NO KINGS: Millions of Americans turned out across the country for “No Kings” rallies Saturday in protest to the imperial presidency of Donald Trump. One of our favorite signs: “So Bad Even Introverts are out here.”

  As many as 2600 gatherings took place in all 50 states.

  There did not seem to be a lot of counter-protest. In Glens Falls, NY an older man in a 70s muscle car stopped and revved his engine to drown out the crowd and enveloped them in blue exhaust smoke. He was ticketed. In Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania a MAGA man pulled a gun on protesters and was arrested.

   In Portland, Oregon federal officers used tear gas, flash-bangs, and pepper balls on protesters at the U.S. outside the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement building.

  Rather than consider that millions of Americans oppose and are frightened about the way Trump runs the country, the President and Vice President JD Vance responded with AI-generated videos making fun of the protests. Trump posted a video of himself as a fighter pilot wearing a crown on his head, dropping sewage on protesters to the tune of the “Top Gun” theme song.

  Vance similarly posted on the Blue Sky platform a video showing Trump putting a crown on his head and becoming a king. 

  Those are our national leaders.

HEIST: The Louvre museum in Paris was closed yesterday following a brazen daytime burglary in which thieves broke into a first floor wing and got away with jewelry that had belonged to Emperor Napoleon. The French interior minister described the stolen items as  “patrimonial,” “historical” and “priceless.”

  The heist took place around 9:30 in the morning. The thieves used a lift mechanism on a truck to reach a window which they breached with a power grinder before entering and breaking into display cases in an area that holds the French crown jewels.  

  The whole caper took just seven minutes and the thieves got away on motor scooters. 

  It’s not the first heist at the Louvre. Famously in 1911 the Mona Lisa was stolen and was not returned for two years. 

THE HIGH SEAS: The US military destroyed a 7^th suspected drug boat in the Caribbean and killed three men who Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed were affiliated with a Colombian insurgency group. That makes 32 men killed in the strikes.

  Hegseth and the defense department have provided no evidence that the boats they have destroyed are carrying drugs. They have defined the boat crews as “unlawful combatants” to justify killing them in international waters.

  Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the US of murdering an innocent fisherman in one attack, prompting President Trump to declare yesterday that he would slash assistance to Colombia, and impose new tariffs on the country’s goods.

THE WAR ROOM: It was nice while it lasted. Israel launched a wave of attacks on Gaza and stopped aid shipments after accusing Palestinian militants of attacking its forces over the cease-fire lines. The cease-fire took hold just over a week ago.

  The Israeli military described it as “renewed enforcement of the cease-fire.” They said aid would be resumed once they stop bombing.

  Israel said the flareup was sparked by the killing of two soldiers early Sunday in an area where the Israeli military is allowed to be under the cease-fire agreement. The Gaza health ministry reported 44 Palestinian deaths across the territory yesterday.

RESIGNATION: A national security reporter at the right-wing Epoch Times resigned after his publication agreed to new rules restricting news gathering within the Pentagon. Andrew Thornebrooke quit Friday objecting to a choice to “abdicate our responsibility as journalists in favor of merely repeating state narratives.”

  Thornebrooke  also cited a recent directive from his employers to refer to antifa, the left-wing anti-fascist movement, as a terrorist organization in line with President Trump’s directive. There is no designation for domestic terrorism under existing US law.

  “I can no longer reconcile my role with the direction the paper has chosen, including its increasing willingness to promote partisan materials, publish demonstrably false information, and manipulate the reporting of its ground staff to shape the worldview of our readers,” Thornebrooke wrote.

THE REGIME:

— Despite Pentagon assurances that a display of Marine might attended by Vice President JD Vance and defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was a safe and routine exercise, an artillery shell exploded over California’s 5 Freeway running through Camp Pendleton. 

  Fragments of the 155-milimeter shell hit a California Highway patrol vehicle and motorcycle that were part of Vance’s protective detail. No one was hurt.

  California Gov. Gavin Newsom had ignored Pentagon assurances and closed 17 miles of the vital freeway.

  The exercise featured Marine amphibious landings, air power, demonstrations of building to building fighting, and what Marine insiders said was the unusual firing of artillery from the oceanfront inland over the freeway. The firing of about 60 155-millimeter shells was ended after the short round exploded.

  Vance’s office deferred comment to the Marines although the artillery firing appears to have been carried out over Marine cautions.

— The Coast Guard is shelling out $172 million to buy two Gulfstream business jets for use by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and other top officials in her department. DHS says that Noem’s current jet is old and outdated. They say buying the new jets is “a matter of safety.”

THE SPIN RACK: Amazon Web Services, a major provider of cloud services for companies, said most services are back up after an issue caused outages for many websites. — Architecture critics are already circling like sharks around the brutalist granite tower that will be the central feature of Barack Obama’s presidential library. It’s already been nicknamed the Obamalisk.

BELOW THE FOLD: Convicted former member of Congress George Santos made the rounds of weekend talk shows following his sentence commutation and release from prison by President Trump. Santos said on “Fox & Friends Weekend” that he is now free to get Botox injections.