Children correct Jill Biden after she says ‘Happy Holidays’ — and social media goes wild
First lady Jill Biden was shouted down by children for wishing “Happy Holidays” instead of Christmas, sparking laughter and joy from commentators online.
On Friday, the first lady hosted the annual Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots campaign at the White House. She greeted everyone with “Happy Holidays,” to which multiple children shouted back with emphasis, “Happy Christmas!”
“Happy Christmas,” Biden replied. “Yes!”
“If you only remember one thing for the holidays, after all the wrapping paper is cleaned up, let it be this: You are loved,” she told attending military children during her remarks. “There are so many people who care about you, from your family and your friends, from your teachers and your classmates, to the president and me.”
She concluded with, “Merry Christmas and happy holidays.”
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Commentators on X praised the children attending for correcting the first lady at the beginning of the event.
“Even kids get it,” former NCAA swimmer and OutKick host Riley Gaines wrote with a laughing emoji.
The Babylon Bee’s news counterpart, Not The Bee, said that “one kid shouted back what we are all thinking.”
Conservative communicator Steve Guest argued the incident was an “epic response” to “Jill Biden’s war on Christmas.”
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“We are so back,” socially conservative Catholic group CatholicVote wrote with a cross emoji.
“THERE IS HOPE FOR THE FUTURE!” conservative show host David J. Harris Jr. cheered.
X show host Mario Nawfal said that this exchange, “basically sums up the Biden era…”
“And a little child shall lead them,” conservative podcaster Wade Stotts wrote, quoting scripture.
OpenAI whistleblower who raised concerns about site’s practices found dead
A former OpenAI employee and whistleblower, Suchir Balaji, was recently found dead in his apartment in San Francisco, California.
The San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has identified Balaji, 26, as the deceased person, according to the San Jose Mercury News. The manner of death has been ruled suicide.
The medical examiner said it had notified Balaji’s family.
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Balaji was found dead in his Buchanan Street apartment on November 26, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department told the outlet. First responders were called to his home to perform a wellness check, and no evidence of foul play was found during the initial probe.
“We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time,” a spokesperson for OpenAI told Fox News Digital.
This comes after Balaji, an AI researcher, raised concerns about OpenAI breaking copyright law in an interview with The New York Times in October.
Balaji resigned from OpenAI after working there for nearly four years when he learned the technology would bring more harm than good to society, he told the newspaper, noting that his main concern was the way the company allegedly used copyright data, stating that he believed its practices were damaging to the internet.
“I was at OpenAI for nearly 4 years and worked on ChatGPT for the last 1.5 of them,” Balaji wrote in October on the social media platform X. “I initially didn’t know much about copyright, fair use, etc. but became curious after seeing all the lawsuits filed against GenAI companies.”
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“When I tried to understand the issue better, I eventually came to the conclusion that fair use seems like a pretty implausible defense for a lot of generative AI products, for the basic reason that they can create substitutes that compete with the data they’re trained on,” his post continued.
OpenAI and Microsoft are currently facing several lawsuits from media outlets who accuse OpenAI of breaking copyright law.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the medical examiner and San Francisco Police.
Trump, ABC News’ Stephanopoulos to sit for depositions in defamation case
President-elect Donald Trump and ABC News host George Stephanopoulos will sit for depositions next week in Trump’s defamation case against the anchor and his network, a judge ruled on Friday.
Trump is suing ABC News and Stephanopoulos for defamation after the host incorrectly said several times that Trump was “found liable for rape” during an interview last March on “This Week” with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.
Lawyers representing ABC and Stephanopoulos, who also hosts “Good Morning America,” argued in a virtual hearing on Friday that Trump must make himself available for an in-person deposition next week, before the Dec. 24 deadline for the defendants to file a motion for summary judgment in order to avoid a trial.
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Trump has made himself available for a recorded deposition so far, but a judge argued that the game has changed now that the election is over, NBC News reported.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid issued an order that Trump sit down for an in-person deposition the week of Dec. 16. She argued that while Trump previously had a “fairly good argument” that he was too busy to do so during the campaign, “he’s now in a completely different posture, and he should be able to make himself available.”
Nathan Siegel, the lawyer representing ABC News, has claimed that he is willing to make the deposition process as convenient as possible for Trump, to the point that he will fly to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and limit the deposition to four hours, and possibly do such a sit-down on a Saturday.
Stephanopoulos will be permitted to do his deposition remotely, the judge ruled.
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The president-elect’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, argued that even if the election is over, the nature of Trump’s position makes such a meeting a difficult endeavor.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to make the president available,” Brito said. “But there are limitations of my ability to do so. I have to factor the Secret Service into the equation.”
NBC reported that he “assured the court that he would immediately work with Trump’s staff to figure out his availability next week.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to Trump and Stephanopoulos’ representatives, neither of whom immediately responded for comment.
Stephanopoulos’ comments were made during a tense exchange with Mace on March 10. After playing a clip of Mace discussing being a victim of rape, Stephanopoulos asked her, “How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?”
“You’ve endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape,” Stephanopoulos said, alluding to the legal victory by Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll.
Stephanopoulos repeated the claim ten times during his spat with Mace, despite the fact that a jury actually determined Trump was liable for “sexual abuse,” which has a distinct definition under New York law.
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ABC has stood by Stephanopoulos since the interview. The suit against ABC recently saw the start date for a jury trial pushed from April 2025 to June 2025 after both sides sought extensions.
Harvard president privately sends clear message to faculty after GOP’s election sweep
Harvard University president Alan M. Garber reportedly told faculty that they need to rethink their messaging following the Republican Party’s election sweep.
Garber reportedly described the sour mood in Washington, D.C. regarding higher education as the single greatest threat to the university in recent memory, the Harvard Crimson reported.
During a closed-door session of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on Dec. 3, according to three anonymous faculty members, Garber said that since becoming president he has met with roughly 40 members of Congress during his six trips to Washington. He reportedly admitted there were “bipartisan frustrations with Harvard and acknowledged that he believes the criticisms contain elements of truth,” according to the Crimson.
The Crimson reported Garber saw last month’s election results as an “anti-elite repudiation by the American electorate,” and said Harvard “must listen to public criticism with ’empathy and humility.'”
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He admitted Harvard’s communications strategy has not worked as well as its leaders originally thought. However, Garber did not provide details on how Harvard would modify its messaging going forward.
“Garber’s conciliatory tone suggests he intends to take a diplomatic approach — rather than a defiant one — as he interacts with an incoming presidential administration that has Harvard in its crosshairs,” The Crimson reported.
A Harvard spokesperson, Jason A. Newton, did not get into specifics about the meeting, but told Fox News Digital in a statement, “The University will continue to engage in Washington and with federal leaders to make the case for the partnership between the government and universities that supports students, vital research and innovation that fuel economic growth, as well as improvements in health and wellbeing.”
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At the meeting, vice president for public affairs and communications Paul Andrew reportedly detailed what he believes are the key legislative threats to Harvard, including the endowment tax, congressional probes and threats to federal research funding.
Trump nominated Harmeet K. Dhillon to lead the Justice Department’s civil rights division this week, but given her outspoken position against Ivy League schools’ failure to combat antisemitism, schools like Harvard are on guard about the administration’s potential policies.
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In addition, Trump’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, is considering linking a university’s likelihood of receiving research grants to a ranking or measure of academic freedom on campus, the Wall Street Journal reported.
For the second year in a row, Harvard University earned the lowest ranking among 251 colleges and universities for its free speech climate, according to the survey conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
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Garber replaced former Harvard president Claudine Gay after she was forced to resign in January 2024 following a weeks-long scandal over comments about antisemitism at a Congressional hearing and widespread plagiarism allegations.
Elizabeth Warren’s remarks about accused Ivy League killer is latest of her crazy comments
Progressive Democrat Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren caught many off guard this week when she spoke with MSNBC’s Joy Reid about the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. As Fox News reported, the lawmaker said, “it was wrong but also served as a ‘warning’ of sorts that ‘you can only push people so far. We’ll say it over and over. Violence is never the answer. This guy [Luigi Mangione] gets a trial who’s allegedly killed the CEO of UnitedHealth[care], but you can only push people so far, and then they start to take matters into their own hands.’”
While many casual observers were taken aback at Warren seeming to offer a “both sides” take on the slaying of a health care executive on the streets of Manhattan, long-time followers of the senator’s career were not surprised.
To be fair, Warren’s latest dust-up, arguing that if you push people hard enough, they will “start to take matters into their own hands”— is a new extreme, even for her. She later scrambled to issue a clean-up statement to quell the political backlash over her remarks but her history of using violent rhetoric offers an illuminating insight into the worldview of many on the left.
Consider that in 2011, as Warren was launching her senate bid and the radical Occupy Wall Street protests were cresting in cities across America (a movement Warren claimed credit for creating), a video of the then-Harvard professor bragging about her record having “thrown rocks at people that I think are in the wrong” went viral.
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Or there was her preference of “plenty of blood and teeth left on the floor” instead of compromise over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Warren’s disdain isn’t just with Republicans, either. Even Democrats who stray from her purity tests are not immune. She had a long-running feud with President Joe Biden where she accused the future president of selling out to the credit card companies. (In an example of even a stopped clock being right twice a day, Biden, as a candidate for president in 2019, described Warren’s approach as, “representative of an elitism that working and middle-class people do not share: ‘We know best; you know nothing.’”)
Left unsaid in the brouhaha with Biden, of course, was Warren’s past as a corporate attorney. Her pro-consumer bona fides were undermined by her some of her private sector work, most notably her representation of insurance companies seeking to limit their legal liability, as reported by the left-leaning Boston Globe. Her hypocrisy is a different topic for a different column.
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The assassination of the chief executive of one of the nation’s leading health care companies has left a nation reeling and wondering how we ever arrived at this moment in time – not just the senseless murder in the busy streets of New York City, but how some on the left are appearing to justify it.
For a rudderless Democratic Party, desperate for answers and a path forward, there are few unifiers, but disdain and outright hostility to the private sector is one of the commonalities.
Warren has been one of the ringleaders in this sphere. A quick perusal of the press release section on her Senate website belies her anger. Just look at the categories: “Billionaires.” “Greedy brokers.” “Corporate greed.” “Price gouging.”
In Warren’s eyes, private sector industries are the villains. Just this week, she referred to TurboTax, a service that more than 40 million Americans rely on each year get back their hard-earned tax dollars from the government, as “sleazy.”
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Warren isn’t alone in these beliefs. Nearly two thirds of Democrats have a favorable view of “socialism.”
Instead of appreciation for the opportunity they provide, businesses are viewed as the enemy, and government and politicians are the answer.
There are encouraging signs that the tide may be turning. President-elect Donald Trump enjoyed a warm welcome ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. In a sign that capitalism could be celebrated again, he was treated as a conquering hero.
Hopefully his swearing on January 20 will mark a turning of the page and a return to the principles that made America the envy of the world: hard work, success and a belief in free enterprise as an economic force for good that lifts everyone up.
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Senator Warren and her fellow liberals may never subscribe to these theories, but we’ve tried it their way. For the last four years, America has been governed by a president who brags about being the most progressive since FDR, a boast substantiated by socialist Senator Bernie Sanders, (I-Vt.). We’ve seen the results: record high inflation, energy prices and a belief that America is off course.
Thankfully, a new era is dawning and brighter days are ahead.
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Former James Bond star says there’s one change the movie franchise should never make
British actress Gemma Arterton doesn’t agree with the idea of a gender-swapped James Bond, thinking moviegoers would find it “outrageous.”
In a recent interview with UK outlet, The Times, Arterton pointed out that James Bond being portrayed as a woman is absurd on its face.
“Isn’t a female James Bond like Mary Poppins being played by a man?” she wondered. “They talk about it, but I think people would find it too outrageous.”
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Arterton played British Secret Service agent Strawberry Fields in 2008 Bond film “Quantum of Solace,” the second in the series to star Daniel Craig. She insisted that Hollywood should respect the legacy of the character and not opt for the change.
“Sometimes you just have to respect the tradition,” she said.
Remaking the titular character’s identity has been a popular topic in Hollywood circles in recent years, as producers have contemplated shaking up the franchise’s formula following Craig’s final turn as the spy in 2021’s “No Time to Die.”
Craig has weighed in on the thought, saying he doesn’t think Bond should be gender-swapped. Rather, he thinks a similar franchise with a female lead could be the approach.
“Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?” he asked in an interview with Radio Times in 2021.
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Bond producer Barbara Broccoli has expressed openness to James Bond being played by an actor of a different race. Idris Elba, a British actor of African descent, was a long-time favorite to step into the legendary role, though he recently ruled out doing it.
However, Broccoli has poured cold water on the idea of a female James Bond.
She told Variety in 2020, “He can be of any color, but he is male. I believe we should be creating new characters for women — strong female characters. I’m not particularly interested in taking a male character and having a woman play it. I think women are far more interesting than that.”
In another interview, Broccoli did express openness to Bond identifying as “non-binary” and using they/them pronouns.
When asked about that prospect on the “Girls On Film” podcast in 2021, Broccoli replied, “Who knows? I mean, I think it’s open. We just have to find the right actor.”
Others have even floated the idea of Bond being gay. During a press conference at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, a journalist asked Craig, “Do you think there could be a gay James Bond?”
The actor rolled his eyes at the question.
Arterton told The Times she’s confused why she’s still so associated with the “Bond Girl” title, given her role in the 2008 film was so minor – her character was killed just minutes after being introduced.
“I don’t regret doing a Bond film, but I am perplexed why it has followed me around. I was only in the film for five minutes,” she said.
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Why more Americans are trading city life for southern ‘ex-burbs’
One American county, known as “the heart of the citrus industry,” now has many people flocking to it in
Haines City in Polk County, Florida — located between Tampa and Orlando — joins a list of several other southern communities experiencing a population boom. Haines City has seen an increase of 30,000 new residents last year, according to US Census Bureau data, snagging the title as one of the “hottest migration destination[s] in the entire country.”
Labeled as “ex-burbs,” these areas are usually 40-60 miles away from major metropolitan cities and can offer more peaceful ways of life and “affordable housing” options.
Anna, Texas, Fort Mill, South Carolina, and Lebanon, Tennessee, are among the other hot spots that are being lauded for witnessing high population increases.
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Increasing its population by a third since 2020, and located 45 miles north of Dallas, the city dubbed as “your hometown,” Anna, Texas, shared in a press release earlier this year that its growth could be attributed to location, housing options, and development plans for both residential and commercial.
The population in Fort Mill, South Carolina — home to PuckerButt Pepper Company, the original producer of the world’s hottest peppers — once sat at 24,514, but has seen an increase of 37.2% since 2020, according to a local paper.
In the middle of Tennessee, Lebanon grew from 8.9% from July 2023 to July 2024, the population now sitting around 48,000 residents.
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Katie Worthington Decker, senior vice president of the Lakeland Economic Development Council, offered her explanation as to why “ex-burbs” are booming, specifically in Polk County.
“The Lakeland-Winter Haven MSA which includes all of Polk County, Florida, has experienced significant growth for many years, but it accelerated over the last four years. We believe that the expedited growth is in part due to pandemic-era policies to expedite the reopening of Florida in comparison to other parts of the country. The diversity of the types of business in Polk County also contributed to our economy bouncing back quickly after 2020, as we aren’t reliant on tourism as many other areas of Florida are,” Decker shared.
Decker continued, “Polk County’s location in the center of the state offers the same moderate Florida weather but with comparative affordability (median home price is ~100K less than Tampa and Orlando) to our surrounding metro markets, low tax rates, connectivity to other metro market by car, rail or commercial air service, and diverse quality of life offerings from the urban downtown lifestyle in Lakeland, to 55+ communities, to 554 lakes, to numerous areas of farmland acreage.”
Cited as one of the reasons by the U.S. Census Bureau, COVID-19 brought on the trend of more migration to different communities for anyone who could work from home or anywhere else, in search of lower housing and living costs.
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Called at the time “zoom towns,” several American cities — like Bend, Oregon, and Asheville, North Carolina — saw large population increases as workers were able to use tools like Zoom to connect with their company and colleagues.
However, as some major companies reinstate a return to office policy, it’s unknown what the future of working from home, and living in the “ex-burbs,” hold.
“While return to the office policies could certainly impact those individuals who have chosen to live somewhere and work remote to take advantage of the quality of life, I think Polk County and Central Florida are well-positioned to offer employment to those individuals should they decide to stay,” Decker explained.
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Decker continued, sharing her thoughts on whether returning to the office would be beneficial to both the company and the employer.
“We personally believe that return to work policies are favorable for the company’s culture as well as for the employees’ long-term career growth. We do, however, also believe employees will continue to demand flexibility and a greater focus on work-life balance when deciding where they work. Those employers that realize that will be more competitive in their recruitment efforts. Polk County has a very limited number of companies who are still fully remote. Even our largest employers competing for national talent quickly reverted back to a full-time or hybrid schedule in the office within a year of the pandemic beginning,” Decker concluded.
Iconic American singer’s former hideout hits the market for $7.25 million
Bob Dylan’s former townhouse is ready to welcome its new owner.
The famous musician’s former New York City home, located in the iconic Turtle Bay Gardens enclave in Manhattan, is now on the market for $7.25 million and is listed by Lisa Larson and Angela Wu from Sotheby’s International Realty.
Originally built in 1899, the 5,395 square-foot home was first owned by Ruth Gordon and her husband Garson Kanin, who would go on to rent it out to many famous faces. Dylan became their longest tenant, eventually purchasing the home from the couple in 1990, according to Curbed.
He later sold the five-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bathroom residence in 2005.
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The five-story townhouse boasts two points of entry, both on the garden level and the parlor level. A gated forecourt, lined with mature trees and other plants, leads to the stone-tiled entryway into the home’s eat-in kitchen.
One of the many sought-after features of the kitchen includes its high-quality appliances, such as a six-burner Wolf range stove and a Sub-Zero refrigerator. In addition, the room also boasts custom cabinets, mosaic-tiled backsplash, black stone countertops and a built-in breakfast bar for casual dining.
Across from the kitchen is the home’s media room, which features arched windows and another door leading to the gardens outside, both of which bring plenty of natural light into the room. In addition, the room boasts a wood-burning fireplace and a designated area for casual dining.
A brick staircase outside not only leads to the parlor level of the home, but also to a brick terrace, which runs the entire width of the home. The terrace features an outdoor living area and an outdoor dining area, as well as a grill.
The parlor level features a formal living room with wood floors, dark brown crown molding running across the entire ceiling, a second wood-burning fireplace and three arched windows, which bring in natural light.
Just a few steps away from the formal living area is the official dining room, boasting a table large enough for eight guests. The table sits underneath a unique gold light fixture and next to a large mirror on the far wall.
Connected to the second living space is the cozy library, which features a third wood-burning fireplace and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a library ladder, sure to make any book lover happy.
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Elsewhere in the home, four of the house’s five bedrooms are found on the third and fourth levels, with each floor having two bedrooms. Each of the bedrooms features hardwood floors and big windows to bring in natural light, one of which opens up to a Juliet balcony.
Three of the four bedrooms boast wood-burning fireplaces, and all four include their own bathrooms.
The home’s primary bedroom takes up the entirety of the fifth level. The luxurious bedroom features dark hardwood floors, a wood-burning fireplace, large windows and arched French doors, which lead to a private outdoor terrace.
Attached to the spacious primary bedroom is the luxurious en-suite bathroom, which boasts a large shower and steam sauna, a large countertop featuring dual sinks and a window with a Juliet balcony. The en-suite leads to a large walk-in closet.
In addition to the many highlights inside the home, residents also have access to a private park, accessible only to those living in the 20 homes in the famous Turtle Bay Gardens enclave.
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