The US state of Virginia forfeited $1.6 billion in tax revenue through datacenter exemptions in fiscal 2025 - up 118 percent on the prior year - as the AI-driven construction boom accelerates. Good Jobs First, a nonprofit promoting corporate and government accountability, warns these incentives have become essentially automatic. Virginia's qualification threshold requires just $150 million in capital investment and 50 new jobs, which is modest compared to the billions spent on today's hyperscale facilities. The exemptions cover retail sales and use taxes on computer equipment, software, and hardware purchases.
The vote formalized plans announced last year to wind down operations [for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting] after lawmakers voted to strip more than $500 million in annual funding from the organization. Executives have been emptying the corporation's coffers in recent months by making grants to public media organizations. After the federal funding ended, executives at the corporation discussed putting the organization into hibernation, keeping it alive in case Congress eventually voted to restore its federal appropriation.
However, Musk, back in Trump's good graces, stands to get some assistance for Tesla from the White House moving forward, especially as he and the President are back to being friends and allies. Reduced Scrutiny from a Regulatory Standpoint Tesla has been the subject of several National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) probes, including ones that dive into Autopilot and Full Self-Driving and incidents involving the two. Trump has already initiated a more relaxed environment for autonomous vehicle oversight.
The freeze applies to the "Child Care and Development Fund" worth $2.4 billion (2.2 billion), the "Temporary Assistance for Needy Families" worth $7.35 billion and the "Social Services Block Grant" worth $869 million. HHS said it had notified the five states and that they would require extra documentation to access the funds. The New York Post was the first to report the funding freeze for certain social services on Monday, citing unnamed federal officials that expressed "concerns that the benefits were fraudulently funneled to non-citizens."
The investigation - led by Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) under committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) - began in August when Kiley "sent a letter to FireAid requesting a detailed breakdown of all non-profits that received money from FireAid." Kiley expressed concern that the money had gone toward local nonprofits rather than as more direct aid to affected residents. FireAid promptly released a comprehensive document detailing its fundraising and grant dispersals.
Congressional Republicans were largely silent on the fifth anniversary of the January 6 insurrection on Tuesday, even as Democrats sought to use the occasion to blast Donald Trump and a small group of protesters convened on the grounds of the US Capitol in solidarity with those who carried out the attack. Democrats, who are in the minority in Congress after fruitlessly hoping that the well-documented violence would cause voters
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
In a bizarre, rambling speech where his words would trail off and seemingly contradict one another, Trump performed an exaggerated impression of contenders in a weightlifting contest. Firstly, he pretended to be a cis female athlete who struggled to lift the weight, using over-the-top grunting and groaning to showcase the effort he believed women have to go through to lift something heavy. "Drops the thing, walks off the stage crying. Her mother's crying, her father's crying," he states.
The White House said in a statement in response to queries from Reuters that Trump sees acquiring Greenland as a US national security priority necessary to "deter our adversaries in the Arctic region." "The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilising the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief's disposal," the White House said.
Aldrich Ames, who betrayed Western intelligence assets to the Soviet Union and Russia in one of the most damaging intelligence breaches in U.S. history, has died in a Maryland prison. He was 84. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons confirmed Ames died Monday. Ames, a 31-year CIA veteran, admitted being paid $2.5 million by Moscow for U.S. secrets from 1985 until his arrest in 1994.
On Saturday, U.S. forces invaded Venezuela and abducted President Nicolas Maduro, who, along with his wife, was arraigned in federal court in New York and pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges. Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has been sworn in as interim president. Trump has demanded that Rodriguez meet certain demands or he will send a second wave to Venezuela. Among those is allowing U.S. oil companies to rebuild the energy sector in the country, and possibly be reimbursed by the U.S. government.
