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Wall Street veteran Frank Bisignano has been confirmed by the Senate to serve as commissioner of the Social Security Administration.WASHINGTON (AP) — Wall Street veteran Frank Bisignano was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday to lead the Social Security Administration, taking over at a turbulent time for the agency that provides benefits to more than 70 million Americans. The Senate confirmed Bisignano in a 53-47 vote. Bisignano’s confirmation comes after a months-long series of announcements at the Social Security Administration of mass federal worker layoffs, cuts to programs, office closures and a planned cut to nationwide Social Security phone services,...

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) claimed Tuesday on CNN’s “The Lead” that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s dangerous conduct was becoming close to impeachable. Speaking to CNN congressional reporter Manu Raju, Blumenthal said, “Hegseth is a danger to our national security. Our military is supposed to be nonpolitical, and what Hegseth is doing is not only defiling the principle but diminishing our national defense. And I think at some point, this kind of conduct is impeachable.” Host Jake Tapper said, “That is Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut today. A reminder to Secretary Hegseth, you have an open invitation to come on...

The Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act advanced in the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on Tuesday, inching closer to the restoration of hundreds of thousands of veterans’ gun rights. The NRA celebrated the passage on X: Gun Owners of America thanked Reps. Mike Bost (R) and Eli Crane (R) for their leadership on restoring and protecting veterans’ Second Amendment rights: Breitbart News spoke with Rep. Crane on January 23, 2025, and blasted “unelected bureaucrats” who have targeted the rights of military veterans who use a fiduciary to help with their finances. At that time, Crane was part of a hearing...

The University of Washington reported pro-Palestinian protesters caused more than $1 million in damage to the university’s Interdisciplinary Engineering Building during a violent demonstration Monday night. The self-described pro-Palestinian protesters barricaded themselves inside the nearly brand new Interdisciplinary Engineering Building on campus Monday evening. The building, which just opened with a "soft launch" to students in March, was funded in part with $50 million from the Washington state legislature. Yet, the University of Washington was reluctant to discuss any of it on Tuesday. The UW Police referred questions to University spokesperson Victor Balta, who told KOMO News no interviews would...

… Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker pressed Garber on why "a lot of people in America really hate Harvard." Trump recently announced he would be freezing federal funds that go to the university, and Harvard responded by filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration. As Garber noted that there was a strong dislike for elite universities in general, he added, "But I will say that we've had some real problems that we should address. One of them is the perceived lack of ideological diversity, among our faculty and among our students." "I have to say that there's recent evidence...

BEIJING (AP) — China’s central bank has cut a key interest rate as U.S. tariffs threaten the economy. People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng announced Wednesday that the lending rate to commercial banks would be reduced by 0.25 percentage points to 1.5%. The central bank also reduced the reserve ratio — the amount of money banks must hold in their reserves. The move comes as high tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump start to take a toll on China’s export-dependent economy.

Her status as a well-known media elite didn't seem to help as CBS anchor Norah O'Donnell's D.C. husband's restaurant was raided by ICE agents Tuesday. The Trump administration has been working to remove illegal aliens from the food industry, as the Washington Free Beacon reported. "Restaurants in the DC, including Chef Geoff's in Northwest and Millie's in Spring Valley[,] were subject to I-9 audits by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, today, per ICE official and DHS official," CBS News's Nicole Sganga reported on X. "Restaurants were delivered 'notices of inspection' and asked to question employees about their work authorization."

... The prime minister speaks to his people, whilst the lone Norwegian flag is isolated across the street.

On Friday President Trump released a budget blueprint for the next fiscal year that would take a chainsaw to social, environmental and education programs. Some of the sharpest cuts are directed at housing programs that are meant to serve the poor, housing insecure and unhoused. In California, millions are served by these funds and state and local governments depend on them to operate affordable housing, rental assistance, homeless service, planning and legal programs. In a letter to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, the president’s budget director, Russel Vought, laid out $163 billion in annual spending cuts coupled with “unprecedented increases”...

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer will meet with their Chinese counterparts in Switzerland this weekend to discuss economic and trade matters, their offices announced Tuesday.“We have shared interests,” Bessent said later on Fox News’ “Ingraham Angle.” The current tariff war “isn’t sustainable,” said Bessent, “especially on the Chinese side. And, you know, 145 percent [tariffs], 125 percent, is the equivalent of an embargo. We don’t want to decouple, what we want is fair trade.”Bessent and Greer will meet with their Chinese counterparts on both Saturday and Sunday, the Treasury secretary said.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., appears to no longer have the support he once had, with many liberals turning on him following a scathing report focusing on his health. New York Magazine’s Intelligencer published a lengthy piece Friday titled “All By Himself” which says how Fetterman “insists he is in good health” in the wake of a massive stroke he suffered in May 2022, “but staffers past and present say they no longer recognize the man they once knew.” Fetterman, once seen as a progressive darling, has earned fanfare from many moderates and conservatives over his pragmatism on various issues. However,...

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., appears to no longer have the support he once had, with many liberals turning on him following a scathing report focusing on his health. New York Magazine's Intelligencer published a lengthy piece Friday titled "All By Himself" which says how Fetterman "insists he is in good health" in the wake of a massive stroke he suffered in May 2022, "but staffers past and present say they no longer recognize the man they once knew." Fetterman, once seen as a progressive darling, has earned fanfare from many moderates and conservatives over his pragmatism on various issues. However,...

Pakistan shot down two Indian Air Force (IAF) jets in retaliation to an Indian missile attack, early Wednesday morning. The attacks were on cities in Punjab and Azad Kashmir, which killed at least 3 Pakistanis and injured 12 others. India claimed the attack was "focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature," and targeted “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan administered-Kashmir. But Pakistan has denied their claim, saying the horror attack which saw giant explosions, largely harmed civilians. Tensions between the neighbors have been rising steadily over the past several months and if escalated to an all-out war would spark a 'nuclear...

Key Points: The US Army's M10 Booker armored vehicle program is criticized as a prime example of a flawed requirements process. -Initially intended as a lightweight, C-130 airdroppable "light tank" to support airborne and light infantry units, successive requirement additions ("creep") resulted in a 42-ton vehicle too heavy for airdrop and even some base infrastructure, like bridges at Fort Campbell. -Despite failing its original key criteria, the airdrop requirement was dropped, and the program continued. -Critics argue the Army now fields a vehicle lacking its intended mission and unique deployability, representing bureaucratic inertia over battlefield need. -The M10 Booker has...

Ryan Matlock died of a fentanyl overdose after seeking addiction treatment. Today, his mother is urging lawmakers to get tougher on health insurance plans.

Christopher Schurr was a Grand Rapids Police Officer who got into a fight with Patrick Lyoya in the early morning of on April 4, 2022. During the struggle, Lyoya fought Schurr for control of Officer Schurr’s Taser and was fatally shot by the Officer during the scuffle.

The arrest of 10 individuals involved in a birth certificate forgery syndicate is about more than just corruption or criminality, says Southeast Asian politics expert Sophie Lemiere.The recent arrest of 10 individuals involved in a birth certificate forgery syndicate – linked to human trafficking and the smuggling of undocumented children – has exposed a deep and troubling flaw in Malaysia’s legal and bureaucratic framework. While authorities frame this as a case of corruption and criminality, the scandal is, in reality, a symptom of a much larger problem: a system that fails abandoned and adopted children, pushing desperate families into illegality....

It is no secret that Russia ‘recycles’ wounded soldiers, sending them back to the front line as soon as they are mobile. Commanders have made sure that getting wounded is not a ticket out of danger. But now we are seeing more extreme cases, with soldiers still on crutches or even in wheelchairs being pushed forward in assaults. What is behind this bizarre phenomenon? There may be method behind this gruesome madness, but there are competing explanations. It would be easy to dismiss this sort of claim as Ukrainian propaganda. Except that apart from the many cases captured on drone...

On Monday, authorities arrested more than 30 individuals who seized and occupied the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building at the University of Washington to protest Israel and its war against Hamas terrorists. Among those arrested was a King County public defender and several affiliates of the left-wing extremist group Antifa. All of them were booked into local jails on criminal trespassing charges, with a bail set at $1,000, according to records. It's unclear if the apprehended individuals were students and/or outside agitators. The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office said in a statement that more than two dozen protesters have been charged with...