Traders placed over $1bn in perfectly timed bets on the Iran war. What is going on? Suspicious wagers on the US-Israel war in Iran are creating huge windfalls and raising concerns among lawmakers

Traders placed over $1bn in perfectly timed bets on the Iran war. What is going on? www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later.

Reminder: The Trump regime cancelled nearly $500 million in federal contracts for mRNA vaccine development last year.

Here’s the director of the NIH explicitly espousing populism over expertise as the means of determining priorities for federally science funding by leaning into the stupidest possible examples: ivermectin as cancer therapy .

ICE Has Arrested Dozens of Delivery Drivers at the Gates of a San Diego Military Base Advocates warn immigrants to avoid military bases when working for apps like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash.

ICE is arresting delivery drivers at a San Diego military base. According to an attorney interviewed by Kate Morrissey, military police at the gates call ICE on any driver who is not a citizen or green card holder, even if they have permission to be in the country. capitalandmain.com/ice-has-arre...

Imagine going back in time and showing this photo to people in 2012.

In 2022, when Viktor Orbán crushed an ineffectual opposition, his grip on power seemed unbreakable. Four years later, he is out. Why? And what does this mean for Europe and the rest of the world? ft.trib.al/pk5jt3Z

Viktor Orban accomplished so much of what the Trump movement wants to accomplish here

he ruled for 16 years and rewrote the rules in his favor

and still, they threw him out

and you know what? they did it by voting

don’t let anyone tell you voting doesn’t matter

Less than a week ago, there were several prominent voices on here saying that they were sure Orbán was going to cancel Hungary's election. And casting that as a preview of coming horrors here in the States.

Well, Hungary had its vote, Orbán lost in a landslide, and he's conceded.

This election looks like choosing between the guy in the fake pics v. the guy catfishing you

Hungary election: Viktor Orbán challenger 'optimistic but cautious' as polls close in Hungarian election - follow live Opinion polls published just after voting was due to end suggested challenger Péter Magyar could oust the prime minister.

Live Hungarian coverage via the BBC, alls I can say as I hope they send Vance to aid in the downfall of all calcified authoritarian shitbags (those who have elections, at least) worldwide, and may his and Elon's winning streaks continue in the midterms.

1/ The starting point:
Orbán did not build an illiberal democracy. He built an authoritarian regime: an illiberal kleptocracy with institutional cover.

After Orban:
Huge turnout (could be close to 80%). Constitutional majority in play for TISZA.
If TISZA Party wins in 🇭🇺, this is not a change of government. It is a potential regime rupture.
🧵

Polls now closed! Three pollsters have released late election surveys (not exit polls) showing Tisza far ahead of Fidesz. Worth saying all three leaned towards Tisza in pre-election surveys

Happy Hungarian election day!

Our final poll tracker update gives Tisza, the centre-right opposition, a 6pt lead over Orban's Fidesz: www.economist.com/interactive/...

In early March, MCC visiting fellow and recently failed Reform candidate Matt Goodwin delivered a keynote at MCC’s Budapest Summit.

Orban figured out you could buy political influence by paying right wing intellectuals. Not just in the US, he also cultivated the UK. From @petergeoghegan.bsky.social democracyforsale.substack.com/p/orbans-brits

One foundation, Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) was handed $1.7 billion in government money and asset to train conservatives and create programming for primary and secondary education. Even if Orban loses elections, his loyalists will remain. Advisory board members appointed by Orban were given lifetime positions, and they are the only ones who can select new members. This is a basic form of cronyism, a bribe to retain power. Orban appointed Balazs Orban (no relation), to lead the MCC even as he served as state secretary in the prime minister’s office. The Lesser Orban serves as an ambassador to far-right academics and think tanks, such as the Heritage Foundation.

If Orban loses, curious how much the Hungarian gravy train for right-wing academics and think-tankers will dry up. This was the means by which Orban helped to build his stature in the West. He tried to insulate these institutions from election losses. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/make-ameri...

Turnout in Hungary is sky-high, a bad sign for the ruling party. And so Balazs Orban, who was paid Western intellectuals to endorse Victor Orban, is already calling election fraud.
Where are you Ilya Shapiro? Rod Dreher? Chris Rufo? Kevin Roberts?
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/make-ameri...

Turnout as polls closed appears to be about 78%.

That’s the highest turnout in a national election since the end of the Communist era.

Record numbers of voters are going to the polls in Hungary today for the country’s national elections, which could dislodge Viktor Orban—the far-right leader allied to far-right parties worldwide—from power.

We’ll start getting returns after polls close, so after 1pm ET today.

The important thing is that our president is at a UFC match

The President of the United States and the Secretary of State are attending a UFC event tonight as negotiations with Iran collapse in Islamabad—raising the risk of a massive war restarting.

📸 Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Pool via REUTERS

I know the running joke is that Rubio supposedly has multiple jobs but maybe he could try doing Secretary of State stuff once in a while.

here's Trump entering a UFC event as Vance says that negotiations with Iran have failed

Just checking back in on this, anyone know how the test went?

Breaking: Trump orders the dismantling of the US Forest Service.

All regional offices are being shut down and the research program destroyed.

Before I threw away the password to my account, every time I'd log in I'd see propaganda demonizing a different minority group posted by someone who I wasn't following. Not infrequently posted by the site's owner.

“'I’ve never experienced anything like this in my entire life,' the congresswoman said, fighting back tears.

"She described the way people were laying down inside as “like sardines.”

“'It is frightening in there,' she said. 'It is disgusting'..."

azmirror.com/2026/04/10/i...

I've studied so many concentration camps through history that held vulnerable people in just this kind of crowded squalor. You demonize people, you demand more arrests, this is what you get. It already has its own budget and its own momentum, and is on track to go much further, unless we stop it.

Headline reads: White House budget seeks to scrap 54 major NASA science missions. Over an image of Jupiter.

Experts found that the White House budget request for the upcoming fiscal year could defund 54 NASA science missions, including a spacecraft currently studying Jupiter and two planned Venus missions: www.scientificamerican.com/article/whit...

Anti-Orban concert in Hungary with the audience chanting “Russians, go home”