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Investors hear hundreds of pitches — but only a few break through. On the Builders Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, a candid panel of seasoned operators and investors will reveal what captures their attention, what turns them off, and the subtle signals founders often miss. Register here to take advantage of regular pricing with up to $668 off your ticket before rates go up. Get to know this Builders Stage panel Medha Agarwal, general partner, Defy.vc — backing founders from day zero through hyper-growth, with a track record at Redpoint Ventures supporting fintech, SaaS, marketplaces, and healthcare startups. Jyoti Bansal,…
LONDON (AP) — The summer holidays are over, and all those great times you had on vacation have been memorialized in hundreds of smartphone photos. Now what?Some highlights — the prettiest sunset, the best group shots — have been posted on Instagram or shared in the family chat group. But many more will likely languish in your camera roll.Because smartphones come with increasingly large amounts of file storage, it’s too easy to take photos just because we can. But it’s also real work to go through them all later, so it’s too easy to forget about them.Here are some quick…
Jose Luis Pelaez Inc | Digitalvision | Getty ImagesHealth-care inflation is fueling higher coverage costs, setting the stage for what could be the largest increase in health-care spending by large employers in 15 years.Medical care costs in August rose 4.2% on an annualized basis, according to the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index, compared to an overall inflation rate of 2.9%. The cost of doctors’ visits climbed 3.5%, while hospital and outpatient services jumped 5.3%.Those price increases are contributing to higher health insurance costs for 2026. Consumers who don’t qualify for government subsidies to buy health coverage on the Affordable Care Act exchanges…
Southwest Airlines will make its debut in Santa Rosa (Sonoma County), California, with new nonstop service to San Diego, Las Vegas, Denver and Burbank, California, beginning April 7, 2026.The San Diego and Las Vegas routes will operate daily, including two San Diego round-trips on peak days. Meanwhile, Burbank will initially operate five days per week and Denver will operate on Saturdays only.This week’s announcement comes after Southwest revealed plans for new service to St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands; St. Maarten and Knoxville, Tennessee, beginning in early 2026.“We aren’t slowing down in our pursuit to provide customers with more options than…
After blocking its service in Mississippi over its new age-assurance law, the social networking startup is taking a different approach to comply with laws in South Dakota and Wyoming. Instead of requiring Bluesky to restrict access to all unverified users, users in South Dakota and Wyoming can verify their ages through the Kids Web Services’ (KWS) solution. The service allows users to choose from multiple methods to verify their ages, which may include payment cards, an identity document, an anonymous face scan for facial age estimation, or other alternatives. Bluesky is using the same service to comply with the U.K.’s Online…
DENVER (AP) — A 16-year-old boy who had been radicalized by an unspecified “extremist network” fired a revolver multiple times during an attack at a suburban Denver high school that wounded two students, authorities said Thursday.Some students ran and others locked down during Wednesday’s shooting at Evergreen High School in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. One of the victims was shot inside the school and anther outside. The suspect in Evergreen, student Desmond Holly, shot himself at the school and later died, said Jefferson County sheriff’s office spokesperson Jacki Kelley. The county was also the scene of the 1999…
NEW YORK (AP) — It sounds impossible, but that’s the magic of it. On Thursday, a new Whitney Houston song arrives 13 years after her death.English singer Calum Scott is responsible. The single is a duet between Scott and Houston, a balladic reinterpretation of the timeless “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me),” using Houston’s original vocal stems. (Stems are the individual musical elements that, when combined, make up a song.)“It wasn’t even something I could have dreamt as a possibility, and the fact that I’m getting to do it is, geez, one of the honors of my career,”…
Paramount+ signage in the Times Square neighborhood of New York, US, on Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023. Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesDavid Ellison looks to be buying up a media empire.The CEO and chairman of the newly minted Paramount Skydance has tapped an investment bank to help prepare a takeout offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic dealings.Warner Bros. Discovery had yet to receive an offer as of Thursday, according to people familiar. However, shares of the company soared almost 30% Thursday afternoon, notching the stock’s…
Replit has raised a $250 million round, valuing the company at $3 billion. Unlike other fast-growing vibe coders, Replit has not been running to VCs every few months, though we’ll see if that changes. Its last raise was in 2023 when it raised about $100 million that valued the company at $1.16 billion post-money. Replit has now raised a total of about $478 million, PitchBook estimates. The company, founded in 2016 by programmers Amjad Masad (pictured), Faris Masad, and designer Haya Odeh, says it’s been growing rapidly as of late. Annualized revenue has skyrocketed from $2.8 million to $150 million in less than a…
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A Maine principals’ group is fighting a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice that seeks the names of all students playing interscholastic sports in the state as the DOJ attempts to ban transgender athletes from participating.President Donald Trump’s administration sued Maine in April for not complying with an executive order barring transgender athletes from sports. The Justice Department followed up with a subpoena of the Maine Principals’ Association, a nonprofit that oversees school sports in Maine, seeking a host of information.The full scope of the subpoena isn’t public because a judge sealed it. However, in…