151 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Richard Lawler

Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

Senior News Editor

    More From Richard Lawler

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Facebook and Instagram were having some problems.

    Over the last hour or so, the Facebook page failed to load, attempts to upload Instagram Stories failed with an error message, while some reported they couldn’t send or receive messages on WhatsApp and Messenger, and Downdetector showed spikes for all of Meta’s services.

    Reached for comment, Meta comms director Andy Stone told The Verge:

    We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.

    Things seem to be mostly back to normal, but we’ll keep an eye out. In the meantime, we also have some fresh advice about the supposedly wonderful opportunities available to people who log off.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Google recently warned employees about submitting sensitive data to its Bard chatbot.

    Elizabeth Lopatto wrote just last month that Big Tech is warning all of us about the privacy issues with AI chatbots, as companies like Samsung warn employees about giving them sensitive information that could expose trade secrets.

    A Google privacy notice updated on June 1 also states: “Don’t include confidential or sensitive information in your Bard conversations.”

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Twitter bans PlainSite and its founder Aaron Greenspan, an Elon Musk critic.

    PlainSite is a database for court documents and other public records, while Greenspan has made a point of tracking lawsuits against Musk and his companies, along with many others.

    Musk has claimed, “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter,” and the new CEO called it “a global town square.” Neither has commented on the ban or a wave of bans that shut down many accounts a few weeks ago, and Greenspan told CNBC he hadn’t heard anything from the company since the suspension started Tuesday.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    “Several” federal government agencies have been breached via the MOVEit vulnerabilities.

    Ransomware attacks against Progress Software’s MOVEit Transfer product breached several large organizations recently. Now Eric Goldstein of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) says his department is supporting several federal agencies that have experienced intrusions.

    Which ones? What data may have been stolen? The TSA and State Department said “not it” and CISA director Jen Easterly tells CNN she’s confident there won’t be “significant impacts,” but no one’s giving up more details.

    For more information: CISA, Mandiant, Progress.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Meta is rolling out Instagram Broadcast channels globally.

    Not to be confused with WhatsApp’s recently added Channels feature or Instagram’s Twitter competitor that was recently shown to employees, Meta is rolling out the Telegram-like Broadcast Channels for use by everyone around the world.

    As described below by Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, they’re also testing new features like moderators, a share to stories button, and the ability to take questions. But it’s still not available on the web yet, so you’ll need to install the app to get the updates from Zuckerberg & Co.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Add another one to Cassini’s list of greatest hits.

    Data from NASA’s Cassini probe shows signatures of phosphorous in a subsurface ocean on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. According to planetary scientist Frank Postberg of Freie Universität Berlin, “It’s the first time this essential element has been discovered in an ocean beyond Earth.”

    Six years after its mission ended with a dive into Saturn’s atmosphere, the list of Cassini discoveries keeps growing. You can read the scientist’s paper here or check out this video from a few years ago explaining how Cassini collected those particles.

    David Pierce
    David Pierce
    Netflix’s world domination plan: Drive To Survive all the things.

    Its latest ultra-dramatic sports drama, Quarterback, is scheduled to hit the service on July 12th.

    If you’ve seen what Drive to Survive did for F1, what Full Swing (which, disclosure, Vox Media Studios produced — check out next season to watch as a golfer gets the LIV merger news) did for golf, or what Break Point did for tennis, you know this is going to be good.