Vance’s Defense of Iran Deal Rests on Vague and Misleading Claims

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 22:54
The vice president said the United States had leverage to dictate the outcome of the next round of negotiations. But he claimed incorrectly that Iran got no new benefit from the lifting of oil sanctions.

San Francisco Film Patrons Are Found Dead on Side of Highway

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 22:53
Judith Sheldon, 84, daughter of an Oscar-winning director, and her husband, Wylie, 86, were traveling to Oregon on a hot day. Their deaths are under investigation.

See the Knicks Championship Parade Unfold

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 22:38
Fans gathered in Manhattan on Thursday to cheer on the N.B.A. champions at a parade that has been 53 years in the making.

Who Is Andy Burnham, the Man Who Could Be Britain’s Next Prime Minister?

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 22:29
Charismatic, northern and exuding a relaxed optimism, Mr. Burnham is a contrast to Keir Starmer. His allies hope he could mend Labour’s relationship with voters.

Barack Obama Presidential Center Opens in Chicago

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 22:24
Thursday’s opening drew four former presidents, as well as Bruce Springsteen, Bono and Jennifer Hudson. Chicago has seen years of planning and legal fights.

Scores Fall Ill at Air Force Base After Hegseth Makes Flu Vaccine Optional

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 22:13
The defense secretary described the vaccine requirement, which he lifted in April, as an “absurd, overreaching” mandate.

Central Park Rides Halted After Fatal Fall From Horse-Drawn Carriage

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 21:59
An 18-year-old was ejected after a carriage horse bolted on Wednesday as the driver took a photograph. It was unclear how long the voluntary shutdown might last.

Firm Tied to Trump Donor Got No-Bid Contract to Clean Reflecting Pool

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 21:33
A White House spokeswoman said the president was not involved in selecting Greenwater Services, the business owned by a trust led by John J. Cafaro.

Trump’s Intelligence Pick Renews Debate: Is the Director of National Intelligence Needed?

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 20:35
The director of national intelligence’s office was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. Now some lawmakers want to shrink it.

Trump and Netanyahu Have Really Stepped in It Now

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 20:01
America and Israel have snatched defeat from victory.

Trump Redirects Millions From Secret Service Amid White House Construction

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 19:57
The White House insists that private donations are paying for a new ballroom, but the administration is using taxpayer money for a series of security upgrades.

ICE Spent $700 Million on 7 Warehouses. Now It Wants to Get Rid of Them.

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 19:35
Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to sell or give away most of the 11 warehouses it bought to detain migrants, reversing course on a signature initiative.

James Talarico Attacks Ken Paxton Over Child Abuse Case

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 19:24
The case, which resulted in a short jail sentence despite years of alleged abuse, has drawn outcry in Texas. So have the attempts to politicize it.

During Trump’s Immigration Crackdown, Minnesota Protester Remained Shackled in Hospital for Days

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 19:14
The story of one progressive activist arrested in Minnesota in January shows what critics say is the aggressive nature of the Trump administration’s response to those who have protested its immigration crackdown.

Adobe Adds Its AI Assistant To Premiere, Illustrator and InDesign

SlashDot - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 19:00
Adobe is expanding its Firefly AI assistant into Premiere, Illustrator, InDesign, and Frame.io, where it can automate all sorts of tasks such as organizing clips, renaming assets, adding interview markers, rearranging layers, and finding missing fonts. It's available starting today as part of a public beta. TechCrunch reports: Adobe is slowly transforming Firefly to increasingly resemble Canva, at least when it comes to AI features, loading up the app with AI tools that can generate images, videos and storyboards. The company is now adding a new feature called Elements that can save AI-generated characters, objects and locations for later use. Firefly is also getting a Projects feature that can store existing assets in one place, and share context. This could be useful for teams creating a video series or brand campaigns. Both of these features are currently available in a private beta. The company said users can now describe a brand and its style, or upload existing collateral, in Firefly to have it generate a brand kit, complete with logos, brand identity and color palettes, or even generate product videos from photos. Users can also create storyboards to create videos.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Absent Congressman to Return to House in 12 Days, Aide Says

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 18:42
Thomas Kean Jr. has missed three months of votes in Washington and has not been on the campaign trail in his New Jersey district because of an unexplained health condition.

Rama Duwaji Had the Winning Look at the Knicks Parade

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 18:33
The first lady and the mayor showed up for the celebration in style.

California 'Billionaire Tax' Makes Ballot Despite Opposition From Tech Moguls

SlashDot - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 18:00
California's proposed "billionaire tax" has gathered enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot, setting up a major fight between labor unions and some of Silicon Valley's richest figures. From the report: The California Billionaire Tax Act, colloquially known as the billionaire tax, would levy a one-time 5% tax on any California resident worth more than $1bn. The proposal is backed by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West as a means of funding California's strained healthcare and education programs. The proposal has become one of the state's biggest political flashpoints as it gained momentum throughout the year, with prominent billionaires, such as the Google co-founder Larry Page, making moves to cut ties with the state and Newsom vowing to block it from going to a vote. Although it has gained enough signatures for the ballot, the groups backing the measure have until June 25 to decide whether to move forward or potentially strike a deal with the state. While unions backing the group have framed the proposal as a way of getting the ultra-rich to pay their fair share, many of the state's tech elites have condemned the tax and spent millions attempting to crush it. The Google co-founder Sergey Brin has spent $82m alone on efforts to fight the tax, while joining other Silicon Valley billionaires in declaring he will leave California if it goes through. The Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, crypto billionaire Chris Larsen and Ring founder James Siminoff are among the other tech moguls who have made huge political donations to groups opposing the tax. California has the most billionaires out of any state, many of whom have increased their wealth in recent years amid the AI boom.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Stephen Colbert Nods to Obama’s Tan Suit at Presidential Center Opening

NY Times - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 17:27
Celebrity guests paid winking homage to President Obama’s notorious tan suit.

Midjourney Pivots From AI Image Generation To Body Scanning Medical Spa

SlashDot - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 17:00
Midjourney is expanding beyond AI image generation with plans for a medical-imaging business built around a water-based, full-body ultrasound scanner that uses hundreds of thousands of sensors and AI to reconstruct MRI-like images. "As you descend into the water, hundreds of thousands of tiny elements take turns, sending out waves, listening together, compressing and then streaming data to a massive cluster where thousands of computers split the task," Midjourney explained in the announcement. "By looking at how the shapes of all the waves change, we reconstruct a detailed map or 'image' which basically lets us figure out what's in there." The company hopes to open a San Francisco scanning "spa" in late 2027, with 50,000 or more deployed around the world by 2031. The Register reports: It's not clear how fast the process is with the prototype unit, but Midjourney said its goal is for the whole thing to take around a minute. "We think it's completely possible that with enough early imaging in the future, the world could avoid 30% of all deaths and 50% of all healthcare costs," the company added. According to a "technical" video included in the announcement, there's a ring of 40 scanners included in the prototype unit the company has built. That ring of 40 elements contains 358,000 ultrasonic elements made up of tiny transducers that create ultrasound waves in water while listening for how they change when they slap the body of whoever is in Midjourney's dunk tank up to a thousand times a second. [...] Midjourney said that it's planning to open its first ultrasound scanner spa at the end of 2027, but it has another hurdle to jump: FDA approval. Beyond improving its tech so that the second-generation scanner is ready for its 2027 spa date, "regulation is the next limit," the company said. "Normally, for every diagnostic medical capability you need FDA approval," Midjourney explained. "We're starting by just giving you detailed body composition maps -- and we'll be submitting regular test results to the FDA for increased capabilities." Midjourney also fails to mention how it will store and secure those scans, whether it will use said scans to train its body composition-detection algorithms, and how it's ensuring those algorithms get things right that it usually take a human a few years of education and training to learn.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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