Senate Democrats move to stall Trump’s ‘absurd’ bid to install new Fed chair

Democrats have moved to stall Donald Trump’s effort to exert greater control over the US Federal Reserve, condemning the president’s “absurd” bid to install a new leader of the central bank while it is targeted with criminal investigations.Democratic lawmakers on the Senate banking committee urged its Republican leadership on Thursday to postpone the planned confirmation hearing for Kevin Warsh, the financial executive and former Fed governor Trump has nominated to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair.In a letter to banking committee chair Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, the 11 Democrats called for a hearing currently scheduled for Tuesday to be delayed until investigations into Powell and Lisa Cook, a current Fed governor, are closed.Powell – whom the president has frequently and publicly chastised over his refusal to dramatically lower interest rates – is facing a criminal investigation into the renovations of the central bank’s headquarters, which he dismissed as a “pretext” tied to the Fed’s refusal to bow to Trump’s demands.The Trump administration also tried to fire Cook, an appointee of Joe Biden, for alleged mortgage fraud

US tech firms successfully lobbied EU to keep datacentre emissions secret

Microsoft and other US tech companies successfully lobbied the EU to hide the environmental toll of their datacentres, an investigation has found, with demands to block a database of green metrics from public view written almost word for word into EU rules.The secrecy provision, which the European Commission added to its proposal almost verbatim after industry lobbying in 2024, hinders scrutiny of the pollution that individual datacentres emit. It leaves researchers with just national-level summaries of their energy footprints.The rise of AI chatbots has spurred a boom in the construction of chip-filled warehouses with a hunger for power that is being met, in part, by burning fossil gas. Legal scholars warn the blanket confidentiality clause may fall foul of EU transparency rules and the Aarhus convention on public access to environmental information

‘Don’t you dare count us out’: KC women’s sports mogul hails US rugby double-header

Angie Long is co-owner with her husband Chris of the Kansas City Current, contenders in NWSL, proud occupants of the CPKC Stadium, built for the burgeoning world of women’s pro soccer. But on Friday night the venue will host a different sport, one Long fell for long ago. Rugby.“I think we might be sold out,” Long said, of the US Eagles’ match-up with the Australian Wallaroos in a Pacific Four Series double-header, New Zealand facing Canada first.“The numbers are incredible,” Long said, of expected attendance at a venue that held more than 10,500 for rugby just a year ago, when the Eagles faced Canada

Woman stranded in Dusseldorf after return UK flight blocked over Home Office admin error

A German woman has been separated from her two-year-old daughter in Edinburgh after a Home Office mistake left her stranded in Dusseldorf earlier this week.Liza Tobay, who has lived in the UK for 15 years, had taken her oldest child, a six-year-old boy, to visit his grandfather and some other relatives over Easter when confronted with what she said appeared to be “a serious administrative error”.She is one of millions of EU citizens who, before Brexit, could just use their passport at the border, but must now prove they have “settled status” to enter the country as a lawful resident.The first she knew of the error in the UK system was during her return on Wednesday when she tried to make a connecting flight from Munich to Edinburgh during a layover in Dusseldorf.When she presented her passport, the border official told her they had been trying to reach her as her settled status had been “red flagged” and she and her son would not be allowed on the connecting flight

Rachel Roddy’s ‘high-ranking’ penne with potatoes, cabbage, butter and cheese – recipe

In December 2023, the magazine La Cucina Italiana ranked Italians’ favourite pasta shapes, according to data gathered by Unione Italiana Food (“the leading association in Italy for the direct representation of food product categories”). I love this sort of thing. According to the UIF, by processing NielsenIQ data (comprehensive market research, consumer intelligence and retail measurement), they identified the five most popular shapes from over 500, and examined how preferences vary in different regions.In first place was spaghetti, while penne came in second, with these two shapes – which also takes in thinner spaghettini, chunkier spaghettoni and both ridged and smooth penne – accounting for 78% of all pasta sold in Italy in 2023. The regional variations of three, four and five are as follows: in the north-west and north-east, fusilli, short pasta and mixed pasta for broth or minestra; in central Italy, short pasta, fusilli and rigatoni; in the south, mixed pasta for broth or minestra, short pasta and tortiglioni

DJ Shadow: ‘Kraftwerk are a touchstone for every phase of my career’

The hip-hop producer, remixer and crate-digger on staying fresh creatively, the influence of David Lynch and giving away his most valuable recordCan you share any regrets or missed opportunities from your career? nnagewadIn 1999, I was approached by Deftones to work on White Pony, but I had just come off of Unkle’s Psyence Fiction album. I was nursing a hip-hop image and reputation, so I was wary of working with anything that felt like it was too alternative or rock-oriented. So I missed out on being a part of a pretty seminal album. I wouldn’t say it’s a regret, necessarily, because I feel like my rationale was sound, but it’s kind of a missed opportunity.Was your move towards sample-free production on your recent albums driven by the headache and costliness of sample clearance, a desire to keep the creative process fresh, or a bit of both? EditorialJoeDefinitely both