Category: Western Media

Brazil’s Bolsonaro charged in plot to poison successor in alleged coup attempt

Brazil’s prosecutor-general said Tuesday that former leader Jair Bolsonaro knew and agreed to a plan to poison his successor and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as part of an attempted coup that would have allowed him to remain in power. Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet formally charged Bolsonaro and 33 others with participating in a plan to keep Bolsonaro in power following his 2022 election defeat. The alleged plot also included a plan to poison Lula and shoot dead Supreme Court Justice Alexandre…

Ford slashes manager stock bonuses to cut costs, boost performance

About half the middle managers at Ford Motor will not get stock bonuses this year in what is seen internally as CEO Jim Farley’s latest attempt to cut the automaker’s bloated costs, according to six people familiar with the matter. The stock awards are usually paid in March, but senior managers have been told to select which half of their middle management staff will receive them, four of the sources said. Ford said the change was meant to incentivize an…

Jobs cut at U.S. Federal Aviation Administration helped support air safety, union says

President Donald Trump’s administration has said no one at the Federal Aviation Administration with a “critical safety” position has been fired as it cuts the federal work force, but some FAA jobs that were eliminated had direct roles in supporting safety inspectors and airport operations, according to their union and former employees. About 400 personnel were let go starting Friday. There is still not a complete picture of who was fired, but the union representing about 130 of them said…

Health Net Federal Services and Centene Corporation Agree to Pay Over $11 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Liability for Cybersecurity Violations

Note: View the settlement agreement here. Health Net Federal Services Inc. (HNFS) of Rancho Cordova, California and its corporate parent, St. Louis-based Centene Corporation, have agreed to pay $11,253,400 to resolve claims that HNFS falsely certified compliance with cybersecurity requirements in a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to administer the Defense Health Agency’s (DHA) TRICARE health benefits program for servicemembers and their families. In 2016, Centene acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Health Net…

Deepseek removed from South Korea’s app stores over privacy concerns

DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, has temporarily paused downloads of its chatbot apps in South Korea while it works with local authorities to address privacy concerns, South Korean officials said Monday. South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission said DeepSeek’s apps were removed from the local versions of Apple’s App Store and Google Play on Saturday evening and that the company agreed to work with the agency to strengthen privacy protections before relaunching the apps. The action does not affect…

Trade tariff turmoil pushes Canada to rethink US ties | DW News

Video: Trump’s tariff policies are straining US-Canada relations. After imposing and then suspending tariffs, Canadian leaders are reassessing their ties with the US. Some are now looking to the European Union as a potential alternative. Major publications, including The Toronto Star and The Economist, are openly questioning whether Canada could align more closely with Europe. European politicians are also weighing in. Could this mark a significant shift in global alliances?

3 senior officials quit after order to drop corruption charges against NYC mayor

Three senior U.S. Justice Department officials, including Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, resigned on Thursday rather than comply with an order to dismiss corruption charges against New York City’s mayor, according to an internal Justice Department memo seen by Reuters and people familiar with the matter. The departures mark a sign of resistance from career Justice Department officials to U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to overhaul the agency to end what he calls its weaponization against political opponents. Critics say Trump’s changes threaten to subject…

House Democrats Physically Blocked From Entering Department Of Education Building

Video: House Democrats attempted to enter a Department of Education building on Friday in protest of proposed actions from President Trump but were blocked.

Lockheed Martin Corporation agrees to settle allegations of defective pricing on military contracts

Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMC) has agreed to pay $29.74 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations of defective pricing on contracts for F-35 military aircraft. This payment is in addition to $11.3 million that LMC previously paid to the Department of Defense (DOD) for the same undisclosed cost and pricing data on some of the same contracts. LMC, headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, is one of the world’s largest defense contractors. According to court documents, between 2013 and 2015, LMC inflated…

Bernie Sanders delivers ferocious Attack on Trump, Musk ‘Oligarchy’

Video: During remarks on the Senate floor, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) criticized the Trump Administration for moving the country towards ‘oligarchy’.

Several people killed in mass shooting at a school in Sweden

Around 10 people have been killed in a shooting at an adult education centre, Swedish police said, the deadliest attack to take place in the country on what the prime minister said was a “painful day” for the country. The gunman is believed to be among those killed, and a search is continuing at the school for other possible victims, the local police chief told a news conference. “We know that 10 or so people have been killed here today. The…

Canadians push back on Trump tariffs by ditching American goods and services

U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs started a wave of patriotic pushback this weekend from Canadians declaring that they were swapping American items off their shopping lists and cancelling their subscriptions to leading streaming services. Mr. Trump’s plan to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods starting Tuesday has prompted fears of an economic shock that will throw hundreds of thousands out of work. The federal government immediately responded with retaliatory tariffs as political leaders urged the public to shop local and…

Only one air traffic controller working during deadly mid-air collision near Washington: report

One air traffic controller was working two positions when a passenger jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided in mid-air with a military helicopter near Washington late Wednesday, according to a report from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The report, obtained by The Associated Press, says the staffing configuration “was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.” The plane was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va., when it collided with the…

Lawsuit accuses Amazon of secretly tracking consumers through cellphones

Amazon.com was sued on Wednesday by consumers who accused the retailing giant of secretly tracking their movements through their cellphones, and selling data it collects. According to a proposed class action in San Francisco federal court, Amazon obtained “backdoor access” to consumers’ phones by providing tens of thousands of app developers with code known as Amazon Ads SDK to be embedded in their apps. This allegedly enabled Amazon to collect an enormous amount of timestamped geolocation data about where consumers…

DeepSeek seems to struggle with questions that would upset Chinese authorities

The Chinese-made AI chatbot DeepSeek may not always answer some questions about topics that are often censored by Beijing, according to tests run by CBC News and The Associated Press, and is providing different information than its U.S.-owned competitor ChatGPT. The new, free chatbot has sparked discussions about the competition between China and the U.S. in AI development, with many users flocking to test it. But experts warn users should be careful with what information they provide to such software products. It is also “a little bit surprising,”…

2-year-old Palestinian girl killed in her home by Israeli military

Israeli forces shot a two-year-old girl in the head in her West Bank home on Saturday while she was eating dinner with her family, according to health officials and family members. The Palestinian Health Ministry says Laila Muhammad Al-Khatib was shot dead during an Israeli military raid on the village of Ash-Shuhada, just south of Jenin. “They started to shoot at us through the windows without any warning,” Ghada Asous, the toddler’s grandmother, said. “All of a sudden, the special forces raided…