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Unbiased headline news for Monday April 8, 2024 – A booming job market, softening inflation, robust growth — the economy has performed well by just any measure, but the chief executive of the nation’s largest bank is worried the U.S. still remains on the brink of a downturn. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, issued a sober economic forecast in his annual shareholder letter on Monday, warning that high inflation may prove more stubborn than expected, triggering rate hikes at the Federal Reserve and an eventual recession. * * * Russia and Ukraine are trading fresh accusations over renewed threats to Europe’s largest nuclear plant that has been caught up in the war. Moscow alleged that Ukraine was behind drone attacks on the facility that were witnessed by U.N. inspectors, and Kyiv is accusing Russia of disinformation tactics. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday called the drone attacks on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine “a very dangerous provocation.” * * * South Korea successfully placed its second military reconnaissance satellite into orbit, Seoul’s military said Monday. This is a move that will heighten surveillance capabilities against North Korea amid a growing space race on the peninsula. The launch took place on Sunday evening at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which was Monday morning in Seoul, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a press release. * * * Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday gave a recap of her days-long trip to China, which included comments on the influx of Chinese-made goods into American and global markets. “President Biden and I are clear-eyed about the complexities of this relationship,” Yellen said Monday at a press conference in Beijing on her second visit in nine months to the Asian country. * * * A driver crossed into oncoming traffic early Sunday morning and slammed into a semitrailer, killing a child and sending two adults to the hospital, according to the Idaho State Police. The child, who was in a child safety seat, died of injuries at the scene. The driver, a 39-year-old woman from Roseville, California, and a passenger, a 35-year-old man from Butte, Montana, were transported by air ambulance to the hospital. Both adults were wearing their seatbelts. * * * Two Oklahoma volunteer firefighters are recovering after suffering burns while battling a weekend wildfire in northwest Oklahoma, officials said Monday. Mooreland firefighters Jared Brittain and Max Clark suffered injuries on Saturday when their truck was overrun by flames, Mooreland Fire Chief Travis Case told The Associated Press. “The wind was blowing 55 miles-per-hour,” Case said. “It just came around them.” * * * The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity. The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication. * * * The future of Uber and Lyft in Minneapolis has garnered concern and debate in recent weeks after the City Council voted last month to require that ride-hailing companies pay drivers a higher rate while they are within city limits. Uber and Lyft responded by saying they would stop serving the Minneapolis area when the ordinance takes effect May 1, causing the city to weigh the ordinance it passed. The state could also take action, while riders and drivers are left wondering what could come next.

HEADLINES – The tragic demise of seven workers from World Central Kitchen, an American charity, in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza marked a devastating setback for the organization that has rapidly grown in less than 15 years. The killings disrupted the crucial flow of desperately needed food aid to the besieged coastal strip, as international organizations and charities warn of an impending famine. World Central Kitchen, in partnership with the United Arab Emirates, had just delivered a cargo ship carrying 400 tons of canned goods from Cyprus to Gaza. More than 53,000 individuals have fled Haiti’s capital in less than three weeks, with the vast majority escaping the relentless gang violence, according to a United Nations report released on Tuesday. More than 60% are heading to Haiti’s rural southern region, concerning U.N. officials. “Our humanitarian colleagues emphasized that these departments do not have sufficient infrastructure, and host communities do not have sufficient resources, to cope with the large number of people fleeing Port-au-Prince,” said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Iran vowed to retaliate against an airstrike widely attributed to Israel that destroyed Iran’s Consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus the previous day, resulting in the deaths of 12 people. Four Syrian citizens were also killed in the strike, a Syrian official said on Tuesday, without providing any details about them. Hezbollah, a key ally of both Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and Iran, also pledged “punishment and revenge” on Israel. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt was sworn in for a third six-year term on Tuesday after being re-elected in a December vote in which he faced no serious challengers. El-Sissi took the oath of office before parliament, which convened in the new administrative capital in the desert outside Cairo. El-Sissi won 89.6% of the vote in the December election, with a turnout of 66.8% out of more than 67 million registered voters. He ran against three virtually unknown opponents. There was a massive surge in anti-Muslim bias incidents in 2023, the highest number of such incidents recorded in 30 years, according to the Council of American-Islamic Relations. CAIR received a large number of complaints over anti-Muslim incidents last year, with nearly half of them reported in the last three months alone, after the Israel-Gaza war began on Oct. 7th. The rise in anti-Muslim complaints comes as antisemitic hate crimes are also on the rise. An American teenager and two other people were killed in an avalanche near the Swiss resort of Zermatt, police said on Tuesday. One person was flown to a hospital with serious injuries. The avalanche occurred at about 2 p.m. Monday in an off-piste area of the Riffelberg, above the resort and below the famed Matterhorn peak. Rescuers recovered three bodies and the injured skier, a 20-year-old Swiss man. One of the victims were a 15-year-old American boy. Embattled co-working space provider WeWork says it expects to emerge from bankruptcy by the end of May, touting lease-restructuring efforts that it estimates will bring $8 billion in future rental savings. Cutting back on real estate costs has been a top priority for WeWork since the New York-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November. At the time, WeWork said that rental liabilities accounted for about two-thirds of its operating costs as it tried to renegotiate nearly all of its leases. As more than 2 million graduating high school students from across the United States finalize their decisions on what college to attend this fall, many are facing jaw-dropping costs, in some cases, as much as $95,000. A number of private colleges have exceeded the $90,000 threshold for the first time this year as they set their annual costs for tuition, board, meals and other expenses. That means a wealthy family with three children could expect to shell out more than $1 million by the time their youngest child completes a four-year degree

Unbiased headline news for Tuesday April 2, 2024 – A federal judge has rejected Hunter Biden’s attempts to have his felony tax indictment dismissed, clearing the path for a trial in June. The judge expressed skepticism towards Biden’s arguments during a hearing last week in Los Angeles. Biden has entered a not guilty plea to all nine charges. He stands accused of repeatedly failing to file and pay his taxes on time and engaging in an illegal tax-evasion scheme by submitting false tax returns and manipulating the books on his company’s payroll. — The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that a ballot initiative guaranteeing broader abortion access in the state can be put up for a vote in November. The potential amendment states that, with exceptions for parental notification of minors seeking abortions, “no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.” — The Israeli military has withdrawn from its second devastating raid on Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, leaving it in ruins, with the walls blasted and frame charred. Despite the destruction, Israel claimed victory in its battle against Hamas militants — and insisted it had not harmed civilians sheltering inside the hospital. But accounts from observers on the ground and the World Health Organization paint a contrasting picture. — North Korea has declared it is on its way to becoming a “space power” and vowed to launch several more reconnaissance satellites into orbit this year, following its first successful launch in November. “Great progress has been made in strengthening the national defense capability with the successful launch of the reconnaissance satellite ‘Malligyong-1’ last year,” said Pak Kyong Su, vice director of the North’s National Aerospace Technology Administration, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. — Former crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried told ABC News in an exclusive interview that he is remorseful for his actions that last week resulted in a 25-year prison sentence for fraud. “It’s most of what I think about each day,” he said. Bankman-Fried’s sentence capped off a 17-month saga that began in November 2022 when FTX, a global cryptocurrency exchange he co-founded and served as CEO, imploded, resulting in a $8 billion loss for its customers. — A driver rammed into the front gate of the Atlanta FBI office Monday afternoon and was taken into custody, according to FBI officials. The car appeared to attempt following an authorized vehicle as it was entering the gate, and the pop-up barrier was deployed to stop the unauthorized car, officials said. The man’s motives are not known and he is being evaluated at a local hospital, officials said. No injuries were reported, FBI officials said. — Federal researchers indicate the gray whale population along the West Coast is showing signs of recovery five years after hundreds washed up dead on beaches from Alaska to Mexico. The increase in population numbers comes after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association determined in November that the “unusual mortality event” that began in 2019 has ended. — A man who was paralyzed from the neck down after a surfing accident seven years ago is now able to stand and walk on his own, thanks in part to a potentially groundbreaking stem cell treatment. Chris Barr was the very first patient in a Mayo Clinic study that collected stem cells from his own stomach fat, expanded them in a laboratory to 100 million cells and then injected the cells into Barr’s lumbar spine. Over five years after undergoing the therapy, Barr said he is continuing to gain more independence and get faster at walking.

Unbiased headline news for Monday April 1, 2024 – The Syrian military asserted that Israeli airstrikes in the vicinity of the northern city of Aleppo had resulted in casualties and inflicted damage, with “a number of” individuals either killed or wounded. A monitoring group focused on the conflict reported that the strikes had claimed the lives of 44 individuals, the majority of whom were Syrian troops. The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor organization, stated that the Israeli strikes targeted missile depots under the control of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group in Aleppo’s southern suburb of Jibreen, near the Aleppo International Airport, as well as the nearby town of Safira, home to an extensive military facility. — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed a longtime aide and several advisers as part of an ongoing reshuffle, while Russia unleashed fresh attacks overnight. Zelenskyy removed Serhiy Shefir from his position as first assistant, a role he had held since 2019. The Ukrainian president also let go of three advisers, and two presidential representatives responsible for overseeing volunteer activities and soldiers’ rights. — The leader of the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad vowed victory over Israel in the war in Gaza during a meeting with Iran’s foreign minister in Tehran for talks. “I promise you that we will be the victors in the war,” Ziad al-Nakhalah told reporters, according to the official IRNA news agency. He referred to his meeting with Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian as “important” and expressed gratitude to Iran for its support for the Palestinians. — Three United Nations military observers and a Lebanese interpreter sustained injuries on Saturday while patrolling the southern Lebanese border after a shell exploded in their vicinity, as stated by the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. The military observers are part of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, which supports the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL. UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti informed The Associated Press that the four individuals who were wounded were in stable condition. — Three law enforcement officers in Northern Nevada were shot and wounded last Friday, following a traffic stop in the Reno area that rapidly escalated into an hourslong standoff involving multiple shootouts between officers and the suspect, according to police reports. Chris Crawforth, the police chief in the nearby city of Sparks, stated during a news conference on Saturday that the wounded officers — two Sparks police officers and a Washoe County sheriff’s deputy — had received treatment for their injuries and had been released from the hospital. — Police in New Mexico had all the horsepower in a chase: A shoplifter was detained outside a Walgreens this month after attempting to outrun a horse-mounted police officer. Albuquerque police bodycam video shows a dark-brown horse trotting through a parking lot behind a man in black clothing. The horse catches up to him within seconds. “It wasn’t me,” the man yells as he leads the horse and police officer into the street, stopping traffic. — A Pennsylvania judge has overturned the convictions of three men imprisoned for decades in the 1997 slaying of a 70-year-old woman, despite the fact that their DNA never matched that found at the scene. “This case never should have been prosecuted. These guys never should have been charged. The evidence always was that they were innocent,” said Paul Casteleiro, Grasty’s lawyer and legal director of the nonprofit Centurion. The three men will remain in prison while a prosecutor decides whether to appeal. — A monthslong probe into an alleged drone-based contraband operation in Georgia’s prisons has led to the arrest of 150 individuals, including eight correction officers, according to officials. The investigation, dubbed “Operation Skyhawk,” uncovered that drones were being utilized to move cellphones, drugs, and weapons into Georgia Department of Corrections facilities, as stated by the governor’s office. Search and arrest warrants were served at two locations in the Metro Atlanta area.

Unbiased headline news for Saturday March 30, 2024 – A woman from Texas, Lizelle Gonzalez, has filed a lawsuit against prosecutors along the U.S.-Mexico border who initiated a criminal case against her for self-managing an abortion, resulting in her being charged with murder and spending two nights in jail before the charges were eventually dropped. The federal court lawsuit, filed by Gonzalez on Thursday, comes a month after the State Bar of Texas fined and disciplined the district attorney in rural Starr County over the 2022 case, in which Gonzalez was charged with murder for “the death of an individual by self-induced abortion.” — On Saturday, a three-ship convoy departed from a port in Cyprus, carrying 400 tons of food and other essential supplies destined for Gaza, as concerns about hunger in the territory continue to escalate. World Central Kitchen stated that the vessels and a barge were loaded with enough provisions to prepare more than 1 million meals, including items such as rice, pasta, flour, legumes, canned vegetables, and proteins. Additionally, dates, traditionally consumed to break the daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan, were also on board. — A massive salvaging operation is currently underway to reopen the Port of Baltimore following the deadly collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The Navy has mobilized a 1,000-ton lift capacity derrick barge, a 400-ton lift-capacity revolving crane barge, and a 160-ton revolving crane to assist in lifting the debris from the water, a colossal undertaking that is in progress. Officials have stated that the section of the bridge trapping the cargo ship dolly weighs between 3,000 and 4,000 tons. — Tensions are running high at South Dakota’s largest prison on Saturday after two nights of disruptions at the facility. A media group posted a live video to X of an incident at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls on Thursday night. Inmates in the video could be heard yelling “we have rights,” and “water.” A spokesperson for the South Dakota State Employees Association informed KSFY-TV that inmates had also set fires inside cells. — Convicted Rust film armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed must remain in jail while awaiting a sentencing hearing and cannot have a retrial, according to a ruling by a New Mexico judge. On Friday, District Court Judge Mary Marlowe-Sommer ruled against requests made by Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys, denying their motions to overturn her conviction, grant a retrial, and order her release from jail as she awaits an April 15 sentencing, as reported by Variety. — A 21st birthday party turned deadly when two men in their 20s were fatally shot early Saturday in Jacinto City, Texas, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. The party had about 50 people in attendance and featured a live band. Police said it was unclear whether the deceased were partygoers or suspects, according to a post from Sheriff Ed Gonzalez on X. Shots were fired, and at least two people were struck. — As these incidents have gained traction online, the New York Police Department said on Friday that they have identified seven instances in which TikTok users have posted about being randomly punched in the city. Two suspects have been arrested so far, but the NYPD stated that there is no evidence that any of the incidents are related. Police said that while there are numerous unprovoked attacks daily in the city, TikTok has just become a platform for dissemination. — The Environmental Protection Agency announced its new emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles on Friday, which the agency claims will avoid 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The move comes in an election year when the Biden-Harris campaign is working to demonstrate achievements in their climate agenda. The new standards impact vehicles such as freight trucks and buses manufactured for model years 2027-2032.