DOGE fires federal tech team that built free tax-filing site as non-critical

 The Trump administration has pulled the plug on a team of tech-savvy civil servants that helped build the IRS's free tax-filing service and revamped websites across government, according to an email sent overnight to employees.

In an email to employees of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) seen by Reuters, the GSA's Director of Technology Transformation Services Thomas Shedd said the team -- known as 18F -- had been identified as "non critical."

A GSA source said the roughly 90 18F employees were immediately locked out of their devices.

First launched in 2014 under former President Barack Obama, the 18F team was housed within GSA and helped federal agencies improve their digital services.

It was tasked with improving federal website accessibility, modernizing technology, enhancing data access, and making the government's customer service experience more user-friendly.

Billionaire Elon Musk, who leads the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency team known as DOGE, earlier this month responded to a post on X that called 18F a "far left government-wide computer office" by saying the group has been "deleted."

The IRS's free direct-file tax website is currently still online.

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/latest/Musk-s-DOGE-fires-federal-tech-team-that-built-free-tax-filing-site-49210342/

Hungary's Orban pushes direct Russia talks, opposes EU summit declaration

 Hungary's prime minister has urged the European Union to start direct discussions with Russia on a ceasefire in Ukraine and drop plans for a joint declaration at an extraordinary EU summit next week, saying differences in the bloc "cannot be bridged".

Under President Donald Trump, the United States has started talks with Russia on ending its war in Ukraine, but without Kyiv or the EU at the table. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy clashed in a White House meeting on Friday.

In a letter to European Council President Antonio Costa dated Saturday, first reported by German daily Welt and seen by Reuters, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said of the EU that there were "strategic differences in our approach to Ukraine that cannot be bridged".

The European Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"I am convinced that the European Union - following the example of the United States - should enter into direct discussions with Russia on a ceasefire and sustainable peace in Ukraine," Orban, a Trump ally, said in the letter.

He said this approach could not be reconciled with the draft conclusions for next Thursday's EU summit, set to focus on additional support for Ukraine, European security guarantees and how to pay for European defence needs.

"Therefore, I propose not to attempt adopting written conclusions on Ukraine," Orban said, alluding to the fact that decisions at EU summits need to be taken unanimously.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Orban has emerged as a vocal critic of EU sanctions against Moscow and the bloc's financial and military support for Ukraine.

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico is another EU leader who has pushed for fast peace talks. On Saturday, he called the bloc's "peace through force" strategy unrealistic and said the necessity of an immediate ceasefire should be in the EU summit's conclusions.

He also wanted a demand for the reopening of Russian gas transit through Ukraine to be included, after falling into dispute with Kyiv this year when it halted the shipment of gas, forcing Slovakia to find different routes.

"If the summit does not respect that there are other views than continuing the war, the European Council on Thursday may not be able to agree on conclusions on Ukraine," Fico said in a Facebook post.

According to the latest draft statement prepared for the summit, member states were to confirm that there cannot be any negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine, and that any peace agreement for Kyiv must be accompanied by "robust and credible security guarantees" for the country.

The declaration was also to call for additional military aid.

Friday's clash between Trump and Zelenskiy flared over differing visions of how to end the Ukraine war, with Zelenskiy seeking strong security guarantees from an administration that has embraced diplomacy with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

European leaders lined up afterwards to show solidarity with Ukraine's president.

On Sunday, European leaders will meet in London to discuss a security backstop to any peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv.

https://www.aol.com/news/hungarys-orban-pushes-direct-russia-163708971.html

'China's DeepSeek claims theoretical cost-profit ratio of 545% per day'

 Chinese AI startup DeepSeek on Saturday disclosed some cost and revenue data related to its hit V3 and R1 models, claiming a theoretical cost-profit ratio of up to 545% per day, though it cautioned that actual revenue would be significantly lower.

This marks the first time the Hangzhou-based company has revealed any information about its profit margins from less computationally intensive "inference" tasks, the stage after training that involves trained AI models making predictions or performing tasks, such as through chatbots.

The revelation could further rattle AI stocks outside China that plunged in January after web and app chatbots powered by its R1 and V3 models surged in popularity worldwide.

The sell-off was partly caused by DeepSeek's claims that it spent less than $6 million on chips used to train the model, much less than what U.S. rivals like OpenAI have spent.

The chips DeepSeek claims it used, Nvidia's H800, are also much less powerful than what OpenAI and other U.S. AI firms have access to, making investors question even further U.S. AI firms' pledges to spend billions of dollars on cutting-edge chips.

DeepSeek said in a GitHub post published on Saturday that assuming the cost of renting one H800 chip is $2 per hour, the total daily inference cost for its V3 and R1 models is $87,072. In contrast, the theoretical daily revenue generated by these models is $562,027, leading to a cost-profit ratio of 545%. In a year this would add up to just over $200 million in revenue.

However, the firm added that its "actual revenue is substantially lower" because the cost of using its V3 model is lower than the R1 model, only some services are monetized as web and app access remain free, and developers pay less during off-peak hours.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-deepseek-claims-theoretical-cost-121658741.html

CIA Proxy Agency Confirms Funding Suspended, Forced To "Halt All Partner Support"

 by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a US-funded organization that meddles in elections and pushes regime change around the world in the name of spreading democracy, has confirmed reports that its funding from the US government has been frozen, forcing it to suspend operations.

“The [NED] is currently unable to access its Congressionally appropriated funds, which sustain nearly all of its grantmaking and operations. As a result, for the first time in the organization’s four-decade history, it has been unable to meet its obligations and has been forced to suspend support for nearly 2,000 partners worldwide,” the NED said in a statement on Tuesday.

While the NED presents itself as an “independent” organization, it is nearly entirely funded by the US government, which it acknowledged in the statement. The NED claimed that its funding should have been exempt from the Trump administration’s pause on foreign aid.

“Ninety-five percent of NED’s funding is directly appropriated by Congress and is not considered foreign assistance. This funding therefore was not subject to the executive order freezing foreign assistance for a ninety-day review. However, despite being exempt, access to these funds has been inexplicably cut off, forcing NED to halt all partner support and furlough the majority of its staff,” the NED said.

The NED, which was founded during the Cold War in 1983, received $315 million from the US government for the 2025 fiscal year. In 1991, Allen Weinstein, a co-founder of NED, acknowledged to The Washington Post that a lot of what the organization did was done “covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”

In the 1991 article, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius listed some examples of the NED’s “overt” action that was previously done by the CIA, including “providing money and moral support for pro-democracy groups, training resistance fighters, working to subvert communist rule.”

The NED has been targeted by Elon Musk, who asked his followers in a recent post on X to list “all the evil things that NED has done.” Jim Bovard, a senior fellow at the Libertarian Institute, replied with an article about how he has been critical of the organization for 40 years.

In a 2009 article for the Future Freedom Foundation, Bovard said the NED is “based on the notion that its meddling in foreign elections is automatically pro-democracy because the US government is the incarnation of democracy. 

NED has always operated on the principle that ‘what’s good for the US government is good for democracy.’”

In a 2006 piece for The American Conservative, Bovard detailed NED’s efforts to push for regime change in Latin America.

“In 2001, NED quadrupled its aid to Venezuelan opponents of elected president Hugo Chavez, and NED heavily funded some organizations involved in a bloody military coup that temporarily removed Chavez from power in April 2002. After Chavez retook control, NED and the State Department responded by pouring even more money into groups seeking his ouster,” he wrote.

Bovard continued, “The International Republican Institute, one of the largest NED grant recipients, played a key role both in the Chavez coup and also in the overthrow of Haiti’s elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In February 2004, an array of NED-aided groups and individuals helped spur an uprising that left 100 people dead and toppled Aristide.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/cia-proxy-agency-confirms-its-funding-has-been-suspended-forcing-it-halt-all-partner

'Hive Mind' Globalists All Post Same X Message After Zelensky's Oval Office Humiliation

 by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Following Ukrainian President Zelensky’s absolute car crash of a visit to President Trump and JD Vance at the White House, European globalists all creepily posted the same robotic message to X in support of Zelensky.

Zelensky left the White House early and in disgrace after he acted disrespectful during the meeting with the President and Vice President in the Oval Office.

The Ukrainian leader clearly didn’t expect to be holding the meeting in front of the press and was visibly irked for the entire 50 minute exchange.

Everything came to a head around 40 minutes into the discussion when Zelensky started talking down to JD Vance, prompting the VP to note that the Ukrainian President has not once said thank you for the ongoing support and the opportunity to visit the White House.

Trump then took over getting into a heated exchange with Zelensky, telling him he is “gambling with World War Three.”

Trump kicked Zelensky out before the scheduled lunch and before an agreement of access to minerals in exchange for ongoing security could be signed.

Trump then told reporters that Zelensky clearly is not ready to accept peace and that he “has no cards to play” without US support.

Zelensky also refused to apologise in a subsequent interview with Fox News.

Following all of this, EU globalists Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, EU Commission, Roberta Metsola, President of EU Parliament, Antonio Costa, President of the European Council, and Manfred Weber, President of the European People’s Party all began sent out this same message…

Other globalists wrote their own messages of solidarity with Zelensky, despite the fact that he came across like a petulant toddler and clearly had no intention of being diplomatic with Trump and Vance.

It’s almost as if they don’t actually want peace.

*  *  *

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/hive-mind-globalists-all-post-same-x-message-after-zelenskys-oval-office-humiliation

Trump Lures Putin Away from China

 Mainstream political pundits are frothing at the mouth over Trump’s overtures to Russia.

Trump recently shocked the Western world by stating, “I think Putin will keep his word…I’ve known him for a long time now. We had to go through the Russian hoax together.”

President Trump also accused President Zelensky of “gambling with World War 3” in front of a live TV audience. The exchanges between Trump, Vance, and Zelensky were absolutely stunning. I’ll include a link to the full discussion at the bottom of this post.

Meanwhile President Putin has said he’s open to partnering with the U.S. to access trillions of dollars worth of rare minerals in newly-conquered Russian territories. Putin has generally expressed his willingness to re-open and expand trade with America.

Both countries have changed their tune dramatically over the past few months.

Why has America’s relationship with Russia suddenly changed for the better?

Part of the answer lies in the fact that Russia has essentially won on the battlefield. The ground war in Ukraine is finally approaching its conclusion.

But there’s more to the story. Back in October of 2024, candidate Donald Trump stated the following:

The one thing you never want to happen is you never want Russia and China uniting…I’m going to have to un-unite them, and I think I can do that. I have to un-unite them.

Now it’s clear why Trump is building bridges to Moscow. He aims to pull Russia closer as part of the effort to contain China.

A Challenging Task

While I understand Trump’s goal here, I believe that breaking ties between China and Russia will prove to be an uphill climb.

Over the past 5 years China and Russia have forged a tight alliance. Trade between the countries has soared.

Source: Wikimedia

China is a primary buyer of Russian oil, natural gas, and grains. Due to Western embargoes on Russian energy products, China has been able to purchase discounted oil and gas from Russia since the start of the Ukraine War.

Meanwhile, Russia has become dependent on Chinese tech, tools, cars, and other goods. Products which it previously imported from Europe and America are now produced domestically or imported from China.

The two countries also have forged deep military ties. China imports missile defense systems, jet engines, and other military products from Russia. And Russia depends on China for drones, microchips, rare minerals, and other critical defense materials.

China and Russia also frequently conduct joint military drills involving large fleets of naval and air assets.

It’s going to be hard to break this quasi-alliance. But if anyone has a chance, it’s DJT.

Trump’s Leverage

Russia has much to gain from a peace deal. If sanctions are ended, Russia will get a substantial economic boost.

Putin would no longer have to sell oil and gas at big discounts to India and China. Russia would once again be able to sell into the lucrative European and American markets. The gas pipelines into Europe alone were a huge cash cow for Putin for decades. If they open back up, that alone would make a huge difference.

Russian stocks would likely be able to trade again on international markets, after having been frozen for 3 years (more on that here). The Moscow Exchange (MoEx) index is currently trading at 3.3x earnings. That is… dirt cheap.

Being cut off from global markets has essentially crippled Russian markets. We’re going to keep a close eye on this story, because I believe we may soon get a chance to buy Russian equities at once-in-a-lifetime discounts. I’m talking about reliable cash-flow machines with yields as high as 15%.

And depending on how the peace deal goes, Russia may also be able to once again access top-end AI hardware. Since the start of the war they’ve been cut off from top-notch semiconductors, and have had to rely on third-tier equipment and smuggling.

Russia might even get back its $300 billion in stolen central bank assets.

There’s a lot on the line for Putin, so it’s easy to see why he is approaching the peace deal with such optimism.

It looks like Russia and the U.S. will finally be able to re-establish normal international relations, and that’s a good thing for the entire world. Proxy and cold wars aren’t good for anyone (except defense contractors).

But I’m still not convinced that Trump will be able to break the bonds between China and Russia. Even before the war began in 2022, the two countries were moving closer together. And now, they’re far tighter than ever before.

Trump will almost certainly be able to lessen China and Russia’s interdependence, but I’m not convinced he’ll be able to sever ties. Let’s watch and see what happens…

Stay tuned for more on this important story.

Adam Sharp has been a financial writer and Fed watcher since 2008. He is a contrarian who specializes in non-traditional assets. Adam founded and sold Early Investing, a newsletter about alternative investments.

https://dailyreckoning.com/trump-lures-putin-away-from-china/

Trump slated to host Crypto Summit at White House

 President Donald Trump is scheduled to host an event on cryptocurrency at the White House next week.

The Crypto Summit will be held on Friday, marking the first-ever White House event of its kind.

Trump is expected to deliver remarks during the summit, the White House said.

President Donald Trump talks to reporters after signing an executive order in the Oval Office on January 31, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / Getty Images)

The event will include "prominent founders, CEOs, and investors from the crypto industry, as well as members of the president’s Working Group on Digital Assets," according to the White House.

The summit will be led by venture capitalist and White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and will be administered by the working group's executive director, Bo Hines.

This comes after Trump signed an executive order in January to establish the working group, which consists of officials from various federal agencies to advise the White House on policy surrounding digital assets.

President Donald Trump arrives in the East Room of the White House on February 5, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images / Getty Images)

The working group includes officials from the departments of Treasury, Justice, Commerce and Homeland Security, as well as the Office of Management and Budget, Securities & Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, among others.

During his 2024 campaign, Trump vowed to streamline regulations, support a stablecoin framework and establish a Bitcoin stockpile, according to Bloomberg News.

David Sacks, President Donald Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, listens as Trump signs a series of executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on January 23, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)

Trump has not yet fulfilled all of those promises, but his administration’s policies and the summit signal a significant change from the Biden administration’s tough regulatory approach, Bloomberg News reported.

The president, who previously criticized cryptocurrency as a "scam," even introduced a memecoin shortly before he returned to office in January.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-slated-host-crypto-summit-white-house