The Trump Administration’s Affordability Messaging Is Confusing Americans

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At a rally in Detroit earlier this month, Donald Trump told the crowd that his upcoming speech at the World Economic Forum would tackle one of his core issues: affordability. But the address he delivered in Davos yesterday was not quite what he’d telegraphed.

In what my colleague David A. Graham described as a “stump speech,” the president strayed from that focus, roaming from Arctic defense to the Minnesota fraud scandal to the policies of “Sleepy” Joe Biden. When he returned to the topic of affordability, he claimed that grocery prices are “going down” (they’re not) and that drug prices have declined by “2,000 percent” (they haven’t). Although Trump campaigned on the economy, weak polling has recently spurred new plans to make life in America more affordable.

At one point, Trump plugged a plan to curb predatory lending practices by capping credit-card interest rates at 10 percent—but the deadline (proposed on Truth Social) for the policy to go into effect had passed the day before. Trump also used his speech to promote his plan to lower housing costs, which he recently unveiled in an executive order. The policy is aimed at preventing corporations from buying up single-family homes, and has bipartisan support. These proposals were a blip in his 80-minute speech before he quickly pivoted.

Trump has lately been laser-focused on foreign policy. Nearly three weeks ago, U.S. troops captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to New York for trial. Since then, Trump has flirted with military action in Iran and attempted to bully Denmark into giving up Greenland, threatening a sweeping new tariff strategy that—had Trump not reneged yesterday—could have raised costs for Americans.

When Trump and his officials have talked about the economy, their comments have been confusing. The White House’s insistence that consumer goods are, in fact, affordable has so far not connected with many Americans, for whom high prices are still top of mind. In an attempt to underscore how cheap supermarkets have supposedly become, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said last week that “it can cost around $3 a meal for a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, you know, a corn tortilla, and one other thing.” After being criticized online for appearing out of touch, she clarified that $15.64 was the more accurate figure, based on “almost 1,000 simulations,” for “three full square meals and a snack.” (I have some follow-up questions: What’s that “other thing”? And what constitutes a “square” meal?)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also faced blowback from observers and Democratic politicians this week after suggesting in an interview that “mom and pop” homebuyers are snapping up “five, 10, 12 homes” for retirement. And at a rally in Ohio earlier today, Vice President Vance compared the American economy to a doomed enterprise: “You don’t turn the Titanic around overnight,” he said. Trump has blamed “bad public-relations people” for failing to sell his affordability message—but the problem could also have to do with these sorts of gaffes.

The president’s inconsistent messaging may play a role too. Before the holidays, he held a rally in Pennsylvania as part of his “affordability tour”—an effort to shift Americans’ perspectives on the economy. His address included a digression about why the Democrats’ emphasis on affordability was a “hoax,” how Representative Ilhan Omar “does nothing but bitch,” and why Americans don’t need so many pencils. His speech at the Detroit Economic Club included a few diversions but was overall more targeted. “The Trump economic boom has officially begun,” he said.

Trump is right that the economy is showing signs of health. Unemployment is low, and the stock market is on a tear. But these metrics don’t reveal the whole picture. The economy is adding fewer jobs even as inflation remains under control. The Atlantic contributing writer John Dickerson recently pointed out that “aggregate gains mask uneven distribution, and many workers really are seeing their purchasing power erode.” If Trump’s attempts to interfere with the Federal Reserve’s independence prove successful, they could unleash even more economic uncertainty. “Trump is hardly the first president to cherry-pick numbers and accentuate the positive,” Dickerson wrote. “But his argument is weak because he has to overcome people’s lived experience.”

Despite his constant jabs at his predecessor, Trump is in some sense following in Biden’s footsteps. “Bidenomics” fell flat as a slogan in part because Biden’s rosy view of the economy didn’t connect with voters facing ever-higher inflation. When Trump and his team aren’t shutting down criticism of the economy, they’re simply distracted. Neither communicates to Americans that their struggles are understood.

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Today’s News

Negotiations over Greenland are centering on expanding NATO’s Arctic presence, restricting Russian and Chinese access to the territory’s resources, and possibly allowing the United States to build and operate military bases on parts of the island. Denmark has rejected any transfer of sovereignty, maintaining that Greenland is not for sale.
The Trump administration ordered federal agencies to review funding to 14 Democratic-controlled states and Washington, D.C., as it moves to cut off resources to “sanctuary cities” that limit cooperation with immigration enforcement. The president has said that federal payments to such states and cities will end starting February 1; courts have repeatedly stopped similar efforts in the past.
Donald Trump sued JPMorgan Chase and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, for at least $5 billion, alleging that the bank improperly closed his and his businesses’ accounts for political reasons after the January 6 insurrection. JPMorgan called the suit meritless, saying that the bank does not close accounts for political or religious reasons.

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The Sciencewashing of Everyday Life

By Ellen Cushing

There’s a double helix in my local Sephora. It’s roughly the size and shape of a soda can, and it is accompanied by a placard referencing patents and peptides, as if in a science fair. It’s trying to sell me a hair mask.

Online, the company responsible for this display describes itself as a “biology-first haircare brand, powered by biotech.” It practices “biomimetic hairscience,” and, thanks to “a decade of complex research into the bioscience of hair,” has patented a peptide that repairs hair “at a molecular level across multiple types of bonds including polypeptide chains and disulfide bonds.” I have no idea what any of this means. The mask costs $75.

In 2026, it is possible to cover your body in science.

Read the full article.

Tamir Kalifa Turns Tragic Experiences into Spellbinding Works of Art

In June 2018, Tamir Kalifa traveled to the southern border to cover the ongoing turmoil around immigration. There, the photojournalist spent time on the bridge between Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico, talking to people who had made the grueling trip from Honduras or El Salvador in search of a better life. He recalls standing in the darkness under the glow of streetlights with cars whizzing by as a family of five shared their story: The husband and wife had arrived on America’s doorstep to make a plea for asylum to display to their three children that there was a right and just way to do things. “We have no possessions, no money, no food, only hope,” the father told Kalifa.

Siblings from Honduras wait with their family on the Mexican side of the bridge between Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico, hoping to be allowed entry into the United States to seek asylum on June 26, 2018. Photo by Tamir Kalifa.

Back in his house in Austin a few days later, emotions came pouring out of the photojournalist in a way he wasn’t quite expecting—as a song. Kalifa was no stranger to music, as he was a member of the orchestral pop band Mother Falcon for over a decade and knows how to play a range of instruments, including guitar, clarinet, saxophone, and accordion. But it was the first time in years that he had seriously contemplated making music.

The impromptu creation of that song was the beginning of a long journey that has resulted in a new album, Witness, which will be released Jan. 23. Along with the music comes an immersive multimedia live show, happening on the album’s release day at the Long Center, where Kalifa will perform the songs while projecting the images that inspired them.

Throughout his career working for renowned outlets—The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Texas Monthly, and others—Kalifa has pursued the globe’s most compelling and complex stories. From behind his lens, he has documented families reeling from gun violence, communities decimated by floods, and nations ravaged by war. Many of those harrowing images began to percolate into musical creations.

“It started just kind of as a way to process it and think about what I had seen,” Kalifa says. “I’ll never forget driving around the Big Island in Lower Puna, seeing the immense amount of steam and sulfur just bursting from the ground and these giant fissures in the volcano eruption.”

But over time, the photographer began to think about the art he was working on as an extension of the stories—another way to share them with new audiences. Plus, their personal and subjective nature helped render more complete views of situations that all too often are distorted by the polarizing effects of news cycles.

“It’s really important that stories go beyond the headlines, especially when you get to witness the day-to-day experiences of someone who is existing within these big moments of our time,” he says. In other words, the real-life people inside these events frequently get left out of the impersonal overviews that outsiders experience. “The song became like a way to tell their story and without letting it just gather digital dust on my hard drive.”

Ultimately, Kalifa arrived at nine songs written between 2018 and 2024 that cover key events like the aftermath of the 2019 Wal-Mart shooting in El Paso, the COVID-19 pandemic, Hurricane Harvey, and the conflict in Gaza. Musically, these folk-pop arrangements channel meditative moods by virtue of trembling strings, somber brass, uplifting melodies, and contemplative vocals.

Perhaps most notably, Kalifa addresses the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. In the wake of the tragedy, the photographer traveled to South Texas immediately and eventually moved to the small city full-time for several months to get to know the families and community members who had lost loved ones to gun violence. In fact, it was his work in Uvalde that directly led to Kalifa winning the Mosaic Prize for Journalism, which came with a prize of $100,000, some of which was devoted to the creation of Witness.

One of the songs that came out of Kalifa’s experience in Uvalde, “Jackie’s Rock,” documents a heartrending moment shared with the family of 9-year-old Robb Elementary victim Jackie Cazares. When Kalifa visited Cazares’ grave, it was decorated with stones painted by friends and family members with words that commemorated her life. Jackie’s father, Jacinto, handed Kalifa a stone emblazoned with white painted letters that said “Paris,” in reference to his daughter’s lifelong dream to visit the European city. Three weeks later, Kalifa stepped off an airplane with a rock from the Nueces River tucked tenderly in his pocket. He had taken it from South Texas across the Atlantic to France, where found a suitable place to leave it near the Eiffel Tower.

After that, Kalifa’s relationship with the family continued as his work on the album unfolded. Jackie’s 18-year-old sister, Jazmin, sings harmony parts on the song about her sister, and Kalifa brought the whole family to New York City for a special performance at a photography festival in June of last year.

Tamir Kalifa and Jazmin Cazares perform at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, Texas, on November 13, 2025. Photo by Marshall Tidrick.

One recent composition that didn’t make it onto the album but has become part of the musician’s live performance uses an oud—an instrument that originated in the Middle East centuries ago. A predecessor to the medieval lute, it’s one of the oldest known stringed instruments in the world. Kalifa’s grandfather was born in Morrocco and worked as luthier, building and maintaining ouds. Some of those family heirlooms remained in his family but had fallen into disrepair—until this past summer, when Kalifa found someone who could restore it.

“When I held it for the first time, I felt full-body chills,” he recalls. “I felt a connection to my grandfather who died in 2005, and after covering Israel and Palestine for a significant part of my career, I finally felt like I had an instrument that could help me create music about that.”

There’s an undeniable physical rhetoric to the wordless oud composition performed by Kalifa, who was raised partly in Israel but has family ties to the Arabic world.

“It’s an instrument that has been shared by both Jews and Arabs throughout history,” he says. “And so that epitomizes the shared history and heritage that both Jews and Arabs have. But Israelis and Palestinians also have something very profound in common as well, and that is overwhelming trauma and grief.”

Kalifa’s choice to take up the oud is just one more way that he asks an audience to contemplate. “I have a plea, which is to open one’s heart and minds and to make decisions to look at these events from a place of compassion and empathy as much as from a place of justice and accountability.”

Photographs are reflections of reality, and ultimately that’s what Kalifa’s photographs and songs ask us to do—to stop and reflect. Taken as a whole, Witness is a deep and searching study of tragedy and resilience. It evidences the photojournalist’s keen sensitivity to the connections between people and their connection to the places they inhabit.

“I’m not seeking to tell anybody how to think or how to vote,” he says. “I’m just trying to, as best I can, offer the most compassionate depiction of some of the issues that I’ve documented in order to help them feel more personal and real for people.” In short, across a multitude of mediums, he has an extraordinary ability to make people feel seen.

Kalifa’s songs, just like his award-winning photography, take abstract events and distill them into crystal-clear portrayals of humanity. There’s an implicit argument here that one can find deeper understanding and more common ground just by pausing for reflection, simply by being a witness.

Great Job Bryan C. Parker & the Team @ Austin Monthly Magazine Source link for sharing this story.

Health Spending Is Moving in Congress – KFF Health News

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Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third edition.

Congress appears ready to approve a spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services for the first time in years — minus the dramatic cuts proposed by the Trump administration. Lawmakers are also nearing passage of a health measure, including new rules for prescription drug middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers, that has been delayed for more than a year after complaints from Elon Musk, who at the time was preparing to join the incoming Trump administration.

However, Congress seems less enthusiastic about the health policy outline released by President Donald Trump last week, which includes a handful of proposals that lawmakers have rejected in the past.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times, and Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post.

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Sandhya Raman
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Sheryl Gay Stolberg
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Paige Winfield Cunningham
The Washington Post

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Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:

Congress is on track to pass a new appropriations bill for HHS, with the current, short-term funding set to expire next week. The bill includes a slight bump for some agencies and, notably, does not include deep cuts requested by Trump. But with the administration’s demonstrated willingness to ignore congressionally mandated spending, the question stands: Will Trump follow Congress’ instructions about how to spend the money?
A health package with bipartisan support is set to hitch a ride with the spending bill, after falling by the wayside in late 2024 under pressure from then-Trump adviser Musk. However, the president’s newly released list of health priorities largely isn’t reflected in the package. The GOP faces headwinds in the midterms after allowing expanded Affordable Care Act premium tax credits to expire, a change that’s expected to cost many Americans their health insurance.
One year into the second Trump administration, its policies are particularly evident in the political takeover of the nation’s public health infrastructure, the growing number of uninsured Americans, and creeping brain drain in U.S.-based scientific research.
And Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired members of a panel overseeing the federal government’s vaccine injury compensation program. Kennedy is expected to remake the panel in an effort to expand the list of injuries for which the government will compensate Americans. The current list does not include autism.

Also this week, Rovner interviews oncologist and bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel to discuss his new book, Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life.

And KFF Health News’ annual Health Policy Valentines contest is now open. You can enter the contest here.

Plus, for “extra credit” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too:

Julie Rovner: CIDRAP’s “Minnesota Residents Delay Medical Care for Fear of Encountering ICE,” by Liz Szabo.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg: Rolling Stone’s “HHS Gave a $1.6 Million Grant to a Controversial Vaccine Study. These Emails Show How That Happened,” by Katherine Eban.

Paige Winfield Cunningham: Politico’s “RFK Jr. Is Bringing the GOP and the Trial Bar Together,” by Amanda Chu.

Sandhya Raman: Popular Information’s “ICE Has Stopped Paying for Detainee Medical Treatment,” by Judd Legum.

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Former Sequoia partner’s new startup uses AI to negotiate your calendar for you | TechCrunch

Kais Khimji has spent most of his professional career as a venture investor, including six years as a partner at the prominent VC firm Sequoia Capital.

But just like several other former Sequoia partners — including David Vélez, who founded the Brazilian digital bank Nubank — Khimji (pictured left) has always wanted to be a startup founder. On Thursday, he announced that he has revived an idea he began working on as a student at Harvard about 10 years ago, turning it into the AI calendar-scheduling company Blockit. In a major vote of confidence, Khimji’s former employer, Sequoia, led the company’s $5 million seed round.

“Blockit has a chance to become a $1Bn+ revenue business, and Kais will make sure it gets there,” Pat Grady, Sequoia’s general partner and co-steward who led the investment, wrote in a blog post.

While many startups have tried to automate scheduling in the past, Khimji believes that thanks to advances in LLMs, Blockit’s AI agents can handle scheduling more seamlessly and efficiently than many of its predecessors, including now-defunct startups Clara Labs and x.ai. (Yes, that domain name ended up with Elon Musk’s AI company.)

Unlike the current category leader Calendly, which was last valued at $3 billion and relies on users sharing links to find availability, Blockit is betting that its AI agents can master the nuance required to handle the entire scheduling process without human involvement.

With Blockit, Khimji and co-founder John Hahn — who previously worked on calendar products, including Timeful, Google Calendar, and Clockwise — are building what is essentially an AI social network for people’s time.

“It always felt very odd. I have a time database — my calendar. You have a time database — your calendar, and our databases just can’t talk to each other,” Khimji told TechCrunch.

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Khimji says that Blockit can finally solve this disconnection. When two users need to meet, their respective AI agents communicate directly to negotiate a time, bypassing the typical back-and-forth emails entirely.

Users can invoke the Blockit agent by copying it on an email or messaging it in Slack about a meeting. The bot then takes over the logistics, negotiating a mutually convenient time and location that fits the preferences of all participants.

Khimji said that Blockit can work as seamlessly as a human executive assistant. Users simply need to provide the system with specific instructions about their preferences, such as which meetings are nonnegotiable and which are “movable” based on daily needs. “Sometimes my calendar is crazy, so I need to skip lunch, and the agent needs to know that it’s okay to skip lunch,” he said.

The system can even be trained to prioritize meetings based on the tone of an email. For instance, a user might instruct the agent that a meeting request signed with a formal “Best regards” should take precedence over a casual interaction ending with “Cheers.”

By learning the preferences of its users, Blockit appears to be capitalizing on what venture firm Foundation Capital’s partners Jaya Gupta and Ashu Garg call “context graphs.” In a widely shared essay, the investors describe a multibillion-dollar opportunity for AI agents to capture the “why” behind every business decision by relying on the hidden logic that previously only existed in a person’s head.

Blockit is already being used by more than 200 companies, including AI startup Together.ai, the newly acquired fintech company Brex, and robotics startup Rogo, as well as venture firms a16z, Accel, and Index. The app is available for free for 30 days. After that, it costs $1,000 annually for individual users and $5,000 annually for a team license with support for multiple users, Khimji said.

Great Job Marina Temkin & the Team @ TechCrunch Source link for sharing this story.

Takeaways from Jack Smith on his case against Trump, ‘so many witnesses’ and the threats ahead

WASHINGTON – Former special counsel Jack Smith testified Thursday about his investigation of President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, detailing how the defeated president “sought to prey” on his supporters and “looked for ways to stay in power,” culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

It was Smith’s first public hearing since he left the department last year, and the nearly five-hour session at the House Judiciary Committee delved into far-flung details — from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s blockbuster testimony before the Jan. 6 committee to the gag order slapped on Trump during the investigation over his efforts to intimidate witnesses.

“Our investigation revealed that Donald Trump is the person who caused Jan. 6, it was foreseeable to him, and that he sought to exploit the violence,” Smith testified.

Trump, during the hearing, was live-posting his rage against Smith — suggesting the former career prosecutor should himself be prosecuted. In the room sat militant Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, and a tense encounter erupted between one audience member and police who had defended the Capitol, reminding how Jan. 6 still divides the Congress, and the country.

Smith said he believes Trump officials now will do “everything in their power” to prosecute him, but he said he would “not be intimidated” by attacks from the president, adding that investigators gathered proof that Trump committed “serious crimes.”

“I’m not going to pretend that didn’t happen because he’s threatening me,” Smith said.

Once Trump won reelection in 2024, Smith abandoned the cases against him, adhering to Justice Department protocol against prosecuting a sitting president. Trump faced a four-count indictment in the conspiracy to overthrow the election and, separately, Smith’s team indicted Trump over holding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home.

Throughout the session, Republicans highlighted new developments as they seek to sow doubt on Smith’s now defunct-case against Trump, while Democrats warned that Trump’s allies are trying to rewrite history after the defeated president sent his supporters to the Capitol to fight for his failed election against Democrat Joe Biden.

Far from done, Smith is expected to be called before the Senate, which is planning its own hearing, and he has been unable to discuss the documents case that lawmakers want to probe. Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon halted the release of a report by Smith’s team on that case with an injunction that is set to expire next month, but lawyers for Trump have asked to leave it permanently under seal.

One star witness under scrutiny, but Smith says there are ‘so many’ more

Republicans have fixated for years on countering the gripping testimony that former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson gave to the Jan. 6 committee, trying to prove her wrong.

The young aide recounted having been told that day about Trump lunging for the steering wheel in the presidential limousine as he demanded to join supporters at the Capitol. It’s a story that others said did not happen.

“Mr. Smith, is Cassidy Hutchinson a liar?” asked Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the committee chairman.

Smith explained that Hutchinson’s testimony was “second hand,” and as his team interviewed other witnesses, and the Secret Service agent in the car at the time “did not confirm what happened.”

Jordan pressed whether Smith would have brought Hutchinson forward to testify anyway, and Smith said he had not made “any final determinations.”

Smith said, “We had a large choice of witnesses.”

“That says it all,” Jordan declared. “You were still considering putting her on the witness stand because you had to get President Trump.”

In fact, Smith said, one of the “central challenges” of the case was to present it in a concise way, “because we did have so many witnesses” — state officials, Trump campaign workers and advisers — to testify.

“Some of the most powerful witnesses were witnesses who, in fact, were fellow Republicans who had voted for Donald Trump, who had campaigned for him and who wanted him to win the election,” Smith said.

Smith defends his work, and subpoenas for lawmaker phone records

A career prosecutor who worked for Republican and Democratic administrations, and worked on a range of cases, including war crimes overseas, Smith has presented himself as a straight arrow whose work stands for itself.

“I am not a politician and I have no partisan loyalties,” Smith said. “Throughout my public service, my approach has always been the same — follow the facts and the law without fear or favor.”

Republicans sought to portray Smith as a hard-charging prosecutor who had to be “reined in” by higher-ups as he pursued Trump ahead of the former president’s possible run for a second term.

They singled out the collecting of phone toll records of members of Congress, including the House speaker at the time, former GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

During one particularly sharp exchange, Republican Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas said Smith used nondisclosure agreements to “hide” subpoenas from the subjects, and the public.

Smith explained that collecting the phone records was a “common practice” and investigators wanted to understand the “scope of the conspiracy” to overturn the 2020 election.

“My office didn’t spy on anyone,” he said.

Smith said he sought the nondisclosure agreements because of witness intimidation in the case. He cited Trump’s comments at the time, particularly the warning that he would be “coming after” those who cross him.

“I had grave concerns about obstruction of justice in this investigation, specifically with regards to Donald Trump,” he said.

Smith said it’s not incumbent on a prosecutor “to wait until someone gets killed before they move for an order to protect the proceedings.”

Threats to democracy — and to Smith himself — linger

One Democrat, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, asked how he would describe the toll on American democracy if the nation does not hold a president accountable for fraudulent actions, particularly in elections.

“If we do not hold the most powerful people in our society to the same standards, the rule of law, it can be catastrophic,” he said.

“It can endanger our election process, it can endanger election workers and ultimately, our democracy.”

“The attack on this Capitol on Jan. 6,” Smith said, echoing an appeals court ruling, “it was an attack on the structure of our democracy.”

Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado asked Smith if he was aware that Trump was live-posting social media comments during the hearing.

“No,” Smith said.

The congressman began reading what the president had posted.

“’Jack Smith is a deranged animal, who shouldn’t be allowed to practice Law,’” Neguse read. “’Hopefully the Attorney General is looking at what he’s done.’”

Smith looked on.

“We have a word for this,” the congressman said. “It’s called weaponization. It’s called corruption.”

Democrats repeatedly asked if Smith had ever been approached by Biden’s Justice Department to investigate or prosecute Trump. Smith said he had not.

In his own words, Smith lays out the case

Smith presented his case against Trump, publicly and in previous private testimony, in ways that have not wavered.

“President Trump was charged because the evidence established that he willfully broke the law,” Smith said in opening remarks.

“Rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 election, President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power.”

Smith said, “If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so.”

“No one should be above the law in this country.”

Still, the special counsel said he stopped short of filing a charge of insurrection against Trump. That was pursued in the House impeachment of Trump in the aftermath of Jan. 6, though the president was acquitted of the sole count of incitement of an insurrection by the Senate.

He said the case had “proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal activity,” and remained confident had it gone to trial.

Asked about Trump’s decision to pardon some 1,500 people convicted in the Jan. 6 attack, including those who assaulted police officers, Smith had almost no answer.

“I don’t get it,” he said. “I never will.”

___

Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.

Great Job Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick, Alanna Durkin Richer And Eric Tucker, Associated Press & the Team @ KSAT San Antonio for sharing this story.

Here’s how Houston-area officials are preparing for winter weather threat | Houston Public Media

Kyle McClenagan/Houston Public Media

A snow plow clears a section of Main Street near NRG Stadium on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.

Ahead of potential winter weather hitting Texas this weekend, counties in greater Houston are preparing for extreme cold weather and possible icy conditions.

The National Weather Service’s Houston area office forecasts southeast Texas could be hit by dangerously cold temperatures, with potentially life-threatening wind chills. Freezing rain and ice are possible from Saturday night through Monday morning.

Houston

The city of Houston will operate 12 warming centers. According to the city’s office of emergency management, they will open starting at 5 p.m. on Saturday and “remain open until further notice.”

Here are the warming centers opening in Houston:

Acres Homes Multi-Service Center: 6719 W. Montgomery Rd, Houston, TX 77091
Northeast Multi-Service Center: 9720 Spaulding St, Houston, TX 77016
Kashmere Multi-Service Center: 4802 Lockwood Dr, Houston, TX 77026
Moody Community Center: 3725 Fulton St, Houston, TX 77009
Fifth Ward Multi-Service Center: 4014 Market St, Houston, TX 77007
Denver Harbor Multi-Service Center: 6402 Market St, Houston, TX 77007
Fonde Community Center: 110 Sabine St, Houston, TX 77007
Metropolitan Multi-Service Center: 1475 W Gray St, Houston, TX 77019
Magnolia Multi-Service Center: 7037 Capitol St, Houston, TX 77011
Third Ward Multi-Service Center: 3611 Ennis St, Houston, TX 77004
Southwest Multi-Service Center: 6400 High Star Dr, Houston, TX 77074
Sunnyside Multi-Service Center: 4410 Reed Road, Houston, TX 77051

Harris County

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said residents should plan to stay off county roadways starting at 9 p.m. on Saturday, when a major winter storm and potentially icy conditions are expected to move into the area.

She joined representatives of the Texas Department of Transportation, CenterPoint Energy and a local plumbers union during a press conference about the incoming storm on Thursday.

“Obviously, our region only faces these, if anything, once a year,” Hidalgo said. “So we’re not built for it. But we are used to flexing that muscle of getting through these emergencies and here we are again.”

While officials said that the most immediate threat of wintry conditions is expected to impact northwest Harris County over the weekend, they said they can’t rule out icy conditions in any other part of the county just yet.

Harris County has not yet provided a detailed list of warming centers across the county for the incoming storm — that information is expected to be released online in the coming days.

She also encouraged residents in Texas’ 18th Congressional District to vote in the special election runoff before Saturday to avoid the coming weather conditions. The early voting period ends Tuesday, Jan. 27, with Election Day on Jan. 31.

“We’re working very hard on our end,” Hidalgo said. “And I know folks in the community know their piece as well, so you’ll find a lot of this familiar. We’ve done it before. But of course, this emergency, like all emergencies, is unique.”

Harris County Fire Marshal Laurie Christensen said that the county is working with surrounding city leaders on preparations for the storm.

“We are putting things down to make sure the equipment can get out of the station,” she said. “We’re talking to each other about how we’re going to get critical life safety needs met, getting to hospitals, so we’re preparing.”

Residents should check batteries in their smoke detectors, practice exit routes from their home in case of an emergency and prepare home generators ahead of time, Christensen said.

Galveston County

Ahead of the cold weather this weekend, Galveston County officials are gearing up and asking those who live around the county to prepare as well.

“Hopefully, everybody still has their hurricane emergency kits that they prepared last year for hurricane season and didn’t get to use. So, they should be stocked up with water, food, things like that,” said Emergency Management Coordinator for the City of Galveston, Byron Frankland.

Frankland said the city will have additional employees on call and crews working overnight throughout the weekend, responding to any water issues like busted or leaky pipes.

He also warned homeowners who don’t live on the island full-time to prepare their vacation homes ahead of the cold weekend.

“We have quite a few on the west end that don’t live here full time, so, of course, we’re concerned with those, that people will take advantage of this time before the weather gets bad to go ahead and make those preparations,” Frankland said.

Frankland said TxDOT will start sanding the Causeway bridge, as well as the rest of the city’s elevated overpasses, beginning on Friday evening.

Here is the warming center in Galveston County:

Texas City: Northside Baptist Church, 2801 N. Logan St. Open 24/7, providing shelter, hot meals, showers, and clothing

Dominic Anthony Walsh contributed to this report.

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‘They sold my pain for clicks’: Paris Hilton urges lawmakers to act on nonconsensual deepfakes

Published

2026-01-22 16:18

4:18

January 22, 2026

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America/Chicago

WASHINGTON, D.C. — When an explicit video of 19-year-old Paris Hilton having sex was leaked by her ex-boyfriend in 2003, the world turned on her. She was pilloried in the press, called “horny,” and “trashy.” “Sex video gives Paris Hilton publicity money can’t buy,” The Guardian declared.

Nowadays, the reaction would probably be different. Hilton’s ex-boyfriend, who was 12 years her senior, shared the video online a decade before the first “revenge porn” law went into effect in the United States. The full-length video was later published, becoming a bestseller. Hilton says she never saw any profits, and said she donated her $400,000 settlement with her ex to charity.

At a Thursday news conference on Capitol Hill, Hilton spoke about the impact of having the intimate video shared without her consent.

“People called it a scandal. It wasn’t. It was abuse,” she said. “There were no laws at the time to protect me. There weren’t even words for what had been done to me. The internet was still new, and so was the cruelty that came with it. They called me names, they laughed and made me the punchline. They sold my pain for clicks, and then they told me to be quiet, to move on, to even be grateful for the attention. These people didn’t see me as a young woman who had been exploited. They didn’t see the panic that I felt, the humiliation or the shame. No one asked me what I lost.”

The movement to outlaw image-based sexual abuse has entered the mainstream in the two decades since Hilton became the butt of crude jokes everywhere. But the laws haven’t kept up with technological advances, especially as explicit deepfakes can be made with AI image generators for virtually no cost.

Hilton spoke at the news conference alongside Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Laurel Lee, the co-sponsors of the DEFIANCE Act, a bill that would allow victims of deepfakes to directly sue the people who caused them harm. The bipartisan bill passed the Senate unanimously last week, just as it did last year, and now the lawmakers are rallying for a House floor vote.

“This bill shows what is possible when we put victims ahead of politics,” Lee said.

The push to pass the DEFIANCE Act is the latest effort to unite women lawmakers like Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, and Lee, a Florida Republican, across party lines. Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Sarah McBride, progressive Democrats, and Republican Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, Claudia Tenney, Nancy Mace and Marianette Miller-Meeks were among those in attendance at Thursday’s news conference.

The House has yet to schedule a vote. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, spoke favorably of the bill to The Independent after last week’s Senate passage.

Years after the first violation, fake images of Paris Hilton still abound. During the news conference, Hilton said over 100,000 nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfake images of her have been circulated online.

The DEFIANCE Act allows targets of deepfake abuse to sue the creators, distributors or commissioners of explicit nonconsensual images. There is a booming market for high-quality (read: more life-like) sexually explicit deepfake videos, and the DEFIANCE Act would allow survivors to recover profits from their likeness.

“Take It Down gave us removal, and DEFIANCE will give us recourse and restitution,” Ocasio-Cortez said. Last year’s Take It Down Act was championed by First Lady Melania Trump and instituted criminal penalties for the publication of nonconsensual intimate imagery, real or fake. The second provision of the law, which requires platforms to have a process to remove nonconsensual images 48 hours after reporting, goes into effect in May.

Seventeen-year-old Francesca Mani, a survivor of deepfake abuse from her high school peers, emphasized that DEFIANCE would provide accountability for perpetrators.

“DEFIANCE adds consequences that hit where it hurts. If ethics aren’t in your heart, self-preservation should be,” she said. “If you don’t care about others, protect yourself. It’s not cool or comfortable in jail and to Congress: pass this now, please, no more waiting while tech outpaces justice.”

The DEFIANCE Act has been revived as the image generation feature of Grok, the AI chatbot integrated in social platform X, has been used to make nonconsensual explicit deepfakes of women and children. Reporting from The New York Times and the Center for Countering Digital Hate estimates Grok created and posted over 1.8 million sexualized images of women over nine days in December. X said it took steps to restrict the creation of nonconsensual deepfakes, but users have been consistently able to bypass guardrails.

None of the speakers at the Thursday news conference mentioned Grok or X specifically in their remarks.

But Ocasio-Cortez said she is among the women elected officials who have been targeted by such nonconsensual explicit deepfakes. Users asked Grok to generate nonconsensual images of the congresswoman in January.

“As a survivor of sexual assault myself, this resurfaces trauma for so many people across the country, and that is what it is intended to do,” she said. “Because the creation of this content parallels the same exact intention of physical assault, which is about power, domination and humiliation. And while these images may be digital, the harm to victims is very real. Women lose their jobs when they are targeted with this. Teenagers switch schools and children lose their lives. Congress has a moral obligation to stop this harm.”

When asked about potential free speech conflicts, Lee said that there were no First Amendment concerns with the bill and that it does not contradict Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which generally does not hold online entities responsible for speech posted on their platforms.

This isn’t the first time Hilton has visited Capitol Hill to advocate for a bill. Last year, she shared her experiences as a survivor of the “troubled teen” industry, helping pass the Stop Institutional Abuse Act.

Hilton closed her official remarks by talking about the world she wants to build for her 2-year-old daughter.

“I would go to the ends of the earth to protect her, but I can’t protect her from this, not yet, and that’s why I’m here, because this isn’t about just technology,” she said. “It’s about power. It’s about someone using someone’s likeness to humiliate, silence and strip them of their dignity. But victims deserve more than after-the-fact apologies. We deserve justice.”

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China Briefing 22 January 2026: 2026 priorities; EV agreement; How China uses gas – Carbon Brief

Welcome to Carbon Brief’s China Briefing.

China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate and energy stories from China over the past fortnight. Subscribe for free here.

Tasks for 2026

‘GREEN RESOLVE’: The Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) said at its annual national conference that it is “essential” to “maintain strategic resolve” on building a “beautiful China”, reported energy news outlet BJX News. Officials called for “accelerating green transformation” and “strengthening driving forces” for the low-carbon transition in 2026, it added. The meeting also underscored the need for “continued reduction in total emissions of major pollutants”, it said, as well as for “advancing source control through carbon peaking and a low-carbon transition”. The MEE listed seven key tasks for 2026 at the meeting, said business news outlet 21st Century Business Herald, including promoting development of “green productive forces”, focusing on “regional strategies” to build “green development hubs” and “actively responding” to climate change.

CARBON ‘PRESSURE’: China’s carbon emissions reduction strategy will move from the “preparatory stages” into a phase of “substantive” efforts in 2026, reported Shanghai-based news outlet the Paper, with local governments beginning to “feel the pressure” due to facing “formal carbon assessments for the first time” this year. Business news outlet 36Kr said that an “increasing number of industry participants” will have to begin finalising decarbonisation plans this year. The entry into force of the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism means China’s steelmakers will face a “critical test of cost, data and compliance”, reported finance news outlet Caixin. Carbon Brief asked several experts, including the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Li Shuo, what energy and climate developments they will be watching in 2026.

COAL DECLINE: New data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed China’s “mostly coal-based thermal power generation fell in 2025” for the first time in a decade, reported Reuters, to 6,290 terawatt-hours (TWh). The data confirmed earlier analysis for Carbon Brief that “coal power generation fell in both China and India in 2025”, marking the first simultaneous drop in 50 years. Energy news outlet International Energy Net noted that wind generation rose 10% to 1,053TWh and solar by 24% to 1,573TWh.

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EV agreement reached

‘NORMALISED COMPETITION’?: The EU will remove tariffs on imports of electric vehicles (EV) made in China if the manufacturers follow “guidelines on minimum pricing” issued by the bloc, reported the Associated Press. China’s commerce ministry stated that the new guidelines will “enable Chinese exporters to address the EU’s anti-subsidy case concerning Chinese EVs in a way that is more practical, targeted and consistent with [World Trade Organization] rules”, according to the state-run China Daily. An editorial by the state-supporting Global Times argued that the agreement symbolised a “new phase” in China-EU economic and trade relations in which “normalised competition” is stabilised by a “solid cooperative foundation”.

SOLAR REBATES: China will “eliminate” export rebates for solar products from April 2026 and phase rebates for batteries out by 2027, said Caixin. Solar news outlet Solar Headlines said that the removal of rebates would “directly test” solar companies’ profitability and “fundamentally reshape the entire industry’s growth logic”. Meanwhile, China imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of “solar-grade polysilicon” from the US and Korea, said state news agency Xinhua.

OVERCAPACITY MEETINGS: The Chinese government “warned several producers of polysilicon…about monopoly risks” and cautioned them not to “coordinate on production capacity, sales volume and prices”, said Bloomberg. Reuters and China Daily covered similar government meetings on “mitigat[ing] risks of overcapacity” with the battery and EV industries, respectively. A widely republished article in the state-run Economic Daily said that to counter overcapacity, companies would need to reverse their “misaligned development logic” and shift from competing on “price and scale” to competing on “technology”.

High prices undermined home coal-to-gas heating policy

SWITCHING SHOCK: A video commentary by Xinhua reporter Liu Chang covered “reports of soaring [home] heating costs following coal-to-gas switching [policies] in some rural areas of north China”. Liu added that switching from coal to gas “must lead not only to blue skies, but also to warmth”. Bloomberg said that the “issue isn’t a lack of gas”, but the “result of a complex series of factors including price regulations, global energy shocks and strained local finances”.

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HEATED DEBATE: Discussions of the story in China became a “domestically resonant – and politically awkward – debate”, noted the current affairs newsletter Pekingnology. It translated a report by Chinese outlet Economic Observer that many villagers in Hebei struggled with no access to affordable heating, with some turning back to coal. “Local authorities are steadily advancing energy supply,” People’s Daily said of the issue, noting that gas is “increasingly becoming a vital heating energy source” as part of China’s energy transition. Another People’s Daily article quoted one villager saying: “Coal-to-gas conversion is a beneficial initiative for both the nation and its people…Yet the heating costs are simply too high.”

DEJA-VU: This is not the first time coal-to-gas switching has encountered challenges, according to research by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, with nearby Shanxi province experiencing a similar situation. In Shanxi, a “lack of planning, poor coordination and hasty implementation” led to demand outstripping supply, while some households had their coal-based heating systems removed with no replacement secured. Others were “deterred” from using gas-based systems due to higher prices, it said.

More China news

LOFTY WORDS: At Davos, vice-premier He Lifeng reaffirmed commitments to China’s “dual-carbon” goals and called for greater “global cooperation on climate change”, reported Caixin.
NOT LOOKING: US president Donald Trump, also at Davos, said he was not “able to find any windfarms in China”, adding China sells them to “stupid” consumers, reported Euronews. China installed wind capacity has ranked first globally “for 15 years consecutively”, said a government official, according to CGTN.
‘GREEN’ FACTORIES: China issued “new guidelines to promote green [industrial] microgrids” including targets for on-site renewable use, said Xinhua. The country “pledged to advance zero-carbon factory development” from 2026, said another Xinhua report.
JET-FUEL MERGER: A merger of oil giant Sinopec with the country’s main jet-fuel producer could “aid the aviation industry’s carbon reduction goals”, reported Yicai Global. However, Caixin noted that the move could “stifl[e] innovation” in the sustainable air fuel sector.
NEW TARGETS: Chinese government investment funds will now be evaluated on the “annual carbon reduction rates” achieved by the enterprises or projects they support, reported BJX News.
HOLIDAY CATCH-UP: Since the previous edition of China Briefing in December, Beijing released policies on provincial greenhouse gas inventories, the “two new” programme, clean coal benchmarks, corporate climate reporting, “green consumption” and hydrogen carbon credits. The National Energy Administration also held its annual work conference.

Why gas plays a minimal role in China’s climate strategy

While gas is seen in some countries as an important “bridging” fuel to move away from coal use, rapid electrification, uncompetitiveness and supply concerns have suppressed its share in China’s energy mix.

Carbon Brief explores the current role of gas in China and how this could change in the future. The full article is available on Carbon Brief’s website.

The current share of gas in China’s primary energy demand is small, at around 8-9%.

It also comprises 7% of China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fuel combustion, adding 755m tonnes of CO2 in 2023 – twice the total CO2 emissions of the UK.

Gas consumption is continuing to grow in line with an overall uptick in total energy demand, but has slowed slightly from the 9% average annual rise in gas demand over the past decade – during which time consumption more than doubled.

The state-run oil and gas company China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) forecast in 2025 that demand growth for the year may slow further to just over 6%.

Chinese government officials frequently note that China is “rich in coal” and “short of gas”. Concerns of import dependence underpin China’s focus on coal for energy security.

However, Beijing sees electrification as a “clear energy security strategy” to both decarbonise and “reduce exposure to global fossil fuel markets”, said Michal Meidan, China energy research programme head at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

A dim future?

Beijing initially aimed for gas to displace coal as part of a broader policy to tackle air pollution.

Its “blue-sky campaign” helped to accelerate gas use in the industrial and residential sectors. Several cities were mandated to curtail coal usage and switch to gas.

(January 2026 saw widespread reports of households choosing not to use gas heating installed during this campaign despite freezing temperatures, due to high prices.)

Industry remains the largest gas user in China, with “city gas” second. Power generation is a distant third.

The share of gas in power generation remains at 4%, while wind and solar’s share has soared to 22%, Yu Aiqun, research analyst at the thinktank Global Energy Monitor, told Carbon Brief. She added:

“With the rapid expansion of renewables and ongoing geopolitical uncertainties, I don’t foresee a bright future for gas power.”

However, gas capacity may still rise from 150 gigawatts (GW) in 2025 to 200GW by 2030. A government report noted that gas will continue to play a “critical role” in “peak shaving”.

But China’s current gas storage capacity is “insufficient”, according to CNPC, limiting its ability to meet peak-shaving demand.

Transport and industry

Gas instead may play a bigger role in the displacement of diesel in the transport sector, due to the higher cost competitiveness of LNG – particularly for trucking.

CNPC forecast that LNG displaced around 28-30m tonnes of diesel in the trucking sector in 2025, accounting for 15% of total diesel demand in China.

However, gas is not necessarily a better option for heavy-duty, long-haul transportation, due to poorer fuel efficiency compared with electric vehicles.

In fact, “new-energy vehicles” are displacing both LNG-fueled trucks and diesel heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs).

Meanwhile, gas could play a “more significant” role in industrial decarbonisation, Meidan told Carbon Brief, if prices fall substantially.

Growth in gas demand has been decelerating in some industries, but China may adopt policies more favourable to gas, she added.

An energy transition roadmap developed by a Chinese government thinktank found gas will only begin to play a greater role than coal in China by 2050 at the earliest.

Both will be significantly less important than clean-energy sources at that point.

This spotlight was written by freelance climate journalist Karen Teo for Carbon Brief.

EV OUTLOOK: Tu Le, managing director of consultancy Sino Auto Insights, spoke on the High Capacity podcast about his outlook for China’s EV industry in 2026.

‘RUNAWAY TRAIN’: John Hopkins professor Jeremy Wallace argued in Wired that China’s strength in cleantech is due to a “runaway train of competition” that “no one – least of all [a monolithic ‘China’] – knows how to deal with”.

‘DIRTIEST AND GREENEST’: China’s energy engagement in the Belt and Road Initiative was simultaneously the “dirtiest and greenest” it has ever been in 2025, according to a new report by the Green Finance & Development Center.

INDUSTRY VOICE: Zhong Baoshen, chairman of solar manufacturer LONGi, spoke with Xinhua about how innovation, “supporting the strongest performers”, standards-setting and self-regulation could alleviate overcapacity in the industry.

The amount of money State Grid, China’s main grid operator, plans to invest between 2026-30, according to Jiemian. The outlet adds that much of this investment will “support the development and transmission of clean energy” from large-scale clean-energy bases and hydropower plants.

The combination of long-term climate change and extremes in rainfall and heat have contributed to an increase in winter wheat yield of 1% in Xinjiang province between 1989-2023 | Climate Dynamics
More than 70% of the “observed changes” in temperature extremes in China over 1901-2020 are “attributed to greenhouse gas forcing” | Environmental Research Letters

China Briefing is written by Anika Patel and edited by Simon Evans. Please send tips and feedback to [email protected]

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Bone Broth vs. Chicken Broth: Nutrition and Health Benefits Explained

When comparing bone broth and chicken broth, “key differences in nutritional profiles make one a superior choice regarding health benefits,” says Dr. Myers.

Bone Broth

Bone broth is a nutrient-packed liquid that’s made by simmering animal bones in water with vegetables, spices, and herbs for up to 24 hours — sometimes even longer.

During that long cooking time, nutrients from the bones, including collagen, calcium, phosphorus, and amino acids, make their way into the liquid.

“These nutrients are known for supporting joint health and promoting skin elasticity,” says Mary Sabat, RD, a nutritionist based in Alpharetta, Georgia. Collagen in particular promotes these health benefits and is one of the key nutrients in bone broth that sets it apart from chicken broth.

However, there isn’t much research supporting the idea that consuming collagen-rich foods can directly benefit joints or skin.

That said, bone broth also contains amino acids like glutamine and arginine, which have been linked to reduced inflammation and improved gut health in certain studies.

Bone broth is best made at home so you know it’s been simmered for long enough to gain these potential health benefits. If you’re buying it at the grocery store, keep in mind that refrigerated bone broth should have a gel-like texture — that’s proof it contains collagen.

Chicken Broth

Chicken broth is made by simmering chicken meat (and possibly some bones) over a shorter period of time than bone broth. As a result, “it lacks the depth of nutrients and beneficial compounds found in bone broth,” Sabat says.

But it can still be nutritious. “Chicken broth is hydrating and contains essential vitamins, minerals, and protein,” Sabat says. It’s also lighter than bone broth, which may also make it more easily digestible, Myers says.

In general, the benefits of chicken broth just aren’t as plentiful as you’ll find in bone broth.

That said, chicken broth may be easier to come by because it takes a shorter amount of time to make.

You can make it yourself, too, to ensure all of the vitamins and nutrients are preserved without the additives, artificial ingredients, or excess sodium, says Myers.

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OpenAI is coming for those sweet enterprise dollars in 2026 | TechCrunch

OpenAI has reorganized some of its leadership and picked a familiar face to lead its push into selling AI to business customers as the company looks to catch up to its rivals in 2026.

The company appointed Barret Zoph to lead its efforts to sell its AI to enterprises, according to reporting from The Information, citing an internal OpenAI memo.

TechCrunch reached out to OpenAI for confirmation and more information.

Zoph returned to OpenAI last week after leaving Thinking Machine Labs, former OpenAI co-founder Mira Murati’s AI startup where Zoph had served as a co-founder and chief technology officer since October 2024.

The exact circumstances of his departure aren’t clear, with rumors swirling about whether Zoph and a few other former OpenAI employees were fired or left on their own accord, possibly with plans to return to OpenAI all along.

Zoph was previously the vice president of post-training inference at OpenAI from September 2022 to October 2024. He’s stepping into a very different position and will likely play an important role at the company as it looks to grow its enterprise business — an area where it is losing ground to competitors.

OpenAI launched its enterprise-focused ChatGPT Enterprise product in 2023 more than a year before Anthropic and multiple years before Google launched their enterprise offerings. The company claims the product has more than 5 million business users and counts companies including SoftBank, Target, and Lowe’s as customers.

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But its market share is falling while its rivals are climbing.

Anthropic holds a dominant lead over its AI rivals when it comes to enterprise large language model usage. The AI research lab holds a 40% market share, according to a December report from VC firm Menlo Ventures (which, it should be noted, has invested aggressively in Anthropic). In July, the startup’s market share was estimated to be 32%.

Google’s Gemini adoption has been steadier, says Menlo Ventures. The company released its enterprise product last fall and has seen its enterprise LLM usage market share largely stay the same, growing from 20% in July to 21% at the end of the year.

OpenAI on the other hand has seen its usage market share drop from 50% in 2023 to 27% at the end of 2025 — a trend that appears to concern the company. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed concern that Google Gemini’s growth was starting to encroach on OpenAI in an internal memo a few months ago.

Enterprise growth is an area of focus for the company in 2026, OpenAI’s CFO Sarah Friar wrote in a blog post on Sunday.

The company has since announced an expanded multi-year partnership with ServiceNow that will give ServiceNow customers access to OpenAI models.

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