Biden’s Back, AP Black History, & A Moon Landing Gone Wrong
April 26, 2023
Bah Gawd, That’s Joe Biden’s Music!
On Tuesday, President Biden formally announced his plan to run for a second term as president in 2024. The video declaring his bid was released on the four-year anniversary of his candidacy announcement in 2019, highlighting the freedoms that Americans have worked to protect and the threat of “MAGA extremists” trying to take them away.
“Freedom. Personal freedom is fundamental to who we are as Americans,” Biden says in the video, referring to voting rights, abortion access, and Social Security funding. “There’s nothing more important. Nothing more sacred. Around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take those bedrock freedoms away.” He also asked voters for a second term to “finish this job” he started. Soon after his announcement dropped, the self-proclaimed “most pro-union president” appeared before a crowd of union members to chants of “Let’s Go Joe,” where he talked about his legislative success and jobs created.
While the crowd might have voiced their support for the president, other Democrats seem less enthusiastic. Many have voiced skepticism about Biden’s age – he’s currently the oldest U.S. president ever, and will be 86 by the end of his second term – with just 47% of Democrats saying they want him to run for another four years in a recent poll.
The Republican National Committee almost immediately dropped a video filled with dystopian predictions for the U.S. under another Biden term. The video used supposedly AI-generated images of America during a second Biden term. The predictions include an emboldened China invading Taiwan, streets overrun by “illegals,” a financial crisis, and the military gathered on the outskirts of a “shut down” San Francisco overrun by drugs and homelessness. The use of AI-generated content was panned by the Democratic National Committee, which said the GOP “had to make up images because, quite simply, they can’t argue with President Biden’s results.” To be clear, no RNC-affiliated AI predicted the scenes depicted in the video – AI was simply used to generate the images of scenarios dreamt up by GOP politicians.
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I Wish You Would Step Back From That Beaker, My Friend
- As Sudan finds a brief reprieve from its internal conflict, it appears that armed forces have taken control over a national public laboratory that is home to a variety of disease samples. The World Health Organization has called the situation “extremely, extremely dangerous,” though it’s unclear if the Sudanese state military or Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group are the ones in control of the laboratory.
- Combatants from an unspecified group “kicked out all the technicians from the lab… which is completely under the control of one of the fighting parties as a military base,” said Sudanese WHO representative Nima Saeed Abid. “There is a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the central public health lab,” he added. The lab holds samples of multiple deadly diseases including measles, polio, and cholera.
- So far, the conflict has led to the deaths of 459 people, with 4,072 more injured according to the WHO. The U.N. has recorded 14 attacks on healthcare so far, with situations at hospitals deteriorating quickly due to a lack of electricity. “In addition to chemical hazards, bio-risk hazards are also very high due to lack of functioning generators,” said Abid.
Not Secure With Security Forces Around
- According to the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, security forces in the West African nation of Burkina Faso have killed at least 150 civilians in a violent attack on the northeastern village of Karma. The mass murder was carried out by a group of men wearing military uniforms. “Some villagers, happy to see ‘our soldiers’, came out of their houses to welcome them,” said one villager. “Unfortunately, this joy was cut short when the first shots rang out, also causing the first casualties.”
- Burkina Faso has seen years of violence, with two government coups in 2022 alone. The most recent regime change in September of last year gave power to Ibrahim Traoré, whose government has overseen a rise in extrajudicial killings, according to human rights groups and locals. Analysts predict that this latest mass killing will push even more people away from the interim government and into the hands of extremist militant groups, who are key parties in the country’s ongoing struggle for stability.
Additional World News
- Tangaraju Suppiah: Singapore to execute man over cannabis charge (BBC)
- These are the places most at risk from record-breaking heat waves as the planet warms (CNN)
- China to replace PCR test requirement with antigen test for inbound travellers (Reuters)
- Ex-UN head Ban Ki-moon urges army to end Myanmar violence (AP)
- Chinese journalist arrested on charges of espionage (Guardian)
- Ukraine stages raids across Dnipro River as counteroffensive looms (Reuters)
- Britons ‘need to accept’ they’re poorer, says Bank of England economist (Guardian)
“No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.” – Henry Miller
The Political Agenda Of Teaching History
- In a statement on Monday, the College Board said that those in charge of developing the Advanced Placement (AP) African American studies course will be making changes after criticism that the organization conceded to pressure from conservatives to alter the syllabus. “We are committed to providing an unflinching encounter with the facts and evidence of African American history and culture,” the company said.
- It’s not clear what changes will be made, or when we’ll hear about them, but the College Board said the course’s requirements will be worked out “over the next few months.” You may be wondering why a high school course is at the center of political discourse – it’s due to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis insisting he would ban the course in his state because he felt it pushed a political agenda.
And We Had Gorsuch High Hopes For You…
- Chief Justice John Roberts is already under pressure from the left to testify about the revelations regarding Clarence Thomas, but things may have just gotten worse for him. Justice Neil Gorsuch was revealed to have made as much as $500,000 from a 2017 real estate sale, according to a new report, but did not disclose the identity of the buyer.
- The chief executive who bought property from Gorsuch, Brian Duffy of Greenberg Traurig, told Politico, he had “never spoken” to Gorsuch. “I’ve never met him.” However, Gorsuch was one of three co-owners of a property in Colorado that Duffy purchased for $1.825 million.
- Politico said Duffy’s firm had been involved in “at least 22 cases before or presented to the court” while Gorsuch was on the court. “In the 12 cases where Gorsuch’s opinion is recorded,” the site said, “he sided with Greenberg Traurig clients eight times and against them four times.” Gorsuch was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2017, the first of Trump’s three highly-controversial Supreme Court appointments.
Additional USA News
- Jury selection begins in E. Jean Carroll rape lawsuit against Trump (AP)
- White House says Biden would veto House Republicans’ debt ceiling bill (CBS)
- North Dakota’s governor has signed a law banning nearly all abortions (NPR)
- Fulton County D.A. says charging decisions in Trump investigation to come this summer (CBS)
- Haley courts moderates with anti-abortion speech as GOP struggles with the issue (CNN)
- COVID response exposed “collective national incompetence,” commission says (Axios)
- ‘Like a dam breaking’: experts hail decision to let US climate lawsuits advance (Guardian)
How To Lose A Lunar Lander
- A lunar lander launched by Japanese spacecraft firm ispace is gone. The private Japanese firm, in an attempt to make the first-ever private moon landing, lost contact with its Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander on Tuesday as it was set to touch down on the lunar surface.
- “We have not been able to confirm successful landing,” said ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada at around noon in Japan. “We have to assume…that we could not complete the landing on the lunar surface. Our engineers continue to investigate the situation.” The lander, which made its way into the moon’s orbit with help from a SpaceX rocket, was set to deliver a UAE-made lunar rover named the Rashid rover, coming as close as 295 feet to the moon’s surface before losing contact with mission control.
- “Our engineers will continue to investigate the situation,” Hakamada said. “At this moment, what I can tell is we are very proud of the fact that we have already achieved many things during this mission 1.” After ispace’s botched landing, the only countries to have successfully soft-landed spacecraft on the moon remain China, the USSR, and the U.S. Recent attempts by Israeli, Indian, and now Japanese private companies to deploy their own lunar landers have all ended in failure, though ispace will go through with future missions scheduled as far ahead as 2025.
Additional Reads
- Harry Belafonte, 96, Dies; Barrier-Breaking Singer, Actor and Activist (NYT, $)
- Phony doctor treated thousands of patients over years, including for cancer, prosecutors say (NBC)
- Video shows skier fall down glacier crevasse in La Grave, France (WaPo, $)
- Mexican navy seizes tequila bottles containing nearly 10 tons of liquid meth (Guardian)
- Severe solar storm creates dazzling auroras farther south (AP)
- First study to look at AI in the workplace finds it boosts productivity (Axios)
- Arrest warrant issued for ex-UFC star Nate Diaz after altercation (ESPN)