Smartphone Market To Decline 13% in 2026, Marking the Largest Drop Ever Due To the Memory Shortage Crisis
An anonymous reader shares a report: Worldwide smartphone shipments are forecast to decline 12.9% year-on-year (YoY) in 2026 to 1.1 billion units, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. This decline will bring the smartphone market to its lowest annual shipment volume in more than a decade. The current forecast represents a sharp decline from our November forecast amid the intensifying memory shortage crisis.
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Nasa Announces Artemis III Mission No Longer Aims To Send Humans To Moon
Nasa announced on Friday radical changes to its delayed Artemis III mission to land humans back on the moon, as the US space agency grapples with technical glitches and criticism that it is trying to do too much too soon. From a report: The abrupt shift in strategy was laid out by the space agency's recently confirmed administrator, Jared Isaacman. Announcing the changes on Friday, he said that Nasa would introduce at least one new moon flight before attempting to put humans back on the lunar surface for the first time in more than half a century, in 2028.
The new, more incremental approach would give the Nasa team a chance to test flight and refine its technology. As part of the changes, the Artemis II mission to fly humans around the moon this year, without landing, would also be pushed back from its latest scheduled launch on 6 March to 1 April at the earliest.
"Everybody agrees this is the only way forward," Isaacman told reporters at a news conference. "I know this is how Nasa changed the world, and this is how Nasa is going to do it again."
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With a New Nigeria Refinery, Africa’s Richest Man Wants ‘to Rescue the Country’
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has an ambitious vision for the continent’s most populous nation, but hurdles stand in his way.
In Tuesday’s North Carolina Primaries, the Left Is Aiming for Democrats
From a Durham-area House race to three statehouse races, North Carolina liberals are signaling that their tolerance for Democratic stalwarts may be coming to an end.
Iran’s Students Are Protesting Again. Here’s Why.
The unrest underlines the intensity of domestic discontent, even as Tehran’s government grapples with the threat of U.S. strikes. Here’s what to know.
Border Patrol Left a Refugee at a Cafe. Days Later, He Was Found Dead.
The disabled man had been released from jail when federal officers showed up and drove him to a coffee shop. His family searched for him for days.
A Chinese Official's Use of ChatGPT Accidentally Revealed a Global Intimidation Operation
A sprawling Chinese influence operation -- accidentally revealed by a Chinese law enforcement official's use of ChatGPT -- focused on intimidating Chinese dissidents abroad, including by impersonating US immigration officials, according to a new report from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. From a report: The Chinese law enforcement official used ChatGPT like a diary to document the alleged covert campaign of suppression, OpenAI said. In one instance, Chinese operators allegedly disguised themselves as US immigration officials to warn a US-based Chinese dissident that their public statements had supposedly broken the law, according to the ChatGPT user. In another case, they describe an effort to use forged documents from a US county court to try to get a Chinese dissident's social media account taken down.
The report offers one of the most vivid examples yet of how authoritarian regimes can use AI tools to document their censorship efforts. The influence operation appeared to involve hundreds of Chinese operators and thousands of fake online accounts on various social media platforms, according to OpenAI.
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Metacritic Will Kick Out Media Attempting To Submit AI Generated Reviews
An anonymous reader shares a report: While some see AI as a tool to be used, its specific use and how it is deployed responsibly is being heavily debated online across a wide range of industries. In terms of journalistic content, and in this particular instance, reviews, review aggregator Metacritic has taken a firm stance on content published and submitted to their platform, that have been generated by artificial intelligence in some way.
In a statement by co-founder Marc Doyle, sent to Gamereactor, he says this: "Metacritic has been a reputable review source for a quarter century and has maintained a rigorous vetting process when adding new publications to our slate of critics. However, in certain instances such as a publication being sold or a writing staff having turned over, problems can arise such as plagiarism, theft, or other forms of fraud including AI-generated reviews. Metacritic's policy is to never include an AI-generated critic review on Metacritic and if we discover that one has been posted, we'll remove it immediately and sever ties with that publication indefinitely pending a thorough investigation."
So, what is this about specifically? Well, it's probably a sound guess, that this pertains to Videogamer's review of Resident Evil 9: Requiem, which was removed from the platform after a barrage of comments accusing the review of being AI-written, and for the author of being made up.
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A Trump Call Ignited Saudi-U.A.E. Feud
A request made to President Trump about the war in Sudan is at the heart of a diplomatic dispute between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The Rise and Fall of a 3-D Printing Empire
Desktop Metal, a billion-dollar start-up, promised to revolutionize manufacturing. It went bankrupt, and now has much humbler ambitions as the 3-D printing industry takes a sober turn.
I Needed ‘Heated Rivalry’: Gay Romance Minus the Tragedy
After a lifetime of settling for shame, secrecy and death onscreen, I had my doubts about “Heated Rivalry.” Then it seduced me, too.
Green Party Defeats Labour in U.K. Special Election, in Blow to Starmer
The result marks the first time the Greens have won a British parliamentary by-election and signals the frustration of left-leaning voters with Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Pakistan Strikes Afghanistan in ‘Open War’ Against Taliban Regime
The airstrikes came hours after Afghan troops had attacked Pakistani border positions and follow months of worsening relations between the neighboring countries.
Germany’s Oil and Gas Output Is Dwindling as Prices Rise
Natural gas production in Germany has fallen about 80 percent in the past two decades even as the country seeks to replace flows from Russia.
After F.B.I. Raid, Los Angeles School Board Discusses Superintendent’s Future
Board members held an emergency meeting a day after agents raided the home and office of Alberto Carvalho, the Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent. They did not reach a resolution and agreed to reconvene Friday.
Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for Paramount Takeover
The move was a stunning development in the long-running corporate battle for the storied media giant.
Anthropic CEO Says AI Company 'Cannot In Good Conscience Accede' To Pentagon
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday the artificial intelligence company "cannot in good conscience accede" to the Pentagon's demands to allow wider use of its technology. The maker of the AI chatbot Claude said in a statement that it's not walking away from negotiations, but that new contract language received from the Defense Department "made virtually no progress on preventing Claude's use for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons."
The Pentagon's top spokesman has reiterated that the military wants to use Anthropic's artificial intelligence technology in legal ways and will not let the company dictate any limits ahead of a Friday deadline to agree to its demands. Sean Parnell said Thursday on social media that the Pentagon "has no interest in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of Americans (which is illegal) nor do we want to use AI to develop autonomous weapons that operate without human involvement."
Anthropic's policies prevent its models, such as its chatbot Claude, from being used for those purposes. It's the last of its peers -- the Pentagon also has contracts with Google, OpenAI and Elon Musk's xAI -- to not supply its technology to a new U.S. military internal network. Parnell said the Pentagon wants to "use Anthropic's model for all lawful purposes" but didn't offer details on what that entailed. He said opening up use of the technology would prevent the company from "jeopardizing critical military operations." "We will not let ANY company dictate the terms regarding how we make operational decisions," he said. In a post on X, Parnell said Anthropic will "have until 5:01 PM ET on Friday to decide. Otherwise, we will terminate our partnership with Anthropic and deem them a supply chain risk for DOW."
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Hillary Clinton Denies Knowing Epstein or His Crimes in a Tense Deposition
After resisting testifying for months, the former secretary of state entered the session defiant, and grew irate after a Republican leaked a photo from inside the room.
Mamdani Meets Again With Trump, Emerging With Two Unexpected Victories
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he and President Trump discussed building housing in New York City, and he appeared to secure the release of a Columbia student detained by ICE on Thursday.
Google Workers Seek ‘Red Lines’ on Military A.I., Echoing Anthropic
More than 100 Google A.I. employees sent a letter to Jeff Dean, a chief scientist, opposing Gemini’s use for U.S. surveillance and some autonomous weapons.