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Facebook Tweet Email Link Jakarta, Indonesia AP — Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki, one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes, erupted for a second straight day, sending a column of volcanic materials and ash up to 18 kilometers (11 miles) into the sky early Saturday and blanketing villages with debris. No casualties were immediately reported. Another eruption Friday evening had sent clouds of ash up to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) high and had lit up the night sky with glowing lava and bolts of lightning. The two eruptions happened in a span of less than five hours. Indonesia’s Geology Agency recorded an…
Facebook Tweet Email Link Every time I host or attend an event, I’m astounded at how terribly inconsiderate some people are — multiple last-minute cancellation texts or guests who’ve simply gone MIA have become all too common. It leads me to believe that the measly effort some think they owe their friends these days must be a factor in the growing epidemic of loneliness and lack of community — despite all the research showing how much relationships boost our well-being and longevity. In the United States, 1 in 5 adults said they felt loneliness “a lot of the day yesterday,”…
Instagram users now need a public account with a minimum of 1,000 followers to go live on the platform, the social network confirmed to TechCrunch. Until now, Instagram has allowed anyone to go live, regardless of their follower count or whether their account is public or private. The move will be a blow to smaller creators on the platform who fall under the 1,000 followers requirement, as well as regular users who just liked to go live with their friends for fun. Users who don’t have public accounts and have fewer than 1,000 followers will see a new notice when…
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has raised $8.3 billion at a $300 billion valuation, reports The New York Times. The deal is part of OpenAI’s broader strategy to secure $40 billion this year. The oversubscribed round came months ahead of schedule, per the NYT. OpenAI initially raised $2.5 billion from VC firms in March when it announced its intention to raise $40 billion in a round spearheaded by SoftBank. The AI giant had planned to take on an additional $7.5 billion by the end of the year, but beat itself to the punch as investors clamber to get onto its cap table amid…
Facebook Tweet Email Link First France, then the United Kingdom, and now Canada. Three of the world’s most powerful Western nations have added their economic and geopolitical clout to calls for a Palestinian state, an idea already endorsed by more than 140 other countries. The moves have many motives, from a sense of frustration with Israel, to domestic pressure, to outrage over the images of starving Palestinians. Whatever the reason, Palestinians have welcomed the announcements as a boost for their cause. The Israeli government has rejected the calls, describing them as tantamount to rewarding terrorism. US President Donald Trump meanwhile…
At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27-29 at Moscone West in San Francisco, we’re getting real about what it takes to land a Series A in today’s market — no smoke, no mirrors, just the unfiltered perspective from the people signing the checks. Series A has changed — here’s how to win in 2026 This Builder Stage session brings together three power players in early-stage investing: Katie Stanton (Moxxie Ventures), Thomas Krane (Insight Partners), and Sangeen Zeb (GV). They’ve seen thousands of decks, led major rounds, and helped steer startups from scrappy beginnings to breakout scale. This conversation goes…
Truecaller is discontinuing its call-recording function on iOS — just over two years after the feature was launched — as the Swedish company opts to focus on its core offering: fighting spam calls. On Friday, the company confirmed to TechCrunch that its call-recording feature will no longer be available on iPhones starting September 30. Users with saved call recordings can either download them to their devices, share them via email or messaging apps, or switch their storage preference to iCloud to keep the recordings accessible even after the feature is discontinued. Truecaller’s head of iOS, Nakul Kabra, told TechCrunch the…
Lovense, a maker of internet-connected sex toys, has confirmed it has fixed a pair of security vulnerabilities that exposed users’ private email addresses and allowed attackers to remotely take over any user’s account. While the company said the bugs were “fully resolved,” its chief executive is now considering taking legal action following the disclosure. In a statement shared with TechCrunch, Lovense CEO Dan Liu said the sex toy maker was “investigating the possibility of legal action” in response to allegedly erroneous reports about the bug. When asked by TechCrunch, the company did not respond to clarify whether it was referring…
Applied AI research company Fundamental Research Labs (formerly known as Altera) announced today that it has raised $33 million in Series A funding led by Prosus with participation from Stripe co-founder and CEO Patrick Collison. The company has a curious structure, as it is working on multiple AI applications in different fields. When it raised its seed funding, Fundamental Research Labs was developing bots that could play Minecraft with you. Today, the company has a games team, a prosumer team building apps, a core research team, and a platform team. The startup’s founder, Dr. Robert Yang, a former faculty member…
PERRY, N.Y. (AP) — As a student in western New York’s rural Wyoming County, Briar Townes honed an artistic streak that he hopes to make a living from one day. In high school, he clicked with a college-level drawing and painting class. But despite the college credits he earned, college isn’t part of his plan.Since graduating from high school in June, he has been overseeing an art camp at the county’s Arts Council. If that doesn’t turn into a permanent job, there is work at Creative Food Ingredients, known as the “cookie factory” for the way it makes the town…