6 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Policy Archive

Archives for July 2026

Lauren Feiner
Lauren Feiner
Foreign officials can’t be denied US visas for supporting content moderation.

Judge James Boasberg temporarily blocked a State Department policy restricting visas to foreign officials who “demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies.” Boasberg wrote that a group representing tech researchers could likely prove it violates the First Amendment by categorizing research as “foreign censorship” based on viewpoint.

Mia Sato
Mia Sato
ChatGPT is now citing Kalshi data.

OpenAI and the prediction market have a deal, The New York Times reports, that pulls in Kalshi data for World Cup-related queries. A prompt for “France and Spain,” for example, included a win forecast attributed to Kalshi.

Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are everywhere right now, and that’s by design. The companies have inked deals with news outlets, newsletter writers, and random X accounts — and now Kalshi will reach potential customers via chatbots.

A ChatGPT prompt for “France and Spain,” where the answer cites Kalshi.
Image: OpenAI
Marina Galperina
Marina Galperina
The battle to save US science continues.

In May, the Office of Management and Budget proposed a budget change which would require all research grants to align with “the President’s policy priorities” and give political appointees the ability to veto grants they don’t like — with potentially catastrophic effects. While the OMB is required to review almost half a million comments submitted by the public, you can call Congress to keep up the fight.

Gaby Del Valle
Gaby Del Valle
ICE just killed another person.

Federal immigration agents shot a 26-year-old Colombian man in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday morning, the Portland Press-Herald reports.

Nationally, it’s the second fatal shooting involving immigration agents in less than a week — and just like last time, agents weren’t wearing body cameras.

ICE claims that the unnamed victim “attempted to flee in a vehicle in the direction of the officer,” but an eyewitness told NBC News that he heard the man, who was bleeding from his head, say “I tried to stop.”

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
The LAPD has suspended its use of Flock’s license plate readers, for now.

Over the weekend, the three-year deal for Flock Safety’s 138 pole-mounted surveillance cameras came to an end, as the LA Times reports the LAPD CIO says it ended the arrangement while working on a new contract that has “very clear terms” about who owns the data collected and what happens to it.

An unnamed spokesperson for Flock told media outlets that unspecified “misconceptions” led to the pause.

The fight against AI data centers is just beginning

Community pushback from across the US and beyond is making some companies reconsider their data center buildout plans.

Emma Roth
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Trump’s Justice Department is trying to bully New York Times reporters for doing their job.

Earlier this week, the president flew on the old Air Force One, according to the Times, because it lacked some security features, including anti-missile defenses. Now, the DOJ has issued subpoenas to the reporters involved in the story. The Times quickly denounced the intimidation tactics:

“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects.” - David McCraw, Lawyer for the New York Times