#political-influence

#political-influence

Trump administration insiders and well-connected Republican businesses have been jostling to dominate pending humanitarian aid and reconstruction logistics in the shattered Gaza Strip, according to sources and documents reviewed by the Guardian. With three-quarters of Gaza's structures damaged or destroyed by two years of Israeli strikes, the rebuilding effort to come estimated at $70bn by the United Nations could be a rich prize for companies that specialize in construction, demolition, transportation and logistics.

Since mid-May, when Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced Pete Rose would be eligible for Hall of Fame consideration and explained his specious reasonings behind it, last week's Hall of Fame vote by the 16-member Classic Era committee carried with it a certain air of inevitability for Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, the two greatest players currently not enshrined in Cooperstown.

I bring this up because the Trump administration released a clearly Stephen Miller-authored National Security Strategy last night, and like my WWII veteran grandfather watching Band of Brothers, my brain flashed back to a darker, more traumatic time as I read it. A time filled with thousands of needless words. A time where kids exposed their birdbrains while smarmily lecturing you how they're more advanced than they prove themselves to be.

Throughout the staffing changes, Weiss has been equipped with a reported $10k-per-day security detail as she " do[es] the fucking news ." She had a bit of a viral moment earlier this week when she said that she views her position as the opportunity to shut out voices like Hasan Piker and Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes in order to elevate "normal" voices like, uh, Alan Dershowitz to debate the NRA on guns.

President Trump's second term has brought a period of turmoil and controversy unlike any in the history of the Justice Department. Trump and his appointees have blasted through the walls designed to protect the nation's most powerful law enforcement agency from political influence; they have directed the course of criminal investigations, openly flouted ethics rules and caused a breakdown of institutional culture.

The 35-member volunteer board of directors now includes notable Republican political figures Kevin McCarthy, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, and Reince Priebus, who was Trump's chief of staff during his first term. Before his role in the White House, Priebus served as the longtime chair of the Republican National Committee. Diane Hendricks, a major GOP donor who has given millions to Trump's campaigns,

A former aide to New York Governors Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo is on trial facing charges she acted as an undisclosed agent to the Chinese government in exchange for millions of dollars in business transactions and benefits secured through Chinese officials. Sun is accused of political activities intended to influence the public on China's behalf, and committing wire and visa fraud, money laundering and other financial crimes in procuring a bounty from the Chinese government.

Bitcoin crashed to a six-month low this week, dipping to just above $96,000 by Friday morning. The cryptocurrency has slid from over over $140,000 last month, and fallen nearly eight percent over the last five days alone, showing that investors are now racing to liquidate their holdings. There are likely several factors at play. For one, economic uncertainty over possible changes to interest rates has already triggered a major tech selloff this month.

By the numbers: In the latest Gallup Poll released Thursday, only 49% of U.S. adults say religion is essential to their daily life, down from 66% in 2015. That decline is among the biggest measured globally since 2007. Among 38 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations, a median of 36% of adults call religion important - a figure the U.S. is rapidly approaching.

Creators are also having an increasingly important political impact, with Donald Trump courting popular YouTubers and podcasters such as Joe Rogan and the Nelk Boys in the run-up to his 2024 election victory. The recent murder of activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk, and the coverage of the aftermath, reminds us of the critical role these personalities are now playing in shaping both public opinion and political narratives.

Facts are becoming less sacred by the day in Donald Trump's US, where many of his supporters now deny the very existence of truths. To them, inconvenient evidence is by definition bias. His followers and those who fear his fist are falling into line: media, universities and that infamous regiment of tech zillionaires who stood right behind him on inauguration day.

The Department of Energy said Wednesday night it was canceling 321 awards worth $7.56 billion that were largely focused on clean energy. The agency hasn't released a list of the 223 affected projects and, at the time of publication, it had not provided one. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said one of the canceled projects included $1.2 billion for the state's hydrogen hub, the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems.

Americans are receiving medical guidance from President Trump and top health officials like Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that runs counter to mainstream medicine. For example, this week Trump linked Tylenol to autism despite little medical evidence. How are Americans meant to make important decisions about their health at this confusing moment?

In practice, power over immigration policy is fractured, shaped by competing factions, starting with deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who has vowed in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination to destroy nameless forces that have conspired against the right - the long arm of law enforcement, he warned them, "will be used to find you, will be used to take away your money, take away your power, and, if you've broken the law, to take away your freedom."

Given the president's record of doling out special treatment to CEOs who are able to woo him with flattery, payoffs or both, the timing of his attendance at the match in the Rolex box is concerning. I have questions about whether you are attempting to curry favor with the president in an effort to secure special-interest exemptions for Rolex products.

"Senior Biden Administration officials [...] conducted repeated and sustained outreach to Alphabet and pressed the Company regarding certain user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate its policies."

Corruption is one of the most important-and misunderstood-concepts in contemporary American politics. Some examples are unambiguous: for instance, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez taking gold bars from foreign governments in exchange for policy favors. But corruption covers a wide range of behavior, far beyond kickbacks and bribery. I've spent my career studying how it shapes legal and political systems, and I've found that it's rarely a single act or brazen deal;

There are many household names in the corporate media landscape, conglomerations like News Corp or Comcast that control the world's flow of information and entertainment. But Americans are learning a new one this week in Nexstar, which led the charge to kick Jimmy Kimmel off television.On Wednesday night, after Jimmy Kimmel Live! was pulled from ABC indefinitely for the host's comments about the assassinated conservative broadcaster Charlie Kirk, reports emerged that Nexstar had decided to cut the show from the 32 ABC stations it owns. With the pressure on from Nexstar - and potential retribution coming from President Trump's FCC - ABC then decided to cut Kimmel's late-night show entirely.

The Guardian has long been at the forefront of agenda-setting climate journalism, and in a news cycle dominated by autocrats and war, we refuse to let the health of the planet slip out of sight. We stand out as a media organisation by examining why the climate emergency is creating a new era of demagogues and how powerful governments, financial institutions and big oil companies are turning their back on climate promises.