Jesse Watters: What happened to $100 million donated to victims of the Pacific Palisades fires?
https://x.com/JesseBWatters/status/1947825361405849854
Uber will let women drivers and riders request to avoid being paired with men starting next month
-Uber is launching a new feature in the U.S. that pairs women drivers and riders.
-Uber will pilot the program in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit starting next month.
-Over the years, ride-hailing companies such as -Uber and Lyft have implemented new features to address safety and comfort issues on their platforms.
Uber announced a new feature Wednesday that pairs women drivers and riders, in its latest move to address safety on the ride-hailing platform.
The new tool, which the platform will begin piloting next month in the U.S., allows women passengers to match with women drivers when booking or pre-booking rides, and create a preference in their app settings. Women drivers can also choose to drive women.
“It’s about giving women more choice, more control, and more comfort when they ride and drive,” Camiel Irving, Uber’s vice president of U.S. and Canada operations, said in a release.
The company said the rider’s preference isn’t guaranteed but the feature increases the chances women will be paired in the app.
Uber will pilot the program in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit. The company also said it tested the feature in countries such as France, Germany and Argentina.
This isn’t Uber’s first foray into gender preferences on its platform.
In 2019, Uber rolled out a women rider preference feature for female drivers in Saudi Arabia after women won the right to drive in 2018. That offering later expanded to about 40 countries. A survey from the company in 2015 found that about a fifth of its U.S. drivers were women.
Over the years, ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft have faced safety concerns and questions over the roles these platforms have played in various sexual assault and harassment incidents.
Uber has rolled out several features in recent years to improve safety on the platform, including teen accounts and rider and pin verification.
Competitor Lyft launched an option in late 2023 that pairs women and nonbinary drivers and riders.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/23/uber-women-drivers-riders.html
HHS Adopts ACIP Recommendation to Remove Thimerosal from All U.S. Influenza Vaccines
WASHINGTON, DC—JULY 23, 2025—U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. took action Tuesday signing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendations to remove the mercury-based preservative thimerosal from all influenza vaccines distributed in the United States.
This move follows a 5-1-1 vote at the ACIP’s June 25-26 meeting at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, where committee members voted that all children 18 years and younger, pregnant women, and adults receive only single-dose influenza vaccines free of mercury. Secretary Kennedy’s signature formally adopts the recommendation into federal health policy, fulfilling a commitment to restore trust with Americans by removing risk while sustaining access to vaccines.
“After more than two decades of delay, this action fulfills a long-overdue promise to protect our most vulnerable populations from unnecessary mercury exposure,” Secretary Kennedy said. “Injecting any amount of mercury into children when safe, mercury-free alternatives exist defies common sense and public health responsibility. Today, we put safety first.
”The effort to remove mercury from childhood vaccines began in 1999 when the U.S. Public Health Service, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and vaccine manufacturers jointly agreed that any potential risk from mercury warranted its removal as soon as possible. This marks the final step to remove mercury from all vaccines given to Americans.
Secretary Kennedy’s newly appointed ACIP members broke with long-standing inaction by voting to remove mercury entirely from all influenza vaccines, fulfilling the 1999 pledge and aligning U.S. policy with that of Europe, which phased out mercury additives years ago.
Vaccine manufacturers have confirmed they have the capacity to replace multi-dose vials containing mercury, ensuring the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program and adult vaccine supplies will remain uninterrupted.
The ACIP, composed of leading medical and public health experts, advises the CDC on vaccine safety, efficacy, and clinical necessity. This historic decision marks a critical step toward enhancing public confidence in vaccines and advancing the nation’s commitment to safer immunization practices.
“With the U.S. now removing mercury from all vaccines, we urge global health authorities to follow this prudent example for the protection of children worldwide,” Secretary Kennedy added.
Secretary Kennedy has approved all recommendations issued from the April ACIP meeting. Other recommendations from the committee’s June meeting are currently under review.
https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/thimerosal-mercury-removed-from-us-flu-vaccines-acip.html
Trump administration opens investigation into Harvard’s visa program eligibility
The US State Department is opening an investigation into Harvard University’s “continued eligibility as a sponsor for the Exchange Visitor Program,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday, marking the Trump administration’s latest escalation against the Ivy League institution.
It was announced amid ongoing legal challenges against the government’s attempts to block the university’s ability to host international students.
“The investigation will ensure that State Department programs do not run contrary to our nation’s interests,” the top US diplomat said in a statement without offering further details about the investigation.
The Trump administration first revoked Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program status in May but the decision was blocked by federal judge Allison Burroughs.
“All sponsors participating in this program are required to fully comply with exchange visitor regulations, transparency in reporting, and a demonstrated commitment to fostering the principles of cultural exchange and mutual understanding upon which the program was founded,” Rubio said in Wednesday’s statement.
The administration has previously cited antisemitism on campus as a reason for putting the school’s international student program in jeopardy, along with the claim that Harvard did not provide the government with required information about its international students.
“To maintain their privilege to sponsor exchange visitors, sponsors must comply with all regulations, including conducting their programs in a manner that does not undermine the foreign policy objectives or compromise the national security interests of the United States,” he added.
“The American people have the right to expect their universities to uphold national security, comply with the law, and provide safe environments for all students,” Rubio said.
The State Department investigation specifically targets people at Harvard under J-1 visas, which the university says is “to bring foreign nationals as professors, researchers, specialists and students to the University.” It is separate from the F-1 visa program that is strictly for students and is largely administered by the Department of Homeland Security.
“This investigation is yet another retaliatory step taken by the Administration in violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights,” said Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton in a statement Wednesday.
“Harvard continues to enroll and sponsor international scholars, researchers, and students, and will protect its international community and support them as they apply for U.S. visas and travel to campus this fall,” the statement continued. “The University is committed to continuing to comply with the applicable Exchange Visitor Program regulations.”
The State Department has also increased its scrutiny of student and exchange visa applicants, who are now asked to set their social media profiles to public for enhanced vetting. In a cable sent to embassies and consulates last month, officials were told they should screen such visa applicants for “hostile attitudes towards our citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles.”
CNN has reached out to Harvard University for a response to the announcement. In previous court filings, Harvard attorneys have said that they have provided the State Department with all student information required by law and have made efforts to deal with antisemitic activity.
The statement comes two days after Harvard and a government attorney squared off in federal court on a separate lawsuit, with the university saying the Trump administration violated legal procedures in freezing more than $2 million in federal grants.
Judge Burroughs, who is also presiding over the funding case, has not said when she will make a ruling.
https://lite.cnn.com/2025/07/23/politics/harvard-trump-investigation
Trump floats elimination of capital gains tax on home sales
In comments to the press on Tuesday, President Donald Trump suggested he is considering eliminating capital gains taxes on the sale of homes.
“We are thinking about … no tax on capital gains on houses,” Trump said.
Soon afterwards, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia posted her thanks to him on X for what she interpreted to be his support for a bill she introduced this month, calling for the elimination of the capital gains tax when someone sells their primary residence.
Will anything come of it? Who knows.
Especially since Trump just signed into law a mega tax-and-spending cuts bill that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will increase deficits on net by $3.4 trillion over a decade while at the same time knocking 10 million more people off health insurance.
But should it become an idea that Congress pursues seriously, it’s worth reviewing just how the capital gains tax on home sales works currently and who might benefit most if it were killed.
''The basics''
If you sell a primary residence on which you realize a big capital gain — meaning you sell it for more than you bought it even after accounting for closing fees and qualified home improvement costs along the way — you may owe a capital gains tax on at least some of that gain.
Or not. It depends.
If you sell your house within a year of buying it, any capital gains will be considered short-term and you will have to pay ordinary income tax on all your gains.
But if you have lived in it as your primary residence for at least 24 months (consecutively or not) in the previous five years before you sell it, you may be allowed to exempt from the capital gains tax the first $250,000 of your gains if you’re single or $500,000 if you’re married filing jointly
Any gains above those thresholds are subject to the long-term capital gains tax. But just how much you’ll pay is based on your income, broken out below.
You also may get a break on the capital gains tax if you don’t meet the eligibility tests but had to sell your home “due to a change in employment, health, or unforeseen circumstances,” according to the IRS.
(Note, too, that the capital gains tax rules work somewhat differently when you sell a second home or rental property.)
Tax rates home sellers with big gains face
In 2025, filers will owe 0% in capital gains tax for gains above the exemption threshold if their taxable income is below $48,350 (or $96,700 if married filing jointly), according to the IRS.
They will owe 15% if their income is between $48,450 and $533,400 (or between $96,700 and $600,050 for joint filers).
And any filer with income above those levels will pay a 20% capital gains rate.
In all instances, however, the long-term capital gains tax rate is often below the top ordinary income tax rate a filer faces.
''Who is hit by a capital gains tax''
Since the $250,000 and $500,000 capital gains exemption thresholds have not adjusted for inflation since they were set in 1997, a growing number of homeowners, especially long-time ones, may realize taxable gains even if they don’t live in the highest-priced areas by today’s standards.
Generally speaking, three categories of home sellers are the ones most likely to have to pay the capital gains tax if they make out well selling their home: 1) Anyone living in an area where homes have appreciated greatly in recent years, especially in neighborhoods where home prices are typically well above the national average; 2) anyone who has lived in their home for decades during which time nominal home prices have shot up; or 3) anyone with high income and sufficient wealth to buy a very expensive home wherever they live.
A recent study by the National Association of Realtors, which has advocated for doubling the exemption caps and adjusting them as if they’d been indexed to inflation since 1997, estimates that 29 million homeowners — about one-third — may already have enough equity in their home to exceed the $250,000 cap, while 8 million — or about one-tenth — may have enough to top the $500,000 threshold.
Looking ahead, it forecasts that by 2035, close to 70% of homeowners might have gains exceeding $250,000 and 38% of them will have more than $500,000.
“In states with exceptionally high-priced markets, such as California, Massachusetts and Colorado, the trend is even more pronounced,” the report said.
Broadly speaking, NAR contends, the current caps may be disincentivizing homeowners to sell. “Over the past 28 years, home price inflation has eroded the value of these exemptions, especially for older homeowners who have lived in their home for 20 years or more. At a time when many of these homeowners are considering downsizing or moving to a retirement facility, more and more are facing gains well in excess of the exclusions, which can leave them owing many thousands of dollars in taxes and reduce their ability to afford a new home.”
In another analysis, the Yale Budget Lab, using the Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances, noted that the minority of homeowners who might currently benefit if the capital gains tax were eliminated are largely wealthier, higher-income, and older on average.
“In 2022, homeowners with gains above the exemption had an average net worth of $5.7 million. For homeowners below the exemption, this number was just over $1 million,” the researchers wrote.
https://lite.cnn.com/2025/07/23/business/capital-gains-tax-home-sales
New York Rep. Mike Lawler announces he will seek reelection in the House in a win for Trump
GOP Rep. Mike Lawler announced on Wednesday that he will seek reelection in the House in a win for President Donald Trump.
“After months of deliberating over this and really working through it, I’ve decided the right thing to do for me and my family and my district is to run for reelection,” the New York Republican said on Fox News.
“My seat was determinative of control of the House back in 2022 and again in 2024,” he added.
Lawler had been weighing a challenge to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and criticized the Democratic politician on Wednesday, calling her “the worst governor in America” and saying she needs to be defeated in 2026.
His decision is a win for Trump who had made it clear that he would prefer for the two-term congressman to remain in the narrowly divided House rather than risk losing a GOP seat.
“Keeping the House majority is critical if we’re going to continue to move this economy in the right direction. I’m proud to have delivered on my key promise, which was to lift the cap on SALT in the one big, beautiful bill. That is a big win for New York. It’s the single largest tax cut in the whole bill. And I’m proud to run for reelection on my record and win next November and keep the House Republican majority,” Lawler said on Fox News.
GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York praised Lawler in a statement on Wednesday and said she will make her own decision on running for governor after this year’s November election, which includes the New York City mayoral race.
Stefanik had been inching towards a run for New York governor after launching a new state PAC in June. It came after her team commissioned internal polling against Hochul, a source familiar with the matter told CNN last month.
“Mike Lawler is a great, effective, and hardworking Representative for New York’s 17th Congressional District and is committed to protecting the House Republican Majority,” Stefanik said in a statement on Wednesday. “I will make a final decision and announcement after this year’s November election which we are all focused on.”
Stefanik was pulled in March from a nomination to be US ambassador to the United Nations over concerns of slim margins in the House. Trump said he pulled the nomination to help preserve the House GOP’s razor-thin majority.
The president has been focused on keeping the Republican majority and has been working behind the scenes to secure more GOP seats. Trump and his team have said they believe they can squeeze five more seats out of Texas as part of a Republican redistricting effort in the state.
Lawler’s decision is a much-needed boost for Trump and the GOP’s push to hold onto the House next year in the midterms.
His seat in New York’s Hudson Valley is one of his party’s most competitive districts in the country — one of just three won by Kamala Harris in 2024. Republicans are already preparing to potentially lose one of those seats, as Nebraska GOP Rep. Don Bacon decided to retire from the House this cycle.
Lawler flipped the seat in 2022, marking the House Republican’s biggest upset of the cycle as he defeated the House Democrat’s campaign chief, former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney.
Lawler easily defeated former Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones in the 2024 race but is expected to face a more competitive Democratic field next time around. His former opponent, Maloney, has suggested he could run again for the seat in 2026, which would bring an immense Democratic war chest to the race.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/23/politics/mike-lawler-reelection
Venus Williams wins WTA singles match, announces engagement
The tennis star confirmed her engagement after winning her first singles match in nearly two years at the DC Open.
Venus Williams revealed she is engaged to actor Andrea Preti on July 22 after playing her first singles match in more than a year.
Williams confirmed the news in a post-match interview at the Mubadala Citi DC Open.
“My fiancé is here and he really encouraged me to keep playing,” Williams told WTA of Preti.
“There were so many times where I just wanted to coast and kind of chill,” she continued and laughed. “Do you know how hard it is to play tennis? You guys don’t know how much work goes into this, like it’s 9 to 5 except you’re running the whole time, lifting weights and just like dying and then you repeat it the next day. So he encouraged me to get through this and it’s wonderful to be here. He’s never seen me play.”
Williams and Preti were first spotted together in July 2024, and the pair sparked engagement rumors when Williams was seen with a ring on her left hand in February 2025.
Though the couple has kept most of their relationship private, both have been in the public eye, with Preti, a former model, also taking a turn at acting, starring in multiple projects including the Italian TV series “A Professor.”
Williams weighed in on her relationship status back in 2021 when she was on the cover of Cosmopolitan, saying she loved the freedom her life allowed at the time.
“I have a lot of friends who don’t believe me when I say that I like my life and I don’t want to change it for any reason. I’m not desperate and they don’t believe me,” she said.
“They say things like, ‘You’re going to miss your window,’ “ Williams added. “I’m like, ‘Please, relax. You might feel this way, but I don’t. I promise you I don’t.’”
Williams won her match at the DC Open against Peyton Stearns, 6-3, 6-4, her first singles win in almost two years, and will face off against Magdalena Fręch in the next round on July 24.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion had taken time off to treat her uterine fibroids, which she spoke about on TODAY earlier this month.
“Fibroids impacted my career,” she said. “I never had enough energy most times to play a real match the way I wanted to, and, of course, it affected my results.”
Williams, 45, started to research treatment last summer after seeing a post about fibroids on social media.
After some hesitation due to having her symptoms dismissed by other doctors in the past, Williams underwent a myomectomy, removing her fibroids without removing her uterus, which she said has improved her quality of life.
“Hopefully someone will see this interview and say, ‘I can get help. I don’t have to live this way,’” Williams said. “I’m very passionate about this at this point in time because I know that other people can live better than what I lived.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/venus-williams-revealed-engagement-dc-open-rcna220491
Austin Fire Chief Who Refused To Deploy Rescue Boats For Flood Victims Was A DEI Hire
Not only will DEI gradually destroy a critical institution of public safety, but at some point it will also destroy the lives that the institution is charged to protect.
Similar to the flood itself, the tragedy of the high waters sweeping through the Central Texas Hill Country has violently ebbed and flowed from the public consciousness. At the last count, the death toll has reached 135 souls, at least a dozen of them little girls at a Christian camp.
True to the spirit of the times, the disaster soon degenerated into yet another game of partisan mudslinging.
Of course, leftists immediately blamed DOGE cuts to disaster relief and climate change, neither of which was true. As for those on the right, when they were not actively debunking these claims, most of them concluded that this was just one of those unavoidable evils that occur in a fallen world.
However, there happens to be more to this story that few people on either side seem to discuss. There actually was someone who could have intervened in time to save many of the victims: Austin’s Fire Department Chief Joel Baker.
According to a public comment from the Austin Firefighters Association (AFA), Chief Baker had several opportunities to “send life-saving swift water boat teams to pre-deploy to Kerrville during devastating flooding” but decided against this out of a “misguided attempt to save money.” Evidently, he didn’t understand that “the fire department is fully reimbursed by the state to deploy,” even when someone explained “this very simple concept” to him. As such, the AFA overwhelmingly affirmed a vote of no confidence in Baker.
The Austin Fire Department (AFD) spokesmen had little to say in response to this except that it was a difficult situation: “The decision about how to allocate resources to help our fellow Texans is not a simple one. It requires communication from public safety partners on the ground to ensure we are providing resources and personnel when, where and how they are most needed.”
Just to be clear, people in the AFD were aware of the potential of flooding in the Hill Country just west of the city (as there often is) and could have easily sent out rescue teams beforehand. But, from all available evidence, Chief Baker was too stupid to realize that he could have authorized the deployments and been reimbursed for it.
This prompts the question of how someone as incompetent as Chief Baker was hired to be the fire chief of one of Texas’ largest and fastest-growing cities in the first place. By now, the question answers itself: He was a DEI hire who would implement DEI-driven policies in the city’s fire department. According to a report from The Blaze, Baker was “touted as Austin’s ‘first African-American fire chief,’” and had “prioritized diversity and increasing the number of ‘minority applicants.’” Before leading the AFD, ”Baker spent three decades with the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department in Georgia, where he grew up.”
Were there not other seasoned candidates for fire chief who were actually from the area who could have done this job far better? The probable answer is that there were, but they weren’t black and didn’t signal their preference for diversifying the department. In all likelihood, they were probably interested in less politically important concerns like keeping people safe from fires and floods.
If this whole story sounds eerily similar to the fires that devoured the Pacific Palisades along with other communities near Los Angeles earlier this year, that’s because it is. In that case, it was a lesbian fire chief and her two lesbian deputies (all named forms of “Kristen”) who prioritized diversifying their staff and making embarrassing promotional videos over employing common-sense measures to keep residents and their expensive property safe from the large fires that flare up periodically in that part of California.
Some non-Texans may wonder how a city in the heart of a red state like Texas would follow the example as one of the most dysfunctional cities in the country. They should know that Austin, Texas, is the quintessential blue city, ever envious of the West Coast and eagerly adopting each new dumb trend from that part of the country. The city’s unofficial motto is “Keep Austin Weird,” which amounts to instinctively rejecting the very principles and policies that originally made it a bustling city. It also doesn’t help that Austin is especially attractive to Californian refugees who often bring their leftist politics with them.
And so the people of Austin had to learn the disastrous consequences of leftism the hard way — that is, if they learned anything at all from this horrific event. Currently, few people seem to know the real story behind the floods in Central Texas, so there has been little pressure to force out Chief Baker, who stubbornly refuses to step down or admit mistakes. At least Mayor Karen Bass and the city council in Los Angeles had the sense to remove their fire chief after the Palisades Fire. Will Austin’s Mayor Kirk Watson and Austin City Council do the same?
Based on the low level of public pressure, probably not. Apparently not getting the memo about wokeness being out of fashion and not bothering to learn the problems that come with entrusting such a massive responsibility to a man whose main qualification is seemingly being “diverse,” Austin’s residents will continue to vote against their own well-being and happily make Gov. Greg Abbott’s life miserable. All of this is deeply unfortunate, but somehow preordained for major cities captured by leftists (see New York City and its socialist mayoral frontrunner).
This means that it falls to the rest of us to learn from the mistakes of the AFD and its leadership. No city and its people are immune to the deleterious effects of elevating people based on the color of their skin and their leftist political views. Not only will DEI gradually destroy a critical institution of public safety, but at some point it will also destroy the lives that the institution is charged to protect.
https://thefederalist.com/2025/07/23/austin-fire-chief-who-refused-to-deploy-rescue-boats-for-flood-victims-was-a-dei-hire/
Mexican jet nearly lands on top of Delta 737 during takeoff
https://x.com/ABCWorldNews/status/1947816431162171794
Alphabet beats earnings expectations, raises spending forecast
-Alphabet reported second-quarter results on Wednesday that beat on revenue and earnings.
-The company increased its capital expenditures forecast for 2025 to $85 billion, up $10 billion from February, due to “strong and growing demand for our Cloud products and services.”
-The company’s overall revenue grew 14% year over year, higher than the 10.9% Wall Street expected.
Alphabet reported second-quarter results on Wednesday that beat on revenue and earnings, but the company said it would raise its capital investments by $10 billion in 2025.
Shares of the company were up as much as 3% in after-hours trading.
Here’s how the company did, compared with estimates from analysts polled by LSEG:
-Revenue: $96.43 billion vs. $94 billion expected
-Earnings per share: $2.31 vs. $2.18 expected
Wall Street is also watching several other numbers in the report:
-YouTube advertising revenue: $9.8 billion vs. $9.56 billion, according to StreetAccount
-Google Cloud revenue: $13.62 billion vs. $13.11 billion, according to StreetAccount
-Traffic acquisition costs (TAC): $14.71 billion vs. $14.18 billion, according to StreetAccount
The company’s overall revenue grew 14% year over year, higher than the 10.9% Wall Street expected, but Alphabet is going to spend more on artificial intelligence in 2025 than it anticipated.
In February, the company said it expected to invest $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025 as it continues to expand on its AI strategy. That was already above the $58.84 billion Wall Street expected at the time.
The company increased that figure on Wednesday to $85 billion, saying it was raising it due to “strong and growing demand for our Cloud products and services.” The company expects to further increase capital expenditures in 2026, Alphabet finance chief Anat Ashkenazi said on an earnings call.
The company reported revenue of $13.62 billion for its cloud computing business, which is a 32% increase from a year ago. Last week, OpenAI announced that it expected to use Google’s cloud infrastructure for its popular ChatGPT service. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said “we are very excited to be partnering with them.”
Alphabet’s net income increased to $28.20 billion, up nearly 20% from the previous year.
The company’s search and advertising units still showed growth in the second quarter despite AI competition heating up. The company’s search unit brought in $54.19 billion during the quarter, and its advertising revenue grew to $71.34 billion — up about 10.4% from $64.61 billion the year prior.
YouTube advertising revenue came in at $9.8 billion, higher than Wall Street expected.
The company said its “Other Bets” segment, which includes its self-driving car unit Waymo and life sciences unit Verily, brought in $373 million — up from $365 million a year ago. Other Bets reported a loss of $1.25 billion, up from the $1.13 billion a year ago.
AI Overviews, Google’s AI search product that summarizes search results, now has upward of two billion monthly users across more than 200 countries and territories, Pichai said during Wednesday’s earnings call. That’s up from 1.5 billion monthly users last quarter.
The Gemini app, which has the company’s AI chatbot, now has more than 450 million monthly active users, Pichai said.
When asked about large spending on AI talent, Ashkenazi said Alphabet makes “sure that we invest appropriately to have the best and brightest minds in the industry.”
Google made a splash in the AI talent wars, announcing earlier in July that it would bring in Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan and other top researchers at the AI coding startup as part of a $2.4 billion deal that also includes licensing the company’s technology.
Total operating expenses increased 20% to $26.1 billion, Ashkenazi said on Wednesday. The biggest driver of growth was expenses for legal and other matters due in part to a $1.4 billion charge related to a settlement, she said on Wednesday’s earnings call. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in May announced a $1.37 billion settlement with Google related to a data privacy rights lawsuit it made against the company in 2022.
Ashkenazi said Alphabet’s third-quarter revenue “could see a tailwind” due to several reasons. That includes a negative impact for advertising, which benefited from “strong spend on U.S. elections” in late 2024, particularly on YouTube, she said.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/23/alphabet-google-q2-earnings.html
Republicans want to rename Kennedy Center’s opera house after Melania Trump
House appropriators voted to make most of the Kennedy Center’s funding contingent on the name change in their markup of the fiscal 2026 Interior-Environment spending bill.
House Republicans are moving to rename the opera house in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after first lady Melania Trump.
House appropriators voted 33-25 on Tuesday to advance language introduced by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) that would make most of the Kennedy Center’s funding contingent on the name change in their markup of the fiscal 2026 Interior-Environment spending bill.
The move is just the latest effort by Republicans in Washington to reshape the public face of the Kennedy Center with President Donald Trump back in the White House.
The president in February took over as chair of the iconic theater, firing members of its board and replacing longtime president Deborah Rutter with Richard Grenell, a key White House ally. He also tapped chief of staff Susie Wiles, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and second lady Usha Vance to serve as new trustees.
And it’s yet another example of congressional Republicans honoring the president in the wake of his political comeback. They’ve introduced legislation to rename the Washington Dulles International Airport after Trump, get his face on the $100 bill and turn his birthday into an international holiday.
Naming a theater after the first lady “is an excellent way to recognize her appreciation for the arts,” Simpson told POLITICO in a statement.
“As Chairman of the House Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee — which oversees federal funding for capital repairs and operations and maintenance at the Kennedy Center — I am proud to honor her support and commitment in promoting the arts and humanities,” he said.
The committee will likely finish marking up the spending bill on Tuesday night. It provides funding for the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency, while also covering institutions including the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian.
The change is not final; any legislation would then have to pass both chambers of Congress and be signed into law by Trump.
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/22/congress/kennedy-center-melania-trump-00467996
Trump to visit Federal Reserve, escalating campaign against Chair Powell
-US President Donald Trump will visit the Federal Reserve on Thursday, the White House said.
-Trump has repeatedly criticized Powell for not cutting interest rates.
U.S. President Donald Trump will visit the Federal Reserve on Thursday, the White House said, escalating his pressure campaign against Chairman Jerome Powell.
This is the first time in nearly two decades that an American president will be making an official trip to the central bank.
American presidents have traditionally respected the independence of the central bank, which is insulated both in law and in practice from the political whims of elected officials.
Trump’s visit is a remarkable symbolic move on that independence, bringing his drumbeat of criticism over Powell’s refusal to lower interest rates right to the chairman’s doorstep.
The White House released a schedule on Wednesday that said Trump would visit the Federal Reserve at 4:00 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Powell for not cutting interest rates, even floating the idea of firing him, despite legal questions over his authority to do so.
“I think he’s done a bad job, but he’s going to be out pretty soon anyway,” Trump told reporters earlier this week at a White House event.
Trump last week sought opinion from a group of Republican lawmakers on firing Powell, before denying he intended to remove the Fed chair. “We’re not planning on doing it … I think it’s highly unlikely, unless he has to leave for fraud.”
Powell has said that his firing is “not permitted under the law.”
While former presidents have criticized prior Fed chairs, no president has attempted to fire the top central banker.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/24/trump-to-visit-federal-reserve-in-person-threat-fire-char-powell-.html
Most people forget that Ozzie defeated the Devil for us that one time in a movie.
Who tteh fuck is Justin Bieber?
Under Biden, 65,000 calls to a hotline meant to protect unaccompanied kids placed with sponsor families went unanswered
Gutfeld: Historically the people who meant well are the disaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaai3QJOlvo