White House discloses who will lead DOGE efforts after Musk’s departure
President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet will spearhead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts, now that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is stepping aside from leading the initiative. “The DOGE leaders are each and every member of the president’s cabinet and the president himself, who is wholeheartedly committed to cutting waste, fraud and abuse from our government,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday at a White House press briefing. Since January, Musk has been heading up DOGE, which was tasked with cutting $2 trillion from the federal government’s budget through efforts to slash spending, government programs and the federal workforce. Musk announced his departure in an X post. “As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk said on X Wednesday. “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
Kazakhstan’s president on balancing Russia, China and the West
Kazakhstan sits at the crossroads of global power between Russia, China and key trade routes. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev talks to Al Jazeera about his reform agenda, the legacy of Nazarbayev, and plans to reduce inequality in a resource-rich nation. He also addresses Kazakhstan’s economic dependency on oil and Russia, growing ties with China and the West, and criticisms over press freedom and political openness. With the war in Ukraine redrawing alliances, is Kazakhstan truly neutral, or simply under pressure? Adblock test (Why?)
Will Southeast Asian nations pick sides between the US and China?
They’ve long been hedging their bets.But Southeast Asian nations are caught in the dispute between the United States and China.The trade-dependent countries are under threat from Trump’s tariffs, too.They face a delicate balancing act between economic survival and strategic neutrality.The message was clear at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – ASEAN’s recent summit in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.Member countries are recalibrating their economic partnerships to insulate their economies.That includes a push to deepen trade ties with China and Gulf countries. Why is the price of Japanese rice rocketing? Plus, should older people work longer? Adblock test (Why?)
Most LGBTQ adults in US don’t feel transgender people are accepted: Poll
By contrast, about six out of 10 LGBTQ adults said gay and lesbian people are generally accepted in the US. A new poll by the Pew Research Centre has found that transgender people experience less social acceptance in the United States than those who are lesbian, gay or bisexual, according to LGBTQ adults. About six out of 10 LGBTQ adult participants in the poll said there is “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of social acceptance in the US for gay and lesbian people, according to “The Experiences of LGBTQ Americans Today” report released on Thursday. Only about one in 10 said the same for non-binary and transgender people — and about half said there was “not much” or no acceptance at all for transgender people. The survey of 3,959 LGBTQ adults was conducted in January, after US President Donald Trump’s election, but just before his return to office when he set into motion a series of policies that question transgender people’s existence and their place in society. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order calling on the government to recognise people as male or female based on the “biological truth” of their future cells at conception, rejecting evidence and scientific arguments that gender is a spectrum. Advertisement Since then, Trump has barred transgender women and girls from taking part in female sports competitions, pushed transgender service members from the military and tried to block federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender people under age 19. A poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in May found that about half of US adults approve of the way Trump is handling transgender issues. Transgender people are less likely than gay or lesbian adults to say they are accepted by all their family members, according to the Pew poll. The majority of LGBTQ people said their siblings and friends accepted them, though the rates were slightly higher among gay or lesbian people. About half of gay and lesbian people said their parents did, compared with about one-third of transgender people. Only about one in 10 transgender people reported feeling accepted by their extended family, compared with about three in 10 for gay or lesbian people. According to the Pew poll, about two-thirds of LGBTQ adults said the landmark US Supreme Court ruling that legalised same-sex marriage nationally on June 26, 2015, increased acceptance of same-sex couples “a lot more” or “somewhat more”. The Supreme Court is expected to rule in the coming weeks on whether Tennessee can enforce a ban on gender-affirming care for minors in what is seen as a major case for the transgender community. Adblock test (Why?)
Operation Shield: Mock drills to be conducted in Rajasthan, Punjab, J-K, Haryana, Gujarat on this date
An official said these drills will include blackouts, siren tests, simulated aerial attacks, and rapid rescue operations.
IRCTC to launch 14-day ‘mystic tour’ from India to THIS country with breathtaking views along journey, know how to book tickets, other details
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will soon launch the ‘Bharat-Bhutan Mystic Mountain Tour,’ a journey that will allow passengers to witness the mesmerising natural beauty and cultural treasure of Northeast India and Bhutan.
Price tag estimate for House GOP tax package rises to $3.94T
The estimated revenue impact of the GOP tax plan would be nearly $4 trillion in the negative over a decade, the Joint Committee on Taxation — a nonpartisan committee of the U.S. Congress — has indicated. A document issued by the committee puts the net total estimated revenue effects at -$3.939368 trillion for fiscal years 2025-2034. “The problem with all of these studies is they willfully ignore current tax policy. You can’t do that and be taken seriously,” an Office of Management and Budget spokesperson indicated. Fox News Digital reached out to the Joint Committee on Taxation for comment, but no comment had been provided by the time of publication. GOP RAILS AGAINST ‘BLATANTLY FALSE’ DEM CLAIMS ABOUT MEDICAID REFORM IN TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ The GOP-controlled House of Representatives passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last week, even with the U.S. national debt at more than $36 trillion. The measure cleared the chamber with zero Democrat votes, and two House Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio — voting against it. House Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., voted present, explaining in a statement, “I voted to move the bill along in the process for the President. There is still a lot of work to be done in deficit reduction and ending waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicaid program.” SPEAKER JOHNSON CLASHES WITH RAND PAUL OVER ‘WIMPY’ SPENDING CUTS IN TRUMP’S BILL Some Senate Republicans have indicated that they would not be willing to support the measure as it stands coming out of the House. Elon Musk is not happy with it either. The business tycoon said during an interview for “CBS Sunday Morning” that he was “disappointed to see the massive spending bill,” and that the measure undermines the Department of Government Efficiency team’s work. “I’m not happy about certain aspects of it, but I’m thrilled by other aspects of it,” President Donald Trump said of the measure when asked about Musk’s comments. Last week, Trump hailed the House’s passage of the proposal, calling for the Senate to pass it as well. “Great job by Speaker Mike Johnson, and the House Leadership, and thank you to every Republican who voted YES on this Historic Bill! Now, it’s time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work, and send this Bill to my desk AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!” the president declared in part of a Truth Social post last week. MUSK OFFICIALLY STEPS DOWN FROM DOGE AFTER WRAPPING WORK STREAMLINING GOVERNMENT CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller asserted in a post on X, “I see some self-described libertarians siding with lefty bureaucrats at CBO who claim the Big Beautiful Bill will ‘explode the debt.’ This is based entirely on CBO claiming that extending the current tax rates (not raising them) will ‘cost’ the government $4 trillion in revenue. “Since when have libertarians argued that NOT raising taxes ‘costs’ the government money? Private money yet to be earned does not “belong” to the government. This is a Democrat-collectivist argument and I’m shocked to see libertarians deploying it. Under this ludicrous theory, one could raise taxes to 90% on everyone and declare the deficit solved. BBB cuts taxes, cuts spending, reforms welfare and *ends mass migration*,” he declared.
Rapper who was pardoned had this to say about president in 2017
The Louisiana rapper who was pardoned by President Donald Trump once said “F— Donald Trump” in a 2017 song. NBA YoungBoy, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden, has been thanking Trump for the reprieve, writing in a recent Instagram post that the president is “giving me the opportunity to keep building — as a man, as a father, and as an artist.” However, in his song “Red Rum,” the 25-year-old Gaulden once rapped “And f— Donald Trump b—-, that NBA s—.” Pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson was asked about the remark during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” earlier this morning. RAPPER THANKS TRUMP FOR PARDON ON GUN CONVICTION “So a couple of rappers have come out or let’s say one in particular — YoungBoy. One of his lyrics in 2017 that he put out is “F Donald Trump” and some more disparaging things to say. He had a violent past of assault and battery. Multiple cases of that, and firearm, drug and fraud charges. What sold you on him getting a second chance?” co-host Brian Kilmeade asked her. “I looked at the age and how this young man grew up. He grew up in a very impoverished neighborhood. And the things that he had to face, NBA YoungBoy growing up. Most of those were gun charges without the guns being discharged,” she said. “But I also looked at what happened to him on a set where he was filming a video and he had a prop in the set. That’s really where this came from. He didn’t come out of prison. He was given a pardon so he could have a new beginning. And the officers who in this particular case they came at him as though he was a terrorist and he was on a set, filming for a video. They gave him a gun charge for that… the officers who did this were all investigated and fired. So I look at the elements of what happened to this young man,” Johnson added. Last year, Gaulden was sentenced by a federal judge in Utah after he acknowledged possessing weapons despite being a convicted felon. However, he reached an agreement that resolved Utah state charges against him and settled two sets of federal charges against him — one carried a 23-month sentence and the other ordered five years of probation and a $200,000 fine. TRUMP PARDONS EX-CONNECTICUT GOVERNOR ROWLAND AND COMMUTES CHICAGO GANG LEADER HOOVER’S SENTENCE “I want to thank President Trump for granting me a pardon and for giving me the opportunity to keep building — as a man, as a father, and as an artist,” Gaulden, whose stage moniker stands for “Never Broke Again,” wrote on his Instagram. “This moment means a lot.” “It opens the door to a future I’ve worked hard for and I am fully prepared to step into this,” Gaulden added. Gaulden was released from federal prison in March and sent to home confinement after receiving credit for time served, his attorney Drew Findling told the Associated Press. With home confinement finished last month, the pardon means he won’t have to follow the terms of his probation, including drug testing, he said. The rapper has acknowledged that he possessed a Glock 21 .45-caliber pistol and a Masterpiece Arms MPA30T 9mm handgun while filming a rap video in Baton Rouge. He has also said he had a Sig Sauer 9mm semi-automatic pistol at his home in Huntsville, Utah. He had agreed to give up the guns. Gaulden had previously been convicted in Louisiana of aggravated assault with a firearm. He had also pleaded guilty in November to his role in a prescription drug fraud ring that operated out of his home in Utah. He had to pay a $25,000 fine and was given no prison time. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Lone Biden official breaks silence on cognitive decline as Cabinet stays mute
Only a single member of former President Joe Biden’s Cabinet responded to a massive outreach effort from Fox News Digital asking if the more than two dozen Cabinet-level officials stood by previous remarks that Biden was mentally and physically fit to serve as president. And even that lone statement, from former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, skirted addressing head-on whether he had witnessed instances of Biden’s now widely acknowledged cognitive issues. “I met with President Biden when needed to make important decisions and to execute with my team at HHS,” Becerra said. “It’s clear the President was getting older, but he made the mission clear: run the largest health agency in the world, expand care to millions more Americans than ever before, negotiate down the cost of prescription drugs, and pull us out of a world-wide pandemic. And we delivered.” Roughly four months after Biden’s Oval Office exit, a handful of political books detailing the 2024 campaign and Biden administration have hit store shelves and are painting a bleak picture of Biden’s health. Adding fuel to the fire, audio recordings of Biden’s October 2023 interview with former Special Counsel Robert Hur showed the former president tripping over his words, slurring sentences, taking long pauses between answers and struggling to remember key moments in his life, including the year his son Beau died of cancer. BIDEN’S WOES CONVERGE: LAST-MINUTE PARDONS UNDER FIRE, CALLS FOR PROSECUTION MOUNT FOLLOWING HUR TAPE RELEASE Fox News Digital has written extensively dating back to the 2020 presidential campaign about Biden’s cognitive decline and his inner circle’s role in covering it up. BIDEN’S CABINET OFFICIALS STAND BY STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT AS TERM DRAWS TO A CLOSE Becerra’s statement stood in marked contrast to the silence emanating from the rest of his former colleagues. Fox News Digital reached out to 26 Biden administration officials with Cabinet-level positions — from former Vice President Kamala Harris to former Chief of Staff Jeff Zients — asking whether they still believe that Biden was fit to serve as president, or whether they’ve had a change of heart amid the cascade of damning evidence and anecdotes portraying a mental decline. If a majority of those Cabinet-level officials believed Biden to be unable to perform his duties, they could have attempted to remove him from office through the 25th Amendment. Instead, those officials repeatedly said at the time that Biden was competent and in command. That talking point hasn’t abated among the former officials. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg weighed in on Biden’s presidential health earlier in May during a town hall with veterans and military families in Iowa. When asked during the event whether Biden experienced cognitive decline, Buttigieg told reporters that “every time I needed something from him from the West Wing, I got it.” “The time I worked closest with him in his final year was around the Baltimore bridge collapse,” he added. “And what I can tell you is that the same president the world saw addressing that was the president I was in the Oval with, insisting that we do a good job, do right by Baltimore. And that was characteristic of my experience with him.” Buttigieg did not elaborate when responding to a separate inquiry from Fox News Digital. Biden’s office recently revealed that the former president was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer that had metastasized and was undergoing treatment. The diagnosis sparked an outpouring of well-wishes from political leaders across both aisles, and shock from some doctors who said such cancer should have been caught before it advanced and metastasized. None of Biden’s annual physical health reports as president tested for prostate cancer, Fox News Digital previously reported, with a representative confirming Biden’s last-known prostate blood test was conducted in 2014. The 2024 presidential debate between Biden and President Donald Trump opened the floodgates of criticism surrounding Biden’s mental acuity after the 46th president’s poor performance, which included Biden losing his train of thought and stumbling over his words. CRITICISMS MOUNT THAT BIDEN IS A ‘SHADOW’ OF HIMSELF AFTER DISASTROUS DEBATE: ‘NOT THE SAME MAN’ FROM VP ERA Concerns over Biden’s mental acuity had simmered for years among conservatives, but it wasn’t until the June 2024 presidential debate that traditional Democrat allies and media outlets began questioning Biden’s health and openly called for him to drop out of the race. Despite mounting concerns, members of Biden’s Cabinet vowed he was of sound health and mind. Then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement in September 2024, for example, that he has “full confidence in President Biden’s ability to carry out his job.” BIDEN’S PRESIDENCY WILL BE REMEMBERED AS THE ‘MAN THAT WAS TOO OLD,’ SAYS BYRON YORK “As I’ve said before, I come fully prepared for my meetings with President Biden, knowing his questions will be detail-oriented, probing, and exacting,” he said. “In our exchanges, the President always draws upon our prior conversations and past events in analyzing the issues and reaching his conclusions.” Conservatives in 2024 floated calling for the invocation of the 25th Amendment to remove Biden, which would have required Harris and the majority of the Cabinet to declare him unfit to lead. Harris and the Cabinet did not take such steps during the administration, and instead defended his health. BIDEN’S PRESIDENTIAL HEALTH REPORTS SHOWED NO SIGN OF RECENTLY REVEALED AGGRESSIVE CANCER In July 2024, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo called Biden “one of the most accomplished presidents in American history and continues to effectively lead our country with a steady hand.” “As someone who is actually in the room when the President meets with the Cabinet and foreign leaders, I can tell you he is an incisive and extraordinary leader,” Raimondo said at the time. Since Biden’s exit from the White House in January, political journalists have published a handful of books arguing that, behind the scenes of the administration, staffers were concerned about Biden’s health. “Biden’s physical deterioration — most apparent in his halting walk — had
FBI email instructs employees not to promote Pride Month on bureau time: ‘Focused only on our core mission’
FIRST ON FOX: Agents and directors at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) received an email from leadership on Thursday instructing them not to participate in Pride Month in their professional capacity, a departure from the tone of the Biden administration’s bureau. “I’ve received several questions about the FBI’s stance on Pride Month and what related activities FBI divisions and employees should or should not participate in,” FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs Ben Williamson said in an email obtained by Fox News Digital addressed to assistant directors in charge and special agents in charge on Thursday morning. “So, I want to take the opportunity to make FBI leadership’s expectations clear: There should be no official FBI actions, events, or messaging regarding Pride Month.” The email explains that employees are “free to do as you like” in their “personal capacity” or “on your own time.” ‘RADICAL’ FBI PRACTICES ON DEI ‘ENDANGERED’ AMERICANS, BLACKBURN SAYS IN LETTER DEMANDING ANSWERS FROM WRAY “But on FBI time, using FBI resources and your Bureau affiliation, you and your divisions are expected to take no official actions or issue any specific messaging,” Williamson said, adding that the “stance in no way lessens the FBI’s commitment to serve and protect every American in our country or welcoming colleagues from all walks of life.” “What it does mean is ensuring that the American people see we are focused only on our core mission.” TRUMP DOJ MOVES FUNDS USED FOR TRANSGENDER PROJECTS, DEI TO SUPPORT LAW ENFORCEMENT The FBI did not respond to a request for comment. Shifting away from official celebrations of Pride Month represents a shift from messaging during the Biden administration, which saw several examples of the bureau promoting the month, including taking part in a Kansas City Pridefest and mentioning Pride Month in press releases. The Biden administration faced criticism from conservatives in recent years after the White House and departments vocally supported Pride Month, which is observed for the month of June, with formal celebrations. Then-President Joe Biden hosted a “Pride Month 2023” event on the White House lawn, decorating the area with rainbow motifs and the “Progress Pride flag.” “Today, the #FBI raised the #pride flag at our headquarters in support of our #LGBTQ colleagues,” the FBI posted on social media in June 2021. “We thank them for their contributions to the FBI and the country. #PrideMonth.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The email comes after the Trump administration has shifted away from diversity, equity and inclusion messaging and programs in federal government, instead focusing on meritocracy and the individual missions of departments. “Let good cops be cops—and rebuild trust in the FBI,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in his first statement after being sworn in to lead the bureau.