Renting in Seattle now requires a much higher income than just a few years ago, according to new Zillow data sourced by Axios.. To afford the typical monthly rent in the metro area, a household must earn nearly $91,000 annually — about 23% more than five years ago.

Zillow uses the standard guideline that rent should take up no more than 30% of household income. Based on that, the typical Seattle-area rent of $2,271 in April would require an annual income of $90,840, the 11th-highest threshold among major U.S. metros.

Seattle’s relatively high household incomes help cushion the blow for many families: the region’s median household income reached $110,744 in 2023, well above Zillow’s affordability mark. But single earners face tighter constraints. Census data show Seattle’s per capita income was $82,508 last year — leaving many individuals below the level needed to comfortably pay average rent.

Axios writes that nationally, typical rents stood at $2,024 per month in April, requiring about $80,949 in annual income — roughly $10,000 less than in Seattle.

“Housing costs have surged since pre-pandemic, with rents growing quite a bit faster than wages,” said Orphe Divounguy, senior economist at Zillow. “This often leaves little room for other expenses, making it particularly difficult for those hoping to save for a down payment on a future home.”

The findings highlight the widening gap between housing costs and wages across the country, even in regions with relatively strong incomes like Seattle.

Authored by Renee Dudley with research by Doris Burke via ProPublica,

Microsoft, as a provider of cloud services to the U.S. government, is required to regularly submit security plans to officials describing how the company will protect federal computer systems.

Yet in a 2025 submission to the Defense Department, the tech giant left out key details, including its use of employees based in China, the top cyber adversary of the U.S., to work on highly sensitive department systems, according to a copy obtained by ProPublica. In fact, the Microsoft plan viewed by ProPublica makes no reference to the company’s China-based operations or foreign engineers at all.

The document belies Microsoft’s repeated assertions that it disclosed the arrangement to the federal government, showing exactly what was left out as it sold its security plan to the Defense Department. The Pentagon has been investigating the use of foreign personnel by IT contractors in the wake of reporting by ProPublica last month that exposed Microsoft’s practice.

Our work detailed how Microsoft relies on “digital escorts” — U.S. personnel with security clearances — to supervise the foreign engineers who maintain the Defense Department’s cloud systems. The department requires that people handling sensitive data be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

Microsoft’s security plan, dated Feb. 28 and submitted to the department’s IT agency, distinguishes between personnel who have undergone and passed background screenings to access its Azure Government cloud platform and those who have not. But it omits the fact that workers who have not been screened include non-U.S. citizens based in foreign countries. “Whenever non-screened personnel request access to Azure Government, an operator who has been screened and has access to Azure Government provides escorted access,” the company said in its plan.

The document also fails to disclose that the screened digital escorts can be contractors hired by a staffing company, not Microsoft employees. ProPublica found that escorts, in many cases former military personnel selected because they possess active security clearances, often lack the expertise needed to supervise engineers with far more advanced technical skills. Microsoft has told ProPublica that escorts “are provided specific training on protecting sensitive data” and preventing harm.

Microsoft’s reference to the escort model comes two-thirds of the way into the 125-page document, known as a “System Security Plan,” in several paragraphs under the heading “Escorted Access.” Government officials are supposed to evaluate these plans to determine whether the security measures disclosed in them are acceptable.

In interviews with ProPublica, Microsoft has maintained that it disclosed the digital escorting arrangement in the plan, and that the government approved it. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other government officials have expressed shock and outrage over the model, raising questions about what, exactly, the company disclosed as it sought to win and keep government cloud computing contracts.

None of the parties involved, including Microsoft and the Defense Department, commented on the omissions in this year’s security plan. But former federal officials now say that the obliqueness of the disclosure, which ProPublica is reporting for the first time, may explain that disconnect and likely contributed to the government’s acceptance of the practice. Microsoft previously told ProPublica that its security documentation to the government, going back years, contained similar wording regarding escorts.

Former Defense Department Chief Information Officer John Sherman, who said he was unfamiliar with the digital escorting process before ProPublica’s reporting, called it a “case of not asking the perfect question to the vendor, with every conceivable prohibited condition spelled out.”

In a LinkedIn post about ProPublica’s investigation, Sherman said such a question “would’ve smoked out this crazy practice of ‘digital escorts.’” His post continued: “The DoD can’t be exposed in this way. The company needs to admit this was wrong and commit to not doing things that don’t pass a common sense test.”

Experts have said allowing China-based personnel to perform technical support and maintenance on U.S. government computer systems poses major security risks. Laws in China grant the country’s officials broad authority to collect data, and experts say it is difficult for any Chinese citizen or company to meaningfully resist a direct request from security forces or law enforcement. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has deemed China the “most active and persistent cyber threat to U.S. Government, private-sector, and critical infrastructure networks.”

Following ProPublica’s reporting last month, Microsoft said that it had stopped using China-based engineers to support Defense Department cloud computing systems. The company did not respond directly to questions from ProPublica about the security plan and instead issued a statement defending the escort practice.

“Escorted sessions were tightly monitored and supplemented by layers of security mitigations,” the statement said. “Based on the feedback we’ve received, however, we have updated our processes to prevent any involvement of China based engineers.”

Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote to Hegseth last month suggesting that the Defense Department needed to strengthen oversight of its contractors and that current processes “fail to account for the growing Chinese threat.”

“As we learn more about these ‘digital escorts’ and other unwise — and outrageous — practices used by some DoD partners, it is clear the Department and Congress will need to take further action,” Cotton wrote. He continued: “We must put in place the protocols and processes to adopt innovative technology quickly, effectively, and safely.”

Since 2011, the government has used the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, known as FedRAMP, to evaluate the security practices of commercial companies that want to sell cloud services to the federal government. The Defense Department also has its own guidelines, which include the citizenship requirement for people handling sensitive data.

Both FedRAMP and the Defense Department rely on “third party assessment organizations” to evaluate whether vendors meet the government’s cloud security requirements. While the government considers these organizations “independent,” they are hired and paid directly by the company being assessed. Microsoft, for example, told ProPublica that it enlisted a company called Kratos to shepherd it through the initial FedRAMP and Defense Department authorization processes and to handle annual assessments after winning federal contracts.

On its website, Kratos calls itself the “guiding light” for organizations seeking to win government cloud contracts and said it “boasts a history of performing successful security assessments.”

In a statement to ProPublica, Kratos said its work determines “if security controls are documented accurately,” but the company did not say whether Microsoft had done so in the security plan it submitted to the Defense Department’s IT agency.

Microsoft told ProPublica that it has given demonstrations of the escort process to Kratos but not directly to federal officials. The security plan makes no reference to any such demonstration. Kratos did not respond to questions about whether its assessors were aware that non-screened personnel could include foreign workers.

A former Microsoft employee who worked with Kratos through several FedRAMP accreditations compared Microsoft’s role in the process to “leading the witness” to the desired outcome. “The government approved what we paid Kratos to tell the government to approve. You’re paying for the outcome you want,” said the former employee, who requested anonymity to discuss the confidential proceeding.

Kratos said it “vehemently denies the characterization from an unnamed source that Kratos’ services are pay for play.” In its statement, Kratos said that it has been “accredited and audited by an independent, non-profit industry group” for factors that “include impartiality, competence and independence.”

“Kratos hires and retains the most technically sophisticated, certified security and technology experts,” the company said, adding that its personnel “are beyond reproach in their work.”

For its part, Microsoft said hiring Kratos was simply part of following the government’s cloud assessment process. “As required by FedRAMP, Microsoft relies on this certified assessor to conduct independent assessments on our behalf under FedRAMP’s supervision,” Microsoft said in its statement.

Still, critics take issue with the FedRAMP process itself, saying that the arrangement of a company paying its auditor presents an inherent conflict of interest. One former official from the U.S. General Services Administration, which houses FedRAMP, likened it to a restaurant hiring and paying for its own health inspector rather than the city doing so.

The GSA did not respond to requests for comment.

The Defense Information Systems Agency, the Defense Department’s IT agency, reviewed and accepted Microsoft’s security plan. Among those involved were senior DISA officials Roger Greenwell and Jackie Snouffer, according to people familiar with the situation. Neither responded to phone messages seeking comment, and DISA and Defense Department spokespeople did not respond to ProPublica’s request to interview them.

A DISA spokesperson declined to comment for this article, saying “any responses will come from Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs.”

The Office of the Secretary of Defense did not respond to questions about whether Greenwell and Snouffer, or anyone at DISA, understood that Microsoft’s China-based employees would be supporting the Defense Department’s cloud. A spokesperson also did not directly respond to questions about Microsoft’s System Security Plan but in an emailed statement said the information in such plans is considered proprietary. The spokesperson noted that “any process that fails to comply with” department restrictions barring foreigners from accessing sensitive department systems “poses unacceptable risk to the DOD infrastructure.”

That said, the office left open the door to the continued use of foreign-based engineers with digital escorts for “infrastructure support,” saying that it “may be deemed an acceptable risk,” depending on factors that include “the country of origin of the foreign national” being escorted. The department said in such scenarios foreign workers would have “view-only” capabilities, not “hands-on” access. In addition to China, Microsoft has operations in India, the European Union and elsewhere across the globe.

In a statement to ProPublica on Friday, Hegseth’s office said the Pentagon’s investigation into tech companies’ use of foreign personnel “is complete and we have identified a series of possible actions the Department could take.” A spokesperson declined to describe those actions or say whether the department would follow through with them. It’s unclear whether Microsoft’s security plan or DISA’s role in approving it was a part of the review.

“As with all contracted relationships, the Department works directly with the vendor to address concerns, to include those that have come to light with the Microsoft digital escort process,” Hegseth’s office said in the statement.

h/t Capital.news

Grocery bills vary dramatically across the U.S., and some cities are feeling the pinch more than others.

Adding to the strain are record meat prices, driving up up food price inflation 3% compared to June of last year. Meanwhile, vegetable prices are spiking as farmers struggle with labor shortages amid rising deportations.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, ranks the top 20 American cities with the highest cost of groceries, based on data from Numbeo.

America’s Top 20 Cities by Cost of Groceries

For the rankings, each city’s grocery index is compared against New York City, which is used as a baseline of 100:

Honolulu, Hawaii ranks far above all other U.S. cities with a groceries index of 120.2. That’s over 20% more than in New York City, the benchmark.

As an island state, Hawaii faces higher import and transportation costs, driving up the price of food staples. The state’s geographic isolation continues to make everyday goods, including groceries, particularly expensive.

Meanwhile, California and Washington state are well-represented in the top 20. San Francisco (100.1), San Jose (89.8), Sacramento (81.8), and Los Angeles (81.7) all make the list, as does Seattle (95.3) and Spokane (76.5).

These cities are known for higher costs of living in general, and groceries are no exception. Limited space for agriculture and strong demand from dense populations contribute to elevated food prices.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out this graphic on the top 10 states with the highest cost of living on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Authored by James Varney via RealClearInvestigations,

HOLLY RIDGE, La. – More than three millennia ago, indigenous people built a massive ceremonial mound a few miles from here, an engineering marvel called Poverty Point and one of the oldest known building projects in North America. Today, this is ground zero for what may prove a defining feature of the 21st century’s landscape.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is constructing a gargantuan, $10 billion data center that tech executives, lawmakers, and business leaders say will bring much-needed prosperity to this rural area in northeast Louisiana. Set to be operational by 2030, the project has also disturbed local homeowners and drawn opposition from environmental and government activists who worry that it will suck up vast resources, especially water and energy, from surrounding communities. 

As tech companies plan to build more data centers around the country to fuel the boom in artificial intelligence, this massive project provides a window into the issues swirling around what many see as the next phase of the digital revolution. 

Meta’s Hyperion project in Richland Parish will be the company’s biggest in a constellation of 28 centers across 19 states, Europe, and Singapore. With tech giants investing heavily in AI, it is estimated that the current crop of more than 5,000 U.S. data centers, which first sprouted to handle cloud computing, represent just half of what will be needed as AI brings radical change to computing, education, medicine, and other fields by mid-century.

Already, millions of Americans have signed up for various AI programs, such as ChatGPT (Microsoft) or Grok (Elon Musk) or Meta AI, and last month, the Trump administration released an “American AI Action Plan.” Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has dubbed 2025 “the defining year of AI,” and, as if to prove it, his company is spending $65 billion this year building out its platform.

Although AI is not producing the profits Wall Street craves, Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and other big tech stocks continue to soar. Just as cloud computing services have become major profit generators for Amazon, Apple, Meta, and others, AI is expected to bring billions into individual and corporate accounts.

AI’s Energy Appetite

Whether AI becomes the amoral killer of the human race, as Hollywood and many futurists have envisioned, or improves the lives of billions of people, as its champions insist, there is no disputing that data centers are insatiable in their power demands. The high-tech warehouses require energy to operate millions of GPU servers stacked in rows that stretch out like banks of speakers at a Rolling Stones concert, as well as their futuristic air conditioning and water-cooling systems. By 2028, the centers, which are also known as “hyperscalers,” are expected to consume 12% of all U.S. energy, or more than California, Florida, and New Jersey combined.

The scale of the operation here is immense. At the moment, Hyperion sprawls over 2,250 acres, but eventually it is expected to cover six square miles of the flat American plain that begins on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Holly Ridge is so small its population is not listed in the most recent census, but the data center plot here could contain Heathrow International Airport.

The centers also require lakes of water. As the servers run nonstop, they are sometimes surrounded by a network of cooling tubes and towers of chilled water to absorb heat. In some cases, the servers even sit in a pool of liquid that absorbs heat. A Meta data center in Georgia that is much smaller than Hyperion uses around 500,000 gallons of water each day, and residents near data centers have reported issues with their home’s water systems, according to a New York Times report last month.

Holly Ridge’s operation will need more than 1 million gallons of water daily, according to a RealClearInvestigations estimate. That has raised concerns among environmental groups like the Sierra Club’s Delta chapter.

“We don’t believe it is sustainable,” the Sierra Club’s Angelle Bradford told RCI. “Our farmers in the area are concerned.”

Meta disputed Bradford’s assertion, saying Hyperion will use a “closed-loop system,” and that the company will disclose its water use annually, although Meta does so in the aggregate, making it difficult to determine what each individual hyperscaler uses. Meta says at no point will the local water table be imperiled. 

“The Richland Parish Data Center will use little to no water during the majority of the year,” a Meta spokesperson said. “We anticipate the data center may use less water than the site’s previous agricultural use.” 

In a sign of the distrust that surrounds such massive projects, the Sierra Club disputes that claim. “They are not using a closed cycle with water,” Bradford said.

The project’s backers say Louisiana is not called the Bayou State for nothing. Given the roughly 56 inches of annual rainfall in the state’s northeast, water should be plentiful. Michael Echols, a Republican state representative from Ouachita Parish, which adjoins Richland, said he is convinced there is sufficient water in the area now. If need be, Echols adds, Meta could have an endless supply by building a pipeline to the Mississippi River some 50 miles to the east – an idea that Bradford and others find impracticable.

Then there is the energy required to support such an undertaking. Take the tens of thousands of air conditioners blasting in New Orleans on a mid-August day and double that demand for Hyperion’s use, or 2.26 megawatts daily. The electricity is expected to be provided by Entergy, which this month urged state regulators to fast-track construction of three new gas-powered plants. 

Meta, which received major tax breaks when picking the Richland Parish site, has agreed to a 15-year power supply contract with Entergy,  while also promising to match what it uses with renewable energy. 

A Meta spokesperson said it was “working closely with Entergy to bring on at least 1,500 megawatts of renewable energy,” or the equivalent of the data center’s needs. In addition, the company has said it will contribute $1 million annually to Entergy’s customer assistance program.

Entergy did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Such voracious energy consumption bothers some groups that are concerned about global warming and the potential impact on residential electricity bills. Given gas plants like those Entergy is building have a 30-year lifespan, Meta’s deal will only cover half of that time, according to the Alliance for Affordable Energy, opening the door to rate increases after 15 years.

“It’s hard to understand or believe the numbers Meta and Entergy are using,” Alliance Executive Director Logan Burke said. “We have seen this happen with data centers in Georgia, Virginia, and Ohio, where the cost of electricity absolutely goes up as a result of all this.”

Virginia ratepayers have indeed seen increases since data centers began to crop up, an RCI analysis of the area showed. In April, Dominion Energy proposed substantial rate spikes that would increase costs for residential customers in Virginia by an average of $10 per month. 

Halcyon, a data platform that uses AI to analyze energy information from all 50 states, confirms that rates have been on the rise in Virginia and elsewhere. But it’s not clear those increases are because of data centers, Halcyon’s Jeff Fisher told RCI. 

Dominion noted this would mark its first increase in basic rates since 1992, and a more than 7.5% increase in Virginia’s population between 2010 and 2020 means supply and demand pressures would raise rates.

“Based on the information we’ve collected, there is legitimacy to the Alliance’s concerns, but I’m not seeing any causal evidence that consumers are actually paying more due to data centers,” Fisher said. “That doesn’t mean that they aren’t, just that the information that we have doesn’t explicitly demonstrate it.” 

Dan Golding, a former Google executive who is now a partner with data center consulting firm ASG in Virginia, bristled at the idea that they are to blame for higher rates. He cited power companies’ profits and the loss of other plants as more likely culprits.

“The other big reason is that with the planned shutdown of coal and nuclear-powered plants and their replacement by gas and eventually small modular reactors, the large transmission lines have to shift end-point locations,” he said. “That is extremely expensive.”

The Job Promise

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and state business development agencies hailed Meta’s selection of the Holly Ridge site when it was announced last December. At the same time, Entergy said it would spend $3 billion building the three new power plants, two near the site and another near the capital in Baton Rouge. The combined operation would bring some 5,000 construction jobs and 500 permanent jobs at the data center and 300 more at the power plants, according to the companies and the government.

Hyperion jobs will pay an average of $75,000, which is 150% of the median salary in the area, according to a recent report from Grow NELA, a Monroe, La., consulting firm.

Just what those jobs might be at centers that whir 24/7 remains unclear. At a minimum, they will need round-the-clock elite security, skilled electricians, air conditioning operators, engineers, and some tech wizards, most of whom must be available in three to four shifts, according to  Golding, who said the idea that a data center only needs a handful of unskilled workers is incorrect.

“I guarantee you that all these people raising concerns about data centers have never set foot in one and don’t know the first thing about how it works,” he said.

Grow NELA President Rob Cleveland said that to some degree, “we’re going on faith” regarding the center’s economic impact. But he added that there are already tangible benefits and anticipates a pronounced positive impact throughout northeast Louisiana.

The study commissioned by Grow NELA puts construction wages at more than $1.2 billion, of which $240 million is expected to go to local residents. The state should realize some $160 million in new sales taxes during the first five years, and nearly $62 million more in income tax, according to Grow NELA estimates. The project will also create many non-local jobs – including for those who design, build, program, and use the massive servers.

“I have never felt for one moment Meta was trying to take advantage of the local community,” Cleveland said. “People have no concept of what this will do for our communities, especially as before, you couldn’t find Holly Ridge on a map. My own land value has already doubled, and I can’t put a dollar amount on what it’s worth to have Mark Zuckerberg talking about our community for months now.” 

In all cases, Meta said it picks data center locations that are “shovel-ready sites that offer excellent access to fiber and a robust electric grid with access to reliable and renewable energy resources, and a strong pool of talent for both construction and operations staff.”

To better understand the economic impact of data centers, RCI surveyed facilities in Virginia, where, since 1992, about 200 of them have sprouted within 100 miles of Washington, D.C. Today, there are another 117 under active development, continuing a pace that has seen one under construction every day for the past 14 years in Loudoun County, Virginia.

This modern tech forest has brought an estimated “74,000 jobs, $5.5 billion in labor income and $9.1 billion in GDP to Virginia’s economy annually,” a state commission found in 2024. A typical 250,000 square foot data center in the state employs some 50 skilled workers, and a construction force of up to 1,500 spends 12 to 18 months building them.

Meta’s Louisiana facility dwarfs those currently operating in Old Dominion, but the figures used by the company, Grow NELA, and others seem accurate if one extrapolates from Virginia’s experience. 

“This is a critical facility and it’s phenomenally complicated,” Golding, the consultant, said. “You’re going to need IT technicians, super security, you’re going to have to spend millions over the years stacking up teams of people.”

The Great Unknown

At the moment, the shining future looks dirty. Just a few days before classes begin at Holly Ridge Elementary School, the air above the former corn and soybean fields was shot through with a fine, rust colored dust that arises from dozens of massive Caterpillar earth movers and dump trucks that crawl across the site. Construction cranes and freshly cut phone poles line the western side, and on the eastern squat, huge piles of dirt look like Mesopotamian ruins. Truck traffic on the freshly paved highways running along the eastern and southern sides is rumbling and nonstop.

Some Richland Parish residents – many who live in modest homes and trailer parks on the farmland surrounding the construction site, where church steeples can be seen from miles across the flat land – are wary of this modern tech wave. The hubbub, disruption, and congestion, and even the brave new future itself, have them expressing apprehension.

“I think there’s some concerns just in the change; people are nervous about all the unknowns,” said Larry Morris, who said his tire company in nearby Rayville has already seen a sizable boost in sales. “A lot of people are having trouble wrapping their heads around something this big.”

Meta is spending $200 million on infrastructure improvements, including roads, water systems, and housing. However, one resident noted that the improvements have actually increased her commute time to Holly Ridge Elementary School, now taking her three times longer on a freshly paved road.

The population in Richland and surrounding parishes is about 57% white and 37% black, and a majority of residents have high school diplomas with some college credit, according to the Grow NELA study. About one in four residents receive food stamps, with slightly less – about 20% – living on the poverty line.

Several residents said their concerns have been heightened by what they consider the silence surrounding the project. There were no town hall meetings and no public notices to provide information or give locals a voice in the sea change coming to their lives. The Sierra Club’s Bradford characterized the situation as one “that lacks clarity.”

Local critics who accuse Meta and Entergy of being too secretive point to redacted portions of the various contracts. Earlier this month, at an administrative law hearing in Baton Rouge, activists and reporters were frustrated that they were removed for considerable portions of the hearing due to executive session rules.

Several residents, all of whom expressed some fear of Meta and political figures and requested anonymity, told RCI they would be interested in selling their homes and land. Others said they are reluctant to leave the only area they have ever known. One woman said she owns roughly 70 acres near the data center site. An offer has been made to her for that property – she quoted a price of $55,000 an acre – which would leave her a millionaire several times over. But the family has lived there for decades and does not want to move.

Such uncertainty is understandable in a community that has been largely unruffled by change for decades, Rep. Echols said. But he and others said Richland Parish is getting with the times.

“I’d rather be hopeful about future progress than terrified about future poverty,” he said.

RealClear’s Lincoln Patience contributed to this report.

Update(1418ET): President Trump’s first comments since the early morning FBI raid on John Bolton’s Maryland home and D.C. office haven’t disappointed. Trump made clear he’s no fan, but that he didn’t personally get involved in the crackdown over allegations of mishandling or keeping classified documents. 

“I’m not a fan of John Bolton. He’s a real sort of lowlife… I know nothing about it,” the president said of his own former national security adviser from the first term, who he’s long described suffers major Trump derangement syndrome.

Trump repeated that he tries to “stay out of that stuff” and that he “purposefully” didn’t want to get involved when commenting on the morning raid on Bolton’s home. The mainstream media has been quick to assume this must be a politically-motivated action against Bolton coming from the top of the administration:

“I know nothing about it. I just saw it this morning. I tell Pam [Bondi], and I tell the group, I don’t want to know about it. You have to do what you have to do,” Trump said.

“He is not a smart guy. But he could be a very unpatriotic guy. We’re going to find out,” Trump said.

.@POTUS: “I’m not a fan of John Bolton. He’s a real sort of lowlife… I know nothing about it. I just saw it this morning… I tell Pam and I tell the group I don’t want to know about it. You have to do what you have to do.” pic.twitter.com/ADl7GFKJqp

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 22, 2025

The president then noted that his own Mar-a-Lago estate got raided in 2022, over the handling of presidential and classified documents: “They went through everything you can imagine,” Trump said.

CNN has reported the following new confirmation as follows: “The FBI conducted a court-authorized search at former national security adviser John Bolton’s home and office as part of a renewed investigation into whether he disclosed classified information in his 2020 book, according to two people familiar with the matter.”

And more: “CNN observed FBI personnel at Bolton’s house in the Washington, DC, area on Friday morning. They were seen speaking to a person on the porch of the house, and at least four to six agents were seen going inside. Some of the agents took bags out of the vehicles to bring inside, but nothing was seen coming out of the residence.”

The two have traded barbs for years, with Trump also highlighting that Bolton is a ‘sick’ neocon and many other epithets:

“Many of the ridiculous statements he attributes to me were never made, pure fiction,” Trump said in a social media post June 18, 2020. “Just trying to get even for firing him like the sick puppy he is!” 

And there was this memorable one:

“Wacko John Bolton’s ‘exceedingly tedious’(New York Times) book is made up of lies & fake stories. Said all good about me, in print, until the day I fired him,” Trump said in a separate social media post on June 18, 2020. “A disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war. Never had a clue, was ostracized & happily dumped. What a dope!“

* * *

In a bombshell of a development, federal agents conducted a raid on the Maryland residence of former National Security Advisor John Bolton on Friday morning, according to various breaking sources.

One source connected to the investigation has described that the search was aimed at locating potentially classified documents that authorities suspect Bolton may still have in his possession. There are reports that his D.C. office was also raided and searched.

There are no indicators as of yet that Bolton, who was Trump’s national security adviser from 2018 to 2019, has been arrested or taken into custody.

“NO ONE is above the law,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted to X Friday morning, but without giving direct reference to the Bolton house raid. “FBI agents on mission.”

According to NY Post, which first revealed the raid:

Federal agents went to Bolton’s house in Bethesda, Md., at 7 a.m. in an investigation ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel, a Trump administration official told The Post.

…The probe — which is said to involve classified documents — was first launched years ago, but the Biden administration shut it down “for political reasons,” according to a senior US official.

The FBI are reportedly sorting through papers and boxes:

🚨 BREAKING: Federal agents are RIGHT NOW in John Bolton’s home “going through things” following an early morning FBI RAID in the DC area over national security concerns.

Yes. We did, indeed, vote for this.

This is Bolton’s primary residence.

“This deals with classified… pic.twitter.com/PmIOAxTgtA

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 22, 2025

Trump has been a longtime fierce critic of Bolton, after Bolton had long ago started going after Trump. Just this week, Bolton was on CNN and prime news shows blasting Trump’s dealings with Putin and the Ukraine negotiations.

“I don’t think there’s a peace deal anywhere in the near future,” he said while criticizing the commander-in-chief’s tactics while recently speaking to CNN.

Back in January Bolton had been among former top officials, and Trump adversaries, to get their costly security protections stripped. 

Axios also recalls that Bolton wrote in a foreword to his memoir that was published last year the words: “a mountain of facts demonstrates that Trump is unfit to be President.”

Publication of the book had been delayed so that the White House could review its content for any potential security breaches or disclosure of sensitive information.

NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) August 22, 2025

Bolton’s DC office also raided, he was spotted at the office pic.twitter.com/mbigemyz8q

— Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) August 22, 2025

Mainstream media is being quick to suggest the house raid is an act of retribution. “Bolton was vocal in his criticism of the president after working in the first Trump administration. Trump has aggressively used the power of the presidency to punish political foes,” Axios observes.

The DOJ has just released transcripts and audio from two days of interviews last month with Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who said that President Trump was “never inappropriate with anybody” while he and Epstein were associates, and that her father was an intelligence asset. 

“Did you ever hear Mr. Epstein or anybody say that President Trump had done anything inappropriate with masseuses or with anybody in your world?” asked Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in Tallahassee, Florida last month.  

“Absolutely never, in any context,” Maxwell replied. 

Todd Blanche: Did you ever hear Mr. Epstein or anybody say that President Trump had done anything inappropriate with masseuses or with anybody in your world?

Ghislaine Maxwell: Absolutely never. In any context. pic.twitter.com/8rq2KQm2or

— Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) August 22, 2025

“I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way,” Maxwell said in another segment. 

Ghislaine Maxwell CONFIRMS on tape she never witnessed President Trump doing anything inappropriate:

“I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way. In the times I was with him he was a gentleman in all respects.” pic.twitter.com/038wSnzS6v

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) August 22, 2025

Maxwell also said her father, the late Robert Maxwell, was an intelligence asset…

🚨MUST LISTEN 🚨

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche asks Ghislaine Maxwell about her father working for “any” foreign intelligence agency.

LISTEN TO HER RESPONSE: pic.twitter.com/Kwv1BFuUfo

— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) August 22, 2025

Robert Maxwell, a media tycoon and former Labour MP, was notably given a state funeral in Jerusalem after ‘accidentally’ falling off his Yacht, the “Lady Ghislaine.” He was long speculated to have been a secret agent for the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence office that is equivalent to the CIA. By proxy, that suspicion has led to speculation that the intelligence agency Epstein was associated with was the Mossad as well.

“It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Epstein had connections to the [Israeli intelligence community],” said Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown, whose investigative reporting was the reason that the Epstein case was reopened after it was buried by federal prosecutors in 2008. “Robert Maxwell certainly had those kinds of connections, and Epstein had a close relationship with Robert Maxwell.“

Ghislaine, however, said that her father and Epstein never met. 

So Maxwell says she never deliberately had contact with Mossad, then says she wouldn’t know if Epstein did. But the clearest Israeli intelligence links in the story relate to Ehud Barak, who was the head of Aman, Israeli Military Intelligence, which is much bigger than Mossad. pic.twitter.com/S25qhvzNuO

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) August 22, 2025

So Maxwell says she never deliberately had contact with Mossad, then says she wouldn’t know if Epstein did. But the clearest Israeli intelligence links in the story relate to Ehud Barak, who was the head of Aman, Israeli Military Intelligence, which is much bigger than Mossad. pic.twitter.com/S25qhvzNuO

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) August 22, 2025

She also does not believe Epstein killed himself. She also provided some tricky answers about Mossad…

“I do not believe he died by suicide,” said Maxwell, who added that she has no idea who might have killed him. 

Sound up
DOJ interview of Christine Maxwell “ I do not believe he died by suicide no” pic.twitter.com/u7wPXWWepZ

— Shaggy (@MAGAShagster) August 22, 2025

Also interesting is that Ghislaine admitted to being “part of the beginning process of the Clinton Global Initiative.”

Ghislaine Maxwell tells the DOJ she believes Jeffrey Epstein funded or arranged financing for the Clinton Global Initiative as well. pic.twitter.com/iOydUplfRU

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) August 22, 2025

asdf

The U.S. labor market remains resilient in 2025, but unemployment figures vary widely by state.

While the national unemployment rate stood at 4.1% in June, some regions are experiencing far higher (or far lower) joblessness.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, highlights the unemployment rate by state using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for June 2025.

Washington D.C. Tops Unemployment by State

Washington D.C. tops the list with the highest unemployment rate at 5.9%, as seen in the data table below with the unemployment rate of every U.S. state (and D.C.).

The capital’s high rate marks a significant jump from 5.0% in early 2024, suggesting rising challenges in the capital’s job market amidst Trump’s layoffs across federal agencies.

Nevada (5.4%) and California (5.4%) follow closely behind, reflecting persistent difficulties in sectors like tourism, entertainment, and technology.

Michigan (5.3%) also ranks among the hardest hit, driven by weakness in manufacturing.

The States with the Lowest Unemployment Rates

At the other end of the spectrum, South Dakota recorded the lowest unemployment rate at just 1.8%.

North Dakota (2.5%) and Vermont (2.6%) also reported very low levels of unemployment, underscoring the relative strength of smaller state economies.

Montana and Hawaii, both at 2.8%, round out the bottom five, showing stability even in some tourism-driven markets.

While the U.S. national unemployment rate of 4.1% is slightly above the lows seen during the post-pandemic recovery, the range between the highest and lowest states—more than four percentage points—illustrates the uneven nature of the labor market in America.

To learn more about the challenges Americans are facing, check out the graphic on the cost of the American dream on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is evolving rapidly, and some are warning that using AI to make executive decisions without careful consideration could backfire.

AI is being used more and more in recruitment, hiring, and performance evaluations that could lead to a promotion or termination.

Researchers, legal experts, legislators, and groups such as Human Rights Watch have expressed concern over the potential that AI algorithms are a gateway to ethical quagmires, including marginalization and discrimination in the workplace.

This warning bell isn’t new, but with more managers using AI to assist with important staff decisions, the risk of reducing employees to numbers and graphs also grows.

A Resume Builder survey released in June found that among a group of 1,342 managers in the United States, 78 percent use AI tools to determine raises, 77 percent use it for promotions, 66 percent use it for layoffs, and 64 percent use it for terminations.

The use of AI as a human resource tool is already a cautionary tale. In an unprecedented 2023 workplace discrimination case, digital labor platform iTutorGroup paid $365,000 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

The English language tutoring service was forced to pay damages to job applicants who were filtered out by its AI algorithm. The company used an AI algorithm that automatically rejected more than 200 applicants based on their age. The candidates were automatically disqualified if, in the case of women, they were older than 55 years old. Male applicants 60 years and older were also rejected.

“Hundreds of applicants lost out on employment during a difficult time for job seekers,” Timothy Riera, acting director of the EEOC’s New York District, said in a statement.

Avoiding Dehumanization

Civil regulations and government legislation are being put forward as a guardrail against the use of AI to evaluate and monitor employee performance.

In March, the California Civil Rights Council finalized its regulations surrounding AI decision-making systems in the workplace, which go into effect on Oct. 1. The regulations include protections for employees against the use of AI systems to increase company efficiency. This encompasses actions such as hiring assistance, firing, and promotions.

At the federal level, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced the AI Whistle Blower Protection Act in May. If passed, the bill will offer employment compensation and protection from retaliation to those working directly with AI who choose to disclose issues with these systems.

“Today, too many people working in AI feel they’re unable to speak up when they see something wrong. Whistleblowers are one of the best ways to ensure Congress keeps pace as the AI industry rapidly develops,” Grassley said.

Additionally, the states of Illinois, California, and New York have proposed, introduced, or passed legislation aimed at protecting workers from AI algorithmic discrimination in areas including recruitment, hiring, promotion, employment renewal, discipline, and training.

Business owners, AI experts, and managers using these digital tools to make decisions affecting employees have stressed the need for human oversight.

“I’ve used AI in recruitment. Tools like ChatGPT-powered screening systems and resume parsers have been game-changers,” AI expert and consultant Peter Swain told The Epoch Times.

Swain is the CEO of a namesake company that focuses on helping entrepreneurs strike a balance between AI systems and their human workforce. He illustrated the pros and cons of using AI systems to handle executive tasks.

“Advantages? Speed and scalability—AI can process 1,000 resumes in the time it takes a human to read 10. It also reduces bias if trained properly,” Swain said.

“Disadvantages? Garbage in, garbage out. If the AI is trained on biased data, it perpetuates those biases. Plus, it lacks the human touch—cultural fit and soft skills can’t be fully assessed by an algorithm.”

Data-driven tasks are where AI tools tend to shine, Swain said, but using them for actions such as raises, promotions, and layoffs is “tricky territory.”

“I’ve dabbled with AI-driven performance analytics—tracking [key performance indicators], productivity … but I’d never let it make the final call,” he said. “It’s a tool, not a decision-maker. The risk is dehumanization, reducing people to data points.”

Swain also called AI’s use in managerial decisions an ethical “minefield.”

“AI can amplify biases if not carefully monitored—think gender, race, or age discrimination baked into training data,” he said. “Transparency is key. Employees need to know how decisions are made and have recourse to challenge them. Accountability matters—if AI screws up, who’s responsible? You can’t just blame the machine.”

Volumes of Data

Stephen Engel, CEO of Sanative Recovery and Wellness, told The Epoch Times that he recently used the AI chatbot ChatGPT to assist with deciding whether to fire an employee.

He said that although AI didn’t make the final decision, its ability to handle volumes of data quickly allows managers to think more clearly and “step back from the emotion of the situation” and analyze situations more objectively.

“To me, that’s the real value of AI in this context. … It allowed me to think through the situation, weigh options more rationally, and ultimately decide on the best course of action,” Engel said.

“I also used ChatGPT afterward to help guide my thinking about what qualities and strengths to prioritize for my next hire. Again, not as a replacement for human judgment, but as a tool to focus my thinking.”

Some business owners use AI tools to identify employees who need help.

“Our AI voice simulations let new employees engage in realistic mock calls from day one. These interactions are scored automatically and paired with coaching opportunities. It’s a way to see quickly who’s progressing and who might need more support,” Lonnie Johnston, CEO of the training platform WizeCamel, told The Epoch Times.

“Our platform helps surface employees who are struggling early and tracks whether they are improving on an acceptable schedule.”

He gave a recent example of how AI evaluations provided data to help supervisors make decisions.

Read the rest here…

Via The Cradle

India and Russia plan to increase their annual trade to $100 billion over the next five years – an increase of 50% – despite US opposition to the growing cooperation between New Delhi and Moscow, a top Indian minister announced on Thursday.

During the first day of a three-day visit to Moscow on Wednesday, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar emphasized the need for India and Russia to broaden their trade ties, foster additional joint ventures between their companies, and hold more frequent meetings to resolve issues such as payment systems. Russia ranks as India’s fourth-largest trade partner, while India holds the position of Russia’s second-largest.

“We are all acutely aware that we are meeting in the backdrop of a complex geopolitical situation. Our leaders remain closely and regularly engaged,” he said while speaking at the India–Russia Business Forum in the Russian capital.

Jaishankar added that rising global uncertainty puts the emphasis back on “dependable and steady partners.”

Economic uncertainty has come from recent actions taken by US President Donald Trump to punish India for its ongoing purchases of Russian oil.

New Delhi’s purchases of Russian crude skyrocketed after the start of the war with Ukraine in 2022. After its oil exports to Europe collapsed in the wake of the war, Russia turned to India, offering steep discounts.

In response, Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on Indian goods, saying the oil purchases help fund Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “war machine.” Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on India further, to 50 percent, a rate high enough to ensure Indian exports to the US will not be competitive.

In response, India has said it has the right to buy oil from the cheapest source, calling the tariffs “unreasonable.“

Following Trump’s threats, India’s state refiners began last week to buy large volumes of non-Russian crude. Indian Oil Corp. and Bharat Petroleum Corp. have purchased oil from multiple alternate suppliers in recent weeks, including suppliers in the US, Brazil, and Gulf states, for October delivery.

Private Indian refiners are expected to continue purchasing Russian oil per the long-term contracts they have previously signed. Earlier this month, India halted plans to purchase US weapons and military aircraft in response to President Trump’s tariffs on New Delhi’s exports.

“India had been planning to send Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to Washington in the coming weeks for an announcement on some of the purchases, but that trip has been cancelled,” two sources speaking with Reuters said. 

Before the war in Ukraine, less than 1% of India’s oil came from Russia. Now it is 42%.

The system is allowing India to profiteer by buying cheap Russian oil, reselling it, and pocketing $16B in excess profits.

This opportunistic arbitrage is unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/zp4FuKs9vJ

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) August 19, 2025

In February this year, Trump and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced plans for the procurement and joint production of Stryker combat vehicles made by General Dynamics Land Systems and Javelin anti-tank missiles made by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

The sources told Reuters that India’s defense minister was also planning to announce the purchase of six Boeing P-8I reconnaissance aircraft and support systems for the Indian Navy during the trip to Washington, which has now been canceled. 

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

A report released on Friday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted that President Donald Trump’s tariffs will reduce federal deficits by around $4 trillion over the next decade.

If Trump’s global tariff hikes continue, increased revenue could shrink primary deficits by $3.3 trillion and cut federal interest payments by $0.7 trillion over the next decade, the CBO said. The current top tariff rates may not hold as negotiations with trading partners and international legal challenges are ongoing.

“We estimate that the effective tariff rate for goods imported into the United States has increased by about 18 percentage points when measured against 2024 trade flows,” the budget office said in its report, adding that Trump’s tariffs would reduce “the need for federal borrowing.”

The CBO also said it “projects further increases in tariff revenues in the coming months” and that “if there are no further changes in tariff rates, we project that customs duties from new and existing tariffs will total about $200 billion this fiscal year.”

But the office cautioned that revenues often lag several months behind the implementation of tariff policies, noting that once the rates are in effect, they don’t get applied to goods that are already in transit to the United States.

“In addition, importers have the option to delay payments by up to six weeks by participating in Customs and Border Protection’s Periodic Monthly Statement program,” added the CBO, which is a federal agency within the legislative branch that provides budget and economic information to both houses of Congress.

In July, Congress passed the GOP-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act that contained several major Trump priorities on energy, the border, spending, and tax cuts. The CBO has said that it would add around $3.4 trillion to the national deficit over the coming decade, although the White House has disputed those figures.

The Trump administration has also said that the tariffs and policies initiated under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump backed and signed into law, would bring forth economic growth over the coming years that would offset any additions to the national deficit.

“It was the largest tax cut for middle and working class families in our nation’s history, and the president wants to see this country get our fiscal house in order. That’s why this was a fiscally responsible bill,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on July 21 in response to the CBO report on the bill.

In a statement on Thursday, the White House again touted the bill by posting excerpts from a series of recent newspaper articles that praised the measure. Earlier this month, the administration also said that Americans would see an average tax cut of $3,752 under the bill, citing a report from nonprofit organization the Tax Foundation.

Friday’s report from the CBO comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada would scrap some of its retaliatory tariffs against the United States. Trump imposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico earlier this year, saying those measures were necessary to curb illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking into the country.

“We have the best deal of anyone in the world right now,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa. “Today, the Government of Canada is harmonizing its tariffs with the U.S.”