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US Mulls Policing Social Media of Would-Be Citizens

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is proposing to expand mandatory social media screening, currently required only for new arrivals, to include all non-citizens already residing in the U.S. who apply for immigration benefits. The Register reports: Back in 2019, the Department of Homeland Security, which runs USCIS, decided anyone looking to enter the US on a work visa or similar had to hand over their social media handles to the authorities so that they could be looked over for wrongdoing and subversion. In fact, this goes back to 2014, at least, to one degree or another, and has been standard procedure for years for foreigners, particularly those coming in on a visa. [...] On January 20 this year, President Trump signed an executive order calling for much tougher vetting of foreign aliens, and in response, USCIS has proposed rules saying those already in the country who are going through some process with the agency -- such as applying for permanent residency or citizenship -- will have their social media scanned for subversion. That means if you came to America before foreigners' internet presence was screened as it now is, and you're now seeking some kind of immigration benefit, at this rate you'll be subject to the same scanning as those entering the Land of the Free today. The proposed changes have a 60-day comment period for the public to suggest amendments. The last day to send them in is May 5.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Donald Trump recule sur les droits de douane en pleine chute de Wall Street

Le président américain a reporté au 2 avril une partie de la taxation des produits canadiens et mexicains. Un revirement qui n’a « rien à voir avec les marchés », a-t-il prétendu, alors que l’« effet Trump », la hausse des cours de la Bourse dans les semaines qui ont suivi son entrée en fonction, est désormais totalement effacé.

© Carlos Sanchez / REUTERS

Le poste-frontière de Saragosse-Ysleta, entre Ciudad Juarez (Mexique), et El Paso (Texas), vu depuis le territoire mexicain, le 4 mars 2025.

SpaceX perd le contact avec le vaisseau de sa mégafusée Starship, comme en janvier

Pour ce huitième vol d’essai, le propulseur a une nouvelle fois bien été réceptionné sur la tour de lancement, tandis que le vaisseau devrait finir sa course dans l’océan Indien, comme lors de précédents tests.

© RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP

Le premier étage de la mégafusée Starship de SpaceX, de retour sur son pas de tir, à Boca Chica (Texas), le 6 mars 2025.

Espace : la sonde Athena de la NASA en position délicate sur la Lune

Selon l’entreprise privée Intuitive Machines, chargée par l’agence spatiale américaine de l’envoi de matériel et de technologies sur la Lune, l’engin n’a pas « la correcte orientation » après son alunissage, jeudi. Cet aléa risque de limiter les expériences prévues.

© HANDOURT / AFP

L’atterrisseur lunaire en orbite autour de la Lune, le 3 mars 2025 (image fournie par Intuitive Machines).

Syrie: 48 morts dans les «plus violents» affrontements depuis la chute d'Assad

Des combats qui ont eu lieu jeudi dans la ville de Jablé et des villages proches de la côte méditerranéenne, opposant forces gouvernementales et fidèles de l’ancien régime, sont les plus violents depuis la chute d’Assad en décembre.

© Mahmoud Hassano / REUTERS

Des soldats des forces syriennes montent à bord de véhicules militaires en direction de Lattaquié, où des affrontements ont eu lieu jeudi avec des combattants liés au leader déchu de la Syrie, Bachar al-Assad.

Gboard Testing Circle, Pill-Shaped Keys On Android

Google Gboard for Android is introducing circle or pill-shaped keys for some beta testers today. "Instead of the key borders being rounded rectangles, Gboard is switching to circles and pills for letters, while the space bar and other keys are now pill-shaped," reports 9to5Google. "While there should be no functional change to touch targets, these new shapes really shift the look of Gboard for Android." From the report: On paper, it's a bit more modern (and rounded) compared to what came before. However, it's a bit cramped if you have "Long press for symbols" enabled, which goes from the top-right corner to being directly above the letter. The physical analog Gboard is moving away from is how most keys on laptops and desktops are square.

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Meta Is Targeting 'Hundreds of Millions' of Businesses In Agentic AI Deployment

Earlier this week, Meta chief product officer Chris Cox said the company's upcoming open-source Llama 4 AI will help power AI agents for hundreds of millions of businesses. CNBC reports: The AI agents won't just be responding to prompts. They will be capable of new levels of reasoning and action -- surfing the web and handling many tasks that might be of use to consumers and businesses. And that's where Shih comes in. Meta's AI is already being used by over 700 million consumers, according to Shih, and her job is to bring the same technologies to businesses. "Not every business, especially small businesses, has the ability to hire these large AI teams, and so now we're building business AIs for these small businesses so that even they can benefit from all of this innovation that's happening," she told CNBC's Julia Boorstin in an interview for the CNBC Changemakers Spotlight series. She expects the uptake among businesses to happen soon, and spread far and wide. "We're quickly coming to a place where every business, from the very large to the very small, they're going to have a business agent representing it and acting on its behalf, in its voice -- the way that businesses today have websites and email addresses," Shih said. While major companies across sectors of the economy are investing millions of dollars to develop customer LLMs, "doing fancy things like fine tuning models," as Shih put it, "If you're a small business -- you own a coffee shop, you own a jewelry shop online, you're distributing through Instagram -- you don't have the resources to hire a big AI team, and so now our dream is that they won't have to." For both consumers and businesses, the implications of the advances discussed by Cox and Shih will be significant in daily life. For consumers, Shih says, "Their AI assistant [will] do all kinds of things, from researching products to planning trips, planning social outings with their friends." On the business side, Shih pointed to the 200 million small businesses around the world that are already using Meta services and platforms. "They're using WhatsApp, they're using Facebook, they're using Instagram, both to acquire customers, but also engage and deepen each of those relationships. Very soon, each of those businesses are going to have these AIs that can represent them and help automate redundant tasks, help speak in their voice, help them find more customers and provide almost like a concierge service to every single one of their customers, 24/7."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

En Syrie, plus de quarante morts dans les « plus violents » affrontements depuis la chute du régime Al-Assad

Ces combats, qui ont lieu depuis plusieurs jours dans la région de Lattaquié, bastion de la minorité alaouite du président déchu, ont entraîné la mort de seize membres des forces de sécurité et de vingt-huit combattants « fidèles » au président déchu, selon l’OSDH.

© BAKR ALKASEM/AFP

Des membres des forces de sécurité des nouvelles autorités syriennes, lors d’affrontements à Sanameïn, dans la province méridionale de Deraa, le 5 mars 2025.

L’armateur français CMA CGM va investir 20 milliards de dollars aux Etats-Unis

Rodolphe Saadé, le PDG du troisième armateur mondial, a déclaré être « très enthousiaste » au sujet de cet investissement, qui pourrait s’accroître « dans les prochaines semaines ».

© MANDEL NGAN / AFP

Rodolphe Saadé, directeur général de la compagnie maritime française CMA CGM, s’exprime à côté du bureau du président américain, Donald Trump, dans le bureau Ovale de la Maison Blanche à Washington, jeudi 6 mars 2025.
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