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Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day. Today’s top stories The Justice Department says it will abide by a federal court order that puts funds for the Trump administration’s nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization program on hold. The administration says the fund would compensate people who allege they were targeted by the federal government. The fund has faced bipartisan backlash and concerns that it would be used to pay people convicted for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6,…

Shoppers may be feeling gloomy about high prices at the pump, but they’re still shelling out for new bras and underwear at Victoria’s Secret. The lingerie retailer raised its full-year guidance on Tuesday after blowing past earnings estimates in its fiscal first quarter, citing lower tariff costs and more customers willing to spend full price on its products. Shares soared about 40% in premarket trading.There was “very consistent, double-digit [sales] increases across Victoria’s Secret, Pink, beauty channels, digital, stores and international, all very positive,” CEO Hillary Super told CNBC in an interview. “Supercharging bras being one of our most important initiatives, double-digit…

Brian Rezendes’ deep connection with AI began when he used it to manage inventory at his job at a hardware store.Three days a week, the 64-year-old had to get up on a ladder and audit the top racks, counting goods and making sure everything was in the right place. The task was a struggle at his age, he said. So he used AI to keep track.He would count the displays downstairs first and record those with AI. Then, he would go upstairs and ask the AI if he had one of those units downstairs. If yes, he would add it…

FILE – U.S. Army soldiers cross a floating bridge on the Imjin River during a joint river-crossing exercise between South Korea and the United States as a part of the Freedom Shield military exercise in Yeoncheon, South Korea, March 20, 2025. Ahn Young-joon/AP hide caption toggle caption Ahn Young-joon/AP WASHINGTON — A Pentagon policy illegally banned transgender troops from military service, a divided panel of federal appeal court judges ruled on Monday in another legal setback for President Donald Trump’s sweeping agenda. The majority opinion — by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jennifer Lankford, the 45-year-old CEO of Lankford Communications, who relocated to Costa Rica. The following has been edited for length and clarity.I’m the CEO of Lankford Communications, and I live in Jaco, Costa Rica. I formerly lived in Portland and the Bay Area. My company is remote.I’ve spent the past 20+ years in strategic communications and PR. I worked for several tech companies before becoming a senior marketing manager at Intel. When my business unit dissolved, I took a role at a startup called Buoyant in 2017, and then was poached…

OpenAI and Anthropic have spent years racing for talent, money, and the most powerful AI models. Now they’re racing for Wall Street.Anthropic’s confidential IPO filing has turned the rivalry between the two frontier labs into a new contest: which AI giant will hit the public markets first. Going first could mean a cleaner shot at investor demand, employee liquidity, and the chance to define how Wall Street values the AI boom. But it also means taking the first hit from public scrutiny and giving OpenAI a chance to study the market’s reaction before making its own move.Last month, Business Insider…

Illustration by Hanna Barczyk Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly. The Trump administration has vowed to step up revocations of citizenship from some naturalized Americans as part of a broader effort to double down on immigration enforcement. The messaging has sparked fear among immigrant advocates, legal scholars and naturalized citizens who worry about the potential for abuse and the precedent it sets that naturalized immigrants are in a separate class from U.S.-born Americans. But the cases filed so far are narrower than this rhetoric suggests, highlighting the legal and practical constraints on using this tool more…

I don’t often mention that I belonged to The Wing, the women’s-only social club that came to epitomize a distinctly mid-2010s blend of sisterhood and girlboss consumerism. By the time it closed less than six years after it opened, the pendulum of public opinion had already swung away from these timestamped sensibilities and, by extension, the club itself.My membership was out of character. I’m socially awkward and not much of a joiner. But I’d just moved to New York for work and needed to make friends — or, at least, to learn how to embrace being the kind of person…

Monday’s conviction of short-seller Andrew Left — for trades he made after using social media to publicize his market-moving reports on companies — brought a swift reaction from other investors and financial analysts.”The conviction establishes precedent that social media commentary from influential investors may constitute criminal market manipulation,” the financial intelligence firm Fazen Markets wrote in a report.”Regulatory scrutiny will likely increase for prominent short sellers,” it added. “Publicly traded companies targeted by activist short campaigns may experience reduced pressure as critics exercise more caution.” Read more coverage from the trial Activist short-sellers like Left have been credited with exposing…

“60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley exposed a key point of tension in the Bari Weiss era during a fiery exchange on Monday.At a staff meeting, Pelley reportedly accused Weiss of “murdering” the iconic weekly news program.”She does not love this place,” Pelley said, according to an audio recording obtained by Status and The New York Times. “She was brought in to kill it, and she’s doing exactly that.”Pelley made the reported remarks during an exchange with new top producer Nick Bilton. Pelley has spent more than three decades at CBS News.Business Insider could not independently confirm the audio, and CBS…