Despite falling behind the U.S. in some key areas, Wall Street Journal senior global correspondent Josh Chin reports that China is quickly catching up in the race to create an AI superintelligence. Plus, Wall Street Journal news associate Jared Mitovich says customers across the country are feeling the heat of escalating energy prices, partially caused by new data centers. Peter Champelli hosts.
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Rich-powered CLI that breaks each HTTP request into DNS, connect, TLS, wait, and transfer phases with waterfall timelines, compact summaries, or metrics-only output.
Features
Phase-by-phase timing – precise measurements built from httpcore trace hooks (with sane fallbacks when metal-level data is unavailable).
All HTTP methods – GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS with request body support.
Request body support – send JSON, XML, or any data inline or from file with automatic Content-Type detection.
IPv4/IPv6 aware – the resolver and TLS inspector report both the address and its family.
TLS insights – certificate CN, expiry countdown, cipher suite, and protocol version are captured automatically.
Multiple output modes – rich waterfall view, compact single-line summaries, or -metrics-only for scripting.
JSON export – persist full step data (including redirect chains) for later processing.
Extensible – clean Protocol interfaces for DNS, TLS, timing, visualization, and export so you can plug in custom behavior.
The Real-Time Communication Library for Python: Turn any python function into a real-time audio and video stream over WebRTC or WebSockets.
Features
🗣️ Automatic Voice Detection and Turn Taking built-in, only worry about the logic for responding to the user.
💻 Automatic UI - Use the .ui.launch() method to launch the webRTC-enabled built-in Gradio UI.
🔌 Automatic WebRTC Support - Use the .mount(app) method to mount the stream on a FastAPI app and get a webRTC endpoint for your own frontend!
⚡️ Websocket Support - Use the .mount(app) method to mount the stream on a FastAPI app and get a websocket endpoint for your own frontend!
📞 Automatic Telephone Support - Use the fastphone() method of the stream to launch the application and get a free temporary phone number!
🤖 Completely customizable backend - A Stream can easily be mounted on a FastAPI app so you can easily extend it to fit your production application. See the Talk To Claude demo for an example of how to serve a custom JS frontend.
Cosmic dust can tell scientists about how ice covered Earth during the last ice age. This dust is leftover debris from asteroids and comets colliding in space and this dust constantly rains down on our planet. Researcher Frankie Pavia from the University of Washington recently used a brand new method for estimating climate conditions 30,000 years ago, by looking at the cosmic dust amounts in ancient arctic ocean soil. He and a team found new clues to what melted arctic ice at the end of the ice age. These results may be able to better inform ice melt in the future.
Interested in more space science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
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The World Cup is coming up, and it’s going to cost a pretty penny if you are hoping to attend. Today on the show, we talk to NPR Senior Business editor and World Cup superfan about why the 2026 World Cup will likely be the most expensive in history and why even finding a ticket is more difficult.
Tochi Onyebuchi remembers when the internet was fun. The science fiction and fantasy author says he initially existed online as a “skinless, raceless entity” until he experienced a shift around 2012. His new memoir Racebook traces this shift to the shooting death of Trayvon Martin and subsequent acquittal of the man who killed him. In today’s episode, Onyebuchi speaks with NPR’s Juana Summers about online forums, early Twitter, and the other communities that made the early internet so satisfying.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
It has been the longest government shutdown on record. Why did the Democrats choose this moment—right after elections proved how unpopular Donald Trump and his policies truly are—to cave in and end it?
Guest: Jamelle Bouie, New York Times opinion columnist.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
The US says Syria is joining the international coalition to combat the Islamic State group, and Damascus is resuming diplomatic relations with Washington. The announcement came hours after Donald Trump met the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, at the White House, describing him as a strong leader. President Trump said he wanted Syria to be a "big part" of his plan for a wider Middle East peace. Also: The Indian capital, Delhi, is on high alert after a deadly explosion. The woman known as the "Chinese Cryptoqueen" is due to be sentenced for stealing billions of dollars from investors. And the novel "Flesh", by David Szalay wins the Booker Prize, Britain's most prestigious award for literary fiction.
The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.
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Amanda Holmes reads Louis MacNeice’s “Soap Suds.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.
Ryan is joined by Secure Code Warrior’s co-founder and CTO Matias Madou to discuss the implications of LLMs’ variability on code security, the future of developer training as AI coding assistants become more popular, and the importance of critical thinking—especially for junior developers—in the age of AI.
Episode notes:
Secure Code Warrior upskills development teams to help companies stay protected against potential cybersecurity threats.
