It’s pretty clear that EVs and software defined vehicles (SDVs) go hand-in-hand these days, and while Tesla paved the way with the Model 3 back in 2017, Rivian, Lucid, and Chinese manufacturers quickly followed. The legacy car manufacturers are taking a while longer to get on board, but are finally catching up. Companies like Hyundai Motor Group, General Motors, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz are starting to launch full SDVs.

SDVs for the win

Kini is very reliable. I tested it in a drawer and a cabinet, and it always alerted me when they were opened. It also keeps a log with times listed. While alerts go via the cloud, maker Kinisium says it doesn’t collect data, and you can turn off logging entirely if you prefer. Kini also has a Stasis mode, so you can reverse it and have it alert you when there has been no movement for a set period. This makes it a versatile monitoring device, and you could use this mode to ensure an elderly relative opens their medicine cabinet each day or check what time your dog walker opened a door. Kini is also compatible with IFTTT for automation, and there’s even a webhook integration that can send notifications to a custom URL.

More Motion Sensors

There are loads of other motion sensors that can alert you to motion or presence in an area or room and trigger lighting, but the right one for you depends on your current smart-home setup.

I really like the Eve Motion Sensor, but if you want it to trigger alerts, you need a smart-home hub, and you must set up an automation. It’s a reliable sensor that works indoors or out. I tested it with a Google Home system.

The Aqara FP2 Presence Sensor ($83) has many features, including zonal and multiple person detection, and is compatible with all the major smart-home ecosystems, though it’s not always very accurate at identifying the number of people in the room. The more affordable Aqara FP300 ($50) is a good enough presence detector for most folks and can also track light, temperature, and humidity.

The Switchbot Presence Sensor ($30) is the most affordable sensor I tested and has a similar feature set, but you will need a Switchbot hub if you want alerts, and there’s a lag between it detecting and alerting.

The Philips Hue Outdoor Motion Sensor is excellent, but only if you already have a Hue setup, because it needs a Hue Bridge to connect to. I installed the sensor in my backyard and tested it with the Bridge Pro. It reliably detects people with few false positives. I configured my outdoor sensor to turn on a backyard light strip (not Hue) after sunset and send me a notification when triggered between specific hours (midnight and 6 am) using Google Gemini.

There’s also a Philips Hue Indoor Motion Sensor and a Contact Sensor ($40) for doors and windows. Both are very reliable and can be configured to trigger alerts.

Smart Light Sensing

As an interesting alternative to dedicated motion sensors, you can also use some smart lights for detect presence and motion indoors.

Wiz SpaceSense

If you have a few Wiz lights, you can try SpaceSense, which uses Wi-Fi to detect motion in rooms. I wasn’t that impressed when I tried SpaceSense, but how effectively it works depends on how many Wiz lights you have and where they are located. I was also testing it as a way to automatically turn lights on, and there’s some lag that limits its usefulness on that score. But as a security alert that can tell you when there’s motion in your home when you’re away, it could be very useful. If you already have Wiz lights, you may as well try it, as it doesn’t require a subscription.

Philips Hue MotionAware

Signify is the parent company of Wiz and Philips Hue, and MotionAware is very similar to SpaceSense, but it uses Zigbee, rather than Wi-Fi. Again, how well it works depends on the number of Philips Hue lights you have and their layout. Unfortunately, it does require a subscription if you want to receive alerts. MotionAware can trigger lights at no extra cost, but if you want motion alerts, you must pay $1 per month or $10 for the year. It is also included in Hue Secure subscriptions from $4 per month.

More Security System Alternatives

SimpliSafe

8-Piece Wireless Home Security System

You might consider a modular security system. We like the Simplisafe system, which offers a base station, keypad, and a range of sensors. You can also find modular systems from security stalwarts like ADT and Vivint, and security camera makers like Eufy and Arlo.

The Department of Justice says that federal employees can now download TikTok on their government devices, according to Reuters.

A 2022 law banned federal employees from using the short-form video app on those devices, but the DOJ reportedly says the law no longer applies, thanks to a deal transferring ownership of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a joint venture backed by Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. (Oracle serves as the security partner for the new joint venture, while previous owner ByteDance retains a 19.9% stake.)

The DOJ memo reportedly says President Donald Trump has cleared “employees of Executive Branch agencies” to “download TikTok onto their official devices, subject ​to the agency’s discretion and consistent with all applicable workplace policies.”

Following the ban focused on government employees and devices, the app was banned more broadly across the United States. But just as the law took effect early last year, the app only went down briefly before Trump repeatedly delayed the move and urged service providers to restore access.

Kylian Mbappe is set to face Real Madrid team-mate Jude Bellingham as France take on England in the FIFA World Cup 2026 third place play-off in Miami — and you can live stream the game around the world for free.

Les Bleus were many people’s favourites to win the tournament, but a deeply disappointing 2-0 defeat by Spain in the semi-finals ended their hopes of lifting the World Cup for a third time. While a bronze medal would feel like scant consolation, France will nonetheless be motivated to triumph. Manager Didier Deschamps ends a hugely successful 14-year spell in charge of Les Bleus after this game and he will be keen to finish on a high, while captain Mbappe heads into the last weekend of the tournament level on eight goals with Lionel Messi in the race for the Golden Boot.

Hours of San Francisco Police Department drone video footage exposed on the open web illustrates a new era of incredibly granular—and consequential—urban surveillance. Meanwhile, the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office sent cease-and-desist letters to Apple and Google this week demanding that the tech giants delete 13 AI nudifying “face-swap” apps from their app stores that are almost exclusively used to target women and girls.

Since WIRED first reported in June about Meta’s NameTag face-recognition system, company executives have made opaque and conflicting comments about whether the feature even exists. We took a step back to lay out both the claims and the facts about the very real system.

In a speech on Thursday, President Donald Trump continued to push unsubstantiated and thoroughly debunked claims about interference in the 2020 US election. He even promised massive revelations in a trove of documents posted to the White House website, but the files did not prove his assertions—and in some cases actually contradicted Trump’s claims.

As adoption of AI tools rapidly expands and their capabilities increase, the tech giant Anthropic continued a push to get US states to regulate AI. Speaking about AI transparency requirements in California and New York from last year, Anthropic’s head of US state and local government relations, Cesar Fernandez, told WIRED this week, “The transparency-focused safety bills of 2025 were a really important start, but as the capabilities of AI systems continue to advance quickly—the policy responses need to match.”

And there’s more. Each week, we round up the security and privacy news we didn’t cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.

The astrology-themed period tracker Stardust sends users’ reproductive health details—birth control type, pregnancy status, moods, and symptoms as specific as tender breasts and stomach cramps—to a data firm not named in its privacy policy, according to the BBC, which first reported a Mozilla Foundation audit of six popular trackers produced in partnership with Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center.

Stardust scored 2 out of 10, the worst of the group. Mozilla researcher Shoshana Wodinsky found the app pings third-party trackers from the moment it opens, before a user enters anything; the instant she logged a symptom, the details went to analytics firm RudderStack alongside a persistent user ID, with no in-app way to shut the sharing off. RudderStack is built to route data onward to destinations Mozilla couldn’t observe. Stardust also hands Facebook an ad identifier that ties in-app behavior to the platform’s existing profiles. The company told TechCrunch it has never received a legal demand for user data.

Euki, a nonprofit-run tracker, earned a perfect 10: no account required, health data never leaves the phone, and users can set a PIN, schedule automatic deletion, or pull up a decoy screen if someone forces the phone open. Its one soft spot is an in-app browser for educational pages that loads the usual web trackers, but it also resets identifiers between visits.

Russia’s FSB has long had a reputation for highly sophisticated cyberespionage, leaving disruptive cyberattacks to its fellow hackers in the country’s GRU military intelligence agency. But sanctions from the EU and UK this week, along with an advisory from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI, and the NSA, pinned a cyberattack against the Polish electric grid on Center 16 of the FSB, a rare example of the Kremlin agency carrying out a cyberattack that nearly caused outages in the country’s electric and water utilities. The attack, which the Polish government has said came “very close” to causing a blackout, was initially attributed by cybersecurity firms Dragos and ESET to Sandworm, also known as Unit 74455 of the GRU, a more usual suspect in infrastructure hacking given its active role in Russia’s long-running cyberwar against Ukraine. But the Polish computer emergency response team at the time disputed that finding and tied the attack to the FSB, a conclusion now supported by a wide consensus of Western governments. The incident suggests that the FSB may be taking on some of the reckless, highly aggressive tendencies—and targeting—of its GRU coworkers.

For years, the Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky has been alleged to have ties to the Russian government, including by US officials who banned use of the company’s products within the US government and eventually by all American customers. Yet overt evidence of those connections has been scarce. Now Reuters reports that Denis Obrezko, a Russian man facing hacking charges in Boston and an alleged member of a hacker group known as Void Blizzard or Laundry Bear, spent two years working at Kaspersky. His stint at the company took place just before he joined another cybersecurity company, Yutek-NN, where he allegedly took part in the group’s hacking campaign that stole data and communications from numerous NATO governments and at least 11 US companies, according to US prosecutors. Prior to Kaspersky, Obrevko also allegedly worked at the FSB, neatly bookending his time at the company with apparent work for Russia’s intelligence services.

Obrevko has pleaded not guilty to the hacking charges. Kaspersky responded in a statement to Reuters that “the offenses charged cannot be related to the individual’s role or responsibilities during the employment at Kaspersky.”

In an incident that will induce anxiety in anyone responsible for assessing suspicious network activity, DHS officials ruled—twice—that signs of a hacker breach in its data-sharing Homeland Security Information Network platform were false positives when they were, in fact, signs of a very real intrusion. HSIN, used for sharing unclassified data between state, local, and federal agencies, as well as foreign partners, was breached by hackers two months ago, according to reporting from Nextgov/FCW. Analysts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency spotted signs of hacker activity in mid-May—altering files and code, hijacking a legitimate web server, and deleting logs of their behavior—but the findings were dismissed as a false positive.

In the weeks that followed, the hackers returned, were again detected, and were again dismissed as a mirage. It’s not clear why the signs of the breach were misjudged, but the incidents may represent federal analysts’ increasing challenges in detecting “living off the land” hacking techniques that use legitimate features of networks to access target assets on a network rather than planting more easily spotted malware. While the HSIN houses only unclassified data, the information is “highly sensitive,” Senate Intelligence Committee vice chair Mark Warner said in a statement following the report of the breach, and “its exposure risks national security.”

The AI music startup Suno scraped millions of songs, lyrics, and podcasts from YouTube Music, Deezer, Genius, and a string of stock-audio libraries to train its models, according to 404 Media, which reviewed internal data provided by a hacker who breached the company. The intrusion also exposed account information for hundreds of thousands of customers, including emails, phone numbers, and Stripe payment records.

Dataset notes in source code apparently from 2023 and 2024 tally 113,879 hours of YouTube Music audio alone, plus tens of thousands more from Pond5, Deezer, and other libraries—decades of music in total. Other files show Suno routing its YouTube scraping through Bright Data proxies and using PodcastIndex to target roughly 1 million hours of podcasts. The hacker, who goes by ellie.191, says they broke in by compromising an employee with the Shai-Hulud worm.

The files seemingly corroborate the record industry’s central allegation that Suno pulled songs directly from YouTube. The company, which argues that its training qualifies as fair use and settled with Warner Music Group last November, said the breach involved outdated code and no sensitive personal information—though customers whose data appeared in a sample shared with 404 Media said they were never notified.

The original lawsuit was filed in 2023 and claimed Twitter hosted thousands of cases of copyright infringement.

On first impressions, the Laifen T1 Pro wows. Open the box and you’re greeted with Apple-inspired packaging, while the shaver itself immediately looks the part. Its CNC-machined unibody aluminium body looks and feels genuinely premium and, if you’re used to cheaper shavers like the Philips OneBlade – my usual razor – it’s impossible not to grin at the magnetically attached shaving head, which somehow manages to feel genuinely futuristic.

Modern conveniences like USB-C charging, an aeroplane mode to stop the power button being pressed in your bag while travelling and IPX7 waterproofing all add to the premium feel. Based on the spec sheet and those first impressions, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Laifen T1 Pro was one of the best electric shavers on the market.

from the so-very-free-speechy dept

JK Rowling has spoken about how she wrote the first Harry Potter book while she was employed at Amnesty International and how much that experience influenced her writing, and how she learned “the power of human empathy” from working there. Rowling was also, you’ll recall, one of the high profile signers of the infamous Harper’s Letter on “open debate.”

Now she’s threatening to bankrupt Amnesty International for expressing an opinion about Beira’s Place, a “women only” charity Rowling created.

Amnesty International UK had released a report, expressing its well-supported opinion about so-called “anti-rights actors,” specifically calling out a number of groups that it believed, through their statements or actions, sought to “restrict human rights by undermining human rights protections in law and practice.” It had a section on “anti-gender” efforts by some groups which have targeted trans rights and pointed out that:

“Human rights are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. When the rights of one group are restricted, protections for others can also be weakened, even where the effects are not immediately visible.”

This should be a fairly non-controversial statement. But, the report named a number of organizations that it deemed to be “gender critical,” which are, in effect, organizations that have — through their words or actions — done damage to trans rights in particular, and the wider LGBTQ+ space.

No matter your stance on any of this, expressing an opinion about an organization should be seen as part of their free speech and… what’s the term Rowling used in the Harper’s letter? Right, “open debate.”

But, no, not here. One of the organizations that Amnesty mentioned was Beira’s Place, which Rowling helped create as an organization to provide support for female victims of sexual violence. However, aligned with Rowling’s transphobic views and campaigning, the organization proudly insists that it is for “women only.” Beira’s Place and the constant verbiage surrounding it about being for “women only” have certainly contributed to the sense that it is another part of Rowling’s transphobic mission to diminish and deny rights of transgender women.

To look at Rowling’s X feed, for example, is to witness a near never-ending stream of gleefully obnoxious and petty attacks on trans people who speak up for their own rights. I’d post examples, but I’d rather not give any more attention to that sort of hateful messaging.

Thus it’s entirely reasonable to have and express the opinion that Beira’s Place and other operations that refuse to recognize the rights of trans women (and trans men) are “anti-rights.” I mean, literally part of Beira’s Place’s messaging to the world has been its anti-trans stance.

After all, as the statement above notes, when you deny rights to one group, you are weakening rights for all. And, look, even if you somehow agree with Rowling, if you actually believed in free speech and “open debate” you should at least support Amnesty UK in expressing their opinion that being anti-trans is being anti-rights.

But Rowling seems to absolutely loathe any actual “open debate” regarding her views towards the trans community. Thus, she spoke out angrily about the Amnesty report, leading to a media fury, and causing the organization to pull it down. She has also demanded an apology and threatened to sue the organization:

Lawyers acting for the centre have threatened Amnesty with court action unless it permanently withdraws the report, publicly apologises to the blacklisted groups and commissions an external investigation into how it came to be published.

The letter said: “The [Amnesty] report has wrongly labelled all associated with Beira’s Place, including those accessing support as anti-rights bigots who are seeking to weaken human rights.

“This is a shocking way to describe those who are seeking help to overcome the trauma of sexual violence. There is no basis for these allegations, and our client, with the support of its founder JK Rowling, will not sit back and allow the reputation of Beira’s Place or those who access its support to be tarnished in this way.”

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And to make it clear she seeks to burden Amnesty UK with as many costly lawsuits as possible, she’s offering to fund other organizations that wish to sue Amnesty International UK over this report.

That’s her tweeting:

Should any of the women’s organisations targeted by Amnesty UK’s recent ‘anti-rights’ blacklist wish to take legal action, applications can be made to the JK Rowling Women’s Fund.

So much for free speech and open debate, huh?

Rowling has a right to express her own bigotry and hateful views. But Amnesty International and anyone else should also be able to express their opinion that by her words and her deeds she is doing real harm to the rights of trans people worldwide. But Rowling is making every effort to shut that down.

I am sure that Rowling and her supporters will claim, ridiculously, that because she views Beira’s Place and her other anti-trans activism as “pro-women’s rights” that it is somehow defamatory to call it anti-rights. But that’s why it’s a protected opinion. Whether or not one’s views and actions are pro or anti-rights is, inherently, an opinion.

My opinion is that Rowling is a hateful, angry woman who has done tremendous harm to some of the most marginalized people in the world for no reason at all, and her wink wink nod nod “I’m just supporting women’s rights” bullshit as cover for that is both craven and pathetic. She has contributed to a hateful, anti-rights movement that has put millions of people at greater risk. That she is now seeking to effectively silence and potentially destroy the organization that she, herself, claims was so valuable in getting her to understand the value of human empathy is a particularly sad statement on where her life has taken her.

Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for literally any of her Harper’s Letter co-signers to call out her attacks on the organization’s speech, and threats to their existence for expressing an opinion she doesn’t like. Apparently, that kind of “open debate” is too much?

Filed Under: defamation, free speech, human rights, jk rowling, lgbtq, terfs, trans rights

Companies: amnesty international, beira’s place

The Honda Prologue, you may have heard, is officially dead — a decision the company confirmed to TechCrunch, removing the last all-electric vehicle from the automaker’s U.S. portfolio. The Prologue’s departure signals more than Honda’s EV backpedaling. It also illustrates a broader EV industry retreat from the U.S. market (in stark contrast to the rest of the world).

The demise of the Honda Prologue got us thinking: What other EVs have left the U.S., and why?

The end of the $7,500 federal tax credit had an outsized effect on EV sales in the United States. But there are other reasons behind the winnowing choices, including tariffs, changing consumer tastes, costs, company priorities, and regulatory action. According to data published in July by Kelley Blue Book and Cox Automotive, 247,226 EVs were sold in the second quarter or about 5.8% of the total market. While EV sales grew between the first and second quarters of 2026, they are still down from the same period last year (and before that tax credit ended in fall 2025).

Still Americans are still buying EVs, and there are new EVs entering the U.S. market — the Rivian R2 is one example. And there are signs of a slow recovery. Fourth quarter 2025 sales were 36% lower than the same period in 2024. This year that gap has narrowed, albeit still below sales figures from the previous year. For example, EV sales in Q2 were 20.5% lower than the same period in 2025.

Even with a recovery underway, automakers are pulling the plug on many EV modes. Here are those ones that have left or are leaving. TechCrunch will periodically update this list of EVs that have left, or are leaving, the U.S. market in 2026.

Afeela

Ah, Afeela we never even knew ya.

The Afeela got its start as the Vision S, a prototype announced by Sony in 2020 at the Consumer Electronics and that ended up being one of the big, surprising reveals of the annual tech trade show. Honda entered the picture in 2022 when the two Japanese conglomerates announced a joint venture; they showed off an Afeela-branded prototype the following year.

In the months and years that followed, there was constant barrage of updates about the Afeela, which seemed to be everywhere, and yet nowhere. It was even displayed at TechCrunch Disrupt one year.

The Afeela, despite the marketing blitz, never made it into production. In March 2026, the joint venture gave up on the two Afeela-branded EVs. The move followed Honda’s decision, announced just a two weeks before, to cancel three EVs planned for the U.S. market.

Honda (and Acura!)

It was just a couple of years ago that Honda declared its EV ambitions with its O Series, including a mid-sized SUV prototype that debuted at the CES 2025 tech trade show and its futuristic Saloon and Space-Hub concepts the year before. The SUV, which was slated for production at Honda’s “EV Hub” factory in Ohio, was supposed to debut in North America in the first half of 2026.

Honda stopped development of the Acura RDX, Honda O sedan and SUV in March 2026 as part of a major overhaul of the company’s EV plans. The company blamed U.S. tariffs and Chinese competition for the decision.

There was also chatter at the time that Honda was planning to stop production of the Prologue, but there was no official announcement until July 16 when CarBuzz was the first to report that the Prologue program was ending. TechCrunch confirmed with Honda that the Prologue was going out of production.

The death of the Series 0 is difficult to measure since it never went into production. The Prologue represented more grounded goals than the O Series, and one that actually went into production and sold to U.S. consumers. The Prologue was a product of a partnership with General Motors — it is built at GM’s Ramos Assembly Plant in Mexico — and closely related to the Chevrolet Blazer EV. And it did OK for awhile, selling roughly 33,000 units in 2024 and 39,000 in 2025, before the tax credit ended and sales went into a free fall.

Hyundai

The Korean automaker has actually done quite well selling EVs to Americans. But it has made a few changes based on changing economics. In March, the company said it would no longer sell the Hyundai Ioniq 6 in the U.S., a decision that was likely tied to tariffs. The Ioniq 6 is made in South Korean and imported to the U.S., while its Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 models are assembled at its Georgia factory.

The company has said it will continue to import its more expensive, lower volume N-model of the Ioniq 6.

Nissan

Nissan decided last year it would not produce a 2026 model year of its all-electric Ariya SUV for the U.S. market. And it doesn’t appear to be returning. Nissan first unveiled the Ariya in 2020 and planned to start selling it in Japan the following year.

The Ariya was the first all-electric to come out of Nissan since the early EV pioneer introduced the Leaf hatchback a decade ago.

Polestar

Swedish EV maker Polestar, owned by Chinese automotive giant Geely, has been forced to leave U.S. over the country’s ban on Chinese-connected vehicle technology. Polestar needed specific authorization from the U.S. Department of Commerce to continue importing and selling its vehicles in the United States.

Without it, Polestar has been effectively banned from the United States. The company said it would continue selling its existing stock of Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 vehicles in the U.S., and that it will “continue to support customers, including providing access to its service network.” The Polestar 3 was assembled at a factory in South Carolina and in Chengdu, China.

Volvo Cars, Polestar’s sibling company that is also owned by Geely, did receive the authorization.

Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X

Tesla announced in January that it would end production of the Model S sedan and Model X SUV to make way for what the company views is the future. And it’s not a traditional electric sedan or SUV. In Tesla’s view, the future is AI, autonomy, and robots. It’s worth noting that sales of the S and X have fallen steadily over the years as consumers turned to its high volume and cheaper vehicles, the Model 3 and Model Y.

The last Model S and X vehicles rolled off the assembly line this spring. The company recently removed the assembly lines for the S and X at its Fremont, California factory to make room for production of its Optimus robots.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen has pulled back on the ID. 4 electric SUV and the ID Buzz.

In April, Volkswagen said it would no longer produce the ID.4 at its U.S. factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee in a shift to high-volume vehicles like its upcoming gas-powered Atlas SUV. The company said, at the time, U.S. customers will be able to buy the ID.4 until the current inventory runs out. VW said it expects U.S. inventory to last into 2027.

To be clear, Volkswagen has said the ID Buzz is merely on a hiatus and will return in 2027. But there is no 2026 model.

There are, however self-driving versions of the ID buzz currently being tested in the United States. Volkswagen subsidiary MOIA America and Uber started testing autonomous microbuses in Los Angeles in April in preparation for a robotaxi service that is supposed to launch in late 2026. When the service initially launches there the vehicles will have himan safety operators.

Volvo

Volvo decided in March that it would pull its subcompact EX30 and EX30 Cross Country variant from the U.S. market. The company said at the time that production for the U.S. would end sfter the summer. The EX30 had a promising start. It recieved a lot of attention prior to it official entry into the U.S. in 2025, and it was the company’s more affordable EV option.

Volvo does plan to continue selling the larger, all-electric EX60 and EX90 SUVs in the United States.