By Alexandra Banner, CNN

Texas can now require public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments, a ruling that has reignited debate over the role of religion in public education. The decision could ultimately set the stage for a future showdown at the Supreme Court over the issue, analysts say.

Here’s what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day.

1⃣ Air quality

Today, on Earth Day, a sobering new report says the nation’s air quality is putting millions of Americans at risk of health problems. Nearly half the US population — or about 152 million people — breathes unhealthy air and lives in a county that received a failing grade for pollution, data shows. But as the air grows dirtier in many of the nation’s most populous areas, one city stands out for all the right reasons. Read more.

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2⃣ Louisiana shooting

The tragic murder of eight children in Shreveport, Louisiana, highlights a baffling question: How could a parent do such a thing? And yet it’s not unheard of. Each year in the US, there are nearly 500 arrests for filicide — the legal term for when parents kill their children — according to an analysis of FBI data by Forensic Science International. Experts caution that these numbers are likely underreported. Read more.

3⃣ Truce extended

President Donald Trump said he has extended the ceasefire with Iran until peace talks have ended — despite his prior vow not to prolong the truce. Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said today that two vessels were seized in the Strait of Hormuz and transferred to Iranian waters. An estimated 20% of the world’s oil supply comes through the key passage. Read more.

4⃣ Redistricting

Virginia voters approved a map that gives Democrats the chance to net as many as four US House seats, a major boost to the party’s effort to win control of the House in the midterm elections. But as the tit-for-tat redistricting battle intensifies nationwide, Republicans could still emerge with a slight edge if Florida passes a new map in the coming weeks. Read more.

5⃣ Flu shots

The Pentagon on Tuesday made the flu shot optional for US troops, rescinding a service-wide requirement. The move, which takes effect immediately, comes as flu season has largely ended and cases are declining, according to the CDC. Annual flu vaccines are available for everyone ages six months and older, and doctors widely recommend them to reduce the risk of severe illness and hospitalization. Read more.

Breakfast browse

Mets in a funk

Some New York Mets fans are running out of faith as the team’s losing streak reaches a dozen games.

‘Bathtub ring’ offers new evidence for ancient Mars ocean

Análisis por Aaron Blake, CNN

Quizás ningún político moderno haya contribuido más a la difusión de teorías conspirativas que el presidente Donald Trump.

Tras lanzar su carrera política republicana con falsas afirmaciones sobre el lugar de nacimiento del entonces presidente Barack Obama, Trump ha dedicado una década a difundir todo tipo de teorías descabelladas sobre el supuesto fraude electoral de 2020, los inmigrantes haitianos que se comen a las mascotas de la gente y demás.

Además, ha cultivado aliados que le han ayudado a impulsar esas teorías, convenciendo a menudo a muchos de sus seguidores.

Pero el monstruo que Trump ayudó a crear podría ahora ir a por él.

Si bien relativamente pocos aliados de alto perfil de Trump se han vuelto en su contra por la guerra con Irán y otros temas, quienes lo han hecho tienden a provenir desproporcionadamente de los sectores más conspiracionistas de sus seguidores.

Nos referimos a personas como Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson y otros influyentes.

Últimamente, han estado difundiendo cada vez más teorías conspirativas anti-Trump entre su audiencia.

Una teoría que ha cobrado fuerza recientemente es que hay algo sospechoso en el intento de asesinato contra Trump en Butler, Pensilvania, en 2024, lo que implica que podría haber sido un montaje.

Otras teorías plantean que el presidente está supeditado a Israel o incluso “comprometido” de alguna otra manera. Que la lealtad de Trump y su administración hacia los republicanos es sospechosa, e incluso que podría ser el anticristo.

Por supuesto, no hay pruebas reales de que se haya cometido ningún delito. Pero, preocupantemente para Trump, algunas de estas teorías parecen estar ganando terreno en las redes sociales.

Las teorías de Butler son, con diferencia, las más extendidas en este momento, aunque a menudo se presentan bajo el pretexto de “solo estoy haciendo preguntas” (una táctica que Trump ha utilizado personalmente en el pasado).

Joe Kent, quien recientemente renunció a su cargo como alto funcionario antiterrorista de la administración Trump citando la guerra con Irán, afirmó ante Carlson que las investigaciones sobre Butler han sido sospechosamente obstaculizadas.

Greene, la excongresista republicana de Georgia, dijo en una publicación en redes sociales el domingo que no estaba calificando a Butler de “farsa”, antes de agregar: “Pero hay muchas preguntas que merecen respuestas públicas”.

El presentador de podcasts Joe Rogan ha aludido ocasionalmente a este tipo de preguntas, y su colega, el también presentador Tim Dillon, llegó incluso a afirmar recientemente: “Creo que tal vez fue un montaje”.

Mientras tanto, Carlson y Candace Owens han vinculado las preguntas con un actor clave en muchas teorías conspirativas de este tipo: Israel. (Cabe destacar que ambos se han centrado extensamente en Israel en sus comentarios y han enfrentado frecuentes acusaciones de antisemitismo).

Carlson sugirió que Kent podría tener razón al afirmar que la falta de una investigación más exhaustiva sobre Butler demuestra la influencia de Israel sobre el Gobierno estadounidense.

El presunto atacante, Thomas Matthew Cro

By Andrew Freedman, CNN

(CNN) — Something unusual and with far-reaching consequences is lurking in the sea off the California coast, stretching all the way down the Baja Peninsula and more than 500 miles to the southwest.

In this broad region, a large, long-lasting and record-setting marine heat wave has set in and is forecast to persist and intensify, altering the weather conditions on the West Coast and adversely affecting the marine food chain.

This heat wave, which is the oceanic equivalent of a heat wave on land, could have broad ramifications for sea life, as warm water species like hammerhead sharks and bluefin tuna migrate into areas where they are normally not seen, and cold-water species move deeper and further north.

The marine heat wave may have widespread impacts on the weather in the West, making off-the-chart heatwaves like March’s more likely and intense, supercharging rainfall and even allowing tropical systems to come northward into California.

Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography are monitoring ocean temperatures along the California coast, where their records stretch back more than a century. They have been recording one hot ocean record after another, especially during the past few weeks.

Since January 1 and through the end of last week, there were 36 days when sea surface temperatures at Scripps Pier in La Jolla, California set records for the hottest water temperature ever recorded on that date. This is significant, since daily data at that location goes all the way back to 1916.

Scripps’ scientists are using robotic ocean-going vehicles to investigate water temperatures below the sea surface. They have found that the unusually hot waters extend to deep depths and are comparable to conditions typically seen when a significant El Niño has taken hold.

El Niño features unusually hot ocean waters near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, along with significant changes to global weather patterns and the planet’s climate.

However, while a potentially strong El Niño is predicted to develop by the end of the summer to early fall, there is not one present right now. This warns of just how much hotter water temperatures could get in this region during the coming weeks and months.

According to Dillon Amaya, a research scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a climate cycle that is a precursor to El Niño now joins the distinct California marine heat wave with a far bigger area of unusually hot ocean waters that extends all the way to Indonesia. (The climate cycle is known as the Pacific Meridional Mode.)

Together, these two entities comprise one of the biggest marine heat waves on Earth right now.

Computer model projections show this broad hotter-than-average region morphing into an El Niño along the equator over time, while the smaller, closer-in marine heat wave continues to bake the waters off the California coast, potentially even into the fall and winter months, Amaya said.

The California marine heat wave is already having an impact on the Pacific Ocean’s food web. Tammy Russell, a marine ornithologist at Scripps, said that seabirds in particular are being impacted, which is a warning sign about more serious impacts to come for other species as well. Russell studies seabirds closely, and how they interact with the broader marine ecosystem.

“We have been seeing an increase in the number of seabirds coming into rehabilitation facilities and washing up dead on the beaches across southern and central California for a few months now,” she said in a statement. “Most of the birds are emaciated and have tested negative for HPAI (av

By David Goldman, CNN

(CNN) — From his start at Apple, Tim Cook was a numbers guy.

Shortly after Steve Jobs returned to Apple (AAPL) in the late 1990s to rescue the company he had founded, he hired Cook from Compaq to run Apple’s supply chain and operations. Jobs was in charge of the flashy stuff like the new, colorful iMac. Cook needed to make sure Apple could get all the parts it needed. You know – the boring stuff.

As CEO – a job Cook has held for nearly 15 years – Cook has been criticized for lacking Jobs’ flair and ability to promote groundbreaking innovation.

But numbers don’t lie. And the sales, profit and market value Cook was able to achieve for Apple during his tenure were unparalleled.

By the time Cook took over at Apple, the company was already generating about half of its $108 billion in annual sales from the iPhone. Under Cook, Apple created two new categories – services and wearables – which last year brought in a combined $145 billion in sales, a large chunk of Apple’s total revenue of $416 billion.

Cook has more than quadrupled Apple’s profit during his tenure, setting all-time records for any public company along the way. The introduction of services, including Apple TV+ and Apple Pay, has boosted the company’s profit considerably over the past several years.

The S&P 500 has gained 504% since the day Tim Cook took over. Apple’s gain has been more than triple that.

Apple became the first $1 trillion company in 2018. It is now worth $4 trillion, and it’s the second-most valuable company on the US stock market, behind only chipmaker Nvidia.

Cook’s career has been impressive by any measure – even President Donald Trump on Tuesday boasted on Truth Social that he was “very impressed with myself to have the head of Apple calling” during his first term for help with an unspecified concern.

“Tim Cook had an AMAZING career, almost incomparable, and will go on and continue to do great work for Apple, and whatever else he chooses to work on,” Trump said. “Quite simply, Tim Cook is an incredible guy!!!”

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By Sean Lyngaas, CNN

(CNN) — US companies in the retail, hospitality and medical sectors trusted Angelo Martino to negotiate with hackers who were trying to extort them. Instead, he made the extortion worse, federal prosecutors allege.

Martino allegedly accumulated at least $10 million in assets, including a luxury fishing boat and two properties, as he worked as a ransomware negotiator — one of the most sensitive jobs in cybersecurity.

He also gave a major cybercriminal gang information about his clients’ negotiating positions in order to “maximize” the ransom payments and then take his own cut of them, according to federal prosecutors.

The case is “groundbreaking” because it raises tough questions for the cybersecurity industry about who is being paid to protect ransomware victims, a senior Justice Department official who oversaw the case told CNN. It is also causing a reckoning among security firms that have to deal with the seedy underworld of ransom negotiations.

Ransomware attacks, which lock a computer so the attacker can demand payment, have cost the US economy billions of dollars and shut down critical services. The threat has spawned a lucrative industry of cybersecurity providers who negotiate ransom payments or help law enforcement track down the hackers. Many of those hired are professionals. Some aren’t.

“In working on ransomware for many years, we were … hearing rumors [of misconduct], and I wasn’t shocked that we ended up with a case with these types of charged facts,” the Justice Department official said in an interview.

The Justice Department has looked at at least one other, unrelated instance of alleged fraud in the cybersecurity industry and could bring charges in the coming months, the official said.

“What I think is out there is what I would call more the explicit fraud scenario, where the so-called incident response firm is really not adding any value at all and just defrauding the victim,” the Justice Department official said.

With Martino’s help, the cybercriminal gang was able to secure ransom payments of $25 million or more from a nonprofit and a financial services firm, according to court documents. Martino and two other cybersecurity experts charged in the case, Kevin Tyler Martin and Ryan Clifford Goldberg, are accused of deploying ransomware on victim computers — the very activity they’re trained to stop. After extorting one victim for $1.2 million, the three men split the Bitcoin payment three ways, according to the Justice Department.

Martino allegedly succumbed to a temptation that many ransomware negotiators have faced.

“Ransomware threat actors have a long and well documented history of attempting to build direct relationships with negotiation firms,” said Magnus Jelen, an executive at incident response firm Coveware, which is owned by Veeam Software. “In some cases, they have even developed mechanisms designed to allow unethical intermediaries to profit from ransom payments without full visibility for victims.”

Martino pleaded guilty to a felony charge, the Justice Department announced this week. Martin and Goldberg have also pleaded guilty in the case. Their alleged crimes took place in 2023.

Attorneys for Martin and Goldberg declined to comment. An attorney for Martino did not respond to requests for comment.

Martin and Martino worked for DigitalMint, an Illinois-based firm that helps victims recover from ransomware attacks and in some cases pays ransoms, according to its website. DigitalMint says it immediately fired the men after learning of the Justice Department’s allegations.

“As the government explicitly stated in wri