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Judge rules Trump firing of Democratic FTC commissioner was illegal

President Trump's firing of Democratic FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter was illegal, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

Why it matters: The White House says it will appeal the decision, which will set up a Supreme Court challenge.


  • Conservatives have long been trying to tee up a case that would weaken a precedent that has protected independent agency commissioners.
  • Trump fired Slaughter and fellow Democratic commissioner Alvaro Bedoya in March. They both sued the administration shortly after, and Bedoya resigned from the FTC in June.

What they're saying: Judge Loren L. Alikhan wrote that the "attempt to remove Ms. Slaughter from her position as an FTC Commissioner did not comply with the FTC Act's removal protections."

  • "Because those protections remain constitutional, as they have for almost a century, Ms. Slaughter's purported removal was unlawful and without legal effect."
  • "As the Court recognized today, the law is clear, and I look forward to getting back to work," Slaughter said in a statement. "The for-cause removal protections that apply to my colleagues and me at the FTC also protect other independent economic regulators like the SEC, the FDIC, and the Federal Reserve."

The other side: "The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the President's constitutional authority to fire and remove executive officers who exercise his authority," said White House spokesman Kush Desai.

  • "The Trump Administration will appeal this unlawful decision and looks forward to victory on this issue."

I regret seeing that Coldplay 'kiss cam' video

chris martin singing
Chris Martin of Coldplay performs at a concert where you should feel free to canoodle in peace.

Robert Okine/Getty Images

  • You've probably seen the Coldplay "kiss cam" moment that has ricocheted around the internet.
  • A tech CEO and his head of HR appear to embrace, then look mortified after seeing themselves on cam.
  • I wish I didn't know anything about any of this β€” I wish none of us did.

I don't want to know what you did at a Coldplay concert. I don't want to know who you were there with, what the track list was. I don't even want to know you went!

And if it turns out that you were caught on camera in a passionate embrace with a coworker? I mean, sure, I'm curious. I love gossip! But I'm not sure I should know about that. And that goes double if I don't know you in real life.

On Thursday, as I'm sure you know by now, a "kiss cam" video went viral from a Coldplay concert outside Boston on Wednesday night. In the clip, two audience members stand against a railing, the man with his arms around the woman. They look to be in their late 40s or early 50s, fit and attractive, enjoying the musical stylings of arguably Britain's greatest rock act of the 21st century.

As soon as they realize they're on the Jumbotron, the woman turns to hide her face, and the man ducks. You overhear front-man Chris Martin say into the microphone, "Either they're having an affair, or they're just very shy."

Yikes!

The clip appeared to show Astronomer CEO Andy Byron embracing the company's head of HR, Kristin Cabot. Neither has commented on the clip.

I'm not sure how people online figured out who these people were. Was it by using a controversial facial-recognition tool like PimEyes? Or was it from someone who knows them in real life who identified them?

The thing is, I don't know these people. (Neither, probably, do you.) I don't know their lives. I have no idea what was really going on. Astronomer execs, board members, and founders haven't returned BI's requests for comment, as my colleagues Madeline Berg and Tim Paradis report.

I can say that the online attention they've received is certainly distressing to them β€” on top of a situation that may also already be very distressing in other ways.

The issue might have some legs from an HR standpoint: If a company CEO is embracing his head of personnel at a concert, could that raise some issues? Sure! That's for the company and its execs to figure out. But otherwise, who cares? I don't.

I just spent almost every day of the last six weeks watching some of the most depraved people on Earth frolic around in swimwear and occasionally hump under thick duvets on "Love Island." I'm not going to suddenly go morality police to say that two Coldplay-loving consenting adults is the biggest scandal I can imagine.

And, to me, there's a potentially unsettling element of potential surveillance. As 404 Media wrote:

The same technologies used to dox and research this CEO are routinely deployed against the partners of random people who have had messy breakups, attractive security guards, people who look "suspicious" and are caught on Ring cameras by people on Nextdoor, people who dance funny in public, and so on. There has been endless debate about the ethics of doxing cops and ICE agents and Nazis, and there are many times where it makes sense to research people doing harm on behalf of the state or who are doing violent, scary things in to innocent people.

It is another to deploy these technologies against random people you saw on an airplane or who had a messy breakup with an influencer.

Again, we're not sure what happened here or how these people were apparently identified. But I don't think it's any of our business β€” barring something illegal β€” what happens at a concert. Could it violate a company's rules? Yes, but then the company can deal with it.

By the way: Why the heck does Coldplay have a kiss cam, anyway?

Read the original article on Business Insider

Hey Donald Trump: Netflix says it loves making TV shows and movies in America.

Donald Trump speaks at the White House, July 2025
Donald Trump complains about media companies all the time. He has yet to focus his ire on Netflix, though.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

  • Donald Trump has complained about media companies making movies outside the US.
  • Netflix just emphasized how much of its production happens in the US.
  • Coincidence?

Donald Trump, who frequently complains about media companies, doesn't appear to be angry at Netflix at the moment.

Netflix would like to keep it that way.

Which may explain why the company spent a bit of time in its latest earnings report talking up its commitment to making its shows and movies in America.

In the streamer's second quarter earnings report, Netflix officials made a point of emphasizing how much money it has spent making content in the US β€” $125 billion between 2020 and 2024 β€” and how much more it plans to spend in the near future β€” including new production facilities in New Mexico and New Jersey.

Does that have anything to do with the confusing announcement Trump made in May, when he vowed to slap a "100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands?" A Netflix rep declined to comment.

But you can check out the language the company used in its shareholder letter for yourself:

As we grow globally, our most significant investment remains in the US, which accounts for the majority of our content spend, workforce and production infrastructure. From 2020-2024, we estimate that we contributed $125 billion to the US economy. Our expansion in Albuquerque, NMβ€”adding four new soundstages to a 108-acre siteβ€”and our plan to invest roughly $1B to develop a state-of-the-art production facility (including 12 new soundstages) in Fort Monmouth, NJ, underscore our ongoing commitment to production in the US.

This isn't the first time Netflix has played up its interest in US production. That statement above includes a link to a report spelling out its investment in the US, which was published April 23 β€” less than a couple weeks before Trump came out with its Hollywood tariff plan.

And Netflix also discussed its US investments in its previous earnings report, which came out on April 17. But the language it used there was much lighter on superlatives, and much less America-centric. Compare and contrast:

While the majority of our content spend and production infrastructure investment is in the US, we now also spend billions of dollars per year making programming abroad. And instead of just licensing local titles, we're now making local shows and films in many countries, commissioned by our local executives, that keep our members happy. And our local slates are improving each year.

If Netflix is trying to please Trump or his circle via corporate messaging, they wouldn't be the first company to do so. In May, for instance, cable/broadband giant Charter went out of its way to describe its plan to acquire Cox as an explicitly pro-American move.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, by the way, has said he had a "nice long dinner" with Trump in December at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, prior to Trump's second inauguration. "He said Melania and [son] Barron were big fans," Sarandos said.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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