Security

A lesson for aspiring vandals: Take out all the cameras, not just the ones that flout your ideals

Note to privacy-conscious vandals: If you’re going to destroy Flock license plate readers, make sure you also take out the other CCTV cameras in the area that could catch you in your crime. Otherwise, you’ll end up like one unlucky Californian.

Marcus Bee, 40, was arrested by the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday, accused of joining the ever-growing band of US citizens damaging the controversial cameras popping up across the country.

A police report filed this week stated that Bee, of Pismo Beach, was arrested on suspicion of attacking at least three Flock cameras in Lockwood and Bradley.

According to the deflock.org website, which maps Flock camera deployments, there are only three of the automated license plate readers (ALPRs) running in the two communities – one in Lockwood and two in Bradley, roughly 25 miles away.

Police allege Bee caused thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to “public safety infrastructure.”

Monterey County Sheriff’s Office added that Bee was caught after “his actions were captured by other surveillance cameras located nearby,” along with other investigative leads. 

“This arrest sends a clear message that anyone who intentionally damages public safety equipment will be identified, arrested, and held accountable,” said Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto. 

“These cameras have become an invaluable investigative resource that helps us solve crimes, recover stolen vehicles and ag equipment, locate missing persons, and protect our communities. Any attempts to disable these systems will not prevent us from doing our job. 

“In this case, the suspect’s own actions were captured on surveillance cameras, leading directly to his arrest. We will continue to aggressively investigate these crimes and seek prosecution against anyone who targets public safety infrastructure.”

Bee was jailed with bail set at $30,000.

The case follows a similar one in Georgia last week, although local police were unable to identify the suspect(s) behind the two attacks, which involved setting two ALPRs on fire.

The two attacks were timed fairly close together, although the phenomenon of inflicting criminal damage onto Flock cameras is something of a long-running trend.

Several US police forces have been tasked with arresting alleged Flock vandals, including Jeffrey Scott Sovern, 41, who authorities believe was behind a spate of attacks on ALPR cameras in North Suffolk, Virginia, between April and October 2025.

He said, at a hearing in June, that he believed the technology was unconstitutional.

Flock cameras: A problem or simply misunderstood?

Monterey County Sheriff’s Office said Flock’s cameras “are an important investigative tool” used to help solve various types of crimes, including missing persons cases, car thefts, and violent crimes such as shootings and homicides where suspect vehicles are involved.

Contrary to the opinions held by many, it went on to say that the cameras “are used exclusively to support legitimate criminal investigations,” and refuted the notion that they are used to support the US government’s anti-immigration efforts.

Likewise, Flock has repeatedly denied offering contracts to agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), although reports suggest police were instead carrying out searches on ICE’s behalf. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has also allegedly used Flock data in its own immigration investigations.

Other critiques of the technology used by thousands of police departments across the US include problematic abuses, such as police officers using it to stalk romantic interests.

The Institute of Justice is aware of at least 26 cases of this behavior, it reported earlier this month, with the majority taking place since 2024.

Additionally, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) takes issue with the scale of data gathering by ALPRs.

It claims that less than 1 percent of the cars scanned are connected to crime, yet they still have details added to a database, such as vehicle manufacturer, model, color, license plate number, bumper stickers, and scratches.

Flock CEO Garrett Langley claimed this week in an interview with The Drive that the company’s cameras were used to solve around 1 million crimes across the US last year.

Responding to claims such as Sovern’s – that the cameras are unconstitutional, specifically that they violate Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights – Langley said there are no legal issues, and he doesn’t foresee any arising in the future.

Flock’s spokespeople have repeatedly condemned the cases of camera vandalism, highlighting the risk of losing evidence that could be crucial to solving ongoing criminal cases. ®

from the criminalizing-ideology dept

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

A little-noticed presidential national security directive is now the legal engine behind a wave of terrorism prosecutions against left-wing protesters.

That domestic campaign now has an international dimension, one that American officials had been planning for months, culminating on July 16, 2026, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism drew representatives from more than 65 countries to Washington. The gathering was informally called the “Antifa summit.”

Rubio described antifa-aligned networks as sharing infrastructure across borders and accused Iran and Cuba of helping bankroll the movement, without offering evidence. The White House declared the summit the start of an “unprecedented global offensive” against what it calls “radical left terrorism.”

This offensive is built on the same domestic legal architecture that has now sent American activists to prison for decades.

That architecture is National Security Presidential Memorandum/NSPM-7, issued on Sept. 25, 2025, which for the first time appeared to authorize preemptive law enforcement measures against Americans based not on whether they are planning to commit violence but for their political or ideological beliefs.

Nearly a year later, that blueprint has moved from paper into practice.

The Justice Department has built task forces staffed by counterterrorism prosecutors. The FBI has set up its own NSPM-7 mission center to oversee investigations into left-wing movements, including a joint effort with the IRS to investigate nonprofit groups.

The Justice Department has used this machinery to convict activists and send some of them to prison for decades.

NSPM-7 was not passed by Congress. It’s a lesser-known tool of executive power: a presidential memorandum.

As an international relations scholar who has studied U.S. foreign policy decision-making and national security legislation, I recognize that presidents can take several types of executive actions without legislative involvement: executive orders, memoranda and proclamations.

This structure allows the president to direct law enforcement and national security agencies, with little opportunity for congressional oversight.

Presidential national security powers

Executive memorandums direct agencies to prepare reports, implement policies or align programs with the administration’s priorities. Unlike executive orders, they aren’t required to be published. When they relate to national security, like NSPM-7, they’re called national security directives – many of which stay classified and may not be declassified for years or decades.

The stated purpose of NSPM-7 is to counter domestic terrorism and organized political violence, focusing mainly on perceived threats from the political left. The memorandum identifies “anti-Christian,” “anti-capitalism” or “anti-American” views as potential indicators that a group or person will commit domestic terrorism.

The memorandum claims that political violence originates with “anti-fascist” groups that hold the following views: “support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”

The strategy includes preemptive measures to disrupt groups before they engage in violent political acts, empowering multiagency task forces to investigate potential federal crimes related to radicalization and the groups’ funders. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s December 2025 implementation memo went further, ordering a five-year review of agency files on antifa. A task force staffed with counterterrorism and organized-crime prosecutors is carrying out these investigations.

‘Domestic terrorist organizations’

The memorandum directs the Department of Justice to focus FBI resources from approximately 200 Joint Terrorism Task Forces on investigating “acts of recruiting or radicalizing persons” for the purpose of “political violence, terrorism, or conspiracy against rights; and the violent deprivation of any citizen’s rights.”

NSPM-7 also allows the attorney general to propose groups for designation as “domestic terrorist organizations.” That includes groups that engage in “organized doxxing campaigns, swatting, rioting, looting, trespass, assault, destruction of property, threats of violence, and civil disorder.”

Existing laws allow the secretary of state to designate groups as “foreign terrorist organizations” that are then subject to financial sanctions.

But these laws do not permit the president to label domestic groups this way.

That gap hasn’t stopped prosecutions. In Texas, eight defendants tied to a “North Texas Antifa Cell” were sentenced in June 2026 for a 2025 armed confrontation at the Prairieland immigration detention center. One man received 100 years, and others who never fired a weapon still drew decades in prison under terrorism sentencing guidelines.

In Minnesota, 15 members and associates of a group called Direct Action Minnesota were indicted in June 2026 on conspiracy and assault charges. A 94-page indictment cited behavior such as wearing an “I’m Antifa!” sweatshirt, possessing a bullhorn or including a devil emoji in a Signal message.

Defining terrorism

NSPM-7 marks a major conceptual shift in U.S. counterterrorism policy, departing from approaches that primarily targeted foreign threats.

Earlier directives, dating to Ronald Reagan’s presidency, treated terrorism as a global menace countered through military power and diplomacy. In the 1990s, the Clinton administration reframed it as a domestic challenge after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

After 9/11, the Bush administration fused counterterrorism with national defense through the global war on terrorism. The Obama administration later tried to narrow those powers, asking whether targeted individuals “pose a continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons” — a standard focused on tactics and capture feasibility, not ideology.

The first Trump administration used a “travel ban” against several “terror-prone” countries, while President Joe Biden redirected focus toward weapons of mass destruction.

Notably, the “domestic terrorist” label itself has rarely produced actual charges. The State Department designated four antifa-aligned groups as foreign terrorist organizations. But antifa is a decentralized movement, not a formal group with a roster.

This designation lacks any real legal weight because U.S. law has no formal domestic terrorist organization category. Creating one risks infringing on First Amendment protected speech. Domestic terrorism itself is not a chargeable offense.

Prosecutors have instead leaned on older statutes such as material support for terrorism and conspiracy laws, tools originally built for cases like the ones above, not protest movements.

First Amendment rights at risk

There is no single official definition of terrorism in U.S. law; definitions vary by purpose – criminal law, intelligence collection, civil liability.

Definitions in all those areas typically focus on identifying violent or dangerous acts done with the intent to intimidate or coerce civilians or influence government policy.

But more than redefining terrorism, NSPM-7 reorients the machinery of national security toward the policing of belief.

The First Amendment generally prevents the government from punishing people for unpopular opinions. It also protects the ability for people to associate to advance public and private ideas in pursuit of political, economic, religious or cultural goals.

The directive’s emphasis on ideological orientations – “anti-Christianity,” “anti-capitalism” and “anti-American” views – as indicators of domestic terrorism potentially jeopardizes First Amendment rights.

Thirty-one members of Congress sent a letter to Trump in October 2025 expressing “serious concerns” about NSPM-7, warning that it poses “serious constitutional, statutory and civil liberties risks, especially if used to target political dissent, protest or ideological speech.”

As the ACLU warns, any definition of terrorism that includes ideological components risks criminalizing people or groups based on belief rather than based on violence or other criminal conduct.

Congress has declined to create a domestic complement to the foreign terrorist designation in large part because of the potential for impinging on First Amendment–protected association and speech.

But I fear that chilling speech may be the point.

Silencing dissent

NSPM-7 does not criminalize previously legal conduct.

Rather, it states that the Trump administration will focus investigations around the identity and ideology of supposed perpetrators. Prioritizing investigations into this broad swath of ideologies serves to instill fear, silencing anti-fascist and other messages in opposition to the Trump administration.

Law professor Steve Vladeck frames this chill as “obeying in advance,” in which organizations self-censor rather than risk investigation, prosecution or defending against the “domestic terrorist” label. Federal judges in the Prairieland case have shown little sympathy for that distinction: One judge described the protest itself as “an assault on democracy,” even for defendants who never touched a weapon.

Although left-wing violence has risen in the past decade, empirical evidence shows it remains far below historical levels of right-wing or jihadist violence.

Most domestic terrorists in the U.S. are politically on the right, accounting for the vast majority of domestic terrorism fatalities.

Yet NSPM-7 focuses disproportionately on left-wing ideologies. NSPM-7 departs from prior U.S. counterterrorism frameworks by prioritizing the suppression of ideologically motivated dissent, even where, as in Minnesota, judges have already dismissed roughly half of similar federal cases for lack of evidence.

Melinda Haas is Assistant Professor of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh

Filed Under: 1st amendment, censorship, domestic terrorism, fbi, free speech, marco rubio, nspm-7, presidential memorandum, radical extremism

Okta on Thursday agreed to acquire AI identity security startup Permiso Security, betting that demand for protecting AI agents and other machine identities will grow as enterprises deploy autonomous software across their operations.

The identity management company did not disclose the terms of the transaction. But TechCrunch has learned that the acquisition is valued at just under $200 million and is structured as an almost all-cash deal, according to a source with knowledge of the deal. A spokesperson for Okta did not dispute the figure when asked by TechCrunch, but would not comment on specifics of the deal terms.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of its fiscal 2027, Okta said, subject to customary closing conditions.

Okta’s move to buy Permiso comes as identity management companies seek to expand beyond verifying users at login to continuously monitoring what users, applications, and AI agents do once gaining authorized access to a network environment. That shift has intensified competition to secure machine identities as enterprises embed AI deeper into everyday operations.

Permiso, which emerged from stealth in 2022, develops software that helps security teams spot suspicious activity in cloud environments after users or applications have been granted access. More recently, the startup has expanded its platform to monitor AI agents and other machine identities.

Co-founded by former FireEye executives Paul Nguyen and Jason Martin, Permiso specializes in detecting attacks that use stolen or compromised identities to move through cloud infrastructure. In April, the startup also introduced SandyClaw, a platform designed to analyze AI agent skills in a sandboxed environment to identify malicious behavior before they are deployed.

The deal strengthens Okta’s push into securing AI agents and other non-human identities alongside its core identity management business.

“Permiso will extend Okta’s identity security fabric with proven identity threat detection and response capabilities, and an incredible threat research and security team that will advance Okta’s threat detection and prevention capabilities,” Okta’s chief product officer Ely Kahn said in a prepared statement.

Permiso has raised about $29 million to date, including an $18.5 million Series A round in April 2024 led by Altimeter Capital. People familiar with the financing said the Series A valued the Palo Alto-based startup at about $80 million on a post-money basis.

Rumor mill: Google’s Pixel 11 is coming into focus thanks to two separate leaks. One is an official teaser video released by Google itself, while the other is a Bluesky post from WinFuture’s Roland Quandt detailing the phone’s storage options, battery capacity, and pricing.

The Google video is the more visual of the two. It offers a close look at the Pixel 11 Pro’s rear camera bar, where the phone retains its three-lens setup while adding a circular light effect beside the cameras. The clip does not name the feature or explain what it does, but the spinning colors suggest Google is building something new around the camera area rather than adding a feature elsewhere on the phone.

Google’s narration only mentions familiar services such as Gmail, Maps, Search, Calendar, and Gemini. The video title teases “the next obvious move,” but Google leaves the meaning deliberately vague. That has fueled speculation that the light could serve as a status indicator, a Gemini-related processing light, or a notification system, but none of those theories have been confirmed.

The second leak comes from Bluesky, where Quandt posted what appears to be retailer-sourced information about the Pixel 11 lineup. According to the post, 256GB will be the minimum storage option across the entire range, marking a long-awaited shift for Google’s standard models. The leak also claims that the Pixel 11 will cost £879 in the UK, while the Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL will be priced at £1,079 and £1,279, respectively.

Those pricing figures are not as straightforward as they initially appear. The Pixel 11 and Pixel 11 Pro are technically cheaper than their 256GB Pixel 10 counterparts, while the Pixel 11 Pro XL costs more than last year’s model. However, the difference stems from Google’s decision to eliminate lower-capacity storage tiers rather than from a broad price cut across the lineup.

Pixel 11 256GB = 879 GBP, 4985mAh Pixel 11 Pro 256 GB = 1079 GBP, 4850mAh Pixel 11 Pro XL 257 GB = 1279 GBP, 5115mAh

– Roland Quandt (@rquandt.bsky.social) July 28, 2026 at 3:06 AM

Quandt’s Bluesky post also includes battery capacity details. The base Pixel 11 is said to feature a 4,985mAh battery, while the Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL are listed with 4,850mAh and 5,115mAh batteries, respectively. If accurate, the base model and the larger Pro XL would receive modest battery upgrades, while the regular Pro would see a slight reduction compared with the previous generation.

Google is set to unveil the Pixel 11 lineup on August 12. Until then, the picture remains incomplete.

Imagine you’re a company. You’ve got sensitive data you need kept safe, and you’ve got a cloud service provider that’s protecting it. But do you know how far that protection goes, and at what point it’s your turn to take over?

The sheer number of data breaches due to human error, specifically database misconfiguration, suggests that many don’t know that they, not the provider, are responsible for securing all the data properly (or are unsure how to do it).

As wildfires continue to devastate southern Europe, Apple is backing relief efforts with a donation announced by CEO Tim Cook.

North America isn’t the only region struggling to combat the growing problem of wildfires; it’s an ongoing problem in Europe as well. According to the Joint Research Centre, more than 434,976 hectares have been burnt in 1,400 fire instances in 2026 alone.

Recent fires in southwestern France have burned so intensely that they created a fire-generated thunderstorm, according to CNN. Other countries, like Spain, Greece, and Italy, remain on high alert as the risk of wildfires grows across the region.

In response, Cook took to X on Thursday to announce that Apple would be donating to first responders and relief efforts in the affected areas.

Apple routinely donates to relief efforts worldwide. In June, it pledged aid to help Venezuelans affected by a pair of earthquakes that struck Venezuela’s northern coast.

In October 2025, it donated to relief efforts after Hurricane Melissa tore through the Caribbean. The following month, it offered aid in the wake of a deadly fire that devastated a high-rise apartment complex in Hong Kong.

from the needlessly-stupid dept

The American healthcare system and the portion of the government in charge of our health have been a failure of record proportions for the second consecutive year. In 2025, America set a record for collecting the most confirmed cases of measles since 1991, with 2,289 confirmed cases. This year, America already blew past last years case total, where we now sit at 2,318 confirmed cases. We’re only about 58% of the way through the year, in case that little fact escaped you, which means we’re very likely to have many, many more total cases this year than last.

That is happening despite healthcare professionals and some media members sounding the alarm bells over all of this going all the way back to February of 2025! If you need the government’s perspective on this embarrassing failure, one in which we’ve allowed a disease officially declared eradicated to roar back into existence all because there are some liars out there who scare people about vaccines, well, RFK Jr. thinks he’s doing a bang up job managing the whole thing.

He hasn’t. He’s a large part of the reason this now 19 month outbreak exists to begin with. He hasn’t mobilized any vaccination efforts, preferring to leave that to the states. His messaging around vaccination and how to handle the measles has been so all over the place that he might as well have no stance on the matter at all. He’s checked out from most of his job, by some reports.

And as all of this failure is staring us in the face, Kennedy is still allowing the anti-vaxxer messaging to spread undisputed and uninterrupted, which is the precise reason the measles has returned in the first place. And it’s very likely to get worse.

“There were two healthy little girls in West Texas that died from measles,” said Dr. Paul Offit, Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in an email to TIME. “Those were the first measles deaths in a child in this country in more than 20 years. I think it is fair to say that measles is epidemic in the United States. And if people are coming from outside this country to the United States, they better make sure they’re up-to-date on their immunizations.”

Adds Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine: “For all practical purposes measles has returned to the United States, both in terms of cases and hospitalizations, as well as two needless deaths.  We should expect our annual winter-spring surges of measles to get even worse in subsequent years.  And it won’t be just measles—pertussis is also returning, and other childhood infectious diseases might follow.”

Measles has this fun little curve ball it likes to throw at its victims: immune amnesia. One of the more insidious things this virus does is destroy T-cells and B-cells, which are the long-term immunological memory cells. They’re the part of our bodies that recall infections from long ago and build in the longer lasting immunity we get either from infections themselves or from vaccinations. Allowing measles to get worse means not only dealing with that disease, but potentially many others that could come roaring back. Like pertussis. Or polio.

We haven’t developed therapies for measles in decades. We didn’t have to. Vaccination rates meant there was nearly no disease for which therapies were needed. That appears to be changing now, with reports that researchers are starting to develop drug therapies due to the record case counts.

That is valuable time, expertise, and money that is being spent to treat a disease that we were fucking rid of two decades ago. Thanks to liars and charlatans like RFK Jr., combined with a percentage of our populace that is uncaring of its own community.

I very much do not look forward to writing about breaking this record again in 2027, but I fear I will be.

Filed Under: anti-vaxxers, epidemic, health & human services, measles, rfk jr., vaccinations

Sunreef Yachts and BRABUS just put their names on the same boat for the first time. The result is the ULTIMA 55, a 55.8-foot carbon-heavy catamaran that treats open water the way BRABUS treats asphalt. Two 10.8-liter six-cylinder engines sit in the hulls, each making 533 kW or 725 horsepower. Combined output hits 1,450 horsepower and the boat clears 40 knots. An advanced hydrofoil system lifts the hulls higher as speed builds, cutting drag and almost erasing heel so the ride stays level and surprisingly quiet even when the throttles are pinned.

The length comes in at 55.8 feet, the beam is 18.4 feet, but when the lateral folding platforms are dropped, that increases to 24.9 feet, and you have an open-ended terrace at the back, similar to a private beach club rather than a normal yacht’s cockpit. Then there’s the Esthec decking, which provides a sturdy footing whether wet or dry. The transformer sunpads change from comfortable loungers to upright seating options. They have an extensible carbon fiber dining table, an electric BBQ, and a wet bar that are ready for anything from a quiet afternoon to a big party. Up ahead, there is a separate central sunpad where you may spend some peaceful time away from the action.

LEGO Icons Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship Building Set for Adults, Ages 18+ – Room Decor for…

• BUILDING SET FOR ADULTS – Embark on a creative voyage with the LEGO Icons Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship (10365) building set for adults
• 9 LEGO MINIFIGURES – Pose Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Gibbs, Cotton, Anamaria, Marty, Elizabeth Swann and Hector Barbossa minifigures around The…
• AUTHENTIC DETAILS & FEATURES – Rotate dials to deploy the port or starboard cannons, turn the ship’s wheel to steer the rudder, place minifigures in…

Carbon fiber is now popping up in all the right places. So you’ve got exposed front and back wings, pillars with illuminated BRABUS emblems, side ventilation elements, and you know what truly caps it off? The unique roof rack features carbon-fiber LED lights, which serve as both functional lighting and a signature design element. Owners can choose between Graphite Black and Phantom Grey for the hull, as well as BRABUS Graphite, Red, or Pearl exterior upholstery.

Stepping inside the cabin, you’ll feel as if you’re in a car, since the BRABUS automotive interiors have been directly adapted into the yacht. Moonstone Masterpiece leather covers the seating, with the signature Triangle stitching pattern. The area is finished with Alcantara headlining, exposed carbon fiber, aluminum accents, and unique ambient lighting. You’ve fully outfitted the kitchen, with a 43-inch TV that pops up from the counter when needed and, of course, Bowers & Wilkins Marine Series speakers to handle the music. The nicest feature are the height-adjustable tables, which change the saloon into a dining or lounge area in an instant.

The helm area follows the same principle, with a single widescreen BRABUS interface that brings all navigation and system management together in one spot. The engine controls are right there for when you need them, and the joystick operation allows the boat to spin on a sixpence for snug docking.

You can select between two cabin configurations, with the regular one featuring a master suite, a VIP stateroom for four guests, and a crew cabin. The other option includes a third cabin for six guests and one crew member to remain overnight. It’s all the same down there, with wood veneers and more carbon fiber. So the lower decks remain consistent with the rest of the boat. The specifications include 1,500 liters of fuel, which is ample given that you have 330 litres of freshwater on tap, as well as a 10.5 kW generator to meet your electrical demands. The maximum draft is 4.6 feet, and the boat is CE Category B approved for 12 passengers or C certified for 20.

Sunreef handled the most of the naval design, then turned it over to BRABUS to give it a visual identity, add some high performance with their materials, and put their visual stamp on the project. The ULTIMA 55 is the first product of that relationship, as well as the first to be delivered to Sunreef’s Ras Al Khaimah factory in this configuration. In terms of price, the basic non-BRABUS Ultima 55 has been advertised (before any additional fees) at around the mid-two million mark, and the BRABUS version is almost certainly more expensive.

As X-Men ’97 continues the epic saga of Marvel’s mutant heroes, voice actor Jennifer Hale returns as one of the team’s most iconic members, Jean Grey. After the events of season 1, the show follows the X-Men, who have been scattered across history, as they try to return to their original era and prevent the rise of their most powerful enemy: Apocalypse.

In an interview with Digital Trends, Hale discussed returning to voice Jean Grey after doing so in many of Marvel’s animated projects. She also broke down the evolution of Jean’s character and what fans can expect from season 2 of X-Men ’97.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Digital Trends: How does it feel to be voicing such an iconic character in such a popular show right now? 

Hale: Man, I feel like I… I won the golden ticket. It is incredible. I love it. This show, [when] I first booked this, I was thrilled.

I love the director. I have to shout out our voice director, Meredith Layne. She’s incredible. Voice directors are these sort of unsung heroes that make us all sound incredible. And she really, especially with the role, what the team has done with Jean in this incarnation of the show. 

There’s Jean, there’s Goblin Queen, there’s Madelyne Pryor. There’s all these iterations, and to have Meredith there as a guide is incredible. And to be part of this cast and to follow in Catherine [Disher]’s footsteps is just such a, such a huge honor. And I love this show. 

I love this team. This team is insane. The writing is incredible. And what I love is that so many of the production crew grew up watching the show. You can see it, right?

Digital Trends: Yeah, the passion is there, and I’m a huge fan of the show as well, and you did a fantastic job playing Jean Grey. This isn’t actually the first time you voiced her. You portrayed her in previous Marvel animated shows. Why do you keep returning to the character after all this time?

Hale: You can’t stop me…the thing about the voiceover world, the actors, my peers in the voiceover industry are ridiculously talented. And a few of us get to be Jean, and I am so grateful that I get to be her in the places that I am. I absolutely love it. I could go on about it, obviously.

Digital Trends: Oh, well, please do. 

Hale: Yeah, it’s amazing. It’s just absolutely amazing. It’s so funny.  This whole thing around sharing roles…I’ve been Rogue before, and Lenore [Zann] is just incredible as Rogue. She’s the OG, right? 

Yeah. And she’s amazing, and she’s just such an incredible human being, too. Yeah, this whole cast, I mean, I don’t even want to start, ’cause I’m gonna leave people out, and then I’m gonna feel terrible, but every single member of this cast, like, ‘Hello, what a great job.’ And our newer people. Oh, my gosh, the new additions this season. Look out!

Digital Trends: Yeah. I know you got the younger Cable in season 2 from Obsession actor Michael Johnston. He did a really good job in that role. Honestly, I couldn’t believe it was him. And speaking of which, like a big part of the show’s season was Jean and Scott’s relationship with their son, Nathan. It expands on what happened in season one. Can you tell us what makes it so special in season two?

Hale: Oh, the fact that we actually have to see him again…we gave him up in season 1. We didn’t know…we just had to trust, and it didn’t go the way we planned. That’s all I’m gonna say for those who don’t watch. But to get to see him again, to get to be in his life again, is just, ‘Wow, what a great, great moment!’ Right? 

Digital Trends: Right. And so what has been your favorite moment in the series so far?

Hale: All of it? I don’t know. I love…Oh, man. That’s really hard to say. Don’t make me pick. That’s what I always say. Yeah.  I think I just, I have to say, what you just touched on, the reconnecting with Cable. That whole arc. I just love that so much. And I’m not gonna say anything else, ’cause I don’t want to accidentally hit spoilers.

Digital Trends: Right. And without giving away any spoilers, what else can fans expect from this season of X-Men ’97? 

Hale: Mm, that is the tightrope. Don’t know that I can walk [it]. So all I’m gonna say is buckle up. All right. 

Digital Trends: I’m buckled up. And now, tell us, what is your approach to bringing these iconic characters to life as a voice actor? You’ve done so many different roles, and I bet it’s just a different thing each time. How do you do it? 

Hale: It’s all about the writing. Writers make the world go round. It all starts with the writers…and these are incredible scripts. Everything’s there. So it really begins and ends with the writing.

I bring in what my creativity says, and then there’s the voice director, and the voice director’s taking everything that the whole production team is saying, and funneling it through her to me, or to us actors. And so, that is incredibly important. And staying open with this show is very interesting. 

When we did season one…the first time we recorded it, we recorded it in this total OG style, with the ’90s acting and the whole thing. So it was very different….and so we went back and tinkered with it, and we went away from that, and then back to it, and then we kind of found this middle ground where we get to honor it.

And most of the time, the way we’re set up, we’re recording solo, but there are times when Ray [Chase] and I get to record together, and Ray is so incredible. There have been moments when we…we actually got to be in the actual booth together at the same time, and that was amazing. But we can also do remote together, and just playing off each other is so valuable, so incredible.

Digital Trends: Absolutely. And… you’re already working on seasons 3 and 4 of the show. How’s that going so far? 

Hale: Oh my gosh. It’s incredible. I can’t wait for you guys to see it. I just can’t wait. I’m backing up to your earlier question about the moments that I love. I was just thinking about some of this stuff with Morph and Polaris and Emma Frost…everybody’s getting a moment, and I love that. Absolutely love that.

Digital Trends: Me, too. I mean, considering you’re already working on the fourth season of the show, how long do you think it could go on?

Hale: Well, we’re at 30 years now, so who knows?

Digital Trends: On that note, like what other projects do you have in store for fans?

Hale: I can always talk about Unicorn Academy, ’cause that’s going on right now, and I know it’s safe to talk about. We just wrapped the game called The Long Dark, which just wrapped our last chapter, and it’s incredibly beautiful. I’m working on some game stuff that is insane and some very cool animated stuff coming out. But again, NDA. Can’t talk about any of it…and then, I’m working on SkillsHub all the time, my site for actors.

Digital Trends: Fantastic. Is there anything else you’d like to say to the fans?

Hale: I want to say a huge thank you to the fans. Thank you, Anthony, for this time. And thank you, Digital Trends, for having me on. The fans, oh my gosh. You guys are our community, because you’re there, we get to do this, and we do this for you. So we are totally in symbiosis, I think it’s called. We are totally a circle. So just, thank you so much.

X-Men ’97 is now available to stream on Disney+.

Executive search firm Christian & Timbers estimates that there are only about 2,000 engineers in the U.S. with the special cocktail of sector know-how, gravitas, and hands-on applied AI experience needed to consistently help enterprises see a return on their AI expenditures. 

“Not 2,000 available,” reads the study, shared exclusively with TechCrunch. “2,000 total.”

As enterprises move from trying to access the best models to figuring out how to implement them into workflows that meaningfully improves their bottom line, it appears the forward-deployed engineer (FDE) — engineers who work within client organizations to build, implement and deploy software or AI models — is about to become among the most sought-after specialist in the AI industry. 

Demand for FDEs is already rising rapidly, according to the C&T study, which projects demand for these specialists to surge by 2,100% by the end of the year. 

The research draws on interviews with more than 250 C-suite hiring executives across 180 companies, a focused survey of 80 Fortune 500 executives, and interviews with more than 300 FDEs and applied AI engineers between January and June 2026. 

At the start of the year, only 5% to 10% of companies were planning to hire FDEs, and mostly only for small pilots. By the end of the second quarter, however, that number jumped to 70%, with the largest consulting and services firms reporting a need to increase their FDE headcount by 10 times, building full teams of 20 to 100 employees. 

“This is all happening at a speed I’ve never seen. Enterprises are hiring in the middle of summer,” Jeff Christian, founder of C&T told TechCrunch.

That kind of demand will outstrip supply, if C&T’s study is accurate. The report found that there are roughly 17,000 U.S. FDEs on the market today, a good chunk of whom are already employed by Palantir, which invented the concept of the FDE years ago. (Christian said some of his clients are even buying Palantir’s technology just so they can access the firm’s FDEs.) 

Only a fraction of the FDEs out in the wild are apparently elite enough to deliver true ROI, which these days is measured as “multiple tens of millions of dollars of ROI impact,” according to Christian. That could manifest as revenue acceleration on the go-to-market side (lead generation) or “replacing FP&A or replacing 2,300 document processors in India,” Christian says. 

As Chris Taylor, CEO of Ode with Anthropic (a new FDE-focused services firm), put it: “Many FDEs are well equipped to help you roll Claude Code out to your workforce. Very few are capable of building your flagship AI product feature.”

Now that token-maxxing has morphed into value-maxxing, and enterprises taking a harder look at their balance sheets, accounting for AI spending is becoming more important than ever.

“This fall, [Wall Street] is about to say, ‘Hey, we’ve given you two years to figure this out…and you haven’t. There’s no ROI. So we’re going to start punishing those that have spent hundreds of millions, maybe even billions on this, and aren’t generating ROI, and rewarding those that have’,” Christian said.

AI companies are under pressure, too, as they’ve already spent tens of billions to train and deploy their models. For frontier AI firms, reaching profitability will depend on whether they can inject their technology into as many enterprises as possible, though that task is now being threatened by cheaper, increasingly capable open-weight models from China.

That’s why firms like OpenAI and Anthropic have set up their own ventures — Ode with Anthropic and OpenAI’s Deployment Company — and staffed them with FDEs whose sole purpose is to go forth and spread their tech around the enterprise. 

It’s not only top AI firms and large consultancies clamoring for FDEs, however. Enterprises from insurance and fintech to healthcare and gaming, are seeking out these specialists, Christian said.  

Companies are hiring teams of FDEs instead of bringing them in from firms like Ode, or Deployment Co, seeking to keep knowledge of proprietary processes in-house and protect them from the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic.

“Everybody’s concerned that if they give up their proprietary business processes, [the AI firms] can compete with them, which is true in many different areas,” Christian said. “So having this muscle internally is so important.”

Taylor said he’s starting to hear the phrase “internal forward-deployed engineers” more often, but his clients aren’t yet asking Ode to put together internal FDE teams for them.

While many an enterprising young engineer might think they have the industry expertise and AI chops to take advantage of what may turn out to be a talent war, Christian warns that the FDE may not always be in demand. 

“Maybe in two years, everything’s automated, and agents are automating agents as opposed to humans automating agents,” Christian said. “That is something that could occur. Hopefully, it doesn’t, and we continue to need these people within companies.”

In the medium-term, he thinks the need for FDEs will shift from enterprise AI to physical AI as companies try to implement things like humanoid robots into their workflows. But within five or 10 years, he says it’s entirely possible that the role of FDE will “go away.”

That may be true for all knowledge work, if AI leaders and CEOs’ vehement predictions come true. While C&T focuses on recruiting for fast-growing industries and hasn’t seen a pullback yet, Christian says more general search firms have definitely experienced a slowdown in recruitment requests. 

Everything to do with AI is growing and in demand, he says. For now.

“I think that there’s absolutely a time soon where we’re going to see an impact in our business,” Christian said.