Aggregator

Kevin Durant, who also missed Game 1 of the first round series with a bruised right knee, sat out of the Rockets' 112-108 overtime loss to LA with a sprained ankle.

A driver is lucky to be alive after he barely escaped death in a multiple car pile-up on the Los Angeles freeway that resulted in one death in the early morning hours Saturday.

The Saints made a move for a new pass rusher, but not before checking in with the Giants about their star defensive end. 

South African anti-poaching champion Schoeman van Jaarsveld, 58, was tragically gored to death by a 2,900 pound rhinoceros after caring for the animal during a routine morning patrol on Thursday.

Officials with the San Francisco Department of Public Health say the drug, known as cychlorphine, surfaced in a counterfeit pill.

Georgia was the other finalist in Elijah Haven's recruitment.

Here are The Post’s pick-by-pick grades for the Giants’ draft class.

A bus full of middle school students were riding home on a Wednesday afternoon in their small Mississippi town when disaster struck — the bus driver suffered an asthma attack and passed out at the wheel while she was driving them home from school. The kids leapt up and took action, steering the bus to...

Will Odell Beckham Jr. be completing a full-circle moment and return to the Giants, the team that drafted him in 2014?

Should Democrats Fear A Supreme Court October Surprise That Could Save The Senate For The GOP?

There has been a lot of speculation about potential Supreme Court vacancies this year, mostly centered on Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. Even President Donald Trump seems anxious about the possibility. In a recent interview with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo, Trump revealed that he has a shortlist of potential Supreme Court nominees ready in the event of a vacancy and signaled he’s prepared to fill multiple seats if the opportunity arises. 

"In theory, it's two - you just read the statistics - it could be two, could be three, could be one," Trump said. "I don't know. I'm prepared to do it. But when you mention Alito, he is a great justice."

However, for now, the door appears closed. Sources close to both Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas told CBS News that neither man plans to retire in 2026, effectively throwing cold water on the speculation that has been building for months within Republican circles.

But Senate Republicans aren't exactly ready to write it off yet. They're treating the possibility of a fall vacancy as hot enough to plan around, even while keeping their mouths carefully shut in public.

The calculus is straightforward. Republicans currently hold a 53-seat Senate majority, but party strategists privately acknowledge that margin is vulnerable. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report recently shifted four Senate races — Ohio, North Carolina, Nebraska, and Georgia — toward Democrats. Meanwhile, Trump's job approval has slipped into the low 30s. Democrats have a credible path to flipping the upper chamber if they can make inroads in Ohio, Alaska, Texas, or Iowa.

What Senate Republicans are hoping for is a potential October surprise. 

GOP strategist and former Senate aide Brian Darling argues that a vacancy and confirmation battle hitting in October would "have the whole agenda change," pulling Senate races away from economic grievances and back toward the Court. It would "shift" the focus of contested races and "may motivate MAGA voters to get reengaged and show up to vote." As Darling put it, "An October surprise is when some issue comes up that people aren't expecting that completely changes the debate," adding that such a development "clearly is something that would be welcomed by the Trump administration going into the midterms."

It sounds like a risky strategy that could backfire, as such events could easily motivate both sides. However, Republicans have a recent data point to anchor that theory.

In 2018, Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation fight landed so close to Election Day that it likely helped Republicans flip a few Senate seats despite losing 42 House seats and majority control of the lower chamber. The Senate outcome diverged sharply from the national wave, and vulnerable Democrats in red-leaning states paid the price. Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Joe Donnelly of Indiana both held polling leads heading into the Kavanaugh vote. Both lost. McCaskill later acknowledged on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that, before the confirmation battle, there had been “a double-digit difference in enthusiasm” favoring Democrats, but that Supreme Court fight changed the dynamics completely.

The 2016 Scalia precedent is also part of the institutional memory here. After Scalia died in February of that year, then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell held the seat open through the presidential election, effectively turning the race into a referendum on the Court's direction. Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed in April 2017. Republicans believe that the gambit helped deliver the White House.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) believes a Supreme Court vacancy “would be a galvanizing issue for Republicans,” but was careful to note that justices make their own decisions. "I don't give Supreme Court justices advice," Cornyn said, praising Alito's record by saying simply, "Alito's been great."

There certainly is reason for Republicans to be careful. Barack Obama infamously failed to convince Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to retire while he was president. She stubbornly stayed on the court, despite her advanced age and poor health, and passed in 2020, giving a third Court pick.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) was equally careful about nudging Alito, 76, or Thomas, 77, about retiring. He said he has "seen the articles" speculating about Alito’s retirement and acknowledged that "the rumor started somewhere." On whether either justice might step down, Kennedy said it "depends on their health," then added, "I don't know where this rumor came from; it may well be true."

Senate Majority Leader John Thune pointed to Republicans' demonstrated ability to confirm quickly, referencing both 2018 and the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett in 2020 — completed less than two months after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, just before a presidential election.

"It seems like it could happen,” one senior Republican aide said. “We'll get somebody confirmed. The fight will be interesting."

The question isn't whether Republicans want a Supreme Court vacancy before November — it's whether they'll get one. And if they do, history suggests the political fallout could be severe for Democrats defending seats in territory that was never really theirs to begin with.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/25/2026 - 18:05

The footage captures a woman providing water to a wounded tourist who is lying on the ground after he was shot by Julio César Jasso, who killed a Canadian tourist and wounded 12 other people.

Arby's brought the meats — and a piece of the Sunset Strip — to the desert.

Every year, at the end of May — during Britain's bank holiday weekend — the world-famous Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling takes place. It's lasts about 10 minutes and the rules are simple — just show up and when the roll of cheese is thrown down the hill, fling yourself down and roll down to capture it....

Fifteen years ago, I helped make the case for what became California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission. It was a first-of-its-kind body of 14 ordinary Californians, neither politicians nor their appointees. It was balanced with equal Democratic and Republican representation, charged with drawing fair districts after the 2010 Census. The argument was simple, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger...

A California Democrat once convicted of DUI is racing across D.C. on a scooter, and the internet can't keep away from mocking him.

An Ohio high school baseball player has died after suffering a "severe medical emergency," his school said.

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a propaganda video on Saturday gushing about his plan to bring Soviet-style, government-run grocery stores to the Big Apple, claiming it will usher in a “new era” of delivering “affordable” shopping for all.

Aside from a pair of fourth quarters, Miles McBride had a rough series heading into Saturday’s Game 4.

Dramatic body-cam video made public this week reveals a life-or-death struggle inside a robbery suspect’s vehicle. An Antioch officer was forced to shoot from the passenger seat after being whisked away in a high-speed kidnapping. Around 5:16 a.m. on Feb. 20., officers rushed to the 4500 block of Lone Tree Way after a 911 call...

'Spies Inside The Holy See': Report Reveals US Espionage Campaign Targeting Pope Leo

Via The Cradle

The administration of US President Donald Trump has been "spying" on Pope Leo XIV as part of a years-long intelligence campaign by Washington against the Vatican, US investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein said in a report released Friday. 

Klippenstein – an independent, Washington-based investigative journalist who formerly wrote for The Intercept – cited sources as saying that Trump's recent comments on the new Pope were taken by the intelligence community as "a directive to prioritize spying on the Vatican."

via Reuters

Trump had said earlier this month that Pope Leo was "terrible on foreign policy" and "weak on crime." According to Klippenstein’s sources, Washington has "for years" been spying on the Vatican. 

"The CIA has human spies working inside the Holy See bureaucracy. The NSA and CIA seek to intercept telecommunications, emails, and texts. The FBI investigates crimes committed against and by the Vatican. The State Department closely follows the ins and outs of Papal diplomacy and politics. All of these agencies liaise with the Vatican’s own foreign policy, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies," the report stated. 

Klippenstein pointed to a "longstanding – and quietly extensive – relationship between the US national security apparatus and the Vatican" involving diplomatic, law enforcement, and cybersecurity cooperation.

Much of it is "genuine" but also serves as a "convenient cover for collecting intelligence."

"The first Trump administration sought to beef up its coordination with Italian intelligence agencies and Vatican officials on things like cybersecurity, white collar crime, human trafficking, art theft, and other issues. One particular project was to help the Vatican actively thwart cyber intrusions into its networks. The FBI also regularly provides threat intelligence to the Pope during his travels," Klippenstein cited FBI documents as saying. 

"The State Department, meanwhile, maintains a daily Vatican-centric news digest circulated to diplomats worldwide… The department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research has analysts dedicated to producing classified assessments on Vatican affairs," he added, referring to other documents he obtained.

"Even the US military has a Vatican-specific language code on its books as a distinct linguistic capability. ‘QLE’ designates Ecclesiastical Latin – the Vatican’s preferred liturgical register – as distinct from classical Latin."

The report follows recent tensions between Trump and the Holy See. Trump said earlier this month:

"Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the US … And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the US."

Prior to that, the pope had condemned what he called the “delusion of omnipotence,” fueling the US-Israeli war against Iran. 

“Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!” he said. The pope also recently said that a “handful of tyrants” were ruling the world, before later clarifying that his comments were not meant as a jab at Trump and were written before the US president criticized him. 

Additionally, the papacy referred to Trump’s threat to wipe out the Iranian civilization as unacceptable.

President Trump responds to Pope Leo XIV: "He shouldn't be talking about war, he has no idea what's happening."

Trump responds to Italian PM Meloni saying his words about Pope Leo XIV are "unacceptable": "It's her who is unacceptable... I thought she was brave, but I was wrong.” pic.twitter.com/YwkiUDfwR2

— The American Conservative (@amconmag) April 14, 2026

Pope Leo’s remarks came weeks after dozens of US lawmakers demanded a probe due to hundreds of complaints from service members saying that military commanders portrayed the war on Iran as “divinely ordained” and linked to biblical prophecy, including claims that Trump had been “anointed by Jesus.”

Well over 2,000 people have been killed by the US-Israeli war on Iran, and the country’s infrastructure has been ravaged. 

Only about one-third of the infrastructure destroyed in Iran’s capital during the US-Israeli war was military-linked, Bloomberg revealed on 21 April in an analysis of the damage caused by Washington and Tel Aviv.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/25/2026 - 17:30