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California is home to some of the country's best places to celebrate the Fourth of July — but not every city in the state is brining fireworks-worthy fun.

The down-and-out artist tearfully parroted Mayor Mamdani: “What is New York if not your back is up against the wall, your dream just out of reach, unsure how you’ll make your next rent payment.”

They're from one of the hottest Hollywood labels, beloved by stars like Katie Holmes, Selena Gomez and Pamela Anderson.

They're from one of the hottest Hollywood labels, beloved by stars like Katie Holmes, Selena Gomez and Pamela Anderson.

The countries agreed on Sunday to a weeklong de-escalation in the Strait of Hormuz, a US official confirmed to The Post — cooling tensions just in time for Fourth of July celebrations.

Meta shares jumped 10% Wednesday following a report the company is planning to sell excess computing power – allowing it to recover some of the billions of dollars it has sunk into AI.

Ming Zhang He was punched during a fight with Carlos Valentin, 27, around 8:25 p.m, June 12 in front of a rental building on Walton Avenue near East Mount Eden Avenue in the Concourse neighborhood, according to cops and law enforcement sources. 

The pair sparked romance speculation when they were seen "kissing openly" at the Palm Tree Music Festival in Southampton over the weekend.

The pair sparked romance speculation when they were seen "kissing openly" at the Palm Tree Music Festival in Southampton over the weekend.

Taxpayers are off the hook for more than $700,000 in legal bills for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's close confidant Melissa DeRosa, a judge ruled Wednesday.

A House Judiciary Committee hearing on June 30 erupted into chaos as Reps. Mike Lawler and Jamie Raskin shouted over one another during a debate on sanctuary policies. The heated exchange quickly turned personal, with Raskin telling Lawler to “get the hell out of here” and Lawler firing back that his colleague was “a disgrace.”

Aaron Donald has not announced a return to the Rams. But the noise around a potential comeback is getting louder daily. The latest spark came from Donald, who posted a workout video Tuesday with the simple caption, “work.” On its own, that would not be unusual. Donald has long been known as one of the...

The anthology docuseries is created by Blumhouse, who also created Worst Ex Ever and Worst Roommate Ever.

TikTok Settles Lawsuit Accusing Social Media Giants Of Harming Florida Boy

TikTok has reached a settlement with a Florida teenager who blamed the platform and other social media companies for fueling his addiction, leading to depression, anxiety, and sleep loss, just ahead of a trial to determine the industry’s part in the youth mental health crisis.

The settlement, made public Tuesday, lays to rest claims against ByteDance’s TikTok related to the lawsuit filed by the boy.

Details of the settlement were not disclosed.

Trials against Meta’s Instagram and Snap’s Snapchat remain scheduled for July in California.

According to court filings, the plaintiff argues he began using social media at approximately age 8 and became addicted.

As Kimberley Hayek reports for The Epoch Times, the case is one of many taking aim at social media companies, accusing them of designing the platforms to addict young users.

Earlier this month, YouTube settled with the same plaintiff.

“YouTube’s decision to resolve this case before having to face a jury speaks for itself,” the plaintiff’s attorneys from Morgan & Morgan stated in that settlement.

“We will continue fighting on behalf of all those affected by social media addiction to bring these companies to justice and compel them to prioritize the safety of their young users over their bottom lines.”

In March, a jury in Los Angeles found Meta and Google liable for harms to a young woman, awarding damages after findings of negligence tied to addictive design features.

Jurors found the platforms contributed to addiction and mental health issues, leading to millions in compensatory and punitive damages. A judge upheld the verdict this month.

More than 3,300 addiction-related lawsuits remain pending in California state court, with thousands more pending in federal court. School districts and states have also pursued claims, with some settlements reached, such as a Kentucky district’s agreement with several platforms.

The TikTok settlement allows the company to avoid what would have been only the second individual trial of its kind in California over social media’s impact on minors.

Plaintiffs in these cases argue that features, such as endless scrolling, personalized algorithms, and notifications create a “vicious cycle” of engagement that does harm to young brains.

Tech companies argue they have implemented parental controls, age-appropriate tools, and other safeguards for young users. Google, for instance, has underscored its safety efforts in statements regarding the YouTube settlement.

“Our focus remains on building age-appropriate products and parental controls that deliver on that promise,” Google spokesman José Castañeda said in a statement. 

Prolonged social media use has increased risks of depression and self-harm among young people, according to a recent study by the Medical Journal of Australia.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/01/2026 - 15:25

"Utterly False": Musk Denies WSJ Report On SpaceX Handset-Like AI Device Musk Blasts WSJ's Reporting

Elon Musk has called The Wall Street Journal’s story about a new SpaceX smartphone-like device "utterly false."

"There is no SpaceX handset-like AI device, as claimed in the article. Shame on WSJ for publishing fake news just for clicks," the X account DogeDesigner wrote.

BREAKING: Elon Musk has called the Wall Street Journal’s report “utterly false.”

There is no SpaceX handset-like AI device as claimed in the article.

Shame on WSJ for publishing fake news just for clicks. pic.twitter.com/EbBxw51W4Z

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) July 1, 2026 WSJ's Reporting 

The story around Elon Musk's SpaceX positioning Starlink as a potential mobile carrier to challenge legacy telcos and cable dinosaurs continues to gain momentum. 

A new Wall Street Journal report says the AI and rocket company has shown investors a prototype of a handset-like device, suggesting SpaceX may be looking beyond satellites and broadband toward vertically integrated consumer devices to take on smartphone giants like Apple and Samsung. 

SpaceX has developed a prototype for a handset-like device designed to reshape how humans interact with artificial intelligence: WSJ

The prototype features a sleek design that is slimmer than an iPhone; it was shown to some investors and other stakeholders ahead of the company’s…

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 1, 2026

The device, described by people familiar with the matter as slimmer than an iPhone with a "sleek design," is still said to be in the prototype stage. It is expected to run on a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, suggesting SpaceX may be testing a consumer hardware layer that could eventually tie together Starlink connectivity, xAI software, and a proprietary operating system.

Last week, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams told clients that if SpaceX/Starlink fails to secure an MVNO/retail mobile deal, then the next logical move would be to acquire T-Mobile.

SpaceX told some investors that the project was at an early stage. The design could change and it is unclear whether such a device will be made.

...

The project is a sign of Musk’s sprawling ambitions as he builds a leading global satellite connectivity network, grows his rocket company and creates new AI tools. AI companies are placing a variety of bets on the future form and functionality of AI-powered devices.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Musk has in the past weighed building a smartphone due to frustration over how Apple controls distribution of third-party apps such as X. It isn’t easy, however, for a newcomer to break into the hardware business. -WSJ

We asked the question: "Is The SpaceX Asteroid About To Impact The TelCo & Cable Dinosaurs?"

Related:

• SpaceX Builds A Regulatory Moat Around Its Starlink Empire

The read here is that Musk appears to be eyeing the entire consumer connectivity stack in one swoop. Starlink is the network layer, xAI provides the intelligence layer, a proprietary operating system would control the software experience, and a handset-like device would serve as the consumer endpoint. 

In other words, Musk is not just challenging telcos and big cable. It is also a shot across the bow for smartphone makers, app stores, and the AI assistant layer now being embedded across consumer devices.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/01/2026 - 15:15

A Surveillance State On Wheels

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

Renting a car used to come with an element of fun. For a day or two you could be the pretend owner of a new car. It could be the sports car you have always secretly wanted, maybe in bright red. It could be a mighty utility vehicle you need instead of your 4-door sedan.

In any case, it’s just interesting to experience a new and different car over a limited period, if only to mix things up a bit.

I’ve always enjoyed this, until now.

I innocently rented a new model SUV and hopped in not thinking much more about it. It had a control panel on two big screens with very few physical knobs, which means essentially learning to operate software. Should have pulled over and examined the thing carefully, maybe even read the user manual but traditionally cars explained themselves. Everything was obvious.

Not any more.

The radio was stuck on a guy yammering about sports scores so I thought I would change the station. I’m trying to drive at the same time and looking at the screen with peripheral vision. That’s when the car caught me: it sensed distraction.

Up popped a notification alongside 5 extremely annoying alarm beeps, with a blaring warning: “Consider taking a break” with a coffee cup emoji. That’s strange. I’m not tired. I just started. Why should I take a break?

My car was correcting me. Not only that, it was diagnosing my biology. I was drifting and so clearly did not have enough caffeine in my system and needed more. So said my car.

Thus was my introduction to the new smart car, more monitor than helper, more surveillance than service, more sensate than safe.

I grabbed a tissue while searching for the off switch to the radio and up popped the same warning again. This was only a few minutes later. I wondered how long this would go on. I had two and a half hours to drive. This could be miserable.

It was in fact. My car monitored, hectored, and lectured me for my entire trip. It more closely tracked my venial sins than a Puritan preacher in 17th-century Plymouth Colony. At least in that world, privacy was possible. It is not possible in this new car. You are under the gun, tasked with impossible feats of digital management at which you are destined to fail.

The ever-pious, self satisfied, and immaculately conceived robo-scold seems gleeful to call out every infraction, even when a gust of wind causes a two-inch draft. FAIL!

This car is rooting against its driver, like a horse not entirely broken in and trying to buck you off. But it’s more threatening than that. It’s watching you constantly but you don’t know where its eyes are or why precisely it is making the judgments it is making.

While still fussing with the radio, a big message appeared on the screen, which I tried to read while driving. Another sin. As best I could make out, it said not to attempt this while driving because it is unsafe. And if I have read this message and understand the risk, and accept the terms of the software app, I should click approve, which I did, while driving.

Like clockwork, up appeared the demand that I stop and drink another cup of coffee. If I had complied with the doctor/car physician’s demands, I would have had a gallon of coffee and been taken to the hospital for a caffeine overdose.

The roadside signs all say not to text and drive or otherwise look at your smartphone. But this entire car is far more distracting than my phone would otherwise be. I’m only mentioning a few of these notifications so far.

Once I got into traffic, on very fast Texas highways, there were cars following close behind and to the right and left. Tricky navigation and it requires full attention. Mr. Car did not like this scene and began screaming at me as if I’m entirely unaware of what was happening around me. Of course I was aware but now with this squawking car, it was hard to focus.

The blaring, buzzing, and screeching of this disapproving digital schoolmarm—if the car had a name it would be Karen—is more of a danger than the drivers around me in all directions.

You think a backseat driver is annoying? Try a dashboard with biometric monitoring skills and the ability to speak in bleeps, dings, and buzzes. It’s miserable and absolutely makes driving less safe and more scary all around.

The new car is a devouring mother, a helicopter parent, a digital warden, and a spying parole agent all in one. I’m getting Munchausen by Proxy just by driving: this car keeps telling me I’m a terrible driver so I’m becoming one.

It’s all quite amazing because it was only a few decades ago that driving on the open highway, listening to rock and roll, was the essence of the ideal of American freedom. In fact, in the postwar years, there was an explicit shift away from passenger trains to family and individual cars because they better embodied this American spirit.

Think about all the great American driving songs. “Born to Run.” “Take It Easy.” “Born to Be Wild.” “Route 66.” “Fast Car.” “On the Road Again.” “Mustang Sally.” “Little Red Corvette.”

All these songs celebrated the unity of freedom and driving.

Not so with these new models. They are the opposite. They have turned the freedom to drive into a panopticon of behavioral monitoring and correction. You are rats in this mobile laboratory, the pigeon in a Pavlovian cage variously poked, prodded, fed, and starved.

The experience creates in the driver the irrepressible dream of pulling over, grabbing your things, and hoofing it down the highway so at least you can be free.

Hard to know who could have invented these systems and why. Cars have been mainstream for a century and somehow people have gotten by without these supposedly smart systems before. Indeed, people learned how to drive via experience and heightened human consciousness and intelligence.

These new systems disable all intelligence and experience and feed into the most paranoid suspicion that these machines are trying not to help us but replace us. Instead of flattering your mastery and volitional prowess, they condescend with the presumption that you are reckless and sinful and very likely a danger to yourself and others, desperately in need of being adulted by digital pedagogy.

There was another layer of despair that set in as I drove. My own car is 10 years old. I’m holding onto it for dear life, prolonging its health as long as possible, swearing never to give into this new world of deep-state passengerism. But we all know that this pose cannot last forever. At some point, I will have to give in.

Every old eventually gets too old and most things that are new will become the norm. Maybe a mass consumer revolt will stop this trajectory but one wonders. The control grid makes advances by the day. We are surrounded by surveillance. I cannot even have a private conversation with my mother on a topic without its prompting email spam on the same subject.

Obviously our phones are listening. Our cars are listening. Everything is listening. Not only that, we are being tracked and judged. For all I know, the next time I rent a car, my profile will pop up revealing that I triggered 17 needs-coffee alerts.

As I dropped off the car, I complained bitterly and the nice man who welcomed me back felt bad. I felt bad. The manager offered me a discount on my next rental, which I refused because none of this was their fault. They are victims of this nonsense as much as I am. We all are.

Still, maybe my complaint was logged somewhere. If nothing else, my iPhone heard it. Which, now that I think about it, might not be good. In the future, this could get us debanked.

Under these conditions, we could end up like Cuba where all cars are old cars because socialism doesn’t know how to make new ones. With the U.S. control grid, we will have to keep the old cars functional if we want to maintain our freedom and our sanity.

I might have to go searching for my 1963 VW Beetle and rebuild it yet again.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/01/2026 - 15:05

Northrop Grumman's Cryptic Online Post Has D.C. Looking Skyward On July 4

President Trump's July 4 Freedom 250 celebration on the National Mall is being described by the president as the "most unforgettable birthday party any country has ever seen."

Focusing on the air show, called the "Salute to America 250 Aviation Spectacle," the event will feature military flyovers, first-time aerobatic demonstrations over D.C., music, ceremonies, and a fireworks show to top off the festivities.

Expected aerial participants include the Navy Blue Angels, Air Force Thunderbirds, F-22 Raptor Demo Team, F-35B Lightning II Demo Team, F/A-18 Super Hornet Demo Team, MV-22 Osprey Demo Team, and Navy F-35C Demo Team.

Some of the "signature formation flyovers" listed on the Salute to America 250 Aviation Spectacle website include the new Air Force One jet, Air Force Tri-Bomber, and "US Stealth Power."

There is growing online speculation that the new B-21 stealth bomber could make an appearance after a cryptic post from Northrop Grumman on X.

👀🎂🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/wyQ7DNPHlH

— Northrop Grumman (@northropgrumman) July 1, 2026

X users respond:

Pretty obvious this bird will be at DC this weekend

— LH (@LH78__) July 1, 2026

The B-21 is the evolution of the B-2 stealth bomber and is currently undergoing aerial trials, recently completing aerial refueling test flights.

Northrop Grumman’s B-21 Raider continues to demonstrate outstanding performance as the program moves into more advanced phases flight test, including aerial refueling. (Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force)

The B-21 is the world's first sixth-generation bomber, and the "most advanced aircraft to take to the sky now has global reach," according to Northrop.

The B-21 Raider conducts aerial refueling with a KC-135 Stratotanker, which is a key part to the Raider’s role in projecting power globally. (Photo Credit: Northrop Grumman)

The D.C. airshow would certainly be the venue for the Trump administration to showcase "U.S. stealth power" to the world, especially with an interim peace deal with Iran and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. A B-21 appearance, even if only symbolic, would send a clear message overseas: America's next-generation long-range strike capability will be secured in the 2030s.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/01/2026 - 14:45

New Yorkers are gonna be hot to trot.

"We've got a great future – we just don't know what it looks like yet," writes Fox News' Steve Doocy.

England avoided a shocking upset Wednesday.