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Pentagon Awards Contracts To 4 Artificial Intelligence Developers

The U.S. Department of Defense announced on July 14 that it has awarded contracts to four U.S.-based artificial intelligence (AI) developers to address national security challenges.

Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI will each receive a contracting award with a ceiling of $200 million, according to a statement shared by the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office.

The office said these four companies would help “develop agentic AI workflows across a variety of mission areas.”

“Agentic AI” refers to systems designed to operate with minimal human input.

Formed in 2021, the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office is responsible for speeding up the military’s adoption of AI systems.

OpenAI was the first of the four contract awardees to announce its contract with the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office.

In June, the company unveiled “OpenAI for Government” and said its first partnership under the new initiative would help the Pentagon office identify and prototype new AI tools for administrative operations.

Anthropic has developed the Claude family of AI chatbots.

In June, Anthropic announced the development of custom “Claude Gov” models intended for national security clients.

The company said agencies operating at the highest level of the U.S. national security sector are already using these AI models.

Formed by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk in 2023, xAI serves as a parent to X Corp., which operates the social media platform X. Among its services, xAI has developed the Grok AI chatbot.

On July 14, xAI announced “Grok for Government” and confirmed that the service holds contracts with the Department of Defense and the U.S. General Services Administration.

Google Public Sector Vice President Jim Kelly said in a July 14 blog post that the new AI announcement with the Department of Defense would build on a long-standing partnership between Google and the U.S. military.

Kelly said his company would give the military access to its Cloud Tensor Processing Units, which power Google’s current AI applications.

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New Study Stokes Debate: Did Mass Vaccination Fuel New COVID Variants?

Researchers who set out to examine how SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, evolved to evade the human immune system have inadvertently added fuel to the debate over whether mass vaccination may have prolonged the pandemic.

A peer-reviewed study, published this month in the journal Scientific Reports, hypothesized that SARS-CoV-2’s pathway to infecting humans shifted over time. Understanding that process will help scientists develop treatments for all future variants of the virus, the authors said.

Using public datasets consisting of blood and nasal samples from over 500 people, split into COVID-positive and control groups, the researchers found that the original strain of the SARS-CoV-2 and early variants “primarily affected pathways related to viral replication” — the process through which viruses insert their genetic material into host cells, co-opting those cells to create new viral particles.

These earlier strains of the virus led to more changes in gene expression — the process through which cells convert instructions in our DNA into a functional product, such as a protein. This, in turn, led to more severe COVID-19 infections.

However, later strains of SARS-CoV-2, such as Beta and Omicron, “showed a strategic shift toward modulating and evading the host immune response,” but also resulted in milder infections for most people.

According to TrialSite News, this is a “striking evolutionary shift in how SARS-CoV-2 interacts with the human body,” suggesting that newer variants “may be optimized for immune evasion.”

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Trump Clarifies No Long-Range Missiles To Ukraine, Declares “I’m On Nobody’s Side”

Only this week are further contents of a July 4 phone call between Presidents Trump and Zelensky being revealed, but it comes amid accusations of fake news and taking statements out of context.

“Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow? … Can you hit St Petersburg too?” – that’s reportedly what Trump posed to the Ukrianian leader in their July 4th call, which came the day following the president had a disappointing call Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky responded: “Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons.” All of this is according to a report in Financial Times, which the White House is now pushing back against. The FT presented the exchange as indicative of a new US approach of quietly encouraging Ukraine’s military to strike Moscow and other targets deeper inside Russia.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said the FT’s framing of the call was misleading and without proper context. “The Financial Times is notorious for taking words wildly out of context to get clicks because their paper is dying,” she has stated.

Trump sought to clarify in remarks to reporters on Tuesday that Zelensky “shouldn’t target Moscow” and proclaimed in interesting and ironic remarks that he’s “on nobody’s side” – but that simply he wants the killing to stop.

The major announcement which had been planned for Monday did not include any new package of offensive long-range missiles (that the public knowns about at least).

“President Trump was merely asking a question, not encouraging further killing. He’s working tirelessly to stop the killing and end this war,”  Leavitt has added.

All of this helped paint a picture of Trump doing a complete 180 on Ukraine policy. To some extent he has – given he has continued sending Kiev arms packages, albeit ‘defensive’ in nature, supposedly. More anti-air defenses have been approved, despite that America’s own stockpiles are being depleted.

But clearly the White House is somewhat feeling the sting of pushback and angry criticism from among the Right and Trump’s base.

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Google finds custom backdoor being installed on SonicWall network devices

Researchers from the Google Threat Intelligence Group said that hackers are compromising SonicWall Secure Mobile Access (SMA) appliances, which sit at the edge of enterprise networks and manage and secure access by mobile devices.

The targeted devices are end of life, meaning they no longer receive regular updates for stability and security. Despite the status, many organizations continue to rely on them. That has left them prime targets by UNC6148, the name Google has given to the unknown hacking group.

“GTIG recommends that all organizations with SMA appliances perform analysis to determine if they have been compromised,” a report published Wednesday said, using the abbreviation for Google Threat Intelligence Group. “Organizations should acquire disk images for forensic analysis to avoid interference from the rootkit anti-forensic capabilities. Organizations may need to engage with SonicWall to capture disk images from physical appliances.”

Lacking specifics

Many key details remain unknown. For one thing, the attacks are exploiting leaked local administrator credentials on the targeted devices, and so far, no one knows how the credentials were obtained. It’s also not known what vulnerabilities UNC6148 is exploiting. It’s also unclear precisely what the attackers are doing after they take control of a device.

The lack of details is largely the result of the functioning on Overstep, the name of custom backdoor malware UNC6148 is installing after initial compromise of the devices. Overstep allows the attackers to selectively remove log entries, a technique that is hindering forensic investigation. Wednesday’s report also posits that the attackers may be armed with a zero-day exploit, meaning it targets a vulnerability that’s currently publicly unknown. Possible vulnerabilities UNC6148 may be exploiting include:

  • CVE-2021-20038: An unauthenticated remote code execution made possible by a memory corruption vulnerability.
  • CVE-2024-38475: An unauthenticated path traversal vulnerability in Apache HTTP Server, which is present in the SMA 100. It can be exploited to extract two separate SQLite databases that store user account credentials, session tokens, and seed values for generating one-time passwords.
  • CVE-2021-20035: An authenticated remote code execution vulnerability. Security firm Arctic Wolf and SonicWall reported in April that this vulnerability was under active exploitation.
  • CVE-2021-20039: An authenticated remote code execution vulnerability. There have been reports that this vulnerability was under active exploitation to install ransomware in 2024.
  • CVE-2025-32819: An authenticated file deletion vulnerability that can be exploited to cause a targeted device to revert the built-in administrator credentials to a password so that attackers can gain administrator access.

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Trump’s DOJ Says EPA Will Appeal Landmark Fluoride Ruling – Working For Corporations Instead Of The People?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to appeal a decision last year by a federal court ordering the agency to address the risks of water fluoridation, according to Michael Connett, lead attorney for plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

“Rather than use the court’s decision as an opportunity to finally end water fluoridation (as most of Europe has already done), the EPA will spend its time legally challenging the court’s order,” Connett wrote in a post on X.

The American Chemistry Council, a trade organization representing the chemical industry, and the American Fluoridation Society, a fluoridation advocacy organization that touts its work undermining local efforts to oppose water fluoridation, filed motions seeking to submit amicus briefs supporting the EPA appeal, he said.

Connett told The Defender that the American Dental Association also plans to file a brief.

The EPA said it will file the appeal on July 18, after which the case will go to a three-judge panel in the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The appeals court will receive briefs from both sides, along with any amicus briefs, and hear oral arguments before issuing its decision.

The Fluoride Action Network (FAN), one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the EPA, said on X that the appeal was “a very disappointing move by EPA.” “A few months ago, @epaleezeldin went on a public speaking tour with @SecKennedy to address why fluoride needs to come OUT of the water. Now the EPA will appeal to keep fluoride IN drinking water.”

Connett noted that the decision to appeal came from the solicitor general at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), who reports to Pam Bondi and the White House, not by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) or by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has vocally opposed water fluoridation, but lacks the authority to end it.

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Marco Rubio Calls New Israeli Bombing ‘a Misunderstanding,’ Calls for ‘De-Escalation’

As a wave of Israeli attacks on Syrian forces rocks the fragile crust of a Middle East peace, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is trying to stop a full-scale war from erupting.

After two days of Israeli attacks on Syrian forces, Rubio said he was hopeful the attacks would stop.

“It’s complicated, obviously. These are historic, longtime rivalries between different groups in the southwest of Syria — Bedouins, the Druze community — and it led to an unfortunate situation and a misunderstanding, it looks like, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side,” Rubio said in a video posted to X.

“So we’ve been engaged with them all morning long and all night long, with both sides, and we think we’re on our way towards a real de-escalation,” he said.

“And then hopefully get back on track in helping Syria build a country and arriving at a situation there in the Middle East that’s far more stable. So, in the next few hours, we hope to see some real progress to end what you’ve been seeing over the last couple hours,” he said.

Most of Syria is Muslim, but the Druze have their own faith. Last year, after a Muslim-controlled government took power, Druze communities expressed their fears that they could become targets of the new regime, which has said it seeks to respect all faiths, and sought to be annexed by Israel, which has its own Druze communities.

On Wednesday, as Rubio spoke in Washington, Syrian and Druze leaders said they had reached a cease-fire, according to NBC. That came after Israeli air strikes hit targets in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Announcement of the cease-fire drew skepticism from Druze leaders in Syria, according to the Times of Israel.

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Israel Engineers Mutant Plague—Puts Its Genes in mRNA Shot That Makes Human Cells Produce Virulence and Immune-Evasion ‘Black Death’ Proteins: Journal ‘Advanced Science’

In a deeply troubling development, Israeli military scientists have genetically modified one of the deadliest bioweapons known to man—Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes pneumonic plague—and then used its altered genetic material to engineer a new mRNA vaccine that programs human cells to manufacture plague proteins tied to virulence and immune system evasion.

This follows the U.S. military’s genetic engineering of plague DNA into E. coli using CRISPR—a move detailed in a peer-reviewed study just weeks before the World Health Organization added the plague-caused Black Death to its official pandemic watchlist, raising fresh concerns over bioweapons development.

Unlike the U.S., China, and Russia, Israel has never ratified the Biological Weapons Convention—meaning its military bioengineering of the plague bacterium and insertion of its virulence genes into an mRNA shot occurs outside the binding framework of international bioweapons law.

The United States provides Israel with approximately $3.8 billion in military aid annually under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that extends through 2028.

Nearly all current U.S. aid to Israel is for military purposes, delivered primarily as grants through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program.

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ICE Arrests MS-13 Member and Fentanyl Dealer in Providence, RI – Local Officials Worried That Police May Have Assisted

This week, ICE arrested a man in Providence, Rhode Island who is a member of the MS-13 gang and a known dealer of fentanyl. Sounds like a pretty solid arrest, right?

In an absolutely bizarre turn of events, the Democrat leaders of the city are deeply concerned that local police may have assisted ICE. They’re even suggesting that this will be investigated.

This is absolute madness.

WPRI News in RI reported:

Mayor Brett Smiley characterized the incident as “complex,” but said that the incident remains under review.

“I’m interested in making sure that our community knows that Providence police are there to protect them, that they will not cooperate or sere as immigration agents, and that preliminarily, we believe that policy was followed in that instance, although it certainly was jarring video that I saw,” Smiley said at an unrelated news conference on Tuesday. “But upon closer review and understanding the full context of the circumstance, it feels like… it seems like at the initial outset, that Providence police acted in accordance with our existing policy.”

Miller said she appreciated that there is a review underway, but added that she wanted PERA to examine the incident because they are a third-party in the situation.

See below:

An MS-13 fentanyl trafficker was just arrested in Providence, Rhode Island.

The mayor and city council president are pledging to investigate…

Not the MS-13 problem, but to ensure police didn’t assist ICE in arresting him.

Totally insane. pic.twitter.com/rOT664NaRb

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) July 16, 2025

A Democrat lawmaker in the state also criticized ICE for the arrest, calling them the gestapo.

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POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE: DOJ FIRES Maurene Comey, Federal Prosecutor Who Filed Key Court Docs to Keep Epstein Files Under Seal

Maurene Comey, daughter of James Comey, was fired as a federal prosecutor in the Manhattan US Attorney’s office on Wednesday.

It is unclear why Maurene Comey was fired.

“There was no specific reason given for her firing from the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York, according to one of the people who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters,” the AP reported.

Recall that Maurene Comey filed the key court declarations to keep the Epstein files from being released under FOIA.

Maurene Comey was the prosecutor in the 2019 Epstein case, the Ghislaine Maxwell case and the Diddy case.

According to previous reporting by the Washington Post, Maurene Comey was listed as one of the prosecutors who was involved in the ‘deleted’ Epstein prison footage.

Prosecutors in the SDNY rallied around Maurene Comey and escorted her out of the office on Wednesday evening.

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Dershowitz Reveals More As He Clarifies His Comments About the ‘Epstein List’

We previously reported on the comments that Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz made about the “Epstein List” during an interview he did on former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s podcast.

At that time, he spoke about names being suppressed, but said he was limited in what he could say because he was “bound by confidentiality from a judge and cases, and I can’t disclose what I know,” he added.

Dershowitz explained in that interview that he had been falsely accused, as my colleague Bob Hoge reported. 

His comments might help answer some of the questions people have had. 

In an interview with Chris Cuomo on News Nation, Dershowitz clarified more about what he was saying. Cuomo asked if the government had anything they could release tonight.

“The judges have issued orders — which is why I can’t disclose things I’d love to disclose.” 

Dershowitz answered “No,” that there was no “client list” – as in something made by Jeffrey Epstein.

What there is, is a redacted FBI affidavit from accusers. There are several of them. From accusers, that accuse Jeffrey, that accuse various people of having improper sex. And that has been redacted. The names of the people accused have been blacked out.

Dershowitz said because he knew who these people were, “I can tell you right now none of them are public figures who are currently in office. Some of them were previously in office. Some of them are dead. But there is no client list.”

He said “two judges in Manhattan” were suppressing the names “largely to protect the alleged accusers,” and that’s why he can’t disclose them. 

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