Conservative commentator Steve Bannon weighed in on the stunning primary wins by far-left Democrat candidates, declaring that the country is entering a new era in politics. The […]
MS NOW reports voters appear to be mindful of President Donald Trump raking in millions of dollars this summer while their own air-conditioning bills are creeping out of reach of their monthly home budget.Across much of the country, the 4th of July weekend is bringing more than just fireworks. It's also bringing dangerous and potentially record-breaking heat from the Midwest all the way to the northeast with heat indexes potentially climbing well above 100 degrees.More than 160 million people in 30 states are currently under extreme heat warnings this holiday weekend, with little sign of relief from either Mother Nature or the Trump economy. In places like New York, for example, humidity can make a 100-degree day feels like 110, 115 degrees. And it is, of course, considerably more humid in many Southern red states.MS NOW reporter Moses Small marched out into the street and talked to voters fleeing high home utility bills at city cooling centers.“Yeah, it's stressful,” said New York resident Daniela Crespo. “I've been anticipating looking at the forecast, thinking about, how many days am I going to run the AC? What temperature am I going to set it at? What is this going to cost me? It definitely has been on my mind.”Crespa added, however, that even as her own monthly electric bill blows up in her face and she struggles to control it by adjusting her AC to the tip of tolerance she is markedly aware of the extreme wealth pooling out of the White House and the Trump family’s bank accounts.“I mean, I think it really distills the kind of moment we're in with the level of corruption that we're seeing at the very highest levels of government,” Crespa told Snow, speaking on Trump making $2 billion in White House related monetization schemes and crypto machinations since returning to the White House.“When it gets to this hot, families tell me they really do think about the utility bills and their bank accounts,” said Snow, “especially with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting inflation up 4.2 percent in the past year — but within that, a 23.5 percent jump on energy costs.”Snow added that a CNBC analysis claims Americans, on average, have spent an extra almost $450 in gas and electric prices alone since Trump unilaterally kicked off his war in Iraq. Meanwhile, the money the Trump family is making while occupying the White House appears to smell with enough corruption to make Democrats competitive even in some of the reddest farm states this November. - YouTube youtu.be
The fight that scrubbed the world's most powerful AI models from the internet featured personality clashes, industry confusion, and international backlash.Why it matters: Anthropic's models are back online, but the impact of its 20-day showdown with the Trump administration will be long lasting.Behind the scenes: It began when Amazon, Anthropic's partner and investor, sounded an alarm that was later disputed by cybersecurity experts.It warned about a "jailbreaking" issue it found with the AI lab's latest models, Mythos and Fable — meaning a technical flaw that could have caused a failure of their guardrails.Amazon flagged its concerns to the administration, triggering sweeping export controls. A U.S. official said the government conducted its own tests once it became apparent that the issue needed to be addressed.Cybersecurity experts, however, later wrote in an open letter to the administration that other leading AI models have the same issue Amazon warned about with Anthropic.On June 12, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, at the direction of President Trump, called Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Lutnick made clear to Amodei the issue needed to be resolved fast and alerted the CEO that the company would be receiving a letter imposing sweeping export controls, the U.S. official said.Amodei called Lutnick back that night after receiving the letter, realizing it effectively meant the models would have to be taken offline — to which Lutnick responded that was indeed the goal.That decision led to a three-week, multi-agency crash course in AI safety.Anthropic deployed engineers to Washington D.C. According to a U.S. official, the company wanted to prove everything was already resolved and further changes were being fine tuned.But the federal Center for AI Standards and Innovation and the National Security Agency said those changes weren't good enough, prompting further fixes, according to the U.S. official.Gradually, various agency heads approved of the changes, and on July 1 the models were released, the official said.Out of all of the administration officials Amazon's Andy Jassy could have called, it was Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent who first heard about the jailbreaking issue found in the company report, according to a separate source familiar.Bessent was early to sound the alarm on Mythos, work with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to re-engage the embattled company, and help get a cybersecurity executive order across the finish line.While technical discussions to address the jailbreaking issue took place in D.C., it was Bessent who stood next to President Trump during the G7 where allies called for global cooperation on safety standards.At the center of the showdown was Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who also flanked Trump at the G7 meeting while his department's teams led technical discussions.National cyber director Sean Cairncross, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Treasury Department chief information officer Sam Corcos, and the NSA also all participated in technical discussions, according to various sources.Washington mobilized faster to hold scores of meetings and pulled in far more agencies than one would expect for a single technical issue, one source said.The tension spiraled amid personality clashes and poor communication.Anthropic eventually understood that in order to be successful they needed to be on the same side as the government, the U.S. official said.As discussions turned more technical, Anthropic policy chief Sarah Heck and Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown got more involved. Brown also had multiple conversations with Lutnick and Cairncross the weekend of June 12.There was never a moment where Dario stepped offstage and someone else replaced him, one source said, adding that Brown's technical expertise allowed him to sit in a room with government specialists and go line‑by‑line through how models behave under stress.Between the lines: It remains uncertain when and how Anthropic's models will be released to ally countries around the world — which proponents say is key to beating China — or how other labs from OpenAI to Google will release their latest models.OpenAI, whose latest model GPT-5.6 is on hold, did not have visibility into discussions between Anthropic and the White House and is engaged in daily technical discussions on the release of its own model, a source said.The bottom line: There's a lot of work left to be done on a framework for approving future models with a clear inclusive process that has transparency standards and timelines, sources familiar said.
Director Kash Patel's FBI has ordered every field office to immediately send analysts to support its investigation into the 2020 election in Georgia, according to a new report.MS NOW obtained an unclassified memo showing Patel is mobilizing 260 intelligence analysts — from every field office in the country — as part of what the bureau calls a "priority effort" in Atlanta."In support of the Director's Office priority effort, the Directorate of Intelligence (DI) and Criminal Division are requesting all FBI field offices to immediately surge support to an FBI Atlanta priority investigation," the memo said.Each analyst must complete 708 records checks by July 17, MS NOW said."Overtime (including weekends and holidays) has been authorized," the memo added."Looking for derogatory information is the short answer," one official told MS NOW. "The idea is to build a case. Look at associations between people, look into their social media, their business activity, travel, contact with other investigative subjects."In January, Patel's FBI raided the Fulton County Elections and Operations Hub, seizing more than 600 boxes of records. The warrant relied largely on claims previously debunked by Republican-led investigations in Georgia. Then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accompanied the FBI during the search and arranged for President Donald Trump to speak by phone with agents on-site.The Department of Justice issued subpoenas in April for the personal information of thousands of 2020 election workers in the state. The FBI has also targeted 2020 records in Arizona and Wisconsin. Patel predicted arrests in April, though none have come.Democratic Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts said the county has been targeted for years because it rejected Trump's "big lie" that the 2020 election was stolen."These ongoing efforts are about intimidation and distraction, not facts," Pitts said.Former President Joe Biden beat Trump in Georgia in 2020 by 11,779 votes. Trump has long pushed for ongoing investigations into his loss to Biden.
Rep. Diana DeGette didn’t take a socialist challenger seriously. Now she’s scrambling to convince voters she’s still the progressive pick.
The post Socialists Are Surging. In Colorado, a 29-Year Incumbent Is Sweating. appeared first on The Intercept.
