Things Musk (and Trump) Did... Day 67 | Blog#42
Unraveling society is Musk's cat and mouse game
Yesterday’s post
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Yesterday’s news worth repeating
Trump says the US will help in Asia quake. A former official says the system is now in ‘shambles’
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. was going to help with the response to Southeast Asia’s deadly earthquake.
But the effects of his administration’s deep cuts in foreign assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department will likely be tested in any response to the first big natural disaster of his second term.
Sarah Charles, a former senior USAID official who oversaw disaster-response teams and overall humanitarian work under the Biden administration, said the system was now “in shambles,” without the people or resources to move quickly to pull out survivors from collapsed buildings and otherwise save lives.
A powerful quake shook Myanmar and neighboring Thailand on Friday, killing at least 150 people and burying others under the rubble of high-rises.
Asked about the quake by reporters in Washington, Trump said: “We’re going to be helping. We’ve already alerted the people. Yeah, it’s terrible what happened.”
Continue reading at the AP
RFK Jr. forces out Peter Marks, FDA’s top vaccine scientist
Marks, an architect of Operation Warp Speed, warned that a recent measles outbreak shows how confidence in science and public health is being “undermined.”
The Trump administration on Friday pushed out Peter Marks, the nation’s top vaccine regulator and an architect of the U.S. program to rapidly develop coronavirus vaccines, a move that comes as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues his overhaul of the nation’s health and science agencies amid a worsening U.S. outbreak of measles.
Continue reading at the Washington Post
Trump administration sues to end some federal workers’ union contracts
The lawsuit comes after Trump issued an executive order moving to strip most federal workers’ unionization rights.
The administration filed the unprecedented lawsuit late Thursday, shortly after President Donald Trump issued an executive order moving to strip unionization rights from most of the federal workforce.
The lawsuit asks U.S. District Judge Alan Albright, a Trump appointee based in Waco, Texas, to authorize the agencies to “rescind or repudiate” some collective bargaining agreements with the American Federation of Government Employees because they “significantly constrain the Executive Branch” in its push to purge the federal workforce and exert greater control over agency operations.
In the complaint, agencies including the departments of Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, and the Social Security Administration claim that the AFGE entered into “midnight” agreements with President Joe Biden’s administration that included restrictions on “return-to-work policies” and other terms that unfairly limit the executive branch.
The “President and his senior Executive Branch officials cannot afford to be obstructed by CBAs that micromanage oversight of the federal workforce and impede performance accountability,” the agencies said in the complaint.
Much of the federal workforce has been unionized for decades. Roughly 32 percent of public sector workers are members of unions, more than five times the rate of private sector employees, according to 2024 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unlike private worker unions, government employees cannot bargain over salaries, benefits or hiring and firing decisions.
Continue reading at Politico
Cuomo held up Citi Field mass vaccine site amid beef with de Blasio
The account, shared by nine people involved in New York’s pandemic response, conflicts with the image Cuomo cultivated as a steady leader in a time of tumult.
NEW YORK — In early 2021, pandemic-battered New Yorkers were finally feeling a glimmer of hope: A mass vaccine site at Citi Field that promised around-the-clock shots.
Then Gov. Andrew Cuomo stepped in.
The state’s chief executive was irate over the site, which happened to be championed by his political nemesis at the time — Mayor Bill de Blasio. Cuomo made his displeasure clear in a phone call to the Mets owner — and one of the country’s richest men — Steve Cohen. The governor later withheld vaccines from the facility for several weeks. This account, which has never been reported, was relayed by nine people with direct knowledge of it.
Cuomo is now running for mayor and leading every poll of Democratic primary candidates. All nine people who spoke to POLITICO about Citi Field were granted anonymity, which they requested out of fear of angering the ascendant former governor.
“We got Citi Field ready to open, and for two weeks, the state denied our request to allocate our own vaccine to the location,” someone assigned to Covid relief efforts in the de Blasio administration told POLITICO. “After several days of fighting, the governor’s staff finally told us it was Cuomo personally blocking it because he didn’t like that the mayor would be the one to open Citi Field.”
Continue reading at Politico
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dunks on Trump — without naming him once
And she had words for Trump allies with JDs who have amplified the president’s attacks on the judiciary.
The most senior member of the Supreme Court’s liberal wing appeared to push back Friday against President Donald Trump’s denigration of judges and his broad attacks on the legal system, arguing that a healthy democracy depends on more than technical compliance with the laws on the books.
Speaking to law students in Washington, Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested the country is going through a challenging period of increasing public disrespect for judges, lawyers and courts.
“One of the things that’s troubling so many right now is many of the standards that are being changed right now were norms that governed officials into what was right and wrong,” Sotomayor said during an appearance at Georgetown University Law Center. “Once norms are broken, then you’re shaking some of the foundation of the rule of law.”
During her remarks, Sotomayor made no direct mention of Trump, who received an unusual rebuke last week from Chief Justice John Roberts for calling for the impeachment of federal judges who have ruled against Trump administration policies.
Continue reading at Politico
Justice Sotomayor on Norms and Rule of Law
Justice Sonia Sotomayor: "Once we lose our common norms we've lost the rule of law completely...At the end what judges should do, but it's in the end of whatever citizens should do, which is ensure that the courts are fearlessly independent..." Full video here
Judges partially block two executive orders targeting major law firms
Two federal judges partially blocked Trump’s executive orders targeting law firms Jenner & Block and WilmerHale.
Federal judges have partially blocked President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting two major law firms, saying the firms are likely to succeed on their claims that the orders violate the first amendment.
Senior U.S. District Judges John Bates and Richard Leon, both appointees of President George W. Bush, issued their rulings in favor of law firms Jenner & Block and WilmerHale after back-to-back Friday hearings at the federal courthouse in Washington.
“The legal profession as a whole is watching and wondering if their courtroom activities … will cause the government to turn their eyes to them next,” Bates said.
In delivering his ruling, Bates called the executive order’s references to Jenner & Block’s pro-bono work “disturbing” and said the reasons the order gives for targeting the firm cannot survive a constitutional challenge. The executive order gives “lip service” to public safety and national security, Bates said, adding that even if he agreed with Trump’s assertions about the dangers posed by Jenner & Block, the sanctions in the order “sweep far too broadly.”
The Friday evening rulings come as Trump has embarked upon a retribution campaign against law firms, issuing executive orders against multiple firms in recent weeks that would strip security clearances from attorneys and hamper firms’ ability to interface with the federal government. While some firms have opted to strike deals with Trump, three — Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale — have successfully challenged the executive orders in court.
“The retaliatory nature of the Executive Order at issue here is clear from its face,” Leon wrote in his order. “There is no doubt this retaliatory action chills speech and legal advocacy, or that it qualifies as a constitutional harm.”
Continue reading at Politico
Today’s news
Democratic News Corner
Democrats' magic words: Jamie Raskin is handling it
House Democrats have a new go-to phrase when pressed by constituents on how they'll fight back if President Trump touches off a constitutional crisis: We have Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on it.
Why it matters: Democratic lawmakers have been taking flak from their grassroots base for not adopting enough of a pugilistic stance against the president. Elevating their resistance folk hero is one way of deflecting that.
As if to demonstrate how far ahead of the game he is on doing verbal combat with the Trump administration, Raskin privately advised fellow Democrats this month to use a more punchy phrase than "constitutional crisis."
Raskin said during a virtual caucus to instead call it "the sweeping MAGA attack on our Constitution," according to two lawmakers who were on the call.
State of play: He is helping to spearhead House Democrats' response to the Trump administration's shock-and-awe tactics as a co-chair of their rapid response and litigation task force.
Raskin has taken the lead on the legal side of things, including preparing for the possibility of Trump ignoring a judicial order, as Axios previously reported.
"We are brainstorming lots of different kinds of responses to different kinds of defiance," he told Axios in an interview.
Continue reading at Axios
Will Michael Bennet Shift his Fight Against Trump to the State House?
The Colorado senator, raised to revere the world’s greatest deliberative body, seems ready to give up on Washington.
Bennet is almost certain to run for governor in his adopted state next year, according to multiple Democrats in Washington and Denver.
In an hour-long interview this week, Bennet made little attempt to hide his intentions, telling me he’ll reveal his plans in early April.
“The central fight is whether or not we can create an economy where people feel like when they work hard they get ahead,” he said. “And I think the answer to that over the next decade is as likely to come from the states as it is from Washington.”
Reminded about his father’s staff tenure — stints with a pair of Cold War senators in addition to his committee post — the senator noted that Douglas Bennet Jr. also eventually left the Senate to run USAID and eventually NPR and Wesleyan University.
“I wish he were still alive, because I wish I could ask him his advice,” Bennet said. “And I think what he would tell me is, notwithstanding the fact that he worked here and he loved this place, he also moved on to do other things. And he might say, take what you’ve learned and find a place to be as effective as you can be.”
That Michael Farrand Bennet is no longer sure the Senate is a place to be effective is as harsh an indictment I can recall of what was once unironically called the world’s greatest deliberative body.
He’s not the only lawmaker headed for the exits. Already this year, before the first quarter even ended, Democratic Sens. Gary Peters, Tina Smith and Jeanne Shaheen announced they wouldn’t run again.
Continue reading at Politico
This progressive leader has a strategy for Dems: Drop the purity tests, and ‘pick villains’ in the GOP
A millennial Texan offers advice for how Democrats can get back on track with working-class voters.
Rep. Greg Casar wants Democrats to “pick villains” in the GOP and drop purity tests in primaries.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus chair, a 35-year-old Texas millennial who took over its leadership in December, thinks his party lost its working-class identity, while becoming too cautious and too boring in its fight against Republicans. He’s meeting privately with other members to discuss ways to steer the party toward a more populist economic message — being “known as the party of working people, first and foremost,” Casar said — and he’s mounting an aggressive public relations campaign to push it.
It’s a notable departure from the approach the progressive wing of the Democratic Party had in recent years, when it wrapped itself in slogans like “abolish ICE” and “defund the police,” while demanding ideological purity on a range of issues during the 2020 presidential primary. It also comes as Democrats confront a deep brand problem, with public and private polling and focus groups showing voters believe it is weak, overly focused on diversity and the elites.
“Our best path to being able to defend vulnerable people and take on righteous, but maybe not yet popular causes, is to win the votes of the overwhelming number of working people and to be known as the party of the everyday person, first,” Casar said in an interview in his congressional office. “I believe that progressives need to make sure that we are connecting our causes to the broadest base of people possible.”
To win again, Democrats must “make sure that the central brand speaks to everyone,” Casar said.
Casar, along with Reps. Chris Deluzio (D-Penn.) and Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), have been meeting informally with about a dozen Democratic members to talk about how best to shift the party into emphasizing economic populism, according to two people familiar with the meetings granted anonymity to discuss the private sessions.
Continue reading at Politico
National Security
Trump’s Signal scandal fuels growing distrust from allies
The Trump administration’s sharing of sensitive military information on Signal has shocked allies, while further eroding trans-Atlantic trust thanks to group chat messages from top U.S. officials expressing contempt toward Europe’s “freeloading” on security.
“I think every allied intelligence agency that read that article is probably having their own internal panic attack about what this implies,” Craig Kafura, the director of public opinion and foreign policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, said of the bombshell report in The Atlantic earlier this week.
In the article, Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg detailed how Trump’s top Cabinet officials used the open-source messaging app to debate and detail planned attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen, while also expressing loathing for America having to defend European economic and military interests.
“I think because this is such a public scandal, such a public lapse of judgment in so many ways, it’s going to continue to push public attitudes in — especially Europe given the contents of those messages — a more negative direction towards the United States,” Kafura said.
President Trump’s controversial America First foreign policy has rapidly transformed even Washington’s most “ironclad” relationships, with Canada’s new prime minister saying this week that the historical relationship with the U.S. was “over.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Hegseth’s younger brother is serving in a key role as liaison and senior adviser inside the Pentagon
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s younger brother is serving in a key position inside the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior adviser, Hegseth’s office confirmed.
The high-profile job has meant meetings with a UFC fighting champion, a trip to Guantanamo Bay and, right now, traveling on the Pentagon’s 747 aircraft as Hegseth makes his first trip as defense secretary to the Indo-Pacific.
Phil Hegseth’s official title is senior adviser to the secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and liaison officer to the Defense Department, spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson said in a statement Thursday.
“Phil Hegseth, one of a number of talented DHS liaisons to DOD, is conducting touch points with U.S. Coast Guard officials on the Secretary’s Indo-Pacific trip,” which includes stops in Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines and Japan, Wilson said in response to a query by The Associated Press.
Continue reading at the AP
Danish foreign minister scolds Trump administration for its criticism of Denmark and Greenland
NUUK, Greenland (AP) — The Danish foreign minister on Saturday scolded the Trump administration for its “tone” in criticizing Denmark and Greenland, saying his country is already investing more into Arctic security and remains open to more cooperation with the U.S.
Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, make the remarks in a video posted to social media after U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s visit to the strategic island.
Continue reading at the AP
John Bolton on the Signal Leak: ‘A Very Primitive View of International Relations’
Trump’s former national security adviser lets loose on the leaked Signal group chat and the administration’s foreign policy factions.
Much of Washington is still waiting anxiously to learn who — if anyone — will be fired over the embarrassment now known as Signalgate. But the real battle underneath it all is which conservative faction will define Donald Trump’s foreign policy.
Will it be old school hawks like national security adviser Michael Waltz, who made the mistake of inviting Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg into the chat, or America First types like Vice President JD Vance, who expressed skepticism about the strikes on the Houthis in Yemen.
One person who is no stranger to bureaucratic knife-fighting in a Trump administration is John Bolton, who served as national security adviser in Trump’s first term before having an ugly falling out with the president.
In an interview for the Playbook Deep Dive podcast, Bolton discussed Signal disclosures, Trump’s approach to Vladimir Putin and what it’s like to be the subject of the president’s personal vendettas.
A longtime national security hawk, Bolton also had some choice words for Vance, who grumbled on Signal about the American military being needed to open up shipping lanes for Europeans.
The United States has been committed to “freedom of the seas” since the days of Thomas Jefferson, Bolton said. “It’s all out there, just open a book.”
Read the interview at Politico
Prime minister of Denmark to visit Greenland in wake of Vance’s trip
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will meet with Greenland’s leadership and residents. Vance did not receive an invitation from the government.
The Prime Minister of Denmark will visit Greenland next week, taking a trip to the self-ruled Danish territory just days after Vice President JD Vance’s own visit and the formation of a new broad coalition in Greenland’s government.
The visit, announced in a release from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Saturday, will “strengthen the bond with Greenland” and touch on cooperation between Greenland and Denmark.
“I look forward to continuing the close and trusting cooperation between Greenland and Denmark,” Frederiksen said in the release.
Greenland’s government announced an agreement on Friday for a coalition between Greenland’s Democrats and other parties, in a move that the coalition’s leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, had pushed for as a show of unity amid President Donald Trump’s increasing threats to annex the territory.
Frederiksen will meet with Nielsen and with residents of Greenland, after Vance did not receive an invitation from the Greenlandic government or meet with residents. Vance visited the U.S. Pituffik Space Base in Greenland on Friday, urging the territory to “cut a deal” with the U.S.
Continue reading at Politico
The backstory: Trump considered firing Waltz
Why it matters: We're told Waltz's job is safe for now. But he has gotten crosswise with several other top officials. "Mike is gonna make it," a top West Wing insider said. "Now it's up to Mike to make things better."
Behind the scenes: Trump officials say he was madder that Waltz had Jeffrey Goldberg's number in his phone than he was about the exposure of sensitive military strike details. Waltz's sloppy explanation to Fox News' Laura Ingraham made things worse.
Trump was fuming about Tuesday night's interview, where Waltz said "we're going to figure out how this happened" — even though he's the one who mistakenly added Goldberg. (This is the national security version of the "Hot Dog Guy" meme.)
In Trump's impulsive first term, Waltz might've been fired. This time, Trump didn't want the media to take a victory lap. As a senior White House official told Axios on Day 1 of the fiasco: "We all know that you don't give the mob what it wants."
The intrigue: Waltz has had trouble adjusting to the job. The former Green Beret has gone into an advisory role after being a congressman who's used to being a star. And he's surrounded by high-powered officials — Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's top foreign policy envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Continue reading at Axios
Health news
That "healthy" soda? Your gut might disagree
Prebiotic soft drinks are popping off, but their "gut-friendly" health claims deserve a closer look.
Why it matters: Most prebiotic sodas contain the fiber inulin, which experts say can be hard to digest and — according to early animal studies and a case study — potentially carcinogenic.
What we're hearing: "I've had patients who came to me complaining of severe bloating, to the point they couldn't put on a seat belt in the car," says Tamara Duker Freuman, a New York-based dietitian and author.
The apparent culprit: prebiotic sodas. Freuman had the patients stop drinking them "and the bloating went away."
By the numbers: U.S. sales of prebiotic soft drinks jumped from $33 million in January 2022, to $777 million in January 2025 — according to data NielsenIQ shared with Axios.
Olipop, one of the category leaders, was valued at $1.85 billion in its latest funding round, per CNBC.
And PepsiCo just acquired major prebiotic soda brand Poppi for $1.95 billion.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump Has New Nominee for CDC Director
— Acting director Susan Monarez, PhD, will be tapped to lead the agency
President Trump will nominate Susan Monarez, PhD, the acting director of the CDC, to lead the agency, a White House official confirmed Monday.
Trump abruptly withdrew the nominationopens in a new tab or window of his first pick, David Weldon, MD, earlier this month.
Monarez has been serving as the CDC's acting director since January. She came from an outside federal government agency, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).
In a social media post, Trump said that Monarez will work closely with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"As an incredible mother and dedicated public servant, Dr. Monarez understands the importance of protecting our children, our communities, and our future," Trump said in the post on Monday afternoon. "Americans have lost confidence in the CDC due to political bias and disastrous mismanagement."
Earlier this month, the White House withdrew the nomination of Weldon, a former Florida congressman, to lead the CDC. Weldon told the media his nomination was withdrawn because "there were not enough votes to get me confirmed."
Weldon was closely aligned with Kennedy, who for years has been one of the nation's leading anti-vaccine activists.
The CDC is based in Atlanta and has a $9.2 billion core budget. It was created nearly 80 years ago to prevent the spread of malaria in the U.S. Its mission was later expanded, and it gradually became a global leader on infectious and chronic diseases and a go-to source of health information.
Monarez holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, and her postdoctoral training was in microbiology and immunology at Stanford University.
Continue reading at MedPageToday
Trump team revokes $11 billion in funding for addiction, mental health care
State and county public health departments and nonprofit groups are reeling after the Trump administration announced abrupt cancellation and revocation of roughly $11.4 billion in COVID-era funding for grants linked to addiction, mental health and other programs.
"This is chopping things off in the middle while people are actually doing the work," said Keith Humphreys, an addiction policy researcher at Stanford University, who also volunteers doing harm reduction work with people in addiction. He warned the move could trigger layoffs and treatment disruptions.
"Services will be dropped in the middle. Bang, the clinic is closing. It's a brutal way to make these cuts," Humphreys said.
The federal grant funding had been scheduled to run through September 2025. In a statement sent to NPR, a spokesperson with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it made sense to freeze the program immediately.
Continue reading at NPR
RFK Jr. body shames W.V. governor
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to put the governor of West Virginia on a diet.
Why it matters: While promoting his "Make America Healthy Again" agenda, Health and Human Services Sec. Kennedy suggested that Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R) should have public weigh-ins with a celebration when he loses 30 pounds.
What they're saying: "I'm going to put him on a really rigorous regime. We're going to put him on a carnivore diet," Kennedy said on Friday in Martinsburg.
"Raise your hand if you want Gov. Morrisey to do a public weigh in once a month," he continued as the crowd applauded. "Then when he's lost 30 pounds, I'm going to come back to the state and do a celebration and a public weigh in with him."
"You're welcome, Denise," Kennedy added, referring to the governor's wife.
Inside the room: When Kennedy's comments rippled across social media, White House staffers reacted privately with a shrug, a chuckle and an expectation of more criticism than materialized, according to an insider privy to the conversations.
Context: Kennedy traveled to West Virginia to promote reforms from the governor that align with his claims about unhealthy products in America's food supply — especially ultraprocessed foods and additives.
Continue reading at Axios
New Birth Control Shot Transforms Into a Long-Lasting Implant—No Clinic Required
The technology uses tiny crystals to achieve both long-term effectiveness and the convenience of injections.
A contraceptive implant is a thin and flexible rod that sits under the skin and releases contraceptive drugs into the body for years. While it’s one of the most effective forms of contraceptives and avoids the inconvenience of having to take a pill every day, the implant requires minor surgery, which can limit accessibility. To make life a bit easier, researchers are creating a self-assembling contraceptive implant the components of which women could self-administer with a single injection.
A team of researchers has developed the technology for self-injectable contraceptive shots that work similarly to contraceptive implants. As detailed in a study published Monday in the journal Nature Chemical Engineering, the shots would result in a highly effective and long-term contraceptive method more accessible to women who lack easy access to medical infrastructure. Additionally, the design could be used to administer other long-term medications, such as those for HIV.
The new approach delivers the contraceptive hormonal medication levonorgestrel via what the researchers call “Self-assembling Long-acting Injectable Microcrystals” (SLIM). Once injected into the body, the tiny crystals assemble into an implant, or a drug “depot,” that releases levonorgestrel as it erodes over months or years.
Continue reading at Gizmodo
Economics
The White House has promised ‘certainty’ on trade. Even some inside the administration doubt they can provide it.
The president continues to throw curveballs at businesses — and even his own team.
Top White House and administration officials have been promising businesses, consumers and fellow Republicans more “certainty” on trade in the coming days, eager to calm skittish markets and avoid the stock market plunge that accompanied the White House’s initial tariff roll-outs.
But they have one problem: Donald J. Trump.
Just days out from Trump’s April 2 announcement of global tariffs, which he has hailed as “Liberation Day,” even those closest to the president — from Vice President JD Vance to his chief of staff Susie Wiles and his own Cabinet officials — have privately indicated that they’re unsure exactly what the boss will do, according to three people who have spoken with them.
While some details of the administration’s plan for what Trump has dubbed “reciprocal tariffs” on global trading partners are starting to trickle out, the president has at times upended them or floated contradictory policies that are keeping everyone — even his inner circle — guessing.
“No one knows what the fuck is going on,” said one White House ally close to Trump’s inner circle, granted anonymity to speak freely. “What are they going to tariff? Who are they gonna tariff and at what rates? Like, the very basic questions haven’t been answered yet.”
Indeed, while the White House is projecting confidence publicly, multiple administration officials, as well as top allies on the outside, are privately concerned that next week’s roll-out could be as rocky as when he imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China on March 4, worsening a rout on stocks that began in mid-February. Though the S&P 500 has since regained some ground, all of its previous gains since Election Day have been erased.
Continue reading at Politico
How does the automotive supply chain work?
Trump's 25 percent auto tariffs will apply to "key automobile parts"
The average car has about 30,000 parts
Experts worry suppliers will suffer and repairs will cost more
President Trump’s 25 percent tariff on imported cars is expected to raise prices for consumers and carmakers, but it could also hurt smaller companies in the vast auto supply chain.
That’s because Trump’s import tax will also apply to “key automobile parts,” including engines, transmissions, powertrain parts and electrical components, according to the White House. Other parts may be added “if necessary.”
While the U.S. auto industry is often associated with legacy brands like Ford and General Motors (GM), its network of parts suppliers is far broader.
Vehicle suppliers provide 4.8 million jobs, making it the largest manufacturing sector in the U.S., according to the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA), the trade group that represents suppliers.
Trump has said his tariffs are aimed at bringing jobs back to the U.S., but experts worry they will have the opposite effect.
Continue reading at The Hill
Here's where you'd pay the highest state income taxes
Chart: Top marginal state income tax rate, 2025
Your annual tax bill depends at least partly on where you live, with state income taxes varying from nonexistent all the way up to nearly 14% for some especially high earners.
Why it matters: Some states with low or no individual income tax, like Texas and Florida, are attracting lots of new residents — but could find themselves in trouble in a world with less federal financial aid.
By the numbers: California (13.3%), Hawai'i (11%) and New York (10.9%) have the highest top marginal income tax rates for individuals.
Arizona and North Dakota (both 2.5%) have the lowest among states with an income tax.
How it works: That's according to data from the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank.
Local taxes, as well as some state-specific taxes in a handful of states and a capital gains surtax on high earners in Minnesota, are not included.
Continue reading at Axios
How does the automotive supply chain work?
Trump's 25 percent auto tariffs will apply to "key automobile parts"
The average car has about 30,000 parts
Experts worry suppliers will suffer and repairs will cost more
President Trump’s 25 percent tariff on imported cars is expected to raise prices for consumers and carmakers, but it could also hurt smaller companies in the vast auto supply chain.
That’s because Trump’s import tax will also apply to “key automobile parts,” including engines, transmissions, powertrain parts and electrical components, according to the White House. Other parts may be added “if necessary.”
While the U.S. auto industry is often associated with legacy brands like Ford and General Motors (GM), its network of parts suppliers is far broader.
Vehicle suppliers provide 4.8 million jobs, making it the largest manufacturing sector in the U.S., according to the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA), the trade group that represents suppliers.
Trump has said his tariffs are aimed at bringing jobs back to the U.S., but experts worry they will have the opposite effect.
Continue reading at The Hill
Why car buyers will be flooding showrooms this weekend
U.S. auto prices are as good as they're going to get, with consumers rushing to buy new trucks and SUVs before tariffs drive up costs, analysts say.
Why it matters: The reality of President Trump's tariffs on imported vehicles and auto parts is sinking in, with the consensus that vehicle prices will go up and the industry's financial outlook will darken.
The big picture: The impending tariffs are giving people a reason to go out and buy a new car now —ahead of the traditional spring selling season — even if they'd been on the sidelines, fearful of a worsening economy.
"Consumers likely have a narrow window to buy new or used vehicles before prices increase by 10% or more," said Jonathan Smoke, chief economist of Cox Automotive.
Zoom in: There's been a massive range of estimates, from a variety of sources, about how much car prices could actually rise as carmakers look to pass along their extra costs.
One reasonable estimate comes from the Yale Budget Lab, which forecasts vehicle prices will rise 13.5% on average, or about $6,400 on the average new car.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump on if auto companies raise costs due to tariffs: ‘I couldn’t care less’
President Trump on Saturday denied reports alleging he urged auto CEOs not to raise costs amid tariffs on foreign-made cars, instead doubling down on his decision to increase levies in an effort to create an American manufacturing boom.
“I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American-made cars,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News.
“I couldn’t care less. I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are gonna buy American-made cars. We have plenty.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Anti-union-Federal workforce-Litigation
Fired Department of Education employees clean out desks
Around half the Education Department's staff was let go this month
One former worker says way they were treated is 'unconscionable'
Trump aims to ax department altogether but can't without Congress
Hundreds of fired government employees filed into the Department of Education headquarters in Washington on Friday in order to collect their personal belongings and say their goodbyes.
Former workers were given 30 minutes to do this. Afterward, they were walked out of the building’s doors.
Earlier this month, nearly half of the department’s staff was laid off. The education workforce now totals 2,183 workers, down from 4,133 when President Trump returned to office in January.
Supporters and other federal workers, some of whom still work for the Education Department, were also at the headquarters to rally against the cuts.
Downsizing the federal government has been a core goal of Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But some say there is a human toll to workers losing their jobs.
Continue reading at The Hill
U.S. Institute of Peace staff receive termination notices, sources say
Staff members at the U.S. Institute of Peace were informed they were terminated effective immediately on Friday, three sources familiar with the situation told CBS News.
It was not immediately clear if the terminations affect the entire organization but one source said the terminations impact the vast majority of the nonprofit, including multiple departments at the congressionally funded organization.
The Trump administration has attempted to freeze its funding and gut and replace its board. President Trump signed an executive order in February aimed at dismantling the USIP.
Continue reading at CBS News
US Institute of Peace lays off staff after dramatic standoff with DOGE
USIP has sought to fend off attempts by the Trump administration to take it over, arguing the institute is not legally a federal agency.
The institute, an independent nonprofit funded by Congress, promotes conflict resolution mechanisms and advances peace around the world.
The termination letter, seen by POLITICO, offers an additional amount of cash after employees’ final day, as well as one month of health care after their departure date. It also says that signing the letter represents an agreement that terminated staff relinquish their rights to take legal action against USIP for the circumstances of their firing. The letter also gives fired workers a brief window to return to their offices and retrieve personal belongings.
The USIP was in the middle of a dramatic standoff with staffers from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency earlier this month. President Donald Trump dismissed much of the institute’s board, with the remaining members — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — firing the organization’s president and CEO and installing Kenneth Jackson, a DOGE member, as the acting leader.
Members of the DOGE team, including Jackson, then surreptitiously entered the building with the assistance of D.C. police.
Continue reading at Politico
US Naval Academy latest school to nix affirmative action in admissions
The United States Naval Academy in Anapolis, Md., recently joined a growing list of schools that will no longer consider race, ethnicity or sex as a factor for admission, court documents made public Friday show.
The move follows an executive order issued by President Trump earlier this year that called for the shuttering of federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and moved to end the use of affirmative action in hiring and admissions practices.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filing in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals shows that Naval Academy Superintendent, Vice Adm. Yvette Davids, made the decision in February, The Associated Press reported.
The decision comes after U.S. Senior District Judge Richard Bennett upheld the Naval Academy’s race-conscious admissions policy in a 175-page ruling late last year, rejecting a challenge from Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), the same group that successfully argued against the practice at civilian higher education institutions before the Supreme Court in 2023.
Continue reading at The Hill
Science News
Surprising Findings From New Research About Dementia and Marriage
— U.S. study could challenge the belief that marriage protects against cognitive decline
Unmarried people had a lower risk of dementia than those who were married, data from an 18-year cohort study of 24,000 older adults suggested.
In models adjusted for age and sex, never-married (HR 0.60, 95% CI 0.52-0.71), divorced (HR 0.66, 95% CI 0.59-0.73), and widowed older adults (HR 0.73, 95% CI 0.67-0.79) had less dementia risk than married adults, reported Selin Karakose, PhD, of the Florida State University College of Medicine in Tallahassee, and co-authors.
All unmarried groups also had a lower risk of progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia, the researchers wrote in Alzheimer's & Dementiaopens in a new tab or window. Findings were similar for men and women and were significant for Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia.
Participants had annual evaluations at specialized dementia clinics. The study findings may indicate delayed diagnoses among unmarried people or could question the assumption that marriage protects against dementia.
"Contrary to expectations and challenging the commonly held belief that marriage is protective against cognitive decline and dementia, this study found that married older adults exhibited a higher risk of dementia compared to those never married, divorced, and widowed," Karakose said.
"This finding can change the way we understand the connection between marital status and risk of dementia," she told MedPage Today. "Previous work has emphasized the benefits of marriage. However, married individuals may have a smaller social network, tend to be less self-reliant, and may experience stressful conditions such as caregiving, which could contribute to the risk of dementia."
Continue reading at MedPageToday
Giant, Ancient Life Form Doesn’t Fit Into Any Known Branch of Life
More broadly, the researchers documented three defining features of Prototaxites: large structures made of different tube-like components, compounds similar to lignin (the molecules that help give plants their rigidity), and a heterotrophic lifestyle (consuming other organisms for food).
“Based on this investigation we are unable to assign Prototaxites to any extant lineage, reinforcing its uniqueness,” they explained. “We conclude that the morphology and molecular fingerprint of P. taiti is clearly distinct from that of the fungi and other organisms preserved alongside it in the Rhynie chert, and we suggest that it is best considered a member of a previously undescribed, entirely extinct group of eukaryotes.”
All living organisms on Earth belong to one of three domains: Bacteria, Archaea, or Eukaryotes (also known as Eukarya). Bacteria and Archaea are single-celled microorganisms without a nucleus, while all multicellular organisms are classified as Eukaryotes. Eukaryotes are generally subdivided into four kingdoms: animals, plants, fungi, and protists (basically a catch-all category for all eukaryotes that aren’t animals, plants, or fungi). The researchers’ conclusion seems to suggest the existence of a new kingdom of life, though they don’t explicitly mention that classification.
Continue reading at Gizmodo
Legendary U.S. Particle Collider Is About to Perform Its Final Smash
Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider kicked off its final year of operations this week, marking a quarter century of discoveries in particle physics.
After 25 years of smashing gold nuclei together at light speeds, Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is hanging up its boots—erm, superconducting magnets.
The collider’s final run—its 25th—kicked off this week on Long Island, in a swan song for the venerable collider that will be succeeded—in fact, transformed into—Brookhaven Lab’s Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). Over the course of 2025, RHIC physicists will complete data collection on quark-gluon plasma, the soup of particles that existed in the earliest days of the universe.
“The original idea behind RHIC was to create, for the first time on Earth, a state of matter that existed in the universe a few microseconds after the Big Bang: the quark-gluon plasma, and we did,” said James Dunlop, the associate department chair for nuclear physics at Brookhaven Lab, in a call with Gizmodo. “That’s one of the big legacies—that we actually created it—but the more interesting thing is that its properties were quite different from what we’d expected them to be.”
“You don’t think that when you boil water, you’re going to make something that’s much more liquid than water itself, right?,” Dunlop added. “And that’s actually what we found: that is that the quark-gluon plasma behaves as the most perfect liquid that we know of.”
For the RHIC’s final run, the top priority is gold-on-gold collisions at energies of 200 billion electron volts. The collider will run those collisions through June, and will break in July and August to avoid running experiments in the sweltering summer heat.
Continue reading at Gizmodo
Top FDA vaccine regulator Peter Marks pushed out
The departure of Marks leaves the agency without yet another senior regulator.
Top FDA vaccine regulator Peter Marks abruptly resigned on Friday, according to a copy of his resignation letter obtained by POLITICO.
Marks was pushed out under pressure from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said two people familiar with the matter granted anonymity to discuss the resignation — a development that sent shockwaves across the nation’s capital and prompted concern among some pharmaceutical companies.
Kennedy and his team decided in recent weeks to push Marks out, concluding that they needed a fresh start as part of the department’s broader reorganization, said one person familiar with Kennedy’s thinking granted anonymity to discuss the situation. The person denied that there was a single flashpoint that prompted Marks’ departure.
But Marks had grown increasingly concerned by Kennedy’s attitude toward vaccines, said another person familiar with the matter, and was at odds with the HHS secretary in particular over his tepid response to the Texas measles outbreak.
In his resignation letter, Marks directly confronted vaccine hesitancy and the ongoing measles outbreak in West Texas that has been implicated in two deaths and hundreds of cases of the viral illness, which was declared eradicated from the U.S. in 2000. Kennedy has made public statements tepidly supporting measles, mumps and rubella vaccines while promoting alternative treatments like vitamin A that public health experts widely agree are no substitute for the protection offered by vaccines.
“Undermining confidence in well-established vaccines that have met the high standards for quality, safety, and effectiveness that have been in place for decades at FDA is irresponsible, detrimental to public health, and a clear danger to our nation’s health, safety and security,” Marks wrote in the letter addressed to acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner and obtained by POLITICO. Marks’ final day at the FDA is April 5.
Continue reading at Politico
General News
Americans’ Views of Deportations
Most say arrests of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally should be allowed at protests or in homes, but not at places of worship or schools
As the Trump administration cracks down on immigration, Americans largely agree that at least some immigrants living in the U.S. illegally should be deported, particularly those who have committed violent crimes. But there’s less consensus on how the government should carry out deportations.
What Americans think: Who should be deported? | What powers should law enforcement have? | How will deportations affect U.S. life?
Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship draws more disapproval than approval
Continue reading at Pew Research Center
Security News This Week: Top Trump Officials’ Passwords and Personal Phone Numbers Discovered Online
Plus: Alleged Snowflake hacker will be extradited to US, internet restrictions create an information vacuum in Myanmar, and London gets its first permanent face recognition cameras.
After senior Trump administration members mistakenly included The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg in a secret group chat about bombing Houthi targets in Yemen, encrypted messaging app Signal found itself at the center of a storm this week. Some commentators criticized the app, going as far to blame it for the scandal.
But the whole affair that’s dubiously been dubbed “SignalGate” isn’t about Signal at all: Experts say officials shouldn’t invite untrusted contacts into sensitive chats and should only use authorized devices, platforms, and procedures when discussing top-secret military operations. In other words, the people who set up the chat made numerous mistakes, and they had nothing to do with how secure Signal is. In fact, Signal has seen its biggest-ever spike in US downloads as a result of the news.
In other news linked to that Houthi group chat, national security adviser Mike Waltz—an account with the name “Michael Waltz” originally invited Goldberg to the group—left his Venmo account open to public view. As WIRED reported, a “Michael Waltz” Venmo account displayed the names of the adviser’s colleagues and friends, revealing people in Waltz’s wider social network. After WIRED reached out to the White House, the Waltz account hid its friends list. There’s more though: WIRED also discovered other Venmo accounts linked to officials in the Signal chat. Information about who officials associate with could be highly lucrative for foreign spies and hackers.
Continue reading at Wired
DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Code Base in Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse
Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in COBOL, an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years—DOGE wants it done in months.
The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.
The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months.
Under any circumstances, a migration of this size and scale would be a massive undertaking, experts tell WIRED, but the expedited deadline runs the risk of obstructing payments to the more than 65 million people in the US currently receiving Social Security benefits.
“Of course, one of the big risks is not underpayment or overpayment per se; [it’s also] not paying someone at all and not knowing about it. The invisible errors and omissions,” an SSA technologist tells WIRED.
The Social Security Administration did not immediately reply to WIRED’s request for comment.
Continue reading at Wired
Energy Department’s project hit list draws bipartisan pushback from lawmakers
Draft lists of potential cuts have been rocketing around Capitol Hill this week, and lawmakers from both parties are working to save their projects.
The pressure from the lawmakers comes as Energy Secretary Chris Wright weighs gutting the clean energy spending that President Donald Trump has blasted as the “green new scam.” But a growing chorus of voices contends the funding is critical for new technologies like hydrogen production and carbon capture — and toward solving the “national energy emergency” that Trump has declared.
Projects at risk of losing funding have gotten backing from Trump’s allies in the oil and gas sector, as well as the lawmakers whose districts would benefit from the investments. And Democrats and some industry groups warn that canceling them could violate the laws that authorized the spending.
POLITICO previously reported that DOE is drafting a hit list of energy projects to submit to the White House for potential cuts as soon as this week. A draft version of that list that circulated within the department suggested cutting four hydrogen production hubs located mostly in Democratic-leaning states while maintaining funding for three hubs spread across mostly red states.
That draft list — along with at least two others that suggest DOE may pull funding for various transmission projects and a pair of projects that would suck carbon dioxide from the air — has drawn bipartisan concern as it rocketed around Capitol Hill this week. POLITICO is not publishing the lists under an agreement with the people who shared them.
“Somebody’s DOGE victory is somebody else’s sacred cow,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), referring to the controversial effort led by Elon Musk to shrink the federal government. “That’s sort of what we’re running up against with this broad approach.”
It’s not clear if the carbon capture or transmission projects will be on the list that Wright is expected to submit to the White House. People familiar with the Energy Department’s efforts have cautioned that the lists circling the Hill are subject to changes.
Continue reading at Politico
Zelenskyy says no to any US minerals deal that might risk Ukraine’s EU bid
‘Nothing that could endanger … Ukraine’s accession to the EU can be accepted,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine will not accept a minerals agreement with the United States that would jeopardize its accession to the European Union, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday.
"The Constitution of Ukraine clearly states that our course is towards the EU … There are very important reforms and corresponding steps," Zelenskyy told a press conference in Kyiv Friday evening.
"Nothing that could endanger … Ukraine’s accession to the EU can be accepted," he said.
His comments come after Bloomberg and the Financial Times reported on Washington's latest minerals offer to Kyiv, which would grant the United States access to Ukraine's oil, gas and minerals through a joint investment fund that would split the revenue of those projects between the two countries.
The Ukrainian president confirmed that Kyiv had officially received a new draft of the proposed deal from Washington, which included "many new provisions that were not previously discussed," as well as "some aspects that had already been rejected by both sides," according to Ukrainian media.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Poland gears up for war
Warsaw is already spending big on defense. Now it needs the manpower.
WARSAW — Since Poland unveiled its goal to train every adult male for war, being a Polish passport-holder has taken on a different character.
Hollywood A-lister status is no exception.
“There’s really nothing to be afraid of!” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk teased U.S. actor Jesse Eisenberg in a social media video. The 41-year-old Eisenberg was awarded Polish citizenship earlier this month for his role in a "A Real Pain," an Oscar-nominated drama about estranged Jewish cousins reuniting for a Holocaust tour through the country.
Days after Eisenberg became a citizen, Tusk revealed plans for a dramatic military expansion.
“We’ll give you such a training that the new James Bond role? It’s yours!” Tusk said. The Polish PM underlined that the training is voluntary.
Poland spent almost two centuries as a colony of Moscow and retains a deep-seated wariness of the country. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has kicked that worry into overdrive.
Warsaw is now NATO’s biggest defense spender at 4.7 percent of GDP, has the EU's largest army, and is spending billions of euros on jets, rockets, tanks, artillery and more.
Now the frontline state is getting its population ready for war.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Tracking Trump: The Signal message saga continues
Chart: Trump moves you may have missed
[…]
The Signal fallout
National security adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News on Tuesday he takes "full responsibility" for mistakenly adding Goldberg to the chat. However, Trump said the mistake wouldn't end in Waltz's termination, that he "has learned a lesson, and he's a good man."
Zoom out: The government watchdog group American Oversight sued Trump administration officials on Tuesday. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the government to preserve the chat messages from March 11-15.
The administration has until Monday to explain their preservation methods, Axios' Sareen Habeshian writes.
Trump pulls UN nominee
President Trump withdrew Rep. Elise Stefanik's nomination for United Nations ambassador on Thursday, opting to keep her in the House of Representatives, with only a 218-213 seat advantage in the House.
Trump cited the need to maintain every Republican seat in Congress to advance his "America First Agenda."
Continue reading at Axios
Judge temporarily blocks dismantling of VOA
A federal judge temporarily blocked President Trump’s administration from dismantling the government-funded news outlet Voice of America (VOA), preventing the termination of more than 1,200 reporters and other employees put on paid leave earlier this month for now.
U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken issued a temporary restraining order on Friday, barring the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA, from disbanding the international broadcasting network and its connected radio programs.
“Because Defendants failed to provide adequate reasoning behind the sweeping changes to USAGM and seemingly failed to consider any reliance issues in effectively closing the agency, they have likely violated Section 706(2)(A) of the APA. Plaintiffs have thus met their burden of establishing a likelihood of success on the merits,” Oetken said in the 22-page opinion.
The Friday order also bars USAGM from cutting funds intended for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. On Thursday, the Trump administration said in court documents that it had resumed funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Open Technology Fund in response to another lawsuit.
Continue reading at The Hill
Myanmar’s earthquake death toll jumps to more than 1,000 as more bodies recovered from the rubble
BANGKOK (AP) — The death toll from a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar jumped to more than 1,000 on Saturday as more bodies were pulled from the rubble of the scores of buildings that collapsed when it struck near the country’s second-largest city.
The country’s military-led government said in a statement that 1,002 people have now been found dead and another 2,376 injured, with 30 others missing. The statement suggested the numbers could still rise, saying “detailed figures are still being collected.”
Myanmar, also known as Burma, is in the throes of a prolonged and bloody civil war, which is already responsible for a massive humanitarian crisis. It makes movement around the country both difficult and dangerous, complicating relief efforts and raising fears that the death toll could still rise precipitously.
The earthquake struck midday Friday with an epicenter not far from Mandalay, followed by several aftershocks including one measuring a strong 6.4 magnitude. It sent buildings in many areas toppling to the ground, buckled roads, caused bridges to collapse and burst a dam.
Continue reading at the AP
Kristi Noem refused to say who financed some of her travel. It was taxpayers who were on the hook
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — As then-Gov. Kristi Noem crisscrossed the country — stumping for President Donald Trump and boosting her political profile beyond her home state — she refused to reveal what her extensive travel was costing taxpayers.
In the weeks since Noem became Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, that mystery has been solved: South Dakota repeatedly picked up the tab for expenses related to her jet-setting campaigning.
An Associated Press analysis of recently released travel records found more than $150,000 in expenses tied to Noem’s political and personal activity and not South Dakota business. That included numerous trips to Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump resided before retaking office.
Most of those costs covered the state-provided security that accompanied Noem, irrespective of the reason for her travel. Over her six years as governor, AP’s analysis shows, South Dakota covered more than $640,000 in travel-related costs incurred by the governor’s office.
Continue reading at the AP
Satanist leader’s attempt to hold Black Mass in Kansas Statehouse sparks chaos and 4 arrests
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The leader of a small group of self-described satanists and three other people were arrested Friday following a scuffle inside the Kansas Statehouse arising from an effort by the group’s leader to start a Black Mass in the rotunda.
About 30 members of the Kansas City-area Satanic Grotto, led by its president, Michael Stewart, rallied outside the Statehouse for the separation of church and state. The group also protested what members called the state’s favoritism toward Christians in allowing events inside. Gov. Laura Kelly temporarily banned protests inside, just for Friday, weeks after Stewart’s group scheduled its indoor ceremony.
The Satanic Grotto’s rally outside drew hundreds of Christian counterprotesters because of the Grotto’s satanic imagery, and its indoor ceremony included denouncing Jesus Christ, who Christians believe is the Son of God. About 100 Christians stood against yellow police tape marking the Satanic Grotto’s area. The two groups yelled at each other while the Christians also sang and called on Grotto members to accept Jesus. Several hundred more Christians rallied on the other side of the Grotto’s area, but further away.
Continue reading at the AP
What is Eid al-Fitr and how do Muslims celebrate the Islamic holiday?
CAIRO (AP) — Muslims around the world are bidding farewell to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and will soon start celebrating the holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Eid is typically greeted with joy and excitement and is marked with congregational prayers and festivities that usually include family visits, gatherings, outings and new clothes.
For some Muslims, this year’s Eid comes amid significant changes in their communities.
In Gaza, this will be the second Eid al-Fitr to fall during the Israel-Hamas war. Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza by launching a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of people. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the strikes after Hamas refused Israeli demands to free half of the remaining hostages as a precondition for extending the ceasefire. Earlier this month, Israel halted deliveries of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza.
Continue reading at the AP
Critics see Trump attacks on the ‘Black Smithsonian’ as an effort to sanitize racism in US history
ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump’s order accusing the Smithsonian Institution of not reflecting American history notes correctly that the country’s Founding Fathers declared that “all men are created equal.”
But it doesn’t mention that the founders enshrined slavery into the U.S. Constitution and declared enslaved persons as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of the Census.
Civil rights advocates, historians and Black political leaders sharply rebuked Trump on Friday for his order, entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” They argued that his executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution is his administration’s latest move to downplay how race, racism and Black Americans themselves have shaped the nation’s story.
“It seems like we’re headed in the direction where there’s even an attempt to deny that the institution of slavery even existed, or that Jim Crow laws and segregation and racial violence against Black communities, Black families, Black individuals even occurred,” said historian Clarissa Myrick-Harris, a professor at Morehouse College, the historically Black campus in Atlanta.
Continue reading at the AP
Anderson Cooper calls out Trump for targeting the Smithsonian in new executive order
CNN’s Anderson Cooper reacts to President Donald Trump extending his efforts to influence American cultural and artistic institutions to the Smithsonian Institution – a sprawling organization that encompasses the National Zoo and a collection of museums that anchor tourism in the nation’s capital.
Watch the video at CNN.com
'She has failed miserably': Elie Honig reacts to Pam Bondi's performance
CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig criticized US Attorney General Pam Bondi's work so far, saying she sounds more like a White House press secretary than the leader of the Department of Justice.
Watch the video at CNN.com
Trump's deportation spectacle
The Trump administration remained publicly defiant this week as its immigration crackdown exploded into a global spectacle, ignited by two legally fraught deportation drives.
The transfer of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador using an 18th-century wartime law, which could soon be taken up by the Supreme Court.
The targeting of foreign students allegedly involved in pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses.
Why it matters: In both cases, President Trump and his team are charging ahead with unapologetic force — even as the courts, immigration activists and civil libertarians accuse them of steamrolling due process.
Zoom in: In the two weeks since Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, numerous reports have cast doubt on the alleged gang ties of some of the Venezuelans sent to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center.
Continue reading at Axios
Are Vehicle Infotainment Screens Headed for the Scrap Heap?
It’s easy to see why touch screens and large displays initially caught on. They’re sleek, enabling you to interact with your car in much the same way you’d interact with your smartphone. In practice, though, the tech is flawed, and drivers are pushing back.
Infotainment screens have been around for years. Once Tesla gained traction with its iPad-like controls in the mid-2010s, the technology took over. Today, roughly 97% of new vehicles have a touch screen, and nearly a quarter have one that’s 11 inches or larger.
[…]
As much as carmakers seem to love infotainment screens, consumers are less enthusiastic about them. Just 15% of drivers in 2024 said they would want a full-width infotainment display. Windshield base displays with less functionality are slightly more popular but still appeal to just 18% of those planning on buying a new car.
The growing pushback against vehicle touch screens is ultimately a matter of safety and convenience. While having all your controls in one place sounds useful, navigating between menus to find the right settings can be frustrating, slow, and unsafe if done while driving. It also means basic car functions may be at the mercy of software glitches and lag.
In 2021, Tesla had to recall vehicles because an issue with the flash memory in Tesla infotainment systems made the rearview camera unviewable and took defrost and turn signal functions offline. More recently, a class-action lawsuit against Stellantis alleges that defective infotainment screens led to backup camera failures and distracting audio glitches.
Continue reading at Gizmodo
Trump turns migrants into memes to promote deportation agenda
As President Trump pursues his hardline immigration policies, the White House has sought to punctuate public messaging for the crackdown through memes and designed-to-go-viral content.
Why it matters: The memes mirror President Trump's combative posture, adopting the boundary pushing, extremely online humor of the MAGA base while reveling in the outrage they generate from opponents.
The embrace of comedic memes contrast an immigration crackdown that has sparked legal challenges and warnings about the inhumane conditions faced by detainees.
The latest: The latest White House memes came Thursday when the administration posted an AI-generated cartoon on X of an undocumented immigrant being arrested by ICE.
The meme, showing a woman crying while being handcuffed by a stern-looking immigration official, was made in the vein of ChatGPT-produced Studio Ghibli-style portraits that have recently taken the internet by storm.
State of play: While Trump often painted an apocalyptic vision of criminal immigrants on the campaign trail, other immigration-related memes posted by the administration adopt a mocking tone.
In response to a Homeland Security X post earlier this month about the deportation of Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese doctor in the U.S. on an H-1B visa, the White House posted a photo of Trump waving sanguinely out of the window of a McDonald's drive-thru.
For Valentine's Day, the White House posted a meme of Trump and border czar Tom Homan's heads floating on a pink, heart-themed background.
"Roses are red, violets are blue, come here illegally, and we'll deport you," the meme read.
Continue reading at Axios
Newark mayor invites Alina Habba for tour: ‘Come hang out with us here in the city’
Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, N.J., invited Alina Habba to the city for a tour, a day before she was sworn in as a federal prosecutor for the Garden State Friday.
“I’d be happy to give you a tour of Newark — a beautiful, thriving and diverse community built by working people with pride,” he wrote in a Thursday post on social platform X, accompanied by a video.
“No MS-13 here, just resilience, culture and progress,” he added, referring to a gang organization that has been in the headlines amid the Trump administration’s crack down on illegal immigration.
Habba, a staunch defender of President Trump and White House counsel, was tapped to serve as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey earlier this week. She previously represented Trump in high-stakes cases such as the New York civil fraud trial and the defamation and sexual assault lawsuits brought against him by author E. Jean Carroll.
Continue reading at The Hill
Musk shuffles $80 billion in assets, reshapes gov't — just another week at the office
What did you do this week? Did you restructure an entire country, sit for a national TV interview and casually reorganize about $80 billion of your own assets on the side?
If you did, you're Elon Musk. Otherwise, you're a regular human being.
The big picture: Musk is operating on a scale with little precedent in human history, and it's not entirely clear how.
Catch up quick: Last night's deal to merge his AI business, xAI, with his social media company, X, is the kind of thing that usually consumes all of a CEO's time.
But Musk did it while also running DOGE and its massive reshaping of the federal government — and not incidentally, leading other huge businesses like Tesla and SpaceX, which have their own issues lately.
Continue reading at Axios
White House Correspondents’ Association cancels comedian headliner for annual dinner
The group’s board unanimously decided it would no longer feature a comedic performance, WHCA President Eugene Daniels wrote in an email Saturday
The White House Correspondents’ Association is canceling comedian Amber Ruffin’s planned headline performance for its annual dinner next month, amid tensions between the association and President Donald Trump’s administration.
“The WHCA board has unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year,” WHCA president Eugene Daniels wrote in an email Saturday afternoon to members, adding that the event’s “focus is not on the politics of division” but rather on honoring the work of the association’s journalists.
The decision comes after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich attacked the association for planning to spotlight Ruffin, who has been critical of the administration.
Tensions have escalated between the WHCA and the White House, as the Trump administration has consistently attacked the press. The White House announced it would take over organization of the rotating press pool covering the president, a task historically undertaken by the association, and has barred the Associated Press from events.
Continue reading at Politico
Myanmar’s earthquake death toll jumps to 1,644 as more bodies are recovered from the rubble
Rescue operations are underway in the major stricken cities of Mandalay, the country’s No. 2 city, and Naypyitaw, the capital.
BANGKOK — Myanmar’s ruling military said Saturday on state television that the confirmed death toll from a devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake rose to 1,644, as more bodies were pulled from the rubble of the scores of buildings that collapsed when it struck near the country’s second-largest city.
The new total is a sharp rise compared to the 1,002 total announced just hours earlier, underlining the difficulty of confirming casualties over a widespread region and the likelihood that the numbers will continue to grow from Friday’s quake. The number of injured increased to 3,408, while the missing figure rose to 139.
Rescue efforts are underway especially in the major stricken cities of Mandalay, the country’s No. 2 city, and Naypyitaw, the capital. But even though teams and equipment have been flown in from other nations, they are hindered by the airports in those cities being damaged and apparently unfit to land planes.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, is in the throes of a prolonged civil war, which is already responsible for a humanitarian crisis. It makes movement around the country both difficult and dangerous, complicating relief efforts and raising fears that the death toll could still rise precipitously.
The earthquake struck midday Friday with an epicenter not far from Mandalay, followed by several aftershocks, including one measuring 6.4. It sent buildings in many areas toppling to the ground, buckled roads, caused bridges to collapse and burst a dam.
Continue reading at Politico
Wisconsin judge won’t stop Musk’s $1 million payments to voters. Attorney general appeals
The billionaire is deeply involved in the closely-contested Supreme Court race, which has set a record for spending in a judicial election.
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin judge on Saturday declined to stop billionaire Elon Musk from handing over $1 million checks to two voters in the state at a planned rally days before the closely contested Supreme Court election. The state attorney general, who argues that the offer violates the law, immediately appealed after the judge refused to hear the request for an emergency injunction to block the payments.
The ruling is the latest twist in Musk’s deep involvement in the race, which has set a record for spending in a judicial election and has become a litmus test for the opening months of Donald Trump’s presidency. Trump and Musk are backing Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel in the race, while Democrats are behind Dane County Judge Susan Crawford.
Musk plans a rally Sunday where he intends to give a pair of Wisconsin voters $1 million each for signing an online petition against “activist” judges. He is also offering $100 to anyone who signs it; he previously gave $1 million to a Green Bay man who signed.
Musk and groups he funds have poured more than $20 million into the race, while Democratic megadonors, including George Soros, back Crawford. The race will determine ideological control of the court. Liberals currently hold a 4-3 majority but a retirement this year puts the majority in play. The election concludes Tuesday.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, sued on Friday to stop the payments from Musk’s America PAC, arguing they violated a state law making it a felony to give voters anything of value in exchange for them voting.
After being turned down by Columbia County Circuit Judge Andrew Voigt, Kaul said he was going to the state Court of Appeals.
Continue reading at Politico
‘I promise I’ll behave’: Congress’ most mercurial Republican faces DOGE, Signalgate anger
A furious crowd confronted Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz at a Friday night town hall. And she’s set to do it all over again.
WESTFIELD, Indiana — A week after the now-infamous group chat among top Trump administration officials turned Washington upside down, it’s clear Signalgate has captured the attention of middle America, too.
At a boisterous town hall here Friday night, third-term Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) admitted to angry constituents that Signalgate is “actually very bad.”
In Hamilton County — home of the wealthy and well-educated Republican suburbs of Indianapolis, which Trump won by 6 percentage points — the anger gripping both the Democratic base and independents across the country was on full display.
And much of it was fueled by the texting scandal.
“I promise I’ll behave,” said Spartz, the mercurial Capitol Hill character who rejected National Republican Congressional Committee guidance against holding in-person town halls, to the crowd.
Throughout the evening, her constituents gave her the business, chanting “do your job,” and yelling at her throughout. Spartz held her ground and yelled right back.
Spartz is in a reliably safe Republican district, and it would take a cataclysmic political event for her to lose her seat in 2026. But the energy from the Democratic base — of the nearly dozen attendees POLITICO spoke to, not one was a Republican — many months ahead of the midterms even in a red district was palpable.
Continue reading at Politico
Who is Trevor Milton, the startup founder and donor pardoned by Trump
Nikola founder Trevor Milton, convicted by a New York jury in 2022 for misleading investors about the electric vehicle (EV) maker’s technology, was pardoned Friday by President Trump, according to a White House official.
Milton said Thursday in a post on social platform X that he spoke to Trump over the phone and that he signed his pardon of “innocence.”
“The prosecutors can no longer hurt me; they can’t destroy my family; they can’t rip everything away from me; they can’t ruin my life,” Milton said in a video accompanying the post.
Milton, a major Republican Party donor, was convicted in October 2022 on securities and wire fraud charges. Prosecutors said he was overstating the claims about the company’s production of zero-emission trucks. Investors lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The businessman was sentenced to four years in prison and was fined $1 million in late 2022. He has been free on bail while appealing the case, where he has denied wrongdoing.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump’s denial of Mexico’s Colorado River request sparks concerns over future water negotiations
The refusal, which marked the first such rejection in 81 years, pertained to a special request from Mexico for the transfer of additional Colorado River water to the city of Tijuana. Defending this decision, the U.S. State Department accused Mexico of failing to uphold commitments to Texas included in a 1944 water-sharing treaty.
Stephen Mumme, a political scientist at Colorado State University, characterized the move as both irrational and potentially harmful.
Mumme, who is also a nonresident fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said that if he was one of the seven Colorado River basin state commissioners, he would be “really ticked off right now,” as those states are in the throes of long-term renegotiations with Mexico regarding their shared resource.
“This is not designed to encourage Mexican cooperation, and Mexico can drag its feet in any number of ways,” he added.
Continue reading at The Hill
ICE detains University of Minnesota international student
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained a University of Minnesota international graduate student earlier this week, according to the institution, calling it a “deeply concerning situation.”
The university said that an international graduate student was arrested by ICE officials at an off-campus residence Thursday. The student was enrolled in the school’s Twin Cities campus, located in Minneapolis.
“We are actively working to gather more details about this incident,” University president Rebecca Cunningham said in a Friday press release that was also signed by Vice President for Student Affairs Calvin Phillips and Vice President for Equity and Diversity Mercedes Ramírez Fernández.
“In cases like this, the University takes steps to ensure students are connected to internal resources and support, such as Student Legal Service and International Student and Scholar Services,” they said in the update. “The University had no prior knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities before it occurred.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Columbia names board co-chair as new acting president
Columbia University has appointed Claire Shipman, a co-chair of its board of trustees, as acting president of the institution targeted by the Trump administration with major federal funding cuts.
Why it matters: President Trump's administration pulled some $400 million in federal grants and contracts from the school over allegations of antisemitism during pro-Palestinian protests on the campus.
Columbia reached an agreement last month to assuage some of the White House's demands in negotiations over federal funding.
It expelled some students involved in a building takeover, and in other cases issued multi-year suspensions or temporarily revoked degrees.
Driving the news: Shipman, an award-winning journalist and longtime White House correspondent, will continue as acting president of the university "until the Board completes its presidential search," the university said in a statement Friday. Her appointment was effective immediately.
Katrina Armstrong, who was serving as interim president, is returning to lead the university's Irving Medical Center.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump’s election order creates much confusion before the next federal election in 2026
ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to change how U.S. elections are run is creating uncertainty for state and local election officials and worries about voter confusion before the next federal election, the 2026 midterms.
Election officials were already dealing with the loss of some cybersecurity assistance from the federal government and now face the potential for major changes that include a new voter registration requirement, decertification of certain voting systems and stricter ballot deadlines for many states.
In Connecticut, Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas is hopeful that ballot scanners the state just bought for $20 million will be acceptable under the executive order, but she worries about other states.
“It’s not like states have millions and millions of dollars that they can just upgrade their election equipment every couple of years,” said Thomas, a Democrat. “Imagine people purchased new equipment and now it no longer can be used. There is no remedy for that in the order.”
Because Trump’s order is likely to face legal challenges, it’s unclear what will be required and when. That means more uncertainty for election officials.
“I have no idea what the timeline is for things in the executive order,” said Joseph Kirk, who oversees elections in Bartow County, Georgia. “I really hope we have some clarity on some of this stuff soon because no matter what the answers are, I need to take care of my voters.”
Continue reading at the AP
What to know about safeguarding phone data while traveling
State of play: U.S. Customs and Border Protection has the authority to conduct warrantless device searches at the border, including in international airports, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
"Border agents cannot deny a U.S. citizen admission to the country," an EFF digital privacy guide said. "However, if a foreign visitor declines, an agent may deny them entry.
"If a lawful permanent resident declines, agents may raise complicated questions about their continued status as a resident."
Courts in the U.S. have issued different rulings on device searches at ports of entry, the Verge reported.
Zoom in: Rose said he recommends deleting sensitive information such as licenses, credit card information or photos of children from phones before traveling.
"Just assume that phone is not going to be yours at some point during your trip," he said. "What are you comfortable with somebody else having access to?"
Continue reading at Axios
Shouted questions at Trump have consequences: New actions by White House
Mr. President! You talked about some of the violence that’s been going on at dealerships,” a reporter yelled to President Trump as he stood next to Elon Musk and a Tesla parked near the White House lawn earlier this month.
“Some say they should be labeled domestic terrorists.”
“I’ll do that,” Trump interjected. “We’re going to stop it if we catch anybody doing it because they’re harming a great American company.”
Days later, Trump’s FBI would launch a task force dedicated to investigating and referring for prosecution suspects in a string of incidents protesting Musk at Tesla dealerships across the country.
It was one of several instances during the first three months of Trump’s second term in which a shouted question or suggestion from a media member has resulted in direct action from the president.
Continue reading at The Hill
Turkish opposition holds mass protest in support of jailed Istanbul mayor • FRANCE 24 English
Over 200 ‘Tesla Takedown’ protests take place throughout US on ‘Global Day of Action’ against Elon Musk’s role with DOGE
Hundreds of “Tesla Takedown” demonstrations are taking place in the United States, Canada and Europe as activists ramp up their opposition to CEO Elon Musk’s efforts to slash federal government staffing and budgets.
Since joining the Trump administration, Musk has aggressively pushed policies to reduce spending, curb regulations and downsize the workforce as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, all while repeatedly misleading the public about federal spending.
More than 200 demonstrations are planned at US Tesla locations on Saturday as part of the “Tesla Takedown” movement, which called for a “global day of action” aiming for 500 protests worldwide. The campaign wants people to sell their Tesla vehicles and their shares of Tesla stock as a way to denounce Musk, the world’s richest man, whose wealth is overwhelmingly linked to his Tesla holdings.
“It’s unfortunate that Musk has decided to use his power and riches for negative efforts,” said Austin Naughton, who runs a Facebook page for a grassroots organization and helped publicize the Washington, DC, protest for organizers.
Continue reading at CNN.com
Protesters rebelling against Elon Musk’s purge of US government swarm Tesla showrooms
The Tesla Takedown movement Saturday attempted to surround all 277 of the automaker’s showrooms and service centers in the U.S. in hopes of hitting Musk’s bottom line.
SAN FRANCISCO — Crowds protesting billionaire Elon Musk’s purge of the U.S. government under President Donald Trump began amassing outside Tesla dealerships throughout the U.S. and in some cities in Europe on Saturday in the latest attempt to dent the fortune of the world’s richest man.
The protesters are trying to escalate a movement targeting Tesla dealerships and vehicles in opposition to Musk’s role as the head of the newly created Department of of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, where he has gained access to sensitive data and shuttered entire agencies as he attempts to slash government spending. The biggest portion of Musk’s estimated $340 billion fortune consists of his stock in the electric vehicle company, which continues to run while also working alongside Trump.
After earlier demonstrations that were somewhat sporadic, Saturday marked the first attempt to surround all 277 of the automaker’s showrooms and service centers in the U.S. in hopes of deepening a recent decline in the company’s sales.
By early afternoon crowds ranging from a few dozen to hundreds of protesters had flocked to Tesla locations in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Minnesota and the automaker’s home state of Texas. Pictures posted on social media showed protesters brandishing signs such as “Honk if you hate Elon” and “Fight the billionaire broligarchy.”
As the day progressed, the protests cascaded around the country outside Tesla locations in major cities such as Washington, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Seattle, as well as towns in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Colorado. Smaller groups of counterprotesters also showed up at some sites.
“Hey, hey, ho, ho, Elon Musk has got to go!” several dozen people chanted outside a showroom in Dublin, California, about 35 miles east of San Francisco, while a smaller cluster of Trump supporters waved American flags across the street.
A much larger crowd circled another showroom in nearby Berkeley, chanting slogans to the beat of drums.
Continue reading at Politico
Note from Rima: See a sampling of protests in this post:
Wisconsin judge blocks suit against Musk over $2M Supreme Court race handout; AG appeals
A Wisconsin judge on Saturday declined the state attorney general’s request for an emergency injunction to prevent Elon Musk from paying two voters $1 million for opposing “activist judges” in the upcoming Supreme Court election.
The billionaire has voiced his support for Republican candidate Brad Schimel, who’s running against liberal opponent Susan Crawford. Musk is slated to give a Sunday speech in the Badger State to urge local residents to cast their ballot for Schimel while delivering $1 million paychecks to two spokespeople who spread the word on the ground and $100 to voters who sign a petition against “activist judges.”
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, argued Musk’s move is illegal and filed a lawsuit against his intended actions on Friday.
The case was originally assigned to Crawford, who recused herself and then reassigned the case to Columbia County Circuit Court Judge Andrew Voight, who decided to forego blocking the Tesla CEO’s payments.
Continue reading at The Hill
Lawmakers and industry groups blast away at DOE project kill list
Draft lists of potential cuts have been rocketing around Capitol Hill this week, and lawmakers from both parties are working to save their projects.
The Energy Department is facing resistance from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for considering killing several energy projects funded by the Biden administration.
The pressure from the lawmakers comes as Energy Secretary Chris Wright weighs gutting the clean energy spending that President Donald Trump has blasted as the “green new scam.” But a growing chorus of voices contends the funding is critical for new technologies like hydrogen production and carbon capture — and toward solving the “national energy emergency” that Trump has declared.
Projects at risk of losing funding have gotten backing from Trump’s allies in the oil and gas sector, as well as the lawmakers whose districts would benefit from the investments. And Democrats and some industry groups warn that canceling them could violate the laws that authorized the spending.
POLITICO previously reported that DOE is drafting a hit list of energy projects to submit to the White House for potential cuts as soon as this week. A draft version of that list that circulated within the department suggested cutting four hydrogen production hubs located mostly in Democratic-leaning states while maintaining funding for three hubs spread across mostly red states.
That draft list — along with at least two others that suggest DOE may pull funding for various transmission projects and a pair of projects that would suck carbon dioxide from the air — has drawn bipartisan concern as it rocketed around Capitol Hill this week. POLITICO is not publishing the lists under an agreement with the people who shared them.
“Somebody’s DOGE victory is somebody else’s sacred cow,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), referring to the controversial effort led by Elon Musk to shrink the federal government. “That’s sort of what we’re running up against with this broad approach.”
It’s not clear if the carbon capture or transmission projects will be on the list that Wright is expected to submit to the White House. People familiar with the Energy Department’s efforts have cautioned that the lists circling the Hill are subject to changes.
Continue reading at Politico
White House ordered firing of L.A. federal prosecutor on ex-Fatburger CEO case, sources say
A federal prosecutor in Los Angeles was fired Friday at the behest of the White House, after lawyers for a fast-food executive he was prosecuting pushed officials in Washington to drop all charges against him, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Adam Schleifer was terminated Friday morning, receiving an email informing him that the dismissal was “on behalf of President Donald J. Trump,” according to two of the sources, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals from federal officials. Joseph T. McNally, the acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California who is Schleifer’s boss, was not involved in the decision, the sources said.
Carley Palmer, a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles who is now a partner at Halpern May Ybarra Gelberg LLP, said she heard Schleifer was fired via a “one line e-mail, and it came from a White House staff account.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles declined to comment. Schleifer declined a request to be interviewed. The White House and the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to inquiries.
Continue reading at the Los Angeles Times
Protesters rebelling against Elon Musk’s purge of US government swarm Tesla showrooms
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Crowds protesting billionaire Elon Musk’s purge of the U.S. government under President Donald Trump began amassing outside Tesla dealerships throughout the U.S. and in some cities in Europe on Saturday in the latest attempt to dent the fortune of the world’s richest man.
The protesters are trying to escalate a movement targeting Tesla dealerships and vehicles in opposition to Musk’s role as the head of the newly created Department of of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, where he has gained access to sensitive data and shuttered entire agencies as he attempts to slash government spending. The biggest portion of Musk’s estimated $340 billion fortune consists of his stock in the electric vehicle company, which continues to run while also working alongside Trump.
After earlier demonstrations that were somewhat sporadic, Saturday marked the first attempt to surround all 277 of the automaker’s showrooms and service centers in the U.S. in hopes of deepening a recent decline in the company’s sales.
Continue reading at the AP
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Musical interlude
Testimony to Dizzy Gillespie's incredible impact on jazz, Rhythmstick is also an exploration of African and Latin influences on this uniquely American art form. For this extraordinary high definition video presentation, producer Creed Taylor has brought together an all-star group of superb sidemen that reads like a who's who of contemporary jazz performing a total of nine explosive selections.
Bob Berg, Art Farmer, Robben Ford, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Golson, Charlie Haden, Airto Moreira, Tito Puente, Bernard Pretty Purdie, Flora Purim, Hilton Ruiz, John Scofield, Marvin 'Smitty' Smith, Phil Woods