Author: potus

WASHINGTON — A senior official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency instructed subordinates to freeze funding for a wide array of grant programs Monday, just hours after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration — for the second time — to stop such pauses.In an email with the subject line “URGENT: Holds on awards,” Stacey Street, the director of the agency’s Office of Grant Administration, told her team to freeze funding for grant programs going back several years, including those focused on emergency preparedness, homeland security, firefighting, protecting churches from terrorism and tribal security. “For all awards FY23 and prior:…

PayPal Inc. co-founder and Affirm’s CEO Max Levchin on center stage during day one of Collision 2019 at Enercare Center in Toronto, Canada.Vaughn Ridley | Sportsfile | Getty ImagesAffirm, the online lender founded by Max Levchin, expanded beyond credit and entered the debit market four years ago with a card that let users pay over time. Now the company is making it possible for banks to offer that service to their customers.Affirm, which pioneered the buy now, pay later business (BNPL), has partnered with FIS in a deal that will allow the fintech company to offer the pay-over-time service to…

The Donald Trump administration has started sending flights of undocumented migrants in the United States to Guantanamo Bay. The officials in charge have painted the move as a common practice, saying Guantanamo Bay has always been used for immigration enforcement. “We’ll have the capacity to continue to do there what we’ve always done. We’ve always had a presence of illegal immigrants there that have been detained. We’re just building out some capacity,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said on February 2 on NBC’s Meet the Press. Noem made a similar claim February 9 on CNN’s State of the Union,…

PARIS — Elon Musk aims to “slow down a competitor” when the investor group he led put forward a $97.4 billion proposal for control of OpenAI, the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, told CNBC on Tuesday.Asked how seriously he is taking Musk’s bid, which Altman previously declined in a X social media post, the OpenAI chief said, “Not particularly.””I think it’s to slow down a competitor and catch up with his thing, but I don’t really know … to the degree anybody does,” Altman added, in response to another reporter’s questions on the sidelines of the AI Action Summit in Paris.Musk is leading a group of…

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, speaks at the AI Action Summit in Paris, France, on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday said the EU would mobilize a total of 200 billion euros ($206.5 billion) for artificial intelligence investments in Europe, stressing that the race for AI leadership had not yet been won by China or the U.S.The sum includes previously-announced 150-billion-euro funding from investors and industry, which Von der Leyen said the bloc will top up by another 50 billion euros.Speaking at the AI Action…

President Trump has vowed to end the fighting in Ukraine. Just how he could do that remains unclear, given that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia believes he is winning. But in his own blunt way, Mr. Trump has opened up the possibility of some kind of negotiations for a cease-fire.If a deal was to be reached, analysts say, Mr. Trump would be likely to ask Europe to put it in place and to take responsibility for Ukraine, wanting to reduce the American commitment.But a key question remains: How to secure what is left of Ukraine and prevent Mr. Putin…

US Senator and Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance speaks to a Fox News reporter in the spin room after participating in the Vice Presidential debate with Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz hosted by CBS News at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York on October 1, 2024. Charly Triballeau | AFP | Getty ImagesVice President JD Vance on Tuesday said that the U.S. will safeguard American artificial intelligence and chips and block efforts to “weaponize” the critical technologies.”Some authoritarian regimes have stolen and used AI to strengthen their military intelligence and surveillance capabilities, capture foreign data and create…

In July 2021, the first time that King Abdullah II of Jordan met with President Joseph R. Biden Jr., he was greeted warmly as a reliable American partner whose country is a bulwark for security in the Middle East.“You live in a tough neighborhood,” Mr. Biden said as they sat in the Oval Office.The king, who will meet with President Trump on Tuesday, may find Washington to be the tougher neighborhood this time around.Mr. Trump has reiterated his intention to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip as part of his plan for the United States to “own” the territory, and…

Francis took the remarkable step Tuesday of addressing the U.S. migrant crackdown in a letter to U.S. bishops who’ve criticized the expulsions as harming the most vulnerable.History’s first Latin American pope has long made caring for migrants a priority of his pontificate, demanding that countries welcome, protect, promote and integrate those fleeing conflicts, poverty and climate disasters. Francis has also said governments are expected to do so to the limits of their capacity.In the letter, Francis said nations have the right to defend themselves and keep their communities safe from criminals.“That said, the act of deporting people who in many…

Transparency International says corruption holds back global cooperation on climate change policy.Corruption threatens to “derail” global cooperation to tackle climate change, according to graft watchdog Transparency International (TI). The watchdog’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2024, published on Tuesday, reported that many nations crucial to climate diplomacy have seen their scores decline. Overall, the CPI found that global corruption remained “alarmingly high” last year. More than two-thirds of the 180 countries ranked had scores below 50 out of 100. The global average was unchanged from 2023 at 43. While 32 countries have made significant progress against corruption since 2012, 148…