February 7, 2025

These documents are influencing the DOGE-sphere’s agenda

Reports from the US Government Accountability Office on improper federal payments in recent years are circulating on X and elsewhere online, and they seem to be a big influence on Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its supporters as the group pursues cost-cutting measures across the federal government.  The payment reports have been…

Technology

US cyber board to investigate Microsoft hack of government emails

August 11, 2023
A U.S. review board tasked with investigating major cybersecurity incidents said it will begin looking at the recent intrusion of U.S. government email systems provided by Microsoft, whose handling of the incident drew ire and scrutiny from federal lawmakers and the wider security community. The Cyber Security Review Board, or CSRB, said Friday that its […]

Why is it so hard to create new types of pain relievers?

August 11, 2023
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here. This week I’ve been thinking about America’s addiction to opioids. The statistics are staggering. Since 2010, opioid overdose deaths have nearly quadrupled. More than 80,000 people…

Next slide, please: A brief history of the corporate presentation

August 11, 2023
It’s 1948, and it isn’t a great year for alcohol. Prohibition has come and gone, and booze is a buyer’s market again. That much is obvious from Seagram’s annual sales meeting, an 11-city traveling extravaganza designed to drum up nationwide sales. No expense has been spared: there’s the two-hour, professionally acted stage play about the…

The US just invested more than $1 billion into carbon removal

August 11, 2023
The US Department of Energy announced today that it’s providing $1.2 billion to develop regional hubs that can draw down and store away at least one million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, as a means of combating climate change.  The move represents a major step forward in the effort to establish a market…

Hidden forces and sliding screens trick the senses to make VR feel more real

August 10, 2023
The next big thing in VR might not be higher resolution or more immersive sound, but an experience augmented by physical sensations or moving parts that fool your senses into mistaking virtual for reality. Researchers at SIGGRAPH, from Meta to international student groups, flaunted their latest attempts to make VR and AR more convincing. The […]

Electric aircraft makers Wisk and Archer end bitter legal dispute, agree to work together

August 10, 2023
Electric aircraft rivals Wisk and Archer Aviation have settled their trade secret legal dispute more than two years after the lawsuit was originally filed. In a somewhat surprise twist — given how bitterly the legal battle had become — the two companies have agreed to collaborate. Archer also agreed to make Wisk its exclusive provider […]

SEC to appeal XRP, PayPal launches stablecoin, and Microsoft partners with Aptos

August 10, 2023
Welcome back to Chain Reaction. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important crypto stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday at 12 p.m. PT, subscribe here. This week was a busy one for crypto (per usual) with the SEC, PayPal, Coinbase and Microsoft leading the headlines. Let’s get into it. This week […]