The rise of American techno-fascism

The rise of American techno-fascism

Kyle Chayka writes: Silicon Valley is premised on the idea that its founders and engineers know better than anyone else: they can do better at disseminating information, at designing an office, at developing satellites and advancing space travel. By the same logic, they must be able to govern better than politicians and federal employees. Voguish concepts in Silicon Valley such as seasteading and “network states” feature independent, self-contained societies running on tech principles. Efforts to create such entities have either…

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DOGE’s foreign aid cuts spark ‘total chaos’ around the world

DOGE’s foreign aid cuts spark ‘total chaos’ around the world

Wired reports: Representatives from dozens of nonprofit organizations attending a major human rights conference in Taipei, Taiwan, last week woke up Thursday to devastating news. Over the previous night in Asia, the Donald Trump administration had abruptly announced it would end nearly 10,000 contracts and grants from the US State Department, including the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) as well as the US Agency for International Development, representing about 90 percent of USAID’s contracts overall. The announcement…

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Trump orders swathes of national forests to be cut down for timber

Trump orders swathes of national forests to be cut down for timber

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump has ordered that swathes of America’s forests be felled for timber, evading rules to protect endangered species while doing so and raising the prospect of chainsaws razing some of the most ecologically important trees in the US. The president, in an executive order, has demanded an expansion in tree cutting across 280m acres (113m hectares) of national forests and other public lands, claiming that “heavy-handed federal policies” have made America reliant on foreign imports of…

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‘Prelude to privatization’: Social Security confirms workforce reduction targets, continues to close offices

‘Prelude to privatization’: Social Security confirms workforce reduction targets, continues to close offices

Government Executive reports: The Social Security Administration in recent days has initiated a flurry of actions aimed at decimating its workforce and that Democrats warn are an effort to sabotage the agency and prepare to privatize its functions. After a rash of abrupt retirements of senior leaders across the agency last week, the agency on Friday confirmed that it is seeking to shed 7,000 employees, which would bring its workforce down to 50,000 people. Last fall, the agency hit a…

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In the name of efficiency, Kennedy backs off ‘radical transparency’ in favor of secrecy

In the name of efficiency, Kennedy backs off ‘radical transparency’ in favor of secrecy

CNN reports: The US Department of Health and Human Services has reversed an obscure requirement called the Richardson Waiver, which requires a period of notice and an opportunity for public comment on a wide range of decisions related to “agency management or personnel or to public property, loans, grants, benefits, or contracts.” The Richardson Waiver has been in force at the department since 1971 and imposes notice-and-comment periods above and beyond those required under something called the Administrative Procedures Act….

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Tesla chairwoman has sold $100 million worth of TSLA as she lets Musk destroy the brand

Tesla chairwoman has sold $100 million worth of TSLA as she lets Musk destroy the brand

electrik reports: Tesla chairwoman Robyn Denholm has sold another $33 million worth of Tesla stock (TSLA) as she lets Elon Musk destroy the company’s brand. As the head of Tesla’s board of directors, Denholm is amongst the few people who actually have oversight over Elon Musk at Tesla. While Musk is CEO, he owns only about 13% of Tesla’s shares. Still, he is seen as having complete control over the company and the board, which is actually what led to…

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Trump just handed Putin the knife for carving up the world

Trump just handed Putin the knife for carving up the world

Masha Gessen writes: Washington and Moscow have been repairing relations at breakneck speed, comparable only to the speed at which the Trump administration is breaking things at home. After meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 18, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the two sides had resolved to “eliminate impediments” to improving bilateral relations, a phrasing that sent chills down the spines of Russian exiles — myself included — who have sought what…

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Washington now ‘largely aligns’ with Moscow’s vision, Kremlin confirms

Washington now ‘largely aligns’ with Moscow’s vision, Kremlin confirms

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration’s rewrite of decades of U.S. foreign policy on Russia, laid bare in the Oval Office confrontation between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is bringing Washington into alignment with Moscow, the Kremlin said Sunday — a shift that could upend the geopolitics that have governed international relations since World War II. “The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, state television reported Sunday. “This…

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USAID cuts to foreign aid will bring disease and death to millions

USAID cuts to foreign aid will bring disease and death to millions

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw foreign aid and dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development is likely to cause enormous human suffering, according to estimates by the agency itself. Among them: up to 18 million additional cases of malaria per year, and as many as 166,000 additional deaths; 200,000 children paralyzed with polio annually, and hundreds of millions of infections; one million children not treated for severe acute malnutrition, which is often fatal, each…

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Trump is reversing all U.S. efforts to tackle climate change

Trump is reversing all U.S. efforts to tackle climate change

The New York Times reports: In a few short weeks, President Trump has severely damaged the government’s ability to fight climate change, upending American environmental policy with moves that could have lasting implications for the country, and the planet. With a flurry of actions that have stretched the limits of presidential power, Mr. Trump has gutted federal climate efforts, rolled back regulations aimed at limiting pollution and given a major boost to the fossil fuel industry. He is abandoning efforts…

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Top FBI official forced out after criticizing Trump’s targeting of agents who investigated Jan. 6

Top FBI official forced out after criticizing Trump’s targeting of agents who investigated Jan. 6

NBC News reports: The head of the FBI’s New York Field Office was forced out of the bureau on Monday, a month after he urged his employees to “dig in” after the Trump administration removed senior FBI leaders and requested the names of all agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases, five sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. In an email to FBI staff in New York on Monday, Dennehy said that he had been forced to retire….

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CISA says it will continue to monitor Russian cyber threats

CISA says it will continue to monitor Russian cyber threats

The Record reports: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) refuted reports that changes are being made to how it approaches cyberthreats from Russia. The Guardian newspaper wrote Friday that analysts at CISA were “verbally informed that they were not to follow or report on Russian threats,” according to an anonymous source, and that work being done on one Russia-related project “was in effect ‘nixed.’” “CISA’s mission is to defend against all cyberthreats to U.S. Critical Infrastructure, including from Russia,”…

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Tesla’s plummeting sales place at risk its lucrative emissions credit earnings

Tesla’s plummeting sales place at risk its lucrative emissions credit earnings

Politico reports: Elon Musk’s political meddling in Europe is cratering Tesla’s sales — and that’s putting at risk its revenue from selling credits to other automakers looking to avoid paying penalties for not meeting European Union emissions targets. European automakers face fines should they fail to meet this year’s carbon dioxide reduction goals, but those selling too many CO2-emitting cars can dodge the fee by pooling with a company doing better than the EU demands. That’s been a lucrative earner…

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Former U.S. ambassador to the EU: This administration ‘wants to destroy the European Union’

Former U.S. ambassador to the EU: This administration ‘wants to destroy the European Union’

  Anthony Gardner, former U.S. ambassador to the EU, tells Channel 4 News: “It’s time for European leaders including [British prime minister] Starmer to realize that this administration actually wants to destroy the European Union. And that sounds pretty — some people will think that’s pretty exaggerated, but it’s not. I think that’s actually what’s going on and I think the UK has a fundamental interest in ensuring that the EU remains strong.” Consider the multiple lines of attack and…

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