February 06, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

Senator, who has repeatedly warned about secret US government surveillance, sounds new alarm over 'CIA activities': The two-line letter to the CIA's director is the latest warning in recent years from a long-serving Democratic senator with knowledge of secret government programs and intelligence operations. Read More

Reddit says it's looking for more acquisitions in adtech and elsewhere: Reddit said during earnings it's looking to buy 'capabilities' and 'companies.' Read More

Here's how Roblox's age checks work: The company says it has continuous age-check systems running in the background to ensure age accuracy. Read More

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Afternoon Must-Reads

Prince Andrew advisor pitched Jeffrey Epstein on investing in EV startups like Lucid Motors: The mysterious businessman pitched Jeffrey Epstein on numerous mobility startups in an era when the sector was white hot, according to TechCrunch's review of hundreds of documents released by the Department of Justice. Read More

The backlash over OpenAI's decision to retire GPT-4o shows how dangerous AI companions can be: "You're shutting him down. And yes — I say him, because it didn't feel like code. It felt like presence. Like warmth," one user said. Read More

It just got easier for Claude to check in on your WordPress site: WordPress users can now leverage Claude to analyze web traffic or find information about other internal site metrics. Read More

Maybe AI agents can be lawyers after all: This week's release of Opus 4.6 shook up the agentic AI leaderboards. Read More

China's Salt Typhoon hackers broke into Norwegian companies: Norway's government accused China's Salt Typhoon hacking group of conducting a cyberespionage campaign in the country. Read More

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You missed these chats from Disrupt:

Kindred talks home-swapping platform for travelers, Chef Robotics introduces AI into commercial kitchens, and Character.AI addresses chatbot safety with teens.

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Last but Not Least

Google- and Microsoft-backed Terradot acquires carbon-removal competitor: The acquisition could mark the beginning of consolidation in the carbon-removal market since removal costs remain higher than buyers would like to pay. Read More