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Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer : Ubisoft is investigating reports of a new security breach after security research collective VX-Underground shared screenshots of the company's internal tools   —  Ubisoft is investigating whether it suffered a breach after images of the company's internal software and developer tools were leaked online.

Edd Gent / IEEE Spectrum : Experts warn against unrealistic expectations for quantum computers, citing the challenges in making fault-tolerant systems, Qubits' slow operating speeds, more   —  Hype is everywhere, skeptics say, and practical applications are still far away  —  The quantum computer revolution …

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this week arrested 26 illegal immigrant sex offenders in a two-day operation in California, while the U.S. continues to face an escalating migrant crisis, which has diverted resources to the border. The more than two dozen foreign nationals were arrested between Monday and Wednesday, and the operation focused on those identified as having criminal convictions for sex offenses. Those arrested included child sex predators, including a 40-year-old Mexican who had been convicted in California for felony lewd acts with a child, and continuous sexual abuse. ICE RAMPS UP STAFFING AT SOUTHERN BORDER TO AID CBP WITH NEW MIGRANT SURGE Agents also took into custody a 35-year-old Guatemalan convicted of felony child molestation and a 19-year-old Salvadoran convicted of felony sexual forcible oral copulation of a minor over 14 and battery by restraint. The operation was conducted by the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Los Angeles. "T...

Forbes : How AI defense tech developer Rebellion Defense is struggling to survive after failing to win a US DOD contract, losing its founders, and shuttering its UK arm   —  Launched with funding from former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Rebellion Defense promised to deliver cutting-edge AI for the U.S.-U.K. alliance.

President Biden is experiencing approval ratings lower than any other modern president at this point in their term. Biden's job approval rating currently sits at 39%, a slight uptick from October and November when it was reported at 37%, according to a new poll from Gallup.  His approval rating has dipped under 40% five times during his term. Biden's poor performance is the lowest among modern presidents seeking re-election at this point in their term, according to Gallup. TRUMP EDGES BIDEN AGAIN IN NEW 2024 POLL, BUILDS SUPPORT WITH YOUNGER VOTERS At this point in his first term, former President Donald Trump held an approval rating of approximately 45%, the analytics company reported. Former President Barack Obama held a 43% approval rating at this same point. All other presidents reaching back to Jimmy Carter had approval ratings above 50%. TRUMP KEEPS MASSIVE LEAD, HALEY TIES DESANTIS FOR SECOND IN NEW 2024 GOP PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY POLL George W. Bush boasted the...

Former President Trump urged two members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers not to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to a report from The Detroit News. The Detroit News claims to have reviewed tapes from a Nov. 17, 2020 phone call between Trump and GOP canvassers Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, when he urged them not to sign the certification.  "We've got to fight for our country," said Trump on the recording, according to The Detroit News.  He added, "We can't let these people take our country away from us." BIDEN TEAM'S CENTRAL 2024 MESSAGE PAINTS TRUMP AS 'THREAT TO DEMOCRACY': REPORT Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was also present on the phone call, the report alleges. "If you can go home tonight, do not sign it," McDaniel reportedly told the canvassers in Michigan . "We will get you attorneys." JACK SMITH WANTS 'DOWN AND DIRTY' TRUMP CONVICT...

Jacquelyn Melinek / TechCrunch : Data center infrastructure company Arkon Energy raised $110M to grow its US bitcoin mining capacity and plans to launch an AI cloud service in Norway   —  Arkon Energy, a data center infrastructure company, closed a $110 million private funding round to expand its operations …

FIRST ON FOX: South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott sent a letter Friday to the mayor of Chicago criticizing the Democrat over the city’s plan to shutter selective-enrollment schools, which Scott says would be "devastating" to the community while also breaking a promise the mayor made on the campaign trail. "I write to express our strong condemnation of the Chicago Board of Education’s recently passed resolution that could eliminate school choice for Chicago families, strip minority and low-income students of their preferred high schools and widen the achievement gap," Scott wrote in a letter to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Board of Education President Jianan Shi on Friday. "As Chair of the Congressional School Choice Caucus, I believe that every parent has the right to choose the best school for their child, regardless of their zip code, and I urge you to preserve these critical options for families." The Chicago School Board passed a...

Richard Waters / Financial Times : The Apple-Masimo fight is a dramatic demonstration of the collision of different IP regimes when tech companies like Apple move into new markets like healthcare   —  As mobile computing invades markets such as healthcare, intellectual property moats will be tested

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is urging President Biden to use his executive authority to impose strict measures to combat the ongoing migrant crisis at the U.S. southern border. "The wide-open border has caused unspeakable human tragedy for migrants and certainly for our own citizens. During FY2023, CBP seized ‘enough fentanyl to kill the entire U.S. population,’ and fentanyl poisoning is now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-45. Countless children and adults have been victims of human trafficking and cartels have been emboldened and enriched," Johnson wrote. "Local communities have been devastated and terrorists and dangerous criminals have entered illegally and dispersed across our country. We are now more vulnerable to a terrorist attack on our homeland than ever." UNION PACIFIC WARNS BORDER CROSSING CLOSING DUE TO MIGRANT CRISIS HURTS CROSS-BORDER TRADE AS CHRISTMAS NEARS  Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officials warned this week that the th...

Sarah Wynn / The Block : Prometheum says it received the first-ever FINRA approval to offer digital asset securities clearing services through its special purpose broker dealer license   —  - Prometheum announced on Thursday that it received the first-ever approval from FINRA to allow for digital asset securities clearing …

Sen. Thom Tillis , R-N.C., plans to introduce a bill that would ban federal tax dollars from going to state election authorities that improperly apply a section of the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies candidates who have engaged in insurrection against the United States.  The legislation comes after the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified former President Donald Trump from appearing on the state's ballot in 2024, citing the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021, as purported evidence to invoke the 14th Amendment.  "Regardless of whether you support or oppose former President Donald Trump, it is outrageous to see left-wing activists make a mockery of our political system by scheming with partisan state officials and pressuring judges to remove him from the ballot," Tillis said in a press release . "American voters, not partisan activists, should decide who we elect as our president." The legislation, called the Constitutional Election Integrity Act, would also es...

The National Park Service is working on Wednesday to remove red paint and the words "Free Gaza" that appeared this morning near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.   "Vandalism was discovered in the area of Lincoln Memorial Circle and the Reflecting Pool," the United States Park Police said in a statement. "National Park Service conservators have begun the process of removing the paint this morning, though it may take multiple treatments over several days to remove all of it," Park Police added. "The steps on the west side of the Reflecting Pool are closed to visitors while the conservation work takes place."  Images and video captured by Fox5 DC showed workers washing and brushing away the red paint.  LIVE UPDATES: ISRAEL AT WAR WITH HAMAS   It is not immediately clear who was behind the incident.  Anyone with information about it is urged to contact the United States Park Police, according to Fox5 DC.  Numerous pro-Palestinian prote...

North Carolina voting-rights advocates sued Tuesday to overturn all of the redistricting plans drawn by Republicans for the 2024 elections, saying legislative leaders unlawfully weakened the electoral influence of Black voters. The North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, Common Cause and eight Black residents filed a lawsuit in federal court. They accused GOP legislative leaders of intentionally moving boundary lines for General Assembly and congressional districts this fall so that preferred candidates of Black voters lose to candidates backed by white voters. For decades, Black residents have overwhelmingly favored Democratic candidates. "The General Assembly targeted predominantly Black voting precincts with surgical precision throughout the state in drawing and enacting the 2023 Plans, at the expense of traditional redistricting criteria, to achieve preferred district lines that diminish Black voters’ ability to elect candidates of their choice at all levels of government,...

Nilay Patel / The Verge : Q&A with Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen on returning as CEO after firing Dave Clark, buying Deliverr and Convoy, Amazon, Vision Fund, growing the company, and more   —  His replacement got the boot barely a year into the job.  What brought Petersen back? … Today, I'm talking with Ryan Petersen.

GOP presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley let loose on her opponent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, this week for hitting the campaign trail in Iowa with a member of Congress who she called the "most anti-Israel Republican there is." DeSantis was joined at a Johnston, Iowa, town hall on Saturday by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who made headlines for a string of recent votes in the House of Representatives that saw him side with a number of Democrats, including the far-left "Squad," against bills in support of Israel. "Ron DeSantis - who says Ukraine's a territorial dispute, and that this is Israel's war, not America's war - turns around and brings in a Republican into Iowa that is the most anti-Israel Republican there is," Haley told a crowd of supporters at a campaign event near Des Moines, Iowa, on Sunday. ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS SHOW UP TO DEM CONGRESSMAN'S HOME IN MIDDLE OF NIGHT, BLARING CAR HORNS AND SCREAMING ...

Erin Woo / The Information : After Dave Willner's July exit from OpenAI as the head of the trust and safety team, OpenAI has broken up the team, whose vetting process some devs called slow   —  OpenAI has overhauled how it handles the task of rooting out disinformation and offensive content from ChatGPT and its other products …

Only one-third of Americans gave President Biden a thumbs up on the job he is doing in the White House, according to a new national public opinion survey. The president stands at 34% approval in a Monmouth University poll released on Monday, with 61% giving Biden a thumbs down on his job performance. The president's approval is at an all-time low in Monmouth polling since Biden took over the White House nearly three years ago. Americans questioned in the survey gave the president particularly low marks for his handling of immigration (26%) and inflation (28%). HEAD HERE TO CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING "The Biden administration keeps touting their infrastructure investments and a host of positive economic indicators. Those data points may be factual, but most Americans are still smarting from higher prices caused by post-pandemic inflation. This seems to be what’s driving public opinion," Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute...

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Andy Barr is endorsing former President Trump , telling Fox News Digital that Americans "must rally behind" him to ensure "strong leadership both at home and abroad."  Barr, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital on Monday about his endorsement. "I can not sit idly by while Joe Biden and his disastrous policies continue to erode what makes America the greatest country in the world," Barr said. "Since Biden took office, we have seen record-high illegal immigration at the Southern Border, 40-year high inflation, and threateningly weak foreign policy that has invited aggression from our adversaries." TRUMP PICKS UP MORE SENATE GOP ENDORSEMENTS However, Barr said, "despite all of this, Democrats and the ‘mainstream media' are doing everything they can to ensure Joe Biden remains president." "Donald Trump is the only candidate who can defeat Joe Biden and reinstate an America First agenda," he said. TRUMP HOLDS MAS...

Irina Anghel / Bloomberg : Deloitte is using AI to evaluate its staff's skills and map out plans to shift employees into more in-demand roles, as a part of plans to moderate hiring growth   —  - Technology would help shift employees to more in-demand roles  — Deloitte and rivals have begun testing artificial intelligence

Brian Heater / TechCrunch : Q&A with Deepu Talla, Nvidia's VP and GM for Embedded and Edge Computing, on the role of generative AI in robotics, designing humanoid robots, trends, and more   —  A version of this q&a first appeared in TechCrunch's free robotics newsletter, Actuator.  Subscribe here.

Justine Calma / The Verge : How conservationists are using an AI tool called CeruleanAI, developed by the Coral Restoration Foundation, to analyze 3D maps of reefs and monitor restoration   —  Time is running out to save the world's coral reefs, so conservationists are turning to every tool they can to protect vanishing reefs — including AI.

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley responded on Sunday to pressure to love or hate former President Trump, claiming that typical voters care more about issues. Coming off a key endorsement by New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Haley slammed the media's preoccupation with Trump.  "You guys are exhausting. You're exhausting in your obsession with him. The thing is, normal people aren't obsessed with Trump like you guys are," Haley said of the media during a sit-down interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl that aired on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "The normal people care about the fact that they can't afford things. They feel like their freedoms are being taken away. They think government is too big. I know you all want to talk about every single word he says and every single tweet he does." "That's exactly why we need a new generational leader," Haley, who was Trump's U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, continu...