'From the River to the Sea, Palestine Shall Be Free!'

Labor Pains: Longshoremen's 'Batman Supervillain' Leader Blinks; Boeing Workers Continue Strike-cation

WATCH: West North Carolina Cries for Resources While FEMA Lets Them Languish on the Tarmac

Hilarious: Kamala Praises Liz and Dick Cheney As Liz Comes Out to Campaign for Her in Wisconsin

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg offered employees $30,000, or six months of salary, to leave the company if they didn’t agree with his battle against WP Engine. In an update on Thursday night, Mullenweg said 159 people, making up 8.4 percent of the company, took the offer. Automattic, which is in charge of WordPress.com and its commercial services, has been involved in a public dispute with WP Engine after Mullenweg called the third-party hosting service a “cancer” to the WordPress community and banned it from accessing WordPress.org. Mullenweg has claimed WP Engine is violating the WordPress trademark and criticized the company for not giving back to the WordPress open-source project. On Wednesday, WP Engine, which is owned by the private... Continue reading…

Each case includes two matching Bic EZ Reach lighters. | Image: Bic Bic, the company best known for ballpoint pens, razors, and lighters, has just revealed a collaboration that no one could have possibly had on their 2024 bingo cards. Its new Hold the Phone case has a molded cutout on the back to hold one of Bic’s EZ Reach lighters, specifically those designed by Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg as part of a collaboration with the company. Just two color options will be available starting today at 10AM ET in limited quantities: a blue version designed to complement the EZ Reach lighters Stewart helped design and a purple one for Snoop Dogg’s. They’re $49.99 each, made of urethane rubber, and Bic recommends letting the lighters cool for five seconds after use before inserting them back into the case. iPhones... Continue reading…

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge The new Microsoft Copilot is a big departure. It shed some of its Bing-y styling and increasingly corporate vibes in favor of something warmer and friendlier, all in an effort to be more than just a work tool. It might just be a website redesign, but it feels like a shift in how Microsoft perceives the future of AI assistants. On this episode of The Vergecast, we try to make sense of that future. Everyone seems to believe in the potential for “agentic” AI, which can use apps and devices on your behalf, but most current tech along those lines feels woefully unfinished. As they get warmer and fuzzier, though, maybe the whole Getting Things Done aspect of AI doesn’t matter so much. We try to figure out where we’re headed next and how long... Continue reading…

Image: Hasbro Epic is trying to turn Fortnite into an ecosystem of games and has enticed the likes of Lego to build experiences for the platform. Now, Hasbro is jumping in as well, with plans to create Fortnite adaptations of its most popular board games. The first is called Murder Mystery: Clue, and it’s available today. It’s not exactly a board game (see the screenshot above) but, rather, a reimagining in the form of a multiplayer murder mystery that takes place over multiple rounds, a style that has proven popular in games like Among Us. (Epic launched its own take on the genre with a limited-time Fortnite mode back in 2021.) Hasbro is also planning a version of Guess Who? for later this month and Connect Four in December. The games were built... Continue reading…

A couple of weeks after releasing iOS 18 to iPhone users, Apple seeded iOS 18.0.1. This long-awaited update addressed several bugs iPhone users were experiencing. More importantly, with iPadOS 18.0.1, M4 iPad Pro users could finally update to this major software update, as Apple pulled out the iPadOS 18 version as it was bricking these tablets. However, iOS 18.0.1 brings more than just bug fixes. It also addresses critical security holes in Passwords and Messages apps. In a support document, the company highlighted the security vulnerabilities it has fixed: Media Session Available for: iPhone 16 (all models) Impact: Audio messages in Messages may be able to capture a few seconds of audio before the microphone indicator is activated Description: This issue was addressed with improved checks. CVE-2024-44207: Michael Jimenez and an anonymous researcher Passwords Available for: iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later Impact: A user's saved passwords may be read aloud by VoiceOver Description: A logic issue was addressed with improved validation. CVE-2024-44204: Bistrit Dahal Fortunately, these issues have been corrected with iOS 18.0.1 and iPadOS 18.0.1. In the meantime, we expect Apple to release iOS 18.1 soon. This iPhone update will unlock Apple Intelligence for iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. These are some of the expected features: Writing Tools: Users can rewrite, proofread, and summarize text nearly everywhere they write, including Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps Improved Siri: With a new design, Siri can maintain context between requests. Even if you stumble over words or shift what you’re saying mid-sentence, Siri can understand what you actually want. Priority notifications: They appear at the top of the stack, letting you know what to pay attention to at a glance. Notifications are summarized, so you can scan them faster. Email summarization: Tap to reveal a summary of a long email in the Mail app and cut to the chase. Record and transcribe calls in the Notes app: Just hit record in the Notes or Phone apps to capture audio recordings and transcripts. Apple Intelligence generates summaries of your transcripts, so you can get to the most important information at a glance. Clean Up: This Photos app feature can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo without accidentally altering the subject. Summarization: Apple Intelligence can now summarize more than just Messages and Mail notifications. BGR will let you know once we learn more about future iPhone updates. Don't Miss: Apple Intelligence: AI, features, research, and supported devices The post Update your iPhone right now to fix security holes in Passwords and Messages appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Early Prime Day deals: Rare Nintendo Switch sale, $50 off Oura Ring, $105 Sony ANC headphones, more Today’s deals: $50 off Eureka E20 Plus robot vac, $1,100 off LG C4 OLED TV, Blink cameras from $20, more Best Apple Watch deals for October Prime Day 2024 Today’s deals: Pitaka iPhone 16 cases, $10 off Starbucks coffee, $199 iPad 9, $36 Dreo space heater, more

Ancient Greek and Roman historians captivated their audiences with accounts of bizarre tribes dwelling on the periphery of the known world. Their customs were odd and their appearances even more fantastical. They represented the ever-present fascination with the world and its wonders. Historians like Herodotus, the Father of History, Diodorus Siculus, Pausanias, Philostratus, and Ctesias infused their narratives with observations and sensational stories, contributing to a mythic portrayal of distant lands. In his Natural History, Pliny the Elder compiled an impressive array of information on numerous exotic tribes, making him the primary source for much of what was known and further inspiring those who came after him. His work would flourish through the Middle Ages, giving new meaning to the unknown and enigmatic. With all the marvelous, imaginative, and fanciful depictions of curious tribes passed down through time, what better place to start than the beginning.     Read moreSection: Ancient WritingsNewsHistory & ArchaeologyFolkloreMyths & LegendsAncient PlacesEuropeAsiaAfricaHistoryAncient TraditionsPremiumPreviewRead Later