In opening statements, state argued Meta’s own research showed it harmed teens while firm’s attorneys pointed to transparency

The long-awaited trial between the social media company Meta and the state of Tennessee began proceedings on Monday. Attorneys for Tennessee told a jury in Nashville that Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, disregarded internal research about its platform’s impact on teenagers, while the company sought ⁠to maximize profit from those young users.

During ⁠opening statements in a seven-week ​trial in state court, the state’s lawyers said Meta researchers repeatedly flagged teenagers’ compulsive use of the platform – leading to eating disorders, depression and self-harm. But despite those warnings, Meta did not ⁠disable features such as autoplay, notifications and infinite scroll which, the lawyers said, were designed to keep teens on Instagram as long as possible and increase the number of ads they viewed.

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The Houthi threat to Saudi oil exports comes as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines are still reeling from the closure of the strait of Hormuz

Governments in Asia are scrambling to avoid their second major energy crisis in six months, as another maritime chokepoint in the Middle East faces a violent blockade, leaving only the Suez canal completely open for the free movement of gulf oil.

Countries like Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and South Korea – which rely on Middle East oil for up to 90% of their imports – are working to secure supplies after Yemen’s Houthis launched a blockade of Saudi Arabian shipping passing through the Bab al-Mandab strait, which forms the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

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Leading assemblage artist was known for reclaiming Jim Crow-era memorabilia as images of Black liberation

Artist Betye Saar, the pioneering figure of the Black arts movement, died on Sunday morning in her home town of Los Angeles. She was 99.

Saar, a famous practitioner of assemblage, an artistic style that builds sculpture from everyday objects, was best known for reclaiming Jim Crow era memorabilia such as dolls and washboards and recasting them as images of Black liberation. Saar also worked in genres including printmaking and film, exploring themes from family to spirituality.

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Cockroach Janta party says it has received reports of students held in detention in states of Assam, West Bengal and Bihar

India’s youth-led “cockroach” movement, whose nationwide protests forced the resignation of the education minister, has urged authorities to release all detained demonstrators.

The online Cockroach Janta party (CJP), which organised protests over exam paper leaks and other irregularities, said they had received reports of students held in detention, particularly in the states of Assam, West Bengal and Bihar.

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Greg Adams Photography posted a photo:

N.Y. Public Library, 2011

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

SEATTLE (ANP) - De stoelen in 453 Boeings van het type 737 MAX die in de Verenigde Staten zijn geregistreerd, zijn verkeerd geïnstalleerd en moeten worden gerepareerd. Dat zei de Amerikaanse luchtvaartautoriteit FAA maandag.

Volgens de FAA kunnen passagiers bij een noodlanding gewond raken als er niets aan de stoelen wordt gedaan.

Het is niet duidelijk of er onder de 453 vliegtuigen ook vliegtuigen van buitenlandse maatschappijen zijn.

De FAA heeft geen termijn gesteld waarop de fout moet zijn hersteld.

YouTube Premium will include Peacock Premium at no extra charge beginning in early 2027. "The deal brings a slew of premium content to the [$15.99 per month] YouTube Premium subscription, including live sports like the NFL, NBA and MLB and entertainment like Law & Order, Saturday Night Live and Love Island," reports The Hollywood Reporter. "It also has the potential to dramatically scale Peacock, which remains smaller than many of its streaming competitors." From the report: Peacock has 48 million subscribers, while YouTube Premium and YouTube Music have a combined 125 million subscribers, though they don't break out how many each of those offerings have. The agreement, which expands on the deal the company inked with YouTube parent company Google last year, will also extend the entertainment company's programming deal with YouTube TV, while bringing some of YouTube's offerings to Comcast Xfinity and Xumo platforms.

There's also a notable sports and production element to the deal, with NBC Sports agreeing to stream some live sporting events on its YouTube channels, and with NBC agreeing to serve as the production partner for select live events on YouTube. YouTube will also bundle some of the company's International streaming offerings like Universal+ and Hayu in select markets.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

China’s government has vowed to “take all necessary measures” if the US government imposes new sanctions on AI companies. That threat came on Monday at a media Q&A staged by China’s Ministry of Commerce, during which local reporters asked about allegations that Chinese AI companies have distilled leading American AI models. The source of those allegations was Donald Trump’s Assistant for Science and Technology, Michael Kratsios, whose stance was backed by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. China always denies that its military, intelligence services, and private industry steal any information or technology, and characterizes allegations of theft as propaganda intended to discredit the nation. The Ministry’s response to the Trump administration’s allegations re-uses those arguments. It then suggests that Chinese AI companies didn’t have enough time to distill the latest frontier models, because the US companies that developed them released them mere days before Chinese companies published their own code. Beijing also asserts “some Chinese models are already in a leading position” and that allegations of distillation are therefore unfounded. Which leaves China arguing that its AI companies are good, but not so good they can quickly distill frontier models and re-release them with Chinese characteristics. The Ministry then throws out its own allegation: “It is understood that many American AI companies have distilled Chinese models in their research and training.” The allegation is plausible but not necessarily a sign that US companies are abusing intellectual property. That argument comes from the Trump administration’s Kratsios, who last week argued that AI distillation can be a legitimate technique when “used to create smaller, more efficient models.” American model-makers could therefore distill hundreds of Chinese open source models without behaving badly. The Ministry’s post doesn’t specify how China’s government might respond to sanctions but ends with a call for the US to “jointly promote the positive development of artificial intelligence, and benefit both countries and the world by advancing and improving AI governance.” That’s a reference to the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), a 29-member organization that China recently convened to promote AI governance and deployment. China has also called for AI models to be open sourced, to advance innovation and in a spirit of cooperation. The China/US AI spat is taking place at the same time that stateside debate about AI regulation heated up after 77 technology companies signed an open letter calling on US lawmakers to support open weights models. China and a big section of the tech industry are therefore on the same side on at least one of the many issues AI raises. ®