Tuesday, April 8, 2025

April 8, 2025

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Supreme Court Clears Way for Venezuelan Deportations to Resume, for Now . . . The Supreme Court ruled on Monday night that the Trump administration could continue to deport Venezuelan migrants using a wartime powers act for now, overturning a lower court that had put a temporary stop to the deportations. The decision marks a victory for the Trump administration, although the ruling did not address the constitutionality of using the Alien Enemies Act to send the migrants to a prison in El Salvador. The justices instead issued a narrow procedural ruling, saying that the migrants' lawyers had filed their lawsuit in the wrong court. Breitbart

Politics

Harris team crafted federal judge 'death-pool roster' to swear her in should Biden die as president, book says . . . A communications director for former Vice President Kamala Harris created a so-called "death-pool roster" of federal judges appointed by a Republican that could swear in Harris as president – in the event that President Joe Biden suddenly died, according to a new book. The book, "Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House," published Tuesday by William Morrow and Company, claims that Harris' White House communications director Jamal Simmons crafted an entire communications strategy to employ in the event of Biden's death. Fox News

MAGA ally Ben Shapiro turns on Trump with stinging tariff takedown . . . Shapiro gave a blisteringly blunt message to Trump, urging him to do 'exactly' what Musk tells him to do in regard to his tariff policy - just days after global markets faced devastating downturns because of his decisions. Trump's trade advisor Peter Navarro has been engaged in a public war of words with Musk since the White House unveiled his controversial reciprocal tariff policy. Daily Mail

RFK Jr. tells CDC to change its guidance on fluoride in drinking water . . . U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday said he plans to tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending fluoridation in communities nationwide. Kennedy said he's assembling a task force of health experts to study the issue and make new recommendations. Also on Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it is reviewing "new scientific information" on potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water. Associated Press

Trump Planning Military Parade for his birthday . . . President Donald Trump is reportedly planning a military parade to be held on June 14, 2025, the 250th anniversary of the United States Army and Trump's birthday. A Washington, DC, "source with knowledge" of Trump's planning told the Washington City Paper that the military parade will "stretch almost four miles from the Pentagon in Arlington to the White House." Breitbart

Culture

Microsoft workers say they've been fired after 50th anniversary protest over Israel contract . . . Microsoft has fired two employees who interrupted the company's 50th anniversary celebration to protest its work supplying artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli military, according to a group representing the workers. Microsoft accused one of the workers in a termination letter Monday of misconduct "designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event." Associated Press

Conservative Group Aims to Countersue After SPLC Dragged It Through 9 Years, Demanded $200B . . . A conservative Christian law firm is gearing up to countersue the Southern Poverty Law Center after the left-leaning firm attempted to bankrupt it with a "frivolous lawsuit" that demanded $200 billion in damages. The SPLC represented a woman who dragged Liberty Counsel through nine years of legal purgatory, all based on a lie. Daily Signal

NASA Nominee Plans to Prioritize America First Agenda in Space, Not DEI . . . While the Biden administration infused DEI into NASA's operations, President Donald Trump's nominee for NASA director, Jared Isaacman, will use his background as an entrepreneur, commercial astronaut, and business owner to refocus the agency on its founding mission statement, which was "to explore the unknown in air and space, innovate for the benefit of humanity, and inspire the world through discovery." Daily Signal

National Security

Iran's foreign minister says he will have indirect talks with US envoy over Tehran's nuclear program . . . Iran 's foreign minister said Tuesday he'll meet with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff in Oman for the first negotiations under the Trump administration seeking to halt Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program as tensions remain high in the Middle East. Speaking to Iranian state television from Algeria, Abbas Araghchi maintained the talks would be indirect, likely with Omani mediators shuttling between the two parties. U.S. President Donald Trump, in announcing the negotiations on Monday, described them as being direct talks. Associated Press

International

Germany Deploys Troops to Lithuania in First Permanent Foreign Deployment Since World War II . . . Germany has activated its first permanent foreign troop deployment since World War II, establishing a 5,000-strong armored brigade in Lithuania. This decision follows Defense Minister Boris Pistorius' announcement in 2023 to bolster troop presence on NATO's eastern flank in response to the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian War. The deployment demonstrates Germany's willingness to take a leading role in the conventional defense of Europe with Brig. Daily Signal

Money

The False Tariff Headline That Sent Stocks on a $2 Trillion Ride . . . CNBC incorrectly said Trump was considering a 90-day tariff pause. Stock indexes soared. After trading as much as 4.7% lower early in the session, the S&P 500 rose to trade up 3.4% in a jarring intraday reversal. The broad-based index added $2.4 trillion in market value in the 10 minutes from 10:08 to 10:18 a.m., according to Dow Jones Market Data. By 10:41 a.m. it had all been wiped out. The S&P 500 erased $2.5 trillion in value in around 23 minutes after the White House quickly denied that such a pause was being discussed. Wall Street Journal

In another sign of the Decline and Fall of Journalism, the outlet apparently relied on a post on X for its information.

Oil prices hit a four-year low . . . Oil prices on the U.S. and European benchmarks fell Monday to their lowest level since April 2021. The tumble began Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on almost all U.S. trading partners. Within a day of the announcement, OPEC announced it would increase production by 411,000 barrels per day. Experts differ on whether it was the tariffs or OPEC that had the greater impact on the drop in prices. Just the News

Where are all the headlines about this? I've never enjoyed going to the gas station more than since they started selling Suzy Q's.

Shopify Says No New Hires Unless AI Can't Do the Job . . . Shopify won't make new hires unless managers can prove artificial intelligence isn't capable of doing the job, according to a new memo from Chief Executive Tobi Lütke. Teams at the e-commerce company need to integrate AI into their workflows, and doing so will be expected of all employees going forward, according to the memo, which Lütke shared on social media. Wall Street Journal

You should also know

'I'm Not on the Left': Jake Tapper Clashes With Brooke Rollins Over Trump's Tariffs . . . CNN's Jake Tapper denied Sunday that he is "on the left" after Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins called out his "side" for "freaking out" over tariffs. "Well, first of all, Jake, thank you for having me. "We're now two days in, right? You've got two days of data. Everyone, especially on your side—on the left—is freaking out." Tapper jumped in to say, "I'm not on the left," as Rollins laughed at the CNN host's statement before continuing to lay out her argument. Daily Caller

Women's Final Four TV Ratings Collapse Without Caitlin Clark

Baby born in UK to woman with transplanted womb . . . A "miracle" baby girl has become the first child in the UK to be born to a mother using a donated womb. The baby's mum, Grace Davidson, 36, was born without a functioning uterus, and received her sister's womb in 2023 – in what was then the UK's only successful womb transplant. Two years after that pioneering operation, Grace gave birth to her first child in February. BBC

The Return of the Dire Wolf . . . Relying on deft genetic engineering and ancient, preserved DNA, Colossal scientists deciphered the dire wolf genome, rewrote the genetic code of the common gray wolf to match it, and, using domestic dogs as surrogate mothers, brought Romulus, Remus, and their sister, 2-month-old Khaleesi, into the world during three separate births last fall and this winter—effectively for the first time de-extincting a line of beasts whose live gene pool long ago vanished. Time

Guilty Pleasures

Mountain Resort Installs Dozens of Escalators for "Painless Hiking Experience" . . . The pain and effort of reaching the top of a mountain used to be part of the whole hiking experience, but at the Lingshan Scenic Area in Eastern China's Jianxi Province, one will soon be able to reach a 1,500-meter-high summit simply by riding on a bunch of outdoor escalators. Aimed at allowing anyone to reach the popular mountaintop and take in the beauty of the surrounding area, this massive project was kickstarted in 2022 and is scheduled for completion next month. Oddity Central

Now if they can install air conditioning, we'll make the hike.