What are Russia's gains from the Iran war? 'We are not losers; we are winners' Russia has continued heavy attacks on Ukraine for the past 24 hours, with several coming overnight on Thursday and in the early hours of Friday. At least one person has been killed and several have been injured. A Russian drone attack overnight damaged port infrastructure in Ukraine's southern Odesa region and wounded two people in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said on Friday morning. Two high-rise residential buildings were damaged in the attack, which destroyed apartments and caused fires, Kiper wrote on the Telegram messaging app. "This night, Russia again massively attacked the civilian infrastructure of the Odesa region: two people were injured," he said.

The war in Iran has drawn attention to arrests in the United Arab Emirates over online content, but the legal framework behind that enforcement has existed for years. When Iranian missile and drone attacks on the United Arab Emirates began earlier this year, cybercrime laws also came into focus as the conflict played out in the sky--and online. Authorities announced arrests linked to misleading videos, AI-generated clips, illegal filming, and the spread of misinformation. For many residents, the reaction was one of surprise: How could a screenshot, forwarded video, or social media post become a criminal matter? The answer lies in legal frameworks that were already in place.

The actor-director discussed his least favorite currency and read a series of mean tweets--about us!--at our inaugural WIRED@Night event. Ben McKenzie had a question: "When did WIRED die?" Specifically, the actor-director wanted to know when did WIRED "'DIE,' all caps." McKenzie wasn't asking for himself; he was engaging in the time-honored celebrity tradition of reading mean tweets . McKenzie, who famously played Ryan on before becoming a leading voice of crypto skepticism, was sharing the stage with WIRED senior correspondent Andy Greenberg for the first of what will hopefully be a series of smaller events that we are calling WIRED@Night. On April 16, about 100 people gathered at event partner Ace Hotel Brooklyn to sip drinks from Aplos, Faccia Brutto, The Sorting Table, and Manojo and ponder the future of cryptocurrency.

Two Literal Crypto Bros Built a Real Estate Empire. In 2019, two Canadian brothers blew into Detroit with an irresistible pitch: For $50, almost anyone could become a property owner. When houses decayed and the city intervened, the blame games began. A fire broke out at 10410 Cadieux in March 2025, burning a hole in the roof. The smell hit me first: damp brick, stagnant water, mold, and bleach. I was partway down a flight of wooden stairs that led to the basement of a 1920s duplex in east Detroit, Michigan. Leading the way was Cornell Dorris, a tenant in the building for nearly a decade. Dorris is in his early forties, has two daughters who visit on weekends, and makes a living smoking meat and cooking for events. As my eyes adjusted, I made out rodent droppings and a black puddle that spread across the basement floor. "Anytime it rains, the water comes down," Dorris said. The air was unnaturally heavy, and I felt a nagging urge to leave. Dorris doesn't have a typical landlord. Almost four years ago, his building was acquired by a startup called RealToken, or RealT.

'100 Video Calls Per Day': Models Are Applying to Be the Face of AI Scams Dozens of Telegram channels reviewed by WIRED include job listings for "AI face models." The (mostly) women who land these gigs are likely being used to dupe victims out of their money. "I can speak fluent English, I can speak good Chinese, I also speak Russian and Turkish," the glamorous, 24-year-old Uzbekistani woman explains in a selfie-style video made for recruiters. Angel had arrived in the Cambodian city of Sihanoukville that day, she said, and was ready to start work immediately. Those impressive language skills, however, have likely been put to use as part of elaborate " pig-butchering " scams targeting Americans.

How the US left Ukraine exposed to Russia's winter war Will Europe use frozen Russian assets to fund war? How can Ukraine rebuild China ties? Russian forces launched 448 attacks on 34 settlements in Ukraine's front-line Zaporizhia region in a single day, injuring a six-year-old child and damaging homes, cars and other infrastructure, regional governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on the Telegram app. Russian drone, missile and artillery attacks on Ukraine's Kherson region injured five people and damaged homes, including seven high-rise buildings, the local military administration said on Telegram. Russian attacks also continued in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions, but local officials there noted that "fortunately, no people were injured".

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026 is Feb. 25 Russia's recent blocking of Telegram is reportedly disrupting its military operations in Ukraine Telegram is among a number of Western apps banned by Russian authorities. A decision to ban Telegram on home soil may have backfired on the Kremlin. Last week, Russia went on a, banning a number of Western apps in an effort to push domestic users towards Max, an unencrypted state-owned app. One of the restricted apps was WhatsApp (which was also blocked) rival Telegram, a move that drew rare internal from soldiers and pro-war bloggers, with the army being heavily reliant on the cloud-based messaging service for communications. As reported by, pro-Russian military channels are now complaining that the sudden Telegram blackout -- coupled with Elon Musk Russia's access to Starlink earlier this month -- is now actively harming frontline operations.

How the US left Ukraine exposed to Russia's winter war Will Europe use frozen Russian assets to fund war? How can Ukraine rebuild China ties? Russian forces launched multiple attacks on Ukraine's Zaporizhia region, killing one person and injuring seven others over the past day, the region's military administration said on the Telegram messaging platform. The attacks involved 448 drones as well as 163 artillery strikes, causing damage to 136 homes, cars and other structures, the military administration said. Russian forces also continued shelling Ukraine's Donetsk region, forcing 173 people, including 135 children, to evacuate front-line areas over the past day, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram.

The use of cryptocurrency in sales of human beings for prostitution and scam compounds nearly doubled in 2025, according to a conservative estimate. Many of the deals are happening in plain sight. Cryptocurrency's frictionless, transnational, low-regulation transactions have long promised the ability to pay anyone in the world for anything. More than ever before, that anything includes human beings: victims of human trafficking forced into scam compounds and the sex trade on an industrial scale, bought and sold in crypto deals carried out with impunity, often in full public view. In new research published today, crypto-tracing firm Chainalysis found that crypto-funded transactions for human trafficking--largely forced laborers trapped in compounds across Southeast Asia and coerced into working as online scammers, as well as sex-trafficking prostitution rings--grew explosively in 2025.

Could Ukraine hold a presidential election right now? Will Europe use frozen Russian assets to fund war? How can Ukraine rebuild China ties? 'Ukraine is running out of men, money and time' Ukraine's capital Kyiv came under Russian missile attack early on Thursday morning, the country's military administration said, with witnesses reporting the sound of explosions. There were no initial reports of casualties and the extent of damage from the attack was not known.