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The death toll in Sri Lanka’s prison clash rose Tuesday to 26 — seven prison officials and 19 inmates, according to reports.

A former California prosecutor running for political office is groveling for local Democratic support after detractors pointed out his past support for immigration enforcement.

Among a host of errors Monday night, goalkeeper Matt Freese had the most glaring for the USMNT in the 4-1 loss.

Farage Resigns As MP To Force 'People Vs. The Establishment' By-Election

Nigel Farage, leader of Britain's Reform UK party, said Tuesday he is resigning as the member of Parliament for Clacton to trigger a by-election in the Essex constituency, which he intends to contest as the party's candidate.

Farage, who won the seat in the 2024 general election, cast the upcoming vote as a direct challenge to political and media elites. "This will be a people vs. the establishment by-election," he said in a statement. "A chance to stick two fingers up to the entire establishment."

I will make a statement on my future in public life at 2pm.

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) July 7, 2026

The announcement came during a statement on his "future in public life" after days of intense scrutiny over his personal finances and political donations. Farage has been under investigation by Parliament's standards commissioner since May over a £5 million gift he received in early 2024 from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne, a major Reform UK donor. Critics say the gift should have been declared because it was received in the 12 months before Farage became an MP.

Additional questions have arisen over undeclared support Farage allegedly received from longtime associate George Cottrell, who was convicted of wire fraud in the United States in 2017. Reports also detailed media coverage of Farage's family home, prompting the politician to accuse outlets of harassing his daughter and other relatives.

This is an outright lie from @SkyNews. They hounded my daughter at home, just days after The Times published where my family live. Despicable behaviour from the media. pic.twitter.com/cNfZ6Rmzb4

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) July 6, 2026

Farage has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, describing the gifts and support as personal matters and calling the investigations an "establishment hit job." He said he has "done nothing wrong" and has not broken any laws.

The move allows Farage to bypass a potential parliamentary suspension and recall petition process and instead put his future directly before voters in Clacton. He has long portrayed himself as an outsider battling entrenched interests, a message that has resonated with a significant portion of the British public.

Latest polling shows Reform UK competitive nationally. A YouGov survey conducted July 5-6 and published Tuesday put the party at 25%, ahead of the Conservatives on 21% and Labour on 20%. Farage's personal favorability ratings remain lower, however, reflecting deep polarization around his leadership.

Clacton has been a stronghold for Farage's brand of politics. He captured the seat in 2024 with 46% of the vote and a majority of more than 8,400. A by-election there is widely expected to be winnable for Reform UK, though it will draw intense national attention as a test of whether recent controversies have damaged the party's momentum.

The date of the by-election has not yet been set. Preparations for the contest are already under way following earlier speculation about a possible recall petition.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/07/2026 - 10:15

Get cozy, for nearly 50% off.

Jenny Racicot made the allegations against Platner in a bombshell report published in Politico on Tuesday that threatens to end the Oysterman’s already scandal-ridden campaign.

Skip the salon.

The buzzy horror movie did not release on PVOD today, as expected. 

DeepSeek Developing In-House AI Chip In Bid To Cut Nvidia Reliance

DeepSeek is developing its own artificial intelligence chip, a move that could reduce its reliance on both US-based Nvidia and China-based Huawei.

Leading model developers are increasingly seeking to control more of their compute stacks, particularly for inference, as AI models move from training labs into the mass market.

DeepSeek is the latest company to pursue this strategy by developing a new in-house inference chip, Reuters reports.

If successful, this effort would mark a major shift for the Chinese AI chatbot company and add new pressure on Nvidia's long-term dominance across the AI compute market. It would also add pressure on Huawei, which has benefited from US export controls that blocked Chinese firms from buying Nvidia's most advanced AI chips.

US companies such as Meta Platforms, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic are also increasingly turning to in-house chips to reduce AI infrastructure costs.

According to the report, DeepSeek's effort to design a new inference chip is in the "early stages," suggesting that developing a competitive AI chip could take a few years.

A new Bloomberg Intelligence survey found that an increasing number of Chinese companies are shifting away from Nvidia's advanced AI chips.

Chinese executives expect to allocate 46% of their AI accelerator budgets to domestic AI infrastructure over the next 12 months, up from 30% today, according to the survey.

The findings point to growing momentum behind Beijing's push to replace Nvidia in domestic chip stacks.

"China's drive to substitute locally made AI semiconductors for foreign ones is making progress, which is likely to benefit domestic markers such as Huawei and Hygon," said the report, which surveyed dozens of executives at Chinese software, finance, manufacturing and retail companies.

For Nvidia, the risk is not an immediate loss of market share, but a longer-term shift in which Chinese companies and AI chatbot startups increasingly seek in-house or domestically produced chips, suggesting mounting headwinds for Nvidia.

Meanwhile, the token-maxxing fiasco appears to have accelerated a global shift toward low-cost models, a trend that may favor Chinese AI chatbots.

Bloomberg cited OpenRouter data showing that Chinese models are capturing a growing share of developer usage, suggesting that China's AI firms are becoming more competitive in global model adoption.

Magnificent Seven stocks were mixed Tuesday morning, with Nvidia down about 2%.

Nvidia remains up roughly 5% year-to-date, but the stock is still about 17% below its May peak, as investors reassess the longer-term risk of AI model developers building more of their own compute stacks and China seeking to source domestic AI chips.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/07/2026 - 09:55

Disgraced former politician Andrew Gillum, a one-time Democratic Party rising star and CNN political commentator, has been arrested in Alabama for allegedly having drugs, according to records. Gillum – who narrowly lost to Ron DeSantis in the 2018 gubernatorial election – was arrested Thursday in Daphne before being booked for possession of dangerous drugs, marijuana...

The richest spider is going up the waterspout.

"Your current calorie intake is 2,000 calories. Are you sure you want to proceed?"

As one key member of the 2019 Raptors title team returns, another is saying goodbye to the sport.

Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage announced Tuesday he is quitting as an MP as part of an ongoing probe into his personal finances.

Despite the oversized media coverage, the AI "actress" Tilly Norwood isn't that popular.

The anticipated Spears biopic has a top screenwriter to pen an early draft for director Jon M. Chu and producer Marc Platt.

Not everyone can agree on the amount of people that tuned in to the UFC's White House event in June.

Ukrainian Drone Swarm Attack Hits Eight Russian 'Shadow Fleet' Tankers

Beyond Ukraine's increasing kamikaze drone attacks on key Russian energy infrastructure, which appear to be fueling a domestic fuel crisis, Kyiv has now widened the pressure campaign of drone swarm attacks on Russia's shadow fleet of tankers.

Reuters cites a statement from Ukraine's drone forces that said a swarm of loitering munitions struck eight Russian shadow fleet tankers with a deadweight of around 7,000 tons in the Sea of Azov.

The drone swarm attack came a day after Ukraine's special forces hit two other shadow-fleet tankers in the same area.

Ukraine said it was targeting Russia's naval supply chain to induce fuel shortages and a broader push to isolate Crimea. The peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014 and serves as a staging ground for Moscow’s war effort.

"Striking the enemy's naval logistics complicates the supply of fuel and ammunition necessary ‌to support the activities of Russian troops, primarily in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea," the drone forces said.

Ukraine stated that it struck 8 tankers of the Russian shadow fleet in the Sea of Azov.

All the tankers are under international sanctions. pic.twitter.com/ESVpXGdh3k

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) July 7, 2026

A new Financial Times report, citing data from Rochan Consulting, showed that recent Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries hit a record monthly high of 16 in May. 

Source: Financial Times 

Since the start of this year, refineries have been hit at least 194 times, an 11-fold increase from the same period one year ago.

Source: Financial Times 

Russia is now intercepting an average of roughly 600 Ukrainian drones per day, highlighting the scale of Kyiv’s ability to mass-produce low-cost drones.

Source: Financial Times 

Ukraine has sharply increased attacks on Russia’s critical energy infrastructure over the past year, with refineries and fuel logistics emerging as core targets.

Source: Financial Times 

That pressure campaign expanded again in June, as Kyiv simultaneously ramped up strikes on Russian military production sites.

Source: Financial Times 

Moscow, meanwhile, has been escalating its own drone swarm attacks on Ukrainian cities, infrastructure and military targets.

Source: Financial Times 

The takeaway here is very clear as both sides are moving deeper into massive drone warfare, and neither appears prepared to de-escalate.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/07/2026 - 09:40

Alleged Jan. 6 Pipe Bomber Not Covered By Trump's Blanket Pardon: Judge

Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times,

The man accused of planting pipe bombs in Washington prior to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, is not covered by President Donald Trump’s blanket pardon for individuals convicted of crimes over their participation in the Capitol breach, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

Suspect Brian Cole Jr. had requested that all his charges, including transporting explosives, malicious attempt to use explosives, attempt to use weapons of mass destruction, and terrorism, be dismissed because Trump’s day-one pardon covered his conduct. The judge denied that request.

“The pardon, by its terms, does not apply to Cole,” Judge Amir Ali, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said in his Monday decision.

On Trump’s first day back in office, he commuted the sentences of about 1,500 “individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,” when Congress was certifying the 2020 presidential election.

Cole argued this proclamation applied to him because he was charged with planting two pipe bombs near the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on Jan. 5, 2021.

“The pardon applies to Mr. Cole because his alleged conduct is inextricably tethered to the events at or near the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,” Cole’s lawyers wrote in their March 16 motion for dismissal of his charges.

But the judge disagreed, writing that the wording of the president’s pardon prevented Cole from being granted clemency because he has not been convicted of any crimes.

“Even assuming that the conduct Cole is charged with is ‘related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,’ the pardon is expressly limited to people who had been ‘convicted of offenses’ related to those events,” Ali said.

Cole and his attorneys failed to explain how Trump’s pardon for those found guilty of crimes on Jan. 6, 2021, applied to him, the judge continued.

Cole’s motion for dismissal mentioned another section of the president’s proclamation that directed the U.S. attorney general to “pursue dismissal with prejudice to the government of all pending indictments,” arguing this required his charges to be dropped as well.

“But this argument does not work either,” Ali said in his decision.

“Cole was first charged in December 2025 - months after the President’s proclamation... He therefore did not have ‘pending indictments’ at the time of the President’s directive.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) had presented similar points in an April 10 filing in opposition to Cole’s motion for dismissal. At the time of Trump’s proclamation, the suspect belonged to neither category of those convicted of offenses related to Jan. 6, 2021, nor of those with a pending indictment.

“And even if the proclamation somehow could apply to this case, the Department of Justice’s contrary position is entitled to deference as a reasonable interpretation taken by the Executive Branch agency expressly charged with administering the proclamation,” the DOJ said in its filing.

Cole was arrested in early December, nearly five years after bombs were discovered and defused near the Democratic and Republican National Committee buildings. The bombs consisted of a pipe, endcaps, electrical wire, a battery, and other materials.

An affidavit alleged he purchased pipe and kitchen timers in 2019 and 2020 to use to build the devices.

Cellphone records placed Cole around the buildings on Jan. 5, 2021, the affidavit showed, and his Nissan Sentra was spotted in the area that evening.

Cole made his first appearance in court on Dec. 5, 2025. At the time, he only faced charges of transporting and attempting to use an explosive device.

Later in December, federal prosecutors said in a court filing that Cole had confessed during a post-arrest interview to building and planting the bombs.

He told authorities that “something just snapped” in him after “watching everything, just everything getting worse,” the filing said.

Cole’s attorneys had asked for his release, citing his lack of criminal history and diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and autism spectrum disorder, Level 1.

One of the character reference letters submitted along with the request by a business associate of Cole’s father described the man’s “peaceful nature.”

“Over the years of my interactions with him, I have never seen him emotionally angry, upset, or even frustrated,” one of the letters read.

A judge denied Cole’s request for release on Jan. 2, saying the evidence pointed to him being too great a danger to the public.

About a week later, Cole pleaded not guilty to the charges of transporting and attempting to use explosives.

The DOJ brought the additional charges in April, which Cole has also pleaded not guilty to. If convicted, he could face decades in prison.

Cole’s attorneys could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/07/2026 - 09:20

The glamorous haul, all right here.