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Danielle Sassoon and Other Officials Resign After Order to Drop Eric Adams Case — The interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and two officials with the federal public integrity unit all quit after the Justice Department ordered the charges against Mayor Eric Adams to be dropped.
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How the Justice Dept. Helped Sink Its Own Case Against Eric Adams — A top Trump appointee guided Mr. Adams's legal team as they crafted an argument for dismissing corruption charges against the mayor of America's largest city. — President Trump had just taken office when lawyers …
Discussion:
abc7NY and PoliticusUSA


Read Danielle Sassoon's Letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi — Danielle R. Sassoon, Manhattan's acting U.S. attorney, writes to Attorney General Pam Bondi, refusing to drop the case against Mayor Eric Adams.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, New York Daily News, Twitchy, Reuters, CBS News and The City


Federal prosecutors in New York and Washington resign after refusing to drop Adams charges — At least six prosecutors, including the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan, have stepped down over the DOJ order to dismiss corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.


Prosecutors were prepping to charge Eric Adams with destroying evidence, Manhattan US attorney's resignation letter reveals
Discussion:
Reuters, New Republic, CBS News, USA Today and New York Times

Top U.S. Prosecutors Resign After Order to Drop Eric Adams Case
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money, Reuters, ABC News, CBS News and Associated Press

Acting US attorney in New York and five others quit after being told to drop Eric Adams case
Discussion:
Off Message, The 19th, Raw Story, Reuters, NPR, Mediaite, ZeroHedge News, New York Daily News and Tangle

Read the letter from Emil Bove accepting Danielle Sassoon's resignation
Discussion:
ABC7

Danielle Sassoon's Letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Annotated
Discussion:
One First, Associated Press, CNN, City & State New York, New York Post, Raw Story and Talking Points Memo

Mayor Adams to Sign Order Allowing ICE Agents Into Rikers Island
Discussion:
New York Post, City & State New York, Reason, Fox News, RedState, New York Daily News, Forbes, The City and abc7NY


Vance Wields Threat of Sanctions, Military Action to Push Putin Into Ukraine Deal — In interview with The Wall Street Journal, vice president says Ukraine must have ‘sovereign independence’ — PARIS—Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the U.S. would hit Moscow with sanctions …
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Senior Republican senator ‘puzzled’ and ‘disturbed’ by Hegseth's Ukraine remarks — Live coverage from Munich: POLITICO is on the ground at the Munich Security Conference, where we're having conversations with top officials, lawmakers and experts at our POLITICO Pub. Follow our exclusive coverage here.
Discussion:
The Hill, New Jersey Online, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Wide World of News, Alternet.org, Daily Mail, Mediaite, The Guardian, El País, Breitbart, EADaily, Foreign Policy, Townhall and Reuters


VP Slaps Down Hegseth by Threatening Putin With U.S. Troops
Discussion:
Washington Post, Forbes and New York Post

Pete Hegseth Crumbles When Asked What Russia Is Conceding to Ukraine
Discussion:
Reuters, Politico, Digby's Hullabaloo, NOTUS, Mediaite, Alternet.org, Bloomberg, Fox News and Axios

Putin Assembles Team of Heavyweights to Negotiate Ukraine Deal
Discussion:
The Moscow Times and The Gen Z Perspective


Anyone Can Push Updates to the DOGE.gov Website — The doge.gov website that was spun up to track Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government is insecure and pulls from a database that can be edited by anyone, according to two separate people who found the vulnerability and shared it with 404 Media.
Discussion:
Wired, Raw Story, The Verge, Mashable, Breitbart, Daily Kos, Reason, Washington Examiner and The Independent, more at Techmeme »


Stars pull out of shows and positions at Kennedy Center after Trump takeover — Issa Rae, Ben Folds and Shonda Rhimes among those who chose not to associate with the institution and president — Donald Trump's takeover of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington …
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Kennedy Center staff describe climate of fear as events drop from calendar — Issa Rae became the first major artist to publicly cancel an upcoming show at the center after President Trump took over its board and leadership. — The fallout from President Donald Trump's takeover …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Washingtonian, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and New York Times


Trump administration directs agency heads to fire most probationary staff — Terminations should happen within two days, according to four people familiar with internal conversations. — The Trump administration has directed agency heads to fire most trial period and probationary staff within two days …
Discussion:
Federal News Network and Alternet.org
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House Republicans advance their budget after appeasing hard-liners — The House Budget Committee adopted a budget resolution Thursday as GOP leaders work to unlock the power to enact major Republican priorities along party lines. — Score one for the backers of “one big, beautiful bill.”
Discussion:
Punchbowl News, NBC News, E&E News, Roll Call, Washington Examiner, Raw Story, NOTUS and PBS NewsHour
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GOP got an ‘alarming glimpse at the future’ as it eyes massive cut: report
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The Hill, Mediaite, Politico, Daily Kos, WisPolitics, WBEZ, New Republic and HuffPost


Judge orders Trump administration to restore funds for foreign aid programs — A U.S. district judge said the administration failed to account for the extraordinary harm caused by the broad-based halt. — A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore funding for hundreds …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Raw Story, The Independent, CBS News, Fox News, Washington Examiner and The Gateway Pundit
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Judge orders Trump administration to temporarily reinstate foreign aid funding
Discussion:
UPI, Reuters and Scripps News

Judge Orders Trump Administration to Resume Foreign Aid Spending
Discussion:
Roll Call


Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue — An Air Force plane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Sen. Jim Risch, to Germany for the Munich Security Conference was forced to return …
Discussion:
PJ Media, Associated Press, ABC News, EADaily, New York Post, NBC News, UPI, CBS News and Fox News


Trump insults McConnell over RFK Jr. vote, casts doubts on polio diagnosis — ‘I have no idea if he had polio,’ Trump said when asked about the 82-year-old Kentucky senator's decision to vote against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Discussion:
Esquire, HuffPost, Raw Story, The Hill, Breitbart, Associated Press, Twitchy, New York Daily News, The Independent, CBS News, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, NPR, Forbes, New York Post and Grabien
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The Undocumented Workers Who Helped Build Elon Musk's Texas Gigafactory — Tesla and SpaceX both relied on their labor while Musk advocated for a border crackdown. — Cristy was in her early 50s when she took a job with a cleaning subcontractor on a construction project …


TikTok Returns to Apple and Google App Stores — The popular social media app was removed to comply with a new law that banned it in the United States. President Trump has paused enforcement of the ban. — Apple and Google restored TikTok to their U.S. app stores on Thursday evening …
Discussion:
Politico, Bloomberg, UPI, Court Watch, Associated Press, Variety, TechCrunch, The Independent, Al Jazeera, Mashable, Adweek, NPR, Reuters, BGR, CBS News, The Information, Fox Business, MacRumors, Deadline, The Japan Times, The Verge and ABC7, more at Mediagazer »


Nazi flags can fly in Utah schools, but not pride flags, GOP lawmaker says — A new bill would allow for Nazi and Confederate flags to be displayed in some instances in Utah schools and government buildings, but pride flags would be banned. — An ongoing fight in Utah to ban pride flags …
Discussion:
Transgender World, CityNews Toronto, UPI and Washington Examiner


Hegseth team invites far-right activist Jack Posobiec on overseas trip — The offer triggered alarm among Pentagon officials concerned about the military being dragged into partisan warfare.
Discussion:
Alternet.org, Raw Story, Mediaite and Human Events


Establishing the President's Make America Healthy Again Commission — By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: — Section 1. Purpose. American life expectancy significantly lags behind other developed countries …
Discussion:
Axios, STAT, The Daily Wire, The Autistic Self …, The Daily Caller, Townhall, The National Pulse, CIVIC TEXTS, Fox News and E&E News


Billionaire Airbnb Co-Founder Is Said to Take Role in Musk's Government Initiative — Joe Gebbia is a board member at Tesla and is close to Elon Musk, the company's C.E.O. — One of Elon Musk's closest friends, a billionaire co-founder of Airbnb, is taking a role in President Trump's administration …


How the Trumps Turned an Election Victory Into a Cash Bonanza — First lady's documentary deal with Amazon, president's legal settlements and other transactions near $80 million so far; Trump library a major beneficiary — | Illustrations by Alexandra Citrin-Safadi/WSJ


“We've Been Essentially Muzzled”: Department of Education Halts Thousands of Civil Rights Investigations Under Trump — ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Jewish Insider, Blaze Media and Mercury News


There's a Term for What Trump and Musk Are Doing — How regime change happens in America — despite its name, the Department of Government Efficiency is not, so far, primarily interested in efficiency. DOGE and its boss, Elon Musk, have instead focused their activity on the eradication …
Discussion:
New York Times, Pew Research Center and BIJAN


Louisiana Department of Health ends mass vaccinations, bans seasonal vaccine promotion — Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham sent a directive to state health workers Thursday ending long-standing mass vaccination clinics and banning staff from promoting seasonal vaccines …
Discussion:
New York Times and Associated Press


Trump Wants to Destroy All Academia, Not Just the Woke Parts — In 2021, JD Vance gave a speech to the National Conservatism Conference, a gathering of Trumpist thinkers and politicians, titled “The Universities Are the Enemy.” It contained the usual complaints about critical race theory …


Trump administration fires thousands of federal workers — At least six government agencies have initiated layoffs, as DOGE's efforts enter a more aggressive phrase. — The Trump administration moved swiftly to lay off thousands of government employees in at least six agencies Thursday …
Discussion:
New York Times, NPR, Associated Press, E&E News, WXIA-TV, Reuters, Washington Examiner, Bloomberg, ABC7, CBS News, The National Pulse, CNN and Forbes