Kyiv, Ukraine – Finishing a cigarette with a final deep puff outside a hospital building in central Kyiv, a wounded Ukrainian drone operator sums up Russian President Vladimir Putin's readiness to end the Ukraine war along the current front lines. "Don't trust these leaks, the … vampire is just dragging the talks out," Arseny, a 31-year-old recovering from a cranial wound that left him blind in one eye, told Al Jazeera while standing near a blossoming apple tree. He referred to a Financial Times report on Tuesday that suggested that Putin could "relinquish" Moscow's claims on four partly-occupied Ukrainian regions. In September 2022, seven months after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, Moscow recognised the regions as part of Russia even though it did not fully control them – and began losing some occupied areas within weeks. In return for the Kremlin's concession, the US may recognise Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014, as part of Russia, and "acknowledge" the Kremlin's de facto control over the four regions' occupied parts, the Financial Times claimed, citing officials familiar with the talks.

Get all the books your heart desires during Amazon's Book Sale. Even though Amazon is now a global shipper of pretty much any item you can think of, their heart still lies with their original items: books! Amazon is currently running its Amazon Book Sale, April 23 – 28. During the sale, eBooks are up to 80% off, print books are up to 60% off, and you can find hundreds of audiobooks under 8. Amazon's Kindle Scribe and Colorsoft are also on sale. Right now, you can also access Kindle Unlimited for just 0.99.

Tesla's quarterly results are in, and it seems the panic alarm finally went off. Analyst expectations for Tesla's first quarter of 2025 were already pretty grim, but Tesla handily beat them with a 71 percent drop in profit and a 20 percent drop in car sales, with the only thing keeping the company in the green for the quarter being 595 million in carbon credit sales. While the sales drop can partially be attributed to the launch of Tesla's updated Model Y, it's now obvious that Musk's political engagement, which includes running the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been giving potential Tesla buyers pause. DOGE, which is supposed to be cutting unnecessary government expenses, has instead wreaked havoc inside the federal government, with fairly little to show for it. Musk's endorsement of far right political options probably isn't helping either, especially in Europe, where Tesla sales have plummeted in recent months.

As artificial intelligence (AI) evolves from a tool to a true assistant, its role in the workplace expands, fundamentally transforming how enterprises operate. Microsoft's latest research identifies a new type of organization known as the Frontier Firm, where on-demand intelligence requirements are managed by hybrid teams of AI agents and humans. Also: Will AI replace software engineers? On Wednesday, Microsoft published its 2025 Work Trend Index Annual Report, which combines survey data from 31,000 workers across 31 countries, Microsoft 365 productivity signals, LinkedIn hiring and labor trends, and expert insights to give employees and business leaders a comprehensive view of the work landscape. The focus of this year's report is the concept of a Frontier Firm, which helps researchers explore what work structure will be like in the AI era.

Microsoft's 365 suite of productivity applications is the cornerstone of many businesses' everyday operations. To empower the suite with data-led intelligence, the tech company has infused 365 with its Copilot AI assistant -- and the latest release ups the ante on what Copilot can do for working professionals. Also: 3 clever ChatGPT tricks that prove it's still the AI to beat On Wednesday, the company launched its Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 Spring release with add-ons, including the rollout of previously announced and some brand-new features, to enhance the Microsoft 365 experience. Many features focus on AI agents that can help working professionals get more done. For starters, Researcher and Analyst agents, which can conduct higher-level research and data analysis by leveraging existing OpenAI models, are rolling out in the new Agent Store starting today via the Frontier program.

AI for education is a new but rapidly expanding field. Can it support student outcomes and help teachers avoid burnout? On Wednesday, AI education company Kira launched a "fully AI-native learning platform" for K-12 education, complete with agents to assist teachers with repetitive tasks. The platform hosts assignments, analyzes progress data, offers administrative assistance, helps build lesson plans and quizzes, and more. Also: Google's One AI Premium plan with Gemini Advanced is now free for students - for an entire year "Unlike traditional tools that merely layer AI onto existing platforms, Kira integrates artificial intelligence directly into every educational workflow -- from lesson planning and instruction to grading, intervention, and reporting," the release explains.

Nintendo has said it is seeing overwhelming demand for its upcoming Switch 2 game console in Japan, in a sign the gadget could be on track for the biggest hardware launch in the video game industry's history. "We have received 2.2 million applications for the lottery sale at our official online store for customers in Japan alone, which is far larger than what we had anticipated," Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa posted on X Wednesday. "As such, we apologize that a significant number of the applicants wouldn't be selected." The Kyoto-based company introduced a lottery system to deal with high demand in Japan that prioritizes customers who played frequently and made online subscription purchases on the original Switch. Preorders will begin on Thursday.

The AI landscape is changing fast… is such a clichéd thing to say... but here I am, telling you yet again... "The AI landscape is changing fast." In today's episode of keeping up with AI advancements, I must tell you about Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro, its most advanced model yet. Also: Gemini Pro 2.5 is a stunningly capable coding assistant - and a big threat to ChatGPT It's so good that I could only say, "I'm sorry, Google, I owe you an apology. I said that using my best Shaq impression. In this article, I'll explain what changed, why Gemini's now part of my workflow, and how to use Gemini 2.5 Pro to improve your workflow and help you make more moola. If you're new to my work, my name is Lester, but feel free to call me Les. These days, I'm focused on helping everyday people make sense of all the "AI is changing everything" mumbo jumbo. Also: Will AI replace software engineers? If you like data-driven marketing insights and staying up to date with practical ways to use AI, check out my ...

Hosted by Ben Byford, The Machine Ethics Podcast brings together interviews with academics, authors, business leaders, designers and engineers on the subject of autonomous algorithms, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and technology's impact on society. This episode we're chatting with Pinar Guvenc about her "What's Wrong With" podcast, co-design, whether AI is ready for society and society is ready for AI, what design is, co-creation with AI as a stakeholder, bias in design, small language models, whether AI is making us lazy, human experience, digital life and our attention, and talking to diverse people… Pinar Guvenc is Partner at SOUR – an award-winning global design studio with the mission to address social and urban problems – where she leads business and design strategy. She is an educator teaching ethical leadership and co-design at Parsons School of Design, MS Strategic Design and Management and School of Visual Arts MFA Interaction Design. Pinar serves on the Board of Directors of Open Style Lab and advises local businesses in NYC through Pratt Center for Community Development. She is a frequent public speaker and lecturer, and is the host of SOUR's "What's Wrong With: The Podcast", a discussion series with progress makers in diverse fields across the world.

The best smart locks can help anyone who constantly misplaces keys or who frequently wonders whether they locked the front door. I am in the latter camp. After years in apartments, I recently moved to a large enough house that checking whether the door is locked can feel like a chore, especially once I'm all cozy in bed. Installing a smart lock doesn't mean throwing away your house keys--you probably still want to bring them with you. These locks are all about convenience, offering multiple ways to enter, like a passcode via a keypad, fingerprint scanning, or through an app. You can easily share codes with friends and family, so no need to fuss with crappy key copies, and you can usually set them to auto-lock when the door closes.