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Conservative voters believe Vice President JD Vance will become the Republican Party's presidential nominee in the 2028 election cycle, a straw poll conducted at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) found.  "You guys are the conservative movement, you guys are the thought leaders, the opinion leaders. We asked folks who they thought would be the Republican nominee, who they preferred for the Republican for president in 2028. And who is it?," Jim McLaughlin, president of McLaughlin & Associates Polls, said Friday from the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Saturday.  "JD Vance. And why? Because he's viewed as the closest thing to Donald Trump," McLaughlin added, he did not provide additional data on Vance's support among CPAC attendees.  Steve Bannon, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others were also viewed by the attendees as the potential Republican nominee ...

Kendra Barnett / Adweek : X is rolling out Grok-powered AI tools for advertisers to generate ready-to-use ad copy and imagery and provide campaign performance analysis   —  The company is betting on AI to help recover some of the millions it has shed in ad revenue over the last two years

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security : An investigation details how Chinese cybercrime groups are turning phished payment card data into new Apple or Google wallets for online and in-store use   —  Carding — the underground business of stealing, selling and swiping stolen payment card data — has long been the dominion of Russia-based hackers.

President Donald Trump’s leadership will soon bring an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz vowed, assuring that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would sign the deal.  "Under Trump, this war will end. And it will end soon," Waltz said at the Conservative Political Action Conference near the nation's capital on Friday. "He is the president of peace." Waltz defended the Trump administration’s decision to come to the negotiating table with Russia during meetings in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, echoing Thursday's sentiments from Vice President JD Vance.   "You can’t end a war unless you talk to both sides, and that’s what we’re doing," Waltz said. TRUMP'S FRUSTRATIONS WITH ZELENKSYY ESCALATE AS US TURNS UP PRESSURE ON UKRAINE TO REACH PEACE DEAL   Waltz also said that the U.S. was coordinating with Ukraine, Russia and other European allies to determine everyone’s needs in order to secure a peace ...

David Heaney / UploadVR : Apple releases visionOS 2.4 developer beta, adding Apple Intelligence, a guest mode, a Spatial Gallery app, an iPhone app for remote installs, and more   —  visionOS 2.4 will bring Apple Intelligence to Vision Pro, a Spatial Gallery app, an iPhone app for remote installs, and a new iPhone/iPad-driven guest flow.

You’ll likely need a universal translator to decipher the fiscal discourse emanating from Capitol Hill this week and next. You’ll hear a lot about budget reconciliation. "One bill/two bill." And "vote-a-rama." Let’s break down what the House and Senate Budget Committees completed last week. That will set the table for what the full Senate addresses this week – and what the House aims to tackle next week. Congressional Republicans intend to enact President Donald Trump’s core agenda of cutting taxes and reducing federal spending. Republicans have their own problems passing such a plan in the House of Representatives because of the GOP’s slim majority. Republicans must stick together. But in the Senate, Republicans have 53 seats. That’s not enough to crack a filibuster on legislation. The bar there is 60. However, there’s a way to overcome that obstacle: use a special process called "budget reconciliation" to bypass a filibuster and pass the bill. ...

Matt Novak / Gizmodo : Elon Musk says he will “fix” Community Notes as they are “increasingly being gamed by governments & legacy media”, after disagreeing with notes about Ukraine   —  The billionaire has a history of manipulating X to fit his far-right worldview.

Following a fourth judge's ruling blocking his executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to say that the Founding Fathers are "spinning in their graves" and that the 14th Amendment was for former slaves, not illegals. "Our lawyers and Judges have to be tough, and protect America!" the president chided.  "The 14th Amendment Right of American Citizenship never had anything to do with modern-day ‘gate crashers,’ illegal immigrants who break the Law by being in our Country, it had everything to do with giving Citizenship to former slaves," he wrote. "Our Founding Fathers are ‘spinning in their graves"’ at the idea that our Country can be taken away from us," he added. "No Nation in the World has anything like this." TRUMP FREEZES APPLICATIONS FOR BIDEN-ERA MIGRANT PROGRAMS AMID FRAUD, NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS In what has become perhaps ...

Axios : Sources: NIST plans to cut 497 people, including 74 postdocs and most staff at its Chips for America program; the AI Safety Institute faces an uncertain future   —  Exit Content Preview … - The cuts come at a time when the U.S. is looking to lead in AI development and stave off competition from China.

Adamya Sharma / Android Authority : Google is bringing Circle to Search-like visual searches to its Chrome and Google iOS apps, without the Circle to Search branding   —  The feature will work within the Chrome and Google iOS apps via Lens.  —  •  —  •  —  •  —  TL;DR  — Google is bringing Circle …

A key Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee is reportedly on the fence about one of President Donald Trump 's Defense nominees over his stance on a nuclear Iran - a potential roadblock to his confirmation given the GOP's slim Senate majority.  Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is reportedly hesitant about the nomination of former Defense official Elbridge Colby to serve as the under secretary of defense for policy, a key Defense post that remains unmanned amid the ongoing confirmation process. "Senator Cotton is focused on ensuring all defense nominees commit to supporting President Trump’s position that Iran must not have a nuclear weapon, and Cotton will be addressing this in meetings and hearings with the nominees," a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital as they await Colby's paperwork to proceed with the nomination process. Colby has previously suggested that the U.S. living with a nuclear Iran is more plausible than countering the coun...

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch : Starting Feb. 19, Meta will store Facebook Live broadcasts for 30 days instead of storing them indefinitely and will remove videos currently older than 30 days   —  Facebook announced on Tuesday that live videos will now only be stored on the social network for 30 days, after which they will be deleted.

A House Democrat's strategy to demonize legislation aimed at making it a federal crime to try to evade law enforcement within 100 miles of the border backfired last week after dozens of House Democrats voted in favor of the bill. "I urge my colleagues to oppose H.R. 35. Let’s call this bill what it is: fearmongering dressed up as officer safety," Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Ore., said last week about the bill named after late Border Patrol Agent Raul Gonzalez, who died in a pursuit in 2022.  House Resolution 35 would make individuals convicted of "intentionally fleeing" law enforcement in a vehicle subject to up to two years in prison and fines. If the police chase results in a death, the individual could face up to life imprisonment under the legislation, and potentially face deportation if the person involved is in the country illegally. SAN DIEGO MIGRANT SHELTER CLOSES AFTER NO NEW ARRIVALS SINCE TRUMP TOOK OFFICE; OVER 100 EMPLOYEES LAID OFF "This bill e...

Politico : X challenges a German court order requiring it to share metrics such as likes and shares with researchers before the February 23 election, in a test of EU's DSA   —  Elon Musk's X has challenged a German court decision that instructed the platform to share data with researchers, the court confirmed to POLITICO.

As the Trump administration moves to negotiate the end of the Ukraine-Russia war, national security advisor Michael Waltz rejected the notion that European allies are not being consulted on the matter.  Talks between the U.S. and Russia are reportedly to begin in Saudi Arabia this week, while French President Emmanuel Macron is reportedly to host what is being billed as an emergency summit on Ukraine between European leaders in Paris starting Monday. Trump said he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, reportedly doing so without consulting NATO members.  In an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Waltz said that in back-to-back calls, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin separately agreed that "only President Trump could get them to the table, only President Trump could drive peace."  Waltz noted that Trump spoke to Macron last week and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has an upcoming trip to the United States.  TREASURY SECRETARY BE...

Financial Times : Match's head of trust and safety Yoel Roth says it is using AI in its apps like Tinder to detect men's “off-color” messages and “drive behavioral change”   —  Online dating group is using the technology to detect ‘off-colour’ messages, says safety chief Yoel Roth

Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "little bit scared" of President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview that aired Sunday.   Zelenskyy joined NBC's "Meet the Press," recounting that when he spoke to Trump by phone about a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, he told the president that he believes Putin fears the American leader.  "I said that [Putin] is a liar," Zelenskyy recounted of his phone call to Trump. "And he said, 'I think my feeling is that he's ready for these negotiations.' And I said to him, 'No, he's a liar. He doesn't want any peace.'  "But I think he's really a little bit scared about the President Trump. And I think the president has this chance, and he's strong. And I think that really he can push Putin to peace negotiations. Yes, I think so. I think he can, but don't trust him. Don't trust Putin. Don't trust just words ...