German authorities arrested an aide to a far-right member of the representative to the European Union for spying for the Chinese government on the same day British authorities detained two people for the same suspicion, including a researcher for a prominent conservative member of Parliament, the Washington Post reports.

The unnamed individual was a staff for far-right Maximilian Krah, a member of the Alternative for Germany, a German nationalist group.  The individual passed information to Chinese handlers about negotiations at the European Parliament as well as information about German policies and policitians.

Scientists documented the creation of a new organism–one that creates stable nitrogen the way plants extract, or “fix,” carbon–as a marine algal organism incorporated a marine bacterium into it and the two operated as a single organism on a cellular level, IFL Science reports.  The new organism became the first eukaryote–an organism with distinct DNA in a nucleus–that could “fix” nitrogen.

The process is more than symbiosis or some Star Trek plot about a formless sentient being using another body as a host.  This process is only known to have happened three times before in history:  when one of the building blocks of life, mitochondria, was first formed, then about a billion years ago, when a similar process created chloroplast which, in turn, created plant life.  A third occurrence created chloroplast again.

Two new research papers show that the bacterium UCYN-A combined with the haptophyte algae Braarudosphaera bigelowii to become a new type of organelle.  It’s unclear how the process of fixing nitrogen, which produces stable nitrogen compounds from loose molecules in the environment, assists the new creature.

“I am deeply worried that tomorrow, a completely corrupt judge and a totally corrupt district attorney are gonna try to put a former President of the United States, candidate of his Party, and front-runner in the polls in jail,” former Squeaker of the House who was ousted in a corruption scandal Newt Gingrich prattles.  “Now, I think this is so horrendous that there has to be some way to reach out to the Supreme Court– I mean this is literally like some of the Civil Rights workers in Mississippi in the 1960s.”

Even though the State of Texas has not reported a death of a prisoner in custody due to heat since 2012, a group is suing the state to guarantee prisoners will have access to cooling facilities in the upcoming hot season as data collected by the Texas Tribune show dozens died in the state’s custody during last year’s heat wave.

Four nonprofit organizations filed lawsuits on behalf of prisoners including murderer Bernie Tiede who was kept in a cell where temperatures exceeded 110 degrees Fahrenheit and he suffered a medical emergency.   The state reports no heat-related deaths in Department of Criminal Justice system, but a 2022 review of records show an average of fourteen prisoners per year had died from heat-related issues over the course of the study.

“What is truly infuriating is the failure to acknowledge that everyone in the system–all 130,000 prisoners–are at direct risk of being impacted by something that has a simple solution that has been around since the 1930s, and that is air conditioning,” attorney Jeff Edwards told reporters.  Roughly two-thirds of state prisoners are housed in facilities without air conditioning.

“Yet they’re going after the former President of the United States, a person beloved by hundreds of millions of people in this country, over $130,000 from eight years ago,” son humiliating himself in justifying his father’s multiple affairs Eric Trump whines.  “They could’ve charged him anytime in that period of time, not that [indecipherable].  They wait until 196 days before an election to drag him into court.”

A Minnesota Democratic state senator and former on-air meteorologist was arrested Monday morning by police in Detroit Lakes on burglary charges after being arrested at a home, not her own, early Monday morning, ABC News reports.  The arrest jeopardizes the one-seat Democratic majority in the chamber.

Police responded to a homeowner’s 3:20 a.m. call reporting there was a burglar in their home.  When police arrived, they found 49-year-old Nicole Mitchell, a first-term state senator from Woodbury, in the home.  Local officials said information about the arrest was still being collected, but Mitchell’s late father’s home, where his stepmother lives, is in the same block where she was arrested.

In response to a court filing attempting to limit the ship owner’s liability for the Key Bridge collapse, lawyers for the City of Baltimore filed a response saying the company should not be released from damages because the ship was “unseaworthy” because of “negligence of the vessel’s crew and shoreside management,” the Washington Post reports.

The Dali struck a support for the Key Bridge in the early morning hours after losing power while underway on March 26th.  Six road workers, all migrants, who were fixing potholes on the bridge were killed.  Dali’s owner, Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and the ship’s manager, Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., filed a notice with the court using a maritime law that would limit their liability to around $44 million, even though it will cost hundreds of millions to replace the bridge and no civil lawsuits from the dead men’s families have been settled.

The City of Baltimore lawyers noted that besides the replacement cost of the bridge, the city and its citizens are experiencing a loss of commerce and jobs because commercial shipping cannot get through, and the city will have to absorb tax revenue losses.

According to a witness’s testimony to the FBI, Walt Nauta was told that Donald Trump would issue a presidential pardon in a second term if Nauta was charged with federal crimes for his actions in the Florida federal documents case, CNN reports.

It’s unclear from the recently released transcripts how the witness, dubbed “Person 16” and said to be someone who worked in Trump’s White House, knew the information.  “NAUTA was told by FPOTUS’ people that his investigation was not going anywhere, that it was politically motivated and ‘much ado about nothing,’” the transcript reads.  “NAUTA was also told that even if he gets charged with lying to the FBI, FPOTUS will pardon him in 2024.”

Trump’s so-called “body man” and a Navy veteran, Nauta currently faces charges relating to lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice for helping Donald Trump move boxes containing classified information and other government documents Trump had no authority to possess.

She traveled thousands of miles under brutal conditions to start a new life, and she fell in love with the person of her dreams, getting married and starting a family, only to have all that happiness yanked out from under them by a Republican deportation policy.  While that sounds like a script treatment for the proposed Fox Romance streaming channel, it’s really what could happen under a future GOP administration, and Joe Biden is set to prevent it.

According to Reuters, Biden and Democratic Congressional leaders are examining options that would protect undocumented resident spouses of US citizens from deportation, something that would protect 1.1 million families.  The key to the Biden program would be allowing the spouses to come forward and register without fear of being deported, while allowing them to get work permits and other civil licenses they would otherwise be ineligible for.

“I call it pure evil,” Fox’s most moronic host Jesse Watters says.  “So they’ve taken away his freedom of speech and now they’ve taken away his freedom of movement.  So he has to sit there all week, for six weeks, and if he says anything, they’ll throw him in jail.  If he leaves, they throw him in jail.  That’s crazy.  I mean, they had more allowances for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.  I think they bought a million dollar soccer field for the people in Gitmo.  I don’t know if Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was able to visit his son for his high school graduation, but it’s similar.”

Editor’s note: Donald Trump walked out of a Manhattan courtroom today after facing a jury of his peers at the start of his trial.  Khalid Sheikh Mohammed hasn’t been able to go anywhere for 23 years.

The $175 million bond provided by a political supporter’s insurance company to secure the half billion dollars Donald Trump owes the State of New York for financial fraud was modified to the satisfaction of Attorney General Letitia James, allowing the judge to clear the issue off the table so Trump’s appeal of the judgment can proceed, ABC News reports.

The issue stemmed from language in the agreement relating to an account held by Charles Schwab in the name of the Donald Trump Revocable Trump which was used to secure the bond.  Among the issues the AG raised was the fact that as the fund and the agreement were written, Donald Trump could still withdraw the money or substitute the cash from the account for other securities–such as the worthless Trump Media stock–while having the bond still in force.  A prosecutor handling the case–which happened a block from Trump’s criminal trial–called the language a “huge loophole … that quite frankly you could drive a Mack Truck through.”

After conferring with Judge Arthur Ergoron, Trump’s team provided assurances that while Trump’s name is on the account, both the bondholder, Knight Specialty Insurance Company, and Charles Schwab put barriers in place to prevent from removing the money in the account.

The US Department of Justice this week issued a warning to the New York City Police Department demanding officers stop parking their squad cars however the hell they want as it’s now becoming a flagrant civil rights violation against people with disabilities, PIX11 New York reports.

This issue is not about how they park at the scene of an emergency response – obviously they can and should do whatever they need to in those situations – but just the lazy, fuck-all attitude of it when they leave their patrol cruisers on the street near precincts and scenes of non-urgent calls.

Minutes after leaving a Manhattan courtroom where the opening arguments for his criminal election interference hush money case were presented, Donald Trump took to his failing social media platform to implore young voters to vote for him because a shareholder of TikTok helped increase his net worth; Jeffrey Yass, an investment banker who holds a significant stake in TikTok, also owns coincidentally owns a large bloc of Trump Media shares.

Just so everyone knows, especially the young people, Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok. He is the one pushing it to close, and doing it to help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant, and able to continue to fight, perhaps illegally, the Republican Party. It’s called ELECTION INTERFERENCE! Young people, and lots of others, must remember this on November 5th, ELECTION DAY, when they vote! They also must remember, more importantly, that he is destroying our Country, and is A MAJOR THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!

Been saying it for years – when it comes to Trump … the Democrats will cheat and the Republicans will let them. https://t.co/UgyndMH8jn

— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) April 22, 2024

The US Supreme Court on Monday tossed crazy asshole Republican Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake’s case against Secretary of State Adrian Fontes over voting machines. Totally rigged.

Disgraced former President Trump’s first criminal trial begins for real on Monday – even if last week’s jury selection was technically part of it – with opening statements from the prosecution and defense before the state begins their case, starting with former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, the supermarket tabloid hustler who brokered the hush payoff from Trump to Stormy Daniels.

An unidentified man was arrested after breaking into the Getty House, the official residence of the Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass, as the Mayor and her family were home, the Los Angeles Times reports.  The man got into the house by breaking a window around 6:40 a.m. and was in the house for several minutes before police arrived and arrested him without incident.  For some reason, the home of the Mayor of Los Angeles is not under police protection.  No one was injured during the arrest, but the suspect was taken to the hospital to treat a cut on his arm from the broken window.

Russian television hosts rave over “demonstrated heterosexual” Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-Moscow) who they praise for wearing “white coats with a fur collar” like a strong Russian woman would.

Aware that Arizona’s reinstatement of an 1864 anti-abortion law will drive patients across the border, Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom said a bill will be introduced in his state to streamline the licensing and permitting of abortion providers leaving Arizona, the Washington Post reports.

Newsom’s using his state authority and his PAC to press the point that Republicans are pushing for revocation of body autonomy.  Newsom’s PAC, Campaign for Democracy, is buying ad time in Alabama targeting GOP-proposed legislation that would criminalize helping minors get an abortion.

“We’re now doing that as it relates to being a good neighbor, not just to those that seek reproductive care and reproductive freedom, but also to our neighbors, particularly in Arizona,” Newsom said on an appearance on MSNBC Sunday. “We’ve got some ideas to help those that seek to get their care in California to have their back as well.”