Saber Rattling: President Trump has sent an aircraft carrier and a bomber group to the Persian Gulf after US intelligence agencies said they picked up information that Iran planned to attack American targets at sea and on land.

 Tensions with Iran have been on the rise since last month when the US declared the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to be a terrorist organization. The US also is attempting to shut down all Iranian oil exports, which is really going for Iran’s throat.

Permawar:Israel and militants in the Gaza strip have reached a tentative cease fire after a weekend of fire and counter-fire. The Palestinians fired as many as 700 missiles, inviting a pounding by the Israelis. People were killed on both sides. 

Turn of the Screw:President Trump on Twitter announced higher tariffs on Chinese goods because he says it’s been taking too long to reach a trade deal.

  “The Tariffs paid to the USA have had little impact on product cost, mostly borne by China,” he said. China might just respond with more tariffs of its own.

  The US has been demanding freer trading and an end to the Chinese practice of requiring American companies to hand over technology and trade secrets in order to do business in their country.

  Despite Trump’s claim that the Chinese bear the cost of tariffs, it is American customers who pay them in the form of higher prices. The purpose of tariffs is to raise the cost of foreign goods so people buy domestic products instead.

 Revealing that he knows nothing about how this works, Trump said last fall that, “Billions of Dollars are pouring into the coffers of the U.S.A. because of the Tariffs being charged to China.” While it’s true that the federal government gets the money, it’s Americans, not Chinese, who are paying it.

Crash:Forty-one people were killed after a Russian airliner burst into flames while making an emergency landing in Moscow.

  The pilots notified the tower of an emergency shortly after takeoff then circled and came back. The jet bounced on first contact with the tarmac then landed on its belly and caught fire. Many of the passengers were able to escape before smoke and flames overcame those still on board.

Shakeup:CBS Newsannounced a big shakeup in its lineup today with fortunes rising, falling, and going sideways at the network of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite.

  Morning anchor  Norah O’Donnell has been named the anchor of the struggling “CBS Evening News,” replacing  the ho-hum Jeff Glor who has held the seat only 18 months. O’Donnell will take the broadcast to Washington, a major departure for New York centric network news. 

  Morning anchor Gayle King, a buddy of Oprah Winfrey, is in ascension after securing what may be an $11 million contract. Once the second fiddle to O’Donnell and the fired Charlie Rose, she becomes the No. 1 fiddler in the morning.

   The network’s new president, CBS lifer Susan Zirinsky, is putting her imprint on the face of the news division. Zirinsky was the model for Holly Hunter’s neurotic character in the 1987 movie “Broadcast News.”

  Morning co-anchor John Dickerson slides over to “60 Minutes.” Glor, they say, is still in “discussions” with the network.

   Zirinsky will pair King on the morning beat with Anthony Mason, a reporting and anchoring veteran, and Tony Dokoupil, an appealing younger network correspondent.

The Great Extinction:As many as one million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction, threatening to collapse ecosystems all over the world, a new United Nations assessment has concluded.

  The 1,500-page report sourced by hundreds of international experts and scientific studies is the most extensive evaluation so far of the decline in biodiversity around the world. The report says that with the human population passing seven billion, building, farming, logging, fishing, and mining are altering the natural world at a rate “unprecedented in human history.”

The Racing Form:President Trump, evidently now an expert on horses, has joined the legion of  people outraged by the decision of the Kentucky Derby judges to award Saturday’s win to the second-place finisher. He tweeted, “It was a rough & tumble race on a wet and sloppy track, actually, a beautiful thing to watch. Only in these days of political correctness could such an overturn occur. The best horse did NOT win the Kentucky Derby – not even close!”

  Vladimir Putin has assured Trump he had nothing to do with it.

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