FAIL, BRITANNIA: Britain now down to five operational frigates.

HMS Iron Duke has been withdrawn from active service, leaving the Royal Navy with just five operational Type 23 frigates, NavyLookout has revealed.

The naval analysis website broke the story today in a detailed piece well worth reading in full, reporting that Iron Duke has been stripped of her weapons and sensors and has not been to sea since October 2024, with no formal decommissioning announcement made despite her effective removal from the fleet.

The withdrawal comes less than three years after a £103 million refit that by any measure was extraordinary in its scope. The work took 49 months and more than 1.7 million man-hours, and was described as the most complex ever carried out on a Type 23.

Iron Duke had been laid up in Portsmouth since 2017 and arrived at Devonport in such poor condition that the structural work on her hull was almost twice what had been needed on any previous ship in the class.

Nelson weeps.

UNDERSTOOD:

I need people to understand that our tax dollars were used to train these foreigners how to scam our welfare programs https://t.co/Ry5PREN2ac pic.twitter.com/X14StzZ9GA

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) May 5, 2026

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Gee, It’s Almost Like Iran Can’t Be Trusted at All. “The media coverage of Operation Epic Fury/Roaring Lion has been maddeningly irresponsible. Everything President Trump says is parsed out to the nth degree and treated with scorn and outrage. To the hacks in the mainstream media, Trump is always the bad guy. The lunatic fanatics who have been bankrolling terrorism in the Middle East for half a century get the benefit of the doubt though.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE NATION’S CAPITOL: At least 3 MPD officials under investigation over crime stats may be fired.

At least three Metropolitan Police Department officials who were under investigation for allegedly manipulating crime statistics were issued termination papers by the internal affairs office, law enforcement sources tell News4.

Two of the officials are commanders, sources said; another is a captain.

News4 was first to report in July 2025 that the commander of MPD’s 3rd District was under investigation for allegedly manipulating crime statistics on his district. Cmdr. Michael Pulliam was placed on leave with pay and denied the allegations.

Pulliam was told on Monday that he would be terminated, News4 confirmed.

2nd District Cmdr. Tatjana Savoy also was told she would be terminated, source said.

Multiple other officials were told they would be fired or receive other forms of discipline.

Word of the termination notices spread as a number of high-level officials did not show up to a crime briefing early Monday, sources said.

Interim Chief of Police Jeffery Carroll declined to comment, citing an internal matter. U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro also said she could not comment.

Two federal reports in late 2025 criticized D.C.’s police chief at the time, Pamela Smith, and questioned the accuracy of the District’s crime data.

Accountability, it’s a helluva thing.

CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN:

We've all seen these photos now, but honestly, it's unbelievable that this was our military until Pete took over. https://t.co/DokruSWqt1

— Brian Hegseth (@brianhegseth) May 4, 2026

Our military looks like a fighting force again — and acts like one, too.

ERIC FLORACK: Germany’s Indecision on Iran Is Costing Lives.

THE MATH IS BRUTAL:

10k a year of drone interceptors when Russia is building 200 Shaheed clones a day is ~13% that drone’s production rate. 🤦‍♂️ https://t.co/mD1NH28n3C

— Trent Telenko (@TrentTelenko) May 3, 2026

HMM: Inside the Quiet Republican Effort to Flip Fetterman.

If Fetterman does flip, according to officials who were given anonymity to talk about sensitive matters, it will be thanks in large part to his deepening friendship with a pair of senators and their high-profile spouses: Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), and his wife Dina, and Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), and her husband, Wesley.

But the first-term Democrat — who’s infuriated his party with his harder line on immigration and staunch support for Israel, Trump nominees, government funding bills and most recently the president’s ballroom — isn’t yet persuaded.

“I’m not changing,” Fetterman told me in an interview Friday when I asked if he was ruling out both becoming a Republican or turning independent. “I’m a Democrat, and I’m staying one. “

Yet, at least in private, he’s not totally rejecting dropping his “D.”

When one senior Republican recently brought up the idea of becoming an independent to Fetterman, he absorbed the suggestion and didn’t embrace or reject the overture, according to a GOP official familiar with the conversation.

In our interview, Fetterman said bluntly: “I’d be a shitty Republican.”

That’s certainly my impression, although to be fair, maybe not all that much worse than a few current GOP senators you could name.

Still, while he seems unlikely to flip, it’s easy to see him dropping the (D) for an (I).

THIS IS BIG:

https://t.co/7V1oWKxuWZ

— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) May 4, 2026

Read the whole thing, but this stands out: “As people have realized the United States government will pay them to hang out with their own families, northeast Columbus has seen its economy replaced by businesses that bill Medicaid. And Columbus, a city with the second largest Somali population in the country, has become, on the surface, the most unhealthy city on the planet.”

THAT ABOUT SUMS IT UP: Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson: A Dumber and More Unlikeable Version of Commie Mamdani.

THIS IS SOME CEASEFIRE: Iran Getting Spicy Again. “It appears the IRCG regards Trump’s slow economic strangulation via blockade as a bigger threat to their tenuous hold on power than American and Israel bombs falling on them. They’re probably correct in that assumption.”

WELL, YEAH:

For Democrats, everybody is a Nazi except the guy with the Nazi tattoo who hates the Jews.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 4, 2026

CORN, POPPED: The GOP Is Holding a Bombshell on Graham Platner: ‘He’ll Have to Leave the State.’

MONDAY MORNINGS? Physicists just found a tiny flaw in time itself.

HOW’S THAT SAVE AMERICA ACT COMING ALONG, SENATOR THUNE?

WELL WELL WELL…

WaPo did a study projecting the impact of a "proof of citizenship" mandate for national elections.

Trump would've won New Mexico! pic.twitter.com/nDJFwIHVPQ

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 4, 2026

CHRIS QUEEN: Mike Collins Is the Conservative Workhorse Georgia Republicans Need Against Jon Ossoff.

WHEN THEY TELL YOU WHO THEY ARE…:

As I have reported—Zia Faruqui signed arrest warrants for hundreds of J6ers.

He has used some of the harshest terms to describe J6ers including those accused of no violence.

He is now APOLOGIZING to the psycho who tried to kill multiple people including the president pic.twitter.com/gsHaEVS1pJ

— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) May 4, 2026

Related (From Ed): Judge Apologizes to Would-Be Trump Assassin, Sparks Outrage.

MAYBE IT’S TIME TO ADJUST EXPECTATIONS: A tiny world beyond Neptune has an atmosphere that shouldn’t exist. “In the cold reaches of the outer solar system lie thousands of small objects known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) because they lie outside the orbit of Neptune. A thin atmosphere has been observed around Pluto, the most famous TNO, but studies of other TNOs have yielded negative results. Most TNOs are so cold, and their surface gravity so weak, that they are not expected to retain atmospheres.”

LIFE IMITATES STAR WARS:

It's a moon. We checked.@NASA's Cassini spacecraft got many close-up views of Saturn's icy moon Mimas, and still managed to escape and send the data home. Take a tour of Mimas and hundreds of other solar system moons at https://t.co/1y9DX7NcLo — and May the Fourth be With You. pic.twitter.com/1XLCuHVN25

— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) May 4, 2026

KRUISER: Hollywood Elites: Free Market Capitalism for Me, Socialism for Thee. “Wealthy Americans who can afford to be socialism fetishists are a huge contributing factor to the rise of the progressive left and the decline of America it wants to bring about.”

THANKS FOR NOTHING, DEMS: House bill Balances Colorado budget using taxpayer refunds.

Polis’ office suggests that, due to immediate reductions in state tax collections upon passage of the federal OBBBA, the state is entitled to recoup Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) refunds accordingly.

However, as previously explained, Legislative Council Staff believed that the request was legally dubious and could exacerbate future fiscal challenges should the governor’s office be wrong.

Regardless, four members of the Joint Budget Committee decided to pursue recouping TABOR refunds from taxpayers, and House Bill 1419 is how they plan to do it.

Assuming the governor’s suggestion is legal, the state would retain $136.1 million in overcollected revenue that would otherwise be refunded back to taxpayers under TABOR in FY2026-27 and $153 million in FY2027-28.

However, if the Polis proposal is found illegal, the state would likely be required to repay the money at 10% annual interest, as required by TABOR.

But cut spending? Never.

LITERALLY ANY BEHAVIOR IS ACCEPTABLE UNTIL IT COSTS THE DEMS POWER:

So they stuck it out with Mr. Perv until it conflicted with their electoral goals. No they want you to excuse a dude with a Nazi tattoo and a history of racist remarks, all for their electoral goals.

Dems believe in nothing. Only power, and only in their hands.

— Senator Tim Whatley (no anti-dentites, please) (@senator_tim) May 4, 2026

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: The Horns of Hormuz. “If Project Freedom succeeds, the Strait will essentially be controlled not by Iran, but the United States.”

THE CEASEFIRE SEEMS TO BE EFFECTIVELY OVER:

BREAKING 🇦🇪 : Reports indicate that a fire has broken out at a petroleum facility in Fujairah, UAE, following a suspected Iranian drone strike

— World Affairs Monitor (@worldaffairsm24) May 4, 2026

HOW’S THAT SPACE PROGRAM COMING ALONG: ‘Potentially hazardous’ asteroid to pass close to Earth in 2029.