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The Kylie Cosmetics founder teased the second installment of her collaboration on her Turks & Caicos trip last month.

Julius' Castle, which has sat dark since 2008, will finally reopen its doors in September.

Jeb Bush commended his former nemesis, President Trump, for debilitating Iran and diminishing its ability to stoke mayhem in the region, but warned that it may have made Cuba more of a threat.

The family of a California college football star is in mourning after tragically losing their 25-year-old son in a hit and run accident in the small town of Delano on Wednesday.

Jack Smith's Team Exposed Classified Materials, Senator Finds

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Prosecutors with the office of former special counsel Jack Smith left classified materials unsecured and provided materials to at least one person without confirming that person needed to see them, a senator said on July 8.

A set of messages from Smith’s team showed that in 2024, the team left a facility designated for the review of sensitive information open overnight, and potentially longer.

“Who opened the [facility] yesterday?” one member of the team asked in a message.

“No one opened it yesterday because no one closed it the day before,” another member replied.

A second set of messages from 2024 outlined how the team provided classified materials to an unidentified person despite not having confirmation that the person needed to see the materials.

The incidents took place as Smith’s team, which was part of the Department of Justice (DOJ), was prosecuting then-presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified materials during his first term as president.

“Talk about the pot calling the kettle black,” Grassley said in a statement.

“According to these messages, Biden DOJ personnel may have committed the very offense for which Jack Smith was prosecuting President Trump. These records expose yet another double standard of justice.”

Grassley also wrote in a post on X that the messages “indicate hypocritical [and] careless behavior” and “merit further investigation.”

He pointed to how some former officials, such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, mishandled classified information but were not charged.

Grassley asked Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, for more records, including whether the facility that was left unlocked contained any material that was part of Smith’s prosecution of Trump, and whether the DOJ investigated Smith’s team for giving classified information without the need-to-know confirmation.

“The Department is aware of the concerns raised in Senator Grassley’s letter and takes the safeguarding of classified information very seriously. Every official entrusted with sensitive materials must follow strict security protocols without exception — a standard Jack Smith’s team apparently failed to meet as they pursued a politically weaponized prosecution of President Trump,” a DOJ spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

“As with any alleged security lapse, the Department reviews such matters through established internal processes to determine whether protocols were followed, whether classified information was compromised, and whether any corrective steps are warranted. The Department will continue to apply those procedures rigorously, consistent with our longstanding commitment to protecting national security and maintaining the integrity of our operations.”

Smith, who has said his investigation was proper, was appointed in November 2022 by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to manage investigations into Trump, who at the time was out of office.

Federal prosecutors later charged Trump with violations of federal law governing the handling of classified information, as well as other charges such as illegally interfering in the 2020 presidential election.

Prosecutors dropped the cases after Trump won the 2024 election, noting that he would soon be president.

Part of Smith’s final report was released to the public prior to the start of Trump’s second term, outlining how Smith believed the evidence against Trump would have resulted in a conviction. A federal judge later ruled that the other part shall never be made public.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 15:40

Mets backup catcher Luis Torrens would be a nice fit for the Yankees, who seek catching help. Ryan Jeffers, a big hitter (.949 OPS) about to return from a hamate injury, makes sense, but the Twins are contending in an ultra-weak AL. Torrens, a former Yankee farmhand who’s very strong defensively, makes a fair $4.75M...

Podcaster & “House of Stassi” star Taylor Strecker stopped by “Virtual Reali-Tea” to dish on her manifestation dreams coming true: she’s officially a reality TV star! She went on to talk about auditioning for “Real Housewives of New Jersey” — and may still be waiting to hear back. She also sounds off on clocking Amanda...

Podcaster & “House of Stassi” star Taylor Strecker stopped by “Virtual Reali-Tea” to dish on her manifestation dreams coming true: she’s officially a reality TV star! She went on to talk about auditioning for “Real Housewives of New Jersey” — and may still be waiting to hear back. She also sounds off on clocking Amanda...

Joshua Acosta, 39, was arrested Wednesday night in connection to the sick ordeal that began in 2021 and continued through last month, according to authorities and law enforcement sources. 

They’re buckling up to return. Evacuees ordered to stay away from a Midtown high-rise with buckling beams kept trickling back to their hotels and jobs Thursday, although lingering frustrations — and closures — remained. A trio of Scottish tourists — Lucy McCarron, Collette Miller and Nicole Murrey — were only allowed to return to the...

The Fiji vacation is over, so where are the dumped islanders now?

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex originally cancelled plans for their kids to travel to the UK due to security concerts.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex originally cancelled plans for their kids to travel to the UK due to security concerts.

Plus, his favorite sneakers and the lip balm he has on hand "24/7."

Plus, his favorite sneakers and the lip balm he has on hand "24/7."

Banish jet lag with these jet-lag-proof products.

Leave it to Hathaway to prove just how elevated a classic tee can be.

Leave it to Hathaway to prove just how elevated a classic tee can be.

Here's how to see Nick, Howie, AJ, Kevin and Brian for a few bucks less.

Starbucks Using AI To Build Software Replacing Applications It Buys From Microsoft, IBM

Corporate America has been desperate to see a burst of productivity (i.e., cost cutting) emerging from the latest flood of agentic AI euphoria, and it is slowly starting to get it. Not everyone will be pleased.

Starbucks is developing in-house tools with the help of artificial intelligence that could replace some software applications it now buys from companies such as Microsoft and IBM. 

According to Bloomberg, the coffee chain, whose stock price has gone nowhere in the past 3 years, is building alternatives to a Microsoft system that tracks inventory and an IBM tool that manages maintenance. Some of the Starbucks-developed software could roll out by the end of next year, pending the results of testing, the report notes.

Before the advent of advanced AI models, businesses were tethered for years to their technology vendors due to fear of business disruption and the complexity of building in-house tools. But AI is shifting that calculus as it makes it easier to develop applications from scratch and as companies push workers to use the technology (especially when it means those very same workers are teaching AI models how to do their work for them).

This is hardly new: at the start of 2026 the software sector cratered as Wall Street expressed doubts about the "terminal value" of business models that can easily be disrupted by AI. Since then, sentiment has stabilized but leading software companies still face concerns about whether they’ll be able to fend off competition from products built by upstarts, or their own customers, using AI. This phenomenon has weighed on software stocks this year, with Microsoft and IBM both trailing the S&P 500.

Shares of both companies fell during trading on Thursday, with Microsoft down 2.4% and IBM sinking 5.2% at 9:30 a.m. in New York, following the Bloomberg report..

Starbucks spends about $400 million a year on software alone, CTO Anand Varadarajan told workers in an internal forum earlier this year. “There’s clear opportunities to reduce the spend in software,” Varadarajan said. In-house software can be cheaper, an incentive for companies such as Starbucks, which is looking to cut $2 billion in costs as part of a broader turnaround effort. That said, in the long run, building can lead a company to pay higher maintenance and labor costs.

When it comes to technology, Starbucks company is reviewing “every contract and service,” according to the presentation seen by Bloomberg. In some cases, that includes building products to replace software that its engineers have to heavily tailor anyway. As an example, the company has been working for several years on building a point-of-sale system that would take the place of Oracle Simphony.  In a blog post earlier this year, the company said AI and other technology advancements will support its long-term growth and free up baristas to focus more on customer service.

AI-assisted coding was also key to developing the platform that could replace the IBM tool. Starbucks has been pushing tech workers to use artificial intelligence, even factoring usage into their bonuses, which is ironic since the better the model, the less need for the person who created it meaning the bonus will likely be their last.

To be sure, there’s skepticism about how much, or how quickly, AI can speed up and automate work. Starbucks recently pulled an AI-powered system to track inventory at stores, reverting to manual counting; According to Reuters, that tool was part of CEO Brian Niccol's efforts to fix the coffee chain's persistent product shortages that he has blamed for hurting sales. The app - designed to improve Starbucks’ visibility into shortages at stores - frequently miscounted and mislabeled items, such as confusing similar milk types or ​missing them altogether. It also continues to use software from third-party vendors, including from companies such as Microsoft. 

The Starbucks enterprise technology team is on track to reduce its budget by about $30 million in the fiscal year ending in late September, according to the internal presentation. That includes cutting about $10 million in software spending. Another $13 million will be saved mostly by cutting back on contractors from professional services firms and backfilling some roles with its own staff. Starbucks is setting up offices in Nashville and India that will house some tech workers, while others will remain at its Seattle headquarters. The company has cut about 2,300 jobs since February of last year, including many in tech.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/09/2026 - 15:20