This is Tech Beat, your daily look at the stories shaping technology and the world around it.
We begin overseas, where shifting rhetoric from the incoming U.S. administration is leaving Middle East allies uncertain about the path ahead. Tonal changes have added fresh doubt to a conflict America's partners were never consulted on before it began, yet they continue to absorb its economic fallout.
Closer to home, a quiet detail in everyday hardware: why some USB ports are yellow, and why they're rarer than you'd expect. The color isn't decorative, it signals always-on charging power, and it's worth knowing before you plug in anything important.
And engineers at MIT have cast a concrete beam using a sewn fabric mold, cutting concrete by two thirds and steel by half compared with conventional construction. It's a promising step toward lighter, lower-emission building materials.
Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
