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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas raised a question Thursday that goes to the heart of Special Counsel Jack Smith's charges against former President Donald Trump . The high court was considering Trump's argument that he is immune from prosecution for actions he took while president, but another issue is whether Smith and the Office of Special Counsel have the authority to bring charges at all. "Did you, in this litigation, challenge the appointment of special counsel?" Thomas asked Trump attorney John Sauer on Thursday during a nearly three-hour session at the Supreme Court. Sauer replied that Trump's attorneys had not raised that concern "directly" in the current Supreme Court case — in which justices are considering Trump's arguments that presidential immunity precludes the prosecution of charges that the former president illegally sought to overturn the 2020 election. Sauer told Thomas that, "we totally agree with the analysis provide...

Julie Zauzmer Weil / Washington Post : The IRS says it spent $10.5M to develop and $2.4M to run its free tax filing website, used by 140K+ households in 12 states, and claims high user satisfaction   —  In its first year, more than 140,000 households in 12 states did their taxes with Direct File  —  The Biden administration …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch : EyeEm, the bankrupt photo sharing network acquired by Freepik last year, will license users' photos to train AI if the images are not deleted within 30 days   —  EyeEm, the Berlin-based photo-sharing community that exited last year to Spanish company Freepik after going bankrupt, is now licensing its users' photos to train AI models.

Eugen Rochko / Mastodon Blog : Mastodon forms a new US non-profit, to receive tax-deductible US donations and in-kind support, with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and others on its board   —  As part of our commitment to supporting the growth and operational capabilities of Mastodon, we have established a 501(c)(3) …

Kif Leswing / CNBC : As Intel reports disappointing earnings and guidance, and becomes S&P's worst performing stock in 2024, a look at the long history of company's missteps   —  Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger speaks while showing silicon wafers during an event called AI Everywhere in New York, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023.

Progressive anti-Israel agitators across the country, including those who mobilized at New York City’s Columbia University, are associated with groups tied to far-left groups with radical associations backed by dark money and liberal mega-donor George Soros. National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), a national organization affiliated with around 200 independent chapters, has had a vocal presence at Columbia University in recent days and at one point said it had walked away from talks with school leaders until administrators pledge not to have them arrested or forcefully removed from their encampment on the Ivy League institution's West Lawn. NSJP operates under Westchester Peace Action Committee Foundation (WESPAC), a fiscal sponsor, whom Fox News Digital previously reported received a six-figure donation from a nonprofit bankrolled by the George Soros network. WESPAC, whose funding is largely unknown, has espoused anti-israel rhetoric for years, including accusing the ...

Kate Kelly / New York Times : Congress considers legislation to block DJI drones from running on US communication networks, effectively killing the Chinese company's US commercial business   —  U.S. authorities consider DJI a security threat.  Congress is weighing legislation to ban it, prompting a lobbying campaign from the company …

The Supreme Court waded cautiously Thursday in a landmark area of law it has never before encountered: whether former presidents have "absolute immunity" from criminal prosecution, stemming from the special counsel's federal election interference case. In a special courtroom session lasting more than two and a half hours, the justices appeared to be looking for middle ground that might see at least some of Trump's sweeping claims dismissed, while still allowing future presidents to be criminally exempt from clearly official executive functions — like their role as commander in chief . The official question the justices are confronting: "Whether, and if so, to what extent does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office?" SUPREME COURT SHARPLY AT ODDS OVER EMERGENCY ROOM ABORTION ACCESS IN STATES' RIGHTS CHALLENGE In riveting arguments, a partisan di...

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch : Stripe will let customers accept crypto payments, starting with USDC on Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon, the first time it has taken crypto payments since 2018   —  Stripe, the fintech giant, continues to inch its way back into the cryptocurrency market.  On Thursday the company announced …

EXCLUSIVE:  Former President Trump said New York Judge Juan Merchan "thinks he is above the Supreme Court," after "prohibiting" him from attending arguments Thursday on presidential immunity, telling Fox News Digital it is "the most important case in many years" before the high court.  The former president and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee spoke exclusively to Fox News Digital on Wednesday after spending the last two days in a Manhattan courtroom for opening arguments and witness testimony in his unprecedented criminal trial.  Trump had requested to attend arguments at the Supreme Court when it holds oral arguments about the former president's immunity on Thursday, but Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the trial, rejected that request.  TRUMP TRIAL: FORMER PRESIDENT 'INNOCENT,' SAYS DEFENSE AS DA ALLEGES 'CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY' "Because he thinks he is above the Supreme Court, he is prohibiting me from...

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch : WhatsApp rolls out passkey support on iOS, removing the need for users to deal with SMS one-time passcodes, six months after introducing the feature on Android   —  WhatsApp is introducing support for passkey verification on iOS, removing the need for users to deal with SMS one-time passcodes.

Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media : Microsoft took down its WizardLM 2 LLM after it reportedly missed “toxicity testing”, but people already downloaded and re-uploaded it to GitHub, Hugging Face   —  Microsoft deleted its WizardLM 2 LLM because it didn't go through “toxicity testing,” but it's already all over the internet.

New York prosecutors on Tuesday revealed the other crime they claim former President Trump was trying to conceal when he allegedly falsified his business records. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. In order for prosecutors to secure a criminal conviction, they must convince the jury that Trump allegedly committed the crime of falsifying business records in "furtherance of another crime."  TRUMP TRIAL: FORMER PRESIDENT 'INNOCENT,' SAYS DEFENSE AS DA ALLEGES 'CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY' Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts.  New York prosecutor Joshua Steinglass on Tuesday said the other crime was a violation of a New York law called "conspiracy to promote or prevent election." Prosecutors will try to prove that the alleged conspiracy was to conceal a conspiracy to unlawfully promote his candidacy. "Any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent...

President Biden officially launched the so-called American Climate Corps , a program that is slated to "mobilize" tens of thousands of Americans for conservation and eco-friendly projects nationwide. The president's actions on the work program come on Earth Day and are part of broader actions the White House unveiled Monday to commemorate Earth Day. In addition to the American Climate Corps announcement, the White House touted recent regulations blocking off 13 million acres of federal land from future oil drilling and revealed $7 billion in grants for mainly state-level solar projects. "Here’s the bottom line: President Biden laid out the most ambitious land and water conservation agenda in American history," White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory told reporters during a call about the administration's Earth Day actions. "And he is delivering, already cementing a legacy as one of the nation’s strongest conservation preside...

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch : Pomelo, a “send now, pay later” startup that lets users in the US send money in the form of credit to people in the Philippines, raised a $35M Series A   —  Pomelo, a startup that combines international money transfer with credit, has raised $35 million in a Series A round led …

The Satanic Temple’s (TST) co-founder challenged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to a debate on religious freedom after the governor singled out satanists by saying they were not allowed to participate in a new chaplain program signed into law last week. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that allows school districts to adopt volunteer school chaplain services. Under the bill, each school in the state has the option to adopt a policy allowing volunteer school chaplains to provide support services and programs for students. The bill also requires principals of schools with volunteer school chaplains to inform all parents of the services being provided, while also requiring written parental consent before students participate or receive the services. On Thursday, DeSantis stressed the program was "totally voluntary for a parent or a student to participate." FLORIDA BILLS WOULD ALLOW SATANIC PRIESTS TO SERVE AS VOLUNTEER CHAPLAINS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS He also made cl...

Washington Post : Analysis: the 25 most-cited US news organizations lost 75% of their Facebook engagement and 58% of their Instagram interactions between Q1 2022 and Q1 2024   —  Waves of layoffs and policy shifts are forcing campaigns to change tactics, potentially transforming the 2024 election

The White House condemned "in the strongest terms" ongoing anti-Israel protests at colleges across the U.S., including at Columbia University in New York City, on Sunday, saying they have no place anywhere in the U.S. "While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous – they have absolutely no place on any college campus, or anywhere in the United States of America," White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said. "And echoing the rhetoric of terrorist organizations, especially in the wake of the worst massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, is despicable. We condemn these statements in the strongest terms." Anti-Israel agitators occupied the university’s south lawn for hours on Wednesday while the school’s president, Minouche Shafik, testified before congress about...

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge : A look at Home Assistant, an open-source smart home platform with an estimated 1M users, as its creators announce a foundation to help it reach the mainstream   —  How Home Assistant plans to transition from an enthusiast platform to a mainstream consumer product.