THE BOEING 747 HAS DISAPPEARED FROM EUROPE, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF ONE AIRLINE:

There are 25,000 blue whales, an animal to which the jumbo jet is frequently compared, navigating the planet, but now only around 50 747s in active passenger service, the vast majority of top-tier carriers having retired them in favour of newer models.

Their decline has been long and drawn out, but was hastened by the Covid pandemic, which saw hundreds sold to cargo airlines or simply scrapped. It seems this four-engine behemoth, first flown commercially in 1970, is no longer financially viable in an era of increasingly-efficient twin-engined jets. The final passenger-configured jumbo was delivered eight years ago, and Boeing has no plans to restart the production line.

But one European airline hasn’t turned its back on the 747 just yet. Germany’s Lufthansa, perceived by many to be aviation’s kings of efficiency, still operates 27 jumbo jets – 19 of the newer 747-8s, and eight older, slightly smaller 747-400s – and is even upgrading some jumbo jet interiors with swanky new Allegris seats as part of a £2bn Lufthansa fleet-wide refit.

Why the lingering attachment? Part of the reason is simple and unromantic economics. According to aviation analysts, operations out of its Frankfurt and Munich hubs are each at take-off slot capacity.

So, with flight numbers capped, Lufthansa really needs its biggest aircraft, and the 364-seat 747s-8s drop neatly between the Airbus A350 (293 seats) and A380 (455 seats).

Furthermore, jumbos, despite their age, have a cracking range of up to 8,000 miles and remain among the fastest passenger jets in the sky (reaching speeds of up to 706mph).

More details here: Why Lufthansa Keeps Flying The 747 – Against All Logic.

PALLYWOOD: Staged Suffering? German Investigation Exposes Hamas’s Photo Propaganda Machine.

A recent investigation by Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung casts serious doubt on a number of highly circulated Gaza images, suggesting that several were either selectively staged or carefully framed to serve a broader propaganda agenda — one that plays directly into Hamas’s media strategy.

One photograph, widely disseminated across Western media, shows a crowd in front of a food truck waving pots in desperation. The image, captured by freelance Palestinian photographer Anas Zayed Fteiha for Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, went viral.

Other outlets — including CNN, BBC, New York Magazine, Stern, Deutschlandfunk, and so on  — opted to publish images more emotionally charged: close-ups of children, women in tears, scenes of chaos lit with cinematic precision.

Fteiha’s social media presence reveals more than just photojournalism. His Instagram displays militant artwork with “Free Palestine” slogans, where he poses in tactical gear labeled “Press.” One of the featured artists is a known anti-Semite. A video he shared is titled “Fuck Israel.” He is also linked to the Europe Palestine Network, a pro-Palestinian collective advocating “global resistance against Israel.”

This is not neutral reporting. This is ideological warfare — behind a camera.

Fteiha works for Anadolu Agency, which operates under the direct authority of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — a longtime patron of Hamas. For years, Erdoğan’s government has provided sanctuary, funding, and political cover to Hamas operatives.

So why are such images — clearly shaped by partisan and ideological interests — repeatedly published by Western newsrooms?

Yeah, that’s a tough one:

Classical reference in headline:

Related: From Steve, posting at the PJ Mothership: Former NYT Director: Paper Is ‘Digging Own Grave.’

DNC-MSM DOESN’T WANT ITS MODIFIED LIMITED HANGOUT INVESTIGATED:

Related:

Mark Felt smiles.

CINCINNATI MOB ATTACK SUSPECT ACCUSED OF PUNCHING WOMAN IN FACE, APPARENTLY KNOCKING HER OUT, IS ARRESTED:

The male “accused of hitting the victim named Holly” during the recent Cincinnati mob attack has been arrested, WLWT-TV reported.

Patrick Rosemond, 38, was arrested Monday in Fulton County, Georgia, and has been charged with felonious assault and aggravated riot, Cincinnati police told WLWT.

Rosemond will be transported back to Cincinnati, the station said.

According to Fulton County Jail records, Atlanta police arrested Rosemond, and he was listed as a jail inmate Tuesday morning.

Holly is the woman who was punched in the face by a male during the mob beatdown — and apparently was knocked out as a result.

She recorded a tearful video in which she thanked those who’ve supported her.

Local politicians still remain remarkably apathetic in response to the attack:

● Cincinnati Mayor Brushes Off Not Talking to Attack Victim, Rival Responds.

● Cincinnati official who said mob attack victims ‘begged’ for beating doubles down; woman punched in face records tearful clip.

THE 21^st CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT THE WAY I HAD HOPED: Jim Acosta ‘Interviews’ AI-Generated Avatar of Deceased Teen Promoting Gun Control.

Former CNN host Jim Acosta “interviewed” an AI-animated avatar of deceased Parkland victim Joaquin Oliver on Monday to promote a gun control message.

“I would like to know what your solution would be for gun violence,” Acosta asked the avatar, for an interview on his Substack.

“Great question. I believe in a mix of stronger gun control laws, mental health support, and community engagement. We need to create safe spaces for conversations and connections, making sure everyone feels seen and heard,” Oliver’s avatar said. “It’s about building a culture of kindness and understanding. What do you think of that?”

“I think that’s a great idea, Joaquin,” Acosta responded.

This isn’t creepy at all:

NEW: Former CNN host Jim Acosta gives an interview with an AI version of a deceased Parkland victim to push gun control.

Acosta: “I would like to know what your solution would be for gun violence.”

AI Joaquin Oliver: “Great question. I believe in a mix of stronger gun control… pic.twitter.com/ArAvRy939l

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 4, 2025

It’s not playing well with Acosta’s fellow leftists on BlueSky:

As Glenn rhetorically asks, “Can we add some intelligence to Jim Acosta?”

UPDATE: Ryan Saavedra tweets that Acosta received “3,000+ responses…on Bluesky in response to his ‘interview’ with a deepfake AI chat bot of a kid who was killed in a school shooting Surprisingly, this seems to have even crossed the line for everyone on that platform.”

OKAY, SHE’S A REPUBLICAN:

Total package. 🥰Not just a pretty girl😆 pic.twitter.com/cGcEMsjXju

— I am Ken (@Ikennect) August 4, 2025

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

DOES ANYBODY REMEMBER LAUGHTER? The Critical Drinker on The Naked Gun: Are We Allowed To Laugh Again?

Christian Toto concurs with the Drinker’s assessment: The Naked Gun Shovels More Dirt on Woke Comedy’s Grave. “Perhaps the best part of ‘The Naked Gun’ is its running time – 86 tight minutes. That’s what a comedy should aim for – a not-so-hidden message to the team behind ‘Happy Gilmore 2: We Needed Two Hours to Include All the Gratuitious Cameos.’  Get in. Get out. Leave us laughing. ‘The Naked Gun’ clears that low bar. Hopefully, it’s a sign of very funny things to come. HiT or Miss: ‘The Naked Gun’ apes the comic chaos created by David Zucker in the ’80s. The results, while imperfect, are undeniably funny.”

(Classical reference in headline.)

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED:

Shot: How did the men who bombed Hiroshima live with themselves?

Eighty years on, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima continues to provoke fierce debate, reflection, and deep moral inquiry. How did the thirteen men aboard the Enola Gay – the US aircraft that delivered the bomb that killed at least 150,000 people – live with the knowledge of what they had done?

The morning of August 6, 1945 began like any other on the Pacific island of Tinian. That was, until the Boeing B-29 Superfortress lifted into the sky. Its destination: Japan. Its payload: “Little Boy,” the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare. Piloted by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jnr. and manned by a crew of twelve, the mission forever altered the course of history. The explosion over Hiroshima ushered in the atomic age, marked the beginning of the end of the Second World War, and created a moral legacy that haunted and defined the lives of those aboard.

—Spectator World, today.

Chaser: 75 Years Later, Purple Hearts Made for an Invasion of Japan are Still Being Awarded.

The decoration, which goes to troops wounded in battle and the families of those killed in action, had been only one of countless thousands of supplies produced for the planned 1945 invasion of Japan, which military leaders believed could last into 1947.

Fortunately, the invasion never took place. All the other implements of that war — tanks and LSTs, bullets and K-rations — have long since been sold, scrapped or used up, but these medals struck for their great grandfathers’ generation are still being pinned on the chests of young soldiers.

In all, approximately 1,531,000 Purple Hearts were produced for the war effort, with production reaching its peak as the Armed Services geared up for the invasion of Japan.

—History News Network, August 9^th, 2020.

FASTER, PLEASE: Israel to Complete Occupation of Gaza? “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reached a decision for the full occupation of the Gaza Strip, including operations in areas where hostages are held, a source in the Prime Minister’s Office told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. The Prime Minister’s Office conveyed the message to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir: If this does not suit you, then you should resign.”

ROB LONG: Tales of a Cuban Television Revolutionary.

Desi Arnaz, the Cuban-born bandleader, singer, husband to Lucille Ball, was also (I learned that day) the entrepreneurial inventor of the multibillion-dollar business of American sitcoms. It was Desi who figured out that old episodes had big rerun value—he discovered residuals, in other words—and it was Desi who figured if you put three cameras on dollies you could film an episode in one night in front of a live audience, like a short stage play. Desi took a business that was slow and expensive and made it fast and cheap, and the result was 189 episodes of I Love Lucy and subsequent downstream variations like The Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy, but also a rock-solid business model that allowed studios to invest in young and clueless comedy writers (ahem) and wait for them to figure it out. Desi Arnaz, in other words, who died in 1986, helped me buy my first house in 1997.

There’s a lot more to the story, of course, and in his absorbing and well-paced biography of Desi Arnaz, Todd Purdum manages to keep it detailed but moving along. He describes the way Arnaz outwitted CBS network executives when it came to things like fees and creative control. There’s a riveting section where he explains how Arnaz maneuvered his way to the purchase of the old RKO studio lot on Gower Street in Hollywood, a move that allowed Desilu Studios, the enterprise he shared with his then-wife, Lucille Ball, to expand their creative output. Under Desi’s stewardship, Desilu produced Star Trek, Mannix, Mission: Impossible, The Untouchables, and every one of Lucy’s sitcoms.

Desilu was eventually purchased by Paramount Studios, which owned the production lot next door, and the two physical studios were combined. When I walked onto the Paramount lot in January 1990 for my first day as a staff writer on Cheers, I was actually walking onto the old Desilu lot. My office was in the Lucille Ball building, next to the flight of stairs where, I was told, Lucy shouted down to Desi that she wanted a divorce. George Wendt, who sadly died not long ago, had a dressing room lined with cedar panels. Before he took on the role of Norm in Cheers, his dressing room had been Lucy’s cedar closet. The partnership between Lucy and Desi rippled through all of my television career—not just my paycheck, but my work environment as well.

Read the whole thing.

THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE: A Tribute to the Legacy of the U2: U.S. Air Force Confirms TU-2S Dragon Lady Broke Endurance Records.

The flight was conducted on a special date for the aircraft, the 70th anniversary of the very first Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady’s accidental maiden flight in 1955. On that day, during a planned high speed taxi test with test pilot Tony LeVier at the controls, the prototype U-2, then known as Article 341, lifted from Groom Lake at only 70 knots.

The goal for this special anniversary was to complete the longest single flight this platform had ever attempted, flying across all 48 contiguous states of the United States. When the Dragon Lady landed the next day at Beale AFB, it had flown longer than 14 hours and traveled over 6,000 nautical miles, breaking the endurance records for an aircraft of its class, announced the Air Force.

It thus appears that the aircraft did not break the altitude record, although the press release did not provide details on this attempt, and the current exact altitude record remains classified. The U-2 is widely known for being capable of long flights at altitudes above 70,000 feet, but the exact altitude that it can reach has never been publicly disclosed.

“This flight is historic, and it is fitting that it was planned and flown by aircrew from the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron, America’s longest-serving flying unit,” said Lt. Col. John “JESTER” Mattson, 1st Reconnaissance Squadron (RS) commander. “The character of war is changing, but our extreme ownership of our mission to build aircrew ready to exploit and dominate the electromagnetic spectrum and win, will never change. We continue to hone our combat competencies showcasing Beale’s capacity as a power projection platform to rapidly respond to adversary actions anywhere in the world.”

I’m thrilled the U2 is still flying, but really, how about a much faster “SOB?” SR-72 Darkstar Has a Clear Message for China or Russia’s Military. “The SR-71 Blackbird was well ahead of its time. It could streak across the sky at Mach 3.2 (some claim even faster) and simply outrun enemy missiles. Over 4,000 missiles were fired at it during its operational life, but none ever hit it. Now, its namesake will be flying even faster.  The SR-72, also known as the Son of a Blackbird (SOB), may have other hidden talents. The aircraft is envisioned to have reconnaissance and strike capabilities, making it a versatile platform for intelligence gathering and potentially offensive operations.”

GREG ABBOTT DROPS BOMBSHELL ON TX DEMS WHO FLED STATE: Return Today or Be Removed, Face Felony Charges.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a statement warning Democrats who fled the state to deny a quorum for his redistricting push that they have until precisely 3 p.m. Monday to return to their House duties or face removal from office.

Interesting choice of states for the fleeing Texas Dems: Woof! Even This CNN Journo Asks If TX Dems Realize How Bad It Looks for Them to Flee to Gerrymandered IL.

Some Texas Dems fled to New York State: Texas Democrats Make an Even Dumber Move, and You Just Have to Laugh at This Point.

Leftist threats and screams in recent years make Texas redistricting sound like pretty small beer in comparison:

Hopefully Abbott has thought through his response to the Dems, since I’m sure they assume he’s bluffing. This afternoon and tomorrow should be fun, whatever happens.

UPDATE: Axios can see the handwriting on the wall: “Texas House Democrats have broken quorum twice in recent history — in 2021 to Washington, D.C., in response to proposed voting restrictions and to Ardmore, Oklahoma, in 2003 over redistricting. Both times only delayed the inevitable passage of the bills they had opposed.”

HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS TIKI BAR: Start the presses! New York Post will expand to LA with launch of The California Post.

The New York Post is going Hollywood.

The nation’s most popular tabloid will launch The California Post early next year — delivering its brand of fearless, common-sense journalism and legendary headlines at a critical juncture for the Golden State.

“Los Angeles and California surely need a daily dose of The Post as an antidote to the jaundiced, jaded journalism that has sadly proliferated,” said Robert Thomson, CEO of The Post’s parent company, News Corp.

“We are at a pivotal moment for the city and the state, and there is no doubt that The Post will play a crucial role in engaging and enlightening readers, who are starved of serious reporting and puckish wit.”

The new publication will be headquartered in Los Angeles and feature a robust staff of editors, reporters and photographers dedicated to covering news, entertainment, politics, culture, sports and business — all with a distinctly California perspective.

They’ve got to do a better job than the L.A. Times, which for decades has been dull-as-dishwater, despite being located in a town that supplies an endless stream of over the top celebrity news.

THE US BORDER PATROL HAS EXCEPTIONAL TROUSERS, OR SOMETHING:

Whatever you do, do not—I repeat, do not—share the U.S. Border Patrol’s new video, because it will trigger liberals, and we wouldn’t want that, would we?

I’m dying 😂😭😂 pic.twitter.com/Cd1mLSaTlL

— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) August 3, 2025

Cue socialists nationally making Hugo Boss jokes in 3…2…1…

RIP: Loni Anderson, WKRP in Cincinnati star, dead at 79.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Left’s Woke Playbook Won’t Work on Sydney Sweeney.

You know the drill. We all lived through it over the past decade, particularly following the Summer of Love protests after George Floyd’s death.

Not this time.

In a statement posted on American Eagle’s Instagram account on Friday, the retailer said the ad campaign “is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”

Translation: Pound sand. Sweeney has yet to publicly comment on the matter.

Now, the media is circling back to another part of the Cancel Culture playbook, hoping this one might stick.

The same Legacy Media outlets that fed the Russian collusion hoax, ignored a dementia-addled president and promoted misinformation tied to COVID-19 rushed into action. Multiple outlets revealed that Sweeney is a registered Republican.

Now, we got her!

Set aside the perfectly reasonable thought that we can’t hate the media enough. This time, their tactics won’t work.

It’s not 2020.

Flashback to Bridget Phetasy last year: Sydney Sweeney has brought boobs back.

See, back in my day, kids, boobs were everywhere. It was the Nineties and early Aughts. We had Pamela Lee and Baywatch. Jennifer Love Hewitt graced the cover of Maxim with her boobs. My girlfriends always used to complain about not understanding men — I told them, “stop reading Cosmo and start reading Maxim.” Our supermodels — like Tyra Banks and Cindy Crawford — had curves. Carmen Electra did one of the hottest photoshoots in the history of Playboy magazine in her 2003 cover spread. McCarthy was Playmate of the Year in 1993 and from there became a host of Singled Out on MTV. The Man Show with Adam Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel, had a segment that was just girls jumping on trampolines. We were a culture awash in tits — and it was glorious.

We could look at boobs and not feel bad about it — and that’s a good thing. In fact, I’d argue it’s a healthy thing. Boobs are fantastic. There’s a biological component that makes it totally normal to be fascinated by boobs.

Then came the advent of the highly-strung women’s site and, understandably, shit got weird. It’s been weird ever since.

But weirdness only works so long, before the normies start to notice, and reject the product, the message, and the ideology that’s driving it:

Is it a preference cascade? Maybe!

Regarding the people flanking Sweeney:

● Dunkin’ appears to release its own version of the American Eagle ad featuring actor Gavin Casalegno.

● Sophie Cunningham steals spotlight with ‘Hot Girls Eat Arby’s’ shirt before Fever-Sky game.

Incidentally, as a reminder of how wokeness has transformed the left into an unexpected bastion of Comstockian prudery, a flashback to twenty years ago:

People on the left are losing their minds over a Sydney Sweeney jeans ad. Remember this is how they started Monday Night Football one week back in 2004. Imagine if this aired today, reactions would be incredible: pic.twitter.com/233yRu3xZi

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 1, 2025

IT’S ALL JUST GOP FAILURE THEATER UNTIL SOMEONE IS ACTUALLY PUNISHED: Former FBI Director Wray Hit With Criminal Referral for Lying To Congress.

JUST NBC THE AMNESIA!

2 years ago today, a historically illiterate Al Sharpton asked the following:

Can you imagine if James Madison or Thomas Jefferson tried to overthrow the government? pic.twitter.com/r8A8Nexyk1

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) August 3, 2025

DON’T BLAME THE MAN FROM MUMBAI; HE’S JUST A PLACEHOLDER UNTIL AI CHECKS YOU IN:

🔥🚨BREAKING: This La Quinta Inn hotel located in Miami is under massive fire after they hired employees located in India to check guests in instead of having Americans at the front desk. pic.twitter.com/W56Oc8aJ5W

— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) August 3, 2025

In the 1960s, artificial intelligence was portrayed as overseeing manned missions to Jupiter, or taking over the world. Today it’s ghostwriting term papers, and soon after it will be checking people into hotels. Do we need to worry about AI chatbots feeling angry about their comparatively lowly status versus their original career goals?

THIS JUST IN: The internet doesn’t know what a Nazi is.

Two things happened online in the past week or so, both online, both quite mad. First was the spread of a podcast clip – hosted by “men’s health” influencer Myron Gains – featuring a rainbow coalition of Gen-Z Americans discussing whether Germany’s 1930s Jews had done something to make the Nazis hate them. They reimagined Hitler as someone who simply had to perpetrate a genocide because the Jews deserved it. The second event was an American Eagle jeans advertisement starring Sydney Sweeney. One of these moments caused a meltdown about the rise of Nazism, and it wasn’t the podcast.

Within hours of the jeans campaign going live, Sweeney – who is guilty of nothing but taking a presumably sizable paycheck to model some pants – was being accused of Nazi dog whistling due to a word play in the ad: she claimed to have “great genes/jeans.” In response came TikTok video essays and lengthy X threads and a cacophony of chatter from talking heads debating just how sinister the ad is. This kind of feverish reaction would be far more credible if the people getting so worked up were consistent.

The critics of the Sweeney ad – largely younger and leftist – are part of a growing population of Americans able to spot Nazi resurgences everywhere except, weirdly, those instances of actual attacks on Jews. I don’t remember seeing so many TikToks about the unprecedented rise of anti-Semitism in the real world following the shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, or after the Jew-hating arson attack in Boulder, Co., last in June.

In the 1950s and ‘60s, when Birchers saw communists everywhere, their paranoia rarely got beyond the newsroom. Space for content was limited, whether it was a newspaper, the nightly TV news, or a weekly news magazine, and the vast majority of journalists didn’t share their politics. Today, there’s a 24-hour news cycle, and newsrooms chockablock staffed with leftists who already see the Bad Orange Man as Hitler incarnate. Since they share the worldview of the pants truthers, it’s not hard to understand how the ravings of some loonies on social media become amplified into actual news articles. (This pattern works equally well in reverse, of course; see also: Memories Pizza.) Or as America’s Newspaper of Record cogently reported last week:

Fortunately, American Eagle knows that the mob will quickly move on to the next big thing to be outraged about.

TWENTY MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE?

The middle classes are defecting. We often see this in history before revolutions. https://t.co/SP134pxJuU

— David Shipley (@ShipleyWrites) August 3, 2025

PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS RELEASE VIDEOS OF HOSTAGES BEING STARVED, TORMENTED, DIGGING OWN GRAVE:

Rom Braslavski, a 21-year-old resident of Jerusalem, was kidnapped by terrorists on October 7, 2023, from the grounds of the Nova festival, where he was serving as a security guard. “The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group on Thursday published a video of hostage Rom Braslavski, whom they are holding captive in the Gaza Strip,” The Times of Israel reported. “The terror group claimed that the six-minute video was recorded days before it lost contact with the captors holding Braslavski, and alleged that the hostage’s fate was unknown.”

On Saturday, Hamas released another video of [Evystar] David, showing him with a shovel digging his own grave in a terror tunnel.

A development apparently not newsworthy enough for a cover story in the New York Times:

DOOM LOOP: VDH recounts the downfall of Kamala Harris’ presidential run.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

Awkward: Obama, Hillary Hire Same Hitman To Kill Each Other https://t.co/XXAsQEavHC pic.twitter.com/7GDEAVIblh

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) August 1, 2025