Paradise News

Tag: General News

  • Fact Check: No proof Taylor Swift said she’d leave the U.S. if Donald Trump won

    Is Miss Americana threatening to leave the U.S.? Social media users claimed that if former President Donald Trump won the 2024 election, pop singer Taylor Swift would go into exile — and see herself out.

    “BREAKING: Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus say they will leave the United States if Donald Trump becomes President in 2024,” read the text in a Feb. 5 Instagram post. 

    (Screenshot from Instagram)

    This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

    Relax, Swifties. That’s a hoax; Swift made no such promise.

    Swift has spoken out against Trump in the past, but there is no evidence she threatened to leave the country if he won the 2024 presidential election. We found no news reports, statements or Nexis search results that support this claim. 

    We reached out to a representative for Swift, who declined to comment.

    The post also mentioned singer Miley Cyrus, who said in March 2016 that she would move if Trump became president. She later backtracked and said she’s not leaving the country, saying that comment was “dumb.”

    But Swift didn’t threaten a similar move. We rate that claim False.



    Source

  • Warriors’ games vs. Knicks, Celtics, Bucks will show playoff prognosis

    Do these Warriors have another gear?

    Is this surging team currently playing the best basketball it can?

    The Dubs’ next five games will tell us everything we need to know.

    Well, almost everything.

    The Dubs’ upcoming stretch is, in a word, hellacious. Thursday and Friday night, they’ll play a road back-to-back against two of the better day-to-day operators in the NBA, the Knicks and Raptors.

    Then, on Sunday, they’ll face arguably the NBA’s best team, the Celtics, in Boston.

    The Warriors will return home and have a few days off after that, but the infamous first game after a road trip at Chase Center on Wednesday will be against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks. And that’s the front end of a back-to-back — the scrappy Bulls come to San Francisco on Thursday.

    I’m exhausted just thinking about it. I can only imagine how the Warriors will handle it on the court.

    But if this team can amass a winning record over the next week, it’ll speak volumes to the quality of this operation. If that happens, we can buy the Warriors’ current form — they’ve won nine of their last 11 games — as a baseline.

    The alternative takes us down a darker alley. I don’t want to go back down there again.

    Though, seeing as the Warriors are 3.5 games back of the No. 6 seed — the last guaranteed playoff spot — in the Western Conference, it’s not as if they can afford to do worse than three wins over the next five.

    But beating quality playoff teams like the Knicks, the Celtics, and the Bucks is something this team needs to prove it can do.

    Source

  • FAA Gives Boeing 90 Days To Come Up With A Plan To Address Quality Issues

    In this National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) handout, plastic covers the exterior of the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 MAX on January 7, 2024 in Portland, Oregon. (Handout/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

    By Gregory Wallace, CNN

    (CNN) — Boeing must produce within 90 days a plan to fix serious quality and safety issues, the Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday.

    The agency said FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker and Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun held a day-long meeting on Tuesday where Whitaker made the demand.

    That meeting came the day after a year-long FAA-commissioned probe found a “disconnect” between Boeing executives and employees on safety and said employees fear reassignment or stalled career growth for reporting safety issues.

    The meeting preceded the anticipated release of a six-week FAA audit of Boeing’s production line – an audit spurred by investigators’ finding that critical bolts were not installed on a Boeing 737 Max 9 door plug that blew open mid-flight.

    The FAA said the Boeing plan must address weaknesses in implementing the company’s Safety Management System, known as SMS, as well as integrating the SMS program with another quality program. SMS is a manual which is supposed to guide employees on procedures they should follow to insure planes are safe. But the panel said despite a wholesale re-write of the manual in recent years, it found “many Boeing employees did not demonstrate knowledge of Boeing’s SMS efforts, nor its purpose and procedures.”

    The panel that reported on Boeing’s safety shortcomings on Monday recommended the company address those issues within six months; the FAA’s new directive sets a faster timeline.

    The resulting plan from Boeing must lead to a “measurable, systemic shift in manufacturing quality control,” the FAA said.

    Boeing has had a history of safety lapses. The January 5 blowout incident triggered a 19-day emergency grounding of all Max 9s and re-ignited scrutiny of Boeing following the fatal Max 8 crashes of 2018 and 2019.

    CNN’s Chris Isidore contributed to this report.

    This is a developing story and will be updated.

    The-CNN-Wire
    & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

    Source

  • FAKE NEWS 2.0: MSM Caught Planting Anti-Elon Musk Stories


    Raw Story falsely claimed Jones had ‘turned on’ Musk.

    Leftist rag Raw Story published a disingenuous article Tuesday misrepresenting comments by Infowars radio host Alex Jones, falsely claiming Jones labeled X owner Elon Musk a “complete and total fraud.”

    RELATED: Fake News 101: Media Falsely Claims Alex Jones Called Elon Musk A ‘Fraud’

    See the full Alex Jones segment in question below:

    • Save 40% on DNA Force Plus NOW! Try it today and see why so many listeners have made it an essential part of their daily routine!



    Source

  • Tony Elumelu In Global Academic Limelight As TEF Case Study Becomes Part Of Harvard’s Curriculum

    Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Heirs Holdings Group

    In an unprecedented move, the Harvard Business School, the graduate business school of Harvard University, is set to cast the spotlight on the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), recognising the Foundation’s extraordinary philanthropic achievement in a ground-breaking case study.

    The case study, first of its kind on any philanthropic organisation in Africa, is to be launched on Thursday, February 29, 2024, before a class of graduate students in Boston, Massachusetts.

    It will explore the Foundation’s unique approaches and transformative initiatives, showcasing how strategic philanthropy offered by TEF is driving positive change and elevating countries and communities.

    This move by Harvard underscores the Foundation’s pivotal role in empowering young African entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries and places the Foundation at the forefront of global discussions on transformative and catalytic philanthropy, acknowledging its significant contributions towards fostering entrepreneurship in Africa.

    In addition to delving into the foundation’s innovative approaches and the resultant impact it has garnered over the years, the event will also feature an exclusive acknowledgment of the Founder of TEF, Tony Elumelu’s economic philosophy of Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.

    The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy, empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and increasing inclusive economic empowerment.

    Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has trained over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed over $100m in direct funding to 20,000 young African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs.

    Tony Elumelu who spoke on the impact of TEF on the African youth said, “TEF is creating economic hope and opportunity for African Entrepreneurs. We know that entrepreneurship is the antidote to poverty, youth unemployment and insecurity.

    “Through the intervention of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, we are encouraging our young people, giving them hope through the seed capital we provide, capacitising them through the training and mentoring we provide and setting them up to create businesses that will succeed and create even more jobs. Collectively we are fixing the challenges that we have on the continent.

    Continuing, he said, “the Tony Elumelu Foundation was set up to create more successful African business leaders. We want to replicate our own success and create entrepreneurs who will build more prosperity on the continent and for the continent.

    “It’s all about transforming our society and making sure that we leave the society better than we met it. It is not about the money that we have in our bank accounts, it is about the legacy that we make and the impact we create. Prosperity for all is what will create the security, harmony and peace that we need.”

    The Harvard Business School session will provide a platform for thought leaders, scholars, and business enthusiasts to engage in a meaningful discussion on the role of philanthropy in shaping sustainable and inclusive economies.

    As the world grapples with complex challenges, the Tony Elumelu Foundation stands as a beacon of hope, showcasing how strategic philanthropy can be a driving force for positive change.

    Tony Elumelu In Global Academic Limelight As TEF Case Study Becomes Part Of Harvard’s Curriculum is first published on The Whistler Newspaper

    Source

  • Fact Check: Bad connection: Solar flares didn’t cause AT&T’s cellphone outage

    After thousands of AT&T customers temporarily lost cellphone service Feb. 22, some social media users began speculating about what caused the outage.

    A Feb. 22 Instagram reel’s narrator said, “A lot of people are blaming a solar flare that occurred last night and early this morning for this disruption because moments after it occurred is when the initial reports of outages started coming in.”

    The Instagram post’s caption read, “This Major Solar Flare and Cellular Service outage could just be a coincidence, but it is odd and interesting to think about.”

    Another Instagram post, also shared Feb. 22, also questioned whether a solar flare caused the outage.

    (Screengrab from Instagram)

    These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

    But solar flares weren’t to blame for this outage. Solar flares happen when magnetic fields on the sun reach a point of instability, releasing powerful bursts of electromagnetic radiation that can last minutes to hours, NASA said. NASA uses a scale, with B being the lowest and X being the strongest, to classify how strong solar flares are. Within each letter class, there’s another scale from 1 to 9, although X flares can go higher than 9.

    Both of the recent solar flares were in the X-1 class, NASA said — so, relatively strong.

    Depending on their intensity, solar flares can disrupt communication, radar and navigation systems on Earth, but it is “highly unlikely” these recent flares contributed to the widespread cellphone outages, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

    Solar flares affect only the side of the Earth the sun is facing. Because it was nighttime in the United States when the flares occurred, they couldn’t have affected radio communication there, Ryan French, a solar physicist at the National Solar Observatory, said in a YouTube video about the event.

    The sun emitted two strong solar flares, with one peaking at 6:07 p.m. EST on Feb. 21 and one at 1:32 a.m. EST on Feb. 22, NASA and NOAA said.

    AT&T customers in the U.S. began reporting service problems at about 3:30 a.m. EST on Feb. 22, according to Downdetector, which tracks cellular and internet outages. On that day, the site said the reported outages for AT&T peaked at almost 74,000. AT&T said wireless service was restored to all affected customers by 3:10 p.m. EST.

    When we asked AT&T about what triggered the outage, a spokesperson referred us to a company webpage. It said technical issues that occurred during work to expand AT&T’s network caused the temporary service disruption.

    AT&T also ruled out that a “cyberattack,” or a computer network hack, caused the outage, although that claim also circulated social media. The company said there was no evidence a third party was involved in the outage or that customer data was compromised. AT&T is offering a $5 credit to affected customers.

    During the outage, AT&T said customers could still make calls and send text messages using Wi-Fi. In place of cell service, some iPhone users saw an “SOS” symbol on their screens; Apple said in these instances, users can still make emergency calls.

    Some people who use other cellphone carriers, such as Verizon and T-Mobile, also reported service snags Feb. 22. Verizon and T-Mobile both said their networks were operating normally that day and problems were likely caused when trying to reach people on different networks.

    We rate the claim that solar flares caused AT&T’s cellphone outage False.



    Source

  • Oakland A’s remove ‘Rooted in Oakland’ sign; Dave Kaval explains why

    Rooted in Oakland no longer, the A’s finally ditched their slogan this week.

    The A’s have removed their infamous “Rooted in Oakland” sign that was plastered across the Coliseum and visible from Interstate 880.

    A helicopter for ABC 7 caught video of a person on a crane scraping off the vinyl sign into small pieces on Monday. The A’s then replaced the giant sign with several smaller photos of historic moments in A’s history.

    Thursday, team president Dave Kaval shared photos of the new signage via social media while saying the 2024 season “will be a celebration of our 50-plus years in Oakland.”

    Another “Rooted in Oakland since ‘68” banner on the south entrance to the ballpark remained in place as of Thursday afternoon, but an A’s spokesperson confirmed plans to remove that sign, too.

    The A’s have been using their “Rooted in Oakland” slogan since 2017, when they announced the advertising campaign in a press release. The campaign “emphasizes the club’s commitment to building a ballpark in its longtime home city,” the team wrote, while Kaval was quoted as saying, “Our fans and community will know that the A’s are truly Rooted in Oakland.”

    But after years of failed ballpark proposals and disagreements with the city, the A’s announced their intentions to move the team to Las Vegas last April.

    Last weekend, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao explained that she has only spoken with A’s owner John Fisher twice: once when she first entered office in 2021 to discuss building a new ballpark in Oakland, and again last year, when he called to tell her the A’s were leaving.

    “I took him on his word (in 2021),” she said Saturday while talking to the hosts of “Foul Territory” at Fans Fest, a celebration of Oakland sports at Jack London Square. “The next time I spoke to him he said, ‘We’re going 100% focus on Las Vegas,’ when we were this close to getting a deal. That goes beyond any sort of respect I have.”

    The 2024 season will be the A’s 57th and possibly final year at the Coliseum.

    The team’s lease expires at the end of the season and Thao has made it clear she isn’t willing to extend it unless MLB meets her lofty demands, which include a guarantee of an expansion team, and the team name and logo remaining with the city.

    Given the near-impossibility that MLB meets those demands, the A’s are expected to leave Oakland to play in a Triple-A ballpark in either Sacramento or Salt Lake City, though they’d need to have that plan approved by the MLB Players Association. MLBPA executive director Tony Clark has publicly expressed his doubts.

    Former A’s players Trevor May, Grant Balfour and Coco Crisp also shared their concerns while speaking at Fans Fest.

    Asked if he thought players would approve of that decision, May said, “No. That sucks.”

    Playing in a minor league park “doesn’t seem right,” Balfour said.

    “Personally, I wouldn’t like it,” Crisp said.



    Source

  • Community Mourns The Loss of Peggy Maxie

    Peggy Joan Maxie

    The first African American woman elected to the Washington State House of Representatives

    Peggy Joan Maxie, 87, passed away on February 18, 2024. She was a beloved sister, auntie, and friend who will be deeply missed by all who knew her. Ms. Maxie was born on August 18, 1936 in Amarillo, Texas to father Cleveland Maxie and Reba Maxie (Jackson). Peggy moved to Seattle at age 6 along with her siblings and many other relatives, her mother initiating the move to work at Boeing alongside many other African Americans in support of World War II. An alumnus of Immaculate Conception High School, Seattle University and the University of Washington,

    she earned Bachelor of Arts and Masters in Social Work degrees.

    Maxie was the first African American woman elected to the Washington State House of Representatives, serving the 37th district from 1971 to 1982. She was the primary sponsor of the Landlord-Tenant Act, an effort still impacting the community today. Ms. Maxie co-sponsored the Displaced Homemakers Act, which assisted women who lost income because of the death or disability of a spouse or following divorce. She also brought the first driver license testing facility to her district. Additionally, Maxie founded Women in Unity, a non-profit organization focusing on employment and advocacy for African American women. After leaving the legislature, she worked as a consultant on community projects and as a mental health therapist at her private practice, Peggy Maxie & Associates. In 1975, she received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from St. Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington. In her free time, Peggy enjoyed gardening, playing tennis, and was always eager to share her wisdom and enthusiasm with others.

    Maxwell is survived by her brother, Fred Maxie, sister, Marcia Jackson, and sister­ in-law, Sharon Miller Maxie. She is preceded in death by brothers Robert Maxie (Sharon} and Charles Maxie as well as sister Mary Brown. Peggy also leaves behind nephews Rodney and Tyrone Maxie (Robert), nephew JC Maxie (Charles) and niece Tanya Maxie (Charles) in addition to many great nieces and nephews, cousins, and many dear friends. Peggy’s memory will be cherished by all who knew her.

    A funeral service will be held for family and friends on Saturday, March 2nd at Immaculate Conception Church beginning at 11:00AM with reception to follow.

    The Rosary will take place at 9:30AM with viewing at 10:00AM. Graveside service will be on Monday, March 4th at Evergreen Washelli Cemetery at W2:00PM. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Seattle University and Tabor 100.

    Source

  • What to know about Texas’s militarization of the southern border

    President Biden and former President Trump are both set to visit the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday, trips that come amid a recent buildup of U.S. National Guard troops in Texas. 

    The simultaneous trips — Biden’s to Brownsville, near the Gulf of Mexico, and Trump’s stopping roughly 300 miles north at Eagle Pass — are intended to highlight immigration and border security amid record-high migration levels. 

    In fiscal year 2023, which ended in September, 2.5 million undocumented immigrants were encountered trying to cross the southern border, according to data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP). And in December alone, more than 302,000 undocumented immigrants were encountered, the most ever recorded in a month. 

    The number of troops at the Texas border is also sky-high, with more than 5,000 of the state’s National Guard troops there as well as several hundred more Guardsmen sent by other states with Republican governors. Another 3,000 federally funded service members are also along the southwest border — with the two camps running separate operations on the ground. 

    Such topics are expected to be front and center during the already contentious 2024 election cycle, with animosity growing between state and federal authorities over who has the power to enforce immigration policies and how. 

    Trump, the GOP front-runner, has committed to using military force against drug cartels, with or without the approval of the Mexican government. He argues that American troops can help curtail opioid drugs like fentanyl from flowing into the country and killing tens of thousands of Americans. 

    Biden has insisted that Congress needs to address border enforcement policy through a bipartisan bill to put billions of dollars more in funding towards the issue, overhaul the asylum system, and give the commander-in-chief new powers to deport migrants. The White House has been pressing House lawmakers to pass such legislations, which would be paired with military aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.  

    Ahead of the visits, multiple states have pledged their Guardsmen to Texas, part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ‘s (R) sprawling effort to handle migrants entering his jurisdiction, called Operation Lone Star.

    There’s also a separate operation overseen by the Biden administration, with several thousand active-duty soldiers assisting CBP. 

    Here’s what to know about Texas’s militarization of the southern border: 

    Which states have sent troops? 

    Fourteen Republican-led states have sent National Guard units to the southern border since 2021, including Arkansas, Iowa, Idaho, Florida, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. 

    In February alone, four Republican governors ordered their National Guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border in support of Operation Lone Star, starting with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Feb. 1, who committed up to 1,000 National Guard members to Texas in response to what he called a “border invasion.”  

    He followed up by dispatching a contingent on Friday, sending a unit of 50 Guardsmen and 76 Florida Highway Patrol troopers. 

    Also pledging National Guard troops to Texas earlier this month was South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), who announced she was deploying 60 soldiers to the border; Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who said he will send more of his state’s Guard troops to join the 29 others already deployed there; and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb (R), who announced on X that he would send “50 #Hoosier Guardsmen.” 

    The states’ offerings are on top of the more than 5,000 Texas Guardsmen there as part of Operation Lone Star, which began in March 2021. The Guardsmen stretch bands of concertina wire on the American side of the Rio Grande, arrest migrants on trespassing charges, operate drones and man observation posts to try to spot individuals attempting to cross the border, and escort migrants to CBP personnel and facilities. 

    But the effort has cost Texas taxpayers more than $4.5 billion and been embroiled in numerous controversies. Troops assigned to the mission have broken intelligence oversight rules with incidents of shootings, mishandling secret documents and spying on migrants online, a joint Army Times-Texas Tribune investigation found. 

    How many federal troops are there? 

    In addition to the state Guardsmen at the border, U.S. Northern Command heads two federally-funded missions to support CBP. One consists of 2,300 service members, including Army National Guard soldiers, helping CBP with jobs such as data entry, warehousing and surveillance and analysis, according to the Pentagon. 

    Another 500 active-duty troops are authorized to assist CBP with surge support — which includes similar logistical, support and clerical jobs the Guardsmen are tasked with — along the southwest border through the end of March.  

    “The number of personnel will fluctuate as units rotate personnel in and out of the operation,” a defense spokesperson told The Hill. 

    None of the state or federal troops are allowed to enforce U.S. immigration law under the rules of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.   

    Clashing operations: 

    While immigration enforcement is typically a federal responsibility, Texas officials have clashed with the U.S. government’s actions, with Shelby Park in border town Eagle Pass at the center of the fight.  

    Texas National Guard troops have installed rows of razor wire in the park — one of the busiest locations for people trying to illegally cross into the United States. Abbott claimed the wire was slowing down the flow of migrants into Eagle Pass. 

    The U.S. government, however, contended that the wire was dangerous to border agents and stopped them from doing their jobs, with the Supreme Court in January ruling that Border Patrol agents could cut or remove the barriers. 

    But the Texas National Guard has appeared to ignore that ruling, seizing Shelby Park, turning away federal immigration authorities and continuing to install the sharp wire. 

    Abbott justified his decision to disregard the ruling of the nation’s highest court, asserting that fighting an “invasion” of his state “supersedes” federal law.  

    He has also pledged to continue further immigration measures, on Feb. 16 unveiling plans to build a National Guard base camp stretching over 80 acres, near the Rio Grande, that could house up to 1,800 troops in Eagle Pass. 

    Federal officials also challenged a floating barrier installed by Texas Guardsmen in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass in September. 

    Last summer, then-CBP Chief Operating Officer Blas Nuñez-Neto accused Abbott and DeSantis of taking “actions that are being done really for purely political reasons and that do not involve the kind of coordination that we really need to see at the border.”  

    Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

    Source

  • REPORT: Ukraine War Is Already Over, Globalist Bankers Can’t Control Russia


    Reporter joins Infowars Live from Russia to deliver up-to-the-minute updates on Ukraine’s failed offensive against Russia.

    Kelvyn Alp of CounterSpinMedia.com joins Alex Jones live from Russia, and reports the latest developments on the Ukraine War.

    Source