156 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Jess Weatherbed

Jess Weatherbed

News Reporter

News Reporter

    More From Jess Weatherbed

    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    The EU has officially adopted its sweeping AI law.

    After two years of debate and revisions, European Parliament members gave the Artificial Intelligence Act their final approval on Wednesday.

    While the law officially comes into force 20 days after it’s published in the Official Journal (likely happening in May), some rules — like those impacting general-purpose AI systems like chatbots — will take effect 12 months later to give AI providers time to comply.

    Artificial Intelligence Act: MEPs adopt landmark law | News | European Parliament

    [www.europarl.europa.eu]

    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    Japan’s Space One rocket goes up in smoke.

    The solid-fueled “Kairos” rocket carrying an experimental government satellite exploded just seconds after launching on Wednesday. The Space One startup had hoped to become the first private Japanese company to put a satellite into orbit.

    ‘The rocket terminated the flight after judging that the achievement of its mission would be difficult,’ company president Masakazu Toyoda said at a news conference.

    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    Lego’s D&D set will be unveiled on March 19th.

    The highly anticipated Dungeons and Dragons set — inspired by this “Dragon’s Keep: Journey’s End” fan design — will be revealed at 1PM EST / 10AM PT next Tuesday. The actual release date hasn’t been announced yet.

    The new minifig teaser below Lego’s countdown timer looks like a balanced adventuring party, and will probably work well as actual D&D character miniatures.

    A screenshot taken of the Lego D&D minifig teaser.
    My guess (from left to right): an elven spellcaster, a human paladin/cleric, a dwarven fighter, and either a rogue or ranger.
    Image: Lego
    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    Midjourney is testing a highly requested “consistent characters” feature.

    The generative AI service’s new algorithm can now use the same character across multiple images and styles without deviating too far from their original design.

    Instructions on how to use “consistent characters” can be found on Midjourney’s Discord channel. The feature isn’t designed to replicate real people from photographs, and works best on characters generated via Midjourney.

    Midjourney bans all Stability AI employees over alleged data scrapingMidjourney bans all Stability AI employees over alleged data scraping
    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    You can already make your character for Dragon’s Dogma 2.

    Capcom has released the game’s incredibly customizable character creator on Steam, PS5, and Xbox series S/X ahead of the full Dragon’s Dogma 2 release on March 22nd.

    You can create up to five companions and main characters respectively, which can then be transferred to the base game at launch — allowing you to jump right into the monster clobbering action.

    The New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with legal takedownsThe New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with legal takedowns
    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    LG has a new $200 speaker for its TV-on-a-stick.

    The StanbyME XT7 is designed to work as both a standalone Bluetooth speaker, or attached to the stand of LG’s StanbyME touchscreen TV. It also features built-in lighting effects, and supports up to 16 hours of playback.

    The speaker is now available in the US and South Korea, and will expand to other regions “later” according to LG.

    The LG StanbyME Speaker XT7S attached to the StanbyME TV, with someone painting on a canvas.
    The LG StanbyME Speaker XT7S attached to the StanbyME TV.
    The LG StanbyME Speaker XT7S against a white background.
    1/3
    Okay, this combo is definitely cooler than the TVs they used to roll into classrooms 15+ years ago.
    Image: LG
    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama has died, aged 68.

    Toriyama is recognized internationally for Dragon Ball — one of the best-selling manga series of all time, which ran from 1984 to 1995 — alongside his work as a character designer for Chrono Trigger and the Dragon Quest video game franchise.

    Other legendary manga artists like Eiichiro Oda (One Piece) and Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto) have paid their respects via an obituary published by Shonen Jump.

    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    House Democrats are looking into Russia’s alleged Starlink use.

    The Washington Post reports that Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia sent a letter to SpaceX on Wednesday night, expressing concern that the company “may not have appropriate guardrails and policies in place” to prevent Russia from illegally acquiring Starlink terminals.

    Ukraine claims that Russia has deployed the terminals in occupied areas of eastern Ukraine. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says, “To the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia.”

    Democrats probe Musk’s SpaceX, examining Russia’s alleged Starlink use

    [The Washington Post]

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