly false or greatly exaggerated, but did the man himself exist?

Legend has it that King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were busy heroes, with tales of them slaying a giant, organizing a successful search for the Holy Grail, and ruling a kingdom from a city called Camelot.

AP: Iran fully closes Strait of Hormuz over US blockade and fires on ships

By SAM METZ and SAMY MAGDY
April 18, 2026
CAIRO (AP) — The standoff over the Strait of Hormuz escalated again Saturday as Iran reversed its reopening of the crucial waterway and fired on ships attempting to pass, in retaliation after the United States pressed ahead with its blockade of Iranian ports.

To “Eliminate Income Tax” and Fund It With Tariffs, as Trump says, is worse than an election lie: it’s a handout to the rich

Edited by Yiannis Damellos

April 18, 2026

In a country where social services are not an optional luxury but the scaffolding that keeps people from falling, who pays is not a trivia question. 

It’s the whole story.

President Donald Trump’s latest pitch—eliminating the U.S. income tax and paying for it with what he calls “massive” tariff revenue—sounds simple enough for a MAGA rally or a social-media clip. But when you do the basic arithmetic, the idea stops being a plan and starts being a political performance.

Jamie Dimon says the next credit crisis will be 'worse than people expect' — here's what big bank earnings have revealed

Kit Pulliam
Sat, April 18, 2026
Moneywise

Despite — or maybe because of — volatile markets and increasing consumer costs, recent quarterly earnings reports from big banks show the banks are doing well (1). But JPMorgan Chase [NYSE:JPM], at least, is still preparing for a possible recession.

Europe to accelerate effort to secure Hormuz despite Trump’s order to stay away

More than 30 leaders joined a video conference call on Friday to map out an international mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

April 17, 2026 7:20 pm CET

By Clea Caulcutt

PARIS — European leaders pledged to rapidly ramp up a multinational effort to secure the Strait of Hormuz after Iran said it would reopen the vital waterway to maritime traffic, even if Donald Trump doesn't want their help.

The FBI Director Is MIA

The Atlantic

Kash Patel has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.

By Sarah Fitzpatrick
Michael M. Santiago / Getty April 17, 2026

On Friday, April 10, as FBI Director Kash Patel was preparing to leave work for the weekend, he struggled to log into an internal computer system. He quickly became convinced that he had been locked out, and he panicked, frantically calling aides and allies to announce that he had been fired by the White House, according to nine people familiar with his outreach. Two of these people described his behavior as a “freak-out.”

How to interpret a pathological liar who has an election to win after losing a war

April 17, 2026

Edited by Yiannis Damellos 

War outcomes are not controlled by social media. They’re controlled by bargaining power, enforcement, and what each side believes it can get away with.

Yet, Trump has turned “peace” into a press conference—while Iran negotiates from leverage. He has been selling the Iran track as if victory is already in hand. He described the Strait of Hormuz as “fully open,” suggested Iran had accepted sweeping concessions, and implied there were “no sticking points” left. It’s the kind of messaging that aims to lock in a favorable historical narrative—before reality has the chance to correct the record.

There Are Signs of a Massive AI Backlash

AI REBELLION

It's a powder keg

By Victor Tangermann

Published Apr 17, 2026 2:07 PM EDT

The public outrage over the tech industry’s obsession with AI is starting to boil over — and the pitchforks are coming out.

Most recently, a man allegedly lobbed a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s house. Days earlier, a councilman in Indianapolis said that somebody had fired a dozen bullets at his house, with a handwritten note reading “No Data Centers” left on his doorstep.

11th scientist's death emerges in string of missing, dead officials with access to US secrets

Amy Eskridge, who died in 2022 at age 34, is now cited as the 11th case linked to deaths in advanced research fields that may be related
By Morgan Phillips 

Fox News
Published April 17, 2026 

11:37am EDT

The 2022 death of Amy Eskridge, a Huntsville, Alabama–based researcher, has now resurfaced online as the 11th case in a growing list of scientists who have died or disappeared under unusual circumstances.

Dave Chappelle Is Outraged That Trans People Were Right About His Jokes

 Politics  April 16, 2026 

The “team TERF” comedian claims Republicans 

“weaponized…what I was doing.”

Alex Nguyen

Reporter, Mother Jones

Dave Chappelle is happy to make tens of millions of dollars on anti-trans comedy routines—”I’m team TERF,” he said in a 2021 special—but now apparently draws the line at Republicans turning those jokes into policy.