Zapped: The leader of the Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, is believed to have been killed in a drone strike along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, according to the Pentagon. The US military is still trying to verify that he is dead, but Pentagon officials say Mansour and another man were riding in a vehicle that took a direct hit.

Mansour quietly took over the Taliban two years ago when the one-eyed Mullah Omar died and the Taliban kept it a secret.

EgyptAir: Smoke was detected inside the cabin of the EgyptAir jet minutes before it went down in the Mediterranean, French authorities confirm. Sensors detected smoke in a bathroom and only a minute later, smoke in the avionics.

The information was taken from an inflight reporting system. Four minutes after the first smoke alert, the plane disappeared from radar.

Shoot, But Don’t Vote: The Huffington Post points out that while National Rifle Association President Wayne LaPierre rails on about Democrats trying to restore voting rights to convicted felons, the NRA has a history of trying to restore the right of felons to own a gun.

LaPierre said at the organization’s annual meeting, that Democrats are “even allowing felons the right to vote, including violent rapists and murderers.” He went on, “Tentacles of the Clinton machine are out registering those felons right now.”

But the NRA has campaigned for years to give felons the right to have guns. The organization posted on its Facebook page nearly a year ago, “Those who have lost the right to purchase and obtain a firearm are now one step closer to being able to petition the government for a full restoration of those rights.”

Single Crown: Nyquist finished third to Exaggerator on a rain-soaked track at Pimlico to end a quest for the horse racing’s second consecutive Triple Crown. Nyquist, a spectacular horse undefeated in four previous races, including The Kentucky Derby, had beaten Exaggerator in four meetings.

It was not a happy day at the track. Two horses had died earlier in the day. One broke a leg and was put down on the track. A second horse collapsed and died after appearing in the winner’s circle.

Because It’s There: Two climbers have died of altitude sickness on Mt. Everest. A Dutch man and Australian woman were the first deaths of an otherwise highly successful season during which hundreds of climbers have reached the summit. More than 250 people have died in the history of climbing Everest.

**The Donald Report**

The Money Pool: Rich conservatives who’ve given a combined $90 million in the past three federal elections are failing to cough it up for Donald Trump, according to a report in the NY Times. The paper says, “Interviews and emails with more than 50 of the Republican Party’s largest donors, or their representatives, revealed a measure of contempt and distrust toward their own party’s nominee that is unheard of in modern presidential politics.”

History Lesson: Adam Gopnik writes for The New Yorker: “If Trump came to power, there is a decent chance that the American experiment would be over. This is not a hyperbolic prediction; it is not a hysterical prediction; it is simply a candid reading of what history tells us happens in countries with leaders like Trump. Countries don’t really recover from being taken over by unstable authoritarian nationalists of any political bent, left or right—not by Peróns or Castros or Putins or Francos or Lenins or fill in the blanks. The nation may survive, but the wound to hope and order will never fully heal. Ask Argentinians or Chileans or Venezuelans or Russians or Italians—or Germans. The national psyche never gets over learning that its institutions are that fragile and their ability to resist a dictator that weak.”

-30-