William Lawrence is a Democrat running to represent Michigan’s Lansing-area Seventh Congressional District with a campaign that largely focuses on data centers and affordability. It’s not an unusual story in 2026 — but not long ago, Lawrence was cutting his teeth in progressive politics as a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, primarily focused on organizing around the climate crisis.
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2026 midterms: Michigan Democratic candidate William Lawrence on data centers, climate, and more
His arc, from progressive activist to politician, is emblematic of a bigger trend, as a wave of millennial progressives in midterm races across the country try to lean into issues that have broader, more immediate appeal with voters.
But that arc also raises big questions about the left’s changing priorities. In a recent interview for Vox’s podcast and video series America, Actually, host Astead Herndon spoke with Lawrence about his past activism and how he has pivoted. “It can sometimes feel like…folks hop from issue to issue, whether it’s climate, even anti-AI right now, without those things being solved,” Herndon told Lawrence.
According to Lawrence, “that’s the reality of the time. It seems like everything is unraveling, and it is because the whole social, economic, political compact is being renegotiated, not just in this country, but on a global stage.” Still, Lawrence said, that earlier organizing shapes how he sees different challenges today.
The two also discussed whether opposition to data centers and AI has wide, regular-voter appeal in places like Michigan and how Lawrence went from hopeless and disengaged to regaining a sense of agency through organizing.
Below is an excerpt of the conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full show, so listen to America, Actually wherever you get your podcasts or watch it on Vox’s YouTube channel.
You started in Sunrise and were at the forefront of a young progressive movement that was aligned at that time — in 2018, 2019, and I think still — with progressive members of Congress like Rashida Tlaib or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
I remember reporting about Sunrise at the time. The goal was to elect a Bernie Sanders, but the other goal was to have the party largely embrace things like a Green New Deal. How would you grade the efforts of the climate movement of that time, looking back?
I think we did some things very well.
We put climate jobs and justice at the top of the agenda for the incoming Biden administration. I think the Bernie-Biden task force is an often overlooked but very important chapter of that whole story, where Bernie and Biden both understood they had to bring their people to the table.
And that’s how Build Back Better got negotiated. We fought hard for Build Back Better, and ultimately came up two votes shy in the United States Senate.
Do you see that as a success or a failure of the climate movement?
I think Build Back Better was a success in coming to the table and negotiating, from the Green New Deal to Build Back Better, and then what we ended up with was the Inflation Reduction Act after it passed the final filter, which was Sen. Joe Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. At the time, now, how I felt about it was, this is historic. This is the largest investment in green jobs and infrastructure in United States history. I know how hard it was to get here. I’m tremendously proud of the work that I did and so many others did.
Just in my district alone, we’ve delivered $26 billion in investment for manufacturing and sustainability because of the Inflation Reduction Act. But at the time, we knew that this is maybe 5 percent or 10 percent of what we need in scope. And now we’re experiencing the consequences of that.
Obviously, we still have a very volatile economy. We still lack energy security because we now have closed the Strait of Hormuz. We’re still too dependent on a global oil market, and we could use many more investments in solar and other kinds of renewable energy than we have now.
And ultimately, it wasn’t enough for the Biden-Harris administration to be able to win reelection, because people didn’t feel it enough in their pocketbooks.
Why do you think Democrats are talking less about climate?
I think it’s the intensity of the crises that we face. It feels like we’re falling through midair, after the end of all of the constitutional protections, the rule of law, and the economic security that people had previously enjoyed.
There are a lot of very acute and urgent crises, and I think that that has bumped climate, which is a super massive but also somewhat slow-moving crisis, a little bit lower on the priority list just in terms of what comes up for people on the Hill.
You went back to Michigan to focus on housing and advocacy. Did that make you think a little differently about the national work you were doing?
I think it’s fair to say that when I was younger, I got very focused on this climate issue, and I was very focused on it because it is this existential crisis we all face.
But it was after the pandemic that I wanted to bring my work closer to home. I wanted to do the work of putting down roots in the place that had raised me and make my life there. And in seeking to organize there, it was clear that we needed an in to organize that was more immediate.
“I believe in the agency of regular people taking charge of our own lives and working together to build a better future.”
More immediate than the Green New Deal.
Than the Green New Deal or than the looming climate crisis. People know that that’s an issue, but they’re like, “I’ve gotta pay rent at the end of the month.” And as an organizer, I believe that you have to listen to people, you have to hear what’s going on for them, and then work on issues that have the potential to bring people together.
Housing is one of those issues. Whether you’re in the city of Lansing, whether you’re in small towns, urban, rural, suburban, young or old, everybody can agree that the rent is too damn high and it’s too hard to buy a home anymore.
Were you surprised Trump won the state in 2024?
Because I saw it all unfold. We hoped to deliver more through the Biden-Harris administration than we ultimately did through Build Back Better. We didn’t deliver as much to relieve the economic anxiety that people were feeling. And then I do believe that the war and the genocide in Gaza and our blank check to allow that to happen with our money and our tax dollars destroyed the Democratic coalition that had been assembled from 2017 through 2020 for the purpose of beating Trump.
I just saw that unfolding over the course of the whole year, just like a slow-motion train wreck.
I want to ask locally, what do you think is most important in this race: housing, data centers, or pushing back against Donald Trump?
If I had to choose, I’d say data centers because that’s where people in the district are finding some common ground across the spectrum — in fighting back against the concentrated power in Silicon Valley, which has been fully enabled by [incumbent Rep.] Tom Barrett and Donald Trump.
So you’re saying that’s the issue that allows you to create cross-ideological coalitions?
Our last question is, just thinking through the scope of your career and the kind of progressive work: It can sometimes feel like folks hop from issue to issue, whether it’s climate, even anti-AI right now, without those things being solved, right?
Like, we still have a climate crisis. The rent is still too high. All of these things are still happening. How am I to trust that AI is the crisis of our time when I’ve heard so many crises of our time?
Some have called it a polycrisis — overlapping crises.
That’s the reality of the time. It seems like everything is unraveling, and it is because the whole social, economic, political compact is being renegotiated, not just in this country, but on a global stage. I don’t think it serves us to lie about that. I mean, here’s the reality, folks.
Everything is up in the air. Does it feel like you’re falling through midair? It’s because we are. All the old protections, all the old agreements have been chopped up. So we have got to come together. This is what I believe in more than anything, if there is a through line…I believe in the agency of regular people taking charge of our own lives and working together to build a better future.
That’s what I learned as an organizer, and that’s what gave me hope actually, at a time when I was doomer-ing in my younger years. And I told you, I wanted to just drop out of society and all that. It was seeing that regular people have come together before, and they’ve won a better future for their kids and grandkids, that gave me a path to follow in.
It does feel like a powerless time, I have to tell you. And a lot of this AI revolution, to your point about control or about agency. We’ve talked to so many people who just think that these things are happening to them, rather than feeling that they are participating in the changes afoot.
But you’re telling a kinda hopeful story.
I’m a hopeful guy. I was angry too, even when I got into this race. I was angry especially about the wars. But then in campaigning, I’ve met so many people across the district, old friends, new friends, and they give me a lot of hope because you just see the way that people are already performing miracles on a daily basis.
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Google’s $15bn AI datacentre project in Andhra Pradesh has state environmental clearance for 2.51GW of capacity, more than double the 1GW announced, according to clearance papers seen by the Guardian.
Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Aakash Hassan reported the story from Tarluvada, one of the villages where the project is being built. The Guardian said 2.51GW is roughly the output of two large nuclear reactors, and more than 30% of the state’s current yearly power use.
Google announced the Visakhapatnam AI hub in October 2025, with partners AdaniConneX and Airtel. In its reply to the Guardian, Google called it a gigawatt-scale hub, comparable to other projects.
The state gave the green light in nine days, with no public hearing, the Guardian reported. The Human Rights Forum has since filed three petitions at India’s National Green Tribunal, and a separate case is before the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
The project covers three sites around Visakhapatnam. One is a few metres from a reserve forest, a drinking water reservoir and a wildlife sanctuary.
In Tarluvada, 520 families recently had land taken back that the government had given them about 20 years ago, according to the Guardian. Villagers said security guards working for the Adani Group put up fences in April and blocked them from plots they had farmed for years.
Some of the 47 Dalit farmers who were paid for their land said they have not yet got the new plots and jobs they were promised. One farmer, P Venkat Rao, said he received $40,000 for his only acre but now has no livelihood.
“I am a farmer, without my land I am nothing,” Rao told the Guardian.
The state government said no land was taken by force and that those who qualified were paid well. The Adani Group said all legal approvals were in place.
Google said the site will be cooled by air, not water, so it will not affect local drinking water. It also said it expects no impact on the local community and will create thousands of jobs around Visakhapatnam.
Meanwhile, the state’s tax breaks and cheap land, power and water for Google are estimated to be worth 220bn rupees ($2.2bn) over 20 years, the Guardian reported.
The dispute mirrors datacentre protests in the US and elsewhere. The tribunal petitions have not yet been decided.
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Upgraded to an iPhone 18 Pro? Satechi’s Early Prime Day Sale Lops 50% Off Essential USB-C Cables
Save 50%: Satechi is offering a whopping 50% off some of its USB-C cables when you enter the discount code S3KZUUN3 at checkout. Whether you’ve just bought a shiny new iPhone 18 Pro, you’re waiting for the iPhone Duo to launch next month or you just need a new cable for your current phone, this is the early Prime Day deal for you.
Prefer to order your cables direct? The Satechi store is offering the same deals with the discount code IPHONE18CABLE. But no matter where you choose to order from, you’ll need to do it soon — this 50% off sale ends tonight.
Save 50% with code S3KZUUN3
Satechi USB-C cables
There are tons of cables for you to choose from, ranging from short ones to long ones, black ones to pink ones and everything in between. The company’s 240-watt USB-C cable comes in a funky purple, for example, and it’s yours for just $13, down from $25. It’s 3.3 feet long and braided for longevity and its anti-tangle properties.
If you want a cable that’s perfect for the road, Satechi’s OntheGo Lanyard Cable offers 60-watt charging in a 4.9-foot braided cord that doubles as a lanyard when attached to your iPhone. It normally sells for $30, but it’s just $15 right now, with three colors for you to choose from.
There are plenty more options in the sale, too. Take a look through the options, and we’re sure you’ll find the right cable for you and your phone.
Alternatives you might like
The USB-C cable market is full of options, but it’s always recommended to choose a cable from a company that you trust. Satechi definitely falls into that category, as does Anker — and you can snag two 6-foot cables for $10 at Amazon currently. They’re rated for 60 watts, which means they can charge your MacBook as well.
You won’t see the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro drop 40% very often, and right now they have.
That 40% cut brings the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro down to $149.99 from $249.99, a straight $100 saving on a pair of earbuds that could be a smarter buy for Android users than Apple’s new AirPods 5.
Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro drop to $149.99, save $100
Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro price falls to just $149.99, a genuine $100 discount on these flagship wireless earbuds.
At $149.99, the Buds3 Pro sit squarely in the price bracket most people compare when shortlisting the best wireless earbuds, a range usually reserved for older or entry-level models rather than a current flagship pair.
Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation powered by Galaxy AI is the headline feature on the Buds3 Pro, automatically tuning out a crowded train or a noisy office without needing to fiddle with settings every time the environment changes around you throughout the day.
Galaxy AI also drives an Adaptive Equalizer here, tuning audio to how the Buds actually sit in your ears rather than applying one generic profile to every listener, so the same pair sounds noticeably different depending on who’s wearing them.
Samsung’s ecosystem thinking carries over into auto-switching between a Galaxy phone and a Galaxy PC, removing the usual faff of reconnecting Bluetooth every time you move from a laptop to a call, which matters more the more devices someone juggles daily.
Battery life runs to around six hours with noise cancellation switched on, stretching to seven with it off, and the case adds roughly 20 more hours before a proper charge is needed. Wireless fast charging then claws back hours of listening time in just a few minutes on a pad.
Touch controls handle calls, tracks and volume without reaching for a phone, and an IP57 rating means these can handle sweat, rain and the occasional drop during a workout or a commute in bad weather.
With the everyday basics covered by touch controls and IP57 durability, the real question is why pay Apple’s price for AirPods Pro when $149.99 buys Galaxy AI on a 4.5-star pair backed by nearly 4,000 reviews, while this discount lasts?
Arguably Samsung’s best earbuds to date with a strong noise-cancelling performance, enjoyably rich sound and solid battery life. It is aimed towards those who are in the Samsung ecosystem with its Samsung specific features, and if that’s not you then there are plenty of tempting alternatives to consider for similar money.
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Enjoyably warm performance
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Strong noise-cancelling
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Comfortable fit
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Solid battery life
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Very Samsung-heavy focus
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Noise-cancelling is bettered for the money
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Below-par call quality
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Fiddly controls
Tabs are the best. They’re also the worst.
Sometimes I end up drowning in browser tabs containing web pages I don’t remember opening, and sometimes I have a few tabs that I want to close, but I can’t, because I know I’ll need them later.
Tuck is a completely free browser extension for all the major browsers that helps with this. You know how, in Gmail, you can “snooze” an email so that it’s hidden from your inbox until later? This is like that, but for your browser tabs. Tuck can also automatically close idle tabs after a certain amount of time, saving them to a list so you can open them again when you need to.
To get started, simply install the extension. It works in just about every browser: Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox, Brave, Arc, Vivaldi, and a few others. There is no need to sign up for an account.
After installing the extension, you’ll see the icon—an owl wrapped in a blanket—in your browser bar. Click it and you’ll see the snoozing options: Later today, Tomorrow, Weekend, and Next week.
Photograph: Justin Pot
Click any of these options and the tab will close, ready to reopen later at the appointed time. If you prefer keyboard commands, the extension has shortcuts for Windows (Ctrl-Shift-1, 2, or 3) and macOS (Cmd-Shift-1, 2, or 3) that allow you to snooze tabs to reopen later today, tomorrow, or next week, respectively.
There’s also a text box, allowing you to type a time that you’d like the current tab to reopen. This text field uses natural language processing, meaning you can type something like “Monday at 2 pm” and the extension will figure out what you mean.
The extension, by default, will automatically close any tabs you leave idle for 24 hours. These auto-closed tabs are collected in the extension, allowing you to find them, click them, and open them back up if you need to. You can change how long tabs need to sit idle before this happens—three hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, three days, and seven days are all options. You can also turn this auto-close functionality off, if you prefer.
Pinned tabs and tab groups will never auto-close, and you can prevent tabs from any given domain from closing—useful for making sure your Google Docs or Gmail never close.
The snoozing and auto-closing features combined do a lot to curb your worst tab instincts. Try this extension out if you’re tired of drowning in tabs you never actually get around to.
Amazon is clearing out Apple Watch Ultra 3 inventory, with the premium Milanese Loop style $200 off while supplies last.
You can grab the blowout deal on the Black Titanium Case style with a Black Titanium Milanese Loop Band in size Large. Marked down to $699.97 after a $200 discount, units are in stock now with delivery as early as tomorrow, depending on your shipping address.
Save $200 on Apple Watch Ultra 3
If you’d like the latest model, the Ultra 4 is also $20 off this weekend. Here’s a rundown of the top deals, with easy price comparison in our Apple Watch Price Guide.
Blowout Apple Watch Ultra 3 deal
Apple Watch Ultra 4 discounts
Start with the vents before you reach for a screwdriver.
Your laptop fan has probably spent its entire life working inside a cramped chassis, so dust eventually gets an invite. Let too much of it build up around the vents, fan or heat sink and airflow can be hampered. Over time, restricted cooling can result in thermal throttling, which is when the processor reduces its performance to keep temperatures under control.
Fortunately, cleaning a laptop fan doesn’t necessarily involve disassembling the laptop. For routine maintenance, turn the laptop off, unplug it and use short bursts of electronics-safe compressed air through the vents. Lenovo recommends cleaning a laptop fan every three to six months, depending on the environment.
When dust is packed deeper inside, it makes sense to open the laptop. But be aware of what you are getting yourself into. Depending on the machine, removing the bottom cover may expose the fan or start an unexpectedly intimate tour of several thousand dollars’ worth of electronics.
Try cleaning the fan without opening your laptop first
Start simple. You may be able to remove most of the loose dust without even touching a screwdriver.
- Turn off the laptop and disconnect all cables and peripherals. If it has an external battery that can be easily removed, take it out as well.
- Find the intake and exhaust vents. Look for vents at the base, sides and around the display hinge. Some laptops hide their exhausts near the hinge, so don’t assume that every grille you need will be staring back at you.
- Clean away any loose dust around the vents. For accessible areas, use a lint-free cloth or ESD-safe brush. Do not poke tools deep into the grille.
- Use short bursts of compressed air. Keep the can upright and leave some distance between the nozzle and vent. Excessive air pressure from, say, an air compressor can damage fan blades, though there isn’t one universal nozzle distance for every laptop.
- Do not keep blasting the fan continuously. Forcing the fan to spin rapidly isn’t a good idea. Use short bursts instead.
If canned air isn’t your preferred method, an ESD-safe brush, non-static cloth or hand-powered bulb blower are other options. And drop the WD-40. Standard WD-40 Multi-Use Product is designed to lubricate, displace moisture and protect against corrosion. That’s a completely different issue.
Opening the laptop can turn this into a much bigger job
If airflow still appears to be blocked, or you see dust built up inside, removing the bottom panel provides better access. This is also where generic instructions stop being particularly helpful.
On some laptops, the fan is visible and can be removed independently. Others have two fans paired with a shared heat sink or vapor chamber, and if one fan is clean but the other fan, heat sink or exhaust fins are still clogged, cleaning one fan will do little. The fan blades aren’t always the only problem either. Dust can build up where air is forced between the closely spaced heat-sink fins.
Before going too deep, check the service manual for your specific model. For instance, Dell’s Alienware m16 R2 has separate left and right fan connections, and removing the entire cooling assembly requires taking out six regular screws and loosening six captive heat-sink screws. Dell warns that the procedure is intended for authorized service technicians only.
Some machines take it a step further. The Alienware m16 R1 requires removing the SSDs, wireless card, top heat sink, small fan, rear I/O cover and battery, then following nine system-board removal steps before you can access the fan and heat-sink assembly. The cooling assembly itself is held by eight captive screws. Dell also cautions against cleaning its Element 31 thermal material with an alcohol wipe because it can dissolve the grease into conductive metal particles and could cause an electrical short.
That’s the line worth respecting. If the fan requires lifting the heat sink or vapor chamber off the CPU or GPU, you’re moving from dusting to a job that might involve thermal paste, pads or other interface material.
Toyota is preparing a major overhaul of one of its most familiar nameplates, with the next-generation Corolla expected to arrive for the 2028 model year with a new platform, sharper styling and a much wider choice of powertrains. The lineup is expected to include petrol, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fully electric versions, giving buyers several ways to choose their next Corolla.
The Corolla has sold more than 57 million units worldwide since 1966, making it one of the best-selling vehicles ever. Toyota previewed the next-generation design in concept form at the Japan Mobility Show, where CEO Koji Sato outlined the company’s plan to evolve the nameplate across different power sources.
A new Corolla is coming with more than one way to power it
The next Corolla is expected to use a heavily revised version of Toyota’s TNGA-C architecture. The new platform is being designed to accommodate everything from a conventional gas engine to a battery-electric powertrain. That approach means Toyota does not have to turn the entire Corolla family electric at once.
The hybrid version is expected to use a new 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine paired with an electric motor, producing around 134 horsepower combined. According to Toyota engineers cited by Car and Driver, the new hybrid system could be 10 to 20 percent more efficient than the current setup. An all-wheel-drive version with an additional rear electric motor is also possible.
For buyers who still want a conventional engine, Toyota is expected to retain a gas-only Corolla. The company could use a turbocharged version of the new 1.5-liter engine, although a revised 2.0-liter four-cylinder remains another possibility.
The bigger change comes with the arrival of the first Corolla plug-in hybrid and battery-electric models. The PHEV is expected to feature a larger battery and provide more electric driving range, although Toyota has not released detailed specifications. The electric Corolla could be offered with single- or dual-motor configurations and at least 250 miles of range, but its availability in the US remains uncertain.
Sharper design, modern cabin and a new challenge for sedans
The powertrain changes are only part of the transformation. Toyota’s concept preview points toward a much sharper exterior design, while the production car is expected to retain much of that dramatic styling. Inside, the next Corolla is expected to get a more modern cabin with a more open layout, larger displays and simplified controls.
That redesign comes at an important time for the Corolla. In the US, it was Toyota’s fourth-best-selling model in 2025, with 248,088 sales, but compact sedans face growing pressure from small SUVs and established rivals such as the Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra and Nissan Sentra.
The US market could be where the electric Corolla gets most interesting. If Toyota can keep the EV close to the estimated $30,000 price point, it would sit near the bottom end of today’s new-EV market. The 2026 Nissan Leaf starts at $29,990, Chevrolet’s Bolt starts at $27,600 and the Equinox EV starts at $34,995. Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 starts at an estimated $35,000, while Ford’s Mustang Mach-E begins at $37,795.
But price alone may not determine whether the Corolla EV works. US consumers have increasingly gravitated toward SUVs, while the Corolla remains a compact sedan. Toyota’s decision to offer gas, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric versions could therefore allow the company to keep the nameplate relevant across different buyer preferences instead of betting everything on EV adoption. The bigger question is whether the electric Corolla actually comes to the US. That remains unconfirmed, and Toyota is expected to reveal more as the 2028 model approaches.
Related coverage:
EV batteries are lasting much longer than the industry expected
The used EV landmine: Why reading the odometer isn’t enough anymore
Honorable Mentions
Nowadays Cannabis Infused Beverage, Starting at $40: Bringing a bottle of booze is a white elephant classic; my husband’s work team almost exclusively exchanges bottles of liquor as a safe bet for enthusiasm. I think you can do better, though, and bring a THC spirit instead. This spirit is light and a little fruity, sitting somewhere in between the flavor profile of a floral gin and a sweet sake. My friends and I tried it mixed into a pomegranate cocktail instead of tequila, which was fantastic, and we also loved it with seltzer as a THC twist on a gin and tonic. It’s delicious alone, too. I’d skip this for a work party or any group that might not be green-friendly, though.
Booze in general: This is always a safe pick! You could also bring a bottle of nonalcoholic wine if you wanted an option that everyone can have.
Something edible: As long as you’re in the loop on food allergies, of course. One of the best gifts I received at a Secret Santa was persimmon cookies, made in honor of my love for persimmon fruit. I think baking something delicious would be a fun option for a white elephant, too, especially if you’re someone who has sourdough starter in their kitchen or makes a mean banana bread (my version uses brown butter and Nutella, and it might be my gift of choice this year!)
What Not to Bring to a White Elephant
Here’s what was the least fought over at the white elephant parties I attended last year, or the most inappropriate ideas our team has heard of:
- A basic, single candle. Nobody needs a candle they could pick up at the store. Unless there’s a fun theme that you’re certain appeals to the group attending, skip bringing a single candle to a white elephant exchange. Or make the candle part of a gift basket; our favorite tomato-scented candle goes great with some kitchen or garden accessories.
- Puzzles. I think puzzles are hard to randomly gift—true puzzle fanatics will want a lot of pieces, while novices will want an easier one, and you never know which one you’ll get. If you choose a puzzle with too specific a theme, the receiver might not like it as much as a true puzzler or fan of that theme would, but it’s often not beloved enough to be steal-worthy.
- Live animals. Look, you shouldn’t give baby chicks at Easter, and you shouldn’t give anything even remotely similar—including a mouse, fish, or anything alive.
- Actual trash. I didn’t think I had to write this one down, but at one gift exchange I went to, someone literally wrapped up a piece of garbage as a joke. As the person who unwrapped the trash gift, I beg of you: Don’t do this.
Rules of a White Elephant
If you’re headed to your first white elephant gift exchange, here’s a quick explainer on what’s about to happen.
Everyone will bring a wrapped gift (often under a certain price, like $25) and place it into a pile or central spot. Then, each person will draw a number that indicates their place in the gift-choosing order. When your number is called, you can either choose and unwrap a gift from the pile, or steal one that has already been unwrapped by someone. Most exchanges will have a limit on how often a gift can be stolen—usually around three times—so if you have the best gift in your hands when it’s time for someone else to choose, there’s no guarantee you’ll get to keep it. If your gift is stolen, you can either unwrap a new one or steal someone else’s gift (no take-backs, sorry).
These rules can vary based on the host and their house rules, so make sure to ask what the rules are at the start of the game. Happy exchanging!
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Two stories dominating tech circles this week have almost nothing to do with each other on the surface. One is about criminals mailing fake credit cards to unsuspecting Europeans. The other is about a cuddly, Labubu-like mascot Meta built to represent its AI assistant. But look closer, and both are studies in the same discipline: engineering trust so people stop asking questions.
Start with the scammers. In Portugal, France, and Germany, fraud rings have been sending out convincing replacement credit cards through the mail, complete with real customer names printed on the plastic, paired with letters warning that a current card is about to expire. Scan the included QR code to “activate” the new card, and victims land on a fake banking site designed to harvest their real credentials. Georg Hauer, an advisor for digital banks, says the physical card itself is the con’s masterstroke: “The card is almost like a token that creates the trust that is needed in order to fall for the actual trick.” Thanks to cheap AI-assisted design tools, criminals can now mock up a passable replica of a real bank card for a fraction of what it used to cost — and Hauer expects the scheme to keep spreading to new countries precisely because the conversion rate per victim is so high.
Meanwhile, in the US, federal prosecutors in Alabama last week indicted two Romanian nationals for allegedly running old-fashioned skimming operations aimed squarely at SNAP food assistance recipients, whose Electronic Benefit Transfer cards still rely on magnetic stripes rather than chips. The FBI says EBT skimming has been rising steadily since 2021, and US Attorney Phillip W. Williams Jr. called it “a silent insidious theft that occurs by merely swiping a credit card at a point of sale.” Skimming fraud broadly costs Americans more than $1 billion a year, according to prosecutors. Gary Warner of the cybersecurity firm DarkTower notes that even chip-enabled cards remain vulnerable at non-bank ATMs and smaller merchants, where skimmers are sometimes rigged to force a chip read to fail, pushing the transaction back to the far less secure stripe. Mastercard has said it won’t fully retire the magnetic stripe until 2033 — a reminder that “old” technology has a long tail, and so does the fraud built around it.
Now consider Meta’s Muse. The AI agent’s mascot, a fuzzy, wide-eyed character named Jolly, dresses up in outfits, appears in Instagram ads doing bicep curls, and will soon get its own Tamagotchi-style physical gadget for the holidays. Muse is explicitly restricted to adults 18 and over, yet nearly everyone who has looked at Jolly has had the same reaction: it looks like a toy built for toddlers. “Oh my God, it looks like a Teletubby,” says Josh Golin of the children’s advocacy nonprofit Fairplay, who argues the rounded, soft shapes are textbook design language for appealing to preschoolers, adult-only branding notwithstanding.
Meta insists the cuteness is just good product design, not a dodge around its own age restrictions — the company says it checks birthdates and screens for underage users. But researchers who study AI companions see something more calculated at work. Julian De Freitas, a Harvard marketing professor who studies AI companions, points out that Meta is fighting an uphill battle for goodwill after settling social-media-addiction claims for as much as $16.7 billion this year. “These types of cute factors can make the product seem warm and less threatening,” he says. Jathan Sadowski, of Monash University’s Emerging Technologies Research Lab, is blunter: he argues design features like cuteness and frictionless interaction are “sly ways to make people drop their guard, stop asking critical questions, and slip into being passive users” — masking the fact that, by default, Meta trains its models on your conversations with Muse unless you opt out.
It’s a strange symmetry. The scam letter and the plush AI mascot are both, in their own registers, exercises in disarming skepticism. One borrows the visual authority of a bank to get a QR code scanned; the other borrows the visual language of a children’s toy to make an always-on surveillance product feel like a friend in your pocket. Neither depends on breaking any new technological ground — the letter scam runs on a laser printer and a mail slot, and Muse runs, in Meta’s own words, on making an AI agent feel less like “a corporate logo or entity.” The technology is almost beside the point. The real innovation, in both cases, is psychological.
Elsewhere in tech this week, the news was more mundane, if still telling about how central network infrastructure and browser habits have become to daily life. Wired’s testing lineup of mesh Wi-Fi systems for 2026 comes with an unusual asterisk: the FCC’s foreign-made router ban, announced in March, could bar companies without a “Conditional Approval” from selling new mesh systems in the US at all, though existing stock can still be sold and updated through 2029. Netgear, Eero, and Asus have already secured approval, a quiet reminder that geopolitics now shapes what shows up in your living room just as much as engineering does. And for anyone whose real enemy is not scammers or chatbots but their own 40 open browser tabs, a free extension called Tuck has emerged as a small, welcome fix — letting you “snooze” tabs the way Gmail lets you snooze email, no account or data collection required.
Taken together, the week’s tech stories tell a consistent story: whether the goal is stealing your savings or simply your attention, the winning strategy in 2026 rarely involves dazzling new technology. It involves understanding exactly how much trust people are willing to extend to something that looks familiar, official, or adorable — and building products, real or fraudulent, to exploit precisely that.
At least one social media company appears to be reversing its stance on whether it will accept advertising for director Alex Gibney’s upcoming documentary about Elon Musk.
The Hollywood Reporter published a story Friday saying that TikTok, Meta, YouTube, and X had all refused to run paid ads promoting the trailer for “Musk.” However, when TechCrunch reached out to Meta on Saturday, a spokesperson said, “This was an error and the ads are being restored.”
We’ve asked Meta for more details and will update this article if we hear back.
X’s rejection is unsurprising — Musk, who owns the social media platform, recently posted that “Dogshit is worth more respect than Gibney.”
But Meta, TikTok, and YouTube reportedly rejected the ad for “political content,” which the platforms have various restrictions on. (Meta said last year that it will stop accepting political ads in the European Union, while TikTok says it doesn’t run them at all.) It’s not clear how a documentary trailer counts as campaign advertising, and the film’s U.S. distributor Bleecker Street told the Hollywood Reporter that it’s appealing the rejections.
Gibney previously directed acclaimed documentaries including “Going Clear” (about the Church of Scientology) and “The Inventor” (about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos), as well as a movie about Steve Jobs. “Musk,” his latest, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival earlier this month and has received almost universally positive reviews. The film currently has a 100% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is set for theatrical release in the United States on October 9.
Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri described the nearly four-hour movie as a revealing look at Musk’s tech career, his alliance with President Donald Trump, and his personal life, with interview subjects including ex-wife Justine Musk and former right-wing influencer Ashley St. Clair (who recently had a child with Musk but now describes him as “a nuke”).
Ebiri wrote that while the film is a “fascinating” character study, adding, “As a tale of modern business, it’s revealing. And as a warning about our future, it’s terrifying.”
Despite the initial wave of critical acclaim, The Hollywood Reporter also said that Universal Pictures was wavering in its commitment to distribute the film internationally, reportedly due to the studio’s fear of angering the Trump administration. (Universal subsequently said it will release the documentary in theaters but is still figuring out its release strategy).
TechCrunch has also reached out to YouTube, TikTok, X, and Bleecker Street for comment.
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