
Uber announced it will tighten driver background checks by permanently barring anyone convicted of violent felonies, sexual offenses, and child or elder abuse, regardless of how long ago the crime occurred. The move follows a New York Times investigation that revealed the company previously allowed drivers with such convictions after a seven‑year waiting period in 22 states. Uber is also reviewing policies on harassment, restraining‑order violations and weapons charges. The timeline and enforcement details remain unclear, but the shift signals a major policy overhaul.
Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) announced that 56,000 premises received gigabit‑capable service in the October‑December 2025 quarter, bringing the cumulative total to 1,373,800 premises – roughly 4.1 % of UK households. The bulk of the new connections came from Project Gigabit contracts...
Time Addressable Media Store (TAMS) is a cloud‑native, open‑source API that lets broadcasters retrieve short, time‑based media segments instead of whole files. Deployed in several pilot projects, it promises to cut storage costs, accelerate production and enable tool‑agnostic workflows across...

Public demand for preventative health in the UK is surging, with NHS App registrations now at 33.6 million – roughly twice the nation’s Netflix subscriber base. A PA Consulting survey shows eight‑in‑ten NHS leaders believe digital tools can cut health inequalities,...

A preclinical study published in Reproductive and Developmental Medicine found that combining melatonin with zinc oxide nanoparticles mitigates cyclophosphamide‑induced reproductive toxicity in male rats. The antioxidant duo restored testosterone and luteinizing hormone levels, lowered oxidative stress markers, and preserved spermatogenic...

Nevada launched its Battle Born public option health plans last fall, aiming to lower premiums and expand coverage. Early enrollment reached just over 10,000 members, far short of the 35,000 target set by state officials. The program must cut premiums...

DBS Bank, in partnership with Visa, has launched a pilot that enables AI agents to complete payments on behalf of customers using tokenised card credentials. The trial, dubbed Visa Intelligent Commerce, has already processed real‑world transactions such as food and...

KONAMI’s eFootball 2026 update introduces Attack Trigger, a new Show Time skill that raises teammates’ Attacking Awareness when the holder has the ball. The skill does not benefit the holder, only surrounding players, improving run timing and forward positioning. The...

In this five‑minute interview, Maya Jose Bakvili, Stripe’s CRO of AI, explains "agentic commerce"—AI‑assisted chat purchases and AI‑delegated buying—and how Stripe’s infrastructure supports retailers in this emerging space. She highlights four persistent retailer concerns: maintaining control as merchant of record,...
RAND’s Geopolitics of AGI initiative released a webinar on February 19, 2026, examining how advanced artificial intelligence, including potential artificial general intelligence, could reshape global politics and security. Speakers Jim Mitre and Joel Predd outlined the strategic implications of an...

AWAL has entered a strategic partnership with Italy‑based Artist First, granting its roster localized marketing and promotional support to break into the Italian market while allowing Artist First to remain an independent entity. Artist First, founded in Milan in 2009,...
From isolated experimentation to embedded capability, culture, process, and incentives as the true transformation levers In boardrooms across industries, the same slide appears with reassuring regularity: a grid of successful AI pilots. A fraud model that lifted detection rates. A...

Datamined files from Monster Hunter Wilds reveal a tutorial image that displays local multiplayer support for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2. Earlier this year a PC update contained text strings referencing Switch 2 wireless features, which were later removed, adding weight to the...
AI specialist Purple Transform and delivery partner Central Alliance deployed the SIYTE platform to unify flood‑monitoring sensors and cameras on Network Rail’s Western Route. The single web‑and‑mobile interface gave engineers real‑time visibility of the drainage ecosystem, replacing fragmented data silos....
Merck (MSD) and Mayo Clinic have launched a research partnership that blends Mayo's Platform architecture and multimodal clinical‑genomic data with MSD's virtual‑cell technologies. The collaboration gives MSD direct access to de‑identified imaging, lab, molecular and notes data to train and...
Merck & Co (MSD) and Mayo Clinic have launched a research partnership that leverages AI, advanced analytics, and multimodal clinical‑genomic data to accelerate drug discovery and precision medicine. The collaboration merges Mayo’s Platform architecture and de‑identified datasets—including imaging, labs, molecular...

Alira Health and its CEO Gabriele Brambilla face multiple lawsuits from startup founders alleging fraud, unjust enrichment, and violations of the Securities Exchange Act. The plaintiffs claim Alira used inflated stock to acquire companies, set unattainable performance targets, and then...

Starbreeze Entertainment reported a 18.8% rise in 2025 revenue to SEK 221 million ($24.5 million), yet the company posted a larger net loss of SEK 402.7 million ($44.6 million). Quarterly sales slipped 10.7% in Q4, driven by a decline in third‑party publishing and mixed performance of...

Swarm Aero inaugurated an 80,000‑square‑foot Advanced Manufacturing Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, dedicated to large‑UAV production. The facility is designed to mass‑produce the Group 5 swarming UAV, which the company claims will cost less than the MQ‑9 Reaper while delivering comparable capability....

GLP‑1 agonists have moved from scarcity to abundance, reshaping weight‑management practice. In 2023, shortages forced clinicians to ration these drugs, often off‑label for obesity. Today, the surplus creates a new dilemma: patients seeking extreme, unsustainable weight loss and refusing to...
Walmart’s advertising arm surged 46% in 2025, generating nearly $6.4 billion, while the broader company posted $713.2 billion in revenue. Walmart Connect alone grew 41% in Q4, and the Vizio acquisition added high‑minimum‑price inventory. AI chatbot Sparky, now tested with ads, drives...
Clear Angle Studios announced TopoTrack, a new processing service that boosts mesh tracking and stabilisation for 3D FACS expression sets and 4D performance sequences. The platform promises high‑resolution animation from HMC footage, streamlining VFX pipelines while preserving nuanced actor performances....

Alphabet’s Verily has introduced a free, self‑serve Standard tier for its Pre precision‑health platform, allowing researchers to access the Exchange catalog and Workbench environment with just a Google account. The rollout adds three high‑impact datasets: a single‑cell AML cohort from...

Florida’s insurance market is stabilizing, but high‑net‑worth investors face a new danger from premium‑financed life insurance. The strategy, once attractive because cheap borrowing let the ultra‑wealthy keep assets liquid, now collides with sharply higher interest rates. Federal Reserve hikes pushed...

Boeing announced it will move the headquarters of its Defense, Space & Security division from Arlington, Virginia back to St. Louis, Missouri, ending a nine‑year stint on the East Coast. The relocation positions senior leaders alongside roughly 18,000 employees at...

Pan American World Airways has signed a Letter of Agreement with Amadeus to serve as its strategic technology partner for the airline’s comeback. Amadeus will provide integrated IT and distribution solutions, covering everything from booking and inventory management to day‑of‑travel...

Gracenote’s latest data shows sports programming on the five leading U.S. SVOD services grew 52% year‑over‑year, with the overall catalogue expanding 20%. Paramount+ surged ahead of Prime Video and Netflix, delivering more than twice the sports content after securing UFC...
Barb’s 2025 UK viewing report shows live television still accounts for 45 percent of total TV‑set consumption, while on‑demand streaming makes up 38 percent. The data highlights that major live events, such as the Women’s Euros final and popular reality shows, continue...

Who says clean energy and nature can’t thrive together? New @NatLabRockies research confirms what global studies are increasingly showing: utility-scale solar farms actively foster biodiversity By planting native prairie under panels, 3 sites in Minnesota have transformed into thriving sanctuaries for...
The Kling Report. For those interested in AI video. I'm running a series of reports. Having AI read my lists here on X (I have about 50,000 people in AI industry on them) looking for interesting trends. I've been having a...

Russia’s deputy foreign minister and BRICS Sherpa Sergey Ryabkov publicly refuted claims that the bloc is evolving into a security or collective‑defence organization. He clarified that recent naval exercises off South Africa were conducted by individual member states, not a...

Roam Interior Design announced three senior appointments: Deanne Teeter was promoted to Principal, Jenny Holt to Vice President and Senior Project Manager in Dallas, and Gareth Payne joined the Los Angeles office as Vice President and Regional Design Director. The...

Researchers at the Technical University of Munich have created a bio‑hybrid coating that visibly signals UV‑A exposure by turning from green to red. The sensor embeds dry Escherichia coli cells loaded with the photoconvertible protein mEosFP, which undergoes an irreversible...
The authors analyze the Bank of England’s 2012 Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) and find that central‑bank liquidity acts as a backstop that improves private wholesale funding conditions rather than merely substituting for them. By lowering banks’ wholesale funding costs,...
The war in Ukraine has dominated transatlantic policy for four years, prompting massive U.S. and European aid to Kyiv and severe sanctions on Moscow. Even if a cease‑fire is reached, the article warns that Russia will continue rearming while Europe...

The UK arm of Bank of Ireland was fined £3.78 million by the Payments Systems Regulator for a 14‑month delay in deploying the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) system. The lapse left 1.14 million new payees and roughly £7 million in payments without fraud‑prevention...

Six previously unpublished ICC arbitral awards have been added to the ICCA Awards Series 2025, covering topics such as non‑signatory enforcement, vague choice‑of‑law clauses, equity in arbitration, forum‑selection validity, and set‑off jurisdiction. Notably, an award bound an unsigned parent company...
SaaS founders must now measure the energy and emissions each customer generates, not just revenue and cloud spend. Continuous workloads, AI inference, and data pipelines are turning software into a major energy consumer, making carbon a direct cost driver. Tools...

Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass Retro Classics update for February 2026 adds five vintage titles – two Infocom Zork adventures and three Atari 2600 games – to the subscription catalog. The new releases are instantly available to all Game Pass tiers in regions...

Neom has signed a landmark $5 billion agreement with Saudi‑based DataVolt to build the Kingdom’s first green‑AI hyperscale data centre in Oxagon. The facility will operate at net‑zero, powered entirely by renewable energy and equipped with advanced cooling to support generative...
The Dow Jones slipped Thursday as investors weighed fresh earnings reports and a sharp rally in oil prices. Brent crude surged up to $72 a barrel, its highest level since the summer, driven by heightened geopolitical tension surrounding U.S. naval...

Kumba Iron Ore says it will wrap up contract negotiations with Chinese steelmakers this year, despite the ongoing dispute between China Minerals Resources Group and major miners. China now represents 56% of Kumba’s 2025 export sales, up from 54% in...

Stratasys has launched a multi‑material 3D‑printed dental anatomical model preset using its PolyJet technology, enabling realistic, customizable training devices. The preset defines material ratios and distribution patterns to consistently mimic bone, teeth, nerves, and soft tissue. Models can be personalized...
Researchers have engineered Au@MnFe‑Prussian Blue Analog yolk‑shell nanoparticles that combine a hollow cavity with a functional shell for biomedical use. The synthesis creates a ~75 nm interior, achieving roughly 50% loading efficiency for the chemotherapeutic doxorubicin. Partial etching and redeposition of...

Denis Beau, representing Banque de France and ACPR, highlighted the strategic role of asset‑backed securities (ABS) in the euro‑area monetary‑policy framework, noting they account for roughly 30% of collateral despite representing less than 5% of eligible securities. He stressed that...

Agilica has introduced its Agilica Geolocation (AGL) system, a high‑precision local positioning solution for UAVs that operates without GPS. Leveraging ultra‑wideband radio and a mesh of anchor nodes, the system delivers centimeter‑level accuracy even in RF‑rich, jammed or spoofed environments....
The U.S. Army’s Mobile Tactical Cannon (MTC) program seeks a 155 mm wheeled, self‑propelled artillery system to replace the towed M777 howitzer across Stryker, Mobile and Infantry Brigade Combat Teams. A Request for Prototype Proposals will be issued in Q2 FY 2026,...

Vietnam Airlines just broke their Airbus only narrow body tradition 🔥 Signed for 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8s yesterday + Sun PhuQuoc Airways went all-in on up to 40 787-9s ($22.5B) as their widebody future. In my opinion, this mix of Boeing...

Axis Bank honored 100 employees as "Champions" for embodying five core values—customer centricity, ethics, teamwork, transparency, and ownership—highlighting culture as a strategic asset. The speech stressed that success hinges on how results are achieved, not just the results themselves. By...
In this episode Blerim Vela examines the accelerating military modernisation across the Western Balkans, highlighting Serbia’s post‑2015 procurement surge and its ripple effects on neighbours. He explains how NATO members such as Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia are upgrading...