Tech News
OpenAI and Snowflake entered a $200M partnership to bring frontier intelligence into enterprise data, enabling AI agents and insights to run directly within Snowflake.
OpenAI introduced the Codex app for macOS, a command center for AI coding and software development that supports multiple agents, parallel workflows, and long-running tasks.
Suspected China-state hackers compromised Notepad++'s update infrastructure from June to December, redirecting select users to malicious servers that delivered backdoored app updates and a new payload dubbed Chrysalis.
Ukraine and SpaceX said they collaborated to stop strikes by Russian drones using Starlink and will require registration, allowing only whitelisted Starlink terminals to operate in Ukraine and disconnecting others.
An arXiv paper shows existing batch speculative decoding corrupts outputs due to ragged tensor desynchronization, and introduces EQSPEC to guarantee output equivalence and EXSPEC to reduce alignment overhead via cross-batch scheduling.
Agentic AI is moving deeper into developer workflows and enterprise data, but the stakes are rising around correctness, security, and control. Work on faster generation now centers on provable equivalence, while a high-profile update channel compromise and battlefield use of commercial connectivity spotlight supply-chain and access risks. For product leaders and CISOs, the tradeoff is speed and integration versus verifiability and governance.
Economic News (Weekly)
The CPI rose 0.3% in December 2025, the unemployment rate was 4.4%, and payroll employment increased by 50,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The U.S. trade deficit widened to $56.8 billion in November 2025 from a revised $29.2 billion in October as exports fell and imports rose.
New orders for manufactured goods increased $16.2 billion (2.7%) to $621.6 billion in November 2025, and the Census Bureau rescheduled December 2025 M3 releases to Feb. 18 and Feb. 23, 2026.
Average wholesale day-ahead electricity prices at most major Lower 48 hubs were higher in 2025 than 2024, driven largely by higher natural gas prices, with ISO-NE up $29/MWh and Mid-Columbia down $14/MWh.
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened to $56.8 billion in November from a revised $29.2 billion in October, as exports fell and imports rose.
Macro signals point to firming price pressures and energy costs, a wider external gap, and a rebound in factory demand. Higher power prices from fuel costs elevate upstream inflation risk, while imports outpacing exports suggest domestic demand is stronger than abroad. For operators and budget planners, this mix supports cautious pricing and inventory plans and attention to supply contracts and trade exposure.
U.S. Governance
A partial U.S. government shutdown continues after Congress missed Friday’s funding deadline amid disputes over Department of Homeland Security reforms, though the House Speaker predicts it will end by Tuesday.
A judge blocked additional citizenship provisions of Trump's election executive order, ruling that agencies cannot assess citizenship before providing federal voter registration forms to people enrolling in public assistance programs.
The Trump administration reduced this year's field test of the 2030 census to two sites and plans to test using U.S. Postal Service staff instead of temporary census workers.
Secretary Kristi Noem said every Homeland Security officer in Minneapolis will get a body-worn camera, and DHS will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras across the country.
The FAA issued a Jan. 8 safety alert warning rocket launches could significantly reduce airplane safety, urging pilots to use extreme caution and prepare for dangerous debris fields from potential catastrophic failures.
U.S. governance this week reflects agencies adjusting policy under tight constraints and legal guardrails. Budget uncertainty and courtroom limits on voter screening collide with scaled-back planning for the next national headcount, rapid rollout of officer cameras, and heightened airspace cautions tied to private launches. The tradeoff is between security, integrity, and safety versus access, coverage, and operational capacity—affecting travelers, benefits applicants, communities, and federal staff.
Montana News
The Senate approved budget bills and agreed to temporarily freeze Department of Homeland Security funding, sidestepping a partial shutdown; with a House vote days away, some programs may briefly go unfunded.
Two U.S. Air Force MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopters at Malmstrom Air Force Base completed their first operational mission, escorting an ICBM convoy more than 100 miles without refueling.
Rent increases at Helena’s Golden Estates mobile home park, tenants and advocates warn, undermine an affordable housing option and could push tenants into less stable living scenarios.
Toby’s House broke ground on a new facility.
Democratic lawmakers from 13 states visited Minnesota to show solidarity amid the presence of 3,000 immigration agents and after two U.S. citizens died in incidents involving immigration officials.
National budget deals and immigration enforcement dynamics are shaping state politics and daily life. At the same time, defense modernization is advancing at a key installation. Low-income renters face sharper cost pressure while nonprofits expand to support families, highlighting a tradeoff between enforcement and security priorities and community stability that will inform local housing, service, and budget choices.
Global Affairs
Xi Jinping sidelined top general Zhang Yiouxia amid accusations ranging from corruption to leaking nuclear secrets to the US.
Iran is considering resuming nuclear talks with the United States, possibly in Turkey.
The WHO warned that cuts to international aid and persistent funding gaps are undermining the global health system, putting global health systems at risk.
A Ukrainian official said Elon Musk's curbs on Russian Starlink use worked after Starlink-enabled drones were linked to attacks, including a train attack that killed six, and Musk said the steps worked.
Israel reopened the Rafah crossing with Egypt for limited movement, allowing dozens of people and no goods to cross daily after closure since May 2024; sick and wounded Palestinians have entered Egypt.
Today’s signals point to tighter state control and constrained access across flashpoints: leadership shake-ups and wartime platform limits coincide with narrow openings for talks, while aid systems face shrinking funds and border flows remain restricted. The core tension is security hardening versus humanitarian capacity. For diplomats and aid planners, expect slower relief pipelines and policy volatility when assessing corridors, negotiations, and civilian risk.