The United States banned its government personnel from having romantic or sexual relationships in China with Chinese citizens.The news of the ban just surfaced. However, the policy was reportedly put in place back in January by President Biden's ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, just before he left the communist country.The Associated Press cited four people who allegedly have direct knowledge of the policy, which was more softly enacted in the summer of 2024. The previous rules surrounded American personnel being barred from having "romantic and sexual relations" with Chinese citizens who worked as guards or other support staff at any of the U.S. consulates or the U.S. embassy in China. Burns then expanded the rules in January, reportedly just days before President Trump took office.Burns allegedly brought up the rule changes after members of Congress had contacted him and said the restrictions on the government employees were not tough enough.'He will not participate in your story.'The most famous case of recent Chinese spying through romantic connections is likely the Chinese operative Feng Feng, who went by Christine Fang.According to a bombshell report by Axios in 2020, the spy had sexual or romantic relationships with at least two mayors of Midwestern cities in the span of three years, one of which involved a sexual encounter with a mayor from Ohio. That encounter was in a car that was under electronic FBI surveillance at the time.The spy also took part in fundraising activity for Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) in 2014 for his re-election campaign. Swalwell was not charged for any wrongdoing; however, the spy allegedly helped place at least one intern in the congressman's office."Rep. Swalwell, long ago, provided information about this person — whom he met more than eight years ago, and whom he hasn't seen in nearly six years — to the FBI," Swalwell's office told the outlet at the time. "To protect information that might be classified, he will not participate in your story."The new policy covers any U.S. employees at American installations in mainland China, including the embassy in Beijing and consulates in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Wuhan. It also applies to the American consulate in Hong Kong.Those who are already in relationships with Chinese citizens can apply for exemptions.According to the report's sources, who agreed to speak only under the condition of anonymity, the directive is also deemed to be confidential and was communicated both verbally and electronically to American personnel in China in January.The details of what defines a "romantic or sexual relationship" were not provided to reporters.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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Early last month, I wrote about how Google was starting to roll out the newest Gemini Live features, including screen sharing and live video. Originally codenamed Project Astra, the features have slowly become available across multiple Android devices. But, if you were hoping to get open access to the newest Gemini Live AI video features, Google has news: you’ll need to pay for a Gemini Advanced subscription to use them. That’s right, a new support document about the features—which Google claims are still rolling out to new Android devices slowly—will require an Android device running Android 10 or later and a Gemini Advanced subscription. You can subscribe to Gemini Advanced as part of Google’s AI Premium Plan, which costs $19.99 a month. It also gives you access to Gemini’s best models, upgraded limits, and other perks like increased Google Drive storage space. It’s not a terrible deal, considering it's on par with other AI services like ChatGPT Plus and comes with some other goodies, too. Google used the smart glasses on the right to demo Project Astra (Gemini Live) at I/O 2024. Image source: Google The disappointment, though, lies in that many hopes that Gemini Live’s AI video features would be available to the general public without a subscription. While it might have been a longshot hope, it was still something that many had crossed their fingers for. However, it makes sense that Google would tie what it considers one of Gemini’s more useful features behind a paywall. AI services like Gemini are exorbitantly expensive to run, so Google is going to be looking for ways to make money off its features in any way that it can. That said, it could very well release versions of the Gemini Live video functionality to the free version of Gemini somewhere down the line. The support document also says you’ll need to have the Gemini app installed—or be using Gemini as your Google Assistant—to make use of Gemini Live’s AI video functionality. For now, Gemini Live screen sharing and video capture won’t work on the Gemini web app. That could change in the future, though. Considering AI is getting good enough to pass the Turing Test and fool humans into thinking they’re talking to real humans, these tools are only going to become more prevalent as they continue to be updated and improved. Don't Miss: GPT-4.5 passed a Turing test, according to a new study The post You can’t use this awesome new Gemini Live AI video feature unless you pay appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Here are our favorite Magenta Status perks you can only get from T-Mobile Amazon Big Spring Sale: $299 Apple Watch S10, $350 70″ smart TV, $299 King mattress, $58 myQ, more Today’s deals: $99 Beats Pill, $230 Apple Watch Series 9, $270 Roku TV, $12 Crest 3D White toothpaste, more Amazon Big Spring Sale: Apple deals, gaming laptops, Crest 3D Whitestrips, Samsung deals, more