56 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Terrence O'Brien

Terrence O'Brien

Weekend Editor

Weekend Editor

    More From Terrence O'Brien

    Terrence O'Brien
    Terrence O'Brien
    Airbus software update briefly grounds 6,000 planes over Thanksgiving weekend.

    One of the busiest travel weekends of the year doesn’t seem like an ideal time to update more than half of the world’s over 11,000 A320s. Still, a potential issue involving solar flares was serious enough that the company pushed the software update Friday. American Airlines said that 340 of its planes required the update, which it expected to take about two hours each. According to Reuters:

    ... that comes at a time when airline repair shops are already overrun by maintenance work, as hundreds of Airbus jets have been grounded due to long waiting times for separate engine repairs or inspections. The industry also has labour shortages. “The timing is definitely not ideal for an issue like this to arise on one of the most ubiquitous aircraft around the (U.S.) holidays,” Mike Stengel of AeroDynamic Advisory said.

    Terrence O'Brien
    Terrence O'Brien
    SCOTUS says Trump can’t fire the director of the Copyright Office... for now.

    The Supreme Court decided that Shira Perlmutter can keep her job while it considers two other cases involving FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter and Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook, both of whom Trump also tried to fire. It’s important that the Copyright Office falls under the Library of Congress, which is historically run by, well, Congress, not the White House. Presumably, the line is drawn somewhere about who the president has the power to fire.

    Terrence O'Brien
    Terrence O'Brien
    AI is serving up recipes for literal slop and crushing food bloggers.

    AI-generated images of food attached to nonsense recipes and Google AI Overview remixes of actual recipes are taking a huge toll on traffic for recipe bloggers. But home cooks are also wasting time and money following recipes that claim to be for cookies but only yield melted pools of cloyingly sweet dough. According to Bloomberg:

    An AI-assembled version of [Eb] Gargano’s Christmas cake, for instance, would have people cooking a 6-inch cake for 3 to 4 hours at 320°F (160°C). “You’d end up with charcoal!” she said. Meanwhile, traffic to her turkey recipe is already down 40% year over year.

    Terrence O'Brien
    Terrence O'Brien
    Formula 1 fans are riding escalators for hours to watch the Vegas Grand Prix for free.

    Stopping to watch the race from outside the track can get you fined, but as long as you keep moving, security can’t do anything about it. Most of the view is obstructed along the pedestrian areas. One of the few exceptions is a pair of escalators at Spring Mountain and Las Vegas Blvd, which are closer than any of the seats and at one of the best turns.

    Terrence O'Brien
    Terrence O'Brien
    Maybe Tim Cook isn’t preparing to retire.

    Last week, rumors started flying that Tim Cook might step down as CEO next year and be replaced by John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering. Well, Bloomberg’s Marc Gurman says, not so fast. He claims those reports are simply false, and that while the company is certainly planning for Cook’s eventual retirement, it’s unlikely to happen in 2026.

    Gurman:

    Yes, Apple will eventually have a new leader. And, yes, it’s probably Ternus. But unless there is some unexpected event that forces Cook to step down sooner than planned, that moment is not at hand.