THE COVER-UP IS IN FULL MODE: A doctor on CBS says Biden’s aggressive prostate cancer went undetected because he’s too old, and they stopped screening. “He’s 82. Doctors stop screening for prostate cancer at 75.. After that, the cancers you pick up are very slow growing.” We’re talking about the PRESIDENT. Not some random elderly person.
Border Czar Tom Homan goes off on criminal aliens who choose not to self-deport: “We’ll prosecute you, throw you in prison, and then deport you. We’re not playing games. There are going to be consequences. Leave on your own.”
In late April 2025, two 24-year-old Jewish Israelis, Roi Mizrachi and Almog Attias from Nesher, were arrested for allegedly spying for Iran, including installing cameras near Defense Minister Yisrael Katz’s home in Kfar Achim moshav, the Shin Bet and Israel Police announced in a joint statement on Tuesday.
Last night, IDF says it foiled yet another attempt to smuggle weapons into Israel from Egypt using a drone. The drone was found to be ferrying 19 handguns and three machine guns. The contraband and drone were handed over to police.
A senior official with the California Civil Liberties Program publicly celebrated former President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis and expressed hope that President Donald Trump will suffer a similar fate—comments she linked explicitly to the presidents’ support for Israel in its war against Hamas. Zahra Billoo, executive director of the San Francisco chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and a sitting member of California’s state civil rights advisory board, called Biden’s aggressive prostate cancer diagnosis “God’s wrath” for his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. She added she hopes the president’s cancer proves “as aggressive” as the IDF in Gaza. Billoo isn’t the only one celebrating Biden’s diagnosis. Former Bernie Sanders surrogate Shaun King called Biden a “genocidal monster” and added, “I hope his final days are painful.” Taylor Lorenz, a former Washington Post reporter, went further, writing, “Hopefully [Biden] rots in hell and rests in piss.” Billoo’s remarks have sparked calls for California Governor Gavin Newsom to respond. Newsom’s office, which frequently collaborates with CAIR on civil rights and hate crime issues, declined to comment on the matter. Billoo was appointed to the state civil liberties advisory panel in 2018 by then-Governor Jerry Brown and continues to serve despite the board not having convened since last year due to budget constraints. The episode is reigniting concerns about Newsom’s ties with CAIR, which has faced mounting criticism for inflammatory rhetoric and its leaders’ support of terrorist groups. In December 2023, CAIR’s national director Nihad Awad publicly declared he was “happy to see” Hamas’s October 7 massacre of 1,200 Israeli civilians. Billoo herself has previously mourned Hamas figures, describing the death of senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as “martyrdom” and saying his legacy would live on. Despite such rhetoric, Newsom’s administration has awarded millions of dollars in state security grants to Islamic institutions with controversial affiliations. One such recipient, the Islamic Center of San Diego—linked to two of the 9/11 hijackers—received $500,000. The mosque’s imam later called Hamas’s October 7 attack “justified.” In the days following the Oct. 7 attack, the Newsom administration publicly quoted CAIR leader Hussam Ayloush in a press release announcing increased funding to secure houses of worship. Newsom later met with Ayloush and other CAIR leaders in early 2024, shortly before he publicly called for a ceasefire in Gaza. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Inside a mountain above the Syrian capital, Hassan Bashi walked through tunnels that used to be filled with water from a spring famous for its pure waters. The spring rises inside the ruins of a Roman temple in the Barada Valley and flows toward Damascus, supplying the city with drinking water for thousands of years. Normally, during the winter flood season, water fills all the tunnels and washes over much of the temple. Now, there is only a trickle of water following the driest winter in decades. Bashi, who is a guard but also knows how to operate the pumping and water filtration machines in the absence of the engineer in charge, displayed an old video on his cell phone of high waters inside the ruins. “I have been working at the Ein al-Fijeh spring for 33 years and this is the first year it is that dry,” Bashi said. The spring and the Barada River that it feeds are the main source of water for 5 million people, supplying Damascus and its suburbs with 70% of their water. As the city suffers its worst water shortages in years, many people now rely on buying water from private tanker trucks that fill from wells. Officials are warning that the situation could get worse in the summer and urge residents to use water sparingly while showering, cleaning or washing dishes. “The Ein al-Fijeh spring is working now at its lowest level,” said Ahmad Darwish, head of the Damascus City Water Supply Authority, adding that the current year witnessed the lowest rainfall since 1956. The channels that have been there since the day of the Romans two millennia ago were improved in 1920 and then again in 1980, he said. Darwish said the spring water comes mainly from rainfall and melted snow off the mountains along the border with Lebanon, but because of this year’s below-average rainfall, “it has given us amounts that are much less than normal.” There are 1.1 million homes that get water from the spring, and in order to get through the year, people will have to cut down their consumption, he said. The spring also feeds the Barada River, which cuts through Damascus and which is also mostly dry this year. In the city’s eastern area of Abbasids, Bassam Jbara is feeling the shortage. His neighborhood only gets water for about 90 minutes a day, compared with previous years when water was always running when they turned on the taps. Persistent electricity cuts are making the problem worse, he said, as they sometimes have water but no power to pump it to the tankers on the roof of the building. Jbara once had to buy five barrels of undrinkable water from a tanker truck that cost him and his neighbors $15, a large amount of money in a country where many people make less than $100 a month. “From what we are seeing, we are heading toward difficult conditions regarding water,” he said, fearing that supplies will drop to once or twice a week over the summer. He is already economizing. “The people of Damascus are used to having water every day and to drinking tap water coming from the Ein al-Fijeh spring, but unfortunately the spring is now weak,” Jbara said. During Syria’s nearly 14-year civil […]
The World Health Organization’s member countries on Tuesday approved an agreement to better prevent, prepare for and respond to future pandemics in the wake of the devastation wrought by the coronavirus. Sustained applause echoed in a Geneva hall hosting the WHO’s annual assembly as the measure — debated and devised over three years — passed without opposition. The treaty guarantees that countries which share virus samples will receive tests, medicines and vaccines. Up to 20% of such products would be given to the WHO to ensure poorer countries have some access to them when the next pandemic hits. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has touted the agreement as “historic” and a sign of multilateralism at a time when many countries are putting national interests ahead of shared values and cooperation. Dr. Esperance Luvindao, Namibia’s health minister and the chair of a committee that paved the way for Tuesday’s adoption, said that the COVID-19 pandemic inflicted huge costs “on lives, livelihoods and economies.” “We — as sovereign states — have resolved to join hands, as one world together, so we can protect our children, elders, frontline health workers and all others from the next pandemic,” Luvindao added. “It is our duty and responsibility to humanity.” The treaty’s effectiveness will face doubts because the United States — which poured billions into speedy work by pharmaceutical companies to develop COVID-19 vaccines — is sitting out, and because countries face no penalties if they ignore it, a common issue in international law. The U.S., traditionally the top donor to the U.N. health agency, was not part of the final stages of the agreement process after the Trump administration announced a U.S. pullout from the WHO and funding to the agency in January. (AP)
Iran’s supreme leader on Tuesday pushed back against U.S. criticism of the country’s nuclear program, saying that Tehran won’t seek permission from anyone to enrich uranium and calling American statements “nonsense.” “They say, ‘We won’t allow Iran to enrich uranium.’ That’s way out of line,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said during a memorial for late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last year. “No one in Iran is waiting for their permission. The Islamic Republic has its own policies and direction — and it will stick to them.” Khamenei’s remarks came as indirect talks between Iran and the U.S. reportedly continue, though he expressed doubt about their outcome. “Yes, indirect negotiations were held during Raisi’s time too, just like now,” he said. “But they didn’t go anywhere — and we don’t expect much from the current ones either. Who knows what will happen.” His comments reflect Tehran’s growing frustration with the stalled nuclear discussions, as well as the broader tensions that have defined U.S.-Iran relations in recent years. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told the state-run IRNA news agency that “no definitive decision has been made about the next round of negotiations,” adding that “the Islamic Republic of Iran is reviewing the matter while considering the U.S. side’s contradictory and constantly changing positions.” IRNA also reported that Kazem Gharibabadi, the deputy foreign minister, said that Tehran had received a proposal regarding the next round of indirect talks with Washington and was currently reviewing it. (AP)
Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen was forced into a draw Monday by more than 143,000 people worldwide playing against him in a single, record-setting game. Billed as “Magnus Carlsen vs. The World,” the online match began April 4 on Chess.com, the world’s largest chess website, and was the first-ever online freestyle game to feature a world champion. The mega-match ended after Team World checked Carlsen’s king a third time, a stunning outcome after Chess.com had predicted Carlsen would win by a wide margin. Members of Team World — anyone around the globe could sign up — voted on each move and each side had 24 hours to make their play. Carlsen played the white pieces. The world forced the draw on move 32 after checking Carlsen’s king three times in the corner of the board where it could not escape. The rule is called “threefold repetition,” meaning all of the pieces on the board are in the exact same position three times to prompt a draw. ‘Very, very sound chess’ Carlsen, 34, became the world’s top-ranked player in 2010 at 19 and has won five World Championships. He achieved the highest-ever chess rating of 2882 in 2014 and has remained the undisputed world No. 1 for more than a decade. “Overall, ‘the world’ has played very, very sound chess from the start. Maybe not going for most enterprising options, but kind of keeping it more in vein with normal chess — which isn’t always the best strategy, but it worked out well this time,” Carlsen said in a statement Friday as Monday’s draw seemed imminent. In a freestyle match, the bishops, knights, rooks, queen and king are randomly placed around the board at the start while the pawns are in their usual spots. Freestyle chess is popular because it allows players to be more creative and avoid memorization. ‘We made history’ This was the third “vs. The World” record-setting online game. In 1999, Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov played against more than 50,000 people on the Microsoft Network and won after four months. Last year, Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand won his “vs. The World” match against nearly 70,000 players on Chess.com. In the Chess.com virtual chat this week, players appeared split on whether to force the draw — and claim the glory — or to keep playing against Carlsen, even if it ultimately meant a loss. “Don’t Draw! Let’s keep playing Magnus,” one user wrote. “This is an opportunity that won’t come along again. I’d rather play the Master all the way to the end and see if we can battle it out another 20 or 30 moves! Let’s have some FUN!!!” Another added: “Thanks Magnus for such a great game. We made history.” (AP)
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Two Jewish Israelis were arrested for allegedly spying for Iran, including installing cameras near the home of Defense Minister Yisrael Katz, the Shin Bet and Israel Police announced on Tuesday in a joint statement. Roi Mizrachi and his friend Almog Attias, both 24 and residents of the northern city of Nesher, were arrested at the end of April 2025, on suspicion of committing security offenses after being suspected of collecting intelligence in the Kfar Achim moshav, where Katz resides. The investigation by the Shin Bet and the police revealed that Roi was in contact with Iranian terrorist elements and carried out a large number of various security tasks for them, some of them together with his friend Almog. Both suspects carried out the acts for financial compensation despite the fact that they understood that they were acting under Iranian direction and that their actions could harm state security. Among other things, Roi purchased a new cell phone and installed an app on it to communicate with his operators. Later, he was asked by his operators to transfer a package buried in the ground from one point to another, which, in his understanding, contained an explosive device. Despite the danger of doing so, he carried out the transfer of the package according to the instructions of his operators. A serious indictment will be filed against the two men in the coming days. According to the joint statement, 20 cases of espionage by Israelis for Iran have been thwarted since the beginning of the war. A security source stated: “This case joins a series of cases from the recent period that indicate repeated efforts by hostile terrorist and intelligence elements to recruit Israeli citizens to carry out missions designed to harm the security of the State of Israel and its residents.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Bereaved relatives from the Gvura Forum filed a complaint to the Israel Police against Democrats chairman Yair Golan in the wake of his outrageous and incomprehensible lies about IDF soldiers in an interview on Tuesday morning. The letter, a copy of which was sent to the Attorney General, states: “In the name of the Gvura Forum, the forum of fallen soldiers of the Swords of Iron war, we are turning to you with an urgent request to open a criminal investigation against the chairman of the Democrats party, Mr. Yair Golan, for serious statements he made this morning, May 20, 2025, as part of a media interview.” “Mr. Golan stated: ‘A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not aim to expel a population.'” “We believe that these words go beyond the bounds of legitimate public discourse in an extreme way and fulfill the elements of the offense stipulated in Section 103 of the Penal Law, 5737-1977 – defeatist propaganda. According to the section: ‘Whoever disseminates information during a time of war that is likely to undermine the spirit of Israeli soldiers and residents in their stand against the enemy – and with the intention of causing panic among the public – shall be sentenced to a five-year imprisonment. If he intended to harm state security, he shall be sentenced to a ten-year imprisonment.'” “These statements were made at a time when the IDF is operating heroically on a series of fronts, when the best of our sons are risking their lives on the front lines, and on a difficult day when Am Yisrael are burying heroes they lost in the war. Mr. Golan’s words have a real potential to undermine the fighting spirit of the public and IDF soldiers, as well as accelerate delegitimization in the international arena. “As a forum working for victory and to strengthen the State of Israel in wartime, we call on you to investigate the serious statement above and examine the motives behind it, and also to send a clear message to all parties who are trying to harm the State of Israel in wartime—that the law enforcement authorities strengthen the IDF and the people at this crucial time.” The complaint is not the first one to be filed against Golan, who in the past has compared IDF soldiers to Nazis, called for IDF refusal as well as espoused “illegal actions” as part of a civil uprising against the government. Golan has also called Jewish “settlers” subhuman and called for the state to encourage Chareidim to go off the derech. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
U.S. President Donald Trump’s phone calls with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine deepened expectations that progress might soon be made on ending those countries’ more than three-year war, though frustration at the slow pace of negotiations and the absence of any significant breakthrough kept hopes low. “It is obvious that Russia is trying to buy time to continue the war and occupation,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday on Telegram. “We are working with partners to put pressure on the Russians to behave differently,” he added in an apparent reference to further international sanctions on Russia. Ukraine has offered a comprehensive 30-day ceasefire, which Moscow has effectively rejected by imposing far-reaching conditions, and Zelenskyy proposed a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin but the Russian leader spurned that offer. Trump said his personal intervention was needed to push peace efforts forward, and on Monday he held separate talks over the phone with Zelenskyy and Putin. Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” begin ceasefire negotiations, Trump announced, though there was no detail on exactly when or where such talks might take place and who might attend them. “The status quo has not changed,” Mykhailo Podoliak, a senior adviser to Zelenskyy, wrote on the social platform X on Tuesday. Putin wants Ukraine to renounce joining NATO, sharply cut its army, and withdraw its forces from the four Ukrainian regions Moscow has seized but doesn’t fully control, among other demands. In Russia, many news outlets struck a note of triumph when reporting Putin’s conversation with Trump. State news agency RIA Novosti published an article headlined, “Europe’s hopes crushed: Trump refuses to go to war with Putin.” In the pro-Kremlin tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets, columnist Mikhail Rostovsky also portrayed the call as a blow for Ukraine’s European allies. “Kyiv will agree to a serious, fully fledged conversation with Russia only if it has no other options left. Trump is gradually cutting off these other options for Zelenskyy,” he wrote. “And this is very, very good.” U.S. officials have for the past few months urged Russia and Ukraine to reach a settlement, as Trump sought a swift end to Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II. Trump said his talks with Putin on Monday were “excellent,” but European officials were skeptical about Russia’s intentions. “Putin has never changed his position,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said in Brussels on Tuesday. “Russia actually doesn’t want to end this war.” The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said Russia’s failure to negotiate in good faith should trigger threatened U.S. sanctions. “We really haven’t seen, you know, the pressure on Russia from these talks,” she told reporters. On the streets of Kyiv on Tuesday, skepticism about Putin’s motives was high. Peace “is not possible now. Only when (the Russians) run out of resources and army manpower. They are ready to fight, at least for this summer,” 66-year-old Svitlana Kyryliuk told The Associated Press. Putin will “stall for time, and that’s it,” she said. Volodymyr Lysytsia, a 45-year-old serviceman visiting the capital for rehabilitation, said Putin has made the front lines in eastern Ukraine a wasteland. The Russian leader “leaves nothing there, only scorched earth, everything bombed,” Lysytsia said. Some were unconvinced by Putin’s promise to Trump that Russia is “ready to work with” Ukraine on a “memorandum” […]
In the latest of a series of incidents, an envelope containing a suspicious powder was sent to the office of Health Minister Ariel Busso (Shas) on Tuesday. The Knesset Spokesperson stated: “The Knesset Guard is examining an envelope containing a suspicious powder that was sent to the office of Minister Ariel Busso in the Knesset. In accordance with the Guard’s procedures in such events, an update has been forwarded to the Israel Police, and the envelope and the suspicious material it contains will be transferred for further examination by the authorities.” According to initial assessments, there is no immediate danger, but all security agencies continue to handle the incident with the utmost caution. It should be noted that Minister Busso was not in the office when the envelope was received, and no injuries were reported. About a month ago, a suspicious envelope was found at the home of Noam chairman Avi Maoz, and police, MDA paramedics, and firefighters were called to the scene. That same week, several Knesset members, including UTJ members Yaakov Asher and Moshe Roth, Law Committee chairman Simcha Rothman, and Likud MK Shalom Danino received suspicious envelopes. Since then, Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen announced that he had received a suspicious envelope at his home, and an envelope arrived at the home of UTJ leader Moshe Gafni. Last week, a suspicious envelope arrived at the home of Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kreuzer, causing his family members to panic. Upon receiving the report, police bomb disposal teams were immediately dispatched to the scene, along with police cars and MDA paramedics, and fire and rescue personnel. No official details have been released regarding the contents of the envelopes. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Democrats Party chairman and former IDF Chief of Staff Yair Golan sparked nationwide outrage on Tuesday over outrageous and false statements he made in an interview. Speaking on Kan Reshet Bet, Golan said: “Israel is on its way to becoming a pariah state among nations, like the South Africa of the past, if we don’t go back to acting like a sane country. A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not aim to expel populations.” “These things are simply appalling, and it cannot be that we, the Jewish people, who were subjected to persecution and pogroms and acts of annihilation throughout our history, and who served throughout history as a moral compass of human and Jewish morality, are the ones taking steps that are simply unacceptable.” He then slammed the members of the government, claiming: “It is full of types who have nothing to do with Judaism: Kahanist types, lacking in intelligence, lacking in morality, and lacking in the ability to manage a country in times of emergency. This is a dangerous thing for our very existence. And therefore, it is time to replace this government as quickly as possible so that this war will also come to an end.” His words were met with outrage by politicians from the left to the right, with one politician deeming him a “terrorist” and others calling to open a criminal investigation against him and expel him from public life. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded by stating: “I strongly condemn Yair Golan’s reckless incitement against our heroic soldiers and against the State of Israel. The IDF is the most moral army in the world, and our soldiers are fighting in a battle for our very existence.” “Golan, who encouraged army refusal in the past and compared Israel to the Nazis, has now reached a new low by claiming that Israel ‘kills babies as a hobby.’ While we are conducting a multi-front war and leading complex diplomatic efforts to release our hostages and defeat Hamas, Golan and his friends in the radical left are echoing the most despicable antisemitic blood libels against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel. There is no limit to the moral decay.” Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar responded on his X account: “Yair Golan’s blood libel against the State of Israel and its army – will not be forgiven. What Golan said will certainly fuel the fire of antisemitism in the world…while Israel is fighting for its life.” Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman stated: “I condemn Yair Golan’s words. The IDF is the most moral army in the world, and any such false statement against it harms our soldiers and the security of the country.” Opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote, without mentioning Golan’s name: “Our soldiers are heroes and protect our lives. The statement that they kill babies as a hobby is mistaken and a gift to our enemies. I back the IDF and its soldiers and condemn the statement.” National Unity Party Chairman Benny Gantz responded: ” I call on Yair Golan to retract and apologize to IDF soldiers for his extreme and false statements. IDF soldiers do not ‘kill babies’ as a hobby. These words are not only outrageous, false, and extreme, but also endanger the freedom […]
An appeals court has cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ending collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees while a lawsuit plays out. The Friday ruling came after the Trump administration asked for an emergency pause on a judge’s order blocking enforcement at roughly three dozen agencies and departments. A split three-judge panel in the nation’s capital sided with government lawyers in a lawsuit filed by unions representing federal employees. The majority ruled on technical grounds, finding that the unions don’t have the legal right to sue because the Trump administration has said it won’t end any collective bargaining agreements while the case is being litigated. Judge Karen Henderson, appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush, and Justin Walker, appointed by Trump, sided with the government, while Judge Michelle Childs, appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, dissented. The government says Trump needs the executive order so his administration can cut the federal workforce to ensure strong national security. The law requiring collective bargaining creates exemptions for work related to national security, as in agencies like the FBI. Union leaders argue the order is designed to facilitate mass firings and exact “political vengeance” against federal unions opposed to Trump’s efforts to dramatically downsize the federal government. His order seeks to expand that exemption to exclude more workers than any other president has before. That’s according to the National Treasury Employees Union, which is suing to block the order. The administration has filed in a Kentucky court to terminate the collective bargaining agreement for the Internal Revenue Service, where many workers are represented by the National Treasury Employees Union. They say their IRS members aren’t doing national security work. Other union employees affected by the order include the Health and Human Services Department, the Energy Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Communications Commission. (AP)
“JOE IS A FIGHTER”: Prime Minister Netanyahu tweets his support for former US president Joe Biden who revealed yesterday that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
Elon Musk is in a legal fight with Microsoft but made a friendly virtual appearance at the software giant’s annual technology showcase to reveal that his Grok artificial intelligence chatbot will now be hosted on Microsoft’s data centers. “It’s fantastic to have you at our developer conference,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said to Musk in a pre-recorded video conversation broadcast Monday at Microsoft’s Build conference in Seattle. Musk last year sued Microsoft and its close business partner OpenAI in a dispute over Musk’s foundational contributions to OpenAI, which Musk helped start. Musk now runs his own AI company, xAI, maker of Grok, a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also spoke with Nadella via live video call earlier at Monday’s conference. Musk’s deal means that the latest versions of xAI’s Grok models will be hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, alongside competing models from OpenAI and other companies, including Facebook parent Meta Platforms, Europe-based AI startups Mistral and Black Forest Labs and Chinese company DeepSeek. The Grok partnership comes just days after xAI had to fix the chatbot to stop it from repeatedly bringing up South African racial politics and the subject of “white genocide” in public interactions with users of Musk’s social media platform X. The company blamed an employee’s “unauthorized modification” for the unsolicited commentary, which mirrored South Africa-born Musk’s own focus on the topic. Musk didn’t address last week’s controversy in his chat with Nadella but described honesty as the “best policy” for AI safety. “We have and will make mistakes, but we aspire to correct them very quickly,” Musk said. Nadella was interrupted by protest over Gaza Monday’s Build conference also became the latest Microsoft event to be interrupted by a protest over the company’s work with the Israeli government. Microsoft has previously fired employees who protested company events, including its 50th anniversary party in April. “Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians?” a protesting employee shouted in the first minutes of Nadella’s introductory talk Monday. “How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?” Nadella continued his presentation as the protesters were escorted out. Microsoft acknowledged last week that it provided AI services to the Israeli military for the war in Gaza but said it has found no evidence to date that its Azure platform and AI technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. Microsoft didn’t immediately return an emailed request for comment about the protest Monday. Microsoft introduces new AI coding agent Microsoft-owned GitHub also used the Seattle gathering to introduce a new AI coding “agent” to help programmers build new software. The company already offers a Copilot coding assistant but the promise of so-called AI agents is that they can do more work on their own on a user’s behalf. The updated tool is supposed to work best on tasks of “low-to-medium complexity” in codebases that are already well-tested, handling “boring tasks” while people “focus on the interesting work,” according to Microsoft’s announcement. The new tool arrives just a week after Microsoft began laying off hundreds of its own software engineers in Washington’s Puget Sound region as part of global cuts of nearly 3% of its total workforce, amounting to about 6,000 workers. (AP)
President Donald Trump on Monday questioned the timeline and transparency surrounding Joe Biden’s newly revealed cancer diagnosis, implying that the former president’s aggressive prostate cancer may have been hidden from the public for political reasons. The remarks came just a day after Biden’s office confirmed he had been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer — a disclosure that sent shockwaves through the political world and triggered a wave of well-wishes, including from Trump himself. “Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” Trump wrote in a public statement Sunday. “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.” But by Monday, Trump’s tone shifted. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump declined to say whether he would call Biden personally and instead raised questions about the origins and oversight of the diagnosis. “It takes a long time to get that kind of cancer,” Trump said, before pivoting to a familiar target — Biden’s mental fitness and the credibility of his doctors. “I think that if you take a look, it’s the same doctor that said Joe was cognitively fine. There are things going on that the public wasn’t informed of.” Trump added that “somebody’s going to have to speak to his doctor” and suggested that the same medical team may have been involved in both Biden’s mental health assessments and the handling of his cancer diagnosis. “Somebody is not telling the facts,” Trump said. “It’s a big problem.” [SCANDAL OF THE CENTURY: Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis Exposes A Historic Health Cover-Up] While Biden’s medical team has not yet publicly responded to Trump’s remarks, the former president’s health has long been a political lightning rod. Trump and his allies have long accused Biden of lacking the mental and physical stamina required for office — attacks that have now intensified in light of the cancer news. Vice President JD Vance echoed Trump, saying during an interview, “Of course, we wish the best for the former president’s health. But we also need to be honest about whether he was capable of doing the job.” Donald Trump Jr. went a step further, mocking former First Lady Jill Biden — who holds a doctorate in education — and sarcastically asking how she could have “missed” signs of her husband’s illness. “Yet another cover-up,” he wrote on social media. Though the White House has not addressed Trump’s allegations directly, Biden’s team has insisted that the former president’s medical diagnosis was only recently confirmed and is being handled with full transparency. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Forecasters warned Monday that more tornados and storms were possible in the central U.S. as people from Texas to Kentucky cleaned up from severe weather that has killed more than two dozen people in four days. In St. Louis, where officials estimated a tornado Friday damaged 5,000 buildings and may cost well over $1 billion, the mayor warned Monday that federal assistance could take weeks. Kentucky has been hardest hit by the storms. A devastating tornado late Friday into early Saturday damaged hundreds of homes, tossed vehicles, left many homeless, and killed at least 19 people, most of them in southeastern Laurel County. In London where the devastation was centered, the small airport became a beehive of cleanup work after it took a direct hit from a tornado. Officials were using it as a base to get water, food, diapers and other supplies out to the community. “We have 1,001 things going on. But we’re managing it. And we’re going to get it all cleaned up,” said London Mayor Randall Weddle said. Officials in Kansas and Texas also were evaluating damage from late Sunday storms. Tornados could be possible in an area centered in eastern Oklahoma on Monday with the risk of severe storms moving into Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. Kentucky cleans up The Kentucky storms that killed 19 people were part of a weather system that caused seven deaths in Missouri and two in northern Virginia, authorities said. Lonnie Nantz hid in a hallway with his wife, two daughters and a grandson as the one-story brick home they bought near London in 1977 was destroyed around them. They were trapped in rubble for about 20 minutes in the midnight darkness before they were rescued unharmed. “I don’t know why this happened. I’ve tried to live a good life all my life. I’ve still got the faith,” said the 77-year-old who went to church as always on Sunday. London city worker Ashley Taylor was back on the job Monday loading doughnuts to take to a hospital and dispatch center even though there was a tarp on her roof. She was lucky — the houses across her street were destroyed late Friday night. She survived the storm with nine other people and three dogs in the crawl space of a neighbor’s home, “We prayed like never before — and just thankful for everything God did for us,” Taylor said. In surrounding Laurel County, first responders were mourning one of their own. Fellow firefighters found the body of Laurel County Fire Major Leslie Leatherman on top of a woman he was shielding from the storm’s fury as he answered calls during the worst of the storm. The woman was yelling for help and they were in a field across from a destroyed subdivision. The injured woman turned out to be Leatherman’s wife and officials aren’t sure if he knew who he was protecting in all the darkness and chaos, the fire department said on social media. 18 years later a city in Kansas spared Forecasters on Sunday night issued a tornado emergency for Greensburg, Kansas, which had 12 people killed and 90% of the town destroyed by a 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometer) wide EF5 tornado with winds of 205 mph (330kph). This time the storm spared […]
