“Several people were injured when a vehicle struck revelers at a parade celebrating the Lao New Year on Saturday in rural Louisiana, authorities said. The driver was quickly arrested and charged with impaired driving, police said. Video shared on social media showed multiple people on the ground at the annual event in Broussard and New Iberia. The videos showed firefighters tending to one person trapped beneath the car, which wound up in a ditch along the parade route. Around 15 people were hurt, some seriously, according to the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office. ‘Based on the preliminary investigation, this does not appear to be an intentional act,’ said a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, Rebecca Melancon.” (04/04/26)
“A United States federal judge has once again batted down a pair of subpoenas from the administration of President Donald Trump seeking information about Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, the country’s central bank. In a brief, six-page opinion published on Friday, Judge James Boasberg rejected the Department of Justice’s motion to reconsider his earlier ruling rejecting the subpoenas. … For months, pressure had been building from the Trump White House to investigate Powell and push him prematurely from his job as Federal Reserve chair. Powell’s term is slated to expire in May. Much of the Trump administration’s focus has fallen on renovations to the Federal Reserve’s historic 1930s buildings in Washington, DC, which have gone over budget. The administration has pointed to the cost overruns as evidence of malfeasance.” (04/03/26)
“Iran’s missiles set alight a refinery and damaged a desalination plant in Kuwait on Friday as Israeli and U.S. strikes kept hitting Iran. As the war that began Feb. 28 was to enter its sixth week, Israel, Bahrain and Kuwait warned about incoming missile fire, although it was unclear if anything was struck. Activists in Iran reported strikes around Tehran and the central city of Isfahan.” (04/03/26)
“U.S. President Donald Trump has removed Attorney General Pam Bondi from her post, a White House official said on Thursday, following mounting frustration with her performance, including her handling of investigative files related to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump had also reportedly grown frustrated that Bondi was not moving quickly enough to prosecute critics and adversaries who he wanted to face criminal charges. In a social media post, Trump praised Bondi as ‘a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend’ and said she will move to a job in the private sector. Trump said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, his former personal lawyer, will lead the Justice Department in the interim.” (04/02/26)
“Russian forces maintained a day-long barrage of drone strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, on Thursday, injuring at least two people, local officials said. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov posted reports on Telegram throughout the day and well into the evening, noting strikes in four city districts. One city official said there had been at least 20 impacts from drones. Further south, in the city of Zaporizhzhia, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said a Russian attack damaged a high-rise apartment building and a local business. No injuries were reported. Over the border in Russia’s Belgorod Region, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said 13 people were injured in a series of drone attacks, 11 of them in the village of Shebekino, just inside the border.” (04/02/26)
“After aggressively accumulating Bitcoin over the past two years, several public companies are now reversing course. With BTC hovering around $66K and prolonged price weakness weighing on balance sheets, firms, especially mining companies, are increasingly offloading holdings to stay liquid.” (04/03/26)
“At least 43 people have been killed in an attack by a rebel group linked to ISIL (ISIS) in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the army. Regional army spokesperson Lieutenant Jules Tshikudi Ngongo said on Thursday that at least ’43 compatriots were killed and 44 houses torched’ during the previous day’s attack in Bafwakoa, located in Mambasa territory, in the province of Ituri. Authorities blamed the attack on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group led by former Ugandan rebels that has sworn allegiance to ISIL.” (04/02/26)
“A Colorado appeals court on Thursday threw out the sentence of Tina Peters, a former elections clerk, who was convicted in an election data case. Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison in August 2024 on seven of the 10 counts for which she was charged. She allowed an unauthorized person to make copies of voting machine hard drives that included classified information. The data from those drives was then leaked online by conspiracy theorists who falsely said it proved President Donald Trump correct in his assertion that the 2020 election was ‘stolen.’ Trump later pardoned Peters, but Colorado officials said he has no power to do so because she was convicted by the state. … The judges of the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that District Judge Matthew Barrett wrongfully used Peters’ beliefs and promotion of election fraud conspiracy theories in his sentencing.” (04/02/26)
“The Vermont Labor Relations Board has ordered that Gov. Phil Scott’s administration ‘rescind’ a controversial requirement that state employees return to their physical offices three days per week. The board, a non-judicial body that makes decisions on the labor grievances of state employees, said in its decision Wednesday that the state has ‘refused to bargain in good faith and interfered with employees’ exercise of rights’ in requiring in-person work. Scott called the decision ‘disappointing, but not surprising’ in his weekly press conference Wednesday, and said the board’s membership is ‘weighted towards labor.'” (04/02/26)
“A German artist who created carnival displays mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin was sentenced in absentia on Thursday to 8 1/2 years in prison by a court In Moscow. Jacques Tilly was convicted on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military and insulting religious feelings. Carnival parades in Germany are famed for their floats mocking a wide variety of domestic and global political figures, and Putin has frequently been a target. Tilly, 62, has been designing and building floats for Düsseldorf’s Carnival parade — one of Germany’s best-known — since 1984. In recent years, his designs have depicted Putin scrubbing himself in a bathtub filled with blood and painted in the colors of the Ukraine flag, while another featured a red-faced Putin biting into Ukraine, which was decorated with the words ‘Choke on it!'” (04/02/26)
