Gen Z hunts scholarships on TikTok

 Gen Z hunts scholarships on TikTok

Nick Iluzada

Since most US college applicants are not star athletes or the children of a Full House cast member, they have to find other ways to pay for higher education. According to a new survey, one of those ways is scrolling TikTok: More than 1 in 5 Gen Z students (22%) search for scholarships on the social media platform at least once a week, per the private student loan lender Sallie. They’re learning about scholarships on TikTok more often than from their own guidance counselors (19%) and only slightly less than from college financial aid offices (28%). While TikTok can be a helpful resource, you may be shocked to hear that the information on the app is not always accurate. A third of Gen Z students reported seeing misleading info about how to obtain scholarships, including “free” scholarships that actually had an application fee and exaggerated award amounts.

Brew experts needed

 brew experts needed

Nick Iluzada

Despite what your friend who rejects anything other than a single-origin pour over would have you believe, becoming a coffee expert isn’t easy—and that’s a problem for Wall Street. Starbucks may be on every corner, but coffee graders who evaluate quality for the commodities market are in short supply at the New York Stock Exchange because the test to become one is so tough, the Wall Street Journal reports: Aspiring graders must pass a three-stage test, and if they fail at any point, they must go back to square one. It includes a written portion on the rules, a three-hour grading test, and a final part months later that involves tasting coffee in front of proctors to detect defects. Only 5%–8% of test-takers pass. For comparison: 64% pass California’s famously tough bar exam. And to even be allowed to take the test, which kicked off Monday for this year, applicants must have at least five years of experience in the coffee industry. Being a barista—no matter how hip—is not enough.

Technology’s latest milestone: 13.1

 Technology’s latest milestone: 13.1

Anadolu/Getty Images

You can’t run from technology, especially not now. Event organizers in Beijing, China, hosted a half-marathon race featuring both humans and humanoid robots for the second straight year. The number of participating humanoid teams jumped nearly 500% this year, and, despite some hilarious moments, the machines ran away with the competition. This year’s winning robot outpaced last year’s by nearly two hours, but the real headline is that, for the first time, a robot beat the humans, proving that the only thing more powerful than mettle is metal. We had a good run, humans: According to the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (known as Beijing E-Town), which hosted the race, a bipedal robot named Lightning completed the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, shattering the human record of 57 minutes and 20 seconds set by Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo last month. To make matters worse, the robot added one of those 13.1 stickers to its car faster than Kiplimo, too. Technological strides Many of the participating robots were controlled remotely, but the winning Lightning robot, made by Chinese smartphone-maker Honor, navigated autonomously. Battle bots: In the past year, China has hosted several humanoid sporting competitions, highlighting the progress the country has made since designating robotics as a key sector for rehabbing its technological image in 2015, per CNN.—BC

World Cup bookings aren’t meeting expectations

 World Cup bookings aren’t meeting expectations

Feature China/Getty Images

On Fridays, the Brew’s Dave Lozo looks at a sports business story that says a lot more than just the final score of a game. If you need a place to stay for the World Cup, there are still plenty of rooms available. Hoteliers and Airbnb proprietors in a majority of host cities have said that bookings are surprisingly way below expectations, with the matches only about a month away: Per a survey from the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), 80% to 90% of hoteliers in Kansas City, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle are trailing behind a typical summer. Some industry insiders are calling the World Cup a “non-event.” Seven in 10 respondents said that geopolitical and visa concerns are keeping international fans away. Airbnbs aren’t faring much better. Only one host city (Boston) has reported that more than 50% of Airbnb rentals were booked as of late April. That’s despite Airbnb offering a $750 bonus for new hosts during the tournament.

Neon caffeine coming to McDonald’s

 Neon caffeine coming to McDonald’s

The Washington Post/Getty Images

The biggest burger chain in the world will start selling energy drinks, refreshers, and dirty sodas at its US locations later this year, following its competitors’ leads into the booming market of fun little beverages, the Wall Street Journal reported. According to the WSJ: New beverages include Red Bull Dragonberry Energizer, Mango Pineapple Refresher, and Dirty Dr. Pepper. McDonald’s plans to price the new items lower than competing drinks from Starbucks, Sonic, and other chains with footholds in the $100 billion global beverage market. McDonald’s is leaning into drinks—which tend to have higher profit margins than food—at a time when diners are increasingly downsizing their meal portions and, separately, being influenced by Utah culture. Cream- and syrup-filled dirty sodas went viral in recent years, thanks to the drink’s original creator, the Utah-based beverage chain Swig, which was featured in the reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. McDonald’s is somewhat late to the drink craze. Sonic started letting customers “make it dirty” in 2024, and Taco Bell added dirty sodas to its permanent menu last month. Meanwhile, Starbucks launched extra caffeinated refreshers last week. McDonald’s previously tested the waters with CosMc’s, a specialty beverage drive-through that opened in 2023 but closed last year.

 

Elon Musk Summoned to France to Face Criminal Charges

Paris prosecutors investigating X seek preliminary charges against Musk and ex-CEO Yaccarino, even if they don’t appear; company has called probe ‘abusive’

By 

Sam Schechner

Updated May 7, 2026 4:06 pm ET

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French prosecutors asked Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino to respond to preliminary charges filed against them. Harun Ozalp/Anadolu/Getty Images; Artur Widak/NurPhoto/Getty Images

PARIS—French prosecutors are summoning Elon Musk to the French capital again—this time to face preliminary criminal charges in a sprawling investigation into his social-media platform, X.

The new summons, just weeks after Musk didn’t show up for a voluntary interview with French prosecutors, escalates a trans-Atlantic feud over France’s handling of its long-running probe of X. It also underscores a growing divergence between the U.S. and Europe over how—and whether—tech platforms like X should police online speech.

The U.S. Justice Department last month declined to cooperate with the French investigation and called it a “politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at wrongfully regulating through prosecution the business activities of a social media platform.” 

That came after a February raid on X’s Paris offices by French law enforcement and prosecutors seeking evidence in their probe.

The investigation, which began in 2025 with allegations of a biased algorithm, has since grown to include charges of violating the secrecy of correspondence, dissemination of child pornography and the creation of sexualized deepfake images by its Grok chatbot.

Prosecutors said Thursday that the probe was now an official criminal investigation. They added that Musk is being invited, along with X’s former chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, to respond to preliminary charges against them. If either Musk or Yaccarino fails to appear, they can be slapped with the preliminary criminal charges in their absence, the prosecutors said.

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In the French legal system, once preliminary charges have been filed, an investigating magistrate conducts an investigation that can last months or even years before deciding whether to send the accused to trial or drop the case. Preliminary charges are generally delivered in person.

X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment but previously called the raid an “abusive act of law enforcement theater.”

French prosecutors said Thursday that the goal of their investigation is to push platforms like X to comply with French law when operating in France. The prosecutors haven’t so far sought to arrest or detain Musk or others in connection with its X investigation.

The decision to pursue potential criminal charges against Musk is part of a new pugnacious strategy from cybercrime investigators in the Paris prosecutor’s office in recent years to hold the leaders of tech companies criminally responsible for what happens on their apps. 

They issued arrest warrants earlier this year for executives at an Australian video website under investigation. And in 2024, they were involved in the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov as part of an investigation into the chat and social media app’s responsibility for alleged crimes on its platform. Durov was slapped with preliminary charges and denied permission to leave the country for more than six months. Both Durov and Telegram have denied wrongdoing. 

Tensions between Europe and the U.S. over tech regulations were already simmering over different approaches to free expression. In Europe, laws in some countries ban certain types of hate speech, like antisemitic posts, that would be legal in the U.S.

In recent years, European Union regulators have bolstered their legal arsenal with a new continentwide law that requires large tech platforms to monitor their services for illegal content under threat of heavy fines.

The Trump administration and other U.S. officials have accused the EU of trying to silence dissent. The U.S. imposed visa restrictions on five people it described as “agents of the global censorship-industrial complex.”

European regulators have filed several cases against X. The EU fined the social-media company about $140 million last year for alleged breaches of the EU law related to X’s blue checkmark system. The U.K. and EU have also both opened probes into X over the creation of sexualized images, including of children, created by Grok.

Earlier Wednesday, EU countries and the bloc’s parliament agreed on a provisional deal to ban so-called nudifier tools, which can be used to create explicit images of a person without consent. The rule would ban apps that don’t take measures to block that capability in artificial intelligence image-generation software. The move to ban the tools came in large part in response to the controversy over Grok.

PC Industry in Dire Straits, 'Asking You to Own Nothing and Be Happy,’ Says Framework CEO

PC Industry in Dire Straits, 'Asking You to Own Nothing and Be Happy,’ Says Framework CEO

Own Nothing and Be Happy,’ Says Framework CEO
At least one laptop maker is saying what PC owners have all been thinking.
BY KYLE BARRPUBLISHED APRIL 10, 2026, 11:30 AM ET

READING TIME 3 MINUTES

The Framework Laptop 16 has seen multiple price increases over the last few months due to the ongoing RAM crisis. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo
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The ongoing RAM crisis and global supply chain woes have meant the PC industry is taking it from all sides. Framework, the maker of ultra-customizable and repairable laptops, has come out and said what many PC owners have feared.

“The computer in the cloud has increasingly greater economic output than the computer in the hand,” said Framework founder and CEO Nirav Patel in a blog post. “This means that to the extent that there are constraints on the supply that feeds both, the cloud will win every time.”

And here’s the kicker: “What does this all mean? The industry is asking you to own nothing and be happy.” Gizmodo has previously reported that execs in companies like Lenovo imagine the future may be “hybrid,” where there could be far more reliance on cloud computing to counteract skyrocketing PC prices. Personal computing evangelists like Patel fear a cloud-centric future will inevitably force users into ever-more expensive Netflix-like subscriptions.


Over the last few months, Framework routinely issued price increases for its RAM and storage components. Most recently, in April, the repairable laptop maker said it was hiking costs of SSDs of 4TB or higher. The price of prebuilt configurations of the Framework Laptop 16 with 64GB of DDR5 RAM also went up. Framework, like other computing companies that sell more customizable components, has been far more vocal about the impact the RAM crisis has had on business.
PC makers are all feeling the heatThe Asus Zenbook A16 had its price adjusted just a few hours after launch, costing $1,700 instead of $1,600. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

The entire PC industry is growing, but analysts fear that could change. In its latest PC shipments report, market analysis firm IDC stated that the entire industry is in flux. IDC’s report said that the industry was growing well in the first quarter of 2026. That same growth took a nosedive at the tail end of that period due to “the component shortages and deteriorating economic conditions.” Many companies, save for HP, saw strong growth year-over-year, but IDC hinted that may change.

The current war in Iran is doing further damage to PC makers’ prospects, according to IDC senior research analyst Isaac Ngatia. The strain on global logistics is “trickling down the value chain, intensifying the pricing pressure of PCs on the end-users.” We can see this effect in real time. On Tuesday, Asus launched its Zenbook A16 laptop with a reasonable price of $1,600. By that same afternoon, the company adjusted the price to $1,700. In an email explaining the change, Asus blamed “an error” from retailer Best Buy.
Framework is using doom and gloom to promote products

Framework’s Patel is giving voice to a sentiment growing among PC circles. AI datacenter projects have created a massive demand for HBM (high-bandwidth memory). The three largest semiconductor companies that make RAM—namely Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron—have all tuned their businesses to supplying the AI industry rather than consumer or commercial electronics. Over the past six months, the cost of consumer-end DRAM and NAND flash storage has become increasingly untenable. Prices of many components, from RAM to SSDs to GPUs, have skyrocketed many times over.

“Computers are no longer a bicycle for the mind,” Patel continued, quoting a famous line by Steve Jobs. “They are becoming the self-driving car that takes you directly to the destination.”




Patel isn’t just writing this to lament the state of the industry. He’s attempting to use that sense of doom and gloom to promote an upcoming product announcement slated for April 21. In a teaser video, Framework keeps showing off penguin-laden icons, hinting at some sort of Linux connection. Framework’s current computers, like its Framework Desktop, Framework Laptop 13, and Framework Laptop 16, are all built so you can install Linux yourself or else purchase a Windows 11 license.

The next Framework computer may save on costs by relying on the open-source Linux operating system. But really, Patel is hoping the dedicated PC buyers will be willing to spend more for the sake of ownership. Either way, PCs are becoming more of a luxury.

King’s approval of Canada’s next Governor General

Prime Minister Carney announces the King’s approval of Canada’s next Governor General

May 5, 2026, Ottawa, Ontario

Today, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, announced that, on his recommendation, His Majesty King Charles III has approved the appointment of the Honourable Louise Arbour as the next Governor General of Canada.

As Governor General, Ms. Arbour will be the representative of His Majesty The King in Canada. She will be Canada’s 31st Governor General since Confederation and the first Governor General of Canada appointed by His Majesty.

Ms. Arbour is a world-renowned legal scholar, judge, and leader in human rights and justice. With a career of service spanning more than five decades, she has held nearly every office a Canadian jurist can hold, and several that no Canadian had held before. She was appointed as a judge to the Supreme Court of Ontario, the Court of Appeal for Ontario, and the Supreme Court of Canada. In 1996, she was appointed by the United Nations (UN) as Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. In this role, she led efforts that resulted in the first conviction for genocide since the Genocide Convention and the first indictment for war crimes of a sitting head of state.

Ms. Arbour was appointed High Commissioner for Human Rights by the UN Secretary-General in 2004 and later served as UN Special Representative for International Migration from 2017 to 2018. More recently, she delivered the Independent External Comprehensive Review on misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces, which became a catalyst for unprecedented culture change and reform.

Ms. Arbour is a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honour, and a Grande officière de l’Ordre national du Québec. She has received nearly 100 honours and awards, including 42 honorary doctorates from universities around the world. Ms. Arbour’s experience, judgement, moral clarity, and conviction will serve Canada exceedingly well.

The Prime Minister expresses his deepest thanks to Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon for her exemplary tenure as Governor General and for her lifetime of advocacy for Inuit rights, Indigenous self-determination, and the preservation of Indigenous language, culture, and identity. Her legacy will endure not only in her service, but in the way she served – with an unshakable belief in Canada.

Meta Is Upgrading One of the Worst Parts of Its Smart Glasses

Meta Is Upgrading One of the Worst Parts of Its Smart Glasses

Meta Is Upgrading One of the Worst Parts of Its Smart Glasses
And no, it's not privacy.
BY JAMES PEROPUBLISHED APRIL 10, 2026, 11:10 AM ET

READING TIME 2 MINUTES

© Raymond Wong / Gizmodo
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Computer vision might be one of the defining features of Meta’s smart glasses, but that doesn’t mean it works like one. Having used Meta’s Ray-Ban AI glasses at length, I can say with certainty that the ability to use the camera for identifying stuff in your surroundings is very hit or miss—sometimes it gets things right, but just as often it falls flat. According to Meta, an upgrade to that tumultuous experience may be on the way thanks to a new AI model.

Muse Spark, which Meta officially unveiled this week, is what the company is calling the “first in a series” of large language models built by Meta’s Superintelligence Labs. Though it’s not out yet, Meta says it plans to integrate Muse Spark into quite a few of its products, including AI glasses, in the coming weeks. What exactly will it be doing there? Seeing stuff better, apparently.


“When Meta AI powered by Muse Spark comes to our AI glasses, the assistant will be able to better see and understand the world around you,” says Meta in a blog post.

Lots of Muse Sparks’ strengths, in fact, appear to be centered on “multimodal perception,” which is shorthand for seeing stuff in your environment and being able to understand it. According to Meta, one of Muse Spark’s strengths is health. “Meta AI is now able to help you navigate health questions with more detailed responses, including some questions involving images and charts,” according to the company. It also says that Muse Spark excels at “visual coding,” which allows people to “create custom websites and mini-games straight from a prompt.”Meta notably shows nutrition features on a phone, though that doesn’t mean its AI glasses aren’t also capable of doing the same thing. © Meta

While it doesn’t say either of those abilities is coming to AI glasses necessarily, it’s worth noting that Meta has leaned into health recently, expanding the nutrition coaching capabilities on its AI glasses. Computer vision and AI are still two of the core pillars of Meta’s smart glasses, so I’m going to assume that any way Meta can squeeze Muse Spark into the equation, it’ll try.

How impactful Muse Spark is on the experience of using Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses is still an open question, but even if it makes computer vision less prone to mistakes and hallucinations, it could be a significant improvement. Now, if they could just spend a little time getting their abysmal privacy standards in order…

Social media’s Big Tobacco moment

Social media’s Big Tobacco moment

Getty Images

It’s official: brain rot from doomscrolling has replaced tooth decay from candy as the top concern for parents. Worried adults are holding social media companies’ feet to the fire as US teens’ scrolling time exceeds five hours a day, on average, and evidence mounts that apps are behind the deterioration of youth mental health. One recent study found that 18- to 24-year-olds who reduced their social media usage to an average of half an hour a day experienced lower rates of depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Many teens don’t need adults to tell them they have a problem: In 2024, 48% of teens ages 13 to 17 said social media has a negative effect on them, up from 32% in 2022, per Pew Research Center. Even many tech CEOs say they restrict their kids’ social media usage. But...some researchers say there’s still not enough evidence to conclude that social media causes mental health issues, noting that young people who already have poor mental wellbeing could be more prone to scrolling excessively. Big Tech faces the music The purveyors of the platforms known to cause the teen glass-eyed stare were dealt some courtroom defeats recently: A California jury ordered Meta and Alphabet to pay $6 million in damages to a woman who suffered depression and anxiety while using their platforms as a teen. The jury found that the platforms were intentionally designed to hook young users. New Mexico recently won a case against Meta, which was fined $375 million for misleading users about the risks of its platform for children and failing to protect kids from child predators on its platforms. Legal experts say the verdicts create precedents that could lead to a cascade of lawsuits that would bite into Big Tech’s profits. No phone, no problem On top of their legal troubles, social media companies are now seeing their products yanked out of young users’ hands in the US. Phones are now banned in schools in 27 states, as well as in several major districts, including New York City. Meanwhile, some countries have decided they want kids to touch grass 24/7. Australia became the first country to ban social media usage for kids under 16 last year, with Austria and Denmark preparing similar measures. Dozens of other countries are considering their own bans. Big picture: Losing their young audience would be as painful for tech companies as the feeling of an iPad kid finding himself locked out of his device. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, and X made $11 billion selling ads that targeted kids and teens in 2022, according to an estimate by Harvard School of Public Health researchers.

Ted Turner, founder of CNN, dead at 87 | CBC News

Ted Turner, founder of CNN, dead at 87 | CBC News

Ted Turner, founder of CNN, dead at 87

Famed TV producer founded the 24-hour network that revolutionized broadcast news

Thomson Reuters · Posted: May 06, 2026 7:28 AM PDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

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CNN founder Ted Turner, seen here in 2004, has died, the network announced Wednesday. (Peter Kramer/Getty Images)

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Ted Turner, ​the brash sportsman and entrepreneur whose ambition and instincts led to a media empire that included groundbreaking news network CNN, has died, CNN reported on Wednesday citing a press release from Turner Enterprises. He was 87.

No cause of death was given.

In September 2018 Turner revealed that he had Lewy body dementia, a degenerative nerve disease.

Born Robert Edward Turner III in Cincinnati on Nov. 19, 1938, he moved to the South with his family when ⁠he was nine. He was sent to military schools where he ⁠became a champion debater and yachtsman.

He became a billionaire by taking over his father's billboard business, buying a television station in 1970 and parlaying that into what would become a vast ground-breaking television group.

Turner became one of the most ‌powerful figures in U.S. media and entertainment, his networks specializing in news, sports, re-runs and old movies.

Turner was married and divorced three times and had five children. His third marriage, to Jane Fonda, which ​lasted 10 years, ended in 2001.

Turner and his former wife, actor Jane Fonda, speak during the 20th annual Enviornmental Media Association Awards at Warner Brothers Studios on Oct. 16, 2010 in Burbank, Calif. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Turner set bar for 24-hour news

In 1980, he started CNN in Atlanta, which he said would counter "sleazy" coverage by the major networks CBS, NBC and ABC.

Offering low pay but the lure of adventure, Turner signed up journalists and technical crew who endured ridicule that the "Chicken Noodle Network" would fail.

Instead, as the first 24-hour news outlet, it set a template for worldwide news coverage of wars, trials, revolutions and both manmade and natural disasters.

Turner was also a major philanthropist. In 1997 he made philanthropic history by announcing that he was donating $1 billion US to fund United Nations operations. In 2017, after the last installment of the donation, Turner called it "the best investment I've ever made."

His Turner Foundation also gave millions to environmental groups, while he promoted and invested in clean energy.

Ted Turner, CNN founder, has died

 Ted Turner, CNN founder, has died

Tom Hill/Getty Images

Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, creator of the 24-hour news cycle, and Braves fan before they were good, died yesterday at 87. Turner earned the nickname “Captain Outrageous” and “The Mouth of the South” while building one of the largest cable TV empires in the country. Outside of work, he was known as a sailor, conservationist, and, briefly, Jane Fonda’s husband. At age 24, Turner took over his family’s Atlanta billboard business following his father’s suicide, and ultimately turned it into a media powerhouse and himself into a billionaire: Turner bought local radio stations and a struggling Atlanta TV station, and by 1976, jumped on satellite technology to broadcast around the country. In 1980, Turner introduced CNN and the idea of around-the-clock news. Over the next few decades, he snapped up movie and TV libraries and turned them into channels like Turner Classic Movies and Cartoon Network. In 1996, Turner merged his massive portfolio with Time Warner in an ~$8 billion deal. Turner remained in the executive suite until 2003, when he was pushed out of the company following a disastrous $156.1 billion merger between Time Warner and AOL in 2000. When the dot-com bubble burst, Turner lost a huge chunk of his fortune. But he didn’t seem to harbor much bitterness, telling Charlie Rose in a 2008 interview, “Hardly anybody wins all the time. I’ve won more than most.” Plus, he had plenty of extracurriculars Turner, a conservationist, owned an estimated 2 million acres of land across eight states, making him one of the largest individual landowners in the US. He also owned the Atlanta Braves, helping the team become champions in the 1990s and being the last team owner to step in as manager before the league banned it. He was married three times, was a four-time Yachtsman of the Year recipient, went duck hunting with Fidel Castro, and donated $1 billion to the United Nations. Breaking news…once the leader of cable news, CNN is currently set to be rocked by the highly protested $111 billion takeover of its parent company Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance.

Businesses aren’t leaving Mamdani’s NYC

 Businesses aren’t leaving Mamdani’s NYC

Caean Couto/Getty Images

The theory that businesses would ditch New York City in response to democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s policy plans presently seems as real as city sewers teeming with alligators. In the lead-up to Mamdani’s 100th day in office yesterday, business leaders continued to warn that his proposed tax hikes on companies and New Yorkers making over $1 million would spur many to move to cheaper places (with inferior bagels). But, so far, corporate America is actually expanding its New York footprint under Mamdani, according to research by real estate firm JLL: The city’s office vacancies were 13.5% in the first three months of 2026, down 2.2% from a year before—while leasing by AI companies soared. JLL said that companies might be drawn to NYC’s unmatched talent pool: The city attracted 10% more early- and mid-career professionals from top schools than Florida did in the past year, according to its analysis of LinkedIn data. Exodus anxieties JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said this week that the higher cost of doing business in the Big Apple due to taxes could drive companies and talent to relocate to locales like Dallas, Texas, where the banking giant now has more employees than in NYC. And private equity behemoth Apollo Global Management said it’s looking to add a second HQ outside of New York City in Texas or Florida. However, the tax fears might not materialize…as NYC’s mayor needs state approval for most tax hikes, which New York Gov. Kathy Hochul seems reluctant to grant.