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The State Department declared Saturday that the U.S. is "rejecting the outdated model of multilateralism," saying the system turned American taxpayers into "the world's underwriter for a sprawling architecture of global governance."  Additionally, it said that President Donald Trump 's recent order withdrawing the U.S. from 66 international organizations showed that "the era of writing blank check to international bureaucracies is over." The move marks the latest in Trump’s broader "America First" agenda aimed at cutting spending that the administration deems wasteful, ineffective or contrary to U.S. interests. "What we term the ‘international system’ is now overrun with hundreds of opaque international organizations, many with overlapping mandates, duplicative actions, ineffective outputs, and poor financial and ethical governance," Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a memo posted on the State Department's Substack...

Four tankers that left Venezuela in early January with their transponders off, also known as "dark mode," have reportedly returned to the country's waters. The news comes after several U.S. tanker seizures and amid the Trump administration's push to acquire Venezuelan oil following the arrest of dictator Nicolás Maduro . Most of the four tankers were loaded, according to Reuters , which noted that Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), a state-owned company, and monitoring service TankerTrackers.com had reported the vessels' return. A flotilla of approximately one dozen loaded vessels as well as at least three empty ships left Venezuelan waters last month, despite a U.S. blockade that has been imposed since mid-December, according to Reuters. PRESIDENT TRUMP REDRAWS THE GLOBAL OIL MAP One of the vessels, the supertanker M Sophia, which had the Panamanian flag, was intercepted by the U.S. earlier this week, as was the Olina, which had the flag of Sao Tome And Princip...

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order blocking U.S. courts from seizing Venezuelan oil revenues held in American Treasury accounts. The order states that court action against the funds would undermine U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives. BEHIND THE SCENES OF WHO IS ATTENDING TRUMP'S OIL EXECUTIVE MEETING AFTER MADURO OPERATION Trump signed the order on Friday, the same day that he met with nearly two dozen top oil and gas executives at the White House.  The president said American energy companies will invest $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s "rotting" oil infrastructure and push production to record levels following the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. 'WE BUILT VENEZUELA’S OIL INDUSTRY:' TRUMP VOWS US ENERGY RETURN AFTER MADURO'S CAPTURE The U.S. has moved aggressively to take control of Venezuela’s oil future following the collapse of the Maduro regime. This is a developing story. Please check back fo...

Joshua Brustein / Bloomberg : A profile of Grubhub parent Wonder, which has raised about $2B and is rolling out robotic meal-assembly tech acquired from Sweetgreen for $186M in November 2025   —  E-commerce mogul Marc Lore's Wonder is leaning into automation in a $2 billion effort to do to restaurants what Amazon did to shopping.

Sex "discrimination" or gender "fairness" in scholastic activities? The Supreme Court will decide the divisive social question when it holds oral arguments Tuesday in a pair of cases reviewing separate state bans on transgender and non-binary athletes participating in female-only public school sports teams. The justices are hearing appeals from Idaho and West Virginia, after lower courts struck down state laws, affecting those students from the elementary to college level. The Trump Justice Department is supporting the state laws, and will have time at oral argument to talk about the federal implications.   What the court does here could affect other legal fights over LGBTQ+ rights, including transgender people having access to bathrooms, or sex designation on documents like passports and driver's licenses. The justices could decide to rule narrowly on the rights of athletic competitors or offer a more sweeping precedent over discrimination claims in the wo...

The Guardian : The UK government says X restricting Grok's image creation to paid users is insulting as it just makes the ability to generate unlawful images a premium service   —  Spokesperson says limiting access to paying subscribers just makes ability to generate unlawful images a premium service

A federal judge on Thursday disqualified a U.S. attorney in upstate New York and tossed out subpoenas he issued to state Attorney General Letitia James. In a 24-page ruling, Judge Lorna Schofield, an Obama appointee, ruled that John Sarcone has been unlawfully serving as the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York.  "When the Executive branch of government skirts restraints put in place by Congress and then uses that power to subject political adversaries to criminal investigations, it acts without lawful authority," Schofield wrote.  FEDERAL JUDGE DISQUALIFIES ACTING NEVADA US ATTORNEY FROM HANDLING CASES "The subpoenas are unenforceable due to a threshold defect: Mr. Sarcone was not lawfully serving as Acting U.S. Attorney when the subpoenas were issued," the judge wrote. James challenged Sarcone’s authority after he issued subpoenas seeking information about lawsuits she filed against President Donald Trump . She claimed he had committed ...

The city of San Diego sued the federal government to stop the construction of razor wire fencing on city-owned land near the U.S.-Mexico border, accusing federal agencies of trespassing and causing environmental damage. The city filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for Southern California on Monday. The complaint named Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth among the defendants. The city accused the federal government of acting without legal authority when they entered city property in Marron Valley and began installing razor wire fencing. "The City of San Diego will not allow federal agencies to disregard the law and damage City property," said City Attorney Heather Ferbert in a news release. She said the lawsuit aims to protect sensitive habitats and ensure environmental commitments are upheld. NEWSOM SUES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OVER CALIFORNIA NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT ORDER TO OREGON According to the lawsuit,...

Kate Clark / Wall Street Journal : Sources: Anthropic plans to raise $10B led by Singapore's GIC and Coatue Management at a $350B valuation before the new investment, up from $183B in September   —  The startup behind chatbot Claude is raising money from investors including GIC and Coatue Management

Sen. Bernie Sanders , I-Vt., railed against President Donald Trump’s weekend strikes in Venezuela, but his criticism comes after a history of taking a softer approach to socialist dictators like former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Sanders, like several of his colleagues in the Senate Democratic caucus, argued that Trump’s decision to strike Venezuela’s capital Caracas without congressional approval broke the law and was another instance of the administration leapfrogging Congress’ war powers. " Donald Trump has, once again, shown his contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law," Sanders said in a statement. "The President of the United States does NOT have the right to unilaterally take this country to war, even against a corrupt and brutal dictator like Maduro." JOHNSON INSISTS US 'NOT AT WAR' AFTER CLOSED-DOOR VENEZUELA BRIEFING DIVIDES LAWMAKERS But the lawmaker’s decision to call Maduro a dictator is a shift. In previous years, Sander...

Corey Quinn / The Register : AWS implemented a 15% price hike for EC2 Capacity Blocks for ML on January 3; Amazon says it “reflects the supply/demand patterns we expect this quarter”   —  An anomaly or the beginning of a new trend?  My bet's on the latter  —  I've been tracking AWS for a long time, with a specific emphasis on pricing.

Minnesota lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives applauded Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s decision to not pursue re-election but doubled down on demands for accountability. "Governor Walz's decision to not seek re-election is the only acceptable outcome after the large-scale fraud that was permitted under his watch," Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn., said.  Fischbach, a member of the powerful House Rules Committee, previously served as lieutenant governor of the North Star State in 2018.  NICK SHIRLEY GLOATS HE 'ENDED TIM WALZ’ AFTER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR SCRAPS RE-ELECTION BID AMID FRAUD SCANDAL "His career is ending because Walz and the Democrats allowed Minnesota to become a national playground for fraudsters, and his radical negligence has cost Minnesotans billions," Fischbach said. Minnesota first elected Walz as governor in 2018 and then re-elected him in 2022. Walz ran briefly for the White House as a part of Vice President Kamala Harris’ ticket...

Shakeel Hashim / Transformer : Why Claude Code is much more than a coding agent: it is a general-purpose AI agent that can do almost anything on a computer with impressive capabilities   —  It's a general-purpose AI agent.  And it's already a pretty good knowledge worker  —  Over the holiday break, the news spread like wildfire.

Ian Hodgson / Financial Times : US immigration lawyers, talent managers, and creators say influencers and OnlyFans models now dominate O-1B visas, which are reserved for “exceptional” artists   —  Work permits increasingly being awarded on basis of online reach, favouring content creators

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk appear to have repaired their once-strained relationship, according to a post shared by the billionaire Tesla founder on X. In a post shared Sunday, Musk wrote , "Had a lovely dinner last night with @POTUS and @FLOTUS," before adding, "2026 is going to be amazing!" The photo, taken from a Saturday evening event at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, sparked speculation that the pair’s bromance may be back on after months of tension. After the 2024 campaign, Musk became one of the Republican Party ’s biggest political donors, contributing hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Reuters. TRUMP LAYS OUT WHERE HE STANDS WITH ELON MUSK AFTER BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL BLOWUP Trump later tapped Musk to advise the government efficiency effort and set up DOGE , focused on reducing federal spending and streamlining operations – but Musk stepped back from the role in mid-2025 amid mounting criticism.  Tensions also resurfaced when Musk publicly cr...

President Donald Trump issued a pointed warning to Venezuela’s new leader on Sunday, suggesting severe consequences if she continues to resist U.S. demands following the American-led operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. In an interview with The Atlantic , Trump said Delcy Rodríguez would "pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro" if she fails to "do what’s right," adding that his administration would not tolerate what he described as her defiant rejection of the U.S. intervention. ‘WE BUILT VENEZUELA’S OIL INDUSTRY:’ TRUMP VOWS US ENERGY RETURN AFTER MADURO CAPTURE Defending that approach, Trump said, "Rebuilding there and regime change, anything you want to call it, is better than what you have right now." Can’t get any worse," he added. The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.  Trump’s remarks followed a stunning predawn announcement Saturday t...

Austin Carr / Bloomberg : How a crew of crypto-focused hackers moved from SIM swap attacks to coordinated, violent home invasions and kidnappings, targeting small-time crypto investors   —  The pecking at the sliding glass door awoke Julia Goodwin shortly before midnight.  She and her husband, Glenn, retirees in their 60s …