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ICE Is Getting Unprecedented Access to Medicaid Data

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are getting access to the personal data of nearly 80 million people on Medicaid in order to acquire "information concerning the identification and location of aliens in the United States,” according to an information exchange agreement viewed by WIRED. The agreement, which is titled “Information Exchange Agreement Between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for Disclosure of Identity and Locat

A Surge of Earthquakes in Alaska Is Raising Red Flags

A powerful offshore earthquake triggered a tsunami warning for communities along a 700-mile (1,100-kilometer) stretch of Alaska’s southern coast on Wednesday, July 16. Fortunately, the wave never came, and ground shaking caused minimal damage, but another large quake could strike this area in the near future. Since 2020, five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 7.2 to 8.2 have struck the southern coast of Alaska. It’s not unusual for seismic activity to occur in this part of the state, as it run

Google is suing the BadBox 2.0 botnet group

Google has filed a lawsuit against the operators of a what is believed to be the largest smart TV botnet in the world — BadBox 2.0. The company said in its complaint that this China-based botnet had compromised more than 10 million uncertified devices — including TV streaming boxes, tablets and projectors. Google said that cybercriminals pre-installed malware or used malicious apps to download malware on hardware that was running open-source Android software. These compromised devices were then

These Are the 6 Best Vitamins and Minerals for Older Adults, According to Experts

Getting a good selection of vitamins and minerals in your diet is vital to staying fit and healthy, and that shouldn't be a shock to anyone at this point. If you have a balanced diet, you're likely already getting the nutrients that you need. But that can change, especially as we age and our bodies demand more. Older people are at an increased risk of low vitamin consumption -- partly because our bodies can no longer absorb certain nutrients as effectively as they once did. So, if you're dealing

Defense manufacturing startup Hadrian closes $260 million funding round led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund

Defense manufacturing startup Hadrian on Thursday announced the closing of $260 million Series C funding round led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Lux Capital. The machine parts company said it will use the funding to build a new 270,000 square foot factory in Mesa, Arizona, and expand its Torrance, California, location as it looks to beef up its shipbuilding and naval defense capabilities. "What we really need in this country is this quantum leap above China's manufacturing model," said CE

OpenAI’s new ChatGPT Agent can control an entire computer and do tasks for you

is The Verge’s senior AI reporter. An AI beat reporter for more than five years, her work has also appeared in CNBC, MIT Technology Review, Wired UK, and other outlets. OpenAI is going all-in on the most-hyped trend in AI right now: AI agents, or tools that go a step beyond chatbots to complete complex, multi-step tasks on a user’s behalf. The company on Thursday debuted ChatGPT Agent, which it bills as a tool that can complete work on your behalf using its own “virtual computer.” In a briefin

Amazon cuts some jobs in cloud computing unit as layoffs continue

Attendees walk through an exposition hall at AWS re:Invent, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services, in Las Vegas on Dec. 3, 2024. Amazon is laying off some staffers in its cloud computing division, the company confirmed on Thursday. "After a thorough review of our organization, our priorities, and what we need to focus on going forward, we've made the difficult business decision to eliminate some roles across particular teams in AWS," Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said in a statement. "

Uber makes multimillion-dollar investment in Lucid and Nuro to build a premium robotaxi service

Uber is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into EV maker Lucid and autonomous vehicle technology startup Nuro in a bid to launch its own premium robotaxi service. Under the deal announced Thursday, Uber will invest $300 million in Lucid and separately buy “at least” 20,000 of the EV maker’s new Gravity SUV over the next six years. Those EVs will be equipped with Nuro’s autonomous vehicle system, and the vehicles will be owned and operated by Uber or its third-party fleet partners. Uber p

Uber to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Lucid and Nuro in massive robotaxi deal

is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Uber plans to make “multi-hundred-million dollar investments” in both Nuro and Lucid as part of a massive new robotaxi deal that was just announced. The three companies are linking up to deploy “20,000 or more” robotaxis in the US over the next six years. The vehicles will be Lucid’s new Gravity SUV, equipped with autonomo

Lovable becomes a unicorn with $200M Series A just 8 months after launch

Fast-growing Swedish AI vibe coding startup Lovable has become Europe’s latest unicorn. Only eight months since its launch, the startup has raised a $200 million Series A round led by Accel at a $1.8 billion valuation. Like Cursor and other platforms that help developers write code and build apps by harnessing the coding and reasoning abilities of large language models, Stockholm-based Lovable helps people use natural language to create websites and apps. The startup’s trajectory so far has cha

Roblox launches new age verification system to unlock unfiltered chats

Users over 13 years old will be prompted to use the facial-analysis software to estimate their age and determine whether they can access the new "trusted connections" feature that allows them to engage in private, unfiltered chats with other age-screened users, Ebanks said. Roblox's use of age-estimation tech will help the company "confirm the age of our users and give them more tailored and age-appropriate features," said Ryan Ebanks, a Roblox principal product manager for social products. So

Don’t be duped: Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile’s cheapest plans aren’t worth it

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority Recently, my cousin asked me whether Verizon’s myPlan Unlimited Welcome was better than his legacy plan, prompted by a promotional email he received. At first glance, the new plan looked cheaper and similar in features. But upon closer examination, his legacy plan had notable advantages, especially higher-priority data and a few other perks. Truthfully, none of the entry-level postpaid plans from Verizon, T-Mobile, or AT&T offer great value in 2025. There ar

Does the UK video games industry have a class problem?

Does the UK video games industry have a class problem? 53 minutes ago Share Save Laura Cress BBC News Share Save BBC Declan Cassidy is the CEO of Into Games "I'm scared for the future of games," says Chris Goodyear. "It could end up going the way that theatre has, and become a very privileged thing." At one of the UK's largest conferences for video game developers, social class was on the agenda. The concern raised by Chris, a producer working to highlight accessibility barriers in the indust

'Gentle parenting' my smartphone addiction

On a recent weekday, I sent an Instagram message to a friend of mine, an art adviser in New York named Stephen Truax, to gossip about an exhibition. Instead of messaging me back in the app, he texted me to say that he’d blocked Instagram on his smartphone during daytime working hours. Impressed, I asked him how he was accomplishing such a feat. Truax said he was using Opal, an app that makes your smartphone a little more like a so-called dumbphone, without requiring you to trade in your device a

Topics: app new opal said time

Trump Appears to Go TACO on Rumors He’ll Fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell

Reports leaked Wednesday that President Donald Trump was getting ready to fire the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. The news caused markets to dip, but TACO, the popular Wall Street acronym that stands for Trump Always Chickens Out, appears to be the dish of the day, as the president denied he was going to fire Powell while speaking to reporters in the White House. “He should have cut interest rates a long time ago. Europe has cut ’em 10 times in the short period of time, and we

Intel's retreat is unlike anything it's done before in Oregon

Intel's campus in Aloha was the company's first Oregon site -- and its first manufacturing facility outside California -- when it opened in the 1970s. Mike Rogoway/The Oregonian Over the five decades Intel has operated in Oregon, its local footprint had moved in just one direction: Upward. From a single factory in Aloha that opened in 1976, the chipmaker grew into the state’s largest corporate employer and one of Oregon’s primary economic engines. Intel spent billions of dollars every year to

The Big Beautiful Bill Is Bad for Americans’ Health and Wallets, Study Finds

The “Big Beautiful Bill” is now law, and it’s poised to wreak plenty of destruction. Research out today finds that the policy changes will lead to thousands more deaths annually, as well as harm the financial health of rural hospitals. Epidemiologists at the University of California, San Francisco, and elsewhere conducted the study. They found the Medicaid cuts caused by the Big Beautiful Bill will cause many avoidable hospitalizations and deaths, put dozens of rural hospitals at high risk of c

'Gentle Parenting' My Smartphone Addiction

On a recent weekday, I sent an Instagram message to a friend of mine, an art adviser in New York named Stephen Truax, to gossip about an exhibition. Instead of messaging me back in the app, he texted me to say that he’d blocked Instagram on his smartphone during daytime working hours. Impressed, I asked him how he was accomplishing such a feat. Truax said he was using Opal, an app that makes your smartphone a little more like a so-called dumbphone, without requiring you to trade in your device a

Topics: app new opal said time

Scale AI lays off 200 employees: ‘We ramped up our GenAI capacity too quickly’

is The Verge’s senior AI reporter. An AI beat reporter for more than five years, her work has also appeared in CNBC, MIT Technology Review, Wired UK, and other outlets. Scale AI, the AI industry’s chief data dealer, will lay off 14 percent of its workforce, or about 200 employees, just one month after Meta took a multibillion-dollar stake in the company and hired its CEO and other staff. The layoffs include 500 of its global contractors, Scale spokesperson Joe Osborne told The Verge, adding th

Tariff Troubles Ahead: Auto Experts Advice on Rising EV and Car Prices

It's not just iPhones and TVs that might cost more. President Donald Trump's tariff policies might be driving up the cost of electric vehicles and combustion cars, too. EVs, in fact, might be especially vulnerable to the new tariffs that target China (a major exporter of critical metals) and the steel industry. China already has a near monopoly on critical minerals and rare earth metals used to manufacture cars, and these tariffs have given China a reason to use that as leverage over the US. Th

The best free VPNs of 2025: Secure, safe, and fast VPNs

My top pick for free VPNs available in 2025 is Proton VPN, which, despite its limits, will suit many users who do not want to subscribe. Why we like it: The free version of Proton VPN offers many useful features that are paid for through other services and VPN subscribers. This is important when it comes to free VPN services, as it provides a measure of security and data protection that some shady services do not. After all, if your information is being sold in return for a VPN connection, this

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang wants to sell more advanced chips to China after H20 ban is lifted

Nvidia is looking to ship more advanced chips to China than its current generation, CEO Jensen Huang said on Wednesday, as he looks to revitalize sales in the world's second-largest economy. The comments come after Nvidia said on Monday that it will resume sales of its H20 artificial intelligence chip to China, reversing a previous ban. The H20 is a less-advanced semiconductor designed for AI workloads that comply with U.S. export restrictions to China. "I hope to get more advanced chips into

A Staggering Proportion of Teens Say Talking to AI Is Better Than Real-Life Friends

A new survey found that over half of American teens are regular users of anthropomorphic AI companions like Character.AI and Replika. That's striking on its own, as an illustration of how embedded AI companions have become in mainstream teenage life. But even more startling were the 31 percent of surveyed teens who said their interactions with AI companions were either as satisfying or more satisfying than conversations with real-life friends — a finding that shows how profoundly AI is already

Don't Make the Job Hunt Harder. 9 Strategies to Stay Sane and Get Hired

From ghosting to burnout, experts share how you can land a job in a brutal market. Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNET Stephanie Wandell applied to hundreds of jobs since getting laid off from a tech marketing role last November. When I spoke to her this summer, she'd been ghosted by recruiters and hadn't received any offers. "I was a little bit naive going into it, thinking I could do what I always do and depend on applying to as many places as I can," said Wandell. "It became pretty clear that this time

Can AI Be Your Therapist? 3 Things That Worry Professionals and 3 Tips for Staying Safe

Amid the many AI chatbots and avatars at your disposal these days, you'll find all kinds of characters to talk to: fortune tellers, style advisers, even your favorite fictional characters. But you'll also likely find characters purporting to be therapists, psychologists or just bots willing to listen to your woes. There's no shortage of generative AI bots claiming to help with your mental health, but go that route at your own risk. Large language models trained on a wide range of data can be un

I couldn't tell these glasses had built-in hearing aids - and you likely couldn't either

ZDNET's key takeaways The Nuance Audio hearing glasses are available in two styles and colors for $1,200 at participating retailers. They provide a stylish and discreet way to aid mild to moderate hearing loss. However, they provide six to eight hours of battery life and a three-hour charging period, which might frustrate power users. View now at Nuance Audio Since the US Food and Drug Administration approved a category of hearing aids that can be sold to consumers without a doctor's prescrip

Whoop says FDA is 'overstepping its authority' with warning about blood pressure feature

The logo for the Food and Drug Administration is seen ahead of a news conference on removing synthetic dyes from America's food supply, at the Health and Human Services Headquarters in Washington, DC on April 22, 2025. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday published a warning letter addressed to the wrist wearable company Whoop, alleging it is marketing a new blood pressure feature without proper approvals. The letter centers around Whoop's Blood Pressure Insights (BPI) feature, whi

‘Whatever She Thinks Is Credible’: Trump Says Pam Bondi Should Release Part of Epstein Files

President Donald Trump angered his own supporters recently when his U.S. Department of Justice said it wouldn’t be releasing any more information about the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But after days of outrage, including from the Deputy Director of the FBI, Dan Bongino, Trump is now signaling that Attorney General Pam Bondi might release something. Still, don’t expect to see anything that would make Trump look bad. Trump spoke to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday and was asked

Uber and Baidu are teaming up to deploy thousands of autonomous vehicles globally

This will be happening in China and other "markets outside of the US." Uber and China-based Baidu are teaming up to deploy more autonomous vehicles throughout the world. The companies plan on bringing thousands of Baidu's Apollo Go vehicles to various regions that will be accessible via the Uber platform, including mainland China and other "global markets outside of the US." The first joint deployments are expected in Asia and the Middle East later this year. Once launched, Uber riders could b

Commerce Secretary Lutnick says China is only getting Nvidia’s ‘4th best’ AI chip

Howard Lutnick, U.S. Secretary of Commerce speaks during the Pennsylvania Energy And Innovation Summit 2025 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on July 15, 2025. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said the Trump administration reversed course on allowing Nvidia to sell its AI chips to China because the U.S. company will not be giving over its best technology. Lutnick made the remark speaking with CNBC's Brian Sullivan, saying that Nvidia wants to sell China its "4th best" chi