On Wednesday, January 7, federal immigration enforcement and deportation officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good at approximately 9:37 am local time. That same day, an official from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) texted a Federal Bureau of Investigation counterpart, repeatedly requesting access to the crime scene evidence.

But according to records WIRED obtained through a public records request, the FBI did not respond for at least two days.

The texts appear to have been sent shortly before the FBI, according to the BCA, told the agency that the investigation into Good’s death would “be led solely by the FBI” and that the BCA “would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation.”

The texts provide new insight on a breakdown in communication between the two agencies that eventually contributed to the BCA, Hennepin County Attorney, and the state of Minnesota filing a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, which includes the FBI. The lawsuit, filed on March 24, demands that federal authorities give state and local law enforcement access to investigative material relevant to the shootings of Good; Alex Pretti, a nurse shot and killed by Border Patrol agents on January 24; and Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan Minneapolis resident shot and injured by a federal immigration agent on January 14.

“The longstanding practice of cooperation and evidence-sharing between federal and Minnesota law enforcement authorities broke down during DHS’s Operation Metro Surge,” the lawsuit claims, adding that this partnership “abruptly ended once federal leadership became involved.”

In response to WIRED’s request for all emails, text messages, and digital communications the agency exchanged with the FBI on January 7 and January 8, the day the public record request was filed, the agency provided an image showing texts exchanged between a top BCA official and the FBI. (The agency added that “no emails were discovered.”)

The image obtained by WIRED, which was seemingly captured between January 9 and 13, shows text messages that appear to have been sent from an iOS device. The BCA says that the texts were sent on January 7 by Drew Evans, the agency’s superintendent to an individual whose name is redacted but is identified in Evans’ device as an “FBI ASAC,” or assistant special agent in charge. The FBI’s Minneapolis branch currently has three people with that title, according to its website.

The only text the FBI agent sent was delivered at 11:17 am local time. The message was mostly redacted by the BCA, but it begins with “ERO”—an apparent reference to Enforcement and Removal Operations, the ICE branch that oversees arrests, detainments, and deportations.

At 12:56 pm, Evans sent three messages to the FBI agent in quick succession.

“Can you be sure with your folks to include us on interviews,” Evans began. “It sounds like they have tried to do some and keep us out of them. I know this is a little challenging, but it really helps us to just have one set of interviews/interactions so we have a common understanding of the facts and information.”

“We are going to cancel crime scene – sounds like a lot of federal agents showed up to confront the crow[d] and it’s getting very contentious now,” Evans wrote in the second text. “We are in a lot of these in that city and our [special agent in charge] is working with your folks to clear – really unfortunate we did not get this done.”

The beginning of Evans’ next message was redacted, but likely includes the name of the FBI agent. “Do you think once they get [things] a little under control today our management teams and team leaders should connect today yet?” Evans wrote in the third text. “We could do it at your office at a time that makes sense once they can breathe a bit?”

Protesters began gathering near the site of Good’s killing shortly after news of her death began circulating. The lawsuit eventually co-filed by BCA claims that on January 7, its investigators had “trusted that important evidence gathered by federal investigators”—including Good’s car, the ICE agent’s gun, and the shell casings at the scene—would be available to them.

Update (8:45 AM PT): Spotify has now officially begun rolling out the feature globally, confirming that you can disable all video content across music and podcasts. The new controls are being added to settings across mobile, desktop, web, and TV. The company will also allow Premium and Basic users across Individual, Duo, Family, and Student plans, along with free users, to control how video content appears in the app.

If you find Spotify’s music videos annoying, you will soon be able to turn them off. Spotify is adding new video controls that will let you turn off any and all video content inside the app. The update was shared by Rowland Manthorpe on X.

How to turn off videos for music and podcasts on Spotify?

The new controls are not available in my region yet. According to The Verge, the new controls to turn off videos in Spotify will appear under the “Content and display” section in your settings on mobile, or under the “Display” section if you are on desktop.

There will be three separate toggles to work with. The first is an existing toggle that disables Canvas clips, which are the short, looping, autoplay videos that play in the background while a track runs.

The second will be a brand new toggle that specifically turns off access to music videos. The third, also new, will disable all other video content on the platform, including podcast videos and vertical video. Together, these three controls will give you granular options to pick and choose exactly how much video you want in your Spotify experience.

How do Spotify’s new video controls work for Family Plan subscribers?

If you manage a Spotify Family Plan, you will be able apply these video controls to each individual member on your subscription, similar to how managed account controls already work.

Once you disable video at the plan level for a specific member, that person will no longer have the option to switch to the video version of a song or podcast on their own.

It will essentially lock the experience to audio only for whoever you choose, which could be handy if you manage a plan that includes younger family members.

At the time of writing, Spotify hasn’t made any official announcement about the new video controls. The availability may also vary depending on your region and account. If you haven’t seen them appear yet, try updating your app and checking your settings over the next few days.

Candace Owens spent years building a pro-MAGA audience by supporting President Donald Trump. Now, she’s calling for his removal from office.

Over the past few months, right-wing media figures like Owens have broken with Trump on a number of issues, including the Epstein files and the administration’s intervention in Venezuela. But the fracturing among the MAGA media coalition appears to have reached the point of no return after the president’s threats to annihilate “a whole civilization” in Iran this week.

“The 25th amendment needs to be invoked,” Owens wrote Tuesday on X. “He is a genocidal lunatic. Our Congress and military need to intervene. We are beyond madness.”

Owens is one of several right-wing media figures calling for Trump’s removal. Former congressperson Marjorie Taylor Greene also called for invoking the 25th Amendment, referring to Trump’s actions in Iran as “evil and madness.” Alex Jones urged Trump’s ouster on his InfoWars program on Tuesday, asking a guest “how do we 25th amendment his ass?” On an episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast last week, comedian Theo Von, who hosted Trump on his own show in 2024, called the US and Israel “fucking terrorists.” “It is vile on every level,” former Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson said during his show on Monday, referring to Trump’s recent Truth Social posts about Iran. The red-pill streamer Sneako wrote, “I miss Joe Biden” on X last week.

This pushback from major right-wing figures has fractured the MAGA media coalition even further; seemingly in response, a handful of pro-Trump stalwarts have called on the Justice Department to investigate American influencers for taking foreign money without disclosing it. The conservative activist Laura Loomer called posts from Owens “the most obvious foreign influence operation ever” before urging a DOJ investigation on Tuesday.

“The DOJ can investigate me all they want, Larry—they won’t find a thing,” Candace Owens posted in reply to Loomer on Wednesday.

Jack Posobiec, a prominent Pizzagate conspiracy theory promoter, echoed Loomer’s calls for an investigation. Benny Johnson, a former Turning Point USA contributor, wrote on X that he would “welcome” an investigation. (In 2024, the Justice Department alleged that Tenet Media, an online media company that produced shows for Johnson and other high-profile influencers, was largely funded by Russian state-backed news network RT. Johnson, whom the US government did not accuse of wrongdoing, issued a statement at the time denying awareness of the alleged Russian influence scheme and portraying himself as a victim.)

Throughout Trump’s second term in office, the administration has frequently worked with creators to push its messaging online. Last fall, the Pentagon revoked press credentials from mainstream outlets, replacing them with creators like Loomer and Cam Higby. While many of these creators have attended recent Pentagon press briefings, the White House hasn’t seemingly been in touch on messaging about the war in Iran.

“There is/was none,” one source familiar with the Republican influencer pipeline tells WIRED about the administration not reaching out to creators about Iran. “The online right wasn’t supportive, and there wasn’t anything that was going to change that. The best they could hope for is silence.”

• Experts find credit card skimmer hidden in 1×1 SVG image
• Fake “Secure Checkout” overlay stole card data
• Likely exploited Magento PolyShell flaw, affecting many stores

Security researchers recently found a credit card skimmer on almost a hundred compromised ecommerce websites hiding in a tiny image.

Experts from Sansec reported finding 1×1-pixel Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) elements with an ‘onload’ handler inside many e-commerce websites’ HTML.

“5G” is an umbrella term that encompasses the current fifth-generation cellular wireless network technologies. All the major carriers and phones support 5G connections, which can offer faster data speeds than older technologies such as 4G LTE or 3G.

Essentially there are three types of 5G: Millimeter-wave (mmWave), which can be fast but has limited range; low-band 5G, which has slower speeds but works on a broader range; and midband, which is a balance between the two that’s faster than low-band but also covers a larger range than millimeter-wave. Midband also incorporates C-band, a batch of spectrum auctioned off by the Federal Communications Commission in 2021.

Your phone’s 5G connection depends on which type blankets the area you’re in, as well as other factors, such as population density and infrastructure. For instance, mmWave is super fast, but its signals can be thwarted by buildings, glass, leaves or by being inside of a structure.

When your device is connected to a 5G network, it can show up as several variations such as 5G, 5G Plus, 5G UW or others, depending on the carrier. Here’s a list of icons you see at the top of your phone for the major services:

AT&T: 5GE (which isn’t actually 5G, but rather a sly marketing name for 4G LTE), 5G (low band), 5G Plus (mmWave, midband)

Verizon: 5G (low band, also called “Nationwide 5G”), 5G UW/5G UWB (midband and mmWave, also called “5G Ultra Wideband”)

T-Mobile: 5G (low band), 5G UC (midband and mmWave, also called “Ultra Capacity 5G”)

There’s also 5G Reduced Capacity (5G RedCap), which is a lower-power, smaller-capacity branch of 5G used by devices such as smartwatches and portable health devices; the Apple Watch Ultra 3, for example, connects via 5G RedCap.

Just around the corner is 5G Advanced, promising much faster speeds because of carrier aggregation, or combining multiple spectrums.

Daniel Riley set out to tackle an issue that had been plaguing him: what if you built a drone with propeller blades a mile longer than regular models? His design features 41-inch blades that reach from tip to tip and spin at a steady 350 to 500 revolutions per minute, a far cry from the tiny, high-speed propellers seen on nearly every commercial drone on the market.

His quadcopter stands out from the crowd due to its gigantic 41-inch blades, and not only because of their size. They also spin at a nice, calm speed of 350 to 500 rpm, as opposed to the thousands of rpm seen on standard models. Riley paired these blades with a sophisticated variable pitch mechanism that allows each rotor to change the angle at which it bites into the air while keeping the motor speed constant. This combination enables the drone to generate lift and remain airborne with significantly less energy than you might expect, especially considering the blades’ high inertia.

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Riley designed a variable pitch system that allows the servos to change the angle of each blade while the motors continue to run at a consistent speed. This is a creative solution to the problem of high rotational inertia, which would normally make it difficult to swiftly increase and decrease motor speed in order to operate the drone successfully. He mounted high-torque servos at the base of each arm and ran a pushrod through them to the blade roots. As a result, the drone gains precise control over lift and attitude without constantly adjusting the engine speed.

The drone’s chassis was built of carbon fiber tubes attached to 3D printed polycarbonate parts, which gave just enough strength to keep things from breaking without adding too much weight. The propellers were made from PETG plastic reinforced with carbon fiber rods. Four pancake-style 5010 360KV motors power the blades via a belt reduction system, which reduces the speed and increases torque. Riley even removed the motor controllers’ heat sinks and sealed them in epoxy to save a few grams of weight. Every little piece added up to keep the overall power consumption low, allowing the huge rotors to support the airframe with minimal effort.

Ground tests produced some really impressive results. When the drone was hovering in situ, it produced a remarkable 18.1 grams of torque for every watt of electricity used, which is roughly half as much as a well-optimized conventional quadcopter. When the power was turned off, the drone was able to slowly circle its way to the ground. The only reason it didn’t come out of it without losing its balance was that it lacked a stabilisation system and crashed.

Engineers have long recognized that the key to making rotorcraft fly is getting the power loading just right. Spreading the weight over a larger rotor surface allows you to stay aloft with less energy, like Riley did here. He applied a principle that most commercial drone manufacturers are afraid to explore since it is more sophisticated, and it paid off handsomely. His approach demonstrates that scaling up to larger blades and adding some sophisticated pitch control can result in significant increases in flight time without simply throwing some heavier batteries on it.
[Source]

All it takes is two to three weddings to break even

Two to three weddings. That’s all it takes for entrepreneurs Edmund Teo from Octopus Reels and Jessica Tay from Leave Your Message to fully recoup their startup costs—and everything after is profit.

Their business? Renting out digital guestbooks that capture audio and video messages from wedding guests. As more couples seek personalised, interactive experiences, this niche service is quickly gaining popularity and turning into a profitable opportunity.

Set up is simple, only requires two to three people, and the equipment is reusable, making margins compelling with limited costs. 

Vulcan Post speaks with the two founders to uncover what it takes to run a digital guestbook business—and just how lucrative it can be.

What’s driving couples to ditch traditional guestbooks

In Singapore, couples are increasingly moving away from traditional guestbooks because digital formats offer something far more engaging and memorable.

While handwritten guestbooks are sentimental, they are often stored away and rarely revisited. More often than not, only a few pages are filled while the rest remain blank.

Audio and video recordings, on the other hand, capture the tone, laughter, and emotions behind each message, allowing couples to relive those moments for years to come.

We have had couples share how moved they were when revisiting their recordings.

Edmund Teo, founder of Octopus Reels

Jessica added that digital guestbooks make memories feel “more alive” by preserving expressions, voices, and interactions that a page of writing cannot convey.

She also noted that the rise of digital guestbooks connects to broader cultural currents. “In recent years, there has been a strong comeback of nostalgia, like the rise of digital cameras and Y2K aesthetics, where people are drawn to things that feel a bit more raw and authentic.”

Typically, digital guestbooks use a vintage telephone setup. Guests pick up the handset to hear a short, pre-recorded message from the couple, then record their own message after a tone. The retro telephone design, complete with rotary dials or classic handsets, adds a memorable touch.

Weddings, being highly emotional occasions, naturally attract formats that combine familiar, nostalgic elements.

At the same time, the industry itself also offers fertile ground for niche services like digital guestbooks. In 2024, the Singapore wedding market was valued at US$153.22 million (S$196.57 million), and is projected to reach US$292.38 million (S$375.11 million) by 2033, growing at an annual rate of 7.46%.

With approximately 24,700 marriages registered in Singapore in 2025, the addressable market for wedding vendors remains substantial.

A 30% profit margin

Both founders of Octopus Reels and Leave Your Message now run their businesses full-time, though Jessica initially started hers as a side hustle before leaving her full-time job as demand grew.

At first glance, the business seems simple and low-cost.

Similar digital video guestbook equipment sells for around S$533 on Amazon.sg, while each accordion-style column stand—typically used to hold and elevate the vintage telephone handsets—costs between S$72 and S$101. That totals to S$797 for a digital guestbook telephone setup with three cylindrical columns of varying heights.

With rates starting at S$295 for six hours for a basic digital guestbook setup by Octopus Reels and S$380 for two hours by Leave Your Message, both businesses can recoup their initial setup costs in just three bookings, making them highly lucrative ventures.

However, running the business goes beyond purchasing equipment. Set up, logistics, and manpower are all crucial to delivering a smooth and memorable guest experience. There are also additional technical support and post-production editing required to transform raw footage into polished keepsakes. 

Edmund shared that the average breakdown of costs for each setup, excluding equipment, is as follows:

Minus off all these costs, the overall profit margin for Octopus Reels is 20–30% for simpler setups, and tends to increase with larger or customised events, making the business still highly attractive.

Leave Your Message, however, declined to disclose exact figures, with Jessica explaining that these are “commercially sensitive for the business.” She did note, though, that there are “less obvious costs,” including seasonal fluctuations in bookings and downtime between events.

“While this can be a profitable business under the right conditions, there is also a fair amount of operational work behind the scenes that people may not immediately see,” she added.

Standing out in an increasingly crowded market

Demand is booming for these businesses’ offerings.

Octopus Reels currently runs 10 to 12 events every weekend, and in 2025, it supported 208 events across 98 venues, with demand peaking in Oct when the company managed up to eight events in a single day. Meanwhile, Leave Your Message has participated in over 400 events since 2023.

While weddings remain the core revenue driver, both companies have expanded into adjacent markets.

Octopus Reels has supported corporate events, birthday celebrations, and community initiatives, including a meaningful project with Sport Singapore for individuals with dementia.

Similarly, Leave Your Message has recorded appreciation messages at company award ceremonies and participated in large-scale activations like the National Day NTUC Youth initiative, where messages collected across institutions were showcased during the National Day Parade.

This diversification reduces reliance on wedding seasonality for sales on digital guestbooks—a critical business strategy in an industry where demand fluctuates throughout the year.

As competition intensifies with more businesses offering similar services, differentiation becomes especially important.

Hence, both companies have also diversified beyond their core guestbook services. Octopus Reels now offers interactive photo gallery installations, creating “mini exhibitions” of couples’ memories and low-lying fog effects for “walking on clouds” march-ins. They are also partnering with a local coffee cart vendor to bring Vietnamese coffee experiences into wedding spaces.

Jessica’s company, on the other hand, has expanded its digital guestbook concept with a virtual video option, where guests scan QR codes to record messages on their mobile phones. This extends the experience to overseas guests who cannot attend physically.

Will digital guestbooks stay?

Edmund considers video guestbooks an “early-stage trend,” with the potential to become a standard feature at weddings.

But as with any trend, it can flare up quickly—and fade just as fast. Despite this, Jessica is confident it will endure, at least in terms of its core intent.

“The format may continue to evolve, but the intention behind it, capturing meaningful messages from loved ones, will always be relevant.”

A new feature that lets you create an AI avatar with your likeness is now live on YouTube. First in a blog post earlier this year, avatars are designed to be used in Shorts (provided you still them to show up), allowing you to insert yourself into video content in a way that YouTube deems to be safe and secure.

YouTube’s approach to combatting the AI sloppification of the internet and the proliferation of appears to be adding more and more AI features to its platform, framing this latest addition as a tool that gives creators more control of their digital identities. Any video generated using an avatar will feature YouTube’s AI disclosure and include visible watermarks and labels like SynthID and C2PA.

YouTube has published a pretty in-depth on how to create and use an avatar in either the YouTube or YouTube Create app, but here’s a brief summary of how to do it using the former. Once you’ve opened AI Playground, you’ll be taking a “live selfie” that also records your voice. You can then preview your photorealistic virtual self and either proceed with it or redo the process if you’re unhappy with anything. Creating an avatar in the YouTube Create app is broadly similar, but you have to navigate to the My Avatar homepage first.

YouTube recommends that you hold your phone at eye level and keep yourself centered as much as possible. Lighting is also important, as is ensuring your whole face is visible, you’re in a quiet area, and there’s nobody else in the background. You also have to be the account owner to create an avatar, and over the age of 18.

Once you have an avatar you like, you simply type in a prompt and wait for the AI to generate a video, which according to  can be up to eight seconds long. Alternatively, YouTube will also let you add an avatar to existing “eligible” Shorts by tapping “Remix” and then “Reimagine” with your avatar selected.

Avatars can be deleted or retaken whenever you like, as can any video with your avatar in it. You can also limit who’s able to remix your videos, but deleting a video with your avatar in it won’t also delete the original video, or that avatar from your account. YouTube will automatically delete any avatar that hasn’t been used to create new video content for three years.

The new avatar feature will roll out gradually, and is the latest in a long line of AI-centric tools and updates YouTube has added to the platform in the last year, including for low-res videos, for creators and an for search results.