newsnation

Mike Lee / Politico : Hill County, which faced eight new data centers, passed what may be Texas' first county-wide ban on them, for one year; the state trails only VA in data centers   —  Opposition to data centers is spreading in regions led by both Democrats and Republicans, as politicians try to balance economic development …

Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg, former acting director of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), became the second high-ranking official to depart the FDA this week after claiming she was fired Friday. Høeg's departure came after that of former FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, who publicly resigned Tuesday after rumors that President Donald Trump was unhappy with him swirled for days . Høeg, who worked closely with Makary on regulating drugs before being elevated to CDER head in December, claimed she was forced out. TRUMP'S FDA BOSS RESIGNING AS ADMIN TAPS NEXT ACTING LEADER "I said I didn’t want to resign," Høeg told MD Reports in an interview published Friday . "I said I’m not signing a letter of resignation if it’s not my choice." "They made it clear that it wasn’t their decision," she told the outlet. "They said it was from someone above them, from someone way above their pay grade." TRU...

Deedy / @deedydas : SF vibes are frenetic over the huge divide in outcomes and career uncertainty for software engineers; over 5 years ~10K people in AI attained retirement wealth   —  The vibes in SF feel pretty frenetic right now. The divide in outcomes is the worst I've ever seen. Over the last 5yrs, a group of ~10k people - employees at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Nvidia, Meta TBD, founders - have hit retirement wealth of well above $20M (back of the envelope

Bloomberg : ASML will partner with Tata Electronics to help it bring an $11B 300mm chip factory online in Gujarat, expanding India's ability to produce chips domestically   —  ASML Holding NV entered into a partnership agreement with Tata Electronics Private Limited aimed at ramping up India's goal …

Xavier Becerra was forced to fend off a barrage of attacks from rivals in the race for California governor after a pair of his former employees pleaded guilty in a campaign finance scandal the same day as the debate. After two of Becerra's staffers pleaded guilty on Thursday to siphoning money from an inactive campaign account to supplement their salaries, questions emerged over whether the former Health and Human Services secretary knew about, or assisted in, the act — a clear breach of federal restrictions on using campaign funds for personal ends. The guilty pleas complicate a tense political picture for Becerra, a Democratic frontrunner to replace outgoing California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Steve Hilton, a Republican frontrunner in the crowded field, said at Thursday’s debate that knowledge of the scheme should disqualify Becerra from pursuing the office any further. FORMER TOP BIDEN OFFICIAL RIPPED OVER SCANDAL-PLAGUED PAST DURING FIERY DEBATE: 'MORE FRAUD' "Today we l...

Samantha Cole / 404 Media : ArXiv, the repository of preprint academic research, says it will ban authors for a year if their papers have “incontrovertible evidence” of AI-generated work   —  The change comes as arXiv and others struggle to manage an influx of AI-generated materials masquerading as rigorous science.

@mingchikuo : Sources: Intel has begun testing production of “low-end/legacy iPhone, iPad, and Mac processors”; Apple thinks TSMC's resources will continue tilting toward AI   —  ... Apple has kicked off low-end/legacy iPhone, iPad, and Mac processors at Intel on the 18A-P series (using Foveros packaging).

Christian Davies / Financial Times : Ford stock jumped as much as 25% in two days after the launch of Ford Energy, a new subsidiary providing battery storage capacity to AI data centers   —  New subsidiary pivots to energy storage batteries for AI after disastrous electric vehicle writedown  —  Shares in Detroit auto giant Ford surged …

Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a stark warning to President Donald Trump that Taiwan could trigger "clashes and even conflicts" between the world’s two superpowers, injecting a note of potential confrontation into an otherwise upbeat summit in Beijing. "President Xi stressed to President Trump that the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations. If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said following the meeting. The White House, however, downplayed the exchange, with a senior administration official telling Fox News Digital that "both sides reiterated their long-stated stance on the issue and everyone understands each other’s position." Trump struck a notably warm tone in his public remarks, predicting a "fantasti...

Matt Levine / Bloomberg : A look at GameStop's takeover bid for eBay, a bizarre job application by GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen, who does not have the money to buy eBay, to become eBay's CEO   —  Also Adani Green and fund formation legal fees.  —  GameStop  —  The simple model of GameStop Corp.'s proposal to acquire eBay Inc. is:

As they push to flip the House and capture the chamber's majority in this year's midterm elections, Democrats are facing a steeper hill to climb, thanks to two blockbuster court rulings. A Virginia Supreme Court decision last week that struck down the state's voter-passed congressional redistricting ballot measure, coupled with a ruling a week earlier by the Supreme Court to slash a key protection in the 1965 Voting Rights Act, were major setbacks for Democrats. The twin rulings gave President Donald Trump and Republicans a major boost in their high-stakes mid-decade redistricting battle with Democrats, giving the House GOP a bit of breathing room as it defends its razor-thin majority in the midterms.  At stake is which party will control the House and the Senate during the final two years of Trump's second term in the White House. SOUTH CAROLINA REPUBLICANS DEFY TRUMP, TANK REDISTRICTING, FOR NOW The Virginia decision negated four more likely left-leaning congression...

Bloomberg : Musk v. Altman: Microsoft executive Michael Wetter testifies that Microsoft has spent $100B+ on its partnership with OpenAI, including its original investments   —  Microsoft Corp. has spent more than $100 billion on its partnership with OpenAI, a sum that underscores the significance …

EXCLUSIVE: A former Navy SEAL and Marine veteran running for U.S. Senate in Minnesota sees an opening for a statewide GOP victory this election cycle, saying citizens are widely embarrassed by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s "stolen valor" handling of the massive fraud scandal in the state. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Adam Schwarze, one of about half a dozen running for the GOP’s Senate nomination in Minnesota, said that with the Democratic Party embracing socialist policies in the state and across the country, "the stakes cannot be higher." Without an incumbent to contend with, Schwarze said Republicans have a "20-year opportunity" to flip a seat that could determine which party controls the upper chamber. He juxtaposed himself with Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the No. 2 leader in Minnesota and the current Democratic frontrunner for her party’s Senate nomination. Schwarze posited that Flanagan has been marred by her association with Walz and the still...

The FBI has reportedly begun questioning current and former CIA officials as part of a Justice Department probe into former CIA Director John Brennan and his role in the intelligence community’s 2017 assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Agents have interviewed roughly a dozen officials involved in drafting the assessment, with investigators focusing on how its conclusions were reached and whether Brennan may have misled Congress during his 2023 testimony, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters . Brennan has been identified as a subject of the investigation, according to his attorney. BONDI CONFIRMS DOJ HAS RECEIVED CRIMINAL REFERRAL ALLEGING BRENNAN PERJURY OVER STEELE DOSSIER At the center of the probe is whether the intelligence assessment — which concluded Russia sought to boost Donald Trump ’s candidacy — was influenced by the controversial Steele dossier, a collection of largely unsubstantiated allegations about Trump’s supposed ties to Russia that was ...

Yazhou Sun / Bloomberg : Anthropic names eight unauthorized secondary market sellers of its shares, including Hiive and Forge Global, warning that any share transactions there are void   —  Anthropic PBC identified a number of secondary marketplaces as unauthorized sellers of the company's shares, telling investors that buying the stock won't work.

Washington Post : Sources: the White House's Office of the National Cyber Director and Commerce Department's CAISI are fighting over which agency should lead AI model evaluations   —  As the White House grapples with cybersecurity threats from artificial intelligence models, intelligence officials want sway in AI policy overseen by Commerce.

FIRST ON FOX: House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., introduced a legislative package on Monday designed to improve transparency and security in campaign finance as a major Democratic payment processor faces scrutiny over foreign donations. Steil’s package includes two bills: The Campaign Finance Transparency Act and the Preventing Foreign Influence in American Elections Act, Fox News Digital learned. The first piece of legislation would impose a suite of new transparency regulations on organizations that process political donations , such as ActBlue, while the second proposed law seeks to prevent foreign nationals from funding election-related activities through means other than campaign contributions.  A spokesman for Steil confirmed to Fox News Digital that they plan to expedite consideration of these bills through the administration committee.  "My investigation into ActBlue has demonstrated that the current campaign finance laws weren’t drafted for the ...

@trq212 : An Anthropic engineer argues HTML is a better output format for AI agents than Markdown, citing information density, ease of sharing, and two-way interaction   —  Using Claude Code: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of HTML

Anna Tong / Forbes : A look at Janitor AI, a romantic fantasy roleplay chatbot site run by three men that claims 2.5M DAUs and 15M total users, with 70% to 80% identifying as women   —  Despite its name, Janitor AI isn't selling productivity agents or enterprise copilots; it's serving up interactive erotic content …

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that five prisoners from Poland and Moldova were released from detention in Belarus and Russia following diplomatic efforts involving the U.S., marking a rare breakthrough in negotiations with the two countries. The release includes Polish journalist and activist Andrzej Poczobut, whose case has drawn international attention and concern from European leaders, and signals a potential opening for limited cooperation between Washington and Minsk, even as tensions with Russia remain high and broader disputes persist. "We just secured the release of three Polish and two Moldovan prisoners from Belarusian and Russian detention," Trump said on Truth Social. "Thanks to my Special Presidential Envoy, John Coale, we were able to push hard to make this release happen. "My friend, President Karol Nawrocki of Poland, met with me last September and asked me to help secure Andrzej Poczobut from Belarusian prison," he continued. "T...

Bloomberg : Sources: Digital Asset, which builds Canton Network, a public blockchain with privacy features, is raising a ~$300M round led by a16z crypto at a ~$2B valuation   —  Digital Asset Holdings LLC, the company behind a blockchain used among several big banks and trading firms …

President Joe Biden's lawyers are expected to object to the Justice Department's release of redacted written transcripts and audio recordings of Biden's 2017 interactions with his book ghostwriter, according to a new court filing. "President Biden, through counsel, has advised the Department that he intends to seek to intervene to prevent any such disclosures," Assistant Attorney General Civil Division Brett Shumate wrote in a filing from a Freedom of Information Act request from the Heritage Foundation's Mike Howell. "The Department does not oppose intervention." There is a Tuesday deadline for Biden's lawyers to respond to the DOJ's release for a response to Howell's FOIA request, which would come shortly after Tuesday if there was no objection. Shumate noted the release of 70 hours of redacted recordings would be delayed until June 15 if Biden objects before the deadline. BIDEN INTERVIEW AUDIO REVEALS WHO BROUGHT UP BEAU'S DEATH ...