Leftovers

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Quantum Teleportation Was Achieved Over Internet For The First Time

    In 2024, a quantum state of light was successfully teleported through more than 30 kilometers (around 18 miles) of fiber optic cable amid a torrent of internet traffic – a feat of engineering once considered impossible.

  • Futurism ☛ NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Reportedly Holding "Going Out of Business Sale" for Satellites

    According to NASA Watch, a blog run by former NASA astrobiologist Keith Cowing, the satellites were originally "targeted for shut down" in the Trump administration's 2026 budget request.

    The budget drew the ire from lawmakers earlier this year, proposing to cut NASA's science directorate's budget by more than half, in "nothing short of an extinction-level event for space science and exploration," per The Planetary Society's chief of space policy, Casey Dreier.

• Career/Education

  • Manuel Moreale ☛ P&B: Alex Sirac

    This is the 99th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Alex Sirac and their blog, alexsirac.com

• Hardware

  • The Register UK ☛ Japan’s Rapidus says 2nm chip tech on track for 2027

    Founded in 2022, just as the pandemic-era chip shortage was beginning to ease, Rapidus aims to offer customers a viable alternative to established players like TSMC and Samsung, who currently dominate the foundry segment.

  • Ava ☛ the end of an era | ava's blog

    It's moments like these, especially in comparison to another, more open system you have access to, that you realize how locked down services and devices just don't benefit you at all. The inability to swap harddrives or access its files by default to lock down modding and piracy, the difficulty of backups and save file transfers artificially limited for their PS Plus, losing access to games in your account because of hardware failures. I appreciate that nowadays most games release on all platforms or get a PC port later on; it used to be so, so much worse, so that aspect of it all used to be relevant as well. I could rebuy basically all games I had on that console elsewhere, but not everyone is that lucky. Instead of just the era of comfortable entertainment on the PS4, the era of buying into artificial limits, exclusivity, paywalls for basic maintenance features, and console wars is over for me now as well.

  • PC World ☛ Intel CPUs are crashing again during summer heatwaves, Firefox dev warns

    “Raptor Lake systems have known timing/voltage issues that get worse with temperature,” Svelto added. “Things are so bad at this time that we had to disable a bot that was filing crash reports automatically because it was almost only finding crashes from people with affected systems.”

  • PC World ☛ ATX is the cockroach of PC hardware standards

    But while others could argue that change has been the constant in computer hardware, I’d instead champion ATX as one of the truest mainstays—and all the evidence of its steady, reliable presence over the past 30 years is right in the video.

  • Vox Media ☛ GameStop Nintendo Switch 2 Staplergate ends with $250,000 winning bid | Polygon

    The story goes that employees stapled purchase receipts to the boxes, and customers then learned how poorly protected their new Switch 2s were inside their boxes; the staples pierced right through and into the consoles’ screens, dotting them with two small-but-still-noticeable holes. They were able to swap the consoles out for fresh (unstapled) units, but the PR hit to GameStop had already been done.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Pro Publica ☛ Remembering the Incredible Life of DIY Geneticist Jill Viles

    Jill Dopf Viles — self-taught genetic detective, the central figure in the most interesting story I’ve ever reported and my friend — passed away last month in Gowrie, Iowa, at 50.

    I’m heartbroken that Jill did not live to see the publication of her book — “Manufacturing My Miracle: One Woman’s Quest to Create Her Personalized Gene Therapy — which came out last week. I know how much she treasured the fact that she would soon be able to call herself “author.”

  • Pro Publica ☛ A USDA Program for Low-Income, Rural Homeowners is Driving Mainers Into Debt

    Off a two-lane stretch of U.S. Route 1 in rural Caribou, Maine, sits a white ranch-style house that’s been consumed by weeds and vines.

    The house was once the fulfillment of a dream. The owner had purchased it in 2006 through a federal mortgage program designed specifically for people like her: impoverished, first-time homeowners who live in the most rural parts of the United States. The loan, which came directly from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, required no down payment.

  • Analog Office ☛ Analog Office - "Efficiency, as I have discovered, is the enemy of depth."

    Really enjoyed this article by Joan Westenberg, about how she recovered her ability to think for herself.

  • TMZ ☛ Luigi Mangione's Lawyers Accuse Prosecution of Violating HIPAA With Recent Subpoena

    The defense team -- led by Karen Friedman Agnifilo -- sent a letter to the judge Thursday in which they claim prosecutors partially reviewed documents about Luigi's medical care that are supposed to be protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

  • Science Alert ☛ 11 Everyday Items That We Forget Are Nasty Hotspots For Bacteria

    Here are some of the hidden bacteria magnets in your daily routine, and how simple hygiene tweaks can protect you from infection.

  • El País ☛ A gene that turns bacteria into superbugs is spreading through hospitals and farms

    Rafael Cantón, head of Microbiology at Madrid’s Ramón y Cajal Hospital, knows the danger of superbugs all too well. He began working in 1988, when lab tests showed that microbes were still susceptible to a wide range of antibiotics. Since then, the overuse of antibiotics has contributed to the emergence of strains resistant even to all available treatments.

• Proprietary

  • The Verge ☛ Microsoft’s constant layoffs risk creating a culture of fear

    I can’t open LinkedIn without seeing a new post from a Microsoft employee who lost their job in the company’s latest round of layoffs. Around 15,000 jobs have been eliminated at Microsoft over the past couple months — the biggest cuts at the company in more than a decade.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Microsoft Stops Using China-Based Engineers for DOD Computer Systems, Company Says

  • Cyble Inc ☛ Cisco CVE-2025-20337 & ISE-PIC Vulnerabilities Uncovered

    Cisco has issued a new security advisory warning of newly discovered vulnerabilities in its Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC), revealing serious security flaws that could allow remote, unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code on targeted systems with root privileges. The most severe of these vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2025-20337, carries the maximum CVSS score of 10.0.

    This vulnerability is strikingly similar to another critical issue, CVE-2025-20281, which Cisco patched just weeks earlier.

  • Trail of Bits ☛ Building secure messaging is hard: A nuanced take on the Bitchat security debate

    Last weekend, when Jack Dorsey released Bitchat, a Bluetooth-based, end-to-end encrypted messaging app, it immediately sparked debate across the security and tech communities. The response has been polarized: glowing coverage from mainstream tech outlets celebrates its “advanced security” features, and sharp criticism from security researchers and tech reporters highlights serious vulnerabilities. Both extremes bear some truth, but they also miss the mark and reveal gaps in how we discuss security in emerging products.

  • TidBITS ☛ Marcin Wichary’s Frame of Preference Explores 20 Years of Mac Control Panels

    In contrast, Frame of Preference animates these historical interfaces in a charmingly interactive way. Each illustration is actually a fully emulated Mac from that era, thanks to Mihai Parparita’s Infinite Mac project. So you don’t just read about Susan Kare’s original Control Panel; you open it on the virtual Mac’s screen. Instructions in the text are shown with odd squares that turn out to be empty checkboxes—complete the action described, and you get a highlight and checkmark. If you click the Details button on the label by the emulated Mac, you’ll find “extra stuff to play with.” As you work your way through the evolution of control panels, you’ll encounter nine Macs and a NeXT Cube.

  • Louie Mantia ☛ A Responsibility to the Industry

    One reason that developers struggle with implementing Liquid Glass is Apple’s own evolving implementation of it. From just the first few beta releases, enough of it has changed to make it difficult for some developers to understand what exactly Apple’s vision of it is. It also communicates a level of uncertainty about things that haven’t yet been addressed about its various concessions with long-standing UI elements in macOS especially. I do not want to list them all.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ Delta Announces New System Where AI Makes Up the Price for Your Ticket on the Spot

      "AI isn’t just optimizing business operations, but fundamentally rewriting the rules of commerce and consumer experience," Matt Britton, author of "Generation AI," told Fortune. "For consumers, this means the era of 'fair' pricing is over."

    • Quanta Magazine ☛ How Distillation Makes AI Models Smaller and Cheaper

      The idea for distillation began with a 2015 paper by three researchers at Google, including Geoffrey Hinton, the so-called godfather of AI and a 2024 Nobel laureate. At the time, researchers often ran ensembles of models — “many models glued together,” said Oriol Vinyals, a principal scientist at Google DeepMind and one of the paper’s authors — to improve their performance. “But it was incredibly cumbersome and expensive to run all the models in parallel,” Vinyals said. “We were intrigued with the idea of distilling that onto a single model.”

    • The New Stack ☛ AI Agents Are Creating a New Security Nightmare for Enterprises and Startups

      As AI agents move beyond simple text generation to independently plan tasks, utilize tools, and fetch data, their outbound requests often bypass traditional infrastructure monitoring, leading to unpredictable costs, security vulnerabilities, and a lack of control.

    • Daniel Miller ☛ The Tyranny of AI Is Not AI Itself, It Is the Lazy, Rushed Product Designers with No Imagination or Sense of Craft

      Just using the base models provides no additional value over your customers just using those providers’ products directly; in fact, it might be worse if you’ve half-assed your initial prompt instructions. Using an LLM in the context of your business value requires: [...]

    • Prineceton University ☛ How to recognize AI snake oil [PDF]

      Much of what’s being sold as “AI” today is snake oil — it does not and cannot work.

      Why is this happening? How can we recognize flawed AI claims and push back?

    • NDTV ☛ Meta Apologises After Facebook's Auto-Translation Declared Siddaramaiah Dead

      Meta's AI-powered translation tools are used across Facebook and Instagram for translating public bios and content.

      The company acknowledged that its machine translation model had produced errors in Kannada translations on Facebook but claimed the issue has now been rectified, the CM's office said.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ HKU says AI-generated porn case 'remains open'

      The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has said the case of a law student accused of using AI to generate indecent images of his female classmates and teachers is not closed, despite having issued a warning letter to him.

    • Futurism ☛ Anti-Exploitation Group Horrified by Elon Musk's AI-Powered Waifu

      Officially called "companions" — or by the slangier "waifus," a Japanese term for a fictional romantic partner — the virtual characters rolled out to X-formerly-Twitter just days after Grok experienced a catastrophic meltdown, blasting users with racist comments and calling itself "MechaHitler."

    • Semafor Inc ☛ Runaway AI fundraising sparks bubble fears

      The artificial intelligence search engine Perplexity raised funds that valued it at $18 billion, intensifying fears of an AI bubble.

    • Silicon Angle ☛ Uber to deploy 20,000 autonomous taxis in partnership with Lucid and Nuro

      The partnership centers on Lucid’s Gravity electric SUV, which can cover up to 450 miles per charge with seven passengers aboard. Uber’s taxi fleet will be based on a modified version of the Gravity that is set to enter production in late 2026. Lucid will equip the SUV with an autonomous driving module made by Nuro during assembly.

    • Hidde de Vries ☛ How to avoid that your post about AI helps the hype

      So, when do we risk accidentally overhyping AI?

    • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ AI misuse shakes South African courtrooms

      The move comes after two cases – Mavundlela vs the KwaZulu-Natal MEC of cooperative governance & traditional affairs and Northbound Processing vs the SA Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator – were referred to the LPC due to their inappropriate use of generative AI tools.

      In both cases, AI used for research “hallucinated” (fabricated) non-existent case law, which was then cited as precedent to support the arguments presented in court.

  • Social Control Media

    • Techdirt ☛ We Deserve Better: A New Social Media Bill of Rights

      Government workers, locked out of their jobs, struggled to organize securely. Protestors, seeking to plan No Kings marches, wondered which app could be the most trusted. Inbound international travelers have been deleting their social apps for fear that immigration officers will search their phones. And during major disasters, like the tragic Texas floods and the LA fires, emergency responders and volunteers find their critical updates buried by algorithms that prioritize engagement over urgency. On a daily basis, countless online communities face arbitrary deplatforming, surveillance, and loss of their digital spaces without recourse or explanation.

    • Zimbabwe ☛ BAZ Warns YouTube, Facebook Podcasters: Same Rules Apply to Online Broadcasting

      In a statement released today, BAZ expressed “serious concern over growing prevalence of internet-based broadcasting of content that is inconsistent with Zimbabwe’s broadcasting regulations and standards.” It warned it would act decisively to enforce laws violated by online broadcasters.

• Security

  • Security Week ☛ 1.4 Million Affected by Data Breach at Virginia Radiology Practice

    Radiology Associates of Richmond has disclosed a data breach impacting protected health and personal information. 

  • Security Week ☛ Fortinet FortiWeb Flaw Exploited in the Wild After PoC Publication

    Dozens of FortiWeb instances have been hacked after PoC targeting a recent critical vulnerability was shared publicly.

  • Security Week ☛ Email Protection Startup StrongestLayer Emerges From Stealth Mode

    AI-native email security firm StrongestLayer has emerged from stealth mode with $5.2 million in seed funding.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Privacy International ☛ Do early steps into agentic AI respect our needs for privacy and security?

      Now with OpenAI’s agent launch, users deserve to know whether these firms are considering these risks and designing their service for people in the real world. The OpenAI agent allows you to generate queries that browse the web and run queries across your services to develop plans for you, generate presentations and files to analyse data.

    • The Register UK ☛ Coldplay kiss-cam shows our surveillance society

      What's worrying is what this moment says - yet again - about us as a society: We have cameras everywhere, our personal data has become one of the most valuable commodities in the world, and we're all perpetually ready to use that tech to make those we feel have violated the social contract pay publicly for their transgressions.

      This is hardly a new phenomenon.

    • Silicon Angle ☛ Meta execs settle with board in $8B lawsuit over data harvesting scandal

      The trial was only on its second day at Delaware’s Court of Chancery, with Zuckerberg and former Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg expected to take the stand next week. Marc Andreessen, the billionaire venture capitalist and Meta director, was expected to testify today, as was former board member Peter Thiel at some point.

    • The Moscow Times ☛ Telegram Begins Legal Process of Opening Office in Russia

      The move comes nearly four years after Russia passed legislation requiring foreign tech firms to establish a physical presence in the country or face legal penalties, including advertising bans and outright blocks.

      While companies like Google and TikTok have complied to varying degrees, Telegram, founded by Russian-born entrepreneur Pavel Durov, has so far stopped short of opening a local office.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong gov't to require all taxis to install in-car cameras with audio recording functions by early 2027

      The JRS, which can consist of one or more devices, should provide key functions including in-car cameras with audio recording functions that “show a clear view of all persons in the taxi compartment,” dash cameras without audio, and GPS location tracking.

      Meanwhile, the Transport Department will set up a centralised online platform to store and process all the data recorded from JRSs.

    • El País ☛ The Trump administration will hand over the personal data of 79 million Medicaid recipients to ICE

      The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency will have access to the personal data of 79 million people enrolled in Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income individuals. Federal agents will use this information to locate immigrants who are in the country unlawfully in order to accelerate President Donald Trump’s deportation machinery.

    • EFF ☛ We Support Wikimedia Foundation’s Challenge to UK’s Online Safety Act

      EFF and ARTICLE 19 agree with the Foundation’s argument that, if enforced, the Category 1 duties - the OSA’s most stringent obligations – would undermine the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer contributors, expose the site to manipulation and divert essential resources from protecting people and improving the site. For example, because the law requires Category 1 services to allow users to block all unverified users from editing any content they post, the law effectively requires the Foundation to verify the identity of many Wikipedia contributors. However, that compelled verification undermines the privacy that keeps the site’s volunteers safe.

    • Techdirt ☛ The IRS Is Building A Vast System To Share Millions Of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE

      The Department [sic] of Government Efficiency began pushing the IRS to provide taxpayer data to immigration agents soon after President Donald Trump took office. The tax agency’s acting general counsel refused and was replaced by De Mello, who Trump administration officials viewed as more willing to carry out the president’s agenda. Soon after, the Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, and the IRS negotiated a “memorandum of understanding” that included specific legal guardrails to safeguard taxpayers’ private information.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Mike Brock ☛ Why I Call It Fascism

    ICE has been turned into a secret police. They wear masks, they don’t identify themselves, they arrest people without judicial warrant or due process, they rendition people to foreign gulags outside of the reach of US law—dozens of whom are completely innocent and have broken no laws—and you want to argue we haven’t seen a return of fascism? Well, the hair-splitting is not unlike what this conservative Supreme Court majority does. Such as when it decides that the disqualification of office for supporting insurrection against the United States is “not self-executing” and can’t be applied by the states. Or how the president is immune from criminal prosecution, and even in cases where he technically isn’t, the evidentiary standards these black-robed pallbearers of this American political dark age make bringing a case practically impossible. Or Barrett’s personal contribution to constitutional doctrine: the presumption of constitutionality on anything the president does, such that the Constitution’s plain language establishing birthright citizenship shall not apply in jurisdictions of federal court circuits where nobody has yet to bring a lawsuit. The kinds of people who defend the Federalist Society and conservative legal jurisprudence will tell you this is about protecting principles like the separation of powers and upholding the founders’ vision of a vigorous executive. Well, I will tell you that these people are all imposters and arsonists of the American project. I advance this charge unapologetically.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Opinion | Why Do Tens of Millions in US Support an Economic System That Doesn't Benefit Them?

    For nearly two centuries, literature from Marx and Dickens to Thomas Picketty and Barbara Ehrenreich has dissected and denounced the machinations of the greedy rich. Turn their pockets inside out, make them pay their fair share, and a more just society might be possible.

    "No one is strapped to a chair and forced to watch drivel like Fox News. Perhaps the most insidious propaganda is voluntarily self-administered."

    That sentiment is not wrong. If someone like Elon Musk has a higher net worth than the gross domestic product of a country like Ukraine, with over 40 million people, something is out of whack. But what if the analysis is incomplete? Suppose there is more collusion with the rich and the powerful, and not just from their public relations people, lawyers, and financial advisers, but from tens of millions of people who derive no benefit?

  • CBC ☛ Tracking Canada’s fascist fight clubs

    The members of these fight clubs, known in white nationalist communities as “active clubs,” are hiding in plain sight. As part of their recruitment and online propaganda, they post videos of their training sessions, taking care to hide their faces and obscure their locations.

    But a months-long CBC visual investigation, in collaboration with The Fifth Estate, reveals exactly where some of these groups are training.

  • The Atlantic ☛ What to Do With the Dangerous Novel 'The Turner Diaries'

    The book is a vile, racist fantasy culminating in genocide, but it isn’t just a how-to manual for homegrown terrorists. What has been labeled the “bible of the racist right” has influenced American culture in a way only fiction can—by harnessing the force of storytelling to popularize ideas that have never been countenanced before. Literature can be mind opening, but it can also be corrosive, and there is no exaggeration in saying that The Turner Diaries and books like it have played a part in spreading hateful ideas that now even influence government policy.

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ Archaeologists Discover Site Where George Washington Stopped a Friendly Fire Incident by Blocking Muskets With His Sword

    The case of mistaken identity, caused by poor visibility and a lack of communication, had fatal consequences—but it also resulted in the capture of three French soldiers who revealed that Fort Duquesne was vulnerable, low in both manpower and supplies. The British advanced, staking their claim to the land after the French abandoned and burned down the fort.

  • India Times ☛ TikTok Germany moderators raise alarm over layoff plans

    Content moderators at the German branch of social media giant TikTok sounded the alarm Thursday about what they say is a plan to replace them with artificial intelligence, potentially putting platform users at risk. Another one of the moderators, 36-year-old Sara Tegge, says that the artificial intelligence used by the company "cannot tell whether content discriminates against certain groups and it can't judge the danger of certain content".

  • Deccan Chronicle ☛ US Aims To Ban Chinese Technology In Undersea Telecommunications Cables

    The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has broad data security concerns about the network of more than 400 subsea cables that handle 99% of international [Internet] traffic.

  • Rolling Stone ☛ What’s Next for the No Kings Movement? Strategic Non-Cooperation

    But the odds of success are sobering. The training included a study of 35 countries that experienced “democratic backsliding” in the last 30 years, and their track records for overcoming the authoritarian assault. Without a movement of mass “civil resistance,” less than eight percent of countries were successful at righting the democratic ship of state. Active civil resistance — such as the movement that No Kings is building in the U.S. — has historically increased the odds to 52 percent. “I don’t love those numbers,” said Hunter, but he added that the payoff for victory can be profound. Successful resistance movements typically forge societies that are “more democratic” on the other side — offering “an advancement” rather than a return to the status quo ante.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Insight Hungary ☛ Three Ukrainian officials banned from Hungary over Berehovo man's case

      Ukraine has launched a full investigation into the death of József Sebestyén, who died on 6 July, 444 reports. The investigation is being coordinated by the Kyiv Presidential Office and involves several investigative bodies.

      According to Sebestyén's family, the Hungarian man was beaten with iron sticks after he was mobilised from Berehovo in mid-June. A video footage from the training camp has emerged of him being tortured by men wearing military attire. Sebestyén left the training camp three days later under unclear circumstances, and a few days later went to the hospital in Berehovo, where he died of a pulmonary embolism on 6 July.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • The Atlantic ☛ MAGA Influencers Don’t Understand What Journalism Is

    The harsh but simple truth is that powerful people, including President Donald Trump, do not freely hand out information that will make them look bad. If a politician, PR flak, or government official is telling you something, assume that they’re lying to you or spinning or—at best—coincidentally telling you the truth because it will damage their enemies. “We were told that more was coming,” Posobiec complained, but professional commentators should be embarrassed about waiting for the authorities to bless them with scoops. That’s not how things work. You have to go and find things out. Reporters do not content themselves with “just asking questions”—the internet conspiracist’s favored formulation. They gather evidence, check facts, and then decide what they are confident is true. They don’t just blast out everything that lands on their desk, in a “kill ’em all, let God sort ’em out” kind of way.

  • Futurism ☛ The Trump Administration Reportedly Has Extensive Logs of Epstein Money Transfers, Refuses to Release Them

    "We felt from the beginning this was a follow-the-money case," Wyden told the NYT. "This horrific sex-trafficking operation cost Epstein a lot of money, and he had to get that money from somewhere."

    However, federal laws are hamstringing Wyden's efforts to publicize more details about the "suspicious activity reports" (SARs) reviewed by his staff. Therefore, he's now calling on Trump to make these reports available to Congress for analysis.

  • The Independent UK ☛ House Democrats demand answers from Fox News on edits to Trump’s Epstein comments

    The letter from Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), first obtained by CNN, accuses Fox News of omitting key context from Trump’s response when asked by Fox & Friends host Rachel Campos-Duffy whether he would commit to making the Epstein files public. Garcia is requesting that the network provide all internal records and communications related to the interview with Trump’s campaign.

  • Vox ☛ Trump’s relationship with Epstein is indisputably scandalous

    Upon taking office, the Trump administration hyped the imminent disclosure of these documents. Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested in February that a list of famous people who had abused Epstein’s trafficked girls was “sitting on my desk right now to review.” Around the same time, Bondi and Trump’s FBI released what it billed as the “first phase of declassified Epstein files.” But these proved to be binders comprised largely of already public information.

  • The Independent UK ☛ Reported birthday card from Trump to Epstein shines new light on their friendship as fallout from files release mounts

    A letter bearing Trump’s name, which the report claims was reviewed by The Journal, contains several lines of typewritten text framed by a drawing of a naked woman. His signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair, according to the report.

  • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Trump Drawn Into Epstein Controversy as Wall Street Journal Reports 2003 Letter

    The letter revealed by The Wall Street Journal was reportedly collected by disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell as part of a birthday album for Epstein years before the wealthy financier was first arrested in 2006 and subsequently had a falling-out with Trump. The letter bearing Trump's name includes text framed by the outline of what appears to be a hand-drawn naked woman and ends with, "Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret," according to the newspaper. The outlet described the contents of the letter but did not publish a photo showing it entirely.

  • TMZ ☛ Congressman Tim Burchett Says Special Prosecutor Is Needed for Epstein Files

    Congressman Tim Burchett says he thinks the country needs a special prosecutor to step in and handle the Jeffrey Epstein files ... 'cause we need to balance public information with protecting victims.

  • Futurism ☛ Musk Accuses Trump of Covering Up Epstein Scandal

    The situation has driven a massive wedge between president Donald Trump and his MAGA base. A furious Trump has repeatedly attempted to pour cold water on conspiracy theories surrounding the late sex criminal billionaire's mysterious death and the existence of a purported "client list" — efforts that only enraged his supporters even further.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Did Trump try to kill Wall Street Journal's story on his Epstein links? Report surfaces

    Amid the row over the DOJ's release of the Epstein files, a report has claimed that the Wall Street Journal is working on a story with new details on President Donald Trump's links with Jefferey Epstein. First reported by Status Report, the story claimed that Trump tried to contact the editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal to get the story killed.

  • Le Monde ☛ Trump threatens to sue Wall Street Journal over story on alleged letter to Epstein

    Then, on Thursday, several US media outlets reported that a federal prosecutor who handled Epstein's case, who is the daughter of a prominent Trump critic, was abruptly fired.

    Maurene Comey, whose father is former FBI director James Comey, was dismissed Wednesday from her position as an assistant US attorney in Manhattan, several major US outlets reported. Comey also prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell, the only former Epstein associate who has been criminally charged in connection with his activities. Maxwell is the person who compiled the leather-bound book of letters for Epstein in 2003, the WSJ reported.

  • The Nation ☛ Jeffrey Epstein’s Victims Are Again Being Wronged by Donald Trump’s Circus

    As Giuffre often insisted, her story was far from unique. One Justice Department memo estimates that there were more than a thousand victims.

• Environment

  • Omicron Limited ☛ AI-assisted sorting, other new technologies could improve plastic recycling

    Selected as the cover article for the July 9 issue of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, a journal of the American Chemical Society, the article concludes that solvent-based recycling is both a sustainable and economical option, but that replacing fossil-based plastics with bio-based plastics remains a challenge.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Bridge Lunch Break to discuss whitefish crisis

    Whitefish have remained a staple in the Great Lakes for millennia, surviving threats that decimated other species. Now, they are on the brink themselves: Catches have plummeted, newborns are dying and adults are approaching old age. Some fear the fish could disappear entirely from their once-prime habitat in the lower Great Lakes.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ ‘It feels cool to be a cog in change’: how doughnut economics is reshaping a Swedish town

    The concept, developed by British economist Kate Raworth is fairly straightforward. The outer ring or ecological ceiling of the doughnut consists of the nine planetary boundaries. These are the environmental limits that humans are at risk of passing – we’ve already crossed the safety thresholds on climate change, ocean acidification and biogeochemical flows, for example, but remain within safe limits on our atmospheric aerosol loading. The inner ring forms a social foundation of life’s essentials, and the “dough” in between corresponds to a safe and just space for humanity, which meets the needs of people and planet. The model also includes principles such as systems thinking and seeing the economy as a tool, not a goal in itself.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • FAIR ☛ Writing About the Oil Business and Ignoring the Fate of the Earth

      In Texas, at least 134 people are dead, including 36 children, and a hundred are missing after a devastating flash flood swept through the central part of the state on July 4. A late June/early July heatwave in Europe claimed 2,300 lives across the continent. These events, of the kind made more extreme and frequent by climate change (ABC, 7/7/25; New York Times, 7/9/25), occur as EU leaders roll back climate policy and the Trump administration guts climate protections, staying true to the slogan of “Drill, baby, drill!”

    • Futurism ☛ China Is Using Trump's Tactics Against Him to Corner the EV Market

      Though the fall-out is still months away, Chinese lawmakers aren't waiting to set up the killing blow. Instead, they're taking a page out of Trump's tariff playbook by moving to heavily restrict US access to electric vehicle batteries through the market.

    • Deseret Media ☛ Utah State Railroad Museum gets Western Pacific caboose; Merci Boxcar restoration complete

      Caboose No. 438 was built in 1955 and retired from service in the 1980s, when rail lines started phasing out use of cabooses amid technological advances that rendered them obsolete. It had been on display at the Inland Northwest Rail Museum in Reardan, Washington, and was acquired by the Union Station Foundation, an independent, nonprofit entity, for $16,000.

    • France24 ☛ EU encourages sustainable journeys by rail: Are trains the future of travel? - Talking Europe

      The EU is aiming to double high-speed rail traffic by 2030 and triple it by 2050. But harmonising rail networks across the continent is easier said than done. While some cross-border routes have opened in 2025, other projects have been hampered by a lack of infrastructure or investment, as well as vested interests in the EU member states.

    • Common Dreams ☛ House Caves to [Cryptocurrency] Lobby, Fails to Stop Trump’s Grift

      “Today, House members piled venality onto perversion onto corruption. In approving this [cryptocurrency]-enabling bill, Congress surrendered to the onslaught of [cryptocurrency] political spending and legitimized the world’s biggest Ponzi scheme.

    • teleSUR ☛ California Sues Trump Administration After It Pulls High-Speed Rail Funding - teleSUR English

      “Canceling these grants without cause isn’t just wrong — it’s illegal,” CHSRA CEO Ian Choudri said in a statement Wednesday. “These are legally binding agreements, and the authority has met every obligation, as confirmed by repeated federal reviews, as recently as February 2025.”

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ California sues Trump administration over high-speed rail funds

      The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California by state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, comes one day after the Federal Railroad Administration pulled $4 billion from the project that was intended for construction in the Central Valley. The suit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief and challenges the legality of the decision.

    • US News And World Report ☛ Trump Signs Stablecoin Law as [Cryptocurrency] Industry Aims for Mainstream Adoption

      Stablecoins are designed to maintain a constant value, usually a 1:1 U.S. dollar peg, and their use has exploded, notably by [cryptocurrency] traders moving funds between tokens. The industry hopes they will enter mainstream use for sending and receiving payments instantly.

      The new law requires stablecoins to be backed by liquid assets - such as U.S. dollars and short-term Treasury bills - and for issuers to disclose publicly the composition of their reserves monthly.

    • Le Monde ☛ US House passes landmark [cryptocurrency] measures in win for Trump

      The US House of Representatives on Thursday, July 17, passed three landmark cryptocurrency bills, fulfilling the Trump administration's commitment to the once-controversial industry. Lawmakers easily approved the CLARITY Act, which aims to establish a clearer regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. The bill is designed to clarify industry rules and divide regulatory authority between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It will now advance to the Senate, where Republicans hold a slim majority.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ In Patagonia, a Frog Makes a Comeback

  • Overpopulation

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Facing scarcity, the Gulf's 'smart water' future lies in desalination

      Aside from the ongoing geopolitical volatility, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region faces a twin policy challenge: acute water scarcity on one hand, and the imperative of economic diversification on the other. The region is the most water-stressed globally; sixteen of the world’s twenty-five most water-stressed countries are in the MENA, with Bahrain ranked first.

• Finance

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ AI bubble is worse than the dot-com crash that erased trillions, economist warns — overvaluations could lead to catastrophic consequences

    That's what Sløk argues is coming for the major AI firms. That's Apple, Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, Google/Alphabet, Amazon, and a range of other companies. He highlights how these firms have seen huge upticks in their valuations and stock prices in recent years, driven by investments in AI ventures.

    This is completely out of whack with the earnings potential of these companies, Sløk argues, and suggests the majority of the gains made to the stock market during this AI boom have been because of the overperformance of these top stocks.

  • Gizmodo ☛ Wall Street’s AI Bubble Is Worse Than the 1999 Dot-com Bubble, Warns a Top Economist

    According to Torsten Slok, the influential chief economist at Apollo Global Management, a major global investment firm, the current AI driven market bubble is even more stretched than the dot com frenzy of the late 1990s. And he has the data to prove it.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Treat AI Like a Public Utility

    It seems increasingly likely that artificial intelligence will mean major changes to the economy and daily life. We need a public jobs program for displaced workers, and we should regulate AI as a public utility.

  • The Verge ☛ Microsoft’s constant layoffs risk creating a culture of fear

    I can’t open LinkedIn without seeing a new post from a Microsoft employee who lost their job in the company’s latest round of layoffs. Around 15,000 jobs have been eliminated at Microsoft over the past couple months — the biggest cuts at the company in more than a decade.

  • India Times ☛ Tech layoffs: Amazon, Intel to cut more jobs amid AI push, cost control

    Amazon has cut hundreds of AWS jobs amid wider tech layoffs, with Intel, Microsoft, and TikTok also reducing staff to curb costs and prioritize AI. Amazon’s CEO warned AI will impact office roles. Intel plans 5,500 U.S. cuts, Microsoft trims 4% of staff, and TikTok restructures its ecommerce division.

  • The Strategist ☛ Binary view of hard and soft skills impedes cyber responses

    Indeed, the Australian Signals Directorate’s Annual Cyber Threat Report 2023–2024 highlighted a continued rise in cyber threats. But we’re not just seeing an increase; we’re seeing an intensification of the threat. Today we face highly coordinated, multi-vector campaigns designed to disrupt critical infrastructure, steal intellectual property and undermine public trust in democratic institutions.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ Fact check: Misinformation fuels anti-migrant riots in Spain

      Torre Pacheco is a coastal Spanish town of nearly 40,000 people, and a third of its populationconsists of migrants, according to local government data. Police claim that by now peace has been largely restored in the city after the attack. But this is another example of how misinformation can ignite emotions.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Techdirt ☛ Trump Threatens, Then Sues Murdoch Over Epstein Story Using Tactics His Supporters Used To Call A ‘Massive Attack on Free Speech’

    Donald Trump admitted yesterday that he called Rupert Murdoch and demanded the Wall Street Journal kill its story about Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. When Murdoch couldn’t deliver, Trump promised to sue the media company and gleefully looked forward to putting Murdoch on the witness stand. Update: Just as this story was going live, it was reported that he had, in fact, sued. We’ll write about the details of the lawsuit as they become clear.

    This is the exact type of behavior that Trump’s supporters spent years claiming represented “arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States history” when they falsely accused the Biden administration of doing far less.

    I understand that we live in an era of blatant hypocrisy where “it’s okay if a Republican does it” is the norm, but I wanted to call out how directly similar this scenario is.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Trump sues Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over Epstein report

    Trump’s lawsuit on Friday, which also targets Dow Jones and News Corp, was filed in the southern district of Florida federal court in Miami.

    It came after the Journal reported on a 50th birthday greeting that Trump allegedly sent to Epstein in 2003 that included a sexually suggestive drawing and reference to secrets they shared.

  • Newsweek ☛ Trump Sues Murdoch: List of Defendants in Lawsuit Over Jeffrey Epstein Letter - Newsweek

    The six defendants named in Trump's lawsuit are: Murdoch, NewsCorp, Dow Jones (publisher of the Journal), NewsCorp CEO Robert Thomson and Journal reporters Joe Palazzolo and Khadeeja Safdar. The president's suit accuses the defendants of defamation and was filed in the Southern District of Florida.

    Messages seeking comment from Safdar and NewsCorp were not immediately returned Friday.

  • Reuters ☛ Trump sues Wall Street Journal over Epstein report, seeks $10 billion

    Attorney General Pam Bondi had pledged months earlier to reveal major revelations about Epstein, including "a lot of names" and "a lot of flight logs." With pressure to release the Epstein files building, Trump on Thursday said he directed Bondi to ask a court to release grand jury testimony about Epstein. The U.S. government on Friday filed a motion in Manhattan federal court to unseal grand jury transcripts in the cases of Epstein and his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who in 2021 was convicted of five federal charges related to her role in Epstein's sexual abuse of underage girls. She is serving a 20-year sentence.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Sanders: The March Toward Authoritarianism

    Stephen Colbert, the most popular late-night talk show host on television, has been taken off the air by CBS just days after he criticized the company for settling a bogus lawsuit with Trump. It’s pretty obvious why Paramount chose to surrender to Trump. The Redstone family, the major owners of the company, is in line to receive $2.4 billion from the sale of Paramount to Skydance, but they can only receive this money if the Trump administration approves this deal.

  • Vox ☛ The cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, explained

    Paramount Global is currently attempting to merge with Skydance Media, and company leadership has been acting as though they are concerned that President Donald Trump might try to block the merger. Earlier this month, CBS and 60 minutes announced a $16 million settlement in its lawsuit with Trump over the editing of a segment about former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris — an extraordinary concession for a media company in a case that experts agree CBS would have likely won in court. The longtime executive producer of 60 Minutes also resigned earlier this year, citing threats to his journalistic independence.

    Days before the cancellation, Colbert said on his show, “I am offended” by the settlement. “I don’t know if anything — anything — will repair my trust in this company. But, just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help,” he quipped. The payout, he added, was a “big fat bribe.”

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ CBS axes Colbert's 'The Late Show' after Trump deal quip

    Colbert had referred to the settlement as "a big fat bribe," with Paramount currently seeking government approval for an $8 billion merger with Skydance Media.

    "As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended. And I don't know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company, but just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help."

  • Rolling Stone ☛ Why 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' Is Over

    Which brings us to the issue that would have endangered The Late Show at some point in the next few years, regardless of who was in the Oval Office. Many aspects of the TV business are relics of a way that very few people still consume media. Late-night talk shows are just one of the more blatant examples of that. The Tonight Show was created in an era where there were only three national networks, and no cable, let alone streaming, video games, TikTok, or many other challengers for our eyeballs. You might watch a particular late-night show because you loved Johnny Carson, or Conan O’Brien. Or you might just stumble across Drew Barrymore flashing David Letterman while you were channel surfing. If those hosts didn’t have captive audiences, they had close to it, and they attracted viewers from every walk of life and every demographic. If Carson told a joke about Richard Nixon or Jimmy Carter, it wasn’t instantly going to be attacked by that president’s supporters for being too harsh, let alone by the POTUS himself. These shows were spaces where everyone could come at the end of a long day and feel like they were part of something larger than themselves — and be happy about that.

  • TMZ ☛ Jimmy Kimmel Curses Out CBS In Support of Stephen Colbert After ‘Late Show’ Cancellation

    The timing is quite coincidental, as the news came just after Stephen blasted CBS' parent company Paramount Global's $16 million settlement of Donald Trump's lawsuit over the editing of CBS News' "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris.

    He called the settlement a "a big fat bribe" -- reasoning Paramount Global needs federal approval for a pending multibillion-dollar sale to the Hollywood studio Skydance.

  • CBC ☛ Stephen Colbert and CBS both say his show will end in May 2026

    CBS is axing The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in May 2026, the host told an audience at a taping on Thursday.

    The announcement came two days after Colbert spoke out against Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, settling a lawsuit with U.S. President Donald Trump over a 60 Minutes story.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ US Senator alleges CBS canceled Stephen Colbert's show due to a Trump factor

    U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren alleges that the decision to cancel the show may have had less to do with programming changes and more to do with politics.

    “CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump – a deal that looks like bribery,” Warren wrote.

  • New York Times ☛ Fans React to Colbert ‘Late Show’ Cancellation With Puzzlement and Anger

    Many questioned the timing of and motivation for the announcement, noting that Mr. Colbert hosted the most-watched show in late night television.

  • Gannett ☛ Stephen Colbert is canceled. It sure sounds fishy | Opinion

    It's another black eye for Paramount ― more fallout from a cowardly settlement based on greed. Imagine not backing "60 Minutes," the gold standard of investigative journalism on TV. It's part of a scary landscape for legitimate media. ABC News also settled a suit with Trump that most experts think it could have won. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, tries to cozy up with the president. Like Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, has. The White House tries to stack briefings with MAGA-friendly personalities posing as reporters.

  • India Times ☛ The 'Late' Show: End of an era as CBS cancels Trump critique's Stephen Colbert's popular show - here is why

    Colbert’s sharp critiques of Trump helped the show top the late-night ratings, giving CBS its strongest performance in the slot in two decades. He has remained a vocal critic during Trump’s second term, even as CBS faced legal pressure from the president.

  • Associated Press ☛ Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' has been canceled by CBS

    The most recent ratings from Nielsen show Colbert gaining viewers so far this year and winning his timeslot among broadcasters, with about 2.417 million viewers across 41 new episodes. On Tuesday, Colbert’s “Late Show” landed its sixth nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding talk show. It won a Peabody Award in 2021.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to end in 2026 as CBS cancels show

    The settlement coincided with Paramount seeking approval from the US Federal Communications Commission for an $8.4bn merger with Skydance Media. Colbert called the settlement “a big fat bribe”.

  • Rolling Stone ☛ Trump's Team Tried to Kill Report on Salacious Letter to Epstein

    The Journal notes that the letter bearing Trump’s name was outlined by a drawing of a naked woman, and that the woman appeared to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. Trump’s signature, as “Donald,” appears below the woman’s waist.

    It’s unclear how the text of the letter, which was typewritten, was prepared, according to the Journal. Here is what the outlet reports was inside of the outline of the naked woman: [...]

  • TMZ ☛ WSJ: Trump Wrote Jeffrey Epstein Birthday Note with Naked Lady Sketch, Trump Threatens to Sue

    The bombshell WSJ report dropped Thursday evening, saying Ghislaine Maxwell got a bunch of Epstein's pals to write personal letters to him in 2003, as he was turning 50, and organized them into a book to give him as a gift. One of those friends was Donald Trump, according to the Journal.

  • Variety ☛ Trump Was Attempting to Block Publication of WSJ Jeffrey Epstein Story

    The White House attempted to block the publication of a Wall Street Journal article about President Donald Trump‘s alleged 2003 birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein that contained suggestive language. Trump threatened legal action against the paper if it went to print with the story, which published on the paper’s website Thursday afternoon.

  • Variety ☛ CBS to Cancel 'Late Show With Stephen Colbert' Citing Finances

    Indeed, Senator Adam Schiff, the California Democrat, took to social media Thursday after taping a “Late Show” broadcast and said: “If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.”

  • CPJ ☛ Russia gearing up to prosecute internet users for searching ‘extremist’ content 

    The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by a bill under consideration in the Russian State Duma that would introduce fines for accessing or searching for “extremist” online content, threatening to further restrict press freedom and access to information.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • FAIR ☛ Iman Abid on the Economy of Genocide, Victor Pickard on Paramount Settlement

  • Common Dreams ☛ Media Freedom and Civil Rights Groups to Hold Press Conference Condemning Prolonged ICE Detention of Journalist Mario Guevara

    An Emmy-winning Spanish-language journalist who has frequently filmed ICE and law-enforcement raids, Guevara was arrested on First Amendment-related charges while livestreaming a “No Kings” protest in an Atlanta suburb on June 14. He is currently the only journalist in custody in the United States whose arrest is related to the work of newsgathering.

    The journalist, who has lawfully resided in the United States for over 20 years, has been in ICE custody since June 18.

  • CPJ ☛ Media freedom, civil rights groups to hold press conference about prolonged ICE detention of journalist Mario Guevara

    The press conference will highlight the troubling implications Guevera’s case has for First Amendment rights in Georgia and across the nation.

    Guevara, an Emmy-winning, Spanish-language journalist, who frequently filmed ICE and law enforcement raids, was originally arrested on First Amendment-related charges while livestreaming a “No Kings” protest in an Atlanta suburb on June 14. He is currently the only journalist in custody in the U.S. whose arrest was in relation to the work of newsgathering.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Is late night dead? Stephen Colbert's CBS cancellation raises troubling questions

    The late-night talk show was invented in the 1950s as a way for networks to own their own programming rather than have it provided by sponsors. Now, amid shrinking audiences and a politically turbulent climate for free speech, the familiar desk-and-sofa tableau is in serious trouble.

  • Garry Kasparov ☛ Colbert Canceled: Press Freedom Will Go Out With a Pen Stroke, Not a Bang

    While no one at the network will explicitly say so, the specter of Donald Trump looms large over the whole affair. Only days earlier, Colbert had criticized CBS-parent company Paramount for its $16 million settlement with the president, who sued over allegedly unfair editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris last fall. Give me a break. Paramount even called the lawsuit “meritless.”

    Because America is a democracy, this kind of politicized interference with the media does not, by itself, mean the death of First Amendment freedoms. It is, however, another drop of poison in the well. And canceling the top-rated show in its time slot, with a well-known and well-liked celebrity host, and attributing it to “financial reasons” beggars belief, especially after said host just called out your corrupt bargain. It is about as thin an excuse as calling every defenestration in Moscow an accident.

  • Open Caucasus Media ☛ Dutch journalist denied entry to Georgia twice in July

    Dutch journalist Joost Bosman was twice denied entry to Georgia in July, adding to the list of Western journalists barred entry into the country for covering the ongoing wave of anti-government protests.

  • Axios ☛ Congress votes to strip more than $1 billion in funding for NPR, PBS

    NPR has 386 public radio grantees that operate around 1,300 stations across the country. Around 40% of them are classified as rural stations.

  • Rolling Stone ☛ NPR, PBS Funding Cut by Republicans at Trump's Command

    “Supporters of defunding are fixated on NPR and PBS, but in reality the cuts will be felt where these services are needed most. Stations in places like West Virginia, and those serving tribal nations, receive more than 50% of their budget from federal funding,” NPR wrote in a statement responding to the vote. “Public radio provides local programming that would otherwise be unavailable — coverage of town councils, statehouse affairs, local elections, and local music.”

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ The Senate voted to defund NPR and PBS. How will local stations cope?

    Public media outlets in Southern California’s urban areas are less dependent on federal funding than stations in smaller, rural markets, which don’t get the same kinds of donations from wealthy locals, for example. But they will feel an immediate impact as the money TV and radio stations expected from the Corp. for Public Broadcasting in October is now on the verge of disappearing.

  • [Repeat] BIA Net ☛ Journalist Sultan Eylem Keleş sentenced to prison over coverage of workers' protest

    The İstanbul 72nd Penal Court of First Instance announced the verdict after the 11th hearing of the case, which involved Keleş and four other defendants. The court acquitted all defendants of the charge of "insulting a public official" but handed down the prison sentence for the second charge. The announcement of the verdict was deferred, meaning it will not be enforced unless a similar offense is committed within five years.

  • Axios ☛ Republicans call Schumer's bluff on cuts to PBS, NPR foreign aid

    The bottom line: Votes on rescission packages originating from the White House are rare.

    It hasn't been done successfully since 1999.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ What's next for PBS and NPR after Republicans strip funding?

    Even today, the acclaimed filmmaker whose works — including his upcoming project “The American Revolution” — are broadcast on PBS, said his films get around 20% of their budgets from the Corp. for Public Broadcasting, the body Congress recently voted to defund.

    Projects that receive a higher percentage of their funding through public media “just won’t be able to be made,” Burns said. “And so there’ll be less representation by all the different kinds of filmmakers. People coming up will have an impossible time getting started.”

  • Futurism ☛ AI Is Slitting the Throat of the Journalism Industry

    As first reported on by TechCrunch, the AI summaries are appearing for users in the US inside Google's main mobile search apps on iOS and Android under the main Discover news feed. Tiny logos of publishers appear in the upper left-hand corner, haphazardly reminding users of where the information actually came from.

    Underlining the janky nature of the tech, large text under the summary warns that it was "generated with AI, which can make mistakes," seemingly in an attempt to preempt blowback of the type that Apple received after it rolled out a similar news-summarizing feature that turned out to hallucinate wild misinformation.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • FAIR ☛ ‘ICE Operates Within a Broader Apparatus Around Criminalization and the Deportation Machine’: CounterSpin interview with Silky Shah on mass deportation

    Janine Jackson interviewed Detention Watch Network’s Silky Shah about mass deportation for the July 11, 2025, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

  • Techdirt ☛ DHS: Filming Cops, ICE Officers is A ‘Violent Tactic’

    The DHS has been hyping assault stats for weeks, making it sound like there’s an actual war on ICE officers. The reality was much more underwhelming: the 700% increase touted in press releases reflected a mere 69 more assaults on officers than during the same period in 2024. Hardly worth remarking on, especially since ICE enforcement activities have exponentially exploded during the same time period as the agency does everything it can (legal or not) to hit Trump advisor Stephen Miller’s 3,000-arrests-per-day quota.

  • EcoWatch ☛ South Korea Could Grant Bottlenose Dolphins off Jeju Island ‘Legal Personhood’ Status to Better Protect Them

    It is the first attempt by Korea to give an animal the status, and is part of an expanding movement to recognize the legal rights of nonhuman species.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • EFF ☛ EFF and 80 Organizations Call on EU Policymakers to Preserve Net Neutrality in the Digital Networks Act

    In the letter, we argue that the push to introduce a mandatory dispute resolution mechanism into EU law would pave the way for content and application providers (CAPs) to pay network fees for delivering traffic. These ideas, recycled from 2022, are being marketed as necessary for funding infrastructure, but the real cost would fall on the open internet, competition, and users themselves.

  • EFF ☛ Joint Statement on preserving net neutrality in the upcoming Digital Networks Act [PDF]

    We are concerned about the continued calls by large telecom companies to introduce, in the DNA proposal, a dispute resolution mechanism for the Internet’s interconnection ecosystem. We regret that these proposals, first put forward by some telecom operators in 2022 as part of broader “Fair Share” mechanisms1, are still being actively considered in ongoing discussions on the future of the EU telecoms sector. As described by the large telecom operators themselves2, the goal of such a mechanism is to implement a so-called “fair share” settlement regime, whereby content and application providers (CAPs) would be required to pay telecom companies mandatory fees for delivering traffic.

    We firmly oppose the introduction of such a mechanism in EU law, which risks undermining net neutrality and Open Internet principles. This would have immediate and far-reaching consequences, harming European consumers3, businesses, digital rights and the sustainability of the creative and cultural sectors, ultimately risking a fragmented Internet4 and single market.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • PC World ☛ Microsoft stops selling movies and TV shows, but prior purchases remain

    So what will happen to movies and TV shows that you’ve already purchased? For now, they’ll remain on Microsoft’s servers. Microsoft’s support document indicates that you’ll be able to continue playing them via the Movies & TV app on either Xbox or Windows PC, and they’ll play back in high resolution.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Nick Heer ☛ Billionaires Destroyed American News Media on Purpose

  Regardless of how much you like Colbert’s take on the Late Show — I do not care for it — the circumstances around its cancellation are suspicious and the implications are alarming. Were Colbert’s jokes truly cutting to the core of the Trump administration? I hardly think so. But it is nevertheless difficult not to see it as an olive branch for merger approval — an implied condition.

• Techdirt ☛ Dem Senators Use Epstein Scandal To ‘Pressure’ Trump FCC To Drop Bogus Inquiry Into CBS

  So we’re clear what happened here: Larry Ellison, a billionaire Trump ally, used his own money to buy CBS and install his son as the boss. There are hints they’re then going to merge what’s left of CBS with Bari Weiss’ Free Press, which will effectively turn CBS into another right wing, Trump-friendly propaganda mill much like Fox News. Trump gets $16 million in bribe money simply for being king.

  The only question now is whether anybody involved in this bribery scheme faces any accountability for it. California lawmakers have made some noise about investigating the settlement for possibly violating state bribery laws, but I’ve not seen any meaningful traction on that.

• Copyrights

  • The Register UK ☛ WeTransfer ToS adding 'machine learning' caused freakout

    Agentic AI, GenAI, AI service bots, AI assistants to legal clerks, and more are washing over the tech space like a giant wave as the industry paddles for its life hoping to surf on a neural networks breaker. WeTransfer is not the only tech giant refreshing its legal fine print – any new product that needs permissions-based data access – not just for AI – is going to require a change to its terms of service.

  • India Times ☛ US authors suing Anthropic can band together in copyright class action, judge rules

    Alsup said Anthropic may have illegally downloaded as many as 7 million books from the pirate websites, which could make it liable for billions of dollars in damages if the authors' case is successful.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Pair Behind 400 Block-Evading Pirate Porn Sites Face Prosecution

    Law enforcement authorities in Vietnam will prosecute the operators of around 400 pirate sites offering pornographic content. Such material is illegal in Vietnam and the authorities say the men made large profits from visitors viewing lucrative advertising. Also of note are claims that the men circumvented blocking measures at ISPs either owned by, or closely connected to, the government.