NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump is seeking to cancel his Friday sentencing for his hush money conviction, arguing that the sentencing hearing must be postponed while he appeals. In court papers filed Monday, Trump’s lawyers signaled that they will ask a New York appeals court to toss out the jury’s May verdict, which found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents. In his appeal, Trump intends to argue that he is protected by presidential immunity — arguments...

Update, Jan. 8, 2025: This story, originally published Jan. 6, now includes details of other VPN-related vulnerabilities and further information regarding the threat searching for VPN apps on Google now brings to users. Google’s managed defense team, working to empower the Google security operations community, has published a technical deep-dive into a confirmed malware threat that acts as a backdoor supporting commands involving supports commands keylogging, screen capture,...

ExxonMobil is continuing to push back against activists who have long demonized the company as "deceiving the public" about the impacts of fossil fuels. On Monday, Exxon filed a defamation lawsuit against in the Federal District of Eastern Texas against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several environmental groups, including the Sierra Club.  The lawsuit alleges that Bonta and the activists groups coordinated a campaign to defame Exxon over its promotion of advanced...

The Justice Department said Wednesday that it intends to release special counsel Jack Smith’s findings on Donald Trump’s efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election but will keep under wraps for now the rest of the report focused on the president-elect’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The revelation was made in a filing to a federal appeals court that was considering a defense request to block the release of the...

The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, headed by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, says it is hiring "a very small number" of full-time, salaried positions.  The solicitation, posted on the Musk-owned social media platform X, comes after the group already said in November that it had received thousands of applications from job-seekers eager to assist with "unglamorous cost-cutting." DOGE — which is not an official federal department — was created by...

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s National Front party, died on Tuesday at the age of 96. Le Pen had been a controversial figure in French politics since he first entered the National Assembly in the 1950s. His supporters said he had championed French identity and the nation’s sovereignty while his critics accused him of being anti-Semitic, of promoting discriminatory policies, and of inciting racial violence. French President Emmanuel Macron issued a statement that said Le Pen “...

Last year, the US Commission on National Defense Strategy published its final report, creating intense buzz in Washington. “The threats the United States faces are the most serious and most challenging the nation has encountered since 1945,” the report warned. To meet the challenge, “the US government needs to harness all elements of national power,” starting with a 5% boost to the Pentagon budget, currently at $886 billion. Congress created the bipartisan commission as “an...

With the announcement Meta will end its fact checking program, people are wondering: What’s the best way for the digital media space to handle untruths, today and beyond?  Americans lost trust with fact checking when it became akin to a dictatorship — one small group of elites telling everybody what to think. We don’t trust dictatorships, even ones we consider benevolent, as history shows they always go wrong. But we also don’t want pure anarchy, where lawlessness and the powerful...

Everyone is entitled to a few nice words at their funeral and, normally, this is a non-issue. Flaws can be ignored or overlooked for the sake of harmony and a peaceful, optimistic send-off.But what if the flaws created too much damage and heartache to go without saying?Sheila Smith made headlines in early 2017 with an obituary that was brutally honest. Brutal for the departed, her father Leslie Ray Charping, and brutal for the family that had to endure his life and death.Here's the obituary in its entirety, taken from the website of Carnes Funeral Home:Leslie Ray "Popeye" Charping was born in Galveston, Texas on November 20, 1942 and passed away January 30, 2017, which was 29 years longer than expected and much longer than he deserved. Leslie battled with cancer in his latter years and lost his battle, ultimately due to being the horses ass he was known for. He leaves behind 2 relieved children; a son Leslie Roy Charping and daughter, Shiela Smith along with six grandchildren and countless other victims including an ex wife, relatives, friends, neighbors, doctors, nurses and random strangers.At a young age, Leslie quickly became a model example of bad parenting combined with mental illness and a complete commitment to drinking, drugs, womanizing and being generally offensive. Leslie enlisted to serve in the Navy, but not so much in a brave & patriotic way but more as part of a plea deal to escape sentencing on criminal charges. While enlisted, Leslie was the Navy boxing champion and went on to sufficiently embarrass his family and country by spending the remainder of his service in the Balboa Mental Health Hospital receiving much needed mental healthcare services.Leslie was surprisingly intelligent, however he lacked ambition and motivation to do anything more than being reckless, wasteful, squandering the family savings and fantasizing about get rich quick schemes. Leslie's hobbies included being abusive to his family, expediting trips to heaven for the beloved family pets and fishing, which he was less skilled with than the previously mentioned. Leslie's life served no other obvious purpose, he did not contribute to society or serve his community and he possessed no redeeming qualities besides quick whited sarcasm which was amusing during his sober days.With Leslie's passing he will be missed only for what he never did; being a loving husband, father and good friend. No services will be held, there will be no prayers for eternal peace and no apologizes to the family he tortured. Leslie's remains will be cremated and kept in the barn until "Ray", the family donkey's wood shavings run out. Leslie's passing proves that evil does in fact die and hopefully marks a time of healing and safety for all.The obituary walks a fine line between uncloaked honesty and mean-spiritedness, repeatedly dipping into either side. If this obituary is to be believed (no person or account has publicly questioned or denounced this characterization), his family has a right to be both angry for his life and happy for his death. However, the controversy surrounding this obituary isn't the survivors' feelings, but their expression of them.Sheila, speaking to The Michael Berry Show, a radio program, stood by the obituary she wrote, claiming it was an effort to heal, forget, and minimize the residual impact his death would have on their lives. To realize this, and to fulfill her late father's wishes, the obituary needed to be honest. She said to the show's host, "A week after he passed I sat down and began working on it. I was somewhat blocked and everything I was going to write was going to be a lie," she said. "He hated a liar and he would appreciate this.”Speaking earlier to KTRK, Sheila said that those who are bothered by this or the notion of speaking ill of the dead, are fortunate to not understand. "I am happy for those that simply do not understand, this means you had good parent(s) -- please treasure what you have.”She continued to say that whitewashing transgressions that are so endemic and undiscussed in the world, such as her father's issues with domestic violence and alcoholism, serves no greater good.She concluded, "I apologize to anyone that my father hurt and I felt it would have been offensive to portray him as anything other than who he was. This obituary was intended to help bring closure because not talking about domestic violence doesn't make it go away!"This article originally appeared six years ago.

A big question. The post ‘Getaway’: The Pearl Jam song that saw Eddie Vedder question his entire existence first appeared on Far Out Magazine.