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Seattle’s Democratic mayor this week proposed a city ordinance that would strengthen protections for those seeking transgender care and surgeries, while calling out the Trump administration's "hateful, dangerous and discriminatory attacks" against the LGBTQ+ community.  Mayor Bruce Harrell campaigned as a moderate before his win in 2021, pushing public safety and helping local businesses, according to The Seattle Times, although he has expressed support for transgender care previously.  Harrell was elected following riots in the city after George Floyd’s death and the deadly Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone that, along with the pandemic, devastated parts of the downtown area.  Harrell "symbolized a shift toward the center, away from some of Seattle’s further-left leaders," The Seattle Times wrote in 2023 of Harrell’s 2021 win.  SEATTLE MAYOR INTERRUPTS SPEECH TO DUPE FANS OVER POTENTIAL NBA EXPANSION TEAM: ‘JUST KIDDING’ On Thursday, conservative Seattle rad...

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch : A US federal judge allows the Kadrey v. Meta case, in which authors allege Meta violated IP rights by using their books to train Llama models, to move forward   —  A federal judge is allowing an AI-related copyright lawsuit against Meta to move forward, although he dismissed part of the suit.

Fortune : Sources describe the collapse of fintech middleman Synapse that left ~$200M in customer money frozen, with entities blaming each other for shoddy recordkeeping   —  In 2022, after her family had a series of health scares, Kayla Morris sold her house.  She cleared $280,000, representing 15 years of her life savings.

Bloomberg : As Japan copes with a labor shortage, its market for service robots, which assist people with tasks like waiting tables, is expected to almost triple by 2030   —  As Japan copes with a labor shortage, the service robot market is expected to triple in the next five years.

President Donald Trump signaled that a nuclear deal with Iran could emerge in the near future, just over a month after his administration reinstated a "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran.  Trump on Friday told reporters that the U.S. is "down to the final moments" negotiating with Iran , and that he hoped military intervention would prove unnecessary.  "It’s an interesting time in the history of the world. But we have a situation with Iran that something is going to happen very soon, very, very soon," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "You’ll be talking about that pretty soon, I guess. Hopefully, we can have a peace deal. I’m not speaking out of strength or weakness, I’m just saying I’d rather see a peace deal than the other. But the other will solve the problem."  Trump revealed he sent a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pushing for Tehran to agree to a nuclear agreement — or face military consequences...

Longtime Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire is the last remaining Democrat up for re-election in the 2026 midterms in a competitive seat who has yet to publicly announce her intentions. But that decision may be coming shortly. Shaheen is expected to announce later this month whether she will seek a fourth six-year term representing the key New England swing state in the Senate, sources in New Hampshire confirm to Fox News Digital. The Washington D.C.-based Punchbowl, which covers Congress, was first to report the news. The sources add that Shaheen will hold a major fundraiser on March 20 in Manchester, New Hampshire's largest city. The senator will likely come to a decision regarding her political future and have some kind of announcement by the time of the fundraising event. SENATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN CHAIR REVEALS HOW MANY SEATS HE'S AIMING FOR IN 2026 There is intense speculation regarding whether the 78-year-old Shaheen, a former governor who first won election to ...

Peggy Hollinger / Financial Times : Europe is in talks with SES, Viasat, and others as it rushes to provide Ukraine with alternatives to Starlink, whose service became patchy near the frontline   —  Four satellite operators in talks over back-up for Kyiv if Elon Musk switches off broadband service

President Donald Trump will likely extend his battle against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies into changes of an often overlooked visa program. "Clearly, we are in a paradigm shift; the manner in which ‘national interest’ is defined, is dynamic and evolving," Joshua Bratter, one of country’s leading authorities on immigration, told Fox News Digital. The comments come as Trump has continued to fight against DEI policies across the federal government, a battle that is likely to extend into Trump’s revamp of U.S. immigration policies. DEMOCRATS UNIMPRESSED BY TRUMP'S GESTURE TO FAMILY OF YOUNG GIRL KILLED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS  Bratter believes part of that shift will be seen in how potential migrants are vetted under the EB-2 Visa National Interest Waiver category, a type of visa that Bratter said "surged" during the Biden administration. "This category was designed originally for a highly skilled engineer who was building infrastructure ...

New York Times : Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te reassures citizens that TSMC's plans to spend $100B in the US would benefit Taiwan, after the move caused anxiety and criticism   —  The Taiwanese chip giant TSMC's plan to invest $100 billion in the United States has been met with anxiety and criticism in its home country.

The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has terminated the lease at the Obama Presidential Library site, although it is unlikely to impact operations there since it is due to shutter later this year and move to a new location. The library is located at the Hoffman Estates in the northwest of Chicago and is separate to the sprawling 19.3-acre Obama Presidential Center near Jackson Park  in the southside of Chicago which is under construction and is expected to be completed next year. The site at the Hoffman Estates is run by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), as are all presidential libraries, while the Obama Presidential Center is a private venture being overseen by the Obama Foundation.  OBAMA CENTER SUBCONTRACTOR FILES $40M DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT AGAINST ENGINEERING FIRM FOR OVERRUNS DOGE this week updated its list of nearly 750 federal lease terminations, totaling around 9.6 million square feet in size, which include...

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch : Google announces an experimental AI Mode in Search that lets users ask complex, multi-part questions, rolling out to Google One AI Premium subscribers   —  Google is launching a new “AI Mode” experimental feature in Search that looks to take on popular services like Perplexity AI and OpenAI's ChatGPT Search.

FIRST ON FOX: An effort to recall Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass officially launched its website on Tuesday. The Democratic mayor faces significant backlash due to her response to the wildfires that burned through the Pacific Palisades in January, including the fact that she was in Ghana despite dangerous fire conditions warnings ahead of time.   If the recall petition meets the threshold of needed signatures — 15% of Los Angeles registered voters — then a special election would be triggered. The group launching the effort includes people directly impacted by the wildfire and other residents frustrated with crime and homelessness issues plaguing the city, according to a source familiar with the campaign. The source added that there is a bipartisan makeup of the people involved in the effort.  The Los Angeles Times reported on Monday that the groundwork was being laid to raise funds for Bass' potential ouster.  LA MAYOR BASS' CLASHES WITH REPORTERS ON WILDFIRES REMOVED...

Financial Times : Sources: Apple filed a complaint to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal over the UK's demand for a backdoor to access users' encrypted data, even of non-UK users   —  iPhone maker has filed a complaint to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal over demand to access encrypted data

Despite a raft of sanctions and tough talk against Russian President Vladimir Putin , Europe could not seem to kick its dependence on Russian fuel last year.  The European Union (EU) spent $23 billion on Russian oil and gas in the third year of the war on Ukraine, more than the $19.6 billion in financial aid it offered to the war-ravaged nation last year, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.  Russia’s stronghold over non-EU markets also increased – China purchased $82 billion in Russian fuel, India bought $51 billion and Turkey bought $36 billion.  Russia earned $254 billion from fossil fuel exports last year, a 3% drop over the previous year.  UK PRIME MINISTER LAYS OUT UKRAINE PEACE DEAL FRAMEWORK AS ZELENSKYY RESPONDS TO RESIGNATION CALLS Despite Western bans on Russian crude and refined products, Russian oil exports are down a mere 8% since before the invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin has made close to $1 trillion from oil expor...

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. , is in the spotlight over a new ethics complaint about votes that ultimately yielded millions for a green nonprofit that pays his wife's consulting firm.  Before that, he led an aggressive campaign alleging ethical violations of conservative Supreme Court justices.  The Democratic senator took particular aim at conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas after several instances of undisclosed travel and trips were reported in 2023. "The Supreme Court justices are so deeply ensconced in a cocoon of special interest money that they can no longer be trusted to police themselves without proper process," Whitehouse claimed at the time.  'UTTER DISASTER': LINDSEY GRAHAM CALLS FOR ZELENSKYY RESIGNATION AFTER WHITE HOUSE THROWDOWN This history of acting as a judicial ethics watchdog for conservative justices has left some calling the latest ethics complaint against Whitehouse from the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trus...

Sahil Patel / The Information : Sources: YouTube is preparing a Netflix-like redesign of its TV app, with paid content from other streamers like Max and Paramount+ on the homepage   —  It should have been easy.  —  YouTube in late 2022 began including in its app video-streaming services operated by other media companies …

Soldiers who return home from combat zones have veterans' support groups, a plethora of charities and an entire government agency intended to see to their needs for illness and injuries. But contractors who take jobs in those same areas have had no such institutional support – until now. These workers face the same mental traumas associated with combat deployment, and thousands who have been exposed to burn pits face the same cancers that have claimed the lives of American service members. But before the Association of War Zone Contractors (AOWC) formed this week, they did not have any of the same support groups that take care of veterans, according to the group's organizers.  "We’re looking to make sure contractors are seen, heard and counted, because those things haven’t been happening for a long time," Scott Dillard, co-founder of the new nonprofit, told Fox News Digital. The American public often forgets that contractors make up much of the workforce on oversea...