Will 2025 around the corner, will that be the year that posting a thread with "dial-up warning" in the title ends?

If not, when? 2026? 2030? Later? Does anyone here still use dial-up? Is it even possible these days?

Or, is it just used as tradition/joke?

Elon Musk Becomes First Person Ever To Reach $400 Billion USD Net Worth

Source: Hypebeast

As the richest person in the world, Elon Musk continues to set records with even higher milestones. According to Bloomberg, the Tesla CEO has made a historic feat, becoming the first person to ever reach a net worth of $400 billion USD. The publication’s Billionaires Index reports that Elon Musk’s fortune saw an increase in 77% following the November elections, making him worth $447 billion USD. The number is greater than both Jeff Bezos’ and Bill Gates’ net worths combined.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg also reported that Musk’s rocket company SpaceX saw a big valuation jump to about $350 million USD with SpaceX and its investors promising to purchase $1.25 billion USD of insider shares. This led to Musk’s one-day bump in net worth of $62.8 billion USD. Since the beginning of 2024, Musk has added approximately $218 billion USD to his net worth.

Musk’s over $100 million USD investment into social media platform X, which has become an online megaphone for President-elect Donald Trump, saw Musk become one of the election’s biggest winners. He has managed to secure a direct line to the White House and is expected to have significant sway on government policies and federal agencies that oversee his six companies from Tesla to SpaceX. His companies have been offered billions in federal contracts in the past decade. Musk has raced past his peers in the billionaires race, securing the top spot with a historical, over $400 million USD net worth.

Read more: https://hypebeast.com/2024/12/elon-musk-first-person-with-400-billion-usd-net-worth-news

Biden is on track to appoint more federal judges of color than any other president

Source: NBC News

As President Joe Biden makes a final push to confirm judicial nominees before his term in office ends, he is on track to have appointed more federal judges of color than any president before him.

On Monday, the Senate confirmed Biden’s judicial nominee for the Northern District of Georgia, Tiffany Johnson, making her the 40th Black woman he has appointed to lifetime federal judgeships — more than any president in a single term.

Overall, about 60% of Biden’s 233 appointees are people of color, according to figures the White House shared with NBC News. Benjamin Cheeks and Serena Raquel Murillo, two more nominees for U.S. district judge, await Senate confirmation after the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced their nominations Thursday. If Cheeks is approved, Biden will have appointed 63 Black federal judges, the most of a presidency of any length, according to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

White House communications director Ben LaBolt said in an emailed statement that Biden is “proud to have strengthened the judiciary by making it more representative of the country as a whole and that legacy will have an impact for decades to come.”

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/biden-judicial-nominees-federal-judges-people-color-black-judges-rcna182847

More than 30 lawmakers press Biden to free activist Leonard Peltier after clemency blitz

Source: The Hill

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, led 33 members of Congress on Friday in a letter calling on President Biden to pardon Leonard Peltier — a Native American activist controversially convicted of murdering two FBI agents.

The letter cites Peltier’s age and health concerns, as well as the U.S. Parole Commission’s denial of his application in July, which likely marked his last chance at parole. In addition to 33 current senators and representatives, it is signed by former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

“These recent denials mean only you have the unique ability to grant him clemency and rectify this grave injustice that has long troubled human rights advocates and Native Peoples across the globe,” the group wrote.

Peltier was involved in the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the 1970s, which led him to travel to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota amid tensions between the tribal chairman and a traditionalist faction of the Lakota nation. Agents Ronald Arthur Williams and Jack Ross Coler were killed in a shootout on the reservation, and Peltier was convicted and given two life sentences in 1977.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5039096-joe-biden-democrats-leonard-peltier-clemency-letter/

Sen. John Fetterman met with Pete Hegseth and said he will support Elise Stefanik.

Fetterman won't rule out backing Hegseth as he becomes first Senate Democrat to meet with him

Source: CNN

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman said he expects to bring up a series of allegations against Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, when the two men sit down for their first meeting later Thursday.

“I know there haven’t been any formal charges or criminal ones. But it’s all - one of the things that I’m sure perhaps might come up in that conversation today,” Fetterman told CNN, when asked about allegations including excessive drinking and sexual assault. “But I am aware there are some allegations, of course.”

Notably, Fetterman is not ruling out support for Hegseth ahead of his meeting, which will make him the first Senate Democrat to sit down with Trump’s defense pick.

Asked about his expectations for the meeting, Fetterman told CNN: “We’re just going to have a straight-up conversation.”

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/12/politics/john-fetterman-pete-hegseth-meeting/index.html

Saudi Arabia officially announced as the 2034 World Cup host. Human rights groups warn of 'unimaginable human cost'

Source: CNN

Global soccer governing body FIFA has officially announced the hosts for the next two men’s World Cups. However, the outcome was no surprise.

That’s because there was only one bid each for both the 2030 and 2034 tournaments – Spain, Portugal and Morocco have been named joint hosts of the World Cup in six years’ time, whereas Saudi Arabia has been awarded the 2034 edition.

While both bids have come under scrutiny during the bidding process, it’s the latter which has caused the most controversy.

Michael Page, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), recently warned of an “unimaginable human cost” to hosting arguably the world’s biggest sporting event in Saudi Arabia.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/11/sport/saudi-arabia-2034-world-cup-fifa-bid-spt-intl/index.html?Date=20241211&Profile=CNN&utm_content=1733932832&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawHGrB1leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHUc8CMUHK72KzaXTY7UL2r5ZqSSGc0l9W1O4tgHqd7lPNsyeRhhTZfZZ4Q_aem_F7aujQCMBUNqvzsTe_zUJw

FDR Second Bill of Rights that he proposed on January 11, 1944

If only he had lived and finished out his 4th term...

Romania's top court annuls first round of presidential vote won by far-right candidate

Source: Associated Press

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A top Romanian court on Friday annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election, days after allegations emerged that Russia ran a coordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round.

The Constitutional Court’s unprecedented decision — which is final — came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence on Wednesday that alleged Russia organized thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms such as TikTok and Telegram.

The court, without naming Georgescu, said that one of the 13 candidates in the Nov. 24 first round had improperly received “preferential treatment” on social media, distorting the outcome of the vote.

Georgescu denounced the verdict as an “officialized coup” and an attack on democracy, as did the second-place finisher, reformist Elena Lasconi of the center-right Save Romania Union party.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/romania-election-president-georgescu-court-585e8f8f3ce7013951f5c7cf4054179b

Mayor Eric Adams leaves door open to GOP switch, sparking criticism from Democratic rivals