Comment on Market Snapshot: U.S. stock futures ease as investors monitor Ukraine war, await key private-sector payroll data

A Bitcoin investor has been ordered to disclose his secret pass codes so his digital assets can be unlocked by US officials, with the amount totalling about $124 million. The US District Judge Robert Pitman ruled on Monday (January 6) that Frank Richard Ahlgren III must hand over the codes and identify any devices used to store them.

Investigators have discovered that the solider who blew up a Tesla Cybertruck outside of a Trump hotel on January 1 used the generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT,  to plan the attack. Las Vegas police on Tuesday said that Matthew Livelsberger used ChatGPT to get more information. While his phone, laptop, and watch are still being looked into, it’s now come out that the veteran used OpenAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot to gauge how fast ammunition would go, as well as whether fireworks were legal in Arizona. Livelsberger shot himself before the Cybertruck exploded, with his generative AI-planned attack dubbed a “game changer” by Las Vegas sheriff, Kevin McMahill. In a statement, McMahill said that it’s “the first incident that I’m aware of on U.

Meta has announced that it is overhauling how it handles fact-checking. In a video yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – explained the decision to cut its fact-checking team in favor of a system similar to Elon Musk’s X. Rather than a dedicated team of people that ensure posts made on Facebook are factual, it will opt to use something akin to Community Notes.

The government in Thailand will soon begin initial discussions on the potential legalization of online gambling. According to the Bangkok Post, the news came from Deputy Prime Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong. The local paper reports Mr Prasert said on Monday that an official study into the plan is expected to wrap up in the next couple of months. This new move comes after former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said that regulating online gambling, rather than pushing it underground, would be good for the economy and society. Imagine a Thailand where gambling is no longer underground.

The parent company of betting platform FanDuel, Flutter, has seen a hit to its profit after some big upsets in the NFL season led to a winning streak for customers The New York-listed owner published a trading announcement on Tuesday (January 7) which shared an update on the short-term US sports results impact. “Following our Q3 earnings report on November 12, continued strong US player momentum has been offset by a period of very unfavorable US sports results across the remainder of November and in December, primarily on NFL Parlay and Same Game Parlay outcomes. “The 2024/2025 NFL season to date has been the most customer friendly since the launch of online sports betting with the highest rate of favorites winning in nearly 20 years.” Due to this, the company has estimated its US revenue for 2024 to be $370m lower than its previous guidance midpoint at approximately $5.78bn. “After incremental one-off cost mitigation, 2024 US Adjusted EBITDA is estimated to be approximately $205m lower than the previous guidance midpoint at approximately $505m (previous guidance $670m – $750m).” The 2024/2024 NFL season, which has been favorable to punters, will end in early January. Flutter single biggest loss in the quarter amounted to $74mn Outside of the US, Flutter details “continued good momentum in UK in particular with favorable sports results in the English Premier League.” This means the betting company now estimates “2024 revenue and Adjusted EBITDA will be approximately 1% and 2% higher than the mid-point of our previous guidance provided at Q3.” According to The Financial Times, the company said up to the end of December, the favorite had won 184 of the first 256 games of the season.

It’s no secret that Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl developers, GSC Game World had to relocate from their home country of Ukraine to complete the game, as developing video games in the middle of a warzone turns out to be sub-optimal. While the Russian government has been busy warning its population off playing Stalker 2 for fear of retribution given its strong support to the Ukrainian military, GSC Game World is trying to help raise cash to buy generators for schools that have been cut off from the power supply grid, in order that lessons can continue for the kids. Teaming up with Ukraine’s UNITED24 and its ambassadors, Liev Schreiber, Scott Kelly, Katheryn Winnick, and Elina Svitolina, the Bring Back Light fundraiser will help over 30,000 school children return to education. Ukraine’s official fundraising platform and the country’s prominent game devs will raffle off custom gifts among everyone who donates $24 or more towards power generators: 3 UNITED24 and S.