ELON IS NOT PUTTING UP WITH THEIR BULLSHIT:

I FOLLOWED THIS STORY FOR DAYS AND THERE’S STILL NO FULL EXPLANATION: Questions Remain About Tense Moment Aboard ISS.

Even if you’re not normally interested in what’s happening in low Earth orbit, you probably heard that last week NASA ordered its personnel aboard the International Space Station to button themselves up in the docked Dragon spacecraft and await further instructions should they need to make a hasty departure. Known as Safe Haven, this emergency procedure is performed whenever there’s an elevated risk of damage to the Station.

NASA has provided an update on what happened, but it arguably leaves more questions than answers. Usually, crews go to their Safe Haven because some bit of space junk has wandered to close to the orbiting complex, but this time it was because Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev were getting ready to start cutting into the walls of the PrK transfer tunnel in an effort to address its persistent air leak.

After about an hour and a half, the Russians called off the effort and NASA gave their people the OK to leave the Dragon and return to their normal duties. NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens later posted on social media that the space agency would “look forward to working with Roscosmos on a collaborative approach to address the leaks” in the future. There’s currently no word on what a future repair attempt may entail, or when it would be attempted.

There’s also no word on why they called off the repair work.

Very curious.

IT’S ACCELERATING: Social Security retirement trust fund may be depleted in 2032, new trustees report finds.

A Social Security trust fund used to pay retirement benefits may run out in late 2032, three months earlier than what had been projected last June, according to the new Social Security Administration annual trustees report released Tuesday.

Social Security uses incoming revenue from payroll taxes to pay benefits. When benefit payments exceed payroll tax income, the program relies on the trust funds to help make up the shortfall.

The report said that if the fund is depleted as projected, Social Security will only be able to pay 78% of retirement benefits.

Plan accordingly, because either benefits are going down, taxes are going up, or inflation and debt are going up. Or some combination.

EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM IS FAKE, EXCEPT FOR THE NAZI STUFF: Platner’s ‘living on the sea’ claim dismantled by critics as financial docs paint a different picture.

Platner’s 2025 financial disclosures show that he listed “other $5,001” as his annual income from farming oysters. The candidate’s entire business is only worth between $50,000 and $100,000, which accounts for his boat, lines, anchors and other farming equipment, per the disclosure.

He earned an additional $3,000 serving as the harbor master for Sullivan, Maine, — a role the Washington Free Beacon reported was largely clerical and where he was responsible for overseeing the 17 boat moorings on the small town’s coast.

Taken together, these sums are dwarfed by the $4,800 Platner says he receives through monthly disability payments. Platner is legally entitled to such a sum owing to injuries he suffered while serving in the armed forces.

“I’ve got a couple herniated discs. My shoulder’s a wreck. My knees bother me,” Platner, who saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, told News Center Maine in an October 2025 interview.

Despite his reliance on disability, Platner has consistently referred to himself as an “oyster farmer” while campaigning for Senate.

In a September 2025 interview with the New Yorker, for example, he called himself a “small-town oyster farmer.”

While Platner credits federally funded healthcare for his ability to start a business, a number of other factors have assisted him along the way.

A restaurant owned by Platner’s mother, for instance, is the only customer listed on his financial disclosures as purchasing oysters from him. Additionally, Platner’s farm is located on a private island owned by his business partner’s family and he received a $200,000 loan from his father to purchase his home, the Washington Free Beacon previously reported.

He’s certainly good enough getting other people’s money to qualify for employment in Washington.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Friendly Reminder that California Is the DNC’s Testing Ground. “The reason that Gavin Newsom thinks that he is the most popular boy at the Democratic National Committee dance and should be the party’s nominee for president in 2028 is that California is where the Democrats test out all of their insanity. Election fraud. Gun control. Unhinged welfare schemes for illegals. The Dems try it all out in the Golden State in the hopes of exporting everything nationwide.”

OOF:

NANCY MACE IS OUT, ENDORSES OPPONENT FOR S.C. GOVERNOR. “Buried the hatchet.” She started out promising but has been kind of erratic.

THEY NEED TO KNOW THAT THINGS CAN BE DIFFERENT:

UNNATURAL:

Alternate Insta-headline: Leave them kids alone.

WELL, YEAH: White House border czar Tom Homan blames New York Gov. Hochul for promised ICE surge.

White House border czar Tom Homan on Tuesday blamed New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for a promised surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to New York City.

But Homan would not say when he expected that surge of ICE agents to happen, when questioned by reporters at the White House.

“You can expect more ICE agents to go to New York because Gov. [Kathy] Hochul signed legislation that ended our … agreements” that allowed the agency to delegate state and local law enforcement officers to perform immigration enforcement functions under ICE oversight, he said.

The agreements under ICE’s 287(g) program were used to identify and process removable immigrants who were in jail after being arrested by local authorities on unrelated charges.

“We’re going to surge resources in New York,” he said. “We have to.”

Don’t like ICE in your cities? Then stop electing pols who flout immigration laws.

REVOLUTION IS BREWING IN EUROPE, AND IT’S ABOUT TIME:

TWO-TIER KEIR:

Related: Belfast burns after knife attack protests.

Footage on Sky News showed infants being carried out of neighbouring homes as flames crackled inside the houses, while a pastor told the BBC people were being forced out of their homes “because they’re black”.

Protesters also attempted to set the Sham Supermarket, a Middle Eastern shop, alight on Donegal Road, just south of the city centre.

Several vehicles, including a police vehicle and a Glider bus on the Newtownards Road, were set on fire in the east of the city earlier in the evening.

The violence was widely condemned across the political spectrum.

Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s Sinn Fein First Minister, said the burning of homes amounted to “outright thuggery” while Arlene Foster, her DUP predecessor, said she watched the unfolding scenes “with great sadness”.

For O’Neill, some riots are far more acceptable than others:

THIS IS HARDLY SHOCKING: Germany, France scrap joint fighter jet program.

The Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program, launched in 2017, aimed to build a next-generation fighter to replace Eurofighters and Rafales by around 2040.

The move to scrap one of Europe’s largest defense projects comes as Western military officials warn of a mounting threat from Russia and the United States intensifies pressure on Europe to take care of its own defense.

The more than €100 billion ($115 billion) project, launched in 2017, was once billed as a symbol of Franco-German military unity.

But it has been plagued by years of political and industrial disputes.

French arms giant Dassault Aviation has demanded significantly more control over the project than its industry partner, European consortium Airbus Defence and Space.

The two companies clashed over control of the project’s next phase, access to intellectual property and, above all, differing requirements for the aircraft.

Why can’t Germany and France just get along like they used to in the olden days?