United States | News & Politics

“Who was it? Trump? A family member? A White House staffer?” asked US Sen. Chris Murphy.

“It’s Monday morning, there’s no important data today, there aren’t any Fed speakers you’d want to front-run. It’s an unusually large trade for a day with no event risk,” the trader said. “Somebody just got a lot richer.”

A BBC review of market data similarly found that “traders bet hundreds of millions of dollars on oil contracts just minutes before” Trump’s announcement of talks with Iran. Iranian officials publicly denied that they are negotiating with the Trump administration, and Iran’s top lawmaker accused the US president of peddling “fake news” in an attempt to “manipulate the financial and oil markets.”

Union leaders and DFL lawmakers are pushing to ban electronic shelf labels and surveillance pricing, citing concerns about affordability and the use of artificial intelligence in grocery stores.

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A Michigan data center would use renewables and flexibility to meet most demand. An Ohio project goes in a different direction.

https://archive.vn/66uWh

New York City Mayor Mamdani is revolutionizing government efficiency by cutting wasteful contracts with companies like McKinsey, saving millions without compromising essential services. Will this progressive approach inspire a national movement against inefficient outsourcing?

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/49451069

Ms. Rachel is fighting to close an ICE facility in Texas that's detaining children. She wants to "make sure that kids and their parents are back in their communities where they belong."

"I am political. It’s political to believe that children are worthy of love and care, and that every child is equal, and that our care shouldn’t stop at what we look like, our family, at our religion, at a border," she told NBC News.

Ms. Rachel recently had a video call with nine-year-old Deiver Henao Jimenez, who is detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas. The boy told her he "wants to leave and go to the spelling bee."

"It was unbelievably surreal to see this sweet little face and feel like I was on a call with somebody who’s in jail. It broke me, and it was something I never thought I’d encounter in life," she told the news outlet. "We’re trying to get a child out of a jail to do a spelling bee. I just never thought those words would go together."

Full article

Surcharge, spurred by oil price spikes due to the Iran war, is set to take effect on 26 April and run until January 2027

The union said in its letter that its labor contracts enshrine the right to a safe workplace, and that the presence of ICE or U.S. Border Patrol agents inside or in the immediate vicinity of properties constitutes “unusually dangerous conditions” that trigger employees’ right to refuse to work. The contracts also prohibit employers from allowing immigration agents onto their properties without a warrant, the letter said.

“We want to be clear,” the letter said. “If ICE or similar enforcement agents are present at or near your property, workers must be allowed to leave or refuse to report to work without reprisal.”

An area of the Pentagon known as “Correspondents’ Corridor” that reporters have used for decades to cover the U.S. military will close immediately, department spokesperson Sean Parnell said. Journalists will eventually be able to work from an “annex” outside the building, which he said “will be available when ready.” He offered no detail about how long that will take.

The Pentagon Press Association said the announcement “is a clear violation of the letter and spirit of last week’s ruling.”

“At such a critical time, we ask why the Pentagon is choosing to restrict vital press freedoms that help inform all Americans,” the association said.

The new policy is the latest dispute over press access to President Donald Trump’s administration, which has limited legacy media while boosting conservative and pro-Trump outlets.

Company calls Guardian the "most capable 911 response drone ever.”

March 25, 2026

The policy, announced by Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democratic representative, on Wednesday morning, aims to ensure the AI boom protects the environment and communities, and benefits workers instead of harming them. A temporary ban, the lawmakers say, would give the US government time to create strong federal safeguards for AI, which is “affecting everything from our economy and wellbeing to our democracy, warfare and our kids’ education”.

“AI and robotics are creating the most sweeping technological revolution in the history of humanity,” Sanders said in an emailed statement. “The scale, scope, and speed of that change is unprecedented. Congress is way behind where it should be in understanding the nature of this revolution and its impacts.”

Pressed further, he clarified he does not believe the term applies to Israel’s present.

Gavin Newsom is an idiot and his instincts are laughably bad here.

Who is this supposed to win over? Is he still gunning for the AIPAC money? What an utter spineless coward. Why would AIPAC trust him and why would the average voter trust him?

Gavin Newsom is an AWFUL choice to put our energy behind and his cowardly inability to reckon with Israel exposes how incredibly unfit for office he is.

If the DNC is allowed to consolidate power around Gavin Newsom, the next election WILL be lost to Republicans on a basis of centrist unwillingness to stand up to Israel and the winning Republican alternative will come from a rightwing racist bent (Tucker Carlson?) rather than a leftist anti-colonialist one and when that future comes it WILL be Gavin Newsom's fault for needing his turn to play president like Biden needed his.

https://decisiondeskhq.substack.com/p/americans-dont-really-like-gavin-newsom

However, Newsom’s national standing is relatively poor. In Decision Desk HQ’s polling average, only about 30% of poll respondents have a favorable view of him, while about 42% hold an unfavorable opinion. Since early in 2025, attitudes toward Newsom have tended to be more negative than positive, except for about a three-month spell last fall when his net standing was closer to even.

...and this is before Gavin tries to pathetically tack to some imagined centrist position on Israel that makes absolutely everybody hate him except his AIPAC handlers.

The latest Newsom budget, released last month, continues his trajectory away from social compassion. “The governor’s 2026-27 spending plan balances the budget by dodging the harsh realities of the Republican megabill, H.R. 1, and maintains state cuts to vital public supports, like Medi-Cal, enacted as part of the current-year budget,” the California Budget & Policy Center pointed out. “Governor Newsom’s reluctance to propose meaningful revenue solutions to help blunt the harm of federal cuts undermines his posture to counter the Trump administration.” The statement said that the proposed budget “will leave many Californians without food assistance and healthcare coverage.”

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/is-gavin-newsom-progressive

Federal agents ran Rep. Brad Tabke’s license plate information before leading him to his house in January and February.

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