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Former President Trump's campaign confirmed to Fox News on Saturday that some of its internal communications were hacked.  Liberal media outlet Politico had reached out to the campaign after the news outlet started receiving internal Trump documents.  "These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process," said Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign. "On Friday, a new report from Microsoft found that Iranian hackers broke into the account of a ‘high ranking official’ on the U.S. presidential campaign in June 2024, which coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a Vice Presidential nominee," he added.  Cheung noted that the hack allegedly by Iran came, "after recent reports of an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump around the same time as the Butler, PA tragedy." He...

Alex Isenstadt / Politico : Trump campaign says some of its internal communications were hacked, citing a Microsoft report that Iranian hackers “sent a spear phishing email” to a campaign   —  The campaign suggested Iran was to blame.  POLITICO has not independently verified the identity of the hacker or their motivation.

M.G. Siegler / Spyglass : Just two of OpenAI's 11-strong founding team are active at OpenAI, after a series of exits in 2024 following the attempted boardroom coup against Sam Altman   —  It's probably time to change that non-profit structure for good...  In late 2015, the blog post announcing OpenAI to the world was short and sweet.

Kaya Yurieff / The Information : TikTok is offering steep discounts on goods to US users who invite friends to the app, expanding a referral scheme from countries like Japan and Thailand   —  TikTok is testing a truism: Money talks.  —  TikTok users in the U.S. who invite their friends to the app can now get steep discounts on goods …

Controversy over Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s military service record is at the heart of Capitol Hill’s latest political firestorm, with veterans on both sides of the aisle chiming in on the new Democratic vice presidential candidate. Republicans are accusing Walz of misrepresenting details about his 24-year career in the National Guard — GOP lawmakers who served in the military have attacked him for leaving the National Guard to run for Congress shortly before his unit deployed to Iraq. Democratic veterans in Congress jumped to his defense, pointing out that Walz served past his 20-year retirement eligibility mark and dismissing the GOP attacks as baseless. "The veterans' community is incensed right now that Tim Walz refuses to answer questions about his military record," Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., the first former Green Beret elected to Congress, told Fox News Digital. "[He] has misled voters about his military rank, and it appears he abandoned his men prior to thei...

Financial Times : Since the OpenAI board dispute, Microsoft diversified AI investments and partnerships, built its own models, and hired aggressively for its consumer AI efforts   —  The tech giant has worked to execute an AI strategy independent of Sam Altman's start-up following a leadership crisis last year

Former President Trump said President Biden had "the right to run" for re-election and the Democratic Party "took it away" from him, while blasting his new opponent Kamala Harris as the "least admired, least respected, and worst vice president in the history of our country."  Trump held a press conference at Mar-a-Lago Thursday afternoon after holding off-the-record meetings with major media outlets. The Trump campaign said the Republican presidential nominee wanted to address the media "while they were already in Palm Beach because he’s the most transparent candidate in history."  Trump said Thursday that the U.S. is in "the most dangerous period of time I’ve ever seen for our country."  "We have somebody that hasn’t received one vote for president, and she’s running, and that’s fine with me, but we were given Joe Biden, and now we’re given somebody else," Trump said. "I think, frankly, I’d rather be running against...

FIRST ON FOX — Rep. Claudia Tenney , R-N.Y., demanded in a letter Thursday that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) investigate recent allegations "of fraudulent, deceptive, and potentially illegal behavior" on the part of ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising platform that's hauled in millions of dollars in donations for Vice President Harris' presidential campaign and its affiliated entities.  Tenney, who co-chairs the House Election Integrity Caucus, cited in the letter addressed to FEC Chair Sean Cooksey and Vice Chair Ellen Weintraub "significant public reporting on anomalous transaction activity involving hundreds of thousands of dollars." According to the agency's publicly available data, Tenney wrote, "numerous individuals have allegedly donated to ActBlue thousands of times annually." However, "it was reported many of these individuals were unaware their names and addresses were being used to make thousands of dollars in politic...

CJ Fairfield / CRN : Tampa-based Rewst, which provides robotic process automation services, raised a $45M Series C led by Sapphire Ventures, bringing its total raised to $104M   —  'I don't think we're ever done when it comes to improving the platform.  I think it can continue to get better year over year …

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch : Ofcom publishes an open letter to social media platforms raising concerns about the use of their tools to incite violence, following days of rioting in the UK   —  The U.K.'s internet regulator, Ofcom, has published an open letter to social media platforms raising concerns about the use of their tools to incite violence.

The wife of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris' running mate set social media ablaze Tuesday after an unearthed clip of her describing her actions during the 2020 Minneapolis riots went viral. Gwen Walz is Minnesota's first lady and the wife of Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was picked by Vice President Harris to be her running mate on the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket. A pivotal part of Walz's gubernatorial record was his handling of the death of George Floyd in the state in 2020. Floyd's death sparked nationwide protests about race and police brutality. TIM WALZ, KAMALA HARRIS' NEW RIGHT-HAND MAN, ECHOES LEFT-WING CRIME POLICIES  "Again we had more sleepless nights during the riots," Walz's wife told KSTP in July 2020. "I could smell the burning tires, and that was a very real thing. And I kept the windows open as long as I could because I felt like that was such a touchstone of what was happening." Conservat...

The Information : Sources: Meta is in talks to license its Horizon software to Jio, which would use it to power a VR device   —  Meta Platforms is in talks to license its Horizon virtual reality software to Indian technology company Jio, according to three people with knowledge of the situation …

PHILADELPHIA, Penn. — Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, reacted to the "interesting tag team" of Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., on Tuesday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after her much-anticipated pick was made public.  "If we remember the rioting in the summer of 2020, Tim Walz was the guy who let rioters burn down Minneapolis," he recalled of the riots which began in Minnesota in response to the death of George Floyd during his arrest in Minneapolis.   "And then Kamala Harris was the one who bailed the rioters out of jail," he added." So there's an interesting team in that sense." BIDEN, DEMS RACE TO BEAT TRUMP'S RECORD ON CONFIRMED JUDGES AS ELECTION LOOMS Harris has been heavily criticized by Republicans for promoting the Minnesota Freedom Fund during the summer of 2020 amid the riots. It was reported that donations to the fund were primarily used to bail out people convicted of violent crimes, rather than the pro...

Ryan Christoffel / 9to5Mac : Release notes indicate macOS may get Apple Intelligence in the EU, unlike iOS and iPadOS, perhaps because of differences in how DMA requirements apply   —  Apple Intelligence is one of the biggest tentpoles of this fall's new OS updates.  The AI features in iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 …

Leah Nylen / Bloomberg : US v. Google: a federal judge rules that Google's payments to make its search engine the default on smartphone web browsers violates antitrust law   —  Google's payments to make its search engine the default on smartphone web browsers violates US antitrust law, a federal judge ruled Monday …

Washington Post : In a letter, the secretaries of state from PA, WA, MI, NM, and MN ask Elon Musk to change X's AI assistant Grok to stop it from spreading false election info   —  Grok, the AI search assistant on Musk's X platform, suggested that Kamala Harris had missed the ballot deadline in nine states.  She hasn't.

White House National Security Council communications adviser John Kirby on Sunday dodged answering questions regarding the abrupt plea deal reversal provided to a trio of 9/11 terrorists last week.  "Is the president willing to let these terrorists escape the harshest penalty in the system of justice and let that be part of his legacy?" Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich asked Kirby during an interview on "Fox News Sunday." "Again, this was a decision made by a convening authority in the military chain of command, an independent convening authority," Kirby responded.  "He didn’t weigh in at all?" Heinrich pressed.  BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION BACKTRACKS, REVOKES PLEA DEAL FOR 9/11 TERRORISTS "The secretary of defense has the authority to change the delegation of that – of that authority to the convening authority," Kirby continued. "I know that sounds kind of complicated, but he has the authority to do that. He did this on his own....

It's been mostly smooth sailing for Vice President Kamala Harris in the two weeks since she replaced President Biden at the top of the Democrats' national ticket. A party eager to keep former President Trump from returning to the White House quickly unified behind Harris. The vice president experienced a surge in contributions and more than doubled Trump in July fundraising, and volunteers flocked to Biden-turned-Harris campaign offices. And the small lead that Trump has built over Biden in the weeks following the president's disastrous late June debate performance instantly vanished, as the latest national and key battleground state polls indicated a margin-of-error race between Harris and the former president. But Harris faces a consequential week ahead, starting with a decision in the coming hours on whom she'll choose as her running mate on the Democratic Party ticket. HARRIS LAPS TRUMP IN CASH DASH THANKS TO FUNDRAISING SURGE  Harris stayed in the nation...

Dave Lee / Bloomberg : A look at the flurry of so-called Zoom rallies supporting the campaign to elect Kamala Harris; one Zoom call reportedly attracted 190K people and raised $4M   —  Online rallies give the vice president a platform her opponent can't match.  —  Advancements in technology can play a defining role in how an election cycle plays out.

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate for the 2024 election cycle by Tuesday, as four frontrunners vie to land on the ticket.  Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Tim Walz of Minnesota, and Sen. Mark Kelley, D-Ariz., have emerged as top contenders for the vice presidency under a potential Harris administration. Each candidate could bring political benefits to Harris’ election run, though each also must walk a political tightrope over potential pitfalls that could prevent him from joining the campaign.  Harris officially clinched her party's 2024 presidential nomination on Friday, earning more than a majority of votes from convention delegates, the DNC reported. Harris rose to the top of the election cycle following President Biden dropping out of the race last month amid mounting concerns over his mental fitness and health.  14 DAYS: KAMALA HARRIS HAS NOT HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE SINCE EMERGING AS PRESUMPTIVE...