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    Elon Musk agrees to settle lawsuits over 2024 election lottery

    Trump-boosting billionaire was sued over promise to give away $1m per day to random signatories of petitionElon Musk and his ⁠America Pac political action committee said recently that they agreed to settle two ⁠proposed class ⁠actions ​alleging the billionaire entrepreneur defrauded residents in closely contested states before the ⁠2024 US election by promising voters a lottery-style daily $1m giveaway.The plaintiffs, Musk and America Pac ​told the ‌judge overseeing the two ‌related lawsuits in federal court in Austin, Texas, ‌on Thursday that they have reached settlements subject to court approval. Continue reading… More

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    ‘Gaza is a moral tear in the universe’: Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor | Radical Thinking with Aditya Chakrabortty – podcast

    Are we really living through ‘end times fascism’? Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor think so.In a new series from the Guardian, the pair speak to Radical Thinking with Aditya Chakrabortty in an extended interview. From Trump 2.0 and the rise of the tech billionaire to Gaza and the climate emergency, Klein and Taylor argue we are not just lurching from crisis to crisis but are in a new and dangerous moment in history. But they haven’t given up hope of a fightbackRadical Thinking will be published every Saturday in the Politics Weekly feedYou can watch the full interview with Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor here.
    Aditya’s suggested reading:Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor’s End Times Fascism is out now and available here. It began life as a special essay in the Guardian, which you can read here.A different take on whether Trump 2.0 is fascist comes from the economist Branko Milanović on his brilliant Substack.Elon Musk gives Donald Trump millions, and Trump gives Musk vast access to power. To read more, look at Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff’s Long Read for the Guardian and their recent book Muskism: a Guide for the Perplexed.For some sensational reporting on Trump’s second term, look at Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.How did the business class learn to love Trump and embrace chaos? Paul Heideman gives a lucid analysis in his recent book Rogue Elephant.If you want more on the new tech bros of Silicon Valley, here are four recommendations:- In their book, Klein and Taylor regularly cite Karen Hao’s Empire of AI.- There’s also The Nerd Reich, just out from Gil Durán. Continue reading… More

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    ‘Elon is my prophet’: how Musk’s Doge team took a wrecking ball to Washington

    When the new ‘department of government efficiency’ sent young techies to disrupt federal agencies, not everyone complied. Here’s what happened when one worker fought to protect immigrant dataIn the early hours of Saturday 22 February 2025 the following email landed in the inboxes of the entire US federal workforce:From: HR [email protected] Continue reading… More

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    Seth Meyers on Trump canceling $1bn in federal funds: ‘Is he adding a waterslide to the reflecting pool?’

    Late-night hosts weighed in on Trump’s relationship with tech leaders and the White House’s new AI-powered siteOn Tuesday night, late-night hosts discussed a Maha summit in Washington DC, the White House’s new AI-powered website and Donald Trump once again falling asleep on live TV. Continue reading… More