New Chinese COVID Strain Has Landed in the U.S., Affecting NYC

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A new, highly infectious COVID-19 strain that has led to a spike in hospitalizations in China has now been detected in the US, including cases in New York City, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new NB.1.81 variant was first detected in the US in late March and early April among international travelers arriving at airports in California, Washington State, Virginia and New York City, with additional cases reported in Ohio, Rhode Island and Hawaii.

The CDC has said there are too few cases in the US to be properly tracked in the agency’s variant estimates, but experts are warning that the virus’ run in China shows it spreads more quickly than other dominant strains of the respiratory infection.

Experts have been closely tracking the NB.1.8.1 variant after it became the dominant strain in China this year, with cases surging all across Asia.

Hong Kong authorities say COVID-19 cases have spiked to the worst levels in at least a year after officials announced a “significant increase” in emergency room visits and hospitalizations in the last month due to the variant. (Read more from “New Chinese COVID Strain Has Landed in the U.S., Affecting NYC” HERE)

Trump Team Pauses New Student Visa Interviews as It Weighs Expanding Social Media Vetting

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A transgender TikToker, dressed in a blue leotard and pink Minnie Mouse ears, went on an angry rant after a waiter at a Disney World restaurant referred to him as “sir.” In response, the individual, who presents as a teenage girl, claimed the experience made him feel unsafe at Disney, a place often described as “the happiest place on Earth.”

“It makes me want to immediately, like, leave, because I no longer feel, like, safe here,” trans TikToker Lilly Contino said in a video posted to social media.

Contino was dining at Tiffins Restaurant in Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park when the waiter, while explaining the first course, addressed him as “sir.”

“Coconut bread from Thailand?” Contino asked, to which the server replied, “Yes, sir.”

(Read more from “Trump Team Pauses New Student Visa Interviews as It Weighs Expanding Social Media Vetting” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

New Student Visa Interviews on Hold as Trump’s Team Considers Broader Social Media Investigation

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The Trump administration is weighing requiring all foreign students applying to study in the United States to undergo social media vetting — a significant expansion of previous such efforts, according to a cable obtained by POLITICO.

In preparation for such required vetting, the administration is ordering U.S. Embassies and consular sections to pause scheduling new interviews for such student visa applicants, according to the cable, dated Tuesday and signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

If the administration carries out the plan, it could severely slow down student visa processing. It also could hurt many universities who rely heavily on foreign students to boost their financial coffers.

“Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor (F, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued septel, which we anticipate in the coming days,” the cable states. (“Septel” is State Department shorthand for “separate telegram.”) (Read more from “New Student Visa Interviews on Hold as Trump’s Team Considers Broader Social Media Investigation” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

WATCH: French President Shoved by Wife in Shocking Scuffle Caught on Camera

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By TMZ. President Emmanuel Macron waved off the face shove his wife gave him earlier with a statement to reporters saying, “We are bickering and joking with my wife and a video becomes a sort of geoplanetary catastrophe,” Macron says.

He continued … “In the world we live in, we don’t have a lot of time to lose … This is all a bit of nonsense.”

Those French have a temper … even at the highest level, because the country Prez got smacked right in the noggin by his wife, and it’s become something of a scandal.

Macron and his wife Brigitte were about to deplane Sunday after landing in Vietnam, and you see as plain as day, Macron taking a hard one to the face.

Brigitte isn’t fully seen by the AP photog as her arms appear and she puts her hands on her hubby.

Macron appears rattled but quickly regains his composure and pivots with a wave to folks outside the aircraft. (Read more from “French President Macron Now That’s a Slap in the Face!!! HERE)

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French President Macron Shoved by Wife Brigitte in Shocking Scuffle Caught on Camera

By Page Six. Brigitte Macron, the first lady of France, was seen shoving her husband, President Emmanuel Macron, in a shocking video that has since gone viral.

The moment was captured on camera Sunday evening when the couple was landing in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, for a state visit. . .

A source close to Macron also downplayed the matter to the Agence France-Presse, a French international news agency headquartered in Paris.

“It was a moment when the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by joking around,” the insider told the outlet.

“It’s a moment of togetherness. No more was needed to feed the mills of the conspiracy theorists.”

The Macrons have been married since 2007. However, their relationship has been heavily scrutinized due to Brigitte meeting the president when he was only 15 while she was his drama teacher. (Read more from “French President Macron Shoved by Wife Brigitte in Shocking Scuffle Caught on Camera” HERE)

OpenAI CEO Whines to Congress About Pesky Regulations, Once More Insists the Tech’s Impact Will Be ‘As Big as the Internet, Maybe Bigger’

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OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman told senators that the artificial intelligence (AI) boom “will be at least as big as the internet, maybe bigger,” pressing Congress to clear bottlenecks in energy, chips, and regulation as the United States jockeys for global dominance in the technology race.

The testimony was extensive, but there was a consistent theme: AI is incredibly advanced, helping hundreds of millions, and it’s vital that America leads the AI race. “ChatGPT is used by more than 500 million people a week,” Altman said. He continued, “It’s now the fifth biggest website on the internet globally growing very quickly.” Given the sweeping and global nature of OpenAI’s products, it’s more than clear he is on to something with his bold prediction.

According to Altman, America is leading the AI race and he is proud of how his country is supporting those efforts. But in order for America to stay ahead, “investment in infrastructure is critical. I believe the next decade will be about abundant intelligence and abundant energy.”

At a three‑hour Senate Commerce Committee hearing on May 8, Altman appeared alongside Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CEO Lisa Su, Microsoft (MSFT) vice‑chair Brad Smith, and CoreWeave (CRWV) co‑founder Michael Intrator. All four executives urged lawmakers to craft a single, “light‑touch” federal rulebook and accelerate permitting for power‑hungry data‑center projects.

Altman highlighted OpenAI’s Stargate super‑computing campus rising outside Abilene, Texas — a joint venture with Oracle (ORCL) expected to house 64,000 Nvidia (NVDA) GB200 GPUs by 2026 and draw roughly 200 megawatts in its first phase. But financing for the wider $100 billion national build‑out has slowed after fresh Trump‑era tariffs threatened to lift steel and server costs by up to 15%, according to investors briefed on the deal. (Read more from “OpenAI CEO Whines to Congress About Pesky Regulations, Once More Insists the Tech’s Impact Will Be ‘As Big as the Internet, Maybe Bigger’” HERE)

Donald Trump: ‘Our Debt’ to Fallen Service Members ‘Is Eternal’ and Ever-Growing

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President Donald Trump said during his Memorial Day remarks at Arlington National Cemetery that the sacrifices of America’s fallen servicemembers endure each and every day, and the debt Americans owe these selfless heroes only grows.

Trump spoke alongside Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shortly after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In his remarks, Trump paid tribute to those who were killed in action, laying down the ultimate sacrifice for the United States of America.

“The sacrifice that they made was not merely for a single battle, a long-ago victory, or a fleeting triumph decades or centuries past; their sacrifice was for today, tomorrow, and every morning thereafter,” Trump said.

“Every child that lives in peace, every home that is filled with joy and love, every day the Republic stands is only possible because of those who did what had to be done when duty called and the cost was everything to them and to their families,” he added.

Trump then spoke of the ever-growing debt Americans owe to those who laid down their lives in the name of the nation.

(Read more from “Donald Trump: ‘Our Debt’ to Fallen Service Members ‘Is Eternal’ and Ever-Growing” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Disney’s ‘Star Wars’ Star Mark Hamill Calls Trump ‘Dictator, Presi-Dementia’ in Unhinged Bluesky Screed

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Disney’s Star Wars star Mark Hamill has had enough of President Donald Trump and let fly Sunday with a string of epithets on social media to signal his displeasure.

Taking to his Bluesky account, Hamill laid out the following (all in capitals, as you would expect) veering from calling Trump a “dictator” through to describing him as “presi-dementia.”

PRESI-DEMENTIA/CON-MANDER-IN-CHIEF/FATTY SHACK/AYATOLLAH COMPLAINI/TANNIBAL LECTER/SCAMMY DAVIS JR./RICH LITTLE HANDS/HIPPOPOTUS/OUR FONDLING FARTER/TRUMPELSTILTSKIN/HUNGRY HUNGRY HYPOCRITE/DICTATOR TOT/UNCLE SCAM/QUID PRO COMBOVER/MANGO MUSSOLINI/FRANCIS FORD GROPE-ALA/ALEXANDER SCAMILTON <the end>

[image or embed]

— Mark Hamill (@markhamillofficial.bsky.social) May 25, 2025 at 12:08 PM

Sneering and scorning Trump is nothing new for Hamill.

Last month he took it upon himself to apologize to Canada just as that country’s election saw Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party claim a massive federal election victory, as Breitbart News reported.

“Dear Canada. Please accept our deepest apologies from all decent Americans embarrassed by the obnoxious trolling from our man-baby-in-chief who is lacking in both intelligence & any impulse-control whatsoever,” Hamill wrote on Bluesky. (Read more from “Disney’s ‘Star Wars’ Star Mark Hamill Calls Trump ‘Dictator, Presi-Dementia’ in Unhinged Bluesky Screed” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

‘How Does This Happen?’: Power Outages Hit Blue City On Holiday Weekend After Months Of Warnings

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New Orleans was plunged into darkness on Sunday afternoon when the region’s grid operator cut off power to reduce usage, a “last resort” measure to prevent a large-scale blackout, according to Nola.com, a local news outlet.

The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), a major electrical grid operator, directed the energy company Entergy to reduce power with only three minutes’ notice to prevent a blackout, affecting nearly 100,000 customers, according to Nola.com. Power was fully restored after several hours, though concerns about the power grid’s reliability remain as President Donald Trump’s administration, energy policy experts and multiple North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reports have signaled that MISO is at an elevated risk for blackouts due in part to phasing out coal-fired power plants.

“The forced outages were directed by MISO as a last resort, and done in order to prevent a more extensive, prolonged power outage that could severely affect the reliability of the power grid,” Entergy said in a Sunday statement.

“How does this happen?” New Orleans City Council member Joe Giarrusso told Nola.com. “There are lots of questions that need answering.”

Giarrusso and fellow New Orleans City Council member Helena Moreno said MISO warned Entergy of the outage just three minutes before turning off the power, though the reason for the short notice was unclear, according to Nola.com. The blackouts affected approximately 100,000 customers in and around New Orleans, according to 4WWL, a local CBS affiliate. (Read more from “‘How Does This Happen?’: Power Outages Hit Blue City On Holiday Weekend After Months Of Warnings” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Turns Out There’s A Catch To California’s Rosy Population Stats

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California’s population is growing again, but not because Americans are moving in, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In 2024, nearly 240,000 Californians packed up and left the state, WSJ reported. The state’s population still rose by 0.6% overall because more than 361,000 immigrants arrived to take their place.

The exodus from the state is not a new phenomenon, as around 344,000 Californians left in 2023, while 292,000 international migrants arrived, the outlet reported.

About 56% of Californians have considered leaving the state due to the exorbitant cost of living, a 2024 Emerson College poll found. California’s median home price topped $900,000 in 2024 — well over double the national average — while utility and gas prices remain among the country’s highest.

The state’s population decreased for the first time in history in 2020, when over 477,000 Californians left, leading to the state losing a congressional seat. The population continued to decline until 2023, buoyed by an influx of international immigrants. (Read more from “Turns Out There’s A Catch To California’s Rosy Population Stats” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

‘Toxic’: Top Obama Official Blasts Dem Party as ‘Weak and Woke’ Amid Rumors He May Seek White House

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Rahm Emanuel, an ex-Obama White House chief of staff and former Chicago mayor, said in a Wall Street Journal interview published Monday that the Democratic Party’s brand is “weak and woke.”

Emanuel also told the WSJ that he believes the Democratic Party’s brand is “toxic.” The interview comes amid increasing speculation that Emanuel could be a potential candidate in the party’s 2028 presidential primary, which is likely to be crowded.

“I’m tired of sitting in the back seat when somebody’s gunning it at 90 miles an hour for a cliff,” Emanuel told the WSJ.

“If you want the country to give you the keys to the car, somebody’s got to be articulating an agenda that’s fighting for America, not just fighting Trump,” Emanuel told the outlet. “The American dream has become unaffordable. It’s inaccessible. And that has to be unacceptable to us.”

Emanuel served in Congress from 2003 to 2009, worked as the White House chief of staff under the Obama administration from 2009 to 2010, and later served as Chicago mayor from 2011 to 2019. He most recently served as the U.S. ambassador to Japan under the Biden administration. (Read more from “‘Toxic’: Top Obama Official Blasts Dem Party as ‘Weak and Woke’ Amid Rumors He May Seek White House” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr