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Vietnam is weighing the most unusual version yet of the youth social media bans that are sweeping the globe. Instead of kicking kids off platforms entirely, the country wants to let them stay logged in — just muted. Under a draft decree from Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, reported on Friday by Reuters, users under 16 would keep their social media accounts but lose the ability to post, comment, or react to content. The proposal would require social media accounts for children under 16 to be registered under a parent, who would then be responsible for monitoring the…
Earlier this year, I picked up a rather unfortunate habit: vaping. More specifically, I started smoking flavored vapes manufactured in China’s so-called “Vape Valley” and sold throughout the United States.Flavored nicotine vapes are largely illegal in the US, yet convenience stores and tobacco shops across the country have generated billions of dollars in sales from these products in recent years, despite periodic law enforcement seizures and efforts by the Food and Drug Administration to keep them off the market. More recently, Chinese manufacturers have found a new way to sidestep the law, escaping regulatory oversight altogether.Like many people, I assumed…
ABC News’ Good Morning America matched the summer weather, remaining hot for the week of July 13 and being the only morning show to grow in total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo.GMA grew its total viewer lead over Today from a difference of 24,000 additional viewers the previous week to a difference of 93,000 viewers.In addition, ABC News’ morning show managed to cool Today’s demo viewership dominance, shrinking NBC News’ broadcast’s lead to less than 100,000 viewers. This has been the closest GMA has been to Today since the week of Jan. 12, 2026.As for CBS News’ CBS Mornings,…
Waymo is reportedly looking for a way out of its deal with Uber, which has made the Alphabet-owned company’s robotaxis available on the ride-hailing giant’s network in Austin and Atlanta, according to the Financial Times. Waymo already told Uber that it intends to offer robotaxis on its own app in those markets starting in January 2028 and alongside the existing offering, the ride-hail giant told TechCrunch on Friday. Uber said the contract with Waymo that covers Austin and Atlanta ends in May 2028. The two companies already split in Phoenix earlier this year, as TechCrunch first reported. Waymo didn’t immediately…
Earlier this week, Coca-Cola started an uproar over something consumers usually don’t get worked up about: a typeface.As part of the launch of a “new global visual identity system,” developed by JKR, Coke tweaked its famous Spencerian script and the “dynamic ribbon” that flows beneath it. But what got consumers mad was a new complementary slab serif font called Better With. Maybe it should’ve been called better without, since disgruntled masses fumed that the font—used with Coke’s signature red and white colors—looked a lot like a pack of Marlboro reds.“Am I the only one seeing Marlboro soda?” asked one commentator…
The U.S. Justice Department is prosecuting an American for allegedly providing U.S. border authorities with a passcode that wiped the contents of his phone, according to an indictment and media reports. This is thought to be the first known case in the United States where federal prosecutors have charged someone for the alleged destruction of data using a so-called “duress” password built into a phone’s software. According to The Guardian, which covered the story earlier this week following the court’s first hearing on Monday, Atlanta resident Samuel Tunick is fighting the charges. Tunick’s attorneys said that it was unlawful for…
The world could face the strongest El Niño since recordkeeping began, increasing the likelihood of extreme weather events and significant, long-term economic impacts globally.A new analysis by Berkeley Earth climate scientist Zeke Hausfather paints a worrying picture of the climate phenomenon developing in the Pacific Ocean. Models have consistently forecast that this year’s El Niño—characterized by hotter than normal waters in the eastern tropical Pacific—could be among the strongest on records. Hausfather’s analysis using the El Niño forecast based on 14 climate models through July indicates that “this year’s El Niño is not only very likely to be the strongest…
Fox & Friends has been a consistent and reliable performer for Fox News. As it celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, cable news’ highest-rated morning program shows no sign of slowing down. Built on the premise of informality, the trio of Brian Kilmeade, Ainsley Earhardt, and Lawrence Jones is seated on the show’s signature couch, discussing the day’s top stories. The fourth member of the morning show, Steve Doocy, appears on location from around the country reporting on special projects for the telecast.For our latest 5 Questions For… series, we spoke to Kilmeade on the morning show’s longevity, which he says…
Poke, the AI assistant you text like a friend, is making its next big move. The company behind the assistant, The Interaction Company of California, has been acquired by AI coding startup Cognition in a deal valuing the startup in the “low nine figures.” The deal will bring Poke’s interaction model and personality to Cognition’s coding assistant Devin. Meanwhile, Poke will take advantage of Cognition’s models and infrastructure to become faster and more reliable, Cognition said. What makes Poke interesting to consumers — and now, to its acquirer — is how it engages with users’ requests. Instead of functioning like…
ABC World News Tonight with David Muir and NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas were the only two evening news broadcasts to record viewership gains in total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo for the week of July 13.The battle between the two newscasts became even more interesting in the coveted demo. WNT leads Nightly News by 71,000 viewers.Meanwhile, CBS Evening News was the only show to finish with viewership loss in both measured categories. Note: The weekly averages of ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News are based on three days (Monday-Wednesday). Thursday’s (07/16/2026) and Friday’s (07/17/2026) broadcasts…
Defense tech company Anduril is said to be raising a new round of capital that may push its valuation up by a whopping $40 billion to about $100 billion, Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources. The company, which raised $5 billion in May at a $61 billion valuation — itself roughly double the $30.5 billion valuation it landed in its June 2025 Series G round — may be structuring the fundraise as a two-stage process, with the second stage bringing in investors at a higher valuation. Both tranches could be closed within the year, Reuters reported. The news comes as the…
Iamnitchi is one of several misinformation researchers who told WIRED that, despite being legally entitled to obtain platform data under EU law, they face obstacles, obfuscation, and, in some cases, court battles to obtain it. Last year the law was broadened to increase researcher access, but it’s the implementation not the scope of the law itself that researchers say is the issue.In recent years, social media companies shut down public access tools like Meta’s CrowdTangle and replaced them with content libraries, or, like X, paywalled their API data, forcing academics to pay “hundreds of dollars a month,” said Duncan Allen,…
Nobody gets into advertising to become a manager. But if you’re good at it, that’s where you end up.Inevitably, your job moves from making things to nurturing your teams’ ideas, managing their careers, and taking the hits so they can do the work. It’s the hardest pivot in our business outside of landing your first job.And the industry is terrible at preparing creatives for it. I struggled with this transition more than I’d like to admit. Watching other managers helped. The great ones showed me what to aim for and the bad ones showed me what to avoid. But osmosis has…
World, the online verification startup co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, has raised $52.5 million through a crypto token sale to strategic investors. Participating investors joined a 12-month lockup sale of World’s token, WLD. Lockup periods prevent asset buyers from selling or trading their tokens for a set period of time. The year-long lockup demonstrates investors’ “long-term commitment to World’s continued growth and utility,” the company said Friday in a press release. The money will go to the World Foundation, an exempted limited guarantee foundation based in the Cayman Islands, created to steward the expansion of World’s network. The sale’s lead…
If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember the way the web used to be: sites made and developed by humans.You could load up a directory like AltaVista or Yahoo and click through categories including Home & Family, Science, and Computers. In those listings you’d find pages put together by hobbyists, academics, and tech nerds.People gathered around forums and bulletin boards, and web developers tended to avoid putting images on their sites because it would slow down page loading. The idea of watching a video over the internet seemed almost impossible.In the decades since those formative years, the web has…
Plenty of brands spent millions on the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but which accomplished their viewership goooals?According to tech and data company Samba, over 75% of U.S. households watched at least one World Cup match, with 62% watching three or more games. The data shows audiences were engaged throughout the tournament, giving brands plenty of opportunity to capitalize on spend, which could reach $50 million or more in sponsorship deals alone at the broadcasters.Samba Media Intelligence has tracked more than 6,000 brands with ads in the World Cup in the U.S., but some were on top of their game plans…