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DSCC chair’s 22-year-old son strikes it big in pursuit of further gamifying finance. The post Not All Nepo Babies Are Trumps appeared first on The American Prospect.

In this latest episode of 'Unshocked,' Naomi and Mehdi break down what Elon Musk’s trillionaire status means for democracy, capitalism, and the rise of racism.

DeepSeek is developing its own AI chip, Reuters reported, in a move that could reshape China’s domestic semiconductor race while also ramping up pressure on US chip giant Nvidia.

Foreign investors are returning to Asia’s two largest emerging markets, though lingering concerns could temper inflows.

The Trump administration’s decision last week not to renew the US-Mexico-Canada trade pact risks deterring investors.

While some states ban insurers from using copay accumulator programs, oversight has stalled at the federal level.

The EPA has approved new PFAS pesticides for nationwide use after its pesticide office adopted industry-friendly language excluding certain fluorinated chemicals from the agency’s PFAS designation, internal records show.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s old firm recently cut a $1.6 billion rare earth metals deal, and Democrats in Congress are investigating his role in the apparent conflict of interest. Bloomberg reports that the deal, finalized last month, likely benefited Lutnick’s two sons, who took over Cantor Fitzgerald after their father left to join the Trump administration. The financial services company served as a placeholder agent for the deal between the Department of Commerce and USA Rare Earth, or USAR, and Democrats expressed their concerns in a letter to Brandon Lutnick, Howard’s younger son and the firm’s chairman, dated Monday. “It is imperative your company provide complete transparency about the substantive conflict of interest concerns raised by the circumstances of this investment,” said the letter, written by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, and Ron Wyden in addition to Representative Zoe Lofgren. “Secretary Lutnick appears to have played a part in facilitating the USAR deal with Commerce.”Wyden and Warren serve on the Senate Finance Committee, while Van Hollen serves on the the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies.* Lofgren is the ranking member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. They also sent a letter to USAR detailing their concerns.  In January, the Trump administration agreed to take a 10 percent stake in USAR, and the Commerce Department offered the company funding and loans. These terms “raise serious questions about Secretary Lutnick’s exposure to federal conflicts of interest and bribery laws,” the legislators wrote in the letter. One year ago, USAR was a much smaller company. After meeting with Secretary Lutnick and other administration officials, it secured government help in January and has since purchased a rare earth mine in Brazil and acquired, either in partial stakes or in totality, processing businesses in France and the United Kingdom. These Democrats are hoping to get details about the meetings between Cantor Fitzgerald and the Commerce Department. But, even with congressional hearings, they may not get much in the way of answers, considering how much the president and his administration traffic in corrupt, self-serving business deals. * This article has been updated to clarify Van Hollen’s committee membership.