Amazon updates Q Business to let companies build public-facing chatbots

Amazon wants companies to build public-facing chatbots using its Q Business assistant. On Wednesday, the company announced that Q Business, its AWS-hosted AI assistant that can answer questions, provide summaries, and complete tasks, now supports anonymous user access. This effectively means that AWS users can now create Q Business chatbots for websites, support portals, and […]

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Scum Peter Navarro: Stock Market Great If You Ignore Crash Caused By Tariffs

The stock market crashed Wednesday under the Trump administration as the Gross Domestic Product fell by 0.3% when economists estimated there would be a rise of 0.4%.

Markets and investors have lost trillions of dollars because of Trump's demented obsession with tariffs since he took office.

MAGA blowhard Peter Navarro told CNBC that Wednesday's bad news was great news because when you ignore and strip out all the awful data, there's good news underneath.

Jim Cramer interviewed the faux China expert

But I got to say just one thing about today's news.

That's the best negative print I have ever seen in my life.

And the markets need to, like, look beneath the surface of that.

We had a 22 percent increase in domestic investment.

That is off the charts.

When you strip out inventories and with negative effects of the surge in imports because of the tariffs, you have three percent growth.

There has been a rise in imports "as companies and consumers sought to get ahead of the Trump tariffs implemented in early April."

The markets can't ignore the effects of Trump's actions, but listening to Navarro lie, he'd like you to believe tariffs and Trump's insane plans had nothing to do with today's market collapse.

Cramer did not address a follow-up question and moved back to his topic, China.

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Snapchat abandons plans for a simplified version of its app

As part of its Q1 2025 earnings release, Snap said it’s scrapping plans for a simplified version of its app. The news comes seven months after Snapchat began testing a redesigned version of the app without the Snap Map or Stories tabs. The new version consolidated the app’s navigation bar around three icons: chat, camera, […]

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Freepik releases an ‘open’ AI image generator trained on licensed data

Freepik, the online graphic design platform, unveiled a new “open” AI image model on Tuesday that the company says was trained exclusively on commercially licensed, “safe-for-work” images. The model, called F Lite, contains around 10 billion parameters — parameters being the internal components that make up the model. F Lite was developed in partnership with […]

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Google Play sees 47% decline in apps since start of last year

Google Play’s app marketplace is losing apps. From the start of 2024 to present, the Android app marketplace went from hosting about 3.4 million apps worldwide to just around 1.8 million, according to a new analysis by app intelligence provider Appfigures. That’s a decline of about 47%, representing a significant purge of the apps that […]

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OpenAI rolls back update that made ChatGPT ‘too sycophant-y’

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday said that the company is “rolling back” the latest update to the default AI model powering ChatGPT, GPT-4o, after complaints about strange behavior, in particular extreme sycophancy. “[W]e started rolling back the latest update to GPT-4o last night,” Altman wrote in a post on X. “[I]t’s now 100% rolled back for […]

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Trump Disgraces U.S. By Wearing Blue Suit At Pope's Funeral

The Vatican had a dress code and if you thought Donald Trump would show some respect at Pope Francis's funeral, you'd be wrong.

Trump wearing black, highlighted by his orange bronzer and carrot top hair dye could have been a new fashion statement.

Trump also chewed gum and used his phone during the funeral.

Trump chewing gum, not wearing the traditional black suit, and fiddling with his phone during the funeral of the pope has people outraged all over the world.

Manners maketh man I’m told.

#MomSky
#Voices4Victory

— Liz (or Lizzie) Kim 김혜성 💫 (@zen4ever2us.bsky.social) 2025-04-26T18:47:43.298Z

Wearing a bright blue suit, texting, and then sleeping at Pope Francis’s funeral. What an embarrassing mess.

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4chan is back online, says it’s been ‘starved of money’

4chan is partly back online after a hack took the infamous image-sharing site down for nearly two weeks. The site first went down on April 14, with the person responsible for the hack apparently leaking data including a list of moderators and “janitors” (one janitor told TechCrunch they were “confident” that the leaked data was […]

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Whack Job Ed Martin Tries To Intimidate New England Journal Of Medicine

The notoriously political federal prosecutor Ed Martin has contacted The New England Journal of Medicine, considered the world’s most prestigious medical journal, with questions that suggested without evidence that it was biased against certain views and influenced by external pressures. Because that's what the Orange One wants him to find! Via the New York Times:

Dr. Eric Rubin, the editor in chief of N.E.J.M., described the letter as “vaguely threatening” in an interview with The New York Times. At least three other journals have received similar letters from Edward Martin Jr., a Republican activist serving as interim U.S. attorney in Washington. Mr. Martin has been criticized for using his office to target opponents of the administration.

His letters accused the publications of being “partisans in various scientific debates” and asked a series of accusatory questions about bias and the selection of research articles. Do they accept submissions from scientists with “competing viewpoints”? What do they do if the authors whose work they published “may have misled their readers”? Are they transparent about influence from “supporters, funders, advertisers and others”? News of the letter to N.E.J.M. was reported earlier by STAT, a health news outlet.

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Kari Lake Defiant Over Trump Agenda: 'I Would Rather Follow The Constitution Than A Judge'

Kari Lake, a special advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), insisted that she was happy to put herself out of a job if it meant significantly downsizing the Voice of America and other agencies.

During a Sunday interview on Fox News, host Maria Bartiromo asked Lake if the U.S. Supreme Court would hear cases against President Donald Trump's administration.

"It's going to have to go there," Lake insisted. "And I wish we could just skip right over and get to the Supreme Court and get this taken care of, because in many of these cases, you've got Soros-linked attorneys who are just trying to make some money and delay the president's agenda."

"It's very concerning that judges are behaving this way," she continued. "I would rather follow the Constitution than a judge who's got an agenda."

Lake pointed to the case of a Wisconsin judge who was arrested and charged with allegedly obstructing immigration agents.

"If you break the law, you end up in handcuffs," she said. "And so I think if she broke the law, if what is said about what happened and what transpired in that courthouse is true, then she deserves to be, frankly, in handcuffs and arrested."

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Tulsi Gabbard Tells A Whopper Of A 'DEI' Lie On Fox News

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard seems to lack intelligence, or she thinks you do. Her appearance on Fox News was probably just another distraction from Donald's shitshow involving his entire administration. Secretary of Defense Pete Kegsbreath's scandals are mounting, so let's talk about DEI instead. That's what Tulsi is doing because she came up with a sir story. I wonder where she got that from.

"I've had employees come and talk to me and say they were expected to spend half of their day within the intelligence community focused on DEI work," she lied.

"So if you can imagine, when we have intelligence professionals and analysts whose mission it is to make sure that the president has relevant, timely, apolitical, objective intelligence to make his decisions by, but in the last administration, they're told, you got to spend half your day on DEI work, we can understand why, uh, uh, the capabilities in some cases were so degraded," Tulsi added.

So, we're supposed to believe that under the guidance of handsome old Joe Biden, there was a policy stating that intelligence professionals had to spend half of their days doing "DEI work." WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK IS DEI WORK?

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Google’s DeepMind UK team reportedly seeks to unionize

Around 300 London-based members of Google’s AI-focused DeepMind team are seeking to unionize with the Communication Workers Union, according to a Financial Times report that cites three people involved with the unionization effort. These DeepMind employees are reportedly unhappy about Google’s decision to remove a pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance from […]

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SBA Administrator Pretends Small Business Loves Trump's Tariffs

SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler tossed out what sounded like a version of a Trump "sir" story when it comes to what these destructive Trump tariffs are doing to small businesses and our economy.

Never mind that small businesses are the ones being harmed the most and the least able to absorb the costs being imposed on them from the tariffs, Loeffler wants us to believe she's got small business owners coming to her in droves telling her how much they love them.

Loeffler made an appearance on this Friday's Mornings with Maria on Fox Business Network, and here's the back and forth when she was asked by guest host Jackie DeAngelis about the group of small businesses that are suing the Trump administration over the tariffs:

DEANGELIS: Meantime, a group of 5 small businesses suing the Trump administration over tariffs. They're arguing, that the tariffs are illegal under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

If tariffs are implemented at the original level that was suspected, which they most likely won't be, I could see how small businesses would say you're gonna hurt me.

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Google will stop supporting early Nest thermostats on October 25

Google announced this week that beginning on October 25, it will no longer support or release software updates for the first and second generation Nest Learning Thermostats. And it will completely stop launching new Nest products in Europe. That means owners of the Nest thermostats released in 2011 and 2012 (as well as the version […]

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Slate Auto eyes former Indiana printing plant for its EV truck production

Slate Auto, the buzzy new EV startup that broke stealth this week, is close to locking in a former printing plant located in Warsaw, Indiana as the future production site for its cheap electric truck, a review of public records shows. The company is expected to lease the 1.4 million-square-foot facility for an undisclosed sum. […]

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Why Senators MUST Block Ed Martin As Trump's DC Prosecutor

What C&L has already written about Martin’s conduct as acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia should disqualify him from becoming the permanent head of that office.

But now ProPublica has done a deep dive into Martin’s record. Let’s just say it confirms every qualm any decent person would have about this guy wielding serious DOJ power and adds plenty more.

“His actions have led to more than $600,000 in legal settlements or judgments against Martin or his employers in a handful of cases,” ProPublica found. In one lawsuit, a judge “found him in civil contempt, citing his “willful disregard” of a court order, and a jury found him liable for defamation.”

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Pope Francis’ funeral to stream on YouTube

The funeral of Pope Francis will be livestreamed on YouTube on Saturday. Pope Francis passed away earlier this week at age 88 due to a stroke and cardiac arrest. Vatican News’ YouTube channel will begin coverage of the funeral at 10 a.m. CET/4 a.m. ET, with availability in English, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German. […]

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Trump Attacks Ukraine President Zelensky As A Media Hog

Donald Trump's AI press secretary told the media that he's frustrated by the Ukraine president because he is litigating the peace deal in the press.

That something Trump does every day.

the US putting forth a Russian stamp of approval surrender deal is not what Pres. Zelensky or the Ukrainian people have in mind after suffering from Vladimir Putin's reign of murder.

LEAVITT: And in order to make a good deal, both sides have to walk away a little bit unhappy.

And unfortunately, President Zelensky has been trying to litigate this peace negotiation in the press.

And that's unacceptable to the president.

These should be closed-door negotiations. The president's national security team, his advisors, have exuded significant time, energy, and effort to try to bring this war to an end.

The American taxpayer has funded billions of dollars in this effort.

And enough is enough.

The president's frustrated, his patience is running very thin.

He wants to do what's right for the world.

He wants to see peace.

He wants to see the killing stopped.

But you need both sides of the war willing to do that.

And unfortunately, President Zelensky seems to be moving in the wrong direction.

Trump wants to give Putin the keys to Ukraine in exchange for Russia to stop murdering civilian. And it's Putin who is violating even the most basic tenets of any "peace deal."

Putin's puppet is very loud today.

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Tammy Bruce Can't Handle Simple Qs About Rubio Peace Talks

US State Department Spokesperson (really) and former Fox News contributor (of course) Tammy Bruce turned nasty after CNN's Pamela Brown asked her to clarify Marco Rubio's stance on the Ukraine-Russia Peace talks.

All statements made by Trump and his State Department favor Russia keeping Crimea and all the land they've invaded as part of any peace deal being forced on Ukraine. Pamela Brown said President Zelensky refuses to abide by that, and asked if Russia is getting a better deal?

Bruce responded by claiming the peace negotiations will not be done on television, and that Zelensky is lying about his feelings to the press.

BRUCE: Let's make something quite clear here. This is not going to be discussed on TV, not between you or me. It's not going to be a discussion over TV or television or dinner or anywhere else, that these are-President Zelensky, I respect a great deal. And he's going to say what he needs to say. Their success is based on their actions and it does not come from a conversation like this on television.

The Ukraine president is making it clear he will not surrender to Russia no matter how hard Trump pushes him to do so.

Brown followed up which caused Bruce to constantly talk over her.

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Vibe coding helps Supabase nab $200M at $2B valuation just seven months after its last raise

In 2020, when open source database Supabase was founded, its New Zealand-based CEO, Paul Copplestone, couldn’t have imagined it would be sitting in the sweet spot for 2025’s biggest trend: vibe coding.  But on Tuesday, the fruits of that became evident when it announced a $200 million Series D at a $2 billion post-money valuation […]

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Conclave: Steve Bannon For Pope

Trump's loving Pizzagate scumbag Jack Posobiec demands Steve Bannon be elected the next Pope. Because obviously, the Catholic cardinals take their cues from Jack Posobiec.

It's a scene right out of the movie Conclave.

Bannon is an avowed Christian Nationalist Catholic who tried to infiltrate Italy with his right-wing group, but was evicted.

POSOBIEC: I've already got my vote in. I've already got my vote in the conclave.

I'm going to hammer it to the doors of the Sistine Chapel.

Pope Bannon!

Pope Bannon the First. Let's go, folks.

What do you think?

BANNON: No.

POSOBIEC: See? He doesn't want it.

He doesn't want it.

That's how you know he's the man for the job.

I'm a Catholic.

BANNON: You need a good Catholic. I'm failing Catholicism, like in many other things.

POSOBIEC:The unlikeliest of vessels. The Lord uses the unlikeliest of vessels.

Bannon is a criminal, period.

The world could use an actual Pope right out of the movie Conclave. If you know, you know.

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Kids sure love video game movies

“A Minecraft Movie” isn’t just a hit — after three weekends in theaters, the film is estimated to have grossed $344 million domestically and $720 million worldwide. That makes it the biggest movie of an admittedly underwhelming year at the box office (so far), and the second biggest video game movie of all time. Coming […]

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GOP Lawmaker Wants To Make Easter Monday A Federal Holiday

Sen. Eric Schmitt has introduced a bill to make Easter Monday a federal holiday since those poor oppressed Christians don't have enough federal holidays already. His rational for it is really something:

“Recently, I proudly introduced a bill to establish Easter Monday as a federal holiday in the United States. Despite only two-thirds of Americans identifying as Christian, more than 80% of Americans celebrate Easter each year,” Sen. Schmitt said. “The current lack of a federal Easter Holiday significantly limits Americans’ ability to celebrate with friends, family, and church communities.”

[...]

“I am honored to be leading this charge to not only bring increased economic opportunity for our communities, but to establish a much-needed holiday for millions of Americans to celebrate the defining moment of the faith that shaped our civilization,” Schmitt continued.

Schmitt said the new holiday would be pro-family, allowing many to celebrate the holiday more easily together. An Easter Monday could also extend the weekend’s $15 billion travel impact with an additional $1 billion or more.

Lastly, Schmitt said the bill would help bridge a gap in the federal holidays, which currently exists between Presidents and Memorial Day.

Yes, I'm sure that it's almost impossible for people to celebrate Easter Sunday at church with their family. WTAF!

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There Are Cracks In Trump’s Deportation Mojo

As Media Matters President Angelo Carusone told MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace Thursday, there are cracks in the right-wing media, which now dominates the media landscape, “especially on this Garcia case.” That, plus the contempt threats from the courts over the Trump administration’s refusal to return Abrego Garcia, are clearly beginning to spook the White House.

The first sign of wobbling was El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s abrupt reversal in allowing Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia’s family lawyer to visit with Kilmar Abrego Garcia. You can bet the Trump administration either told Bukele to change course or, at the very least, approved it.

Abrego Garcia appeared in street clothes, an obvious attempt to make him look unscathed. Bukele tried to give the impression his prisoner was ensconced in some kind of cushy surroundings. He tweeted that Abrego Garcia had “miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Chris Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!?” Bukele then added, “Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody.”

Underneath the very thin layer of bravado was an unmistakeable defensiveness.

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Congress has questions about 23andMe bankruptcy

3The leaders of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce said they are investigating how 23andMe’s bankruptcy might affect customers’ data. Representatives Brett Guthrie, Gus Bilirakis, and Gary Palmer (all Republicans) sent a letter Thursday to the genetic testing company’s interim CEO Joe Selsavage asking a number of questions about how 23andMe will handle customer […]

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Customs And Border Patrol Agent Arrested For Multiple Child Sex Crimes

Jason Michael Drown, 40, was arrested by Gilbert Police in Arizona for (alleged!) multiple sex crimes against children. Homeland Security agents uncovered pornographic images of three children that were accessed from Drown's IP address, according to court documents. In total, Drown is accused of 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. The girls he perved on were between the ages of 8 and 10.

ABC 15 reports:

Court paperwork confirms that Drown is a Customs and Border Patrol agent.

CBP officials released the following statement regarding the arrest:

"On April 8, 2025, at approximately 10:50 a.m., a CBP employee was arrested for state charges related to child pornography by the Gilbert Police Department. The incident is under investigation by the Gilbert Police Department and supported by the DHS Office of Inspector General, and under review by CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility.

CBP stresses honor and integrity in every aspect of our mission, and the overwhelming majority of CBP employees and officers perform their duties with honor and distinction, working tirelessly every day to keep our country safe. An arrest is merely an allegation. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law."

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White House replaces covid.gov website with ‘lab leak’ theory

The government-run website covid.gov used to host information about COVID-19 vaccines, testing, and treatment. Now, under President Trump’s purview, the page redirects to a White House website espousing the unproven theory that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese laboratory. The theory, which has been opposed by many virologists, was espoused in a report by House Republicans […]

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ChatGPT is referring to users by their names unprompted, and some find it ‘creepy’

Some ChatGPT users have noticed a strange phenomenon recently: occasionally, the chatbot refers to them by name as it reasons through problems. That wasn’t the default behavior previously, and several users claim ChatGPT is mentioning their names despite never having been told what to call them. Reviews are mixed. One user, software developer and AI […]

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Law Firms Made Deals With Trump, Now He Is Demanding Even More

Numerous Big Law Firms struck pathetic deals with Donald Trump to provide tens of millions of dollars of free services to his chosen causes and promise to do away with their internal DEI practices. You know, hate-filled defenses of things that they would never normally do. Some of the firms include Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, A&O Shearman, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, DC Firm Cadwalader, Paul, Weiss and even Skadden, Arps.

I guess they thought by signing these Devil's Bargain arrangements, Trump and his fascist White House would leave them alone.

WRONG. Bullies never stop. And now they are learning.

The New York Times is reporting that he doesn't just want free legal work. No, no, no. In the last few days, Trump said that firms will be helping him negotiate trade deals with foreign nations. He has also said that they would help revive the coal industry, you know, the bring back Black Lung so RFK can cure it with tinctures and oils.

Now that firms have agreed to provide close to $1 billion dollars of free legal work, Trump advisors have been making lists about all the things they can make them do. That work could include "sending the lawyers to help Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency or deploying them to aid the Justice Department." They also want the lawyers to represent Trump and his allies if they get investigated again (guaranteed).

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Trump-appointed judge orders Trump admin to ‘turn the funding spigots back on’

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy said that the administrations actions were “neither reasonable nor reasonably explained.”

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Marge Resorts To Violent Crackdown On Dissent At Her Town Hall

In Cobb County, Georgia, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had her security use tasers and force to tamp down on dissent breaking out in Republican town halls since so many voters are furious over the horrific effects of Trump's tariffs and the wrongful deportation of an innocent family man.

The QAnon Klan mom probably thought she would be immune to any protesters since her district is so red but she had her security be prepared to use violence.

And they did.

CNN reports that at least three people were physically removed by police officers and officers used a stun gun on at least two of the men.

Marge really enjoyed having her armed men taser and rough up protestors. This is what the Trump administration has wrought. Lying Congress people defend his every criminal or illegal move and then sick their thugs on them.

Question: Why are you such a coward in the face of an obvious fascist takeover?

Greene: Scary. That's scary. You know, I have yet to see a fascist gathering. That does not exist in the Republican Party. pic.twitter.com/xIP9yiAlfb

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 16, 2025

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Rivian’s first non-Amazon van customer is HelloFresh

Meal-kit company HelloFresh has added 70 all-electric Rivian vans to its fleet, the first major customer to buy the commercial EVs since the automaker ended its exclusive deal with Amazon. The 70 all-electric commercial vans represent nearly one quarter of HelloFresh’s fleet, which has already helped the company save an estimated 20,000 gallons of gasoline, […]

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Stop doomscrolling and watch the ‘Great Moose Migration’ livestream

You could say that TikTok is ruining our attention spans, and yet, viewers around the world are tuning in to watch a monotonous livestream from a Swedish TV station that they’ve probably never heard of. It’s time for the Great Moose Migration. For thousands of years, moose have crossed the Ångerman River each spring, trekking […]

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Figma sent a cease-and-desist letter to Lovable over the term ‘Dev Mode’

We may be witnessing the makings of a new tech industry feud between competitors. Figma has sent a cease-and-desist letter to popular no-code AI startup Lovable, Figma confirmed to TechCrunch.  The letter tells Lovable to stop using the term “Dev Mode” for a new product feature. Figma, which also has a feature called Dev Mode, […]

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'Not Going To Be Brainwashed': Fox News Pundit Slams Trump's Tariff 'Screw Up'

Fox News contributor Leslie Marshall blasted President Donald Trump for a "screw up" after he walked back his so-called reciprocal tariffs for 90 days.

During the Sunday Fox News Media Buzz program, host Howard Kurtz pointed out that White House Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed reporters for not understanding Trump's "Art of the Deal" in response to the decision to postpone tariffs.

"I would say that, you know, there are many people in this country, even some that voted for the president, they're not going to drink the Kool-Aid, Howard, and they're not going to be brainwashed by this," Marshall replied. "We have economists. We have very staunch Republican Trump-supporting financial wizards out there that said this was bad."

"This was not a deal. This was not artful. This was a big screw up."

The Fox News contributor noted that stock market gains prompted by the tariff pause were lost within 24 hours.

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Consumer Sentiment Falls Off A Cliff With Trump's Tariffs Talk

The University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index has been around since 1952. The current index is at its lowest point since 1981. Respondents' expectation for inflation a year from now is a staggering 6.7%, or about what occurred after the COVID crisis. So if voters didn't like the high inflation of the Biden economy when supply chains were broken causing those massive price spikes, they're probably going to dislike the Trump economy even less, as the economic pain is entirely self-inflicted this time.

Source: CNBC

Consumer sentiment grew even worse than expected in April as the expected inflation level hit its highest since 1981, a closely watched University of Michigan survey showed Friday.

The survey’s mid-month reading on consumer sentiment fell to 50.8, down from 57.0 in March and below the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 54.6. The move represented a 10.9% monthly change and was 34.2% lower than a year ago. It was lowest reading since June 2022 and the second lowest in the survey’s history going back to 1952.

As sentiment moved lower, inflation worries surged.

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Judge Finds Donald Is Withholding FEMA Funds From Blue States

There are a lot of FEMA shenanigans going on right now under Donald's watch. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration had violated his order to halt sweeping freezes to federal funding by withholding FEMA funds to at least 19 states, Courthouse News reports. The judge said it seemed to be a “covert” effort to punish states with different immigration practices. Donald is a sadistic monster. I said what I said.

Judge John McConnell determined that Donald's administration was in breach of the court’s order.

Via Courthouse News:

At least 19 states — all with Democratic attorney generals, and all of which had sued to stop the funding cuts — “presented undisputed evidence” that they were not receiving congressionally approved FEMA funding from the federal government, the judge ruled.

Here in North Carolina, which is not a blue state, Democratic Governor Josh Stein is begging Donald for help since FEMA will stop matching 100% of Helene recovery money in the Tar Heel state, which voted for Donald three times.

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All Public Soc Sec Communication Now Via Musk’s Xitter Only

Now that Elon Musk’s DOGE Bros have gutted the Social Security Administration and made it harder for American seniors to get the retirement money they have earned, he’s getting a reward. From now on, SSA’s press releases and the “dear colleague” letters (used to communicate with advocacy groups and third-party organizations that help people access benefits) will be on Xitter, only.

Because I’m sure Grandmas and Grandpas all over America are big Xitter users – not!

WIRED has the scoop:

Recent [dear colleague] letters covered everything from the agency’s new identity verification procedures to updates on the accuracy of SSA death records (“less than one-third of 1 percent are erroneously reported deaths that need to be corrected,” the agency wrote, in contrast to what Elon Musk claims).

The letters and press releases were also a crucial communications tool for SSA employees, who used them to stay up on agency news.

This doesn't seem like it will make anything more efficient. Well, except for Musk's online traffic.

More from WIRED:

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Apple’s ‘Mythic Quest’ is ending with an updated Season 4 finale

“Mythic Quest,” the Apple TV+ workplace comedy about the making of a popular online roleplaying game, is ending after four seasons. A new version of the show’s fourth season finale — first aired on March 26, and now the de facto series finale — will premiere on Apple TV+ next week, with a new ending. […]

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OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence reportedly valued at $32B

Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the AI startup led by OpenAI’s co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has raised an additional $2 billion in funding at a $32 billion valuation, according to the Financial Times. The startup had already raised $1 billion, and there were reports that an additional $1 billion round was in the works. […]

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38 consumer startup founders lobby over Trump tariffs: One faces a surprise $200K bill

Small businesses could be crushed under President Trump’s increased tariffs, according to an open letter by 38 female consumer product founders. While Trump paused his tariff increases for 90 days for various countries — setting the rate at 10% for now — China’s was raised to 145%, which includes the previous 20% levy. In the letter, […]

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Blue Water Autonomy comes out of stealth promising autonomous naval ships

A new ship-building startup called Blue Water Autonomy has emerged from stealth with the promise of developing captain-less naval ships. The Boston, Massachusetts-based company has raised a $14 million seed round from Eclipse VC, Riot, and Impatient Ventures. The startup was founded in 2024 by former members of the U.S. Navy, leaders of Amazon Robotics, […]

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Mira Murati’s AI startup is reportedly aiming for a massive $2B seed round

Thinking Machines Lab, the new AI startup from ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is reportedly attempting to close one of the largest seed rounds in history. Business Insider reported on Thursday that Thinking Machines Lab has doubled the target for its seed funding round to $2 billion. The round, should it close according to plan, would […]

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BeReal, which says it has 40M monthly users, is rolling out ads in the US

It’s time for BeReal to get real — it’s difficult to turn a profit on a social photo-sharing app without selling ads or memberships. Now, after its €500 million exit to French mobile publisher Voodoo, BeReal is rolling out advertising in the U.S. Its initial products include in-feed ads in the app’s same dual-camera post […]

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Trump Caves On Tariffs - For Now

With the US economy plunging into recession/depression territory, life savings ruined, 401(k)s decimated and now Treasury bonds being sold like hot cakes, Trump was forced to humiliate himself and issue a 90-day pause on his tariffs.

Weasel Scott Bessent delivered the news of Trump's utter humiliation, while claiming he showed great courage in holding out as long as he did.

HAHAHAHHAAHA.

"It took great courage, great courage, for him to stay the course until this moment," Bessent said.

Yeah, Trump lasted a week.

BESSENT: And what we have ended up with here, as I told everyone a week ago, they are in this very spot.

Do not retaliate, and you will be rewarded.

So every country in the world who wants to come and negotiate, we are willing to hear you.

We are going to go down to a 10 percent baseline tariff for them, and China will be raised to 125 due to their insistence on escalation.

Rewarded? What about the American people? Just because the markets rebound doesn't mean everyone's savings and 401ks are back in the green.

Trump caused incredible damage to the psyche of Americans, including his cult voters, who watched their life savings dwindle to nothing.

The claim that countries are negotiating is ridiculous. What are they negotiating?

Get ready for the onslaught of Media MAGAts proclaiming Trump won.

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Canoo CEO can buy bankrupt EV startup’s assets, judge rules

The sale of bankrupt EV startup Canoo’s assets to its CEO has been okayed by the judge overseeing the case. After evaluating a number of limited objections to the sale, Judge Brendan Shannon said in a hearing Wednesday he believes the process was fair and that no one else but Canoo CEO Anthony Aquila made […]

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Deep Cogito emerges from stealth with hybrid AI ‘reasoning’ models

A new company, Deep Cogito, has emerged from stealth with a family of openly available AI models that can be switched between “reasoning” and non-reasoning modes. Reasoning models like OpenAI’s o1 have shown great promise in domains like math and physics, thanks to their ability to effectively fact-check themselves by working through complex problems step […]

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At last, MrBeast weighs in on the global economic crisis du jour

Your 401k is suffering. The billionaires are fighting. The gamers are imperiled. Not even the penguins on McDonald Island, where no humans reside, have been spared. But at long last, 26-year-old YouTuber and chocolatier MrBeast has weighed in on President Donald Trump’s controversial plan to impose sweeping tariffs on imports. Jokes aside, the prolific YouTuber […]

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Lutnick Wants An 'Army' Of Americans 'Screwing In Little- Little Screws'

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was grilled on 'Face the Nation' with Margaret Brennan regarding Donald's tariffs, which have caused the stock market to plummet and hit Americans' 401K retirement plans with a sledgehammer.

"And you said that robots are going to fill those jobs," Brennan said. "So those aren't union worker jobs."

"No, it's really automated jobs. It's automated factories- automated factories," Lutnick said. "But the key is, who's going to build the factories? Who's going to operate the factories? Who's going to make them work? Great American workers. You know, we are going to replace--"

"You said robots on other networks," Brennan pressed on. "You said that to FOX."

Lutnick responded with utter gibberish.

"The armies of millions of people- well, remember, the army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little- little screws to make iPhones, that kind of thing is going to come to America," he said. "It's going to be automated and great Americans- the tradecraft of America, is going to fix them, is going to work on them."

"They're going to be mechanics. There's going to be HVAC specialists," he added. "There's going to be electricians, the tradecraft of America. Our high school-educated Americans- the core to our workforce is going to have the greatest resurgence of jobs in the history of America to work on these high-tech factories, which are all coming to America. That's what's going to build our next generation of America."

La sigh.

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Meta exec denies the company artificially boosted Llama 4’s benchmark scores

A Meta exec on Monday denied a rumor that the company trained its new AI models to present well on specific benchmarks while concealing the models’ weaknesses. The executive, Ahmad Al-Dahle, VP of generative AI at Meta, said in a post on X that it’s “simply not true” that Meta trained its Llama 4 Maverick […]

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Fox Host Belittles Protesters While Lying About Medicaid Fraud

If you were wondering how Fox was going to cover the large #HandsOff protests all across the country over the weekend, here you go.

After showing some footage of Fox & Friends Weekend cohost Charlie Hurt out talking to protesters in New York, and mocking them for not having some consistent message on exactly what they were protesting (while also claiming that a bunch of them were just paid Soros plants) Rachel Campos-Duffy wrapped things up by pushing the lie that "undocumented immigrants are siphoning away billions of dollars' worth of entitlements as part of a Democratic scheme for votes."

CAMPOS-DUFFY: Well, you know what's interesting, I saw some of the signs. They said hands off my schools. I'm like, what? Like literally Donald Trump is trying to give the schools back to the parents.

HURT: We agree, okay.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: And then they said hands off Medicaid, which DOGE just uncovered massive amounts of illegals raiding our Medicaid funds.

So that's just, I thought that was kind of ironic as well.

We'll see how long this level of gaslighting remains tenable.

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White House reportedly blames auto-suggested iPhone contact for Signal scandal

How did Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg get added to a Signal group chat with Trump administration officials discussing their plans for an airstrike in Yemen? The simplest explanation: National Security Adviser Mike Waltz had Goldberg saved as a contact in his phone and accidentally added him. Indeed, when Waltz first claimed that Goldberg’s phone number […]

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Meta releases Llama 4, a new crop of flagship AI models

Meta has released a new collection of AI models, Llama 4, in its Llama family — on a Saturday, no less. There are four new models in total: Llama 4 Scout, Llama 4 Maverick, and Llama 4 Behemoth. All were trained on “large amounts of unlabeled text, image, and video data” to give them “broad […]

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All Over The Country, The Real Patriots Are Turning Out

Just some snapshots of what today was like. If you don't see your town, leave pictures in the comments!

#handsoff Birmingham, Alabama

— Joyce White Vance (@joycewhitevance.bsky.social) 2025-04-05T17:14:13.655Z

Kickoff in Philadelphia. #handsoff

— Indivisible (@indivisible.org) 2025-04-05T17:13:09.335Z

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TechCrunch Mobility: Tesla takes a hit, tariff chaos begins, and one EV startup hits a milestone

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Over the 13 years reporting on Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, I have watched the rise, fall, near misses, and rise again of the company and […]

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AOC Thumping Schumer In Hypothetical Primary Match-up

I usually don't put much stock in hypothetical match-ups three years out for a race that might never happen, and by a poll done by a liberal group with an interest in promoting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But in this instance their numbers, especially in the crosstabs, are interesting to dive into. Chuck Schumer has already filed to run again but it's possible he could reconsider if there really is a race in 2028. We shall see.

Source: Latin Times

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is leading Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in a potential primary for his New York seat in the Upper House, according to a new poll.

Concretely, a survey by Data for Progress showed the New York City lawmaker ahead by almost 20 percentage points, getting 55% of the vote compared to Schumer's 36%. The poll was conducted on March 31 among 767 likely voters.

Politico, which first reported on the survey, described Data for Progress as a liberal firm. The fact that it conducted the poll, the outlet analyzed, "underscores that liberal organizations are continuing to look for ways to prod Schumer to take a tougher stance against President Donald Trump."

Her recent tour with Bernie Sanders definitely has people speculating about a Senate race in her future.

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OpenAI’s models ‘memorized’ copyrighted content, new study suggests

A new study appears to lend credence to allegations that OpenAI trained at least some of its AI models on copyrighted content. OpenAI is embroiled in suits brought by authors, programmers, and other rights-holders who accuse the company of using their works — books, codebases, and so on — to develop its models without permission. […]

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Howard Lutnick: I Didn't Say What I Said About Social Security Fraudsters

Trump's clown of a Commerce Secretary, billionaire Howard Lutnick, told CBS Morning News he never said what he did say when he called people complaining about not getting their Social Security checks, "fraudsters."

Lutnick definitively said this: "A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining,” he sneered. “All the guys who did PayPal, like Elon, know this by heart, right? Anybody who’s been in the payment system and the process system knows the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen. ‘Cause whoever screams is the one stealing.”

That means not sending payments to Social Security recipients.

Watch him lie to CBS News.

HOST: You made a comment a couple of weeks ago that if seniors missed a Social Security check, they wouldn't notice.

They think there's just a little minor problem and that the people who complain are the fraudsters.

What did you mean by that?

LUTNICK: That's not what I said.

Look, that's that's not what I said.

Please don't take my Social Security comments out of context.

Lutnick then swore that the Trump administration would not touch anyone's payments and then he lied about being taken out of context..

LUTNICK: And that's just taking my statements out of context.

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Sen. Coons Eviscerates Fox News Host On Social Security Lies

Senator Chris Coons destroyed Fox News host Martha McCallum for defending the outrageous Elon Musk-led DOGE attacks on the federal government very easily.

One point in particular was telling when Coons explained that there were names on the roles for 150 years, which is longer than the system was born, but they're not receiving payments, and the Fox News host didn't believe that was the case. It has already been proven what Musk stated about 150 year-olds receiving benfits was a lie. But lies never die on Fox News.

COONS: There are people whose names are on the rolls as having been born 150 or 200 years ago. They're not receiving Social Security payments.

MACCALLUM I don't think that's true.

COONS: So the statement that there's all these people, Martha, I'm just repeating back to you what the Trump administration, acting Social Security administrator, has said about the percentage of fraud in Social Security.

Part of why I'm alarmed about Elon Musk and DOGE, and they're getting into the systems, and they're getting the access to the individual information of millions of Americans, is that Elon Musk has made it clear he thinks Social Security is a Ponzi scheme.

A Ponzi scheme is itself fraudulent, fake, criminal, or illegal. I don't think Social Security is a Ponzi scheme.

I think 70 million Americans depend on it for their principal source of income.

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Fox Business: Markets 'Hate' Trump Tariffs

Fox Business Network host Stuart Varney, a rabid Trump supporter, opened his program by saying Wall Street and stock markets hate Trump tariffs

We are seeing a decline of thousands of points because of Trump's moronic tariffs, and Varney did not try to put lipstick on the pig when he opened his program.

VARNEY: Here's the response from Wall Street.

Hate it.

Dow Industrial is likely to be down 1,200 points at the opening bell.

That would be 3%.

The S&P 3.7% down.

The Nasdaq up maybe 900 points.

That is 4.5%.

Spectacular declines across the board.

Varney's producers were so flummoxed they put up the wrong graphic on-air when discussing retailers.

Was this a way to put some green on the board?

Then Varney did his best to soften this blow.

Economists? They're largely skeptical that the tariffs will produce a new golden age of prosperity.

Ya, think?

Holy hellfire stock market crash, Batman.

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Microsoft reportedly pulls back on its data center plans

Microsoft has pulled back on data center projects around the world, Bloomberg reports, suggesting that the company is wary of expanding its cloud computing infrastructure too rapidly. Microsoft has halted talks for or delayed development sites of data centers in the U.K., Australia, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, per Bloomberg. A spokesperson told the publication […]

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OpenAI seeks to convene group to advise its nonprofit goals

As it prepares to transition from a nonprofit corporation to a for-profit, OpenAI says it’s convening a group of experts to “help OpenAI’s philanthropy understand the most urgent and intractable problems nonprofits face today.” This group, which OpenAI says will incorporate feedback from “leaders and communities” in health, science, education, and public services, particularly within […]

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Sen. Jim Banks Tells HHS Employee Who Lost Job ‘You Probably Deserved It’

Apparently, the coolest thing a Republican can do these days is act like a heartless bastard. That's the message that Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana wants to send anyway, as he's now put the video on his Twitter account, used the picture as his profile icon, and decried leftwing activists as clowns, and not simply a citizen upset with losing his job.

And, in a way, I don't even blame Jim Banks as he's always been a reactionary, rightwing ideologue. I blame the voters of Indiana for sending such an asshole to represent them in the U.S. Senate in the first place. He's not going there to represent their interests whatsoever and he just proved it.

Source: People

Republican Sen. Jim Banks told a former Health and Human Services employee that he “probably deserved” to lose his job in a viral video on Tuesday, April 1.

The brief interaction between the U.S. senator from Indiana and Mack Schroeder was caught on video and shared by multiple outlets, including NBC News’ TikTok account.

In the video, Schroeder, who does not appear on camera, follows and questions Banks as he is escorted to an elevator.

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Who are climate-conscious consumers? Not who you’d expect, says Northwind Climate

Rather than divide people into demographic buckets, Northwind Climate analyzes survey responses for behavioral clues.

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