82 protesters arrested at Virginia Tech. “According to the university, 82 people were arrested in total; 53 of them being Virginia Tech students. Layan Marsi, a Palestinian student at Virginia Tech, was one of the students arrested. She said she had to come back and continue the protest. ‘We started just hanging out in the lawn, dancing and picking up trash,’ Marsi said. ‘At one point, we were all sleeping, and we were just waiting our turn to be taken into custody.’ ….Marsi said the others that were arrested were professors, staff, and members of the Blacksburg community, but police have not confirmed this.” https://wset.com/news/local/we-are-not-leaving-without-a-fight-dozens-of-virginia-tech-students-return-to-protest-for-palestine-virginia-tech-coalition-for-palestine-blacksburg-police-department-montgomery-county-sheriffs-office-29-april-2024
Number of arrests nationwide approaches 900. “About 275 people were arrested on Saturday at various campuses including Indiana University at Bloomington, Arizona State University and Washington University in St. Louis. The number of arrests nationwide approached 900 since New York police removed a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Columbia University and arrested more than 100 demonstrators on April 18.” https://abc7chicago.com/arrests-roil-campuses-nationwide-ahead-of-graduation-as-protesters-demand-israel-ties-be-cut/14741050/
At least 100 more protesters arrested at Univ. of Texas – Austin. “At least 100 demonstrators have been arrested during pro-Palestine, anti-war protests on the University of Texas at Austin campus following a series of rallies Monday. As of Tuesday morning, groups have been gathering in front of the Travis County Jail to wait for the possible release of those who are currently behind bars. ….The most recent arrests come after the fourth day of protests at UT Austin’s campus, as many demonstrators set up tent encampments Monday afternoon on the university’s South Mall Lawn. At approximately 1:30 p.m., members of the Austin Police Department and Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers responded to the protests with flash bangs [i.e., grenades] and pepper spray, in an attempt to break up gathering crowds.” https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/ut-austin-protests-arrested-protestors-monday-pro-palestine-rally-demonstration-lawn/269-80417ef6-51b2-4b67-87ce-6fc933365e16
Man with huge student loan debt caught trying to sell secrets to Russia. “A former NSA worker has pleaded guilty to six federal counts of espionage after he was caught trying to share secrets to a fed posing as a foreign agent. Jareh Sebastian Dalke, a 31-year-old Army vet from Colorado Springs, had faced a possible life sentence for giving out the information – but will serve only 22 years when he is sentenced in April, prosecutors said Monday. ….’He seemed like a normal dude,’ one resident of the suburb told KKTV of the man prosecutors said had student loan debt he was trying to pay off. ….Said to have degrees related to cybersecurity, Dalke worked at the NSA from just June 6 to July 1, but was still able to make off with multiple documents containing classified information pertaining to National Defense. ….He allegedly told the undercover [FBI] agent that he had $237,000 in debts…” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12663675/Jareh-dalke-NSA-worker-pleads-guilty-trying-sell-calssified-info-russian-agent.html
‘Numerous arrests’ at Virginia Commonwealth University. “The chaotic scene, which began at around 8:30 p.m., saw protesters build a barricade with shipping pallets and hurl water bottles and other objects at the police. Officers, some in riot gear, charged the line of demonstrators and deployed chemical agents in an effort to disperse the crowd. Police made numerous arrests and began disassembling the tents, blankets and tarps at the scene. ….[Sereen] Haddad, who is Palestinian, said she has lost over 100 family members in Israel’s operations in Gaza since Oct. 7.” https://richmond.com/news/local/education/palestine-protesters-vcu-campus-israel-gaza-war-ceasrefire-hostages-hamas-glenn-youngkin/article_f6452cb8-0656-11ef-886c-d3211f176ada.html
Washington, D.C. area airports break April 29th heat records. “The mercury climbed to 91 degrees in parts of the D.C. area by Monday afternoon, breaking a record at Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia and… at BWI Marshall Airport in Maryland, according to 7News Chief Meteorologist Veronica Johnson. Going into Monday, the heat record for April 29 at Dulles was 89 degrees, which was set in 2017. On Monday, the temperature there climbed to 91 degrees, according to Johnson. At BWI, the record was 91 degrees, which was set in 1974 — a record that was topped Monday at 92 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.” https://wtop.com/weather/2024/04/into-the-90s-monday-is-dc-areas-first-preview-of-summer/
120 killed by flooding in Kenya. “More than 40 people have been killed in Kenya after a dam burst, pushing the death toll from devastating floods to more than 120. ….Heavy rains have been lashing East Africa in recent weeks as the El Nino weather pattern exacerbates seasonal rainfall. ….Elsewhere in the region, nearly 100,000 people have been displaced in Burundi while at least 58 people have died in Tanzania and several thousand made homeless.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/29/dozens-of-people-dead-in-kenya-floods
Russia captures its first American-made Abrams tank from Ukraine. “On April 28, 2024, Russian forces captured an American M1A1 Abrams tank near Berdychi, which was significantly damaged, including internal burnout. Due to its substantial weight of nearly 67 tonnes, two BREM-1 recovery vehicles were employed to tow the tank. This incident marks the first Abrams tank captured by the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine, as reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense. ….Even a heavily damaged and burnt M1A1 Abrams tank remains valuable for analysis by military engineers, such as those in Russia. The structure and materials of the tank can provide critical insights into its manufacturing techniques and armor composition. This allows for an understanding of the tank’s vulnerabilities and strengths, which is beneficial for developing defensive tactics and enhancing the design of their own armored vehicles. Moreover, any components that survive the damage — such as optical systems, communication equipment, and engine parts — are of interest for technical analysis. These components can help in assessing the technological standards of U.S. military hardware and identifying potential vulnerabilities, particularly in the areas of electronic warfare and cybersecurity.” https://armyrecognition.com/ukraine_-_russia_conflict_war_2022/russian_forces_capture_first_american_m1a1_abrams_tank_in_ukraine.html
Austria’s foreign minister: Military use of artificial intelligence creating ‘Oppenheimer moment’. “‘This is, I believe, the Oppenheimer moment of our generation,’ Alexander Schallenberg said at the start of the Vienna conference entitled ‘Humanity at the Crossroads: Autonomous Weapons Systems and the Challenge of Regulation‘. ‘Autonomous weapons systems will soon fill the world’s battlefields. We already see this with AI enabled drones and AI based target selection,’ he said. ….Schallenberg sees AI as the biggest revolution in warfare since the invention of gunpowder but feels it is far more dangerous. With the next logical step in military AI development involving removing humans from the decision-making process, he believes there’s no time to waste. ‘Now is the time to agree on international rules and norms to ensure human control,’ he said. ‘At least let us make sure that the most profound and far-reaching decision: who lives and who dies remains in the hands of humans and not of machines.'” https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/kill_killer_robots_now/
PEN America calls on universities to stop criminalizing peaceful protests. “We continue to be deeply alarmed by the decision of campus administrators across the country to deploy the police to detain, arrest, and remove peaceful student protesters. The use of excessive force against students and faculty on multiple occasions is shocking and unacceptable. Engaging police to deal with peaceful protests represents an escalation that is inimical to the exercise of free expression and to a learning environment, and further raises the risk of use of excessive force; except in extreme cases, the use of outside police against student protesters is the wrong decision and only serves to ratchet up tensions. While campus leaders have a responsibility for the safety of all on campus, threatening arrest and deploying police against peaceful protesters is a severe and drastic measure that in many cases leads to further disruption of operations. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the politics of the protesters, the precedents these actions are setting should raise alarm. We urge campus leaders to remember that even contentious student protests should be zealously protected. As protests continue, we are especially concerned about political leaders calling for National Guard involvement. We are mindful of the tragic Kent State University protests in 1970 and echo the concerns that are being raised by historians, free expression experts, and advocates that conditions are increasingly primed for violence.” https://pen.org/press-release/growing-reports-of-use-of-force-against-student-protests-is-deeply-alarming/
Dairy farmers in Wisconsin and Texas suspected of having bird flu. “Dr Barb Petersen, a dairy veterinarian in Amarillo, Texas, explained that workers at a local farm where cattle have tested positive for the virus are suffering tell-tale symptoms. ….’People had some classic flu-like symptoms, including high fever, sweating at night, chills, lower back pain’, as well as upset stomach, vomiting and diarrhea. They also tended to have ‘pretty severe conjunctivitis and swelling of their eyelids’. Meanwhile, veterinary researchers in Wisconsin — where the virus has infected cows — have reported multiple cases of local farmers suffering bird flu-like symptoms. But farmers are notoriously reluctant to seek medical help, meaning ‘a lot of cases are not documented’, according to Dr Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. To date only one person has tested positive for the virus — a farmer in Texas who suffered from eye inflammation. But the CDC says at least 44 others are under monitoring for potential infections with the bird flu virus H5N1.” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13363325/bird-flu-outbreak-humans-texas-farm-worker-sick.html
New Orleans police accused of using excessive force during protester arrests. “Police arrested a dozen pro-Palestine protesters in New Orleans’ historic French Quarter, as efforts to set up an encampment in the city’s center were suppressed by local law-enforcement officers. Officers used batons and tasers on protesters who had congregated in Jackson Square Park, according to eyewitnesses and video reviewed by the Guardian. Three people received treatment in hospital as a result, according to two sources in direct contact with arrestees. ….[a protester who gave his name as] Kinsey witnessed ‘extreme violence’ against people recording the police.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/29/new-orleans-protest-police
Mobile phone service providers fined by FCC for selling customer location data. “The FCC is finalizing fines first proposed in February 2020, including $80m for T-Mobile; $12m for Sprint, which T-Mobile has since acquired; $57m for AT&T; and nearly $47m for Verizon. The carriers sold ‘real-time location information to data aggregators, allowing this highly sensitive data to wind up in the hands of bail-bond companies, bounty hunters, and other shady actors’, the FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. The wireless carriers said they plan to challenge the fines. ….The FCC said [customers?] relied on contract-based assurances that service providers would obtain consent… before accessing [their] location information.” https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/29/fcc-fines-wireless-carriers-t-mobile-verizon
Journalist arrested while covering UT – Austin protest charged with felony. “A photojournalist who was violently arrested while covering a pro-Palestine student protest at the University of Texas at Austin last week is reportedly being charged with felony assault on an officer, a charge that press freedom advocates condemned as an obvious attempt to intimidate reporters. ….’The affidavit said [Carlos] Sanchez lunged toward a Texas Highway Patrol officer, who was on campus assisting the university’s police department during its response to the protest, striking him with his camera,’ according to KXAN. Sanchez was initially taken into custody on criminal trespass charges, which were later dropped. ….Sanchez denied intentionally hitting an officer. ….’Even after law enforcement assaults of journalists covering protests in 2020 resulted in millions in settlement payments, many officers clearly haven’t learned their lesson. As even the U.S. Department of Justice has acknowledged, protests are newsworthy, and journalists need to be allowed to cover them and their aftermath, even when protesters are dispersed.'” https://www.commondreams.org/news/texas-journalist-felony-charge They haven’t learned their lesson because they don’t have to pay the settlements, their employers’ insurance companies do.
Biden administration opposed to charging Israeli leaders with war crimes. “White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday reaffirmed the Biden administration’s opposition to the International Criminal Court potentially issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top officials related to Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip. ….’So, we’ve been really clear about the ICC investigation. We do not support it. We don’t believe that they have the jurisdiction. And I’m just gonna leave it there for now.'” https://www.commondreams.org/news/icc-netanyahu
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will appear on California ballot as minor party candidate. “Kennedy said in a video released Monday afternoon that he and his running mate, patent attorney Nicole Shanahan, are officially on the Golden State’s ballot as the American Independent Party of California’s nominee for president. The candidate already secured his place on the ballots in Utah and Michigan. His campaign representatives say that he has enough signatures to soon get on the ballot in seven other states including New Hampshire, Nevada, Hawaii, Idaho and Iowa.” https://www.courthousenews.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-secures-spot-on-california-ballot/ Running as a minor party candidate greatly reduces number of signature required. “California requires 219,000 signatures for an individual candidate to gain ballot access. A new political party, however, can gain access with just 75,000 party registrations. ‘While registering 75,000 people to a new party is still a big lift, the truth is our campaign already has more than 70,000 supporters in California,’ the campaign said.” https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/politics/2024/01/22/rfk-jr–launches-we-the-people-political-party-in-california
Federal appeals court upholds lower court ruling that sheriff violated civil rights of prisoners. “A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the conviction of a Georgia sheriff who violated the civil rights of multiple detainees… by ordering nonviolent detainees into restraint chairs for hours at a time, with their hands cuffed behind their backs and without bathroom breaks. Victor Hill, who served as Clayton County sheriff for 10 years, was found guilty in October 2022. The Eleventh Circuit panel quashed his appeal on Monday, ruling that Hill had fair warning that his use of force was unconstitutional, and that sufficient evidence supported the jury’s conclusion that his conduct had no legitimate, non-punitive purpose. Each detainee suffered injuries, such as “open and bleeding” wounds, lasting scars or nerve damage, according to trial evidence. Hill and his deputies used the chair about 600 times.” https://www.courthousenews.com/georgia-sheriff-who-held-detainees-in-restraint-chairs-for-hours-loses-appeal-of-criminal-conviction/
Government accused of making impossible moderation demands in Backpage case. “….Backpage banned explicit offers of sex for money (which is illegal in most of the U.S.) but allowed adults ads more generally…. But in a truly Orwellian fashion, the government argues that the very act of forbidding explicit prostitution ads was a way of encouraging prostitution ads, thereby facilitating prostitution in violation of the federal Travel Act. The alleged ‘conspiracy’ here is that defendants agreed ‘to work together toward the goal of making money by helping prostitution posters make their ads look less obviously like prostitution ads,’ as [U.S. District Judge Diane] Humetawa puts it. To this end, they allegedly banned not only direct offers of sex for money but certain ‘code words’ that politicians and activists construed to connote prostitution offers. Under this rubric, websites can’t win. If they allow content advertising explicitly illegal things, they’ll be in trouble. But if they ban said content, they could still be in trouble. (In this same vein, Humetewa calls the fact that Backpage responded to law enforcement subpoenas a ‘facade’ that actually furthered its aim of facilitating prostitution. Helping the government solve criminal cases is actually being used against the site.) For a time, Backpage would scrub ads of explicit terms and still allow them to post. Later they would prohibit such ads entirely. ….Maybe some Backpage executives or moderators weren’t perfect at every step of the process, but content moderation at scale is a huge, messy, and astronomically hard task. We cannot have a process where short-term moderation mishaps are treated as criminal matters if we are to have an internet with anything resembling free speech. Besides, the removal of ‘code words’ does not in itself mean that moderators ‘knew’ the ads were for illegal activity. Many of these code words were added to Backpage moderation lists under intense pressure from attorneys general, activists, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and these groups’ approximations of what constituted illegal activity (as opposed to just referencing legal sex work, or non-commercial hookups, or just slang generally) may not have had any relation to reality. Backpage played along to appease these groups, but that doesn’t mean staff necessarily bought into the idea that the words in question could actually determine whether something was or wasn’t an ad for illegal activity. Some particularly silly examples: The authorities insisted that ‘young’ and ‘new in town’ were indicative of child sex trafficking…. Content moderators are not mind-readers. They can’t intuit what’s really on a poster’s mind or what’s really going to happen when people connected by online content meet in person. But that’s essentially what the government is saying they have to do here.” https://reason.com/2024/04/29/backpage-a-blueprint-for-squelching-speech/
73% of Americans think a free press is very important, but 51% say publishing ‘false’ information should not be allowed. “‘A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable,’ that newspaper’s Craig Whitlock reported in 2019. Two years later, the U.S. chaotically withdrew from that country amidst circumstances that continue to bring official credibility into question to this day. In the intervening years, federal officials clashed with critics over public health policy, elections, and other issues. Rather than debate appropriate response to the pandemic, the origins of COVID-19, or the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, agencies from the CDC to the FBI leaned on social media companies to suppress what they claimed, often with little evidence, was false and misleading messaging. ….But alleged ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ often involved disputes among people with fundamental disagreements over what is true. ….Last September, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found such suppression ‘in violation of the First Amendment‘ and issued an injunction to prevent further arm-twisting. ….Do you really want to hand the job of limiting press freedom and suppressing false information to apparatchiks with a history of lying and muzzling critics as go-to policy choices? ….’Fifty percent of Americans feel most national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public,’ finds the Knight Foundation in its most recent (2022) report. Consequently, while trust in media is at a record low 32 percent in 2023, according to Gallup…” https://reason.com/2024/04/29/americans-favor-freedom-of-the-press-sort-of/
Progressive News Service 