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President Joe Biden cited his hectic schedule when he was asked Saturday why he had not yet visited East Palestine, Ohio , months after the town was devastated by a train derailment that polluted the environment and contaminated water. The president's press conference in Live Oak, Florida , came in the wake of Hurricane Idalia, which caused up to $20 billion worth of damage in the Southeastern U.S., according to FOX Weather. Biden was speaking about the federal government's efforts to provide assistance to impacted Floridians, when he was asked about the small Ohio town. "Well, I haven't had the occasion to go to East Palestine," Biden began. "There's a lot going on here, and I just haven't been able to break." " I was thinking whether I'd go to East Palestine this week, but I was reminded I've got to go literally around the world," the president continued. "I'm going from Washington to India to Vietnam." CCP...

The Biden administration , while taking heat from the right over what conservatives claim are "open-border" policies that mark a significant change from the Trump era, is also receiving loud criticism from left-wing politicians and activist groups. Left-leaning figures say the administration has not done enough to make what they see as progress. That criticism was on display this week when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., took aim at the administration over its handling of immigration. "Immigration is arguably this administration’s weakest issue. This is one area where our policy is dictated by politics, arguably more so than almost any other," Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with The New York Times. "There are very clear recommendations and suggestions that we have made to the administration to provide relief on this issue, and it’s my belief that some of the hesitation around this has to do with a fear around just being seen as approving or provid...

White House officials said Saturday they were caught flat-footed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' decision not to meet with President Biden when Biden visits the state later today. Biden had said earlier he would meet with the governor as he tours areas of Florida damaged by Hurricane Idalia, but the DeSantis team contradicted the president.  "In these rural communities, and so soon after impact, the security preparations alone that would go into setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts," said DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern. At a gaggle on Air Force One, reporters asked Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Deanne Criswell and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre what happened, since the White House had said there was an agreed location for the president's visit and that security preparations weren't an issue. DESANTIS WILL NOT MEET BIDEN ON PRESIDENT'S POST-IDALIA TRIP "There was just no indication that h...

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg : A look at AI chatbots from Baidu, ByteDance, and other Chinese companies, rolled out publicly after China's approval, and how they deal with sensitive content   —  China has approved the first batch of AI chatbots for public rollout, and I tested them out.  But first...  Test time

The Biden administration has repeatedly pointed to a decrease in crossings at the southern border in May and June as a key indicator that its latest post-Title 42 border policies are working – but now that narrative is being undercut as the numbers are surging back up. The Washington Post reported this week that initial Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows 177,000 arrests by Border Patrol between ports of entry in August, up from 132,652 in July and 99,539 in June. Family units were the biggest single demographic group. With encounters at ports of entry at around 50,000, according to the Post, it would mean overall encounter numbers of around 230,000, up from 183,000 in July and around 144,000 in June. It would also be above the 204,000 encountered in August last year. DHS WARNS MEXICO MAY STOP TAKING BACK SOME ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IF KEY POLICY BLOCKED, TRIGGERING NEW ‘SURGE’ At the end of the Title 42 public health order on May 11, numbers started going down as the Bid...

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is supporting a school district in its fight to maintain separate bathrooms based on a student's biological sex, he told Fox News Digital on Friday. Metropolitan School District of Martinsville filed an appeal of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decision Aug. 24 to reverse its action and instead "preserve the autonomy of school boards to make decisions." A lower court's previous ruling determined that Martinsville and the Vigo County School Corporation must allow students to use school facilities like bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity after students filed lawsuits in 2021. "This is about dividing children from their parents," Rokita told Fox News Digital. "It's a lot more than just bathrooms and locker rooms." ACLU SUES INDIANA OVER DENIAL OF SEX REASSIGNMENT SURGERY FOR INMATE WHO STRANGLED 11-MONTH-OLD TO DEATH The lawsuits allege that students were dia...

California's top state regulator that oversees utilities approved a plan to expand a controversial fossil fuel facility that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has vowed to shut down. The five-member California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted unanimously late Thursday to increase inventory capacity at the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility in Los Angeles County, the agency announced.  Under the new rules, the facility, managed by Southern California Gas Company, would increase capacity 67% to the state safety limit of 68.6 billion cubic feet. While CPUC members and state officials reaffirmed their commitment to a broader green energy transition and to eventually shutter the facility, they explained Thursday's decision was made "as a financial hedge against potential high winter market prices." CALIFORNIA RELYING ON FOSSIL FUELS FOR CRITICAL POWER AMID RECORD HEAT WAVE: 'WE NEED NATURAL GAS' The move could also save consumers in southern Califo...

Robert Stewart / NOLA.com : Filing: Globalstar signed a $64M deal with SpaceX to launch satellites for Apple's Emergency SOS iPhone feature in 2025   —  Globalstar has enlisted Elon Musk's SpaceX to launch a host of satellites it will use to provide a communications network for an emergency Apple iPhone feature …

FIRST ON FOX: A group of House Republicans is demanding that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas keep Congress informed as the government works to track down undocumented migrants from Uzbekistan, a country in central Asia, who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border via an international trafficking network . The National Security Council (NSC) confirmed to Fox News on Tuesday that U.S. officials have been made aware of "a human smuggling network working to facilitate the travel of Uzbek nationals to the United States." NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson also said that one overseas member of the network was linked to "a foreign terrorist organization." "We write to you today regarding the deeply distressing news that a large number of Uzbek nationals crossed our southern border with assistance from a human smuggler with connections to ISIS and were released by the Biden Administration into the American homeland," said a Friday letter led by Rep. Jo...

Bloomberg : Sources: cloud data management startup Rubrik, valued at ~$4B in 2021, is planning an IPO in 2023, raising $500M to $700M; PitchBook: Rubrik has raised $1B+   —  - Offering could raise between $500 million and $700 million  — The company held a meeting with research analysts this week

A federal judge has struck down a Texas law requiring age verification and health warnings to view pornographic websites and blocked the state attorney general's office from enforcing it. In a ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge David Ezra agreed with claims that House Bill 1181, which was signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in June, violates free speech rights and is overbroad and vague. The state attorney general's office, which is defending the law, immediately filed notice of appeal to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans. PORN INDUSTRY BACKERS SUE UTAH OVER AGE VERIFICATION LAW The lawsuit was filed Aug. 4 by the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry and a person identified as Jane Doe and described as an adult entertainer on various adult sites, including Pornhub. Judge Ezra also said the law, which was to take effect Friday, raises privacy concerns because a permissible age verification is using a t...

The Department of Homeland Security says it will launch a "national campaign" to help work-eligible migrants get employment authorization, just as Democratic politicians are pushing for the administration to expand work permits to migrants. DHS had sent a team of experts to assess the migrant operations in New York City, where officials have declared services to be overwhelmed by the approximately 100,000 migrants who have come to the "sanctuary" city since last year. The DHS team recommended improvements to migrant processes and additional locations where migrants could be housed. The agency confirmed to Fox that is now launching a "first-of-its-kind national campaign for noncitizens who are work-eligible but have not yet applied for employment authorization." DHS CALLS FOR IMPROVEMENTS TO NYC'S MIGRANT CRISIS OPERATIONS AS ADAMS PUSHES BACK  "DHS looks forward to continuing these efforts with state and local officials, in coordination with...

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica : University of Zürich and Intel researchers show autonomous drones that use deep reinforcement learning to beat human champions in first-person view drone racing   —  University creates the first autonomous system capable of beating humans at drone racing.

The Georgia church that sends Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., a sizable monthly housing allowance has resumed evicting renters from its low-income housing units after a brief pause during Warnock's recent election effort. Ebenezer Baptist Church has moved to evict six residents of an apartment building for falling behind on rent since December, according to the Washington Free Beacon. The evictions come despite the building receiving more than $15 million in federal assistance for housing the homeless. Four residents of Columbia MLK Tower have been taken to court for missing less than two months of rent this year, the outlet reported. Warnock denied reports last year that his church was evicting residents, despite records establishing the events. Warnock's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. SELF-PROCLAIMED ‘PRO-CHOICE PASTOR’ DEMOCRAT SEN WARNOCK WON'T SAY IF HE SUPPORTS ANY LIMITS ON ABORTION Warnock was outspoken during h...

Mark Wilding / The Verge : Investigation: IBM signed a £54.7M deal to develop a UK biometrics platform, including for facial recognition, in July, despite a 2020 pledge to quit such work   —  IBM has returned to the facial recognition market — just three years after announcing it was abandoning work on the technology due …

New York City voters explained why they are supporting Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. , over President Biden. Fox News Digital caught up with voters attending Kennedy's Brooklyn town hall on Wednesday where the Democratic presidential candidate spoke on several issues. One voter, Rayyan Ahmed, said he is supporting Kennedy because he believes the Democratic challenger is "going to unify the nation." "I really feel that, right now, what our nation lacks is unity," Ahmed said. "I feel like Kennedy, what he's going to do is he's going to unify the nation." RFK JR. ONCE AGAIN CHALLENGES BIDEN: IF HE'S IN ‘GOOD SHAPE' HE SHOULD DEBATE ME "Some of his ideas are of traditional fiscal conservative people, and some are Democratic ideas, but it's the good of both," he continued. "The good of the Republican Party and the good of the Democrat Party." "And that's what we need," ...

Jon Gambrell / Associated Press : A Saudi court sentences a man to death over his X posts and YouTube activity, part of a growing dissent crackdown; his brother is a well-known government critic   —  A Saudi court has sentenced a man to death over his posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, and his activity on YouTube …

The only person who spent time behind bars as a result of the sweeping indictment related to efforts to overturn then-President Donald Trump 's 2020 election loss in Georgia was released from jail Wednesday after he was granted bond a day earlier. A lawyer for Harrison William Prescott Floyd on Tuesday negotiated a $100,000 bond with the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Floyd was charged along with Trump and 17 others in an indictment that accuses them all of illegally conspiring to subvert the will of Georgia voters who had chosen Democrat Joe Biden over the Republican incumbent in the presidential election. TRUMP SAYS TAKING MUGSHOT WAS 'NOT A COMFORTABLE FEELING, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU'VE DONE NOTHING WRONG' Lawyers for Trump and the other defendants had all negotiated bonds before their clients surrendered at the Fulton County Jail by the deadline last Friday. Floyd had turned himself in Thursday without first having a bond and, therefore, ha...

Emma Roth / The Verge : Sony plans to raise PlayStation Plus' annual subscription prices in September: Essential from $60 to $80, Extra from $100 to $135, and Premium from $120 to $160   —  Sony is raising the price of its PlayStation Plus subscription next month.  The service's annual Essential plan will go from $60 to $80 …

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and his daughter have reportedly been pitching to donors a $100 million centrist project targeting the "political homeless." The senator's daughter, Heather Manchin, the former chief executive of EpiPen-maker Mylan, revealed to The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Wednesday how she registered the politically active nonprofit organization called Americans Together in late July and is planning to hire staff in the coming weeks. The venture comes as it remains to be seen whether her father will run for re-election in the Senate in 2024 or launch a presidential campaign as an independent. "What we both very much agree on is the system is very broken and actually in deep trouble," 54-year-old Heather Manchin, who in rising to CEO at Mylan in 2012 became the first woman to run a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, told the Journal. "We have been thinking about what can be done to bring people together." NEW AD FR...

The White House on Tuesday appeared to formally acknowledge that the government believes Wagner group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was assassinated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.   "It seems pretty evident what happened here," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday, referring to President Biden's earlier remarks on Prigozhin's death.  "There's not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind," Biden said last week after Prigozhin was reported killed in a private plane crash.  The warlord, who led a short-lived rebellion against Russia's military, died along with several members of the Wagner Group's top brass. Prigozhin's second in command, Dmitry Utkin, and Wagner's non-military logistics chief, Valery Chekalov, were also aboard.  NOTORIOUS RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE CHIEF TAPPED TO PREPLACE PRIGOZHIN IN WAGNER'S AFRICA OPERATIONS Putin forced Wagner mercenaries to withdraw operations in Ukr...

Rebecca Klar / The Hill : Meta rejects the Oversight Board's recommendation to suspend former Cambodian PM Hun Sen's account, determining it wouldn't “be consistent with our policies”   —  Meta, the parent company of Facebook, rejected a recommendation from its Oversight Board to suspend the account …

GOT THAT MUG: Former President Trump said Georgia officials "insisted" he have a mugshot taken Thursday night during processing at the Fulton County Jail… Read more: Trump says taking mugshot was 'not a comfortable feeling, especially when you've done nothing wrong' ‘HANDSOME GUY’: President Biden reacted to Trump's mugshot — which he saw on TV — speaking to reporters from the resort town of Lake Tahoe… Read more: Biden calls Trump a 'handsome guy' after he saw former president's mugshot on TV WINDFALL: Trump's campaign raked in millions after his mugshot was taken, while the Biden campaign also asked for donations the day of the former president's arrest… Read more: Trump campaign raises $7.1 million in fundraising since mugshot was taken Thursday, Fox News confirms CATCH UP: With the Georgia charges, Trump faces four separate criminal trials… Read more: With the charges in Georgia, Trump now faces four criminal indictments BLA...

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch : Yahoo Mail gets Shopping Saver, a tool to find gift cards, discount codes, and more in inboxes and draft messages to vendors to apply them to previous purchases   —  Yahoo is introducing new AI tools for Yahoo Mail that are aimed at helping users save time and money, the company announced on Monday.

EXCLUSIVE: An large, influential bloc of House Republicans is urging Speaker Kevin McCarthy to muscle in key conservative priorities in any short-term spending deal made to avoid a government shutdown.  The 175-member-strong Republican Study Committee (RSC), led by Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., sent an internal memo to lawmakers on Monday calling on them to oppose a "clean" spending patch, known as a continuing resolution (CR), that would extend the last year’s fiscal priorities.  "A ‘clean’ CR would simply serve as a continuation of the [fiscal year] 2023 omnibus ‘monstrosity’ by extending Pelosi’s bloated spending levels and Biden’s failed policies," the memo, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, said. "Thus, as part of an effort to expeditiously establish a conservative House position on a CR, members must decide what funding level, attached policy reforms, and length justify passage of temporary funding." RONNY JACKSON WARNS MCCARTHY LOSING SPEAK...

White House officials suggested Monday that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' education bills may contribute to the type of racial violence seen in Jacksonville this week. White House Director of the Office of Public Engagement Stephen Benjamin made the statement during a press briefing on Monday. Benjamin addressed the recent "racially motivated" shooting in Jacksonville, and a reporter pressed him about whether Florida's reforms on the teaching of African American history contributed to the violence. "Does the White House see any connection with the changes that the Florida governor has made in teaching about African American history to the kind of violence that we saw in Jacksonville?" the reporter asked. Benjamin responded by highlighting President Biden's recent effort to set up a new national monument honoring Emmett Till and his mother, adding that acknowledging America's painful history is "edifying." JACKSONVILLE SHERIFF RELEASES IMA...

Leo Schwartz / Fortune : The US SEC charges Impact Theory, which sold NFTs, with offering unregistered securities, in a first; the LA-based entertainment firm agreed to pay a $6.1M fine   —  Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission  —  In an enforcement action announced on Monday …