The Morning After: Polymarket’s Weather Bet Scandal and a Hairdryer

Reports indicate a gambler manipulated a temperature gauge to secure a massive payout.

While weather forecasts are generally harmless, this incident highlights the unregulated nature of prediction platforms. According to The Telegraph, a hairdryer was reportedly used to manipulate Polymarket bets on temperatures at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport. French officials observed two sudden spikes in the airport’s official temperature readings last month, and bettors on Polymarket who wagered on these anomalies appear to have profited significantly.

Polymarket has not been seen forcing users to refund their winnings, but the temperature sensor involved has been relocated. The platform continues to offer betting on daily temperatures in the Paris area.

In a more severe case, a US service member was detained for allegedly earning over $400,000 on Polymarket using insider knowledge regarding the capture of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke was arrested and charged with leveraging classified military data to place wagers on the prediction marketplace Polymarket. Van Dyke established a Polymarket account around December 26, 2025, and placed 13 bets concerning Maduro between December 27 and January 2.

The soldier faces charges including one count of wire fraud, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and one count of unlawful monetary transaction, carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years. This is a far cry from the antics involving a hairdryer.

— Mat Smith

The other big stories (and deals) this morning

Here’s to the stable ones: In praise of Tim Cook
Meta is downsizing by about 10 percent
Hey Meta workers, are you getting paid for those keystrokes?
Apple TV’s upcoming For All Mankind spinoff Star City oozes Cold War-era paranoia

Here’s to the stable ones: In praise of Tim Cook

Meta is downsizing by about 10 percent

Hey Meta workers, are you getting paid for those keystrokes?

Apple TV’s upcoming For All Mankind spinoff Star City oozes Cold War-era paranoia

DJI Lito 1 and Lito X1 drone review

High-quality aerial video at its most affordable.

DJI is making another attempt at the budget drone market with the new Lito series. The Lito 1 and Lito X1 are both under $400 and weigh less than 249 grams — they’re ideal for beginners. Both replace DJI’s Mini series, but they offer things those models lacked, like LiDAR and 360-degree obstacle avoidance. After testing both models, I believe they offer unbeatable value and performance at these prices, by a long shot. However, due to DJI’s standing in the US, you might not see either.

Xbox cuts Game Pass prices

But new Call of Duty games will no longer hit the service at launch.

As suggested by recent comments by the new boss of Xbox, Microsoft’s gaming arm is cutting the prices of both Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, effective immediately, but there’s one big caveat. New Call of Duty games will no longer be available on Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass on day one. They’ll eventually hit those tiers about a year later, during the following holiday season.

Accessory maker Anker made its own AI chip

Of course it did.

Anker, of battery-pack and cable fame, has announced its own AI chip that it will integrate into its future headphones and other devices. The company is planning to debut the chip, called Thus, on a new model of headphones to be unveiled at its Anker Day event in May.

Anker’s Thus chip integrates computing power directly into NOR flash memory cells, which offer faster read speeds than NAND. Anker says headphones are a particularly challenging environment to demonstrate what a new chip can do because “hardly any other device places higher demands on an AI chip.” Anker announced one particular feature to showcase its silicon. Clear Calls will cancel noise “with a large neural network running entirely on the device, supported by eight MEMS microphones and two bone conduction sensors.”

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