Senators grill Waymo and Tesla over robotaxi safety, liability, and China

During a two-hour hearing in the US Senate Wednesday, top executives from Waymo and Tesla urged lawmakers to take action on long-stalled legislation to speed the deployment of self-driving cars on public roads. But after two hours of Q&A around a number of hot-button topics, including robotaxi safety, legal liability, remote operation, and China, it … Read more

This Town, 2.0

The US Capitol is seen ahead of a possible government shutdown in Washington, DC, January 29, 2026. | AFP via Getty Images Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about the most ambitious crossover event of all time: the infinity war between technology and politics. Not subscribed yet? Come on, do it! … Read more

Ikea’s cheap new smart home gear is struggling to get connected

Some users are having trouble onboarding Ikea’s new Matter-compatible smart home products. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying – and mostly failing – to test Ikea’s new Matter-over-Thread gear. These highly anticipated smart home devices include programmable buttons, smart bulbs, plugs, and temperature and … Read more

OpenClaw’s AI ‘skill’ extensions are a security nightmare

OpenClaw, the AI agent that has exploded in popularity over the past week, is raising new security concerns after researchers uncovered malware in hundreds of user-submitted “skill” add-ons on its marketplace. In a post on Monday, 1Password product VP Jason Meller says OpenClaw’s skill hub has become “an attack surface,” with the most-downloaded add-on serving … Read more

I was detained by federal agents in Minneapolis

In late 2025, the Department of Homeland Security zeroed in on the Twin Cities in Minnesota, supposedly in response to fraud allegations made by a right-wing influencer. In the months since, thousands of immigrants have been swept up by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. In January alone, two American citizens were killed while documenting ICE operations … Read more

Google Cloud’s customer chief returns to Microsoft as head of security

Microsoft has a new head of security. Hayete Gallot, who left Microsoft in October 2024 to become the president of Google Cloud’s customer experience, is returning to the software giant as the executive vice president of security, reporting directly to CEO Satya Nadella. The move means Charlie Bell, formerly Microsoft’s security chief, is taking on … Read more

GitHub adds Claude and Codex AI coding agents

GitHub is making Claude by Anthropic and OpenAI’s Codex AI coding agents directly available inside GitHub today. A new public preview adds Claude and Codex to GitHub, GitHub Mobile, and Visual Studio Code, for users with a Copilot Pro Plus or Copilot Enterprise subscription. The move is part of Agent HQ, GitHub’s vision to make … Read more

‘Incognito’ operator sentenced to 30 years for running a dark web drug market

On Tuesday, Rui-Siang Lin was sentenced to 30 years in prison for running “Incognito Market,” a dark web platform that prosecutors say “sold more than $105 million of narcotics-including more than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine, over 1,000 kilograms of methamphetamines, hundreds of kilograms of other narcotics, and more than 4 kilograms of purported ‘oxycodone’,” between … Read more

The 14-inch, ARM-based Asus Vivobook is half off today

I’m typically reluctant to recommend budget-friendly laptops, particularly ones that run Windows, because they suck, more often than not. That’s beginning to change, thanks in part to last year’s introduction of the Snapdragon X-series processors that offer solid performance and good x86 and x64 app compatibility. If you’re in need of a compact 14-inch laptop … Read more

Spotify launches offline lyrics, translations, and lyric previews

On Wednesday, Spotify announced a few new lyrics features aiming to make it easier to understand and access song lyrics, including translations, previews, and offline lyrics. Lyric translations were originally introduced in 2022, but have only been available in specific markets so far. Now, they’re rolling out worldwide to both free and premium Spotify users, … Read more

Everyone is stealing TV

Walk the rows of the farmers market in a small, nondescript Texas town about an hour away from Austin, and you might stumble across something unexpected: In between booths selling fresh, local pickles and pies, there’s a table piled high with generic-looking streaming boxes, promising free access to NFL games, UFC fights, and any cable … Read more

Sen. Warren wants to know what Google Gemini’s built-in checkout means for user privacy

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is pressing Google for more information about its plans to build a checkout feature into its Gemini AI chatbot. In a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Warren expresses concerns that the integration could allow Google and retailers “to exploit sensitive user data” or “manipulate consumers into spending more and paying … Read more

Adobe actually won’t discontinue Animate

Adobe is no longer planning to discontinue Adobe Animate on March 1st. In an FAQ, the company now says that Animate will now be in maintenance mode and that it has “no plans to discontinue or remove access” to the app. Animate will still receive “ongoing security and bug fixes” and will still be available for … Read more

Republicans haul Netflix before Congress for being too ‘woke’

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos (L) and Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights | Getty Images Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos was launched into the middle of a congressional culture war on Tuesday as he testified before a Senate … Read more

Slopaganda goes West

After right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley‘s viral video alleging fraud at Minnesota daycares he said were operated by Somali residents, Donald Trump’s administration responded by flooding the state with federal immigration agents and freezing funding for childcare services. (A judge ruled that the federal government must continue funding childcare subsidies, at least temporarily.) Now Shirley is … Read more

Borderlands 4 for Switch 2 is on ‘pause’

Development on the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Borderlands 4 is on “pause,” according to a statement from a Take-Two spokesperson given to Variety. “We made the difficult decision to pause development on that SKU,” Take-Two spokesperson Alan Lewis said in the statement published by Variety. “Our focus continues to be delivering quality post-launch content … Read more