U.S. Figure Skating Championships Decide 2026 Olympic Team

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Lead The U.S. Figure Skating Championships, held Jan. 7–10, 2026, in St. Louis, are the final domestic qualifier for the Milan‑Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and will determine most U.S. entries. Midway through the event, reigning world champion Ilia Malinin delivered a commanding short program that all but assures him a spot. Record scores in the … Read more

‘Heated Rivalry’ is just the tip of the iceberg. How hockey became the sexiest sport.

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Lead Since November’s premiere of Heated Rivalry on Canadian streamer Crave and its subsequent U.S. run on HBO, a romance about two rival hockey players has reignited public passion for the sport. Authors and fans who have long eroticized hockey say the series amplified a preexisting trend from books to screens, driving new audiences to … Read more

‘The White Lotus’ Season 4 to Shoot at 19th-Century Château de La Messardière in Saint-Tropez (Exclusive)

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Lead: HBO’s anthology drama The White Lotus will film Season 4 on the French Riviera, with principal production slated at the 19th-century Château de La Messardière in Saint-Tropez. Filming is scheduled to begin at the end of April and run through October, sources tell Variety. The season will unfold across multiple Riviera locations and include … Read more

China’s ‘artificial sun’ shatters fusion density limit, advancing clean energy

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Lead: China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) has sustained plasma at densities 1.3–1.65 times the long-used Greenwald Limit, a result reported in Science Advances on Jan. 1 that marks a notable step toward practical fusion power. The work, led by researchers linked to the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the Hefei facility, pushed the reactor … Read more

Multiple small avalanches in Juneau after city issues evacuation advisory

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Lead: On Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, multiple small avalanches released on Mount Juneau above the Behrends neighborhood after the City & Borough of Juneau issued an evacuation advisory for known downtown and Thane Road slide paths. Two small slides were observed on the Behrends slide path while residents were preparing to leave and some sheltered … Read more

Trump calls for a 10% cap on credit card rates in his latest appeal to affordability concerns – CNN

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President Donald Trump on Friday proposed a temporary, one-year cap of 10% on credit card interest rates, saying Americans are being “ripped off” in a Truth Social post and urging the limit to take effect on January 20, the anniversary of his return to the White House. He framed the measure as an affordability step … Read more

Kansas City hit by a new ‘super flu’ variant causing a surge of cases – KCUR

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Lead: In the last week of 2025, Kansas City recorded its fourth-highest weekly total of influenza cases in the past 15 years, driven by a dominant Influenza A Subclade K variant that local clinicians have called a “super flu.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned the surge has not yet peaked and … Read more

ISS astronaut medical evacuation latest news: NASA targets return to Earth date – Space

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NASA has moved to bring the four-member Crew-11 team home early after an onboard medical incident, targeting undocking no earlier than 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) on Jan. 14 and a splashdown off California early on Jan. 15. The decision affects the August 2025-launched Crew-11 — Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, Kimiya Yui and Oleg Platonov … Read more

Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Administration From Freezing Child Care and Other Program Funds to Five States

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Lead On January 9, 2026, a federal judge in New York granted a temporary measure preventing the Trump administration from halting federal child care subsidies and related social-service grants to five Democratic-led states for at least 14 days. The states—California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York—argued the administration’s announced freeze was causing immediate operational disruption. … Read more

Trump Seeks $100bn for Venezuelan Oil; Exxon CEO Calls Country ‘Uninvestable’

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Lead: US President Donald Trump urged major oil companies at the White House to commit at least $100bn in investment to Venezuela’s petroleum sector, saying US control of sales could lower global energy costs. The meeting, held in Washington, followed a US operation cited as the 3 January seizure of Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, and … Read more

Oregon’s Whittington cleared to play vs Indiana in CFP semifinal

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Lead Noah Whittington, Oregon’s top rusher, was cleared to play Friday night in the College Football Playoff semifinal against Indiana in Atlanta after appearing on the team’s injury report as questionable. Coach Dan Lanning indicated the Ducks plan to use Whittington at some point in the game. The decision arrives amid pressing depth problems at … Read more

Google warns against making ‘bite-sized’ content for LLMs to chase search rank

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In early January 2026, Google urged publishers not to restructure articles into small, machine-friendly fragments solely to influence search ranking. The company’s public guidance, relayed by its search liaison, cautions that apparent short-term uplifts from splitting content for large language models (LLMs) are likely artifacts of current system behavior rather than durable strategies. Google said … Read more

Mound of garbage collapses at Philippine landfill, burying and trapping 38 people and killing 1

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Lead On Thursday afternoon in the village of Binaliw, Cebu City, a large mound of waste and earth collapsed onto low-slung buildings at a municipal landfill, burying and trapping dozens. Emergency crews recovered 13 survivors overnight while one person died in transit to hospital and about a dozen others sustained injuries. As of Friday officials … Read more

AFI Awards: Gwyneth Paltrow, George Clooney, Emma Stone and More of the Best Celebrity Photos

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The American Film Institute’s AFI Awards luncheon on Friday in Beverly Hills brought a high-profile roster of actors, executives and creators to the Four Seasons red carpet, showcasing both stars and the projects the institute honored. Early arrivals included George Clooney, Emma Stone, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ethan Hawke, Wunmi Mosaku and Rhea Seehorn, joined by figures … Read more