Trump to sign order making English the official U.S. language
Trump to sign order making English the official U.S. language
US President Donald Trump waits to greet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the entrance of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 27, 2025.
Carl Court | Afp | Getty Images
President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order making English the official language of the United States, two White House officials told CNBC on Friday.
The order, first reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier Friday morning, would establish a national language for the first time in U.S. history.
Trump’s order would also rescind former President Bill Clinton’s August 2000 directive requiring agencies and other recipients of federal funds to provide services for those with limited English proficiency, the sources said.
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How Yura Borisov of ‘Anora’ Went From the Kremlin to the Oscars
How Yura Borisov of ‘Anora’ Went From the Kremlin to the Oscars
On the face of it, the Russian actor Yura Borisov was an unlikely actor to land an Oscar nomination in 2025.
Just a few years ago he played a guileless soldier in a Kremlin-sponsored movie that celebrated a Soviet tank model. Later, he starred in a biopic of Mikhail Kalashnikov, the man who invented the Russian automatic rifle.
But after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he stopped playing in militaristic movies. Last year, Western audiences fell in love with him as a tight-lipped but sentimental ****** errand boy in “Anora,” a Brooklyn-based indie dramedy about a stripper who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch.
At the Academy Awards on Sunday, Borisov is up for best supporting actor for the role.
The war in Ukraine cut many Russian artists off from the West, but Borisov has been among the few who managed to transcend the dividing lines. He has continued a career in Russia, without endorsing or condemning the war, while in the West, he has evaded being seen as a representative of state-sponsored Russian culture.
“Borisov hasn’t picked a side,” said Anton Dolin, a leading Russian film critic. “Maybe he is just very smart, or maybe he thinks he is not smart enough,” Dolin said by phone from Riga, Latvia, where he now lives in exile.
“It doesn’t matter,” Dolin added. “His behavior and strategy have been impeccable.”
Today, Borisov is one of Russia’s biggest international stars. In Moscow, where some filmmakers have declared loudly that Hollywood was an irrelevant nest of decadence, the cinema crowd has been swept up in “Yuramania” over his Oscar nomination. His public appearances have been followed closely by fans on social media, and he has become the subject of countless online memes.
Many Russians saw Borisov’s nomination as proof that the country was breaking through what officials have described as “a cultural wall” erected around Russia by the nefarious West.
“Everyone talks about Yura,” said Katya Mtsituridze, a film critic in Moscow and former chief editor of Variety Russia. “And Sean Baker is perceived almost as a Russian filmmaker,” she added, referring to the director and screenwriter of “Anora.” “This is a film where Russians are good and sincere — they are true Chekhovian characters,” she said.
Over the past weeks, Borisov, who grew up in a humble family in a town outside Moscow, has been on the road campaigning for awards for “Anora” and attending glittering ceremonies. When he has made it back to Moscow, he has been promoting another patriotic film, in which he plays Aleksander Pushkin, Russia’s celebrated poet.
This week, Borisov arrived in Los Angeles to prepare for the Oscars ceremony. After multiple requests through his agent, family and friends, a representative declined an interview request for this article, citing the actor’s award season commitments.
While Borisov’s performances can seem effortless, as if he simply plays himself, he actually labors over his craft. For the role of a crude Russian miner in the Finnish movie “Compartment No. 6,” he thought about getting a tooth removed to look rougher, he said in an interview with a Russian blogger. For another part, he added, he tried drugs to work out how an addict would behave. (He never wanted to play a drug addict again, he said.)
In three movies he made in 2021, Borisov played parts that could potentially alienate him from the Russian authorities.
He played a secret agent trying to redeem his sins in “Captain Volkonogov,” an anti-totalitarian film that was effectively banned in Russia. He was featured in “Petrov’s Flu,” a phantasmagorial movie by Kirill Serebrennikov, the darling of Russia’s anti-Kremlin intelligentsia in exile. And he appeared as a Russian mercenary in Syria in “Mama, I’m Home,” a rare film to explore the Kremlin’s shadow war for influence in the Middle East and its effects at home in Russia.
“He is a rare artist who hasn’t been blacklisted,” said Dolin, the critic. But, since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he added, Borisov “also hasn’t discredited himself by taking part in outright propaganda projects.”
Borisov has transcended boundaries — just like “Anora,” which was a huge but unlikely success in Russia.
The movie had a wide theatrical release across the country, and was bought by Kinopoisk, Russia’s leading streaming service. A spokeswoman for the platform said that more than 2.4 million subscribers had watched it, and it was Kinopoisk’s most popular film in January.
Part of this has to do with a thirst for Western movies. Major Hollywood studios like Disney and Sony pulled out of the Russian market in 2022, but independent movies like “Anora” can still get released. And Russians rush to theaters to watch them.
Members of the pro-Western elite were so enthusiastic about the success of “Anora” that some Russian nationalists grew irritated. Yegor Kholmogorov, a firebrand pro-Kremlin commentator, said that the buzz around the movie showed that Russians were always looking for confirmation from the West.
In a scathing article about the movie on a Russian nationalist website, he said that the furor confirmed that members of the Russian elite were “wandering around, looking for a shot of praise” from the West — “like drug addicts looking for a fix.”
The success of the movie, and Borisov’s nomination, have also had a polarizing effect on anti-Kremlin forces.
Pro-Ukraine activists argued that lauding a film with Russian oligarchs and gangsters at its center was tone deaf while their country fights against Moscow’s aggression. And among Russian exiles, many worried that Borisov’s nomination signaled a return to normalcy in Russia’s cultural relations with the West.
“Those who see in any Russian success the triumph of Russian weapons, of Putin — of course they were very upset,” Dolin said.
But inside Russia, even conservatives like Nikita Mikhalkov, an Oscar-winning director who has been lashing out on state television against what he sees as the depraved culture of the West, wished Borisov success at Sunday’s ceremony.
“He is doing his job well there,” Mikhalkov said.
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Split Fiction Dev Says Studio Will Never Implement Microtransactions In Its Games
Split Fiction Dev Says Studio Will Never Implement Microtransactions In Its Games
Split Fiction and It Takes Two developer Hazelight Studios will never put microtransactions in its games, according to director Josef Fares.
In an interview with MinnMax, Fares also said that Hazelight Studios isn’t available for ******* publishers to buy it out. “Hazelight is not for *****. I mean, we will always do what we do, and we love what to do *******,” Fares explained. “And we will never be on the stock market as well; get that in, *******. And we will never have microtransactions, *********, no *****, just make games. *******.”
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Now Playing: Microtransactions Are Getting Out Of Hand | Spot On
Recently, Fares also said that Hazelight won’t make live-service games either. Microtransactions are common to in live-service games, as studios and publishers who make them want a recurring stream of revenue.
Microtransactions can seem appealing, as players are offered a constant stream of new content such as cosmetics. However, players have expressed concern that microtransactions have gotten out of hand, as they feel like they’re being squeezed for every bit of cash.
Hazelight specializes in co-op games, and their games are consumer friendly in that they often offer a Friend Pass so that only one person needs to purchase Split Fiction in order to play with another.
Ironically, all of Hazelight’s games so far have been published by Electronic Arts, whose CEO said that AI will drive microtransaction sales. Electronic Arts has made billions in the past through microtransactions.
Split Fiction launches on March 6 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
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The TikTok experience is getting better on desktop
The TikTok experience is getting better on desktop
TikTok is giving a lift to the experience of viewing viral short-form videos on desktop. The company says it is bringing what it calls a modular layout to the Tiktok web app, which includes a full-screen LIVE video feed and a floating player that is exclusive to desktop viewing.
The platform has changed the position of the navigation bar as part of the modular design makeover. TikTok says the new design opens the doors for a more immersive viewing experience and better discovery of their respective feeds.
On the left edge of the screen, there’s a persistent pane where users will find all the core controls such as For You, Explore, Messages, profile settings, account suggestions, and LIVE, among others.
Compared to mobile, even the features that are usually a swipe or tap away are all neatly arranged on the Home Screen of TikTok’s desktop client. The engagement tools, such as likes, comments, and sharing are on the right side of the video window.
TikTok
To make the desktop view even more rewarding, TikTok will let users create custom categories to save their videos and revisit them at their convenience. The feature is similar to Instagram that allows users to create collections, which can be personal as well as shared with mutuals.
For content creators, the web version of TikTok lets them launch a live video in both landscape and portrait orientation. For such videos, mobile users can simply switch their phone’s orientation and watch the live videos in their native format.
Inspired by the picture-in-picture floating window mode on web browsers, TikTok on the web is also getting a floating media player. “This flexible floating window keeps TikTok visible above other windows, allowing you to multitask without missing out on your favorite content,” says the company.
For now, this floating window mode is exclusive to Chrome browser. It is unclear whether TikTok will eventually bring it to other web browsers, too, especially those running the same Chromium engine, such as Microsoft’s Edge.
TikTok returned to the Google Play Store and Apple’s Play Store in the US barely two weeks ago, following a brief shutdown in the US. The spectre of a ban, however, still looms over the platform after it got a temporary reprieve with an executive order that extended the deadline.
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Pelican News
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How Yura Borisov of ‘Anora’ Went From the Kremlin to the Oscars
How Yura Borisov of ‘Anora’ Went From the Kremlin to the Oscars
On the face of it, the Russian actor Yura Borisov was an unlikely actor to land an Oscar nomination in 2025.
Just a few years ago he played a guileless soldier in a Kremlin-sponsored movie that celebrated a Soviet tank model. Later, he starred in a biopic of Mikhail Kalashnikov, the man who invented the Russian automatic rifle.
But after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he stopped playing in militaristic movies. Last year, Western audiences fell in love with him as a tight-lipped but sentimental ****** errand boy in “Anora,” a Brooklyn-based indie dramedy about a stripper who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch.
At the Academy Awards on Sunday, Borisov is up for best supporting actor for the role.
The war in Ukraine cut many Russian artists off from the West, but Borisov has been among the few who managed to transcend the dividing lines. He has continued a career in Russia, without endorsing or condemning the war, while in the West, he has evaded being seen as a representative of state-sponsored Russian culture.
“Borisov hasn’t picked a side,” said Anton Dolin, a leading Russian film critic. “Maybe he is just very smart, or maybe he thinks he is not smart enough,” Dolin said by phone from Riga, Latvia, where he now lives in exile.
“It doesn’t matter,” Dolin added. “His behavior and strategy have been impeccable.”
Today, Borisov is one of Russia’s biggest international stars. In Moscow, where some filmmakers have declared loudly that Hollywood was an irrelevant nest of decadence, the cinema crowd has been swept up in “Yuramania” over his Oscar nomination. His public appearances have been followed closely by fans on social media, and he has become the subject of countless online memes.
Many Russians saw Borisov’s nomination as proof that the country was breaking through what officials have described as “a cultural wall” erected around Russia by the nefarious West.
“Everyone talks about Yura,” said Katya Mtsituridze, a film critic in Moscow and former chief editor of Variety Russia. “And Sean Baker is perceived almost as a Russian filmmaker,” she added, referring to the director and screenwriter of “Anora.” “This is a film where Russians are good and sincere — they are true Chekhovian characters,” she said.
Over the past weeks, Borisov, who grew up in a humble family in a town outside Moscow, has been on the road campaigning for awards for “Anora” and attending glittering ceremonies. When he has made it back to Moscow, he has been promoting another patriotic film, in which he plays Aleksander Pushkin, Russia’s celebrated poet.
This week, Borisov arrived in Los Angeles to prepare for the Oscars ceremony. After multiple requests through his agent, family and friends, a representative declined an interview request for this article, citing the actor’s award season commitments.
While Borisov’s performances can seem effortless, as if he simply plays himself, he actually labors over his craft. For the role of a crude Russian miner in the Finnish movie “Compartment No. 6,” he thought about getting a tooth removed to look rougher, he said in an interview with a Russian blogger. For another part, he added, he tried drugs to work out how an addict would behave. (He never wanted to play a drug addict again, he said.)
In three movies he made in 2021, Borisov played parts that could potentially alienate him from the Russian authorities.
He played a secret agent trying to redeem his sins in “Captain Volkonogov,” an anti-totalitarian film that was effectively banned in Russia. He was featured in “Petrov’s Flu,” a phantasmagorial movie by Kirill Serebrennikov, the darling of Russia’s anti-Kremlin intelligentsia in exile. And he appeared as a Russian mercenary in Syria in “Mama, I’m Home,” a rare film to explore the Kremlin’s shadow war for influence in the Middle East and its effects at home in Russia.
“He is a rare artist who hasn’t been blacklisted,” said Dolin, the critic. But, since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he added, Borisov “also hasn’t discredited himself by taking part in outright propaganda projects.”
Borisov has transcended boundaries — just like “Anora,” which was a huge but unlikely success in Russia.
The movie had a wide theatrical release across the country, and was bought by Kinopoisk, Russia’s leading streaming service. A spokeswoman for the platform said that more than 2.4 million subscribers had watched it, and it was Kinopoisk’s most popular film in January.
Part of this has to do with a thirst for Western movies. Major Hollywood studios like Disney and Sony pulled out of the Russian market in 2022, but independent movies like “Anora” can still get released. And Russians rush to theaters to watch them.
Members of the pro-Western elite were so enthusiastic about the success of “Anora” that some Russian nationalists grew irritated. Yegor Kholmogorov, a firebrand pro-Kremlin commentator, said that the buzz around the movie showed that Russians were always looking for confirmation from the West.
In a scathing article about the movie on a Russian nationalist website, he said that the furor confirmed that members of the Russian elite were “wandering around, looking for a shot of praise” from the West — “like drug addicts looking for a fix.”
The success of the movie, and Borisov’s nomination, have also had a polarizing effect on anti-Kremlin forces.
Pro-Ukraine activists argued that lauding a film with Russian oligarchs and gangsters at its center was tone deaf while their country fights against Moscow’s aggression. And among Russian exiles, many worried that Borisov’s nomination signaled a return to normalcy in Russia’s cultural relations with the West.
“Those who see in any Russian success the triumph of Russian weapons, of Putin — of course they were very upset,” Dolin said.
But inside Russia, even conservatives like Nikita Mikhalkov, an Oscar-winning director who has been lashing out on state television against what he sees as the depraved culture of the West, wished Borisov success at Sunday’s ceremony.
“He is doing his job well there,” Mikhalkov said.
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Measles cases approach 150 in ongoing West Texas outbreak – CNN
Measles cases approach 150 in ongoing West Texas outbreak – CNN
Measles cases approach 150 in ongoing West Texas outbreak CNNMeasles cases continue to spread in multiple states following child’s death Fox NewsTexas leaders quiet amid the biggest measles outbreak in decades The Texas TribuneAustin leaders provide updates on measles in Texas, urge vaccinations amid outbreak KXAN.com
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Microsoft is retiring Skype in May, encouraging people to adopt Teams
Microsoft is retiring Skype in May, encouraging people to adopt Teams
Kelly Harris of San Jose, leans over to kiss the web cam as she says her goodbye to Brian Johnson, her brother stationed in Japan, at the end of their video phone call via Skype in San Jose, Calif. on Nov. 25, 2009.
Lea Suzuki | San Francisco Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers | Getty Images
Skype is logging off.
On Friday, Microsoft announced that the 21-year-old calling and messaging service will shut down May 5. The software company is encouraging Skype users to migrate to its free Teams app.
Skype won attention in the 2000s for giving people a way to talk without paying the phone company, but stumbled in the mobile era and didn’t enjoy a major resurgence during the pandemic. Some people have forgotten that it’s still available, given the many other options for chatting and calling.
“We’ve learned a lot from Skype over the years that we’ve put into Teams as we’ve evolved teams over the last seven to eight years,” Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative apps and platforms, said in an interview with CNBC. “But we felt like now is the time because we can be simpler for the market, for our customer base, and we can deliver more innovation faster just by being focused on Teams.”
Over the next few days, Microsoft will start allowing people to sign in to Teams with Skype credentials, and Skype contacts and chats will transfer over. People can also export their Skype data. The company will stop selling monthly Skype subscriptions, and users with credits can keep using them in Teams.
“This is obviously a big, big moment for us, and we’re certainly very grateful in many ways,” Teper said. “Skype pioneered audio and video calling on the web for many, many people.”
It’s one of the most enduring digital brands.
In 2003, Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, who previously co-founded peer-to-peer file-sharing program Kazaa, launched Skype in Estonia with help from a band of former classmates with zero experience in telecommunications. Originally, Skype was a tool for people to call one another online for free. The quirky name stood for “sky peer to peer,” a reference to the service’s underlying voice over internet protocol, or VoIP, architecture.
Skype caught on quickly. By 2004, there were 11 million registered users. By the time eBay announced a plan to buy Skype Technologies SA for $2.6 billion in 2005, the user count had reached 54 million, and Skype was anticipating $60 million in annual revenue, thanks to payments from those who wished to call mobile phones and landlines.
Meg Whitman, eBay’s CEO at the time, envisioned that Skype would help people more quickly complete sales of products, especially costly ones, by connecting buyers and sellers. And eBay could charge extra for such calls. Skype users across the world could discover eBay and PayPal, too. The deal was completed 29 days later.
In this handout image provided by eBay, the company’s president and CEO, Meg Whitman, left, poses with Niklas Zennstrom, co-founder and CEO of Skype, the global Internet communications company, in London on Sept. 12, 2005. Internet company eBay today announced its intention to acquire Skype, a voice over internet company, for about $2.6 billion.
Sergio Dionisio | eBay | Getty Images
Under eBay, Skype’s user number grew, crossing 405 million by 2008, and communications revenue rose. But then Whitman stepped down as CEO, making way for former Bain executive John Donahoe, who didn’t think eBay’s core businesses were benefiting from the Skype transaction.
In 2009, the economy was in recession, eBay’s sales growth had turned negative, and the stock price was lower than it had been since 2001. In a statement that touted the release of a Skype app for Apple’s iPhone, Donahoe announced that eBay would launch a Skype initial public offering as part of a separation.
But eBay never filed for a Skype IPO. Four and a half months after declaring the IPO strategy, eBay said it had reached an agreement to sell Skype to an investor group led by Silver Lake in a deal worth $2.75 billion. The online auction operator received a 30% stake in Skype’s buyer. Under the investor group, Skype filed for an IPO, but that didn’t come to pass, either. Microsoft wound up acquiring Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion, with eBay receiving over $2 billion.
“Microsoft and Skype together will bring together hundreds of millions or, as Tony said, billions of consumers and empower them to communicate in new and interesting ways,” Microsoft’s CEO at the time, Steve Ballmer, said at a press conference, referring to comments earlier at the event from Skype’s leader, Tony Bates. By that point, 170 million people were using Skype each month. Ballmer aimed to integrate Skype with several Microsoft products, including Lync, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Phone and Xbox video game consoles. Microsoft also got Skype running on its Azure cloud infrastructure.
Skype did not manage to accumulate a billion active users, though.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, left, shakes hands with Skype CEO Tony Bates during a news conference on May 10, 2011 in San Francisco, California. Microsoft has agreed to buy Skype for $8.5 billion.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Apple’s native iMessage and FaceTime were picking up traction on iOS devices. In 2014, Facebook bought WhatsApp, a mobile messaging app, and months later, users gained the ability to place calls across borders. WhatsApp took off globally. So did Tencent’s WeChat.
Skype, meanwhile, implemented multiple redesigns and faced criticism from devotees. In 2016, Microsoft introduced Teams as a distinct “chat-based workspace” for organizations with Office productivity software subscriptions that would compete with Slack, which was then an emerging startup.
When Covid came and pushed people to work and study from home, Zoom, originally conceived for business use, became a consumer favorite for holding video calls. People could also connect on video through services from Cisco, Facebook and Google. Skype did see a usage bump, but Microsoft put major engineering resources behind Teams for companies, governments and schools, and the investment paid off. Analysts began concentrating on the number of Teams users that Microsoft would disclose, with the figure exceeding 320 million in 2023.
As for Skype, Microsoft’s current CEO, Satya Nadella, hasn’t mentioned it on an earnings call since 2017.
In 2023, Microsoft said Skype had 36 million daily active users. That was down from 40 million in March 2020. Teper declined to talk about how many people use the service today.
“I think a good write-up of the history of the thing would mark the shift to mobile and cloud as a significant change in the communications category,” Teper said.
WATCH: What happened to Skype?
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For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]
Monster Hunter Wilds Hits 1.3 Million Concurrent Players on Steam in 12 Hours
Monster Hunter Wilds Hits 1.3 Million Concurrent Players on Steam in 12 Hours
Monster Hunter Wilds has already hit 1.3 million concurrent players on Steam in just 12 hours after its release.
According to SteamDB, the game is currently in the number one seller spot, despite having a ‘Mixed’ review rating from 9000+ reviews.
The concurrent player player count currently places Monster Hunter Wilds in seventh place, with sixth and fifth place (Dota 2 and Lost Ark) only within an additional 30,000 players.
Traditionally, Friday game releases usually see a ******* concurrent growth number on the weekend, so it’s currently unclear on where the game will finish with its player count.
As mentioned, the games release hasn’t been without its problems though, with many players complain of poor performance issues and a lack of opimisation.
“This game is absolutely amazing – but has the worst optimisation I’ve ever seen,” said one Steam user.
He continued, “I understand that new games are becoming more demanding and people are expected to upgrade, but this is absurd. I’m aware this isn’t the first instance of new games having poor performance on launch, because the same thing happened with World, but it feels inexcusable at this point.”
Another user said, “How does a game manage to run perfectly fine in the Open Beta AND I receive an Excellent rating score on the benchmark but the actual product that costs ACTUAL MONEY runs like absolute sludge. I have legit never encountered a game that wasn’t at worst playable. I have never seen a game run this poorly while still looking this bad.”
Capcom has since responded to the complaints on X (formerly Twitter), with suggestions on how to improve performance.
“Hunters! If you’re experiencing any initial issues with Monster Hunter Wilds on Steam, please try updating your graphics driver, turning off compatibility mode, and then readjust your settings,” they said.
What do you think of Monster Hunter Wilds and its current PC performance? Let us know down below, and join the discussion in the official Insider Gaming Forums.
For more Insider Gaming, check out everything that was announced during Pokémon Presents for February 2025. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.
SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter to receive the latest news and exclusive leaks every week! No Spam.
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Microsoft is retiring Skype in May, encouraging people to adopt Teams
Microsoft is retiring Skype in May, encouraging people to adopt Teams
Kelly Harris of San Jose, leans over to kiss the web cam as she says her goodbye to Brian Johnson, her brother stationed in Japan, at the end of their video phone call via Skype in San Jose, Calif. on Nov. 25, 2009.
Lea Suzuki | San Francisco Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers | Getty Images
Skype is logging off.
On Friday, Microsoft announced that the 21-year-old calling and messaging service will shut down May 5. The software company is encouraging Skype users to migrate to its free Teams app.
Skype won attention in the 2000s for giving people a way to talk without paying the phone company, but stumbled in the mobile era and didn’t enjoy a major resurgence during the pandemic. Some people have forgotten that it’s still available, given the many other options for chatting and calling.
“We’ve learned a lot from Skype over the years that we’ve put into Teams as we’ve evolved teams over the last seven to eight years,” Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative apps and platforms, said in an interview with CNBC. “But we felt like now is the time because we can be simpler for the market, for our customer base, and we can deliver more innovation faster just by being focused on Teams.”
Over the next few days, Microsoft will start allowing people to sign in to Teams with Skype credentials, and Skype contacts and chats will transfer over. People can also export their Skype data. The company will stop selling monthly Skype subscriptions, and users with credits can keep using them in Teams.
“This is obviously a big, big moment for us, and we’re certainly very grateful in many ways,” Teper said. “Skype pioneered audio and video calling on the web for many, many people.”
It’s one of the most enduring digital brands.
In 2003, Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, who previously co-founded peer-to-peer file-sharing program Kazaa, launched Skype in Estonia with help from a band of former classmates with zero experience in telecommunications. Originally, Skype was a tool for people to call one another online for free. The quirky name stood for “sky peer to peer,” a reference to the service’s underlying voice over internet protocol, or VoIP, architecture.
Skype caught on quickly. By 2004, there were 11 million registered users. By the time eBay announced a plan to buy Skype Technologies SA for $2.6 billion in 2005, the user count had reached 54 million, and Skype was anticipating $60 million in annual revenue, thanks to payments from those who wished to call mobile phones and landlines.
Meg Whitman, eBay’s CEO at the time, envisioned that Skype would help people more quickly complete sales of products, especially costly ones, by connecting buyers and sellers. And eBay could charge extra for such calls. Skype users across the world could discover eBay and PayPal, too. The deal was completed 29 days later.
In this handout image provided by eBay, the company’s president and CEO, Meg Whitman, left, poses with Niklas Zennstrom, co-founder and CEO of Skype, the global Internet communications company, in London on Sept. 12, 2005. Internet company eBay today announced its intention to acquire Skype, a voice over internet company, for about $2.6 billion.
Sergio Dionisio | eBay | Getty Images
Under eBay, Skype’s user number grew, crossing 405 million by 2008, and communications revenue rose. But then Whitman stepped down as CEO, making way for former Bain executive John Donahoe, who didn’t think eBay’s core businesses were benefiting from the Skype transaction.
In 2009, the economy was in recession, eBay’s sales growth had turned negative, and the stock price was lower than it had been since 2001. In a statement that touted the release of a Skype app for Apple’s iPhone, Donahoe announced that eBay would launch a Skype initial public offering as part of a separation.
But eBay never filed for a Skype IPO. Four and a half months after declaring the IPO strategy, eBay said it had reached an agreement to sell Skype to an investor group led by Silver Lake in a deal worth $2.75 billion. The online auction operator received a 30% stake in Skype’s buyer. Under the investor group, Skype filed for an IPO, but that didn’t come to pass, either. Microsoft wound up acquiring Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion, with eBay receiving over $2 billion.
“Microsoft and Skype together will bring together hundreds of millions or, as Tony said, billions of consumers and empower them to communicate in new and interesting ways,” Microsoft’s CEO at the time, Steve Ballmer, said at a press conference, referring to comments earlier at the event from Skype’s leader, Tony Bates. By that point, 170 million people were using Skype each month. Ballmer aimed to integrate Skype with several Microsoft products, including Lync, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Phone and Xbox video game consoles. Microsoft also got Skype running on its Azure cloud infrastructure.
Skype did not manage to accumulate a billion active users, though.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, left, shakes hands with Skype CEO Tony Bates during a news conference on May 10, 2011 in San Francisco, California. Microsoft has agreed to buy Skype for $8.5 billion.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Apple’s native iMessage and FaceTime were picking up traction on iOS devices. In 2014, Facebook bought WhatsApp, a mobile messaging app, and months later, users gained the ability to place calls across borders. WhatsApp took off globally. So did Tencent’s WeChat.
Skype, meanwhile, implemented multiple redesigns and faced criticism from devotees. In 2016, Microsoft introduced Teams as a distinct “chat-based workspace” for organizations with Office productivity software subscriptions that would compete with Slack, which was then an emerging startup.
When Covid came and pushed people to work and study from home, Zoom, originally conceived for business use, became a consumer favorite for holding video calls. People could also connect on video through services from Cisco, Facebook and Google. Skype did see a usage bump, but Microsoft put major engineering resources behind Teams for companies, governments and schools, and the investment paid off. Analysts began concentrating on the number of Teams users that Microsoft would disclose, with the figure exceeding 320 million in 2023.
As for Skype, Microsoft’s current CEO, Satya Nadella, hasn’t mentioned it on an earnings call since 2017.
In 2023, Microsoft said Skype had 36 million daily active users. That was down from 40 million in March 2020. Teper declined to talk about how many people use the service today.
“I think a good write-up of the history of the thing would mark the shift to mobile and cloud as a significant change in the communications category,” Teper said.
WATCH: What happened to Skype?
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Layoffs at federal weather and climate agency threaten forecasts – Axios
Layoffs at federal weather and climate agency threaten forecasts – Axios
Layoffs at federal weather and climate agency threaten forecasts AxiosTrump fires hundreds working on weather forecasts, satellite data and radar systems The Washington PostWhat is NOAA? Federal weather, climate agency hit with job cuts has a big mission. USA TODAYNOAA lays off 800 employees; President Trump will meet with Ukrainian president; and other national CBS News
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SEC says meme coins are not subject to federal securities laws
SEC says meme coins are not subject to federal securities laws
Meme coins are not securities and, hence, aren’t subject to federal laws regulating the financial instruments, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency has issued its official stance on meme coins, comparing them to collectibles, since their value is “derived from speculative trading and the collective sentiment of the market.” Meme coins do not fit the definition of securities under the law, SEC said, because they do “not generate a yield or convey rights to future income, profits, or assets of a business.” People who purchase them are also not considered to be investing in an enterprise, which means they’re not “investment contracts” that are classified as securities.
As such, people who sell and offer meme coins do not have to register their transactions with the commission under the Securities Act. Buyers are not protected by securities laws as a result, though that doesn’t automatically mean that scammers can use them to dupe people without repercussions. Any fraudulent transaction involving meme coins could still be subject to enforcement action under other federal and state laws.
The Trump administration’s Securities and Exchange Commission has been showing signs of being friendlier towards the cryptocurrency industry ever since he took office. Just within this month, the SEC agreed to end an enforcement case that accused Coinbase of illegally running an unregistered securities exchange. The commission also dropped an investigation into Robinhood, which faced charges of violating securities laws with its crypto listings and sales.
Even though the commission will not be regulating meme coins, it says it will still evaluate the “economic realities” of the presumably suspicious transactions they’re involved in. Meme coins must be crypto assets “inspired by internet memes, characters, current events, or trends” purchased for “entertainment, social interaction, and cultural purposes” and whose value is “driven primarily by market demand and speculation.” They typically have “limited or no use or functionality,” the commission wrote, and “experience significant market price volatility.” Crypto assets labeled as “meme coins” in an effort to evade regulations will still be considered as securities if they don’t fit that definition.
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Meta shows off Aria Gen 2 smart glasses with heart rate tracking
Meta shows off Aria Gen 2 smart glasses with heart rate tracking
A few months ago, Meta introduced the Orion, a pair of smart glasses with cutting-edge holographic display units. While those glasses are still a few years into the future, Meta has today introduced the Aria Gen 2 platform.
Shaped somewhat like the Ray-Ban Meta Stories smart glasses, but with bulkier arms, the next-gen Aria smart glasses come with a handful of notable upgrades. For example, they are fitted with a photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensor for heart rate measurement.
Screenshot Meta
The PPG sensor is embedded within the nose pad of the smart glasses. These are the first pair of smart glasses out there to offer this biosensing facility, though not the only ones in the wearable segment. Apple’s new Beats PowerBeats Pro 2 earbuds also come kitted with a heart rate sensor.
Think of them as Ray-Ban Stories with too many onboard sensors.
Meta says it has also updated the sensor stack on the Aria Gen 2 smart glasses, equipping them with a regular RGB camera as well as eye-tracking cameras. Going a step further, the company also armed them with Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) cameras with 6 degree of freedom (DoF) movement support.
Screenshot Meta
The hardware stack even includes GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), a barometer for pressure sensing, and a magnetometer, as well. There’s also a contact-based microphone array on the smart glasses to separate the speaker’s voice beam from other people in its vicinity.
Meta says it created a custom processing assembly so that the sophisticated sensing stack can draw power in the most efficient way. Talking about power draw, Meta says the Aria Gen 2 smart glasses can be worn for “six to eight hours of continuous use,” which is unprecedented.
Screenshot Meta
Unfortunately, these smart glasses are not for ***** to the masses. Instead, they will be extended to researchers, and will also be used by Meta’s own employees in the Reality Labs and FAIR AI divisons.
The glasses built atop the Aria platform have found utility in multiple domains, such as automobiles and creating med-tech tools like those aimed at helping people living with vision problems and assisting with navigation.
The data collected by Aria Gen 2 smart glasses will also be used for robotics training. Meta has been working on robotic advancements for years and it is said to be eyeing humanoid robots in the near future.
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Jos Buttler resigns as England white-ball captain
Jos Buttler resigns as England white-ball captain
Jos Buttler has resigned as England’s white-ball captain following his side’s Champions Trophy exit.
The 34-year-old will lead England for the final time in their last group match against South Africa on Saturday.
England have lost 15 of their last 21 one-day internationals, including defeats against Australia and Afghanistan that ended their Champions Trophy campaign.
“It’s the right time for me and the team,” said Buttler.
After taking over as white-ball captain in June 2022 following the retirement of Eoin Morgan, Buttler led England to glory in that year’s T20 World Cup in Australia.
However, he oversaw two disappointing defences of their limited-overs global titles – the 2023 50-over World Cup in India and the T20 version in the Caribbean last year.
Buttler has captained England in 44 ODIs overall, with a record of 18 wins, 25 defeats and one no result.
He holds a better record as captain in T20s, with 26 wins, 22 defeats and three no results in his 51 matches in charge.
More to follow.
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Meta AI set to become a standalone app
Meta AI set to become a standalone app
Meta wants a piece of the pie — a big piece — when it comes to generative AI. As part of its long-term strategy to embed itself in every part of our lives, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company is planning to launch its Meta AI chatbot as a standalone app, CNBC reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources claiming to have knowledge of the matter.
Meta is aiming to launch the AI chatbot app between April and June this year, the sources said. The company may also offer a subscription model with more advanced features.
A standalone Meta AI app would compete with the slew of other AI chatbots already out there, including popular ones like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, X’s Grok, Perplexity, and DeepSeek, a ******** effort that burst onto the scene just last month.
Meta unveiled Meta AI in September 2023 before incorporating it into its stable of apps — among them Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — starting last April. Like other generative AI apps, Meta AI can converse in a natural, human-like way, and also create images in response to prompts input by users.
Speaking in January, Zuckerberg said that 2025 would be “the year when a highly intelligent and personalized AI assistant reaches more than one billion people, and I expect Meta AI to be that leading AI assistant.”
By offering Meta AI as a standalone app rather than only as a part of its social media apps, Meta believes it will lead to deeper, more rewarding interaction with the AI, sources told CNBC.
Certainly, if a big hitter like Meta does release Meta AI as a standalone app, it will increase competition and potentially further fragment the AI chatbot sector.
Additionally, Meta’s huge data resources could give its AI an edge in personalization, but at the same time its arrival may raise more privacy concerns compared to other AI chatbots.
Responding to news that Meta may be about to release a standalone app for its AI chatbot, OpenAI chief Sam Altman quipped in a post on X: “OK, fine, maybe we’ll do a social app,” adding, “lol if Facebook tries to come at us and we just uno reverse them it would be so funny.”
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GTA 5’s New Enhanced PC Edition: How To Preload And Transfer Story Progress For Free
GTA 5’s New Enhanced PC Edition: How To Preload And Transfer Story Progress For Free
Grand Theft Auto 5’s long-awaited enhanced upgrade on PC finally arrives on March 4. Ahead of that, existing GTA 5 players can pre-load the free upgrade via the Rockstar Games Launcher or Steam.
Additionally, existing owners can now transfer their story mode progress to the new edition of GTA 5 for PC through a new option found in the Pause menu. Scroll down to see a quick rundown of how to pre-load the new edition of GTA 5 for PC and how to transfer your saves to the new version.
GTA 5’s new enhanced edition on PC brings over the changes, improvements, and additions from the Xbox Series X|S and PS5 versions, including better graphics, faster loading times, and lots more.
If you don’t already own GTA 5 on PC, you can grab it through GameSpot sister site Fanatical via the link below. Note that the key must be redeemed through the Rockstar Games Launcher.
Looking ahead, Rockstar said it will announce details on the next GTA Online update in March, and while details are thin for now, the studio said the update will focus on “sky-high illicit revenue opportunities” with the character Oscar Guzman.
As for GTA 6, Rockstar Games is planning to launch the game later this year, and the release date might have gotten narrower now that we know when Borderlands 4 is coming.
How to preload GTA 5’s new enhanced edition
If you already own GTA 5, you will see “GTA V Enhanced” in your game library. This should happen automatically without any input from you. As part of this, the existing version of GTA 5 for PC has now been renamed “GTA V Legacy.” As announced previously, this version will still be supported going forward, but cross-play is not possible between GTA V Enhanced and GTA V Legacy.
How to transfer story mode progress
Players can now migrate their story mode progress from GTA V Legacy to GTA V Enhanced. Players can navigate to the Pause Menu from inside GTA V Legacy on PC to do this.
Importantly, players can only migrate saves to GTA V Enhanced one time. “While you will be able to continue playing from where you left off in GTA V Legacy, progress cannot be copied back,” Rockstar said.
When GTA V Enhanced officially launches on March 4, players can then migrate their GTA Online character progress to GTA V Enhanced, and again, this can only be done once. However, transferring GTA Online content to GTA V Enhanced does not delete any progress from GTA V Legacy. The content that transfers to GTA V Enhanced’s GTA Online mode includes characters, GTA$, progression, stats, vehicles, properties, weapons, clothing, and player-created jobs.
Full intructions
As published by Rockstar Games, the full set of instructions for how to transfer story content from GTA V Legacy and GTA V Enhanced on PC can be found below.
Question: How can I migrate my Story Mode Save from GTAV Legacy to GTAV Enhanced on PC?
Answer: Migrating your Story Mode Save from GTAV Legacy involves the following steps:
Making sure the Rockstar Games account you are signed into is linked to the preferred PC platform account
Uploading your Story Mode Save Game from GTAV Legacy on PC to Rockstar Games
Opening GTAV Enhanced on PC and downloading the Story Mode Save Game
Important:
Migrating GTAV Legacy progress to GTAV Enhanced may only be done within the PC platform, migrating from PC to console or console to PC is not supported.
Some Profiles may not be eligible for migration for several reasons, such as account suspensions, account bans, or the Profile having illegitimate or insufficient progress.
Notes:
Depending on the size of your Story Mode Save Game and service load, migrations may take time to complete.
Only one Save Game can be uploaded per account and players can update their uploaded Story Mode Save Game until they initiate a download of their Story Mode Save Game on GTAV Enhanced.
Once the Story Mode Save Game from GTAV Legacy has been downloaded successfully to GTAV Enhanced, no further Story Mode migrations will be available on that account.
Story Mode progress made in GTAV Legacy after migration will not be synced to your Story Mode progress in GTAV Enhanced.
Uploading your Story Mode Save Game
Open GTAV Legacy on your PC
Go to the Pause Menu in-game
Choose Game and select Upload Save Game
Select the Save Game you want to migrate, then Upload the Save Game
An alert screen will prompt you to confirm that the Story Mode Save Game is the one you wish to migrate
Wait for the Story Mode Save Game upload to complete
After the upload completes, you will receive a message confirming its successful upload to Rockstar Games
Notes:
You can update the Story Mode Save Game uploaded to Rockstar Games multiple times, overwriting the previously uploaded Save Game each time, until you download it on GTAV Enhanced
Uploaded Save Game files will be available for download for 90 days
After 90 days the Save Game may be removed, and you will need to upload your save again
Downloading Your Story Mode Save Game
Launch GTAV Enhanced and download your Story Mode Save Game via either the Landing Page or the Pause Menu.
Landing Page
Note: If you already have Story Mode Save Games on your PC, you will need to download your Game Save using the in-game Pause menu.
Open GTAV Enhanced on your PC
Select the Story tab on the Landing Page
If there are Story Mode Save Games available, an alert screen will ask you to confirm if you want to download the Story Mode Save Game selected
Once your Story Mode Save Game finishes downloading, you will receive a message confirming its successful download to your PC
From there the game will automatically load your Story Mode Save Game
Pause Menu
Open GTAV Enhanced
Open the Pause Menu
Select Game then Download Save Game
Select the Story Mode Save Game you wish to download
An alert screen will ask you to confirm if you want to download the selected Story Mode Save Game
Once the Save Game finishes downloading, you will receive a message confirming its successful download to your PC
From there the game will automatically load your Story Mode Save Game
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Dozens held in global swoop over AI-made abuse images
Dozens held in global swoop over AI-made abuse images
Two dozen people have been arrested for their role in a criminal group that distributed images generated by artificial intelligence of children being ********* abused, the European Union’s police agency says.
The operation is one of the first involving AI-generated child abuse material, Europol said, adding there was a lack of national legislation surrounding the use of AI tools for this purpose.
The main suspect, a Danish citizen, ran an online platform where he distributed the AI-generated material he produced.
Europol has supported authorities from 19 countries in a large-scale hit against child ******* exploitation. The suspects were engaged in the distribution of images of minors fully generated by artificial intelligence. Read more pic.twitter.com/YZx8B4U4NV— Europol (@Europol) February 28, 2025
Users around the world paid a “symbolic online payment” to access the platform.
The operation entitled Operation Cumberland is ongoing, with authorities from 19 countries including Australia, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom involved.
Most of the 25 arrests were carried out simultaneously on Wednesday in the operation led by Danish authorities, Europol said, without identifying the countries where the arrests took place.
More are expected in the coming weeks, it said.
Europol said that 33 house searches had been conducted, 273 suspects identified and 173 computers seized.
with DPA
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I’m a pediatrician in Texas. Things are dire and we need your support – not your condescension | Seema Jilani – The Guardian
I’m a pediatrician in Texas. Things are dire and we need your support – not your condescension | Seema Jilani – The Guardian
I’m a pediatrician in Texas. Things are dire and we need your support – not your condescension | Seema Jilani The GuardianTexas leaders quiet amid the biggest measles outbreak in decades The Texas TribuneDoctors stress importance of vaccination amid ongoing measles outbreak in Texas CBS News
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Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is on ***** for just $20
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is on ***** for just $20
With the latest Metal Gear game set to launch later this year, now would be an excellent time to go back to the series’ roots with Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, especially since it’s on ***** from Best Buy’s video game deals at 50% off. From its original price of $40, you’ll only have to pay $20, whether you’re buying the game for the PlayStation 5, the Xbox Series X, or the Nintendo Switch. You’ll need to hurry if you want to pocket the $20 in savings though, as we’re not sure how much time is remaining before this offer expires.
Why you should buy the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1
Fans of the Metal Gear games are already looking forward to Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, which will roll out on August 28. In the meantime, you can learn all about the lore behind the series with Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is the highly anticipated remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which was originally launched for the PlayStation 2 in 2004, and it’s in the collection alongside its two predecessors, Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. These titles were launched for the PlayStation in 1998 and for the PlayStation 2 in 2001, respectively.
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 doesn’t stop at three games though. As a bonus, you’ll get two additional titles — going back to where it all began with Metal Gear, released in 1987, and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, released in 1990. These titles are top-down stealth games that laid the groundwork for the Metal Gear Solid lore, so hardcore fans shouldn’t miss them!
If you’re looking for your next game for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, or Nintendo Switch, you may want to go for Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, which is available from Best Buy for only $20 instead of $40. The $20 discount further increases its value as you’ll be getting a total of five games, all of which will let you enjoy the origins of the popular series ahead of the release of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. You should proceed with your purchase of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 immediately though, as it may no longer be 50% off tomorrow.
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Apple is late to Siri revolution, so Microsoft brings you Copilot for Mac
Apple is late to Siri revolution, so Microsoft brings you Copilot for Mac
Microsoft has today launched a dedicated Copilot app for Mac. For now, the app is only available for users in the US and ***, but it’s already loaded with the latest and greatest tricks from Microsoft, such as the new Think Deeper mode.
The only system requirement is that your machine must be running macOS 14, or a later version. On the hardware side, any Mac with an M1 silicon, or newer processor from Apple, is compatible with the app.
And before you ask, yes, it does support a native dark mode.
Microsoft
The Copilot app includes support for its own quick launch keyboard shortcut — option + space — to bring up the AI assistant. The version up and running on macOS supports multi-modal input, which means it can process text-based queries as well as voice and photos.
The app also serves the Copilot Daily feature, which essentially provides a summarized rundown of daily news from reputed sources, weather updates, and more. This personalized audio briefing is somewhat similar to the Now Brief system Samsung has implemented on the Galaxy S25 series phones.
Copilot for macOS also brings support for features such as text-to-image generation, writing assistance, language translation, and image editing, among others. “Copilot combines the power of AI with the imaginative capabilities of the latest OpenAI models all in one place,” says the App Store listing.
A weird AI situation for Mac
It’s a bit ironic that Copilot is parading OpenAI’s tech stack on an Apple platform, especially when you see Microsoft and Apple are computing rivals. Interestingly, OpenAI’s GPT stack is the binding force between the two tech giants.
Microsoft is one of the biggest investors in OpenAI and a close business partner, with Copilot being one of the products that benefit from OpenAI advancements. Earlier today, Microsoft deployed OpenAI’s latest AI model, GPT-4.5, in its Azure AI Foundry.
Now live in the App Store (and my dock): Copilot for MacOS Don’t know how I ever lived without option+space for the million things a day I ask Copilot. Apple lovers, your Mac can now join the party with iPhone and iPad. Check it out and let me know what you think! pic.twitter.com/Di4GE6IoyR
— Mustafa Suleyman (@mustafasuleyman) February 27, 2025
On Apple’s end, the company inked a deal that tightly integrated ChatGPT’s capabilities with Siri and its Apple Intelligence platforms across mobile and computing devices. For any chores that Siri can’t handle, ChatGPT takes over.
Apple is reportedly running into delays at giving a generative AI overhaul to Siri. However, it is making slow progress. The company recently finalized deals with Alibaba and Baidu to work on AI projects in China.
The likes of Google, on the other hand, have replaced Google Assistant with the far more capable Gemini assistant across Android and other supported platforms, either via native OS-level integration or through the standalone Gemini app.
Will this merely serve as an AI stopgap for Mac fans? Only time will tell. For now, Copilot for macOS hasn’t been widely released in all markets. However, Microsoft executive, Yusuf Mehdi, has assured that the team is working on expanding the app’s availability.
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Morgan Stanley upgrades finance stock, sees turnaround driving up shares 20%
Morgan Stanley upgrades finance stock, sees turnaround driving up shares 20%
Voya Financial ‘s management team is undertaking a turnaround that seems to be steering the ship in the right direction, according to Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley analyst Bob Jian Huang upgraded shares of the New York-based asset manager to overweight from equal-weight, and lifted his 12-month price target 14% to $87 from $76. The moved reversed an August downgrade of Voya to equal-weight from overweight on concerns about the longer-term profitability of Voya’s health solutions business. Shares of Voya have added less than 4% in the past 12 months, but Huang’s updated price forecast implies a potential upside of more than 23%. The stock also yields 2.55%, according to FactSet data VOYA 1Y mountain VOYA 1Y chart The analyst attributed Voya’s underperformance, in part, to the asset manager’s 2024 full-year earnings miss. “The stock is currently trading below historical average, but is much less capital intensive,” Huang wrote. “We believe the current valuation overly penalizes execution risks and does not fully reflect Voya’s potential.” The stock trades at a discount, “[d]espite the fact that Voya has improved its EPS growth, ROE and capital intensity profile vs. pre-COVID,” Morgan Stanley said. Huang noted that since the 2024 miss, Voya’s management has actively taken strategic steps to improve performance via new pricing and improved risk selection, setting up an attractive growth profile for the company in 2026 and beyond. Voya now expects core business growth within its wealth solutions and investment management segment, and recent acquisitions should ultimately help improve excess capital generation next year versus 2024 numbers. “The turnaround should improve the overall prospect of the company, and improve the overall earnings potential,” Huang argued. “We have confidence in management’s ability to navigate integrations, investments, and segment improvements, which should uplift capital generation.”
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PC looked up Nicola Bulley details on days off and shared with mum
PC looked up Nicola Bulley details on days off and shared with mum
A former police officer has been sentenced after sharing information with her family about the Nicola Bulley investigation.
Lancashire Police said they received a report in March 2023 “regarding the potential unauthorised disclosure of sensitive police information”.
The force said the mother of PC Molly Bury was overheard at a social event in Burnley telling someone “Molly checked the police system”.
PC Bury, 28, later admitted 32 counts under the Computer Misuse Act and received a six-month suspended sentence at Chester Magistrates Court.
Ms Bulley, 45, disappeared in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, in January 2023 while walking her dog.
Her body was found 23 days later a mile from where she was last seen, with her cause of death revealed to be accidental drowning after falling in the River Wyre.
Bury, who worked as a response officer, had also told her mother about a separate ***** investigation and also a ******* case, police said.
A warrant was served at a property in Oswaldtwistle in December 2023 and electronic devices were seized, which revealed Bury had accessed police computer systems between 31 October 2019 and 8 May 2023 while on rest days or off sick.
Bury was arrested and interviewed in March before being summonsed to appear at court.
Bury, from Oswaldtwistle, pleaded guilty when she appeared at Warrington Magistrates Court in November and was later sentenced at Chester Magistrates Court.
Bury resigned as a police officer while under investigation.
A case of gross misconduct was proved at an accelerated misconduct hearing held last year where it was deemed had she not already resigned she would have been dismissed.
Bury has also been added to the police barred list.
Det Ch Insp Pete Reil said: “The public trust the police with their data, particularly when they or their loved ones have been victims of crime.
“They expect officers and police staff to act responsibly and sensitively with it.
“Molly Bury’s behaviour fell way below what the constabulary expects and what the public would expect of a serving police officer.”
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Latest Tarkov Patch Notes – Spring Has Finally Sprung and AI Changes Are Running Wild
Latest Tarkov Patch Notes – Spring Has Finally Sprung and AI Changes Are Running Wild
Battlestate Games has released an all-new update in Escape from Tarkov. The core of this update is that it finally gets rid of snowy weather and brings back a spring atmosphere. It’s that time of year when the ice underfoot has thawed and the trees are in bloom, which is great news for anyone tired of snowblindness or crunchy footsteps.
The team at BSG has also made several major updates to the game’s AI engine and mechanics, which have been an instant hit with players worldwide.
Read on to learn everything you need to know about this relatively major Escape from Tarkov update.
Springtime Has Arrived
Now that the world is no longer white in Escape from Tarkov, you can hide in bushes and wear dark clothing once again. The removal of snow and the arrival of spring weather is great, even if it means it’ll be raining a little more in your raids.
Escape from Tarkov fans around the world are rejoicing at some of the newest AI-based changes in the game, though.
For this popular extraction shooter, the AI intelligence, mechanics, and tactics are all sticking points that can often mess with the community to no end. We’ve seen ‘aimbot’ enemies, bizarre health pool changes, dimwitted patrol paths, and audio issues all tied to AI NPCs over the years.
This latest Tarkov patch makes a phenomenal number of changes to the game’s AI.
For instance:
Enemy detection has been overhauled and is dependent on distance, view angle, weather, stance, and aggravation levels. If you’re prone in fog and not in the enemy’s line of sight, you’ll be detected incredibly slowly compared to if you were running in the open
Vegetation now impacts the enemy’s vision – except Zryachiy, Birdeye, and the BTR because they’re just on another level. If you hide in a bush, you’re hidden.
Enemies will now relay information about an enemy only to those close to them. If the bot isn’t in a group, it can only shout to a maximum of 50 meters.
Only Raiders, Rogues, and Bosses will use suppressive fire mechanics. If a common AI enemy can’t see you, they won’t shoot you, which means no more wallbang deaths.
When an AI enemy is hit, it’ll suffer a considerable accuracy drop.
If a common AI enemy detects you at long range, they won’t immediately engage, but instead, they’ll deploy a ‘waiting tactic’ until you fire first.
The general spawn rates, positions, and pathing systems for AI enemies have all been addressed. This means that one player won’t be able to trigger too many bot spawns, which will come in handy in PvE and getting swarmed by endless streams of Scavs.
Finally, AI enemies won’t move closely together or occupy the same areas of cover, which means less colliding and piling, which should also reduce stress on resources.
The full list of AI changes can be found on escapefromtarkov.com.
Additionally, Battlestate Games has patched up some of the most irritating issues in Escape from Tarkov with this latest patch:
Headshots are no longer deafening
The ‘arm/thorax damage issue’ has been resolved
Bots can no longer pass through closed doors
Error 228 has now been fixed
Transitions in PvE will no longer take you into a PvP game – thanks, BSG
What do you think about this update? Let us know in the comments or on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Twitch is allowing more streamers to make money, even new ones
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New Study Suggests Dogs May Have Domesticated Themselves for Food
New Study Suggests Dogs May Have Domesticated Themselves for Food
The origins of dog domestication have been a topic of debate among scientists, with theories suggesting various evolutionary processes led to the transformation of wolves into the domestic dogs seen today. A new study has indicated that early wolves may have chosen to stay near humans due to the availability of food scraps, potentially leading to their domestication over thousands of years. The findings support the idea that self-domestication was possible through natural selection, as wolves that were more tolerant of human presence may have had better access to resources and, in turn, passed on these traits to their offspring.
Wolves and Their Path to Domestication
According to the study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the first phase of dog domestication is believed to have taken place between 30,000 and 15,000 years ago. This ******* is thought to have been influenced primarily by natural selection rather than human intervention. Researchers suggest that wolves with a less aggressive temperament may have been more likely to stay near human settlements, where food was more accessible. Over time, these wolves may have selectively bred with others that exhibited similar traits, gradually leading to the emergence of early domesticated dogs.
The Role of Natural Selection
In an effort to address concerns regarding the timeframe of domestication, researchers used statistical models to determine whether natural selection alone could have driven this process. As per the findings, domestication through self-selection was plausible if two conditions were met: wolves had to opt for a human-proximate lifestyle due to consistent food availability, and they had to choose mates with a comparable level of tameness. Alex Capaldi, a mathematician and statistician at James Madison University, explained to Live Science that if both conditions were fulfilled, the timeline for self-domestication became feasible despite previous skepticism regarding the speed of such evolutionary changes.
Similar Patterns Observed in Other Animals
The study draws parallels with cat domestication, where felines are believed to have settled near human farming communities around 10,000 years ago. In exchange for hunting rodents, they gained access to human food resources, leading to a mutually beneficial relationship. Scientists suggest that understanding how domestication occurred in dogs may provide further insights into human-animal interactions throughout history, as dogs played a significant role in early human societies by assisting in hunting and herding.
Unanswered Questions in Dog Evolution
While the model presents a plausible explanation, researchers acknowledge that it does not definitively prove how domestication occurred. The study highlights self-domestication as a possibility rather than a confirmed mechanism. The debate over whether human intervention or natural selection played a greater role continues, with further research needed to uncover definitive answers. However, the findings contribute to a broader understanding of early human-animal relationships and how evolutionary forces shaped them.
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