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Comcast’s fix for streaming service overload is in your cable box

An image of StreamStore

Streaming has become a tangled web of subscriptions, and now Comcast says it can help by putting all your services into one hub. Comcast is launching a new hub on its set-top boxes, called the StreamStore, where you can buy and manage subscriptions for more than 450 streaming apps and channels.

The StreamStore lives within Xfinity’s Xumo Stream Box and on X1 devices. It’s also available on the web, and features a collection of more than 200,000 movies and TV shows to rent or purchase. Xfinity will let you add or drop channels through the store, while tacking on new subscriptions to your monthly internet or TV bill, further positioning the company as a sort of streaming broker. 

Other cable / telecom companies like Verizon have tried to step in as a digital subscription service middleman, though Comcast is taking things a step further by putting this hub on your TV. But is streaming really messy enough that you need Comcast to manage it?

Some services included in the StreamStore include Netflix, Peacock, Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, Hulu, Apple TV Plus, HBO Max, and over 100 “niche” streaming subscriptions, according to LightReading. Xfinity already offers its own StreamSaver bundle, which includes a subscription to Apple TV Plus, Netflix with ads, and Peacock’s ad-supported plan for $15 per month.

The bundle is, of course, available through the StreamStore, and Xfinity says it plans on bringing new streaming bundles, apps, and “enhanced subscription management and activation capabilities” to the hub in the future.

(Disclosure: Comcast is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.)

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Google leaks its full Pixel 10 lineup

An image showing four leaked Pixel phones
Android Authority isolated the image of the four phones it found on the Play Store banner. | Image: Android Authority

Google seems to have revealed its entire Pixel 10 lineup a little less than a month before its launch event. On Wednesday, Android Authority said it managed to uncover a banner of the Pixel 10, 10 Pro, 10 Pro XL, and 10 Pro Fold while “poking around” on the Google Play Store on Android.

The banner doesn’t appear directly on the Play Store right now, which means Android Authority likely took some extra steps to enable it. Still, it clearly shows all four devices with the text, “Meet the new Pixel 10 Series.” The Pixel 10 Pro XL, 10 Pro Fold, and 10 Pro seem to appear in the silver-blue “Moonstone” color, while the base Pixel 10 is shown in bright blue.

The designs — and colors — of the devices in the banner line up with the flood of leaks we’ve seen in recent weeks, including the teaser shared by Google itself. The banner also shows a promotion offering $50 off the devices that will remain in effect until October 13th.

Rumors suggest that Google is planning updates across the Pixel 10 lineup, including adding a third camera to the base Pixel 10, giving the Pixel 10 Pro a spec bump, and dustproofing its Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Google is set to launch its Pixel 10 lineup during its Made by Google event on August 20th.

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Starlink-powered ‘T-Satellite’ service is now live on T-Mobile

T-Mobile’s satellite service is now available to people across the US — and not just T-Mobile customers. On Wednesday, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert announced that the Starlink-powered service is officially out of beta, though it only supports text messaging and location-sharing for now.

The new satellite coverage option is called “T-Satellite,” and it’s currently available as a standalone subscription. It’s being offered at $10 per month for a “limited time,” before increasing to $15 per month. It also comes included for customers on the carrier’s $100 per month Experience Beyond or older Go5G plans.

Your device will automatically connect to T-Satellite if you’re in an area with no cellular coverage. As long as there isn’t a heavy amount of cloud coverage or trees blocking your view of the sky, you should be able to send and receive text messages, including to 911, as well as share a link that temporarily tracks your location. T-Mobile’s support page says the ability to send pictures is available on “most” Android phones, and the company plans on adding support for more devices soon.

T-Mobile is also aiming to enable voice messages and will eventually allow devices to connect to “satellite-optimized” apps, which it previously said could include AllTrails, Accuweather, and WhatsApp. The more than 650 Starlink satellites used by T-Mobile cover the continental US, Hawaii, parts of southern Alaska, and Puerto Rico. The carrier says it’s working on offering satellite connectivity while abroad and in international waters as well.

Apple currently offers the ability to send texts and emergency messages from the iPhone 14 and later for free, but it plans to eventually charge for it (there still aren’t any details on price). Google also added a satellite SOS feature to the Pixel 9 that’s free to use for two years after activation. While signing up for satellite service through T-Mobile may seem redundant, the carrier offers support for more phones, and also plans on adding new capabilities like picture and voice messaging.

In order to use T-Satellite, you’ll need to have an unlocked device with support for eSIMs and satellite connectivity. Right now, more than 60 different phones can use T-Satellite, including the iPhone 13 and up, Google Pixel 9, and the Samsung Galaxy 21 and newer. You can view the full list of eligible devices on T-Mobile’s website.

Verizon launched its free satellite messaging service with Skylo earlier this year, but unlike with T-Satellite, the service is only available to Verizon customers who have newer devices like the Samsung Galaxy S25 and Google Pixel 9. AT&T is also partnering with AST SpaceMobile to launch satellite texting and voice capabilities.

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The tech that the US Post Office gave us

A photo showing people sorting mail

When you crack open your mailbox, it's almost as if your letters just appear. Long before the days of speedy, overnight mail deliveries, postal service workers meticulously sorted through letters by hand and transported mail on horseback. For more than 250 years, the US Postal Service has worked behind the scenes to build a faster delivery network, and this mission has quietly pushed it to the forefront of technology.

"Most people treat the Postal Service like a black box," USPS spokesperson Jim McKean tells The Verge. "You take your letter, you put it in a mailbox, and then it shows up somewhere in a couple of days. The truth is that that …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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TikTok is putting the spotlight on songwriters

TikTok will now let songwriters highlight tracks they’ve written or co-written directly on their profiles. The list of songs will live within the “Music” tab on their profile, similar to the one TikTok already offers for artists on the platform. Users who register as songwriters will also get a “Songwriter” label beneath their account name.

These new features build upon some of TikTok’s existing tools for songwriters, including the “New” tag that appears on newly released music and the ability for users to save a song on a music streaming service. TikTok also rolled out a “BehindTheSong” hub in 2023, where songwriters, artists, and producers can share more about the making of their music, in addition to the more recently launched “Off the Record” series with artists like Shakira, Charli XCX, and Meghan Trainor.

Music is a huge part of TikTok, with the platform helping boost the popularity of songs and even drive TikTokers to stardom. It has also worked with artists like Taylor Swift to build hubs to promote their music, and added the ability for users to save songs to their SoundCloud accounts in May. In 2023, it launched a standalone music streaming app, but shut it down in 2024

For now, TikTok is launching its new songwriter features in a closed beta with a “limited number” of publisher partners. Songwriters and publishers can sign up for a waitlist to gain access to these features in the future.

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Applebee’s and IHOP have plans for AI

Applebee’s and IHOP plan to launch an AI-powered “personalization engine” that could help its restaurants provide recommendations and customized deals, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The personalization engine would use a customer’s past purchases — or the orders of customers similar to them — to make recommendations.

Justin Skelton, the chief information officer at the restaurants’ parent company, Dine Brands, tells the Journal that an AI-powered personalization system would be designed to boost customer loyalty, as well as serve as a way to upsell products. As noted by the Journal, IHOP already has some information about its customers’ ordering habits through its rewards program.

Instead of chasing viral trends like Chili’s, other restaurant franchises have hopped on the AI bandwagon as well, with Wendy’s deploying an AI chatbot at its drive-thrus that can take orders and even upsell menu items. McDonald’s also recently resumed plans to put AI at the drive-thru and inside its restaurants, while Taco Bell revealed plans to put “Voice AI” technology at more than 100 of its drive-thrus across the US.

As noted by the Journal, Dine Brands is considering rolling out AI tools designed for staff members as well. Along with exploring the use of AI-powered cameras to detect when a table needs cleaning, it’s also testing an AI app for managers.

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Tesla’s first robotaxi rides will have a ‘safety monitor’ in the passenger seat

Tesla has begun sending out invitations for its highly anticipated robotaxi service, but there’s one significant caveat: it’s installing a “safety monitor” in the front passenger seat, as previously reported by Electrek. The invites, which were sent to Tesla influencers and investors, say the human monitor will “accompany you on your trip” when rides begin on June 22nd — a move that’s at odds with Elon Musk’s promise of fully unsupervised rides.

Details about Tesla’s robotaxi service have been slim in the weeks leading up to its launch, but Musk said in January that the company would launch its “unsupervised” robotaxi service with “no one in the car” this summer. Musk expanded on this in an April earnings call, saying the 10 to 20 Model Y vehicles would be remotely operated in the event of an emergency.

Tesla’s invitation outlines some requirements for robotaxi rides, including that riders must request service between 6AM and 12AM within a geofenced area, “excluding airports.” It adds that “service may be limited or unavailable in inclement weather,” which is often a challenge for autonomous vehicles. Invitees can bring one additional guest 18 or older.

Over the past couple of months, Tesla has faced pressure from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has asked the EV-maker for more information about “the ability of Tesla’s system to react appropriately to reduced roadway visibility conditions.” Texas lawmakers have requested that Tesla delay its robotaxi launch until a revision to the state’s autonomous driving law takes effect in September. It will require robotaxi services to get authorization from the Department of Motor Vehicles before operating without a human driver.

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Midjourney launches an AI video generator

Midjourney has released the first version of its video generation model to the public. For now, the tool can generate short videos based on images uploaded or created on the platform, but Midjourney plans on rolling out more capabilities in the future.

After creating an image using Midjourney, the service will show a new “animate” button that users can press to create a 5-second clip based on a text prompt. It will also show the option to add an image you uploaded to the platform as a “starting frame” for a video. The tool will generate a generic prompt that “just makes things move” by default, but a “manual” button lets users describe how they want the motion to look. 

Users can extend an animation by four seconds up to four times, making for a 21-second-long video in total. There are also high and low motion settings that control whether both the subject and camera move, or just the subject.

Midjourney’s AI video generator is currently only available on the web and through the startup’s Discord server. It requires a subscription to the service, which starts at $10 / month for 3.3 hours of “fast” GPU time (around 200 image generations). The startup says it will charge “about 8x more for a video job than an image job,” adding up to around “‘one image worth of cost’ per second of video.”

Midjourney is currently the subject of a lawsuit from Disney and Universal, which cited the prospect of it launching a video generator as a special point of concern. It contends Midjourney offers a “virtual vending machine, generating endless unauthorized copies of Disney’s and Universal’s copyrighted work.” The in-progress video generation model was first announced in January, and Disney and Universal argued that its training process meant “Midjourney is very likely already infringing Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works.”

In a post announcing the generator, Midjourney founder David Holz says this first version is just “a stepping stone” as the startup works toward creating “models capable of real-time open-world simulations.” Google, OpenAI, and Meta have also launched AI video generators, all of which can generate videos with text prompts.

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Android 16 is here, but its big redesign isn’t ready

Google rolled out a bunch of new features with Android 16 on Tuesday, but the company appears to be saving its big Material 3 Expressive redesign for a future update. The update doesn’t feature the design language’s revamped elements, and a source tells Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman that Google is planning to launch the new look on September 3rd, 2025, instead.

With Android 16, Google is starting to roll out support for Live Updates with progress-centric notifications and enhanced settings for users with hearing aids. The updates are coming to Pixel devices first, but according to Google, Android users will have to wait for another update to see Live Updates “fully realized.”

Google officially took the wraps off Material 3 Expressive following a leak last month, which features updates to icon shapes, type styles, and color palettes with “more natural, springy animations” across the Android interface. You can still check out some Material 3 Expressive updates in the Android 16 QPR1 beta that’s available now, but Rahman notes that Google plans on launching more design updates in the next Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2.

Google is expected to include Android’s desktop mode in a September launch as well. The new mode, which builds on Samsung’s DeX platform, optimizes apps and content for large-screen devices. It will allow you to resize multiple app windows across your screens, as well as connect phones and tablets to external displays for a desktop-like experience. Users with a Pixel 8 and up can try out these features in the Android 16 beta, but the rest of us will likely have to wait a few more months.

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Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune are headed to streaming

An image showing Ken Jennings hosting Jeopardy!

Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune are coming to streaming for the first time. The two game shows will arrive on Hulu and Peacock in September, according to a report from The New York Times.

Under the multi-year deal, new episodes of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune will appear on both streaming services one day after they air on linear TV. The agreement will include older episodes of each show, too.

For decades, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune have been staples on linear TV, and their expansion to Peacock and Hulu is part of a broader pattern that’s bringing key series, like WWE’s Monday Night Raw, to streaming.

As pointed out by The Hollywood Reporter, this streaming deal isn’t directly connected to the legal battle involving Sony — the producer of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! — and its distributor, CBS. 

Last year, Sony sued CBS over claims it breached their agreement by not doing enough to boost revenue from licensing the shows. A judge granted Sony the rights to distribute Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! in April, but an appellate court ruled last week that CBS can keep distributing the shows during the legal battle.

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Google’s NotebookLM now lets you share your notebook — and AI podcasts — publicly

Google’s AI-powered notetaking app, NotebookLM, now lets you share your notebooks with classmates, coworkers, or students using a public link. Though viewers can’t edit what’s in your notebook, they can still use it to ask questions and interact with AI-generated content like audio overviews, briefings, and FAQs.

First launched as an experiment in 2023, NotebookLM has become a breakout hit for Google. The app is designed to help you understand material from a variety of sources, such as notes, documents, presentation slides, and even YouTube videos. It can provide AI-generated summaries of the content, generate AI podcast-style discussions, “chat” with you about the material, and more. Google launched a mobile NotebookLM app last month.

The steps to making your notebook available publicly are pretty similar to the way you share something in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. You just select the Share button in the top-right corner of the notebook, and then change the access to “Anyone with a link.” From there, hit the “Copy link” button and then paste the notebook link into a text, email, or even on social media if you want more people to interact with the information.

Google also lets you share your notebooks with others by entering their email address. Unlike with public link-sharing, you can give individual users the ability to edit your notebook. You can share audio overviews from within the Gemini app as well.

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T-Mobile launches fiber internet service in the US with a five-year price lock

T-Mobile is bringing its fiber internet service to more than 500,000 households throughout the US. In an update on Tuesday, T-Mobile revealed three new plans that offer customers symmetrical speeds of up to 2 Gigs.

In addition to a five-year price lock, the new plans come with a $5 autopay discount, but only if you pay with a debit card or bank account. Here’s a list of the plans, which will be available starting June 5th:

  • Fiber 500 (500 Mbps): $80 / month ($75 with autopay)
  • Fiber 1 Gig (1 Gbps): $95 / month ($90 with autopay)
  • Fiber 2 Gig (2 Gbps): $110 / month ($105 with autopay)

T-Mobile’s big fiber expansion comes just months after it closed its joint venture deal with the fiber internet provider Lumos — a move the Federal Communications Commission only approved after the carrier made changes to its stance on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

T-Mobile’s fiber internet service was previously only available in a limited number of locations. But now it’s building out its network through its deal with Lumos and its pending acquisition of the fiber provider Metronet. T-Mobile says it expects to reach 12 to 15 million households or more by the end of 2030, allowing it to compete with rivals like AT&T and Verizon that have invested billions into fiber. Last month, the FCC approved Verizon’s $20 billion acquisition of Frontier after it “committed to ending DEI.”

T-Mobile will also provide discounts for customers who have phone lines with the service. It’s offering a $75 / month ($70 with autopay) Fiber Founders Club plan as well, which comes with a 10-year price lock but is only “available in select locations for a limited time.”

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Gemini in Chrome feels like a small step toward Google’s agentic era

Gemini will automatically surface recommended prompts when you select it.

I spent my morning with Gemini in Chrome, the new integration that puts the AI-powered assistant right in your browser. Instead of going to the chatbot's web app, you can click the new Gemini button in Chrome's top-right corner to start a conversation - but the key difference is that the browser's built-in assistant can "see" what's on your screen while you navigate the web.

To me, Gemini's integration in Chrome seems like just the start of Google's mission to make its AI more "agentic," as I found myself wanting it to do more than it actually could. For now, you can only try out the early access version of Gemini in Chrome if you're an AI Pro or AI Ultra subscriber, and use either the Beta, Dev, or Canary version of Chrome.

I started out by using Gemini to summarize some of the articles on The Verge, as well as even find some gaming-related news on the homepage, where it pointed out the new Game Boy games Nintendo added to its Switch Online service, the upcoming Elden Ring film adaptation, and Valve's massive Steam Deck update.

But Gemini can only "see" what's on your screen, so I found that if you want it to summarize certain elements, like The Verge's comments section, you'l …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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News publishers call Google’s AI Mode ‘theft’

The trade association backing some of the biggest news publishers in the US slammed Google’s newly expanded AI Mode, which trades traditional search results for an AI chatbot-like interface. In a statement on Wednesday, the News/Media Alliance said the new feature is “depriving” publishers of both traffic and revenue.

During Google I/O on Tuesday, the company announced that it’s expanding AI Mode to all users in the US, which appears in a new tab directly within Search. When users enter a query, AI Mode serves up an AI-generated response alongside a list of relevant links. 

“Links were the last redeeming quality of search that gave publishers traffic and revenue,” Danielle Coffey, the CEO and president of News/Media Alliance, said in the statement. “Now Google just takes content by force and uses it with no return, the definition of theft. The DOJ remedies must address this to prevent continued domination of the internet by one company.”

This week, an internal document disclosed as part of Google’s antitrust trial over its search dominance showed that the company decided against asking publishers for permission to have their work included in its AI search features, as reported by Bloomberg. Instead, publishers must opt out of search results completely if they don’t want their work included in AI features. 

Google Search head Liz Reid said during her testimony that allowing publishers to opt out of individual features would add “enormous complexity,” according to Bloomberg. “By saying a publisher could be like, ‘I want to be in this feature but not that feature,’ it doesn’t work,” Reid said. “Because then we would essentially have to say, every single feature on the page needs a different model.”

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Epic’s Mega sale has big discounts on games like GTA V, Red Dead Redemption, and Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077.

It’s a great time to catch up on some big games you might’ve missed out on recently. Epic Games is holding a Mega Sale that includes big discounts on a ton of PC games, including Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced, which is on sale for $14.99 instead of $29.99, and The Last of Us Part 1, which costs $29.99 instead of $59.99.

Here are some other highlights from the sale:

If you don’t know which games you want to get yet, you have some time to decide. The Mega Sale runs from May 15th to June 12th at 11AM ET. Dead Island 2 and Happy Game are also available for free until May 22nd.

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FCC approves Verizon’s $20 billion merger after it commits to ‘ending’ DEI

Verizon’s $20 billion deal to acquire the fiber internet provider Frontier is officially happening. On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission signed off on the merger, which will allow Verizon to “upgrade and expand” Frontier’s existing fiber networks.

Verizon expects to bring fiber to 1 million homes each year following the acquisition. The deal went through after Verizon “committed to ending DEI-related practices,” according to a statement by FCC Chair Brendan Carr.

The Intercept reports that in a May 15th letter to Carr, Verizon’s chief legal officer, Vandana Venkatesh, outlined what it’s walking away from. Because “Verizon recognizes that some DEI policies and practices could be associated with discrimination,” it will no longer have any HR roles or teams focused on DEI, remove references to the term from employee training materials, as well as goals for diversity in its supplies, representation of women and minorities in its workforce. In the letter, Venkatesh says that now Verizon’s public messaging is going to “remove references to ‘DEI’ or ‘diversity, equity and inclusion.’”

When Verizon’s consumer chief, Sowmyanarayan Sampath, appeared on Decoder last month, we asked him about whether it would fight the FCC imposing regulatory requirements against its diversity initiatives with a decade’s worth of lawsuits, the same way it fought net neutrality. It didn’t.

Earlier this year, Carr criticized Verizon’s “lack of progress” on getting rid of policies related to DEI — or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — and suggested that the agency won’t approve deals if companies keep these policies in place. T-Mobile similarly closed its acquisition of the fiber provider Lumos after tweaking mentions of DEI on its website.

Through the merger, Verizon will also be able to claw back some of its fiber business after it sold parts of its wireline operations, including Fios fiber internet connections, to Frontier in 2015. Carr said the merger will allow fiber to come to more communities, including rural ones. BEAD, a Biden-era initiative, was supposed to pay fiber providers to bring high-speed internet to rural areas, but a report from The Washington Post suggests that the “money isn’t flowing.”

Update, May 16th: Added additional details from Verizon’s letter to the FCC and Decoder.

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Can Donald Trump really put a tariff on films?

After slamming everything from clothing to avocados with tariffs, now President Donald Trump has taken aim at films. "The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death," Trump proclaimed on Truth Social last week, while floating a 100 percent tariff on movies "produced in Foreign Lands."

The news stirred up confusion across Hollywood, as it would seemingly apply to a broad range of films, maybe even US films with scenes shot abroad. Though Trump has already begun to reel his original statement back in, as he told CNBC that he's "not looking to hurt the industry," it doesn't seem like he's given up on the idea completely. But like many of Trump's plans, he's relying on presidential powers that are stretched to a breaking point.

"A car has a value when it arrives at a US port that they can slap a tariff on," says Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University. "But because of the way the film industry works, it'd be much tougher to determine what proportion of the film you would actually apply a tariff to."

Trump's tariff plan appears to have spun out of a meeting with actor Jon Voight, a fervent Trump supporter who has been appointed a "special ambassado …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky sentenced to 12 years in prison

A photo of former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky

Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of the collapsed cryptocurrency lending firm Celsius, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud that led to “billions in losses,” the Department of Justice announced on Thursday.

Celsius, which held $25 billion in assets at its peak, abruptly halted withdrawals and transfers during a broader crypto crash in 2022, locking up billions in customer funds. The firm filed for bankruptcy just weeks later.

The DOJ charged Mashinsky with securities fraud in 2023, accusing him of misrepresenting Celsius’s business and finances. It also claimed Mashinsky artificially inflated the price of the platform’s token, CEL, by “spending hundreds of millions purchasing it on the open market.” Mashinsky pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud and one count of commodities fraud last December.

Mashinsky’s arrest comes as the Trump administration takes a softer stance on crypto regulation. Last month, a memo obtained by The Washington Post revealed the disbandment of a DOJ division dedicated to investigating crypto firms. The Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped several cases against companies in crypto, including Coinbase, Kraken, and Robinhood.

“Alexander Mashinsky targeted retail investors with promises that he would keep their ‘digital assets’ safer than a bank, when in fact he used those assets to place risky bets and to line his own pockets,” US Attorney Jay Clayton said in the press release. “In the end, Mashinsky made tens of millions of dollars while his customers lost billions.”

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The US is reportedly encouraging countries to adopt Musk’s Starlink in tariff trade talks

The US government is bringing up Starlink adoption in the midst of tariff trade talks with other countries, according to a report from The Washington Post. In recent weeks, several countries have moved forward with licensing the Elon Musk-owned satellite internet company, including India, Somalia, Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam.

Internal messages seen by The Post suggest that US embassies and the State Department are encouraging countries to make way for US satellite internet services like Starlink. The messages don’t promise lower tariffs in exchange for adopting Starlink, but “they do indicate that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has increasingly instructed officials to push for regulatory approvals for Musk’s satellite firm,” The Post reports.

Sources tell The Post that government officials in India rushed to secure regulatory approval for Starlink “with the understanding that doing so could help them cement trade deals with the administration.” This week, India cleared Starlink’s proposal, bringing it another step closer to establishing its service in the country.

In a statement to The Post, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said “the only consideration in the Trump administration’s trade negotiations with other countries is what’s best for the American people — which includes American companies succeeding at home and abroad” and that President Donald Trump “will not tolerate any conflicts of interest.” The State Department told the outlet that “any patriotic American should want to see an American company’s success on the global stage, especially over compromised Chinese competitors.” SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment. 

In response to an earlier Washington Post article on the rapid global expansion of Starlink, several Senate Democrats called on President Donald Trump to investigate reports that Musk “used his government role to improperly advance his personal businesses abroad.”

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DOJ and FTC invite the public to complain about Ticketmaster

If you’ve been harboring complaints about Ticketmaster, now’s the time to let it all out. The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are inviting the public to submit comments about harmful practices in live ticketing as part of efforts to “identify unfair and anticompetitive” behavior in the industry.

In March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to address unfair practices in the ticketing industry, such as scalpers using bots to buy up massive amounts of tickets. He directed the FTC and DOJ to enforce competition laws, as well as file a report about their progress within six months. The agencies plan to use the public comments to inform their recommendations.

Ticketmaster has been under closer regulatory scrutiny after its site crashed when Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour tickets went on sale in November 2022, sparking outrage among fans and even Swift herself. The DOJ filed an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company, LiveNation, last year, claiming their illegal monopoly results in higher ticket prices for consumers.

You can submit your comments about the live ticketing industry on the Regulations.gov website from now until July 7th.

“We will continue to closely examine this market and look for opportunities where vigorous enforcement of the antitrust laws can lead to increased competition that makes tickets more affordable for fans while offering fairer compensation for artists,” Abigail Slater, the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s antitrust division, said in the press release.

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