Shield AI, which makes software and hardware for military drones and other autonomous aircraft, raises a $90M Series E and $75M in debt at a $2.3B valuation (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Shield AI, which makes software and hardware for military drones and other autonomous aircraft, raises a $90M Series E and $75M in debt at a $2.3B valuation  —  Technology built with defense in mind is getting some significant and serious traction at the moment, spurred by world events …

Experts say the lack of publicly available data makes it difficult to verify claims by Tesla and others about the safety of their autonomous driving tech (Cade Metz/New York Times)

Cade Metz / New York Times: Experts say the lack of publicly available data makes it difficult to verify claims by Tesla and others about the safety of their autonomous driving tech  —  Automakers and technology companies say they are making driving safer, but verifying these claims is difficult.

Keeping web-browsing data safe from hackers

Malicious agents can use machine learning to launch powerful attacks that steal information in ways that are tough to prevent and often even more difficult to study. Attackers can capture data that “leaks” between software programs running on the same computer. They then use machine-learning algorithms to decode those signals, which enables them to obtain […]

Unsealed docs show how the US ordered travel firms Sabre and Travelport to spy on a Russian hacker for two years, giving the Secret Service weekly reports (Thomas Brewster/Forbes)

Thomas Brewster / Forbes: Unsealed docs show how the US ordered travel firms Sabre and Travelport to spy on a Russian hacker for two years, giving the Secret Service weekly reports  —  A Forbes legal challenge forces the unsealing of documents that reveal for the first time the scope of secretive surveillance orders …

Meta’s head of infrastructure David Mortenson steps down; engineering and infrastructure VP Santosh Janardhan, his direct report, will take over later in June (Alex Heath/The Verge)

Alex Heath / The Verge: Meta’s head of infrastructure David Mortenson steps down; engineering and infrastructure VP Santosh Janardhan, his direct report, will take over later in June  —  The change comes days after the announced departure of Sheryl Sandberg  —  Another executive change is hitting Meta …

Salesforce announces NFT Cloud, a service for buying and selling NFTs, available in a closed preview (Ron Miller/TechCrunch)

Ron Miller / TechCrunch: Salesforce announces NFT Cloud, a service for buying and selling NFTs, available in a closed preview  —  Who knows whether it’s FOMO or actual customer demand for such a thing, but Salesforce announced today that it’s launching a pilot of NFT Cloud, a new platform for buying and selling these crypto […]

Stock advisor Delphia, which offers an algorithm-based service via its app, raises a $60M Series A led by Multicoin Capital and plans its Delphia Data token (Brandy Betz/CoinDesk)

Brandy Betz / CoinDesk: Stock advisor Delphia, which offers an algorithm-based service via its app, raises a $60M Series A led by Multicoin Capital and plans its Delphia Data token  —  Investors will earn Delphia Data Tokens for sharing personal shopping and social media data with the advisor.

Source: Citadel Securities is building a “cryptocurrency trading ecosystem” in partnership with Virtu, Sequoia, Paradigm, and others (Ian Allison/CoinDesk)

Ian Allison / CoinDesk: Source: Citadel Securities is building a “cryptocurrency trading ecosystem” in partnership with Virtu, Sequoia, Paradigm, and others  —  The effort also includes Citadel Securities’ recent venture capital (VC) backers, Sequoia and Paradigm, with more trading firms to come, according to a source familiar with the plans.

MIT unveils new Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel

When Mark Drela first set foot in Cambridge to study aerospace engineering at MIT in 1978, he was no stranger to wind tunnels. Just two years before, he constructed a 1-foot-by-1-foot wind tunnel for the Westinghouse Science Talent Search that earned him a visit to the White House as a finalist. But nothing could have […]

Calaxy, which runs a marketplace for creators to mint and sell their social tokens, raises $26M in funding co-led by Animoca Brands and the HBAR Foundation (Jacquelyn Melinek/TechCrunch)

Jacquelyn Melinek / TechCrunch: Calaxy, which runs a marketplace for creators to mint and sell their social tokens, raises $26M in funding co-led by Animoca Brands and the HBAR Foundation  —  The success of websites like Cameo have shown that people want personalized interactions with celebrities and web3 companies …

IBM says it will wind down its business in Russia and lay off its workforce there, after suspending operations in the country in March (Amrita Khalid/Engadget)

Amrita Khalid / Engadget: IBM says it will wind down its business in Russia and lay off its workforce there, after suspending operations in the country in March  —  IBM will begin an “orderly” wind-down of its operations in Russia, according to a memo from CEO Arvind Krishna that was released publicly today.

Internal meeting: Twitter aims to grow its mDAUs by 13M this quarter, the highest goal the company has ever set, and is currently on track with 8.5M users (Sheila Dang/Reuters)

Sheila Dang / Reuters: Internal meeting: Twitter aims to grow its mDAUs by 13M this quarter, the highest goal the company has ever set, and is currently on track with 8.5M users  —  Twitter (TWTR.N) is gearing up for its most ambitious quarter of user growth, leaders of the social media company’s consumer products …

A profile of Chipper Cash, an African cross-border payments services provider valued at $2.2B in November, which had $75M+ in revenue in 2021, up over 4x YoY (Jeff Kauflin/Forbes)

Jeff Kauflin / Forbes: A profile of Chipper Cash, an African cross-border payments services provider valued at $2.2B in November, which had $75M+ in revenue in 2021, up over 4x YoY  —  A pair of twentysomethings from Uganda and Ghana thought there was a fortune to be made bringing transnational financial services to Africa’s 1.2 […]

EU lawmakers reach an agreement on legislation that will mandate USB-C on smartphones and other electronic devices, starting in autumn 2024, to reduce e-waste (Jon Porter/The Verge)

Jon Porter / The Verge: EU lawmakers reach an agreement on legislation that will mandate USB-C on smartphones and other electronic devices, starting in autumn 2024, to reduce e-waste  —  A major blow to Apple’s Lightning port  —  European Union lawmakers have reached an agreement on legislation that will force …

How Ukrainian civilians are helping the army using apps, blurring the lines between civilians and soldiers, raising questions of international humanitarian law (Lukasz Olejnik/Wired)

Lukasz Olejnik / Wired: How Ukrainian civilians are helping the army using apps, blurring the lines between civilians and soldiers, raising questions of international humanitarian law  —  In Ukraine, civilians are valiantly assisting the army via apps—and challenging a tenet of international law in the process.

Study: Trade can worsen income inequality

International trade exacerbates domestic income inequality, at least in some circumstances, according to an empirical study that two MIT economists helped co-author. The research, focusing on Ecuador as a case study, digs into individual-level income data while examining in close detail the connections between Ecuador’s economy and international trade. The study finds that trade generates […]

Faster computing results without fear of errors

Researchers have pioneered a technique that can dramatically accelerate certain types of computer programs automatically, while ensuring program results remain accurate. Their system boosts the speeds of programs that run in the Unix shell, a ubiquitous programming environment created 50 years ago that is still widely used today. Their method parallelizes these programs, which means […]

MFS Africa, a digital payments network in Africa, acquires Oklahoma-based Global Technology Partners, which makes prepaid and mobile payments software, for $34M (David Pilling/Financial Times)

David Pilling / Financial Times: MFS Africa, a digital payments network in Africa, acquires Oklahoma-based Global Technology Partners, which makes prepaid and mobile payments software, for $34M  —  Deal by MFS Africa is further evolution of continent’s rapidly growing fintech scene  —  MFS Africa, a digital payments company …

Apple introduces a Rapid Security Response feature in iOS 16 designed to deploy security fixes more easily and quickly without needing a full iOS version update (Juli Clover/MacRumors)

Juli Clover / MacRumors: Apple introduces a Rapid Security Response feature in iOS 16 designed to deploy security fixes more easily and quickly without needing a full iOS version update  —  Apple in iOS 16 is introducing a new Rapid Security Response feature that’s designed to make it easier and quicker for the company to […]