Multiple FEMA staff who signed an open letter criticizing the Trump administration's budget cuts to disaster preparedness were placed on leave Tuesday, the Washington Post first reported.
The big picture: Among the workers who signed the letter are "individuals who were directly helping relief efforts in Kerr County, Texas" following July's deadly floods, said a spokesperson for Stand Up for Science, the nonprofit that publicized the declaration, in a Tuesday night email that called the administration's action "illegal."
A forthcoming Trump administration plan to make Cold War-era plutonium available to power companies for reactor fuel deserves a close look, nuclear industry officials said Wednesday.
Why it matters: Experts in arms control and nuclear safety say the idea — which would repurpose plutonium from dismantled warheads — is costly and dangerous.
Perplexity on Monday said it would launch a new subscription product called Comet Plus that gives participating publishers an 80% cut of all revenue earned from subscription fees.
Why it matters: Perplexity wants to play nice with publishers, but its new product will need significant user adoption to ensure its media partners reap meaningful rewards.
Apple sent invitations on Tuesday for a Sept. 9 media event where it is expected to introduce the latest crop of iPhones and other hardware.
Why it matters: Apple's fall product launch is one of the most-watched events in the industry; this year, the company is expected to add a thinner iPhone to its lineup.
NASCAR on Thursday will launch its first-ever Substack newsletter, becoming the first major sports league to partner with the email platform, NASCAR chief brand officer Tim Clark told Axios.
Why it matters: It's part of a broader effort by the league to provide younger fans with a closer connection to drivers and their stories off the racetrack.
An image-editing tool known as Nano Banana that went viral in recent days is indeed — as many users had guessed — a Google project, the company confirmed Tuesday, and is being added to the Gemini app.
Why it matters: Nano Banana is the latest in a series of image-editing tools that have captured the internet's public eye, impressing users with its ability not only to generate new images but to refine them — a skill that has proven elusive to AI makers.
IBM and AMD have agreed to collaborate on quantum computing, creating a powerful tech duo amid growing optimism that the technology will have real-world implications sooner rather than later.
Why it matters: Quantum computing could have huge implications for everything from drug discovery, to financial modeling, to AI development.
