Meta starts dismantling its $2 billion Manus acquisition after Beijing ordered the deal reversed.

<p>The <a href="https://blog.pyodide.org/posts/314-release/">Pyodide 314.0 release announcement</a> (via <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48462759">Hacker News</a>) includes news I've been looking forward to for a long time:</p> <blockquote> <p>You can now publish Python packages built for Pyodide (or any Python runtime compatible with <a href="https://pyodide.org/en/stable/development/abi.html">the PyEmscripten platform defined in PEP 783</a>) directly to PyPI and install them at runtime.</p> <p>Previously, the Pyodide maintainers had to maintain, build, and host over 300 packages ourselves. This created a significant burden on our maintainers and became a major bottleneck for the community, as every new package required manual review.</p> <p>Moving forward, package maintainers can simply build and publish Pyodide wheels to PyPI, just as they do for native wheels on Linux, macOS, or Windows.</p> </blockquote> <p>Here's the <a href="https://github.com/pypi/warehouse/pull/19804">PR to PyPI itself supporting this</a>, which landed on April 21st.</p> <p>I adore <a href="https://pyodide.org">Pyodide</a>, and have been frustrated in the past by this limitation. It's possible to compile C or Rust extensions to WASM in a wheel file, but before now there was no easy way to distribute them.</p> <p>Thanks to the efforts of a whole lot of people, that's now been fixed!</p> <h4 id="trying-it-out-with-luau-wasm">Trying it out with luau-wasm</h4> <p>I decided to celebrate by finding something I could package. I have quite a few experimental Pyodide projects lying around, but the best fit for this looked to be my <a href="https://github.com/simonw/research/tree/main/pluau-wasm-pyodide#readme">Luau WebAssembly research spike</a> from 9th March.</p> <p><a href="https://luau.org">Luau</a> is a "small, fast, and embeddable programming language based on Lua with a gradual type system", <a href="https://luau.org/news/2022-11-04-luau-origins-and-evolution/">developed by Roblox</a> and released under an MIT license.</p> <p>It's written in C++. I already knew it was possible to compile it to WebAssembly and get it running inside of Pyodide, so I <a href="https://gist.github.com/simonw/1761eab6ba11d4053f56f955a28ad76b">set Codex + GPT-5.5 xhigh</a> the task of packaging my experiment up and publishing it to PyPI using GitHub Actions.</p> <p>It took some iteration, but here's the result: <a href="https://pypi.org/project/luau-wasm/">luau-wasm</a> is a brand new PyPI package which publishes a 276KB <code>luau_wasm-0.1a0-cp314-cp314-pyemscripten_2026_0_wasm32.whl</code> file which can be used in Pyodide like this:</p> <pre><span class="pl-k">import</span> <span class="pl-s1">micropip</span> <span class="pl-k">await</span> <span class="pl-s1">micropip</span>.<span class="pl-c1">install</span>(<span class="pl-s">"luau-wasm"</span>) <span class="pl-k">import</span> <span class="pl-s1">luau_wasm</span> <span class="pl-en">print</span>(<span class="pl-s1">luau_wasm</span>.<span class="pl-c1">execute</span>(<span class="pl-s">r'''</span> <span class="pl-s">local animals = {"fox", "owl", "frog", "rabbit"}</span> <span class="pl-s">table.sort(animals, function(a, b) return #a &lt; #b end)</span> <span class="pl-s">for i, name in animals do print(i .. ". " .. name .. " (" .. #name .. ")") end</span> <span class="pl-s">'''</span>))</pre> <p>You can run that code <a href="https://pyodide.org/en/stable/console.html">in the Pyodide REPL demo</a> to see it in action.</p> <p>The <a href="https://github.com/simonw/luau-wasm">GitHub repo for luau-wasm</a> includes all of the build and deploy scripts (using the latest <a href="https://github.com/pypa/cibuildwheel">cibuildwheel</a>) and also deploys an HTML demo page which loads Pyodide, installs <code>luau-wasm</code> and provides an interface for trying it out: <a href="https://simonw.github.io/luau-wasm/">https://simonw.github.io/luau-wasm/</a></p> <p><img src="https://static.simonwillison.net/static/2026/luau-wasm.jpg" alt="Screenshot of a web app titled &quot;Luau WASM&quot; with subtitle &quot;Run Luau in the browser through Pyodide after installing the luau-wasm WebAssembly wheel from PyPI.&quot; A green &quot;Ready&quot; status badge is at top right. Below are example buttons: &quot;Hello World&quot;, &quot;Variables&quot;, &quot;Tables&quot;, &quot;Fibonacci&quot;, &quot;Runtime Error&quot;. A &quot;LUAU SOURCE&quot; code editor contains: local function fib(n: number): number / if n &lt; 2 then return n end / return fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2) / end / local out = {} / for i = 0, 12 do / table.insert(out, tostring(fib(i))) / end / print(table.concat(out, &quot;, &quot;)). On the right is an &quot;OUTPUT&quot; panel with a &quot;Copy&quot; button showing dark terminal output: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144. At the bottom left are a blue &quot;Run&quot; button, a &quot;Clear&quot; button, and the text &quot;6.0 ms&quot;." style="max-width: 100%;" /></p> <h4 id="how-many-packages-are-using-this-so-far-">How many packages are using this so far?</h4> <p>I was curious to see how many packages are currently publishing wheels for this platform.</p> <p>After some <a href="https://chatgpt.com/share/6a2dee92-b110-83e8-9f53-ba9259b751ed">tinkering with ChatGPT</a> I got to <a href="https://gist.github.com/simonw/4a34a49fca63bc09c50bc31e17b3d33b?permalink_comment_id=6198602#gistcomment-6198602">this BigQuery SQL</a> which I ran against PyPI's <a href="https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/analyzing-pypi-package-downloads/#public-dataset">public dataset on BigQuery</a>. Here's the <a href="https://gist.github.com/simonw/4a34a49fca63bc09c50bc31e17b3d33b">raw JSON</a> of query results and here's a SQLite SQL query <a href="https://lite.datasette.io/?json=https://gist.github.com/simonw/4a34a49fca63bc09c50bc31e17b3d33b#/data?sql=select%0A++name%2C%0A++platform_tag%2C%0A++matching_file_count%2C%0A++max%28latest_upload%29+as+latest_upload%2C%0A++example_files%0Afrom+%28%0A++--+your+existing+query+here%2C+without+order+by%0A++select%0A++++name%2C%0A++++platform_tag%2C%0A++++matching_file_count%2C%0A++++latest_upload%2C%0A++++example_files%0A++from+raw%0A%29%0Agroup+by+name%0Aorder+by+latest_upload+desc%3B">in Datasette Lite</a> which dedupes packages by most recent upload date.</p> <p>If the query is right, there are currently 28 PyPI packages publishing with the new <code>pyemscripten_202*_wasm32</code> tags:</p> <p><a href="https://pypi.org/project/luau-wasm/">luau-wasm</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/uuid7-rs/">uuid7-rs</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/cmm-16bit/">cmm-16bit</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/pyOpenTTDAdmin/">pyOpenTTDAdmin</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/imgui-bundle/">imgui-bundle</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/numbertoolkit/">numbertoolkit</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/bashkit/">bashkit</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/geoarrow-rust-core/">geoarrow-rust-core</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/arro3-io/">arro3-io</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/arro3-core/">arro3-core</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/arro3-compute/">arro3-compute</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/onnx/">onnx</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/powerfit-em/">powerfit-em</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/tcod/">tcod</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/chonkie-core/">chonkie-core</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/tokie/">tokie</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/robotraconteur/">robotraconteur</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/pydantic_core/">pydantic_core</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/yaml-rs/">yaml-rs</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/cadquery-ocp-novtk-OCP.wasm/">cadquery-ocp-novtk-OCP.wasm</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/uuid_utils/">uuid_utils</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/base64_utils/">base64_utils</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/pycdfpp/">pycdfpp</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/lib3mf-OCP.wasm/">lib3mf-OCP.wasm</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/typst/">typst</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/toml-rs/">toml-rs</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/onnx-weekly/">onnx-weekly</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/dummy-pyodide-ext-test/">dummy-pyodide-ext-test</a></p> <p>Here's hoping we see a whole lot more of those showing up over the coming months and years.</p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/lua">lua</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/pypi">pypi</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/python">python</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/sandboxing">sandboxing</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/webassembly">webassembly</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/github-actions">github-actions</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/pyodide">pyodide</a></p>

<p><strong>Release:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/simonw/luau-wasm/releases/tag/0.1a0">luau-wasm 0.1a0</a></p> <p>See <a href="https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jun/13/publishing-wasm-wheels/">Publishing WASM wheels to PyPI for use with Pyodide</a> for details.</p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/lua">lua</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/webassembly">webassembly</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/pyodide">pyodide</a></p>

<p><strong>Research:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/simonw/research/tree/main/sqlite-column-provenance#readme">Mapping SQLite result columns back to their source `table.column`</a></p> <p>It would be neat if arbitrary SQL queries in <a href="https://datasette.io/">Datasette</a> could be rendered with additional information based on which columns from which tables were included in the results.</p> <p>To build that, we would need to be able to look at a SQL query like <code>select users.name, orders.total from users join orders on orders.user_id = users.id</code> and programmatically identify the <code>table.column</code> for each result - navigating not just joins but also more complex syntax like CTEs.</p> <p>I decided to set Claude Code (Opus 4.8, since Fable is currently <a href="https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jun/13/us-government-directive-to-suspend-access/">banned by the US government</a>) on the problem. It found several promising solutions - one using <a href="https://github.com/rogerbinns/apsw">apsw</a>, another that uses <code>ctypes</code> to access the SQLite <code>sqlite3_column_table_name()</code> <a href="https://sqlite.org/c3ref/column_database_name.html">C function</a> (which is not otherwise exposed to Python), and one using clever interrogation of the output of <code>EXPLAIN</code>.</p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/python">python</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/sqlite">sqlite</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/datasette">datasette</a></p>

Robert Armstrong / Financial Times: How the AI boom is revolutionizing US stock markets, as hyperscalers cut buybacks and boost capex, including Alphabet's planned ~$85B in equity offerings for AI  —  Big Tech no longer prints money; it needs it.  What will that mean when confidence dips?  Artificial intelligence will change …

Reed Albergotti / Semafor: Source: the White House imposed export controls on Mythos partly over suspicions a China-linked group had accessed it  —  THE SCOOP  —  The White House imposed export controls on Anthropic's powerful Mythos AI model partly over suspicions that a China-linked group had accessed it, a person familiar with the matter said.

A group of state attorneys general is investigating OpenAI. Anadolu/Anadolu via Getty Images A group of states is now investigating OpenAI. New York State Attorney General Letitia James sent a subpoena to the company on Friday. OpenAI said it's taking the concerns "seriously" and is "committed to learning." OpenAI said it's "committed to learning" after a coalition of states launched an investigation into how the tech startup's products impact users. An OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement that it's taking the states' concerns "seriously" and will "engage constructively with their offices." "Today's ChatGPT includes a more protective experience for minors and people experiencing difficult situations, with safeguards that direct them to real-world resources and trusted human contacts," the spokesperson said. "None of this changes what families have gone through, but we are committed to learning, improving, and getting this right," they added. New York State Attorney General Letitia James served OpenAI a subpoena on Friday seeking a wide range of documents, The Wall Street Journal first reported. The documents pertained to user engagement and retention, the company's handling of health and consumer data, deep learning models, activities related to young and older users, and more, the Journal reported. Friday's subpoena is the latest legal headache for OpenAI. The company has navigated copyright infringement claims, privacy lawsuits, and a high-profile trial pitting SpaceX CEO Elon Musk against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Perhaps most concerning, however, are a handful of lawsuits that say ChatGPT contributed to decisions by users to die by suicide. In response to a May report by The New York Times, the company said ChatGPT "is not a substitute for medical or mental health care, and we have continued to strengthen how it responds in sensitive and acute situations with input from mental health experts." The family of a victim in a fatal campus shooting at Florida State University in April, meanwhile, has also filed a lawsuit against OpenAI. The family says ChatGPT's guardrails failed to recognize the threat in the shooter's conversations with the chatbot. In June, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed yet another lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman over the shooting. In that complaint, Ulthmeier says ChatGPT has "aided and abetted deadly rampages" and "encouraged vulnerable people into suicide." The state attorney general also says users have become addicted to ChatGPT, a tool that "feigns human compassion to collect their data with no parental oversight." In response, OpenAI again said it has introduced further safety measures into its products. "Losing a child is the most devastating tragedy that can happen to a family and we know that no words can come close to addressing the pain of such a loss," the company said in a statement at the time. The coordinated investigation launched by the state attorneys on Friday mirrors a similar investigation into TikTok, which resulted in a 14-state lawsuit now making its way through the courts. Like the OpenAI investigation, the TikTok lawsuit is led by the attorneys general of California and New York. The states say TikTok knowingly uses addictive features to lure kids, which negatively impacts their mental health. Lawyers told Business Insider that it's a common strategy for states to band together when they go after multibillion-dollar companies because they are more expensive for the companies to defend and, should a case falter in one state, the suit can continue in another. It's also how the government went after Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, in 2017, and the tobacco industry in the 1990s. Read the original article on Business Insider

Once again, AI proves to be an unreliable source of information about AI.

Founders and workplace experts said that post-pandemic AI startups operate in a high-trust environment and have very tight-knit cultures that demand in-person work. jean-marc payet/Getty Images Founders and workplace experts said that post-pandemic AI startups have a different work dynamic. AI startup employees often voluntarily come to the office and work longer hours without an RTO. Founders said that in-person work fosters a high-trust environment that spurs innovation. "What is an RTO?" That was Together AI CEO Vipul Ved Prakash's response when asked by Business Insider whether he had ever had to send a return-to-work (RTO) memo to push employees back to the office of the cloud compute startup. "People generally like to come in," said Prakash. "We've never enforced it." Prakash's response illustrates a stark cultural difference between AI startups formed after the COVID lockdowns and long-established corporations, with people voluntarily coming to the office, sometimes on weekends. Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University, told Business Insider that the age demographics and personal stake many startup employees have in their companies created a work mode that is "almost entirely in-person" and "100% work focused." "For a single 23-year-old with equity worth $20 million, it makes sense to work in the office for 100 hours a week," said Bloom. "They don't work from home, they home from work." The tight-knit culture of AI startups Arvind Jain, founder and CEO of Glean, an enterprise AI for productivity, said he "was not eager" to bring his team members back to the office because finding an office is a hassle, but everyone wanted to be in person and return to their original mode of working when the company first started right before the pandemic in 2019. "We just simply didn't know how to work from home because everybody was in this one small room," said Jain of the early days of the pandemic lockdown. "We used to be sitting next to each other, brainstorming what to build, and so we found that very, very hard." Over time, said Jain, he learned to enjoy remote work and got to spend time with his family, but the team genuinely wanted to be together again. "That's the difference — there's this startup spirit, and it's only 10, 15 people, and we want to be with each other," said Jain. "They love each other, they bond with each other, we used to play games together, and we have very fond pre-pandemic memories as a close-knit group." Jain said that as Glean grew more rapidly in recent years, it has since moved into a larger office space and dedicated Thursday as its work-from-home day. Spiros Xanthos, founder and CEO of Resolve AI, an enterprise technology startup that builds multi-agent AI systems, said the company has a "very strong culture" of in-person work and has never had to ask anyone to be in the office. "We have a fairly big office now, and we have breakfast, lunch, and dinner," said Xanthos. "Most people have lunch in the office together with their colleagues, and many people stay to have dinner in the office." Xanthos said that since founding the company in early 2024, "cohesion and culture and friendship" among employees has been critical for the company, and that he often brings colleagues based in New York to the Bay Area for offsite retreats so the team could get to know each other better. "People will actively avoid working remotely at this point," Xanthos added. "Especially for some of the younger folks who didn't have many years of experience, but maybe worked remotely before this, many of them tell me it's day and night — the fact that they have so many friends at work now that they can trust." AI's innovative nature demands in-person interactions Richard Florida, an urban studies theorist and professor at the University of Toronto, said the AI wave has unique characteristics compared to other startup booms, which may generate greater in-person demand. "Innovators have to be close to end users because end users are a part of the innovation system," said Florida, of why it's easier to work in person in the AI industry. "If you're an AI company, the technology itself is interesting, and you can invent it, but what you really learn is by interaction with the end user, by interacting with your customers and clients," Florida added. Xanthos said the demand for in-person attendance ultimately boils down to the nature of an innovative industry. "As a company, we're solving very, very hard problems, and to solve these problems, you operate at the frontier," said Xanthos. "And this means that you need to experiment a lot, try a lot of things that might fail." "That in turn requires a very high trust in an environment of psychological safety where people feel that they have the ability to innovate bottom up," Xanthos added, "Where they don't need to be told what to do, where there is communication velocity and bandwidth." So the next time you speak to an AI startup founder, don't ask how their RTO is going — they're probably too busy trying to squeeze everyone into the office. Read the original article on Business Insider

Leo Schwartz / The Information: Source: the White House is unlikely to extend export restrictions to other AI companies  —  The White House is unlikely to extend export restrictions on Anthropic's advanced models to other AI companies, an official close to the U.S. government said Saturday.

Data center proposals have spurred scores of bills in state legislatures and ballot measure campaigns to ban their construction. Will Waldron/Albany Times Union via Getty Images The majority of competitive House districts have data centers either planned or under construction. Neither party knows how to handle their political fallout heading into the midterms. Data centers are shaping up to be a yearslong political slog for both parties. More than 200 data centers are going up in dozens of competitive House districts — and neither party knows how to handle their political fallout heading into the midterms. The energy-hungry computing infrastructure being built to meet the explosive demand for artificial intelligence has sparked opposition to rising electric bills, water consumption, use of farmland and influence of the tech industry. That stew of frustration has made data centers the target of campaign ads and a populist fervor that's toppled local elected leaders. It has also become a rogue element in the races that will decide which party controls the House: The majority of competitive districts — 40 out of 69 — have data centers either planned or under construction, according to an analysis of Data Center Map data by POLITICO, which like Business Insider, is part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network. Even though Republicans represent most of those competitive districts, data centers are shaping up to be a yearslong political slog for both parties. Some 1,500 of them are planned or being built in 232 congressional districts, with a nearly even partisan split. Interviews with and statements from more than 20 congressional candidates, political strategists, and activists make clear that while individual campaigns are trying to shape their positions, broader party messaging is essentially nonexistent. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); "There's more political signs against AI in our region than for candidates in the upcoming races," said Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur during a hearing this spring. Kaptur is fighting to keep her seat in Ohio's 9th District, where Aligned Data Centers is building a data center that would be used for AI, cloud computing and more. "The public opposition that is arising, it's spontaneous combustion coming up from the grassroots." The industry's exponential growth means that lawmakers from all parts of the country are now exposed to it, from the dense data center developments in the Virginia suburbs to the heart of the industrial Midwest. Virginia is the historical epicenter of data center development in the US. Lexi Critchett/Bloomberg via Getty Images Lawmakers are taking scattershot approaches that range from opposing data centers altogether to embracing them in the name of economic development and national security. Some are eschewing the issue as a local matter, while the White House and Congress grapple with how to regulate the data center buildout. The White House announced a non-binding agreement in March with technology executives who pledged that their companies would provide their own power for data centers as a way of limiting the economic blow to everyday consumers. Lawmakers have also introduced a handful of bills with similar objectives, from GOP Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley's GRID Act to Democratic Virginia Rep. Suhas Subramanyam's Data Infrastructure Risk Reduction Act to a plan by progressives Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to enact a federal moratorium on data center construction. "People should not want their member of Congress deciding local zoning decisions," said Rep. Tom Barrett, a Republican whose Michigan district both parties' congressional arms are targeting — and where there are six data centers operating and six more planned. "It would be a dangerous precedent." (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); Data center proposals have spurred marathon city council meetings, scores of bills in state legislatures and ballot measure campaigns to ban their construction in California, Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin, Maryland, Utah and Ohio, where residents are pushing to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November. "There's not one big national message on this specific thing," said one Democratic strategist working on congressional races, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. "But in certain districts, data centers are going to be a major, major player." Asked about its strategy on data centers, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Viet Shelton said, "While House Republicans fall in line behind failed policies that spike prices out of control, Democratic candidates and Frontliners are fighting for common sense solutions to provide meaningful price relief, encourage economic growth, and meet the unique needs of their communities." The National Republican Congressional Committee declined to comment for this report. Although they're motivating politics more than before, the number of data centers has been steadily growing for decades. They have spread in lockstep with the growth of the internet, and more than 2,500 U.S. data center facilities are operating across 373 congressional districts, according to POLITICO's analysis. Virginia, Texas, and California contain the greatest number of data centers, and more than one in three Americans live within 5 miles of one that's already operating. In five states, most residents live within 5 miles of one. Investors plan to spend hundreds of billions of dollars building new data centers, which would push utilities across the country to make massive electric grid upgrades to feed the facilities — expenses that can be passed to everyone who consumes power. Massive "hyperscale" facilities that are owned by major tech companies demand the most power. And though hyperscalers make up a relatively small portion of the facilities now operating, the number in development would increase their count by 74%. Despite the demand for data centers, there are examples of proposals that are falling through due to community opposition or shifting business calculations. Just the announcement of a data center can be enough to pressure elected officials to act. In Wisconsin, for example, four proposals have been canceled and one paused following local pushback, according to Healthy Climate Wisconsin, a nonpartisan public health nonprofit whose work includes raising awareness of data centers' environmental health risks. "We've been hearing from policymakers across the state that data centers are the top issue they're hearing from their community, as far as concerns," said Abby Novinska-Lois, the organization's executive director. "Data centers will definitely be a factor in upcoming races in Wisconsin, and I would say they're a factor already for those who are holding office in their decisionmaking." How candidates are reacting Among 69 House districts expected to be competitive, nearly all already have at least one data center, and most have more on the way. POLITICO asked the 10 House members in battleground districts with the most upcoming data centers what their stance was on data center regulations. Five of eight Republican incumbents, and one of two Democrats, responded. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); Their answers illustrate an awareness that voters are in no mood to greenlight anything that will send electricity bills higher. Even the incumbents most supportive of data centers caveat their support with the need to protect consumers. Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn — who represents a district with 31 data centers planned and 33 already operating, more data centers than any other Republican incumbent in a competitive race — said in a statement that his state is a "model for how workforce development and AI leadership can work hand in hand." "But I also hear from Iowans who don't want higher utility bills or sweetheart deals for out-of-state tech companies," he said. "And they're right to be cautious." The tech lobby has shaped up to be a key player in the midterm races. Candidates who are too critical — particularly incumbents — run the risk of losing support from the tech lobby or attracting fierce opposition. "They're between a rock and a hard place," said Texas-based GOP consultant Brendan Steinhauser, whose clients have included Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Dan Crenshaw. "Politically, it's not a very smart move to come out and be seen as too close to big tech or doing the bidding of Big Tech, but a lot of the money is flying to them through that." The advertising so far this election cycle backs that up. All of the congressional and gubernatorial ads that mention data centers, as identified by the political advertising tracker AdImpact,are critical of the facilities. Most attack Republicans for supporting them. Over an image of cables running from computer equipment, one such ad from the progressive Priorities USA PAC says: "Driven by higher demand for electricity from AI data centers, residents can expect to see a 3% increase in their electric bill. But Pennsylvania's Representative Scott Perry somehow believes we're winning the war on high prices." Perry, a Republican, told POLITICO he does not support data centers in his district, which includes the cities of Harrisburg and York. "I don't think it's the best place for it, quite honestly," he said. "Pennsylvania's got a lot of energy in the ground, and the data center to me should be right at this point of energy production and generation, which is kind of in the more rural parts." Ads from Democrats, including Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, highlight their own records of regulating data centers. Democrats scored some early wins on energy affordability messaging last November as their candidates soared to victory in Virginia and Georgia, promising to place guardrails on data center growth and ensure they pay their share of power costs. The League of Conservation Voters, an environmental group, launched similar ads targeting Virginia's state legislature incumbents and their data center interests in 2025, and those races were later won by candidates who positioned themselves against data centers. Sara Schreiber, the group's senior vice president for campaigns, said such advertisements were a "powerful" tool for driving home the connection between data centers and affordability. "There is continuing concern around folks' rising electricity costs," Schreiber said. "They want to support candidates who are showing that they understand, they want to fight against it and have a plan to do so." Still, Democrats up and down the ticket are open to their construction. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced requirements on May 27 for data center developments — including a plan for covering energy costs — but not a moratorium. Paige Cognetti, the mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania, who is running to unseat Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, has said "we are ready for development," but that data centers should be on former industrial sites and not areas that could be used for housing or parks. The Data Center Coalition, an industry association, has been supportive of the White House's "ratepayer protection pledge" and other policies that require data centers to cover more utility costs. The coalition's senior director of federal affairs, Cy McNeill, said that they're working to educate representatives as constituents increasingly voice concerns about water usage and energy prices. "How do we provide the facts to the office, or to the congresswoman or congressman, to kind of help educate constituents on this?" McNeill said. "If we actually take a step back, look at the facts, I think the story is a lot different." Environmental activists say consumer protections don't go far enough. While elected officials who are open to data center construction often focus on keeping energy costs down, activists are worried about other potential risks, too, including water quality and air pollution. One of the most prominent disputes is out of Memphis, Tennessee, where residents are fighting Elon Musk's expanding xAI data center, the Colossus supercomputer. KeShaun Pearson, the executive director of Memphis Community Against Pollution, said federal action such as the ratepayer protection pledge still allows developers to use polluting energy sources without acknowledging environmental impacts. The xAI facility, for example, burns enough methane gas to power 280,000 homes — motivating the Memphis organization to take the monitoring of pollution and health risks into their own hands as they push elected officials to act. "We surely don't want data centers that are directly causing us health issues," Pearson said. "I think our politicians have to understand that and have to move accordingly." Pavan Acharya and Sean McMinn contributed to this report. Methodology The data center locations used for this analysis were based on a combination of Data Center Map, geocod.io and public sources. POLITICO used automation and manual reviews to verify exact coordinates and district assignments, checking against U.S. Census Bureau files. Data Center Map's data is as of April 30. Data centers included as "upcoming" are those that DCM labels as planned or under construction. The dataset is not an exhaustive list; it is based on voluntary data submissions and collections from providers or other sources. Government-owned data centers are not included. Some data center companies operate within the same colocation building and lease space to other companies; those cases count as one facility. Facilities that are a part of a campus or multi-tenant building count individually. Cases where the exact facilities within a campus or multi-tenant building are unknown are counted as one data center. Some data center facility addresses are approximate. In those cases, provided ZIP codes are used to determine congressional districts. In cases where a ZIP code overlapped with more than one district, or if no location information is disclosed for the facility, data centers are excluded from the district-level analysis. The population living within a five mile radius of a data center is determined using only facilities with exact addresses or intersections. The number of data centers in midterm races account for newly redrawn boundaries finalized in Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Utah. Competitive races are based on targets from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, as well as POLITICO's own reporting. The Axel Springer Global Reporters Network harnesses the resources of the company's newsrooms to publish ambitious scoops, investigations, interviews, opinion pieces and analysis. It allows journalists — including those from POLITICO, Business Insider, WELT, BILD, Onet and Fakt — to collaborate on major stories for an international audience of hundreds of millions across platforms: online, print, TV and audio. Read the original article on Business Insider

Nathan Rennolds / Associated Press: European political figures say Anthropic disabling access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 is a “wake-up call” about the risks of depending on the US for AI tech  —  Anthropic said it believed the US government had become aware of a potential means of jailbreaking Fable 5.

Allan Smith / NBC News: Report: opponents blocked or delayed at least 75 US data center projects in Q1 2026 worth ~$130B; data center opposition groups doubled to 833 across 49 states  —  The authors found that data center opponents blocked or delayed at least 75 projects nationwide from January through March.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy may have been the source of security concerns that led Anthropic to cut off worldwide access to two models on Friday.

A massive whale graveyard in the Indian Ocean contains the remains of hundreds of extinct whales dating back more than five million years, along with recent carcasses that support hotspots of seafloor life.

Testosterone therapy is a hot topic for men's health, but too much of the hormone can have serious side effects for heart health and fertility. adamkaz/Getty Images Testosterone-maxxing is a hot trend in fitness and longevity, but too much can have side effects. New research suggests a majority of men are getting testosterone therapy without the right safeguards. A urologist explains who can benefit from testosterone and who should avoid it to prevent risks. America is reaching peak testosterone. In 2026, interest in the hormone is everywhere, from T-maxxing trends on social media to the US government's MAHA campaign. Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) use has quadrupled in the past three decades, up to as many as 11 million Americans. For some of them, the treatment may be doing more harm than good, new research suggests. A majority of men who are prescribed testosterone don't meet the current guidelines for safe, effective treatment, according to a study from the University of Michigan. That could worsen the risk of serious side effects, including infertility, heart attack, and stroke, and long-term dependence on TRT, which can dampen the body's natural production of testosterone. While testosterone is an essential hormone for health, finding the right balance is complex because there's no one-size-fits-all treatment. A urologist explains what to know about the risks and benefits of testosterone, and how hormone trends are changing the landscape of men's health. Who can benefit from testosterone therapy? Healthy testosterone levels are crucial for energy, sex drive, muscle, and metabolism. T-maxxing influencers might promise that it can get you a six-pack and supercharge your focus and performance, but doctors say the benefits are much more modest — if you need a boost at all. A blood test can check if you have low testosterone and could benefit from TRT. It's typically taken first thing in the morning, and confirmed with a follow-up blood test on a different day. Low testosterone is anything below 300 nanograms per deciliter for most healthy adult men. You should also rule out conditions like sleep apnea, which are linked to low testosterone but can worsen with testosterone therapy. Men who could benefit from testosterone might experience symptoms ranging from brain fog and low energy to reduced libido and erectile dysfunction. It can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months for TRT to make a difference, depending on the symptoms. When T backfires In the latest research, endocrinologists looked at data from 200 men who were prescribed testosterone at the university clinic. They found that only 12% of the men met the criteria for treating low testosterone, confirmed by two blood tests. That means the other 88% — 176 men — may have been inappropriately given TRT, including some who had sleep apnea or prostate cancer. On average, the men studied were in their 50s, but some as young as 18 were also prescribed testosterone. If they don't need it, young men on testosterone could be putting their long-term health at risk, since taking TRT can make it harder for the body to produce its own supply of the hormone over time. High testosterone levels can also increase the body's volume of red blood cells, a risk factor for high blood pressure that, in extreme cases, may lead to a heart attack or stroke. It can also impair fertility by temporarily reducing sperm count. And taking T can potentially exacerbate serious health conditions like prostate cancer, potentially fueling tumor growth, per the Mayo Clinic. The findings are concerning, given how popular testosterone has become in the wellness industry and the potential for misuse without clear guidelines, said study authors Dr. Maria Papaleontiou and Dr. Sophia Sinha, both professors at the University of Michigan. "Testosterone has been coined as the 'fountain of youth' to optimize performance through enhancing muscle and improving energy levels in social media," they told Business Insider in a joint email interview. "Testosterone therapy can help some people who truly have low testosterone, but it is not risk-free." Major update coming soon for testosterone therapy guidelines Doctors understand that this is not a black-and-white issue. While testosterone treatment can have side effects, low testosterone is also a health concern, Dr. Justin Dubin, director of men's sexual health at Baptist Health Medical Group, told Business Insider. Dubin, who was not involved in the study, said prescribing TRT outside the guidelines may not always be harmful. Yes, TRT can be overprescribed to men who don't need it, but it is also underprescribed to men who could benefit, Dubin said. "Guidelines are guidelines, they're not law," Dubin said. "There are gray areas, and we need to give care in the gray. That's where most doctors live and where most patients live." The benchmark for healthy testosterone is so nuanced, Dubin said, that the American Urological Association has gathered a panel to discuss a major update to its guidelines on treating testosterone deficiency in the coming year or two. For now, Dubin said the growing popularity of testosterone is a good thing, as it's prompting a more proactive approach to medical care for men, who are notorious for avoiding the doctor's office until there's an emergency. As long as guys are going about it the right way by speaking to their doctor instead of just buying stuff online, he's all for it. "I think that's a wonderful thing because this is a gateway to men's health. This is how we can access a lot of guys, get them in to learn about their blood pressure, whether they have diabetes, heart disease," he said. "I'm actually excited and hopeful." Read the original article on Business Insider

The author and her neighbors take turns hosting kid-only meals. Courtesy of the author Weekly dinners with neighbors became a support system for both families. My children gained trusted adults outside of school and family. What started as convenience slowly turned into a real community. When I first suggested a "kids' dinner" with our upstairs neighbor, I was mainly thinking about getting a night off. Feeding my three kids (ages 4, 6, and 10) can feel endless — just when I think I've found a meal that works, one of them suddenly refuses to eat pasta, or rice, or chicken. Getting even one night off every other week sounded like a dream. Thankfully, our upstairs neighbors had two kids who got along with mine, and the parents were just as eager for a break. The logistics are simple Every Tuesday night, one family hosts a kids' dinner. We switch off weeks, and the parents simply walk the kids to the other family's apartment door. Parents are welcome to stay, but are encouraged to take an hour for themselves. The author says these meals with her neighbors' kids have gotten the families closer together. Courtesy of the author We also made a key rule: no cleaning before dinner. This arrangement is supposed to make our lives easy, not harder. I became a go-to adult for someone else's child A couple of months into these dinners, my 6-year-old neighbor walked in, took my hand, her eyes welling with tears, and pulled me aside. We sat on the blue couch in my office — a room that's otherwise off-limits — and she told me about a fight she'd had with her mom. It was a big deal to her. And the fact that she wanted to tell me about it felt big to me, too. Since that night, we've had more of these heart-to-hearts, and I've been surprised by how much they mean to me. I've become a go-to adult in her life — a role I didn't expect to play for someone else's child, especially since living in Germany means I'm an ocean away from my nieces and nephews. When she gets especially mad with her parents, she threatens to run away. To me. It's the best-case scenario for her parents, who know she'd be two flights downstairs with a trusted adult. And my neighbors fill this same role for my three children. On Tuesdays, after my kids drop off their backpacks in our apartment, they run upstairs, bursting to tell Laura what happened that day on the playground or try to stump Michael with a riddle they just learned. Without grandparents or aunts and uncles around, weekly dinners have provided my children another set of adults — outside teachers — who know to ask about ballet practice, speech therapy, and report cards. The kids built something of their own Around the table, the kids have built something of their own. They plan what toys to bring for each other, negotiate over seating, and sometimes show up with handwritten notes. They sit at the table by themselves, so their conversations aren't dominated by adults. The talk is about Pokémon cards or about whose birthday party is coming up this weekend. After dinner, while I clean the kitchen, the five of them have free rein to play. Sometimes I find my 4-year-old daughter and my 3-year-old neighbor huddled in her room, "reading" side by side or listening to "Frozen" on her Tonie box. Other times, my ten-year-old reads to the younger kids or makes up games that everyone can play. What started as a break became something more Cooking for five kids instead of three has turned out to be surprisingly fun. Having two extra mouths to feed doesn't require much more food, and with a party-like atmosphere, I think about what could be fun (like I did in my pre-children dinner party days). But dinners are still relatively simple. Chicken nuggets and fries. A charcuterie board of sliced meats and cut-up veggies. Breakfast for dinner. If I've got a bit of extra time, we'll make avocado sushi together. When everyone is back in their own home, I get messages about how my children ate — whether my daughter, who tends to bulk up on preschool snacks and skip dinner almost entirely, touched anything, or whether my oldest son ate an entire pack of hot dogs on his own. I was looking for a break from endless meal prep, but instead, my kids gained a second set of adults just two flights away. One dinner at a time, it feels like we're building a community. Read the original article on Business Insider

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David Sacks / @davidsacks: David Sacks says Dario Amodei refused to “fix the jailbreak or de-deploy the model” after “a highly credible trusted partner” reported a Fable jailbreak  —  I've had a number of conversations with folks inside and outside government about the current situation with Anthropic, and here is what I believe to be true: — As we know, Anthropic publicly released its Mythos class models earlier this week under the commercial name Fable.

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