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Monday, April 1, 2024

4/1 WAKE-UP CALL: Peace Missing During Easter Weekend

A trio of attention-seeking protesters — one of whom previously glued his feet to the stands at the US Open as part of a climate change stunt — were cuffed and hauled out of St. Patrick’s Cathedral after disrupting Easter Mass with shouts of “free Palestine” on Saturday night, cops say. Police were called to the iconic Midtown cathedral for complaints about a “disorderly group” just before 9 p.m. 


The protesters were quickly taken out of the service. Matthew Menzies, 31, John Rozendaal, 63, and Gregory Schwedock, 35, were taken into custody and charged with disruption of religious service, police told The Post. While being escorted out, one yelled “Free Palestine,” a video shared to X shows.

➤BIDEN'S TRANSGENDER DAY PROCLAMATION AN AFFRONT TO CHRISTIANS: The White House openly proclaiming Easter Sunday, the culmination of Holy Week, as the "Transgender Day of Visibility" is blasphemy that warrants an apology to those who observe the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Trump campaign demanded Saturday. "It is appalling and insulting that Joe Biden's White House prohibited children from submitting religious egg designs for their Easter Art Event, and formally proclaimed Easter Sunday as 'Trans Day of Visibility,'" Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a statement. It is an open attack on Christians, she continued.

➤TWH PUSHES BACK: The White House is pushing back against top Republicans' misleading criticism of President Joe Biden for issuing a proclamation in support of transgender people on the same day as Easter. A spokesman for the president rejected the attacks from the House speaker and others that Biden's message for the Transgender Day of Visibility goes against Christianity. "As a Christian who celebrates Easter with family, President Biden stands for bringing people together and upholding the dignity and freedoms of every American," White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement to ABC News. 

"Sadly, it's unsurprising politicians are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful, and dishonest rhetoric. President Biden will never abuse his faith for political purposes or for profit," Bates added. Biden, who is only America's second Catholic president and regularly attends Mass, faced mounting conservative criticism over the weekend because of a proclamation he issued on Friday honoring "the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans" for the Transgender Day of Visibility -- which occurs annually on March 31.


➤UKRAINE'S Z OUSTS AIDES: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed a longtime aide and several advisers on Saturday in a continuing reshuffle while Russia unleashed fresh attacks overnight. Zelenskyy dismissed top aide Serhiy Shefir from his post of first assistant, where he had served since 2019. The Ukrainian president also let go three advisers, and two presidential representatives overseeing volunteer activities and soldiers’ rights. No explanation was given immediately for the latest changes in a wide-reaching personnel shakeup over recent months. It included the dismissal on Tuesday of Oleksii Danilov, who served as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and Valerii Zaluzhnyi as head of the armed forces on Feb. 8. He was appointed Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom earlier this month.

➤ISRAEL PREPARING TO MOVE PALESTINIANS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military is preparing to move more than a million Palestinian civilians out of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, provide them with sufficient aid and then carry out an attack on the remaining Hamas fighting battalions there. “It’s the right thing to do operationally and internationally,” he said Sunday night, speaking at a news conference in his Jerusalem office. “It takes time, but it will be done.” Almost six months since the conflict began, Israel has come under growing international pressure — including from the US, its key ally — to accept a cease-fire in order to avoid more civilian deaths and casualties. According to Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the US and European Union, the war in Gaza has killed some 32,000. Israel says a third of the dead are Hamas fighters.

➤DEMO CREWS WORK TO CLEAN-UP COLLAPSED BRIDGE: Demolition crews were cutting into portions of the Francis Scott Key Bridge's collapsed truss Sunday and an enormous container ship remained trapped underneath the rubble, five days after the collision that killed six people, forced a shutdown of the Port of Baltimore and halted shipping traffic through one of the nation's most crucial ports. The Unified Command, including the Coast Guard and Maryland officials, said Sunday that two massive cranes were "actively working on scene" while another land-based crane was positioned to help offload and process the wreckage at a nearby industrial port. Three dive teams were surveying submerged sections of the wreckage in the murky waters of the Patapsco River. "The removed wreckage is being lifted and transferred to a barge as daylight allows," the Unified Command said in a news release Sunday.

➤INDY SHOOTING WOUNDS 7 KIDS: Seven children were injured in a shooting outside a mall in downtown Indianapolis on Saturday night, police said. Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officers were on patrol when they heard gunshots just after 11:30 p.m. and arrived on a block outside the Circle Centre Mall. According to police, officers saw six people injured with gunshot wounds. All of the victims were between the ages of 12 and 17, police said. Emergency medical services arrived to transport the children to hospitals, and a seventh person, also under the age of 18, arrived at a hospital on their own. One victim is in critical condition and the other six are stable. Tanya Terry, deputy chief of operations for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police, described the shooting as "deeply concerning."

"Once again, we have a situation where young people are resolving conflict with firearms, and it has to stop," Terry said.

➤U-S SENATE EXPECTED TO PUSH FOR TIKTOK CHANGES: The Senate plans to rework the recently passed House proposal to force a sale or ban of TikTok in the U.S., with ideas already circulating on Capitol Hill. But some lawmakers backing a crackdown on the Chinese-controlled social-media app worry that overly broad changes could significantly delay the effort or derail it permanently. Lawmakers and aides expect Sen. Maria Cantwell, the influential chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee, will make the push for changes—some of which could be contentious—when lawmakers return from Easter recess. Various options are on the table. Because TikTok is expected to challenge any new law in court, senators want to adjust the language to make it more difficult to overturn. Some have floated extending the amount of time Chinese parent ByteDance would have to divest the U.S. operations due to the challenges of any deal, or broadening the bill to tackle other social-media woes.

💸POWERBALL JACKPOT GROWS: The Powerball jackpot climbed to an estimated $975 million after no one matched the six numbers drawn Saturday night, continuing a nearly three-month stretch without a big winner. The winning numbers drawn were: 12, 13, 33, 50, 52 and the red Powerball 23. No one has won Powerball’s top prize since New Year’s Day when a ticket in Michigan hit for $842.4 million, bringing the number of consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner to 38. That winless streak nears the record of 41 consecutive drawings, set twice in 2022 and 2021.

🏀MEN'S FINAL FOUR SET:  Men’s March Madness continued Sunday with the final slate of Elite Eight games, and now the Final Four is set. In the first of two matchups, Zach Edey and No. 1 seed Purdue faced off against No. 2 seed Tennessee. Purdue pulled away late in the second half to beat the Volunteers 72-66, and the Boilermakers advanced to their first Final Four since 1980 and just the third in school history.

In the final Elite Eight game of the tournament, No. 11 seed North Carolina State continued the magical run that began in the ACC Tournament. The Wolfpack dominated the second half rival against Duke behind big man D.J. Burns Jr. to defeat the No. 4 seeded Blue Devils 76-64. With the win, NC State advanced to its first Final Four since winning it all in 1983.

🏀MLB SCORES:

  • Yankees 4 Astros 3
  • Blue Jays 9 Rays 2
  • Phillies 5 Braves 4
  • Dodgers 5 Cards 4
  • Red Sox 5 Mariners 1
  • Padres 13 Giants 4
  • D-Backs 5 Rockies 1
  • Athletics 4 Guardians 3
  • Cubs 9 Rangers 5
  • Tigers 3 White Sox 2
  • Royals 11 Twins 0
  • Reds 6 Nationals 5
  • Pirates 9 Marlins 7
  • Angles 4 Orioles 1

➤SO CAL BATTERED DURING WEEKEND: Southern California’s reputation for idyllic weather has taken a beating over the Easter weekend. The famously sunny region was facing possible flash floods and mudslides Sunday as a cold, slow-moving storm dumped up to 6 inches of rain on some areas since Friday, prompting traffic disruptions, a few evacuation orders and the first weather delay at Dodger Stadium in nine years. The north-to-south system was focused Sunday on San Diego County, which could get up to 3 inches of rain by the time the weekend’s over but avoided only the fifth San Diego Padres rainout in the last four decades. Before moving south, the storm caused the collapse of a portion of Highway 1 − better known as the Pacific Coast Highway − on Saturday about 17 miles south of Monterey in the central part of the state. One lane of the road was reopened Sunday.

➤MONDAY'S WEATHER MAP:



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