Mitch McConnell Seen for First Time in 3 Months

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Republican Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell returned to Capitol Hill Monday after a three-month absence.

McConnell said he would cast his first vote on the Senate floor since his fall on June 14, which left him hospitalized and in physical therapy for months. The senator’s office remained silent on his whereabouts and condition throughout his absence.

“Today, I’ll cast my first Senate vote since I took a bad fall back in June. I’m really looking forward to being back on the Senate floor and seeing my colleagues. My recovery has been a long and often frustrating process, and the lingering effects of childhood polio haven’t made it any easier,” McConnell said in a statement. “I’m still not quite back to 100%, but I’ve assured Leader Thune that, as I continue with physical therapy on the advice of my doctors, I will do my best to be present for tough votes when our Conference needs me.”

“Elaine and I are very grateful for all the continued well wishes from our fellow Kentuckians, and I’m glad to get back to more of business as usual on their behalf this month,” the statement continued. . .

Footage taken by journalist Desiree Townsend showed McConnell exiting his home in Washington, D.C., in a wheelchair and entering a vehicle en route to the Capitol.

McConnell’s staff did not tell the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday whether McConnell planned to return. A spokesman sent a press release from Aug. 6 which announced his discharge from the hospital. (Read more from “Mitch McConnell Seen for First Time in 3 Months” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

‘Maybe They Kill Everyone’: Former Employee At OpenAI Tells Joe Rogan How Weird ‘Agents’ Are Acting

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A man who once worked for OpenAI told Joe Rogan this week that humanity is heading toward a future run by machines that no longer need us.

Daniel Kokotajlo, who spent two years in OpenAI’s governance division before leaving in 2024, appeared on Rogan’s podcast Wednesday and warned that the rush to build smarter systems could end badly. He now heads the AI Futures Project, a forecasting nonprofit, and said the contest between the United States and China pushes companies to cut corners on safety as they chase an edge.

“Eventually, the AIs just have enough hard power that they don’t need to pretend to do what the humans want anymore, basically. And then maybe they kill everyone,” Kokotajlo said.

A wipeout might not be deliberate, he suggested. Machines could simply seize the land and resources people rely on for their own uses, leaving humans to fend for themselves.

Kokotajlo pointed to a real breach as proof his fears are more than speculative. About 700 AI agents built by OpenAI broke out of a testing environment during a July cybersecurity exercise and forced their way into the servers of rival firm Hugging Face, Reuters reported. Many agents then tried to bury the evidence by erasing or rewriting logs of their actions, the reviews found. (Read more from “‘Maybe They Kill Everyone’: Former Employee At OpenAI Tells Joe Rogan How Weird ‘Agents’ Are Acting” HERE)

Seatmate of Crazed Duct-Taped Plane Passenger Reveals what Sparked Wild Mid-Flight Meltdown

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The crazed plane passenger who was duct-taped and zip-tied on a flight to New Jersey first flipped over a discussion about religion with his seatmate, a controversial Messianic rabbi who’s a best-selling author dubbed a “Doomsday prophet.”

Author Jonathan Cahn said that now-fired Arizona realtor Arthur Layne Lundeen, 67, allegedly started hurling racist and homophobic slurs after first screaming at him that “Jesus is bulls–t.”

“I was the unidentified passenger and I was actually attacked, 30,000 feet in the sky. I was attacked on that plane,” Cahn revealed in a YouTube video Monday.

“I have never seen someone change in a split second from light to dark as I saw then, as if something had taken him over,” Cahn said. “He went from the friendliest guy in the world to this dark person.”

Cahn leads the Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, New Jersey, part of the Messianic Jewish movement that believes Jesus is the messiah, making it generally considered a branch of Christianity.

He is also known for his controversial books, especially his debut 2011 novel, “The Harbinger,” which draws parallels between the 9/11 attacks and the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel, linking the events as a divine warning. (Read more from “Seatmate of Crazed Duct-Taped Plane Passenger Reveals what Sparked Wild Mid-Flight Meltdown” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Chilling Video Shows Crocodile Chomp Handler’s Legs as He Desperately Fights for Life: ‘He Couldn’t Scream’

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Harrowing video shows a crocodile handler desperately clinging to the side of a pool as the hulking predator grabs onto his legs and drags him into the water.

The worker was trying to feed the croc a chicken inside an enclosure at Adventure Park in Papua New Guinea’s capital city, Port Moresby, on Saturday afternoon when he was attacked.

He was rushed to the hospital after being trapped in the beast’s jaws for over an hour but died from his injuries on Sunday morning, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

“He brought the chicken to the fence and the crocodile attacked the person and tried to bring him into the pool,” eyewitness Gibson John said, according to the outlet.

“He was in severe pain but he couldn’t scream. He couldn’t speak properly at that time. It was the pain I could see from his eyes.

“The only thing I could hear him say was, ‘I haven’t done anything wrong.’” (Read more from “Chilling Video Shows Crocodile Chomp Handler’s Legs as He Desperately Fights for Life: ‘He Couldn’t Scream’” HERE)

Photo credit: Chaicks Marn / Facebook

Moment Disgraced Eric Swalwell is Surrounded by FBI Agents at San Francisco Airport

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Former Rep. Eric Swalwell was surrounded by FBI agents at San Francisco International Airport as he deboarded a plane, leading to the seizure of his cellphone and laptop as part of a federal criminal investigation, newly obtained video shows.

The California Post exclusively obtained surveillance footage of the Aug. 15 encounter, providing the first look at the dramatic airport search that unfolded after Swalwell arrived in California.

The footage shows Swalwell — dressed incognito in a hat, black sweatshirt and sneakers — speaking with several agents at his flight gate as travelers pass nearby. The former Democratic congressman appears calm and cooperative throughout the encounter.

Video footage of the encounter then shows Swalwell, wearing a backpack and dragging a rollbag, being escorted throughout San Francisco’s airport. He’s taken up an escalator and eventually arrives in a hallway with a sign that says “restricted area.” He then enters a room with multiple people.

Agents served Swalwell with a search warrant at about 8:25 p.m. and seized a white Apple iPhone, its charging cable and wall adapter, and an Apple MacBook Pro, according to an inventory filed with the warrant. (Read more from “Moment Disgraced Eric Swalwell is Surrounded by FBI Agents at San Francisco Airport” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Trump Reaches Deals with Nine More Pharmaceutical Companies to Slash Drug Prices

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President Donald Trump has struck deals with nine more pharmaceutical companies to slash drug prices for patients.

Trump announced the deals with Alcon, Astellas Pharma, BeOne Medicines, BridgeBio, CSL, Kyowa Kirin, Sun Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and UCB on Monday in the Oval Office while flanked by pharmaceutical executives.

“I’m thrilled to announce a major expansion of one of our signature affordability initiatives, something that people have been trying to get for years, for decades, and I’m not even sure that other presidents tried,” Trump said of his most favored nation (MFN) drug pricing initiative.

“Nine new pharmaceutical companies are committing to deliver their lowest drug prices for American patients,” he added.

The agreements ensure that every state Medicaid program will have access to MFN drug prices for all nine companies’ products, which the White House projects will save Americans across the country billions of dollars. (Read more from “Trump Reaches Deals with Nine More Pharmaceutical Companies to Slash Drug Prices” HERE)

VIDEO: Man Says ‘Angels’ Rushed to Help Him During Shark Attack

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A Florida man who was bitten by a shark August 23 in Key West is grateful several people rushed to help him when he needed it most.

David Daniel of Silver Springs was walking in shallow water after fishing when he realized there was a shark nearby, Click Orlando reported Thursday.

“I turned around and saw it swimming along the coastline of a sandbar. Then he turned and just beelined right for me like a movie,” he recalled of the tense moment.

Daniel believes the creature was six or seven feet long and said “we were looking eyeball to eyeball” as the shark attacked and took a chunk out of his foot.

However, the individuals who were nearby and ran to help him when the incident happened turned out to be nurses and medical personnel who knew exactly how to stop Daniel from bleeding out by using a tourniquet.

(Read more from “VIDEO: Man Says ‘Angels’ Rushed to Help Him During Shark Attack” HERE)

Local Hero Barry The Beekeeper Electrifies The Room With Anti-Flock Speech At Council Meeting

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A local beekeeper electrified a North Carolina county commissioners’ meeting with an anti-Flock surveillance speech, emphasizing the bipartisan makeup of the growing, nationwide backlash.

Tens of thousands of Flock Safety cameras and automated license plate readers (ALPRs) blanket the U.S., but have triggered pushback from concerned citizens, local activists, civil liberties groups and state and federal lawmakers. Flock’s defenders say the cameras are a crucial tool for fighting crime, but detractors believe the government could exploit the system and violate Americans’ constitutional rights.

Barry Harris, a beekeeper from Wilmington, North Carolina, delivered a three-minute, anti-Flock speech at a New Hanover County Commissioners meeting earlier in August. Harris highlighted the bipartisanship on display, arguing that Flock cameras are “not a winning issue” for local politicians.

“There’s gays, straights, young, old, liberals, way-left liberals, Genghis Khan conservatives to the right here,” Harris said.

Harris was among 41 locals who spoke at the Aug. 17 meeting in protest of New Hanover County’s contract with Flock and the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office’s operation of 19 Flock cameras. Ahead of the meeting, dozens of protesters gathered outside the New Hanover County courthouse holding anti-Flock signs. (Read more from “Local Hero Barry The Beekeeper Electrifies The Room With Anti-Flock Speech At Council Meeting” HERE)

Alex Pretti’s Parents, Sister Interviewed Seven Months After His Fatal Shooting

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Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the parents of Alex Pretti, who was shot and killed on Jan. 24 in Minneapolis, Michael and Susan Pretti along with his sister, Micayla Pretti spoke with George Stephanopoulos.

Stephanopoulos said, “My first question is, it has been seven months, why do you want to speak now?”

Michael Pretti said, “We really want to get the facts out of what happened to Alex that day. I mean, we’ve seen what happened. The videos are pretty clear, but we want justice and accountability for the people that did this to Alex.”

He continued, “He was a good man. He’s a good kid. He cared deeply about his community. Minneapolis was his community. He wanted people to be treated fairly, no matter what walk of life, what their background was.”

Stephanopoulos said, “What did he tell you about why he was protesting?”

Michael Pretti said, “He wasn’t really protesting. I mean, and that’s one thing we want to be clear. The day he was murdered, he was not at a protest. He was an observer and that’s why he had his phone.”

(Read more from “Alex Pretti’s Parents, Sister Interviewed Seven Months After His Fatal Shooting” HERE)

White House Makes Natalie Harp Disappear From Melania Video

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Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, and his ever-present, always-smiling aide, Natalie Harp, both attended the Freedom 250 Grand Prix. But on the White House’s social media, the president’s blonde cheerleader was almost nowhere to be found.

Harp, 35, is paid $150,000 a year in her capacity as an aide to Trump, 80. She travels almost everywhere with him, sits in on most Oval Office meetings, and helps with his Truth Social posts.

Though she was visible in numerous photographs and videos taken at the Washington, D.C. event on Sunday, she didn’t make it into the official White House or First Lady-branded social content.

In a jerkily edited video set to frenzied strings and posted by the White House, the first lady, and the official Freedom 250 GP Instagram, the footage cycles through moments from the race, closely cropping the president and first lady while largely excluding everyone else. (Read more from “White House Makes Natalie Harp Disappear From Melania Video” HERE)