Government
The Download: the Kids issue arrives, and Bill Gates reveals his AI fears
Plus: Trump's EPA aims to exempt data centers from disclosing air pollution. If the desire to limit kids' use of technology was once a subcurrent, it has become a raging flood. Countries around the world are banning children from social media. Schools across the US are ditching iPads and Chromebooks for actual books. Kids themselves seem to be embracing this tech skepticism too: the hottest gadget for Gen Alpha is a vintage Sony Walkman. A surprising--maybe troubling--number of people who work in big tech also keep their kids at arm's distance from technology.
Hope and concern swirl for Ohioans around 'world's largest datacenter'
Wed 26 Aug 2026 08.00 EDTLast modified on Wed 26 Aug 2026 16.37 EDT On a winding road tucked away behind forests in the Appalachian foothills of southern Ohio is where OpenAI, Nvidia and Japanese investors are set to spend $500bn on one of the largest artificial intelligence datacenters on the planet. Last March, the energy secretary, Chris Wright, the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick and a host of Japanese and other dignitaries briefly descended on Piketon to enthusiastically break ground on a project to build 8GW worth of AI computing power. But locally, there's a different feeling: a mix of hope but also concern. "Personally, my emotions range between positive and skeptical," says Billy Spencer, who has been mayor of Piketon for the past 23 years, of the project. "There's not an organized opposition to it around here. There hasn't been that much talk. No one's come to council - I don't know that there's been one citizen who lives within the village of Piketon who has come and said: 'Mayor, what do you think about it?'"
Aerial footage shows flooding on Nepal-Tibet border
To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hundreds of travellers are missing, including at least 291 foreign tourists, after a flash flood swept away buildings on the Nepal-Tibet border. Aerial footage showed multi-storey buildings partially submerged by the muddy floodwaters, and a valley filled with dust and smoke. Nepal's foreign minister says preliminary reports show it may have been caused by an earthquake triggering an avalanche, which lead to flash floods. China's President Xi Jinping is urging all-out search efforts for the missing, as well as stronger monitoring and early warning systems to prevent secondary disasters.
Why India is sharing missile secrets with its private sector
Did Pakistan shoot down five Indian jets? India has taken a major step towards opening one of its most sensitive areas of defence production to private companies. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved the transfer of technologies developed by the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for all conventional missile systems to Indian industry for domestic production, the country's Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday. Private companies will be able to compete for the technology and production rights, subject to technical qualifications, certifications and other regulatory requirements, the ministry said. The Narendra Modi-led government says the aim is to move missiles from development into mass production faster, increase domestic manufacturing and reduce India's dependence on imports.
The Left's constitutional hypocrisy is on full display in its war on Trump
Long before Donald Trump entered national politics, I wrote a book published by Oxford University Press making the historical case against popular constitutionalism and departmentalism -- an originalist defense of judicial finality. But that scholarly position does not mean President Trump is ignoring the rule of law or behaving like an authoritarian when he advances a theory of judicial review that other presidents and scholars have likewise advanced.
Fake US thinktank set up and funded by Israel sought to game AI for propaganda
A pro-Israel messaging website badged with the name of a thinktank that does not exist has published more than half a million words in nine days, built on a commercial platform that promises to optimize content so that AI chatbots will cite it. The site gives Israel's position on subjects including the torture of Palestinian prisoners, Israeli war crimes and whether Israel has deliberately starved Palestinians in Gaza, all presented as neutral research. The site publishes in the name of the Hanover Institute for Public Policy, which apparently does not exist as a legal entity in any jurisdiction, has no physical address, and carries no named staff and no bylines on any of its reports. Its own terms of use are governed by the laws of "the state in which the Institute is established", which they decline to name. The existence of the site was first reported on 14 August.
Bill Gates calls for 'human reserved' jobs in face of AI takeover
Bill Gates wrote'it is fair to wonder whether the world's institutions are up to the task of designing and implementing this new architecture'. Bill Gates wrote'it is fair to wonder whether the world's institutions are up to the task of designing and implementing this new architecture'. Bill Gates calls for'human reserved' jobs in face of AI takeover In 6,000-word essay Microsoft co-founder also expresses concern governments not prepared for technology's impact Bill Gates has called for "human reserved" jobs in certain sectors to prevent AI replacing them, and expressed concern that governments are not prepared for the impact the technology will have. In a 6,000 word essay titled The turbulent AI era is here. The choices we make are critical, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder likened the need to spare roles from digital encroachment to how nature reserves operate to protect the environment.