INDIO, Calif. — As the dust settled on the first weekend of Coachella 2026, critics and fans alike crowned FKA Twigs, Jack White and Karol G among the festival's most electrifying performers, with the Colombian superstar's historic headlining slot earning early hall-of-fame buzz while surprise rock energy and avant-garde artistry stole the spotlight in the desert.

BRISBANE, Australia — Harlan Goode, the 18-year-old powerhouse vocalist from Redlands, Queensland, who captured hearts with his soaring ballads and commanding stage presence on Australian Idol 2026, is already charting his next chapter following a heartbreaking runner-up finish in the grand final.

LOS ANGELES — Kawhi Leonard, the two-time NBA Finals MVP whose quiet dominance once anchored the Los Angeles Clippers' championship aspirations, faces an uncertain future as his three-year, $149.5 million contract hangs in the balance amid an ongoing league investigation into alleged salary-cap circumvention.

MUNICH — Bayern Munich produced a seven-goal Champions League quarterfinal classic Wednesday night, rallying late to defeat Real Madrid 4-3 at the Allianz Arena and advance 6-4 on aggregate, ending the 15-time European champions' campaign in dramatic fashion.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Stephen Curry poured in 35 points, including 27 in the second half, while 39-year-old Al Horford drilled four three-pointers in a stunning fourth-quarter surge as the Golden State Warriors rallied from a 13-point deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Clippers 126-121 on Wednesday night and advance in the NBA play-in tournament.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Nine-time All-Star Damian Lillard remains sidelined with a torn left Achilles tendon he suffered more than a year ago, but the Portland Trail Blazers veteran continues steady rehabilitation progress and is targeting a full return for the start of the 2026-27 NBA season.

SAN FRANCISCO — Allbirds Inc. shares rocketed nearly 600 percent Wednesday after the once-trendy sneaker maker announced it is selling its footwear business and pivoting to artificial intelligence infrastructure, sparking a frenzy among investors weighing whether to buy or sell the stock heading into the rest of 2026.

NEW YORK — Meta Platforms Inc. has officially ended support for the standalone Facebook Messenger desktop experience, with messenger.com no longer available for messaging as of April 2026 and users now automatically redirected to the integrated Facebook messaging interface at facebook.com/messages.

NEW YORK — Players of the New York Times Connections Sports Edition on Thursday, April 16, 2026, tackled puzzle No. 570 with a mix of court-side observations, NBA arena fixtures, minor league baseball mascots and clever WNBA team wordplay that tested both sports knowledge and lateral thinking.

NEW YORK — Wordle fans who tackled puzzle No. 1762 on Thursday, April 16, 2026, discovered the solution was CUBIT, an archaic unit of length once used by ancient civilizations and still referenced in historical and biblical contexts.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic continues his recovery from a Grade 2 left hamstring strain suffered on April 2, with encouraging signs from specialized treatment in Europe but no confirmation yet that he has resumed running as the NBA playoffs loom.

Fuel prices are going up again following the Geelong oil refinery fire, which has now been put under control by the authorities.

TUCSON, Arizona — On day 74 since Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Catalina Foothills home, investigators continue pursuing leads on a masked man captured on doorbell camera footage while the 84-year-old mother of "Today" show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie remains missing in what authorities describe as an abduction.

The iPad Air may be getting a display upgrade next year, according to rumors that claim that it will be an OLED one.

Google Gemini has added a native Mac app to deliver a seamless experience for all AI needs. Here's what to know about it.

NEW YORK — Upstart Holdings Inc. shares jumped more than 11 percent in midday trading Wednesday, climbing to around $32.96 as investors bet on the artificial intelligence-powered lending platform's continued recovery in 2026 amid improving loan origination volumes and optimism around its push for a national bank charter.

NEW YORK — Facebook Messenger's standalone website messenger.com stopped functioning for messaging on April 16, 2026, as Meta Platforms Inc. completed a long-planned consolidation that forces desktop users to switch to Facebook's integrated messaging interface at facebook.com/messages.

NEW YORK — Xanadu Quantum Technologies Limited shares rocketed more than 54 percent in midday trading Wednesday, surging to around $22.68 as investors piled into the newly public photonic quantum computing company amid a sector-wide rally triggered by Nvidia Corp.'s launch of open-source AI models designed to accelerate quantum research and development.

NEW YORK — Starbucks Corp. shares have climbed more than 15 percent year-to-date in 2026, trading near $98 in mid-April as investors weigh early signs of a turnaround under new CEO Brian Niccol against lingering pressures from cautious consumers and a complex China market.

INDIO, California — As the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival wraps its 2026 run with headliners Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber and Karol G drawing massive crowds to the Empire Polo Club, one name remains conspicuously absent from the lineup and stage: Taylor Swift. In a nearly two-decade career filled with stadium tours, awards shows and select festival appearances, the global superstar has never taken the Coachella stage — a fact that continues to puzzle fans and fuel endless online sp…

SAN FRANCISCO — Travelers heading through San Francisco International Airport on Thursday should plan for moderate TSA security lines with average waits of 15 to 25 minutes during peak morning and evening hours, according to real-time tracking data as passenger volumes build with spring travel season in full swing.

NEW YORK — Allbirds Inc. shares skyrocketed more than 400 percent in morning trading Wednesday after the once-trendy sustainable footwear company announced a stunning pivot from making eco-friendly sneakers to building AI compute infrastructure, complete with a $50 million financing deal and plans to rebrand as NewBird AI.

NEW YORK — Anthropic's popular AI assistant Claude faced fresh disruptions Wednesday as users worldwide reported elevated errors across claude.ai, the API and Claude Code, prompting frantic searches for alternatives and highlighting the growing pains of rapid AI adoption.

NEW YORK — Carrier Global Corp. shares tumbled more than 8 percent in morning trading Wednesday, falling to around $59.48 as investors weighed persistent softness in the residential heating and cooling market ahead of the company's first-quarter earnings report later this month.

NEW YORK — Polaris Inc. shares tumbled more than 10 percent in morning trading Wednesday, plunging to around $51.59 as investors grew jittery ahead of the company's first-quarter earnings report and grappled with ongoing softness in the powersports and off-road vehicle market.