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A U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Special Reaction Team (MSRT) assisted by the U.S. Navy has seized a second oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela Saturday, a U.S. official confirms to Fox News.  The operation involved a U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Special Reaction Team assisted by the U.S. Navy, marking the latest enforcement action tied to President Donald Trump ’s announced blockade of sanctioned oil tankers. BONDI SHARES HEART-POUNDING FOOTAGE OF US SEIZING VENEZUELAN OIL TANKER IN RARE ACTION LAST SEEN IN 2014 The seizure comes days after President Donald Trump announced a "total and complete blockade" of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela on Tuesday. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The Pentagon referred Fox News Digital to the White House, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This is a developing story, check back later for updates.

Business Insider : Google advises some employees on visas, including H-1B visas, not to travel outside the US due to processing delays, following new social media screening rules   —  - Google and Apple are advising some employees with visas not to travel outside the US, per memos viewed by Business Insider.

The alleged "mastermind" behind Minnesota’s $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scandal tied to the Somali community is accused of wielding extraordinary power through threats and what the government described as "fake claims of racism." Aimee Bock, who founded the Feeding Our Future nonprofit in 2016, used her growing authority to silence dissent, discourage scrutiny from state regulators and cut off operators who refused to comply, prosecutors said. While other defendants splurged on luxury homes, cars and overseas property, prosecutors said Bock instead controlled the levers of approval and reimbursement that allowed the scheme to flourish.  One witness even recently described Bock as a "God" in how she enforced her authority. Court records show that more than $1 million flowed to Bock's longtime boyfriend, who appeared in trial exhibits posing inside a Rolls-Royce with Bock standing nearby, underscoring her alleged proximity to the wealth gen...

Isabelle Bousquette / Wall Street Journal : The RAISE Act requires AI companies with $500M+ in revenue to publish safety protocols and disclose safety incidents within 72 hours, with fines up to $3M   —  Days after President Trump moved to block states from regulating AI, New York's governor signs what the bill's sponsor calls the strongest AI safety law in the U.S.

Emily Mullin / Wired : Source: Sam Altman's Merge Labs, which seeks to read brain activity using ultrasound, is being spun out of LA-based nonprofit Forest Neurotech   —  Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface startup that seeks to read brain activity using ultrasound, is being spun out of Forest Neurotech, a Los Angeles nonprofit.

Evita Duffy-Alfonso, a daughter of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy , called for the abolition of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Thursday, asserting that she had been treated poorly by agents and endured an "absurdly invasive pat-down."  "TSA = unreasonable, warrantless searches of passengers and their property. That means it violates the Fourth Amendment and is therefore unconstitutional. Pls abolish," she wrote in a post on X, tagging President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem. In another post, she explained her negative experience. "I nearly missed my flight this morning after the TSA made me wait 15 minutes for a pat-down because I’m pregnant and didn’t feel like getting radiation exposure from their body scanner. The agents were passive-aggressive, rude, and tried to pressure me and another pregnant woman into just walking through the scanner because it’s ‘safe.’ After finally getting ...

Chris Metinko / Axios : Neural Concept, whose 3D product design software uses deep learning to help cut development times, raised a $100M Series C, bringing its total funding to $130M   —  Neural Concept closed a $100 million Series C led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives as the engineering intelligence startup looks …

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that the Kennedy Center’s board voted unanimously to rename the institution to the "Trump-Kennedy Center" in recognition of what she described as President Donald Trump’s efforts to save the building over the past year. This is a breaking news story; check back for updates.

Courtney Subramanian / Bloomberg : Twenty-four companies, including Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, OpenAI, and AWS, join the US Genesis Mission to boost the use of AI for scientific discovery   —  Two dozen top artificial intelligence companies have signed on to join the federal government's “Genesis Mission,” …

Senate Republicans blocked an attempt by Sen. Adam Schiff , D-Calif., to force the release of unedited footage to Congress and the public of the U.S. military's controversial Sept. 2 double-tap strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean. Schiff’s move Wednesday afternoon followed passage of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included a provision to require the Pentagon to release all unedited footage of the strikes in the Caribbean to Congress in exchange for full funding of the Department of War’s travel expenses. His bill went a step further and was specifically geared toward the early September double strike against an alleged drug boat that has divided lawmakers in recent weeks, particularly over whether the strikes were legal. PENTAGON WON'T RELEASE 'TOP SECRET, FULL, UNEDITED' VIDEO OF SEPTEMBER DRUG BOAT STRIKE, HEGSETH SAYS Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed every senator on the strikes Tue...

Todd Bishop / GeekWire : Amazon's AGI team lead Rohit Prasad is leaving at the end of 2025; AWS SVP Peter DeSantis will lead a group combining AI, silicon, and quantum computing teams   —  Rohit Prasad, the executive who has led Amazon's artificial intelligence initiatives and overseen the creation of its homegrown Nova AI models …

A doctor-turned-House Republican is arguing that there is a direct link between the Affordable Care Act (ACA) , colloquially known as Obamacare, and the increasing cost of healthcare putting a strain on Americans' wallets. "They removed choice by patients by limiting and prohibiting association health plans, so small businesses were disadvantaged," said Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa.  "They had mandates for how the rating for insurance companies can go — they had mandated essential benefits, so people that are young and healthy and may not want a lot of healthcare, they just want it for catastrophic, couldn't get just catastrophic coverage, so there was no choice in what benefits you had." Miller-Meeks said it led to people having to pay for their health premiums but not being able to afford the deductible to actually go see a doctor — in other words, "You can have insurance, but not care." SENATE REPUBLICANS UNVEIL PLAN TO REPLACE OBAM...

Maxwell Zeff / Wired : Source: OpenAI rolled back ChatGPT's model router, which sent some queries to reasoning models, for Free and $5/month Go tiers, as it was costly and hurt DAUs   —  As OpenAI scrambles to improve ChatGPT, it's ditching a feature in its free tier that contributed to last summer's user revolt.

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani condemned the horrific Hanukkah attack in Australia as a "vile act of antisemitic terror" and vowed to "keep Jewish New Yorkers safe." Mamdani's comments this weekend came in response to the mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which left at least 15 people dead and dozens wounded. Australian authorities have described the attack as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.  "Another Jewish community plunged into mourning and loss, a holiday of light so painfully reduced to a day of darkness," Mamdani said in a statement. "This attack is merely the latest, most horrifying iteration in a growing pattern of violence targeted at Jewish people across the world." WERE WARNINGS IGNORED IN AUSTRALIA TERROR ATTACK ? But Mamdani, who made history last month as the first Muslim elected mayor of the nation's most populous city and who had strained relations with many in New York City's ...

Reshmi Basu / Bloomberg : Lidar manufacturer Luminar files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and says it reached a deal to sell its semiconductor subsidiary to Quantum Computing Inc. for $110M   —  Luminar Technologies Inc, which manufactures laser-based sensors for cars, filed for bankruptcy shortly after it lost a contract with Swedish carmaker Volvo Car AB.

Corrie Driebusch / Wall Street Journal : Stocks of private companies like OpenAI and SpaceX are being sold via invitation-only markets to the ultrawealthy before their IPOs, creating a two-tier system   —  The buzziest private companies are being sold to a select few as the universe of stocks everyone else can invest in shrinks rapidly

China has spent decades building a land-based missile force designed to keep the United States out of a fight over Taiwan — and U.S. officials say it now threatens every major airfield, port and military installation across the Western Pacific. As Washington races to build its own long-range fires, analysts warn that the land domain has become the most overlooked — and potentially decisive — part of the U.S.–China matchup. Interviews with military experts show a contest defined not by tanks or troop movements, but by missile ranges, base access and whether U.S. forces can survive the opening salvos of a war that may begin long before any aircraft take off. "The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force … has built an increasing number of short-, medium-, and long-range missiles," Seth Jones of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told Fox News Digital. "They have the capability to shoot those across the first and increasingly the second island chains." ...

Kieran Smith / Financial Times : Delivery Hero Chair Kristin Skogen Lund backs CEO Niklas Östberg as the group explores asset sales amid shareholder pressure over its falling stock price   —  Founder Östberg retains board support even as German food group explores routes to revive shares

President Donald Trump offered condolences to the victims of attacks across the globe on Sunday, from the mass shooting at Brown University to the Hanukkah terrorist attack in Australia. Trump addressed the tragedies while speaking at a Christmas reception at the White House on Sunday, saying his thoughts and support are with the victims of the shooting at Brown. He also condemned the "pure antisemitism" of the terrorist attack in Sydney, Australia, as well as the killing of three Americans in Syria on Saturday. "I want to just pay my respects to the people – unfortunately, two are no longer with us – at Brown University. Nine injured, and two are looking down on us right now from heaven," Trump said. "And, likewise, in Australia, as you know, there was a terrible attack. Eleven dead, 29 badly wounded. And that was an antisemitic attack, obviously. And it, I just want to pay my respects to everybody," he continued. SYRIANS MARK FIRST YEAR SINCE ASSAD...