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Kesha — yes, “brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack” Kesha — is now a startup founder. But if you think her journey from raunchy pop star to CEO is unexpected, then you haven’t been paying attention. Kesha has always embraced contradictions. She exploded onto the pop scene in 2010 with irreverent ear candy like “Blah Blah Blah” and “TiK ToK,” stylizing her name with a dollar sign despite throwing shade at the egregious wealth of Hollywood. She didn’t let people dismiss her as a one-dimensional, glitter-clad party girl. As beleaguered high schoolers studied for exams amid Kesha’s rise…

A startup called Pig.dev that participated in Y Combinator’s Winter 2025 batch was working on a potentially revolutionary idea: AI agentic tech to control a Microsoft Windows desktop. But in May, the founder announced he was abandoning the tech and pivoting his company to something entirely different: Muscle Mem, a cache system for AI agents that allows them to offload repeatable tasks.  An early-stage YC company pivoting is nothing out of the ordinary, of course. What’s interesting — and what sparked a dynamic conversation on Thursday’s Y Combinator podcast — is that Pig was working on computer use, one of…

Greptile, an AI-powered code review startup, is in the process of raising a Series A. Sources familiar with the deal tell TechCrunch it’s for $30 million at a $180 million valuation led by Benchmark partner Eric Vishria. But one person says that the deal hasn’t closed and terms may change. Founded by Dasksh Gupta after he graduated from Georgia Tech in 2023, the startup went through Y Combinator in the winter of 2024 cohort, and raised a $4 million seed round led by Initialized Capital after completing its program. Gupta told TechCrunch last year that the bot his company developed…

CNN  —  When they wanted, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon could be warm and caring parents. A family judge described interactions with their children as “excellent,” with the two able to act in a “loving and attentive manner.” But a high-profile court case that stunned even seasoned legal figures painted a different picture, of a couple so fixated on each other and suspicious of outside authority they failed to care for their own child. This week, Marten and Gordon were found guilty of manslaughter after their newborn daughter, Victoria, was found dead in a grocery bag inside a disused shed.  They will…

Privacy-focused browser DuckDuckGo is rolling out a new setting that lets users filter out AI images in search results. The company says it’s launching the feature in response to feedback from users who said AI images can get in the way of finding what they’re looking for. Users can access the new setting by conducting a search on DuckDuckGo and heading to the Images tab. From there, they will see a new drop-down menu titled “AI images.” Users can then choose whether they want to see AI content by selecting “show” or “hide.” Users can also turn on the filter…

by Donald Wood Last updated: 8:10 AM ET, Fri July 18, 2025 Update: July 18, 2025, at 8:20 a.m. ETNew data from AAA Travel showed that the average cost for a gallon of gasoline in the United States is down one cent from a week ago, falling to $3.16. The prices are at their lowest point since 2021. The nation’s top 10 most expensive gasoline markets are California ($4.81), Hawaii ($4.48), Washington ($4.42), Oregon ($4.02), Nevada ($3.90), Alaska ($3.66), Illinois ($3.39), Idaho ($3.34), Arizona ($3.33), and Utah ($3.31). The nation’s top 10 least expensive gasoline markets are Mississippi ($2.65), Louisiana ($2.72),…

SpaceX employees are more likely to be injured while working at Starbase than any of its other manufacturing facilities, according to company worker safety records reviewed by TechCrunch. Starbase, a sprawling launch-and-manufacturing site that recently incorporated as its own Texas city, logged injury rates that were almost 6x higher than the average for comparable space vehicle-manufacturing outfits and nearly 3x higher than aerospace manufacturing as a whole in 2024, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) data released in May. That outsized injury rate has persisted since 2019, when SpaceX began sharing Starbase injury data with the federal regulator.  Starbase…

CNN  —  Syria and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire, US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said on Friday. The deal was “embraced” by Turkey, Jordan and other neighboring countries, the ambassador, who also serves as the US special envoy to Syria, said in a post on X. “We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity in peace and prosperity with its neighbors,” Barrack said. Neither party immediately commented on the reported deal. The ceasefire comes after Israel launched airstrikes at Syria on Wednesday,…

LAS VEGAS (AP) — NFL Hall of Fame member Shannon Sharpe has resolved a lawsuit that accused him of sexually assaulting a woman during their relationship, her attorney said Friday.“All matters have now been addressed satisfactorily, and the matter is closed. The lawsuit will thus be dismissed with prejudice,” Tony Buzbee said on X, meaning the lawsuit can’t be refiled. No details were released. The lawsuit had sought $50 million.Sharpe called the allegations “false and disruptive” when the lawsuit was filed in April in Clark County, Nevada. He stepped away from work at ESPN at the time but had pledged…

Security researchers say they have caught a surveillance company in the Middle East exploiting a new attack capable of tricking phone operators into disclosing a cell subscriber’s location. The attack relies on bypassing security protections that carriers have put in place to protect intruders from accessing SS7, or Signaling System 7, a private set of protocols used by the global phone carriers to route subscribers’ calls and text messages around the world.  SS7 also allows the carriers to request information about which cell tower a subscriber’s phone is connected to, typically used for accurately billing customers when they call or text…