Ben Foldy

@benfoldy.bsky.social

Covering Wall Street and doing financial investigations for the Wall Street Journal. 313-330-4323 on all the apps (Signal preferred). Ben.foldy at wsj.com or on ProtonMail.

Hold on, so Steve Witkoff was participating in the Signal group discussing war plans against Houthis while being physically in Moscow, perhaps even in the Kremlin? He met Putin late on March 13. Obviously the odds of Russia not compromising any device he would bring there are pretty slim.

New tariffs give me an opportunity to re-up the best lede I’ve ever written, from back in 2018. “What do forest fires, wood-eating beetles and US President Donald Trump have in common? They have all helped push the price of lumber to historic heights…”

Sitting at LAX with Roxy Music playing over the loudspeakers and it feels like my life is suddenly one of those "Toto's Africa playing in an empty mall" videos from a few years back.

The Internet Archive has removed its archives of individual tweets from the account belonging to DOGE staffer Marko Elez. The WSJ reported yesterday that this account belonged to Ekes, and that many of these tweets were racist and led to his resignation.

Bild

A teen DOGE staffer recently given access to government systems worked at a startup known for hiring convicted hackers. Someone using a Telegram handle associated with him also solicited a cyberattack-for-hire service in 2022. All raising questions about his vetting. www.wired.com/story/edward...

DOGE Teen Owns ‘Tesla.Sexy LLC’ and Worked at Startup That Has Hired Convicted Hackers

Experts question whether Edward Coristine, a DOGE staffer who has gone by “Big Balls” online, would pass the background check typically required for access to sensitive US government systems.

wired.com

One thing that strikes me in all these actions is how much they’ll all fuel the already terribly damaging online scam industry. Crypto dereg + diminished LE capability + diminished foreign/multilat assistance = potentially a lot more ripped off people.

Matt Burgess (WIRED)@mattburgess1.bsky.social · last yr.

Resharing from yesterday: Cuts to US aid are already making it harder for people to rescue human trafficking victims, and making it more likely millions of people around the world will be scammed