SPRINGFIELD – Students at Emergence Academy say they would support a classmate detained by immigration officials, just as young people in Milford did for an 18-year-old classmate arrested May 31.
“If not us, then who?” asked Boyqara Kohkan, a tenth-grader from Kabul, Afghanistan, who has been in the city since April 2024.
DNA testing service 23andMe has undergone serious upheaval in recent months, creating concerns for the 15 million customers who entrusted the company with their personal biological information. After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, the company became the center of a bidding war that ended Friday when co-founder Anne Wojcicki said she’d successfully reacquired control through her nonprofit TTAM Research Institute for $305 million.
The bankruptcy proceedings had sent shockwaves through the genetic testing industry and among privacy advocates, with security experts and lawmakers urging customers to take immediate action to safeguard their data. The company’s interim CEO revealed this week that 1.9 million people, around 15% of 23andMe’s customer base, have already requested their genetic data be deleted from the company’s servers.
The situation became even more complex last week after more than two dozen states filed lawsuits challenging the sale of customers’ private data, arguing that 23andMe must obtain explicit consent before transferring or selling personal information to any new entity.
While the company’s policies mean you cannot delete all traces of your genetic data — particularly information that may have already been shared with research partners or stored in backup systems — if you’re one of the 15 million people who shared their DNA with 23andMe, there are still meaningful steps you can take to protect yourself and minimize your exposure.
To delete your data from 23andMe, you need to log in to your account and then follow these steps:
You will then receive an email from 23andMe with a link that will allow you to confirm your deletion request.
You can choose to download a copy of your data before deleting it.
There is an important caveat, as 23andMe’s privacy policy states that the company and its labs “will retain your Genetic Information, date of birth, and sex as required for compliance with applicable legal obligations.”
The policy continues: “23andMe will also retain limited information related to your account and data deletion request, including but not limited to, your email address, account deletion request identifier, communications related to inquiries or complaints and legal agreements for a limited period of time as required by law, contractual obligations, and/or as necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims and for audit and compliance purposes.”
This essentially means that 23andMe may keep some of your information for an unspecified amount of time.
If you previously opted to have your saliva sample and DNA stored by 23andMe, you can change this setting.
To revoke your permission, go into your 23andMe account settings page and then navigate to Preferences.
In addition, if you previously agreed to 23andMe and third-party researchers using your genetic data and sample for research, you can withdraw consent from the Research and Product Consents section in your account settings.
While you can reverse that consent, there’s no way for you to delete that information.
Once you have requested the deletion of your data, it’s important to check in with your family members and encourage them to do the same because it’s not just their DNA that’s at risk of sale — it also affects people they are related to.
And while you’re at it, it’s worth checking in with your friends to ensure that all of your loved ones are taking steps to protect their data.
This story originally published on March 25 and was updated June 11 with new information.
This is a spoiler-free preview of the first five episodes of season three.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ended its second season with arguably the single strongest run of any streaming-era Trek. The show was made with such confidence in all departments that if there were flaws, you weren’t interested in looking for them. Since then, it’s gone from being the best modern Trek, to being the only modern Trek. Unfortunately, at the moment it needs to be the standard bearer for the show, it’s become noticeably weaker and less consistent.
As usual, I’ve seen the first five episodes, but can’t reveal specifics about what I’ve seen. I can say plenty of the things that made Strange New Worlds the best modern-day live-action Trek remain in place. It’s a show that’s happy for you to spend time with its characters as they hang out, and almost all of them are deeply charming. This is, after all, a show that uses as motif the image of the crew in Pike’s quarters as the captain cooks for his crew.
Its format, with standalone adventures blended with serialized character drama, means it can offer something new every week. Think back to the first season, when “Memento Mori,” a tense action thriller with the Gorn, was immediately followed by “Spock Amock,” a goofy, starbase-set body-swap romantic comedy of manners centered around Spock. Strange New Worlds is the first Trek in a long while to realize audiences don’t just want a ceaseless slog of stern-faced, angry grimdark. And if they want that, they can go watch Picard and Section 31.
But, as much as those things are SNW’s greatest strength, it’s a delicate balance to ensure the series doesn’t lurch too far either way. And, it pains me to say this, the show spends the first five episodes of its third season going too far in both directions (although, mercifully, not at the same time). No specifics, but one episode I’m sure was on the same writers room whiteboard wishlist as last season’s musical episode. What was clearly intended as a chance for everyone to get out of their usual roles and have fun falls flat. Because the episode can never get past the sense it’s too delighted in its own silliness to properly function.
At the other end of the scale, we get sprints toward the eye-gouging grimdark that blighted those other series. Sure, the series has gone to dark places before, but previously with more of a sense of deftness, rather than just going for the viscerally-upsetting gore. A cynic might suggest that, as Paramount’s other Trek projects ended, franchise-overseer Alex Kurtzman — who has pushed the franchise into “grittier” territory whenever he can — had more time to spend in the SNW writers’ room.
Much as I’ve enjoyed the series’ soapier elements, the continuing plotlines take up an ever bigger part of each episode’s runtime so far. Consequently, the story of the week gets less service, making them feel weaker and less coherent. One episode pivots two thirds of the way in to act as a low-key sequel to an episode from season two. But since we’ve only got ten minutes left, it feels thrown in as an afterthought, or to resolve a thread the creative team felt they were obliged to deal with (they didn’t).
In fact, this and the recently-finished run of Doctor Who suffered from the same problem that blights so many streaming-era shows, which is the limited episode order. Rather than producing TV on the scale broadcast networks were able to — yearly runs of 22-, 24- or 26 episodes, a lot of (expensive) genre shows get less than half that. The result is that each episode has to be More Important Than The Last One in a way that’s exhausting for a viewer.
But Strange New Worlds can’t solve all the economic issues with the streaming model on its own. My hope is that, much like in its first season, the weaker episodes are all in its front half to soften us up for the moments of quality that followed toward its conclusion.
ASIDE: Shortly before publication, Paramount announced Strange New Worlds would end in its fifth season, which would be cut from ten episodes to six. It’s not surprising — given the equally-brilliant Lower Decks was also axed after passing the same milestone — but it is disappointing. My only hope is that the series doesn’t spend that final run awkwardly killing off the series’ young ensemble one by one in order to replace them with the entire original series’ roster as to make it “line up.” Please, let them be their own things.
Google is testing a new launch animation for the Gemini overlay with Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2. It also suggests the missing vibration is just a bug.
With Beta 2, the “Press & hold power button” gesture to launch Gemini stopped vibrating. The haptic feedback when accessing the Power menu remains, so this is most likely a bug for the Digital assistant option.
Google is now testing a new launch animation for the Gemini overlay. For users that have this A/B test, the vibration is back. Upon activation, your current screen starts to shrink.
When the black borders (which come in from all sides) reach their farthest point, the Gemini overlay starts to slide up with Share screen with Live, Ask about screen, and the Ask Gemini field, with its usual animation. At the same time, the window returns to its fullscreen interface and you can ask your question.
It looks nice on a device (and is completely smooth compared to the hard edges that briefly appear in the screen capture above), with the intended visual effect being how the physical borders of your display are shrinking. This is not widely rolled out and only appearing on one of our Pixel devices.
Besides this Gemini launch animation, Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2 is also A/B testing a redesigned Pixel Launcher search field with AI Mode. It disappeared across all of my devices on Friday, but the new gradient ‘G’ logo is still there.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The grand military parade that President Donald Trump had been wanting for years barreled down Constitution Avenue on Saturday with tanks, troops and a 21-gun salute, playing out against a counterpoint of protests around the country by those who decried the U.S. leader as a dictator and would-be king.
The Republican president, on his 79th birthday, sat on a special viewing stand south of the White House to watch the display of American military might, which began early and moved swiftly as light rain fell and clouds shrouded the Washington Monument. The procession, with more than 6,000 soldiers and 128 Army tanks, was one Trump tried to make happen in his first term after seeing such an event in Paris in 2017, but the plans never came together until the parade was added to an event recognizing the Army’s 250th anniversary.
Up above, the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team descended from overcast skies toward the reviewing stand. The team had been scheduled to jump at the end of the parade, but appeared in the drizzly skies above the National Mall far earlier than planned.
At times, Trump stood and saluted as troops marched past the reviewing stand. But attendance appeared to fall far short of early predictions that as many as 200,000 people would attend the festival and parade. There were large gaps between viewers near the Washington Monument on a day when steamy weather and the threat of thunderstorms could have dampened turnout.
Hours before the parade started, demonstrators turned out in streets and parks around the nation to sound off against the Republican president. They criticized Trump for using the military to respond to people protesting his deportation efforts and for the muscular military show in the U.S. capital.
Trump had brushed off the possibility of weather or protest disruptions. In a social media post Saturday morning, he said the “great military parade” would be on “rain or shine.” The protests, he said earlier, “will be met with very big force.”
The daylong display of America’s Army came as Trump has shown his willingness to use the nation’s military might in ways other U.S. presidents have typically avoided. In the last week, he has activated the California National Guard without the governor’s permission and dispatched the U.S. Marines to provide security during Los Angeles protests related to immigration raids, prompting a state lawsuit to stop the deployments.
As armored vehicles rolled down the street in front of the president, on the other side of the country, the Marines who Trump deployed to Los Angeles appeared at a demonstration for the first time, standing guard outside a federal building. Dozens of Marines stood shoulder to shoulder in full combat gear beside the National Guard, Homeland Security officers and other law enforcement. Hundreds of protesters facing them jeered in English and Spanish, telling the troops to go home.
A previously calm demonstration in downtown Los Angeles turned chaotic when police on horseback charged at the crowd, striking some with rods and batons as they cleared the street in front of the federal building and fired tear gas and crowd control projectiles.
In Washington, hundreds protesting Trump carried signs that included “Where’s the due process?” and “No to Trump’s fascist military parade” as they marched toward the White House.
A larger-than-life puppet of Trump was wheeled through the crowd, a caricature of the president wearing a crown and sitting on a golden toilet.
Other protesters waved pride flags and hoisted signs, some with pointed messages such as “I prefer crushed ICE,” referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Other messages included “The invasion was HERE Jan. 6th, NOT in L.A.” and “Flip me off if you’re a FASCIST.”
“No Kings” rallies unfolded in hundreds of cities, designed to counter what organizers said were Trump’s plans to feed his ego on his 79th birthday and Flag Day. Organizers said they picked the name to support democracy and speak out against what they call the authoritarian actions of the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, on the National Mall, a display of armored vehicles, helicopters and military-grade equipment was set up to commemorate the Army’s birthday. Vendors outside the Army festival sold gear marking the military milestone. Others hawked Trump-themed merchandise.
Larry Stallard, a retired American Airlines pilot, said he traveled to Washington from Kansas City for the weekend “to see the military and see Trump.”
Stallard, who voted for Trump, said it was “hard to believe” people were upset about the cost of the event when “they blow that in 10 seconds on things that we don’t even need.”
Doug Haynes, a Navy veteran who voted for Trump, attended the daylong festival to celebrate the Army’s 250th birthday, but said the parade “was a little over the top.”
Pointing at a nearby tank, Haynes said that having them roll down the street is a “very bold statement to the world, perhaps.”
The parade was added just two months ago to the long-planned celebration of the Army’s birthday and has drawn criticism for its price tag of up to $45 million and the possibility that the lumbering tanks could tear up city streets. The Army has taken a variety of steps to protect the streets, including laying metal plates along the route.
About 6 in 10 Americans said Saturday’s parade was “not a good use” of government money. The vast majority of people, 78%, said they neither approve nor disapprove of the parade overall, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Kathy Straus traveled from Richmond, Virginia, to attend the parade, carrying a sign criticizing its cost and arguing the money could have been used to feed veterans.
“I thought that it would be more effective to come here than go to a protest with people that think similar to me,” said Straus.
The parade wound down Constitution Avenue, lined with security fencing and barriers. A flyover of military aircraft included World War II-era planes, including a B-25 Mitchell bomber, and Army helicopters flew low over the crowd, below the top of the Washington Monument. Mounted soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division made an appearance — horses once played a crucial role in warfare, but today they’re mostly used in ceremonial events like today’s parade.
Trump swore in 250 new recruits and returning soldiers into service, with soldiers repeating an oath after him.
“Welcome to the United States Army! And have a great life,” Trump said to them afterward.
The night also was to include a concert featuring “God Bless the U.S.A.” singer Lee Greenwood and fireworks.
By LOLITA C. BALDOR and MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press
Meta’s big investment in Scale AI may be giving some of the startup’s customers pause.
Reuters reports that Google had planned to pay Scale $200 million this year but is now having conversations with its competitors and planning to cut ties. Microsoft is also reportedly looking to pull back, and OpenAI supposedly made a similar decision months ago, although its CFO said the company will continue working with Scale as one of many vendors.
Scale’s customers include self-driving car companies and the U.S. government, but Reuters says its biggest clients are generative AI companies seeking access to workers with specialized knowledge who can annotate data to train models.
Google declined to comment on the report. A Scale spokesperson declined to comment on the company’s relationship with Google, but he told TechCrunch that Scale’s business remains strong, and that it will continue to operate as an independent company that safeguards its customers’ data.
Earlier reports suggest that Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale for a 49% stake in the company, with Scale CEO Alexandr Wang joining Meta to lead the company’s efforts to develop “superintelligence.”
If you have a new-ish Mac mini that has recently conked out, you are not alone. Apple has just launched a worldwide service program for the 2023 Mac mini with M2 chips, because “a very small percentage” of them are having power issues and may no longer turn on. The company didn’t say what was causing those power issues. While Mac minis powered by M2 chips were first released in 2023, the affected units were made between June 16, 2024 to November 23, 2024. Some of those computers may be nearing the end of their one-year warranty, depending on when they were purchased.
With this service program, Apple will still repair the units even if they’re already past their warranty, up to three years after their first sale. To check if yours is eligible either because you need it now or in case you’ll need it later, you can type in your Mac mini’s serial number on the program page. Both Apple and its authorized service providers will fix your computer free of charge. Keep in mind if you’ve moved countries, however, that Apple may restrict or limit free repairs to the device’s original country or region of purchase.
The latest Mac minis, which aren’t included in the repair program, are powered by Apple’s M4 and M4 Pro chips and were released last year. They’re half the size of previous versions, come with 16GB of RAM, several USB-C ports, a headphone jack, a full-sized HDMI connection (supporting up to 8K 60Hz or 4K 240Hz), as well as an Ethernet port.
If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission.
This week, Pixel VIPs became the latest (exclusive) app made for Google phones. It follows the big trio we got last year with Screenshots, Studio, and Weather, as well as Camera, Magnifier, Recorder, Thermometer, and Tips.
9to5Google has a rebooted newsletter that highlights the biggest Google stories with added commentary and other tidbits. Sign up here!
Pixel VIPs does not have a homescreen icon and the way you set it up is through Google Contacts. That reliance on the Contacts app feels a bit strange and makes VIPs feel like an extension of sorts.
Afterwards, a widget is how you access the Pixel VIPs grid of circular contact photos. (Nitpick: Three of my VIPs have longer names that span two lines. The fourth is shorter and does not do that for a very annoying look.)
Tapping on a person brings up a half sheet, with their circular contact photo protruding. The slide to go fullscreen is pretty smooth, with the feed visually interesting thanks to different card shapes. Overall, it’s a well-designed experience.
Pixel VIPs brings together various services:
VIPs is directly responsible for Notes and “Things to do together,” which uses Google Search and presumably Maps. The ability to leave one-off notes about a contact is great and something I’m already using. It’s replacing how I use Google Keep to jot down things I want to talk to friends about in-person/over the phone. The card layout is quite nice and like Keep.
Meanwhile, the content, location, and food recommendations remind me so much of a social network, with Last connection and Local updates fitting right in.
It’s also reminiscent of Android’s Conversations widget. In 2020, Google made “People and conversations” a tentpole of Android 11, correctly identifying how “communicating with your friends and colleagues is the most important thing many people do on their phones.” This manifested as the “Conversations” section of the notification shade that could open chat heads, as well as specifying which ones were “Priorities.” It was all in the vein of webOS Synergy and the Windows Phone People Hub.
Google said People and conversations was a “multi-year Android initiative that aims to elevate people and conversations in the system surfaces of the phone.” Android 12 saw the Conversations widget to “promote user interaction by allowing them to easily open chats on the home screen.” Instead of just your last chat, Google imagined the widget showing various activities:
This saw minimal developer buy-in. The lack of third-party support is understandable since apps want to own the entire experience, but Google should have leveraged Maps and YouTube.
VIPs accomplishes a lot of what Android wanted to do in 2021 on a smaller scale for just the Pixel. We’ll just have to see how long this initiative lasts.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
CHAMPLIN, Minn. – Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed Saturday in a politically motivated shooting.
A second legislator was wounded on Saturday in attacks.
A Minnesota mayor says two Democratic state lawmakers were shot in their homes early Saturday.
Mayor Ryan Sabas of Champlin said state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were shot.
A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that investigators believe that the suspect may have been posing as a law enforcement officer. The person said investigators were still working to establish a motive for the attacks and were still in the early stages of an investigation.
Gov. Tim Walz said the shooting was targeted.
Minnesota state Rep. John Hoffman was shot in his home Saturday by a man impersonating a police officer, news outlets say.Minnesota state legislature
Hoffman, a Democrat, was first elected in 2012. He runs Hoffman Strategic Advisors, a consulting firm. He previously served as vice chair of the Anoka Hennepin School Board, which manages the largest school district in Minnesota.
Hoffman is married and has one daughter.
Hortman is the top House Democratic leader in the state Legislature and a former House speaker.
Rep. Hortman was shot late Saturday by an individual sources say was impersonating a police officer.Minnesota state legislature
She was first elected in 2004. Hortman, a lawyer, is married and has two children.
Both Hoffman and Hortman represent districts located north of Minneapolis.
The shootings happened at a time when political leaders nationwide have been attacked, harassed and intimidated during a time of deep political divisions.
GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention organization led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, released the following statement.
“I am horrified and heartbroken by last night’s attack on two patriotic public servants,” Giffords said. “My family and I know the horror of a targeted shooting all too well. An attack against lawmakers is an attack on American democracy itself. Leaders must speak out and condemn the fomenting violent extremism that threatens everything this country stands for.”
Giffords was shot in the head in 2011 by a gunman who killed six people and injured 12 others. She stepped down from Congress in January 2012 to focus on her recovery.
Clay, a sales automation startup, has raised a Series C round at an approximate $3 billion valuation, led by CapitalG, according to three sources with knowledge of the deal.
Clay and CapitalG didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The new round comes just a month after the New York startup announced that it will allow most of its employees to sell some of their shares at a $1.5 billion valuation. That secondary deal, known as a tender offer, was led by Sequoia, which agreed to purchase up to $20 million in employee stock.
While it may seem that employees who sold shares at a much smaller price than the company is worth now got a bad deal, they’ll likely have another chance to sell more stock at a higher valuation next year. Kareem Amin, Clay’s co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch in May that he hopes to do tender offers on an annual basis.
Clay was founded in 2017, but it didn’t hit its stride until a few years ago, when Amin decided to pivot the startup’s focus to empowering salespeople and marketers with AI, helping them discover key data and automate their go-to-market strategies. Clay allows salespeople to find and update prospective customer lists and write personalized outreach emails.
Today, Clay’s tools are used by thousands of customers, ranging from large companies like OpenAI, HubSpot, and Canva to over 100 small consulting agencies that help other businesses utilize Clay for their go-to-market efforts.
The company competes with sales tech platforms including ZoomInfo, Lusha, and Apollo.io, as well as newer offerings Unify and Common Room.
Besides Sequoia, existing investors in Clay include Meritech Capital, Boldstart Ventures, Maple VC, First Round Capital, and Box Group.
