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President-elect Trump dropped his latest round of nominations Saturday afternoon, naming two picks to help lead the Department of Justice (DOJ) and one to work within the Department of Transportation (DOT). In a Truth Social post, the president-elect announced he was nominating Aaron Reitz to lead the DOJ's Office of Legal Policy. Trump wrote that Reitz would "develop and implement DOJ’s battle plans to advance my Law and Order Agenda, and restore integrity to our Justice System. "Aaron is currently Senator Ted Cruz’s Chief of Staff , and was previously Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Deputy, where he led dozens of successful lawsuits against the lawless and crooked Biden Administration," Trump continued, adding Reitz would work closely with Trump's pick for U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi.   "Aaron is a true MAGA attorney, a warrior for our Constitution, and will do an outstanding job at DOJ. Congratulations Aaron!" TIDE TURNS FOR HEGSETH A...

Newly elected GOP Congressman Derek Schmidt told Fox News Digital that the efforts of DOGE will be critical in the next Congress and explained why he is optimistic that Republicans will be on the same page in January to push through President-elect Trump’s agenda.  " It's no more business as usual," Schmidt, elected in November to represent Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District, told Fox News about the impact of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as the two lobbied against a 1,500 page continuing resolution that was being debated in the House and opposed by some conservatives for containing too much "pork." "Look, that was the top-line message from the voters last November. They want us to make progress on some of these issues, and we're not going to make progress by continuing to do the same things and expecting a different result. So, you know, it's going to be messy. It's going to be tum...

Lucinda Shen / Axios : Tether says it is on track for a record $10B net profit in 2024 and expects to invest $2.5B to $3B in 2025 across AI, finance, biotech, education, and mining   —  Exit Content Preview … - Ardoino says the company is tracking toward a record $10 billion in net profits this year.

ARC Prize : o3, trained on ARC-AGI-1 Public Training set, scored 87.5% on ARC Prize's Semi-Private Evaluation in a high-compute configuration; GPT-4o scored 5% in 2024   —  OpenAI's new o3 system - trained on the ARC-AGI-1 Public Training set - has scored a breakthrough 75.7% on the Semi-Private Evaluation set …

Kelsey Butler / Bloomberg : Grindr will cover as much as $300,000 in fertility, surrogacy, and adoption costs for staffers who have been at the company for 18+ months, starting next year   —  - Few companies cover all costs associated with family building  — Dating app will grow headcount ‘moderately’ in 2025, CEO says

Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information : Anthropic, whose CEO Dario Amodei has been quite vocal about opposing Trump, and OpenAI look to hire people with ties to Trump and GOP for their policy teams   —  Lately, AI developer Anthropic has been riding high, with its models' impressive performance on tasks like code generation helping …

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House next month, what sort of foreign policy can Americans expect during his second stint in the Oval Office? Trump will pursue an "America first foreign policy," J. Michael Waller, senior analyst for strategy at the Center for Security Policy, suggested during an interview with Fox News Digital, describing Biden's approach as "America last." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is advocating for the soon-to-be commander in chief to significantly increase military spending in a bid to build up the nation's "hard power." The long-serving lawmaker is also warning against an isolationist approach to foreign policy, asserting in a piece on Foreign Affairs that "the response to four years of weakness must not be four years of isolation." MCCONNELL WARNS RFK JR. TO STEER CLEAR OF THE POLIO VACCINE "Trump would be wise to build his foreign policy on the enduring corn...

New York Times : In 150+ X posts, Elon Musk led the charge to kill a bipartisan spending deal, in part by sharing misinfo, which may lead to a government shutdown over Christmas   —  The world's richest man led the charge to kill a bipartisan spending deal, in part by promoting false and misleading claims about it.

Just days after Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson appeared in a "queer" Broadway spinoff of "Romeo and Juliet," critics are questioning whether her involvement could compromise her impartiality as the court considers a landmark case about banning transgender surgical procedures for minors. "I think it's a huge mistake for federal judges, especially Supreme Court justices, to engage in activities that clearly put the stamp of approval on an ideological position regarding issues that could come before the court, which is practically the definition of a threat to their impartiality, the appearance of impropriety," Heritage Foundation senior legal counsel Thomas Jipping told Fox News Digital in an interview.  "It's unusual for judges to do this sort of thing under any circumstances. But I suppose if this was ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ if this was some recognized, established classic or something, it might be different. But this is obviously...

Harry McCracken / Fast Company : Flipboard launches Surf, an app to create custom feeds from Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, RSS, podcasts, and YouTube, in beta on iOS, Android, and iPadOS   —  Fourteen years ago, when the iPad was new and bursting with unfulfilled promise, an app called Flipboard debuted.

President Biden made history last week when he granted clemency to more than 1,500 people with a sweeping list of commutations and pardons.  However, the move was met with fierce backlash from critics pointing out various names on the clemency list included individuals who cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars through their fraudulent actions. Among those covered in what the Biden White House is calling the largest single-day act of clemency by a U.S. president was Rita Crundwell, a former comptroller in Dixon, Illinois. Crundwell was convicted and sentenced to nearly 20 years behind bars for using her position to steal nearly $54 million from the small town best known for the boyhood home of Ronald Reagan. Also on the list was former New York law partner Paul M. Daugerdas, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in a multibillion-dollar tax fraud scheme described by prosecutors as one of the largest criminal tax fraud cases in U.S. history, as well as Toyosi...

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch : Atlanta-based Slip Robotics, a robot-as-a-service startup whose robots speed up the loading and unloading of truck trailers, raised a $28M Series B led by DCVC   —  Drop by any given loading dock and a buzz of forklifts — loaded up with goods — can be spotted maneuvering in and out of truck trailers.

The Biden administration is reportedly considering giving California permission to ban new gas-powered cars in the state as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to undo a host of green energy policies next year. California set an emissions standard to ban new gas cars in the state by 2035, but such a regulation requires a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to proceed. Just weeks before Biden's term ends, the EPA is reportedly planning to grant the waiver to allow the state to set stricter emissions standards for electric vehicles than allowed by the federal government, the Washington Post first reported, citing several sources briefed on the matter. The EPA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment, but a spokesperson for the agency told POLITICO’s E&E News that they are still reviewing the regulation "to make sure its decisions are durable and grounded in the law." AUTO DEALERSHIP OWNER ON EVS: ‘PEOPLE CAN’T A...

Victoria Song / The Verge : Meta rolls out live AI, live translations, and Shazam to Ray-Ban smart glasses for members of its Early Access Program   —  Meta just announced three new features are rolling out to its Ray-Ban smart glasses: live AI, live translations, and Shazam.  Both live AI and live translation are limited …

Anna Edgerton / Bloomberg : TikTok critics like Marco Rubio and Brendan Carr are set to occupy senior roles in the Trump administration, highlighting Trump's murky stance about the app   —  - Longtime China critic Helberg named under secretary of State  — Rubio pushed for congress's TikTok divest-or-ban law last year

New Jersey-based attorney Alina Habba hit the nation’s radar back in 2021, becoming President-elect Trump' s fierce legal defender and then spokeswoman as he battled an onslaught of legal cases and criminal charges ahead of his decisive win against Vice President Kamala Harris last month.  Now, Habba is readying to take on a new role: counselor to the president under Trump's second administration.  "Alina has been a tireless advocate for Justice, a fierce Defender of the Rule of Law, and an invaluable Advisor to my Campaign and Transition Team," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social last week, announcing her new role. "She has been unwavering in her loyalty, and unmatched in her resolve - standing with me through numerous ‘trials,’ battles, and countless days in court." Following the once and future president’s announcement, Fox News Digital took a look back at Habba’s legal career and meteoric rise in Trump’s orbit and, now, the White House.  TRUMP NAME...

Natasha Singer / New York Times : How tech is stoking cycles of violence in US schools, with students using phones and social media to arrange, provoke, record and spread videos of school brawls   —  Ricardo Martinez, an 11th grader, was in his high school lunchroom in April when a mass brawl erupted.

A top adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams abruptly resigned on Sunday amid a federal investigation into a corruption and bribery indictment against Adams. The adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, has had her phones seized and her home searched as part of the investigation. She issued a lengthy statement regarding her departure in tandem with Adams on Sunday, saying she plans to spend more time with her family. "To my political partner, brother, and friend, Mayor Eric Adams: I thank you for seeking me out, way back in 2004, and asking me to run your Senate campaign. I thank you for seeing in me things that I did not see in myself," Lewis-Martin said.  "I extend humble gratitude to you for encouraging me to be my authentic self and for having my back during some trying times. As you would say, this has been a good ride; I will use author’s license and say that this has been an amazing ride," she added. NYC MAYOR ADAMS MEETS WITH TRUMP BORDER CZAR: ‘WE HAVE THE SAM...