Adults on Medicaid will be required to work 80 hours per month. The Trump administration says people who are sick will have to prove they are too sick to work to be exempt from the new work rules.

• Morningstar analysts believe SpaceX is “significantly overvalued” ahead of its blockbuster IPO.

• The analysts say xAI poses a “material threat of value destruction” to the company, with its “economic moat indeterminate.”

• Morningstar values SpaceX at $780 billion, which is roughly 48% below its private market valuation of $1.5 trillion.

Proposal for 10-12.5% levies, to also include EU, Taiwan and Australia, would allow US president to skirt court-imposed limits

Donald Trump has threatened tariffs of between 10% and 12.5% on 60 trading partners including the UK, the EU and Australia over alleged forced labour failures, in the latest attempt to revive his signature trade policy.

The EU immediately hit back, saying it expected the US to respect the tariff deal it entered into last July and arguing that stealth tariffs breached the spirit of that agreement.

The proposed levies on partners accused of allowing imports of goods produced by workers under coercion come after the US supreme court ruled in February that the president’s “liberation day” tariffs were illegal.

Trump responded by imposing 10% across-the-board tariffs, but last month the US trade court found those were also unlawful, although they remain in place during the appeal process.

Alarm after Elias Irizarry is hired to position in office that manages highly classified military operations

The Pentagon has appointed a rioter convicted for his role in 6 January, 2021 insurrection to a sensitive national security role dealing with counterterrorism, overriding insiders’ concerns about his past record.

Elias Irizarry, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in connection with the storming of the US Capitol, has been appointed to a position in the US Department of Defense’s special operations and low intensity conflict office which manages highly classified military operations, causing alarm among Pentagon officials.

The story was first reported by the Washington Post, which published a picture of Irizzary – holding what appeared to be a metal pole and wearing a pro-Donald Trump Make America Great Again (Maga) hat – looking over a wall on the day of the riot.

“Incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc,” Pelley said in a statement, referring in part to CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss.

Pelley’s exit deepens the turmoil at “60 Minutes,” the leading newsmagazine on American television. In recent months, “60 Minutes” employees have clashed with CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss over the show’s editorial direction under its new corporate owner, Paramount Skydance, the media company run by technology scion David Ellison.

The tension reached a fever pitch Monday during a “60 Minutes” staff meeting designed to introduce employees to Bilton, a technology journalist tapped by Weiss to be executive producer of the program. Pelley laced into Bilton, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News and a source who was in the room.

“Experts in Europe warn that these devices are used to record strangers without their consent, possibly breaching EU law.”

“A small LED light is designed to indicate when recording is taking place, but RTBF's investigators found that tutorials explaining how to conceal the indicator are abundant and easily accessible online.”

Sometimes I have a hard time deciding who I despise more, parasite Mark Zuckerberg or its witless hosts who keep using its products—yes, Zuck's pronoun is it. Ban Ray-Ban, for frick's sake.

The outcome of the hotly contested race for California governor remained uncertain Tuesday night, but Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra held leads in the large field running to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Hilton, a former conservative commentator, and Becerra, a longtime elected official who served in the Biden administration, were roughly tied in early returns, with Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer in a distant third. Only two of the candidates will advance to the November general election.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Alabama to use a congressional map that eliminates one of two majority-Black districts in the state in a win for Republicans.

The justices, split 6-3 on ideological lines with conservatives in the majority, granted an emergency request filed by Republican officials seeking to use the map, which was enacted in 2023 but has never been used.

In the unsigned three-page order, the court said that the state is likely to ultimately prevail on its claim that the map was lawfully drawn.

In dissent, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the majority’s decision “disregards both democratic values and the rule of law.”

Ocean Observatories Initiative, $368m network that has provided crucial climate data, latest victim of Trump cuts

The Trump administration plans to dismantle a $368m deep-sea observation system that has for more than a decade provided crucial data on ocean systems and climate change.

In a notice, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that it had “initiated descoping of the Ocean Observatories Initiative” (OOI), a vast ocean observation network comprising more than 900 instruments that collect data on ocean health, including current patterns, climate variability and marine biodiversity.

The notice, issued on 21 May, came just days after Trump fired all members of the independent board that oversees the NSF. It outlined plans to remove all in-water infrastructure from observation sites off the coasts of North Carolina, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, as well as from the Irminger Sea, a marginal sea between Greenland and Iceland.

Other reporting indicates that ICE simply stopped paying for medical care

https://web.archive.org/web/20260602143122/https://www.404media.co/here-is-the-contract-for-palantirs-super-api-for-the-irs/

President Donald Trump has tapped Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to be the acting director of national intelligence — elevating a real estate scion without any clear national security credentials to a key post as the U.S. remains at war with Iran.

Trump made the surprise announcement Tuesday on social media that Pulte would be replacing Tulsi Gabbard, the former Hawaii congresswoman who had served as the director of national intelligence. Trump said Pulte will keep his other positions even as he fills in for Gabbard, who resigned last month after revealing her husband’s cancer diagnosis.

The Republican president cited Pulte’s work at the FHFA and his role as chair of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as indicating that his real estate work would overlap with the skills needed to coordinate 18 federal agencies tasked with aspects of foreign and domestic security.

“William has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Trump’s choice to elevate Pulte, who would also continue in his post at FHFA, shows how the president is putting a greater priority on loyalty to him, even as the side effects of the Iran war has damaged Trump politically going into November’s midterm elections and raised basic concerns about the quality of advice that aides are giving to a president who has rewarded flattery.

It’s unclear what national security expertise Pulte brings to bear as the U.S. faces conflict in the Middle East, helps Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s assault and manages the emergence of artificial intelligence as a military tool. But Pulte, who’s 38 years old, has been a frequent guest on Air Force One as Trump has traveled to Mar-a-Lago, his home and club in Palm Beach, Florida.

On one such flight, the housing finance director stood in a doorway as Trump discussed with reporters the ballroom he’s building at the White House and handed Trump a series of renderings of the project that the president held up.

Tuesday’s announcement quickly drew criticism from Trump administration opponents that Pulte could undermine the credibility and integrity of America’s intelligence agencies. But even some Republicans were wary about Pulte being the director of national intelligence.

“We don’t need a weaponized DNI. We need professionals there,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota. “I’m trying to get more information about the current state of their thinking about that position. And, again, if he’s somebody they want in that position permanently, he’s got, as you all know, a lengthy road ahead of him.“

Democrats noted that Pulte’s major qualification appeared to be his enthusiasm for fulfilling Trump’s requests.

“The concern is not only that Mr. Pulte lacks the ‘extensive national security experience’ required by statute for the job, which was created after intelligence failures led to the deaths of thousands of Americans on 9/11,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in a statement. “It is that he appears to have been selected precisely because the White House believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Pulte has been “abusing his authority” as the federal housing finance director and Trump is now “rewarding his lackey — who has no national security experience — with a perch atop our nation’s intelligence community. What could go wrong?”

...

As the grandson of the founder of PulteGroup, one of the country’s largest homebuilders, Pulte has cut a combative streak on social media and used his post at the FHFA to attack perceived opponents of the Trump administration. His time overseeing mortgage finance has been linked with criminal referrals over allegations of mortgage fraud by public officials Trump sought to punish, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat; Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; and Lisa Cook, a board member of the Federal Reserve, who was nominated by a Democratic president, Joe Biden.

The prosecution against James was dismissed in November after a judge concluded that the prosecutor who filed the charges was illegally appointed. Other referrals made by Pulte, including against Schiff and Cook, have not yielded any criminal charges. Lawyers for both have denied any claims of wrongdoing. But Trump did try to use the possibility of mortgage fraud as grounds for removing Cook from the Fed.

Cook’s lawyer accused Pulte of pursuing mortgage fraud on a partisan basis, focusing on Democrats and refusing to pursue similar allegations against Republicans.

Pulte told reporters at the White House several months ago that he had also made criminal referrals regarding at least one Republican official, but he declined to provide the name.

He has famously gone after then-Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting the central bank’s benchmark interest rates as aggressively as the president wanted. He has also been linked to ideas such as the 50-year mortgage and efforts to lower mortgage rates through the purchase of home loan debt that have not paid off as promised, as mortgage rates began to climb after the Iran war started at the end of February.

Pulte has a reputation for cultivating enemies. In a legal feud pursued by Pulte that involved his family namesake’s homebuilding company, he accused his grandfather’s widow of insider trading. He was believed to be the driving force behind a website trashing an aunt as a “fake Christian.” And he publicly blasted another relative as “a fat slob,” “weirdo” and “grifter,” according to court records.

In an explosive staff meeting, Mr. Pelley, a correspondent for the long-running Sunday news show, blasted Bari Weiss, the CBS editor in chief, and Nick Bilton, the show’s new executive producer.

Doctors nationwide are encountering more children with whooping cough, bacterial infections and other serious illnesses, as well as more adults refusing tetanus shots.

Finalising a key element of an overhauled EU asylum and migration system, politicians have agreed a regulation that will enable national authorities to raid people’s homes to enforce deportation orders.

People facing a deportation order who are deemed to be uncooperative or a flight risk could be detained for up to two years, extendable to 30 months, compared with the 18-month detention period under existing law. Those who refuse to comply with a deportation order could have benefits or other allowances cut.

The regulation will also enable the creation of offshore return hubs, centres outside the EU where undocumented people would be held for unspecified periods, pending return to their home country.

Several EU countries are in talks with countries, mostly in Africa, to create return hubs, although no agreements have been announced.

The text agreed in three-way talks on Monday between the main EU institutions – the European Council, the European parliament and European Commission – will enable the search of people’s homes “or other relevant premises” and seizure of personal belongings in order to ensure compliance with a deportation order.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20260602120321/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/02/eu-accused-creating-ice-style-immigration-enforcement-system