Source: Axios
“Google fired around 20 workers for participating in protests against its $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with the Israeli government, according to an activist group representing the workers. In total, the company has now fired around 50 employees over sit-in protests held in Google offices last week that were part of yearslong discontent among a group of Google and Amazon workers over claims that Israel is using the companies’ services to harm Palestinians.” (04/23/24)
https://www.axios.com/2024/04/23/google-fires-employees-protest-israel-contract-nimbus
Source: The Daily Beast
“Trump’s Hush-Money Judge Has Already Made Some Good Rulings.” (04/23/24)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-hush-money-judge-has-already-made-some-good-rulings
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Gary M Galles
“Over more than four decades of reading, writing and teaching about economic policy, one of the lessons I have learned is that market forces are more powerful than we think. When people are faced with some problem in coordinating their economic efforts, they commonly say things like, ‘well, there’s not much we can do to change things’ or ‘we might not like it, but we have no other choice.’ That is, they tend to discount the possibility that markets, if allowed to work, could address those issues. Then, such false premises provide support for coercive government ‘solutions’ as the default response.” (04/23/24)
https://www.aier.org/article/why-even-insiders-underestimate-markets-power/
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Three million children in Haiti are in need of humanitarian assistance as continuing gang violence hampers aid delivery, the head of the UN children’s agency, Unicef, has said. Catherine Russell said the situation in gang-wracked Haiti was ‘catastrophic’ and growing worse ‘by the day.’ She told a meeting of the UN Security Council that in many areas essential services had collapsed. Meanwhile, a transitional presidential council has still not been sworn in. While Haiti has been blighted by gangs for years, the armed groups stepped up their attacks at the end of February when Prime Minister Ariel Henry travelled to Kenya to seal a deal for a multinational security force to be deployed to the Caribbean nation. Mr Henry was prevented from returning to Haiti as the gangs attacked the international airport, forcing its closure.” (04/23/24)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68880579
Source: Reason
by Joe Lancaster
“In January 2024, Amazon terminated its agreement to acquire iRobot, the company that manufactures the Roomba robot vacuum. That company then laid off nearly one-third of its work force. In a joint statement, the companies said they saw ‘no path to regulatory approval in the European Union.’ But busybody American lawmakers also helped scuttle the deal. … Lawmakers — led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — penned a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan in September 2022, advocating that ‘the FTC should use its authority to oppose the Amazon-iRobot transaction.’ … One assumes Warren was pleased as well (though her office did not respond to a request for comment), as she had opposed the merger from the start — though since iRobot is based in Bedford, Massachusetts, a sizable portion of the 350 laid-off workers are likely to be her constituents.” (for publication 05/24)
https://reason.com/2024/04/23/regulators-killed-a-lifeline-for-roombas/
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“NATO At 75 — Time To Retire?” (04/23/24)
https://rumble.com/v4r4igw-nato-at-75-time-to-retire.html
Source: CounterPunch
by Antonio Scurati
“[F]ascism was, throughout its entire historical existence and not just at the end or occasionally, an irredeemable phenomenon of systematic political violence characterized by murder and massacres. Will the heirs to that history recognize it once and for all? Unfortunately, everything leads one to think that this will not be the case. The current post-fascist ruling group, having won the elections in October 2022, could have gone down one of these two paths: repudiate its neo-fascist past or try to rewrite history. It has undoubtedly taken the second path.” (04/23/24)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/
Source: Town Hall
by Stephen Moore
“If the economy is so good, why do small business leaders feel so bad? The latest Small Business Optimism Index from the National Federation of Independent Business could hardly be more depressing. It finds that the men and women who run our 33 million small businesses and hire more than half of American workers are in a somber mood. The survey finds that small-business confidence has reached its lowest point in 12 years. Amazingly, small company CEOs are even more fearful of the future today than during the COVID-19 pandemic, when most businesses were shuttered. The confidence numbers have decreased every year President Joe Biden has been in office. … Why are small-business owners feeling so dour even at a time when the GDP is growing? I asked that question to David Malpass, former World Bank president and U.S. Treasury undersecretary under former President Donald Trump.” (04/23/24)
https://townhall.com/columnists/stephenmoore/2024/04/23/why-small-businesses-hate-bidenomics-n2638141
Source: New York Post
“A Swiss Air jet nearly crashed into four other planes at JFK Airport after a communications error put them on the runway at the same time. The Zurich-bound Swiss Air flight had been cleared for takeoff on April 17 and began rushing down the runway, but hit the brakes after noticing that air traffic control also cleared the path for four other planes, ABC 7 reports. Air traffic control audio from the airport captured the moment the Swiss Air plane was given the all clear for takeoff on runway 4L, only for the pilot to notice another plane taxiing nearby. Swiss Air praised its staff’s quick thinking in aborting the takeoff and avoiding a likely tragedy at the New York airport.” (04/23/24)
https://nypost.com/2024/04/23/us-news/swiss-air-jet-nearly-collides-with-four-other-planes-on-jfk-runway/
Source: Time
“Two Malaysian military helicopters collided and crashed during a training session on Tuesday, killing all 10 people on board, the navy said. The helicopters were rehearsing at a naval base in northern Perak state for the navy’s 90th anniversary celebration next month when the accident occurred, the navy said in a brief statement. … A video circulating on social media purported to be of the incident showed several helicopters flying low in a formation. One of the helicopters veered sideways and clipped the rotor of another helicopter, causing both to plunge and crash.” (04/23/24)
https://time.com/6969935/malaysia-navy-helicopters-collision-deaths-rehearsal/
