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A US judge has threatened to hold Trump administration lawyers in contempt over their failure to release documents from the Epstein files about Donald Trump.

Judge Emmet Sullivan expressed his frustration at the Department of Justice stonewalling the release of the files.

“The public has a right to know what the hell is going on in this case,” Sullivan said.

“The victims have a right to know. The court has a right to know.”

Sullivan then described how he had filed similar contempt charges against lawyers in a prior case.

He noted a contempt charge would be a black mark that would hurt a lawyer for the rest of their career.

Maj. Gen. Robert Kinney, CAIO at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said DIA is currently undertaking a 90-day “sprint” to build the agency’s first enterprise AI platform. Kinney said DIA is also adopting Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open-source standard for connecting AI applications to external systems.

DIA is also “retooling” its ChatDIA capability to facilitate the use of MCP and agents, Kinney said.

“But thinking about it in the next year, building agents, and then agents with agents, is the direction that we want to go,” Kinney said during a Wednesday panel discussion at DoDIIS. “And there’s a whole other side to that on the compliance side, the security side, the zero trust side, that we’re going to work with our CIO teammates on.”

However, Kinney said “we’re in the very early stages of thinking through that,” adding “we’re not there yet with agents.”

When the Justice Department indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center in April on controversial fraud charges, the storied civil rights organization faced a major threat to its lifeblood — the flow of donor dollars.

Not because it was convicted or because the Internal Revenue Service revoked its tax-exempt status. Not even because individual donors stopped writing checks.

Instead, three Wall-Street-affiliated grantmaking giants each made a decision, one they refused to fully explain, to prevent donors from using their platforms to give to the embattled nonprofit.

Vanguard Charitable, Fidelity Charitable and Charles Schwab’s DAFgiving360 sponsor donor-advised funds, offering account holders immediate tax deductions on contributions they can later recommend be granted to charities.

The FBI reportedly ignored several of Hefner's tips about Epstein for 15 years, according to NewsNation.

Court records show that Audra Christiansen, a former Playboy Playmate, told Hefner in 2005 that she was an Epstein survivor and asked Hefner to contact the FBI. She suggested that authorities would be more likely to take his call over hers because of his status.

Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown, in her Substack, reported on the legal complaint, which was filed by 34 Epstein survivors against the United States in the Southern District of Florida.

In the court document, the FBI agreed to assist Christiansen and investigate her claims. But Christiansen apparently did not hear from the FBI until October 2020.

The FDA has announced a recall for a Marketside Tomato Bisque Soup Kit that has been sold at Walmart stores around the country.

Kettle Cuisine LLC of Savage, MD has recalled it's 14oz kit because the product has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria, which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections.

The soup kit was sold at stores in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin and West Virginia. The kit has a best-by date or August 22, 2026.

A nonprofit aimed at protecting Native American historical sites filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday to block the Trump administration's border security construction in Big Bend National Park.

The lawsuit claims that the Department of Homeland Security does not have authority under federal law to build in national parks and asks for an injunction to block construction and demolition work from continuing.

In a filing, Trump’s administration ‌asked the supreme court justices to keep the ​decision by the US court of appeals for ⁠the District of Columbia ​circuit ​on hold ​while it ​prepares ‌a full ​appeal.

“This case involves an extraordinary and unlawful injunction that will halt the ongoing construction of the integrated military complex including a totally secure ballroom space, at the East Wing of the White House, which is vitally required by national security,” D John Sauer, the solicitor general, wrote in the filing.

The appeals court upheld a lower court’s order blocking aboveground work on the ballroom until Congress grants its approval, but allowed construction on the underground security structure to continue. It also paused its own ruling for two weeks, until 21 August, to give the administration time to lodge its appeal to the supreme court.

The government argues that “every part” of the project is “an integrated whole geared toward remedying security deficiencies and bringing critical improvements to the White House”.

Federal regulators have launched a review of so-called "mention markets" on prediction market sites, where bettors wager millions of dollars on the word choice of everyone from President Trump to soccer sportscasters, according to two people with direct knowledge of the probe who spoke to NPR on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

In response, Kalshi, the largest prediction market in the U.S., has removed all mention markets from its betting offerings for sports as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission pursues its inquiry, according to one of the people.

While most sports betting on the site involves the action of the game, this separate type of betting has grown increasingly popular, allowing people to put money down on whether a sportscaster will say things like "MVP," "ankle" or "redshirt." These markets have now been taken down "until further notice" and it is unclear when or if Kalshi will bring them back, the person said.

While there is a link to the Play Store’s alternative app store page, it’s buried several levels deep in its confusing menus. Epic lawyer Yonatan Even showed the court that even searching for “app store” and “aptoide” didn’t show the intended results like any other search. Instead, the Play Store shows an “are you looking for” banner that links to the third-party app store page.

Google’s lawyers contended in the hearing that Epic had already agreed that app stores are in a special category due to their expanded permissions, so the extra step was appropriate. The court didn’t buy that explanation, though.

“That is not acceptable,” said Donato. “That has to be fixed. I want every possible variation that’s even only 70 percent properly phrased.”

It seems extremely unlikely that accused rapists and sex traffickers Andrew and Tristan Tate will be released from Miami’s federal detention center, where they’re being held. For one thing, the brothers are awaiting extradition to the United Kingdom to face sprawling charges related to sex trafficking, rape, assault, and indecent images of a child, and the Trump administration has declined to step in. For another, as government prosecutors laid out in a filing opposing pre-trial release earlier this week, there is something of a flight risk, given that Andrew Tate previously used an alter-ego Twitter account to brag about being, in his words, “above the law” and “hard to kill,” as well as having of four or five passports and nine drivers’ licenses in several names. “I have had warrants out for my arrest and travelled freely,” @OfWudan, an account linked to Tate, tweeted in 2019. “I am smarter than you. I am Steven Seagal. I am above the law.” (Tristan Tate, according to the prosecutors’ filing, is similarly alleged by UK authorities to have a Mexican passport bearing his photo and date of birth, but with the name “Vladimir Scorpius,” a James Bond villain.)

https://sh.itjust.works/post/64997461

The Seattle City Council passed legislation Tuesday to ban pet rent and other charges that housing advocates often call "junk fees."

Under the legislation, Seattle landlords must disclose fees in advertising rent prices, and they can’t charge fees for things like mail and package delivery. The legislation also gives the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections subpoena power over landlords and the ability to investigate suspected violations of regulations on security deposits and move-in costs. The new regulations don't go into effect until July 1, 2027.

The legislation does not stop landlords from charging pet deposits or charging tenants for damages related to their pets.