Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
Brazilian Stock Exchange B3 Reportedly Launching Bitcoin Options, ETH and SOL Futures
Bitcoin OG sees $700K BTC price, $16K Ethereum in this ‘Valhalla’ cycle
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
In Idaho, a preview of RFK Jr.’s vaccine-skeptical America
Politics:
Trump Cuts Spark Private Sector Layoffs
Private-sector employers and nonprofits are starting to lay off workers as a result of the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts and funding freezes, unleashing a wave of job losses that economists say could pick up steam in the coming weeks, threatening the broader labor market.
Elon Musk’s Ultimate Goal Becomes Clear
Billionaire Elon Musk’s blitzkrieg on Washington has brought into focus his vision for a dramatically smaller and weaker government, as he and a coterie of aides move to control, automate — and substantially diminish — hundreds if not thousands of public functions.
In less than three weeks, Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service has followed the same playbook at one federal agency after another: Install loyalists in leadership. Hoover up internal data, including the sensitive and the classified. Gain control of the flow of funds. And push hard — by means legal or otherwise — to eliminate jobs and programs not ideologically aligned with Trump administration goals.
How Elon Musk’s conspiracy theories became official White House policy
Trump Halts a Legacy of ‘Acting With Humanity’
Funds from the world’s richest nation once flowed from the largest global aid agency to an intricate network of small, medium and large organizations that delivered aid: H.I.V. medications for more than 20 million people; nutrition supplements for starving children; support for refugees, orphaned children and women battered by violence.
Now, that network is unraveling. The Trump administration froze foreign aid for 90 days and has planned to gut the U.S. Agency for International Development to just 5 percent of its work force, although a federal judge paused the plan on Friday.
Given wars and strapped economies, other governments or philanthropies are unlikely to make up for the shortfall, and recipient nations are too hamstrung by debt to manage on their own.
GOP Senator Sounds Alarm on Delay of USAID Food
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) said a freeze on federal funding and change at the U.S. Agency for International Development left $340 million in lifesaving food grown in the United States sitting at domestic ports awaiting delivery to locations around the world where people were starving.
Said Moran: “Time is running out before this lifesaving aid perishes. Food stability is essential to political stability, and our food aid programs help feed the hungry, bolster our national security and provide an important market for our farmers, especially when commodity prices are low.”
