Author: fotiosgrigoriou@gmail.com

President Donald Trump’s hyperaggressive use of executive power in the first months of his presidency has sent many on the left seeking refuge in the Constitution. Commentators have pointed out the ways his actions are at odds with our founding principles, and advocates have filed more than one hundred cases challenging the constitutionality of moves like dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, abolishing birthright citizenship, and targeting sanctuary cities. But when it comes to the administration’s firing of thousands of federal employees, the Constitution may offer only limited recourse, if any. As currently written, it does not explicitly mention…

CNN  —  The day commissioner Roger Goodell called his name as the newest member of the NFL will always carry mixed emotions for Derrick Harmon. Just hours after being selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers with the 21st pick in the 2025 NFL draft Thursday night, his mother, Tiffany Saine, died at a Michigan hospital, according to multiple media reports. The Steelers later confirmed the news. In a phone interview with Pittsburgh media from the Detroit suburb Farmington Hills just minutes after being drafted, the defensive tackle out of Oregon shared that he was about to go see his mother at…

AI-powered scams are evolving rapidly as cybercriminals use new technologies to target victims, according to Microsoft’s latestCyber Signals report. Over the past year, the tech giant says it has prevented $4 billion in fraud attempts, blocking approximately 1.6 million bot sign-up attempts every hour – showing the scale of this growing threat. The ninth edition of Microsoft’s Cyber Signals report, titled “AI-powered deception: Emerging fraud threats and countermeasures,” reveals how artificial intelligence has lowered the technical barriers for cybercriminals, enabling even low-skilled actors to generate sophisticated scams with minimal effort. What previously took scammers days or weeks to create can…

CNN  —  In an abrupt reversal, the US Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that it no longer plans to cut funding for the Women’s Health Initiative, a groundbreaking research project focused on preventing disease in older women. The move comes after a wave of concern and criticism about the threat to the longstanding study. For decades, the initiative – conducted by the National Institutes of Health – has tracked the health of tens of thousands of women to understand how to reduce the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and more in women after menopause. Seminal findings…

US consumer sentiment plummeted in April after Donald Trump’s trade war threw the global economy into chaos, according to a new report.The index of consumer sentiment, a score based on a monthly survey asking Americans about their financial outlooks, fell by 32% since January – the largest drop since the 1990 recession, according to the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.“Expectations worsened for vast swaths of the population across age, education income and political affiliation,” said Joanne Hsu, director of the surveys of consumers, in a statement. “Consumers perceived risks to multiple aspects of the economy, in large part…

100 days of Trump: 3 key changes impacting people across America100 days after returning to power, Donald Trump is charging ahead with tariffs, an immigration crackdown and federal cuts, including dismantling DEI.Within the first 100 days of his second administration President Donald Trump has been incredibly busy, implementing major changes from enacting tariffs to targeting diversity initiatives.  But Americans are divided about whether the changes have been good, according to a recent survey of more than 900 voters conducted by the New York Times and Siena College Research Institute.Around 54% of participants said they disapprove of the president’s handling of…

Enfeebling universities or seizing control is an early chapter in the authoritarian playbook, studied eagerly by the likes of Viktor Orbán in Hungary. “Would-be authoritarians and one-party states centrally target universities with the aim of restricting dissent,” Jason Stanley, a scholar of fascism at Yale, wrote in the Guardian in September. Last month, he announced that he was leaving the US for Canada because of the political climate and particularly the battle over higher education.It is not merely that universities are often bastions of liberal attitudes and hotbeds for protest. They also constitute one of the critical institutions of civil…

This month, the Michigan Supreme Court announced that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for people under the age of 21 violate the state constitution’s ban on cruel or unusual punishment. The court also held, based on a separate recent decision, that this rule applies retroactively. These decisions are the latest from a court that’s been steadily carving out a path against excessive sentencing.  Under the federal Constitution, such sentences are illegal only for people under 18. Laws that require a judge to condemn children to live the rest of their lives in prison, the U.S. Supreme Court has explained, are unconstitutional because…

CNN  —  One victim had recently returned home after decades working abroad to enjoy a retirement filled with travel and family time; another hoped the trip into the beauty of Indian-administered Kashmir would cheer the spirits of his semi-paralyzed wife. Both men were among 26 tourists shot dead by militants this week in a massacre that has ripped open old wounds between India and its neighbor Pakistan, tipping them a step closer to military escalation. Both countries claim Kashmir in its entirety, but each control only part. They have fought three wars over the territory – which is famous for…

Odds of winning the Powerball and Mega Millions are NOT in your favorOdds of hitting the jackpot in Mega Millions or Powerball are around 1-in-292 million. Here are things that you’re more likely to land than big bucks.The Mega Millions jackpot rose to $60 million ahead of Friday’s drawing after no one matched all the winning numbers on Tuesday.If someone matches all six numbers on Friday night, they can choose a one-time cash payment of $26.9 million. The numbers were drawn just after 11 p.m. ET, and we have the results below.There have been three Mega Millions winners this year…