How former NATO chief helped save Empire Wind
As far as calling in the lobbying cavalry, it's hard to do better than the former secretary-general of NATO.
And that's exactly who Equinor called to help save its New York offshore wind project, which was on the brink of cancellation after being hit with a stop-work order by the Trump administration.
Jens Stoltenberg, the former secretary-general of NATO and current Norwegian finance minister, told reporters in Norway this week that he spoke to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about lifting the stop-work order on Empire Wind 1, the $5 billion project under construction south of Long Island that Burgum halted in April.
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In a post on X after the order was lifted Monday, Stoltenberg thanked the pair 'for our great cooperation in reaching an energy deal that allows Equinor to resume construction of Empire Wind 1. This will benefit both our countries & deliver energy to thousands of US households.'
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Forbes
30 minutes ago
- Forbes
Many Trump Spending And Deregulatory Executive Orders Bypass DOGE
Media gloating over Elon Musk's departure from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is fairly widespread and overly unfair. However as a Special Government Employee, the Musk Max was always 130 days. WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 30: Tesla CEO Elon Musk shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump as they ... More speak to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. Musk, who served as an adviser to Trump and led the Department of Government Efficiency, announced he would leave his role in the Trump administration to refocus on his businesses. (Photo by) The broader project, however, has more than a year to run—set to dissolve amid the July 4, 2026 America 250 celebrations and present a final report of findings and recommendations. The overarching Trump-Vance deregulatory program has, of course, nearly another four years remaining (at least). A $9 billion set of recissions targeting 2025 fiscal year funding—such as foreign aid and taxpayer-funded broadcasting—is being sent to Congress this week. No DOGE cuts had been included in the recent 'Big Beautiful Bill' recission package. If one had to choose, the hallmark of Musk and DOGE's four-month tenure has been a bold stand against the entrenched federal employee, contractor, and NGO complex—an apparatus whose relentless pursuit of taxpayer funds at times strays far from the ideals of limited constitutional government. The initial recission package reflects elements of this challenge. DOGE has also moved to delete non-statutory programs and agencies, deflate others (by shifting functions to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), for example), and implement federal reductions in force. Efforts to centralize information collection and electronically track funding flows are underway—moves that, if successful, could uncover what even the House Oversight Committee sees as money laundering spanning the federal government. DOGE's remit spans both federal spending and regulation, so tight reviews of procurement and grants can advance the goal of terminating regulatory laundering through those channels. The real test of Congress's commitment to DOGE will be whether spending-cut votes this year go beyond the few billion announced so far—and whether terminations extend to statutory agencies and commissions, not just the non-statutory ones. Curiously, most of Trump's executive orders implementing his spending and deregulatory agenda don't assign DOGE as the lead. Of the 157 executive orders issued by Trump through May 23, only eight by my handcount explicitly invoke DOGE. Milestone directives that do not mention DOGE include the 10-for-one regulatory rollback (surprisingly enough), a groundbreaking order aimed at ending regulatory overcriminalization, the torpedoing of a Central Bank Digital Currency, and even defunding National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. While DOGE is prominent, it's one piece of a larger hierarchy of streamlining actions coordinated by the White House OMB, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and other agencies. A large increase in funding for OMB in the House-passed Big Beautiful Bill to address regulatory matters with considerable discretion supports this notion. Trump's eight executive orders that do invoke or instruct DOGE appear below. Despite the impression of DOGE as a go-it-alone entity, perusing text of these directives reveals that OMB and other agencies play prominent roles in regulatory streamlining efforts that will persist beyond America 250. Some presidential memoranda invoke DOGE, such as April 9's 'Directing the Repeal of Unlawful Regulations,' which builds on EO 14219 by employing the Administrative Procedure Act's 'good cause' exemption to bypass notice-and-comment procedures for certain unlawful and harmful rules. In keeping with the first Trump administration, some actions are interventionist and swampy, potentially overwhelming savings from deregulation. Tariffs, concert ticket pricing, capping drug prices (EO 14273) and a teased DOGE dividend that would advance the progressive left's goal of a universal basic income all raise red flags. Some of Trump's ostensibly deregulatory measures could create unwelcome public/private entanglements, like an energy dominance council (EO 14227), healthcare pricing disclosure mandates (EO 14221) and a continuation of broadband subsidies by the Department of Commerce. Looking beyond DOGE (and beyond the swampy aspects), a broader survey of Trump's executive orders reveals DOGE as one part of a larger agenda streamlining spending and regulation—sometimes with greater fervor than the DOGE directives themselves. Beyond the aforementioned ten-for-one rule elimination and overcriminalization orders, Trump's directives target a range of priorities that overlap with or reinforce DOGE. These include recissions of numerous Biden 'whole-of-government' regulatory executive orders—ranging from clean energy mandates to DEI social policy to censorship of dissent—as well as measures on immigration, border security, foreign aid, federal disbursement controls, energy access, federal employment accountability; and the termination of small agencies. Others address digital financial innovation, regulatory relief for critical industries, and enact routine administrative adjustments typical of any presidency. While Elon Musk drew headlines, Trump's deregulatory push isn't confined to DOGE's 18-month lifespan. It leverages OMB and other agencies, making them the real engines of the agenda. Bigger DOGES, perhaps?
Fox News
37 minutes ago
- Fox News
US can't cut China off completely, but must defend AI and American innovation from nonstop theft: Sen Rounds
SIMI VALLEY, CALIFORNIA – China's rampant theft of intellectual property from American institutions and industry must be thwarted as the U.S. battles to remain the world's economic and military leader – but America cannot completely decouple from the economic behemoth, Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. The key, according to Rounds, is maintaining China as a key trade partner without giving them access to America's technology, including artificial intelligence and computer chips. "In doing so, maybe we'll restrict their ability to actually be able to have a market that they can create their own stuff with. They'll be using ours. And in using ours, they'll be our standards," Rounds told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library during the Reagan National Economic Forum on Friday in California. "Let's not necessarily just totally divest. Let's see if we can have an influence on them and the rest of the world as well when it comes to standards for AI and other technological advances in the future," he added. Rounds was among the conference panelists who spoke on the threats China poses as President Donald Trump addresses the country's chronic trade deficit with foreign nations, and his optimism for the future as the U.S. sprints to remain the world's economic and military leader. Rounds' remarks focused on keeping the U.S. in the driver's seat of the world's economy, which he explained is deeply entwined in technological advances and bucking Chinese theft of intellectual property, while also acknowledging and combating how China has advanced into a "near-peer competitor" with the U.S. from a military standpoint. "We've got to do a better job of protecting the intellectual properties that we've got. The most advanced types of technologies that we have, everything we can do to slow down their connection with that, protecting against that infiltration or de-filtration of really good information that, right now, they're stealing from us on a regular basis," Rounds said during a panel called "China and the U.S.: When Trading Partners are also Great Power Competitors." He added that China has no qualms about stealing U.S. intellectual property – which is understood as intangible creations, such as patents for inventions or trade secrets such as tech algorithms. Rounds recalled a recent conversation with an ambassador to China who told him their culture does not understand "how someone can own an idea." Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last Wednesday that the U.S. will begin "aggressively" revoking visas of Chinese students, most notably those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party who are trained at U.S. schools, but return to China or feed U.S. information to China. Rounds said the country needed a pause on admitting Chinese nationals with CCP ties into elite U.S. schools until an enforceable agreement is in place protecting intellectual property and processes from Chinese capture. "We have Chinese students that come in here, and then they [maintain] ties back home. And even if they want to stay here, one of the challenges we have is that their family may very well be coerced into requiring them to come back home again. And if that's the case, any of the knowledge that we've helped them to develop here goes back home with them," Rounds said. "Until such time as we're able to address that, and until such time as we're able to be assured that the information that they're getting here, the data that they are catching here, the knowledge that they gain here isn't going to be used against our young men and women in the future, we want to slow this down a little bit. Let's just take a break. Let's not be bringing in these Chinese students that have ties with the Chinese Communist Party, until we have some kind of agreement in place that is enforceable," he said. Rounds explained during the Reagan library forum that protecting U.S. intellectual property from Chinese theft has a ripple effect on U.S. efforts to remain the world's military leader as China seeks parity with America. "[China is] a strategic challenger for us on the military side. They are a near-peer competitor. And they have an advantage over us in one particular way: They are unified in terms of when Xi Jinping wants to move, it's not just the government that moves, but the entire rest of their economic activity is required to move the way that he wants them to move. We don't have that here. And so for us, we have to recognize that challenge. Now, I'm not suggesting we go the direction that they go, but we have to recognize their ability to move very, very quickly," he said. The Trump administration leveled tariffs as high as 145% on Chinese goods in April, and China retaliated against the president's "Liberation Day" policies with tariffs of its own. China and the U.S. reached a preliminary trade agreement last month, which Trump said China violated in a Truth Social post on Friday. "I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn't want to see that happen. Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!" he wrote. Rounds explained that the U.S. is in the midst of reaching a favorable trade deal while also acknowledging China has stolen billions of dollars in intellectual property for its own advantage. "We do, right now, really close to about a half a trillion dollars a year in economic activity with China today, but they steal about $600 billion in intellectual property on an annual basis. And so we have this dichotomy of trying to do good trade and at the same time recognizing that they're stealing our property," he said. Rounds said the floodgates of accepting and leveraging AI have not yet opened in the U.S., as many Americans are still hesitant to trust the technology. In mere months and years, however, he said the health industry will see massive overhauls, aided by tech that can quickly identify cancer or diagnose diabetes and Alzheimer's. This will lead American culture to accept AI and rally the private sector's proliferation of it, he said. "I think what the American people want to see is, what's in it for them? What improves their quality of life? I think one of the most critical issues – that would really be one of the easiest to get into – is talking about health care. And I firmly believe that Americans will see AI as a benefit to them rather than as a challenge when we start to see cures for diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and cancers. And those are all within reach," Rounds told Fox Digital. Rounds added during the forum that when Americans personally feel how their quality of life has improved due to AI, "that's when we'll really see the push across the country to develop AI at a rate that you've never seen before by the private sector, as well." "That's what's going to keep us ahead of China," he said. The forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, which is nestled in California's Santa Susana Mountains and the Simi Hills, kicked off on Thursday evening, and featured more than a dozen discussions and panels focused on the economy, artificial intelligence, U.S. defense strategies, the energy sector and more across Friday. Banking leader Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin were among those who joined Rounds in addressing the nation's economic health. "The Reagan Library does an excellent job working on defense issues, and now they've also opened up a seminar basically working on economic issues critical to the United States. And so to come in here and to work with other people that care about the economic well-being of our country, this is an excellent place to do it.… So it's an opportunity for me to really learn what's going on and what other people are thinking about our economy in general," Rounds told Fox Digital of the forum. The conference comes as the Senate works to pass the Big Beautiful Bill, which is a sweeping multitrillion-dollar piece of legislation that advances Trump's agenda on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt. Rounds said the legislation must pass or Americans will see their taxes spike. "We don't have a choice. We have to pass the bill to get the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act back in place on a permanent basis. If we don't do that, the average American family is going to see about a $2,400 a year increase in their taxes. So we have to do something. And it's critical that we pass this bill. We're going to work with the House. We're gonna get this deal done. The Senate will put their mark of approval on it, but nonetheless, we want to do everything we can as quickly as we can to take care of this so that we can get on to other things. The president has made it very clear he wants to get this done. We want to help in that regard. This is our job," he said.
New York Times
42 minutes ago
- New York Times
$105 Million Reparations Package for Tulsa Race Massacre Unveiled by Mayor
The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, one of the most horrific episodes of racial violence in U.S. history, killed up to 300 Black residents and destroyed a neighborhood. More than a century later, the city's mayor announced a $105 million reparations package on Sunday, the first large-scale plan committing funds to address the impact of the atrocity. Monroe Nichols, the first Black mayor of Tulsa, unveiled the sweeping project, named Road to Repair. It is intended to chip away at enduring disparities caused by the massacre and its aftermath in the Greenwood neighborhood and the wider North Tulsa area of Tulsa, Okla. The centerpiece of the project is the creation of the Greenwood Trust, a private charitable trust, with the goal of securing $105 million in assets — including private contributions, property transfers and possible public funding — by next spring, the 105th anniversary of the attack. The plan does not include direct cash payments to the two last known survivors of the massacre, who are 110 and 111 years old. But such payments could be considered by the trust's Board of Trustees, according to Michelle Brooks, a city spokeswoman. Mr. Nichols said a plan to restore Greenwood — a neighborhood that was so prosperous before the attack that it inspired the name Black Wall Street — was long overdue. 'One hundred and four years is far too long for us to not address the harm of the massacre,' Mr. Nichols said in an interview before the announcement. He added that the effort was really about 'what has been taken from a people, and how do we restore that as best we can in 2025, proving we're much different than we were in 1921.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
