Author: Admin

Washington Examiner Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) is affirming her support for President Joe Biden in posts on X while pushing her own Hybrid PAC, Fight Like Hell. Several social media posts, made on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, all implied support for the president while linking the governor’s fundraising PAC, not the Democratic National Committee or the Biden reelection effort. The PAC describes itself as “a nationwide movement led by [Whitmer] to defend working people and protect our most fundamental rights.” It says its goal is to “focus the next two years on supporting President Biden and Vice President Harris’ re-election campaign, as well as helping Democrats flip the House and hold the Senate and ensuring our voice is heard in Washington.” READ THE FULL STORY                   

Breitbart A recent investigation by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has uncovered a disturbing trend in AI development, where images of children are being used to train artificial intelligence models without consent, potentially exposing them to significant privacy and safety risks. Ars Technica reports that Human Rights Watch researcher Hye Jung Han has discovered that popular AI datasets, such as LAION-5B, contain links to hundreds of photos of Australian children. These images, scraped from various online sources, are being used to train AI models without the knowledge or consent of the children or their families. The implications of this discovery are far-reaching and raise serious concerns about the privacy and safety of minors in the digital age. Han’s investigation, which examined less than 0.0001 percent of the 5.85 billion images in the LAION-5B dataset, identified 190 photos of children from all of Australia’s states and territories. This sample size suggests that the actual number of affected children could be significantly higher. The dataset includes images spanning the entirety of childhood, making it possible for AI image generators to create realistic deepfakes of real Australian children. READ THE FULL STORY                   

Axios The national average gas price for the Independence Day weekend is expected to be the lowest holiday price since 2021 but prices have been rising in recent weeks with record travel demand. Nearly 71 million people will travel during the holiday week with a record 60.6 million people traveling by car, according to AAA’s holiday forecast. The percentage of people traveling by car is up 4.8% from last year when 57.8 million people traveled by car, AAA said. READ THE FULL STORY                 

The New York Times President Biden’s family is urging him to stay in the race and keep fighting despite last week’s disastrous debate performance, even as some members of his clan privately expressed exasperation at how he was prepared for the event by his staff, people close to the situation said on Sunday. Mr. Biden huddled with his wife, children and grandchildren at Camp David while he tried to figure out how to tamp down Democratic anxiety. While his relatives are acutely aware of how poorly he did against former President Donald J. Trump, they argued that he could still show the country that he is capable of serving for another four years. Mr. Biden has also been soliciting ideas from advisers about how to proceed, and his staff has been discussing whether he should hold a news conference or sit for interviews to defend himself to change the narrative, but nothing has been decided yet. READ THE FULL STORY    

Catholic News Agency  In the midst of the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza, the patriarchs and leaders of ancient Christian churches in Jerusalem have signed a joint document in which they denounce that four Israeli municipalities have sought to levy municipal taxes on church properties in violation of “centuries” of historical agreements. The church leaders, including Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem, and Franciscan Father Francesco Patton, custos of the Holy Land, accuse local authorities of launching a “coordinated attack” against the Christian presence in the Holy Land. “We believe these efforts represent a coordinated attack on the Christian presence in the Holy Land. At this time when the entire world, and in particular the Christian world, is constantly following the events in Israel, we find ourselves once again faced with an attempt by the authorities to expel the Christian presence from the Holy Land,” the leaders stated in a letter addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has been quoted in various media such as The Times of Israel, Asia News, and UCA News. READ THE FULL STORY       

Fox News The first presidential debate of 2024 left many Americans and even some traditional Democratic allies wondering about President Biden’s mental fitness for office based on what appeared to be his unclear train of thought at times and his raspy voice on Thursday night. The White House responded to these concerns, claiming that the president, who is 81, was fighting a cold, but some doctors said they perceive the health issues go beyond the sniffles — with one noting that “it is an issue of fitness, not of age.” Dr. Brett Osborn, a Florida neurosurgeon who specializes in cognitive function, told Fox News Digital on Friday about his concerns.  READ THE FULL STORY                   

Washington Examiner After federal judges in Kansas and Missouri sided in favor of Republican attorneys general by blocking parts of President Joe Biden’s student loan repayment program, the Department of Education announced it is freezing monthly student loan payments and interests of 3 million borrowers. The Saving on a Valuable Education plan, better known as SAVE, determines a borrowers’ monthly payment based on their earnings and family size. There are more than 8 million people signed up for the plan and 4.5 million of them qualify for $0 monthly payments because of their low earnings.   On July 1, the Department of Education was going to implement payment reductions, with many borrowers seeing their payments being cut in half. That measure was blocked by Kansas U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Crabtree. READ THE FULL STORY                   

Breitbart Former President Donald Trump is leading President Joe Biden in Nevada, according to an American Impact Research/Fabrizio Lee/AARP poll. The overall survey shows Trump leading Biden in what has been a blue state in presidential elections since 2008. Trump leads Biden in the state with a three-point advantage, garnering 48 percent support to Biden’s 45 percent support. When third-party candidates are added to the mix, including independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s lead over Biden jumps another four points, giving him a seven-point advantage over the incumbent. READ THE FULL STORY                   

The Hill In his first public comments since President Biden took to the debate stage last night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the president failed to clearly articulate his achievements or vision for the future. “I have to also be very honest with you and tell you that I think the president was not terribly articulate to say the least, and he was not focused,” Sanders said of Thursday’s debate, at a rally in Stevens Point, Wis. “He did not defend a very strong record.”    Sanders’s rally is part of a weeklong campaign swing in the Badger State. The Daily Cardinal, the University of Wisconsin’s student paper, provided audio of the Stevens Point event. READ THE FULL STORY                   

New York Post A Haitian migrant accused of raping a 15-year-old at a Massachusetts shelter has been released on bail — despite a request from federal immigration officials to keep him in jail. Cory Alvarez, who had been held without bail since his March arrest, was freed on a measly $500 bail on Tuesday after the Plymouth County Superior Court ignored a request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to keep the suspect in custody, the Boston Herald reported. Alvarez was released following a dangerousness hearing, a spokesperson with the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office told The Post Friday. READ THE FULL STORY                  

Washington Examiner Fifty percent of independents think the Democratic Party should nominate someone other than President Joe Biden to have the best chance of winning in November, according to a Friday YouGov survey that was conducted after the first presidential debate. Just 21% of independents said Biden was the best option, while 29% said they were not sure.  By contrast, 39% of independents said the Republican Party should nominate former President Donald Trump to have the best chance of winning, with just 37% saying the party should nominate someone else and 24% being unsure. READ THE FULL STORY