Jul 20, 2018 5:36 PM

Charting Juul's Face-Off With Legislators and Watchdogs

This week, special guest Nitasha Tiku charts Juul's ever-changing relationship with its consumers, its investors, and those who oppose its product.

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‘Mike Rogers Is Watching You’: New Ad Blitz From Abdul El-Sayed Attacks Surveillance Support

Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is leaning into one of the major complaints about surveillance from voters this election cycle.

Hugo Lowell

The Politics of Solar Energy Are Getting Weird, Mean, and a Little MAGA

A mysterious super PAC that doubles as a pro-solar-energy outfit is funding some of the most knives-out attack ads of the midterms season.

Noah Shachtman

Democrats Are Gearing Up to Investigate the Trump Administration. It Won’t Be Easy

As a recent government report on DOGE shows, even getting basic information out of the Trump administration will put a new Congress to the test.

Vittoria Elliott

Polymarket Halted International Trading After Hackers Drained Accounts

The company says an unnamed third-party provider was compromised. Trading has resumed, and Polymarket says affected traders will be made whole.

Kate Knibbs

Trump Aides Admit the House Is a Lost Cause

With the midterm elections just a few weeks away, the White House knows it has to go all in on Senate races—while virtually forfeiting the House.

Hugo Lowell

Anthropic Says It Will Revolutionize Biology—Some Day

In breathless press releases and posts, the company has touted its models’ ability to deliver scientific breakthroughs. But its IPO filing taps the brakes on just how fast its AI will lead to big discoveries.

Emily Mullin

Bud Light Boycotters Are Still Waiting for Their ‘Woke-Free’ Beer

Ultra Right Beer, a brand launched in 2023 by MAGA political consultant Seth Weathers, has vanished from the internet with many deliveries unfulfilled.

Miles Klee

The DOJ Is Weighing Perjury Charges Against Cassidy Hutchinson

The Justice Department is considering a perjury and obstruction-of-justice case against Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who testified against Donald Trump to the January 6 committee.

Hugo Lowell

The US Government Is Hiding a Secret Court Ruling About How It Spies on Americans

Two US senators say the Trump administration is breaking the law by withholding the FISA court decision while it presses Congress to renew America’s most sweeping surveillance program.

Dell Cameron

Mistral Says Its AI Model ‘Le Chonk’ Has Leapfrogged China in the Open-Weight Race

The French AI lab claims its latest release matches or outperforms even the best models from DeepSeek and Z.ai in coding and cybersecurity.

Joel Khalili

Mistral Says Its New AI Model ‘Le Chonk’ Is the Best Open-Weight Offering Outside of China

With the release of its new trillion-parameter model, Mistral is hoping to demonstrate it’s “still in the race” to build frontier-level artificial intelligence.

Joel Khalili

French Government Calls Emergency Meetings With Platforms Over Protests

TikTok and other sites were told to curb protest footage and AI-altered images, while online retailers like Vinted and eBay reportedly signed an agreement stop looted goods from flooding resale sites.

Isabella Ward