There is a tendency to picture computers as cold, precise things, sealed away in clean rooms and humming quietly under desks. Brains feel different. Messier. Slower in places. Yet far more efficient overall. That contrast has been bothering computer scientists for years, especially as artificial intelligence grows more demanding. The human brain runs on very little energy, learns as it goes, and adapts without needing constant upgrades. Silicon machines struggle to match that balance. Some researchers have started looking away from metal and code and towards biology instead. Not animals or humans, but fungi. Specifically mushrooms. It sounds odd at first, almost playful. But beneath the surface, the idea is rooted in practical limits, rising costs, and a quiet frustration with how hard it is to copy what nature already does so well.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday he had appointed former Liberal cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland as an economic development adviser, citing her experience in attracting investment.
“Right now, Ukraine needs to strengthen its internal resilience — both for the sake of Ukraine’s recovery if diplomacy delivers results as swiftly as possible, and to reinforce our defense if, because of delays by our partners, it takes longer to bring this war to an end,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
A reporter asked President Donald Trump about the protests in Iran:
REPORTER: There’s been protesters killed in Iran. You said we were locked and loaded, ready to go. What is the line there for when the US is going to get involved in those protests?
TRUMP: We’ll take a look. We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States.
President Donald Trump has stated that he does not believe Ukraine carried out a drone strike targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence last week, pushing back on claims made by Moscow.
“I don’t believe that strike happened,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling from Florida to Washington.
“There is something that happened fairly nearby, but had nothing to do with this.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed on Dec. 29 that Kyiv launched 91 drones toward Putin’s residence in Novgorod, and that all drones were destroyed. Ukraine denied the allegation.
California has delayed its cancellation of thousands of commercial driver’s licenses held by migrants, setting it up for another showdown with Washington.
The Department of Motor Vehicles announced on Tuesday that the 17,000 migrant truck drivers whose licenses had been revoked can now keep them for 60 more days, which could enable the drivers to retake tests and do whatever is necessary to remain legal.
“Commercial drivers are an important part of our economy — our supply chains don’t move, and our communities don’t stay connected without them,” said DMV Director Steve Gordon in a statement after the extension.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy reacted by threatening to cut $160 million in federal funding to California if the state doesn’t meet the Jan. 5 deadline to revoke unvetted foreign trucker licenses.
The US military struck five alleged drug-smuggling boats over two days, killing a total of eight people while others jumped overboard and may have survived, US Southern Command said in a social media post on Thursday.
Southern Command, which oversees South America, did not reveal where the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday occurred.
Previous similar attacks have taken place in the Caribbean Sea and in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Pro-abortion medical students decided to reign in the new year in the most disgusting, vile, and satanic way possible — by filming themselves smiling as they practice child sacrifice on tomatoes.
Medical Students for Choice posted the footage to social media platform TikTok on Tuesday, captioning the event — from Portland, Oregon — “The type of energy we’re bringing into 2026:”
The brief clip shows students practicing abortions as the tomatoes are put where a baby’s head would be.
@msfchoice Abortion and family planning training should be a standard part of every medical school curriculum. Across the world, MSFC student leaders are advocating to provide abortion care and create change in the medical field on their campuses. With your support, we’re carrying this work forward. A donation to MSFC helps the next generation of providers has the skills and support they need. Donate now through the in our bio, and be part of what comes next! #medstudent#medschool#futuredoctor#reproductivehealth#abortionaccess♬ original sound – ☀️
Elon Musk issued a stark public warning after a viral TikTok livestream appeared to show a Somali user making a chilling remark about his life, prompting concern and backlash across social media.
The viral clip shows an unidentified TikTok user livestreaming while playing a video of Musk on her phone.
After speaking in Somali, she briefly switched to English and said:
“I wouldn’t worry too much about him. He about to die.”
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted in an interview on Sunday (Jan 4) that he will complete his five-year term amid speculation his centre-left Labour Party could oust him after the upcoming local elections.
Starmer, who won power in July 2024, also argued Britain should pursue further alignment with the EU single market, saying it was in the country’s “national interest” to get “closer” to the bloc.
A decade after Britons voted narrowly to leave the EU, the stance is likely to draw criticism from Brexit advocates like Nigel Farage, whose hard-right Reform UK party has led in the polls for the past year.
Around 45,000 households were left without electricity in southwest Berlin after high-voltage power lines were damaged by a fire, which authorities have described as a politically motivated attack by far-left extremists.
Though power has been restored in some areas, thousands could be left without power until Thursday after what authorities say was a politically motivated attack by “left-wing extremists”.
The blaze erupted on a cable bridge over the Teltow Canal near the Lichterfelde power plant on Saturday morning, local authorities said, affecting 2,200 businesses and 45,000 households across four districts, cutting their access to electricity, including internet and heating.
South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung is set to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping as he seeks to reset frayed ties with his country’s biggest trading partner.
Regional security and Beijing’s unofficial ban on Korean pop culture are also on the agenda for Monday’s meeting, which is their second summit since November, when Xi visited South Korea.
Given what a vital economic partner China is, experts say Lee is looking for assurances that it would not weaponise that relationship in the face of political tensions in the region.
Voters are warming up to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and some of his left-wing policy priorities, according to a Siena University poll released Tuesday.
Mamdani, a self avowed socialist, achieved a 46% favorability rating across New York state, marking an increase from his 40% favorable rating last month, according to the new poll. Meanwhile, by a 49-32% margin, up from 45-39% in November, voters statewide think that Mamdani‘s Nov. 4 mayoral victory will be good for New York City, per the poll.
Among New York City voters alone, 66% said Mamdani’s election will be good for the city, while 25% said it is bad for the city, according to the poll. This marks an increase from in November, when 57% said his being elected was a good thing for the city and 26% said it was a bad thing, the poll shows.
“Enjoy the honeymoon, Mayor-elect Mamdani,” Siena pollster Steven Greenberg said in a statement. “Two-thirds of Democrats across the state view him favorably. Independent voters are now leaning favorably by six points, while they were six points on the unfavorable side in November. And while he’s viewed favorably in New York City, 61-23%, voters outside the City, who were decidedly negative toward him last month, are now close to breakeven.”
The last time I reported on the hostilities between Cambodia and Thailand, President Donald Trump was planning to call officials from both nations to try to salvage the summer cease-fire.
The move comes as border clashes between the Southeast Asian nations have continued, despite US President Donald Trump saying Friday that they had agreed to a ceasefire.
“The Royal Government of Cambodia has decided to fully suspend all entry and exit movements at all Cambodia-Thailand border crossings, effective immediately and until further notice,” the Cambodian Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The announcement comes after Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said that his country would keep up military strikes on Cambodia until it no longer felt under threat from its neighbor, telling local media there was no ceasefire in place.
Five months ago, in these pages I expressed concern that Congress was missing the opportunity to restore merit to the military personnel system. To accomplish that task I urged Congress to include a meritocracy provision in the 2026 NDAA that does four things: (1) require all military personnel actions to be based exclusively on merit; (2) forbid race and sex-based preferences; (3) provide for reasonable exceptions when mission success requires sex or race be considered; and (4) define key terms so idealogues in the Pentagon cannot manipulate the language to further their diversity agenda.
When the House and Senate passed their versions of the NDAA, it appeared that between the two chambers some progress toward establishing a merit-based personnel system was being made. When the compromise bill resolving the differences between the House and Senate version, S. 1017, was released last week, it was readily apparent that Congress had no intention of requiring merit principles to govern military personnel actions. To make matters worse, the drafters employed smoke and mirrors to put a merit-sounding title on a provision that just reinforces the Biden-era identity preference status quo.
On Sunday, two Islamic terrorists — who were inspired by ISIS — opened fire at a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Eyewitness reports said police on the scene responded by cowering in fear behind vehicles instead of engaging the terrorists. Those same police were very quick to crack down on anyone who didn’t comply with Australia’s draconian COVID policies, and would come down on someone like a house of bricks if they used the wrong pronouns. But actually protecting people from gun-wielding terrorists? No.
There was viral video of one man, Ahmed Al Ahmed, who snuck up on one of the terrorists and tackled him to the ground before taking his gun. Ahmed was wounded by the terrorists.
A man who disarmed a terrorist has been identified as a Muslim named Ahmed Al Ahmad during an attack on a Jewish event in Sydney.
A Pentagon spokesperson announced Monday that the department is “escalating” a preliminary review into “serious allegations of misconduct” against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), following his role in a controversial video reminding troops they can disobey orders from their superiors that they feel are “unlawful”—a move the Trump administration slams as undermining military discipline.
The review, reported on by RedState’s Becca Lower late last week, had been initiated by the Pentagon’s Office of General Counsel to determine possible punishments for the retired naval captain.
Now, Captain Kelly is facing “an official Command Investigation,” according to the spokesperson.
“The Office of the Secretary of War, in conjunction with the Department of War’s Office of the General Counsel, is escalating the preliminary review of Captain Mark Kelly, USN (Ret.), to an official Command Investigation,” the Department of War official said in a statement sent to Breitbart News.
The U.S. has agreed to provide unspecified security guarantees to Ukraine as part of a peace deal to end Russia’s nearly four-year war, and more talks are likely this weekend, U.S. officials said Monday following the latest discussions with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin.
The officials said talks with President Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, led to narrowing differences on security guarantees that Kyiv said must be provided, as well as on Moscow’s demand that Ukraine concede land in the Donbas region in the country’s east.
Trump dialed into a dinner Monday evening with negotiators and European leaders, and more talks are expected this weekend in Miami or elsewhere in the United States, according to the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly by the White House.
Friends, neighbors, and former classmates of Nick Reiner say warning signs had long surrounded the troubled son of famed Hollywood director Rob Reiner, with several saying they were not shocked when authorities charged him in the brutal killings of his parents.
Nick Reiner, 32, has been accused of fatally slitting the throats of his father, 78, and mother, photographer Michele Singer Reiner, 68, inside their multimillion-dollar Brentwood, Los Angeles home. While police have not publicly detailed a motive, those who knew the family say the suspect had a long history of violence, addiction, and instability.
“This is not the first time their son has been violent,” a longtime neighbor told the New York Post, declining to give his name. “I know of another incident a few years back with Nick, but I won’t say more than that. I just never thought it would ever get to this point.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) has unveiled its newest blueprint for “digital health transformation,” and critics warn it’s the clearest signal yet that the unelected global body intends to normalize trackable wearables, AI-driven monitoring, and centralized “health” data control for the world’s population.
Released this month, the updated “Global strategy on digital health 2020–2027” lays out a sweeping plan to expand the use of digital IDs, biometric devices, AI analytics, and remote-surveillance tools, all under the banner of “universal health coverage.”
WHO says digital health means everything from phone apps to “artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics and smart wearables,” and the organization wants governments worldwide to accelerate adoption.
Its own language makes clear this will not remain optional.
The Israeli army launched a barrage of attacks in Gaza on Tuesday as tensions with Hamas grew two weeks into a fragile ceasefire, and the militant group responded by saying it would delay handing over the body of a hostage. At least seven Palestinians were killed, health officials said.
The flare-up of violence presented one of the biggest tests so far for the truce and had international mediators scrambling to prevent it from collapsing. U.S. Vice President JD Vance attempted to play down the fighting, saying he expected “skirmishes” to quickly die down.
The order from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch “powerful strikes” came after an Israeli official said its forces were fired upon in southern Gaza and after Hamas handed over body parts on Monday that Israel said were the partial remains of a hostage recovered earlier in the war.
Netanyahu called the return of these body parts a “clear violation” of the ceasefire agreement, which requires Hamas to return the remaining hostages in Gaza as soon as possible. Israeli officials also accused Hamas of staging the discovery of these remains on Monday, sharing a 14-minute edited video captured by a military drone in Gaza.
Trump hails election of ‘highly respected’ first female prime minister of Japan– www.washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
President Donald Trump celebrated the election of the right-wing Sanae Takaichi as the likely next prime minister of Japan.
Takaichi is set to become the first female prime minister of Japan after she won the presidency of the Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan almost uninterrupted since 1955. Feminists on the left aren’t celebrating, however, as Takaichi has distinguished herself as a hard-line conservative.
Japanese LDP President Sanae Takaichi and President Donald Trump. (AP)
“Japan has just elected its first female Prime Minister, a highly respected person of great wisdom and strength. This is tremendous news for the incredible people of Japan. Congratulations to all!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, signing his name at the end.
Trump’s congratulations are likely more than a simple nicety. Takaichi’s right-wing views are in line with those of her U.S. counterpart. She also boasts one of Trump’s best friends on the international stage as her mentor, the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Takaichi is also known for her hard-line views on China, a key priority that plays into Trump’s vision for the Indo-Pacific region. She’s also expressed her opposition to immigration to Japan, one of Trump’s central issues.
Europe Rewards Terrorists with Palestinian State, who then IMMEDIATELY demand Trillions in “Reparations” – Freedomist Source Link Excerpt:
Mahmoud Abbas is now demanding $2 Trillion in reparations from Britain. This comes after most of Western Europe, including the UK, suddenly declared a recognition of the “Palestinian State” while under siege by Islamist revolutionaries their own governments paid to import.
