Sunday, July 19, 2026
US restaurant chains hit by foodborne illness
Foodborne illness outbreaks have repeatedly disrupted U.S. restaurant chains, triggering recalls, lawsuits and heightened regulatory scrutiny while pressuring customer traffic and sales.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday that Taco Bell, owned by Yum Brands, will stop using lettuce from a supplier the agency has linked to an ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak.
The business impact of such outbreaks has varied widely.
Analysts at TD Cowen wrote last week that similar food safety issues at McDonald's in late 2024 only impacted the chain for a quarter, while the Wendy's episode in 2022 saw no discernible impact at all. But previous outbreaks in 2015 at Chipotle Mexican Grill and in 1993 at Jack in the Box caused sales at those companies to drop sharply for several quarters.
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/factbox-us-restaurant-chains-hit-181024899.html
'Quds head Qaani hails continuation of ‘resistance’ under Mojtaba Khamenei's leadership'
IRGC Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani said on Sunday that the “glorious” path of the “resistance” would continue under the leadership of Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.
'Iran highly prepared, no divisions among officials over defense, lawmaker says'
Iran is highly prepared and there are no divisions among officials over defense and security, the head of the Iranian parliament’s defense committee said, adding that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s message was the “final word.”
Salar Velayatmadar said officials’ actions should not be portrayed in a way that cast loyal servants as traitors or traitors as loyal servants.
Why hasn’t Mahmoud Khalil been deported yet?
Piling insult upon insult, Columbia anti-Israel agitator Mahmoud Khalil last week reminded everyone that he still hasn’t been deported — by filing a lawsuit that basically says the drive to send him home is . . . a Jewish conspiracy.
Yep: His suit accuses “several avowedly anti-Palestinian private actors and high-level federal government officials” of “jointly carrying out a conspiracy” against him and other terror-lovers.
The supposed conspirators: Canary Mission, a group dedicated to fighting antisemitism, Betar, a Zionist group with an emphasis on Jewish self-defense, and the Heritage Foundation.
They all work on Project Esther — which aims to educate the US public about how what masquerades as pro-Palestinian advocacy is really nothing more than Jew-hate and support for terrorist violence.
Somehow, the suit claims, this is really about targeting such advocates “for federal officials to punish, after doxxing and publicly smearing them as antisemitic and supportive of terrorism.”
Even the pro-Hamas New York Times, which recently published a lunatic claim that Israel trains dogs to rape Palestinians, characterizes this legal argument as a reach.
Then again, legal reach after legal reach is why Khalil is still in this country, and not even detained by ICE — even though he was hit with a final deportation order in April.
Why? The next month, the Third Circuit refused to hear arguments that he should go free until all his litigation is resolved, but granted a stay pending Supreme Court review of its decision.
It remains outrageous that Khalil has managed to remain in the United States as long as he has.
He’s been here since 2022 on a student visa; after Oct. 7, 2023, he threw in his lot with the savages of Hamas in the Columbia tentifada, regularly making the media rounds to blame the victims.
Last year, the State Department acted to remove him (under the authority granted by the Immigration and Nationality Act), charging he’d committed immigration fraud in his 2024 application to change his visa status.
Specifically, he’d failed to mention his volunteer work for the (Hamas-aligned) UN Relief and Works Agency, long aligned with Hamas, and his association with Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which took openly anti-American positions.
Cue endless screaming about the violation of his rights, when Khalil’s case shows precisely the opposite.
Though he’s a terrorist sympathizer and accused immigration fraudster, our courts keep handing him endless opportunities to relitigate his status.
Insultingly, he’s even claimed to find inspiration in Auschwitz survivor Victor Frankl’s masterpiece “Man’s Search for Meaning”: Anyone think that was the topic of discussion at his Gracie Mansion family dinner with the Mamdanis?
Khalil was given the most-sought after privilege in the world today: permission to reside in America.
But rather than try to make a life for himself here, to repay with his talent and energy the country that so graciously admitted him, he dedicated himself to the celebration of Third World barbarism, to aiding and comforting our enemies.
That he was granted a green card at all is a testament to America’s generosity, as is the endless due process he has received.
His latest obscene lawsuit just proves again how much he hates our values, how eager he is to abuse our freedoms.
It’s time for him to find a home in a country he doesn’t hold in contempt.
https://nypost.com/2026/07/17/opinion/why-hasnt-mahmoud-khalil-been-deported-yet/
From AirTags to AI nudification: growing toolkit of technology‑facilitated abuse
It’s hard to overstate the impact that artificial intelligence has had since the release of generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT just three years ago. While they have led to countless advances in how we live and work, they have also been at the centre of controversies around domestic and sexual abuse.
The use of the AI tool Grok to remove women’s clothing in images brought the issue of so-called technology-facilitated abuse to the fore. But it’s a problem that predates AI – with Bluetooth trackers, wearable devices, smart speakers, smart glasses and apps all used by abusers to control, harass or stalk their victims.
This abuse has worsened as tech has become more embedded in people’s lives, and as AI advances rapidly. But governments have struggled to make tech companies design systems that minimise misuse, and to hold them accountable when things go wrong.
Our own research has confirmed that technology misuse has increased and that its harms are significant. But governments and the tech sector are doing little to combat it – despite numerous examples of how tech can enable abuse.
Case 1: Smart glasses
The growing availability of smart glasses – which look like normal eyewear but can do many things a smartphone does – has led to reports of secret filming. In some cases, videos were posted online, often attracting degrading and sexually explicit comments.
Meta has said its smart glasses have a light to show when they are recording and anti-tamper tech to make sure the light cannot be covered. But there appear to be workarounds.
In England and Wales, voyeurism legislation focuses on private spaces, and harassment laws do not specifically apply to targeted recording and online distribution. However, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office is investigating Meta after subcontractors were allegedly able to access intimate footage from customers’ glasses. This is in addition to a lawsuit in the US, which alleges Meta violated privacy laws and engaged in false advertising. Meta has said that it takes the protection of data very seriously and that faces are usually blurred out. It also discloses in its UK terms of service the potential for content to be reviewed either by a human or by automation.
Case 2: Bluetooth trackers
Apple’s AirTags, and other devices built for tracking personal items, can be misused to stalk and harass people, particularly women. Apple released updates to AirTags and other trackable tech so that potential victims would be alerted if an unknown device was travelling with them. But for many, this feature should have existed from the outset.
The law in England and Wales is clear that attaching tracker devices to someone without their knowledge is a criminal offence. But despite convictions, the ease of covertly monitoring people using these devices means people continue to be at risk.
Case 3: AI deepfake and ‘nudification’ apps
Apps can now “nudify” people, while AI is increasingly used to make non-consensual deepfake pornography. In January, several instances of xAI’s assistant Grok being used to create sexualised photos of women and minors came to light. All it took to create the images were some simple prompts.
After criticism, xAI decided to limit this feature. But the safeguards appear to apply only to certain jurisdictions and certain users.
In February, the UK government announced legal changes similar to the Take It Down Act in the US, which will require tech platforms in the UK to remove non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours. Failure to do so will result in fines and services being blocked, and the law is likely to be implemented from summer.
Using automated technology known as “hash matching”, victims will only need to report an image once to have it removed from multiple platforms simultaneously. The same images would then be automatically deleted every time anyone attempted to reupload them. Nudification apps and using AI chatbots to create deepfake pornography will also become illegal in the UK.
But there is more to be done. Mitigating risks must be embedded at the design stage to prevent these images being created in the first place. The rise of romantic and sexual chatbots means this has become more urgent.
And beyond deepfakes and nudification, AI can also enable harassment at scale. This includes directly targeting someone with abusive content, or fake images or profiles that impersonate victims for so-called “sextortion” scams.
Challenges ahead
These issues must be prevented with robust guardrails built into these technologies. This is what prioritising user safety should look like, after all. But often, these guardrails have failed. Safety tools are only usually added after public pressure, not built into platforms from the start.
Governments have allowed regulation to fall behind fast-paced developments. Tech companies have grown quickly, but laws and enforcement have not kept up. At the same time, police and legal systems are often under-trained or unclear on how to handle digital harm.
Even where there is regulation, such as the UK’s Online Safety Act, penalties for platforms that allow abuse are often weak or unenforceable. The regulator Ofcom has issued only voluntary guidance to tech companies on how to better protect women and girls on their platforms. Campaigners have called for this to be made mandatory, with clear penalties for companies that do not comply, placing it on a level legal footing with child sexual abuse and terrorism content.
As AI advances, tech companies must prioritise system design that puts user safety first. But until governments enforce real consequences, the tech sector will be able to profit from harm while those using the platforms bear the cost.
US inflation gauge set for statistical revamp
The US Bureau of Economic Analysis plans to change how it measures parts of the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The move is expected to lower reported core personal consumption expenditures inflation by about 0.2 percentage points.
The revisions will affect portfolio management, software, and legal services, and will be applied retroactively to 5 years of data. Economists cited by The Wall Street Journal said the new approach should reduce distortions caused by rising asset values and hardware prices, which are reflected in service and software costs.
The changes are due to appear with the August data published on September 30. While officials describe them as routine statistical improvements, the timing is sensitive because Federal Reserve policymakers are debating whether inflation remains high enough to justify further rate increases.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/US-inflation-gauge-set-for-statistical-revamp/66725729
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