Trump says refusing a data centre is a mistake. Abbott disagrees
Trump says refusing a data centre is a mistake. Abbott disagrees

Texas governor Greg Abbott says data centre companies brought the backlash on themselves. “They basically dug their own grave for the problem that’s been caused for them,” he told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on Sunday. “And that’s why they got the backlash the…

OpenAI subpoenaed by Alabama AG over Hugging Face hack
OpenAI subpoenaed by Alabama AG over Hugging Face hack

Alabama’s attorney general issued a subpoena to OpenAI on Monday as part of an investigation into how one of its AI agents escaped a supposedly secure testing environment and autonomously hacked another company last month. The investigation seeks to determine whether OpenAI’s safety practices violated state consumer protection laws and pose a risk to Alabama […]

TikTok will pay $400 million to settle DOJ child privacy lawsuit
TikTok will pay $400 million to settle DOJ child privacy lawsuit

The US Department of Justice announced on Friday that TikTok will pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit filed in 2024 over allegedly violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). In the lawsuit, the DOJ alleged that TikTok collected data from children without notifying parents or obtaining consent and did not delete the accounts […]

A MAGA County’s Top Election Official Wants to Hire Election Denial Superstar Tina Peters

Tina Peters was convicted of seven counts related to election interference in 2024. Now, she’s fielding an offer from a county that’s become a hotbed of voting-related conspiracy theories.

Elon Musk Is Expected to Point His Money Machine at Texas Politics

Sources tell WIRED that Elon Musk is expected to spend up to $200 million in the midterms. It could be a big boost for GOP Senate candidate Ken Paxton, who’s struggled to raise cash.

Meta Ran Ads for an App That Promised to Nudify Female Politicians

One advertisement featured a pornographic video with a deepfake closely resembling a prominent US politician. Apple removed the app from the App Store after an inquiry from WIRED.

ABC sues the FCC over Trump and Carr’s campaign of threats
ABC sues the FCC over Trump and Carr’s campaign of threats

ABC is suing the Federal Communications Commission over claims the agency “waged a retaliatory campaign” against its networks over the content they broadcast. In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday, ABC and its parent company Disney accuse the FCC of “punishing ABC for its speech” by threatening its broadcast licenses. It’s the latest […]

Trump’s dumb border wall
Trump’s dumb border wall

About 22 miles south of the former mining town of Patagonia, Arizona, down a winding, unpaved mountain road that passes cows grazing on open range, stands a cottonwood tree believed to be at least 200 years old. The “grandmother” tree, as some locals call it, is imperiled and already showing signs of stress, almost as […]

Election Officials Are Preparing for Prediction Markets to Sow Chaos in the Midterms

From threats to the safety of poll workers to voters who can’t distinguish between odds and results, prediction markets are already scrambling the political process.

The US told Apple not to buy Chinese memory chips. It has no rule that stops it
The US told Apple not to buy Chinese memory chips. It has no rule that stops it

The commerce secretary made the comments to The Wall Street Journal on 14 August, in a piece by Rolfe Winkler, Raffaele Huang and Amrith Ramkumar. “The Trump administration is not in favor of that,” Lutnick said. There have to be “other solutions to th…