In the midst of ongoing tensions over the Iran ceasefire, President Trump reportedly threatened to “blow up” Oman — a country whose primary role in this entire saga has been hosting peace talks. Oman has spent the last several months being the venue. The conference room. The place with the good chairs and the bottled water. And now, apparently, a target.
For context: Oman did not declare war on anyone. Oman did not seize a cargo ship. Oman, as best we can determine, has spent 2026 quietly trying to get other countries to stop fighting, in its own house, using its own coffee service. If diplomacy had a Yelp page, Oman would have five stars and a note that says “lovely venue, terrible guests.”
Also this week: U.S. inflation hit 3.8%, its highest rate since 2023. The Pentagon awarded Dell a nearly $10 billion contract shortly after President Trump purchased Dell shares. And a Blue Origin rocket exploded, which is just objectively a bad week for a company whose entire pitch is “the rocket does not explode.”
Headline Thread
TERRIBLE GUESTS
For every host, mediator, designated driver, and group chat admin who has ever just been trying to keep the peace and gotten yelled at for it anyway.
Unsolicited Opinions
The Fake News Desk
MAN WHO “JUST WANTED TO MEDIATE” SIBLING DISPUTE NOW BANNED FROM BOTH SIDES’ GROUP CHATS
Akron resident Carl Esposito, 49, attempted to mediate a disagreement between his two adult children over a shared inheritance dispute last weekend, a process he described as “just trying to be the bigger person” and which his children separately described as “somehow making it worse.”
Esposito reportedly hosted a sit-down dinner intended to “clear the air,” which instead resulted in both siblings leaving early, and Esposito being removed from one child’s group chat by Tuesday and the other’s by Thursday.
“I didn’t take a side,” Esposito said. “I was very neutral. I think the issue is that being very neutral, very loudly, for three hours, at dinner, in front of everyone, was maybe… not as neutral as I thought it was in the moment.”
Esposito has been added to a new group chat, created specifically without him, titled “No Dad.”
“I’m Staying Neutral (Loudly)”