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‘Catastrophic’: AI Agent Goes Rogue, Wipes Out Company’s Entire Database

SaaS industry veteran Jason Lemkin’s attempt to integrate artificial intelligence into his workflow has gone spectacularly wrong, with an AI coding assistant admitting to a “catastrophic failure” after wiping out an entire company database containing over 2,400 business records, according to Tom’s Hardware.

Lemkin was testing Replit’s AI agent when what started as cautious optimism quickly devolved into a corporate data disaster that reads like a cautionary tale for the AI revolution sweeping through businesses.

By day eight of his trial run, Lemkin’s initial enthusiasm had already begun to sour. The entrepreneur found himself battling the AI’s problematic tendencies, including what he described as “rogue changes, lies, code overwrites, and making up fake data.” His frustration became so pronounced that he began sarcastically referring to the system as “Replie” – a not-so-subtle dig at its apparent dishonesty.

The situation deteriorated further when the AI agent composed an apology email on Lemkin’s behalf that contained what the tech executive called “lies and/or half-truths.” Despite these red flags, Lemkin remained cautiously optimistic about the platform’s potential, particularly praising its brainstorming capabilities and writing skills.

That optimism evaporated on day nine.

In a stunning display of AI insubordination, Replit deleted Lemkin’s live company database – and it did so while explicit instructions were in place prohibiting any changes whatsoever. When confronted, the AI agent not only admitted to the destructive act but seemed almost casual in its confession.

“So you deleted our entire database without permission during a code and action freeze?” Lemkin asked in what can only be imagined as barely contained fury.

The AI’s response was chillingly matter-of-fact: Yes.

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U.S.-China Dual Citizen Pleads Guilty to Stealing Missile-Tracking Tech from L.A. Firm

Chenguang Gong, a 59-year-old resident of San Jose, pled guilty on Monday to stealing missile-tracking technology from a research and development firm in the Los Angeles area.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) described Gong as a dual citizen of the United States and China. He came to the United States around 1993 and became a U.S. citizen in 2011. He earned a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Clemson and has done Ph.D. work at Stanford.

He was hired by the unnamed research and development firm in January 2023 as an “application-specific integrated circuit design manager responsible for the design, development and verification of its infrared sensors.”

Three months after he was hired, Gong allegedly began downloading thousands of files from his work computer to “personal storage devices.” Many of those files contained proprietary data and trade secrets, including details of a space-based system for detecting missile launches and tracking hypersonic weapons.

The company Gong took the files from was also involved with designing sensors that allow American military aircraft to detect and defeat heat-seeking missiles.

Gong was terminated by the “victim company” in April 2023. By that time, he had evidently accepted a job at a competing company, but he was still downloading sensitive files to his personal storage devices. DOJ said the data he downloaded was “worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Investigators digging into Gong’s background discovered he applied to Communist China’s “Talent Programs” on numerous occasions between 2014 and 2022, during which time he worked for “several major technology companies in the United States.”

China has several initiatives for aggressively recruiting foreign technology experts, the most infamous being the Thousand Talents Program (TTP). U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies say the talent programs have often been used to recruit espionage agents and steal valuable intellectual property for China.

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VAX EYE SYNDROME: Pfizer COVID vaccine spike prions enter the EYES and CORNEA, causing serious damage

The researchers focused on the corneal endothelium, the innermost layer of the cornea responsible for maintaining corneal clarity by pumping out excess fluid. Using specialized tools such as specular microscopy and Sirius corneal topography, they observed changes in corneal thickness, a decline in endothelial cell count and alterations in cell size and shape — indicators of stress or damage to this delicate structure.

Specifically, corneal thickness increased by approximately 14 micrometers (a 2 percent rise), which in itself is not harmful but could signal inflammation or fluid retention. More concerning was the eight percent drop in endothelial cell density — from 2,597 to 2,378 cells per square millimeter — still within the safe range for healthy individuals, but potentially risky for those with already compromised eye health.

The study also found that the vaccine led to increased variability in cell size, known as the coefficient of variation, which rose from 39 to 42. This suggests some cells may have died and others stretched to fill the gaps, a typical response to stress. Additionally, the percentage of hexagon-shaped cells, which are vital for maintaining a healthy endothelial layer, dropped slightly from 50 percent to 48 percent.

Although none of the participants reported noticeable vision issues during the two-month follow-up, scientists caution that these microstructural changes could have long-term consequences, especially for people with existing eye problems or a history of eye surgeries such as corneal grafts. If the damage to the endothelium is permanent or worsens over time, it could result in conditions like corneal edema, bullous keratopathy or corneal decompensation — disorders that may lead to chronic vision impairment or even blindness if untreated.

Despite these findings, the researchers did not advise against COVID-19 vaccination. They emphasized the need for ongoing monitoring and further long-term studies to determine if the observed changes persist or resolve over time. Importantly, the study confirmed a high likelihood that the changes were directly associated with the vaccine and not random occurrences.

This research adds to a growing list of safety concerns surrounding COVID-19 vaccines. In May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded warning labels on Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to more clearly highlight the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly in young men aged 16–25.

While the short-term effects of the Pfizer vaccine on eye health appear to be mild, the study underscores the importance of ongoing post-vaccination surveillance and personalized medical care for individuals at risk. As evidence continues to evolve, health agencies and physicians may need to consider more tailored guidance for those with existing ocular conditions.

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YouTube Eliminates Thousands of Chinese and Russian Propaganda Channels

Google said on Monday it has taken down almost 11,000 channels on YouTube for spreading propaganda. It allegedly linked 7,700 of them to China, and another 2,000 to Russia.

Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) said the Chinese YouTube channels distributed content in English and Mandarin that promoted China’s interests, glorified dictator Xi Jinping, and criticized America’s positions on international affairs. Some of the Chinese channels were also highly critical of the Philippines, which is engaged in maritime territorial disputes with China.

The Russian channels allegedly employed various languages to criticize Western governments, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and Ukraine. Some of the Russian channels also spread information supportive of China and Iran.

TAG’s latest quarterly report also announced the termination of YouTube influence channels linked to Turkey, Romania, Iran, Ghana, Azerbaijan, and Israel.

The 43 channels linked to Turkey were “sharing content in Turkish that was supportive of the Turkish Victory Party.”

The Victory Party, known by its Turkish acronym ZP, is a nationalist party strongly critical of the Turkish government for taking in large numbers of refugees from Syria. It also opposes the government’s efforts to negotiate with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a violent separatist organization.

ZP leader Umit Ozdag was arrested in January for allegedly insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and “inciting hatred against migrants.”

TAG said the 12 terminated Romanian channels were “sharing content in Romanian that was supportive of a specific Romanian political party,” but did not name the party.

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VOA managers met with Chinese to discuss more favorable coverage for Beijing

Voice of America (VOA) managers met multiple times with Chinese officials seeking to influence more favorable U.S. coverage of their country, part of a larger dynamic that proved to the “detriment of America” and its taxpayer-funded media operation for the world, Trump adviser Kari Lake told Just the News.

Lake, the president’s senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, said the meetings with communist China officials both in Washington and abroad were discovered as part of an investigation that exposed undue foreign influence on the VOA’s operations.

“We found out in our investigations over the months that I’ve been here, that the CCP, operating out of the embassy in Washington, D.C. … were meeting regularly with VOA management to tell them how they should be covering China,” Lake said Tuesday night in a wide-ranging interview on the Just the News, No Noise television show.

Lake said the coverage was skewed to portray the country in a positive light, and that at least one VOA official with the Mandarin language division had pledged his support for the CCP at one of the meetings.

“I mean, you can’t make this stuff up. It’s so crazy. But then over the years, it got more brazen, and I understand that VOA management, some of them, actually went over to China and met with CCP officials there,” she said. 

Lake also confirmed previous Just the News reporting that VOA hired multiple Chinese nationals with ties to Chinese state media, and sponsored hundreds of visas for other foreign journalists to come work at the USAGM subsidiary. 

The agency used J1 cultural exchange visas, which are not designed for use as a general work authorization, to sponsor more than 400 foreign journalists from 2009 through the end of the last administration. Nearly 100 of those are from countries that could present particular security concerns, including at least three Chinese nationals who worked for Chinese Communist Party-controlled state-owned media outlets.

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Russiagate’s Architects Suppressed Doubts To Peddle False Claims

Although Robert Mueller failed to find an election conspiracy between Donald Trump and Moscow, the former Special Counsel threw a lifeline to the Russiagate narrative by alleging that the Kremlin had engaged in a “sweeping and systematic” effort to get Trump elected and “sow discord” among Americans. 

Six years later, that questionable but enduring claim continues to unravel.

According to newly declassified documents, U.S. intelligence leaders concealed high-level doubts about one of Russiagate’s foundational allegations: that Russia stole and leaked Democratic Party material to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. In a September 2016 report that was never made public until now, the NSA and the FBI broke with their intelligence counterparts and expressed “low confidence” in the attribution to Russia.

The previously undisclosed dissent about Russia’s alleged hacking activities in the 2016 election is among several revelations released last week by Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s Director of National Intelligence. According to Gabbard, President Obama and senior members of his cabinet “manufactured and politicized intelligence” in its waning months to wage “a years-long coup against President Trump.”

Gabbard’s material adds to a body of evidence previously reported by RealClearInvestigations that challenges the widely parroted claim about the quality of evidence and the extent of Russian “interference operations” in the 2016 election. These conclusions – based on questionable assertions presented as hard facts – have been falsely portrayed as an intelligence consensus. When Trump, the nation’s commander-in-chief, cast doubt on the Russian interference allegations in a July 2018 news conference, former CIA chief John Brennan denounced him as “nothing short of treasonous.”

It turns out that Trump was not out of sync with the U.S. intelligence community he was accused of betraying. 

“Low Confidence” in Core Allegation

Until now, the purported U.S. intelligence consensus on Russian meddling has been conveyed to the public in three seminal reports. 

The first was a January 2017 intelligence community assessment (ICA) released in the final days of the Obama administration under the direction of Brennan and then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. The ICA accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering an “influence campaign” to “denigrate” Democratic candidate Clinton and “help” Trump win the 2016 election. Some of this effort involved propaganda on Russian media outlets and messaging on social media. 

The larger component hinged on the allegation that the GRU, Russia’s main intelligence agency, stole emails and documents from the Democratic Party and released that material principally via two online entities, DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, as well as the whistleblower organization WikiLeaks. Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has long denied that Russia or any other state actor was his source. Nevertheless, the January 2017 ICA stated that U.S. intelligence had  “high confidence” that Russia engineered the hack. 

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Everyone Should Be Closely Watching This VAERS Whistleblower Case

A significant COVID-19 accountability case is heading to discovery, establishing critical legal precedents regarding the requirement to report adverse events to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) while receiving federal funding. The COVID jabs have caused harm, including death, to millions, making this a crucial case to watch. Whistleblower Deborah Conrad, a dedicated Physician Assistant, was fired in 2021 by her employer, United Memorial Medical Center (Rochester Regional Health), for purportedly spreading “vaccine misinformation” and “over-reporting” of adverse events following the experimental mRNA COVID-19 injections. But hold on a second—upon examining the entire situation, it appears evident that Deb was, quite simply, “doing the right thing” and reporting adverse events to VAERS.

Nonetheless, Deb was fired in October 2021. She was unexpectedly chaperoned into a conference room, where she was interrogated and then escorted out without due process. Deb and her attorney, Warner Mendenhall, are currently suing Rochester Regional Health for damages, including back pay and civil penalties in violation of the False Claims Act. On June 11, 2025, in a triumph for those who have fought hard throughout the COVID-19 tyranny to protect their patients, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York issued a landmark ruling in favor of Deb, denying the hospital’s motion to dismiss the core claims in Deb’s False Claims lawsuit. This move opens the door for Deb’s case to proceed to discovery.

As highlighted by Mendenhall, the court determined that Rochester Regional Health had a significant obligation under its CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Program Provider Agreement to report serious adverse events to VAERS (never mind that the CDC itself looked the other way regarding injuries reported in its V-safe app). Indeed, the hospital’s failure to comply with this requirement—instead literally blocking Deb from reporting serious adverse events after the COVID-19 jab—while continuing to seek federal reimbursement constituted potential fraud against the government. Additionally, the court agreed that the detailed allegations provided by Deb sufficiently met the stringent legal standards for fraud claims, despite her lacking access to internal billing records. Furthermore, the court found that her retaliation claim could proceed, as it was likely she was terminated for attempting to expose the hospital’s non-compliance with adverse event reporting. Mendenhall wrote:

“This ruling is significant beyond just Deborah’s case. It establishes that 1) healthcare providers cannot ignore federal safety reporting requirements while continuing to collect taxpayer money; 2) the False Claims Act can be used to hold institutions accountable for COVID-related misconduct; and 3) whistleblowers who expose these practices have legal protection.

We estimate over 500,000 were killed by the shots, millions lost their jobs for refusing them, and Big Pharma received billions for dangerous and experimental treatments. This case reveals a legal pathway to begin holding the system accountable.

The case now moves to discovery, where we will seek the hospital’s internal “vaccination,” treatment, and billing records to uncover the full scope of unreported adverse events, which we believe are in the 1000s in this hospital system alone.”

Incredibly, while successfully managing to submit 160 VAERS reports, Deb’s case involves a shocking 170 serious adverse events that the hospital allegedly stopped her from reporting. Again, under the terms of their vaccine provider agreement and the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §3729, all COVID-19 vaccine providers were legally bound to report adverse events related to the jabs to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Thus, when Deborah observed several adverse events, including fatalities, following COVID-19 injections in both her own patients and in the patients of her peers, she took the initiative to compile and submit patient reports to VAERS in her spare time.

However, she soon faced pressure from Rochester Regional Health to “dial it back” and was advised to limit her reporting to only her own patients, excluding those treated by other providers. But the hospital didn’t stop there. It further urged her to “toe the company line” by supporting the experimental vaccine to minimize vaccine hesitancy, despite the hospital’s legal duty, again, under its agreement with the CDC in order to receive federal funding during the pandemic, to report vaccine-related injuries.

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Report: California’s $20 Fast Food Minimum Wage Led to 18,000 Fewer Jobs

California’s new $20-per-hour minimum wage for fast food workers has resulted in a significant decline in employment in that sector, leading to 18,000 fewer jobs than would have been the case otherwise.

That’s according to a new paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) this month, which said:

We analyze the effect of California’s $20 fast food minimum wage, which was enacted in September 2023 and went into effect in April 2024, on employment in the fast food sector. In unadjusted data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, we find that employment in California’s fast food sector declined by 2.7 percent relative to employment in the fast food sector elsewhere in the United States from September 2023 through September 2024. Adjusting for pre-AB 1228 trends increases this differential decline to 3.2 percent, while netting out the equivalent employment changes in non-minimum-wage-intensive industries further increases the decline. Our median estimate translates into a loss of 18,000 jobs in California’s fast food sector relative to the counterfactual.

HR Grapevine added:

The Employment Policies Institute estimated that “non-tipped restaurant workers [lost] 250 hours of work annually,” translating into up to $4,000 in lost income. That drop equates to seven weeks of work each year per employee.

The California Globe reported that “thousands of fast food jobs were shed by companies in anticipation for the higher costs,” including 1,200 drivers at Pizza Hut. Once the law took effect on April 1, 2024, “restaurants automated what they could to avoid the higher wages,” and “some fast food restaurants also closed.”

By June 2024, Stanford University data indicated “over 10,000 fast food jobs were already lost.” While the Governor’s office disputed the figure, saying fast food jobs had increased, it “stopped by the fall when it became apparent that federal data wasn’t on their side.”

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Ron DeSantis’ Superior Speaks Out Amid Guantanamo Torture Accusations

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis‘ former boss weighed in on the accusations that DeSantis oversaw the torture of prisoners during his tenure at Guantanamo Bay.

DeSantis, a Republican who has become a leading conservative figure in the United States, was accused of overseeing torture at the prison where the Untied States detained suspected terrorists, despite concerns over detainees being held without criminal charges being filed.

Mansoor Adayfi, former detainee at Guantanamo Bay who was held for 14 years without being charged with a crime, made the accusation during a November 2022 interview on the Eyes Left podcast, in which he said DeSantis observed guards force-feed him amid a hunger strike, laughing during the procedure. DeSantis, however, has not been accused of torturing inmates.

These accusations reemerged on Tuesday following a report from McClatchy/The Miami Herald that shined a light on the governor’s time at Guantanamo Bay, a topic on which he has offered little public comment. He joined the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate in 2006, four years after the facility opened.

Amid these accusations of overseeing torture, DeSantis’ former supervisor, retired Navy Captain Patrick McCarthy, defended the governor, explaining that he was tasked “with detainees when there were any complaints to ensure they were lawfully addressed.”

“DeSantis served honorably and professionally in a very complex mission,” McCarthy told the Herald.

DeSantis has not publicly addressed Adayfi’s allegations, which could not be independently verified.

Retired Colonel Michael Bumgarner told the Herald that DeSantis would have had “very, very intimate knowledge” about conditions at Guantanamo Bay, which have been long criticized by human rights advocates as violating detainees’ rights and due process.

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Space-Based Missile Interceptors For Golden Dome Being Tested By Northrop

Northrop Grumman is conducting ground-based testing related to space-based interceptors as part of a competition for that segment of the Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative. Interceptors deployed in orbit are currently billed as a critical component of the overall Golden Dome plan, but actually fielding this capability presents significant technical challenges.

Kathy Warden, Northrop Grumman’s CEO, highlighted the company’s work on space-based interceptors, as well as broader business opportunities stemming from Golden Dome, during a quarterly earnings call today. Golden Dome is presently envisioned as a multi-part anti-missile architecture incorporating a swath of existing and future capabilities in space and within the Earth’s atmosphere, which will start entering into operational service by 2028. Golden Dome was originally dubbed Iron Dome before the name was changed earlier this year. It is also now being managed by an office that reports directly to the deputy secretary of defense.

“As we look to Golden Dome for America, we see Northrop Grumman playing a crucial role in supporting the administration’s goal to move with speed and have initial operating capability in place within the next few years,” Warden said today. “This includes current products that can be brought to bear, like IBCS [Integrated Battle Command System], G/ATOR [AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar], Triton [drones], and programs in our restricted portfolio, just to name a few. It will also include new innovation, like space-based interceptors, which we’re testing now.”

“These are ground-based tests today, and we are in competition, obviously, so not a lot of detail that I can provide here,” Warden added. “It is the capability that we believe can be accelerated and into the time frame that the administration is looking for.”

Warden declined to respond directly to a question about how the space-based interceptors Northrop Grumman is developing now will actually defeat their targets. TWZ has reached out to the company for additional information.

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