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The House Oversight Committee announced this week that it has launched an investigation into a news-rating system that purportedly ranks which news outlets are trustworthy, with the focus of the probe surrounding whether the ratings group's contracts with federal agencies have an influence on what news it attempts to suppress. Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said Thursday his committee was investigating NewsGuard's impact "on protected First Amendment speech and its potential to serve as a non-transparent agent of censorship campaigns." In a letter to Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz , NewsGuard’s chief executive officers, Comer requested documents on the group's "business relationships with government entities, its adherence to its own policies intended to guard against appearances of bias, how it tries to avoid and manage potential conflicts of interest arising from its investors and other influences, and actions that may have the impact of delegitim...

Juli Clover / MacRumors : Apple added a Vocal Shortcuts accessibility feature in iOS 18 that lets users give Siri a new wake word, such as “hello, computer”   —  Apple in iOS 18 added a Vocal Shortcuts accessibility feature, and now that iOS 18 is available in a beta capacity, users have figured …

Ben Cohen / Wall Street Journal : How Duolingo uses streaks and notifications to keep users coming back to the app; 5M of Duolingo's 30M+ DAUs have one year streaks and 70% have weeklong streaks   —  The learning app doesn't just teach languages.  It harnesses the power of streaks and hooks you with perfectly timed nudges.

The Supreme Court seemed to signal interest this week in taking up a challenge launched by Hawaii against big oil companies to hold them liable for climate change, and some Democrats are suggesting the high court is "captured" for the fossil fuel industry.  The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Justice Department to weigh in on a petition to hear a lawsuit brought by the City of Honolulu against major fuel companies including Sunoco, Exxon and Chevron , claiming the companies’ products cause greenhouse gas emissions and global warming without warning consumers about the risks.  The city employed a series of state laws like public nuisance and trespass measures and said the companies should pay billions to the state to abate the effects of climate change like weather events, sea level rise, heat waves, flooding and global warming generally.  The high court gave DOJ no deadline for the solicitor general’s input, but its request indicates a high likelihood the court want...

Reed Albergotti / Semafor : Sources: Mustafa Suleyman's presence at Microsoft is causing some awkwardness with OpenAI, as he looks at the algorithms behind models like GPT-4   —  The Scoop  —  OpenAI was founded, in large part, as an AI safety countermeasure to DeepMind, the AI company acquired by Google in 2014.

The Justice Department will not prosecute U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland over contempt, according to a letter sent from the agency to House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday.  The House voted Wednesday to hold Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio of President Biden 's interview with special counsel Robert Hur. The vote came after months of digging by House Republicans to try to bring into public view as much material from the special counsel interview as possible. The story is breaking. Please check back for updates.

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters : Sources: the EU plans to charge Meta under the DMA, focusing on its pay or consent model where users pay a subscription for an ad-free Facebook and Instagram   —  Apple (AAPL.O) and Meta Platforms (META.O) will likely face charges for failing to comply with landmark EU rules aimed at reining …

A controversial executive order by President Biden that aims to shut down migrant crossings at the southern border has so far failed to win over voters who want tougher action on illegal immigration. A Monmouth University poll released this week found that about 40% of voters favor the order, while 27% oppose it, and just under half (46%) say it isn’t tough enough when it comes to illegal immigration. Only about 17% say the order is too tough, while 31% say the order is about right.  EMBATTLED BIDEN BORDER ORDER LOADED WITH LOOPHOLES ‘TO DRIVE A TRUCK THROUGH’: CRITICS Biden announced the order last week to temporarily suspend the entry of migrants across the southern border once the number of daily encounters exceeds 2,500 a day over seven days.  It’s accompanied by a rule to apply a higher standard that migrants must meet for initial asylum screenings. "Today, I'm moving past Republican obstruction and using executive authorities available to me as president to do wha...

Bloomberg : Snowflake plans to close an internal probe into recent cyberattacks after not detecting any unauthorized access into customer accounts since early last week   —  - Up to 165 customers ‘potentially’ affected by data theft  — Extent of credential spill still unfolding as clients probe

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., will attempt to force a vote Wednesday evening on a Supreme Court ethics bill backed by Democrats amid recent scrutiny of Justice Samuel Alito and renewed calls for the conservative justice to recuse from former President Trump's immunity case.  Durbin will lead fellow Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., in a request to bring the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act to the floor for a vote around 5:30 p.m. However, unanimous consent to consider the measure will not be granted, as Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will object, his office told Fox News Digital.  LINDSEY GRAHAM REQUESTS FULL SENATE BRIEFING ON ISIS BORDER THREAT AFTER TERRORIST BUST If brought for a vote and passed, the bill would require the Supreme Court to create an ethics code that is publicly available. It would addition...

Bloomberg : Terraform Labs and co-founder Do Kwon agree to pay $4.47B to resolve a US SEC lawsuit, after a jury in April found them liable for fraud following a civil trial   —  - Deal includes $204.3 million payment by founder Do Kwon  — Terraform, Kwon found liable for fraud in April civil trial

Following the historic conviction of a sitting president’s son, some legal experts pointed to Hunter Biden’s own memoir of his drug addiction recovery as "powerful" evidence for the jury to convict him. Hunter Biden was found guilty on Tuesday of making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance. After a week of witness testimony, the 12 jurors deliberated a total of three hours between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.  Legal experts speaking to Fox News Digital pointed to Hunter Biden’s 2021 book titled, "Beautiful Things: A Memoir," chronicling his battle with addiction to illegal drugs, which they argued likely served as compelling evidence to the jury. The autobiographical book was played aloud in the courtroom, narrated in Hunter Biden’s voice as he...

Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge : GM is investing another $850M into Cruise to help cover the startup's operational costs as it slowly resumes testing its self-driving vehicles in some US cities   —  General Motors is investing $850 million into Cruise to help cover the company's operational costs after it was forced to shut …

The Verge : Apple announces AirPods updates: users control Siri via shaking their heads, voice isolation on AirPods Pro, personalized spatial audio for games, and more   —  As it has done in years past, Apple outlined upcoming new software features coming to the company's current lineup of AirPods earbuds and headphones today.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called on the Justice Department to investigate anti-Israel agitators who vandalized statues at Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Square the same way the department went after rioters who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol protests. "Anti-American, pro-Hamas thugs desecrated the statues of our veterans literally across the street from the White House, a blatant violation of federal law. On video," Cotton said in a post on X Sunday. "I expect the Department of Justice to use every technique against them that it used against grandmas in MAGA hats on Jan. 6. And if it doesn’t now, it will next year." Cotton’s comments come as thousands and thousands of people descended on the White House Saturday to protest President Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, with many waving Palestinian flags and chanting "Free Palestine" as they marched around the nation’s capital.  ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATOR IN HAMAS HEADBAND HOLDS UP BLOODIED BIDEN...

An illegal migrant with a long criminal record who has previously been deported from the U.S. is now accused of second-degree murder in Las Vegas. Jorge Miranda, a 46-year-old migrant from Ecuador, faces murder and other charges after allegedly selling fentanyl to a 45-year-old man who later died of an overdose, according to a report from KLAS.  Police say Miranda was deported from the U.S. in 2016, but regained entry illegally at an unknown time. Detectives issued a search warrant at Miranda's home in February after being tipped off by a family member of the overdose victim, with the family member showing police a text message exchange on the victim’s phone with a man named "John Fenty" arranging a drug sale. ‘UNACCEPTABLE': ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WANTED FOR MURDER HAS ‘EXTENSIVE’ CRIMINAL PAST An undercover detective arranged another meeting with Miranda using the victim’s phone, resulting in Miranda meeting the detective and allegedly selling 20 fentanyl pills for...

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal : Data suggests Project Green Light, Google's AI system deployed in 14 cities to adjust traffic light timing, reduced stop-and-go traffic at intersections by 30%   —  Most cities can't afford smart traffic signals.  Fortunately, data from new cars—and even drivers' smartphones—can make old-fashioned traffic lights work a lot better.