Jeff Horwitz / Reuters:
Internal docs reveal Meta's tactics to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, including efforts to make scam ads “not findable” for regulators and others  —  As regulators press Meta to crack down on rogue advertisers on Facebook and Instagram, the social media giant has drafted a “playbook” to stall them.

Happy New Year!

It’s been an interesting year. Mostly very happy, in some ways very sad - but then, aren’t most years like that for most people? Nothing can be all good all the time. There have been many highlights, and the ones I’m taking with me into 2026 are:

The always-growing world of manga still hides plenty of gems that didn't get enough exposure: here are the best not-well-known manga I've read in 2025

Himanshi Akhand / Reuters:
Filing: Chinese AI chip startup Biren raises ~$717M in its Hong Kong IPO; institutional and retail tranches were oversubscribed ~26x and ~2,348x, respectively  —  Chinese AI chip startup Shanghai Biren Technology (6082.HK) has raised HK$5.58 billion ($716.85 million) in its Hong Kong initial public offering …

CNBC:
Unsealed documents detail a US operation that stopped the alleged smuggling of $160M worth of Nvidia H100 and H200 GPUs to China between Oct. 2024 and May 2025  —  On Dec. 8, Federal prosecutors in Texas unsealed documents that revealed an investigation into a massive smuggling network that stretched across the U.S. and the world.