News From Around the Web
#10 Scientists Find a Cause of Lupus and a Way to Potentially Reverse It - Marina Zhang for Epoch Health, and WebMD on X
Patients with lupus have an imbalance in a crucial chemical pathway in their bodies, according to a Nature study published on Wednesday. Researchers found that this imbalance produces more disease-causing cells that promote lupus. If this chemical imbalance can be corrected, they believe lupus can be reversed. Current lupus treatments often target symptoms or broadly suppress the immune system, leading to side effects. The researchers believe targeting the specific chemical imbalance identified could more effectively treat lupus without systemic immunosuppression interventions...
#9 Survey Finds Most People Would Rather Switch Companies Than Deal with AI Customer Service - Eric Hal Schwartz for Tech Radar
You may have noticed that some standard automated customer service systems have been replaced with more sophisticated AI assistants in the last couple of years. The more conversational interactions and other advances aren’t very popular, though, according to a new Gartner survey. In fact, 64% of customers would prefer companies not to implement AI in their customer service functions. The survey, conducted in December 2023, involved 5,728 respondents. Companies flocking to AI platforms to replace or expand their customer service setups may be in for a rough reception, and those hoping it will solve customer service woes may actually be driving people away. A little over half, 53%, indicated that they would consider switching to a competitor if they discovered a company was using AI for customer service...
#8 Lawsuit Alleges Hyundai Conducted "Secret Program" With Dealers To "Inflate" EV Sales - Tyler Durden Zero Hedge, Reuters Business on X
Napleton Aurora Imports in Illinois recently filed a lawsuit in federal court in Chicago, alleging that Hyundai pressured US auto dealers to "artificially inflate its publicly reported sales" of electric vehicles, creating a "false narrative" for consumers. The suit, Napleton Aurora Imports Inc et al v. Hyundai Motor America Corp, claims Hyundai instructed some dealers to "falsely report unsold vehicles as 'sold' to a retail customer or placed into loaner service, only to reverse the 'sale' the following month."
#7 Almost Every AT&T Wireless Customer’s Call and Text Records Exposed in Huge Security Breach - Nicholas Ballasy for Just the News, Joseph Cox, and Zero Hedge on X
The call and text message records of tens of millions of AT&T wireless customers and other non-AT&T customers were exposed in a huge data breach in mid-to-late 2022, the company said on Friday. AT&T said the data exposed is not available publicly at this point. The company said the content of calls and text messages weren't part of the breach. AT&T described the breach as an “illegal download” on a third-party cloud platform that it found out about in April...
#6 GARM'S Harm: Member Corporations Allegedly "Boycott, Demonetize, and Censor Disfavored Viewpoints" - Wendi Strauch Mahoney for UncoverDC, Todd With Trump and House Judiciary GOP on X
A House Judiciary Interim Report on "Collusion in the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM)" alleges corporate collusion to "boycott, demonetize, and censor disfavored viewpoints." Herrish Patel, President of Unilever USA, and Christian Juhl, Global Chief Executive Officer of GroupM, testified before the Committee on Wednesday morning, hours after the report was released. Both men are members of GARM's Steer Team, a board of directors. GroupM is the world's largest media buying agency. Unilever USA owns some of the world's household names in consumer products, including Dove, Ben and Jerry's, Degree, Helman's, Klondike, and many others. Ben Shapiro, Conservative pundit and founder of The Daily Wire, and Spencer Waller, Director of the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies at Loyola University in Chicago, also testified.#5 ‘Joined At The Hip’: Catherine Herridge Tells Tucker Exactly How ‘Tension’ Skyrocketed At Network - Julianna Frieman for The Daily Caller, Tucker Carlson on X
Award-winning investigative journalist Catherine Herridge, who was fired from CBS News, unloaded all of her thoughts to Tucker Carlson in a lengthy interview released Thursday. Herridge previously accused her former employer CBS of “journalistic rape” after the network allegedly seized all of her computers, records, and files and locked Herridge out of her email upon informing her of her termination. Herridge admitted “there was tension” at the network when she “sort of turned [her] lens” on President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. “Did you feel — could you feel it at the company that, like, people didn’t want you to do this?” Carlson asked.
#4 Michigan Senate Race Shifts to ‘Toss-Up’ in Wake of Biden Debate Performance - Samantha-Jo Roth for Washington Examiner, and Michigan GOP on X
Democrats received bad news Thursday after ratings for Michigan’s Senate race moved to toss-up, as the fate of President Joe Biden’s political future hangs in the balance. The Cook Political Report shifted the Michigan Senate race from “lean Democrat” to “toss-up” for a number of reasons, including the fact that Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), the leading Democratic candidate for the state’s open Senate seat, is running behind Biden’s statewide numbers. “If there was one race that was looking like a stronger opportunity for Republicans even before the CNN debate and looks even more in play now, it is Michigan,” the Cook Political Report’s Jessica Taylor writes. The election analyst cites Biden’s poor debate performance on June 27 as a reason for the rating shifts as well as a closer presidential race in the Wolverine State, which could affect Democratic turnout and, in turn, hurt their chances of holding on to the Senate seat... Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban departed the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to meet with former President Trump in Florida, a source familiar with the meeting told Fox News Digital. The New York Times first broke the story, citing a Trump campaign official and a person close to the former president. The report did not indicate what the pair would discuss at this impromptu meeting, but Orban has crisscrossed the globe over the past week after assuming the role of president of the European Union... Republican strategist Karl Rove on Thursday endorsed North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to be former President Donald Trump's running mate. Trump has not announced his vice presidential choice, but Burgum has been mentioned to be in the mix as of late. "Doug Burgum is not only the safe pick, but also gives him some advantage in that he's got a successful governor who's the governor of the second-largest energy producing state in the union," Rove said. "If you want to make energy an issue in the campaign, who better than that?" President Biden on Thursday defended his viability atop the Democratic ticket amid growing calls from lawmakers for him to step aside, laying out the case for his candidacy, even as he made a high-profile gaffe at a closely watched press conference. The president was adamant he was the best man to take on former President Trump in November, despite others in the party openly questioning whether that was the case, as he held court with reporters for nearly an hour. “I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be president,” Biden said, confusing his running mate with his opponent in response to the first question of the night... Scientists have recreated the three-dimensional structure of the woolly mammoth’s genetic blueprint. The accomplishment, described Thursday in the journal Cell, marks what is believed to be the first time scientists have been able to produce a multidimensional version of the genome of a complex extinct species. The advance should provide important new insights into the biology of a creature that has long sparked fascination. In addition, the work could aid efforts to breed a living version of the animal, the researchers and others said. “It’s exciting,” says Erez Lieberman Aiden, a professor of molecular and human genetics and director of the Center for Genome Architecture at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “We think it’s going to be very valuable.”
#3 Hungary’s Orban Ditches NATO Summit to Meet with Donald Trump - Peter Aitken for Fox News, ALX, and The Columbia Bugle on X
#2 Karl Rove Endorses N.D. Gov. Burgum for VP - Jeremy Frankel for Newsmax, Jewels Jones on X
#1 Biden Vows to ‘Keep Moving’ in Campaign Despite Democratic Discontent - Brett Samuels and Alex Gangitano for The Hill, Benny Johnson, Wayne Dupree, and Citizen Free Press on X
And Now for Something Special
A 3D Reconstruction of the Woolly Mammoth Genome Might Help Revive the Extinct Species - Rob Stein for NPR, Mario Nawfal and New Scientist on X and Learn Bright on YouTube
