Here are Ten Things You Need to Know. It's Tax Day! Grownups across America are sending in their tax forms and crossing their fingers for a refund or at least not a bill. The IRS aka the Internal Revenue Service is the largest accounting and tax-collecting organization in the world. Now from the most boring thing in the world to something that's incredibly exciting. Nintendo has announced a brand new event taking place this September in Seattle. It's called NINTENDO LIVE 2023 and the event will feature the games and worlds of Nintendo with fun gameplay, live state performances, video game tournaments, photo ops, and more. The in-person event will celebrate the Nintendo Switch system and is welcome to all ages. Who's coming with me?

Pamela Kirkland 01:23

President Biden traveled to northern Ireland to commemorate the Good Friday Agreement. That was a ceasefire the US helped negotiate in 1998 between Catholic Irish nationalists and Protestant British nationalists who fought for decades over control of Northern Ireland. President Biden is proud of his Irish heritage and met with both the British prime minister and the Irish leader of tea shock, as well as his distant Irish relatives.

Ryan Willard 01:54

On this side of the Atlantic, historic rain in Florida has forced schools and even airports to close. Florida is no stranger to rain, but even hurricanes don't usually dump 20 inches of rain on southern Florida in a single day. extensive flooding is impacting travel after several days of storms last week. In news that is equal parts gross, sad, and plain old weird. A Texas dairy farm explosion killed 18,000 cows were killed when farm machinery caused methane gas to ignite. It sounds like something that could only happen in Minecraft but millions of animals died in farm fires between 2018 and 2021. Although 18,000 exploded cows is an unusually high number.

Pamela Kirkland 02:45

In Internet news, Elon Musk's Twitter changes are driving organizations off the site. National Public Radio, also known as NPR quit Twitter after Elon Musk changed the NPRs account description to government-funded media, is it? Not really. NPR is a nonprofit news outlet that does receive some funding from the US government, but only about 1% of its budget. The other 99% comes from corporate sponsorships individual memberships and donations.

Ryan Willard 03:20

So, it's not exactly right. But, why did NPR get so mad that they quit Twitter?

Pamela Kirkland 03:25

State-funded media is a description that could make NPR seem less credible. Their news reporting is independent of the US government. But calling it state-funded media makes it sound like the government gets a say in what news is reported. Which isn't the case. Right. Speaking of the government, we've got some good news coming out of the Tennessee State Congress. Remember those two Tennessee lawmakers who were expelled from the state house?

Ryan Willard 03:53

How could I forget? The Justins’ representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones were removed from their positions for protests and gun violence.

Pamela Kirkland 04:01

Well, they were reinstated last week.

Ryan Willard 04:04

Woah, that's awesome. The elected officials will continue to serve their constituents and make their voices heard.

Pamela Kirkland 04:10

Now on to world news. It's no exaggeration to say that eggs are a big part of Japan's cuisine, with soft-boiled eggs on ramen and rice-filled egg omelet or grilled eggs for lunch. But just like in the US and UK, eggs are becoming a luxury item in Japan. This spread of bird flu in Japan means fewer eggs and higher prices, and restaurants and home cooks are having to find alternatives.

Ryan Willard 04:40

Oh, maybe my invention of scrambled hotdogs will finally take off.

Pamela Kirkland 04:45

Anything is possible. And there's more world news out of Ukraine. Secret Files were leaked here in the US which showed that Western nations had elite military forces working in Ukraine, the UK The US Latvia, France and the Netherlands are NATO allies who had operatives on the ground in Ukraine. Can we trust this leak? The Pentagon confirmed that the documents were real. And in addition to the information about special forces, we also learned that Egypt had plans to secretly send rockets to Russia. South Korea was hesitant to provide weapons to Ukraine and China tested a new missile in February.

Ryan Willard 05:28

Who would leak top-secret information?

Pamela Kirkland 05:31

The FBI has a suspect in custody a 21-year-old gamer and member of the Massachusetts National Guard intelligence unit who allegedly leaked the files to the online chat platform Discord.

Ryan Willard 05:44

Finally, we have news from space to infinity and beyond the Jupiter Icy Moons explorer mission aka juice launched on Friday. The European Space Agency is sending juice to Jupiter's moons, but it will take eight years for the spacecraft to get there. This mission will map Jupiter's moons search for oceans and even look for signs of life.

Pamela Kirkland 06:10

That was Ten Things You Need to Know

Ryan Willard 06:12

Check out tomorrow's episode to find out what happens when AI takes over The Ten News.

Pamela Kirkland 06:17

I'm Pamela Kirkland.

Ryan Willard 06:19

And I'm Ryan Willard. Thanks for listening to The Ten News.

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Tracy Kaplan

Ten Things You Need to Know on 4/18/2023 🗞️

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