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Michael Cohen, former President Trump’s onetime personal lawyer and the key witness against him in his New York state indictment, was denied early release from his probation following his three-year prison term Friday.  U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman in Manhattan said that Cohen has continued to lie in recent comments, citing comments he made in a book and on television in March when he said he hadn’t committed tax fraud, his charges were "all 100 percent inaccurate" and that he was "threatened" by prosecutors into pleading guilty. Cohen is a regular on cable news problems, often giving his opinion on Trump.  Cohen’s lawyer David M. Schwartz claimed he had "clearly demonstrated" his rehabilitation after being a "model prisoner" who had "substantially cooperated with all government authorities."  TRUMP SUES FORMER ATTORNEY MICHAEL COHEN FOR $500 MILLION In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to several charges, including tax evasion, ...

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget : Similarweb: Reddit had ~52M visitors on Tuesday, June 13, down from 57M the day before blackouts began; average session was 7.2 minutes, lowest in three years   —  The protest appears to have had a small but noticeable effect on the platform.  —  When more than 8,000 subreddits went dark …

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced this week that it had arrested a Mexican illegal immigrant who was convicted of sexual assault of a child, but was put on parole and later escaped monitoring. The unnamed Mexican national was convicted in Cook County, Illinois, in 2019 and sentenced to six years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. But in April, he was paroled on electronic monitoring. The terms of his parole meant that he had to register as a sex offender, live in a halfway house and be monitored by state parole officers. Less than two months later, he cut the electronic monitor off on May 30 and absconded. ‘OH S---T’ TEXAS TROOPERS MAKE SHOCKING DISCOVERING IN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT'S PICKUP TRUCK The escape led to a multi-day manhunt after the DOC noted his failure to return to the address. On June 2, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations officers from both the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force and Chicago’s Fugitive Operations Team arrested him as pa...

Wes Davis / The Verge : Google makes third-party app “smart chips”, from Atlassian, Figma, and others, available for Google Workspace users and those with personal Google accounts   —  You can now embed third-party app “smart chips” into your Google Doc after the company announced yesterday that the feature …

President Biden held his first major 2024 re-election campaign rally to a receptive Philadelphia audience on Saturday, boasting his administration's accomplishments and naming himself the most pro-labor president ever. The president picked Philadelphia and a friendly union-affiliated audience for the rally, made up of over 1,000 union workers chanting encouraging cries like "We want Joe!" and "Let's go, Joe!" Biden touted accomplishments such as the Build Back Better Act, claiming the bill cut insurance premiums and lowered the cost of prescription drugs. "I’m looking forward to this campaign," Biden said confidently. "We’ve got a record to run on." CORNEL WEST SAYS HE HATES BIDEN'S ‘HYPOCRISY’ AND ‘NEOLIBERALISM’ AS HE VOWS TO CAMPAIGN IN PRO-TRUMP AREAS According to rally organizers, the unions at the rally represented 18 million laborers across the U.S. Biden was endorsed by AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers and othe...

Andrew Throuvalas / Decrypt : Block announces an open beta program for Bitkey, its self-custodial Bitcoin wallet, with Coinbase and CashApp integrations   —  Bitkey will allow beta users to withdraw Bitcoin from Coinbase and Cashapp using “copy and paste.”  —  Jack Dorsey's payments company Block announced an open beta program …

A bipartisan bill introduced Thursday would provide overlooked female veterans with combat-related benefits after reevaluation of their service records for eligibility.  "For many years, women service members served valiantly alongside our military’s elite Special Operations Forces , risking their lives to help take out some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists while being denied official recognition for their combat duties," Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said.  "These women incurred the same hardships as their male counterparts, but tragically, they did not receive the same care from our VA or the recognition they deserve once they came home," Sullivan said. "This is wrong and must be fixed." "I thank Senator Rosen for authoring this bill to fulfill our duty to these courageous American women and I thank our female service members who’ve fought and risked their lives for our country," he added.  LOUISIANA ARMY BASE NAMED AFTER CONFEDERAT...

The Iowa Supreme Court was heavily criticized for their "lack of action" in ruling against reinstating a six-week abortion ban in the state. In 2018, Gov. Kim Reynolds, R-Iowa, signed a law banning abortion in the state at the moment cardiac activity can be detected, which usually falls around the sixth week of pregnancy, but the ruling was blocked by state lawmakers shortly thereafter in 2019. After the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Reynolds sought to overturn the 2019 lower court decision and reinstate a six-week abortion ban, but her efforts were again hampered by a state judge. Reynolds appealed to the Iowa supreme court on the decision, who voted in a rare 3-3 split ruling against the ban Friday. "To say that today's lack of action by the lowa Supreme Court is a disappointment is an understatement," Reynolds wrote in a statement Friday. "Not only does it disregard low voters who elected representatives willing to stand up for the rights...

Alex Heath / The Verge : Meta to lower the minimum age for Quest headsets from 13 to 10, with profile and avatars of under-13's set to private by default; Horizon Worlds will remain 13+   —  Government scrutiny of how tech companies handle their underage users is continuing to heat up.

Sean Lyngaas / CNN : Oregon and Louisiana warn that the MOVEit hackers may have stolen the SSNs and driver's license numbers of 3.5M Oregonians and 3M+ Louisianians from state DMVs   —  Millions of people in Louisiana and Oregon have had their data compromised in the sprawling cyberattack that has also hit …

The Justice and Public Safety PAC, a group heavily funded by billionaire donor of liberal candidates George Soros, is pouring more money into the protection of far left prosecutors up for re-election in Virginia , campaign filings reviewed by Fox News Digital reveal.  As of June 8, the PAC invested $350,000 into two Virginia prosecutors, who Soros helped get elected four years ago, as they risk losing their seats to Democratic challengers at an upcoming primary scheduled for June 20. Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti from Arlington County received $31,425.20 to date from the Justice and Public Safety PAC to date, according to campaign filings released Monday. Dehghani-Tafti also received $295,000 from Soros' Democracy PAC II. GEORGE SOROS CIRCLES BACK TO VIRGINIA TO AID FAR-LEFT PROSECUTORS FACING DEM CHALLENGERS, FILINGS SHOW Fairfax County Attorney Steve Descano was also gifted a total of $26,500 total to date from the Soros funded group. GEORGE SOROS HAS SPENT TENS OF BILLIO...

Police in Corvallis, Oregon , announced a 22-year-old man was arrested and placed in custody Tuesday for writing "Jesus loves you" on public and private property. The police department announced in a Facebook post Wednesday that Jack Gunderson turned himself in for a series of "graffiti incidents" that included the message "Jesus loves you" at various buildings in May.  Gunderson was identified through an anonymous tip and cooperated with authorities, who charged him with criminal mischief. "Mr. Gunderson was identified through an anonymous tip enabling officers to make contact with him and further investigate the case and his involvement," the Corvallis Police Department said in a social media post. "Mr. Gunderson was arrested and taken to jail where he was charged with Criminal Mischief 1 ." PHILADELPHIA WOMAN'S UBER RIDE TAKES DRAMATIC TURN AFTER DRIVER IS SHOT IN THE HEAD, CRASHES INTO POLE: POLICE Police said in May ther...

Jules Roscoe / VICE : Invidious, an open-source “alternative front-end” for YouTube that removes tracking, says YouTube sent a cease-and-desist letter over API violations   —  Invidious lets users browse YouTube without being tracked.  Its developers say they won't make changes until they have to.

The House on Wednesday passed legislation to block the Department of Energy from implementing tough new energy conservation rules on gas stoves , an effort that was supported by more than two dozen Democrats. Lawmakers passed the Save Our Gas Stoves Act in a 249-181 vote. Every Republican voted for it, and they were joined by 29 Democrats, a sign that many members of President Biden’s own party don’t support what his Energy Department is doing. The vote is a response to a department rule issued this year that seeks to boost energy efficiency standards for gas stoves. The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., argued that the department initially determined that 96% of gas stoves currently on the market would not meet the new standard, and that the department introduced new data later in an effort to make the standard look less severe. BIDEN OFFICIALS EXPLORED CRACKING DOWN ON GAS STOVES EARLIER THAN PREVIOUSLY KNOWN, EMAILS SHOW "What did DOE do after the public hea...

Republican support for former President Trump , who was arraigned in a Florida federal court Tuesday, remains steady, according to a new poll. A Quinnipiac University poll Wednesday showed Trump's favorability rating at 37% among registered voters, largely unchanged from the group's previous polls. The poll was conducted June 8-12, while Trump's charges and scheduled court hearing dominated the news. The indictment against Trump was unsealed June 9. Trump pleaded not guilty to federal criminal charges that he illegally retained national security records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, following the end of his term in office, and that he obstructed federal efforts to recover the documents. In total, Trump faces 37 felony charges. "A federal indictment. A court date on a litany of charges. A blizzard of critical media coverage. The negative impact on the former president's standing with voters? Not much at all," said Quinnipiac University po...

Transgender student-athletes in Ohio would be banned from participating in girls' and women's sports and minors would be prohibited from receiving sexual reassignment procedures under a multifaceted proposal that cleared a state House panel Wednesday. The measure folds together two contentious bills in the Republican-dominated House that could drastically change the way LGBTQ+ youth live in the state. The proposal would require K-12 schools as well as universities to designate "separate teams" for male and female sexes, but explicitly ban transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports while leaving the door open for transgender athletes to play on male or co-ed teams. NEWLY AMENDED CALIFORNIA BILL COULD PUNISH PARENTS REFUSING TO ‘AFFIRM’ CHILD’S GENDER IDENTITY Supporters say the sports ban is about fairness in competition and maintaining the "integrity of women’s sports," while opponents say the bill is cruel to children who just want to play ...

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google : Samsung says a Galaxy Watch update will include irregular heart rhythm notifications in 13 markets, including the US and South Korea, starting this summer   —  In a new announcement this week, Samsung has officially confirmed that it has a new smartwatch coming later this year …

A city near Detroit, Michigan , decides against allowing Pride flags on public property after a bizarre and contentious municipal meeting. The Hamtramck City Council voted Tuesday to ban Pride flags from public flag poles due to opposition from religious groups who disagree with the ideology represented by the symbol. "We want to respect the religious rights of our citizens," said Councilmember Nayeem Choudhury, Fox 2 Detroit reports. WHITE HOUSE ACCUSED OF US FLAG CODE VIOLATION OVER PRIDE MONTH DISPLAY The entirety of the Hamtramck City Council is Muslim, and approximately 40% of residents were born in foreign countries. The meeting took a strange turn when a woman in a clown nose took the podium to mock the Pride flag debate . "Sure, many Hamtramck residents have fled countries where being gay is a death sentence, but nothing says we have to make it 'comforting' and 'welcoming' here," the woman said in a sarcastic speech.  STUDENTS AT MASS...

Gavin Bonshor / AnandTech : Razer updates its Blade 14 laptop with AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS, Nvidia's RTX 4060 or RTX 4070, up to 32GB of RAM, and 14" QHD+ 240Hz display, starting at $2,400   —  Despite running late and experiencing shipping delays, AMD's latest Zen 4 mobile chips with RDNA 3 graphics and Ryzen AI …

Hassan Mujtaba / Wccftech : AMD unveils its EPYC Bergamo CPUs, offering up to 128 Zen 4C cores for cloud-native servers and data center platforms   —  AMD's EPYC Bergamo CPUs break official ground today, offering up to 128 Zen 4C cores to cloud and data center servers.  The Bergamo chips are designed to offer higher density in an efficient chip package.

Jay Peters / The Verge : Over 300 subreddits, including r/aww, r/music, and r/videos, plan to extend their protests indefinitely; 8,400+ have now gone private or into a restricted mode   —  / ‘More is needed for Reddit to act.’  —  Moderators of many Reddit communities are pledging to keep their subreddits private or restricted indefinitely.

Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE : Meta details I-JEPA, an AI model that more accurately creates imagery by using background info about the world, avoiding errors like hands with extra fingers   —  Artificial intelligence researchers from Meta Platforms Inc. say they're making progress on the vision of its Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun …

Trans activist Rose Montoya doubled down Monday on her decision to go topless at President Biden's Pride Month event at the White House. Montoya, a biological male who is transgender, defended the display of nudity, saying the laws in Washington, D.C., allow for going topless. The TikTok influencer expressed support for "freeing the nipple" and argued critics were only acknowledging that "trans women are women." "I fully support the movement and freeing the nipple," Montoya said. "My trans masculine friends were showing off their top surgery scars and living in joy, and I wanted to join them. And because it is perfectly within the law of Washington, D.C., I decided to join them and cover my nipples just to play it safe. "I had zero intention of trying to be vulgar or be profane in any way. I was simply living my joy and my truth and existing in my body." US EMBASSY TO HOLY SEE FLIES PRIDE FLAG IN ROME While Montoya is correct that ...

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Matt Gaetz, R- Fla., sent a letter Tuesday to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding information on the office of special counsel Jack Smith, revealing that one of the prosecutors on his team investigating Trump for his alleged mishandling of classified documents previously contributed to President Biden's 2020 campaign and faced misconduct allegations in 2009. Trump is in Miami where he is scheduled to appear at 3PM ET before a federal court after being indicted on 37 counts stemming from Smith’s investigation, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements. Gaetz is demanding that the names of all the people working on the case in Smith’s office be made public. The congressman claimed in his letter that Smith’s past work "is both highly irregular and of extraordinary public concern," specifically "how his office is structured," and is giving Garland until July 7 ...

The Verge : Q&A with Apollo developer Christian Selig on Reddit's API pricing changes, the company doubling down after criticism, why he won't charge users more, and more   —  'Reddit has plugged its ears and refuses to listen to anybody but themselves.  And I think there's some very minor concessions …

FIRST ON FOX : Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst is introducing a bill on Tuesday that would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from arming its agents with taxpayer money. The bill, known as the "Why Does the IRS Have Guns Act," would prohibit the IRS from buying, receiving or storing guns and ammo. All guns and ammo currently in their possession would be transferred to the General Services Administration to be auctioned off to federal firearms license owners to support federal deficit reduction. Additionally, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division within the Justice Department would be relocated. "The taxman is fully loaded at the expense of the taxpayer," Ernst said in a press release Tuesday. IRS WHISTLEBLOWERS CLAIM RETALIATION IN CONNECTION TO HUNTER BIDEN COMPLAINT "As the Biden administration has worked to expand the size of the IRS, any further weaponization of this federal agency against hardworking Americans and small businesses is a grave conc...

Simon Parkin / The Guardian : An interview with Philip Rosedale, who launched the online world Second Life in 2003 and says his vision predates Neal Stephenson's 1992 coinage of “metaverse”   —  Mark Zuckerberg's grand vision for an online existence has been laughed off as a corporate folly.

Noah Smith / Noahpinion : Trying to shape AI tech to protect jobs is a bad idea since no one can predict which technologies will augment humans and which will simply replace their labor   —  Instead, we should empower workers and create mechanisms for redistribution.  —  I've been to a number of meetings and panels recently …

Matthias Bastian / THE DECODER : Meta launches MusicGen, an open-source AI model that can generate short pieces of music using text prompts that can optionally be aligned to an existing melody   —  Meta's MusicGen can generate short new pieces of music based on text prompts, which can optionally be aligned to an existing melody.

Dan Primack / Axios : a16z to open a crypto-focused London office and is leading a $44M investment in UK-based Gensyn, which offers a decentralized compute network for training AI   —  America's largest investor in crypto startups believes that the industry's future may be across the pond, and is opening …

Tom Warren / The Verge : Microsoft will bring select games on PC Game Pass to Nvidia's GeForce Now in the coming months, letting subs stream games with RTX 4080 levels of performance   —  Microsoft is planning to bring PC Game Pass titles to Nvidia's GeForce Now streaming service.  Sarah Bond, head of Xbox creator experience …

Sarah Kessler / New York Times : Researchers of tech change and employment disagree on how many jobs AI will affect; one tricky factor is primarily tasks, not occupations, are being automated   —  The tally of how many jobs will be “affected by” world-changing technology is different depending on who you ask.