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Bluesky blocks service in Mississippi over age assurance law

Social networking startup Bluesky has made the decision to block access to its service in the state of Mississippi, rather than comply with a new age assurance law. In a blog post published on Friday, the company explains that, as a small team, it doesn’t have the resources to make the substantial technical changes this type of law would require, and it raised concerns about the law’s broad scope and privacy implications. Mississippi’s HB 1126 requires platforms to introduce age verification f

Apple drags ex-Apple Watch engineer to court over Oppo trade secret leak

Every now and then, we hear about Apple going after ex-employees who allegedly try to take trade secrets with them when they get hired by the competition. That’s the case with Chen Shi, a former Sensor System Architect for the Apple Watch team. Here are the details. According to Apple’s claim, Shi worked at the company from January 2020 until a couple of months ago, when he left to go work for Oppo, a Chinese company that also makes phones and wearables, like the Oppo Watch. Apple says that in

Meta might be secretly scanning your phone's camera roll - how to check and turn it off

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Meta could be scanning your camera roll right now. It's using your photos to provide AI-powered suggestions. Check Facebook settings to turn off the features. Meta could be analyzing and retaining your phone's photos without your explicit consent. Some Facebook users have noticed that, within their app settings, Meta automatically switched on two toggles that allow it to access their d

When Starship Comes to Florida, Expect 2-Hour Flight Delays, FAA Warns

SpaceX aims to expand its Starship operations to Cape Canaveral, Florida, with a goal of launching 44 super heavy-lift rockets per year. If regulators approve this plan, the uptick in launch activity could result in more ground stops, reroutes, and flight delays at major airports throughout the Sunshine State, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. In a draft environmental impact statement released this month, the FAA states that airports such as Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood Internation

Workers need better protections from the heat

is a senior science reporter covering energy and the environment with more than a decade of experience. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home , a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Expect record-breaking temperatures to change the workplace, the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned today in a new report. When workers don’

You can learn AI for free with these new courses from Anthropic

Anthropic Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Students and teachers can now try Anthropic's three new free AI courses. Anthropic also appointed a Higher Education Advisory Board. The industry at large is investing in making AI accessible to students. This year's back-to-school season nearly guarantees a new classmate: AI. Some form of the tech is now baked into most products -- it's more ubiquitous than ever. Anthropic's new education initiative seek

We Finally Know the Mule’s Backstory on ‘Foundation’—or Do We?

The Mule, as played by Pilou Asbæk, has brought both menace and mystery to Foundation‘s third season. He’s more than made good on the terrifying visions that prefaced his arrival—we know he’s destined for a vicious battle against Foundation heroine Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell)—with his cruel, crafty plan to take over the galaxy. He uses his amplified psychic powers to manipulate people to commit horrors, all while claiming he merely desires to be loved. Such complexity has to come from somewhere,

Google Drive now offers in-browser video editing

Google is now offering a way to edit videos right in Drive via Google Vids in a compatible browser. Whenever you're previewing a video in Google Drive, you may see an "Open" button in the top right of the screen. Clicking this opens the clip in Google Vids, where you can trim the video, add text and music and make other changes. Veo is available in the app too. After you open a file in Vids, a new file is created, and you'll have to save or export that if need be. Google for Education has a fre

US to review all 55M visas to check if holders broke rules

US to review all 55 million visas to check if holders broke rules US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced several measures this year to curb immigration President Donald Trump has made anti-immigration the cornerstone of his second administration, from mass deportations and full-on travel bans on countries to revoking 6,000 student visas. Visas will be revoked if there are indications of "overstays, criminal activity, threats to public safety, engaging in any form of terrorist activit

Studio Behind New ‘Sekiro’ Anime Denies Use of AI

Earlier this week at Gamescom, Crunchyroll unveiled a first look at its upcoming Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice anime, Sekiro: No Defeat, which adapts the popular PlayStation Soulslike game developed by FromSoftware, Inc. But in the wake of the trailer’s release, concerns from fans online began to suggest and speculate that some off-looking parts of the trailer may have been down to a use of generative AI. Qzil.la, the studio behind No Defeat, was not prominently featured in its marketing in the tra

Apple celebrates National Parks with Apple Pay, Fitness+, and more

Apple has announced a handful of new initiatives to support the National Park Foundation in celebration of its 109th anniversary. This includes donations for Apple Pay purchases, an Apple Watch activity cahllenge, and more. First, from August 22 to 29, Apple says it will donate $10 to the National Park Foundation for every purchase made with Apple Pay at Apple Stores, in the App Store app, or on its website. This represents the ninth straight year of this initiative by Apple. As we reported ea

DaVita says ransomware gang stole data of nearly 2.7 million people

Kidney dialysis firm DaVita has confirmed that a ransomware gang that breached its network stole the personal and health information of nearly 2.7 million individuals. DaVita serves over 265,400 patients across 3,113 outpatient dialysis centers, 2,660 in the United States, and 453 centers in 13 other countries worldwide. The company reported revenues of over $12 billion in 2024 and of $3.3 billion for the second quarter of 2025. In April, the healthcare provider revealed in a filing with the U

Massive anti-cybercrime operation leads to over 1,200 arrests in Africa

Law enforcement authorities in Africa have arrested over 1,200 suspects as part of 'Operation Serengeti 2.0,' an INTERPOL-led international crackdown targeting cross-border cybercriminal gangs. Between June and August 2025, law enforcement agents seized $97.4 million and dismantled 11,432 malicious infrastructures linked to attacks that targeted 87,858 victims worldwide. "In a sweeping INTERPOL-coordinated operation, authorities across Africa have arrested 1,209 cybercriminals targeting nearly

Netflix’s new Splinter Cell animated series kicks off in October

is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years. The Splinter Cell: Deathwatch animated series finally has a release date and a proper trailer, but Netflix already wants you to start thinking about what else it has coming down the pipeline. During this year’s Anime NYC convention, Netflix announced that Deathwatch is slated to debut on October 14th, and the series has added The San

Apple TV+ subscription price increasing to $12.99 per month from today

Apple today announced that the monthly price of Apple TV+ is rising in the United States and some international markets. From today, the monthly subscription will cost $12.99, up from $9.99. Existing subscribers will see the price change 30 days after the next renewal date. The pricing for yearly TV+ subscriptions and the Apple One services bundle remains unchanged. In a statement, Apple said that Apple TV+ has expanded its deep library of originals since launch, and that Apple One is the “the

Google's AI Mode Is Getting New Agentic Features for Restaurant Reservations and More

Google's AI Mode is getting new agentic capabilities and expanding to 180 new countries and territories around the world, Google announced Thursday. AI Mode allows you to ask questions directly to Google and it'll kick off a series of searches on your behalf. From there, it will surface relevant information to your query without the need to do any of the deep research yourself. It changes the way you search for things online, and it's getting even smarter with this latest rollout. Powered by De

Privately-Owned Rail Cars

Amtrak provides the ability for rail/train car owners to have their privately-owned rail/train cars attached to our trains between specified locations to see North America in an extraordinary way. We also provide many services, including 480v standby power, water, septic, car wash, parking and switching. The charges to the owner of the private car include an annual registration fee, concurrent with the annual PC-1 inspection, as well as a mileage rate based on the number of cars on that particu

A Huge Number of Grok AI Chats Just Leaked, and Their Contents Are So Disturbing That We're Sweating Profusely

Brace yourselves, because hundreds of thousands of user conversations with Elon Musk's notoriously foul-mouthed Grok chatbot have hit the internet, Forbes reports — and some of them get into absolutely unholy territory. The more than 370,000 chats were made public after users clicked a "share" button that created a link to their chatbot convos, unaware that by doing so, it was allowing them to be indexed by search engines like Google and Bing. Some of them were clearly never meant to see the l

Tesla Takes So Long to Report Crash Data, Even Trump’s Regulators Are Taking Notice

It turns out it’s actually possible for a corporation to drag its feet for so long that even the Trump administration takes issue with it. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it will investigate Tesla’s habit of taking months to submit accident reports that involve the company’s driver-assistance technology, according to a report from Reuters. Just how late is Tesla getting its crash report information to the NHTSA? The agency asks that companies submit reports wit

Today's NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Aug. 22, #803

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles. Today's NYT Connections puzzle contained a lot of names, including actor names and movie titles. But classifying them into the right groups was a bit tough. And the purple category was a real puzzler--I explain it at the bottom of the story. Read on for clues and today's C

Today's NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Aug. 22, #333

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles. Chicagoans, today's Connections: Sports Edition features one category that will be a breeze off Lake Michigan for you, so grab a slice of deep-dish pizza and go after it. For the rest of us, read on for hints and the answers. Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on

Man Experiences Joy For the First Time in Decades After Brain Stimulation Treatment

A man who lived with severe, treatment-resistant depression for over 30 years is now in remission, thanks to a new brain stimulation method that targets selective areas of his brain. The man reported experiencing joy for the first time in decades after the treatment. “He was crying and saying, ‘I’m not sad, I’m just happy. I don’t know what to do with these emotions’,” the study’s first author, Ziad Nahas, a psychiatrist and professor at the University of Minnesota, told Gizmodo. Nahas and a t

Birds Across the World Are Singing All Day for a Disturbing Reason

If the songbirds in your neighborhood are waking you up earlier and chirping well into the evening, blame light pollution. Artificial light touches nearly every corner of Earth’s surface, and a new study shows that it’s messing with birds’ biological clocks. Researchers analyzed a global acoustic dataset of more than 60 million recorded birdsongs representing more than 580 diurnal bird species. The findings, published Thursday, August 21, in the journal Science, show that light pollution has pr

Honor's Magic V5 Boasts On-Device Live AI Call Translation for Guaranteed Privacy

"Hola! ¿Hablas inglés?" I asked the woman who answered the phone in the Barcelona restaurant. I was calling in a futile attempt to make a reservation for the CNET team dinner during Mobile World Congress this year. Unfortunately, I don't know Spanish (I learned French and German at school). And as it turned out, she didn't speak English either. "No!" she said, and brusquely hung up. What I needed in that moment was the kind of AI call translation feature that's becoming increasingly prevalent

Missouri Man Dies After Water Skiing Leads to Brain-Eating Amoeba Infection

A Missouri man’s lake outing has ended in tragedy. Local health officials announced this week that a resident died from a rare but nearly always fatal brain amoeba infection likely caught while water skiing. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services disclosed the resident’s death Wednesday, following its initial report of the case last week (though few details about the case were released, several outlets reported the resident was a man). Officials are still investigating the source

Starlink wants billions in grants, but state governments aren’t cooperating

Starlink operator SpaceX isn't getting the broadband money it demanded from state governments despite the Trump administration rewriting the rules of a $42 billion grant program. Instead of directing the lion's share of money to Elon Musk's space and satellite company, early results indicate that states still plan to deploy fiber broadband networks to most of their unserved households. When the Trump administration announced its overhaul of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) pr

Trump Is Betting Big on Intel. Will the Chips Fall His Way?

The US government is aiming to take an equity stake in Intel in exchange for grants the company was already committed to receive under the Biden era CHIPS Act, according to comments US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick made in an interview with CNBC. The move is part of the government’s efforts to boost US chip manufacturing. “We should get an equity stake for our money, so we’ll deliver the money which was already committed under the Biden administration,” Lutnick said. “We’ll get equity in re

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is coming to PS5 on November 20

We learned in July that Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl would come to PlayStation later this year. On Thursday, developer GSC Gameworld gave us a specific release date: November 20. That's exactly a year after its PC and Xbox launch. The PS5 version will support adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, gyro aiming and more. Meanwhile, PS5 Pro users will see upgraded resolution, shadows and reflections (among other enhancements). The game will be available in a $60 standard edition, an $80 deluxe one a

A summary of recent AI research (2016)

Story comprehension The robots of Westworld are not programmed solely by software developers. The bulk of the work is done by professional writers, who give each character a unique backstory. These stories give them the memories and depth they need to seem real to the park guests. When asked who they are, what they’ve done or why they feel a certain way, they can consult their backstory to find out the answer. Being able to answer questions about stories is a fundamental requirement for being

Watch Stephen King and Takashi Miike Celebrate the Glorious Gore of ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’

“Every frame has something unnerving in it,” Patton Oswalt says in the trailer for Chain Reactions—a new documentary about the enduring influence and impact of 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Tobe Hooper’s grisly classic has often been imitated and has spawned some regrettable sequels and remakes, but the original remains a uniquely terrifying product of a very specific time and place, not just in pop culture, but also in the realms of independent cinema. A new trailer for Chain Reactions