News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
US Military Officials Warn of China’s Alarming Increase in Naval and Nuclear Military Power
China’s ability to project its naval power in the Indian Ocean, as well as its continued build-up of the nuclear arsenal, is of great concern to the United States, said two top U.S. military officials in recent congressional hearings.
Beijing’s naval power now includes aircraft carriers after China has modernized its military base in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, according to Gen. Stephen Townsend, the head of U.S. Africa Command.
“Their first overseas military base, their only one, is in Africa, and they have just expanded that by adding a significant pier that can even support their aircraft carriers in the future.
Citigroup will pay NY mayoral candidate, former exec Ray McGuire $5.7 million over next few years
CNBC obtained McGuire’s 2020 financial disclosure report after requesting the document from New York City’s Conflict of Interest Board.
Citi announced in October that McGuire would be stepping down from his post. He had been at the financial giant for at least 15 years. He officially announced his run for mayor in December.
McGuire has raised over $7 million since he entered the race, with some contributions coming from New York’s business leaders.
Last year, McGuire appears to have made at least $1 million in 2020 while at Citi, including through capital gains, dividends and interest. He also owns stock in over 100 companies, including Pfizer, Pepsi, Eli Lilly, AT&T, Nintendo and Bayer. The filing did not include his annual salary.
George Soros-Backed DA Charges California Officer in Case from 2018 After Chauvin Verdict
Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston said that Hall’s actions in the Wilson case were justified. But attorney John Burris, who is representing the families of both Wilson and Arbodela, said that Wilson would still be alive if Hall had been punished for Arbodela’s death.
In contrast, Hall’s attorney said that the charges against his client, including voluntary manslaughter and assault with a semiautomatic firearm, seemed political, given the timing.
Becton’s campaign received roughly $50,000 from Soros in the 2018 election through the California Justice & Public Safety Political Action Committee. She was one of the only successful candidates Soros backed in DA races in California that year, when he chose “progressive” prosecutors to run against establishment candidates, often fellow Democrats.
Last year, Becton charged a couple with a “hate crime” for painting over a “Black Lives Matter” mural on a road in Martinez, California.
Chicago Mayor Lightfoot’s latest police reform idea: Require cops to get permission to chase suspects on foot
The topic of permission for foot chases become all the rage after personal injury lawyer Arturo Jauregui held a news conference in response to the Toledo shooting demanding reform.
Democratic Chicago Alderman Brian Hopkins told the outlet the mayor’s office told him cops on foot could very soon be required to do what cops in cars have to do before chasing: Get the OK from higher ups.
But Hopkins sees an obvious problem.
Perps on foot would suddenly have the advantage perps in cars enjoy.
“We’re seeing more vehicles flee from police officers because word has gotten out that they’re probably not going to get permission to chase you,” Hopkins said.
Cartels are using TikTok to recruit Americans to smuggle illegal immigrants into US, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says
During an April 1 press conference, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott showed photos captured from the TikTok app, of videos offering thousands in cash for drivers to smuggle people across the border.
“A concern that we have is how brazen and open the drug cartels are getting in trying to recruit people here in the state of Texas to assist them in these crimes,” Abbott said.
A third advertisement said, “Got 15 ready to fo throw lmk. EZ CASH DONT SLEEP.”
Sources told Fox News that those teenagers and young adults who take the smuggling jobs are often using their parents’ SUVs for the jobs. They said one teenager’s mother started crying when she got a call from authorities about her daughter’s involvement in the smuggling operation.
Report: DHS Releases 15.3K Migrants into U.S. Through Unofficial Channels
In statements to Border Report’s Sandra Sanchez, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) said DHS has released more than 15,300 border crossers into the U.S. interior without providing them the usual documents that give them a date on which to appear before a federal immigration judge.
“Basically it’s just an honor system. It’s just an honor system that they are given and this is not the way it’s supposed to be,” Cuellar told Sanchez.
This month, specifically, Cuellar said the Biden administration has been increasing its use of the practice of releasing border crossers without making clear if they will have to appear before a federal immigration judge.
Politics:
Persecution Fears Rise as Biden Backs Away From Religious Freedom Abroad
The Biden White House is backing away from advocacy for religious freedom abroad at a time when unscrupulous regimes are cracking down on religious minorities in China, Ethiopia, and across the Middle East.
Olivia Enos, a senior policy analyst at Heritage Foundation, said America’s drawdown in the face of persecution would hamper its broader foreign policy interests and human rights commitments.
Chris Seiple, senior fellow for comparative religion at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, said the Biden administration is still young and the administration’s appointments have not been made yet, making it difficult to draw conclusions about Biden’s approach to religious freedom.
But he said there will be a “natural pushback” on the Trump administration’s priorities.
House Approves Bill That Would Make District of Columbia a State
In a partisan 216-208 vote, the House approved the legislation, which would give Washington two senators and representation in the lower chamber if it’s also passed by the Senate and signed into law.
All Democrats backed the bill, while all Republicans voted against it.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on the House floor before the vote that the chamber was poised to “right an [sic] historic injustice by passing legislation to finally grant Washington D.C. statehood.”
Biden administration moves to force religious hospitals to perform sex-change surgeries
The Obama administration first issued the rule — known as the “transgender mandate” — in 2016, using a nondiscrimination provision in the Affordable Care Act to require doctors and hospitals to provide sex reassignment surgeries to any and all patients, including children, so long as the procedure was recommended by a mental health professional.
Since assuming office earlier this year, Biden — who once called transgender discrimination “the civil rights issue of our time” — has made supporting transgender rights a key theme of his presidency.
Biden made history in January by appointing a transgender nominee, Rachel Levine, to serve as his assistant secretary of health.
Tucker: More wise words from out Democrat leaders
Commentary/Opinion:
Mark Steyn tells ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ if everything is racism than nothing is racism.
Tucker: Political leaders took advantage of George Floyd’s death
Commentary/Opinion:
‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ host argues Derek Chauvin jury was subjected to intimidation.
World News:
Russia Orders Troop Pullback, but Keeps Weapons Near Ukraine
After watching the drills, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declared the maneuvers in Crimea and wide swathes of western Russia over and ordered the military to pull the troops that took part in them back to their permanent bases.
“I consider the goals of the snap check of readiness fulfilled,” Shoigu said.
“The troops have shown their capability to defend the country and I decided to complete the drills in the South and Western military districts.”
Shoigu said the troops should return to their bases by May 1, but he ordered their heavy weapons kept in western Russia for another massive military exercise.
IAF strikes Syria; Germany calls on China to rein-in Iran; Locust swarm threat TV7 Israel News 22.04
1) The Israeli Air Force struck Syrian military targets after a surface-to-air missile penetrated Israeli territory.
2) The U.S. State Department confirmed that progress has been made in the indirect nuclear talks with Iran in Vienna.
3) German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas underscored the important role China has to play in reining-in the Islamic Republic from escalating tensions throughout the Middle East.
Crypto Exchange Goes Dark: Near 400,000 Users Fear Possible $2B Fraud
According to numerous local news outlets, Thodex’s CEO Faruk Fatih Özer fled to Thailand from Istanbul Airport on Tuesday afternoon with $2 billion worth of digital assets.
Özer has also shut down his social media accounts, further fueling the speculations on the fraud allegations.
First, the platform, which has been operating since 2017, announced a six-hour maintenance period after transaction problems were reported. Then, on Thursday, Thedox made an announcement that it will be closed “for about five working days” due to a sale process.
“World-renowned banks and funds, whose names we are going to announce when the agreement process is completed, have been wanting to invest in our company and proposed a partnership for a long time,” it wrote.
“For this process to be completed, transactions need to be halted and the sale process needs to be completed.”
Teams Are Racing to Find a Submarine Before the Crew Runs Out of Oxygen
Chief of Staff Admiral Yudo Margono of the Indonesian Navy said the submarine carries enough oxygen for 72 hours in total, based on calculations of when the submarine dropped all contact amid a Wednesday military exercise.
A German-built Nanggala-402, the vessel requested permission to dive at 3:00 AM local time (3:00 PM EDT) on Wednesday before it lost contact, according to authorities.
Margono said the submarine had just fired two torpedoes — one capable of arming and detonating — in a training exercise in the depths of the Bali Strait,
The Indonesian military thinks an oil spill seen via aerial surveillance near the dive point may have leaked from the submarine.
Trans teen who took own life has 2 separate funerals after parents fail to agree on gender
(7 NEWS AU) – A transgender boy who died by suicide has been farewelled in two separate funeral services after his estranged parents agreed to split his ashes.
The boy’s parents took the matter to the Family Court after failing to agree on a name for their son’s headstone.
The 15-year-old Perth boy, who cannot be identified, died in hospital on March 4, days after attempting to take his life, The West Australian reports.
Following his death, the boy’s parents couldn’t agree on funeral arrangements, including which name should be put on his headstone: the name he was given at birth or the name he chose for himself before coming out as transgender.
China threatens to retaliate after Australia cancels two Belt and Road agreements
China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday it had lodged a “solemn” protest with Australia and reserved the right to take further action, just hours after the Chinese embassy in Canberra warned Australia would “only end up hurting itself”.
The message was amplified by Chinese state media, with the nationalistic tabloid the Global Times stating Australia had fired a “major shot” in what could be another trade war.
But the Australian government insisted on Thursday it was simply defending its national interests by blocking the two agreements between the Victorian state government and China’s reform commission.
UK MPs declare China is committing genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang
British MPs voted to declare that China is committing genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang province.
The motion passed on Thursday does not compel the government to act but is likely to mark a further decline in relations with China.
The vote, part of a growing movement in western democracies, was hailed by the chair of the US Senate foreign relations committee, Bob Menendez, who said the UK parliament had “shone a light on the egregious abuses the Chinese state commits against the Uyghur people.
The free world must be united in holding the Chinese government to account for these abuses.”
New Zealand sells its soul to China.
Commentary/Opinion:
Really shocking that New Zealand have sold their souls to the CCP.
I think they will come to regret it.
Commentary/Opinion:
Classic Stossel: Green Tyranny Propaganda
“There may be no alternative, but to cancel Christmas!” threatens Santa in a Greenpeace video on Global Warming.
Environmentalists in Hollywood tell our kids: global warming will kill you! Soon! But instead, people keep innovating and the doom… doesn’t happen.
Hollywood and the media push green propaganda. Have we been “greenwashed”?
When is abortion wrong?
Viability does not determine the humanity of a baby.
Ep. 1505 I Never Thought I’d See This Happen – The Dan Bongino Show
The radical left is now on board supporting riots, stabbings, segregation, government spying, and socialism.
Also, LeBron James and “The Squad” are huge frauds.
I have the evidence.