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Today β€” 24 February 2025News

Meet Juliana Pasquarosa, the 'Bachelor' contestant who's emerging as a frontrunner for Grant's heart

24 February 2025 at 17:16
A headshot of "The Bachelor" season 29 contestant Juliana.
Juliana Pasquarosa is one of the remaining contestants on season 29 of "The Bachelor."

Matt Sayles/Disney

  • Juliana Pasquarosa is one of the contestants on Grant Ellis' season of "The Bachelor."
  • She caught Grant's attention on night one, but doesn't go on a one-on-one date until week five.
  • Juliana is a 28-year-old client service associate based in Newton, Massachusetts.

As the competition heats up on season 29 of "The Bachelor," contestant Juliana Pasquarosa is quickly becoming a strong contender for Grant Ellis' heart.

"It has been so long since I have had a big crush or felt the butterfly feelings for a man. It's a little bit of a fairytale and my heart's happy," Juliana, 28, says during week three.

By week five of the show, Juliana is one of the seven remaining women. After patiently waiting all season, she finally gets to spend solo time with Grant during a one-on-one date in Scotland on Monday night's episode, and their connection grows even stronger.

Here's everything to know about Juliana.

Juliana has a job in finance

"The Bachelor" season 29 contestant Juliana during week one.
"The Bachelor" season 29 contestant Juliana during week one.

ABC

Grant is a day trader, and Juliana also has some ties to the financial sector. According to her LinkedIn profile, Juliana has been working as a client service associate at Winthrop Wealth, a wealth management firm, since May. She's also a social media manager for La Beautique Salon.

She graduated from Lasell College with a degree in marketing in 2018.

Juliana's family is the most important thing to her

"The Bachelor" season 29 contestant Juliana during week one.
"The Bachelor" season 29 contestant Juliana during week one.

ABC

In her intro package during the season premiere, Juliana says, "My family is like the center of my life."

"We're big, Italian, loud, crazy,'" she adds. "We really support each other."

Juliana also explains that she was cheated on a lot during a long relationship, which led her to a "dark place," but she credited her family with picking her up.

Juliana's ABC bio says that her parents were high school sweethearts, and she hopes to similarly find lasting love.

Based on the caption of one of herΒ InstagramΒ posts, Juliana's older sister signed her up for "The Bachelor" without telling her. Given how things are going with Juliana and Grant so far on the show, she may have to thank her sister.

She loves dogs

Juliana has a dog named Charlie and her ABC bio says that she "wants to own a dog-friendly bar one day."

"For a random $5-Walmart-parking-lot purchase, you sure turned out to be one of the biggest blessings," Juliana wrote in part on Instagram.

Juliana's bubbly disposition gets Grant's attention from the start

"The Bachelor" season 29 contestant Juliana plays piano for Grant during the season premiere.
Juliana and Grant during "The Bachelor" season 29 premiere.

ABC

After sharing a cannoli with Grant during her limo entrance on night one, Juliana impresses the Bachelor with her piano skills later that evening.

"Juliana immediately has my attention," Grant says. "She has some skills that I definitely don't have. Not to mention, she's gorgeous. She's a talented woman and I love that."

Juliana also tells Grant that she's a bubbly person because of the love she got from her family. Although the competition begins with 25 women, Grant tells her that he has his eyes on her.

"I like your personality and you're beautiful," he tells her before they share their first kiss.

Their connection gets overshadowed by some of the drama throughout season 29, but Juliana does eventually get to spend time with Grant at a castle in Scotland.

"I just feel like a princess," Juliana says. "Cinderella can take a full backseat because this is like, next-level type of love."

New episodes of season 29 of "The Bachelor" premiere on Mondays.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Justice Thomas urges Supreme Court to reconsider free speech rules near abortion clinics

24 February 2025 at 14:31

Justice Clarence Thomas issued a scathing dissent Monday after the Supreme Court declined to hear a case challenging free speech rights around abortion clinics, suggesting he wants to revisit the matter after the court ended the federal constitutional right to abortion in 2022.

The big picture: The high court's move marked a loss for abortion opponents who claimed their First Amendment rights are violated by laws that limit demonstrations near clinics.


  • The Supreme Court majority did not explain their decision Monday in finding that the rules were in line with precedent set by Hill v. Colorado (2000). In that case, the high court held that the restrictions on speech-related conduct are constitutional because they regulate the places where some speech may occur, and not the speech itself.

Zoom in: Both Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito dissented, but only the former conservative justice filed writing explaining his reasoning.

  • Thomas argued against the high court's decision not to revisit precedent set in Hill v. Colorado (2000), which upheld free speech in buffer zones around abortion clinics.
  • "I would have taken this opportunity to explicitly overrule Hill," he wrote in his dissent.
  • He argued the court erroneously treated the Hill case differently than others pertaining to the First Amendment because abortion was involved, writing, "Hill's abortion exceptionalism turned the First Amendment upside down."

State of play: The case in question on Monday, Coalition Life v. City of Carbondale, originated in Carbondale, Illinois, where local officials passed an ordinance prohibiting protesters from getting within 8 feet of patients at the clinic without consent.

  • The ordinance, which reflected precedent upheld in Hill, was repealed last year but an anti-abortion group based in Missouri proceeded with a lawsuit against it, taking aim at similar laws across the country.
  • Carbondale is located near Illinois' southern border and became a destination for people in nearby states that ban abortions.

Zoom out: In Hill, the high court upheld a state law "restricting peaceful speech" within 100 feet of abortion clinics, Thomas wrote in his dissent. He was on the high court at the time Hill was decided and dissented in the 6-3 decision.

  • He argued that errors in the case "were numerous" and that the decision "contradicted more than a half-century of well-established First Amendment principles."
  • He wrote: "This Court had neverβ€”and since Hill, has neverβ€”taken such a narrow view of content-based speech restrictions."
  • Thomas said the Hill case "manipulated this Court's First Amendment jurisprudence precisely to disfavor 'opponents of abortion' and their 'right to persuade women contemplating abortion that what they are doing is wrong.'"

Between the lines: Thomas noted that he wants to revisit Hill in order to give clarity to lower courts, "who feel bound by it," particularly after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.

  • "Following our repudiation in Dobbs, I do not see what is left of Hill," he wrote.
  • "Hill has been seriously undermined, if not completely eroded, and our refusal to provide clarity is an abdication of our judicial duty," Thomas wrote.

Go deeper: Abortion clinics brace for reinvigorated protests after Trump's pardons

Jamie Dimon says he hopes DOGE is successful because the US government is 'not very competent'

24 February 2025 at 16:24
Jamie Dimon in a suit speaking.
Jamie Dimon says the government is inefficient and that he's hopeful DOGE is successful.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

  • JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said he supports efforts to make the government more efficient.
  • "The government is inefficient, not very competent, and it needs a lot of work," Dimon said.
  • Dimon also said the US has become a "highly bureaucratic, litigious, over-regulated society."

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said he has a "wait-and-see attitude" regarding the Trump administration and the White House DOGE office, but he's hopeful DOGE will succeed.

"More effective government β€” more efficient government β€” isn't bad. It's actually a good thing," Dimon said in an interview with CNBC on Monday during JPMorgan's Global Leveraged Finance Conference in Miami.

When asked about how DOGE, tariffs, and President Donald Trump's slew of executive orders could impact the economy, Dimon said it's too soon to say and will depend on how the changes are implemented.

But in general, he said he supports efforts to make the government more efficient and effective.

"The government is inefficient, not very competent, and it needs a lot of work," he said. "It's not just waste and fraud, it's outcomes. Why are we spending the money on these things? Are we getting what we deserve? What should we change? I think doing that needs to be done."

DOGE aims to reduce government spending and waste and improve efficiency. Much of its early efforts have focused on cutting the federal workforce and targeting specific federal agencies, like USAID.

"I'm hoping it's quite successful," he said of DOGE.

Dimon has previously had a rocky relationship with Elon Musk, a special government employee closely associated with DOGE, though the two have appeared to be on better terms over the past year. Dimon said last month he and Musk "hugged it out" and that the billionaires have settled some of their differences.

Dimon has also said he supported the idea of a department of government efficiency and that he'd love to be helpful to DOGE if he can.

In the CNBC interview on Monday Dimon also expressed support for the Trump administration's deregulation stance, saying the US is a "bureaucracy completely run amok."

"We have become a highly bureaucratic, litigious, over-regulated society, and it's bad," he said, adding that he's not opposed to all regulations but that they've gotten "excessive."

After the election in November, Dimon said bankers were "dancing in the street" at the prospect of Trump slashing regulation.

On Monday he said changes to regulations could free up capital to grow the economy and "free the banks to what they're supposed to do."

"We have the best natural system in the word," he said. "Let's keep it that way. Let's not hamstrung it."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Macron says alongside Trump peace "must not mean a surrender of Ukraine"

24 February 2025 at 16:58

President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed during a White House meeting on Monday to deploy European peacekeeping forces to Ukraine following a peace deal with Russia to end the war.

The big picture: While the meeting on the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine was cordial, the peacekeeping plan was about the only significant plan the two world leaders agreed during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office.


What they're saying: Trump said during a briefing he believed the war could end "soon" and said he and his representatives had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin and "they want to do something."

  • The war could end "within weeks... if we're smart," Trump told reporters. "If we're not smart, it'll keep going and we'll keep losing."
  • Macron said, "Peace must not mean a surrender of Ukraine, it must not mean a ceasefire without guarantees."

Meanwhile, Trump declined to call Putin a "dictator" after describing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as that last week and said he planned to meet with the Russian leader soon.

  • Macron said Russia "is the aggressor" and noted "President Putin violated the peace."

Zoom in: At one point, Macron moved to correct Trump after the U.S. president said "Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine, they're getting their money back."

  • Macron responded: "No, in fact, to be frank, we paid. We paid 60% of the total effort. It was like the US: loans, guarantees, grants."

More from Axios...

Meet Loretta Bush, the FBI agent the internet is thirsting over on Netflix's Gabby Petito docuseries

24 February 2025 at 15:32
Loretta Bush, an FBI agent featured in Netflix's "American Murder: Gabby Petito" docuseries
Loretta Bush is an FBI agent who worked on the Gabby Petito case.

Netflix

  • FBI agent Loretta Bush participated in Netflix's new docuseries "American Murder: Gabby Petito."
  • Bush's appearance on the docuseries went viral when she got visibly choked up talking about her job.
  • Viewers, and particularly lesbian viewers, were immediately captivated by Bush. Here's what to know.

Netflix's latest true-crime docuseries "American Murder: Gabby Petito" digs deeper into the story of the 22-year-old aspiring travel influencer who was killed by her fiancΓ©, Brian Laundrie, while on a cross-country road trip in 2021.

As the many true crime fans who have long followed the Petito case know, it's a bleak and upsetting story. But viewers have already found light in the darkest of places: by thirsting after FBI agent Loretta Bush, who was featured in the doc.

Bush works out of the bureau's Tampa division, which covers 18 counties in central and southwest Florida, including where Petito and Laundrie lived with Laundrie's parents in North Port, Florida. She appears toward the end of the second episode of the three-part series, at the point when Petito's 2021 disappearance in Wyoming became a federal investigation.

The first shot of Bush instantly establishes that she's, quite frankly, cool as hell: She strides across the screen wearing black sunglasses with her badge on her hip and tattooed arms visible. The first words out of her mouth are about how she takes her job in law enforcement very seriously and how important it is to her to get closure for victims' families.

A still of FBI agent Loretta Bush walking in the Netflix docuseries "American Murder: Gabby Petito"
Loretta Bush, ladies and gentlemen.

Netflix

If the dozens of thirsty TikTok videos and hundreds of comments on them are any indication, it was love at first sight for many viewers. Bush is the subject of fancam edits set to Ethel Cain's "Crush" and Usher's "Hey Daddy (Daddy's Home)," where commenters are talking about getting lost in her blue eyes and how they hope she doesn't end up getting fired by Elon Musk and DOGE.

"I felt so bad falling in love with Loretta while watching this sad documentary but OH MY GAWD πŸ₯΅ 😍," one commenter wrote.

There's a whole subgenre of self-identified straight women who joke that they're now questioning their sexuality because of their attraction to Bush.

Some are also campaigning for Bush to get her own Netflix show. About what? Anything, really; her newfound legion of fans just wants to see more of her.

It's not all about physical attraction. Many of the comments also reference a moment near the end of the docuseries in which Bush gets visibly choked up talking about her work on missing persons cases and how many of them remain unsolved despite the outsized attention to Petito's case in particular.

"This story is unique, but I will tell you that there are so many other people out there missing and they are important too. My work is important. Victims' lives are important," Bush says in her final appearance in the docuseries.

Loretta Bush, FBI agent, in Netflix docuseries "American Murder: Gabby Petito"
Loretta Bush got choked up talking about her work.

Netflix

Bush herself doesn't appear to have publicly available social media profiles, at least not any that her dedicated fans have been able to track down.

Several commenters on TikTok have identified themselves as friends of Bush's in real life. They say that Bush isn't on social media but that she's aware of her newfound viral fame and they've been sharing all the videos with her. They also said that Bush is married. (Netflix declined Business Insider's requests for comment for more information on Bush.)

Another person who knows about Bush's TikTok fame agrees that she's a gem: Petito's father, Joe Petito.

"I told her that she is a TikTok sensation. 😎😎😎 She really is such an amazing person. We love her," Joe Petito commented on a video about Bush.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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