Europe Pub

Well that's just the normal functioning of a very cool and very legal government.

It’s a more extensive use of the app than previously reported and sheds new light on how commonly the Trump administration’s national security team relies on Signal.

https://archive.ph/b55n3

FTA:

Two Democratic legislators are introducing a bill on Wednesday aimed at Mr. Musk and the so-called Buffalo Billion project, in which the state spent $959 million to build and equip a plant that Mr. Musk’s company leases for $1 a year to operate a solar panel and auto component factory.

The bill would require an audit of the state subsidy deal to “identify waste, fraud and abuse committed by private parties to the contract.” It would determine whether the company, Tesla, was meeting job creation targets, making promised investments, paying enough rent and honoring job training commitments.

If Tesla was found to be not in compliance, the state could claw back state benefits, impose penalties or terminate contracts.

KEY FINDINGS

• Just 100 billionaire families poured a record-breaking $2.6 billion into federal elections in 2024, one of every six dollars spent altogether by all candidates, parties and committees.
• That’s two-and-a-half times the roughly $1 billion spent by individual billionaire donors in 2020.
• Billionaire political spending is up 160-fold since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision allowed for unlimited campaign donations.
• The vast bulk of billionaire-family donations went to so-called independent expenditure groups–which thanks to Citizens United can raise unlimited amounts from each donor–rather than directly to candidates or parties, which still work under campaign-contribution limits.
• Billionaire spending heavily favored Republicans. Over two-thirds (70%) of billionaire-family contributions went in support of GOP candidates and conservative causes. Less than a quarter (23%) backed Democratic hopefuls and progressive causes. (The remainder went to committees without a clear partisan or ideological identity.)
• In the three Senate races that gave Republicans control of the Senate, billionaire giving constituted a huge amount of Republican outside spending: Montana 58.1%, Pennsylvania 56.8%, and Ohio 44.5%.
• Almost three-quarters (71%) of the total amount used by outside spending groups to attack the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, came from billionaires. Billionaires supplied over three-fifths (61%) of all the outside dollars spent praising Donald Trump.
• While the potential undue influence on government policy of billionaire donors has always been a concern, the second Trump administration has seen a blatant and unprecedented swapping of campaign contributions for political power, most notoriously in the case of Elon Musk.
• Musk’s 2024 campaign contributions were four times more than what he paid in annual federal income taxes between 2013 and 2018.
• The Trump-Musk attempt to dismantle the federal government and the Republican tax-cutting agenda could potentially save billionaire-family donors trillions of dollars in taxes, turning a huge profit on their 2024 political investment.

Summary

Democrats celebrated Susan Crawford's 10-point win in Wisconsin’s state supreme court race over Elon Musk-backed Brad Schimel, preserving the court’s 4-3 liberal majority.

Musk, who spent $25M supporting Schimel, faced online ridicule, including a post from the Democrats’ official account showing him in a cheese head labeled “Loser.”

They cast the result as a rejection of Trump’s agenda and Musk’s influence. Crawford called it a victory over the “richest man in the world.”

Republicans questioned Musk’s impact. Trump stayed silent but celebrated narrower GOP House wins in Florida

It's common to the point of mootness, but: when describing the planet, Earth is a proper noun and should be capitalized. Otherwise you are referring to soil.

"Thundermail" will be part of a suite of Thunderbird Pro services, as the team behind the venerable Mozilla email client begins building a complete ecosystem.

Duskbloods is apparently the next upcoming Game by Fromsoftware after Nightreign - and its gonna be a switch 2 exclusive...

The 2023 law aims to improve street safety by making it easier to see pedestrians, since parking right up against a crosswalk blocks the view drivers have of people entering or approaching intersections. The law applies at all intersections, including those without painted crosswalks, as well as mid-block crosswalks. Cities were allowed to start writing tickets for violations on Jan. 1.

Instead of writing tickets, city spokesman Matthai Chakko said officials are encouraging drivers to comply with the law voluntarily.

“The most important thing is not about citations and tickets, but safety,” Chakko wrote in an email. “Avoiding parking within daylighting zones helps fellow motorists to uphold one of their principle responsibilities: yielding to pedestrians at a sidewalk. It improves their own line of vision as well as that of fellow drivers.”

I don’t have a license or car. A friend of mine posted a story on IG driving at 300 km/h on the highway. I know it’s fast, but just how fast in terms of driving?

I know it's perfect, no feedback necessary.

Local organizers say they have less of a chance at making climate reforms in the majority Black city than Musk does at imposing environmental harms

Great Lakes farms have become a hot spot for bird flu, killing millions of birds and raising fears of a human pandemic.

Pawall - Archive.ph link here

Summary:

China has taken steps to restrict local companies from investing in the US, according to people familiar with the matter, in a move that could give Beijing more leverage for potential trade negotiations with the Trump administration.

Several branches of China’s top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, have been instructed in recent weeks to hold off on registration and approval for firms that are looking to invest in the US, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing sensitive issues.

While China has previously placed restrictions on some overseas investments for reasons linked to concerns about national security and capital outflows, the new measures underscore tensions playing out between the world’s two biggest economies as Donald Trump ramps up tariffs. China’s outbound investments into the US totaled $6.9 billion in 2023, according to the latest available figures.

There’s no sign that existing commitments by Chinese companies in the US and elsewhere, or China’s purchases and holdings of financial products including US Treasuries, would be affected, the people said. It’s unclear what prompted the NDRC to halt the processing of applications or how long this suspension might last.

The NDRC and the Ministry of Commerce, both in charge of initial approvals for companies’ foreign investment, didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. US equity futures dropped to session lows after the Bloomberg report. European stocks also extended their decline.

Instead of the sane approach of specifying 5, 9, 12, 15, and/or 20 volts and the amperages, products insist on listing every model of device in existence instead.

Most will do 12V, but I always want to make sure it'll power my laptop (20V) as well.

A big thank you to reviewers who post images of the actual products where it shows the relevant info in one short line on the labels:

e.g. PD Output: 5V=3A, 9V=3A, 12V=3A, 15V=3A, 20V=3A