8 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
Skip to main content
The homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.
The homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.

Richard Lawler

Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

Senior News Editor

    More From Richard Lawler

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Supreme Court rules 6-3 that Trump’s global tariffs are illegal.

    On Friday morning, the court ruled against the Trump administration (pdf) in the case of Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, about whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) gave the president the power to impose sweeping tariffs on imports from more than 100 countries.

    The immediate impact of the ruling is not clear, as the president may try to use other justifications for the tariffs and everything that has followed. The NYT, WSJ, and CNBC have more coverage.

    Screenshot of the Supreme Court ruling reading “The President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope. In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it. IEEPA’s grant of authority to “regulate . . . importation” falls short. IEEPA contains no reference to tariffs or duties. The Government points to no statute in which Congress used the word “regulate” to authorize taxation. And until now no President has read IEEPA to confer such power. We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs. We claim only, as we must, the limited role assigned to us by Article III of the Constitution. Fulfilling that role, we hold that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. “
    Screenshot: Supreme Court
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    “NASA will not fly another crew on Starliner until technical causes are understood and corrected.”

    That’s the message from NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on Thursday as the agency released a 311-page redacted report (pdf) on what went wrong during the Boeing Starliner’s first crewed flight test in 2024.

    NASA and Boeing announced that “Investigators identified an interplay of combined hardware failures, qualification gaps, leadership missteps, and cultural breakdowns that created risk conditions inconsistent with NASA’s human spaceflight safety standard.”

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    How many people get their news from newsletters?

    The Pew Research Center surfaced data showing 3 in 10 Americans do at least sometimes, based on responses to its survey last fall, although about 62 percent said they don’t end up reading most of the newsletters they receive.

    If you’d like to drive those numbers up — and perhaps without relying on prediction markets — we have a few suggestions.

    Bar chart showing 30 percent of respondeners said they get news from newsletters often or sometimes, while 70 percent said rarely or never.
    Image: Pew Research Center
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Substack isn’t just known for “platforming and monetizing Nazis” now.

    A claim cited by the Substackers Against Nazis, and in much more recent reports. What if it also promoted service providers that make money from pushing people to gamble on and seek an edge in just about anything?

    According to Polymarket, “Journalism is better when it’s backed by live markets.”

    Screenshot of a tweet from Polymarket reading “Polymarket 🤝 Substack We are excited to announce our exclusive partnership with Substack. Starting today Substack authors can natively integrate data from the world’s largest prediction market. Journalism is better when it’s backed by live markets.”
    Screenshot: @Polymarket (X)
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    YouTube was broken, but now it’s back.

    A partial YouTube outage knocked out access to Google’s video service on Tuesday night.

    The outage appears to have started just before 8PM ET, but at least on the homepage, it appears to be resolved now. A note on YouTube’s support page says it went down due to problems with the recommendations system. “The issue with our recommendations system has been resolved and all of our platforms (YouTube.com, the YouTube app, YouTube Music, Kids, and TV) are back to normal!

    Update: The service is back online.

    4chan’s creator says ‘Epstein had nothing to do’ with creating infamous far-right board /pol/4chan’s creator says ‘Epstein had nothing to do’ with creating infamous far-right board /pol/
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Sen. Markey calls on Amazon to “discontinue” Ring monitoring features.

    Ring’s Super Bowl ad focused on how its cameras could be networked to find a missing dog, but for a lot of people, it highlighted the surveillance power hiding in those devices. Now Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has sent a letter to Amazon saying, “Get this creepy technology away from our homes.”

    You can read it in full here, but here’s a snippet:

    OpenAI’s supposedly ‘leaked’ Super Bowl ad with ear buds and a shiny orb was a hoaxOpenAI’s supposedly ‘leaked’ Super Bowl ad with ear buds and a shiny orb was a hoax
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Ring advertised its neighborhood surveillance network.

    The Search Party ad showed Jamie Siminoff’s vision of what connected cameras can do, and it seems to suggest they will only use that power to find lost dogs.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    AI.com promises agents or something.

    This 30-second Super Bowl ad dangled handles on the new AI.com platform with names like “Mark,” “Sam,” and “Elon.” If you’re not sure what it is, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek says he’s leading this platform also, and that it will “mainstream AI agents and AGI in the same way he led mass consumer adoption of cryptocurrency.”

    Remember what happened after Crypto.com’s Super Bowl ad in 2022?

    Most Popular

    Most Popular
    1. Alex Jones has uncovered another massive conspiracy
    2. 360-degree cameras have a new superpower
    3. You’re about to feel the AI money squeeze
    4. Musk vs. Altman is here, and it’s going to get messy
    5. THE PEOPLE DO NOT YEARN FOR AUTOMATION
      Video