All posts tagged: Policy

DOGE Veterans Are Landing Big Jobs at Prediction Markets

DOGE Veterans Are Landing Big Jobs at Prediction Markets

Published by skeptic

Polymarket’s every move is under close scrutiny these days, as the prediction market giant fights dozens of legal battles about how it can operate. But one hiring decision has remained under the radar: Late last year, Polymarket brought on former Department of Government Efficiency affiliate Jonathan Mendelson as a senior strategic executive. Prior to his stint at Elon Musk’s so-called DOGE, Mendelson worked as an investor for the venture capital firm Accel in San Francisco, which invests in technology companies. At DOGE, Mendelson was technically employed by the General Services Administration, but worked as an advisor to the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Paul Atkins. He was there for less than a year. Polymarket, which currently faces an investigation from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, declined to comment on this story. The SEC did not respond to requests for comment. Mendelson isn’t the only former DOGE affiliate in a position of power in a prediction market. Elie Mishory, a former CFTC regulator who helped develop the agency’s framework for prediction markets, worked as Kalshi’s general …

Strait of Hormuz ship bottleneck could fuel invasive species nightmare

Strait of Hormuz ship bottleneck could fuel invasive species nightmare

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. The ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the United States’ war with Iran may not only be causing  problems for the global economy. Marine scientists now warn that the thousands of vessels stuck in the Persian Gulf could inadvertently introduce an unprecedented wave of invasive species, parasites, and pathogens into the region. The team’s report is laid out in a study recently published in the journal Biological Invasions. According to the paper’s authors, including  Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) marine biologist Carolyn Tepolt, these extremely disruptive newcomers are often “extremely difficult, if not impossible” to remove once they are there. “This disruption to global shipping has many repercussions and has also more quietly created ideal conditions to spread warm-water species to …

DHS Official Resigns, Citing ‘War on Immigrants’

DHS Official Resigns, Citing ‘War on Immigrants’

Published by skeptic

The Department of Homeland Security’s top numbers-cruncher has resigned, citing the Trump administration’s “war on immigrants” on his way out. DHS has been a hub of controversy during the second Trump term: the ICE raids in American cities, the wild spending, the growing archipelago of detention centers, the attempts to hide data about it all. But vanishingly few officials have left the department and been openly critical of the direction it has taken. Marc Rosenblum, who served as executive director of the Office of Homeland Security Statistics and a deputy assistant secretary at the department, is one of the first. “I’m thrilled to end my relationship with the current administration,” Rosenblum said in a LinkedIn post over the weekend. “Between the war on immigrants, the war on feds, and the war on facts (not to mention the crazy war in Iran and the brazen corruption), I just need a change.” Rosenblum also served in the first Trump and Biden administrations, initially running DHS’s office of immigration statistics, and then overseeing stats for the entire department—collating …

Smell of death could help trap invasive, cow-killing screwworms

Smell of death could help trap invasive, cow-killing screwworms

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. Humans are evolutionarily wired to despise certain smells for a good reason. Some distinctly disgusting odors like rotting flesh are often a byproduct of bacterial infection, something we generally hope to avoid as a species. But while these unappealing scents may revolt people, other creatures are irresistibly drawn to them. “We use these bacterial cues to stay away from certain things—to not eat spoiled meat, for example,” Jessica Metcalf, a microbial ecologist at the University of Colorado, recently explained. “The insects are using them for a different reason. They’re like, ‘Yes, bring it, that smells like a great place to lay eggs.’” Metcalf is currently focused on an insect whose fondness for stinky, unhygienic hotspots is once again causing problems in the United …

Trump’s foreign policy enters its decadent, desperate end stage

Trump’s foreign policy enters its decadent, desperate end stage

Published by Sam Flores

It’s tough to find any semblance of a silver lining in the humiliating implosion of Donald Trump’s foreign policy over the last year, especially after a week that has brought us another escalation of the war no one supports, a recycled trade war with Canada, an out-of-nowhere nuclear deal with a country that should never have access to nuclear weapons, and yet more threats against a small nation that poses no threat to the United States.  But here’s the upside, just maybe: The tiny and perverse cadre of “anti-anti-Trump leftists” has been decisively silenced. If you find that phrase baffling, consider yourself fortunate. You evidently haven’t wasted any of your one wild and precious life arguing with renegade Marxists about whether the Trump-Putin alliance, in world-historical terms, was “objectively” superior to neoliberal internationalism on the Clinton-Obama model.  If this is a safe space, I will admit here that at one time I was around one-third vulnerable to such arguments. I don’t mean the part about Trump being a force for progressive change in any sense, …

Politics Home Article | Government Spent £15m On Digital ID Before Policy Was Scrapped

Politics Home Article | Government Spent £15m On Digital ID Before Policy Was Scrapped

Published by Sam Flores

3 min read1 hr The government spent around £15m on developing digital ID before the scheme was scrapped by the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham. Of that £15m, £800,000 was spent on the “People’s Panel”, which randomly selected 100 people from across the country to contribute to the government’s consultation on the policy. The rest was spent on staff, consultants, design, research and legal advice, internal data seen by PoliticsHome shows. Burnham announced this week that he was ditching the Keir Starmer policy and rediverting money that would have been spent on it to funding the removal of VAT from energy bills. The government declined to comment on the figures. The Starmer ministry had hoped that digital ID would help modernise the state and make public services more efficient.  However, the policy polled poorly when first announced in September, with the then-government’s communications strategy partly blamed for the rough landing. Ministers initially focused on how digital ID could help tackle illegal migration, before later pivoting to how it could make everyday tasks easier for the average person. It was hoped internally that the “People’s Panel” would …

Trump keeps finding a way to implement his tariff policy : NPR

Trump keeps finding a way to implement his tariff policy : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

President Trump looks to reporters after getting off Air Force One on Wednesday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly. On the day the Supreme Court ruled against a broad swath of President Trump’s tariffs, he was visibly angry — and determined to enact more tariffs anyway. “Other alternatives will now be used to replace the ones that the court incorrectly rejected,” he said at a White House press briefing on Feb. 20. “We have alternatives, great alternatives.” “Alternatives” referred to laws the administration might use to authorize tariffs, after the Supreme Court said tariffs under the president’s preferred route — a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA — were unlawful. Since then, the administration has demonstrated its willingness to implement a variety of those laws to rebuild the president’s tariff regime. This week brought a flurry of evidence of that, as the administration replaced a global tariff with a set …

Ariana Grande’s London shows to feature strict bag policy

Ariana Grande’s London shows to feature strict bag policy

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Ariana Grande fans will have to comply with strict new entry rules when they attend the pop star’s London shows at the O2 Arena. Ticketmaster UK announced this week that concertgoers at the US pop star’s shows will only be permitted to bring clear plastic bags into the venue. The policy has been confirmed by the ticket distributor to be “mandatory” for admittance to the show. Each ticketholder will be allowed to carry just one transparent bag made from clear plastic, vinyl or PVC, with no colour tints, prints, patterns or logos. Grande is performing 10 shows at the O2 Arena in London (Getty) Fans are encouraged to only bring essential items that must be placed individually within the clear bag, not in additional bags inside the clear one. Ticketholders are also banned from bringing cameras or recording devices, but phones with built-in …

Malaysia Envoy Summoned by US Over Israel Policy, Bernama Says

Malaysia Envoy Summoned by US Over Israel Policy, Bernama Says

Published by Sam Flores

KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 (Reuters) – Malaysia’s ambassador to ⁠the ⁠United States was summoned ⁠by the U.S. State Department to explain Kuala Lumpur’s position ​on Israel, state media reported, citing the country’s foreign minister.  Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan ‌said Ambassador Muhammad Shahrul Ikram ‌Yaakob told the State Department that Malaysia’s longstanding policy of not recognising ⁠Israel was ⁠not new. “It has always been Malaysia’s policy. Our immigration policy ​does not recognise the State of Israel or the Zionist regime. This has long been our position.” “There was an individual with dual citizenship, the U.S. and Israel, who ​entered Malaysia using his U.S. passport. However, subsequent checks revealed that he ⁠also ⁠held Israeli citizenship, and ⁠we asked ​him to leave,” Bernama cited Mohamad as saying late on Thursday.  Reuters has sought ​comment from the U.S. ⁠embassy in Malaysia.  The row was triggered after Network School, the “digital nomad” community founded in Malaysia by U.S. investor Balaji Srinivasan, came under scrutiny after social media users alleged that it included participants from Israel.  Malaysia does not have diplomatic ties …

US Announces Visa Restriction Policy for People Complicit in Cybercrime

US Announces Visa Restriction Policy for People Complicit in Cybercrime

Published by Sam Flores

July 23 (Reuters) – ⁠U.S. ⁠Secretary ⁠of State Marco ​Rubio on ‌Thursday announced ‌a ⁠new visa ⁠restriction policy that he ​said would target ​individuals responsible for ⁠or complicit ⁠in ⁠cybercrime and ​cyber-enabled crimes. Immediate family ​members ⁠of individuals engaged in ⁠such activities may also be subjected ⁠to visa restrictions, Rubio added in a statement released by the ⁠U.S. State Department. (Reporting by Ismail Shakil, ​editing by Bhargav ​Acharya) Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters. Source link