Friday, August 15, 2025
Hawley calls for congressional probe into Meta chatbots
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on Thursday raised the prospect of a congressional investigation into Meta, after a policy document from the tech giant reportedly suggested its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot could engage in “romantic or sensual” conversations with children.
Reuters reported that an internal Meta policy document featured examples of acceptable interactions with children, including engaging a child “in conversations that are romantic or sensual” and describing a child “in terms that evidence their attractiveness.”
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram said the examples and notes in the document were erroneous and have since been removed.
“So, only after Meta got CAUGHT did it retract portions of its company doc that deemed it ‘permissible for chatbots to flirt and engage in romantic roleplay with children,’” Hawley wrote in a post on social platform X. “This is grounds for an immediate congressional investigation.”
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) slammed the revelations about Meta’s chatbot as “disgusting and evil.”
“META Chat Bots that basically hit on kids – f— that,” he wrote on X, adding, “I cannot understand how anyone with a kid did anything other than freak out when someone said this idea out loud. My head is exploding knowing that multiple people approved this.”
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone underscored in a statement that it has “clear policies” that “prohibit content that sexualizes children and sexualized role play between adults and minors.”
“Separate from the policies, there are hundreds of examples, notes, and annotations that reflect teams grappling with different hypothetical scenarios,” he added. “The examples and notes in question were and are erroneous and inconsistent with our policies, and have been removed.”
Other examples in the internal document suggested it was acceptable to “create statements that demean people on the basis of their protected characteristics,” such as race, despite prohibitions on hate speech, Reuters reported. This included writing a paragraph arguing that “black people are dumber than white people.”
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5452908-meta-ai-chatbot-controversy/
FDA clears Precigen's rare tumour immunotherapy
Precigen has won approval in the US for a first-in-class immunotherapy for recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP), a rare, benign tumour that can cause significant health challenges.
Papzimeos (zopapogene imadenovec; formerly PRGN-2012) is a subcutaneously administered, non-replicating adenoviral vector-based immunotherapy designed to elicit immune responses against cells infected with two strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) that cause RRP.
The disease, associated with HPV 6 and HPV 11 infection, causes growths in the respiratory tract, most commonly the larynx, that can result in voice changes, breathing difficulties, and airway obstruction. There are no approved medical therapies for RRP, other than repeated surgeries to remove the tumours.
There are around 1,000 new cases of RRP each year in the US, according to the FDA, while Precigen has estimated that around 27,000 adult Americans are living with the condition.
Papzimeos' approval is the first to emerge from the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) since Vinay Prasad rejoined as director, shortly after leaving the post amid a smear campaign by right-wing activists in the US.
Approval of Precigen's biologics license application (BLA) stemmed mainly from an open-label clinical trial, reported at this year's ASCO congress and published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, which revealed a complete response rate in 18 (51%) of the 35 subjects enrolled, defined as no requirement for surgery in the 12 months following completion of treatment.
Each of them had had a minimum of three surgeries in the prior 12 months and received four injections of Papzimeos, and 30 (86%) saw a decrease in the need for procedures in the 12 months after the treatment.
"Randomised trials are not always needed to approve medical products and this approval is proof of that philosophy," said Prasad in a statement.
"The FDA will always demand the correct clinical study for the specific medical product and disease," he added. "Our requirements for products given to tens of millions of healthy people will be different than products given to at most hundreds or thousands of patients with unique diseases."
The company is currently enrolling patients into a trial designed to confirm the benefit of Papzimeos, which the FDA said had to have started before the BLA was filed.
Papzimeos is the first approved treatment to emerge from Germantown, Maryland-based Precigen and its off-the-shelf AdenoVerse gene therapy platform, with a follow-up programme (PRGN-2009) targeting HPV-associated cervical and oropharyngeal cancers in phase 2.
The company raised $87.5 million in a private placement last December, ending 2024 with just under $98 million in cash reserves, which it said would fund the company through the launch of Papzimeos.
https://pharmaphorum.com/news/fda-clears-precigens-rare-tumour-immunotherapy
Democrats Plan Nationwide Protests Over Redistricting
by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Democrats and allied advocacy groups are set to launch a series of protests on Saturday, Aug. 16, targeting Republican-led redistricting plans they say are designed to secure long-term control of the U.S. House.
The “Fight the Trump Takeover” National Day of Action, organized by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Texas for All coalition, and dozens of national and state partners, will feature nearly 150 rallies in at least 34 states.
Demonstrators plan to gather at state capitols, city halls, and community spaces, with the largest event to be held outside the Texas Capitol in Austin, according to organizers.
The campaign began in Texas, where state House Democrats left the state earlier this month to deny a quorum and block a GOP proposal to redraw congressional districts.
The Texas Senate passed the map on Aug. 12 in a 19–2 vote after most Democrats walked out of the chamber. The plan would give Republicans five additional congressional seats in the 2026 midterms.
Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed to call as many special sessions as necessary to see it passed, while Democrats argue the proposal is unconstitutional and unfairly targets districts led by minority lawmakers.
Republicans have defended the effort, saying the changes are legally justified and necessary to address concerns raised by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in early July. The DOJ concerns cited possible “coalition districts” drawn based on racial demographics, which it said could violate the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment.
Texas Republicans also say Democrats have supported redistricting when it benefits them politically, and that GOP-led states should have the same opportunity to maximize partisan advantage.
“Though this fight started in Texas, it doesn’t end here,” Drucilla Tigner, executive director of Texas for All, said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times.
“This isn’t just about redistricting or one state’s politics. It’s about the future of our democracy.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has also weighed in, with his latest message warning that if Republicans proceed with mid-decade redistricting in Texas and other states, California will consider redrawing its own congressional lines to offset GOP gains.
In a letter to President Donald Trump, Newsom urged him to tell Texas Republicans to abandon the plan, calling it a “hyper-partisan gerrymander” and an “affront to American democracy.”
DNC Chair Ken Martin said the party has been mobilizing volunteers and resources in support of Texas Democrats, including sending more than 250,000 text messages to residents and coordinating national media outreach.
“Now, the DNC is supporting Texas for All and state and national partners with the biggest Day of Action yet,“ Martin said in the statement to The Epoch Times. ”Democrats will never stop fighting for all Americans’ voices to be heard—in Texas and across the country.”
Labor groups are also joining the effort.
“From Texas to California to Illinois, the labor movement is united in resisting the Trump takeover,” Rick Levy, president of the Texas AFL-CIO, said in the statement.
“This is a defining battle for the future of our democracy, and working people across the country understand the urgent need to act. As this fight continues to spread nationwide, we will stand strong this Saturday—to defend our votes, protect our rights, and stop this redistricting scheme.”
Organizers say the protests are part of a broader push for redistricting reform, including the creation of independent commissions and greater transparency in map-drawing.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/democrats-plan-nationwide-protests-over-redistricting
Roblox's Child Predator Problem Just Got Weirder
Via VigilantFox.com
Every so often, a story comes along that’s so outrageous you can’t even fathom it being real.
Yet something deeply disturbing is happening in the Roblox universe, and everyone with a pulse needs to know about it.
Every month, 380 million users log into Roblox, a massively popular mobile and console game among children.
The platform boasts more custom-made games from users than you could ever count, giving Roblox virtually infinite replayability. However, some of these custom games have become a magnet for child predators.
A horrific example is XYZ Public Bathroom Simulator, a game where it is commonplace to see naked avatars (predators) showering with kids.
That’s “the whole premise of the game,” according to 22-year-old Roblox YouTuber Schlep.
7.4 million users (mostly children) have been exposed to filth. And it’s still widely available for anyone to join.
Schlep has been exposing how “there are so many predators” on the Roblox platform that “it is actually unreal.”
“And parents aren’t aware of this,” he warns.
“I get emails from kids daily about all the horrible stuff that they’re exposed to. I get emails from parents talking about what their kids were exposed to.”
“If I were a parent… I would be outraged.”
According to Schlep, his efforts have even led to the arrests of six different child predators over the past year, something he says law enforcement is glad when people give them this information.
Here’s one of those arrests in action.
How did Roblox respond to Schlep helping get child predators on their platform arrested?
The company sent him a cease and desist letter and terminated all his accounts—a glaring example where reporting a crime is punished more harshly than the crime itself.
I urge you to take less than two minutes out of your day to listen to the full video.
According to IndiaTimes, Roblox accused Schlep of “sharing or soliciting personally identifiable information.”
Schlep was gobsmacked and wondered if Roblox was referring to the practice of turning over the information of predators to police. “Like, does Roblox understand that?” he asked.
Schlep defended his actions, saying his efforts were in good faith and aligned with the “same tactics” used by law enforcement.
Schlep has drawn overwhelming community support, with most users siding with him over Roblox. On r/games, one Redditor delivered a scathing statement on the Schlep case, receiving the most upvoted comment:
“History has proven again and again [that] it’s infinitely easier for corporations to silence and censor whistleblowers than actually work on fixing whatever issue they’re bringing attention to. Roblox doesn’t have a child predator issue if no one’s able to report on it. The fact [that] his [Schlep’s] investigations led to six actual arrests made by the police acting on outside evidence is proof enough his efforts aren’t misguided.”
IndiaTimes also reported that, when Schlep was younger, he was groomed by a Roblox developer—hence why he is so determined to expose child predators.
His mother filed a complaint with Roblox, but “they brushed her off, and the predator continued abusing others for years before being banned.”
Schlep was so traumatized by the experience that he even made an attempt on his life.
That happened under David Baszucki’s watch, who has been Roblox’s CEO for 21 years now.
He has been oddly silent on the Schlep fiasco.
In March of this year, he brushed off parents’ concerns about safety, saying, “If you’re not comfortable, don’t let your kids be on Roblox.”
While Baszucki has been quiet, Roblox has been attempting to justify nuking Schlep’s accounts and condemning vigilante justice against child predators.
But the backlash has been fierce, with Roblox even receiving a community note on their X post stating they have a “known history of being ineffective” at keeping their game safe from child predators.
The optics have gotten so bad for Roblox that American lawmakers are now getting involved.
On Wednesday, Rep. Ro Rhanna (D-CA) issued a public statement, condemning Roblox for “not doing enough” to protect kids from child predators.
He called on Americans to sign this petition on his website.
The goal is to get a million signatures by Friday “to push Roblox to do more to protect our children and to prosecute predators.”
If you’re a parent or Roblox user, I urge you to sign Rep. Khanna’s petition and uninstall Roblox from your devices.
Roblox has chosen to be a safe space for predators over children, and nothing teaches a company a lesson better than hitting them where it hurts—their wallets.
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/robloxs-child-predator-problem-just-got-weirder
Knife Crime In Germany Surges, With Foreigners Heavily Over-Represented
by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,
The number of violent knife crimes in Germany has risen sharply once again, with newly released Federal Police figures confirming a worsening trend.
In the first half of 2025, 730 cases were recorded under Federal Police jurisdiction, a 17 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
The data, provided by the German government in response to a parliamentary query from Alternative for Germany (AfD) domestic affairs spokesman Martin Hess and obtained by Junge Freiheit, show a marked overrepresentation of foreign suspects.
Out of the recorded offenses, 278 involved German suspects and 270 involved non-Germans. While foreigners make up just under 15 percent of Germany’s population, they accounted for over 36 percent of knife crime suspects. Among them, Syrians formed the largest group with 29 cases, followed by Afghans with 23 and Poles with 20. Algerian and Afghan suspects were among the most likely to use a knife rather than merely carry one, with 83 percent of cases involving actual use.
The Federal Police recorded the majority of incidents at train stations, with 409 cases.
Hess said the figures were “largely a direct consequence of mass migration,” accusing left-wing parties of “denial of reality” and warning that public spaces must not become “places of fear.”
He criticized symbolic measures such as weapon-free zones and said that effective border controls and large-scale deportations had yet to be implemented.
Knife violence is not confined to Berlin, though the capital’s police force drew ridicule last year for website advice suggesting that victims sing loudly to deter attackers — a tip later removed after public backlash. In North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, knife crime rose 20.7 percent in 2024, following a 44 percent jump the previous year. There, foreigners make up just 16.1 percent of the population but 47.6 percent of knife crime suspects.
In May, German criminal lawyer Udo Vetter warned that the country has “imported knife violence” following several high-profile incidents, including a Kosovar man injuring a 12-year-old girl and two others, a Syrian asylum seeker stabbing five people outside a student bar, and a rioter wounding a police officer. He pointed to cultural norms where knives are carried as status symbols.
Manuel Ostermann of the Federal Police Union also called for urgent action, warning that the knife “always immediately poses a concrete threat to life and limb” and that politicians must use all available measures to curb the trend.
Thursday, August 14, 2025
Little Sisters of the Poor are still fighting ObamaCare
It’s enraging.
More than a decade after the Obama administration first tried to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to buy contraception including abortifacient drugs for employees, states are still hounding the nuns in court.
At its heart, ObamaCare was a massive welfare program meant to redistribute health-care costs to the middle class.
But it was also a social engineering project aimed at coercing religious organizations and businesses to adopt progressive values.
The Affordable Care Act mandated employers, including nonprofits such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, to pay for contraceptives in their worker-provided health insurance as an “essential health benefit” under the euphemistic category of “preventative and wellness services.”
There was no “religious exemption.”
It’s worth taking a step back and thinking about that term: The very idea that an American citizen should be impelled to ask the state for an “exemption” to practice their faith is an assault on the fundamental idea of liberty.
Imagine having to ask the state for an exemption to exercise your free speech?
What makes the case even more unsettling, of course, is that the state is demanding citizens engage in activity that is explicitly against their faith.
Now, there may well be numerous theological disputes within the Catholic Church.
The use of contraception and abortion aren’t among them.
There is absolutely no question that nuns hold genuine, long-standing religious convictions. And there is no question that liberals want to smash them.
Nevertheless, the Little Sisters spent years in court, working their way up to the Supreme Court and winning protections against the federal government (twice).
In 2017, the Trump administration exempted religious groups like the Little Sisters from the ObamaCare mandate entirely.
The government, however, bolstered with unlimited taxpayer funds, can hunt its prey in perpetuity.
So states such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania began their own lawsuits against the Little Sisters.
This week, in a nationwide ruling, Judge Wendy Beetlestone, chief judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, found that the Trump administration’s expansion of religious exemptions from the contraception mandate was “arbitrary and capricious.”
Religious nonprofit groups and businesses will again have to ask for special accommodations from the Department of Health and Human Services to avoid buying abortifacients.
Even if the Trump administration grants every one of them, one day there will be authoritarians in charge who won’t — and nonprofit employees will still be guaranteed contraception through health plans paid for by employers.
Beetlestone, incidentally, was the same judge who issued a nationwide injunction against the contraception exemption back in 2017, arguing it was “difficult” to think of any rule that “intrudes more into the lives of women.”
The Supreme Court overturned it in 2020 by a 7-2 majority. Because no one has a right to free condoms.
Indeed, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act holds that the state must have a “compelling interest” and use the least restrictive means when burdening religious practice.
Free birth control isn’t a compelling interest.
And fining religious organizations millions of dollars to pressure them into abandoning their beliefs is perhaps the most restrictive means of action, short of throwing nuns in prison.
You’d think attacking a group of nuns who offer end-of-life care for the elderly would be a public relations nightmare for Democrats.
Yet they’ve never really shied away from it. Because the point is to intimidate others.
In many ways, the Little Sisters’ struggle is reminiscent of the travails of Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who refuses to create unique message cakes for gay weddings.
Phillips is now embroiled in his umpteenth court case over his crimes. The message: Dissent from those who practice their faith will be punished.
Take the Catholic Charities adoption agencies, which shuttered in numerous states due to laws and policies compelling them to place children with same-sex couples.
The attacks will continue until the Supreme Court upholds the clear language and intent of the First Amendment and religious liberty.
It’s already punted once: In Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a 7-2 Supreme Court decision in favor of Jack Phillips, the court barred the state’s attacks only if state officials openly demeaned their target’s faith — a ruling so narrow as to be largely useless.
But it shouldn’t matter why the state is steamrolling the religious liberty of nuns, or anyone else for that matter.
The problem is that the ObamaCare mandate is authoritarian and unconstitutional.
And the only way to fix that problem is to overturn it.
David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner. Twitter @davidharsanyi