53 – 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
    Niantic rumored to be discussing $3.5 billion sale of Pokémon Go and the rest of its gaming business.

    According to Bloomberg, reporting on talks between Niantic (which may be more into AI and robotics than mobile games to make use of that scanning data you provided) and Scopely Inc. If you’re not familiar with Scopely Inc. and its parent company Savvy Games, try this 2023 report.

    It has more information on how Savvy is funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and why the country is aiming to become a gaming “powerhouse,” according to Savvy CEO Brian Ward.

    Saudi Arabia’s plan to become the crown prince of gaming

    Lewis Gordon
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Formula E had its first ‘Pit Boost’ recharging stops.

    One race of a double-header Formula E weekend saw the first use of Pit Boost stops as the nearly decade-old series required drivers to stop for a quick 600kW battery charge that increases energy by about 10 percent.

    Feelings about it were mixed, reports Motorsport.com. Winner Maximilian Guenther called it “pretty cool,” however, Dan Ticktum, whose car required a reset to charge, acknowledged its importance but said, “I’m not f*****g interested if it’s going to screw my races over.”

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Trump administration ordered to temporarily unfreeze foreign aid funds.

    U.S. District Judge Amir Ali is the third judge to press pause on Donald Trump’s sweeping freezes of government funding and the second to interrupt attempts to dismantle USAID, report Politico and the Associated Press.

    While declining a request by two aid organizations to challenge the Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid executive order directly, Ali blocked State Department leaders and aides from canceling contracts and implementing stop work orders, writing:

    Here, the stated purpose in implementing the suspension of all foreign aid is to provide the opportunity to review programs for their efficiency and consistency with priorities. However, at least to date, Defendants have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended reliance interests for thousands of agreements with businesses, nonprofits, and organizations around the country, was a rational precursor to reviewing programs.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    “Trump’s share of a $10 million settlement Elon Musk’s X agreed to this week is expected to go to him directly.”

    That’s just one line in this Wall Street Journal article detailing money flowing to the presidential family via crypto or other means. Another section highlights Melania Trump’s documentary pitch to Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez during their December visit preceding Amazon’s $40 million deal that reportedly nearly tripled the next-closest offer.

    But if you wondered how that January 6th Twitter lawsuit got settled, we have an answer:

    The settlement talks with X began after the election and were more informal, with both Trump and Musk personally involved in hammering out the $10 million number, people familiar with the matter said.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Vox Media and other publishers sue Cohere for copyright and trademark infringement.

    The Wall Street Journal reports that The Verge’s parent company, Vox Media, and other publishers like Conde Nast, Forbes Media, and Politico filed a copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit (pdf) against the enterprise AI company Cohere. They say evidence shows Cohere uses unlicensed copies of content to directly compete with publishers, and they list 4,000 specific examples of “verbatim regurgitations and substitutional summaries of news content.”

    On the Decoder podcast, we recently discussed similar media lawsuits against AI firms and spoke to Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez last summer.

    wsj.com

    [wsj.com]

    Thomson Reuters wins an early court battle over AI, copyright, and fair useThomson Reuters wins an early court battle over AI, copyright, and fair use
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Apple is reportedly working with Alibaba to launch AI features in China.

    While Apple Intelligence has reached the EU -- and, according to some, devices where it had already been declined -- the company hasn’t launched its AI features in China yet. A report by The Information on Tuesday indicates it could be getting closer, saying that after evaluating models from Tencent, ByteDance, Alibaba, and DeepSeek, Apple has submitted some features co-developed with Alibaba for approval by Chinese regulators.

    The Information

    [theinformation.com]

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    A production Chevy Blazer EV SS will be the 2025 Daytona 500 pace car.

    Originally scheduled to go on sale in spring 2024, the SS version of Chevy’s Blazer EV is finally close to shipping amid rumors the gas-powered Blazer is going away. Orders are now open for the vehicle that promises 615hp in Wide Open Watts mode and a 3.4 second 0 - 60 time.

    Chevy will put it in front of the stock car field and the public on February 16th and debut a “Blazer EV.R NASCAR Prototype.”

    Front 3/4 view of the Chevrolet Blazer EV SS pace car in full livery.
    Image: GM
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    The ‘custom chatbot’ DOGE is reportedly building for the GSA.

    A report from Wired looks at attempts to plug AI technology into the General Services Administration (along with other departments). According to one source, DOGE’s push is for using AI tools “to analyze huge swaths of contract and procurement data” with a custom GSAi chatbot.

    It also notes other shifting AI approaches, with coding assistant Cursor reportedly approved then retracted, and a new push to use Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot.

    Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Working on a Custom Chatbot Called GSAi

    [wired.com]

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Trump’s energy secretary bypassed legal, IT warnings against giving a DOGE rep access.

    CNN reports on a former SpaceX intern being set up in the Energy Department’s systems by Chris Wright:

    Members of the general counsel and chief information offices “said this is a bad idea” because [Luke] Farritor hadn’t had a standard background investigation needed to access the department’s system, one of the people told CNN. “He’s not cleared to be in DOE, on our systems. None of those things have been done.”

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