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3:35 PM ET, February 3, 2025

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 Top Items: 
Alexander Ward / Wall Street Journal:
Democratic Senator Says He Will Stall Trump Nominees Until USAID Is Back  —  Schatz said he would hold up Trump's diplomatic confirmations  —  WASHINGTON—Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii) said he would place a “blanket hold” on all of President Trump's State Department nominees until …
RELATED:
Lauren Kent / CNN:
USAID workers at Washington HQ told to stay home on Monday in unexpected, early-morning email  —  The main office of the US Agency for International Development in Washington was unexpectedly closed Monday and workers were emailed shortly after midnight that they should not come in …
Associated Press:
Democrats push back after Musk says Trump agrees to close USAID and workers are kept out  —  Democrats have delivered a strong rebuke against the Trump administration's attempts to gut an agency that provides crucial aid overseas to fund education and fight starvation and disease …
NBC News:
Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz puts a hold on Trump's State Department nominees  —  The move comes after Elon Musk said he and Trump would shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development.  —  WASHINGTON — Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said Monday he's placing a “blanket hold” …
Wall Street Journal:
Trump Administration Closes USAID Headquarters  —  Monday closure comes as Elon Musk and DOGE are pushing to get rid of foreign-assistance agency  —  WASHINGTON—The U.S. Agency for International Development closed its headquarters to agency personnel on Monday following moves …
Bloomberg:
Behind DOGE's Standoff at USAID: Desk Searches and Elon Musk Calling
Andrew Freedman / Axios:
Ending USAID climate programs could increase security risks
Chris Megerian / Associated Press:
Musk is a ‘special government employee,’ the White House confirms
Discussion: Bloomberg, USA Today and Reuters
Reuters:
White House: Mexico is ‘serious’, Canada appears to have ‘misunderstood’ Trump's executive order  —  The White House said on Monday it has noticed that Mexico is “serious” about President Donald Trump's executive order on tariffs but Canada has “misunderstood” it.
RELATED:
New York Times:
Live Updates: Mexico Reaches Deal With U.S. to Delay Trump Tariffs  —  President Trump said he would pause tariffs on Mexico for a month, but levies on Canada and China were still set to take effect on Tuesday.  U.S. shares fell at the opening bell, following drops in Asian and European markets, amid fears of a trade war.
David Edwards / Raw Story:
Trump backs down on Mexico tariffs after Mexican president pledges border troops
Brian Mann / NPR:
Trump used fentanyl to justify tariffs, but the crisis was already easing
Bloomberg:
Trump Delays Mexico Tariffs by a Month After Sheinbaum Talk
Kevin Shalvey / ABC News:
Trump 2nd term live updates: Marco Rubio made acting administrator of USAID: Sources
Associated Press:
Trump agrees to pause tariffs on Mexico, but import taxes still in place for Canada and China
Burgess Everett / Semafor:
‘Trump will screw up’: Schumer plots the Democratic comeback  —  Chuck Schumer's advice for Democrats staring at a long two or more years out of power: Just wait.  —  “Trump will screw up,” he told Semafor in an interview.  —  The Senate minority leader and his 47-member caucus finally got …
Discussion: The Hill and RedState
RELATED:
Meredith Shiner / New Republic:
Primary Every Democrat
Discussion: Punchbowl News
Nicholas Wu / Politico:
Hakeem Jeffries wants funding freeze ‘choked off’ in spending deal
Discussion: Axios and RedState
Moira Donegan / The Guardian:
Why are the Democrats so spineless?  —  No wonder the American public thinks of Democrats …
Discussion: The Hill
C-SPAN.org:
Congressional Democrats on Trump Admin. Closing USAID HQ
Discussion: Fox News
Denise Cana / Slate:
I'm a Federal Worker.  Elon Musk's Government Data Heist Is the Entire Ballgame.  —  On Friday night, reports emerged that Elon Musk's aides had tussled with Office of Personnel Management and Treasury staffers while demanding access to troves of information about federal employees.
RELATED:
Caleb Ecarma / Popular Information:
Musk associates given unfettered access to private data of government employees  —  Several of Elon Musk's associates installed at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have received unprecedented access to federal human resources databases containing sensitive personal information for millions of federal employees.
Discussion: Raw Story and USA Today
John Zangas / DCMediaGroup:   Federal Workers Block Doors of Admin Building Over Elon Musk Data Breach
Reuters:
Trump orders creation of US sovereign wealth fund, says it could buy TikTok  —  U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday ordering the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments to create a sovereign wealth fund and said it may purchase TikTok.  —  “We're going to stand this thing up within the next 12 months.
RELATED:
Alan Rappeport / New York Times:
Warren Questions Bessent Over Musk Access to Treasury Payment System  —  In a letter to the Treasury secretary, the Democratic senator warned against meddling with a system that processes trillions of dollars of transactions.  —  Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts sent a letter …
RELATED:
Margaret Sullivan / American Crisis:   The split personality of Big Journalism in covering this nightmare
RELATED:
Courtney Cohn / Democracy Docket:
DOJ Says Trump Administration Doesn't Have to Follow Court Order Halting Funding Freeze  —  The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) argued Monday that a federal court order blocking President Donald Trump's federal funding freeze doesn't halt the administration's efforts.
Discussion: Law & Crime
RELATED:
Politico:
Judge signals plan to further block Trump spending freeze
Discussion: Associated Press
Rochelle Raveendran / CBC News:
Ford ‘ripping up’ Ontario's $100M contract with Elon Musk's Starlink in wake of U.S. tariffs  —  Musk part of President Donald Trump's team that wants to destroy families, Ford says  —  Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is “ripping up” Ontario's nearly $100 million contract …
RELATED:
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
The Twitter Files Playbook Comes For The US Government  —  Remember the Twitter Files?  That carefully orchestrated “exposé” where incredibly gullible hand-picked journalists were given selective access to internal documents to manufacture misleading outrage about Twitter's content moderation?
Discussion: Wired and CNN
Reuters:
Trump plans to invoke obscure 18th century wartime law in bid for mass deportations  —  President Donald Trump is set to test the limits of his immigration crackdown by invoking a wartime law to deport immigrants alleged to be gang members without court hearings, a broad authority …
Discussion: Reuters and The Independent
Reuters:
Exclusive: Trump's meme coin made nearly $100 million in trading fees, as small traders lost money  —  Entities behind President Donald Trump's crypto coin have accumulated close to $100 million in trading fees in less than two weeks, according to estimates from three blockchain analysis firms …
Discussion: MSNBC and DNyuz, more at Techmeme »
Elizabeth Nolan Brown / Reason:
No, Elon: It Isn't Illegal To Boycott X  —  While news cycles in the first Donald Trump presidency were dominated by Trump's erratic social media pretense, news cycles during Trump 2.0 seem so far to be dominated by the erratic social media titan Elon Musk.  The X CEO and leader …
Associated Press:
Democratic state Sen. Mallory McMorrow preparing to enter US Senate race in Michigan, AP sources say  —  Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow is preparing to enter the Democratic primary for an open U.S. Senate seat in the state, multiple people familiar with her plans confirmed on Monday.
 
 
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 More Items: 
Kate Brumback / Associated Press:
Justice Department restores funding for programs that provide guidance in immigration courts
Discussion: Associated Press
Annabella Rosciglione / Washington Examiner:
Kyrsten Sinema's campaign spent thousands on travel to Saudi Arabia in final months in office
Discussion: NBC News and Arizona Republic
Daniel Lippman / Politico:
FBI agents who investigate UFOs worried they could be pushed out in possible purge
Discussion: HotAir and New Republic
Dell Cameron / Wired:
Pronouns Are Being Forcibly Removed From Government Email Signatures
Discussion: Advocate and PinkNews
Paul Bedard / Washington Examiner:
Wikipedia blacklists conservative sources in favor of left-wing bias
Miranda Bryant / The Guardian:
Greenland plans to ban foreign political funding over Trump-led election fears
Austin Turner / KTLA:
Massive protest against Trump deportations forms in downtown L.A. causing ‘major gridlock’
 Earlier Items: 
Rebecca Carballo / Politico:
Trump admin zeros in on school choice, dismantling DEI
Discussion: Scripps News
Tara Suter / The Hill:
Kinzinger to House Dems: ‘Get out there and do something’ about Musk
Mary B. McCord / Just Security:
From Pardons to Purges: Pressing Questions that Bondi and Patel Must Answer Now
Joseph Goldstein / New York Times:
N.Y. Attorney General Warns Hospitals Against Canceling Transgender Care
Discussion: The Guardian and WTOP News
Christopher Ingraham / Minnesota Reformer:
Senator's ‘flatly unconstitutional’ proposal would lock in Republican control of chamber for years
Lisa Needham / Public Notice:
Trump's mobster media shakedowns
 

 
From Techmeme:

Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog:
Alibaba releases Qwen2.5-VL-32B, a 32B open model under Apache 2.0, claiming better math reasoning and alignment with human preferences than earlier 2.5 models

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Sources: the European Commission is set to close its year-long probe into browser options on iOS without a fine after Apple made changes to comply with the DMA

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple announces WWDC 2025 for June 9-13, which will be an “entirely online” event free for developers, with an in-person special event at Apple Park on June 9

 
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