Category: Breaking

Fox News   A conservative legal watchdog group is heading to court to get the U.S. Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to explain how gunman Thomas Crooks had been able to “fire a relatively simple shot that came within an inch of killing President Trump and struck fellow Americans.” In a lawsuit filed Thursday, America First Legal alleges that the Secret Service and DHS illegally concealed government records related to the attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The organization claims it submitted multiple public records requests about the incident but still has not received any documents. “On July 13, the American people watched in horror as a lunatic attempted to assassinate former President, and current candidate for President, Donald Trump,” Gene Hamilton, AFL senior counsel said in a statement.  READ THE FULL STORY               

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CBS News   A longtime CIA officer who drugged, photographed and sexually assaulted more than two dozen women in postings around the world was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison Wednesday after an emotional hearing in which victims described being deceived by a man who appeared kind, educated and part of an agency “that is supposed to protect the world from evil.” Brian Jeffrey Raymond, with a graying beard and orange prison jumpsuit, sat dejectedly as he heard his punishment for one of the most egregious misconduct cases in the CIA’s history. It was chronicled in his own library of more than 500 images that showed him in some cases straddling and groping his nude, unconscious victims. “It’s safe to say he’s a sexual predator,” U.S. Senior Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in imposing the full sentence prosecutors had requested. “You are going to have a period of time to think about this.” READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Washington Examiner   Mortgage rates declined to their lowest level since February 2023 after the Federal Reserve instituted a significant interest rate cut. In the past week, the standard 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.09%, according to data released by Freddie Mac on Thursday, compared to 6.35% the week of Sept. 5 and a peak of 7.76% in November 2023. This marks the lowest rate since February 2023 and is likely due to the Fed’s interest rate cut implemented Wednesday. READ THE FULL STORY                     

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Breitbart A Serbian judo champion was left stunned when he was informed that he was being suspended for five months for daring to make the sign of the cross after his match in the Paris Olympic games this year. Nemanja Majdov, 28, has been told that he will not be allowed to compete in any International Judo Federation (IJF) sanctioned fight until February of next year because he supposedly violated the organization’s rules of comportment, the Daily Mail reported. The IJF maintains that he is being sanctioned for “having shown a clear religious sign when entering the field of play.” READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Washington Stand Do you plan to vote this November? You’re not alone. Experts say somewhere between 1.5 million and 2.7 million illegal immigrants are likely to cast a ballot in the 2024 elections, impacting races from dog catcher to president of the United States. The historic flood of illegal immigrants during the Biden-Harris administration has also padded voter rolls, thanks to controversial federal legislation from the Clinton administration. If illegal immigrants and other noncitizens vote in the same proportion as in previous U.S. elections, the number will range anywhere from one-and-a-half to nearly three million votes. “A 2014 academic journal found that 6.4% of noncitizens voted in 2008,” Kerri Toloczko, executive director of Election Integrity Network and senior advisor to the Only Citizens Vote Coalition, told The Washington Stand. “There are about 24 million noncitizens in the U.S. right now. If they voted only at the same rate of 6.4% this year as they did in 2008, they would account for 1.5 million votes.” READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Axios The International Brotherhood of Teamsters won’t endorse a presidential candidate this cycle, the union’s General Executive Board decided Wednesday. The decision is a blow to Democrats, who have historically enjoyed the Teamsters’ support, but there had been suspense over a possible endorsement this year after Sean O’Brien in July became the first-ever union president to speak at the Republican National Convention. The Teamsters endorsed President Biden in 2020, but when Biden was still the Democratic presidential nominee this cycle, the union was considering not endorsing either candidate. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Breitbart Car insurance rates have skyrocketed under the leadership of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and Americans are feeling the squeeze. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that car insurance prices rose 55 percent from January 2021 — when Biden and Harris first took office — to July 2024 — the last year of their first term. Once again, their policies are to blame. As Breitbart News previously reported, Americans’ auto insurance rates are rapidly rising due to the pro-migration policies of Biden and Harris, putting millions of these new migrant drivers — “often without driver training or English language lessons” — on the road, increasing risk. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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ABC 33-40 News People in Talladega County have questions and concerns regarding a reported influx of Haitian immigrants in the community. Last week, the public comment portion of the Sylacauga City Council meeting was cut short after those concerns were brought up. Councilors addressed the community then, by saying they didn’t have a lot of information on it. The council president stated the Haitians were here legally. On Monday, the council then held a question and answer session. READ THE FULL STORY      

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Breitbart News Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle, believes that artificial intelligence will enable a vast surveillance system capable of monitoring citizens and ensuring they remain on their “best behavior.” Business Insider reports that during a recent Oracle meeting with financial analysts, Larry Ellison shared his thoughts on the future of AI-powered surveillance tools, painting a picture of a world where constant monitoring and reporting of citizens’ actions become the norm. Ellison, who ranks as the world’s sixth-richest man with a net worth of $157 billion according to Bloomberg, envisions a future where AI will be used to analyze data from various surveillance systems, including security cameras, police body cameras, doorbell cameras, and vehicle dashboard cameras similar to China’s social credit system. “We’re going to have supervision,” Ellison stated during the meeting. “Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times, and if there’s a problem, AI will report that problem and report it to the appropriate person. Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.” READ THE FULL STORY      

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CBS News House Speaker Mike Johnson announced on Tuesday that the House will move forward with a plan to vote on a partisan stopgap measure to keep the government funded this week, despite Democratic opposition and intra-party pushback that foiled a vote on the measure last week.  “Congress has an immediate obligation to do two things: responsibly fund the federal government, and ensure the security of our elections,” Johnson said in a statement, outlining that the House would vote on the six-month continuing resolution and accompanying voting legislation on Wednesday.   Last week, House GOP leaders pulled the vote from the schedule in an acknowledgment of opposition from members of their own party that likely would have doomed the bill to fail. Johnson said at the time that Republicans are “in the consensus-building business,” noting that the vote would be delayed until this week while leadership worked to shore up support. READ THE FULL STORY      

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Axios Instagram on Tuesday announced major changes to teen accounts that give parents more control over their teen’s messaging and content settings. Worldwide, over 100 million accounts will likely be impacted. The company faces intense regulatory pressure around privacy and safety for younger users, but Instagram’s head Adam Mosseri said the changes were a business decision. READ THE FULL STORY

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Business Insider The “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban says he would buy Fox News and X if he could. Cuban expressed his interest in acquiring both media properties during a wide-ranging interview with Wired’s Lauren Goode that was published Thursday. “If I had enough money to do it, which I don’t, I’d buy it in a heartbeat,” Cuban said of Fox News. READ THE FULL STORY

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The Hollywood Reporter In the biggest surprise of the weekend, conservative provocateur Matt Walsh‘s Am I Racist? opened in fourth place with an estimated $4.8 million from 1,517 locations, the top debut of 2024 so far for a doc and the third biggest since Disney’s nature film Bears a decade ago. Am I Racist? is doing big business in conservative markets in the South, Midwest and Mountain States. The Justin Folk-directed film, described as a “social experiment,” comes from Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing’s The Daily Wire and marks the company’s first theatrical launch for an in-house production with distribution handled by SDG Releasing. In the film, which is drawing comparisons to Borat in terms of its tactics, Walsh tricks his subjects by assuming the role of a DEI trainee who attends anti-racism workshops, crashes private intellectual dinner parties and conducts sit-down interviews with experts and everyday Americans alike on the topic of racism. The film also discloses the fees paid to certain experts, including Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. In recent days, DiAngelo blasted Walsh and said she had donated her $15,000 fee to the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund. READ THE FULL STORY      

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The New York Times Last February, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. sent his eight Supreme Court colleagues a confidential memo that radiated frustration and certainty. Former President Donald J. Trump, seeking to retake the White House, had made a bold, last-ditch appeal to the justices. He wanted them to block his fast-approaching criminal trial on charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 election, arguing that he was protected by presidential immunity. Whatever move the court made could have lasting consequences for the next election, the scope of presidential power and the court’s own battered reputation. The chief justice’s Feb. 22 memo, jump-starting the justices’ formal discussion on whether to hear the case, offered a scathing critique of a lower-court decision and a startling preview of how the high court would later rule, according to several people from the court who saw the document. READ THE FULL STORY

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X (Twitter) https://x.com/realjakejacks/status/1835449839058092363    

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Breitbart Democrats are fearing a “Trump surge” with male voters, based on polls historically not accurately reflecting support for former President Donald Trump, according to a report. “Trump is winning men who have not [previously] voted,” Celinda Lake, one of two leading pollsters for President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign told the Hill. “Most pollsters are adjusting. Our firm looks at two turnout estimates now. One the average and one looking at [a] Trump surge.” She said that with polls showing battleground states balanced on a knife-edge, “I think we still have to worry about a Trump surge.” READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Axios U.S. mortgage rates are at lows not seen since early 2023, ahead of next week’s expected interest rate cut. Easing mortgage rates offer house-hunters some relief. But experts say it’s going to take a bigger drop to revive the sluggish home market. A small but growing number of people are taking out new mortgages. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Washington Examiner A military court in Congo sentenced 37 people to death, including three Americans, after convicting them on charges of participating in an attempted coup on Friday. Among those sentenced were a Belgian, Briton, and Canadian. Court president Freddy Ehume delivered the verdict, stating, “The court pronounces the harshest sentence: the death penalty for criminal association, the death penalty for attack, the death penalty for terrorism.” The trial, which began in early June, focused on an alleged coup attempt on May 19, when armed men stormed government buildings, including the home of the Minister of the Economy. The group attempted to storm Congo President Felix Tshisekedi’s offices, but the army responded and thwarted the plot. Six people were killed in the botched coup attempt. Fourteen people were acquitted in the trial. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Hollywood Reporter Kevin Hart‘s vegan fast-food chain, Hart House, has closed all its locations after just two years. “To our team, guests, and community, who helped make the change we all craved. A Hartfelt goodbye for now as we start a new chapter,” the restaurant wrote on its official Instagram Tuesday. Hart House had four locations in Los Angeles County, including Westchester, Monrovia, University Park and Hollywood. The menu featured plant-based burgers, “chicken” sandwiches and nuggets, salads, tater tots, milkshakes and more. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Breitbart President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s administration have overseen a record surge in the foreign-born population, with about 2-in-13 United States residents having been born in a foreign country. Analysis published by the Center for Immigration Studies, which reviewed data from the Census Bureau’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey, details the extent to which Biden and Harris have grown the foreign-born population in the U.S. to a record-setting level. According to the survey, the foreign-born population stands at about 51.3 million as of March of this year — an increase of 2.5 million migrants compared to March 2023. In effect, the survey indicates that at least 2-in-13 U.S. residents are now foreign-born. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Washington Examiner The House Foreign Affairs Committee will move forward with a resolution to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress after the top Biden administration official failed to comply with a subpoena to testify on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.  The committee will meet for a full markup on the resolution next week, after which the panel is likely to decide whether to advance the contempt charges to the full House for a vote. Committee members will meet on Sept. 19 at 2 p.m., according to committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-TX).  The markup comes after the committee subpoenaed Blinken last week as the panel concluded its yearslong report into the chaotic withdrawal that ended in a suicide bombing outside Kabul International Airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and left several others behind as the Taliban regained control of the country. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Axios There are now two election-related betting contests legally trading on events-based marketplace Kalshi, following an opinion by a federal judge in favor of the company. Why it matters: Hundreds of millions of dollars has already been wagered on this year’s U.S. election, but all of those bets were made in a legal grey area, one that seems to have just become a lot more clear. Catch up quick: Kalshi, a startup predictions market where people can place wagers on real-world events, had sued the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for seeking to block it from offering a market for election outcomes. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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The Federalist Taking a page out of her boss’s playbook, Vice President Kamala Harris told major whoppers during her Tuesday night debate against Donald Trump. With help from left-wing activists masquerading as debate moderators, Harris whitewashed her extreme record, lied about Trump’s policy positions, and more. Here are some of the biggest falsehoods she told throughout the evening. 1. ‘Middle-Class Kid’ Harris claimed that she grew up a “middle-class kid.” That is not true. As previously noted by journalist Megyn Kelly, Harris’ father was a professor at Stanford University, while her mother was a biomedical scientist at UC Berkley. READ THE FULL STORY

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Daily Caller Republican South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson was hospitalized after collapsing Tuesday night at an event in Washington, D.C, his office announced. The 77-year-old congressman, who has represented South Carolina’s 2nd District since 2001, was at a Ukrainian Independence Day celebration when he fell ill, according to Politico. He received immediate medical assistance from a doctor in attendance before being transported to a local hospital. Wilson’s son, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, confirmed his father’s condition via X. I just spoke to my mom who is currently at the hospital with my father. Doctors have confirmed to us that he has experienced stroke-like symptoms. I was able to speak with him moments ago and I am incredibly thankful that he is stable and being monitored by medical professionals — Alan Wilson (@AGAlanWilson) September 11, 2024 READ THE FULL STORY

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Twitter / X #Remembering911 #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/3WZFMsVPRP — Dan Scavino Jr.🇺🇸🦅 (@DanScavino) September 11, 2024

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Washington Examiner Dolton, Illinois, Mayor Tiffany Henyard, dubbed “America’s worst mayor,” spent $85,000 on a party for the suburban Chicago village while she faces an investigation for taxpayer-funded expenditures. Henyard spent $50,000 in taxpayers’ money on one hour of entertainment from two musical artists and then over $35,000 on other costs such as staff, activities, and equipment, according to WGN-9. The event did not have a high turnout, according to former Dolton trustee Valeria Stubbs. “That was a flop,” she said. READ THE FULL STORY

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The Hill SpaceX launched four private citizens into orbit early Tuesday morning for an ambitious flight that aims to venture farther into space than most astronauts have flown before — aside from the 24 Apollo astronauts who have been to the moon. The daring flight, called Polaris Dawn, also seeks to include the first-ever spacewalk conducted by private citizens, though they will not venture away from the capsule.   Professional astronauts routinely conduct spacewalks at the International Space Station, but they are considered one of the riskiest parts of the spaceflight, according to The Associated Press. The spacewalk is scheduled for Thursday, midway through the five-day flight. READ THE FULL STORY    

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Politico The European Union’s top court backed a €2.4 billion (about $2.6B) EU antitrust fine for Google, a welcome boost for regulators battling Big Tech. The Court of Justice said Google’s practice of favoring its own shopping search results over rival services “was discriminatory.” The ruling can’t be appealed. Judges said that EU law forbids behavior that prevents “the maintenance or growth of competition in a market in which the degree of competition is already weakened, precisely because of the presence of one or more undertakings in a dominant position.” READ THE FULL STORY    

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NBC News The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled Monday to remove former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from state ballots ahead of the general election. The 4-3 ruling upholds an appeals court ruling Friday that said Kennedy’s name should be taken off the ballot. A lower court had previously denied Kennedy’s effort to be removed. It also means ballots will need to be reprinted. “We acknowledge that expediting the process of printing new ballots will require considerable time and effort by our election officials and significant expense to the State,” Justice Trey Allen wrote in Monday’s majority opinion. “But that is a price the North Carolina Constitution expects us to incur to protect voters’ fundamental right to vote their conscience and have that vote count.” READ THE FULL STORY

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The Daily Caller Conservative radio host Mark Levin announced on Monday that he suffered a major injury and will likely require surgery. Levin said he fell over the weekend and tore his quadricep, a group of muscles at the front of the thighs, and his right knee. The injury will likely require him to be in surgery before he returns on-air. “Unfortunately, I had a very bad fall this weekend and tore my quadricep between my right knee and thigh,” Levin said. “I’ll likely be in surgery in the next day or two. I’ll be back on air as soon as I can. God bless.” READ THE FULL STORY      

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CBS News Design features allegedly make Snapchat a favored platform of sexual criminals targeting kids, according to a lawsuit filed by New Mexico Thursday against Snap, the company that operates the popular social media app. An undercover investigation by the state found Snapchat has crafted “an environment where predators can easily target children through sextortion schemes and other forms of sexual abuse,” Attorney General Raúl Torrez stated in a news release.  Sextortion is a rapidly growing crime that involves a person pretending to be a peer coercing minors to send explicit images or videos of themselves, and then threatening to distribute the material unless they are paid. The scam has resulted in numerous teen suicides, the AG noted. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Fox News A federal judge last week ruled in favor of a whistleblower advocacy group that sued the Justice Department to unseal documents related to its secretly obtaining communications about congressional staffers who were investigating the DOJ. Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research won a partial victory in a lawsuit it filed in May, when a federal court ordered the DOJ to release documents. The victory on Friday came days after the group filed a second lawsuit to force the Justice Department to unseal additional records. “The requested records are likely to show a startling failure by DOJ to respect the long-established separation of powers in the United States Constitution,” the recent Empower Oversight complaint said. “These records will show the lengths to which DOJ went starting in 2016 to secretly surveil various congressional staff members (of both political parties) who were actively engaged in oversight of the DOJ pursuant to their constitutional authorities.” READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Washington Examiner There are so many races in Maricopa County, Arizona, this year that general election ballots will be printed on not one but two pages. One precinct in Phoenix will have 87 contests, which is the highest number of contests out of all the local ballots. It’s the first time since the 2006 midterm election that the county has needed to print the ballot on two sheets of paper. On the ballot’s first page, voters will see federal, statewide, county, and local contests. The ballot’s second page will have statewide and countywide ballot propositions. In addition to the presidential race and the Senate race between Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Republican Kari Lake, Arizonans are set to vote on a number of ballot measures.  READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Axios Montana Republican Tim Sheehy leads Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) in one of the most critical races of the 2024 election, according to new AARP polling. Whichever party wins Montana is likely to control the Senate in 2025, as most signs suggest at this point. With West Virginia all but certain to flip Republican, Democrats have to win the eight other competitive seats to keep the Senate at a 50-50 margin — and hope to have a VP Tim Walz as tie-breaker. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Breitbart Germany’s AfD has has acquired a list of the forenames of all 2023 gang rape suspects in one federal state, claiming it shows the vast majority are of migrant heritage. “A clear trend is evident” in the forenames of those named as suspects in gang rapes in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), it is stated, after the Alternative for Germany (AfD) faction applied for a release of information not found in normal government data releases. There were 209 reported ‘gang rapes’ in NRW in 2023, a publication by the state’s interior ministry answering questions by two parliamentarians from the right-wing-populist, anti-mass migration AfD reports. The document notes while there is no actual definition of gang rape in German law, the research was facilitated by looking at reported rape cases where suspects were recorded as not working alone. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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CBS News The Biden administration is debating changes that would make it harder to lift the sweeping asylum restrictions it enacted in June, drafting plans to alter the criteria that would be used to deactivate the strict border measure, two Department of Homeland Security officials told CBS News. The proposed changes concern a proclamation issued in early June by President Biden that has effectively shut down access to the American asylum system for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. Officials have credited the crackdown, the most restrictive asylum policy by a Democratic president, for a four-year-low in unauthorized border crossings. Mr. Biden’s partial asylum ban included a deactivation trigger, in which the policy would be discontinued if the seven-day average of daily illegal border crossings fell below 1,500. Under the proposed changes, the asylum restrictions would only be deactivated if the seven-day average of unlawful border crossings stay below 1,500 for 28 days, the DHS officials said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. READ THE FULL STORY 

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The Associated Press The White House is signaling an openness to blocking the acquisition of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel, as a government review of the proposed takeover by the Japanese company is on the cusp of ending. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that President Joe Biden plans to stop the deal from going forward. A White House official, insisting on anonymity to discuss the matter, did not deny the report and said Biden still needs to receive the official recommendation from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. That review could end as soon as this month. Biden had already voiced his objections to the merger, backing his supporters in the United Steelworkers union who oppose the deal. The objection carries weight as U.S. Steel is headquartered in the swing state of Pennsylvania and is a symbol of Pittsburgh’s industrial might in an election year where Republicans and Democrats alike are promising more domestic manufacturing jobs. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Breitbart In a significant victory for Elon Musk’s social media platform X, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has partially blocked a California law that mandates social media companies to disclose their policies for addressing disinformation, harassment, hate speech, and extremism. Reuters reports that the decision, which overturns a lower court judge’s ruling that had declined to pause the enforcement of the new California law, marks a crucial development in the ongoing debate over the extent of states’ authority to regulate social media companies. The law in question requires large social media platforms to publicly report their content moderation practices and provide data on the number of objectionable posts and how they were handled. Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter last year and recently rebranded it as X, had filed a lawsuit to prevent the law from taking effect, arguing that it infringed upon the First Amendment’s speech protections. The case is one among several legal challenges that have emerged as states attempt to exert greater control over social media giants. READ THE FULL STORY                     

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Catholic News Agency The historic Church of the Immaculate Conception in Saint-Omer, in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France, was ravaged by arson on the night of Sept. 2. The suspect, a multi-recidivist who has attempted to set fire to numerous places of worship in the past, was apprehended a few hours after the blaze was brought under control. According to local authorities, the fire started at around 4 a.m. It then spread to the side and central aisles, then to the roof and bell tower, which rapidly collapsed. The fire was contained by 7:15 a.m. thanks to the efforts of 120 firefighters. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Breitbart The latest development between the Biden/Harris administration and the government of Mexico on the immigration front will see migrants provided bussing from two southern Mexico cities to the United States border. The plan will provide the migrants headed to the United States with meals and security during travel from the two cities to the U.S. destination where the migrant’s asylum appointments are scheduled under the CBP-One application. The government of Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM) announced the new program in a Spanish-language notice issued on Saturday, referring to the initiative as the “Secure Emerging Mobility Corridor.” The two departure cities in southern Mexico will be Villahermosa, Tabasco, and Tapachula, Chiapas. READ THE FULL STORY                     

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Axios A former deputy chief of staff in the New York governor’s office was arrested on Tuesday and charged with acting as an agent of the Chinese Communist Party. The FBI and Department of Justice have been warning for years about covert Chinese efforts to influence American politics. These charges are a particularly stark example. Prosecutors allege the aide, Linda Sun, altered public statements to match Beijing’s preferred language, helped Chinese officials obtain travel visas, and thwarted outreach from Taiwan — all while enriching herself “to the tune of millions of dollars.” READ THE FULL STORY                   

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CBS News The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request from Oklahoma officials seeking to restore federal family planning grant funding to the state’s health department after it refused to offer patients a hotline phone number that would provide counseling on pregnancy options, including abortion. The justices turned down the bid for emergency relief from the state, which had asked the Supreme Court to temporarily stop the Department of Health and Human Services from withholding $4.5 million in federal Title X funding from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch said they would have granted Oklahoma’s request. The dispute is the latest involving abortion to land before the nation’s highest court in the wake of its June 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade. As more than half of the states banned or imposed stringent restrictions on abortions following the ruling, including Oklahoma, the Biden administration has sought to protect access at the federal level, including through an emergency care law that was at the center of a dispute before the justices in its most recent term. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Washington Examiner Former President Donald Trump signaled Thursday that he plans to vote for Florida‘s abortion referendum this fall, which would reverse his home state’s six-week abortion ban that went into effect following the Supreme Court’s 2022 repeal of Roe v. Wade. Though Trump has taken credit for installing the Supreme Court justices who struck down the ruling, which created a national right to abortion, he has also angered the anti-abortion movement by opposing restrictions on the procedure at the federal level. The former president previously hinted that he would soon unveil how he planned to vote on the Florida referendum, known as Amendment 4, during a press conference earlier this month, but in a Thursday interview with the Daily Mail, he revealed that he considers a six-week ban too restrictive. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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The National Desk College athletes are being offered cash through Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals in exchange for endorsing Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., according to emails obtained by The National Desk (TND) Thursday. The senator is up for reelection in a tight race against GOP candidate and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy. Sen. Tester’s campaign appears to be distancing itself from Vice President Kamala Harris as the senator has not endorsed her for president. Emails obtained by TND appear to offer Montana college athletes up to $2,400 for the creation of four Instagram reels endorsing Sen. Tester from now until November. The email also promotes topics such as LGBT rights, reproductive care and the economy. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Axios Google is rolling out new protections for its generative AI products as election season heats up. Google on Friday said it would extend the policies it announced for its search and YouTube products last December to more of its AI products, including Search AI Overviews, YouTube AI-generated summaries for Live Chat, Gems, and image generation in Gemini. Restrictions are already applied to some of Google’s generative AI products, such as Search Generative Experience(SGE) and Gemini, but now the restrictions are more widely extended across Google’s AI ecosystem. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Fox News The Mexican border state of Chihuahua is on alert for members of a violent Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua, or TdA, after receiving reports that members of the gang were moving through the state to cross into the U.S. near El Paso, Texas. Chihuahua Secretary of Public Safety Gilberto Loya warned Monday that Mexican authorities have seen a large number of individuals they believe are members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, or TdA, operating in the state and passing through to cross the U.S. border with Mexico near El Paso, according to a report from the Latin Times. The report comes after the Treasury Department in July sanctioned TdA as a transnational criminal organization, noting that the gang has committed human trafficking, extortion, money laundering and drug trafficking that pose a “deadly criminal threat” across the Western Hemisphere. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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CBS News Attorneys for the man charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students in 2022 say the pressure to convict is so severe that some Latah County residents are predicting lynch mobs or riots if he is acquitted. Bryan Kohberger’s defense lawyer Elisa Massoth made that argument in a filing this month, saying the only way he can get a fair trial is to move it to a new location. Second District John Judge is scheduled to preside over a hearing on the motion for a change of venue Thursday morning. If he agrees, the trial, set for June of 2025, could be moved from Moscow to Boise or another larger Idaho city. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Breitbart An illegal alien is accused of killing 48-year-old Mark Deane of Gretna, Louisiana, a longtime local journalist and producer, in a crash on the Crescent City Connection bridge on August 23. Jorge Alberto Martinez-Sanchez, a 29-year-old illegal alien who was previously denied a visa to enter the United States, has been arrested and charged with negligent homicide, reckless operation, and driving without a license in connection with Deane’s death. According to Louisiana State Police, Deane was driving his motorcycle across the Crescent City Connection bridge on the morning of August 23 when Martinez-Sanchez ran into the back of him. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Axios OpenAI said on Thursday that ChatGPT now has more than 200 million weekly active users — twice as many as it had a year ago. ChatGPT remains the leader among generative AI chatbots, but it’s an intensely competitive space with the other big names in tech offering frequent updates in hopes of grabbing share. OpenAI also said that 92% of Fortune 500 companies are using its products and that usage of its automated API has doubled since the release of GPT-4o mini in July. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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