As federal and state legislation swirls over the usage of cellphones and personal devices in classrooms, there is a renewed push for another form of technology: surveillance cameras.

Legislators in Florida, Iowa, Maryland, South Carolina and Tennessee introduced video surveillance bills this year, proposing placing cameras into self-contained special education classrooms, which are rooms solely for students with special needs.

The move comes as a handful of states – Louisiana, West Virginia, Georgia and Alabama – adopted the legislation over the last decade in an attempt to curb harmful physical practices. That includes teachers using restraints on students with behavioral issues and, in some cases, placing them in seclusion rooms or resorting to physical violence.

“There’s usually an impetus for why these pieces of legislation are being introduced, and it’s often because something happened where an educator probably felt overwhelmed, or didn’t quite know what to do in a situation,” says Lindsay Kubatzky, director of policy and advocacy at the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

The latest surge of legislation comes amid a wave of technology crowding in — and getting pushed out — of the classroom. Districts are busy banning cellphones in classrooms as parents and experts debate the ethical use of education technology. Installing cameras, however, is something many parents of children in special education support.

“This protects everyone; this is your eyewitness in the room, that no one can say [someone] got it wrong,” says Jacqui Luscombe, who leads the Exceptional Student Education advisory board in Broward County School District.

But the move is controversial, even among disability advocates. Some believe it poses a privacy risk for both students and teachers, and further alienates an already “othered” population.

“What the big struggle seems to come down to is the tension of invading privacy versus the benefit of stronger accountability,” Denise Marshall, CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, says.

The Controversy

The push for cameras in special education classrooms is not new. Texas was the first to pass legislation in 2015, and four other states (Louisiana, West Virginia, Georgia and Alabama) eventually followed.

But as technology use of all kinds has grown in classrooms, there’s been a surge recently to include classroom cameras. “I do think we’re in the technology age where it’s not as cost-prohibitive as it used to be, and there’s all these apps that lend [themselves] to greater use,” Marshall says.

The Broward County School District in Florida had a three-year pilot program beginning in 2021. Under the pilot program, a parent could request a camera be placed in any classroom serving students solely with special needs. As the program neared its end in 2024, Luscombe urged the school board to make it permanent.

“The feedback I received was never anything other than, ‘Let’s have cameras,’” she says. “I’m sure there were plenty of parents saying, ‘We don’t need that,’ but for those who wanted it, it was empowering.”

The board approved a permanent version of the program, and the district has installed cameras in 80 of its more than 1,000 Exceptional Student Education classrooms.

Florida legislators attempted to make it a statewide move, but the measure failed to make it out of the Senate committee.

Tennessee, Maryland, South Carolina and Iowa are in the process of reviewing legislation. Tennessee is the only state of the bunch that would require a majority of parents to sign off on the cameras. The latter three propose placing cameras in all special education classrooms.

Louisiana recently expanded its existing law. Initially, it allowed cameras to be installed at a parent’s request. Now the law requires cameras in all self-contained special education classrooms – rooms dedicated to special education students.

West Virginia also requires all self-contained special education classrooms to have cameras, while Texas requires it only by parental request. Georgia allows schools to use their own discretion for placing cameras in self-contained special education classrooms, while Alabama requires cameras in classrooms where over half the students have special education needs.

Some of the legislation proposed, and Louisiana’s recently expanded law, explicitly ban restraints and seclusion rooms. Broward County’s does not, although the district requires teachers to learn de-escalation training. Luscombe acknowledges the district could do more training, particularly in under resourced schools.

“I personally have had conversations with the superintendent about more professional training, of, let’s not shove someone in a classroom, say ‘In you go,’ and then it becomes an exercise for survival,” Luscombe says.

Each state also has its own methods for reviewing footage, with some including footage leading up to and after a disputed incident. Others allow only administrators – not parents – to review footage.

It plays into the concern of student privacy. All states with current laws, except South Carolina, reference the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, better known as FERPA, in their legislation. That was passed in 1974 and serves as the standard for student privacy.

Most advocacy groups – including the Council of Parents Attorneys and Advocates and the National Center for Learning Disabilities – have not taken an official stance on the issue. “[In 2015] was the first time we’ve started to really debate even how we felt about it,” COPAA’s Marshall says, adding that opinions in the group are mixed. “I think it’s too early to tell with the research what the effects are, and I don’t think the states are collecting the data to help understand.”

TASH, a Nashville-based disability advocacy group, condemned the decision when it was first up for debate after Texas passed its law. The group declared in a statement at the time that the video surveillance has become “an easy substitute for and distraction from the ongoing hard work of cultivating schoolwide inclusion, communication, trust and community. What is needed instead is a systemic framework from which to approach a culture shift around issues of safety.”

Necessity or Distraction?

There is no hard data, for Broward County or others, about whether the cameras have a direct impact on the number or intensity of incidents in classrooms.

There are also concerns mandatory cameras in classrooms could discourage people from entering the profession of special education – worsening an already depleted workforce. According to federal data from the 2024-25 school year, special education had the most reported teacher shortages, affecting 45 states.

But Jacquelie Rodriguez, CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, says she believes that argument is a distraction.

“The fact that we have what is considered a leaky bucket pipeline, where we have more people coming into the field and yet, we still don’t have enough to fill the vacancies, that’s not a product of video cameras,” she says. “I think that when people say that, they’re addressing a symptom, not the root cause of the concern.”

Rodriguez says instead of focusing on recording incidents, districts should concentrate on training teachers better to handle high-stress situations.

“I don’t even think [cameras are] a Band-Aid; I think [they’re] a red herring,” Rodriguez says. “I think it’s the ability for someone to check a box and say they did something about it, when either they do know that they’re not doing anything about it, or they don’t realize that this is not going to solve the problem that they’re actually trying to address.”

Attackers have been exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Reader using maliciously crafted PDF documents since at least December.

The attacks have been discovered by security researcher Haifei Li (the founder of the sandbox-based exploit-detection platform EXPMON), who warned on Tuesday that the attackers are using what he described as a “highly sophisticated, fingerprinting-style PDF exploit” to target an undisclosed Adobe Reader security flaw.

Li also said that these attacks have been targeting Adobe users for at least 4 months, stealing data from compromised systems using privileged util.readFileIntoStream and RSS.addFeed Acrobat APIs, and deploying additional exploits.

“This ‘fingerprinting’ exploit has been confirmed to leverage a zero-day/unpatched vulnerability that works on the latest version of Adobe Reader without requiring any user interaction beyond opening a PDF file,” Li warned.

“Even more concerning, this exploit allows the threat actor to not only collect/steal local information but also potentially launch subsequent RCE/SBX attacks, which could lead to full control of the victim’s system.”

Haifei Li has disclosed a long list of security vulnerabilities in Microsoft, Google, and Adobe software, many of which have been exploited in zero-day attacks.

Russian-language phishing lures

Threat intelligence analyst Gi7w0rm, who also analyzed this Adobe Reader exploit, found that PDF documents pushed in these attacks contain Russian-language lures referencing ongoing events in the Russian oil and gas industry.

Li has notified Adobe about these findings and, until the company releases security updates to address this actively exploited vulnerability, advised Adobe Reader users not to open PDF documents received from untrusted contacts until a patch is released.

Network defenders can also mitigate attacks exploiting this zero-day by monitoring and blocking HTTP/HTTPS traffic containing the “Adobe Synchronizer” string in the User-Agent header.

“This zero-day/unpatched capability for broad information harvesting and the potential for subsequent RCE/SBX exploitation is enough for the security community to remain on high alert. This is why we have chosen to publish these findings immediately so users can stay vigilant,” he added.

BleepingComputer also reached out to Adobe with questions about Li’s findings, but a response was not immediately available.

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Both companies were built by brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, who previously co-founded Australian holiday rental site Stayz. Financial terms were not disclosed. Canva will preview what it calls the biggest transformation in its history at Canva Create on 16 April.

Canva has acquired two companies simultaneously: Simtheory, an agentic AI collaboration platform, and Ortto, a customer data platform and marketing automation company.

Both were built by Australian brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, who will join Canva in leadership roles across its AI and marketing technology teams. Financial terms were not disclosed for either deal.

The Sharkeys are serial founders. Before Ortto and Simtheory they co-founded Stayz, then Australia’s largest holiday accommodation booking site, which was sold to Fairfax Digital in 2006 and subsequently to HomeAway for $225 million in 2013.

Ortto itself has an older lineage: it began as Autopilot, a marketing automation company the brothers founded in 2015, rebuilt from the ground up after 2018, and rebranded as Ortto in March 2022.

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Simtheory grew out of an AI podcast the Sharkeys launched in 2023 to explore new models and AI capabilities; the tooling they built to produce the show evolved into a multi-model AI workspace for teams.

The two acquisitions serve distinct parts of Canva’s platform ambitions. Simtheory brings agentic AI infrastructure: its platform allows teams to build AI assistants that understand their business context, co-ordinate across tasks and applications, and complete work with the reliability and auditability enterprises require.

Cliff Obrecht, Canva’s co-founder and COO said exclusive for TNW that “In a world where generating ideas is easier than ever, the challenge has shifted to turning those ideas into real, usable work.

We’re excited to welcome Simtheory to Canva as we evolve from a design platform with AI tools, to an AI platform with design and productivity tools. They’ve built great agentic technology which we’re looking forward to bringing to the quarter of a billion people using Canva every month.”

Ortto addresses the marketing lifecycle end of Canva’s ambitions. The platform combines a customer data platform with multi-channel marketing automation, enabling teams to build and run journeys across email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messaging, forms, and surveys from a single system.

It uses an event-driven architecture and no-code integrations to connect and activate customer data in real time.

The company counts more than 11,000 customers across 190 countries. The acquisition feeds into Canva Grow, Canva’s marketing product, and follows three earlier additions in the same direction: MagicBrief, acquired in January 2025; MangoAI, acquired in February 2026 for AI-driven video ad optimisation; and Doohly, acquired in March 2026 for digital out-of-home advertising.

Canva, launched in 2013 and headquartered in Sydney, is used by more than 265 million people each month and closed 2025 with more than $4 billion in annualised revenue.

Mike Sharkey, CEO of both Ortto and Simtheory, said the scale of Canva’s user base was the central draw: “The opportunity to bring our technology to the quarter of a billion people using Canva every month and to help more people make the most of AI in their everyday work is incredibly exciting to us.”

The death of a duck in the Austin, Texas enclave of Mueller Lake has neighbors raising concerns about autonomous vehicles and whether they belong there.

While humans are responsible for killing animals with their cars all the time, this incident has brought negative attention to the new technology. Local media picked up on the duck incident after a resident posted in a Mueller neighborhood Facebook group that an Avride autonomous vehicle (with a human safety operator behind the wheel) ran over and killed a duck, and did not stop afterwards. “It didn’t slow down or hesitate at all, just steamrolled through,” the post, which KXAN reported on, reads.

Residents’ familiarity with this particular duck, which was nesting in a pot located outside of a local Italian eatery, has added to the outrage and mistrust of the autonomous vehicle technology. For those concerned about the future of the duck’s eggs, local residents have them in an incubator, Axios’ Austin reports.

An Avride spokesperson confirmed with TechCrunch that the vehicle was in autonomous mode at the time. Avride hasn’t paused testing on public roads altogether. However, the company has adjusted its area of operations by excluding certain streets around the lake in the neighborhood where the incident with the duck occurred, according to spokesperson Yulia Shveyko.

The resident also claimed in their post that the vehicle failed to stop at a stop sign. Avride told TechCrunch it did not find evidence to support that claim. The vehicle came to complete and appropriate stops at all relevant stop signs.

Shveyko said the team has reviewed vehicle data and behavior, including replaying the scene multiple times in simulation. Avride is now evaluating potential improvements to the technology to help avoid similar situations in the future, she said. Notably, this includes running a series of controlled experiments in simulation to ensure that any changes do not negatively impact the vehicle’s safety performance in other scenarios.

Avride isn’t the only company testing or commercially deploying autonomous vehicles in the city. Zoox has been testing in the city. Tesla and Waymo, in partnership with Uber, also operate a commercial robotaxi service in parts of Austin.

DoorDash and Wing have announced a new partnership that will allow users in metro Atlanta to have food delivered by drone. Besides working with DoorDash in select regions of Virginia, North Carolina and Texas, Wing, Alphabet’s drone delivery subsidiary, also recently expanded its agreement to make deliveries for Walmart.

Eligible customers near Tanger Outlets Locust Grove will be able to order food for drone delivery and receive it in “as little as 20 minutes,” according to DoorDash. Orders are limited to a selection of restaurants including Molinos Mexican Grill, Koji Japanese Steakhouse and Sabrosos Mexican Restaurant, and eligibility for drone delivery will depend on the size and weight of the order and whether a customer lives close enough for delivery. To check, Wing offers a website where you can enter your address to see if you’re in range. Anyone who doesn’t live close enough for a drone delivery can enter their information to be notified if the delivery area expands.

DoorDash, like plenty of other gig work platforms, is no stranger to experimenting with automation and robotics. The company offers its own delivery robot called Dot, and has partnered with companies like Coco Robotics to offer deliveries in cities like Miami, Los Angeles and Chicago. Wing, for its part, has also been working to expand the kinds of things it can deliver. The company introduced a new drone design in 2024 that can carry payloads that weigh up to 5 lbs, the exact kind of improvement that’s likely allowed for the delivery partnerships it’s pursuing now.

Hiring trends vary significantly across sectors

Just as hiring appeared to be picking up, Singapore’s job market has reversed course. Job postings have fallen to the lowest level since Mar 2021, according to the latest report from job listing portal Indeed.

In Feb 2026, postings dropped 4.5% to sit 12% below a year ago, a decrease that has more than offset three consecutive months of gains.

Still, the headline figures only tell part of the story. Hiring trends vary significantly across sectors, with gains in some occupations offset by steep declines in others.

Here’s a breakdown of how job postings have shifted across different roles:

The winners & losers

Indeed provides a rolling three-month breakdown for the professions with the largest swings in demand, so we can compare which jobs are going up and which are falling out of favour.

Job postings rose in around half of occupational categories over the past three months, led by gains in IT infrastructure, operations & support (+19%), arts & entertainment (+16%) and software development (+15%).

Interestingly, some of the strongest gains were recorded in occupations that have a high exposure to AI transformation.

But those gains were offset by steep declines elsewhere.

Postings fell sharply in childcare (-29%), dental (-23%) and civil physicians & surgeons (-18%), with education and healthcare among the sectors seeing the most pronounced pullback in recent months.

More remote work opportunities

The report also found that remote work is gradually gaining ground.

In February, 8.6% of all job postings explicitly mentioned terms like “work from home” or “work remotely.” That’s a slight increase from the 8.4% recorded a year ago, and has climbed from a post-pandemic low of 6.9% in late 2022. 

Remote work opportunities are most common in IT systems & solutions at 15.6% of postings in the February quarter, ahead of sales (15.5%) and media & communications (14.0%). 

Large gains were also seen in occupations that have traditionally offered few remote or hybrid opportunities. Social sciences (+4.5%) and real estate (+3.5%) led the way.

But not all sectors are moving in the same direction.

Remote postings fell sharply in insurance (-7.5%), human resources (-6.0%), architecture (-5.3%), and electrical engineering (-3.6%), underscoring how remote work trends vary widely across occupations.

The labour market still remains strong

On the whole, though, it seems like the labour market situation in Singapore still remains stable and strong, despite the decrease in the total number of openings.

At the end of Feb, job postings were still 32% above pre-pandemic levels.

The post-pandemic job boom in Singapore was so large that even though job postings are down 45% from their peak in Jul 2022, it’s still sufficiently high to keep the unemployment rate low—just 2% at the end of last year.

However, the Singapore economy will face some stiff economic headwinds this year as the conflict in the Middle East triggers higher inflation and increased cautiousness from households and businesses alike.

With a tight labour market and solid economic growth last year, Singapore is relatively well positioned to weather these challenges. Nevertheless, the economic outlook has softened in recent weeks, underscoring the risks ahead.

Indeed expects that job opportunities will continue to moderate over the course of 2026. 

• Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.

Featured Image Credit: Shadow_of_light/ depositphotos

NotebookLM is now inside Gemini, marking a shift in how Google handles personal research in its AI tools. Starting today, users can access existing notebooks directly in the app instead of switching between separate products.

This builds on last year’s step where notebooks could be added as sources. With this update, saved material sits alongside chats and prompts, making it usable in real time rather than just stored.

Past conversations can be pulled into collections and reused, tightening the link between research and chat. Gemini starts to feel more like a system that retains context across tasks.

The rollout begins on the web for Google AI Ultra, Pro, and Plus subscribers, with mobile support and wider access expected soon. Google hasn’t shared timing for free users.

How Gemini uses stored material

The biggest change is how Gemini treats saved material. Instead of static references, collections now act as live context during conversations. Once selected, their contents shape responses automatically, cutting down on repeated inputs.

That builds on what NotebookLM already did well, which is grounding outputs in user-provided content. The capability now lives in the same interface, keeping responses tied to documents or research sets without extra steps.

Google is also expanding how sources behave. Existing chats can be folded into collections, turning past interactions into reusable input. Research and conversations now reinforce each other over time.

Why this changes AI workflows

This move pushes Gemini closer to a full workspace rather than a simple chatbot. Combining NotebookLM with its core experience reduces the friction between saving information and using it.

It also reflects a broader shift toward memory and continuity in AI tools. Instead of starting fresh each time, the system can draw from a growing pool of material, changing how longer projects are handled.

There’s a tradeoff, though. Response quality still depends on how well that material is organized, so messy inputs may limit usefulness.

What to watch next

The rollout is still limited, focused on higher-tier subscribers on web. Mobile support and broader availability are expected, but timing remains unclear.

If Google deepens this integration, Gemini could become a central hub for research-heavy workflows. That would raise pressure on competitors to match persistent context and document-aware responses.

For now, this update signals a clear direction. Gemini is evolving into a tool for ongoing work, not just quick answers, with its next phase tied to wider rollout and feature parity.

As the pet tech writer here on the WIRED Reviews team, I’ve tested over 100 pet-related products, including automatic pet feeders, pet water fountains, and pet cameras. The one brand I keep buying for myself—and recommending to friends and family with pets—is Petlibro.

Petlibro dominates the game when it comes to high-tech, seamlessly designed automatic feeders and pet fountains. Most of their products have a connected app to make pet parenting easier, whether you’re near or far. Where most pet tech falls flat, with poorly translated or confusing directions and over-crowded, buggy apps, Petlibro shines. Petlibro makes it easy to monitor your pets: with real-time updates, scheduled feedings, activity logs, and reminders so you can always keep tabs on them and their needs. Although Petlibro products aren’t the cheapest, I still consider them a great value for how well-designed and reliable they are. But you’re in luck. We love the brand so much, we’ve gathered the best Petlibro discount codes and coupons to make spoiling your pet easier (and cheaper) than ever.

Petlibro Discounts: Save on Bundles, Automatic Pet Feeders, and Water Fountains

If you’re already in the market for a new feeder and fountain, one of the easiest ways to save is by buying this essential pet tech in bundles. One of the best Petlibro bundles I’ve seen are for the RFID Smart Dining Bundle (now $10 off), which gives you two RFID Feeders, and an RFID Fountain, which helps to more closely monitor how much each pet is drinking or eating, and ensures no selfish pet gets more than their fair share of kibble. Plus, my ultimate favorite two Petlibro products, the Polar Wet Food Feeder (which is essentially a mini-fridge for your cats canned wet food) and Granary Camera Feeder (my #1 pick feeder with a crystal clear video feed) are on sale in a bundle, for $10 off.

Give 15% Off, Get 30% Off, and Unlock a $50 Bonus Gift Card

Once you’ve tried (and loved) your Petlibro products, you can give a 15% off discount to a friend and get 30% off when they buy. When you refer a friend, you’ll both save. Plus, if you refer three friends, you’ll get a $50 gift card. Those are huge savings you could use on a cat water fountain, automatic cat feeder, and more!

20% Off Petlibro Scout Smart Camera

This brand-new AI-enabled pet camera is sleek, and the app is intuitive and easy to use. (Read my full review here.) The Scout Smart camera has 1080p HD video, color night vision, two-way audio, and an option to mount. As the Scout camera captures footage, the built-in AI quickly learns which pet is which, and it uploads taken photos for the human to review to continually get smarter. Through the app, you can view live footage, watch clips organized by day, pet, and activity type, and review 30-second highlight reels of each day. This sleek tech-y pet camera is worth checking out, and made even more affordable with 20% off when you use Petlibro discount code PETCAM at checkout.

Petlibro Cat Water Fountain Replacement Filters: Get 15% Off With a Subscription

I recommend that every cat owner get an automatic cat water fountain, as they help promote increased water consumption to often chronically dehydrated cats (which then leads to health issues like potentially lethal UTIs). A cat water fountain is more work, but gives more rewards. You’ll need to make sure you’re cleaning it weekly, and replacing filters every three weeks or so (the Petlibro app sends helpful reminders). One of the best ways to make sure you’re staying on schedule—and saving while you’re at it—is by subscribing to automatically receive replacement filters. Right now, you can get 15% off fountain replacement filters with a subscription.

Luma Essentials: Subscribe and Save 50% Off First Order

Petlibro has recently begun dipping its toes, or rather, paws, into the automatic litter box game. And their newest (and only) automatic litter box is the Luma. The normally pricey upgrade is made more affordable when you subscribe to receive all of the essentials you’ll need to get started (and continue upkeep). Subscribe and save 50% off your first order with Luma essentials.

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The Luma Smart Litter Box automatic litter box is Petlibro’s newest product launch. This smart automatic litter box aims to take the worst parts of pet ownership out of your hands, with automatic cat detection, automatic cycling/cleaning after each use, odor control, multi-cat recognition, AI waste analysis, and livestreaming and recording. If you’ve been wanting to upgrade your pet’s waste system, now is a great time to snag the Luma Smart Litter Box for 17% off, right now.

Hackers working on behalf of the Iranian government are disrupting operations at multiple US critical infrastructure sites, likely in response to the country’s ongoing war with the US, a half-dozen government agencies are warning.

In an advisory published Tuesday, the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, National Security Agency, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, and US Cyber Command “urgently” warned that the APT, or advanced persistent threat group, is targeting PLCs, short for programmable logic controllers. These devices, typically the size of a toaster, sit in factories, water treatment centers, oil refineries, and other industrial settings, often in remote locations. They provide an interface between computers used for automation and physical machinery.

Operational disruption and financial loss

“Since at least March 2026, the authoring agencies identified (through engagements with victim organizations) an Iranian-affiliated APT-group that disrupted the function of PLCs,” the advisory stated. “These PLCs were deployed across multiple US critical infrastructure sectors (including Government Services and Facilities, Waste Water Systems (WWS), and Energy sectors) within a wide variety of industrial automation processes. Some of the victims experienced operational disruption and financial loss.”

Among the PLCs being compromised or targeted are those made by Rockwell Automation/Allen-Bradley. Security firm Censys said Wednesday that an Internet scan it performed identified 5,219 such devices exposed to the Internet. A full 75 percent of them were located in the US and likely in far-off locations where equipment is located. The infrastructure being used to target the devices is a “single multi-home Windows engineering workstation running the Rockwell tool chain.”