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Barbara Ortutay

@blanka.bsky.social

Technology writer for The Associated Press. bortutay@ap.org https://apnews.com/author/barbara-ortutay

1,602 Followers  |  124 Following  |  54 Posts  |  Joined: 04.05.2023  |  1.7867

Latest posts by blanka.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Review: Bad Bunny brought Puerto Rico's history and culture to a revolutionary Super Bowl show Bad Bunny delivered a historic performance at the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, for the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show that brought Puerto Rican culture and history to the fore.

apnews.com/article/bad-...

09.02.2026 20:02 — 👍 6    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 1
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CIA ends publication of its popular World Factbook reference tool The CIA is ending the publication of its popular World Factbook reference manual. The agency announced the decision Wednesday but gave no reason for it.

RIP :( apnews.com/article/cia-...

05.02.2026 00:40 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The shootings in Minneapolis are upending the politics of immigration in Congress The shooting deaths of two American citizens at the hands of federal law enforcement in Minneapolis have upended the politics of the Trump administration’s deportation agenda.

The shooting deaths of two American citizens during the Trump administration’s deportation operations in Minneapolis have upended the politics of immigration in Congress, plunging the country toward another government shutdown.

27.01.2026 00:00 — 👍 199    🔁 55    💬 23    📌 9

complaining about paywalls when so many journalists are being laid off and there are fewer market incentives to do great reporting and in-depth investigations, data analysis and features is also wild when everyone understands you need to pay for electronics, streaming services, and utilities

08.12.2025 16:31 — 👍 341    🔁 57    💬 32    📌 15

While the website was processing my payment for plane tickets (like the circle going around and around) I got a notification that the price increased by $70. This is insanity. Has this happened to anyone else?

25.11.2025 00:03 — 👍 3    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0
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We Asked Roblox’s C.E.O. About Child Safety. It Got Tense.

We asked Roblox's CEO about child safety on the platform. It got tense www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/p...

21.11.2025 15:47 — 👍 175    🔁 30    💬 17    📌 47
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Advocacy groups urge parents to avoid AI toys this holiday season Children’s and consumer advocacy groups are urging parents not to buy AI-powered toys during the holiday season.

Because the horror movies didn't warn us enough...

20.11.2025 19:53 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Border Patrol is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with 'suspicious' travel patterns The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious.

Read this investigation by @byrontau.bsky.social now:

apnews.com/article/immi...

20.11.2025 18:40 — 👍 81    🔁 44    💬 5    📌 5
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Meta prevails in historic FTC antitrust case, won't have to break off WhatsApp, Instagram Meta has prevailed over an existential challenge to its business that could have forced the tech giant to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp after a judge ruled that the company does not hold a monopoly ...

"Believing that the only constant in the world was change, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus posited that no man can ever step into the same river twice. In the online world of social media, the current runs fast, too." -- Judge James Boasberg, ruling in favor of Meta.

18.11.2025 19:32 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 1
Ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement “Mobile Fortify is a dangerous tool in the hands of ICE, and it puts American citizens at risk of detention and even deportation.” He also said “ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien. ICE using a mobile biometrics app in ways its developers at CBP never intended or tested is a frightening, repugnant, and unconstitutional attack on Americans’ rights and freedoms.”

Ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement “Mobile Fortify is a dangerous tool in the hands of ICE, and it puts American citizens at risk of detention and even deportation.” He also said “ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien. ICE using a mobile biometrics app in ways its developers at CBP never intended or tested is a frightening, repugnant, and unconstitutional attack on Americans’ rights and freedoms.”

New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people

www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...

29.10.2025 15:03 — 👍 6039    🔁 3415    💬 215    📌 946

Of course women don't like the Cybertruck.

Women only want one thing, and it's the Trabant 601.

16.10.2025 20:37 — 👍 330    🔁 38    💬 14    📌 23
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László Krasznahorkai in conversation with Colm Tóibín | London Review Bookshop Our first Literary Friendships event brought together Colm Tóibín with his friend László Krasznahorkai. Described by the Guardian as a ‘visionary writer’,…

Krasznahorkai has said of his work: ‘You will never go wrong anticipating doom in my books, any more than you’ll go wrong in anticipating doom in ordinary life.’

In 2012, we recorded a 94-minute conversation with Colm Tóibín for our Bookshop podcast:

www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/podcasts-vid...

09.10.2025 11:26 — 👍 101    🔁 35    💬 1    📌 3

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

08.10.2025 10:29 — 👍 27046    🔁 10278    💬 424    📌 184

The only LLM I need.

01.10.2025 17:59 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Marilyn Hagerty, Whose Column on Olive Garden Went Viral in 2012, Dies at 99 It was a simpler time online, her son recalls—and his no-nonsense mother broke through the noise for all the right reasons

"Way back in 2012, the internet wasn’t yet the angry, shrieking wasteland it has become. A simple story about a no-nonsense lady in North Dakota could break through the noise." www.wsj.com/us-news/mari...

19.09.2025 18:53 — 👍 65    🔁 19    💬 1    📌 12
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The passing of Paul Newman (2008), Sean Connery (2020), Sidney Poitier (2022), and now Robert Redford (2025) signals the slow disappearance of a certain type of 20th century figure: men who embodied classic style in a way that reflected their taste, rather than a professional stylist.

16.09.2025 22:28 — 👍 7116    🔁 1048    💬 135    📌 52

PSA: If you do not wish to mistakenly see the graphic video of Charlie Kirk getting shot and have an iPhone best to turn off video autoplay. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Motion, and then disable "Auto-Play Video Previews." This is the default setting. A per-app setting is also on the menu.

10.09.2025 19:56 — 👍 3    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0
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“Smells Like Teen Spirit”, released as a single 34 yrs ago today

“No one had any psychic foresight .. that the song would go on to do what it did,” said Grohl. “We just fuckin’ rocked it in a little rehearsal space that was like a barn. .. We just thought it was another cool song for the record.”

10.09.2025 11:20 — 👍 2090    🔁 361    💬 89    📌 105
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US tech companies enabled the surveillance and detention of hundreds of thousands in China U.S. technology firms such as IBM, Dell and Cisco largely designed and built China’s surveillance state, an AP investigation finds. The tech companies deny wrongdoing.

"Over the past quarter century, American tech companies to a large degree designed and built China’s surveillance state, playing a far greater role in enabling human rights abuses than previously known, an Associated Press investigation found."

09.09.2025 18:06 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

I'm seeing a social media trend where people are sneaking pics of men reading books in public and making fun of them as "performative males"

And while I love a good dunk, I don't think you guys want men to be reading even less than they are now. Just saying

04.09.2025 14:48 — 👍 918    🔁 98    💬 60    📌 128

I have honestly many times thought about purchasing one of those bulletproof backpacks or whatever, but then I think about the burden of carrying that to school every day, putting that burden on our children, that physical and mental burden of having to remember why you are carrying that backpack.

28.08.2025 21:33 — 👍 14    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0
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Online age checks are proliferating, but so are concerns they curtail internet freedom Online age checks are on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13.

The trouble with age verification

28.08.2025 18:26 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Study says AI chatbots need to fix suicide response, as family sues over ChatGPT role in boy's death A study finds that AI chatbots often avoid answering high-risk suicide questions but are inconsistent with less direct prompts.

“If a tool can give suicide instructions to a child, its safety system is simply useless."

26.08.2025 18:41 — 👍 8    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Here's a recent story (and photos) by Mariam Dagga, about children in Gaza:

25.08.2025 21:34 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Mariam Dagga, AP freelance journalist in Gaza, was killed by an Israeli strike Mariam Dagga, a visual freelance journalist in Gaza for The Associated Press, was killed by an Israeli strike on a hospital. She was 33.

"At her funeral Monday, relatives and colleagues caressed her cheeks through tears. Her body lay shrouded in white, a single red flower placed gently beside her face."

25.08.2025 19:04 — 👍 14    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 1
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This is Tuffy. He is the only example of taking up the whole sidewalk that is not only justifiable, but encouraged. 14/10 (IG: mypittuffy)

21.08.2025 22:17 — 👍 19035    🔁 2433    💬 540    📌 297

I am sorry I will never be able to read a story about Uranus and not laugh. It's just how it is.

19.08.2025 20:45 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The Invention of “Sesame Street” Renata Adler’s 1972 review of the program that revolutionized children’s television.

“Small children from poor or middle-class families who watch ‘Sesame Street’ do better on cognitive tests and in first grade than children who do not watch it,” Renata Adler wrote, in 1972.

15.08.2025 16:05 — 👍 12437    🔁 3131    💬 274    📌 153
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AOL is finally shutting down its dial-up internet service AOL’s dial-up internet is finally taking its last bow. Yes, while perhaps a dinosaur by today’s digital standards, dial-up is still around.

AOL’s dial-up internet is finally taking its last bow. Yes, while perhaps a dinosaur by today’s digital standards, dial-up is still around.

11.08.2025 23:00 — 👍 148    🔁 20    💬 9    📌 17

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