When a gunman began firing inside an academic building on the Brown University campus, students didn’t wait for official alerts warning of trouble. They got information almost instantly, in bits and bursts through phones vibrating in pockets, messages from strangers, rumors that felt urgent because they might keep someone alive.
On Dec. 13 as the attack at the Ivy League institution played out during finals week, students took to Sidechat, an anonymous, campus-specific message board used widely at U.S. colleges, for fast-flowing information in real time.
An Associated Press analysis of nearly 8,000 posts from the 36 hours after the shooting shows how social media has become central to how students navigate campus emergencies.
Fifteen minutes before the university’s first alert of an active shooter, students were already documenting the chaos. Their posts raw, fragmented, and sometimes panicked formed a digital time capsule of how a college campus experienced a mass shooting.
As students sheltered in place, they posted while hiding under library tables, crouching in classrooms, and hallways. Some comments even came from wounded students, like one posting a selfie from a hospital bed with the simple caption: #finalsweek.
Others asked urgent questions: Was there a lockdown? Where was the shooter? Was it safe to move?
It would be days before authorities identified the suspect and found him dead in New Hampshire of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, later linking him to the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.
Here’s a look at how the shooting unfolded.
Stream of collective consciousness
Described by Harvard Magazine as the Colleges stream of collective consciousness, Sidechat allows anyone with a verified university email to post to a campus feed. On most days, the Brown feed is filled with complaints about dining hall food, jokes about professors, and stress about exams fleeting posts running the gamut of student life.
On the Saturday afternoon just before the shooting, a student posted about how they wished they could play Minecraft for 60 hours straight. Then, the posts abruptly shifted.
Crowds began pouring out of Browns Barus and Holley building, and someone posted at 4:06 p.m.: Why are people running away from B&H?
Others quickly followed. EVERYONE TAKE COVER, one wrote. STAY AWAY FROM THAYER STREET NEAR MACMILLAN 2 PEOPLE JUST GOT SHOT IM BEING DEAD SERIOUS, another user wrote at 4:10 p.m.
Dozens of frantic messages followed as students tried to fill the information gap themselves.
so r we on lockdown or what, one student asked.
By the time the university alert was sent at 4:21 p.m., the shooter was no longer on campus a fact Brown officials did not yet know.
Where would we be without Sidechat? one student wrote.
A university spokesperson said Brown’s alert reached 20,000 people minutes after the school’s public safety officials were notified shots had been fired. Officials deliberately didnt use sirens to avoid sending people rushing to seek shelter into harms way, said the spokesperson, Brian E. Clark, who added Brown commissioned two external reviews of the response with the aim of enhancing public safety and security.
Long hours of hiding
Long after the sun had set, students sheltered in dark dorm rooms and study halls. Blinds were closed. Doors were barricaded with dressers, beds, and mini fridges.
Door is locked windows are locked Ive balanced a metal pipe thing on the handle so if anyone even tries the handle from the outside itll make a loud noise, one student wrote.
Students reacted to every sound footsteps in hallways, distant sirens, helicopters overhead. When alerts came, the vibrations and ringtones were jarring. Some feared that names of the dead would be released and that they would recognize someone they knew.
Law enforcement moved through campus buildings, clearing them floor by floor.
A student who fled Barus and Holley asked whether anyone could text his parents to let them know he had made it out safely. Others said they had left phones behind in classrooms when they fled, unable to reach frantic loved ones. Ironically, those closest to the shooting often had the least information.
Many American students expressed emotions hovering between numbness and heartbreak.
Just got a text from a friend I havent spoken to in nearly three years, one student wrote. Our last messages? Me checking in on her after the shooting at Michigan State. Multiple students replied, saying theyd had similar experiences.
International students posted about parents unable to sleep on the other side of the world.
I just want a hug from my mom, one student wrote.
Anxiety sets in
As the hours dragged on, students struggled with basic needs. Some described urinating in trash cans or empty laundry detergent bottles because they were too afraid to leave their rooms. Others spoke of drinking to cope.
I was on the street when it happened & suddenly I felt so scared, one student wrote. I ran and didnt calm down for a while. I feel numb, tired, & about to throw up.
Another wrote: Im locked inside! Havent eaten anything today! Im so scared i dont even know if I get out of this alive or dead.
Some students posted into the early morning, more than 10 hours into the lockdown, saying they couldnt sleep. Sidechat also documented acts of kindness, including a student going door to door with macaroni and cheese cups in a dark dorm.
Information, and its limits
Students repeatedly asked the same questions news? sources? and challenged one another to verify what they saw before reposting it.
Frankly Id rather hear misinformation than people not report stuff theyve heard, one student wrote.
Others pushed back, sharing a Google Doc that would grow to 28 pages where students could find the most updated, verified information. Some posted police scanner transcriptions or warned against relying on artificial intelligence summaries of the developing situation. Professors who rarely post on the app joined the feed, urging caution and offering reassurance.
If youre talking about the active situation please add a source!!! one student wrote.
But reliable information, students noted, often arrived with a delay.
Within about 30 minutes of the shooting, posts incorrectly claimed the shooter had been caught. Reports of more gunshots later proven false continued into the night and the next day, fueling fear and frustration. Asked one studen, what are police doing RIGHT NOW?
Replies came quickly.
They are trying their best, one person responded. Be grateful, another added. They are putting their lives in danger at this moment for us to be safe.
A campus changed
Students awoke Sunday to a campus they no longer recognized. It had snowed overnight the first snowfall of the academic year.
In post after post, students called the sight unsettling. What was usually a celebration felt instead like confirmation something had irrevocably shifted.
It truly hurt seeing the flakes fall this morning, beautiful and tragic, one student wrote.
Even as the lockdown lifted, many said they were unsure what to do where they could go, whether dining halls were open, whether it was safe to move.
What do I do rn? one student posted. Im losing my mind.
Students walked through fresh snow in a daze, heading to blood donation centers. Others noticed flowers being placed at the campus gates and outside Barus and Holley.
Many mourned not only the two students killed, but the innocence they felt had been stripped from their campus.
Will never see the first snow of the season and not think about those two, one student wrote.
With the lockdown ended, students returned to their dorms as Sidechat continued to fill with grief and reflection. Many said Brown no longer felt the same.
Snow will always be bloody for me, one person posted.
Leah Willingham, Associated Press
The dreaded performance review draws the ire of employees and managers alike. Workers fret that reviews fail to capture the full scope of their work, or that they are an unfair assessment of their performance. For managers, reviews can be a time-consuming nuisance and involve the challenging task of delivering tough feedback.
But a new study from Cornell University finds that the structure of the performance review can have a huge impact on how workers feel about them.
Over the last decade, a number of companies have revamped their performance reviews, seemingly to address the long-standing pain points. The likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have moved away from numerical ratings, while tech companies like Microsoft eliminated stack rankings (reviews that essentially rank employees against their colleagues) and Adobe eliminated reviews altogether. (More recently, however, tech giants like Google and Meta have actually pushed for more stringent evaluations of employees and, in turn, lower ratings.)
The Cornell researchers examined how the shift away from numerical reviews has influenced employee sentiment. Emily Zitek, a professor of organizational behavior, and her coauthors analyzed how employees feel about performance reviews that emphasize narrative or qualitative feedback over numerical rankings. The team looked at three different performance review formats: those that exclusively used either numerical ratings or narrative feedback, and those that employed a mix of both.
What the researchers found overall was that employees believed performance reviews were, in fact, more fair when they did not have numbers attached and were purely narrative-driven.
Even if they’re given kind of average numbers versus wording that says they were very average, it feels more fair if they just see the words and not the numbers, Zitek says. So we thought that was very interesting. We were originally expecting the combined feedback to still be viewed positively, but people didn’t like the numbers within that either.
Employees were also more likely to want to improve their performance if they received narrative feedbackand, more notably, if they felt their review was fair. Obviously, one of the goals is improvement, Zitek says. [If youre] just giving people numbers, they don’t know as much about what they need to do to perform better.
But there was an exception: If their reviews were very positive, then people perceived them as fair, regardless of format.
People love knowing if they’re at the top, Zitek says. More average ratings, on the other hand, seem to betray an employees self-perceptionwhich is why a more middling review feels more palatable if there is no number attached.
Psychology research has shown a lot of people think they are above average, or that they’re doing better than they are, Zitek adds. When they get narrative-only feedback, they’re able to maintain that view because there’s no explicit information showing that they didn’t do well.
Thats one of the reasons Zitek and her coauthors argue there is still a place for numerical ratings, in spite of the studys findings: If one of the goals of performance reviews is to determine raises and bonuses, then including numbers-based feedback can be importantand arguably more fair. If employees are deluding themselves that they’re performing really well, sometimes it helps to have the number, she says. Sometimes you want employees to realistically know where they stand. And yes, theyre going to be mad about it; they’re not going to think it’s fair. But that could be important.
The reality is that many companies still rely on numerical ratings to make decisions about compensationand if they stop using those metrics in reviews, they may still utilize a ranking system without informing employees. If the company is going to want some kind of number anyway, it seems worse to not tell the employee that number, Zitek says. And that’s what some companies are doingthey have shadow rankings behind the scenes. They don’t tell them to the employees, and then employees are like, Wait, why did I get a smaller bonus than this other person?
Regardless of format, one of the most frequent critiques of performance reviews is that they are vulnerable to bias. Even if reviews are standardized across a company, your performance rating can be impacted by a number of variables and often hinges on how your manager or team approaches reviews. A narrative component can help address this issuebut that still depends on how managers are trained and whether they understand the value of proffering real feedback.
To ensure managers actually commit to the review process, Zitek says, its important for employers to emphasize the purpose of providing thoughtful feedback.
People are more willing to do things if they know why they’re doing it, she says. So it could just be making an effort to convince the managers [that] this isn’t just another box to check. Its also crucial that managers are trained on how to give constructive performance feedback, she addssomething that many employers fail to do effectivelyand that they offer it at a more regular cadence so employees are not surprised when their review rolls around.
Feedback can be uncomfortable to give sometimes, Zitek says. But it’s more uncomfortable later if they don’t get promoted and don’t understand whyand they could have been performing better the entire time if they were given that feedback.
Fast-casual salad chain Salad and Go is closing more stores and exiting Texas and Oklahoma completely. The eatery will close a total of 32 stores, 25 in Texas and seven in Oklahoma, by January 11.
The closures will impact around 600 employees. The company will also close its Dallas headquarters and relocate to Phoenix.
Salad and Go operates as a drive-through and grab-and-go business, known for affordable salads, wraps, and other healthy menu items. The fast-casual chain was founded in 2013 in Gilbert, Arizona.
Salad and Go began rapid expansion efforts in 2022. However, the salad chain has recently been reducing its retail footprint, closing 41 of its stores in September 2025.
Salad and Go will focus its efforts in its home state of Arizona
Until recently, the salad chain served customers in four states: Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Texas. Moving forward, it will only operate restaurants in Arizona and Nevada.
After assessing our business, we made the decision to exit our Texas and Oklahoma markets and refocus on strengthening our core operations in Arizona and Nevada, CEO Mike Tattersfield told Fast Company in an email. “By consolidating our operations at our Phoenix area headquarters, we can focus on what matters most: food quality, menu innovation, guest experience and building for long-term growth.”
“Were grateful to our team members in Texas and Oklahoma for the care they brought every day, and we deeply appreciate the communities that welcomed Salad and Go,” Tattersfield said.
Tattersfield, who is the former president and CEO of Krispy Kreme, joined Salad and Go in April 2025.
Tattersfield also told the Phoenix Business Journal that the closures are the result of the economic burden of a flawed expansion plan and a large central kitchen in Dallas: We were so focused on expanding out in Texas and other areas and we neglected Arizona,” he told the journal.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is demanding more information about Instacarts recent and highly controversial price tests, and suggesting that the schemewhich saw customers charged notably different prices for the same products when offered at the same storesmight have violated a new state law.
Late last year, Consumer Reports and the Groundwork Collaborative released an investigation that found that a single item posted on Instacart could have as many as five different prices, and that costs for a single item could range from just 7 cents to $2.56. The investigation found that while some prices changed, and some differed only marginally, for some itemsincluding Oscar Mayer turkey and Skippy peanut butterthey could vary by more than 20 percent.
In response to the widespread outcry and accusations that Instacart had deployed surveillance pricing, the company turned off technology that, it argued, had sought only to allow retailers who wanted to experiment with prices offered at their own stores. Instacart denied ever using demographic information to set prices, or using dynamic pricing or surveillance pricing. Pricing is complex, and retailers have long used different approaches across different markets, wrote the company in a blog. Just as prices can vary between physical store locations, retail partners may continue to vary item prices on a store-by-store basis on Instacart.
In a letter sent on Thursday, the New York attorney generals office suggests that Instacarts test may have violated a new state law, the Algorithmic Pricing Disclosure Act. The legislation went into effect in November and bans platforms from using algorithmic pricing without clear, prior disclosure to customers. Its one of the first laws in the country that requires companies to be this transparent.
New York is accusing Instacart of burying its disclosures. In the letter, the attorney generals office says that Instacarts disclosure on a page linked to certain retail stores front pages was accessed by clicking fine print text and wasnt clear and conspicuous. Moreover, the office argues the prices didn’t appear on category pages listing product prices or on individual product pages displaying price, as required by law.
New York is now asking for more details from Instacart about its price setting agreements, the tools the company used to control displayed prices, and information about its efforts to meet the standards set out in New York law.
Charging different prices for the exact same products leaves shoppers feeling cheated and threatens to raise costs at a time when consumers are already paying too much at the grocery store, James said in a statement. Instacarts pricing experiments raise serious concerns about its use of algorithmic pricing.
If you had a severe case of the Sunday Scaries last weekend, you are not alone. Its a sentiment many have been sharing online.
Ready or not, with it comes an influx of unread emails, meeting invites, and responsibilitiessmugly pushed to the New Year in the last weeks of Decembernow coming back to haunt us all.
Indeed, the first Monday of the year is the Monday-est Monday of all.
Oh god, one TikTok user posted on Monday 6th. Everyone is circling back.
Worst aesthetic ever: Back to work in the first week of jan, another wrote, riffing on TikToks rare aesthetic trend.
Some have used the lyrics to The Smiths Heaven Knows Im Miserable Now” to sum up the feeling of corporate workers logging back on the first Monday of the year.
After weeks of late nights of holiday fun, overindulgence, friends and family time and a slower pace of life, the abrupt shift back to the corporate grind can trigger feelings of anxiety in even the most enthusiastic of employees.
Monday 5th January isnt for the weak, another TikTok user wrote in the caption of a clip. The idea of an unwanted convo at 9am on Monday 5th, the closed captions reads, soundtracked to frantic voiceovers sputtering workplace jargon, including KPIs, decks, emails, and Salesforce.
If this week so far youve felt unusually slow, unfocused, or overwhelmed, youre likely experiencing what is commonly referred to as the holiday hangover, or January blues.
These feelings are not unique to one generation or another, and tend to resurface like clockwork come January each year. As another TikTok user wrote: The way I logged on after two weeks off only to realise i can barely remember what i was doing when I left or what im supposed to be doing now so im lowkey terrified and every email and teams alert feels like a jack-in-the-box.
Relatable.
While time off work over the holidays has been linked to reduced stress and overall improved health, these benefits tend to vanish relatively quickly once back to work. And research has shown when workers are expected to hit the ground running after a break, they often experience depleted energy, focus and motivation.
Reestablishing some semblance of routine post-holidays is essential for keeping the January blues to a minimum. This means fixing sleep schedules after going to bed consistently after midnight and waking up at midday for the past few weeks. Giving up the chocolate and leftovers from the fridge diet and going back to overnight oats and desk salads. And not only having to remember what day of the week it is, but also spending the next few months mistakenly writing 2025, crossing it out, and rewriting 2026.
The key is to keep expectations low. If you simply showed up, caught up on the post-holiday small talk with colleagues, and made it to 5 p.m.? Honestlythat’s enough for this week.
American Airlines will begin offering free, high-speed Wi-Fi on flights beginning this month. The airline made the announcement this week in a press release, explaining that the service will extend to around two million flights in 2026. However, not all fliers will receive the perk.
The new service will be sponsored by wireless provider AT&T.
Free high-speed Wi-Fi isnt just a perkits essential for todays travelers,” said Heather Garboden, chief customer officer at American Airlines, in the release.
The rollout won’t kick off all at once, the announcement explained, but instead will happen in phases. This month, the service will be available only on “narrowbody and dual-class regional fleets,” the announcement says. But in just a few months, it will be made available on “nearly every American Airlines flight.”
Who gets free, high-speed Wi-Fi?
While the service will be available on almost all flights, it’s not for everyone. Eligible fliers have to be in the airline’s loyalty program, AAdvantage.
If you aren’t a member but want to become one, you can sign up for a free account on the American Airlines website by providing a few personal details. Doing so will enable you to start earning miles, loyalty points, and free Wi-Fi on flights.
How can AAdvantage members access free Wi-Fi on their flights?
Accessing free Wi-Fi for AAdvantage members can be accomplished through the new and improved aainflight.com portal. Customers will be asked to log in using their AAdvantage membership number and password. Then, they can select Free Wi-Fi to start using the service.
If you don’t have access to free Wi-Fi, it’s available on most American Airlines flights for $10.
Who else offers free Wi-Fi?
Not having to pay for Wi-Fi is certainly a desirable perk for fliers. However, American Airlines is not the first to offer it. Many U.S. airlines, like Delta, United, Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, and Southwest, also ensure free Wi-Fi for loyalty members. However, JetBlue remains the only U.S. airline that offers free Wi-Fi to all travelers on most of its flightsa service it first rolled out in 2013. By January 2017, the service was extended to all flights.
Wi-Fi for non-members costs around $8 to $10 on most carriers. But for longer, international flights, prices can go up to as much as $35. Frequent fliers, especially those who are traveling internationally often and want Wi-Fi access, can save money by purchasing monthly Wi-Fi passes on their preferred airline, rather than paying for the service on each and every flight.
Inside Girl Scouts headquarters in New York City and its two licensed bakeries, a team of trend forecasters, marketers, and food scientists spend years cooking up its next iconic cookie. Now, fans of the annual cookie sale are about to get a taste of what the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) team has been baking behind closed doors.
The newest addition to the cookie lineup are Exploremores, a rocky road ice cream-inspired sandwich cookie with chocolate shortbread exteriors and chocolate, marshmallow, and toasted almond-flavored cream centers.
For Girl Scout cookie enjoyers, a fresh cookie is always a welcome surprise. But, according to Wendy Lou, GSUSAs chief revenue officer and the mastermind behind the nonprofits cookie program, the cookie invention process is an intensive project that requires year-round dedication.
Cookie Season may be once a year, but behind the scenes, the conversation about whats next is always happening, Lou says.
[Photo: GSUSA]
A brief history of the Girl Scout cookie
Girl Scout cookies date back almost as far as the Girl Scouts themselves. Along the way, dozens of new flavors have been tested and ultimately retired into the archives of Girl Scout cookies past.
According to GSUSAs official record, the first Girl Scout cookies are believed to have been baked in 1917, just five years after GSUSA was first founded. Initially, the cookies were a more run-of-the-mill bake sale fundraiserbut in the following decades, the concept went national, becoming a more organized affair including specially licensed bakeries and a streamlined list of flavors. By 1978, all cookie boxes (regardless of the baker) included uniform GSUSA branding, as well as officially named flavors.
Since then, GSUSA has adopted a kind of two-pronged approach to its cookie sales. Each year, the company returns to a few classic cookie flavors that customers can reliably count on, historically including Thin Mints, Do-si-dos, Samoas, and Trefoils. Alongside those tried-and-true offerings, the nonprofit generally also includes at least one new or limited-time cookie to add some intrigue to the mix.
This second category has produced treats including VanChos, a pack of chocolate and vanilla sandwich cookies that ran from 1974 to 1983; Echo, an Oreo-style cookie that lasted from just 1987 to 1989; and Savannah Smiles, a lemon-shaped wedge that was purchasable from 2011 to 2019. More recently, a cookie called the Raspberry Rally was available for just one season in 2023, resulting in a black market-esque resale bonanza.
Its a clever strategy that keeps customers coming back each year, both for their favorite classic cookies and to try something differentbut in order to make the cut, a new Girl Scout cookie must first face an intensive development process.
[Photo: GSUSA]
Why it takes three years to design a cookie
According to Lou, GSUSA doesnt adhere to a strict annual cadence for new cookie releases. Instead, its team regularly reviews cookie performance, food trends, and feedback from Girl Scouts to judge its current cookie portfolio and decide when its due for a fresh addition. Innovation is never off, she adds. Were always looking ahead.
And cookie innovation is no quick affair. Lou says brainstorming for a new release typically begins around three years in advance, starting with early ideation based on consumer trends, followed by taste testing and naming. In recent years, this naming process has expanded beyond simply describing the cookie to capturing some part of the Girl Scout experience (see 2021s Adventurfuls, for example).
Exploremores was chosen to reflect the spirit of curiosity, adventure, and exploration at the heart of Girl Scouting, Lou says. Every name is intentionally selected to connect back to our mission and the experiences girls gain through the program.
Even after a cookie is approved, packaged, and coordinated with GSUSAs two bakeries, it still takes about 18 months to make it to an actual cookie stand. From there, its fate is annually reevaluated based on sales performance, local Girl Scout council needs, and operational considerations.
In 2025, for example, GSUSA retired its Girl Scout Smores and Toast-Yay! flavors, which were introduced in 2017 and 2021, respectively. Now, they live in the storied archive of cookies past. For any new cookie, like the Exploremore, lifespan is ultimately determined by how customersand scoutsrespond to it.
While some cookies are retired to make room for innovation, fans know that Girl Scout history is full of beloved cooiesand who knows what the future might hold? Lou says. What never changes is our commitment to delivering a lineup that excites customers and helps girls succeed.
Once the ball starts rolling in the Spanish league, the game is on for some 50 analysts who start looking for signs of online piracy.They scan websites, social media posts, IPTV platforms and streaming portals in search of illegal broadcasts of La Liga matches.The trained analysts identify the pirated content and take the steps needed to take them off air, including notifying Internet intermediaries like Cloudflare, the U.S.-based company whose content-delivery network is believed to manage nearly 20% of the Internet traffic worldwide.And that’s when the real fight begins for the Spanish league.La Liga, one of the most active European leagues fighting piracy and audiovisual fraud, accuses Cloudflare of ignoring illegal content and not doing enough to block it. It says Cloudflare plays a decisive role in the dissemination of online piracy that significantly hurts the soccer industry.Protecting its content is key for the league, which recently sold domestic audiovisual rights for more than 6 billion euros ($7 billion) through the 2031-32 season.Spanish league president Javier Tebas told The Associated Press in an email that Cloudflare is an organization “fully aware that a significant share of sports audiovisual piracy relies on its infrastructure and, despite this knowledge, it continues to protect and monetize that activity, as recognized by courts in multiple jurisdictions.”Tebas said that in Spain alone, more than 35% of La Liga’s content piracy continues to be distributed through Cloudflare’s infrastructure, despite thousands of formal notices and judicially backed enforcement measures implemented by Internet service providers.“This is not a legal, technical or ideological debate, but a case of a company prioritizing its commercial interests and financial gain over the law, the sustainability of the global sports industry, and the protection of its own customers, whom it uses as a digital shield for organized piracy networks,” Tebas said.
Cloudflare speaks of censorship
Cloudflare, which describes itself as a “long-standing champion of a free and open Internet,” denies wrongdoing and accuses the league of bullying its way into controlling what Spanish users see online during matches.Cloudflare told the AP that the league’s “indiscriminate blocking practices” have kept Spanish users from accessing tens of thousands of legitimate sites while the games are on.The company said La Liga thinks that its commercial interests can “trump the right of ordinary Spanish users to browse lawful sites” during matches.Cloudflare has encouraged Spanish users who notice lawful sites getting blocked because of La Liga to track those blocks and tell their lawmakers. Cloudflare highlights the need to fight “Internet censorship and the harm it causes.”“Cloudflare regularly works collaboratively with rightsholders to help address issues like illegal streaming,” it said. “La Liga, however, has shown no interest in this type of collaboration, believing instead they can bully their way to having complete control over what Spanish users see online during football matches by making unsupported claims and threats.”La Liga notes there is collaboration among several other intermediaries, including Google, Amazon and YouTube, but says Cloudflare has rejected similar collaboration efforts with the league.
Legal actions
The Spanish league has been successful in achieving court rulings against piracy in Spain, which also impacts Cloudflare, but it remains unable to get the company to block some of the illegal content internationally.Cloudflare has fought back in the courts, filing appeals to “demonstrate that La Liga’s overblocking practices are illegal.”“We are also engaging with talking to politicians and regulators, as well as civil society to find collaborative solutions to combating illegal sports streaming without impeding Internet access for millions of Spanish users,” it said.Cloudflare faces similar legal issues in Italy, France, Germany and Japan, among other countries. The Italian league said it has taken action against Cloudflare multiple times and will continue to do so. In Germany, the local league said it was in “regular and intensive communication with Cloudflare in order to combat the issue of digital piracy in the best possible way.”
Seeking government support
Cloudflare recently told the United States Trade Representative that the actions by foreign countries constitute digital trade barriers that contradict global norms and disproportionately impact U.S. technology providers, hindering market access in some countries.The Spanish league has also reached out to the European Commission and the USTR to complain about Cloudflare’s practices. It told the USTR that Cloudflare was the main facilitator for unauthorized broadcasts of La Liga and other pirated content worldwide.Cloudflare claims that its network is vital to the U.S.’ economic and security interests.“We urge the U.S. government to continue its resolute advocacy on behalf of American businesses to dismantle these structural barriers and ensure a global digital environment that rewards innovation and fair trade,” it said.The USTR did not answer an AP email requesting comment.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Associated Press
Its a dream come true for investors with heavy defense stock holdings. On Thursday, defense stocks surged after President Trump called for a massive $1.5 trillion defense budget next year.
The figure was floated in a Truth Social post on Wednesday. That would be an increase of roughly 50% over the 2026 budget of $901 billion.
I have determined that, for the Good of our Country, especially in these very troubled and dangerous times, our Military Budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 Trillion Dollars, but rather $1.5 Trillion Dollars. This will allow us to build the Dream Military that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe, Trump wrote.
Presumably, the beefed-up budget would help pay for some of Trumps military ambitions, which include a Golden Dome air-defense system, and even a new naval ship design. As for how itd be paid for, Trumps Truth Social post suggests that tariff revenue could help cover the additional costs.
The reaction by the markets was predictable, as defense companies saw share prices rise during pre-trading Thursday morning. As of around 11 a.m. ET, Northrop Grumman shares were up around 3.75%, Lockheed Martin shares were up more than 6%, and Raytheon shares were up 2%.
Interestingly, Trumps dream military post also comes soon after he also floated the idea of preventing defense companies from conducting stock buybacks or paying dividends to shareholders. That idea came in response to the presidents frustration that defense companies were not moving quickly enough, as he wrote in another Truth Social post earlier on Wednesday.
As it stands, its unclear how realistic a huge increase to the defense budget is, but according to reporting from Politico, many Republican members of Congress have already voiced support for the increase, including House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, Representative Steve Womack of Arkansas, and Don Bacon of Nebraska.
Gaming peripheral company Razer is betting that people want AI holograms. So much so that it introduce a perplexing new product at CES 2026 that early critics have dubbed a “friend in a bottle.” Project AVA, is a small glass cylinder that features a 5.5-inch animated desk buddy that can interact with you, coach you, or offer gaming advice on demandall powered by xAI’s Grok.
Project AVA uses a technology Razer calls “PC Vision Mode” that watches your screen, allowing its 3D animated inhabitant to offer real-time commentary on your gameplay, track your mood, or simply hang out. It attempts to sell the illusion of presencea companion that isn’t just an app you close, but a physical object that lives in your room.
Its not a bad idea, in theory. Giving AI a face is not just a marketing ploy but a biological inevitability. Yet Project AVA marks a strange new milestone in our march toward AI companions.
[Image: Razer]
The inevitability of holographic AI
When OpenAI’s introduced ChatGPT 4o voice chats in the summer of 2024, humanity entered a new form of computer interaction. Suddenly, we could interact with AI voices that were smart and natural enough for humans to maintain a conversation. Since then, we have seen other voice AIs like Gemini Live, which introduce pauses, breathing, and other elements that cross the uncanny valley and allow many to suspend disbelief and even form a bond with these assistants.
Research has shown that for deep emotional venting, users currently prefer voice-only interfaces because they feel safer and less judgmental. Without a face to scrutinize, we avoid the social anxiety of being watched. However, some neuroscientists argue that this preference may just be a temporary work-around for bad technology.
Our brains are evolutionarily hardwired for face-to-face interaction. The “Mirror Neuron System” in our brainswhich allows us to feel empathy by watching othersremains largely dormant during voice-only chats. A 2024 study on “Generation WhatsApp” confirmed that neural synchrony between two brains is significantly weaker during audio-only exchanges compared to face-to-face ones. To feel truly “heard,” we need to see the listener.
Behavioral science also tells us that up to 93% of communication is nonverbal. Trust is encoded in micro-expressions: a pupil dilating, a rapid blink, an open posture. A voice assistant transmits 0% of these signals, forcing users to operate on blind faith. Humans still find them very engaging because our brain fills the gaps, imagining faces like when we read a book. Furthermore, according to a 2025 brain scan study, familiar AI voices activate emotional regulation areas, suggesting neural familiarity builds with repeated interaction.
The human connection deepens the younger you go (Razers demographic). While older generations largely use AI for productivity, Gen Z frequently reports using advanced voice modes for emotional regulation and companionship. One report noted that 72% of teenagers have engaged with AI companions, with a significant subset treating them as confidants.
[Image: Razer]
This comes with a dark side too: Since the prefrontal cortex responsible for impulse control and reality testing is not fully mature in teens, the empathy simulated by current voice AIs can feel dangerously real, leading to isolation from human peers or emotional manipulation by the model.
But, while voice AIs are powerful user experience, they will never match direct facial interaction. Studies suggest that once the “uncanny valley” is solvedthat eerie feeling of revulsion we get when someone looks almost, but not quite, humanour brains will naturally gravitate toward them. At that point, holographic personas could become a common user experience in businesses and in intimate relationships.
Project Ava is not it
We are far from that point, though. We will need hyper-realistic AI faces that are algorithmically optimized to look exactly like humans, with every muscle, tick, and imperfection.
To avoid the uncanny valley in Project AVA Razer has opted for stylized avatars. There is “Kira,” an anime-style character, “Zane,” a strategic gaming coach, and even a licensed avatar of esports legend “Faker.” The goal is to lean into the parasocial dynamics already common in gaming culture, where digital characters often feel more like friends than software.
[Screenshot: Razer]
Early hands-on experiences suggest the illusion is fragile. Reviews describe the interaction as “wonky,” with the hologram frequently going on irrelevant tangents. Critics have been quick to label it a “friend in a jar,” questioning whether it fulfills a enuine social need or simply exploits loneliness with a visual gimmick. Its also, and this is important, not a real hologram. These are just 3D animated characters projected in a flat transparent film. Move to the side and your friend will be reduced to 2D invisibility.
[Image: Razer]
The ethical concerns deepen when you look under the hood. While Razer claims the hardware is model-agnostic, the current iteration is powered by xAIs GrokElon Musks ethically challenged AI model. This instantly tethers the device to the darker side of AI development.
Just this week, Grok has been embroiled in a global scandal involving its new “edit” feature, which users have exploited to generate non-consensual sexual imagery at a rate of one image per minute. While Project AVAs avatars are stylized and locked by Razer, the association with an engine currently under investigation by EU and U.K. regulators for facilitating “mass digital undressing” casts a long shadow over the product. There is no guarantee that users won’t find ways to jailbreak AVA to behave in similarly controversial ways, turning a gaming coach into something far more unsavory.
Still, its a first step. The market is already betting on this shift. The holographic AI assistant sector is projected to grow from roughly $600 million in 2024 to nearly $4 billion by 2031. We are already seeing successful applications in healthcare, where users rate AI avatars dressed as doctors as more competent than voice-only agents, as well as in customer service kiosks where a digital face helps maintain user attention.
AVA is hinting at this future, but it hasn’t solved the fundamental problems yet. To become natural, a holographic AI must be more than a gimmick in a glass. It must be a lot smarter than Grok, and it will need to possess the subtle social cues that signal safety to our nervous system. Until then, AVA will be just a crude toy.
[Screenshot: Razer]
Im not dismissing it, though. Given our biological imperative, it’s only logical to think that humans will gravitate to holographic manifestations of AI in future UX experiences. But while the holographic AIs are inevitable, Ava doesn’t seem to be it. With luck, it will be remembered as a proto-form of what’s to come. Something truly advanced that, hopefully, will not be powered by the descendants of a techno-fascist AI.
