Nearly half of the facial recognition in London last year occurred in areas with a higher proportion of Black residents than the city’s average, The Voice Newspaper reports. Researchers from a political group in London circulated figures highlighting live facial recognition (LFR), which was used 180 times in 2024. More than half of these occurrences were in places with a larger Black population than the city’s average. How many faces were scanned? Across London, around two million people had their faces scanned, but only 804 arrests were made, which is
Migrants who were granted temporary stay to live in the US by using a Biden-era online appointment app have been told to leave the country, “immediately,” officials said on Monday. The number of individuals affected has not yet been confirmed. What Is CBP One? The CBP One app was introduced under President Joe Biden as part of an effort to create safer, legal pathways for asylum seekers and reduce illegal border crossings. The app allowed individuals to schedule appointments with immigration officials and apply for asylum at border crossings—primarily along
Wicked Saints Studios, a Black woman-led video game studio, has partnered with Discord, e.l.f Beauty, and Starlight Children’s Foundation to launch World Reborn. The first-of-its-kind interactive story game uses behavioral science and positive psychology to boost players’ well-being. With 87% of Gen Z gaming online weekly, World Reborn meets them where they are—turning gameplay into meaningful connection and real-world impact. How does the game work? Users will be given real-world quests called Training Mods, which feature real-life changemakers addressing several social goods, such as supporting women’s sports from e.l.f., empowering teen
Campus, an online community college, has announced a $46 million Series B investment, bringing its total amount raised to over $100 million. The community college offers students live classes with highly regarded professors who have backgrounds from colleges and universities such as Stanford, UCLA, and Howard. Additionally, students receive wraparound support such as on-demand tutoring and personal success coaching, as stated in a press release. Who founded Campus? Before there was Campus, there was Campuswire, an online learning software Tade Oyerinde founded in 2016. In 2018, Oyerinde conceived the idea for Campus
This week on Techish, Michael and Abadesi unpack how the changing political landscape is shaping career goals for top university grads. They also dive into Big Tech’s ties to the military-industrial complex, reflect on the ‘good old days’ of internet journalism, and the debate about tackling wealth inequality. Chapters 00:25 Stanford Grads Are Ditching Big Tech for Defense07:57 Nostalgia for BuzzFeed-Era Journalism10:20 The Pressure to Perform Success13:31 Gary Stevenson and Taxing the Super Rich Listen to the episode You can find the Techish podcast on Spotify, Apple, and all good podcast
Everyone knows how grueling the tax filing process can be, so the accounting software company Open Ledger has launched a new product to make the process more fun. If you grew up loving Pokemon, PokéTax will make Tax Day feel like a breeze. Open Ledger launches PokéTax Open Ledger is the latest venture from Pryce Adade-Yebesi, the entrepreneur who previously co-founded Utopia Labs, a crypto invoicing startup that was recently sold to Coinbase. His new company, co-founded with Ashtyn Bell, builds embedded accounting tools for small businesses and recently raised $3 million
Topicals founder and CEO Olamide Olowe and its president Sochi Mbadugha have acquired Bread Beauty Supply through their holding company, Cost of Doing Business (CODB), which they launched in 2024. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. According to Business of Fashion, CODB plans to grow Bread Beauty Supply’s retail presence in the US, beginning with an expansion into more Sephora stores. Topicals and Bread: Two Visionary Black-Owned Brands Topicals is a Black-owned skincare brand founded by Olowe in 2020. It has gained prominence for its products that
Target’s foot traffic has fallen for the ninth consecutive week amidst its 40-day boycott, as stated by Retail Brew. The company’s traffic started to plummet in the first whole week after it shared that it was rolling back its DEI efforts. In March, the retailer announced that it would end its DEI programs, including its Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) initiative and a program focused on carrying more products from Black—or minority-owned businesses. Target’s chief community impact and equity officer, Kiera Fernandez, sent a memo to staff stating, “Many
The Trump administration is urging some large companies in the EU to comply with executive orders to end DEI programs. Government officials have allegedly sent letters to companies in France and the European Union with US government contracts, stating that they should ban DEI initiatives if they want to hold on to their contracts, according to The Financial Times. “Department of State contractors must certify that they do not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable anti-discrimination laws and agree that such certification is material for purposes of
Krisp, a noise cancellation app, announced that it will launch an AI tool to convert a speaker’s accent to American English, starting with Indian accents. The company says the AI Accent Conversion will change a person’s accent with a 200ms latency, which Krisps calls “an imperceptible delay in conversations,” whilst maintaining the speaker’s voice, according to The Verge. The tool has already been trialed in enterprise environments, and a beta version will be available on the Krisp desktop app. Users can use the tool at any time during or before
