Saturday, April 18, 2026

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

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.”

Friday, April 17, 2026

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

The public outrage over the tech industry's obsession with AI is starting to boil over — and the pitchforks are starting to come out.
AI REBELLION
It's a powder keg
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.

Trump draws Marie Antoinette comparisons as he leans into the gilded trappings of the presidency


By MICHELLE L. PRICE and WILL WEISSERT

Updated 7:47 AM PDT 
April 17, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump had something urgent to address while flying back to Washington from his Mar-a-Lago estate on a recent Sunday.

Trump says Iranians have "agreed to everything," including removal of enriched uranium. "Not exactly", says Tehran!


Politics
By Weijia Jiang
Updated on: April 17, 2026 / 2:45 PM EDT
CBS NEWS

President Trump said in a phone interview that Iran has "agreed to everything," and will work with the U.S. to remove its enriched uranium.

The Hippies – By Hunter S. Thompson


The best year to be a hippie was 1965, but then there was not much to write about, because not much was happening in public and most of what was happening in private was illegal. The real year of the hippie was 1966, despite the lack of publicity, which in 1967 gave way to a nationwide avalanche in Look, Life, Time, Newsweek, the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Saturday Evening Post, and even the Aspen Illustrated News, which did a special issue on hippies in August of 1967 and made a record sale of all but 6 copies of a 3,500-copy press run. 

Trump's Brand Is the Problem: Fascist Europe Wants the Agenda, Not the Liability


By Yiannis Damellos

Trump turns toxic - and electorally dangerous- even for Marine Le Pen and her fascist MAGA cadres

Donald Trump has always understood one thing about European populism: it’s supposed to be transactional. For years, MAGA promised Europe’s far-right movements legitimacy, attention, and a kind of “permission structure” to say what they wanted to say at home—more aggressive borders, more hostility toward Brussels, more contempt for liberal constraints. But the transaction is now breaking down. And the break isn’t happening because Europe’s far right suddenly discovered morality or diplomacy. It’s happening because Trump’s conduct has become electorally and reputationally dangerous—even for ideological allies who once benefited from proximity to Washington.

Thursday, April 16, 2026

China is coming back – and the timing couldn’t be better: Stephen Jen


April 16, 20264:16 PM PDT
Updated 36 mins ago

LONDON, April 17 (Reuters) - China has turned a corner, finally. Five years after Beijing began cracking down on its bloated property sector, its economy is now on a much more sustainable path anchored in high-quality growth – and the correction has left far fewer scars than many feared.

Repsol taking back control of Venezuelan oil assets


Agence France-Presse
Apr 16, 2026 
Updated 53 mins ago
Spanish energy group Repsol said on Thursday it has reached an agreement with the Venezuelan government to regain control of its oil business in the country and sharply increase production over the coming years.

U.S. intelligence detects signs China is weighing giving Iran advance radar systems

By James LaPorta, Eleanor Watson, Olivia Gazis, 
Sara Cook and Margaret Brennan
Updated on: April 16, 2026
CBS News

Washington — Days after the U.S.-Israel led war with Iran kicked off last month, American intelligence agencies detected signs that the war risked widening beyond the immediate battlefield as Russia and China sought to support Iran to blunt U.S.-Israeli military operations.

Nancy Guthrie abduction: FBI analyzing DNA recovered from her home, sources say

The sample was collected from Guthrie's house in February, an official said.
By Aaron Katersky and Trevor Ault 
Thursday, April 16, 2026 4:48PM

PIMA COUNTY, Ariz. -- The FBI recently received and is now analyzing potentially critical DNA recovered months ago from the Tucson, Arizona, home of Nancy Guthrie, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.