Author: activepulsnews
In recent months, the attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies have been unrelenting. Since Donald Trump’s win in November, several major companies — including McDonald’s, Target, Amazon, and Meta — have announced that they’re either scaling back or outright ending their DEI programs. And since Trump returned to the White House, his administration has been dismantling all DEI programs across the federal government. The assault has been so aggressive that at one point the Trump administration seemed to just be scrapping all references to the words “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion” on government websites and handbooks, even in cases where…
One of the first casualties of the second Trump administration is the United States International Development Agency (USAID). The institutions that fund and operate humanitarian aid programs around the world are quickly becoming targets of Republicans. Over the past four weeks, the White House has pursued plans to reduce the USAID workforce from over 10,000 people to around 290. So far, efforts have been made in Washington, DC, that were covered in black institutional signs. Tape or permanently deleted.There are many reasons why the Trump administration, and Elon Musk's so-called Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE), are particularly keen on USAID.…
Donald Trump announced Monday that the US will impose a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports.The president is in the habit of declaring fundamental changes in trade policies, and only roams around them quickly. Last week, Trump postponed a long-standing 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada after reaching an agreement with both countries on border security. But there is reason to believe that Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs are sticking. He implemented almost identical policies during his first term.In 2018, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on imported steel and a 10% tariff on imported aluminum,…
The efforts to transform federal spending by Donald Trump and Elon Musk and the federal workforce have clashed with judges who temporarily blocked some of their policies.The judges freeze Trump's “freeze” orders, and the efforts of the mask team to access the government's payment system, the offer to “fork on the road” of masks resign, and most staff at USAID I am trying to take my administrative leave.This raised the question: Will the administration comply with the orders of these judges or will it try to ignore them?Vice President JD Vance appears to have hinted at the X-Post Sunday for…
Logoff is a daily newsletter that helps you maintain information about the Trump administration without taking over your life to political news. Subscribe here.Welcome to logoff. I hope you had a good weekend. Today, I focus on the Trump administration's efforts to erase consumer watchdog agencies. Because the agency has an important mission, and the fight for its future has implications for the broader struggle against President Donald Trump's efforts to rebuild government.what happened? The administration has made potential financial services companies (including debt collectors, payday and mortgage lenders, credit reporting companies, and some banks) for client abuse and fraud.…
Get stories like these straight to your inbox. Sign up for our 74 newsletter In a recent interview published by 74, LeanLab founder Katie Boody Adorno said that randomized controlled trials could be “an outdated research mode.” I sincerely disagree. RCT remains the gold standard for effective research for good reasons. They reduce the source of bias that bothers other designs by taking into account unobserved and unobserved characteristics between the study groups. It can often be done quickly and provides the most powerful evidence of whether the impact of the product differs based on student race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic…
President Donald Trump is looking to significantly expand immigrant detention in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Trump hopes to ultimately detain up to 30,000 immigrants in Guantanamo, given that the existing immigration detention facilities are designed to accommodate around 120 people. The Trump administration has already sent dozens of immigrants (are considered high-risk) to Guantanamo. That includes 13 known members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the federal government designated as a “multinarian criminal organization” last year.Trump's team reportedly plans to increase military flights for at least one person carrying detainees per day, and Homeland Security's Department of Homeland Security Christa Noem…
While President Donald Trump has caused chaos and confusion in his first few weeks in office, he’s made one thing very clear: His administration will do everything in its power to supercharge oil and gas production.That agenda is unwelcome news for a small lizard in West Texas. The dunes sagebrush lizard — a tan, scaly reptile measuring just a few inches long — lives in the Permian Basin, the largest oil producing region in the country. It’s found nowhere else on Earth. The basin stretches across West Texas and southeastern New Mexico and produces, by some estimates, as much as…
Over the past few years, AI systems have misrepresented themselves as human therapists, nurses and more. So far, the companies behind these systems have not faced any serious consequences. The bill introduced in California on Monday aims to stop it. The law prohibits the development and deployment of AI systems that make businesses pretend to be certified human beings as healthcare providers, and gives regulators the authority to punish them with fines.”The generator AI system should not be permitted to present itself like that, not a licensed medical professional,” state legislator Mia Bonta, who introduced the bill, told Vox in…
For the past few months, publication has been consumed in discussions about its constant topic: blur, breathtaking little testimonies from other writers appearing on the back of the book's cover, everyone writes. I don't like it, please. One big author and one major publisher announced that within weeks they were promoting each other. As a result, the resulting conversations piqued the publication. Along the way, it provided a new lens on who can access influence and resources in an increasingly unstable industry.The authors traditionally aimed to procure blur before the book was accepted by publishers and went through the editing…