Social media companies paid a school district more than its annual budget to avoid trial
Social media companies paid a school district more than its annual budget to avoid trial

The financial terms of the Breathitt County social media settlement have been disclosed for the first time. Meta is paying $9 million. Snap and TikTok are each paying $8 million. YouTube negotiated a payout of slightly more than $2 million. The combine…

A startup with Eric Trump as adviser is testing humanoid robots in Ukraine. It wants them on US front lines within 18 months.
A startup with Eric Trump as adviser is testing humanoid robots in Ukraine. It wants them on US front lines within 18 months.

Foundation Future Industries, a San Francisco startup founded in 2024, sent two of its Phantom MK-1 humanoid robots to Ukraine earlier this year. The company described it as the first known deployment of humanoid robots in a combat theatre. The tests, …

Microsoft threatened a security researcher with criminal prosecution. The cybersecurity community is furious.
Microsoft threatened a security researcher with criminal prosecution. The cybersecurity community is furious.

Microsoft published a blog post on Wednesday criticising a security researcher known as “Nightmare Eclipse” for publicly disclosing a series of unpatched vulnerabilities in Windows Defender and BitLocker. The company then invoked its Digital Crimes Uni…

SpaceX just won a second Golden Dome contract. This one is $4.16 billion.
SpaceX just won a second Golden Dome contract. This one is $4.16 billion.

The US Space Force awarded SpaceX a $4.16 billion contract on Friday to build satellites that track foreign aircraft and missiles. The programme is called Space-Based Advanced Moving Target Indicator, or SB-AMTI. It is part of the Trump administration’…

A Danish pension fund has blacklisted SpaceX, calling it grossly overvalued with catastrophic governance
A Danish pension fund has blacklisted SpaceX, calling it grossly overvalued with catastrophic governance

Denmark’s AkademikerPension, which manages roughly $25 billion for academic professionals, has said it will not participate in SpaceX’s initial public offering or buy shares in any secondary-market transaction, according to Bloomberg. Chief investment …

Bank of Italy says it is talking to the world’s big AI firms
Bank of Italy says it is talking to the world’s big AI firms

Governor Fabio Panetta used the central bank’s annual assembly to pitch AI as a fix for Italy’s chronic productivity problem, and to say the bank is already engaging the firms building it. Central bankers do not usually go out of their way to say which…

Brussels fines Temu €200M under the DSA for unsafe baby toys and faulty chargers
Brussels fines Temu €200M under the DSA for unsafe baby toys and faulty chargers

The Temu fine, the second-ever DSA penalty after X’s €120M in December, gives the EU’s online-safety regime its first major Chinese-platform enforcement case. The European Commission has fined Temu, the Chinese e-commerce platform owned by PDD Holdings…

Vučić flew to Beijing for a $1.1bn Chinese investment, while Belgrade burned
Vučić flew to Beijing for a $1.1bn Chinese investment, while Belgrade burned

China’s $1.1bn AI, robotics and EV package for Serbia lands four days after 34,000 protesters filled the capital demanding early elections. Brussels has yet to develop a coherent response to either. On Saturday, tens of thousands of Serbians filled the…

China’s market regulator fines Luxshare and Wingtech over their unwinding deal
China’s market regulator fines Luxshare and Wingtech over their unwinding deal

SAMR has penalised the two electronics firms for procedural violations in their now-collapsed asset sale, the latest signal of Beijing’s tightening merger-enforcement posture. China’s State Administration for Market Regulation has fined Luxshare Precis…

Apple and Google push for judicial oversight of Canada’s lawful-access bill
Apple and Google push for judicial oversight of Canada’s lawful-access bill

Apple and Google have formally pushed for amendments to Bill C-22, the Canadian government’s lawful-access legislation now working its way through the House of Commons, arguing that the bill as drafted creates a potential for secret orders to compel ch…