Richard lawler – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Richard Lawler

Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

Senior News Editor

Richard Lawler joined The Verge as Senior News Editor in 2021 after several years covering news at Engadget. He’s been a tech blogger since before the word was invented, and will never log off.

More From Richard Lawler

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Musk v. Altman is getting a live audio stream next week.

In addition to our ongoing reporting from the courtroom and digging through newly released evidence, you will be able to listen in live via YouTube. While recording to rebroadcasting the stream is prohibited, we can expect it to be live generally between 11AM and 5PM ET while court is in session.

For now, though, Hayden Field can catch you up on all the evidence released.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Lego does what Nintendont.

Lego has released plenty of Nintendo renditions, but Jay’s Brick Blog highlights that on June 1st, a buildable $39.99 Sega Genesis / Mega Drive set will join the party, complete with controllers and a Sonic 2 game cartridge. It can swap between the nameplates depending on which version you prefer.

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Lego Gensis set with controllers attached
Box and included items for Lego Sega Genesis set
Lego version of a Sonic game cartridge on a white background
1/4Image: Lego
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
DOJ assault on the NFL could end the Packers as we know them.

A Milwaukee news report focuses on fan response to the Packers sounding the alarm over a reported antitrust investigation into the NFL’s broadcast deals with streaming platforms, which happened to pop up around the same time as Florida’s push against the “Rooney Rule” for coach hiring. FCC chair Brendan Carr said the FCC might investigate, too, but the team says the current profit-sharing setup is what makes a small market like Green Bay viable.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Ask Jeeves is dead.

In an era when Liz Lopatto is asking about the “Ask Jeeves-ification of online search” via AI chatbots, the originator just faded away. Its owner, IAC, says that as of May 1st, 2026, “we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com.”

Every great search must come to an end. As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com. After 25 years of answering the world’s questions, Ask.com officially closed on May 1, 2026.
Screenshot: Ask.com
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
GameStonk’s next move: buy eBay?

The next step in the “finance is just another meme” movement will apparently include GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen making an attempt to acquire eBay.

While eBay’s market cap ($45 billion) is bigger than GameStop’s ($11 billion), the WSJ reports that GameStop has been buying eBay shares ahead of a potential offer, and notes that Cohen’s adjusted compensation package could pay him as much as $35 billion in stock for boosting its market value and profitability.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Porsche cars will run a classic Apple livery this weekend at Laguna Seca.

While Apple TV broadcasts F1 action from Miami over the next few days, a throwback celebrating the company’s 50th birthday will be on two 963s run by Porsche Penske Motorsport competing in an IMSA event at Laguna Seca. They probably don’t have CarPlay inside, but the look is a reference to one that started running on a Porsche back in 1980.

Two Porsche 963 LMDh cars in Apple livery
A Porsche race car in Apple livery running at Le Mans in 1980.
A Porsche race car in Apple livery running at Le Mans in 1980.
1/8Image: Porsche AG
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
OpenAI Tesla receipts and other Musk v. Altman documents.

No courtroom updates today, but we have updated our rundown of the evidence with the latest exhibits added in Elon v. Musk, including details of the donated Tesla Model 3s.

Screenshots of emails from OpenAI and from Jared Birchall regarding Founder Series Tesla Model 3s donated for people on the project.
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Pete Hegseth goes out of his way to call Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei an “ideological lunatic.”

Asked by Senator Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada) in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about the DoD’s dispute with Anthropic and whether he could guarantee a human would be in the loop on any targeting decisions made with AI, Hegseth focused on Amodei and his company’s refusal to “accept our terms of service.”

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Here’s how Gabe Newell and Hideo Kojima ended up in the Musk v. Altman evidence.

Among the evidence released publicly, there’s this email exchange (Exhibit No.844) between Valve founder Gabe Newell and Elon Musk about, of all things, trying to get a SpaceX tour and OpenAI introduction for Hideo Kojima.

Musk also wrote that he’d lost confidence in OpenAI competing with Google/Deepmind, and decided to attempt that through Tesla instead,” while pumping up Neuralink’s progress. Newell has since launched his own BCI company, Starfish.

Screenshot of Musk email response to Newell: “Sure, it would be great to meet Hideo Kojima and he’s welcome to see the rocket factory. No problem to send him my email. Best person to talk 0 at Neuralink is Max Hodak (max@neuralink com), who is the de facto head of day to day operations. Shivon Zilis is also worth talking to (predictably at shivon@neuralink). We’ve made some pretty insane technical progress. This is highly confidential, but we’re now able to implant ~6000 electrodes in a monkey brain with decent signal/noise. Moreover, the electronics are compact enough to be flush with the skull and the only thing visible is the USB-C opening and slight surround. Very trippy. Just like Neuromancer. Regarding OpenAL my involvement is very limited at this point. I still provide some financial support and get verbal and email updates every few wecks from Sam Altman, but don’t spend time there. I lost confidence that OpenAl could muster the resources to serve as an effective counterweight to Google/Deepmind and decided to attempt that through Tesla instead. We have cash flow on the order of billions of dollars per year to build hardware that hopefully has atleast a dark horse chance to keep Google honest. Probably worth talking about at some point.”
Screenshot of Gabe Newell email to Musk: For a long time | thought neuromodulation (e: TMS) was weird, mainly because | had an unsophisticated understanding of a bunch of aspects of the brain. I’ve more or ess done a 180, and think there is a significant near-term consumer marke. Is this something | should bring up with the Neuralnk team? If so, anyone in particular | should chat with there? Hope you are well
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