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A former marathon runner who was diagnosed with the same condition as Celine Dion worries that crowds could be a “trigger” during the singer’s recently announced comeback.Jon Kelf, 56, was a five-time marathon runner before he was diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome (SPS) in 2019, SWNS reported. Dion revealed her own diagnosis in late 2022.SPS causes progressive muscle stiffness and severe muscle spasms that can lead to chronic pain, falls and loss of mobility over time, according to UT Southwestern Medical Center.UNEXPLAINED SHOULDER PAIN COULD SIGNAL DANGEROUS HEALTH CONDITION, DOCTOR WARNS”In some cases, spasms are so severe that they can cause falls, broken bones and dislocated joints,” the center notes on its website.While this rare condition is not fatal, its symptoms can dramatically affect a person’s quality of life.The disease is often triggered by emotional stress or noise, elements Kelf calls “particularly debilitating.” He shared with SWNS that he never expected Dion to perform again.LEANN RIMES’ EMOTIONAL REACTION TO JAW RELEASE THERAPY SPARKS WIDESPREAD BUZZ “I was a bit surprised. Especially when she talked about the dancing. I couldn’t dance before the diagnosis, let alone afterwards,” said Kelf, who has no medical involvement or knowledge of Dion’s case personally.”Obviously, she has the resources to get the best treatment available, but even still, it’s quite remarkable.”BREAKTHROUGH ALS STUDY LAUNCHES AS DRUG AIMS TO SLOW DISEASE PROGRESSIONIn 2019, the former engineer started feeling his legs tighten up and stiffen anytime he was nervous or tense, but dismissed the odd sensations until one day, he stood and couldn’t move.Kelf can now barely walk and has been forced to quit his job.Dion has announced 10 shows in September and October at the 40,000-capacity Paris la Défense Arena, planned at three- to four-day intervals. The intervals will be crucial for Dion to pace herself, rest and medicate between shows, according to Kelf.CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES”Everyone’s different, but I’m still surprised,” said Kelf, who added that the disease could “limit” the singer.”It’s challenging to live with, to say the least. You have to rearrange your entire life. There are good and bad days.”While Kelf is hopeful that Dion will be able to make the show work, he warned against underestimating the seriousness of the disorder.”I think it could undermine how seriously people take us, other sufferers,” he told SWNS.While he views the tour as positive and inspiring, Kelf said he hopes it will lead to more support for others who are suffering.CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER”Otherwise, people may look at her and think, ‘Why aren’t I doing more?’ which could ultimately have a negative impact.”TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ”If I’m out in public, people don’t see the worst of it,” he added. “It’s the same with her, they only see the good side.”Fox News Digital reached out to Dion’s representatives for comment.

Jennifer Koonings, a former psychiatric nurse practitioner and sexual assault forensic examiner, has been fired from a mental health organization after posting a video of herself appearing to harass Israelis in New York City’s iconic Times Square.The video, posted on Koonings’ Instagram account, starts with her pointing out a group of men who she calls “baby killers” while they sit in Times Square. The men do not appear to be doing anything or interacting with her. She says in the video that the men are Israeli, then proceeds to ask them if they “killed babies in Palestine” and if they “slaughtered babies,” before calling them “terrorists.” During the confrontation, Koonings also yells “f— Israel” at the men.The men have yet to be publicly identified and there is no indication in the video that they were confrontational or engaged in political activity. The incident appeared to be a verbal confrontation, as no physical altercation is visible in the video. At one point in the video, a person in a Spider-Man costume attempts to stop the confrontation, telling Koonings that she knows nothing about the strangers and encouraging her to stop harassing them. Koonings says she does know that they’re Israeli, again saying that “they are baby killers” before mocking the person dressed as Spider-Man.Koonings posted the video on Instagram with the caption “make baby k*llers uncomfortable again.”SOCIAL MEDIA ERUPTS ON MAMDANI OVER REPORTS HIS WIFE LIKED PRO-OCTOBER 7TH POSTS: ‘THIS IS WHO THEY ARE’The video caught the attention of the organization StopAntisemitism, who exposed Koonings’ background and slammed Inspire Mental Health Services (IMHS), a New York-based mental health provider with which Koonings was affiliated. StopAntisemitism later updated the post, saying that Koonings had been fired from IMHS, something that the agitator confirmed on her own social media.Seemingly unbothered by the firing, Koonings posted a screenshot of the email alerting her of her “immediate termination” from the organization and wrote, “Nice job zios lol you got me fired from a place I was working like 8 hours a week at & I would still shout BABY KILLERS at IOF MURDERERS again!!!” IOF is an acronym often used by anti-Israel agitators who refer to the Israeli army as the Israel Occupation Forces, rather than the actual name, the Israel Defense Forces.FLORIDA NURSE URGES CHINA, UK TO ‘ATTACK THE UNITED STATES’ TO REMOVE TRUMP ‘REGIME’ IN VIRAL TIKTOK”StopAntisemitism’s reporting took this from an isolated incident to a matter of public accountability. The video clearly showed a mental health provider engaging in explicit antisemitic harassment in New York City, conduct fundamentally incompatible with her professional responsibilities,” StopAntisemitism founder and Executive Director Liora Rez said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “By bringing widespread attention to it, StopAntisemitism ensured both the public and her employer were forced to confront it. We thank Inspire Mental Health Services for acting swiftly and saying no to hate.”Koonings later posted a follow-up video evidently attempting to explain how she knew that the men were Israeli. In the second video, the men confirm that they’re from Israel and almost immediately note Koonings’ disapproval. She can be heard off camera asking the men how many babies they have killed and how many women and children they have raped. Throughout the interaction, Koonings hurled insults and accusations at the men, even saying at one point that Israelis were worse than the Nazis and accusing them of creating a Holocaust.The men mostly remained quiet, though at one point one of them pushed back on Koonings’ comments about the Holocaust. This is not the first time that Koonings has been fired over her anti-Israel views. In 2024, she was fired from Mount Sinai Hospital after doubting the reports of mass rape committed by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. Koonings told Turkey-based news outlet TRT World that she did not regret speaking out, even after losing her job.Koonings is vocal about her politics on social media, including on her Instagram page where she has 122,000 followers. The health professional often posts videos with criticisms of Israel and U.S. foreign policy. Contrary to Koonings’ claims about mass rape, United Nations investigators have found reasonable grounds to believe that acts of sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, were carried out during the Oct. 7 massacre. Additionally, female and male hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attacks have testified that they faced sexual violence while in captivity.Koonings has also been involved with CODEPINK, a left-wing anti-war organization that has been critical of Israel. She has recently spoken out against the war with Iran, even saying that the Islamic Republic has grown stronger despite attacks from the U.S. and Israel.Fox News Digital reached out to Koonings, IMHS, and Mount Sinai Hospital for comment and did not receive responses in time for publication.

A former A-10 pilot shed light Tuesday on how U.S. airmen are trained to survive behind enemy lines, describing the mindset and skills needed to become what the military calls a “good survivor” in life-or-death situations.”We all go through the training. It’s survival, evasion, resistance and escape. We call it SERE, and it gives us the skills to go out and do something like that,” said former A-10 pilot Kim “KC” Campbell, referring to the evasive maneuvers a downed U.S. airman used to avoid Iranian capture over the weekend.”The other side of that is when you find yourself on the ground, it’s a whole different environment,” she added.”And yes, you fall back on your training, but I think you also have to have the will to survive.”EX-CIA STATION CHIEF REVEALS HOW AGENCY EXPLOITED IRANIAN COMMUNICATION CHANNELS DURING AIRMAN RESCUECampbell joined “America’s Newsroom” after the daring rescue in Iran, drawing on her own experience after her aircraft was struck by a surface-to-air missile over Baghdad more than two decades ago, a moment that forced her to rely on that very training.”My airplane was hit with a surface-to-air missile. [It was a] life-changing moment for sure, and it definitely, over the last few days, a lot of memories have come back in watching everything play out,” she said.At the time of the incident, Campbell said ejecting from the plane was the last thing she wanted to do, so she relied on her training to regain control of the damaged aircraft, avoid ejecting over enemy territory and ultimately land safely in Kuwait.IRGC’S ‘LARGER THAN NORMAL’ PRESENCE POSES CHALLENGE IN SEARCH FOR MISSING F-15E CREW MEMBER, EXPERT WARNS”Thankfully, the A-10 was built to take hits,” she said.An emergency backup system ultimately afforded Campbell the opportunity to regain control and land safely in Kuwait.”We have a saying in the rescue community… ‘affect your own rescue,’” Campbell said.”That means when you’re on the ground, you do everything you can to be a good survivor so that the rescue forces can come and get you.”Campbell said that while training is critical, survival also comes down to mindset, including knowing that, in the worst-case scenario, other U.S. forces will have your back.”I think there’s no greater mission to be able to do combat search and rescue to bring everyone home, and I think as a pilot, I mean, that day for me over Baghdad, I knew that if I had to eject that that rescue crew was coming for me, I knew they would have my back,” she said.”And I think when we know that, when we understand that promise, that allows us to do our job and do it well.”

Shelly Kittleson, the American journalist who was kidnapped in Iraq last week, is set to be freed from captivity.
American freelance journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped by armed men in Baghdad on Tuesday.
Iraq’s Interior Ministry confirmed the kidnapping.
Shelly Kittleson was reportedly kidnapped by Iranian-backed militias.
Per Al Jazeera last week:
“Security forces said they managed to arrest one of the suspects and seize one of the vehicles used in the kidnapping.”
“The Ministry of Interior announces that this evening, a foreign journalist was kidnapped by unknown individuals. Security forces immediately launched an operation to apprehend the perpetrators, acting on precise intelligence and through intensive field operations, tracking the kidnappers’ movements.”
Video shows a group of armed men surrounding a vehicle, opening the doors of the car, and driving off.

Shelly Kittleson’s whereabouts and condition are not known.
CBS News reported:
American journalist Shelly Kittleson is being released a week after she was kidnapped in Baghdad, an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq said Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Kata’ib Hezbollah militia said in a post on the group’s Telegram messaging app channel that Kittleson was being released on the condition that she leave Iraq immediately.
Her whereabouts were not immediately clear.
Alex Plitsas, Kittleson’s designated point of contact in the U.S. and a CNN national security analyst, previously told CBS News the U.S. government had warned Kittleson about a specific threat against her by Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed paramilitary group that was allegedly looking to kidnap or kill female journalists.
Kittleson was contacted multiple times with warnings of threats against her, including as recently as the night before she was abducted, a U.S. official had told CBS News.

American journalist Shelly Kittleson will be released after being abducted in Iraq, an Iranian-backed militia says. https://t.co/QSJJBNJ77b
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 7, 2026

The post DEVELOPING: Shelly Kittleson, American Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq, Freed After Week in Captivity appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Tesla just missed on deliveries, missed on energy storage, and now has one of Wall Street’s most prominent bears renewing his case for significant further declines.JPMorgan analyst Ryan Brinkman reiterated an Underweight rating on Tesla on April 6 and maintained his $145 price target, which implies roughly 60% downside from where the stock currently trades. The note came after Tesla reported first-quarter deliveries of 358,023 vehicles, 4% below the Bloomberg consensus of 372,000 and 7% below JPMorgan’s own forecast of 385,000, according to EV Magazine.”We advise investors approach TSLA shares with a high degree of caution,” Brinkman wrote in his note.What the delivery numbers showedTesla produced 408,386 vehicles in the first quarter of 2026 but delivered only 358,023, leaving a gap of more than 50,000 unsold vehicles, according to EV Magazine. While deliveries were up 6.3% year over year and production rose 12.6%, both figures fell short of analyst expectations.More Tesla:Elon Musk’s Terafab bet: what it means for Tesla investorsBank of America revamps Tesla stock priceUBS has a message for Tesla stock investorsEnergy storage was a sharper disappointment. Tesla deployed 8.8 gigawatt-hours in the quarter, down 15% from a year earlier, marking the first year-over-year decline since the second quarter of 2022. The result came in 42% below JPMorgan’s model of 15.1 GWh.JPMorgan cuts its earnings estimatesBrinkman lowered his first-quarter earnings per share estimate to $0.30 from $0.43, below the Bloomberg consensus of $0.38. He also cut his full-year 2026 EPS forecast to $1.80 from $2.00, which now sits below the consensus estimate of $1.95.The note acknowledged Tesla’s strengths, including what Brinkman described as a “highly differentiated business model, appealing product portfolio, and leading-edge technology.” But he argued those positives are “more than offset by above-average execution risk, rising competition, growing controversy with regard to the brand, and valuation that seems to be pricing in a lot.”On the question of expansion into lower-priced vehicles, Brinkman was pointed. “Expansion into higher volume segments with lower price points seems fraught with greater risk relative to demand, execution, and competition,” he wrote.The headwinds stacking up against TeslaJPMorgan’s bearish stance reflects a broader set of pressures bearing down on the company. The Trump administration allowed the $7,500 federal EV purchase incentive to expire, removing a key demand driver. Chinese competition continues to intensify. And growing public scrutiny tied to Elon Musk’s political activities has added a brand risk element that is difficult to quantify.Tesla’s stock has fallen nearly 20% year to date. The $145 price target JPMorgan is maintaining represents its view of where the stock should trade by December 2026.

STR/Getty Images

Where Wall Street standsJPMorgan’s call goes firmly against the broader analyst consensus. Of the 54 analysts covering Tesla, only 10 carry a negative rating on the stock, according to CNBC.Morgan Stanley sits at the other end of the spectrum, maintaining an Equalweight rating with a $415 price target. Analyst Andrew Percoco described Tesla’s ability to scale its unsupervised robotaxi fleet as “the most important catalyst for the stock this year,” adding that he expects the stock “to trade in close correlation to progress in the scaling of the unsupervised robotaxi fleet in Austin and the seven incremental city launches expected by the end of June,”.Where key analysts stand on Tesla heading into Q1 earnings:JPMorgan: Underweight, $145 price target, ~60% downsideMorgan Stanley: Equalweight, $415 price target, robotaxi scaling key catalystOf 54 analysts covering Tesla, only 10 hold a negative ratingTesla reports first-quarter 2026 earnings on April 22 after market close. Investors will be watching management’s commentary on full-year delivery guidance, the energy storage ramp, and the robotaxi rollout timeline closely. JPMorgan’s position is that the numbers, and the valuation, do not add up regardless of what that call delivers.Related: UBS has a message for Tesla stock investors

Congress ought to call it what it is: a war.

Oracle (ORCL) is making a bold push into AI, but it’s doing so while cutting costs.TD Cowen estimates Oracle cut between 20,000 to 30,000 positions, according to a Forbes report, highlighting a shift as the company reallocates resources toward high-priority growth areas like AI infrastructure and cloud.At the same time, Oracle has built one of the largest backlogs in the industry, giving it significant visibility into future demand.The opportunity is clear, but the key question is how quickly Oracle can turn that demand into revenue while bringing enough capacity online to support it.Backlog now drives Oracle’s revenue outlookOracle’s latest update moved the focus from sales momentum to revenue conversion. The company disclosed backlog (remaining performance obligations) of $553 billion, up 325% year over year, and raised its FY2027 revenue target to $90 billion.That gives Oracle an unusual level of forward visibility for a company long judged on quarterly bookings and software renewal trends.Oracle has already locked in a large multi-year base of future business, especially in AI infrastructure and cloud services. That strengthens the case for sustained growth and gives investors more confidence in earnings power beyond the next few quarters.More AI Stocks:UBS has a message for Palantir investorsWall Street sees 70% upside for this beaten-down AI stockWall Street resets Amazon stock price targets on AWS AI trendsBut the backlog only matters if Oracle can deliver against it. The key variable is whether new capacity comes online fast enough for workloads to go live and revenue to be recognized on schedule.If deployment slips, the backlog remains real but becomes less valuable, as investors begin to treat it as delayed demand rather than near-term revenue support.Partner funding lowers AI expansion riskOracle also addressed one of the market’s biggest concerns: the cost of building enough AI capacity to meet demand.Management said in the most recent earnings call that Oracle has secured “More than 10 gigawatts of power and data center capacity,” which is expected to come online over the next three years. It was also noted that partners will be funding more than 90% of expansion capital expenditures.That matters because AI infrastructure can create growth while crushing free cash flow if the buildout is too capital-intensive.Oracle’s partner-focused funding model lowers that risk, which allows Oracle to scale data center capacity without taking on the full balance-sheet burden itself.Multicloud database growth improves Oracle’s mixOracle’s multicloud database business is becoming a second engine of growth. Revenue from the most recent quarter for databases running across Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS rose 531% year over year, while AI infrastructure revenue grew 243% year over year.By extending its database business across rival cloud platforms, Oracle is improving both its reach and its economics. Database revenue carries better economics than pure infrastructure, which is more capital-intensive and more vulnerable to price competition.

Oracle’s multicloud database growth is expanding reach and improving margins across rival cloud platforms.Bloomberg/Getty Images

A larger multicloud database mix improves margins even as Oracle continues to spend heavily to expand OCI capacity and broaden its reach. Customers can adopt Oracle database services without making a full commitment to Oracle’s cloud stack, lowering friction and reducing Oracle’s dependence on displacing larger cloud providers at the platform level.That means Oracle is extending a high-value software franchise across the broader cloud market.What could drive Oracle higherFaster backlog conversion into revenue would build confidence that demand is translating into earnings.Continued multicloud database growth across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud would improve mix and support margins.Strong multicloud adoption expands Oracle’s reach without needing full cloud platform wins.Disciplined AI buildout with partner-funded data centers could drive growth with less pressure on free cash flow.What could pressure Oracle sharesDelays in data center capacity could push out contract fulfillment and revenue recognition.Slower backlog conversion would weaken confidence in the FY2027 growth path.Cooling multicloud database growth could reduce margin support in the cloud segment.Dependence on partners for infrastructure buildout adds execution risk to revenue timing.Key takeawaysOracle’s setup is stronger than it was a year ago. The company has a $553 billion backlog, a higher FY2027 revenue target, a fast-growing multicloud database business, and a funding structure that reduces the balance-sheet risk of its AI expansion.But those advantages now raise the bar. Oracle needs to continue to show it can bring capacity online on time and convert existing demand into revenue.If Oracle executes, the backlog supports a larger and more durable earnings base than the market once assumed. If it misses on capacity or timing, investors will treat the opportunity as real but deferred.Related: CoreWeave stock gets bold call from Bank of America amid AI shortage

With the words “he has gone insane” over his shoulder as if it was a cry for help from his producer, MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell crammed a lot of crazy into just two-and-a-half minutes of Monday’s The Last Word. After praising the Iranian regime for shooting down an American F-15E because it “humiliated” President Trump, he decried the rescue operation as a notion because 80 years ago 120,000 Americans were prisoners of war during WWII.

“[A]nd they humiliated Donald Trump by proving him wrong, by shooting down his planes, shooting down two of his planes,” O’Donnell boasted as if Trump himself owned the jets, nearly 12 minutes into his longwinded opening monologue.

With that statement, O’Donnell let the mask slip on his ghoulish nature. He was happy about the shootdown – the shootdown that could have killed the two American airmen and/or could have seen them captured and tortured – because it “humiliated” the orange man.

It proved O’Donnell wanted American service members hurt or killed because he could use them against Trump. It demonstrated why, multiple times during the war, he demanded Trump’s son Barron be forcibly conscripted and sent to the ‘frontlines,’ that way he could be hurt or killed and used by him.

Keeping the hate train rolling, O’Donnell then took issue with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for declaring “we leave no man behind” because it didn’t use gender inclusive language (Click “expand”):

O’DONNEL: And today at the White House, that brilliant rescue was described by the secretary of defense and by General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as a long standing American military rule of never leaving anyone behind.

HEGSETH: We leave no man behind.

O’DONNELL: That is, of course, the old school version of the idea. Back when only men flew American military planes, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, put it this way.

CAINE: We leave no one behind.

O’DONNELL: The general knows, unlike Pete Hegseth, that that could have been a woman they were trying to rescue, and it might be a woman the next time.

O’Donnell, who never served in America’s armed forces, had a twisted smile on his face as he then decried the very notion of never leaving a man behind. Why would he scoff at such a thing? Because there were American POWs over 80 years ago.

 

In 2-and-a-half minutes, MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell touts how Iran “humiliated” Trump by shooting down the planes, decried Hegseth saying “we leave no man behind” because it was not gender inclusive, decries the notion of rescuing 1 airman like that because 120,000 Americans… pic.twitter.com/HmkTbIYCtK
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 7, 2026
 

“But this 21st century notion that we leave no one behind ignores the 120,000 prisoners of war held by German and Japanese forces in World War II for years, who were left behind,” he chided.

He then attacked the ideal of never leaving a man behind because late Senator John McCain (R-AZ) was shot down and captured: “And the idea of using 155 aircraft and hundreds of military personnel on an immediate rescue mission for a single person of any rank, was inconceivable in World War II or in Vietnam, where we left John McCain behind.”

What an insulting thing to say about the men who defeated Nazism and imperialism, the very things MS NOW had been claiming were emanating from the Trump White House. Insulting to those who did everything they could, including putting their own lives on the line to rescue their comrades.

It’s ridiculous for O’Donnell – who again, knew absolutely nothing about service and self-sacrifice – to argue such rescue missions were “inconceivable in World War II or in Vietnam,” because they managed to pull off their own daring rescue missions without the technology we have today.

He was insulting men like Paul “Pappy” Gunn who went all Liam Neeson on the Japanese to rescue his family; and the Japanese-Americans of the 442 Infantry Division who broke through German lines to rescue the 1st Battalion of the 141 Infantry Regiment.

To really poke a hole in O’Donnell’s revisionist history, checkout Medal of Honor recipient Roy Benavidez of the 82nd Airborne who literally jump on a helicopter with nothing but a medic bag and knife to go rescue his fellow soldiers from the Vietnam jungle. And the 11th Airborne Division who carried out an epic raid on the Los Banos prison camp the Japanese set up. They rescued a little baby girl.

 

 

And that’s not to mention that many were captured because they were buying time for others to escape. Others like Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura in Korea, the soldiers of Fort Drum in the Philippines, and the 22 Americans of the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon of the 99th Infantry Division who blunted the German advance at the Battle of Lanzerath Ridge, which was critical to the Allies winning the Battle of the Bulge.

And while O’Donnell was using McCain as a bludgeon, McCain chose to reject an offer to be released from captivity early because he was wanted others to be released first. That didn’t stop O’Donnell from praising the North Vietnamese. “In fact, he was injured in the crash of his plane in a lake in Hanoi and was helped out of the water by the North Vietnamese people. His plane was there to attack,” he said.

 

 

Of course, O’Donnell was ignorant of history.

The transcript is below. Click “expand” to read:

MS NOW’s The Last Word
April 6, 2026
10:11:47 p.m. Eastern

(…)

O’DONNELL: … and they humiliated Donald Trump by proving him wrong, by shooting down his planes, shooting down two of his planes.

The pilot of that plane was rescued within hours of the shootdown. The still unnamed, seriously injured colonel had to hide for 48 hours before the rescue team could find him and save him without losing any other military personnel in that very risky mission.

They did lose two rescue planes worth $100 million each that they had to leave behind in Iran and destroy as they were leaving.

And today at the White House, that brilliant rescue was described by the secretary of defense and by General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as a long standing American military rule of never leaving anyone behind.

HEGSETH: We leave no man behind.

O’DONNELL: That is, of course, the old school version of the idea. Back when only men flew American military planes, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, put it this way.

CAINE: We leave no one behind.

O’DONNELL: The general knows, unlike Pete Hegseth, that that could have been a woman they were trying to rescue, and it might be a woman the next time.

But this 21st century notion that we leave no one behind ignores the 120,000 prisoners of war held by German and Japanese forces in World War II for years, who were left behind.

And the idea of using 155 aircraft and hundreds of military personnel on an immediate rescue mission for a single person of any rank, was inconceivable in World War II or in Vietnam, where we left John McCain behind.

John McCain was shot down in the skies over North Vietnam, and at the time, no one tried to rescue him. In fact, he was injured in the crash of his plane in a lake in Hanoi and was helped out of the water by the North Vietnamese people. His plane was there to attack.

(…)

While it’s certain to not always be the case, Sunday’s 60 Minutes offered a possible harbinger of things to come if editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is to turn CBS News into a network with journalism that appeals to all Americans. The episode including a lengthy piece blasting California’s high-speed rail boondoggle and then a closing minute from Christian evangelist Franklin Graham about Easter.

Correspondent John Wertheim laid bare the ugly reality of how America went from having trains as a central part of the country’s history to an afterthought as a jumping off point to an attempt by California for a bullet train “connecting L.A. and San Francisco has lurched, derailed, cost billions and may never happen.”

He opened with a fake-out, touting a reliable high-speed rail system before admitting it’s in Morocco. In contrast, he noted California voters passed nearly 28 years ago “a ballot measure for a train connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than three hours” for “estimated price tag” of $33 billion and expected completion in 2020.

Still thinking of how incredible this ‘60 Minutes’ story was about how much of a disaster California’s Los Angeles-to-San Francisco high-speed rail project was.
Just incredible.
John Wertheim’s intro: “It’s hard to exaggerate the role of the train in the American story, or the… pic.twitter.com/I0JrkSlQEM
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 7, 2026
Unsurprisingly, the current state of the project is less than ideal:

Status update: today, the state’s high-speed rail authority is preparing to lay its first tracks at roughly the same cost. Only, slight course correction here: Instead of L.A. to San Francisco, it will run one-third of that distance, connecting — wait for it — the metropolis of Bakersfield and Merced, population 96,000. Oh, and when will it open? 2033. Maybe.

Central Valley-area Congressman Vince Fong (R-CA) was surprisingly given prime billing off the top and told Wertheim this “nightmare is the probably quintessential example of government waste and mismanagement.”

Wertheim then paraphrased more of what Fong told him: “He says that when California voters first approved high-speed rail, the promise and price tag were more marketing campaign than realistic projection.”

But when Wertheim took these concerns to California Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin and rail board member Anthony Williams, Omishakin seemed to argue voters are the real problem in this project for not understanding how difficult it would be to make a reality:

California California’s Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin first blames VOTERS for the state’s failure to not build any high speed rail.
“There were mistakes made. Some of the criticism on this project, I think, are very fair… I don’t think the voters fully understood,… pic.twitter.com/zrBIfW1Yby
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 6, 2026
The next portion focused on how red tape dooms such herculean ambition. Wertheim explained for the uninitiated that, “[t]o get the necessary political buy-in from the whole state, the plan called for the train to run inland, threading the farmland of the Central Valley.”

Left unsaid was that, in essence, the call was to run it through the red part of the state because the blue supermajority doesn’t want it cutting through their neighborhoods.

Even that wasn’t enough: “Yet, the rail authority hadn’t answered basic questions, like precisely where it could lay down its tracks, what’s known as right-of-way.”

Along with land disputes, Wertheim added other pitfalls included “California’s exacting environmental regulations, which triggered all manner of reviews, lawsuits, and delays” and “high U.S. labor and construction costs.”

60 Minutes exposes how California’s burdensome environmental regulations prevent anything from being done, particularly with their high-speed rail:
“California’s exacting environmental regulations, which triggered all manner of reviews, lawsuits, and delays. As anyone who’s… pic.twitter.com/UuEB2WAnNr
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 5, 2026
After pointing out far-left Governor Gavin Newsom “didn’t respond to repeated interview requests,” Wertheim said the project changed to run just in the Central Valley as years went by and with nothing to show for it, even though it’d be “a route few clamored for and fewer are likely to ride.”

The visuals of empty concrete beams and overpasses (sans any tracks) put the project’s waste into perspective, bolstered by Wertheim sharing that “[l]ocals here jokingly refer to it as their own Stonehenge.”

60 Minutes EXPOSES California’s incomplete high speed rail system, locals in the Central Valley call it “Stonehenge”:
“Locals here jokingly refer to it as their own Stonehenge. Ideally, these bridges and viaducts will one day be used to support California high-speed rail. But… pic.twitter.com/FLEDroMPmh
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 5, 2026
“[F]or now, these are curiosities in a field, monuments to promises that haven’t been met, and plans that haven’t been executed,” he added.

He took a detour for the next few minutes to spotlight Brightline, a private rail company aiming to build a high-speed train that would consist of a two-hour span Los Angeles to Las Vegas in 2029 (versus a five-hour drive).

It currently has a semi-high-speed line in Florida spanning Orlando to Miami and goes 125 miles per hour, but here again, Wertheim found problems with it (even though it should be a leftist dream) (click “expand”):

WERTHEIM: Cultural questions aside, Brightline’s Florida trains run at street level through crowded neighborhoods. And according to numbers compiled by the Miami Herald and local public radio, more than 200 people have been hit and killed by the trains in the near-decade since operations began. Brightline says that running rail in the desert out West — where track crossings won’t be at street level — will be a safer proposition. Then there are the finances: the stratospheric costs of building and running a rail line vastly outstrip revenues. Analysts have downgraded Brightline’s debt to junk, raising questions about private rail as a business. [TO REININGER] To what extent, big picture, do you worry about the future financial viability of Brightline?

REININGER: The business has built slower than we originally expected it to build. We thought we would be carrying more passengers today than we are. The business is, in fact, growing month over month, year over year. That’s a great thing. That solidifies in our mind the viability of the business.

WERTHEIM: Brightline’s West Coast project has already received some federal funding and is hoping for a $6 billion loan from the Trump administration.

REININGER: If you look around the world, for the most part, the infrastructure systems are funded by the public sector.

WERTHEIM [TO REININGER]: You do see a role for government here?

REININGER: Absolutely. We — we welcome it.

The rest of his piece was on the government-run disaster in California with officials telling him this short span from small town to small would cost $126 billion, which Wertheim acknowledged is “more funding than Amtrak has received in its history and still leaves a shortfall of roughly $90 billion.”

Wild stat — the current portion of Gavin Newsom’s so-called high-speed rail running from small towns to small towns and not connecting LA and SF is now up to $126 billion in cost, which is far more than Amtrak has received in its entire history. pic.twitter.com/SoZnwo7LTq
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 7, 2026
Liberals can melt down all they want about this reality check, but the first story — led by Scott Pelley — was more up their alley as it focused on the soaring cost of health insurance and the free health care clinic charity known as Ram.

Shifting to the end of the show, CBS’s other supposed sin was giving Graham — the son of the late American preacher Billy Graham — a few minutes to talk about the connection between Christianity and America (click “expand”):

Evangelist Franklin Graham, who’s preached in all 50 U.S. states, says he believes faith in God is the value that played the biggest role in shaping the nation. pic.twitter.com/9Jc6pG07ct
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 5, 2026

Faith. Faith in God is the value that most shaped America. Remember, the pilgrims, they came to this land to find freedom to live out their faith. And it’s people of faith who have been the bedrock, the driving force behind our nation. In years past, where did people turn after a disaster? Not FEMA, not to the government. It was the church that took them in, fed them, gave them shelter, clothed them. It was people of faith who established our health care in this country. Our higher education was started by people of faith. Harvard, Yale, Princeton were founded to train ministers of the gospel. From the remote villages of Alaska to the tip of the Florida Keys today, you’ll find houses of worship and people of faith making a difference. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I want all people to know that God loves them, that He cares for them. So, I see faith as the most important defining value in our nation and in every single life.

The horror! Check out the vile, unhinged replies and quoted replies seething over an X post of Graham’s simple message about how Americans have turned to churches for education, health care, relief after disaster, and even a search for our meaning.

To see the relevant CBS transcripts from April 7, click here and here.

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for records on the Biden FBI’s search warrants used in the April 2021 raid on former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s residence and office (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:26-cv-01158)). Giuliani served as a personal attorney and informal adviser to President Donald Trump. 
On April 28, 2021, at approximately 6 a.m., federal agents executed search warrants at Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment and his office, seizing his cellphone and other electronic devices. Agents reportedly seized additional materials, including a computer used by longtime assistant Jo Ann Zafonte. 
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Justice Department failed to respond to a February 2026 FOIA request. The request, which included a signed certification of identity from Giuliani himself, seeks all records related to the April 2021 search warrants, including:

Warrant applications, affidavits, attachments, draft versions, and approval memoranda;
Supervisory and Main Justice approvals;
Attorney search approvals under Justice Manual guidelines;
Records concerning privilege review, “taint team” procedures, privilege determinations, and any special master involvement;
Coordination with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York; and
Emails, memoranda, briefing materials, and other communications outside formal case files discussing Giuliani, the raids, or the underlying investigation.

 According to public reports, the raid was tied to an investigation into whether Giuliani violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) in connection with his activities involving Ukrainian officials while he was seeking information related to Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. 
Giuliani’s then-attorney Robert Costello noted that federal agents ignored Hunter Biden’s computer hard drives when they raided the apartment, contradicting the order on the warrant “to seize every electronic device in his home.”
“The Biden DOJ’s pre-dawn raid on Rudy Giuliani was a textbook example of weaponized justice — targeting a loyal advocate of President Trump’s while agents deliberately ignored Hunter Biden’s hard drives sitting in the same apartment,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “This selective enforcement exposes a corrupt two-tiered system.”
Judicial Watch is a national leader in exposing the lawfare and abuse targeting Trump and other American citizens.
In April 2026, Judicial Watch obtained records that revealed the FBI’s concerns about the legal basis for the 2022 raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. The records exposed explicit objections from field agents who warned the Justice Department that the unprecedented raid on Trump’s home lacked probable cause.
In March 2026, the Justice Department reported that the FBI found about 1.9 million pages of records that are responsive to Judicial Watch’s FOIA lawsuit. These documents were reportedly stored in a “hidden room” at FBI headquarters and were first revealed by former Deputy Director Dan Bongino (Judicial Watch v U.S. Department of Justice (No.1:25-cv-04047)). 
In March 2026, Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department for records from the FBI’s Biden-era “Arctic Frost” probe, specifically involving the Criminal Division, the Office of Information Policy, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:26-cv-00746)).
In March 2026, Judicial Watch asked a Georgia state court to reject Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ efforts to continue hiding records about her office’s communications with Jack Smith’s office and the January 6 Committee (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Fani Willis et al. (No. 24-CV-002805)).
In February 2026, Judicial Watch secured the release of rosters identifying the names of top deputies who worked for former Special Counsel Jack Smith (Judicial Watch Inc. v U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:23-cv-01485)).
In January 2026, Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department for communications of FBI agents regarding the prosecution of former Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No.1:26-cv-00079)).
In January 2025, a federal court ordered the Justice Department to provide Judicial Watch information on communications between Jack Smith and Fani Willis regarding the prosecution of Trump. In May 2025, the Justice Department was directed to search text messages from the Special Counsel’s Office for responsive records (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 23-cv-03110).
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