WORLD NEWS
Police declare Sydney church stabbing a “terrorist attack”; not the first in recent weeks!
Police in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) have declared Monday’s stabbing at a Sydney church a religiously motivated “terrorist act” while declining to publicly state the faith of the alleged attacker.
The definition means counter-terrorism investigators – a joint team comprising NSW and federal police as well as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) – now have extraordinary powers under NSW laws to investigate the attack, the BBC reports.
They can also conduct searches to prevent any further suspected attacks.
As Breitbart News reported, a 16-year-old boy was arrested after a bishop, a priest and churchgoers were attacked during mass at the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church in the west of the city.
At least four people suffered “non-life-threatening” injuries, police say. The attacker was also hurt.
The incident was captured on a church livestream and quickly triggered unrest in the suburb of Wakeley as locals rushed to support those under attack.
ABC News reports the boy was charged with a range of offenses, including possessing a knife, in November last year after an incident at a Sydney train station.
The boy was found in possession of a flick knife and charged with being armed with a weapon with intent to commit and indictable offense, stalking and/or intimidation and recklessly destroy or damage
He was on bail until his last court appearance in January, where his case was “proven” but dismissed with a good behavior bond.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel sustained lacerations to his head during the attack.
The 53-year-old underwent surgery and a 39-year-old man also sustained cuts and a shoulder injury while attempting to intervene, NSW Police say.
In another stabbing-related incident, police in NSW have named the attacker who was fatally shot after stabbing and murdering six people at a shopping mall …
Police in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) have identified the assailant who stabbed six people to death at a busy Sydney shopping center on Saturday afternoon before he was shot dead by an off-duty police officer.
Australia-born Joel Cauchi, 40, was responsible for the attack at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, in the city’s eastern suburbs, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
NSW Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters at a media conference on Sunday Cauchi suffered from yet unspecified mental health issues and police investigators weren’t treating the attack as terrorism-related.
Six people — five women and one man, aged between 20 and 55 — were killed in the attack and 12 others remain in hospital, including a nine-month-old child, whose mother died during the attack.
Two of the six victims were from overseas and have no family in Australia, according to reports.
Meanwhile, left-wing Aussie government has opened the door to record immigration numbers!
Australia’s left-wing Labor government has set a new record for welcoming immigration arrivals, with its open door policy delivering an unprecedented 105,460 net permanent and long-term arrivals landing in February, with 173,370 arriving over the quarter.
Over the year to February, there were 1,136,770 permanent and long-term arrivals into Australia, offset by 638,500 departures.
As a result, there were a record 498,270 net permanent and long-term arrivals into Australia over the year to February, the Australian reports.
Critics are quick to point out the massive inflow of arrivals are outpacing the construction of new homes at a rate of almost four to one, making it impossible for first-home buyers to access the market.
Record low vacancy rates are being driven by ongoing factors like rapid population growth and rising property prices, leaving more renters stuck in the rental market, the report notes.
Institute of Public Affairs deputy executive director Daniel Wild said the combination of record arrivals and low housing availability was a recipe for a housing crisis, the Daily Mail reports.
“Australia’s migration intake remains out of control, with promises to ‘normalize’ arrivals in tatters,” he said. “Combined with plummeting housing construction approvals, Australia is being set up for a disaster.”
The national population growth pace of 2.5 percent, with births included, was the fastest since 1952, with Wild saying high immigration was locking Australians out of the housing market.
“The data proves that the federal government’s unplanned mass migration program is unsustainable,” he said.
The pressure of an immigrant flood into Australia alongside relentless cost-of-living pressure, rising interest rates, uncertainty about the direction of the economy under Labor and growing concern about inequality has undermined Australia’s sense of social cohesion, according to recent research.
Vietnam mounts unprecedented $24-billion rescue of Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank!
Vietnam has mounted an “unprecedented” rescue of Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), a lender engulfed in the nation’s biggest financial fraud, according to three bank documents and new official information provided to Reuters by a person with access to the documents.
“Without lending, SCB will collapse,” according to the new information provided to Reuters. “If the lending continues, the national treasury will gradually dry up.”
The new information also described the situation as “unprecedented” for the massive volume of the cash injections, the complexity of the operation and the scale of existing and potential damage to Vietnam’s financial system.
Reuters was unable to establish whether the conclusions about the impact on state coffers were broadly shared by other officials currently involved with monitoring SCB.
The central bank placed SCB under its supervision to stem a run on the bank sparked by the October 2022 arrest of real estate tycoon Truong My Lan. Since then, SCB has been using the injections to cover cash withdrawals, according to one of the bank documents, which SCB sent to the central bank in November to account for its use of the loans.
Dubai submerged in floods as UAE gets over a year’s worth of rain in hours
By the end of Tuesday, more than 142mm (5.59 inches) of rain had soaked Dubai over 24 hours.
Heavy thunderstorms have lashed the United Arab Emirates (UAE), dumping more than a year and a half’s rain on the desert city-state of Dubai in just a few hours and flooding major highways and its international airport.
The rains began late on Monday, soaking the sands and roads of Dubai with some 20mm (0.79 inches) of rain, according to meteorological data collected at Dubai International Airport. The storms intensified at about 9am (05:00 GMT) on Tuesday and continued throughout the day, dumping more rain and hail onto the overwhelmed city.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Lara Trump denounces insane hush money case; says it’s boosting the Trump campaign!
Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump, said that the “hush-money” case against him was “insane” and “wrong” as the trial started on Monday.
In an interview with NewsNation on April 15, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) criticized the Manhattan District Attorney for targeting the 45th president.
“Obviously, it’s wrong. You should never see this in the United States of America,” Ms. Trump said. “It is ridiculous that they are dragging this man in a New York City courtroom. It is so clear how partisan this is that Alvin Bragg himself wouldn’t even take this case up until when? Until Donald Trump announced, he was running for president.”
During the interview, President Trump’s daughter-in-law said former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance wouldn’t prosecute the case “because he said this is ridiculous.”
She praised her father-in-law for his courage in facing cases like this, noting that it often boosts his standing in the polls for the 2024 White House race and increases his fundraising.
The RNC co-chair said the trial would impact President Trump’s ongoing presidential campaign as he has to divide his time between the courtroom and campaign rallies for about eight weeks.
The former president has repeatedly said the trial, along with three other separate criminal cases, is a form of election interference aimed at derailing his campaign.
At least 50 potential jurors excused from the first jury pool in the Trump trial!
Thirty-four of the 96 potential jurors remain from the first pool in the juror selection process for President Donald Trump’s criminal trial, courtroom journalists reported Monday.
“The rapid disqualification of at least 50 possible jurors underscores the difficult reality of finding a dozen New Yorkers to form the jury in one of the most high-profile cases in U.S. history,” Axiosreported:
“I just couldn’t do it,” one prospective juror said in the hallway outside of the courtroom, per the pool.
Of the jurors who said they couldn’t be fair or impartial in the case, over two dozen were white women, 1 Hispanic woman, and 4 women of Asian descent. Fourteen were white men and 1 man of Asian descent. Six other jurors were unknown.
The judge reportedly excused at least nine jurors after they admitted they could not serve, which left the 34 jurors remaining.
The 34 potential jurors will progress to the next stage of filling out a questionnaire, which asks what media they consume, where they live, and their political activities.
After the questionnaire, lawyers for both sides will scrutinize the potential candidates. The lawyers will likely investigate the jurors’ social media and ask more personal questions to screen for biases.
The first six jurors were selected in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial on
Tuesday afternoon, whittled down from a potential 96 potential candidates.
More than 50 were turned away on Monday after they said they could not be impartial. However, at least several who were not dismissed Monday and remained as potential jurors until Tuesday had made social media posts that were negative towards Trump.
For example, one potential juror had posted or reposted on social media, “Republicans projected to pick up 70 seats in prison.” That juror had also said she had lost sleep the night before on whether she could be fair or impartial. She was not one of the six jurors selected.
Another potential juror had just last month, on March 27, posted a parody video, generated by artificial intelligence, titled “I’m dumb as f-ck,” featuring Trump. That potential juror was also not selected.
Another potential juror admitted he sells buttons to raise money for a political action committee that supports get out the vote efforts for “grassroots organizations,” but said the PAC did not support a specific party.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan reportedly allowed a juror who celebrated former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss on social media to remain in the jury pool.
“They wanted to have a peremptory challenge to excuse the juror because they thought that she said she could be impartial, but had social media posts that apparently had her celebrating Trump’s loss in 2020,” Trace Gallagher reported, “and so they challenged her. The judge said, ‘Nope, she can be impartial. She stays.’”
And now, Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg filed a contempt motion against Trump!
Prosecutors in the so-called “hush-money” case filed court papers Tuesday alleging former President Donald Trump violated a judge’s gag order by commenting on potential and likely witnesses involved in the case.
Several weeks ago, Judge Juan Merchan imposed the gag order on President Trump, writing that he cannot make public comments about witnesses such as former lawyer Michael Cohen or adult performer Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels. Bragg wants Trump fined $1,000 per violation and to be threatened with 30 days in jail if he continues to violate the gag order.
The court motion came after Bragg prosecutor Joshua Steinglass made reference to a recent Trump post on Truth Social in which he called Mr. Cohen and Ms. Clifford “two sleazebags.” The former president has complained that Mr. Cohen and Ms. Clifford, both of whom are key prosecution witnesses, are allowed to criticize him in the media while he has to remain silent.
The former president’s lawyers have argued that the gag order is an unconstitutional curb on the presumptive Republican nominee’s free speech rights while he’s campaigning for president and fighting criminal charges.
“The First Amendment harms arising from this gag order right now are irreparable,” Trump lawyer Emil Bove said at an emergency hearing last week in an appeals court. Mr. Bove also argued that President Trump shouldn’t be muzzled while critics routinely assail him.
MTG: Mike Johnson speakership is over! He’s just the only one who hasn’t acknowledged it!
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) told Breitbart News exclusively that she is prepared to force House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) out of his position with a vote to vacate the chair if the Speaker does not willingly resign the position.
“Yes, I am willing to force it,” Greene told Breitbart News in a lengthy exclusive interview on Tuesday afternoon where she explained her plan to remove Johnson and get a real Republican Speaker in his place. “The reality for Mike Johnson that he just is not accepting or refusing to accept, publicly at least, is whether it happens two weeks from now, two months from now, or in the next majority, he will not be Speaker. He just will not be. There may be only two of us public right now. But he does not have the support of the conference at all. There may be people who might not vote to vacate him right now, but they will never vote for him to be Speaker next Congress. There are two large factions in the conference against his speakership.”
Greene has introduced a motion to vacate the chair — a procedure that would remove Johnson as Speaker and force the chamber to select another one. Greene has not made the resolution privileged yet; however, it is a mechanism that would allow her to force a House vote within two days. By saying she is willing to “force it,” that’s what she means — she or any member can force the House to consider the question at any time if Johnson does not agree to leave his position peacefully.
A major development on Tuesday was that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), an influential conservative who sits on the powerful House Rules Committee, publicly joined Greene’s effort, saying he is cosponsoring her motion to vacate the chair. During a closed-door Republican conference meeting, Massie told Johnson to his face — in front of the entire House GOP conference — that he must resign or face the same fate his predecessor, now former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, did last year with a motion to vacate vote Massie told Johnson, and later told reporters, that if Johnson does not agree to resign willingly he will likely lose even more votes than McCarthy did if and when the motion to vacate is called. Johnson responded to Massie in conference, and then later at a press conference, saying he will not resign — echoing what his spokesman Raj Shah told Breitbart News late last week when pressure began severely ramping up after Johnson was the deciding vote to kill an amendment to the renewal of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that would have required the federal government obtain a warrant to engage in surveillance of American citizens. Johnson’s FISA ploy did provide such warrant protections only for members of Congress — protections that Johnson did not deem necessary for hundreds of millions of Americans not currently serving in the United States Congress.
Greene has echoed Massie’s call for Johnson to resign his position, but she told Breitbart News if he does not step aside willingly she is prepared to force the vote to remove him. She said she is currently planning on doing it in a way that does not jeopardize GOP control of the House chamber, and is timing it in a way that is respectful to her Republican colleagues in a way she argues Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and others were not during their removal of McCarthy last year. Greene, notably, was one of McCarthy’s biggest conservative defenders before his ouster and it is worth noting that McCarthy never once during his speakership tried to push a supplemental Ukraine funding plan like Johnson is currently doing and also never once violated what is known as the “Hastert Rule.” The Hastert Rule, named for former Speaker Denny Hastert, is a Republican principle that holds that a GOP Speaker will not bring a proposal to the floor that does not have the support of at least the majority of the majority. Johnson has repeatedly violated the Hastert rule, on spending and on other major proposals — and he routinely relies on Democrats to pass bills through a mechanism called a “suspension of the rules.” Greene told Breitbart News that had the eight who pushed McCarthy out actually believed what they said at the time they would have removed Johnson long ago. It’s worth noting most if not all of those eight are currently defending Johnson.
Greene is confident that if it ever gets to the point where Johnson needs to be forced out — that Johnson does not willingly resign like former Speaker John Boehner did when he saw the writing on the wall back in the fall of 2015 — there will be many more votes against Johnson than there were against McCarthy.
“Of course I’ll never speak for anyone or name names,” Greene said. “That would be very inappropriate and wrong of me. To quote Thomas Massie, what he told Mike Johnson at our conference meeting this morning and he said that ‘if this vote is held it’s very likely there will be more Republicans voting to vacate you than there was against Kevin McCarthy.’”
Smartmatic and One America News settle the election defamation lawsuit!
Smartmatic has settled a lawsuit accusing right-wing television network One America News of defamation by falsely claiming that the voting technology company rigged the 2020 U.S. presidential election to help Joe Biden beat Donald Trump.
Terms of the settlement are confidential, Smartmatic’s lawyer Erik Connolly said, but the company voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit filed in 2021 against OAN in Washington, D.C.
Smartmatic had estimated that OAN’s false claims wiped out much of its business value, reducing it to less than $1 billion from more than $3 billion.
Chip Babcock, a lawyer for OAN, also confirmed the settlement without providing details.
The lawsuit was one of several accusing right-wing or conservative-leaning media of spreading lies about the election to drum up viewership, and boost advertising revenue.
Smartmatic still has lawsuits pending against Fox News (FOXA.O) and Newsmax over their election coverage. It is seeking $2.7 billion in the Fox lawsuit.
Last April, the voting technology company Dominion Voting Systems reached a $787.5 million settlement with Fox, as opening statements at a trial were about to begin.
OAN positioned itself to the right of Fox and Newsmax, sometimes airing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol, and vaccine safety.
It suffered financial blows in 2022 when Verizon (VZ.N) and AT&T’s (T.N) DirecTV stopped carrying its programming.
Smartmatic, based in Boca Raton, Florida, accused OAN of causing irreparable harm by “spreading disinformation” about the election and its technology.
It said San Diego-based OAN eroded trust in the democratic process and abandoned a pledge by Charles Herring, president of its owner Herring Networks, to provide “reliable, credible, fact-based news with substance.”
In court papers, OAN said awarding Smartmatic more than $2 billion would silence “one more, albeit conservative, voice” from what the U.S. Supreme Court has called the “marketplace of ideas” protected by the First Amendment.
Biden refuses to testify in GOP impeachment inquiry!
President Joe Biden will not be testifying to U.S. House of Representatives members who are engaged in an impeachment inquiry against him, the White House said on April 15.
Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, told House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) that the president would not testify in the “partisan charade.”
“Your committee’s purported ‘impeachment inquiry’ has succeeded only in turning up abundant evidence that, in fact, the president has done nothing wrong,” Mr. Sauber said in a letter to Mr. Comer.
“Your insistence on peddling these false and unsupported allegations despite ample evidence to the contrary makes one thing about your investigation abundantly clear: The facts do not matter to you,” he added.
Republicans in their investigation have found that millions of dollars flowed from businesses and individuals, including foreigners, to members of the Biden family while President Biden was vice president.
They’ve also identified payments from Hunter Biden’s business to the president, and from the president’s brother to him, as well as emails between President Biden and an associate of Hunter Biden. Several witnesses, meanwhile, testified that President Biden would get on the phone with Hunter Biden’s associates and that he attended multiple meals with them.
Supreme Court Justices seem skeptical of the J-6 obstruction charge; used in Trump case!
Conservative Supreme Court justices seemed generally sympathetic on April 16 to a former police officer charged under an accounting reform law after he entered the U.S. Capitol for four minutes on Jan. 6, 2021.
The case is being closely watched because once the Supreme Court rules, its decision could affect hundreds of Jan. 6 prosecutions, including the Jan. 6-related case against former President Donald Trump.
Joseph Fischer, from Jonestown, Pennsylvania, was indicted on several counts following the Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021, including obstructing an official proceeding under Enron-era obstruction law 18 U.S. Code Section 1512(c). Convictions under the section can lead to 20 years in prison.
The wording of 1512(c) is focused on documentation and ensuring it is made available for official proceedings.
Section 1512(c) states: “Whoever corruptly (1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or (2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”
The charge relates to the alleged obstruction of the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election results, a proceeding that paved the way for the inauguration of President Joe Biden two weeks later.
Mr. Fischer argues that he should not have been charged under section 1512(c), an evidence-tampering provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act aimed at curbing wrongdoing on Wall Street.
The legislation came in the wake of fraud-related scandals at Enron Corp. and other major corporations. Enron employed dubious accounting practices to conceal falling profits and exaggerate earnings, and its employees reportedly began destroying paperwork when they learned that indictments were in the works.
Some defendants who arrived at the Capitol after Congress was evacuated on Jan. 6, 2021, were also charged with obstructing an official proceeding. Several defendants have argued unsuccessfully at trial that they couldn’t have obstructed Congress because they weren’t present in the Capitol until after lawmakers left the complex. Mr. Fischer also says he left the complex before Congress attempted to move forward with certifying the election and was in Maryland at the time of the security breach.
Legal experts, including Mr. Fischer’s defense counsel, have criticized the Biden administration for prosecuting defendants, including President Trump, under the law, arguing it is an inappropriate vehicle for the prosecutions.
Lawyers argue that the accounting reform law under which Mr. Fischer and others have been charged is being used by the Department of Justice to prosecute people who were exercising their First Amendment right to protest the congressional certification of election results.
During oral arguments on April 16, Mr. Fischer’s attorney Jeffrey Green said the Biden administration was wrong to charge his client under 1512(c), which was intended to be used for evidence tampering only.
Congress passed the statute to prevent the destruction of evidence, he said.
“The January 6 prosecutions demonstrate that there are a host of felony and misdemeanor crimes that cover the alleged conduct,” the lawyer said.
“A Sarbanes-Oxley-based Enron-driven evidence tampering statute is not one of them.”
Until the Jan. 6 prosecutions, 1512(c) had never been used for anything other than evidence tampering, he said.
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said 1512(c) is not a narrow legal provision.
The provision “by its terms is not limited to evidence impairment. Instead, it’s a classic catch-all” with regard to obstruction, she said.
Justice Neil Gorsuch asked if pulling a fire alarm to halt a proceeding would subject the offender to a 20-year prison term.
Ms. Prelogar said it might but that the government would have to have proof of criminal intent.
Justice Samuel Alito asked if protesters obstructing a trial would violate the statute.
“For all the protests that have occurred in this court, the Justice Department has not charged any serious offenses, and I don’t think any one of those protesters has been sentenced to even one day in prison. But why isn’t that a violation of 1512(c)(2)?” he asked.
Ms. Prelogar replied, “There would be the backstop of needing to prove corrupt intent.”
Justice Alito asked whether protestors blocking roads and bridges around the nation’s capital, as happened on April 15 when pro-Palestinian protesters shut down the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, would violate the statute.
Ms. Prelogar said she did not believe that would violate the statute.
She also said Mr. Fischer went to the Capitol intending to prevent Congress from conducting business.
“He had said in advance of January 6 that he was prepared to storm the Capitol [and was] prepared to use violence. He wanted to intimidate Congress. He said, ‘They can’t vote if they can’t breathe,’” she said.
At the Capitol, he allegedly assaulted a law enforcement officer, and that action impeded the ability of police to regain control and let Congress do its job, she said.
“It is entirely appropriate for the government to seek to hold the petitioner accountable for that conduct with that intent,” Ms. Prelogar said.
In a recent brief, Mr. Fischer’s attorneys denied he committed acts of violence on Jan. 6, 2021, and said he was instead a victim of violence. They said that he was knocked to the ground by a crowd surge and that contrary to government claims that he was forcibly removed from the complex, he walked out on his own.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked if the protesters could have been charged under the section even if they had not breached the Capitol.
If they had remained outside “but their goal was to impede, chanting things like ‘stop the steal,’ getting too close, and ignoring police’s calls to disperse, would that still violate the statute?” the justice asked.
Ms. Prelogar said if that had happened when Congress had to go into recess from a joint session because of a security risk, then it “probably would be chargeable” if there was evidence of criminal intent.
Maine Governor allows national popular vote legislation to become law!
Maine Gov. Janet Mills said she will allow a narrowly passed bill that would award the state’s four electoral college votes to go toward the winner of the National Popular Vote to become law, as opposed to the current system where the votes go either to the winner of the state’s popular vote or according to the results in each of congressional district—as is the case in Maine.
A group known as the National Popular Vote (NPV) is behind a push for states to enter into a “National Popular Vote Interstate Compact” that would hand the presidency to whoever gets the greatest number of popular votes at the national level.
Rather than abolishing the Electoral College, this would require presidential electors in the states and the District of Columbia to vote for the candidate who gets the most popular votes overall, which would see the outcome of the election decided by the views of those living in major population centers like Los Angeles and Houston instead of by entire swing states.
A teacher accused of having sex with a 17-year-old male student in Nebraska is married to a government official in the Department of Defense.
Forty-five-year-old Erin Ward is facing a single count of felony sexual abuse by a school staffer
Ward was a substitute teacher at Burke High School in Omaha when she was allegedly found with the student “undressed” in a car parked at a dead-end road around 3:00 a.m., Breitbart News reported Sunday:
Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies were responding to a report of a suspicious car when they happened upon the pair, viewing them rush to put their clothes back on before the teenager got into the driver’s seat and fled the scene before crashing just two blocks away.
The boy got out of the vehicle, which was later determined to belong to Ward and her husband, and ran off on foot. Police found him after over an hour of searching — wearing nothing but boxers, a T-shirt, and socks.
The car being used at the time reportedly belonged to Ward’s husband, identified as William Douglas “Doug” Ward. The Mail report noted he was “appointed Deputy Director of the Commander’s Action Group and Senior Nuclear Deterrence Advisor at the United States Strategic Command in February.”
The Strategic Command’s headquarters is in Omaha, and the outlet noted Doug Ward is a graduate of the Harvard Extension School. The couple lives with their three teenage children in Gretna, near Omaha.
House delivers Mayorkas impeachment articles to Schumer, setting up trial proceedings
Senators will be sworn in as jurors on Wednesday
House impeachment managers officially delivered two articles of impeachment passed against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
After delaying the planned delivery last week and pushing it to Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., directed impeachment managers to bring the long-anticipated articles to the Senate, which will set off a number of procedural actions.
The articles were initially passed in February, but the House held off sending them to the Senate until after the appropriations process was over.
With custody of the articles, Schumer has urged all senators to be present during the week as they will be sworn in as jurors for the impeachment trial on Wednesday.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Atlanta retains its title as the world’s business airport despite international competition!
Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport retained its title as the world’s busiest airport despite the competition, ranking No. 1 on the list for 2023.
Airports Council International (ACI) World announced its annual list Monday, which showed significant differences from its previous rankings, its director said.
The changes were largely driven by international markets which have had a swifter post-pandemic recovery than domestic air traffic.
Atlanta’s No.1 ranking, with 104,653,451 million passengers, bested No. 2 Dubai’s 86,994,365 customers by 22%. Dubai International Airport surpassed Dallas Forth Worth International Airport for the No. 2 spot in the list of 2023’s 10 busiest airports worldwide, with DFW slipping to No. 3 from last year’s second-place rank. Denver slid from third place to sixth, and Chicago moved down five spots from No. 4 to No. 9. Tokyo made a big leap from 16th place in 2022 to the No. 5 spot while Paris Charles de Gaulle slipped out of the top 10.
ATL also beat out all other airports for takeoffs and landings, with an increase year-over-year from 724,000 movements in 2022 to 775,818 in 2023 but still below its 904,000 movements in 2019.
ACI reported a total movement of 8.5 billion passengers worldwide in 2023, which represented a nearly 94% return to pre-pandemic levels.
Now they care? 43% of CEO’s fear AI could impact their own jobs!
A recent report from AND Digital reveals that a significant number of UK-based CEOs are grappling with the potential threat AI poses to their own positions, while simultaneously pushing for its adoption within their organizations.
TechRadar reports that the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence has left many CEOs in the United Kingdom feeling uncertain about the future of their roles. According to a survey conducted by AND Digital, which polled 600 CEOs, nearly half (43 percent) expressed concern that AI could potentially replace them in their current positions. This fear, however, has not deterred the majority of these executives from embracing the technology, with 76 percent of them launching training bootcamps to equip their employees with AI-related skills.
The report highlights a striking contradiction in the attitudes of these CEOs. While 44 percent of them believe their employees are not prepared to handle AI adoption, and 34 percent even want to ban the technology altogether, a significant proportion (45 percent) admit to using AI tools to complete their own work, often passing it off as their own. This revelation has sparked criticism from industry experts who view this behavior as disingenuous and unfair to employees who are being discouraged from utilizing AI in their own work.
The push for AI adoption by executives has been met with skepticism by some, who argue that the technology is being marketed as a solution to non-existent problems in the workplace, primarily driven by a post-pandemic slump in the PC sales market. Critics argue that the practical applications of AI are still unclear, and the energy put into promoting it as a game-changer may be misplaced.
The report also sheds light on the broader issue of workplace culture, where executives often implement rules and restrictions on employees that they themselves do not adhere to. This “rules for thee” mentality has been observed in various instances, such as the reluctance to embrace remote work and the recent claim by Dell that remote workers may not be considered for promotions.
HEALTH
There’s certainly something wrong with men’s health issues, testosterone or not!
In a social media post, tech executive Greg Isenberg, CEO of Late Checkout, shared his encounter with a 24-year-old man in Miami who admitted to spending $10,000 per month on “AI girlfriends,” predicting that this growing trend could lead to a billion-dollar industry.
The New York Post reports that the concept of AI-generated virtual companions has been gaining traction in recent years, with various platforms offering users the opportunity to create and customize their own AI girlfriends. These virtual partners can engage in conversations, provide emotional support, and even participate in erotic role-play, depending on the user’s preferences.
Isenberg’s post recounted his conversation with the Miami man, who explained his fascination with AI girlfriends, stating, “Some people play video games, I play with AI girlfriends.” The man expressed his love for the ability to customize his virtual companion’s likes, dislikes, and personality traits, finding comfort in these interactions at the end of the day.
A recent survey by Infobip found that nearly 20 percent of Americans have flirted with chatbots, with motivations ranging from curiosity (47.2 percent) to loneliness (23.9 percent). Some users (12.2 percent) even sought sexual chat within a private space, while others (16.7 percent) were unknowingly “AI-phished,” not realizing they were interacting with a chatbot.
Because of the very personal nature of the conversations held with AI girlfriends, privacy experts consider them a privacy nightmare. AI-generated romantic partners are unsurprisingly harvesting extremely personal information, and virtually all of them sell or share the data to other entities, a new study from Mozilla’s *Privacy Not Included project reveals.
“To be perfectly blunt, AI girlfriends are not your friends,” Mozilla Researcher Misha Rykov said. “Although they are marketed as something that will enhance your mental health and well-being, they specialize in delivering dependency, loneliness, and toxicity, all while prying as much data as possible from you.”
Schweppes Sugar-Free Ginger Ale Recalled
PepsiCo initiated a voluntary recall for more than 230 cases of sugar-and caffeine-free Schweppes Ginger Ale for containing “full sugar” and being unsafe for some people to drink, according to USA Today.
The recall was issued last month for the defective product that was shipped to Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. An FDA announcement stated that during an internal investigation by PepsiCo, the firm discovered that the product labeled Zero Sugar in fact contained full sugar. The recall number for the 233 cases of 5,592 soda cans in question is F-1120-2024.
The status of the recall, which was initiated in early March, is “ongoing,” but no injuries or deaths have been reported so far. It is not immediately clear if the soft drinks have been pulled from the shelves, says FOOD & WINE. If you have diabetes or are trying to manage your blood sugar, dispose of these full-sugar soft drinks, experts advise.
Diverse Nature Surroundings Best for Mental Health
Want to feel happier?
Live in or near a place with a rich diversity of nature, a new study says.
Environments with plentiful natural features — trees, birds, plants and rivers — are associated with better mental well-being than the more spartan landscapes of suburbia, researchers found.
Further, spending time in areas like this can provide benefits that last up to eight hours afterward, the study claims.
“Our results highlight that by protecting and promoting natural diversity we can maximize the benefits of nature for mental well-being,” said study author Ryan Hammoud, a research assistant with King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience.
For examples, cities could improve the mental well-being of residents by designing parks “which mirror the biodiversity of natural ecosystems,” rather than maintaining green spaces with mowed lawns and sparse features, Hammoud said.
“By showing how natural diversity boosts our mental well-being, we provide a compelling basis for how to create greener and healthier urban spaces,” Hammoud said.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
In the old days, wives would crack the bones of leftovers, sap was turned into sugar, and sucker fish were hooked—all in abundance around the time of April’s Full Pink Moon. Folklore abounds in American lunar heritage. This coming April full moon is no different.
After this last new moon crossed the sun during the recent total solar eclipse, watched by millions in North America on April 8, the current lunar cycle now continues waxing toward peak fullness, to fall on April 23. On that date, the moon will appear fullest at 7:49 p.m. EDT.
Among the many names traditionally given to this moon (not just the full moon, but its entire calendrical month) by Colonial and Native Americans, there is, as mentioned above, the Full Pink Moon.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
86 GOP House members vote for warrantless surveillance of Americans! The list is here!
Score one for Technocracy. The House of Representatives had a chance to stop warrantless surveillance of American citizens. It failed, in spite of the Fourth Amendment and in the face of 75 percent of Americans who say the Feds should always get a warrant before conducting a search. The tie-breaking vote was cast by the Speaker of the House, a Republican. Soon, the NSA will take over the internet.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
The US-Mexico Dispute Over GM Corn Safety Could Transform American Agriculture
Mexico’s effort to keep genetically modified corn out of the country is triggering a trade dispute with the United States and Canada that could affect the future of agriculture.
The trade dispute hinges on a key question: whether genetically modified (GM) corn poses a threat to human health.
U.S. trade representatives argue it does not and wants to force GM corn into Mexico. Given that GM seed is used in 90 percent of U.S. crops, the dispute could have far-reaching effects should Mexico win. Beyond the U.S. agricultural sector, it could damage the German and Chinese companies that make and sell those seeds.
The Epoch Times has reached out to Bayer, the company that bought seed giant Monsanto, and Chinese state-owned Syngenta, but has yet to get a response.
A Battle Over Biotechnology
Corn has fed previous trade battles between Mexico and the United States, with Mexican producers previously protesting the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for allowing American corn in without restriction. In the latest chapter, Mexico issued a presidential decree in February 2023 that bans GM corn in tortillas and dough and signaled the country’s intention to gradually replace GM corn in all animal and human foods.
Canada, which is deeply integrated into U.S. and Mexican agricultural trade, and the United States both opposed the ban.
Mexico has kept genetically modified corn from being grown within its borders for 25 years in an effort to protect both citizen health and ancient strains of maize. Corn is a staple crop eaten in 89 percent of Mexican meals.
The United States has largely disregarded health concerns arising from GM crops and has spent the past year working to prove Mexico’s 2023 decree violates the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
The restrictions, originally slated to go into effect this year, set off a disagreement now in the hands of a USMCA trade panel after Mexico and the United States failed to resolve it through negotiations.
The United States contends that there’s no scientific evidence that GM corn is unsafe to eat, a claim Mexico refutes. Mexico says the United States hasn’t presented any evidence of GM corn’s long-term safety, particularly when eaten at high levels.
Corn consumption is ten times higher in Mexico, raising concerns among its medical and governmental leaders about research linking GM crops to health issues.
Clashing Visions and the Future of Agriculture
The trade disagreement highlights clashing ideological values and interests. Mexico has concerns for public health and Indigenous maize. The United States aims to protect American farmers, food security, and the future of agricultural biotechnology.
Ultimately, the three-member USMCA panel has to sort through the arguments, science, and finer points of Indigenous legal rights to make a decision. Lucy Sharratt, coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, said the ruling could generate cultural and environmental shockwaves.
“If the panel pays attention to the science, they should come to the same conclusion as the Mexican government. If they’re swayed by politics and the power behind the technology, it’s going to be difficult for them to see the reality of the science,” she told The Epoch Times. “This is a hugely significant decision the panel has before them.”
The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, a group that raises education about the genetic engineering of food, was originally invited to share its opinion with the trade tribunal, but the offer was rescinded at the request of the U.S. and Canadian governments.
Mexico’s Case
Mexico filed a 200-page response to the U.S. trade violation complaint, which many observers say fulfilled the onus of its argument. It offered 66 articles in peer-reviewed journals pointing to GM corn’s associated health risks including increased damage to organs, cancer, antibiotic resistance, and reduced nutritional content.
Mexico’s decree also included a ban on glyphosate originally intended to go into effect on April 1, but the government pushed back that date while researching alternatives available in suitable quantities.
GM corn is tightly wed to glyphosate, the key ingredient in RoundUp and other herbicides. That’s because one of the most prominent traits in GM corn is resistance to glyphosate, the main ingredient in RoundUp. Monsanto, the German firm making most of the GM corn grown in the United States, calls the corn “Roundup Ready.” A rise in the use of glyphosate closely paralleled the rise in use of GM corn seed.
Additionally, Mexico’s report included 74 studies and papers on the risks of glyphosate, pointing to research documenting residues found on GM corn and concerns that the volume of corn Mexicans eat creates the need for a different safety standard. Mexico’s decree isn’t an outright trade ban but it does create the need for suitable replacements for both GM corn and glyphosate.
Though the language is vague, the decree calls for agricultural groups to offer input to Mexican agencies on how to design, promote, and implement alternatives to glyphosate.
Unsatisfied With the Science
Mexico has objected to some of the research the United States was citing during negotiations, including sources that were not peer-reviewed, over a decade old, or funded by biotech companies. Mexico also raised concerns about the lack of long-term studies on humans eating GM corn, according to Timothy A. Wise, senior advisor for the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP).
2ND AMENDMENT
Uber driver shot and killed by elderly Ohio man who thought she was part of a scam!
An elderly Ohio man shot and killed a woman he believed to be a part of a phone scam trying to extort money from him, but police say she was an Uber driver sent by the scam artists.
The tragic shooting was caught on surveillance video from the man’s home in South Charleston on March 25.
81-year-old William Brock told investigators that he shot 61-year-old Loletha Hall because he and his family had been threatened by scammers over the phone.
“Mr. Brock received some scam call by a person purporting to be someone from our courts who informed him a family member was incarcerated and that he had a bond of a significant amount of money,” said Lt. Kristopher Shultz of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
Schultz said that the callers then stopped pretending to be officers of the court and instead claimed that they had kidnapped a hostage for ransom.
The scammers on the phone then sent Hall to the man’s home to pick up the money. “Ms. Hall did not have any idea,” Schultz said.
Investigators say that Brock demanded Hall tell him who she worked for and then he grabbed her cellphone to prevent her from leaving.
“When she tried to get away, he shot her once, then there was more exchange between them,” Shultz explained. “Mr. Brock was at some point injured to his head, and he shot Ms. Hall a second time. There was more conversation, and then he shot her a third time. Only after he shot her a third time did he then make contact with authorities to report the incident.”
Court documents said that the victim had no weapon in her possession and did not herself threaten Brock.
A spokesperson for Uber said the company was in touch with the victim’s family and was cooperating with the investigation.
“This is a horrific tragedy and our hearts continue to be with Loletha’s loved ones as they grieve,” the spokesperson said.
The company said the person who ordered the Uber was banned from the platform, but law enforcement did not indicate whether other people had been arrested or identified in the case.
Brock was booked on a murder charge and posted a bail of $200,000. If convicted, he could be imprisoned for 15 years to life or fined $15,000.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Report: mRNA in COVID jabs may contribute to cancer development!
The mRNA used in the COVID-19 vaccines differs from naturally occurring mRNA, which has been modified to prevent immune degradation when injected. In a review published on April 5, researchers argue that modification—specifically, N1-methyl-pseudouridine modification—to mRNA causes immune suppression that may contribute to cancer development.
Uridine is a key component of mRNA. However, when mRNA is injected into the body, it is broken down by cells and also triggers a broad immune response, leading to its rapid degradation.
This immune response can be bypassed: researchers Katalinko Kariko, Ph.D., and Dr. Drew Weissman found that when uridine is modified to N1-methyl-pseudouridine (m1-psi), the mRNA is not degraded and proteins can be produced. The two were awarded a 2023 Nobel award for their findings.
Pfizer and Moderna therefore used this patented technology to ensure that the mRNA vaccines would be able to produce spike protein inside cells.
However, research suggests this modification may reduce immune responses. “Within the framework of COVID-19 vaccination, this inhibition ensures an appropriate spike protein synthesis and a reduced immune activation,” the authors wrote in the study’s abstract.
The authors are concerned the modification may promote cancer in susceptible individuals.
An earlier study found RNA containing modified uridine failed to activate a pathway known to be involved in detecting viral infections and fighting cancers.
They also cited Ms. Kariko and Dr. Weismann’s paper which found mRNA modification suppressed immune recognition and activation of immune cells. The authors argue that this was a double-edged sword, due to wide-reaching immune consequences.
Newly Developed Vaccine Targets Any Viral Strain
Genetics-based “one-and-done” vaccines for the flu and COVID could prove more effective and easier to craft than current jabs, researchers report.
These new vaccines would target viruses using a different response to infection than what is prompted by current vaccines, researchers said.
Instead of teaching the immune system to create antibodies to fight off a specific virus, the new vaccine would instead teach the body to create small signaling RNA proteins that will shut down harmful viral spread.
This new approach could revolutionize current vaccine development, in which experts create vaccines based on predictions of which flu and COVID strains are likely to be most infectious, researchers argue.
Instead, these RNA-promoting vaccines should be effective against all strains of a specific virus.
CANCEL CULTURE
NPR suspends editor who criticized its progressive “groupthink” direction!
A National Public Radio (NPR) editor who criticized the news organization’s progressive ‘groupthink’ direction has been suspended without pay.
This past week, Uri Berliner, the senior business editor for NPR, wrote a piece for The Free Press in which he admitted that NPR has become radically progressive, with journalists as activists telling people what to think instead of letting the “evidence lead the way.”
According to David Folkenflik, an NPR media correspondent, the news organization is “grappling” with “the fallout” from Mr. Berliner’s statements, among them being that in its striving to become diverse, it lost its spirit of open-mindedness.
“It angered many of his colleagues, led NPR leaders to announce monthly internal reviews of the network’s coverage, and gave fresh ammunition to conservative and partisan Republican critics of NPR, including former President Donald Trump,” Mr. Folkenflik said.
Mr. Berliner cited NPR’s promotion of the Russia collusion conspiracy hoax against President Trump, its turning a blind eye to the Hunter Biden laptop report, its refusal to acknowledge the Wuhan lab leak theory as the likely source of COVID-19, and its emphasis on “bizarre” stories about alleged systematic racism.
NPR began to avoid language that it perceived as “racially problematic” and “alarmingly divisive,” he said, citing as an example a story about bird names being racist.
Katherine Maher, NPR’s new CEO, responded by calling his critique “profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning.”
According to a report from the New York Post, Ms. Maher has a history of progressive, anti-Trump rants on X, one of which she deleted before landing her position at NPR.
However, a post where she stated that “Donald Trump is a racist” in 2018 was saved on Archive Today.
Other posts are still available, such as one in which she defends looting in 2020.
Court overturns West Virginia’s transgender sports ban using Title IX!
A federal appeals court has blocked a West Virginia law that banned students from participating in single-sex sports teams that don’t match their biological sex.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order and opinion on April 16 that blocks enforcement of the Save Women’s Sports Bill on grounds that the law violated the constitutional rights of the plaintiff, a 13-year-old eighth-grade track athlete who was born male but identifies as female.
The measure was signed into law by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice in 2021. It was quickly challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which brought the lawsuit on behalf of Becky Pepper-Jackson, the transgender student who was prevented from joining the girls’ cross-country team.
After a spate of “legal ping-pong” between the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the ban, allowing Becky Pepper-Jackson to compete in the girls’ cross-country team at a Harrison County high school.
ICYMI
The Bidens report adjusted gross income of $619,976.00
President Joe Biden and his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, have reported a federal adjusted gross income of $619,976 for their joint 2023 income tax returns, the White House has said.
According to the April 15 press release from the White House, the Bidens paid a combined total of $146,629 in federal income tax, and their 2023 effective federal income tax rate was 23.7 percent.
“President Biden believes that all occupants of the Oval Office should be open and honest with the American people and that the longstanding tradition of annually releasing presidential tax returns should continue unbroken,” the White House said.
The couple released their Delaware income tax return and reported paying $30,908 in Delaware income tax. Jill Biden also released her Virginia income tax return and reported paying $3,549 in Virginia income tax in the 2023 financial period.
The Bidens have reported contributions of $20,477 to 17 different charities in 2023, including the Beau Biden Foundation, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), St. Joseph on the Brandywine, and the National Fraternal Order of Police Foundation, among others.
The White House also claims President Biden has now shared a total of 26 years of tax returns with the public, which it says is the most tax returns of any commander in chief while still serving in office.
And when it comes to news coverage, the FCC probably won’t take notice of this CNN gaffe!
Megyn Kelly outed a CNN reporter that dropped the S-Bomb during a news cycle report because it has to do with the battle for the White House in November and people, including news reporters, aren’t acting too rational with the way they’re reporting news. LOL
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