One year after cofounder Charlie Kirk's assassination, Turning Point is preparing to spend tens of millions of dollars backing Republican candidates in the 2026 midterms. Its super PAC is targeting $15-20 million in ads across three priority states—New Hampshire, Arizona and Nevada—while a separate nonprofit arm funds full-time field staff there and in seven other states where Democrats could flip seats. Key races include the New Hampshire Senate contest between John Sununu and Chris Pappas, and the Arizona governor's race pitting Katie Hobbs against Andy Biggs.
While AI executives and researchers focus attention on speculative dangers from future superintelligent systems, current AI tools are already causing real harm to people's health and wellbeing. The debate over existential AI risk is overshadowing more immediate concerns about how deployed AI products affect users today.
In his debut keynote as Apple CEO, John Ternus declared the iPhone the ideal 'intelligent personal hub' for the AI era, pushing back against predictions that smartphones are becoming obsolete. This marks a shift from Tim Cook's approach of emphasizing Apple's diversification beyond the iPhone, instead echoing Steve Jobs' 2001 defense of the Mac as a 'digital hub' just before the iPod's launch.
Proofpoint identified an exploit toolkit, dubbed BlueMoon, that chains two Chromium vulnerabilities with a Windows kernel flaw to deploy malware on victims' machines. At least four separate hacking groups, some linked to the Chinese government, have deployed the kit within days of each other, and all three underlying vulnerabilities have only just received patches.
Blizzard Entertainment employees represented by the Communications Workers of America have voted to approve their first union contract, ending roughly two years of negotiations. The agreement covers about 1,900 workers and includes wage increases, hybrid work terms, disability and remote-work accommodations, expanded severance, and a requirement that Blizzard bargain over AI use in the workplace.
Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first foldable iPhone, featuring two displays, strong cameras and battery life, with orders opening next month. Details emerging from the announcement and Apple's website show an under-display camera on the inner screen, exclusive software features like Smart Take and Kid Cue, a Camera Control button but no Action button, a nano-texture finish limited to the folding display, and Apple Pencil support.
Mike Flanagan, known for directing 'Carrie' and 'The Exorcist: Martyrs,' is producing a new horror film titled 'Rot,' directed by Alexandra Magistro. The cast includes Amber Midthunder and Matthew Lillard, with the story centered on hoarding as its horror premise.
At its 'Surprise and Shine' event, Apple confirmed that the new LLM-based Siri AI, built with Google, will launch in English alongside iOS 27 on September 14. French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish support will follow in October, executive Lilian Rincon said. The announcement came alongside new hardware including the foldable iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro models, Apple Watch Series 12 Ultra 4 and AirPods 5.
Apple has released AirPods 5, its new entry-level earbuds starting at $129, replacing the AirPods 4 lineup. Unlike before, Active Noise Cancellation now comes standard on all models rather than costing an extra $50, and Apple says the noise cancellation itself is up to 50 percent stronger than on AirPods 4. The buds also get a more natural-sounding Transparency mode and improved audio quality drawn from AirPods Pro 3 engineering.
A researcher at a major AI lab has publicly resigned over safety concerns, becoming the latest in a growing string of AI professionals this year who have left their positions and spoken out about risks tied to rapid AI development. Experts say these public departures are drawing more attention to warnings that were previously dismissed or ignored.
The Exploration Company, led by CEO Hèlene Huby, closed a $450 million Series C funding round, the largest such raise by any European space firm and reportedly the biggest ever for a female-led company in Europe. Huby was also named an envoy at France's International Space Summit, appearing alongside astronaut Thomas Pesquet as a prominent voice in European space policy.
Researcher Eric Lu and Cognition's Devin AI coding agents built a new GPU-based lattice sieving tool and used it to factor RSA-260, a 260-digit number, beating the previous RSA Factoring Challenge record of RSA-250 set in 2020. The team says the approach runs factoring workloads at roughly 10 times lower cost than prior public methods.
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