Author: John Smith

RFK Jr. HHS budget cuts of roughly $16 billion faced their first major congressional test Thursday as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, fielding pointed questions on vaccine policy while defending a budget that slashes discretionary spending by 12.5% compared to last year. Summary Trump’s 2027 budget proposes cutting HHS discretionary spending by approximately $16 billion, including $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health, as Kennedy opens a weeklong gauntlet of seven committee and subcommittee hearings. Kennedy deflected vaccine questions and said he was “not happy” with proposed cuts to WIC…

The House voted to reject a resolution Thursday directing President Trump to remove US armed forces from hostilities against Iran, 213 to 214, falling one vote short along almost entirely party lines. Summary Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York proposed the resolution directing the president to end military action in Iran unless explicitly authorized by Congress; it failed 213–214 on Thursday, one day after the Senate voted 52–47 to reject a similar measure. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the lone Republican to support the measure; Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the sole Democrat to vote against it; Rep.…

Voters in New Jersey’s 11th congressional district are heading to the polls today in a special election that could tighten the Republican House majority to its absolute limit, pitting progressive Democrat Analilia Mejia against Republican Joe Hathaway in a district that Democrats carried by 9 points in 2024. Summary The NJ special election fills the seat vacated by Governor Mikie Sherrill, who resigned from Congress in November 2025 after winning the governorship; Democrats hold a 65,000-voter registration advantage in the district. A Mejia win would leave House Speaker Mike Johnson able to lose just two GOP votes on party-line legislation,…

NVIDIA Ising has launched as the world’s first family of open-source quantum AI models, targeting the two biggest engineering bottlenecks in quantum computing: processor calibration and error correction decoding. Summary NVIDIA Ising delivers up to 2.5x faster and 3x more accurate quantum error correction decoding than current open-source benchmarks, with calibration workflows shrinking from days to hours. The model family includes Ising Calibration, a 35-billion-parameter vision-language model, and Ising Decoding, a 3D convolutional neural network framework, both available on GitHub and Hugging Face. Early adopters include Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Harvard, IQM Quantum Computers, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the…

The SEC CLARITY Act roundtable convened in Washington today, April 16, bringing regulators and industry together for a public discussion on digital asset market structure as the Senate Banking Committee targets a late-April markup of the most consequential crypto bill the US has ever seen. Summary The SEC is hosting a roundtable on digital asset market structure today, not a vote or markup, but a signal of where regulators stand before Congress acts on the CLARITY Act. The Senate Banking Committee is targeting a late-April markup, with Chair Tim Scott yet to set a firm date as of April 15,…

A new Cato Institute paper argues that U.S. capital gains rules make “bitcoin taxes make no sense,” burying everyday BTC payments in paperwork and locking the asset into a hoarding role instead of money. Summary Cato Institute’s Nick Anthony argues US capital gains rules make daily bitcoin spending “make no sense.” Treating BTC as property forces users to track tax lots on small purchases, from coffee to groceries. Cato urges scrapping gains on crypto payments or adopting a higher de minimis threshold than the current $200 proposal. The Cato Institute is calling for a reset of how the United States…

Coinglass flags $1.64b in BTC longs at risk below $70,721 and $1.25b in shorts above $78,068 as Bitcoin grinds in a tightly leveraged $70k–$78k range. Summary Coinglass data shows $1.64b in BTC longs at risk if price dips below $70,721. Another $1.25b in BTC shorts could be wiped out if Bitcoin breaks above $78,068. Traders face a narrow band between major liquidation pockets as BTC hovers in the mid-$70,000s. According to Coinglass, if Bitcoin (BTC) falls below $70,721, the cumulative long liquidation intensity on major centralized exchanges (CEXs) climbs to roughly $1.644 billion. Conversely, if BTC breaks above $78,068, the…

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company reported strong first-quarter earnings on Thursday, as steady demand for artificial intelligence chips pushed both revenue and profit to record levels. Summary Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company posted a 58% jump in Q1 profit to a record NT$572.48 billion, beating estimates as AI chip demand stayed strong. Revenue rose 35% year over year, with Nvidia-led demand driving growth and pushing advanced chips to dominate the sales mix. TSMC expects over 30% revenue growth in 2026 and plans higher capex as capacity remains tight amid persistent AI demand. The world’s largest contract chipmaker posted net income of $18.2…

Morgan Stanley’s newly launched spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund has overtaken the WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund in total net inflows just over a week after entering the market. Summary Farside Investors data reveals the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust reached $103 million in total net inflows following a $19.3 million daily gain on Wednesday. The fund surpassed the WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund’s $86 million total by utilizing a market-low 0.14% fee to capture immediate investor interest. Farside Investors data shows the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT) pulled in $19.3 million on Wednesday, pushing its total net inflows to $103 million. With this, MSBT has…

Optimistic signs of a de-escalation in the U.S.-Iran conflict pushed the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 to new record highs on Wednesday as Bitcoin moved toward the $75,000 mark. Summary Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes reached all-time highs on Wednesday as technology stocks rose over 2% following signs of a potential diplomatic breakthrough in the Middle East. Bitcoin climbed past $75,000 to extend its two-week rally while JPMorgan and Bernstein analysts identified the current market environment as a tactical entry point for investors. President Donald Trump stated the conflict with Iran is very close to ending, though he emphasized that…