All posts tagged: Rules

Senate Democrats push tighter prediction market rules to protect tribal gaming

Senate Democrats push tighter prediction market rules to protect tribal gaming

Published by skeptic

A group of Senate Democrats is urging Congress to tighten federal oversight of prediction market platforms, warning that pending digital asset legislation could weaken tribal gaming protections and erode states’ authority over gambling as lawmakers across Washington pursue a wider crackdown on the fast-growing industry. Sen. Martin Heinrich and 11 other Democratic senators have asked two key Senate committees to revise pending digital asset legislation before it advances, arguing that the bills could unintentionally expand prediction markets at the expense of long-standing tribal and state gaming systems. Senate Democrats call for stronger guardrails on prediction markets In a letter to the leaders of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, the lawmakers said the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act) and the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act (DCIA) would reduce oversight of decentralized finance betting platforms while allowing prediction markets to operate outside existing gambling frameworks. They wrote, “We write with urgency regarding the continued lack of proper regulation over prediction markets and the resulting circumvention …

World Cup 2026: What are the extra time and penalty shootout rules? | World Cup 2026

World Cup 2026: What are the extra time and penalty shootout rules? | World Cup 2026

Published by Sam Flores

EXPLAINER Several games in the 2026 World Cup have already ended in dramatic penalty shootouts. Published On 19 Jul 202619 Jul 2026 | Updated: 8 hours agoUpdated: 8 hours ago It is the business end of the World Cup and as the games get tighter and tenser, many of them end up going to extra time or the dreaded penalty shootout. In this explainer, we break down what extra time is, and what the rules for extra time and penalty shootouts are. If the 90 minutes of standard gameplay fail to yield a winner in the World Cup knockout stages, extra time, or an additional period of play, is used to determine a winner. This is a tiebreaker phase before moving on to penalties to determine the winner of the match. Extra time lasts for a total of 30 minutes, broken into two 15-minute halves. At half-time, the teams switch sides as they do during a 90-minute match. When does a penalty shootout happen? A penalty shootout – when a series of players from each …

TechCrunch Mobility: The battle over robotaxi rules

TechCrunch Mobility: The battle over robotaxi rules

Published by skeptic

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, how AI is playing a part. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Last week, I wrote about Uber and Waymo and how their partnership appears to be deteriorating. I predicted the two companies would end up on opposing sides of autonomous vehicle policy. That wasn’t a guess. For the past several weeks, I’ve been talking to sources and digging through correspondence Uber sent to the D.C. Council, which is evaluating a proposed bill that would allow autonomous vehicles to operate in Washington, D.C. What I found: Uber and Waymo are already on opposite sides of the proposal, sparring behind the scenes and in public. Uber has made a particularly interesting argument in its effort to shape the rules that govern autonomous vehicles. Uber, which opposes the D.C. bill, argues it would displace for-hire human drivers and hand Waymo a de facto monopoly. Instead, it has lobbied for a …

Federal Appeals Court Rules That New Jersey’s Assault Weapons Ban Is Unconstitutional

Federal Appeals Court Rules That New Jersey’s Assault Weapons Ban Is Unconstitutional

Published by Sam Flores

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that New Jersey’s bans on assault firearms and magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds are unconstitutional. This is the first time a federal appeals court has struck down a state ban on such weapons, and it comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider whether bans on semiautomatic rifles violate the Second Amendment. Just last week, a different federal appeals court upheld Illinois’ ban on semiautomatic weapons. Friday’s appeals court ruling in the New Jersey case goes further than a July 2024 ruling from a federal judge, who said that the state’s ban on AR-15s specifically was unconstitutional but upheld the provision barring larger magazines. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Friday in its opinion that the state’s ban on all semiautomatic rifles it deems to be “assault firearms” and restriction on “large capacity ammunition magazines” were unconstitutional. New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, a Democrat whose office defended the law, said in a statement that the decision is “as unfortunate as it …

Brex built its AI agent policy by watching what agents actually do, not by writing rules first

Brex built its AI agent policy by watching what agents actually do, not by writing rules first

Published by skeptic

OpenClaw has become one of the most widely adopted agentic frameworks, but it has yet to prove itself at enterprise scale. Agents need real credentials — API keys, OAuth tokens, service accounts — to work effectively, and Brex found that traditional guardrails couldn’t contain what those agents were doing with them. Brex set out to overcome these limitations by building an internal platform it calls CrabTrap. The open-source HTTP/HTTPS proxy intercepts all network traffic, examines policy rules, and uses a LLM-as-a-judge to decide whether agent requests should be approved or denied.  “What we noticed was that the network layer was an untapped enforcement point,” Brex co-founder and CEO Pedro Franceschi told VentureBeat. “Every request an agent makes is an opportunity to intercept, reason about, and make a policy decision.” The takeaway Franceschi wants IT leaders to draw: agent governance should shift from SDK-level permissions and model guardrails toward a centralized network control plane that enforces and learns from real in-the-wild agent behavior. How Brex targeted the transport layer The “obvious fix” (at least initially) to …

Japan imperial rules tweaked but still no woman emperor

Japan imperial rules tweaked but still no woman emperor

Published by Sam Flores

TOKYO: Japan’s parliament enacted changes to the imperial succession law on Friday (Jul 17) but maintained the bar on a woman becoming emperor despite surveys suggesting wide public support for the idea. The future of the imperial household – mythically descended from the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu – hinges currently on Prince Hisahito, the 19-year-old nephew of serving Emperor Naruhito, 66. If Hisahito – barely out of school and currently studying biology and insects and who is not married – has no son, then under the rules as they stand he will have no heir and the bloodline will end. The Bill, passed by a large majority by the Upper House on Friday, allows the adoption of male distant relatives over 15 back into the imperial family – as long as they are single. It also lets women keep their royal status after marrying a commoner, something which is already allowed for men. Japan’s Imperial Household Law, in place since 1947, does not allow women to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne, and the right to the …

San Francisco mayor pushes for tougher rules after the Waymo traffic fiasco

San Francisco mayor pushes for tougher rules after the Waymo traffic fiasco

Published by skeptic

It turns out that even San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who once declared that the city should be a testbed for emerging tech, has his limits. Especially when that emerging tech creates a massive hours-long traffic jam that leaves thousands at a standstill. Mayor Lurie has asked state regulators to bolster rules for autonomous vehicles nearly two weeks after Waymo robotaxis became immobile in heavy July 4 traffic, ran out of power, and blocked key streets, further compounding the gridlock. The traffic jam, which trapped municipal shuttles, became a citywide problem that affected thousands of people. In his letter to the state Department of Transportation, which was viewed by TechCrunch, Lurie pointed to two events — a widespread power outage in December and the Golden Gate Bridge fireworks show on July 4 that attracted 100,000 spectators — both of which led to dozens of stranded Waymo vehicles and paralyzed traffic. The San Francisco Chronicle first reported on the letter. The events, he said in the letter, “demonstrated that California’s current regulatory framework does not adequately …

‘The pasta waits for no one.’ 12 simple rules for perfect pasta

‘The pasta waits for no one.’ 12 simple rules for perfect pasta

Published by Sam Flores

What we call “sauce” for pasta in this country is “condimento” in Italy. The word comes from the verb “condire,” which means “to season.” And it’s an important distinction. Because pasta is not a vehicle for the condimento. The condimento is seasoning for pasta. In Italy, pasta is the star. I learned this up close years ago when I found myself outside Palermo in the Madonie Mountains, most famous for their rugged nooks and crannies used as hide-outs for the Sicilian Mafia. I was writing a book about pasta for the famed mother-and-daughter cooks Wanda and Giovanna Tornabene, who ran a now-closed, weekends-only restaurant, Tenuta Gangivecchio, in the former 14th century abbey that was their home. The book was called “100 Ways to Be Pasta.” “Pasta is a live thing,” Giovanna, the daughter, told me on my first evening in Italy as she boiled fusilli to make a quick pasta out of what she’d found in the cupboard, a delicious if weird combination of canned tuna, curry powder, dried currants and fresh parsley. “Pasta is …

What Do The New ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Rules Mean For You?

What Do The New ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Rules Mean For You?

Published by Sam Flores

New “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) regulations have come into effect, changing how deferred payment credit (DFC) companies, like Klarna and Clearpay, can operate in the UK. The new regulations are set by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and are designed to “reduce the risks of harm to consumers”. They’re not meant to outright ban BNPL loans. Instead, the FCA said that these deferred payment credit (DFC) systems will be able to “continue to innovate and grow sustainably, and that consumers can still access DPC where appropriate”. So why are these changes happening, and what does that actually mean for consumers? What is a BNPL company, and why does it need regulation? If you’ve ever shopped online, you’ll probably have had an option to spread your payments across a set period (like six months) rather than paying the full amount in one go. Those who pay these installments in full effectively get an interest-free loan for their purchase. But people who can’t or don’t cough up can face late payment fees and even, sometimes, have …

Summer etiquette: 47 essential rules – from sex to sunloungers to shopping in swimming trunks | Social etiquette

Summer etiquette: 47 essential rules – from sex to sunloungers to shopping in swimming trunks | Social etiquette

Published by Sam Flores

Summer means a loosening of rules and norms. Eating with your fingers is suddenly encouraged, near-nakedness is everywhere and a 6am airport pint is unremarkable. It’s a hot, sticky recipe for social chaos and – if you share my view on showing off ungroomed feet – possibly the end times of human civilisation. Here, then, is everything you need to know about summer etiquette. What to wear When is it OK for men to go shirtless?Really only by the beach or pool. There is something perhaps stylishly louche “about walking around a seaside town shirtless, but only if you’re abroad and the temperature is hot,” says Zak Maoui, style director of men’s magazine Esquire. “I run topless in London and other cities abroad when it’s super hot; there’s nothing better. If the recent menswear shows are anything to go by, going shirtless under a suit may be back in fashion. I still am not sold, personally.” When and where is it OK to be wrapped in a towel?Are you near water? No? Put some clothes …