The Petersburg Post
Top News Stories for Saturday, January 31st 2026
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Pick of former Fed governor to replace Jerome Powell comes as White House seeks to tighten grip on central bank Business live – latest updates Donald Trump has announced Kevin Warsh as his nomination for the next chair of the Federal Reserve , selecting a candidate who has been an outspoken critic of the US central bank. The move ends months of speculation about who the president would pick to replace Jerome ...
Source: theguardian.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
The Justice Department on Friday released an avalanche of long-awaited investigative files relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The new document dump dwarfed the two earlier Epstein file releases and included more than 3.5 million pages, 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said during a press conference. And that constituted about half of the more than six million ...
Source: nbcnews.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
A budget impasse in Congress is poised to halt large swaths of federal operations early Saturday as lawmakers in Capitol Hill turn to the next flashpoint in negotiations to reopen the government: whether to impose new limits on federal immigration authorities carrying out President Trump's deportation campaign. Over the next two weeks, Democrats and Republicans will weigh competing demands on how the Department of ...
Source: latimes.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Journalist Georgia Fort was arrested by FBI agents while streaming live on social media after covering an anti-ICE protest. Fort, an independent journalist based in Minnesota, was one of several journalists, including Don Lemon , who filmed a Jan. 18 protest at a church in St. Paul, Minn., where demonstrators interrupted a religious service to protest the congregation's pastor, David Easterwood, who also works as ...
Source: people.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
AI dealmaking hit overdrive this week, and it looks like it could stay in high gear for a long time to come. For one, there's Elon's potential megacorp, which surely will have X somewhere in the name — maybe three Xs! By various reports , he's looking at combining xAI, which owns X, the former Twitter, with SpaceX and going public, or maybe Tesla too. But let's not get too excited yet. Investor ...
Source: siliconangle.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
At least five world leaders have visited Beijing in January alone. The high-level visits come as countries navigate tense U.S. relations. Business executives are also using the opportunity for China deals. In this article China's President Xi Jinping (R) and Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer shake hands before their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on January 29, 2026. BEIJING — ...
Source: cnbc.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
FBI raid in Georgia has little legal basis – but serves Trump's goal to weaken trust in election results Raid on Fulton county election office is part of the Trump administration's wider US push to fuel false claims of fraud The FBI raid on the Fulton county election office Wednesday was an aggressive new front in Donald Trump's effort to use his 2020 election loss to continue to sow doubt about American ...
Source: theguardian.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
LEWISTON, Maine — The heart of the city's immigrant community expands from Lisbon Street, where ethnic food markets and other businesses usually bustle with customers. But for the past week and a half, it's been quiet, as federal immigration agents scoured the state making arrests. Many residents stayed home — and out of sight. "The community is scared," said Effrax Saciid-Cisse, who emigrated from ...
Source: wbur.org
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Luigi Mangione, accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson , will not face the death penalty if convicted on federal charges, a judge ruled Friday. Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed the federal firearms charges against Mangione that carried the possibility of the death penalty, but left in place stalking charges against him that can bring a maximum punishment of life in prison without the ...
Source: cbsnews.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Back in May, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt offered what might be the single most audacious statement of the Trump era —and that's saying something: I think everybody – the American public believe it's absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency . Anyway, in unrelated news, Donald Trump just filed a lawsuit against his own IRS , demanding that ...
Source: techdirt.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The terms of a Russian commitment to U.S. President Donald Trump to temporarily halt its bombardment of Ukraine during one of the country's bleakest winters in years remained unclear Friday, as Ukrainians braced for even worse conditions to come next week. Trump said late Thursday that President Vladimir Putin had agreed to a temporary pause in targeting Kyiv and other places as the ...
Source: military.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
A bill that will end the monopoly of state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA in the oil sector has been passed by Venezuela's National Assembly, less than a month after the US captured Nicolas Maduro. Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez has signed a law opening the country's oil sector to privatisation. The National Assembly approved the bill to lure in foreign investment on Thursday - as the US eased ...
Source: news.sky.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Former Illinois sheriff's deputy Sean Grayson was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday for the 2024 killing of Sonya Massey in her Springfield home. A jury last year found Grayson guilty of second-degree murder. police body camera footage shown widely across the nation," said the Chicago Tribune. The footage showed Grayson, who is white, fatally shooting the 36-year-old Black mother of two after responding to a ...
Source: theweek.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
– The Justice Department has opened a federal civil rights investigation into , the Minneapolis resident killed Saturday by Border Patrol officers, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday. "We're looking at everything that would shed light on what happened that day and in the days and weeks leading up to what happened," Blanche said during a news conference. Blanche did not explain why DOJ decided to ...
Source: news4jax.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Reading time 3 minutes Google has a whole new world for people to play in—but only for a minute. This week, the company released Project Genie , which the company calls its "general-purpose world model" that is capable of generating interactive environments. First unveiled to a small group of invite-only testers back in August of last year, the model, known as Genie 3, is now rolling out to Google AI Ultra ...
Source: gizmodo.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Reading time 3 minutes In a warming world, the polar bear has become the unofficial mascot of ecological collapse. We've all seen the photos of these majestic predators reduced to skin and bone, clinging to ever-shrinking chunks of sea ice as they try—and fail—to hunt. But on a remote Norwegian archipelago, a very different story is unfolding. Svalbard is home to about 3,000 people , and roughly the ...
Source: gizmodo.com
Panama Canal ports will keep operating after court finds concession unconstitutional, president says
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
PANAMA CITY — Panama's president moved to assure the public on Friday that critical ports at both ends of the Panama Canal will continue to operate without interruption — a day after the country's Supreme Court ruled that the concession held by a subsidiary of Hong Kong's CK Hutchison Holdings was unconstitutional. The court's decision late Thursday advances a US aim to block any influence by China over ...
Source: bostonglobe.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Homebuyers and owners looking to refinance, for the first time in years, largely entered 2026 with a sense of cautious optimism. And that feeling was supported by hard data and encouraging economic developments in the final four months of 2025, specifically. A declining inflation rate played a large role in encouraging the Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts. While those were on hold for the majority of the year, ...
Source: cbsnews.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. allies and partners in the Middle East again are urging restraint from both the United States and Iran as the Trump administration warns of a possible strike and builds up its military presence in the region , according to an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter. Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Oman and Qatar have all been in touch with leaders in Washington and Tehran to make the case that an ...
Source: military.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Lindsey Vonn crashed out of the final World Cup downhill before the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics on Friday, leaving the American skiing great limping and clutching her left knee as organizers abandoned the race amid worsening conditions. The 41-year-old lost control after landing a jump on the upper section of the course in Crans-Montana, Switzerland , skidding sideways into the safety netting as snow fell ...
Source: theguardian.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Answer: The Model S and Model X. Tesla believes artificial intelligence and robotics are the future of tech, and so it's going to stop producing some of its legacy car models in order to make room. The specific models on the chopping block are the Model S luxury sedan and Model X crossover SUV. Both are priced around $100,000 and have been in production for more than a decade, but their sale numbers have slumped in ...
Source: govtech.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Artificial intelligence (AI)-supported mammography identifies more cancers during screening and reduces the rate of breast cancer diagnosis by 12% in the years following, finds the first randomised controlled trial of its kind involving over 100,000 Swedish women published in The Lancet journal. The interim safety results of the MASAI trial, ...
Source: news-medical.net
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Actor Catherine O'Hara, known for her roles in "Home Alone," "Beetlejuice," and "Schitt's Creek," has died at 71, according to a statement from her agency, CAA. O'Hara died at her Los Angeles home "following a brief illness," her agency said. A private celebration of life will be held by her family, the statement said. O'Hara was born in Canada and started her career at Toronto's Second City ...
Source: cbsnews.com
OpenAI is retiring its popular 'yes man' version of ChatGPT again — and this time it may be for good
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
OpenAI is sending everyone's favourite "yes man" version of ChatGPT back into retirement. In a blog post on Thursday, the company said it would sunset GPT-4o alongside GPT‑4.1, GPT‑4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini on February 13. OpenAI gave GPT-4o a special mention in its announcement after many users became attached to its "conversational style and warmth" last year, which prompted the company to ...
Source: businessinsider.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
President Trump's plan to slap tariffs on nations that provide oil to Cuba has created a formidable new challenge for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in her efforts to balance Mexico's interests with White House demands. On Friday, Sheinbaum said Mexico would seek a clarification from Washington in a bid to avoid a difficult choice: Halt oil shipments to Cuba, potentially triggering a humanitarian crisis on the ...
Source: latimes.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
What is a Trump Account? Trump Accounts are investment accounts for kids. The federal government will contribute $1,000 for newborns to kick-start the account. Parents or guardians can then add their own money — up to $5,000 a year — to maximize growth, but contributing isn't required. Adults will have control of the account until their child turns 18. At age 18, the child can either withdraw the funds ...
Source: insider.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Donald Trump has appeared to undermine Second Amendment rights in statements about Alex Pretti's killing. Many in the firearms community are going along with it. In the hours after Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, President Donald Trump and his administration appeared to directly undermine the rights granted to gun owners in the Second Amendment. Department of Homeland Security ...
Source: wired.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that he expects the United States to respect the country's sovereignty after reports that Alberta separatists have met several times with officials of the Donald Trump administration. The Financial Times reported that US State Department officials held meetings with the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), a group calling for a referendum on whether the energy-rich western ...
Source: aljazeera.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Saks Global plans to shutter most of its Sak Off 5th stores as the bankrupt retailer looks to slash costs and cater to higher-income customers. The company said on Thursday that it will close all but 12 of its 70 Saks Off 5th locations. The remaining outlets will serve primarily as a selling channel for residual inventory from Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. Saks, which also owns ...
Source: cbsnews.com
Friday, Jan 30th, 2026 -
Yesterday, a federal jury in San Francisco convicted former Google software engineer Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, 38, on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets for stealing thousands of pages of confidential information containing Google's trade secrets related to artificial intelligence technology for the benefit of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The jury's ...
Source: justice.gov
Thursday, Jan 29th, 2026 -
By Kate Sullivan, Josh Wingrove, Julie Johnsson and Mathieu Dion, Bloomberg News President Donald Trump said he would charge a 50% tariff on aircraft from Canada sold in the U.S. and decertify all planes made in that country until Ottawa agreed to approve certain jets made by Gulfstream, a unit of General Dynamics Corp. Trump said Canada had "wrongfully, illegally, and steadfastly refused to certify the Gulfstream ...
Source: miamiherald.com
Thursday, Jan 29th, 2026 -
Apple on Thursday evening reported a blowout holiday quarter, driven by a 23% increase in iPhone sales. A strong revenue guide for the current March quarter suggests this strong device cycle will continue. Revenue in Apple's fiscal 2026 first quarter, which ended back on Dec. 27, rose 16% year over year to $143.76 billion, exceeding the $138.48 billion consensus estimate compiled by LSEG. Earnings per share of ...
Source: cnbc.com
Thursday, Jan 29th, 2026 -
A Waymo driverless vehicle struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California. The company voluntarily reported the incident to federal auto safety regulators on the same day, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is now investigating. In a separate incident in Los Angeles, a Zeekr vehicle operated in manual mode by a human sped through a one-way residential street near ...
Source: cnbc.com
Thursday, Jan 29th, 2026 -
Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. Swipe for next article Judges are struggling to hold ICE accountable for dozens of violations. If they can't, who can? Federal judges are calling on their colleagues to 'draw and hold' the line while courtrooms are overwhelmed with cases with immigrants' freedoms at stake, Alex Woodward writes M ...
Source: independent.co.uk
Thursday, Jan 29th, 2026 -
Doctors in Chicago saved the life of a young Missouri man with a rare infection that had liquefied his lungs, hooking him up to what they have called a total artificial lung. The patient, whose name was not released, survived on the lung for 48 hours, and then received a lung transplant. Two and a half years later, the patient, now in his mid-30s, is alive and back working in his family business, according to Ankit ...
Source: bostonglobe.com
Thursday, Jan 29th, 2026 -
The United States and Iran are engaged in increasingly hostile rhetoric as US warships move into the Arabian Sea , despite regional nations seeking a diplomatic solution to prevent a military flare-up. US President Donald Trump warned this week that " time is running out " for Iran to return to talks to reach a new deal on its nuclear programme. Trump said the naval forces he was sending to Iran's neighbourhood ...
Source: aljazeera.com