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Image: Google

Google is making a new desktop app called Essentials that packages a few Google services, like Messages and Photos, and includes links to download many others. The app will be included with many new Windows laptops, with the first ones coming from HP.

The Essentials app lets you “discover and install many of our best Google services,” according to Google’s announcement, and lets you browse Google Photos as well as send and receive Google Messages in the app. A full list of apps has not yet been announced, but Google’s announcement art showcases icons including Google Sheets, Google Drive, Nearby Share, and Google One (a two-month free trial is offered through Essentials for new subscribers).
HP will start including Google Essentials across its computer brands, like Envy, Pavilion, Omen, and more. Google says you’re “in control of your experience” and can uninstall any part of Essentials or the whole thing. It’s not yet clear whether you’ll be able to download the app to your current PC, in case you’re into Google-ifying your Windows experience.
Essentials also includes Google’s Play Games app that lets you download popular Android games like Clash of Clans onto your computer. You can access Google Play Games through the Essentials app (or even the HP Omen Gaming Hub app), play games, and continue your progress on an Android device with compatible games.
Google says that it will bring Essentials to other Windows PCs in the future. The Verge has requested more information from both HP and Google.

Image: Google

Google is making a new desktop app called Essentials that packages a few Google services, like Messages and Photos, and includes links to download many others. The app will be included with many new Windows laptops, with the first ones coming from HP.

The Essentials app lets you “discover and install many of our best Google services,” according to Google’s announcement, and lets you browse Google Photos as well as send and receive Google Messages in the app. A full list of apps has not yet been announced, but Google’s announcement art showcases icons including Google Sheets, Google Drive, Nearby Share, and Google One (a two-month free trial is offered through Essentials for new subscribers).

HP will start including Google Essentials across its computer brands, like Envy, Pavilion, Omen, and more. Google says you’re “in control of your experience” and can uninstall any part of Essentials or the whole thing. It’s not yet clear whether you’ll be able to download the app to your current PC, in case you’re into Google-ifying your Windows experience.

Essentials also includes Google’s Play Games app that lets you download popular Android games like Clash of Clans onto your computer. You can access Google Play Games through the Essentials app (or even the HP Omen Gaming Hub app), play games, and continue your progress on an Android device with compatible games.

Google says that it will bring Essentials to other Windows PCs in the future. The Verge has requested more information from both HP and Google.

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Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

Middle-earth is looking a little different in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Warner Bros. Pictures just released the first trailer for the animated prequel, which is directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Blood: The Last Vampire, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) and set 183 years before the original film trilogy. Peter Jackson is involved as an executive producer.
According to the official description, the new movie “tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan.” Here’s the full setup:
A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg — a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep. Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra, the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.
It will feature at least one familiar face voice, with Miranda Otto reprising the role of Éowyn, while the rest of the cast includes the likes of Brian Cox as Rohan, Gaia Wise as Héra, and Luke Pasqualino as Wulf.
The War of the Rohirrim hits theaters in the US on December 13th, capping off a somewhat busy year for the franchise, with season 2 of The Rings of Power streaming at the end of August.

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

Middle-earth is looking a little different in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Warner Bros. Pictures just released the first trailer for the animated prequel, which is directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Blood: The Last Vampire, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) and set 183 years before the original film trilogy. Peter Jackson is involved as an executive producer.

According to the official description, the new movie “tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan.” Here’s the full setup:

A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg — a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep. Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra, the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.

It will feature at least one familiar face voice, with Miranda Otto reprising the role of Éowyn, while the rest of the cast includes the likes of Brian Cox as Rohan, Gaia Wise as Héra, and Luke Pasqualino as Wulf.

The War of the Rohirrim hits theaters in the US on December 13th, capping off a somewhat busy year for the franchise, with season 2 of The Rings of Power streaming at the end of August.

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In May 2024, around 200 employees at Google DeepMind (representing roughly 5 percent of the division) signed a letter urging the company to end its contracts with military organizations, expressing concerns that its AI technology was being used for warfare, Time magazine reported.
The letter states that employee concerns aren’t “about the geopolitics of any particular conflict,” but it does link out to Time’s reporting on Google’s defense contract with the Israeli military, known as Project Nimbus. The letter also points to reports that the Israeli military uses AI for mass surveillance and to select targets in its bombing campaign in Gaza, with Israeli weapon firms mandated by the government to purchase cloud services from Google and Amazon.
The letter highlights tensions within Google between its AI division and its cloud business, which sells AI services to militaries. At the company’s flagship Google I/O conference earlier this year, pro-Palestine protestors chained together at the attendee entrance, protesting Lavender, “Where’s Daddy?” software, the “Gospel” AI program, and Project Nimbus.

The use of AI in warfare has spread rapidly, pushing some technologists who build related systems to speak out. But Google also made a specific commitment: when it acquired DeepMind in 2014, the lab’s leaders required that their AI technology would never be used for military or surveillance purposes.
“Any involvement with military and weapon manufacturing impacts our position as leaders in ethical and responsible AI, and goes against our mission statement and stated AI Principles,” the letter that circulated inside Google DeepMind says.
As Time reports, the letter from DeepMind staff urges leadership to investigate claims that Google cloud services are being used by militaries and weapons manufacturers, to cut off military access to DeepMind’s technology, and to establish a new governance body to prevent future use of the AI by military clients.
Time reports that despite employee concerns and calls for action, they’ve seen “no meaningful response” from Google so far.

In May 2024, around 200 employees at Google DeepMind (representing roughly 5 percent of the division) signed a letter urging the company to end its contracts with military organizations, expressing concerns that its AI technology was being used for warfare, Time magazine reported.

The letter states that employee concerns aren’t “about the geopolitics of any particular conflict,” but it does link out to Time’s reporting on Google’s defense contract with the Israeli military, known as Project Nimbus. The letter also points to reports that the Israeli military uses AI for mass surveillance and to select targets in its bombing campaign in Gaza, with Israeli weapon firms mandated by the government to purchase cloud services from Google and Amazon.

The letter highlights tensions within Google between its AI division and its cloud business, which sells AI services to militaries. At the company’s flagship Google I/O conference earlier this year, pro-Palestine protestors chained together at the attendee entrance, protesting Lavender, “Where’s Daddy?” software, the “Gospel” AI program, and Project Nimbus.

The use of AI in warfare has spread rapidly, pushing some technologists who build related systems to speak out. But Google also made a specific commitment: when it acquired DeepMind in 2014, the lab’s leaders required that their AI technology would never be used for military or surveillance purposes.

“Any involvement with military and weapon manufacturing impacts our position as leaders in ethical and responsible AI, and goes against our mission statement and stated AI Principles,” the letter that circulated inside Google DeepMind says.

As Time reports, the letter from DeepMind staff urges leadership to investigate claims that Google cloud services are being used by militaries and weapons manufacturers, to cut off military access to DeepMind’s technology, and to establish a new governance body to prevent future use of the AI by military clients.

Time reports that despite employee concerns and calls for action, they’ve seen “no meaningful response” from Google so far.

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Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump is launching a cryptocurrency platform, he announced on Thursday in a post on Truth Social. Trump’s post included few other details, but he and his sons have suggested it will target unbanked and underserved communities.
“For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites,” the post reads. “It’s time we take a stand—together. #BeDefiant.” The name of the platform, The DeFiant Ones, is a play on “decentralized finance.”
Trump’s Truth Social post links to a Telegram channel for the as-of-yet unreleased platform, which has posts dating back to August 15th calling it the “only official Telegram channel for the Trump DeFi project.” There are no details about what the project entails or whether it’s a decentralized autonomous organization, a coin, a trading market, a cryptocurrency blog or publication, or something else altogether.
In July, a company called AMG Software Solutions filed trademark applications for the terms “Be DeFiant,” “World Liberty,” and “World Liberty Financial,” the cryptocurrency publication The Block reported earlier this month. The trademark for World Liberty Financial is for “providing financial information in the field of decentralized finance (DeFi),” the filing reads.
In recent interviews, Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric have suggested the project could be targeted at underserved communities. “Essentially over half this country right now cannot be banked,” Eric Trump told the New York Post. “Meaning they will be rejected for most loans from most institutions. But with this technology they could have the ability to almost instantaneously be approved or denied from a lender based on math, not policy. Money could be in their account in minutes, not months.”
One of Trump’s previous ostensibly altruistic projects, Trump University, was accused of defrauding students and settled for $25 million.
The notion that crypto can help unbanked people better access financial services is a rampant one in the industry — but reports suggest otherwise. The Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank, found “no systematic evidence that crypto transactions are less expensive than traditional financial transactions,” noting that crypto assets are primarily used for speculation instead of payments.
“The fundamental purpose of financial inclusion is to improve the overall economic well-being of low-income individuals, and encouraging people to use their hard-earned paychecks or savings to buy highly risky assets could do just the opposite,” Todd Phillips, CAP’s former director of financial regulation and corporate governance, wrote in 2022.
The DeFiant Ones is not Trump’s first foray into cryptocurrency. He was the keynote speaker at this year’s Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, during which he promised to fire Gary Gensler, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a perpetual enemy of the crypto crowd.
Trump has between $1 million and $5 million in a “virtual ethereum key,” according to his most recent financial disclosures. He also made $7.2 million from three NFT collections. The people who bought Trump’s NFTs have been less lucky. Some tokens lost value almost immediately after being purchased. As of this April, trading volume of Trump’s NFTs was down 99 percent.

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump is launching a cryptocurrency platform, he announced on Thursday in a post on Truth Social. Trump’s post included few other details, but he and his sons have suggested it will target unbanked and underserved communities.

“For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites,” the post reads. “It’s time we take a stand—together. #BeDefiant.” The name of the platform, The DeFiant Ones, is a play on “decentralized finance.”

Trump’s Truth Social post links to a Telegram channel for the as-of-yet unreleased platform, which has posts dating back to August 15th calling it the “only official Telegram channel for the Trump DeFi project.” There are no details about what the project entails or whether it’s a decentralized autonomous organization, a coin, a trading market, a cryptocurrency blog or publication, or something else altogether.

In July, a company called AMG Software Solutions filed trademark applications for the terms “Be DeFiant,” “World Liberty,” and “World Liberty Financial,” the cryptocurrency publication The Block reported earlier this month. The trademark for World Liberty Financial is for “providing financial information in the field of decentralized finance (DeFi),” the filing reads.

In recent interviews, Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric have suggested the project could be targeted at underserved communities. “Essentially over half this country right now cannot be banked,” Eric Trump told the New York Post. “Meaning they will be rejected for most loans from most institutions. But with this technology they could have the ability to almost instantaneously be approved or denied from a lender based on math, not policy. Money could be in their account in minutes, not months.”

One of Trump’s previous ostensibly altruistic projects, Trump University, was accused of defrauding students and settled for $25 million.

The notion that crypto can help unbanked people better access financial services is a rampant one in the industry — but reports suggest otherwise. The Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank, found “no systematic evidence that crypto transactions are less expensive than traditional financial transactions,” noting that crypto assets are primarily used for speculation instead of payments.

“The fundamental purpose of financial inclusion is to improve the overall economic well-being of low-income individuals, and encouraging people to use their hard-earned paychecks or savings to buy highly risky assets could do just the opposite,” Todd Phillips, CAP’s former director of financial regulation and corporate governance, wrote in 2022.

The DeFiant Ones is not Trump’s first foray into cryptocurrency. He was the keynote speaker at this year’s Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, during which he promised to fire Gary Gensler, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a perpetual enemy of the crypto crowd.

Trump has between $1 million and $5 million in a “virtual ethereum key,” according to his most recent financial disclosures. He also made $7.2 million from three NFT collections. The people who bought Trump’s NFTs have been less lucky. Some tokens lost value almost immediately after being purchased. As of this April, trading volume of Trump’s NFTs was down 99 percent.

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Instead of carrying a bag full of lenses, the new Samyang Remaster Slim lets you only carry alternate optical elements. | Image: Samyang

In an attempt to lighten camera bags, Samyang has created a prime lens that allows photographers to change the focal length by swapping out just the optical elements inside it, instead of having to change lenses completely.
The simpler design of prime lenses in general — which offer no zoom capabilities — can deliver several advantages, including sharper images and a shallower depth of field. The tradeoff is that photographers have to move closer or further away when framing subjects or swap between several prime lenses with different focal lengths. That approach can get expensive and heavy — problems that Samyang’s Remaster Slim autofocus lens, measuring just 0.8 inches thick, may solve.
The optical elements in the Remaster Slim sit in a smaller magnetic mount that can be easily swapped in and out from the center of the lens. According to DIY Photography, Samyang will initially offer three different inserts: a wider 21mm f/2.8, a 28mm f/3.5, and a 32mm f/3.5 more ideal for closer portrait photography.

Image: Samyang
The Remaster Slim is less than an inch long but still manages to squeeze in a manual focus ring.

Those three inserts will take up considerably less room in a camera bag than three full prime lenses would, but the approach will come with tradeoffs.
Samyang says the lens offers “genuine analog sensibility that is distinctly different from smartphone images created with digital technology” and that the company drew inspiration from “legendary P&S film cameras of the past.” That sounds nice, but it also sounds like Samyang is hinting that the Remaster Slim may produce softer results than other prime lenses, which also now offer faster maximum apertures closer to f/1.4. (The lasting appeal of “analog sensibility” and old point-and-shoot cameras is that photos aren’t always razor sharp.)
Samyang’s Remaster Slim is only compatible with Sony’s E-mount lens system and was available for preorder (with the 32mm insert) in South Korea for 308,000 won, or around $229 USD, before those preorders sold out. Shipping is planned to start in early September, and the company says it should be more generally available in South Korea in early October. Availability for other markets hasn’t been announced yet.

Instead of carrying a bag full of lenses, the new Samyang Remaster Slim lets you only carry alternate optical elements. | Image: Samyang

In an attempt to lighten camera bags, Samyang has created a prime lens that allows photographers to change the focal length by swapping out just the optical elements inside it, instead of having to change lenses completely.

The simpler design of prime lenses in general — which offer no zoom capabilities — can deliver several advantages, including sharper images and a shallower depth of field. The tradeoff is that photographers have to move closer or further away when framing subjects or swap between several prime lenses with different focal lengths. That approach can get expensive and heavy — problems that Samyang’s Remaster Slim autofocus lens, measuring just 0.8 inches thick, may solve.

The optical elements in the Remaster Slim sit in a smaller magnetic mount that can be easily swapped in and out from the center of the lens. According to DIY Photography, Samyang will initially offer three different inserts: a wider 21mm f/2.8, a 28mm f/3.5, and a 32mm f/3.5 more ideal for closer portrait photography.

Image: Samyang
The Remaster Slim is less than an inch long but still manages to squeeze in a manual focus ring.

Those three inserts will take up considerably less room in a camera bag than three full prime lenses would, but the approach will come with tradeoffs.

Samyang says the lens offers “genuine analog sensibility that is distinctly different from smartphone images created with digital technology” and that the company drew inspiration from “legendary P&S film cameras of the past.” That sounds nice, but it also sounds like Samyang is hinting that the Remaster Slim may produce softer results than other prime lenses, which also now offer faster maximum apertures closer to f/1.4. (The lasting appeal of “analog sensibility” and old point-and-shoot cameras is that photos aren’t always razor sharp.)

Samyang’s Remaster Slim is only compatible with Sony’s E-mount lens system and was available for preorder (with the 32mm insert) in South Korea for 308,000 won, or around $229 USD, before those preorders sold out. Shipping is planned to start in early September, and the company says it should be more generally available in South Korea in early October. Availability for other markets hasn’t been announced yet.

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Photo: Antonio Cascio / Bloomberg via Getty Images

The body of billionaire tech mogul Mike Lynch was recovered off the coast of Sicily, the Italian Coast Guard announced on Thursday. Lynch’s 184-foot superyacht, the Bayesian, sunk on August 19th, reportedly after being hit by a tornado over the water, called a waterspout. The yacht sank quickly, according to reports, even though its manufacturer claimed it was unsinkable.
Lynch was on the yacht with family and friends celebrating his acquittal on fraud charges in June. HP, which bought Lynch’s company, Autonomy, for $11 billion in 2011, had alleged “accounting improprieties” that misrepresented Autonomy’s value. In an interview with the BBC — the only broadcast interview before the yacht sank — Lynch said his wealth helped him deal with the decade-long legal battle.
The yacht was hit by a waterspout around 4AM local time, according to news reports. Fifteen people — including a baby — managed to escape on a life raft and were rescued by the crew of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, a Dutch ship that was anchored nearby. “They were all under shock,” Karsten Börner, the captain of the Sir Robert, told The New York Times.
Five other bodies were recovered, including that of Christopher Morvillo, one of the attorneys who defended Lynch in the HP trial. Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, is still unaccounted for.
Investigators are looking into why the Bayesian sank when other boats, including a nearby sailboat, were largely unaffected, The Associated Press reports. Börner, the Sir Robert’s captain, told AP that his ship also sustained minimal damage.
Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of the Italian Sea Group — the company that owns the Bayesian’s manufacturer — described Lynch’s yacht as “one of the safest boats in the world” and said the accident likely occurred because the crew didn’t follow basic safety procedures.

Photo: Antonio Cascio / Bloomberg via Getty Images

The body of billionaire tech mogul Mike Lynch was recovered off the coast of Sicily, the Italian Coast Guard announced on Thursday. Lynch’s 184-foot superyacht, the Bayesian, sunk on August 19th, reportedly after being hit by a tornado over the water, called a waterspout. The yacht sank quickly, according to reports, even though its manufacturer claimed it was unsinkable.

Lynch was on the yacht with family and friends celebrating his acquittal on fraud charges in June. HP, which bought Lynch’s company, Autonomy, for $11 billion in 2011, had alleged “accounting improprieties” that misrepresented Autonomy’s value. In an interview with the BBC — the only broadcast interview before the yacht sank — Lynch said his wealth helped him deal with the decade-long legal battle.

The yacht was hit by a waterspout around 4AM local time, according to news reports. Fifteen people — including a baby — managed to escape on a life raft and were rescued by the crew of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, a Dutch ship that was anchored nearby. “They were all under shock,” Karsten Börner, the captain of the Sir Robert, told The New York Times.

Five other bodies were recovered, including that of Christopher Morvillo, one of the attorneys who defended Lynch in the HP trial. Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, is still unaccounted for.

Investigators are looking into why the Bayesian sank when other boats, including a nearby sailboat, were largely unaffected, The Associated Press reports. Börner, the Sir Robert’s captain, told AP that his ship also sustained minimal damage.

Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of the Italian Sea Group — the company that owns the Bayesian’s manufacturer — described Lynch’s yacht as “one of the safest boats in the world” and said the accident likely occurred because the crew didn’t follow basic safety procedures.

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Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Apple will soon let iPhone and iPad users in the European Union choose default apps for phone calls, messaging, keyboards, password managers, and more. These options will be available later this year in a new “Default Apps” section in Settings, according to an update on Thursday.
In the spring of next year, Apple says it will also let users set default navigation, translation apps, and call spam filter apps. Along with these new options, iPhone users in the EU will add the ability to delete the App Store, Messages, Camera, Photos, and Safari apps. The only apps Apple won’t let users delete are Settings and Phone.

Image: Apple
Apple is adding more detail to its browser choice screen.

Some small changes are coming to Apple’s browser choice screen in the EU that pops up when a user first opens Safari on their iPhone, allowing users to install alternate browsers like Firefox, Chrome, or DuckDuckGo.
After the update arrives, Apple will require any EU users with Safari set as their default to scroll through the entire list of default browsers before selecting an option and will also display the browser’s App Store caption on the choice screen. Additionally, developers of the browsers listed will get access to more data about the performance of the choice screen.
Apple already lets users in the EU change their default browser and email app. It has also started opening up the iPhone to third-party app marketplaces, with the Epic Games Store opening on the platform last week.

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Apple will soon let iPhone and iPad users in the European Union choose default apps for phone calls, messaging, keyboards, password managers, and more. These options will be available later this year in a new “Default Apps” section in Settings, according to an update on Thursday.

In the spring of next year, Apple says it will also let users set default navigation, translation apps, and call spam filter apps. Along with these new options, iPhone users in the EU will add the ability to delete the App Store, Messages, Camera, Photos, and Safari apps. The only apps Apple won’t let users delete are Settings and Phone.

Image: Apple
Apple is adding more detail to its browser choice screen.

Some small changes are coming to Apple’s browser choice screen in the EU that pops up when a user first opens Safari on their iPhone, allowing users to install alternate browsers like Firefox, Chrome, or DuckDuckGo.

After the update arrives, Apple will require any EU users with Safari set as their default to scroll through the entire list of default browsers before selecting an option and will also display the browser’s App Store caption on the choice screen. Additionally, developers of the browsers listed will get access to more data about the performance of the choice screen.

Apple already lets users in the EU change their default browser and email app. It has also started opening up the iPhone to third-party app marketplaces, with the Epic Games Store opening on the platform last week.

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

Kamala Harris’ strategy to reach young voters will see her debut on Twitch tonight, where she’ll be streaming her Democratic nomination acceptance speech. The new kamalaharris Twitch channel features a similar bio to the Vice President’s accounts on X, Tiktok, YouTube, and other platforms: “Wife, Momala, Auntie. She/her. Fighting for the people. When we fight, we win” — and I don’t think she means Tekken.
“Our job as the campaign is to break through a historically personalized media landscape,” Harris spokesperson Seth Schuster said to Wired, adding that the Twitch account was created to broadcast her vision ”directly to the hardest to reach voters and those who will decide this election.” (Several other services will also be streaming the address.) It’s one of many pushes the Harris-Walz campaign has made to engage with online audiences, alongside the KamalaHQ TikTok’s viral branding and allowing independent content creators like Hasan Piker to access the Democratic National Convention for the first time.
Other politicians have attracted sizable audiences on Twitch. Donald Trump’s account, having recently been reinstated following a three-year ban, is currently sitting at 172,000 followers, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez peaked at 435,000 viewers on her debut — one of the platform’s biggest streams to date. Unlike AOC, Harris may not be broadcasting any games on her new account, unless Tim Walz can tempt her to play Crazy Taxi.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

Kamala Harris’ strategy to reach young voters will see her debut on Twitch tonight, where she’ll be streaming her Democratic nomination acceptance speech. The new kamalaharris Twitch channel features a similar bio to the Vice President’s accounts on X, Tiktok, YouTube, and other platforms: “Wife, Momala, Auntie. She/her. Fighting for the people. When we fight, we win” — and I don’t think she means Tekken.

“Our job as the campaign is to break through a historically personalized media landscape,” Harris spokesperson Seth Schuster said to Wired, adding that the Twitch account was created to broadcast her vision ”directly to the hardest to reach voters and those who will decide this election.” (Several other services will also be streaming the address.) It’s one of many pushes the Harris-Walz campaign has made to engage with online audiences, alongside the KamalaHQ TikTok’s viral branding and allowing independent content creators like Hasan Piker to access the Democratic National Convention for the first time.

Other politicians have attracted sizable audiences on Twitch. Donald Trump’s account, having recently been reinstated following a three-year ban, is currently sitting at 172,000 followers, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez peaked at 435,000 viewers on her debut — one of the platform’s biggest streams to date. Unlike AOC, Harris may not be broadcasting any games on her new account, unless Tim Walz can tempt her to play Crazy Taxi.

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Image: Cruise

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is closing an investigation from 2022 into the GM-owned robotaxi company. The agency was looking into Cruise vehicles that stopped unexpectedly, including three times where they were struck from behind.
From the report (included in full below):

Based on ODI’s analysis of immobilization data, the potential safety risk is heavily dependent on the context of the immobilized vehicle’s location, detectability of the vehicle due to hazard lights automatically engaging, and none of the immobilization incidents reviewed resulted in a crash or injuries.
ODI also analyzed hard braking data which included 7,632 hard braking events commanded by the Cruise ADS. These events were determined by certain thresholds, including rate of deceleration, without regard to the appropriateness of the braking. ODI determined that Cruise vehicles contributed to 10 crashes that were reported under the Standing General Order 2021-01 (SGO), 4 of which involved a vulnerable road user and resulted in injury

As reported by Reuters, Cruise disagreed about issuing a recall over the issue but did so with a software update applied to Cruise vehicles last month “intended to reduce the risk of unexpected braking maneuvers, including by improvements to perception, prediction, and planning.”

The now-closed investigation is separate from the California incident last year, where a pedestrian in San Francisco was struck by one of its vehicles and dragged for over 20 feet. Investigations into the accident by multiple agencies are continuing, and Cruise is still banned in California. Cruise responded to that incident with another recall.
After the pedestrian incident, Cruise announced in April that it was resuming fleet testing without passengers, and it later installed a new CEO. In June, GM announced an $850 million investment in Cruise to cover its operational costs and keep the company afloat while it works on getting the cars back on the road.

Image: Cruise

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is closing an investigation from 2022 into the GM-owned robotaxi company. The agency was looking into Cruise vehicles that stopped unexpectedly, including three times where they were struck from behind.

From the report (included in full below):

Based on ODI’s analysis of immobilization data, the potential safety risk is heavily dependent on the context of the immobilized vehicle’s location, detectability of the vehicle due to hazard lights automatically engaging, and none of the immobilization incidents reviewed resulted in a crash or injuries.

ODI also analyzed hard braking data which included 7,632 hard braking events commanded by the Cruise ADS. These events were determined by certain thresholds, including rate of deceleration, without regard to the appropriateness of the braking. ODI determined that Cruise vehicles contributed to 10 crashes that were reported under the Standing General Order 2021-01 (SGO), 4 of which involved a vulnerable road user and resulted in injury

As reported by Reuters, Cruise disagreed about issuing a recall over the issue but did so with a software update applied to Cruise vehicles last month “intended to reduce the risk of unexpected braking maneuvers, including by improvements to perception, prediction, and planning.”

The now-closed investigation is separate from the California incident last year, where a pedestrian in San Francisco was struck by one of its vehicles and dragged for over 20 feet. Investigations into the accident by multiple agencies are continuing, and Cruise is still banned in California. Cruise responded to that incident with another recall.

After the pedestrian incident, Cruise announced in April that it was resuming fleet testing without passengers, and it later installed a new CEO. In June, GM announced an $850 million investment in Cruise to cover its operational costs and keep the company afloat while it works on getting the cars back on the road.

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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The US government has charged a member of a Russian ransomware group known as Karakurt, as reported earlier by BleepingComputer. In a press release on Tuesday, the Department of Justice claims 33-year-old Deniss Zolotarjovs of Moscow, Russia, conspired to commit money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion.
As outlined in the criminal complaint, the FBI alleges Karakurt stole and threatened to auction sensitive data from several companies throughout the US. The complaint pins Zolotarjovs as the hacking group’s negotiator of “cold case extortions,” in which victims don’t respond with a ransom following an attack, according to BleepingComputer.
Karakurt, which has been linked to the prolific Russian ransomware group Conti, carried out a cyberattack on an Oklahoma hospital, where it threatened to auction off patient data, and also targeted a hospital in Texas. Last year, the group claimed to have stolen the social security numbers of 150 million people from a company called Officeworks.
A bulletin from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency says Karakurt has been known to contact victims’ employees, business partners, and clients “with harassing emails and phone calls to pressure the victims to cooperate.” It also operated a leaks and auction website.
Law enforcement in the Eastern European country of Georgia arrested Zolotarjovs last December and extradited him to the US earlier this month. The DOJ says Zolotarjovs is the first alleged Karakurt member to be arrested and extradited to the US.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The US government has charged a member of a Russian ransomware group known as Karakurt, as reported earlier by BleepingComputer. In a press release on Tuesday, the Department of Justice claims 33-year-old Deniss Zolotarjovs of Moscow, Russia, conspired to commit money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion.

As outlined in the criminal complaint, the FBI alleges Karakurt stole and threatened to auction sensitive data from several companies throughout the US. The complaint pins Zolotarjovs as the hacking group’s negotiator of “cold case extortions,” in which victims don’t respond with a ransom following an attack, according to BleepingComputer.

Karakurt, which has been linked to the prolific Russian ransomware group Conti, carried out a cyberattack on an Oklahoma hospital, where it threatened to auction off patient data, and also targeted a hospital in Texas. Last year, the group claimed to have stolen the social security numbers of 150 million people from a company called Officeworks.

A bulletin from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency says Karakurt has been known to contact victims’ employees, business partners, and clients “with harassing emails and phone calls to pressure the victims to cooperate.” It also operated a leaks and auction website.

Law enforcement in the Eastern European country of Georgia arrested Zolotarjovs last December and extradited him to the US earlier this month. The DOJ says Zolotarjovs is the first alleged Karakurt member to be arrested and extradited to the US.

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