Good morning. The Federal Trade Commission initiated an inquiry into technology companies’ use of censorship.

The inquiry aims to understand how technology companies decide what content to block users from seeing. The procedures companies use to decide what to block can be unpredictable, the FTC said, and potentially harm consumers and hurt competition.

“Censorship by technology platforms is not just un-American, it is potentially illegal,” the FTC said.

The FTC issued a request for information from consumers who would like to publicly comment about technology platforms limiting their ability to share ideas or affiliations. Those include consumers who have been banned from platforms, the FTC said. The request for information is open until May 21.

Funding cuts at CFPB seen leading to ‘regulatory vacuum’ for big banks.

Trump administration plans to slash funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau leave large federal banks without a functioning fraud watchdog—a major regulatory gap, according to a group of state attorneys general.

With the CFPB’s “dormancy,” no federal regulator is conducting anti-consumer-fraud examinations on very large banks such as JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, the group led by New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a court filing Wednesday. The AGs didn’t accuse any banks of wrongdoing.

Barr defends Fed’s supervision role in outgoing remarks as vice chair.

Michael Barr defended the Federal Reserve’s independence and oversight role Thursday, two days after the White House issued an executive order that could exert greater control over the central bank’s supervision of financial institutions.

“I think the independence of the Federal Reserve is absolutely critical,” Barr said in response to a question following a speech at Georgetown University Law Center. “It’s critical on monetary policy, but it’s also critical in our understanding of the law and how the law applies to the banking sector.”

• A grand jury is investigating criminal misconduct at a Silicon Valley fintech firm where customer funds went missing, and has questioned an executive who raised alarms before the company collapsed, people familiar with the matter said.
   
• The Justice Department has launched an investigation into UnitedHealth Group’s Medicare billing practices in recent months, people familiar with the matter say.
   
• The U.K.’s competition regulator is fining Citi, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada a total of 104.5 million pounds ($132.3 million) after a probe into the exchange of sensitive information about government bonds.
  
   
• Lloyds Banking Group put more money aside for a potential hit from a regulatory probe into the motor-finance sector, but posted a set of solid underlying results that allayed investors’ concerns.

Trump’s attack on Zelensky signals new world order taking shape.

No one expected President Trump to handle global affairs like his predecessors. But few expected him to move so rapidly to reorient U.S. foreign policy away from the course it has charted since 1945.

His top envoys have floated concessions to Russia in peace talks that stunned European allies, followed by Trump calling Ukraine’s leader a dictator, and he kept Europeans at arms length as the negotiations began. He has dismantled the leading U.S. aid agency providing assistance to the developing world where China aims to establish a foothold. Trump’s plan to own Gaza and remove Palestinians from the enclave erased decades of Washington’s efforts to broker a two-state solution. And his plans to increase tariffs heralded an end to American-fueled globalization.

• Trump’s Turn to Russia Spooks U.S. Allies Who Fear a Weakened NATO
• U.S. Doubles Down on Demand That Ukraine Sign Minerals Deal

U.S. aluminum buyers scramble for metal as Trump tariff looms.

The tariffs targeting aluminum imports into the U.S. have buyers scrambling to procure the metal before the levies are expected to kick in and make imports more expensive.

Aluminum buyers – which include manufacturers of products like automobiles, beverage cans and home appliances – are attempting to stock up on primary aluminum before the Trump administration raises the 10% tariff placed on the metal to 25% starting next month.

• Rio Tinto Has Backup Plan If U.S. Imposes Tariffs on Aluminum Imports

• Zurich Insurance expects that the devastating wildfires that struck southern California in January will lead to $200 million in pretax losses.
   
• The eurozone economy continued to flatline in February, torn between signs of revival in Germany and a sharp decline in France, according to business surveys released Friday.
   
• Today, Germany has gone from paragon to pariah. Its economic model is broken, its self-confidence shattered and its political landscape fractured.

Salt Typhoon hackers used old Cisco bug, stolen credentials to hop on routers.

China-linked hackers who broke into global telecommunications systems likely exploited a seven-year-old bug in Cisco’s router software and used stolen credentials to gain access to systems, the company said.

The disclosure marks Cisco’s first confirmation that its products were affected by the widespread compromise of U.S. and foreign telecom companies, called the Salt Typhoon attack by investigators.

• The fates of Nikola and Hyzon are a setback for a sector of zero-emissions trucking where many had seen promise.
   
• Crunchbase is using AI to forecast startup funding, acquisitions and public offerings—but its biggest challenge may be predicting its own future.
   
• The wave of lawsuits over browser extensions like PayPal Honey spotlights the question of who deserves credit when a consumer makes a purchase.
   
• Holes in home Wi-Fi, kids oversharing online and other missteps by company executives and their families can give hackers a doorway to corporate networks.

• The Senate voted Thursday to confirm Kash Patel as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Patel plans to retain his shares in Elite Depot, the parent company of China-founded fashion brand Shein, and the FBI allowed him to do so.
   
• DOGE is searching for wasteful spending. It isn’t hard to find.
   
• Riding a bike he found in the trash, one Indiana man crossed into Ukraine with a dream—to fight for Russia.
   
• The word “null,” used by computer scientists to mean “no value,” has