States Put Meta's Youth Design on Trial

Border Agency Pauses Big Bend Barrier Work

Justice Department Lets Gun Registration Rules Lapse

Nvidia Backs OpenAI's Ohio Data Center

Trump Orders Reduction in South Korea Drills

States Put Meta's Youth Design on Trial

Jury selection began Monday in Oakland, California, in a federal trial brought by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey against Meta Platforms, with opening arguments set for Tuesday. The states allege Meta knowingly designed Facebook and Instagram features, including likes, infinite scroll and recommendation algorithms, to encourage compulsive use by young people while concealing evidence of mental health harms and collecting data from children under 13 without parental consent. Meta denies the claims, says its platforms are not defective products and points to its investments in teen safety tools; it also lost a last-minute effort to have the case dismissed. The states seek product changes and civil penalties that could theoretically reach $1.4 trillion under state consumer protection laws, although courts typically reduce awards of that scale. As a bellwether selected from thousands of consolidated lawsuits, the verdict could influence how similar claims are valued and resolved and how courts treat algorithmic design as a product safety issue.

NPR / Spectrum News / AP / CBC

Border Agency Pauses Big Bend Barrier Work

U.S. Customs and Border Protection halted construction inside Big Bend National Park on Monday while Commissioner Rodney Scott travels to the West Texas park for what the agency called an on-the-ground evaluation. Gov. Greg Abbott separately said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin assured him there would be no wall, fence or other barrier in the park and argued that drones and fiber-optic sensors could secure the remote area. CBP described the action as a pause pending Scott's visit, however, and no agency has publicly rescinded the project. Contractors moved heavy equipment into the park Aug. 4 and began bulldozing near Santa Elena Canyon, while CBP's project map shows planned vehicle barriers and patrol roads near Mariscal Mountain. The pause follows objections from 44 Texas legislators of both parties and marks a slowdown of a border infrastructure project after pressure from a Republican governor.

Texas Tribune / KVIA / KWTX / U.S. News & World Report / The Hill

Justice Department Lets Gun Registration Rules Lapse

The Trump administration allowed the deadline for an emergency appeal to pass, permitting a federal court ruling that voided key registration requirements under the National Firearms Act to take effect in more than a dozen states. U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix ruled Aug. 5 that federal registration and approval requirements for silencers and short-barreled rifles and shotguns exceeded Congress' constitutional authority, then stayed his order until Aug. 12 to allow an appeal. Hendrix reasoned that Congress enacted the 1934 law under its taxing power and that the legal basis for regulating those items disappeared when the One Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminated the related taxes. The ruling applies to states that participated in the National Rifle Association's case, but does not affect buyers elsewhere or in states with their own registration laws. The Justice Department, which said it is assessing the ruling, still has roughly a month to file an ordinary appeal, leaving the future of the nearly century-old federal registration system uncertain.

NPR / The Hill / NRA-ILA

Nvidia Backs OpenAI's Ohio Data Center

Nvidia disclosed Monday that it will provide more than $105 billion in financing for land, power and shell construction for an artificial intelligence data center campus in Pike County, Ohio, that OpenAI will lease for 20 years. SoftBank-backed developer SB Energy will build and own the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus, while Nvidia will separately invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy. SB Energy and SoftBank said they plan to build generation supporting 10 gigawatts and invest at least $4.2 billion in regional grid infrastructure. The campus is expected to begin phasing in 4.25 gigawatts of computing capacity in 2028, with an option for another 3.75 gigawatts, and OpenAI has committed to using as many as 1.5 million Nvidia processors exclusively at the site. OpenAI said the project would support 35,000 construction jobs through 2032 and 2,500 permanent jobs, placing one of the country's largest computing sites and its substantial power demand in a rural Appalachian county built around a closed uranium enrichment complex.

CNBC / UPI / Reuters

Trump Orders Reduction in South Korea Drills

President Donald Trump said Sunday that he directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to substantially reduce annual joint military exercises with South Korea that were scheduled to begin this week. The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield drills were expected to involve 18,000 South Korean troops alongside U.S. forces and are a central part of readiness training for about 28,500 American service members stationed on the peninsula. Trump called the exercises costly and hostile toward North Korea, cited his relationship with Kim Jong Un and said Seoul had declined to help with the denuclearization of Iran. Reporting also linked the decision to pressure on the U.S. carrier fleet during the Iran war. The order alters a longstanding element of the 1953 U.S.-South Korea defense relationship and follows Trump's earlier suspension of drills after his 2018 summit with Kim, though those exercises were later restored.

AP / PBS NewsHour / NPR / NBC News

AUGUST 18 1991: SOVIET HARD-LINERS LAUNCH COUP AGAINST GORBACHEV

Soviet hard-liners moved to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev, placing him under house arrest in a failed coup that tried to halt his reforms of perestroika and glasnost. The uprising collapsed after mass protests led by Boris Yeltsin, hastening the breakup of the Soviet Union and reshaping the post–Cold War world order that still frames today’s conflicts over Russian power and democracy.

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Sources

1. NPR / Houston Public Media / Spectrum News / KSAT / CBC
2. Texas Tribune / KVIA / KWTX / U.S. News & World Report / The Hill
3. Houston Public Media / The Hill / The Hill / KUNC / NRA-ILA
4. CNBC / UPI / Reuters via TradingView / Reuters via WSAU
5. AP via ABC News / PBS NewsHour / NPR / NBC News