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As of June 1, less than $260,000 has been returned, leaving $1.36 million in taxpayer funds still outstanding, according to the audit.

Outside of injury, it’s the cruelest part of sports. But it’s the reality facing the U.S. national team as the World Cup knockout stage begins.

A belated goodbye to my neighbor and longtime friend, Clive Davis.

SAN DIEGO — One big hit and a bunch of great at-bats. That’s all the Dodgers needed to take control of a rubber-match 4-2 win over the Padres on Sunday afternoon at Petco Park. With the score tied entering the top of the fifth inning, and a pivotal midseason series hanging in the balance between...

In New York's suburbs, where some key House races are being held, only 33% viewed Trump favorably and 60% unfavorably in a recent poll.

Pols and experts claim that there’s a long-unheard secret tape of an "Invasion of Washington" UFO briefing – and they say the public could hear it very soon. 

On his 10th shot, J.T. Poston was finally able to get the ball onto the green, but missed a subsequent putt on his 11th shot and finally drained a putt from 8 inches for a 12 on the hole. 

Love is love, but Chuck isn’t getting any. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Attention, pitching-starved playoff contenders: There’s a left-handed former Cy Young Award winner in San Francisco who just went toe-to-toe with Chris Sale. It’s not just Robbie Ray’s effort Sunday in the Giants’ 3-2 win over the Braves and their own former Cy Young Award winner that should get phones ringing in the...

The Knicks enter 2026 NBA Free Agency as defending NBA champions, but their biggest offseason question may not be who they can add. It may be how much they are willing to spend to keep a title team together. Dexter Henry is joined by Jeremy Cohen of Knicks Film School to preview the start of...

CDC Raises Ebola Response To Highest Level As Outbreak Grows

Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has activated its highest-level emergency response to the growing Ebola outbreak in central Africa caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain, as the agency says that the risk of spread within the United States remains low.

The move to Level 1 activation, signifying the most severe health crises, comes as the outbreak, which is now in its second month, has infected more than 1,200 people in Congo, with 321 deaths reported there, plus additional cases in neighboring Uganda, according to the World Health Organization. This marks the highest first-month total of any Ebola episode on record.

Dr. Satish Pillai, the CDC’s incident manager for the Ebola response, detailed the agency’s efforts during a briefing on June 26.

Pillai said the CDC has stationed 19 staff members overseas to aid country teams and local health ministries with data analysis, exit screenings at airports, laboratory support, and training. Those personnel join approximately 100 CDC staff already on the ground in Congo and Uganda.

There are no approved vaccines or specific treatments for the Bundibugyo strain, distinguishing it from more common Zaire ebolavirus outbreaks. Mortality rates for Bundibugyo have historically spanned from 25 percent to 50 percent, according to the CDC.

The United States is currently developing a vaccine to combat the Bundibugyo strain through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

That agency is also sending doses of the experimental monoclonal antibody therapy MBP134, which was developed with Mapp Biopharmaceutical for compassionate use and a randomized clinical trial spearheaded by the University of Oxford. BARDA has also pre-positioned 2,500 rapid diagnostic tests for deployment to Africa.

BARDA is also seeking proposals for vaccine candidates using the same platform as Merck’s Ervebo vaccine, which targets the Zaire strain.

The effort strives to support both the current outbreak response and longer-term preparedness in coordination with global partners, including the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

The outbreak, first confirmed in mid-May in Congo, has spread to additional health zones, with recent jumps in cases and deaths. Congo’s Ministry of Communications reported 72 new cases and 32 new deaths in one update, raising the regional toll. Death totals in the outbreak have surpassed 200, with confirmed fatalities climbing steadily.

The outbreak has encompassed the displacement camps where the first Ebola deaths were reported, and challenges like laboratories running low on testing supplies early on in the response. Uganda has closed its border with Congo, and has confirmed cases and deaths of its own.

U.S. officials have issued travel advisories for the impacted regions. The State Department and CDC have issued guidance for travelers, with certain restrictions expanded in response to the outbreak.

Health authorities underscore that while the situation in Africa is serious, transmission requires direct contact with bodily fluids of infected individuals or contaminated surfaces, lowering the threat of widespread spread in the United States.

No cases have been reported in the United States connected to this outbreak.

Prior Ebola outbreaks, including the 2014–2016 West Africa epidemic, have also prompted a previous Level 1 CDC activation. International partners, including UNICEF and Gavi, have also urged accelerated vaccine development for the Bundibugyo strain.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/28/2026 - 18:40

Horrific new video shows the massive crocodile that killed a 28-year-old man in Puerto Vallarta in front of a California couple. Grainy nighttime footage captured the huge reptile with its jaws open near Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort & Spa after the deadly attack. Horrific new video shows the massive crocodile that killed a 28-year-old man...

Jessica Alba, Simu Liu, Cristo Fernandez Gianni Infantino and a star-studded list of celebrities attended Canada's historic Round of 32 showdown.

A viral video showed what appeared to be poop on the floor at Kahan's Philadelphia concert stop.

A viral video showed what appeared to be poop on the floor at Kahan's Philadelphia concert stop.

The accident was triggered by another driver experiencing a medical emergency.

Weston McKennie has taken up a new habit at the U.S. men’s national team’s World Cup base.

Thursday and Friday could see temps hit and potentially surpass a broiling 100 degrees, with the real-feel more like 105 to 110.

Chinese AI Matches Mythos In Cybersecurity Tasks With Open-Weight Model

While Anthropic has been forced to shut down its latest general-use models for over two weeks after it emerged that the company's de-tuned public-facing Fable 5 model could be 'jailbroken' into its unrestricted form (Mythos 5) to perform tasks that pose security risks, a Chinese AI company backed by Alibaba and Tencent has released a model that matches the performance of Mythos in some cybersecurity scenarios. 

The company, Zhipu AI - also known as Z.ai, can match the latest US models when it comes to finding security bugs - though it still lags at other tasks, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Overall, the capability gap between top U.S. models and those built by Chinese companies has narrowed significantly, and use of Chinese AI systems has surged as businesses seek to rein in runaway costs. A host of companies, including Microsoft, are weighing how they can offer Chinese models on their platforms, a development that is set to alter the balance of power among tech companies.

What's more, Zhipu's GLM-5.2 is an open-weight model, meaning it can be downloaded and run on hardware by anyone and can be modified and used without supervision - which hackers are undoubtedly loving. 

GLM-5.2 has ranked as one of the 10 most-used AI models, according to data from OpenRouter, a company that provides access to more than 400 AI models. In some benchmarking tests, according to the cybersecurity company Semgrep, GLM-5.2 bested Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8 model, which was released in May. When given further instructions, Opus 4.8 and GLM-5.2 can match Mythos in bug-finding ability, according to researchers.

As we noted last week for our premium subscribers, this is how Goldman's Delta One head, Rich Privorotsky framed the latest Chinese shock to the system from open-weight models: 

The big development over the last couple of days has been GLM-5.2, another Chinese open source model that appears highly competitive on SWE benchmarks relative to some of the latest private models. It is not quite cutting edge, but the gap between open and closed models continues to narrow. The weights are open (MIT license), models can be distilled, quantized and reproduced...its a big leap in capability and a clear sign the field is narrowing.

It's not just some of Wall Street's top thinkers who were immediately drawn to the stats of the latest Chinese offering: various industry insiders were in shock.

Artificial Analysis’ new knowledge work benchmark rated it higher than GPT 5.5

"This kind of powerful weapon that can alter the landscape of cyberwarfare can’t remain solely in American hands," Zhou Hongyi - CEO of Chinese cybersecurity company 360 Security Technology, speaking at a cybersecurity conference in Beijing. His company has released a new bug-finding tool called Tulongfeng - which it claims is comparable to Mythos when it comes to finding bugs. 

Zhou Hongyi, chief executive of 360 Security Wu Hao/EPA/Shutterstock

So while the Trump administration restored some access to Mythos 5, IT departments across America are now at a disadvantage when it comes to using something this powerful to find and patch their own vulnerabilities. 

"Banning Fable while selling chips China needs to develop its own version is a gift to China," said Saif Khan - a distinguished technology fellow at the Institute for Progress think tank who focused on export restrictions under the Biden administration. Kahn says that the US needs to maximize the use of Mythos and similar models to harden cyber defenses while it can. 

Among the Mythos 5 and Fable 5 users that had lost access before Friday’s decision to restore Mythos 5 access for some trusted entities: the National Security Agency, which had been testing the tools and found them impressive in trials, according to people familiar with the matter.

Critics of the White House approach have said it has been lax in restricting use of Chinese open-weight models from companies such as DeepSeek and Zhipu, which are popular among U.S. businesses. -WSJ

Meanwhile - OpenAI on Friday said it will now limit access to its latest model - GPT 5.6, after Trump administration officials raised security concerns. The company warned that the government's current case-by-case evaluation process isn't a good long-term solution, but they're adhering to it following a recent executive order focused on security and model oversight. 

In short, the Trump administration is driving people to use open-weight Chinese models, while hobbling the US AI industry. 

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/28/2026 - 18:05

The US and Iran have agreed to meet after the Islamic republic suffered blows in the peace deal relating to the Strait of Hormuz and Lebanon, a US official told The Post.