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China's MiniMax releases M2.1, an upgrade to its open-source M2 model that it says has "significantly enhanced" coding capabilities in Rust, Java, and others (MiniMax)

MiniMax:
China's MiniMax releases M2.1, an upgrade to its open-source M2 model that it says has “significantly enhanced” coding capabilities in Rust, Java, and others  —  MiniMax has been continuously transforming itself in a more AI-native way.  The core driving forces of this process are models …

How This Asian Howard University Student’s Viral Video Exposes a Deeper Problem With HBCUs

An Asian student is causing some trouble online after celebrating his first semester at a prominent HBCU.

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007 First Light Release Date Delayed To May 2026

Game Informer

2026 is shaping up to be an exciting year in video games, and one of the earliest scheduled releases, 007 First Light, was set to be one of the biggest games of next March. Unfortunately, IO Interactive has announced the game will be taking just a little bit longer, formally delaying it to Wednesday, May 27. You can read the developer's full statement below.

Game Informer

Hello everyone,

Today, we are sharing an update regarding 007 First Light, as we have decided to move the game's release by two months, to the 27th of May 2026.

007 First Light is our most ambitious project to date, and the team has been fully focused on delivering an unforgettable James Bond experience, bringing together breathtaking action, globe-trotting, spycraft, gadgets, car chases, and more. As an independent developer and publisher, this decision allows us to ensure the experience meets the level of quality you players deserve on day one.

The game is progressing well and is fully playable from beginning to end, so these additional two months will allow us to further polish and refine the experience, ensuring we deliver the strongest possible version at launch. We're confident this sets 007 First Light up for long-term success, and we sincerely appreciate the patience and continued support we've received ever since we first revealed the game. We look forward to sharing more updates regarding 007 First Light in early 2026.

Thank you again for your support,

IO Interactive/ Hakan Abrak

007 First Light will tell the origin story of the iconic British spy James Bond, showing him as a hotheaded recruit in the years before he became the agent we all know and love. It's a particularly exciting project for IO Interactive, because its work on the Hitman series makes it a perfect candidate to adapt Bond's espionage to video games. We got a chance to see the game behind closed doors last September and came away quite impressed, so hopefully this added development time makes the final product as polished as we hope.

In other 007 news, we recently learned the game's villain will be played by none other than Lenny Kravitz. For more on next year's biggest releases, check out our 2026 release date calendar.

Chinese automakers delay plans to mass-produce self-driving vehicles as Beijing becomes more cautious, after a fatal Xiaomi crash in March caused public concern (Keith Bradsher/New York Times)

Keith Bradsher / New York Times:
Chinese automakers delay plans to mass-produce self-driving vehicles as Beijing becomes more cautious, after a fatal Xiaomi crash in March caused public concern  —  After years of planning for cars that would let drivers take their hands off the wheel and eyes off the road, China's regulators have become more cautious.

The culture war is consuming the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court for much of the last several decades has been a fairly technocratic body.  The Court, to be sure, has handed down its share of historic cases: Case names like Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and Roe v. Wade (1973) are familiar to most Americans, but such highly political and culturally salient […]