“President Donald Trump has announced that the Republican Party will hold a midterm convention, an unprecedented development seemingly aimed at mobilizing the GOP base ahead of November’s midterm elections. The convention highlights the importance Trump has placed on the midterms, framing Republican control as necessary to protecting his presidency and the implementation of his America First agenda. He has warned Republicans that if they lose the House, Democrats would seek to impeach him and use their investigative powers to probe him, his family and other GOP officials. Trump announced the convention Tuesday on his Truth Social media platform, saying it will be held Sept. 9-10 in Dallas, Texas.” (07/01/26)
“President Donald Trump is taking his first presidential flight aboard a newly retrofitted Boeing 747 serving as Air Force One on Wednesday, traveling to Medora, North Dakota, to mark the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and promote a conservation push tied to America’s 250th birthday. … Trump is traveling aboard a $400 million Boeing 747-8i donated by the government of Qatar and refurbished for presidential use [and will magically become his “presidential library’s” property later]. (07/01/26)
“A breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics on Wednesday directly defied Pope Leo XIV by celebrating an ancient Latin Mass to consecrate four bishops without his consent, dismissing the threat of schism and excommunication and justifying their actions as a ‘sacred duty’ to defend the Catholic faith. … According to church law, the mere act of consecrating a bishop without a papal mandate incurs the harshest penalty in the Catholic Church: automatic excommunication for the four new bishops and the bishop administering the rite. It also amounts to a schismatic act, or an intentional rupture of the unity of the Catholic Church.” (07/01/26)
“Italy on Tuesday put on display one of the best known examples of Etruscan painting, panels from a tomb that it acquired for 15 million euros ($17 million) in the Culture Ministry’s buying spree of big-ticket pieces of the country’s cultural heritage. The ministry announced in May that it had acquired the fresco panels, dating from the 4th century, from members of the Torlonia family, one of Italy’s ancient noble families whose vast collection of antiquity has long been kept out of the public domain. The Francois Tomb was discovered in 1857 by the French archaeologist Alessandro Francois in Vulci, on land owned by the Torlonia family. The frescoes were detached from the necropolis in 1863 and became part of the Torlonia private collection, while the contents of the tomb were divided up among Francois, colleagues and the family.” (06/30/26)
“Anthropic said on Tuesday that the U.S. Commerce Department lifted export controls on its most advanced Fable and Mythos AI models, less than three weeks after the company was ordered to suspend their access over national security risks. Washington has stepped up oversight of new model releases to identify potential threats amid concerns that advanced AI models could be misused by military intelligence in China, Russia or other countries of concern. … Anthropic said the June 12 export-control order followed Amazon researchers reporting a way to bypass Fable 5’s safeguards, allowing the model to identify software vulnerabilities and, in one case, generate code demonstrating how one vulnerability could be exploited. Anthropic said it has now implemented a new safeguard that blocks the behavior described in the report.” (07/01/26)
“Australia’s consumer watchdog has sued Amazon, claiming the tech giant introduced adverts in Prime Video using allegedly unfair contract terms. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said Amazon had broken consumer protection law by making the unfair contracts with over a million annual subscribers between November 2023 and August 2025. ‘Consumers who wanted to avoid ads were left with no choice but to pay more to maintain the service they’d initially signed up for,’ ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said. … ‘Those contracts included five terms permitting [Amazon Australia] to unilaterally make materially adverse changes to its services (including, but not limited to, Prime Video) and the terms governing those services, without any contractual entitlement for subscribers to receive refunds or other meaningful redress, the ACCC said.” [editor’s note: No one was forced to accept the contract, and the changes were within the terms of the contract. Nothing “unfair” about that – TLK] (07/01/26)
“A new government report has shown that United States President Donald Trump made millions from cryptocurrency and settlements with media companies last year, raising questions about possible conflicts of interest. On Tuesday, the US Office of Government Ethics released annual financial disclosure forms for both Trump and his vice president, JD Vance. One 927-page document itemises all of Trump’s reported assets and income for 2025. They include more than $1.4bn from his family’s cryptocurrency ventures. Trump received more than $500m from World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture he and his sons co-founded. The president also reported another $635m from the sale of his $TRUMP meme coins.” (06/30/26)
“It was the deadliest reported strike in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, and most of the victims were children. Yet over four months since a U.S. missile struck an Iranian primary school, there is no final accounting of what happened. The Trump administration has not directly accepted the blame, though the military possessed evidence almost immediately that the site had been struck, a U.S. official with knowledge of the situation, speaking anonymously to discuss an ongoing investigation. told The Associated Press. Drawing from interviews with U.S. officials, human rights workers and Iranians in direct contact with rescuers and families of victims, the AP reconstructed the strike and its aftermath to reveal new details of what happened. Most requested anonymity for fear of retribution against them and their sources.” (07/01/26)
“France’s National Rally was on Tuesday targeted as part of Europe-wide raids following suspicions of the misappropriation of European funds by the now-defunct Identity and Democracy (ID) group of MEPs, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) said, onfirming a report in French daily Le Monde. Searches are currently under way ‘in France and other European countries’ following suspicions of the misappropriation of European funds by the now-defunct Identity and Democracy (ID) group of MEPs, of which France’s far-right National Rally (RN) was a member, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) said on Tuesday, confirming a report in French daily Le Monde.” (06/30/26)
“A Wisconsin high school graduate is alleging religious discrimination after school officials barred her from including a Bible verse in a graduation ceremony slideshow due to the district’s neutrality policy. Sarianne Beronja, a 2026 graduate of Arrowhead High School in Waukesha County, said she submitted Proverbs 3:6 as her personal message to appear beside her photo in a slideshow playing during the commencement ceremony. The verse reads: ‘In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path’. Beronja said that less than 24 hours before the ceremony, an associate principal told her she could not use the verse because religious messages are prohibited. The student said school officials also told her she could not share an alternative message thanking God for being ‘beside me through these last four years’.” (07/01/26)
