News From Around the Web
#1 D.C. Pipe Bomber Suspect Challenges His Statements to the FBI - Jose Pagliery for The Washington Sun, Thomas Massie/Steve Baker, Viva Frei, General Mike Flynn, Trisha Hope - National Delegate-TX, Michael Flynn Jr, and Steve Friend on X
Defense attorneys for the man accused of being the 2021 D.C. pipe bomber want to block prosecutors from using statements he made during an FBI interrogation last year, saying the autistic man was “broken” by agents who pressured him into a confession after repeated denials. In a 42-page court filing, Brian Cole Jr.’s lawyers described what they called “his deteriorating mental state” as federal agents pressured him to confess during a December 2025 interrogation and threatened to “drag” his family through a similar experience...
#2 Hegseth Confirms Plan to Cut 20% of US Top Military Brass and Rails at ‘Beardos, Weirdos and Wimps’ - Shrai Popat and Ariana Baio for The Guardian, fuseboxradio, Jack Posobiec, TheMajorityVoters/Joe G, The Truthful American, Leading Report, and Rene on X
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has confirmed plans to cut 20% of generals and admirals and declared “no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps” would be tolerated inside the country’s military. Delivering his latest extraordinary attack on diversity, and dismissing reports of low morale within the US armed forces as “false claims”, Hegseth also suggested they were retaining service personnel at “record” rates. The defense secretary pointed to those on board the USS Abraham Lincoln, following concern over mental health and supply issues on the aircraft carrier, which was deployed for almost nine months. About “80% of the force” onboard was retained, he said...
#3 Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey and Newt Gingrich to Help Pentagon With Warfare Initiative - Luke Fountain for CNBC, Al Arabiya English, Maggie Lawlor, Michael Nelson, Jonathan 'Boo and Vote' Cohn, and The Washington Post on X
The Pentagon is tapping Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, defense technology entrepreneur and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to identify the military capabilities, technologies, and weapons the U.S. may need in future wars, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday. The initiative, dubbed Project Meridian, will spend 120 days looking years and decades ahead at how warfare could change and what capabilities the U.S. military will need to maintain a technological edge. “Project Meridian, the future of warfare, is not about developing new strategies or new policies,” Hegseth said. Instead, he said, its purpose is to “identify the domains that we must conquer, and capabilities we must master.”
#4 Florida Taxwatch on Amendment 3 - Sumter Sun Times, carolyn tackett/DKelly, Save Our Services, Holly Bullard/PSTA/John Griffiths, and Susan Katanic on X
“This amendment increases the homestead exemption, for all non-school taxes, to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, and adjusts for inflation thereafter. It requires the Legislature to prescribe a uniform procedure for counties and municipalities, for their respective levies, to increase the homestead exemption up to full assessed value, and allows special districts, subject to referendum approval, to do the same. Persons who are not Florida residents on December 31, 2026, will receive the existing homestead exemption upon qualifying for a homestead exemption, with the increased homestead exemption beginning with the fifth year of exemption, to the extent permitted by the U.S. Constitution. This amendment reduces the annual cap on assessment increases for non-homestead properties from 10% to 5%...
#5 Judge Allows Paramount to Close $110 Billion Takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery - Steve Kopack for NBC News, Eric Daugherty, Spencer Pratt/Mark Ruffalo, Proud Elephant, ToonHive, and Discussing Film on X
A California judge on Wednesday formally approved Paramount Skydance’s settlement with California and other states, the final hurdle required for it to close its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.The seismic merger will bring together the likes of CBS News and CNN, HBO Max and Paramount+, and storied film studios Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures. Shortly after the judge’s approval, David Ellison, the CEO and controlling shareholder of Paramount Skydance, announced that Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz would become co-CEO of the combined media giant...
#6 Bill Gates Says Companies That Replace Human Labor With Robots Should Have to Pay the Same FICA Taxes - Truman Dickerson for Business Insider, Drop Site, Adam Ozimek, The VC Corner, TechSpot, and WION on X
Bill Gates has a plan to ensure that humans keep getting paid in an AI jobs apocalypse: Tax the robots. In an interview with Ezra Klein of The New York Times that aired on Tuesday, the billionaire philanthropist said that "society gets to decide" how to support its workers — even if AI is pushing them out. "You define a unit of labor and say, independent of whether that's delivered by a human or robot, you are paying the same FICA tax that a human worker would pay," Gates said, referring to the US payroll tax...
#7 GOP Senator Joins Push for AI Liability as Google Announces New Frontier AI Model - Fox News, Osage AI, Roll Call, MarketsPulse, Mario Nawfal, and Cronus on X
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., will introduce a bill alongside Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., that will hold companies civilly and criminally responsible if their AI agents go rogue and commit hacking incidents, Axios reported. Meanwhile, Google has announced its latest frontier AI model, Gemini 4 Argon. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declined to appear before senators on Tuesday to discuss the Hugging Face incident, said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo...
#8 Hedge Fund CEO Ken Griffin Donates $3 Billion to Carnegie Mellon as Part of His Bet on Florida - Heather Hollingsworth for ABC News, Arnaud Mercier - #Entrepreneur #Versailles, Excelsior, The Executive Report, XNuke1120, and Aaron Harme on X
Carnegie Mellon University announced Wednesday that hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin is donating $3 billion, with the bulk of the money for a new campus in Miami focused on societal challenges. The Pittsburgh-based private research university said the gift is the largest ever single gift to a U.S. university. Other donations topping the billion-dollar mark include $1.8 billion from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Johns Hopkins University in 2018. And Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, also have been prolific donors, including a $2 billion gift to Oregon Health & Science University in 2025...
#9 White House Blocks CNN From Pool Duty Despite Judge’s Order - Dominick Mastrangelo for The Hill, Real America's Voice (RAV), Andrew Leyden, Peter Sigg, NBC News, and Dr. Clown, PhD on X
The White House plans to keep CNN journalists from carrying out the network’s previously scheduled duty providing television pool coverage of President Trump on Thursday, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to The Hill. The administration will prevent CNN from providing its scheduled pool coverage, the source said Wednesday, despite a ruling from a federal judge last week lifting a ban implemented against the outlet. No pool camera will travel with the president during his scheduled trip to Texas and Oklahoma...
#10 $53.5 Billion: A Food System That Feeds Its Investors - Tracy Beanz and Michelle Edwards for The Highwire, Gigi Bowman, Bill of Rights, IPES-Food, Mr. Pool, and Hustle Bitch/JM on X
$53.5 billion. That is what twenty of the world’s largest grain, fertilizer, meat, and dairy companies paid their shareholders over 2021 and 2022. The United Nations estimates that it would cost about $51.5 billion to feed the 230 million most desperate, hungry people on earth. So a single slice of the food industry handed out more money to its investors than it would take to end the worst hunger on the planet, and it effortlessly did so while those people starved. Wow. This is not a malfunction. It is an oligopoly built to serve its shareholders, not to feed people in need...
