Around 800 artists, writers, actors, and musicians signed on to a new campaign against what they call “theft at a grand scale” by AI companies. The signatories of the campaign – called “Stealing Isn’t Innovation” – include authors George Saunders and Jodi Picoult, actors Cate Blanchett and Scarlett Johansson, and musicians like the band R.E.M., […]
The Trump administration took the next step toward unilaterally jumpstarting deep-sea mining this week, announcing a “consolidated” permitting process for both searching for and commercially extracting minerals that have so far remained relatively untouched. These minerals are found so deep in the sea that they’re beyond any single nation’s national jurisdiction – which is why […]
It’s been just one week since Verizon got permission to lift its 60-day phone unlocking period, and the carrier is already making changes to its policy. Now, Verizon says customers who activate a phone on one of its subbrands, including Visible, TracFone, Straight Talk, and Total Wireless, will have to pay for service for 365 […]
Welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about the technology and the tech bros upending American politics and the Trump administration. If you’re not a subscriber yet, and you’re interested in Silicon Valley’s adventures in sausage-making, you should do so here! It’s Q1! Surely the corporate budget will allow for it. Precisely one year […]
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffers working at the Social Security Administration (SSA) broke protocols, had more access to sensitive data on Americans than previously disclosed, and were in touch with a political advocacy group hunting for election fraud, the Trump administration admitted in a recent court filing. Justice Department officials told a federal court […]
The Federal Trade Commission will appeal its loss in a landmark antitrust case against Meta, the agency announced Tuesday. US District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled in November that the government failed to prove that Meta had an illegal monopoly over a subset of social networking services meant for connecting with friends and family online. […]
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says consumers are starting to see the impact of tariffs less than a year after President Donald Trump implemented sweeping fees on a range of imported goods. During an interview with CNBC, Jassy says the inventory Amazon and third-party sellers prebought in early 2025 to keep prices low has “run out,” […]
I live in Minneapolis. I grew up not far from here, in a suburb of St. Paul; after stints on both coasts, my wife and I settled here to raise our daughters in a freezing state that had always welcomed us warmly. As the ongoing occupation by over 3,000 ICE agents stretches into its third […]
This week’s Current Climate newsletter also looks at Brightline’s rising bullet train costs and how Ecolab is solving the data center water problem.
It was early evening in Berlin, just a day before Christmas Eve, when Josephine Ballon got an unexpected email from US Customs and Border Protection. The status of her ability to travel to the United States had changed—she’d no longer be able to enter the country. At first, she couldn’t find any information online as…