6 Republican candidates for governor of Indiana to debate ahead of primary
Candidates seeking the Republican nomination for Indiana’s next governor will take to the debate stage Tuesday night, two weeks ahead of the state’s May 7 primary election. Each of the six candidates in the competitive, multi-million dollar primary race have cast themselves as an outsider in an appeal to conservative voters, despite five holding statewide roles at some point. Whoever wins the primary is most likely to take the November general election in a state that reliably elects Republicans. Tuesday is the last televised debate before the primary for the candidates vying to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who has not endorsed a candidate. Early voting has already started in Indiana. FORMER HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLER TAKES DOWN INDIANA SANDWICH SHOP ATTACKER: ‘YOU SHOULD STAND UP FOR PEOPLE’ U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, who flipped a Democratic Senate seat in 2018, boasts such advantages as name recognition, money and former President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Braun’s campaign spent over $6 million in 2024, according to the latest summary report. But he may not be able to attend the debate because of Senate votes that begin Tuesday in Washington on aid packages for Ukraine and Israel. Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch — another familiar name thanks to running twice with Holcomb — has campaigned to slash the state’s income tax and promised to boost addiction and mental illness services. Crouch ended the most recent fundraising period with $3 million — the most cash on hand of any Indiana gubernatorial candidate. But she spent only $2.1 million in the first three months of the year. Businessperson and former commerce secretary Brad Chambers ‘ messaging is more moderate than the other candidates, focusing on the economy. Chambers spent $6.7 million this year and reports show he has contributed $8 million to his campaign. The top priorities for Eric Doden, also a former state’s commerce secretary, include a plan to invest in Indiana’s small towns. He spent $5.2 million in the first three months of this year and last reported having about $250,000 of cash on hand. Once a rising star in Indiana politics, former Attorney General Curtis Hill has struggled to compete. Hill lost the Republican delegation nomination in 2020 following allegations that he groped four women in 2018. Also running is Jamie Reitenour, a mother with no political experience, with backing of Hamilton County Moms For Liberty. She has said she would appoint its leader to head the state education department.
Trump defends Johnson as Marjorie Taylor Greene pushes to oust speaker
Former President Donald Trump has come to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s defense, as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., pushes for the Louisiana Republican’s ouster from the leadership position. “Well, look, we have a majority of one, OK?” Trump told radio host John Fredericks on Monday. “It’s not like he can go and do whatever he wants to do. I think he’s a very good person. You know, he stood very strongly with me on NATO when I said NATO has to pay up …It’s a tough situation when you have. I think he’s a very good man. I think he’s trying very hard. And again, we’ve got to have a big election.” Fredericks had asked the presumptive GOP nominee, who spent earlier Monday in a Manhattan courtroom listening to his defense and prosecutors’ opening statements in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush-money criminal trial, how he squares “this divide with MAGA and Mike Johnson.” Trump did praise Johnson for having secured as part of the package that Ukraine would receive more than $9 billion of economic assistance in the form of “forgivable loans.” MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE CALLS JOHNSON’S FOREIGN AID PACKAGE HIS ‘3RD BETRAYAL’ OF AMERICAN PEOPLE “We’ve got to election some people in Congress, much more than we have right now,” Trump continued. “We have to elect some good senators. Get rid of some of the ones we have now, like Romney and others. And we have to have a big day, and we have to win the presidency. If we don’t win the presidency, I’m telling you I think our country could be finished… We are absolutely a country in decline.” Greene, a strong Trump ally, called on Johnson to resign after the House passed a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes about $61 billion for Ukraine, or she would move to have him ousted as Speaker. “Mike Johnson’s leadership is over. He needs to do the right thing to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled process,” she told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “If he doesn’t do so, he will be vacated.” 3RD REPUBLICAN CALLS FOR SPEAKER JOHNSON’S OUSTER OVER $95B FOREIGN AID PLAN Though Johnson has drawn ire from some House conservatives for working across the aisle to secure deals with President Biden on federal spending, government spying and, most recently, Ukraine, the political environment has changed since House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was removed from the speakership over similar frustrations last October. Inching closer to the November election, Republicans maintain a slimmer majority after McCarthy resigned from the House after his ouster as Speaker and Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., was expelled from the lower chamber of Congress. Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., voiced support for Greene’s motion to vacate Johnson from the Speakership last week. But Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., head of the House Freedom Caucus who supported McCarthy’s ouster, told The Hill he opposed booting Johnson from the top job. “My judgment and estimation is that this is not the time to do that,” Good reportedly said.
Gautam Buddha Nagar seat: SP candidate leaves behind BJP MP Mahesh Sharma in spending during poll campaign
There is a three-way battle between BJP, SP, and BSP in Gautam Buddha Nagar constituency, which go to polls on April 26.
In one Texas county, elections officials shoulder new costs and burdens to appease skeptics
Brazos County election officials are responding to demands from skeptical residents by expanding hand counts and ordering special paper.
Texas politics leave transgender foster youth isolated — during and after life in state care
Support once afforded LGBTQ+ foster kids has vanished and a culture of silence has blanketed the agency tasked with raising children growing up in the system.
Judge unseals FBI probe into Trump’s classified documents case, including detailed timeline of Mar-a-Lago raid
The judge presiding over former President Trump’s classified documents case unsealed a slew of documents Monday evening pertaining to the FBI’s investigation into the former president and the FBI’s raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ordered the release of the new documents, which provided a detailed look into the personnel involved in the raid on Mar-a-Lago and a play-by-play timeline of the raid. One of the documents is an FBI file that suggests the agency’s investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents was dubbed “Plasmic Echo.” “This document contains information that is restricted to case participants,” the document reads. It adds, “PLASMIC ECHO; Mishandling Classified or National Defense Information, Unknown Subject; Sensitive Investigation Matter.” Another unsealed FBI memo memorialized the role of Attorney General Merrick Garland in the investigation. FBI RAIDS TRUMP’S MAR-A-LAGO: ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ FOR AGENCY TO EXECUTE SEARCH WARRANT AGAINST FORMER PRESIDENT In a document dated March 30, 2022, Garland provided his approval to allow the investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents to upgrade to a “full investigation.” “This email conveys Department of Justice (DOJ) Attorney General (AG) [Merrick Garland] approval for conversion to a full investigation,” a synopsis of the restricted document reads. Another unsealed FBI document, dated Aug. 17, 2022, detailed the FBI’s unprecedented raid on Trump’s Palm Beach estate days earlier on Aug 8, 2022. The documents describe the personnel involved in the raid and provide a by-the-minute breakdown of the incident beginning with the FBI’s arrival at Mar-a-Lago. GOP SLAMS ‘WEAPONIZATION’ OF DOJ AFTER TRUMP’S MAR-A-LAGO RAIDED BY FBI; DEMS CALL IT ‘ACCOUNTABILITY’ It includes entering a “45 Office” safe and later taking seized documents back to Washington – ultimately to the FBI’s Washington Field Office (WFO). “A search warrant, 22-mj-8332-BER, issued in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida on August 5, 2022, was executed at 1100 South Ocean Boulevard, Palm Beach, Florida 33480 at 10:33 a.m. on August 8, 2022,” the document reads. TRUMP SAYS MAR-A-LAGO HOME IN FLORIDA ‘UNDER SIEGE’ BY FBI AGENTS “Prior to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team’s entry onto the MAL premises, FBI leadership informed and coordinated with local United States Secret service (USSS) leadership. Local USSS facilitated entry onto the premises, provided escort and access to various locations within, and posted USSS personnel in locations where the FBI team conducted searches,” it continued. The personnel at the raid consisted of four agents from the FBI WFO, one FBI Headquarters personnel, 25 agents from the FBI Miami Field Office, one DOJ Counterintelligence and Export Control Section attorney and one attorney from the United States Attorneys Office Southern District of Florida. Trump famously said the morning of the raid that his Mar-a-Lago estate was “under siege” by the FBI. He also claimed to be in full cooperation with investigators. According to the unsealed documents, the timeline for the raid is as followed, with approximate times. 08:59 a.m. — FBI team entered the Mar-a-Lago premises 09:01 a.m. — Entry photographs of exterior initiated 09:14 a.m. — Telephonic contact with attorney [name redacted] attempted 09:36 a.m. — Telephonic contact established with [name redacted] 10:13 a.m. — CCTV activated on Mar-a-Lago premises 10:33 a.m. — Search of Mar-a-Lago initiated 10:55 a.m. — Entry photographs resumed 10:55 a.m. — Filter Team review of “45 Office” initiated 01:33 p.m. — US Attorney’s Office SDFL approves FBI entry in “45 Office” safe 02:23 p.m. — Exit photos of “45 Office” initiated 04:33 p.m. — Search of Mar-a-Lago premises concluded 06:19 p.m. — Receipt for Property provided to Attorney [name redacted] 07:52 p.m. — Seized evidence arrived at FBI Field Office Miami 08:18 p.m. — Seized evidence secured in FBI Field Office Miami temporary storage 07:08 a.m. — Seized evidence removed from FBI Field Office Miami temporary storage 07:13 a.m. — Convoy briefing provided by FBI Field Office Miami SWAT Team Leader 07:54 a.m. — Seized evidence departed FBI Field Office Miami 08:34 a.m. — Seized evidence arrived at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) 08:35 a.m. — Seized evidence loaded on aircraft 08:49 a.m. — Aircraft departs FLL 11:00 a.m. — Aircraft arrives at Reagan International Airport (DCA) 11:15 a.m. — FBI Field Office Miami Filter Team Lead transfers potentially privileged seized evidence to FBI Washington Field Office Filter Team 11:20 a.m. — Seized evidence departs DCA 11:50 a.m. — Seized evidence arrives at FBI Washington Field Office.
What is Project Nimbus, and why are Google workers protesting Israel deal?
Google employees based in the United States staged protests at the tech giant’s offices in New York City, California and Seattle last week to oppose a $1.2bn contract with the Israeli government. Known as Project Nimbus, the joint contract between Google and Amazon signed in 2021 aims to provide cloud computing infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology services to the Israeli government and its military, which has faced condemnation for its ongoing war on Gaza. Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, overwhelmingly civilians, and destroyed vast swaths of the Palestinian coastal enclave since it launched the military offensive last October. The country has justified the offensive saying it is targeting Hamas fighters who carried out a deadly attack on October 7. Here is a look at why tech workers are opposing military collaborations amid misuse of AI and other technologies in conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine among others. Why are Google employees protesting against Project Nimbus? Last week’s sit-ins in New York and California’s Sunnyvale were led by No Tech For Apartheid, which has been organising Google employees against Project Nimbus since 2021. Employees are opposing their employer’s ties with Israel, which is facing a genocide charge for its war on Gaza at the World Court. Tech workers are demanding that they have right to know how their labour is going to be used. With little clarity about the project, they fear the technology might be used for harm. Workers at Amazon and Facebook parent Meta have also clashed with their employers over war links. “It is impossible to feel excited and energised to work when you know your company is providing the Israeli government products that are helping it commit atrocities in Palestine,” said, Tina Vachovsky, staff software engineer at Google, in a testimonial published on No Tech Apartheid website. According to a 2021 report by the US-based news outlet The Intercept, Google is offering advanced AI capabilities to Israel, which could harvest data for facial recognition and object tracking as part of Project Nimbus. Activists and academics have been alarmed by Israel’s use of AI to target Palestinians, while legal scholars say the use of AI in war violates international laws. Nine employees were arrested on April 16 for staging a sit-in at Google office in New York [No Tech for Apartheid via Anadolu] “There’s actually a shocking lack of transparency around exactly what this project covers, outside of providing interoperable, comprehensive cloud computing, which is essentially systems of data storage, data management, and sharing,” Ramesh Srinivasan, professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), told Al Jazeera. “Data for the Israeli governments, of course, is likely to extend to the Israeli [army]. So it’s a project that marks and sort of highlights the direct connections that big technology companies in the United States have, not only to the so-called military-industrial complex, but to directly aiding and abetting the Israeli government.” In a statement, the tech giant said that the Nimbus contract “is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services”. The tech behemoth says it works with several governments around the world, including Israel. The company fired at least 28 employees on Tuesday for “violating Google’s code of conduct” and “policy on harassment, discrimination and retaliation” during the events on Tuesday. In addition, at least nine Google employees were arrested for the sit-ins at its offices in New York and Sunnyvale. Google CEO Sundar Pichai issued veiled a warning in a blog post last week. “We have a culture of vibrant, open discussion that enables us to create amazing products and turn great ideas into action. That’s important to preserve. But ultimately we are a workplace and our policies and expectations are clear: this is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics. This is too important a moment as a company for us to be distracted,” he wrote. But tech workers have not been fazed by the warning. Mohammad Khatami, a Google software engineer who was arrested for participating in the sit-in in New York, told US outlet Democracy Now that workers were arrested for “speaking out against the use of our technology to power the first AI-powered genocide”. Is there a history of tech workers opposing collaborations with militaries?] This isn’t the first time Amazon and Google employees have voiced their displeasure with Project Nimbus. Last October, Amazon and Google employees expressed their concerns anonymously in an open letter published by the UK news outlet The Guardian: “We are writing as Google and Amazon employees of conscience from diverse backgrounds. We believe that the technology we build should work to serve and uplift people everywhere, including all of our users. As workers who keep these companies running, we are morally obligated to speak out against violations of these core values. For this reason, we are compelled to call on the leaders of Amazon and Google to pull out of Project Nimbus and cut all ties with the Israeli military. So far, more than 90 workers at Google and more than 300 at Amazon have signed this letter internally. We are anonymous because we fear retaliation.” In 2018, thousands of Google employees protested against a contract with the Pentagon known as Project Maven. In 2017, Google partnered with the Pentagon to use the company’s AI technology to analyse drone surveillance footage. In February, roughly 30 activists gathered around the entrance to OpenAI’s San Francisco office, due to the company quietly removing a ban on “military and warfare” from its usage policies in the previous month. OpenAI would eventually confirm it was working with the US Department of Defense on open-source cybersecurity software solutions. On March 4, at the Mind the Tech conference in New York, Google employee Eddie Hatfield stood up in a conference room and
Dramatic video of burning train in Canada
NewsFeed A train engulfed in flames rolled through a city in Ontario, Canada as passersby filmed it. No injuries were reported, but $25,000 worth of wooden beams used for railway tracks were destroyed. Published On 23 Apr 202423 Apr 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Far-right German politician’s aide arrested for spying for China
Worries over efforts to sway upcoming EU elections rise, with MEP Krah also probed over Russian influence operation. German police have arrested an aide to a far-right Member of the European Parliament on suspicion of spying for China. Prosecutors announced on Tuesday that Jian G is believed to have repeatedly passed information on the workings of the European Parliament to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS). The arrest spurred warnings in Europe that democracy is under threat ahead of EU elections in June, while provoking anger in Beijing. The German authorities did not specify which politician employed the arrested man. However, media reported that the German national was an aide to Maximilian Krah. The MEP is the lead candidate for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party for the upcoming European Parliament election. Jian G was arrested in Dresden late on Monday and his apartment was searched, prosecutors said. As well as reporting on negotiations and decisions of the European Parliament in January, he also allegedly spied on Chinese opposition figures in Germany. Attack on democracy Berlin’s interior minister Nancy Faeser said the spying allegations were “extremely serious”. “If it is confirmed that there was spying for Chinese intelligence from inside the European Parliament, then that is an attack from inside on European democracy,” she declared in a statement. “Anyone who employs such a staff member also carries responsibility,” she added. “This case must be cleared up precisely. All the connections and background must be illuminated.” Media reports have linked Krah to a Russian scheme to influence the vote that was uncovered by Czech intelligence earlier this month. He was also questioned by the FBI in January over suspicion that he was receiving money from Kremlin agents. The AfD said in a short statement that the arrest was “very disturbing”. “As we have no further information on the case, we must wait for further investigations by federal prosecutors,” said spokesman Michael Pfalzgraf. China’s foreign ministry dismissed the reported arrest, accusing unnamed forces of efforts to smear Beijing and wreck bilateral relations. “The intention of this kind of hype is very obvious … it is to smear and suppress China and to destroy the atmosphere of cooperation between China and Europe,” a spokesman said. Series of arrests The reports of Jian G’s detainment came hours after Germany arrested three others accused of spying for MSS. Regarding that incident, the Chinese embassy in Berlin declared that Beijing carries out no espionage activities in Germany. It accused Berlin of trying to “manipulate the image of China and defame China”. On the same day, however, the United Kingdom announced that it had arrested two men on suspicion of providing “prejudicial information” to Beijing. The series of arrests comes shortly after Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited China to discuss economic relations and to push for Beijing to drop its support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine. Berlin has warned recently about increasing attempts by Moscow and Beijing to secure political and economic influence, and German intelligence agencies have called for broader powers. In reaction to Jian G’s arrest, MEPs called for the European Parliament to accelerate a continuing probe into foreign influence in a bid to guard against interference in early June’s vote. “We demand preliminary results before the elections,” said Green MEP Terry Reintke. “Autocracies like China and Russia are actively trying to undermine our democracies in Europe.” Adblock test (Why?)
Chittorgarh constituency Lok Sabha elections: Know polling date, candidates and past results
The Rajasthani constituency of Chittorgarh’s election date is April 26 (Phase 2)