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• A cargo plane flew 50 miles with no pilot on board earlier this month.
• The Cessna 208B aircraft was remote control-operated by a pilot from a control center.
• The innovation could one day help combat a growing pilot shortage, an aviation expert told CNN. 

A common cargo plane flew a standard 50-mile route last month with no humans

Connections is the latest New York Times word game that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end

A selection of great tech and non-tech gifts aimed at the tinkerer, the creative, and the kid in all of us.

Continue reading…

• Threads, built on the back of Instagram and launched in July, may have staying power.
• The new Meta platform recently became available in the EU, seeing a surge in downloads.
• It's a direct rival of X, or Twitter, which continues to see downloads and users fall.

Threads this week became the most popular

Bluesky remains an invite-only decentralized Twitter alternative, but now, you don’t need to have an account and log in to be able to see posts on the platform, according to a blog post from Bluesky CEO Jay Graber. Now, anyone can easily see posts from both the web and from the Bluesky app — like this one.

If you want to prevent people who aren’t logged in

• Substack's founder says it will not remove white supremacist and Nazi blogs from the platform. 
• Some of these blogs have paying subscribers, which means Substack likely profits. 
• The heart of the issue is not the free speech; it's the money.

Earlier this month, The Atlantic published a report

• Companies and workers are cutting back on the alcohol at holiday parties.
• Instead, they're swapping in booze-free options like mocktails and no-alcohol beers and wines.
• Wellness concerns and balancing work-life challenges are partially behind the trend.

This year, venture capital firm

People are really getting their podcast lawsuits in before the new year. Let’s get to it.

• The Daily Beast reports that Fox News host Laura Ingraham filed a lawsuit against Quake Media, claiming the podcast startup hasn’t paid her $800,000 contract for 2022.
• Investment firm VGC Partners is suing Sean Glynn, the former CEO of British podcast studio Novel. The sui

Two lawmakers filed a bill requiring creators of foundation models to disclose sources of training data so copyright holders know their information was taken. The AI Foundation Model Transparency Act — filed by Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Don Beyer (D-VA) — would direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to work with the National

Drone footage shows scenes from Gaza before and after Israel began bombing in retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attacks.

• Starbucks continues to face calls for boycotts. 
• One of the latest is a map that helps coffee lovers find alternative cafés to patronize. 
• A New York coffee wholesaler is also offering a trade-in program for Starbucks gift cards. 

The latest backlash against Starbucks includes a new map that helps customers

Apple is talking with some big news publishers about licensing their news archives and using that information to help train its generative AI systems, The New York Times reports. The company is apparently discussing “multiyear deals worth at least $50 million,” the NYT says, and has been in touch with publications like Condé Nast, NBC News, and IAC.