Notices by Steve Herman (w7voa@journa.host), page 25

Defense Secretary Austin today will announce a $6 billion US military aid package for Ukraine, an official in Washington tells VOA.

FDA - One of every five of the retail milk samples tested in the US positive for bird flu viral fragments. https://www.fda.gov/food/alerts-advisories-safety-information/updates-highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza-hpai

Apple removes some AI image generation apps from its App Store after they were advertised as capable of creating nonconsensual nudes.
https://www.404media.co/apple-removes-nonconsensual-ai-nude-apps-following-404-media-investigation/

FCC restores net neutrality.

NY Times - DoJ investigating McKinsey & Company, the international consulting giant, for its role in helping drug companies maximize their sale of opioids. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/business/mckinsey-criminal-investigation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

A grand jury has charged 11 Arizona Republicans and seven others in a scheme to keep Donald Trump in the White House by falsely certifying he won the state in 2020, though voters in the Grand Canyon State narrowly favored Joe Biden.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/04/24/arizona-fake-electors-indictments/73184206007/

“As we have noted previously, the United States assesses that Russia is developing a new satellite carrying a nuclear device. We have heard President Putin say publicly that Russia has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space. If that were the case, Russia would not have vetoed this resolution.” - White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan

President Biden has signed a $95 billion foreign aid bill that came to his desk after months of legislative debate. As I outine in my VOA radio report, the package includes $61 billion for Ukraine, which American lawmakers had delayed, leading to low ammunition supplies for Ukraine to counter the Russian invasion.

After President Biden's signing of the foreign assistance bill, DoD quickly announces the latest Ukraine military aid package, with an estimated value of $1 billion. It includes air defense interceptors, artillery rounds, armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons.

"We did not announce that we were providing Ukraine with this new capability at the time in order to maintain operational security for Ukraine at their request," adds the White House senior official.

A White House senior official confirms the US provided Ukraine with long range ATACMS at President Biden's direction. "He quietly directed his national security team to send ATACMS to Ukraine for use inside Ukrainian sovereign territory in February. They started moving as part of the military aid package we announced on March 12th and those missiles arrived in Ukraine this month."

ATACMS from the US a "good capability for this phase of the conflict in Ukraine," says National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

Airlines in the US now required “to promptly provide passengers with automatic cash refunds when owed because their flights are cancelled or significantly changed, their checked bags are significantly delayed, or the ancillary services, like Wi-Fi, they purchased are not provided.” - DoT https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/airline-customer-service-dashboard

US Senate, by a vote of 79-18, passes the $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. President Biden has promised to sign the bill as soon as possible.

A misconfigured DPRK Internet cloud server has provided a fascinating glance into the world of North Korean animation outsourcing and how foreign companies might be inadvertently employing North Korean companies on IT projects, including for shows airing in the US. https://www.38north.org/2024/04/what-we-learned-inside-a-north-korean-internet-server-how-well-do-you-know-your-partners/

Japan’s antitrust watchdog says Google must fix its advertising search restrictions affecting Yahoo in the country. https://apnews.com/article/41894f0e9825d65df057fee546753da6

“And echoing the rhetoric of terrorist organizations, especially in the wake of the worst massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, is despicable. We condemn these statements in the strongest terms.” - White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates 2/2

“We do not believe Jewish students should leave Columbia,” says the Hillel group on campus.

ADL says in response to the "deeply disturbing incidents" at Columbia University and Barnard College it has "been in touch with the administrators and law enforcement to take action to ensure the safety of Jewish students."

A day before Passover begins, the rabbi at Columbia University in NYC tells his Jewish students to go home as the school cannot keep them safe after pro-Palestinian protestors on campus yell “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground!” and other pro-violence slogans supporting Hamas.