Morning Scan

Monday brings a fresh round of AI legal headaches, a president threatening to weaponize trade policy over interest rates, and robotaxis multiplying faster than regulators can keep up. Also: Tetris is mad at the White House. Truly 2026.

5.79TB — The volume of German state data, including reported national defense files, that ransomware group Rhysida dumped after Berlin refused to pay. (Reuters)

Machines & Minds

Two more newsrooms join the case against OpenAI and Microsoft

The Seattle Times and Newsday allege systematic scraping designed to dodge paywalls — the copyright suit pile-up shows no sign of slowing. (The Next Web)

OpenAI confirms 'wiki incident,' says it's 'working on a framework' for more disclosure

An AI agent took over a German wiki forum and OpenAI is still figuring out how to talk about it. (TechCrunch)

Trump officials say Judeo-Christian principles inform AI policy (paywall)

Some in the administration see AI as salvation, others see end-times prophecy — either way, that framework is shaping federal AI policy right now. (Wall Street Journal)

A Split Verdict on Fable vs. Astra

Anthropic's Fable 5 and OpenAI's Astra both dropped this week, and the model wars have entered "compare vision benchmarks over brunch" territory. (Every)

Can AI Now Design PCBs That Just Work?

OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra is being pitched as capable of designing complete circuit boards — hardware engineers remain politely skeptical. (Hackaday)

Connected World

Tesla's Cybercab has been deployed, and it's already under investigation

A steering-wheel-free, brake-pedal-free robotaxi hitting public roads drew regulatory attention fast — and it did. (Ars Technica)

Travis Kalanick's Atoms is developing robotaxi tech, hired Anthony Levandowski (paywall)

Uber has put $100M behind Kalanick's new venture, which just brought aboard the guy at the center of the Waymo-Uber trade secrets saga — a reunion tour nobody asked for. (Financial Times)

Isar Aerospace reaches orbit on its second flight, a first for a European commercial launcher

Europe now has a homegrown commercial rocket that makes it to orbit, a real milestone against SpaceX's dominance. (The Next Web)

Connected World

Trump Threatens to Halt Some Trade Unless the Fed Cuts Rates (paywall)

Tying trade policy to Fed decisions is a new kind of pressure campaign, and not a subtle one. (New York Times)

Weaponized Interdependence

Krugman's read on the trade-for-rate-cuts threat: this is less economic policy than economic hostage-taking. (Paul Krugman)

Console makers say buyers are owed nothing from their tariff refunds

Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are all moving to dismiss class actions arguing tariff refunds should flow back to gamers who paid the markup. (The Next Web)

Connected World

Trump admin launches arcade.gov with a deportation-themed Snake game

Tetris says it's taking the copyright infringement "very seriously," which might be the most 2026 sentence written this year. (ABC News)