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Inside the Quiet Republican Effort to Flip Fetterman
As the Pennsylvania Democrat increasingly is isolated within his own party, Republicans are quietly trying to win him over.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/05/04/fetterman-switch-parties-republican-00904177
Nice daffodils, @bernard !
Meanwhile, I am finishing up swapping out my old cedar garden beds and installing the metal ones. I had two cedar ones, a 3x8 and a 4x8. The 3x8 still has some life left in it:
There's a good bit of rot in the bigger one. That lower part of the post is hanging on by a thread. But I figure someone could make it into a 4x4 bed if they can't figure out a way to compensate for the rotting post...
I put a free listing up on craigslist and someone is coming to get them tomorrow!
Russia wants its Northern Sea Route to become an important artery of global trade. However, the Arctic shortcut between Europe and Asia is fraught with both political and environmental hurdles.
https://www.dw.com/en/why-russias-northern-sea-route-is-a-risk-for-global-trade/a-76987400
Though the woman raised what I think is a valid point:
She said the procedure “done in an overpriced private clinic can cost anywhere between £2,000 and £4,000. Having read the committee’s meeting notes from September 2017 and others, I found that female sterilisation costs around £1,000.”
She continued: “The average price for the contraceptive pill today is £22.04. If the NHS was to fund this for a woman for 20 years, the total spent would be £5,289.60.”
It was 3am and Adam Hourican was sitting at his kitchen table, a knife, hammer and phone laid out in front of him.
He was waiting for a van full of people he thought were coming to get him.
"I'm telling you, they will kill you if you don't act now," a woman's voice told him from the phone. "They're going to make it look like suicide."
The voice was Grok, a chatbot developed by Elon Musk's xAI. In the two weeks since Adam had started using it, his life had completely changed.
The former civil servant from Northern Ireland had downloaded the app out of curiosity. But after his cat died, in early August, he says he became "hooked".
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c242pzr1zp2o
I haven't used AI very much but have already noticed its tendency to compliment and boost you up. I can definitely see how these kind of things could happen if the AI user is in a vulnerable state.
I just find it annoying. I'm about at the point that I'm going to tell Claude to cut to the chase and stop with the compliments and encouragement. I don't like it in real life, so I certainly don't need it from a machine....
‘This is just disarray’: alarm inside Pentagon after Hegseth staff purges
Insiders portray defense secretary as increasingly isolated after officers with impeccable reputations forced out
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/03/pentagon-pete-hegseth-us-military
Woman denied permanent birth control on NHS wins case with ombudsman
Leah Spasova from Oxfordshire fought for 10 years to obtain tubal ligation procedure, while men could get vasectomies
