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US   POLITICS  
Oregon launches probe into DHS shooting of two people in Portland
- Jan. 9 (UPI) -- The Oregon Department of Justice is launching a formal investigation into the shooting of two people in Portland by federal immigration officers, the state's top cop announced late Thursday, amid growing concerns over their use of force following the death of a 37-year-old woman earlier this week. Dan Rayfield, the state's Democratic attorney general, announced the probe hours after Customs and ...

Source: upi.com
Musk's Grok under fire over sexualized images despite new limits
- European officials and tech campaigners on Friday slammed Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok after its controversial image creation feature was restricted to paying subscribers, saying the change failed to address concerns about sexualized deepfakes. Grok has faced global backlash after it emerged the feature allowed users to sexualize images of women and children using simple text prompts such as "put her in a bikini" or ...

Source: digitaljournal.com
SCIENCE  
NASA Postpones ISS Spacewalk Over Astronaut's 'Medical Situation'
- , NASA announced that it has postponed a planned spacewalk outside the International Space Station. They are also considering sending the entire four-person crew home months early after it was discovered that one of the astronauts involved is experiencing a medical issue. The canceled spacewalk was scheduled for Thursday morning and was intended to prepare a power channel for a new solar array. Astronauts Mike ...

Source: vice.com
Iran supreme leader signals crackdown coming as protesters are 'ruining their own streets' for Trump
- DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran signaled Friday that security forces would crack down on protesters, directly challenging U.S. President Donald Trump's pledge to support those peacefully demonstrating as the death toll rose to at least 50. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed Trump as having hands "stained with the blood of Iranians" as supporters shouted "Death to America!" in footage ...

Source: apnews.com
US   MARKETS  
US hiring held firm in December capping weakest year of growth since pandemic
- White House is meanwhile facing questions about an apparent embargo breach over Trump's social media post Hiring held firm in the US last month, official data showed, amid uncertainty over the strength and direction of the world's largest economy. Employers added 50,000 jobs to the US labor force last month, capping the weakest year of growth since the pandemic, according to data released from the US Bureau of ...

Source: theguardian.com
US   MARKETS  
What are today's mortgage interest rates: January 9, 2026?
- It wasn't that long ago that the idea of securing a mortgage rate under 6% seemed impossible. It was just January 2025, for example, when the average rate for a 30-year term sat above 7% . And that followed years of high mortgage rates, at one point hitting the highest level in decades . But there's been material progress since this point last year, thanks in large part to a consistent interest rate-cut campaign ...

Source: cbsnews.com
US   POLITICS  
Judge blocks Trump administration from freezing $10 billion in social services funding to 5 Democratic states
- A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Department of Health and Human Services from halting around $10 billion in social services funding to multiple Democratic states, a move the agency argued was necessary to crack down on fraud — but the states called unconstitutional. The states covered by the decision are California, New York, Minnesota, Illinois and Colorado. HHS announced plans to freeze the ...

Source: cbsnews.com
WORLD  
Russia fires hypersonic missile at target in Ukraine near NATO border | World News
- Moscow said the Oreshnik weapon's use was in retaliation for the widely dismissed claim that Ukrainian forces targeted one of Putin's residences. Russia struck a target in the Ukrainian city of Lviv overnight with its powerful Oreshnik hypersonic missile, just 40 miles from the border with NATO-member Poland. It is only the second time Russia has used the weapon in Ukraine and the first time since 2024. Ukraine's ...

Source: news.sky.com
DIGITAL   TECHNOLOGY  
Google introduces AI Inbox to organize Gmail tasks and updates • TechBriefly
- The new AI Inbox sorts emails into 'Suggested to-dos' and 'Topics to catch up on' for better organization. Google has introduced a new AI Inbox for Gmail that delivers a personalized overview of tasks and important updates. The company also launched AI Overviews in Gmail search and a Proofread feature. Gmail now extends several AI capabilities, previously limited to paid subscribers, to all users. The AI Inbox tab ...

Source: techbriefly.com
U.S. seizes another oil tanker leaving Venezuela
- Jan. 9 (UPI) -- The United States on Friday seized another oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea as it works to control Venezuela's oil, military officials said. The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Marines captured the Olina overnight , officials said. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X that the ship was "suspected of carrying embargoed oil" and had tried "to evade U.S. forces" as it left Venezuela. The U.S. ...

Source: upi.com
WORLD   POLITICS  
Experts say Trump pullout from UN climate fighting will hurt world and leave US out of green surge
- Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the entire United Nations climate-fighting apparatus takes America's environmental isolation to another level and is likely to damage both the United States and the world as the planet flirts with ecological tipping points, experts say. Leaders from around the world say ...

Source: orlandosentinel.com
US  
New cellphone video of Minneapolis ICE shooting incident revealed
- Video appearing to show Renee Nicole Good in her car right before she was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis was first posted on social media by the site Alpha News. The video appears to have been taken by a phone held by the ICE agent who fired at Good on Wednesday. The ICE agent has been identified as Jonathan Ross. "Watch this, as hard as it is," Vice President JD Vance wrote on X, as he reposted the ...

Source: cnbc.com
Carson Beck lifts Miami to CFP title game with late TD run to beat Ole Miss in Fiesta Bowl
- Carson Beck came to Miami to get the Hurricanes to the College Football Playoff. His TD run with 18 seconds to go in the Fiesta Bowl put the team in the national championship game. Beck isn't known for his scrambling ability, but he rushed for the game-winning score in . It was Beck's first rushing TD since he scored in Week 3 against South Florida. And it put Miami a win away from the school's first title since ...

Source: aol.com
POLITICS  
Trump team looking at West Wing expansion after East Wing demolition for ballroom
- Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. Swipe for next article He's dubbed the project the 'Upper West Wing' After demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make room for his sprawling ballroom , President Donald Trump is now looking to expand the West Wing, according to a new report. In an interview with The New York Times on ...

Source: independent.co.uk
Seattle-area nuclear company TerraPower signs deal with Meta for up to 8 reactors
- Sustainability: News about the rapidly growing climate tech sector and other areas of innovation to protect our planet. TerraPower , a Bill Gates-backed next-gen nuclear company, on Friday announced a deal with Meta to build up to eight small modular reactors in the U.S. with the first two coming online as soon as 2032. Tech companies have been aggressively pursuing new clean energy solutions as they race to build ...

Source: geekwire.com
US   POLITICS  
Hochul, Mamdani Unveil Free, Universal Child Care Expansion in New York
- New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled a plan to provide free child care for 2-year-olds and expand other child care support for thousands more children across the state on Thursday, in one of the first major steps toward fulfilling Mamdani's campaign pledge of universal access. The governor said that the state is fully funding the first two years of a free child care program ...

Source: truthout.org
SCIENCE  
NASA releases details on a 'never-before-seen' type of celestial object
- Follow Earth on Google Cloud-9 sits in a universe that rarely stops shining. Telescopes are built to chase that light and record every spark they can find. Yet some of the most important clues about how the universe works come from places that barely register at all. This object does not glow or glitter. It has no stars and almost no visible light. From a distance, it looks like nothing more than a quiet patch of ...

Source: earth.com
US  
Endangered mountain gorilla gives birth to rare twins in Congo: "Major event"
- An endangered mountain gorilla  has given birth to twins in the Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, whose remarkable biodiversity has long been threatened by the region's litany of conflicts. Fewer than one percent of mountain gorilla pregnancies result in twins, according to scientists, with the DRC recording a previous case in 2020, also in the UNESCO-listed Virunga reserve. ...

Source: cbsnews.com
MEDICINE  
Microbiome study hints that fibre could be linked to better sleep
- Evidence is mounting that specific gut bacteria are linked to sleep conditions, which may open the doors to dietary recommendations aiming to boost the quality of our slumbers We know that diet has a role in sleep conditions – and now it seems that dietary fibre in particular might help address them. Links have previously been found between several sleep conditions and the gut microbiome , especially through ...

Source: newscientist.com
WORLD   POLITICS  
Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 13, officials say | World News
- The Israeli military said the strikes, which hit several Hamas fighters and the group's "terror infrastructure", came in response to a failed rocket attack by militants in the Gaza City area. Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 13 people, including four children, health officials have said. Four children were among the dead following the strikes in northern Gaza and east of Gaza City, according to family ...

Source: news.sky.com
Trump's move to ban big investors from buying houses won't lower home prices, industry watchers say
- Industry watchers on both sides of the aisle say President Donald Trump's recently announced goal of banning "large institutional investors" from buying single-family homes won't address the root cause of high home prices: a shortage of homes. Major investors, including hedge funds and private equity firms, own hundreds of thousands of single-family homes around the US, which has raised concerns that Wall ...

Source: businessinsider.com
Some Dogs Can Learn New Words by Snooping in Our Conversations, Study Finds
- Reading time 4 minutes Dogs might have more tricks up their furry sleeves than we knew, at least the smartest ones. Scientists have just found that some dogs' cognitive skills can rival those of human toddlers. Researchers in Budapest and elsewhere have been studying dogs especially gifted at learning and memorizing names for toys. In their latest study, they've shown these genius canines can pick up on new words ...

Source: gizmodo.com
US   POLITICS  
The IRS just announced when you can start filing your taxes. Here's what to expect this tax season.
- It's the first tax season with the latest Trump tax cuts — and also the first since deep staff cuts at the IRS Americans will get their first up-close look at the impact of President Donald Trump's massive new tax law in several weeks, now that the Internal Revenue Service has said when people can start filing their 2025 taxes. The IRS will begin accepting income-tax returns on Monday, Jan. 26, officials for ...

Source: marketwatch.com
SCIENCE  
This Massive Asteroid Is Spinning at Record Speed — and Somehow Still Staying in One Piece
- "This is now the fastest-spinning asteroid that we know of, larger than 500 meters [1,640 feet]," astronomer Sarah Greenstreet revealed at the recent American Astronomical Society's winter meeting held in Phoenix. Named 2025 MN45, the asteroid was discovered by the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, and it makes a full rotation every 1.88 minutes. It has been declared as the asteroid that rotates faster than ...

Source: greenmatters.com
US   POLITICS  
Minnesota officials say they can't access evidence after fatal ICE shooting and FBI won't work jointly on investigation
- Minnesota's investigations agency said Thursday that the U.S. attorney's office has prevented it from taking part in the investigation into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer's fatal shooting of Minneapolis woman Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three. "The investigation would now be led solely by the FBI, and the BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative ...

Source: pbs.org
Former GLP-1 users regain lost weight after about 18 months, study says
- People who stop taking GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy for weight loss are projected to regain their shed pounds within about 1½ years, a review of existing research has found. The paper also found that former users of a wider list of weight-loss drugs regain weight four times more quickly than those who had used behavioral techniques like dieting or exercise. For sustained health benefits after ...

Source: washingtonpost.com
BUSINESS  
Cyera secures $400M to scale AI-native data security platform and enterprise adoption
- Help Net Security newsletters : Daily and weekly news, cybersecurity jobs, open source projects, breaking news – subscribe here! Cyera announced a $400 million Series F funding round, bringing its total funding to over $1.7 billion. This raise comes just over six months after the previous round and triples the company's valuation from a year ago to $9 billion. The round was led by funds managed by Blackstone ...

Source: helpnetsecurity.com
US   POLITICS  
Judge rules that a fifth federal prosecutor appointed by Pam Bondi is serving unlawfully
- The top federal prosecutor in the Northern District of New York is serving in the position unlawfully, a judge ruled Thursday. U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield's ruling against acting U.S. Attorney John Sarcone III is the fifth time that judges have ruled that a top prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi was serving in the position unlawfully. Similarly to other cases, Schofield ruled the Justice ...

Source: nbcnews.com