Donald Trump has defended his adviser Boris Epshteyn against accusations of a pay-to-play scheme, where Epshteyn allegedly asked potential administration nominees for consulting fees in exchange for lobbying. Despite an internal review suggesting misconduct, Trump remains supportive, viewing the ouster attempt as an attack on his team. Epshteyn's role in helping Trump navigate legal challenges has solidified his position, and Trump's irritation with media coverage has further strengthened Epshteyn's standing. Legal experts doubt the likelihood of prosecution under current federal statutes.
A new industry is emerging that extracts fees from wealthy families to enable their teenage children to conduct and publish research that colleges may regard as a credential. At least 20 online research programs for high schoolers have sprung up in the U.S. and abroad in recent years, along with a bevy of journals that publish the work. The programs serve at least 12,000 students a year worldwide, with most families paying between $2,500 and $10,000 to improve their odds of getting into U.S. universities that accept as few as 1 in every 25 applicants.
Elon Musk's threat to remove blue check marks from Twitter accounts unless they pay for a monthly subscription did not materialize. Instead, Twitter added a new message to profiles indicating that an account is verified because it is subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account. The hybrid solution was welcomed by some, including Star Trek actor William Shatner, but it remains unclear if it is temporary or permanent. Twitter did, however, remove the verified check mark from the New York Times' main account after the newspaper said it would not pay for the status.
Elon Musk has stripped The New York Times of its verified checkmark on Twitter, just hours after vowing to do so in response to the newspaper's refusal to pay for the blue badge. The move comes after Twitter was set to begin yanking badges from verified users, with Musk announcing that such "legacy" marks would be wound down in favor of his pay-to-play Twitter Blue scheme. The Times is Twitter's 24th most-followed account, having accumulated more than 54.9 million followers as of the weekend.
Elon Musk announced that Twitter will only recommend content from paid accounts in the For You tab starting April 15, pressuring more free users to pay for Twitter Blue. This move is the next step in Musk’s plan to try to get more people to subscribe to Twitter Blue. Musk says that on April 1 he’ll remove “legacy” verification checkmarks from notable accounts that had them for free, including news organizations, politicians, and researchers. The changes to Twitter’s feed are potentially impactful, as it could potentially fill the average user’s experience with lower-quality content.
