NBC News
Congress passed a bipartisan budget bill funding U.S. science agencies through Sept. 30, rejecting steep cuts proposed by the White House. The measure, approved by the Senate Thursday after overwhelming House passage, providing billions more than requested for agencies including the National Science Foundation (NSF), rebuffing the Trump administration’s proposal to slash its budget by 57%.
From "Congress Passes Bill to Fund U.S. Science Agencies"
NBC News (01/15/26) Evan Bush
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BleepingComputer
A critical flaw in Google’s Fast Pair Bluetooth protocol uncovered by researchers at Belgium’s KU Leuven allows attackers to hijack wireless audio devices, track users, and eavesdrop on conversations. The vulnerability, dubbed WhisperPair, affects hundreds of millions of headphones, earbuds, and speakers because many manufacturers failed to properly enforce pairing-mode checks. Attackers can silently force-pair with vulnerable devices from up to 14 meters away using standard Bluetooth hardware. Google has coordinated patches, but updates are still pending for some devices.
From "Flaw Lets Hackers Track, Eavesdrop via Bluetooth Audio Devices"
BleepingComputer (01/15/26) Sergiu Gatlan
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Bloomberg
The U.S. and Taiwan agreed to cut tariffs on Taiwanese goods from 20% to 15% and to unlock up to $500 billion in new semiconductor-related financing for U.S. operations. Taiwan’s technology sector, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), committed at least $250 billion in direct investment to expand production capacities in advanced semiconductors, energy, and AI, alongside $250 billion in credit guarantees for the U.S. semiconductor supply chain. TSMC is expected to expand U.S. manufacturing capacity significantly.
From "U.S., Taiwan Deal Boosts Chip Investment, Cuts Tariffs"
Bloomberg (01/15/26) Josh Wingrove; Yian Lee
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The New York Times
Recent advances in AI are reshaping scientific research by helping solve complex problems in mathematics and other fields. This month, for example, startup Harmonic said its AI technology Aristotle solved an “Erdos problem” with help from OpenAI’s GPT-5.2 Pro. While some researchers view such achievements as evidence that AI can conduct legitimate academic research, others argue the systems primarily reassemble existing human knowledge rather than generate truly original ideas.
From "Can AI Generate New Ideas?"
The New York Times (01/15/26) Cade Metz
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The Register (U.K.)
Computer scientists at Germany’s CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security identified a vulnerability in AMD Zen CPUs that can break the integrity of confidential virtual machines using AMD’s SEV-SNP technology. The StackWarp flaw allows a malicious host with simultaneous multithreading (SMT) enabled to manipulate a protected virtual machine’s stack pointer by flipping a single undocumented control bit. This can expose sensitive data, bypass authentication mechanisms, and enable full kernel-level access. AMD released patches in July 2025 and published a security bulletin describing the vulnerability as low severity.
From "Flipping One Bit Leaves AMD CPUs Open to VM Vulnerability"
The Register (U.K.) (01/15/26) Thomas Claburn
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Interesting Engineering
Researchers at the U.K. universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow demonstrated that consumer-grade 3D printers, standard CAD software, and inexpensive materials can be used to produce advanced optical components capable of super-resolution imaging. The team created custom multi-element lenses costing less than $1 each, which were used to build a multifocal structured illumination microscope that achieved around 150-nanometer resolution, comparable to commercial super-resolution systems.
From "Standard 3D Printers Enable Cheap Super-Resolution Microscopy with Custom Optics"
Interesting Engineering (01/15/26) Aamir Khollam
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