Since late last year, senior officials at the Justice Department and their allies in the news media have been unabashedly discussing a pair of investigations into John Brennan, the former CIA director, who has long been one of President Donald Trump’s most reviled political enemies. On Wednesday, Brennan’s lawyers publicly...
Musk Denies WSJ Report That SpaceX Showed AI Handset Prototype Before IPO
Elon Musk on Wednesday denied a Wall Street Journal report that SpaceX showed investors and other stakeholders a prototype of an AI-focused device ahead of its blockbuster IPO. "Utterly false," Musk said in a post on X, without elaborating. The Journal had reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that...
Merced County Point Fire Burns Near Santa Nella, Grows to 500 Acres
Firefighters are battling a 500-acre wildfire near Highway 152 and Dinosaur Point Road in Merced County that broke out Wednesday morning and remained 0% contained, according to CalFire. The Point Fire, reported at 11:09 a.m., is burning in the CalFire Madera-Mariposa-Merced Unit and remains under investigation. No structures have been...
Russian Daredevils Unfurl Banner Atop New York’s Empire State Building in Proposal Stunt
A Russian couple of daredevil artists climbed to the top of the Empire State Building's towering spire in New York City on Wednesday to unfurl a large banner urging world peace in what appeared to be an elaborate marriage proposal that ended in their arrests. Dressed in sleeveless black outfits...
Troop Casualties in Ukraine War Top 2 Million, Study Finds
WASHINGTON — More than 2 million Russian and Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded in the four years that Russia has been waging war against its neighbor, according to a new study, a bleak milestone as Russia’s assault grinds on. The study, published on Wednesday by the Center for...
Venezuela Earthquake Victims’ Shelters House Homeless Volunteers and Survivors
The command center at a disused classroom in Venezuela is a hive of activity as radios crackle to life and medical staff check in for their day's assigned duties. Though this organization would not be out of place at a military barracks overseen by generals, the deployment is taking place...
NYPD Memo Outlines Taylor Swift Wedding Events at the Garden
NEW YORK — Hundreds of police officers are expected to be on patrol and roads will be closed in midtown Manhattan for a private, two-day event at Madison Square Garden around the wedding of Taylor Swift, according to interviews and an internal police planning memo. Beginning Thursday, officers from the...
US Car Sales on Cruise Control Despite Pressures
Automakers on Wednesday reported steady second-quarter U.S. vehicle sales, despite what normally would be a bleak backdrop for the car business. Since early spring, American consumers have confronted sharply higher gas prices, an uptick in inflation, unease over jobs, and jitters over the Iran war. And yet, U.S. vehicle sales...
California Man With Bipolar Disorder Says ChatGPT Fueled Delusions, Led to Self-Harm in New Lawsuit
A California man sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman on Wednesday, claiming the company's ChatGPT platform exacerbated his bipolar disorder due to a lack of safeguards for users with mental illness. Michael Lines, 34, said in the complaint filed in state court in San Francisco that conversations he had with...
US Declines to Extend North American Trade Deal, Starting Clock to End It While Seeking Changes
The Trump administration declined on Wednesday to extend the U.S. trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, starting a decade-long clock to wind down the North American trade deal as it seeks changes to try to reshore manufacturing jobs. The decision, revealed after a six-year review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, keeps...
