Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced Wednesday it will vote on an order to revamp satellite spectrum-sharing rules that would benefit low-Earth orbit broadband providers – and SpaceX stands to gain the most.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Starlink satellites is seen over Sebastian Inlet after launching from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2025. Sam Wolfe/Reuters

“By discarding last century’s satellite regulations, we could see billions of dollars in benefits for the American economy and broadband speeds many times faster than what is available today,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement.

“This overdue rethinking of space spectrum sharing rules will bring greater competition to the broadband marketplace and reduce the number of satellites needed to serve a given area.”

The vote on April 30 could reshape how tens of millions of Americans, particularly those in rural communities, connect to the internet from space.

The proposed order would raise the power levels that low-earth orbit (LEO) operators are permitted to use in frequency bands shared with incumbent geostationary orbit systems. For SpaceX, whose Starlink network already spans more than 10,000 satellites, the change would mean substantially faster and more reliable service.

Not everyone is on board. Geostationary operators, including Viasat, SES, and DIRECTV, have opposed the move, arguing that allowing Starlink to transmit at higher power would cause damaging interference to their own networks.

In a filing submitted Tuesday, DIRECTV told the agency that SpaceX’s interference studies contain “significant unresolved questions.”

SpaceX has dismissed those concerns as a defense of the status quo. 

“The question of whether the [equivalent power flux density] framework harms consumers by unnecessarily constraining [LEO] services has been definitively resolved: it does,” SpaceX wrote last month. The company added that the current rules unfairly favor what it called outdated satellite systems while leaving rural users underserved.

The FCC appeared to agree. The agency said in its release that “government-imposed overprotection of GSO systems has meant that American households and businesses—most critically in rural and remote areas—do not receive the fastest space-based broadband American innovation has available.”

The international power limits at the center of the dispute were established in the 1990s and were designed to shield geostationary satellites from interference caused by lower-orbiting constellations. At the time, LEO broadband networks like Starlink did not yet exist.

The FCC took an early step toward reform in January, when it approved 7,500 additional second-generation Starlink satellites and granted SpaceX a temporary waiver from the power restrictions while the agency’s broader rulemaking proceeded.

SpaceX has argued that the existing Equivalent Power Flux Density (EPFD) limits rely on obsolete computer models that fail to account for modern beamforming and interference-mitigation technologies now standard in newer satellite systems.

As of March, Starlink’s constellation comprised more than 10,020 satellites in low Earth orbit, accounting for roughly 65 percent of all active satellites worldwide, with more than 10 million subscribers reported as of February.

A formal vote on the new power rules would mark the most consequential shift in satellite spectrum policy in a generation.

China is accusing U.S. federal authorities of “hostile questioning” by US law enforcement following the death of a groundbreaking Chinese semiconductor researcher who fell to his death inside a University of Michigan building last month, while American law enforcement and university officials remain tight-lipped about any federal involvement.

Danhao Wang, an assistant research scientist in the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering, died after falling from an upper level inside the George G. Brown Building on the Ann Arbor campus around 11 p.m. on March 19. University police responded to the scene and pronounced him dead. The incident is being investigated as a possible act of self-harm, with no indication of foul play or any ongoing threat to the campus community.

GG Brown Building Addition (Architect Magazine)

Chinese officials, including the embassy in Washington and the consulate in Chicago, have strongly linked Wang’s death to what they describe as “unwarranted” interrogation by U.S. law enforcement just before the incident. Beijing has lodged multiple “solemn representations,” accusing the U.S. of overstating national security concerns, engaging in political manipulation, and subjecting Chinese scholars to discriminatory practices that create a “chilling effect” on academic exchanges.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry and embassy spokespeople have publicly demanded a full investigation, a “responsible explanation” to Wang’s family, and an end to such alleged harassment. The embassy confirmed Wang died by suicide and has been assisting his family.

U.S. authorities have offered no confirmation or denial of any questioning. The FBI’s Detroit field office cited its longstanding policy of neither confirming nor denying investigations involving specific individuals. University police and administrators have released only basic details about the fall while the case remains active.

The University of Michigan, as we learned in June and November of last year, is full of China’s operatives. Danhao Wang could have been another one of them. https://t.co/Diw9HnUyiP

— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) April 7, 2026

Wang had worked in Prof. Zetian Mi’s lab since 2022, focusing on wide-bandgap III-nitride semiconductor materials and devices. His research centered on emerging wurtzite ferroelectric nitrides — advanced materials with unique polarization properties that could revolutionize electronics.

Groundbreaking Research

Wang’s most significant contribution was as co-first author on a landmark 2025 paper in Nature titled “Electric-field-induced domain walls in wurtzite ferroelectrics.” The work solved a long-standing puzzle: why these ferroelectric nitrides remain stable despite extreme polarization discontinuities that should theoretically tear the crystal apart.

Using transmission electron microscopy and density functional theory, the team discovered that when an electric field reverses polarization, “domain walls” form at the interfaces. These walls feature a unique buckled hexagonal atomic arrangement – never observed before – where dangling bonds with negatively charged electrons precisely compensate the positive charge buildup, stabilizing the material.

Critically, these domain walls also create highly conductive pathways – roughly 100 times more charge carriers than in standard gallium nitride transistors. The conductivity is electrically tunable: it can be turned on/off, moved, or adjusted in strength using the same field that controls polarization.

The breakthrough has sweeping implications for the semiconductor industry:

Ultra-low-power computing and AI: Ferroelectric field-effect transistors (FeFETs) could integrate non-volatile memory and logic in the same material, slashing energy use in AI chips, edge devices, and data centers.
High-power and high-frequency electronics: Domain-wall transistors promise superior performance in RF devices, power amplifiers, and next-generation power electronics.
Neuromorphic and memory tech: The materials support brain-like synaptic behavior and energy-efficient non-volatile memory.
Broader applications: Sensors, MEMS devices, quantum photonics, and hybrid optoelectronic systems all stand to benefit from the tunable ferroelectric properties.

University of Michigan Engineering Dean Karen Thole called Wang “a promising and brilliant young mind” whose work represented a landmark advance in uncovering the switching and charge compensation mechanisms of these emerging nitrides.

Authored by Connor O’Keeffe via the Mises Institute,

For the past six weeks, as this US-Israeli war with Iran has played out, the economic impact of the conflict has gotten a lot of attention. And rightfully so.

As anyone who’s consumed any news about this war knows well by now, the Strait of Hormuz is a major energy chokepoint, the Iranian government did exactly what they said they were going to do if Trump and Netanyahu ordered this attack and started blocking ships tied in any way to the government’s attacking them from passing through the Strait, and the US, Israeli, or really any other government have not been able to do anything about it.

However, throughout all of this, most of the discourse about the economic impacts of the war has focused on the rising prices drivers are facing at the gas pump. That isn’t surprising, as gas prices are an early cost that impact consumers directly.

But the emphasis on pain at the pump threatens to badly understate the economic damage of this war. And it helps feed the false impression that, if this new attempt at a ceasefire holds and the war ends somewhat quickly, gas prices will fall back down as fast as they rose, and then all the global economic turmoil the world’s been worrying about will be avoided.

It won’t. A lot of economic pain has already been locked in by this war. But to really understand it, it’s necessary to keep a few important economic truths at the front of our minds.

First is the fact that the entire purpose of the economy is to produce goods and services that consumers value enough to pay for. All of the production happening anywhere in the economy is geared towards that end.

That’s relatively straightforward with the production of consumer goods. A commercial brewer, for example, chooses to produce specific beers because they think consumers will value those beers enough to pay more money than the brewer spent producing them, making it a profitable production.

But it’s also true for all the production that is not directly tied to a finished consumer good—which is, in fact, most of the production happening in the economy. Businesses produce capital goods like industrial stainless-steel mixing tanks, rubber tractor tires, plastic packaging, or the ingredients of fertilizer because there’s demand for those goods from other businesses that produce later-stage goods and, ultimately, consumer goods.

So, returning to the brewing example, all the production that results in that finished bottle of beer doesn’t begin with the brewer. It requires grain that is planted, grown, harvested, and transported to the brewery. It also requires fermenters, Brite tanks, mash tuns, and canning or bottling systems—all of which need to be produced with other capital goods like stainless steel, which itself requires other capital goods like iron ore.

Every consumer good can be viewed as the end of a long chain of production stretching all the way back to the cultivation of raw materials like iron or timber, or the creation of basic components like resins or plastics. Economists call those basic capital goods at the beginning of the chain higher order goods.

And what’s important to remember about higher order goods is that, first, almost all of them are used in many different lines of production. Iron ore is not exclusively used to help eventually produce beer, it’s used to make a lot of goods that are themselves used to make a lot of other goods. It’s what’s called a non-specific factor of production. Any change in the production of iron ore has widespread consequences across the economy. 

And second, production takes time. That’s true for the production of any given good, but it’s especially true if we look across that entire chain of production. The higher order goods that are currently being produced won’t help bring about finished consumer products until months or even years down the road.

All of this is important to understand and keep in mind because the war with Iran is, so far, primarily impacting the production of higher order goods. And it goes far beyond oil.

About 8 percent of the world’s aluminum travels through the Strait. And aluminum is used across many sectors, including construction, manufacturing, and technology. Nearly a third of the world’s helium supply comes from Qatar, which is an important component in semiconductor production as well as MRI systems.

Polyethylene and other kinds of plastics and resins are also greatly affected. More than 40 percent of the world’s polyethylene is exported from the Middle East. And these are used in all stages of production in all sorts of industries—packaging, auto parts, medical equipment, consumer containers, industrial components, electronics, and much, much more.

And there are other often-neglected but extremely important hydrocarbon products being held up, such as petroleum naphtha, which is critical for refining gasoline and producing solvents for cleaning agents and paints. Natural gas condensate is another liquid hydrocarbon used in refining and to dilute other denser hydrocarbons to make them easier to transport. There’s also liquified petroleum gas, or LPG, which is mostly composed of propane and butane. These components are also important for refining as well as residential cooking and heating in many parts of the world. Much of the world’s supply of all these products is produced in the Middle East and exported through the Strait of Hormuz.

Another often-neglected yet critical higher-order good is sulfur. About half the world’s seaborne sulfur trade moves through the Strait. It’s important for refining petroleum and minerals like copper, nickel, and zinc, which are widely used in everything from electronics to medicine.

But the other major use of sulfur is as an ingredient in fertilizer. The sulfur supply shock—along with adjacent shocks in the supply of ammonia and urea, other key fertilizer components primarily exported through the Strait of Hormuz—has created a time bomb in global food markets.

Which brings us to another economic concept that is extremely important to understand if we want to fully comprehend the situation we’re now in. The problem is not merely a rise in prices but, specifically, the destruction of supply. The strikes on production facilities and the severing of supply lines mean there is now not enough supply of the components I laid out above available to meet current levels of demand. And because, again, these higher order goods are demanded for the production of lower order and consumer goods, that means, eventually, fewer consumer goods. The rising prices are a symptom of the fact that there is now less stuff available for everyone who wants it than there was before.

The fertilizer shortage provides a good example. The fact that producers cannot get their hands on the supply of ingredients like sulfuric acid, ammonia, and urea they need to meet demand means they are forced to produce less fertilizer than their customers need. Which, in turn, means those customers—industrial and family farmers—have less fertilizer to use during this year’s spring planting season. Which means they produce fewer crops. This leads to less animal feed for livestock and produce overall, resulting in an unavoidable drop in the food supply.

Those of us who are fortunate enough to live in developed countries above the poverty line will primarily experience the shortage as higher food prices. But for the millions of people who are already struggling to secure the food they need, this drop in supply may force them to go without.

That is not a choice forced on all of us by some greedy companies, it is an unavoidable consequence of the economic destruction brought about by this war.

And that same basic process is at play with all the other commodities and higher order goods I mentioned, as can be seen in the dramatic price increases. Aluminum prices have already surged by 10 percent. Import prices for helium have jumped 50 percent. Polyethylene prices are up 37 percent. Polypropylene is up 38 percent. And the price of petroleum naphtha has tripled since February.

Remember, these price increases are not the whole story. They are the symptom of supply shortages that will work their way through all relevant lines of production and result in fewer consumer goods down the road—all from production disruption that will be slow to start back up again, even when the war is fully over.

That means fewer containers available for goods like nail polish and, yes, beer. It means fewer medical supplies, like IV bags, syringes, and sterile packaging, all of which rely on petrochemical plastics. Also, delays in construction projects as it becomes harder to source asphalt, plastics, and aluminum inputs. And dangerous health issues going undetected because of limited MRI machine availability, and much more.

And that’s not to mention, of course, the oil and LNG shortages that people are already sufficiently focused on. These commodities power nearly all stages of all lines of production and help produce the diesel and jet fuel used to physically move everything in the economy to where it needs to be.

Unlike gas prices, these effects will take some time to develop—especially in the US, where our supply chain is momentarily protected from the initial impacts. And they won’t be as clearly tied to the war in the minds of most people. But the costs of all this economic destruction are real, they are substantial, and they are already locked in.

Disney turned a new chapter earlier this year when Josh D’Amaro took over the century-old entertainment giant from Bob Iger as chief executive. But the closely watched succession has occurred against the troubling backdrop of recent reorganization and a questionable turnaround effort, leaving Wall Street analysts with mixed feelings.

The Wall Street Journal reports that D’Amaro is set to continue the layoffs that started under Iger’s watch, with a new round of approximately 1,000 workers that could be announced in the near term.

For those employees, there is no happy storybook ending to Disney’s next round of layoffs, which will impact the recently consolidated marketing department.

Iger, who returned to save the sinking Disney ship in 2022, launched major restructuring efforts that included the elimination of more than 8,000 jobs. Most of the cuts centered on entertainment, ESPN, and corporate units, while parks and cruise operations have largely remained untouched and continued to expand.

The report continued:

Disney has been consolidating long-siloed operations to cut costs and coordinate its efforts across divisions, particularly online. The company combined marketing for entertainment, experiences and sports under a single chief marketing officer, Asad Ayaz, for the first time, in January. Ayaz’s plan to unite the marketing group and reduce expenses is code-named Project Imagine, according to people familiar with the matter.

Disney is also combining the staff of its Disney+ and Hulu streaming services as it goes about merging both brands into one app. The company has been working with consultants from Bain & Co. to strategize its cost-cutting.

The decision to reduce headcount reflects broader pressure across Hollywood (death of Hollywood in charts), where traditional TV profits have softened, box-office returns remain muted, and streaming has become increasingly unprofitable. Disney is also trying to free up capital for faster-growing digital businesses.

The latest Bloomberg data shows Disney’s overall workforce consists of 231,000 full- and part-time employees.

Reshaping Disney to appease shareholders comes as the stock is down nearly 13% for the year (as of Wednesday’s closing). Shares trade at Covid lows and have been locked in a trough since mid-2022.

“This transition comes at a moment when the world is changing faster than ever. While that can feel daunting at times, it is also exciting,” D’Amaro said earlier this year in a statement.

Perhaps cutting all woke propaganda sneaked into entertainment under Disney brands to indoctrinate children would also be a start toward regaining the trust of households that have gravitated to other studios for media consumption. 

Whether D’Amaro can stabilize Disney remains an open question.

* * *

Land-and-royalty company Texas Pacific Land Corp. crashed the most since early Covid after the head of its largest shareholder unexpectedly died. 

Bloomberg reports that Murray Stahl, CEO of Horizon Kinetics and a TPL board member, died on Thursday, sending shares spiraling lower by 17% in late-afternoon trading.

This marked the largest intraday decline in the stock since early 2020.

Stahl was described as a longtime believer in TPL, one of the largest private landowners in Texas, with most of its acreage concentrated in the oil-rich Permian Basin of West Texas.

TPL generates revenue by owning land, collecting oil and gas royalties from activity on that land, and selling or managing water-related services tied to drilling and production.

“His firm, Horizon Kinetics, along with its predecessors, had been TPL’s largest shareholder for many decades. Murray believed in the Company when it was still a thinly-traded, little-known trust that simply owned some land in west Texas,” TPL CEO Ty Glover wrote in a press release. 

Bloomberg data show that Horizon Kinetics is TPL’s largest shareholder, owning 10.3 million shares, or about 14.99% of the tradable shares outstanding.

The cause of death was not immediately released by the family or TPL’s CEO.

The plunge in TPL shares following the death of its largest shareholder likely reflects uncertainty about the company’s future direction, as well as the possibility that Horizon could eventually reduce its stake. The volatility may also result from TPL’s tight float and thin trading, which can amplify price swings when unexpected news hits.

* * *

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Minneapolis city leaders are barreling ahead with plans to legalize adult bathhouses and sex venues where consenting adults can engage in sexual activity, scrapping a 38-year ban enacted during the AIDS epidemic.

The push, driven by activists, comes as the gay Somali community in Minneapolis has been clamoring to legalize bathhouses. City leaders are considering the proposal that would allow patrons to engage in sexual intercourse in the venues, the New York Post reports.

This latest development underscores the deepening assimilation issues in a city long transformed by mass Somali immigration.

Minneapolis may legalize adult bathhouses – allowing adults to engage in sexual activity https://t.co/OTnhxHth3q pic.twitter.com/Lt0nGeLKZP

— New York Post (@nypost) April 8, 2026

The Minneapolis City Council has referred a package of four proposed ordinances to staff for further development. These include creating licensing and business regulations for adult sex venues that facilitate sexual activity between consenting adults, updating zoning codes for sexually oriented businesses, revising health and sanitation standards related to contagious diseases, and adding exceptions to miscellaneous offenses provisions.

Activists from the Safer Sex Spaces Coalition have led the charge. They argue the 1988 ban, which targeted “high-risk sexual conduct” such as fellatio, anal intercourse, and vaginal intercourse in commercial settings, is outdated and stigmatizing.

“The Minneapolis Health Department and other public health organizations acknowledge this ordinance is no longer the tool needed to promote public health, “the coalition stated adding “Social science research tells us that commercial sex spaces, like gay saunas, are important for promoting safer sex practices, enhancing HIV prevention, and increasing access to testing and treatment. These spaces also enhance feelings of identity, camaraderie, authenticity, and belonging. They are spaces where people overcome isolation and develop a sense of community and pride.”

Creating a monkeypox epidemic wouldn’t be my first choice to distract attention from Minneapolis’s rampant fraud problem, but it just might work. pic.twitter.com/IbtZIKqjAK

— Thousands of Tiny Tyrants (@Tiny_Tyrants) April 8, 2026

Council Member Jason Chavez supported referring the measures, saying: “LGBTQIA+ gathering spaces, including bathhouses, have long been targeted by criminalization and policing, and our communities have paid a devastating price for that. That’s why we’re referring this to staff to begin building policy alongside community members and stakeholders.”

Council President Elliott Payne noted that such activities “already happen in the shadows, and we are trying to ensure that they are safe for patrons, especially when LGBTQ+ individuals are under attack by the federal government.” He pointed to potential regulations modeled on San Francisco, including condom availability and staff training on harm reduction.

A spokesperson for Mayor Jacob Frey indicated the mayor supports continued exploration of the issue.

Hardly surprising given that all he does is pander to Somalis.

The original 1988 ban drew backing even from within the LGBTQ+ community at the time, including the city’s first openly gay council member, Brian Coyle, who backed the measure before his death from AIDS-related complications in 1991. Activists now claim the rules disproportionately harmed same-sex partnerships and people with HIV/AIDS while driving gatherings into unsafe private spaces.

Recent coverage confirms the council delayed full debate on the ordinances this week but remains committed to directing staff research.

Tim Walz entering the bathhouse pic.twitter.com/AlMnwP8PHK

— GoshuAAAA (@Skipper1913) April 8, 2026

Critics view the effort as emblematic of misplaced priorities. While neighborhoods struggle with the social and economic fallout of rapid demographic change—including documented fraud schemes and parallel economies—the focus shifts to licensing orgy venues and updating “stigmatizing language” in city code.

Minneapolis—often called “Little Mogadishu”—has faced repeated exposure for hundreds of millions in Somali cash smuggling operations routed through Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, in addition to an explosion of Somali related fraud scandals.

TSA whistleblowers who highlighted these schemes faced pushback, including accusations of racism and Islamophobia from figures tied to the Walz administration aimed at silencing concerns over Somali fraud.

Legalizing commercial sex spaces in a city already wrestling with smuggling networks and identity politics does not signal enlightened governance. It signals a leadership class more attuned to activist coalitions than to restoring order and cohesion.

Voters across the heartland have grown weary of cities that import unassimilated populations and then contort public policy around every resulting demand.

Minneapolis offers a cautionary tale of where such approaches lead—public health debates recycled from the 1980s, now layered atop deeper failures in border security and cultural integration.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a criminal investigation into Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House staffer who made a number of false claims about President Donald Trump before the January 6 Committee in June 2022.

The probe, led by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division under Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, began in early April 2026 after a criminal referral from Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.).

In December 2024, the House Administration’s Oversight Subcommittee, which is chaired by Loudermilk, released a 128-page interim report concluding that the J6 star witness had lied under oath and that the Select Committee knew her outrageous claims were false when they publicly promoted her.

In a December 17, 2024  press release,  Loudermilk referred former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) to the Department of Justice for an investigation into “potential criminal witness tampering based on the new information about her communication.”

Loudermilk accused Cheney of colluding with then-media darling Hutchinson without her attorney’s knowledge.

Hutchinson had testified that President Trump was aware that his supporters had weapons on the morning of January 6 but didn’t care because they weren’t there to hurt him.

She also falsely claimed that Trump tried to seize the wheel of the presidential limo and lunged at his former security detail when the Secret Service would not drive him to join protesters at the Capitol.

Loudermilk’s report concluded:

President Trump did not attack his Secret Service Detail at any time on January 6.

President Trump did not have intelligence indicating violence on the morning of January 6.

Cassidy Hutchinson falsely claimed to have drafted a handwritten note for President Trump on January 6.

Representative Cheney and Cassidy Hutchinson baselessly attempted to disbar Hutchinson’s former attorney.

Loudermilk’s report accused Cheney of “using the January 6 Select Committee as a tool to attack President Trump, at the cost of investigative integrity and Capitol security.”

As of now, the Justice Department has not announced any investigation into Cheney, and the report’s recommendations remain unacted upon by federal prosecutors.

Hutchinson’s  allegations were so flimsy even anti-Trump Special Counsel Jack Smith didn’t believe her and refused to use her as a witness in his prosecution of Trump.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation will focus on whether she committed perjury during her “bombshell” televised testimony, particularly regarding claims that Trump encouraged violence on January 6 and attempted to seize the presidential limo’s steering wheel.

The assignment of the case to the Civil Rights Division is considered highly unusual, as perjury cases are typically handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., which is run by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.

The investigation will examine claims from other witnesses and internal testimony that contradict Hutchinson’s account, particularly the Secret Service’s denial of the limo incident.

During a news conference Tuesday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated that Trump has the “right” and “duty” to call for investigations into individuals he deems suspicious, including his former staffer turned anti-Trump fabulist.

After a solid 3Y auction and a tepid 10Y auction earlier this week, moments ago the Treasury concluded the final coupon auction of the week, when it sold $22 billion in a 30 year reopening in what was another average auction.

The sale stopped at a high yield of 4.876%, virtually unchanged from 4.871% a month ago and the highest since last July. It also tailed the When Issued 4.871% by 0.5bps, the first tail since November.

The bid to cover was 2.385, down from 2.452 in March and the lowest since December ’25. 

The internals were in line: Indirects were awarded 64.14%, up from 63.4% in March but below the six-auction average of 66.8%. And with Directs down to 24.23% from 27.23% (above the recent average of 22.9%), dealers were left holding 11.6%, the most since January.

Overall, this was a mediocre 30Y auction, with average stats resulting in the first tail for the tenor since last November, yet with markets still only focused on Iran there was virtually no little market reaction.

Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness,

Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has introduced a “racial equity plan” directing city resources to “black and brown New Yorkers” in an attempt to “confront institutional and systemic racism within our city.”

The mayor’s policy proposal targets housing, health, and economic opportunities, and seeks to address disparities by prioritizing neighborhoods and residents that have supposedly been historically marginalized by economic or structural factors.

Mamdani’s Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan and True Cost of Living Measure prompted a warning from U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who called the measure “fishy” and promised to take a closer look at its legality under current civil rights laws.

Sounds fishy/illegal. Will review! https://t.co/HDT4FJdGwK

— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) April 6, 2026

The Daily Caller reports that during a Monday press conference, Mamdani told reporters the following: “And while today’s True Cost of Living Measure confirms that the affordability crisis touches every corner of our city, we know that these effects are not applied evenly. So often it is black and brown New Yorkers who are hit the hardest.”

Mamdani added, “This Preliminary Racial Equity plan is the first step in developing a whole-of-government approach to tackling that reality.”

NYC Chief Equity Officer Afua Atta-Mensah has been tasked with guiding the plan which focuses on narrowing the wealth gap and claims that white New Yorkers have a median net worth roughly 15 times higher than Black New Yorkers.

The goals of the initiative include expanding access to capital for businesses in underserved areas, using a racial equity framework to guide investment, and increasing access to primary healthcare and reducing pollution in communities of color.

Mamdani, an avowed socialist, has also increased the funding for the city’s Office of Racial Equity to $10.2 million, prompting concerns about race-based discrimination.

In his Monday press conference, the mayor sought to tie what he called “New York’s affordability crisis and its history of racial inequity” as justification for the proposal, claiming, “The wealth of a median white household in the city is more than $200,000, while that of a black household is less than $20,000 . . . We are reckoning with the long history of racism here and starting to act upon a framework that puts equity right at the center of it.”

🚨 MAMDANI: “The wealth of a median white household in the city is more than $200,000, while that of a black household is less than $20,000 … We are reckoning with the long history of racism here and starting to act upon a framework that puts equity right at the center of it.” pic.twitter.com/W53H10fmFm

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) April 7, 2026

The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division will review Mamdani’s plan to determine if it violates any civil rights laws.

* * *

(Update 1245ET): House Republicans thwarted Democrats’ attempt to unanimously restrict President Donald Trump’s war powers in Iran, declining to recognize the lawmaker who sought to offer it during a pro forma session Thursday.

As Bloomberg reports, the forced-adoption attempt was destined to fail, but it previewed Democrats’ focus on rebuking the war in Iran when the chamber returns to session next week. Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) asked for unanimous consent to advance the Iran war powers resolution during a pro forma, or ceremonial, session held during the congressional recess.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who was presiding, didn’t acknowledge Ivey to speak.

Democrats can try to force a full House vote on the resolution next week when lawmakers return to Washington.

At least two of the four members of their party who opposed a similar resolution a month ago have said they plan to support it now.

*  *  *

As Nathan Worcester detailed earlier via The Epoch Times, Congressional Democrats will try to place guardrails on the Iran war when the floor is briefly open during a two-week break for Easter.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) speaks during a press conferece on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 9, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) detailed his intentions in an April 8 letter to colleagues.

During an April 9 session that would normally be a formality, Democrats will seek to advance a War Powers Resolution on Iran through unanimous consent. It’s a maneuver that House Republicans can easily block.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also announced that the Senate would take a vote on a War Powers Resolution related to Iran.

“The War Powers Act will cease hostilities and require the administration to get an AUMF before going to war after the hostilities cease,” Schumer said of the proposal.

The Democrats’ calls to pursue votes for restricting the president’s war powers come a day after President Donald Trump announced he was suspending attacks in Operation Epic Fury, on the condition that Iran reopens the Hormuz Strait to unimpeded maritime traffic.

Multiple parties have accused one another of violating the two-week ceasefire. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country helped mediate the brief interruption in fighting, has called on the combatant nations “to exercise restraint and respect the ceasefire for two weeks.”

In his April 8 letter, Jeffries described the present ceasefire as “woefully insufficient.”

“We have demanded that the House come back into session immediately in order to vote on our resolution to permanently end the war in the Middle East,” he wrote.

A War Powers Resolution would mandate congressional authorization of U.S. involvement in the war.

A previous attempt to constrain the president’s actions failed in the House on March 5.

Almost all Republicans opposed that resolution, which drew the support of all but four Democrats in the lower chamber.

The Senate equivalent was shot down on March 4. That vote also mostly fell along party lines. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) broke with his party to support the measure, while Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) crossed the aisle to oppose it.

Ongoing two-week breaks in the House and Senate have been punctuated by pro-forma sessions. Those brief assemblies of only a few members are held as a formality so the chambers technically remain in session.

On the Senate side, the meetings keep the individual breaks short enough that the president cannot make recess appointments.

The sessions are also how lawmakers avoid adjourning for longer than three days. Under Article I of the Constitution, anything longer would take an agreement between the House and Senate.

The Easter break of 2026 has already witnessed some minor drama during sessions where little is typically expected to happen.

Earlier in April, the House did not take up a Senate-passed bill that would partly fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Some Republicans have resisted the DHS deal, which excludes immigration enforcement and border funding.

House and Senate Republican leaders have vowed to fund those areas for multiple years through a separate, party-line budget vote.

Joseph Lord contributed to this report.