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JPMorgan Chase has built 1,000 new branches in seven years. That’s more locations than most of its competitors operate in total.

The bank is marking the milestone opening in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday where Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon is attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The firm has roughly 5,000 branches, the most of any American bank, according to Federal Reserve data from March.

“It’s a great marker for us to be able to say, you can see our commitment over time and we’re on a marathon with regard to this expansion,” said Jennifer Roberts, the CEO of Chase Consumer Banking, in an interview. “A thousand [branches] is significant — a thousand is bigger than many regional competitors have at all.”

In 2018, JPMorgan operated bank branches in 23 states and said it would expand into as many as 20 new markets over the following five years with about 400 new locations. By 2021, the firm said it had branches in all 48 lower states. And last February, JPMorgan announced a new, multibillion-dollar investment to open another 500 new locations by 2027.

JPMorgan said over the past seven years, Chase has opened more bank branches than all of its large bank peers combined. However, many of JPMorgan’s competitors have recently announced plans to expand their own footprints as the quest for deposits heats up.

Bank of America recently announced a branch expansion, with plans to open 150 new centers by 2027. And Wells Fargo plans to add branches, especially now that it’s fulfilled a regulatory consent order that had been constraining its growth.

The industry-wide growth plans could help reverse a trend dating back to the 2008 financial crisis in which the U.S. has seen the net number of bank branches plummet. The combination of fewer overall banks and the advent of online banking has broadly made brick-and-mortar locations lower priority. However, in recent years, especially amid the population migration during and after the pandemic, banks have been reorienting their footprints to capture more deposits.

Expanding in Charlotte puts JPMorgan head-to-head with rival Bank of America, which is headquartered there and has 71% market share in the city, according to KBW and S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

Roberts said after this latest opening, Chase will have about 75 branches in North Carolina. She said that the bank is expanding there due to its “young, fast-growing population” and that there’s a “lot of wealth coming into that area” as well.

JPMorgan said at its investor day in May that its newer branches are expected to ultimately contribute more than $160 billion in incremental deposits. The firm said each new branch breaks even within four years.

JPMorgan said when its expansion is complete, Chase will have added more than 1,100 branches, renovated 4,300 locations and entered 80 new markets. It also expects that 75% of the U.S. population will be able to reach one of its branches within an “accessible drive.”

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., plans to force a vote on banning arms sales to Israel, a move that will prove to be a test for Senate Democrats whose position on the Jewish state has shifted in recent weeks.

Sanders, an independent who routinely caucuses with Senate Democrats, announced he would force a vote on a pair of resolutions to block the $675 million sale of thousands of bombs and guidance kits for the bombs and to halt the sale of ‘tens of thousands’ of automatic rifles to Israel.

‘U.S. taxpayers have spent tens of billions of dollars in support of the racist, extremist Netanyahu government,’ Sanders said in a statement. ‘Enough is enough.’

It’s not the first time Sanders has pushed to block arms sales or military aid to the Jewish state. Since December 2023, just months after the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the lawmaker has either introduced or forced votes on resolutions five times, each intended to block military aid and billions of dollars in munitions and arms.

His latest attempt comes after photos revealed starving children in Gaza, which he squarely blamed on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘The time is long overdue for Congress to use the leverage we have — tens of billions in arms and military aid — to demand that Israel end these atrocities,’ he said.

The vote, expected late Thursday, comes as Senate Democrats have undergone a tonal shift on Israel since the events of Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas executed a brutal attack on Israeli soil.

Sanders’ last attempt earlier this year that sought to block over $8 billion in arms sales, saw 15 Senate Democrats vote for it, while all Senate Republicans voted against it. Though the resolutions are likely to fail as his previous attempts have, more Democrats are expected to vote alongside him. 

Earlier this week, 40 Senate Democrats wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and called on the administration to push for ‘a large-scale expansion of humanitarian assistance and services throughout the Gaza Strip.’

Senate Republicans have largely blamed the reported conditions in Gaza on Hamas, with some calling for more food aid making its way into the Gaza Strip. President Donald Trump vowed that more food centers, administered by Israel, would be coming.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he shared Trump’s view and that there was a desire to ‘meet that need and alleviate that pain.’

‘But you got to understand, too, that when you got a terrorist group like Hamas operating in that region, they intercept and divert a lot of that food aid that’s going in there,’ he said. ‘That’s the challenge that the Israelis have. That’s the challenge that we have and other nations around the world.’ 

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President Donald Trump and several key health advisors in his Cabinet held a formal event Wednesday at the White House unveiling new efforts to improve healthcare technology and partnerships with private-sector technology companies. 

The ‘Make Health Tech Great Again’ event laid out a new voluntary commitment from several major tech and tech-healthcare firms aimed at developing a better process for digital health record sharing, which Trump admin officials said would ultimately improve health outcomes for Americans. In addition to the commitment, the new health tech efforts will also include the development of personalized tools meant to help patients obtain greater control of their health information to make more informed decisions.

‘For decades, America’s healthcare networks have been overdue for a high-tech upgrade, and that’s what we’re doing. The existing systems are often slow, costly, and incompatible with one another,’ Trump said from the White House during the Wednesday afternoon event. ‘But with today’s announcement, we take a major step to bring health care into the digital age, something that, is absolutely vital. We’ve got to do it. Moving from clipboards and fax machines into a new era of convenience, profitability and speed and, frankly, better health for people.’

The event announcing the Trump administration’s plan to advance a ‘next-generation digital health ecosystem,’ was attended by representatives of companies, including Apple, Google, Samsung, Amazon, OpenAI, Anthropic, Epic, Oracle, Athena Health, and Noom, who will be participating in the voluntary pledge aimed at improving health record sharing. As part of the pledge, the companies will ‘voluntarily’ share information with each other, according to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also present at the Wednesday event. 

‘For decades, bureaucrats and entrenched interests buried health data and blocked patients from taking control of their health,’ Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a statement Wednesday ahead of the event. ‘That ends today. We’re tearing down digital walls, returning power to patients, and rebuilding a health system that serves the people. This is how we begin to Make America Healthy Again.’

The Trump administration is partnering with more than 60 companies to bolster how health information is shared electronically, including through the use of apps, and beef up the interoperability of health information networks, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). 

The apps aim to address issues including diabetes and obesity management, and provide beneficiaries with AI assistants to walk through symptoms, provide care options, and assist with scheduling appointments. Other functions that the technology aims to solve are providing digital check-ins to streamline services and cut down on paper intake forms. 

‘It gives [patients] a sense of responsibility and allows them to measure the interventions if they change their diet, if they change their exercise, it can show you how many steps you took today, it can tell you if your glucose is spiking, and all of that information will now be available to American citizens,’ Kennedy said Wednesday. 

The White House event is a follow-up to the request for information notice that the CMS posted in May requesting information from stakeholders on ways to beef up health technology interoperability. 

Other technological advances on the health front include plans for CMS to launch an app library on Medicare.gov to best direct beneficiaries to the right digital health tools, according to CMS. 

‘The average Americans are tired. They’re tired of waiting for a doctor’s appointment. They’re tired of waiting for the surprise of what your hospital bill is going to offer. That’s being addressed,’ CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz added Wednesday. 

‘They’re tired of waiting for access to their medical records. You own your medical records, they’re yours. Why you can’t have access to them is a stunning reality in modern-day America,’ Oz continued. ‘They’re also tired of waiting for Washington to take action. And this president early on emphatically stated that wasn’t going to happen anymore. And today we made that vision into a reality.’

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A member of former President Joe Biden’s inner circle sat with House Oversight Committee investigators for a marathon closed-door interview that lasted more than eight hours on Wednesday.

Steve Ricchetti, who served as counselor to the president for all four years of Biden’s term, was described as ‘combative and defensive’ during his voluntary meeting, a source familiar with the sitdown told Fox News Digital.

The source described Ricchetti as defiant in the face of doubts about Biden’s mental acuity, though he ‘admitted that they all knew President Biden’s age was an issue and were dealing with it as a political matter,’ they said.

‘Mr. Ricchetti stated that he believed President Biden had the ability to be president and that he was performing the capacity of president every day. He believes that Joe Biden is capable to being president today, and that he could have won in 2024,’ the source told Fox News Digital.

Ricchetti, a longtime Democratic operative and lobbyist, first began working for Biden in March 2012 when he was appointed counselor to the vice president under former President Barack Obama. He was elevated to be Biden’s chief of staff in December 2013.

He touted his closeness to Biden over the last 13 years, the source said, and described having personal relationships with former first lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden as well.

Ricchetti’s own children were also close to the White House during Biden’s tenure – at least three of them had jobs in the Democratic administration at some point.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is investigating whether Biden’s top White House aides concealed signs of mental decline in the president, and if that meant executive actions were signed via autopen without his knowledge.

Ricchetti is the seventh ex-Biden aide to come in, but just the fourth to appear on voluntary terms. Former White House doctor Kevin O’Connor and former White House aides Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal all pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions.

Ricchetti told investigators that he was not involved in O’Connor’s physical evaluation letters for Biden, ‘but he did have conversations with senior staff on how to communicate and present President Biden’s physical evaluation letters,’ the source told Fox News Digital.

He also defended Biden’s frequent gaffes, describing them as ‘common mistakes’ that anyone could make, the source said.

‘He said the frequency of these mistakes have not increased since Joe Biden was vice president,’ the source said.

The majority of questioning during the eight-hour session came from Republicans – the source said Democrats frequently attempted to change the topic to discuss President Donald Trump.

Ricchetti said nothing to reporters when leaving the meeting on Wednesday evening.

No lawmakers were present for the sitdown, as is usually the case with such transcribed interviews.

Fox News Digital reached out to Ricchetti’s attorney for comment but did not hear back by press time.

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If you haven’t heard the name Sydney Sweeney before, odds are you definitely know her name now if you consume any news at all. American Eagle featured the actress in their new ad campaign that kicked off last week, and liberal women lost their ever loving minds. 

What triggered their spiral this time? Sydney has ‘good genes’ and she’s wearing ‘jeans.’

Outrageous, I know.

This good genes/jeans word play game, well it’s a whole lot of Nazi propaganda with some racism thrown in and linked to eugenics. 

If you’re not a White liberal woman, I’ll try to simplify. In liberal math, good genes + jeans = Nazi. 

I know, that wasn’t on our flashcards growing up. 

The next time you compliment a friend on her looks, resist the urge to mention good genes. Sally down the street will think you’re calling her a Nazi, when really you just want to know what face cream she’s using.

If the good genes/jeans word play were a clue on ‘Jeopardy!’ liberals would answer: ‘I’ll take Sydney Sweeney is a Nazi for $1,000, with a side of eugenics and white supremacy.’ 

Let’s ask the politically incorrect elephant in the room question — If you’re putting a large chunk of money behind an ad to sell jeans targeted at Gen Z, are you going to put someone with good genes or bad genes in front of the camera?

To quote ‘The Godfather’ — ‘It’s not personal, it’s strictly business.’ 

It also doesn’t surprise me that the perpetually outraged liberal and mostly women who have piled on over this campaign seem to ignore one more fact. According to Fox News, ‘100 percent of net proceeds from Sweeney’s ‘Sydney Jean’ – which is embroidered with a butterfly to represent domestic violence awareness – will be donated to Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit that provides free and confidential text-based mental health support and crisis intervention.’ That sure doesn’t sound like Nazis and eugenics to me.

This week, ‘Good Morning America’ (GMA) didn’t miss the chance to showcase just how unserious they are by jumping on the jean — or gene — meltdown.

Maybe GMA gambled on their viewers not having that first cup of coffee yet, so they wouldn’t notice their fuzzy Nazi math. Is it any wonder that Americans’ trust in the media is at its lowest in more than five decades, according to a Gallup poll?

Going back to the vault, circa 1980, Brooke Shields did a Calvin Klein jeans ad with the same American Eagle/Sydney Sweeney ad vibe. ‘Genes’ and ‘jeans’ were used interchangeably, as well as phrases like ‘natural selection’ and ‘survival of the fittest.’

GMA was around back then, but I don’t recall co-host Joan Lunden doing a Nazi propaganda segment calling out Brooke Shields or Calvin Klein. Then again, that was when history was still being taught in school. 

Ironically, the eugenics trigger is the greatest self-own for White liberal elites, whose holy grail is abortion on demand — anytime, any place, any reason. Legalized abortion has long been one of the most effective ways to reduce populations who are deemed less than.

The White liberal class is largely all in. 

In 2018, then-Pope Francis said, ‘I have heard that it’s fashionable, or at least usual, that when in the first months of pregnancy they do studies to see if the child is healthy or has something, the first offer is: let’s send it away, I say this with pain. In the last century, the whole world was scandalized about what the Nazis did to purify the race. Today we do the same, but now with white gloves.’

If you’re a woman who’s ever been pregnant, or if you’re the dad supporting the woman, you know doctors highly encourage having screenings for chromosomal disorders such as Down Syndrome and Trisomy 18. They don’t do this because they can cure these chromosomal disorders in utero. They push these tests so you can eliminate the ‘less than perfect problem.’ 

If only these same liberal women were as upset about the fate of unborn babies as they are about jeans. 

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the fact that American Eagle has ‘American’ in its name makes it obvious they’re Nazis. Thankfully, self-appointed experts have the freedom to warn us all from a non-American platform like X.

This week is one of those times I’m grateful to be spending the end of the summer in the South, where sanity tends to rule the day. If I were home — where I’m outnumbered by the White liberal outrage class by about 50-1 — I’m quite confident that between their pique rage hours of Starbucks and Chardonnay, I’d be on the receiving end of the Sydney Sweeney faux fury. 

These people need a time-out — away from all cameras and keyboards … preferably with a history book.

Never underestimate the left’s ability to overplay their hand. They are screamers, but when they scream, conservatives are the ones who quietly act. Think Bud Light.

Personal finance guru Dave Ramsey likes to say the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, so it’s no surprise that American Eagle’s stock is up more than 15% since the campaign’s rollout last week. 

I’ll be among those contributing to the rise of American Eagle’s stock when I take my girls back to school shopping. Spending my money somewhere that has the left spiraling over an imaginary offense — sign me up. 

Sydney Sweeney may have good genes, but the screamers may be the ad American Eagle never knew it needed. 

It’s back to school season, and the silent actors are shopping loudly.

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President Donald Trump hammered back at former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s warnings about war with the United States, telling the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council to ‘watch his words.’ 

‘I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care,’ Trump wrote on TRUTH Social at midnight Thursday. ‘We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World. Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let’s keep it that way, and tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!’

In response to Trump’s post, Medvedev referenced Russia’s ‘Dead Hand’ – the Cold War-era automated nuclear retaliation system developed by the Soviet Union. 

‘If a few words from a former Russian president provoke such a nervous reaction from the supposedly mighty President of the United States, then clearly Russia is in the right – and will continue on its chosen path,’ Medvedev wrote on Telegram. 

‘And as for all that talk about the ‘dead economies’ of India and Russia, or about ‘venturing into dangerous territory’ – well, maybe he should rewatch some of his favorite zombie movies,’ he added. ‘And also remember just how dangerous the supposedly mythical ‘Dead Hand’ system can be.’ 

In theory, the ‘Dead Hand,’ described by the West during the 1980s as a Russian doomsday device, is meant to guarantee a massive retaliatory nuclear strike even if Moscow’s leadership is destroyed or incapacitated. 

While in Scotland on Monday, Trump warned during public remarks that Russian President Vladimir Putin had 10 or 12 days to reach a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, shortening a previous 50-day deadline he issued earlier this month. If Russia does not, Trump promised more ‘sanctions, tariffs, and maybe secondary tariffs’ against Moscow and the purchasers of Russian goods and energy. He lamented that repeated talks with Putin have resulted in little progress toward peace. 

‘Trump’s playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10,’ Medvedev complained in a post to X earlier this week. ‘He should remember 2 things: 1. Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country. Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!’ 

Trump on Wednesday announced a 25% tariff on imports from India – one of the biggest consumers of Russian oil, next to China – starting on Aug. 1. The president described India as a ‘friend,’ but slammed the South Asian country’s ‘strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary’ trade barriers. Trump vowed other unspecified ‘penalties’ against India for buying most of its military equipment from Russia and Russian energy ‘at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE.’ 

During an unrelated press conference, Trump noted that India and Russia are founding members of BRICSoriginally formed as a counterweight to Western institutions. 

BRICS is ‘basically a group of countries that are anti-the United States and India is a member of that, if you can believe it. It’s an attack on the dollar. And we’re not going to let anybody attack the dollar,’ Trump said. ‘We have a tremendous deficit.’

In recent days, Medvedev has also shredded the framework of the trade deal Trump reached with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during his recent trip to Scotland. 

Trump has repeatedly communicated that trade deals with other countries would be contingent on foreign policy alignment with the United States. 

For example, after Canada announced it was backing Palestinian statehood amid Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, Trump wrote Thursday, ‘That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them.’ 

Trump, meanwhile, on Thursday celebrated this reciprocal tariffs plan after telling reporters on Wednesday that they brought ‘billions’ of dollars into the U.S. economy. 

‘Tariffs are making America GREAT & RICH Again,’ Trump wrote on social media. ‘They were successfully used against the USA for decades and, coupled with really dumb, pathetic, and crooked politicians, we’re having a devastating impact on the future, and even the survival, of our country. Now the tide has completely turned, and America has successfully countered this onslaught of Tariffs used against it.’

‘ONE YEAR AGO, AMERICA WAS A DEAD COUNTRY, NOW IT IS THE ‘HOTTEST’ COUNTRY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!’ Trump added. 

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A longtime ally of former President Joe Biden is appearing before House investigators on Thursday, the eighth ex-White House aide to be summoned for Oversight Committee Chair James Comer’s probe.

Michael Donilon served as senior advisor to the president for the entirety of Biden’s four-year term.

He’s now expected to sit down with House Oversight Committee staff for a closed-door transcribed interview that could last several hours.

Comer, R-Ky., is investigating whether Biden’s top White House aides concealed signs of mental decline in the then-president, and if that meant executive actions were signed via autopen without his knowledge.

Donilon will likely be of key interest to investigators, considering his decades-long working relationship with the former president.

He first began working for Biden in 1981 as a strategist, pollster, and media advisor, according to a biography by the Harvard University Institute of Politics, where he was a Spring 2025 fellow.

Biden was serving as a senator from Delaware at the time.

He also served as chief strategist on Biden’s 2020 and 2024 campaigns before Biden dropped his re-election bid in July 2024.

The loyal former aide accused the Democratic Party of melting down earlier this year after top left-wing leaders forced Biden out of the 2024 presidential race over his disastrous debate against current President Donald Trump.

‘Lots of people have terrible debates. Usually the party doesn’t lose its mind, but that’s what happened here. It melted down,’ he said at a Harvard event in February.

It comes after another close former aide, ex-counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, appeared before investigators for his own transcribed interview on Wednesday.

Like Ricchetti, Donilon is appearing on voluntary terms – the fifth ex-Biden aide to do so.

Three of the previous six Biden administration officials who appeared before the House Oversight Committee did so under subpoena. Ex-White House physician Kevin O’Connor, as well as former advisors Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, all pleaded the Fifth Amendment during their compulsory sit-downs.

But the four voluntary transcribed interviews that have occurred so far have lasted more than five hours, as staff for both Democrats and Republicans take turns in rounds of questioning.

‘You were reportedly responsible for erecting a wall between the former president and senators ‘to shield Biden from bad information.’ Recently, during an event at Harvard University, you displayed your willingness to speak about the former president’s cognition but you reportedly ‘denounced claims that the president’s acuity and judgment declined,” Comer wrote in a June letter to Donilon asking him to appear.

‘The scope of your responsibilities—both official and otherwise—and personal interactions within the Oval Office cannot go without investigation. If White House staff carried out a strategy lasting months or even years to hide the chief executive’s condition—or to perform his duties—Congress may need to consider a legislative response.’

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Two U.S. judges in separate federal courts scrapped their rulings last week after lawyers alerted them to filings that contained inaccurate case details or seemingly ‘hallucinated’ quotes that misquoted cited cases — the latest in a string of errors that suggest the growing use of artificial intelligence in legal research and submissions.

In New Jersey, U.S. District Judge Julien Neals withdrew his denial of a motion to dismiss a securities fraud case after lawyers revealed the decision relied on filings with ‘pervasive and material inaccuracies.’

The filing pointed to ‘numerous instances’ of made-up quotes submitted by attorneys, as well as three separate instances when the outcome of lawsuits appeared to have been mistaken, prompting Neals to withdraw his decision.

In Mississippi, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate replaced his original July 20 temporary restraining order that paused enforcement of a state law blocking diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools after lawyers notified the judge of serious errors submitted by the attorney. 

They informed the court that the decision ‘relie[d] upon the purported declaration testimony of four individuals whose declarations do not appear in the record for this case.’ 

Wingate subsequently issued a new ruling, though lawyers for the state have asked his original order to be placed back on the docket. 

‘All parties are entitled to a complete and accurate record of all papers filed and orders entered in this action, for the benefit of the Fifth Circuit’s appellate review,’ the state attorney general said in a filing. 

A person familiar with Wingate’s temporary order in Mississippi confirmed to Fox News Digital that the erroneous filing submitted to the court had used AI, adding that they had ‘never seen anything like this’ in court before.

Neither the judges’ office nor the lawyers in question immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment on the retracted New Jersey order, first reported by Reuters. It was not immediately clear if AI was the reason for that erroneous court submission in that case.

However, the errors in both cases — which were quickly flagged by attorneys, and prompted the judges to take action to revise or redact their orders — come as the use of generative AI continues to skyrocket in almost every profession, especially among younger workers. 

In at least one of the cases, the errors bear similarities to AI-style inaccuracies, which include the use of ‘ghost’ or ‘hallucinated’ quotes being used in filings, citing incorrect or even nonexistent cases.

For bar-admitted attorneys, these erroneous court submissions are not taken lightly. Lawyers are responsible for the veracity of all information included in court filings, including if it includes AI-generated materials, according to guidance from the American Bar Association.

In May, a federal judge in California slapped law firms with $31,000 in sanctions for using AI in court filings, saying at the time that ‘no reasonably competent attorney should out-source research and writing to this technology — particularly without any attempt to verify the accuracy of that material.’

Last week, a federal judge in Alabama sanctioned three attorneys for submitting erroneous court filings that were later revealed to have been generated by ChatGPT.

Among other things, the filings in question included the use of the AI-generated quote ‘hallucinations,’ U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco said in her order, which also referred the lawyers in question to the state bar for further disciplinary proceedings.

‘Fabricating legal authority is serious misconduct that demands a serious sanction,’ she said in the filing.

New data from the Pew Research Center underscores the rise of AI tools among younger users. 

According to a June survey, roughly 34% of U.S. adults say they have used ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot — roughly double the percentage of users who said the same at the same point two years ago, in 2023. 

The share of employed adults who use ChatGPT for work has spiked by a whopping 20 percentage points since June 2023; and among adults under 30, adoption is even more widespread, with a 58% majority saying they have used the chatbot.

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President Donald Trump remains open to meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in hopes of achieving denuclearization, the White House said, even as Pyongyang warned against any pressure to abandon its nuclear arsenal.

‘President Trump in his first term held three historic summits with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un that stabilized the Korean Peninsula and achieved the first-ever leader-level agreement on denuclearization,’ a White House official told Fox News Digital. 

‘The President retains those objectives and remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully de-nuclearized North Korea.’

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong Un, said in remarks carried by state media that relations between Trump and her brother are ‘not bad.’ However, she warned that any attempt to pressure North Korea to denuclearize would be viewed as ‘nothing but a mockery.’

She also claimed the country’s nuclear arsenal has significantly expanded since the two leaders last met — despite their pledge to pursue denuclearization — and stated that no future summit would be possible if it centered on nuclear disarmament.

‘If the U.S. fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK–U.S. meeting will remain as a ‘hope’ of the U.S. side,’ Kim Yo Jong said, referring to the country by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Trump held three unprecedented summits with the North Korean leader — whom he once nicknamed ‘Little Rocket Man’ — during his first term: in Singapore in 2018, Hanoi in 2019, and at the Korean Demilitarized Zone later that year, where he became the first sitting U.S. president to step foot on North Korean soil.

At the 2018 summit, Trump and Kim signed a joint statement pledging to ‘work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula’ and committed to establishing new U.S.–North Korea relations.

However, talks broke down in subsequent meetings. North Korea did not give up its nuclear weapons, and the United States did not lift sanctions. Kim reportedly sought to dismantle only parts of the regime’s arsenal in exchange for full sanctions relief — a proposal Trump rejected.

By 2020, the talks had completely stalled, and North Korea resumed weapons testing.

In a statement Monday commemorating the 72nd anniversary of the end of the Korean War, Trump reflected on his meetings with Kim, saying, ‘I was proud to become the first sitting President to cross this Demilitarized Zone into North Korea.’

He also reaffirmed the U.S. alliance with South Korea, adding: ‘Although the evils of communism still persist in Asia, American and South Korean forces remain united in an ironclad alliance to this day.’

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A longtime ally of former President Joe Biden is appearing before House investigators on Thursday, the eighth ex-White House aide to be summoned for Oversight Committee Chair James Comer’s probe.

Michael Donilon served as senior advisor to the president for the entirety of Biden’s four-year term.

He’s sitting down with House Oversight Committee staff for a closed-door transcribed interview that could last several hours.

Donilon and his counsel arrived just after 10 a.m. on Thursday, largely avoiding reporters on his way into the room.

Comer, R-Ky., is investigating whether Biden’s top White House aides concealed signs of mental decline in the then-president, and if that meant executive actions were signed via autopen without his knowledge.

Donilon will likely be of key interest to investigators, considering his decades-long working relationship with the former president.

He first began working for Biden in 1981 as a strategist, pollster, and media advisor, according to a biography by the Harvard University Institute of Politics, where he was a Spring 2025 fellow.

Biden was serving as a senator from Delaware at the time.

He also served as chief strategist on Biden’s 2020 and 2024 campaigns before Biden dropped his re-election bid in July 2024.

The loyal former aide accused the Democratic Party of melting down earlier this year after top left-wing leaders forced Biden out of the 2024 presidential race over his disastrous debate against current President Donald Trump.

‘Lots of people have terrible debates. Usually the party doesn’t lose its mind, but that’s what happened here. It melted down,’ he said at a Harvard event in February.

It comes after another close former aide, ex-counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, appeared before investigators for his own transcribed interview on Wednesday.

Like Ricchetti, Donilon is appearing on voluntary terms – the fifth ex-Biden aide to do so.

Three of the previous six Biden administration officials who appeared before the House Oversight Committee did so under subpoena. Ex-White House physician Kevin O’Connor, as well as former advisors Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, all pleaded the Fifth Amendment during their compulsory sit-downs.

But the four voluntary transcribed interviews that have occurred so far have lasted more than five hours, as staff for both Democrats and Republicans take turns in rounds of questioning.

‘You were reportedly responsible for erecting a wall between the former president and senators ‘to shield Biden from bad information.’ Recently, during an event at Harvard University, you displayed your willingness to speak about the former president’s cognition but you reportedly ‘denounced claims that the president’s acuity and judgment declined,” Comer wrote in a June letter to Donilon asking him to appear.

‘The scope of your responsibilities—both official and otherwise—and personal interactions within the Oval Office cannot go without investigation. If White House staff carried out a strategy lasting months or even years to hide the chief executive’s condition—or to perform his duties—Congress may need to consider a legislative response.’

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