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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