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How Trump shrank the federal government and made it more inefficient

How Trump shrank the federal government and made it more inefficient

The New York Times reports: Even after Elon Musk’s bureaucracy-shrinking initiative upended agencies across the government, an analysis by The New York Times found it misstated its claims of large savings and failed to reduce federal spending. And many current and former officials and people who routinely interact with the federal government say that it is far less efficient and less dependable in the services it provides to the American public. Take the Agriculture Department, which lost 20,000 workers, nearly…

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Trump team knew about Tom Homan bribery probe before inauguration

Trump team knew about Tom Homan bribery probe before inauguration

MS Now reports: In early January, several days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, a Justice Department lawyer passed an envelope across a wide desk to a top Trump transition official. Enclosed was a bombshell, typed up in a one-page summary, according to two people briefed on the meeting. As he read the contents of the envelope, the official, Emil Bove, closed his eyes and grimaced, according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive case. It revealed that Tom…

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Freedom of speech includes freedom to not praise the king

Freedom of speech includes freedom to not praise the king

Noah Berlatsky writes: This year, in honor of the holiday season, jazz drummer and vibraphonist Chuck Redd canceled his annual Christmas Eve performance at the Kennedy Center. Redd has helmed the holiday concert for 20 years, but declined to appear this year to protest President Trump’s decision to illegally add his name to the institution without congressional approval. The Kennedy Center now bears the awkward name, “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing…

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The Amazon is shifting into a ‘hypertropical’ state unseen for millions of years

The Amazon is shifting into a ‘hypertropical’ state unseen for millions of years

Science Alert reports: A new study of the Amazon rainforest has found the region is shifting toward a ‘hypertropical’ state as droughts become longer, hotter, and more frequent. These conditions have “no current analogue” according to the international team of researchers behind the study. Trees are becoming exposed to whole new levels of stress, and the Amazon’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide is being reduced, too. So drastic are the contemporary and impending changes, based on data gathered across the…

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‘This year nearly broke me as a scientist’ – U.S. researchers reflect on how 2025’s science cuts have changed their lives

‘This year nearly broke me as a scientist’ – U.S. researchers reflect on how 2025’s science cuts have changed their lives

U.S. researchers are seeking the light at the end of a rough year for science. Westend61/Getty Images By Carrie McDonough, Carnegie Mellon University; Brian G. Henning, Gonzaga University; Cara Poland, Michigan State University; Nathaniel M. Tran, University of Illinois Chicago; Rachael Sirianni, UMass Chan Medical School, and Stephanie J. Nawyn, Michigan State University From beginning to end, 2025 was a year of devastation for scientists in the United States. January saw the abrupt suspension of key operations across the National…

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Trump will stop at nothing to ensure the political dominance of White people in America

Trump will stop at nothing to ensure the political dominance of White people in America

Regina Davis Moss writes: “We’ve dropped (the price of) the infertility drugs to make lots of Trump babies, I’m hoping by the midterms.” That bizarre remark was made recently by Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. After four years of the first Trump administration and nearly one year into the second, many of us have become desensitized to this kind of commentary – but not Black women. We know the quiet part spoken out…

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How the West taught Putin to stop worrying and love his bombs

How the West taught Putin to stop worrying and love his bombs

Andrew Chakhoyan writes: In Netflix’s House of Dynamite, a ballistic missile hurtles toward the United States, the nightmare scenario that keeps defense planners awake at night. Yet the West’s Russia policies, over the past decade, have done more to increase the odds of such a catastrophe than prevent it. Washington’s unwitting effort to teach Moscow that nuclear threats work and aggression pays has culminated in a 28-point dictator’s wishlist, bizarrely presented as a “peace plan.” The United States, the world’s…

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Much of what ICE is doing is not remotely constitutional

Much of what ICE is doing is not remotely constitutional

Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge, writes: Untold numbers of ICE agents have appeared on America’s streets in recent months, and many of them have committed acts of aggression with seeming impunity. ICE agents have detained suspected illegal immigrants without cause—including U.S. citizens and lawful residents. They have, in effect, kidnapped people, breaking into cars to make arrests. They have used tear gas and pepper spray on nonviolent protesters. They have refused to identify themselves, wearing masks, using unmarked cars,…

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The dollar is facing an end to its dominance as global alternatives are emerging

The dollar is facing an end to its dominance as global alternatives are emerging

Wired reports: 2026 will be the year when US dollar dilution—the quiet erosion of its global dominance as countries trade and pay in alternatives—starts to build momentum. The more Washington uses the dollar as a weapon, the more the world builds ways to circumvent it. America’s share of global trade has fallen from one-third in 2000 to just one-quarter today. As emerging economies trade more with each other, the dollar is less central to the flow of goods. Indian and…

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Billion-dollar data centers are colonizing the whole world

Billion-dollar data centers are colonizing the whole world

Lauren Goode reports: When Sam Altman said one year ago that OpenAI’s Roman Empire is the actual Roman Empire, he wasn’t kidding. In the same way that the Romans gradually amassed an empire of land spanning three continents and one-ninth of the Earth’s circumference, the CEO and his cohort are now dotting the planet with their own latifundia—not agricultural estates, but AI data centers. Tech executives like Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Oracle cofounder Larry…

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Trump triggered death threats against Marjorie Taylor Greene’s family. And then he blamed her

Trump triggered death threats against Marjorie Taylor Greene’s family. And then he blamed her

Robert Draper writes: I have covered Greene, who is 51, extensively over the past five years, and it was evident during this recent visit that on one level nothing had changed. Just outside the front door of her office stood the familiar placard blaring, “There are TWO genders: MALE & FEMALE.” One sign on the door warned visitors that “NO FOREIGN LOBBYING” was allowed; another featured the image of Charlie Kirk. Hanging on the wall inside the waiting area were…

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Flat Earth, spirits and conspiracy theories – experience can shape even extraordinary beliefs

Flat Earth, spirits and conspiracy theories – experience can shape even extraordinary beliefs

A belief in ghosts could be a way to explain a strange experience while asleep. ‘The Nightmare’ by Johann Heinrich Füssli/Wikimedia Commons By Eli Elster, University of California, Davis On Feb. 22, 2020, “Mad” Mike Hughes towed a homemade rocket to the Mojave Desert and launched himself into the sky. His goal? To view the flatness of the Earth from space. This was his third attempt, and tragically it was fatal. Hughes crashed shortly after takeoff and died. Hughes’ nickname…

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Americans hate AI — a massive, growing opportunity for Democrats to run with

Americans hate AI — a massive, growing opportunity for Democrats to run with

Calder McHugh writes: It’s become a common occurrence: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer posts a light-hearted video on social media. She’s Christmas shopping, or she’s talking about her Michigan accent or she’s touting her administration’s accomplishments. And immediately, the comments start rolling in, all demanding the same thing: Say no to data centers in the state. Stop construction. “All I want for Christmas is legislation banning data centers in Michigan.” National figures in the party are beginning to notice the anger….

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What America might look like with no immigration

What America might look like with no immigration

The New York Times reports: One year into President Trump’s immigration crackdown, construction firms in Louisiana are scrambling to find carpenters. Hospitals in West Virginia have lost out on doctors and nurses who were planning to come from overseas. A neighborhood soccer league in Memphis cannot field enough teams because immigrant children have stopped showing up. America is closing its doors to the world, sealing the border, squeezing the legal avenues to entry and sending new arrivals and longtime residents…

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