“The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits increased slightly last week, pointing to continued labor market stability in April, though economic uncertainty and higher prices stemming from the war with Iran pose downside risks. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 214,000 for the week ended April 18, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 210,000 claims for the latest week. There are no signs yet of widespread layoffs from the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, which has disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and boosted the price of oil and other commodities, including fertilizers, petrochemicals and aluminum.” (04/23/260
“The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General said in a statement that it will ‘evaluate the DOJ’s processes for identifying, redacting, and releasing records in its possession as required by the’ Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Trump signed into law last November. The bill required the Justice Department to release all files related to Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell within 30 days of becoming law, a deadline the department failed to meet. … The rolling release and repeated publishing and unpublishing of documents left survivors and members of Congress alike calling for an independent review of the department’s handling of the files. The two lawmakers who led the push to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, have also pushed for an independent review.” (04/23/26)
“Four people from Utah political circles — three of them elected officials — accuse Eva Lopez Chavez, a Salt Lake City Council member and Democratic congressional candidate, of restraining them during what they considered unwanted sexual advances. Lopez Chavez, through attorney Greg Skordas, said nothing ‘inappropriate’ occurred during her interactions with three of the people and the fourth alleged contact ‘never occurred.’ … Victoria Petro, who is Lopez Chavez’s fellow City Council member; Maggie Regier, who worked on Stan Penfold’s mayoral campaign in 2019; Hoang Nguyen, who is now a state representative; and Jen Plumb, now a state senator, described their allegations in interviews with The Salt Lake Tribune. Each person said their allegations arose in social settings before Lopez Chavez joined the City Council in 2023.” (04/23/26)
“The son of the former Shah appealed to Western countries to join the war against Iran and criticised the decision of the German government not to meet him during his visit to Berlin on Thursday. Reza Pahlavi, whose father was deposed in the revolution that brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power in 1979, accused Europe of standing by and allowing the Tehran government to continue the bloody repression of protests that killed thousands at the end of last year. … Demonstrations by both supporters and opponents were held in central Berlin and a person was detained after Pahlavi, who made an appearance, was spattered with some form of red liquid. Pahlavi, who has spent most of his life in exile, emerged as [the US regime’s pick to lead a puppet regime] after anti-government protests erupted in Tehran and other Iranian cities last year.” (04/23/26)
“Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders have cleared the way for CNN, HBO and Warner’s other media brands to join Paramount Skydance later this year. Shareholders ‘overwhelmingly’ voted in support of the takeover deal, WBD said after a pro forma special meeting took place on Thursday morning. The vote was anticlimactic, but still a crucial moment in the monthslong struggle for control of WBD, one of the biggest media companies in the world. Paramount, led by CEO David Ellison, now has to secure regulatory approval in the United States and other countries. But company executives are optimistic that they’ll be able to complete the deal in the third quarter of the year, meaning by the end of September.” (04/23/26)
“A woman living in a Russian-controlled part of southern Ukraine has been found guilty of treason and sentenced to 14 years in prison for buying war bonds to support the Ukrainian military, the court that convicted her said on Thursday. The Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia District Court said the woman had used a Ukrainian mobile app to purchase bonds worth 270,080 roubles ($3,600), and had been caught by the FSB security service. It identified her only by the initial B, and said she was a Russian citizen. People living in parts of Ukraine that Russian forces have captured in more than four years of war have effectively been forced to take Russian citizenship if they want to retain access to healthcare, pensions and property rights.” (04/23/26)
“Turkish lawmakers passed a bill late Wednesday that includes restricting access to social media platforms for children under 15, state media reported. The legislation is the latest in a global trend to protect young people from dangerous online activity. Its passage comes a week after a 14-year-old boy killed nine students and a teacher at a middle school in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, in a gun attack. Police are investigating the online activity of the perpetrator, who also died, in a bid to uncover his motivation for the attack. The bill will force social media platforms to install age‑verification systems, provide parental control tools and require companies to rapidly respond to content deemed harmful, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.” (04/23/26)
“A strange ‘golden orb’ pulled from more than 2 miles beneath the Gulf of Alaska, once rumored to be everything from an alien egg to an unknown species, has finally been identified after a yearslong scientific investigation. Researchers with NOAA and the Smithsonian announced the unusual object, first discovered in 2023 during a deep-sea expedition, is a remnant from a rarely seen giant deep-sea anemone called Relicanthus daphneae, specifically part of the organism that anchored it to the ocean floor. The discovery was made using a remotely operated vehicle exploring about 3,250 meters (over 2 miles) deep, where it encountered an odd golden structure attached to a rock. The strange, mound-shaped mass with a small opening stunned scientists, who admitted at the time they had no idea what they were looking at.” (04/23/26)
“American Airlines on Thursday cut its 2026 earnings forecast, becoming the latest airline to lower its outlook after a surge in fuel costs added billions to expenses this year. American said it could post an adjusted per-share loss of 40 cents up to earnings of $1.10 a share, lower than the per-share earnings of $1.70 to $2.70 it forecast in January, though Wall Street analysts have been trimming their forecasts for the industry since the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran this year. Airlines have been either cutting their full-year forecasts or holding off on further guidance because of volatile prices for jet fuel since the war started. Fuel is generally their biggest expense after labor.” (04/23/26)
“In 2022, the Maine Legislature took a rare step and required municipalities to adjust local zoning rules in an effort to spur housing construction, a move that generated a fierce debate over state growth targets versus local control. Four years later, the State House may have finally worked out the kinks from that experiment. Municipal legal experts and town managers are hoping a new bill, L.D. 2173, signed by Gov. Janet Mills a week ago, is the last word on land use restrictions, a technical but critical piece of the housing puzzle, for a while. The bill marks the second big adjustment lawmakers have made to zoning laws since L.D. 2003, the landmark 2022 legislation that required towns to remove some regulatory barriers in order to encourage housing production. L.D. 2003 aimed to do this by eliminating single-family zoning restrictions and making it easier to build accessory dwelling units while creating support for communities to develop affordable housing.” (04/23/26)
