The Trump administration has intervened in the release of important studies on the bird flu, as an outbreak escalates across the United States. One of the studies would reveal whether veterinarians who treat cattle have been unknowingly infected by the bird flu virus. Another report documents cases in which people carrying the virus might have infected their pet cats.

It showed the tool helping a cheesemonger in Wisconsin write a product description by informing him Gouda accounts for "50 to 60 percent of global cheese consumption". However, a blogger pointed out on X that the stat was "unequivocally false" as the Dutch cheese was nowhere near that popular. Replying to him, Google executive Jerry Dischler, insisted this was not a "hallucination" - where AI systems invent untrue information - blaming the websites Gemini had scraped the information from instead. "Gemini is grounded in the Web - and users can always check the results and references," he wrote. "In this case, multiple sites across the web include the 50-60% stat." The ad has now been re-edited to remove the error.

The contrarian columnist showed us the intolerable side of liberalism.

Marineland has euthanized a seven-year-old beluga whale after a long battle with several different medical conditions, making it the 18th such whale to die at the Niagara Falls, Ont., tourist attraction since 2019. Ontario's Animal Welfare Services team received confirmation of a beluga's death on Thursday, a Ministry of the Solicitor General spokesperson said. Eos was born in 2017 to a first-time mother and needed help from the pod to raise her, Marineland said in a post on social media. The young whale's medical concerns began in 2021, the park said. "Eos was diagnosed with renal concerns at a young age, which were monitored closely with progression tracked over the years," Marineland said.

“Lorne has lost his f***ing mind and someone needs to shoot him in the back of the head,” writer Tim Robinson said at the height of the uproar.

The strike is part of a “Week of Action” running through Valentine's Day in Philadelphia to show the value of immigrants.

I know there’s a lot of news and it’s very difficult to parse it all, but today I’m going to provide a rough and necessarily oversimplified interpretation of the present moment that relies on stylized facts.” I think we can all agree the key difference between Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0 is the alignment of a reactionary fraction of Silicon Valley tech oligarchs with Trump, or rather, the transformation of a significant part of tech capital from an ostensibly progressive, liberal section of capital into a reactionary one.

The Grammy winner for best new artist gets respect and true appreciation for her creativity and gumption but is far too green and uninformed to be the agent of change she aspires to be today.

A nuclear fusion reactor in China, dubbed the "artificial sun," has broken its own record

A number of federal employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US federal agency that monitors and models the oceans and atmosphere for the purpose of predicting changes in climate and weather, have received orders to temporarily cease communicating with foreign nationals, including those working directly with the US government, WIRED has learned. An internal email obtained by WIRED shows that the NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) received orders to pause “ALL INTERNATIONAL ENGAGEMENTS.” (Emphasis theirs.) The message states that the orders extend to participation in international commissions and even emails “with foreign national colleagues.”

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s biotech firm is preparing three applications needing approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

A coalition of unions is asking a federal court to block far-right billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing the internal systems of the Department of Labor (DOL), after In These Times broke the news that the tech billionaire is planning a ​“kickoff meeting” with the agency today. For the past several weeks, Musk and his DOGE project have been slashing and burning their way through the U.S. government on a self-directed mission of destruction. Now, he’s coming after the DOL. On February 4, in an afternoon meeting with senior management, workers were ordered to turn over access to the DOGE operatives wherever they ask for it. Those who impede the process or refuse to reply were told they risk termination. Sources said that the orders came down from Acting Secretary of Labor Vince Micone, and that the DOGE operatives will be staying for ​“an indeterminate period of time.” Workers were dismayed. ​“I work for the American people,” one DOL worker told me. ​“To turn over their data to a bunch of idiots without proper clearance feels wrong.”

The VA may be the next government agency to go dark, if Pete Hegseth’s digital Rolodex is anything to go by.

Grassroots efforts in places like North Carolina show what we can—and increasingly must—do in a world plagued by climate disasters.

Laid off staffers allege union busting and misrepresentation at an organization that promised a fleet of mobile abortion clinics.

"This is my best attempt to summarize some key pieces of news and hopefully cut through some of the noise to explain what’s going on and where we could be headed."

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison cannot rely on a misinformation expert whose court filing included made-up citations generated by artificial intelligence, a federal judge ruled in a case involving a "deepfake" parody of Vice President Kamala Harris.

The arrest took place amid Trump's immigration crackdown. An armored vehicle with battering ram and dozens of ICE agents were present to arrest a man.

The site calls out workers who have been involved with DEI initiatives. A majority are Black.

Google removed a pledge to not build AI for weapons or surveillance from its website this week. The change was first spotted by Bloomberg. The company appears to have updated its public AI principles page, erasing a section titled “applications we will not pursue,” which was still included as recently as last week. Asked for comment, the company pointed TechCrunch to a new blog post on “responsible AI.” It notes, in part, “we believe that companies, governments, and organizations sharing these values should work together to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security.”