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Trump’s defense secretary accidentally sent war plans to a group chat that included a journalist, days after threatening polygraphs for leaks

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Top national security officials for President Donald Trump, including his defense secretary, texted war plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen to a group chat in a secure messaging app that included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, the magazine reported in a story posted online Monday. The National Security Council said the text chain “appears to be authentic.”

The material in the text chain “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthi-rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing,” editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported.

It was not immediately clear if the specifics of the military operation were classified, but they often are and at the least are kept secure to protect service members and operational security. The U.S. has conducted airstrikes against the Houthis since the militant group began targeting commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea in November 2023.

Just two hours after Goldberg received the details of the attack on March 15, the U.S. began launching a series of airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.

The National Security Council said in a statement that it was looking into how a journalist’s number was added to the chain in the Signal group chat.

Trump told reporters he was not aware of the apparent breach in protocol.

“I know nothing about it,” Trump said, adding that The Atlantic was “not much of a magazine.” He went on to say, “I don’t know anything about it. You’re telling me about it for the first time.”

Government officials have used Signal for organizational correspondence, but it is not classified and can be hacked.

The sharing of sensitive information comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office has just announced a crackdown on leaks of sensitive information, including the potential use of polygraphs on defense personnel to determine how reporters have received information.

Sean Parnell, a spokesman for Hegseth, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on why the defense secretary posted war operational plans on an unclassified app.

The handling of national defense information is strictly governed by law under the century-old Espionage Act, including provisions that make it a crime to remove such information from its “proper place of custody” even through an act of gross negligence.

The Justice Department in 2015 and 2016 investigated whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton broke the law by communicating about classified information with her aides on a private email server she set up, though the FBI ultimately recommended against charges and none were brought.

In the Biden administration, some officials were given permission to download Signal on their White House-issued phones, but were instructed to use the app sparingly, according to a former national security official who served in the Democratic administration.

The official, who requested anonymity to speak about methods used to share sensitive information, said Signal was most commonly used to communicate what they internally referred to as “tippers” to notify someone when they were away from the office or traveling overseas that they should check their “high side” inbox for a classified message.

The app was sometimes also used by officials during the Biden administration to communicate about scheduling of sensitive meetings or classified phone calls when they were outside the office, the official said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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UnitedHealth Group scrubbed its website of many DEI programming mentions and took down its disability hiring page. The company says it complies with ‘existing and emerging laws’

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UnitedHealth Group (UHG) is the latest company to scrub its website of much of its DEI programming, in an apparent capitulation to directives from the Trump administration, which has threatened to investigate companies that practice DEI.

The company has taken down several DEI-related pages and blog posts, TechCrunch reported. UnitedHealth Group was previously transparent about specific actions it was taking toward diversifying its workforce, including “integrating programs that prepare diverse communities for the workforce,” and working with universities to source talent. In addition to deleting on Wednesday a webpage touting that the company is “committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” it changed its “diversity and inclusion” language to focus on “belonging.”

HR Brew also found that UHG took down its disability hiring page on Wednesday. While the company still has an accessibility blog post, it has removed information about its disability internship program and past recognition of being a best place to work for disabled people.

Joy Fitzgerald, the company’s chief diversity officer since 2021, appears to have maintained her role, at the time of this reporting.

When reached for comment, UHG would not say if it’s changing any of its DEI initiatives, or eliminating its disability internship program.

“We comply with existing and emerging laws while striving to support what is best for the communities we serve,” the company told HR Brew in a statement. “Our values of supporting a collaborative environment where we treat each other with mutual respect continues to be part of our culture and fundamental to expanding access to health care services.”

HR Brew is tracking the companies changing or eliminating their DEI programming. Follow along here.

This report was written by Kristen Parisi and was originally published by HR Brew.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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Chewing gum is releasing microplastics into your body, study finds

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Germany got $1 trillion for free, Deutsche Bank chairman says

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Germany is getting €1 trillion ($1.1 trillion) in additional funding virtually for free after bond markets reacted positively to its “historic” spending bill, Deutsche Bank AG Chairman Alexander Wynaendts said. 

Now it needs to spend the money wisely and advance structural reforms to ensure it stays that way, Wynaendts said on Thursday at a panel discussion organized by the Institute of International Finance.

Germany last week unlocked hundreds of billions of euros in debt-financed defense and infrastructure spending, ending decades of austerity and ushering in a new period of deficit spending designed to boost Europe’s biggest economy, modernize creaking infrastructure and rebuild its defenses. Berlin was forced to act after President Donald Trump pulled back from US commitments to European security.

Markets have generally reacted positively to the fiscal shift, which Bloomberg economists say should help bolster growth across the euro region.

“The market has very clearly endorsed” the spending package, which passed its final legislative hurdle last week, Wynaendts said. “You could even say we got a trillion euros at no additional cost.”

Wynaendts said that the sudden abundance of money carries the risk of misallocations after years of underinvestment in defense and disorganized procurement systems. 

“Will there be investments not well spent? Absolutely yes, but we don’t have an alternative,” he said.

Germany also must work on structural reforms to ensure that debt-fueled growth become lasting, he said.

“We need regulation reduction, we need tax reform, we need labor law reform. So there’s quite a lot of things that still have to happen for this enormous investment to have a full impact,” Wynaendts said. “We don’t have the time to squander this.” 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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