NEW YORK – The Trump administration has fired all 22 members of an independent board that oversees the National Science Foundation. Members of the National Science Board received an email on Friday sent from the Presidential Personnel Office stating that their position was terminated. The National Science Board was created in 1950 to advise the president and Congress on science and engineering policy, approve major funding awards and guide NSF’s future. Scientists and advocates are concerned by the decision, saying it could further damage the U.S.’ scientific engine. The board was finalizing a report on the state of U.S. science. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
WASHINGTON – The man who authorities say tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives has been charged with the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump. Saturday’s chaotic encounter resulted in shots being fired, Trump being rushed off the stage and guests ducking underneath their tables. Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was taken into custody after the shooting. Allen was charged Monday in federal court in Washington and did not enter a plea. A lawyer with the federal defender’s office who is representing Allen notes he has no criminal record and is presumed innocent. Authorities say an officer wearing a bullet-resistant vest was shot in the vest but is expected to recover.
WASHINGTON – Republicans in Congress have launched new efforts to approve and pay for President Donald Trump’s proposed ballroom at the White House. They argue it would help avert security breaches like the shooting at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. A bill introduced by Republican senators would authorize $400 million for construction and security infrastructure underneath. Trump has said that private money would pay for the ballroom. Graham said at a news conference that it is necessary to allow the president to hold events safely and avoid much less secure venues like the Washington Hilton, where Saturday’s event was held.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The United Arab Emirates announced that it will leave OPEC effective May 1, stripping the oil cartel of one of its largest producers and further weakening its leverage over global oil supplies and prices. The UAE’s decision had been rumored as a possibility for some time, as it pushed back in recent years against OPEC production quotas it felt had been too low. Regional politics are also likely at play. The UAE has had increasingly frosty relations with Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, over political and economic matters in the Mideast, even after both came under attack by fellow OPEC member Iran during the war.
CAIRO – U.S. and Israeli airstrikes crippled thousands of factories in Iran, and the damage is reverberating across the country’s economy. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians have lost their jobs, and millions more could face the same fate. Most damaging, Israeli strikes knocked out most production of steel and petrochemicals, causing a surge in prices for metals and plastic and threatening wider sectors. Things could get worse under the U.S. blockade. Still, Iran’s leaders are betting that an economy built to be self-reliant under decades of sanctions can endure the pain longer than U.S. President Donald Trump.
OAKLAND, California – Technology tycoons Elon Musk and Sam Altman are poised to face off in a high-stakes trial revolving around the alleged betrayal, deceit and unbridled ambition that blurred the bickering billionaires’ once-shared vision for the development of artificial intelligence. The trial, which began Monday with jury selection, centers on the 2015 birth of ChatGPT maker OpenAI as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion. The civil lawsuit accuses Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, of double-crossing Musk by straying from the company’s founding mission to be an altruistic steward of the technology.
– The Associated Press
