US Senators Vote to Withhold Own Pay in Government Shutdowns

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US senators agreed unanimously Thursday to suspend their own pay during government shutdowns, in an effort to force Congress to share the financial pain after a series of funding standoffs that upended the federal government.

The measure reflects growing political sensitivity around shutdowns after federal agencies were at least partially shuttered for much of the past eight months, disrupting services, delaying benefits and intensifying frustration with Washington dysfunction.

Sponsored by Republican John Kennedy of Louisiana, it directs the upper chamber to withhold senators’ salaries whenever funding lapses for at least one federal agency or department. Lawmakers would receive the withheld pay only after the shutdown ends.

The resolution applies only to senators and does not require approval from the House of Representatives or President Donald Trump. Because of constitutional restrictions on changing congressional pay, it will not take effect until after the November midterm elections.

The vote came after an extraordinary stretch of funding crises since President Donald Trump returned to office. (Read more from “US Senators Vote to Withhold Own Pay in Government Shutdowns” HERE)

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Xi Raises Prospect of a Future US-China War in Meeting with Trump: ‘Thucydides Trap’

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By New York Post. Chinese leader Xi Jinping opened Wednesday’s high-stakes meeting with President Trump by ominously raising the prospect of a future war between the US and China.

Xi made reference to a geopolitical concept known as the Thucydides trap, which posits that there is a high probability of a violent clash when a rising power challenges the ruling hegemon.

“The whole world is watching our meeting,” Xi said inside Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, with Trump seated across the table.

“Currently, transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent,” he continued, according to one translation of his remarks. “The world has come to a new crossroads.

“Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides trap and create a new paradigm of major country relations? Can we meet global challenges together and provide more stability for the world? Can we, in the interest of the well-being of our two peoples and the future of humanity, build a brighter future together for our bilateral relations?” (Read more from “Xi Raises Prospect of a Future US-China War in Meeting with Trump: ‘Thucydides Trap’” HERE)

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Melania Mysteriously Snubs Trump’s Big Trip

By Daily Beast. Donald Trump left Washington for a three-day state visit to China flanked by cabinet secretaries, sixteen corporate CEOs, his son Eric and daughter-in-law Lara—but not his wife.

Melania Trump’s office confirmed her absence in an email to the South China Morning Post hours before takeoff, without even attempting to offer an explanation: “First Lady Melania Trump is not travelling this time,” her spokesperson said.

Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why she was sitting out the trip.

The move comes amid speculation about the first lady increasingly breaking with her husband as she seems to be trying to charter her own course. Trump and his White House aides were reportedly blindsided last month when she called a surprise press conference to read a statement declaring she had no ties to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The move appeared only to revive the scandal that Trump himself had been eager to put to rest.

Melania’s absence, bizarrely, does not appear to have kept the man who produced her critically panned Melania documentary last year from tagging along. (Read more from “Melania Mysteriously Snubs Trump’s Big Trip” HERE)

Senior White House Official Placed On Leave After Trashing Trump In Sting Operation

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The White House placed a top administration official on leave after an undercover sting operation revealed his deep disdain for President Donald Trump.

Benjamin Ellisten, a senior budget analyst and funding manager for the White House, told James O’Keefe’s undercover journalist that Trump is a “madman” who is “f*cking it up for everybody.” Ellisten, who has worked at the White House since 2024, according to O’Keefe’s reporting, has since been placed on administrative leave, a White House official told the Daily Caller.

“He has no direct access to the President or Senior Staff, and does not work on the White House campus,” the official told the Caller. “Such views expressed by the individual are not reflective of patriots who admirably serve in the Administration.”

Ellisten was caught telling O’Keefe’s reporter that Trump is a “mess,” saying they “gotta get rid of him.”

“He’s a madman,” Ellisten told the undercover journalist. “Literally. He’s invincible. Nothing can stop him, and that’s dangerous.” (Read more from “Senior White House Official Placed On Leave After Trashing Trump In Sting Operation” HERE)

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Juror in Alex Murdaugh Double Murder Trial Speaks out on Court’s ‘Crazy’ Decision to Toss Convictions

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A juror who helped convict Alex Murdaugh in the killings of his wife and son was left stunned by the South Carolina Supreme Court’s “crazy” decision Wednesday to overturn the verdict.

Juror Ami Williams insisted she was never swayed into convicting the disgraced legal scion in the grisly 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and 22-year-old son, Paul, after the state’s top court unanimously found that a court clerk improperly influenced his dramatic six-week trial.

Judges ruled that Colleton County court clerk Becky Hill tainted the 2023 trial by meddling with the jury.

“I never felt that the clerk of court was pushing an agenda or trying to push me to come to a certain verdict,” Williams told NBC News Wednesday. “Never felt that way about her at all.”

The shocked juror blasted the court’s decision to toss the murder convictions as “crazy” while hailing Hill – who oversaw the jury – for being “so gracious” and “super helpful.” (Read more from “Juror in Alex Murdaugh Double Murder Trial Speaks out on Court’s ‘Crazy’ Decision to Toss Convictions” HERE)

‘Porn is Warping our Lives,’ admit Gen Z Men, who Reveal Their Addictions got ‘Totally out of Control’

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Men now in their 20s are the first to grow up with easy access to pornography from childhood, and they say it changed how they see women and how they form and maintain relationships, a Post investigation has found.

Six heterosexual men in the age group each admitted they had habitually used pornography to a point where it became part of their daily routine.

“Starting in like middle school, it was like, I’d come home and watch porn after school and take a nap, and it became daily pretty quickly,” one man told The Post. “By the time I was 18, it was like two or three times a day.”

The 26-year-old from DC was only in sixth grade when he first encountered porn — and it transformed the way he saw the world around him. . .

He is a member of Gen Z, the first generation to have smartphones as tweens. With unfettered access to the internet in their pocket, many boys inevitably found their way to pornography. Today, the typical child first comes across porn at age 12, according to one survey.

“In the ’70s and the ’60s, people had to go to the dingy movie theaters, the red light districts. They had to actively seek good stuff out,” a 28-year-old from Florida said. “Now it’s in your pocket.” (Read more from “‘Porn is Warping our Lives,’ admit Gen Z Men, who Reveal Their Addictions got ‘Totally out of Control’” HERE)

Multiple Oil Spills May Plague The Persian Gulf Because Of Iran War

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The Iran War’s effects are moving past economics and into the environment.

Multiple instances of what appear to be oil spills have occurred this week in the Persian Gulf, Reuters reported. One apparent spill appears to be emanating from Kharg Island, while another spill appears to be streaming behind an ADNOC Logistics & Services oil tanker that was hit by Iranian drones on May 4.

The images are probably indicative of oil slicks, Reuters reported, citing Louis Goddard, co-founder of Data Desk, a climate- and commodities-focused consultant.

“The ADNOC Logistics & Services vessel Barakah remains at anchor off the coast of Oman ​after being impacted by two Iranian drones on May 4,” Reuters reported, citing an ADNOC company spokesperson. “A small amount of what is understood to be bunker fuel was unfortunately released as a result of the incident.”

The Barakah is classified as a crude oil tanker, according to MarineTraffic. It remains unclear how much fuel leaked into the Persian Gulf from the vessel. (Read more from “Multiple Oil Spills May Plague The Persian Gulf Because Of Iran War” HERE)

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Have Trump And Musk Made Amends?

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President Donald Trump and tech mogul Elon Musk had a very public falling out in May 2025, fracturing their political partnership into a foul-mouthed feud.

Now, nearly a year later, Musk is on board Air Force One with the president en route to Beijing, indicating the pair may have made amends.

Musk first broke from the administration over Trump’s landmark One Big Beautiful Bill, saying he was “disappointed” by the large price tag and that it undermined the cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This split reached a fever pitch when Musk later accused Trump of complicity in an Epstein Files cover-up in a series of now-deleted tweets.

Just days after alleging that Trump was in the Epstein Files, Musk apologized to the president in a post on X.

“I regret some of my posts about President [Donald Trump] last week,” Musk wrote. “They went too far.” (Read more from “Have Trump And Musk Made Amends?” HERE)

CIA Whistleblower Alleges Cover-Up Of Lab Leak Intelligence

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Spy scientists repeatedly concluded that a lab accident caused the COVID-19 pandemic but more senior bureaucrats watered down and suppressed their conclusions, a CIA senior operations officer testified to Congress on Wednesday.

The CIA officer and whistleblower, James E. Erdman III, described under oath in a hearing called by Sen. Rand Paul on Wednesday a pattern of obstruction that promoted the conclusions of a tight knit group of virologists close to Anthony Fauci while downplaying the conclusions of the intelligence community’s own biological experts. Erdman recently departed from a task force organized by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to dig into whether the CIA violated its own analytic standards in its assessment of the cause of the deadliest pandemic in a century. Even from that perch — Gabbard’s office ostensibly oversees the CIA — Erdman faced continued bureaucratic stonewalling from the spy agency.

As Erdman and Gabbard dug into the apparent cover-up, the CIA denied the task force documents, illegally surveilled its members and fired one of its witnesses the day after the committee interviewed that witness, the whistleblower testified.

“Coincidentally, whenever the CIA investigates itself it never finds any wrongdoing,” Erdman said. “The accountability piece has to happen or this is just going to keep happening.”

Fauci and the CIA didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. (Read more from “CIA Whistleblower Alleges Cover-Up Of Lab Leak Intelligence” HERE)

Trump Tells Reporter He Doesn’t ‘Think About’ Americans’ Finances In Waging Iran War; Cost Of Iran War Balloons To Nearly $30,000,000,000

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By Daily Caller. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the deteriorating financial situation of Americans is not playing any role in pushing him to make a deal with Iran.

The Daily Caller’s White House Correspondent Reagan Reese pressed the president on whether increasing inflation — including energy and food prices — is influencing the White House’s decision to seek a deal to end the ongoing war with Iran. Trump dismissed the idea, declaring, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.”

“What extent are Americans’ financial situation motivating you to make a deal?” Reese asked.

“Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters, when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation, I don’t think about anybody.”

Earlier on Tuesday, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for April revealed that inflationary pressure in the U.S. economy has been rising, with prices for energy and groceries heavily contributing to the spike. The cost of everyday goods rose 0.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis in April, after increasing 0.9% in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported. (Read more from “Trump Tells Reporter He Doesn’t ‘Think About’ Americans’ Finances In Waging Iran War” HERE)

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Cost Of Iran War Balloons To Nearly $30,000,000,000

By Daily Caller. The estimated cost of the war in Iran has now hit nearly $30 billion, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Department of War Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer Jules W. Hurst III said during a congressional testimony on Tuesday that the Iran war has cost about $29 billion in total thus far, citing an “updated repair and replacement of equipment cost and also just general operational cost” as the main reasons for the increase. The announcement comes after the Pentagon estimated on April 29 that the total cost of the war was roughly $25 billion, Reuters reported.

Hurst also said during the hearing that “at the time of testimony… it [the estimated cost of the Iran war] was $25 billion dollars,” in reference to War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s cost estimate from April.

However, the total cost of the Iran war may actually be closer to $50 billion, CBS News reported on April 30, citing anonymous U.S. officials familiar with internal assessments.

The Pentagon requested $200 billion from Congress to fund the war in March. (Read more from “Cost Of Iran War Balloons To Nearly $30,000,000,000” HERE)

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Marine Vet With Concealed Carry Permit Helped Halt Felon’s Brazen Shooting Spree

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A Marine veteran helped Massachusetts State Police halt a gunman’s brazen shooting rampage Monday, the Cambridge Police Department said in a release.

Cambridge Police received word at 1:00 p.m. EDT Monday from the Boston Police Department that a person acting erratically armed with a rifle might be in the area. State Police came upon what was described as “an active shooter scene,” and confronted the gunman alongside the military veteran who had a concealed carry permit.

“After being confronted, the suspect allegedly continued to fire the weapon striking the State Police Cruiser,” Cambridge police said in the statement. “Both the civilian and the Trooper fired their weapons and the suspect was struck multiple times in the extremities. The suspect was treated on scene by police officers and transported to a Boston hospital.”

Video obtained by CBS News Boston showed the gunman brazenly firing a rifle while on Memorial Drive, with authorities saying at least 60 rounds were fired. The civilian who aided law enforcement has been described by multiple media outlets as a former Marine who had a concealed carry permit.

The suspect, 46-year-old Tyler Brown, had a lengthy criminal record, including receiving a five-to-six-year prison sentence for firing multiple rounds at police officers in 2020, according to a 2021 release from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. (Read more from “Marine Vet With Concealed Carry Permit Helped Halt Felon’s Brazen Shooting Spree” HERE)