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U.S. pledges $5 billion to boost AI in government-backed scientific research www.scientificamerican.com
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Overall federal funding for scientific research is set to decline in 2027, the most senior White House science figure said on Wednesday. The government, however, pledged to spend $5 billion on promoting artificial intelligence in science.

Michael Kratsios, the White House’s science and technology adviser, told the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology that the money will be drawn from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA, as well as other federal agencies.

The goal is to produce “the premier AI for science ecosystem in the world,” he said. The funding will be earmarked for “research awards, funding opportunities, specialized scientific datasets and research facilities,” the White House said in a statement.

Trump Accounts draw 6.5 million sign-ups, but families are waiting on the promised $1,000 funding fortune.com
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President Donald Trump says Trump Accounts could hoist children out of poverty and give more Americans the chance to benefit from investments in the stock market. But some parents say they’re still waiting for the money to arrive.

Trump on Wednesday plans to speak at a Georgia high school to promote the investment accounts, which offer $1,000 in seed money to every child born during his second term. The accounts went live July 4, two days before Trump rang the opening bells for both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ from the Oval Office.

The tax-advantaged accounts, created last year through Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill, can be opened for any child under the age of 18. The Treasury Department boasts 6.5 million sign-ups for Trump Accounts, with 1.5 million of those eligible for the $1,000 seed funding for babies born from 2025 through 2028.

Boosters of the program say it’s a chance to give more Americans a stake in the stock market. They hope it will stem the rising popularity of democratic socialists, who seek to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy to ease the cost of things like food and healthcare for low-income and middle-class Americans.

Suspected Epstein Pimp Found Dead in Paris Home as Authorities Close In slaynews.com
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A French modeling scout accused of helping Jeffrey Epstein recruit and abuse young women and children has been found dead at his home outside Paris, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Daniel Siad, 69, was under investigation in France over allegations that he assisted Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.

Siad had not yet been questioned by investigators and denied the accusations against him.

“An investigation to determine the cause of death was opened on Monday evening following the discovery,” the Nanterre prosecutor’s office said.

Authorities said an autopsy would be conducted after Siad was found dead at his home in Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine.

Canada cancels joint bridge-opening celebration with US amid trade tensions | US news www.theguardian.com
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A planned joint US-Canada ceremony on Friday celebrating the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, is no longer expected to take place after Donald Trump announced a 50% tariff on most Canadian goods.

In announcing the tariffs, the president accused Canada of unfairly discriminating against US automobiles, alcohol and dairy products, escalating tensions with one of the United States’ closest allies.

“In light of trade action threatened by the United States earlier this week, it would be inappropriate to proceed with a celebratory event between the two countries,” said Jenna Ghassabeh, a spokesperson for Canada’s infrastructure minister, Gregor Robertson, in an emailed statement.

Death toll from Venezuela earthquakes rises to nearly 4,500 with thousands still missing www.independent.co.uk
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The death toll from two powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela last month has tragically risen to 4,490, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez confirmed on Sunday.

The official count of injured remains unchanged at 16,740, while 6,462 people have been successfully rescued from the devastation.

According to the latest figures, 17,907 individuals have been left homeless following the disaster.

The Venezuelans who remain displaced have been forced into crowded shelters or to sleep outdoors, grappling with a severe lack of clean water and deplorable sanitary conditions in the wake of the June 24 tremors.

Aid organizations describe the aftermath as a significant medical emergency. They caution that without swift intervention, the crisis is poised to claim more lives in the coming days and weeks.

Eugenio Cova, head of the trauma unit at Caracas’s Hospital del Oeste Dr. José Gregorio Hernández, articulated the immediate concern: “The issue we foresee just around the corner is the infections that patients who have been exposed to the disaster for the longest time might bring.”

(AFP/Getty)

The Venezuelan government has been accused of remaining largely absent in the first 48–72 hours of the earthquake, downplaying the death toll, poor coordination and underlying systemic failures.

Two 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes – the bigger one the strongest to hit the country in more than a century – toppled or damaged 58,000–59,000 buildings, especially in La Guaira, the hardest-hit coastal state and parts of Caracas, and displaced at least 15,800 people.

(AFP/Getty)

Residents in La Guaira have lashed out at the self-described socialist government of Delcy Rodríguez, alleging that the initial absence of a serious government search-and-rescue operation left them alone to scour for neighbours and loved ones with their bare hands.

However, Rodríguez fiercely defended her government at a press conference, saying politicisation of human tragedy is “disgraceful.”

“We did not wait one day, two days or three days. We activated immediately,” she said, wearing a black ribbon as a symbol of mourning.


Trump Preparing to Challenge Legitimacy of Georgia’s Two Democrat Senators slaynews.com
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A report circulating Monday claims President Donald Trump is preparing to make a major announcement involving Georgia’s two Democrat senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

The report, citing a “well-placed source in Georgia,” alleges Trump plans to declare Ossoff and Warnock “illegitimate because of fraud.”

According to the post, the announcement could come as soon as Monday evening.

Neither Trump nor the White House has publicly confirmed the report.

No official details have been released.

As of publication, the alleged announcement remains unverified.

If Trump does make such an announcement, it would mark a major escalation in the administration’s renewed focus on Georgia’s 2020 election and the January 2021 Senate runoffs that gave Democrats control of the Senate.

Trump Administration Reviews Georgia Election Claims

The reported announcement comes as federal authorities have reopened inquiries into allegations involving Georgia’s 2020 election.

Those investigations include claims tied to ballot handling, election administration, and other disputed issues from the election cycle.

Trump administration officials have argued that additional review is justified where credible evidence exists.

Democrats have pushed back, arguing that Georgia’s results were already affirmed through recounts, audits, and legal proceedings.

However, the renewed investigations have kept Georgia at the center of the national debate over election integrity.

Trump has consistently argued that widespread fraud affected Georgia’s elections and that the matter was never fully resolved.

His administration has continued to pursue additional reviews of election-related allegations.

Officials have said credible claims should be examined rather than dismissed.

Ossoff and Warnock Flipped Georgia Seats

Georgia is represented in the Senate by Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA).

Both were elected in the January 2021 runoff elections.

Their victories flipped two Republican-held seats and gave Democrats effective control of the Senate, with then-Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote in the evenly divided chamber.

The results marked the first time in more than two decades that Georgia sent two Democratic senators to Washington at the same time.

They also cemented Georgia’s transformation from a reliably Republican state into one of the country’s most closely watched political battlegrounds.

Ossoff, 39, is Georgia’s senior senator despite taking office the same day as Warnock.

Senate seniority is determined alphabetically when members are sworn in at the same time.

Before entering the Senate, Ossoff gained national attention during his 2017 special election campaign for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District.

He lost that race but later defeated incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) in the 2021 runoff.

Ossoff is now seeking reelection in what is expected to be one of the nation’s most competitive Senate races.

Warnock previously served as senior pastor of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached.

He first won statewide office by defeating appointed Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) in the January 2021 runoff.

Warnock later secured a full six-year term in 2022 by defeating Republican Herschel Walker.

No Court Has Invalidated Results

Questions surrounding Georgia’s 2020 election have continued to drive political and legal battles years after the Senate runoffs.

Trump and his allies have argued that the election was plagued by serious problems that were never properly addressed.

Democrats insist the results were legitimate and that the matter has been settled.

Despite the ongoing investigations and political disputes, no court has invalidated Georgia’s Senate election results.

No court has ruled that Ossoff or Warnock was improperly elected.

Both continue to serve as Georgia’s certified and legally recognized U.S. senators.

If Trump announces new findings or proposed action involving Georgia’s Senate elections, it would become one of the most significant developments yet in his administration’s effort to revisit unresolved disputes from the 2020 election cycle.

For now, the report remains unconfirmed.

But the possibility of a Trump announcement has already put renewed attention on Georgia, the 2021 Senate runoffs, and the election integrity fights that continue to shape national politics.

READ MORE – Trump Fires All Election Officials Who Resisted Citizenship Proof Push


New York Politician Slams the DSA As a White Supremacist Movement townhall.com
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If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that a vast majority of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) members are lily-white and insanely rich. With that privilege, they’ve decided their moral and political obligation is to destroy the economic structure and nation that made them spoiled brats

This includes a majority-white crowd chanting ‘You’re next’ to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. The optics of that are bad enough, but the DSA doesn’t seem to care. The destruction of the Democratic Party, and America, is the point.

But one New York politician is calling a spade a spade and he just blasted the DSA as a bunch of white supremacists. That’s Queens Borough President Donovan Richards

Here’s more:

A prominent black Big Apple politician compared Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s comrades in the Democratic Socialists of America to white supremacists as a bitter rift between Democrats spilled onto social media.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards breathed new life into a longstanding complaint among minority lawmakers that the largely lily-white DSA ignores race in its crusade to grow its ranks and dismantle capitalism.

Newsom pushes California to crack down on sex trafficking — fast www.latimes.com
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California has spent millions of dollars to combat sex trafficking, and yet it can still be found in every city and town, hiding in plain sight.

Whether it’s online, on places such as Figueroa Street in L.A. or Stockton Boulevard in Sacramento, or even in the hotel rooms where our World Cup guests stayed, there are thousands of women and girls being sexually exploited in California right now, despite all that money and all the resources it has purchased.

“The reality is that few threats to a woman’s safety are as brutal or as overlooked as sex trafficking,” First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom said Monday, sitting with her husband, the governor, in a tiny second-floor dance studio built for survivors of trafficking.

Siebel Newsom was there to watch Newsom sign an executive order that was driven by her work as an advocate for survivors of trafficking. On its surface, the order may not sound like much and isn’t likely to make the news. It calls for most of the major state agencies to come up with a plan within 60 days to work together to curb trafficking and help survivors.

Japan raises safety concern over Chinese destroyer’s live-fire drills abcnews.com
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TOKYO — Japan expressed concern after a Chinese navy destroyer conducted live-fire drills off a remote Japanese island in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday during its joint exercise with Russia, officials said Tuesday.

The Chinese Luyang III-class guided-missile destroyer conducted a live-fire exercise off Japan’s southernmost island of Okinotori, hours after the Japanese navy spotted it operating alongside two other Chinese warships and a Russian frigate, the Japanese Joint Staff said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters Tuesday that his government conveyed concerns that the live-fire drills posed a potential safety threat to nearby vessels. He noted that ships near the area received a notice from the Chinese warships just before the drills started.

“We will continue to watch China-Russia operations around Japan with concern, while doing utmost for the warning and surveillance of the Japanese airspace and territorial waters,” Kihara said.

Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, in a speech Monday in Britain, said the action underscored “the deepening military cooperation between China and Russia,” as he also noted China’s ballistic missile launch from a submarine earlier this month, and at least 10 joint flights conducted by Chinese and Russian bombers around Japan.

Trump admin refunds $81B in tariffs after his key trade policy was struck down by Supreme Court www.independent.co.uk
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Four years earlier in Florida, Epstein had been sent to prison for two charges of soliciting prostitution – including one with a minor.

Andriesz suspected there was yet more to find in the Epstein files that could back up his claims – if only people knew where to look in the 3.5 million pages of documents.

“Everyone was searching ‘Lutnick’,” he says. He knew, though, that Cantor Fitzgerald executives preferred to use initials rather than full names in their emails.

Andriesz searched for “HWL” (Howard William Lutnick) and found emails sent to and from Epstein in 2018. Epstein had talked directly to Lutnick about a digital advertising company called Adfin, in which he and Lutnick’s firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, had both invested.

Andriesz spotted correspondence, external where Epstein had directly asked the HWL account: “what do you think the prospects for adfin are?”

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HELSINKI, Finland — Given an 800-mile border with Russia and a history shaped by war, Finland has spent decades designing a culture to withstand crisis.

Beneath the streets of Helsinki, there’s an entire second city. Infrastructure currently used for daily life was built for the possibility of war. What, on the surface, may look like a metro station entrance actually leads to a bunker capable of housing thousands of people in case of emergency.

Until then, it’s put to use daily.

“People have learned to use also the underground premises and they know where the civil defense shelter in their own apartment building is, and people got used to it, so there is nothing traumatic about it,” explained Anna Lehtiranta, with the Helsinki City Rescue Department.

Finland is famous for the dual-use design of its emergency shelters. In peacetime, many operate as gyms, sports arenas, and even playgrounds.

“Preparedness is something that comes as a normal thing, it is in our genes, so we continue preparing ourselves for emergencies, even during the years of peacetime,” Lehtiranta told a CBN News team in Finland as a part of a recent media study tour sponsored by several NATO eastern flank countries.

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As the Supreme Court made waves with its landmark ruling protecting women’s and girls’ sports, the court also published another landmark ruling that met with little public discussion: Chatrie v. United States.

Chatrie focused on answering the question of whether or not law enforcement accessing Google Location History data constituted a Fourth Amendment search. The court determined that it did, explaining that “[a]n individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in records about his cell phone’s location, and police intrude on that constitutionally protected interest when they demand the information … from a third-party tech company.”

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Conspiracy theorists claimed Sen. Mitch McConnell had suffered a heart attack, and some even claimed he was no longer alive and his death was being kept hidden.

But he issued a statement Sunday and provided proof of life — a photo of himself smiling alongside his wife, Elaine Chao, taken from his bed at a rehabilitation facility.

Mr. McConnell, 84,  said he was recovering from a fall and a case of pneumonia and would eventually be returning to work in the Senate.

The June 14 fall left him unconscious, the Kentucky Republican said.

“My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion. I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages. But I was briefly unconscious and was taken to the hospital. While receiving excellent care over the past several weeks, I’ve also had to deal with a mild case of pneumonia,” Mr. McConnell said.

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For decades, video games have been a go-to hobby for Alyx Green. But in recent years, Green has felt priced out.

Instead of buying the biggest releases, the Illinois graduate student has opted for cheaper alternatives from smaller studios or turned to board and card games. In some cases, the 31-year-old watches videos of others playing hot games on YouTube in lieu of actually playing.

“The price has been going up,” Green said. “It’s just hard to keep up.”

U.S. consumers have for years grappled with “funflation,” used to describe the sharply higher prices for live experiences like concerts or sporting events that were halted during pandemic lockdowns.