Tootfinder

After the launch of a UK government vulnerability monitoring service (VMS), serious security weaknesses in public sector websites have been fixed 6 times faster – cutting the average time from nearly 2 months to just over a week.
https://www.

Government cuts cyber-attack fix times by 84% and launches new profession to protect public services
The government has launched a new vulnerability monitoring service (VMS) to reduce cyber risks and speed up fixes, and a new Cyber Profession to build long-term resilience across public services.

An interview with Audrey Cooper, EIC of The Baltimore Banner, on local news decline, growing regionally, paywalls, experimenting with AI, and more (Editor and Publisher)
https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories

The Baltimore Banner enters a new year — and a new chapter — with a new editor-in-chief
Local journalism is shrinking in much of the country — but The Baltimore Banner is moving in the opposite direction. In just two years, the nonprofit newsroom has grown into Maryland’s largest reporting operation, expanded beyond Baltimore, and built a fast-growing base of paying subscribers. Now, with their new editor-in-chief, Audrey Cooper, at the helm, The Banner is doubling down on a belief that many in the industry have quietly abandoned: scale still matters. In this wide-ranging conv…

Just days after a nationwide public comment period closed on a draft federal offshore drilling plan
—one that drew more than 270,000 responses
—the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management opened a new 30-day window.
This time, the agency is inviting oil and gas companies to nominate specific blocks of ocean off Central and Southern California for potential leasing

Nvidia announces its Earth-2 Medium Range weather model, built on its Atlas architecture, claiming it outperforms Google DeepMind's GenCast in 70 variables (Tim De Chant/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/26/nvidias-new-a…

Nvidia’s new AI weather models probably saw this storm coming weeks ago | TechCrunch
Nvidia announced three new AI weather tools today. Together, they promise to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts while also making them accessible to more users.

‘We’ve scratched the surface’: mission to digitise UK public art reaches 1m entries - congratulations ArtUK! An incredible milestone
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/feb/23/art-uk-online-public-art-database-ben-terre…

New AirSnitch attack breaks Wi-Fi encryption in homes, offices, and enterprises
That guest network you set up for your neighbors may not be as secure as you think.
🛜 https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/02/new-air…

New AirSnitch attack breaks Wi-Fi encryption in homes, offices, and enterprises
That guest network you set up for your neighbors may not be as secure as you think.

new_zealand_collab: New Zealand scientific collaborations (2015)
A network of scientific collaborations among institutions in New Zealand. Nodes are institutions (universities, organizations, etc.), and two nodes i,j are connected if Scopus lists at least one publication with authors at institutions i and j, in the period 2010-2015. Edges are weighted by the number of such collaborations. Nodes are annotated with the categorical type of institution.
This network has 1511 nodes an…

Today, the European Council approved the new version of the Measuring Instruments Directive. The Parliament had already approved the compromise reached.
48 months after publication (i.e. mid-2030), new EV charging points in the European Union must comply with the new, harmonised requirements.

Technical harmonisation: Council approves new requirements for car chargers and other measuring instruments
Council gives its final approval to the amended measuring instruments directive.

Alright, I'm starting to be kind of impressed by this Mamdani guy.
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-zohran-mamdani-new-york-housing-3835daca395dbe46c2f3da2433ec24f4

Mamdani pitches Trump on housing in latest White House visit
President Donald Trump has met with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani at the White House to talk about big federal housing investments. Mamdani on Thursday presented Trump with a mock New York Daily News cover that reads “Trump to City: Let’s Build.” His team says the goal is to show Trump the positive headlines a deal could generate. Mamdani’s office did not detail the housing plan, but his spokesperson says Trump responded with enthusiasm. Mamdani also asked Trump to release a detain…

Russia plans new missile and drone strikes to bolster leverage ahead of UAE talks: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/27/russia-plans-new-missile-and.html

Wegen Lootboxen: New York verklagt Valve
Die Generalstaatsanwältin von New York verklagt Valve wegen Lootboxen in Spielen wie „Dota 2“ und „Counter-Strike“. Damit fördere Valve Glücksspiel.
https://www.

"New #words – 26 January 2026" @ Cambridge dictionaries:
"FOBO" 'abbreviation for “fear of becoming obsolete”', "vibe revenue" 'money or funding that an #AI company is given because people are excited about the potential of AI, rather than because the com…

"New datacentres risk doubling Great Britain’s electricity use, regulator says"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Technology

The article below reminds me of a play that I crewed on:
In the play the Earth is taken over by space aliens who eat people. Earth people don't like this. The aliens try to fix things by hiring a PR firm to improve their public image. But the PR firm turns out to be a front for Earth-people resistance. And it went from there.
So here we have a couple of brothers - who have so much hubris that they are effectively space aliens in relation to the rest of us - who do bad things…

Brothers Charged With Sex Trafficking Wage Campaign to Shame Accusers
The Alexander brothers, once titans of the New York party scene, have retained a high-stakes public relations strategist, Juda Engelmayer, whose clients include Harvey Weinstein.

With Help of Lina Khan, Mamdani Looks to Quickly Cut Costs for New Yorkers (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/nyregion/lina-khan-mamdani-affordability-new-york-city.html?unlocked_article_code=1._k8.cV4x.9emazaP1SPHz&smid=nytcore-android-share
http://www.memeorandum.com/251226/p24#a251226p24

Biggest battery on standby as rooftop PV sets stunning new records in South Australia, meeting 117 pct of state demand
#energytransition https://reneweconomy.com.au/biggest-battery-on-standby-as-rooftop-pv-sets-stunning-new-records-meeting-117-pct-of-state-demand/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=biggest-battery-on-standby-as-rooftop-pv-sets-stunning-new-records-meeting-117-pct-of-state-demand

Dark Energy Survey Year 6 Results - Cosmological Constraints from Galaxy Clustering and Weak Lensing: #DarkEnergy come together in a single experiment for the first time. Also Dark Energy Survey - DESI-Independent Angular BAO Measurement: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14864. And CosmoSlider - An educational tool for cosmology: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.16919

It is clear Trump now has another platform, after X , to control people in the US and feed them with disinformation. They supplement each other nicely with regard to age groups etc. If FB, WhatsApp, LinkedIn also tighten their "moderation" with regard to anti-trump sentiments, an Orwellian picture emerges.
https://www.

TikTok Is Now Collecting Even More Data About Its Users. Here Are the 3 Biggest Changes
According to its new privacy policy, TikTok now collects more data on its users, including their precise location, after majority ownership officially switched to a group based in the US.

Apple introduces new AirTag with expanded range and improved findability https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/01/apple-introduces-new-airtag-with-expanded-range-and-improved-findability/

3 options to help Cowboys plug hole left when $30M free agent walked https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cowboys/2026/01/26/new-options-dallas-could-…

McCarthy 'definitely' would like Rodgers to return https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47746811/new-steelers-coach-mccarthy-rodgers-return

⭐ Promising new superconducting material discovered with the help of AI
#materials

Promising new superconducting material discovered with the help of AI
Tohoku University and Fujitsu Limited have successfully used AI to derive new insights into the superconductivity mechanism of a new superconducting material.

In which I’m reminded that I had (note past tense) an Amazon Wish List with additions (books & music) from 2006-2010. Remembered almost none. Ordered one from the public library.
See https://www.404media.co/amazon-wishlist-address-private-third-party/

Amazon Change Means Wishlists Might Expose Your Address
Amazon is allowing gift senders to choose items from third-party sellers, which could open recipients up to new privacy risks.

Just looking at the amount of work that went into this thing trying to sell something the core audience isn't buying shows how badly Mozilla chose when it comes to the new CEO
https://bsd.network/@dch/115968952449549217

dch :flantifa: :flan_hacker: (@dch@bsd.network)
#mozilla has finally and officially gone off the deep end https://stateof.mozilla.org/tools/ thanks to new CEO. Enzor-DeMeo said he plans to expand Firefox and Mozilla's product ecosystem with AI-powered features, while reducing the company's dependence on search revenue over the next three years https://www.reuters.com/technology/mozilla-names-insider-enzor-demeo-ceo-looks-add-ai-features-firefox-2025-12-16/ Before joining Mozilla in late 2024, Enzor-DeMeo held executive roles at fintech fi…

The End of the Machine Metaphor: A New Framework for Intelligence and Life.
A Journey Through the Paradoxes of Reductionism
https://ocrampal.com/the-end-of-the-machine-metaphor-a-new-framework-for-intelligence-and-life/

The End of the Machine Metaphor: A New Framework for Intelligence and Life
A Journey Through the Paradoxes of Reductionism and the Promise of Geneosophy The Pattern Behind the Paradoxes Modern knowledge has achieved extraordinary success. We've mapped the genome, simulated quantum systems, built artificial intelligence that mimics human conversation, and created technologies that transform civilization. Yet beneath this triumph lies a troubling

Jack Dorsey's Memo Could Signal a New Era of White-Collar Layoffs - Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/jack-dorsey-block-memo-new-era-white-collar-layoffs-2026-2

Support for Israel has long been a bedrock of the Republican Party,
But a new IMEU/YouGov poll shows a sharp generational split that indicates this might be changing.
https://mondoweiss.net/2025/12/new-poll-shows-young-republicans-turning-agains…

New poll shows young Republicans turning against Israel
A new poll provides extraordinary data regarding the changing view of Israel in an unexpected place — inside the Republican Party.

Every non-hype defense of #LLMs starts with "you must already understand your work really well." But the people vibe coding prototypes *don't*.
As a result they scale up thoughtlessness. "Bulking out" a slapdash idea with hallucinated details only displaces the real thinking that could have led to actual innovation. The very teams the tool was supposed to help instead…

Vibe prototyping isn't solving problems. It's creating new ones.
It's easy to prototype and so everyone is prototyping, without really knowing why they are doing it. The resultant noise drowns out thoughtful work.

When MHCLG uses emojis, it feels like "Hello fellow kids... who are also leaseholders somehow."
https://mhclgmedia.blog.gov.uk/2026/01/27/own-a-flat-or-looking-to-buy-heres-what-the-new-leasehold-shake-up-m…

Own a flat or looking to buy? Here’s what the new leasehold shake-up means for you 💸 – MHCLG in the Media
Millions of homeowners – mostly flat owners – will save significant cash thanks to a new major shake‑up of the leasehold system. If you own a flat or are looking to buy one, you probably know about the excessive charges

🥳 New Kitten Release
• Added `target` and `data-*` to the list of safe attributes you can specify within curly brackets when writing Markdown in Kitten.
Enjoy!
:kitten:💕
#Kitten

ready to be infected?
Shuffalo, 8m 20s
🟡🟡🟡🟡
🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡
🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡
🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡
🟡🔘🔘🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡
https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/shuffalo/2026/01/26#i…

Play Shuffalo: Monday, January 26, 2026
Play The New Yorker’s daily anagramming game by unscrambling the letters to make a word—but every time you do, an additional letter gets added to the set.

New use for generative AI dropped: elder abuse
https://bsky.app/profile/brocklesnitch.bsky.social/post/3maudonruvs2x

New Social D record next year (May 2026, no day announced yet)-- their first in 15 years. I've always kinda had a soft spot for the D. Hearing some of the new songs they've been playing live and I dig em. Supposedly the first single will come out next month (January).
I assume these will be on the record.
"Tonight" live in 2022: https://

‘We’ve scratched the surface’: mission to digitise UK public art reaches 1m entries | Art and design | The Guardian
‘We’ve scratched the surface’: mission to digitise UK public art reaches 1m entries | Art and design | The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign…

Netflix opens a new office in São Paulo, and co-CEO Greg Peters announces that Netflix will stream the Oscar-nominated Brazilian film The Secret Agent in Brazil (Stewart Clarke/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2026/01/greg-peters-brazil-netflix-new-o…

Netflix Expands In Brazil: Greg Peters Hits Town As Streamer Opens New São Paulo Office
Greg Peters is in Brazil as Netflix opened up a new office in São Paulo, which the co-CEO said marked the next step for the streamer in the country.

Sam Altman says OpenAI is seeking a new Head of Preparedness, noting "the potential impact of models on mental health was something we saw a preview of in 2025" (Cheyenne MacDonald/Engadget)
https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-is-hiri…

OpenAI is hiring a new Head of Preparedness to try to predict and mitigate AI's harms
In a post about the role, CEO Sam Altman said it'll be 'a stressful job and you'll jump into the deep end pretty much immediately.

A new space race could turn our atmosphere into a ‘crematorium for satellites’
https://theconversation.com/a-new-space-race-could-turn-our-atmosphere-into-a-crematorium-for-satellites-276366

A new space race could turn our atmosphere into a ‘crematorium for satellites’
Planned ‘megaconstellations’ of satellites could cause unforeseen harm to the ozone layer and climate systems. Global regulation is needed before it’s too late.

A nice piece of work, I hope it encourages improvements!
Towards a science of AI agent reliability
AI 'reliability lags capability, and that reliability will remain a barrier to deployment unless researchers and developers focus effort on improving reliability as a separate dimension from accuracy'
https://…

New Paper: Towards a science of AI agent reliability
Quantifying the capability-reliability gap

A look at a local group's lawsuit against Micron over its $100B New York manufacturing complex, alleging a rushed permitting process and environmental review (Fast Company)
https://www.fastcompany.com/91495639/micro

Micron’s $100 billion New York semiconductor manufacturing project is facing local pushback
The notoriously dirty semiconductor industry poses potential environmental and health risks for surrounding areas.

"New calculator shows exactly how much environmental damage is behind your internet searches"
#Technology #Internet #Emissions

New tool reveals the hidden environmental cost of every website
9,000 monthly searches on YouTube.com uses 10 litres of water – enough for a capuchin monkey to survive for 77 days.

Thailand and Cambodia sign new ceasefire agreement to end border fighting : NPR
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/27/g-s1-103785/thailand-cambodia-new-ceasefire-agreement

Cowboys’ Maxx Crosby Trade Chances Shift After New Report https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/dallas-cowboys/maxx-crosby-trade-chances-shift-new-report/

On the Divergent Evolution of Io and Europa as Primordial Ocean Worlds: #GalileanMoons set at birth: https://www.swri.org/newsroom/press-releases/new-study-finds-water-makeup-of-jupiter-s-galilean-moons-set-birth

The State of New York in an Election Year, February 2026 (Marist Poll)
https://maristpoll.marist.edu/polls/the-state-of-new-york-in-an-election-year-february-2026/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260226/p67#a260226p67

NY Gov. Kathy Hochul signs a law requiring social platforms with features like addictive feeds to show warning labels about mental health impacts on young users (Andre Revilla/Engadget)
https://www.engadget.com/social-media/new-

New York State will require warning labels on social media platforms
New York will require warning labels on social media.

Can Jesse Minter provide a Mike Macdonald impact for Lamar Jackson and Ravens? https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47704134/new-baltimore-ravens-coach-jesse-minter-provide-impact-lamar-jackson

🥳 New Kitten Release
This one fixes a bug that you would have encountered had you had an asynchronous component (component with asynchronous render method) nested more than one-level deep within synchronous components.
(Kitten’s html renderer transparently supports both synchronous and asynchronous render methods.)
So, this (taken from my unit test), for example, works correctly now:
```js
class AsynchronousOtherName extends KittenComponent {
async htm…

⚡ New electrolyzer turns plastic-waste syngas into ethylene with less energy
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-electrolyzer-plastic-syngas-ethylene-energy.html

New electrolyzer turns plastic-waste syngas into ethylene with less energy
For every ton of ethylene created, one ton of carbon dioxide is produced. With more than 300 million tons of ethylene produced each year, the production system has a huge carbon footprint that scientists and engineers are eager to reduce and eventually eliminate. A new device developed in Ted Sargent's lab at Northwestern takes a step toward breaking that cycle.

Interesting and probably controversial observation for many by Andrew Ng,
" I’ve stopped writing code by hand. More controversially, I’ve long stopped reading generated code. I realize I’m in the minority here, but I feel like I can get built most of what I want without having to look directly at coding syntax, and I operate at a higher level of abstraction using coding agents to manipulate code for me."

The New Open-Weights Leader, Big AI’s Political Influence, Predicting Illness, and more...
The Batch AI News and Insights: Will AI create new job opportunities? My daughter Nova loves cats, and her favorite color is yellow.

Metacurity is the daily intelligence report that thousands of infosec professionals rely on to cope with news overload.
Check out today's issue, which covers critical developments you should know, including
--Cisco, Five Eyes alliance urge immediate patching for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN zero day,
--OpenAI refused to assist in online smear and other misdeeds,
--Shinyhunters pressures Odido with first leak of stolen data,
--Only a small fraction of new vulnerabil…

Cisco, Five Eyes alliance urge immediate patching for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN zero day
OpenAI refused to assist in online smear and other misdeeds, Shinyhunters pressures Odido with first leak of stolen data, Only a small fraction of new vulnerabilities are exploited, Mississippi Medical Center closed through Friday, Anthropic denies it won't support military cyber action, much more

Making WebAssembly a first-class language on the Web
WebAssembly has come a long way since its first release in 2017. The first version of WebAssembly was already a great fit for low-level languages like C and C , and immediately enabled many new kinds of applications to efficiently target the web.
— by @…
🧑‍💻

Making WebAssembly a first-class language on the Web – Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog
This post is an expanded version of a presentation I gave at the recent WebAssembly CG meeting in Munich. WebAssembly has come a long way since its first release in 2017. The 1.0 version of WebAssembly was already a great fit for low-level languages like C and C++, and immediately enabled many new kinds of applications to efficiently target the web.

anyway, congrats UK for getting a new PM soon

The Times New Resistance font is a work of art.
https://www.abbyhaddican.com/times-new-resistance

CISA's interim director Madhu Gottumukkala is reassigned as DHS' director of strategic implementation; executive assistant director Nick Andersen will take over (Luke Barr/ABC News)
https://abcnews.com/Politics/us-cybersecurity-agency-new-a…

US cybersecurity agency to get new acting director
The nominee to serve as CISA director has not yet received a hearing.

The recruitment drive for new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers
is putting strain on the vetting process,
Reuters reported, citing an internal email from the agency that was sent on Monday.
ICE leaders have now put in place a process to handle allegations of
historic misconduct against new recruits, the report said.
The email was sent to supervisors with ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations division, Reuters reported.
It cited…

Leaked ICE Memo Reveals Problems Vetting New Recruits—Report
The Trump administration has sought to rapidly hire new ICE officers to see through its aggressive deportation targets.

"Will your clothes need a passport? EU targets fashion’s greenwashing with new rules"
#EU #EuropeanUnion #Greenwashing

Will your clothes need a passport? EU targets fashion’s greenwashing with new rules | The Optimist Daily
Clothes entering the EU may soon require digital passports to prove sustainability claims, targeting greenwashing and improving supply chain transparency.

Georgia:
Students who skip school could face new punishments, including loss of driver’s license - The Current
https://thecurrentga.org/2026/02/27/students-who-skip-school-could-face-new-punishments-including-loss-of-drivers-license/

New poll: Democrats' real problem isn't being too liberal -- it's being seen as too weak (G. Elliott Morris/Strength In Numbers)
https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/new-poll-democrats-real-problem-isnt
http://www.memeorandum.com/260227/p23#a260227p23

Despite a $500M federal funding cut, the US public media remains largely intact, as donations are estimated to have grown by ~$300M YoY, with new donors up 84% (Benjamin Mullin/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/business/media/npr-pbs-stations-…

Public Media Holds Its Apocalypse at Bay, for Now
Though Congress cut $500 million from NPR and PBS stations, vanishingly few have closed their doors. Angst about their long-term future remains.

An ultra-high-resolution map of (dark) matter: #DarkMatter on Universe: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-reveals-new-details-about-dark-matters-influence-on-universe/

New Cowboys 2026 Mock Draft Lands Defensive Duo With Strong NFL Links https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/onsi/draft/new-dallas-cowboys-2026-mock-draft-defensive-duo-strong-nfl-links

Patriots vs. Seahawks: Best betting apps, sportsbook promos for New England vs. Seattle in the 2026 Big Game

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/patriot

Folks, our very own @… has his new book, 99th Day: A Warning About Technology, coming out next Monday.
https://gerrymcgovern.com/books/99th-day/<…

99th Day: A Warning About Technology

Good news, any progress in more federated social media is a good thing in my view.
https://openfuture.eu/blog/eurosky-dawns-building-infrastructure-for-sovereign-social-media/

Eurosky dawns – Open Future
The Eurosky initiative is building European social media infrastructure on the ATProtocol, representing a new step in Europe's digital sovereignty agenda as policymakers seek alternatives to Big Tech platforms that serve public interest rather than commercial imperatives.

Privacy-focused MVNO Cape, which has raised $61M from a16z and others, launches across the US following a March 2025 beta, offering a $99 monthly plan (Steven Melendez/Fast Company)
https://www.fastcompany.com/91481000/this-

This new privacy-focused phone service is designed to keep your phone from getting hacked
Cape, which offers a range of enhanced privacy and security measures, is now offering service across the United States. 

Republicans want to jail pharmacists as two new bills targeting gender-affirming care advance - LGBTQ Nation
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/01/republicans-want-to-pharmacists-as-two-new-bills-targeting-gender-affirming-care-advance/

More than 20% of the videos that YouTube’s algorithm shows to new users are “AI slop”
– low-quality AI-generated content designed to farm views, research has found.
The video-editing company Kapwing surveyed 15,000 of the world’s most popular YouTube channels
– the top 100 in every country
– and found that 278 of them contain only AI slop.
Together, these AI slop channels have amassed more than 63 billion views and 221 million subscribers,
-- generating ab…

New ACLU Report Reveals How the Trump Administration is Using Local Police to Build a National Deportation-Policing Force Through the 287(g) Program (ACLU)
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/new-aclu-report-reveals-how-the-trump-administration-is-using-local-police-to-build-a-national-deportation-policing-force-through-the-287g-program
http://www.memeorandum.com/260227/p42#a260227p42

AI Whistleblower Initiative says OpenAI recently updated its whistleblower policy, addressing 8 of 13 recommendations and going further than Anthropic's policy (Rocket Drew/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-one-ups-a…

OpenAI One-Ups Anthropic with New Whistleblower Policy
OpenAI recently updated its policy for handling whistleblower complaints, following concerns about AI startups ignoring what are standard rules applying to all companies. It follows similar steps from Anthropic and could pressure other AI companies to follow suit.Federal government rules mandate ...

RE: https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/116130113129035572
Thanks to two new patrons who have contacted me privately, we’re past the half way point and have pledges from 10 patrons to cover $355 of the $600/month in rent that Aseel and her family need to leave the pr…

"Green spaces should be the norm for all new housing developments in England, guidelines say"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Houses

Health care, new cars and new homes feel unaffordable to most Americans,
a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll shows.

Most Americans say that they can afford basic necessities like their current housing costs, groceries, utilities and gasoline.
But large numbers across income levels also say larger expenses and the cost of things associated with an enjoyable life
— including taking a weeklong vacation
— are out of reach.
Overall, 53 percent of adults say…

A new car, home feel out of reach for middle-class Americans, poll finds
Most renters — including those earning six figures — doubt they could afford a home in the foreseeable future.

States Should Adopt the Wealth Proceeds Tax to Raise New Revenue | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
https://www.cbpp.org/blog/states-should-adopt-the-wealth-proceeds-tax-to-raise-new-revenue

A Dem Senator's Harsh Takedown of Trump Hits Home: "Breaking Point" (New Republic)
https://newrepublic.com/article/205723/dem-senator-harsh-new-takedown-trump-hits-home-breaking-point
http://www.memeorandum.com/260127/p13#a260127p13

Federal judge Zahid N. Quraishi, on Thursday said that the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey
👉had lost its credibility and
👉was intentionally violating immigration-related orders,
the latest rebuke from a judiciary that has grown increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration.
Judge Quraishi, added that if the Trump administration continued to make immigration arrests under a rationale that had already been found legally unacceptable,
💥 those arrests w…

Judge Says U.S. Is Intentionally Violating the Law on Immigration
Judge Zahid N. Quraishi said federal prosecutors in New Jersey had lost credibility on immigration issues. He’s the latest federal judge to show impatience with the Trump administration.

Exclusive: Russia likely placing new hypersonic missiles at former airbase in Belarus, researchers find | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-researchers-identify-likely-belarus-site-new-russian-nuclear-capable-missile-2025-12-26/

Sources: Bari Weiss plans to announce new CBS contributors, including existing Free Press writers like conservative historian Niall Ferguson, at an all-hands (Sara Fischer/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2026/01/27/bari-weiss-cbs-contributors

Bari Weiss adds new podcasters and writers as CBS contributors
Weiss is importing an upstart newsroom model into a legacy media organization, prioritizing independent voices with built-in, loyal followings.

'Nearly blind' refugee found dead after being released by Border Patrol in New York (Daniella Silva/NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nearly-blind-refugee-found-dead-border-patrol-buffalo-new-york-rcna260787
http://www.memeorandum.com/260226/p104#a260226p104

TikTok says the new US entity has not updated its algorithm since the joint venture was announced, after users accused it of suppressing posts related to ICE (David McCabe/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/us/tiktok-ice-minneapolis-techni…

TikTok Blames Technical Problems After Users Claimed It Blocked ICE Posts
Some users had accused the app of blocking them from posting videos about Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The app said it was a power outage issue.

A frame-by-frame assessment of actions by Alex Pretti and the two officers who fired 10 times shows how lethal force came to be used against a target who didn’t pose a threat.
https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000010…

Video: New Video Analysis Reveals Flawed and Fatal Decisions in Shooting of Pretti
A frame-by-frame assessment of actions by Alex Pretti and the two officers who fired 10 times shows how lethal force came to be used against a target who didn’t pose a threat.

Nicky, my family's been here for almost 400 years. STFU.
The New Charlie Kirk is … Nick Fuentes – Digby's Hullabaloo
https://digbysblog.net/2025/12/26/the-new-charlie-kirk-is-nick-fuentes/

TikTok says the new US entity has not updated its algorithm since the joint venture was announced, after users accused it of suppressing posts related to ICE (David McCabe/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/us/tiktok-ice-minneapolis-techni…

TikTok Blames Technical Problems After Users Claimed It Blocked ICE Posts
Some users had accused the app of blocking them from posting videos about Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The app said it was a power outage issue.

Over half of Americans say health care, a weeklong vacation and a new car are unaffordable: ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll (Emily Guskin/ABC News)
https://abcnews.com/Politics/half-americans-health-care-weeklong-vacation-new-car/story?id=130538412
http://www.memeorandum.com/260227/p98#a260227p98

Sources: Nvidia plans to unveil a new AI inference chip at its GTC conference in March; the system will have a Groq-designed chip and OpenAI is a customer (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/nvidia-pla…

Google expands its AI Plus subscription to 35 new countries and territories, including the US at $7.99/month, with "enhanced access" to Gemini 3 Pro and more (Abner Li/9to5Google)
https://9to5google.com/2026/01/27/google-ai-plus-us/

Google AI Plus comes to US for $7.99, Google One 2 TB upgraded
After introducing the plan internationally in September, Google is bringing its AI Plus subscription to 35 new countries, including the US. 

India-based Ultrahuman launches the $479 Ring Pro, available for pre-order globally, excluding the US, after the ITC ruled in favor of Oura in a patent dispute (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/27/ultr…

Ultrahuman bets on redesigned smart ring to win back U.S. market after Oura dispute | TechCrunch
Ultrahuman’s Ring Pro promises 15-day battery life and a $479 price tag as the wearables maker expands its health-tech push.

The government of California is implementing a law that requires operating system providers to implement some form of age verification into their account setup procedures.
Assembly Bill No. 1043 was approved by California governor Gavin Newsom in October of last year, and becomes active on January 1, 2027 (via The Lunduke Journal).
The bill states, among other factors, that "An operating system provider shall do all of the following:"
"(1) Provide an accessib…

A new California law says all operating systems, including Linux, need to have some form of age verification at account setup
It's basic, and by the looks of it, near unenforceable.

Source: Meta has signed a multiyear deal to rent Google's TPUs to develop new models and has also been in talks to buy TPUs for its data centers as soon as 2027 (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/go

Google Strikes Multibillion-Dollar AI Chip Deal With Meta, Sharpening Nvidia Rivalry
Meta Platforms has signed a deal to rentGoogle’s AI chips, known as tensor processing units, to develop new AI models, according to a person involved in the talks. The multi-year deal is worth billions of dollars, said a person who was briefed about it.Meta has also been talking to Google about ...

Poland plans to complete a new set of ⭐️anti-drone fortifications⭐️ along its eastern borders within two years, a top defence official has said,
after a massive incursion of unmanned Russian aerial combat vehicles into Polish airspace earlier this year.
“We expect to have the first capabilities of the system in roughly six months, perhaps even sooner. And the full system will take 24 months to complete,”
deputy defence minister, Cezary Tomczyk, told the Guardian in an interv…

Sources: crypto investment firm Paradigm is looking to raise up to $1.5B for a new fund to expand into AI, robotics, and other forms of frontier tech (Yuliya Chernova/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/crypto-firm-paradigm-to…

The FIFA tournament may create some new American fans, but at what cost?
Exorbitant ticket prices have cut out the game’s grassroots.
Onerous demands on cities have siphoned public money.
Fifa has boosted an openly corrupt administration at every turn.
Now wanton federal violence has made it difficult to justify having the World Cup here at all.
Safety, justice, freedom, the continued functioning of society
– these are all under threat.
Even to ma…

Oracle stock fell 30% this quarter, its steepest drop since Q3 2001, when it slid ~34%, amid skepticism about its ability to open more data centers for OpenAI (Jordan Novet/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/26/oracle-stock-on-pace-for-worst…

Oracle shares on pace for worst quarter since 2001 as new CEOs face concerns about AI build-out
Investors want to know if Oracle, under new CEOs Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia, can pay for and deliver data centers packed with Nvidia chips for OpenAI.

Congress authorized the SAVE program to help states ensure eligibility for public benefits applications
-- not to block American citizens from voting.
With substantial new changes to the SAVE program,
there is even more reason for election officials to exercise caution when using the system and interpreting its results.
SAVE is a tool for verifying citizenship.
Like other large-scale data sources,
it has flaws, exacerbated by an aggressive overhaul.
T…

Homeland Security’s “SAVE” Program Exacerbates Risks to Voters
Bad data and a politicized overhaul could spread election fraud lies and disenfranchise voters.

Nvidia invests an additional $2B in CoreWeave to help speed up adding 5GW of AI computing capacity by 2030 and deploy Nvidia's new Vera CPU; CRWV jumps 9% (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-26/nvi…

Ariana Grande urges followers
to call senators about ICE
and shares a hotline for reporting ICE activity in New York.
https://bsky.app/profile/popcrave.com/post/3mdgcejhxs22p

Pop Crave (@popcrave.com)
Ariana Grande urges followers to call senators about ICE and shares a hotline for reporting ICE activity in New York.

At the National Institutes of Health, big changes to its communications operations were already underway before Trump’s return to the White House.
But the new administration scrapped those carefully laid plans in favor of haphazard downsizing.
In January, more than 600 people worked in communications offices spread across the NIH.
Today, there are fewer than 100.
Officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., justified the deep cuts as…

As dangerous eugenic ideas spread, NIH falls silent
Federal research agencies are pulling back from fostering public discussions about science after the hollowing out of government communications offices.

Precious metals soared Monday
— with gold extending its record run past $5,100 per troy ounce and silver surging to new highs
— as investors continued to load up on hard assets as a hedge against geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty.

Gold was up 2.4 percent on New York’s COMEX commodities exchange before pulling back;
it had crossed the $5,000 threshold for the first time a day earlier.
Silver, which tends to be more volatile, spiked 14.6 percent Mon…

Why gold and silver prices are surging at breakneck speeds
A record-setting rally in precious metals comes as global investors diversify away from the U.S. dollar, a phenomenon known as the “debasement trade.”

Members of Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard (#DBNY ),
a campaign that organizes weekly demonstrations calling for the eviction of two companies from the city-owned industrial park,
said a new mayor won’t alter their activism.
“Mamdani’s electoral victory doesn’t change our mission nor does it change our work,”
said the group in a statement to Mondoweiss.
“We hope Mamdani heeds the …

As Zohran Mamdani prepares to enter City Hall he faces pressure from an unlikely source — Palestine activists
Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City owed no small debt to Palestine activists, many of whom mobilized behind his campaign. But how will this relationship fare once he enters City Hall? There are some early tests that will let us know.

The Trump administration is planning to
👉use artificial intelligence to write federal transportation regulations,
according to U.S. Department of Transportation records
and interviews with six agency staffers.
The plan was presented to DOT staff last month at a demonstration of AI’s “potential to revolutionize the way we draft rulemakings,”
agency attorney Daniel Cohen wrote to colleagues.
The demonstration, Cohen wrote, would showcase “exciting new AI to…

Government by AI? Trump Administration Plans to Write Regulations Using Artificial Intelligence
The Transportation Department, which oversees the safety of airplanes, cars and pipelines, plans to use Google Gemini to draft new regulations. “We don’t need the perfect rule,” said DOT’s top lawyer. “We want good enough.”