
Meta Gets Out Its Checkbook to Catch Up in the AI Race
It sounded like something that should have come from the sports desk — a $14.3 billion transfer fee for a young up-and-coming prospect as Meta Platforms Inc. looks to rebuild its team for the tough season ahead. The head coach is an under-pressure Mark Zuckerberg, and the hot talent is Alexandr Wang, 28. His company is Scale AI, and Meta is taking a 49% stake, it was confirmed last week.
Were this an acquisition, it would be the second largest in Meta's history after its $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp in 2014. But it's not an acquisition, so don't call it that, even though it bears many of the hallmarks of one.
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Fast Company
29 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Pentagon Pizza Index: The theory that surging pizza orders signal global crises
A different kind of pie chart is being used to predict global crises. A surge in takeout deliveries to the Pentagon has become a surprisingly accurate predictor of major geopolitical events, dubbed the 'Pentagon Pizza Index.' Tracking activity at local pizza joints in Arlington County, the X account Pentagon Pizza Report noted an uptick in Google Maps activity from four pizza places near the Pentagon on June 12. We, The Pizza, District Pizza Palace, Domino's, and Extreme Pizza all reportedly saw higher-than-usual order volumes around 7 p.m. ET. 'As of 6:59 p.m. ET nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a HUGE surge in activity,' the X account posted. The timing? Just hours before news broke of Israel's major attack on Iran. The U.S. announced it was not involved in the attacks. 'We are not involved in strikes against Iran, and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement released by the White House on June 12. However, as the theory goes, the surge in traffic at local pizza joints close to government buildings may have signaled hungry military leadership hunkering down to monitor unfolding events. 'The kind of analytics we love,' read one comment on X. 'Google Maps research beats some spy agencies around the world,' another user reacted. The predictive power of pizza isn't a new theory. As Alex Selby-Boothroyd, The Economist 's head of data journalism, wrote on LinkedIn: 'The Pentagon Pizza Index has been a surprisingly reliable predictor of seismic global events—from coups to wars—since the 1980s.' During the Cold War, Soviet operatives reportedly monitored pizza delivery activity in Washington, believing a sudden uptick in late-night orders signaled military personnel working overtime. They even gave it a code name: 'Pizzint,' short for pizza intelligence. In January 1991, Frank Meeks, who then owned 43 Domino's outlets in the Washington area, told the Los Angeles Times: 'The news media doesn't always know when something big is going to happen because they're in bed, but [pizza] deliverers are out there at 2 in the morning.' He added that on the night of August 1, 1990, the CIA ordered a record number of pizzas in a single night—21 pies. A few hours later, Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait, marking the beginning of the Gulf War. As CNN's then-Pentagon correspondent Wolf Blitzer reportedly said in 1990: 'Bottom line for journalists: Always monitor the pizzas.' Of course, a correlation between pizza delivery and global crises is not a verified method of tracking world events. In a statement to Newsweek, the Pentagon dismissed the theory, noting they have plenty of pizza options inside the building, along with sushi, sandwiches, and donuts. They also disputed the timeline suggested by the Pentagon Pizza Report, saying it did 'not align with the events.'


Android Authority
30 minutes ago
- Android Authority
Android 16 update breaks button and gesture navigation for some Pixel users
Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR Google Pixel users are experiencing an annoying bug after installing the Android 16 update. The bug results in navigation buttons and gestures becoming temporarily unresponsive. User reports suggest that the issue is not limited to a specific Pixel model, although not all users are affected. Google recently rolled out Android 16 on the stable channel, bringing several new features to its Pixel devices. However, the update also seems to have introduced a frustrating bug for some users that makes their phones temporarily unusable. Recent reports on Reddit and X (via Android Headlines) highlight an annoying navigation issue that seems to have cropped up for some Pixel users after installing Android 16. The issue results in both button and gesture-based navigation becoming intermittently unresponsive, and it seems to affect all Pixel models. Here's a demo of the back button randomly not working on Android 16. I grabbed a bug report and submitted it to Google engineering along with this reproduction screencast. Hopefully, they'll figure it out. — Artem Russakovskii (@ArtemR) June 14, 2025 Some users say that the issue appears randomly and makes buttons and gestures completely unresponsive, while others have reported experiencing a delayed response while trying to navigate back or to the home screen. Although we don't have a foolproof workaround, a few affected users say switching to a different launcher app or clearing the Pixel Launcher's data and cache seems to fix the unresponsiveness and lag. Rebooting the device also appears to work in some cases, but the problem resurfaces shortly after the reboot for most users. While the issue doesn't seem widespread, we've seen a growing number of reports over the last few days. Google has yet to acknowledge the issue or reveal the underlying cause, but we expect the company to shed light on the matter in the coming days. We'll update this post as soon as we have more details. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.

Miami Herald
32 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Meta-owned WhatsApp starts in-app ads for first time
June 16 (UPI) -- The messaging service WhatsApp on Monday will begin to display ads for the first time as parent company Meta seeks to make business changes to the encrypted global platform. Billions of international users of the popular messaging app will see business ads in its "updates" tab as Meta begins to monetize the WhatsApp "channels" feature with paid subscriptions and search advertising. In addition, business will have the option to run "status ads" that prompt a WhatsApp user to interact with advertisers on messenger. Officials say, however, that WhatsApp will only collect limited private data used to target ads. "Your personal messages, calls and statuses, they will remain end-to-end encrypted," Nikila Srinivasan, Meta and WhatsApp's VP of product management, told The New York Times. There are no current plans for ads to be in private chats. Meta, the global social media giant at one time known as Facebook when it purchased WhatsApp in a 2014 deal for some $19 billion, now permits advertisers to run click-to-message ads to WhatsApp via its branded subsidiary companies Instagram and Facebook. WhatsApp has more than 3 billion monthly users, with more more than 100 million just in the United States and "growing quickly from there,' according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In April, Zuckerberg said its ability for users to contact businesses "should be the next pillar" of WhatsApp's business model. But according to a company official, WhatsApp will use "very basic information" -- such as a user's home country, city, language, smart phone device or select data -- in order to pick what ads to show, but ads might cost less to place on WhatsApp versus Facebook or Instagram. In 2024, nearly all of Meta's $164 billion revenue arrived from advertising and it holds about a 15% share of digital business advertising globally. The advertising business for Meta-owned companies is "in as strong a position now as it's ever been," Brian Wieser, a financial analyst and founder of consulting firm Madison and Wall, told the Times. Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.