The Trump administration is poised to receive a roughly $10 billion "brokerage" fee from the investor group that recently took control of TikTok's U.S. operations, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The payment, which President Trump has previously referred to as a "fee-plus," represents a windfall for the Treasury Department in exchange for facilitating the deal that allowed the social media app to continue operating in the United States. The extraction of this fee marks a significant departure from traditional U.S. regulatory involvement in private-sector transactions. Typically, advisory fees for even the largest mergers, such as Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP) $71.5 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC), result in bank payouts that are a fraction of the percentage claimed by the government in the TikTok deal.
After President Donald Trump returned to office last year, his administration announced plans to overhaul the VA, one of the largest health care systems in the country, to deliver "the highest quality care." "This administration is finally going to give the veterans what they want," VA Secretary Doug Collins said last March, as the department announced tens of thousands of job cuts. But in interview after interview, veterans across the country told ProPublica that one year into the second Trump administration it's become more difficult to get treatment, as hundreds of therapists and social workers have left the VA. Many of them have not been replaced. In January, the department had around 500 fewer psychologists and psychiatrists than it had at the same time last year, ProPublica found.
The war with Iran is driving up more than gasoline prices. It is beginning to hit semiconductors, medical imaging, backyard gardens and even children's party balloons. While much of the world is focused on how Iran's essential closure of the Strait of Hormuz is damaging global energy markets, other key industries risk getting hit by similar price inflation. That's because Hormuz is also a major shipping route for helium and fertilizer, which both affect a wide sector of the economy and are now experiencing price spikes as ships bottleneck on both sides of the strait. About a third of both the global helium and fertilizer supply passes through Hormuz. Half of the global supply of urea " a nitrogen-based fertilizer" and almost a third of the ammonia supply run through the straits, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Donald Trump's policies are likely to drive soaring rates of lung disease and premature death, according to a wide-ranging new study by pulmonary specialists and public health experts. read more
President Donald Trump insisted that the war with Iran would only be over when he felt it in his bones. read more
Brian Allen
@allenanalysis
3h
A Spanish assembly member just stood up in the Madrid parliament and said what most world leaders won't:
"Do you think the mothers of 160 dead girls would thank Trump for killing their children? You have become a bootlicker of Trump."
The chamber erupted in support.
This is happening in Madrid.
In Washington, senators are competing to prove their loyalty to a foreign government.
In Texas, Ted Cruz told Christians he won't stand with them if they won't stand with Israel.
In South Carolina, Lindsey Graham is recruiting parents to send their children to the Middle East.
In Madrid, an elected official is saying the mothers of 160 dead girls out loud " in parliament " on the record.
Spine: 100%.
The moral clarity that is absent in Washington is showing up everywhere else.
x.com
It figures CSAMRUNT would support the slaughter of 175 Iranian schoolgirls.