๐ธ Iran's Crypto Funds Keep Shrinking
The US has spent years cutting Iran off from global finance โ and crypto is no longer a safe detour. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington was "probably gonna seize a billion dollars of crypto this week" targeting the Iranian regime, without specifying whether exchanges or stablecoin issuers were in the crosshairs.
The tally is growing fast: April brought $500M in seizures; Tether reported freezing
Crypto was sold as freedom from state control. States, it turns out, read the manual โ per Newsmax.
Cointelegraph
The US has spent years cutting Iran off from global finance โ and crypto is no longer a safe detour. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington was "probably gonna seize a billion dollars of crypto this week" targeting the Iranian regime, without specifying whether exchanges or stablecoin issuers were in the crosshairs.
The tally is growing fast: April brought $500M in seizures; Tether reported freezing
$550M in USDT throughout 2026 under US sanctions. OFAC has been targeting exchanges serving Iran's Revolutionary Guard since August."We know where it is, and we are isolating them."
Crypto was sold as freedom from state control. States, it turns out, read the manual โ per Newsmax.
Cointelegraph
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๐ต Britney dropped a Justin Timberlake duet โ and barely told anyone
Around 2000, Britney and Justin were dating and recorded a song that never came out. Now, 25 years later, "She'll Never Be Me" is finally here โ no press release, no announcement, just a Facebook reel.
It's a preview of the *Britney* (2001) anniversary edition, out November 6, with five unreleased tracks, including a full version of a 2002 Pepsi jingle, which is a sentence that could only exist in pop history.
Worth noting: Spears said in 2024 she'd never return to music. This feels less like a comeback, more like an archive quietly unlocking.
Variety
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8ynVkvzuG8
Around 2000, Britney and Justin were dating and recorded a song that never came out. Now, 25 years later, "She'll Never Be Me" is finally here โ no press release, no announcement, just a Facebook reel.
It's a preview of the *Britney* (2001) anniversary edition, out November 6, with five unreleased tracks, including a full version of a 2002 Pepsi jingle, which is a sentence that could only exist in pop history.
Worth noting: Spears said in 2024 she'd never return to music. This feels less like a comeback, more like an archive quietly unlocking.
Variety
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8ynVkvzuG8
YouTube
She'll Never Be Me
Provided to YouTube by Jive/Legacy
She'll Never Be Me ยท Britney Spears
She'll Never Be Me
โ 2026 RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment
Released on: 2026-10-09
Lyricist, Associated Performer, Composer: Britney Spears
Lyricist, Composer:โฆ
She'll Never Be Me ยท Britney Spears
She'll Never Be Me
โ 2026 RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment
Released on: 2026-10-09
Lyricist, Associated Performer, Composer: Britney Spears
Lyricist, Composer:โฆ
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๐ The cameras that wouldn't leave
Flock Safety sells license-plate-reader cameras to colleges and police departments across the US. Elgin Community College in Illinois installed six in April 2025 โ then learned Flock was sharing footage data with Border Patrol and that access was barely secured.
The college asked for removal. Flock refused. The school offered to pay out the remaining five months of the contract. Silence. So staff covered the cameras with trash bags and zip ties โ and an unmarked vehicle kept coming to pull them off.
This ran until April 2026, when the contract expired and Flock finally retrieved its cameras.
For your safety, of course. Via Chicago Sun-Times.
The Verge
Flock Safety sells license-plate-reader cameras to colleges and police departments across the US. Elgin Community College in Illinois installed six in April 2025 โ then learned Flock was sharing footage data with Border Patrol and that access was barely secured.
The college asked for removal. Flock refused. The school offered to pay out the remaining five months of the contract. Silence. So staff covered the cameras with trash bags and zip ties โ and an unmarked vehicle kept coming to pull them off.
"We'd cover, and then they'd remove. Then we'd cover and then they'd remove," said president Peggy Heinrich.
This ran until April 2026, when the contract expired and Flock finally retrieved its cameras.
For your safety, of course. Via Chicago Sun-Times.
The Verge
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๐ค The barrier keeping software closed just collapsed
REA โ Reverse Engineer Anything โ connects AI agents to Ghidra and similar tools, letting them read any program down to raw binary. It went from 10,000 to 100,000 GitHub stars between October 6 and 12.
People have already used it to run GTA V natively on iPhone, boot Fable 2 on PC for the first time ever, and send Spider-Man swinging through Arkham City.
Developer Brandon Thomas took the same idea further: he used
The oldest copy protection in software was always the sheer pain of reading machine code. That pain is gone.
Decrypt
REA โ Reverse Engineer Anything โ connects AI agents to Ghidra and similar tools, letting them read any program down to raw binary. It went from 10,000 to 100,000 GitHub stars between October 6 and 12.
People have already used it to run GTA V natively on iPhone, boot Fable 2 on PC for the first time ever, and send Spider-Man swinging through Arkham City.
Developer Brandon Thomas took the same idea further: he used
Claude Opus 5.5 to build ArtCraft, a free open-source alternative to Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere โ written from scratch, no original code touched. His motivation was personal: Adobe had just settled with the DOJ for $150 million over hidden cancellation fees.The oldest copy protection in software was always the sheer pain of reading machine code. That pain is gone.
Decrypt
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๐ Daily Recap ยท Oct 14
๐ธ Mashinsky lied to customers while tanking their deposits
๐บ๐ธ US set to seize a billion in Iranian crypto
๐ต Britney and Justin's 25-year-old duet just quietly dropped
๐ College cameras were secretly feeding data to Border Patrol
๐ค AI tool that reverse-engineers anything exploded on GitHub
Somebody near you was heads-down all day โ this is their catch-up
CHEATKOTT - Your Daily News
๐ธ Mashinsky lied to customers while tanking their deposits
๐บ๐ธ US set to seize a billion in Iranian crypto
๐ต Britney and Justin's 25-year-old duet just quietly dropped
๐ College cameras were secretly feeding data to Border Patrol
๐ค AI tool that reverse-engineers anything exploded on GitHub
Somebody near you was heads-down all day โ this is their catch-up
CHEATKOTT - Your Daily News
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๐ Your car knows more about you than Pinterest needs to
Northeastern University researchers tested 21 vehicles and 30 automaker apps โ and found Pinterest, Snap and Meta receiving VINs straight from General Motors' apps. Why does Pinterest need your VIN? Nobody's saying.
GM's four apps were sending VINs to 10 companies including Microsoft and Adobe. The catch: a VIN isn't like a phone ad ID โ you can't reset it. Pair it with an email once, and ad networks have you forever.
28 of 30 apps contacted advertising or analytics companies. GM is already under a 20-year FTC privacy order over its driver-data scandal, though the testing predates that order. Of everyone studied, only Honda actually changed anything.
The rest shrugged: it's all in the vendor contracts, they said. Seven added that users should read the terms of every pre-installed service themselves. Convenient.
Engadget
Northeastern University researchers tested 21 vehicles and 30 automaker apps โ and found Pinterest, Snap and Meta receiving VINs straight from General Motors' apps. Why does Pinterest need your VIN? Nobody's saying.
GM's four apps were sending VINs to 10 companies including Microsoft and Adobe. The catch: a VIN isn't like a phone ad ID โ you can't reset it. Pair it with an email once, and ad networks have you forever.
28 of 30 apps contacted advertising or analytics companies. GM is already under a 20-year FTC privacy order over its driver-data scandal, though the testing predates that order. Of everyone studied, only Honda actually changed anything.
The rest shrugged: it's all in the vendor contracts, they said. Seven added that users should read the terms of every pre-installed service themselves. Convenient.
Engadget
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๐ก A spy inside the hardware wallet
The whole point of a hardware wallet is keeping your keys off the internet. Someone found that amusing.
Ledger's security team confirmed that devices sold by CryptoBilis โ an authorized reseller in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines โ contained hidden implants with an embedded SIM and LTE radio. During setup, each implant read the 24-word recovery phrase off the screen and transmitted it over cellular. The security chip was never touched.
Estimated losses: $86โ103M. CryptoBilis halted sales; Trezor and OneKey both cut ties with the reseller. Ledger is now looking beyond CryptoBilis โ a user named Johannes found similar implants in two devices bought at MediaMarkt stores in Europe, CoinDesk reports.
Ledger has sold over 8 million wallets. How many passed through the wrong hands is the question that now matters most.
Cointelegraph
The whole point of a hardware wallet is keeping your keys off the internet. Someone found that amusing.
Ledger's security team confirmed that devices sold by CryptoBilis โ an authorized reseller in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines โ contained hidden implants with an embedded SIM and LTE radio. During setup, each implant read the 24-word recovery phrase off the screen and transmitted it over cellular. The security chip was never touched.
Estimated losses: $86โ103M. CryptoBilis halted sales; Trezor and OneKey both cut ties with the reseller. Ledger is now looking beyond CryptoBilis โ a user named Johannes found similar implants in two devices bought at MediaMarkt stores in Europe, CoinDesk reports.
Ledger has sold over 8 million wallets. How many passed through the wrong hands is the question that now matters most.
Cointelegraph
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๐ Goodbye, Walter White Jr.
RJ Mitte, who played Walter White's son across all five seasons of *Breaking Bad*, has died at 34. His death has been confirmed as suicide.
Cranston's tribute landed quietly and hard:
Like his character, Mitte genuinely had the condition. After the show he became president of the Mitte Foundation and an advocate for disabled performers in Hollywood. He and Cranston had been texting just weeks ago, making plans for lunch.
If you or someone you know is struggling: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline โ call or text 988.
Variety
RJ Mitte, who played Walter White's son across all five seasons of *Breaking Bad*, has died at 34. His death has been confirmed as suicide.
Cranston's tribute landed quietly and hard:
"He never โ ever โ allowed cerebral palsy to be an excuse for anything. I'll miss you, son."
Like his character, Mitte genuinely had the condition. After the show he became president of the Mitte Foundation and an advocate for disabled performers in Hollywood. He and Cranston had been texting just weeks ago, making plans for lunch.
If you or someone you know is struggling: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline โ call or text 988.
Variety
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๐ค Epic's new rule: the AI writes, humans supervise
Epic Games and Disney announced a $1.5 billion partnership in early 2024 โ a Marvel-and-Star-Wars-themed shooter due in March 2027. That release now has no date at all.
The reason: a hard pivot to "AI first" development. Bloomberg obtained internal messages describing it without much poetry: "no more hand-written code," art assets "generated with full AI workflows." Models like Anthropic's
CEO Tim Sweeney moved quickly to frame it as ambition, not cuts โ the goal, he wrote, is to build more and better, not the same things with fewer people. Which is exactly what every announcement like this has said for the past three years.
The Disney shooter waits. Nobody knows for how long.
Ars Technica
Epic Games and Disney announced a $1.5 billion partnership in early 2024 โ a Marvel-and-Star-Wars-themed shooter due in March 2027. That release now has no date at all.
The reason: a hard pivot to "AI first" development. Bloomberg obtained internal messages describing it without much poetry: "no more hand-written code," art assets "generated with full AI workflows." Models like Anthropic's
Claude do the coding and the visuals; human developers steer and review.CEO Tim Sweeney moved quickly to frame it as ambition, not cuts โ the goal, he wrote, is to build more and better, not the same things with fewer people. Which is exactly what every announcement like this has said for the past three years.
The Disney shooter waits. Nobody knows for how long.
Ars Technica
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๐ Apple's smart home era, take two
The original HomePod underwhelmed, Siri lagged, plans kept slipping. On Tuesday Apple announced HomeView โ a
๐ธ A cuboid HomePod with a screen, counter or wall mount.
๐ธ 7-inch display, FaceTime camera, mics and speakers in the base.
๐ธ Updated Siri recognises family members by face and shifts the interface automatically.
Amazon and Google have owned this space for years. Apple arrives late but with the deepest ecosystem โ and Bloomberg says a robotic-arm version is already in the works. The humble cube has ambitions.
Pre-orders open today; ships November 13 in four colors.
TechCrunch
The original HomePod underwhelmed, Siri lagged, plans kept slipping. On Tuesday Apple announced HomeView โ a
$299 smart display that feels like a genuine second attempt.๐ธ A cuboid HomePod with a screen, counter or wall mount.
๐ธ 7-inch display, FaceTime camera, mics and speakers in the base.
๐ธ Updated Siri recognises family members by face and shifts the interface automatically.
Amazon and Google have owned this space for years. Apple arrives late but with the deepest ecosystem โ and Bloomberg says a robotic-arm version is already in the works. The humble cube has ambitions.
Pre-orders open today; ships November 13 in four colors.
TechCrunch
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๐ Daily Recap ยท Oct 15
๐ Your car is quietly feeding Pinterest your VIN
๐ก Authorized Ledger reseller shipped wallets with hidden implants
๐ RJ Mitte, Breaking Bad's Walter Jr., dies at 34
๐ค Epic goes AI-first and loses its own release date
๐ Apple's HomeView is the HomePod redemption arc nobody expected
Send this to whoever had back-to-back meetings all day โ they missed a lot
CHEATKOTT - Your Daily News
๐ Your car is quietly feeding Pinterest your VIN
๐ก Authorized Ledger reseller shipped wallets with hidden implants
๐ RJ Mitte, Breaking Bad's Walter Jr., dies at 34
๐ค Epic goes AI-first and loses its own release date
๐ Apple's HomeView is the HomePod redemption arc nobody expected
Send this to whoever had back-to-back meetings all day โ they missed a lot
CHEATKOTT - Your Daily News
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๐ฎ GTA 6 is one month out โ and the world is already calling in sick
Economists put a hard number on it: $1 billion in lost productivity during launch week alone.
Car tuning shop Burger Motorsports is closing on November 19 โ staff claimed the day before management could react. Australia's government issued official PSAs on citizens' rights to take time off for the release. The U.S. Army offered soldiers four days leave upon re-enlistment, timed to launch week.
Thirteen years between entries. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19. Keith Richards on the soundtrack, Lana Del Rey hosting a radio station โ and a PC version rumoured for Q1 2027, per IGN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq76pQsI1iw
Economists put a hard number on it: $1 billion in lost productivity during launch week alone.
Car tuning shop Burger Motorsports is closing on November 19 โ staff claimed the day before management could react. Australia's government issued official PSAs on citizens' rights to take time off for the release. The U.S. Army offered soldiers four days leave upon re-enlistment, timed to launch week.
Thirteen years between entries. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19. Keith Richards on the soundtrack, Lana Del Rey hosting a radio station โ and a PC version rumoured for Q1 2027, per IGN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq76pQsI1iw
YouTube
Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look Coming August 27
Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look will premiere on Netflix Thursday, August 27 at 3 p.m. ET and will also launch on the official Rockstar Games YouTube channel and the Grand Theft Auto VI site at 9 p.m. ET on August 27.
https://netflix.com/GTAVI
Grandโฆ
https://netflix.com/GTAVI
Grandโฆ
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๐ก You paid full price. Do you actually own it?
Digital games have run on a quiet trick for years: you pay, but get a *license* โ valid until the publisher decides otherwise.
Rep. Ritchie Torres of the Bronx introduced the Power To The Players Act, which would direct the FTC to guarantee real ownership โ not a license โ and require an offline mode before any server shutdown.
A similar bill is already moving in Pennsylvania. The industry hasn't commented โ perhaps still workshopping how to explain that $70 was never really a purchase.
The Verge
Digital games have run on a quiet trick for years: you pay, but get a *license* โ valid until the publisher decides otherwise.
NBA 2K25 is the freshest example: 2K delists it this month, servers go dark December 31st.Rep. Ritchie Torres of the Bronx introduced the Power To The Players Act, which would direct the FTC to guarantee real ownership โ not a license โ and require an offline mode before any server shutdown.
"A game that can be taken away the moment a company pulls the plug is not a purchase. It is a rental disguised as a sale."
A similar bill is already moving in Pennsylvania. The industry hasn't commented โ perhaps still workshopping how to explain that $70 was never really a purchase.
The Verge
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๐ค Arrested for standing in a robot's way
Carolyn Marvin had made a habit of it: whenever she spotted one of Uber's sidewalk delivery robots rolling through downtown Philadelphia, she stepped in front of it and held her ground. This time, police showed up and asked her to move. She didn't. She left in handcuffs, charged with disorderly conduct.
Her explanation, on camera: "I know they're taking the jobs of human delivery workers โ so I protest them whenever I see them."
The robots have become a regular fixture in Center City, and so has the friction around them. Earlier this year, someone simply kicked one over. Marvin's approach was, at least, more principled.
The debate over automation and lower-skill jobs is everywhere right now โ just apparently not in the rooms where anything gets decided. Via ABC13.
The Verge
Carolyn Marvin had made a habit of it: whenever she spotted one of Uber's sidewalk delivery robots rolling through downtown Philadelphia, she stepped in front of it and held her ground. This time, police showed up and asked her to move. She didn't. She left in handcuffs, charged with disorderly conduct.
Her explanation, on camera: "I know they're taking the jobs of human delivery workers โ so I protest them whenever I see them."
The robots have become a regular fixture in Center City, and so has the friction around them. Earlier this year, someone simply kicked one over. Marvin's approach was, at least, more principled.
The debate over automation and lower-skill jobs is everywhere right now โ just apparently not in the rooms where anything gets decided. Via ABC13.
The Verge
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