News of the World

[kyonides]

Mayorkas: Suspected Terrorists Who Crossed Border
Into United States May Have Been Released

Some of the 42 illegal immigrants who were arrested by U.S. border agents and identified as suspected terrorists may have been released into the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandryo Mayorkas said on May 4.

“Some may be placed in removal proceedings. Some may be placed in criminal custody. Some may be cooperating with law enforcement. Some may be downgraded from the terrorist rating,” Mayorkas told the Senate Homeland & Governmental Affairs Committee in Washington.
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Instead, [Mayorkas] offered to give a classified briefing to Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who had been questioning him.

There are 42 suspects of terrorism arrested by the authorities so far. Yet, I wonder if there could be a lot more out there. Even the Senator Portman was afraid of that serious possibility.

Australia Rolls-Out New Sanctions
Targeting 110 Russian MPs, Separatists

The Australian government has continued pressuring Russia authorities following the announcement of a tranche of sanctions targeting another 110 individuals, including Ukrainian separatists from the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and members of the Russian Duma or Parliament.

In reiterating Australia’s unwavering support for Ukraine, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said 34 sanctioned Ukrainians were senior representatives of the separatist “People’s Council of the People’s Republic of Donetsk” and “People’s Council of the People’s Republic of Luhansk.”

The latest action brings the total number of individuals sanctioned by the Australian government to 812. A further 47 entities have been sanctioned.
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DFAT also singled out Russian MP Oleg Matveichev for what it termed “dissemination of disinformation and propaganda” after Matveichev argued that Western nations should pay reparations for harm caused by the economic sanctions and the war itself.

I guess people like  Wulfo will strongly disagree with the Russian congressman.
Of course, I understand how difficult it would be to swallow such a reckless statement. Anyway, Biden still pretends to spend billions of dollars in Ukraine but not a single dime in solving the Southern Border Crisis.
So how many suspected terrorists crossing the river without heavy restrictions does it take to finally close the national security's loopholes?

New Developments in the Covert Israel-Iran War

Israeli warplanes, for example, bombed Iran-related targets in Syria near the border with Iraq late Sunday night.
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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week warned Israel that a direct attack by Iran on Israel has become increasingly likely.
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Iran was also behind the explosion of violence on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during Passover, it has now become clear.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) was instructed by Ali Akhbar Velayati, a former foreign minister of Iran and now one of the chief advisers to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
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During that speech, Sinwar warned Israel not to “desecrate” Al-Aqsa again or it would have to deal with a salvo of 1,111 rockets.

The Hamas leader also threatened that his terror group would attack synagogues around the world if Israeli actions against Palestinian rioters on the Temple Mount resumed.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett responded to Sinwar’s speech with cynical remarks about the Hamas leader, saying Hamas was out to topple his government and apparently longed for the suitcases full of cash from Qatar.

I guess Americans might ignore this but the FIFA World Cup 2022, the maximum event in the soccer / football world, will be held in Qatar next November. Now Bennett is claiming that  Qatari are sponsoring terrorist attacks in Israel.

[kyonides]

Appeals Court Reinstates Florida’s 2021 Election Law

Senate Bill 90, signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in May 2021, prohibited private funding for state or local election officials and tightened restrictions on drop boxes, among other provisions.
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Walker’s order contains two flaws, the panel said. One was the determination that the law is intentionally discriminatory.

Walker “failed to properly account for what might be called the presumption of legislative good faith,” the panel said, referring to the Supreme Court’s instruction that courts must presume the good faith of a legislature when assessing whether an approved law has discriminatory intent.
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The other flaw was a problematic analysis of the state’s actions, which stretched all the way back to shortly after the Civil War, according to the reversal.
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Christina Pushaw, DeSantis’ press secretary, called the stay a “big win for election integrity in Florida.”

It is good news indeed.
Why on earth, especially in Florida, would anybody want people without ID's voting there or play dirty games by participating in ballot harvesting and other dubious practices?
 How could something as common as ID's or strict control of ballot delivery or processing be discriminatory?
In countries like Costa Rica people enter the classroom (our polling station) and immediately show his or her ID card before getting the ballot. Then we sign an official document (a book) confirming we were there. Nobody will ask you who's your favorite candidate or anything like that. The only thing officials can see is you depositing your ballot by showing them the side that sports their signatures as stipulated in their handbook.  

Nobody's ever told us we were "discriminating" anybody, and I haven't even told you, yet, how people living abroad are the only ones that are eligible for absentee ballots.
And I am talking about what we did just last month!
By the way, Rodrigo Chaves is the Costa Rican president elect that will ascend to power this Sunday the 8th.

[DerVVulfman]

AVOID THE RAINBOW
DON'T TASTE THE RAINBOW

Skittles, Starburst, and Life Savers Are Being Pulled From Grocery Store Shelves Right Now

The Mars Wrigley Confectionary company, makers of Wrigley's Bubblegum and the Mars Bar issued a recall for their gummy line of candies due to the potential presence of thin metal strands in the candy or loose in the bag. Some customers had discovered the metal inside their purchased gummies, but no injuries or illness are yet to be reported.

On the back of the package is a 10-digit manufacturing code (HERE) that will be able to tell you if your product is part of the recall.

We are working closely with our retail partners to remove any potentially impacted products from stores.

DURHAM PROBE
NOW COMES TO THE FIRST TRIAL

Clinton Lawyer Sussmann's Trial over the Origins of the Russia Collusion Hoax Begins

Michael Sussman, the former Clinton attorney, pled Not Guilty under charges of giving false statements to the FBI, not working for a client and supplying false connections between  the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, which has ties to the Kremlin. Part of the evidence Durham has against Sussmann includes one of Sussman's own text messages putting "his lie in writing."

The trial, in Washington DC, will be problematic for Durham who is seeking the origin of the Russia Collusion Hoax against former President Trump. Not only would the judge be an Obama-era appointee, but it would be hard pressed to find a jury with little bias. Of the selected jury, there includes a federal employee who donated to the Democrats in 2016 and another employee that admitted to a strong dislike against Trump.  The jury also includes a teacher, an illustrator, a mechanic and more.

Both the prosecution and defense opening arguments begin Tuesday, May 17, at 9am EST.

RUSSIA IS LOSING
THE WAR

In 82 days since the invasion, Russia has lost a third of its military

A destroyed Russian tank. Ukrainian defense ministry photo

There is now a spiraling decline in the combat effectiveness of the Russian Invaders thanks to the heavy losses they suffered against the Ukrainian Defense. And as of now, a Russian victory no longer seems likely, or even plausible.

Russia’s Donbas offensive has lost momentum and fallen significantly behind schedule.  Despite small-scale initial advances, Russia has failed to achieve substantial territorial gains over the past month whilst sustaining consistently high levels of attrition.

Now three months into the war, Russian fighters and drones continue to be shot down. Ukraine's pilots are still flying attack sorties. And Ukraine's TB-2 drones range across the war zone and snipe at Russian command posts and naval vessels with their laser-guided missiles.

[kyonides]

McConnell Says Congress Hopes to Approve Sweden’s NATO Bid by August

McConnell made the comments to reporters in Stockholm on Monday after Sweden officially announced it will apply to NATO to provide better security for the country in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
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“Sweden and Finland already have long track records as two of the United States and NATO’s most capable friends and partners, even from outside the alliance,” the Senate Republican leader said.

Short Editorial

And that's exactly how you can make Biden's dream of starting WW3 come true, McConnell.
NATO has been expanding its borders eastwards ever since 1999. Obviously, Russia would prefer to attack other countries if their decisions make its own country feel surrounded by the alliance led by UK and USA.

Poor Ukrainians. Their president isn't the best leader they could get during a war. He's just a comedian. This war could have ended soon enough if they had a real commander in chief that had some diplomatic and military experience.

I know that both US and Russia don't hang along, and honestly I don't mind. The real threat isn't Russia, which is already undergoing a serious recession, but China. The CCP is still stealing all kinds of knowledge and technologies from US and even DNA from people partaking in the covid PCR test process based on a report by NTD News. Therefore I have to ask this, why is China not being targeted by sanctions? Why did Biden agree to lift Trump's sanctions against China?

Russian Energy Company Shuts Off Electricity to Finland

Russian energy company RAO Nordic shut off electricity supplies to neighbouring Finland over the weekend, claiming that it had not received payments from Finland due to sanctions.

RAO Nordic, a subsidiary of the Russian energy company Inter RAO,  suspended the export of electricity on May 14th according to an announcement made by Finland’s majority state-owned national electricity transmission grid operator Fingrid.
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Around ten per cent of Finland’s electricity is imported from Russia but Fingrid has claimed that Finns’ electrical needs will still be met even if no electricity is being imported from Russia at all.
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RAO Nordic has claimed that the shut off is related to missing payments saying, “Due to problems in receiving payments for electricity sold on the market, further direct or bilateral sales of electricity imported from Russia will be halted until further notice.”

Others have raised questions about the timing of the electricity shut off, including lobbyist Jukka Leskelä, CEO of the Energy Industry Association, who said the move may be tied to Finland possibly joining the NATO alliance after Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced they backed the country joining NATO last week.

[kyonides]

Sen. Rand Paul: Congress Has to Borrow from China
to Send $40 Billion in Aid to Ukraine

Paul has “single handedly” worked to hold up the Ukraine package, contending that the package needs an inspector general to ensure that the billions of dollars are spent wisely.

Paul said that America would have to continue borrowing from China to appropriate the proposed Ukraine aid package.
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Paul served as one of the 11 Senate Republicans to vote against advancing the Ukraine aid package, which included Sens. Hawley, Mike Crapo (R-ID), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Mike Braun (R-IN), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), John Boozman (R-AR), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).

The Ukraine aid procedural vote strikes a contrast between establishment Republican views on foreign policy, which favor more activist intervention abroad, and populist senators such as Paul, who believe that America should not engage in endless wars and conflict abroad.

Paul said that Republicans’ contribution to America’s deficit undermines their argument that President Joe Biden is solely responsible for the rampant inflation under his administration.

The Kentucky senator said, “The problem is that it all leads to inflation, so it kind of hurts the Republican argument that Biden’s spending and Biden’s debt leads to inflation, except for when it’s bipartisan spending and that doesn’t really count.”

Republicans added over $100 billion in new debt with Democrats in providing direct subsidies to semiconductor companies and also by increasing the National Science Foundation, one of the most wasteful organizations in Washington.

Biden’s Concessions to Venezuela, Cuba Regimes Frustrate, Baffle Hispanics

The State Department announced a series of measures on Tuesday that would create a cash windfall for the Castro regime: the return of an exemption to the barely existent embargo known as “group people-to-people” travel – effectively legalizing tourism in groups to the island if disguised as “educational” – and the lifting of caps on sending remittances to the island set in place under former President Donald Trump. Tourism and remittances are key sources of revenue for the communist regime, whose military maintains a stranglehold on everything from money wiring enterprises to luxury hotels.

Later that day, multiple reports quoting anonymous Biden administration sources revealed that the White House would soon allow the oil corporation Chevron to resume business talks with Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the Venezuelan regime-run oil company, and that it would lift sanctions on one person: socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro’s nephew, a former PDVSA official.

Both announcements preceded widely derided talks with both regimes. In March, Biden sent a delegation to Caracas to discuss, reports claimed, potentially resuming the purchase of Venezuelan oil to offset sanctions on Russia. Since Venezuela’s regime is heavily indebted to Russia, any payment for Venezuelan oil would likely go directly to Moscow, anyway. A month later, Biden’s team held a meeting with the Castro regime, reportedly to discuss refugees fleeing the island in droves after the violent repression of suspected political dissidents — including the shooting of suspected supporters of democracy at point-blank range in their own homes — and heading to the southern border. After President Barack Obama ended the “wet foot/dry foot” policy that allowed Cubans who made the 90-mile sea voyage to Florida to stay in the country legally, Cubans began using visa-free travel to countries like Guyana and Nicaragua to take the routes human traffickers control out of South America to Texas.

So the Biden administration claims it's fighting the Russians in Ukraine by approving a huge "loan" funded by the CCP itself but at the same time it's helping a Russian proxy, namely Venezuela, that would eventually let Russia partially overcome the sanctions imposed by Western countries.  Does that make any sense to you!?

[kyonides]

China is ‘Pretty Good at Stealing’ Technology, NASA Chief Says

China’s communist regime is engaged in a campaign to illicitly co-opt U.S. space technologies, according to NASA’s highest-ranking official, who said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is adept at stealing the United States’ most vital technological secrets.

“Yeah, they’re pretty good at stealing,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during a May 17 House Appropriations Committee hearing. “And I think that’s incumbent upon us to take cybersecurity very, very seriously.”
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“We simply cannot ignore the threat from China and our adversaries who are making technological, manufacturing, and exploration advancements on a daily basis,” he said.
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The U.S. government has advised private industry that China is engaged in a committed effort to illicitly acquire critical and emerging technologies in every sector of the U.S. economy, particularly those vital to its military modernization efforts.

The technologies required for achieving political dominance in space, which Aderholt called the “high ground,” have become something of a precious commodity in that regard.

‘2000 Mules’ Allegations Not Part of Claims Dismissed
by Georgia Elections Board, Despite Media Reports

Elections board members seemed to suggest during a May 17 meeting that they had disproven allegations from the documentary that alleges widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

But the board has yet to review any claims made by True the Vote, the organization featured in “2000 Mules.”

As described in the documentary released May 7, Houston-based True the Vote spent a year and a half analyzing cell phone data and dropbox surveillance videos to show patterns of what they call illegal ballot trafficking during the 2020 elections. The nonprofit focused its work in five jurisdictions in five swing states won by Democrat Joe Biden—Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
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Georgia Secretary of State General Counsel Ryan Germany said an effort to look into a broad complaint filed by True the Vote in November is on hold until the organization complies with subpoenas issued April 21.
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The informant, known as John Doe in the True the Vote complaint to the state, provided details about election fraud that sparked the organization’s investigation, Engelbrecht said. Revealing his identity could put him in grave danger, she said.
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Kemp will face the first hurdle in retaining his job as the state’s top official in the May 24 GOP gubernatorial primary. His chief competitor is former Sen. David Perdue, who lost his seat in a run-off during the election cycle questioned by True the Vote’s analysis.

[DerVVulfman]

PENDING COUP AGAINST PUTIN?

Ukraine's spy chief claims pending Russian coup is underway.

Speaking to Sky News in an article published Saturday, Major General Kyrylo Budanova said he was optimistic about Russia's defeat, suggesting that the loss would lead to Putin being removed from power. And it's thought that the war will likely to be over by the end of the year.

It will eventually lead to the change of leadership of the Russian Federation. This process has already been launched.

Meanwhile, Gordon B. Davis Jr., former deputy assistant secretary-general of NATO's defense investment division dismissed the idea, thinking a coup will be in the near future is not likely. Despite this, Budanova appeared more optimistic.

During the interview, Budanov also claimed that Putin is currently in “a very bad psychological and physical condition, and he is very sick." In recent years, there has been considerable speculation about Putin’s alleged ill-health. And an oligarch close to Putin had claimed the Kremlin leader is “very ill with blood cancer.”

The breaking point will be in the second part of August. Most of the active combat actions will have finished by the end of this year. As a result, we will renew Ukrainian power in all our territories that we have lost, including Donbas and the Crimea.

DURAM WANTS ex-TIMES REPORTER
TO ANSWER ALL HIS QUESTIONS

Former New York Times Reporter requests certain questions to be off-limits

Special Council John Durham requested that controversial former NY Times Reporter, Eric Lichtblau be forced to answer all questions posed to him during the Sussmann trial despite request to limit the scope of inquiries.

If Lichtblau takes the witness stand at trial, the Court should require him to answer all relevant questions posed to him that fall within the scope of his direct testimony, the criminal charge, or his credibility and reliability.

During the court case against Michael Sussman, former FBI General Counsel James Baker testified this Thursday that Sussmann warned Baker in 2016 that a major news outlet would be publishing a story on the Trump-Russia story. Baker then testified that days later, he and Sussmann spoke by phone trying to divine the identity of the reporter.  After which, Baker identified that Lichtblau was the reporter who agreed to delay the publication of the story.

Sussmann's own legal team have subpoenaed Lichtblau to testify, the reporter afterwards having sought to have a 'protective order restricting the government's ability to cross-examine him and reporter's privilege.'  Lichtblau, a two-times Pulitzer Prize winner earned one of his awards for publishing a piece tying Russia to the Trump campaign, Special Council Robert Mueller later finding that there was no evidence collusion ever existed.

[kyonides]

Biden Signs $40 Billion Ukraine Aid Package Into Law

President Joe Biden on May 21 signed a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine.

Biden signed the bill, H.R. 7691, while traveling in Asia.

The legislation primarily features money for military assistance but also makes available $8 billion for economic support for both Ukraine and countries “impacted by the situation in Ukraine, including for programs to combat human trafficking.”

Another $5 billion is designated for helping ease food shortages in various countries. There’s also about $1.2 billion for assisting refugees.
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The House of Representatives passed the bill 368–57 and the Senate approved it 86–11.

 In my humble opinion, they should have spent some of that money in building the Southern Wall instead. Plus why is it legal to sign a bill like this aid package in a foreign country? Even if Biden were in Ukraine at the time, why couldn't he do that after returning to Washington DC?

Russia Shuts Off Gas Exports to Finland

Russia has cut off gas exports to neighboring Finland on Saturday after the Nordic country refused to pay Russian gas supplies in roubles. The move also comes at the same time as Finland is applying to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

On Friday, the Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom gave notice to its Finnish equivalent Gasum, saying that natural gas supplies will be cut off to Finland on Saturday at 7:00 a.m. local time.

Finnish gas system operator Gasgrid Finland confirmed the Russian gas supplies have been cut off on Saturday.
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Gasum and Gazprom also confirmed on Saturday the gas flows had stopped.

I guess the memories of the upcoming winter will remain in the minds of the Swedish people for decades to come.

[kyonides]

Jill Biden celebrates new childhood cancer partnership with Costa Rica

First Lady Jill Biden visited a children’s hospital in Costa Rica’s capital on Sunday to celebrate a new partnership to combat childhood cancer.

“Together, we can end cancer as we know it,” Biden said in remarks celebrating the partnership between Costa Rica, the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“We can give families, here in Costa Rica, the United States and every corner of the globe, the treatments and cures that they need to live longer, healthier lives,” she added.

Biden was speaking from the National Children’s Hospital of Costa Rica in San José, the same hospital President John F. Kennedy visited during a 1963 tour of Costa Rica.

Biden to lay out in Japan who’s joining new Asia trade pact

The White House says the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework will help the United States and Asian economies work more closely on issues including supply chains, digital trade, clean energy, worker protections and anticorruption efforts.
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Biden is in the midst of a five-day visit to South Korea and Japan — the first trip to Asia of his presidency — that wraps on Tuesday. The White House announced plans to build the economic framework in October as a replacement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the U.S. dropped out of in 2017 under then-President Donald Trump.

The new pact comes at a moment when the administration believes it has the edge in its competition with Beijing. Bloomberg Economics published a report last week projecting U.S. GDP growth at about 2.8% in 2022 compared to 2% for China.
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It doesn’t offer incentives to prospective partners by lowering tariffs or provide signatories with greater access to U.S. markets. Those limitations may not make the U.S. framework an attractive alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which still moved forward after the U.S. bailed out. China, the largest trading partner for many in the region, is also seeking to join TPP.

By the way, it also mentions that Australia has a new prime minister, namely Mr. Anthony Albanese.

Vatican airs dirty laundry in trial  over London property

Recent hearings showed a church bureaucracy that used espionage, allowed outsiders with unverified qualifications to gain access to the Apostolic Palace and relied on a pervasive mantra of sparing the pope responsibility — until someone’s neck was on the line.
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The investigation was borne of the secretariat of state’s 350 million-euro ($370 million) investment in a London property, which was such a debacle that the Vatican sold the building this year at a cumulative loss of more than 200 million euros ($210 million).

Prosecutors have accused Italian brokers, the Vatican’s longtime money manager and Vatican officials of swindling the Holy See out of tens of millions in fees and commissions and of extorting it of 15 million euros (nearly $16 million) to finally get control of the London building.
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Three years on, though, the investigation has cast an unwelcome spotlight on some of Francis’ own decisions and how Vatican monsignors managed a 600 million-euro ($630 million) asset portfolio with little external oversight or expertise.
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Angelo Becciu, is accused of embezzlement for having donated 125,000 euros ($130,000) in Vatican money to a Sardinian charity run by his brother.

Linked to him is another codefendant, Cecilia Marogna, a security analyst who is accused of embezzling 575,000 euros (over $600,000) that Becciu had intended as payment to liberate a Colombian nun held hostage by al-Qaida militants. They both deny wrongdoing, as do the other defendants.

[kyonides]

Creator of ‘Star Wars’ X-Wing and Death Star Dies at Age 90

Colin Cantwell, the man who designed the spacecraft in the “Star Wars” films, has died. He was 90.

Cantwell designed the prototypes for the X-wing Starfighter, TIE fighter and Death Star.

He also worked on films including “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “WarGames.”

Cantwell was born in San Francisco in 1932. Before working on Hollywood films, Cantwell attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he got a degree in animation. He also attended Frank Lloyd Wright’s School of Architecture.

In the 1960s he worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA on educational programs about flights. Cantwell worked with NASA to feed Walter Cronkite updates during the 1969 moon landing.