Rep. McIver Charged With Assault Over Clash Outside Newark ICE Center

NY Times - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 22:00
The Department of Justice also announced it was dropping a trespass charge against the city’s mayor stemming from the same episode.

How Trump’s Search for a New Air Force One Led to Qatar’s Jet

NY Times - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 21:43
Qatar had been trying to sell off a luxury jet for years, with no luck. Then President Trump’s team set its sights on it.

Trump Suggests Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis Was Hidden From Public

NY Times - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 21:31
Mr. Biden’s office said he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.

What to Know About the Mexican Navy Ship That Crashed Into the Brooklyn Bridge

NY Times - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 21:22
The ship ARM Cuauhtémoc — with 277 people on board, including 175 naval cadets — was on a good-will tour throughout the world.

New Orleans Seeks Escaped Inmates, and Answers About Their Brazen Escape

NY Times - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 20:54
The manhunt for six men, including some accused of violent crimes, has alarmed the city and brought new attention to New Orleans’s troubled jail.

Apple's Next-Gen Version of Siri Is 'On Par' With ChatGPT

SlashDot - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 20:50
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman (paywalled), Apple has big plans to turn Siri into a true ChatGPT competitor. "A next-generation, chatbot version of Siri has reportedly made significant progress during testing over the past six months; some executives allegedly now see it as 'on par' with recent versions of ChatGPT," reports MacRumors. "Apple is also apparently discussing giving Siri the ability to access the internet to gather and synthesize data from multiple sources, just like ChatGPT." From the report: The report added that Apple now has artificial intelligence offices in Zurich, where employees are working on an all-new software architecture for Siri. This "monolithic model" is entirely built on an LLM engine that will eventually replace Siri's current "hybrid" architecture that has been incoherently layered up with different functionality over many years. The new model will make Siri more conversational and better at synthesizing information. Google's Gemini is expected to be added to iOS 19 as an alternative to ChatGPT in Siri, but Apple is also apparently in talks with Perplexity to add their AI service as another option in the future, for both Siri and Safari search.

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Met Museum Surrenders Artifacts Thought Looted From Iraq

NY Times - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 20:23
The Manhattan district attorney’s office said the objects had been identified as illicit during an investigation of an art dealer suspected of having trafficked in stolen antiquities.

The Trump-Supporting Christians Accusing Jews of Antisemitism

NY Times - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 20:11
Ultra-Zionist gentiles are transforming America into something out of Jewish nightmares, pretending they’re trying to ensure Jewish safety.

Debt Downgrade Bolsters the Right in Congressional Talks Over Megabill

NY Times - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 20:10
Conservatives have been holding out against the major tax and spending cut package to implement President Trump’s agenda, arguing it will swell federal deficits. The Moody’s downgrade underscored their concerns.

Sony Mass-Bans Russian PlayStation Accounts

SlashDot - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 20:10
Sony has begun mass suspensions of PlayStation accounts linked to Russian users, including those registered in other countries like Turkiye and Kazakhstan, in an effort to crack down on circumvention of regional restrictions like PS Plus access. This move follows Sony's 2022 exit from the Russian market due to the war in Ukraine. Ukrainska Pravda reports: Russians are trying to bypass the blocks and are contacting PlayStation support, but these attempts are to no avail. Users with purchased accounts encounter the most problems -- Sony checks IP addresses for verification. There are already many similar reports. In some cases, accounts with thousands of roubles worth of games purchased have been blocked. Russian media outlets like RT are reporting the news.

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$800 Million Overhaul of Arthur Ashe Stadium Will Add Space and Luxury

NY Times - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 20:08
Construction on the Arthur Ashe tennis stadium and a new building for players is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2027 U.S. Open.

Retired Navy Admiral Is Convicted on Bribery Charges

NY Times - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 19:48
Robert P. Burke, who was the Navy’s second-highest-ranking officer, was accused of steering a contract to a company that offered him a lucrative job.

Thousands of Chicks Left in Postal Service Truck Overwhelm a Delaware Shelter

NY Times - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 19:39
About 4,000 birds were found dead in the truck, and 10,000 others were stranded there for three days, state officials said. The hatchery that shipped the chicks said it did not know why the shipment had never made it to its destinations.

Qualcomm To Launch Data Center Processors That Link To Nvidia Chips

SlashDot - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 19:30
Qualcomm announced plans to re-enter the data center market with custom CPUs designed to integrate with Nvidia GPUs and software. As CNBC reports, the move supports Qualcomm's broader strategy to diversify beyond smartphones and into high-growth areas like data centers, PCs, and automotive chips. From the report: "I think we see a lot of growth happening in this space for decades to come, and we have some technology that can add real value added," Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm, told CNBC in an interview on Monday. "So I think we have a very disruptive CPU." Amon said the company will make an announcement about the CPU roadmap and the timing of its release "very soon," without offering specifics. The data center CPU market remains highly competitive. Big cloud computing players like Amazon and Microsoft already design and deploy their own custom CPUs. AMD and Intel also have a strong presence. Addressing the competition, Amon said that there will be a place for Qualcomm in the data center CPU space. "As long as ... we can build a great product, we can bring innovation, and we can add value with some disruptive technology, there's going to be room for Qualcomm, especially in the data center," Amon said. "[It] is a very large addressable market that will that will see a lot of investment for decades to come." Last week, Qualcomm signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi-based AI frim Humain to develop data centers, joining a slew of U.S. tech companies making deals in the region. Humain will operate under Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

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Google Decided Against Offering Publishers Options In AI Search

SlashDot - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 18:50
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: While using website data to build a Google Search topped with artificial intelligence-generated answers, an Alphabet executive acknowledged in an internal document that there was an alternative way to do things: They could ask web publishers for permission, or let them directly opt out of being included. But giving publishers a choice would make training AI models in search too complicated, the company concludes in the document, which was unearthed in the company's search antitrust trial. It said Google had a "hard red line" and would require all publishers who wanted their content to show up in the search page to also be used to feed AI features. Instead of giving options, Google decided to "silently update," with "no public announcement" about how they were using publishers' data, according to the document, written by Chetna Bindra, a product management executive at Google Search. "Do what we say, say what we do, but carefully." "It's a little bit damning," said Paul Bannister, the chief strategy officer at Raptive, which represents online creators. "It pretty clearly shows that they knew there was a range of options and they pretty much chose the most conservative, most protective of them -- the option that didn't give publishers any controls at all." For its part, Google said in a statement to Bloomberg: "Publishers have always controlled how their content is made available to Google as AI models have been built into Search for many years, helping surface relevant sites and driving traffic to them. This document is an early-stage list of options in an evolving space and doesn't reflect feasibility or actual decisions." They added that Google continually updates its product documentation for search online.

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Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis Leaves Democrats With New Questions

NY Times - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 18:10
The former president’s cancer diagnosis prompted an outpouring of well wishes and sympathy, as well as some whispered uncertainties that reflected a lack of trust in what he says about his health.

Google Launches NotebookLM App For Android and iOS

SlashDot - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 18:10
Google has launched the NotebookLM app for Android and iOS, offering a native mobile experience with offline support, audio overviews, and integration into the system share sheet for adding sources like PDFs and YouTube videos. 9to5Google reports: This native experience starts on a homepage of your notebooks with filters at the top for Recent, Shared, Title, and Downloaded. The app features a light and dark mode based on your device's system theme with no manual toggle. Each colorful card features the notebook name, emoji, number of sources, and date, as well as a play button for Audio Overviews. There's background playback and offline support for the podcast-style experience (the fullscreen player has a nice glow), while you can "Join" the AI hosts (in beta) to ask follow-up questions. You get a "Create new" button at the bottom of the list to add PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, and text. Notably, the NotebookLM app will appear in the Android and iOS share sheet to quickly add sources. When you open a notebook, there's a bottom bar for the list of Sources, Chat Q&A, and Studio. It's similar to the current mobile website, with the native client letting users ditch the Progressive Web App. Out of the gate, there are phone and (straightforward) tablet interfaces. You can download the app for iOS and Android using their respective links.

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Trump Berates Walmart and Mattel for Warning About Tariff Price Increases

NY Times - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 18:02
The president recently attacked Walmart, saying it should “eat” the costs rather than pass them on to customers.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals To Buy 23andMe and Its Data For $256 Million

SlashDot - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 17:30
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is acquiring most of 23andMe's assets for $256 million. The sale includes 23andMe's Personal Genome Service, Total Health and Research Services business lines. What's not included is 23andMe's telehealth unit, Lemonaid Health, which the company acquired for around $400 million in 2021. It'll be shut down, but all staffers will remain employed. CNBC reports: The deal is still subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Pending approval, it's expected to close in the third quarter of this year, according to the release. In its bankruptcy proceedings, 23andMe required all bidders to comply with its privacy policies, and a court-appointed, independent "Consumer Privacy Ombudsman" will assess the deal, the companies said. Several lawmakers and officials, including the Federal Trade Commission, had expressed concerns about the safety of consumers' genetic data through 23andMe's sale process. The privacy ombudsman will present a report on the acquisition to the court by June 10. "We are pleased to have reached a transaction that maximizes the value of the business and enables the mission of 23andMe to live on, while maintaining critical protections around customer privacy, choice and consent with respect to their genetic data," Mark Jensen, 23andMe's board chair, said in a statement. "At its peak, 23andMe was valued at around $6 billion," notes the report.

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Supreme Court Lets Trump Lift Deportation Protections for Venezuelans

NY Times - Mon, 05/19/2025 - 17:19
A federal judge had blocked the administration’s plan to remove the temporary protected status of more than 300,000 immigrants.

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