Files Dump: Howard Lutnick Visited Jeffrey Epstein’s Island

The release of some more of the Epstein Files today produced some wild tidbits of interactions with notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Included in the latest file dump are complaints made with the FBI containing wild allegations against Donald J. Trump. Those complaints are uncorroborated tips; however, one name has been confirmed: Trump's billionaire commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick.

According to the Files, Lutnick planned a trip to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in 2012, years after he claimed to have severed ties with Epstein.

The New York Times reports:

In December 2012, the records show, Mr. Lutnick sent an email to Mr. Epstein saying that he had a group of people — including his wife and children and another family — who were visiting the Caribbean. He asked where Mr. Epstein was located and whether they could visit for a meal.

Mr. Epstein replied through an assistant to give more information about the location of Little St. James, his private island off the coast of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. They eventually settled on plans for a lunch gathering.

Prominent people who were close to Mr. Epstein have been scrutinized in recent years for their visits to Little St. James, but Mr. Lutnick’s planned visit had not been previously disclosed. Reached by phone on Friday, Mr. Lutnick said he could not comment about the island visit because he had not seen the latest Epstein documents.

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SpaceX seeks federal approval to launch 1 million solar-powered satellite data centers

SpaceX's filing claims these satellites will be “a first step towards becoming a Kardashev II-level civilization — one that can harness the Sun’s full power."

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Blue Origin pauses space tourism flights to focus on the moon

The company is trying to take advantage of President Donald Trump's desire to return astronauts to the lunar surface by the end of his term.

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Uber is literally in the driver’s seat when it comes to AV bets

Self-driving truck startup Waabi’s billion-dollar fundraise isn’t just about trucks.   The deal, for $750 million up front plus another $250 million from Uber tied to deployment milestones, marks a major expansion into robotaxis for the company founded by former Uber AI chief Raquel Urtasun. It also feels like another chip from Uber on the autonomous vehicle roulette table. With more […]

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Satya Nadella insists people are using Microsoft’s Copilot AI a lot

With Microsoft spending many billions on data centers, and rumors that no one is using its AI, CEO Satya Nadella shared some usage numbers.

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Apple buys Israeli startup Q.ai as the AI race heats up

Q.ai is an Israeli startup specializing in imaging and machine learning, particularly technologies that enable devices to interpret whispered speech and enhance audio in noisy environments.

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ICE Barbie Throws Stephen Miller And Trump Under The Bus

Axios is reporting that sources said DHS Sec. Kristi Noem is tired of being "hung out to dry" and said, "Everything I've done, I've done at the direction of the president and Stephen."

Wow. Buckle up.

Noem has been getting pilloried from all sides of the political aisle for defending ICE agents, apparently without watching any of the multitude of videos that were readily available and stated unequivocally Alex Pretti acted violently, with the intent of killing law enforcement and wanted to harm federal agents.

Stephen Miller said Pretti was an assassin who tried to murder federal agents. .

Border Patrol lunatic Gregory Bovino echoed much the same on his television appearances and was quickly made the scapegoat by Donald Trump.

Why would a DHS Secretary rely on second and third hand information before going to the press to make wildly inacurate and harmful statements.

If Sec. Noem had any respect for her job she would have checked and verified the events beforehand. She has an entire staff at her disposal.

In the Trump administration her only job is to do what he demands and go on TV to level accusations against Democrats and protestors.

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AI data labeler Handshake buys Cleanlab, an acquisition target of multiple others

The deal is structured as an acquihire of nine key Cleanlab's researchers.

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Anthropic reportedly upped its latest raise to $20B

Anthropic looks to raise $20 billion at more than $300 billion valuation, according to reports.

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Amazon agrees to pay consumers $309M in returns policy settlement

The lawsuit, filed in 2023, alleged that Amazon caused "substantial unjustified monetary losses” for consumers who returned an item but were still charged for it.

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TikTok joins Snap to settle social media addiction lawsuit

Jury selection begins Tuesday as this case moves closer to trial.

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Prominent Lawyer Drops Out Of Race For MN GOP Gov Nomination

Until today, Chris Madel was a leading GOP candidate for the Republican nomination as Minnesota's next governor.

In a video statement posted Monday morning announcing the end of his campaign, Madel said he supported the goal of Operation Metro Surge to deport “the worst of the worst,” but that the mission had expanded too far past its stated focus on “true public safety threats.” He said he personally had heard from local law-enforcement officers of Hispanic and Asian descent who had been pulled over by ICE.

“United States citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear. United States citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship,” he said. “That’s wrong.”

He's not being completely altruistic. He said he also saw that ICE had, in his words, made it impossible for a Republican to run in Minnesota.

pretty wild statement re: Republican Chris Madel drop from race for MN governor:

"Saying he cannot support the national GOP's 'stated retribution on citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so."

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Fox News Host More Upset With 'F-Word' Than With Murdered US Citizen

The second hour of Fox News' The BIG Weekend Show on Saturday, just hours after the shooting, did their best to exalt all ICE agents while whining about the protestors after Alex Pretti was accosted by a group of ICE agents, thrown to the ground, and then shot dead multiple times while facing the ground.

Host Johnny Joey Jones threw the coverage to reporter Steve Harrington to describe the scene and then another co-host jumped in.

HOST: And so to, you know, say that they're business owners and employees, that they were scared to go to work because they don't want to be arrested, blah, blah, blah.

Fox News considered the occupation of ICE in Minnesota, assaults, and murder that has frightened business owners as a ho-hum blah, blah, blah event.

To add salt to the wound the idiot behind the microphone becomes more aggitatted that protestors shouted the "F-word" at ICE agents instead of exuding any form of empathy for the murdered 37-year-old Alex Pretti.

HOST: But what are you seeing in terms of the businesses having to respond to, I don't know, massive crowds of people screaming the F word at law enforcement and agents?

ICE agents are armed to the teeth, but the Fox host is furious they were being cursed at after viciously killing another Minnesotan.

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VA Nurse Murdered By Federal Agents In Minneapolis

The news started to spread on social media this morning of another ICE shooting in Minneapolis. Someone sitting in a donut shop across the street recorded the entire thing:

BREAKING: ICE just shot and killed someone again in Minneapolis

— Molly Ploofkins (@mollyploofkins.bsky.social) 2026-01-24T15:59:17.032Z

UPDATE: Cell phone video from another witness, synced with the other.

https://bsky.app/profile/dominicervolina.com/post/3md6wetpavk2q

UPDATE: Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara identified the victim as Alex Pretti, a 51-year-old white male with a license to carry, and no previous record with police beyond traffic tickets.

He is a U.S. Citizen.

I assumed this CYA bullshit would happen, because that's what LEOs do. Listen closely: Most of the shots happened after the victim appeared to be already dead.

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Tech CEOs boast and bicker about AI at Davos

There were times at this week’s meeting of the World Economic Forum when Davos seemed transformed into a high-powered tech conference.

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GOPer Pretends TACO Trump Is Master Deal Maker After Greenland Cave

Republican Indiana Sen. Jim Banks and Fox "not news" host John Roberts beclown themselves pretending that TACO boy is some master negotiator after he caved on his threats to Greenland.

What a freaking embarrassment these people are. Here's the back and forth during Banks' appearance on this Friday's America Reports, pretending Trump didn't shit the bed in front of the world at Davos, and lying to their audience about the fact that Trump basically got nothing following all of his invasion and tariff threats.

ROBERTS: Let's bring in Republican Indiana Senator Jim Banks, who says Greenland could be the key to President Trump's Golden Dome program, a project he says will be built largely in his home state.

Senator, good to have you with us. So we're hearing that there's a framework of a deal. We don't know what it will entail. We've been hearing whispers of maybe U.S. sovereignty over certain small areas in Greenland. What do you know? How do you think this might work?

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The Rippling/Deel corporate spying scandal may have taken another wild turn

The Department of Justice may be conducting a criminal investigation. This is arguably the biggest drama between two HR startups ever.

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How did Davos turn into a tech conference?

The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos felt different this year, and not just because Meta and Salesforce took over storefronts on the main promenade. AI dominated the conversation in a way that overshadowed traditional topics like climate change and global poverty, and the CEOs weren’t holding back. There was public criticism of trade policy, warnings about AI […]

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Trump Claims He's A Dictator

Addressing leaders at the World Economic Forum, Donald Trump veered off into La-la land when he proclaimed himself dictator.

Trump rambled about Larry, and then he bragged about getting great reviews on his speech -- (Karoline Leavitt must have told him how much she loved it.) -- and was surprised because people usually call him a horrible dictator.

Demented Donald then boasted that the world needs a dictator sometimes.

TRUMP: I mean, the people here, I guess because of Larry, the people that came to this event, it's really incredible. I wasn't sure how it was gonna turn out. We had somebody, as you know, that ran it for many, many years, and I'm not sure what happened there, but I figured, well, that's all right.

They had a hell of a run in Davos. Then I heard Larry was taking it over, more or less, and he called me.

He said, would you do me a favor? Would you be there? And we've had some great business dealings together, and he's a great, he's one of you, he's one of the greats, and it was an honor.

We had a good speech. We got great reviews. I can't believe it. We got good reviews on that speech.

Usually they say, he's a horrible dictator-type person. I'm a dictator, but sometimes you need a dictator, but they didn't say that in this case, and no, it's common sense.

It's all based on common sense.

It's not conservative or liberal or anything else.

It's mostly, I'd say, 95% common sense, and that's what we have.

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Winter Storm Fern So Bad Ted Cruz Left Texas Again

Don't know if you've heard, but there's a massive storm coming that will cripple huge swaths of our country. Prepare now for possible power outages. And of course, this will cause a backup of airports all over the country. Via the Associated Press:

ATLANTA (AP) — With many Americans still recovering from multiple blasts of snow and unrelenting freezing temperatures in the nation’s northern tier, a new storm is set to emerge this weekend that could coat roads, trees and power lines with devastating ice across a wide expanse of the South.

The storm arriving late this week and into the weekend is shaping up to be a “widespread potentially catastrophic event from Texas to the Carolinas,” said Ryan Maue, a former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“I don’t know how people are going to deal with it,” he said.

Forecasters on Tuesday warned that the ice could weigh down trees and power lines, triggering widespread outages.

“If you get a half of an inch of ice — or heaven forbid an inch of ice — that could be catastrophic,” said Keith Avery, CEO of the Newberry Electric Cooperative in South Carolina.

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Google Will Make You Use Their AI, Whether You Like It Or Not

If you use Gmail, you have probably encountered Gemini, their intrusive new AI "assistant." It "assists" you in the same way a used car salesman "assists" you in choosing a car. If you thought Microsoft Word's Clippy was bad, you will really, really hate Gemini.

For instance: A friend who's moving emailed me her new address, and I searched her name and address in Gmail's search bar.

Up pops a scary summary of what we talked about in the email thread. And then I saw this today in The Lever:

Right now, Google’s revenue stream comes from advertising via its search monopoly. Search queries are cheap, and the ads Google sells are pricey due to its market power, so it’s a very profitable business.

Gemini, by contrast, is expensive to operate and generates no revenue. Even if Google were able to shift all of its search advertising revenue to Gemini, it would be moving from an extremely high-margin business to a lower-margin one. So what’s actually going on?

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Ethernovia raises $90M as investors rush to fund ‘physical AI’

The automotive-focused company is looking to expand its Ethernet-based processors to fields like robotics.

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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says tariffs are starting to drive up product prices

Jassy said on Tuesday that while Amazon is trying to keep prices low, price hikes may be unavoidable in some cases.

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Former Greenland MP Explains Why They Cannot Be Bought By Trump

As succinct an explanation as you're likely to hear anywhere. American values are not Greenland's values.

Source: Haberler

During their march from the city center to the U.S. Consulate, Greenlanders carried banners, waved their flags, and chanted slogans like "Greenland is not for sale," responding to Trump's increasing threats to take over the territory.

Meanwhile, Tillie Martinussen, a former member of the Greenland Parliament, speaking to a television channel, expressed hope that the Trump administration would 'abandon this crazy idea.' Martinussen stated that despite their claims of wanting to make Greenland better for them than the Danes, they are now being openly threatened.

The Greenlandic politician noted that in their country, the ownership of land belongs to everyone and that private ownership is not allowed, referring to Trump's plan to pay island residents $100,000 per person to support joining the U.S., saying, "Even if you offer $100,000 per person, we will not give up free healthcare, free education, and being a part of Europe."

Finally, Martinussen stated that Trump knows nothing about the people of Greenland, referencing American popular culture, saying, "We don't value money, Kardashian lips, or artificial breasts much."

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ICE Forces Showering Citizen Outside Into Freezing Weather In His Underwear: Report

Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers reportedly grabbed a U.S. citizen while he was showering and forced him outside into the freezing cold in just his underwear.

In a Sunday Facebook post, Louansee Moua claimed that ICE broke down the door of her brother-in-law Saly's Minneapolis apartment.

The officers "trashed the place, handcuffed him, and put a gun to his daughter-in-law's head. They did not allow him to put on proper clothing and forced him outside in freezing weather," Moua claimed, adding that her brother-in-law is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Photos captured by Reuters showed officers breaking down the door before bringing Saly outside in his underwear.

"ICE drove him around for nearly an hour, questioned him, and fingerprinted him. Only after all of that did they realize he had no criminal history and no reason to be detained. They then dropped him back off at his apartment like nothing happened," she stated. "No family should experience this. No child should witness this. And no U.S. citizen should be treated this way."

Videos show Saly being marched down the street without being given clothes.

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Bessent: 'Avoiding An Emergency' Justifies Trump Greenland Tariffs On Allies

The Abbott and Constello famous routine:

Costello: That's what I'm askin' you! Who's on first?
Abbott: Now wait a minute. Don't…don't change the players
Costello: I'm not changin' nobody! I asked you a simple question. What's the guys' name on first base?
Abbott: What's the guy's name on second base
Costello: I'm not askin' you who's on second!
Abbott: Who's on first
Costello: I don't know
Abbott: He's on third.

Trump Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent imitated an Abbott and Costello routine on Meet The Press when he was asked what the national emergency was for Trump to impose new tariffs against nations opposed to his attempt to take-over Greenland.

Trump has claimed emergency and national security powers on trade deficits to justify his yo-yo tariffs. Yet, he imposed a new round of tariffs against US allies because they refuse to play along with his takeover of Greenland.

This is thuggery, pure and simple.

WELKER: Broadly speaking about the tariff portion of this the president as you well know has justified his authority to impose previous tariffs without going to Congress by declaring national emergencies. It's an issue before the Supreme Court right now.

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What Is Trump Admin Hiding In Ghislaine Maxwell Prison Records?

It’s the other Epstein files cover up. The Trump administration looks just as desperate to cover up this one as it does to cover up the bulk of the Epstein files.

As I have previously written, Jeffrey Epstein’s convicted sex-trafficking accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, was inexplicably transferred to her cushy digs in Bryan, Texas soon after she told Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s former personal attorney who is now second in command at the DOJ, just what he wanted to hear: that she never saw President P***y Grabber do anything untoward with Epstein, Trump's former bestie.

Even more suspicious: Maxwell seems to be getting special treatment now, too. One inmate was transferred out for publicly criticizing the sex trafficker. Prison staff as well as inmates were reportedly warned not to speak about her. Plus, sex offenders are supposed to be kept out of Maxwell’s Club Fed. But she got a waiver.

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'Don't Say His Name!': Noem Freaks Out When Jonathan Ross's Name Is Mentioned

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was interviewed by Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, and of course, it was littered with lies to protect ICE agent Jonathan Ross, whom many refer to as a "fucking bitch," for shooting soccer mom Renee Good in the face three times.

"Well, you know that it is in dispute about weaponizing a car versus driving forward, but I'll put that aside," Welker said. "Well, let me talk to you about the officer, Jonathan Ross."

"Don't say his name," Noem said. "I mean, for heaven's sakes, we shouldn't have people continue to dox law enforcement when they have an 8,000 % increase in death threats against them."

"His life, he got attacked with a car that was trying to take his life, and then people have attacked him and his family, and they are in jeopardy, and we have law enforcement officers every day who are getting death threats and getting attacked at their hotels," she insisted.

Ladies, when a guy defends someone who shot a woman three times in the face, that's a huge red flag. And guys, when an admitted puppy killer lies to protect that same man, it's time to get the fuck out of there. We all saw the different videos, and none of them clear JONATHAN ROSS'S name.

Next, Trump enablers will be defending ICE's tear-gassing of a six-month-old baby. Oh, wait, they did.

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Megyn Kelly: People Protest ICE Because They’re Too Ugly To Have Sex

I’m old enough to remember when Megyn Kelly decided to make a big splash by confronting Donald Trump over his misogynistic comments. During a 2015 presidential debate, she suggested that his temperament was not suited for the presidency because he had called women, “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.” She also noted that his “Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks.”

Not only has Kelly since embraced Trump, or at least has relaunched her career doing so, she has now adopted the misogyny as her own.

Media Matters caught Kelly smearing women (and men) on her SiriusXM show for standing up for Constitutional principles. The repulsive misogynist Adam Carolla was there to help.

“I don’t think any of these people are having sex,” Kelly declared about the protesters. Her “evidence?” Their looks.

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Steve Bannon’s Racist Manifesto Is Everything You Thought

Pardoned Felon Steve Bannon let loose his racist, white Christian nationalist vision of America when he demanded Demented Donald institute the Insurrection Act in Minnesota so the military can police US citizens.

As usual, Trump's actions cause chaos and now murder in Minnesota, so he uses his own fuck-ups to make things worse and pretend he's Kim Jung Un.

The hard core MAGA base has waned badly and all the polling shows how much they hate his actions.

BANNON: What they don't understand and they're going crazy, but what they don't understand is that Trump's core base, the hardest core of MAGA, the people that have been with him from the beginning and had his back the darkest days of 2021.

This is not even close, the opposition here the anti-American um anti-American republic have to understand.

We demand mass deportation it's not the onesies, twosies you're seeing in Minnesota. You haven't seen anything yet.

We're the biggest advocate of invoking the Insurrection act and going in and cleaning out the mess.

President Trump and Stephen Miller and at home they're trying to be very targeted and very precise on the criminal element. The criminal element is just the the low-hanging fruit let's say and what you see in Minnesota is an act of they hate America. they hate American citizens. Dare I say they hate white people.

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Taiwan to invest $250B in US semiconductor manufacturing

The U.S. struck a trade deal with Taiwan as the country looks to help boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

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'Russian Teletubbies' March Into Battle

Who knows, it might work. Or they might catch a strong wind and blow away, like Mary Poppins.

Source: The Sun

THIS is the bizarre moment freezing Russian troops try out their new Kremlin-issued kit to protect them from the bitter winter weather – tiny pop-up tents.

Frontline footage from occupied Ukraine shows at least half a dozen Putin’s soldiers in flimsy green privacy tents on the side of an ice-covered dirt road in -14°C temperatures.

Inside, the men can be seen shivering as their so-called shelter is battered left and right by the freezing Eastern European gales.

One of them is heard complaining about how it take a “f***ing long time to put it on” adding: “When you’re putting it on the wind f***ing lifts it up, and when the wind is strong it’s f***ing very hard to walk in it.”

The man added that if the wind is strong, the tent starts “flapping around a lot,” making it difficult to move around and walk.

American military correspondent David Axe sees some method in their madness.

Yes, some Russian troops were caught on video wearing portable toilet covers, presumably as a form of thermal camouflage.

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AI video startup, Higgsfield, founded by ex-Snap exec, lands $1.3B valuation

Higgsfield says its on a $200 million annual revenue run rate. So it opened its previous Series A round back up and sold another $80 million in shares.

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Digg launches its new Reddit rival to the public

Digg, a reboot of an earlier social news site, is now relaunching as a Reddit competitor focused on communities.

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Joe Rogan Turns On ICE: 'Are We Really Going To Be The Gestapo?'

On the Joe Rogan Experience with guest Sen. Rand Paul, the eponymous host said he understands both sides (yeah) of the immigration argument, but the killing of Renee Good, "looked horrific to me," while bashing ICE for snatching people off the street like the Gestapo.

ICE has no authority over US citizens watching and filming them.

ROGAN: And then I can also see the point of view of the people who say, yeah, but you don't want militarized people in the streets just roaming around, snatching people up, many of which turn out to actually be U.S. citizens that just don't have their papers on them.

Are we really going to be the Gestapo?

Where's your papers?

Is that what we've come to?

So it's more complicated than I think people want to admit.

No matter how the Trump administration tries to spin the death of Renee Good, it's not working.

Here is a perfect example of Trump's Gestapo in action.

ICE arrested a 55-year-old U.S. citizen in Minneapolis for acting as an observer. She stayed on a public sidewalk, did not interfere, was tackled, handcuffed, put in an unmarked vehicle, and held for hours while family tried to find her.pic.twitter.com/8gkCLzWz5I

— WarMonitor (@TheWarMonitor) January 13, 2026

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Doctors think AI has a place in healthcare – but maybe not as a chatbot

OpenAI and Anthropic have each launched healthcare-focused products over the last week.

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Billionaire Gives $10k To Murderous ICE Agent

There is no bottom with the monied class. Ackman, who Forbes says is worth $9.4 billion, just gave $10,000 (or approximately 0.0001075% of his net worth) to a murderer.

Source: NY Post

Billionaire Bill Ackman left a hefty $10,000 donation on a GoFundMe for the ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good — and said he had intended to similarly support the slain mother’s respective fund, but apparently missed his chance.

A donation on the page set up for Jonathan Ross — who federal officials said was the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fired fatal “defensive shots” at the anti-ICE protester and mom of three — boasts a top donation from a man named William Ackman.

After hours of online speculation, Ackman, 59, confessed to leaving the cash.

“I am big believer in our legal principal [sic] that one is innocent until proven guilty. To that end, I supported the @gofundme for Jonathan Ross and intended to similarly support the gofundme for Renee Good’s family (her gofundme was closed by the time I attempted to provide support),” Ackman wrote on X.

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Amazon says 97% of its devices can support Alexa+

Amazon is counting on its Alexa footprint to help it gain traction in the consumer AI race.

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Spheres Of Influence

Good morning, happy second week of January! I'd say that it can't be worse than the first week, but I feel like that's inviting some kind of disaster or more murders from our current "administration."

Yesterday I attended a funeral for a friend and a protest for someone I wish I could have called friend. The protest made me feel better. I stood out on a freeway overpass with my upside-down flag in 20 MPH Santa Ana winds and listened to the honks from trucks and cars on the freeway and the overpass and somehow felt better about things, even though there was one guy yelling at me to go back to where I came from, as if I could crawl back into my mother's womb or something.

Then the Packers lost and the Rams won, and all I know is that I would really like the Super Bowl to be more interesting this year than it's been in the past.

This coming week we're going to hear more bullshit about Venezuela and the Senate is probably going to bury the subsidy bill the House passed. Or maybe some Senators will decide they need to break from Trump before it's too late. A girl can dream, can't she?

What's your weekend been like? Anything catching your eye this morning?

-Karoli

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Trump's Hold On The Male Youth Vote Is Crumbling Fast

President Donald Trump’s grip on young men is slipping—and fast.

Once a natural draw for this crucial voting bloc that helped fuel his 2024 victory, the president is now facing growing distrust and frustration, according to a new poll from the Speaking with American Men project shared with Puck.

The survey paints a damning picture: Trump’s favorability among young men has fallen to 46%, down from 56% last spring. Among all young people, it dips to a dismal 36%.

Pollster John Della Volpe, who surveyed 4,211 people ages 16 to 29 from Oct. 28 to Nov. 6 last year, traces much of the slide to economic disappointment—trade shocks, tariffs, and rising costs that failed to ease the financial strain young Americans were counting on him to address.

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Hannity Gets Owned When He Tried To Own The Libs At Minneapolis Protest

Sean Hannity thought he'd own the libs during a protest, but the opposite happened. Hannity was giving a Fox News reporter at the scene some questions to ask protesters in Minneapolis, and, well, it didn't go as well for right-wing talking points when they spoke to an individual in the crowd.

"Let me ask you, have you spoken to any people, or can you speak to anybody that's marching right now and ask them what it is that they're marching about?" Hannity asked.

"Yeah. Excuse me," he says to a protester. "What are you here marching for?"

"Yeah, absolutely. Sorry," the young man said. "My ears are ringing a lot. So I don't know if I'll hear perfectly, but yeah, I'm just here because I think it's absolutely disgusting what ICE is doing here."

"I think it's absolutely important that they're kidnapping people," he continued. "I'm disgusted that they murdered an innocent human being. And yeah, the entire thing just absolutely abhors me. This has to stop immediately."

"And I'm glad that there's so many people out here trying to stop this because it's just important," he said.

Hannity fed another question to the reporter for the protester, asking, "If he has a concern that the woman was driving her car at an officer."

The protestor was asked, "Did you have any concern that it looked like this woman may have been driving her vehicle at the officer?"

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Ghoul Greg Gutfeld Calls ICE Shooting 'Set Up' By The Left

Fox's Greg Gutfeld spewed some vile nonsense on this Friday's The Five trying to justify the shooting of Minneapolis woman Renee Good. Apparently this is just some grand plan by the left who would have preferred that it was a Black woman who was killed.

GUTFELD: We are all falling for the game. Could you... everybody's like, this is so confusing. I don't like it. It's so chaotic. That was the point! The whole point! Nothing's going to be clear when you create deliberate chaos.

So we have to sit here. We are actually doing exactly what they want. None of it matters. What happens to that moment is not what we should be talking about, in my view. Again, let the investigations proceed. All this criminal analysis is a waste of your breath.

You know, I use that term, AWFULs, in humor, the affluent white female liberal. Well, that comedy turned to tragedy because it was egged on by people who only use these women as props. They put them out front because visually, it's a great statement when they get touched by a police officer. They do this in all protests.

You shouldn't be mad at ICE. You should be outraged at those who foment these moments with the purpose of leading to chaos and death. All these videos contain white liberal women. Why isn't anybody talking about this?

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Indonesia blocks Grok over non-consensual, sexualized deepfakes

Indonesian officials said Saturday that they are temporarily blocking access to xAI’s chatbot Grok.

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Daily Mail Investigative Report: ICE Hiring People Who Can Barely Read

Stephen Miller's Big Plan to hire 10,000 new deportation officers by year's end has become a national embarrassment - with not much vetting and incompetents lured by signing bonuses of up to $50,000. Via The Daily Mail:

An exhaustive Daily Mail investigation last month exposed how Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lowered standards so dramatically that the new cohort now included recent high school graduates and applicants who can 'barely read or write' as well as those who lack basic physical fitness and even have pending criminal charges.

Most of the new hires in the $30 billion initiative are retired law enforcement who are receiving virtual training and being repurposed for desk duty.

Meanwhile, total novices are being fast-tracked into the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia, where instructors have been left astounded at the levels of incompetence.

'We have people failing open-book tests and we have folks that can barely read or write English,' one Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told the Daily Mail.

'We even had a 469-lb man sent to the academy whose own doctor certified him not at all fit for any physical activity.'

Insiders say the vetting process has been so rushed that officials didn't even wait for drug test results to come back before hiring recruits and flying them off to Georgia, only to discover afterward that tests came back positive.

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Texas Republican Yells At Cloud

It was only a matter of time before something happened after the Trump administration launched what officials described as the largest federal immigration enforcement operation ever, deploying as many as 2,000 federal agents and officers to the Minneapolis area. Democratic cities are under attack from the president.

And now, following the murder of Renee Nicole Good on Wednesday by an ICE agent, the Trump administration is deploying more than 100 U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and officers to Minnesota from operations in Chicago and New Orleans, The New York Times reports.

But according to Texas Rep. Roger Williams, we're all supposed to just take it, even after watching Good's murder unfold in video clips. Federal agents shot and injured two people in Portland, Oregon, too. The problem with that incident is that we've been lied to about Good's killing, so the administration's defense needs to be scrutinized, and also, why the fuck are ICE agents armed?

Still, Williams is blaming demonstrators. Apparently, the First Amendment upsets him.

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How the Sleepbuds maker, Ozlo, is building a platform for sleep data

Ozlo Sleepbuds are going to have a big year, with new products, AI features, and more.

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Go-to-market strategies for an AI era

In the season finale of Build Mode, Isabelle Johannessen sits down with Paul Irving, partner and COO of GTMfund, to discuss go-to-market strategies for the AI era. Paul shares specific, actionable advice on how early-stage startups can win even when facing well-funded competitors who iterate at lightning speed. He also explains why distribution has become the final remaining moat when technical advantages disappear in months […]

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Where VCs think AI startups can win, even with OpenAI in the game

Vanessa Larco, partner at Premise and former partner at NEA, thinks 2026 will finally be the year of consumer AI.  Larco, who’s been investing in consumer and prosumer for years, thinks we’re about to see a shift in how consumers spend time online, with AI powering “concierge-like” services. The question is, will legacy consumer products […]

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Can Democrats Undo Trump Like Mamdani Is Undoing Adams?

In one of his first acts as New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani has revoked several highly controversial executive orders signed by his predecessor, Eric Adams. Among them were a pair of orders that attacked critics of Israel and others that enabled ICE deportations and promoted cryptocurrencies.

They were part of a slate of nine orders Mamdani revoked on Thursday, all of which were issued by the former mayor after he was hit with corruption charges by the Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden on September 26, 2024—charges that the Trump administration later dropped as part of an apparent deal for Adams to cooperate with its mass deportation efforts.

Mamdani told the New York Daily News that the orders Adams signed after this date went "against the interests of working-class people and what they need from their mayor."

Two of Adams' revoked orders required the city to adopt a stance of unwavering support for Israel as it faced mounting criticism over its genocidal war in Gaza.

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Founder of spyware maker pcTattletale pleads guilty to hacking and advertising surveillance software

Bryan Fleming, the founder of hacked stalkerware company pcTattletale, pleaded guilty to federal charges linked to the running of his now-defunct Michigan-based spyware company.

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Nvidia launches Alpamayo, open AI models that allow autonomous vehicles to ‘think like a human’

Nvidia unveiled Alpamayo at CES 2026, which includes a reasoning vision language action model that allows an autonomous vehicle to think more like a human and provide chain-of-thought reasoning.

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Kristi Noem's DHS Throws Tantrum After Hilton Hotels Cancels ICE Agents' Rooms

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials cried foul after Hilton Hotels refused service to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

The department expressed outrage in a Monday post on X.

"NO ROOM AT THE INN!" the post exclaimed. "@HiltonHotels has launched a coordinated campaign in Minneapolis to REFUSE service to DHS law enforcement."

"When officers attempted to book rooms using official government emails and rates, Hilton Hotels maliciously CANCELLED their reservations," the statement continued. "This is UNACCEPTABLE. Why is Hilton Hotels siding with murderers and rapists to deliberately undermine and impede DHS law enforcement from their mission to enforce our nation's immigration laws?"

Hotels generally have the right to refuse service to customers. Emails from DHS confirmed Hilton management's decision.

"After further investigation online, we have found information about immigration work connected with your name and we will be cancelling your upcoming reservation. You should see a proper cancellation email in your inbox shortly from Hilton," one email said.

"[W]e are not allowing any ICE or immigration agents to stay at our property," another email said. "If you are with DHS or immigration, let us know as we will have to cancel your reservation."

"Please pass on this info to your coworkers that we are not allowing any immigration agents to house on our property," the email added.

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LEGO SMART Bricks introduce a new way to build — and they don’t require screens

LEGO developed a custom ASIC chip that allows its new SMART Bricks to pick up on signals from surrounding SMART Tags that dictate how it should make sounds or light up.

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Hacktivist deletes white supremacist websites live onstage during hacker conference

A hacker known as Martha Root broke in and deleted three white supremacist websites at the end of a talk during the annual hacker conference Chaos Communication Congress in Germany.

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Rubio Is Straight-Up Asked What 'Legal Authority' Trump Has To Run Venezuela

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday joined ABC News' "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos for an interview, where the host straight-up asked him what "legal authority" the U.S. has to run Venezuela after capturing its president and his wife. If you lived through the Bush years, you can see right through the hogwash the Trump administration is serving the public. First, the attack was over drugs, and now Donald Trump has admitted that it's all about the oil.

"President Trump was pretty clear yesterday. He said the United States is going to run Venezuela. Under what legal authority?" Stephanopoulos asked.

"Well, first of all, what's going to happen here is that we have a quarantine on their oil," Rubio said. "That means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interests of the Venezuelan people are met,"

"And that's what we intend to do. So that leverage remains," he continued. "That leverage is ongoing. And we expect that it's going to lead to results here. We're hopeful, hopeful that it does positive results for the people of Venezuela. But ultimately, most importantly for u in the national interest of the United States, we will no longer have, hopefully, as we move forward here."

"And obviously, we want a better future for the people of Venezuela. We want them to have an oil industry where the wealth goes to the people, not to a handful of corrupt individuals and is stolen by pirates all over the world," he insisted.

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DoorDash says it banned driver who seemingly faked a delivery using AI

DoorDash seems to have confirmed a viral story about a driver using an AI-generated photo to lie about making a delivery.

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Pathetic Fox Host Attacks Biden For Being 'On Vacation'

Fox regular Tomi Lahren got the B-Team duty of filling in for Hannity during the holiday week, and here's how she previewed an upcoming segment on this Tuesday's show:

LAHREN: Up next, our New Year's Eve security risk assessment. Plus, we'll dig into the psychological roots of socialism and you'll never believe where Joe Biden was spotted. Spoiler alert, he's on vacation. That and more as Hannity rolls on.

That later segment ended up being them calling Biden senile for the millionth time along with taking jabs at Hunter Biden for discussing all of his legal bills.

Someone needs to remind Lahren that people who are retired no longer need to take "vacation,"

The replies on BlueSky were not kind:

Hey, Tomi, guess where the PRESIDENT was today?
Golfing (again).

What job is Biden, who just completed cancer treatment, supposed to be doing from Christmas to New Year's when even Congress isn't doing their jobs?

— D Villella❄️?? ? (@dvillella) December 31, 2025

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Bitfinex hacker Ilya Lichtenstein credits Trump for early release from prison

Ilya Lichtenstein, who pled guilty to money laundering charges tied to his role in the massive hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex, has apparently been released early from prison.

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NY Post's 'Gotcha Moment' On Mamdani's Wife's Boots Turns Into Self-Own

When the New York Post spotted New York City's newest first lady in some killer high-fashion boots, they sent out an intrepid reporter to find out how much they cost. Turns out, the joke was on them, as the vintage Balenciaga coat from Albright Fashion Library and the archival earrings from New York Vintage, were both rented. And the boots were loaned.

It must really suck to work at the NY Post.

Source: New York Post

New York City’s first lady Rama Duwaji appeared to wear $630 “artisan” leather boots from a high-end designer to her Democratic socialist husband Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral swearing-in ceremony — a luxury look that flew in the face of the politician’s “everyman” image, eagle-eyed critics said Thursday.

Duwaji, a 28-year-old artist, gave more socialite than socialist on New Year’s Day as she apparently rocked one of the fashion house Miista’s pricey boot designs — one which is said to be crafted from “vegetable tan cow leather” and feature an “ultra-cushioned memory foam insole.”

The fashion firm charges $630 a pair for the so-called “Shelley Boots,” which feature a 6-centimeter (2.3-inch) heel and a lace-up back.

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European banks plan to cut 200,000 jobs as AI takes hold

The bloodletting will hit hardest in back-office operations, risk management, and compliance.

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Good Guy Crookie: That's *Mayor* Zohran Mamdani!

Good guy of the year? Yup, my vote is for Zohran Mamdani.

Mayor Mamdani was sworn in at midnight New Year's Eve in the old subway station beneath City Hall in New York.

But it's his campaign that brought joy and hope not only to New Yorkers, but to the whole country.

The Mamdani for Mayor campaign had great Democratic messaging. Free buses, a rent freeze, affordable housing, a public grocery store in each of the five boroughs, and childcare.

It's not complicated.

And Mamdani did something else that I believe made him win: he celebrated the city he and his voters call home.

The summertime scavenger hunt brought all the boys and girls to the yard, and, I think, healed a lot of the desperation we were clinging to after Covid.

In the week since relaunching neighborhood canvasses, our volunteers have knocked more than 91k doors across the five boroughs — including 25k this weekend.

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