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New York Times : Bluesky reports a record spike in usage as many X users in Brazil move to Bluesky and Threads; Brazil is X's fifth-largest international market, with 20M+ users   —  The platform went dark across Brazil on Saturday, sending online commentators to new digital town squares.

Nick Burns / Americas Quarterly : A profile of Alexandre de Moraes as even some supporters wonder if the Brazilian Supreme Court judge has become too powerful and gone too far by banning X   —  An escalating clash with Elon Musk and damaging revelations in the press are intensifying a long-running debate about whether Alexandre de Moraes is too powerful.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore falsely claimed to have received the Bronze Star medal earlier in his political career, according to reports. The specter of stolen valor has hovered over the Democratic governor since his campaign for the office in 2022, when two television interviewers introduced the politician as a Bronze Star recipient.  Moore did not correct either interviewer, but his staff has been adamant that he never claimed to have gotten the reward.  WES MOORE PRAISES WALZ FOR MILITARY SERVICE, COMPLETING 'MISSION' DESPITE RETIREMENT OUTRAGE A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the New York Times revealed Moore did, in fact, assert that he had received the Bronze Star, on an application for the White House fellowship in January 2006. "For my work, the 82nd Airborne Division have awarded me the Bronze Star Medal and the Combat Action Badge," Moore wrote. Moore later received the Combat Action Badge in May of that year but was not a recipient ...

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch : LAION, a research org whose dataset was used to train Stable Diffusion and other models, releases a new dataset it claims has been “thoroughly cleaned” of CSAM   —  LAION, the German research org that created the data used to train Stable Diffusion, among other generative AI models …

Former President Donald Trump's latest comments on abortion, including his opposition to Florida's ban on abortions after six weeks' gestation, have sparked backlash from pro-life advocates on social media. "Trump has destroyed both the conservative movement and the pro-life movement. He’s done what even Barack Obama couldn’t do," one user on X said. Former Vice President Mike Pence also posted to X, saying, "I'm pro-life. I don't apologize for it." HARRIS REPEATS DEBUNKED CLAIM TRUMP WANTS TO 'BAN' ABORTION DURING FIRST CAMPAIGN RALLY SINCE BIDEN QUIT RACE Georgia-based nationally syndicated radio host Erick Erickson also slammed Trump's comments, saying on X, "Instead of having all the focus on the Kamala Harris interview tonight, Trump decided to further divide the GOP. Not a good strategy for winning." Other users expressed anger over Trump's "betrayal" of the pro-life movement, which helped elect h...

FIRST ON FOX: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been a longtime vocal supporter of a medical research institute in his home state with a long track record of collaborating with a firm labeled by the Pentagon as a "Chinese military company" and with Chinese officials with controversial ties to the CCP. Walz, Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, has long been aligned with the Hormel Institute, a biomedical research center in Austin, Minnesota, within the University of Minnesota's Research and Innovation Office. As recently as April, a press release from the institute highlighted how Walz went to "meet with local leaders and learn of the Institute’s recent progress in groundbreaking biomedical and agricultural research and its expanding education and outreach initiatives." "[The Hormel Institute] is no longer a secret, and we don’t want it to be a secret – it’s very un-Minnesotan of us because we’re bragging all the ti...

New York Times : Michael Lacey, co-founder of the classified ad site Backpage, gets five years in prison and a $3M fine for money laundering; two other executives get 10 years   —  Michael Lacey, 76, co-founded the website that became known for its ads for prostitution.  He was convicted on a money laundering charge …