All posts tagged: technology

Trump heads to G7 summit in France as world awaits Iran deal

Trump heads to G7 summit in France as world awaits Iran deal

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump is set to head to France for the annual summit of the Group of Seven nations, with the U.S. and Iran yet to finalize an anticipated deal to end the Middle East war that has stirred political and economic strife around the world. The three-day G7 summit, which starts Monday, is taking place in Évian-les-Bains, on France’s eastern border with Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Geneva. Trump said he will depart for the summit “immediately” after attending a mixed-martial arts fight that is set to take place Sunday evening on the White House’s South Lawn. The UFC match coincides with Trump’s 80th birthday. As France began its turn leading the G7 in January, President Emmanuel Macron expressed a desire for the group to prioritize reducing inequality and fostering multilateralism while addressing inflamed trade and geopolitical tensions. Those priorities may be counter to Trump’s America First agenda, under which he’s imposed tariffs, gone after other world leaders directly and on social media and started a war. And inequality in the U.S. is …

Lisa McClain family stocks in Musk’s xAI could benefit from SpaceX IPO

Lisa McClain family stocks in Musk’s xAI could benefit from SpaceX IPO

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) holds a press conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and other Republican leadership on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., Feb. 3, 2026. Annabelle Gordon | Reuters Rep. Lisa McClain, one of the House GOP’s top leaders, has a family investment poised to benefit from SpaceX’s record public debut after her husband bought as much as $250,000 in Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI before it was folded into the rocket maker. McClain, R-Mich., the No. 4 House Republican and chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, disclosed her spouse’s Dec. 15 purchase in a Jan. 7 congressional financial filing. The transaction was valued at between $100,001 and $250,000. CNBC found no other similarly clear direct congressional stake in SpaceX or expected tech initial public offerings from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, though private-company holdings can be difficult to trace through spouses, trusts, LLCs or venture funds. The investment became tied to SpaceX in February, when Musk folded his xAI startup into the rocket and satellite company. SpaceX opened …

Ex-DOGE Employees Are Raising 0 Million for an AI Security Company

Ex-DOGE Employees Are Raising $130 Million for an AI Security Company

Published by Sam Flores

When former DOGE employees Nate Cavanaugh and Justin Fox recently decided to start an AI company, they looked to their DOGE team for seed funding, a person with direct knowledge said. They approached Steve Davis, DOGE’s operational head and a longtime Musk deputy. “It was just natural to go to the leadership team at DOGE first,” the source said. This month, Cavanaugh and Fox—who went viral for DOGE case depositions in which they defended cutting jobs and struggled to define DEI—announced Special.co, a start-up that will initially aim to buy businesses that receive government funding, like Medicare, and make them more efficient with AI. Their investors are a who’s who of the Musk-verse, including Davis, Andreessen Horowitz, and Human Capital, the firm of DOGE headhunter Baris Akis. But other investors are wary. To bet on DOGE is to bet on a distinctly MAGA brand, one defense executive we spoke to said, and some investors are curious about just how ideologically entrenched these guys are—and whether they will be able to pivot if the Republicans lose …

SpaceX: Why Chinese investors are banned from the biggest IPO in history

SpaceX: Why Chinese investors are banned from the biggest IPO in history

Published by Sam Flores

The biggest initial public offering (IPO) in history will happen without China. Billionaire tycoon Elon Musk’s aerospace and AI conglomerate SpaceX has decided that Chinese and Hong Kong investors will not be able to buy shares in the soon-to-be publicly traded company, which makes its Wall Street debut on Friday. “Mutual funds, private equities, sovereign funds, family offices and high-net-worth individuals from the two jurisdictions will all be blocked from this highly anticipated IPO,” reported the China Daily, a major English-language newspaper owned by the Communist Party of China. In the name of national security First reported by Bloomberg last Friday, the ban on a whole country from buying shares quickly went into effect. Reuters reported that people based in Hong Kong or mainland China trying to sign up to buy shares through the official SpaceX site were treated to an “Error 1009” message. “As far as I can recall, this is one of the first times an entire nation has been so explicitly excluded from an initial public offering,” said Grégoire Kounowski, an investment adviser at …

SpaceX Stock Soars in Debut and Makes Elon Musk the First Trillionaire

SpaceX Stock Soars in Debut and Makes Elon Musk the First Trillionaire

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire after shares of his rocket company SpaceX soared in Wall Street’s biggest initial public offering of stock. Shares in SpaceX jumped more than 19% after opening for trading Friday, a sign that investors are looking past the billions the company is losing and instead betting that its massive investments in satellites, orbital data centers and artificial intelligence will pay off in the future. SpaceX opened around midday at $150 a share, then rose to around $168, before finishing the day just below $161. That price gave the company a market value of $2.1 trillion, making it the sixth largest public U.S. company — larger even than its founder and CEO’s other big business, the electric vehicle maker Tesla. Between his holdings in SpaceX and Tesla, where he is also CEO, Musk is now worth an estimated $1.1 trillion, according to Forbes. Why SpaceX is going public now Musk says SpaceX, founded in 2002, is going public now because it needs money to fund its …

Matchmakers Are Being Paid K to Find Trad Wives for Rich Men

Matchmakers Are Being Paid $25K to Find Trad Wives for Rich Men

Published by skeptic

The matchmaker Blaine Anderson, who runs the high-end dating service Dating by Blaine, receives a lot of hyper-specific requests from her wealthy male clients, many of which she documents on her popular social media accounts. But no one was more difficult than the man she refers to as Daniel. (Anderson uses pseudonyms when discussing her clients to protect their privacy.) Daniel was in his early forties and had never been married, but was looking to start a family, according to Anderson. Like most of her clients, he’s fabulously wealthy, a successful tech founder who’d sold his company a few years prior. (Anderson, who works exclusively with men, charges anywhere between $30,000 to $50,000 for her services; she says she charged this particular client $49,000.) But Daniel had, as Anderson recounts, “very, very, very specific requests.” He wanted to date a younger woman who prioritized getting married and having children. He wanted a woman from the Midwest (even though he, himself, did not live in the Midwest) and who worked in a caregiving profession—but she couldn’t …

Scientists Have Developed a New Technology to Identify Forgeries

Scientists Have Developed a New Technology to Identify Forgeries

Published by Jenni Sidey

A group of scientists at the Polytechnic University of Hauts-de-France in Valenciennes have published a study introducing a newly developed method that they say will help authenticate artworks—and identify potential forgeries. The report was published in the June 2026 issue of Surface Topography: Metrology and Properties, a peer-reviewed journal that focuses on cross-disciplinary research involving physics, chemistry, materials science, and engineering research. The research, conducted by Francois Berkmans, Ludovic Nys, and Maxence Bigerelle, focuses on how surface metrology—essentially, the texture and topography of a painting’s brushstrokes—can be used like a fingerprint to zero in on the authorship of a particular artwork. Surface metrology, Berkmans explained to Artnet News, “has historically been developed mainly for industrial applications and mechanical engineering” and has not typically be applied in an art authentication context. Related Articles Berkmans and his co-authors are hoping to change that. Their study used artworks by Vincent van Gogh to demonstrate how this noninvasive technique can compare fractal dimensions via very high-resolution scans of the objects’ surfaces. Anyone with a good enough eye can see how artists handle …

Trump administration appeals ruling blocking 0,000 H-1B visa fee

Trump administration appeals ruling blocking $100,000 H-1B visa fee

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump takes a question from a reporter before signing executive orders in the Oval Office at the White House on September 19, 2025 in Washington, DC. Andrew Harnik | Getty Images The Trump administration said Thursday it will appeal a federal judge’s ruling striking down President Donald Trump’s $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications in its effort to hike the fee by tens of thousands of dollars. The Justice Department filed the notice three days after U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston vacated the fee, ruling that Trump exceeded his authority by imposing what amounted to a tax without approval from Congress. “The Department of Justice is committed to protecting American workers and fully supports President Trump’s America First agenda,” a DOJ spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. “Another court has already ruled in the Administration’s favor on this issue, and we will continue to hold companies accountable when they unlawfully exploit American workers and fail to use the H-1B program as intended.” Monday’s decision was a blow to Trump’s effort to …

Iran threatens Elon Musk companies in Middle East: State media

Iran threatens Elon Musk companies in Middle East: State media

Published by Sam Flores

Tesla CEO Elon Musk holds a mobile phone as he arrives to attend a state banquet with U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 14, 2026. Evan Vucci | Reuters Iran will treat all of Elon Musk’s companies in the Middle East, including SpaceX’s Starlink internet service, as military targets as it retaliates against the U.S., Iranian state media outlet Fars reported Thursday. Iran is targeting “all interests related to economic holdings managed by Elon Musk in West Asia,” including a regional Starlink ground station, according to a translated post on Fars’ Telegram page. Starlink has played a key role in U.S. military operations against Iran, supporting high-tech ordnance ranging from aerial attack drones to unmanned surveillance and strike vessels. Iran asserts the U.S. has committed war crimes against it with the support of Musk-related companies, Fars reported, citing an “informed source.” “The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right to attack all facilities related to [Musk]-managed holdings in the region and occupied …

Inside soccer’s data renaissance | MIT Technology Review

Inside soccer’s data renaissance | MIT Technology Review

Published by skeptic

Davis and his team of researchers employ advanced data analytics to reveal a range of (beg your pardon) game-changing findings that are shifting pro clubs’ decision-making. “His lab is the most influential sports analytics lab in soccer,” says Hugo Rios-Neto, data recruitment lead for Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht in Belgium. They’ve helped teams better evaluate their rosters, conceived ways to assess how efficient (or not) strategies are, and developed algorithms that uncover hidden tactical patterns. Like, for instance, the value of kicking the ball out of bounds close to the goal and letting your opponent throw it back into play—a move that’s been popping up in some of the world’s top leagues over the last few years. To make the statistical argument for this seemingly counterproductive move, Davis’s group built a training data set composed of more than 1.4 million passes and some 60,000 throw-ins—partly from the 2022 World Cup. They used tree ensemble models (essentially a mashup of decision trees) to simulate the tactic. The conclusion, which the researchers presented in a 2024 paper …