7 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Policy Archive

Archives for June 2026

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
This week in the big AI data center buildout.

AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects:

Robert Hart
Robert Hart
‘EU law is non-negotiable.’

The European Commission and Apple are at loggerheads over Siri AI after Apple blamed EU law for delays. Brussels says nothing in the law blocks a launch. Apple says compliance would create unacceptable privacy and security risks.

The standoff continues.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Kalshi will reportedly ask for employment info for bets in “sensitive” markets.

The Wall Street Journal reports that it’s Kalshi’s latest effort to address insider trading:

Users seeking to make bets in some markets linked to material nonpublic information will be required to submit an online form disclosing where they work, Kalshi said. The changes are set to be rolled out in the coming weeks. Sensitive betting markets related to issues such as company performance and national security, including the war in Iran, are expected to require employment disclosure, according to a Kalshi official.

Apple wants Europe to blink

Apple blames DMA for delaying Siri AI in Europe. The EU says nothing is stopping Apple from launching it.

Robert Hart
Gaby Del Valle
Gaby Del Valle
Is Trump’s $100,000 H-1B fee an illegal tax?

One federal judge certainly thinks so. District Judge Leo Sorokin struck down Trump’s H-1B fee increase, ruling that the “substance and application” of the policy “reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called.”

White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Reuters that the administration plans on appealing the ruling.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Apple blames the DMA again for “delayed” Siri AI in the EU.

While Apple is launching Siri AI in English later this year, it wants EU users to have someone to blame for why it won’t be available there immediately on all of its platforms (only macOS, watchOS, and visionOS at first), similar to other EU-delayed Apple Intelligence updates:

Siri AI is private by design and deeply integrated across Apple’s platforms using on-device processing and Private Cloud Compute, which extends the privacy and security of iPhone into the cloud. However, under EU regulators’ extreme interpretation of the DMA, Apple would have to give any virtual assistant direct access to users’ private data — and the ability to directly control other installed applications — as soon as Siri AI is made available in the EU, without the essential protections necessary to keep users and their data safe.

Gaby Del Valle
Gaby Del Valle
A federal judge said Trump’s war on legal immigration is driven by “anti-immigrant animus.”

In a 135-page opinion, Judge John J. McConnell, of Rhode Island vacated four Trump administration policies severely restricting legal immigration, including a visa ban affecting nationals of 39 “high risk” countries.McConnell said that US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that handles legal immigration, implemented the policy “with pre textual concerns of ‘national security’ that mask anti-immigrant sentiments that it is forbidden from letting influence its decision-making.”

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Sam Bankman-Fried wants a pardon from Trump.

The convicted FTX fraudster serving a 25-year prison sentence now has a formal filing for the presidential pardon he’s been openly seeking, plus a new jailhouse phone interview with Fox Business. He presumably hopes that was seen inside the White House, despite Donald Trump’s comments in January that he had no plan to pardon SBF.

Screenshot of the clemency case finder showing case number P338490 seeking a Pardon after Completion of Sentence for Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried
Screenshot: Office of the Pardon Attorney
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
After buying more than 50 companies, Bending Spoons prepares for an IPO.

If you’ve ever wondered what the hell is going on with Bending Spoons’ “buy, do layoffs, ????” strategy, perhaps the statement it filed Monday with the SEC for a public listing will explain.

Named for the scene in The Matrix, it’s pulled this move with brands including AOL, Vimeo, Meetup, Evernote, Eventbrite, Brightcove, WeTransfer, Filmic, and many others, hoovering up and leveraging their accumulated 500 million users, data, and 9 million monthly paying subscribers to raise more money for more acquisitions.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Another online safety crackdown may be coming to the UK.

British prime minister Keir Starmer is set to announce a new policy next week that will ban children under 16 from accessing social media platforms, following Australia’s precedent. Starmer is also calling for online platforms to introduce device-level controls that prevent children from sending and receiving nude images.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Meta says NSO is still trying to hack WhatsApp users.

Despite last year’s $167 million verdict against NSO Group for its Pegasus software hacking some 1,400 WhatsApp users, Meta says it has detected new spear phishing attacks on its platform from the spyware maker, in violation of the court’s permanent injunction:

We successfully disrupted NSO-linked social engineering attempts, after investigating user reports. They tried to trick people into clicking on malicious links to drive them to external websites outside of WhatsApp, similar to previously reported 1-click phishing campaigns linked to NSO. We also caught them creating test accounts and groups on WhatsApp, which we took down.