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Blake, Wm. The Making of Magna Carta. 1775.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign announced that it has created the “We the People” political party in five states. The campaign has also created the Texas Independent Party in the Lone Star state.

Paperwork was filed by Kennedy Jr. supporters to establish We the People in California, Delaware, Hawaii, Mississippi, and North Carolina.

Kennedy Jr. has been primarily focused on making state ballots as an independent candidate and has already made the Utah ballot.

Kennedy Jr. said in a statement: “I’m inspired by how enthusiastic people are to collect signatures, cast ballots, create new political parties, and attend rallies. That kind of energy is what will get us onto the ballot in every state and fuel our voter registration and GOTV operation as we head toward election day.”

The formation of the new parties lowers the signature threshold Kennedy Jr. needs to make state ballots, a typically costly and complicated effort for independent campaigns.

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Blake, Wm. Europe a Prophecy. 1804.

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Ben & Jerry's board demands a permanent ceasefire in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The company's chair Anuradha Mittal emphasized, “Peace is a core value of Ben & Jerry’s. From Iraq to Ukraine [the company] has consistently stood up for these principles. Today is no different as we call for peace and a permanent and immediate ceasefire.”

This stance follows their previous decision to stop sales in Jewish settlements on the West Bank, leading to a legal clash with Unilever.

The conflict has impacted other businesses too, with McDonald's and Starbucks facing backlash in the Middle East.

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Blake, Wm. For Children- The Gates of Paradise. 1793.

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R. Kelly states he was unaware of an August 2023 ruling awarding $10.5 million to six women over alleged threats related to the docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly.”

Kelly claims changes in legal representation and a heavy load of legal matters caused him to overlook this lawsuit.

He asserts his literacy limitations, saying he “cannot read or understand words beyond that of a grade schooler,” depending on lawyers for explanations.

Kelly and his then-manager, Donnell Russell, were accused of making threats to silence women who appeared in the docuseries, including a threat to “shoot up” a New York City screening in December 2018. R. Kelly distances himself from Russell, stating Russell never officially served as his manager and should be solely responsible if he made the alleged threat.

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Blake, Wm. Jerusalem the Emanation of the Giant Albion, object 100. 1820.

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Kim Jong Un has called for a constitutional amendment, labeling South Korea as the “primary foe.”

“We don't want war but we have no intention of avoiding it,” said Kim.

North Korea should also plan for “completely occupying, subjugating and reclaiming” South Korea in the event of a war, and South Koreans should also no longer be referred to as fellow countrymen, Kim added, calling for the severing of all inter-Korean communication and the destruction of a monument to reunification in Pyongyang.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, at a cabinet meeting, said Pyongyang was being “anti-national” for calling the South a hostile country.

Kim's call for constitutional changes come as tensions have worsened in the Korean Peninsula recently amid a series of missile tests and a push by Pyongyang to break with decades of policy and change how it relates to the South.

Won Gon Park of Seoul's Ewha Womans University: “Kim Jong Un's increasingly aggressive language appears to show he feels he's lost the upper hand in the inter-Korean relationship.”

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Blake, Wm. The First Book of Urizen. 1794.

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The Orlando Museum of Art is facing a $1 million budget shortfall following a scandal involving forged Basquiat paintings.

In June 2022, the FBI seized 25 Basquiat-attributed works, later revealed as forgeries by Los Angeles auctioneer Michael Barzman.

Former director Aaron De Groft, who had introduced the contested artworks to the museum, and painting owners are sued by the museum for attempting to profit from the forgeries. This led to De Groft making a countersuit for wrongful termination and defamation.

Cathryn Mattson, the executive director said the museum had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire “crisis communication professionals” and “a legal defense team” to handle the fallout, which includes the ongoing FBI investigation. 

“Within a year’s time we had a 25 percent increase in unbudgeted expenses,” Mattson said in a leaked recording quoted by the newspapers. The museum’s reserve funds, she continued, “are nearing exhaustion level and that has been our cushion. We have also exhausted our lines of credit and have loans.”