World, US, Culture, Market, and Sci-Tech News Aggregation from MSM and Independent News
News Source
EXCERPT:
… 60 Minutes lost its credibility years ago. Of course Bari Weiss wants to get it back, It’s her mandate.
CBS has fired “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley, and rightly so. He betrayed journalistic principles in platforming debunked science, in being closed-minded and dogmatic, and in behaving like a pompous ass. Good riddance. https://t.co/saRQ6YCil8 pic.twitter.com/GMk7lfymP3
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) June 3, 2026
Yesterday, Scott Pelley hijacked a meet and greet with new staffers and accused the new CBS News boss of ‘murdering’ ‘60 Minutes’
As one commenter pointed out, “If Pelley’s intention was to come across as though he was in charge and had no desire to adapt to the changes in management, then mission accomplished.
While I am sure his colleagues will display empathy or sympathy, I can’t picture any other job in any industry where a manager or member of the leadership team wouldn’t have fired him for gross insubordination.”
This letter from 60 Minutes’ new EP, Nick Bilton, is so telling and transparent.
It’ll be hilarious to listen to anyone defend Pelley after reading this. And when they do, they will do so dishonestly.
Letter from Bilton to Pelley below. pic.twitter.com/t5qjM8sEgw
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) June 3, 2026
News Source
EXCERPT:
Most apps are designed to keep you on them as long as possible, especially content consumption apps where you scroll a never-ending feed of content.
Dreambeans, a new experimental app from Google Labs, does the opposite. It gives you a small collection of AI-illustrated stories each morning and sends you off to live your actual life.
News Source
EXCERPT:
Just under 300,000 years from the moment Homo sapiens appeared in Africa, the species had encircled Earth, mastering desolate deserts and frozen wastelands and all the temperate climes in between. Throughout this staggering expansion, we seem to have relied surprisingly little on genetic adaptation to fuel our globe-conquering—all eight billion of us together remain less genetically diverse than individual populations of chimpanzees. So how did we do it?
Many scientists point to cultural evolution, the process by which knowledge, customs and technology spread over time. But according to Alex Mesoudi, who studies cultural evolution at the University of Exeter in England, “it’s always been just a vague claim.”
News Source
EXCERPT:
A new study shows that computer malware powered by easily accessible artificial intelligence models is here—the research is a “wake-up call” to take cybersecurity risks from AI more seriously, one expert says.
In the study, researchers created an AI-powered computer “worm” designed to attack and spread between devices—revealing a threat that they say the world is woefully underprepared to fight.
“Our results demonstrate that self-sustaining AI-driven cyber-threats are no longer theoretical,” the researchers wrote. The paper, first reported by the New York Times, was posted on the preprint server arXiv.org and has yet to be peer-reviewed.
News Source
EXCERPT:
Kyrgyzstan was elected on Wednesday as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the first time since gaining its independence in 1991.
Kyrgyzstan won the Asia-Pacific Group vacancy, defeating the Philippines for one of the 2027-2028 seats.
It marks the first Central Asian country’s election to the 15-member UNSC in more than a decade, following Kazakhstan’s seat in the 2017-2018 term.
It also represents a major victory for Kyrgyz diplomacy, after President Sadyr Japarov urged world leaders to support Bishkek’s bid and give greater voice to countries that have never held a seat on the UNSC — especially landlocked or mountainous countries with specific security, climate or development challenges.
Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubaev earlier this week called on the UN to reform the Council by expanding the representation of countries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America among its permanent members, an issue that has been raised repeatedly by other Central Asian countries.
News Source
EXCERPT:
President Donald Trump is accusing the federal judge who blocked his plans for the Kennedy Center of having a serious conflict of interest, pointing to the judge’s wife and her extensive ties to high-profile Democrats, the Jan. 6 committee, and several prominent Trump adversaries.
The criticism follows a ruling by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, who rejected efforts to rename the Kennedy Center after President Trump and halted plans tied to the administration’s broader vision for the institution.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump argued that Cooper’s wife, attorney Amy Jeffress, has deep connections to individuals and causes aligned against him and suggested those relationships should have required the judge to step aside from the case.
News Source
EXCERPT:
The Trump administration is rolling out what experts describe as the most significant expansion of U.S. sanctions on Cuba in decades.
The administration is attempting what supporters say is the first broad application of Cuba-related secondary sanctions against foreign firms, aiming not only at Havana itself but also at foreign companies and banks that continue doing business with the island’s military-linked economic empire.
The new framework, established under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump May 1, applies pressure beyond U.S. companies for the first time, threatening foreign firms with sanctions exposure if they continue operating in key sectors of the Cuban economy linked to Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A., or GAESA.
News Source
EXCERPT:
Wisconsin Democrat Gov. Tony Evers is doubling down on seemingly defying a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on so-called “conversion therapy” for children.
The moment came during a Monday “Pride Flag Raising” event at the State Capitol. While flanked by attendees waiving rainbow flags, the left-wing governor bragged about vetoing bills passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly that he claimed “target[ed]” so-called “trans kids” and “harm[ed] the health, safety, and security of LGBTQ Wisconsinites.”
In doing so, Evers went on to tout a June 2021 executive order he signed “banning the use of state and federal funds for conversion therapy on our kids.” The governor’s administration also adopted a rule declaring it “unprofessional conduct” for any state Marriage and Family Therapy, Professional Counseling, and Social Work Examining Board licensee to provide therapy that tells the truth about sex and gender ideology. The regulation took effect last year following a favorable ruling from Wisconsin’s liberal Supreme Court.
News Source
EXCERPT:
Student activists at a small college in Wisconsin can now run their Turning Point USA-affiliated club without obstacles.
The Patriots of Faith group at Lawrence University is now approved after fighting for months for official status.
Zach Currier and his club faced a battle after a campuswide referendum on the club was scrapped due to low turnout. In the meantime, Currier had to wait for the student government to approve his organization, as The College Fix reported in April. Around 1,500 students attend the liberal arts college in Appleton.
News Source
EXCERPT:
The national average price for regular gas continued to fall on Friday, dropping to $4.391 per gallon, a 16-cent decrease over the past week, according to AAA.
Gas prices have trended downward since setting a high for the year on May 21 at $4.564 per gallon. Moreover, fuel costs have dropped every day this week, starting at $4.507 per gallon on Monday, Memorial Day, dropping to Friday’s current price point, an 11-cent drop in less than 100 hours. The decrease in fuel costs comes at a time when gas prices start to rise, after Memorial Day and the beginning of what is recognized as the summer driving season.
News Source
EXCERPT:
A Blue Origin rocket exploded on Thursday night as the company conducted a static fire test.
The New Glenn rocket, which was being tested at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, “experienced an anomaly” during a “hotfire test,” Blue Origin confirmed on social media, as reported by WOFL.
“All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more,” the post from Blue Origin added.
We experienced an anomaly during today’s hotfire test. All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more.
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) May 29, 2026
News Source
EXCERPT:
On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Katie Pavlich Tonight,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Leiter said that Iran has “1,700 centrifuges” capable of producing enriched material imminently, and those “have to be dismantled as well or at least completely taken out of the ability to be reconstituted.”
Leiter said, “[T]he best case scenario would be that they actually open it up as a result of any deal and turn it over, by inspectors that would come in, experts that would come in and assess that all of it has been removed. But it’s important to point out, they have 1,700 centrifuges that can produce nuclear weapons tomorrow — enriched material, I should say, tomorrow. So those have to be dismantled as well or at least completely taken out of the ability to be reconstituted.”
Earlier, he said that “we’re very confident, at the end of the day
News Source
EXCERPT:
The rivalry between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk has officially reached the Moon. NASA announced on Tuesday that it had selected Bezos’s Blue Origin to carry out the first in a planned series of three uncrewed lunar missions aimed at preparing for a future Moon base, handing the company a contract worth about $230M. The mission, expected no earlier than fall 2026, will use Blue Origin’s Blue Moon cargo lander to transport scientific payloads and test technologies near the Moon’s south pole. While SpaceX remains deeply involved in NASA’s Artemis programme, the decision marks a symbolic win for Bezos in the increasingly intense billionaire battle shaping the future of space exploration.
For years, NASA’s idea of building a long-term human presence on the Moon existed mostly as an ambition tied to the Artemis programme. Tuesday’s announcement showed the agency is now moving into the practical phase.NASA administrator and entrepreneur Jared Isaacman said the first three uncrewed missions will help test landers, rovers, cargo systems and survival technologies needed to support astronauts on the lunar surface in the future. More than a dozen additional missions are expected later as the agency works towards creating an operational Moon base sometime in the next decade.The first mission will target the Shackleton de Gerlache Ridge region near the lunar south pole, an area scientists believe may contain water ice. NASA sees the region as critical because future explorers could potentially use the ice for drinking water, oxygen production and rocket fuel.
EXCERPT:
Anti-government protests demanding the resignation of Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz have continued as the country remains mired in crisis, local media reported.
Demonstrators have set up roadblocks and blocked highways at 59 locations across the country’s nine administrative regions.
Based on the latest road map published by the Bolivian Highway Administration, transportation has been disrupted in the Andean regions of La Paz, Oruro and Potosi, as well as in the central regions of Chuquisaca and Cochabamba and the eastern region of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
Attempts by security forces to reopen the 227-kilometre highway between La Paz and Oruro as part of an operation called the White Flag Humanitarian Corridor were met with fierce resistance from protesters, who reportedly threw dynamite sticks and stones at police.
News Source
EXCERPT:
A number of South Carolina Republicans in the state Senate joined Democrats on Tuesday to defeat a procedural vote needed to advance a congressional redistricting plan. The effort sought to redraw the state’s seven U.S. House districts ahead of the 2026 elections, with the aim of creating a map that would favor Republican candidates in all seven seats and draw out the lone Democrat-controlled district under the current map.
The proposal stemmed from a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that altered interpretations of the Voting Rights Act regarding congressional districts on the basis of race. In response to the landmark ruling, a number of Republican-controlled states in the South moved to draw out districts that were drawn in order to be majority black under prior criteria.
News Source
EXCERPT:
A federal court is trying to pull a judicial mulligan after the Supreme Court gave Alabama another shot at using its GOP-backed congressional map.
The Supreme Court threw out a lower-court order barring Alabama from using the congressional map the state adopted in 2023 and sent the dispute back to the lower court for another look. But a three-judge federal panel again blocked Alabama from using that map for the 2026 midterms.
News Source
EXCERPT:
There is a chance this will not pass. The left does not want to let go of this.
Wisconsin voters to decide constitutional amendment banning DEI discrimination
A Wisconsin ballot initiative this fall would amend the state constitution to ban discriminatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives at government entities, including public universities.
Under Assembly Joint Resolution 102, government entities would be prohibited from “discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public education, public contracting, or public administration.”
Before Wisconsin legislators can send a resolution to voters, the resolution must receive approval in two legislative years. Lawmakers first approved the proposed amendment during the 2023–24 session, then gave it second approval this January, sending it to voters this fall.
News Source
EXCERPT:
Supporters of the measure have reached the number of necessary signatures, putting it one step closer to being on the November ballot.
A petition initiative in Oregon that supporters are seeking to have put on the November ballot would make it illegal to kill or injure animals in the state, a move that opponents say would effectively ban hunting and fishing in the state.
The proposed initiative, called the People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions (PEACE) Act, makes it a crime of animal abuse in the first degree if the person “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly” causes the death of an animal. The initiative also includes a provision extending sexual abuse of animals to include artificial insemination used on farm animals.
Per KATU2, supporters of the measure have reached the number of necessary signatures, putting it one step closer to being on the November ballot. The Secretary of State’s Office now has to verify the signatures.
News Source
EXCERPT:
China now requires people working in AI at private firms to secure travel approval before leaving the country. According to Bloomberg, the restrictions apply to individuals working in state-owned firms, startup founders, and those employed by private companies, as the central government considers them important strategic assets. China has already been limiting international travel for key individuals such as senior researchers at public educational institutions, nuclear scientists, and even top executives of government-owned companies, but extending the restriction to private firms and individuals is an uncommon move, even for Beijing.
There’s no official guidance yet on which roles, expertise, or seniority will be included in the travel ban. However, Bloomberg sources say that the individuals added to the list were assessed based on their impact on China’s AI ambitions, not just where they work or their position within their company. This move is an expansion of a former government directive wherein some AI engineers had mandatory reporting of any overseas travel plan, although they were still free to go abroad as needed.
This shows that Beijing considers AI as a strategic advantage and that the people leading the industry are considered crucial for the country’s advancement. This news comes months after Meta’s surprise purchase of Manus AI, which China wants to unwind to prevent the U.S. from acquiring Chinese AI talent and intellectual property. Although the two aren’t directly related, the report says that the new policy is designed to protect against the leaking of key technologies, such as the one being developed by the Chinese startup that moved to Singapore.
News Source
EXCERPT:
Millions of AI agents and tools around the world have been imperiled by a critical vulnerability that can allow hackers to breach the servers running them and make off with sensitive data and credentials to third-party accounts, a security researcher is warning.
The vulnerability is present in Starlette, an open source framework that its developer says receives 325 million downloads per week. Thousands of other open source projects are also vulnerable because they require Starlette to work. The framework is an implementation of the ASGI (asynchronous server gateway interface), which allows large numbers of requests to be efficiently processed simultaneously. Starlette is the base of FastAPI and other widely used frameworks for building services in Python apps, as well as many others.
ASGI, and by extension Starlette, have access to servers running the MCP (model context protocol), which allows AI agents from major providers to access external sources, including user data bases, email and calendar accounts, and all manner of other resources. To connect with these external systems, MCP servers store credentials for each one, making them especially valuable storehouses for attackers to breach.
The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-48710 and under the name BadHost, is trivial to exploit and works against most systems that aren’t behind a properly configured firewall. Besides FastAPI, other widely used packages—including vLLM, and LiteLLM—are also affected. BadHost affects Starlette versions prior to 1.0.1, which was released Friday.
“A single character injected into the HTTP Host header bypasses path-based authorization in Starlette, the routing core of FastAPI,” researchers from Secwest wrote. “Through FastAPI, this primitive (now tracked as CVE-2026-48710 and branded BadHost by the discoverers) reaches a large segment of the Python AI tooling ecosystem: vLLM (where the bug was discovered), LiteLLM, Text Generation Inference, most OpenAI-shim proxies, MCP servers, agent harnesses, eval dashboards, and model-management UIs.”
BadHost carries a severity rating of 7 out of 10. Secwest said the classification “materially understates” the threat it poses to people using other apps that depend on Starlette. X41 D-Sec, the security firm that discovered it, described it as having “critical severity.” X41 D-Sec partnered with fellow security firm Nemesis to create an online scanner that can check if a given server is vulnerable.
News Source
EXCERPT:
Over the holiday weekend, New Jersey Democrat politicians gathered outside Newark’s Delaney Hall, which ICE has been using as a detention facility for over a decade. CNN showed video on Tuesday morning’s The Situation Room of several prominent Democrat politicians. Included in their highlight reel was New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, Senator Andy Kim, and Representative Robert Menendez, who spoke to cameras outside the facility amid swarms of protesters performing the modern Democrat’s favorite pastime as they clashed with officers and attempted to block vehicles coming in or out.
These particular protests were spurred by unsubstantiated “reports of rough conditions like rotten food and a hunger strike by detainees,” according to co-host Pamela Brown.
News Source
EXCERPT:
An Ethiopian immigrant in Canada pleaded guilty to several “offences that included assaulting a teenager and smearing fecal matter over her face and mouth,” as well as “sexual assault, assault, and committing an indecent act,” according to the National Post. Because he has been unemployed for years, the judge deemed it an ‘undue hardship’ if he paid the fines imposed by law.
If you are surprised by this soft sentence, you are not paying attention. Clearly, the justice system for our northern neighbors is not what you would call “just.”
The crimes are worse than you could have ever imagined.
Per the National Post:
The judge waived the victim fine surcharge, noting that Zewdu has been unemployed for years and the fine “would be an undue hardship.” The surcharge is generally 15 per cent where a fine has been levied, or between $100 and $200 for each offence.
Court documents released this week outline the troubling nature of the offences. In one, which took place on June 27, 2025, a 17-year-old was walking in a residential area near a SkyTrain station when Zewdu approached her from behind and grabbed her.
“He then smeared fecal matter over her face and mouth while pushing and jamming feces into her face and mouth,” court records state. “Mr. Zewdu was laughing as he held out his phone, causing the victim to believe that Mr. Zewdu was recording the assault. A subsequent search of his phone showed that this was not the case.”
News Source
EXCERPT:
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei on Tuesday accused the US of committing a “despicable war crime” following a missile strike on a sports hall in Lamerd, Fars Province, that Tehran says killed 24 civilians, including teenage volleyball players and a two-year-old child, while injuring more than 130 people.
In a post on X, Baghaei said he was briefed by the Iranian member of Parliament for Mehr, Mousa Mousavi, about a ” devastating American missile strike” on a residential area and sports hall in the city of Lamerd.
“On the afternoon of Saturday, 9 Esfand 1404 (28 February 2026) the same day students at the Shajareh_Tayyibeh_School in Minab were massacred by Tomahawk missiles–a residential area in Lamerd, including a sports hall, was struck by U.S. Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM),” Baghaei said.
According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, the strike “slaughtered 24 persons, including a 2-year-old girl, several teenage volleyball players”, while “more than 130 persons were injured, many of whom now face permanent disabilities.”
News Source
EXCERPT:
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged the three defendants with assault and intimidation by force.
The Minneapolis family members who have been federally indicted for an alleged attack on Turning Point USA “Frontlines” reporter Savanah Hernandez have been granted temporary restraining orders against the reporter, Hernandez announced on Tuesday.
All three defendants, Chris, DeYanna, and Paige Ostroushko, alleged to the court that they are the victims of “harassment” and “assault” from Hernandez, who was mob assaulted by the defendants while reporting outside the Whipple Federal Building in April. Hernandez, who sustained physical injuries and a concussion, said the Ostroushkos “extensively lied” about her, as well as the events that unfolded that day, in order to receive emergency restraining orders.
Additionally, the defendants petitioned the court to impose a gag order on Hernandez, attempting to prevent the reporter from posting about the attack on social media, according to court filings. Court documents also show that the Ostroushkos are trying to get Hernandez, as well as her family, banned from the vicinity of the ICE facility and the Minnesota county in which they live. Hernandez has not been charged with a crime and is the victim in this case, as evidenced by ample video footage and indictments.
News Source
EXCERPT:
Republican Senators called it quits Thursday over a proposal to deliver restitution to the political victims of government weaponization, instead giving themselves paid vacation after balking at the idea that Americans deserve compensation for being targeted and mistreated by the federal government.
As many as 25 Republican senators reportedly balked at the $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund designed to “to provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare” during a briefing by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
The fund would make restitution to people like pro-life Americans targeted for praying outside abortion facilities, individuals who were unfairly or excessively prosecuted for involvement in the Jan. 6 protest, and others targeted by the Biden administration. However, the fund is open to anyone who believes he was unfairly targeted by the government, and disbursement of monies will be decided on a case-by-case basis, according to Vice President J.D. Vance, who was asked about the fund earlier this week.
“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” Blanche said of the fund in a press release.
News Source
EXCERPT:
The sharper takes came from our own Rick Moran and HotAir columnist Ed Morrissey.
Every piece I’ve read, including Ed’s (which I’ll bounce off of here), circles the same two facts: The report remains unfinished, and Democrats seem about as eager to release it as a teenager is to hand over a phone during a police stop. Neither point is at all mysterious. They couldn’t bend the obvious conclusions into political cover, much less a political advantage, so now the report sits in bureaucratic purgatory while party operatives pray the news cycle develops ADHD and forgets the thing exists. Sadly and to a large part, it has, for the “reporters'” own politically motivated reasons.
Perhaps this is because they know the voting public, including members of their own party, have already come to their own less-than-complimentary conclusions.
As Ed says:
People can directly access the 192-page report, but it’s not easy to parse, thanks to the lack of effort in finishing the product. It’s unfinished in another sense, too: there is apparently no mention of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline or the effort to cover it up in the autopsy. The words “cognitive,” “dementia,” “senile,” and “mental” make no appearance in this document. The June 2024 debate barely gets a mention at all, and the report completely ignores its impact and what it revealed about Democrats’ attempts to sell a sick old man as “Sharp As A Tack”.
Ed quotes the report itself further to make his point:
Before the candidate switch, the pollsters never reviewed ad copy or content – and commented how they did not see ads until after they were airing, in some instances reading about the ads in the media. They also reported they had little insight into the data provided to leadership from the analytics team.
As the June 2024 debate neared, there were discussions about polling around the debate and after the convention. The polling team was informed the plan was for them to poll three times during the general election, and the post-convention polling would count as one of those three polling waves. They attributed this minimalist approach to research to members of the media team not believing polling data was essential to decision making.
The debate obviously changed many things. The dial-testing during the debate demonstrated the weakness of the President’s performance, and a post-debate survey was scrapped.