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OpenAI has struck a deal to acquire TBPN, a technology-focused talk show popular in Silicon Valley, making an unexpected move into broadcasting after pledging to abandon "side quests" and focus on its core business.

The ChatGPT maker had purchased the 11-person company in a "low hundreds of millions of dollars" deal, according to a person with knowledge of the terms.

Archived at https://ghostarchive.org/archive/VfGEx

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20260303185619/https://www.wired.com/story/how-big-tech-is-powering-trumps-immigration-crackdown/

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20260227131606/https://thebarbedwire.com/2026/02/24/300-texas-accounts-white-supremacist-dating-site-politics-right-now/

Archived at https://archive.ph/zLJdz

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20260206123527/https://signalcleveland.org/what-police-surveillance-technology-looks-like-in-cleveland/

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20260205123528/https://minnesotareformer.com/2026/02/03/how-ice-is-watching-you/

YT: https://youtu.be/RRh3r_AhUw0

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20251030114314/https://coloradosun.com/2025/10/28/flock-camera-police-colorado-columbine-valley/

Public defenders in the nation’s capital are asking a judge in a federal lawsuit to block the U.S. Parole Commission from arresting D.C. residents and to release at least three people currently in jail on its orders, arguing that the federal body no longer has authority to jail people because, as of Wednesday, it does not legally exist.

The U.S. Parole Commission — a division of the Justice Department that primarily supervises several thousand D.C. residents who were released from prison but still serving their sentence — didn’t just have a lapse in funding when the government shut down this week. The agency was also set to sunset on Sept. 30, unless Congress passed legislation that extended it.

In a lawsuit filed in D.C.’s U.S. District Court last week, the D.C. Public Defender Service argues that because Congress instead took no action, the commission expired and now has no power. The public defenders asked a judge to block the parole commission from operating and to order the release of three D.C. residents recently sent to D.C. jail by the commission on alleged violations of their supervision.

“All three of these claims ask the same question: Does the Commission have congressional authorization to issue arrest warrants, detain, and sentence individuals to further incarceration? The answer is no, because, effective last night, Congress has abolished the Parole Commission,” public defenders wrote in their motion for a temporary restraining order seeking to stop the commission’s operations. They are seeking class-action status on their lawsuit so that it would apply to a broader number of people who’ve been jailed.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes declined to grant the temporary restraining order, saying the question of whether the U.S. Parole Commission legally exists needs deeper review. She stopped short of blocking the commission from continuing to arrest people — but suggested that the commission should avoid sending a large amount of people to jail while its legal authority is in question.

“Until we get this settled, they might not want to be issuing arrest warrants left and right,” Reyes told the attorney representing the commission, noting that might require her to move more quickly in the case. “I would counsel your client that sometimes discretion is the better part of valor, and if it’s not absolutely necessary to act … I think that would be better with respect to arrest warrants.”

Archived at https://archive.is/vHE1y

Spanish public broadcaster RTVE is blocking podcasts of its national radio station, RNE, from some third party podcast apps.

But unusually, the company still publishes open RSS feeds for all its shows - so shows appear in every podcast app that uses them. The broadcaster has chosen to deliberately block specific podcast apps from downloading the audio.

One such podcast app that RNE is blocking is AntennaPod, a free podcast app on Android. It’s one of the most popular apps on Android - and in Spain, 78.8% of Spanish mobile phone users use Android mobile phones.

Users have discovered that RNE is specifically blocking AntennaPod, based on the app’s user-agent, which is correctly set for every download. It’s unclear why: the app contains no advertising, and is open-source. It’s free to download, and acts in accordance with the unwritten contract between podcast publishers and apps.

“We will review the case of AntennaPod,” said J. Javier Hernández Bravo from RTVE, in an email to Podnews, after we asked for comment. He told us: “RNE Audio continues to publish open RSS feeds, and at the same time, it has decided to block some third-party podcast applications from downloading audio. Many of those platforms were making money from our content.”

There are no podcast platforms that Podnews is aware of which charge for access to open RSS feeds. (We’re always grateful to hear of any). Some podcast apps contain display advertising, but this is not the case for AntennaPod.

...

RNE had just told us that some companies were “making money” of RNE’s content - but then gives three examples of those that do. Spotify makes money off podcast content by aggressively marketing premium upgrades to its music app, and in some cases playing audio advertising before and after episode audio. YouTube puts advertising in front of podcast content, and markets a premium version. And even Apple Podcasts makes money off podcast content by exclusively being available as an app on iPhones and Macs, which only Apple sells.

AntennaPod does none of these things: so why is it blocked?

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250721123131/https://podnews.net/article/rne-blocks-open-rss

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250509114029/https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/05/09/new-jersey-prison-jpay-viapath-tablet

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250418115851/https://www.wired.com/story/massive-blue-overwatch-ai-personas-police-suspects/