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'It is the celebration of slaveholders who freed themselves from having to pay taxes to the crown, for their slave empire,' Reid says.

Rodriguez and Ronaldo have been together since 2016.

The nightmare Mets season somehow got worse Tuesday night.

The newly minted NBA champions slightly delayed in making their first-round pick Tuesday night.

Lutnick Eyes Crackdown On Chinese Humanoid Robots

One day after the House Select Committee on China sounded the alarm over China-based Unitree selling humanoid robots on Amazon to U.S. consumers, a new Politico report states Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick held a closed-door meeting with top U.S. executives and signaled that the Trump administration is considering strong action against subsidized robotics imports from China.

Unitree was recently designated as a Chinese military company and its products are a threat to our national security, yet here is @Amazon selling a Unitree robot in America.

We need Chairman @RepMoolenaar’s GUARD Act to stop this threat and support American robotics. pic.twitter.com/lKt6PBHZcV

— Select Committee on China (@ChinaSelect) June 22, 2026

Lutnick and other Trump administration officials held a roundtable with executives from SpaceX, Boston Dynamics, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Siemens, Rockwell Automation, and other firms, with discussions focused on reversing decades of manufacturing offshoring and rebuilding the industrial base needed to produce semiconductors, robotics, and other key components inside the U.S.

One focus centered around China's state-backed robotics industry as a national security threat, with fears that Beijing could use subsidies to dominate global robotics markets before U.S. manufacturers gain market share.

Chinese robot dogs and humanoids already face high U.S. tariffs, but the administration may soon deliver a stern blow to counter those inflows.

i'm literally riding a robot at @AGIBOTofficial HQ in Shanghai🎠 pic.twitter.com/c44wvXTsOv

— Lena (@dolylupec) June 22, 2026

"We don't want state-subsidized robotics attacking us in America. This is the arms [race] that is coming, robotic arms are coming," Lutnick said, according to notes from the meeting provided to Politico. "We need to make sure they're produced in America, so we're going to study those right now."

One person who was in attendance stated, "The whole idea that what we're going to end up with is an American brain with a Chinese body is a very, very bad strategic plan."

Researchers have developed Humanoid-GPT, a new AI system that helps humanoid robots perform complex movements and tasks.

Tested on the Unitree G1 robot, it enables real-time whole-body control and can perform new actions without special training.

During demonstrations, the… pic.twitter.com/Ew59YxHsTT

— Space and Technology (@spaceandtech_) June 18, 2026

The problem with the U.S. humanoid supply chain is that it relies on rare earths, actuators, and specialty parts to produce these robots - areas where the U.S. lags severely behind China.

One way for the U.S. to scale robot production - something China is already doing - is to have automakers produce these humanoids, as there is a major overlap between vehicle and humanoid components, including AI software, motors, cameras, sensors, and manufacturing processes. This is why Tesla pivoted to humanoids.

To sum up, the message is clear: the days of buying a Unitree humanoid robot or robotic dog on Amazon may be numbered.

As we have noted, the AI race is evolving from chip stacks in data centers to the physical world, and humanoid robots are the next major frontier. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/23/2026 - 23:00

Stearns, speaking at his usual homestand availability noted that it’s impossible to blame their poor play on any one part of the team.

The Los Angeles City Council launched a new offensive against urban oil drilling Tuesday, voting unanimously to advance a plan that would phase out wells across the city despite an expected legal challenge from the industry.

After a draft-day trade to move up one spot, the Lakers selected Baylor guard Cameron Carr with the No. 24 pick in the first round of the NBA draft on Tuesday night. The Lakers were originally slotted to have the No. 25 pick in the draft on Tuesday, but moved up one spot after a...

Most Democrats looking at 2028 are trying to move past Joe Biden. Gavin Newsom is doing the opposite. That is not an accident. It is a strategy. While other Democrats are distancing themselves from Biden’s failed reelection bid and the political wreckage that followed, California’s governor is leaning in. Newsom has praised Biden’s presidency, defended...

She Took Two Key Items: New Details Raise Doubts Over Los Alamos Lab Assistant's Death

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

Fresh reporting reveals that Melissa Casias, administrative assistant at the Los Alamos nuclear lab, left home with everyday possessions that suggest she intended to survive - not end her life - raising new questions in the widening pattern of mysterious deaths among nuclear and UFO-linked personnel.

Some have suggested that Casias committed suicide, yet new details about her final moments show that before walking out the door of her Ranchos de Taos home on June 26, 2025, Casias took her toothbrush and thyroid medication with her.

Los Angeles Magazine contributor Lauren Conlin, who has followed the case closely, told NewsNation that these are "things that might indicate you're planning to stay alive."

NEW DETAILS?New Mexico State Police Reveal Chilling New Details in Melissa Casias' Death Investigation: Fresh details about the Los Alamos employee's death are revealed + her husband obtains a TPO accusing a private investigator of harassment https://t.co/FqDRi9DquX

— Lauren Conlin (@conlin_lauren) June 19, 2026

She also returned home to drop off both her work and personal phones - which were later found wiped clean of all data. Her skeletal remains were discovered nearly a year later next to a handgun her family has stated did not belong to her. No bullet was recovered despite reports of a gunshot wound to the head.

Investigator Morgan Wright put it plainly: "You don't get slumped up on a tree... Most of the time, in every crime scene I've worked on, there are skeletonized remains, and there's no connective tissue left. Everything's on the ground in pieces."

These elements - the survival items, the wiped phones, the unfamiliar weapon, and the scene inconsistencies - are now the focus of renewed scrutiny.

The discovery of missing New Mexico lab worker Melissa Casias' body has raised new questions after her case was linked to a broader group of U.S. scientists whose deaths or disappearances remain unexplained. Lauren Conlin joins "Elizabeth Vargas Reports" to discuss. More:... pic.twitter.com/HcAGtfQsmO

— NewsNation (@NewsNation) June 23, 2026

This latest angle on the Casias case arrives against the backdrop of a documented cluster of similar incidents involving scientists and support staff tied to sensitive programs.

Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, long described as a UFO "gatekeeper," vanished just days after President Trump's full disclosure order on UAP files.

A NASA nuclear propulsion expert was found charred inside a crashed Tesla.

A NASA-linked aerospace engineer and family members died in a plane crash.

Additional cases brought the total to around 11 by mid-April 2026, many sharing traits like wiped devices and abrupt departures from normal routines.

President Trump has addressed the wider string of cases directly, telling reporters it is "pretty serious stuff" and that the administration is reviewing them. He stated that while some of the individuals were "very important people," "so far we're finding that there's not much of a connection," describing many as individual matters. He pledged a full report.

Trump says string of missing and dead scientists are not connected: "There's not much of a connection." Join Share: pic.twitter.com/0VCnDSep14

— THE Q STORM (@TheQ170) May 21, 2026

Three sets of declassified UFO/UAP files have since been released under the administration's transparency directives, with more batches expected.

Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker has highlighted the risks in classified environments, noting that administrative staff in high-clearance labs "would basically be in the know on what's going on" and that it "wouldn't be the first time their administrative assistant has been targeted."

More recently, former FBI agent Ben Hansen assessed the Casias case as roughly "80 percent foul play" and raised the possibility of advanced tactics, including direct energy weapons or voice-to-skull technology, that could influence behavior without leaving conventional traces.

In an environment where America is finally forcing long-buried advanced technology files into the open, the repeated loss of personnel with access to those very secrets carries national security weight. Whether foreign actors, internal resistance to transparency, or other forces are involved, the pattern deserves unflinching examination.

The Trump administration's willingness to release the files and review these cases represents a break from past secrecy.

The public now has every right to demand the same level of transparency when it comes to why these specific individuals - and the small but telling choices they made in their final hours - keep disappearing from the picture.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/23/2026 - 22:35

For decades, Antonio Freeman was the most famous athlete in the family.

A year to the day before it arrived at its World Cup base camp here, the U.S. men’s national team got a preview of its final group-stage opponent.

We built this list of deals brick-by-brick.

SAN FRANCISCO — As a player, fans got to know Buster Posey as a tremendous leader. In the clubhouse. Of a pitching staff. As the most important player on three World Series winners. They must be wondering where that guy was as Posey, now the team’s top baseball executive, clammed up during a heated 15-minute...

“They [were] all just crying. I was praying to Jesus, making sure that everything is going to be okay,” a struck rider said.

Tuesday was quite the roller coaster of emotions for David Beckham.

California just proved it doesn’t do dining quietly. Two Golden State eateries have landed on Yelp’s newly released ranking of the “most outrageous” restaurants in the United States, a list spotlighting the places that go far beyond dinner and drinks and into full-blown entertainment territory. Yelp says the selections are based on a mix of...

Shop the white T-shirt Madison LeCroy said is "giving Skims" while it's just $8.

Shop the white T-shirt Madison LeCroy said is "giving Skims" while it's just $8.

"We Must Act": TotalEnergies CEO Joins Calls To Rewire Gulf Energy Flows Around Hormuz

The Strait of Hormuz was disrupted or nearly closed for roughly three and a half to four months, offering Gulf states aligned with the U.S. one clear message: energy flows - or tanker transits - must be rewired through pipeline networks that bypass the maritime chokepoint.

By creating alternative pipeline export routes through the UAE, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Oman, or Turkey, regional producers can reduce the risk that Tehran can once again use Hormuz as a leverage tool to disrupt tanker traffic through one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints. 

TotalEnergies SE CEO Patrick Pouyanne is the latest to signal the urgent need for Gulf producers to prioritize building pipelines that bypass the Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters.

Speaking at an energy conference in Paris on Tuesday, Pouyanne said, "The reality is that the Strait of Hormuz represents a genuine threat, so we must act. To ensure it doesn't remain a threat, there is only one solution: we must invest in pipelines to bypass the strait, which is an absolute priority."

Pouyanne identified alternative export routes in the UAE and Iraq, as well as through Syria. He continued, "When you are in Iraq and need to reach the sea, you can go down through Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, or head towards Syria or Turkey." 

He referenced TotalEnergies' discovery of oil in Iraq in 1928, which led to an Iraq-Syria pipeline that took six years to build and allowed the French energy giant to load crude in the Mediterranean and feed refineries in southern France.

"If our predecessors did it 100 years ago, I believe we should be capable of doing it again today," he added.

Pouyanne's comments to bypass Hormuz come days after the UAE's Minister of Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi told Bloomberg in an interview that "zero Hormuz dependency" is essential for survival, adding, "It's going to open and we hope that will happen quickly, but we will not stop the new plan."

The plan includes major investments in pipelines, rail, and road links from UAE ports in the Persian Gulf to Dibba, Fujairah, Khor Fakkan and at least one new harbor on the Gulf of Oman coast.

Earlier this month, Sheikh Khaled Ahmad Al-Sabah, managing director of international marketing at Kuwait Petroleum, said Kuwait is among the countries that have reportedly held talks with Saudi Arabia and the UAE about potential cross-border pipelines that could connect Gulf oil production to buyers without relying on tanker transits through Hormuz.

In the first month of the conflict, Saudi Arabia's Hormuz-bypassing East-West pipeline ramped up to its full capacity of 7 million barrels a day, allowing the Kingdom to divert flows from Persian Gulf loading terminals to those at Yanbu on the Red Sea.

There is a growing consensus among Gulf producers and global energy giants that a pipeline network must be expanded at lightning speed to bypass the Hormuz chokepoint. That logic is simply because it would drastically reduce the region’s dependence on the chokepoint and simultaneously shatter Tehran’s ability to use tanker flows as a leverage tool in any future spat with Washington.

Related:

• As Gulf States Plan Bypass Pipelines, US Military Is Quietly Helping Ships Cross Hormuz

Earlier today, Eurasia Group senior analyst Gregory Brew wrote on X that Iran's regional leverage is eroding: "This may be Iran's first misstep—and proof that its leverage isn't total. Iran announced the strait was closed, but it didn't *close* the strait. Without the credible threat of force, Iran's sway over the waterway has limits."

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/23/2026 - 22:10