Rep. Ritchie Torres and the House Democrats, who are reportedly drafting a bill entitled “The HOUTHI PC SMALL GROUP Act” that would criminalize the use of unsecured messaging apps to send classified information. (Per Axios, it’s an acronym for “Homeland Operations and Unilateral Tactics Halting Incursions: Preventing Coordinated Subversion, Military Aggression and Lawless Levies Granting Rogue Operatives Unchecked Power.”)
While claiming that The Atlantic “is going to be out of business soon,” Trump commented on the Signal group chat scandal in a Newsmax interview Tuesday night.
CIA director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, FBI Director Kash Patel, and others are testifying today before the House Intelligence Committee. Unsurprisingly, a good amount of the hearing is centered around Signalgate, with most questions coming from Democrats. Watch a recording below.
A day after The Atlantic EIC Jeffrey Goldberg revealed he’d been inadvertently included in a group message on Signal where Trump admin officials discussed details of an upcoming military strike, CBS News reports on an NSA warning from February that the app isn’t approved for “nonpublic unclassified” information. Despite testimony today that no classified material was shared, the NSA noted the danger posed by Russian phishing campaigns attempting to add a linked device and bypass Signal’s encryption for surveillance.
Later on Tuesday evening, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries shared a letter he’d sent to the president saying Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth “should be fired immediately” over the breach, and watchdog organization American Oversight said it’s filed a lawsuit against several of the officials in the chat.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has ramped up his campaign against soft drinks by launching a drive to ban food stamp recipients from using them to purchase that addictive, bubbly sweetness. Meanwhile, The Bulwark’s Will Sommer has detected what looks like the latest campaign in the curious world of MAGA paid sponcon: right-wing influencers suddenly defending soda against government regulations.
“Is Mountain Dew nutritious and life-giving?” one influencer wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “No. But freedom of choice is.”
[thebulwark.com]
The South Korean conglomerate’s US investment includes a new $5.8 billion steel plant in Louisiana, which is set to create 1,400 jobs and supply Hyundai’s auto plants in Alabama and Georgia. The company also plans to invest $6 billion to expand partnerships with AI, autonomous driving, robotics, and air mobility companies in the US.
These latest figures build on the $10 billion that Hyundai previously said it would invest into the US between 2022-2025.
Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old creator making videos about politics and the right wing, announced a run for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District today. The seat is held by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois), who hasn’t faced a serious primary challenge since 1998.
Abughazaleh previously worked for Media Matters, the nonprofit that Elon Musk pounced on for its reporting about X. In 2024 the organization laid off more than a dozen staffers, including Abughazaleh, citing “a legal assault on multiple fronts.”
Bluesky COO Rose Wang confirmed the account this morning, as TechCrunch spotted. In a Threads post, Obama invited people to go to Bluesky to read stories he was sharing to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.
This new account hasn’t recreated his record-breaking 2015 sprint to a million Twitter followers yet.
