The year the government broke
The year the government broke

The first crack showed right before Inauguration Day. The year before, Congress had overwhelmingly passed a bill banning TikTok unless it broke ties with its Chinese parent company. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld it, and it was clear what needed to happen next: either the president could give TikTok another 90 days to complete a […]

Apple fined $116 million over app privacy prompts
Apple fined $116 million over app privacy prompts

Apple has been fined more than €98 million (about $116 million) by Italy’s antitrust regulator over the “excessively burdensome” privacy rules it imposes on third-party apps. The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) says that Apple abused its dominant app store market position by burdening developers with “disproportionate” terms around data collection that exceed privacy law requirements, […]

The FCC’s foreign drone ban is here
The FCC’s foreign drone ban is here

The Federal Communications Commission has banned new drones made in foreign countries from being imported into the US unless the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security recommends them. Monday’s action added drones to the FCC’s Covered List, qualifying foreign-made drones and drone parts, like those from DJI, as communications equipment representing “unacceptable […]

The 60 Minutes report on CECOT that Bari Weiss censored is now internet contraband
The 60 Minutes report on CECOT that Bari Weiss censored is now internet contraband

Yesterday, Bari Weiss, the new editor-in-chief of CBS News, censored a segment of its newsmagazine 60 Minutes about men who had been deported to an El Salvador prison. Today, it’s popping up online. 60 Minutes had already begun promoting the now-censored segment online. Because it was pulled so late, it seems that CBS missed at […]

Bitcoin does cultural diplomacy in a dive bar
Bitcoin does cultural diplomacy in a dive bar

Bitcoin culture, by nature, is anarchical and chaotic. It has to be, given the nature of Bitcoin itself and the people who adopted it: free-market libertarians who’ve gone all in on turning computer code into a form of money divorced from central banks, government intervention, and traceability. In short, it’s the exact opposite culture of […]

From Ford To Tesla, Big Electric Pickups Are A Tough Sell

This week’s Current Climate newsletter also looks at a new approach to underground hydrogen and why Tesla is facing a California sales suspension

Honey: all the news about PayPal’s alleged scam coupon app
Honey: all the news about PayPal’s alleged scam coupon app

PayPal’s Honey browser extension has been lauded for years as an easy way to find coupons online. But some are calling it a “scam” after a deep dive from YouTuber MegaLag, who accused Honey of “stealing money from influencers,” and returned one year later with a second video that says Honey targeted minors, collected data […]

Want to link from Google’s app store to your app? That’ll be $2–4 per install
Want to link from Google’s app store to your app? That’ll be $2–4 per install

Today was the deadline for Google to reveal how it’s complying with Judge James Donato’s order to crack open Android for third-party app stores, stop illegally tying its Google Play Billing system to its app store, and let developers link to ways to download their apps outside the Play Store in the US. But Google […]

Next-generation nuclear reactors could get a boost from the National Defense Authorization Act  
Next-generation nuclear reactors could get a boost from the National Defense Authorization Act  

President Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026 Thursday with measures that further the bipartisan push for next-generation nuclear power plants. The Trump administration has embraced the technology as a new energy source for data centers demanding greater amounts of electricity for AI. Many Democrats, meanwhile, have championed smaller and […]

Don’t expect Trump Media’s nuclear fusion power plant to generate electricity soon
Don’t expect Trump Media’s nuclear fusion power plant to generate electricity soon

Trump Media – yup, the parent company of Truth Social – is the latest entrant in the near century-long race to develop a nuclear fusion power plant. It announced a merger agreement with fusion company TAE Technologies on Thursday and a bold plan to break ground on the first utility-scale fusion plant some time in […]