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President Trump has shown no deference to Congress in his early day in office, and leaders on Capitol Hill seem willing to cede him more power.

(Image credit: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

The famous actor, filmmaker and marijuana enthusiast is the latest Call of Duty operator in Season 3 Reloaded.

April showers bring ... meme flowers? "It's Gonna Be Me" by *NSYNC is the real sign that May has arrived.

The case is from Oklahoma, which like 45 other states, has laws that say charter schools must be public schools funded by the state, closely supervised by the state, and be non-sectarian.

(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)

Every year Israeli's spend their Memorial Day commemorating Israelis killed in war and attacks. This year it comes as they are reckoning with an ongoing war that is already the longest war the country has ever waged. We go to Tel Aviv to see what this year's Memorial Day in Israel is like.

Note: there is a mention of suicide in this episode.

(Image credit: MENAHEM KAHANA)

• Amazon's flagship Fire TV Omni with Mini-LED is getting two new features
• Interactive Art adds some motion-triggered movement to your ambient screen
• Dual-Audio arrives and lets the TV send out audio to a hearing aid and its speakers simultaneously

Amazon only entered the Mini-LED TV market with its own Fire TV Omni brand last year, yet its first entry into a crowded market proved to be not just the best in its line-up, but a compelling budget option.

Now Amazon’s rolling out two upgrades to its best TV, and you won’t need to pay anything extra to use either of them. As we’ve seen from the likes of Roku to Amazon in the past, this is a free upgrade for the platform that powers the television.

Up until now, you’ve been able to set a static scene for the Fire TV Omni Mini-LED to display when not in active use. These came in the form of works of art, photographs – akin to Samsung’s Frame TV or Hisense’s Art TV – or even stack widgets to make the TV into a giant smart display. But with the new update, Amazon is injecting some motion into the artwork.

(Image credit: Amazon)

There are now 12 pieces of ‘Interactive Art’ that Amazon promises will make the Fire TV into a "dynamic art piece." These will interact with movement in the space where the TV is, as it tracks motion using a high-fidelity radar sensor built into the unit. Meaning that if you select a koi fish scene, these creatures might swim across the screen, or a butterfly might flutter in via another choice.

It seems pretty neat and lives within the Fire TV’s Ambient Experience, and as with anything on the Fire TV, you can ask Alexa to open it up and then select an Interactive Art option. You can also use the remote and, via ‘Quick Settings’, suggest a new Art type to choose from one of the 12.

Interactive Art isn’t replacing the pre-existing options either – you can still pick from works of art and photographs, but you can also ask the TV to whip up a work of art through “AI Art.”

(Image credit: Amazon)

The second upgrade is one that Amazon first announced back in December of 2024, and it’s that the Fire TV Omni Mini-LED can send out two streams of sound.

One stream of sound can be outputted from the TV’s built-in speakers, while another can be streamed to hearing aids via the 'Dual-Audio' feature. This is a long-awaited, customer-requested addition to the Fire TV’s Accessibility feature set.

It’s nice to see Amazon now rolling this out to the Fire TV Omni Mini-LED, and it will work with any compatible hearing aid.

First, you’ll connect the hearing aid to the TV, but to turn on Dual Audio, you can do it in Quick Settings or the main Settings panel under Accessibility and select the feature.

To find Dual Audio or Interactive Art, ensure your Fire TV Omni Mini-LED is running the latest version of the operating system. Amazon has recently rolled out a software update, so check for it and trigger an update if available. From there, you’ll find these two new features that make Amazon’s best TV even better.

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Hints and answers for Connections for May 1, #690.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 424 for May 1.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle No. 1,412 for May 1.

• Google will roll out a version of Gemini AI for kids under 13
• The app will include parental controls and safety features via Family Link
• Google is pitching Gemini to parents as a way for kids to learn, be creative, and get help with homework

Google is keen to widen the usage of its Gemini AI assistant and is creating a version of the Gemini app for children, including parental controls on content. The company sent an email to parents about its plans for a Gemini designed for children under 13, first spotted by 9to5Google.

Google's email cites comments encouraging managed access to AI from parents, teachers, and experts on kids as the reason for the new app. The child-friendly AI assistant will supposedly help kids with homework, answer idle questions, and help them with creative writing. Parents will be able to set Gemini as the child’s default assistant on Android devices.

Of course, as Google is often quick to point out, Gemini can make mistakes. Any kid using Gemini should check with their parents about any facts (and frankly, adults should confirm anything Gemini tells them as well). So if Gemini tells your child that Abe Lincoln invented peanut butter, hopefully they will ask you before they turn in their essay on how the Gettysburg Address was so short because Lincoln had a mouthful of peanut butter and nothing to wash it down.

The idea is that if AI tools are going to shape the future of learning, kids should be introduced to them under controlled circumstances. Those digital training wheels will help kids learn how to use AI safely before the parental limits are removed when they're older.

The Gemini for Kids app will come with many extra safety and parental control features, powered by Google's Family Link, which provides tools for parents to limit their children's activities online. Parents will be able to monitor their child's Gemini activity and be alerted if their kid starts using it for less-than-pure purposes, asking questions like, “Can you do my science fair project?” or “How can I start betting on football games?"

Schools will also have protections in place. If kids access Gemini through school-issued accounts, administrators can set usage policies and supervise interactions using the Google Admin Console.

Gemini kids

This is arguably much more than just another checkmark in Google's plans for Gemini. It marks a real push by Google to normalize AI for the whole family, specifically Gemini. Google is planting a flag with the app. If Gemini is a child's first AI app, the one they grow up with, they're more likely to trust it and keep using it in their adult lives too.

There are serious questions about deploying AI to kids. Making sure Gemini doesn't mislead kids or mess with their critical thinking development is critical. And Gemini is not where kids should find answers to their deepest emotional questions, but it's hard to imagine a child not at least trying to ask Gemini about drama with their friends.

To assuage some of those concerns, Google told parents there will be no ads or data harvested from the kids version of Gemini. Instead, the focus will be on learning and creative expression. That it might conveniently train a generation to be comfortable using Google's AI tools is not brought up by the company, but it feels a lot like a very elaborate and high-tech version of a college giving out branded pens to second graders to get them thinking about applying in a decade every time they reach for a pen.

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With stock market volatility and fears of price increases driven by the new tariffs, you may be worried about your finances. A certified financial planner explains how to navigate these tricky times.

(Image credit: Wenjing Yang for NPR)

The eccentrically titled RPG is a hit with gamers and critics, meaning physical copies are flying out of stores.

Facing financial headwinds, budget carrier Avelo Airlines struck a deal to operate deportation flights for ICE. Now it's dealing with angry customers and politicians at its hub in Connecticut.

(Image credit: Patrick T. Fallon)

Polygraph exams are commonly called "lie-detector tests" but experts say that's not true.

(Image credit: Fernando Vergara)

These are steps you should take if your data was compromised in the VeriSource Services breach.

• YouTube has rolled out some new improvements for smart TVs and consoles
• They include several new sections to help you find videos and music
• This follows news of a bigger redesign due to roll out "this summer"

YouTube is committed to polishing its smart TV experience in a big way this year – and the first signs of its efforts are rolling out now for its app on both TVs and game consoles.

As Google announced in a new YouTube support post, there are nine new UI tweaks that are designed to help you find shows, podcasts, and live music. While they're not quite as big as the promised redesign of YouTube's TV experience, they should help save you time and effort when navigating the slightly dated app.

Firstly, there's a new 'Continue your search' section on the home screen, which will apparently display your top three searches. That sounds handy considering the search experience on TVs can be pretty inconsistent and laborious.

Other new home screen sections (which YouTube refers to as 'shelves', for some reason) include 'Listen again' (showing you the top songs you've searched for) and a handy new one called 'Live performances, remixes and covers'.

As someone who regularly digs into YouTube's treasure trove of obscure live performances, I can see myself using that quite a bit.

Another new section includes one for 'Primetime channels', where you can see the channels you've subscribed to, like Paramount+, Showtime, Starz, or DAZN in one place. It seems the lines between YouTube and YouTube TV, its cable replacement service in the US, could soon start to blur further.

The final new 'shelf' (or section) might be the most useful, as you can see in the image above, the 'From your top channels' section provides some shortcuts to your most-watched YouTube channels. That should mean less time hunting in the slightly annoying subscriptions section.

(Image credit: YouTube / Google)

Outside of those new sections, arguably the biggest arrival is a new Podcasts tab. In February, YouTube noted that it is now the most popular service for listening to podcasts in the US (according to Edison Research), so this feature certainly makes sense.

Another promising upgrade is that YouTube has now split its more mobile-friendly Shorts from its longer-form videos. There'll now be a 'Shorts Row' in your 'Watch Next' feed, plus a dedicated Shorts section in your Subscriptions tab.

It isn't yet clear if this means you'll now never see Shorts in your subscriptions feed (something I'd be happy with), but either way, it should make the experience feel cleaner.

If you like your videos to play on repeat, it's also now possible to loop all on-demand videos on YouTube – a feature that was previously only available for playlists. To do that, head into the Playback Settings menu and choose the 'loop' setting.

The final UI tweak in this round of updates is that 'inline previews' (the little video teasers you see when hovering over a video thumbnail) have now been expanded to pages for channels, subscriptions, and topics.

That feature will likely divide opinion, so it could prove the most controversial of this otherwise positive step forward for YouTube's TV experience.

This update should roll out soon for the YouTube app on your Smart TV or gaming console, or by the end of this quarter in June. I haven't received it on my Apple TV box yet, but it will hopefully be available on streaming boxes soon as well.

What else is coming?

(Image credit: Google)

Last week, YouTube celebrated its 20th birthday by teasing a redesign of its TV experience, which is apparently coming "this summer" (or by the end of September).

It didn't expand much on specifics, but released the preview image above and promised "easier navigation" alongside "streamlined access to comments, channel info, and subscribing."

These upgrades appear to be focused more on the playback experience than the new homescreen improvements, but are certainly welcome too. The big question is whether we'll also see other 'upgrades' like 'pause ads' sneakily added to the mix alongside the broader redesign.

We'll have to wait until later in the year to see, but with a new "second screen experience" that lets you use your smartphone to interact with the videos you're watching, also coming later this year, it's clear that YouTube on smart TVs is changing – and mostly for the better.

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Sundar Pichai testified in the remedies trial that will determine which penalties Google will face for monopolizing the search engine market, calling the DOJ's proposals a "de facto divestiture" of the company's tech.

(Image credit: Nathan Howard)

Subscribers can also blast some pixelated enemies in this Warhammer 40K game.

• SK Telecom is now giving away replacement SIM cards
• Earlier in April, it suffered a malware infection in which crooks stole USIM data
• 25 million customers are eligible, but just 6 million will be serviced in May

South Korea’s number one telecommunications provider, SK Telecom, is giving away free SIM cards to 25 million of its customers, after the recent USIM cyberattack. However, due to logistics challenges, it won’t be able to service everyone that fast.

Earlier in April, news broke that SK Telecom suffered a malware infection through which threat actors tried to grab customer USIM information. The attack allegedly happened in mid-April 2025, at night between Saturday and Sunday, when most employees were away for the weekend.

A USIM (Universal Subscriber Identity Module) is the successor of the old SIM card. It’s used in 3G, 4G, and 5G mobile networks and is found in most devices with cellular connectivity.

Booking a slot online

At its core, a USIM authenticates the device’s identity on a network, stores subscriber data (International Mobile Subscriber Identity, authentication keys, contacts, and sometimes text messages), encrypts the information passing through, and enables secure access to mobile services such as calls, data, or texts.

A cybercriminal could use the data to clone the SIM, track people’s location, bypass app security, or eavesdrop on communications.

While the investigation is still ongoing and the number of affected individuals is yet to be determined, SK Telecom announced offering replacement SIM cards to 25 million mobile subscribers, including some two million spilled over from budget carriers. However, it won’t have more than six million units throughout May 2025, which is why the company urged users to book a slot online:

“SK Telecom has blocked the misuse of SIM information with its FDS and SIM protection services, but it still offers a free service for customers who want to replace their SIM card,” reads the machine-translated announcement. “Currently, we have 1 million USIMs, and we plan to secure an additional 5 million SIMs by the end of May. However, it is expected that there will be a large number of customers at once, so please check in advance through the online reservation application system.”

Via BleepingComputer

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Last week, news broke that the Amazon-backed Slate Auto project would begin production of its cut-price electric pick-up next year, but the company isn’t alone.

While pricing is still to be determined, Isuzu – arguably one of the most iconic names in commercial vehicles – has said that it will release an electric version of its D-Max pick-up truck in 2026.

Although its range is startlingly sparse in some markets (only the D-Max is now sold in the UK, for example), the company enjoys success in Asia, including its domestic market of Japan, Thailand and others, where solid, reliable trucks are essential to daily life.

The D-Max EV joins the likes of KGM’s (formerly SsangYong) electrified Musso, the Maxus eTerron 9, the upcoming BYD Shark and a raft of cheap electrified pick-up trucks that could soon make their way from China.

While the likes of Ford and Chevrolet experienced relatively slow sales of electric pick-ups, the market could soon become the next hotly-contested EV battleground for global manufacturers.

Towing, hauling and off-road performance have typically proven barriers to entry for this body style, but Isuzu claims its EV is on a par with the diesel option it also offers: it can carry more than 1,000kg in the bed, tow 3,500kg and accelerate from 0-62mph in 10.1 seconds.

The 66.9kWh battery pack is located under the floor and the EV version uses the same ladder chassis as the existing truck. Although here, Isuzu adds permanent four-wheel drive with a motor at the front and rear axles.

According to the marque, off-road performance isn’t affected by the electrified powertrain, with a hefty 210mm of ground clearance and a wading depth of up to 600mm. There are also steep approach and departure angles for when the terrain gets tough.

Pick up a bargain

(Image credit: Slate Auto)

Isuzu hasn’t revealed an official price for the D-Max EV, but we would expect it to be substantially more than the circa $53,000 / £40,000 / AU$84,000 it currently charges for a diesel-powered version.

This puts it in the firing line of the Ford F-150 Lightning, which offers an EV range of 230 miles in the most basic variants. Isuzu, on the other hand, says its truck manages around 163 miles on a single charge.

As we have seen with various electric pick-ups, including the Tesla Cybertruck, hauling or towing loads has a big impact on electric range which, for many, is already too tight for daily use cases.

Slate Auto has been honest about battery range and the very basic nature of its upcoming model, but the upshot is that it looks set to be truly affordable. Those trucks offered by Ford, Chevrolet, Rivian, Tesla and now Isuzu are still likely too expensive for many, given the compromises.

But electric commercial vehicles are rapidly growing in popularity, as the technology is improving and many governments continue to incentivize their use for environmental reasons.

According to one report, the global electric truck market is set to reach a valuation of $78 billion by the end of 2033, up from a $19.5 billion valuation in 2023.

With a host of cheaper, electric models due to arrive from China in the coming years, as well as those from more established Western brands, the electric pick-up market could well be the next hotly-contested battleground for sales.

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