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MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A Palestinian student arrested as he was about to finalize his U.S. citizenship accused Columbia University on Thursday of eroding democracy with its handling of campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, who led anti-war protests at the Ivy League school in New York in 2023 and 2024, spent 16 days in a Vermont prison before a judge ordered him released on April 30. He spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday, a day after pro-Palestinian protestors clashed with campus security guards inside the university’s main library. At least 80 people were taken into custody,…

Student protest leader Mohsen Mahdawi has appeared at the Vermont state house to help launch a legal defence fund to help immigrants like himself who are facing deportation hearings. His appearance on Thursday comes nearly a week after Mahdawi himself was released from immigration detention, after spending nearly 16 days in custody for his pro-Palestinian advocacy. The administration of President Donald Trump has sought to deport Mahdawi and other student activists for their demonstrations, citing a Cold War-era law that allows the removal of foreign nationals deemed to have adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States. Though released on…

Microsoft employees aren’t allowed to use DeepSeek due to data security and propaganda concerns, Microsoft vice chairman and president Brad Smith said in a Senate hearing today. “At Microsoft we don’t allow our employees to use the DeepSeek app,” Smith said, referring to DeepSeek’s application service (which is available on both desktop and mobile). Smith said Microsoft hasn’t put DeepSeek in its app store over those concerns, either.  Although lots of organizations and even countries have imposed restrictions on DeepSeek, this is the first time Microsoft has gone public about such a ban. Smith said the restriction stems from the…

OpenAI is enhancing its AI-powered “deep research” feature with the ability to analyze codebases on GitHub. On Thursday, OpenAI announced what it’s calling the first “connector” for ChatGPT deep research, the company’s tool that searches across the web and other sources to compile thorough research reports on a topic. Now, ChatGPT deep research can link to GitHub (in beta), allowing developers to ask questions about a codebase and engineering documents. The connector will be available for ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team users over the next few days, with Enterprise and Edu support coming soon, according to an OpenAI spokesperson. OpenAI’s…

Google is rolling out a feature in its Gemini API that the company claims will make its latest AI models cheaper for third-party developers. Google calls the feature “implicit caching” and says it can deliver 75% savings on “repetitive context” passed to models via the Gemini API. It supports Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro and 2.5 Flash models. That’s likely to be welcome news to developers as the cost of using frontier models continues to grow. We just shipped implicit caching in the Gemini API, automatically enabling a 75% cost savings with the Gemini 2.5 models when your request hits a…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon will immediately begin moving as many as 1,000 openly identifying transgender service members out of the military and give others 30 days to self-identify under a new directive issued Thursday.Buoyed by Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision allowing the Trump administration to enforce a ban on transgender individuals in the military, the Defense Department will begin going through medical records to identify others who haven’t come forward.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who issued the latest memo, made his views clear after the court’s decision.“No More Trans @ DoD,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X. Earlier in the…

Google announced on Thursday that it’s rolling out new AI-powered defenses to help combat scams on Chrome. The tech giant will begin using Gemini Nano, its on-device large language model (LLM), on desktop to protect users against online scams. It’s also launching new AI-powered warnings for Chrome on Android to help users be aware of spammy notifications. According to Google, Chrome’s Enhanced Protection mode of Safe Browsing on Chrome offers the highest level of protection, providing twice the protection against phishing and other online threats compared to the browser’s Standard Protection mode. Now, Google will use Gemini Nano to provide Enhanced…

If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to act, this is it. You have just 24 hours left to secure your exhibit table at TechCrunch Sessions: AI and position your brand at the center of the conversation shaping the future of the AI industry. TechCrunch Sessions: AI is bringing together the brightest builders, boldest thinkers, and sharpest investors to UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall on June 5. At a venue nestled right in the heart of the AI community, your company will get the chance to rub elbows with a crowd of investors and innovators looking for the next standout…

The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched a new innovation platform aimed at testing and shaping the future of the digital euro.Nearly 70 participants—including banks, FinTechs, start-ups, and merchants—have joined the initiative following a call for interest issued in late 2024.Participants are split into two workstreams: “pioneers,” who are focused on testing technical features such as conditional payments and platform integration, and “visionaries,” who are developing ideas to improve digital financial inclusion, like offering digital euro wallets at post offices for those without bank accounts or devices.The ECB is providing technical resources including APIs to support independent experimentation. Workshops for…

The United States has announced a ‘breakthrough deal’ with the United Kingdom that would create an aluminium and steel trading zone and secure the pharmaceutical supply chain. The deal affirms that “reciprocity and fairness is a vital principle of international trade” and increases access for US agricultural products, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday, though he added that the final details were still being written up. “The final details are being written up,” Trump told reporters. “In the coming weeks, we’ll have it all very conclusive.” The deal, the first one struck by the US since Trump imposed his…