THE SHOW NOTES: Woke NPR CEO, More China Problems, & Antisemitic Employees at Google

Welcome! Over 1 million vehicles were reported stolen in 2023.

DUBAI: Two years of rain flooded Dubai in one day.

HEADLINE: China continues to subsidize deadly fentanyl exports - NPR

TRIAL: Seven jurors have been selected for the hush money trial of Donald Trump.

WATCH: A California ceasefire activist was shocked that she was arrested for threatening to kill city council members.

FLIP: Arizona Senate race just flipped from “toss-up” to “lean Democrat.”

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NPR

After NPR suspended a senior business editor for writing a piece in The Free Press accusing the outlet of liberal bias, this vial clip was unearthed of NPR CEO Katherine Maher saying, "Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that’s getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done."

NEW: The suspended editor just posted his resignation letter.

More China Problems

As China’s economy continues to slide, the Chinese government is cracking down on residents who are falling into debt by preventing them from going on vacation, staying in nice hotels, using public transit, or purchasing insurance policies. If residents don’t comply, they will be arrested. The news is especially concerning since China does not allow people to file for bankruptcy or write off any form of bad debt. This is from The Wall Street Journal:

The number of people on a publicly available government delinquency blacklist has jumped by nearly 50% since late 2019 to 8.3 million today. Courts can put people on the blacklist when they don’t fulfill judgments against them to pay money back or are deemed to be not cooperating with legal proceedings.

Google

Antisemitic employees at Google staged a sit-in protest in their boss’s office for 8 hours after it was revealed that Google signed a cloud computing contract with the Israeli government. Here is the moment they were arrested:

US to Reimpose Venezuela Oil Ban Unless Maduro Acts Quickly

President Joe Biden’s administration intends to reimpose oil sanctions on Venezuela, ending a six-month reprieve, if Nicolas Maduro’s regime does not take steps in the next two days to honor an agreement to allow a fairer vote in elections scheduled for July.

The US plans to allow a Treasury Department license permitting oil and gas production to expire without renewal on Thursday, according to people familiar with the plan, who asked not to be identified without permission to speak publicly, if Venezuela fails to act.

The Biden administration has been trying to buy as much time as possible before finalizing the decision in hopes for an unlikely breakthrough that could change its plan, the people said. If the license expires, US actions would be taken to ease the impact on Americans and the US oil market.

Full story at Bloomberg (paywall).

A Russia Hacking Group Carried Out A Cyberattack In Texas

A hacking group with ties to the Russian government is suspected of carrying out a cyberattack in January that caused a tank at a Texas water facility to overflow, experts from US cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Wednesday.

The hack in the small town of Muleshoe, in north Texas, coincided with at least two other towns in north Texas taking precautionary defensive measures after detecting suspicious cyber activity on their networks, town officials told CNN. The FBI has been investigating the hacking activity, one of the officials said.

Full story at CNN.

Trending news:

• Some ex-TikTok employees say the social media service worked closely with its China-based parent despite claims of independence - Fortune

• Iran's president vows to completely destroy Israel if it launches ‘tiniest invasion’ - Fox News

• Gov. Newsom and California show why liberals can't be trusted with the economy - USA Today

• Why so many of us were wrong about missile defense - Noah Smith

• The Lunatic RINO-Hunting of Marjorie Taylor Greene - National Review

• Foiling Iran’s Missile Attack Probably Cost More Than $1 Billion - Bloomberg (paywall)

• Americans Throw Away Up to $68 Million in Coins a Year. Here Is Where It All Ends Up. - WSJ (paywall)

Market snapshot: