Tech News
Today’s tech thread is a shift from “building AI models” to building the infrastructure and controls around them: compute and connectivity at massive scale, faster data movement, and product-driven iteration. At the same time, security and trust are becoming the binding constraint, with supply‑chain compromises, disinformation at scale, and attacks that bypass current defenses. For readers, the key lens is which organizations can balance rapid deployment with verifiable provenance and enforceable governance, since that will shape risk for users, developers, and platforms.
SpaceX acquired xAI and plans to launch a massive satellite constellation to power it. The company said the merger will create a vertically integrated system combining AI, rockets and space-based internet.
Senior staff are leaving OpenAI as it redirects resources from long-term research to prioritize improving ChatGPT. The change reflects competition and investor pressure over its $500 billion valuation.
A paper reports a 21-expert survey finding deepfake video has immediate "shock" value, large-scale text generation risks "epistemic fragmentation," and experts favor provenance standards over technical detection tools.
A PNAS Perspective (arXiv:2602.01474v1) reviews three proposed legal infrastructures: registration for frontier models and autonomous agents, and regulatory markets. It argues AI's transformative nature requires such legal and regulatory frameworks.
R2 Local Uploads is now in open beta, writing object data near clients and asynchronously replicating it to the bucket. Tests showed up to 75% reduction in upload Time to Last Byte.
Notepad++'s update infrastructure was compromised for six months by suspected China-state hackers who redirected update traffic to deliver backdoored versions. They installed a new payload called Chrysalis.
Researchers generated universal adversarial suffixes that bypass activation-delta task-drift detectors, achieving up to 93.91% evasion on Phi-3 3.8B and 99.63% on Llama-3 8B.
Montana News
Today’s Montana stories reflect how decisions made in politics and public institutions are increasingly shaping everyday security and affordability. Efforts to limit outside influence in elections and debates over immigration enforcement point to tension between accountability and centralized power. At the same time, military modernization and rising housing costs show how policy choices and market pressure affect local communities, especially lower-income residents and service-dependent regions.
A bipartisan group including former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester proposed a ballot initiative to ban corporate spending in Montana elections.
Rents have risen at the Golden Estates trailer court in Helena, affecting residents. Advocates say the spikes undermine a rare affordable housing option and could push tenants into less stable living situations.
The Senate approved several federal budget bills and temporarily froze Homeland Security funding, averting an extended partial government shutdown. It bought Democrats time to negotiate immigration-enforcement reforms.
Malmstrom AFB flew its first operational MH-139A mission, escorting an ICBM convoy over 100 miles in six hours without refueling. It begins replacing UH-1N Hueys and modernizes land-based nuclear deterrent security.
Democratic lawmakers from 13 states visited Minnesota to show solidarity after about 3,000 agents operated there and two U.S. citizens died. They warned the federal incursion could spread to other states.
Economic News (Weekly)
This week’s data point to an economy facing mixed signals: consumer prices rose while trade flows worsened as imports grew and exports fell, complicating the inflation and growth picture at the same time. Manufacturing demand improved with higher new orders, but energy costs remain a key pressure point as electricity prices tracked higher fuel inputs and cold-weather reliability needs pulled in costlier generation. Households, manufacturers, and policymakers will read this as a tug-of-war between strengthening demand and energy- and trade-driven price and cost risks.
CPI rose 0.3% in Dec 2025, unemployment was 4.4%, and payroll employment increased by 50,000(p) in Dec 2025.
The U.S. goods and services trade deficit increased to $56.8 billion in November 2025, up from $29.2 billion in October. The increase reflected lower exports and higher imports.
Average wholesale day-ahead electricity prices at most Lower 48 trading hubs were higher in 2025 than in 2024. The rise was driven largely by higher natural gas prices to electric generators.
New orders for manufactured goods in November rose $16.2 billion (2.7%) to $621.6 billion, the third increase in four months.
The U.S. international trade deficit in goods and services rose to $56.8 billion in November from $29.2 billion in October (revised) as exports decreased and imports increased.
During Winter Storm Fern, petroleum surpassed natural gas as New England's top power source January 24 to 26. This reflects New England's reliance on oil-fired units in cold-weather high demand.
U.S. Governance
Today’s governance story shows federal power being tested on multiple fronts: lawmakers using oversight and deadlines to force accountability, courts narrowing how election rules can be implemented, and the executive branch leaning on national-security tools and diplomacy to pursue policy goals. The key tension is speed and control—acting quickly amid tight votes and administrative ambition versus procedural constraints and judicial limits. These shifts most affect voters, federal workers and benefit recipients, and industries tied to strategic materials, shaping near-term decisions on compliance, funding, and international engagement.
Bill and Hillary Clinton agreed to testify in a House probe into Jeffrey Epstein. Rep. James Comer said the deal wasn't finalized and continued pressing criminal contempt.
Speaker Mike Johnson said he is optimistic the House can quickly end the partial government shutdown. He faces a razor-thin majority and a restive GOP caucus.
The Trump administration plans to spend nearly $12 billion to create a strategic reserve of rare earth elements. It could counter China's leverage in trade talks.
A judge barred agencies from assessing citizenship before providing a federal voter registration form to people enrolling in public assistance programs. The ruling is a setback to Trump's wide-ranging election executive order.
The Congressional Record Volume 172, Issue 23 (February 2, 2026) was posted on GovInfo with links to the PDF, descriptive and preservation metadata, and a ZIP of all content.
President Trump will welcome Colombian President Gustavo Petro to the White House on Tuesday. Their meeting could reshape U.S.–Colombia relations.
Global Affairs
Today’s global affairs signals worsening pressure points where limited diplomatic steps coexist with continued escalation and tightly constrained humanitarian access. Conflicts are increasingly shaped by attacks on critical infrastructure, border and movement controls, and large-scale displacement needs that require sustained funding. At the same time, major-power engagement and negotiation signals are colliding with military posturing and political influence efforts, affecting civilians first and policymakers weighing leverage versus de-escalation.
Russia launched more than 70 missiles and 450 drones at Ukrainian power plants and infrastructure, which private energy company DTEK called the most powerful blow so far this year.
Israel reopened Rafah, but only about a dozen people entered and a few wounded were evacuated to Egypt. Thousands of patients still await urgent evacuation as far fewer crossed than expected.
An escalation of hostilities in northern Syria in January 2026 triggered displacement across Aleppo, Ar-Raqqa, Deir-ez-Zor and Al-Hassakeh governorates. The clashes caused territorial shifts and disrupted basic services and humanitarian access.
President Donald Trump will meet Colombian President Gustavo Petro at the White House weeks after threatening military action and accusing him of pumping cocaine into the United States.
Iran's president Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran will pursue "fair and equitable" talks with the US, instructing its foreign minister to do so if a suitable, threat-free environment exists.
WFP in Bangladesh received an additional EUR 2 million from the EU to support lifesaving food and nutrition assistance for Rohingya refugees and host communities.