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White House border czar Tom Homan has said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be deployed to airports across the country Monday to assist TSA officers with security at entrances and exits where lines have been particularly long in recent weeks. Hundreds of thousands of homeland security workers, including from the TSA, U.S. Secret Service and Coast Guard, have worked without pay since Congress failed to renew DHS funding last month. In an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” Homan said that he is devising a plan with Tedd Lyons, acting director of ICE, and Ha Nguyen McNeill, acting administrator for TSA, to determine where agents would best fit at airports across the nation. Everett Kelley, the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA agents and other federal workers, said the agents' deployment presented security concerns for passengers. “Our members at TSA have been showing up every day, without a paycheck, because they believe in the mission of keeping the flying public safe . . . They deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be.”

 

Chicago Sun Times

NBC News

Politico

The Trump administration has issued a legislative framework for a single national policy on artificial intelligence that aims to create uniform safety and security guardrails around the nascent technology while preempting states from enacting their own AI rules. "We need one national AI framework, not ​a 50-state patchwork,” Michael Kratsios, science and technology adviser to Trump, told The Daily Signal. "And I think one of the ​key provisions of it that will make it all work and come together is really focusing on the bipartisan consensus around protecting America’s ‌children." Daniel Cochrane, a tech policy expert at the Heritage Foundation, said the preemption could stymie states in addressing harms that “would endanger our kids and disable responsible AI governance essential for human flourishing . . . States remain the American people’s first and best line of defense against Big Tech.” 

 

CNBC

The Daily Signal

Reuters

Reuters reports that Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve ​Feinberg has said in a memo to Pentagon leaders that Palantir’s Maven artificial intelligence system will become an official program of record that would secure long-term funding for it, a move that locks in long-term use of Palantir’s weapons-targeting technology across ‌the U.S. military. Embedding Palantir’s Maven Smart System would provide warfighters “with the latest tools necessary to detect, deter, and dominate our adversaries in all domains,” Feinberg said in the March 9 letter to senior Pentagon leaders and U.S. military commanders.

 

Reuters

In a warning against easing bank regulations, European Central Bank supervisor ​Claudia Buch has said financial markets are underpricing geopolitical risks, increasing the potential for sudden sell-offs. "These guardrails need to ⁠be maintained as geopolitical tensions rise," Buch said in ​the ECB's annual supervision report. "Fragmentation or any weakening of ​standards could undermine banks’ ability to withstand adverse developments." Reuters notes that the U.S. has for the past year been relaxing bank rules, putting pressure on regulators elsewhere as local ​lenders say they could face an uneven playing field if ​they do not do likewise.

 

Reuters

Dan Guarnera, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's head of antitrust enforcement, has said the agency will be monitoring for anticompetitive practices in the pharmaceutical ‌industry as a number of blockbuster drugs come to the end of their patents. "We ⁠are always happy to hear concerns from market participants, including generics and patient groups, to make sure ​that the entry of generics can happen as it's designed to under the patent laws," he said.

 

Reuters

The U.S. economy is expected to face further slowing growth, according to the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index, which dipped 0.1% to 97.5 in January following a prior decline. The drop reflects weakening consumer expectations and softer building activity, pointing to ongoing economic headwinds. Although the pace of decline has moderated over the past six months, the outlook remains uncertain, particularly amid geopolitical tensions, including conflict in the Middle East. As a result, the Conference Board has slightly lowered its 2026 U.S. growth forecast to 2.0%. The index, which tracks key forward-looking indicators such as manufacturing orders, housing permits, stock prices, and consumer sentiment, suggests the economy is likely to continue cooling in the near term despite some signs of stabilization.

 

Wall Street Journal

A jury has concluded that Elon Musk ​defrauded Twitter investors when ‌he disparaged the company in 2022 in ​an attempt to ​acquire the social media network ⁠for a lower ​price than his original $44bn bid. Jurors in federal ​court in San ​Francisco found on Friday that ‌Musk ⁠intentionally misled Twitter shareholders when he tweeted the social media ​platform, which ​was ⁠later renamed X, had too ​many fake accounts ​and ⁠tried to back out of the deal. Mark Molumphy, a lawyer for the investors, said he believes the damages will amount to $2.6bn. “This case is much bigger than Twitter, this case goes right to the heart of Wall Street and what’s been going on in recent years,” observed Joseph Cotchett, Molumphy’s partner at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy. “It’s a great example of what you cannot do to the average investor.”

 

Bloomberg

A whistleblower lawsuit which accuses AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Novartis, and Sanofi, of ‌defrauding the federal and state governments out of hundreds of millions of dollars by overcharging on medications for low-income and uninsured patients has been revived by a U.S. appeals court. In a 3-0 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court ​of Appeals in Pasadena, California said the four drugmakers ​must defend against claims they violated the federal False Claims ⁠Act through their involvement in the Section 340B Drug Pricing Program. Adventist Health System/West, a California-based nonprofit with more than 440 hospitals and clinics, ​said many years of overcharges caused Medicare and Medicaid ​to pay inflated reimbursements.

 

Reuters

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has filed criminal charges against Kalshi, accusing the prediction market platform of operating an illegal gambling ​business in the state and unlawfully allowing people to place bets on elections. "Kalshi may brand itself as a 'prediction market,' but what it's actually doing is running an illegal gambling operation and taking bets on Arizona elections, both of which violate Arizona law," said Mayes. "No company gets to decide for itself which laws to follow." Arizona law prohibits operating an unlicensed wagering business, and separately bans betting on elections outright.

 

AZAG.gov

Reuters

The Guardian

The sole survivor of a 2024 Cybertruck crash in California has sued Tesla over the incident, which killed three college students who were unable to escape the burning vehicle. Jordan Miller's complaint alleges that Tesla "consciously disregarded the safety of occupants in Tesla vehicles, and prioritized aesthetics over function" despite having knowledge of the dangers of its door systems. "A vehicle shouldn't become a trap once you're in an accident," said Anthony Label, Miller's attorney. "There should be a way to get out." Tesla did not respond to NBC Bay Area's request for comment on Tuesday.

 

Bloomberg

NBC Bay Area

San Francisco Chronicle

Patent applications for anti-drone technology increased by 27% last year amid rising global security concerns, according to Mathys & Squire. China led with 82 applications, while the U.S. followed with 22. The IP firm noted that drones have transformed modern warfare, highlighting the limitations of traditional interceptor missiles. “Suspicious” drone sightings in Europe and the U.S. have added urgency, raising concerns about exposure to attacks on civilian and defense infrastructure, the firm said.

 

South China Morning Post

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is encouraging workers to work from home to combat soaring oil prices and impending fuel shortages caused by the conflict in the Middle East. The world's energy watchdog has made 10 recommendations to help households and businesses prepare for protracted disruption to energy markets, including reducing highway speed limits by at least 10 kilometers per hour, and avoiding ​air travel if other means of transport are available. "Today's report provides a menu of immediate and concrete measures that can be taken ​on the demand side by governments, businesses and ​households ⁠to shelter consumers from the impacts of this crisis," said IEA executive director Fatih Birol.

 

NL Times

Reuters

The Guardian