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Google’s self-driving robotaxi Waymo is under investigation by U.S. transportation authorities for violating laws by passing a school bus without permission, even after a recall was issued. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced on the 3rd that it is investigating an incident in which a Waymo vehicle passed a stopped school bus on a road in Austin, Texas on January 12th.

According to NTSB investigation data, the Waymo taxi recognized the school bus with its lights flashing and a stop sign open to pick up students at around 7:55 a.m., the start of school, and briefly stopped in the opposite lane. However, when three other vehicles passed the school bus soon after, the taxi followed them. In most parts of the United States, including Texas, when a school bus comes to a stop with its red lights flashing and a stop sign displayed, no vehicles in either direction can pass or pass it.

The investigation revealed that Waymo had asked its remote support center in Michigan if the signal was on and, when the center answered “no,” proceeded with the operation. However, no collisions or other accidents occurred as a result. The NTSB added that it was investigating a similar incident involving a school bus on January 14th in addition to this one. Waymo was previously cited for at least 19 incidents of illegal passing and passing of school buses in Texas last year, and issued a recall in December, updating the relevant vehicle software. However, as similar violations continued even after the recall, the NTSB plans to issue a safety advisory to prevent similar incidents.

The NTSB also released findings from its investigation into a crash on January 23rd in which a Waymo vehicle struck an elementary school student in a school zone in Santa Monica, California. At the time, the Waymo vehicle was traveling at 17 mph (approximately 27 km/h) on a road with a speed limit of 25 mph (approximately 40 km/h). Upon noticing a nine-year-old girl crossing the roadway, the vehicle applied the brakes and ultimately crashed into her. The girl, who collided with the Waymo vehicle, sustained minor injuries but did not require medical transport.

This is consistent with Waymo’s statement immediately after the accident.

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence (Larry) Summers, who was revealed to have provided adultery counselling to the late Jeffrey Epstein, a sex offender, will resign from his professorship at Harvard University, the university announced.

According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 25th, Harvard University spokesman Jason Newton said that Summers will stop teaching at Harvard after the current semester ends (the end of May) and that this is “related to the university’s ongoing review of the documents released by the government regarding Epstein.”

The NYT reported that Summers, who has been on leave since last November, will not return to the Harvard podium but will instead resign. Summers, who served as Treasury Secretary and Harvard University President, has been under suspicion for his close relationship with Epstein since the former US House of Representatives Democratic members released emails from Epstein’s lifetime last year. He exchanged emails with Epstein for at least seven years, until March 2019, before Epstein’s arrest, and specifically sought Epstein’s advice regarding inappropriate relationships with other women during their marriage.

After the emails were made public, he stated, “I feel deep shame for my actions,” and announced that he would cease public activity. However, as criticism continued, he announced in November of last year that he would not teach while the university’s investigation continued.

Summers served as Treasury Secretary from July 1999 to January 2001 during the Bill Clinton administration and served as Harvard University President from July 2001 until June 2006.

In the case of Kilmar Abrego García, a Salvadoran who has become a symbolic figure among critics of the Donald Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies, a court has once again sided with García. On the 17th, U.S. District Court Judge Paula Sinis of Maryland ruled to bar García from being re-detained after his release, according to the Associated Press and other news agencies.

Sinis criticized the Department of Homeland Security for “persisting in empty threats to send him to African countries without any real prospect of success.” The court then ruled that “there is no sufficient reason to believe that (Garcia’s) deportation will occur in the reasonably foreseeable future.”

The court ruled that since the government has had 90 days to arbitrarily detain someone subject to deportation, a credible and specific deportation plan is now required before Garcia can be detained again. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argued to the court that it would deport Garcia to African countries like Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, and Liberia, but the court rejected that argument. Judge Sinis ruled that the government “deliberately and without justification ignored the only country (Costa Rica) that has consistently offered to accept Garcia as a refugee and to which he has agreed to go.”

In effect, the court blocked the government’s attempt to detain Garcia in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility for political retaliation, even though it had no plans to deport him from the United States. Last year, the case of Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador despite being a legal resident of the United States due to a government error, became a political embarrassment for the Trump administration. Garcia came to the United States illegally as a teenager but has since lived in Maryland with his American citizen wife and child and is now a legal resident.

In 2019, an immigration judge ruled that Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador due to the danger posed by gangs targeting his family. However, in March of last year, Garcia was deported to El Salvador and held in a notorious terrorist detention centre there. He was later returned to the United States in June of last year after it was revealed that his deportation had been an administrative error.

The Trump administration charged Garcia with child trafficking upon his deportation and remanded him in an ICE facility, but a court ordered his release in December of last year.

Tesla, an American electric car company, and Tencent, China’s largest technology company, are partnering to release a vehicle equipped with WeChat functions.

Reuters reported on the 11th that Tesla and Tencent Cloud announced a partnership that day to integrate WeChat into the Model 3 and Model Y in China. WeChat is the most frequently used mobile messenger in China, used for everything from daily communication to payments, reservations, and taxi calling.

Accordingly, Chinese Tesla drivers will be able to easily share their locations and use AI recommendation services through WeChat in their vehicles. They can instantly share their shared location in WeChat chats and receive recommendations for nearby restaurants, parking lots, and charging stations. They will also be able to make payments using WeChat Pay in their vehicles.

The WeChat integration feature will be applied to approximately 1 million vehicles produced at the Shanghai Gigafactory via an over-the-air software update and will be automatically installed in future vehicles. Tesla and Tencent have maintained a close relationship. According to IT media outlet Electrek, Tencent acquired a 5% stake in Tesla in 2017.

Furthermore, this software integration is expected to create synergies. This shift in policy is also noteworthy for Tesla, which has maintained a closed software policy globally. This decision appears to have been made considering the importance of the Chinese market amidst recent sluggish sales.

China is the world’s largest electric vehicle market, with a diverse range of companies competing, including Tesla, its joint venture Shanghai GM Wuling (SGMW), BYD, Xiaomi, and Xpeng.

In Fairfax County, Virginia, high-income earners are more likely to work from home, while low-income earners are more likely to drive alone, showing polarization in commuting methods by income level.

Local media outlet FFXNOW analysed the “2025 Commuting Status Report” recently released by the Council of Local Governments (COG) and reported that high-income Fairfax County residents earning over $250,000 a year worked from home 25.8% of the time, while low-income residents earning under $80,000 a year did so only 10% of the time.

According to the outlet, there was also a clear gap in commuting methods by income level, with high-income residents driving their own vehicles only 51.4% of the time, while low-income residents drove themselves 70.6% of the time. While there were

differences in commuting methods such as subway, carpooling, and walking, the gap was not as large as the difference in telecommuting and driving alone. The Washington Regional Council of Governments explained the significant differences in commuting methods by income level as “because higher-income jobs often allow for telecommuting, and the high dependence of low-income people on their own cars is a common pattern seen throughout the region.”

The survey found that Fairfax County residents have a relatively good average commute time compared to neighbouring areas. The average one-way commute time for Fairfax workers was 35.57 minutes, the third shortest in the region after Arlington (31.04 minutes) and Washington, D.C. (33.01 minutes). Meanwhile, Charles County (63.48 minutes) and Calvert County (56.2 minutes) in Maryland had the longest commute times.

Meanwhile, the survey, conducted every three years, surveyed approximately 7,500 commuters from March to June of last year.

The Federal Reserve (Fed), the central bank, froze its benchmark interest rate at 3.50-3.75% on the 28th, despite continued pressure from President Donald Trump to lower it.

The Fed announced its decision to maintain the target range after the first regular Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting of the year, which ran from the previous day to the same day. This marks the end of the Fed’s string of rate cuts, which included three consecutive 0.25 percentage point (P) rate cuts in September, October, and December of last year. The Fed’s decision to adjust its pace appears to be based on a judgment that inflation risks stemming from President Trump’s massive tariffs have not yet subsided.

In his economic speech in Iowa the previous day, President Trump subtly pressured a rate cut, saying he would “soon announce” a successor to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and that under the new chairmanship, “you’ll see interest rates come down significantly.” However, the Fed explained its decision to hold interest rates steady, stating, “Available indicators suggest that economic activity has been expanding at a robust pace,” while also noting that “employment growth remains low, the unemployment rate is showing signs of stabilizing, and inflation remains somewhat elevated.”

Regarding its twin goals of “maximum employment and inflation around 2%,” the Fed stated, “Uncertainty about the economic outlook remains high,” and “We are mindful of risks to both objectives.” In a press conference following the interest rate announcement, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stated, “The U.S. economic growth outlook has clearly improved since the FOMC’s December meeting,” and explained that the current interest rate level “is well positioned to address the risks we face between the Fed’s two objectives.”

Powell noted, “There was broad support within the committee, including non-voting members, for keeping rates on hold.” However, he added, “No one expects the next rate adjustment to be a rate hike,” indicating that a rate hike is not currently being considered.

The Fed’s interest rate decision was once again unanimous. Ten of the twelve voting members, including Chairman Powell, voted to keep rates steady. However, the Fed reported that two Fed governors, Stephen Myron and Christopher Waller, voted against holding rates steady, favouring a 0.25 percentage point cut.

Myron served as Chairman of the Council of National Economic Advisers in the Trump administration, and Waller is one of four candidates for the next Fed chairman under consideration. The opinions of these Trump allies appear to be aligned with President Trump’s continued call for a rate cut. However, Michelle Bowman, also known to be among the four candidates for the next chairman, voted in favour of holding rates steady.

During the press conference, Chairman Powell was asked about the Trump administration’s attempts to oust him, including pressure from the judiciary, but he remained cautious and declined to comment. The Fed’s decision also maintains the interest rate differential between Korea (2.50%) and the US at 1.25 percentage points, based on the upper limit.

The Bank of Korea previously held its base rate at 2.50% for the fifth consecutive time at its Monetary Policy Direction Meeting on the 15th.

The three major stock indices on the New York Stock Exchange rebounded sharply. President Donald Trump declared he would not use military force over the Greenland annexation issue; while also withdrawing tariffs he had planned to impose on eight European countries, sparking another round of “TACO” (Trump always backslides) trading.

On the 21st (Eastern Standard Time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 49,077.23, up 588.64 points (1.21%) from the previous day. The S&P 500 index rose 78.76 points, or 1.16%, to close at 6,875.62, and the Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 270.50 points, or 1.18%, to 23,224.82. The cliché of Trump threatening tariffs but eventually negotiating and withdrawing them has returned.

Trump said on his TruSocial that day, “I had a very productive meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and we have laid out the framework for a future agreement for Greenland and the entire Arctic region,” and “I will not be imposing tariffs on eight European countries that were scheduled to take effect on February 1st.”

Immediately after the announcement, Trump also said in an interview with CNBC, “I have a plan for negotiations with Greenland.” Earlier that morning, Trump, attending the Davos Forum in Switzerland, eased geopolitical tensions in his speech by stating, “We will not use force on Greenland.”

As Trump remained consistent with his stance, market participants quickly responded with a “taco trade.” The S&P 500 index surged 50 points in less than 10 minutes on news that Trump would roll back tariffs on eight European countries. “Trump is unpredictable and changes policy too quickly,” said Jed Ellerbrook, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management. “The market no longer assumes his words will be followed through.”

Korea travel packages He added, “If investors had actually considered the conflict between Europe and the US over Greenland a significant geopolitical dispute, the stock market would have fallen much more than 2% the day before.” Following Trump’s “taco show,” Treasury yields fell and the dollar index surged upward.

This was a general reversal of the “Sell USA” movement. All sectors were strong. Energy rose more than 2%, while healthcare, industrials, consumer discretionary, materials, and telecommunications services rose more than 1%. The taco trade ignited bullish sentiment in the already dominant artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor sectors.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surged 3.18%. Nvidia rose 2.95%, while ASML and Lam Research also gained in the 2% range. Micron Technology rose 6.61% on the day, solidifying its market capitalization above $400 billion. AMD also jumped 7.71%, breaking through the $400 billion mark. Intel surged 11.72% on expectations that central processing units (CPUs) would be in short supply as the global AI infrastructure is being built. The stock has already more than doubled since the U.S. government acquired a 10% stake in Intel last year.

Compared to the blazing semiconductor market, Big Tech stocks have been relatively quiet recently. Microsoft fell 2.29%. Apple and Amazon also held steady. Tesla rose 2.91%. Netflix’s fourth-quarter earnings beat expectations, but the small margin of victory led to disappointment, leading to a selloff. The stock fell 2.18%. The software sector, swept away like autumn leaves by AI’s powerful coding capabilities, also fell today. The Dow Jones Software Sector Index (DJ US Software) fell 1.57%.

According to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) FedWatch Tool, the federal funds futures market reflects a 95.0% probability of a rate freeze in January. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) closed at 16.90, down 3.19 points (15.88%) from the previous day.

A tax-saving strategy seminar for high-income earners will be held on Saturday, the 17th, from 12:00-3:00 PM at Hi-Calling Financial (10505 Judicial Dr. #300) in Fairfax. CPA Kim Woon-soo (pictured) and Karen Ahn, CEO of Hi-Calling Financial, will present various legal tax-saving strategies utilizing real estate and finance.

Under the theme of “How to Save Taxes Like President Donald Trump,” CPA Kim will explain the investment structures utilized by high-income earners. Kim emphasized, “The wealthy don’t just use their own money when investing; they also utilize bank funds to maximize both tax savings and profits.” He added, “If you invest 30% of your own money and 70% with a bank loan, you’ll generate profits based on 100% of the total amount, but you can structurally reduce taxes.”

Another topic will be the 1031 Exchange strategy, which allows investors to defer capital gains taxes by reinvesting sale proceeds into a similar investment property. According to CPA Kim, for example, if a $5 million commercial property is sold and then repurchased within six months, capital gains taxes are not due.

Furthermore, the seminar will discuss ways to reduce taxes by selling a commercial property, purchasing a smaller one, and then transferring the remaining funds through inheritance or other means. CPA Kim stated, “Many Korean retirees seek to secure a steady income through rental housing,” and added, “We will also discuss various tax-saving strategies related to rental properties.”

The seminar will also introduce pension products, which provide retirees with a stable, lifelong cash flow like a monthly salary.

Reservations are limited to the first 10 applicants, and free consultations will be available after the seminar. Reservations: (703) 688-2645 Karen Ahn

Beginning in the second half of this year, anonymous reporting of child abuse in New York State will no longer be possible.

According to New York State, Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill on the 18th of last month that will require reporting child abuse cases to provide reporters with their names and contact information starting in July. Currently, reporters in New York State have the option to remain anonymous.

However, with this revision to the law, reporters will be required to provide their names and contact information along with their reports starting in the second half of this year. However, reporters’ personal information will be kept confidential and managed by their local child and family services department.

State Senator Jabari Brisport, who spearheaded the bill, stated, “We understand that many reports of child abuse received by local law enforcement agencies are not verified. This bill was created to prevent victims of false reports and to ensure the efficient execution of law enforcement authority.”

According to actual federal statistics, approximately 80% of all reports of child abuse and neglect are unsubstantiated, and 96% of anonymous reports are unsubstantiated.

With the holiday season approaching, a powerful “super flu” outbreak has been declared in the Washington area, including Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. According to data from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the national flu-related hospitalization rate had soared by 14.3%.

In particular, the number of people visiting emergency rooms and general hospitals due to flu symptoms has increased significantly in the Washington area, placing a strain on the local healthcare system. Health authorities are currently experiencing the fastest spread of the flu, centred around New York, Colorado, and Louisiana, and warn that the outbreak could continue until February of next year, when it peaks.

The primary culprit in this flu outbreak is a subclade K strain of influenza A, and initial sample analysis indicates that this variant accounts for 90% of confirmed influenza A cases.

Medical experts advise getting vaccinated now, even though the flu vaccine distributed this year does not fully protect against this variant, as it provides immunity against influenza A. They recommend vaccination to prevent severe illness.

The main symptoms of this flu include high fever, chills, cough, sore throat, muscle pain, and extreme fatigue. Some patients may also experience vomiting or diarrhoea

Experts advise that anyone experiencing symptoms should immediately seek medical attention, stating, “Most people recover within a few days, but for the elderly or those with underlying medical conditions, it can lead to life-threatening complications such as pneumonia.”