Big Tech social media companies could face Big Tobacco moment as landmark trial begins baltimoresun.com
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Trump says US will ‘no longer help Iraq’ if it picks Maliki as PM BBC
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The emerging Age of AI has a tricky PR problem that may turn into a nasty political one. Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella recently warned that AI could lose its “social permission” to consume massive amounts of electricity unless it delivers clear, real-world gains across society, including healthcare, education, government efficiency, and business performance.
That stark warning should be front-of-mind for techno-optimists. Too much of the public sees AI as extractive rather than beneficial, associating it with job threats, wealth concentration, and rising energy demand. Even worse, the message is getting through to at least some lawmakers.
For average wage earners in Russia, it’s a big payday. For criminals seeking to escape the harsh conditions and abuse in prison, it’s a chance at freedom. For immigrants hoping for a better life, it’s a simplified path to citizenship.
All they have to do is sign a contract to fight in Ukraine.
As Russia seeks to replenish its forces in nearly four years of war — and avoid an unpopular nationwide mobilization — it’s pulling out all the stops to find new troops to send into the battlefield.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced an investigation into encrypted Signal group chats used by Minnesota residents to share information about federal immigration enforcement — agent locations, vehicle license plates, activity near schools. Patel expressed concern that such activities could “put law enforcement in harm’s way,” and said investigators would determine if residents violated federal statutes, reports NBC News. — Read the rest
The post Kash Patel finds free speech inconvenient, opens investigation into chat groups warning about ICE appeared first on Boing Boing.
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Xi urges Finland to uphold global order, boost ties Latest news from Azerbaijan
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The e-commerce giant has been cutting costs while pouring resources into building data centers to compete in the race to dominate artificial intelligence.
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Starmer and Burnham’s by-election bust-up: A tale of rogues, crowns, and daggers Revolutionary Communist Party
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China and Russia agree to deepen military ties amid US strategy shift MillenniumPost
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California took in millions for 94,000 dead people’s phone and internet service, bombshell FCC report finds New York Post
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A senior Russian politician has sparked fresh World War Three fears after claiming Europe is effectively “defenceless” against Moscow’s latest hypersonic weapons. The warning was posted on Telegram by Aleksey Aleksandrovich Zhuravlyov, a hardline nationalist MP and chairman of the Rodina party, who shared a German media report about a recent Russian missile strike in Ukraine.
Zhuravlyov referenced an article published by Berliner Zeitung reporting on the alleged deployment of Russia’s so-called “Oreshnik” hypersonic missile during strikes on Ukraine’s Lviv region. He claimed the attack had sent shockwaves through political and military circles across Europe. In his commentary, the Kremlin ally alleged the strike was a “clear signal” to the EU and NATO, insisting that Russia had demonstrated its ability to hit targets in “Western capitals” and at NATO military bases.
Federal investigators raided an election office in Fulton County, Ga., Wednesday in a case related to the 2020 vote, a Justice Department official told The Post.
FBI officers are acting on a search warrant, but no more details were immediately available.
Former Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged President Trump and more than a dozen of his allies and supporters in August 2023 with racketeering and other crimes related to attempts to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in the state.
Europeans cannot replace the US nuclear umbrella, at least for the time being, but when it comes to conventional defence the situation is different, European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius told Euronews on Wednesday.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Monday that the European Union should “keep on dreaming” of becoming independent from the US, its largest ally, in matters of security and defence.
Kubilius told Euronews that if Rutte’s comments refer to nuclear defence only and if Rutte meant that “the Europeans should stop dreaming about the possibility to defend themselves without American nuclear umbrella – I agree with him”.
As Generals Fall, Xi Jinping’s Anti-Corruption Campaign Is Eating Itself Foreign Policy
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Abbas amends Palestinian election law to bar Hamas from polls The New Arab
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Turkey Plans ‘Safe Zone’ At Iran Border to Prevent Refugee Influx greekcitytimes.com
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President Donald Trump is not a man of nuance, and so as a result, many fall into the trap of concluding he can’t see the big picture. The most common mistaken assumption about him is that people think he’s reactionary, when the opposite is true. You don’t get the peace agreements he’s gotten, the concessions he’s won on his tariff strategy, or so many other things he’s accomplished if you wing it.
Consider all of this and how uncharacteristically quiet the president has been on the anti-ICE movement in Minneapolis in recent weeks. While he hasn’t avoided the topic, he hasn’t allowed it to dominate his narrative and the media coverage of the White House.
More importantly, while there has been a good deal of noise coming out of Minneapolis, and even more confusion by design coming from the Minnesota governor, Democrat politicians, and the left, in the wake of the Michael Pretti shooting, the very measured response coming from the White House may have been overlooked.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is scrambling to walk back his China pivot after President Donald Trump threatened to hammer Canada with massive tariffs if Ottawa turns itself into a trade conduit for Beijing.
Carney now insists Canada has “no intention” of pursuing a free trade deal with the Chinese Communist Party.
It comes just days after President Trump warned that any such move would trigger a 100% tariff on Canadian exports entering the United States.
The sudden reversal follows a series of events that exposed Canada’s quiet but aggressive realignment toward Beijing.
The Supreme Court last week ordered California Democrats to respond within a week to a Republican-backed request seeking to block the state’s newly drawn congressional maps from being used in the 2026 elections.
The move, issued by Justice Elena Kagan, who is handling the emergency injunction request, caught many court watchers off guard. Given the court’s recent decision to allow Texas Republicans to keep their mid-decade redistricting plan, most expected the justices to let California’s Democrat-drawn map stand without intervention.
California Republicans argue the new maps violate the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution by relying on race, rather than politics, to redraw at least one congressional district.
Reportedly said he would ‘rather not associate with white people over the course of the class’
An investigation has determined that a black professor at Indiana University created a “hostile educational environment” for white students via “comments made over the course of a semester.”
The Herald-Times reported Jan. 13 that the scholar would be sanctioned as a result, a recent decision made by the vice provost for faculty and academic affairs.
“[T]he university had found a ‘preponderance of evidence’ that Croom had created a ‘hostile educational environment for White students,’ a violation of the university’s discrimination policy,” the Times reported.
China reportedly hacked and surveilled the mobile phones of top officials in Downing Street for years as a part of a global espionage dragnet.
A report from London’s Daily Telegraph has claimed that a Chinese spying operation saw the communications of senior officials in the administrations of prime ministers Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak monitored between 2021 and 2024.
Although it is unclear if the phones of prime ministers were caught up in the surveillance scheme, a source is quoted by the broadsheet as saying that the Chinese infiltration reached “right into the heart of Downing Street”.
MEITAR, Israel: Hundreds of tearful mourners packed a stadium in southern Israel on Wednesday (Jan 28) for the funeral of Ran Gvili, the last Gaza hostage whose burial marks the end of a painful national saga triggered by Hamas’s 2023 attack.
Israeli forces on Monday brought home the remains of Gvili, who was killed in action and whose body Palestinian militants took into Gaza during their Oct 7 attack, which triggered a devastating two-year war.
A large banner bearing the portrait of Gvili hung in a stadium in the town of Meitar, the 24-year-old police officer’s hometown and where he will be laid to rest.
President Donald Trump appears to be backing down in Minneapolis — not because the situation has improved, but because Democrat officials who are still openly declaring their opposition to immigration enforcement have apparently pressured him into retreat.
After months of open defiance of federal immigration law, weeks of unrest, and a second fatal shooting involving federal agents, the Trump administration demanded on Sunday that Walz, Frey, and other Democrat leaders “cooperate … to enforce our Nation’s Laws.” In part, he specifically called on state and local prisons to turn over illegal aliens in custody and called on local police to “assist Federal Law Enforcement in apprehending and detaining Illegal Aliens who are wanted for Crimes.” But two days later, the president is reportedly planning to withdraw some forces in Minneapolis.
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its supporting warships are patrolling in the Middle East amid rising tensions with Iran, giving President Trump the option of launching airstrikes in response to Tehran’s crackdown on protesters.
from www.washingtontimes.com
An independent journalist claims to have infiltrated encrypted Signal chat groups used by anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement activists, uncovering what appears to be a coordinated effort to obstruct federal immigration enforcement and harass law enforcement officers.
Cam Higby, an on-the-ground reporter known for undercover infiltrations, shared on X screen recordings and member lists from the alleged chats. His posts revealed hundreds of participants apparently actively plotting interference with U.S. ICE operations.
Virginia Democrats want to teach schoolchildren to “affirm” gay and “transgender” propaganda as part of their new “inclusive history” proposal.
A bill proposal from Democrat Del. Sam Rasoul would require history and social studies courses taught at public schools would be required to push the “contributions, perspectives, and experiences of historically marginalized communities, including racial and ethnic minorities; immigrants and refugees; women; individuals with disabilities; individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+); individuals from various socioeconomic statuses; individuals from various religious backgrounds; and any other group of individuals that the Board of Education deems appropriate.”
DONALD Trump has launched war game exercises across the Middle East as the main thrust of his Iran attack force moves into position.
Tensions spiked as America’s air commanders announced a readiness exercise to prepare to hammer the rogue Islamist state with “combat air power” after the killing of up to 36,500 protesters in recent weeks.
Former U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman encouraged his followers and supporters to “burn this s*** down” after an anti-ICE agitator was shot and killed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents while attempting to draw a firearm.
Bowman — who was ousted by a Democratic Party primary challenger in 2024 — was speaking in reference to the shooting of Alex Pretti, 37. Footage from the scene shows Pretti inserting himself into a federal immigration operation and attempting to prevent CBP agents from arresting a fellow agitator.
At that point, a struggle ensued between Pretti and agents. Pretti, who was licensed to carry a 9mm firearm, then reached towards his waistband before shots rang out.
How a purge of China’s military leadership could impact the army and the future of Taiwan myplainview.com
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