The U.S. Senate passed the TikTok bill on Tuesday evening in a vote of 79-18. The bill, which bans TikTok unless Bytedance sells it to a U.S. owner, flew through Congress this week as part of a broader package to provide $90 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. … | Continue reading
A threat actor has been using a content delivery network cache to store information-stealing malware in an ongoing campaign targeting systems U.S., the U.K., Germany, and Japan. [...] | Continue reading
The CDC warned doctors about "counterfeit or mishandled" Botox injections that have caused clusters of illness in the U.S. | Continue reading
Almost 130 billion pieces of junk mail were sent by the U.S. Postal Service in 2021. Homeowner shares simple solution that dramatically curbed their unwanted mail: 'The difference was night and day' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned four Iranian nationals for their involvement in cyberattacks against the U.S. government, defense contractors, and private companies. [...] | Continue reading
The move should also help to support a growing electric vehicle market. Biden administration announces multimillion-dollar effort to make battery recycling more affordable: 'Puts the U.S. in the driver's seat' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
One week after it was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate has passed what Senator Ron Wyden has called, “one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history.” President Biden then rushed to sign it into law. The p … | Continue reading
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the so-called TikTok ban (again) on Saturday as part of a crucial package to provide foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, according to The Washington Post. The bill that could ban or force a sale of TikTok seems to be on a fast trac … | Continue reading
NREL Study, the First To Use a System Dynamics Model To Quantify This Gap, Outlines Possible Solutions U.S. land-based and offshore wind energy markets are expected to grow significantly over the next few decades. With this growth, the demand for properly trained wind energy work … | Continue reading
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) high-performance computing (HPC), efficient data center operations, and powerful visualizations have left an indelible stamp on clean energy innovation. As the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) only national laboratory solely … | Continue reading
by Brett Murphy ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. Israel’s lea … | Continue reading
"Marijuana smoking by white youth represented a symbolic threat to normative suburban values and capitalist ideologies" -- Mathew D. Lassiter on America's war on drugs. The U.S. military's Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) expresses concern over China's expanding presence in Antigua a … | Continue reading
The former U.S. ambassador and daughter of the music industry’s ‘Black Godfather’ discusses grief, grace, and her radical response to a shocking crime. | Continue reading
Frank Thorp V, Sahil Kapur and Ryan Nobles, NBC News: The Senate voted to reauthorize a powerful surveillance tool the U.S. government describes as critical to combating terrorism, after defeating efforts by civil liberties advocates on the left and right to rein it in. The vote … | Continue reading
Chinese government hackers are constantly trying to infiltrate the computer systems of U.S. water treatment facilities and energy grids in a bid to be “pre-positioned” for inducing panic, according to an alarming new speech from FBI Director Christopher Wray. And given the succes … | Continue reading
A quick flip from El Niño to La Niña is coming soon, but what does that mean for the U.S.? | Continue reading
Maybe, but maybe not: Amid the current U.S.-China technological race, the U.S. has imposed export controls to deny China access to strategic technologies. We document that these measures prompted a broad-based decoupling of U.S. and Chinese supply chains. Once their Chinese custo … | Continue reading
EPA action designates two widely used PFAS as hazardous substances under the Superfund law, improving transparency and accountability to clean up PFAS contamination in communities WASHINGTON — Today, April 19, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking another … | Continue reading
President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda Supports New Projects Building Grid Transformers, Manufacturing EV Chargers and Solar Components, and Processing Critical Minerals, Helping Revitalize Local Economies with Clean Energy Jobs WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of En … | Continue reading
This is the fourth official episode of our ongoing series breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. This week, Roman and Elliott also sit down with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the U.S. representative for New York’s 14th congr … | Continue reading
In partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the US Air Force has announced a significant breakthrough in… Continue reading U.S. Air Force says it has planes with AI capable of dogfighting The post U.S. Air Force says it has planes with AI capable of … | Continue reading
Apple removed several U.S.-based messaging apps from its App Store in China, including WhatsApp, Signal, and Threads, according to the Washington Post Friday. Officially, the apps were already banned in China but could still be accessed by users with a VPN. Read more... | Continue reading
This week I spoke at TED2024, the iconic program’s 40th anniversary event. I joined RuPaul, Kesha, and two different astrophysicists on the stage in Vancouver. I was given 15 minutes, and took 17, to riffle through 47 slides articulating what I believe is the greatest challenge f … | Continue reading
It's all part of Staples' strategy to finally offer a solution to a key part of the fragmented, often frustrating recycling experience in the U.S. Staples' new plan is to recycle nearly everything — and pay their customers for it first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
Energy developers are more eager than ever to build new solar, wind, and battery projects in the U.S. As of December 2023, proposed projects encompassing nearly 2,600 gigawatts (GW) — or 2.6 tera watts — were making their way through the series of studies and steps required to pl … | Continue reading
The U.S. Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced successful tests of a new artificial intelligence system using the experimental X-62A VISTA aircraft on Wednesday. The tests—AI dogfights that pitted the X-62A against a human-piloted F-16 aircraft … | Continue reading
A Dozen States Have Applied for Home Energy Rebates Funding from President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, Helping Households Across the Nation Receive up to $14,000 for Energy Efficient Home Upgrades, Slashing Home Energy Bills and Building Up a Local Clean Energy Workforce … | Continue reading
Some of your favorite produce might be dicier to eat than assumed. An analysis from Consumer Reports published Thursday suggests that a substantial portion of commonly sold fruits and vegetables have a significant risk of exposure to dangerous pesticides—around 20%. Bell peppers, … | Continue reading
The Fourth Amendment is Not For Sale Act, H.R.4639, originally introduced in the Senate by Senator Ron Wyden in 2021, has now made the important and historic step of passing the U.S. House of Representatives. In an era when it often seems like Congress cannot pass much-needed pri … | Continue reading
Less than two weeks after Apple changed its rules on emulators, Riley Testut’s Delta game emulator climbed to the number one spot in the U.S. App Store within twelve hours of its launch.… | Continue reading
Last year, U.S. hydropower electricity generation fell to its lowest since 2001. This year, we expect hydropower to increase 6% and account for 250 billion kilowatthours of electricity generation in the power sector, based on forecasts in our Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). We … | Continue reading
A new infusion of federal funding will support some of the most cutting-edge efforts to decarbonize the dirty steel industry. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy selected 13 projects in nine states to receive a total of $28 million through its Advanced Research Projects Ag … | Continue reading
A new infusion of federal funding will support some of the most cutting-edge efforts to decarbonize the dirty steel industry. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy selected 13 projects in nine states to receive a total of $28 million through its Advanced Research Projects Ag … | Continue reading
Clean School Bus grant brings green future to school transportation. Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz and U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (VA-11) celebrated one of EPA’s first Clean School Bus grants under the Bipartisa … | Continue reading
Report Details Recommendations to Streamline Interconnection with Near- to Long-Term Solutions to Add Clean Energy Resources to the Transmission Grid and Boost Our Clean Energy Economy WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a new roadmap outlining solutio … | Continue reading
President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda Equips Utilities and Power Providers With a Suite of Tools to Meet Increasing Demand, While Keeping Costs Affordable for Consumers, Cutting Emissions and Ensuring Reliability Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) toda … | Continue reading
The financially motivated threat actor FIN7 targeted a large U.S. car maker with spear-phishing emails for employees in the IT department to infect systems with the Anunak backdoor. [...] | Continue reading
The U.S. Justice Department charged Moldovan national Alexander Lefterov, the owner and operator of a large-scale botnet that infected thousands of computers across the United States. [...] | Continue reading
The federal government is really excited about geothermal: A Department of Energy report published in March said that geothermal can “become a key contributor to secure, domestic, decarbonized power generation for the U.S.” — particularly the kind of clean, always available power … | Continue reading
The federal government is really excited about geothermal: A Department of Energy report published in March said that geothermal can “become a key contributor to secure, domestic, decarbonized power generation for the U.S.” — particularly the kind of clean, always available power … | Continue reading
Stephen Cass: Hello and welcome to Fixing the Future, an IEEE Spectrum podcast where we look at concrete solutions to tough problems. I’m your host, Stephen Cass, a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum. And before I start, I just want to tell you that you can get the latest coverage of … | Continue reading
Last week, my family and I—like so many others in the U.S.—hopped in a car to try and catch sight of a total eclipse. And, like so many other parents, I planned to distract my kid for some part of this lengthy adventure with an iPad.… | Continue reading
U.S. officials pledged not to pursue the death penalty against Julian Assange if he’s extradited from the UK to face charges related to his publication of documents highly embarrassing to the U.S. government, according to a report from Australia’s ABC News Tuesday. But that will … | Continue reading
Netflix in the U.S. now has more content in Telugu than in German, Russian, or any dialect of Chinese. | Continue reading
It isn’t just bad vibes: Electric vehicle sales are slumping in the United States. Fewer than 300,000 EVs were sold nationwide during the first three months of 2024 — although it could be more than 350,000, depending on how you count and whose data you trust. That’s a slight decl … | Continue reading
How can the U.S. plug more solar and wind power into the grid and meet fast-growing electricity demand when it doesn’t have enough power lines to handle all those tasks? A good start would be to adopt technologies that help get more mileage out of existing power grids, according … | Continue reading
These harmful leaks go unaccounted for in the U.S. records of polluting gases. Study reveals government failing to monitor gas pipeline leaks across nation: 'A big driver of that discrepancy' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
A new report finds that, although there is likely to be a significant shortage of wind energy workers in the coming decades, impactful opportunities exist to close the wind energy workforce gap. As development increases to meet U.S. wind energy deployment goals, it is important t … | Continue reading