What happened
A federal jury in New York yesterday found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary operated as an illegal monopoly, harming ticket buyers, artists and entertainment venues. The case was brought in 2024 by the Justice Department and 39 state attorneys general, but days into the seven-week trial, the DOJ announced a surprise settlement with Live Nation. More than 30 states rejected the deal as inadequate and continued their litigation. 

Who said what
The verdict “will be an earthquake in the industry,” legal analyst Scott Grzenczyk told CNN. There’s a “big difference between people complaining about Goliath and getting a jury verdict that Goliath was a monopolist.” Gail Slater, the DOJ antitrust chief pushed out weeks before the settlement, congratulated the “mighty state AG coalition that stood behind this case” and “made antitrust history.” Live Nation, which denied using its vast reach to smother competition, said it would appeal.

What next?
The ruling “won’t immediately bring relief for concertgoers who have long complained about high ticket prices,” The Associated Press said. But in the case’s remedies stage, the judge could hit Live Nation with “steep monetary penalties,” said Business Insider, or even a “court-ordered breakup of the company.”

What happened
The California Supreme Court yesterday ordered lawyer John Eastman, a key architect of President Donald Trump’s failed effort to overturn his 2020 election loss, stripped of his law license and “stricken from the roll of attorneys.” The ruling upheld a 2024 State Bar Court decision to disbar Eastman (pictured above) for concocting strategies to submit fake Trump electors and push Vice President Mike Pence to block Joe Biden’s victory in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Who said what
Eastman “remains one of the highest-profile figures in Trump’s orbit to face enduring consequences” for participating in his 2020 election schemes, culminating in the Jan. 6 attack, Politico said. Although he only lost his license to practice law in California, “disbarment decisions are typically adopted by authorities in other jurisdictions.” State bars “across the country have been trying to seek accountability” against Eastman and other lawyers involved in trying to subvert the election, The New York Times said. Rudy Giuliani was disbarred in New York and Washington, D.C., in 2024, and Jeffrey Clark’s D.C. 2025 disbarment is tied up in appeals. 

What next?
Eastman’s legal team said they would appeal his disbarment to the U.S. Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds. 

Emulating science fiction, portable computers called cyberdecks have been growing in popularity, especially with Gen Z. The trend is a response to a perceived lack of creativity in mainstream technology, as well as a way to fight back against data harvesting.

A cyberdeck is a transportable, homemade computer “used to access an online interface,” said Daily Dot. The term originated with the 1984 sci-fi novel “Neuromancer” by William Gibson. Since then, cyberdecks have been a “staple of the cyberpunk genre and aesthetic.”

They can be simple to construct and are often “built from thrifted or repurposed materials, giving each device a distinct look and function shaped entirely by its creator,” said Newsweek. The hand-built computers can be used for a variety of purposes, including as a gaming machine, e-reader, information database or MP3 player. 

Cyberdecks are “quietly rebellious,” said Quasa. They are a “direct middle finger to the boring, minimalist ‘everything-is-a-sleek-black-rectangle’ aesthetic that dominates tech design.” Much of the love for cyberdecks is a result of disillusionment with the state of modern technology. The “early internet’s wild, private, joyful chaos feels like a distant memory.” 

While technology has been “shaping the world’s digital future,” cyberdecks are “driving users back to the past — a time when a simpler, less corporatized and aggressively monitored online reality once existed,” said Daily Dot. The trend is “self-defense and nostalgia at the same time,” said Quasa. “When you are making something that’s truly yours, why be boring? Make it fun. Make it ridiculous. Make it you.”