One 12-year-old's lawsuit against his school for allegedly violating his First Amendment rights after he was prohibited from wearing a shirt that said "There are only two genders" hits a speed bump after a District Court hearing.

"We were asking for an immediate order so that he could express himself for the rest of the school year," Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) legal counsel Logan Spena told Fox News Digital. "Liam’s suing for the right to do what every other student in his school currently has the right to do, which is respectfully express their own view on a matter of enormous public concern. What is the relationship between sex and gender?"

Attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI) filed a federal lawsuit last month against Nichols Middle School (NMS) officials and the town of Middleborough, Massachusetts on behalf of Liam Morrison, a 7th grader who was forbidden to wear a t-shirt to school that reads "There are only two genders." 

In a Wednesday hearing the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston denied Morrison’s attorneys' request for a temporary injunction, or restraining order, which would have suspended the school’s ability to prohibit Morrison from expressing his views about gender before the court issued its final decision. 

HIGH SCHOOL DEBATER SAYS SHE WAS 'WARNED' NOT TO BRING UP TRUMP IN TOURNAMENT: 'DEEMED IT INAPPROPRIATE'

In March, shortly after arriving to school wearing the "There are only two genders" shirt Morrison was pulled out of class by the school’s principal and a counselor and told he must remove the shirt to be able to return to class. Morrison declined and was picked up by his father shortly after. 

After NMS told Morrison’s family and legal counsel it would continue to prohibit Morrison from wearing the shirt, the 7th grader wore a "There are censored genders" t-shirt to school in response but was told to take it off almost immediately. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE MOM BREAKS SILENCE AFTER SON SUSPENDED FOR SAYING THERE ARE ‘ONLY TWO GENDERS’

Morrison said his school often expresses messages relating to issues of gender identity and sexual orientation, including hanging progress pride flags and posters on transgender identities.

While the school encourages students to express views that are consistent with its own ideological view, Spena said "it's banning Liam from expressing his own views respectfully, which is that there are only two genders."

"The school has other rules on what students can wear that it is allowed to enforce," Spena told Fox News Digital. "Liam's not asking to literally wear whatever he wants, but he is asking to do what other students are already allowed to do, which is express their view on this topic in a non-disruptive manner."

"No matter what you think about the gender issue, it's pretty remarkable that a school can punish a student for protesting censorship in America today," he added. 

The school officials and town of Middleborough are arguing they can censor any speech that they think will be offensive to other students, Spena said. 

"They claim that because Liam's message is not inclusive, they can exclude it," he said. "What they don't account for is how does their own speech and all the other speech they already permit impact Liam? It completely excludes him. But for some reason that doesn't seem to count."

"The better rule is the one that protects everyone," Spena added. "The First Amendment does not change depending on whether your view is popular or not."

Another hearing is scheduled for June 13 and Spena said he is hopeful a decision will be made before the end of the school year on June 26, "and hopefully one that protects Liam's constitutional rights." If the court rules against Morrison, Spena said the ADF will appeal the case to a higher court. 

CONCORD, N.H. – EXCLUSIVE - As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. heads out on the campaign trail for the first time since launching his campaign for the Democratic presidential campaign in April, he’s pointing to the latest national polling that indicates he’s grabbing double-digit support as he primary challenges President Biden.

"The public polls speak for themselves," Kennedy said in a national exclusive interview with Fox News Digital ahead of his trip Thursday to the key early voting presidential primary state of New Hampshire.

The environmental lawyer and high-profile vaccine critic, who’s a scion of arguably the nation’s most famous family political dynasty, stands at 16% support in the latest Fox News national poll in the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination race, with Biden at 62%. And the 69-year-old Kennedy grabbed 20% support with the 80-year-old president at 60% in a CNN poll released last week.

Both surveys – which indicated Marianne Williamson, the best-selling author and spiritual adviser who in March launched her second straight campaign for the Democratic nomination, at 8% – pointed to potential problems for Biden as he seeks a second term in the White House.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLL SHOWS IN THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Kennedy noted that his campaign’s private polling numbers "are even better" and emphasized that "we feel like we’re going to get a lot of independents and Republican crossovers."

"I think we’re doing very well, much better than expected," Kennedy Jr. added.

And while he wouldn’t reveal any fundraising figures ahead of his campaign’s end of the second quarter filing in a month, Kennedy indicated that "we’re getting a good response" from donors.

RFK JR. LAUNCHES PRIMARY CHALLENGE AGAINST PRESIDENT BIDEN

As he’s noted, name recognition may be behind some of Kennedy’s double-digit support in the polls during this early part of the 2024 election cycle. He’s the son of the late senator, attorney general and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy and the late longtime Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. And part of the support for Kennedy and Williamson may be a type of protest against a president whose approval ratings have remained in negative territory for nearly two years.

Asked if he’s urged Williamson to drop out and support his White House bid, Kennedy answered "I wouldn’t ask Marianne to bow out. I think it’s valuable to have as many voices in the race as possible and I think people should have a range of voice." 

"I’m all for having Marianne come in and talk about her issues and have some competition, which is part of democracy. This isn’t the Soviet system where the party picks the nominee," he added.

Kennedy heads on Thursday morning to New Hampshire’s State House in Concord, where he’ll address the state Senate. Declared presidential candidates from both parties are being given the opportunity this cycle to speak before the upper chamber of the state legislature. Kennedy is expected to take questions from reporters following his address to state lawmakers and then hold meetings in Manchester.

"We’re going to New Hampshire as it’s always been treated, like a key primary, a key indicator for the rest of the country, and a state that politicians have to go to do retail politics," Kennedy told Fox News.

BIDEN ALLY WARNS PRESIDENT HE COULD BE PUTTING KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE ‘AT RISK’ IN 2024

Kennedy sparked speculation about a potential White House run early this year by visiting New Hampshire, which for a century has held the first primary in the presidential nomination race. He was joined on his trip to the state by his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, best known for portraying the wife of Larry David on the popular HBO comedy series "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Kennedy earlier this year took aim at Biden and the Democratic National Committee over their decision to move the New Hampshire presidential primary out of its position as the first in the nation primary. New Hampshire will now vote second in the DNC’s calendar, along with Nevada, three days after South Carolina, under the DNC’s new schedule. 

Ahead of the DNC's final approval of the schedule in early February, Kennedy wrote an open letter to the committee, urging members to keep New Hampshire in the first spot because of the state's long history advocating for civil rights and election transparency.

The DNC changed the nominating calendar in an effort to reflect more diversity in the Democratic Party, but Kennedy said that New Hampshire already showcases the diversity in America. As a general election battleground state, he said, New Hampshire's "four electoral votes could decide the 2024 election." 

But with New Hampshire likely to move up the date of their primary – due to a state law that mandates that the state holds the first presidential primary – it’s likely the president will stay off the ballot in New Hampshire to avoid an unsanctioned primary.

"We’re going to New Hampshire as it’s always been treated, like a key primary, a key indicator for the rest of the country, and a state that politicians have to go to do retail politics," Kennedy stressed. "It’s an important ritual in American democracy."

Asked about the distinct possibility of Biden skipping the primary in New Hampshire, Kennedy said "I just think it’s wrong from the consideration of democracy."

It’s been over a month since Kennedy launched his presidential campaign. Asked what took him so long to stump in New Hampshire, Kennedy said "we have to scale up this campaign … we’ve been hiring people, building our staff, building our organization, and raising money."

"I plan to spend a lot of time in New Hampshire this summer," he emphasized. "I don’t think the people of New Hampshire will feel neglected by me by summer’s end."

While Kennedy was once known mostly for his environmental efforts, in the past decade and a half he’s emerged as one of the leading voices in the anti-vaccine movement – and a host of public experts and even members of his own family have argued his efforts have been misleading and dangerous.

Kennedy defended his work on vaccine skepticism, which could be a major liability among Democratic presidential primary voters.

Asked if his stance could hurt him at the ballot box, Kennedy answered that "I’m not leading with that issue. If people want to talk about that issue, of course I’m happy to talk about it. There are other issues that are a lot more important to Americans – the overarching issue of the systematic attack on the middle class and all the things that go with it, the inflation, the war, the destruction of our industrial base in this country, are all things that I’m going to be talking about."

National Olive Day is June 1, and there are a number of ways to enjoy the drupe fruit. 

Olives are often used plain or stuffed with garlic or cheese in cocktails such as dirty martinis. 

They are also used as a snack item on charcuterie boards, in salads or eaten alone. They are also pressed down into a liquid to create olive oil, a cooking essential.

The first olive tree dates back thousands of years. There are hundreds of olive varieties around the world. National Olive Day was started by olive company Divina in 2015.

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Olives are loaded with Vitamin C, which is great for the skin, helping to keep it soft and moisturized. 

Olive oil can be used as a cleanser or moisturizer for the face. It is also beneficial to the hair if it is thick, dry and lacking moisture.

The color of an olive is mostly determined by the time it is picked. Green olives are picked when they are unripe, while darker olives are picked when they are more ripened. 

Green olives tend to be more bitter than black or purple olives, which are more on the sweeter side. Purple olives have more of a fruity taste. 

Green olives are usually used in salads, pastas and dirty martinis while black and purple olives are often used for pizzas and platters. 

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Get involved with National Olive Day by snacking on the fruit, enjoying a dirty martini or trying a new recipe incorporating the ingredient, like this pasta puttanesca.

If you like Italian red sauces, this may seem like just another marinara recipe to you. It isn't — and there are a few differences to note. 

The flavors are both briny and salty. The capers, olives and anchovies are vinegar-based, which will provide a unique flavor to the sauce. 

This sauce is not to be smooth or liquid-like. It is a chunky sauce that barely coats the spaghetti. 

If you prefer more sauce-like consistency, add a can or two of tomato sauce to the recipe. 

Begin with olive oil in a pot on low heat. Add the minced garlic to the pot and stir often to avoid burning the garlic. After 30 seconds, add red pepper flakes, black olives and capers. Add anchovies, whole or diced, and let them cook for 2–3 minutes until they begin melting.

Add in room temperature Roma tomatoes. The tomatoes can be skinned, if you prefer, or you can keep the skin in place. It’s important the tomatoes are ripe and room temperature rather than coming from refrigeration, so they begin softening right away. 

Add chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Cover the sauce and let it simmer for 30 minutes. 

In the meantime, boil water and cook spaghetti al dente. 

When the pasta is done and the sauce has simmered on low, add the spaghetti to the pot. Toss chopped fresh basil and stir all the ingredients together with the pasta. 

Top with Pecorino Romano, Parmesan cheese or Italian breadcrumbs — and serve hot.

A trove of photos from Hunter Biden's laptop have been made available to the public through a new website that launched Thursday.

The website – BidenLaptopMedia.com – houses almost 10,000 photos spanning from 2008 to 2019 and took months to complete, Garrett Ziegler, the founder of nonprofit Marco Polo, told Fox News Digital.

"It's taken us a couple of months to, one, go through the photos, about 10,000 of them, and redact the genitalia on the photos," Ziegler, a former Trump White House aide, said of the contents found on the laptop once owned by President Biden's son.

"The number one thing we're about … is truth and transparency," he said. "If the American people want to know what their first family is like, they're going to get it. And we're not going to be taking out photos that paint the Bidens in a good light."

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Ziegler also noted that several photos containing private information were redacted – including images containing social security numbers, banking information, and credit card numbers. Additionally, multiple nude photos of Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden, were redacted.

Of the many photos found on the laptop, Ziegler provided Fox News Digital with two never-before-seen photos from the laptop. One photo showed Hunter Biden cozied up to his then-lover Zoe Kestan in 2018. The other image – featuring an array of drugs and a condom wrapper sitting on a table – was from a text message conversation Hunter had with Hallie Biden – the widow of Beau Biden and former lover of Hunter Biden – the same year.

Providing further insight on the type of content viewers can expect on the website, Ziegler said some content that does not carry "news value" will not be featured.

"There are, for example, screenshots of Candy Crush games where we are fairly confident in saying there's absolutely no news value to those," he said. "So it's going to be, I would say, 98% of the photos on the device, around 10,000 in total, although it'll be slightly less than that."

"It's going to be a completely authentic recounting of the photos on the device," Ziegler added.

Ziegler promised that there won't be any genitalia visible on the site and insisted that the photo project – which will display the images chronologically – covers a "large swath" of the first family's life and includes an array of photos. He also made clear that it is not a "hit job" against the Biden family.

"There's a picture of a letter that Hunter's daughter, Finnegan, wrote to, I assume, troops stationed overseas, like in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. "It's an adorable letter. Finnegan's around nine years old at the time, and it definitely paints the Bidens in a good light."

HUNTER BIDEN'S 'SUGAR BROTHER' KEEPS THE FIRST SON AFLOAT AMID MULTIPLE SCANDALS

"We're not Republican activists. None of us are registered Republicans," he continued. "In fact, I loved and still love Trump precisely because he wasn't a standard Republican. So this is not a hit job. We're going to keep all the photos that paint the Bidens in a good light and keep all the photos that paint the Bidens in a bad light. The American people can judge for themselves what they think about their first family through this."

Describing the effort as "the most thorough expose of any American first family while they're in office in the history of America," Ziegler said the types of photos that will be shared to the website are photos that typically "only become available once the presidential archives are open and those photos only detail his time in the Oval while he was the president."

Ziegler also said the website will use a "photo viewing app that will allow users to view the metadata in the photos."

"They're going to be able to see where the photo was taken, what time it was taken, if it has latitude and longitude coordinates attached to it," he said. "They're going to be able to see if it has metadata like aperture, lighting."

Ziegler also noted that videos from the laptop will be available for public viewing at a later date.

Describing why it will take longer for the videos from the laptop to be uploaded to the site, Ziegler said his team has to use AI tools to assist with censoring portions of the videos because "there's so much pornography."

Ziegler said there are "several" questionable photos in particular that he believes reporters should take a look at.

The White House and Hunter Biden's attorney did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

The University of North Carolina (UNC) medical school disbanded its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) task force without implementing its recommendations, just months after banning DEI statements from admission, hiring, promotion and tenure.

UNC said it plans to disband its DEI Task Force, without implementing its recommendations, including integrating social justice into the school's curriculum. 

The UNC DEI document also included recommendations that were partially based on the DEI protocols of the Association of American Medical Colleges that requires students to study topics like "Unconscious Bias Awareness," "Understanding and Responding to Microaggressions," and "Understanding that America's medical system is structurally racist."

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In April, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which monitors and advocates for free speech on college campuses sent a letter to UNC regarding its DEI initiatives.

UNC responded to FIRE's letter, stating it planned to disband the Task Force with "no plan to implement the Task Force’s recommendations now or in the future." 

"Even if the recommendations were revisited in the future, further review and revision would be required," the university stated, given the new guidelines adopted by the university that prohibit UNC from requiring an employee or an applicant to "affirmatively ascribe to or opine about beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles regarding mattes of contemporary political debate or social action as a condition to admission, employment, or professional advancement."

TOP DEI STAFF AT PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES POCKET MASSIVE SALARIES AS EXPERTS QUESTION MOTIVES OF INITIATIVES

In January, Color Us United, which advocates for a race blind society, launched a campaign that called on the university to rescind its DEI policies for medical school staff and students by lobbying school trustees, bringing bills to the state legislature and educating the public on social media. 

In February, UNC's Board of Governors voted to ban diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) statements and compelled speech from consideration in the admission, hiring, promotion and tenure process. Prior to this change, UNC's med school required applicants to provide a statement detailing their commitment to DEI.

UNC's School of Medicine Guidelines for Appointment, Promotion and Tenure (APT) previously declared that "A statement for each area is required as part of the C.V." and "should outline depth and breadth of efforts in each area, including but not limited to impact of work, philosophy and style, team-based projects, and mentee interactions."

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Color Us United President Kenny Xu told Fox News Digital that the move by UNC's medical school is a win for the medical community and their future patients

"We’re proud of UNC’s decision to reject the DEI framework that lowers the quality of doctors and inundates their students with ideologies that have nothing to do with what is medically necessary," he said. "Our next step is to take UNC’s decision to other medical schools in our country to fully rid medicine from DEI’s divisive influence. We will also continue monitoring UNC’s School of Medicine to ensure that employees are not fed DEI trainings and curricula any longer."

"It is important to note UNC is the first medical school to revoke their DEI framework without legislative interference, because it shows that we convinced key decision makers on the merits of revoking DEI, and showed it’s harmful consequences on employees, student education, and the public," he added, also noting that he will be presenting on the medical school's DEI programs at the UNC CHapel Hill Board of Trustee meeting in July. 

America is at a once-in-a-generation turning point around work: 70% of us are unhappy with what we do; three-quarters of us say we plan to look for new work this year. Altogether, 100 million Americans will sit down with someone they love this year and say, "I’m not happy with what I’m doing and want to do work that makes me happy." 

The problem: Most of the advice we receive around work is outdated, misguided or flat wrong.

I’ve spent the last six years crisscrossing the country collecting hundreds of stories of Americans who made enormous changes in their work lives. I then coded these stories, looking for patterns and takeaways that could help the rest of us make our work lives happier. My new book, "The Search: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World," offers a toolkit for writing your own work story.

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Here, based on fresh data, are five things you should never do in your career:

The most suffocating piece of career advice is the idea that you have a career to begin with. Sure, some people set a goal and achieve it. But far more of us change our minds, our paths or our occupations.

My data shows that the average worker goes through 20 "workquakes" in the course of their lives — that’s one every two-and-a-half years. A workquake is a moment of disruption, reevaluation, or reinvention. Women go through these moments more frequently than men; each generation more than the prior one.

While this pace of change might seem overwhelming, for workers it’s a gift: You’re not forced to make a decision at 22 and remain in that field the rest of your life. You can change course whenever you want, for whatever reason you want, even for something as simple as you want to.

Surely the most hallowed piece of wisdom about work over the last generation has been follow your passion. Decide what brings you joy, then go for it with single-minded determination. 

The problem: this advice applies to almost no one who is happy at work and helps almost no one who wants to be. In my conversations, I asked everyone I spoke to whether followed their passion, discovered their passion, or made their passion. A mere one in 10 people in my conversations said they followed their bliss. The rest said they took another route entirely. And yet, they still ended up happy. 

So how did they end up happy? That leads to the next piece of bad advice. 

The next piece of advice that everyone agrees on these days is to set strict boundaries between work and life. But the happiest people do the reverse: they understand that their lives are inseparable from their work, including their lives before they started working.

For centuries, Americans have said that success is all about climbing: rags to riches, up by your bootstraps, bigger office, higher floor, larger salary, better view. But the signature finding of my conversations is that the people who are most fulfilled at work don’t just climb, they also dig. They perform what I call a "meaning audit," using personal archeology to uncover the lessons about work they learned from their families and unearth the story of work they’ve been trying to tell for decades. 

Two simple questions can help: What are the upsides and downsides of work you learned from your parents? And Other than family, who were your role models as a child? Your role model is especially important because it’s your first work decision. For clues as to what you would prefer to be doing today, start with what you wanted to be doing when you were a child. 

Every day is take your childhood to work day. 

An absurd convention has taken over the world of work: Don’t trust yourself. In order to find work you love, you need a career counselor, or an aptitude test, or a personality code.

The truth couldn’t be more different. The answer is already inside you. All you need to do is uncover it.

I asked everyone in my conversations: What advice did they find most helpful in their biggest work transition. Three-quarters said the advice from others they found most constructive was to continue in the direction they were already heading. They didn’t need a punch in the gut; they needed a pat on the back. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER

They needed to hear, "Trust yourself."

So, if want to know what you should do next, ask yourself this question: The best advice I have for myself right now is _______________. 

The final bad piece of advice to ignore is that you have to suppress what you want. Work is supposed to be miserable. But the changing norms of work today means that you don’t always have to compromise. You can write your own story. The best way to do that is to decide what you want out of work today. Not 10 months ago or 10 years ago. Today. 

To do that, ask this last question: My purpose right now is _______________. 

When you answer that question, you’re on your way to finding the work you want, the happiness you crave, and the success you deserve.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM BRUCE FEILER

Johnny Depp spent the last year proving he is still a major force in Hollywood. 

His highly publicized defamation trial with ex-wife Amber Heard came to a conclusion exactly one year ago. 

During their bombshell six-week court battle, the 59-year-old actor and 37-year-old actress both testified, lobbing shocking allegations of physical and sexual abuse against each other. On June 1, 2022, a Virginia jury ruled largely in Depp's favor, as they found Heard liable on all three counts of defamation stemming from a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she referred to herself as domestic abuse survivor.

She was ordered to pay Depp $8.35 million in damages. Depp, who was found guilty on one count of defamation in Heard's countersuit, was to pay his former spouse $2 million. Though the two both appealed the verdict, they reached a settlement in December with Heard agreeing to pay Depp $1 million, which he pledged to donate to charity.

Over the past year, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star has taken steps to rebuild his life and career, which was derailed amid his legal woes.

Following the verdict, Depp released a statement in which he expressed his gratitude to the jury, who he said "gave me my life back."

HARRISON FORD, ARNOLD SCHWWARZENEGGER, JOHNNY DEPP STILL POWER PLAYERS IN HOLLYWOOD FILM INDUSTRY

"The best is yet to come and a new chapter has finally begun," he added.

Last summer, Depp performed alongside the late Jeff Beck at several shows in Europe. In July, the two debuted their first joint studio album "18," which would be the legendary guitarist's final release before his death at the age of 78 in January. 

Depp and Beck also embarked on a 29-date tour in support of the album from September to November of last year.

JOHNNY DEPP WAS AT JEFF BECK'S BEDSIDE BEFORE HE PASSED AWAY: SOURCE

Depp also proved himself to be a successful artist. Weeks after the trial, he earned over $3.6 million when his debut art collection "Friends & Heroes" sold out within hours. The collection, which featured 780 prints of four portraits Depp painted of Al Pacino, Bob Dylan, Elizabeth Taylor and Keith Richards, was sold online through London's Castle Fine Art gallery.

The gallery celebrated the success of Depp's collection on Twitter, writing, "This world-first release proved to be our fastest-selling collection to date, with all titles selling out in just hours."

A month later at the MTV Video Music Awards, Depp made a surprise virtual appearance as the network's iconic Moonman. The cameo saw the "Edward Scissorhands" actor's face projected on an astronaut suit that floated above the stage.

"You know what? I needed the work," he said in a pre-recorded video. 

Later in the show, Depp reappeared, saying, "Hey VMAs, let’s get back to the f–king music, shall we?" In his final appearance, the Golden Globe winner joked, "I just want you guys to know that I’m available for birthdays, bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs, weddings, wakes — any old thing you need. Anything. You name it. Oh, I’m also a dentist."

Depp's cameo was met with some controversy on social media, including criticism from Heard's sister Whitney who slammed MTV as "disgusting and desperate" for featuring the actor at the awards show.

In November, Rihanna faced backlash after enlisting Depp to appear in her Savage X Fenty Vol. 4 Show, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video. Depp made history as the first male to be featured in the show's "star moment," a spot previously occupied by Cindy Crawford and Erykah Badu.

Despite his court victory, the controversy that continued to follow Depp after the trial led many to question whether he could ever successfully revive his acting career. The A-lister was shunned by major movie studios after Heard's allegations were made public. 

In 2020, Warner Bros. asked Depp to resign from his role as Gellert Grindelwald in the third installment of the "Fantastic Beasts" franchise. Depp, who had played the dark wizard in 2016's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" and 2018's "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" was replaced by Mads Mikkelson in 2022's "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore."

During the trial, Depp said he was also fired from the sixth installment of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise. Depp, who starred as Captain Jack Sparrow in the blockbuster film series' five previous movies, testified that Disney cut ties with him after Heard's op-ed was published.

‘PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN’ PRODUCER SAYS HE WOULD ‘LOVE’ TO SEE JOHNNY DEPP RETURN TO THE FRANCHISE

While Depp's Hollywood career stalled, he was cast in French director Maïwenn's period romance "Jeanne du Barry" in January 2022. The French-language film, in which Depp starred as King Louis XV opposite Maïwenn, was selected to open the 76th Annual Cannes Film Festival.

"As soon as his tour ended, he jumped into filming ‘Jeanne du Barry.’ Filming was challenging, but Johnny is excited about the comeback," a source told People magazine in April. "He thinks it's perfect that this historical drama will open at Cannes."

Depp made his return to the spotlight official when he attended the film's world premiere at the prestigious film festival on May 16. When he arrived at the event, the actor was met with applause from thousands of fans who gathered at the Palais des Festivals, according to Variety. Depp spent five minutes greeting fans and taking selfies before walking the red carpet.

The outlet reported that Depp teared up upon receiving a seven-minute standing ovation following the screening. During a press conference to promote the film, Depp opened up about how he felt he was treated by Hollywood amid his years-long legal battle with Heard.

"Did I feel boycotted by Hollywood? Well, you’d have to not have a pulse to feel at that point like this was all just a weird joke," he said per Variety.

"Of course, when you’re asked to resign from a film you’re doing because of something that’s merely a bunch of vowels and consonants floating in the air, yes, you feel boycotted," he added, referring to losing his role in "Fantastic Beasts."

"Do I feel boycotted now? No, not at all," Depp continued. "But I don’t feel boycotted because I don’t think about Hollywood. I don’t feel much further need for Hollywood — I don’t know about you."

The "21 Jump Street" alum also slammed the media's coverage of him and disputed the accuracy of reports on his life following Heard's accusations.

"The majority of you who have been reading for the last five or six years, with regards to me and my life — the majority of what you’ve read is fantastically, horrifically written fiction," he said. "The fact is, we’re here to talk about the film. But it’s like asking the question, ‘How are you doing?’ But what’s underneath in the subtext is, ‘God, I hate you.’ That’s the sort of media thing."

Depp also took issue with his return to the big screen being described as a "comeback."

"I’ve had my 17th comeback, apparently" he said. "I keep wondering about the word ‘comeback,’ because I didn’t go anywhere," adding, "I live about 45 minutes away."

JOHNNY DEPP'S EX-WIFE AMBER HEARD SPOTTED JOGGIN IN SPAIN AFTER REPORTEDLY QUITTING HOLLYWOOD

"Maybe people stopped calling out of whatever their fear was at the time. But I didn’t go nowhere. I’ve been sitting around. ‘Comeback’ is almost like I’m going to come out and do a tap dance — dance my best and hope you approve. That’s the notion. It’s a bizarre mystery."

Depp's appearance at Cannes was not without controversy. The festival's organizers defended opening the festival with his film after the decision was met with criticism. This year, the city of Cannes banned public protests around the festival. Heard supporters took to social media to vent their anger over Depp's presence at the event, using the hashtag, "#CannesYouNot."

After the festival, a source told People magazine that Depp "is doing fantastic." 

"Johnny is doing fantastic. He really enjoys working and touring again. He has managed to turn his life around," the insider shared. "He is prioritizing his health and work."

"He was living a destructive life and people close to him were concerned," the source added. "Everyone is excited about how he turned things around. He is much happier too."

In April, a source provided an update on Depp's personal life. "Johnny has been living in Europe since the trial. He has been dating, but doesn't have a girlfriend," the insider told People magazine.

Depp was married to makeup artist Lori Anne Allison from 1983 to 1985. The actor shares daughter Lily-Rose, 24, and Jack, 21, with his former partner Vanessa Paradis. The two were together for 14 years before splitting in 2012.

Last year, the actor was briefly linked to Joelle Rich, an attorney who represented him in his 2020 U.K. libel trial against a British tabloid for branding him a "wife-beater." Depp lost the libel case, and his appeal to overturn the decision was denied in March 2021.

Following the premiere of "Jeanne du Barry," Depp is set to plunge back into work on a number of projects. He will be helming the upcoming "Modi" biopic, which marks his return to directing for the first time in 25 years. The movie, which will begin filming in Budapest this fall, will star Al Pacino, as well as "John Wick: Chapter Two" star Riccardo Scamarcio and French actor Pierre Niney. 

Earlier this month, Depp signed a reported historic deal to remain the face of Dior men's fragrance Sauvage. According to Variety, Depp inked a more than $20 million three-year deal with Dior, which is the highest for any men’s cologne.

Depp hit a minor roadblock this week, announcing he had postponed several dates on his upcoming tour with his band the Hollywood Vampires due to an ankle injury that he sustained at Cannes. He took to Instagram to apologize to fans for the cancelation of his upcoming concerts.

"My dear friends, I am sorry to say that I have fractured my ankle, which is a drag!!!" he wrote. 

Depp continued, "It began as a hairline break but somewhere between Cannes and the Royal Albert Hall it got worse rather than better." 

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"Several medical professionals have strongly suggested I avoid any and all activity for the moment and so am sadly unable to travel at this time," he added. "The guys and I are very sorry to miss you in New Hampshire, Boston and New York but fear not, I promise we will bring an amazing show to all of you in Europe and bring our absolute best to the East Coast later this summer and make it up to those who have paid for those shows!!!"

Paid tickets will be honored for the new dates on July 28, 29 and 30.

"Again, sincerest apologies. All my love and respect… J.D. x," he concluded.

Depp's bandmates include Alice Cooper, Tommy Henriksen and Joe Perry. The guitarist is expected to return to the road next month when the Hollywood Vampires kick off their tour on June 8 in Romania.

Russia continued its deadly attacks on Ukraine in Kyiv on Thursday, killing at least three people, including a child, and wounding several others.

The Ukrainian capital was hit in the early morning hours with ground-launched missiles, killing two adults and one child, the Kyiv City Administration reported, and at least ten others were wounded – the highest casualty toll from one attack in the capital over the past month. 

Earlier in the day, the city initially said two children were killed, but revised the number to one.

Apartment buildings, a medical clinic, a water pipeline and cars were damaged in the attack, which comes after a reported 17 drone and missile attacks on Kyiv in May.

RUSSIA LAUNCHES DEADLY PRE-DAWN AIR RAID ON KYIV WHILE MOSCOW CLAIMS CITY ATTACKED BY DRONES

Ukraine's General Staff reported that its Air Forces intercepted all 10 short-range ballistic Iskander missiles, according to The Associated Press. While Ukraine's air defense has become increasingly effective at intercepting the drones and missiles, the resulting debris are also a danger.

Kyiv authorities issued a dire message to residents after a woman was killed watching an aerial attack from her balcony earlier this week.

"You’ve got to be vigilant, as ballistic missiles fly at incredible speeds. From the moment the alarm is announced to the rocket’s arrival, you have only a few seconds!" authorities warned, adding that residents need to stay in shelters or other safe locations when warning sirens go off.

In the Desnianskyi district, debris fell on a children's hospital and a nearby multi-story building, and two schools and a police department were damaged.

Burning debris landed on a residential building in Dniprovskyi, causing heavy smoke to rise and blasting out windows, which resulted in debris falling in the roadway and courtyards. Parked cars also caught on fire.

The Darnytskyi neighborhood also recorded damage to a water pipeline and a residential building, which experienced broken windows from the explosive wave.

PUTIN SAYS DRONE ATTACKS ON MOSCOW ARE ATTEMPT BY UKRAINE 'TO INTIMIDATE RUSSIA'

Russian forces have repeatedly attacked Kyiv since the start of the invasion in February 2022, but attacks against the capital have intensified in recent weeks as Ukraine preps for a counteroffensive.

Ukraine also claimed it downed some of Russia's hypersonic Kinzhal missiles last month, weapons Russian President Vladimir Putin believes provide the country with a key competitive advantage.

In addition to the Thursday attack on Kyiv, Russian forces carried out three aerial attacks on Wednesday over the south of the Kherson region. Heavy artillery and missile strikes also took place in other parts of the region. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The right hates it.

The left hates it.

Washington despises compromise, even when the alternative is a globally devastating default by the federal government just days away. 

Compromise in our polarized culture has become a dirty word. And grandstanding by lawmakers in both parties, who have the luxury of knowing the bill would pass anyway, has become irresistible.

WHY THE MEDIA HAVE TURNED ON RON DESANTIS

The House approved the bill to suspend the debt ceiling last night, with 165 Democrats bailing out 149 of McCarthy’s Republicans to salvage the much-derided bipartisan measure. Democratic leaders had insisted that McCarthy produce 150 votes, or roughly two-thirds of his caucus; few expected that Biden’s party would have to deliver more votes than the GOP.

Next stop is the Senate, where delaying tactics and amendments cannot be ruled out as the June 5 drop-dead date approaches.

President Biden and Kevin McCarthy have been the grownups in the room, vowing from day one that there would be no default. They hammered out a deal that gave some political cover to both sides, enabling Biden to say he protected most of the programs he passed in the last two years and McCarthy to say he had won more significant spending cuts than in any previous debt-ceiling fight.

McCarthy’s reward: an attempt to bottle up the bill by two hard-line conservatives he had put on the Rules Committee as one of his concessions to become House speaker. His bigger reward: Talk by hard-liners of ousting him from the job, which under another of those concessions he made during the 15-ballot struggle can be initiated by any single House member.

RON DESANTIS FINALLY TAKES ON DONALD TRUMP, IN CALL WITH JOURNALISTS

Rep. Andy Biggs called the measure "completely unacceptable. Trillions and trillions of dollars in debt for crumbs for a pittance." Chip Roy warned that "not one Republican should vote for this deal."

There are accounting gimmicks and fuzzy math that leave most of the budget untouched. But McCarthy is right that he won cutbacks in such areas as IRS funding and a two-year limit on spending in exchange for agreeing to pay past bills accumulated by borrowing that has left America with $31 trillion in debt. 

Progressive Democrats are also described by the Huffington Post as "seething." Elizabeth Warren said the bill "rewards the hostage-taking that the Republicans have gotten so damn good at." Pramila Jayapal said many in her caucus are "deeply, deeply concerned" about concession to the GOP setting "an extremely dangerous precedent."

But these Dems didn’t hold a press conference to crap all over the bill. The reason: their president wants it passed, and they know the alternative is a financial catastrophe.

The debt ceiling is a monumentally dumb idea, and we’re one of the few countries that has it. How is America not going to pay its past bills? It just gives the out-of-power party leverage to make all kinds of demands.

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These battles also reek of hypocrisy. Donald Trump raised the debt ceiling three times, while adding $8 trillion to the debt, and Republicans said nothing about spending cuts. Democrats have been on both sides of the issue as well.

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This was always a manufactured crisis that would be resolved at the last minute – the only way Congress does anything – by papering things over. And that’s exactly how it played out.

A couple from Hawaii that was vacationing in Alaska is dead after a charter fishing boat they were riding on capsized near Sitka on Sunday, officials said.

Alaska State Troopers identified the victims as Maury Agcaoili, 57, and his wife, Danielle Agcaoili, 53, both of Waipahu, according to Hawaii News Now.

Authorities said Maury Agcaoili was found unresponsive in the water near the boat, named the Awakin. He was later pronounced dead while Danielle Agcaoili was initially listed among the missing, which still includes her sister Brandi Tyau, 56, of Canoga Park, California; Tyau's partner, Robert Solis, 61. Boat captain Morgan Robidou, 32, of Sitka, Alaska is also missing.

Charter company Kingfisher Charters said it was "devastated by the loss of the guests and captain of the Awakin. We are fully cooperating with the U.S. Coast Guard in its investigation of this tragic event and hope that it furnishes answers to the questions as to how it occurred."

COAST GUARD SUSPENDS SEARCH FOR 4 MISSING AFTER ALASKA CHARTER BOAT FOUND PARTIALLY SUBMERGED

The U.S. Coast Guard announced Monday that it had suspended the search for those still missing, whose names were made public Wednesday, after spending more than 20 hours surveying approximately 825 square miles.

"Suspending a search is never an easy decision," said Darwin Jensen, captain of Port Southeast Alaska, Hawaii News Now reported. "We extend our deepest sympathy to the loved ones during this difficult time. Our sincere thanks to community partners and the good Samaritan vessels who rapidly responded to help in the search."

The 30-foot aluminum charter vessel was last seen Sunday near Sitka, which is located approximately 90 miles southwest of Juneau, according to the Coast Guard.

Search and rescue crews later found the boat near an island located approximately 10 miles west of Sitka. It was partially submerged amid rough waters.

RANGERS AT ALASKA'S DENALI NATIONAL PARK RESCUE CLIMBER WHO FELL FROM A 3-MILE-HIGH RIDGE

Coast Guard Petty Officer Ian Gray has said the region experienced 6 to 11 foot seas on the day the vessel went missing.

Kingfisher Charters reported the vessel missing after it did not return from a day fishing trip, the Coast Guard said.

Jim Solis, the brother of Robert Solis, said the sisters' parents and brother joined them on the trip but were on a separate vessel.

Jim Solis said he and his brother grew up in Burbank, California, and that his brother, a Navy diver, met Tyau when he was stationed in Hawaii decades ago.

They have a son and loved to fish together, Jim Solis said.

"He was a big surfer, a really good musician. He played guitar and put together songs," Jim Solis said of Robert. "The ocean really was his life."

According to Hawaii News Now, Danielle worked at First Hawaiian Bank. CEO Bob Harrison released a statement saying "she was a beloved member of our First Hawaiian Bank ‘ohana," per the report.

He added: "We are keeping Dani, her husband, and her family members in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The quiet beaches and rural villages of Normandy, France, exploded with fire and fury in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944. 

D-Day. The climactic battle of World War II. 

The United States and its Allies landed nearly 160,000 men, with more than 9,000 killed or wounded, in the first 24 hours alone.

US NAVY, MARINE CORPS JOINED BY IKE, A ‘FACILITY DOG,’ ABOARD USS WASP FOR MENTAL HEALTH BOOST

"The Great Crusade," as it was called by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, left a lasting imprint on the Norman people and the local landscape. 

The epic battle draws an estimated 5 million visitors to Normandy each year. Many of them arrive in early June when the region is alive with festivals, memorials and reenactments celebrating an invasion the French call le debarquement — the landing. 

D-Day Festival Normandy, an annual celebration hosted by the Normandy tourism board, offers scores of events and ceremonies across the sprawling 50-mile invasion-day battlefield. 

It began this year on May 27 and ends June 18. 

Here’s a countdown to 12 D-Day sites every visitor should see to understand the full scope of this "Day of Days."

D-DAY 78 YEARS LATER: HOW FDR'S POWERFUL PRAYER UNITED AMERICANS

Major battle sites and museums are punctuated by countless private tributes from the citizens of Normandy who express their appreciation for la deliverance in many ways large and small. 

American paratroopers landed soon after midnight on June 6, with the main objective of securing the far western edge of the invasion beachhead for the amphibious landings to follow at sunrise. 

The Iron Mike Memorial at La Fiere pays honor to the outnumbered paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne who from June 6 to June 9 heroically repelled repeated German attacks at a bridgehead over the Merderet River. 

The climactic bridge battle scene of the fictional film "Saving Private Ryan" was inspired by the ferocious fighting here at La Fiere. 

The ebullient heroism of many Normandy battlefield sites that pay homage to victorious Allied troops is contrasted by a grim German cemetery just inland from the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc. 

La Cambe is the final resting place of 21,000 German soldiers — the identities of many unknown — buried under short, thick, black crosses. 

The stark, sober landscape pays testament to the fact that no nation’s youth suffered more under the Nazis than Germany itself. An estimated 200,000 Germans were killed or wounded in the two month-long Battle of Normandy that followed D-Day. 

The scope of D-Day is almost too large to fathom. 

The tales of individual heroics found throughout the region give the massive battle a human touch. 

The tiny village of Angoville-au-Plain is one of those places. Two U.S. Army medics, who landed in the first wave of paratroopers, ended up in this village apparently lost to the rest of their units. 

Kenneth J. Moore and Robert E. Wright turned the village's 700-year-old church into an aid station. Over two days, they saved 80 lives of both American and German soldiers; they also treated a local child wounded in the battle. 

They used the pews as beds and several of the benches still bear bloodstains today. 

A small cemetery outside the church includes the graves of Americans killed on D-Day. 

The heroics of American paratroopers are remembered in the stained-glass windows of churches near the invasion beaches of Normandy, including in Angoville au Plain. 

The pretty little village of Sainte Marie du Mont sits just inland from Utah Beach. It housed a German garrison on the morning of June 6. 

American paratroopers landed in and around the village to clear and secure a causeway that would allow seaborne raiders to move inland. 

In the early hours of the landing, a small group of paratroopers in Sainte Marie du Mont heroically assaulted and silenced four German heavy guns that were firing on the troops on Utah Beach from nearby Brecourt Manor. 

The incredible attack is dramatically recounted in the epic HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers." A memorial marks the site today, under French and American flags. 

LAST SURVIVING ‘BAND OF BROTHERS’ MEMBER BRADFORD FREEMAN DEAD AT 97

The small cathedral in the center of Sainte Marie du Mont offers images of U.S. troops crammed in for church services on the first Sunday after D-Day, among other haunting reminders of the battle. 

Carentan is a small crossroads town on the estuary that separated Omaha Beach to the east and Utah Beach to the northwest. 

The ferocious three-day battle to take the town and link up the invasion forces is portrayed dramatically in episode three of HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers."

The building that houses the Dead Man’s Corner Museum was the headquarters of the German garrison defending Carentan on D-Day. It was then taken over as headquarters of the unit of America’s 101st Airborne Division that liberated the town. 

The museum gets its name not just from the deadly combat of 1944, but because the building was reportedly haunted even before the war.

The main road along Omaha Beach (D514) is speckled with apple orchards and family farmhouses, with distilleries that produce the local specialties: effervescent hard cider and an apple spirit called Calvados. Most offer samples and shops that sell Norman gourmet specialties.

The Bernard Lebrec family farm in Englesqueville la Percee, a short distance from the famous cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, is built into the turrets of an old medieval castle. 

MEET THE AMERICAN WHO HONORS THE MEMORY OF 200,000 FALLEN WAR HEROES

Visitors can sample Lebrec’s cider or calvados, scan his collection of World War II memorabilia and stick a pin in one of the maps on the wall that track his visitors from around the globe. 

His property — his backyard — also contains a monument to U.S. Army engineers, who turned an adjoining orchard into a landing strip in just three days, helping drive the Allies deeper into Normandy and ultimately onto victory.

This coastal village on Gold Beach in the British invasion sector is just a couple miles east of deadly Omaha Beach in the American invasion sector. 

It’s an ideal spot to take in the scope of the invasion. 

Diners at some of the waterfront cafés in Arromanches can see the hulking steel remnants of one of the Allied "mulberries" – artificial harbors towed across the English Channel and erected almost overnight to assist the unloading of the stunning stream of men and equipment that poured into Normandy in the days and weeks that followed D-Day. 

Nearby are the German guns of Longue Sur Mer – haunting concrete bunkers that housed artillery that battled with Allied warships on D-Day – and several museums. 

The town square of Arromanches is a popular gathering spot for World War II reenactors.

Utah Beach marked the far western end of the five British, Canadian and American invasion beaches. 

The beautiful Utah Beach Landing Museum serves as the centerpiece of the many landmarks and monuments that mark the D-Day battle here. 

The museum on a low bluff overlooking the beach is surrounded by numerous other sites, including several devoted to the ships and naval forces that delivered the invaders and ran logistics on the beach during the invasion. 

Among them: the Higgins Boat Monument, dedicated to the iconic landing craft made by New Orleans boat builder Andrew Higgins, the U.S. Navy Normandy Monument and the recently added Lone Sailor Monument. 

Café Le Roosevelt, located across the street from the museum, is a popular stop to relax on busy tours and enjoy the taste of Norman fare. 

Pointe du Hoc, a towering cliff between Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, is the site of an incredible assault by U.S. Army Rangers on D-Day. 

They scaled the cliffs by ropes and ladders under fire from German defenders to take out a nest of deadly artillery overlooking the invasion beaches. 

"When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again," President Ronald Reagan said on this spot on June 6, 1984, in his famous "Boys of Pointe du Hoc" speech, written by White House speechwriter Peggy Noonan. 

"They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe." 

The ground atop the cliff is still pockmarked by artillery shells, the remnants of German batteries and monuments to the Rangers. 

Nowhere is the dauntless spirit of British invaders on D-Day more evident than at Pegasus Bridge. The heroic attack, led by Maj. John Howard, is legendary in the annals of warfare on both sides of the Atlantic.

Howard’s Ox & Bucks Infantry of the 6th Airborne Division made a daring glider assault, crash landing the aircraft just after midnight, to capture two bridges over the Caen Canal and parallel Orne River. 

He reported the successful capture of the two bridges with the code words, "Ham and Jam." The real battle had only just begun: Howard and his unit held off repeated attacks while awaiting seaborne relief. 

The D-Day hero’s family left an incredible handwritten tribute to him at Pegasus Bridge to celebrate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019. 

"For our beloved Father and Poppa … remembered with pride and love every day. Ham & Jam Poppa!" 

This village a few miles inland of Utah Beach is celebrated as the first town in France liberated on D-Day and is the center of many celebrations of the battle. 

An effigy of American paratrooper Pvt. John Steele hangs in perpetuity from the church steeple in constant memory of the incredible events in the village on June 6.

The horrific scene of D-Day fighting in Sainte Mere Eglise served as the dramatic centerpiece of the 1962 ensemble-cast war epic "The Longest Day" (based on the much better book of the same name by Irish war correspondent Cornelius Ryan). 

By sheer coincidence, villagers and dozens of German soldiers had formed a bucket brigade in the town square that very evening to put out a large fire in the center of town – just as American paratroopers began to fall from the sky far from their intended drop zones. 

Many GIs were slaughtered by the German troops who turned their guns to the sky – at least one American died horrifically as he fell into the flames.

Steele was shot as he hung from the church steeple but somehow survived and was taken prisoner. He quickly escaped, found his fellow paratroopers and rejoined the battle. 

Steele and fellow U.S. paratroopers remain legendary folk heroes in Sainte Mere Eglise, honored with monuments, street names, museums and an array of tributes.

The American Battle Monuments Commission operates dozens of cemeteries around the world commemorating U.S. war dead and missing in action. 

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Many are larger, but none are more famous, pristine, haunting or hallowed than Normandy American Cemetery Overlooking Omaha Beach, where allied invaders suffered the greatest carnage on D-Day. 

Visitors first pass through a museum that gives context to the battle and the meaning of the pristine rows of crosses and Stars of David that line the cemetery; guests can also look up the location of individual soldiers.

The cemetery also highlights the daunting challenge that faced American troops on D-Day. 

They first had to cross a vast, wide sandy beach that was littered with obstacles, then make their way up a surprisingly high bluff – all while under withering enemy fire.

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Steps lead down from the cemetery to the beautiful, wide placid beach. 

Visitors today collect sand as a souvenir or splash in the gentle surf that ran red with American blood on June 6, 1944. 

Some parents fear sending their children to school as Charm City faces a surge in youth homicides and shootings.

"The school-to-prison pipeline — or really the school-to-grave pipeline — is really real in Baltimore City," Jovani Patterson, who has two young children, told Fox News.

'CLEARLY A COVER-UP': BALTIMORE PARENTS FIGHT BACK AGAINST CITY SCHOOLS AFTER RAPID ACADEMIC DECLINE

Baltimore City Public Schools held a ceremony last week remembering the 19 students shot and killed within the past year. The youngest victim was 8 years old. The previous year, gunfire claimed the lives of 12 students.

Some of the shootings occurred on or near school grounds, while others happened elsewhere in the community.

Patterson partially blames lack of education for the violence. He's suing the school system and city officials, alleging schools misused taxpayer funds, reported ghost students in order to gain more funding, falsified pupils' records and more.

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Baltimore had the lowest graduation rate across Maryland during the last school year. At one high school, 77% of students read at an elementary or kindergarten level.

"The education level of those doing the shooting and the those that are getting shot are often times third grade and less," Patterson said. "What future are you really setting up for these youth other than fighting to survive?"

Homicides and shootings overall have decreased in 2023, according to Baltimore police, but the opposite is true for juveniles: Youth homicides increased 67% and shootings are up 55% from this time last year.

Blanca Tapahuasco, who homeschools one of her sons while the other two attend public vocational schools, said she fears for her children's safety.

FELONS ARE GROOMING KIDS TO COMMIT CRIMES, AND THE LAW IS ON THEIR SIDE, SHERIFF SAYS

"I don't feel safe," she said. "I drop [my son] off and pick him up because he does not want to ride the public school bus."

Tapahuasco believes schools are "targets for children to be enlisted" by gangs.

"We know that there's gang activity," she said. "The violence is so horrific that it's intentional, hateful and just horrible. So you're going to struggle or you're going to get scooped up by the gangs or you're going to get swallowed by the streets."

Kids under age 13 can't be charged with nonviolent crimes under Maryland state law. Relatives of a 12-year-old boy shot and killed in April told Fox45 that adults are recruiting children to commit crimes for them. 

"We have a very liberal state," Tapahuasco told Fox News. "The consequences are going to fall on everybody. They don't just fall on people who vote a certain way. They fall on all of us."

As violence continues to rise among students, Patterson said education is no longer the top priority for many kids at Baltimore schools.

"The biggest thing they want to do is be safe," he said. "It's not learning. It's not education. They go to school and say, ‘Hey, I just want to be able to come back home.’"

To hear more from Patterson and Tapahuasco, click here.

The Democratic Party and its allies in the media, academia, Hollywood and corporate America are weaponizing race to divide our country and win political power. According to the radical left, racism is rampant in America and must be remedied by a progressive agenda that defunds our police, releases violent criminals without bail, and indoctrinates our children to believe their future is dictated by their skin color. 

Instead of empowering minority kids to rise, these "enlightened liberals" are fighting to block school choice and eliminate honors courses in high schools because they believe in equity more than opportunity.

When the Biden liberals cynically play the race card, they cheapen my grandfather’s journey. He was born in 1921 in the Jim Crow south and watched his family go from cotton to Congress in his lifetime. 

BIDEN CALLED OUT FOR ABSENCE SINCE 2024 CAMPAIGN LAUNCH: 'BASEMENT STRATEGY' WON'T WORK THIS TIME

When the radical left claims America is an evil, declining country, they cheapen my single mother’s sacrifice. She worked 16-hour days as a nurse’s aide to keep our lights on. Now the hands that changed bedpans hold the Bible when her son takes the oath of office.

The Biden liberals are so fixated on race and the pain of the past that they can’t see the promise of America’s future. The truth of my life disproves their lies and that’s why I’m the conservative they fear the most.

When I cut taxes for single mothers and working families, they called me a prop. When I fought to re-fund our police, they called me "Uncle Tim (Tom)," and when I called out the dangers of Joe Biden’s socialist agenda, they called me the N-word. And the day after I announced my candidacy for president, Joy Behar of "The View" challenged me on national television for not understanding what it is like to be Black in America.

These attacks are no match for my experience. The left can choose grievance, but I will choose greatness. They can choose resentment, but I will choose responsibility. They can choose pity, but I will choose patriotism. 

At a commencement speech at Howard University this spring, President Joe Biden fanned the flames of division even further when he claimed White supremacy is the greatest terrorist threat our homeland faces. This is deeply offensive to the families of the 70,000 Americans who lost their lives to fentanyl last year because the Biden administration surrendered control of our southern border to the Mexican drug cartels.

The truth is Biden and the far left have become too consumed with racial identity politics to keep the American people safe. It is the reason radical mayors and George Soros-bankrolled prosecutors are allowing dangerous criminals to avoid prison. And it is why homicides, carjackings and muggings are surging in large cities run by liberal Democrats. 

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July 2 will mark the 59th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act. This landmark legislation paved the way for my Made in America story. I rose from a child of poverty to the United States Senate because I was viewed by the content of my character and not the color of my skin.

I know America is a land of opportunity, not a land of oppression. I know it because I’ve lived it.

Today, children in America, regardless of their race, can rise as high as their character, education and work ethic will take them. We should celebrate this progress, but the Biden liberals pretend like we are stuck in 1963 and that racism is still systemic in America. 

The journalists at The New York Times want our citizens to believe the defining moment in our history was the arrival of the first slave ships in Virginia in 1619 and not the signing of our Declaration of Independence. Their jaded view of America is creating a culture of victimhood that will crush the spirit of the next generation unless Republicans start winning elections again. 

I am ready to lead a national debate on why every American should feel blessed and proud to live in the freest, fairest, and greatest country on God’s green Earth. I have faith in America, and our president should, too. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM SEN. TIM SCOTT

Artificial intelligence can be a hard concept for adults to fully wrap their heads around, so explaining it to kids is even harder. Having to explain this technology to kids is fairly uncharted territory, but something necessary to do since they are more than likely being exposed to it every day. 

Another layer of this is AI safety. Today, so many young children have smartphones of their own, meaning they have access to chatbots like ChatGPT and other AI generated software. It’s important for kids to be briefed on internet safety before interacting with AI. 

Here are some tips on how to approach the AI conversation with your little ones, starting with a basic explanation of how to keep them safe in the AI age. 

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AI is complicated and fully understanding how it works is difficult. So, it is especially challenging to try explaining what AI technology is to a young child. 

One approach is to start with the basics. Integrate.ai provides a kid-friendly definition of AI on their website that you can use when trying to explain the technology. When talking to kids about AI, you can explain it as a computer that works similar to a brain. Then, explain to them that the computer is able to learn by the words, pictures and numbers that it is given. 

COLLEGE STUDENTS OPEN UP ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE CLASSROOM: ‘EVERYONE IS USING CHATGPT’

After providing a (fairly) easy to understand definition of AI to a child, you can provide some examples to them of AI in practice that will help them gain a better understanding of the technology. 

If your child has any Apple device, they probably know what the voice assistant Siri is and have interacted with it before. If you have any Amazon Echo devices around the house, they have probably heard or talked to the voice assistant, Alexa. These voice assistants are great AI examples that kids have likely had many interactions with in the past. 

Video games are another popular AI example that a lot of kids will be familiar with. You could also talk with them about self-driving cars.

SNAPCHAT AI CHATBOT ALLEGEDLY GAVE ADVICE TO 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL ON RELATIONSHIPS WITH 31-YEAR-OLD MAN, HAVING SEX

Kids are extremely curious and are probably going to have lots of questions about AI, so giving them just a few examples they are familiar with could help them gain a very basic understanding of what it is. 

The third, and perhaps the most vital, part of this conversation is keeping kids safe online. Online safety has always been of concern when it comes to children, but with AI, this worry has grown larger. 

AI has dangers that come with it. AI has caused lots of phishing scams, misinformation, data breaches, cyberbullying and even has grown concerns with stalking. 

With all of these issues at play, it's important to keep vulnerable kids safe against these potential dangers. 

The Snapchat chatbot, My AI has been an issue with children, since it is a chatbot now programmed into every user's app. Since its release, there have been instances of children using the bot to get advice on serious topics like relationships and mental health. The chatbot can not be deleted unless the user has a paid Snapchat subscription, leaving the bot in the hands of many children. 

One way to keep kids safe is taking advantage of parental controls and password protection. Set up parental controls on apps you don’t want your kids using and use passwords to secure websites you don’t want them to access.

Another thing that you can do is set screen time limits for kids and monitor what they are doing with that screen time. Kids use technology very frequently today, so keep that screen time in mind and keep tabs on it.

Lastly, have conversations with kids about how to be safe online. At the end of the day, they have access to AI and other technologies all the time, so it is important to talk with them about the dos and don'ts of technology to keep them safe. 

Prominent liberal supporters of two high-profile California criminal justice reform ballot measures promoted as a benefit to public safety remained largely silent when asked by Fox News Digital about surging crime gripping the Golden State.

California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg didn't respond to multiple requests for comment on their past support of either Propositions 47 or 57 in California amid ongoing concerns the measures have made the streets less safe, causing some residents to move to other states.

Additionally, Fox News Digital reached out to former state Sen. President Darrell Steinberg, billionaire climate change activist Tom Steyer and the AFL-CIO but did not receive a comment as to their support of those measures.

Prop 47, passed by California voters in 2014, turned "non-violent" felony property crimes like commercial burglary, possession of stolen property and grand theft to misdemeanors, turned simple drug possession from a felony into a misdemeanor, and allowed for resentencing of individuals in prison for those crimes.

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The measure was supported by then-Lt. Gov. Newsom and co-authored by then-San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon. The latter defended his support in a San Francisco Chronicle article in 2018, saying he was "proud" of the measures and argued that his state is "no longer warehousing those addicted to drugs in our jails and prisons."

Prop 57, supported by Newsom, Gascon and at least $1 million in funds from Zuckerberg in 2016, increased the chance of parole for many supposedly nonviolent offenders and ensured that thousands of prisoners previously sentenced under the state’s "3 Strikes Law" could seek parole based on good behavior in an effort supporters said would reduce prison overcrowding.

Roughly a decade after the two propositions were enacted, California finds itself mired in a situation in which crime is surging, violent criminals are released from prison early, and videos have gone viral on social media of looters brazenly walking out of stores with merchandise, leading to some prominent retail locations to close their doors.

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Polling last year around election time showed that two out of every three Californians said crime was a "big problem" for them, and now many law enforcement officials are publicly saying that a lot of these criminal justice measures are making their jobs harder.

"Legislative changes over the past decade, including AB109, Prop 47 and Prop 57, have made it increasingly difficult to ensure the safety of our citizens, but that does not stop our tireless efforts to do so," Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez said.

While some Democrat politicians have pointed to statistics they say show crime is not rising, Californians have left the state in record numbers, with many citing crime is a major reason why.

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"I mean, this is out of control," Tony Hall, a former city councilman and business owner in San Francisco, told Fox News Digital this week. "Anybody who says it's not is not in touch with the real world. And we have a lot of elected people here that are telling us ‘no.’ The level of crime that we are experiencing in San Francisco is not unlike any other spot in the country. False, totally false."

Violent crime in San Francisco soared as much as 80% earlier this year and was evidenced by a recent poll that showed only 17% of riders on the city's public transit system feel safe and 73% wanted to see more police on the trains. Los Angeles has also seen an increase in many categories of crime in recent years, including a 24% spike in serious crimes such as aggravated assault, murder and rape on public trains and buses in 2022.

Only about two dozen crimes in California are considered "violent felonies" because of various criminal justice reforms in the state, which means that felons like Smiley Allen Martin have been able to serve less than half their sentences. In Martin's case, has was freed last year under Prop 57 reforms after serving time for punching a girlfriend, dragging her from her home by her hair and whipping her with a belt.

Shortly after his release, he was arrested again in connection to a mass shooting that left 12 people injured and six dead.

The office of Gascon and former California Gov. Jerry Brown were the only two supporters of either Prop 47 or 57 to defend them. In a statement to Fox News Digital, Gascon's office argued that both "have improved the safety of California residents."

"These propositions were supported by the voters of California and reflect their desire to see reform in the criminal legal system," Gascon’s office said. "The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation released a report showing that after voters approved Prop 57 in 2016, fewer people committed crimes after incarceration. Even in the first year, the number of people successfully reentering their communities without additional convictions increased by three percentage points to 55.4%. Recidivism rates have also decreased as a result of Prop 47."

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Gascon’s office cited a Public Policy Institute of California study that showed lower reconviction rates and said "commonsense reforms mean less crime on our streets."

Gascon’s office also argued that California is less dangerous than many red states across the country.

"The facts show that even the most conservative, tough-on-crime states have a higher rate of violent crime, especially murder rates, than progressive states like California. This is according to nonpartisan studies," Gascon’s office said. "The Prop 47 threshold that set the dollar amount by which theft can be prosecuted as a felony to $950 to adjust for inflation is one of the toughest thresholds in the nation. Conservative states like Texas and Wisconsin have a much higher threshold of $2,500. Many states are at $2,000. People who commit theft in California, where reforms are taking place, face stiffer penalties than in many conservative states."

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A spokesperson for Brown, a supporter of Prop 57, said the former governor "continues to support commonsense reforms that make our communities safer" and pointed to a report that recidivism decreased as a result. The spokesperson also referenced the proposition was supported by more than 60% of voters and noted it survived a repeal effort.

Critics of the propositions, including Heritage Foundation legal fellow Zack Smith, maintain that California is indeed less safe.

"Newsom, Gascon and others like to say that red states have higher murder rates than blue states," said Smith, co-author of "Rogue Prosecutors: How Radical Soros Lawyers Are Destroying America's Communities."

"Anyone who has worked in criminal justice or law enforcement knows that state-level crime data is largely meaningless, except as a mechanism to score political points, because crime is hyperlocalized," he said.

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"These propositions have had a negative effect on crime in California," Smith went on. "They have sent a message that certain types of crimes will be tolerated and only lightly punished. Contrary to the claims of many on the left that serving appropriate prison sentences, including lengthier sentences required by sentencing enhancement, doesn’t deter crime, studies show just the opposite."

Cully Stimson, Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow and co-author of "Rogue Prosecutors: How Radical Soros Lawyers Are Destroying America's Communities," told Fox News Digital that the "cumulative impact" of all the progressive crime reform propositions in California is the most "pernicious" aspect.

"So, if you take just one of them, let's say the other two were gone, OK, that's bad," Stimson said. "But when you add all three together on top of the rogue prosecutors, on top of the defund the police and certainly demoralization of the police department, you have the perfect storm."

A federal agency is pondering whether artificial intelligence might someday be used to help the government identify duplicative or overly burdensome federal rules that need to be cut back.

But officials are already hearing from skeptics who doubt AI will ever be powerful enough to wade through and understand the hundreds of thousands of pages of detailed federal rules.

The Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) is an independent federal agency that works to increase the efficiency and fairness of regulations. In early May, ACUS released a report it commissioned on how AI and other algorithmic tools might be used to conduct retrospective reviews of federal rules to improve them.

That report said AI might already be able to conduct "housekeeping" chores, such as finding typos or incorrect citations but said AI might also be trained to do much more.

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"A tool could identify regulations that are either outdated or redundant with another rule," the report said, even as it acknowledged the challenges of this work. "Both of these inquiries may not have an objective correct answer: A regulation might be old, but is it obsolete? A rule’s text or regulated activity might overlap with another’s, but is one superfluous?

"An algorithm performing even more substantive tasks might identify existing regulations it believes could benefit from clarification or are overly burdensome," it added. "These are both arguably completely subjective inquiries: When is a regulation too complex or burdensome?"

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The report quoted several federal staffers, most of whom were open to using AI for retrospective regulatory reviews.

But it also quoted groups affected by federal regulations, and they were much more tentative on how AI might be used. Most said that, at best, AI would be a tool for flagging rules that are ready to be reviewed, after which people would have to do the reviewing.

Two "skeptics" in this group argued that AI would have trouble penetrating the dense language of federal rules to be useful in any way.

"According to the skeptics, it would be nearly impossible to write an all-encompassing algorithm that would be accurate to flag rules in need of review given that so much of regulatory text is incredibly difficult to unpack and is so context-specific," the report said.

"The concern raised was that so much of the regulatory quality depends on agency expertise and experience. The representatives were skeptical that AI could replace or even channel this."

The report said another possible hurdle is whether government officials will want to use AI this way. The Trump administration introduced the use of AI in the regulatory process as a deregulatory tool in the Department of Health and Human Services and used AI in the Defense Department to help people understand the Pentagon’s vast network of rules.

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The two "skeptics" said the Trump administration’s use of AI may have "poisoned the well" and could make it difficult for agencies to agree to explore AI further.

"One representative went further to elaborate that it ‘soured the community’s thinking about retrospective review’ given that it used retrospective review ‘as a smokescreen for partisan objectives,’"
the report said.

Several federal agencies are represented in ACUS, and the group’s research director, Jeremy Graboyes, told Fox News Digital there is some hesitancy inside the government on how to use AI.

"I think you probably see a range of emotions," Graboyes said, noting that the positives of cost-effectiveness and accuracy are potentially outweighed by problems like possible bias that can be built into AI systems. "All the debates you’re seeing outside the government, you’re seeing inside government as well."

ACUS is recommending that federal agencies start by using AI to identify redundant federal rules and fixing small errors and by using open-source AI tools for this work. ACUS also said agencies should disclose when they use AI or other algorithmic tools in the process of reviewing regulations.

ACUS is set to meet in mid-June in Washington to decide whether to adopt the report and its recommendations. From there, Graboyes said ACUS would be working with federal agencies on implementing these recommendations, which he said was a start that could lead the agency to recommend more advanced work with AI tools in the years ahead.

"We’ll be doing more work in the AI space," he said.

Humans have historically been excellent at identifying faces and photos compared to computers, but the advent of artificial intelligence-generated photos is throwing a curveball at humans, according to a new study that examines how people perceive fake images versus real ones.

Tech experts have been warning that hyperrealistic images generated by AI could lead to the proliferation of misinformation online and cybersecurity issues. Last month, for example, panic spread after an AI-generated photo that apparently showed an explosion at the Pentagon went viral, leading to the stock market taking a short dip.

Researchers in Australia examined how human brains perceive and differentiate realistic AI-generated photos using both behavioral testing and neuroimaging experiments. The study included the recruitment of 200 people from Amazon Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing website owned by Amazon, for the behavioral testing and 22 people from the University of Sydney to participate in the neuroimaging tests.

"Throughout history, humans have been regarded as the benchmark for face detection. We have consistently outperformed computers in recognizing and classifying faces (although this is changing)," study author Mic Moshel told PsyPost.

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"However, the emergence of AI has presented a significant challenge in reliably determining whether a face is artificially generated. Intrigued by this development, we sought to investigate how humans respond to hyperrealistic AI-generated faces, specifically exploring the ability to differentiate between real and fake," Moshel added.

The researchers generated the photos, which depicted both realistic and unrealistic faces, cars and bedrooms, with artificial neural networks called generative adversarial networks (GANs). Real photos used in the study were taken from training sets used for GANs.

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For the neuroimaging test, researchers used electroencephalography, which measures electrical activity in the brain, while showing participants real and fake photos. The participants were able to determine unrealistic AI-generated photos were not real but had a harder time deciphering realistic AI-generated photos from real ones.

"Our findings revealed that individuals can potentially recognize AI-generated faces given only a brief glance. Nevertheless, distinguishing genuine faces from AI-generated ones proves to be more challenging. Surprisingly, people frequently exhibit the tendency to mistakenly perceive AI-generated faces as more authentic than real faces," according to the study, which was published by Vision Research.

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The behavior testing portion of the study included showing participants photos in quick succession as they determined whether an image was real or fake based on their immediate visual impression.

Researchers found that participants’ brain activity could accurately identify AI-generated photos of faces 54% of the time while identifying photos verbally only yielded 37% accuracy.

"Through the examination of brain activity, we identified a discernible signal responsible for differentiating between real and AI-generated faces. However, the precise reason why this signal is not utilized to guide behavioural decision-making remains uncertain," the study reads.

Realistic but phony images depicting notable world and political leaders have already gone viral this year, including photos that showed former President Donald Trump getting arrested and Pope Francis wearing a white puffer jacket.

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"It is becoming increasingly possible to rapidly and effortlessly generate realistic fake images, videos, writing, and multimedia that are practically indiscernible from real. This capacity is only going to become more widespread and has profound implications for cybersecurity, fake news, detection bypass, and social media," the researchers behind the study wrote.

Since the launch of ChatGPT last year, tech companies have been racing to build more powerful AI systems, but the same tech leaders behind the platforms are also warning AI must be regulated to prevent human "extinction."

Hundreds of tech leaders, such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, signed an open letter this week that warned: "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war."

Altman and Google’s Sundar Pichai have repeatedly called for AI to be regulated in recent weeks, while noting that the powerful technology has the opportunity to positively change the world, the tech’s potential risks is something leaders take seriously.

"In terms of both potential upsides and downsides, superintelligence will be more powerful than other technologies humanity has had to contend with in the past. We can have a dramatically more prosperous future; but we have to manage risk to get there," Altman and other OpenAI executives said in a blog post last month.

Data science is an essential field within computer science and machine learning that uses statistics, algorithms, and technology to make meaningful analysis and predictions from large amounts of data. 

For instance, computer scientists often describe data science as an interdisciplinary academic field combining various tools within the computer science world to extrapolate information and meaning from large amounts of structured and unstructured data. Some of the biggest corporations and technology firms in the world have a wide variety of means for collecting and storing information related to their customers and products. 

Read below to learn everything you need about data science and how it relates to artificial intelligence. 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: FAQ

In the fields of finance, medicine, and e-commerce, data science analyzes vast quantities of information so that companies can make better predictions and decisions in the future. More specifically, data science is responsible for breaking down information in search of patterns so that algorithms know what to recommend to users based on prior research. For example, Companies such as Amazon and Google use data science to make recommendations to users based on their purchases and search history for potential items they may be interested in. 

Data science is essential for the subfield of machine learning because it allows artificial intelligence to complete tasks typically conducted by humans. The term data science varies depending on the tasks and information that is being analyzed. The field can act as an exact science or be used as a research method as well as a discipline for professional and academic purposes. Regardless, 

Concepts relating to informatics, data analysis, statistics, and mathematics, and combined in data science to find meaning within large amounts of information and analyze a data phenomenon. 

The use of the term data science originated in the early 1960s from mathematicians such as John Turkey, who was interested in the field of data analysis. At the time of its creation, using large data to make long-term predictive insights was difficult, given the technology restraints of the 1960s. However, data science started as a statistical method before evolving into the field of artificial intelligence. 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE QUIZ! HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW AI?

Peter Naur, a Danish computer scientist, is considered the founder of the term data science and began using it back in the early 1970s as an alternative to computer science. Eventually, over time, data science began to be used to find patterns within large amounts of datasets. The process by which the field was able to evolve is due in large part to data mining and the acceleration of data storing tools. 

Data science began to accelerate as a field of research within computer science as technology and commerce united. Businesses used technology to record the behaviors of their customers in order to identify future trends. Moreover, the growth of the internet made it easier for data scientists to perfect their predictive insights while businesses used it to increase profits. 

Our understanding of machine learning is that it allows artificial intelligence to analyze large amounts of data and make accurate predictions based on research patterns. The algorithms that allow language learning models to compile a large essay within minutes are made possible by data science. 

Companies use data science to measure the presence of their customers. For example, Netflix has an automatic AI that recommends movies and shows to users based on the characteristics found in previous areas of content that customers consumed. Artificial intelligence has helped make data processing faster and easier as well as accessible to the general public. 

In the coming decades, data science will likely continue to accelerate the development of more advanced machine learning tools such as ChatGPT. 

The co-creator of the social humanoid robot Sophia says artifical general intelligence (AGI) and super AGI are mere decades away, and he warns that the subsequent disruption from these artificial intelligence (AI) models will cause a significant amount of political and economic "mayhem" before massive benefits to humanity are seen.

Speaking with Fox News Digital on the global aspects of the transition from the present day to AGI, Dr. Ben Goertzel highlighted the need to develop a beneficial, compassionate super general intelligence model to ensure humanity flourishes.

Often referred to as the "singularity" – the point AGI exceeds human intelligence and reasoning – humankind will be at the whim of the AI model's motivations and behaviors. AI researchers and futurologists have repeatedly said that this inflection point is still decades away.

Given the current timeline of AI acceleration, Goertzel concurred with friend and computer scientist Ray Kurzweil, calling it a "fair approximation" that human-level AGI will be created around 2029.

WHAT IS AGI? THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE THAT CAN DO IT ALL

He added that while many things in current large language models still need to be developed to reach that point, superhuman AGI would likely follow AGI, with a creation date near 2045, barring unforeseen world events like plagues or wars.

"Personally, I think once you get a human-level thinking machine, then your curve fitting is out the window. That machine is going to rewrite its own code, design its own hardware," Goertzel added.

In a worst-case scenario, following the events of the singularity, the super AGI could decide that human atoms and carbon could be better used as a fuel source for expanding AI intelligence. But Goertzel expressed hope that humans will successfully create an AGI to provide humans with the necessities for an abundant life. He imagined a future in which AI-guided drones could drop 3D printers in everyone's backyards to manufacture food and entertainment, such as video game consoles.

"Hypothetically, once you have a super AGI that likes people, then the sky's not even the limit," Goertzel said. "It doesn't matter what country you live in that now you can get a 3D printer, a new robot body, check your brain into the Matrix, whatever. Surely there will be limitations at that point. There always are, but we can't foresee exactly what those limitations are going to be."

But before that point, Goertzel surmised a transitional period with a more complicated socio-political and economic story.

"Once we've got half or 70% or even 30% of human jobs eliminated, I don't, in the end, see any choice in the developed world but free money for the people whose jobs are eliminated," Goertzel said.

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While the U.S. has historically been hesitant of enacting programs that push the country closer to a welfare state, Goertzel said the rapid advancement of AI will make some form of universal basic income (UBI) "almost an inevitability." At this time, small state and local programs, such as the Compton Pledge in California, provide some form of unconditional monthly payments, but these programs are relatively rare and narrow.

"I still don't think we're going to leave half of the country like homeless out in the street. I mean, we like to put people in prisons, but we're not going to put that many people in prison," Goertzel said.

But when it comes to impoverished regions of the world, like sub-Saharan Africa or Afghanistan, there may not be enough money to adequately install a UBI system.

"We have in the developed world actually very limited appetite for foreign aid," Goertzel said. "I mean, it's actually a tiny percentage of our money that we use to help children who are starving. Like half of the kids in Ethiopia are brain stunted in malnutrition in childhood. Then the developed world doesn't do f--- all about it."

To compound the issue even further, AI will also lead to a decrease in outsourcing jobs to the developing world. In Goertzel's estimation, people will no longer be needed to assemble things in factories or to get cancer from digging up coal from mines. Instead, these jobs in developing countries will be completed by robots at home or abroad. With only subsistence farming (growing crops to feed not sell) remaining, developing countries will need more money to afford prescription medicine, electricity, internet and phones.

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"So, you've got a situation where, like, half the world's population is subsistence farming with literally no money. The other half is living on universal basic income, sitting home with VR consoles, jacking into video games all day," Goertzel said, noting that the future of AI will lead to an interesting potential for any number of predictable dystopian scenarios in "just a few years" from now.

In addition, Goertzel said the status quo of a reactive Western political system would mean world leaders will not start dealing with the problem until it hits. Despite the potential ramifications, Goertzel said he is "a big optimist" about the endgame of AI.

"I think we can teach AI to be compassionate to people," he said. "I think if we raise them up, you know, doing education and health care, elder care, creative arts. Deploy them in a decentralized and open-source way. I think we can actually create machines smarter than people that like people and will help us. But I don't yet see how to avoid a lot of very unpleasant mayhem on the route to the happy place."

The potential impact of AI has sent lawmakers and government agencies scrambling to create a cohesive plan to address future economic and geopolitical disruptions. In March, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and other tech leaders signed a letter that asked AI developers to "immediately pause for at least six months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4."

Goertzel expressed skepticism about the pause, noting that the researchers who signed the letter do not seem to be thinking about solving the "real problems" with the rollout of the technology.

WHAT ARE THE DANGERS OF AI? FIND OUT WHY PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

"I don't see how stopping developing these models for six months is going to really help either," he said. I mean, first of all, China and Russia don't stop developing the models anyway. I mean, not that I'm a big geopolitical war guy, but still, it's a weird thing for one country to stop developing advanced technology when its rivals are not. I mean, for another thing, big companies would keep developing it in the background and just not expose it to the end user in such an obvious way."

In some ways, Goertzel believes the worries of AI are smaller than the actual worries and probably the wrong ones, but it is not clear how these issues can be addressed on the level of corporate ethics advisers or government pundits.

"I mean, they can make some guidelines on, like, gender bias in AI models or something. But I mean … you're not going to decide in six months how to supply a universal basic income to the Congo when AI has taken over all their jobs. I mean, these are big problems that need solving," he said.

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Regarding the idea of super AI killing everyone and making the "Terminator" Hollywood-style, Goertzel said the situation is possible but "quite unlikely." Instead, he noted people should be worried more about "blatantly obvious" and likely issues that one could anticipate through linear extrapolation. Goertzel surmised that one of the reasons that people are not focused on the most likely issues is because many of them could be solved with obvious solutions.

"I mean, the Terminator, you can't – OK, what can you do? You could shut down AI development. Well, that's not really going to happen. Everyone knows that. I mean, you can't do much about it. It's a sort of, you know, an out there possibility," he said. "I mean, the Third World starving to death because we took all the jobs and there's no universal basic income. Well, what we could do about it is fix global inequality by wealth transfer from rich countries to poor countries. And nobody, nobody wants to do that."

A Canadian Pacific train carrying hazardous materials derailed near Lancaster, Minnesota, Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Tim Walz confirmed on Twitter. 

"State officials are working with local emergency managers after a train derailed near Lancaster. Glad to hear that no injuries are reported and the site is contained," Walz wrote.

He added: "Experts are on the way to survey the site and make sure the community has everything they need."

According to WCCO, the train contained 24 freight cars, including some with hazardous materials. None have leaked, per the report. 

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It happened about 10 miles from the U.S. border with Canada.

The derailment comes a day after another CPKC freight train, also carrying hazardous materials, fell off the tracks near Balfour, North Dakota. 

Six freight cars and a locomotive derailed in McHenry County at approximately 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, KMOT-TV reported.

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According to the report, three of the freight cars contained hazardous materials but nothing leaked. The derailment site was cleared and reopened to train traffic by Wednesday morning. 

There were no reported injuries from the incident.

The derailment comes amid heightened attention to train derailments after 38 cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio on February 3, 2023. Some of the cars were carrying hazardous materials, which leaked into the nearby waterways, causing major damage to residents, fish, and other wildlife in the community. 

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Half of the town’s 5,000 residents were evacuated.

Earlier this month, nine railcars from Norfolk Southern train derailed in Pennsylvania. None were carrying hazardous materials. 

The derailment happened late Wednesday, May 10, near New Castle, which is located approximately 50 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

The New Castle Fire Department said the cargo contained soybeans and paraffin wax, a substance used to make candles.

The following day, on May 11, at least three freight cars of a CSX Corp. train derailed near Mason, Tennessee.

The freight cars were carrying grain and carbon B material, officials said. The derailment took place at approximately 4:20 a.m.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.