DHS keeps trying and failing to unmask anonymous ICE critics online

DHS keeps trying and failing to unmask anonymous ICE critics online

fivenewscrypto    janvier 26, 2026   

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has backed down from a fight to unmask the owners of Instagram and Facebook accounts monitoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in Pennsylvania.

One of the anonymous account holders, John Doe, sued to block ICE from identifying him and other critics online through summonses to Meta that he claimed infringed on core First Amendment-protected activity.

DHS initially fought Doe's motion to quash the summonses, arguing that the community watch groups endangered ICE agents by posting "pictures and videos of agents’ faces, license plates, and weapons, among other things." This was akin to "threatening ICE agents to impede the performance of their duties," DHS alleged. DHS's arguments echoed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who has claimed that identifying ICE agents is a crime, even though Wired noted that ICE employees often post easily discoverable LinkedIn profiles.

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White House alters arrest photo of ICE protester, says "the memes will continue"

White House alters arrest photo of ICE protester, says "the memes will continue"

fivenewscrypto    janvier 26, 2026   

The Trump White House yesterday posted a manipulated photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong, a Minnesota civil rights attorney who was arrested after protesting in a church where a pastor is allegedly also an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted what seems to be the original photo of Armstrong being led away by an officer yesterday morning. A half hour later, the official White House X account posted an altered version in which Armstrong's face was manipulated to make it appear that she was crying.

"The White House shared an AI-edited photo of Nekima, depicting her in tears and scared when, in actuality, she was poised, determined, and unafraid," NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said yesterday.

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Telly’s "free" ad-based TVs make notable revenue—when they’re actually delivered

Telly’s "free" ad-based TVs make notable revenue—when they’re actually delivered

fivenewscrypto    janvier 26, 2026   

Telly, a company that accepts advertising data instead of cash for its TVs, has reportedly had a hard time getting its “free” TVs into people’s homes.

Telly debuted in May 2023. Its dual-screen design can show ads, even when people aren't watching. Although the smaller, secondary screen can be used for more helpful applications, like showing the weather or sports scores, its primary purpose is to serve as a billboard south of the 55-inch primary display. Owners cannot disable tracking or cover up the secondary screen (or they have to pay for the TV, which Telly claims is worth $1,000), and they must fill out a lengthy, detailed survey to get one.

When it debuted its TV, Telly said it expected to ship 500,000 devices that summer. In June 2023, the startup said 250,000 people signed up to get a Telly. In a 2024 press release, Telly said that it planned to ship “millions more in 2024.”

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TikTok deal is done; Trump wants praise while users fear MAGA tweaks

TikTok deal is done; Trump wants praise while users fear MAGA tweaks

fivenewscrypto    janvier 26, 2026   

The TikTok deal is done, and Donald Trump is claiming a win, although it remains unclear if the joint venture he arranged with ByteDance and the Chinese government actually resolves Congress' national security concerns.

In a press release Thursday, TikTok announced the "TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC," an entity established to keep TikTok operating in the US.

Giving Americans majority ownership, ByteDance retains 19.9 percent of the joint venture, the release said, which has been valued at $14 billion. Three managing investors—Silver Lake, Oracle, and MGX—each hold 15 percent, while other investors, including Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell's investment firm, Dell Family Office, hold smaller, undisclosed stakes.

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Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee

Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee

fivenewscrypto    janvier 26, 2026   

Love it or hate it, Tesla has been responsible for helping to shape the tastes of automotive consumers over the past decade-plus. Over-the-air updates that add more features, an all-touchscreen human-machine interface, large castings, and hands-free driver assists were all introduced or popularized by Tesla's electric vehicles, prompting other automakers to copy them, mostly in the hopes of seeing the same stratospheric gains in their stock prices. But starting on Valentine's Day, if you want your new Tesla to steer itself, you'll have to pay a $99 monthly subscription fee.

Tesla currently offers a pair of so-called "level 2" partially automated driver assist systems. Autopilot is the older of these, combining Tesla's adaptive cruise control (Tesla calls this TACC) and lane-keeping assist (Tesla calls this Autosteer). FSD is the newer system, meant to be more capable and for use on surface streets and divided-lane highways. Although the company and Tesla CEO Elon Musk regularly tout these systems' capabilities, both still require the human driver to provide situational awareness.

But Autopilot has been under fire from regulators and the courts. Multiple wrongful death lawsuits are in the works, and after a high-profile loss resulting in a $329 million judgment against Tesla, expect many of these suits to be settled. Both the federal government and California have investigated whether Tesla misled customers, and in December, an administrative law judge ruled that Tesla indeed engaged in deceptive marketing by implying that its cars could drive themselves. The judge suspended Tesla's license to sell cars in California, a decision that the California Department of Motor Vehicles stayed for 60 days.

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Rocket Report: Chinese rockets fail twice in 12 hours; Rocket Lab reports setback

Rocket Report: Chinese rockets fail twice in 12 hours; Rocket Lab reports setback

fivenewscrypto    janvier 25, 2026   

Welcome to Edition 8.26 of the Rocket Report! The past week has been one of advancements and setbacks in the rocket business. NASA rolled the massive rocket for the Artemis II mission to its launch pad in Florida, while Chinese launchers suffered back-to-back failures within a span of approximately 12 hours. Rocket Lab's march toward a debut of its new Neutron launch vehicle in the coming months may have stalled after a failure during a key qualification test. We cover all this and more in this week's Rocket Report.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Australia invests in sovereign launch. Six months after its first orbital rocket cleared the launch tower for just 14 seconds before crashing back to Earth, Gilmour Space Technologies has secured 217 million Australian dollars ($148 million) in funding that CEO Adam Gilmour says finally gives Australia a fighting chance in the global space race, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The funding round, led by the federal government's National Reconstruction Fund Corporation and superannuation giant Hostplus with $75 million each, makes the Queensland company Australia’s newest unicorn—a fast-growth start-up valued at more than $1 billion—and one of the country’s most heavily backed private technology ventures.

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Tiny falcons are helping keep the food supply safe on cherry farms

Tiny falcons are helping keep the food supply safe on cherry farms

fivenewscrypto    janvier 25, 2026   

Every spring, raptors return to nesting sites across northern Michigan. The smallest of these birds of prey, a falcon called the American kestrel (Falco sparverius), flies through the region’s many cherry orchards and spends its days hunting for even tinier creatures to eat. This quest keeps the kestrels fed, but it also benefits the region’s cherry farmers.

Fruit farmers have been working symbiotically with kestrels for decades, adding nesting boxes and reaping the benefits of the birds eliminating the mice, voles, songbirds, and other pests that wreak havoc by feeding on not-yet-harvested crops. In addition to limiting the crop damage caused by hungry critters, new research suggests kestrels also lower the risk of food-borne illnesses.

The study, published in November in the Journal of Applied Ecology, suggests the kestrels help keep harmful pathogens off of fruit headed to consumers by eating and scaring off small birds that carry those pathogens. Orchards housing the birds in nest boxes saw fewer cherry-eating birds than orchards without kestrels on site. This translated to an 81 percent reduction in crop damage—such as bite marks or missing fruit—and a 66 percent decrease in branches contaminated with bird feces.

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