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Zelensky considers legalizing porn production

A petition demanding the legalization of pornography production in Ukraine has been forwarded to the country’s parliament for review, Vladimir Zelensky announced on Tuesday. The statement was published on his website after the initiative got more than 25,000 signatures, meeting the legal threshold that requires formal consideration.

The petition, authored by Ukrainian OnlyFans model Svetlana Dvornikova, calls for the decriminalization of adult content production, arguing that law enforcement resources should be directed toward investigating serious crimes rather than conducting “controlled purchases of intimate photos.” It requests legislative changes which would stop police from pursuing the individuals involved.

Pornography was banned in Ukraine in 2009, when then-President Viktor Yushchenko signed legislation that outlawed the possession, distribution, sale, and manufacture of such materials. 

Dvornikova’s petition, submitted on June 27, 2025, has quickly gained support. By early July, it had reached the required number of signatures, prompting Zelensky’s response.

In June, Dvornikova publicly urged Zelensky to support legalization. She claimed that her content had generated significant tax revenue for the state, yet she had faced two criminal cases — one for alleged tax evasion and another for the production of pornography. 

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Investigative Journalist Explains Why Epstein Case Will Never Progress…

Journalist Nick Bryant notes in this viral clip from the Shawn Ryan podcast that the Jeffrey Epstein case is being covered up by the federal government and will never progress because it would destroy their entire operational system.

“Epstein had cameras in all of his homes. Epstein was definitely a blackmail artist,” Bryant notes.

“The government wants to make sure that that does not come out. A huge part of our political system is predicated on blackmail,” he adds.

“If that dark, malignant corner of the intelligence that is using blackmail against our politicians and other people, if they were using children, that would make the American people erupt,” Bryant further urges.

He continues, “For that dark corner of intelligence, this is Omaha Beach. They’re not going to give an inch.”

“If you look at all the victims and all the perpetrators and all the procurers involved in the Epstein network … no one’s been indicted except for Ghislaine Maxwell,” the journalist explains.

“That really shows that our government, unfortunately, wants to stop it there,” he adds.

“Why is our government aiding, abetting child trafficking unless they’re protecting some very powerful people and a political process?” Bryant posits.

“That’s the only way that it makes sense,” he concludes.

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French Intelligence Chief: US Overstated Iran Strike Impact & We Don’t Know Where The Uranium Is

The head of France’s foreign intelligence agency stated Tuesday that last month’s Israeli and American airstrikes on Iran had destroyed only part of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, though the reality is that the exact whereabouts of the remaining material are unknown.

Chief of the country’s Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) Nicolas Lerner said in a televised interview the strikes had merely delayed Iran’s nuclear program by several months.

“Our assessment today is that each of these stages has been very seriously affected, very seriously damaged,” he said. “The nuclear program, as we knew it, has been extremely delayed, probably many months,” he added.

While France has some indications of where Iran’s uranium might be, Lerner emphasized in the remarks that definitive confirmation would only be possible once the UN’s atomic watchdog resumes inspections in the country; however, the problem is that Tehran just formally booted IAEA inspectors from the country.

“Today we have indications (on where it is), but we cannot say with certainty as long as the IAEA does not restart its work. It’s very important. We won’t have the capacity to trace it (the stocks),” Lerner said.

Iranian officials have accused IAEA officials of actually spying on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program, secretly passing information on to Tel Aviv and Washington, which helped with targeting in the recent 12-day war.

Lerner’s assessment somewhat partially aligns with the view of US intelligence and the military, given that last week Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the strikes likely pushed Iran’s nuclear ambitions back by one to two years.

But the Trump admin has consistently claimed that Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan had been destroyed, amid conflicting reports and some international pushback on his assertions.

Other Western officials have indicated a setback of merely “months”. And even some US intelligence officials have been quoted in CNN and the NY Times giving a similar assessment.

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New Jersey Lawmakers Are Considering 2 Bills To Heavily Regulate Homeschooling

New Jersey has as many as 94,518 homeschooled students, according to 2022 data from the National Home Education Research Institute. A series of bills being considered by the New Jersey Legislature aim to heavily regulate homeschooling and restrict parents’ and students’ educational freedom in the state.

In June, Assemblyman Sterley S. Stanley (D–East Brunswick) introduced Assembly Bill 5825, which would require all homeschooling parents at the beginning of the school year to send a letter to the local school district’s superintendent that includes the name and age of the student and the name of the instructor administering the home education program. Parents will also be mandated to share a copy of the homeschooling curriculum, “which shall be aligned with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards.” In addition to setting requirements for mathematics and science, state learning standards require lesson plans to cover issues such as climate change and diversity, equity, and inclusion in K-12 classrooms.

The bill would also require supervisors of the homeschooling program to maintain a portfolio of student records, such as writing samples, worksheets, and reading lists. The portfolio, which is to be submitted to the district superintendent annually, must also include a written evaluation of the student’s educational progress by a qualified evaluator. That person can be a licensed psychologist or teacher but not the student’s parent or guardian.

New Jersey is one of 12 states that don’t require families to check in with, obtain approval from, or file with the government to legally homeschool. Will Estrada, senior counsel at the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, tells Reason that no states currently require a homeschool curriculum to align with the public schools. Many parents, he adds, have pulled their children out of public school specifically because the public education system’s one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work for their child’s individualized needs.

New Jersey is also considering A.B. 5796. Introduced by Assemblyman Cody D. Miller (D–Turnersville) in June, the bill requires homeschooling families to annually meet with a public school official for a basic child welfare check.

While preventing abuse is a noble goal, lawmakers’ concerns over the welfare of homeschoolers appear to be misguided. Estrada points to a 2022 peer-reviewed study that found homeschooled children do not face higher rates of abuse and neglect. The study incorporated nationally representative data from 1,253 “previously homeschooled and conventionally schooled (public and private schools) adults,” who were asked to anonymously report about school-age experiences of abuse and neglect. The survey found that the type of school students go to “is a non-issue” in determining the likelihood of abuse “after considering the role played by demographics” such as family structure, years in foster care, large family size, and household poverty. The report’s findings are supported by a 2017 study, which found that “legally homeschooled students are 40% less likely to die by child abuse or neglect than the average student nationally.”

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Hawaii Governor Signs Law Requiring Hemp Retailers to Register With State, Sets Age Restriction on Tinctures

The law, HB 1482, was signed on July 2 and will take effect January 1, 2026. It restricts sales of hemp-derived tinctures to those 21 and older, aligning the product category with rules for adult-use substances.

In addition to the registration requirement, the law grants health officials the authority to inspect facilities involved in hemp sales and distribution and to confiscate noncompliant products. It also makes clear that violations may be prosecuted under the state’s laws on unfair or deceptive practices, unfair competition, and nuisance abatement.

Oversight of hemp processing will fall to the Office of Medical Cannabis Control and Regulation, which will administer a new program specifically for hemp processors. Registration fees and other costs tied to implementation will be funded through Hawaii’s Hemp Processing Special Fund.

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ICE Is Snooping on Your Medical Bills

The feds are vacuuming up a lot of data on Americans in the name of stopping illegal immigration. Their latest target? Your insurance data.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now using data from the Insurance Services Office’s ClaimSearch, a private industry service for detecting car and health insurance fraud, according to ICE documents obtained by the tech news site 404 Media on Wednesday. ClaimSearch includes 1.8 billion insurance claims and 58 million medical bills—along with the personal data attached to them, including addresses, tax identification numbers, and license plates.

ClaimSearch’s public policy states that it grants full access to law enforcement agencies “investigating or prosecuting insurance-related crime, or developing background information about a specific individual or list of individuals who have been identified as persons of interest with regard to homeland security activity.”

Verisk, the company that runs ClaimSearch, denied to 404 Media that ICE or the Department of Homeland Security is one of its clients. But the National Insurance Crime Bureau, which controls access to ClaimSearch, did not directly answer whether ICE has access. 404 Media speculated that ICE could have gained access through another government agency.

In March 2025, the Trump administration signed an executive order to tear down “information silos” between federal agencies, and in May, the IRS signed a data-sharing agreement with ICE. The administration has leaned heavily on surveillance contractor Palantir, which has a contract with ICE to facilitate “complete target analysis of known populations.”

ICE has also been tapping into the nationwide network of license plate reading cameras by asking local law enforcement agencies to run searches for specific cars, 404 Media reported earlier this year. Some police departments insisted to 404 Media that the searches were conducted for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations branch, which handles organized crime and smuggling rather than immigration enforcement.

However, the ICE documents on ClaimSearch specifically said that the data was going to Enforcement and Removal Operations, the branch that handles the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants.

The immigration cops didn’t just start building their mass surveillance dragnets this year. In 2021, at the start of the Biden administration, The Washington Post reported that ICE was buying utility company records. While Customs and Border Protection (CBP) insisted in a 2018 report that it buys “only anonymized data” from third-party brokers, it has used commercial cell phone data to track and arrest specific people.

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Study: CBD Inhibits Osteosarcoma by Targeting Tumor-Driving Inflammation

“Osteosarcoma remains a therapeutic challenge due to its aggressive behavior and high metastatic potential, necessitating exploration of novel treatment modalities”, states the study’s abstract. “Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive phytocannabinoid with emerging anticancer properties, has shown promise in preclinical cancer models. However, its mechanisms of action in osteosarcoma remain incompletely understood.”

With that in mind, “This study systematically investigates the antitumor effects of CBD on osteosarcoma and elucidates its molecular targets within the TNF-α/NF-κB/CCL5 signaling axis.”

Conducted by researchers at Shandong University and Harbin Medical University, researchers used cell-based assays and a mouse model, finding that CBD suppressed osteosarcoma cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, while also reducing tumor growth in vivo.

The team identified that CBD binds directly to the NF-κB subunit p65, blocking its ability to activate transcription of the chemokine CCL5. This disruption also interfered with a previously unrecognized positive feedback loop between p65 and CCL5, which helps sustain inflammatory signaling in osteosarcoma cells. By targeting this loop, CBD not only inhibited tumor-promoting inflammation but also weakened the cancer’s ability to proliferate and spread.

The researchers used a combination of molecular docking, protein-binding assays, and gene expression analysis to confirm CBD’s direct interaction with the p65 protein and its downstream effects.

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FDACS removes over 85K illegal hemp products in child safety crackdown

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson announced results of “Operation Safe Summer,” a statewide enforcement effort resulting in the removal of more than 85,000 hemp packages that were found in violation of state child-protection standards.

In the first three weeks of the operation, hemp-derived products were seized across 40 counties for “violations of Florida’s child-protection standards for packaging, labeling, and marketing,” according to a press release from the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Simpson said they will continue to “aggressively enforce the law, hold bad actors accountable, and put the safety of Florida’s families over profits.”

The state previously issued announcements advising hemp food establishments on the planned enforcement of amendments to Rule 5K-4.034, Florida Administrative Code, a press release said.

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America’s largest power grid is struggling to meet demand from AI

America’s largest power grid is under strain as data centers and AI chatbots consume power faster than new plants can be built.

Electricity bills are projected to surge by more than 20% this summer in some parts of PJM Interconnection’s territory, which covers 13 states – from Illinois to Tennessee, Virginia to New Jersey – serving 67 million customers in a region with the most data centers in the world.

The governor of Pennsylvania is threatening to abandon the grid, the CEO has announced his departure and the chair of PJM’s board of managers and another board member were voted out.

The upheaval at PJM started a year ago with a more than 800% jump in prices at its annual capacity auction. Rising prices out of the auction trickle down to everyday people’s power bills.

Now PJM is barreling towards its next capacity auction on Wednesday, when prices may rise even further.

The auction aims to avoid blackouts by establishing a rate at which generators agree to pump out electricity during the most extreme periods of stress on the grid, usually the hottest and coldest days of the year.

High prices out of the auction should spur new power plant construction, but that hasn’t happened quickly enough in PJM’s region as aging power plants continue to retire and data center demand explodes.

PJM has made the situation worse by delaying auctions and pausing the application process for new plants, according to more than a dozen power developers, regulators, energy attorneys and other experts interviewed by Reuters.

“We need speed from PJM, we need transparency from PJM and we need to keep consumer costs down with PJM,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told Reuters in an interview. “I think they’ve taken some steps in that direction which is really encouraging to me and we’re going to continue to work at it.”

PJM says the supply and demand crunch has been caused largely by factors outside of its control, including state energy policies that closed fossil-fuel fired power plants prematurely and data center growth in “Data Center Alley” in Northern Virginia and other burgeoning hubs in the Mid-Atlantic.

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GOP Senator Who Helped Federally Legalize Hemp Is Seeking To Close ‘Loophole’ By Banning Products With Committee Vote This Week, Sources Say

The senator who championed the federal legalization of hemp is now seeking to reverse much of the reform by pushing legislation at a committee hearing this week to ban on consumable products with quantifiable amounts of THC, industry stakeholders say.

Several sources told Marijuana Moment on Tuesday that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the former majority leader in the Senate who led the push for hemp legalization as part of the 2018 Farm Bill, is behind forthcoming language in agriculture spending legislation that would effectively wipe out the consumable hemp product market.

The bill text has not been released at this point, however, and there are efforts within the cannabis space to get it amended before it goes to a vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday. Marijuana Moment reached out to McConnell’s office for comment, but representatives did not respond by the time of publication.

Two of the sources said that the hemp provisions will be identical to what the House Appropriations Committee passed late last month, with noted cannabis prohibitionist Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) leading the charge to correct what he’s described as a “loophole” in the Farm Bill that led to the proliferation of consumable—and in certain cases intoxicating—cannabinoid products such as delta-8 THC that have gone largely unregulated.

Another source said McConnell is aware that hemp legalization is part of his legacy in the Senate and wants closing the so-called “loophole” that has allowed the proliferation of intoxicating products to be part of that history.

Industry experts say the language wouldn’t just ban controversial hemp products found at gas stations and headshops across the country, however. Based on the House text, it would prohibit all products containing any amount of THC, and the concern is that it would mean even CBD items would likely be banned because it’s extremely rare that the extraction of that non-intoxicating cannabinoid would have no THC.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Marijuana Moment recently that he’s opposed to cannabis language included in the House agriculture appropriations bill that’s now heading to the floor. He said “I think would completely destroy the American hemp industry.”

“I don’t know how you’d be able to sell CBD oil with that,” he the senator said.

While Harris amended report language attached to the bill that clarifies it’s not the intent of the committee to stop people from accessing “industrial or nonintoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoid products with trace or insignificant amounts of THC,” the House bill itself still says that products containing any “quantifiable” amounts of THC couldn’t be marketed. And it’s rare to find CBD items without any natural traces of THC.

Again, while industry sources familiar with the discussions say the Senate version will contain identical language in its current form, the text isn’t publicly available and it’s possible it could be revised ahead of Thursday’s committee markup. But if the language is the same, that would raise serious concerns in the hemp sector, significantly increasing the likelihood that it could be enacted into law.

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