Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
Bybit Offers Bounty After $1.4 Billion in Ethereum Swiped in Biggest Crypto Hack Ever
Foot traffic fell at Target after it backtracked on DEI
But Costco, which refused to retreat on DEI, saw traffic increase.
Plunging U.S. Stocks Help Add to Crypto's Bad Day
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Data suggest Paxlovid doesn't reduce severe COVID in older, vaccinated adults
Politics:
Trump Fires Joint Chiefs Chairman
President Trump fired the country’s senior military officer on Friday after weeks of turmoil at the Pentagon, injecting a political element into selecting the nation’s top military leader.
Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., a four-star fighter pilot known as C.Q. who became only the second African American to hold the chairman’s job, is to be replaced by a retired three-star Air Force general, John Caine, who endeared himself to the president when they met in Iraq six years ago.
Joint Chiefs chairmen traditionally remain in place as administrations change, regardless of the president’s political party.
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Trump Will Attach Conditions on Wildfire Relief
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Russia could concede $300 billion in frozen assets as part of Ukraine war settlement, sources say
Russia could agree to using $300 billion of sovereign assets frozen in Europe for reconstruction in Ukraine but will insist that part of the money is spent on the one-fifth of the country that Moscow’s forces control.
As if Europe is in any mood to let Putin set any conditions…
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New Social Security Chief Was Being Investigated
Leaders of the Social Security Administration had just opened an investigation into a career employee they believed was improperly sharing information with Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team when President Donald Trump elevated the employee this week to acting commissioner.
The agency’s leadership team became aware in recent weeks that Leland Dudek, a data analyst working in a small anti-fraud office who had been unknown to many of them, was sharing unauthorized access to information with representatives of Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service.
Trump Blows Up After Onslaught of Devastating Polls
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Musk Ally Demands Access to Notify.gov System
A worker at the General Services Administration told colleagues in a Slack message Tuesday that they have resigned in protest after Elon Musk ally Thomas Shedd requested ‘admin/root access to all components of the Notify.gov system,’ which is a government system used to send mass text messages to the public that contains information the worker said is highly sensitive and would give Shedd unilateral, private access to the personal data of members of the public.
Notify.gov contains not just the phone numbers of everyday people but also information about whether they participate in government programs such as Medicaid, which is based on a person’s financial situation.
DOGE’s Only Public Ledger Is Riddled With Mistakes
Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency say they have saved the federal government $55 billion through staff reductions, lease cancellations and a long list of terminated contracts published online this week as a ‘wall of receipts.’
President Trump has been celebrating the published savings, even musing about a proposal to mail checks to all Americans to reimburse them with a ‘DOGE dividend.’
But the math that could back up those checks is marred with accounting errors, incorrect assumptions, outdated data and other mistakes.
No, Joe Biden did not have a 'voter importation' plan. Fact-checking Elon Musk's false CPAC claim.
It is a fascinating moment, isn’t it, when Reagan’s vision of the West is finally swept into the dustbin of history by a Republican president.
And that is the only solid conclusion one can make after this week of astonishing incompetence and madness. We only saw Donald Trump’s foreign policy darkly in his first term — constrained, as he was, by a handful of white-knuckled Republicans in the executive branch. Now we see it face to face. It’s a vision where international law disappears, great powers divide up the planet into spheres of influence, and the strong always control the weak. It’s Trump’s vision of domestic politics as well. And of life.
Trump administration reassigning acting ICE director
The Trump administration has removed Caleb Vitello, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, from his position.
Vitello’s removal comes after both border czar Tom Homan and President Donald Trump have expressed anger that the number of people being deported is not higher.
Pam Bondi Mulls Release of Jeffrey Epstein Client List
GOP Lawmaker Jeered at Town Hall Meeting
People booed and jeered at Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) as he walked into the Algoma Town Hall just outside Oshkosh Friday morning.
Boos and shouts erupted around the room. When Grothman praised orders ending birthright citizenship and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, the crowd only got louder.
Germany’s Anti-extremist Firewall is Collapsing
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