Wouldn’t it be nice to tidy up your home without breaking a sweat? The Roomba Combo 10 Max robovac / mop hybrid can make that dream a reality, as it delivers an almost fully hands-free cleaning experience. And now through tomorrow, April 19th, it’s on sale at Wellbots for $741.47 (about $658 off) when you use Verge-exclusive promo code VERGE47 at checkout.

The Combo 10 Max can empty its bin, wash its own mop, and even refill its mopping tank thanks to its new multifunction charging dock, which is one of the reasons it’s one of our favorite robot vacuums. It’s especially great for pet owners, thanks to its powerful suction and dual rubber roller brushes, which rotate in opposite directions to prevent tangling. It also comes with AI-powered obstacle detection, which uses a camera to spot and avoid pet waste. In fact, if it fails to avoid pet mess within the first year, iRobot will replace the robovac for free.

In addition to fur, the Combo 10 Max excels at other cleaning duties. It can identify and remember the dirtiest rooms in your home with its Dirt Detect feature, taking multiple passes to ensure a thorough clean. It functions as a decent mop, too, one that can lift its tiny mopping pad above your carpet or rug to keep it dry while it’s vacuuming.

In terms of smart home compatibility, the Roomba’s latest flagship supports the new Matter standard, allowing you to integrate it into your smart home routines and control it using Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or Apple Home. What’s even more convenient is that iRobot makes some of the most self-repairable robot vacuums on the market, all of which come with replaceable parts that are readily available.

Three more deals worth a look

• The SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless is on sale for $139.99 ($140 off) at Best Buy, marking an all-time low. The wireless gaming headset features terrific audio quality with virtual surround sound and includes two hot-swappable batteries. It also comes with a USB-equipped base station for connecting it to your PC, Nintendo Switch, or PlayStation, along with Bluetooth support so you can pair it with your phone.
• Now through April 30th, Woot is selling the last-gen Echo Show 5 in refurbished condition with a 90-day warranty for just $27.99. The second-gen model isn’t as snappy as its successor, but it remains a solid 5.5-inch smart display, one you can use as a bedside alarm clock. It delivers loud, full sound for its size and offers the same set of Alexa-based functionality as other Echo speakers, allowing you to control the lights, check the weather, and manage other smart home devices with just your voice. Just don’t expect much from the abysmal 2-megapixel camera. Read our review.
• Best Buy is selling Lego’s incredible Rivendell set as a part of its Best Buy Drops program today, allowing you to pick it up for $424.95 ($75 off) when you use the company’s mobile app for Android and iOS. The highly detailed, 6,167-piece kit is an excellent little renditon of J.R.R. Tolkien’s elven sanctuary, one the let’s you play out iconic scenes from the Lord of the Rings trilogy in all their brick-ified glory. It also comes with 15 minifigs, including all nine members of the Fellowship, Bilbo, Elrond, and others. 

Covid.gov, the government website where you could previously find information about covid, now redirects to a page that pushes the conspiracy theory that the virus originated from a lab. Navigating to the website reveals a prominent banner with the words “Lab Leak” and a photo of Donald Trump, as spotted earlier by Wired’s Andrew Couts.

Covidtests.gov, where you could order free covid tests, also redirects to the new webpage.

The website purports to reveal the “true origins” of covid, blaming a Chinese lab’s “inadequate biosafety levels” for allegedly “leaking” the virus. It goes on to push other blatant conspiracy theories, such as the claim that the Biden administration misled the public about covid’s origins and “demonized alternative treatments.” The page also claims that the WHO “caved to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party” in its response to the pandemic.

It’s not clear exactly when the covid.gov page changed. As shown on an archived version of the webpage, covid.gov included resources about the virus up until at least April 10th. The page now includes a link to the House Oversight Committee report, which similarly promotes the lab leak conspiracy theory.

Since February, the Trump administration has been working to rip down webpages from federal websites that don’t align with its beliefs – particularly information related to climate change, racial equity, and gender identity. Though a court order brought some of these pages back online, the Trump administration ordered federal agencies to include disclaimers around “gender ideology.”

Subaru’s first and only EV, the Solterra, is getting a facelift for 2026 with many upgrades that include a better AWD system, longer range, and improved performance.

Subaru gave the new model a standard symmetrical all-wheel drive system that allows front and rear motors to work independently and offer better control in various weather conditions. The motors are also more powerful, with up to 233 horsepower combined, while a higher-end XT model bumps the power to 338 horsepower with 0-60 mph acceleration in under five seconds.

It has a cleaner and flatter front bumper, new headlights, and an illuminated logo that make the vehicle look more refined than the first version. Meanwhile, the interior receives an upgraded 14-inch infotainment touchscreen, two 15W wireless smartphone chargers, and USB-C charging ports.

The Solterra now has a 74.7kWh battery pack that gives it an EPA-estimated range of 285 miles on a single charge, compared to the previous 227 miles. It can charge from 10 to 80 percent in “less than 35 minutes” on a 150kW charger. It features the now-standard NACS charging port, which will allow the Solterra to charge at “more than 15,000” Tesla Supercharger locations across North America sometime this year.

The changes come after Toyota upgraded its BZ4X last month, which uses the same e-TNGA platform as the Solterra.

I have been reporting in Washington for nearly six years, and on politics for over a decade, and I’ve attended more corporate-sponsored policy events (and tend to nod off during them) than I can remember. I’ve also reported on the gradual disintegration of reality caused by the rise of MAGA, so I thought my tolerance for confusing political phenomena was pretty high. But never in my life did I think I would see Steve Bannon sitting onstage in his beat-up barn jacket next to former Consumer Finance and Protection Bureau director Rohit Chopra, a notable progressive introduced as “a protege of Sen. Elizabeth Warren,” with the two of them earnestly discussing the topic: “are techno-optimism and populism incompatible?” 

Not that the topic was out of left field per se — the tech right and the populist right are in an all-out war, and it’s roiling the Trump administration. But this was a visual pairing that reduced me to sending a photo of the stage with the caption “what if horseshoe theory, but real” to several sources. 

Bannon’s appearance at Y Combinator’s Little Tech Summit earlier this month was a surprise — his timeslot had been buried in the schedule …

Read the full story at The Verge.

If you want to make the most out of a world increasingly filled with AI tools, here’s a habit to develop: start taking screenshots. Lots of screenshots. Of anything and everything. Because for all the talk of voice modes, omnipresent cameras, and the multimodal future of everything, there might be no more valuable digital behavior than to press the buttons and save what you’re looking at.

Screenshots are the most universal method of capturing digital information. You can capture anything — well, almost anything, thanks a lot, Netflix! — with a few clicks, and save and share it to almost any device, app, or person. “It’s this portable data format,” says Johnny Bree, the founder of the digital storage app Fabric. “There’s nothing else that’s quite so portable that you can move between any piece of software.” 

A screenshot contains a lot of information, like its source, contents, and even the time of the day in the corner of the screen. Most of all, it sends a crucial and complex signal; it says I care about this. We have countless new AI tools that aim to watch the world, our lives, and everything, and try to make sense of it all for us. These tools are mostl …

Read the full story at The Verge.

SpaceX is in the lead to help President Donald Trump create the “Golden Dome” missile defense system, according to Reuters. The Elon Musk-owned company is reportedly working with the data analysis firm Palantir and the defense company Anduril to build “key parts” of the Golden Dome that, like Israel’s Iron Dome, would intercept and destroy incoming missiles.

As reported by Reuters, the companies proposed launching 400 to more than 1,000 satellites to sense and track missiles. It would also have “a separate fleet of 200 attack satellites armed with missiles or lasers” to take down missiles. Trump signed an executive order in January to build the “Iron Dome for America,” but some estimate it could take years to implement.

Reuters notes that SpaceX likely won’t have anything to do with the “weaponization of satellites,” and would instead provide a constellation of satellites for missile tracking. SpaceX expects to spend $6 billion to $10 billion to build its portion of the system. It reportedly pitched its involvement as a subscription service that would require the government to continue paying for its satellites.

“SpaceX has not tried to bid for any contract in this regard,” Musk said in a reply to a post about the rumor on X. “If the President asks us to help in this regard, we will do so, but I hope that other companies (not SpaceX) can do this.”

Nintendo has announced a new date for when Switch 2 preorders will kick off in the US; April 24th.

As a part of the announcement, Nintendo said that the price of the Switch 2 will remain at $449.99 despite fears that the Trump administration’s new tariff policy would lead to increased pricing for the console. However, Nintendo also said that the Switch 2 accessories would be more expensive. The Switch 2 Joy-Con, Pro Controller, and Switch 2 camera have all gone up in price. Originally the Joy-Con was priced at $89.99 and is now $94.99. The Pro controller has also gone up $5 from $79.99 to $84.99. Finally, the Switch 2 camera has gone from $49.99 to $54.99.

Preorders were originally set to begin on April 9th, but Nintendo delayed that following the Trump administration’s announcement of new tariffs.

Specifically, Nintendo delayed preorders “in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions.” At the time, the company said that the Switch 2’s planned June 5th launch date would be “unchanged.”

On April 8th, Nintendo also announced that it would be delaying Switch 2 preorders in Canada “in order to align with the timing of preorders to be determined in the US.” With this news, Canada will be able to preorder the Switch 2 on April 24th as well.

Nintendo’s new preorder date follows President Trump announcing on April 9th that he had authorized a 90-day pause on tariffs outside of China.

The original preorder date was announced as part of Nintendo’s big reveal event for the Switch 2. At that event, Nintendo also said that the system would cost $449.99 with a $499.99 version available that includes Mario Kart World. In the announcement, Nintendo reaffirmed that the price of the Mario Kart World bundle would remain the same along with the prices for both Mario Kart World ($79.99) and Donkey Kong Bananaza ($69.99).

The Switch 2 looks to be a substantial upgrade from the original Switch, with a larger 7.9-inch LCD screen, bigger Joy-Con controllers, and more. In addition to Mario Kart World, Nintendo also showed off Donkey Kong Bananza, a new 3D Donkey Kong game that’s set to launch on July 17th.

The new preorder date also follows Sony raising the price of PS5 models in the EU, UK, Australia, and New Zealand due to “a backdrop of a challenging economic environment.”

Nintendo closed its annoucement with an apology stating, “We apologize for the retail pre-order delay, and hope this reduces some of the uncertainty our customers may be experiencing.”

EcoFlow just announced improved versions of its Glacier refrigerator-freezer combo and Wave air conditioner-heater combo, two battery-powered off-grid appliances that can be recharged with the sun.

The Wave 3 is more powerful than its predecessor, which means it can cool and heat larger spaces than the Wave 2 I reviewed last summer. But that 6100BTU (1800W) of cooling and 6800BTU (2000W) of heating means we’re still talking small RVs, tents, boats, and maybe a tiny bedroom from a device that still punches well above its literal weight. The intake and exhaust hoses are now insulated, which should make this heat pump even more efficient than before, and water drainage has also been improved.

The Wave 3 can be powered in several ways, including a removable 1024Wh LFP battery for up to eight hours of use, an AC wall jack, 12V / 24V car outlet, EcoFlow’s excellent alternator charger, an EcoFlow power station, or 400W of solar panels. EcoFlow says it can lower the temperature by “up to 15 degrees Fahrenheit” in 15 minutes in rooms up to 183 square feet. I’m currently testing how much work that “up to” is doing in EcoFlow’s claim for my upcoming review. 

The best-in-class app from EcoFlow makes it easy to access a number of useful new features on the Wi-Fi (or Bluetooth) connected Wave 3 when far from the device. These include activating a dehumidifier mode to reduce moisture levels and an automatic mode to maintain temperature within a defined range. There’s also a new pet mode that automatically alerts the owner and activates the A/C if temperatures surpass 77F. EcoFlow also ships window stickers inside the box that can assuage any concerned lookie-loos that might worry about your pet overheating inside the locked vehicle.

The Glacier Classic, meanwhile, has ditched the ice maker from the original version I reviewed in 2023 to focus on maximizing internal volume — a move I fully endorse since these 12V fridges are meant to be used in places where water and electricity are scarce. As such, the Glacier Classic is able to fit 45 liters of dual-zone capacity into roughly the same footprint as the 38L original. It’s also available in 35L and 55L capacities, but the former operates as either a freezer or fridge without the dual-zone divider option. 

All three fridge sizes have a built-in 298Wh battery offering up to 43 hours of cooling, according to the company. The battery can be recharged from a standard wall jack, 12V / 24V car outlet, or 110W of solar. The Glacier Classic also features a dual-opening lid for flexible access inside tight spaces like a van or boat. 

EcoFlow says the Glacier Classic uses a more reliable temperature sensor to ensure stable performance. That’s important because some owners of the original Glacier had to replace their units due to sensors going out of control and freezing everything inside. Oops!

The Glacier Classic will list for $799 (35L), $899 (45L), and $1,199 (55L) in the US, with early bird discounts dropping the prices to $699 (35L), $799 (45L), and $899 (55L). It’s available to preorder starting today. 

The Wave 3 with battery is discounted to $1,299 at preorder ($2,198 list), while the Wave 3 sans battery can be had for $749 ($1,299 list). An extra battery costs $599 compared to the $899 list. That’s a lot of money even with early bird pricing, so I’m working hard on getting the review published before the discounts end on May 25th.

Our plan for this episode was to spend some time talking about antitrust regulation, because one of the biggest companies on the planet is currently in the midst of a trial that could fundamentally reshape the internet economy. And that was before Google lost its adtech trial! Two’s definitely a trend, in this case: Meta’s trial is just beginning, and we have a ruling in Google’s, but both companies are staring at a future that looks very different than the last 20 years.

On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge’s Alex Heath joins Nilay and David to talk through what the Google ruling means (with as little ad-tech talk as possible, we promise), as well as what it was like to be in the Meta courtroom all week. So far, the FTC’s case against Meta seems somewhat dubious, and might hinge a little too much on the power of MeWe. But that one is only just beginning, and there are many more questions about Instagram and WhatsApp still to come.

After that, we talk about some big news in the AI world. OpenAI is working on a social network, with plans to rival X and become the place people do… something. Post their ripoff photos? Make funny jokes with the help of ChatGP …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Few gaming laptops stand out like Razer’s Blades. They’ve long been the gaming alternative to the MacBook Pro: sleek, powerful, and grown-up looking, without the bulk and garish stylings of most gaming laptops. But cramming powerful graphics cards into slim confines means Blade laptops have a tendency to run hot, get loud, and carry ridiculous price tags.

So you’d be excused for feeling anxious that the 2025 Blade 16, which offers Nvidia’s most powerful laptop GPU, is 30 percent thinner and significantly lighter than its predecessor. In my initial testing, it only seemed a little more powerful than the 4090 Blade it replaces.

But now I’ve used it much more extensively. I’ve even tested it against cheaper, thicker RTX 5080 laptops with more cooling capacity, which are the better buy if you’re focused squarely on gaming performance. However, nothing quite matches the Blade 16’s balance of top-end specs, thin chassis with all-black aesthetics, and a lovely OLED screen I’d happily stare at all day.

The 2025 Blade 16 is just 0.69 inches at its thickest (0.59 inches at the front) and weighs 4.6 pounds. That isn’t just thinner and lighter than last year’s 0.87-inch / …

Read the full story at The Verge.

If there’s one thing the auto industry hates, it’s uncertainty. When it takes upward of five or six years to bring a new car model to market, a certain administration throwing caution and global goodwill to the wind with a raft of unpredictable tariffs is decidedly bad news. 

Right now, the US tariff situation is constantly shifting, with limited exceptions being granted for certain manufacturers whose leaders are willing to bend the knee. While there is talk of some potential relief, global auto manufacturers have yet to be given a reprieve from a 25 percent tariff on vehicles assembled outside of the United States. 

This is an unprecedented situation, both in terms of the severity of the action and the swiftness with which it was enacted. It’s already had immediate impacts, like Audi holding foreign-made vehicles at port, and Jaguar Land Rover suspending all shipments to the US. 

It remains to be seen which manufacturers will be most affected, but one thing is clear: car shoppers who’d been sitting on the fence about a new purchase are now rushing to their local dealers.  

People like Andrew Neuberger, an Atlanta-area resident who works in the automotive software space, had …

Read the full story at The Verge.

You know, I was simply going to ignore the bizarre Blue Origin stunt flight from earlier this week. But then it flopped beyond my wildest imagination, and so here we all are.

Doubtless you know the contours already: Jeff Bezos’ fiancee Lauren Sánchez, pop star Katy Perry, and four other women did a big space tourism trip in the name of performative femiladyism, wearing “space suits” cut so as to require a pair of Spanx underneath. “We’re going to have lash extensions flying in the capsule,” Sánchez said. “We are going to put the ‘ass’ in astronaut,” Perry said.

This promised to be a marketing bonanza for a nation addled by spectacle. What has happened instead has been a shocking amount of backlash. TikToks mocking Katy Perry’s feigned enthusiasm for “astronomy and astrology.” Suggestions the entire trip was faked. Video footage of what appears to be Bezos literally falling on his face in Texas. Did Bezos even really open the capsule door? Proclamations that the flight “showcased the utter defeat of American feminism.” Social media debates about w …

Read the full story at The Verge.

A new theatrical Star Wars movie is on the way — and this time, it actually has a premiere date. At Star Wars Celebration in Japan, Lucasfilm announced Star Wars: Starfighter, a standalone feature that is set five years after The Rise of Skywalker.

It’s being directed by Shawn Levy, who most recently directed Deadpool & Wolverine, and will star Ryan Gosling. Production is due to begin this fall, and the movie will hit theaters on May 28th, 2027. The new movie is described as “an entirely new adventure featuring all-new characters set in a period of time that has not been explored on screen yet.”

Lucasfilm has struggled to get Star Wars projects into theaters following The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, even though many have either been announced or rumored since then. Levy’s involvement in the Star Wars universe had been rumored for some time. In a blog post, Lucasfilm says that those other projects are still in development, including “films by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, James Mangold, Taika Waititi, and a new trilogy by Simon Kinberg.”

Starfighter isn’t the only upcoming Star Wars movie on the schedule however, as it will be preceded by the Mandalorian spinoff The Mandalorian & Grogu, which will hit theaters on May 22nd, 2026.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is sending out mass layoff notices that appear to be in defiance of a court order blocking further layoffs following DOGE-induced cuts. 

“I regret to inform you that you are affected by a reduction in force (RIF) action,” says a notice reviewed by The Verge that was sent by CFPB Acting Director Russell Vought to an agency employee. “This RIF action is necessary to restructure the Bureau’s operation to better reflect the agency’s priorities and mission.” Access to CFPB systems will be cut off after Friday, and employees will be placed on administrative leave until their official end date, the notice says. 

Fox Business reports that around 1,500 workers will receive RIF notices across core functions, based on an unnamed source. On Thursday night, CFPB Chief Legal Officer Mark Paoletta sent a notice of the agency’s supervision and enforcement priorities that said the CFPB would “shift resources away from enforcement and supervision that can be done by the States” and rescinded previous enforcement and supervision priority documents, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In March, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration not to “terminate any CFPB employee, except for cause related to the individual employee’s performance or conduct; and defendants shall not issue any notice of reduction-in-force to any CFPB employee.” An appeals court order this month partially stayed that portion of the injunction, but only to the extent it would keep the CFPB from issuing a RIF that the agency determined “after a particularized assessment, to be unnecessary to the performance of defendants’ statutory duties.”

The union that brought the original complaint to stop the agency from being gutted filed a motion late Thursday asking the court to require the government to explain how the mass terminations don’t violate its preliminary injunction. “The plaintiffs have been told that entire offices, including statutorily mandated ones, have or soon will be either eliminated or reduced to a single person,” the filing says. “It is unfathomable that cutting the Bureau’s staff by 90 percent in just 24 hours, with no notice to people to prepare for that elimination, would not ‘interfere with the performance’ of its statutory duties, to say nothing of the implausibility of the defendants having made a ‘particularized assessment’ of each employee’s role in the three-and-a-half business days since the court of appeals imposed that requirement.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee who helped establish the agency, called the agency’s “dismantling” of the agency “yet another assault on consumers and our democracy by this lawless Administration, and we will fight back with everything we’ve got.”

Updated March 17th: Added filing from CFPB worker union and statement from Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Tesla’s vehicles may be in a sales slump, but that’s not stopping the company from regularly introducing fresh features for owners. Tesla’s spring software update includes several useful new functions in its EVs, including adaptive high beams on compatible cars and better trip planning.

The update will allow some Tesla owners to use high beams without blinding other drivers and cyclists on the road by enabling the beamforming capabilities of equipped matrix headlights. The company first started installing the hardware across its vehicles in 2022, but are just now enabling it. Tesla had also enabled the features in Europe last year, and the newly refreshed Model Y will ship with the new smart headlights.

Many automakers like Audi have already been using adaptive headlights for about a decade in Europe, but the technology only became legal in the US in 2022. Other US automakers, including Ford and its F-150 Lightning, have the necessary hardware but aren’t yet enabling all the features of adaptive lights by default.

Another very useful feature in the spring release includes “Alternative Trip Plans,” which lets Tesla owners select different EV navigation routes based on whether they want to get there faster, have the fewest stops, or want to visit highly rated restaurants, shops, and restrooms. It adds to an already comprehensive EV navigation experience that other automakers have yet to catch up to, although Tesla still does not include third party chargers in automatic routing. Additionally, you can now set navigation to avoid highways.

Tesla is also giving its Sentry secure video and Dashcam features the ability to record clips from the B-Pillar side cameras, increasing their capture abilities from six of the vehicle’s cameras instead of four. An updated Dashcam viewer on the infotainment screen includes a new grid view to make it easier to review recordings. These new dashcam features, however, only work on Tesla models with AMD-powered infotainment screens, so anyone with Intel-powered ones won’t get the new functionality. 

Other notable features in the update include sideview camera feeds on the instrument cluster for Model S and X, location based trunk height memory so your tailgate doesn’t hit your low-ceiling garage, always-on USB-C and wireless charging, and, for those who refuse to pay Tesla for premium connectivity, the ability to automatically connect to your hotspot when you start to drive.

Netflix said in its first quarter earnings report on Thursday that revenue reached $10.5 billion in the months since it raised prices. That’s a 13 percent increase over the same time last year.

The streaming service’s net income also grew to $2.9 billion, and the company says it expects more growth in the coming months when it sees “the full quarter benefit from recent price changes and continued growth in membership and advertising revenue.”

Netflix raised the prices across most of its plans in January, with its premium plan hitting $24.99 per month. It also increased the price of its Extra Member option — its solution to password sharing — to $8.99 per month. Though Netflix already rolled out the increase in the US, UK, and Argentina, the streamer now plans to do the same in France.

This is the first quarter that Netflix didn’t reveal how many subscribers it gained or lost. It decided to only report “major subscriber milestones” last year, as other streams of revenue continue to grow, like advertising, continue to grow. Netflix last reported having 300 million global subscribers in January.

During an earnings call on Thursday, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters sai …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Razer is selling laptops on its site again after a recent and sudden halt.

In what seemed like a response to ongoing tariff tumult, the US Razer site had quietly pulled its Blade laptops from direct sales, including its new Blade 16 with Nvidia’s 50-series GPUs. Things seemed normal in other regions like Canada. But even after a week of paused sales and Reddit posts discussing Blade 16 preorders getting held up in US Customs, however, Razer never responded to The Verge’s inquiries about what’s going on.

Now, some configurations of the 2025 Blade 16 have reappeared for US residents, though not all Blade laptops have returned to Razer’s US online store.

Before the sales pause, there were still 2024 Blade 16 models available, as well as preorders for the Blade 18. Now, those are nowhere to be seen for US customers.

Also, the 2025 Blade 16 is only available for immediate purchase with the RTX 5080 GPU. The entry-level RTX 5070 Ti and flagship RTX 5090 configurations are only listed with “notify me” buttons.

And even more curious: the 5090 config is limited to 64GB of RAM and 4TB of storage for $4,899.99, but the review spec that Razer sent us for testing with 32GB / 1TB for $4,499.99 isn’t available.

What’s also still unavailable is any pricing on the new Razer Adjustable Laptop Stand. But on the Canadian Razer site, you can find that stand with a $99.99 price, as well as the review spec of the 5090 Blade 16 and preorders for the Blade 18.

We’ve reached out to Razer to try and get clarification about what’s going on.

A federal judge has struck down an Ohio law that would’ve required children under 16 to get parental consent to use social media platforms. In a decision on Wednesday, US District Court Judge Algenon Marbley ruled that the law is unconstitutional, saying it violates the First Amendment.

Signed in 2023, Ohio’s Social Media Parental Notification Act was set to come into force on January 15th, 2024. However, the Big Tech-backed interest group NetChoice challenged the law and won a temporary restraining order blocking it. This new decision permanently prevents the law from taking effect.

“This case resides at the intersection of two unquestionable rights: the rights of children to ‘a significant measure of’ freedom of speech and expression under the First Amendment, and the rights of parents to direct the upbringing of their children free from unnecessary governmental intrusion,” Judge Marbley writes.

Last month, NetChoice succeeded in permanently blocking Arkansas’s age verification law and won a preliminary injunction to prevent California’s landmark online child safety law from going into effect. NetChoice also recently sued to block Maryland’s Kids Code law over concerns it violates free speech.

“The decision confirms that the First Amendment protects both websites’ right to disseminate content and Americans’ right to engage with protected speech online, and policymakers must respect constitutional rights when legislating,” NetChoice director of litigation Chris Marchese said in the group’s announcement.

After 24 hours with Huawei’s Mate XT — a.k.a. the world’s first trifold smartphone — I have this to say for it: the novelty hasn’t worn off.

I’ve tried the Mate XT twice before, first shortly after it launched last September, and then again in February after it was released outside of China. But now Huawei is ready to actually let me review its one-of-a-kind hardware, which at today’s exchange rates would set you back just under $4,000.

I’ll be spending the next week with my SIM card in the Mate XT, as I get used to life with triple the usual space and none of the usual Google Mobile Services support, but one day in, I figured I’d share my first — or is it third? — impressions and a bunch of pictures.

There are really three ways to use the XT: as a regular-ish phone with a 6.4-inch display, in a square shape that resembles other foldables and measures 7.9 inches, or fully opened into what’s essentially a 10.2-inch tablet.

It feels a little unnatural to open at first. Since each segment folds in a different direction, it took me a few hours to get used to where I push and where I pull, and I spent most of that adjustment period worrying I w …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Trump administration dealt a major blow to the fledgling US offshore wind industry yesterday by ordering a major wind project off the coast of New York to stop construction. 

US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the move on X yesterday, which ordered a stop on all construction on the Empire Wind project pending “further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.” 

President Donald Trump has painted offshore wind as an environmental bogeyman since the campaign trail, falsely linking proposed projects to whale deaths without evidence while promising to “drill, baby, drill” for oil and gas at the same time. Now, his administration is trying to stop offshore wind farms from being built, even those that have already gained federal approvals.

Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office that stopped leasing and permitting for new offshore wind projects. Empire Wind, however, has had a federal lease since 2017 and already had state and federal permits in place. 

Equinor, the Norwegian company developing the project, confirmed in a press release today that it had suspended construction to comply with a notice it received from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. “Empire is engaging with relevant authorities to clarify this matter and is considering its legal remedies, including appealing the order,” the release says. 

Construction on Empire Wind, which Equinor says had a gross book value of roughly $2.5 billion, started this month and was slated to finish in 2027. Once complete, it was supposed to produce enough carbon pollution-free electricity for 500,000 homes in New York. The construction employed 1,500 people, according to Equinor. The project included an onshore staging hub at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which was anticipated to create around 1,000 union construction jobs.

“Stopping work on the fully federally permitted Empire Wind 1 offshore project should send chills across all industries investing in and holding contracts with the United States Government,” Liz Burdock, president and CEO of offshore energy trade group Oceantic Network, said in an emailed statement. “Preventing a permitted and financed energy project from moving forward sends a loud and clear message to all businesses — beyond those in the offshore wind industry — that their investment in the US is not safe.”

The US lags far behind Europe and China in deploying offshore wind, even though it has more potential than many other nations to harness the resource from its vast coastlines. Offshore wind could meet up to a quarter of the nation’s power needs by 2050, and it could pair well with energy-hungry data centers that are pushing up power demand in the US.

But on top of financial woes brought on by tangled supply chains and rising project costs, offshore wind has faced stiff opposition from the commercial fishing industry and residents concerned about turbines affecting ocean views. A turbine failure off the coast of Massachusetts that led to a blade breaking off and plummeting into the ocean fomented fears about the potential environmental impact of wind farms, although necropsies point to vessel strikes and fishing gear as the leading causes of whale deaths. 

“It’s the industrialization of our ocean, rubber-stamped by federal agencies and delivered by a foreign-owned corporation under the guise of climate action,” Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said in an opinion published in the New York Post last week. 

Former President Joe Biden had set a goal of growing US offshore wind capacity from 42 to 30,000 megawatts by 2030. Since winds are typically stronger over the ocean than on land, offshore turbines were seen as an abundant source of renewable energy that would help the US eliminate pollution from power plants and fight the climate crisis. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to fight the Trump administration’s efforts to stop Empire Wind “every step of the way” in a statement released yesterday.

“If Trump had any ounce of compassion or care for the American people, he would be bolstering renewable energy projects like Empire that create stable jobs, allow families to breathe easier, and save more on electricity,” Xavier Boatright, Sierra Club deputy legislative director for clean energy and electrification, said in an emailed statement. “Instead, Trump is yet again prioritizing the interests of Big Fossil Fuel, and making Americans pay the price.” 

Oil and gas interests spent more than $75 million in campaign donations to get Trump elected last year. In January, Trump claimed “no new windmills” would be built while he’s in office, saying they “litter” the US like “garbage in a field.”