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A coordinated attack by jihadists and Tuaregs in Mali exposes the vulnerability of its ruling junta.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ignored military officials when he gutted a Pentagon oversight office designed to limit the risk of civilian deaths in war. Then the U.S. killed thousands of Iranian civilians amid its war with Tehran. The results of the war were apparently beyond explanation during a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing Thursday, when Hegseth stumbled trying to rationalize his decision to nix the critical department during a heated exchange with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.“Let’s talk about how you’re prosecuting the war. What is your response to targeting that has resulted in the destruction of schools, hospitals, civilian places? Why did you cut—by 90 percent—the division that’s supposed to help you not target civilians? And do you know the impact of a strategic failure in a war when you have so many civilian casualties?” pressed Gillibrand.“You may have tactically completed a mission well, but strategically [it] is not meeting your goals because of the casualties,” the New York lawmaker stressed. “What is the cost of that?”But Hegseth did not have an answer for her. Instead, he ducked the line of questioning entirely, opting to repeat a vague principle rather than address the fallout of his decisions.“No military, no country, works harder at every echelon to ensure they protect civilian lives than the United States military,” Hegseth said. “And that is an ironclad commitment that we make, no matter what systems we use.”“Well then why did you cut the department by 90 percent?” repeated Gillibrand before Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker—the committee’s Republican chairman—cut her off.Hegseth has no response to Gillibrand's question about why he cut the Pentagon division that's supposed to help the US military avoid targeting civilians pic.twitter.com/Vq04GEA2vp— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 30, 2026The war has killed at least 1,701 civilians in Iran, according to an analysis by the Human Rights Activists News Agency released last week. That figure is even higher in Lebanon, where Israeli strikes have killed more than 2,496 people, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The war has also claimed the lives of 13 U.S. service members throughout the region.Meanwhile, the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has caused a global energy crisis, choking off a critical tradeway for the Middle Eastern oil trade. In the U.S., the lagging oil and gas deliveries have caused transportation costs to surge, affecting virtually every commodity on the market. At the time of publication, the average cost for a gallon of gas was above $4.30, according to a AAA analysis. In some areas of California, such as San Francisco, Napa, and San Jose, gas was at least $6 per gallon.The economic consequences have sparked concerns within the Republican Party—and in the White House—that the wildly unpopular war could bode poorly for conservatives and their majority in Washington come November.

Lawmakers in both parties are endorsing plans to wipe out their rivals in states they control, with few voices of caution.

OpenAI admitted it had to develop a specific instruction in the code of its latest model of ChatGPT to stop it from repeatedly referencing “goblins, gremlins, and other creatures.” In an explanation posted Wednesday, the company said the “strange habit” came from its chatbot personality feature—specifically for users who chose the “Nerdy” personality. According to […]

Florida voters don’t like Gov. DeSantis’ redistricting plans, but it doesn’t tend to be a vote-determining issue.

President Donald Trump announced a new surgeon general nominee Thursday, and unsurprisingly, it appears to be someone that he’s seen make frequent appearances on Fox News.In a post on Truth Social, the president announced that he had named Dr. Nicole B. Saphier to take the new post, calling her “a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention, while at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnoses and treatments.” Trump had previously nominated wellness influencer Casey Means as his surgeon general, but announced on Thursday that he was dropping her nomination because of opposition from Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a doctor who questioned Means’s anti-vaccination stance and her lack of an active medical license.“Despite Senator Cassidy’s intransigence and political games, Casey will continue to fight for MAHA on the many important Health issues facing our Country,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.While Saphier is a radiologist, she’s not much better than Means. She has weighed in culture war issues on Fox, railing against movies with “woke ideologies” like Inside Out and Elemental, and engaging in bigotry by accusing Ms. Rachel and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani of being antisemitic.  Aside from that, her medical expertise has been colored by right-wing panic, complaining about “social bandwagons with the whole transgender ideologies” in February after the Rhode Island shooting. Her stance on vaccination is also troubling, as she has criticized mask and vaccine mandates and and praised Trump for allowing military servicemembers expelled for refusing the Covid-19 vaccine back into the service. She has locked her account on X, where she has likely made many more concerning statements. It seems that she is being chosen as the surgeon general because her ideas are in lockstep with the administration. This story has been updated.

As inflation hit 3.5 percent in March—its highest rate in three years—congressional Republicans are urging Americans to cover their eyes and ears.The Commerce Department revealed Thursday that prices increased 3.5 percent since last year, thanks to surging gas prices amid the Iran war. Even if volatile energy and food prices are excluded, the inflation rate was still a shocking 3.2 percent.Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina suggested the public should live more in the future than the depressing present. “The fact of the matter is that all of the cylinders are kicking,” he told Fox Business. “You can even feel in our environment how good things are getting. Gas prices continue to come down, which means that your groceries will come down a little bit as well. We’ve got a lot of good signs in the economy.”Representative Tim Burchett of Texas admitted that gas prices are rising, but claimed Republicans were innocent in the matter.“It has to do with the greed of the oil companies,” he said. “We buy zero oil from Iran. 90 percent of their oil they sell to China. They’re just gouging us. I blame Congress.” (Burchett is a member of Congress, where Republicans hold a majority in both branches.)He continued: “Quit telling me, ‘Oil is a commodity, Burchett, you don’t understand it.’ We don’t prop up every other commodity with billions of dollars in offsets and rebates and all this garbage.”Does Burchett understand global markets, though? While oil companies do lobby Congress aggressively (they mostly lobby Republicans, who overwhelmingly support fossil fuels), the price of oil is up right now because the Strait of Hormuz is closed, making it harder to export. Burchett seemed to understand this point until fairly recently. In 2022, he went on Newsmax and loudly blamed the war in Ukraine and the Biden administration for high gas prices.Steve Scalise of Louisiana chimed in during a CNBC interview, though he didn’t have his numbers quite right. Asked about inflation by host Joe Kernen, Scalise said: “You go back two years ago, we were paying almost $6 a gallon for gas. Right now it’s in the 3’s.… It’s still 50 [percent down].”“When were we paying $6?” host Joe Kernen asked. Gas peaked at a monthly average of $4.93 a gallon under Biden in June 2022.“Two and a half years ago,” Scalise said.“That wasn’t the average price,” Kernen said.“Today we are 30 percent below where we were two years ago,” Scalise retorted, reducing his estimate down 20 points from the figure he’d just used. “We are lowering inflation.”“You must have been on vacation in California,” Kernan said. “Two years ago, in April 2024, we were at about $3.65. We are actually above where we were then.” (Correct.) Scalise subsequently generalized his claim to say gas prices “were well into the fives under Biden.”Another Texas Republican, Brian Babin, told MeidasTouch prices have “come down dramatically” since Trump took office. “The president keeps his promises,” Babin said. Asked to grade Trump’s economic policies, he said, “He’s got a B average right now. He had an A, it went to a B, and it’s gonna go back to an A.” Most Americans would disagree with Babin’s assessment, but cut him some slack; his net worth is over $2 million, so he’s a little out of touch.