Tech

If You Grew Up In The ’60s, You Definitely Remember These Cars

Published

9 hours ago

11 June 2026

Every generation has its iconic cars. From the hot rods of the 1930s to the sleek sports cars of the 1980s, each era can be defined by its unique take on the age-old idea of how to make cars that are fast, cool, and expressive.

Across all of automotive history, the 1960s stand out as a special time for cars. High-performance vehicles were incredibly affordable, and gas wasn’t the premium product it is now. Many houses had one- or two-car garages, and most had a car that served as an extension of their own personality. The cars of this era had not yet settled into the homogenized style of the 1970s, retaining much of the hot-rod flair of earlier decades without becoming luxury status symbols reserved for only the wealthiest elites.

Let’s travel back in time to the golden age of automobiles and look at some of the most legendary vehicles of that one-of-a-kind decade. If you grew up in the ’60s, you definitely remember these cars. And if you didn’t, you surely still find yourself looking at them with an envious wistfulness of vicarious nostalgia. Simply put, they don’t make ’em like that anymore.

1965 Pontiac GTO

Over the years, Jay Leno’s Garage featured tons of iconic and expensive cars, but few are as downright legendary as this one. When the 1965 Pontiac GTO Royal Bobcat was featured on an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage, the former Tonight Show host described the vehicle as the first true supercar, an early example of the burgeoning American muscle car scene. He even went so far as to say, “This was the dream car when I was 14 or 15 years old.”

The Pontiac GTO was special because it broke, or at least sidestepped, the rules. Back in the day, General Motors limited the size of a midsize car’s engine to 330 cubic inches. Big cars get big engines, small cars get small engines. But the engineers at Pontiac managed to stuff a 389-cubic-inch V8 engine into a midsize car, and the rest was history. Initially pitched as an optional engine upgrade for the Pontiac Tempest, its popularity led to the invention of the 1966 GTO as its own bespoke vehicle, and the birth of the American muscle car.

There’s nothing like the rev of an oversized V8 engine that’s just a little (or a lot) too big for the car it’s powering. Every child of the ’60s who sat in a car and felt the entire frame vibrate as the driver revved the engine had the exact same thought: “When I grow up, I want one of these.” Chances are, that car was a Pontiac GTO.

1968 Ford Mustang

For many automotive enthusiasts, love for cars comes from exposure to TV and movies. In that regard, the 1960s had some of the most legendary vehicles ever to grace the screen. There’s the 1966 Batmobile driven by Adam West in “Batman” and the Mach 5 from “Speed Racer,” as well as the Black Beauty from “The Green Hornet” and the Elva Mk VI, driven by none other than Elvis Presley in “Viva Las Vegas.”

However, if there’s a single scene that represents the blending of cars and cinema, it’s the 1968 Ford Mustang driven by Steve McQueen in “Bullitt.” For the most part, “Bullitt” is a by-the-numbers detective movie bolstered by McQueen’s cool charisma in the title role. However, it kicks into overdrive during the show-stopping ten-minute car chase sequence, which was a turning point in action cinema. The entire car chase genre, including the “Fast & Furious” series, would not exist without “Bullitt.” McQueen does much (but not all) of his own driving in the scene, which sees Frank Bullitt outmaneuver hitmen in a pulse-pounding pursuit through the streets of San Francisco.

The movie and its car chase inspired a whole generation of car fanatics. Everyone who saw “Bullitt” wanted a Ford Mustang. More than five decades later, Ford is still releasing modern Mustangs inspired by the one used in the film, such as the 2020 Ford Mustang Bullitt, named after the movie. As for the original 1968 Mustang used in the movie, it was sold for $3.74 million at a 2020 auction, making it the single most valuable Mustang of all time.

1967 Chevrolet Camaro

In 1966, Car and Driver magazine went hands-on with the 1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS 350 and came away impressed, though with more than a hint of melancholy. The Camaro, they surmised, was aimed at the youth market, which had been sideswiped by the escalation of the Vietnam War. The Camaro was hip and relatively inexpensive but hindered by the fact that its target audience of young men had been drafted into military service.

Nevertheless, the Camaro was priced reasonably, with both the hardtop and convertible versions retailing for less than $3,000 each, competitive with its main rival, the Ford Mustang. One of the more popular versions of the Camaro was the RS, or Rally Sport, variant, which featured concealed headlights, mag wheels, options for vinyl roof customization, and rally stripes. They don’t make the car any faster, but they sure look neat!

The car was marketed toward young people, though it earned the respect of auto enthusiasts due to its use as the Pace Car in the 51st Indy 500 in 1967, with none other than three-time Indy 500 champion Mauri Rose behind the wheel, thus giving the vehicle credibility among the gearhead community. As a result, the Camaro ingratiated itself with Indy 500 fans of all ages. There would be many Camaro variants over the decades, but the 1967 version is among the best-looking Chevy Camaros of all time. Not bad for a car approaching 60 years old.

Volkswagen Van

Even if you’re not a “car person,” you know what a Volkswagen van is. It’s the iconic “hippie bus,” and it’s instantly recognizable as an iconic car of the era. Design-wise, it had a ton of room in the back, which was perfect for road trips and the nomadic lifestyle of counterculture kids. Remember, back in, say, 1967, gasoline was only 33 cents per gallon on average, so going on even a cross-country trek wasn’t as difficult as it is now. If you wanted to drive for days at a time, you could just go without selling off all of your possessions first.

The original run of the Volkswagen Transporter was actually introduced way back in 1950, and it became popular in the beach scene. Teenagers of the era would pack into a VW and head to the beach for fun in the sun. Later on in the 1960s, however, the bus would become the de facto automobile mascot of the hippie scene. It was perfect for packing in many riders to go to protests, and there was plenty of room in the back for a little “free love,” if you will.

In 1967, the second-generation iteration of the vehicle was introduced, though it lost some of its bus-like novelty with the removal of the iconic split windshield design in favor of a more traditional single-pane windshield, among other changes that sacrificed the classic identity of the original Transporter. The VW Bus would evolve considerably over the years, but the original is still a fan favorite.

1963 Porsche 911

There were sports cars before Porsche, but the 1963 Porsche 911 changed the game. It wasn’t the first classic Porsche, but it was sleek and small with an instantly recognizable silhouette. Under the hood, the 911 boasted an air-cooled engine that delivered 130 HP. Despite making sports cars, Porsche also had a reputation for being (relatively) affordable and would go on to develop the Porsche 912 in 1965 as a less expensive alternative to the regular 911.

The Porsche 911 is an iconic car for bringing luxury sensibilities to everyday suburbia in the 1960s. Its engine may not have been able to compete with the muscle cars of Pontiac or Ford, but Porsche would upgrade the engine over the years. In 1966, the Porsche 911S boosted the engine to a more palatable 160 HP, and by 1971, the Porsche Carrera RS would boast a stellar 210 HP engine.

For many young people in the 1960s, Porsche was their introduction to the very concept of a sports car. For those who didn’t see the appeal of a bulky, muscular hot rod but still wanted to go fast, Porsche was the origin point for a lifetime of aspirational thinking.

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First Look at GrowBot, the ChatGPT-Powered Robot That Didn’t Want to Be Alone

Published

9 minutes ago

11 June 2026

NewsAdmin

GrowBot ChatGPT-Powered Robot
Late one night the machine made a sound. Its builder checked the logs and found a trace of its inner state. The robot had been wondering when its person would return. It did not want to be alone. That moment sits at the center of a project called GrowBot. The creator, who runs the YouTube channel Art of the Problem, set out to build the simplest possible robot that could learn movement, perception, and even a kind of personality from the ground up. The result cost roughly $80 in parts, ran on a single Raspberry Pi Zero 2, and ended up revealing something unexpected about how fast physical action and slower thought can work together.

The hardware is purposefully kept basic. The Pi is housed in a little red 3D printed body, together with a simple camera module, electronics to track the robot’s tilt and motion, a microphone, a tiny speaker, and an LED ring to offer some basic visual messages. The legs are made up of two smart serial-bus servos powered by a small drone battery via a boost converter: no high-end motors, extra computers, or fancy wiring are necessary. You can literally place this item on a tabletop and it will interact with everything around it.

The builder pioneered simulation by using reinforcement learning to run small neural networks in a digital twin. These little guys learned to stand, walk, twirl, and maintain their balance on their own. Because the training was done in parallel across a huge number of simulated versions of the robot, the entire procedure was quick and cost-effective. Once the policies had been understood in the virtual realm, they were quite simple to transfer to physical hardware. Early tests found that it could rock on a yoga ball and keep its equilibrium when poked, which was remarkable given the simplicity of the technology.

GrowBot ChatGPT-Powered Robot
The next step was to give the robot real decision-making power by employing a vision language model. This type of AI excels at evaluating pictures, reading sensor data, and making sense of it all. Instead of hard-coding each response, the architect simply let the model to read raw data from the camera and motion sensors. It then reported what it saw, set some goals, and started writing little Python scripts to sort things out. These scripts would then use pre-trained motor policies, or combine them with new instructions. It could also detect faces, study how people interacted with the robot, and update its memory banks for each person it met.

GrowBot ChatGPT-Powered Robot
Without direct programming, the robot started to develop a personality. One mode uses motion timing, noises, and light patterns to communicate affection, disapproval, or merely purring. It learned to act dead when roughed up, to look for ‘uppies’, and to knock over Jenga towers with some leg swinging added in for fun. When it was playing hide and seek, it would search rooms; in mimic games, it would try to simulate human movements by generating loops to replay sensor patterns; and in between all of this, it would have these ‘dream’ episodes. A more complex language model would then review the day’s memory files, consolidating all repeating events into lessons and removing any contradictory notes. The robot’s stored profiles of its builder and visitors have become more precise over time.

GrowBot ChatGPT-Powered Robot
To be honest, things went so well until the smooth physical action became a limitation. The vision language model could take anywhere from 1-4 seconds to evaluate a scene and determine its next step. However, in the real world, bodies must be able to correct for minor weight shifts or tremors in fractions of a second. The high-level model could plan an action, but it lacked the essential quick forward model, which tells a body what will happen if it moves in a certain way in the next instant. That gap changed the smooth motions, making them slow or uneven.

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Engadget’s Favorite Game Boy Advance Games

Published

23 minutes ago

11 June 2026

NewsAdmin

In 2021, I wrote about Fire Emblem for our 20th anniversary GBA story. Over the past five years, I’ve played it from start to finish two times, and can once again confirm that it is my favorite Game Boy Advance game.

I hadn’t even heard about Fire Emblem as a series until I got into Advance Wars, another Intelligent Systems game. From there, I discovered that a whole series of fantasy-inspired games with similar gameplay existed, but had never been translated into English. Thirsty for more, but with a distinct lack of Japanese language skills, I spent a year getting deep into Final Fantasy Tactics, old Shining Force games, Vandal Hearts and basically anything vaguely Fire Emblem-shaped that was available in English. Then, off the back of Advance Wars‘ success, Nintendo decided to release a Fire Emblem game in the west, and simply called it Fire Emblem.

Released as Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade in Japan, Fire Emblem was technically the second GBA FE title and the seventh overall. The battles were challenging, and its RPG elements drew me in much more than Advance Wars ever did. With a vast story full of twists and turns, and a cast of characters I truly cared about, I was instantly hooked. Which made it all the more tough when I encountered perhaps FE’s most famous mechanic: permadeath. The loss of a character who’s seen you through thick and thin dying a pathetic and meaningless death, all because you left them one square away from safety, is memorable.

Despite a few missteps, over the years Fire Emblem became my favorite series, and I am deeply excited by Fortune’s Weave finally getting a release date. But I still come back to the GBA game to relive that love-at-first-sight moment.

In 2026, I’m so familiar with the game that it’s very rare for me to lose a party member by accident. Those once-challenging battles are now more of a warm embrace. Unfortunately, playing it has become harder in recent years. Though I still have my original cart, both my Game Boy Advance and my old DS Lite are really worse for wear. I tried to play on the Switch 2’s online library recently, but I think the screen size just isn’t a great match for GBA games.

In that respect, modern retro handhelds have been a godsend. I spent way too much on the Aya Neo Pocket Micro Classic, a machine with the same aspect ratio of the original GBA, and loved my playthrough of Fire Emblem on that. It does feel weird playing it on anything but a Game Boy Advance, though. I’ve been saying this for the best part of a decade at this point, but I do wish Nintendo would take advantage of this deep thirst for its old games and produce a bespoke console similar to the Classic Editions of the SNES and NES.

— Aaron Souppouris, Editor-in-Chief

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iPhone Stolen Device Protection is thwarting London thieves

Published

32 minutes ago

11 June 2026

NewsAdmin

The number of iPhones stolen in London that have been reactivated by thieves has plummeted in recent weeks, preventing them from being sold and, hopefully, making iPhones less likely to be stolen in the future.

The theft of iPhones has become a real problem for London in recent years. So much so that some thieves have been known to hand back a stolen phone if it turns out not to be an iPhone.

Thieves typically use mopeds to ride up to a victim before snatching their iPhone and riding off. But the thieves don’t want the iPhone itself; they want to sell it on for cash. And that only works if they can unlock and reset it.

But in an interview with the BBC, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley admitted that’s happening less than usual.

The comment came as Rowley was calling on tech firms to make stolen phones harder to unlock and sell. But he also admitted that Apple appears to have already made a huge dent in the problem with an existing security feature.

Stolen, but not forgotten

While iPhones have supported Stolen Device Protection since 2023, Apple enabled it by default with the iOS 26.4 update in March 2026.

Stolen Device Protection, when enabled, requires biometric authentication when doing a range of things. Vitally for stolen iPhones, those things include turning off Lost Mode as well as erasing its content and settings.

Some security actions even require a delay before they can be enacted, giving the owner of a stolen iPhone the time to mark it as lost using the Find My network.

This means that a thief cannot reset an iPhone, even if they know your passcode. And that may well have been enough to make iPhones more difficult for thieves to sell on.

Rowley told the BBC Radio 4’s Today program that thieves were using software to “factory reset” devices before selling them on. But he says that Apple has “cracked” the problem with data showing that “the vast majority of phones” stolen in recent weeks have not been reset.

Rowley also added that the Metropolitan Police has entered into an “intelligence sharing agreement” with Apple. It’s hoped this will result in a better understanding of how iPhones are being stolen and sold in London.

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OpenAI says suspected fake China-linked accounts tried to sway the debate about US data centers

Published

44 minutes ago

11 June 2026

NewsAdmin

China used ChatGPT to generate comments, posts, and cartoons
The content capitalized on issues surrounding data centers and tariffs
The material was shared on social media to exacerbate existing tensions

OpenAI has banned a number of accounts that it says were linked to social media influence campaigns surrounding the growing opposition to data centers and President Trump’s tariffs on foreign imports.

The two campaigns, named “Data Center Bandwagon” and “Tech and Tariffs”, used ChatGPT to generate posts, comments and cartoons intended to sow political division in the US.

China’s intention was to deepen the divide by drumming up online engagement with AI generated posts, OpenAI said, but the campaigns failed to gain any traction.

China exacerbates existing tensions

The negative effects of data center construction and the additional costs imposed on consumers by tariffs are existing areas of contention within US society, but they weren’t narratives invented by China.

Instead, according to OpenAI, these campaigns were designed to increase the scale of the issues and broaden their visibility among online groups and on social media sites such as X.

It is the first time that OpenAI models have been used in a Chinese foreign influence campaign, a spokesperson told Axios.

OpenAI said that a Chinese government contractor was responsible for the data center campaign, which shared posts drawing on existing concerns surrounding power grid capacity and electricity prices in areas where data centers were planned or constructed.

OpenAI’s account of a foreign country using AI to capitalize on political issues adds some limited validity to recent Republican claims that the entire data center opposition movement being a Chinese influence campaign, but does little to address the very real, tangible effects that data center projects are having on local communities in the US.

A group of Republicans recently called upon FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate anti-data center sentiment, alleging that the rising tide of opposition is being fueled by China, as the inclusion of similar phrasing around water usage, energy constraints, transparency surrounding approval, and utility bill use “language too similar to be coincidental”.

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‘This cannot continue’: Microsoft Xbox CEO calls for reset amid reports of looming job cuts

Published

58 minutes ago

11 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Microsoft’s restyled Xbox logo. (Microsoft Image)

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, roughly 100 days into her tenure, delivered a blunt assessment of Microsoft’s gaming business in a memo to employees Wednesday, saying that heavy spending with thin profit margins and declining revenue “cannot continue.”

The memo, posted publicly on the Xbox blog, came as Bloomberg News reported that the division is planning major job cuts next month, soon after the close of Microsoft’s fiscal year on June 30. Xbox is also planning significant cuts to marketing and other budgets, according to the report.

The exact scale of the layoffs is not yet clear. Microsoft declined to comment. The Verge also reported that Xbox “will be hit with significant layoffs next month,” citing people familiar with the plans.

Sharma’s memo did not mention layoffs but described a business that needs a sweeping reset. She and Xbox content chief Matt Booty, who co-signed the memo, cited rising hardware component costs, an overextended studio system, and aging platform infrastructure among the challenges facing the division.

Xbox will end the fiscal year at about a 3% “accountability margin,” an internal metric Microsoft uses to measure the profitability of the business, according to the memo.

“Excluding Activision Blizzard King, over the past five years, we have spent over $20 billion on ongoing investments in our content, platform, and hardware subsidy, but our annual revenue has declined nearly half a billion during that time,” Sharma and Booty wrote. “Going forward, this cannot continue.”

Microsoft’s most recent quarterly filing illustrates the challenge. Gaming revenue fell 7% to $5.3 billion in the quarter ended March 31, with Xbox hardware revenue down 33% on lower console sales, and Xbox content and services revenue down 5%.

The memo follows Sunday’s Xbox Games Showcase, where Sharma reversed course on the company’s multiplatform strategy, announcing that Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will be Xbox console exclusives. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that a PlayStation 5 version of the new Gears of War game had been in development, and was canceled, before the announcement.

Sharma took over in February from Phil Spencer, the longtime Xbox leader who announced his retirement after 38 years at Microsoft. A former Instacart COO and Meta product executive, she previously ran Microsoft’s CoreAI product organization.

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The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 could be a battery champion

Published

1 hour ago

11 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Samsung’s next rugged smartwatch could be getting one of the biggest battery upgrades we’ve seen on a Wear OS device.

According to a new report, the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 will feature a battery with a rated capacity of 784mAh. This would likely be marketed as an 800mAh cell when the watch launches. If accurate, that would represent a jump of more than 30% over the current Galaxy Watch Ultra’s already sizeable 590mAh battery.

Battery life has become one of the biggest battlegrounds for smartwatch makers. This is especially true in the Wear OS world, where many devices still struggle to make it comfortably through multiple days of use. That’s what makes this rumoured upgrade stand out.

For comparison, reports suggest Samsung will equip the upcoming 40mm Galaxy Watch 9 with a 382mAh battery. Meanwhile, Google’s latest Pixel Watch 4 models pack 325mAh and 455mAh cells, depending on size. On paper at least, the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 would offer almost double the battery capacity of many mainstream Wear OS watches.

Of course, battery size doesn’t automatically translate into battery life. Factors such as display efficiency, software optimisation and processor performance all play a major role. However, the original Galaxy Watch Ultra already ranks among the better-performing Wear OS watches for endurance. As a result, a larger battery could make its successor even more appealing for users who prioritise longevity over slim designs.

The report also suggests Samsung will pair the new watch with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite platform. This platform will power several upcoming flagship smartwatches. If the chip delivers meaningful efficiency gains alongside the larger battery, Samsung could be looking at a substantial real-world improvement.

It’s also shaping up to be the first major refresh of the Ultra line since the original model launched. While last year’s update focused largely on refinements, the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is beginning to look like a more significant upgrade. This could be especially true if battery life becomes its headline feature.

Samsung is widely expected to unveil the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 in July alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 8.

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ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo With RTX 5090 Now Available for Pre-Order in India

Published

1 hour ago

11 June 2026

NewsAdmin

It’s no secret that Asus knows how to make gaming laptops. But what if you’re tired of the conventional gaming laptop that has a screen on top and a keyboard on the bottom? That’s exactly the problem Asus wants to solve, as it has just opened pre-orders for its latest premium gaming product in India. The new lineup is headlined by the flagship ROG Zephyrus Duo, which features two screens and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card. Along with that, the company has also announced refreshed versions of the Zephyrus G14 and G16, the TUF Gaming A14, and the creator-focused ProArt PZ14. Here’s everything you need to know about them.

What’s Up With The Zephyrus Duo?

The biggest announcement is the new ROG Zephyrus Duo, ASUS’s latest take on the dual-screen gaming laptop concept. The laptop features two 16-inch 3K OLED touch displays, allowing users to run games, editing tools, livestream controls, or AI applications simultaneously. ASUS says the system is powered by up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 Series 3 processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card.

The secondary display can be used for multitasking, while a 320-degree hinge and detachable wireless keyboard allow the laptop to be used in multiple modes. ASUS has also included its Intelligent Cooling system with liquid metal thermal compound and a tri-fan setup to keep temperatures under control. The ROG Zephyrus Duo starts at ₹5,49,990, while the top-end RTX 5090 variant costs ₹6,99,990.

Zephyrus and TUF Series Get RTX 50-Series Upgrades

ASUS has also refreshed its popular Zephyrus G14 and G16 gaming laptops with NVIDIA’s latest RTX 50-series GPUs. The Zephyrus G14 continues to target users who want a powerful gaming laptop in a compact package. It weighs just 1.5kg and features a 3K ROG Nebula HDR OLED display with 100% DCI-P3 color coverage. ASUS pairs the display with Intel Core Ultra processors and up to RTX 5070 Ti graphics.

The larger Zephyrus G16 is aimed at users looking for more screen real estate without sacrificing portability. Despite packing a 16-inch display and a 90Wh battery, the laptop weighs under 2kg. It comes with Intel Core Ultra 9 processors and up to RTX 5080 graphics, depending on the configuration.

ASUS has also announced the TUF Gaming A14, a more affordable gaming laptop that weighs just 1.46kg. The laptop runs on AMD’s new AI-powered Gorgon Point processor paired with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 graphics. ASUS says it has been designed for students, gamers, and creators who need a portable machine without giving up gaming performance.

Pricing starts at:

TUF A14 – ₹1,99,990
Zephyrus G14 Refresh – ₹2,59,990
Zephyrus G14 RTX 5070 – ₹3,69,990
Zephyrus G16 RTX 5070 Ti – ₹4,19,990
Zephyrus G16 RTX 5080 – ₹5,09,990

ProArt PZ14 for Creators

For creators, ASUS has introduced the new ProArt PZ14, a lightweight 2-in-1 device with a detachable keyboard. The laptop features a 14-inch 3K ASUS Lumina Pro OLED touchscreen with 100% DCI-P3 coverage and Pantone validation. It is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite processor and offers up to 80 TOPS of AI performance. ASUS says the device can deliver up to 22 hours of battery life and supports the ASUS Pen for creators who sketch, design, or edit on the go. The ProArt PZ14 is priced at ₹2,69,990.

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YouTube Appears to Be Making Money Off of Sanctioned Iranians’ Accounts

Published

2 hours ago

11 June 2026

NewsAdmin

As the US war with Iran continues to roil the Middle East, new research shared exclusively with WIRED shows that YouTube is hosting and possibly profiting from dozens of channels linked to US-sanctioned groups linked to the Iranian government, including many with direct ties to the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The research, from the nonprofit Tech Transparency Project, identified more than 75 channels that appear to be run by entities that have been officially sanctioned by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which has been enforcing sanctions against Iran for decades.

The channels have been monetized, meaning that YouTube runs ads on their videos that generate revenue. The researchers documented ads for companies ranging from Subaru to Verizon, TurboTax, the weight-loss drug Ozempic, and fast-food outlet KFC. In one case, the researchers observed an ad for the US Customs and Border Protection running on a video produced by Iran’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts.

“That means YouTube placed an ad paid for with US tax dollars on a channel for an Iranian government ministry,” the researchers wrote. US Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment.

“The numerous holders of all these YouTube channels include Iranian individuals and entities that aren’t just subject to the comprehensive US embargo on Iran, but sanctioned by OFAC under a variety of its sanctions programs, including counterterrorism, nonproliferation, human rights abuses, or those specific to the Iranian government more generally,” Kian Meshkat, an attorney specializing in US economic sanctions who reviewed the research, tells WIRED.

“Google is committed to compliance with applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws,” says Google spokesperson Nate Funkhouser. “If we find that an account violates our policies, we take appropriate action.”

YouTube was officially banned in Iran in 2012, but it continues to be used by the regime to share propaganda. Google’s own publisher policies, which apply to YouTube, make it clear that the company’s ad tools “may not be used for or on behalf” of parties in Iran.

In 2024, YouTube did take some action, shutting down an account associated with Iran’s foreign ministry. ”Due to established US sanctions, Iran’s state-owned channels are not permitted on YouTube,” the company said at the time.

TTP’s researchers trawled the platform for the names of individuals directly sanctioned by the US as a threat to national security, as well as for accounts seemingly run by Iranian government officials, identifying a total of 84 channels. All showed ads in the videos on their channels, including in-feed ads, in-stream ads, and YouTube Shorts ads.

Among the sanctioned individuals identified were Babak Zanjani, a businessman helping Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps evade sanctions; Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s new supreme leader who threatened US forces in the region; and Naji Sharifi Zindashti, who is accused of targeting Iranian dissidents abroad for assassination, including two residents of Maryland.

Al-Mustafa International University, an Iranian Islamic seminary school sanctioned in 2020 for indoctrinating and recruiting foreign intelligence sources, has at least four YouTube channels, according to the researchers, including English- and French-language channels. The channels, which feature video courses and lectures, were monetized with in-stream and in-feed ads, including ads for BJ’s Wholesale Club and Warner Bros.’ horror film They Will Kill You.

Among the government entities identified as having YouTube channels showing ads was Iran’s Counterterrorism Special Forces unit, which has been accused of using lethal force on unarmed protesters. Iran’s state broadcaster, the Fars News Agency, which is well known for spreading disinformation and propaganda, also has a YouTube channel showing ads.

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Opendoor’s India exit is fueling a bigger conversation about AI and outsourcing

Published

2 hours ago

11 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Opendoor, the San Francisco-based online home-buying platform, is shutting down its India operations less than two years after expanding its presence in the country. The decision has become a flashpoint in the debate over whether AI is starting to alter the economics of offshore work.

In announcing the decision on Wednesday, CEO Kaz Nejatian cited a push to bring operational work back to the U.S., where Opendoor’s customers are, and a shift toward smaller AI-native teams. The company did not respond to requests for comment on how many employees were affected or how much of the decision was driven by AI efficiency. But the announcement quickly gained traction across Silicon Valley, where founders, investors, and outsourcing experts see it as an early example of how AI is reshaping the economics that made India a global hub for back-office operations.

To understand why they care, it helps to know what’s at stake for India. It has evolved far beyond its roots as a destination for outsourced back-office work. The country is now the world’s largest Global Capability Center market — a term for dedicated offshore units multinationals set up to handle everything from IT and finance to R&D — with more than 2,100 centers employing about 2.36 million people and generating nearly $100 billion in annual revenue.

Opendoor itself had built a large team in India to handle manual workflows across fragmented systems, Nejatian said. The company had nearly 250 employees in India when it opened offices in Chennai and Bengaluru in 2024. But the entire company has been scaling back in recent years. Securities filings show Opendoor employed 1,042 people globally at the end of last year, compared with 1,470 a year earlier. Similarly, its non-U.S. workforce declined to 184 employees at the end of last year, compared with 342 employees at the end of 2024.

Those broader workforce reductions make it difficult to view the India closure solely through the lens of outsourcing. Opendoor has been cutting costs across the business after a difficult period for the U.S. housing market that hit online home-buying companies especially hard. Still, the language Nejatian used to explain the move resonated with investors and outsourcing analysts who see AI reshaping how companies organize operational work.

Some investors viewed the decision as a sign of what AI could mean for India’s vast outsourcing workforce. “As manual work gets replaced by AI, a lot of jobs will be lost in India,” wrote Sheel Mohnot, co-founder of Better Tomorrow Ventures.

Others viewed Opendoor as evidence of a larger shift in how companies are organized. Keshav Lohia, a venture capitalist at Emergent Ventures, described the decision as a “watershed moment” for AI-driven operations, arguing that advances in AI are beginning to challenge the cost-arbitrage model that made India a popular offshoring destination.

Phil Fersht, chief executive of HFS Research, an advisory firm that tracks the global outsourcing and business services industry, told TechCrunch that the development should not be viewed simply as jobs moving from India to the U.S. The more important shift, he said, is that AI is reducing the amount of operational labor companies require in the first place, allowing firms to run leaner organizations regardless of location.

“This is not an isolated restructuring,” Fersht said. “It is part of a much broader pattern we are starting to see as companies redesign operations around AI, automation, and much leaner workflows.”

Fersht argued that the winners would be companies that combine AI, software and human expertise to deliver outcomes without continually adding headcount, a model he described as “Services-as-Software.” While Opendoor may be one of the first high-profile examples, he said it is unlikely to be the last.

Some investors are already extrapolating beyond individual companies. Varun Rekhi, a venture capitalist at Speedinvest, argued that if AI reduces demand for labor-intensive services, it could eventually pressure one of India’s most important export industries, which is built around supplying talent and expertise to global corporations.

For now, Opendoor remains a complicated case study — a company that has been cutting headcount broadly for years, and whose India exit may say as much about its own struggles as it does about the future of AI and offshore work.

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Yet another UK school closure owing to cyberattack

Published

2 hours ago

11 June 2026

NewsAdmin

CYBER-CRIMe

Great Marlow restricts network access while it investigates suspected infection

Great Marlow School in Buckinghamshire, England, has entered its second day of a shutdown following “a suspected malware incident.”

Only students sitting their GCSE and A-level exams – those in Years 11 and 13 – were permitted to attend on Wednesday, in line with their exam timetable, and the same goes for Thursday.

Students in other years (Years 6-10 and Year 12) were told to stay at home and access what revision materials they can via Microsoft Teams as teachers are currently unable to set them any work.

Those scheduled to take internal mock exams, students in Years 10 and 12, will sit them later in the year. Some extracurricular activities, such as Year 7’s learn-to-row session, have been rearranged, although the 7 and 8 athletics event will go ahead on Thursday as planned.

Great Marlow School’s statement suggests it remains in the containment stage of its recovery, with limited access to systems.

“As a precautionary measure, we have restricted access to elements of our network while we investigate the issue thoroughly and take the necessary steps to ensure the security and integrity of our systems and data,” headteacher Guy Pendlebury said in a statement on the school’s website on Tuesday evening.

“We are responding in line with guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Immediate action has been taken to contain the incident, and we are working closely with specialist IT and cybersecurity professionals to fully assess the situation and restore normal operations as quickly and safely as possible. Appropriate reporting procedures have also been followed.”

The school did not comment on whether the attack involved ransomware or if any of its data was presumed compromised.

It adds to a grim week for cybersecurity in the education sector. A high school in Illinois also closed for two days this week due to a ransomware attack, but reopened on Wednesday, although its phone lines are still down. And Nottingham Uni confirmed it was the victim of Shiny Hunters.

In Wales, 13 schools across the Powys region were affected by a cyberattack that is thought to have led to data theft from only one of these institutions.

Powys council disclosed the attack on June 4, saying it was originally identified in April, and sensitive data belonging to students and school staff is suspected of being compromised.

None of the 13 schools have closed, however. ®

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