California fights “preposterous” Trump admin demand to scrap state broadband laws
California is accepting $1.42 billion in broadband grant funding from the Trump administration, but the state is not accepting the Trump administration’s demand that it stop enforcing a net neutrality law and other telecom regulations.…
The Pentagon wants to buy an Australian-made ‘kamikaze’ suicide drone armed with a shotgun
The Pentagon clears an Australian shotgun drone for American government procurement Australia’s Cerberus MI can fire weapons and return for reloading The 40-pound aircraft can carry shotguns or grenade launchers The Pentagon has approved an…
Ted Cruz aims to stack FCC with Republicans before Democrats take Senate control
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is aiming to widen the Republican majority on the Federal Communications Commission before Democrats take over control of the Senate in January 2027. Just before the Republicans’ midterm loss, Cruz yesterday announced a…
Big Tech claims voters’ AI backlash is “anti-Trump” not “anti-tech”
Donald Trump’s big, rapid American AI buildout now faces a major slowdown as voters in yesterday’s elections overwhelmingly supported candidates and measures that favored increasing restrictions on AI and data centers nationwide. One resource…
After Texas’ blue wave, what happens to Elon Musk and SpaceX?
Following his public disputes with California authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic, Elon Musk personally moved to Texas, outside of Austin, in 2020. Over the next six years, he doubled down on the Lone Star State. In 2021, Musk increasingly focused…
NYT demands Brave shut down its paywall blocker and end deals with AI firms
The New York Times and other newspaper companies sued Brave Software yesterday, alleging that the browser maker illegally bypasses paywalls and sells stolen news content to AI companies. “Brave is the supplier, dealer, and distributor of stolen…
DuckDuckGo pitches itself to schools amid backlash over Google’s AI policy
DuckDuckGo is courting schools frustrated by Google’s AI restrictions, pointing educators to its search engine and options to disable AI features.Go to story
Trump wanted to give No Kings no air. Then, Meta suspended its Instagram.
Over the weekend, the No Kings Coalition said Meta declined to commit to taking steps to prevent automated systems from suspending one of Instagram’s most prominent pro-democracy accounts if activity surged around the page during the midterm…
EPA throws in the towel on policing air pollution from factory farms
The Environmental Protection Agency late last week announced it would end a 20-plus-year effort to develop methods to monitor air pollution from factory farms, effectively shuttering the agency’s stop-and-start attempts to regulate the potentially…
Three years after the Online Safety Act, could the under-16 social media ban put VPNs back in the firing line?
Last week marked three years since the UK Government enacted the Online Safety Act (OSA). Now, the impending UK under-16s social media ban and questions over the effectiveness of current measures threaten to push VPNs back into the spotlight. Speaking to…