Things Musk (and Trump) Did... Day 33 | Blog#42
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FBI told to transfer 1,500 personnel from headquarters: Reports
The FBI told managers that 1,500 personnel will be transferred from the headquarters near Washington headquarters to offices around the country, including around a third being placed in an Alabama office, multiple outlets reported on Friday.
Around 1,000 staff and agents would be dispatched into offices nationwide, including another 500 that will be placed in the agency’s Huntsville, Ala., campus. The change was relayed to workers at a Friday meeting.
The development was signaled by the agency’s new director Kash Patel, who was confirmed Thursday with a 51-49 vote and sworn in on Friday.
Continue reading at The Hill
Newsom sends Congress $40 billion request for LA fire aid
The letter comes amid weeks of intense debate in Washington centered around whether the anticipated disaster aid for California would come with conditions
In the 14-page letter late Friday, addressed to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Reps. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) of the Appropriations Committee, Newsom wrote that as the state continues to assess the damage while conducting active response and recovery efforts, officials expect to identify additional funding needs beyond the $39.68 billion he outlined Friday.
“Make no mistake, Los Angeles will use this money wisely,” Newsom wrote. “California will ensure that funds will serve individuals, communities, property owners, and businesses that suffered losses from these devastating fires.”
Added Newsom: “California has long been the tentpole of the American economy, a state whose GDP is the fifth largest on the planet and which contributes more tax receipts to the federal government than any other state — by far. California’s success is America’s success.”
Continue reading at Politico
Angry Voters in Georgia
Trump administration launches probe into Maine’s transgender sports participation policy
Launching a civil rights investigation is a key step in the process of yanking a school’s federal funding.
The Education Department on Friday launched a probe into Maine’s transgender student sports participation policy after the president threatened the state’s federal funding at a meeting of governors at the White House.
During the event President Donald Trump touted his executive order that barred transgender students from competing in women’s sports and the effect it has had on the NCAA. Soon after he threatened Maine’s federal funding and singled out Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, and her state’s policies after she refused to say whether she would comply with his order.
The Trump administration’s response was swift.
Just hours later, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights launched a self-initiated investigation into the Maine Department of Education for potentially violating Title IX, the federal education law that bars sex-based discrimination.
Continue reading at Politico
Supreme Court delays Trump's firing of agency head
Why it matters: The case concerning the removal of Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel is the first of what's expected to be several appeals to the high court since President Trump regained office and moved to fire government workers in a federal workforce overhaul.
The Trump administration is facing multiple lawsuits challenging the actions.
Driving the news: The Supreme Court decided Friday to postpone its decision until the lower court's ruling expired on February 26.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, saying they would have denied the administration's request.
Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito also dissented, writing they would have allowed the Trump administration's request.
Continue reading at Axios
After years of firm support, 10 days upended the US approach to Ukraine
Kyiv had benefited from years of staunch support by its allies in the United States and Europe which had provided crucial military and financial support to help defend against Moscow’s grinding incursions.
But when Trump held a lengthy phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week — undoing years of U.S. policy to isolate the Russian leader over his aggression — it was taken as a signal in Kyiv and other European capitals that their alliance to contain Moscow was fraying.
Here’s a timeline of events:
Continue reading at the Associated Press
US offers UN resolution on war in Ukraine that stops far short of competing European statement
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States has proposed a draft U.N. resolution that stops far short of a competing European-backed statement demanding an immediate withdrawal of all of Moscow’s forces from Ukraine.
Both are timed to the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which falls on Monday, when the U.N. General Assembly will vote on the nonbinding resolutions.
It sets up a clash between the United States and Europe as the strength of the transatlantic alliance has been called into question over the Trump administration’s extraordinary turnaround on Russia, opening negotiations with Moscow after years of isolation as the U.S. looks to broker a rapid end to the war. European leaders were dismayed that their officials and those from Ukraine weren’t invited to preliminary U.S.-Russia talks this week in Saudi Arabia.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
White House and Ukraine nearing rare earths deal that would tighten relationship, AP source says
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and Ukraine have made significant progress toward reaching an agreement that would provide the U.S. with access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals and tighten the long-term relationship between Kyiv and Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The progress in talks comes after President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traded sharp rhetoric this week about their differences over the matter.
Zelenskyy said he balked at signing off on a deal that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed during a visit to Kyiv last week, and the Ukrainian leader objected again days later during a meeting in Munich with Vice President JD Vance because the American proposal did not include security guarantees.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
France’s Macron says he will tell Trump ‘you can’t be weak in front of President Putin’
French President Emmanuel Macron will meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.
AP Video
The firing of Joint Chiefs Chair is discussed by a CNN panel, led by Kaitlan Collins:
Trump fires top military leaders in unprecedented shakeup
The Friday night terminations include Chair of the Joint Chiefs Gen. C.Q. Brown.
President Donald Trump fired Chair of the Joint Chiefs Gen. C.Q. Brown on Friday night, and said he intends to dismiss the Navy’s top admiral and the Air Force’s second in command — an unprecedented shakeup of the Pentagon’s top brass that will trigger ripple effects throughout the military.
Trump, in a Truth Social post, said he was nominating retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to take Brown’s place. Caine is a partner at Shield Capital, a venture capital firm.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, minutes later, said in a statement that he is “requesting nominations” for replacements for Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti and Air Force Vice Chief Gen. James Slife.
The Pentagon chief also said he was also looking for new nominations for senior judicial officers — the services’ top lawyers — for the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Continue reading at Politico
The Memo: Trump’s jabs at Ukraine divide GOP
During former President Biden’s administration, Washington placed great emphasis on the fact that an end to the war, sparked by Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor, would only come on terms with which the government of Ukraine agreed.
But during his Friday radio interview, Trump dismissed the need to have Zelensky involved in talks, saying he did not think the Ukrainian president was “very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you.”
With words like that, Trump fanned the flames of a storm that has consumed much of the week. He has appeared to echo Kremlin narratives of the war and placed much of the blame for the conflict on Ukraine.
In the process, Republican and conservative voices have been raised against him in a way that has not previously been seen in the first weeks of his second term.
Continue reading at The Hill
Tesla recalls over 376,000 vehicles due to power steering defect
Tesla is recalling 376,241 of its vehicles after reports that their electronic power steering assist could potentially fail due to a software defect.
The recall involves some 2023 Tesla Model 3s and some 2023 Tesla Model Ys, according to the recall report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
As explained by the recall, the affected Tesla models’ electronic power-assisted steering (EPAS) could become overstressed, causing potential loss of steering when the vehicle starts accelerating again after coming to a stop.
The vehicle manufacturer says its designs prevents loss of EPAS while the models are in motion.
Continue reading at The Hill
How much federal data has Trump really purged?
Trump’s executive orders caused some websites to go dark
Almost 3,400 datasets removed from Data.gov since he took office
Researchers in a ‘mad scramble’ to identify what’s gone
The Trump administration has scrubbed nearly 3,400 federal datasets from the U.S. government’s open data site, Data.gov.
In his first month in office, President Trump has made good on his promise to clean house, with massive slashes in the federal workforce and in publicly accessible data.
Pre-Trump, there were 308,000 datasets available on Data.gov. It’s since dipped to 304,621 as of Feb. 21. That’s 3,379 datasets removed — but what was on those pages?
One researcher told The Associated Press earlier this month that the factual purge has put them in “a mad scramble” to determine what public data has been deleted from government websites and electronic publications.
Continue reading at The Hill
If Trump Is Set on Toppling Washington Pillars, Here’s a Possible Target
The State Sponsors of Terrorism List is more of a political weapon than a logical grouping of countries.
In his final days as president, Joe Biden said he was taking Cuba off the State Sponsors of Terrorism List. But Donald Trump wasn’t having it: Shortly after taking the oath of office, the come-back president signed an order to keep Cuba on the list.
Such policy seesawing is the new normal in Washington, even on matters that affect millions of lives. But for many national security professionals, this particular decision provided more proof of another problem: the State Sponsors of Terrorism List is nonsensical.
As Trump looks for government projects to ax, he may want to consider ditching the list. He may even get bipartisan support in doing so.
Ask anyone in the counterterrorism space about the decades-old list, and they’ll complain. Some will say there are countries on the list that should not be. Others argue there are countries not on the list that should be. But pretty much all agree that politics — not sound legal reasoning — determines who’s on and who’s off.
“Unfortunately, the state sponsor of terrorism decisions have always been highly politicized,” said Jason Blazakis, a former civil servant who directed the State Department’s terrorism designations office. “There certainly is a review process to evaluate the facts, but it’s driven by politics and, in some cases, foreign policy and compromise and negotiation. But seldom does it really revolve around acts of extremism.”
Continue reading at Politico Magazine
Trump says he may take control of the US Postal Service. Here’s what to know
What’s the history of the USPS?
The Post Office was created during the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1775, when Benjamin Franklin became the first postmaster general. In 1872, Congress named it an executive branch department. But that changed after an eight-day postal strike over wages and benefits in 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed the Postal Reorganization Act, which made it an independent, self-financing agency called the U.S. Postal Service.
In recent years, as it’s sometimes struggled to stay afloat, the Postal Service has fought calls from Trump and others that it be privatized.
Who works for the USPS?
The 1970 reorganization gave workers pay raises and the right to collective bargaining, helping generations of Americans, especially Blacks and other minorities, move into the middle class. Today, the USPS employs about 640,000 workers tasked with delivering mail, medicine, election ballots and packages across the country, from inner cities to rural areas and even far-flung islands. They remained on duty during the coronavirus pandemic, when the American Postal Workers Union says more than 200 postal workers died.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Trump is ‘doing Europe a great service,’ Slovak leader tells rapt Washington crowd
Russia-friendly Robert Fico says pro-Trump MAGA movement represents “a vision that resonates urgently.”
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico offered fulsome praise of Donald Trump to an approving audience in Washington on Friday, and applauded the U.S. president's repudiation of America's commitments to Ukraine and its historic allies in NATO and the European Union.
"Your president is doing Europe a great service," Fico told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in a 15-minute speech. "The energy and determination with which your President Donald Trump has entered into the peace process in Ukraine is admirable ... He is bringing truth and, we all hope, peace back to Europe," he said.
The Slovak leader and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán have become Europe's enfants terribles in the past few years, echoing Moscow's talking points and pushing against continued military aid to Ukraine.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
US deregulation drive is ‘dangerous,’ French central bank chief warns
The push by the Trump administration creates a “big risk” for financial stability, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau tells Alternatives Économiques magazine.
The Trump administration's push for financial and environmental deregulation is "dangerous," the head of France's central bank said.
"The current wave of U.S. deregulation is dangerous," both for banks and non-bank financial services companies like funds and crypto, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau told French financial magazine Alternatives Économiques in an interview published Saturday.
This creates a "big risk" for financial stability, said Villeroy de Galhau, who also sits on the European Central Bank's Governing Council.
Villeroy de Galhau differentiated the moves in the U.S. from the push by Brussels to simplify EU regulations, particularly in the field of environmental disclosures for corporate and financial services companies.
The European simplification drive "maintains the objectives of financial stability and climate transition," he said.
Villeroy de Galhau also discussed the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), a voluntary coalition aimed at mobilizing central banks to address climate change. The U.S. Federal Reserve officially left the NGFS in January just before Donald Trump returned to the White House.
"The Fed joined us under Biden; it is leaving us under Trump," Villeroy de Galhau said. "We will of course continue: the enthusiasm of this 'coalition of the willing' is needed more than ever."
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Trump baselessly slams Macron, Starmer for failing to help Ukraine
The French and British leaders “haven’t done anything” to end the war in Ukraine, U.S. president charges in Fox News interview.
French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer "haven't done anything" to end the war in Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on Friday.
Trump's assertion, which isn't supported by official data, comes days before the two European leaders are due to make separate visits to the White House.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump slammed the French and U.K. leaders for not spending enough to support Kyiv since Russian President Vladimir Putin's all-out invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, amid rising tensions between the European Union and the U.S. over ongoing negotiations to end the war.
"Europe is basically giving nothing," Trump said in the interview, while the U.S. is "spending our treasure on some, a country that's very, very far away."
But according to Germany’s Kiel Institute, which compiles national contributions to Kyiv’s war effort, both Britain and France have given substantial aid to Ukraine, and Europe as a whole has provided more assistance than the U.S.
In total, European governments have allocated €62 billion in military aid to help Ukraine, as well as €70 billion in financial and humanitarian assistance, the Kiel figures show. Washington has allocated €64 billion in military aid and €50 billion in financial and humanitarian aid, according to the institute.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Trump-Putin summit preparations are underway, Russia says as Washington ends isolation of Moscow
Speaking to Russian state media, Sergei Ryabkov said a possible Putin-Trump summit could involve broad talks on global issues, not just the war in Ukraine.
“The question is about starting to move towards normalizing relations between our countries, finding ways to resolve the most acute and potentially very, very dangerous situations, of which there are many, Ukraine among them,” he said.
But he said efforts to organize such a meeting are at an early stage, and that making it happen will require “the most intensive preparatory work.”
Ryabkov added that U.S. and Russian envoys could meet “within the next two weeks,” to pave the way for further talks between senior officials.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Office-to-apartment conversions keep rising
The pipeline for new apartments in old offices is growing.
Why it matters: Converting offices is easier said than done, but cities and developers see it as one of the best ways to reduce vacancies while adding housing.
Between the lines: Such flips take time, money, and, often, government help.
Developers completed less than 7% of office-to-apartment units underway in 2024, pushing most into 2025, according to a recent RentCafe report.
Meanwhile, thousands of new conversions have been proposed.
Continue reading at Axios
Hims & Hers shares plunge as FDA clears weight-loss drug shortage
Ozempic and Wegovy, the popular GLP-1 drugs for diabetes and weight loss, are no longer in short supply, the FDA declared Friday.
Why it matters: That's good news for Novo Nordisk (whose stock rose 5% Friday) and potentially bad news for Hims & Hers (which fell 26%).
Between the lines: Novo makes Ozempic and Wegovy, while Hims has been making quite a bit of money offering copycat versions of the drugs in the U.S. for a fraction of the price.
The legal ability to sell these "compounded" versions of brand-name drugs relies, in large part, on the FDA's shortage designation.
State of play: That's setting up a potential standoff between Novo and Hims, who recently traded barbs after Hims' Super Bowl ad touting its alternative GLP-1s.
Friction point: Compounders now have 60 or 90 days, depending on their facility, to stop making drugs that are "essentially a copy" of Novo's products, the FDA said today.
Continue reading at Axios
DOGE Put Him in the Treasury Department. His Company Has Federal Contracts Worth Millions
Experts say the conflicts posed by Tom Krause’s dual roles are unprecedented in the modern era.
Over the past couple of decades, a number of US government officials have left their roles for lucrative jobs at tech companies. Plenty of tech executives have also departed to take leadership positions inside federal agencies. But four experts who track the federal workforce tell WIRED they were stunned last week by a development unlike any other they could recall: The Department of Treasury internally announced that Tom Krause had been appointed its fiscal assistant secretary, but that he would simultaneously continue his job as CEO of the company Cloud Software Group.
Krause is now in charge of both a sensitive government payment system and a company that has millions of dollars’ worth of active contracts with various federal agencies through distribution partners, according to a WIRED review of searchable spending records. The Department of Treasury alone accounts for a dozen ongoing contracts tied to Krause’s company that are together valued between $7.3 million to $11.8 million. These include licenses for the data visualization tool ibi WebFocus and purchases of systems called Citrix NetScaler that help manage traffic to apps. (Some publicly posted procurement records do not break out contract details, so actual figures may be even higher.)
Continue reading at Wired'
Anxiety Mounts Among Social Security Recipients as DOGE Troops Settle In
Elon Musk’s team has descended on an already understaffed Social Security Administration, which now faces further workforce cuts and closures of vital local offices. The consequences could be significant for millions of the most vulnerable Americans.
President Donald Trump was asked at a press conference this month if there were any federal agencies or programs that Elon Musk’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency wouldn’t be allowed to mess with.
“Social Security will not be touched,” Trump answered, echoing a promise he has been making for years. Despite his eagerness to explode treaties, shutter entire government agencies and abandon decades-old ways of doing things, the president understands that Social Security benefits for seniors are sacrosanct.
Still, the DOGE team landed at the Social Security Administration this week, with Musk drawing attention for his outlandish claims that large numbers of 150-year-old “vampires” are receiving Social Security payments. DOGE has begun installing its own operatives, including an engineer linked to tweets promoting eugenics and executives with a cut-first-fix-later philosophy, in multiple top positions at the Social Security Administration.
Their first wave of actions — initiating the elimination of 41 jobs and the closing of at least 10 local offices, so far — was largely lost in the rush of headlines. Those first steps might seem restrained compared with the mass firings that DOGE has pursued at other federal agencies. But Social Security recipients rely on in-person service in all 50 states, and the shuttering of offices, reported on DOGE’s website to include locations everywhere from rural West Virginia to Las Vegas, could be hugely consequential. The closures potentially reduce access to Social Security for some of the most vulnerable people in this country — including not just retirees but also individuals with severe physical and intellectual disabilities, as well as children whose parents have died and who’ve been left in poverty.
Continue reading at ProPublica
SEC closes investigation into OpenSea, furthering new stance on crypto industry
State of play: Coinbase said Thursday that SEC staff agreed to drop the agency's nearly two-year old lawsuit against the crypto exchange.
And earlier this month the SEC stayed a separate securities-based case against another exchange, Binance, saying the work of the agencies new crypto task force "may impact and facilitate" a potential resolution.
The big picture: The heart of all three suits — like several others filed against blockchain companies by the Biden-era SEC — was the idea that most crypto assets, be they tokens or NFTs, qualify as securities.
Continue reading at Axios
Hamas releases six hostages as part of Gaza ceasefire deal
Six Israeli hostages were released by Hamas on Saturday as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
The big picture: All living hostages who were part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal have been now been released.
The bodies of four dead hostages are expected to be returned to Israel on Thursday to conclude the release of all 33 hostages part of the deal's first phase.
Driving the news: Four of the hostages who were released on Saturday were kidnapped on October 7 and held in captivity for 505 days: Tal Shoham, Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen amd Omer Shem-Tov.
Two of the released hostages have been held by Hamas for more than a decade: Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed.
Israel released 600 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday. Among them were 445 Palestinians who have been detained by the IDF in Gaza since October 8 and roughly 100 prisoners who were serving life sentences for murdering Israelis.
What's next: The 42-day ceasefire of the first phase of the Gaza deal will end next Saturday. According to the agreement, the ceasefire will continue as long as negotiations over the second phase of the deal are taking place.
Continue reading at Axios
DOGE’s USDS Purge Included the Guy Who Keeps Veterans’ Data Safe Online
The cybersecurity lead for VA.gov was fired last week. He tells WIRED that the Veterans Affairs digital hub will be more vulnerable without someone in his role.
When the so-called Department of Government Efficiency recently fired dozens of people from the US Digital Service—the agency DOGE subsumed last month—it may not have realized the extent of the collateral damage.
The USDS doesn't operate in a vacuum; part of its longtime mandate is to consult with federal agencies to help improve their digital platforms and websites. So when DOGE terminated Jonathan Kamens in its agency purge, it may not have fully grasped that it was firing the security lead for the Department of Veterans Affairs website—the digital hub that connects veterans with their benefits and hosts sensitive personal data, including medical records.
Interviews with multiple current and former VA sources, along with veterans who now work in private-sector cybersecurity, indicate that Kamens’ firing could have disastrous privacy consequences for millions of US veterans.
Continue reading at Wired
U.S. Government Removing EV Chargers From All Federal Buildings Because They Are ‘Not Mission-Critical’
The more than 8,000 charging ports available to federal workers are going away.
As part of its continued efforts to own the libs, or get rid of anything President Trump does not like or understand, the General Services Administration is gearing up to remove electric chargers from all federal properties nationwide.
According to the GSA, the hundreds of chargers and estimated 8,000 plugs available for federal workers to charge their cars are “not mission critical.” The agency, which manages buildings owned by the federal government as well as vehicles, will also offload any EVs purchased under the Biden administration.
The move, while malicious, is not surprising considering the GOP’s general disdain for electric vehicles and the green energy movement. President Trump is intent on wiping just about any green policy enacted by the prior administration after spending years railing against EV mandates. He is currently fighting to override California’s heightened emissions standards and requirement that all cars sold in the state be electric by 2035.
President Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act included significant funding to help supercharge the clean energy transition, including money for public chargers across the country and, importantly here, $975 million for the GSA to upgrade federal buildings across the country with “emerging and sustainable technologies.” But that is all out the window now despite the fact that President Trump’s right-hand man, Elon Musk, runs a $1 trillion electric car company.
Continue reading at Gizmodo
New Social Security chief was being investigated when Musk team tapped him
Leaders of the Social Security Administration had just opened an investigation into a career employee they believed was improperly sharing information with Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team when President Donald Trump elevated the employee this week to acting commissioner, according to three current or former government officials with knowledge of the events.
The agency’s leadership team became aware in recent weeks that Leland Dudek, a data analyst working in a small anti-fraud office who had been unknown to many of them, was sharing unauthorized access to information with representatives of Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, according to the three, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an internal matter.
It’s not clear what data Dudek shared, but his actions raised enough alarm that he may have violated privacy and tax laws that senior officials placed him on paid leave as they launched their investigation. The officials, including attorneys in the general counsel’s office, also were notified late last week that Dudek had sent harassing emails to employees in the agency’s personnel and security divisions to rush them to let several engineers hired by DOGE start work and gain access to agency computer systems. The officials pushed back, saying that they had not completed background investigations into the new hires.
Continue reading at the Washington Post
Talk of a "Feb 28 Economic Blackout" is spreading on social media. What is it?
Over the past few weeks, information has been spreading on social media about a nationwide economic protest called the "Feb 28 Economic Blackout."
The call to action — or rather inaction — is asking that American consumers refrain from making any purchases at major retailers on Friday, February 28. The protest comes as people continue to endure rising prices on everything from food and gas to housing and utilities, epitomized by the soaring cost of eggs which in January averaged $4.95 a dozen.
Behind the boycott is a group called The People's Union USA, a self-described grassroots organization founded by John Schwarz, a 57-year-old dad originally from Queens, New York, who has been promoting the consumer blackout for weeks on social media. The People's Union says it has no political affiliation, but focuses on "fairness, economic justice and real systemic change."
Some postings for the event created by online supporters have suggested a targeted boycott of retailers like Ford, McDonald's, Meta, Target and Walmart that have ended their DEI programs to comply with an executive order signed by President Trump in January. However, official messaging from The People's Union suggests a boycott of all major retailers, with the goal of enacting broader economic change.
Continue reading at CBS News
In case you missed it…
DOGE Staffer Known as ‘Big Balls’ Reportedly the Grandkid of a KGB Spy
Sure, why not?
Look, sure it’s not ideal that decisions that the federal government is being gutted agency by agency, stripped of purpose, funding, and staffing by Elon Musk and a team of 20-something-year-old edgelords who were sourced from a network of tech bro crypto-fascists and boost the messaging of white nationalists in their free time, but at least none of them are directly related to anyone deeply involved in the intelligence apparatus of a foreign adversary. Now, let me take a big sip of water and check out journalist Jacob Silverman’s latest report…
So, you know that DOGE staffer who goes by “Big Balls,” otherwise known as 19-year-old Edward Coristine—an alleged former member of online cybercriminal organization The Com and a cybersecurity worker who reportedly got fired from his job for leaking company secrets? Well, turns out there’s another layer to his dubious background. According to independent journalist Jacob Silverman, Coristine is the grandson of Valery Martynov, a former KGB spy.
Continue reading at Gizmodo
Oversight Democrats warn Trump on plans to ‘dismantle’ Postal Service
Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee on Saturday urged President Trump to abandon plans to reform the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) after he said he was considering a “merger” for the mail service.
“Your reported efforts to dismantle the Postal Service as an independent agency would directly undermine the affordability and reliability of the U.S. postal system,” ranking member Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and the panel’s other members wrote in the letter. “We urge you to abandon immediately any plans that would either privatize the Postal Service or undermine the independence of the Postal Service.”
The letter from Democrats follows reporting from The Washington Post that Trump was considering firing USPS’s board and absorbing the Postal Service into the Department of Commerce.
Continue reading at The Hill
The IRS is firing thousands of workers. Will it affect your tax refund?
It’s not entirely clear how dismissing nearly 7,000 of the roughly 90,000 IRS workers will affect the filing process, but Brewer has been advising clients to safeguard themselves by doing the following:
File and pay any owed taxes electronically
Make sure your refund can be deposited directly
Take care to make sure the return is accurate and complete
If you need to request payments by installment, do so online
“If you send in a paper return, at a minimum someone at the IRS has to be there to open the envelope, and we saw in the pandemic that doesn’t get done when they get really far behind,” Brewer said. “We’ve had situations where people send in payments, they never get cashed, and all of a sudden there’s additional penalties and interest.”
Continue reading at The Hill
DOGE’s ‘wall of receipts’ is riddled with errors and inconsistencies
“Everyone is very well-aware they’re repeating the wrong numbers,” said one manager at a company on DOGE’s list of cuts.
Elon Musk promised to deliver a “maximally transparent” government efficiency program. What he’s disclosed so far is a messy and inaccurate accounting of his group’s early work.
The first comprehensive public listing of the billions of dollars in purported savings Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is making across federal contracts is filled with errors, according to a POLITICO review of the published data.
DOGE’s website reports a total estimated savings of $55 billion, coming from a combination of canceled and renegotiated contracts and leases, as well as fraud detection, grant cancellations, job cuts and more. The “wall of receipts” posted Monday represents only a subset of canceled contracts, the page claims, that amount to approximately 20 percent of “overall DOGE savings” so far.
But among the 1,100-plus contracts purportedly canceled, POLITICO found:
Contracts that had not yet been awarded
Instances where a single pot of money is listed multiple times — tripling or quadrupling the amount of savings claimed
Purchase agreements that have no record of being canceled, but were instead stripped of language related to diversity, equity and inclusion
Continue reading at Politico
Judge extends block on DOGE’s access to federal payment systems
The ruling found that DOGE access to the payment systems created a “realistic danger that confidential financial information will be disclosed.”
A federal judge on Friday extended an order keeping Elon Musk’s DOGE team out of Treasury Department payment systems, ruling that the Trump administration’s process for granting access to the sensitive data was so flawed and haphazard that it was likely illegal.
U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas ruled that Democratic attorneys general were likely to prevail in their claim that Treasury acted arbitrarily and capriciously in giving two DOGE employees access to the systems that control trillions of dollars of federal payments each year.
In a 64-page opinion, Vargas, a Manhattan-based appointee of former President Joe Biden, ruled that Treasury’s “rushed and ad hoc process” for granting DOGE access to the payment systems created a “realistic danger that confidential financial information will be disclosed.”
Continue reading at Politico
As Eric Adams melts down, Andrew Cuomo forges ahead
The former governor has put together the structure of a campaign and is courting New York power players.
NEW YORK — As Eric Adams’ mayoralty unravels, Andrew Cuomo is fighting to secure the support of some of the incumbent’s most important allies.
The scandal-scarred Cuomo and his confidants have been making overtures to crucial New York City labor and business leaders, wooing Black and Orthodox Jewish voters and making inroads with the influential New York Post — amounting to a multi-pronged effort to capitalize on Adams’ pillars of political support as the mayor’s career withers.
Continue reading at Politico
Axios AM newsletter
🇺🇦 Situational awareness: The U.S. and Ukraine are close to closing a minerals deal which has escalated tensions between the countries in the last week. U.S. and Ukrainian officials tell Axios' Barak Ravid the deal could be signed as early as today. Go deeper.
1 big thing: Dems split over new brand
Democrats face an identity crisis: They no longer have a clear one, Axios' Alex Thompson writes.
Why it matters: After President Trump's surprise victory in 2016, many Democrats moved left and united under a "resistance" banner. This time, there's no consensus on what to do.
🗳️ State of play: Instead, Democrats are experimenting with sharply different ways to tackle Trump. Potential 2028 presidential candidates are splitting among three major routes:
The realists: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis are conceding to the national tide by sounding bipartisan — positioning themselves as pragmatic center-left leaders.
The brawlers: Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and JB Pritzker of Illinois are going more aggressive — regularly picking fights with the new administration and proposing progressive legislation.
The tweeners: Some Democratic governors are picking specific fights without going all-out resistance. This group includes Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Wes Moore of Maryland and Andy Beshear of Kentucky.
👀 Here's a quick tour of the strategies:
Continue reading at Axios
2. 🎤 Trump's early warning sign
Some GOP lawmakers are getting roasted back home over President Trump's swift cuts and firings, as polls show signs his monthlong honeymoon could be wearing off.
Why it matters: Out of fear and fervor, Republicans on Capitol Hill have backed Trump's early moves almost unanimously, including an expected clean sweep of Cabinet confirmations. With the narrow House majority, he'll need virtually every GOP member to pass his programs.
🖼️ The big picture: A series of clashes in GOP congressional districts across the country shows that while Trump is mostly delivering on promises, "the scope and unilateral nature of his early executive actions, as well as his upending of longstanding foreign alliances, is throwing some Republican lawmakers on the defensive," The Wall Street Journal reports (gift link).
[…]
💼 Case in point: Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) "was peppered with boos and catcalls throughout a town hall meeting" (photo above) in Roswell, in suburban Atlanta, on Thursday night, "as hundreds of critics jeered the Republican for backing President Donald Trump's agenda," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Greg Bluestein reports.
"The Suwanee Republican's staff ... seemed caught off guard by the massive crowd of hundreds that gathered outside Roswell City Hall."
Continue reading at Axios
Note from Rima: Watch the “angry voters in Georgia” video at the top of this post
3. 🪖 Pentagon purge
President Trump fired Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown, Jr., a four-star fighter pilot who was the second-ever Black general in his role, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday — part of a Friday night firing flurry at the Defense Department.
Why it matters: The decision breaks with a longstanding custom in which Joint Chiefs chairmen remain in place as presidents change. It also "reflects the president's insistence that the military's leadership is too mired in diversity issues, has lost sight of its role as a combat force to defend the country and is out of step with his 'America First' movement," the N.Y. Times reports (gift link).
[…]
👀 Zoom out: Hegseth also fired Admiral Lisa Franchetti and General James Slife as Chief of Naval Operations and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, respectively, last night.
Franchetti is the first woman to serve as the highest-ranking officer of the U.S. Navy. Brown, Franchetti and Slife were all nominated by former President Biden, Axios' Lauren Floyd notes.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump suggests Musk needs to be ‘more aggressive’
President Trump suggested in a new post that tech billionaire Elon Musk, one of his closest allies, needs to be “more aggressive” — presumably referring to his efforts to slash spending, downsize the federal workforce and eviscerate fraud via the newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE,” Trump wrote Saturday in a post on Truth Social. “REMEMBER, WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE, BUT ULTIMATELY, TO MAKE GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. MAGA!”
Continue reading at The Hill
Daylight saving time 2025: These states are trying to ‘lock the clocks’
We’re a couple of weeks away from the start of daylight saving time, and it isn’t just federal lawmakers (and President Donald Trump) who are hoping this is the last time we “spring forward.”
There has been growing interest in ditching the practice. Polls have shown Americans prefer permanent daylight saving time, though many health experts disagree.
In December, Trump threw his support behind eliminating the “inconvenient” and “costly” practice as the leaders of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) called to abolish daylight saving time.
Continue reading at The Hill
FEMA doubles down on its decision to not test soil as part of wildfire cleanup
Federal officials are standing by their decision to skip soil testing after cleanup crews remove debris from properties destroyed in the L.A. wildfires.
The decision comes amid a torrent of criticism and concerns from wildfire survivors and California elected officials.
FEMA officials say that in the future, they won’t order soil testing after wildfires in the Southwest and Pacific Islands.
In the face of mounting backlash from wildfire survivors and California elected officials, federal disaster agencies are defending their decision to forgo soil testing after cleanup crews remove debris from properties that burned in the Los Angeles County fires.
Continue reading at the Los Angeles Times
Playbook
Playbook: The Pentagon’s Friday night massacre
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — The White House is beginning to get the message, our White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns writes into Playbook.
“We’re still in the early phase and it’s way too early to say it’s going to fall apart. There is a feedback mechanism and we are fielding that feedback,” one White House official told her. “Sometimes you break something valuable and you have to fix it. The question — is there a point when there’s a deep whack that is catastrophic?”
Trump, in the opening moves of his second term, has come to view Musk as a heat shield—the bad cop to his good cop. But he may soon be more of a political albatross. Musk’s political naivete also showed itself this week when he referred in his joint Fox News sitdown with Trump to “an unelected, vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the president.”
ABOUT THAT BASE: Musk isn’t entirely wrong. That federal bureaucracy is vast — so vast that its workers live in red states, too. Deep-red Trump bulwark Ohio is home to 55,487 federal workers. Trump’s Florida? 94,000 workers. Tennessee? More than 32,000 workers. Even Battleground Georgia is home to nearly 80,000.
As the cuts get closer to the bone, could they create an unmanageable degree of hostility toward Republicans?
“We’re not there yet, though we may be at the edges,” the White House official told Dasha. But if Musk can show huge cost cuts and some good results, the thinking goes, then things will cut in Trump’s favor.
Continue reading at Politico Playbook newsletter
Note from Rima: to get to the item above, you will need to scroll past the Friday night Pentagon massacre material.
New York
Trump and Hochul discuss Manhattan toll program in White House meeting
The federal government has rescinded approval for the controversial congestion pricing plan.
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump met with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for more than an hour on Friday to discuss a controversial Manhattan toll program known as congestion pricing.
The Democratic governor also spoke with the president about immigration and energy policies during the Oval Office meeting, a spokesperson for the governor confirmed Saturday.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hochul is trying to save the toll program as Trump moved this week to rescind federal approval through the U.S. Department of Transportation. New York transit officials filed a legal challenge to Trump’s action this week in a bid to keep the $9 tolls in place.
“The Governor and the President had a frank, candid conversation about New York’s key priorities including congestion pricing, immigration, infrastructure, economic development, energy, offshore wind and nuclear power,” spokesperson Avi Small said. “Governor Hochul also presented President Trump with a booklet on the early success of congestion pricing. We will not comment further about private conversations.”
Continue reading at Politico
Hungarians will decide whether Ukraine can join the European Union, Orbán says
Speaking at an annual State of the Nation address in Budapest to a closed circle of party members and supporters, Orbán described Ukraine as a buffer zone between Russia and NATO countries, and predicted that, following a cessation of Moscow’s war, it would resume that role despite its ambitions to join the Western military alliance.
He added that whether Ukraine can one day join the 27-member EU “will be decided by the Hungarians.”
“Against the will of Hungary and the Hungarians, Ukraine will never be a member of the European Union,” Orbán said. “Ukraine’s accession would destroy Hungarian farmers, and not only them, but the entire Hungarian national economy.”
Continue reading at the Associated Press
USDA scholarship for students at historically Black colleges suspended
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal scholarship aimed at boosting students from underserved and rural areas attending historically Black colleges and universities has been put on hold.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture suspended the 1890 Scholars Program, which provided recipients with full tuition and fees for students studying agriculture, food or natural resource sciences at one of 19 universities, known as the 1890 land grant institutions.
It’s not clear exactly when the program was suspended, but some members of Congress first issued statements criticizing the suspension of the program on Thursday. A message seeking more detail was left Saturday with the Department of Agriculture.
“The 1890 Scholars Program has been suspended pending further review,” the department said in a post on the program’s website.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Musk’s cost-cutting team is laying off workers at the auto safety agency overseeing his car company
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has cut a “modest” amount of positions, according to a statement from the agency. Musk has accused NHTSA of holding back progress on self-driving technology with its investigations and recalls.
Asked about whether the cuts would impact any probes into Tesla, the agency referred to its statement that says it will “enforce the law on all manufacturers of motor vehicles and equipment.”
The job cuts at NHTSA enacted by Musk’s advisory group on shrinking the federal government, the Department of Government Efficiency, was earlier reported by The Washington Post.
In addition to investigations into Tesla’s partially automated vehicles, NHTSA has mandated that Tesla and other automakers using self-driving technology report crash data on vehicles, a requirement that Tesla has criticized and that watchdogs fear could be eliminated.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Vance is overwhelming favorite to be Trump’s successor in CPAC straw poll
Vice President Vance emerged as the clear favorite to be President Trump’s successor in the MAGA movement in a new straw poll conducted at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday.
Sixty-one percent of CPAC’s 1,022 attendees said they would support Vance as the future GOP standard bearer. Twelve percent said they would support Trump’s former adviser and right-wing media personality Steve Bannon, while seven percent said the same about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s UN ambassador nominee Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) each received three percent support. Donald Trump Jr., Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Vivek Ramaswamy, who is expected to launch a gubernatorial bid in Ohio next week, all got two percent support.
Continue reading at The Hill
Note from Rima: Trump did say:
Inside RFK Jr.’s health department takeover
Kennedy’s first week at HHS included dismissing the workforce, vaccine advisers and some longtime health priorities.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arrived at the headquarters of the Health and Human Services Department earlier this week with a request for his new employees: Drop your preconceived notions of what I’m going to do.
The health secretary’s first days are testing that sentiment.
Kennedy has taken control of the nation’s health apparatus amid a barrage of firings and abrupt policy shifts, marking the start of a tenure that allies and adversaries alike equate to a hostile takeover of the agencies he spent the last two decades maligning.
An anti-vaccine activist widely dismissed as a fringe political figure just six months ago, Kennedy in his first week began steering the 80,000-person department in a radically new direction — preparing to dismiss key vaccine advisers, vowing to alter longstanding public health priorities and standing by as the Department of Government Efficiency gutted elements of the workforce at health agencies that he’s openly accused of “corruption.”
Continue reading at Politico
Mark Cuban says he’s not running for president in 2028
The business mogul praised Donald Trump’s salesmanship even as he trashes his ability to execute an agenda.
Mark Cuban, the billionaire business mogul and “Shark Tank” star, quashed speculation he will be making a White House run in 2028 — even as he has become a prominent voice against Donald Trump’s agenda in Washington.
The Dallas Mavericks minority owner was asked if his name would be on a ballot in the near future at the Principles First convention, a gathering of conservatives who feel politically homeless in Trump’s MAGA-fied version of the party.
“Hell no. It’s not going to happen,” Cuban said, before joking to the crowd gathered at the JW Marriott in Washington, D.C., roughly three blocks from the White House, then quipped: “Okay, if y’all write in and I don’t have [a campaign].”
“No, I don’t want to be President. I’d rather fuck up health care,” a nod to the Cost Plus drug company he recently launched.
Continue reading at Politico
‘Grossly exaggerated’: GOP governors shake off criticism of DOGE
As governors gathered in Washington, they stood by the president amid a brewing backlash.
Elon Musk’s sweeping spending cuts are jeopardizing state budgets and putting thousands of federal employees out of work across the country. Republican governors say they’re not worried about it.
GOP governors who descended on Washington this week for the National Governors Association’s winter meeting dismissed rising concerns on Capitol Hill over the aggressiveness of the Department of Government Efficiency — even as budgets are strained from pandemic-era federal cash flows drying up. It’s another sign that even as the public mood sours on President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting, few in the GOP are willing to publicly break with him.
In fact, Republicans were broadly supportive of DOGE’s efforts, according to interviews with half a dozen GOP governors. At the White House on Friday, Trump and his aides asked governors in attendance to raise any issues with DOGE cuts, said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. A few hours later, outside the ballrooms in the bowels of the Grand Hyatt, GOP governors shrugged off any problems passed down to their states.
Continue reading at Politico
Musk says all federal employees need to explain their work immediately — or be let go
Federal employees received an email Saturday afternoon, and gave them a deadline of Monday night.
All federal government employees will have to share what they’ve been working on in the last week or face dismissal, Elon Musk said Saturday.
Musk posted on X that employees will be receiving an email “shortly” requesting to “understand what they got done last week.” A lack of response, Musk said, “will be taken as a resignation.”
The email — sent with the subject line “What did you do last week?” just two hours after Musk’s post, and shared with POLITICO — asks employees to please reply with “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and CC your manager.”
It instructs employees to not send any classified information. The deadline for response: end of day Monday, just over 48 hours from when it was sent. The email did not include any threats for punishment for those who don’t respond.
It’s unclear what legal authority, if any, Musk is relying on.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump revels in mass federal firings and jeers at Biden before adoring conservative crowd
OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that “nobody’s ever seen anything” like his administration’s sweeping effort to fire thousands of federal employees and shrink the size of government, congratulating himself for “dominating” Washington and sending bureaucrats “packing.”
Addressing an adoring crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference just outside Washington, Trump promised, “We’re going to forge a new and lasting political majority that will drive American politics for generations to come.”
The president argues that voters gave him a mandate to overhaul government while cracking down on the U.S.-Mexico border and extending tax cuts that were the signature policy of his first administration.
Trump clicked easily back into campaign mode during his hour-plus speech, predicting that the GOP will continue to win and defy history, which has shown that a president’s party typically struggles during midterm elections. He insisted of Republicans, “I don’t think we’ve been at this level, maybe ever.”
Continue reading at the Associated Press
‘Viciousness’ of Trump’s climate attacks stuns even his critics
President Donald Trump has attacked nearly every aspect of the U.S. effort to confront rising temperatures.
President Donald Trump’s promised assault on federal climate policies is sweeping across Washington, state capitals and private industry with a speed that’s surprising even some of his supporters and critics — and could leave an impact on the planet’s future well after his presidency.
His cost-cutting orders have led to the firings of thousands of people from the Environmental Protection Agency and the departments of Energy and the Interior, with even deeper slashing on the way. He’s dammed the flow of billions of federal dollars for energy rebates, low-income solar installations, electric vehicle chargers and more — sometimes flouting courts that ordered the money reinstated.
And he has cast uncertainty over clean energy industries by threatening tariffs on allied nations, pausing permits for wind projects and promising to roll back hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy tax credits contained in former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Taken together, Trump’s actions mark a vast and coordinated attack on U.S. environmental policy by a president who has spent years denying the tenets of climate science and the reality of rising global temperatures. Analysts and advocates say the administration’s moves threaten to reverse decades of painfully slow progress to curb planet-warming pollution.
“This shock and awe campaign will undo decades of bipartisan and international efforts to curb greenhouse gases and, if left unchecked, will lead to the planet warming far beyond manageable levels,” said Jillian Blanchard, who runs the climate change program at Lawyers for Good Government, a nonprofit watchdog group.
Continue reading at Politico
Many Americans don’t trust the media to cover Trump: Survey
Most Americans in a new survey said they have little confidence that the news media can cover President Trump with fairness and accuracy.
The YouGov poll, published Friday, found that 67 percent of U.S. respondents said that they don’t have “very much” or any trust that news outlets can state facts fairly, accurately and fully while covering Trump’s second term. Around a quarter, 24 percent, said they have a “fair amount” of confidence while only 4 percent had a “great deal” of confidence in the press’s coverage of the president.
Another 5 percent were not sure about the matter, per the survey.
Continue reading at The Hill
Musk sends warning to federal employees over new Trump policy
“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk wrote in a Saturday afternoon post.
“Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” he added.
[…]
The American Federation of Government Employees responded to the email sent to federal employees with a statement expressing frustration.
“Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people. It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to the this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life,” the group wrote.
“AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country.”
Updated at 6 p.m. EST.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump, Musk take victory lap at CPAC: 5 takeaways
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—President Trump took a victory lap at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this week after his resounding general election victory in November.
The annual event featured an array of Trump’s most vocal supporters, including Vice President Vance, border czar Tom Homan and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
While the mood among speakers and attendees was celebratory, this year’s gathering appeared somewhat diminished in terms of its overall importance on the national level.
Here are five takeaways from CPAC 2025:
Continue reading at The Hill
More coverage of CPAC below in the News Clips section
Trump chides Maine governor at CPAC after clash at White House
“You saw Maine yesterday, right? The governor of Maine,” Trump said, eliciting boos from the audience. “She’s fighting to keep men in women’s sports. You ever see what happens to a woman when a woman boxes a man who transitioned to womanhood? You ever see what happens? It’s not pretty.”
“Let her do that fight. Let them all do that fight,” Trump said.
Continue reading at The Hill
USDA to restart wildfire grants, Oregon governor says
The Oregon governor said the new leader of the Department of Agriculture will unfreeze funds soon.
The Department of Agriculture will restart some wildfire grants, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek told POLITICO on Saturday.
“I heard yesterday from Secretary [Brooke] Rollins that they are restarting some,” Kotek said when asked at the National Governors Association meeting on Saturday morning about frozen community wildfire defense grants. “She’s like, ‘give us a week.’”
Projects to reduce wildfire risk were put on hold around the country when the grants funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or the Inflation Reduction Act were frozen earlier this month. Rollins released funding for a handful of agriculture-related grants on Thursday, and a USDA press release said “additional announcements are forthcoming.”
A second person familiar with Rollins’ remarks, who was granted anonymity to discuss a private conversation, confirmed that Rollins told governors she would soon be freeing up wildfire grants. A spokesperson for the USDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Continue reading at Politico
Italy’s Meloni defends Vance’s Munich speech chastising Europe
The Italian prime minister said that Europe has been “sacrificed on the altar of wokeness, bureaucracy and mercantilism.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni came to Vice President JD Vance’s defense on Saturday, blasting the “elites” who were outraged by Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference last week.
She denounced the “American liberal leftism” that she said was being replicated in Europe, and said Vance was right in his speech about the greater threat to the continent.
“Vice President Vance was discussing something deeper: identity, democracy, freedom of speech,” the far right leader said during her virtual speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Brussels plans sweeping cuts to EU’s green rules, leaked bill reveals
Many businesses would be exempt from complying with sustainability reporting under the hotly anticipated omnibus proposal.
BRUSSELS — The European Commission will propose deep cuts to the European Union's environmental reporting rule book in its bid to slash red tape and boost the bloc's struggling economy, according to a section of a draft of the upcoming omnibus legislation obtained by POLITICO.
In one of the first major pieces of legislation from the new Commission, a large cohort of businesses could be exempt from complying with corporate sustainability reporting rules, bringing only the largest companies under the regulations, the leaked document shows.
Requirements to monitor environmental and human rights abuses deep in companies' global supply chains, meanwhile, could be considerably reduced under the proposed changes.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Water Chlorination Might Be Raising Our Risk of Certain Cancers
A new review has found a link between chlorine byproducts in our drinking water and a greater chance of bladder and colorectal cancer.
An important tool for keeping our drinking water clean may be riskier than we thought. New research finds link between water chlorination and an increased risk of certain cancers.
Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden led the research, which is a review of past studies looking at chlorination and cancer. They found evidence that people exposed to the highest levels of chlorine byproducts were significantly more likely to develop bladder and colorectal cancer than people exposed to the lowest levels. This associated risk was seen starting at levels below the safety thresholds established in the U.S. and Europe, suggesting that current guidelines aren’t enough to protect the public, the researchers say.
Chlorine has been routinely used to disinfect drinking and recreational water since the early 20th century. It’s helped eradicate or reduce the spread of dangerous diseases like typhoid fever and cholera. But chlorine and other disinfectants are known to have their drawbacks
Continue reading at Gizmodo
White House press secretary suggests Russia-Ukraine conflict could end ‘this week’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Saturday the president is confident in his ability to strike a deal with Russia to end the conflict in Ukraine, suggesting an end to the three-year-long war could come as early as this week.
“The president, his team are very much focused on continuing negotiations with both sides of this war to end the conflict and the president is very confident we can get it done this week,” Leavitt told reporters on the South Lawn after returning from the Conservative Political Action Conference.
The comments come as President Trump suggested Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “has no cards” and should sit out conversations with international leaders involving peace negotiations going forward.
Continue reading at The Hill
One dead, one injured after shooting at New Mexico Air Force base
A U.S. Air Force base in New Mexico reported a fatal shooting in the early hours of Saturday morning following an “off-base pursuit” that warranted a rapid response from local law enforcement.
Kirtland Air Force base said the 377th Security Forces Squadron was called to an incident at approximately 2 a.m.
“One Airman received a nonfatal gunshot wound to the hand and was transported to UNM Medical Center for treatment. He has since been released with no life-threatening injuries,” according to a press release from the Air Force.
“The other Airman was found dead at the scene. The cause of death and the incident remains under investigation by local authorities.”
Continue reading at The Hill
What to know about Dan Caine, Trump’s pick to lead Joint Chiefs of Staff
Here’s what we know about Caine
Caine graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Virginia Military Institute in 1990 and got his master’s degree in air warfare at the American Military University.
The retired lieutenant general, who will need a Senate confirmation, logged more than 2,800 hours in an F-16 fighter aircraft and more than 150 combat flight hours, according to his military biography.
Continue reading at The Hill
Republican governors defend DOGE even as they face looming deficits
As governors gathered in Washington, they stood by the president amid a brewing backlash.
Elon Musk’s sweeping spending cuts are jeopardizing state budgets and putting thousands of federal employees out of work across the country. Republican governors say they’re not worried about it.
GOP governors who descended on Washington this week for the National Governors Association’s winter meeting dismissed rising concerns on Capitol Hill over the aggressiveness of the Department of Government Efficiency — even as budgets are strained from pandemic-era federal cash flows drying up. It’s another sign that even as the public mood sours on President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting, few in the GOP are willing to publicly break with him.
In fact, Republicans were broadly supportive of DOGE’s efforts, according to interviews with half a dozen GOP governors. At the White House on Friday, Trump and his aides asked governors in attendance to raise any issues with DOGE cuts, said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. A few hours later, outside the ballrooms in the bowels of the Grand Hyatt, GOP governors shrugged off any problems passed down to their states.
“Some of the negative impacts are grossly exaggerated,” said South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster. “Things will settle down, it’ll get better. But at some point we’ve got to cut that bureaucracy because it’s strangling us. It’s strangling prosperity.”
Continue reading at Politico
Trump expected to name Patel as acting ATF head: Reports
President Trump is expected to appoint new FBI Director Kash Patel to serve as the acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a domestic law enforcement agency within the Department of Justice, a source familiar confirmed to NewsNation.
Despite controversy over qualifications, the Senate recently confirmed Patel to serve as the head of the FBI in a 51-49 vote.
The New York native has a history of employment with the Justice Department, and served for three years as a trial attorney before moving on to positions at the National Security Council, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and Department of Defense.
Continue reading at The Hill
Democrats and former defense officials rail against ‘pure pettiness’ of Trump Pentagon firings
The firing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., as well as five other top defense officials, was met with a slew of backlash from those who say the decision will have a chilling effect on military leadership, which is already bracing for mass firings of civilian employees and an expected overhaul of defense budgets.
“Donald Trump’s quest for power is endangering our military,” Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.), wrote in an op-ed published by The Washington Post.
“The implications for our national security cannot be overstated. A clear message is being sent to military leaders: Failure to demonstrate personal and political loyalty to Trump could result in retribution, even after decades of honorable service,” said Reed, himself a former Army paratrooper.
Senior panel member Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), called Trump’s decision “incredibly reckless” and one that “dangerously politicizes our military and undermines our national security, military readiness, and the rule of law, ultimately making Americans less safe.”
“The dismissals reveal the President’s true intention – installing a group of ‘yes men’ with fealty to him and not the Constitution or the American people,” she said in a statement.
Continue reading at The Hill
FBI director tells staff to pause on request to justify their jobs
Agencies advise caution or non-response
Some agencies have also advised workers not yet to respond to the email — notably at agencies where much or all of employees’ duties may be sensitive.
FBI Director Kash Patel told bureau employees Saturday not to immediately respond to the OPM email.
In an email to bureau employees obtained by CNN, Patel said, “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”
Patel’s email came after senior leaders at FBI’s NY field office and other divisions told their employees to not respond, a person briefed on the matter said.
Employees of the National Security Agency were also notified Saturday that they should hold off on responding until they receive further guidance from the Department of Defense, a source said.
And Ed Martin, interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, sent an email advising employees to “be general” in their responses if necessary and promising to protect them. “If anyone gives you problems, I’ve got your back,” Martin wrote.
Continue reading at CNN.com
Recording reveals new details on controversial DOGE employee
Less than three years before Elon Musk tapped him to take part in a sweeping overhaul of the US government, Edward Coristine, then 17, was the subject of a heated dispute between two executives at the Arizona-based cybersecurity firm where he was an intern.
At issue was whether to allow Coristine to keep his job even though he was suspected of leaking proprietary information to a competitor.
“You’re willing to risk our entire network to a 17-year-old?” one frustrated executive asked the company’s CEO in 2022. “Are you for real right now?”
In a recording of the call, reviewed by CNN, Marshal Webb, the CEO of Path Network, a company that offers services to protect businesses from cyberattacks, defended his decision.
He said he wanted to allow Coristine to continue with his internship, in part, because he didn’t want to make him “an enemy” or have him “running amok” with information he was suspected of taking. Webb allowed him to stay with the proviso that the young employee “not be exposed to anything that’s really sensitive.”
That was then.
Continue reading at CNN.com
Doctor breaks down latest details about Pope Francis' health condition
Pope Francis, who has been hospitalized for more than a week, remains in “critical” condition and developed an “asthmatic respiratory crisis,” the Vatican said in a statement. CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner joins CNN’s Jessica Dean to break down the latest details on the pope's health.
Economics
Economist Paul Krugman
Economist Dean Baker
Economist Jared Bernstein
Economist Brad DeLong
News Clips
GOP lawmakers face angry constituents over Musk’s role
How They See Us
France 24 Coverage
'See you in court': Donald Trump and Maine governor spar over trans rights • FRANCE 24 English
In Putin’s Orbit, Trump & the ‘Madman theory’, Europe's defining moment, German elections
US: Emmanuel Macron to meet with Donald Trump in Washington on Monday • FRANCE 24 English
'We are entering a new era', French President Emmanuel Macron tells French • FRANCE 24 English
In other International News…
Note from Rima: France’s farming community is among the strongest and loudest constituencies
The “Culture” Corner
Little House in the Culture Wars
The cameras have yet to roll. But already, a planned remake finds itself at the center of controversy.
Fans of classic television rejoiced last month when Deadline revealed that Netflix was greenlighting a new adaptation of the beloved television series Little House on the Prairie, based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s classic series of children’s novels. But just a few hours after the announcement, the show was already mired in political controversy.
Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News pundit who now hosts an eponymous talk show on SiriusXM, posted on X, “@Netflix if you wokeify Little House on the Prairie I will make it my singular mission to absolutely ruin your project.” One of the original show’s stars, Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura, responded on Threads the following day: “Umm…watch the original again. TV doesn’t get too much more ‘woke’ than we did. We tackled: racism, addiction, nativism, antisemitism, misogyny, rape, spousal abuse and every other ‘woke’ topic you can think of. Thank you very much.”
At first glance, the exchange could have been mistaken for a modern version of the kind of tempest Laura might have had with Nellie Oleson, her blonde nemesis on the series who was always making threats and stirring up trouble. But Kelly and Gilbert’s disagreement was more serious than that — and far more revealing about how we have changed as a country since the original show began its nine-year run in the mid-1970s.
Continue reading at Politico Magazine
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Musical interlude
Dizzy Gillespie and CTI All-Stars: Rhythmstick (1990)
Personnel:
Dizzy Gillespie - trumpet & rhythmstick, Art Farmer - trumpet & flugelhorn, Phil Woods - alto saxophone, Bob Berg - tenor & soprano saxophone, Airto Moreira - percussion & vocals, Flora Purim - vocals, Tito Puente - percussion, Charlie Haden - bass, Marvin "Smitty" Smith - drums, Anthony Jackson - electric bass, Bernard Purdie - drums, John Scofield - electric guitar, Robben Ford - electric guitar, Romero Lubambo - acoustic guitar, Hilton Ruiz - piano, Jimmy McGriff - Hammond B3 organ, Benny Golson - arranger & conductor, additional keyboards, synthesized bass, Jim Beard - additional keyboard and synthesizer solos, Randy Brecker - trumpet, Jon Faddis - trumpet