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Amid a wave of violence against Tesla vehicles, showrooms and charging stations, anti-Musk protesters could see their biggest show of force yet as the decentralized movement known as Tesla Takedown is planning a "Global Day of Protest" targeting more than 500 Tesla locations worldwide.  The protests slated for Saturday have been promoted by actors, filmmakers, congressional legislators, academics and activists who led a "mass mobilizing call" last week to drum up support. More than 275 Tesla locations in the U.S. and over 500 worldwide will be targeted as part of the effort.  While the protests against Elon Musk and Tesla have lately involved destructive tactics, leaders who have been promoting Saturday's event, such as progressive Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, have said the protests will be "nonviolent." VANDAL STRIKES CYBERTRUCK, TESLA OWNER HITS BACK "We are fighting for our country," Crockett said during the mass mobilization cal...

Richard Rubin / Wall Street Journal : Uber and DoorDash are pressing GOP lawmakers to include independent contractors who drive rideshare vehicles and deliver food in Trump's no-tax-on-tips proposal   —  GOP proposal offers tax breaks to employees—but not independent contractors such as ride-share drivers

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal : A look at drone delivery startup Zipline, which has raised $500M+, made 1.4M+ deliveries in seven countries, and delivers packages for Walmart in two US cities   —  Soon your burrito bowl could arrive via the sky.  Zipline's drones make deliveries by lowering small coolers on 300-foot cables.

Robert Burnson / Bloomberg : Kalshi sues Nevada's gaming regulators to keep offering event contracts to bet on sports and politics, citing federal regulation by the US CFTC   —  Kalshi sued Nevada's gaming regulators to keep offering so-called event contracts to bet on sports and politics, setting up a clash between state and federal regulators.

Vice President JD Vance refuses to mince his words with European allies.  From blasting European nations on censorship issues, to publicly urging Ukrainian Vice President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to express gratitude for U.S. support during its conflict with Russia, Vance has secured his spot as a vocal advocate and messenger for the Trump administration’s "America First" agenda.  Now Vance has another opportunity to deliver the Trump administration’s gospel. He will be visiting Greenland Friday amid efforts from President Donald Trump to check off another foreign policy win for his administration and acquire the Danish territory.  While, historically, vice presidents have resorted to the wings on foreign policy issues, that is not the case for Vance. He is in the foreign policy spotlight now. JD VANCE STEPS INTO SPOTLIGHT DEFENDING TRUMP'S FOREIGN POLICY IN OVAL OFFICE DUSTUP WITH ZELENSKYY "He's someone who's not going to just sit by and stand back like ...

Pete Schroeder / Reuters : The US FDIC says banks can engage in cryptocurrency and other legally permitted activities without prior regulatory approval if they manage risks appropriately   —  Another U.S. bank regulator has announced that banks do not need to receive advance permission to engage in some crypto-related activities.

Jordan Novet / CNBC : CoreWeave opens down 2.5% at $39 in its Nasdaq debut; CoreWeave's offering is the largest US IPO since UiPath's NYSE debut in 2021   —  CoreWeave's stock opened at $39 in its Nasdaq debut on Friday after the company sold shares at $40 a piece, below the expected range.

The U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation of the California Department of Education over alleged violations of the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) after a new California law went into effect that bars schools from disclosing a child's "gender identity" to their parents.  FERPA ensures parents have the right to access their children's educational information, and the Trump administration says that includes interactions with school employees pertaining to gender identity and mental health. "Teachers and school counselors should not be in the business of advising minors entrusted to their care on consequential decisions about their sexual identity and mental health. That responsibility and privilege lies with a parent or trusted loved one," Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement .  "It is not only immoral but also potentially in contradiction with federal law for California schools to hide crucial informati...

Jeremy Kahn / Fortune : Anthropic says it created a new tool for deciphering how LLMs “think” and used it to resolve some key questions about how Claude and probably other LLMs work   —  Researchers at the AI company Anthropic say they have made a fundamental breakthrough in our understanding of exactly …

The Trump administration has filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court seeking approval to slash hundreds of millions of dollars in grants from the Education Department as part of its efforts to crack down on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives within the department.  The Justice Department is asking the court to lift a nationwide injunction which is preventing it from terminating the grants under two federal programs. Earlier this month, Boston-based U.S. District Judge Myong Joun ordered the Trump administration to restore the grants – via a temporary restraining order -- which are disseminated via the Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) and Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) programs. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SIGNIFICANTLY DISMANTLED IN NEW TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER Days later the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to pause Joun’s order, leading to today’s filing. Joun was appointed by former President Joe Biden. Eight states, including Califo...

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, refused to apologize for referring to Gov. Greg Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, as "Governor Hot Wheels" on Wednesday. Crockett refused to apologize multiple times in an interview with Fox News before growing frustrated and ending the conversation. The lawmaker put out a statement regarding her comment earlier this week, but it did not include an apology. "I do have a statement. Why would I apologize when I put out a statement? My statement was clear," Crockett said when confronted on the matter. "But you didn't apologize for calling him ‘Governor Hot Wheels’ when he gets around in a wheelchair, you don't understand how that's offensive to people?" Fox Business reporter Hillary Vaughn pressed. PAM BONDI ON JASMINE CROCKETT'S COMMENTS: WORDS HAVE CONSEQUENCES | FOX NEWS VIDEO "I don't understand how many times you need me to repeat this to you," Crockett responded. "Right. But why won...

Arsheeya Bajwa / Reuters : Starboard Value nominates three directors including its CEO, Jeff Smith, to Autodesk's board, rekindling its proxy battle with Autodesk over margin concerns   —  Starboard Value on Wednesday nominated three directors including its chief executive and founder, Jeff Smith, to Autodesk's (ADSK.O) …

CIA Director John Ratcliffe clashed with a Democratic senator Tuesday over the lawmaker’s description of the Trump administration’s leaked Signal chat – pushing back multiple times before snapping, "I didn’t say any of those things." The exchange between Ratcliffe and Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., happened Tuesday morning during the Senate Intelligence Committee's annual "Threats to the Homeland" hearing.  Much of this year's hearing, however, centered on the extraordinary news that more than a dozen of Trump's top national security officials, including Ratcliffe, had inadvertently included Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Golberg in a Signal group chat that discussed plans for a forthcoming strike on the Houthis in Yemen.  The news was first reported by Golberg Monday, in a first-person account that sent shockwaves throughout Washington, D.C.  TRUMP NOT PLANNING TO FIRE WALTZ AFTER NATIONAL SECURITY TEXT CHAIN LEAK Ratcliffe, especially, was gril...

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch : The Arc Prize Foundation says its new ARC-AGI-2 test stumps most AI models; humans get 60% of the questions right but GPT-4.5 and Claude 3.7 Sonnet score ~1%   —  The Arc Prize Foundation, a nonprofit co-founded by prominent AI researcher François Chollet, announced in a blog post …

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch : Berlin-based workflow automation startup n8n raised a €55M Series B, sources say on a valuation of ~€250M, and says it has 3K+ enterprise customers   —  Developer tooling is changing rapidly with AI.  So companies that are making it easier to adopt AI in their workflows are seeing a boom of attention.

Democrats in Maine are pushing a bill that would require all public schools to provide tampons in boys' bathrooms starting in middle school, a move that comes as state leaders continue to face backlash over their stance on transgender athletes competing in women's sports.  LD 155, introduced by state Rep. Kristen Cloutier, D-Lewiston, seeks to "require" all public schools in the state that serve grades 6–12 to make tampons and sanitary pads available in all student bathrooms, including those designated specifically for males. The bill is being pushed during an ongoing debate over whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete on female sports teams, particularly in high school.  MAINE GOP URGES DEMS TO REPEAL TRANSGENDER ATHLETE POLICY FOLLOWING FEDERAL TITLE IX VIOLATION FINDING  "This is really quite clearly a pattern that reveals where the legislative Democrats' priorities are," said state Rep. Rachel Henderson, R-Rumford. Henderson...

President Donald Trump’s Cabinet outlined billions of dollars in contracts it says it has canceled since he took office, including a "$300,000 contract educating on food justice for queer and transgender farmers in San Francisco" and $830 million on surveys described as looking like "anyone’s child in junior high could have put together."  The contracts, which Trump said represented "fraud," are being canceled as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are trying to eliminate wasteful spending by the federal government.  "Even at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we canceled a $300,000 contract educating on food justice for queer and transgender farmers in San Francisco. A similar contract we canceled in New York, again educating transgender and queer farmers on food justice and food equality. I’m not even sure what that means, but apparently the last administration wanted to put out taxpayer dollars towards that," Agri...

Nate Raymond / Reuters : Massachusetts' top securities regulator probes Robinhood's decision to launch a prediction markets hub, after sending the company a subpoena last week   —  Massachusetts' top securities regulator has launched an investigation into trading platform Robinhood's (HOOD.O) decision to launch …

Margi Murphy / Bloomberg : Research shows a surge in the popularity of deepfake porn services, with the 10 most popular “nudifying” websites receiving 18M views in January 2025 alone   —  An introduction to the Levittown podcast.  Plus: Another billionaire's space dreams.

New York Times : How one of the world's major money laundering networks, linked to Cambodia's Huione Group, services online scammers using cryptocurrency, Telegram, and more   —  Documents and insiders reveal how one of the world's major money laundering networks operates.  —  Documents and insiders reveal …

Former President Barack Obama said that his signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, should be expanded in future years, arguing that the ACA should be seen as a "first step" to better healthcare. "We're not finished yet," Obama said in a video promoting the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago next year. "I've always said that the ACA is like a starter house, it was a big step forward, but still just a first step. Now it's up to all of us to keep building on and improving the ACA." The former president's video was posted on X , where Obama captioned the post by arguing that people should "keep fighting for progress." FLASHBACK: THEN-PRESIDENT OBAMA URGED MAKING 'TOUGH DECISIONS' TO CUT GOVERNMENT SPENDING "I know it can feel like a different era sometimes. But 15 years ago, I signed the Affordable Care Act into law. Now nearly 50 million people have received healthcare through the ACA,...