Author: GT

Bluesky announced on Monday that it is rolling out blue check verification, confirming previous rumors that this feature was on its way to the platform. Like Twitter’s original blue check (RIP), Bluesky’s blue check will verify that notable accounts are legitimate, making it easy for users to trust that an account’s posts are real. In its earliest phase, Bluesky will work with a select few “Trusted Verifiers,” which are independent organizations that can verify accounts as members of their team. For example, a company could verify members of its public relations team with blue checks, making it easier for users…

BANGKOK (AP) — Transnational organized crime groups in East and Southeast Asia are spreading their lucrative scam operations across the globe in response to increased crackdowns by authorities, according to a U.N. report issued on Monday.For several years, scam compounds have proliferated in Southeast Asia, especially in border areas of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, as well as in the Philippines, shifting operations from site to site to stay a step ahead of the police.More recently, scam centers that have bilked victims out of billions of dollars through false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes are now being…

Bitcoin’s price crossed the $87,000 threshold on Sunday, marking the first time it has reached this level since April 2. The world’s largest cryptocurrency is currently trading at approximately $87,325, reflecting a 2.4% increase in the past 24 hours. Analysts attribute this rally to a resurgence in institutional interest, particularly highlighted by the recent acquisition of 3,459 BTC by Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy. Despite reporting unrealized losses of $5.91 billion on its BTC holdings in the first quarter, Strategy’s actions suggest a renewed commitment to Bitcoin amid market uncertainty. Dominick John, an analyst at Kronos Research, noted that the…

Google confronts an existential threat Monday as the U.S. government tries to break up the company as punishment for turning its revolutionary search engine into a ruthless monopoly.The drama will unfold in a Washington courtroom during the next three weeks during hearings that will determine how the company should be penalized for operating an illegal monopoly in search. In its opening arguments, federal antitrust enforcers also urged the court to impose forward-looking remedies to prevent Google from using the same strategies to build a monopoly around artificial intelligence.“This is a moment in time, we’re at an inflection point, will we…

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) Bitcoin’s censorship-resistant, decentralized setup empowers individuals by facilitating peer-to-peer transactions without government interference or corporate control. You’ve probably heard that from a Bitcoin maxi many times. It’s an idea that resonates even more strongly today in light of reports that President Donald Trump is exploring ways to remove Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, which is the world’s most powerful central bank. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett talked about Trump’s intentions Friday and markets responded early Monday by selling the dollar and the U.S. stock futures. The Dollar Index, which…

One of the chief complaints of Airbnb users over the years has been not being able to tell right away how much they would pay for their stay, including charges such as cleaning fees. Airbnb is now fixing that by showing the total cost for a given property, including all charges, automatically. Users across the world will now see prices before taxes by default when they search for properties. When you search for properties on the web, Airbnb now shows a small label that reads, “Prices include all fees.” A new label indicating that Airbnb will now show the total…

US stocks fell sharply Monday as President Trump hurled more social media insults towards Fed Chair Jerome Powell, sparking concerns of Fed independence at a time when markets are still reacting to the president’s whipsawing tariff’s policy. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was down over 2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq (IXIC) sank 2.6%, leading the way down. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) dropped 1.9%, over 700 points. Nasdaq GIDS – Free Realtime Quote • USD As of 10:52:51 AM EDT. Market Open. ^IXIC ^GSPC ^DJI As Yahoo Finance’s Josh Schafer wrote in our preview of the week, the stock market…

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership with Apple for its generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, the release of GPT-4o with voice capabilities, and the highly-anticipated launch of its text-to-video model Sora. OpenAI also faced its share of internal drama, including the notable exits of high-level execs like co-founder and longtime chief…

Guests including Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk attend the inauguration of Donald J. Trump in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025. Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the U.S.Julia Demaree Nikhinson | Getty ImagesAs tech’s megacap companies enter first-quarter earnings season this week, get ready to hear one word on repeat: uncertainty.President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again approach to tariffs has created market chaos this month — including five days of massive moves for the Nasdaq — as investors try to gauge the future…

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit’s CEO Ben Zhou said that 27.95% of the funds lost in the $1.4 billion exploit engineered by the North Korean Lazarus Group have gone dark or become untraceable. “Total hacked funds of USD 1.4bn around 500k ETH. 68.57% remain traceable, 27.59% have gone dark, 3.84% have been frozen. The untraceable funds primarily flowed into mixers then through bridges to P2P and OTC platforms,” Zhou said in an executive summary published on X on Monday. The untraceable funds were moved into mixers before being transferred through bridges to P2P (peer-to-peer) and OTC (over-the-counter) platforms, the post explained, mentioning…