An Indian billionaire was targeted by Trump. Then he poured money into a startup secretly backed by Don Jr.

An Indian billionaire was targeted by Trump. Then he poured money into a startup secretly backed by Don Jr.

By Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski This story was originally published by ProPublica In late November in Jamnagar, India, the scions of two of the most powerful families in the world stood face-to-face. On one side was 30-year-old Anant Ambani, son of one the richest men in Asia. On the other was Donald Trump Jr. For months, the Trump administration had been on the offensive against the sprawling Ambani energy empire, placing it at the center of an…

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Trump family got about $500M from crypto venture. Investors saw steep losses

Trump family got about $500M from crypto venture. Investors saw steep losses

CNBC reports: Back in August, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were all smiles. They showed up at the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York to celebrate a new business partnership with a little-known publicly traded company, then called Alt5 Sigma, to give investors easier access to a cryptocurrency backed by the Trump family. Less than 10 months later, the company has warned investors it may not be able to stay in business much longer. Its share price has fallen…

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Being Black and unwelcome in Pete Hegseth’s military

Being Black and unwelcome in Pete Hegseth’s military

Clint Smith writes: Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. became commander of the Wheelus Air Base, near Tripoli, just after rebels under Muammar Qaddafi took control of Libya in a coup in 1969. In the midst of the insurgency, Qaddafi led an effort to break into the U.S. air base, but James managed to close the gate in time to prevent the young rebel from entering. The incident, which James recounted in a 1978 interview, would come to be the stuff of…

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Drop in immigration and Trump’s tax cuts accelerate expected shortfall in Social Security

Drop in immigration and Trump’s tax cuts accelerate expected shortfall in Social Security

The Washington Post reports: Social Security’s trust fund is now due to run low on money beginning in 2032. And in announcing that new date Tuesday, the government acknowledged that the Trump administration’s immigration policies and tax cuts are expected to contribute to the insolvency. The trust fund that pays retiree and survivor benefits is expected to reach depletion by the fourth quarter of 2032, one quarter earlier than projected in last year’s annual report. Social Security’s trustees said notable…

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Largest ICE detention facility wasted millions and put detainees at risk, report finds

Largest ICE detention facility wasted millions and put detainees at risk, report finds

The Associated Press reports: Mismanagement at a massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas created unsafe conditions that contributed to detainee deaths and suffering even as millions of wasted tax dollars enriched contractors, according to a federal report released Tuesday. The Government Accountability Office report documents serious problems at Camp East Montana, a sprawling tent facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso where three detainees have died in little more than six months. Evidence in one of those deaths,…

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What people regret most as death approaches

What people regret most as death approaches

Science Norway reports: Few people regret something they did. Many regret what they did not do. When researchers speak with people nearing the end of their lives, the answers they receive are surprisingly similar. The dreams I never pursued. The talents I never got to use. The journeys I never took. The relationships with other people that I let fade away. The decisions I was too afraid to make. When death draws near and people are asked what they regret…

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With waning influence, Trump struggles to rein in Netanyahu’s strikes on Iran and Lebanon

With waning influence, Trump struggles to rein in Netanyahu’s strikes on Iran and Lebanon

The Wall Street Journal reports: As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weighed how to respond to waves of Iranian missile attacks Sunday night, President Trump called with a message: Stand down. But as it became clear the Israeli leader wouldn’t ignore a direct attack, Trump shifted his tone. Keep it limited, and don’t let it escalate, he said according to people familiar with the conversation. Trump had hoped to contain the flare-up in fighting to keep it from disrupting work…

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Israeli aggression threatens to fray its financial and diplomatic lifeline to the United States

Israeli aggression threatens to fray its financial and diplomatic lifeline to the United States

Megan K. Stack writes: Emboldened by unstinting U.S. support during its devastation of Gaza, and with American forces by its side in attacking Iran, Israel is moving with disorienting speed on multiple fronts. Mr. Netanyahu attributes his country’s aggression to the bloody lessons of Oct. 7, which he insists was an attack not just by Hamas but “by the Iran axis, to try to annihilate us through a noose of death.” “I said, ‘We’re going to change the Middle East,’”…

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MAHA moms who helped elect Trump are feeling betrayed by ‘business as usual’

MAHA moms who helped elect Trump are feeling betrayed by ‘business as usual’

Politico reports: The Make America Healthy Again coalition, made up largely of women who followed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into the MAGA fold, has reached the end of its rope with the Trump administration. Now many among the group of vaccine skeptics and healthy food crusaders say their vote is up for grabs in the midterms after a string of perceived losses on pesticides and chemical regulations, not to mention disappointing leadership picks and an unpopular war in Iran. “We…

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Profits before people: EPA scientists are being pushed to downplay potential risks of household products

Profits before people: EPA scientists are being pushed to downplay potential risks of household products

CNN reports: Inside the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, scientists say they’re under pressure to alter safety reviews of chemicals commonly found in consumer products like household cleaners and cosmetics to make risks to human health and the environment disappear on paper. Multiple current and former career employees at the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention recounted being pushed by supervisors to downplay the potential risk of chemicals that are already used in products on shelves. With President…

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Trump administration killed criminal investigation of GOP senator’s coal companies

Trump administration killed criminal investigation of GOP senator’s coal companies

By Molly Redden and Avi Asher-Schapiro This story was originally published by ProPublica Trump administration officials earlier this year killed a federal criminal investigation into the coal empire owned by Sen. Jim Justice, a Republican from West Virginia and a close ally of the president’s. The investigation examined potential criminal violations of the Clean Water Act by the multistate mining operations largely run by Justice’s son, Jay, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter. The criminal probe…

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Andrew Tate’s manosphere empire of abuse

Andrew Tate’s manosphere empire of abuse

Heidi Blake writes: Just north of Bucharest is a neat development of red-gabled houses known as American Village. It is an unlikely place to be the center of an international criminal intrigue, but on its western border is a sprawling compound, patrolled by armed guards, that belongs to the British American influencer Andrew Tate and his younger brother, Tristan. The Tates moved to Romania a decade ago to build an online-pornography empire, and American Village was where they kept their…

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Ancient DNA reveals how natural selection shaped West Eurasians over 10,000 years

Ancient DNA reveals how natural selection shaped West Eurasians over 10,000 years

PsyPost reports: By analyzing the genetic material of thousands of ancient humans, researchers have mapped how natural selection influenced hundreds of physical and behavioral traits across West Eurasia over the past 10,000 years. The findings reveal that evolution continuously pushed specific genetic variations to become more or less common, affecting everything from blood type to disease risk. The study was published in Nature. Evolution is driven by multiple forces, but one of the most recognizable is directional selection. This happens…

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Scott Pelley: Bari Weiss tried to make 60 Minutes lie about the killing of Renee Good

Scott Pelley: Bari Weiss tried to make 60 Minutes lie about the killing of Renee Good

  Lulu Garcia-Navarro: You’ve now accused Weiss of injecting “falsehoods and bias” into at least one of your politically sensitive stories. What did she specifically ask for? What story? Scott Pelley: That’s February, and my team and I are doing a story about the protests in Minneapolis against the ICE crackdown there. We’ve interviewed Senator Rand Paul, Republican, because he’s going to hold hearings into this, and the fact that a Republican was going to do that was quite newsworthy….

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