“Mexico has sent drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was behind the killing of a U.S. DEA agent in 1985, to the United States with 28 other prisoners requested by the U.S. government, the Mexican government said in a statement Thursday. The unprecedented show of security cooperation comes as top Mexican officials are in Washington trying to head off the Trump administration’s threat of imposing 25% tariffs on all Mexican imports starting Tuesday. Those sent to the U.S. Thursday were brought from prisons across Mexico to board planes at an airport north of Mexico City that took them to eight U.S. cities. Among them were members of five of the six Mexican organized crime groups designated earlier this month by the Trump administration as ‘foreign terrorist organizations.'” (02/27/25)
“Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead inside their home on Wednesday in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A spokesperson for the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement to media outlets Thursday morning: ‘We can confirm that both Gene Hackman and his wife were found deceased Wednesday afternoon at their residence on Sunset Trail. This is an active investigation — however, at this time we do not believe that foul play was a factor.’ Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed that one of Hackman and Arakawa’s dogs was also found dead, later telling TMZ that two other dogs had survived. … One of the actor’s daughters, Elizabeth Jean Hackman, told TMZ that the family suspects carbon monoxide poisoning is to blame.” (02/27/25)
“A former Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, was charged Thursday with exceeding his powers when he ordered a presidential election to be carried out solely with postal votes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prosecutors say there were no legal grounds to organize the presidential election of 2020 in that way. In the end the election Morawiecki wanted to hold in May was postponed and conducted at polling stations several weeks later. The cost to taxpayers of organizing the postal vote which didn’t happen is estimated to be at least 70 million zlotys ($17.5). Morawiecki, a conservative who left office in late 2023, arrived for questioning at the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw on Thursday, but refused to testify.” (02/27/25)
“President Donald Trump’s nominee for labor secretary is expected to pass a key vote before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) on Thursday after picking up Democrat support from Sen. Maggie Hassan [D-NH]. Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s past support for the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act jeopardized her confirmation last week, when Sen. Rand Paul [R-KY] said he would not vote for her if she continued to support the PRO Act. Paul’s reluctance meant Chavez-DeRemer would likely need a Democrat’s vote to pass a key confirmation hurdle. Hassan’s support, as a Democrat on the HELP Committee, all but confirms Chavez-DeRemer will pass through her committee vote.” (02/27/25)
“The FBI has accused North Korean-linked hackers of conducting one of the largest thefts of cryptocurrency publicly known, seizing some $1.5 billion worth of ethereum from a Dubai-based firm. The theft earlier this month targeting Bybit, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, represents yet another involving a team of hackers identified by the U.S. government by the names TraderTraitor and the Lazarus Group. … Bybit co-founder and CEO, Ben Zhou, acknowledged the FBI’s announcement in a post on the social platform X by linking to a website offering $140 million in bounties for tracking the stolen crypto and getting it frozen by other exchanges.” (02/27/25)
“President Donald Trump has canceled a sanction waiver for Chevron that has allowed the supermajor to return to the South American country and become instrumental for the increase of its oil production. Trump cited the lack of electoral reform in Venezuela, Reuters reported, along with insufficient action on migration. … Chevron has been exporting some 240,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude to the United States daily thanks to the waiver. The amount constitutes a quarter of the country’s total oil production and generates substantial revenues that stay in the Venezuelan economy, Bloomberg reported earlier this week, arguing Chevron’s presence was critical for that economy. These revenues are running at some $6 billion.” (02/27/25)
“The European Union on Thursday pushed back hard against allegations by U.S. President Donald Trump that the 27-nation bloc was out to get the United States, and warned that it would vigorously fight any wholesale tariff of 25% on all EU products. The tit-for-tat dispute following the vitriolic comments of Trump aimed at an age-old ally and its main postwar economic partner further deepened the trans-Atlantic rift that was already widened by Trump’s warnings that Washington would drop security guarantees for its European allies. Thursday’s EU pushback came after Trump told reporters that ‘the European Union was formed in order to screw the United States. That’s the purpose of it, and they’ve done a good job of it,’ adding that it would stop immediately under his presidency. Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, went on a counteroffensive.” (02/27/25)
“Three mainstream political parties in Austria said on Thursday that they had reached an agreement to form a new government that excludes the far right, ending five months of roller coaster negotiations after an election last fall. The coalition is set to announce ministerial posts on Friday, but the new chancellor is likely to be Christian Stocker, the head of the People’s Party, the biggest coalition partner. The new government is set to include left- and right-of-center parties but not the far-right Freedom Party, which finished first in the September vote.” (02/27/25)
“A child in West Texas has died of measles, state health officials said on Wednesday, the first reported U.S. death from the highly contagious disease in a decade, as a Texas outbreak has grown from a handful of cases to more than 130 across two states. The child, who was not vaccinated against the disease, died overnight in a children’s hospital, the Texas health department said in a statement. … Lara Anton, a Texas health department spokesperson, told a local ABC affiliate that the ongoing outbreak has hit mostly small children and teenagers, and that the cases were originally concentrated in a ‘close-knit, under-vaccinated’ rural Mennonite community in Gaines County, where children are largely home-schooled.” (02/27/25)
“The acting leader of the Social Security Administration reportedly instructed managers earlier this week to draw up plans for a 50% cut to the agency’s workforce, a push that advocates and lawmakers said would result in the gutting or total closure of local field offices, and likely benefit disruptions. The American Prospect first reported the request from Leland Dudek, whom Trump installed as SSA commissioner earlier this month after the agency’s former head resigned following a clash with Elon Musk’s deputies over their attempts to access highly sensitive personal data. At the time he was elevated to the helm of SSA, Dudek was under investigation for allegedly sharing information with Musk’s team improperly. According to the Prospect, the deadline for SSA managers to comply with Dudek’s request for mass-firing plans was Wednesday afternoon.” (02/27/25)
