by Scott Nishimura, Fort Worth Report December 27, 2025
AT&T plans to install a communications tower in an industrial complex between Texas Motor Speedway and Blue Mound Road in Denton County, to provide improved high-speed wireless broadband access to the nearby communities.
AT&T is entering into partnership with Public Safety Towers Co., or PSTC, on the project at 12799 Private Road 4716. PSTC builds and manages wireless communications towers in partnership with commercial carriers to close coverage gaps and improve public safety communications.
The Denton County tower was designed to be 105 feet tall, which would have required a zoning variance to be issued by the Fort Worth Board of Adjustment due to regulations that limit tower height to 75 feet in that area.
AT&T and PSTC formally applied for the zoning variance, which was to be reviewed at a Nov. 19 board of adjustment meeting, but was postponed at the applicant’s request.
The variance was scheduled to be reviewed at the board of adjustment‘s Dec. 17 meeting, but was withdrawn by the applicants, who informed city staff at that time of their intention to redesign the tower to comply with the 75-foot height restriction.
Fort Worth Board of Adjustment Meeting
Documenter name: Doug Wilhelm
Date: Dec. 17
See more about this meeting at documenters.org.
In other business at their Dec. 17 meeting, the board of adjustment approved a 50-foot high freeway sign with electronic changeable copy for a RaceTrac gas station under construction at 9600 South Freeway in Fort Worth; approved three 30-foot monument signs on the Northwest Campus of Tarrant County College; and rejected a request by HomeGoods/HomeSense to add a fourth sign cluster to their Distribution Center at 8201 Oak Grove Road.
Doug Wilhelm is a member of the Fort Worth Report’s Documenters Crew.
If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at with news@fortworthreport.org “Correction Request” in the subject line.
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Contactless changes were expanded to 30 more train stations in December
The expansion of contactless payments on trains has caused the price of travelling on some services to soar as they now require more expensive peak time tickets.
The change allows people to pay by tapping a bank card or contactless-enabled device on readers at stations, avoiding the need to manually purchase a ticket.
But Rebecca Paul, Conservative MP for Reigate, said the new rules – introduced to 30 more stations in the South East on 14 December – risked “pricing passengers out of rail altogether”.
Train operator Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) said the changes meant many passengers would save money and insisted the process was not designed to increase revenue.
The introduction of contactless payments to 30 more stations in south-east England forms part of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Project Oval.
However, changes to paper ticketing time restrictions to align with Transport for London’s contactless structure have meant some services that could previously be used with an off-peak ticket now require a more expensive peak ticket.
‘Ridiculous’
The first weekday London-bound Southern service from Reigate, Surrey, that can be boarded with an off-peak day travelcard ticket now departs at 09:28, compared with 08:58 previously.
But when the 08:58 train calls at Redhill just five minutes later, passengers are still able to board it with an off-peak ticket.
A day travelcard that can be used at any time from the stations costs £37.10 whereas an off-peak is £20.60.
There are also new restrictions on travel between 16:00 and 19:00.
One member of the Reigate, Redhill and District Rail Users’ Association described the situation as “ridiculous” and said he would cycle to Redhill to save money.
Getty Images
The Department for Transport has defended the changes
Meanwhile, Paul said a number of residents were “understandably frustrated” by the contactless expansion.
The MP added: “This change should make rail travel easier, not more expensive or confusing.”
The contactless rollout has also led to the cheapest super off-peak tickets being removed from some stations.
Analysis by lobby group Railfuture said passengers paying by contactless would be charged up to twice as much as those using paper tickets for some journeys.
This is because discounts for railcards or children cannot be registered with contactless.
‘More flexible travel’
A GTR spokesman said: “Peak and off-peak timing has to match with the TfL system…
“We understand how, for some people, this means fares will rise, but for many others they will fall.”
It pointed to a number of savings, such as Reigate passengers making a single journey at weekday off-peak times now paying £7.60 compared with £14.60 previously.
Commuters travelling before 06:30 and returning either before 16:00 or after 19:00 now save £11.60, it added.
The Department for Transport said: “Contactless ticketing means passengers are benefiting from simpler, more flexible travel and the majority of single tickets will be the same price or even lower.”
A GTR spokesman said: “Peak and off-peak timing has to match with the TfL system…
“We understand how, for some people, this means fares will rise, but for many others they will fall.”
It pointed to a number of savings, such as Reigate passengers making a single journey at weekday off-peak times now paying £7.60 compared with £14.60 previously.
Commuters travelling before 06:30 and returning either before 16:00 or after 19:00 now save £11.60, it added.
The Department for Transport said: “Contactless ticketing means passengers are benefiting from simpler, more flexible travel and the majority of single tickets will be the same price or even lower.”
The plans state the applicant, due to the ownership of the Plough Hotel, would be in a “unique position to manage Yew Court’s future and ensure its integration within the wider hospitality offer of the area”.
A design proposal submitted to the council states: “The principal residence, Yew Court, occupies the central portion of the building and includes a grand dining hall, large drawing room with triple aspect views over the gardens, kitchen, study, two generous bedrooms, and associated bathrooms.
”Yew Corner forms the upper portion of the house and provides a three-bedroom dwelling with attic rooms above, while Yew Cottage adjoins to the side, offering a smaller two-bedroom residence with its own garden and parking.”
More than 20% of the videos that YouTube’s algorithm shows to new users are “AI slop” – low-quality AI-generated content designed to farm views, research has found.
The video-editing company Kapwing surveyed 15,000 of the world’s most popular YouTube channels – the top 100 in every country – and found that 278 of them contain only AI slop.
Together, these AI slop channels have amassed more than 63bn views and 221 million subscribers, generating about $117m (£90m) in revenue each year, according to estimates.
The researchers also made a new YouTube account and found that 104 of the first 500 videos recommended to its feed were AI slop. One-third of the 500 videos were “brainrot”, a category that includes AI slop and other low-quality content made to monetise attention.
The findings are a snapshot of a rapidly expanding industry that is saturating big social media platforms – from X to Meta to YouTube – and defining a new era of content: decontextualised, addictive and international.
A Guardian analysis this year found that nearly 10% of YouTube’s fastest-growing channels were AI slop, racking up millions of views despite the platform’s efforts to curb “inauthentic content”.
The channels found by Kapwing are globally distributed and globally watched. They have millions of subscribers: in Spain, 20 million people, or nearly half the country’s population, follow the trending AI channels. AI channels have 18 million followers in Egypt, 14.5 million in the US, and 13.5 million in Brazil.
Bandar Apna Dost, the most-viewed channel in the study, is based in India and now has 2.4bn views. It features the adventures of an anthropomorphic rhesus monkey and a muscular character modelled off the Incredible Hulk who fights demons and travels on a helicopter made of tomatoes. Kapwing estimated that the channel could make as much as $4.25m. Its owner did not respond to a query from the Guardian.
Rohini Lakshané, a researcher on technology and digital rights, said Bandar Apna Dost’s popularity most likely stems from its absurdity, its hyper-masculine tropes and the fact that it lacks a plot, which makes it accessible to new viewers.
Pouty Frenchie, based in Singapore, has 2bn views and appears to target children. It chronicles the adventures of a French bulldog – driving to a candy forest, eating crystal sushi – many of them set to a soundtrack of children’s laughter. Kapwing estimates it makes nearly $4m a year. Cuentos Facinantes, based in the US, also appears to target children with cartoon storylines, and has 6.65 million subscribers – making it the most-subscribed channel in the study.
Meanwhile, The AI World, based in Pakistan, contains AI-generated shorts of catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, with titles like Poor People, Poor Family, and Flood Kitchen. Many of these videos are set to a soundtrack called Relaxing Rain, Thunder & Lightning Ambience for Sleep. The channel itself has 1.3bn views.
It’s hard to say exactly how significant these channels are compared with the vast sea of content already on YouTube. The platform does not release information on how many views it has yearly, or how many of these are from AI content.
But behind these uncanny scenes of candy forests and disasters is a semi-structured, growing industry of people trying to find new ways to monetise the world’s most powerful platforms using AI tools.
“There are these big swathes of people on Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord and message boards exchanging tips and ideas [and] selling courses about how to sort of make slop that will be engaging enough to earn money,” said Max Read, a journalist who has written extensively on AI slop.
“They have what they call niches. One that I noticed recently is AI videos of people’s pressure cookers exploding on the stove.”
While creators of AI slop are everywhere, Read said that many come from English-speaking countries with relatively strong internet connectivity, where the median wage is less than the amount they can make on YouTube.
“It’s mostly sort of middle-income countries like Ukraine, lots and lots of people in India, Kenya, Nigeria, a fair number in Brazil. You see Vietnam, too. Places with relative freedom online to access social media sites,” he said.
It’s not always easy to be an AI slop creator. For one thing, creator programmes on YouTube and Meta aren’t always transparent about who they pay for content, and how much, said Read. For another, the AI slop ecosystem is full of scammers: people selling tips and courses on how to make viral content – who often make more money than the AI slop producers themselves.
But, at least for some, it’s a living. And while new, attention-grabbing ideas – such as exploding pressure cookers – constantly emerge, when it comes to AI slop, human creativity matters far less than the algorithms that distribute the content on Meta and YouTube.
“These websites are huge A/B testing machines just by their nature,” said Read. “Almost anything that you can think of, you could already find on Facebook. So the question is, how do you find the things that are kind of doing well, and then how do you scale that? How do you make 10 of them?”
A YouTube spokesperson said: “Generative AI is a tool, and like any tool it can be used to make both high- and low-quality content. We remain focused on connecting our users with high-quality content, regardless of how it was made. All content uploaded to YouTube must comply with our community guidelines, and if we find that content violates a policy, we remove it.”
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ISLAMABAD: Silver outperformed gold in a powerful rally across precious metals on Friday, as speculative trading, thin year-end liquidity and growing expectations of US interest rate cuts pushed prices to record levels. Rising geopolitical tensions further fuelled demand for safe-haven assets, lifting the entire sector to strong weekly gains.
Spot gold climbed 0.6% to $4,504.79 an ounce in early trading, after touching an all-time high of $4,530.60 earlier in the session. US gold futures for February delivery gained 0.7% to $4,535.20. Silver surged far ahead of gold, jumping 3.6% to $74.56 an ounce after briefly hitting a record high of $75.14.
Kelvin Wong, senior market analyst at OANDA, said momentum-driven and speculative activity has dominated gold and silver trading since early December. He pointed to thin liquidity, expectations of prolonged US rate cuts, a weaker dollar and heightened geopolitical risks as key drivers behind the rally. Wong added that gold could approach $5,000 in the first half of 2026, while silver may climb toward $90.
Gold is on course for its strongest annual performance since 1979, rising nearly 72% so far this year. The rally has been supported by policy easing from the Federal Reserve, strong central bank buying, growing exchange-traded fund holdings and continued efforts by some countries to reduce reliance on the US dollar. Silver has surged an even more dramatic 158% year-to-date, helped by persistent supply deficits, its designation as a critical mineral in the United States and robust industrial demand.
With markets now pricing in at least two US rate cuts next year, non-yielding assets such as gold are expected to remain attractive in a lower interest rate environment.
Geopolitical developments have also added to bullish sentiment. The United States has imposed a temporary quarantine on Venezuelan oil exports, while recent US strikes against Islamic State positions in northwest Nigeria have heightened global risk concerns.
Other precious metals also posted sharp gains. Spot platinum jumped 7.8% to $2,393.40 an ounce after reaching a record $2,429.98, while palladium rose 5.2% to $1,771.14, extending gains from a three-year high in the previous session. Both metals, widely used in automotive catalytic converters, have benefited from tight supply conditions, tariff uncertainty and a shift in investor interest away from gold. Platinum is up about 165% this year, while palladium has gained more than 90%.
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Nearly a week after a massive power outage plunged parts of San Francisco’s west side into darkness, many residents in the Sunset and Richmond Districts say they’re still struggling to recover, especially seniors, immigrants, and small business owners who were preparing for important winter holidays.
By Friday morning, the Sunset District looked busy and back to normal, but community leaders say what happened the weekend prior has left many frustrated and feeling hopeless.
RELATED: Impacted by the SF power outage? Here’s how to file a claim with PG&E
“We have a lot of seniors who live here in the Sunset District. When the power went out, they were really struggling,” said David Lee, who lives in the neighborhood and is the Executive Director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee. “A lot of them are isolated, many don’t speak English, and they didn’t know where to turn.”
Over in the Richmond District, Myron Lee says his family went nearly 50 hours without power.
“Dad, you know, he needs machines to clear his airways when he sleeps, so he wasn’t sleeping in the night,” Lee said. “Really stressful for everyone involved.”
Lee says neighbors wanted to check on one another, but security gates commonly installed in front of homes in the Sunset and Richmond made it difficult to knock on doors and without power, they couldn’t ring the doorbells. At the same time, he says spotty cell service made communication and access to information even harder.
“I think a lot of monolingual Chinese in this area, no information expressed to them,” he said, explaining that while he was able to eventually find resources at the Richmond Rec Center, many others never heard about the help that was available.
Lee shared photos of his parents’ refrigerator, filled with food that had to be thrown out after days without power. For many families, the timing made the loss especially painful.
RELATED: Mayor Lurie calls for PG&E rate cuts after holiday outages as SF leaders demand answers
The outage hit just as Chinese families and Asian-owned businesses were preparing for Dongzhi, or the Winter Solstice, a holiday that celebrates the arrival of winter, often with large family meals and special dishes.
“It was a total loss for the business owners,” Lee said. “Their supplies, their food, completely stocked up with seafood and everything they needed for a busy winter solstice, which is why the Chinese community really saved up and planned for this special weekend.”
Community advocates say many small, family-run businesses in the area had invested heavily in inventory for the holiday, only to see it spoil.
PG&E is offering $200 bill credits to residents impacted by the outage and up to $2,500 for businesses that lost inventory or revenue. But many in the community say that doesn’t come close to covering their losses.
“Let’s start by increasing the credit that people are getting because $200 doesn’t cut it,” Lee said. “And let’s make sure businesses get the recovery they need.”
In a statement to ABC7 News on Friday, PG&E said customers can pursue a separate claims process for other compensation.
RELATED: San Francisco PG&E customers start seeing power restored after massive outage
Lee worries many in the elderly, immigrant Chinese community will not know how to fill out the forms for such a process. He also feels the city of San Francisco should have a list of the most vulnerable residents, where city workers can check up on them and provide services in these sorts of emergencies.
“I hope the city is preparing for the next blackout,” said Lee.
According to PG&E, as of Friday, the Mission Substation, where the issue first began, is now safe and stable. There are several generators onsite at substations to provide temporary power for customers still impacted by the outage on Saturday.
“These units were put into service on Monday morning, and will be turned off as soon as repairs are complete,” said Tamar Sarkissian, a spokesperson with the utility company. “We are working on a case-by-case basis to support customers that live within close proximity to the generators.”
Sarkissian adds that PG&E representatives were at the Richmond Center on Wednesday, answering questions in Chinese, and that there will be additional outreach in Chinese.
There are dedicated Chinese and Spanish customer service lines.
Mr Nundy said: “There were people staying in the room above the bar, but luckily we had rooms available to relocate them to in case there was anything wrong structurally.
“They were ok about it all, but they were quite shocked. They were woken around 05:20 with a big bang.”
The crash took a radiator off the wall and shut down the heating system at the pub, but it was quickly repaired and heating and hot water was back in the building by 11:00.
Mr Nundy said it was “lucky” the incident had not happened at a different time as, a few hours earlier on Christmas Eve, that part of the 430-year-old pub had been “full of people”.
He said: “I dread to think what could have happened if it had happened when it was busy.”
Cook County will host a countywide scavenger hunt for middle and high school students during winter break.
The scavenger hunt will include nine participating businesses from Grand Portage to the Gunflint Trail to Tofte. Each business will provide students with one word from a larger phrase. After contacting all nine businesses, students are instructed to email Youth Prevention Coordinator Rocio Rivas to receive the final clue.
Students may contact participating businesses by phone if they are unable to visit in person.
“We don’t want the businesses to have problems with helping their clients during this activity,” Rivas told WTIP. “So we chose several businesses that we knew have more than one employee, or are not that busy at this time of the year.”
Rivas said the idea for the scavenger hunt came directly from students, who were asked what activities they wanted during winter break.
The scavenger hunt will run from Dec. 26 through Jan. 3. A wrap-up gathering will be held Jan. 8 at North Point, where students can share what they learned. All participants will receive a prize, with an additional prize awarded to those who complete the phrase correctly.
Rivas assembled a scavenger hunt packet that includes a list of participating businesses, a suggested script for calling or visiting, and space for students to record what they learn from each interaction. Posters with a QR code linking to the packet are posted throughout the community. Students and families may also contact Rivas directly at Rocio.Rivas@co.cook.mn.us for more information or to participate.
“This is all with the purpose to have the youth feel seen, supported and welcome across the community and increase the positive interactions between the youth and the adults in our community,” Rivas said.
Additional activities for students are also scheduled during winter break. The Art Colony hosted an arts and crafts class featuring origami, figurines and magnets on Dec. 26 and will host another session on Dec. 30 from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
North House Folk School will host drop-in crafts and handmade games on Jan. 3 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
WTIP’s Josh Hinke spoke to Rocio Rivas about these winter break activities. The audio of that conversation can be found below.
China challenges Google in quantum error correction with Zuchongzhi 3.2 processor
In an experimental demonstration using a superconducting processor named Zuchongzhi 3.2, China has announced a significant advancement in quantum error correction, dubbed “quantum supremacy 2.0.”
Zuchongzhi 3.2 processor successfully operates a surface-code logical qubit at a distance 7.
The noteworthy factor is that as the code distance increases, the logical error rate decreases. This inverse relation is a critical aspect of China’s latest quantum error correction technique that rivals Google’s earlier achievements with its Willow results.
What sets China’s claim apart is an all-microwave leakage suppression architecture designed to minimise “leakage,” where qubits escape the computational states assumed by error-correcting codes.
Addressing leakage is crucial, as it can lead to correlated failures that traditional decoders struggle to manage. This new method makes leakage control a vital design consideration, as previous research also advocated for its importance in maintaining clean surface-code cycles.
While China’s results aim to match Google’s benchmarks, they do not yet demonstrate the capability to run large computations on multiple interacting logical qubits.
Transitioning from a single logical qubit to many brings complex engineering challenges and new error pathways.
IBM’s roadmap emphasises that scaling to practical fault-supressing systems will require efficient codes and real-time decoding pipelines.
As the industry is adopting the “error correction era,” the focus is shifting to make error correction repeatable, automatable, and economically scalable.
With multiple groups achieving below-threshold behaviour, the next challenge is expected to lie in efficiently stacking logical qubits and maintaining manageable error budgets during actual computations.
