The Petersburg Post
Top News Stories for Saturday, January 17th 2026
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
Two weeks after United States special forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado visited the White House for her first in-person meeting with US President Donald Trump. With Venezuela's future uncertain, and Trump seemingly in a position of authority to determine who might lead the South American country, Machado placed her recently won Nobel Peace Prize in the ...
Source: aljazeera.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Friday (Jan. 16) that he expects big banks to offer "great new Trump cards." Speaking on Fox Business , and asked about President Donald Trump's proposed 10% credit card rate cap, Hassett said that the ideas come up in White House conversations with bank CEOs. "We've been in conversations with the big banks, with CEOs of many of the big banks, who ...
Source: pymnts.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
OpenAI says ads will not influence ChatGPT's responses, and that it won't sell user data to advertisers. OpenAI plans to start testing ads inside ChatGPT in the coming weeks, marking a significant shift for one of the world's most widely used AI products . The company announced Friday that initial ad tests will roll out in the United States before expanding globally. OpenAI says ads will not influence ChatGPT's ...
Source: wired.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
, the mother of without her consent. St. Clair, 27, filed the lawsuit in the state of New York on Thursday, January 15, reported CNN NBC News People In the filing, the right-wing political commentator alleged that "xAI's product Grok, a generative artificial intelligence ('AI') chatbot, uses AI to undress, humiliate, and sexually exploit victims." St. Clair claimed that X users were able to use Grok to generate ...
Source: bradenton.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
Billionaire US Education Secretary Linda McMahon has temporarily suspended the Trump administration's plan to resume garnishing the wages of defaulted student loan borrowers, a reversal that came after advocates warned the pay seizures would have had devastating economic consequences for people across the country amid a worsening cost-of-living crisis. McMahon, who is actively working to dismantle her department ...
Source: commondreams.org
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
BEIJING — With U.S. ties at their lowest point in modern history, Canada is turning to one of the only countries with which it had even worse relations: China . Canada is forging a "new strategic partnership" with China, its second-biggest trading partner, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday during what he called a "historic" trip to Beijing. That includes a break with the United States on tariffs, which ...
Source: nbcnews.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
Google parent company Alphabet hit the $4 trillion mark this week, second only to Nvidia in market capitalization, and no wonder. It kept showing off its newfound AI prowess, as Apple will use Gemini in the background for Siri, and Google released a new personalization tool for Gemini as well as a new protocol for agentic shopping. But as CEO Sundar Pichai (pictured) surely knows, the competition remains fierce, as ...
Source: siliconangle.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
The protest movement in Iran has subsided after a crackdown that has killed thousands under an internet blackout, monitors said Friday, one week after the start of the biggest protests in years challenging the Islamic republic's theocratic system. The threat of new military action by the United States against Iran has also appeared to have receded for the time being, with a Saudi official saying Gulf allies have ...
Source: digitaljournal.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
A federal court has thrown out a lawsuit brought by the Trump administration attempting to force the state of California to turn over sensitive voter data. The decision , issued by the U.S. Central District Court of Southern California, is a major setback to the federal government's massive data collection effort on American voters, and its argument that existing civil rights laws permit it to demand that ...
Source: cyberscoop.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
Federal prosecutors have unveiled a betting ring involving NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association game fixing, charging 26 people, including current and former college basketball players. The case involves gamblers placing bets and bribing players with large cash payouts for underperforming during a game, even texting players pictures of stacks of money if they complied. U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said the ...
Source: abajournal.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
The ruling is the first in relation to multiple criminal charges Yoon Suk Yeol faces over his failed bid to impose martial law, with prosecutors requesting the death penalty in a separate trial. The former president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, has been sentenced to five years in prison on charges relating to his failed martial law declaration. Yoon was found guilty on Friday of mobilising the presidential ...
Source: news.sky.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
A federal judge said Dominion Energy Inc. can restart construction of a wind project off the coast of Virginia while it continues a legal fight over the Trump administration's order to stop the $11 billion development. The ruling marks the third time this week that an offshore wind project was allowed to resume despite a government stop-work order. US District Judge Jamar Walker in Norfolk, Virginia, issued a ...
Source: news.bloomberglaw.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department's investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has brought heightened attention to a key drama that will play out at the central bank in the coming months: Will Powell leave the Fed when his term as chair ends, or will he take the unusual step of remaining a governor? Powell's term as Fed chair finishes on May 15, but because of the central bank's complex ...
Source: apnews.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
Google Fast Pair makes pairing easy, but a flawed implementation has created a serious security risk. Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Researchers have disclosed WhisperPair, a family of vulnerabilities that impact a protocol commonly used to pair headphones, earbuds, and other audio products with Bluetooth devices. What is WhisperPair? As first reported by ...
Source: zdnet.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
Top tier membership removes ads from your experience and keeps our journalism accessible to all. No paywalls. No billionaire owners. Just independent reporting funded by readers who believe truth matters. Already a member? All over the internet (and in day-to-day conversations), people who recently had (or currently have) the flu are saying than previous flu seasons — more congestion, worse body aches, chills ...
Source: huffpost.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
Cancer mortality drops 34% as treatments and early detection improve New national estimates reveal historic gains in cancer survival and millions of deaths averted, while exposing stark inequities and warning that policy decisions today could determine whether progress continues or stalls. Study: Cancer statistics, 2026 The American Cancer Society ( ACS ) has published the 2026 cancer statistics in CA: A Cancer ...
Source: news-medical.net
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
Follow Earth on Google Tyrannosaurus rex has long been portrayed as a monster that rocketed to adulthood, hitting peak size in its twenties. A new analysis paints a different picture. It suggests these predators kept growing for roughly four decades, taking far longer to reach their full bulk than scientists once thought. The study reexamines growth evidence from 17 tyrannosaur leg-bone fossils, from small ...
Source: earth.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
Opposition leader Bobi Wine is said to be on track for a landslide defeat - but his supporters allege major voter suppression and Sky News witnesses snatch squads bundling people into armoured trucks. At least seven people have been killed as Uganda's presidential election descended into violence, with the opposition party saying their leader had been forcibly taken away. Posting on X, the National Unity Platform ...
Source: news.sky.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
The startup aims to bypass invasive skull surgery by using ultrasound and molecular engineering to connect neurons directly to digital models. OpenAI has invested in Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface startup founded by Sam Altman, its CEO. The company emerged from stealth on Thursday, announcing an undisclosed seed round. A source familiar with the matter confirmed OpenAI provided the largest single check in ...
Source: techbriefly.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. Swipe for next article Coalition of lawmakers is asking the FTC to reply to a series of questions about Trump Mobile by mid-February A group of Democratic lawmakers is asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Trump Mobile, the cellphone network provider branded by the Trump Organization , for ...
Source: independent.co.uk
Thursday, Jan 15th, 2026 -
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA's first medical evacuation. SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station. "It's so good to be home," said NASA astronaut ...
Source: bostonglobe.com
Thursday, Jan 15th, 2026 -
A federal appeals court has reversed a June court decision to release pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil from immigration detention, marking a major win for the Trump administration amid its ongoing push to deport him. In a two-to-one decision on Thursday, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled that the lower federal court did not have jurisdiction over the immigration matters in the case, ...
Source: truthout.org
Thursday, Jan 15th, 2026 -
Verizon said late Wednesday that it has resolved a major service outage on Wednesday that reportedly affected more than 2 million customers , rendering them unable to use their devices. In a comment to CNET sent late Wednesday, a Verizon spokesperson said that the problem appears to be fixed and the company will contact customers who were affected. "The outage has been resolved. If customers are still having ...
Source: cnet.com
Thursday, Jan 15th, 2026 -
Governor Maura Healey released new guidance on childhood vaccinations Wednesday, countering Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s recent overhaul of the schedule. On Jan. 5 , the Trump administration reduced the number of vaccinations it recommends for all children, framing the decision as a way to increase public trust by backing only the most important shots. Unlike the federal government, Massachusetts ...
Source: bostonglobe.com
Thursday, Jan 15th, 2026 -
U.S. forces seized a sixth oil tanker Thursday in an early morning operation, according to U.S. Southern Command. The tanker was seized as part of a quarantine on sanctioned oil tankers going in and out of Venezuela. "In another pre-dawn action, Marines and Sailors from Joint Task Force Southern Spear, in support of the Department of Homeland Security, launched from USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) and apprehended ...
Source: cbsnews.com
Thursday, Jan 15th, 2026 -
Spotify claims the higher fees will help "benefit artists." After a dozen years of keeping subscription prices stable, Spotify has issued three price hikes in 2.5 years. Spotify informed subscribers via email today that Premium monthly subscriptions would go from $12 to $13 per month as of users' February billing date. Spotify is already advertising the higher prices to new subscribers. Although not explicitly ...
Source: arstechnica.com
Thursday, Jan 15th, 2026 -
Less than 24 hours after the Trump administration informed more than 2,000 addiction and mental health programs nationwide that it was immediately terminating almost $2 billion of their funding, the administration reversed course and reinstated the money. An administration official confirmed Wednesday night that the money was being restored, but declined to say why. The decision followed furious lobbying by ...
Source: bostonglobe.com