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The Headlines
King Charles Visits Trump as U.S.-U.K. Tensions Flare, and Airlines Ask White House for Help
00:09:57
Plus, how millions of people could become Canadian.
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Sometimes it's perfectly fine to split your attention between your phone and what's in front of you, like when you're watching tv. Other times, not so much. Like on a first date. Good luck getting another one. But there's one place where looking at your phone can be downright deadly behind the wheel when you're driving, Ignore all the buzz. No message is worth putting the lives around you at risk. Remember, before you start your car, turn your notifications off. The buzz will wait. Park your phone. A reminder from odot.
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From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, April 28th. Here's what we're covering. In Washington. King Charles III is making a state visit to the US and it comes at a delicate time for the US UK relationship. The trip was in the works for months. It's intended to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence. But there's a new weight on it now given the tensions that have flared between the two countries over the war in Iran. The British prime minister referred to it as the US's latest war of choice. That infuriated President Trump, who in turn called the prime minister a coward for not joining in. Now British officials tell the Times they hope the king can help smooth things over with the U.S. trump has long been a fan of the monarchy and called the king a fantastic man. The centerpiece of Charles's trip will be a speech this afternoon on Capitol Hill. And it's only the second time in history that a British monarch has addressed a joint session of Congress. According to a preview of his remarks, Charles plans to say that the US and Britain have, quote, unquote, always found ways to come together and he will highlight cooperation around NATO and the war in Ukraine. Still, some UK officials have been worried there's also a chance the trip could end up generating less than flattering headlines for the British government. They're so concerned that Trump might bash the prime minister again, this time while standing next to the king, that a photo op at the White House later today is expected to be kept as short as possible with no questions from reporters. The first count is attempted assassination of
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the president of the United States.
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Yesterday, prosecutors charged the man they say tried to carry out an attack at the White House Correspondent's dinner. Violence has no place in civic life. It cannot and will not be used to disrupt democratic institutions or intimidate those who serve them. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch told reporters that the suspect, 31 year old Cole Thomas Allen, could face life in prison for storming a security checkpoint at the gala with multiple weapons. According to a federal affidavit, one agent, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was shot in the chest during the attack, though the document did not say who'd shot him. At the moment, authorities are still trying to establish what exactly motivated the alleged assassination attempts. The Times has learned that federal authorities are looking into whether some political posts on the social media platform Blue sky are linked to the suspect. Some of the posts, which my colleagues reviewed, called President Trump a sociopathic mob boss and said his administration quote, lies like it breathes. The username on the account was Coldforce. And writings that authorities say Allen left behind were signed off. Cole Cold Force friendly federal assassin Allen.
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Meanwhile, if you look at the video of the gunman, he essentially tried to just sprint past security to get inside. Essentially bum rush. The whole infrastructure designed to protect everyone there.
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My colleague Devlin Barrett has been looking into security at the dinner and concerns about the effectiveness of the president's Secret Service detail. Given that this appears to be the third attempt on his life, he makes
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it some steps past the first layer of security. But despite how quickly the man is moving, he's very quickly stopped and tackled and handcuffed by the Secret Service. That all takes place in just a matter of seconds. And when you break down what actually happened and talk to security officials, what we've been told is that everything worked as far as the security perimeter that's designed to stop threats like this. And they did stop this threat. He never even made it onto the floor where the ballroom was, where this event was happening.
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Devlin has more about the rise in political threats and how authorities are scrambling to adapt on today's episode of the Daily. As the war in Iran stretches into its ninth week, one of the very visible strains on the global economy has been the effect on airlines. The price of jet fuel has nearly doubled. The airline Lufthansa has canceled 20,000 flights scheduled for the summer in order to cut costs. United Airlines says it's also canceling some flights and raising prices. And budget airlines in the US Are now asking the White House for help. Yesterday, a trade group representing those airlines said it was asking the Trump administration for two and a half billion dollars to help offset higher fuel costs. The group said the airlines need the money to help stabilize operations and keep ticket prices down. The White House hasn't said whether or not it's considering the request. Some budget airlines were struggling even before the war. Spirit, for example, is in its second bankruptcy in two years and a lawyer for the company said last week that it could run out of cash soon to try and stay afloat. It's now in separate negotiations with the Trump administration to secure a loan worth up to half a billion dollars, a deal that could result in the government owning up to 90% of the airline. That proposals faced bipartisan backlash in Congress. Republican Senator Ted Cruz called it an absolutely terrible idea. And Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren asked, quote, what did the American people get out of this taxpayer bailout? The White House could go around Congress, though, according to people familiar with the Spirit negotiations, the administration has considered invoking the Defense Production act to push it through. That would require President Trump to determine that bailing out Spirit is a matter of national security. Silicon Valley has long had a reputation as a liberal hub, but in the last few years, a number of tech titans have been shifting to the right. Elon Musk, of course, went from saying he voted for President Biden to throwing himself full on into the Trump administration. Mark Zuckerberg, who President Trump once said should be jailed for life, became a guest at Mar a Lago and Trump's inauguration. And the most recent billionaire immersing themselves in politics with a rightward tilt is Sergey Brin, the co founder of Google.
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Sergey Brin has gotten very disillusioned with California politics. Specifically, he gave us a statement where he said, I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don't want California to end up in the same place.
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My colleague Theodore Schleifer has been covering Brin's shift. He says the tech mogul once donated to liberal causes, but has seemed to grow more Trump friendly and Republican curious recently. And he's particularly angry about California's proposed tax on billionaires. He's been throwing his money and influence into efforts to defeat it.
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We report in the story that all of this political engagement coincides with a new relationship he has with a woman named Geralyn Gilbert Soto, or Gigi, who is very, very vocally conservative. She herself has called Trump her bestie. She has shown photos of Sergey Brin wearing a red MAGA hat. She brought him to meet Ben Shapiro, the conservative podcaster in Florida last year. They do a lot of political stuff together, including attending a Trump Tech dinner at the White House. So they just are really inseparable when it comes to politics. So the reason all this matters is that Sergey Brin is not just thinking things, he is doing things. He is one of the biggest political donors in the country. He has now put in over $55 million into California politic politics cycle. He is also organizing fellow billionaires to get involved. That's why all this stuff matters, because you know, it's one man, one vote. But when you have $270 billion in net worth, you have a little bit more influence than average.
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And finally, you could soon be Canadian. Now that's if, and here's the fine print, you can prove you have a direct Canada born ancestor. The country has recently opened a route to citizenship for people who can show that lineage. And you can go pretty far back to do it like a great grandparent or even a great grade or beyond. Millions of people could potentially qualify and it's already attracting a lot of Canada hopefuls. At the start of the year, the number of successful applications from US nationals for Canadian citizenship by descent rose 50% from the year before. The change in policy is a result of a legal fight and the process can be very bureaucratic. But the more inclusive pathway stands in stark contrast to other countries that have been tightening their rules. Italy, for example, used to offer citizenship by descent without any generational limit. But it's recently cut that down to only people who have an Italian parent or grandparent. To apply for Canadian citizenship, people will have to show official documents or records to establish their ancestry. Genetic testing doesn't do it. And there's early evidence that people are beginning to try and dig all that stuff up. The Nova Scotia archives used to get about 250 requests a year. It got 1,500 in just the last few months. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.
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