A secretive super PAC has created new websites and X accounts with AI images that are targeting progressive lawmakers in the Bay Area. The super PAC is based in San Diego and has almost no public footprint. Great reporting by @jrivanob.bsky.social missionlocal.org/2026/06/jack...

What economist Gabriel Zucman said when I asked about SpaceX's IPO and how the concentration of wealth will affect us: "There is a fundamental tension in democratic societies between extreme wealth – which is always an extreme power – and the very possibility of a well-functioning democracy." 1/3

New: xAI doubled the gas turbines at its data center, even as NAACP sues alleging the turbines violate the Clean Air Act. This comes as SpaceX IPOs tomorrow, and Anthropic and Google signed deals to use xAI's data center. Here's a graph showing how much toxic NOx xAI's data center is emitting

I looked into whether tech billionaire big spending paid off in the California primaries. And, well, it did. Despite the Matt Mahan loss, the industry came out ahead in smaller races up and down the ballot -- especially in state legislature races. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

just a short list of 62 candidates to choose from for california governor

Welp, I missed this filing that came in at 6:55pm on Friday night. Brin shells out another $16M to fight the billionaire tax, making his contributions to this Super PAC total $82M.

So much tech money flowing into CA politics. Crypto boss Chris Larsen spent $1M on the state insurance commissioner primary. Sergey Brin spent $66M to fight the wealth tax. Larsen, Google & Meta have thrown millions to local campaigns in the state legislature. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Campos: While I want to thank CBS news for funding this generous gift towards my education, I want to acknowledge how the recent direction of the outlet stains the legacy of Mike Wallace, the namesake of this scholarship.

The plaintiff, who filed a lawsuit that he says is existential, is not going to be in the courtroom for closing arguments. This is highly unusual.

I spent the last two weeks sitting in court watching the billionaire-on-billionaire drama. It felt like a modern-day version of Bonfire of the Vanities with ambition, ego, greed and the spectrum of social class on full display--along with a good dose of humor. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

"There is a grim satisfaction in watching this organization hoist with its own petard."

Covered Shivon Zilis' testimony at Musk v Altman today and this text from her to a friend came up: “When the father of your babies starts a competitive effort and will recruit out of openai there’s nothing to be done.” And honestly, who among us? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

The jury was finalized in Musk v Altman today. The judge had to repeatedly ask if people could put aside negative feelings for Musk. One called him a “jerk”, another said they “disagree with a lot of things he’s done”. One said: “Elon doesn’t care about people” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

The billionaire tax has made it to the California ballot for a vote November. With 1,550,000 signatures, it nearly doubled the amount of signatures necessary to get on the ballot

Google's Sergey Brin throws $3M more into the fight against the CA billionaire tax. That brings his total known contributions to $48M. In this new filing, other techies donated too, incl crypto exec Chris Larsen and VCs John Doerr and Michael Moritz. Background: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

for all the talk of how AI is going to replace your job, let's make sure we also talk about how AI is degrading work today. we uncovered a political campaign by ShiftKey & Clipboard Health to spread surveillance wages.

This essay, so good. "For soon-to-be trillionaires, no level of loss could significantly change their global standing or personal power. For them, the word failure has ceased to mean anything." www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Elon Musk wanted the Cybertruck to be his dream vehicle. Now people are burning alive inside them. This week @darakerr.bsky.social joins @parismarx.com to explore the safety disaster that the vehicles have become and why regulators aren’t acting faster. Full ep: techwontsave.us/episode/324_...

Pete Hegseth believes that Jesus guides Tomahawk missiles, even when they hit elementary schools. I wrote about the roots of his militant faith - from the Crusades to the confederacy - and what they mean for the US and Iran today.

Goodnight, TX, is the site of an upcoming Google data center. Cleanview got ahold of documents showing how the facility will be powered. Turns out a gas plant is in the works. This would be one of Google's first direct investments in fossil fuel infrastructure. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

With two unprecedented trial defeats, big tech firms face crisis akin to that faced by cigarette makers in the 1990s

h/t @teslaqasia.bsky.social My spreadsheet documenting all 167 Tesla fire victims: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Reminder: Nissan Leaf, since 2009: zero (!) burned alive Tesla now has nearly 2,5 times MORE fire victims per Tesla than even the infamous $1800 Ford Pinto from half a century ago ..

No verdict today. “There’s a good chance tomorrow we get a verdict,” said plaintiff lawyer Mark Lanier.

$45M is 0.018% of $247bn. For someone with a net worth of $125K (the median in the US), that's the equivalent of spending $22.

New filings in California show Google's Sergey Brin has now donated $45M to a super PAC dedicated to kneecapping the proposed billionaire tax in the state. Google's Eric Schmidt has also upped his donations with totals now at $4M to anti-wealth tax PACs www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

I did a deep dive into five Cybertruck fires. What I learned was the truck's design can hamper rescue efforts and lead to worst-case scenarios where fires rapidly ignite, the vehicle’s electric door handles won’t unlock and passengers are trapped inside www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Meta and YouTube accused of creating harmful products in trial seen as a bellwether for attitudes towards social media

Lots of new campaign filings coming out in California with tech billionaires spending big. One new filing I hadn't seen reported on yet was Google's Eric Schmidt donating more than $1M to a committee combating the proposed billionaire tax www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

welp, it appears the public hearing supposedly held today didn't make a dent in any decisions www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Mississippi's environmental agency called a public hearing over xAI's proposed 41 gas turbines for tomorrow... on primary election day... in a county that's a 3-hour drive away. "This is not a public hearing, this is a deliberate attempt to silence frontline communities" naacp.org/articles/naa...

This suit reads like a dystopic spy novel. The chatbot sent the 36-year-old on stealth missions, instructing him not sleep and cut off contact with his dad. Then, it allegedly instructed him to kill himself. This is the first suit against Google over its AI. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

this is the tech we all need

My colleague Nick tracked Musk's X posts, so the rest of us didn't have to. “If you stripped Elon Musk’s name off of these things and showed them to me, I would think that this was a white supremacist,” said Heidi Beirich of Global Project Against Extremism. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

NEW: Salesforce employees are circulating a letter urging CEO Marc Benioff to denounce ICE www.wired.com/story/letter...

welp www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

again we do not really do a good job of explaining how wealthy people like Jeff Bezos are his net worth is $253.2 billion. so he could take one million dollars, and just light it on fire and then do it again tomorrow and again the day after that and then do it every day for 693 years and 8 months

A staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."

According to FOX 9, a Minneapolis federal judge demanded to know why DOJ is missing deadlines & AUSA Julie Le said, "The system sucks, this job sucks" & asked to be held in contempt so she could sleep. PACER shows she got assigned to defend the govt in 88+ cases since Operation Metro Surge started.

the man keeps an uranium rod on his desk (along with a sword, an ax and a blade from a concorde jet engine)

NEW: I reviewed nearly 1,400 screenings at over 300 movie theaters in the united states, and I am here to report that I successfully found two (2) sold out Melania screenings. Read on at @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/we-fou...

I’ve never heard of a “law enforcement” agency putting an officer who just killed someone back on the street under 24 hours. And that’s because all shootings are treated as homicides pending investigation. This is as clear a sign as you’ll get that DHS personnel enjoy practical immunity from murder.

honestly can't decide if this auto-response for a reporter email to one of musk's companies is better or worse than the poop emoji

"A US regulator ruled on Thursday that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company had acted illegally by using dozens of methane gas turbines to power massive data centers in Tennessee." - @darakerr.bsky.social

Gonna ask Meryl Streep to give me one of her Oscars

"Welcome to gangster tech regulation!" I will read every @lopatto.bsky.social piece until the day I die

"Portland’s mayor, Keith Wilson, confirmed the shooting in a statement. 'Just one day after the horrific violence in Minnesota at the hands of federal agents, our community here in Portland is now grappling with another deeply troubling incident,' he said." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

The White House has unveiled a new website recounting a wildly inventive version of the insurrection. The site says the “massive crowd peacefully” approached the Capitol in an “orderly and spirited" fashion. And, crucially, that "President Trump emerges triumphant." trib.al/VV6RuKa

Despite all that's going in the world right now, I'm sure everyone is curious about what happened with Elon Musk's Tesla diner over the last six months. Turns out, it's not great. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

😑

It’s just the third day of 2026