Texas Senate Runoff Heats Up as Trump Withholds Endorsement National Today
from news.google.com
x01a Research Archives
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.
“FBI and our partners have arrested a former SOCOM employee, who supported our top-level military warfighters, for allegedly transmitting classified information to a member of the media.”
The FBI has arrested a former Special Operations Command employee who allegedly leaked classified information to the press.
“FBI and our partners have arrested a former SOCOM employee, who supported our top-level military warfighters, for allegedly transmitting classified information to a member of the media,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on Wednesday. “Let this serve as a message to any would-be leakers: we’re working these cases, and we’re making arrests. This FBI will not tolerate those who seek to betray our country and put Americans in harm’s way.”
Key Takeaways
- Maryland lawmakers passed Senate Bill 334, banning the manufacture and sale of ‘machine gun convertible pistols’ starting January 1, 2027.
- The bill targets semiautomatic pistols that can be converted into machine guns with basic tools, further restricting them beyond federal law.
- Exemptions include law enforcement officers and licensed dealers, while individuals may transfer these pistols only to family members.
- Violations lead to a misdemeanor with penalties up to three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
- The bill awaits action from Governor Moore, and the Maryland State Police will regulate and publish a list of prohibited pistols before the law takes effect.
Vice President JD Vance said the current ceasefire with Iran remains “fragile,” but the regime’s leaders will learn the hard way if they “mess around” and cause the ceasefire deal to collapse.
Vance is warning that President Donald Trump is prepared to take decisive action if Tehran fails to negotiate in good faith.
Speaking at a conference in Hungary on Wednesday, Vance emphasized that the two-week ceasefire hinges on Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz and engaging seriously in negotiations.
The Justice Department this week wrapped up health care fraud investigations in California, Florida, and Nevada, saying it recovered about $500 million.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President JD Vance, and the Justice Department are together “supercharging efforts to take down every fraudster and bring them to justice.”
Here are three adjudicated cases this week that ended in either a settlement, sentencing, or guilty pleas.
Eleven leaders of a Turkish LGBTQ+ rights group went on trial Wednesday on charges of “obscenity” and “violating the protection of the family,” their lawyer told the AFP news aGençy.
The defendants, leaders of the Genç LGBTI+ association (Young LGBTI+ in Turkish), are accused of breaching an article of the Turkish constitution on protecting family values, as well as publishing images on social media showing same-sex couples kissing, deemed “obscene” by authorities.
China’s retaliation against Panama has backfires across Latin America The Hill
from news.google.com
Germany’s fiscal problems are no longer confined to Berlin — they are now most visible in the country’s towns and cities, where local governments have recorded their worst deficit since reunification.
According to a DeStatis press release on Tuesday, municipal finances deteriorated sharply in 2025, with the deficit climbing to €31.9 billion, up from €24.8 billion the previous year. While revenues rose to €391.4 billion, an increase of 4.1 percent, spending grew even faster to €423.3 billion, widening the gap between income and expenditure to unprecedented levels.
Islamic militants just raided a Christian village in Ituri. Hundreds are dead. Thousands more injured.
It is the latest attack in a campaign by the ADF to annihilate the Christian population of the Congo.
And once again, the West is silent.
Not a peep from the global left, the media, hman rights activists, campus protests etc because that would be islamophobic.
“Genocide!” cries the Left…
…except when Islamists are committing genocide against Christians in Nigeria, Sudan, Syria, Myanmar, Libya, the Congo, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Iran, and Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/rc0XVy0gyq
— Samantha Smith (@SamanthaTaghoy) April 7, 2026
The Muslim bombers had explosives that could have killed 60 people.
Formal charges for the two young men who hurled explosives at the right-wing protestors who were outside the formal residence of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
New York Post: Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, were indicted on Tuesday for allegedly hurling two homemade incendiary devices in an ISIS-inspired March 7 attack during the dueling protests outside Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s official residence. The two homegrown terrorists were caught on footage — from a built-in dashboard camera on their car ride from Pennsylvania to Manhattan — casually chatting about how they planned to target Lang, who organized the hateful rally, and hoped he would be “split in half” in the bombing attack. The pair also discussed how they wished for maximum casualties — and their chilling backup plan to toss the explosives in a café if all else failed, according to court documents.
Elite media outlets were altogether disinterested in the gravity of the attack.
Trump’s behavior surrounding the Iran war has changed the priorities of House Democrats.
For the duration of Trump’s first year in office, House Democratic leadership has stressed that dealing with affordability and inflation are the top issues that they have been focused on, but Democrats are getting an overwhelming number of calls from their constituents, and the members themselves are enraged over Trump’s behavior.
El-Sayed campaigned alongside Representative Summer Lee and anti-American streamer Hasan Piker.
At a campaign event on Tuesday at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed promoted a range of far-left beliefs from Representative Summer Lee and anti-American streamer Hasan Piker.
During the rally, Congresswoman Lee told the crowd that the “upper class” is the real “enemy,” urging attendees to recognize divisions stoked by fear.
“I see other people who are fighting like hell to make you feel like your enemy is sitting next to you,” Lee angrily told the crowd. “That your enemy is somebody who worships differently than you are, or looks differently than you are, comes from a different socio-economic status than you, unless they are upper class, then that is your enemy.”
The Elitist Media are known for hiding significant news that doesn’t align with their liberal agenda or generally naked Democrats look bad. Their ongoing omission of new allegations against U.S. Rep Eric Swalwell (D-CA) stands as the latest example.
Per the Free Beacon:
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.) will “soon” face sexual harassment allegations from a number of “credible women,” including former staffers, according to the leader of the left-wing advocacy group Gen-Z for Change, who said she has been “personally working” with the women to expose a “pattern of manipulation and abuse of power.”
The group’s executive director, Cheyenne Hunt, detailed the impending allegations against Swalwell, who is running for governor of California, in a series of social media posts. Her original video was posted to Instagram in late March and cited a text from a woman who wrote, “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 message was “not an anomaly” but “part of a pattern.”
Brussels would rather “paralyze” the member state or stage a coup than allow Viktor Orban to stay in power, Karin Kneissl has told RT
The US and EU are engaged in a political “proxy war” in Hungary, with Washington and Brussels backing rival sides ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections, according to former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl.
Kneissl made the remarks in an interview with RT as US Vice President J.D. Vance visited Budapest on Tuesday in a show of support for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The Trump administration is eliminating Obama-era off-cycle credits that incentivized automakers to install automatic start-stop technology in vehicles, effectively killing what many drivers consider one of the most annoying features of newer models.
President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are set to meet with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House Wednesday, following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire with Iran.
Federal immigration officers from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot a man on Tuesday morning during a law enforcement action in Stanislaus County, California, authorities said. The shooting occurred during a vehicle stop along Interstate 5 near Sperry Avenue in Patterson.The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the incident involved ICE agents and that no local law enforcement officers were directly involved in the shooting.
After Trump pulled back and caved to Iran at the last moment, which creates doubt that the president’s threats to destroy Iranian civilization were ever serious, the United States is asking itself questions like, “Why was this war fought? What was gained by fighting this war? What happens after the war, both to the Middle East and the United States?
Modern electronics power everything from smartphones to satellites, but they all share a major limitation. Heat. Once temperatures climb above roughly 200 degrees Celsius, most devices begin to break down. For decades, this thermal barrier has been one of the toughest challenges in engineering.
Researchers at the University of Southern California now believe they have found a way past that limit.
Donald Trump’s ceasefire appears to be in the brink of collapse after Iran launched a series of “blatant” missile and drone attacks on Gulf neighbours. The US President had last night boasted there was no question the US had won a “total and complete victory” in the war against the Islamic Republic which America launched alongside Israel on February 28.
Trump and Washington had come under mounting pressure after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz by threatening to attack shipping. The vital waterway usually carries around 20% of the world’s oil and gas supplies.
This week, Planned Parenthood released its 2025 annual report. In recent years, these reports have taken on additional significance. That is because congressional Republicans have demonstrated their willingness to stop federal taxpayer dollars from going to Planned Parenthood. Indeed, this year’s report should bolster pro-life efforts to defund Planned Parenthood for the upcoming fiscal year. That is because, once again, this report provides very solid evidence that Planned Parenthood continues to prioritize abortion at the expense of real health-care services.
Bill Gates is officially preparing to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee as Congress continues to investigate sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and powerful connections.
Gates, 70, will answer questions from members of Congress on June 10, according to multiple outlets, which note that the Microsoft cofounder is not being accused of any wrongdoing after he was named in the so-called Epstein Files.
The Wall Street Journal, which famously floats trial balloons for corporate behemoths, is carrying water for the poor AI companies who are so, so disliked:
OpenAI this week published a populist wish list of policy proposals that zero in on worries like job replacement and wealth concentration, floating such ideas as a four-day workweek and an AI-invested public-wealth fund distributed to citizens.
Those proposals come as its rival Anthropic has been signing partnerships and building tools for such sectors as consulting and software, where share prices have been whacked by investor worries that they will be replaced by AI. Anthropic’s efforts have helped push back up shares of tech companies including LegalZoom.com LZ 3.84%increase; green up pointing triangle.
Anthropic and OpenAI are each pursuing ventures to help private equity, a big owner of companies in sectors ripe for disruption, with AI transformation. (Those efforts could also yield lucrative new business customers.)
Women who aren’t married are throwing wedding themed birthdays. It’s almost like they’re trying to compensate for something. President Donald Trump has not enacted Power Plant and Bridge Day as the Iranians appear to want to make a deal. The Left reacts. Poorly.
We evolved for a linear world. If you walk for an hour, you cover a certain distance. Walk for two hours and you cover double that distance. This intuition served us well on the savannah. But it catastrophically fails when confronting AI and the core exponential trends at its heart.
From the time I began work on AI in 2010 to now, the amount of training data that goes into frontier AI models has grown by a staggering 1 trillion times—from roughly 10¹⁴ flops (floating-point operations‚ the core unit of computation) for early systems to over 10²⁶ flops for today’s largest models. This is an explosion. Everything else in AI follows from this fact.
Shippers looking to revive the passage of tankers through the Strait of Hormuz were seeking clarity on the logistics on Wednesday, while refiners inquired about new crude loadings, in response to a ceasefire deal between the U.S. and Iran.
Most stranded oil and gas tankers remained inside the Gulf, LSEG shipping data showed, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the two-week ceasefire and said the U.S. would help with the traffic build-up.