A previously undisclosed $50 million investment helped free Newsmax from a Fox News competitor, according to a new report, and it came from an unforeseen place: the government of Qatar.
In 2019 and 2020, a former Qatari government official and member of the royal family, Sheikh Sultan bin Jassim Al Thani, invested tens of millions in the fledgling far-right media company, according to documents leaked through a Cayman Islands-based money provider. and reviewed via the Washington Post.
At the time, Newsmax was massively expanding its operations, from a network that paid anchors to drink and promote its whiskey on weekdays to a network that would be embroiled in defamation lawsuits after denying the effects of the 2020 presidential election. But it desperately needed an influx of money before it could compete with Rupert Murdoch’s broadcasting empire.
On the other side of the world, Qatar faces an economic blockade created through a coalition of its regional neighbors, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Qatar turned to former President Donald Trump for help with the situation but was sidelined due to a complaint. which is investment terrorism.
Before and after Al Thani paid a lump sum to a network that would grow to get Trump’s attention, senior newsroom executives called on Newsmax staff to be lenient in their policy toward Qatar, a move that resulted in the verbal reprimand of at least one anchor. by Chrismost Sensateher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax, after making on-air comments about the nation. “We had no right to criticize Qatar,” an unnamed source told The Post. “We were told very clearly, from the most sensible to the lowest, not to touch anything. “
A Newsmax representative who spoke to The Post dismissed the perception that they had a “bias in favor of Qatar. “
The lawyer who defended the abortion pill mifepristone before the Supreme Court made a fundamental mistake Tuesday when she blurted out that the drug had caused headaches “dozens of times. “
Erin Hawley, who is married to Republican Sen. Josh Hawley and works for the extremist legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom, represents a coalition of anti-abortion teams seeking to block mifepristone. The organization filed an initial lawsuit in November 2022, arguing that the Food and Drug Administration had improperly approved mifepristone and that doctors who oppose abortion could be harmed if they had to treat patients suffering from mifepristone’s negative health effects.
“According to Guttmacher, approximately 650,000 women take mifepristone each year,” Hawley said in his argument to the Supreme Court, referring to the abortion access think tank, the Guttmacher Institute. “It’s no surprise that respondents saw an increase in emergency room visits and actually treated women with medical abortions tens of thousands of times. “
“Excuse me, dozens of times,” he temporarily corrected himself. Women have suffered tens of thousands of times. “
This huge virtual confusion may end up costing you dearly, but at least it shows how unfounded this whole thing is.
Mifepristone, which has been proven through more than 100 studies, is one of two medications used in medical abortion, one of the most common abortion strategies in the country. The drug has become a very important tool for abortion access since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
A series of reports released last week through the Guttmacher Institute found that more than one million abortions were performed in the United States in 2023, of which about 63% were medication abortions. And that figure doesn’t even take into account self-managed abortions when other people were taking medication at home, such as other people who live in states where abortion is banned and who won the mail-order medications.
Of all those medication abortions, very few result in the kind of emergencies Hawley describes. A study published in February in the journal Nature Medicine examined more than 6,000 patients who took mifepristone and another important drug, misoprostol, which is used to induce abortions. Of those patients, only 0. 25% experienced a “serious abortion-related adverse event. “
On Tuesday, around 1:40 a. m. EST, a 1,000-foot freighter drove over giant concrete obstacles in front of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, collided with one of its structural piers and threw it into the Patapsco River. A few hours later, the Conservatives were already throwing their racist conspiracy theories against the wall to see what would hold up.
In a morning broadcast, Fox Business attempted to link the dire situation, which Baltimore City firefighters considered a mass casualty event, to the “open border. “Through an awkwardly worded cross-question, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo linked the catastrophic collapse to President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
“Let me also know your attitude on what is happening in terms of global affairs. The White House issued a statement on the matter saying that “there is no indication of any adverse intent in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” Bartiromo “The ship in question in the collapse of the bridge is 948 feet long, it’s called The Dali, a container flagged by Singapore, but of course you’ve talked a lot about the possibility of wrongdoing or the possibility of an act being committed dirty, given the grand opening. border. That’s why you’ve been so adamant.
Maria Bartiromo tries to link the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore to the “open border”pic. twitter. com/bkMdvFNa3g
A construction team acting as a maintenance worker works on the bridge at the time of its collapse. So far, two other people have been rescued, while the search for six other people in the water continues.
The domain around Baltimore, which is only an hour’s drive from Washington D. C. , is one of the busiest spaces in the country. The Key Bridge featured a select address along Interstate 95, the East Coast corridor, and was used by about 35,000 people a day. , according to Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld.
The loss of the bridge (and the subsequent blockade of the river) also left the Port of Baltimore off its shipping route.
But even though the FBI had already decided that the crash was not the result of terrorist activity, other conservatives joined the virtual clash, including self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate and far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who blamed the crash for baselessness. Like a “cyberattack. “
The Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday on whether the abortion pill mifepristone was improperly approved, in a case that could decimate abortion access nationwide.
The case came to the Supreme Court after a long legal rollercoaster. The prestige of mifepristone today remains unchanged until the High Court issues a decision. Mifepristone is one of two medications used in medical abortion, one of the most common abortion methods in The drug has had a very important tool for abortion access since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, with nearly 28,000 additional doses of abortion pills provided in the six months following the fall of Roe.
A coalition of anti-abortion organizations, represented through the extremist legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom, filed a lawsuit to block mifepristone in November 2022. They argued that the Food and Drug Administration had improperly approved mifepristone, even though more than a hundred studies have shown the drug to be safe. They also argue that doctors who oppose abortion could be harmed if they treated patients suffering from the negative health effects of mifepristone.
Oral arguments in this case have already begun. You can sing along and pay attention to the case here.
While the Supreme Court technically can’t ban mifepristone entirely, it can simply reimpose restrictions on this product to the point that it would be incredibly difficult to acquire. In 2016, the FDA decided that it was safe to use mifepristone for 10 weeks of pregnancy, compared to seven weeks, and that it can only be given after only two in-person appointments, compared to three.
In 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Biden’s leadership said providers could simply prescribe telemedicine appointments with mifepristone. Management made this replacement permanent later that year. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the anti-abortion group, it may simply overturn all those FDA-approved replacements.
When arguments began Tuesday, Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar, who represents the FDA, argued that the plaintiffs had no status to sue in the first place. Their arguments about possible harms, he said, “are based on a long chain of remote dangers. “
In fact, the original lawsuit and settlement against mifepristone cite several studies that either decided the effects from a small standard or were knowledge-based in a way that was completely retracted.
A bigger factor at play is challenging the FDA’s authority. The original lawsuit “undermined” the authority of the FDA and, by extension, the authority of federal agencies, Rachel Rebouché, dean of Temple University’s law school, told The New Republic when the case was filed. Began.
“Taking seriously the fact that [the FDA] ignored the dangers, dangers that are not supported by any credible evidence, raises questions about what the federal courts might do about the decisions of other federal agencies,” he said.
A former Donald Trump employee has a little message for his former boss, now that his secret trial has an express date: “Worry. “
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer turned fixer, went on MSNBC on Monday to warn the Republican presidential nominee.
“He won’t be worried about me,” Cohen told Jen Psaki. “He’s going to be worried about the district attorney in Manhattan, he’s going to be worried about the documentary evidence, he’s going to be worried about all the witnesses that are going to come in this trial simply because, as others have also rightly said, this is an undeniable case.
On Monday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan ruled that jury sitting would begin on April 15. This is the first officially scheduled felon trial for the former president, while proceedings in his other three felon trials have been suspended due to appeals and delaying tactics. of Trump’s legal team.
Trump is accused of Cohen sweeping an affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels under the rug ahead of the 2016 presidential election. In this case, he faces 34 criminal charges for allegedly falsifying business documents with the intent to commit a predicate offense. Trump has pleaded not to blame all fees.
Despite Trump’s efforts to keep them away from the courtroom, Cohen and Daniels are expected to be star witnesses in the trial.
After all, Rep. James Comer has given up trying to impeach Joe Biden, but he’s looking to make it look like that was his plan all along.
After more than a year of insisting that the president and his circle of family members are to blame for corruption, Republicans have yet to present any evidence of Biden’s wrongdoing. Many Republican lawmakers are beginning to back down from impeachment efforts, admitting they probably won’t. have the votes to pass the articles of impeachment.
Comer, who led the investigation, has maintained his goal of indicting Biden, even as he lost key witnesses along the way. But on Monday night, he finally replaced his mind.
“It is transparent that Democrats will decide about their party, their country, and the facts at all times. They will be ashamed of themselves,” the Kentucky Republican wrote in a fundraising email. “That’s why I’m preparing offender referrals as the culmination of my research. “
Comer first raised the possibility of referrals of offenders to the Justice Department two weeks ago. He told Fox News that “the responsibility . . . It’s like the expulsions of criminals. “
That’s a far cry from their first stated goal, which was to impeach and, in the end, remove Biden from office. But with his investigation heating up around him, Comer is desperately looking for an “exit strategy,” one Republican congressman said anonymously. told ABC earlier this month.
But Comer said in his fundraising email that a longer game is being played. “When President Trump returns to the White House, it is critical that the new leadership of the Department of Justice has everything it needs to prosecute Biden’s criminal ring and bring justice quickly. “He wrote.
Comer is counting on Donald Trump’s re-election in November. Trump, who supports impeachment efforts, could then ask the Justice Department to bring charges.
Comer’s change in tone comes a week after a disastrous House Oversight Committee hearing, in which lawmakers heard testimony from Tony Bobulinski, Jason Galanis and Lev Parnas. Bobulinski is an ex-wife of Hunter Biden with a history of shady business dealings, and Galanis called from federal prison, where she is serving a 14-year sentence for money fraud. Hunter says he and Galanis have only met once.
Parnas, on the other hand, is a former associate of Rudy Giuliani. He insisted that the Biden family’s corruption allegations are nothing yet Russian disinformation.
Things temporarily changed when Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked Bobulinski if he had ever noticed the president committing a crime. When Bobulinski couldn’t cite a specific case, Ocasio-Cortez sidelined Republicans in her impeachment campaign.
“At this point, history means that the rationale for this impeachment inquiry is wrong. History is the explanation of why it’s happening anyway. Why is this committee proceeding on the basis of false accusations?” he asked.
A Republican senator from the state of Minnesota gave a grotesque, but utterly unbalanced, explanation for why to oppose a proposal requiring gun stockpiling: People might want to shoot cows.
Sen. Warren Limmer made the bizarre argument Friday before the floor committee about a bill that would require firearms to be stored unloaded and deactivated with a locking device or in a locked garage. Current state law only requires that firearms be stored in a position where a child cannot hit them.
Limmer, who worked as a correctional officer before serving in the state legislature, argued that other people living in rural spaces want quick access to their guns from both predators and domestic farm animals.
“Farm animals can be very dangerous. Take, for example, a cow that recently had a calf,” Limmer said. “Even if you get too close to a cow, it will weigh you down and trample you to dust. “
“Many farmers have a firearm just for those emergencies. Fumbling for a lock while a cow, bull, or any other animal attacks your daughter or son: You can’t search for a key, or search for the safe, or place your thumb over someone’s biometric key. Declutter your home while the danger disappears.
Minnesota state Sen. Warren Limmer (R-Maple Grove) says gun garage legislation will prevent farmers from protecting their families from cows. “You even walk too close to a cow, it will knock you down and trample you in the dust. “pic. twitter. com/rHlqtGo5Wd
Contrary to what Limmer said, deaths from cow attacks are not unusual in the United States. A study published in January in the journal Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology found that only 20 to 22 deaths per year are caused by livestock, adding that cows react to “deliberate provocation or inducement intended to incite competitive habit for the purpose of public entertainment. “
It’s hard to believe the situation Limmer describes, in which the owner of a gun is inside the house, fumbling for a lock, while his son is knocked out by a psychopathic cow. The most likely motivation for Limmer’s far-fetched argument is the same as above. Behind the bizarre “30-50 wild pigs” meme from 2019: Other people will say anything, no matter how ridiculous, to oppose gun restrictions.
Joe Biden’s team just gave Donald Trump the harshest rebuke since Biden told him to “shut up” a debate in 2020.
On Monday, Biden’s crusader issued a venomous reaction to Trump’s comments after the trial, singling out the GOP’s presidential selection for his monetary struggles and blaming Trump for a post on Truth Social in which he himself talked about Jesus.
“Donald Trump is weak and desperate, whether as a man or as a presidential candidate,” Biden-Harris 2024 spokesperson James Singer wrote in a statement. “He spent the weekend playing golf, the morning comparing himself to Jesus and the afternoon mendaciing. “about the fact that he had cash that he surely had.
“His crusade fails to raise money, he’s not interested in doing an outdoor crusade of his country club, and every time he opens his mouth, he’s pushing back the moderate, suburban electorate with his harmful agenda,” Singer continued. “America deserves more than a weak, confused, and tired Donald Trump. “
Many American voters are worried about the November rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Well, now those other people can literally vote for others.
In Texas, a man, tired of the two candidates from the two primary parties, legally replaced his call to Literally Anybody Else and began a crusade for the presidency. Formerly known as Dustin Ebey, this 35-year-old is a veteran of the U. S. Army. He is a graduate of the U. S. and works as a seventh-grade math instructor in Birdville, Texas, near Fort Worth.
“Three hundred million people can do better” than Biden and Trump, Else told The Guardian. “There deserves to be a way out for other people like me, who are so fed up with this constant takeover between the two parties that they simply don’t get the upper hand of the average person. “
A Reuters/Ipsos poll in January found that about two-thirds of Americans were “tired of seeing the same presidential candidates and were looking for someone new. “Nearly a third of respondents were still unsure whether they would choose Biden or Trump in November.
“People vote for the lesser of two evils, not someone they actually root for or support,” Else told local news outlet WFAA88. “People deserve to have the opportunity to vote for someone who looks like them and represents them. “
On its website, Else argues that “America will not be forced to decide between the ‘debt king’ (his self-declaration) and an 81-year-old man. Literally, Anybody Else is rarely a person, it’s a crying huddle group.
Otherwise, you face an uphill battle. In order to run for office in Texas as an independent candidate, he will need to submit a petition with more than 113,000 signatures by May 13. The signatures will have to come from registered voters who did not vote in the number one presidential election of any of the state’s primary parties.
Since it’s unlikely to get that many signatures in such a short amount of time, Else is campaigning for other people to put their call on the ballot.
“I have no illusions. It’s going to be very complicated to do, but it’s not impossible,” Else said. “My hope is to have Donald Trump, Joe Biden and then literally others right underneath. “
Donald Trump has made a U-turn in recent days regarding the TikTok ban. And we probably now know why: A certain Republican billionaire mega-donor is an investor in TikTok’s parent company or the shell company that just merged with the former president’s. corporate media.
In February, Trump briefly met with Jeff Yass, a Wall Street financier, as he sought to lure wealthy donors to his presidential crusade (and mounting legal debts). Yass’s trading company, Susquehanna International Group, is the largest shareholder in TikTok’s parent company. In just a few short weeks, despite spending much of his presidency denouncing the national security dangers posed by TikTok, Trump replaced his brain over the popular video-sharing app.
“I had almost banned it, I may have just done it,” Trump told CNBC in early March. “I told [Congress], ‘You decide, make that resolution. ‘Because it’s a difficult decision to make. “
“We want to pay close attention to privacy and make sure that we protect the privacy and knowledge rights of Americans,” he said. “But you know, we also have this challenge with others, you have this challenge with Facebook and a lot of other corporations as well. “
At the time, Trump said he hadn’t discussed TikTok with Yass and was more involved in preventing Facebook from becoming too powerful.
Still, Trump is likely looking to curry favor with Yass. A user close to Trump’s crusade told the New York Times anonymously that he expects Yass to make a giant donation to an organization that supports Trump’s current presidential bid. Yass, for his part, said he had never donated to Trump and had no goal of doing so.
But Yass probably would have already put Trump on the road. Susquehanna owns about 2% of the Digital World Acquisition Corporation group, according to a December regulatory filing, the Times reported Monday. DWAC merged with Trump Media on Friday
It’s unclear whether Susquehanna still owns those shares because Susquehanna, like other major investors, discloses its holdings periodically. But while he still owns a stake in DWAC, Yass’s company is one of Trump Media’s largest shareholders. Susquehanna reportedly owns around 605,000 shares, worth about $22 million.
The merger comes as Trump contemplates millions of dollars in fines and legal fees. Under the merger agreement, Trump can’t sell his shares or use them as collateral for a loan for six months, but he can ask the newly merged board to resign him. that rule for him. Even if the board agrees, it’s not transparent that stock promotion is successful enough for Trump’s numerous bills.
Meanwhile, Congress is on the verge of passing a bill that will ban TikTok. President Joe Biden, who is recently campaigning on TikTok, has vowed to sign the measure if it gets to his office.
Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has revealed that he is in the process of forming an investor organization to buy TikTok, which could put an important resource for young people in the hands of one of Trump’s allies.