Leftovers

• Simon Willison ☛ It's this blog's 23rd birthday

  The best time to start a blog may have been twenty years ago, but the second best time to start a blog is today.

• Sean Goedecke ☛ Say "but yes", not "yes but"

  When you’re agreeing with someone but you have a caveat, don’t say “yes, but”. Instead, say “but yes”. For instance, if you’re happy with a suggested approach so long as it’s only short term, don’t say “sounds good, but we’ll have to change it in a month”. Say “we’ll have to change it in a month, but sounds good”.

• Science

  • Truthdig ☛ The U.S. Government Is Starving Its Own Scientists of Knowledge

    The implications are wide-reaching. Scientific journals are not easy to access as they are often behind paywalls; scientists usually read them through an institutional account. For example, the average price for a chemistry journal subscription in 2025 is $8,572. Without access to current literature, federally funded researchers risk duplicating work, missing proven solutions and making decisions based on outdated or incomplete information. That’s not just inefficient — it’s dangerous. And it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars.

  • Simon Willison ☛ Blogging about papers

    In addition to breaking a paper down into more digestible chunks, writing about papers offers an extremely valuable filter. There are hundreds of new papers published every day: seeing someone who's work you respect confirm that a paper is worth your time is a really strong signal.

  • Science News ☛ There’s no cheating this random number generator

    If your name gets picked for jury duty, it’s because a computer used a random number generator to select it. The same goes for tax audits or when you opt for a quick pick lottery ticket. But how can you trust that the draw was truly fair? A new cheat-proof protocol for generating random numbers could provide that confidence — preventing hidden tampering or rigged outcomes, researchers report June 11 in Nature.

• Career/Education

  • The Onion ☛ Cool Dad Raising Daughter On Media That Will Put Her Entirely Out Of Touch With Her Generation - The Onion

    Since her early childhood, a period sources said featured a Danger Mouse–themed birthday party that utterly baffled the assembled 6-year-old guests, Campbell’s daughter has been fed a steady diet of marginalizing cinematic masterpieces from the world’s very best filmmakers.

  • Manuel Moreale ☛ P&B: James A. Reeves

    This is the 94th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have James A. Reeves and his blog, jamesreeves.co

  • Mike Brock ☛ Against Ironic Detachment

    And I’m going to say something that will make many of you deeply uncomfortable: our culture has confused ironic detachment with intelligence. We’ve mistaken cynicism for sophistication, distance for depth, and the refusal to commit to anything for wisdom itself.

    This is killing us.

  • Wired ☛ How Steve Jobs Wrote the Greatest Commencement Speech Ever

    Jobs dreaded giving this speech. The Jobs I knew stayed in a strictly policed comfort zone. He thought nothing of walking out of a meeting, even an important one, if something displeased him. His exacting instructions to anyone charged with preparing his meals rivaled those for the manufacture of iPhones. And there were certain subjects that, in 2005, you best never broach: the trauma of his adoption, his firing from Apple in 1985, and the details of his cancer, which he held so closely that some wondered if it was an SEC violation. So it’s all the more astonishing that he set out to tell precisely these stories in front of 23,000 people on a scorching hot Sunday in Stanford’s football stadium. “This was really speaking about things very close to his heart,” says Leslie Berlin, executive director of the archive. “For him to take the speech in that direction, particularly since he was so private, was incredibly meaningful.”

  • MacRumors ☛ Steve Jobs' Iconic Speech at Stanford Now Available in Higher Quality

    "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."

  • The Steve Jobs Archive ☛ Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

    It’s not an obvious candidate for a classic. A commencement address by a college dropout. A talk aimed at 22-year-olds that warns “You will gradually become the old and be cleared away.” A text as shadowed by reality as soaring with inspiration: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

  • Irish Examiner ☛ No post-primary phone ban — but schools will be asked to help restrict their use

    However, all primary schools will implement new policies that ban the use of, and access to, smartphones during the school day.

• Hardware

  • The Register UK ☛ The trendline doesn’t look good for hard disk drives

    "Traditional mission-critical, performance-optimised enterprise-grade HDDs with 10,000 rpm or 15,000 rpm spin speeds are no longer in demand among enterprise buyers and are being replaced by SSD solutions," she added.

  • PC World ☛ Static electricity fried my PC when I opened it. Here's what I did wrong

    I got a firsthand taste of what it’s like to lose a component while cleaning my gaming rig and let me tell you, it’s no joke! What did I do wrong? I didn’t use an anti-static wristband, that’s what!

  • Task And Purpose ☛ New sniper rifle forces Army to extend Fort Benning firing ranges

    With the MK22 Precision Sniper Rifle, soldiers are expected to hit targets up to 1,500 meters away — 500 meters farther than they could with the previous rifle.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ Cycling Linked to Lower Risk of Dementia, Study of Half a Million Finds

    A study carried out by researchers from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China and the University of Sydney backs up the idea that frequent amounts of moderate exercise and keeping the brain busy can guard against neurodegeneration.

  • Futurism ☛ Man Killed by Police After Spiraling Into ChatGPT-Driven Psychosis

    The horrific incident highlights a worrying trend. Even those who aren't suffering from pre-existing mental health conditions are being drawn in by the tech, which has garnered a reputation for being incredibly sycophantic and playing into users' narcissistic personality traits and delusional thoughts.

    It's an astonishingly widespread problem. Futurism has been inundated with accounts from concerned friends and family of people developing dangerous infatuations with AI, ranging from messy divorces to mental breakdowns.

  • Vintage Everyday ☛ Amazing 1899 Photos of Finnish Farmers with Their Cows and Bulls

    Finnish agriculture, series of photos from The Finnish Museum of Photography, 1899. I. K Inha (1865–1930), on a commission from the National Board of Agriculture, photographed scenes of Finnish agricultural work for the World’s Fair (Exposition Universelle) in Paris in 1900: stables and cowsheds, home economics exhibitions, fields and pastures.

  • Futurism ☛ Stanford Research Finds That "Therapist" Chatbots Are Encouraging Users' Schizophrenic Delusions and Suicidal Thoughts

    Specifically, they found that AI therapist chatbots are contributing to harmful mental health stigmas — and reacting in outright dangerous ways to users exhibiting signs of severe crises, including suicidality and schizophrenia-related psychosis and delusion.

  • EDRI ☛ All Eyes on my Period? Period tracking apps and the future of privacy in a post-Roe world

    Privacy International investigated eight of the most popular period-tracking apps to analyse how they function and process users’ reproductive health data. Their findings raised concerns for users’ privacy, given the sensitive nature of the health data involved. These findings come within the context of the global roll back on reproductive rights and fears over law enforcement forcing apps to hand over data.

• Proprietary

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Leon Mika ☛ Some Morning AI Thoughts

      There were couple of things that I disliked about this position, like the idea that a “GenAI Application Engineer” is different from a regular software developer, as if the introduction of AI tools warrants a completely different job title. Replace “AI” with “IDE editor” in the quote about to see how ridiculous this sounds.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ Meta buys into Scale AI in the quest for fresh data

      Wang isn’t even an AI researcher. He’s a business guy with some tech knowledge. The Financial Times says “His talents lie in promoting the company rather than managing its staff or furthering AI research.” Zuckerberg seems to think this sales guy is the new Facebook executive he wants.

    • The Washington Post ☛ Meta AI chatbot is divulging users' most private searches

      The flurry of personal posts on Meta AI is the latest indication that people are increasingly turning to conversational chatbots to meet their relationship and emotional needs. As users ask the chatbots for advice on matters ranging from their marital problems to financial challenges, privacy advocates warn that users’ personal information may end up being used by tech companies in ways they didn’t expect or want.

    • Shayon Mukherjee ☛ Pitfalls of premature closure with LLM assisted coding

      This medical case study illustrates “premature closure”—a cognitive error where physicians latch onto an initial diagnosis and fail to consider reasonable alternatives. In this case, the atypical presentation led multiple experienced doctors to anchor on the most probable explanation while nearly missing a critical, less common condition.

      The same pattern is emerging in software development as AI coding assistants become more sophisticated. The models are so good now that their first suggestion often looks not just plausible, but convincing. Professional formatting, clean code, proper naming conventions—everything appears right. And therein lies the trap.

    • Futurism ☛ Tesla's Robotaxi Launch Date Was Supposed to Be Today, But We're Shocked to Hear That It's Been Pushed Back

      That comment could prove to be revealing.

      Tesla's robotaxi initiative is clouded with uncertainty, because the automaker has never released a driving system that's capable of operating without a human behind the wheel.

    • [Repeat] Press Gazette ☛ New IT publication appears to be largely AI-generated

      Press Gazette has been unable to verify the credentials of two journalists who front a new IT publication which appears to be largely AI-generated.

      US-based ‘Levelact’, which makes extensive use of AI-generated imagery, offers news and features on topics including: cloud, cybersecurity and quantum networking, It claims in outreach emails to have 97,000 subscribers.

    • [Repeat] Press Gazette ☛ Fake experts and SEO: Journalists adopting new checks

      When Press Gazette made contact with Santini via Whatsapp we were threatened with legal action if we pursued our coverage. Press Gazette has not heard from Santini’s lawyers and she has not been quoted again in the media since Press Gazette’s report on 7 April. Multiple stories have been taken down and amended.

      However, PR companies continue to deploy fake experts apparently using AI-generated responses.

    • Futurism ☛ Investment CEO Tells Convention Audience That 60 Percent of Them Will Be Unemployed Next Year Due to AI

      Despite staring into the maw of a colossal money pit, tech CEOs are doubling down, announcing plans to increase spending on AI development, going as far as laying off armies of workers to cut down on expenditures.

  • Social Control Media

    • Harvard University ☛ Remember when corporations avoided politics on social media?

      It seems ubiquitous now, but corporations putting out partisan-sounding tweets is only a recent development. What did you find?

      Partisan speech was very rare for companies. Less than 1 percent of all the tweets they sent between 2012 and 2017 would constitute what was, according to our measures, very partisan speech.

      Wading into partisan, polarized issues can be tricky for companies. We saw the first big change in 2017 where both Democratic and Republican partisan speech picks up, and then this big asymmetry starting in 2019.

  • Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets

    • The Register UK ☛ Cyber weapons in the Israel-Iran conflict may hit the US

      Daniel, who now leads the threat-intel sharing nonprofit Cyber Threat Alliance, said both countries "have the capability to conduct a range of activities, from fully reversible DDoS [distributed denial-of-service] attacks, which could disrupt online services temporarily, to destructive wiper attacks. At the very least, I am sure both sides are using cyber capabilities to conduct espionage and reconnaissance."

    • Graham Cluley ☛ Sweden says it is under cyber attack

      Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson says his country is under attack, after days of hard-hitting DDoS attacks against SVT Sweden’s public TV broadcaster, government websites, and other key organisations.

    • New Eastern Europe ☛ Russia’s hybrid war on NATO’s Eastern Flank quietly escalates

      At the same time, Romania is one of the recent stark examples of the Kremlin’s application of modern hybrid warfare tools. In December 2024, the country’s constitutional court annulled the 2024 presidential election after the country’s intelligence services confirmed Russian interference via fake social media accounts and cyberattacks on election systems. The Kremlin’s application of hybrid tools persisted into 2025, with evidence existing of pro-Russian hacker groups launching coordinated cyberattacks targeting the country’s foreign ministry, constitutional court, and presidential campaign websites to undermine the democratic process in the country.

      Collectively, these incidents confirm that Russia is applying a coordinated hybrid warfare playbook across NATO’s Eastern Flank to paralyse democratic processes and undermine the resilience of its critical infrastructure.

    • The Record ☛ Government offices in North Carolina, Georgia disrupted by cyberattacks

      City Manager Michael Brandt said Thomasville notified state and federal authorities about the attack. North Carolina is one of only a handful of states to have a law explicitly banning government entities from paying ransoms associated with ransomware attacks.

    • Fortra LLC ☛ Bert Ransomware: What You Need To Know

      Yes, unless you have a non-corrupted and recent backup of your data, your best bet is to contact the hackers who attacked you as a free decryptor for Bert is not available. In their ransom note the hackers provide a unique ID to allow you to make contact via the Session messeneger app.

• Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub)

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Milestone one billionth Github Repo is just the word 'sh*t'

    GitHub has hit an illustrious milestone with the publication of the one billionth repository this week. Whether by chance or design, Aasish Pokhrel from Nepal earned the honor of publishing the billionth nugget of code shared on the platform. Unfortunately, it’s ‘sh*t.’ That isn’t a snarky comment, or our judgment regarding the code, the repo is simply the word ‘sh*t.’

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • [Repeat] BIA Net ☛ How secure is your digital life?

      The project's initial focus will be to help civil society organizations (CSOs), media professionals, young activists, and the public in the Balkans and Turkey build capacity regarding media freedom, as well as trends and challenges in the development and sustainability of the media. The project partners are: [...]

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • TechCrunch ☛ The Meta AI app is a privacy disaster

      When you ask the AI a question, you have the option of hitting a share button, which then directs you to a screen showing a preview of the post, which you can then publish. But some users appear blissfully unaware that they are sharing these text conversations, audio clips, and images publicly with the world.

    • TruthOut ☛ Trump Is Rapidly Expanding the Surveillance State as Protests Grow

      However, perhaps the greatest consolidation of state power is not happening in the streets, but quietly being hammered out in courtrooms and behind closed doors, where Trump’s campaign of mass deportation is being used to justify a rapid expansion and centralization of the surveillance state.

      “The idea that this is something that just affects immigrants is wholly untrue,” said Matthew Guariglia, a senior policy analyst and digital rights watchdog at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in an interview with Truthout. “I think immigrants are the first target; it is a permission structure, and if they can get away with doing these things to immigrants, what are the legal barriers from moving on to the next undesirable group?”

    • Wired ☛ CBP's Predator Drone Flights Over LA Are a Dangerous Escalation

      “Military gear has been used for domestic law enforcement for a long time, but flying military gear over LA at a time when the president has sent military units against the wishes of the governor is noteworthy," says Matthew Feeney, a longtime emerging technologies researcher and advocacy manager at the nonpartisan UK civil liberties group Big Brother Watch. “If the federal government portrays immigration as a national security issue, we shouldn’t be surprised if it openly uses the tools of national security—i.e., military hardware—in response.”

      Carrying powerful cameras and other sensors, Predator drones can record clear, detailed footage of events like protests from high altitudes.

    • EDRI ☛ Age Verification and the Future of Adult Content Regulation webinar

      This summer marks a pivotal moment in the evolving landscape of adult content regulation. With the EU officially investigating major porn platforms over their lack of robust age verification systems—and several US states pushing sweeping age gating laws—debates around online safety, user privacy, and freedom of expression are intensifying.

      Join the Digital Intimacy Coalition for a timely and crucial conversation on the future of adult content regulation. This webinar brings together three experts from the worlds of law, tech policy, and porn production to unpack the complex consequences of current and proposed age verification mandates.

    • [Repeat] EDRI ☛ Why the EU’s GDPR ‘simplification’ reforms could unravel hard-won protections

      One would imagine that all of the above would cement the GDPR as the cornerstone of the EU’s digital policy and the need to preserve it, but this crucial law is being threatened by a push for profit at any cost. The first blow is scheduled for May 21, with a second likely to follow in the form of a ‘Digital Package’ expected in the fourth quarter of 2025. Proposals to amend this regulation appear to be part of a broader deregulatory trend within the EU that threatens not only data protection but also a range of other fundamental rights.

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Treasury secretary backs tougher IRS leaker penalties amid lingering DOGE [sic] data questions

      Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, asked Bessent on Wednesday whether any DOGE [sic] staff have had access to the IRS’s Integrated Data Retrieval System, which contains taxpayers’ personally identifiable information as well as audit, medical debt and employment history.

    • [Repeat] Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Billions of data records relating to Chinese citizens leaked online

      The 631 gigabyte haul of information – including WeChat and Alipay details – may be part of a surveillance effort targeting Chinese citizens, according to the research team at tech media outlet Cybernews and Bob Diachenko, owner and founder of cybersecurity consulting firm Security Discovery.

    • The Register UK ☛ Report: Apple, Google stores still offer China-based VPNs

      In April, TTP published its initial VPN report that found 20 of last year's top 100 free VPNs in the US Apple App Store showed evidence of Chinese ownership. Five of these had ties to Qihoo 360, a Chinese cybersecurity firm that has been placed on the US Commerce Department's Entity List under export-control restrictions over concerns about its alleged links to China's People's Liberation Army.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Atlantic Council ☛ The strategic reserve and the Israel-Iran conflict

    The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve is well-stocked and poised to help ease market pressures amid growing tensions stemming from Israel’s strikes on Iran. Rising domestic production, strong export capacity, and high net import cover collectively enable the United States to respond decisively while preserving energy stability at home.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ After Israel’s strikes on Iran, these four questions could determine the Middle East’s future

    The trajectory of the Middle East could be determined by how just a few critical questions are answered the coming days and weeks.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Unknowns, knowns, and early predictions about Israel’s strikes against Iran

    How long Israel’s campaign against Iran will go on is unknown. But even amid the uncertainty, don’t lose sight of what is already known—or at least what can already be surmised with high confidence.

  • Defence Web ☛ Pressure from above: US air power intensifies on ISIS-Somalia

    United States Africa Command (Africom) conducted a precision airstrike targeting ISIS-Somalia on 10 June, approximately 72 km southeast of Bosaso, Puntland, in close coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, according to an Africom Public Affairs statement released from Stuttgart, Germany.

  • France24 ☛ Iran launches more missiles at Israel after it targets nuclear facilities

    Iran and Israel targeted each other with airstrikes early on Saturday after Israel launched its biggest-ever offensive against its longtime foe in a bid to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

  • France24 ☛ Iran in psychological disarray: Regime struggles to grasp magnitude of unprecedented Israeli assault

    Israel has launched powerful strikes against Iran, targeting top military commanders as well as nuclear and missile facilities, an escalation that raises the specter of full-scale war between two of the Middle East’s fiercest adversaries. For deeper insight, FRANCE 24’s Gavin Hall speaks with Tara Kangarlou, author, award-winning global affairs journalist, and adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. As Israel, in her words, "pounds Iran from all sides," Kangarlou describes the Islamic Republic as being at a historic low point: "Iran is at its weakest now; they have nothing to fight back with."

  • France24 ☛ Iranian missile sites: What the images of the Israeli air strikes show us

    In the early hours of June 13, the Israeli military launched Operation “Rising Lion” against Iran. In addition to striking Iran's nuclear sites and killing high-ranking Iranian officers, Israel also directly targeted ballistic missile sites. The FRANCE 24 Observers team analysed the initial images from this operation, which aims to cripple Iran's military response capabilities.

  • France24 ☛ World leaders call for restraint, de-escalation after Israeli strikes on Iran

    World leaders urged restraint on Friday after Israeli strikes hit 100 targets in Iran including nuclear and military sites, killing senior figures in the country's Revolutionary Guards.

  • France24 ☛ Iran is no friend of NATO or Europe: NATO Parliamentary Assembly chief Perestrello

    We speak to the president of NATO's Parliamentary Assembly, just hours after Israel launched major strikes on Iran's military and nuclear sites. Marcos Perestrello is a Portuguese politician and a former secretary of state for national defence in Portugal. He calls for "de-escalation" in the Middle East and more nuclear diplomacy, while also making the case that Iran is a threat to the region and to global security, and that the development of a nuclear programme in Iran would be "an even bigger threat to global security".

  • France24 ☛ Iran resumed uranium enrichment following US withdrawal from nuclear deal fiercely opposed by Israel

    Israel attacked Iran in strikes that took out top military officers and hit nuclear and missile sites, raising the potential for an all-out war between the two bitter Middle East adversaries. For in-depth and a deeper perspective, FRANCE 24's François Picard welcomes Alon Pinkas, Author, former  Israeli diplomat, and former Policy Advisor to Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak. To better understand what led to Israel's major attack on Iran's nuclear sites, Mr. Pinkas highlights that "Iran has been accelerating its enrichment process because Netanyahu encouraged Convicted Felon to withdraw unilaterally from the 2015 (JCPOA) nuclear deal."

  • France24 ☛ Israeli attack on Iran 'probably years in the planning'

    Not only did dozens of Israeli warplanes carry out simultaneous strikes across Iran Friday, the operation also involved Israel's spy agency, the Mossad, which sources say smuggled weapons into Iran ahead of Friday’s strikes that were used to target its defenses from within. France 24’s Catherine Norris Trent takes a closer look at how the complex operation was carried out.

  • France24 ☛ 'Declaration of war': Fears of escalation as Iran counts cost of Israeli strikes

    Israel targeted Iran's capital early on Friday, carrying out air strikes on the country's nuclear facilities that also killed several high ranking officials. The attacks raise the potential for a larger war between the two bitter adversaries. Iran has already responded - launching over 100 drones at Israel.

  • France24 ☛ Condemnations and calls for calm as world reacts to Israel's attack on Iran

    The Insurrectionist has warned of "even more brutal attacks" while many other leaders have condemned Israel's attack on Iran or called for de-escalation. France 24's Solange Mougin takes a look at some of the international reaction to Friday's strikes.

  • France24 ☛ ‘There must be a crushing response’: Iranians react to Israeli strikes

    Tehran residents woke up in the middle of the night to sounds of sirens and explosions amid Israel’s attack on Iranian nuclear sites, scientists and security officials. Many are now waiting to see what Iran's military response will be, with some calling for action and others fearing escalation.

  • France24 ☛ Reactions from the Iranian population after mass attacks by Israel

    Iran's Nournews agency reported that Israeli airstrikes on residential neighborhoods in Tehran early today left at least 78 people dead and 329 others injured. The attacks struck civilian areas, causing heavy casualties, including among women and children.

  • RFERL ☛ Iran Launches New Waves Of Missile Strikes On Israel As Netanyahu Vows Further Attacks

    Tehran early on June 14 launched fresh missile strikes that hit Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and other cities in Israel as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu huddled with senior officials to plan the next steps in a military operation that targeted nuclear and military facilities in arch enemy Iran

  • RFERL ☛ An Encounter With An Iranian Nuclear Scientist Killed In The Israeli Air Strikes

    Fereydoun Abbasi, the former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, is one of several scientists killed in Israel's air strikes on Iranian nuclear assets. RFE/RL's Nathan Hodge once interviewed Abbasi, and recalls the 2007 encounter.

  • RFERL ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Calls On Tehran To Negotiate 'Before It's Too Late' As Israeli Strikes Intensify

    Israel conducted what it called “preemptive" strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and military sites across the country on June 13, warning that the attacks will continue as it pursues its goal of preventing Tehran from building a nuclear weapon.

  • New Yorker ☛ Why Netanyahu Decided to Strike Iran Now

    The editor-in-chief of Haaretz on how Hell Toupée enabled Israel to carry out an attack years in the making.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists killed in Israeli strikes

    The dead include top commanders and six nuclear scientists.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Israel has long weighed bombing Iran’s nuclear sites. Why it struck now.

    Israel has long feared that Iran’s nuclear program was geared toward developing a weapon. Now that Israel has overtly bombed nuclear sites, inviting an Iranian response, is U.S. diplomacy still possible?

  • CS Monitor ☛ Israeli strikes leave Iran few security options

    Israel said it attacked Iranian nuclear targets to ensure that Tehran never makes a nuclear weapon. But Iran may see such a weapon as its only deterrent.

  • New York Times ☛ Much of Iran’s Nuclear Program Remains After Israel’s Strikes. At Least for Now.

    The first phase of the attack did not hit the most likely repository of Iran’s near-bomb-grade nuclear fuel.

  • New York Times ☛ How to Think About What’s Happening With Iran and Israel

    There are a number of factors to consider as we make sense of what’s happening with Iran and Israel — and the possibility for very good and very bad outcomes.

  • New York Times ☛ A Miscalculation by Iran Led to Israeli Strikes’ Extensive Toll, Officials Say

    Interviews with half a dozen senior Iranian officials show that they were not expecting Israel to strike before another round of talks.

  • New York Times ☛ Republicans Are Divided Over Iran. Will Convicted Felon Pick a Side?

    Hell Toupée is trapped between the “America First” isolationists and others in his party who are cheering on Israel’s strikes against Iran.

  • New York Times ☛ What to Know About Israel’s Strikes and Iran’s Retaliation

    Israel attacked Iran early Friday and killed many of the country’s top military leaders and scientists. Iran retaliated with missiles and drones.

  • New York Times ☛ Iran Retaliates and Israel Vows More Strikes After Devastating Attack

    Waves of Israeli airstrikes hit two nuclear enrichment sites, multiple military bases, and military scientists and commanders. Iran replied with a barrage of missiles and drones.

  • New York Times ☛ What Are Israel’s Defenses Against Iran?

    Iran launched dozens of missiles on Friday and hit several sites in Israel, after waves of Israeli strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities and military leaders.

  • New York Times ☛ Israel’s Strikes on Iran Divide Congress, Drawing Praise and Concern

    Republicans and some Democrats offered strong support for Israel’s move, but many Democrats called for de-escalation and warned of the consequences of a broader war.

  • New York Times ☛ The U.S. helped protect Israel from Iranian strikes.

  • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Says Iran ‘Must Make a Deal, Before There Is Nothing Left’

    In his first public comments on the Israeli strikes against Iran, the U.S. president said Tehran had brought the destruction on itself and must continue nuclear talks.

  • New York Times ☛ Israel’s Strike on Iran Comes at a Moment of Weakness for Iran’s Proxies

    Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” the network of militias it has fostered in the Middle East to help it fight Israel, has become seriously degraded, experts say.

  • New York Times ☛ Israeli Strikes Targeted Some of Iran’s Most Important Nuclear Facilities

    Iran’s nuclear centers are spread across the country. Here are the main ones.

  • New York Times ☛ A Sprawling Israeli Intelligence Effort Underpinned the Iran Strikes

    Years of intelligence collection, infiltration of Iran with commandos and weapons, and tracking of targeted commanders and scientists made the wide-ranging attacks possible.

  • New York Times ☛ Netanyahu Says Israel Will Fight Iran for ‘as Many Days as It Takes’

    Israel hit nuclear facilities, air defense batteries, and killed top military officials and scientists.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China's UN envoy condemns Israeli strikes on Iran - state media

    BEIJING/HONG KONG - China condemns Israel's violations of Iran's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and urges Israel to immediately stop all risky military actions, China's U.N. Ambassador Fu Cong said, state media Xinhua News Agency reported.

  • Meduza ☛ Kremlin ‘strongly condemns sharp escalation’ following Israeli airstrikes on Iran — Meduza

  • Nebraska Examiner ☛ Trump’s proof of citizenship elections order blocked for now in federal court

    “The issue here is whether the President can require documentary proof of citizenship where the authority for election requirements is in the hands of Congress, its statutes … do not require it, and the statutorily created (Election Assistance Commission) is required to go through a notice and comment period and consult with the States before implementing any changes to the federal forms for voter registration,” Casper, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, continued.

  • Michigan Advance ☛ Judge says Trump takeover of California National Guard 'illegal,' orders return to governor

    A federal judge in California late Thursday ordered President Donald Trump to relinquish command of 4,000 National Guard troops the president called to help contain Los Angeles protests over immigration raids.

    U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard was illegal, and ordered the return of control to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had opposed the deployment. He said his order would go into effect noon Pacific time Friday, likely setting up an emergency appeal by the administration.

  • Nebraska Examiner ☛ Judge says Trump takeover of California National Guard 'illegal,' orders return to governor

    U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard was illegal, and ordered the return of control to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had opposed the deployment. He said his order would go into effect noon Pacific time Friday, likely setting up an emergency appeal by the administration.

    Trump’s “actions were illegal—both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Breyer wrote.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Taiwan jails Chinese ship captain for severing subsea cable

    The cable had been “completely severed” by the time Taiwan’s coast guard intercepted the Hongtai and ordered the lifting of its anchor, the court said in the judgement.

  • The Moscow Times ☛ Finland Ends Probe Into Baltic Cable Damage, Officially Identifies Tanker Crew Members as Suspects - The Moscow Times

    The Eagle S, registered in the Cook Islands and believed to be part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” allegedly dragged its anchor for dozens of kilometers across the seabed, damaging one electrical cable and four telecommunications cables on Dec. 25.

    The ship’s anchor was later recovered by the Swedish navy in January.

  • US News And World Report ☛ Finland Completes Probe Into Baltic Sea Cable Damage, Suspects Tanker Crew

    Finnish authorities suspect the Cook Islands-registered Eagle S of having broken the Estlink 2 undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia as well as four internet lines last December by dragging its anchor across the seabed.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ For All That Is Good About Humankind, Ban Smartphones

    Smartphones are making us unhealthy, miserable, antisocial, and less free. If we can’t yet nationalize the attention economy, maybe it’s time to abolish its primary tool — before it finishes abolishing us.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ 'Dark' personality traits thrive in societies with corruption and inequality, global study shows

    "Aversive personality traits are associated with behaviors such as aggression, cheating, and exploitation—and thus with high social costs. Therefore, even small variations can lead to large differences in how societies function," points out Ingo Zettler.

    According to the researchers, the study may have implications for our view on social reforms.

  • Garry Kasparov ☛ Responding to Your Comments on the LA Protests

    Public officials have a responsibility to abide by the law, and ordinary citizens must hold them accountable. People make a nation’s foundational papers work. That’s why it’s imperative that you don’t feed an authoritarian bully’s provocations, lest we lose the constituency for the Constitution.

  • Axios ☛ Judge: Trump illegally sent California National Guard to LA ICE protests

    "His actions were illegal — both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution," wrote the Clinton-appointed judge.

    "He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith."

  • The Independent UK ☛ Trump ordered to return control of National Guard troops to Gavin Newsom after ‘illegal’ order over LA protests

    “[President Trump]’s actions were illegal—both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Judge Charles R. Breyer wrote in a Thursday evening ruling, referring to the amendment preserving certain powers of the states from federal interference.

  • Sightline Media Group ☛ Judge says Trump illegally deployed National Guard to LA

    U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said Trump overstepped his bounds in ordering the deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard members to Los Angeles after protests erupted over the immigration crackdown.

    It was not immediately clear how that would change the situation on the ground.

  • The Walrus ☛ What Photography Teaches Me about Surviving the News Cycle | The Walrus

    Instant laughter. Automatic mockery. Cue the atomic wedgie.

    You can imagine my horror (and waves of repressed memories) when, last November, I saw a photo of then prime minister Justin Trudeau sitting around a table with then US president-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

    “He’s done for,” I thought. “It’s wedgie time.”

    Since then, the American president’s barrage of disrespect has famously escalated to real threats to our sovereignty. He’s also threatened to take Greenland by force, if necessary, and he is no doubt interested in Canada’s minerals, many of which are in the North, where I live. I don’t blame Trudeau for any of that, but using my keen bully radar, I can say that he didn’t exactly help. His fatal error in dealing with Trump was hitting the panic button.

  • Cory Dransfeldt ☛ Cowards in masks

    But those protests will be portrayed as riots. Riots used as propaganda, propaganda leading to increased militarization. It's a vicious cycle that I don't see how we escape. We no longer have a meaningful public square. We have a chasm across which we lob spit and rocks.

  • The Nation ☛ Donald Trump Is Running the Military Like a Warlord

    That Trump is an aspirant warlord is clear from the way he has tried to break down the tradition of keeping the military depoliticized. In the last few weeks Trump has taken a string of actions—ranging from turning a speech at Fort Bragg into a campaign rally to sending troops to quell protesters in Los Angeles—that make it clear that he wants the military to be subservient to himself alone.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Futurism ☛ You Can Tell When War Is Breaking Out Because the Pentagon's Pizza Orders Spike Drastically

    A flurry of activity at pizza delivery outlets near the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, is a surprisingly accurate predictor of war, as hungry military leadership hunkers down to monitor unfolding military activities.

  • American Oversight ☛ American Oversight Launches Investigation into Trump’s Parade Threats Amid Escalating Use of Force and Strongman Posturing - American Oversight

    The FOIA requests seek communications, policy memos, and directives from senior officials related to the expected potential use of crowd-control munitions and other tactics on June 14. The filings also target records reflecting officials’ reactions to Trump’s public statements threatening protesters.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ The gaslighting of Alex Padilla is already in full swing on the right

    So the question isn’t really whether Padilla lunged or not — since, as the video shows, it’s clear he was nowhere close to Noem and had no intent to harm — but rather why Noem chose to call it a lunge.

    “It was very disingenuous of Kristi Noem to make the claim that he lunged at her,” Joan Donovan told me. She’s an expert on disinformation and an assistant professor of journalism at Boston University.

    “The Trump administration is salivating over a major contestation that would allow them to roll the military out into any old town,” she said. “They are making it seem as if without this kind of major intervention and excessive force, that these people are ungovernable.”

  • The Atlantic ☛ The L.A. Distortion Effect

    All of these dynamics are familiar in the post-Ferguson era of protest. What you are witnessing is a news event distributed and consumed through a constellation of different still images and video clips, all filmed from different perspectives and presented by individuals and organizations with different agendas. It is a buffet of violence, celebration, confusion, and sensationalism. Consumed in aggregate, it might provide an accurate representation of the proceedings: a tense, potentially dangerous, but still contained response by a community to a brutal federal immigration crackdown.

    Unfortunately, very few people consume media this way. And so the protests follow the choose-your-own-adventure quality of a fractured media ecosystem, where, depending on the prism one chooses, what’s happening in L.A. varies considerably.

• Environment

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Fossil corals point to possibly steeper sea level rise under a warming world

    These particular fossils provided an exceptional opportunity for researchers to reconstruct past sea levels. That's in part because they're remnants of coral species that only live in shallows very near the sea surface. Their tropical location also means they were far away from any past ice sheets, which have a more pronounced effect on local sea levels.

  • DeSmog ☛ xAI Data Center Emits Plumes of Pollution, New Video Shows

    xAI quickly built an enormous data center and supercomputer at an empty factory site in Memphis last year, aimed at providing computational power for xAI’s chatbot, called Grok. Having difficulty securing enough grid power to fuel the energy-hungry data center, xAI brought in 35 portable gas turbines, and assembled them without environmental permits or pollution controls.

    A new video, recorded by Oil Field Witness, an environmental group, shows vast plumes of pollution coming from those gas turbines.

    “It’s a power plant. That’s what it is,” Sharon Wilson, director of Oil Field Witness, told Gas Outlook.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Trump Signs Illegal Attack on California’s Clean Car Authority

    “Ripping away California’s clean air protections is Trump’s latest betrayal of democracy,” said Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Safe Climate Transport Campaign. “Signing this bill is a flagrant abuse of the law to reward Big Oil and Big Auto corporations at the expense of everyday people’s health and their wallets. Trump bet that Big Oil CEOs would deposit a billion dollars into his campaign. Now he’s the one-armed bandit that pays them off with environmental health rollbacks that cost consumers at the gas pump and the hospital.”

    The illegal repeal of California’s clean air protections is part of a broader assault on environmental regulations.

  • Lusaka ZM ☛ Zambia : EU Commends Government For Its Zero Tolerance To Mining Pollution

    Speaking during a partnership dialogue meeting, EU Ambassador to Zambia, Karolina Stasiak, says that Zambia’s target of increasing copper production will see a rise in mining licenses, which calls for strong preventive measures in mining pollution.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Trump signs laws to kill California auto emission standards. California AG sues

    But moments after he signed the three bills into law, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta led a coalition of 10 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to challenge Trump’s laws, which had been approved by Congress in May. Bonta argued Congress unlawfully acted to upend California’s emission rules by invoking the Congressional Review Act, a law designed to allow legislators to rescind major federal rules adopted toward the end of a presidential administration. California and several congressional rules experts have said the Congressional Review Act could not be used to overturn federal waivers that enable California to enforce its auto emission standards.

    “We’re doing this to ensure future generations inherit a livable planet with breathable air,” Bonta said at a news conference Thursday morning. “Meanwhile, the president’s divisive, partisan agenda is jeopardizing our lives, our economy and our environment. It’s reckless, it’s illegal, and because of it, we’ll be seeing the Trump administration in court again for the 26th time.”

  • New Indian Express ☛ Our dangerous blindness to the ocean

    The Indian Ocean is warming faster than any other body of water on Earth. The same waters that gave us the monsoon system are now turning against us.

  • Energy Mix Productions Inc ☛ Wrongful Death Lawsuit Says Big Oil Contributed to Heat Wave and Woman's Death

    On June 28, 2021, an unusual heat wave culminated in a 42.22°C day—the hottest ever recorded in the state, according to the filing. Leon had just driven 160 kilometres from home for an appointment, and she rolled down her windows on the way back because her car’s air conditioning wasn’t working.

  • DeSmog ☛ How MAGA Lobbying is Undermining EU Climate Rules

    The Heartland Institute is one of the world’s leading climate science denial groups. It has helped to draft Donald Trump’s anti-climate policies, which have seen the president pledge to “drill baby drill” for more fossil fuels and once again pull the U.S. out of the flagship 2015 Paris Agreement.

  • EcoWatch ☛ Trump Administration Fires Entire Content Team of Major NOAA Climate Website

    In an apparent attempt to dismantle Climate.gov, a major United States government website that supports climate science education, the Trump administration has fired all of its content production staff.

    The website is a gateway to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Climate Program Office.

  • The Revelator ☛ What My Environmental Studies Students Taught Me About Building Community During Crisis

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ How Sweden's Vätternrundan Became the Biggest Recreational Bike Ride on the Planet

      Every year in June, about 28,000 cyclists gather in Sweden over two weekends for the biggest recreational bike ride in the world. Starting in the small city of Motala, 150 miles southwest of Stockholm, competitors ride, not race, for 196 miles around the picturesque Lake Vättern, Sweden’s second-largest lake. The Vätternrundan, or “Lake Vättern ride,” isn’t competitive. No winners are declared. No medals are handed out. There is no podium. The only aim for riders is to complete the challenge, and doing so is a rite of passage.

    • Advance Local Media LLC ☛ Michigan tribes fight for $23M clawed back by Trump’s EPA in DEI purge

      The EPA notified the council last month that it would terminate the grant money, including $3 million for a Michigan wild rice stewardship plan and $20 million to improve energy efficiency for as many as 300 tribal homes and 12 community resilience hubs.

    • The Local SE ☛ How the Copenhagen-Malmö Bridge Run will affect travel (and where you can watch)

      The 2025 Bridge Run takes place this weekend, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Öresund Bridge between Copenhagen and Malmö.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ Cockatoos Figured Out How to Use Drinking Fountains, And It's Amazing

      In that time, the cockatoos made 525 attempts to drink from the fountain, using their feet, bill and body weight to get the water flowing, with a 41 percent success rate.

      These rowdy birds tended to visit the fountain at dawn and dusk, when, like parched school children at the end of gym class, they would queue up for a turn to drink.

      The birds used the drinking fountain regularly and extensively, not just on hot days as the researchers expected.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • FAIR ☛ How to Subtly Undermine a Promising Left-Wing Candidate

  • FAIR ☛ For Media, Unruly Protesters Are Bigger Problem Than Trump’s Police State

    In the early morning of Friday, June 6, several federal agencies carried out militarized immigration raids across Los Angeles (Al Jazeera, 6/7/25). Armed and masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, along with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), FBI and DEA, tore through these neighborhoods in unmarked vehicles, carrying out a new method of targeted raids in workplaces like Home Depot, Ambiance Apparel and car washes (Washington Post, 6/8/25, 6/12/25, LA Times, 6/10/25).

  • Task And Purpose ☛ Army recruits Big Tech executives as senior officers

    The Army said the new senior officers, including Meta's Andrew Bosworth and Palantir's Shyam Sankar, will attend a six-week course at Fort Benning and be required to pass Army PT and marksmanship tests.

  • The Register UK ☛ Employers are demanding too much from junior cyber recruits

    The study showed that more than a third of hiring managers expected early-stage hires to already have advanced certifications such as a CISSP, CISA, or CISM – achievements Dan Houser, a former ISC2 chair now at Oracle, said were unlikely or unfeasible at this level. "This has been a problem for some time, and it seems the battle continues."

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Chinese AI outfits smuggling suitcases full of hard drives to evade U.S. chip restrictions — training AI models in Malaysia using rented servers

    This was a meticulously planned operation and took several months of preparation. Sources say that the engineers chose to fly in the data on hard drives, because it would take a lot of time to transfer the data online without attracting attention. They then divvied up the hard drives between four passengers to avoid raising alarm bells with Malaysian customs and immigration officers. The Chinese personnel then proceeded to a Malaysian data center, where their company rented 300 Nvidia AI servers to process the data and build the AI model.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ ICE wants more blockchain analytics tech

    Both Chainalysis and TRM Labs have myriad contracts with federal agencies, including the FBI, the State Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service.

  • Futurism ☛ Tesla Drivers Sue Elon Musk for Turning Their Cars Into "Extreme" Right-Wing Symbols

    "Because of Elon Musk's actions... Tesla branded vehicles have become strong political symbols and now appear to be veritable extreme-right 'totems,'" said GKA, the law firm representing the owners, in a statement, "to the dismay of those who acquired them with the sole aim of possessing an innovative and ecological vehicle."

    As a result, they are being prevented from "fully enjoying their car," the firm added.

  • France24 ☛ French Tesla customers file lawsuit over brand becoming 'extreme-right' symbol

    Around 10 French clients with leases on Teslas are suing the US carmaker, run by Elon Musk, because they consider the vehicles to be "extreme-right" symbols, the law firm representing them said on Wednesday.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Mike Brock ☛ The Manifesto of the Cognitive Revolution

      That quick decision to speak or stay silent when you hear a lie. The instant calculation of whether to stand with someone being mistreated or look away to avoid complications. The split-second choice between comfortable complicity and uncomfortable truth. These aren't dramatic crossroads with flashing signs—they're the quiet, constant texture of a life lived.

    • RFERL ☛ Pro-Kremlin Media Hail Los Angeles Unrest As 'Civil War'

      Andrey Cherkasov of RFE/RL's Current Time surveyed the Kremlin-friendly media landscape over the past few days and found it rife with pronouncements of widespread pandemonium in the United States.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • El País ☛ The last international at Harvard

    What’s at stake goes far beyond my J-1 visa or the 6,800 international students who represent 27% of Harvard’s student body. The United States is committing a spectacular act of academic self-sabotage. While China climbs the ranks in the Nature Index with nine of the top 10 scientific research institutions, Trump has declared war on the only American university still at the top of that list: Harvard.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Landau orders cancellation of Mexican social media user's US visa

  • The Atlantic ☛ Handcuffing Alex Padilla Is a Warning

    The treatment of Alex Padilla is part of a pattern of harassing Donald Trump’s opposition.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Commentary: Sen. Alex Padilla’s crime? Being Mexican in MAGA America

    All Padilla did was identify himself and try to question Noem about the immigration raids across Southern California that have led to protests and terror. Instead, federal agents pushed the senator into a hallway, forced him to the ground and handcuffed him before he was released. He and Noem talked privately afterward, yet she claimed to reporters that Padilla “lung[ed]” at her despite them being far apart and video showing no evidence to back up her laughable assertion.

  • BoingBoing ☛ Sen. Alex Padilla handcuffed while in room with Kristi Noem (video)

    U.S Senator Alex Padilla was wrestled to the floor and put in handcuffs at the Los Angeles Federal Building today during a news conference with Kristi Noem.

  • NBC ☛ Video: Sen. Alex Padilla removed from Noem news conference

    "Senator Padilla is currently in Los Angeles exercising his duty to perform Congressional oversight of the federal government's operations in Los Angeles and across California," his office said. "He was in the federal building to receive a briefing with General Guillot and was listening to Secretary Noem’s press conference. He tried to ask the Secretary a question, and was forcibly removed by federal agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed. He is not currently detained, and we are working to get additional information."

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Three Data Points from the Padilla Assault

    I want to call out three data points regarding the assault of Senator Alex Padilla yesterday.

  • Axios ☛ Democrats' fears of Trump admin violence erupt after Padilla incident

    Democratic lawmakers' fears of violence and arrest at the hands of the Trump administration spiked Thursday after Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was aggressively detained by Department of Homeland Security Personnel.

  • Axios ☛ Republicans are all over the place on Alex Padilla's forcible removal

    Catch up quick: Padilla was physically removed from a press conference being held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after he interjected to ask a question.

  • Axios ☛ Democrat berates Republican on House floor over Padilla incident

    Why it matters: Lawmakers and aides who witnessed the Mannion-Lawler incident described it to Axios as the product of rising partisan tensions over the Trump administration's use of legal and physical force against Democrats.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ The Alex Padilla altercation was captured on video but still seen through a political lens

    A day after federal agents forcibly restrained and handcuffed U.S. Sen Alex Padilla at a Los Angeles news conference, leaders of the country’s two political parties responded in what has become a predictable fashion — with diametrically opposed takes on the incident.

  • American Oversight ☛ Sen. Alex Padilla's Violent Removal from DHS Event Is a Shameless Attempt to Silence Critics - American Oversight

    On Thursday, following reports that U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California was handcuffed after being forcibly removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference in a Los Angeles federal building, American Oversight released the following statement from Executive Director Chioma Chukwu: [...]

  • TMZ ☛ 'No Kings Day' Organizer Ezra Levin Talks Peaceful Protests, Avoiding D.C. Parade

    Instead of packing D.C. with protesters and handing Trump a potential crackdown moment he might be craving, Ezra says they’re flipping the script -- taking the protest everywhere else across the nation.

  • CBC ☛ No Kings protests against Trump's policies expected to sweep U.S. on Saturday

    The number of rallies has grown throughout the week, but there is not one planned for the U.S. capital. Organizers say that they want to draw attention elsewhere.

    Though initially unrelated to widespread protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities over the past week, the No Kings "day of defiance" couldn't be more timely, says Vicki Miller, whose group has been planning the Philadelphia No Kings demonstration since April.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests expected during military parade

    “They’ve defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights, and slashed our services,” the group says on its website, referring to the Trump administration and its policies. “They’ve done this all while continuing to serve and enrich their billionaire allies.”

  • Sightline Media Group ☛ Texas governor deploys 5,000 Guardsmen ahead of ‘No Kings’ protests

    Abbott’s announcement did not detail where the troops were sent, but some were seen at a protest Wednesday night in downtown San Antonio near the Alamo. That protest drew hundreds of demonstrators but did not erupt into violence.

  • [Repeat]Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Nat. sec police warn against game advocating HK independence

    Anyone who publishes related content, including sharing the game online, may be accused of inciting secession and inciting subversion, both offences under the Beijing-imposed national security law.

  • Brattleboro Reformer, Vermont ☛ Letter to the Editor: Speak out as patriotic American citizens | Opinion | reformer.com

    Why is this important to us in our small towns in Vermont? It effects every American. Someday soon Wilmington, Brattleboro or Jacksonville may see some in our community become subject to the same treatment of arbitrary arrest and detention without due process.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Protest ‘agitators’ have a long history – in myth and fact

    Still, very few among the hundreds arrested during that summer’s protests, mostly for misdemeanor crimes, were affiliated with extremist groups, according to a report by The Associated Press. Many were actually young adults from suburban neighborhoods.

  • Freedom From Religion Foundation ☛ Protesting autocracy is a state/church issue — Freedom From Religion Foundation

    Trump has derided as “animals” people who are practicing their First Amendment rights to protest the illegal detention of migrants in Los Angeles. Worse, he has called protesters “a foreign enemy.” These invectives are rich coming from the man who pardoned every single insurrectionist at the 2021 Capitol [insurrection], including those who inflicted injuries on 140 police officers defending the Capitol on Jan. 6.

  • The Nation ☛ From Tom Paine in 1776 to Main Street in 2025: No Kings!

    Americans have a right to assemble and a right to petition for the redress of grievances. They will use those rights this weekend to resist Trumpism.

  • TechTea ☛ No Kings Day

    Protest has worked in the past and will be our best weapon short of completely removing him by force. It has saved medical coverage for many, improved gun safety, given workers more of their rights back, and improved climate change / global warming awareness.

    Trump and his followers are afraid, he has threatened all who protest. It shows how much power a protest can have.

  • No Kings ☛ No Kings

    They’ve defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights, and slashed our services. The corruption has gone too. far. No thrones. No crowns. No kings.

  • Mint Press News ☛ Free Speech Ends Here: What I Saw During the LAPD Crackdown

    Editor’s note | The following is a firsthand account from independent journalist Jalyssa Dugrot, who was present at the June 2025 protests in Los Angeles against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. While MintPress News focuses mostly on investigative reporting, we are publishing this personal narrative to document the intensifying criminalization of protest and press freedoms in the United States. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MintPress News.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Futurism ☛ Google's AI Is Actively Destroying the News Media

    The digital media landscape and Google are now caught in an unfortunate race to the bottom. The tech giant's search and AI features rely on a steady stream of news and original content. But by cutting the creators of that material out of a once lucrative organic search-driven revenue source, that stream could soon be reduced to a trickle, if not an incestuous swamp of AI-generated nonsense.

  • CPJ ☛ ‘Get ready’: LA journalists warn of potential violence against press ahead of nationwide protests

    In anticipation of further demonstrations, which are planned in hundreds of cities across the United States on Saturday, June 14, to protest President Donald Trump’s administration, and to better understand the conditions for the press on the ground, CPJ spoke with four journalists reporting on the protests in LA. Their interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

  • LRT ☛ LRT marks 99th anniversary – a century of broadcasting in key dates

    LRT RADIO begins broadcasting from a building on Vaižganto Street in Kaunas, opening its first radio report with the following words: “Alio, alio – Lietuvos radijas – Kaunas“ (“Hello, hello – Lithuanian Radio – Kaunas”). At the time, there were only 323 radio receivers in the country.

  • EDRI ☛ Fighting spyware - Journalism, litigation and policy after the Pegasus Scandal

    As part of the Civic Journalism Coalition, ECNL, EDRi, and Lighthouse Reports are excited to announce a series of online workshops for civil society and journalists, which aim to foster exchange, knowledge sharing and collaboration between these two groups.

    Until the end of the year, together with civil society and media partners, we will host at least 5 online workshops on various topics, including: [...]

  • Bruce Schneier ☛ Paragon Spyware Used to Spy on European Journalists

    Paragon is an Israeli spyware company, increasingly in the news (now that NSO Group seems to be waning). “Graphite” is the name of its product. Citizen Lab caught it spying on multiple European journalists with a zero-click iOS exploit: [...]

  • The Register UK ☛ Apple squashes zero-click bug used for spyware attacks

    Apple has updated its iOS/iPadOS 18.3.1 documentation, confirming it introduced fixes for the zero-click vulnerability used to infect journalists with Paragon's Graphite spyware.

  • Techdirt ☛ Palantir Continues To Burnish Its Evil Tech Overlord Reputation By Kicking Journalists Out Of A Tech Conference

    Younes has since tried to justify his actions. A lengthy XTwitter screed claims the journalists have only themselves to blame for their ejections because [scrolls scrolls scrolls scrolls] their coverage of Palantir wasn’t flattering enough and/or this one time a reporter was rude during a press conference.

    Apparently this is all the justification Younes needed to make Palantir look even more thin-skinned and evil than it already appears to be. First, Younes personally went after Haskins. Then he sent consecutive sets of goons to toss out three other tech reporters.

  • Alabama Reflector ☛ U.S. House votes to yank billions for NPR, PBS and foreign aid programs | Alabama Reflector

    The U.S. House narrowly passed legislation Thursday that would revoke $9.4 billion in previously approved funding for public media, including National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, as well as foreign aid, though the bill’s future in the Senate amid a strict timeline is uncertain.

    The 214-212 mostly party-line vote marks just the third time in several decades the House has approved a bill to claw back funding that lawmakers formerly agreed to spend. President Donald Trump sent the rescissions request that led to the House bill to the Republican-controlled Congress earlier this month.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Techcrunch denies it's leaving Europe but scepticism remains

    But ex-Techcrunch staff and other tech journalists remain sceptical, with one calling the statement “hollow corporate doublespeak”.

    Press Gazette reported this week that Techcrunch had decided to pull out of the UK and Europe shortly after being bought out by private equity firm Regent LP from Yahoo Inc.

  • CPJ ☛ DRC journalist detained, 3 others questioned over report on stadium’s sanitation

    Police officers summoned and detained Kande and Mwananteba at a Kinshasa station on June 9 and questioned them about their reporting before releasing Mwananteba the same day and transferring Kande to the office of the National Cyberdefense Council (CNC), an intelligence service of the presidency, according to media reports and an RTNC journalist with knowledge of the case who spoke with CPJ on condition of anonymity.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • FAIR ☛ Chip Gibbons on Freeing Mahmoud Khalil, Farrah Hassen on Criminalizing Homelessness

  • The Nation ☛ You Can’t Understand Black Music Without Sly Stone

    For a certain generation of Black people, Sly was everything: a fearless free-thinking creator at a time when such courage wasn’t prevalent. Sure, you had the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Little Richard in traditional rock, but Sly’s music catered to more listeners—he bridged the mainstream and the esoteric. Sly felt like one of us—wholly and unabashedly—and despite his stature as a beacon of equality, thanks to his integrated band of men and women both Black and white, he never seemed so hung up on arbitrary accolades given to his music.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Bulgarian woman influencer incites violence against women

    In an official reply, the prosecutor's office stated that nothing could be done because Bulgaria's criminal code does not define gender discrimination as a crime and that the issue was a matter for the Commission against Discrimination.

    Krasteva promptly lodged a complaint with this commission, but received another negative answer based on the same reasoning.

  • JURIST ☛ Nigeria government still failing girls abducted by Boko Haram: Amnesty International

    Boko Haram’s reign of terror against young women and girls in northeastern Nigeria is marked by a decade of forced entry and mass abductions in schools, with the most prominent event being the 2014 Chibok secondary school incident, where 276 girls were abducted. Although a large number of the girls have since been released, the whereabouts of 82 girls remain unknown as of April 2024. In addition to the Nigerian government’s negligence in ensuring that adequate safeguards are provided to these survivors in the aftermath of their ordeal, the government has also been criticized by survivors’ families due to the lack of information about attempts to secure the release of their loved ones.

  • World Wide Web Consortium ☛ WCAG 2 Overview

    Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 is developed through the W3C process in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world, with a goal of providing a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally.

    The WCAG documents explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. Web “content” generally refers to the information in a web page or web application, including: [...]

  • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Guest Post: How Changes to ADA Title II Impact Libraries – And What We Can Do to Respond

    On April 24, 2024, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) issued its final rule, Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities. This matters to all libraries because the rule revises the regulation implementing Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to require state and local government entities to follow standards when they provide services to the public through the web and mobile applications.

  • Michigan Advance ☛ Michiganders primed to say “No Kings” this Saturday at statewide protests

    “Rapid and widespread attacks against vulnerable members of our communities and those who voice political dissent, illegal and arbitrary arrests and deportations, antidemocratic acts of repression of free speech, and flagrant defiance of the courts demonstrate that the current administration stands in opposition to the founding principles of our nation,” organizers of Detroit’s protest said in a statement.

    Set to begin Saturday at 1 p.m. in Clark Park, Detroit’s No Kings protest will feature U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), an outspoken critic of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts and use of the military against civilian protestors in LA.

  • Wired ☛ 'No Kings’ Protests, Citizen-Run ICE Trackers Trigger Intelligence Warnings

    Details about Saturday’s “No Kings” protest—specifically those in California—are also under watch by domestic intelligence centers, where analysts regularly distribute speculative threat assessments among federal, state, and local agencies, according to an internal alert obtained exclusively by WIRED.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Here are the 'No Kings' demonstration locations in Los Angeles on Saturday

    A week after protests in Los Angeles brought nationwide attention to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids taking place across the Southland, a nationwide “No Kings” demonstration challenging executive overreach is expected to bring thousands of people to the streets on Saturday.

  • Alabama Reflector ☛ At least 14 "No Kings" protests planned across Alabama Saturday

    The demonstrations are part of nationwide effort that organizers say aim to reject President Donald Trump’s “made-for-TV” show of force coinciding with his birthday and Flag Day, a date chosen by organizers to reclaim the symbol of the American flag.

    “Real power isn’t staged in Washington. It rises up everywhere else,” organizers stated on the website. “The flag doesn’t belong to President Trump. It belongs to us.”

  • The Georgia Recorder ☛ ‘No Kings’ organizers in Georgia want peaceful protests but are armed with de-escalation tactics

    But organizers of the planned “No Kings” event in Atlanta say they’ve taken every step to ensure a morning of peaceful demonstration.

    “This is a permitted rally,” said Laura Judge, an activist with the Indivisible Georgia Coalition, one of the main organizers of the Atlanta event. “We went and we talked with local officials and law enforcement to make sure that this is a safe and permitted, peaceful rally. But, you know, we went above and beyond to ensure that there is safety and de-escalation.”

  • Rolling Stone ☛ Marines Arrive in Los Angeles as Nation Braces for 'No Kings’ Protests

    The move to have Marines involved in local police work tests the boundaries of the Posse Comitatus Act, which broadly prohibits the military from engaging in domestic law enforcement.

  • Truthdig ☛ No Kings, No Caesar

    Amid this, Trump gave what may have been his most ominous speech ever, speaking Tuesday at the U.S. Army’s Fort Bragg. The speech included the usual boasts, lies, insults, threats, endlessly rehashed grievances like the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen and so on, along with his usual and disgraceful attack on the press. What stood out at Fort Bragg, though, was his backdrop: several rows of U.S. Army soldiers. That imagery in itself is not particularly noteworthy; every president in recent decades has used troops as political props. What stood out this time was the behavior of the troops.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Activists: ICE agents arrested migrants outside Detroit courtroom

    The arrests at the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building followed a pattern that immigration advocates say has intensified nationwide in recent weeks. Ruby Robinson, managing attorney at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, said arrests outside courtrooms — once rare — have become increasingly common as the Trump administration pushes to ramp up deportations.

    The tactic puts migrants in a “catch-22,” Robinson said. Showing up to court hearings is the only path to legal status. But now, showing up can also lead to deportation.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • EFF ☛ A New Digital Dawn for Syrian Tech Users

    But recent changes to U.S. policy could mark the beginning of a shift. In a quiet yet significant move, the U.S. government has eased sanctions on Syria. On May 23, the Treasury Department issued General License 25, effectively allowing technology companies to provide services to Syrians. This decision could have an immediate and positive impact on the lives of millions of Syrian [Internet] users—especially those working in the tech and education sectors.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Bridge Michigan ☛ Mackinac Island fears ‘economic strangulation’ by ferry. Will Lansing step in?

  Mackinac Island’s ferries are owned by a Florida-based private equity company that increased rates and sued the city when it tried to prevent it New legislation would allow the island to control all aspects of ferry service, including parking

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ France Escalates War on Sports Piracy with Real-Time IP Blocking

    The French Senate has passed a new anti-piracy bill that opens the door to automated IP-address blocking. This legislative push is bolstered by a parallel, "secret" agreement between sports rightsholders and major ISPs, which aims to automate anti-piracy efforts and streamline direct blocking requests. Rightsholders hope these new powers will help to tackle the "mafia-like" piracy economy.

  • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ We Need AI Standards for Scholarly Publishing: A NISO Workshop Report

    The two workshops brought together two dozen leaders from large publishers, aggregators and suppliers in our community. During the meetings, participants brainstormed interoperability concerns and potential standards-related efforts to improve efficient interaction with AI tools and systems for the scholarly community. The purpose of these meetings was to identify key issues facing publishers, synthesize these problems into achievable solutions, and then prioritize a plan of work for NISO to improve efficiency working with AI systems across the industry. The goal of this effort and the resulting report is to define a small set of priority projects that NISO can advance collective action around at a network level, not necessarily at an internal or product level.