OAN Staff James Meyers
1:21 PM – Thursday, April 17, 2025

Target CEO Brian Cornell is set to meet with civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton this week in New York, amid heavy criticism over the company’s race and gender-based DEI programs.  

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Historically, Sharpton received heavy backlash for his previous involvement in the 1987 Tawana Brawley case, where he openly supported false rape allegations that Brawley, a Black woman, had fabricated at the time. She falsely accused four white men of kidnapping and raping her over a four-day period.

Meanwhile, the recent Target meeting, which was initiated by the retailer corporation, follows recent decisions by the company to scale back DEI initiatives — a decision that civil rights organizations highly criticized.

Target is one of several businesses that have dropped policies and initiatives meant to increase DEI demands, including Walmart, Amazon, and PepsiCo. Though Sharpton has not yet called for an official boycott, he has openly supported consumer “movements” urging shoppers to avoid Target.

“If an election determines your commitment to fairness, then fine, you have a right to withdraw from us, but then we have a right to withdraw from you,” he said.

Sharpton also noted in a statement that he is open to initiating a formal boycott, so long as Target chooses not to reaffirm its “support and investment” in the Black community and Black-owned businesses.

“I said, ‘If [Target CEO Brian Cornell] wants to have a candid meeting, we’ll meet,’” Sharpton said. “I want to first hear what he has to say.”

Meanwhile, since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January, the president has worked to end “racist and discriminatory” DEI programs within the federal government. He has also warned schools to do the same — or risk losing federal funds. 

Target announced back in January that it would terminate its 3-year DEI targets and stop providing company reports to external groups, such as the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. The retail company also ended measures to force increased shelf space for products specifically from Black- and minority-owned businesses.

According to data firm Placer.ai, after the measures were halted, Target experienced store visits declining for 10 consecutive weeks — starting in late January. However, many have also attributed this to the fact that Target has consistently pushed transgender and LGBTQ ideology through its merchandise in the last two years.

The decline coincided with the public calls over the company’s decision. 

Additionally, Rev. Jamal Bryant, an Atlanta-based pastor, has been another vocal critic of Target’s DEI policy shift. Bryant called for a “fast” from shopping at Target during lent — in order to demonstrate “Black consumer influence.”

Sharpton’s National Action Network recently engaged with other corporations facing similar scrutiny as well. He met PepsiCo executives after the beverage giant halted its DEI targets.

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OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
12:11 PM – Thursday, April 17, 2025

On Thursday, President Donald Trump welcomed Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to the White House and told reporters that he was hopeful that the United States and the European Union would come to a trade agreement.

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Since Trump declared last week that his “Liberation Day” set of reciprocal tariffs would be put on hold for ninety days, Meloni, 48, is the first European leader to meet with the GOP president.

WASHINGTON :A mineral called siderite found abundantly in rock drilled by a NASA rover on the surface of Mars is providing fresh evidence of the planet’s warmer and wetter ancient past when it boasted substantial bodies of water and potentially harbored life.

The Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012 to explore whether Earth’s planetary neighbor was ever able to support microbial life, found the mineral in rock samples drilled at three locations in 2022 and 2023 inside Gale crater, a large impact basin with a mountain in the middle.

Siderite is an iron carbonate mineral. Its presence in sedimentary rocks formed billions of years ago offers evidence that Mars once had a dense atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide, a gas that would have warmed the planet through the greenhouse effect to the point that it could sustain bodies of liquid water on its surface.

There are features on the Martian landscape that many scientists have interpreted as signs that liquid water once flowed across its surface, with potential oceans, lakes and rivers considered as possible habitats for past microbial life.

Carbon dioxide is the main climate-regulating greenhouse gas on Earth, as it is on Mars and Venus. Its presence in the atmosphere traps heat from the sun, warming the climate.

Until now, evidence indicating the Martian atmosphere previously was rich in carbon dioxide has been sparse. The hypothesis is that when the atmosphere – for reasons not fully understood – evolved from thick and rich in carbon dioxide to thin and starved of this gas, the carbon through geochemical processes became entombed in rocks in the planet’s crust as a carbonate mineral.

The samples obtained by Curiosity, which drills 1.2 to 1.6 inches (3-4 centimeters) down into rock to study its chemical and mineral composition, lend weight to this notion. The samples contained up to 10.5 per cent siderite by weight, as determined by an instrument onboard the car-sized, six-wheeled rover.

“One of the longstanding mysteries in the study of Martian planetary evolution and habitability is: if large amounts of carbon dioxide were required to warm the planet and stabilize liquid water, why are there so few detections of carbonate minerals on the Martian surface?” said University of Calgary geochemist Benjamin Tutolo, a participating scientist on NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover team and lead author of the study published on Thursday in the journal Science.

“Models predict that carbonate minerals should be widespread. But, to date, rover-based investigations and satellite-based orbital surveys of the Martian surface had found little evidence of their presence,” Tutolo added.

Because rock similar to that sampled by the rover has been identified globally on Mars, the researchers suspect it too contains an abundance of carbonate minerals and may hold a substantial portion of the carbon dioxide that once warmed Mars.

The Gale crater sedimentary rocks – sandstones and mudstones – are thought to have been deposited around 3.5 billion years ago, when this was the site of a lake and before the Martian climate underwent a dramatic change.

“The shift of Mars’ surface from more habitable in the past, to apparently sterile today, is the largest-known environmental catastrophe,” said planetary scientist and study co-author Edwin Kite of the University of Chicago and Astera Institute.

“We do not know the cause of this change, but Mars has a very thin carbon dioxide atmosphere today, and there is evidence that the atmosphere was thicker in the past. This puts a premium on understanding where the carbon went, so discovering a major unsuspected deposit of carbon-rich materials is an important new clue,” Kite added.

The rover’s findings offer insight into the carbon cycle on ancient Mars.

On Earth, volcanoes spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and the gas is absorbed by surface waters – mainly the ocean – and combines with elements such as calcium to form limestone rock. Through the geological process called plate tectonics, this rock is reheated and the carbon is ultimately released again into the atmosphere through volcanism. Mars, however, lacks plate tectonics.

“The important feature of the ancient Martian carbon cycle that we outline in this study is that it was imbalanced. In other words, substantially more carbon dioxide seems to have been sequestered into the rocks than was subsequently released back into the atmosphere,” Tutolo said.

“Models of Martian climate evolution can now incorporate our new analyses, and in turn, help to refine the role of this imbalanced carbon cycle in maintaining, and ultimately losing, habitability over Mars’ planetary history,” Tutolo added.

SAN FRANCISCO : Alphabet’s Google illegally dominates two markets for online advertising technology, a judge ruled on Thursday, dealing another blow to the tech giant and paving the way for U.S. antitrust prosecutors to seek a breakup of its advertising products.

The decision clears the way for a hearing at another trial to determine what Google must do to restore competition, such as sell off parts of its business. That trial has yet to be scheduled.

LEONIE BRINKEMA, U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA, IN ALEXANDRIA

“In addition to depriving rivals of the ability to compete, this exclusionary conduct substantially harmed Google’s publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web.”

GIL LURIA, ANALYST AT D.A. DAVIDSON

“The U.S. Department of Justice is focused on breaking up all of Google’s monopolies and it does not look like they are going to let up. The best course of action would be for Google to proactively spin off some of its businesses in order to address the DOJ’s concerns. That may include the ad network business, Chrome and Android. We believe a breakup of Google would create a significant amount of shareholder value, as the sum of the value of their individual businesses is far greater than where the stock is trading now.”

MICHAEL ASHLEY SCHULMAN, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER AT RUNNING POINT CAPITAL

“While Google’s advertising business has long been a pillar of its financial strength, this ruling threatens to dismantle its integrated control over digital advertising, forcing either operational changes or outright divestitures. The risk of a forced breakup — once viewed as remote — is now materially higher, placing significant pressure on Google’s long-term margins and growth outlook. Investors will have to recalibrate their assumptions around Google’s advertising dominance, likely leading to greater earnings fog and a valuation reset.”

“The ruling against Google marks a watershed moment for Big Tech regulation. It raises real risks of a breakup of Google’s ad business and signals that U.S. courts are now open to structural remedies, not just fines. Investors should expect higher regulatory risk premiums across the tech sector, putting pressure on valuations just as fundamentals are already weakening.”

“A federal judge’s finding that Google illegally monopolized the ad tech market is a major inflection point for the company and the broader tech sector especially since the Trump administration was expected to be FTC-light when compared to the Biden administration.”

EVELYN MITCHELL-WOLF, ANALYST AT EMARKETER

“This decision has profound implications for the advertising industry. The open web is so deeply rooted in Google’s advertising technology that any change to the status quo could crush vulnerable publishers, who are already facing existential crises monetizing waning traffic amid consumer data restrictions.”

“The extent of the fallout will depend on the legal remedies employed, and the implementation timeline is likely to span years if Google loses its anticipated appeals. But the bigger picture is crystal clear: the antitrust tides have turned against Google and other digital advertising giants. If Meta loses its battle with the Federal Trade Commission, the digital advertising landscape could be unrecognizable in 5 years’ time.”

SARAH KAY WILEY, POLICY DIRECTOR OF NONPROFIT AD WATCHDOG CHECK MY ADS

“For years, we’ve witnessed how Google’s unchecked power has distorted the ad tech ecosystem, disadvantaging publishers, advertisers, and ultimately, consumers. Today, we are one monumental step closer to a fair and competitive digital advertising market.”

LEE HEPNER, SENIOR LEGAL COUNSEL OF AMERICAN ECONOMIC LIBERTIES PROJECT

“Case by case, antitrust enforcers are taming the beasts of Big Tech.”

“Yet another monumental win in the history of antitrust enforcement, this case in particular is a win for journalists, publishers, online content creators and the distributed open web.”

SACHA HAWORTH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF TECH OVERSIGHT PROJECT

“For years, Google wielded unchecked monopoly power over the digital advertising market – using it to suffocate the media industry and force middleman taxes on everything we buy online. The result is that our internet is less open and free, and civic discourse has irreparably been damaged by killing the local news we need to operate a vibrant democracy. This ruling is an unequivocal win for the American people that will help lower prices, increase competition, and lead to a better internet for everyone.”

DHgate, a Beijing-based business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform founded in 2004, directly ships factory-made goods from China under the de minimis rule.

US downloads increased by a staggering 940 per cent from its 30-day average, according to data from app intelligence firm Appfigures, cited by media company Cailianshe.

At the same time, analysts warned that the boom could also backfire as platforms face scrutiny over intellectual property and quality.

SPILLING THE TEA ON LUXURY BRANDS

A global digital information war is also taking place, with Chinese content creators flooding platforms like TikTok, using videos to pull back the curtain on China’s invisible role in the global supply chain. 

Their message: asking US shoppers why they were paying hundreds of dollars more for little more than a logo.

Snappy reels and videos filmed in various factory and production settings feature hosts and sellers comparing luxury Western brands to alleged unbranded counterparts, claiming that products were made in the same factories, using the same materials – just without the expensive brand marketing. 

A video from a creator with the handle Sen Bags gave viewers a tour of its production floor in Guangzhou and stated that it has been producing for global luxury brands for decades. 

“Luxury can be reasonable.”

The trend isn’t entirely new – but amid rising tariffs and renewed US-China trade tensions, this content is seeing renewed interest, resonating with a new wave of price-conscious buyers.

In a resurfaced viral TikTok video from 2024, a creator from The Rohrs Team, which focuses on investment consulting, claimed Swiss watches were commonly made in China, despite their prestigious labels. 

“You’re imagining this bespoke factory in Switzerland with mountains in the background … That’s not the case,” the creator said, noting that only one high-cost component is added in Switzerland to meet the 60 per cent cost threshold required for the “Swiss Made” label.

Similar comments were made in another viral TikTok video that drew more than 10,000 likes. Better known online as The Watch Regulator, the creator – a former watch technician who claims to have worked for one of the world’s largest Swiss watch companies – lifted the veil on the industry’s opaque sourcing practices. 

“This has been going on for at least 50 years. I worked on some of their watches dating back to the 70s that were mainly made in China,” the creator said, adding that he had been fired for speaking publicly.

A TikTok user said: “I’m just happy people are starting to realise that it’s not worth spending thousands of dollars to buy something just because of the logo.”

SINGAPORE: The Singapore United Party (SUP) has unveiled five potential candidates who will likely contest Ang Mo Kio GRC in the upcoming General Election.

They are SUP secretary-general Andy Zhu Laicheng, party chairman Ridhuan Chandran, party treasurer Noraini Yunus, flight attendant Nigel Ng, and businessman Vincent Ng.  

The potential candidates were briefly introduced to the media by Mr Zhu on Thursday (Apr 17) night at Kebun Baru Food Centre in Ang Mo Kio.

He said: “SUP is committed to building a more just and equitable Singapore. We are dedicated to working tirelessly with the ruling government to achieve these goals.”

The press conference started almost an hour late and lasted less than 10 minutes. The party did not take any questions and left shortly after presenting the team members, citing “an urgent task on hand”.

SUP later told the media that the team members went to pay their election deposits after the news conference.

They were subsequently seen engaging residents while on a walkabout at the nearby food centre.