World, US, Culture, Market, and Sci-Tech News Aggregation from MSM and Independent News
Gun Store Sales Surge As Virginians Try to Beat New Gun Controls– www.breitbart.com
News Source
EXCERPT:
Gun stores in Virginia are seeing sales surge as residents of the state buy up firearms and ammo trying to beat the effective dates of new gun controls.
The Fauquier Times noted, “Early indicators suggest Virginians are responding to a slate of proposed gun-control legislation with a noticeable spike in firearm background checks — a sign that gun sales are on the rise.”
The AI Revolution in Math Has Arrived – Quanta Magazine
News Source
AT LEAST 30 people have been killed in a horror stampede at a holiday hotspot in the Caribbean, with many students feared to be among the dead.
The fatal crush happened at packed tourist attraction, Laferriere Citadel in northern Haiti.
Congressional and campaign staffers for Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) have condemned the recent sexual assault allegations against their embattled boss, urging the public to support the four accusers.
“As leaders of teams working for Eric Swalwell, we’re horrified by the recent reporting in the San Francisco Chronicle and by CNN,” more than a dozen staffers said in an unsigned statement on Saturday. “We stand with our former colleague, and the other women who have come forward. We believe you should stand with them, too.”
Elon Musk’s xAI faces lawsuit over Mississippi power plant tied to AI data centers The Times of India
from news.google.com
Two U.S. Navy destroyers had transited the Strait of Hormuz to begin mine-clearing operations in the vital waterway, U.S. Central Command said Saturday.
The destroyers crossed through the Strait and operated in the Arabian Gulf, CENTCOM said on social media. Additional U.S. forces, including underwater drones, will “join the clearance effort in the coming days,” CENTCOM said.
The operation came as President Trump said on Truth Social on Saturday that the U.S. was doing “a favor to Countries all over the world” by clearing mines from the strait. Mr. Trump also said Saturday that all of Iran’s mine-laying ships have been destroyed.
In the early 1960s, a deceptively simple question took shape inside a laboratory at Yale University: how far would an ordinary person go if instructed by an authority figure to harm someone else? The answer, offered by psychologist Stanley Milgram, would become one of the most cited, and most contested, findings in modern psychology.Milgram’s obedience experiments, conducted between 1961 and 1962, did not begin as abstract inquiry. They were shaped by the aftermath of the Holocaust and, more specifically, by the trial of Adolf Eichmann, who defended his role in organising the logistics of the mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps, a central part of the Nazi programme of systematic mass murder, by claiming he had been “just following orders.” In his 1974 book Obedience to Authority, Stanley Milgram framed the question directly: “Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?”
President Donald Trump spent the last week causing global panic, threatening to wipe out Iranian civilization before walking it back—at least for now.
But his callous threats are nothing new.
This is just the latest example of Republicans indulging themselves in phony masculinity by championing loud and obnoxious aggression. And this type of behavior didn’t begin with Trump, and it isn’t even the first time the right’s saber-rattling has involved Iran.
Israeli settlers kill Palestinian man in raid on village Arab News PK
from news.google.com
For decades, scientists have thought that the human body briefly forms a highly unstable molecule, a carbene, from a form of vitamin B1, also known as thiamine. These molecules are unique in that their carbon atoms have only six electrons, rather than the average eight, making them incredibly reactive and fleeting. This is especially true in aqueous media, where carbenes can have half-lives as short as nanoseconds to picoseconds.
LONDON — London police arrested more than 200 people on Saturday during a protest against a ban on the group Palestine Action that the government has labeled a terrorist organization.
Metropolitan Police said they had detained 212 protesters between the ages of 27 and 82 for supporting the group.
Britain’s High Court ruled in February that the government’s decision to outlaw the protest group as a terrorist organization was unlawful, but it kept the ban in place while the government appeals.
Intrepid reporter Laura Loomer has uncovered video and documents that disqualifies Abdul Sayel from office and triggers serious legal scrutiny.
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed signed a past pledge supporting Mohamed Morsi, the former Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood president.
The clip from Michigan gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s exchange with Republican Sen. Patrick Colbeck has reemerged as he campaigns for U.S. Senate, drawing fresh scrutiny over his response to claims of Sharia support and Muslim Brotherhood ties. He signed a statement backing Egypt’s Mohamed Morsi. And rallies on campus with figures like anti-America, anti-Jew inciter Hasan Piker.
Abdul El Sayed, the jihadi candidate, continues to run for office, lose and run and run again. Who is funding this election jihad? Who in the Democrat party continues to puts forth these enemies of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
🚨 EXCLUSIVE VIDEO 🚨
Muslim Michigan Democrat US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed caught on camera telling Michigan voters who criticized his refusal to condemn Sharia Law, “you might not hate Muslims, but Muslims definitely hate you!”
ROME — In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV on Saturday denounced the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.
Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan and as a fragile ceasefire held.
Mali withdraws recognition of Sahrawi Republic, backs Morocco’s autonomy plan MyJoyOnline
from news.google.com
Driven by a desire to retain power and avoid political consequences such as impeachment, Donald Trump is pursuing three measures that could influence the upcoming midterm elections.
Late last month, the No Kings Movement conducted over three thousand large protests in all fifty states. As many as eight million concerned citizens made their voices heard, the largest protest in US history, and everyone was watching. This president and the complicit now sense their end and are rightfully frightened. The much-anticipated November mid-term elections risk sweeping a host of Trump supporters from office and Democrats becoming the majority in the House and Senate. Which risks a presidential impeachment process to follow. A third impeachment of a president has no historical precedent. Then again, there has never been a White House resident like this one.
Did Trump arm Iranians and they failed to deliver?
Trump’s Claim of Arming Iranian Protesters Triggers Speculation Among Chinese Netizens Vision Times
from news.google.com
Iran’s leadership is facing new questions after a report claimed the country’s newly installed supreme leader is no longer able to function in his role just weeks after taking power.
According to The Times, Mojtaba Khamenei is “incapacitated and receiving medical treatment” in the city of Qom.
The report cites a diplomatic memo based on U.S. and Israeli intelligence shared with Gulf allies.
Intelligence Memo Raises Serious Questions
The memo reportedly describes Khamenei as suffering from a “severe condition.”
The unidentified condition has left him “unable to be involved in any decision-making by the regime.”
The claims, if accurate, would signal a major disruption at the top of Iran’s ruling structure during a period of heightened regional tensions.
After President Trump took out Soleimani, you would think that his relatives wouldn’t be allowed to spread anti-American hate in the United States. Turns out the State Department is just getting around to it. An F-15E was struck down over Iran, and American special forces went in to recover the missing pilots. Europe just doesn’t understand why it matters. X has become a right wing echo chamber. At least, Nate Silver thinks so. Let’s try to figure out his logic.
A “shocking” number of former female employees and interns are preparing to come forward to accuse Rep. Eric Swalwell (|D-Calif.) of sexual misconduct, according to a Democrat activist.
Cheyenne Hunt, a lawyer, former congressional candidate and executive director of the left-wing nonprofit Gen-Z for Change, revealed on X Sunday, that she has been working with a number of women who are in the process of sharing their accusations with major news outlets. Hunt said she knew of a separate and “much larger group” of women who are also currently in the process of sharing their stories.
Swalwell’s alleged inappropriate sexual behavior is said to be an “open secret” in Washington DC, as is his alleged practice of forcing underlings to sign nondisclosure agreements.
Hunt posted an initial video on Instagram in late March accusing Swalwell of having “a known history of being predatory towards women.” She cited a woman who told her: “You know Eric Swalwell has slept with many of his interns and makes them all sign NDAs so they don’t speak up, right? And when I was 19 he tried hitting on me and sliding into my DMs and I have so many other friends that have similar experiences with him.”
Hunt said the allegation was “not an anomaly” but “part of a pattern.”
Democrats: Trump is totalitarian.
Democrat state congressional candidate: Yes! Also, take away the internet access of his supporters for four years so they can’t say anything.
Democrats: Don’t see any contradiction there!
That, at least, is the tacit message being sent by the national party and one of their more prominent state legislature candidates, Suzanna Karatassos. She’s running to be the party’s nominee in House District 120 — typically a Republican seat, but you never know in a midterm year with an important Democratic U.S. Senate seat to hold onto.
Karatassos describes herself as “a wife and mother in Georgia” who wants “to see Georgia thrive and for all our citizens to be able to lead a life of prosperity with dignity.” And that requires the right to political expression, which she says is being stifled.
“The foundation of our democracy is the right to vote, and every Georgian deserves to have their voice heard and their vote counted,” her campaign website reads.
A federal judge in Louisiana ruled that the Food and Drug Administration must provide a status report on its safety review of the abortion pill within six months.
The judge also found that a challenge to the policy of allowing abortion pills to be shipped through the mail has standing and is likely to succeed on the merits.
“FDA has an obligation to act with all deliberate speed to review its past actions and complete a thorough analysis that addresses the deficiencies it has acknowledged,” District Judge David C. Joseph wrote. “The parties and the American public deserve nothing less.”
The state of Louisiana filed the lawsuit against the administration, challenging the Biden-era policy of allowing abortion drugs to be sent through the mail, including into states where abortion is illegal.
Hurtling back toward Earth after a historic loop around the moon, the Artemis II astronauts worked through a relatively light day in space Wednesday, wrapping up a few final tests before packing up for reentry and splashdown Friday.
Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen planned to hold a news conference late Wednesday, answering reporters’ questions about the flight, the first piloted trip around the moon in more than a half century.
The crew had planned to take another turn at manually piloting their Orion capsule, testing their ability, as pilots and non-pilots, to precisely maneuver the spacecraft. NASA is considering opening up commander and pilot positions to a wider range of astronauts.
Israeli forces killed more than 200 people in strikes against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, on Wednesday. Top European diplomats called for Lebanon to be included in the cease-fire.
from www.nytimes.com
Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s sunny assessment of the prospects for a long-term peace agreement with Iran, fundamental differences remain between the two sides’ visions for a deal.
Trump has described Iran’s 10-point plan as “a workable basis on which to negotiate,” but questions remain about what exactly it contains and whether it crosses U.S. red lines.
Iranian state media have reported that the plan would allow Iran to maintain its ability to enrich uranium, protect Tehran’s allied militant groups in the Middle East, including Hezbollah and Hamas, and secure the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from bases in the region.
However, U.S. Vice-President JD Vance denies that this is the plan Trump was describing as workable.
A federal judge put a halt Wednesday to Homeland Security’s plan to shut down a deportation amnesty for nearly 5,000 Ethiopian migrants, chastising the government for being too harsh toward them.
from www.washingtontimes.com
Texas Senate Runoff Heats Up as Trump Withholds Endorsement National Today
from news.google.com
An advisory firm that counsels the largest institutional investors on how to vote at shareholder meetings is recommending investors support Warner Bros. Discovery’s $77.7 billion acquisition by Paramount Skydance but is against a golden-parachute proposal that would see executives collect a total of $1.35 billion after the deal goes through.
In a report issued on Wednesday, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) said support for the “extraordinary golden parachute” proposal, which it valued at $886.8 million in payments for Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav and $466.2 million for the other executives, wasn’t warranted. ISS took issue with an “excise tax grossup” estimate of $335 million for Zaslav and hundreds of millions he stands to collect just because the deal between the two companies is happening.
It’s unclear if Zaslav will have a future role at the combined entity or with one of its affiliates or if he will continue on in a senior role. When Warner Bros. was weighing rival offers from David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance and Netflix last year, Ellison and his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, dangled a compensation package worth “several hundred million dollars” to Zaslav, according to the deal disclosures. David Ellison also floated Zaslav becoming chairman of the combined company’s board, and then upped it to a co-CEO and co-chairman title.
NEW YORK — A Pakistani man pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge Wednesday, saying it was a “morally reprehensible idea” to support the Islamic State group by plotting to use automatic weapons to kill Jewish people at a Brooklyn center.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 21, said he answered the group’s call for Muslims to kill Jewish people by plotting to attack the Jewish center in October 2024.
He entered the plea in Manhattan federal court over 18 months after he was brought to the United States from Canada, where he was arrested on Sept. 4, 2024, in or near Ormstown, Canada, which is 12 miles from the U.S. border.
In a release, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said Khan planned a mass shooting to coincide with the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks “with the explicit goal of killing as many Jews as possible.”
The Australian foreign minister has called for an urgent end to hostilities in Lebanon.
In a statement, Penny Wong said: “Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Jordan, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom remain deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian situation and displacement crisis in Lebanon.
“We welcome the ceasefire agreed between the United States, Israel and Iran. We call for an urgent end to hostilities in Lebanon.
“Civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected from the effects of hostilities.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Department of Justice has initiated over 8,000 fraud cases related to stolen taxpayer dollars, and there’s more to come.
“The Department of Justice is holding criminals accountable for stealing over half a billion dollars from taxpayers, and across our U.S. Attorney’s offices all over this country, we currently have over 8,000 fraud matters underway,” he said Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, as you’ve heard a lot about recently, because it’s true, these cases represent a fraction of the fraud ripping off our country every day.”
Blanche credited President Donald Trump with leading the charge against such criminal acts and cited the newly created “Task Force to Eliminate Fraud,” led by Vice President J.D. Vance.