Google fined €890M in its first Digital Markets Act penalty

Google fined €890M in its first Digital Markets Act penalty

Brussels penalised the company for favouring its own search results and restricting Google Play developers, and gave it 60 days to comply.

July 23, 2026 - 11:33 am


Image by: Shutterstock


The European Commission fined Google €890 million on Thursday for breaking the Digital Markets Act, the first time Brussels has penalised the company under the rulebook it built to rein in the largest technology platforms

.The penalty divides in two. A €460 million share covers search self-preferencing, where Google gave its own shopping, hotel, transport, and sports results more prominent placement than competing services without applying, in the Commission’s words, “transparent, fair and non-discriminatory conditions.”

The remaining €430 million concerns anti-steering rules on Google Play, where the company charged fees and set terms that stopped developers from freely directing users to cheaper purchase options outside its store.

“The best products should succeed because they’re better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine,” said Teresa Ribera, the Commission’s executive vice-president for competition, as she set out the decision.

The Commission cast both practices as breaches of the gatekeeper obligations the DMA imposes on the handful of platforms it deems systemically important.


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It is Google’s first sanction under the DMA, though not the regime’s first. Apple and Meta were fined €500 million and €200 million respectively in April 2025, the earliest penalties issued since the law took full effect.

Brussels has pressed Google on other fronts too, including a push to open Android to rival AI assistants under the same legislation.

The case dates to March 2024, when the Commission opened non-compliance proceedings against Alphabet days after the DMA’s obligations became binding on designated gatekeepers. Investigators set out preliminary findings on the search and Play conduct before finalising the fine.

Under the decision, Google has 60 days to end both practices or face periodic penalty payments of up to 5% of Alphabet’s average daily worldwide turnover.

The DMA allows fines of up to 10% of global annual revenue for a first breach, and up to 20% for repeat offences, so €890 million sits well below the theoretical ceiling for a company of Alphabet’s size.

The complaints came largely from price-comparison services, vertical search rivals, and app developers, who argued that Google’s rankings and fees left them unable to compete on equal terms.

Google was designated a gatekeeper in 2023 for core services including Search, Android, Chrome, and Google Play, the label that brought Thursday’s obligations to bear.

Google pushed back hard. Kent Walker, its president of global affairs, called the ruling unfair, describing it as “product degradation driven by a small group of self-serving complainants” rather than genuine competition.

The company argues that the changes Brussels wants would make its services worse for users.

Even so, Google has begun testing revised search layouts and has altered its Play steering terms, steps the Commission acknowledged as “substantial progress” towards compliance.

Regulators are still assessing how the company’s AI Overviews and AI Mode features sit against the same obligations, and the Commission said it would keep monitoring the search and Play changes before deciding whether they go far enough.

Whether Google intends to appeal was not confirmed at the time of the announcement, though the company has contested every major European fine of the past decade in court.

The DMA fine is separate from the bloc’s older antitrust cases. The EU’s top court this month upheld a record €4.1 billion Android penalty, and Google had earlier floated concessions on news-search ranking to head off fresh DMA scrutiny.

Reported widely in dollars as a “$1 billion” fine, the penalty is fixed in euros at €890 million, or roughly $1.02 billion at current rates, with US coverage leaning on the rounder number.

The timing is delicate. The Trump administration has repeatedly cast the EU’s digital rulebook as a trade irritant and a de facto tax on American firms, and trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič has spent months managing the friction.

Thursday’s decision lands as Washington and Brussels wrangle over tariffs, giving a technical competition ruling an unmistakably political edge.

June home sales disappoint as prices reach an all-time high

 June home sales disappoint as prices reach an all-time high

June home sales disappoint as prices reach an all-time high
Published Thu, Jul 9 202610:00 AM EDT

Diana Olick@in/dianaolick@DianaOlickCNBC@DianaOlickWATCH LIVE

Key Points
Sales of previously owned homes in June dropped 2.4% from May.
Inventory at the end of June was 1.56 million units, down 0.6% from May but 1.3% higher than June 2025.
One quarter of all sales were all-cash, down from 29% last year.


A for sale sign is posted in front of a home on April 13, 2026 in Pasadena, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images


High mortgage rates coupled with record-high prices is causing homebuyers to pull back.

Sales of previously owned homes in June dropped 2.4% from May to 4.09 million units on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors. Housing analysts were predicting a slight gain month over month.


June sales were, however, were 2.8% higher than the same month a year prior.

“The back-and-forth in monthly home sales activity, driven by mild fluctuations in mortgage rates, shows how sensitive home buyers are to affordability conditions,” said Lawrence Yun, the Realtors’ chief economist, in a release. “However, job gains—more than half a million since the beginning of the year—will continue to provide support for the housing market.”

This count represents closed sales, so contracts that were likely signed in May, when the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage was still moving higher. It began rising sharply at the start of March at the start of the Iran war.

Inventory at the end of June was 1.56 million units, down 0.6% from May but 1.3% higher than June 2025. At the current sales pace, that represents a 4.6-month supply. The market is considered balanced between buyer and seller at a 6-month supply.

With the market still lean, prices continue to rise. The median price of an existing home sold in June was $440,600, an increase of 1.8% from the year before and the highest on record. June is usually the strongest month for both sales and prices.


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“Progress on long-term housing affordability could be hampered if inventory growth continues to stall. Without consistent gains in inventory, home prices can accelerate. It is critical to introduce more supply to the market to widen the opportunity for homeownership,” Yun said.

Sales continue to be strongest on the higher end of the market. Sales of homes priced below $100,000 were down 1.7% from a year ago, and sales of those priced between $100,000 and $250,000 were up less than 1%. Meanwhile sales of homes priced between $750,000 and $1 million were up nearly 14% from the year before, and sales of homes priced above $1 million were up 18%.

Regionally, home sales were down in June month over month everywhere except in the Northeast.

One quarter of all sales were all-cash, down from 29% last year. First-time buyers made up 33% of sales, up from 30% a year ago.

Short Sellers Are Having a Field Day Betting Against SpaceX

Short Sellers Are Having a Field Day Betting Against SpaceX as Shares Continue to Slip
It could soon get even worse.


By Frank Landymore


Published Jul 16, 2026 5:04 PM EDT
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SpaceX bears are smelling blood in the water. As its stock languishes below its IPO price — at press time, $131 — short sellers are going all in against the company, hoping to make a killing off of CEO Elon Musk’s faltering pull on investors.

As CNBC reports citing data from S3 Partners, 185 million SpaceX shares are now sold short, which is nearly 29 percent of its publicly tradable shares, when it was around only five to seven percent three weeks ago.

It’s one of the highest levels of short selling for a company in its first month of being publicly traded, Ihor Dusaniwsky, a managing director at S3, told Bloomberg.

“The recent price weakness has spurred short selling as well as the anticipation of lockups expiring soon,” he added, referring to the additional SpaceX shares that will soon be tradeable and will play a large role in how the stock performs.

SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 a share and seemed to set the tone when its price rose to $150 on its opening day and powered past $200 in the days that followed. Those blockbuster gains were short-lived, however. Its price has steadily declined over the past month, losing a third of its value since its peak.

Investors have questioned Musk’s vision for the company — which includes an ambitious pivot to building orbital AI data centers — while its path to profitability remains unclear. Last year, the company lost nearly $5 billion.

Musk’s decision to combine SpaceX with his AI startup xAI before the IPO has also exposed the rocket company to xAI’s numerous controversies, such as its chatbot Grok being used to generate millions of nonconsensual sexualized images of real people. Before, the public fascination around spaceflight had helped shield SpaceX against anti-Musk sentiment.

Off the back of this waning enthusiasm, short sellers have seen their paper profits surge to $3.88 billion, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

But the next few months could be a key turning point for the stock’s performance — or further sink its hopes. Only a small percentage of SpaceX’s shares were made available when the company went public as a measure to prevent insiders from quickly cashing out and crashing the stock price. But around half of its shares will be unlocked from now until December, dwarfing what’s currently available.

If investors dump those unlocked shares, it could send SpaceX’s stock tumbling. Experts have warned that this period of gradually unlocking stocks could be considerably volatile— which isn’t exactly reassuring, given the company’s recent performance.

More on SpaceX: SpaceX Investors Are Lamenting All the Money They’ve Lost



Frank Landymore
Contributing Writer

I’m a tech and science correspondent for Futurism, where I’m particularly interested in astrophysics, the business and ethics of artificial intelligence and automation, and the environment. 

Xbox starts major layoffs to save its lagging biz

 Xbox starts major layoffs to save its lagging biz

Morning Brew Inc, Photo: Getty Images

One of the biggest names in gaming could use an infinite money glitch right now. With revenue falling and a string of acquisitions not paying off, Microsoft-owned Xbox will slash about one-fifth of its staff and divest from some development studios, CEO Asha Sharma said yesterday. Sharma called it “the most significant restructure” in the company’s history. Xbox will… Lay off 1,600 people this week and another 1,250 over the next year. Sell or spin off four to five game studios that it acquired within the past decade, which will cut another 350+ people from Xbox’s staff (games that are already announced won’t be canceled, Sharma said). “Our business today is not healthy,” Sharma wrote in a memo, acknowledging the company’s measly 3% profit margin. Its quarterly revenue recently declined 5% year-over-year. The Game Pass gamble One big reason for Xbox’s slowdown appears to be its struggling subscription service, Game Pass. TL;DR: To build up an enticing Game Pass library, Xbox bought production giant Activision Blizzard for $69 billion in 2023 and ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Skyrim-maker Bethesda, for $8.1 billion in 2021. Those splurges didn’t pan out. (Xbox is keeping both companies, but the fifth studio it wants to divest is part of ZeniMax.): Game Pass currently has 30 million subscribers, a far cry from the 77 million that Xbox projected it would reach this year. In a normal year, the company lost 64 cents for every dollar it invested, Sharma wrote. But now…Sharma, who became CEO in February, said Xbox will return to growth in 2027. Since taking the helm, she has moved to reduce the number of games Microsoft publishes and reprioritize its most popular franchises, like Minecraft, Fallout, and Candy Crush. This streamlining comes as the AI boom sends memory chip prices soaring, pushing Xbox and its competitors to raise console prices. Zoom out: Xbox’s layoffs are part of 6,400 planned job cuts across Microsoft, whose massive AI spend is spooking investors. It’s the worst-performing megacap tech stock so far this year.

The EU launches its new satellite plan and challenges Starlink

 The EU launches its new satellite plan and challenges Starlink: “Reserve two-thirds of the bandwidth for domestic operators”

The Commission’s proposal aims to strengthen Europe’s technological sovereignty by reducing its dependence on US companies. Under the proposal, companies from third countries will only be able to access one-third of the EU’s satellite bandwidth and will be permitted to provide only commercial services: defence, security and critical communications are excluded
 by Giorgio Dell'Omodarme
27 May 2026
in Net & Tech



Fonte: (Unsplash)

Brussels – The European Commission’s efforts to boost the Old Continent’s industrial competitiveness and strategic autonomy continue to infinity and beyond. Today (27 May), the European Commission has finalised its proposal for a new European regulation on mobile satellite services (MSS), with the aim of increasing the presence of European operators and reducing dependence on US companies, which have historically dominated this strategic market.

“Now more than ever, high-capacity and widely available satellite connectivity is essential to strengthening the resilience of the European Union’s communications networks,” emphasised the Commissioner for Digital Technologies, Henna Virkunnen, during the press conference presentation of the measure. The Finnish politician also added that “our proposal will enable satellite and terrestrial connectivity to be provided directly to mobile devices, particularly in areas where terrestrial networks are not available.”
What mobile satellite services are

Mobile satellite services are systems that enable satellites to “communicate,” i.e., transmit voice, data, and internet connections, rather than relying on traditional terrestrial infrastructure based on antennas and cables. The frequencies required to operate MSS are a particularly valuable and limited resource, so companies that obtain the rights to use them find themselves in a position of great power.

Until recently, the use of these systems was limited to highly specialised contexts (such as maritime and air communications in areas without mobile coverage, for example), but the advent of so-called Low Earth Orbit satellites has brought about a veritable revolution. Thanks to their greater proximity to Earth, these systems—the best-known example being the Starlink network, controlled by Elon Musk—enable much faster signal transmission and therefore much faster and more stable internet connections.

The scope of application for these satellites is therefore expanding very rapidly. For example, they are increasingly being used to provide internet coverage in particularly remote areas or to offer connectivity in the event of a power cut or natural disaster.

The defence sector is also affected by the development of Low Earth Orbit constellations, as seen clearly in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. When Moscow’s bombing struck ground infrastructure in Kyiv, it was Starlink satellites that ensured military communications could continue, and operational coordination was maintained.

At the same time, Ukraine’s dependence on Starlink has placed a potentially lethal weapon of blackmail in Musk’s hands: On several occasions, the South African-born entrepreneur has threatened to shut down his satellites in an attempt to push Kyiv towards a more conciliatory stance towards the Russian aggressor.
The Commission’s proposal

Indeed, it was precisely with the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine that the EU began to adopt a more practical approach to achieving sufficient technological sovereignty in satellite technology.

The current situation is one of complete dependence on non-European suppliers. Since 2008, when Member States granted the Commission the power to license a specific band of satellite spectrum for the entire EU (the so-called 2GHz band), the sector has been dominated by just two companies: Viasat and Echostar, both US-owned.

In May 2027, however, these authorisations will expire, and the Commission would like to take this opportunity to free itself, at least in part, from its dependence on the US and neutralise the role of actors politically hostile to Brussels, with Musk at the forefront (Starlink recently purchased the valuable wireless spectrum licences from Echostar for $17 million).

“We have a rare opportunity to choose what to do for our future,” Virkunnen told reporters, “and we want to give a new boost to Europe’s competitiveness, strengthen its security and embrace new technological possibilities.”

More specifically, the EU Commission’s proposal to increase the presence of European satellite operators involves dividing the 2GHz band into three blocks of 10 megahertz (MHz) each.

The first block will be reserved exclusively for government use, such as security, critical communications, and military defence. In this case, the satellite communication service may be provided only by a European operator who, according to the official statement issued by the Berlaymont, “will have to integrate with the current and future capabilities of the IRIS2 programme”. This refers to Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite, the European project comprising around 290 satellites that Brussels has developed specifically in response to Starlink.

As for the remaining two-thirds of the EU spectrum, this will be allocated to more purely commercial uses (for example, energy monitoring services, emergency devices and internet coverage in remote areas). In this case, the Commission explains further, “the spectrum will be divided equally between one third for European operators and one third for both European and non-European operators.”

For Virkunnen, the aim remains to “encourage supplier diversification and incentivise the entry of EU companies into the market,” and there is a possibility that the list of European companies could also include firms from neighbouring countries, such as the United Kingdom and Norway: “they could be included via a delegated act, but these countries will have to align their rules with this new legislative proposal,” explained the former Finnish Minister for Education.

Indeed, the definition of the criteria used to determine whether an operator is European or not is one of the most sensitive issues in the proposal.

When questioned several times on the subject, Virkunnen remained vague. While emphasising that “the text sets out very precise criteria for defining what it means to be an EU company,” the Commissioner merely reiterated the obvious: “European entities must be controlled by Member States or by European private individuals,” she said.
Fears of a US reaction divide the EU

Ahead of today’s meeting, the daily newsletter Il Mattinale Europeo reported early this morning that several officials were expecting “a lively debate” during the board meeting on this proposal.

In fact, the division between two-thirds of the spectrum reserved exclusively for the EU and one-third open to all appears to be a compromise between two opposing, irreconcilable positions on the degree of openness the European satellite market should have in the future.

On the one hand, there are those who would have liked to completely close the sector to operators from third countries (the principle of the so-called Buy European in public procurement procedures, which countries such as France and Spain would like to apply to a much wider range of industrial sectors than just the satellite sector). On the other hand, those who would have preferred a less restricted application of the principle of free competition. According to reports from the British news agency Reuters, Virkunnen herself is said to belong to this second group. Precisely for this reason, she is said to have pushed for this compromise herself, fearing a negative reaction from the United States.

“We want to strengthen European capabilities in this sector, but we remain open to allocating a block to non-EU players as well,” the Commissioner reiterated at a press conference, also pointing out that “the US itself has recently decided that its MSS band should continue to be managed by a domestic operator.” “A European company was interested, but was denied access,” she concluded.

In any case, Virkunnen herself inadvertently suggested that this and many other issues (for example, will Brussels really be willing to open up part of its spectrum to Starlink?) are far from settled. Anticipating that negotiations between the Parliament and the Council on the text proposed today by the Berlaymont could take a long time, the Commissioner proposed to “extend the current licences of Echostar and Viasat by two years, so as to ensure that the new regulation is adopted within this timeframe.”

So, at least until 2028, EU airspace will remain firmly in the hands of the United States.

Premier Smith’s Warm Embrace of Meta

Premier Smith’s Warm Embrace of Meta
Not a word about the tech behemoth’s harm to kids. One disgusted jury awarded $375 million in damages.

Andrew Nikiforuk 14 Jul 2026The Tyee

Tyee contributing editor Andrew Nikiforuk is an award-winning journalist whose books and articles focus on epidemics, the energy industry, nature and more.Our journalism is supported by readers like you. Click here to support The Tyee.


Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. His trillion-dollar company faces numerous lawsuits for imperiling child safety. Photo via Wikimedia.


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Let’s get this straight. The premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, dons a cowboy hat and gushes and glows over a $13-billion data centre project in Sturgeon County just outside Edmonton.

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Ah, the success of low taxes and less red tape, she enthuses.

Smith then salutes the centre’s big owner: Meta Platforms.

Yep. That’s the same trillion-dollar company that thousands of people and communities are suing for going fast and breaking things with addictive social media platforms that imperil child safety and mental health.

And isn’t this the same company that also blocked and restricted Canadian news from its platforms?

Yep. And the same company that Iowa whistleblower Frances Haugen accused of choosing profits over safety over and over again before the U.S. Congress.

Now Meta can do it over and over again in Alberta.

No matter. Smith praises Meta for its “largest private sector investment in Canada.”

The massive project will be powered by separate $4-billion power station fuelled by Alberta’s fracked natural gas. The Meta centre will use more electricity than the whole city of Calgary to polarize more people with more manipulative algorithms. Just think of the emissions. Alberta-made.

During the press conference the premier chattered on and on as she tends to do. The project will occupy 30 football fields with several boxes and at its completion will employ 300 people.

Imagine that. For every $43 million of Meta’s investment in computer processing units, Alberta will get one permanent job.



How Age-Restricting Social Media May Play Outread more

Smith calls this “responsible growth” and then praises the company’s “closed loop liquid cooling system” to minimize water usage.

But in her excitement, she forgets to mention that the power station energizing the computer chips will use about 1.2 million litres of water a day, and that fracked gas consumes tonnes of fresh water, too.

During the proceedings not a word is wasted on the subject of human decency. Or AI’s threat to the human condition.

Isn’t Meta the same company that a New Mexico jury just fined $375 million for facilitating child sexual exploitation?

And didn’t the evidence including Meta documents and testimony of whistleblowers show that Meta’s design features enabled pedophiles and predators to engage in child sexual exploitation on Meta’s platforms?

How did New Mexico’s attorney general put it? “Meta’s refusal to follow the laws that protect our kids tells you everything you need to know about this company and the character of its leaders.”

And haven’t Meta’s own studies and global research consistently shown that millions of teens experience sleep deprivation and sexual harassment on Meta’s platforms?



Zuckerberg Is Wrong to Block Canadian News. His Own AI Bot Told Meread more

Has Smith forgotten the compelling evidence collected by Jonathan Haidt and others showing that social media, all powered by data centres, substantially increases the risk of anxiety, loneliness and depression among adolescents?

Or does she just not care?

Did Smith really welcome to her province a corporate miscreant now lobbying the U.S. government to amend its laws to grant it legal immunity from thousands of lawsuits from young people and their families harmed by its products?

Yes, she did. Wearing a cowboy hat.

She played sycophant to another a Big Tech bully whose systemic algorithm failures allowed paid advertisements promoting child sexual exploitation to run on Instagram in India.

But hey.

It’s “responsible growth.”

Innovation.


Read more: Alberta

Freedom Fuel Network

Trump Suddenly Opens Dozens of Gas Stations Selling Suspiciously Cheap Fuel, and Experts Are Already Warning of Impending Disaster
"When losses happen, somebody's got to pay for it."


By Joe Wilkins


Published Jul 8, 2026 2:00 PM EDT
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Trump Mobile. Trump Steaks. Trump Coin. Trump Vodka. By this point, you know the drill.

The president’s latest personal venture doesn’t bear his name, but it does come with all the signature hallmarks of a Trump brand: it’s garish, incredibly shady, and likely to implode sooner rather than later.

Called Freedom Fuel Network, the enterprise encompasses dozens of gas stations throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, USA Today reported, although it isn’t exactly clear which locations are open for business. Plastered in American flag decals and “Freedom Fuel” branding, the gas stations seem to be selling unleaded gasoline for the fixed-price of $3.47 per gallon, about 32 cents cheaper than the current average price in the US.

While there is some grumbling online about that fixed price being higher than local prices, in most scenarios the cost for a gallon of Freedom gas seems far lower than the market rate.

For example, the first Freedom Fuel store, located at a former Sunoco store in Dresher, Pennsylvania, is drastically undercutting the competition. According to GasBuddy, nearby prices range from $3.85 to as much as $4.49 — no doubt reflecting the slower drip of oil from the president’s costly war on Iran, which burst back into active fighting this week.

As head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy Patrick De Haan told the Philadelphia Inquirer, the current price of crude oil means there’s no way Freedom Fuel’s $3.47 price point can turn a profit.

“Stations selling at this price, it’s not sustainable,” De Haan explained. “Generally, when losses happen, somebody’s got to pay for it.”

De Haan raises an obvious question: who is paying for it? If the stations are losing money on every gallon, somebody has to make up the difference somewhere — whether out of Trump’s pocket, that of a friendly donor, or the taxpayer’s. And if it’s a private company taking the hit, how long until they stop subsidizing Pennsylvania drivers? Will consumers in Ohio ever get to experience a $3.47 gallon at a Freedom Fuel-branded station?

These questions remain largely unanswered. Though Freedom Fuel was first announced on White House social media channels, a government spokesperson told the Inquirer that Freedom Fuel is a private company, not a federal program.

New York outlaws big new data centers for 1 year

New York outlaws big new data centers for 1 year

Niv Bavarsky

Cold water is being thrown on new data centers in the Empire State, but not for them to slurp up. Yesterday, New York became the first state to temporarily ban approvals for resource-hungry jumbo data centers that AI companies are rushing to build.

Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order pausing permits for new data centers that use 50 or more megawatts of power for up to a year. However, projects with prior approval can still proceed.
Hydration break brainstorm

Hochul said the moratorium will give regulators time to study how to ensure that the facilities don’t raise local electricity bills, undermine the water supply, or cause noise pollution. The governor plans to require large data centers to produce their own electricity or pay extra to access New York’s grid. She also wants to have operators invest in grid infrastructure, while removing tax subsidies.Environmental activists and some fellow Democratic politicians cheered the pause.
But local unions said it threatens construction jobs and tax revenues, plus some critics said it gives China an advantage in the AI race.

Meanwhile, Hochul is weighing whether to sign into law a stricter moratorium recently passed by the state legislature.

Beyond New York…lawmakers in several states are pushing for new data center pauses. Meanwhile, the White House opted for a lighter touch, recently getting tech giants to pledge to cover the energy generation for new data centers.

Big picture: Most Americans say they oppose nearby data center construction, and the Financial Times reports that local pushback disrupted $130 billion worth of US projects in Q1 of 2026.

New EU border security is causing airport chaos

New EU border security is causing airport chaos

Dursun Aydemir/Getty Images

You shall not pass through Europe without waiting in line to provide biometrics, despite protest from top travel officials. This week, the EU rejected calls from the aviation industry to suspend new fingerprinting and facial recognition border controls that have led to hourslong disruptions at some European airports.

ICYMI: The new Entry/Exit System (EES), which launched in April, requires all 25 EU members (plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland) to collect biometrics from noncitizens upon entry and confirm their identities upon departure.

But the confusing system is making some would-be visitors reconsider traveling to Europe:With airports reporting insufficient border control staffing, vacation hot spots like Spain and Italy have been plagued by delays and missed connecting flights.
Nearly every day this summer, airports in Rome have had to partially suspend the system’s biometric collection, which can be done for only six hours at a time.

Though EU officials admitted that EES is “not perfect,” they said the benefits outweigh the costs—about 44,500 travelers have been turned away at the border under the new system. The second-most-common reason for denied entry was overstaying 90 days of visitation, a violation that dual-nationality passengers previously could evade by using multiple passports.

Apple sues OpenAI over alleged theft of hardware trade secrets

 

Apple sues OpenAI over alleged theft of hardware trade secrets

Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI alleging the systematic theft of hardware trade secrets, naming OpenAI's chief hardware officer, Tang Tan, a 24-year Apple veteran, as a defendant. According to the filing, Tan directed job candidates still employed by Apple to bring physical parts from the company to their interviews for what the suit describes as "show and tell" sessions designed to extract confidential information. A separate defendant, former Apple employee Chang Liu, is alleged to have stolen an Apple laptop upon departing for OpenAI. Apple stated in a representative's comment to CNBC that significant evidence recently emerged suggesting that individuals at OpenAI wrongfully took secret information about unreleased technologies, processes, and products, with specifics in the filing reaching down to proprietary metal-finishing techniques.

The timing is striking given that the two companies remain active partners, with ChatGPT baked into Apple's iPhone software. The lawsuit lands less than a month after OpenAI was reported to have threatened Apple with its own legal action over the terms of that partnership, a move that, in retrospect, looks like an extraordinary miscalculation. Apple also has reason to be sensitive about OpenAI's broader hardware ambitions, particularly following OpenAI's acquisition of the Jony Ive-founded design firm io, an effort widely seen as aimed at building a device to compete with the iPhone and staffed in no small part with Apple recruits.

If the allegations hold up, the consequences for OpenAI could extend well beyond legal fees, potentially derailing the company's hardware ambitions for years at the precise moment it has assembled the software foundation to support them.

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The barrier is breached: screwworms are here

 The barrier is breached: screwworms are here

Adobe Stock

The USDA announced this week that the New World screwworm—a flesh-eating fly that had been successfully kept out of the US for decades after wreaking havoc on cattle herds—has entered the country. So far, it’s only one case. The agency’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) found a three-week-old calf in Texas with the larvae, marking the first case of screwworms in the state since 1966. Screwworms are parasites that lay hundreds of eggs in a wound or orifice of a warm-blooded animal; those eggs then hatch and start eating the animal’s flesh. Beginning in the 1950s, the USDA was able to create a biological barrier by releasing millions of sterilized male flies from airplanes and pushing the screwworms south to Panama’s Darién Gap. But a year ago, cattle industry groups sounded the alarms about the risk of a return. The USDA claims that screwworms entering the US this year was inevitable and said it has invested in a new $750 million screwworm facility in South Texas. But the agency is also still navigating DOGE’s large workforce cuts, including 248 employees from the APHIS department in Texas. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller accused the USDA on Wednesday of moving too slowly. Big picture: Even a small infestation could jeopardize the already strained beef industry. The US cattle herd is at its lowest levels in 75 years.

Texas water officials seek more funding as crisis worsens, costs soar: 'This is not going to stop'

Texas water officials seek more funding as crisis worsens, costs soar: 'This is not going to stop'

Texas water officials seek more funding as crisis worsens, costs soar: ‘This is not going to stop’by Eden Shimanek and Adam Schwager - 06/24/26 10:01 AM ET





AUSTIN (Nexstar) – Texas water officials pleaded with members of the Texas House Natural Resources committee on Tuesday to provide more funding for water supply projects as project costs skyrocket.

Despite the Texas Legislature allocating increased funding to the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) in 2013, and again last year, water experts are concerned about a lack of funding available for local governments to undertake needed water infrastructure projects.
Funding Gaps

In 2013, the Legislature passed House Bill 4, which created the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT). This fund had an initial investment of $2 billion and provided communities with low-interest financing to address state water plan projects. Examples of these projects include building new pipelines and conservation efforts.

The plan was to use that initial investment as the base of an endowment to build a sustainable fund — funneling $27 billion towards water infrastructure projects for 50 years. However, Temple McKinnon, water supply planning director for TWDB, says their drafted 2027 five-year State Water Plan far exceeds current funding.

“It’s an ongoing challenge. We do our absolute best to essentially squeeze as much capacity as we can out of our financial assistance programs, but there is growing demand as evidenced very clearly by the kind of new $174 billion price tag for the State Water Plan,” McKinnon told lawmakers Tuesday.

McKinnon clarified that increased costs are attributed to a wide range of factors, including inflationary pressure, labor costs, and materials.
Ongoing problems

Last year, the Texas legislature passed a constitutional amendment to dedicate $1 billion a year towards water infrastructure from 2027 through 2047. The voters of Texas confirmed their support with a constitutional amendment referendum. However, the first funds won’t likely be granted until at least 2028.

The Texas Legislature attempted to address some of these short-term funding gaps in House Bill 500. This bill appropriated over $1 billion for TWDB Water supply and infrastructure grants to give to local communities.

Sarah Kirkall, with the Texas Water Association, says even this updated funding is not sufficient.

“We’d hoped that the one-time funding in HB 500 would help bridge this gap, but these grant-only dollars, while very helpful to specific infrastructure projects and small grant needs, provided no additional funding to the actual financial assistance programs like SWIFT or the new water supply fund, or the flood infrastructure fund.”

For the first time in the program’s 13-year history, SWIFT could not meet it’s demand. While it granted $2 billion in various amounts and forms to local infrastructure projects — it didn’t cover half of the estimated $4.2-$4.3 billion cost of the approved projects.

It’s not just SWIFT. Last year, TWDB’s flood infrastructure fund made “$312 million available to offer as grants or 0% interest financing, but the TWDB received $2 billion of requested needs, making the program six times oversubscribed,” TWDB’s Marvin Cole-Chaney said.

Those who are unable to receive funding from the TWDB have to look towards outside funding opportunities to fulfill their needs.

Representative Trent Ashby, R-Lufkin, acknowledged the need for funds, but needed clarification on how much the Legislature should give.

“We’re facing a reality that we need to take another examination of SWIFT and potentially recapitalize it,” Ashby said Tuesday. “What is the number? I want you to dip your toe in this water.”

Kirkall highlighted the complexity of water supply projects, but gave an estimate. “It could be upwards of a billion dollars a year.”
The impact of data centers

In the span of two years, data centers surveyed by TWDB have continued to increase.

“Between survey collection years 2023 and 2025, the number of individual survey data centers increased from 22 to 341,” McKinnon told lawmakers.

Fears of increased water usage from these centers have also heightened. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin worry that data centers could potentially account for 9% of Texas’s water use by 2040.

Some say the focus on data centers is also a concern of national security.

“This is an important debate for safety, environmental concerns of our community. It is also a very important debate for national security and the competition between the United States of America and the Chinese Communist Party to see who will dominate the technologies of the 21st century,” said Michael Lucci, founder of State Armor.

Lucci told lawmakers that in the race between the US and China, data centers aid in powering AI and emerging technologies that could impact the United States’ military advantage.

“My view of this would be this stuff is really important for national security, so we want to be able to do it in the right way, and you need data to do that.”

Toy Story 5 didn’t play around in box-office debut

 Toy Story 5 didn’t play around in box-office debut

Julien Hekimian/Getty Images

If Lou Bega and the Short Circuit movies taught us anything, it’s that No. 5 has value. The fifth installment of Toy Story is taking that lesson all the way to the piggy bank, notching the strongest box-office debut of 2026. In its opening weekend, the Disney and Pixar movie: Grossed $160 million domestically—a franchise best. Made $152 million overseas. Had the second-strongest animated debut ever, behind Pixar’s Incredibles 2 in 2018. Like its predecessors, Toy Story 5 also has strong reviews from audiences and critics, so its mojo probably won’t collapse like the toys do when a human walks into the room. To infinity and…even farther: Woody and the gang have been rounding up audiences for nearly 31 years. The first four movies brought in about $3 billion in total box-office revenue, and toys and merchandise tied to the movies raised the franchise’s total revenue to ~$16 billion, according to a Disney-commissioned economic study compiled by advisory firm Steward Redqueen reported on by Axios. You’ve got a trend in me: The number of movie tickets sold in 2026 is up 7% so far from last year, according to research firm EntTelligence, and the domestic box office total is at its highest level since before the pandemic, per Rentrak.

Curry chooses Chinese co as new sneaker partner

 Curry chooses Chinese co as new sneaker partner

Eakin Howard/Getty Images

The greatest shooter in NBA history is getting it done from long distance again. Steph Curry announced a 10-year brand partnership deal with Li-Ning, a China-based sportswear company, to produce basketball gear, athleisure, and a full golf line. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Curry parted ways with a faltering Under Armour seven months ago, ending a 12-year relationship that included a shoe that was roasted like no other in 2016. With Li-Ning, the 38-year-old is looking beyond the end of his career (he sees golf as part of that future) to join a company that’s closing the gap on Nike in China: Li-Ning generated $4.3 billion in revenue in 2025, with 98% coming from inside China. Nike, meanwhile, earned $6.5 billion in China in its fiscal 2025. That’s a much smaller gap than in 2020, when Nike ($6.7b) tripled the revenue of Li-Ning ($2.2b). Curry’s new shoemaker is now on track to outsell Nike in China by 2030. Nike’s foothold in China is slipping. In the last four full years, the Swoosh has seen sales fall in its Greater China market, which includes Taiwan, by 20% as the company grapples with stiffer domestic competition. Mutually beneficial: While this team-up will bolster Curry’s already immense popularity in the world’s second-largest basketball market, it’s also an opportunity for Li-Ning to make financial inroads in the US.

Homeownership expenses are on a tear

 Homeownership expenses are on a tear

Pm Images/Getty Images

On the spectrum that runs from gross hyperbole to established fact, the statement “everything about owning a home is more expensive” currently sits far closer to the latter than it has in a long time. An analysis conducted by the Wall Street Journal found that costs went up in the following categories between 2019 and 2025: Emergency repairs (up 175%) Home maintenance (85%) Insurance (72%) Interest (35%) Property taxes (31%) Those cost increases have made it harder for middle-class Americans to join the ranks of homeowners. According to Redfin, homebuyers with a budget of $2,500/month in 2019 could have purchased a $517,500 home with 20% down at the then-common 3% interest rate without their budget spreadsheet throwing an #ERROR. Nowadays, with that same monthly budget, they could only afford a $384,000 home at the now-standard 6.5% interest rate. Longtime homeowners feel the bite, too In 2019, US homeowners spent an average of $9,000 per year on home improvement, maintenance, and emergency repairs. In 2025, they had to spend $12,500 for the same, according to Angi survey data. While interest rates have risen, so have property valuations, keeping home prices high and igniting a cycle of property-tax reassessments in many parts of the country, raising taxes and straining affordability further. What else is up? According to property management software Vantaca, HOA fees have gone up 51% from 2021 to 2025. And retail electricity rates. And labor and materials prices, which drive up maintenance and insurance costs. Life is just a bowl of expenses: The current rate of inflation in the US is 4.2%, more than double the Federal Reserve’s traditional target of 2%. That means there are more demands on Americans’ budgets than there are relatives trying to log into their Disney+ account as the costs of food and housewares, as well as services like health insurance and childcare, rise alongside home expenses

Cost of living soars to highest level since 2023

Cost of living soars to highest level since 2023

MS NOW · 17 hours ago
by Joe Scarborough · Morning Joe


This is an excerpt from the June 10, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter.Subscribe hereto get it delivered straight to your inbox every Monday through Friday.

Asked about the numbers this morning, President Trump said: “I love the inflation.”



Q: Are you concerned about the latest inflation numbers that came out this morning?TRUMP: No, I love it. I love the inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over — do you know we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil? You know who doesn't know? Iran until right now.— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-06-10T16:08:03.927Z

Meanwhile, wage growth continues to lag behind the rise in the cost of living, for which 70% of Americans blame President Trump. As my colleague Steve Benen writes:


Perhaps most importantly, NBC News’ report emphasized that inflation’s rise “has surpassed wage growth,” which necessarily exacerbates the affordability crisis gripping American consumers.

Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council and the top economist at the White House, has argued in recent weeks that rising inflation should be blamed on Democratic policies in blue states. Those claims, like much of what Hassett has to say, have been thoroughly discredited.

And no one is buying it. The latest national CNN poll found that 77% of respondents, including a majority of Republican voters, agreed that Trump’s policies have increased the cost of living. The same poll found that just 30% of Americans approve of the president’s handling of the economy, a career low for the Republican across both terms. That mirrored the results of the latest national Associated Press poll.

There’s no reason to assume those results won’t continue to get even worse.
CATCH UP ON MORNING JOE
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New report reveals the real cost of living in New York City June 10, 2026 / 07:26
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Fmr. NYC mayor: GOP has ‘no answer’ for Iran war, inflation June 10, 2026 / 08:35

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Feds lease 10 new firefighting aircraft as wildfire season gets underway

 Feds lease 10 new firefighting aircraft as wildfire season gets underway

CBC
Mon, May 25, 2026 at 8:32 a.m. PDT
2 min read
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A water bomber assists crews on the ground at the Paddy's Pond wildfire just outside St. John's on Aug. 14. (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press - image credit)


Firefighting agencies across Canada have 10 new aircraft they can use as the 2026 wildfire season gets underway.

Eleanor Olszewski, the federal minister of emergency management, announced in Ottawa on Monday that provincial and territorial wildfire agencies can now request the aircraft through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).

"These additional aircraft will strengthen Canada’s wildfire response, protect front-line personnel and protect communities across the country," she said.

The 10 aircraft include four firefighting air tankers, one birddog plane and five heavy lift helicopters, along with two "support assets."


The aircraft will be pre-positioned across the country based on where expected need will arise, the government said.

Olszewski said the federal government decided to lease the aircraft rather than buy them because doing so meant getting the helicopters and planes into service now rather than waiting three to five years for delivery.

"In terms of timing, which is the most fundamentally important thing, we wanted to make sure that we had aerial firefighting assets in place for this wildfire season," she said.

She also said that the leased aircraft come with pilots and a maintenance program already established.

In the 2025 budget, the federal government announced $316 million in funding over five years to create a national aerial firefighting surge capacity.

CIFFC used money from that funding envelope to lease the 10 new aircraft and two undefined support assets through contracts with Conair Group Inc., Coldstream Helicopters and VIH Helicopters.


CIFFC acts as a hub that co-ordinates the sharing of wildfire resources like personnel, equipment, aircraft, information and expertise across the country's federal, provincial and territorial governments.

New temporary assets

CIFFC will be getting four Dash 8-400 AT airtankers with 10,000-litre tanks that can hold water or foam/gel retardant.

It will also be getting three Airbus AS332 L and L1 helicopters that have 4,000-litre drop buckets and a cruising speed of 270 km/h.

Both the Airbus helicopters and the airtankers are being leased from May 1 until Sept. 27.

CIFFC will also be leasing two Sikorsky S-92A helicopters with tanks that can hold up to 5,000 litres of water or fire retardant.

The Sikorsky helicopters are on lease from May 22 until Oct. 18.

The two support assets are mobile forward-attack tanker bases. These bases can be set up quickly at airports near wildfires to allow for the rapid refuelling, loading and dispatching of aerial support aircraft.

NDP MP Gord Johns, who represents the B.C. riding of Courtenay-Alberni and has long advocated for the federal government to establish an aerial firefighting fleet, welcomed the news.

"With another dangerous wildfire season already underway, leasing aircraft is an important step, but Canada also needs a long-term strategy that builds permanent domestic capacity," Johns said in a statement.

What’s up with home insurance nonpayment rates?

  What’s up with home insurance nonpayment rates?

If the arrival of the Summer House reunion special didn’t already tip you off, the US is entering disaster season. But, according to the Wall Street Journal, “many Americans face a near flip-of-the-coin chance” that they’ll get relief from home insurance carriers when weather damages their house. Insurance, not assurance In the outlet’s analysis, the five biggest home insurance groups—Allstate, Farmers Insurance, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, and United Services Automobile Association (USAA)—didn’t pay out on more than 44% of claims resolved last year. That’s up from 36% in 2015. Some of the reasons why include: New risk-assessment methods. Traditionally, insurers based underwriting on historical data—what has happened—but are increasingly using predictive models—what they believe will happen—to set premiums. The use of drone footage to calculate a home’s “risk score” is also driving up costs for some customers. Reinsurance costs. The term essentially refers to insurance for insurance companies, and those prices have increased, too. The rise of extreme weather. A report produced by the Treasury Department last year found that the number of weather and climate disasters causing more than $1 billion in damage increased 5x from 2018 through 2022. Covid-19. Yes, really. Experts say that pandemic-era supply chain snarls and insurance companies’ losses from them continue to be a hidden driver of price hikes. But insurance companies want you to know…that people aren’t super good at filling out claim submissions. Several insurers said that the rise in claims filed by text or through an app has led to more submittals that aren’t up to snuff. A USAA spokesperson said that the WSJ’s number-crunching did not account for “losses below a deductible, claims not pursued by customers, or claims later reopened and paid.” With those accounted for, he said, fewer than 6% of USAA claims were denied. Zoom out: In a Pew Research Center survey of homeowners conducted in March, 42% of respondents said that home insurance premiums have increased by “a lot” over the past few years. Since homeowners insurance is required to secure a mortgage, the ramifications impact consumer spending, the housing market, and more

Trump Mobile’ s T1 Phone

 

Trump Mobile’ s T1 Phone is just a golden rebadge of an old HTC smartphone?

 

Remember the T1 Phone? Yes, the one that suffered long delays at Trump Mobile, then got a redesign mid-way through the advertisement cycle, and got the number of stripes on the US flag wrong? Yeah, that T1 Phone. Well, this is not a truly Made In America phone, and neither is it an original device. The folks over at iFixit tore it down and found that it’s essentially a rebadge of an old HTC smartphone. “Sourcing ICs from multiple suppliers between production runs isn’t uncommon, so I can confidently say that this is the same phone as the HTC U24 Pro,” says the outlet. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, well, the T1 Phone got a measly reparability score of just 3 out of 10 points.

Pope delivers major AI warning

  Pope delivers major AI warning

Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images

Despite his Chicago roots, the pope didn’t spend yesterday grilling by the lake. Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical yesterday, and spent most of the 83-page document offering a warning to Silicon Valley and policy makers about artificial intelligence. The encyclical—a pastoral letter outlining the church’s position on a topic—is titled “Maginifica Humanitas,” which translates to Magnificent Humanity. Leo cautioned that AI could be the “new Tower of Babel”: The document warned that AI power shouldn’t be concentrated among just a few private companies and that people’s jobs should be protected. Leo wrote that “the pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs.” Leo also urged more independent oversight and AI regulation, saying “a more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few.” Without calling out any specific conflict, the pope criticized AI’s role in normalizing war and demanded developers build a chain of command that doesn’t allow AI to use weapons without human input. It’s no surprise Leo spent so much time discussing AI When he was elected last May, Leo said AI posed “challenges to human dignity, justice, and labor,” equating the technology to advancements during the Industrial Revolution. The AI-themed encyclical was not only the first major theological doctrine of Leo’s pontificate, it was also the first papal encyclical publicly presented by the pope himself. Leo delivered his declaration while standing next to Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah, a gesture to the dialogue between Silicon Valley and the Vatican. Tech leaders traveled to Rome to discuss AI and make their case to Leo amid growing public backlash ahead of the document’s release. A timely treatise: Pope Leo signed the encyclical on May 15, the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s “Rerum Novarum,” a pivotal encyclical that highlighted the need for workers’ protections and addressed the limits of capitalism. But he didn’t just look to the past: The meditation on AI apologized for the Vatican’s role in legitimizing slavery, a first for any pope.