Matt Gagnon discussed the judicial conflict surrounding Elon Musk’s attempt to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). A federal judge ordered Musk and his department to grant USAID employees access to systems and pause shutdown efforts, citing Musk’s actions as a usurpation of Congress’s authority. Critics argue the Trump administration’s actions will harm vulnerable populations. Gagnon questioned the legality and practicality of USAID’s closure, noting it was scaled back by 80% but not fully closed. He debated the president’s power to refuse congressionally appropriated funds, suggesting the Supreme Court may need to resolve this issue.
Days of downpours have begun in Hawaii. The Southwest will soon bake with day after day of record 100-degree-plus (38 Celsius-plus) heat. Two storms will dump snow by the foot over northern Great Lakes states. And the dreaded polar vortex will again invade the Midwest and East with soul-crushing Arctic chill. This forecast of extremes comes as weather whiplash has already hit much of the East.
An inflation gauge closely monitored by the Federal Reserve moved higher in January in the latest sign that prices were persistently elevated even before the Iran war caused spikes in oil and gas costs.
A man with a rifle who crashed into a large Michigan synagogue in what federal officials are saying was an attack had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, an official said Friday.
House lawmakers were digging into Jeffrey Epstein's sprawling financial portfolio on Wednesday as a committee deposed his former accountant and tried to understand his connections to some of the world's wealthiest men.
