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Alarming Bird flu continues spread as Trumps pandemic experts are MIA Vacancies in a key office of pandemic preparedness raise concern. Beth Mole Mar 19, 2025 6:28 pm | 0 Chickens stand in a barn in Sheffield, Illinois. Credit: Getty | Bloomberg Chickens stand in a barn in Sheffield, Illinois. Credit: Getty | Bloomberg Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreAs bird flu continues to rampage in dairy farms and poultry facilities around the country, the office tasked with coordinating the federal government's response to pandemic threats, including bird flu, has been sidelined by President Trump and sits nearly empty, according to CNN.The White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR)established by a Congressional statute in 2022 in response to failures during the COVID-19 pandemicused to include a staff of about around 20 people. Now, only one staffer remains, and it's unclear who they report to. The OPPR director has been moved to the National Security Council (NSC).The report on the vacancies comes amid other moves that call into question the country's ability to respond to a pandemic threat under the Trump administration. The USDA has shifted its response to the ongoing bird flu outbreak away from the health threat. For instance, in late February, agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins touted a $1 billion effort to combat bird flu as a "strategy to deliver affordable eggs."Meanwhile, health secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suggested that poultry farmers should let the virus run rampant through flocks rather than safely cull them, which is currently required. Farmers "should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it," Kennedy, who has no health or science background, said during an interview on Fox News.Rollins seemed to be open to the concerning idea, telling the outlet last month: "There are some farmers that are out there that are willing to really try this on a pilot as we build the safe perimeter around them to see if there is a way forward with immunity."The idea was quickly bashed by experts, who noted it would be inhumane, a massive risk for farm workers, and worsen the economic hit to farmers, who would have to keep facilities closed down longer for the infection to spread naturally than if they quickly carried out controlled culls. Moreover, letting the virus spread uncontrollably in thousands or even millions of birds gives the virus countless opportunities to evolve and become more virulent.Such a scenario is suspected to have happened recently at a poultry farm in Mississippi. This week, the USDA announced finding a new type of bird flu in a boiler chicken breeder flock: a highly pathogenic avian influenza H7N9. So far, the H7 strains seen circulating in wild birds this year have been low pathogenicity, the USDA reported. But in the 46,000-bird flock in Mississippi, the virus was lethal. Experts told the LA Times that it's likely that the previously mild virus spread from wild birds into the breeder flockwhich live much longer than birds grown for meatand, over some time, the virus developed deadly features while preying on the captive poultry.Alarming to everyoneSince 2022, over 166 million US poultry have been affected by the bird flu. The highly pathogenic virus has also spread to 989 dairy herds in 17 states since March of last year. So far, at least 70 people have contracted the virus, and one has died.The coordination of the response to the ongoing threat is now in question. Under the Biden administration, the Health and Human Services Department used to hold regular press briefings on the state of the outbreak and the response. However, since Trump took office, there have been no briefings.Under the Biden administration, OPPR also worked behind the scenes. At the time, it was directed by Paul Friedrichs, a physician and retired Air Force major general. Friedrichs told CNN that the OPPR regularly hosted interagency calls between the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the USDA, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health. When the H5N1 bird flu outbreak erupted in dairy farms last March, OPPR was hosting daily meetings, which transitioned to weekly meetings toward the end of the administration."At the end of the day, bringing everybody together and having those meetings was incredibly important, so that we had a shared set of facts," Friedrichs said. "When decisions were made, everyone understood why the decision was made, what facts were used to inform the decision."Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who co-wrote the bill that created OPPR with former Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), is concerned by Trump's sidelining of the office."Under the last administration, OPPR served, as intended, as the central hub coordinating a whole-of-government response to pandemic threats, she said in a written statement to CNN. "While President Trump cannot legally disband OPPR, as he has threatened to do, it is deeply concerning that he has moved the statutorily created OPPR into the NSC.""As intended by law, OPPR is a separate, distinct office for a reason, which is especially relevant now as we are seeing outbreaks of measles, bird flu, and other serious and growing threats to public health," Murray wrote. "This should be alarming to everyone."Beth MoleSenior Health ReporterBeth MoleSenior Health Reporter Beth is Ars Technicas Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes. 0 Comments

"AI" can haz cheezburger Study finds AI-generated meme captions funnier than human ones on average Mollick proclaims "the meme Turing Test has been passed," but a new study offers a key caveat. Benj Edwards Mar 19, 2025 6:12 pm | 3 Sometimes memes are so funny, you drop your phone on your face. Credit: jeffbergen via Getty Images Sometimes memes are so funny, you drop your phone on your face. Credit: jeffbergen via Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreA new study examining meme creation found that AI-generated meme captions on existing famous meme images scored higher on average for humor, creativity, and "shareability" than those made by people. Even so, people still created the most exceptional individual examples.The research, which will be presented at the 2025 International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, reveals a nuanced picture of how AI and humans perform differently in humor creation tasks. Still, the results were surprising enough to have one expert declaring victory for the machines."I regret to announce that the meme Turing Test has been passed," wrote Wharton professor Ethan Mollick on Bluesky after reviewing the study results. Mollick studies AI academically, and he's referring to a famous test proposed by computing pioneer Alan Turing in 1950 that seeks to determine whether humans can distinguish between AI outputs and human-created content.But maybe it's too soon to crown the robots. As the paper states, "While AI can boost productivity and create content that appeals to a broad audience, human creativity remains crucial for content that connects on a deeper level."The international research team from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, LMU Munich in Germany, and TU Darmstadt in Germany set up three test scenarios comparing meme creation quality. They pitted humans working alone against humans collaborating with large language models (LLMs), specifically OpenAI's GPT-4o, and memes generated entirely by GPT-4o without human input. Some of the meme image templates used in the study, taken from the paper. Credit: Wu et al. The researchers tested meme captions across three relatable categories (work, food, and sports) to explore how well AI and humans handled humor in familiar contexts. They found notable differences in performance across these categoriesfor example, memes about work tended to be rated higher for humor and shareability than those about food or sportshighlighting how context can influence the effectiveness of meme humor, whether created by humans or AI.It's worth clarifying that AI models did not generate the images used in the study. Instead, researchers used popular, pre-existing meme templates, and GPT-4o or human participants generated captions for them.More memes, not better memesWhen crowdsourced participants rated the memes, those created entirely by AI models scored higher on average in humor, creativity, and shareability. The researchers defined shareability as a meme's potential to be widely circulated, influenced by humor, relatability, and relevance to current cultural topics. They note that this study is among the first to show AI-generated memes outperforming human-created ones across these metrics.However, the study comes with an important caveat. On average, fully AI-generated memes scored higher than those created by humans alone or humans collaborating with AI. But when researchers looked at the best individual memes, humans created the funniest examples, and human-AI collaborations produced the most creative and shareable memes. In other words, AI models consistently produced broadly appealing memes, but humanswith or without AI helpstill made the most exceptional individual examples. Diagrams of meme creation and evaluation workflows taken from the paper. Credit: Wu et al. The study also found that participants using AI assistance generated significantly more meme ideas and described the process as easier and requiring less effort. Despite this productivity boost, human-AI collaborative memes did not rate higher on average than memes humans created alone. As the researchers put it, "The increased productivity of human-AI teams does not lead to better resultsjust to more results."Participants who used AI assistance reported feeling slightly less ownership over their creations compared to solo creators. Given that a sense of ownership influenced creative motivation and satisfaction in the study, the researchers suggest that people interested in using AI should carefully consider how to balance AI assistance in creative tasks. From the paper: "Top 4 Memes Generated by AI, Humans, and Human-AI Collaboration Across Humor, Creativity, and Shareability Metric." Credit: Wu et al. So, how can an AI model make reportedly funny things that humans appreciate? The researchers attribute the AI model's strong average performance to its training on vast amounts of Internet data, allowing it to identify broadly appealing humor patterns. Human-created memes, meanwhile, often reflected more personal experiences that occasionally produced particularly funny content but somehow resulted in lower average scores.The researches included a few examples of the meme captions from the study, seen in the images above. When a Bluesky user recently pointed out that the AI-generated memes in the study are "not great," Mollick offered an observation that might partially explain the study results: "One lesson is many people find bad memes funny and interesting." His comment raises a key question about the findings: does AI's success reflect statistical proficiency in reproducing common humor patterns, or simply its ability to target the lowest common denominator of Internet comedy?LimitationsThe study had several limitations worth noting. The meme caption creation sessions were relatively short, and participants didn't always fully utilize the collaborative capabilities of the AI tools. Future research could investigate whether extended use of AI tools and better prompting might further enhance human-AI creative collaborations.Additionally, the use of crowdsourced evaluators introduces subjectivity and potential biases toward mainstream or conventional humor, possibly favoring AI-generated memes optimized for broad appeal. Future studies might alternately incorporate expert panels or targeted demographics to better capture nuanced and culturally specific aspects of humor and creativity.The research team suggests future work should explore scenarios where an AI model rapidly generates multiple ideas, allowing humans to act as curators who select and refine the best content. But for now, humans remain the champions of meme captions.Benj EdwardsSenior AI ReporterBenj EdwardsSenior AI Reporter Benj Edwards is Ars Technica's Senior AI Reporter and founder of the site's dedicated AI beat in 2022. He's also a tech historian with almost two decades of experience. In his free time, he writes and records music, collects vintage computers, and enjoys nature. He lives in Raleigh, NC. 3 Comments

Budgerigars have exceptional vocal abilitiesimageBROKER.com / AlamyBudgerigars are some of the chattiest birds, and that is reflected in their brains. Budgie brains contain a map of vocal sounds, which is similar to that found in the human brain and has not been seen in any other bird.We found that there was a representation of vocal sounds in a part of the brain that is analogous to a key speech region in the human brain, says Michael Long at theNew York University Grossman School of Medicine. AdvertisementBudgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus), also known as parakeets, are small parrots native to Australia. They are spectacular vocal learners, able to mimic a variety of sounds including human speech. A budgie called Puck had a vocabulary of about 1728 words, according to Guinness World Records. The ability to vocally imitate is something that is extremely rare in the animal kingdom, says Long.With Zetian Yang, also at NYUs medical school, Long used silicon probes to record the electrical activity in budgies brains. They focused on part of the forebrain, the central nucleus of the anterior arcopallium, which was known to be involved in the motor control of vocalisations. As the budgies made calls, Long and Yang tracked how their electrical activity changed.Our study was the first to measure the activity in the parrot brain during vocalisation, says Long.Unmissable news about our planet delivered straight to your inbox every month.Sign up to newsletterThe pair found neurons in the central nucleus of the anterior arcopallium that were active only when the budgies made specific sounds. There are cells that are active for consonants, says Long. Others do vowels, with some active for high-pitched sounds and others for low-pitched.Long compares this brain structure to a keyboard. It has this kind of set of keys, or in this case, set of brain cells, that can represent each one of these vocal outcomes and then play whatever it wants, he says. What the parrot has presented is this beautiful, elegant solution for making vocal sounds. Human brains have similar vocal maps.Long and Yang repeated their experiments on zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), which are not vocal mimics. They have a single song that they learn, says Long. Its about a second long, sometimes less. Perfecting it takes them months.Unlike the budgerigars, the zebra finches showed no sign of a map of vocal sounds in their brains. Instead, a zebra finch develops this really almost impenetrable code for its song, says Long. He says the budgie brains use a simple and intuitive system to produce their complex calls, while the zebra finch brains use a complex system to make something simple.It shows that the neural activity and associated vocal behaviour is closer between parrots and humans than parrots with songbirds, says Erich Jarvis at The Rockefeller University in New York.Almost everything we know about the detailed mechanistic basis of learned vocalisations comes from a few species of songbirds that sing relatively simple songs, says Jesse Goldberg at Cornell University in New York. Parrots therefore provide an incredible opportunityto study both the mechanisms and the evolution of complex vocal learning and production.There are several possible reasons for budgies to have evolved mimicry, says Zhilei Zhao at Cornell University. One is courtship. The females actually prefer males that have better imitation abilities, he says, and if the male loses the ability, the female becomes more likely to cheat on him. Budgies also have very dynamic social lives: They form small groups for a few days. Once a group has become established, the members start making distinctive contact calls. People think it might be like a password for this group, says Zhao.Other skilled mimics may have similar vocal maps in their brains, suggests Long: My very strong guess would be that other parrots have the same feature, but it simply hasnt been explored. He also suspects lyrebirds, which are phenomenal mimics that can even imitate artificial sounds like camera shutters, have something similar.In the long run, Long hopes that studying how budgies generate their sounds will help us understand speech disorders in people. Those who have had strokes often experience aphasia: the inability to call the right word to mind. Youll reach for that word and its not there, says Long. Now we have a fighting chance of understanding what I think is at the root of many communication disorders that affect people in devastating ways.Journal reference:Nature DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08695-8Topics:

A satellite-carrying rocket blasts off from a commercial aerospace zone in ChinaVCG/Getty ImagesA small quantum satellite created a secure link between ground stations in China and South Africa, sharing quantum-encrypted data over a record distance of 12,900 kilometres. Similar microsatellites could become part of a future quantum internet.The record-breaking feat, which occurred in October 2024, was also notable for its use of a satellite with a small, light payload a crucial consideration for space launches. The miniaturised equipment aboard the Jinan-1 microsatellite weighed just 23 kilograms, about 10 times less than the payload of a previous experiment. AdvertisementPetite quantum satellites like the Jinan-1 enable the possibility to launch many satellites in one shot with the same space launcher, similar to what SpaceX is doing with Starlink for the internet, says Laurent de Forges de Parny at Thales Alenia Space, a space technology company headquartered in France.In this experiment, researchersused the quantum states of photons to produce secret keys for encrypting and decrypting data. The keys were used to encode images photos of Chinas Great Wall and South Africas Stellenbosch University and then transmitted between the Jinan-1 satellite and various ground stations using lasers and telescopes. The research team, led by Jianwei Pan at the University of Science and Technology of China, performed this quantum key distribution process 20 times, including the record-setting 12,900-kilometre test.This showcase for quantum technology has its limits. The Jinan-1 satellite seems optimised for quantum key distribution, and is not going to perform more general quantum communication tasks like teleportation, or entanglement distribution, says Alexander Ling at the National University of Singapore. Nevertheless, Ling, praising the demonstration, says it could become part of real communication networks within the next decade.Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox.Sign up to newsletterQuantum key distribution could be seen as the first practical quantum communication use case and a first step toward quantum information networks, says de Forges de Parny. The Chinese activities will definitely help in developing a second generation of small satellites for the quantum internet, he says.Jinan-1 was originally launched in 2022, and Pan has said that China plans to send up another two or three quantum satellites in 2025. Other countries are anticipating their own quantum satellite launches by 2026. Thales Alenia Space is leading one such project, funded by the European Space Agency; US aerospace company Boeing is working on another.Journal referenceNature DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08739-zTopics:

2025-03-19T22:36:32Z Read in app Ben and Jerry's is litigating with its parent company, Unilever. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Ben & Jerry's accused its parent company, Unilever, of ousting its CEO, court documents show.Ben & Jerry's suit against Unilever, which is ongoing, accused it in a new filing of silencing activism.Attorneys for Ben & Jerry's said activism is integral to its brand, attracting customers.Ice cream brand Ben & Jerry's accused its parent company Unilever of ousting its chief executive, according to new court filings.The removal of CEO David Stever came after disagreements over the ice cream brand's commitment to social and political activism, which Unilever intended to "silence," attorneys for Ben & Jerry's said in a motion filed on Tuesday in the Southern District of New York as part of an ongoing lawsuit between the two."Unilever has repeatedly threatened Ben & Jerry's personnel, including CEO David Stever, should they fail to comply with Unilever's efforts to silence the Social Mission," attorneys for Ben & Jerry's said in the lawsuit. "Unilever's motive for removing Mr. Stever is his commitment to Ben & Jerry's Social Mission and Essential Brand Integrity."Unilever informed the Ben & Jerry's Independent Board, which manages its social brand and mission, on March 3 that it would be replacing Stever, the filing said.Stever served as the company's chief executive since May 2023 after spending decades working up the ranks of the company, according to multiple reports.It was not immediately clear if Stever's removal was fully completed. Ben & Jerry's attorneys alleged there were breaches in the approved process of a chiefIn response to a request for comment from Business Insider, Unilever leveled similar allegations toward Ben & Jerry's, stating that "decisions on the appointment, compensation and removal of the Ben & Jerry's CEO will be made by Unilever after good faith consultation and discussion with the B&J's Independent Board.""Regrettably, despite repeated attempts to engage the Board and follow the correct process, we are disappointed that the confidentiality of an employee career conversation has been made public. We hope that the B&J Independent Board will engage as per the original, agreed process," a Unilever spokesperson said in a statement.Ben & Jerry's did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Unilever acquired Ben & Jerry's in 2000 for $326 million. But the relationship has recently become tense over political issues. In 2021, for example, the ice cream company tried to stop selling in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.In November, Ben & Jerry's sued Unilever, accusing it of silencing its political statements on the Gaza war. Tuesday's filing is part of that lawsuit.On its social media accounts, Ben & Jerry's touts a litany of progressive social justice ideals, including voting rights, LGBTQ and BIPOC rights, and immigrant and refugee rights. The activism is "core to Ben & Jerry's DNA," and a "key part of its business" in attracting customers, the company's attorneys said in the lawsuit."Consequently, every act of muzzling, suppressing, or publicly undermining the company's social activism causes real, calculable, and significant financial and reputational harm to Ben & Jerry's," the ice cream company's attorneys said in the lawsuit.March 19, 2025 This story has been updated to include a comment from Unilever sent after publication.

2025-03-19T22:19:21Z Read in app Imogen Faith Reid, Ellen Pompeo, and Mark Duplass star in Hulu's "Good American Family." Disney/Ser Baffo This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? "Good American Family" premiered this week.The new Hulu show is based on the true story of Ukrainian orphan Natalia Grace Barnett.Ellen Pompeo plays Kristine Barnett, Natalia Grace's adoptive mother, who said the girl was really an adult.The true story behind the new Hulu show "Good American Family" proves that reality can be stranger than fiction.The series, which premiered its first two episodes on Wednesday, opens with married parents Kristine (Ellen Pompeo) and Michael Barnett (Mark Duplass) struggling in the aftermath of an adoption that fell through. Their luck seems to turn around when Kristine receives a call from an adoption agency that a Ukrainian orphan urgently needs a new home a little girl named Natalia Grace (newcomer Imogen Faith Reid).Here's what you need to know about the new show, including the real people the show is based on and the complicated true story behind it.Natalia Grace's adoptive parents said she was an adult posing as a childNatalia Grace's story was first publicized in 2019 after her adoptive parents were charged with neglect, which they denied.Kristine and Michael Barnett, an Indiana couple who have since divorced, adopted Natalia in 2010. At the time, they were told that the girl, who has a form of dwarfism, was 6 years old.The Barnetts said they came to believe that Natalia, who they said had menstrual periods and pubic hair, was really a grown woman with a mental illness. Kristine Barnett said that Natalia terrorized their family, trying to kill them and pouring bleach into her coffee.The Barnetts successfully petitioned the court to change Natalia's legal age from 8 to 22 in 2012, making her a legal adult. They then put Natalia up in an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana, in 2013 and moved their family to Canada.Natalia, who has always maintained she was a child, was left to fend for herself for years. She ended up in the care of Cynthia and Antwon Mans, another couple with multiple adopted children.After a yearslong investigation, the Barnetts were charged with neglect. Michael was acquitted of the charges in October 2022, and the charges against Kristine were dismissed in March 2023.Natalia Grace's story was previously told in a multi-season docuseries Natalia Grace on "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks." Investigation Discovery The convoluted saga was previously unpacked in a docuseries, "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace," which aired for three seasons on Investigation Discovery from 2023 to 2025. The series focused on the perspectives of several key people involved in the story.The first installment told the backstory of the case and largely focused on Michael Barnett's perspective and the Barnetts' argument that Natalia was an adult. Natalia didn't participate in that installment but was the central focus of a follow-up, dubbed "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks," in 2024."Natalia Speaks" presented the story from her perspective, saying Kristine Barnett had been abusive to her and had concocted the story (which had eerie similarities to the plot of the 2009 horror movie "Orphan") in order to get rid of her. It even featured a confrontation between Natalia and Michael, who apologized to his former adoptive daughter for his actions and said he'd also been abused by Kristine.The second installment appeared to end happily, with Natalia getting closure from Michael Barnett, taking a DNA test to determine her true age, and being formally adopted by the Mans family. However, the shocking ending of "Natalia Speaks" included a phone call that implied Natalia was at odds with the Mans family as well.The "Final Chapter," an additional four episodes released in January 2025, followed Natalia's friction with Cynthia and Antwon Mans. She left them to live with Nicole and Vince DePaul, a couple with dwarfism who'd previously tried to adopt Natalia before the Barnetts did. Nicole DePaul accused Cynthia and Antwon Mans of stealing Natalia's money, which the Mans family has denied.Today, Natalia is still living with the DePaul family, has a long-distance boyfriend in the UK named Neil, and apparently is estranged from the Manses, who remain her legal parents.Kristine Barnett has maintained in public social media posts that Natalia was an adult all along, calling her former adoptive daughter a "sociopath," and has denied all abuse allegations.'Good American Family' has been in development for years long before the docuseries aired Imogen Faith Reid plays Natalia Grace Barnett. Disney While the Natalia Grace case exploded with the premiere of the ID docuseries in 2023, showrunner Katie Robbins told Business Insider she was first approached by Hulu to do a narrative version of the story in 2020.By that time, the charges against the Barnetts had been publicized, and the show's research team was on the ground at their trials in Indiana. They were able to gather information from discovery, including depositions, medical records, Facebook messages, and texts that gave them insight into the story.Crucially, "Good American Family" is formatted to shift between perspectives, starting off from the point of view of Kristine Barnett and presenting a devious Natalia and sympathetic Kristine before shifting over to Natalia's perspective. Robbins had plenty of experience with that format she'd previously worked on the dueling-narratives Showtime drama "The Affair" (as did Robbins' "Good American Family" co-showrunner and fellow executive producer, Sarah Sutherland).For Robbins, the idea to tell the story this way arose when she was doing initial research into the case. She realized that her understanding of the story was colored differently depending on what she was reading or watching about it."I'd read an interview and I'd be like, OK, this is what this is," Robbins told BI. "And then I'd go and watch an interview on television with a different person involved in the story and I'd be like, oh my gosh, I was totally wrong. It's actually this."She describes the story as a Rorschach test, where people interpret the truth differently based on how the information is presented alongside their own personal biases and experiences.Interestingly, the telling of the real story similarly kept shifting in the ID docuseries about Natalia, with twists, turns, and shocking cliffhangers. Robbins confirmed that the docuseries premiered as she and her writers were in the process of writing and then shooting the scripted drama. "The Final Chapter," which threw into doubt the relationship between Natalia and the Mans family, who adopted her after her abandonment by the Barnetts, premiered after they'd finished post-production.Despite the updates that the final chapter provided, it didn't necessitate rewrites or reshoots; they'd already had all the information they needed to tell their story. Input from the real people involved also didn't change anything, because neither the showrunners nor the cast spoke to Natalia or the Barnetts."We would've loved to talk to Natalia, but that wasn't possible," Robbins told BI. "And so that just made the research so essential in order to try to do justice to the story.""Good American Family" airs Wednesdays on Hulu, with new episodes premiering weekly.

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.Welcome to The Logoff: Today Im focusing on Donald Trumps purge of Democrats from an agency responsible for policing corporate America, another attempt to eliminate lawful checks on the presidents authority.Whats the latest? Trump fired the only two Democrats on the five-member board that runs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), one of the agencies responsible for enforcing laws that protect consumers and check corporate power. Both of the commissioners say they plan to sue over the firings, arguing they are illegal.So, are the firings illegal? The president can only lawfully fire FTC commissioners who serve seven-year terms for incompetence or malfeasance. Thats according to the statute that created the FTC, as well as a 1935 Supreme Court ruling that held President Franklin Roosevelt broke the law when he fired a Republican commissioner for opposing his agenda.Trumps team isnt claiming either malfeasance or incompetence, instead telling the commissioners they were fired because their service is inconsistent with [the] administrations priorities. But Trump has issued an executive order asserting the president can fire any executive branch appointee at will. That legal question is likely headed for the Supreme Court.What do the FTC firings mean for you? The FTCs setup is meant to tilt power toward the party in power, as the president picks the boards chair. But its also supposed to reflect bipartisan priorities, as no more than three commissioners are supposed to come from either party. Unless Trumps firings are overturned, the board will solely reflect Republican priorities, which Democratic critics say will mean a lax, pro-corporate approach to enforcement of consumer protections.Whats the big picture? Since taking office, Trump has continually pushed to remove checks on his authority. In this case, Republicans had control of the agency, but not total control and that (lawful) limit on Trumps power was more than this administration could live with.And with that, its time to log offOur friends at Voxs The Gray Area podcast are running a particularly apt episode today titled How to live in uncertain times. Im excited to listen on my commute home, and if you want to join me, its available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, and elsewhere. If podcasts arent your thing, a partial transcript is available here. Thanks for reading The Logoff, and Ill see you back here tomorrow.See More: