Washington, D.C., is considering autonomous-vehicle rules that would establish testing thresholds, permit fees, and a per-mile tax. Uber opposes the measure and favors a hybrid ride-hailing model, while Waymo broadly supports it and has already met the proposed testing requirements.Christopher Nolan is encouraging greater scrutiny of artificial intelligence and the interests driving its adoption. The filmmaker likened the technology to a Trojan horse operating in plain sight and welcomed the skepticism he sees among younger people.Current AI is developing open technology for communities and languages often underrepresented by commercial systems. Its projects include an offline device supporting 22 Indian languages and an open-source chatbot, all part of an effort to build widely accessible public AI infrastructure.Astronomers have detected helium escaping from the rocky exoplanet LHS 1140 b, offering strong evidence that it has retained an atmosphere for billions of years while orbiting in its star's habitable zone. The finding does not establish the presence of life, but it validates a promising method for examining potentially habitable worlds.Physical game media continues to lose ground as console makers promote systems without disc drives and players rely more heavily on downloadable libraries. Grand Theft Auto VI is not expected to include a disc when it first launches, intensifying concerns about long-term ownership and the preservation of games.High school teams designed and built solar-powered cars for a five-day, 630-mile race across Texas. The Solar Car Challenge combines renewable-energy education with practical experience in engineering, budgeting, project management, and hands-on problem-solving.Unconfirmed leaks ahead of Samsung's July 22 event point to three new foldable phones and updated smartwatches. The rumored changes involve dimensions, displays, processors, cameras, and batteries, but the specifications remain uncertain until Samsung makes its announcement.The Justice Department says executive-branch employees will not be prosecuted for installing TikTok on government devices when their agencies permit it. The statutory ban remains on the books, creating a clear divide between the law and the government's current enforcement policy.Warmer conditions are expanding the territory and transmission seasons of disease-carrying mosquitoes in regions that were historically temperate. Public-health researchers say broader trapping, testing, and shared surveillance data are needed to identify emerging virus hot spots before human cases reveal an outbreak.