x01a Research Archives
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel lashed out after U.S. President Donald Trump said he could do “whatever he wants” with the Caribbean island and that Washington could take “imminent action” against it.
Díaz-Canel said on X that the Trump administration “publicly threatens” Cuba’s government almost daily with overthrowing it, and any act of aggression “will clash with an impregnable resistance.”
The comments came after new threats by Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said Cuba’s socialist economic model needs to “change dramatically.” The same day, another Latin American country denounced Díaz-Canel’s government and said it would close its embassy.
Sen. John Kennedy argued Wednesday that Republicans should seek to pass the SAVE America Act using budget reconciliation, so only a majority vote would be required.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune currently has the measure being considered next week as a straight change in policy matter, meaning it would require 60 votes to overcome a Democrat filibuster.
The bill, which President Donald Trump supports, would require Americans to show proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and to present photo ID when voting. It would also place limits on mail-in voting, but would still allow it for those who are disabled, serving in the military, or traveling out of their home state.
A new state audit has found that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s administration failed for years to properly investigate Medicaid kickback allegations, despite having the authority to do so.
The findings raise serious questions about oversight within the state’s Department of Human Services (DHS) amid a massive fraud scandal tied to autism services funding.
The report, released Tuesday by the Office of the Legislative Auditor, concluded that DHS officials incorrectly claimed they lacked the authority to investigate kickbacks unless they were tied to other forms of fraud.
According to the audit, that interpretation was wrong and contradicted long-standing legal authority held by the agency.
Election experts from around the country are sounding alarms that the SAVE Act (full name: SAVE Trump’s Ass From The Epstein Files Act) would cause mayhem and set up the elections and the country for failure. In large part, this is because many of the act’s requirements are unfunded.
The so-called SAVE America Act, which President Donald Trump is relentlessly pushing, would create chaos for state and local elections administrators by immediately imposing several new requirements without adding funding, former North Carolina elections chief Karen Brinson Bell said on a press call Tuesday organized by Washington U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell.
“I cannot emphasize enough the Herculean effort that the SAVE America Act would present for election officials across this country,” Brinson Bell, who now advises election officials as a co-founder of the group Advance Elections, said. “Please do not set our country or these public servants up for failure. Bring us to the table. Develop this legislation properly and provide adequate funding and resources so we can all succeed.”
China is making a big push for widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, and the nation’s tech powerhouses are holding public events to help everyday people get OpenClaw, the viral personal digital assistant.
“It seems everyone around me – my colleagues and friends — has it,” new user Gong Sheng said as he waited to get set up. “I don’t want to be left behind.”
At a gathering in Beijing hosted on Tuesday by internet giant Baidu, Gong was one of hundreds of people lined up to get OpenClaw installed onto their laptops and phones.
U.S. companies will be allowed to do business with Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company after the Treasury Department eased sanctions, with some limitations, on Wednesday as the Trump administration looks for ways to boost world oil supplies during the Iran war.
The Treasury issued a broad authorization allowing Petróleos de Venezuela S.A, or PDVSA, to directly sell Venezuelan oil to U.S. companies and on global markets, a massive shift after Washington for years had largely blocked dealings with Venezuela’s government and its oil sector.
Separately, the White House said Trump would waive, for 60 days, Jones Act requirements for goods shipped between U.S. ports to be moved on U.S.-flagged vessels. The 1920s law, designed to protect the American shipbuilding sector, is often blamed for making gas more expensive.
The moves highlight the increased pressure that the Republican administration is under to ease soaring oil prices as the United States, along with Israel, wages a war with Iran without a foreseeable end date. Global oil prices have since spiked as Iran halted traffic through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world’s oil typically passes through from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.
India is likely to double its installed power generation capacity from the current 520 Gigawatt (Gw) to 1,121 Gw by 2036, with non-fossil fuel sources contributing around 70 per cent of the total, according to the projections of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the apex power planning body under the Power Ministry.
The projection includes 315 Gw coal-based capacity, 20 Gw gas capacity, 22 Gw nuclear, 78 Gw of large hydro, 509 Gw solar, 155 Gw wind energy, 16 Gw biomass and 6 Gw small-hydro power capacity.
FedEx sues Trump administration seeking tariff refunds MSN
from news.google.com
CBS Evening News isn’t doing so well under the new management at Paramount or the commissar they installed to make sure nothing woke gets broadcast. Nielsen reports that ratings are down.
Viewership for the program has once again dropped below 4 million, a critical demarcation point that previously spurred alarm at the Paramount Skydance news division.
The post CBS Evening News viewership slips under 4 million, and they’re all old appeared first on Boing Boing.
from boingboing.net
Labor group cancels Cesar Chavez events over ‘profoundly shocking’ new allegations– www.theblaze.com
Cesar Chavez has been lauded by Mexican-Americans as an iconic labor leader who fought for farmworkers’ rights in the 1960s, but his legacy may be marred by growing allegations of “profoundly shocking” behavior.
Several celebrations of Cesar Chavez Day, which is observed March 31, have been canceled across the country by the United Farm Workers, an organization Chavez co-founded.
‘These allegations have been profoundly shocking. We need some time to get this right, including to ensure robust, trauma-informed services are available to those who may need it.’
The union said in a letter Tuesday that the claims against Chavez were “incompatible” with the organization’s values.
Nearly three weeks into a war against a crazed theocracy, the political and media focus has been, like a complaining child in the back seat of a car on a long trip, “When will it be over?”
This ridiculous impatience is a product of a Democrat opposition to Operation Epic Fury that will exploit every misstep, whether occurring out of strategy, operations, rhetoric, or unintended consequences. It is akin to getting a work assignment that the employer and employee both know will only reasonably produce results after weeks of long hours, at minimum, but nonetheless getting harangued by the boss every day: “You’re not done yet!?”
Now, the boss may be just an intolerable micro-manager, or he may be trying to get you to quit out of frustration. But it’s fairly certain, given the Democrat decades-long foreign policy record, that productive oversight of the conflict is not their goal.
Between the now ascendant neo-Marxist left and the “river-to-the-sea” crowd, the Democrat war objectives are clear: sabotage.
Ali Larijani was the head of Iran’s Security Council and a key voice in the ear of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Gholamreza Soleimani was the head of the Basij militia. Both were pillars of Iran’s security apparatus. If they have indeed been taken out, the question is who replaces them, and will they take Iran down an even more hardline path?
The death of Iran‘s key figure Ali Larijani raises more questions than answers.
First, Israel says it has killed him in an air strike, but Tehran has yet to confirm or deny.
While Israel and the United States rejoice and call on the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow what is left of their Islamic leadership, the reality on the ground is less certain. The systematic killing of the leaders of Iran since February 28 has created a vacuum in Tehran.
The fear among analysts is that the space will be filled by regime insiders who will be hardened and more radical.
Larijani was the lead negotiator at the now aborted talks to find a peaceful way forward.
North Korea Elections Result 2026: Kim Jong Un Secures 99.93% Vote; Just 0.07% Against Raises Questions Over Lack of Opposition The Sunday Guardian
from news.google.com
A group of House Republicans aims to use environmental restrictions to curb the use of the abortion pill mifepristone, which anti-abortion advocates say contaminates the water supply with human remains from at-home abortions.
Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) introduced a new bill Wednesday with nine GOP cosponsors that would do away with telehealth access to abortion medications and require in-person screening before a doctor could dispense the pills.
The bill would also require patients undergoing a medication abortion at home to use a catch-kit to collect the fetal remains and other pregnancy tissue, including the placenta and blood clots, to be disposed of as medical waste by the prescribing medical team.
Miller’s bill, the “Clean Water for All Life Act,” is being championed by the anti-abortion advocacy group Students for Life of America, which has advanced the argument that the proliferation of medication abortion in recent years has tainted the drinking water supply with human fetal remains and endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
The results are in.
On Tuesday night, Illinois voters headed to the polls for the Republican gubernatorial primary.
The race was between farmer and two-time Republican Gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey, DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick, and real estate developer and owner Rick Heidner
The race was not close at all, and Bailey came out on top.
Newsweek reported more on the results and gave insight if Repiblicans have a chance to flip the Governor’s seat:
Darren Bailey won the Illinois Republican primary on Tuesday and will now face Democratic Governor JB Pritzker in the November election. Polling on the race is pretty threadbare at the moment, but prediction markets aren’t hopeful Republicans can win.
The Republican primary left the party at a crossroads, with voters deciding between putting state Senator Darren Bailey up against Pritzker despite his huge loss in 2022 or putting up a lesser-known candidate. Pritzker has easily won both of his elections. But gubernatorial control in Illinois jostles back and forth between political parties, making it a long shot for Republicans, though not out of the realm of possibility.
On Tuesday, Bailey won the GOP primary with 48.8 percent of the vote when the race was called. He beat out Ted Dabrowski, James Mendrick and Rick Heidner. All four campaigned on affordability, crime and dissatisfaction with Pritzker’s leadership, but they differed sharply in background, tone and strategy as they tried to emerge from a low‑budget, relatively quiet primary.
There’s only been one general election poll for Illinois governor, which was conducted months ago, in November. Performed by Victory Research, a majority of those polled said they’d vote for Pritzker in a head-to-head matchup against the individual candidates. Over 54 percent said they would vote for Pritzker in a matchup with Bailey.
Given the timing of that poll, it’s not a great indicator of how people plan to vote moving forward. But prediction markets are also putting the race in Democrats’ favor.
AI-powered robot learns how to harvest tomatoes more efficiently ScienceDaily
from news.google.com
A shooting at a U.S. Air Force base in New Mexico on Tuesday left one person dead and another wounded, according to military officials.
from www.washingtontimes.com
FBI Opens Office in Ecuador as U.S. Strengthens Security Relations The Presidential Prayer Team
from news.google.com
Federal Judge Shreds Trump’s Tina Peters Retaliation Campaign Colorado Pols
from news.google.com
High-profile attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz have epitomized Iran’s hit-and-run response to superior American and Israeli firepower, but analysts warn that Tehran’s asymmetric strategy isn’t limited to guns, bombs or the physical geography of the battlefield.
from www.washingtontimes.com
The concept of freedom of the press isn’t ruined by criticism of the press. But when liberal TV hosts roll out their lectures, they sound a little like the president they routinely attack. Any criticism of their work must be Fake News.
MS NOW host Ana Cabrera expressed indignation on March 16 after FCC chairman Brendan Carr tweeted that broadcast stations should watch what they’re airing on the war in Iran: “Freedom of the press has been such a huge, huge underpinning of the democracy in this country, right? In order to hold people in power accountable to be that government watchdog.” But Carr is “squashing” press freedom with a simple tweet.
NPR media reporter David Folkenflik lamented Carr wanted to “get in the weeds of what’s said,” but allowed that “you can argue there are good principles involved about wanting to make sure certain kinds of coverage is fair to all sides” – yet the government shouldn’t interfere.
MS NOW host Ana Cabrera freaked out at Brendan Carr tweets, arguing press freedom is a huge underpinning of democracy. He’s quashing it! NPR’s David Folkenflik says Carr’s FCC wants to “get in the weeds of what’s said.” Yes! Much of what they say would fit the weeds metaphor. pic.twitter.com/7GATuVWf8X
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) March 17, 2026
How the Supreme Court’s Tariff Ruling Could Save the Civil Service Washington Monthly
from news.google.com
One of the most poorly kept political secrets in modern times is that Democrats just love themselves some unfettered illegal immigration.
Sure, they’ll never outright admit to it — that would be tantamount to political suicide — but actions speak louder than words, and when it comes to illegal immigration, Democrats have practically been screaming at the top of their lungs of late.
The million (billion? trillion?) dollar question, then, is why?
Look, anyone with a room-temperature IQ can tell you that Democrats are trying to “import voters.”
The common criticism is that Dems, alongside all of their unpopular ideas, can’t win over the average American on policy. Instead of changing those unpopular policies, however, Democrats seem far more intent on simply bringing in more agreeable voters.
But it’s not quite so surface-level, as Border Czar Tom Homan so eloquently — and worryingly — pointed out during a Fox News appearance on Tuesday.
WATCH: Tom Homan says Dems and Biden “sold this country out for future political power” by importing millions of illegals to swell blue states.
As blue state populations increased, Dems would get more House seats and electoral votes.
Pittsburgh police officers did not intervene as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents struggled to detain a suspect near a police station, and claims circulated that officers were told to stand down.
Pittsburgh Police Chief Jason Lando said he is not aware of any order directing officers not to act and has launched an administrative review into the incident.
“To that end, I was recently made aware of an incident that occurred in front of the Zone 3 police station where ICE agents were struggling to take someone into custody,” Lando said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital.
KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh reported that the incident unfolded as ICE agents attempted to detain a suspect near the Zone 3 station, when the individual began fighting and kicking ICE agents.
Dr Dorsey pointed out that there may also be a hardening of the lines on both sides of the war following the security chief’s death.
“You could see Israel, the United States, seeing this as a major body blow that sets the stage for trying to finish Iran off,” he said.
Already, Iran has retaliated for the assassination of its security chief, targeting Tel Aviv with missiles carrying cluster warheads, which are difficult to intercept.
Larijani’s death is also likely to lend more power to the more radical leaders and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, said Dr Mehran Kamrava, professor of government at Georgetown University Qatar.
“As an insider with deep connections within the Islamic Republic’s deep state and with impeccable revolutionary credentials, he would have been indispensable to any decision to end the current war,” Dr Kamrava told CNA.
“His death is likely to strengthen the hands of President Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Araghchi on the one hand, and the more radical, less compromising commanders of the Revolutionary Guards on the other.”
Senate Republicans have issued a brutal response to Democrats who have refused to vote in favor of the common-sense election integrity measures laid out in the SAVE America Act.
.@SenJohnBarrasso: “You need to present a photo I.D. to buy a beer, to board a plane, and to do so many other things that are part of American life—why not to vote?… The SAVE America Act is the best way to secure and safely provide elections that represent the viewpoints of the… pic.twitter.com/37zyS8rUar
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 17, 2026
.@LeaderJohnThune on the SAVE America Act: “Pretty much everything you do in your daily life involves showing an I.D., whether it’s opening a bank account, getting a hotel room, picking up prescription drugs… These are things that are just basic, fundamental aspects of our… pic.twitter.com/ayetSntNrB
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 17, 2026
SENATOR CRUZ: “You need a photo ID to enroll in college. You need a photo ID to open a bank account. You need a photo ID to check into a hotel.”
“And I got to admit, this is my personal favorite: You need a photo ID — actually, two photo IDs — to shovel snow in New York City.” pic.twitter.com/mdcUCuJdyn
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 17, 2026
🚨 BREAKING: Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) just stormed the Senate floor with COMMON SENSE amendments to the SAVE America Act
The amended bill will:
1. Require voter ID
2. Require citizenship
3. No rigged mail-in voting
4. No men in women’s spots
5. No transgender mutilation of kids… pic.twitter.com/dLjxNLZqsU— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 17, 2026