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Russell Brandom / TechCrunch : Open source projects like VLC and Blender are seeing a decline in the average quality of contributions, likely as AI coding tools lower barriers to entry   —  A world that runs on increasingly powerful AI coding tools is one where software creation is cheap — or so the thinking goes …

David Nield / Wired : Google is ending Gmailify and POP access in Gmail; new users will lose access in Q1 2026, and existing users will keep both features until later in 2026   —  If you have multiple email accounts, your Gmail setup may soon need some reorganizing.  —  Google giveth, and Google taketh away.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani promoted a Big Apple "where every family can afford a home" and ripped "ICE’s cruelty and violence" Saturday as he faces criticism for proposing hiking property taxes to balance the city’s budget.  Mamdani made the remarks while paying tribute to the late Rev. Jesse Jackson at an event hosted by Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.  "When New Yorkers link arms with someone they have never met before and marched for the voiceless and the downtrodden, hope is alive. When New Yorkers sacrifice their precious free time in a city where every child can have the education that they deserve, where every family can afford a home in the stability that it holds, where our criminal justice system is fair and our economy is just, when New Yorkers link arms in the fight for those things, hope is alive," Mamdani said.  "Hope is the light. And we know this, that while Reverend Jackson may not be with us any longer, his purpose...

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica : English-language Wikipedia bans Archive.today after editors discover it was used to direct a DDoS attack and tampered with snapshots; 695K+ links to be removed   —  The English-language edition of Wikipedia is blacklisting Archive.today after the controversial archive site was used to direct …

The Supreme Court rebuked President Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs, ruling that the Constitution gives Congress — not the president — authority over tariffs. But the decision may not be the final word. From the Trade Expansion Act to the Trade Act of 1974 and even Depression-era statutes, multiple legal avenues remain that could allow Trump to reassert aggressive trade powers. In a 6-3 decision led by George W. Bush -appointed Chief Justice John Roberts, the court ruled that the "framers gave [tariff] power to Congress alone, notwithstanding the obvious foreign affairs implications of tariffs." George H.W. Bush-appointed Justice Clarence Thomas, Trump-appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh and George W. Bush-appointed Justice Samuel Alito dissented. SUPREME COURT PREPARES TO CONFRONT MONUMENTAL CASE OVER TRUMP EXECUTIVE POWER AND TARIFF AUTHORITY On "Liberation Day" in 2025, Trump...

Wall Street Journal : Sources: Google may invest $100M in Fluidstack at a $7.5B valuation and has backstopped crypto miners that are building datacenters, seeking to expand TPU use   —  As more AI companies consider Google's chips, the company wants to use deals with external partners to expand the potential market

One year after critics warned President Donald Trump ’s mass deportation push would spark bloodshed in America’s largest sanctuary cities, new data from a leading progressive police-reform group shows police-involved killings actually declined — the first drop in five years. Lawmakers and activists from Los Angeles to New York predicted that Trump’s surge into largely sanctuary-city communities would lead to more violence against innocent residents, which recently reached a fever pitch with the shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis. However, data from progressive advocacy project Mapping Police Violence, a subsidiary of the Harlem-based Campaign Zero police reform group, found that police-involved killings actually went down in that timespan. In its police violence report for 2025, the 1,314 police-involved killings marked a decline for the first time in five years. NOEM DIGS AT AGITATORS, SANCTUARY POLITICIANS IN TOUTING ICE MISSION CONTINUES 1 YEAR INTO TRUMP...

Chris Metinko / Axios : Cleveland-based Eagle Wireless, which makes cellular modules used in IoT devices, raised a $30M Series B as the US seeks to reduce its reliance on China   —  Eagle Wireless, a cellular module manufacturer, raised a $30 million Series B from Asymmetric Capital Partners and The O.H.I.O. Fund …

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is looking to get the Big Apple on a tighter budget, and seems to see cuts to the New York Police Department (NYPD) as a way of getting the city back on track. Mamdani's predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams , proposed at the end of his term that the city hire 5,000 more NYPD officers. However, upon entering office, Mamdani moved to cancel all orders signed by Adams following his Sept. 26, 2024, indictment. This included the proposed NYPD personnel increase. Under Adams' plan, the NYPD was set to add 300 officers in July 2026, growing to 2,500 in July 2027 and eventually increasing to 5,000 additional officers annually in July 2028. The Adams plan allowed the NYPD to deploy approximately 40,000 officers to the streets, while Mamdani's plan caps the number closer to its current level of around 35,000. Additionally, in the preliminary FY 2027 budget , it notes the importance of "significantly reducing current vacancies," which could i...

FIRST ON FOX: Federal agents seized more than 36,000 illegal firearms, including thousands bound for Mexico, since President Donald Trump took office, according to newly released figures by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The ATF also seized more than 2.3 million rounds of ammunition, saying Wednesday the illegal firearms and rounds originated with gang members and transnational criminal organizations, among others. The announcement marked a shift from the Biden administration's ATF, whose seizures focused on ghost guns , pistol braces and other regulatory priorities, in addition to illegal trafficking. The Trump administration has focused its efforts on combating street crime, gang violence and drug cartels. ATF Deputy Director Robert Cekada said the agency was aggressively pursuing what he described as sprawling networks of both domestic and international criminal organizations and gangs who traffic illegal firearms in and out of the country. TRUMP U...

Julia Black / Vanity Fair : OpenAI hires Instagram's VP of global partnerships, Charles Porch, as its first VP of global creative partnerships, seeking to win over a skeptical Hollywood   —  Charles Porch's newly created role as OpenAI's VP of global creative partnerships signals the AI giant's new focus on the entertainment industry

Anthropic : Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 4.6 with improvements in coding, consistency, and more, for Free and Pro users; it features a 1M token context window in beta   —  Claude Sonnet 4.6 is our most capable Sonnet model yet.  It's a full upgrade of the model's skills across coding, computer use …

Todd Spangler / Variety : Apple says it will bring “advanced video capabilities” to Apple Podcasts this spring, including allowing users to switch between watching and listening to shows   —  Apple Podcasts is finally giving video a full embrace.  —  The tech giant, which pioneered the podcast audio format …

The Department of Homeland Security told a court Friday that it could once again ban federal lawmakers from making unannounced visits to ICE detention centers after funding restrictions passed by Congress had expired. Government lawyers wrote to the D.C. federal court that there was "no lawful basis" for the court to continue blocking the policy, saying the partial government shutdown cleared the way for DHS to enforce it. The policy has been a point of contention in court for months as Democratic House lawmakers show up unannounced at facilities. Rep. Jamie Raskin , D-Md., used a recent surprise visit he made to a detention center in Maryland, for instance, to slam DHS for what he said were "disgraceful," overcrowded conditions. DHS first imposed a seven-day notice requirement for Congress members who wanted to visit Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities last summer, leading 13 House Democrats to sue. The plaintiffs included Raskin, Rep. Joe Neguse, D-...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton clashed with a Czech political leader at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday. Clinton was speaking during a panel on the state of the West where she heavily criticized President Donald Trump for his dealings with Europe. Petr Macinka, a Czech deputy prime minister, defended the Trump administration as Clinton repeatedly mocked his statements and tried to speak over him. "First, I think you really don't like him," Macinka said as he began to respond to Clinton's Trump-bashing. "You know, that is absolutely true," Clinton said. "But not only do I not like him, but I don't like what he's actually doing to the United States and the world, and I think you should take a hard look at it if you think there is something good that will come of it." TRUMP RIPS EUROPE AT DAVOS FOR WRONG 'DIRECTION,’ POINTS TO MIGRATION AND SPENDING "Well, what Trump is doing in America, I think...

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch : Sam Altman says that India has 100M weekly active ChatGPT users, the app's second-largest userbase after the US, ahead of the AI Impact Summit   —  India has 100 million weekly active ChatGPT users, making the country one of OpenAI's largest markets globally, CEO Sam Altman said ahead of a government-hosted AI summit.

Standing in Germany, where a Cold War wall once symbolized the division of a continent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered President Donald Trump’s red line for Europe. "We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline," Rubio said during his Friday remarks before the Munich Security Conference. America's top diplomat called for tighter borders, revived industry and a reassertion of national sovereignty, arguing that the West’s drift was not inevitable but the result of policy choices the Trump administration now intends to reverse. RUBIO STEPS INTO MUNICH SPOTLIGHT AS TRUMP LEANS ON HIM TO CARRY VANCE’S POPULIST MESSAGE ABROAD "We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history," he added, urging an alliance that "boldly races into the future." Rubio’s 3,000-word address marked one of the clearest articulations yet of Trump...

Will Oremus / Washington Post : Former NPR host David Greene sues Google for allegedly replicating his voice in NotebookLM without permission; Google says the voice is based on a paid actor   —  NPR's David Greene says he was “completely freaked out” when he heard an AI voice that sounded just like his own, and he's suing over it.