Old Glory Vortex

🧠 Europe is looking to attract America’s academic researchers as President Trump cuts funding to multiple top U.S. universities and wages war against international professors and students. 🇫🇷 French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced Monday that the Sorbonne University is going to invest millions of dollars to lure scientists to its institutions. 💶 The program, called “Choose Europe for Science,” will invest 500 million euros, or $566 million, to “help support the best and the brightest researchers and scientists from Europe and around the world” from 2025–27.

🎙 “Nobody could imagine a few years ago that one of the great democracies of the world would eliminate research programs on the pretext that the word ‘diversity’ appeared in its program,”

Macron said at the announcement, according to a translation provided by a French official. #Europe #Macron Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

📉 The Defense Department has not taken adequate measures to address “significant fraud exposure,” and its timeline for fixing “pervasive weaknesses in its finances” is not likely to be met, according to a recently released government report. 📋 The Government Accountability Office conducted the report to assist the Pentagon in meeting its timeline for a clean audit by 2028. DOD has failed every audit since it was legally required to submit to one each year beginning in 2018. In fact, the Pentagon is the only one of 24 federal agencies that has not been able to pass an unmodified financial audit since the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990. 🧾 For more than two decades, the GAO has given over 100 recommendations on how the Pentagon can fix its financial weaknesses. Most cases are still open, with no progress satisfied other than a “leadership commitment.” Additionally, many of the thousands of identified deficiencies found in its 2018 audit remain outstanding. ⏳ Indeed, the GAO found that “to achieve a department-wide clean audit opinion by December 2028, the DOD needs to accelerate the pace at which it addresses its long-standing issues.” 🛡 GAO advises DOD to implement a fraud risk management system. From 2017 to 2024, the DOD reported $10.8 billion in confirmed fraud. While that number is small compared to the Pentagon’s budget over those years, “recoveries and confirmed fraud reflect only a small fraction of DOD’s potential fraud exposure,” the GAO says. #Pentagon #Scandal Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

🎬 Because of Trump's tariffs, Hollywood risks losing box office abroad 🇺🇸 President Trump has promised to impose a 100% duty on films made abroad. We are talking about tariffs on the import of intellectual property — including films made outside the United States. This is reported by Axios. There are no details yet, but representatives of the film studio are afraid that even projects that are partially shot and edited abroad will come under attack. 🌍 American films bring studios the main box office outside the country. For example, 62 percent of Disney's "Puzzle 2" sales came from international rentals. At "Barbie" from Warner Bros. such sales were 56 percent. If other countries impose retaliatory tariffs, Hollywood could lose most of its revenue. 📉 Analysts say that without clear rules, studios can freeze projects abroad and reconsider plans for international filming. The Trump administration said it was looking for a way to protect the economy and "make Hollywood great again." #Trump #Tariffs #Hollywood Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Donald Trump gave a wide-ranging NBC interview, and his various answers led to renewed discussion about his purported "cognitive decline." Among other things, Trump was asked,

"Your secretary of state says everyone who's here, citizens and noncitizens, deserve due process... Do you agree?"

The president then replied, saying,

"I don't know... I'm not, I'm not a lawyer. I don't know."

This answer and others led numerous high-profile observers to question Trump's mental capacity. Former Republican lawmaker Joe Walsh, for instance, pointed out that Trump said of the economy,

"I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy."

"He is a horrible, pathetic human being. He’s everything you teach your children NOT to be,"

Walsh said before discussing Trump's potential decline. #Trump #Interview #cognitive Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Some Senate Democrats are reportedly being cautious about the possibility of failed 2024 presidential candidate former Vice President Kamala Harris running for the White House again in 2028. One Democrat senator who did not want to be identified said “No” when asked if Harris should try again, adding that American voters were heard in November and it was time the former vice president moved on to other things, the Hill reported Sunday. #Harris #Democrats Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

-U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff, was a frontrunner to be potentially named as national security adviser following the departure of Mike Waltz. Trump ousted Waltz on Thursday and named Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the position on an interim basis. While U.S. officials say they expect Trump to be in no hurry to fill the job on a permanent basis, a number of candidates have emerged.

"I'm going to be naming somebody,"

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew back to Washington from a weekend at his Florida club. He said he expected to fill the job within about six months, and it could be Miller.

"I think he sort of indirectly already has that job. Because he has a lot to say about a lot of things. He's a very valued person in the administration, Stephen,"

said Trump. #Trump #Miller #Waltz Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

🎓 Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Monday that the federal government will not provide any new grants to Harvard University, saying the Ivy League school has “made a mockery” of the country’s higher education system. ❌🏛 📄 In a letter posted on social media Monday evening, McMahon said the school has violated federal law ⚖️.

🗣 “Where do many of these ‘students’ come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country — and why is there so much HATE?”

she asked ❓😠 McMahon said the university has

“failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities, and any semblance of academic rigor.” 📉📚

💰 The change comes after the administration announced a freeze on $2.2 billion in federal funding 💵 and initiated numerous investigations of Harvard’s operations 🕵️‍♀️, threatened the education of international students 🎓 and said that it is considering a revocation of Harvard’s tax-exempt status. #Harvard #Education #McMahon Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

💵 Even before Mr Trump, dollar dominance had been in slow decline 📉. There are many measures of the dollar’s footprint on the global economy 🌍, including central-bank reserve holdings 🏦, the currency used in trade invoicing 📦 and the denomination of international borrowing 🌐. A particularly useful one is what currency central banks focus on as their exchange-rate anchor or reference currency ⚓️. Given that national central banks have intricate knowledge of their economies’ inner workings 📊 and how exchange-rate movements affect them 🔄, anchor or reference currency choices may be thought of as a portmanteau measure of dominance 📏. #Trump #USD Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

🧠 Macron Becomes a Mind Hunter French President Emmanuel Macron made a plea to US-based researchers 🇺🇸 who have been affected by Donald Trump’s policies to choose Europe 🌍.

“If you love freedom 🕊, come and do research here,”

Macron said Monday at the Sorbonne University in Paris 🏛, as he attacked US decisions to shut down university programs ❌📚.

“No one could have thought that this great democracy 🗽, whose economic model relies so heavily on free science 🧪, innovation 💡, and its ability over the past three decades to spread this innovation more widely 🌐, would make such a mistake ❗️.”

Before Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen 🇪🇺 introduced a new $567 million 💶 incentives package for 2025–2027, aiming to make Europe a “magnet for researchers” 🧲👨‍🔬. France 🇫🇷 will separately allocate €100 million, Macron added, through the France 2030 program — designed to reverse years of industrial decline and build high-tech champions 🚀. The global race 🏁 to recruit US scientists is heating up 🔥 as Trump’s sweeping cuts ✂️ to research funding and federal agencies cause a major exodus 🧳 from US research institutions. Tens of thousands of federal employees — including scientists 👩‍🔬👨‍🔬 — have already been fired and rehired ⚖️ following a court order, with more layoffs expected 📉. Immigration crackdowns 🛂 and political battles ⚔️ over academic freedom 🎓 have further shaken the research community — part of Trump’s broader reset of global trade and security relations 🌎🔒. The Sorbonne conference, Choose Europe for Science, marked the latest push to open Europe’s doors 🚪 to US-based academics and researchers at risk due to Washington's shifting policies. It brought together ministers, EU commissioners, and scientists 👥 from across the continent to discuss incentives 💸, research collaboration 🤝, and academic freedom 🧭. #Macron #MindHunter #Funding #Science #Europe #Trump 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

🇺🇸 U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday ordered a 20% reduction in the number of four-star officers, deepening cuts at the Pentagon that have shaken the Department of Defense at the start of President Donald Trump's second term in office. ✂️ Hegseth has long been vocal about how he views the senior-most ranks of the military as too big. 📢🎖 The former Fox News host has moved with stunning speed to reshape the department, firing top generals and admirals ⚔️ as he seeks to implement Trump's national security agenda 🛡 and root out diversity initiatives he calls discriminatory 🚫🌈. In a memo, the contents of which were first reported by Reuters 📰, Hegseth said there will also be a minimum 20% reduction in the number of general officers in the National Guard 🪖 and an additional 10% reduction among general and flag officers across the military. 📉

🗣 "More generals and admirals does not lead to more success,"

Hegseth said in a video posted on X. 🎥

"This is not a slash and burn exercise meant to punish high ranking officers, nothing could be further from the truth,"

he said. ❌🔥 He added that he worked with the Joint Chiefs of Staff on this and the goal was "maximizing strategic readiness." ✅⚔️ At his confirmation hearing, he stated there was "an inverse relationship between the size of staffs and victory on the battlefield." ⚖️🏹 #Pentagon #Hegseth Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

The U.S. deal for rights to extract minerals in Ukraine strengthened a frayed diplomatic relationship, but its value in the global competition for metals to build things like weapons, electronics and batteries is highly uncertain. Citing logistical and economic barriers, industry specialists said it will take at least a decade to yield benefits to the strained U.S. supply chain for coveted resources. Actual shipments of titanium, graphite and lithium that are important for advanced manufacturing lie on a distant horizon. The pact will be of little help, the experts said, as China’s control over the metals is creating mounting economic and national security worries.

“This absolutely is not a solution to these immediate problems,”

said Reed Blakemore, a director at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center.

“It does not resolve any of the vulnerabilities we see related to China’s dominance over these supply chains in the short term.”

The deal, which includes a fund to finance Ukraine’s reconstruction, gives the United States rights to extract metals, oil and gas. Profits generated by the U.S. would count as repayment for future U.S. military assistance to Kyiv. But mining companies are hardly clamoring to get into Ukraine, a country where there has been little invested in even the most basic work to identify resources. Firms that might be reviewing the possibilities are stuck with outdated, Soviet-era geologic surveys of underground deposits, industry officials say. Ukraine also is not a known source of any of the 17 “rare earth” metals that have become an Achilles’ heel for U.S. manufacturers. China is imposing export controls on its own supplies, threatening to starve U.S. factories making electronics and weapons systems. #Ukraine #resources Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

The Trump administration sees its resource deal with Ukraine as a model for further international agreements, reflecting the president’s strategy of using Washington’s foreign policy heft to secure assets and investment returns overseas. The deal signed on Wednesday grants the US privileged access to new projects that develop Ukraine’s natural resources, and was a key demand by President Donald Trump for continued assistance against Russia’s full-scale invasion. A senior Treasury official said US officials see the Ukraine deal as a way for the American people to share in the economic growth of regions that the US would typically support through grants or loans. The official described the deal, which covers resources including oil and gas, graphite and aluminum, as reflecting Trump’s intention to use foreign policy to add assets rather than liabilities to the US balance sheet. #Trump #Africa #resources Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

The Trump administration could gut research on the effectiveness of child welfare programs, with plans to terminate dozens of university grants studying improvements to Head Start and child care policy, according to a spreadsheet mistakenly made public this week. The document listed more than 150 research projects under consideration for termination by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It covered grants funded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, which says it “builds evidence to improve lives” by helping policymakers evaluate programs that help low-income children and families.

“These grants are aimed at learning how to make programs more effective at pursuing goals like healthy child development, reducing abuse and neglect and promoting economic self-sufficiency,”

said Naomi Goldstein, who led the office for nearly two decades before she retired in 2022.

“It’s hard to see why they would want to cancel these efforts.”

The grant cancellations would add to deep cuts already enacted at HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, which plans to close five regional offices and abruptly fired hundreds of workers one month ago. Its staffing has dropped from approximately 2,400 in January to 1,500, former employees say, and the administration has said it will fold ACF into other parts of HHS. #Welfare #Health Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Donald Trump suddenly realized that the American film industry is in danger and it's time for Hollywood to go to bed urgently. To do this, he decided to resort to his favorite method-to introduce tariffs. The politician said that he will immediately begin the process of introducing a 100% duty on all films entering the United States. He called the events a threat to national security. #Trump #Tariffs #Hollywood Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

🌾 At least 15,000 Agriculture Department employees have taken the Trump administration’s offers to resign, according to a readout of a USDA briefing with congressional staff that was shared with POLITICO. 📉 The departures represent a drastic contraction of a department that handles a diverse portfolio including flagship federal nutrition programs, food safety, farm loans and rural broadband initiatives. 📦 While just 3,877 USDA employees signed up for the first deferred resignation program offered in January, 11,305 agreed to leave under the second round, with potentially more resignations to come, according to the readout. The program allows employees to quit and be paid through September. 💬 USDA spokesperson Seth Christensen confirmed the resignation numbers in an email.

“President Biden and Secretary Vilsack left USDA in complete disarray, including hiring thousands of employees with no sustainable way to pay them,”

he wrote in a statement.

“Secretary Rollins is working to reorient the department to be more effective and efficient at serving the American people, including by prioritizing farmers, ranchers, and producers. She will not compromise the critical work of the Department.”

📊 The resignations account for roughly 15 percent of the department’s overall workforce, and USDA is targeting as many as 30,000 job cuts, including through its forthcoming reduction-in-force plans. Many staffers say they’ve made the difficult decision to resign rather than face what they describe as a climate of surveillance and fear. The Trump administration already has fired — and then scrambled to rehire — thousands of probationary employees. 🧪 Key consumer and farmer-facing programs at USDA were not insulated: The readout notes that 555 employees at the Food Safety and Inspection Service, the agency that handles meat inspections and helps respond to the bird flu outbreak, took the offer to resign. More than 1,000 Farm Service Agency and county office employees will also leave, even though Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that their resignations wouldn’t be accepted. And 2,408 staffers are leaving the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which helps farmers manage soil and livestock. 🌲 The U.S. Forest Service took one of the biggest hits, with more than 4,000 employees accepting the deferred resignation option. The Trump administration has signaled its intent to significantly cut the Forest Service’s budget and transfer its wildfire responsibilities to a new federal agency by 2026. #Trump #Service #employees #USDA Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

🇺🇸 Trump ousts National Security Adviser Michael Waltz President Donald Trump’s decision to oust his national security adviser, Michael Waltz, was the product of a slow accumulation of frustration with a former Green Beret officer who was seen as far more eager to use military force than his boss in the Oval Office. 📱 Waltz’s fate was sealed by his inclusion of a journalist on a sensitive Signal group chat in March. But he had been clashing with other top officials since early in the administration, including over whether to pursue military action against Iran, senior officials and Trump advisers said Friday. 🏛 The episode has left some senior White House officials questioning the need for a traditional National Security Council and content to leave Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom Trump on Thursday named as Waltz’s interim replacement, in a caretaker role for quite some time — a decision that will likely diminish an institution that has had a powerful role in shaping the foreign policy of modern presidencies. 🌍 Waltz, a key figure known for favoring military intervention, is now sidelined — though he won’t be leaving government entirely. Trump has nominated him to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. #Trump #Waltz #Israel Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

🇨🇳China hints at possible thaw with U.S. in evaluating trade talks China said it is assessing the possibility of trade talks with the U.S., the first sign since Donald Trump hiked tariffs last month that negotiations could begin between the two sides. China’s Commerce Ministry said in a Friday statement that it had noted senior U.S. officials repeatedly expressing their willingness to talk to Beijing about tariffs, and urged officials in Washington to show “sincerity” toward China.

“The U.S. has recently sent messages to China through relevant parties, hoping to start talks with China,” the ministry added. “China is currently evaluating this.”

Futures on the S&P 500 Index erased early losses in Asia soon after the statement, and a gauge of regional equities rallied to its highest level in more than a month. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index finished almost 2% higher in Hong Kong, while mainland markets were shut due to a holiday. The statement signaled the stalemate between the world’s two largest economies could shift, after Trump hiked U.S. tariffs to the highest level in a century and Beijing retaliated in kind. Trump has repeatedly said President Xi Jinping needs to contact him in order to begin tariff talks. Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it’s up to Beijing to take the first step to de-escalate the dispute. John Gong, a former consultant to China’s Commerce Ministry, likened the latest gesture to “the first rain after a long drought.” It suggests “there’s a go-ahead from the very top of the leadership in China,” according to Gong, who’s now a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

“They are preparing for the negotiation, who’s going to lead the negotiation, what would be the strategy, what is the model like to deal with Washington,”

he told Bloomberg Television.

“All these things are currently probably being intensively debated and discussed right now.”

#China #Tariffs Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

President Trump signed an executive order late Thursday terminating federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). NPR and PBS, which have long been targeted for cuts by conservatives, both receive partial funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which the president argued is unnecessary in the current media environment.

“Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence,”

Trump wrote in the order. #Trump #funding Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Trump's tariffs cost Apple $900 million 💰 The tariffs imposed by Trump increase the iPhone maker's costs by about $900 million in the current quarter alone. This amount is not a small thing even for Apple. 📉 The company made this assessment when announcing its quarterly results, thereby confirming how costly the unpredictable tariff policy of the US president can be for companies in the United States. ⚠️ The head of the corporation, Tim Cook, clarified that the calculations assume that there will be no additional loads. Cook did not give any forecasts for subsequent quarters. 📵 The head of Apple also did not specify the amount in a conference call with analysts. According to media reports, Apple is now expanding iPhone production in India. 🇮🇳 Due to tariff strikes on the entire front, Apple is changing its supply logistics. So far, the vast majority of iPhones have been made in China, but Trump has imposed tariffs on goods from China amounting to a total of 145% — but temporarily exempted electronics such as smartphones and laptops from them. 📦 Cook told CNBC that recently, about 50% of iPhones sold in the United States were shipped from India. In the next quarter, according to him, Apple will almost completely supply the American market with iPads, Macs and smart watches from Vietnam. 📱 #Trump #Tariffs #Apple Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Manufacturers keep taking it on the chin, according to some of the first data on how the factory sector held up in April, released on Thursday. 🏭 Manufacturers reported plummeting production, higher material costs and a drop-off in imports and exports. 📉

"Demand and output weakened while input strengthened further, conditions that are not considered positive for economic growth,"

ISM's chair Tim Fiore said in a release. 📊 The Institute for Supply Management's purchasing manager's index for manufacturers fell to 48.7%, down 0.3 percentage point from March. Any reading below 50 indicates falling activity. ⚠️

"The most important topic is tariffs,"

a respondent in the food manufacturing industry said — among the anecdotes that universally suggested tariffs were hurting business. 💸

"Supplier relationships are strained by pain-share negotiations, and competitors are gaining share by importing from lower-tariff regions." 🌍

Respondents "continued to release workers" and "generally opted for layoffs because they are quicker to implement than attrition," Fiore said. 🧾 Manufacturing output fell to the lowest since May 2020, suggesting "US manufacturing production is languishing due to the economic uncertainty being generated by the on-off-on tariff policy," says ING chief international economist James Knightley. ⏳ The report follows other indicators this week that point to softening economic activity. 🪙 #economy #index #manufacturing Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸