Elon Musk Lackeys Have Taken Over the Office of Personnel Management  —  Sources tell WIRED that the OPM's top layers of management now include individuals linked to xAI, Neuralink, the Boring Company, and Palantir.  One expert found the takeover reminiscent of Stalin.

Throw Biden under the bus  —  Sleepy Joe landed us in this mess with bad, selfish decisions  —  When Joe Biden stepped aside in favor of Kamala Harris, the overwhelming majority of Democrats praised him for the decision and painted an overall flattering portrait of Biden's presidency and his career.

Trump White House reverses course, rescinds freeze on federal grants  —  The budget office came under immense pressure over the impacts on a sudden pause in key government spending  —  The White House budget office on Wednesday rescinded an order freezing federal grants …

“Trump is trying to collapse our economy”: War on “woke” revealed as a war on all Americans  —  Christian nationalists behind the spending shutdown aim to punish everyone, not just imaginary Marxists  —  Initially, the most striking detail in the White House Office of Management and Budget memo …

Senate Democrats rip into RFK Jr.  —  Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee went on offense against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s past statements about vaccines, infectious disease and other health-related conspiracy theories.  In a heated exchange, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) …

‘Written by children’: Critics slam New York Times' glowing coverage of Trump official  —  White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt received glowing coverage from the New York Times for her press briefing debut despite delivering a performance that other observers have described as an “embarrassment.”

The Reason Why Donald Trump Shut Down His Government  —  Washington's newest pastime is counting the number of impeachable offenses Trump commits in his first 100 days.  It's a parlor game rather than a government proceeding because you don't impeach a president less than three months into his term …

OpenAI Furious DeepSeek Might Have Stolen All the Data OpenAI Stole From Us  —  The narrative that OpenAI, Microsoft, and freshly minted White House “AI czar” David Sacks are now pushing to explain why DeepSeek was able to create a large language model that outpaces OpenAI's while spending orders …

Trump hires new lawyers to appeal his hush money conviction  —  The lawyers will replace Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who represented Trump during the trial last spring.  —  NEW YORK — President Donald Trump has hired the elite white-shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell to appeal his criminal conviction in the Manhattan hush money case.

Iowa Democrats flip Senate seat in special election to cut into Republican majority  —  Iowa Democrats have flipped a state Senate seat vacated earlier this year by Chris Cournoyer, who resigned to become the state's new lieutenant governor.  —  Democrat Mike Zimmer has defeated Republican Kate Whittington …

Trump revokes temporary protected status for 600,000 Venezuelans  —  New DHS secretary Kristi Noem ends extension that allows people to stay if they cannot return safely to home country  —  The Trump administration has revoked an extension of deportation protections that the previous Biden …

DOJ moves to drop prosecution of former Trump co-defendants in classified documents case  —  The request offered no explanation for the Justice Department's decision to abandon the case against the two Trump allies.  —  The Justice Department on Wednesday moved to drop its effort …

SCOOP: RFK Jr. Secretly Recorded Second Wife During Divorce and Acknowledged Being “Polygamous”  —  One recording might have violated state law.  It was part of a messy saga that ended with her suicide.  —  In the early 2010s, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went through a contentious divorce with his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy.

Trump DOJ appointee in DC lashes out after flurry of ‘personally insulting’ leaks in his first week  —  The acting top federal prosecutor in Washington under President Donald Trump is furious about recent leaks to the press and also specifically directed staff to scrutinize a former official's work …

Florida Republican introduces bill to add Trump to Mount Rushmore  —  Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) introduced a bill Tuesday seeking to add President Trump's face to the Mount Rushmore monument.  —  “His remarkable accomplishments for our country and the success he will continue …

Rubio backtracks on near-total foreign aid freeze, issues humanitarian waiver  —  The secretary of state, in a memo, approved the continuance of potentially billions of dollars in “life-saving humanitarian assistance.”  Many aid groups are still unsure what that means or whether they are allowed to continue work.

Ed Martin Jr., a crusader for Jan. 6 defendants, now oversees their absolution  —  Trump tapped the conservative lawyer to carry out his directive dismissing hundreds of pending Jan. 6 cases.  —  For four years, Ed Martin Jr. has embraced the cause of Jan. 6 rioters, downplayed their violence …