Politics

We have no reason to believe that Live Nation is about to bankroll a Broadway spectacular based on the First Lady just because it managed to settle with the DoJ. We’re just saying, it feels like there’s a precedent.

Bloomberg reports Apple manufactured 55 million iPhones in India in 2025, up from 36 million a year before, following a concerted effort to move production after Trump’s tariffs. Its aim is reportedly to build the 60 million annual US iPhone sales to India by the end of this year.

Elon Musk’s short-lived agency rolled into the NEH with the mandate to cancel grants that it deemed contrary to Donald Trump’s anti-DEI agenda. According to the New York Times, decisions about which grants to cancel weren’t made after careful analysis and deliberation. Instead, they were made with a ChatGPT prompt.

Caitlin Kalinowski posted on X that she resigned from OpenAI, saying the company’s contract didn’t do enough to protect Americans from warrantless surveillance and that granting AI “lethal autonomy without human authorization” was a line that “deserved more deliberation.”

The Financial Times reports Palmer Luckey’s ModRetro is in talks to raise funds at a $1 billion valuation, which sounds like a lot for a retro gaming company.

Fresh off another round of controversial bets, accusations of insider trading, and general profiting off human suffering, the two biggest prediction markets are seeking fresh funds. According to the Wall Street Journal, both companies are trying to lure investors at a valuation of $20 billion, nearly twice last year’s.

As drone strikes hit the city, social media videos shared by influencers follow a script: nonchalance at the danger, followed by flattering videos and photos of UAE leaders. “I know who protects us,” the videos go.

The designation from the US Department of War — that’s busy disrupting actual supply chains and human life in several countries — is having the inverse effect of driving up demand for Claude, which has been breaking daily signup records since early last week in every country where Claude is available.

In a blog post, CEO Dario Amodei confirmed reports that the Defense Department had sent them a letter formally designating them a supply-chain risk, and said Anthropic planned to challenge them in court. He also clarified how it would currently impact Claude users:

After overseeing many months of brutal immigration crackdowns, sending ICE to occupy Minneapolis, and fending off backroom attempts to get President Donald Trump to fire her, the controversial Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (and dog anti-enthusiast) has been shuffled out of DHS.

Carr says the FCC will hold a vote this month on reforms to encourage companies to bring call centers to the US. The agency will also look into a proposal that would “require call takers to be proficient in American Standard English.”

I’ve been updating it for hours with bits from court documents, blog posts, email fact-checks, even a quick interview with Google Android boss Sameer Samat and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. I’m about done, but I still need to parse the new Games Level Up Program and Apps Experience Program...

“The parties expect to submit a revised proposal to the Court by March 4, 2026.” That’s today.

The site seems to be drawing a line at betting on nuclear war. Even though Polymarket has allowed betting on whether or not there would be a nuclear detonation in a particular year previously, the possibility of a nuclear apocalypse in 2026 might be just a bit too real. According to 404 Media:

Reserves can offset short-term disruptions to the global market. Beyond that, higher prices could encourage American companies to ramp up production in coming months.

While Trump’s federal regulators are seemingly in the bag for Larry Ellison’s big dumb gift to his large adult son, The New York Times notes that state attorneys general can sue to block mergers in the US, and EU regulators will have a say since properties like HBO Max and CNN are offered globally.

The $34.5 billion deal to combine two of the biggest US cable providers can now go ahead after appeasing Brendan Carr by pledging to drop DEI policies.

Every time there’s a major event, it seems like some people head to Polymarket to make a quick buck at just the right time. It happened with the Super Bowl, with Nicolás Maduro, and now with Iran. In total, over $529 million was traded related to the timing of the strikes, but according to Bloomberg:

On Friday, Donald Trump announced a ban on the federal government’s use of Claude. Though he had to walk back his demand that agencies “IMMEDIATELY CEASE” using it, instead saying there would be a six-month phaseout. Part of that might be because planning for Saturday’s strikes against Iran was underway and relied on Claude for intelligence assessments and target identification. According to the Wall Street Journal:

Prime Minister Netanyahu also said there were “many indications” the Ayatollah was dead, according to The New York Times. Later in the evening, the Iranian government confirmed Khamenei’s death. Trump’s post went on to claim that Iranian security forces “no longer want to fight,” though there has been no evidence suggest that yet.

The band didn’t mince any words in the statement after a choral version of the song was used in a video claiming that “Thousands of American families have been torn apart because of criminal illegal alien violence,” saying:

Dean Ball, who worked as a senior AI policy advisor, said on X that designating Anthropic as a “supply chain risk” or threatening to invoke the Defense Production Act could have a chilling effect on the entire industry. Alan Rozenshtein, a former DOJ official specializing in technology law, told Politico this could be the first step toward partial nationalization of the AI industry.

Early on Saturday, the US and Israel launched a joint military strike on Iran. President Trump said in a video on Truth Social the goal is to “annihilate” the country’s military. He then directly addressed the Iranian people, saying that the country “will be yours to take.” The Iranian government launched retaliatory strikes on Israel and American bases in the area, including in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait.