Nearly 7 in 10 U.S. adults say they support a ban on middle and high school students using cell phones during class. Only 4 in 10 support a ban on the entire school day.

And if you're wondering whether there's a difference between liberals and conservatives on this issue, it's negligible. One nation, under wireless spectrum, indivisible. —Andrew Nusca

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Amazon is joining the nuclear party

Amazon is the third tech company in a matter of weeks to announce a massive investment in nuclear energy to power energy-guzzling data centers with generative AI.

Amazon Web Services, still the world's largest cloud computing provider, announced this Spend $500 million to finance nuclear projects in the states of Virginia and Washington. The news follows recent nuclear announcements from rivals Google and Microsoft, with the latter recently signing a deal to restart a closed nuclear reactor Pennsylvania's infamous Three Mile Island.

The nuclear industry has been in decline for years due to safety concerns in the event of a nuclear meltdown. But the enormous energy demands of the genetic AI boom have reignited interest in the carbon-free energy source.

For Amazon, this includes a partnership with Virginia-based utility Dominion Energy to develop small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). These small nuclear fission plants are only a fraction of the size of a conventional nuclear power plant, can be put into operation more quickly and are cheaper to build.

Amazon previously committed to spending $40 billion to expand a data center in Virginia by 2040, which may partly explain the state's strong support. –Jason Del Rey

The FTC makes unsubscribing just as easy as subscribing.

We've all been there. Your 30-day free trial is almost up. It's time to cancel the streaming subscription before the auto-renewal kicks in and you get charged $300 for an annual plan. You click cancel… but instead of a simple button, you're met with a final survey, several requests to reconsider, and a phone number to call to complete the job.

No longer. The US Federal Trade Commission final rules on Wednesday, requiring companies to make canceling a subscription as easy as signing up. Whether it's a gym membership, a magazine subscription, or an app, companies can no longer force you to use another method to cancel their service. If you clicked “Subscribe,” click “Cancel.”

The FTC has taken action against some of the underhanded “dark pattern“Tactics that trick consumers into unknowingly paying for things they don’t want. One of the agency Lawsuits against Amazon accuses the company of luring customers into maintaining Prime subscriptions with a series of screens that company insiders allegedly named “Iliad” after the 16,000-line epic.

The author was right: we men are miserable things. –Jenn Brice

Beware of the invisible hand of crypto

You've heard of Big Oil, Big Pharma and Big Tech. Make way for Big Crypto now. The industry and its hired political fixers have not-so-quietly become the largest nonpartisan donor to congressional elections this election cycle, giving away about $125 million and counting.

Much of that spending went to television advertising for House and Senate candidates of both parties, but in a strange twist noted by PoliticoNone of these ads are about crypto. Instead, they simply say what a great guy or girl the candidate is.

Two things stand out about this unusual spending spree.

First, it appears to confirm that – despite claims from Coinbase and other crypto firms – there is not a large pool of “crypto voters” who might be primed to cast a vote based on a candidate’s track record in the digital asset space.

The second thing signaled by the massive advertising buys is that crypto, which began as a movement to empower individuals fed up with banks and their allies in Washington DC, is now happy alongside every other industry that uses money to take their place in the swamp and buy political favors.

If you can't beat them, join them and so on. –Jeff John Roberts

Two people are charged with cyber attacks on US infrastructure

The US government has charged two Sudanese nationals who launched tens of thousands of cyberattacks against government agencies, Assets 500 companies and even the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Ahmed Salah Yousif Omer, 22, and Alaa Salah Yusuuf Omer, 27, are alleged to have operated and controlled Anonymous Sudan, an online cybercriminal group that committed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) for $35,000 over the course of a year – that's not a typo. Attacks are blamed.

In the private sector, organizations included Microsoft, PayPal, X, Tumblr and Flickr expressly mentionedalong with news organizations such as the Associated Press, CNN and the Washington Post. “The attacks resulted in reported network outages affecting thousands of customers,” the U.S. Department of Justice said — and in the hospital’s case, patients were diverted to another facility.

Why? Federal authorities did not provide details, but the cybersecurity company did CrowdStrike did it. In a word? Hacktivism. Apparently they received more attention than they bargained for. -A

China: Intel has “constantly harmed” our national security.

Intel has another problem to worry about.

The Cybersecurity Association of China, a China-based industry group, has complained loudly that Intel's chips have “constantly damaged” China's national security. according to a Reuters report.

That raises the possibility that Chinese regulators will initiate a security review of Intel, which could be disastrous for the company. Just ask chipmaker Micron Technology, whose products are now off-limits to key infrastructure operators in China following a similar security review.

Could this all be retaliation for the US government banning US companies from selling advanced AI chips in China? There’s no official word on this – but you have to wonder.

Of course, Intel is already struggling with one stagnant business after largely missing out on the AI ​​boom. Losing a large portion of its sales in China would only compound its problems.

Meanwhile, Intel – along with other semiconductor companies – suffered a setback earlier this week after chipmaker ASML issued guidance disappointing Result for next year. The outlook raised fears that the entire chip industry is facing a slowdown.

Not surprisingly, all the bad news has weighed heavily on Intel shares, which have plunged nearly 55% this year. –David Meyer

More data

—Amazon's new Kindle Scribe lets you write directly into books. With apologies to librarians everywhere.

—Elon Musk triumphs in India. Three wealthy men fought over satellite internet spectrum; one emerged as the winner.

—Kevin Rose shows up again. Things the Digg founder never would have said in 2007: “What Reddit did…was pretty smart.”

—Airbnb launches co-host marketplace. Mo' entries, (hopefully not) mo' problems.

—Google DeepMind's operating profit increases. What happened after the Google Brain merger?

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