Important Takeaways:
- Religious-themed designs banned from White House Easter egg art contest
- Children of the National Guard are prohibited from submitting religious Easter egg designs for the 2024 “Celebrating National Guard Families” art event at the White House.
- The art contest is part of the White House’s Easter traditions, which include the annual Easter Egg Roll. The flyer for the contest states that an Easter egg design submission “must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements.”
- “As part of the White House Easter traditions, America’s Egg Farmers – for nearly 50 years – have proudly presented an intricately decorated Commemorative Easter Egg to the First Lady of the United States. In 2021, the White House expanded on this longstanding tradition by displaying youth-designed Easter eggs in the White House East Colonnade,” the flyer explains.
- An estimated 40,000 people are expected to take part in Monday’s annual event.
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Important Takeaways:
- “China has signaled interest in joining discussions on setting rules and norms for AI, and we should welcome that,” said Bonnie Glaser of the German Marshall Fund to the Breaking Defense site. “The White House is interested in engaging China on limiting the role of AI in command and control of nuclear weapons.”
- [N]o, America should not want to enter into any AI agreement with the People’s Republic of China on “nuclear C2” — command and control — or any other matter.
- An agreement requiring a human to make launch decisions would, as a practical matter, be unenforceable.
- None of China, Russia, or the United States would allow others to pore over millions of lines of their computer code…..
- America does not need another feel-good agreement with China. It already has them, especially the Biological Weapons Convention, which has no enforcement mechanisms.
- The Chinese regime wants to talk about artificial intelligence largely because it is trailing the U.S. and thinks an agreement would help it catch up…. [and] pave the way for China to access the U.S. technology it does not already have.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Biden administration is reportedly drawing up plans for “sustained” military action in Yemen against the Houthis after US strikes failed to stop rebel attacks on ships.
- American fighter jets have repeatedly struck Houthi sites in Yemen over the past ten days, with the latest on Saturday taking out an anti-ship missile that was preparing to fire, according to the US military.
- Despite the operations to destroy their radars, missiles and drones, the Iran-backed group – which has almost a decade of experience hiding its weapons from western-backed Saudi air strikes – has vowed to fight on, framing their attacks as an act of solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli attack in Gaza.
- On Saturday the Washington Post reported that the Biden administration was crafting plans for a sustained campaign against the Houthis.
- No further details have been released on what they may look like though earlier this week Mr. Biden conceded the attacks would continue despite failing to deter the Houthis from their campaign.
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Important Takeaways:
- White House warns it is ‘out of money and nearly out of time’ to aid Ukraine
- The warning, issued on Monday in a letter to congressional leaders, laid out how the government had already gone through about $111bn appropriated for Ukraine military aid.
- “I want to be clear: without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine and to provide equipment from US military stocks,” Shalanda Young, director of the office of management and budget, wrote in the letter, parts of which were published by the Hill.
- The latest plea for money comes after the White House asked Congress to act on a $100bn supplemental funding request in October, arguing that it “advances our national security and supports our allies and partners”.
- The request identified border security, allies in the Indo-Pacific, Israel and Ukraine. About $61bn covered money for Ukraine, which included $30bn to restock defense department equipment sent to support the country after Russia invaded in February 2022.
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Important Takeaways:
- North Korea has intensified its pressure campaign towards the United States, claiming that its illegal satellite, which breached a United Nations Security Council resolution, successfully captured images of significant U.S. locations, including the White House.
- North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un thoroughly reviewed the “photographs of the White House, the Pentagon, and other targets in Washington D.C.,” taken by its newly-launched satellite at around 11:35 pm Pyongyang time Monday, according to the North’s official Rodong Sinmun.
- The state-run newspaper said on Tuesday that the satellite also captured images of U.S. military bases including the Naval Station Norfolk,… highlighting it surveilled four U.S. Navy nuclear aircraft carriers and a British aircraft carrier.
- North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency claimed on Saturday that its satellite passed over Hawaii and observed “a naval base in the Pearl Harbor, the Hickam air-force base in Honolulu,”
- However, the paper did not release images taken by the satellite.
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Important Takeaways:
- 80% Of American Households Are In A Worse Financial Position Now Than They Were Before The COVID Pandemic Hit — What You Can Do To Keep Your Head Above Water
- Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have depleted their extra savings and have less liquid assets than they had before the pandemic began. If this is you, consider speaking to a financial advisor.
- As of June, the bottom 80% of households by income, when adjusted for inflation, had lower bank deposits and other liquid assets compared to their status in March 2020. The decline marks a significant shift from the initial phases of the pandemic, where various factors, including government financial support and restricted spending opportunities during lockdowns, led to an accumulation of excess savings.
- The wealthiest one-fifth of households still have cash savings approximately 8% above their pre-COVID levels. In stark contrast, the poorest two-fifths have witnessed an 8% decrease, and the next 40% — broadly representing the middle class — have seen their cash savings fall below pre-pandemic levels.
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Important Takeaways:
- Anti-Israel Protesters Try to Storm White House, Demand Destruction of Israel
- As Breitbart News reported, tens of thousands of protesters descended on the nation’s capital to demand a ceasefire…
- Saturday’s protesters chanted “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” as they called for ceasefire in Gaza and a stop to Israeli aid from the U.S. The protesters then moved down a few blocks, where they stood in front of the White House and shouted, “Guilty,” while waving signs portraying President Joe Biden as a clown with the words “Genocide Joe,” and other signs calling Biden a “child murderer.”
- Both “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” imply the destruction of Israel, and the genocide of its nearly 10 million Israeli inhabitants, as suggested by the Hamas attack.
- There were reports of protesters desecrating and vandalizing war memorials in the vicinity of the White House as well:
- Protesters also yelled obscenities about the president, whom they resent for backing Israel’s war effort against Hamas terrorists.
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Important Takeaways:
- American troops in the Middle East targeted for the 25TH TIME: Iraq base hit by drone strike hours after White House said its holding Iran ‘accountable’
- S. forces deployed to the Middle East have been targeted for the 25th time since the Hamas attack on Israel October 7, amid fears of a widening conflict.
- The attack came as two armed drones targeted the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq, which U.S. and international forces use in western Iraq to go after remnants of ISIS.
- It follows repeated attacks on U.S. forces in the region, and came on a day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted the Old Testament and declared ‘this is a time for war,’ rejecting calls for a cease fire. Israeli Defense Forces have been pounding Gaza, and Israeli forces have also begun operations inside Gaza as part of their effort to root out Hamas following the terror attacks earlier this month.
- The attack is the 25th on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17th – which prompted the U.S. to unleash airstrikes on targets inside eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) last week.
- ‘I think we proved pretty clearly last night that we’re holding Iran accountable,’ White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday.
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Important Takeaways:
- Current funding for most government programs expires on Sept. 30. If no action is taken before the next fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, large swaths of government functions would shut down.
- The need for a stop-gap spending bill — one that might extend through late November or early December — has been a foregone conclusion for months
- Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday told a business group in Kentucky: “I think we’re going to end up with a short-term congressional resolution, probably into December as we struggle to figure out exactly what the government’s spending level is going to be.”
- Such a measure is expected to be attached to new emergency money to pay for natural disasters throughout the United States and to bolster Ukraine’s battle against Russia.
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Important Takeaways:
- If former President Donald Trump gets reelected, he could derail the federal legal cases against him, according to legal experts who said he’d have several ways to get out of the jam once he’s back in the White House.
- Special counsel Jack Smith has brought two sets of charges against Mr. Trump at the federal level. One case accuses him of keeping secret documents that should have been turned over to the government. The case is pending in the Southern District of Florida with a trial date scheduled for May of 2024, though experts say it likely will be delayed further into the election year.
- Smith’s other case accuses the former president of fueling the 2020 election chaos by intentionally misleading the country about the results, and pushing for Congress and states to overturn President Biden’s win.
- That case is pending in Washington, with a trial date not yet set. Like the Florida one, though, it could also be delayed close to — or beyond — the election.
- “Delay is always to his advantage,” said Elliot Mincberg
- If Mr. Trump wins reelection and gets into office before a verdict is rendered, he could shut down the federal cases.
- Trump could order his new attorney general to disband the special counsel and drop the charges altogether.
- Trump could also choose to pardon himself at any time — even before a trial takes place. That’s known as a preemptive pardon.
- In the state cases, New York has charged Mr. Trump with falsifying business records concerning hush payments to two women and a hotel doorman.
- In Georgia, the Fulton County district attorney this week charged Mr. Trump and 18 other individuals with crimes related to his effort to have Georgia overturn Mr. Biden’s victory in the state in 2020.
- Mincberg said those cases are more challenging for Mr. Trump.
- “He doesn’t have power at the state level even if he becomes president,” Mr. Mincberg said.
- Trump would have to rely on state pardon boards, which typically — in both New York and Georgia — require the convicted person to have served part of their sentence before receiving a pardon.
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