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Trump shuts down USAID HQ as Elon Musk calls it a “criminal organization”

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The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) shut down its Washington headquarters on Monday, locking staffers out of its internal systems. Elon Musk indicated that President Trump supports eliminating USAID, calling it a “criminal organization.”

Key Details:

  • USAID staffers were locked out of the agency’s headquarters and computer systems overnight, with an internal email confirming the closure.
  • Elon Musk, leading the government efficiency push, said Trump agrees USAID should be dismantled, calling it beyond repair.
  • Former USAID officials warn the move will have global consequences, including disrupting disease outbreak responses and cutting key humanitarian efforts.

Diving Deeper:

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) effectively shut down its Washington headquarters on Monday, locking employees out of the agency’s systems overnight. An internal email confirmed the closure, citing a directive from leadership, sources told Fox News Digital.

Elon Musk suggested the shutdown is part of a broader effort to dismantle the agency, an idea he claims President Donald Trump supports. During an X Spaces discussion, Musk doubled down on his criticism of USAID, calling it “a bowl of worms” that is “beyond repair.”

“There is no apple,” Musk said. “It’s beyond saving.”

Musk has been vocal in his attacks on USAID, going as far as calling it a “criminal organization” on X. He claimed the agency was run by radical-left operatives who were undermining American interests. The agency’s website was also taken offline Saturday.

The move has sparked outrage among former USAID officials and global health experts. Atul Gawande, who led the agency’s global health division under President Biden, warned that the shutdown is catastrophic for international disease control efforts.

“This is a gift to our enemies and competitors,” Gawande told Fox News Digital. “We were actively managing 21 serious outbreaks worldwide just two weeks ago. Now, three of those have escalated into crises—Ebola in Uganda, a bird flu outbreak spanning 49 countries, and another major threat.”

Gawande added that the agency’s abrupt closure is a blow to morale, claiming employees have been treated with “enormous disrespect and fear.” Reports indicate that the USAID Memorial Wall, which honored staff killed while serving overseas, has been removed. Additionally, entire departments, including malaria prevention and child immunization teams, have been gutted.

“The top three layers of experienced employees are gone,” Gawande continued. “All contract workers are being terminated. Two-thirds of our malaria staff and child immunization experts are gone. This is not reform. This is destruction.”

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Business

What Pelosi “earned” after 37 years in power will shock you

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Nancy Pelosi isn’t just walking away from Congress — she’s cashing out of one of the most profitable careers ever built inside it. According to an investigation by the New York Post, the former House Speaker and her husband, venture capitalist Paul Pelosi, turned a modest stock portfolio worth under $800,000 into at least $130 million over her 37 years in office — a staggering 16,900% return that would make even Wall Street’s best blush.

The 85-year-old California Democrat — hailed as the first woman to wield the Speaker’s gavel and infamous for her uncanny market timing — announced this week she will retire when her term ends in January 2027. The Post reported that when Pelosi first entered Congress in 1987, her financial disclosure showed holdings in just a dozen stocks, including Citibank, worth between $610,000 and $785,000. Today, the Pelosis’ net worth is estimated around $280 million — built on trades that have consistently outperformed the Dow, the S&P 500, and even top hedge funds.

The Post found that while the Dow rose roughly 2,300% over those decades, the Pelosis’ reported returns soared nearly seven times higher, averaging 14.5% a year — double the long-term market average. In 2024 alone, their portfolio reportedly gained 54%, more than twice the S&P’s 25% and better than every major hedge fund tracked by Bloomberg.

Pelosi’s latest financial disclosure shows holdings in some two dozen individual stocks, including millions invested in Apple, Nvidia, Salesforce, Netflix, and Palo Alto Networks. Apple remains their single largest position, valued between $25 million and $50 million. The couple also owns a Napa Valley winery worth up to $25 million, a Bay Area restaurant, commercial real estate, and a political data and consulting firm. Their home in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights is valued around $8.7 million, and they maintain a Georgetown townhouse bought in 1999 for $650,000.

The report comes as bipartisan calls grow to ban lawmakers and their spouses from trading individual stocks — a move critics say is long overdue. “What I’ll miss most is how she trades,” said Dan Weiskopf, portfolio manager of an ETF that tracks congressional investments known as “NANC.” He described Pelosi’s trading as “high conviction and aggressive,” noting her frequent use of leveraged options trades. “You only do that if you’ve got confidence — or information,” Weiskopf told the Post.

Among her most striking trades was a late-2023 move that allowed the Pelosis to buy 50,000 shares of Nvidia at just $12 each — less than a tenth of the market price. The $2.4 million investment is now worth more than $7 million. “She’s buying deep in the money and putting up a lot of money doing it,” Weiskopf said. “We don’t see a lot of flip-flopping on her trading activity.”

Republicans blasted Pelosi’s record as proof of Washington’s double standard. “Nancy Pelosi’s true legacy is becoming the most successful insider trader in American history,” said RNC spokesperson Kiersten Pels. “If anyone else had turned $785,000 into $133 million with better returns than Warren Buffett, they’d be retiring behind bars.”

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Health

RFK Jr. urges global health authorities to remove mercury from all vaccines

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From LifeSiteNews

By Charles Richards

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is urging health leaders across the planet to stop including mercury in vaccinations.

“Now that America has removed mercury from all vaccines, I call on every global health authority to do the same — to ensure that no child, anywhere in the world, is ever exposed to this deadly neurotoxin again,” he said.

 

Kennedy’s comments came in a video he recorded for the Minamata Convention on Mercury. The event is an international gathering aimed at preventing human contact with mercury, which, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is one of the top 10 chemicals of major public health concern. The treaty, backed by the United Nations (UN), was first signed in 2013 by over 140 countries.

Kennedy noted that while the group’s goal is no doubt praiseworthy, it has not gone far enough in its efforts.

“Article 4 of the convention calls on parties to cut mercury use by phasing out listed, mercury-added products. But in 2010, as the treaty took shape, negotiators made a major exception. Thimerosal-containing vaccines were carved out of the regulation,” he recalled.

“The same treaty that began to phase out mercury in lamps and cosmetics chose to leave it in products injected into babies, pregnant women, and the most vulnerable among us,” he noted. “We have to ask: Why? Why do we hold a double standard for mercury? Why call it dangerous in batteries, in over-the-counter medications, and make-up but acceptable in vaccines and dental fillings?”

This past summer, Kennedy’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices launched a study to research the vaccine schedule for children. Among other recommendations, the committee advised the removal of thimerosal, a neurotoxic, mercury-containing preservative that had been used in flu shots.

Kennedy noted in his video message that “thimerosal’s own label requires it to be treated as a hazardous material and warns against ingestion,” adding that “there is not a single study that proves it’s safe. That’s why in July of this year the United States closed the final chapter on the use of thimerosal as a vaccine preservative, something that should have happened years ago.”

“Manufacturers have confirmed that they can produce mercury-free, single dose vaccines without interrupting supply. There is no excuse for inaction or holding stubbornly to the status quo,” he exclaimed. “Now that America has removed mercury from all vaccines, I call on every global health authority and every party to this convention to do the same.”

“Let’s honor and protect humanity, and our children, and creation from mercury,” he concluded.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury went into effect in August 2017. It was initially approved by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in Geneva, Switzerland, in January 2013. It was adopted in October 2013 at a Diplomatic Conference in Kumamoto, Japan. Per its website, it is named “after the bay in Japan where, in the mid-20th century, mercury-tainted industrial wastewater poisoned thousands of people, leading to severe health damage that became known as the ‘Minamata disease.’”

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