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Caiwei Chen / Rest of World : Similarweb: by May-end, daily downloads for ByteDance's social media app Lemon8 fell to 6.7% of its March peak; the app hit the US App Store's top 10 in March   —  Users complain the ByteDance app feels inorganic and curated, prioritizing the needs of influencers over ordinary people.

Riho Nagao / Nikkei Asia : Japan adds advanced chipmaking equipment to its export control list, a move that aligns the country with US curbs meant to keep chip tech out of China's hands   —  Tokyo aligns with Washington to keep most advanced technology out of China's hands  —  Japan now requires export licenses for semiconductor-manufacturing equipment.

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal : A look at solid-state speakers etched from silicon and their potential applications, like helping people with hearing loss and making AR/VR objects feel real   —  Speakers the size of an asterisk have the potential to change the way we reproduce sound, cope with hearing loss—and even make objects in virtual reality feel real

House Republicans on the House Oversight and Homeland Security Committees are investigating whistleblower claims that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) may have retaliated against a top Border Patrol official after testifying to the two committees — a claim that the agency called "categorically false." "We write with deep concern that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials may have retaliated against a witness in a Congressional investigation," Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., said in a letter to acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller. The lawmakers say they have received an allegation regarding El Centro Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino. The whistleblower claims that after Bovino concluded a transcribed interview with the committees July 12, he was "relieved of his command over the El Centro Sector and reassigned to a vague, indefinite, and temporary headquarters as...

Former President Donald Trump on Friday vowed to pursue the death penalty for human traffickers and to revive a now-defunct immigration measure to combat child trafficking, if he's re-elected to the White House. "I will use Title 42 to end the child trafficking crisis by returning all trafficked children to their families in their home countries, without delay," Trump said in a new campaign video posted on social media. "And I will urge Congress to ensure that anyone caught trafficking children across our border receives the death penalty immediately." The Title 42 public health order was implemented by the Trump administration, allowing border officials to expel migrants without granting them an asylum hearing in order to limit the spread of COVID-19. Biden rescinded the policy earlier this year. 'SOUND OF FREEDOM' ACTOR JIM CAVIEZEL CALLS OUT MEDIA ATTACKS ON HIT FILM: THEY ARE 'QUAKING IN THEIR BOOTS Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 Republ...

Katherine Alejandra Cross / Wired : Reddit and Bluesky are contrasting examples on how not to moderate, one centralizing in the worst way possible and the other decentralizing catastrophically   —  Moderating a site isn't easy—just ask Elon.  But Bluesky and Reddit are contrasting examples of how not to do it.

A bloody machete fight in a Boston suburb led to the arrest of three illegal immigrants , who are now in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, the agency said this week. Officers from the Waltham Police Dept. responded on July 14 to a report of a fight involving a machete. The Department said officers discovered a victim with a deep head laceration from the weapon, who was transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. It said one person was hit with the weapon and two others were assaulted trying to stop the attack. Two men were arrested that evening and another was arrested two days later. Police said the assault was a result of a neighbor dispute over a "motor vehicle incident." The incident was first reported by the Boston Herald. SUPREME COURT HANDS BIDEN ADMIN MAJOR WIN ON CHALLENGE TO ICE ENFORCEMENT POLICY Police arrested Osman Aguilar-Borrayo for armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery on a pregnant woman, ass...

Julie Coleman / CNBC : Digital World Acquisition Corp., which is seeking to take Truth Social public via a SPAC merger, settles fraud charges with the US SEC for $18M; DWAC is up 50%+   —  - Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp. soared more than 50% on Friday after the company reached an $18 million dollar fraud settlement with the SEC.

President Biden said Friday that his White House would continue to put out executive actions aimed at regulating and guiding the use of artificial intelligence but also said those actions won’t end the need for Congress to pass AI legislation. "These commitments are a promising step, but we have a lot more work to do together," Biden said at the White House as he announced that seven AI development companies would work within a voluntary set of guidelines aimed at creating safe, secure and trustworthy AI systems. "Realizing the promise of AI by managing the risks is going to require new laws, regulations and oversight," Biden added. " In the weeks ahead , I’m going to continue to take executive action and help America lead the way to responsible innovation." WHITE HOUSE GETS SEVEN AI DEVELOPERS TO AGREE TO SAFETY, SECURITY, TRUST GUIDELINES "And we’re going to work with both parties to develop appropriate legislation and regulation," he said...

A new Senate push to add billions of dollars in new spending next year is setting up a battle later this year in Congress that could result in a partial government shutdown if it can't be resolved by September 30. The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee struck a deal on Thursday to add $13.7 billion in additional "emergency" funding for defense and non-defense discretionary spending. A Senate aide told Fox News Digital, "It is a very routine thing. They do that almost every year, if not every year. But that addition will put the Senate on a collision course with House Republicans, whose conservative flank has been pushing for spending cuts even below those set in the debt limit deal between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, and President Biden. The Senate's higher number was already angering Republicans in the House who worked for months to get the deal done, and don't want to see their promised cuts evaporate. "It...

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch : How Vietnam's 1Byte, the startup behind TheTruthSpy stalkerware, created fake sellers networks with forged US passports to evade detection and funnel payments   —  A network of fake sellers allowed a global phone surveillance ring to operate under the radar for years

Kristi Hines / Search Engine Journal : Twitter is letting some verified organizations post job listings directly on their profiles through a job listings feature   —  Twitter allows Verified Organizations to post jobs to Twitter profiles.  Take a look at the new features for hiring companies and job seekers.

Senator John Kennedy , R-La., called a new bill from Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats to install a Supreme Court code of ethics a "court-killing machine" that was both "dangerous" and "unserious."  In a committee meeting Thursday, the senators debated a proposal – Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act  –  that its Democrat sponsors argued would impose a code of conduct for justices on the court . Republicans argued that there are pre-existing ethics rules in places for the justices, governed by a separate body, which just recently updated its rules for disclosures.  After several hours of debating the bill and roughly 60 proposed amendments, the measure eventually cleared the committee in a party-line vote. But not before Senator Kennedy accused his Democratic colleagues of knowing the measure is "unserious" but wanting to "make a point."  "You don't have to be ‘Oliver Wendell Scalia’ to figure out ...

A town clerk in Michigan will be barred from running any elections after being charged earlier this week by the state attorney general for acting as a fake elector in 2020 for then-President Donald Trump . On Thursday, the Michigan Bureau of Elections notified Stan Grot, a Republican who has served as the Shelby Township clerk since 2012, that he will be prohibited from administering elections while the charges are pending. Grot was among the 16 Republicans charged earlier this week by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for allegedly signing certificates that falsely stated Trump won the state, not Biden. Each of the 16 people face the same eight criminal charges, including forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery. The most serious charges carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. MICHIGAN DEMOCRAT GETS 6 MONTHS HOUSE ARREST FOR BALLOT BOX SABOTAGE In a phone interview with the Associated Press, Grot declined to discuss the charges against him but pledged to adhere...

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch : An official Google bug report says the company fixed a zero-day that an Apple employee found during a hacking competition in March but did not report to Google   —  Google fixed a zero-day in Chrome that was found by an Apple employee, according to comments in the official bug report.

The House Oversight Committee says it has scheduled a hearing on UFOs for next week that will "explore firsthand accounts of unidentified anomalous phenomena" and "shed some light" on what the federal government thinks about them.  The hearing on Capitol Hill set for Wednesday, July 26, comes after David Charles Grusch, a decorated Air Force veteran and one of three people who will testify, claimed the existence of a secret government program he said has been recovering crashed UFOs and reverse engineering their technology. The Department of Defense has disputed his claim.  "We’re bringing in credible witnesses who can provide public testimony because the American people deserve the truth. We’re done with the cover-ups," Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said in a statement.  The hearing, "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency," will examine "firsthand accounts of unide...

Jillian Deutsch / Bloomberg : In an internal policy memo following a May White House meeting, OpenAI supports the idea of requiring government licenses for development of advanced AI systems   —  - OpenAI supports licenses to develop most advanced AI systems  — Firm signals it's willing to be more open about training data

Wayne Ma / The Information : Sources: Meta's timeline for releasing AR glasses has slipped to at least 2027, as setbacks caused dropping microLED display tech, lidar, a 3D projector, more   —  In March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to transform the world, the company then known as Facebook struck a deal to buy …

Former Rep. Joe Kennedy III condemned his uncle Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s claims that COVID-19 was possibly engineered to target certain ethnic groups — remarks widely criticized as racist and antisemitic.  "My uncle’s comments were hurtful and wrong," said Joe Kennedy, 42, an ex-Democratic representative from Massachusetts who now serves as U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland. "I unequivocally condemn what he said," he tweeted Monday. Kerry Kennedy, RFK Jr.'s sister, also condemned the remarks in a statement issued by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, her nonprofit activist organization.  "I strongly condemn my brother’s deplorable and untruthful remarks last week about Covid being engineered for ethnic targeting," Kerry Kennedy said. YOUTUBE CENSORS ANOTHER RFK JR. INTERVIEW; KENNEDY SAYS PLATFORM PROTECTING POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT "His statements do not represent what I believe or what Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights stand for, with o...

Bloomberg : Researchers say hate speech and misinfo are rising on Twitter; CEO Linda Yaccarino says that's not true and touts improvements, like more ad placement controls   —  Since Musk's takeover, a number of researchers see a rise in hate speech, violent content  —  Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition …

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador intensified his anti-Republican election meddling this week, as he again urged Hispanics in America not to vote for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott -- after the Republican governor deployed buoys to prevent people entering the U.S. illegally. "We don't have to do much, just tell our compatriots not to vote for the governor of Texas or for lawmakers of the Republican Party who support these measures," Lopez Obrador said in a press conference on Monday, according to Reuters. Abbott had announced the installation of a "marine barrier installation" earlier this month – consisting of orange buoys and is intended to discourage migrants from crossing the Rio Grande. ABBOTT MOVES AHEAD WITH FLOATING BORDER BARRIERS ON RIO GRANDE DESPITE LIBERAL OUTRAGE Texas officials have said that the latest plan will discourage people from attempting to cross the treacherous river. It is expected to take about two weeks to set up the buoys....

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby launched an impassioned defense of abortion funding for service members and their families on Monday, pounding the podium of the White House press briefing room as he called military access to abortion a "foundational, sacred obligation." The instance occurred when Kirby was asked by a reporter during the daily White House press briefing, what about the Pentagon's controversial policy for it to use taxpayer funds to reimburse the cost of travel and care related to abortions was "critical to military readiness." "Our policies, whether they're diversity, inclusion, and equity or whether they're about transgender individuals who qualify physically and mentally, deserve to be able to [serve] with dignity. Or whether it's about female service members – one in five – or female family members being able to count on the kinds of health care and reproductive care specifically that they need to serve,...

Richard Lawler / The Verge : A US appeals court stays for 90 days a ruling letting Apple App Store developers link to third-party payment options, so Apple can prepare a SCOTUS filing   —  On Monday, Apple was granted a motion putting a hold on the appeals court ruling that would push the company to undo its “anti-steering” …

In the Senate , one senator can hold up anything. And, in the Senate, a determined supermajority of senators can overcome a blockade erected by that sole senator on a nomination or a piece of legislation . It simply takes time. That aforementioned supermajority can thwart the tactics of the lone senator bottlenecking the parliamentary traffic. Eventually. Senators must file "cloture" and later "invoke" cloture. That’s the Senate term for overcoming a filibuster. And if senators can cobble together a coalition of 60 of their colleagues on legislation or just 51 for a nomination, the singular senator filibustering the issue at hand is blocking things on borrowed Senate time. THE LEFT IS ATTACKING ME BUT THEY ARE THE ONES JEOPARDIZING OUR MILITARY But what happens when a single senator holds up an entire slate of nominees? Or, in this case, the routine promotions of 250 military flag officers? These are the top military leaders in the country. That’s what unfolde...

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch : Wix debuts AI Site Generator, a tool that uses chat prompts to create entire websites including components for e-commerce, scheduling, event ticketing, and more   —  What does one expect from a website builder in 2023?  That's the question many startups — and incumbents …

Lydia Beyoud / Bloomberg : The US SEC plans to consider, as soon as this fall, conflict of interest rules for financial advisers and brokerages using AI to steer clients toward products   —  - SEC on lookout for fraud, conflicts of interest, chair says  — Gensler cautions companies touting AI in corporate docs

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson / Financial Times : An interview with LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky on designing tools to keep users coming back more often, pulling back from China, “the great reshuffle”, and more   —  Head of networking site says building a strong team and avoiding day-to-day minutiae are key to the job

Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., are suing liberal advocacy groups and two California cities that they allege violated their First Amendment rights through a coordinated cancellation of their rallies. The two lawmakers had scheduled America First rallies in Anaheim and Riverside in 2021, but both venues canceled the events after they faced pressure from activists and local government officials. The lawsuit, which was filed Thursday, alleges their First Amendment rights were violated after the cities coerced the private venues to cancel the rallies, including a threat to revoke one venue's permit. Gaetz and Taylor Greene filed the lawsuit along with their funding committees . They're seeking an injunction that would ban cities from "coercing private venues from entering into facilities use contracts with Plaintiffs for future political rallies." They also requested damages for emotional distress. HOUSE DEM JAYAPAL GRILLS FBI'S WRAY O...

FIRST ON FOX: A former Disney CEO and his wife recently donated more than $1.7 million to a joint fundraising committee authorized by President Biden's campaign, despite their deep ties to China. Biden’s campaign announced on April 25 that former Disney and DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg would serve as one of its national co-chairs. Two days later, on April 27, the Biden Victory Fund, the campaign’s joint fundraising vehicle, received a donation totaling $889,600 from Katzenberg’s wife, Marilyn, according to Federal Election Commission records . A day later, on April 28, the Biden Victory Fund received a $889,600 donation from Katzenberg himself. Katzenberg and his wife are also maxed-out donors to Biden's presidential campaign, donating $6,600 each in late April. Katzenberg has deep and longstanding ties to China's communist government, Fox News Digital previously reported , potentially presenting a problem for the president over the country’s human rig...

A member of the "Squad" of far-left House Democrats received backlash over the weekend on social media after she accused Israel of being a "racist state." The condemnation of Israel from Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, came in response to outbursts from pro-Palestinian protesters who interrupted a panel she spoke on.  "As somebody who’s been in the streets and participated in a lot of demonstrations, I want you to know that we have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state, that the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy, that the dream of a two-state solution is slipping away from us, that it does not even feel possible," Jayapal said at the far-left Netroots Nation Conference in Chicago.  "It is people that are literally trying to make sure that we do not take the positions we take, that the rest of the progressive caucus has been pushing and pushing," she ...

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica : Experts explain why there's no magic formula to always distinguish human-written and AI-written text, meaning AI writing detectors can only make a strong guess   —  Can AI writing detectors be trusted?  We dig into the theory behind them.  —  If you feed America's most important legal document …

Republican presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis rattled off a list of what he deemed to be broken 2016 campaign promises by former President Donald Trump , saying he’d rather attack the GOP front-runner on the issues than personality. "Substantively, we've been very frank about our differences with respect to the former president," the Florida governor said . "I mean, for example, he promised to drain the swamp – it got worse. He did not drain the swamp. "He promised to have Mexico pay for a border wall. They did like 50 miles of wall. There's massive expanses still there," he continued. "He said he was going to eliminate the national debt. They added almost $8 trillion to the debt in four years. "And of course, in 2020, he turned the country over to Dr. [Anthony] Fauci, and those lockdowns and the borrowing and printing really set us on a bad course," he added. "I've been very, very frank at that." TRUMP ATTACKS DES...

John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, said the Biden administration is working with the defense industry to increase the production of munitions as concerns grow that the nation’s weapon’s supply is dwindling. "We're working very closely with the defense industry to try to ramp up production, particularly for artillery shells," Kirby told Fox News’ Shannon Bream on "Fox News Sunday." "You saw that we gave some cluster munitions to Ukraine as a bridging solution here while we ramp up production. We're having very, very strong conversations with the defense industry and we believe that we'll be able to get there." Kirby was responding to a segment reporting that a Center for Strategic and International Studies report found replacing inventories for ammunitions such as 155 mm shells could take between four and seven years. Replacing Javelins could take up to eight years and Stingers up to as man...