Facebook Launches New Monetization Program; Darksword iOS Exploit; Judge Orders 1,000 Voice of America Staff Back; Trump Administration Sued over Shutdown of Climate Center

I have a friend (in real life, not just a Facebook friend) who has really worked things, and has 3 Facebook pages making her a lot of money lately. Now, Facebook has launched a new monetization program to try to woo popular creators from TikTok and YouTube. Techcrunch.com reports that it is called ‘Creator Fast Track.’ The new program is designed to help creators grow on Facebook with guaranteed pay and increased content reach. The social network also shared that it paid creators nearly $3 billion through its monetization programs in 2025, a 35% increase from the previous year and its highest annual total to date. Creators in the program can earn $1,000 per month if they have at least 100,000 followers on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, and $3,000 per month if they have over one million followers on any one of those platforms. No cigar for those with a few hundred followers or even a few thousand….actually, not even coffee money. Oh, well….

Here we go again. At least weekly, bad guys have a new way to hack and steal our info. This time, it’s a new exploit kit for iOS devices and a delivery framework called ‘Darksword.’ According to bleepingcomputer.com, it has been used to steal a wide range of personal information, including data from cryptocurrency wallet apps. Darksword targets iPhones running iOS 18.4 through 18.7, and it appears to be the work of multiple actors…which are suspected to be Russian. Apple has addressed the exploit in their latest release, so if you haven’t already, update your phone to the latest system. 

A federal judge has order the parent agency of Voice of America to reinstate the networks 1042 full time employees by Monday. Npr.org says the court ruled that the Trump administration official…Kari Lake….was ‘arbitrary and capricious’ in the effort to dismantle the news outlet. The Federal judge, Royce Lamberth, ruled that Lake had unlawfully taken on almost all powers of the chief executive of the network’s federal parent, called the U.S. Agency for Global Media, and therefore that her actions since joining as senior adviser to the agency were invalid. He ruled that she failed to take into account Congress’ intentions in setting aside money for the agency and the network or to consider what the implications would be of effectively shutting it down.

A group that overseas star atmospheric research center in the US has sued the Trump administration over plans to shut it down. Arstechnica.com notes that The National Center for Atmospheric Research, or NCAR, provides a home for interdisciplinary and collaborative research focused on anything atmospheric. Many of the country’s leading academic researchers in the field have spent time working there or have been involved in collaborations that involve NCAR. The suit names all the agencies that contribute to their budget….including the Department of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Science Foundation. This administration has been dangerously anti-science and anti-medical research. Let’s hope this consortium prevails in court. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.