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Abigail Bassett / The Verge : A look at Watch Duty, a free app that has become a crucial lifeline for LA during the wildfires by showing active fires, evacuation zones, and other vital info   —  ‘We view what we are doing as a public service,’ says the cofounder of the nonprofit that millions of people are relying on to stay safe.

Michael Savage / The Guardian : UK's tech secretary says its Online Safety Act is “not up for negotiation,” after Zuckerberg vowed to work with Trump to pressure countries “censoring” content   —  Senior cabinet minister promises not to dilute new measures despite Zuckerberg's attacks on countries ‘censoring’ content

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg : An interview with Arkady Volozh, CEO of Nebius, formerly Yandex NV, on selling Yandex's Russian business in 2024, competing with US AI startups, and more   —  The co-founder of internet company Yandex went into exile after the war began.  —  It's noon, and Arkady Volozh is ready to christen …

Aitor Hernández-Morales / Politico : Zuckerberg urged Trump to stop the EU from fining US tech companies, which he says were forced by EU to pay $30B+ for legal violations over the past two decades   —  Comparing the bloc's antitrust penalties to tariffs, the Meta boss argued that Brussels is “screwing with” American industry.

The audio tape of  President-elect Donald Trump’s New York City sentencing hearing was released to the public on Friday giving insight into the unprecedented conviction against a former president where Trump was ultimately sentenced to an unconditional discharge. " This has been a very terrible experience," Trump, who virtually attended the criminal trial sentencing hearing, told the New York City courtroom on Friday morning. "I think it's been a tremendous setback for New York and the New York court system." "This is a case that Alvin Bragg did not want to bring. He thought it was from what I read and from what I hear, inappropriately handled before he got there. And a gentleman from a law firm came in and acted as a district attorney," the president-elect continued. "And that gentleman, from what I heard, was a criminal or almost criminal in what he did. It was very inappropriate. It was somebody involved with my political opponent."  ...

Greg Stohr / Bloomberg : SCOTUS signals it is likely to uphold the TikTok divest-or-ban law, as a majority of justices suggested they see national security overriding free speech issues   —  - Roberts points to parent company's close ties to China  — Law would ban TikTok on Jan. 19 if ByteDance doesn't sell

WASHINGTON – Former President Jimmy Carter will be remembered for his kind spirit, faith and humanitarian efforts, viewers standing outside his funeral at the National Cathedral tell Fox News Digital. Carter died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100, the only American president to have reached the century mark. Several memorials have been held for the 39th president, in both D.C. and Georgia, since his passing. Continuing with a long-held tradition, a memorial service was held for Carter at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. , on Thursday, where Fox New Digital spoke to people gathered outside the funeral about the late president's lasting legacy.  One woman recalled meeting Carter when she was just 7 years old, telling Fox News Digital that the fond interaction sparked her lifelong love for politics. JIMMY CARTER WAS A MAN OF FAITH AND THAT'S HOW WE SHOULD REMEMBER HIM "My mom was a delegate to the '76 convention representing Arkansas. And he came to ...

Colby Hall / Mediaite : GOP Senator Markwayne Mullin says Mark Zuckerberg met with Trump the day before announcing that Meta would replace fact-checking with Community Notes   —  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with President-elect Donald Trump the day before announcing his social media platforms would end …

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will reimburse California for costs associated with hiring more firefighters and controlling the raging wildfires that have ripped through Southern California.  News of the Fire Management Assistance Grants trickled in Tuesday, and by the evening the White House put out a statement from President Biden confirming the move. FEMA confirmed the measures on Wednesday, in an announcement laying out some details about the grants.  The funding will provide federal reimbursements for up to 75% of "eligible firefighting costs" incurred by the state, as California seeks to shore up its firefighting force and put out the wildfires that have killed at least two people and driven thousands from their homes. Eligible costs include expenses for field camps, equipment, materials, supplies and mobilization or demobilization efforts attributed to fighting the fires.  HUNDREDS OF LA HOMES EXPECTED TO BURN IN WILDFIRES "My Administration ...

Mike Masnick / Techdirt : Meta revamping its content moderation systems with Community Notes is good, but Zuckerberg pretending it's about free speech is bad, and the timing is stupid   —  from the misinformation-about-disinformation dept  —  When the NY Times declared in September that “Mark Zuckerberg is Done With Politics …

Taylor Lorenz / User Mag : For months, Meta hid posts that included LGBTQ+ hashtags for all users who had their sensitive content filter turned on; Meta claims this was done erroneously   —  Posts with LGBTQ+ hashtags were hidden under Meta's “sensitive content” policy which restricts “sexually suggestive content”

Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware : AMD unveils Ryzen AI Max+, a laptop chip with new integrated memory and 16 Zen 5 CPU cores, claiming 84% faster rendering performance vs. the MacBook M4 Pro   —  Disruption is a daily thing.  —  AMD announced its ‘Strix Halo’ Ryzen AI Max series laptop processors here at CES 2025 in Las Vegas …

Congress officially certified President-elect Trump’s 2024 election victory on Monday, taking him one step closer to assuming the Oval Office at the end of this month. Tellers for the Senate's vote counting were Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and those on the House side were Reps. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., and Joe Morelle, D-N.Y. The 312 electoral college votes for Trump were counted and presented by the tellers, in addition to the 226 votes for Vice President Kamala Harris. A USER’S MANUAL TO CERTIFYING THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION It was the final step before Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20 . Ahead of the certification process, both Harris and Vice President-elect JD Vance received bipartisan handshakes from House members as they entered the chamber.  Senators also shook hands with both Republicans and Democrats as they entered the joint session of Congress.  The orderly process is a stark contrast to the scene in the House chamber four years ago when...

Josh Tyrangiel / Bloomberg : Q&A with Sam Altman on OpenAI's and ChatGPT's first few years, his removal as CEO, OpenAI's structure, AGI, AI safety, nuclear fusion, Trump, Musk, and more   —  On Nov. 30, 2022, traffic to OpenAI's website peaked at a number a little north of zero.  It was a startup so small and sleepy …

Financial Times : Malaysia's environment minister says global tech companies should expect to pay a premium for access to energy and water to serve data centres in the country   —  Investment in ‘oil of the 21st century’ will support country's development of renewable power  —  Global tech companies should expect …

Tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk renewed criticism of the more than 150 House Democrats who voted against deporting illegal immigrants convicted of sex offenses, demanding each of the lawmakers be voted out of office.  "There is no excuse. Please post the list of people who opposed this law and want to keep illegals who are convicted sex offenders in America," Musk posted to his X account on Saturday referencing a September House vote.  "They all need to be voted out of office. Every one of them." The Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act passed the House in September, after all 215 present Republicans voted in favor of the bill, and were joined by 51 Democratic colleagues . A total of 158 Democrats, however, voted against the bill.  158 DEMS VOTE AGAINST BILL TO DEPORT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WHO COMMIT SEX CRIMES The Democrats who voted against the bill came under scrutiny in September, and are facing renewed criticism on social media this month a...