(Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)

Nexstar, the US’s largest local TV broadcaster, is looking to get bigger with a $6.2 billion megamerger

TV broadcaster Nexstar plans to merge with smaller rival Tegna, testing the Trump administration’s consolidation appetite.

Max Knoblauch

8/19/25 9:14AM

The country’s biggest TV broadcaster, Nexstar, isn’t satisfied with 200 stations. On Tuesday, the company announced a multibillion-dollar deal to acquire a smaller rival.

Nexstar, the owner of NewsNation and CW, on Tuesday revealed a merger agreement with Tegna, a smaller but still large rival. According to Nexstar, the deal values Tegna at $6.2 billion. Tegna operates 64 stations across the US.

Nexstar and Tegna expect the deal to close in the second half of next year. Shares of both companies climbed in Tuesday morning trading.

The FCC, which under Trump-appointed Chair Brendan Carr has expressed a strong desire to loosen regulations on the industry, will have to approve the merger. Last month, a longstanding FCC rule prohibiting any broadcaster from owning more than one of the top four TV stations in a given market was struck down in federal court.

Sinclair Inc., the third-largest local broadcaster, reportedly attempted a last-minute merger with Tegna but appears to have come up short. Its shares ticked down on Tuesday morning.

Meta wins in FTC antitrust trial

The five-year-long case results in another big win for Big Tech as companies evade aging antitrust laws.

Jon Keegan11/18/25

Congress votes to end shutdown

The over 40-day government shutdown came to an end without a guarantee that the ACA tax credits will be extended.

J. Edward Moreno11/12/25

Jon Keegan11/12/25

OpenAI: The New York Times is forcing us to turn over 20 million ChatGPT conversations

A judge in the The New York Times’ copyright lawsuit against OpenAI (and Microsoft) has ordered that the ChatGPT maker hand over the conversations of 20 million users to the Times’ lawyers, in an effort to find examples of copyright violations.

Today, OpenAI is lobbying the public in a last-ditch effort to prevent the release, which is due Friday:

“The New York Times is demanding that we turn over 20 million of your private ChatGPT conversations. They claim they might find examples of you using ChatGPT to try to get around their paywall. This demand disregards long-standing privacy protections, breaks with common-sense security practices, and would force us to turn over tens of millions of highly personal conversations from people who have no connection to the Times’ baseless lawsuit against OpenAI.”

If the company’s final appeals to the court do not succeed, OpenAI explains that it will de-identify the chat logs, scrub any personally identifying information from the chats, and that technical experts hired by The New York Times’ legal team will be the only ones who can examine the data, which will be tightly controlled.

Fighting the New York Times’ invasion of user privacy

Today, OpenAI is lobbying the public in a last-ditch effort to prevent the release, which is due Friday:

“The New York Times is demanding that we turn over 20 million of your private ChatGPT conversations. They claim they might find examples of you using ChatGPT to try to get around their paywall. This demand disregards long-standing privacy protections, breaks with common-sense security practices, and would force us to turn over tens of millions of highly personal conversations from people who have no connection to the Times’ baseless lawsuit against OpenAI.”

Millie Giles

THE BILL, PLEASE

11/10/25

The Senate just advanced a deal that could end the government shutdown

Prediction markets have done a U-turn as Washington looks to end the longest government shutdown in US history.

USA government shutdown, political crisis concept illustration

Max Knoblauch11/4/25

Big four airlines sink as Transportation Secretary Duffy says parts of US airspace could close if shutdown continues

The US may close parts of its airspace as early as next week if the government shutdown continues, according to comments made by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday.

“If you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos. You will see mass flight delays. You’ll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it,” Duffy said at a news briefing on Tuesday.

The shutdown, which entered its 35th day on Tuesday, has fueled already problematic shortages of air traffic controllers. This week, airlines said 3.2 million passengers have faced delays or cancellations because of the shortages. Last week, about 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 TSA agents received their first $0 paycheck amid the shutdown.

Shares of the big four US airlines all sank on Duffy’s comments, with United Airlines, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines all down more than 5%.