Congo offers manganese, copper‑cobalt, and lithium assets to US investors under minerals pact CNBC Africa
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05 Sci-Tech
Progmerican NY Governor Kathy Hochul is making a push to figure out how to make software that enables 3D printers to print guns and gun parts illegal. Even as the real 2A push is increasingly heading to the drone frontier, the Progmericans are still hoping to contain the threat that comes from citizens equipped and capable of defending themselves against ALL enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC.
Her office released this official statement: As part of her 2026 State of the State agenda, Governor Kathy Hochul today unveiled proposals to strengthen New York’s nation leading gun laws by cracking down on 3D-printed and illegal firearms. The new legislation would establish criminal penalties for the manufacture of 3D-printed firearms and order minimum safety standards to be established for 3D printer manufacturers to block the production of firearms and firearm components.
Gov. Hochul Demands Software to Block 3D Printers from ‘Creating a Gun’ – breitbart.com
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) pushed a mandate Wednesday that would require new 3D printers to be sold with software that blocks them from being used for “creating a gun.”
Whether he realized it or not, Israeli billionaire tech entrepreneur and Cato Networks co-founder Shlomo Kramer just advocated for the restriction of Americans’ First Amendment rights essentially to protect Israel from online threats.
Here is how he chose to advance this Anti-First-Amendment narrative, “You’re seeing the polarization in countries that allow for the First Amendment and protect it, which is great. And I know it’s difficult to hear, but it’s time to limit the First Amendment in order to protect it. And quickly before it’s too late… I mean that we (government) need to control the platforms, all the social platforms. We need to stack, rank the authenticity of every person that expresses themselves online and take control over what they are saying, based on that ranking.”
Israeli tech CEO calls on US govt to ‘limit’ First Amendment,’ take control of social media to prevent ‘lies’ Fox Business
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump Monday at his Mar-a-Lago estate, weeks after a top Israeli defense official warned the world is soon to face its first cyber-based war. This meeting between Trump and Netanyahu comes amid growing debate within some conservative circles over the scope of American backing for Israel and the direction of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Netanyahu has referred to social media as a new weapon in the modern age.
The socialist UK government is mulling plans to ban the social media giant X, owned by Elon Musk, over supposed online safety concerns.
UK Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has voiced support for regulator Ofcom to potentially restrict access to X if the platform fails to comply with national online safety laws.
The nation’s censors are specifically citing the use of X’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, Grok, which has been used to manipulate digital images.
The government argues that it is a crime to create AI-generated images of people without their consent.
More and more people have been experiencing psychosis induced by AI chatbot use. This is concerning since chatbot use is so prevalent, especially among young people and those who are in distress and vulnerable (one recent study found that about a quarter of young adults used chatbots specifically for mental health advice).
Reassuringly, psychiatry’s stance is that anyone who experiences this was already “prone to psychosis”—that the chatbot simply triggered delusions that would have been triggered some other way. Yet there is no evidence to support this explanation, and the case reports of those who have experienced AI psychosis tell a different story.
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on the emerging need for massive data centers to power AI brains every nation-state will now need to be a world power in the years to come. He offered a carrot to the main sides of the incoming debate, the taxpayers who may be on the hook to pay for the data centers, the locals affected by the data centers and the corporatists relying on those data centers for personal power.
He characterized it in the American context, writing, “We are the ‘HOTTEST’ Country in the World, and Number One in AI. Data Centers are key to that boom, and keeping Americans FREE and SECURE but, the big Technology Companies who build them must ‘pay their own way,” His post does not address another conflict-of-interest crisis, water resources, which are also needed in large volumes to fund the AI brains.
Trump seeks to quell data center rebellion – Washington Post
In a bid to tamp down growing unrest in communities over tech giants’ expansion of power-hungry data centers, President Donald Trump said his administration would push Silicon Valley companies to ensure their massive computer farms do not drive up people’s electricity bills, seizing on a promise Tuesday by Microsoft to be a better neighbor.
The Trump administration has gone all in on artificial intelligence, pushing aside concerns within the MAGA movemen and seeking to sweep away regulations that it says hamper innovation. But neighbors of the vast warehouses of computer chips that form the technology’s backbone – many of them in areas otherwise supportive of the president – have grown increasingly concerned about how the facilities sap power from the grid, guzzle water to stay cool and secure tax breaks from local governments. And Trump now appears to be recalibrating his approach.
“We are the ‘HOTTEST’ Country in the World, and Number One in AI. Data Centers are key to that boom, and keeping Americans FREE and SECURE but, the big Technology Companies who build them must ‘pay their own way,’” Trump said Monday in a post on his Truth Social site, teasing Microsoft’s announcement of an initiative to address the issue and framing it as part of a broader effort by his administration.
In a sure sign that even the far-left is about to go all-in on the AI brain race, Progmerican Governor of Illinois J.B. Pritzker has signed legislation that ends a decades-long ban on new construction of large-scale nuclear power plants in the state. The move should be seen as a telegraph the left’s Green Deal may be over in favor of AI Justice
Illinois Governor Signs Legislation Ending Moratorium On New Large-Scale Nuclear Plants NucNet
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Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker has signed into law a wide-ranging energy reform package that includes the lifting of a longtime ban on new large-scale nuclear power plants in the state.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has unveiled the department’s update to the previous food pyramid. The pyramid is replaced with a 10-page guide. The Secretary said of the guide, “The new guidelines recognize that whole, nutrient-dense food is the most effective path to better health and lower health care cost.”
President Donald Trump’s administration has released a new set of federal dietary guidelines that will influence meals served to millions of Americans across government programs, schools, and federal institutions.
The new guidelines were revealed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and are designed to align with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda.
The 10-page guidance document emphasizes protein, dairy, “healthy fats,” fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, with Kennedy and Rollins describing the approach as a return to whole, nutrient-dense food.
“The new guidelines recognize that whole, nutrient-dense food is the most effective path to better health and lower health care costs,” Kennedy said at a press conference in Washington.
One of the biggest problems — of many — that President Donald Trump identified under his predecessor’s regime involved the soaring cost of living to which many Americans were subjected.
By that same token, Trump also appears cognizant that one of the initiatives he supports, the investment in and proliferation of artificial intelligence, could very well lead to Americans feeling the same sort of squeeze they felt under former President Joe Biden.
Aware of that, the president took to Truth Social to issue a mandate to tech companies, saying they will not be allowed to jack up American utility bills.
Donald J. Trump Truth Social Post 06:38 PM EST 01.12.26 pic.twitter.com/kKlX348syO
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) January 12, 2026
11-year streak of record global warming continues, UN weather agency warns UN News
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A tiny, premature baby, who weighed less than a bag of sugar when she was born, has finally been able to leave the hospital, just in time for Christmas.
Baby Desire was born 18 weeks prematurely to first-time parents Omotola and Samuel Joseph, after her mum went into labour unexpectedly in July. The little premature baby weighed only 13 ounces, or 375 grams, when she was born, and so had to spend time in the care of doctors and nurses at a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) while she developed.
“Before she was born, we prepared our minds for what might happen. She was just so tiny, fitting entirely in the palm of my hand”, mum Omotola said.
Eating real food is not quite that simple, and might even constitute “bowing to Big Meat,” depending on who you ask.
After Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his department dropped the new federal dietary guidelines — which have been historically referred to as the food pyramid — the recommendation of eating “real food,” including red meat and full-fat dairy, was seen as an attack by many in the dietary sphere.
‘Beef is responsible for 20 times more greenhouse gas emissions per gram of protein than beans.’
The new guidelines emphasized protein (from meat and vegetables), dairy, fruit, and some grains as part of a healthy diet. While some cleverly accused HHS of copying a popular “South Park” scene where scientists simply “flip the pyramid” to solve America’s health crisis, others decided to criticize the guidelines for promoting animal meat intake.
The UK government says Elon Musk’s platform X limiting Grok AI image edits to paid users is “insulting” to victims of misogyny and sexual violence.
Speaking on Friday, Downing Street said the move “simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service”.
It follows significant backlash after Grok digitally altered images of others by undressing them – something it says it now can only do for those who pay a monthly fee.
But the prime minister’s official spokesperson told reporters on Friday it showed X – which has not yet commented – “can move swiftly when it wants to do so”.
Colombia launches major counter-drone program after U.S. hits Venezuela Defence Blog
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Indonesia suspends Musk’s Grok AI over porn New Age
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The UK government says X limiting Grok AI image edits to users who pay a monthly fee is “insulting” to victims of misogyny and sexual violence.
It follows backlash after Elon Musk’s AI engine digitally changed images of people by undressing them – something it says it now can only do for those who pay a monthly instalment.
The BBC’s technology editor Zoe Kleinman explains what’s happened and why.
The UK government “wants any excuse for censorship”, Elon Musk has said, amid a growing backlash over deepfake sexual images produced by his social media site X’s artificial intelligence tool.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said X needed “to get a grip of” its AI chatbot Grok, and he had asked media regulator Ofcom for “all options to be on the table”.
Musk Calls UK ‘Fascist’ as Row Over Grok AI Images Escalates Bloomberg.com
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A team of researchers in China has just pulled the curtain back on a new sodium-sulfur battery design that could fundamentally change the math on energy storage. By leaning into the very chemistry that has historically made sulfur a headache for engineers, they have managed to build a cell that is incredibly cheap to make but still packs a massive energy punch.
The design, which is currently being tested in the lab, uses dirt-cheap ingredients: sulfur, sodium, aluminum, and a chlorine-based electrolyte. In early trials, the battery hit energy densities over 2,000 watt-hours per kilogram – a figure that blows today’s sodium-ion batteries out of the water and even gives top-tier lithium cells a run for their money.
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.
China warns satellites from Elon Musk’s Starlink are ‘safety and security’ risk South China Morning Post
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Elon Musk says Neuralink will ramp up production of brain-chip implants in 2026 Business Insider
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EU says ‘seriously looking’ into Musk’s Grok AI over sexual deepfakes of minors France 24
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Artificial intelligence is easily the most deceptive technological innovation of the 21st century. Its ease of use and the lightning-fast reflexes with which it spits out responses belie its enormous appetite for water and energy.ChatGPT took the world by storm when it launched in late 2023, signalling an era of intelligence demand marked by seamless, conversational interactions between user and machine But behind every smooth exchange lies a complex physical process. Modern AI is built on vast neural networks trained on trillions of words, images, and numbers. This training, to help models learn to predict the next word or recognise a pattern, involves processing colossal datasets repeatedly through graphics processing units, or GPUs. These chips, originally designed for rendering video game graphics, have become AI workhorses because they can perform thousands of mathematical operations simultaneously. But this speed comes at a price: intense heat.
Scientists working with China’s fully superconducting Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) have successfully reached a long-theorized “density-free regime” in fusion plasma experiments. In this state, the plasma remains stable even when its density rises far beyond traditional limits. The results, published in Science Advances on January 1, shed new light on how one of fusion energy’s most stubborn physical barriers might finally be overcome on the road to ignition.
The research was co-led by Prof. Ping Zhu of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Associate Prof. Ning Yan of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. By developing a new high-density operating approach for EAST, the team showed that plasma density can be pushed well past long-standing empirical limits without triggering the disruptive instabilities that usually end experiments. This finding challenges decades of assumptions about how tokamak plasmas behave at high density.
US deploys two aircraft carriers to Western Pacific amid China’s Taiwan drills News On AIR
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The New York Times is demanding that the Canadian government advances it’s rapid expansion of “assisted suicide” laws in order to swiftly euthanize a woman suffering from mental health issues.
It comes as Canada’s spiraling assisted-suicide program is once again under international fire after the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities called on the Canadian government to repeal its planned expansion of euthanasia for those suffering solely from mental illness, a policy critics warn will normalize suicide as “healthcare.”