News of the World

[kyonides]

US Welcomes Pause in Israeli Judicial Reform Plan

The United States welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement on March 27 that Israel will halt its attempt at judicial reform until the next legislative session, which will be after Passover.

In Israel, Passover starts on April 5 and ends on April 12 (April 13 outside of Israel).
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Netanyahu announced the suspension of his efforts to change Israel’s judiciary.

“I am taking a timeout in the legislation of the judicial reform,” he said.

“In order to prevent a rift in our people, I have decided to suspend the vote on the second and third reading of the legislation in the current Knesset session, in order to try and reach an understanding on the legislation during the next Knesset session.”

Netanyahu pledged to “bring a reform that will restore the balance between the different branches of government while strengthening civil liberties.”

Massive protests were happening in Israel in response to the proposed changes and after Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who voiced opposition to the reform efforts, on March 26.

The United States expressed concern about the protests.

 So was Netanyahu a defender of liberties or a dictator on par with Putin?

Beware of Toxic Spices: Heavy Metals Found in Major Brand Names

Four lawsuits have been filed over the last two years over significant levels of toxic heavy metals in big brand names of herbs and spices. An analysis by Consumer Reports (CR) in 2021 detailed the problem, though big box stores continue to carry the listed brands and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet set limits for heavy metal levels in dry herbs and spices.

The CR report, titled “Your Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead,” detailed an analysis of 126 individual products from national and private-label brands, such as Great Value (Walmart), La Flor Spices, McCormick & Company, Penzeys Spices, Spice Islands, and 365 by Whole Foods Market.

The analysis found that roughly one-third of the tested products (40) had “high enough levels of arsenic, lead, and cadmium combined, on average, to pose a health concern for children when regularly consumed in typical serving sizes,” with most raising concern for adults as well.

McCormick & Company, Inc. was the first major brand to face a class action lawsuit after the report was made public. The suit was filed in January 2022 and Top Class Actions reported it was settled for $3 million in May of 2022.Per the suit, the defendant failed to warn consumers that some of its herbs and spices may be tainted with significant levels of toxic heavy metals.

The McCormick spices that contained problematic levels of toxic heavy metals, including lead, arsenic, and cadmium included McCormick’s Culinary Ground Basil, Ground Ginger, Ground Oregano, Paprika, Ground Thyme, and Ground Turmeric.

The lawsuit outlines that the Customer Reports analysis shows “it is possible for herb and spice companies to limit heavy metals in their products” as about “two-thirds of the spices [Consumer Reports] tested did not have concerning levels of heavy metals.” They noted that other companies such as Bolner’s Fiesta and Al Wadi Al Akhdar do perform such tests.

Moreover, the defendant would have had the knowledge that it could test for heavy metals, but did not, and it could safely remove these metals from its herbs and spices, but, again, did not. The suit claims that instead, “the defendants chose to ignore the health of the consuming public in pursuit of profit.”

Nashville School Shooter Identified as 28-Year-Old Woman

Three children and three adult staff members at a private elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, were fatally shot on March 27 after a 28-year-old woman opened fire inside the building, officials said.

The shooting occurred at The Covenant School, a Christian school for students in preschool through sixth grade. The suspect, who Metro Nashville Police Department (MPND) officials identified as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, was shot and killed by officers in a lobby area on the second floor of the school, according to police. Officials said Hale had once attended the school.

Calls about the shooting occurred around 10:13 a.m. local time and MNPD alongside Metro Nashville Fire Department (Metro Fire) responded to the scene immediately, according to officials from both agencies.

“Officers entered the first story of the school, began clearing it, they heard shots coming from the second level and immediately went to the gunfire,” MPND spokesman Don Aaron said at a news conference. “When the officers got to the second level, they saw a shooter, a female, who was firing. The officers engaged her. She was fatally shot by responding police officers.”

The officers had engaged the shooter by 10:27 a.m., roughly 14 minutes after the first call came in.

Aaron said the assailant had gained entry through a side entrance and had two assault-type rifles as well as a handgun, while Nashville Police Chief John Drake said the suspect had a map “of how this was all going to take place.”

Aaron said that on a typical day, there would be about 209 students in the building and approximately 40 to 50 staff members.

Kendra Loney, a spokesperson with Metro Fire, said crews are dispatched to active shooter situations for medical support and rescue task force response to go in alongside MNDP. She said fire department members went in as soon as it was safe to do so and attempted to provide life-saving efforts for survivors.

Supreme Court Leaves Trump’s Steel Import Tariffs Intact

The Supreme Court decided on March 27 to not take up an industry challenge to steel import tariffs that then-President Donald Trump imposed in 2018 on U.S. national security grounds.

President Joe Biden has left the tariffs, which Trump said were needed to ensure robust levels of domestic steel production, largely intact. The Biden administration had urged the court to reject the challenge.

The tariffs went into effect on March 1, 2018. A 25 percent tariff on imported steel from most countries was imposed, along with a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum.

“When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win,” Trump wrote on Twitter the next day.

“Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country [China] and they get cute, don’t trade anymore—we win big. It’s easy!”

Trump cited Section 232 of the Trade Act of 1962, which permits the president to impose restrictions on the importation of goods deemed essential to national security. He said at the time that the tariffs were needed to bolster the production of airplanes, ships, and military materials with U.S. steel. The tariffs created tension with some U.S. allies, although some countries were exempted from the policy.

The Supreme Court turned away the petition in USP Holdings Inc. v. United States, court file 22-565, in an unsigned order. The court didn’t explain its decision. No justices dissented from the order.

Biden’s FAA Nominee Withdraws After Debate Over His Qualifications

Phillip Washington, who was President Joe Biden’s choice to lead the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), withdrew his name from consideration over the weekend amid questions from lawmakers about his level of aviation experience.
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The FAA has been without a Senate-confirmed commissioner since Steven Dickson left office at the end of March 2022; Billy Nolen has been serving as acting FAA administrator.

Washington’s withdrawal may hamper the administration’s efforts to address the airline system following several narrowly avoided collisions in recent weeks. In addition, the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system also experienced an outage in January that led to thousands of commercial flights being grounded across the United States.
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While Washington is the current CEO of Denver International Airport, he isn’t a trained pilot. During the Senate confirmation process, Republican lawmakers made note of Washington’s lack of direct flight experience.

During one hearing on March 1, Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) quizzed Washington on a number of existing aviation regulations. Budd said that he asked Washington seven questions on aviation policy, but that the Biden nominee was unable to answer any of them.
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As Budd continued his line of questioning about various flight regulations, Washington said, “Senator, I’m not a pilot, but I would lean on our career employees and our safety folks within the FAA.”

Budd organized a letter (pdf) on March 16 calling on Biden to withdraw Washington’s name from consideration for the FAA leadership role. Thirteen other Republican lawmakers who have pilot’s licenses and other formal aviation experience also signed the letter.

Empty Shipping Containers Pile Up in Chinese Ports
as China’s Exports Continue to Decline

Empty shipping containers used for export have been piling up in Shanghai, Ningbo, Guangdong, and other major Chinese ports since December 2022, as China’s foreign trade continues to decline.

The latest data from ContainerxChange, a global container trading platform, show that in the sixth week of 2023 (February 5 to 11), the container availability index (CAx) of Shanghai Port’s 40-foot container reached 0.64, and has remained above 0.6 for 11 consecutive weeks.

A CAx higher than 0.5 indicates that the port has a surplus of containers, and one less than 0.5 indicates a shortgage.

Meanwhile, several mainland Chinese media outlets have recently revealed that there are more than four layers of containers stacked together at the third container terminal in Beilun of Ningbo, all of which are empty. Empty containers are piled up to six or seven stories high at various terminals in the Waigaoqiao Port Area of Shanghai Port.

Workers at Shanghai dock told the media that the empty containers have piled up to eight stories high and that there are also a large number of empty containers in the Yangshan Deepwater Port Area. Yantian Port in Guangdong currently has the highest number of empty containers, stacked up to seven layers high, since the opening of the port 29 years ago.

A man using the pseudonym Zhao Mingli said he used to do foreign trade business in the megacity of Shenzhen in south China but had to switch careers to real estate demolition. He told The Epoch Times that it used to be hard to find an empty container in Yantian Port, but now they are piled up like mountains. “This year is a cold winter for [China’s] foreign trade, and empty containers are returning to China from around the globe.”

Sun Xiaoning, who works at a logistics company in Foshan in Guangdong Province, told The Epoch Times recently that many domestic companies have closed down, his company transports only one container a month, and transportation capacity has been reduced by 50 percent.

Andrew Cuomo Rips Probes Into Trump as Feeding ‘Cancer in Our Body Politic’

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, criticized investigations into former President Donald Trump, calling them politically motivated and a “cancer in our body politic.”

Cuomo, a former attorney general, told host John Catsimatidis in an interview on WABC 770 that he expects Trump will be indicted in Manhattan [this] week.

“The expression, for prosecutors, is you can indict a ham sandwich because the prosecutor controls the entire indictment process,” Cuomo said.

Trump himself has said he expects to be indicted and arrested in a probe that he has denounced as a “fairy tale” and a “witch hunt.”

Cuomo said that he doesn’t understand why Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is “putting such an emphasis” on the case against Trump, which he argued will stoke division and be viewed as a political hack job by an increasingly jaded populace.

“You have a cynical public, they don’t believe anyone. And when you start to see these prosecutors bringing political cases, it just affirms everybody’s cynicism,” Cuomo said.

“I don’t believe any of this. I don’t believe a Democratic prosecutor just happens to be attacking a Republican,” he continued.

“I think it’s all politics,” Cuomo added. “It feeds the cynicism and that’s the cancer in our body politic right now.”
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House Republicans led by Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), and Administration Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) wrote in a letter to Bragg that his “decision to pursue such a politically motivated prosecution” requires scrutiny by Congress about how public safety funds are being used by local law enforcement agencies.