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EcoHealth Alliance – the disgraced research firm accused of using taxpayer funds to conduct gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab before the COVID-19 pandemic began – received nearly $100 million from the federal government over the past decade and a half. From FY 2008 to FY 2024, the U.S. government provided EcoHealth Alliance an estimated $94.3 million in taxpayer funds through contracts, grants, direct payments, loans and other financial assistance, according to a Fox News Digital review of government spending data provided by USAspending.gov. Fox News Digital reported last year that millions of dollars in federal research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) were awarded to the nonprofit to study bat coronaviruses in China. The Department of Health and Human Services inspector general released a 64-page report in January 2023 that found NIH did not adequately follow its policies and procedures with respect to three grants to EcoHealth Alliance between 2014...

Viola Zhou / Rest of World : How Threads became a gathering space for young progressives in Taiwan, who now use the app to organize protests against pro-China opposition parties   —  Despite Meta's promise to crack down on political content in the app, Taiwanese activists are using it to organize.

President Biden repeated a claim about turning down an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, where he purportedly wanted to play football, during his commencement address at West Point on Saturday. Biden told West Point graduates that Republican Sen. J. Caleb Boggs, whom he defeated to become a U.S. senator, had "appointed" him to the Naval Academy years before they ran against each other in 1972. The president recounted that before his interview, "I found out two days earlier they had a quarterback named Roger Staubach, and a halfback named Joe Bellino. And I said, I'm not going there. I went to Delaware. Not a joke."  It's the same story Biden told Naval Academy graduates in 2022, when he claimed he was accepted to the military institution in 1965 but declined to attend. In Saturday's telling of the story, however, Biden did not offer a date. 2024 WILD CARD: COULD TRUMP CRIMINAL TRIAL ROCK WHITE HOUSE RACE? Staubach, a Heisman Trophy winner and...

Justice Clarence Thomas , in the court's latest decision upholding a GOP-drawn redistricting map in South Carolina, took aim at a key, decades-old civil rights decision, calling it an "extravagant [use] of judicial power."  On Thursday, the Supreme Court sided with the Republican-led South Carolina legislature after it was challenged for alleged racial gerrymandering in drawing new redistricting maps.  In a 6-3 decision , written by Justice Samuel Alito, the high court said that "a party challenging a map’s constitutionality must disentangle race and politics if it wishes to prove that the legislature was motivated by race as opposed to partisanship. Second, in assessing a legislature’s work, we start with a presumption that the legislature acted in good faith." In a concurring opinion, Justice Thomas wrote that the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education – written by his predecessor, Justice Thurgood Marshall – introduced an "extravagant [use] of ...

Mayank Parmar / BleepingComputer : Microsoft's Bing, Copilot, and Copilot in Windows services are back online worldwide after an outage that began around 3 AM ET on May 23 and lasted 24+ hours   —  After over a 24-hour outage, Microsoft's Bing, Copilot, and Copilot in Windows services are back online worldwide, with no information released as to what caused the problem.

A Utah Senate candidate who vowed to "push back against the establishment" if he's elected has earned the support of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who said he is the "type of Republican" needed in the upper chamber to replace retiring GOP Sen. Mitt Romney. Paul endorsed Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs on Thursday, backing a man who gained notoriety in 2020 for his opposition to mask mandates amid the coronavirus pandemic . "In 2024, Utah will elect a Republican no matter what. It's about what type of Republican," Paul said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. "We need someone who will stand with myself and Mike Lee defending the Constitution. We need a Republican who will stand against reckless spending and endless war. I enthusiastically endorse Trent Staggs because he is that type of Republican," Paul added. TRUMP ENDORSES GOP UTAH SENATE CANDIDATE LOOKING TO REPLACE ROMNEY: 'HE WILL BE A GREAT SENATOR' Describing Paul as a ...

Forbes : Sources: Helsing, which provides AI tools to militaries, is raising a $400M+ Series C led by General Catalyst at a ~$4B valuation, after raising $200M+ in 2023   —  The Munich-based company is raising at least $400 million in a funding round led by General Catalyst, sources tell Forbes.

President Biden may not appear on the ballot in Ohio come Election Day, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose warned Tuesday. The Ohio Democratic Party has received weeks of warnings from both LaRose's office and the state legislature saying that Biden is on track to miss the state's deadline for filing as a candidate. LaRose, a Republican, says the Democratic Party has yet to offer a solution that fits with existing law. Biden's problems arise from Ohio's requirement that parties certify their presidential candidates at least 90 days before Election Day. The Democratic Party won't certify Biden until its national convention in Wisconsin, which is scheduled for Aug. 19, just 75 days before the election. "I’ve said from here to Colorado that it’s in the best interest of voters to have a choice in the race for president. I’m also duty-bound to follow the law as Ohio’s chief elections officer," LaRose said in a statement Tuesday. DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST BOA...

Sam Biddle / The Intercept : Doc: WhatsApp staff warned of traffic analysis flaws where attackers may reveal who is in a conversation; Meta calls them theoretical and not unique to WhatsApp   —  In March, WhatsApp's security team issued an internal warning to their colleagues: Despite the software's powerful encryption …

Sean Hollister / The Verge : Microsoft announces the developer preview of Windows Volumetric Apps, giving access to an API that lets devs put Windows apps in 3D space on Meta Quest headsets   —  You can already beam your flat Windows desktop and its VR games onto your Meta Quest headset — but what if Windows could send HoloLens …

Top allies of former President Trump traveled to Israel this week to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Former national security adviser Robert O’Brien made the trip alongside two other former Trump administration officials. They stayed in the country for three days, meeting with both Netanyahu and his top political rival, Benny Gantz. O'Brien was accompanied by John Rakolta, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates under Trump, and Ed McMullen, a former U.S. ambassador to Switzerland. "My goal on this trip was really to show support for Israel," O’Brien told NBC News. "But at the same time, people know that I’m a former Trump official, I’m in regular contact with the president and strongly support him in November." ISRAELI ARMY FINDS BODIES OF 3 HOSTAGES IN GAZA KILLED AT OCT. 7 MUSIC FESTIVAL The trip came as an International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor announced he is seeking warrants for the arrest of both Netanya...

Jane Zhang / Bloomberg : Sensor Tower: ByteDance's Doubao AI chatbot iOS app had almost 9M downloads this year through April, vs. 8M for Baidu's Ernie Bot; Doubao has 4M+ MAUs in China   —  Doubao, the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot released in August, surpassed Baidu's Ernie Bot in downloads last year …

A Texas crime victims coordinator who was employed by the Starr County District Attorney’s Office has pleaded guilty to using a county vehicle to smuggle immigrants into the United States. Bernice Garza pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to transport undocumented people within the United States, according to a report from KRGV. Two others, Magali Rosa and Juan Antonio Charles, were also arrested in connection with the investigation and have pleaded guilty to human smuggling charges, according to the report. TEXAS CRIME VICTIMS LIAISON ARRESTED AFTER ALLEGEDLY USING COUNTY-ISSUED CAR IN HUMAN SMUGGLING SCHEME Garza was arrested in December 2022 after a traffic stop in Victoria County noted that the vehicle registered with the county was making "numerous unauthorized trips to the Houston area," the criminal complaint said. Magali Rosa was the driver of the vehicle, according to police, while Garza and Charles were among the passengers in the vehicle. Police say Rosa tri...

Stephen Battaglio / Los Angeles Times : At the 2024 Upfronts, streaming services dominated with Amazon Prime Video and Netflix making their debut, and live sports and ad tech were given more attention   —  Advertising executives who entered Radio City Music Hall on Monday for NBCUniversal's upfront presentation were greeted …

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, shifted gears from his previous stance on former President Trump's deportation plans, which he had panned as "not a workable plan." "Yes," Rubio said during an appearance on NBC’s "Meet the Press" Sunday, where he was asked whether he supports Trump’s plan to use the military to deport illegal immigrants from the country. "We cannot absorb 25, 30 million people who entered this country illegally. They’re here illegally, what country on earth could tolerate that?"  The comments were seemingly in stark contrast to Rubio’s previous stance on the issue, most notably as a primary rival of Trump’s in 2015. Then, Rubio was critical of the Trump plan to round up and deport the millions of illegal immigrants living in the United States. TRUMP SAYS HE WILL CARRY OUT THE 'LARGEST DOMESTIC DEPORTATION OPERATION IN AMERICAN HISTORY' IF ELECTED "We have 12 or 13 million human beings who have been here for a long ...

Bloomberg : Memo: Didi co-founder Jean Liu steps down as president and board director, positions she has held since December 2014, and will become a “permanent partner”   —  - Liu will become permanent partner, internal letter says  — Company's management will no longer have position of president