A senior Democratic lawmaker with knowledge of some of the U.S. government’s most secretive operations has said he has “deep concerns” about certain activities by the Central Intelligence Agency.  The two-line letter written by Sen. Ron Wyden, the longest serving member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, does not disclose the nature of the CIA’s activities or the senator’s specific concerns. But the letter follows a pattern in recent years in which Wyden has publicly hinted at wrongdoing or illegality within the federal government, sometimes referred to as the “Wyden siren.” 

Judit Polgár won her first chess tournament in 1981 when, at the age of six, she marmalised a string of middle-aged Hungarians and toddled off with a swanky Boris Diplomat Bd-1 Electronic Chess Computer. “I was a killer,” says the amiable 49-year-old in Netflix documentary Queen of Chess. “I wanted to kill my opponents. I would sacrifice everything to get checkmate.” Archive footage captures the bloody aftermath of Polgár’s inaugural victory; a roomful of solemnly jumpered victims looking on, dazed and ashen-jowled, as the vanquishing Hungarian scowls at photographers from beneath a bowl cut that could confidently be described as “ferocious”.

Fortnite developer Epic Games says the account some people believed to be linked to Jeffrey Epstein is a “ruse.” In a reply on X, the developer writes, “an existing Fortnite account owner changed their username” to “littlestjeff1,” an alias spotted in several emailed receipts from YouTube in the Epstein files. The email suggests that “littlestjeff1” may have been connected to Epstein’s YouTube account, prompting online sleuths to search for the username on other platforms. Users later uncovered a “littlestjeff1” account on Fortnite, along with a 2019 email that mentions purchasing VBucks in…

Quantum computers have the potential to transform fields ranging from materials science to cryptography, but today they remain extremely difficult to build and operate. One of the biggest challenges comes from decoherence, a process that introduces errors into quantum systems. These errors usually take the form of bit flips or phase flips. A bit flip occurs when a qubit unexpectedly switches between '0' and '1'. A phase flip happens when the phase of a quantum superposition suddenly reverses, changing from positive to negative. Because these changes can happen at random, even a single error can disrupt a calculation.

Reddit is gearing up for more M&A, the company told analysts on its fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday. Reddit CFO Andrew Vollero said the online forum site is looking for businesses that can either leverage Reddit’s scale — meaning their products become more impactful when deployed across Reddit’s massive user base — or help grow the company’s user base. “ looking to buy capabilities, technologies, and companies,” he said during the introductory remarks. Investors, obviously, wanted to know more — particularly about what the company had in mind when it came to scaled opportunities.

300 journalists have lost their jobs at The Washington Post. Over 300,000 readers have canceled their subscriptions. Owner Jeff Bezos, who purchased the legendary publication in 2013, has driven his reputation into the ground by using his vast empire to churn out content designed to make President Donald Trump happy: Amazon MGM Studios spent $40 million to produce a fawning documentary about Melania Trump, which premiered days before the Post sent out mass layoff notices. And yet, he’s gotten nothing out of his attempts to suck up to Donald Trump — at least, nothing that’s a net positive to his bottom line…

With its enigmatic promo run for Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel has perfected the trailer that reveals precisely nothing. Teasers have consisted of portentous glances, mood lighting, and characters standing very still. Dialogue is pre-scrubbed of context. Music swells with the confidence that something enormous is happening just out of frame. Plot, meanwhile, has been placed in witness protection. The studio is clearly well aware that giving away even a smidgen of detail this early on – the film isn’t due for release until December – would result in fans cracking the code long before any bums actually go on seats.

Elon Musk has merged SpaceX and xAI, creating what might be the blueprint for a new Silicon Valley power structure. With his $800 billion net worth already rivaling historic conglomerate GE’s peak market cap, and Musk being vocal about his view that “tech victory is decided by velocity of innovation,” the question isn’t whether a personal conglomerate can be built, but rather how far Musk himself is going to take it.  Watch as Equity dives into this new era of the “everything” business, whether we’ll see others like Sam Altman…

In most solid tumors, large numbers of regulatory T (Treg) cells are linked to worse outcomes. These immune cells normally act as brakes on the immune system, which means they can weaken the body's ability to attack cancer. Colorectal cancer stands out as a rare and confusing exception. In this disease, tumors with more Treg cells are often associated with longer survival. For years, researchers have not understood why this pattern is so different from what is seen in other cancers. A new study from researchers at the Sloan Kettering Institute at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) now offers a clear explanation.

An autonomous vehicle drives down a lonely stretch of highway. Suddenly, a massive tornado appears in the distance. What does the driverless vehicle do next? This is just one of the scenarios that Waymo can simulate in the “hyper realistic” virtual world that it has just created with help from Google’s DeepMind. Waymo’s World Model is built using Genie 3…

A month after introducing mandatory facial verification for access to chats on its platform, Roblox says 45% of its daily active users have undergone age checks as of January 31. Roblox’s launch of age checks followed a wave of lawsuits over child safety, including ones from the attorneys general of Texas, Kentucky, and Louisiana. The lawsuits were filed in response to reports that Roblox was exposing young users to dangerous risks, such as grooming and explicit content. To complete the age-check process, users have to open the Roblox app, allow access to their camera, and follow a series of on-screen instructions for facial verification.

On Thursday night, Stephen Colbert responded to White House adviser Paula White-Cain’s claims that Donald Trump is “the GOAT”, while Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers addressed ICE and Jeffrey Epstein. Stephen Colbert Over on the Late Show, Colbert turned his attention to Trump’s appearance at the national prayer breakfast and his speech at the Washington Hilton hotel. Or as Colbert called the president’s 77-minute address, “special material just for the prayer munchers”. Ahead of his remarks, Trump was introduced by White-Cain, the White House senior adviser who Colbert called a “haunted Bloomingdale’s mannequin”.

Synthetic materials are widely used across science, engineering, and industry, but most are designed to perform only a narrow range of tasks. A research team at Penn State set out to change that. Led by Hongtao Sun, assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering (IME), the group developed a new fabrication technique that can produce multifunctional "smart synthetic skin." These adaptable materials can be programmed to perform a wide variety of tasks, including hiding or revealing information, enabling adaptive camouflage, and supporting soft robotic systems.

Spotify is launching About the Song in beta today, which offers context and facts about the song you’re listening to. Premium users can scroll down to the new About the Song section for information while in the Now Playing view. At launch, it’s only available for a limited number of tracks, but there are plans to expand it. Bits of trivia and background about songs are presented as short, swipeable cards with information harvested from “third-party sources.” The text is generated using machine learning, but Spotify at least cites its sources on the About the Song cards.

Spotify is changing how its APIs work in Developer Mode, its layer that lets developers test their third-party applications using the audio platform’s APIs. The changes include a mandatory premium account, fewer test users, and a limited number of API endpoints. The company debuted Developer Mode in 2021 to allow developers to test their applications with up to 25 users. Spotify is now limiting each app to only five users, and requires devs to have a Premium subscription. If developers need to make their app available to a wider user base, they will have to apply for…

Aura’s Aspen digital photo frame is a great Valentine’s Day gift if you want something that’s slick and sentimental, and right now it’s on sale for $199 ($30 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Aura’s online storefront. That’s the lowest we’ve seen the frame sell for since the holidays. With its paper-textured, antiglare matte display and adjustable metal stand, the 12-inch Aspen looks remarkably similar to a classic picture frame.

Scientists at Cleveland-based institutions have uncovered a surprising new switch that helps the body make fat -- and turning it off had dramatic effects. Obesity and fatty liver disease are becoming more common worldwide as diets grow more calorie-dense and daily life becomes less active. Scientists in Cleveland have identified a previously unknown enzyme that the body needs in order to make fat. When researchers blocked this enzyme, it stopped weight gain and reduced unhealthy cholesterol levels. The discovery is now driving development of a potential three-in-one drug aimed at obesity, fatty liver disease, and heart disease.

From Kapelle, HollandRecommended if you like Black Midi, King Crimson, YHWH NailgunUp next New single Maalstroom out now Tight-fitted in scrimpy Sunday school apparel, Grote Geelstaart – Dutch for great yellowtail fish – make music that’s decidedly less orthodox than appearances suggest. Drums skirmish with frighteningly efficient, jackhammer velocity; synths and guitars buzz and ring like fire alarms; the bass rumbles like a jammed freighter engine. Grote Geelstaart’s clinical chaos goes hand in hand with vocalist/guitarist Luuk Bosma’s primal punk dramaturgy, reminiscent of Nick Cave, James Chance and underrated Dutch punk thespians De Kift.

If you primarily want a tablet device to markup, highlight, and annotate your e-books and documents, and perhaps sometimes scribble some notes of your own, Amazon’s new Kindle Scribe Colorsoft could be worth the hefty investment. For everyone else, it’s probably going to be hard to justify the cost of the 11-inch, $630+ e-ink tablet with a writeable color display. However, if you were already leaning toward the 11-inch $549.99 Kindle Scribe — which also has a paper-like display but no color — you may as well throw in the extra cash at that point and get the…

I’ve used Alexa to manage my shopping list for years. There are plenty of great list apps out there, but the convenience of adding items by voice anywhere in my house, pulling up the list on an Echo Show in the kitchen, and having it on my phone via the Alexa app has worked well for me. Until it didn’t. Alexa Plus, combined with a redesign of the Alexa app that puts the generative AI-powered assistant front and center, has made the entire process so irritating that I’ve reluctantly switched to Apple’s Reminders app and Siri.

The European Commission on Friday accused TikTok of purposefully designing its app for being “addictive,” calling out features such as infinite scroll, autoplay, and push notifications, as well as its recommendation engine. In preliminary findings from an investigation that sought to determine TikTok’s compliance with the European Union’s far-reaching Digital Services Act, the Commission said the short video platform did not “adequately assess” how its design decisions could harm the well-being of its users, particularly minors and vulnerable adults. The EU’s executive arm said the company disregarded “important indicators of compulsive use of the app” like the time users spend at night, and how often users open it.

Nicki Minaj is back doing PR for Donald Trump, and it’s messier than ever. Last week, she appeared at a treasury department summit in Washington DC to show support for Trump accounts, a new kind of investment account designed to “provide eligible American children with tax-advantaged investment accounts courtesy of President Donald J. Trump”, according to a government website. The most disappointing part of the rapper’s recent turn toward Maga, though, is how her stans – a significant portion of whom are Black and queer – are responding. After the summit, Minaj’s followers…

Titles still carry value. That value now depends on visible opponents, major platforms, and wins that carry authority beyond the result itself. Hitchins has handled his assignments cleanly. He has not been given the stage or the opposition that converts technical control into wider pull. That problem is sharpened by stylistic overlap with Shakur Stevenson. Both operate from range, limit exchanges, and win by control rather than spectacle. The difference has not been ability. Stevenson accumulated recognisable victories on prominent broadcasts, where his dominance was clearly absorbed by the audience. Hitchins’ wins have been quieter.

The Norwegian government has accused the Chinese-backed hacking group known as Salt Typhoon of breaking into several organizations in the country.  In a report published on Friday, the Norwegian Police Security Service said the hacking group, believed to be working for the Chinese government, targeted vulnerable network devices to conduct espionage. Norway is the latest country to confirm a Salt Typhoon-related intrusion.  Salt Typhoon, which senior U.S. national security officials have described as an “epoch-defining threat,” has for years stealthily hacked into the networks of critical infrastructure organizations around the world, …

A federal jury in Phoenix has found Uber to be liable for the sexual assault of one of its passengers, potentially setting a precedent for more than 3,000 similar cases consolidated in US federal court. As part of the verdict, Uber has been ordered to pay $8.5 million in damages to the victim, Jaylynn Dean, who said she was raped by her Uber driver during a ride to her hotel in November 2023.