The Daily Signal - China Sends Ships to Taiwan, Academic Conference Uses ‘Gender Queer’ to Instruct Teachers, UT Austin Fires DEI Employees | April 3

Episode Date: April 3, 2024

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: A professional development conference heavily used the book, “Gender Queer’ to instruct teachers. China deployed planes and warships around Taiwan after Chinese leader Xi Jinping speaks to Biden. The Biden administration canceled plans to restock strategic petroleum reserve. UT Austin fired dozens of DEI employees to comply with a new state law. https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/04/02/national-council-of-teachers-of-english-hosts-seminar-on-how-to-teach-gender-queer/  Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription   Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Wednesday, April 3rd. Here are today's headlines. The Professional Development Organization, the National Council of Teachers of English, hosted training to instruct K-12 teachers on how to teach the controversial book, Gender Queer, in their classrooms, libraries, and communities. This comes from a report from the Daily Signal's own 20 Kennet. Gender Queer is a book published in the book published in the... the comic book style of a graphic novel, and it's a memoir that depicts minors engaging in sexual

acts, as the author recalls exploring her sexuality, including her fantasy of a child having inappropriate relations with an elderly man. The National Council of Teachers of English boasts 25,000 members around the United States. The group hosted a panel on January 25th that included genderqueer author, Maya Kobabe, and LGBTQ Advisory Committee, to discuss how to incorporate the pornographic book into school curriculum. The teacher's organization described Kobab and the other event panelists of having expertise in queer and trans pedigies in schools and teacher education. But this isn't the first time that the National Council of Teachers of English used its education platform

as a bully pulpit for leftist activism. In November, the council began its... annual convention with a nod to Hamas's brutal terrorist attack. They killed over 1,200 people in Israel on October 7th. The organization seems to allude to the attack as expressing Palestinians' rights to self-determination and their rights to Gaza and the West Bank. For more on this story, you can check out today's show notes for Tony Kennett's full report. China sent warplanes and warships around the island of Taiwan today. At least 30 planes and nine ships were detected in Taiwan's air defense identification zone by the country's

Ministry of National Defense. That's according to Fox News. This comes following a phone call between President Joe Biden and China's leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday, and it was the first phone call between those two world leaders since 2022. According to Fox News, Biden and Xi were slated to discuss Taiwan, narcotics, artificial intelligence, and China. China's support of Russia against Ukraine. The aggressive move by the Chinese also comes in the wake of a devastating 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan on Tuesday, which, according to most recent numbers, has left nine individuals dead and 963 injured.

It was the largest earthquake on the island in more than two decades. The Biden administration canceled a plan to refill the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The administration had announced in March that it was going to purchase 3 million barrels of oil to restock the emergency reserve. The Department of Energy said that the reason for the delay is because oil prices have increased, and they are keeping the taxpayers' interests at the forefront. According to Fox Business, the reserve contains over 360 million barrels of oil. This represents a 43% decline since Biden became president in January of 20, The oil reserve was tapped extensively in 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in an attempt

by the Biden administration to temporarily lower domestic gas prices. The Washington Examiner reported that it was the largest one-time drawdown in the history of the stockpile. And they went on to say that while the sales did help alleviate prices for consumers, they also sent reserve levels plummeting to a 40-year low that prompted concern. that a lengthy depletion period could leave the U.S. vulnerable in the event of an emergency. The University of Texas at Austin has reportedly fired about 60 diversity, equity, and inclusion employees in compliance with a new Texas law. The Texas law states that an institution of

higher education may not establish or maintain a diversity equity and inclusion office or assign an employee or contract with a third party to perform the duties of a DEI office. According to the Dallas Morning News, U.T. President Jay Hartzell announced on Tuesday that the school would be closing the division of campus and community engagement, which was filled by mostly DEI-focused positions. Hartzell did not say that the employees were fired, but the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors and the Texas chapter of the NAACP said that about 60 people lost their jobs. The law went into effect on January 1st. Texas Republican state senator Brandon Creighton issued a formal letter to the state's public universities

saying that the anti-D-EI legislation would not allow schools to simply change the name of departments and positions to skirt the law. In the letter, Creighton said when Texas taxpayer dollars are used to fund all, offices, departments, or employee positions dedicated to promoting DEI initiatives rather than basing decisions on merit. That is not only inappropriate, it is inconsistent with state law. Now that SB 17 is law, I'm confident that Texas public colleges and universities can return to their core mission of innovation and education. And if they do not, the Texas Senate will be resolute in enforcement of this legislation. Well, with that, that is going to do it for today. edition of the Daily Signals top news. Thanks for being with us. If you haven't had the chance,

make sure that you check out our morning show. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to be sitting down with Washington State Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rogers as we discuss the TikTok bill that has passed in the House and as we wait for the Senate to take that bill up. We'll also be talking about Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's visit to China. And make sure to take a minute if you have a moment to subscribe to the Daily Signal and leave us a five-star rating and review. We love hearing your feedback. Thanks again for being with us today. Have a wonderful evening.

We will see you right back here tomorrow morning for my conversation with Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rogers. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you. Executive producers are Rob Bluey and Kate Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Mary Margaret O'Lehan, and Tyler O'Neill. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more or support our work. work, please visit dailysignal.com.