AT&T sued California yesterday over the state’s refusal to let the carrier stop providing phone service to all potential customers in its wireline network territory. AT&T is also asking the Federal Communications Commission to declare that California cannot enforce its rules and to let AT&T stop providing service to about 199,000 phone customers.

“California requires AT&T to spend $1 billion each year to maintain a century-old telephone network that almost no one uses,” AT&T said in a lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Southern District of California. “The copper wires that once served every home now serve just three percent of households in AT&T’s California territory, with consumers fleeing every day to modern broadband services that are more affordable, reliable, and energy-efficient.”

In June 2024, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) rejected AT&T’s request to eliminate the Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) obligation that requires it to provide landline telephone service to any potential customer in its service territory. AT&T has said it’s received relief from COLR obligations in 20 of the 21 states in its wireline service territory, all except California.

Pontiff calls for ‘disarming’ of artificial intelligence and apologises for church’s delay in condemning slavery.

Pope Leo issued a sweeping declaration Monday on the risks of artificial intelligence in the form of a papal encyclical that runs more than 42,000 words. Leo presented it alongside Christopher Olah, a co-founder of the AI company Anthropic.

The encyclical calls for government regulation, retraining for workers, better education for students, protections for children and safeguards to ensure that humans — and not AI models — will make decisions on the use of weapons.

As Americans stew over the looming risk of job-stealing AI and data centers in their back yards, the feds are raising the alarm about a new category of threat, documents obtained by WIRED show.

In the wake of attacks on CEOs, a nationwide protest movement targeting data centers, and increasing concerns about AI job replacement, federal intelligence agencies and domestic law enforcement are circulating reports with a new domestic target in mind: anti-technology extremists.

More than 1,000 pages of unpublished reports from the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and fusion centers obtained by WIRED show a national shift taking place to surveil this new and worryingly broad category of people and activities deemed an emerging threat.

New data show bipartisan opposition to government leaning on TV networks and universities.

When CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert broadcasted its last episode, it completed a pattern that has become distressingly familiar: an institution under government regulatory pressure publicly folds, offering financial cover for what most observers call a political decision.

What’s missing from that pattern? Any evidence the public wanted this outcome. In fact, the evidence shows the opposite.

Over the past few years, leaders in the federal and many state governments have called on late night hosts like Colbert and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel to be fired, namely for their jokes about President Trump. President Trump advised CBS that Colbert should be “put to sleep” and called on ABC to fire Kimmel. CBS’s canceling of The Late Show came days after Colbert joked about Paramount’s $16 million lawsuit settlement with Trump and was reported to be related to the proposed merger of its parent company, Paramount, with Skydance Media.

New data from a national sample of Americans collected by Wisconsin Communication Elections Study, conducted by the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal that I direct, reveals what the public thinks.

Join us for our very first episode of Unbuffered Live! Host Christopher Mitchell will be joined by guests Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting), Heather Mills (ITG) and Draw Garner (Benton Institute for Broadband and Society) to talk about the intersections of tech, Internet access, and policy.

BEAD delays, LEO satellites, permitting, affordability, and why mobile networks may be getting worse.

They begin with a discussion about Amazon’s Leo service, efforts to preempt local government “to encourage more investments in Internet access,” and the realities of mobile wireless performance after Chris spent weeks traveling around the country.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Leo XIV took direct aim at the power of Big Tech in his first encyclical on Monday (May 25), warning that artificial intelligence risks widening inequality, weakening democracy and undermining what it means to be human.

The document, titled "Magnifica Humanitas" (Magnificent Humanity), frames AI as the new industrial revolution and makes an appeal to "disarm AI" by removing it from military and economic interests, subjecting AI companies to stricter state and international regulations and inviting the broad participation of individuals and communities in shaping the future of this rapidly developing technology.

"Magnifica Humanitas" tackles the social, economic, ecological and political challenges associated with artificial intelligence.

Big business lost this fight, and a battle over railway safety and labor conditions. It's a shocking moment, as Wall Street titans start to see their power ebb in the waning days of the Trump era.

Lots of really interesting things happened this week, which I’ll put in the news round-up. There might actually be an end to the Iran conflict, the Trump White House worked with House Democrats to impose safety rules on railroads, and NextEra and Dominion Energy proposed the biggest utility merger of all time.

Before getting to all of that, I want to highlight something incredible that just happened. Based on a vote this week, it seems very likely Congress will ban corporate ownership of most existing single family homes. “People live in homes,” said Trump in January. “Not corporations.” While Trump has sometimes talked a big game on constraining Wall Street, he generally hasn’t followed through. In this case, though, he did. And somehow, a very corporate-friendly legislature came through as well.

It’s almost impossible to believe, but here’s the relevant provision in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act that passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, by a 396–13 margin.

You might not know his name, but you’ll certainly hate what he’s trying to do to our country.

So there’s this guy, Randy Barnett. He teaches at the Georgetown Law School. He is, in fact, the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at the Georgetown Law School. And he fancies himself a wit, but as the late Christopher Hitchens once put it in another context, he’s only half right.

The professor posted the following Xwitter witticism in the wake of the shooting Saturday night.

If Obama had a son, he’d attack the White House Correspondents Dinner like Cole Allen.

Ho, ho, ho.

This was playing off something the former president—note to professor Barnett, he still gets to use the title, dude—said in the wake of the killing of Trayvon Martin, which happened in February 2012. (Evidently, it took professor Barnett 14 years to think this one up.) President Obama mused that, if he had a son, the son might have ended up like Trayvon Martin, which sent the Obama crazies into orbit. Professor Barnett apparently never came down. He stayed up there, like Vanguard 1, still circling since 1958. And get used to professor Barnett. He’s the brains behind the administration’s attempt to prove that the 14th Amendment doesn’t say what it clearly says. From Above the Law:

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Friday that no new tariffs are planned on foreign semiconductors, while underscoring the need to protect the domestic industry as part of broader efforts to bolster American manufacturing.

Greer made the remarks at an event celebrating the expansion of a Micron Technology facility located in the District of Columbia suburbs, stressing the administration’s commitment to reshore key technology production.

TAIPEI, May 23 (Reuters) - Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Saturday that his forecast of a $200 billion market for CPUs includes China, signalling Nvidia still sees significant long-term demand in the market ‌amid ongoing U.S.-China technology tensions.

Central processing units have taken centre stage as companies and businesses gravitate towards agentic ​AI - systems that perform autonomous functions - broadening demand beyond graphics processing units, or GPUs, that are used to train large models.

Wisconsin’s Governor Tony Evers announced Tuesday that the state will invest an additional $60 million to “expand access to high-speed internet in unserved communities through the State Broadband Expansion Grant Program.”

The state’s press release said that the funding is primarily needed to ‘close gaps’ and deliver service to locations ‘not served’ by BEAD. Citing the SBO, the release goes on to directly point the finger at BEAD and the changes to the program that occurred with BOB…“at least 30,000 locations in Wisconsin would remain unserved” and are left in need of state funding. 

Not surprisingly, the NTIA fired back with a statement:

BusPatrol plans to scan the license plates of all vehicles the buses drive past, and then let law enforcement search that data. The plan would essentially turn school buses into roaming surveillance vehicles.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada's largest utility says it will need three times the electricity required to power Las Vegas just to handle proposed data centers — and it probably can't do that without fossil fuels.

That means the utility could miss Nevada's clean energy targets requiring 50% renewable power by 2030.

"I can't remember a time in the history of the industry where we've seen as much interest in adding load, which is primarily driven by data centers," said Shawn Elicegui, senior vice president of regulatory and resource planning for NV Energy, which provides electricity to 90% of the state.

The Trump Mobile T1 Phone was touted as a ‘Made in the USA’ telecom disruptor, but those claims started to shift after more than half a million people paid $100 deposit to buy one.

For The National, CBC’s Eli Glasner breaks down the phone saga and how it fits into a larger pattern of Donald Trump profiting off his presidency.

The National is the flagship of CBC News, showcasing award-winning journalism from across Canada and around the world. Led by Chief Correspondent Adrienne Arsenault, our team of trusted reporters helps you make sense of the world, wherever you are.

Interactive map of major AI data centers across the United States — operational and under construction. Learn about energy use, water consumption, e-waste, and report concerns in your community.

"The RACE to build AI infrastructures is unfolding town by town across America. In some places, data centers are welcomed. In others, they are delayed, contested or abandoned altogether. This MAP captures the real-world footprint of that race — revealing patterns of growth, conflict and uncertainty.

I am watching as YOU, the communities show up and speak out. In the famous words of Mark Twain … “The secret of getting ahead is getting started,” so let’s go!

— Erin"

Minnesota Star Tribune columnist compares growth of AI and data centers with expansion of broadband in 2000. He starts with the history…

Everyone in business these days seems to be searching for a tale from history to meaningfully describe the growing importance of AI. I personally think it will transform the way people work with their digital devices and information. But we’re at a very confusing time in its development.

So the tale in history I’m going to invoke comes from the late 1990s and early 2000s: the time when the internet was in its hockey-stick period of fast adoption.

The buildout of the commercial internet had enormous effects on company valuations, but also on the nation’s physical environment, just as AI now does. Many people have forgotten how much the nation was ripped up to build what was initially called an “information superhighway” but eventually became known as the broadband network.

Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence, will be released on May 25. A presentation event with the Pope and various speakers is scheduled for the same day at the Vatican.

It bears the Pope’s signature dated May 15th, 135th anniversary of the publication of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum novarum.

Magnifica humanitas will be presented on the day of its release at 11:30 a.m. at the Vatican’s Synod Hall.

We speak with journalist Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI, about the Trump administration’s alliance with tech billionaires, efforts to regulate artificial intelligence technology, and rising local opposition to data centers across the United States.

“In 2025, these data center protests successfully stalled over $100 billion worth of these facilities,” says Hao. “It really does cut across political lines.”

Hao recently launched The AI Resist List with a group of fellow journalists, researchers and technologists. It’s a collaborative project to track and reshape how artificial intelligence is deployed around the world.

• FCC approval exempts Nokia’s Beacons and Optical Network Terminal (ONT) Beacons including future variants, from Covered List restrictions.·      
• Nokia commits to manufacturing its next-generation Wi-Fi 8 gateways in the United States.·      
• Conditional approval and manufacturing commitment supports uninterrupted deployment

Dallas, Texas – Nokia today announced that its Beacons and ONT devices have received conditional approval from the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, formally exempting these platforms, including future variants, from the FCC Covered List of restrictions on foreign-made consumer Wi-Fi routers. Nokia’s Beacons and ONT Beacons are deployed by service providers across North America to deliver high-performance broadband to millions of subscribers. The approval allows operators to continue deploying without disruption, maintain rollout momentum, and invest with confidence in their broadband networks.