California Man Sentenced to 4 Years for Covert Work on China’s Behalf
The man, Mike Sun, corresponded with Chinese government officials, monitored the visit of Taiwan’s president to California and backed the election of a city council member, according to court documents.
Britney Spears Sells Her Song Catalog
The pop hitmaker, who hasn’t released a new album in 10 years, sold the rights to her music to Primary Wave.
F.D.A. Refuses to Review Moderna Flu Vaccine
The vaccine maker’s shots involve the successful Covid vaccines’ RNA technology. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has broadly rejected it, canceling millions of dollars in research projects.
Ford Says Electric Vehicle Losses Will Continue for 3 More Years
Ford Motor reported a big loss for 2025 because of its troubled electric vehicle division, which it has significantly scaled back.
Elon Musk Wants to Build an A.I. Satellite Factory on the Moon
In a meeting with employees at his company xAI, Mr. Musk revealed a vision for a facility that includes a giant catapult to launch his satellites into space.
ByteDance Suspends Seedance 2 Feature That Turns Facial Photos Into Personal Voices Over Potential Risks
hackingbear writes: China's Bytedance has released Seedance 2.0, an AI video generator which handles up to four types of input at once: images, videos, audio, and text. Users can combine up to nine images, three videos, and three audio files, up to a total of twelve files. Generated videos run between 4 and 15 [or 60] seconds long and automatically come with sound effects or music.
Its performance is unfortunately so good that it has forced the firm to block its facial-to-voice feature after the model reportedly demonstrated the ability to generate highly accurate personal voice characteristics using only facial images, even without user authorization.
In a recent test, Pan Tianhong, founder of tech media outlet MediaStorm, discovered that uploading a personal facial photo caused the model to produce audio nearly identical to his real voice -- without using any voice samples or authorized data. [...]
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‘No Reason He Should Have Died’: Alex Pretti’s Parents Open Up
In their first sit-down interview, Michael and Susan Pretti avoided recriminations and recalled the son that Michael called “an exceptionally kind, caring man.”
A.I. May Put Progressives to the Test
The left needs a sharper A.I. politics.
Don Lemon Hires Federal Prosecutor Joseph H. Thompson in Minneapolis Church Protest Case
Facing charges over his role at a church protest, Mr. Lemon, a journalist, retained a veteran litigator who recently resigned from the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota.
Baboon Sibling Rivalry Suggests Monkeys Feel Jealousy Like People
Young primates in a southern African nature park were observed to constantly interfere when their mother was giving attention to a younger brother or sister.
Dissidents Are Silenced, and the West Moves On
On Jimmy Lai and the future of freedom.
Lutnick Acknowledges Traveling to Epstein’s Island
The commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, acknowledged at a Senate hearing that he and his family visited Jeffrey Epstein on his private island.
Mexican Cartel’s Seized Ammunition Is Traced to U.S. Army Plant
About 137,000 .50-caliber rounds have been seized since 2012, and of those, 47 percent came from a plant in Kansas City, Mo., Mexico’s defense secretary said.
Before Trump Blasted U.S.-Canada Bridge, Owner of Competing Span Lobbied Administration
A Detroit billionaire met with Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, hours before President Trump said he would block the opening of a new bridge connecting Detroit to Canada, officials said.
White House Eyes Data Center Agreements Amid Energy Price Spikes
An anonymous reader shares a report: The Trump administration wants some of the world's largest technology companies to publicly commit to a new compact governing the rapid expansion of AI data centers, according to two administration officials granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
A draft of the compact obtained by POLITICO lays out commitments designed to ensure energy-hungry data centers do not raise household electricity prices, strain water supplies or undermine grid reliability, and that the companies driving demand also carry the cost of building new infrastructure.
The proposed pact, which is not final and could be subject to change, is framed as a voluntary agreement between President Donald Trump and major U.S. tech companies and data center developers. It could bind OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook parent Meta and other AI giants to a broad set of energy, water and community principles. None of these companies immediately responded to a request for comment.
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Peter Attia’s Ties to Epstein Spark a Backlash From Doctors
What started as a rebuke of Dr. Attia has become a discussion about his credentials, longevity medicine and whom patients should trust.
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show and the Everyday People Who Made It Authentic
A priest from Sacramento. A bar owner from New York. A taquero from Los Angeles. Puerto Rico came alive at the Super Bowl because of hundreds of non-famous performers.
A Desperate Father, a Troubled Son and Death in a 5-Star Hotel
Henry McGowan headed for Europe, showing signs of mental distress. His father, John McGowan, raced after him. This week, the son will stand trial in Ireland, accused of his father’s murder.
Climate Change Is Erased From Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence for Judges
After Republican criticism, a group that offers professional resources to judges withdrew a climate science chapter from its Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence.
Lost Soviet Moon Lander May Have Been Found
An anonymous reader shares a report: In 1966, a beach-ball-size robot bounced across the moon. Once it rolled to a stop, its four petal-like covers opened, exposing a camera that sent back the first picture taken on the surface of another world. This was Luna 9, the Soviet lander that was the earliest spacecraft to safely touchdown on the moon. While it paved the way toward interplanetary exploration, Luna 9's precise whereabouts have remained a mystery ever since.
That may soon change. Two research teams think they might have tracked down the long-lost remains of Luna 9. But there's a catch: The teams do not agree on the location. "One of them is wrong," said Anatoly Zak, a space journalist and author who runs RussianSpaceWeb.com and reported on the story last week. The dueling finds highlight a strange fact of the early moon race: The precise resting places of a number of spacecraft that crashed or landed on the moon in the run up to NASA's Apollo missions are lost to obscurity. A newer generation of spacecraft may at last resolve these mysteries.
Luna 9 launched to the moon on Jan. 31, 1966. While a number of spacecraft had crashed into the lunar surface at that stage of the moon race, it was among the earliest to try what rocket engineers call a soft landing. Its core unit, a spherical suite of scientific instruments, was about two feet across. That size makes it difficult to spot from orbit. "Luna 9 is a very, very small vehicle," said Mark Robinson, a geologist at the company Intuitive Machines, which has twice landed spacecraft on the moon.
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