Week of 04/02: FREECABLE TV’s Top 10 Stories

Tactical Nukes In Belarus

APNews – Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans this week to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, a warning to the West as it steps up military support for Ukraine. Putin argued that by deploying its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russia was merely following the lead of the United States, noting that the U.S. has nuclear weapons based in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. “We are doing what they have been doing for decades, stationing them in certain allied countries, preparing the launch platforms and training their crews,” Putin said, speaking in an interview on state television. “We are going to do the same thing.”

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Chocolate Factory Explodes

ABC – The cause of a deadly fire is currently under investigation after seven people were killed and several others injured in an explosion at a chocolate factory in Pennsylvania, police and city officials said. “We have lost close friends and colleagues, and our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of all who have been impacted,” RM Palmer said, following the incident. “We are sincerely grateful for the extraordinary efforts of all of the first responders and for the support of our Reading community, which has been home to our business for more than 70 years.”

Watch more: https://youtu.be/qQoPgfz6LI8

What We Know About The Nashville School Shooting

CBS – Police have since identified the three children and three adults who were killed in a mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville’s Green Hills neighborhood this week. Authorities identified the children as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9 years old, and the adults as Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61. Police have also identified the shooter as a former student at the school: 28-year-old Audrey Hale, from Nashville. And although authorities have not determined a possible motive for the shooting, they are characterizing it as a targeted attack. Additionally, police do not believe that the victims were targeted individually.

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The AR-15

WashingtonPost – The AR-15 was never supposed to be a bestseller. And although the powerful weapon was originally designed as a soldiers’ rifle in the late 1950s, a few gunmakers saw a semiautomatic version of the rifle as a product for the ordinary folk. Today, the AR-15 is the best-selling rifle in the United States, industry figures indicate. About 1 in 20 U.S. adults own at least one AR-15, according to polling data from The Washington Post and Ipsos. Unfortunately, the gun has also become a stark symbol of the nation’s gun violence epidemic. After all, ten of the 17 deadliest U.S. mass shootings since 2012 have involved AR-15s.

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Biden Urges Assault Weapons Ban

USATODAY – President Joe Biden renewed his call for Congress to ban assaults weapons and high-capacity magazines, singling out the two assault-style weapons a suspect allegedly used this week to kill three children and three staff members at a Nashville school. “It’s heartbreaking, a family’s worst nightmare,” Biden said. “We have to do more to stop gun violence. It’s ripping our communities apart, ripping at the very soul of the nation. We have to do more to protect our schools so they aren’t turned into prisons.”

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Donald Trump Indicted

CBS – A New York grand jury investigating the circumstances surrounding a “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 has voted to indict Donald Trump this week, making him the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges. In a statement responding to news of his indictment, the former president called the indictment “Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” and accused Democrats of “weaponizing our justice system to punish a political opponent, who just so happens to be a President of the United States.”

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Probiotic Supplements May Do More Harm Than Good

WashingtonPost – In healthy people, probiotic supplements reportedly offer little benefit, and they can potentially do more harm than good. Many supplements contain a limited number of beneficial bacterial strains, primarily from the groups lactobacillus, bifidobacterium and a few others. But taking concentrated doses of a few strains of bacteria can upset the balance in your gut, said Lorenzo Cohen, a professor and director of the Integrative Medicine Program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “You can inadvertently create a form of dysbiosis by having too much of a good thing,” Cohen said. “You’re not only crowding out the bad things, but crowding out the other good things that you want in there to create high microbiome diversity.”

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Americans Reacting To Trump’s Indictment

Yahoo – To no one’s surprise, people across the nation are reacting to the indictment of former President Donald Trump. For example, Laurie Woodward Garcia organized a small group of people outside the State House after getting wind of the Trump indictment. “As Americans we expect our leaders to hold the highest of standards. We expect transparency and honesty and a lot of people in America have given up on that but I can tell you a lot of Americans haven’t,” said Garcia. “Donald Trump is innocent until proven guilty but we have to allow him the opportunity to face the charges.” Conversely, Bob Hartwell opted to set up across the street from Woodward’s rally showing his support for Trump. “It doesn’t make any sense why they keep going after the guy,” said Hartwell. “Everybody does not like what is happening. It is just wrong.”

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Long-COVID Patients Find New Hope

NBC – Stellate ganglion block, a numbing procedure usually used to treat pain and post-traumatic stress disorder, is being tested as a way to restore smell and taste in people with long Covid. Jennifer Henderson, 54, of Franklin, Ohio, got Covid in January 2021 and immediately lost the ability to taste or smell anything. A year later, her senses came back, but were wildly distorted. Henderson first tried olfactory retraining “religiously” for months, without success. Peanut butter and ranch dressing still smelled like chemicals. Chicken was the worst, she said. “It tasted like rotting flesh. I had to spit it out.” Then finally, in November last year, Henderson received the stellate ganglion block at the Cleveland Clinic. The effect was immediate. She held a fresh cup of coffee up to her nose and burst into tears. “It was the best smell ever,” Henderson said. “I just cried like a baby.”

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Biden’s Reaction To Trump’s Indictment

NYTimes – President Biden apparently had nothing to say about the indictment of former President Donald J. Trump. In fact, Biden had so little to say to reporters this week that he said nothing in four different ways: Would the indictment divide the country? “I have no comment on that.” Was Biden worried about protests? “No. I’m not going to talk about the Trump indictment.” What did the indictment say about the rule of law? “I have no comment at all.” Are the charges politically motivated? “I have no comment on Trump.”

Watch more: https://youtu.be/vUn6I0UIhy8