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Editor’s Note: This article is part of Regulating Social Media Platforms: Government, Speech, and the Law, a symposium organized by Just Security, the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, and Tech Policy Press.

Elections have consequences. 

In July 2019, the European Parliament elected Ursula von der Leyen to become president of the European Commission. Under her leadership, between 2019 and 2024, the Commission successfully shepherded through a landmark package of regulations to rein in Big Tech, among them the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Digital Market Act (DMA), and the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). At the time, many in Europe hoped that the laws would become a model for other jurisdictions along the lines of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), EU laws designed to safeguard people’s information online. But the DSA is unlikely to serve as the global standard for platform governance, nor is the United States likely to import any lessons from the DSA. That was true before the elections, and even more so now.

Shifting Political Winds

For over three years during the Biden administration, the United States and the EU engaged in constructive dialogue through a high-level Trade and Technology Council (TTC). Although both sides agreed on AI principles, formal discussion of other digital platform regulation was off the table. 

U.S. President Joe Biden signed executive orders on AI, got major firms to embrace an AI voluntary code of conduct, and accelerated the development of generative AI, microchips, and infrastructure. The U.S. Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission filed antitrust lawsuits against major platforms, including Apple and Google, while the EU brought competition cases against the same large players under the DMA.

But no federal legislation was enacted in the United States to rein in Big Tech, although several states passed laws with opposing goals, either to require — or to curtail — online content moderation.

Then the political winds shifted. Republicans, led by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), attacked platforms, academics, and NGOs, alleging they conspired with the Biden administration to suppress conservative voices, violating First Amendment rights. Academics and NGOs were subpoenaed and sued, causing election disinformation research to stop, and silencing researchers and foundations. 

Elections followed on both sides of the Atlantic.

Anti-EU populist parties gained seats in the EU Parliament and in many European capitals. Then last summer, a startling report on the Future of European Competitiveness by former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi warned European lawmakers that their propensity for over-regulation was thwarting development of a robust and innovative tech sector.

Von der Leyen, who won reelection in July 2024, took Draghi’s message to heart. Her new Commission pivoted sharply from the aggressive regulatory agenda of her first term, and championed European competitiveness, security, and tech sovereignty. She also moved to slash burdensome regulations. In a September mission letter to Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s new executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, Von der Leyen emphasized strengthening security and competition; it barely mentioned DSA enforcement.

To improve European competitiveness, Von der Leyen has pushed omnibus packages to streamline regulations and reduce red tape, including the newly minted AI Act, which Virkkunen argues should be made more innovation-friendly. The DSA was not mentioned.

The Trump Effect

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the EU. He threatened tariff reprisals for EU enforcement actions against American Big Tech companies. In a Feb. 25 directive, he attacked European legislation, including the DMA and the DSA, warning that “regulations that dictate how American companies interact with consumers in the European Union” will be scrutinized by the U.S. government. The Trump administration is targeting EU and British rules that cause American companies to develop their products “in ways that undermine free speech or foster censorship,” in the White House’s words. 

And in a blistering speech at the Munich Security Conference in February, Vice President JD Vance accused European leaders of suppressing free speech and censoring far-right voices. He railed against the DSA’s moderation provisions and code of practice targeting the spread of disinformation and election interference.

At home, the Trump administration immediately dismantled U.S. efforts to fight foreign election interference by firing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency staff that had alerted the public to foreign operations, and shuttering an FBI task force responsible for stopping foreign interference in U.S. elections. On Feb. 26, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan subpoenaed Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Rumble, TikTok and X Corp, seeking each company’s communications with foreign governments regarding compliance with foreign laws, regulations and judicial orders that in his words “censor speech.” 

Finally, Brendan Carr, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), piled on in a Feb. 26 letter to the heads of American Big Tech companies, asserting that the DSA is positioned to “thwart freedom of speech and diversity of opinion both within the United States and worldwide.” He asked the companies to brief him on how they plan to reconcile the DSA with America’s free speech principles.

What It Means for Europe

All of this pressure coming from the Trump administration raises the possibility that the European Commission will relax its enforcement of the DSA, but so far, that hasn’t been the case. For now, major tech platforms are cooperating with the processes and timetables of the DSA, submitting their required risk assessments and mitigation reports, updates on codes of conduct and practice, and outside audits. Compliance on researcher access to data, however, remains spotty. 

Although Brussels may soften some rules to improve European competitiveness, it is unlikely to touch the DSA. Improving online social media safety, especially for children, still enjoys public support, as does protecting election integrity across Europe.  Plus, most DSA obligations fall on the 25 largely American Big Tech companies, and not on smaller European firms. 

Time will tell whether the Trump administration’s actions on Ukraine or Vance’s private, disparaging remarks about Europe, which were made public by the Signalgate scandal, will intensify Brussels’ commitment to digital sovereignty and its resolve to enforce the DSA within the borders of the EU.

As expected, earlier this year, the Commission converted its 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation, which had been “voluntary,” into a mandatory Code of Conduct. The commitments by the very large platforms would now be evaluated as evidence of risk mitigation in their compliance audits.

But with global deregulatory winds at their backs, in their recent Code submissions, major platforms have withdrawn commitments on political advertising and fact checking. All platforms unsubscribed from the commitment to develop, fund, and collaborate with an independent third-party body to enable data access for researchers. 

Meta recently announced plans to end its independent fact-checking program in the United States in favor of a crowd-sourced, “community notes” system, which it is likely to deploy later in the EU. While fact checking is not specifically required under the DSA, the Commission is investigating Meta’s change to ensure that the switch does not impair the company’s effectiveness in addressing disinformation.

In 2024, the Commission initiated high-profile enforcement proceedings against Meta (for content moderation transparency, protection of minors, dark patterns, mechanism for flagging illegal content), X (for dark patterns for verified accounts, ad transparency; data access for researchers), and TikTok (for addictive design, harmful content, and other matters), among other companies. TikTok withdrew its TT Lite Rewards program, – which awarded users points for performing certain tasks on the platform, such as watching videos and liking content–after the Commission objected to its targeting of children.

It is too early to say whether the Commission will initiate new enforcement proceedings or just digest its current caseload.

The DSA’s Effects Abroad

Some tech reformers hoped that European regulations could push tech companies to reform their practices beyond Europe, but that does not appear to be happening. Rather than extending the regulatory benefits of the DSA to non-EU markets, many tech companies opted to geo-fence their content moderation efforts, that is, offering one version consistent with EU law in Europe and different versions outside of that geographical boundary. They are doing only what is necessary under the DSA, and limiting any user rights and disclosures to the EU market.

And wholesale adoption of the DSA by nations, apart from EU members and, perhaps, EU accession states, is unlikely.

The DSA is a highly complex regulatory framework, primarily designed to advance a European single digital market by respecting, but largely preempting, conflicting national laws. And, in any event, leading democracies had already begun to regulate online platforms while the DSA was being negotiated. 

That said, as governments update existing online safety rules, countries such as Australia are considering concepts that are central to both the DSA and the UK Online Safety Act (UK OSA) frameworks. 

For example, Australia already has an Online Safety Act. Enacted in 2021, it differs from the DSA in its approach by focusing on specific online harms – especially child safety — in addition to illegal content, and is more co-regulatory than the DSA. The Feb. 4 Statutory Review of the Australian Online Safety Act recommended revisions that would bring it more in line with the United Kingdom’s OSA by imposing a “Duty of Care” on platforms serving a large number of Australians and smaller platforms with greater risk of harm. Platforms in scope would have to assess risk and mitigate identified harms. Other recommendations include adopting researcher access to platform data, similar to the DSA requirement. Whether the Review’s recommendations will translate into legislation in Australia will largely depend upon the outcome of national elections in May.

The UK OSA and the DSA were developed concurrently and rely on similar concepts such as proactive risk assessments, mitigation, and transparency. They differ both in the scope of regulation (the DSA covers a broader range of services including illegal products, while the OSA covers both illegal and harmful content) as well as enforcement philosophy (Ofcom, the lead UK OSA regulator, promotes working with platforms to improve outcomes, while the DSA takes a more adversarial stance.) Ofcom has expressed interest in adding a provision requiring researcher access to platform data akin to the DSA Article 40. 

In the United States, many large platforms have dialed back their content moderation programs and reduced their trust and safety staff. After buying Twitter, Elon Musk fired his election integrity staff and a third of his trust and safety team, and withdrew from the EU voluntary Code of Practice. Under the banner of protecting “free speech,” Musk has opened X’s floodgates to hate speech, violence, disinformation, and consumer fraud.

Even prior to the Musk acquisition, Twitter had begun to experiment with community notes, a crowdsourced system to add context and accurate information to posts. Twitter (now X) deploys a bridging algorithm designed to minimize gaming the system by only publishing notes that are rated “helpful” by contributors who previously disagreed on ratings. But when a community note on a Musk post surfaced citing polls contradicting Trump on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s popularity, Musk declared that Community Notes “is being gamed by governments and the media,” and vowed to “fix” it.

In January, in addition to terminating fact checking in the U.S., Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg ominously announced major changes to the company’s terms of service. These changes effectively allow more hate speech, misogyny, racism, and anti-LGBTQ content on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Zuckerberg argued that there were too many false positives resulting in too much censorship. He also threatened to complain to the White House if the EU persisted in heavily taxing U.S. tech companies and censoring speech.

Looking Ahead

Geopolitical winds are gusting to the right with deregulatory fervor. Even the European Commission is now pushing tech innovation, competition, and national sovereignty. Security has replaced online safety as a core concept. And DSA enforcement continues its plodding path in the EU, off the front page.

As for the United States, it has always differed with Europe in its approach to online content regulation. During the U.S.-EU dialogue that took place under Biden, European platform regulation was largely off the table. Now, with Congress and the White House increasing their attacks on European content moderation, and Trump threatening Europe (and the United Kingdom) for enforcing — within their respective jurisdictions — their rules against American Big Tech, there is little positive on the horizon for the DSA in the United States.

So what U.S. platform governance measures are possible before midterm congressional elections in 2026?

Past congressional efforts have failed to pass platform legislation, including privacy protections. However, there is growing bipartisan support to protect children from online abuse and to criminalize non-consensual publication of sexually explicit images, which might be strong enough to withstand today’s deregulatory push. 

The Trump administration’s first-term assault on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act may advance in his second term as leaders in both parties push to remove the legal safe harbor from liability that platforms enjoy for moderating user-generated content online. A draft bipartisan bill, spearheaded by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Dick Durbin (D-MI), would sunset Section 230 by 2027 unless tech platforms agree to new (unspecified) rules. And FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has fervently argued that Section 230 protections should be available only in limited cases where platforms remove user-generated content that is illegal.

The truth is that elections have consequences, and we are seeing that play out on both sides of the Atlantic.

IMAGE: (L) US vice president JD Vance speaks during the 61st Munich Security Conference on February 14, 2025 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images); (R) President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a plenary session at the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit, at the Grand Palais, in Paris, on February 11, 2025. (Photo by Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images)

The post Truth and Consequences: The Post-Election Regulatory Landscape for Big Tech appeared first on Just Security.

“Border czar” Tom Homan is facing a backlash in his own hometown of Sackets Harbor, New York, after an immigration raid swept up a mother and her three school-aged children.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection took the family and three others into custody on March 27 in an early-morning raid on a dairy farm in Sackets Harbor, a small hamlet on the shores of Lake Ontario, on the western edge of New York’s North Country region. Within days, the mother and her children had been whisked away to Karnes County Immigration Processing Center, a privately operated Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas that accommodates families, according to people familiar with the family’s case. 

Jefferson County, which includes Sackets Harbor and nearby West Carthage, where Homan grew up, is a deep-red bastion of support for President Donald Trump. Homan has been a prominent and enthusiastic face of Trump’s hard-line border policies, which he kicked off in January with an edict commanding immigration-enforcement agencies like CBP and ICE to ramp up deportations. But now, with that enforcement landing close to home, locals are organizing a rally in support of the family and are planning to march past Homan’s house in Sackets Harbor, according to Corey DeCillis, who chairs the Jefferson County chapter of the New York State Democratic Party.

“People are upset about this,” DeCillis told The Intercept Wednesday. “This is the United States of America, and there’s no kid — or anybody for that matter — that should be treated the way those kids are treated.”

With three students enrolled at the local K-12 school suddenly taken by law enforcement, news of the raid spread rapidly, according to Jennifer Gaffney, superintendent of the Sackets Harbor Central School District.

“The reaction of our students is that they have been traumatized by this,” Gaffney told The Intercept. “Three of their classmates were taken, and they don’t know where they are and they don’t know if they’re going to come back.”

“We’re talking about elementary school, middle school, and high school kids who are all impacted by the absence of their classmates who are detained,” she said.

Gaffney said she learned of the detention of the three students and their mother early on the morning of March 27 and immediately began reaching out to local elected officials to try and locate them, but for several days their whereabouts were uncertain. It was not until Sunday that it emerged that they had been moved to a detention center in Texas that accommodates families.

“It’s been a very, very difficult few days for teachers and staff and students,” Gaffney said. “We’re trying to remain hopeful, but it remains to be seen at this point.”

Neither Gaffney nor CBP provided the names of the family members, citing privacy concerns.

 

According to a CBP spokesperson, the family was not the target of the raid, which the spokesperson said was an interagency effort to apprehend a South African national living in Sackets Harbor and suspected of trafficking in child sexual abuse materials. The others — including the family — were detained incidentally. 

“These individuals were not part of the original investigation.”

“These individuals were not part of the original investigation … but were taken into custody, processed and subsequently turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. 

“All individuals have since been transferred out of New York State and are currently awaiting removal proceedings.”

Based on CBP statements, the raid fit the profile of a tactic known as collateral detention, in which a warrant targeting specific individuals is used as a pretext to sweep up any undocumented people the agents can find. In an unrelated incident last week, ICE agents arrived at a home in Texas looking for one man, but instead took into custody a 50-year-old mom who had been in the country for nearly four decades, according to Newsweek.

With pressure from Washington bearing down on immigration officials to ramp up deportations, collateral detention appears to be on the rise as agents scramble to meet the demands of the Trump administration, according to Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition.

“They go in allegedly looking for someone else and then they’ll take whoever they can find just so they can meet their quota numbers that Donald Trump has put in place.”

“What we have been seeing is ICE at random detaining people who are not the people they’re looking for,” Awawdeh said. “They go in allegedly looking for someone else and then they’ll take whoever they can find just so they can meet their quota numbers that Donald Trump has put in place.”

Awawdeh, whose organization has been coordinating with the family to help bring them home, told The Intercept that despite being in the country without documentation, the mother had been awaiting a scheduled hearing on her immigration status and that of her children, which typically should have made them not subject to deportation. But that didn’t stop her removal.

“They were actually following the process, right, so that’s why we’re saying they were unjustly detained and demanding that they be returned to their community,” Awawdeh said. 

Speaking for the first time about the incident on Wednesday, Homan told a local news outlet in western New York that the mom and her kids had indeed been taken into custody and flown across the country, but that it was done for their own good, citing the alleged crimes of the man agents had been sent to apprehend.

“During investigations like that, we have to ensure that any children within that area are safe,” Homan told WWNY–7News. “Once that’s done, then the ICE agents will make a decision [of] what’s the best course of action in the future.”

Homan said a decision could be made in the next few days on whether the family will remain in deportation proceedings or be returned home to Jefferson County. 

DeCillis, the county Democratic Party chair, said he will be more than happy to cancel the rally if the family is home before Saturday.

“I’m hopeful that before Saturday we can have a totally different conversation — that these kids are on their way back home,” he said. “That’s our ultimate goal.”

The post Trump’s Border Czar Faces Backlash in His Hometown for Locking Up a Local Family appeared first on The Intercept.

Welcome to the show: One day after student activists at Columbia chained themselves to a campus gate to protest the school’s board of trustees, they targeted university president Claire Shipman.

Members of the anti-Semitic group Columbia University Apartheid Divest “welcomed” Shipman—or “Shitman,” as they put it—by defacing a campus bathroom with red paint, inverted Hamas triangles, and flyers that featured a doctored image of Shipman crawling out of a toilet, our Jessica Costescu reports. In a tweet touting the “redecoration,” CUAD referred to Shipman—a former CNN and ABC journalist who was until recently married to former Obama press secretary Jay Carney—as “AIPAC-backed.”

CUAD has a history of targeting Columbia bathrooms, having used cement to clog toilets in the School of International and Public Affairs. To our knowledge, the perpetrators in that case have not been caught. We’ll see if Shipman has better luck tracking down yesterday’s anarchists.

READ MORE: Columbia University Radicals Welcome New President By Vandalizing Campus Bathroom With Hamas Triangle

Nice work if you can get it: As the owner of an Ohio-based telecommunications company, Jeffrey Ansted amassed an $8 million private jet, a $250,000 Ferrari, and yacht and country club memberships in Florida. He did so by embezzling millions from a federal program you’ve probably never heard of: the FCC’s Universal Service Fund.

The fund subsidizes phone and internet access for low-income Americans through a surcharge on consumers’ telephone bills. But the FCC doesn’t set the size of the charge—that’s the responsibility of a private corporation “run by representatives of the very companies that receive subsidies of the program,” our Aaron Sibarium reports. Those representatives are also tasked with preventing fraud, and they don’t appear to be doing a good job: In addition to Ansted’s racket, the program lost more than $100 million to fraud from a single company between 2012 and 2021.

Now, the fund’s structure is the subject of an ongoing legal challenge, one that “has trained the klieg lights on USF, which also subsidizes internet access for schools and libraries,” Sibarium writes. And while the Supreme Court seems poised to uphold the program, FCC chairman Brendan Carr has spotlighted its shortcomings in the past, meaning it may be time for a change.

READ MORE: Private Jets, Ferraris, and False Claims: Inside An Obscure Federal Program Rife With Fraud

Away from the Beacon:

• The U.S. government has banned staffers in China from having romantic relationships with Chinese citizens due to security concerns. Thankfully for Eric Swalwell, the rule does not apply to government officials based in the United States.
• Republicans in Georgia introduced a bill to bar the use of taxpayer funds for state inmates’ sex-change surgeries. Democrats in the state legislature staged a walkout in response.
• Dems in disarray: DNC staffers were greeted Thursday morning by a group of dancing climate protesters holding signs that read, “SCHUMER, STEP ASIDE,” “CHUCK THE SCHMUCK,” and “RESIST OR RESIGN.”

The post Columbia Anarchists Welcome New President and Fraud Plagues Little-Known Federal Agency appeared first on .

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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:

GLOBAL AFFAIRS

Global stock markets continued to slump today in response to the sweeping tariffs announced by President Trump on Wednesday and China’s retaliatory imposition of additional 34% tariffs on all US goods from 10 April. Tom Espiner reports for BBC News.

South Korea’s highest court today upheld the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, ruling that Yoon’s actions constituted “a grave betrayal of the people’s trust.” The decision marks Yoon’s formal dismissal from the post, with a general election set to be held in the next 60 days. Yoonjung Seo, Gawon Bae, Mike Valerio, and Jessie Yeung report for CNN.

EU regulators are preparing a set of major penalties against Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, for breaking a law to combat illicit content and disinformation, sources say. The penalties, expected to be announced this summer, could include a fine of over $1 billion, a source added. Adam Satariano reports for the New York Times.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk yesterday condemned reports by local rights groups of the Sudanese army carrying out extrajudicial killings of civilians in the capital Khartoum city. AP News reports.

U.N. investigators looking into allegations of sexual misconduct by International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan are also investigating alleged retaliation for the accusations, sources say. Khan’s attorneys rejected all allegations of wrongdoing. Stephanie van den Berg and Anthony Deutsch report for Reuters.

France will complain to the International Court of Justice about Iran’s denial of consular services for two French citizens held in Iran since 2022, the French foreign ministry said yesterday. Reuters reports.

A report by the U.N. Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua yesterday named 54 Nicaraguan officials the group says are responsible for serious human rights violations and “systematic repression.” Reuters reports.

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR 

An Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter killed at least 27 people, including 19 women and children, and wounded 70 in Gaza City, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The Israeli military said it struck “prominent terrorists who were in a Hamas command and control centre.” Other Israeli attacks killed at least 97 people in the previous 24 hours, the health ministry said. David Gritten reports for BBC News; Wafaa Shurafa and Natalie Melzer report for AP News.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians yesterday fled south Gaza’s Rafah as Israeli forces advanced into the city in one of the largest mass displacements of the war. The Israeli military previously announced Rafah would form part of a “security zone” controlled by Israel. Separately, Israeli troops today moved into an area of northern Gaza to expand another “security zone.” Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Mahmoud Issa report for Reuters; Reuters reports.

The new Israeli military chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, wants to decisively take out Hamas with a large-scale, monthslong ground offensive before a political solution for Gaza is decided, people familiar with his thinking say. Israel previously sought to remove Hamas from the territory by primarily political means, analysts add. Rory Jones and Dov Lieber report for the Wall Street Journal.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR 

A Russian overnight attack on a residential building in Ukraine’s Kharkiv killed at least four people and injured 35 others, regional officials said today. Vitalii Hnidyi reports for Reuters.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is not expected to attend next week’s meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the first time since the group’s founding by former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in 2022 that a senior Pentagon official would not be present, officials say. Separately, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office told reporters Ukraine has not yet discussed new military aid packages with the United States. Natasha Bertrand, Alex Marquardt, Haley Britzky, and Jennifer Hansler report for CNN; Reuters reports.

SYRIA

The Syrian foreign minister yesterday condemned Israel’s fresh wave of airstrikes on airbases and other military sites as an “unjustified escalation” aiming to “destabilise Syria.” The latest strikes come amid reports of Turkey moving its military equipment to Syrian airbases. David Gritten and Lucy Williamson report for BBC News.

ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH CEASEFIRE 

Israel today said it killed a Hamas commander in an airstrike in southern Lebanon. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s office said the attack was a clear violation of the U.S.-backed ceasefire. Reuters reports.

HOUTHI DEVELOPMENTS 

The United States has achieved only limited success in destroying Houthi targets in its recent strikes on Yemen, Pentagon officials have told Congress in closed briefings in recent days. Officials briefed on the assessments say the strikes are also more extensive and costly than publicly described, with the Pentagon using $200 million worth of munitions in three weeks and the total cost nearing $1 billion. A senior Pentagon official pushed back on the reports, saying that the operation is “on track.” Eric Schmitt, Edward Wong, and John Ismay report for the New York Times.

U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

The U.S. government has banned American personnel in China from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, AP News has learned. The ban extends to family members of U.S. personnel and contractors with security clearances, sources added. Such blanket “non-fraternization” policies have been last known to be implemented during the Cold War. Dake Kang, Matthew Lee, and Didi Tang report.

Threats of military strikes against Iran are “illegal and unacceptable,” a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson said yesterday, days after Trump threatened Tehran with bombing and secondary tariffs if it does not strike a nuclear program deal with Washington. Reuters reports.

The Trump administration is in talks with Congo on developing the conflict-plagued nation’s mineral resources, Trump’s senior adviser for Africa, Massad Boulos, said yesterday. Jean-Yves Kamale and Mark Banchereau report for AP News.

The U.S. Senate yesterday voted 82-15 and 83-15 to reject two resolutions of disapproval over sales of massive bombs and other offensive military equipment to Israel. Patricia Zengerle reports for Reuters.

President Trump yesterday extended his support to France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen, calling her recent conviction over embezzling European Union funds the product of a “witch hunt.” Todd Symons reports for CNN.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS 

Trump yesterday fired Gen. Timothy Haugh, the National Security Agency Director who also heads U.S. Cyber Command, officials say. Haugh’s civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble, and at least five National Security Council aides were also let go, the officials added.  Far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer said she advocated for the firings in a meeting with Trump on Wednesday. Ellen Nakashima, Warren P. Strobel, and Aaron Schaffer report for the Washington Post; Barak Ravid, Dave Lawler, and Alison Snyder report for Axios.

Trump has largely sidelined the Justice Department’s traditionally powerful Office of Legal Counsel, failing to submit a nominee to be the office’s Senate-confirmed leader or name an acting assistant Attorney General to manage it two months into his administration and limiting the extent to which the office is consulted on draft executive orders, analysts and sources involved in the review process say. Charlie Savage reports for the New York Times.

The Pentagon’s Inspector-General’s Office yesterday said it would investigate disclosures made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Signal to determine the extent to which Hegseth and other defense personnel complied with policies and procedures “for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business” and classification and records retention requirements. Alex Horton and Dan Lamothe report for the Washington Post.

Health and Human Services Department officials this week shut down several offices tasked with Freedom of Information Act requests amid plans to consolidate the handling of the requests into one HHS-wide office, according to sources. Ben Johansen reports for POLITICO.

Hastily-drafted termination notices sent to U.S. Agency for International Development staff by DOGE were so rife with errors that corrected versions are being re-issued to some workers to avoid affecting pensions and pay, sources say. Jonathan Landay and Patricia Zengerle report for Reuters.

Almost all the employees of the Wilson Center foreign policy think tank were placed on leave yesterday and blocked from their work email accounts as DOGE shut down most of the center, according to an email reviewed by the New York Times. Aishvarya Kavi and Edward Wong report.

Elon Musk will leave the White House “in a few months,” Trump said yesterday, his first comment that provided a loose end date for Musk’s departure. Sareen Habeshian reports for Axios.

U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS

Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and House Intelligence Committee ranking member Jim Himes (D-CT) yesterday criticized the Trump administration’s dismissal of Gen. Timothy Haugh from the National Security Agency. Rebecca Falconer reports for Axios.

More than 100 former assistant U.S. attorneys and other organizations this week signed a statement opposing the nomination of Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for D.C., to serve in the post permanently, as Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee called for a hearing on Martin’s nomination. Ryan J. Reilly reports for NBC News.

More than 80 organizations yesterday released an open letter criticizing the Trump administration’s intimidation of judges and law firms. April Rubin reports for Axios.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION

There is a “fair likelihood” the Trump administration violated a court order by failing to stop the deportation of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador last month, a federal judge said yesterday, adding he will likely rule on whether officials were in contempt of court next week. Alan Feuer reports for the New York Times.

A federal judge yesterday said she plans to temporarily block the Trump administration from cutting at least $11bn in federal funding for COVID-19 initiatives and public health projects, stating that the plaintiff states made a “strong case” that they would succeed in their attempt to show the move was unlawful. Devna Bose reports for AP News.

The Attorneys General from 19 Democratic states yesterday filed a federal challenge to Trump’s executive order targeting election rules and administration across the country, arguing the President had “no authority” to make a number of directives contained in the order. Andrew Howard reports for POLITICO.

Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions

The post Early Edition: April 4, 2025 appeared first on Just Security.

BANGKOK — China announced Friday that it will impose a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10, part of a flurry of retaliatory measures following U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” slate of double-digit tariffs.

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The new tariff matches the rate of the U.S. “reciprocal” tariff of 34% on Chinese exports that Trump ordered this week.

The Commerce Ministry in Beijing also said in a notice that it will impose more export controls on rare earths, which are materials used in high-tech products such as computer chips and electric vehicle batteries.

Included in the list of minerals subject to controls was samarium and its compounds, which are used in aerospace manufacturing and the defense sector. Another element called gadolinium is used in MRI scans.

China’s customs administration said it had suspended imports of chicken from some U.S. suppliers after detected furazolidone, a drug banned in China, in shipments from those companies.

Separately, it said had found high levels of mold in the sorghum and salmonella in poultry meat from some of the companies. The announcements affect one company exporting sorghum, C&D Inc., and four poultry companies.

Additionally, the Chinese government said it had added 27 firms to lists of companies subject to trade sanctions or export controls.

Read More: Congress Is Freaking Out About Trump’s Trade War, But Not Enough to Stop Him

Among them, 16 are subject to a ban on the export of “dual-use” goods. High Point Aerotechnologies, a defense tech company, and Universal Logistics Holding, a publicly traded transportation and logistics company, were among those listed.

Beijing also announced it filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization over the tariffs issue.

“The United States’ imposition of so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’ seriously violates WTO rules, seriously damages the legitimate rights and interests of WTO members, and seriously undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system and international economic and trade order,” the Commerce Ministry said.

“It is a typical unilateral bullying practice that endangers the stability of the global economic and trade order. China firmly opposes this,” it said.

Other actions include the launch of an anti-monopoly investigation into DuPont China Group Co., a subsidiary of the multinational chemical giant, and an anti-dumping probe into X-ray tube and CT tubes for CT scanners imported from the U.S. and India.

In February, China announced a 15% tariff on imports of coal and liquefied natural gas products from the U.S. It separately added a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars.

Dozens of U.S. companies are subject to controls on trade and investment, while many more Chinese companies face similar limits on dealings with U.S. firms.

The latest tariffs apply to all products made in the U.S., according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance’s State Council Tariff Commission.

While friction on the trade front has been heating up, overall relations are somewhat less fractious.

U.S. and Chinese military officials met this week for the first time Trump took office in January to shared concerns about military safety on the seas. The talks held Wednesday and Thursday in Shanghai were aimed at minimizing the risk of trouble, both sides said.

Liberation Day for Hollywood starlet.
Unfair trade is dead, and Hooters is alive (for now).
Journalists demand to be taken seriously (without cause).
True courage: Liberal white woman boycotts grad school.

It’s Friday, April 4, 2025

Democrats and their media sycophants want you to think tariffs are the only thing happening in the world right now. It’s true that President Donald Trump proclaimed April 2 as “Liberation Day” for the American people, and the White House announced a series of trade fairness measures that will either Make America Great Again or give Democrats an easy issue to run on that allows them to reclaim power without ever really reckoning with the fact that their party has gone insane. In any event, this obsession with tariffs (and the alleged decline of the stock market) reveals yet again that Democratic politicians and mainstream journalists are hopelessly out of touch with normal Americans.

2 big things: The New York Times put out dozens of doomsaying articles and op-eds this week about Trump’s tariffs, but the paper hasn’t published a single word about what might be the best piece of news since Nov. 5, 2024: Sydney Sweeney, the well-rounded (and MAGA-affiliated) Hollywood starlet, is single again after breaking off her engagement with some dude named Jonathan. This is a massive development, one that never would have happened on Joe Biden’s watch. The so-called paper of record’s refusal to cover Sweeney’s “liberation day” suggests an astonishing level of contempt for the American people, and especially for the hopes and dreams of male voters who are (not surprisingly) abandoning the Democratic Party in droves. The Washington Free Beacon is ready and willing to fill that void. Enjoy!

Related: Doug Emhoff Might Have To Hire an Ugly Secretary

The tariff question no one’s asking: How will Trump’s new trade policies affect Hooters? The iconic casual dining chain, known for its admirable commitment to male camaraderie, female empowerment, and the color orange, filed for bankruptcy this week but plans to stay in business after selling its company-owned restaurants to a group of franchise operators. Once again, the Times has failed to meet the moment. Its reporting on this issue of direct concern to millions of hardworking Americans—and to all who claim to care about body positivity—has been perfunctory at best. According to the Times, the “most relevant” Hooters story on its website is an op-ed by a self-described “bicoastal effete” about all the dads who supposedly patronize the storied franchise with their gay sons.

The Free Beacon, by contrast, has always treated our normal American readers with the respect they deserve. You’re welcome.

Fun fact: CNN anchor Jake Tapper once worked for a public relations firm that represented Hooters in the 1990s, around the same time he went on a date with Monica Lewinsky. Talk about peaking too early.

Media malpractice: The Sydney Sweeney/Hooters scandal was hardly the only example this week of shoddy journalism and liberal bias in elite media organizations.

• NBC News published a truly baffling story about how the great-granddaughter of Willis C. Hawley, the congressman who coauthored the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, was not a fan of Trump’s trade policies. She’s a 70-year-old retired nurse who voted for Kamala Harris, so no shit.

• Politico used an absurd caption—”How Trump Loses Gen Z”—in its Playbook newsletter to frame Attorney General Pam Bondi’s announcement that federal prosecutors would seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione if he is convicted of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. It’s true that many Gen Z morons, whose brains have been irredeemably ravaged by smartphones and social media, tell pollsters they support Mangione and think Thompson’s murder was justified, which is why they shouldn’t be allowed to vote when Trump runs for reelection in 2028.

• CBS News journalist Leslie Stahl asked Keith Siegel, a Jewish American held hostage by Hamas for nearly 500 days, if the terrorists deliberately “starved” him or if “they just didn’t have food.” Siegel, who also described being violently beaten by his Hamas captors, was forced to explain that the terrorists “would often eat in front of me and not offer me food.”

• The Daily Beast published a whinging review of the Glengarry Glen Ross revival on Broadway starring Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Bill Burr, and Michael McKean. The author, Tim Teeman, complained about the “degrading” and “painfully offensive” language of the characters—a group of miserable real-estate brokers in 1980s Chicago—and condemned the audience for its “literal laughter” at a time when the “rights and identities of minorities and the marginalized are under sustained attack.” Teeman went on to imply that the play’s author, David Mamet, should have included some scenes in which the “characters that say these words [are] cautioned or castigated or proven wrong,” which sounds absolutely riveting. Angsty liberals said the same thing about Clint Eastwood and Gran Torino back in 2008. They must not realize how obnoxious they sound to normal people.

• The White House Correspondents’ Association is reportedly considering a Civil Rights-era “sit-in” to protest the Trump administration’s decision to take away their assigned seats in the White House briefing room. The White House is seeking to disrupt the traditional seating chart, which gives preference to established liberal outlets (and Fox News). If the White House doesn’t back down, the embattled journalist could make a scene by sitting in their old seats and refusing to leave. This is a great idea that would definitely rally the American people to their cause, if you can call it that. Just make sure the cameras are rolling when the journos are forcibly evicted and hauled off to Guantanamo.

Biden death watch: White House aides started planning back in 2023 for the possibility that Biden could die in office or be otherwise incapacitated due to his failing brain. That’s according to Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House, one of several books coming out this spring about the efforts to cover up Biden’s obvious decline. This timeframe is consistent with other reporting that wasn’t published until after Biden withdrew from the election. Bob Woodward of the Washington Post revealed in his latest book, published two weeks before the election, that Democratic donors were shocked by the “troubling signs of decline” Biden exhibited during a series of fundraisers in June 2023, one year before his infamous debate. That is also when, according to the authors of Fight, Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell of California “first became concerned about Biden’s mental acuity” after the president failed to recognize him at the annual White House picnic. Cool, thanks for letting us know!

EXCLUSIVE: The Most Explosive Revelations From Jake Tapper’s New Book About Biden’s Decline

Obnoxious liberal white woman of the week: Tim Walz’s daughter, Hope Walz, went on TikTok to announce her courageous decision not to attend the allegedly prestigious graduate school she applied to (probably Columbia) because she is a “privileged white woman” who refuses to patronize institutions that “do not support students and the right to protest and speak out for their communities” and foreign terrorists organizations. No one cares.

Financial advice of the week: If you haven’t already filed your taxes, please bear in mind the following information, courtesy of the IRS: 1) All bribes must be reported as income, and 2) you can claim your child as a dependent even if they’ve been kidnapped (by someone other than a family member).

Quote of the week: “I am not a clown, stupid,” said the deranged Florida man wearing a Ronald McDonald costume as police wrestled him to the ground.

Photo of the week: The aforementioned Florida man.

Twitter: @AndrewStilesUSA
Email: stiles@freebeacon.com

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The post 2 big things appeared first on .

(NewsNation) — As President Donald Trump’s tariffs jostled worldwide markets, the DOW, NASDAQ and S&P 500 on Thursday saw their worst numbers since the early days of the pandemic in 2020. Numbers continued to drop on Friday.

But the financial disquiet has left President Donald Trump unphased. He told reporter on Thursday, “I think it’s going very well.”

Some analysts say stocks could be heading to a bear market as Wall Street struggles to digest Trump’s “Liberation Day” levies.

Trump has repeatedly compared the U.S.’s tariff adjustment to a patient who has undergone an operation — saying the country will recover eventually.

“It’s what is expected. The patient was very sick. The economy had a lot of problems,” he said. “… “It was a sick patient. It went through an operation.”

“It’s going to be a booming economy,” he added. “It’s going to be amazing. We’re going to have trillions coming in.”

Fed chair Jerome Powell on tariffs: ‘Larger than expected’

Ahead of a scheduled speech from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Trump on Truth Social directed Powell to cut interest rates.

“He is always ‘late,’ but he could now change his image, and quickly … CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!” Trump’s post reads in part.

Powell did not discuss cutting interest rates, but did predict that tariffs are “likely to raise inflation” and slow growth in coming quarters. He clarified that more details are needed before economic assessments can be made.

He outlined that the current administration is implementing “substantial policy changes” in trade, immigration, fiscal policy and regulation.

“It is not our role to comment on those policies,” Powell said. “Rather, we make an assessment on their likely effects, observe the behavior of the economy and set monetary policy that best achieves our dual-mandate goals.”

NewsNation’s Anna Kutz contributed to this report.

Ethiopia is in the grip of a civil war again between federal government forces and the Fano, a loose alliance of ethnic-based militia in the Amhara region.

This conflict in Ethiopia’s north erupted less than a year after the devastating Tigray war, which ended in 2022.

The Amhara are one of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic groups and played a leading role in the making of the Ethiopian state. Amharic serves as the country’s working language.

The region shares a border with Tigray. During the Tigray war, which began in 2020, various Fano groups allied with the federal government. A peace deal in 2022 to stop the war sidelined the Amhara militia groups, which strained relations with the government.

The Amhara conflict began as minor sporadic clashes with government forces in April 2023. This rapidly escalated into a full-scale insurgency by August when Fano forces launched a full blown attack in an effort to control the region’s major cities.

The violence since has displaced more than 100,000 people and left 4.7 million children out of school.

The death toll from the conflict is piling up. In March 2025, the government claimed to have killed more than 300 Fano fighters.

There are three factors behind the escalating armed struggle in Amhara:

• a mismanaged political transition from 2018 to 2020
• fallout from the 2020-2022 Tigray war
• a hollow pursuit of peace.

Between 1991 and 2018, Ethiopia was governed by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. This was a powerful coalition of four ethno-national parties representing Tigray, Amhara, Oromo, and Southern nations, nationalities and peoples.

Faced with a political crisis and growing unrest in 2014 following opposition clampdowns and arbitrary arrests, the coalition needed a change. Two members – the Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation and the Amhara National Democratic Movement – joined forces to oust the Tigray People’s Liberation Front from its dominant position. They did this by leveraging youth-led protests, which played out between 2015 and 2018.

Following the resignation of prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn in 2018, the two parties orchestrated Abiy Ahmed’s ascent to power.

For a moment, the relationship between the Oromo and Amhara wings of the coalition looked like one of equals.In December 2019, Abiy merged the coalition into a single party, the Prosperity Party.

The Oromo wing positioned itself as the core of the Prosperity Party. It monopolised key political positions and economic opportunities. This included asserting control over the capital, Addis Ababa.

Read more: Abiy Ahmed gained power in Ethiopia with the help of young people – four years later he’s silencing them.

The deepening crisis in Ethiopia’s Amhara region is driven by a complex mix of political, ethnic, and security factors. Here’s a breakdown of the key reasons behind the instability:

 1. Tensions Between the Amhara Region and the Federal Government

• Disillusionment with the Abiy Government: Many in Amhara feel betrayed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. After cooperating with federal forces during the Tigray conflict, Amhara elites expected greater political influence and lasting control over disputed territories (like Western Tigray). That hasn’t materialized.
• Disarmament Campaign: In 2023, the federal government’s attempt to disband regional special forces, including the powerful Amhara militia (Fano), was seen as an effort to weaken Amhara autonomy. It sparked violent clashes and resentment.

 2. Rise of Fano Militias

• Paramilitary Autonomy: The Fano militia emerged as a major armed actor, operating increasingly independently. Initially seen as community defenders, they now challenge both federal and regional authority.
• Resistance to Centralization: Fano views the federal government’s disarmament and reform plans as an existential threat, leading to an escalating insurgency in the region.

3. Territorial Disputes and Ethnic Federalism

• Western Tigray: Amhara forces took control of this disputed area during the Tigray war, claiming it historically belongs to Amhara. Tigrayans see this as illegal occupation. The dispute has fueled long-standing ethnic grievances.
• Ethnic Federalism Tensions: Ethiopia’s federal system, which grants autonomy to ethnically defined regions, has become a flashpoint. Amharas argue the system marginalizes them in areas like Oromia, while other groups accuse Amharas of trying to dominate multiethnic regions.

 4. Militarization and Breakdown of Law

• Widespread Insecurity: The central government’s authority has weakened in Amhara. Fighting between Fano and the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) has led to widespread displacement, killings, and humanitarian disruptions.
• State of Emergency: In August 2023, the federal government declared a state of emergency in Amhara, further militarizing the situation and triggering reports of arbitrary detentions and abuses.

 5. Lack of Inclusive Political Dialogue

• No national reconciliation process has addressed the grievances of the Amhara community—or any major group—since the Tigray war. The absence of dialogue has led to radicalization and a lack of political outlets for dissent.

Outlook

• The crisis risks becoming a protracted internal conflict if no serious political solution is pursued.
• It also undermines Ethiopia’s territorial integrity, with growing signs of state fragmentation.

Amhara’s outspoken leaders who criticised this dominance faced removal, arrest or exile. The region’s president, Ambachew Mekonnen, was assassinated in June 2019.

Harassment, kidnappings for ransom and arrests were daily experiences for Amhara region residents trying to enter Addis Ababa. Members of the Amhara community also faced ethnic-based violence in various parts of the country.

These incidents provoked anti-government protests throughout Amhara.

A peace agreement signed in 2022 in South Africa ended a brutal two-year war in Tigray and neighbouring regions. However, it deepened the sense of marginalisation in Amhara.

While the agreement silenced the guns in Tigray, it sidelined Amhara constituencies by denying them representation in the talks despite the region being affected by the war. The agreement’s ambiguity regarding the fate of territories disputed between Amhara and Tigray, such as Welkait, further fuelled distrust.

The last nail in the coffin came in April 2023. The government decided to dismantle regional special forces. This was ostensibly aimed at consolidating the country’s fighting forces. Continued conflict in Amhara could lead to other regions pursuing autonomy or resisting federal control.

However, with unresolved territorial disputes and Oromo nationalist ambitions at the centre, disarming the Amhara Special Forces was interpreted as a move to weaken Amhara defences. Additionally, the more than 200,000-strong Tigray Defence Forces were left intact. This contributed to a sense of vulnerability in neighbouring Amhara.

Public protests led to clashes with government forces. These protests morphed into an insurgency by the Fano in the following months.

The insurgency has expanded its reach and has public support across the region and in the diaspora.

The Fano insurgency is taking place in a territory three times the size of Tigray, stretching the federal army.

Various Fano factions cite objectives that range from the protection of Amhara interests to constitutional change and overthrowing the federal government. The federal government’s efforts to centralize power—including disarming regional special forces—have been perceived as direct threats to Amhara autonomy.

However, the insurgency is still in its infancy. It lacks unified leadership, a cohesive structure or a chain of command. Factional divisions and competition persist, and there are no clear objectives.

The government seems determined to crush the Fano insurgency by force. A state of emergency was declared in August 2023 for six months. It was later extended.

While the state of emergency in Amhara officially ended in June 2024, some restrictions remain in place. This includes de facto curfews in major cities, including the capital Bahir Dar.

The counterinsurgency relies on heavy Ethiopian National Defence Forces deployments and drone strikes.

On the other hand, the government has indicated its openness to peace talks. However, it has avoided meaningful confidence-building measures, such as releasing Amhara political prisoners. A Peace Council established to mediate between the Fano and the government has proven ineffective. Its spokesperson has noted federal reluctance to negotiate.

The government’s peace efforts have centred on repeated calls for insurgents to surrender. There are reports that the government wants to talk to different Fano factions separately in the hope of fragmenting the insurgency further. Secret talks with one faction of the Fano are an indication of this strategy.

The government’s violent counterinsurgency and occasional peace overtures are unlikely to succeed. The Prosperity Party is not popular in Amhara. A meaningful peace process – rather than calls for surrender or attempts to co-opt factions – is essential. 

The federal government also needs to be part of a multi-stakeholder negotiation involving all Fano factions, civil society, community leaders, and domestic and diaspora-based opposition groups. Unbiased mediation from regional and international players may also be useful. Past attempts at piecemeal talks with factions of armed groups – be it in Tigray or Oromia – have prolonged insurgencies or fostered new ones. Only a comprehensive, all-inclusive dialogue can address the crisis.Such a process needs to address deep-seated structural challenges. This includes ensuring the protection of Amhara minorities living in other regions, and the region’s representation within local, regional and federal government structures. Territorial disputes need to be addressed through a process rooted in historical context, constitutional principles and the consent of the people concerned.

Policy Recommendations:

For the Ethiopian Government:

• Suspend militarized crackdowns and reinitiate inclusive dialogue with Amhara representatives, including local elders and civic groups.
• Establish a neutral truth and reconciliation commission to address regional grievances.
• Reassess ethnic federalism’s structural flaws while preserving minority protections.

For International Actors:

• UN & AU Mediation: Encourage high-level mediation by the African Union, with support from the UN or neutral third-party states.
• Targeted diplomacy: The EU, US, and others should use quiet diplomacy to pressure for dialogue, while conditioning aid on human rights compliance.
• Support local peacebuilding: Fund and empower local civil society actors engaged in peacebuilding and community-based conflict resolution.
• Monitor human rights abuses and apply targeted sanctions if violations persist.

:

The Amhara crisis is not an isolated regional issue—it is a symptom of Ethiopia’s unresolved political transition. A durable solution must combine local peacebuilding, national reform, and external pressure for accountability. Ignoring the crisis risks not only Ethiopia’s disintegration but broader regional instability.

Experts warn of a critical vulnerability impacting Apache Parquet’s Java Library that could allow remote code execution.

Apache Parquet’s Java Library is a software library for reading and writing Parquet files in the Java programming language. Parquet is a columnar storage file format that is optimized for use with large-scale data processing frameworks, such as Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark, and Apache Drill.

Experts disclosed a critical vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-30065 (CVSS score of 10.0), impacting Apache Parquet’s Java Library that could allow remote code execution

“Schema parsing in the parquet-avro module of Apache Parquet 1.15.0 and previous versions allows bad actors to execute arbitrary code” reads the advisory.

The vulnerability CVE-2025-30065 is a Deserialization of Untrusted Data issue. The flaw affects systems importing Parquet files, especially from untrusted sources, and can be exploited by attackers tampering with the files. Versions 1.15.0 and earlier are vulnerable, with the flaw traced back to version 1.8.0. This impacts big-data frameworks (e.g., Hadoop, Spark, Flink) and custom applications using Parquet. Users should verify their software stack for this issue.

“If an attacker tricks a vulnerable system into reading a specially crafted Parquet file, they could gain remote code execution (RCE) on that system​.” reads a report published by Endor Labs. “In practice, this might allow them to:

• Take control of the system: They could run any commands or software, effectively gaining control​.
• Steal or tamper with data: Sensitive information could be accessed, copied, or modified.
• Install malware: The attacker might deploy ransomware, cryptominers, or other malicious software.
• Disrupt services: They could shut down services or corrupt data, causing denial of service and business downtime.

“All confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected system are at risk (in CVSS terms, “High” impact on all three)​. Despite the frightening potential, it’s important to note that the vulnerability can only be exploited if a malicious Parquet file is imported.”

According to Endor Labs, as of April 2025, there are no known active exploits for this vulnerability. However, with the issue now public, threat actors may attempt to exploit it. The researchers urge users to address the issue immediately.

To protect your systems from CVE-2025-30065, upgrade Apache Parquet Java to version 1.15.1 or later. If that’s not possible, avoid or validate Parquet files from untrusted sources and implement input validation. Enable monitoring and logging to detect suspicious behavior, and stay informed on updates from Apache or cybersecurity authorities. Applying these actions will reduce risks and protect your systems.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Parquet’s Java Library)

Tesla’s stock plummeted more than 30 percent in the first quarter of 2025, losing its post-election gains, as the electric vehicle pioneer grapples with an unexpected challenge: a consumer revolt against CEO Elon Musk’s leadership of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and his political alliances.

Once celebrated across the political spectrum, Tesla has transformed from an environmental icon into a political flashpoint. 

Tesla dealerships have become symbols, explains Lara Starr, who organized a 200-person demonstration in Marin County, California. “You can’t disentangle Tesla from Musk, and you can’t disentangle Musk from Trump. And the one thing I can say about Musk positively is he has handed us a place in almost every community around the country that is symbolic of everything wrong that is going on in Washington.”

The impact of this grassroots rebellion is beginning to show in Tesla’s financial reports. Global sales have hit historic lows for the company, with particularly sharp declines in traditionally strong markets.

Despite Tesla’s business challenges, the billionaire poured considerable resources on reshaping America’s political landscape. His political spending — including with his super PAC spending $25 million in a single Wisconsin Supreme Court race — has yielded disappointing returns. His preferred candidate was defeated.

In this week’s episode of The Intercept Briefing, reporters Matt Sledge and Sunjeev Bery examine this grassroots rebellion and what it reveals about Musk’s power and the future of political activism.

“There’s been a lot of talk about how the Democrats are in disarray and not sure how to recover from the election last year. But this [Wisconsin] election — and the way that Elon Musk got involved and personalized it and made it about himself — gave Democrats an easy yes-no vote on Elon Musk, and I think that was really significant here,” says Sledge. 

He points out how that election is also a rebuke of the Trump–Musk alliance: “ It is fascinating that it is happening through this electoral mechanism, and that people are being allowed to give a referendum on this relationship, and that the democratic process is potentially having a direct input on this relationship.”

Intercept contributor Sunjeev Bery says the Tesla protests are much bigger than just Tesla or Musk. “The Tesla takedown movement has become this astonishing wave of opposition to Trump, the fascist directions of the Trump regime, everything Elon Musk is pushing with DOGE. It’s a place where lots of people who are angry about all of the different things that the Trump regime is up to — all of the fires they’re setting — can come together and focus on Elon Musk, Tesla, and the physical place of his dealerships.”

Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

The post Unplugged: The Backlash Against Trump–Musk appeared first on The Intercept.