Decision day in court for Marine Le Pen's French presidential hopes

Accused of misusing EU funds, Monday's verdict could determine whether the far-right National Rally party leader can run for French president.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/abA3SOj

Ethereum is struggling to keep the interest of investors and developers, having fallen out of step in an industry transformed by the embrace of Donald Trump (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Ethereum is struggling to keep the interest of investors and developers, having fallen out of step in an industry transformed by the embrace of Donald Trump  —  Vitalik Buterin was long viewed as the wunderkind of the cryptocurrency world.  —  The gawky, playful founder of Ethereum …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/Qu4lEho

Trump 'very angry' with Putin over ceasefire negotiations

It marks the first time Trump has seriously threatened Russia with consequences for dragging its feet in Ukraine ceasefire negotiations.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/xjsYbT0

Taliban releases detained US citizen Faye Hall

The US's former envoy to Kabul said that Ms Hall is now in the care of Qatari officials and would "soon be heading home".

from BBC News https://ift.tt/Pxd9j5t

Kalshi sues Nevada's gaming regulators to keep offering event contracts to bet on sports and politics, citing federal regulation by the US CFTC (Robert Burnson/Bloomberg)

Robert Burnson / Bloomberg:
Kalshi sues Nevada's gaming regulators to keep offering event contracts to bet on sports and politics, citing federal regulation by the US CFTC  —  Kalshi sued Nevada's gaming regulators to keep offering so-called event contracts to bet on sports and politics, setting up a clash between state and federal regulators.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/LSAzHIU

Myanmar quake toll passes 1,600 as people dig for survivors with bare hands

An acute lack of equipment, patchy communications and wrecked roads are hampering the search for survivors.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/031QbMl

A look at AI-generated fake movie trailers on YouTube; WBD, Paramount, and Sony have earned ad revenue from some videos instead of defending their copyright (Jake Kanter/Deadline)

Jake Kanter / Deadline:
A look at AI-generated fake movie trailers on YouTube; WBD, Paramount, and Sony have earned ad revenue from some videos instead of defending their copyright  —  Cut to Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor watching on and Milly Alcock's Supergirl levitating into view.  “They are not from here,” Luthor intones in an ominous voiceover.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/lmMYHNa

CoreWeave opens down 2.5% at $39 in its Nasdaq debut; CoreWeave's offering is the largest US IPO since UiPath's NYSE debut in 2021 (Jordan Novet/CNBC)

Jordan Novet / CNBC:
CoreWeave opens down 2.5% at $39 in its Nasdaq debut; CoreWeave's offering is the largest US IPO since UiPath's NYSE debut in 2021  —  CoreWeave's stock opened at $39 in its Nasdaq debut on Friday after the company sold shares at $40 a piece, below the expected range.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/8PyrmfX

Michael Novogratz's Galaxy Digital will pay $200M as part of a settlement with the New York AG over the firm's role in promoting the failed Luna cryptocurrency (Emily Nicolle/Bloomberg)

Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
Michael Novogratz's Galaxy Digital will pay $200M as part of a settlement with the New York AG over the firm's role in promoting the failed Luna cryptocurrency  —  Michael Novogratz's Galaxy Digital Holdings will pay $200 million in penalties over the investment firm's role in promoting …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/pHjPZLk

Six dead after tourist submarine sinks in Red Sea

Another 39 people were rescued after the vessel sank in the Red Sea on Thursday morning.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/k7NEw3l

Anthropic says it created a new tool for deciphering how LLMs "think" and used it to resolve some key questions about how Claude and probably other LLMs work (Jeremy Kahn/Fortune)

Jeremy Kahn / Fortune:
Anthropic says it created a new tool for deciphering how LLMs “think” and used it to resolve some key questions about how Claude and probably other LLMs work  —  Researchers at the AI company Anthropic say they have made a fundamental breakthrough in our understanding of exactly …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/r14dyiC

Sam Altman says "our GPUs are melting" due to ChatGPT's viral image generation and OpenAI plans to temporarily introduce some rate limits (Chris Welch/The Verge)

Chris Welch / The Verge:
Sam Altman says “our GPUs are melting” due to ChatGPT's viral image generation and OpenAI plans to temporarily introduce some rate limits  —  The company is trying to make image generation more efficient, according to CEO Sam Altman. … The fervor around ChatGPT's more accessible …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/btvkpd6

Ubisoft carves out a unit, which includes Assassin's Creed, into a ~€4B subsidiary; Tencent will invest €1.16B to acquire a 25% stake in the new entity (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Ubisoft carves out a unit, which includes Assassin's Creed, into a ~€4B subsidiary; Tencent will invest €1.16B to acquire a 25% stake in the new entity  —  Ubisoft, which was founded by France's Guillemot family, has been struggling to recover from a post-pandemic slump in the industry …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/yTE2Hz1

Malcolm in the Middle's brother recast for revival

Erik Per Sullivan, who played Malcolm's younger brother Dewey, will not return to the show.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/IZYnFoD

Starboard Value nominates three directors including its CEO, Jeff Smith, to Autodesk's board, rekindling its proxy battle with Autodesk over margin concerns (Arsheeya Bajwa/Reuters)

Arsheeya Bajwa / Reuters:
Starboard Value nominates three directors including its CEO, Jeff Smith, to Autodesk's board, rekindling its proxy battle with Autodesk over margin concerns  —  Starboard Value on Wednesday nominated three directors including its chief executive and founder, Jeff Smith, to Autodesk's (ADSK.O) …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/KGhTv8l

Leaked financial figures: Stripe doubled its free cash flow in 2024 to about $2.2B and grew revenues by about 28% to $5.1B; Chime grew revenues by 31% to $1.7B (Cory Weinberg/The Information)

Cory Weinberg / The Information:
Leaked financial figures: Stripe doubled its free cash flow in 2024 to about $2.2B and grew revenues by about 28% to $5.1B; Chime grew revenues by 31% to $1.7B  —  Stripe is putting up the kind of numbers that would send its stock soaring, if it had public stock.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/NQtnorg

Two French air display jets crash in rehearsal

The three occupants of the two Alpha Jets that collided ejected and were "found alive and conscious".

from BBC News https://ift.tt/pvnRutG

The Arc Prize Foundation says its new ARC-AGI-2 test stumps most AI models; humans get 60% of the questions right but GPT-4.5 and Claude 3.7 Sonnet score ~1% (Maxwell Zeff/TechCrunch)

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
The Arc Prize Foundation says its new ARC-AGI-2 test stumps most AI models; humans get 60% of the questions right but GPT-4.5 and Claude 3.7 Sonnet score ~1%  —  The Arc Prize Foundation, a nonprofit co-founded by prominent AI researcher François Chollet, announced in a blog post …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/cSKf6Po

Meta rolls out a pilot program on Instagram designed to let US schools flag any potentially rule-violating post or account for prioritized review (Emma Roth/The Verge)

Emma Roth / The Verge:
Meta rolls out a pilot program on Instagram designed to let US schools flag any potentially rule-violating post or account for prioritized review  —  The platform's new partnership program will prioritize reports made by schools. … Instagram is rolling out a new program to fast-track moderation reports made by school districts.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/50LlfVF

Russia accused of 'hollow' peace talks as fresh strike injures dozens

Russian missiles hit the city of Sumy as negotiators met the US delegation in Saudi Arabia for talks.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/UbfXJgy

Microsoft unveils 11 Security Copilot AI agents, five created by partners, that do things like triage phishing and data loss alerts, coming to preview in April (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils 11 Security Copilot AI agents, five created by partners, that do things like triage phishing and data loss alerts, coming to preview in April  —  Microsoft has six new security agents that can do things like process phishing and data loss alerts.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/GzDafbi

Israeli strike at Gaza hospital kills Hamas official and aide

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said medical staff had been injured and some of the hospital destroyed.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/QiymdMp

Research shows a surge in the popularity of deepfake porn services, with the 10 most popular "nudifying" websites receiving 18M views in January 2025 alone (Margi Murphy/Bloomberg)

Margi Murphy / Bloomberg:
Research shows a surge in the popularity of deepfake porn services, with the 10 most popular “nudifying” websites receiving 18M views in January 2025 alone  —  An introduction to the Levittown podcast.  Plus: Another billionaire's space dreams.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/BmNRajO

How one of the world's major money laundering networks, linked to Cambodia's Huione Group, services online scammers using cryptocurrency, Telegram, and more (New York Times)

New York Times:
How one of the world's major money laundering networks, linked to Cambodia's Huione Group, services online scammers using cryptocurrency, Telegram, and more  —  Documents and insiders reveal how one of the world's major money laundering networks operates.  —  Documents and insiders reveal …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/dyU83ek

An interview with Helsing co-CEO Torsten Reil on delivering the defense tech company's AI-enabled strike drones to Ukraine, the herd mentality of VCs, and more (John Thornhill/Financial Times)

John Thornhill / Financial Times:
An interview with Helsing co-CEO Torsten Reil on delivering the defense tech company's AI-enabled strike drones to Ukraine, the herd mentality of VCs, and more  —  The German entrepreneur on safeguarding Europe, AI warfare — and why democracies need deterrents

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/CR6QkLG

Canada can win trade war with US, foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly says

Canada is among the countries waiting to see what Trump's 2 April reciporcal tariffs look like.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/uh4x19o

Democratic Senators helping Trump's strongest Senate allies repeal Section 230 could give the Trump administration unprecedented power to control online speech (Mike Masnick/Techdirt)

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Democratic Senators helping Trump's strongest Senate allies repeal Section 230 could give the Trump administration unprecedented power to control online speech  —  At the exact moment when Donald Trump and his MAGA allies are actively dismantling democratic institutions and working to silence critics …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/vJkygw2

Kuo: A20 chips in iPhone 18 models will be made using TSMC's 2nm process, as TSMC's trial production of 2nm chips reached yields well above the 60-70% range (Joe Rossignol/MacRumors)

Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Kuo: A20 chips in iPhone 18 models will be made using TSMC's 2nm process, as TSMC's trial production of 2nm chips reached yields well above the 60-70% range  —  Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today reiterated that the A20 chip in iPhone 18 models will be manufactured with TSMC's 2nm process.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/vKOVM5g

Sources: Coinbase is in advanced talks to buy Deribit, the largest bitcoin and ether options trading platform, which was reportedly valued at $4B-$5B in January (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Sources: Coinbase is in advanced talks to buy Deribit, the largest bitcoin and ether options trading platform, which was reportedly valued at $4B-$5B in January  —  The companies have notified regulators in Dubai about the discussions as Deribit holds a license there, which would be taken over by any acquirer, some of the people said.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/iw4DMey

Lyft says it plans to roll out robotaxis in partnership with May Mobility in Atlanta, starting summer 2025 (Bruna Horvath/NBC News)

Bruna Horvath / NBC News:
Lyft says it plans to roll out robotaxis in partnership with May Mobility in Atlanta, starting summer 2025  —  Robotaxis using self-driving technology can already be found on the streets of at least four U.S. cities and even more abroad.  —  Lyft is about to enter the increasingly competitive world of robotaxis.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/XePSjU5

Zelensky tells Russia to drop 'unnecessary' demands ahead of peace talks

Ukraine's leader also says taking Nato membership off the table would be a "big gift to Russia".

from BBC News https://ift.tt/Jp8fHsE

Threads rolls out new features: ability to set following feed or any custom feed as the default, limit post replies to followers, a better video player, more (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Threads rolls out new features: ability to set following feed or any custom feed as the default, limit post replies to followers, a better video player, more  —  Threads will also let you limit replies to just followers and add topics to your bio. … Meta is finally allowing Threads users …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/9TSqwON

Plex is increasing Plex Pass prices for the first time in a decade and making remote playback for personal media a paid feature at $1.99/month or $19.99/year (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Plex is increasing Plex Pass prices for the first time in a decade and making remote playback for personal media a paid feature at $1.99/month or $19.99/year  —  Streaming service and software maker Plex is raising its prices.  The company announced on Wednesday its first price increase …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/SkWdUab

Trump hails 'very good' phone call with Zelensky

The US president says peace efforts are "very much on track" after an hour-long conversation.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/gCUwAr7

Sources: X has raised close to $1B in new equity in a deal that values the company at roughly $32B; Musk also participated in the raise (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Sources: X has raised close to $1B in new equity in a deal that values the company at roughly $32B; Musk also participated in the raise  —  Elon Musk's social network X has raised close to $1 billion in new equity from investors in a deal that values the company at roughly $32 billion …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/bnTuAzg

GrubMarket, which offers food logistics AI tools, raised a $50M Series G at a $3.5B+ valuation, up from $1.2B in 2021, and is on track for $2.4B in 2025 revenue (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
GrubMarket, which offers food logistics AI tools, raised a $50M Series G at a $3.5B+ valuation, up from $1.2B in 2021, and is on track for $2.4B in 2025 revenue  —  U.S. President Donald Trump's wide-ranging tariff hikes are already resulting in growth forecasts being cut amid an uncertain public mood …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/SEFVWUq

No evidence for Trump claim about 'void' Biden pardons and autopen

President Trump claims 'many' of Biden's pardons are void because they were signed automatically and not by hand.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/6uMBIUk

Adobe: traffic from AI sources to US retail sites in February rose 1,200% from July 2024; 39% of US consumers used generative AI for shopping, 53% plan to do so (Mike Pastore/Search Engine Land)

Mike Pastore / Search Engine Land:
Adobe: traffic from AI sources to US retail sites in February rose 1,200% from July 2024; 39% of US consumers used generative AI for shopping, 53% plan to do so  —  Compared to non-AI traffic sources, users engage more, view more pages, and bounce at lower rates - but they are also less likely to convert.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/OLTrQ9A