Conservative media makes excuses for the Iran War turning five months old, with Newsmax's Greg Kelly working overtime to minimize the length of 144 days. Plus, RFK Jr. sets records for measles and diarrhea lettuce while Trump gives himself a pat on the back for reaching number 1 on TikTok, or as he calls it: "Tic Tac."
KGB Report is published Monday through Thursday, is assembled by an aging human, and contains no intentional A.I. generated material. Have a great weekend, see you on Monday.
July 23 is the 204th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 161 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 911 days remain in Trump’s term of office. (AP)
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
House votes for Department of War renaming as part of an annual defense bill. The bill incorporates President Donald Trump’s request for a historic $1.15 trillion in spending for national security and that would designate the Department of Defense as the Department of War. (AP)
Trump considers military strikes in Mali - which would be the eighth country he’s attacked this term. The administration is reportedly mulling a campaign against al-Qaeda-linked JNIM in the junta-controlled country. (The Independent)
Trump court tactic just blew up in his face. U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett said the BBC can proceed with subpoenas against Trump’s advisers and confidants and family members to make their case on what Trump’s actual goals were on January 6. And he ruled that Trump must hand over hundreds of financial records. The BBC is not settling anytime soon. Paying Trump $10 billion is a shameful waste of British taxpayers’ money. And Trump “is as popular as drug-resistant syphilis in the UK.” (Alternet)
The Smithsonian’s show trial on Capitol Hill. The hearing followed more than a year of pressure on the museum from the White House as it has sought to cleanse “improper ideology” from the institution and combat what it sees as a pessimistic approach to history that is too focused on -in Trump’s words- “how bad slavery was.” (The Atlantic gift article)
Another cyclospora outbreak, a gutted food-safety agency, and an SEC filing that told us exactly what was coming. The plot thickens. (Factkeepers)
Your liver could live for thousands of years longer than you: new study finds the maximum possible lifespans for humans. TLDR: 146–194 years, in theory, but don’t count on it. (IFLScience)
ChatGPT’s medical advice nearly killed a Florida man, lawsuit against OpenAI claims. The lawsuit claims OpenAI prioritized user engagement and profit at the expense of public safety, and that it failed to provide adequate guardrails to protect users from following bad health advice. (CBS)
Health insurance is stopping millions of Americans from quitting their jobs. There’s always ChatGPT… (Newsweek)
Medicaid and food stamps are increasingly paired with Amazon gig economy jobs, federal report shows. Amazon employee reliance on food stamps and Medicaid has exploded between the start of the Covid pandemic in February of 2020 and September of 2025, with the raw number nearly tripling. (Gizmodo)
Microsoft confirms Windows has a Global Device ID you can’t turn off. When you first set up Windows, or register a new Windows device, Microsoft ties that installation's GDID to you. Anything that happens on that system can then be traced back to you, the individual. (ExtremeTech)
Short sellers are going hog wild against SpaceX as its stock craters. As shares of Elon Musk’s SpaceX continue to dip, short sellers betting against the company are making an absolute fortune. Last week, short sellers had already made a whopping $8.7 billion in profit — and that was when the company’s stock was trading around $135. Since then, shares have cratered, dipping from its intraday high of $225.64 on June 16 all the way down to an all-time low of $118 by Wednesday. (Futurism)
The Daily Show celebrates its 30th year with a look back at three decades of news coverage. (Video)
Late Night with Seth Meyers- Seth takes a closer look at Trump lashing out at Canada for no apparent reason but giving China a pass after he claimed they meddled in the 2020 election while he was president. (Video)
Keep scrolling… lots of interesting stuff in Quote of the Day, Holidays, On This Day, Birthdays, and Deaths. I can pretty much guarantee you’ll learn something new.
History highlight:
1999 – Space Shuttle Columbia launched on STS-93, with Eileen Collins becoming the first female space shuttle commander. The shuttle also carried and deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Quote of the day:
If you learn one thing from having lived through decades of changing views, it is that all predictions are necessarily false.
--M.H. Abrams (Wikipedia link)
(One of 52,674 quotations from the searchable KGB Quotations Database.)
Click here for more M.H. Abrams quotes
Today’s holidays:
Gorgeous Grandma Day, Hot Enough For Ya Day, International V-ATPase Awareness Day, National Refreshment Day, National Shiraz Day, National Vanilla Ice Cream Day, National Women Touched by Addiction Day, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Day, Sprinkle Day, World Castleman Disease Day, World Sjögren’s Day, and Yada, Yada, Yada Day.
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On This Day:
2015 – NASA announced the discovery of Kepler-452b by the Kepler space telescope.
2012 – The Solar storm of 2012, an unusually large coronal mass ejection that was emitted by the Sun, missed the Earth by nine days. Had it hit, it would have caused extensive damage to electrical equipment worldwide.
2010 – The English-Irish boy band One Direction was formed while auditioning for the 2010 series of the British singing competition The X Factor.
1999 – Space Shuttle Columbia launched on STS-93, with Eileen Collins becoming the first female space shuttle commander. The shuttle also carried and deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
1995 – Comet Hale–Bopp was discovered; it became visible to the naked eye on Earth nearly a year later.
1984 – Vanessa Williams, the first African American Miss America, resigned after Penthouse magazine announced plans to publish unauthorized nude photos of her.
1983 – Gimli Glider: Air Canada Flight 143 ran out of fuel and made a deadstick landing at Gimli, Manitoba.
1982 – Actor Vic Morrow and two children were killed when a helicopter crashed onto them while shooting a scene from Twilight Zone: The Movie. (Video)
1972 – The United States launched Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite.
1967 – Detroit Riots: In Detroit, one of the worst riots in United States history began on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city. It ultimately killed 43 people, injured 342 and burned about 1,400 buildings.
1966 – Frank Sinatra’s album “Strangers in the Night” hit #1 on the US charts. The recording won Record of the Year and Best Male Vocal Performance at the 1967 Grammy Awards. (Video)
1962 – Jackie Robinson became the first African American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
1962 – Telstar relayed the first publicly transmitted, live trans-Atlantic television program, hosted by Walter Cronkite. (Video)
1952 – General Muhammad Naguib led the Free Officers Movement (formed by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the real power behind the coup) in overthrowing King Farouk of Egypt.
1923 – John Dillinger enlisted in the Navy to avoid charges of auto theft. He deserted a few months into his service and was later dishonorably discharged.
1914 – July Crisis: Austria-Hungary issued a series of demands in an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia demanding Serbia to allow the Austrians to determine who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia accepted all but one of those demands and Austria declared war on July 28, marking the beginning of World War I.
1903 – The Ford Motor Company sold its first car to a Chicago dentist.
1885 – Former President Ulysses S. Grant died.
1840 – The Province of Canada was created by the Act of Union.
1829 – In the United States, William Austin Burt patented the typographer, a precursor to the typewriter.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1993 – Lili Simmons, American actress
1989 – Daniel Radcliffe, English actor
1982 – Paul Wesley, American actor, director, and producer
1979 – Michelle Williams, American singer-songwriter and actress
1973 – Monica Lewinsky, American activist and former White House intern
1973 – Kathryn Hahn, American actress
1972 – Marlon Wayans, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1971 – Alison Krauss, American singer-songwriter and fiddler
1970 – Charisma Carpenter, American actress
1969 – Raphael Warnock, American politician and minister
1968 – Shawn Levy, Canadian-American director and producer
1967 – Philip Seymour Hoffman, American actor, director, and producer (died 2014)
1965 – Slash, English-American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1962 – Eriq La Salle, American actor, director, and producer
1961 – Woody Harrelson, American actor and activist
1945 – Edie McClurg, American actress and comedian
1943 – Tony Joe White, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2018)
1940 – Don Imus, American radio host (died 2019)
1938 – Ronny Cox, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1936 – Anthony Kennedy, American lawyer and jurist
1933 – Bert Convy, American actor, singer, and game show host (died 1991)
1928 – Vera Rubin, American astronomer and academic (died 2016)
1925 – Gloria DeHaven, American actress and singer (died 2016)
1921 – Calvert DeForest (Larry “Bud” Melman), American actor (died 2007)
1912 – M. H. Abrams, American author, critic, and academic (died 2015)
1894 – Arthur Treacher, English-American actor and television personality (died 1975)
1888 – Raymond Chandler, American crime novelist and screenwriter (died 1959)
1886 – Walter H. Schottky, Swiss-German physicist and engineer (died 1976)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2012 – Sally Ride, American physicist and astronaut (born 1951)
2011 – Amy Winehouse, English singer-songwriter (born 1983)
2010 – Daniel Schorr, American journalist and author (born 1916)
2007 – Ron Miller, American songwriter and producer (born 1933)
2002 – Leo McKern, Australian-English actor (born 1920)
2001 – Eudora Welty, American novelist and short story writer (born 1909)
1982 – Vic Morrow, American actor (born 1929)
1973 – Eddie Rickenbacker, American pilot and race car driver, founded Rickenbacker Motors (born 1890)
1971 – Van Heflin, American actor (born 1910)
1966 – Montgomery Clift, American actor (born 1920)
1948 – D. W. Griffith, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1875)
1885 – Ulysses S. Grant, American general and politician, 18th President of the United States (born 1822)
1875 – Isaac Singer, American businessman, founded the Singer Corporation (born 1811)
1793 – Roger Sherman, American lawyer and politician (born 1721)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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