May 1, 2026

SPIRIT SET TO CEASE FLIGHTS AT 3AM TOMORROW, SPARKING FEARS OF BRAWLS AT AIRPORTS — ALTHOUGH DOOMED AIRLINE’S WEBSITE IS STILL LETTING PASSENGERS BOOK FLIGHTS:

Spirit Airlines is reportedly set to cease operations at 3am on Saturday after a bailout from President Trump has failed to materialize.

The airline, which began air operations in 1990, had been hoping for a $500 million lifeline from the federal government, but the deal has not been finalized in time due to financial complications, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Sources told the outlet that the budget airline has failed to get sufficient support from bondholders and the government to secure the funding before running out of cash.

The collapse of the airline could leave passengers stranded across the nation, and places over 14,000 jobs at risk.

Passenger Taylor Gonzalez, 27, told the Detroit Free Press that she fears being stranded in Los Angeles with her three-year-old son on Friday night, saying she ‘didn’t know about this until just now.’

Despite the reported end of its operations, Spirit’s website is still allowing customers to book flights before the 3am deadline.

The carrier previously filed for bankruptcy twice between November 2024 and August 2025, and it currently remains under Chapter 11 protection.

Exit quote:

UPDATE:

Posted at 6:55 pm by Ed Driscoll

I’M NOT SURE I WANT A “SOFTWARE DEFINED VEHICLE.” Hyundai Previews Next-Generation Infotainment System for Software-Defined Vehicles.

Actually, I’m pretty sure I don’t want one:

We’ve grumbled about this in the past but the push toward software-defined vehicles is effectively to make automobiles into smart devices. Vehicle features will be gatekept behind subscriptions and will likely need to be purchased via connected services.

We’ve seen this in modern cars via companies forcing customers to purchase things like remote start using a subscription and making activation exclusively available via a phone app. This not only has you paying more for hardware that has already been equipped to the vehicle, it also creates additional avenues for the manufacturer to harvest information about you. Exactly how far the industry plans on going with this isn’t clear. However, the assumption is that it will be as far as possible because that’s been the trend thus far.

Yuk.

Posted at 5:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARDS:

How it started: “No more Tuskegee experiments!”

How it’s going: “Idil Issak at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville is an anthropology student who wants to conduct research by interviewing eight female Ethiopian nationals working in the domestic service industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)..Issak’s experience with the IRB has been a Kafkaesque nightmare.”

NCLA does great work.

Posted at 4:55 pm by Robert Shibley

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE:

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

DOMINIC GREEN: Antisemitism in the Yookay.

In his address to Congress on Tuesday, King Charles emphasized the common roots and unusual endurance of the English and American systems. Unlike France, where everyone expects the Fifth Republic to go the way of the previous four quite soon, the Anglophone constitutions remain the same while the political regime shifts beneath them. The high-immigration, high-welfare, multiculturalist regime that is now breaking down in Britain was created in 1997. If the leading party in the polls, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, wins the next election, it might be able to start laying the ground of the next British regime. It will restrict immigration, reassert the centrality of English culture, shrink the welfare state, and face serious opposition from the institutions through which it must govern.

Yookay Britain isn’t like Nazi Germany in the 1930s. It’s more like Tsarist Russia in the 1880s. A state that can’t reform itself indulges the anti-Jewish violence of Britain’s urban peasantry as a safety valve. Commissioner Rowley looked no more surprised than the police officer in “Fiddler on the Roof” who warns Tevye that a pogrom is in the offing. But British Jews aren’t isolated. While the Labour prime minister Keir Starmer wrings his hands and the Green Party leader Zack Polanski winks at Islamists, Mr. Farage demands action to protect Britain’s Jews. So does Kemi Badenoch, who leads the Conservative opposition. To Mr. Farage and Ms. Badenoch, securing the future of British Jews is part of restoring law and decency to British life.

Speaking of the Greens, question asked and completely dodged:

Posted at 2:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

JOHN PODHORETZ REVIEWS THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2: For the sequel to a beloved working-girl comedy, everybody forgot to find a plot.

You might enjoy The Devil Wears Prada 2 if you love dresses. I don’t know about or care about dresses, so I can’t really comment on the value of the fashion platery here, but the original did find a way to echo the emotional resonances of Working Girl and Pretty Woman as it converted Andy from a nerdy shlub to a radiant neo-Audrey Hepburn. Since Hathaway is gorgeous from the outset and has maintained her knowledge of how to dress well from the original movie, there’s no transformation here to make you ooh and ahh.

I have nothing against sequels, or legacy sequels, or fluffy movies that only seek to entertain. But Rule 1 is they need a story that makes sense. And Rule 2: They do need to entertain.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 1:44 pm by Ed Driscoll

NEW FOOTAGE OF TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT RELEASED. Here’s What It Shows:

The friendly fire theory just got buried — on video.

For days, questions swirled about whether a Secret Service agent wounded at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner had actually been hit by fellow agents in the chaos. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro put that narrative to rest Thursday night.

Pirro released new, high-quality security video from the Washington Hilton Hotel showing 31-year-old Cole Allen charging through a Secret Service checkpoint during the April 25 dinner, where President Trump was scheduled to speak. The footage, she noted, had already been submitted to U.S. District Court.

“Today, we are releasing video already provided to U.S. District Court showing Cole Allen shoot a U.S. Secret Service officer during his attempt to assassinate the President at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” Pirro said in her X post. “There is no evidence the shooting was the result of friendly fire.”

 

Related:

That’s a plausible theory, but which movie did Allen think he was starring in? Taxi Driver? JFK? The Manchurian Candidate?

Posted at 1:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU TRACKING FOR LOWEST STAR WARS BOX OFFICE OPENING EVER:

The Mandalorian and Grogu box office projections are continuing to trend in the wrong direction, with new estimates suggesting the film could deliver the lowest opening weekend in the history of the Star Wars franchise.

According to the latest tracking data, the film is currently eyeing an $80 million-plus four-day Memorial Day debut. While that might sound respectable on paper, it would fall well below previous Star Wars theatrical releases—and even trail 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, which opened to $103 million over the same holiday frame.

Solo holds the distinction of being the first Star Wars movie to actually lose money at the box office (but seemingly not the last).

For Star Wars, a franchise that once dominated the global box office, that’s a stunning shift.

Far more so than Spinal Tap, Kathleen Kennedy spent the last ten years working extremely hard to make Star Wars’ appeal increasingly selective:

Posted at 12:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

ONCE AGAIN THE “CONSPIRACY THEORY” WAS CORRECT:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

LATERAL MOVE:

Posted at 12:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

IT’S FRAUD ALL THE WAY DOWN, AND “NEUTRAL” INSTITUTIONS ARE HELPING WHENEVER AND WHEREVER THEY CAN:

Posted at 12:04 pm by Glenn Reynolds

UNEXPECTEDLY: Bombshell sex harassment suit against Lorna Hajdini, JPMorgan branded ‘complete fabrication’ as John Doe unmasked.

A former JPMorgan staffer who sources identified as Chirayu Rana has been accused of making fabricated sexual-harassment claims against a high-ranking executive at the bank after an internal investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing, The Post has learned.

Multiple sources told The Post that 35-year-old Rana, now a principal at investment firm Bregal Sagemount, is the man who brought the bombshell lawsuit against Lorna Hajdini earlier this week.

Rana’s suit, filed on Monday under the pseudonym John Doe, accused the 37-year-old executive director of turning him into her “sex slave” by drugging him with Rohypnol and Viagra and threatening to slash his bonus if he did not comply.

The story as originally reported was likely doing wonders for JPMorgan’s recruiting:

Incidentally, what is up with the photo of Rana in the Post’s article? It looks like it’s either AI-generated, or massively Photoshopped and processed. When the story first broke, I thought it was bound to soon become a “ripped from the headlines” Law & Order episode. But perhaps Pixar is getting the jump on buying the rights:

UPDATE (FROM GLENN):

UPDATE (From Ed): They don’t call it “The Daily Fail” for nothing:

Posted at 11:45 am by Ed Driscoll