Six US service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries as a result of attacks from Iran-backed groups in Syria last week.
Four US troops at the coalition base near al Hasakah that was attacked on March 23 by a suspected Iranian drone, and two service members at Mission Support Site Green Village attacked on March 24, have been identified as having brain injuries in screening since the attacks, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said Thursday.
“As standard procedure, all personnel in the vicinity of a blast are screened for traumatic brain injuries,” he said. “So these additional injuries were identified during post-attack medical screenings.”
Those screenings are ongoing, he added.
One of the service members has been transferred to Baghdad for further treatment, a US defense official familiar with the matter told CNN, noting that Baghdad has more advanced treatment options and better specialists than remaining on base in Syria.
The other five US service members who have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries are being treated at their facilities.
The news comes a week after the suspected Iranian drone struck a facility housing US personnel, killing an American contractor and wounding five service members. The US responded with precision air strikes on facilities associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which Ryder said Thursday killed eight militants.
The US service members who were wounded in the attacks last week, Ryder said, “all are in stable condition.”
Of the five injured in the original attack on March 23, one other service member is receiving treatment in Germany, while two others and a contractor are being treated in Iraq, and two have returned to duty. The service member who was injured in attacks on March 24 is also receiving medical care and is in stable condition, Ryder said.
In 2020, more than 100 service members were diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injuries after an Iranian missile attack on the al Asad military base in Iraq. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said at the time that symptoms take time to manifest.
“[I]t’s not an immediate thing necessarily – some cases it is, some cases it’s not,” he said. “So we continue to screen.”
Mild traumatic brain injuries, or concussion, is one of the most common forms of TBI among service members. But TBIs can also be debilitating; veterans described symptoms of dizziness, confusion, headaches, and irritability after sustaining TBIs, as well as changes in personality and balance issues.
On Thursday, Ryder reiterated US officials’ remarks last week that the US “will take all necessary measures to defend our troops and our interests overseas.”
“We do not seek conflict with Iran,” he said, “but we will always protect our people.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
Bryan Kohberger’s two sisters were fired from their jobs over their familial relationship with their alleged killer brother, according to a report.
Melissa and Amanda Kohberger were canned in the months after their brother’s arrest for the quadruple slayings of four University of Idaho students last year, NewsNation reported.
“Both of Kohberger’s parents are retired and I’m told the family is in very, very bad shape financially right now especially because the sisters are now unemployed,” national correspondent Brian Entin said Monday.
“We know that even his sisters’ just being related to Kohberger has really taken a toll on their livelihood.”
The sisters were fired despite never being implicated in the crime.
Melissa Kohberger was working as a mental health therapist in New Jersey.
Bryan Kohberger’s connection to his sisters cost them their jobs, according to a report.Getty Images
Amanda was working as an actress, though NewsNation wasn’t sure whether it was the position from which she was reportedly fired.
She had starred in a gory, low-budget 2011 horror movie, “Two Days Back,” where her character was brutally stabbed, slashed and hacked to death with knives and hatchets.
Neither the sisters nor their parents have visited Kohberger since he’s been behind bars in Idaho, a roughly 2,500-mile drive from their family home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania.
Amanda Kohberger starred in a 2011 horror flick where her character was brutally murdered.Mont Alto Film Project
The family does talk on the phone, however, the outlet reported.
Kohberger was given a television inside his private cell and has the freedom to choose what he watches.
Kohberger has been charged with the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle.
The former criminology doctoral student was charged with four counts of first-degree murder over the deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, and Xana Kernodle, 20, in their off-campus house.
Kohberger has not yet entered a plea and is awaiting a preliminary hearing in late June.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California lawmakers on Monday approved the nation's first penalty for price gouging at the pump, voting to give regulators the power to punish oil companies for profiting from the type of gas price spikes that plagued the nation's most populous state last summer.
The Democrats in charge of the state Legislature worked quickly to pass the bill on Monday, just one week after it was introduced. It was an unusually fast process for a controversial issue, especially one opposed by the powerful oil industry that has spent millions of dollars to stop it.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom used his political muscle to pass the bill, which grew out of his call last October for a special legislative session to pass a new tax on oil company profits after the average price of gas in California hit a record high of $6.44 per gallon, according to AAA. Taking on the oil industry has been a major policy priority for Newsom, who is widely viewed as a future presidential candidate.
“When you take on big oil, they usually roll you -- that’s exactly what they’ve been doing to consumers for years and years and years,” Newsom told reporters after the vote. “The Legislature had the courage, conviction and the backbone to stand up to big oil.”
He is expected to sign the bill into law Tuesday.
Legislative leaders rejected his initial call for a new tax because they feared it could discourage supply and lead to higher prices.
Instead, Newsom and lawmakers agreed to let the California Energy Commission decide whether to penalize oil companies for price gouging. But the crux of the bill isn't a potential penalty. Instead, it's the reams of new information oil companies would be required to disclose to state regulators about their pricing.
The companies would report this information, most of it to be kept confidential, to a new state agency empowered to monitor and investigate the petroleum market and subpoena oil company executives. The commission will rely on the work of this agency, plus a panel of experts, to decide whether to impose a penalty on oil company profits and how much that penalty should be.
“If we force folks to turn over this information, I actually don't believe we'll ever need a penalty because the fact that they have to tell us what’s going on will stop them from gouging our consumers," said Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, a Democrat from Orinda.
California's gas prices are always higher than the rest of the country because of the state's taxes and regulations. California has the second-highest gas tax in the country at 54 cents per gallon. And it requires a special blend of gasoline that is better for the environment but more expensive to produce.
But state regulators say those taxes and fees aren't enough to explain last summer, when the average cost of a gallon of gasoline in California was more than $2.60 higher than the national average.
“There's truly no other explanation for these historically high prices other than greed,” said Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, a Democrat from Chatsworth. “The problem is we don't have the information that we need to prove this, and we don't have the ability to penalize the kind of historic price gouging we saw last year.”
The oil industry recorded massive profits last year, following years of huge losses during the pandemic when more people stayed home and fewer people were on the road.
Eloy Garcia, lobbyist for the Western States Petroleum Association, said California's high gas prices are the result of decades of public policy decisions that have made the state an island in the global petroleum market and driven many oil refiners out of the state. He noted California does not have a pipeline to send oil into the state, meaning it has to ship what it can't produce itself from the ocean, which takes longer and costs more.
“We're not like Texas. We're not like Louisiana. We're not like the Northeast,” Garcia said. “We do not have a fungible fuel supply. We have chosen to do that. We have set ourself up by 30 years of public policy.”
Garcia said Monday's vote “sends a clear signal not to invest in California.”
Lauren Sanchez, senior climate advisor for Gov. Gavin Newsom, said the state has plenty of supply, noting California oil refineries exported 12% of their product to other states last year.
“We're also the third-largest gasoline market in the world for these companies,” she said.
Gas prices are displayed at a Shell gas station in South San Francisco on Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
In a bid to tamp down the Golden State’s highest-in-the-nation gas prices, California lawmakers on Monday passed legislation to set up the country’s first watchdog body tasked with investigating the oil industry.
The bill, SBX 1-2, which passed the State Assembly in a 52-19 vote on Monday, is the culmination of a bitter battle between Gov. Gavin Newsom and some of the country’s largest oil companies after the state saw gas prices topping $6.40 a gallon twice last year. After a large dip over the winter, California gas prices have slowly ticked higher to an average of $4.82 on Monday.
Newsom slammed the industry for “price gouging,” an accusation that gained political traction after oil giants reported historic profits. But industry representatives said the state’s environmental regulations, high taxes, and the transition away from fossil fuels are the cause of high prices and an increasingly volatile gas market.
“There’s truly no other explanation for these historically high prices other than greed,” Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, a Southern California Democrat, said on Monday during a hearing in Sacramento. “The problem is we don’t have the information to prove this, and we don’t have the ability to penalize the kind of historic price gouging we saw last year.”
The current legislation is a comprise between lawmakers and the governor. In December, Newsom proposed legislative language that would set an across-the-board cap on profits by the state’s oil refineries. If refiners exceeded those profit margins, they would face financial penalties.
Now, the Legislature is kicking responsibility to a new watchdog body, backed by subpoena powers, within the California Energy Commission. Based on findings from the watchdog entity, the commission could issue penalties at its discretion on the state’s oil refiners.
Any regulatory action and resulting profits penalty could take months or far longer as the energy commission sets up multiple new bodies, establishes a lengthy rulemaking process, and institutes complex new reporting requirements governing oil refiner data.
“If we experienced some price spikes, like immediately in the next few months, there won’t be a lot of ability to respond,” State Senator Nancy Skinner, who authored the bill, said in an interview last week. “A good portion of the bill is new disclosures that would be required. So we’ll take some time to do that and it will take some time for the experts to analyze it.”
The legislation gives the governor power to appoint the head of the new watchdog body, called the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight, subject to Senate authorization. Another oversight body, the Independent Consumer Fuels Advisory Committee, will be comprised of academic and legal experts along with representatives from organized labor, consumer advocacy, and the oil industry.
“We’ll comply. We comply with every law,” said a senior oil industry source. He said the legislation is meant to “deflect the real issue around California policies: They’re trying to drive energy business, energy companies out of business for the replacement of electric vehicles.”
Republican lawmakers also blasted the legislation, they say the answer to reducing gas prices is suspending the state’s 54-cent gasoline tax, which is used to fund highway and transportation projects.
“The fact remains that (this legislation) acts as a tax,” said Assemblymember Jim Patterson of Fresno, who said the bill is being rushed through the lawmaking process. “This is an unprecedented use of legislative and executive power, and I object to it strenuously.”
Consumer Watchdog, which called for the profits cap, has backed the revised legislation along with Severin Borenstein, a leading gas prices expert at UC Berkeley.
Borenstein said the law will finally give the state regulatory teeth to pull back the curtain on California’s opaque oil-refining market. The state’s oil refineries, including Chevron, Valero, and PBF Energy, closely guard information on their operations and pricing as confidential trade secrets.
California has seen perennial calls for gas price investigations spanning decades and multiple governors. But little has come from previous investigations, meanwhile, and all sides agree that the majority of California’s high gas prices are due to hefty taxes and fees. A special fuel blend used in California, which helps prevent air pollution, also causes some of the high gas prices.
But Borenstein, who has studied gas costs for years identified a gap between Golden State fuel costs and the national price that is not accounted for by the state’s taxes and regulatory factors. That gap, which Borenstein calls a “mystery surcharge,” is typically around 30 to 40 cents. Over the summer the gap exploded to over a dollar underscoring the state’s shaky grasp on the oil-to-gasoline supply chain.
The legislation is now headed to the governor’s desk, where he is expected to sign it this week.
Eliyahu Kamisher is the Bay Area News Group's transportation reporter, writing for The Mercury News and East Bay Times. He got his start in journalism covering the Israeli police and then as a foreign correspondent for the German Press Agency. Before joining The Mercury News, Eliyahu worked as a freelancer with stories across California. He graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in political science and economics.
Six people, including five children, were killed and one woman was injured in a car crash on Interstate 24 in Tennessee early Sunday morning.
Emergency medical services responded to a collision of two vehicles at the interstate’s westbound mile marker 23 in Robertson County, according to a news release from Robertson County Emergency Medical Services.
“A total of 4 Advanced Life Support ambulances responded to this scene and one helicopter/air ambulance,” the release said. “Initial arriving units worked quickly to search for, assess and triage the total 9 patients involved.”
The driver of one of the vehicles involved in the accident was not injured, according to the release.
“Only one other vehicle was involved. The vehicle was a car that was found upside down with very extensive damage,” the release read. “Another adult male was ambulatory on the scene and reported to responders that he had been in this car. This man was stable with what appeared to be minor injuries at that time.”
The scene of the crash.
WSMV
An adult female “believed to have been ejected from the car” was found in critical condition, according to the release. The woman was flown to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Her current condition is unclear.
Six others, including five children, were pronounced deceased on the scene “with injuries that could not be resuscitated,” the release read. All six, whose ages range from 1 to 18 years old, are believed to have been ejected from the vehicle.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol told CNN in a statement they are investigating the crash and will release additional information when it becomes available.
“Our office recognizes the incredible difficulty of this scene. Further coordination to involve professional mental health and counseling services for responders has been established,” Robertson County Emergency Medical Services said in its release. “Please keep the families and persons involved in your thoughts and prayers.”
Former US President Donald Trump has held the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign in Waco, Texas, railing against prosecutors investigating him, and employing dark and conspiratorial language to fire up his base ahead of next year’s Republican primary elections.
Trump — facing potential indictment — opened Saturday’s rally by playing a song, “Justice for All,” that features a choir of men imprisoned for their role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States Capitol singing the national anthem and a recording of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
Some footage from the insurrection was shown on screens.
In his speech, Trump defended the insurrectionists, saying they will be “vindicated”, and described the investigations swirling around him as “something straight out of the Stalinist Russia horror show”.
“From the beginning it’s been one witch hunt and phony investigation after another,” he said.
Trump is being investigated by prosecutors in Manhattan for campaign finance violations stemming from his alleged payment of hush money to an adult film actress ahead of the 2016 election. A special counsel appointed by the Department of Justice is also investigating allegations he hoarded top-secret documents and masterminded a plot seeking to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump declared on Saturday that his “enemies are desperate to stop us,” and “our opponents have done everything they can to crush our spirit and to break our will”.
“But they failed,” he said. “They’ve only made us stronger. And 2024 is the final battle, it’s going to be the big one. You put me back in the White House, their reign will be over and America will be a free nation once again.”
Trump held his rally at the airport grounds in Waco as the city marked the 30th anniversary of a raid by federal agents on the Branch Davidians religious sect there that resulted in 86 deaths, including four law enforcement officers. Many right-wing extremists see the raid as a seminal moment of government overreach, and critics saw the rally’s timing as a nod to Trump’s far-right supporters.
Trump’s campaign insisted the location and timing of the event had nothing to do with the Waco siege or its anniversary.
A spokesperson said the site, 27 kilometres (17 miles) from the Branch Davidian compound, was chosen because it was conveniently situated near four of the state’s biggest metropolitan areas — Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio — and has the infrastructure to handle a sizable crowd.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump cheer as he speaks at a campaign rally at Waco Regional Airport, Saturday, March 25, 2023, in Waco, Texas [Evan Vucci/ AP]
Trump did not make any overt references to Waco’s history, telling the crowd he told Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick he wanted to hold his rally in a place with overwhelming support, not “one of those 50-50 areas”.
He said he told Patrick, “Let’s go right into the heart of it.”
“But as far as the eye can see,” he immediately added, “the abuses of power that we’re currently witnessing at all levels of government will go down as among the most shameful, corrupt, depraved chapters in all of American history.”
Audience members were holding red-and-white signs handed out by the campaign that said “WITCH HUNT” and “I stand with Trump.”
‘High wire’ act
Trump does not just face legal peril. His effort to lock in the Republican nomination faces a potential challenge from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis amid signs that his own support is softening, at least in places like New Hampshire, an early primary battleground.
“I’m not a big fan,” Trump said of DeSantis, accusing him of plotting to slash social security.
“Florida has been tremendously successful for many years, long before this guy became governor.”
The former president is seeking to turn the hush money case in New York City to his advantage by raising money off it and using it to rally supporters. On Friday, he issued an apocalyptic warning, saying the country faced potential “death & destruction” if he was charged with a crime.
In a move that seemed designed to preempt a formal announcement, he claimed last Saturday that he would be arrested the following Tuesday. While that did not happen, Trump has repeatedly invoked violence — urging his supporters to protest — and used increasingly racist and dehumanising rhetoric as he has launched ever more personal attacks against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
But few supporters have heeded his calls to take to the streets to protest his possible indictment in the Manhattan case, and Trump’s escalating rhetoric has repelled at least some within his party.
“Trump is walking on a high wire without a net, telegraphing that he has nothing to lose and is willing to risk dangerous outcomes to rally support,” said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist in Washington, DC.
Democrats have also warned that Trump’s remarks had the potential to incite violence.
“The twice-impeached former president’s rhetoric is reckless, reprehensible and irresponsible. It’s dangerous, and if he keeps it up he’s going to get someone killed,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said.
At the Waco rally, supporters said they were unfazed by the prospect that Trump could be indicted.
“It’s just another political attack on him to keep him from running and winning this race again,” said Eugene Torres, 41, from the Texas coastal city of Corpus Christi.
Alan Kregel, 56, travelled with his wife from Dallas to see Trump in person for the first time. While he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, he said he felt the former president’s “methods and vocabulary” often detracted from his policies. But now, two years out of office, he said he is more supportive of Trump than he was before.
“He’s an innocent man, just persecuted,” said Kregel, arguing an indictment would help Trump win in 2024.
Aside from his attacks on law enforcement and DeSantis, Trump’s speech was largely devoted to prosecuting old grievances and making extreme claims about his enemies.
Several times Trump repeated the false claim that his election loss in 2020 was due to a systemic fraud orchestrated by the Democrats.
Trump painted the stakes of the next election in apocalyptic terms, speaking of “demonic forces” trying to demolish the country, which he said was at risk of falling into a “lawless abyss” unless he is voted back into the White House.
He described some US officials and senior politicians — including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell — as a bigger threat to the US than China or Russia.
“Either the Deep State destroys America or we destroy the Deep State,” Trump said.
The tornado blew out windows, damaged homes and trapped people in the town of Rolling Fork, witnesses said. Emergency workers were assessing the destruction.
Emergency workers were surveying the damage from a large tornado that whipped through rural Mississippi on Friday night, flattening homes and trapping some residents.
The tornado caused damage in Silver City and Rolling Fork, Miss., the National Weather Service office in Jackson said on Twitter. The agency issued rare tornado emergencies for parts of the state Friday night, indicating a life-threatening situation, along with tornado warnings in parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.
The center of the destruction appeared to be in Rolling Fork, where Fred Miller, a former mayor, said that a storm had blown out windows and damaged homes and trees.
“A great deal of the town has been destroyed,” including all the businesses on a commercial and retail stretch of a local road, Mr. Miller said in an interview on Fox Weather. “People are trapped in a couple of the eateries, and people are trying to get them out now.”
Aaron Rigsby, a videographer and storm chaser who filmed the tornado, said in an interview that he had watched it develop from a “small cone” into a “massive wedge.”
After the tornado hit Rolling Fork, Mr. Rigsby said, he went door to door through the town, rescuing people who were trapped in their vehicles or homes, including a woman who had been buried by rubble.
“The town took a direct hit,” he said, adding that it had taken ambulances at least 30 minutes to arrive in Rolling Fork because the area is so rural.
Rolling Fork is a town of about 2,000 in the Mississippi Delta nestled between the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers that was home to the blues singer Muddy Waters. Its residents live with the risk of flooding should the backwater levees along the Yazoo fail.
Rain and high winds were still whipping through the area early Saturday. More than a million people in Alabama and Tennessee were under a tornado watch, and some areas were under a tornado warning, indicating a higher likelihood of danger. More than 80,000 electricity customers in those two states and in Mississippi had lost power.
In Mississippi, many of the outages were in Sharkey and Montgomery counties. An officer who answered the phone at the Sharkey County Sheriff’s Office in Rolling Fork early Saturday said that the power in the building was off.
There were no official damage assessments or reports of injuries yet, Malary White, the chief communications officer for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said on Friday night.
Ms. White said state search-and-rescue resources were being sent to Sharkey County, and that the agency was assessing the needs of people affected by the tornado and would begin to assess the damage in the daylight. She added that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had been alerted.
Tornadoes in Mississippi
Locations of tornado sightings or damage reported by trained spotters.
“Many in the MS Delta need your prayer and God’s protection tonight,” Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi said on Twitter, adding that search and rescue teams, and medical support were working in the area. “Watch weather reports and stay cautious through the night, Mississippi!”
In Rolling Fork, Mayor Eldridge Walker told a local television station on Friday that he could not leave his house because of downed power lines. He said its garage and west side had been seriously damaged by the tornado.
He told the station, WLBT-TV, that people had been injured, though he did not specify a number and asked that people continue to shelter in place while emergency responders arrived.
Jerry Briggs, an emergency coordinator in nearby Warren County, said that he had no information about damage or casualties in Rolling Fork.
After the tornado hit Rolling Fork, the National Weather Service office in Memphis, said on Friday night that it was monitoring a tornado as it approached the town of Smithville, Miss. Todd Beal, a meteorologist at that office, said he was not sure whether it was the same tornado.
Earlier on Friday, officials in Mississippi urged residents to find a safe place in the event of tornadoes, while officials in Tennessee reminded people that spring weather could be unpredictable.
Severe weather season in the South reaches its peak during March, April and May, meteorologists said.
Earlier this month, powerful storms swept across the South, leaving at least 12 people dead and hundreds of thousands of customers without electricity. Heavy rain, severe winds and tornadoes damaged homes in at least eight states.
An explosion at a historic chocolate factory in southeastern Pennsylvania left two people dead, several missing and eight injured Friday afternoon.
West Reading Borough Police Department Chief Wayne Holben confirmed two fatalities and nine missing after an explosion at the R.M. Palmer Co. chocolate factory in West Reading shortly before 5 p.m.
Tower Health spokeswoman Jessica Bezler told The Associated Press in an email that eight others were taken to Reading Hospital with injuries Friday evening. Bezler said two people were admitted in fair condition and five others were treated and released.
She added that one victim was transported to another facility. Limited details are available on that person's condition.
Two people are dead and nine are missing after an explosion at the R.M. Palmer Company chocolate factory in West Reading, Pennsylvania.(WTXF/Screengrab)
Firefighters responded to the facility on South 2nd Avenue in the heart of the town after reports of an explosion and a multi-alarm fire, FOX 29 Philadelphia reported. The outlet's weather camera captured the massive explosion, which sent large debris flying into the air and left a cloud of thick, billowing smoke.
The blast caused significant destruction, leveling R.M. Palmer's Building 2 and causing damage to Building 1.
Holden said there was no further danger but advised residents to avoid the area surrounding the factory until further notice. He also said investigators are working to determine the cause of the explosion.
Officials said at least nine people were still missing hours after the explosion that leveled a building at the R.M. Palmer chocolate factory in West Reading, Pennsylvania.(WTXF)
Liz Soto, who was near the explosion, told FOX 29 she heard "a loud noise, like a roaring sound, then the house shook." She also said she hadn't heard from a friend who works inside the factory.
"She went to work, she's confirmed to have gone to work, but we don't know anything about her," Soto told the outlet.
As of late Friday night, various fire departments remained at the scene.
The powerful explosion blew out a window in a nearby restaurant and knocked the doors off another building.(WTXF)
According to R.M. Palmer's website, the company has been in business since 1948 and has over 850 employees at the headquarters in West Reading.
FOX 29 Philadelphia's SkyFOX captured smoke rising from the crumbled remains of a building after an explosion at a chocolate factory in West Reading, Pennsylvania.(WTXF)
The candy factory is known for its seasonal novelties, like chocolate Easter bunnies, and is one of America's largest and most innovative confectioners.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
President Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to continue and strengthen their cooperation on trade, security and addressing climate change Friday after a day of meetings, speeches and a joint press conference in Ottawa.
Trudeau hosted the president for a state visit in the Canadian capital, the first time Mr. Biden has traveled to the U.S. neighbor to the north as president. The pair addressed the Canadian Parliament and held bilateral talks before holding a joint press conference. Trudeau is hosting the president and first lady for a gala dinner Friday night.
In his speech to Parliament, Mr. Biden underscored the lengthy and robust relationship between Canada and the United States. The leaders issued a joint statement documenting their commitment to embrace clean energy and create good jobs, strengthen semiconductor supply chains, protect their shared waters and the Arctic ecosystem, and bolster global alliances such as NATO, the United Nations and the G20.
"Today I say to you, and to all of the people of Canada, that you will always, always be able to count on the United States of America," Mr. Biden said. "Nothing gives me greater confidence in the future than knowing Canada and the United States stand together still."
In his remarks, Trudeau emphasized the importance of the U.S.-Canadian partnership in developing clean energy and technology, and boosting production capacity for semiconductors and electric vehicles.
"This time, with all the challenges we face, we are doubling down on our partnership and on our friendship," Trudeau said.
President Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hold a joint press conference at the Sir John A. Macdonald Building in Ottawa on March 24, 2023.MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Canada is one of the United States' closest allies, with a shared border that makes the country a critical economic and trade partner. In one concrete development to emerge from the trip, the two leaders announced a deal on migration aimed at stemming the flow of thousands of asylum-seekers across the border.
A 2004 pact has allowed American and Canadian border officials to send some asylum-seekers across the border under the premise that both nations are safe countries where migrants can seek humanitarian refuge. But the agreement has only applied at official border crossings, meaning that American and Canadian authorities have been unable to turn away asylum-seekers who cross into each country illegally.
The new agreement will close this loophole and allow either country to send back asylum-seekers, even those who cross between border checkpoints. Canada has been dealing with an influx of tens of thousands of asylum-seekers who have crossed into the country from the U.S. between official checkpoints, and they have sought this change for years.
"The United States and Canada will work together to discourage unlawful border crossings and fully implement the updated 'safe third country' agreement," Mr. Biden told members of Parliament. In exchange for the new enforcement measures, Canada will accept 15,000 more migrants from across the Western Hemisphere.
National security issues were also a focus of the president's visit. Canada, a NATO ally, has joined the U.S. and European allies in supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia and has welcomed Ukrainian refugees, provided humanitarian and military aid and issued targeted sanctions targeting the Kremlin. Trudeau reiterated Canada's "steadfast support for the Ukrainian people" and vowed to continue to help Ukraine repel Russia's "barbaric invasion."
In their press conference, Mr. Biden fielded a question about the U.S. banking system, and said he was confident the problems in the industry are contained following multiple bank failures.
"First of all, have you ever known Wall Street not in consternation, number one?" Mr. Biden said, referencing uncertainty in the markets. "Look, I think we've done a pretty damn good job. Peoples' savings are secure."
The president said the federal government could take more steps to secure deposits "if we find that there's more instability than it appears."
"I think it's going to take a little while for things to just calm down, but I don't see anything that's on the horizon that's about to explode," he said. "But I do understand there's an unease about this. And these midsize banks have to be able to survive, and I think they'll be able to do that."
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- "The JV Show" co-hosts shared their raw feelings on-air Thursday as news broke about the death of their beloved colleague and Wild 94.9 host, Jeffrey Vandergrift.
A body that was found in the water at San Francisco's Pier 39 was confirmed to be Vandergrift, the SF Medical Examiner's Office said.
"I'm going to need your help getting through this Graham," said co-host Selena as she prepared to read the news to listeners.
"Looking at his picture on the site, just reminds you of the - you know, the better times when..." Graham begins. "He was healthy and he was happy. I mean, that's how I'm going to continue to remember him... pre-Lyme," Selena said.
"You know, most people listening had no idea of what he was going through off-air," Graham said, going on to describe the "magic" of what he was able to present on-air when "in between, in commercials and songs, he was broken."
Listen to the full segment on "The JV Show" podcast's website here.
Vandergrift had gone missing in late February. Police confirm that no foul play is believed to have been involved.
Wild 94.9 shared a statement on Thursday, saying:
"With a heavy heart, we must confirm that the body found near Pier 39 on Wednesday afternoon has been identified as our dear friend, family member & colleague, JV. We are devastated to know that JV is gone. Please keep his wife Natasha, his family, and close friends in your thoughts and prayers."
During what would be his final show on Feb. 23, JV shared an update on his health while talking to a listener.
"The stuff I've been going through in my brain that they are trying to figure out... ugh," he said.
"It started off... with them believing that something had reignited old infections," he explained. "The body, and the pain and all that stuff I can handle. What it is doing to my brain, I could never describe to you."
Lyme disease is known to cause dizziness and fatigue, but it can also cause depression, anxiety and even rage.
JV's final message on social media began by saying "Thank you for a wonderful life, filed with joy, laughs, pain and struggle..."
For more than a month now, Donald Trump has been calling his main rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a pedophile.
That’s not really an exaggeration. While Trump has refused to settle on a nickname for his primary rival, oscillating between the good (“Meatball Ron,” “Rob”), the bad (“Ron DeSanctimonious”), and the early-twentieth-century anti-Catholic (“Ron DeSanctus”), he has repeatedly made unsubstantiated allegations that DeSantis is a “groomer”—a word the Florida governor helped make a centerpiece of the right’s political lexicon as part of his vicious, cynical campaign against LGBTQ people. In February, on his tumbleweedy social media platform, Truth Social, Trump reposted a photo purportedly showing DeSantis, then a teacher at a private boarding school, drinking with a group of female students. “That’s not Ron, is it?” Trump wrote. “He would never do such a thing!”
On Monday, Trump returned to the smear, with more homophobia, to defend payments made illegally to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump 10 years earlier. “Ron DeSanctimonious will probably find out about FALSE ACCUSATIONS & FAKE STORIES sometime in the future, as he gets older, wiser, and better known, when he’s unfairly and illegally attacked by a woman, even classmates that are ‘underage’ (or possibly a man!). I’m sure he will want to fight these misfits just like I do!” Trump wrote.
How DeSantis responded to Trump’s post this week,versus how he respondedin February,proves that reports of the former president’s political demise were greatly exaggerated. Trump remains the indisputable king of the Republican Party. The Florida governor, meanwhile, is making the same mistakes that doomed Trump’s rivals in the 2016 primary.
DeSantis attempted to take the high road after Trump’s repost of the boarding-school photo. “I’ve faced defamatory stuff every single day I’ve been governor. That’s just the nature of it,” hesaidin February. “It just goes with the territory. You gotta have a thick skin.” DeSantis studiously avoided saying Trump’s name, even when attempting a dig at him: “I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden. That’s how I spend my time. I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.”
Fast-forward to Thursday. In an interview with Piers Morgan on Fox Nation, DeSantis finally hit back—sort of. “I don’t know how to spell the ‘Sanctimonious’ one,” the Harvard- and Yale-educated governor said when asked about the nicknames. “I don’t really know what it means, but I kinda like it, it’s long, it’s got a lot of vowels. We’ll go with that, that’s fine. I mean, you can call me whatever you want, just as long as you also call me a winner because that’s what we’ve been able to do in Florida, is put a lot of points on the board and really take this state to the next level.” He also drew contrasts with Trump, telling Morgan he would have “fired” Anthony Fauci, and took a veiled shot at the former president’s leadership style, saying, “So, the way we run the government, I think, is no daily drama, focus on the big picture, and put points on the board, and I think that’s something that’s very important.”
This isn’t going to cut it in the 2024 primary. We’ve even been here before: DeSantis’s response to Trump’s nicknames and character are straight out of the 2016 GOP playbook. That year, Trump’s primary competitors tried to take the high road, tried to draw contrasts, tried to make the case that Trump was simply too volatile and weird to be president. More than anything, it underscores a trend that has been growing for most of this year: DeSantis is not only out of his element, he’s not prepared for a bare-knuckle primary fight.
Look no further than Trump’s own response to DeSantis’s gentle clapback.
It's poorly written and has Trump's usual weird capitalization issues, but it is also a pretty compelling argument against a DeSantis presidential bid pic.twitter.com/9eVPZEYQhv
DeSantis lays a glove on Trump; Trump responds by throwing the entire kitchen sink at him. Even if the former president has struggled to succinctly label his rival, this statement is a strong case: DeSantis is at best an average governor. Florida’s education system is garbage; its crime rates are high. DeSantis has tried to make Covid an issue—particularly the vaccine that Trump held up as a major achievement—but here, Trump punctures it by arguing that DeSantis handled the pandemic badly, which is true. It is, for Trump, shockingly issues-focused and compelling. It shows he’s prepared to run on their respective records, which probably comes to DeSantis’s surprise, as it does the rest of us.
There are obvious rebuttals, if DeSantis cares to respond. Trump lives in Florida, undercutting his portrait of the state as a Bosch-ian hellscape. And it’s still not clear how potent vaccine skepticism will be: Trump’s only major accomplishment as president (the rapid development of a Covid-19 vaccine) is increasingly a liability, and DeSantis knows it. But DeSantis’s early strategy of adopting nearly all of Trump’s policy positions while making veiled criticism of Trump’s personality isn’t working. There are signs, moreover, that he’s already backing away from it: After expressing skepticism for months of continued funding of Ukraine, DeSantis condemned Vladimir Putin as a “war criminal” in his interview with Morgan. At the same time, he also qualified his earlier comments, saying that he just wanted to make sure that funding wouldn’t continue indefinitely and that American troops would not be deployed—which is ultimately not so different from the Biden administration’s approach right now.
These shifts and flip-flops are surely driven by DeSantis’s awareness that his support is slipping precipitously among Republican voters. At the end of last year, he was considered a serious challenger, if not the presumptive favorite. Trump looked weak in the wake of the Republicans’ disappointing midterm elections and his own low-energy campaign launch, and he was becoming even weirder and more paranoid. DeSantis had MAGA credentials and the support of much of the conservative establishment. But then Trump, seeing the growing threat, began laying into DeSantis, who responded by quietly taking it on the chin. The governor is now correcting course, but the damage is done: A Monmouth poll released Wednesday found that Trump leads DeSantis by 14 points—and that Trump has gained 15 points since December, while DeSantis has lost 12.
It’s still early. DeSantis hasn’t even officially entered the race. But the echoes of the 2016 race are clear. DeSantis can only make tepid jabs at Trump because he’s worried about alienating Trump’s die-hard base, and he can’t win a scorched-earth war with Trump anyway. DeSantis increasingly looks like an amalgam of Trump’s last GOP rivals for the presidency, particularly the sweaty Marco Rubio and the oily Ted Cruz: too conventional and weak-kneed to punch back when they’re bullied. More than anything, though, DeSantis just looks lost. It’s the same look we’ve seen on countless Republican faces over the past eight years.
