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President Trump visited Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon to discuss his agenda for American workers, stressing a "no tax on tips" policy as the first week of his second term wraps up. Speaking from the Circa Resort and Casino, Trump appealed to the myriad of hospitality workers in Sin City during his speech. "Any worker who relies on tips [as] income, your tips will be 100% yours," Trump said. The Republican, who previously touted the policy as a 2024 campaign promise, also addressed Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo during the speech and bluntly asked him about how important the issue was during the November election. ‘FLOODING THE ZONE’ TRUMP HITS WARP SPEED IN FIRST WEEK BACK IN OFFICE "You think that had an impact on the election?" Trump asked. "What, a half a point? It's pretty big….nationwide over four million workers depend on tip income, including an estimated 700,000 single moms." "And here in Nevada…think of it, a quarter of the ...

Zeyi Yang / Wired : DeepSeek, which started as a deep-learning research branch of Chinese quant hedge fund High-Flyer, is now giving US AI giants a run for their money   —  When Chinese quant hedge fund founder Liang Wenfeng went into AI research, he took 10,000 Nvidia chips and assembled a team of young, ambitious talent.

MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC : After pouring tens of millions into Trump's campaign, the crypto industry has been paid back handsomely during his first week back, with EOs, rule changes, more   —  Crypto executives, companies and investors are getting an early return on their investment in Donald Trump.

Caiwei Chen / MIT Technology Review : Rather than weakening China's AI capabilities, US sanctions appear to be driving startups like DeepSeek to innovate by prioritizing efficiency and collaboration   —  The AI community is abuzz over DeepSeek R1, a new open-source reasoning model.  —  The model was developed by the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek …

Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology : An interview with Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis on why he doesn't believe we will have AGI in 2025, putting Google's assistants in smart glasses, and more   —  Q&A with the Google AI head and Nobel laureate on the state of artificial intelligence today, and where it's heading.

Some of President Donald Trump’s most controversial executive branch nominees are set to appear before Congressional committees next week. The commander-in-chief promises that they will shake up their respective departments if they are approved by the Senate.  Kashyap "Kash" Patel  has been nominated to be the FBI’s next director and will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, while Director of National Intelligence (DNI) pick Tulsi Gabbard has a hearing scheduled on the same day before the Senate Intelligence Committee. HEGSETH CLEARS SENATE HURDLE AND ADVANCES TO A FINAL CONFIRMATION VOTE Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., tapped to become director of the Department of Health and Human Services, will face questions on Wednesday from members of the Senate Finance Committee, which directly oversees the department. He’ll also appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee on Thursday for a courtesy hearing.  The Senate's "a...

Pranav Dixit / Business Insider : Apptopia: Meta's engagement is steady despite some calls for a Meta boycott over fact-checking and DEI changes; TikTok ban may have overshadowed user concerns   —  - Meta's engagement is steady after the company cut fact-checking and diversity programs.  — A potential TikTok ban might'v …

Bloomberg : At Davos, Trump blasts EU for targeting Apple, Google, and Meta, describing regulatory cases as “a form of taxation”, and references Apple's €13B Irish tax bill   —  - Comments mark start of clash between Trump, EU over tech  — Apple lost case last year over $14.4 billion Irish tax bill

Samsung on YouTube : A livestream of Samsung Galaxy Unpacked January 2025   —  #GalaxyUnpacked is now LIVE.  Join us.  #GalaxyAI #SamsungWatch our ASL stream: https://www.youtube.com/live/QhhG6Q- XWFMTo view the YouTube streams on a deskto...

FIRST ON FOX : Arizona’s legislature is considering significant legislation to ensure the key border state cooperates with the mass deportation push by the new Trump administration amid questions about the extent to which states will aid the government. Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican, is introducing the "AZ ICE Act," which would require sheriff’s departments and the Arizona Department of Corrections to enter into co-operative agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The agreements are based on 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers certain immigration functions, including identifying and detaining suspected illegal immigrants. TRUMP DHS REPEALS KEY MAYORKAS MEMO LIMITING ICE AGENTS, ORDERS PAROLE REVIEW "The 287(g) program allows ICE — through the delegation of specified immigration officer duties — to enhance collaboration with state and local law enfo...

Max Goldbart / Deadline : Parrot Analytics estimates Severance season 1 earned $200M+, with ~50% coming in the year following the finale; Ted Lasso generated $609.4M from Q3'20 to Q3'24   —  Parrot came to these figures via its Content Valuation methodology, which uses a formula to correlate audience demand with subscribers and therefore revenue.

High-profile Democrats and former President Biden , himself, warned about blanket, preemptive pardons before Biden ultimately granted passes to Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of his family in the 11th hour of his administration. "The precedent of giving blanket pardons, preemptive blanket pardons on the way out of an administration, I think, is a precedent we don't want to set," now-Sen. Adam Schiff warned on ABC's "This Week" in December.  Biden ended his term in the Oval Office on Monday, when President Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. But hours before the inauguration, the White House announced pardons for both Fauci and Milley and those involved in the January 6 select committee investigation – though those individuals were not identified by name.  And just 22 minutes before leaving office, Biden also pardoned his family, including his brother James B. Biden, sister Valerie Biden Owens, brother-in...

Congressional Democrats are balancing efforts to stand tough against President Trump while also pledging to work with him where possible after the Republican commander in chief took office. It comes as moderate Democrats and Democrats in vulnerable seats have made overtures toward Republicans in areas like border security and transgender youth after the GOP’s commanding victories in the 2024 elections – which the right has widely interpreted as a mandate for a more conservative America. "My job is to fight to make life better for Texas families, and I will work with anyone, Democrat or Republican, who is interested in lowering costs, securing our border, and keeping our communities safe," freshman Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Texas, who attended the inauguration, said in a statement.  "But make no mistake, I will always stand up to President Trump, his administration, division, and far-right extremism when any of those individuals or entities threaten our way of life....

Tim Copeland / The Block : A memecoin named Official Barron Trump hit a $460M market cap before falling 95%; a Pump.fun user behind it has debuted other unofficial coins called “official”   —  - A memecoin called Official Barron Trump rose to a $460 million market cap on speculation that it might have been launched by Barron Trump himself.

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch : Meta unveils Edits, a video editing app coming next month on iOS and soon on Android, after CapCut is removed from app stores as part of the divest-or-ban law   —  Meta today announced a new video editing app called Edits, after ByteDance's video editing app CapCut was removed from Apple's App Store …

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Sunday denied that President-elect Trump’s mass deportation plan could cost trillions of dollars, though said that there is no better investment than restoring the safety and security of the country. Johnson made the remarks during an appearance on NBC’s "Meet the Press" when he was asked about the border crisis and grocery prices, the two issues that Trump says helped him win the election. "I cannot think of a better dollar for dollar investment than to restore the security and the safety of the country," Johnson said. "We've had a wide-open border for four years and millions upon millions of illegal persons. We have dangerous illegals in the country, criminals who have already committed crimes here, violent crimes against American citizens." The speaker cited crime and "the untold humanitarian cost in terms of trafficking and fentanyl deaths" in the U.S. as important reasons to tackle border securi...

Danny Park / The Block : Blockchain security firm Scam Sniffer reports scams luring crypto investors into malicious Telegram groups jumped 2,000% between November 2024 and January 2025   —  - Blockchain security firm Scam Sniffer reported that malware crypto scams on Telegram increased by 2,000% between November and January.