Overview
Today’s feed runs on two tracks. First, AI moving from lab talk to real work, from planning a Mars rover’s route to agents that call you and coding arenas inside real IDEs. Second, politics and policy heat up, with a reported arrest tied to a church disruption, a tough message on worship rights, a pro-Bitcoin pick for the Fed, and a showpiece IndyCar race coming to Washington. Property and social media get their turns too, with an AI home purchase in Florida and a quick tip to find your contacts on X.
The big picture
Don Lemon reportedly arrested in Los Angeles while covering the Grammys
Collin Rugg reports that former CNN host Don Lemon was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles around midnight, tied to a January protest that disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota. Context points to potential FACE Act charges for obstructing worship, following earlier DHS arrests of protest organisers. The circulating clip shows Lemon defending the protesters as using First Amendment rights and faulting the church for inviting controversy through an ICE-linked pastor.
Pamela Bondi warns of consequences for attacks on worship
Attorney General Pamela Bondi posted a short video stressing Americans’ right to worship freely and safely, promising consequences for violations. It follows her Minnesota visit and the federal inquiry into the St. Paul church disruption, in line with the administration’s stated focus on combating anti-Christian bias.
Michael Saylor touts Kevin Warsh as the first pro-Bitcoin Fed Chair
Michael Saylor highlights President Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve after Jerome Powell’s term ends in May. Warsh, a former Fed Governor, has praised Bitcoin as a useful signal for policymakers rather than a rival to the dollar, a stance he has held since reviewing the whitepaper years ago.
IndyCar street race heads to Washington for America250
Fox News reports an executive order instructing agencies to stage the America 250 Grand Prix, an IndyCar race on DC streets in August. The event will run along the National Mall and be free to the public. Expect tourism buzz and planning headaches as road closures near monuments are worked out.
Claude helps plan Perseverance’s route on Mars
Anthropic says December saw the first AI-planned drive on another planet. Claude worked with JPL engineers to set waypoints for a 400-metre trek, using overhead images and rover data in Rover Markup Language. After simulating hazards across hundreds of thousands of variables, the rover completed the drive with only minor tweaks, cutting usual planning time, according to NASA reports.
A DIY agent rings its maker and takes voice commands
Alex Finn shows his Clawdbot-based assistant, Henry, grabbing a Twilio number overnight, hooking into ChatGPT’s voice API, and calling him for live voice-driven computer control. The demo lands squarely in accessible agentic workflows, while raising obvious questions about permissions and voice security.
Putting coding models head to head inside your IDE
Windsurf launches Arena Mode, where a single prompt pits two models in a live coding environment. Users vote on outputs, feeding both personal and global Elo rankings. It borrows from recent arena studies and is free for a week, with a new Plan Mode for task breakdowns.
Genie 3’s maps… actually work inside an AI-made world
Bilawal Sidhu shares a Genie 3 clip where a handheld GPS display updates and rotates while walking through a generated forest. There is no game engine, just next-frame prediction learning enough world-to-screen logic for a workable map UI, though questions remain about long-run consistency.
AI buyer in Florida uses Homa to close and keep commission
HustleBitch points to a Fox Local piece on DJ, a first-time buyer who used Homa to search MLS data, draft offers, and close on a $420,000 home. After a $2,000 flat fee, he received a $10,500 rebate from buyer-agent commission. Agents in the replies argue about inspections and paperwork, while supporters say AI exposes inflated fees.
Quick tip: find your phone contacts on X
DogeDesigner posts a short guide to syncing your address book with X to discover people you already know. Helpful for rebuilding networks, though it means uploading contacts to X’s servers, which some users may avoid.
Why it matters
AI is moving into ops. When a language model helps plan a Mars drive, an indie agent calls its creator to take instructions, and a coding arena lives inside a real IDE, the conversation changes from benchmark charts to what actually ships and how it behaves in the wild. Genie 3’s map quirk hints at world models learning usable systems without hand-coded rules, which could change game tools and simulation-heavy work.
Law, protest, and worship are colliding. A reported arrest and a federal warning about protecting services signal tougher enforcement of the FACE Act. Expect legal fights over what counts as protected speech versus unlawful obstruction, and a louder national debate shaped by immigration politics.
Monetary policy could get friendlier to crypto. A Fed Chair who views Bitcoin as a market signal rather than a threat may change the tone of rulemaking and bank supervision, even if core mandates stay the same.
Housing is in for a pricing rethink. If buyers can combine AI analysis with selective human help for showings and negotiations, traditional percentage fees face pressure. This points to hybrid models that justify cost through clear labour and risk, not default custom.
America250 will be noisy, literally. A free IndyCar race on the National Mall blends pageantry with urban trade-offs, from road closures to crowd management. And on the platform side, small features like contact sync boost discovery, though users will weigh that against data privacy.
