A “superbike for the skies” has officially emerged from stealth mode, drawing striking parallels to the iconic speeder bikes from the early 1980s sci-fi classic Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi.

Poland-based startup Volonaut unveiled a single-seater jet-powered hoverbike that clocks in speeds in excess of 124 mph. 

“The futuristic single occupant vehicle is a realization of a bold concept often portrayed in science-fiction movies – this is where the inspiration came from many years ago and with time became the obsession to its creator,” the company wrote in an emailed response. 

Volonaut noted, “Thanks to Airbike’s extremely compact size and no spinning propellers it can travel through most confined areas with ease.”

The startup dripped a teaser video ahead of the release on Tuesday…  

Getting ready to unveil the world’s first real-world speeder bike.
Airbike transforming science-fiction into reality.

Stay tuned for the official launch video soon. pic.twitter.com/FMRqCtVXZY

— Volonaut (@Volonaut) April 26, 2025

Followed by the official launch video on Wednesday, titled “Meet the Airbike.” 

Meet the Airbike – Your personal hoverbike straight from the Future!

The Volonaut Airbike flying motorbike is a breakthrough in personal air mobility. pic.twitter.com/ofa744ZYSG

— Volonaut (@Volonaut) April 30, 2025

What’s better than electric spinning blades?  Volonaut demonstrates how jet propulsion will be the future. 

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Zevaskyn, a gene therapy for a rare skin disorder, the company that makes the product said on April 29.

Regulators approved Zevaskyn for adults and children with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, a disorder that leaves skin fragile and prone to blistering.

Severe cases of the disorder can result in loss of vision and other serious medical issues, according to the National Library of Medicine.

Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa has no cure.

Zevaskyn is the first cell-based gene therapy to receive approval for the condition. Abeona Therapeutics, which makes the therapy, said it only requires one application.

“Through a single surgical application, Zevaskyn can now offer people with [the condition] the opportunity for wound healing and pain reduction in even the most severe wounds,” Vish Seshadri, Abeona’s CEO, said in a statement.

Seshadri thanked participants in the company’s clinical studies, including a phase 3 trial that showed people who received the therapy experienced statistically significant improvement in healing, compared with a control group that received the standard of care.

Adverse events included itching.

“Zevaskyn was well-tolerated and efficacious in clinical studies, providing clinically meaningful improvements in wound healing, pain reduction, and other associated symptoms,” Dr. Jean Tang, a professor of dermatology who was the trial’s principal investigator, said in a statement.

Zevaskyn involves taking a patient’s skin cells and genetically modifying the cells to produce collagen. Up to 12 of the resulting cellular sheets are then surgically applied to a patient’s wounds.

The FDA did not return a request for comment.

Brett Kopelan, the executive director of Debra of America, which advocates for people with epidermolysis bullosa, expressed support for Zevaskyn, saying in a statement released by Abeona that the therapy “can significantly increase the quality of life of patients.”

Abeona said it expects Zevaskyn to be available starting in the third quarter of 2025. Patients seeking the therapy can receive it through Zevaskyn-qualified treatment centers.

About 3.3 per million people are affected by recessive and dominant dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, according to the National Library of Medicine. The condition is caused by mutations in a gene called COL7A1. The mutations disrupt the body’s production of type VII collagen. That’s the collagen that Zevaskyn produces.

Two treatments are currently available. The Food and Drug Administration approved Vyjuvek, a gene therapy from Krystal Biotech, in 2023. The gel is applied to wounds regularly, typically once a week.

Filsuvez, also approved in 2023, and made by Chiesi Global Rare Diseases, can also be used. The gel, which contains birch bark, is also applied to wounds.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin unveiled 100 actions the agency has undertaken since Trump’s inauguration to “power the American comeback.”

“The Trump Administration’s first one hundred days have been historic. The American public made themselves heard last November, and we are delivering on this mandate. Promises made, promises kept. At EPA, we are doing our part to Power the Great American Comeback. To mark this momentous day, we are proudly highlighting 100 environmental actions we have taken since January 20th to protect human health and the environment,” Zeldin said in a video post reported by Breitbart.

To mark the 100th day of President Trump’s second term, @EPA is proudly highlighting 100 environmental actions we have taken since January 20th to protect human health and the environment.

Clean air, land, and water for ALL Americans! pic.twitter.com/CdTX1w6bJZ

— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) April 30, 2025

The EPA was established by President Richard Nixon in 1970, tasking the agency with two missions; promoting clear air and water, and reducing pollution from waste disposal and other hazards. According to Zeldin, the agency has refocused on its primary mission of ensuring clean air and water instead of pushing “climate change religion.”

“Here are a few top highlights: To protect our nation’s waters, we updated water quality standards for 38 miles of the Delaware River to protect critical fish species and keep the river clean. We approved a plan to further restore and protect the Long Island Sound over the next decade. We also developed a method to detect 40 different PFAS in surface water, ground water and wastewater,” Zeldin said, adding “Our team completed one of three in-water cleanups at the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund Site and revised the 2025 Idaho Water Quality Performance Partnership with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. To ensure clean air for all Americans, we demanded answers from an unregulated geoengineering start-up, Make Sunsets, that has been launching sulfur dioxide into the air to receive ‘cooling credits.'”

According to Taylor Rogers, an assistant White House press secretary, the Trump administration and Zeldin have “taken monumental steps to quickly remove toxins from our water and environment, provide clean land for Americans, and use common-sense policies to Power the Great American Comeback.”

Here are the 100 actions the EPA has undertaken via Breitbart;

1. Issued immediate action items for Mexico to permanently end the Tijuana River sewage crisis.

2. Responded quickly to a citizen complaint about discharges into New York’s Hutchinson River; inspected and ordered corrective action.

3. Developed a Clean Water Act permit for hotels, condominiums, and apartment complexes to protect water quality in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

4. Finalized Arkansas 2022 Section 303(d) list assessing statewide water quality.

5. Approved Kansas Triennial Water Quality Standards Package.

6. Approved Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) plan in South Dakota to protect Big Sioux River quality from E. coli.

7. Announced plans to finalize outdated clean water standards for 38 miles of the Delaware River.

8. Approved removal of the Drinking Water Beneficial Use Impairment in Wisconsin’s Green Bay and Fox River Area of Concern.

9. Advanced Navajo Nation’s first in the country water permitting (“Treatment as a State”) authority.

10. Completed Phase 1 hazardous materials clean up after the catastrophic Los Angeles wildfires. EPA cleared 13,612 residential properties and 305 commercial properties, and removed 645 electric and hybrid vehicles and 420 energy storage systems in under 30 days.

11. Supported redevelopment at 21 Superfund sites across 13 states.

12. Completed a contaminated site cleanup in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, and Stratford, Connecticut.

13. Oversaw U.S. Navy’s time-critical removal of 20,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil at the Naval Education Training Center Superfund Site in Newport, Rhode Island.

14. Cleared all or a portion of 4 sites from the Superfund National Priorities List.

15. Cut two years from the cleanup timeline at West Lake Landfill, a Superfund site in St. Louis, Missouri.

16. Completed 55 property cleanups at Region 8 Brownfields. This is 31% of the national goal and 131% of Region 8’s Fiscal Year 2025 goal.

17. Completed laboratory work required for selecting a remedy at Lower Darby Creek Area Superfund Site in Pennsylvania. EPA collected 1500 sediment and water samples.

18. Responded to a mercury incident in Fremont, Ohio; safely removed and disposed of a 60-pound overpack and 15-pound bucket containing jars of elemental mercury and mercury containing devices.

19. Provided air monitoring support at the Chicago Magnesium Casting Co. after a large magnesium fire.

20. Completed Emergency Removal Action at the Marion Ohio Mercury Spill site in Ohio.

21. Oversaw Navy cleanup operations at Red Hill Fuel Facility in Hawaii, including removal of all sludge and pressure washing at two 12.5 million-gallon tanks.

22. Developed a method to detect 40 PFAS compounds in water sources.

23. Finalized eight Water Quality Standard Actions for Region 6 states.

24. Completed a second round of PFAS sampling at Region 7 Tribal Drinking Water Systems.

25. Provided interim PFAS lab certification for Alaska’s Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC).

26. Signed an agreement to connect Joint Base Lewis-McChord residences to municipal water system if PFAS exceeds standards.

27. Started Final Remedial Actions for Jackson Ceramix Superfund in Falls Creek Borough, Pennsylvania, with construction to begin in the Spring of 2025.

28. Provided training to help New Mexico administer the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, a permit program established by EPA under the Clean Water Act to regulate water pollution by controlling point sources that discharge pollutants into U.S. waters.

29. Coordinated PFAS drinking water well sampling around Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

30. Utilized EPA lab Method 522 to test tribal drinking water systems for PFAS; performed 62 analyses.

31. Completed lead testing assistance (3T’s Protocol) for Puerto Rico schools and childcare facilities.

32. Reviewed 29 public water systems that had lead action level exceedance notifications in Region 4.

33. Completed 25 State Implementation Plans allowing environmental requirements to go into effect faster, 16 of which were backlogged from the previous Administration.

34. Finalized air quality rulemaking in the Washington D.C. Area ensuring ozone compliance.

35. Conducted ambient air monitoring technical system audits (TSAs) across Region 9.

36. Upgraded the RadNet monitoring station in Edison, New Jersey, to detect airborne radioactivity.

37. Awarded $165,000 to San Diego Air Pollution Control District for air filters and $1.26M for hydrogen sulfide monitoring to address air quality at the border and concerns with sulfur odors from Tijuana River sewage.

38. Promoted clean air quality compliance for new chip manufacturing projects in Phoenix, Arizona.

39. 27 Brownfields sites were made Ready for Anticipated Use, boosting property values and economic opportunities in Hartshorne, Oklahoma, Minden, Louisiana, West Memphis, Arkansas, and more.

40. Completed 107 assessments of Brownfield properties in Region 7, which is 82% of their Fiscal Year 2025 goal.

41. Achieved 21 contaminated Brownfield redevelopment successes in Region 9.

42. Held a Superfund Job Training at Missouri’s Ozark Correctional Center.

43. Completed review of 81 New Chemicals to ensure they are safe for human health and the environment.

44. Conducted a safety review of 14 pesticides to set tolerances to support a safe and reliable food supply.

45. Approved 48 pesticides to provide growers with necessary tools while ensuring appropriate restrictions were imposed to protect human health, the environment, and endangered species.

46. Proposed 35 significant new use rules (SNURs) for chemical oversight to ensure chemicals do not pose an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment.

47. Led a Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Week-In-Residence Enforcement Training event for newly hired state inspectors to equip new inspectors with the knowledge necessary to uphold consistent inspection standards.

48. Blocked illegal pesticide imports totaling over 200,000 pounds across multiple regions.

49. Announced approval of Texas’s clean-air plan to address vehicle emissions and improve air quality in the San Antonio area.

50. Issued amended PCB risk-based disposal approvals to expedite repairs at public schools.

51. Led a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) State Authorization Conference to strengthen the hazardous waste program across all states.

52. Sent mobile drinking water lab to flood-impacted Eastern Kentucky.

53. Cleared more than 1,700 orphan containers of oil, propane, and other hazardous materials from land and waterways around the French Broad River after Hurricane Helene.

54. Tested over 1,500 private wells in North Carolina’s Buncombe and Watauga counties.

55. Assisted in restoring drinking water service to 150,000 people in North Carolina.

56. Concluded 297 enforcement cases reducing 15 million pounds of pollution.

57. Superfund enforcement secured $296 million worth of cleanups addressing more than 700,000 cubic yards of contamination.

58. Completed cleanup at Metals Refining Co. hazardous waste site in Indiana after discovering thirty-two, 55-gallon drums most of which were damaged and some leaking and an additional 200 to 300 miscellaneous containers of hazardous waste.

59. Removed approximately 10,000 tons of soil and debris contaminated with asbestos containing material from an unsecured 10-acre property in Indiana.

60. Collaborated to replace lead-contaminated soil at Atlanta’s Lindsay Street Park.

61. Analyzed children’s blood lead data to improve South Dakota lead prevention efforts.

62. Supported tribal waste management programs with multiple trainings to address dangerous materials like refrigerants, mercury switches, PCBs, and petroleum components.

63. Conducted 6,000 1-on-1 engagements with communities impacted by fires.

64. Held 104 public meetings or community events for fire response updates.

65. Provided training, guidance, and support to monitor and cleanup Underground Storage Tanks on Navajo Nation lands.

66. Started cleanup of radium-contaminated soil at the Silbert Watch Co. Superfund Site in Elgin, Illinois.

67. Developed EPA Method TO-15 to analyze 65 toxic Volatile Organic Compounds in indoor and outdoor air in support of Superfund and Clean Air Act.

68. Supported Los Alamos National Lab in transporting hazardous tritium containers for cleanup.

69. Conducted lead contamination studies at the Bunker Hill Superfund site.

70. Completed the review of the Houston area Ozone Exceptional that allows the state to proceed with their Air Program planning and implementation.

71. Worked with U.S. Customs to stop illegal pesticide imports at multiple ports.

72. Blocked over 56,000 pounds of unregistered pesticide products from entering through Region 4 ports.

73. Provided technical assistance support to communities at 31 Superfund sites across the country.

74. Cleanup of the HPI Chemical Products in Missouri, where thousands of containers of pesticide and herbicide containing hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants were housed.

75. Began a Remedial Investigation of the Historic Potteries site in Trenton, New Jersey.

76. Completed 7 property cleanups in Brownfields in the First 100 Days in Region 7.

77. Approved updated Comprehensive Conservation & Management plan for the Long Island Sound Partnership, to further restore and protect the Sound.

78. Initiated sediment removal projects at the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund Site removing approximately 13,700 cubic yards of contaminated sediment.

79. Oversaw cleanups at tribal and local jurisdictions under CERCLA and Clean Water Act.

80. Supported redevelopment at the Mississippi Phosphate Superfund site with a new treatment plant.

81. Completed analysis for wood treating contaminants at 181 residential properties around the Union Pacific Railroad Superfund site in Houston, Texas, with seventy four percent found to be safe for use.

82. Managed post-disaster hazardous materials spills in Ohio and North Carolina.

83. Inspected and mitigated vapor intrusion impacting Los Angeles from a former Superfund site.

84. Obtained court settlement for cleanup work at the San Fernando Valley Superfund Site located in North Hollywood-Burbank to restore a critical drinking water supply for the city of Los Angeles.

85. Responded to hydraulic oil spill into a creek in Whitehouse, Ohio.

86. Supported voluntary cleanups under consent decrees.

87. Began a removal action in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, to excavate and dispose of contaminated soil at three residential properties as part of a larger ongoing cleanup effort.

88. Approved eight plans for cleanup and disposal of toxic Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) materials to facilitate reuse and economic development across properties in New England.

89. Finalized Native Green Grow Air Permit for large greenhouse facility in North Dakota, providing the Tribe with food security.

90. Advanced Native American environmental oversight efforts.

91. Granted a Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan to Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, for drinking water infrastructure to over 20% of Utah’s population while creating local jobs to support the projects.

92. Supported grant programs to monitor and clean up abandoned USTs.

93. Provided federal funds to conduct Highway 24 lead and arsenic clean up in Colorado.

94. Helped prevent spread of hazardous materials from warehouse fires including sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, sodium hypochlorite, potassium cyanide, sodium cyanide, and lead.

95. Collaborated with fire rescue teams in North Carolina to retrieve containers from flooded rivers.

96. Provided technical guidance to local water operators, supporting efforts to restore and maintain drinking water systems and other essential services during Hurricane Helene Recovery efforts.

97. Completed all residential soil and indoor dust cleanup at the Colorado Smelter Superfund site.

98. Completed the 5-Year Review for Puerto Rico’s Corozal Superfund Site, paving the way for its deletion from the CERCLA Superfund National Priority List.

99. Submitted a demand for information to a start-up company called “Make Sunsets,” which is launching balloons filled with sulfur dioxide (SO2) seeking to geoengineer the planet and generate “cooling” credits to sell.

100. Announced major actions to combat PFAS contamination.

California lawmakers on the Public Safety Committee advanced a bill that would crack down on child sex trafficking – but only after language was removed that would have made it a felony to purchase 16 and 17-year-olds.

Assemblymembers Mia Monta (D) and LaShae Sharp Collins (D) abstained from the vote.

Assembly Bill 379, introduced by Assemblymember Maggy Krell (D), targets buyers of commercial sex. Krell previously worked at the California DOJ, where she became known for prosecuting the operators of Backpage.com – which was shut down in 2018 for facilitating sex trafficking and prostitution.

The bill is opposed by Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez (D-Los Angeles), who says the bill would disproportionately impact communities of color.

Democratic Assemblyman is concerned that this bill addressing human/sex trafficking (and was supposed to make it a felony to solicit 16 and 17 years old) will disproportionately affect black and brown communities and LGBTQI+ community. pic.twitter.com/rDPO4GeMw9

— California Republican Party (@CAGOP) April 29, 2025

So, it’s racist to crack down on child sex trafficking. Got it.

The bill, introduced in February, includes provisions to create a misdemeanor for loitering with the intent to solicit commercial sex – and imposes fines as high as $25,000 for soliciting minors under the age of 16. It also allows felony human trafficking charges for repeat offenders who buy sex from minors.

It also would create a first-of-its-kind Survivor Support Fund – which would go to community-based organizations led by survivors of human trafficking.

As the Epoch Times notes further, while introducing the bill to the committee, Krell said it would support victims and give law enforcement better tools to prosecute the buyers.

“Demand is the buyers,” she said. “It is the rows of cars of men lined up on street corners to buy teenagers for sex,” she said. “Without the buyers, we don’t really have sex trafficking.”

The bill drew support from the California District Attorneys Association, the California Police Chief Association, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, the City of Stockton, the Association for L.A. Deputy Sheriffs, the League of County Board of Supervisors, and more.

The bill also reinstates penalties for offenses that were decriminalized by a 2022 California law, such as loitering with the intent to purchase a victim. Those convicted would face a misdemeanor and pay up to a $1,000 fine that would go toward the fund for survivors.

Opponents, including survivors of child trafficking, focused on this aspect of the law in their testimony.

Jess Torres, a child trafficking survivor and director of programs at Rising International, respectfully opposed the bill, saying it hinges on a vaguely defined suspicion of intent to do something criminal, rather than evidence.

“This bill will only escalate violence against survivors because persons who are trafficked in commercial sex are harmed when they operate in a criminalized environment,” Torres said. “When buyers believe they are taking on greater risk, they often become more demanding, and that pressure frequently becomes compromising.”

Leela Chapelle of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking also opposed the bill, arguing that loitering with intent laws harm communities they claim to protect and are unconstitutional.

“We do believe that this will cause the same issues that we have seen over and over again, that we spend our resources clearing the criminal records of survivors, that should not have happened in the first place—these criminal records that prevent them from lives of stability,” Chapelle said.

Opposition also included the LA Public Defenders Union and the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.

The bill is now due to advance on to the Assembly Appropriations Committee before it can advance to a full vote on the Assembly floor and the Senate.

FBI agents who were assigned to protect national monuments from vandalism by protesters during the BLM riots instead chose to “take a knee” in a sign of solidarity (or submission) when confronted by the mob in Washington DC on June 4th, 2020.  The establishment media widely circulated a photo of the incident, creating a national controversy.

The event followed a series of prostrations by Democrat officials and leftists designed to appease rioters while also giving credence to the false claims of “systemic racism” in America.  

Times have changed drastically in five years and in 2025 this brand of woke worship is highly frowned upon by the majority of the public.  Donald Trump’s return to the White House has driven home the clear message that social justice ideology is dead.  This is why it is unlikely that there will be much uproar over the recent demotion of several of the FBI agents involved in the famous “bend the knee” photo, though the media is unsurprisingly outraged. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reassigned several agents who were photographed kneeling with demonstrators.  The reassignments, viewed as demotions by many inside the FBI, come nearly five years after the episode that ignited divisions inside the bureau. FBI officials offered no explanation for changing the roles to less coveted positions for the agents.

There has been extensive cleaning of house undertaken by the Trump Administration in the months after his election.  Trump perhaps learned a valuable lesson during his first term, in which many officials and employees within the federal government actively attempted to sabotage his presidency.  The lesson?  That government cannot function when ideological cultists run the bureaucracy from behind the scenes.  The FBI agents in question are likely being punished as a message to the rest of the Bureau that far-left guerrilla tactics will not be tolerated.

BLM protests were sparked in the name of George Floyd; a career criminal and drug addict who suffered from heart disease that died while resisting arrest by officers over counterfeit money.  Officer Derek Chauvin was subsequently convicted of murdering Floyd while restraining him.  Many Americans still feel that Chauvin was a political sacrifice to appease the leftist mob and that he is in fact innocent.

As we now know, extensive funding from NGO’s and even government agencies like USAID flowed into the coffers of BLM related groups.  This cash helped to energize the astroturf activism that made the movement appear much larger than it actually was.  The BLM protests were also allowed incredible latitude to ignore pandemic mandates while millions of Americans were stuck at home and told to isolate from friends and family using “social distancing”.

Police departments were also pressured by city Democrat city officials to do little or nothing to intervene in the riots, and many officers also “took a knee” as a symbol of fealty to the activists.  The movement was given every advantage and operated with impunity.

The US as a country is still in precarious recovery from the damage done by the attempted progressive coup.  Witnessing some of the agencies and agents involved getting shut down or punished may help in the healing process.

Huge wildfires have been raging near Jerusalem on Wednesday, forcing communities to mass evacuate and resulting in the cancelation of Israel’s “Ha’atzmaut” Independence Day events.

The defense minister has called the still-raging fires a “time of national emergency” as high winds have made the blaze nearly impossible to fight effectively, and as major roads have been closed, including Route 1, which connects Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The typically dry conditions also aren’t helping.

“This is perhaps the largest fire ever in the country,” Jerusalem District Fire Department Commander Shmulik Friedman told a Wednesday afternoon press briefing, while saying that winds expected to exceed 60mph are expected “in the near future” – which could make things worse.

At least ten communities in the area near the fire have been evacuated, and photos have shown flames encroaching on military areas and tank formations.

Israeli media has reported that a Palestinian man has been apprehended and is being questioned as an arson suspect, after fleeing from police and being caught with fire-starting items on him:

An arson suspect was arrested Wednesday, as authorities were probing whether major brush fires west of Jerusalem were started intentionally and as calls appeared on Palestinian social media to start more blazes. However, authorities said Wednesday evening it was too early to determine the cause of the fires.

A 50-year-old resident of East Jerusalem’s Umm Tuba neighborhood was arrested on suspicion of attempting to set fire to vegetation in southern Jerusalem, police said.

⚡️🔥 Israeli media says: Today’s fires are the largest in “Israel’s history.”

The occupation forces evacuated five settlements and closed the highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. (Qudsn) pic.twitter.com/uCWyVtoRGc

— MenchOsint (@MenchOsint) April 30, 2025

At this point the precise cause of the fire hasn’t been substantiated, but Israeli media is pointing to threatening online messages like the following:

One message on the Palestinian channel Shehab, which is affiliated with Hamas, said: “There are popular calls to set fire to forests near the settlements.” Hamas considers all Jewish communities in Israel and the West Bank, both within and beyond the Green Line, to be settlements.

Another message circulated on X across several accounts stated: “Your role is to set fire to gardens, vehicles and everything around the settlements.”

However, other theories abound…

BREAKING 🚨 Israel fire set by Israeli settlers trying to burn down Palestinian olive groves. pic.twitter.com/di5zcIM3uE

— Syrian Girl (@Partisangirl) April 30, 2025

There are locales where the fire is impacting Palestinian communities as well. Israeli media is strongly suggesting this is linked to Hamas and events in Gaza.

According to additional reports:

A map circulating in Israeli security circles depicts the locations of the fires, almost all of which are marked on the Israeli side of the Green Line separating the West Bank from Israel and Gaza—not in the areas inhabited by Palestinians. Hamas posted on social media a call for Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel to “burn whatever you can of groves, forests, and settler homes” and “set their cars ablaze.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meanwhile warning that the fires could soon directly threaten the city of Jerusalem.

He described that “the western wind can push the fire easily towards the outskirts of (Jerusalem) — and even into the city itself”.

A national emergency has been declared in Israel as huge fires rapidly spread across the Jerusalem Hills, a mountainous region near the capital.

According to reports and footage circulating online, the blaze has reached army bases nearby Jerusalem.

Israel has requested… pic.twitter.com/xPjoR58pp0

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) April 30, 2025

“We need to bring as many fire engines as possible and create firebreaks well beyond the current fire lines… We are now in a national emergency, not just a local one,” he added in the video statement.

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Employees working in coal mining and firefighter safety who had been slated for termination have been asked to return to work, according to a U.S. senator and a union that represents them.

The workers are employed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 

As part of an HHS overhaul, hundreds of NIOSH employees were placed on administrative leave and set to be fired, union officials say.

Employees who work for the Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program and the Fire Fighters’ Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program are being reinstated temporarily, the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3430 said on Wednesday. The reinstatement action “allows these dedicated professionals to return to their critical roles in advancing worker safety and health across the country.”

The exact number of affected workers is unclear.

The workers are still on the list to be fired as part of mass terminations scheduled for June 2, the union said.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who has been in conversations with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about reversing some of the cuts, also said she understood the reinstatements to be temporary.

“I am encouraged that some NIOSH functions for coal miner and firefighter safety are slated to resume with some select staff returning to work this week. But my understanding is that this is temporary, so my focus will continue to be on working with HHS on permanently restoring these functions and personnel in the most efficient and effective manner,” Capito wrote on social media platform X.

HHS did not respond to a request for comment.

Kennedy said on X this week that “Firefighter health and safety programs remain a top priority” and that, as HHS works on streamlining operations, “critical services of NIOSH will remain intact.”

A West Virginia coal miner who sued the government in federal court over the cuts said in a recent filing that HHS cannot carry out programs detailed in federal law, such as a screening program for Black Lung, without the workers who were set to be fired.

The government has not yet responded to the legal action. A judge ordered the government to respond by May 2 and to appear in court on May 7.

Kennedy in March announced that HHS would slash about 10,000 jobs in a bid to make the agency more efficient and effective. After many workers were fired, Kennedy told reporters that some of the layoffs were mistakes and that certain employees were being brought back.

Authored by Ted Galen Carpenter via The Libertarian Institute,

Today, April 30, 2025 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the final, definitive defeat of the U.S. military crusade in Vietnam. The images of U.S. helicopters desperately flying American diplomats and Washington’s high-level South Vietnamese collaborators from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Saigon effectively captured not only the chaotic environment, but also the extent of Washington’s overall policy debacle. The outcome of the war was a humiliating defeat for the United States in every respect. Vietnam’s reunification under a communist government was now an indisputable reality. Indeed, the United States finally succumbed to the pressure to establish diplomatic relations with that government in 1995.

Washington’s failed effort over more than two decades to prevent that outcome was extremely expensive financially to the United States, with more than $141 billion expended. Measured in terms of 2025 dollars, that amount would be approximately $838 billion. Even worse was the terrible cost in blood. The war took the lives of more than 58,000 American soldiers and caused an estimated 3.8 million casualties, both civilian and military, in South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

Widespread disillusionment about Washington’s armed crusade in Southeast Asia was evident in the United States, and for a few years, the disastrous experience seemed to inoculate the American public against supporting any similar adventures. When Ronald Reagan’s administration flirted with providing military backing for corrupt client regimes in Central America, there was noticeable pushback, especially from Democrats in Congress. “No more Vietnams” became a popular mantra throughout the country.

However, a closer look at public attitudes, especially the views of political elites in both parties, would have suggested that the change in Washington’s overall foreign policy orientation was less substantial than it seemed at first glance. There was little resistance to pro-war adventurism elsewhere in the world, as long as U.S. military personnel were not directly at risk. For example, Washington’s policy of using Islamist rebels in Afghanistan to harass Soviet occupation forces received extensive bipartisan support.

Even direct U.S. military involvement received little push back, as long as an American victory was quick and decisive. That point was confirmed when U.S. forces invaded Grenada in 1983 and promptly ousted a pro-communist regime that had recently seized power. The Reagan administration’s meddling in Lebanon’s civil war, though, showed that there remained an extensive public and elite aversion to American casualties. The loss of 241 Marines in the bombing of the U.S. barracks outside Beirut immediately caused the administration to move the remaining troops to ships off shore, and that step was just a prelude to the departure of all U.S. forces from Lebanon.

Although the bruising experience in Vietnam had apparently induced a somewhat greater level of caution—at least temporarily—among Washington’s political and policy elites with respect to a few specific cases, it had not caused any reconsideration of the foundational assumptions of U.S. foreign policy. In particular, the “1930s model” still dominated elite perceptions about world affairs and America’s proper role in the international system: American opinion leaders were still obsessed with preventing the rise of “another Hitler.” Closely related assumptions were that “appeasement” never works, “aggression” had to be stopped in its tracks as soon as signs of it appeared, and that complex, murky geopolitical struggles could be portrayed as stark conflicts between good and evil. Despite the negative consequences of the Vietnam War, those attitudes remained intact.

The continuing ability of such propaganda to sway public opinion in favor of war became apparent during the Persian Gulf crisis in 1990-1991. The simplistic “good versus evil” narrative was especially tenacious. George H.W. Bush’s administration, with the active assistance of a hawkish news media, succeeded in convincing the American public that not only was Iraq’s Saddam Hussein a monstrously evil ruler, but also that he posed a threat to world order comparable to Hitler’s.

It was a preposterous notion for multiple reasons. First, Washington had viewed Saddam as a valuable client throughout Iraq’s multi-year war of aggression against Iran’s revolutionary government. The Iraqi leader got into trouble with Washington only when he failed to win the fight against Tehran and then had the temerity to seize Kuwait (a longstanding Iraqi territorial claim) without Washington’s permission. Bush administration officials and their media allies exaggerated Iraq’s military capabilities and invented inflammatory atrocity stories to justify a war against Iraq waged by a U.S.-dominated international coalition.

The surprisingly easy victory by coalition forces largely erased the lessons of caution remaining from the Vietnam experience.  Administration officials and other members of Washington’s pro-war elite gloated that America had finally overcome the “Vietnam Syndrome.” When the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991 left the United States as the sole remaining global power, that development eliminated the last restraint on U.S. military adventurism.

The painful lessons of the defeat in Vietnam have been largely forgotten, and the current generation of U.S. policymakers is at least as reckless as any of its predecessors. The prevailing approach to international conflicts has a dreary, formulaic aspect: exaggerate the severity of the threat to both international peace and America’s security; portray Washington’s adversary as the epitome of evil; and portray any beleaguered U.S. client as both an innocent victim and a proponent of freedom and democracy. Washington’s dishonest propaganda regarding the war between Russia and Ukraine—both corrupt autocracies—is almost a caricature of that strategy.

🇻🇳 #Vietnam held a military parade to mark 50 years since the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, ending the Vietnam War.

🎖️ The event celebrated national unification and the victory of North #Vietnamese forces. pic.twitter.com/sUgab6mvEF

— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) April 30, 2025

The litany of Washington’s military interventions and proxy wars since Vietnam—Afghanistan, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Kuwait, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan (again), Libya, Syria, Yemen, and most dangerous of all, Ukraine—all convey the extent to which U.S. policy elites and much of the U.S. public have remained impervious to the deeper meaning of the Vietnam debacle. As one cynical observer said to me, “The only enduring lesson from the Vietnam War appears to be ‘don’t go to war in a country called Vietnam.’” Such a pervasive failure of policymakers and the American people to learn more substantial lessons may be that horrible conflict’s most tragic and lasting legacy.

Last week we highlighted the next economic shock; a student loan default wave that could cause a $63 billion hit to GDP.

And here it comes. During Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said “We’re going to start getting it back,” adding “For those people who have borrowed money and have not been paying — that’s just not to be punitive, there are many ways that they can go online to understand how they can get back into the right payment structure. Because when they’re in default, they can’t buy a house, they can’t buy a car, their credit scores go down.” h/t Jennifer Jacobs

As we reported last week (full note available to premium subscribers), student-loan delinquencies began climbing after the pandemic-era forbearance on repayment ended in September 2023. The Biden administration allowed a year for payments to fully ramp back up, which temporarily suppressed delinquency rates. Now, though, missed payments are crossing the 90-day threshold and showing up on borrowers’ credit reports.

The New York Fed estimates 15.6% of federal student-loan balances —  more than $250 billion — were past due by the end of the ramp-up period, affecting 9.7 million borrowers. As these delinquencies hit credit reports, borrowers face steep declines in their credit scores and, more importantly, sharply reduced access to credit.

That said, delinquent borrowers could still enroll in income-driven repayment plans offered by the Department of Education, and the scale of past-due loans may have shifted since the end of the on-ramp period. Some borrowers who were past due may have come back into compliance since.

Overall, if 9.7 million borrowers default and face declining credit scores, BBG estimates a drag on annual PCE spending of 0.1% point to 0.3%. In the worst-case scenario, it could reduce PCE spending growth by as much as 0.4% by year-end… an outcome that is extremely deflationary, just in case Jerome Powell is still debating whether or not to pull the plug on rate cuts.

Submitted by Gord Magill for American Truckers United: 

The Trucking Industry in America received a major boost from President Trump on the night of Monday, April 28, when he signed an Executive Order titled “Enforcing Commonsense Rules of The Road for America’s Truck Drivers”. The primary aim of the order is to overturn an Obama-era memorandum that waived enforcement of English Language Proficiency requirements as required under 49 CFR 31.11 (b) (2); that waiver having opened a massive loophole, which matched with a program from the Biden Administration, allowed for the insourcing of a great deal of unvetted foreign labor onto America’s roads as ‘truck drivers’.

This move to restrict the insourcing of foreign truckers into America, which was a deliberate attempt to suppress American’s wages for the bidding of massive corporations like Amazon, whom are known and a major client of subcontractors that abuse such labor, is welcomed and acknowledged by the trucking community. We hope that this is only the beginning of a number of reforms which ought to see the return of a healthy, sustainable, and safe trucking industry to our roads.

Another crash… and once again, the driver couldn’t even speak English.

How are companies out here hiring truck drivers who can’t communicate on the road?

Make it make sense.

Should English fluency be required for commercial drivers?

⬇️ pic.twitter.com/6XSXTquULE

— Tony Lane 🇺🇸 (@TonyLaneNV) April 28, 2025

Another Trucker that can’t speak English on Canadian roads causing absolute carnage.

Do you feel safe sharing the road with these guys? pic.twitter.com/bSyLxetL7J

— Bruce (@bruce_barrett) February 9, 2025

Your refugee CDL-licensed, non-English-speaking truck drivers are still all over the highways in America today because MAGA isn’t serious about reversing demographic change. https://t.co/uIGRGQcBqr pic.twitter.com/EsX2TONN3T

— Tom Hennessy (@Tomhennessey69) March 25, 2025

Another major problem coming over the horizon is likewise tied to the same Covid demand spike that saw the Biden Administration make the terrible mistake of allowing the insourcing of all of these excess entrants into the market. Drivers are only one component of the trucking industry; where do the trucks come from for people to drive, and how were they paid for during this period? As it turns out, many of the trucks we see on the road today are “under water assets” that are not being paid for, and a situation akin to the 2008 financial crisis is taking place right now, not with real estate, but with trucks.

In an interview (via Autonomous Truck(er)s) with Harvey Beech, President of EOS Trucking in North Little Rock, Arkansas, a number of details about this problem are revealed.

“When you look at what happened with used truck prices, that’s where this started. It’s very similar to the housing bubble, where we had unchecked lust and greed which took over and we started seeing Freightliners with 450,000 miles being retailed out there for well north of $150,000 at 12 to 15% interest. And it went on at scale.

…

We’ve been conditioned to expect downturns in freight cycles. And that’s why so many of us in the first quarter of 2023 …we knew we were going into something … really intense with regards to truck pricing. We knew there was a lot of trucks bought at over inflated prices … and as soon as things turned we knew those would be the first to have their trucks re-possessed.”

Curiously, Beech tells us, those trucks were not actually repossessed.

“We did not expect the banks to allow what has become eternal deferrals … we learned in 2008 … that you have to have cash reserves, and hunker down, and wait on everyone else to have their trucks repossessed. In May of 2023 … we had financing companies say ‘Hey, you might want to think about not making your truck payments.’

As everyone runs out of cash … one of the things you have to do is request deferral which means you’re not making your truck payment, which means you’re going upside down … the banks are supposed to repossess … in 2008 there were oceans of trucks repossessed … they had to rent cow pastures to park the trucks.

November of 2023 I’m hearing of big carriers going into their 6th month of deferrals … 2024 we expect to see a turn, and it doesn’t come …. And the turn of this year it still hasn’t come. No one’s trucks are being re-possessed … never has there been this much widespread non-performance on loans.”

And why wouldn’t financing companies or dealerships want to repossess equipment their customers were incapable of paying for?

“The truck makers and financial institutions that chose to take part in that huge bubble that was created (in 2021- early 22) … now that has caused them to be so far upside down that they can’t repossess trucks … back in 08 it was 90 days, by 120 they were repossessing trucks …the banks failures to repossess trucks has drained the cash reserves of those of us left to compete all this time against carriers on six month to a year or more of deferred payments … the financial institutions will not execute … some truck financing institutions are at 80% in deferral … that is bank failure material … they cannot repossess the trucks .. because they have to record that loss, and this is so widespread, like never before … if they repossessed all of the trucks, they would have had such losses because of the overinflated prices … that it would collapse the financial institutions altogether.”

There are others in trucking reporting similar problems, but unlike Mr Beech, would only report their observations under the condition of anonymity.

“This has been the toughest past 3 years we have experienced in 30 years”

“My fleet received deferrals from four lenders starting in late 2023, following nearly two years of industry downturn. Three deferrals lasted 3 months, with two extended for an additional 3 months.”

“We haven’t taken or asked for payment deferrals from anyone. I did bust the balls of my banker telling him I felt they were complacent in extending terms and letting payments go 6 months in arears for other borrowers. I felt that the reason was they financed trucks and trailers at numbers they didn’t want on their books. Stock prices were really good and moving up so they were better off to not take back a $100,000 truck that was worth $50,000 not because of the write off they could with stand that it was what it might do to stock valuation.”

“We are approaching our bank renewal for the trucking business and I do not know if they will have much confidence in us. 25 months in the red is not something that gives confidence“

As the effects of Trump’s Tariffs begin to be felt, no doubt some carriers who are in dire straits will be wiped out of the market. If not for the Biden administration flooding the trucking industry with insourced labor in 2021, and the greed of financial institutions repeating the same lending mistakes of 2008, many of those carriers would have weathered this storm.

Are we about to face another, perhaps smaller, financial meltdown caused by the malfeasance of lending institutions? How many American trucking companies are they going to take down with them by kicking this can down the road?

Will government leaders and the banks ever learn?