Harvard Professor Slammed For Allegedly Relying On AI In Anti-Trump Op-Ed

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A star economist at Harvard is taking heavy criticism over accusations that artificial intelligence did most of the work on his anti-Trump column.

Ricardo Hausmann wrote the opinion piece attacking President Donald Trump’s tariffs for the Financial Times, which ran it Thursday. He is the Rafik Hariri Professor of the Practice of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School and director of Harvard’s Growth Lab. The outlet later attached an editorial note to the article conceding that AI had played a role.

“It has come to our attention that AI was used to condense a longer draft of this column prior to submission to the FT and our own editorial involvement,” the note reads, according to the Financial Times. The paper added that its code of conduct bars AI from the writing process.

Readers flagged the column on social media over its wooden prose before the disclaimer appeared. One X user called it the worst AI slop yet seen in a major outlet. Another posted a screenshot from the detection tool Pangram indicating the 841-word piece was 71% AI-generated.

Pangram and its chief executive, Max Spero, have become a frequent authority in disputes over AI authorship, though the tool’s reliability remains contested, according to Slate. The Guardian dismissed one Pangram accusation against a longtime staffer as preposterous. A separate case saw the detector score a novel at 78% AI, a finding that helped sink the author’s book deal even as she denied using the technology, according to Fortune. (Read more from “Harvard Professor Slammed For Allegedly Relying On AI In Anti-Trump Op-Ed” HERE)

Iran Denies Report of ‘Backchannel’ Negotiations with U.S.

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Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday dismissed “fabricated” reports in American media of secret “backchannel” negotiations between the U.S. government and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The report on backchannel communications, published by Axios on Sunday, said that former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard set up the line of communications in May, using the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, as a go-between.

According to the report, Barzani used his ties with the IRGC to get in touch with its leader, Gen. Ahmad Vahidi. Vahidi said he supported the work of Iran’s negotiators, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

Barzani relayed the message back to Gabbard, providing important information at a time when many observers thought the IRGC was working to sabotage negotiations. It was also unclear at the time whether Aragchi, or any other representative of Iran’s secular government, had any real power to make an agreement with the United States.

The report said the Trump administration wanted to open this channel of communication wider, developing Barzani into an intermediary, and possibly even arranging direct talks between American and Iranian representatives in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The Iranians allegedly balked at this proposal, in part because they feared Israel might try to assassinate any representatives they sent to Erbil. (Read more from “Iran Denies Report of ‘Backchannel’ Negotiations with U.S.” HERE)

Scientist Says Screens are Creating a Stupid Generation: “Our Children are Less Cognitively Capable”

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Jared Cooney Horvath is on a mission. In the wake of global campaigns for smartphone bans in schools and social media restrictions for under-16s, the neuroscientist wants to raise the alarm about educational technology in classrooms.

A former teacher, Horvath believes the use of screens and digital tools in schools is undermining how children learn and develop. “This might be one of the hardest truths our generation has to face,” he writes in his book, The Digital Delusion.

“Our children are less cognitively capable than we were at their age,” he says. “For nearly two centuries, the west experienced steady generational progress. Each new cohort of children grew up, on average, healthier, happier, and better educated than the last. Until now.”

Starting around the year 2000, something changed. “Across the west, IQ scores began to fall – even as time spent in school kept rising,” writes Horvath. Scores in international tests started to drop. Why? “The answer lies in the meteoric rise of educational technology.” . . .

“We’ve been making some incredible strides on the screen-based childhood stuff which even two years ago, I did not think was going to happen as fast as it did,” he said. “But it’s not just about getting rid of screens for entertainment. It’s about reducing them as much as possible for academic learning as well if we want our kids to have deep transferrable knowledge in our heads.” (Read more from “Scientist Says Screens are Creating a Stupid Generation: “Our Children are Less Cognitively Capable” HERE)

Trump instructs Pentagon to Reduce Military Exercises with South Korea

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President Donald Trump said on Sunday he had instructed the Pentagon to substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea in a social media post that also mentions Seoul’s refusal to take part in actions against Iran.

Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site that, although it was too late to cancel the exercises entirely, he was “not happy” that the United States had previously agreed to participate.

The president also cited his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“These exercises are not only costly… but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful,” he wrote.

Trump also pointed to South Korea’s stance on the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed the Pentagon to substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, he said on Sunday in a social media post that also mentioned Seoul’s refusal to take part in actions against Iran. (Read more from “Trump instructs Pentagon to Reduce Military Exercises with South Korea” HERE)

Fauci was Privately Informed about Questions over COVID-19 Vaccines and Miscarriages, New Texts Show

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Dr. Anthony Fauci was privately informed in January 2021 that the initial studies on COVID-19 vaccination did not include women in the first trimester of pregnancy because of miscarriage risk, according to new texts released by Sens. Rand Paul and Ron Johnson.

“I am corrected on pregnancy studies. Initial Studies [sic] avoid vaccination in first trimester due to possible fever and higher rates of miscarriage in first trimester,” Dr. John Mascola texted Fauci on Jan. 25, 2021.

Mascola was serving as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center at the time.

After Mascola’s message, Fauci said there was a theoretical risk that COVID-19 vaccinations during pregnancy could cause miscarriages due to the potential for a fever.

“Since many people have significant cytokines storm and fever after the 2nd dose, this theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester,” Fauci wrote.

Cytokines storm refers to a severe autoimmune response in which the body produces too many peptides signaling infection, leading the body to attack itself. (Read more from “Fauci was Privately Informed about Questions over COVID-19 Vaccines and Miscarriages, New Texts Show” HERE)

NYC: Socialist Lawmaker Claims Stealing for ‘Biological Need’ Should Not Be Illegal

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A socialist lawmaker in New York City has claimed “biological need” gives shoplifters the right to steal from store shelves.

State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, who describes herself as a “neighborhood organizer” and “democratic socialist,” made her comments on Thursday outside Manhattan Criminal Court, the New York Post reported Saturday.

She was joined by members of Court Watch NYC, which claimed they monitored hundreds of arraignments for several days and found half of those cases were misdemeanors.

Gallagher said:

Most of what we saw were crimes of poverty-people who are stealing things like toothpaste, people who were stealing things like, you know, soap. And that means if you’re stealing those things, you need them. And we are choosing to protect billion-dollar companies, like CVS and Walgreens, over the people who are struggling to get by. So I would say that the true crime is that there is such incredible wealth disparity in this city that there are people who can be thrown in jail simply for having a biological need.

Gallagher said she is fighting to “pass things like treatment not jail and that we hold the line on the incredible criminal justice reforms that we have done over the last 10 and 20 years that are constantly being threatened by right-wing media who are looking to fear monger about people who are actually just in absolute dire straits.” (Read more from “NYC: Socialist Lawmaker Claims Stealing for ‘Biological Need’ Should Not Be Illegal” HERE)

Iran Army Chief Offers $30,000 Bounty for Killing or Capturing U.S. Soldiers

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Iran’s army chief announced a $30,000 bounty Sunday for anyone who kills or captures an American service member, as Tehran’s armed forces escalated threats against U.S. personnel and separately vowed to continue confronting the United States until its enemies are “completely” defeated and forced to “surrender.”

“Anyone who kills or captures and hands over an invading American military personnel will receive a reward equivalent to $30,000 or 5 billion tomans from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army,” Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami said at a ceremony honoring journalists.

“Courageous Iranian women who carry out such an action will receive double the reward,” he added.

Hatami said the initiative was created following a “large number of requests” from Iranians seeking to financially support attacks against American forces. Under the plan, he said, the weapon used to kill an American would also be purchased at twice its value, replaced with a new weapon, and preserved in a museum.

The army chief did not specify where or under what circumstances Americans were expected to be targeted. No U.S. ground forces are known to be deployed inside Iran, outside of combat search-and-rescue operations in April after an American F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Iranian territory. (Read more from “Iran Army Chief Offers $30,000 Bounty for Killing or Capturing U.S. Soldiers” HERE)

Man Who Carried Clinton Nuclear ‘Football’ Reveals What ‘Scares the Hell out of Me’ about Trump’s Air Force One Story

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A retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who carried the nuclear “football” for former President Bill Clinton says the extraordinary Air Force One shell game departing Ankara, Turkey, last month to protect President Donald Trump from a potential attack was hardly unprecedented.

“It was brilliant,” retired Lt. Col. Robert “Buzz” Patterson told Fox News Digital. “I wish I had been a part of it. That’s how well done it was.”

But Patterson is warning that exposing the vital national security secrets behind such operations could put presidents, military personnel and the White House press corps in danger for years to come.

Patterson served as Clinton’s senior military aide for a period of two years and was responsible for the president’s emergency satchel, and in a 20-minute interview Wednesday, he explained how presidential decoys, aircraft swaps and other acts of deception are longstanding tools used to protect the commander in chief, his senior officials and the “privileged” Air Force One press corps.

What alarms him, Patterson said, is not that Trump’s security team used the tactic — including the catering truck sleight of hand he was intimately a part of during the Clinton administration — but that details of how it was done are now spilling into public view.

“I hope that they prosecute this to the fullest,” Patterson said. “Whoever leaked that, in my opinion, and having been involved in this, was highly placed in that process.” (Read more from “Man Who Carried Clinton Nuclear ‘Football’ Reveals What ‘Scares the Hell out of Me’ about Trump’s Air Force One Story” HERE)

Democrat Charged In Alleged $1,500,000 Pandemic-Era Fraud Scheme

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The Democratic mayor of Lawrence, Mass. has been arrested and faces charges for allegedly fraudulently obtaining more than $1.5 million in pandemic-era small-business loans and misusing the money, the Department of Justice said Friday.

Brian DePeña, 61, was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering and is set to make an initial appearance in a Boston federal court on Friday, the DOJ said in a news release. DePeña used the funds from the pandemic relief loans to fund his campaign account, pay personal taxes, and pay off more than $880,000 in high-interest mortgages, the department alleges.

“Mayor [DePeña] was elected to be a leader for the City of Lawrence. He was looked up to and trusted by his constituents, but he betrayed that trust through his alleged corruption and lies,” U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement. “Today’s arrest is just another example of our determination to root out fraud by anyone, even public officials and holding elected officials accountable.”

In 2020 and 2021, DePeña applied for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) for Tenares Tire Services Inc., a Lawrence-based tire sales and automotive services business that he owned, the DOJ alleged, citing charging documents. The EIDL program provided loans and advances aiming to “help businesses recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic,” according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Working capital did not include financing a political campaign, paying personal taxes, or paying off mortgages, according to the DOJ. (Read more from “Democrat Charged In Alleged $1,500,000 Pandemic-Era Fraud Scheme” HERE)

Retail Sales Suffer Biggest Drop In More Than A Year As Iran War Casts Shadow Over Economy

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Americans sharply pulled back on retail spending in July even as inflation remained elevated, raising fresh questions about whether the U.S. economy is weakening beneath the surface of the Iran war’s supply-driven price shock.

Retail sales fell 0.6% in July from the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Friday, marking the largest monthly decline since May 2025 and missing economists’ expectations for a modest increase. The Federal Reserve acknowledged that the conflict in the Middle East produced supply shocks, particularly in energy, contributing to elevated inflation.

The central bank simultaneously warned that household consumption had been growing only modestly.

For American households, the problem is more straightforward: they face higher prices while the economy shows signs of weakening demand. The result is less purchasing power and fewer opportunities to absorb another round of higher costs.

The headline figure is nominal, meaning it is not adjusted for inflation. Consumer prices increased another 0.1% in July, according to government data, meaning the underlying volume of goods purchased fell by more than the headline retail figure suggests. A rough adjustment for consumer-price growth would put the July decline in real terms at around 0.7%, though the precise figure depends on the deflator used for retail sales. (Read more from “Retail Sales Suffer Biggest Drop In More Than A Year As Iran War Casts Shadow Over Economy” HERE)