Author: Press Room

TIGTA identified deficiencies in physical security controls designed to safeguard taxpayer data, security vulnerabilities in the information systems used to process taxpayer information, and weaknesses in information system configuration controls.gettyThe IRS’s effort to convert paper tax documents into digital records is supposed to make tax administration faster and less dependent on manual processing. But a new watchdog memo raises serious questions about whether the private contractors entrusted with that work are adequately protecting taxpayer information.In an alert focused on the IRS’s Zero Paper Initiative (ZPI), the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) identified several issues, including physical security failures,…

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish prosecutors have charged a Ukrainian man with sabotage and diversionary activities on behalf of Russian intelligence, alleging he was paid to desecrate memorials honoring Polish victims of Ukrainian massacres in World War II in an effort to inflame tensions between the two countries. Warsaw has long accused Russia of conducting hybrid operations aimed at driving a wedge between Poland and Ukraine. Poland has been one of Kyiv’s strongest supporters since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, but anti-Ukrainian sentiment has been growing in the country. Relations reached a low point in late June, when…

Ohio must become a “zero state income tax” state, Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily. Ramaswamy, one of the originals involved in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) movement, explained that making Ohio a zero income tax state will “require a government that doesn’t spend money on unnecessary things, but actually focuses on the few things the state needs to be doing well, like infrastructure and building highways,” emphasizing that there is a “lot of waste, a lot of fraud, a lot of abuse that we have to wring out of the system.” He…

Senate Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) shot back at a left-wing protester who interrupted a committee hearing, before apologizing to “lunatics” for comparing the heckler to them. The Republican-led select committee had gathered Wednesday to question Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s pick to replace Tulsi Gabbard as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), when shouting was heard from the back of the room: “The Capitol Police will remove the annoying lunatic from the crowd,” Cotton directed, before sarcastically correcting his terminology.  “I apologize to lunatics for comparing that guy to them,” the senator joked, before thanking Clayton for his testimony. …

House GOP leaders released text Friday for a bill to fund the vast majority of the federal government from the start of the next fiscal year on Oct. 1 until after the midterm elections — bypassing the bipartisan appropriations process and daring Democrats to pick a shutdown fight months before voters head to the polls. Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday he plans to put the legislation on the floor next week. The measure would fund the government through Dec. 4 and, as Republican leaders promised, would not include additional policy riders or unrelated provisions. The text released Friday also does…

Researchers say extra weight is keeping over 600,000 Britons out of work, particularly men Obesity may be keeping more than half a million people out of work in Britain, a new research presented at the International Congress on Obesity in Mexico has found.Scientists from the University of York analyzed data from 284,258 UK Biobank participants – working-age men (38-65) and women (38-60) – and found obesity reduced the probability of being employed by 4.2 percentage points. Among those studied, the overall employment rate was 75.5%, with roughly one-quarter meeting the clinical definition of obesity – a body mass index (BMI)…

Credit: Jayme Ivy/Wikimedia Commons In a humiliating collapse just weeks before the August 11 Democratic primary, Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez (D) has DROPPED OUT of the race for governor. Rodriguez announced her exit Friday morning, July 17, admitting that the campaign finance scandal rocking her bid had become an “ongoing distraction” she could no longer afford to carry into the primary or the general election Democrats desperately want to win. A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel review of Rodriguez’s January campaign finance report found more than $100,000 in apparent duplicate contributions, the same donor listed as giving the exact same amount…

Conventional political philosophy has a blindspot over what turns out to be a crucial concept: the precise nature of the legal relationship between the human person and the regime under which he lives. In the US, we call this citizenship but how precisely is that different from the old-world notion of being a subject to a sovereign? Confusion over this issue led the majority in the Supreme Court decision in Trump vs. Barbara to overrule an executive order that challenged automatic birthright citizenship. Only a few years back, anyone who would have challenged this idea would have been considered some kind of…

In his address to the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai on Friday, Chinese dictator Xi Jinping touted his authoritarian country as the global leader of the AI revolution, challenging the U.S. effort to develop rules and ethical standards for the new technology. The WAIC is an annual event that has been held in Shanghai since 2018. This year’s event featured the debut of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), an entity created by China that included Russia, Cuba, Brazil, Pakistan, and Venezuela among its founding members. Xi’s speech cast China as the champion…

The government of Argentina revealed that it had formally complained to London on Wednesday evening after the HMS Medway, the United Kingdom’s primary guard ship for the Falkland Islands, sailed near the Islands. The government of libertarian President Javier Milei claimed that the British ship was “illegally deployed” and had sailed “through Argentine territorial seas,” an alleged violation of international law. The complaint was allegedly filed on July 12, however, leaving unclear why the Argentine Foreign Ministry waited two days to reveal that it had lodged its “formal note of protest.” The delay, however, allowed the announcement to be timed…