Data centers’ energy demand threatens Trump’s “Made in America” plan

Data centers’ energy demand threatens Trump’s “Made in America” plan

fivenewscrypto    juillet 09, 2026   

US manufacturers in many Rust Belt cities and towns are paying significantly higher electricity costs as growing energy demand from data centers strains the largest power grid operator in the United States. The resulting squeeze on profit margins for steelmakers and brick factories could further undermine President Donald Trump’s “Made in America” plan to revive US manufacturing, and it comes as Trump has simultaneously championed the tech companies behind the AI data center boom.

Factory electricity bills are generally rising faster than those for other business customers or residential customers, according to a Reuters analysis. It highlighted the example of the Belden Brick Company, a 141-year-old brick manufacturer in Ohio, whose electricity bills have soared from $1,600 to $12,000 per month due to a higher monthly capacity charge in the 13-state region served by the grid operator PJM Interconnection.

Meanwhile, the Steel Manufacturers Association warned that US steel companies concentrated in the Rust Belt region served by PJM Interconnection are paying tens of millions of dollars in higher power costs per year. Electricity accounts for 20 to 40 percent of the total production costs of making steel.

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Surprisingly large number of people may have marker for tick-linked meat allergy

Surprisingly large number of people may have marker for tick-linked meat allergy

fivenewscrypto    juillet 09, 2026   

In some parts of the US, up to 30 percent of people may carry the antibody behind a red meat allergy spurred by tick bites, far exceeding the estimated number of people who actually have the allergy, according a study published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The findings suggest far more Americans than previously thought may be at risk of the allergy, which can make having a hamburger for dinner a potentially life-threatening choice. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously estimated that only 0.14 percent of the US population (up to 450,000 people) has the allergy. But the study also highlights how little we understand about this unique disease—and the challenges of accurately diagnosing it.

The study surveyed blood donations for the disease's key antibody, which is in a class dubbed IgE and specifically attacks a double-sugar molecule called galactose-α-1,3-galactose, also known as alpha-gal. This disaccharide is found decorating the cells of nonprimate mammals, including cows and pigs, but it's also released in the saliva of ticks, particularly the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum). People bitten by ticks can develop IgE antibodies against alpha-gal, which can sometimes trigger an allergic response to eating red meat as well as other animal products, such as dairy and gelatin.

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SCOTUS lets Texas enforce app store law that Big Tech calls "censorship regime"

SCOTUS lets Texas enforce app store law that Big Tech calls "censorship regime"

fivenewscrypto    juillet 08, 2026   

The Supreme Court yesterday decided not to intervene in challenges to a Texas app store law, allowing the state to enforce age-verification rules while a lawsuit continues.

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Texas App Store Accountability Act in December 2025, finding that it likely violates the First Amendment. US District Judge Robert Pitman's ruling prevented Texas from enforcing the law when it was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026.

But the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit stayed the injunction on June 4, deciding that there is "no legitimate justification for enjoining enforcement of the entire Act." A lobby group representing Big Tech companies and an advocacy group for students then asked the Supreme Court to reinstate the injunction.

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Bethesda, id Software reportedly hit hard by Microsoft layoffs

Bethesda, id Software reportedly hit hard by Microsoft layoffs

fivenewscrypto    juillet 08, 2026   

In announcing plans for 3,200 layoffs across the Xbox division yesterday, CEO Asha Sharma focused on discussing cuts to the Xbox platform team and redundant layers of middle management. Now, though, word is filtering out about significant staffing cuts at remaining Microsoft-owned game developers including id Software and Bethesda.

Apogee and 3D Realms founder Scott Miller—who helped publish some of id's earliest games—wrote on social media yesterday of "insider reports" that a majority of id had been laid off, "including most (if not all) coders." And last night, veteran programmer Michael Maynard—whose credits at id Software date back to 2011's Rage—wrote on LinkedIn that he was among the "roughly 50%" of the id team that was let go Monday.

Game Developer cites "multiple anonymous sources" in confirming those reports, saying the redundancies amount to about 90 employees at the Doom studio. The first DLC pack for last year's Doom: The Dark Ages launched earlier today.

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Google's Pixel 11 launch event is set for August 12, with possible price increases

Google's Pixel 11 launch event is set for August 12, with possible price increases

fivenewscrypto    juillet 08, 2026   

Google has announced its next Made By Google event, taking place on August 12 in New York City. Google's invite doesn't name names, but the imagery clearly shows a new Pixel phone that looks a whole lot like last year's phone. Some new rumors, however, suggest the updated phones will come with inflated price tags courtesy of the AI-driven component shortage.

The sleek lines of the phone in the teaser image are a dead ringer for Google's last few Pixel phones, and that matches some early rumors. Google's new phones will have similar shapes, with the Pro and Pro Fold models perhaps shaving off a little thickness. The most notable design change will probably be the rumored "Pixel Glow" lights, a rear-facing notification and status light.

Recent reports claim that Google is finally doing away with the base 128GB storage option for the smaller phones. In 2025, both the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro started at 128GB of storage, a bit lacking for a modern flagship device at a time when people don't upgrade as often. Google will reportedly move to 256GB as the base storage for both phones.

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This race car is made from plant fibers, volcanoes, ... and seawater?

This race car is made from plant fibers, volcanoes, ... and seawater?

fivenewscrypto    juillet 08, 2026   

To varying degrees, each form of motorsport combines sport, entertainment, and technological development. As Ars has explored, there are valuable lessons that companies can learn from competition, particularly when the pressure is as intense as Formula 1. If you asked me last month, I would likely have said that when it comes to historic racing, it's almost all about the sport and entertainment, with precious little tech development.

But that was before I spoke with Matt Faulks, executive innovation director at Lola Cars, about the company's new run of T70s. The original T70 debuted in 1965, and Lola built more than 100, which in the latter half of the 1960s proved effective in short races like the Can-Am series as well as endurance events like Le Mans or Daytona. Latterly, T70s have proved popular among the historic racing crowd, and as Lola rebuilds itself after being saved in  2022, it's joining some of the other storied manufacturers by digging into its archive. Lola will have 16 new cars, configured either for historic racing complete with the necessary FIA homologation papers as the T70S, or as a UK road-legal version, the T70S GT.

But it's the use of materials that makes the new T70S particularly interesting.

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Dragonflies maneuver like fighter pilots

Dragonflies maneuver like fighter pilots

fivenewscrypto    juillet 08, 2026   

Credit: Samuel T. Fabian et al., 2026

Male dragonflies are known to engage in mid-air "dogfights" to defend their breeding territory, using different maneuvers than those they employ when hunting prey. A new paper published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface concluded that relatively simple rules drive that behavior, namely that male dragonflies are trying to maintain a tactical position. This mirrors the tactics of human fighter pilots. The research could lead to the development of smarter drones capable of navigating with simple, vision-based guidance rather than complex computation.

Classic pursuits involving prey or mating rituals are asymmetric: there is a chaser and an evader, with each role requiring different maneuvers. In the case of male-on-male interactions, however, it is more of a mutual pursuit, per the authors, who thought that studying flight trajectories of insects or raptors could yield useful insights into the guidance laws that underlie the behavior. They chose the Trithemis Aurora species of dragonfly for study because the males are "fiercely territorial," and there are usually multiple males around a given pond, intent on defending their chosen perches. The dragonflies are also crimson-colored, making them easier to track.

Much of the prior research on dragonfly interactions relied on visual observations or single-camera recordings. For this study, the authors set up a portable stereovideographic rig with two shutter-synchronized cameras to record dragonfly interactions in both color and monochrome, and then reconstructed 102 paired male-on-male flight trajectories to capture the 3D kinematics. They also reconstructed nine trajectories for dragonflies intercepting prey for comparative purposes. This enabled the authors to develop a model for the rules governing the flight behavior.

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