America’s new era of energy imperialism is about more than oil 
America’s new era of energy imperialism is about more than oil 

President Donald Trump has no shame in admitting what he wants to get out of attacking Venezuela and threatening other energy resource-rich nations. “We’re gonna get the oil flowing the way it should be,” he said January 3rd, soon after his administration stunned the world with what many policy experts and Democratic lawmakers are calling […]

Blood for stonks
Blood for stonks

On December 31st, a brand-new account on Polymarket placed a bet: Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, would be out of office by the end of January. It was the first in a series of increasing bets. On January 3rd, the US bombed the Venezuelan capital, kidnapped Maduro and his wife, and killed at least […]

Character.AI and Google settle teen suicide and self-harm suits
Character.AI and Google settle teen suicide and self-harm suits

Character.AI and Google have reached settlements with several families whose teens harmed themselves or died by suicide after interacting with Character.AI’s chatbots, according to new court filings. The details of the settlements are still unknown. The parties notified a federal court in Florida that they had reached a “mediated settlement in principle to resolve all […]

X’s deepfake machine is infuriating policymakers around the globe
X’s deepfake machine is infuriating policymakers around the globe

X’s Grok chatbot hasn’t stopped accepting users’ requests to strip down women and, in some cases, apparent minors to AI-generated bikinis. According to some reports, the flood of AI-generated images includes more extreme content that potentially violates laws against nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII) and child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Even in the US, where X […]

Measles And Flu Hit New Highs As Trump Administration Hammers Vaccines

In this week’s edition of InnovationRx, we look at a former Wall Street analyst’s $4 billion obesity drug company, Wegovy’s weight-loss pill, and more.

The man who made India digital isn’t done yet
The man who made India digital isn’t done yet

Nandan Nilekani can’t stop trying to push India into the future. He started nearly 30 years ago, masterminding an ongoing experiment in technological state capacity that started with Aadhaar—the world’s largest digital identity system. Aadhaar means “foundation” in Hindi, and on that bedrock Nilekani and people working with him went on to build a sprawling…

Jake Sullivan is furious that Trump destroyed his AI foreign policy
Jake Sullivan is furious that Trump destroyed his AI foreign policy

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about Big Tech, Big Government, and the big paradigm shifts that result from their collision. Not a subscriber yet? It’s a new year, so why not treat yourself? In 2022, Jake Sullivan, then national security adviser under President Joe Biden and a powerful figure in […]

Influencer content is fuel for an internet-obsessed administration
Influencer content is fuel for an internet-obsessed administration

Just a day after publishing a 40-minute video alleging fraud at Minnesota daycare centers, Nick Shirley had the vice president’s attention. In Shirley’s video, he and another man identified only as “David” roam Minneapolis with cameras and microphones, demanding entrance to daycare centers they say are operated by members of the local Somali community. With […]

Grok is undressing children — can the law stop it?
Grok is undressing children — can the law stop it?

Grok began 2026 as it began 2025: under fire for its AI-generated images. Elon Musk’s chatbot has spent the last week flooding X with nonconsensual, sexualized deepfakes of adults and minors. Circulating screenshots show Grok complying with requests to put real women in lingerie and make them spread their legs, and to put small children […]

Europe’s drone-filled vision for the future of war
Europe’s drone-filled vision for the future of war

Last spring, 3,000 British soldiers of the 4th Light Brigade, also known as the Black Rats, descended upon the damp forests of Estonia’s eastern territories. They had rushed in from Yorkshire by air, sea, rail, and road. Once there, the Rats joined 14,000 other troops at the front line, dug in, and waited for the…