Oracle has picked up an $88 million contract with the US Air Force to provide cloud infrastructure services for the department's Cloud One program.…

Scott Shambaugh maintains matplotlib, a Python plotting library downloaded about 130 million times a month. Like many open source projects, matplotlib now requires human review of all submissions after a surge in low-quality AI-generated code. When an autonomous agent called MJ Rathbun submitted a pull request, Shambaugh closed it — standard procedure. — Read the rest

The post An AI agent published a hit piece on the developer who rejected it appeared first on Boing Boing.

This month, DinoLand USA, the dinosaur-themed land in Disney World's (Orlando) Animal Kingdom ceased all operations, to be torn down to make way for the construction of a Tropical Americas land.

It's been running since the Animal Kingdom park opened in 1998, and the lead designer of the park Joe Rohde took the occasion to write some interesting inside stories on Instagram about its creation. — Read the rest

The post DinoLand U.S.A., R.I.P. appeared first on Boing Boing.

Oni Press has just released a graphic biography on the origin story of Juneteenth, as told through the life of the woman most responsible for making it a national reality.

First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth tells the story of Opal Lee, who has come to be known as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth." — Read the rest

The post A graphic history of Juneteenth and the woman who refused to let it go appeared first on Boing Boing.

We don't have a cure for cancer, or personal jetpacks to use on our commute to work, and if they can actually get AI to work, millions will lose their jobs. But hey, at least one thing from the future is panning out: self-driving vehicles. — Read the rest

The post Those Waymo robotaxis? Humans in other countries drive them appeared first on Boing Boing.

She's thirteen, wears her hair long (forbidden by her peers), and has been standing taller than her father in state photos lately. Kim Ju Ae, the only publicly acknowledged child of Kim Jong Un, has been designated as his successor, South Korea's National Intelligence Service told lawmakers Thursday. — Read the rest

The post Kim Jong Un picks his 13-year-old daughter as successor appeared first on Boing Boing.

Whatsapp and Telegram were among the last encrypted communications platforms permitted in Russia, but that ended yesterday: the two apps are now blocked there, authorities confirmed. They encouraged people to use unencrypted domestic alternatives instead. Here's CNN on the Telegram block:

On Tuesday, the government said it was restricting access to Telegram for the "protection of Russian citizens," accusing the app of refusing to block content authorities consider "criminal and terrorist."

— Read the rest

The post Russia blocks Telegram and Whatsapp appeared first on Boing Boing.

David Nephi Johnson, 54, is the chairman of Wasatch County Republican Party in Utah. His teenage daughter, police say, failed to tidy her room "to his standards." Police are interested in this because Johnson allegedly punished his child by waterboarding her, and was charged with aggravated child abuse, a first-degree felony. — Read the rest

The post Republican county chairman accused of torturing own daughter for not cleaning room appeared first on Boing Boing.

Thanks largely to Roger Corman's craptacular 1976 movie Piranha and its sequels, flesh-eating fish were top of mind for many Generation X kids. They featured in pulp literature, Far Side cartoons, and on TV right into the mid-1990s. Then they kinda disappeared from the zeitgeist. — Read the rest

The post 46 swimmers hospitalized after piranha attack in Argentina appeared first on Boing Boing.

Last year Apple secured the exclusive rights to broadcast Formula 1 racing in the United States from 2026 to 2030. Apple TV subscribers can now watch every practice and qualifying session as well as every sprint and Grand Prix of a race weekend on the F1TV app by linking their Apple account.

Right now, those with an existing F1TV subscription will still see an active status in their "my subscription" page on desktop that shows the plan's renewal date. However, after logging in via Apple with an Apple TV subscription, a second active F1TV subscription appears with an Apple TV logo and the label "Official U.S. broadcaster of Formula 1." Users are advised to cancel the duplicate subscription they had directly with F1TV, which can be done in the F1TV app.

For those that don't have an existing F1TV account, simply create one and activate it using your Apple account. Users who don't pay for Apple TV can still view "select races" and practice sessions throughout the season.

Apple has yet to release precise details on what content will be viewable from within the Apple TV app compared to the F1TV app, where users are accustomed to features like multi-view, onboard cameras, live team radios and live timing and telemetry. With the first race of the F1 season kicking off March 7 in Australia, we should have these answers soon.

Fans can currently check out preseason testing taking place in Bahrain this week and next through the F1TV app.

The new Highlander EV is a big deal for Toyota -- a big three-row SUV built in the US and battery-powered exclusively.

The post Automotive Press Heaps Praise On Toyota Highlander EV appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Solid-state batteries for electric vehicles potentially have some significant improvements over lithium-ion and lithium-ion-phosphate batteries. They are less prone to combustion, can charge faster and can provide longer driving ranges. Some progress recently has been made with solid-state batteries: February 5: Karma Automotive agreed with Factorial Energy to launch the first ... [continued]

The post Solid-State Battery Milestones Appear Encouraging For Near Future appeared first on CleanTechnica.

This is quite a notable milestone that has gone under the radar! BYD delivered 4.6 million vehicles to customers in 2025. That was actually not a great result for BYD. However, it did mark BYD flying past Tesla in BEV sales, which got a lot of attention. Something that has ... [continued]

The post BYD Passed Up Ford In Global Auto Sales In 2025 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

I'm here in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, supporting UK SMEs and wider industry partners attending the World Defence Show 2026. Defence is an engine for growth, and the UK is proud to stand with Saudi Arabia in difficult times and to build on our partnership and friendship. pic.twitter.com/Ql0iCG5uPH

— Luke Pollard MP (@LukePollard) February 9, 2026

He said:

This Government took over what the Tories started in 2022, but we made it work better for Britain and better for our forces. As the Defence Secretary has said, the contract was his decision, and his alone. Peter Mandelson had no influence on the decision to award this contract

I have been clear in my answers today that the decision to extend the 2022 contract signed under the previous Government was made by the Secretary of State alone. It was his decision to do so.

Jeremy Corbyn asked whether Britain should be entangled with a company complicit in the destruction of Gaza, a company that had, in his words, "wormed" its way into UK government contracts and the NHS.

When I was in opposition, I raised concerns about Palantir and the £1 deal that was made. It was always a trap to ensure that Palantir got its foot in where no one else could. The co-founder of Palantir is mentioned in the Epstein files. I think that anyone who is mentioned in the Epstein files should be fully investigated by this House and by the police; the scandal is an absolute disgrace.

Labour's Clive Lewis had already called the whole affair a stink. Chowns agreed.

The govt is refusing to commit to an inquiry into the MOD's contracts with US-based spy tech giant Palantir despite the web of shady connections between Mandelson, Epstein, and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel - this absolutely stinks. pic.twitter.com/UDVi7P7GmO

— Dr Ellie Chowns MP (@EllieChowns) February 10, 2026

We agree — it is a stinking mess!

By The Canary

Nobody likes folding laundry, but you really have to hate it to spend $7,999 on a robot that'll fold it for you with a whole heap of limitations - including company employees getting the occasional peep at your tough-to-fold unmentionables.…

There are a lot of countries where the tap water is risky to drink and most tourists take the easy but destructive route of buying water daily in throwaway plastic bottles. If you don't want to carry a SteriPen (covered in issue #180), many water bottles have a built-in filtration or purification system. The three styles are a filter you suck through (like this Lifestraw one), a built-in filter you push down (from Grayl), or with a SteriPen-style UV light that's built into the cap (from LARQ). I've used all three kinds and if you drink a gallon+ daily, the last option gives you the most liquid for the bottle size.

Skyscanner crunched their booking numbers in an interesting way for this study, figuring out the cheapest domestic and international destination from every U.S. state in March '06. What makes this fun is how unpredictable and counter-intuitive the results are. Who would have thought that the cheapest place to fly from Wisconsin would be Madrid, that from Arkansas it would be Athens, from Georgia it would be Vancouver, or that from Los Angeles it would be San Salvador? If you want to take a vacation to Hawaii, it might be best to go to Antigua first: they found flights from Guatemala to Honolulu for $217 one way!

I was in Mazatlan a couple of years ago for the full solar eclipse that went through parts of North America. To see the next one, you'll need to visit part of a narrow band of options in Europe. Make those reservations soon though: the Expedia group says searches are way up already in some destinations. "For 2026, Greenland (+55%), Iceland (+445%), and several cities in Northern Spain (+125%) are expected to have the best views. Much of the totality will be over the ocean, so northern Spain is going to have the most populated areas for viewing. Check apartment rentals here.

Norway leads the world in a whole lot of civilized statistics, but they've really outdone themselves on the social engineering front with electric car adoption. "According to recent data from the Norwegian Road Traffic Information Council (OFV), electric cars accounted for 95.9 percent of all new passenger vehicle registrations in 2025." The next biggest category was hybrids. See the full story here.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World's Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

Unless you're the kind of obsessive that scans the credits of your favourite shows, the name Andy Riley might not be familiar. However, as a professional script writer of many years standing, I guarantee you'll be familiar with his work.

He's written for such beloved comedies as The Armstrong & Miller Show, Big Train, Smack the Pony, Black Books, Trigger Happy TV, Veep, The 99p Show, Spitting Image, Harry Enfield and The Armando Ianucci Show, among many others, and also co-wrote an episode of recent Apple TV hit drama, Down Cemetery Road.

I asked Andy about his first writing success:

"My first writing success - which I'll define as the first thing I was paid for - was a sketch I wrote with my writing partner Kevin Cecil, for a topical show on Radio 4 called Week Ending, in the 1990s. It was about ram-raiding, the crime panic of the time. I can't remember much about the sketch we wrote, but when it aired on the radio Kev was driving, and I was the passenger, and he was so excited he nearly crashed twice." 

In his line of work, Andy has naturally worked with many big names. I think it says a lot about him when I ask him about the highlights of his career that he doesn't mention the 2015 Emmy for the US sitcom Veep or the two BAFTAs - one for Christmas Day BBC1 animation special, Robbie the Reindeer (2000), the other for an episode of Dylan Moran vehicle, Black Books (2005), but a childhood hero:

"In 2018 I was part of the writing team for Tracey Ullman's BBC1 show. One morning, I mentioned it was my birthday. Around lunchtime, Tracey walked into the room carrying a big cake with candles blazing on top, leading everyone as they sang Happy Birthday. To have a childhood hero go out to get you a cake on your birthday is a rare treat."

It's not all been TV comedies and radio, though. Andy also co-wrote the Aardman animated film The Pirates! and is the best-selling author of the Bunny Suicides books as well as draws cartoons for Private Eye!

So yes, Andy Riley is a very busy man indeed.

He will be appearing at the wonderful Sudbury Arts Centre on Friday 6 March, performing some of his hilarious micro-fiction. He performed at the venue in early 2025 and went down a storm!

Andy on his move to the stage and how it compares to being a "backroom guy":

"When you write scripts and books, or draw cartoons, the production time from you coming up with an idea to it eventually reaching the audience can be very long. Sometimes many years. But in a live show, you can perform something you wrote five minutes ago, and nobody can stop you! The connection to the audience is instant!"

Not only is this set to be a brilliant night out, but the setting could not be better. Sudbury Arts Centre is located in a magnificent medieval church which dominates the town's skyline. The stunning Victorian interior was restored in the mid-1800s, and in more recent times, a café, public toilets and wheelchair access have been added in a manner sympathetic to the building.

Arts Centre Project Manager, Alli Burke and her small and dedicated team, run many workshops and events for the local community, including the regular Dementia Support Café, Stitch & Sip Sewing Group, CLIP! Weekly Youth Sound and Music Club, and Advice Drop In 16-24, alongside art exhibitions, concerts and fairs.

Joining Andy on the bill are Sudbury's own James Domestic with his extremely funny "poetry for people who think they don't like poetry" for which he is garnering a solid reputation across the country, plus the brilliant Laura Bradley and Leon the Poet.

Click here for more info and tickets.

With a thematic issue on a vital topic - the rise child poverty, ending on a hopeful note. You will find sharp analyses on the effect of poverty on children's lives, with a spotlight on the communities that are on the front line of deprivation, with personal stories and shared solutions. Click on the image to gain access to it, or find us on Substack.

Journalism by the people, for the people.

The post You know the jokes - now meet the writer: Andy Riley live in Sudbury first appeared on East Anglia Bylines.

I did not hear about it at the time, but in 2019 the Philadelphia rock band Eye Flys released the EP Context. And as Bobby Campbell mentioned in his latest newsletter, the album includes the track "The Triumph of Hagbard Celine." As with most Bandcamp tracks, you can check out the song before deciding whether to buy it. I had trouble making out some of the lyrics, but I did hear "submarine" and "immantize the eschaton" and other words.

"This is an album of commanding, lean noise rock absolutely brimming with vitriol," says the band, describing its music. More information here.  

Apple's Vision Pro is a curious product — it initially wowed me two years ago, but it was hard to ignore that the visionOS platform felt incomplete without dedicated apps for YouTube and Netflix. Well, it seems that Google has finally decided to take the Vision Pro seriously, as it's launching a YouTube app on the platform today. Previously, you could only view YouTube videos via Safari, or through third-party apps like Tubular Pro.

According to an Apple representative, the YouTube Vision Pro app features every video on on the service, including shorts, 360, 3D and VR 180 content. I haven't tried it myself yet, but it certainly couldn't be worse than trying to navigate through YouTube's desktop app via finger gestures. Now that Google is spinning up its Android XR ecosystem, the company probably couldn't avoid the Vision Pro for long. And don't forget, we may also see a cheaper Vision Air next year.

Your move, Netflix.

Wildlight Entertainment, the studio behind Highguard, has laid off many staffers. Level designer Alex Graner wrote in a LinkedIn post that the layoffs impacted "most of the team." The company says it's keeping a "core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game." That sounds like a skeleton crew.

Today we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game.

We're proud of the team, talent, and the product we've created together. We're also grateful…

— Wildlight Entertainment (@WildlightEnt) February 12, 2026

Highguard is an arena shooter with an impressive pedigree. The team included many Apex Legends and Titanfall developers. The title was first announced as a "one more thing" surprise during the 2025 Game Awards, which was met with a lukewarm response by those looking for something a bit more exciting to close out the show.

The game was released at the end of January, but the response to the final game was also a bit tepid. However, Wildlight proved quick to make adjustments based on player feedback. That's not always the case.

Despite the company's efforts, the concurrent player count on Steam quickly dropped from around 100,000 to under 3,000 (where it sits right now.) It looks like that dwindling player count has now translated to massive layoffs just weeks after the initial release. Wildlight says it's "grateful for players who gave the game a shot, and those who continue to be a part of our community."

At the end of last month, Ubisoft workers in the publisher's native France threatened to strike in the wake of sweeping layoffs and cost-cutting measures. This week, they made good on those threats. According to GamesIndustry.biz, union members confirmed that at least 1,200 staff participated in the three-day strike, which was due to run from February 10 to February 12.

While the strike action primarily took place in France, GamesIndustry.biz was told that Ubisoft's Milan office also took part. The union Solidaires Informatique, which represents French workers from a number of companies in the video game sector, including Blizzard and Ubisoft, had previously called for strikes to take place on January 27. Their demands included a 10 percent increase on all salaries and the implementation of a 4-day work week.

Some striking employees held up signs outside Ubisoft's Paris headquarters, with one (pictured) wearing a Rabbids mask to hide their face. Their grievances are wide-ranging. As well as reportedly laying off hundreds of employees already in 2026, Ubisoft also introduced a mandate for its staff to return to work on site for five days a week. One employee who publicly voiced their disapproval of the new policy was reportedly fired for doing so.

Ubisoft has had a rocky start to 2026 on the software side too. The long-awaited Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake was among six games canceled by the struggling publisher last month, when it also confirmed several studio closures as part of the company's organizational restructuring.

Trump 1.0 took a hatchet to media ownership limits. Those limits, built on the back of decades of bipartisan collaboration, prohibited local broadcasters and media from growing too large, trampling smaller (and more diversely-owned) competitors underfoot. The result of their destruction has been a rise in local news deserts, a surge in right wing propaganda outlets pretending to be "local news," less diverse media ownership, and (if you hadn't noticed) a painfully disinformed electorate.

Trump 2.0 has been significantly worse.

Trump's FCC has finished demolishing whatever was left of already saggy media ownership limits, and are eyeing eliminating rules that would prevent the big four (Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC) from merging (a major reason why these networks have been such feckless authoritarian appeasers).

They're also working hard to let all of our local right wing broadcast companies merge into one, even larger, shittier company, something Donald Trump is very excited about!

More specifically Nexstar (a very Republican friendly company that also owns The Hill), is asking the FCC for permission to acquire Tegna in a $6.2 billion deal that is illegal under current rules (you might recall that Nexstar-owned The Hill recently fired a journalist whose reporting angered Trump).

The deal would give Nexstar ownership of 265 stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia and 132 of the country's 210 television Designated Market Areas (or DMAs). Nexstar appears to have beaten out rival bids by Sinclair, which has also long-been criticized as Republican propaganda posing as local news. It wouldn't be surprising if Nexstar and Sinclair are the next to merge.

Keep in mind, this is an industry that was already terrible agitprop, as this now seven-year-old Deadspin video helped everyone realize:

You might be inclined to say: "but Karl, local TV broadcasters are irrelevant. Who cares if they consolidate a dying industry." But the consolidation won't stop here. The goal isn't just the consolidation of local broadcasters, it's the consolidation of national and local media giants, telecoms, tech companies, and social media companies. All under the thumb of terrible unethical people.

Trump's rise to power couldn't have been made possible without the Republican domination of media. For the better part of a generation Republicans have dominated AM radio, local broadcast TV, and cable news, and have since done a remarkable job hoovering up what's left of both major media companies (CBS, FOX) and modern social media empires (TikTok, Twitter). The impact is everywhere you look.

Over on Elon Musk's right wing propaganda platform, Brendan Carr was quick to praise President's Trump bold support for more media consolidation. And, as he has done previously, he openly lied and trying to pretend that local broadcast consolidation is something that aids competition:

I've covered Brendan Carr professionally since he joined the FCC in 2012. This is a man who has coddled media and telecom giants (and their anti-competitive behavior) at literally every opportunity. One of his only functions in government has been to rubber stamp shitty mergers. Here, he's pretending to "protect competition" with a cute little antisemitic dog whistle about the folks in "Hollywood and New York."

Amusingly, Carr and Trump's push to allow all manner of problematic consolidation among these terrible local broadcasters has been so abrupt, it's actually causing some infighting between them and other right wing propaganda companies like Newsmax.

There's a reason the Trump administration is destroying media consolidation limits, murdering public media, harassing media companies, threatening late night comedians (or having them fired), and ushering forth all this mindless and dangerous consolidation. There's a reason Larry Ellison and Elon Musk are buying all the key social media platforms and fiddling with the algorithms.

They very openly (and so far semi-successfully) are trying to build a state media apparatus akin to what they have in Orban's Hungary and Putin's Russia. Our corporate press is already so broken and captured it's incapable of communicating that to anybody. It simply wouldn't be in their best financial interests for existing media conglomerates to be honest about this sort of thing.

One plus side, nobody involved in any of this — from CBS's News boss Bari Weiss to Sinclair Broadcasting — appear to have any competent idea of what they're doing. They're not good at journalism (because they're trying to destroy it), but they're generally not good at ratings-grabbing propaganda. As a result it's entirely possible they destroy U.S. media before their dream of state media comes to fruition.

Still, it might be nice if Democrats could stop waiting for "the left's Joe Rogan" and finally start embracing some meaningful media reforms for the modern era, whether that's the restoration of media consolidation limits, the creation of media ownership diversity requirements, an evolution in school media literacy training, support for public media, or creative new funding models for real journalism.

Because the trajectory we are on in terms of right wing domination of media heads to some very fucking grim places, and it's not like any of that has been subtle.

Continuing extreme weather has caused deaths of 16 people, evacuation of thousands and destruction of homes

• Europe live - latest updates

Portugal is under pressure to draw up plans to adapt to the climate emergency as the country continues to be lashed by an unprecedented series of storms that have killed at least 16 people and left tens of thousands without electricity.

More than 3,000 people were evacuated from the Coimbra area of central Portugal on Wednesday as the Mondego River reached critical levels, while part of the country's main motorway, the A1, collapsed after a dyke on the Mondego gave way under the weight of flood water.

PlayStation's first State of Play of the year is shaping up to be quite newsworthy. While Sony hasn't revealed too much about what it will show off (with one notable exception), the stream is slated to last for over an hour, so there should be at least some interesting stuff. The showcase will get underway at 5PM ET on February 12. You can click the play button on the YouTube video above to watch the State of Play in English when the time is right.

The PlayStation YouTube channel is hosting alternative versions of the stream. One has English subtitles and the other is in Japanese. Otherwise, you can react to all the reveals live in Twitch chat.

The showcase will include "news, gameplay updates and announcements from game studios across the globe," Sony said. It will "spotlight eye-catching third-party and indie games headed to PS5, along with the latest from teams at PlayStation Studios."

Sony's slate of first-party games has been relatively slim over the last few years, but the company is preparing to release a trio of them over the next couple of months. It's likely that all three of those (Saros, Marathon and MLB The Show 26) will make appearances during the State of Play. Bungie has confirmed that Marathon will definitely be in the mix, though it dispelled rumors that another playtest for the extraction shooter will take place this weekend.

There are positive signs for news on the Silent Hill front as well. Konami has scheduled a Silent Hill Transmission presentation for 7PM on Thursday, which is soon after the State of Play wraps up. That stream will include new information about Silent Hill: Townfall, which was announced all the way back in 2022, but we could get a peek at that game during the State of Play too.

Elsewhere, we may get an update on Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, a nifty looking tag-fighting game from Arc System Works that Sony is publishing. That's slated to arrive this year on PS5 and PC (Steam and Epic Games Store). A recent update to the game's Steam page — which was quickly reverted — revealed that the game will have 20 fighters at the outset, with more to come. The timing of the leak suggests that Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls may well show up during the State of Play.

However, Marvel's Wolverine, which is set to arrive this fall, may not be featured during this particular State of Play. Developer Insomniac Games indicated on X that it would reveal more details about the game this spring. However, that doesn't entirely preclude Sony from featuring the game at Thursday's showcase. Perhaps we'll get even a release date, given that GTA VI (a game that most publishers will want to stay very far away from) now actually seems to be on track to arrive in November.

Recommendations?

My (guessing) seven-year-old LG 5K Ultrafine 27" display has become flaky. Repair estimates run into many hundreds, so I need a new monitor. Currently, I'm browsing Apple 5K Studio Displays on eBay. Saves me several hundred dollars from the $1599 Apple Store price.

The Gresini rider is out of the season opener as he continues his recovery from injury.

Aldeguer fractured the shaft of his left femur in a pre-season training incident in Valencia, Spain, and underwent surgery in early January to address the injury. However, the team confirmed on social media that he has fallen just short in his bid to be fit for the opening round of the campaign and will continue focusing on his rehabilitation: "Aldeguer keeps pushing forward with determination and perseverance. His recovery is moving fast, but not enough to see him in Thailand. He'll miss the Buriram tests and the season opener."

Michele Pirro will replace the #54 in Thailand. We wish you a speedy recovery, Fermin!

The post MotoGP: Aldeguer to Miss ThaiGP Round appeared first on Roadracing World Magazine | Motorcycle Riding, Racing & Tech News.

Sony's 1000X earbuds have been at the top of Engadget's best wireless earbuds list since we first published it. With each new generation, the company managed to retain its crown, primarily thanks to a massive collection of features and an effective mix of sound quality and active noise cancellation (ANC) performance. Today, Sony revealed the latest entry in the series, the WF-1000XM6, delivering yet another redesign both inside and out. The company's tried and true formula of features and audio performance remains, but it may no longer be enough to elevate the M6 above the competition.  

For the third time in a row, Sony overhauled the 1000X earbuds' design. While the WF-1000XM5 was a clear revision of the WF-1000XM4, the M6 is a departure from both of them. The company managed to reduce overall size even further by using a rounder, pill-shaped enclosure for the earbuds' main housing. I certainly applaud Sony for making these as tiny as possible, but I'm still not a fan of the company's foam ear tips. 

Sony introduced foam ear tips on the 1000XM4 earbuds and that led to an unstable fit during my testing. In fact, I ended up switching to the silicone M3 tips for a better feel. Things were slightly better on the M5, but the company regressed here on the M6. I tried every size of ear tips in the box and the fit test in the Sound Connect app only ever confirmed an air-tight seal in my right ear. This can impact sound quality and ANC performance, and the earbuds don't feel like they're sitting far enough inside my ears. I never got used to the fit in my three weeks of testing. 

The exterior panel of the WF-1000XM6 is still touch sensitive, accepting a variety of taps for playback controls, calls, noise settings and more. Sony also included a repeated tapping gesture that's used for volume control. Keep tapping on the right earbud to raise the volume and do so on the left to lower it. My disdain for touch controls is well-documented at this point, but the M6 reliably and quickly responded without me having to repeat a tap sequence. 

As is typically the case with its 1000X earbuds, Sony has loaded the M6 with features. Nearly all of these are holdovers from previous models, including Adaptive Sound Control that can automatically adjust settings based on your activity or location. Speak-to-Chat still pauses audio and activates ambient sound when you start talking, but it's also still easily duped by coughs or clearing your throat. A quick access feature can put Amazon Music, Apple Music, Endel, Spotify and YouTube Music two or three taps away, depending on how you configure it.

The M6 earbuds also allow you to accept and reject calls with head gestures and you'll have the option to pipe in your own voice during a call. Sony retained its existing option of operating the earbuds with voice commands: If you say "Assistant," you can then ask it to play, pause, skip and replay songs. It will also adjust the volume for you, but that's the extent of its abilities. 

Sony included some handy power management features as well. First, there's an Auto Power Save mode that will disable any custom EQ settings, DSEE Extreme upscaling, Speak-to-Chat and voice control/voice assistant to reduce power consumption when the M6 hits 20 percent battery remaining. A Battery Care tool will extend the life of the earbuds' battery by stopping charging before it reaches 100 percent. Lastly, Automatic Power Off will turn the earbuds off when they're outside of the case and haven't been worn for some time. 

Basic conveniences like multipoint Bluetooth, wireless charging and IPX4 water resistance are also here. Wear detection is onboard and you can use Sony's EQ presets to alter the sound profile, or make your own and save them for future use. The Sound Connect app puts the battery levels of the individual earbuds and the case front and center, and you can edit the main screen to hide the features displayed there if you don't need them.

If Sony's long list of features is its top advantage over the competition, overall sound quality is number two. For the WF-1000XM6, the company built new drivers with soft edges for deeper bass and a more rigid, lightweight dome for clearer treble. There are also notches around the edges for "clearer and smoother" sound quality overall, according to Sony. And of course, DSEE Extreme upscaling helps to recover details lost to compression while 360 Reality Audio and Spatial Sound Optimization are available for more immersive listening. 

I found the M6 earbuds at their best with the stock EQ and DSEE Extreme active, much like I have on previous 1000X models. The sound is deep and warm, with thick bass that's adequate without ever overpowering the mix. Highs cut through and there's ample midrange, keeping those finer details from getting lost. Erika de Casier's atmospheric Lifetime is a great example of what the WF-1000XM6 can do. Vocals seem to float over the top of the bassline and drums, with percussive piano chopping though and subtle synth details popping up throughout. When strings arrive on "Seasons," the M6 ushers them into a prominent position rather than relegating them behind the beat. 

On the WF-1000XM6, the chaos of Spiritbox's "Holy Roller" doesn't get condensed to a messy heavy metal roar either. And there's plenty of texture in the synth-driven noise of Nine Inch Nails' "As Alive As You Need Me To Be." Even more straightforward rock tracks like Jimmy Eat World's "Bleed American" have ample punch, with a wide soundstage that never feels claustrophobic or sounds compressed. Overall, the WF-1000XM6 holds its own against the best-sounding earbuds you can buy right now, though some of the competition, like Technics, have an edge in the way they handle the subtlest of nuances in songs.  

If you were hoping for knock-out ANC abilities, I must report that the WF-1000XM6 isn't the noise-canceling powerhouse that is Bose's QC Ultra Earbuds. The M6 struggles mightily with human voices. While that's the downfall of many ANC earbuds, you'll want to keep it in mind if you plan to wear these in the office. I found I could also still hear constant noise sources like fans and white noise machines when wearing the M6 — items that the QC Ultra Earbuds combat effectively.

For calls, Sony says the M6 uses AI for both background noise reduction and voice capture with the beamforming microphones. What's more, the earbuds are equipped with eight total mics for ANC and calls, plus bone conduction tech for improved voice pickup. Unfortunately, all of that doesn't lead to stellar performance during calls. While the WF-1000XM6 is perfectly usable for voice and video calls, the overall quality is far from pristine. To make matters worse, the earbuds make you sound overly processed when you encounter significant background noise. Since the company prided itself on the upgrades here, the results are disappointing. 

Sony says the WF-1000XM6 will last up to eight hours on a charge or 24 hours when you factor in the full longevity of the charging case. During a battery test that I mostly ran with ANC active, I had no trouble hitting that single-charge figure. That's with the volume around 75-80 percent and includes calls and virtual meetings where I switched over to ambient sound mode. 

It's worth noting that I had DSEE Extreme upscaling active the entire time, which can impact battery life. Plus, if you use the aforementioned Auto Power Save mode, you can extend play time when you have about a quarter of a tank left. Going without some of the M6's best features in the interest of having tunes for a workout or commute is a fair trade in my book. 

When sizing up the competition for the WF-1000XM6, you have to choose your priorities. Simply put, no other company offers the comprehensive suite of features that Sony does. That's been true for a while now and it continues with this model. If you want the strongest active noise cancellation, that will be Bose's second-generation QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. If the best sound quality is your goal, the Technics AZ100 is your best bet in this price range. I'll also mention Sennheiser's Momentum True Wireless 4 which offers great sound quality, respectable ANC and a comfier fit than the M6, but that set is almost two years old at this point.

Sony continues its run of great earbuds with the WF-1000XM6, but this model isn't the polished package that some of its predecessors were. The two most obvious places the company is lagging behind the competition is ANC performance and overall voice quality, not to mention my continued dissatisfaction with the fit that Sony's foam tips provide. The M6 is also more expensive than the previous version, which makes it even harder to overlook any flaws. What you will get on the WF-1000XM6 is a ton of features, great sound quality and reliable touch controls in a smaller package. And for some, that might be enough to make you forget about the rest. 

The WF-1000XM6 is available today in silver and black for $330.

At first, Steven Saari said, federal immigration agents seemed to think he was one of them.

Saari, a Marine Corps combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, went to the scene of Alex Pretti's killing in Minneapolis less than an hour after federal agents fired the fatal shots. He was wearing his Marine camouflage and carrying a lawfully owned 9mm Glock handgun on his right hip, as he does every day, he told The Intercept. Agents on the scene "thought I was undercover," Saari said. "They kept asking what agency I was with."

When Saari told them he was not with any agency, their demeanor shifted. Federal immigration agents soon aimed M4-style rifles at his head, footage reviewed by The Intercept shows, their fingers on the trigger less than a minute's walk away from where Pretti was killed.

"More and more Border Patrol and ICE agents gathered around me," Saari said. "Then they moved in with rifles and handguns drawn."

The encounter raises questions about how federal agents assessed threats, used force, and made arrest decisions in the immediate aftermath of Pretti's killing. In Saari's case, he and his attorney told The Intercept, federal agents took scans and samples of his biometric data and made a copy of his phone — without obtaining a warrant.

Related "Uptick in Abductions": ICE Ramps Up Targeting of Minneapolis Legal Observers

Before the agents apprehended him, Saari said he was standing on the sidewalk observing events — not recording, protesting, or engaging with federal agents until they approached him. When they did, Saari said agents issued conflicting commands and attempted to handcuff him without first securing his firearm. He said officers briefly positioned his right hand on his handgun while pulling his arms behind his back, leaving him unsure how they expected him to comply.

Standard law enforcement firearms training typically emphasizes securing a weapon before attempting to restrain an armed person.

Saari said he feared agents might shoot him when his hand brushed the gun, even though he said officers, not his own movements, placed it there.

Agents arrested Saari and brought him to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, where he was detained for at least six hours before being released without charges.

Reached for comment, ICE referred The Intercept to Customs and Border Protection. Neither CBP nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to requests for comment.

Inside the federal building, Saari said agents shackled his hands and feet, photographed him, scanned his face, and forced him to provide a DNA sample by depressing his tongue and swabbing the inside of his mouth. He said agents denied him access to an attorney, even though they were present elsewhere in the building and in contact with civilians and federal officials that day.

"I asked for an attorney probably a hundred times and was never given one," Saari said. "I was never told why I was being arrested."

Then, Saari said, "They took my cell phone and cloned it. They actually told me they did that."

Saari said agents did not ask him to unlock the device, nor did they provide a warrant, paperwork, or explanation authorizing the search.

"They took my cell phone and cloned it. They actually told me they did that."

"Every step of this process raises red flags," said Shauna Kieffer, the vice president of the Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, who is now representing Saari. "You don't get to detain someone without cause, deny them access to counsel, seize their phone, and then search or copy it without a warrant."

Law enforcement may seize a phone during an arrest, but officers generally cannot access or duplicate its data without judicial authorization, said Nathan Wessler, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. He said the only exception involves narrow emergency circumstances, which typically do not apply once both a person and their phone are already in custody.

"Once the phone is secured and the person is secured, it's very hard to imagine what kind of emergency would justify searching or copying it without a warrant," Wessler said.

Failure to get a warrant raises serious concerns of violating the Fourth Amendment, Wessler added, pointing to the 2014 Supreme Court case Riley v. California, in which the court found police are generally not allowed to search an arrested person's cell phone without a specific warrant.

"The government needs a warrant to search or copy the contents of a phone, just as it would need a warrant to look through it," Wessler said. And that warrant "has to be particularized to the evidence the government actually has probable cause to seek," he added. "You don't get a blank check to rummage through someone's digital life."

"You don't get a blank check to rummage through someone's digital life."

About seven hours after his arrest, Saari was released into sub-zero temperatures without transportation, unsure of where he was. He said he didn't know if he remained under investigation, nor whether the government would retain copies of his phone data or DNA sample.

"Finding out that someone who served our country was being denied access to counsel was heartbreaking," said Kieffer, who was connected with Saari two days after his detention through a colleague. "He should never have been invisible to us."

While he was in detention, Saari said, agents provided minimal food and water, and detainees with visible injuries did not receive timely medical care.

"I asked for water about a dozen times," he told The Intercept. "At one point they brought three bottles of water for seven people."

Saari said detainees had to use their drinking water to clean blood off of their injured peers, which is consistent with accounts from another civilian arrested that day and previously reported by The Intercept.

Related He Witnessed an Earlier Shooting. Feds Arrested Him at the Scene of Alex Pretti's Killing.

"There was a man with a golf-ball-sized contusion on his head who didn't get medical attention," Saari said. "There was a 70-year-old Marine Corps veteran with a deep gash on his elbow who was bleeding."

Saari said the treatment he received stood in sharp contrast to how he handled detainees during his own military service, including during combat operations in Iraq.

During one raid in Fallujah, Saari said his unit detained men who surrendered without resistance. After the operation, he said, they reviewed video footage showing the detainees had recently planted an improvised explosive device targeting a U.S. convoy.

Despite the brutality of some operations in Fallujah, where U.S. forces repeatedly killed Iraqi civilians, Saari said his unit restrained, searched, and turned over the detainees without abuse or humiliation.

"We still treated them as humans," Saari said. "To be treated worse here, at home, than people who had attacked our unit in a war zone, it's been hard to understand."

The post Marine Detained in Minneapolis Says Feds Copied His Phone Without a Warrant appeared first on The Intercept.