Meet the 125 women competing to be Miss Universe 2024

Tech Insider
Miss Universe 2024 contestants
Miss Universe 2024 contestants.

Hector Vivas/Getty Images

  • The 73rd annual Miss Universe pageant will take place in Mexico City on Saturday.
  • More than 120 women from all over the world are competing for the crown.
  • The contestants include a biochemist, a mother of three, and a former figure skating champion.

Miss Universe is back, and this time, more than 120 women are competing for the iconic crown.

The

Celebrities who have left X since the election

Mashable
A user interacts with the X app on a smartphone, showcasing the app’s rebranded interface, in front of the X logo

X users are fleeing to Bluesky and other alternatives since the U.S. presidential election, and celebrities are joining the exodus. Here's a list of famous people who've explicitly said they're ditching the Elon Musk-owned platform in the last week or so:

1. Stephen King

Prolific author and poster Stephen King left X for Meta-owned Threads this week, stating, "I'm leaving Twitter. Tried to stay, but

Defense tech companies like Anduril hope Trump can streamline military contracts

Tech Insider
Anduril logo
Anduril's CEO said he hopes Trump's plan to slash government bureaucracy will boost the defense industry.

Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

  • Anduril, founded by Palmer Luckey, is developing AI-powered drones for the military.
  • Anduril says Trump's promise to cut bureaucracy could make defense contracts simpler.
  • Others in the defense industry are less optimistic.

Tech

Narwal’s Freo X Ultra, the best mopping robot available, is on sale for a new low price

The Verge
Narwal’s Freo X Ultra against the wall.
The Freo X Ultra packs a lot of features for the price, including the ability to automatically remop your floors when necessary. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Hosting Thanksgiving dinner is fun and all, but the amount of cleaning you have to do afterward can be exhausting. The Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum / mop hybrid can help speed things up, though

Gabe Newell says Half-Life 2: Episode 3 didn’t happen because he was ‘stumped’

The Verge
A screenshot of concept art showing four people running toward the top of what appears to be a submarine, poking through ice.
Concept art for Half-Life 2: Episode 3, from the Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary Documentary. | Screenshot: YouTube

Unsurprisingly, yesterday’s big Half-Life release wasn’t the sequel to Half-Life 2 or even the third Half-Life 2: Episode entry, but a 20th-anniversary update to Valve’s legendary 2004 game. And given what studio co-founder Gabe Newell has to say on the subject