“A federal appeals court has cleared the way for President Donald Trump to fire members of executive branch boards that oversee federal employee grievances and labor disputes across the nation. The ruling Friday is a victory for Trump’s effort to exert control over regulatory agencies that Congress intended to operate with some degree of independence from the president. Federal laws limit the president’s ability to remove the board members who oversee those agencies, but the Trump administration has argued those limits are unconstitutional.” (03/28/25)
“Myanmar’s neighbours sent warships and aircraft laden with relief materials and rescue personnel on Sunday, as international aid gained steam after a massive earthquake ravaged much of the poor Southeast Asian nation. At least 1,600 people have been killed and 3,400 injured by Friday’s 7.7-magnitude quake, one of Myanmar’s strongest in a century, its military government said.” (03/30/25)
“An American citizen, who was held by the Taliban in Afghanistan for two months, has been released, Washington’s former envoy to Kabul has said. Faye Hall will ‘soon be heading home’ after she was arrested by the Taliban in February, Zalmay Khalilzad, who served as the US special representative for Afghanistan from 2018-2021, wrote on X. Ms Hall, who is now in the care of Qatari officials, was detained alongside a British couple in their seventies — Barbie and Peter Reynolds — and their interpreter. The couple ran training programmes for women and girls, and stayed when the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021. Afghan officials have not made the reason for their arrest public. In his announcement, Mr Khalilzad thanked Qatar, which acts as a mediator between the US and Afghanistan. The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.” (03/30/25)
“A former Australian police officer avoided a prison term when was sentenced Friday for killing a 95-year-old nursing home resident with a stun gun, in an outcome that disappointed the woman’s family. Kristian White was sentenced to 450 hours of community service and placed under the supervision of a corrections officer for two years for manslaughter. … Staff called police to a nursing home in Cooma on May 17, 2023, because Nowland was wandering through the building with a walker and holding a steak knife. White fired his Taser at her within minutes of confronting her. She fell back and hit her head on the floor. She died in a hospital a week later from an inoperable brain bleed. The judge said: ‘A frail and confused 95-year-old woman in fact posed nothing that could reasonably be described as a threat of any substance.'” (03/28/25)
“The historic SF-88 Nike Missile Site, a part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area in the Marin Headlands, was vandalized sometime between March 15 and March 19, according to the National Park Service. Officials in a news release Tuesday said the site was forcibly entered and extensively damaged. Hate speech was spray-painted throughout the magazine, and hazardous chemicals were dumped inside. The vandal or vandals ‘may have sustained chemical burns and may have needed medical attention,’ the park service statement said. The SF-88 site, built during the Cold War, is ‘the most fully restored Nike missile facility in the country,’ the statement said, and a key part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area’s historical preservation efforts. The missile facility was built to defend against any potential Soviet attacks and meant to serve as a last resort against Soviet planes carrying hydrogen bombs.” (03/28/25)
“A woman says police overreacted by trying to ban her from a park over allegations she was illegally foraging for mushrooms. Louise Gather said a police officer came to her home and attempted to issue her with a community resolution report after she visited Bradgate Park, in Leicestershire, in search of magpie inkcaps — a rare kind of fungi. It follows a complaint by the Bradgate Park Trust, which runs the park, that Mrs Gather picked mushrooms illegally because it is a designated site of special scientific interest (SSSI). The 38-year-old insisted she had not picked any mushrooms during her visit in November, and that Leicestershire Police’s actions had been ‘a bit excessive.’ Mrs Gather, from Derby, revealed details of the community resolution order on TikTok this week.” (03/30/25)
“Elon Musk said on Friday that his startup xAI has merged with X, his social network, in an all-stock transaction that values the artificial intelligence company at $80 billion and the social media company at $33 billion. ‘xAI and X’s futures are intertwined,’ Musk, the world’s richest person, wrote in a post on X. ‘Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent.’ … Because both companies are privately held and controlled by Musk, the transaction likely amounts to a stock swap, with X investors getting paid out in xAI shares. The companies have a number of mutual investors, including venture firms Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, as well as Fidelity Management, Vy Capital and Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Co.” (03/28/25)
“Outraged by Elon Musk’s devastating [sic] contributions to the Trump administration, tens of thousands worldwide held ‘Tesla Takedown’ protests at over 200 locations on Saturday. Protests began the day in front of Tesla showrooms in Australia and New Zealand. They then rippled across Europe, including Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and the UK. In the US, protests occurred in nearly every state, including the northeast, south, midwest, and west coast. ‘Elon Musk is destroying our democracy, and he’s using the fortune he built at Tesla to do it,’ organizers wrote on Action Network, which has an interactive map of the protest sites. ‘We are taking action at Tesla to stop Musk’s illegal coup.’ Organizers also have a message for people with ties to the company: ‘Sell your Teslas, dump your stock, join the picket lines.'” (03/30/25)
“Utah has become the first US state to ban fluoride in public drinking water, over opposition from dentists and national health organisations who warn the move will lead to medical problems and disproportionately affect low-income communities. Republican Governor Spencer Cox signed legislation on Thursday that bars cities and communities from deciding whether to add the mineral to their water systems. … Utah lawmakers who pushed for a ban said putting fluoride in water was too expensive. Cox, who grew up and raised his own children in a community without fluoridated water, compared it recently to being ‘medicated’ by the government.” (03/28/25)
“Pakistan said it killed 10 civilians during an anti-militant operation in the country’s northwest and promised to investigate the circumstances. Authorities made the admission Saturday evening about the deaths, which occurred in the early hours of that morning in a remote hilltop area of Katlang, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It is rare for Pakistan to reveal civilian casualties resulting from anti-militant activities and it was not immediately clear how the Saturday operations were carried out. According to provincial government spokesman Muhammad Ali Saif, reports indicated the location was being used as a ‘hideout and transit point for terrorist’ elements. Subsequent information revealed that some unarmed civilians were present in the vicinity of the site, Saif added. Locals said 10 bodies, including those of women and children, were recovered from the area where government officials claimed the anti-militant operation had taken place.” (03/29/25)
