How the US could try to seize Iran's Kharg Island

Donald Trump has indicated he could send troops to take control of Iran's key oil export terminal.

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

Sources: E*Trade is in talks to lead SpaceX IPO share sale to retail investors; Robinhood and SoFi have pitched for roles but SpaceX is mulling cutting them out (Reuters)

Reuters:
Sources: E*Trade is in talks to lead SpaceX IPO share sale to retail investors; Robinhood and SoFi have pitched for roles but SpaceX is mulling cutting them out  —  Morgan Stanley's E*Trade is in talks with SpaceX to take the lead in selling the rocket maker's shares to everyday U.S. investors …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/gmUFR0L

A look at Coinbase One and other insurance-like plans for crypto users that typically exclude coverage for many kinds of account hacks, including phishing scams (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
A look at Coinbase One and other insurance-like plans for crypto users that typically exclude coverage for many kinds of account hacks, including phishing scams  —  When Matthew Allan realized nearly $100,000 in Bitcoin was missing from his Coinbase account, he wasn't too worried.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/iLAnIfZ

Frosting, sprinkles and layers of fun: Giant cake picnic hits Sydney

Hundreds of bakers head to the city's botanic gardens to share and savour their colourful creations.

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

Potential Houthi threat to Red Sea shipping could further damage global economy

The Iran-backed group could bring a second crucial waterway to a standstill, writes Sebastian Usher.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/i8eF3s1

Is Trump's pause on attacking Iranian energy for diplomacy or an escalation?

The US president's commitment to deadlines is fluid but he uses them for a purpose, writes the BBC's James Landale.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/TDJYf5r

China's broadening Manus review raises doubts about the "Singapore-washing" model; sources: Meta moved 100+ Manus employees to Singapore in early March (Anniek Bao/CNBC)

Anniek Bao / CNBC:
China's broadening Manus review raises doubts about the “Singapore-washing” model; sources: Meta moved 100+ Manus employees to Singapore in early March  —  Tech circles from Silicon Valley to Shenzhen buzzed when Meta acquired Manus, a Singaporean AI startup with Chinese roots, for $2 billion late last year.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/gTFB6vd

Guthrie on missing mother: 'We cannot be at peace without knowing'

In her first interview since the disappearance, Savannah Guthrie recounts the moment she learned her mother was missing and wrestles with the idea that her fame may have made her mother a target.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/8g3ZmjR

Meta stock falls 6%+ to a 10-month low after juries in two US trials found the company failed to adequately warn or protect young users (Harshita Mary Varghese/Reuters)

Harshita Mary Varghese / Reuters:
Meta stock falls 6%+ to a 10-month low after juries in two US trials found the company failed to adequately warn or protect young users  —  Meta (META.O) shares fell 6% to a 10-month low on Thursday after rulings this week found the Facebook parent failed to adequately warn or protect young users …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/et6EvoT

Reddit says it will label automated accounts that provide a service to users and will require accounts suspected of being bots to verify they are human (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Reddit says it will label automated accounts that provide a service to users and will require accounts suspected of being bots to verify they are human  —  Would-be Reddit competitor Digg just shut down because it couldn't get a handle on the bots overrunning its site.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/1PLn3JU

Social media addiction trial: a Los Angeles jury finds Meta and YouTube were negligent and failed to warn users about the dangers of using their platforms (Jonathan Vanian/CNBC)

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Social media addiction trial: a Los Angeles jury finds Meta and YouTube were negligent and failed to warn users about the dangers of using their platforms  —  A jury in Los Angeles determined on Wednesday that Meta and Google were negligent and failed to warn users of the dangers associated …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/zAeWhCk

Apple releases iOS 26.4, with Playlist Playground, which generates Apple Music playlist from a prompt, 8 new emojis, improved keyboard accuracy, and more (Zac Hall/9to5Mac)

Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Apple releases iOS 26.4, with Playlist Playground, which generates Apple Music playlist from a prompt, 8 new emojis, improved keyboard accuracy, and more  —  Apple has released iOS 26.4, bringing 13 enhancements to your iPhone.  The new software update includes 8 new emoji characters …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/Pe9gWVG

Norwegian startup Lace, which is building a form of lithography that uses a helium atom beam instead of light to create chip designs, raised a $40M Series A (Reuters)

Reuters:
Norwegian startup Lace, which is building a form of lithography that uses a helium atom beam instead of light to create chip designs, raised a $40M Series A  —  Lace, a Norway-headquartered chipmaking equipment startup which is backed by Microsoft, has raised $40 million in funding …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/MyjqpiR

Pop megastars BTS electrify historic centre of Seoul with comeback concert

The world's biggest band returns after more than three years with a huge concert in the South Korean capital.

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

Watch: Thick smoke billows from South Korea car parts plant in deadly fire

Eleven people were killed and dozens injured when a huge blaze engulfed a car parts factory in the central city of Daejeon.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/sM0wjBD

Social media accounts showing AI-generated women as pro-Trump soldiers, truckers, and cops have gone viral, with thousands appearing to believe they are real (Drew Harwell/Washington Post)

Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Social media accounts showing AI-generated women as pro-Trump soldiers, truckers, and cops have gone viral, with thousands appearing to believe they are real  —  The beautiful Army blonde Jessica Foster has posed with an F-22 Raptor fighter jet, donned camouflage in the desert and walked …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/CRLoah4

Sources: advertisers that bought ChatGPT's first ad campaigns say the process was low tech and that they haven't received much data showing if their ads worked (Catherine Perloff/The Information)

Catherine Perloff / The Information:
Sources: advertisers that bought ChatGPT's first ad campaigns say the process was low tech and that they haven't received much data showing if their ads worked  —  As OpenAI prepares to open up ad sales to more marketers next month, it is trying to address what some advertisers say was lacking in the initial ad sales offering.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/Pzu8gnq

Sources: contract electronics manufacturer Zetwerk plans to file for an IPO in India, aiming to raise ~$550M at a ~$4B valuation; it was valued at $3.1B in 2024 (Reuters)

Reuters:
Sources: contract electronics manufacturer Zetwerk plans to file for an IPO in India, aiming to raise ~$550M at a ~$4B valuation; it was valued at $3.1B in 2024  —  India's Zetwerk is preparing to confidentially file draft papers for an initial public offering within the next one to two weeks …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/nG9q7c5

A judge issues an order requiring Kalshi to temporarily halt sports and election contracts in Nevada, the first US state to force Kalshi to cease operations (Kate Knibbs/Wired)

Kate Knibbs / Wired:
A judge issues an order requiring Kalshi to temporarily halt sports and election contracts in Nevada, the first US state to force Kalshi to cease operations  —  A judge ordered Kalshi to immediately halt sports and election contracts in the state, intensifying a growing regulatory battle over prediction markets.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/XJG9ZjO

Mark Zuckerberg's original metaverse vision is effectively over, after renaming Facebook to Meta and spending ~$80B on the endeavor, as his focus shifts to AI (New York Times)

New York Times:
Mark Zuckerberg's original metaverse vision is effectively over, after renaming Facebook to Meta and spending ~$80B on the endeavor, as his focus shifts to AI  —  Five years ago, Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed that the future of Facebook would be the metaverse.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/tKVq7e0

Director Coerte Voorhees says he is using AI to feature Val Kilmer in "a significant part" in an indie film, with the cooperation of the late actor's estate (Brent Lang/Variety)

Brent Lang / Variety:
Director Coerte Voorhees says he is using AI to feature Val Kilmer in “a significant part” in an indie film, with the cooperation of the late actor's estate  —  Five years prior to his death in 2025, Val Kilmer was cast as Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist, in “As Deep as the Grave.”

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Facebook launches Creator Fast Track, offering big Instagram, TikTok and YouTube creators guaranteed monthly pay and boosted reach to post on Facebook (Zach Vallese/CNBC)

Zach Vallese / CNBC:
Facebook launches Creator Fast Track, offering big Instagram, TikTok and YouTube creators guaranteed monthly pay and boosted reach to post on Facebook  —  Meta on Wednesday launched a new program aimed at luring top creators from TikTok and YouTube to Facebook, offering guaranteed pay and boosted reach.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/mSx9FYR

Deezer reports a net income of €9M in 2025, its first profit since its 2007 founding, while revenue fell 1.4% YoY to €534M (Daniel Thomas/Financial Times)

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Deezer reports a net income of €9M in 2025, its first profit since its 2007 founding, while revenue fell 1.4% YoY to €534M  —  Industry under threat from fraudsters uploading and repeatedly playing tracks created by AI to extract royalties  —  French streaming service Deezer …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/WFnyekJ

Ramp data: Anthropic is capturing ~73% of all spending among companies buying AI tools for the first time, up from a 50/50 split with OpenAI in January (Madison Mills/Axios)

Madison Mills / Axios:
Ramp data: Anthropic is capturing ~73% of all spending among companies buying AI tools for the first time, up from a 50/50 split with OpenAI in January  —  Anthropic is now capturing over 73% of all spending among companies buying AI tools for the first time, according to customer data from Ramp.

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/90Boxsz

US west coast prepares for 'dangerous' heatwave in early spring

Severe weather is plaguing the US from coast to coast, bringing a mix of extreme heat and bitter cold.

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

Arizona sues Kalshi for allegedly operating an illegal gambling business and unlawfully facilitating betting on elections; Kalshi faces a similar suit in Nevada (Anna Washenko/Engadget)

Anna Washenko / Engadget:
Arizona sues Kalshi for allegedly operating an illegal gambling business and unlawfully facilitating betting on elections; Kalshi faces a similar suit in Nevada  —  It's also facing a similar lawsuit in Nevada.  —  Kalshi has been sued by Arizona's attorney general for operating …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/rZ3tkvg

Whistleblower murder suspect is former elite officer, South African police say

Marius van der Merwe was shot dead three weeks after accusing police officers of killing a robbery suspect.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/ur1PLea

Ecuador deploys 75,000 soldiers and police to combat drug gangs

Citizens of the most violent-wracked provinces have been warned the government is "at war" with the gangs.

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

A livestream of Jensen Huang's Nvidia GTC 2026 keynote at the SAP Center in San Jose, California (NVIDIA on YouTube)

NVIDIA on YouTube:
A livestream of Jensen Huang's Nvidia GTC 2026 keynote at the SAP Center in San Jose, California  —  Watch NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang's GTC keynote as he unveils the latest breakthroughs in AI and accelerated computing.  See how agentic AI, AI factor...

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'Gruesome' war bets fuel calls for crackdown on prediction markets

Predictions markets have hosted millions of dollars of bets related to the war in Iran.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/GTYea5U

Indian edtech startup upGrad plans to acquire rival Unacademy in an all-stock deal; Unacademy was valued at less than $500M in 2025, down from $3.5B in 2021 (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Indian edtech startup upGrad plans to acquire rival Unacademy in an all-stock deal; Unacademy was valued at less than $500M in 2025, down from $3.5B in 2021  —  Unacademy, once a one of India's most valuable edtech startups, is set to be acquired by rival upGrad in an all-stock deal …

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Kaiko: cumulative trading volume on crypto exchange Hyperliquid's perpetual oil futures surged to ~$7.3B on March 12 from $339M on February 28 amid the Iran war (Vicky Ge Huang/Wall Street Journal)

Vicky Ge Huang / Wall Street Journal:
Kaiko: cumulative trading volume on crypto exchange Hyperliquid's perpetual oil futures surged to ~$7.3B on March 12 from $339M on February 28 amid the Iran war  —  A new generation of investors doesn't want to wait for the traditional market open  —  While traditional energy investors spent …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/63Ij0Gd

Why has the US targeted Iran's Kharg Island?

The tiny island is home to one of the most critical pieces of Iran's energy infrastructure.

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

Sources: Travis Kalanick prepares to launch a self-driving car company with backing from Uber and has been discussing acquiring Anthony Levandowski's Pronto.ai (Jessica E. Lessin/The Information)

Jessica E. Lessin / The Information:
Sources: Travis Kalanick prepares to launch a self-driving car company with backing from Uber and has been discussing acquiring Anthony Levandowski's Pronto.ai  —  Former Uber CEO and cofounder Travis Kalanick is preparing to launch a new self-driving car company with major backing …

from Techmeme https://ift.tt/klw9qhA

AWS plans to deploy Cerebras' Wafer-Scale Engine chip for AI inference functions; AWS will still offer slower, cheaper computing using its Trainium processors (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
AWS plans to deploy Cerebras' Wafer-Scale Engine chip for AI inference functions; AWS will still offer slower, cheaper computing using its Trainium processors  —  Amazon Web Services says the partnership will allow it to offer lightning-fast inference computing

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PayPay shares jump 19% in their Nasdaq debut after the company's $879.8M US IPO, the biggest listing by a Japanese company on a US stock exchange in a decade (Georgie McKay/Bloomberg)

Georgie McKay / Bloomberg:
PayPay shares jump 19% in their Nasdaq debut after the company's $879.8M US IPO, the biggest listing by a Japanese company on a US stock exchange in a decade  —  Shares of PayPay Corp. jumped 19% in its trading debut Thursday after the digital payments firm's $879.8 million US IPO …

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Swarm Aero, which is developing large swarming drones capable of carrying missiles and cargo, raised a $35M Series A, following a $22M seed in 2023 (Colin Demarest/Axios)

Colin Demarest / Axios:
Swarm Aero, which is developing large swarming drones capable of carrying missiles and cargo, raised a $35M Series A, following a $22M seed in 2023  —  Swarm Aero raised $35 million and plans to more than double its headcount by the end of the year.  —  The big picture: The California startup …

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Sources: xAI's AI agent project Macrohard has stalled as Tesla ramps up its own AI agent project Digital Optimus; Elon Musk says it is a joint xAI-Tesla project (Grace Kay/Business Insider)

Grace Kay / Business Insider:
Sources: xAI's AI agent project Macrohard has stalled as Tesla ramps up its own AI agent project Digital Optimus; Elon Musk says it is a joint xAI-Tesla project  —  Follow Grace Kay … - XAI's Macrohard project has stalled amid leadership changes and a data project pause.

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