The 50-year-old law that might, eventually, stop DOGE

The 50-year-old law that might, eventually, stop DOGE

Wired reports: As Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency rampages through the US government, its access to sensitive data is alarming federal agencies and Americans who interact with them. In the month since the Trump administration began its purge of federal workers, opponents fighting DOGE in court have been pinning their hopes of stopping the world’s richest man on a 50-year-old law. In just a few weeks, DOGE staffers have accessed federal employee records at the Office of Personnel Management, government payment data at the Department of the…

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GOP in Congress ‘scared shitless about death threats’ if they were to defy Trump

GOP in Congress ‘scared shitless about death threats’ if they were to defy Trump

Gabriel Sherman reports: Senate and House Republicans know Trump will orchestrate the running of a primary challenger backed by Elon Musk’s unlimited resources if a member defies him. But this is not the whole story of Republican subservience to the president. In private, Republicans talk about their fear that Trump might incite his MAGA followers to commit political violence against them if they don’t rubber-stamp his actions. “They’re scared shitless about death threats and Gestapo-like stuff,” a former member of…

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Zelenskyy commits cardinal sin: he tells the truth about Trump

Zelenskyy commits cardinal sin: he tells the truth about Trump

Julian Borger writes: All the effort Kyiv had expended in wooing the White House, combining flattery with bribery and a share of Ukraine’s mineral wealth, imploded in minutes when Volodymyr Zelenskyy broke the fundamental rule of the new global reality: he told the truth about Donald Trump. All America’s allies, the great majority of Republican leaders who have bowed to him, and a good number of his own cabinet, know full well that Trump is trapped in a disinformation bubble,…

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Trump expresses fawning admiration for ‘leader’ Musk

Trump expresses fawning admiration for ‘leader’ Musk

The Hill reports on Sean Hannity’s joint interview with Musk and Trump: Trump had high praise for Musk throughout the interview, highlighting his successful tech career and his intelligence. The president noted he was impressed with Musk when he saw Musk’s team had the ability to catch a rocket booster instead of having it crash into the ocean. “Something that had an effect on me was when I saw the rocket ship come back and get grabbed like you grab…

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DOGE has ‘God mode’ access to government data across many federal agencies

DOGE has ‘God mode’ access to government data across many federal agencies

Charlie Warzel, Ian Bogost, and Matteo Wong write: DOGE has achieved “God mode.” That’s according to an employee in senior leadership at USAID, who told us that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency now has full, unrestricted access to the agency’s digital infrastructure—including total control over systems that Americans working in conflict zones rely on, the ability to see and manipulate financial systems that have historically awarded tens of billions of dollars, and perhaps much more. The employee’s account, along…

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Scientific research: ‘I fear we’ll lose a generation of talent that will take decades to recover’ — if at all

Scientific research: ‘I fear we’ll lose a generation of talent that will take decades to recover’ — if at all

Sam Stein writes: In the first month of the second Trump administration, the world’s richest man—underinformed, chronically online, and staffed by a coterie of teenaged and twentysomething former engineering interns—has been moving at warp speed to reshape, reduce, and even dismantle the United States government. But while Musk’s rampage has been feverishly covered, the scope of its impact remains largely underappreciated. Experts say it can’t be measured in weeks or months or even in government services affected. Rather, it will…

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Gaza, Syria, and the Middle East’s next crisis

Gaza, Syria, and the Middle East’s next crisis

Maha Yahya writes: Iran, Israel, the United States, and the Arab Gulf countries have all spent decades trying to shape the region to their liking without addressing the root causes of conflict, and they have repeatedly failed. They have sought security over peace and ended up with neither. And yet their current plans are strikingly similar, at least in spirit, to past efforts. All these countries are committing again to visions of a new regional order in which reconstruction takes…

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As U.S. and Putin negotiate, intel shows Russian’s lack of interest ‘in a real peace deal,’ sources say

As U.S. and Putin negotiate, intel shows Russian’s lack of interest ‘in a real peace deal,’ sources say

NBC News reports: As the Trump administration begins preliminary talks with Russian officials about ending the war in Ukraine, intelligence from the United States and close allies shows that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wants to control all of Ukraine, according to four Western intelligence officials and two U.S. congressional officials. “We have zero intelligence that Putin is interested in a real peace deal right now,” one of the congressional officials said. Putin is sending representatives to Saudi Arabia for…

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Turkey should be included in Russia-Ukraine war talks, Zelensky says

Turkey should be included in Russia-Ukraine war talks, Zelensky says

Middle East Eye reports: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Turkey and European countries must be involved in negotiations and security guarantees to end the war with Russia, during a visit to Ankara on Tuesday. “Turkey, the UK and the European Union, along with the US, should be included in the talks, as well as in the security guarantees,” Zelensky said during a press briefing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “The negotiations must be fair, and this can only…

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U.S. and Russia to explore closer cooperation after Ukraine talks in Riyadh

U.S. and Russia to explore closer cooperation after Ukraine talks in Riyadh

The Guardian reports: Top US and Russian officials have agreed to continue planning an end to the Ukraine war and to pursue closer cooperation amid concerns in Kyiv and across Europe that Donald Trump could push for a settlement favouring Vladimir Putin. After the talks at Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, the most extensive negotiations between the two countries in three years, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the two sides had agreed to create a high-level team to…

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Egypt says Trump backs its Gaza plan, convinced by Jordan’s King Abdullah

Egypt says Trump backs its Gaza plan, convinced by Jordan’s King Abdullah

Middle East Eye reports: Egypt and Jordan believe they have successfully dissuaded US President Donald Trump from backing a forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and that the US has gotten behind an Egyptian post-war plan for the enclave, a senior Egyptian official told Middle East Eye. “This will be an Egyptian plan adopted and supported by the Arabs,” the official said. “That is what Trump has agreed to.” The Egyptian official, speaking to MEE on the condition of anonymity…

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The many ways Trump could trigger a global collapse

The many ways Trump could trigger a global collapse

George Monbiot writes: Because there is little public understanding of how complex systems operate, collapse tends to take almost everyone by surprise. Complex systems (such as economies and human societies) have characteristics that make them either resilient or fragile. A system that loses its diversity, redundancy, modularity (the degree of compartmentalisation), its “circuit breakers” (such as government regulations) and backup strategies (alternative means of achieving a goal) is less resilient than one which retains these features. So is a system whose…

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How Trump’s federal funding and hiring freezes increase risk of catastrophic wildfires

How Trump’s federal funding and hiring freezes increase risk of catastrophic wildfires

By Mark Olalde This story was originally published by ProPublica President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to shrink the federal government, launched as the deadly Palisades and Eaton fires burned across Los Angeles, have left the country’s wildland firefighting force unprepared for the rapidly approaching wildfire season. The administration has frozen funds, including money appropriated by Congress, and issued a deluge of orders eliminating federal employees, which has thrown agencies tasked with battling blazes into disarray as individual offices…

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Not even its employees know who is legally running DOGE

Not even its employees know who is legally running DOGE

Wired reports: President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have repeatedly affirmed Musk’s leadership of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But according to a new court filing from the White House, the administrator of DOGE isn’t Elon Musk after all. Who is? No one knows. The White House won’t tell the public, an administration lawyer has reportedly said he had no idea, and even people who work for the US DOGE Service can’t get a straight answer. On Monday…

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