EDITORIAL
BY DHIREN SHAH
Hello Readers,
The Newark, NJ election drew the most attention from the public. However, Mayor Ras Baraka won easily with over 13,057 votes. The existing Ward council members were reelected. As for At Large council members, Luis A. Quintana – 8,378, C. Lawrence Crump – 7,630, and Louise Scott-Rountree – 7,188, were reelected. However, there was a surprise. After Carlos Gonzalez decided against running again, Donna Jackson – 6,735 took the last At Large spot.
Donna Jackson, who is a longtime activist, won against the Baraka team’s candidate Josephine (not Jacqueline) Garcia. Hopefully, Donna will look out for the people and be their voice, like she has always done.
In Orange two incumbent council members lost the election. Tency Eason lost against Lynn Ogbourne, while Jamie B. Summers-Johnson lost to James H. Ward, III.
In Irvington, Mayor Tony Vauss won easily against Paul Inman. However, in Belleville, Frank Vélez won easily over incumbent Michael Melham. The incumbent council members who ran for reelection were also ousted.
Overseas, the United Kingdom labor party had a disastrous election result. U.K. Prime-minister Sir Keir Starmer is facing calls from his own party to resign. He stated that he will go back to governing rather than leave.
Memphis Grizzlies star forward and seven-year veteran Brandon Clarke died at the age of 29. He was arrested in 2024 for speeding and possession of controlled substances. On Monday May 11, the fire department of Los Angeles responded to a 911 call. They found Clarke dead at home. It seems like his death was because of an overdose of substances. Police sent his body for an autopsy to find out the reason of his death.
It’s been over two months since the war between USA and Iran began. The USA was not the original country involved in the war, but joined to support Israel. Trump’s daily or even hourly different statements make the war seem like it’s between Iran and USA. No one is taking about Israel as a party in the war now.
China was the largest buyer of Iranian oil, and might be supporting Iran behind the scenes, so Trump flew to China to have a talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two superpowers will talk about how to settle Iran war or at least open the Strait of Hormuz. China will bring a discussion about Taiwan to Trump, while he might ask about Chinese spies and COVID.
Trump wants to impress Xi and make a good business relationship with China. So, he brought along a few CEOs of large corporations including Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Apple’s Tim Cook, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg and a few more. Maybe by making a good business deal, Trump will convince China to convince Iran to settle down and stop the war or at least open the Strait of Hormuz.
Have a wonderful week. I’ll talk to you next week.
