US Army tests 20,000W vehicle-mounted laser systems for drone defense — updated LOCUST device is now more lethal against drones

The U.S. Army is now testing a more lethal 20kW vehicle mounted LOCUST laser weapon system from AeroVironment (AV) Inc.
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Micron secures $318 million Taiwanese subsidy for HBM R&D as AI memory arms race intensifies — three-year project aims to develop leading-edge, high-performance memory

Micron has secured another major vote of confidence from the Taiwanese government, winning approval for an additional NT$4.7 billion (approximately $149 million) in subsidies to expand HBM research and development in Taiwa…

Debian maintainer criticizes email-managed bug tracker as outdated for modern development — there is a web interface for viewing, but email remains the only way to perform critical functions

A dispute has flared up inside the Debian project after a senior maintainer criticized the distribution’s bug tracking system as outdated and increasingly unworkable for modern software development.
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A deeper look at the tightened chipmaking supply chain, and where it may be headed in 2026 — “nobody’s scaling up,” says analyst as industry remains conservative on capacity

We interview two industry analysts to gauge the current state of the chipmaking ecosystem, including constraints across the entire supply chain, and where it might be headed next.
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China’s president Xi Jinping calls Taiwan reunification “unstoppable” — military drills around the island escalate in area and deployments

China calls Taiwan reunification “unstoppable” as military drills proceed.

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Americans lost $333 million to Bitcoin ATM fraud in 2025 — FBI says there is a ‘clear and constant rise’ of this scam, and that it is ‘not slowing down’

The FBI reported that Americans lost $333 million to scams via crypto ATMs, and that the number of victims constantly rose from 2020 to 2025.
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U.S. allows TSMC to import chipmaking equipment to its China fabs — Samsung, SK hynix likewise receive go signal from Commerce Department

The U.S. Department of Commerce didn’t renew the validated end-user status of these chipmakers, requiring them to acquire annual licenses to import chipmaking tools containing U.S. tech into their Chinese fabs.
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Huawei’s Ascend and Kunpeng progress shows how China is rebuilding an AI compute stack under sanctions

Huawei used its New Year message to highlight progress across its Ascend AI and Kunpeng CPU ecosystems, pointing to the rollout of Atlas 900 supernodes and rapid growth in domestic developer adoption as “a solid foundation…

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UK company shoots a 1,000-degree furnace into space to study off-world chip manufacturing — semiconductors made in space could be ‘up to 4,000 times purer’ than Earthly equivalents

British startup Space Forge has just successfully turned on its first in-orbit furnace, reaching 1,000 degrees Celsius in space. This is a crucial first step for the company in studying the feasibility of manufacturing chi…

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Musk to expand xAI’s training capacity to a monstrous 2 gigawatts with third building at Memphis site — announcement comes days after Musk vows to have ‘more AI compute than everyone else’

Elon Musk has announced that xAI has purchased a third building at its Memphis, Tennessee site to bolster the company’s overall compute power to a gargantuan two gigawatts.
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