Not long after governor Janet Mills had effectively dropped out of the primary race, a storm grew around Platner’s campaign. Rightwing operatives and liberal media mouthpieces started singing in unison that Platner was unfit for office, flimsy allegations poured in accusing the candidate of all sorts of alleged misconduct with former girlfriends.
Chris Hayes, of the uber-liberal MS NOW network, questioned whether Platner was going after underage girls. Not to be outdone, Mika Brzezinski of the same network compared his behavior with that of Jeffery Epstein. All of this after an earlier campaign that claimed the former Marine’s tattoo was indicative of his secret affection for Nazis.
The only available video over the last 15 months of the official who really wields power in Donald Trump’s Pentagon is a cartoon animation. Released in May on X by the US government, it shows a silver haired figure in a grey suit lighting up a cigar and sitting at a massive wooden desk with a nameplate: DEPSECWAR FEINBERG.
Stephen Feinberg, the 66-year-old billionaire founder of the private equity giant Cerberus Capital Management, has served as the deputy secretary of defense since March 2025. His boss, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, makes frequent appearances working out with troops or insulting reporters at press conferences, and posts often on social media. But Feinberg does not show his face. He has been obsessively media shy for decades, and is so reclusive that since his confirmation hearing he has not testified to a single committee on Capitol Hill, has held no press conferences and given no interviews. His press spokesperson left the government months into his tenure and has not been replaced.
Still, 10 people across Capitol Hill, the Pentagon and the defense contracting community say Feinberg has far eclipsed Hegseth in actual influence and impact.
The main Nuremberg trial ended, Winston Churchill warned of an iron curtain descending across Europe, It’s a Wonderful Life received its premiere and, at Jamaica hospital in the borough of Queens, New York, Donald John Trump was born.
It was 1946, also the birth year of George W Bush and Bill Clinton, but on Sunday the current US president celebrates his 80th birthday in a style uniquely his own. Trump will stage a night of cage fighting on the once-pristine White House south lawn as part of events marking the 250th anniversary of US independence.
The blend of visceral bloodsport with political spectacle under metal scaffolding may offer brief respite for a president also consumed with an unpopular war, rising inflation, plunging poll numbers and a foe not even he can bully, bomb or outrun: Father Time.
“Donald Trump has been showing signs of his age for quite some time,” said Tara Setmayer, a former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill. “It’s on display almost daily as he struggles to stay awake during official meetings, he is more irritable and going on rage tangents and throwing temper tantrums when he doesn’t get his way. These are not signs of a well-adjusted adult approaching 80 years old.”
Anewborn’s first hours in a US hospital used to carry a quiet set of guarantees. A vitamin K injection against catastrophic bleeding. A hepatitis B vaccination. The assumption that whatever a family could afford, the country had already decided this child was worth protecting. I have spent more than 40 years in pulmonary and critical care medicine. I have seen children harmed by disease, poverty, by bad luck. I had not, until now, seen them harmed so methodically by their own government.
Read the headlines one at a time and the pattern disappears. A vaccine rule one week, a food program the next, the reorganization of an agency most people could not name. Each change arrives wrapped in a reasonable rationale: fiscal discipline, local control, parental choice. But arrange them in the order a child actually grows, and the rationales stop mattering. What you see instead is a sequence.
Men’s metabolism also tends to slow during midlife. Miller says this isn’t down to ageing itself, but the loss of muscle that tends to accompany it – so dieting isn’t the answer. “Restricting calories – particularly if it comes at the expense of protein – simply accelerates muscle loss, which further slows metabolism, creating exactly the cycle men are trying to escape,” he says.
A better approach is to focus on increasing protein intake, alongside strength training in the gym. “The latest research suggests men over 40 need to eat between 1.6g and 2.2g of protein per kilogram of body weight a day to preserve the metabolic engine that regulates blood glucose, supports hormonal function and determines how well a man ages. Men should also limit refined carbohydrates, such as bread and pasta, to stabilise insulin.”
While 2026 has brought breakout hits like “Love Story” and “Summer House,” there has not yet been a seismic, discourse-dominating show along the lines of “Adolescence” (2025), “Baby Reindeer” (2024), “Succession” (2023) or “Severance” (2022). But there have been some pleasant surprises along with solid seasons from returning series.
While 2026 has brought breakout hits like “Love Story” and “Summer House,” there has not yet been a seismic, discourse-dominating show along the lines of “Adolescence” (2025), “Baby Reindeer” (2024), “Succession” (2023) or “Severance” (2022). But there have been some pleasant surprises along with solid seasons from returning series.
Almost three decades have passed since producer Tim Haines reimagined natural history with Walking with Dinosaurs, using CGI and animatronics to bring to life the beasts that roamed these lands millions of years ago.
With his latest project, Haines is applying that same visual magic to look even further into the past. Surviving Earth, a docuseries premiering on Thursday on NBC, explores eight mass extinction events going back 450m years through the lives – and eventual annihilation – of the creatures that preceded or existed alongside the dinosaurs.
But what is essentially a series on death is actually a series on life, or really, the resilience of it – “how life bounced back” from the volcanic eruptions, flooding and drought that have repeatedly wiped out nearly all lifeforms, Haines told the Guardian .https://www.theguardian.
John, who lived in the north of England, decided to go golfing in Scotland with his buddy, Shawn.
So they loaded up John's minivan and headed north. After driving for a few hours, they got caught in a terrible storm. So they pulled into a very large nearby farm and asked the attractive lady who answered the door if they could spend the night.
“I realize it's terrible weather out there and I have this huge house all to myself, but I'm recently widowed,” she explained, “and I'm afraid the neighbours will talk if I let you stay in my house.”
“Don't worry,” John said. “We'll be happy to sleep in the barn. And if the weather breaks, we'll be gone at first light.”
The lady agreed, and the two men found their way to the barn and settled in for the night.
Come morning, the weather had cleared, and they got on their way. They enjoyed a great weekend of golf. But about nine months later, John got an unexpected letter from an attorney. It took him a few minutes to figure it out, but he finally determined that it was from the attorney of that attractive widow he had met on the golf weekend.
He dropped in on his friend Shawn and asked, “Shawn, do you remember that good-looking widow from the farm we stayed at on our golf holiday in Scotland about 9 months ago?'
“Yes, I do,” said Shawn
“Did you, er… happen to get up in the middle of the night, go up to the house and pay her a visit?”
“Well, um… yes,” Shawn said, a little embarrassed about being found out, “I have to admit that I did.”
“And did you happen to give her my name instead of telling her your name?”
Shawn's face turned beet red and he said, “Yeah, look… I'm sorry, buddy. I'm afraid I did. Why do you ask?”
“She just died and left me everything.”
The United Way realized that it had never received a donation from the city's most successful lawyer.So a United Way worker paid the lawyer a visit in his lavish office.
The United Way guy opened the meeting by saying, 'Our research shows that
even though your annual income is over two million dollars, you don't give a
penny to charity. Wouldn't you like to give something back to your community
through the United Way ?'The lawyer thinks for a minute and says, 'First, did your research also
show you that my mother is dying after a long, painful illness and she has
huge medical bills that are far beyond her ability to pay?'Embarrassed, the United Way rep mumbles, 'Uh... no, I didn't know that.''Secondly,' says the lawyer, 'did it show that my brother, a disabled
veteran, is blind and confined to a wheelchair and is unable to support his
wife and six children?The stricken United Way rep begins to stammer an apology, but is cut off
again.
'Thirdly, did your research also show you that my sister's husband died in a
dreadful car accident, leaving her penniless with a mortgage and three
children, one of whom is disabled and another that has learning disabilities
requiring an array of private tutors?'The humiliated United Way rep, completely beaten, says, 'I'm so sorry. I
had no idea.'And the lawyer says, 'So, if I didn't give any money to them, what makes
you think I'd give any to you?
"Tell me! Did you find her?" Michael Patrick O’Flynn asked.
The constables looked at each other and one said, "We have some bad news, some good news, and some really great news.
Fearing the worst, Mr. O’ Flynn said, "Give me the bad news first."
The constable said, "I'm sorry to tell you, sir, but early this morning we found your poor wife's body in the bay."
"Lord sufferin' Jesus and Holy Mother of God!" exclaimed O’ Flynn.
The constable continued, "When we pulled the late, departed poor Maureen up, she had 12 of the best-looking Atlantic
Stunned, Mr. O’ Flynn demanded, "Glory be to God, if that's the good news, then what's the really great news."
The constable replied, "We're gonna pull her up again tomorrow."
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