Thursday, April 17, 2025

April 17, 2025

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Trump Waved Off Israeli Strike After Divisions Emerged in His Administration . . . Israel had planned to strike Iranian nuclear sites as soon as next month but was waved off by President Trump in recent weeks in favor of negotiating a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program, according to administration officials and others briefed on the discussions. Mr. Trump made his decision after months of internal debate over whether to pursue diplomacy or support Israel in seeking to set back Iran's ability to build a bomb, at a time when Iran has been weakened militarily and economically. New York Times

Politics

Trump Administration at Risk of Being Held in Criminal Contempt Over Deportation Flights . . . A federal judge has found that "probable cause exists" to hold the Trump administration in "criminal contempt" for carrying out deportation flights of illegal aliens under the Alien Enemies Act. Washington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on March 15 issued a temporary restraining order barring the U.S. from using the Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport illegal aliens. Daily Signal

Sanders-AOC 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour draws crowds, brings hope to anti-Trumpers . . . The line to get into Sen. Bernard Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's "Fighting Oligarchy" tour stretched for nearly a mile before the gates opened. An estimated 30,000 people flooded the streets. Many trekked to the back of the long line with lawn chairs slung over their shoulders, baseball caps that read "Gulf of Mexico" and "Resist" and T-shirts that said, "Talk Bernie to Me," "Democracy Has No Kings." Similar scenes have been playing out across the country. Washington Times

Bernie Sanders Spent $221K on Private Jets Amid 'Fighting Oligarchy' Tour . . . Sen. Bernie Sanders has crisscrossed the country on his nationwide Fighting Oligarchy Tour to rail against billionaires and supposed "oligarchs" like Elon Musk—while traveling like an oligarch himself. Campaign expenditures released Tuesday and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show Sanders's main campaign committee, Friends of Bernie Sanders, spent $221,723 chartering private jets during the first quarter of 2025, with the first payment coming just days before the launch of his tour in February. Washington Free Beacon

Letitia James doesn't appear to live in homes she calls her residences . . . The Federal Housing Finance Agency referred Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for potential investigation of alleged mortgage fraud on Monday, referring to a White Collar Fraud report presenting evidence that James may have committed mortgage fraud with one property while filing inconsistent disclosure reports about loans on the other. The DCNF visited both homes in question on Wednesday, discovering that both residences are apparently inhabited by multiple people, but apparently not James. Daily Caller

Culture

Trump admin asks IRS to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status . . . The Trump administration has asked the Internal Revenue Service to revoke Harvard University's tax-exempt status, sources within the Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed to Fox News. The Ivy League school's failure to address antisemitism on campus is grounds for losing its 501(c)(3) status, Fox News' sources said. The IRS is expected to make a final decision soon on Harvard's tax exemption, according to CNN, which was first to report the story. Fox News

Georgetown Eyes Vote on Israeli Divestment Resolution Sponsored by School of Foreign Service Student

School's student government postponed the vote, originally set to be held during Passover, after pushback from Jewish groups.

Texas Is Poised to Create a $1 Billion Private School Voucher Program . . . The Texas House of Representatives voted early Thursday morning to create one of the largest taxpayer-funded school voucher programs, a hard-fought victory for private school choice activists as they turn their attention to a nationwide voucher push. The measure still has some legislative hurdles to clear before Gov. Greg Abbott signs it into law, but the House vote — 85 to 63 — secured a win that was decades in the making, propelled by the governor's hardball politics last year. New York Times

National Security

Defense Secretary Hegseth: Chinese hypersonics missiles could destroy U.S. carriers in minutes . . . Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth believes the Chinese military's hypersonic missiles could sink all U.S. aircraft carriers within the first minutes of a potential conflict. Mr. Hegseth said in a November interview, months before becoming defense secretary, that the People's Liberation Army's deployment of ultra high-speed anti-ship missiles highlights Beijing's rapid drive to build weapons specifically designed to target the American military. Washington Times

U.S. Tries to Crush China's AI Ambitions With Chips Crackdown . . . New U.S. chip-export limits that rocked global markets on Wednesday are the clearest sign yet from the Trump White House that whatever advances China makes in AI will have to happen without America's help. Trump administration officials have signaled for months that they were considering a crackdown on exports of processors from U.S. companies such as Nvidia that have helped enable major Chinese advances in artificial intelligence. Wall Street Journal

Kilmar Abrego Garcia exposed in police records as 'violent' repeat wife-beater . . . A now-deported illegal alien accused of being an MS-13 gang member that was living illegally in Maryland has a record of being a "violent" repeat wife beater, according to court records filed in a Prince George's County, Maryland, district court by his wife. In the filing, written in Vasquez's own handwriting, she alleges Abrego Garcia repeatedly beat her, writing: "At this point, I am afraid to be close to him. I have multiple photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he [has] left me." Fox News

DHS Official Who Openly Cheered Hamas Fired After 16 Months Of Paid Leave . . . Nejwa Ali, a former spokeswoman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization who the Department of Homeland Security hired and put in charge of vetting asylum seekers, was fired by the Trump administration in February after the Biden administration declined to do so for 14 months after she pledged her support for Hamas. Biden administration Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, removed Ali from duty on October 19, 2023, days after The Daily Wire documented her celebration of the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. Daily Wire

Tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars spent for this woman to sit at home and watch TV game shows.

International

A Depleted Hamas Is So Low on Cash That It Can't Pay Its Fighters . . . Hamas is facing a new problem in Gaza: coming up with the cash it needs to pay its rank and file. Israel last month cut off supplies of humanitarian goods to the enclave, some of which Hamas had been seizing and selling to raise funds, according to Arab, Israeli and Western officials. Its renewed offensive has targeted and killed Hamas officials who played important roles in distributing cash to cadres and sent others into hiding, Arab intelligence officials said. Wall Street Journal

They get paid? I thought they just murdered people for the love of the job.

Money

Trading Partners Promise to Buy American to Stave Off Trump's Tariffs . . . In the two weeks since President Trump's "Liberation Day," many U.S. trade partners have a clear plan to convince Washington against reimposing stiff tariffs on their exports to the U.S.: buy more American stuff. Many are rushing to do so in a bid to eliminate their trade deficits with the U.S., while others are urging a collective response to stave off pressure from Washington. Some countries, however, can't, or won't, open up their wallets at all. Washington is negotiating with more than 70 nations. Wall Street Journal

California Sues Trump Over Tariffs . . . Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued on Wednesday to block President Donald Trump's tariffs. The lawsuit states that California's economy is "directly harmed" and alleges Trump's effort to institute the tariffs under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA) is unconstitutional. The Daily Caller

You should also know

Scientists find 'strongest evidence yet' of life on distant planet . . . Scientists have found new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life. A Cambridge team studying the atmosphere of a planet called K2-18b has detected signs of molecules which on Earth are only produced by simple organisms. This is the second, and more promising, time chemicals associated with life have been detected in the planet's atmosphere by Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope. BBC

'Tell the Truth': Mother of Md. Woman Slain by Illegal Alien Urges Media to Share Her Story . . . The mother of Rachel Morin, the Maryland mom of five brutally raped and murdered by an illegal alien in August of 2023, on Wednesday joined a White House briefing to urge the media to share her daughter's story. "Tell the truth," Patty Morin said. "Tell like how violent it really is." Morin shared the gruesome details of her daughter's death on a walking trail near her Maryland home. On Tuesday, Victor Martinez-Hernandez was convicted of first-degree murder, first-degree rape, third-degree sexual offense, and kidnapping in Morin's case. Daily Signal

Guilty Pleasures

Crosswalk buttons hacked to play hoax Musk, Zuckerberg recordings . . . Several crosswalk buttons in three California cities have been disabled after they were tampered with to play hoax audio clips claiming to be Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Videos posted online show crosswalk buttons in Redwood City, Menlo Park and Palo Alto being pressed and, instead of the usual pedestrian alerts, playing clips of voices impersonating the tech billionaires. UPI