Meta’s latest whistleblower, Sarah Wynn-Williams, got a warm reception on Capitol Hill Wednesday, as the Careless People author who the company has fought to silence described the company’s chief executive as someone willing to shapeshift into whatever gets him closest to power.The message was one that lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on crime and counterterrorism were very open to. Their responses underscore that amid CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s latest pivot in cozying up to the right, his perception in Washington has not yet totally changed, even as he reportedly lobbies President Donald Trump to drop the government’s antitrust case against the company. “He’s recently tried a reinvention in which he is now a great advocate of free speech, after being an advocate of censorship in China and in this country for years,” subcommittee Chair Josh Hawley (R-MO) said, pointing to longtime conservative allegations that Meta has suppressed things like vaccine skepticism and the Hunter Biden laptop story. “Now that’s all wiped away. Now he’s on Joe Rogan and says that he is Mr. Free Speech, he is Mr. MAGA, he’s a whole new man, and his company, they’re a whole new company. Do you buy this latest reinvention of Mark Zuckerberg?”“If he is such a fan of freedom of speech, why is he trying to silence me?” Wynn-Williams asked in response. Meta convinced an arbitrator to order her to stop making disparaging statements and halt further publishing and promotion of the book, which details Meta’s alleged dealings with the Chinese government and claims of sexual harassment from a top executive. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone has called Careless People  “defamatory,” but the book’s publisher said it would “continue to support and promote it.” “We don’t know what the next costume’s going to be, but it will be something different”Wynn-Williams also told Hawley that Zuckerberg “is a man who wears many different costumes. When I was there, he wanted the president of China to name his first child, he was learning Mandarin, he was censoring to his heart’s content. Now his new costume is MMA fighting or free speech. We don’t know what the next costume’s going to be, but it will be something different. It’s whatever gets him closest to power.”At the hearing, Wynn-Williams testified that during her time at the company between 2011 and 2017, Meta and Zuckerberg were willing to “undermine American national security” in service of currying favor with the Chinese government. She accused Meta of working on “censorship tools” that the Chinese government could use to silence critics and provided the Chinese Communist Party American user data.In a statement, Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels called Wynn-Williams’ testimony “divorced from reality and riddled with false claims. While Mark Zuckerberg himself was public about our interest in offering our services in China and details were widely reported beginning over a decade ago, the fact is this: we do not operate our services in China today.”Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said she found it “ironic” that China was a focus of the hearing, given that when she tried to pass a tech antitrust bill, “one of the things that kept being thrown in my face and in those of others that work on this, is that ‘you’re actually going to destroy us and then China will dominate,’” she said. “Your book actually reveals the extent to which Facebook was willing to put growth over the US national interest to gain favor with the Chinese Communist Party.”  Lawmakers dared Zuckerberg to testify before their committee himself to clear up their issues with her statements. “Stop trying to silence her, stop trying to gag her, stop trying to hide behind your lawyers and millions of dollars in legal fees you’re trying to impose on her,” said Hawley. “Come to this committee, take the oath, sit there, let us question you, and give the American people the truth. We will be waiting for you.”Wynn-Williams told the subcommittee her testimony “may be the last time I’m allowed to speak” given the legal restrictions. “It’s not going to be the last time you’re allowed to speak if we have anything to do with it,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said. “What I would say to Mark Zuckerberg is, stop gagging Ms. Wynn-Williams, let her speak the truth, and you come here and tell us your version of the truth, if you have the guts to do it.”

Mesh routers are great if you're looking to get the best wireless connection possible in your home or office. But there's just one problem, which is that a lot of mesh systems can be quite pricey, which can deter you from upgrading your current router setup. Luckily, we've spotted this great deal on an Arris system that provides good speed and also range. Best part, it's just $68 thanks to this steep discount that knocks 41% off its retail price.

I began playing video games at the age of two, on a state-of-the-art HP desktop, which set my father back by $1000 in the year 2000. Twenty-five years later, there’s a certain language of video games that I consider myself well-versed in. Red or green means health, “M” for map, “I” for inventory, and I can almost always slide by pressing the crouch button while running. These, among a thousand others, are certain “rules” of video gaming that I consider universal.

Next week, Waymo’s driverless vehicles will begin testing on public roads in Japan for the Alphabet company’s first international trip. Waymo has yet to confirm whether it will eventually launch a commercial robotaxi service in the country, but the company is still celebrating the excursion as a “significant milestone.”Waymo describes it as a simple “road trip” for collecting data about the nuances of Japanese driving, including left-hand traffic and navigating a dense urban environment. The vehicles will be driven manually for the purposes of gathering mapping data and will be managed by a local taxi fleet operator, Nihon Kotsu. About 25 vehicles are being sent, with the first already having been spotted in a parking lot in Tokyo. As noted by the LinkedIn user who posted the pictures, Waymo’s engineers will have their work cut out for them. Tokyo has its share of idiosyncratic environments, including “tight, winding roads” and thousands of pedestrians and cyclists seamlessly merging with vehicle traffic. The vehicles will be driven manually for the purposes of gathering mapping dataWaymo says trained drivers employed by Nihon Kotsu will manually navigate the vehicles across seven central Tokyo wards, including Minato, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Chiyoda, Chūō, Shinagawa, and Kōtō. Waymo operates manually when first arriving in a new city so its engineers can collect data on local traffic patterns and road features. Even though the company’s vehicles have only just arrived, Waymo says it’s already been laying the groundwork, training drivers and fleet managers from GO, a popular taxi app in Japan. The company has also been coordinating with local officials, government agencies, and first responders for the test. “In Tokyo, we are abiding by the same steadfast principles that guide us in the U.S. — commitment to safety, dedication to earning trust in communities where we operate, and collaboration with local officials and community groups here in Tokyo,” said Nicole Gavel, head of business development and strategic partnerships at Waymo, in a statement.Waymo currently operates a commercial robotaxi service in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin, with imminent plans to expand to Silicon Valley, Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, DC. The company has also said it will conduct road trip tests in San Diego and Las Vegas. As Waymo tests its vehicles in Japan, the country directly to the west of the island nation is ramping up its own driverless operations. China’s Apollo Go robotaxi service says it completed 1.1 million paid driverless rides in the fourth quarter of 2024 and is expanding to Hong Kong soon. Like Waymo, Apollo Go says it is performing an average of 200,000 paid trips each week. 

Microsoft Store is underrated when it comes to app installation. Most veteran Windows users still prefer downloading software directly from the official website or third-party platforms. However, if you dig deeper into the Microsoft Store, you'll find many hidden gems that can transform your experience on Windows.

The Nintendo Direct for the Switch 2 went great, but after the curtains had closed, people were left with one question: how much will this all cost? People were shocked when the prices did appear; we were looking at $449.99 for the console and $80 for a digital game (up to $90 if you wanted it in physical). People really didn't like the price point, and after Switch 2 was delayed in response to new tariffs, they feared the cost would rise even higher. If the Switch 2 is out of your budget, Nintendo has a golden idea: buy the original Switch instead. It's just that easy.

Selling a computer should be a straightforward process, but my experience was anything but smooth. Although it happened long ago, I learned the hard way that preparation is everything. Here are the mistakes I made, and how you can avoid repeating them.

OpenAI filed a countersuit against Elon Musk on Wednesday, saying on X that “Elon’s nonstop actions against us are just bad-faith tactics to slow down OpenAI and seize control of the leading AI innovations for his personal benefit.”In the lawsuit, OpenAI’s lawyers argue that “Musk’s continued attacks on OpenAI, culminating most recently in the fake takeover bid designed to disrupt OpenAI’s future, must cease. Musk should be enjoined from further unlawful and unfair action, and held responsible for the damage he has already caused.”Musk, who was part of the initial founding team at OpenAI, initially sued last spring,  saying he wanted to force the company to “return to its mission to develop AGI for the benefit of humanity” instead of pursuing profits. (The Verge’s editor-in-chief, Nilay Patel, found Musk’s legal case against OpenAI “hilariously bad.”)Musk dropped that lawsuit in June but sued OpenAI again in August. In December, OpenAI published a blog post with the headline “Elon Musk wanted an OpenAI for-profit,” with receipts. The case is scheduled to go to trial in the spring of 2026.Earlier this year, Musk also offered $97.4 billion to buy OpenAI, saying in a statement that “it’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was.” OpenAI’s board of directors unanimously rejected the offer, which today’s filing called a “sham bid.” Disclosure: The Verge’s parent company, Vox Media, partners with OpenAI.

The long-anticipated Assassin's Creed Shadows is finally here and has changed how stealth works. The stealth mechanics of this franchise are tried and true and, honestly, in need of a fresh coat of paint. Shadows does just that by providing the players with more options to tailor the gameplay and stealth experience to their tastes.

You've likely seen and heard all the claims that Linux has no software support, and you need to use Microsoft Windows to do anything. That may have held some ground a decade or two ago but it's no longer the case, and even gaming is more than viable on Linux. There are thousands of apps available for Linux, some official ports of those only available on Windows. Better still, Linux has some apps that can't be installed on Windows, at least without some effort, and a few of these make up some reasons why I refuse to switch from Linux back to Windows.

Did you have a stressful day today? Well, here's some solace: there's a chance that it wasn't as stressful as what the good folk over at Framework felt today. With the tariffs going crazy, the company has had to keep up with its plans on how much its laptops cost, and things are looking a little dicey.

If you use a lot of applications that insert themselves into your Menu Bar on your Mac, then you've probably run into the problem of having them clutter it up and even force icons off of the screen. There are a lot of applications I've installed that have a Menu Bar item that I never interact with, like ChatGPT, Alfred, and LM Studio. Plus, when using tools like Stats, you'll realize just how little space there actually is. That's why I use Ice to manage my Menu Bar, and it's been an absolute game-changer.