United States | News & Politics

In summary:

• Media: Some major media outlets have been slow to respond, with scoops coming from unexpected sources. The Washington Post may be hampered by its owner's potential conflicts, and The New York Times is criticized for downplaying the gravity of the news.
• Academia: Academic institutions have been largely silent, though individual academics have raised concerns. There's a call for coordinated public pronouncements from university leadership, especially from law and medical schools, and for professional associations to sanction members in defense of the public sphere.
• Business: Business leaders have a history of misjudging the dangers of autocratic leaders and have been truckling to the new administration, possibly out of fear of reprisals. However, they may awaken to the economic dangers of executive overreach.
• Mass Mobilization: Mass mobilization is underway, but efforts may struggle if elites underplay the magnitude of the moment. Religious organizations have a role to play in combating Christian nationalism. Public opposition is smaller than it was during the first Trump administration.
• Coordination: Across all sectors of civil society, coordination is key, as individual objections do not carry the weight of joint action. Resistance to authoritarianism is a collective endeavor.

At this point I don't think the US has much credibility to salvage, Brookings.

At this point I don't think the US has much credibility to salvage, Brookings.

The Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to permit the firing of the head of the federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers, according to documents obtained Sunday that would mark the first appeal to the justices since President Donald Trump took office.

The emergency appeal is the start of what probably will be a steady stream from lawyers for the Republican president and his administration seeking to undo lower court rulings that have slowed his second-term agenda.

It wasn’t about playing God. Rather, it was a better way to feed the world.

That’s how a biotech company called AquaBounty described its AquAdvantage salmon, the first genetically modified animal approved by the federal government for human consumption. By adding a gene from Chinook salmon to Atlantic salmon and using DNA sequences from eel-like ocean pout as a “growth promoter,” the company said its salmon could grow twice as fast.

The silvery superfish is indistinguishable from other Atlantic salmon, the company said, but, with freshwater tanks and less feed, it can reach market size sooner than its conventional cousins. No ocean required.

But it was all easier said than done. After decades of backlash, boycotts and persistent financial losses, on top of the regulatory slog, AquaBounty hooked its hopes for the future on a village in Ohio with an enterprising name — Pioneer — and an accommodating mayor, Ed Kidston.

Almost $500 million in food aid is at risk of spoilage as it sits in ports, ships and warehouses after funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, was paused by the Trump administration, according to a Feb. 10 report from a government watchdog.

The report from USAID's inspector general highlighted the risks of "safeguarding and distribution" of $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian aid after the Trump administration ordered almost all staff to be placed on leave and ordered a review of U.S. foreign assistance programs.

The FBI was not pleased. There were mentions of the agency in documents connected to an upcoming forensics conference that it deemed disparaging. So in the weeks before President Donald Trump took office and issued an executive order barring censorship by federal government employees, the FBI set out to do just that.

In mid-December, according to documents obtained by The Intercept, Ted Hunt, a senior policy adviser to the FBI crime lab, approached the president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences — the nation’s premiere umbrella organization for scientists, academics, and attorneys practicing, researching, and litigating forensic science issues — with complaints and a demand.

According to the documents, Hunt argued that the AAFS should excise certain references to the FBI from two workshops scheduled for the organization’s annual conference, to be held later this month in Baltimore. One of the apparently offensive presentations was titled, “Taking on the FBI.”

In an email memo addressed to the AAFS Board of Directors, the chair of the conference workshops wrote that Hunt also complained about one of the workshop presenters, a former DNA analyst turned defense expert named Tiffany Roy who regularly challenges the work of front-line DNA practitioners working in government labs across the country, including at the FBI. According to the memo, Hunt told AAFS representatives, including its board president, that the agency was upset that Roy would be given any platform at the conference.

If the AAFS failed to take action, sources told The Intercept, Hunt told the Academy brass that the FBI, whose forensics leaders and front-line practitioners regularly attend the gathering, would boycott the organization’s famed annual meeting.

Citations Needed podcast did a Patreon members-only segment about it: News Brief: Musk Goes Full Alex Jones as Media Belatedly Mentions the Dreaded "I" Word

In this Patreon-only News Brief, we discuss the latest in Elon Musk's rightwing coup of the regulatory state, how a couple of outlets are beginning to slowly, coyly mention DOGE's ideological agenda, and how Musk and Trump have successfully built an alternative faux populist universe propped up by dishonesty and conspiratorial mud-slinging—exploiting Democrats' insistence on being the party of legal formalism and the status quo.

A controversial bill in the US state of Utah, HB 267, is making its way through the state legislature, sparking intense debate and widespread opposition.

If signed into law, the bill would make it illegal for any federal agency in Utah to recognize labor unions or engage in collective bargaining with their employees. This sweeping measure would impact thousands of workers, including teachers, health care workers, emergency responders, and a variety of other workers employed by federal agencies. Many federal employees rely on unions to fight for fair wages, benefits, and working conditions.

The bill has been met with fierce opposition from labor unions, federal workers, civil rights groups, and grassroots organizations. Many of whom see HB 267 as not just harmful to individual employees, but having far-reaching consequences for the broader labor movement and worker’s rights in Utah.

Members of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” arrived at the Pentagon Friday, in what appeared to be their first meeting with defense department staff, a US official told Reuters. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

Donald Trump has said the Pentagon would be an early target of Musk’s government budget and personnel slashing team and that he expects the tech billionaire to find hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud and abuse in the department.