News From Around the Web
#1 New York Attorney General James Sues Zelle Parent Company, Alleging It Enabled Fraud - Laya Neelakandan for CNBC, Insurance Journal, Emma Kinery, FOX Baltimore, The Independent, and Israel on X
New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the operator of the Zelle payments network on Wednesday, alleging it enabled fraud by allowing scammers to steal over $1 billion from users between 2017 and 2023. James’ office said in a press release that its investigation found that Early Warning Services, the owner and designer of the peer-to-peer money transfer company, designed Zelle “without critical safety features.” The release noted that the lawsuit against EWS follows a similar one dropped by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in March...
#2 NIH Cancels mRNA Vaccine Contracts, Citing Lack of Public Trust - Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech for The Hill, Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD/Bimal Desai/Dr. Janci, Aaron Welch, The Intellectualist, Jay Booth, and Des on X
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya claims the federal government recently canceled millions of dollars’ worth of mRNA research contracts because the general public does not trust the technology. Bhattacharya explained the reason behind the abrupt contract cancellations during an episode of Republican political strategist Steve Bannon’s podcast “War Room” last week and again in an op-ed recently published in The Washington Post...
#3 Florida AG Announces Ban on “7-Oh” Products - Yacob Reyes for Axios Tampa Bay, U.S. FDA, Attorney General James Uthmeier, Wilton Simpson, Dr. Michelle Ross, The Dank Informer, and Global Kratom Coalition (GKC) on X
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Wednesday made it illegal to sell 7-hydroxymitragynine, known as 7-OH, a compound found in some kratom products, by classifying it as a Schedule I controlled substance in the state. The announcement makes Florida the first state to ban this concentrated kratom byproduct, which acts like an opioid and has been dubbed "legal morphine" by researchers. The ban also comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recommendation in July to do so nationwide. When federal health regulators announced plans to control the compound found in the kratom plant, they made one big distinction: They're "not targeting the kratom leaf or ground up kratom."
#4 First Lady Melania Trump Puts Hunter Biden on $1B Notice Over ‘False, Defamatory’ Epstein Comments - Brooke Singman for Fox News, Benny Johnson, Fox News, Nick Sortor, Danielle D'Souza Gill, New York Post, and Disclose.TV on X
First lady Melania Trump is putting Hunter Biden on $1 billion notice over what she claims are "false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements" made about her, demanding he immediately remove and retract the content and issue an apology or face legal action, Fox News Digital has learned. Fox News Digital exclusively obtained the letter that Alejandro Brito, attorney serving as litigation counsel for the first lady, sent to Hunter Biden and his attorney, Abbe Lowell, Aug. 6...
#5 Crowd in DC Outraged by Federal Law Enforcement Presence as Cars Stopped on Busy Street - CNN, Paul A. Szypula, Gary Grumbach, Mario Nawfal, Shomari Stone, and SCMcGee Never Give Up On Hope on X
A traffic checkpoint set up by Washington, DC, police and federal agents drew community outrage on Wednesday night as President Donald Trump’s takeover of the city’s police entered its third night. CNN’s team at the scene observed multiple cars being pulled over temporarily, and at least one person being handcuffed and taken away by law enforcement at a checkpoint set up along the city’s 14th Street corridor, an area popular for its bars and restaurants. Members of the community were seen lining both sides of 14th Street and loudly cursing at the officers. The visible outrage lasted for about two hours, with people yelling phrases like “Shame,” “You are the criminals,” and “Get the f**k out of here” at the officers.
#6 Appeals Court Allows Trump Administration to Cut Billions in Foreign Aid - CBS, Private Officer, Joe Spizuous McKosky, Linda Britton-Fairchild/Slay News, Matthew Williams, Libs of TikTok, and Rich Thatsel on X
A divided panel of appeals court judges ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration can suspend or terminate billions of dollars of congressionally appropriated funding for foreign aid. Two of three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit concluded that grant recipients challenging the freeze did not meet the requirements for a preliminary injunction that restored the flow of money. In January, on the first day of his second term in the White House, President Trump issued an executive order directing the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to freeze spending on foreign aid. After groups of grant recipients sued to challenge that order, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ordered the administration to release the full amount of foreign assistance that Congress had appropriated for the 2024 budget year. The appeal court's majority partially vacated Ali's order...
#7 Desantis Picks State Sen. Jay Collins to Be Florida’s Lieutenant Governor - Kate Payne for AP, Chris Nelson, Brian Turner, Cryptid Politics/Heihammy, Michael Hustas, George Wept/Fascist Russian Asset, and Florida Times-Union on X
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped Republican state Sen. Jay Collins to be his next lieutenant governor on Tuesday. It’s a closely watched appointment by the two-term governor, who can’t run for reelection in 2026 and has been working to cement his legacy as his time leading the state winds down. If Collins, an Army combat veteran and nonprofit executive, decides to launch a bid to succeed DeSantis, the move could tee up another proxy fight between the popular GOP governor and President Donald Trump, who has already endorsed U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds for the job...
#8 Trump Eases Commercial Rocket Launch Regulations in Win for Musk’s SpaceX - France 24, The White House, Brian Hughes, Space Investor, Benny the Bull, and Reuters on X
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to streamline federal regulation governing commercial rocket launches, a move that could benefit billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX and other private space ventures. Trump's order, among other things, directs the US transportation secretary to eliminate or expedite environmental reviews for launch licenses administered by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the White House said in a statement. The declaration also calls on the secretary to do away with "outdated, redundant or overly restrictive rules for launch and reentry vehicles". "Inefficient permitting processes discourage investment and innovation, limiting the ability of US companies to lead in global space markets," the executive order states...
#9 Elon Musk’s SpaceX Bitcoin Holdings Top $1 Billion as BTC Hits Fresh Highs - Danny Park for The Block, The Bitcoin Historian, Vivek Sen, Crypto Rover, Mario Nawfals Roundtable, Freedomain - with Stefan Molyneux, MA on X
SpaceX's bitcoin holdings have climbed past the $1 billion mark, as the cryptocurrency's price reached a new record high on Wednesday. According to data from Arkham Intelligence, Elon Musk's aerospace company currently holds 8,285 BTC +0.26%, valued at around $1.02 billion. However, this is not the first time SpaceX has held more than $1 billion in bitcoin. Arkham data shows that SpaceX's holdings, traced back as far as the beginning of 2021, rose to a total valuation of $1.8 billion in April that year. This is when the company owned around 28,000 BTC....
#10 Tulsi Gabbard Drops Declassified Top-Secret Document Implicating James Clapper in Russiagate - Carlos Garcia for Blaze Media, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, Greg Price, Eric Daugherty, Master Lee/Kafir, and Dan Schmittou on X
Two months after the first election victory of President Donald Trump in 2016, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper wrote an email about the investigation into Russian collusion that would remain top secret until Wednesday. The email was released by current DNI Tulsi Gabbard, who has been uncovering the origins of the Russiagate scandal and building a case against Obama administration officials who orchestrated it. The declassified document is an email from Clapper to former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, among others...
