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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday drew a hard line against quickly blaming the government in the midst of a tragedy – in this case, the deadly floods in Texas.

“Many Democrat elected officials are trying to turn this into a political game; it is not,” Leavitt said, amid suggestions linking the tragedy to Trump’s cuts to the National Weather Service.

She added: “I just do think those comments are depraved and despicable, especially when so many Americans are mourning the loss of their children.”

Less than 24 hours before Leavitt’s comments, though, it was her boss, Trump, who was levying blame – not on the incumbent government, but the previous one.

“If you look at that water situation, that was really the Biden setup,” Trump said.

Trump quickly clarified that he wasn’t actually blaming Biden – he cited the historic nature of the floods – but there is no question he was attempting to shift potential responsibility for any government missteps to his predecessor.

Possessing a character in a fictional story is one thing, but possessing a character in your own story is another… especially when you’ve become a dramatic villainess in a typical K-drama series. The only way Miso can escape from this world is to live through all of the episodes, but she has to deal with cliché tropes such as an arranged marriage with the male lead and an unnecessary rivalry with the female lead. Will Miso be able to break away from this predetermined destiny and find another happy ending for all of her characters?

Episode 58

Venture capitalist Harry Stebbings faced a wave of backlash in June after urging European startup founders to increase their work hours — but he now admits there’s some room for nuance when applying his mantra.

Stebbings, founder of 20VC, a firm managing $650 million in funds, advised founders on LinkedIn last month that “7 days a week is the required velocity to win right now,” to compete with startups in Silicon Valley and China.

The post went viral, to Stebbings’ surprise, and sparked a debate on whether China’s brutal “996” work culture — which means working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week — is needed in Europe.

The US General Services Administration (GSA) has announced an agreement with Oracle it claims offers a 75 percent discount on the vendor's license-based technology.

However, experts have pointed out that heavy discounts are commonly offered to Oracle customers, and a 75 percent discount might not be as good as it sounds. Big Red can lock customers into deals stipulating that any attempt to reduce Oracle usage can see discounts disappear and prices rise.

As part of the arrangement, the GSA has agreed to other base discounts for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) services including the vendor's latest database, Oracle Database 23ai. The agreement eliminates data egress fees and provides pricing parity with commercial offerings, a statement said. The Register has asked the GSA how this was benchmarked.

In 2023, analysis by IT procurement consultant Michael Garland found that Oracle and Microsoft get at least 25 percent and 30 percent of their respective government revenue through purchase processes that are not competitive, collectively benefiting by $10-15 billion annually.

Earth is expected to spin more quickly in the coming weeks, making some of our days unusually short. On July 9, July 22 and Aug. 5, the position of the moon is expected to affect Earth's rotation so that each day is between 1.3 and 1.51 milliseconds shorter than normal.

A day on Earth is the length of time needed for our planet to fully rotate on its axis — approximately 86,400 seconds, or 24 hours. But Earth's rotation is affected by a number of things, including the positions of the sun and moon, changes to Earth's magnetic field, and the balance of mass on the planet.

Since the relatively early days of our planet, Earth's rotation has been slowing down, making our days longer. Researchers found that about 1 billion to 2 billion years ago, a day on Earth was only 19 hours long. This is likely because the moon was closer to our planet, making its gravitational pull stronger than it is now and causing Earth to spin faster on its axis.

Yu Bona is no ordinary mom returning to the office after maternity leave. For her first assignment back she heads to a rooftop, points a sniper rifle at her target in a nearby hotel room, and “bang!” the legendary assassin “Kingfisher” is back. But as Bona takes on a series of new targets, her news reporter husband Taesung is ordered to investigate Kingfisher’s return, and as the bodies pile up, the line between personal and professional slowly starts to blur.

Chapter 139

Ubisoft is being called out for a clause people have discovered in its licence agreement that orders owners of its games to destroy them should the studio choose to end service for those games. However, not only is the clause not new, as some have implied, but Ubisoft is far from the only studio that has it in its licence agreement.

Not only has that clause been in the Ubisoft EULA for a while, but the same sentiment can be found in EULAs you've agreed to before playing other games from an array of different studios. As highlighted by Amon274 on Reddit, the same clause can be found in the EULAs for various games on Steam, including Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Oblivion Remastered. A Phasmophobia dev also pointed to a similar clause in multiple agreements when the game was called out for the exact same thing two years ago.

Even your copies of Baldur's Gate 3 have got to go if Larian Studios ever deems it so.

Eight people have been arrested in China after more than 200 children in the northwestern province of Gansu were found to have dangerously high levels of lead in their blood.

The children fell ill with symptoms including stomach and leg pain, loss of appetite, and hair loss, according to online media outlets Jimu and The Cover, which cited parents.

All the children are pupils at a privately owned kindergarten in Tianshui, Gansu, which was established in 2022 with 251 enrolled students.

Investigations revealed lead contamination in food served to the students, China's state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Authorities are continuing to investigate the kindergarten's staff, including its principal and legal representative.

An anonymous Trump insider who spoke to Politico said the entire tariff conversation was a farce and that Trump would push back the deadline as many times as he needed to to save face.

“Trump knows the most interesting part of his presidency is the tariff conversation,” they shared. “I find it hard to believe he’s going to surrender it that easily. It’s all fake. There’s no deadline. It’s a self-imposed landmark in this theatrical show, and that’s where we are.”

The first malaria treatment suitable for babies and very young children has been approved for use.

It's expected to be rolled out in African countries within weeks.

Until now there have been no approved malaria drugs specifically for babies.

Instead they have been treated with versions formulated for older children which presents a risk of overdose.

Ankylosaurids (family Ankylosauridae) were herbivorous quadruped dinosaurs known for their robust, scute-covered bodies, distinctive body armor, leaf-shaped teeth, and club-like tails.

The earliest-known ankylosaurids date to around 122 million years ago, and the youngest species went extinct 66 million years ago during the end-Cretaceous extinction.

The newly-identified species belongs to a previously monospecific ankylosaurid genus called Zhongyuansaurus.

Named Zhongyuansaurus junchangi, it lived in what is now China during the Albian age of the latest Early Cretaceous.

The dinosaur’s fossilized remains were collected from the upper part of the Haoling Formation at Zhongwa village in Henan province, China.

Tech companies have found a way to market digital goods to lonely people, promising relief through connection, but this kind of connection isn’t the solution; it’s the problem. Calling loneliness an epidemic transforms a feeling into a pathology to be cured, creating a loneliness economy. Reframing a universal human experience like loneliness as a medical diagnosis creates a market opportunity to manufacture, sell and buy treatment. The prescription given for loneliness is connection, and Big Tech has found a way to seize the vulnerability of lonely people eager to escape their predicament.

Meta’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, argues that A.I. companions can help fill what he sees as a friendship gap. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, is developing an A.I. “companion” that will live with users and, the company claims, be capable of sensing their surroundings. Replika, a generative A.I. chatbot, touts customer claims like “I love my human-like A.I. companion” and “Replika understands me better than any real guy ever did.” “Friends come and go, but GalaxyAI has your back,” another ad reads. Social media, dating apps and A.I. companions won’t alleviate loneliness; they will make it worse by giving people a way to avoid their aloneness.

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