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Former President Trump returned to the swing state of Pennsylvania on Saturday just two days before Republicans gather for the convention and prepare to nominate him for the third consecutive time.  Trump's trip and rally to Butler County, in Western Pennsylvania, was set to begin at 5 p.m. at the Butler Farm Show grounds.  Pennsylvania, with 19 electoral votes, is one of the most vital battleground states that Trump's campaign has focused on. The former president held a rally last month at Temple University in Philadelphia. TRUMP DROPS MAJOR HINT ON HIS RUNNING MATE, AND TIMING OF ANNOUNCEMENT Trump has strung out his choice of running mate, leaving speculation soaring about whom the former president will choose. TRUMP'S ODDS OF WINNING PRESIDENCY SOAR AS BIDEN FACES GROWING SCRUTINY The most-mentioned possibilities are North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and Tim Scott of South Carolina. Vance, in nearby Ohio, will not ...

Nikou Asgari / Financial Times : Galaxy Digital: investment in crypto by VCs and others rose to $3.2B in Q2 2024, the highest amount in a quarter since Q4 2022, and up from $2.5B in Q1 2024   —  Plus, updates on former FTX executives and PayPal's stablecoin … Crypto start-ups trying to raise money have found it very difficult over the past few years.

President Biden is spending his weekend away from the White House at his Delaware beach house, a well-known retreat for the president, ahead of high-stakes interviews and the Republican Party's convention next week. Following a Friday evening campaign event in Michigan, the president's weekend at Rehoboth Beach has been largely quiet after he acknowledged on Thursday that he needs to "pace" himself yet insisted he should take on a more robust schedule ahead of the 2024 election. Biden is expected to take part in two conference calls on Saturday with House Democrats – the New Dems Coalition and the Congressional Progressive Caucus – but has no public events on his Saturday Rehoboth schedule. Thirteen Democrats in the New Dems Coalition have called for Biden to step aside in the 2024 race. It has been reported that the president may also attend a church service during his weekend trip. BIDEN TELLS MICHIGAN CROWD HE'S 'NOT GOING ANYWHERE' AMID CHANTS OF...

Several conservative entities expressed outrage on Friday after news broke that Amber Rose, the model and TV personality and ex-girlfriend of Kanye West, would be speaking at the Republican National Convention (RNC). Critics called out the GOP for giving such prominence to Rose , a rapper and model who also wrote "How to Be a Bad B---h," with one critic sharing a video of her discussing Satanism. "George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Liz Cheney, Nikki Haley, and Ron DeSantis weren't invited to speak at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next week. But no worries. Rapper and model Amber Rose will give a speech," read a post on X from the account "Republicans Against Trump." "Wait until Trump finds out about this tweet," they added, citing Rose’s adamant opposition to Trump in 2016. TRUMP EX MARLA MAPLES RESPONDS TO VEEP TALK: 'I'M OPEN… TO SERVE' "Man, f--- the fact he’s old, and f--- the fact that he was...

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch : PartnerOne acquires HeadSpin, whose founder is serving a jail sentence for fraud; email: employees' stock options were canceled as the options were “underwater”   —  Employees' stock options were cancelled, according to a document viewed by TechCrunch.

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg : Chainalysis: more than half of all illicit transaction volume in crypto now winds up on centralized exchanges   —  - Chainalysis finds record stablecoin usage in suspect activity  — Over half of illegal funds wind up on centralized exchanges  —  Suspect digital wallets have distributed close …

A growing list of close allies and former advisers to President Obama are looking to sink President Biden's re-election bid. The cascade began with former Obama adviser David Axelrod sounding the alarm following Biden's dismal debate performance last month, and was followed by a group of former advisers known as the "Obama bros" during their time working at the White House, as well as actor George Clooney, who is close to the former president. "Obama bro" Jon Favreau broke his silence concerning Biden's mental fitness on Wednesday, just hours after the damaging op-ed by Clooney published in The New York Times calling on the president to quit the 2024 race. OBAMA SILENT OVER REPORTS HE'S WORKING ‘BEHIND THE SCENES’ TO FORCE BIDEN OUT OF THE 2024 RACE "It was not surprising to any of us who were at the fundraiser. I was there. Clooney was exactly right, and every single person I talked to at the fundraiser thought the same thing, except for ...

Wired : Arab and Muslim workers at Meta detail frustrations over Meta's handling of internal discussions on the Israel-Hamas war, worrying it led to bad product choices   —  Arab and Muslim workers at Meta allege that its response to the crisis in Gaza is one-sided and out of hand.

With the Republican National Convention set to kick off in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in five days, speculation is soaring regarding whom former President Trump will name as his running mate. Sources in Trump's political orbit tell Fox News and other news organizations that three names are considered to be at the top of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee's short list. They are North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Sens. JD Vance of Ohio and Marco Rubio of Florida. And the former president, in an interview Wednesday on "The Brian Kilmeade Show on Fox Radio," handicapped his leading contenders. TRUMP DROPS MAJOR HINT IN VEEPSTAKES Trump was interviewed the morning after he headlined a rally at his Doral golf club outside of Miami, Florida, where Rubio addressed the crowd earlier in the program. "Marco was great last night, very popular," Trump told Fox News' Kilmeade . Rubio and Trump traded fire numerous times during the divisive 2016 Republican pr...

Ryan Gould / Bloomberg : Sources: Alphabet shelves efforts to acquire HubSpot after the sides failed to reach the point of detailed discussions around due diligence; HUBS plunges 10%+   —  - Parties didn't get to due-diligence stage in deal talks  — An acquisition would have been among the biggest this year

Grace Kay / Business Insider : Current and former Tesla staff: self-driving data annotation staff were told to prioritize analyzing car data of VIP drivers, like Elon Musk and YouTube stars   —  An curved arrow pointing right.  — Tesla gives special treatment to data from VIPs, including Elon Musk, when training its self-driving AI.

The Richard Nixon Foundation, and many conservatives on social media , are firing back at Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson after he seemingly placed partial blame on former President Richard Nixon, who died 30 years ago, for Chicago’s weekend of gun violence. "What we’ve experienced over the weekend is unacceptable and we didn’t get here overnight. And everyone knows that. Let’s tell the full story of what happened," Johnson said during a Monday press conference after 19 were killed and over 100 were injured by shootings in Chicago over the weekend.  "Black death has unfortunately been accepted in this country for a very long time. We had a chance 60 years ago to get at the root causes. And people mocked President Johnson, and we ended up with Richard Nixon." In a statement to Fox News Digital, Jim Byron, president and CEO of the Richard Nixon Foundation, pushed back on the mayor's claim. CHICAGO VOTER CONFRONTS MAYOR JOHNSON OVER 'DISRESPECTF...

Some lawmakers are making the case that the Biden presidency is a group effort in order to quell concerns over the president's mental sharpness and health, as the party stands in disarray with some members considering strategies to dissuade President Biden from seeking re-election. "A presidency is more than just one man, one woman, it's an administration," former Obama administration Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" last week. "I would take Joe Biden's worst day at age 86, so long as he has people around him like Avril Haines, Sam Power, Gina Raimondo supporting him, over Donald Trump any day." The Wall Street Journal also published a report Monday that outlined how Biden's "inner circle" – made up of Democrat donors and aides – reportedly kept his signs of aging a secret. Republicans have been more openly skeptical of Biden's closest aides around him, questioning whether Biden...

Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau is arguing Monday that "voters have been voicing" concerns about President Biden for months as the 81-year-old is resisting calls to end his re-election bid.  Favreau, in a post on X, rejected Biden's claim that calls for his withdrawal are only coming from "elite" sources. He cited a pre-debate poll from the New York Times/Siena College that found 64% of all voters wanted Biden replaced on the Democratic ticket, including 48% of people who planned to vote for Biden, and that 69% of the electorate finds Biden too old to be an effective president.  "This is not an elite thing. This is not a media thing. This is not a one-bad-debate-freakout thing," Favreau wrote. "The voters have been voicing these concerns for months now. Denying them or dismissing them is not the way to overcome them."  Favreau, who is one of the hosts of Pod Save America, also flagged that 55% of Black voters and 66% of Hispanic vo...

The White House announced on Sunday that Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff recently tested positive for COVID-19.   In a statement, the office of the Second Gentleman noted that Emhoff tested positive on Saturday "after experiencing mild symptoms." "He is fully vaccinated and three times boosted," the statement read. "He is currently asymptomatic, continuing to work remotely, and remaining away from others at home." The press release also noted that Vice President Kamala Harris recently tested negative for the virus. BIDEN LIKELY VIOLATED FIRST AMENDMENT DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC, FEDERAL JUDGE SAYS "Out of an abundance of caution, yesterday, the Vice President was tested for COVID-19," the release added. "She tested negative and remains asymptomatic." Emhoff and Harris were photographed standing near President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on Thursday during the White House's Fourth of July celebration.  Fox News Digital asked ...

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Sunday that while President Biden had a "terrible" debate against former President Trump, he recently spoke to Biden and continues to support him in his quest for re-election. Sanders – who at 82 is older than Biden – said people should look beyond age, despite increasing concerns from both parties over the president's mental fitness. "Biden is old," Sanders told host Robert Costa of the 81-year-old president. "He's not as articulate as he once was. I wish he could jump up the steps on Air Force One. He can't. What we have got to focus on is policy, whose policies have and will benefit the vast majority of the people in this country." The senator said he believes the American people want a president with the "guts to take on corporate America." Someone who will expand Medicare, raise and extend the life of Social Security benefits, and talk about a "permanent child tax credit to cut childhoo...