newsnation

Samuel Osborne / Sky News : UK's largest insurer Aviva says VR headset-related damage claims increased by 31% in 2021, with an average claim of ~£650 and TVs being the most damaged item   —  Aviva has said home contents claims involving the gaming headsets rose by 31% last year and have increased by 68% in five years.

“My dad is always great. He's doing fantastic, always training, always staying healthy,” Baena said at the “Homecoming Weekend” party in West Hollywood ahead of Super Sunday. “As far as I know, he's doing really well.”

Lawyers for the Clinton campaign paid a technology company to "infiltrate" servers belonging to Trump Tower, and later the White House, in order to create fake information to bring to government agencies linking Donald Trump to Russia, a filing from Special Counsel John Durham says.

Over 50 House lawmakers, both Democrat and Republican, used the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution to renew U.S. calls for a free and democratic Iran -- just as the regime in Tehran faced its own troubles at home.

Democratic lawmakers and party officials are beginning to cast blame on one another for the failure of the Build Back Better legislation championed by the left wing and pushed by President Biden's administration.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis voiced opposition to legislation that would strip funds that implemented mask mandates and instead suggested that parents should have the right to sue over the harm that masking caused their children.

Kim Lyons / The Verge : Twitch has updated its policy to ban usernames that include “references to sexual acts, arousal, fluids, or genitalia” and references to hard drugs from March 1   —  Cannabis and alcohol are still allowed  —  Video streaming website Twitch has updated its policy to ban usernames …

Three victims were injured in a shooting Saturday morning outside a West Los Angeles restaurant frequented by celebrities, authorities say.

A pair of Republican lawmakers authored new legislation to ban federal taxpayer dollars from funding crack pipes, needles and other drug paraphernalia, following a firestorm over a viral report that alleged the Biden administration would be funding crack pipes for addicts.

Mishaal Rahman / Esper Blog : A deep dive into Android 13's new features and changes, including a photo picker, per-app language preferences, Quick Settings tiles, a Hub mode, and UI changes   —  Although Google only just unveiled the final beta release of Android 12L, the feature update for tablets and other large screen devices …

Bob Saget’s death last month stemmed from an accidental blow to the head, his family previously shared.

Kylie Jenner revealed the name of her second child with Travis Scott.

New York Times : A real life test to secretly follow a person using AirTags, Tiles, and a LandAirSea GPS tracker   —  A vast location-tracking network is being built around us so we don't lose our keys: One couple's adventures in the consumer tech surveillance state.  —  In mid-January, my husband and I were having an argument.

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica : Google Currents, the enterprise-focused version of Google+, will shut down starting in 2023; the consumer version of Google+ was shut down in April 2019   —  Who remembered that “Google Currents” was still available for businesses?  Anybody?  —  Google+ is dead—again!

Amie Harwick died in 2020 after she was thrown over the third-floor balcony of her Hollywood Hills apartment, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.

Gooden sent a letter to several NGOs on their role in the southern border crisis as NGOs and federal agencies come under fire for exacerbating the situation.

Jay Peters / The Verge : Google says Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo, and others will use Android 12's dynamic color themes; at present, the feature is mostly on Pixels   —  One of Android 12's signature features is coming to more phones  —  Google's Material You dynamic color theming, which lets you more easily match …

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch : Google releases the first Android 13 developer preview, emphasizing security and privacy, dynamic colors, and more, available exclusively on Pixels   —  Right on schedule, Google today announced the first developer release of Android 13.  These very early releases, which are only meant …

Juli Clover / MacRumors : Apple plans AirTags updates to cut down on unwanted tracking: Precision Finding for unknown AirTags, displaying alerts with sound, louder sounds, and more   —  Apple today announced that it is making some updates to AirTags with the aim of cutting down on unwanted tracking.

Mike Masnick / Techdirt : Senator Blumenthal admits the EARN IT Act won't “offer a blanket exemption to using encryption as evidence”, after denying for two years it targets encryption   —  from the he-just-came-out-and-said-it dept  —  Senator Richard Blumenthal has now admitted that EARN IT is targeting encryption …

Nick Jonas, Priyanka Chopra, Jeannie Mai and Ashley Graham are among the stars to have welcomed children in 2022.

Outgoing Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee sat down for an interview with a local newspaper on Tuesday to give his thoughts on upcoming elections and the future of the Democratic Party in his state.

Matt Levine / Bloomberg : How the feds caught Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein as they allegedly attempted, rather sloppily, to launder bitcoin from the Bitfinex hack   —  Bitfinex laundry  —  In her public life, Heather Morgan seems to have been the cringiest imaginable sort of crypto-adjacent hustle-bro.

Kim Kardashian is speaking candidly about what led to her decision to finally separate from her now-ex-husband, Kanye West.

Nebraska became the 17th state to vote for a convention of states with the goal of amending the Constitution to reduce the power of the federal government.

Rep. Andy Biggs on Wednesday pushed DHS about its legal basis for releasing migrants into the U.S. interior – after DHS revealed the number of migrants released without a notice to check in with a local ICE office.

Ben Thompson / Stratechery : A review of digital advertising in 2022, which has shifted from a Google-Meta duopoly to one where Amazon and potentially Apple are major forces   —  Six years ago tomorrow, in The Reality of Missing Out, I wrote that the digital advertising market was settled, and Google and Facebook won:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it will not seek to deport an illegal immigrant who allegedly drew swastikas in Washington D.C.’s Union Station and who has previously been deported four times — with the agency citing the capital’s "sanctuary city" policies.

Shubham Sharma / VentureBeat : Airmeet, which offers online event hosting services, raises a $35M Series B, and says it helped 120K+ event organizers stream 150M minutes of video in 2021   —  Delaware-based Airmeet is offering a dedicated platform to help enterprises make their big events truly virtual and interactive.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a scathing letter Tuesday blasting the U.S. Attorney’s office for seeking reduced sentences for rioters arrested during the 2020 George Floyd protests.

Dade Hayes / Deadline : Oscar nominations for Netflix and Amazon fell; half of the Best Picture nominees had little to no time in theaters and all major studios relied on hybrid models   —  This morning's Oscar nominations suggest a rethink — or at least a collective hitting of the pause button — on the status of streaming in the awards conversation.

A group of 33 Republican senators led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, are arguing that any new nuclear deal with Iran requires Senate approval, warning President Biden that they will do everything in their power to block one if he moves forward without them.

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record : Microsoft starts blocking VBA macro scripts by default in Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Visio, and Word, after years of security experts requesting the change   —  In one of the most impactful changes made in recent years, Microsoft has announced today that it will block by default the execution …

Karl Freund / Forbes : Intel announces efforts to accelerate RISC-V development and adoption, including licensing plans, chip manufacturing partners, and a $1B IFS Innovation Fund   —  This announcement will have a long-lasting impact on the entire semiconductor industry:  —  Intel must fabricate chips …

Shoshana Wodinsky / Gizmodo : Adtech experts explain how GDPR has proven ineffective thanks to the ingenuity of adtech firms, which have managed to effectively skirt its consent requirement   —  The EU's landmark privacy law, GDPR, was supposed to change the world of tech privacy forever.  What the hell happened?  —  Alerts

Lisa Vanderpump revealed she had surgery on her leg following a horseback riding accident that left the reality TV star hospitalized. She is now recovering at home, according to her social media.

While Democrats mull upending their presidential nominating calendar, there's little desire by Republicans to alter their primary and caucus calendar

Awkwkafina responded to longstanding criticism that she uses a fake “blaccent” in her comedy while announcing that she’s retiring from Twitter.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., announced a rally in Texas in support of two candidates in next month's Democratic primary.

Comedian Heather McDonald collapsed on stage during a performance in Tempe, Arizona.

Emma Roth / The Verge : Twitter tests adding a DM icon to tweets on iOS to help “start a conversation”; some say the shortcut could make users even more susceptible to harassment   —  The feature will let you send a DM straight from a tweet  —  Twitter is exploring a new way to send DMs on iOS …

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson seemingly withdrew his support for Joe Rogan after a slew of resurfaced videos showed the popular podcast host using racial slurs.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., outlined what Republicans will do once they regain the majority in the House of Representatives, stressing that a bipartisan committee on China will be created and the origins of the coronavirus pandemic will be investigated.

Mitchell Clark / The Verge : The FCC notifies Congress that service providers requested ~$5.6B to replace Huawei and ZTE equipment in US networks, up from the FCC's $1.8B estimate in 2020   —  In 2020 the estimate was $1.8 billion — now it's $5.6 billion  —  The estimated cost of replacing Huawei and ZTE equipment in US networks has increased substantially.