NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (April 29)

Welcome to NTD Evening News. Our top story tonight, Columbia University threatens protesters with suspension. If they don't vacate their encampment by 2, the deadline has passed and almost everyone stayed. The latest as demonstrations continue in other parts of the country. Congress is back in session and Republicans and Democrats in the House have different plans to address anti-Semitism on college campuses. Luis Martinez has more. The anti-Israel protests sparking reactions from both the Biden White House and former President Trump. What each is saying as the U. S. Pushes for a new hostage deal in Gaza. Israel delivers a ceasefire proposal to Hamas. Here's Secretary of State Antony Blinken's message to the terrorist group and the Biden administration's new Title nine rule is being challenged in court by Texas with other states to likely follow. Why an attorney general says it's contradictory. This is NTD Evening News live from our NTD global headquarters in New York City. Here is Tiffany Meyer. Good evening and thank you for joining us tonight. The president of Columbia University announced today all students must vacate the pro palestine encampment or face suspension. The statement comes as tensions continue to rise across college campuses threatening to shut down final exams in graduation ceremonies. Entities Fiona T reports. I'm right outside the campus of Columbia University. Behind me the off campus protests on the street are still going strong. In fact just a few moments ago I saw police arrest a woman and put her into a police car. Now I'm not sure what the woman was arrested for. However it caused quite a stir and uproar in the protests happening behind me. There are police lining the streets and police cars lining the streets as well. Unfortunately press is not allowed onto the Columbia grounds. There's very strict security at all entrance and exit points and only students and faculty with Columbia IDs are able to get on campus right now. But from what we can see the encampment on campus is also still going strong. Columbia students who didn't vacate the encampment by two p.m. Today are ineligible to complete the semester in good standing. They also have to sign a form acknowledging their participation in the protests. Videos on social media showed that around 30 police officers showed up at the scene to clear the encampment. But protests continue. Columbia students for justice in Palestine published this tweet saying we will not stop. We will not rest. There have been reports that students participating in the encampment on campus voted and there was an overwhelming majority to ignore the 2 p.m. deadline and stay on campus. Now it is unclear what President Shafiq will do now that students have decided to ignore the deadline. However she did mention that it would be counterproductive to ask the NYPD to come back on campus. I had a chance to speak with a few individuals who are part of the New York City and Columbia communities with some expressing their sentiments on the ongoing protests and others mentioning that some students are afraid to speak up for fear of repercussions. I actually have many Palestinian friends who live in Palestine and Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and everything on campus now is not helping them at all because they have a big problem with their government and the actions of their government has led to the current catastrophe and everyone on campus whether directly or indirectly is supporting the terrorists who did on October 7th what they did. I think there's a mixture of feelings and I think a lot of students kind of find themselves in the middle of everything so I think it's challenging because you have students whose parents have given like an arm and a leg for them to be here who have worked so hard for four years. I think that it is important to kind of see that there are different situations and the pain and suffering of some groups is important and needs to be spoken about but also at what point do we also respect like the time and effort that students have put into it. Meanwhile in Austin Texas police reportedly ordered the evacuation of an encampment just an hour after it began. Dallas News reports that demonstrations at the University of Texas began around noon Monday with students setting up tents and more. State troopers reportedly showed up just an hour later ordering the students to leave. It's unclear how many demonstrators were detained and protests also continue in other parts of the country. At the University of California Los Angeles pro-Palestine and pro-Israel demonstrators clashed yesterday. UCLA administrators say the demonstrations involved at least some people from outside the university. Nationwide over 900 students have already been arrested in connection with these protests. Now the situation continues to develop here at Columbia University but the president did say she would provide an alternative protest venue after graduation and exams have ended. The protesting students continue to ask the university to divest from Israel. Fiona G, NTD News. And a Columbia University spokesperson confirmed around 5 p.m. that they have indeed started suspending students. The House of Representatives is expected this week to vote on the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act. Our Washington correspondent Luis Martinez has the details. The Rules Committee of the House of Representatives began the markup of the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act this Monday. The legislation was originally written back in October of 2023 in the wake of the October 7th terrorist attack by Hamas. The legislation has over 40 co-sponsors among them over a dozen Democrats. The bill requires the Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-semitism to enforce federal anti-discrimination laws. The renewed push to pass the bill comes after college campuses nationwide have been affected by pro-Palestinian protests. The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act would make calling for or justifying violence against Jews or denying the self-determination of the Jewish people punishable under federal anti-discrimination laws. There is executive authority that be appropriate. If this is not contained quickly and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard. We have to bring order to these campuses. We cannot allow this to happen around the country. House Republicans have also asked the Biden administration to use executive action to address anti-semitism nationwide. On the other hand, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sent a letter to Speaker Johnson this Monday urging him to consider a different kind of legislation. The Democrat-proposed Countering Anti-Semitism Act looks to create a new White House Anti-Semitism Task Force and allocate 400 million dollars for FEMA's nonprofit security grant program to enhance the physical security of Jewish schools and institutions. It is expected that the House of Representatives will vote on the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of this week. Reporting from Washington DC, Luis Eduardo Martinez, NTD News. The White House taking a careful approach toward the campus protests. That's as former President Trump today offers a forward response to the ongoing turmoil. NTD's White House correspondent Iris Tao joins us now live. Iris, how has the Biden administration responded? Good evening to you, Tiff. So as Columbia University is now warning students of getting suspended if they don't clear out of their protest encampments, the White House today again condemned anti-semitism but also declined to weigh in on whether some of these students should face the consequences of getting expelled or suspended. Here's what the press secretary said at today's briefing. Watch. Gotta be super, super mindful. These are institutions, some of them are private, some of them are public and it is up to their leadership, university leadership and colleges to make that decision. Not going to weigh in on that from here. All Americans have the right to peacefully protest. At the same time, we have to call out any hateful rhetoric. Former President Trump, meanwhile, posted a forward response on Monday saying, quote, stop the protest now. And as protests continue to Royal College campuses, the U. S. Is pushing for a new ceasefire deal in Gaza. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said Hamas has now before them a generous offer. Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel. And in this moment, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. On Sunday, President Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin and Yahoo to talk about the prospects of a ceasefire deal. But Trump also weighing in on Monday says it's hard for Hamas to make a deal because many of the hostages are now, quote, already gone. Meanwhile, a new CNN poll shows Biden now trailing behind Trump by six percentage points. That says President Biden, speaking at the White House Correspondents Dinner this weekend, joked about his own age while taking aim at Trump. It's been a year since I delivered this speech, and my wife chills with me tonight was worried how I do. I told her, Don't worry. Just like riding the bike. She's that's what I'm worried about. I'm a grown man running against a six year old. And both President Biden and former President Trump will be hitting the campaign trail this week with Biden in Delaware on Tuesday and Trump in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday. And that's his former President Trump just now confirmed a Sunday meeting he had with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Hollywood, Florida. Trump posted on true social saying, quote, I'm very happy to have the full and enthusiastic support of DeSantis, adding that they talked about how they will work closely together to, quote, make America great again. And that is the first known conversation between Trump and DeSantis after DeSantis dropped out of the GOP presidential race and also comes as Trump is seeking to bolster support for him among DeSantis space back to you Iris. Thanks for those updates. We have more updates on the Israel Hamas war. Mediators are stepping up efforts to reach a ceasefire deal, and a delegation from the Hamas terrorist group is visiting Cairo today for talks. Hamas negotiators are expected to deliver a response to the phased truce proposal Israel presented over the weekend. The terrorist group will also discuss its own ceasefire proposal to mediators from Qatar and Egypt. In recent days, Israeli officials have indicated they would be open to a hostage deal in exchange for suspending a planned ground invasion of Rafa. Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel. And in this moment, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide, and they have to decide quickly. So we're looking to that. Um, and I'm hopeful that they will make the right decision. The U. S. And allies are calling on Hamas to accept Israel's proposal. This comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken begins his Middle East trip with the meeting in Saudi Arabia on Monday. He'll visit Jordan and Israel later on. Meanwhile, Israel is voicing concern over the International Criminal Court. It says the court could be preparing arrest warrants for Israeli officials for alleged violations of international law over the conduct of the war. House Speaker Mike Johnson criticized the International Criminal Court for considering such warrants and called on the Biden administration to take action. Israel's foreign minister said the country will not be deterred and will continue to fight. Meanwhile, the Biden administration on Monday released its own assessment of Israeli military units. After a careful process, we found five Israeli units responsible for individual incidents of gross violations of human rights. All of these were incidents much before October 7th and none took place in Gaza. Four of these units have effectively remediated these violations, which is what we expect partners to do. And inside Gaza, World Central Kitchen is resuming operations a month after seven aid workers were killed in an airstrike. The U.S. and Jordan also airdropped another round of aid, reporting by Allison Lee in TD News. For the second time, the U.S. Supreme Court says no to Peter Navarro. He's trying to get out of prison while his case is being appealed. The former Trump adviser is doing time for failing to comply with a subpoena from the House January 6th Investigation Committee. Just before he was to report to prison last month, Navarro filed an emergency request asking the Supreme Court to allow him to remain free while his case winds through the DC Circuit Court. Chief Justice John Roberts denied that request. The next day, Navarro began serving his sentence in a federal prison in Florida. In the second attempt, which ended with today's ruling, Navarro resubmitted the request to Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump's first high court nominee. Supreme Court rules allow parties whose emergency applications are denied by a single justice to resubmit to another justice. Gorsuch referred it to the full court. They denied the request last Friday without comment. Navarro has about three months left in his sentence. Welcome back. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Two states are now suing the Biden administration over changes to Title IX. The landmark civil rights law was enacted in 1972 to protect against discrimination based on sex. The new rule expands Title IX to include discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, sexual orientation and gender identity, and takes away language that used to protect women's sports. Louisiana is one of the states taking legal action. Here's Attorney General Liz Murrell making the announcement today. It will lead to litigation. There is a guarantee that it will be will lead to litigation because you're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't. If you don't protect biological women, then you violate Title IX. If you do protect biological women, you violate Title IX. The rule also reverses Trump administration guidance on how to define and investigate sexual harassment. It takes effect this August. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also announced his lawsuit today, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has said his state won't comply. More legal challenges are expected. Earlier, we spoke with Hamid Dhillon, CEO and founder of Center for American Liberty, to dive into the issues surrounding Title IX and transgender policies. Dhillon's organization represents de-transitioners such as Chloe Cole. Hamid Dhillon, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you on the show. My pleasure to be here. Now, to begin, what do you make of President Biden's changes to Title IX and the legal challenges against it? Well, we got two legal challenges filed today. I haven't dug in into great detail so far, but it was clear from the announcement of these rules changes that they were going to be legally challenged because they fly in the face of the purpose of Title IX. And Title IX was passed by Congress to protect women's rights, not the rights of men pretending to be women, in sports and an equal treatment in our educational institutions. And so when President Biden, by executive order, not even by the appropriate rulemaking that's supposed to occur when changes happen to regulations under our federal code, simply turns that upside down, I think it was inevitable that he was going to get sued. And I predict, certainly in Texas and probably in the other states as well, that there's going to be an injunction, at least as to those jurisdictions on those rules, and it will be stopped before it even goes into effect. Well, speaking of legal challenges, you actually represent de-transitioner Chloe Cole in her lawsuit against doctors, medical groups and hospitals, who the lawsuit states, quote, fraudulently coerced her into a medical gender transition when she was 13 to 17 years old. Break down the case for us and where it currently stands. Yeah, so Chloe is the first of three cases that we filed at the Center for American Liberty, challenging the medical establishment's mutilation of vulnerable girls. And so on multiple levels, these so called doctors, psychiatrists, medical institutions failed all of these girls. First, they failed to diagnose their comorbidities, including depression, maybe autism, anxiety disorders, in some cases, sexual abuse and assault in their backgrounds, and failed to really underline underlying underlying diagnosis. So secondly, they convinced their parents by really coercive language and threats that if they didn't agree to sign off on the so called sex change operations and treatment, that their daughters would kill themselves. Okay. And so none of this was true. These girls weren't actually in that diagnosis. This is simply the same kind of rhetoric used by all these doctors and medical institutions to push this trendy and lucrative procedure on people. They lied to these families and these girls about the consequences of these medical treatments. To this day, I don't think any of these medical institutions have been truthful. And to this day, these medical institutions, Kaiser and Oakland, is performing these life altering surgeries on people. They're a lie. You cannot change your sex. And beyond that, they conceal and they lie about the side effects of these medications, the fact that they're not approved for the purposes that they're being prescribed, the long term effects of them, the permanent harm that they do. And so for all of these reasons, we think we have really strong cases against Kaiser and against University of Nebraska. In Chloe's case, we have recently moved to amend her case to include punitive damages claims because the evidence so far has shown that Kaiser knew that what it was pushing was completely wrong and harmful to the patient. There was no informed consent, and these violations are so gross and abusive that they rise to the level of mandating punitive damages in this case. So we're waiting for the court to schedule hearings and rule on that issue, and we intend to pursue compensation for these victims and to deter this kind of abusive and wrongful behavior against other girls like Chloe, like Laila Jane, like Luca Hein in the future. And I mean, switching gears a little here, a new Senate investigation has uncovered why event bright censored events hosted by female sports advocate Riley Gaines. Now your client, Chloe Cole, also had her events taken down on event bright. What did the Senate investigation uncover? Tell us about this. Well, we've been talking about big tech censorship for many years. I filed multiple lawsuits against Twitter and others for different layers of that. So what we're seeing here is really the next generation of big tech censorship. It isn't just social media platforms like Twitter X YouTube taking down content they don't agree with. It's literally payment platforms that make reservations for and accept payment for events, not accepting it or allowing you to register and then rejecting and canceling all those signups. And so this is a form of financial and monetary de platforming. We're seeing it with people who express certain views about the 2020 election, having their bank accounts closed down and taken away from them. We've seen people who sell American flags who we represented at the Center for American Liberty flag art being deterred and sort of slowed down by PayPal. We're seeing people that big tech companies don't like having their MasterCard and other banking credit card services being taken away until they're threatened with legal action. And so this is what's happening here. And what's interesting is that every other area of the law, pretty much consumers have certain rights. If companies behave in a predatory fashion or take their money under false pretenses, you can sue them. Well, I see here that these financial type companies are trying to piggyback on courts failing to do much about big tech censorship by trying to say, well, you know, we have rights to as a company. And so what they're really canceling these on, not just the ones you mentioned, but also prominent conservative commentator at The Daily Wire, Matt Walsh. He's also had his events that have been critical of this gender hysteria taken down. And the idea is that they're promoting unsafe and violent and, you know, like something horrible in terms of what they're doing. They're simply presenting the mainstream viewpoint, namely that girls have a right to be protected in women's sports, that women and men are different, that you can't change your biological sex. These are actually mainstream viewpoints that these tech companies are banning from the public sphere. Luckily, there are competitors out there, but it is very concerning that the throttling of speech is now reaching your ability to buy tickets to events. Harmony Dillon, thank you so much for your time. Thanks. Elon Musk is in China, a surprise visit which resulted in China paving the way for Tesla's future in a significant way. Entities Virginia Gibson has more. Elon Musk visits China, where he shook hands with the country's number two official, Premier Li Chang. This was to discuss further cooperation between Tesla and China. Chinese leaders praised Musk, calling him a successful model of U.S.-China collaboration. Beijing also removed one of Tesla's key hurdles. Officials said Tesla passed to the country's data security requirements, paving the way for full self-driving in the world's second largest economy. Tesla reportedly also partnered with Chinese tech firm Baidu, according to people familiar with the situation. This is to access Baidu's mapping and navigation technology and to enhance its full self-driving service. This is a big deal. Musk has said repeatedly that they expect to make a significant amount of money from the full self-driving technology. Auto expert Paul Eisenstein says many believe Tesla will lose market share in the electric vehicle space over time. So to compensate for that, Tesla may rely on technology such as full self-driving to make money. One of the great advantages of a system like this is to use it. You have to subscribe. So it means that the automaker is going to continue taking in profits, taking in revenue and making a lot of profits long after the car is sold. Eisenstein says a subscription may cost around $100 more a month, depending on the market. This comes after U.S. regulators issued a scathing assessment of Tesla's self-driving technology last week. Musk has said self-driving tech is critical to Tesla's future, claiming Tesla is more of an AI robotics company than just a car company. Virginia Gibson, NTD News. Earlier, we spoke with Cheryl Atkinson, Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist, about a major challenge facing journalists. Atkinson recently testified before Congress on journalists' need to protect confidential sources. This comes as a federal judge earlier this year held veteran journalist Catherine Herridge in contempt for refusing to reveal her sources. Cheryl Atkinson, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you on the show. Good to be here. Thank you. Now, you testified recently about what happens when a journalist can't protect confidential sources. What's been the response to your testimony from fellow news people, but also lawmakers? Well, I haven't heard from any fellow news people, but I think there's general agreement. And surprisingly, because not many things are like this, both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, in the House at least, support the notion of journalists being able to protect a source, keep their identity hidden, not have to be forced to produce that under a court order. The stickler seems to be the House keeps passing this, it's called the Press Act. But for whatever reason, the Senate won't take it up. And the House, Democrats and Republicans alike are very critical of the Senate for not doing so. And that's what they were trying to prompt with the hearing, trying to get the Senate to go forward with this. And now you mentioned in your testimony that many of the stories you broke couldn't have happened without those confidential sources. Now, what is normal when it comes to who owns the sources? Is it the journalists? Is it the media company? How does that work? Well, that's a really good question. I think that it's a combination when you're working for a company that's paying for your services and you're gathering information on their behalf, there is an obligation. They have a right to... Technically, they can look at your communications, they can look at the stuff in your computer. They technically, I believe, contractually own a lot of the material that you keep in your office. But I argued when I left CBS ahead of my contract, for reasons that I've written books about, how I think the news is becoming very conflicted and not always honest, but I argued that I had to turn over all my materials that I gathered news information-wise to CBS. I argued that successfully some of them were joint ownership because, of course, I work on some stories on my own time, on my own devices, and I'm working for a product that will ultimately air on CBS, but I'm spending some of my time on it. And some of those pieces didn't ultimately air, which was part of my gripe with how they were slanting the news in some instances. But in general, yes, I think your media company, depending on what your contract says, owns the work product that you produce. And when it comes to these confidential sources, what does it mean when you can't promise them that confidentiality? What does that do in terms of reporting? In my view, you always want them to go on the air and on the record. So your first choice is that you don't jump at the chance to hide the identity of a source. And I always conferred with the CBS lawyers on my stories so that they could walk through with me. Again, it's never your first choice. They always wanted you to get people on the record and on camera. So when that cannot be done, when it's impossible for whatever reason, there's certain other steps you take to identify with as much specificity as you can the nature of the source, which I see a lot of the people in like the New York Times not even do many times. They'll just pick up an anonymous source without characterizing as much as you can sort of where they might be coming from or what angle that they would be coming from. And we would go through all that at CBS, and I go through the same exercise today at full measure when I have to use a source that wants anonymity. I will find that oftentimes they'll be willing to go on camera after initial conversation. But what happens when you cannot protect the source? If they ask those early questions because they're very nervous if they say, can we just talk right now on background and you say to them, just so you know, if something ever comes of this in court, I may have to divulge your identity. Are you good with that? Some people are not good with that off the very top. So a story can't progress any further. Once you say that to somebody in some instances, I would still have been able to do a lot of my stories at CBS that relied on some confidential sources, but not necessarily in the way that they were reported with all the information that we had and being able to break a lot of details that we were able to do. Given that, how do you view what's been happening with Catherine Heritage? If you are able to comment on that? Well, I certainly empathize with her in terms of she's being ordered to, I believe, turn over by court, turn over the name of a government source for a story she reported on many years ago at Fox News. I think against a whistle blower. I'm not sure of the details, but from what she said, she's being charged $800 a day until she reveals a source that that had the right to expect at the time he or she would remain confidential. And I believe her fine is being stayed temporarily while she's appealing. But you can imagine the chilling effect this will have on anybody willing to give information on misconduct or corruption inside corporations and government if they come to understand that their name may ultimately be revealed when they thought on the front end that would never happen. Now, trust in news or especially the legacy media has been pulling lower and lower. How are the ongoing challenges to press freedom part of that? I think everything is really being muddled. You know, the press isn't the press we used to know, not that we were ever perfect, but at least we strive to or pretended to strive to be fair and accurate and present different viewpoints and accurate information. That's no longer what you can expect from what used to be considered mainstream news organizations. I worked at CNN when it was a news organization back in the 1990 time frame, and people who worked there then are universally appalled at what CNN has become, including its former owner, Ted Turner, who's expressed even though he's a very far left environmental activist, he's a fair minded guy, was a great boss to work for when I worked there, and he's appalled at what CNN has become today. I don't think the future bodes well for journalism as we once knew it, but I'd like to say in a hopeful sense, being born out of that are new paradigms. I don't think we know what that's gonna look like yet, but people are understanding how to question what they are, or at least view skeptically a lot of what they're being fed, and maybe look for some alternate sources. And I've written books and information trying to help people navigate, how do I find a reliable source in today's manipulated information environment? There are ways to do it, and I think more people are trying to figure that out. Cheryl Atkinson, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Devastating weather in the Midwest over the weekend. At least five people died, including a four month old baby after dozens of twisters swept the Southern Plains. Entities Daniel Monaghan has more on the storms, which also injured over 100 people. Oklahomans were left to pick up the pieces after nature's fury was unleashed on the tornado prone state. Uprooted trees were ripped out of the ground and launched into houses. An eerie picture as a large truck can be seen lying unnaturally across a bed of vehicles. A storm caused this house in Oklahoma to catch fire. Here, a wall of one home is lying on the ground. An unsettling image. The now wall is house rendered uninhabitable by the tempest. Flooded streets in Oklahoma after massive storms hit the area left vehicles stranded. This gas station in Marietta was right in the path of a tornado. A tractor trailer here is caught up in the power lines. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt declared a disaster emergency for the state. On Sunday, President Biden offered the federal government's support to help with the recovery efforts. Communities in Nebraska and Iowa were left reeling after powerful storms struck on Friday. A tornado plowed through suburban Omaha, demolishing homes and businesses as it moved for miles through farmland and into subdivisions. Residents are left to try to put things back together. James Stennis says they're just taking it day by day. You come upstairs, uh, and see that you have no house emerging from the basement. You know your home, but you're actually homeless. But Stennis says their faith will help them travel down the hard road ahead. A tornado also slammed into the Iowa town of Minden, completely destroying over 40 homes. Storm warnings for high winds, heavy rain and hail were in effect on Sunday for more than 47 million people stretching from East Texas north through Illinois and Wisconsin. The National Weather Service reported 38 possible twisters hit the area. The worst of the storms rolled through central Oklahoma on Saturday into early Sunday morning, spreading into northwest Texas, western Missouri and Kansas. The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said area hospitals reported around 100 injuries. Twisters destroyed or damaged dozens of structures, including the hospital in the town of Marietta. Although no injuries were reported there, more than 20,000 customers in the state remained without power. As of Sunday evening, Daniel Monaghan and T. D. News. Welcome back. I'm Tiffany Myerton. Your governor, Kathy Ho Cole, is asking for an investigation into an upstate district attorney who refused a traffic stop last week. Local yesterday said she referred Monroe County D. A. Sandra Doorly to the Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct. That's after Doorly pleaded guilty to speeding and police body cam of the interaction was released. Governor Hockel says Doorly undermined her ability as a D. A. To hold others accountable for violating the law. Local says the footage shows Doorly trying to evade responsibility and claiming to be above the law. She also said the D. A. Acted unprofessionally towards the police officer. This comes after the Rochester City Council asked Attorney General Leticia James to investigate Doorly on Saturday. And now for your sports news, we're joined by entities. Dave Martin save a lot going on. But let's start in boxing where the summer's bout between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul will actually be a sanctioned fight as opposed to an exhibition. Now, who do the odds makers have as the favorite? Yeah, Jake Paul is the favorite at every single place I've seen. I mean, he's obviously less experienced, but he's much younger. He's 27 years old. Tyson will be 58 when they fight in July. It's a 31 year gap. That is the biggest ever in boxing. I mean, Paul wasn't alive when Tyson was last champion. The one area I thought, though, Tyson would have an advantage in his weight. Jake Paul normally fights around £190. Tyson usually fights around 2 20. But fellow boxer Sugar Shane Mosley posted on X just recently that he saw Jake Paul and he's already up to 230. So maybe not an advantage for Tyson there. But if that's true, it can take an adjustment period for some of the box. It is significantly heavier weight. I mean, that's 40 extra pounds that he's used to. In any case, after seeing both our training videos that they released, both guys are definitely taking this fight seriously. Definitely not. Shifting gears to the NBA playoffs yesterday, the Phoenix Suns became the first team eliminated after getting swept by Minnesota. Now this was a team many thought could compete for the title. What happened here? Yeah, I mean, I wasn't in love with the moves they did in the offseason in the first place. Essentially, they traded Chris Paul for Bradley Beal. Now both are all star players, but Beal is like eight years younger and has a much bigger contract. But Beal is also more of a shooter where Paul is more of a distributor. I thought they needed to replace Paul skills with a similar skill set player. I mean, Phoenix already had two great shooters in Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and both had great games yesterday, but it wasn't enough. Now Minnesota is into the second round. I don't know where Phoenix goes from here. I don't think you can run this team same team back next year and expect better results. I mean, Kevin Durant is already 35 years old, but they don't have too many options with all the expensive contracts that they have. And Devin, another series you've highlighted is between the Lakers and Nuggets. Now the Lakers finally won on Saturday to force a game five. Does it seem like a four con conclusion that the Nuggets close out the series tonight? I mean, you would think so. After all, nobody has ever come back from a 0-3 deficit in the history of the NBA playoffs, but the Lakers have actually led more in this series than the Nuggets have. Of course, it only matters who leads at the end of the game, and all that really means is that Denver has much better second halves. These games have at least been close. I mean, the Lakers have been in them. Anthony Davis has had quite a series for the Lakers. He's averaging 30 points, 15 rebounds a game. LeBron James has played great for a 39-year-old, I mean, as he really has all season long. I think it's important that Denver comes out very aggressive in the first half tonight. I mean, they've kind of developed this habit of falling behind early and then trying to come back. That's a very dangerous thing to think that it's gonna happen every game out there. It kind of gives you a false sense of hope, I think. So I think all eyes will be on this game, but there's also game four tonight between Boston and Miami with the Celtics up 2-1, and another game four in New Orleans where the Pelicans will try to avoid being swept by the 100. Moving on to NFL news, the league's draft concluded on Saturday, and one of the popular criticisms was directed at the Buffalo Bills for making a trade with their rival, the Kansas City Chiefs. What did you make of all of that? Yeah, I did not agree with the criticism there at all. I think if you have a trade that helps your team, I think you do it no matter who it's with. I mean, if it ends up helping the other team too, I mean, that's just the cost of doing business here. It's not like the Bills let the Chiefs move up four spots for free. I mean, the Chiefs sweetened the deal by swapping several later round picks that allowed Buffalo to move up there. But for Buffalo as well, I'm sure a condition of this trade was they asked Kansas City who they were gonna take with that pick, and if it was a player they wanted four picks later, they wouldn't have done it for sure. In any case, I don't think it matters who you trade with to make your team better. You can't be afraid of making another team better in the process. Who knows? Maybe the trade actually benefits both teams. They both get better. We shall see all Davis. Always. Thanks for joining us. Thank you to theater goers discovered 5000 years of traditional Chinese culture and values over the weekend at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Inspired by China's rich heritage, the New York based Shenyan Performing Arts showcases stories that span across ancient times to modern day. Shenyan Performing Arts hit the stage at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center with five performances over three days. Starting on April 25th, the company tours the world with a mission to rekindle 5000 years of traditional Chinese culture and values from a time before communism. I think that there's a lot of value in traditional culture, so I think it's a good mission. I think it's important for it to maintain positivity. The mission like that, the stories that were explained before each of the dances was just wonderful to share the culture and to understand all of the things that happened before communism. So it's very important for people to learn, um, you know, about a culture and not just about the present, but also all of the history. I think from their passion of showing, you know, making everybody understand the past, you know what China had, um, and what's been destroyed. Yeah, so that you can really tell that they are looking to make everybody understand, you know, how beautiful, um, you know, it was inspired by China's vast history, showing tell stories of myths and legends, along with true stories concerning the communist regime's current persecution of faith. I saw, you know, again, like the spiritual practices of being persecuted over there. It's hard for them to live in total freedom, you know? So, you know, hopefully, you know, God willing, these guys keep up the good work and, you know, just, uh, make China, uh, you know, more and more prosperous and more free and able to live, you know, better lives, you know? The message of, uh, divinity and, um, the idea that my daughter needs to know that communism isn't China and the spirit and the history survives despite, uh, the challenges. We're in today's day and age. It needs to be, the message needs to be spread, right? And that's why I need my daughter at eight years old to start to understand in a small way, uh, that, um, the, the challenges that are faced in China, we need to understand it so she can be prepared for the future, so she can, can stand for liberty and divinity. Through the medium of classical Chinese dance, music, and storytelling, Xiangying's performances also embrace themes of spirituality, which is found at the core of traditional Chinese culture. I guess I feel that the Creator's always here, offering salvation in all circumstances, in a way. Like I say, we're able to see it because this is, um, this is just the, the physical form here, but the spiritual form is always present. It doesn't matter whether you're Christian or, or anything, honestly, the spirituality comes through and it connects with people. And, um, it's a way to explain to the American people and, and all people that, um, the value of independence and freedom and, and a belief in God. Xiangying will next perform in Stanford, Connecticut from May 9th to the 12th. NTD News, Newark, New Jersey. And that's all for today's news. For around the clock coverage, visit us at NTD.com or download our NTD app. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Good night. Transcribed by https://otter.ai