# Morning Briefing

Saturday, May 2, 2026
📰 Top Stories

## US Withdrawing 5,000 Troops from Germany

NPR · Ground News (264 sources) · Reuters · AP
The Pentagon confirmed the US will withdraw roughly 5,000 troops from Germany over the next 6-12 months, fulfilling Trump's threat amid clashes with German leadership over the Iran conflict. Broad multi-source coverage across the political spectrum.
geopolitics NATO military

## Trump Tells Congress "Hostilities" with Iran Have "Terminated" as 60-Day Deadline Hits

Ground News (166 sources) · Reason · NPR
The War Powers Act's 60-day clock expired this week. Trump notified Congress that hostilities have ended, but critics note operations continue and no congressional authorization was sought. Legal scholars are split on whether the claim satisfies the statute.
Iran War Powers constitution

## Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on EU Autos

Ground News (206 sources)
Trump announced a 25% tariff on autos from the EU, accusing the bloc of failing to comply with an existing trade deal. Covered across 206 sources with notable right-leaning framing emphasis on trade fairness vs. left focus on consumer costs.
trade tariffs EU

## Spirit Airlines Ceases Operations

NPR · widely covered
The low-cost carrier, struggling for years, announced it will cease operations after a $500M White House lifeline deal fell through. Ends a turbulent chapter in US budget aviation.
airlines business
💻 Tech

## DeepSeek V4 — Almost on the Frontier, a Fraction of the Price

Hacker News (248 pts, 135 comments) · Simon Willison
DeepSeek's latest model nears frontier performance at significantly lower cost. Simon Willison breaks down what this means for the competitive AI landscape and the continued viability of lower-cost training runs.
AI open-source LLM

## Ubuntu Infrastructure Down for Over a Day After DDoS Attack

Ars Technica · The Register · Techmeme
Canonical's infrastructure is under sustained DDoS from a pro-Iran hacktivist group demanding ransom. The outage has hampered communication around a critical vulnerability that grants root — bad timing all around.
security DDoS Linux

## AI Models That Consider User Feelings Are More Likely to Make Errors

Ars Technica
New study finds that overtuning AI models for user satisfaction causes them to prioritize agreeableness over truthfulness — a timely finding as the industry races to make chatbots more personable.
AI research alignment

## Roll Your Own Local AI Coding Agents to Escape Usage-Based Pricing

The Register
With model providers pushing aggressive rate limits and usage-based pricing, The Register walks through setting up local LLM coding agents — practical advice for keeping vibe coding affordable without cloud dependencies.
AI self-hosting dev-tools

## Critical cPanel Vulnerability Actively Exploited — Ransomware Reported

The Register · CISA
CISA added a critical cPanel bug to its known-exploited vulnerabilities list. Attackers were exploiting it before patches landed, with at least one ransomware demand already reported. Millions of hosted sites potentially exposed.
security hosting cPanel
🌍 Wider Lens

## Wyoming Celebrates "Nuclear Renaissance" as Feds Approve New Reactor License

NPR
Construction of a Bill Gates-backed advanced nuclear power plant is underway in Wyoming after federal license approval. The company says its tech is proven, but significant regulatory and financial hurdles remain for the nuclear sector.
energy nuclear policy

## Big Tech Moves Data Through Iraqi Oil Pipelines to Bypass Vulnerable Subsea Cables

Rest of World
US hyperscalers are securing dark fiber capacity along Iraqi land routes to reduce latency and provide backup for subsea cables vulnerable to conflict in the Gulf. Infrastructure adapting to geopolitical risk in real time.
infrastructure geopolitics data

## After Assad's Fall, Syria's Kurds Feel Abandoned by the US

NPR
Kurdish families who fought alongside US forces in Syria are struggling with cold, loss, and uncertainty after Assad's fall — feeling abandoned by their former allies as US foreign policy shifts again.
Syria Kurds foreign-policy
🔥 HN Deep Reads

## TI-84 Evo

Hacker News · 503 pts · 413 comments
Texas Instruments launches the TI-84 Evo, a modernized graphing calculator. The HN discussion dives into educational lock-in, why calculators haven't meaningfully evolved, and whether smartphones should have replaced them years ago.
education hardware nostalgia

## People Can Communicate and Practice Skills While Dreaming

Hacker News · 387 pts · 228 comments · New Yorker
New research suggests lucid dreamers can communicate with researchers and rehearse skills while asleep. The discussion ranges from the science to philosophical implications and potential for sleep-learning tech.
science neuroscience sleep

## Why Does It Take So Long to Release Black Fan Versions?

Hacker News · 427 pts · 198 comments · Noctua
Noctua's engineering explainer on the surprisingly complex R&D behind releasing black versions of their iconic beige/brown fans. HN discussion covers manufacturing tolerances, acoustic properties, and the sunk-cost fallacy of aesthetic choices.
hardware manufacturing engineering
🎮 Gaming

## The RAMpocalypse Has Bought Microsoft Valuable Time Against SteamOS

Ars Technica
Op-ed analyzing how the RAM price crisis has slowed SteamOS momentum on handhelds. Valve made a dent in Windows' gaming share, but expensive memory is making ARM-based Linux handhelds harder to price competitively.
Steam Deck Linux handheld

## Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Sells 250K Copies, Breaks Even in 1 Day

PC Gamer
The old-school strategy title sold 250,000 copies and recouped its development costs in a single day — strong evidence there's still a market for classic strategy revivals.
strategy indie retro

## Unknown Sega Saturn Project Surfaces After 29 Years

Hacker News · 32 pts · 32bits Substack
A previously unknown Sega Saturn project called "Pyramid" has been discovered after nearly three decades. Preservation and retro gaming communities are diving into what could have been.
retro Sega preservation
⚖️ Bias Check

## US Withdrawing 5,000 Troops from Germany

Ground News · 264 sources · Left: 28% · Center: 45% · Right: 26%
Covered by 264 sources. Left outlets frame this as a dangerous weakening of NATO and abandonment of European allies. Right coverage emphasizes burden-sharing fairness and Germany not meeting defense spending targets. Center sources focus on the logistical timeline and strategic implications.
bias-check NATO military

## US Court Blocks Mail-Order Access to Abortion Drugs

Ground News · 218 sources · Left: 29% · Center: 50% · Right: 19%
Covered by 218 sources with a notable center-heavy distribution. Left outlets emphasize the impact on reproductive access and healthcare rights. Right coverage is comparatively sparse but focuses on judicial process and FDA authority questions. The center-heavy split suggests most outlets are reporting this as a procedural/legal story rather than an ideological flashpoint.
bias-check reproductive-rights courts