A digest of top world and technology headlines, pulled from a handful of publisher feeds once a day and stored here. Every link goes straight to the original story.
Alaska Democratic nominee in pivotal Senate race ‘struggled to deal with her grief’ after death of husband and mother, spokesperson saidMary Peltola’s campaign on Thursday downplayed a report that the Democratic nominee in Alaska’s pivotal Senate race shoved a staffer and used slurs, saying the article exaggerated her behavior, but acknowledging she struggled following the deaths of her husband and mother.The New York Times article published on Wednesday is based on text messages and interviews with nine former employees of Peltola, who served in the House of Representatives from 2022 till the beginning of last year and is now set to face Republican senator Dan Sullivan in the 3 November midterm elections. Continue reading...
Attorney general Todd Blanche requests that justices overturn lower court ruling that halted such removals The Trump administration has asked the US supreme court to allow it to deport immigrants to countries other than their own, the latest effort to seek approval for a controversial policy that fulfils Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.Todd Blanche, the US attorney general, said on Thursday morning that the Department of Justice would ask the conservative-majority supreme court for help, nearly a week after a lower court judge rejected the policy. Continue reading...
Wallace and Gromit stop-motion models and other beloved creations raise money to train new generations of animators Wallace’s reaction as the auction got into full swing might have been a trademark “good grief!” – and the enthusiasm of some of the bidding could have caused even the phlegmatic Gromit to show surprise.Fans of Wallace and Gromit and other beloved creations of Aardman Animations seized the chance to grab souvenirs when more than 200 pieces – including Wallace, Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run puppets from Aardman productions – went under the hammer on Thursday. Continue reading...
Follow the day’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastFalling meth prices help drive deaths to record levelsFalling methamphetamine prices have helped push overdose deaths to record levels, new data shows.In fact, several of the indicators are now at the highest observed levels that we’ve seen, including wastewater, consumption, methamphetamine-related hospitalisations, and death. Continue reading...
The president welcomed China’s Xi Jinping at the White House, which media outlets opted not to provide video feed for because Trump’s aides had not yet restored access for three outlets he banned last weekJournalists for CNN, MS Now and Politico allowed back into the White House after judge’s rulingSign up for US Breaking News emailsLawyers for the news outlets President Trump banned from the White House have requested an emergency hearing after several journalists were turned away from the building Thursday morning, in apparent defiance of a federal judge’s order to restore their access.“This morning journalists from each of CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO attempted to enter the White House and were turned away, and Secret Service agents confiscated the hard pass of journalists whose hard passes had not previously been confiscated,” a new court filing read. Continue reading...
Thirty-seven-year-old charged with one count of criminal damage and failing to disclose his phone pin to police The far-right agitator and anti-migrant activist Daniel Thomas has been charged with criminal damage and failing to disclose his phone pin to police following an incident in the Channel on Tuesday, where he allegedly slashed a dinghy while a French rescuer was on board.Thomas, 37, of no fixed abode, has been charged with one count of criminal damage along with an offence under section 53 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa), for allegedly failing to comply with a notice to disclose a phone pin to police. Continue reading...
Patient groups decry ‘scandalous’ delays as four integrated care boards take step due to soaring demand for diagnosesNHS bodies are forcing people with suspected attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism to wait at least two years before they can be assessed as they struggle to meet surging demand for diagnoses of neurodiversity.Four NHS integrated care boards (ICBs) covering large regions of England have adopted the approach because they cannot afford the cost of the number of assessments that people are seeking. Continue reading...
Court says Chad Bianco’s conduct unlawful and seizure of ballots ‘creates substantial risk to election integrity’California Republican sheriff Chad Bianco must return more than 650,000 ballots his department confiscated earlier this year in an unprecedented move that violated election law, a state supreme court ruled on Thursday.“Allowing law enforcement unfettered access to ballots, or the ability to handle and count them in secret, based on unregulated protocols, itself creates a substantial risk to election integrity,” chief justice Patricia Guerrero wrote in a Thursday opinion. Continue reading...
GOP stymies House-passed war powers resolution as conflict passes 200-day mark with 19 US service members killedSenate Republicans on Thursday blocked a Democratic effort to end the US war with Iran, voting down a House-passed war powers resolution as the conflict that has killed 19 American service members passed the 200-day mark.The measure, which passed the House last week with bipartisan support, failed in the Senate by a 49-50 vote. Senate Democrats, led by the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the senator Andy Kim of New Jersey, forced the vote under the War Powers Resolution, which allows lawmakers to bring such measures to the floor. Continue reading...
Officers left feeling ‘hamstrung’, says Mark Rowley after offender allowed to return to flat overlooking playgroundPressure to cut the number of prisoners on remand has led to “dangerous and prolific offenders” being granted bail, the country’s most senior police officer said after a paedophile was allowed to return to his flat that overlooked a children’s playground.Zafer Dogan was jailed on Thursday for two years and four months after he was convicted of taking thousands of pictures of women and girls before using AI technology to turn them into nude images for his sexual gratification. Continue reading...
On Thursday, the two leaders will hold meetings where Trump and Xi are expected to talk about artificial intelligence, rare earths, trade and geopolitics such as Iran and Taiwan.
A judge has ordered that the Trump administration restore journalists' access to White House. And, Tucker Carlson sits down with Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep for a Newsmakers interview.
A federal judge's ruling restored CNN, MS Now and Politico's access to the White House. Gabe Rottman says better procedure alone may not resolve the broader First Amendment fight.
Venezuela's acting president, delivering her first address to the U.N. General Assembly since coming to power, promised elections and said the nation's people will determine the "right moment."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was extremely concerned about OpenAI 's breach of an Australian health department website that the artificial intelligence company took too long to reveal.
Google's new Gemini 3.8 Live update lets users have conversations with the model while watching an animated AI persona respond in real time. The "Live Avatar" will lip-sync and show different facial expressions during conversations, but it's currently only available to Gemini Enterprise customers. As noted by Google, Live Avatar can transition between the 97 […]
While PC component prices remain high, you can save a good bit of money on a system by purchasing a prebuilt desktop. Walmart has a well-equipped CyberPowerPC gaming PC on sale for $1,549, almost $600 off its original price of $2,139. It’s powered by an Intel Core i7-14700KF processor, and paired with 32GB of 6000MHz […]
As Jensen Huang puts it, AI can help fight climate change - but only if it inflicts "an enormous amount of pain and suffering" first. The Nvidia CEO discussed the future of energy and AI's impact on our planet in the latest episode of The Ezra Klein Show. But his comments boil down to the […]
Meta has a new plan to get people to make games for its Horizon social platform. The company today announced two new development tools that will let you create games with AI prompts: Horizon Create, a mobile app, and Horizon Studio, a browser app that offers more granular controls. The apps will be available in […]
Meta’s new AI gadget may look like a Tamagotchi, but its dangling form factor taps into a much broader Gen Z trend around bag charms, retro tech, and turning gadgets into fashion accessories.
A pair of developers say that with very little prompting, Meta's Muse will share its entire filesystem with you. Peter James and Jonny L. Saunders have said they both independently coaxed Muse into zipping up and sharing the entire contents of its root filesystem, Ubuntu system files, app templates, and internal documentation. Saunders posted on […]
We seem to be entering into an AI agent renaissance. Meta's new consumer-facing AI agent, Muse, topped the App Store charts soon after its release and has 600,000 daily active users in the US, by an Apptopia estimate. And AI agent platform Instinct, whose eponymous creator is fundraising at a $2.5 billion valuation, has been […]
This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here. Last night, I asked Blorbo - what I named my Muse AI agent - to help me set some health […]
Google is rolling out some new Chrome browser features that are designed to make it easier to research and study complicated topics. The cross-device tab switching feature is getting a memory upgrade, alongside new capabilities for Gemini in Chrome that can analyze more types of media and generate interactive study quizzes. Chrome has an existing […]
TechCrunch Founder Summit is a full-day gathering in Boston on November 4 where founders across all stages connect with top VCs and experienced entrepreneurs to gain tactical insights on building and scaling their companies.
ElevenLabs powers the AI voice on the other end of a lot of customer service calls, and its CEO told me this week that businesses should probably tell you that — at least until getting a machine is what everyone expects anyway.
A company called Inmo that makes several different variations of smart glasses has issued a recall for its Air3 because the left temple "can overheat during extended use, posing a risk of serious injury or death due to burn hazard." To date there have been 10 reports of users experiencing a "burning sensation to the […]
Google's launching an "early experiment" feature on Pixel 11 that lets users delegate local business calls to Gemini, like making a reservation, checking if a product is in stock, or rescheduling an appointment. According to Google, you don't even need to start the call to have Gemini handle it for you: Instead of dialing yourself, […]
The country’s prime minister expressed disappointment at being informed of the hack only via email. Now Australia is investigating whether OpenAI broke the law.
The Orlando theme park’s immersive Halloween experience now includes hot, brooding guys in an homage to romantasy antiheroes—and it’s leading to record-breaking ticket sales.
A growing body of research is putting the ovary in a new light, not as an egg factory with an expiration date, but as an organ that shapes women’s health long after the fertile years have passed.
Nor’easters are usually a winter phenomenon. But this week’s storm is arriving earlier than usual, and it could take on some characteristics more typical of tropical systems.
Once seen as nerdy but harmless innovators, men in tech are now widely regarded as red-pilled Elon Musk wannabes. It’s made getting laid a whole lot harder.
