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How Musk’s X is fueling the MAGA-Trump rift

How Musk’s X is fueling the MAGA-Trump rift

Politico reports: The Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy saga is blowing up in the White House’s face — and social-media experts say that Elon Musk’s remake of X helped light the fuse. Conspiracy theories about Epstein, and the Trump administration’s supposed complicity in silencing them, are starting to split MAGA’s unruly factions and turn part of the movement against the president. (For those not following closely: The Department of Justice and FBI issued a joint report last week claiming that Epstein did…

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Foreign journalists in the U.S. are self-censoring to protect themselves from the Trump regime

Foreign journalists in the U.S. are self-censoring to protect themselves from the Trump regime

Poynter reports: In 2021, Venezuelan journalist Luz Mely Reyes moved to the United States because she didn’t want to be silenced. As an outspoken advocate for the freedom of expression, Reyes no longer felt safe in Venezuela, where reporters have been threatened, arrested and beaten. Now in the U.S., however, she finds that she must often silence herself. “In my country (Venezuela), I never self-censored. Here, I have to avoid some topics because I feel that it’s dangerous for my…

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ICC lawyer linked to Netanyahu advisor warned Khan to drop war crimes probe or be ‘destroyed’

ICC lawyer linked to Netanyahu advisor warned Khan to drop war crimes probe or be ‘destroyed’

  Middle East Eye reports: The British chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court was warned in May that if arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant were not withdrawn, he and the ICC would be “destroyed”. The warning was delivered to Karim Khan by Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli defence lawyer at the court who told Khan he had spoken to Netanyahu’s legal advisor and, according to a note of the meeting lodged…

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Can AI companies keep stealing books to train their large language models?

Can AI companies keep stealing books to train their large language models?

Alex Reisner writes: Should tech companies have free access to copyrighted books and articles for training their AI models? Two judges recently nudged us toward an answer. More than 40 lawsuits have been filed against AI companies since 2022. The specifics vary, but they generally seek to hold these companies accountable for stealing millions of copyrighted works to develop their technology. (The Atlantic is involved in one such lawsuit, against the AI firm Cohere.) Late last month, there were rulings…

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The world is investing more in clean energy than fossil fuels

The world is investing more in clean energy than fossil fuels

Canary Media reports: As the Trump administration doubles down on fossil fuels, the rest of the world is investing more and more in clean energy. This year, $2.2 trillion will be invested in clean energy, efficiency, and electrification globally, according to the International Energy Agency — double the $1.1 trillion that will flow toward fossil fuels. It’s a remarkable change from a decade ago. Back in 2015, fossil fuels still attracted more money than clean energy. In 2016, perhaps galvanized…

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Supreme Court promotes ‘lawlessness’ through decision on gutting Education Department

Supreme Court promotes ‘lawlessness’ through decision on gutting Education Department

Democracy Docket reports: The Supreme Court let the Trump administration go forward with mass layoffs at the Department of Education. SCOTUS lifted a lower court order preventing the department from implementing a “reduction in force,” a large-scale federal layoff mechanism, to eliminate around 50% of the department’s workforce. The court offered no explanation for its decision. The decision gets Trump closer to his goal of shuttering the Education Department, which has long been a popular target for Republicans and conservative…

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When a conspiracy theory comes home to roost

When a conspiracy theory comes home to roost

The New York Times reports: After years spent spreading spidery conspiracy theories for his own political gain, President Trump has found himself wrapped up in the stickiest one of them all. For more than a week, the political movement he created has been convulsing with righteous fury over things he and his attorney general have been saying and doing — or rather, not doing — as it relates to the life and death of Jeffrey Epstein. Mr. Trump keeps commanding…

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Trump’s response to being humiliated by Putin

Trump’s response to being humiliated by Putin

Jonathan Lemire writes: President Donald Trump is finally taking the fight to Vladimir Putin. Sort of. For now. Trump’s deference to Russia’s authoritarian leader has been one of the most enduring geopolitical subplots of the past decade. But his frustration with Putin has grown. Last week, the president said the United States was taking “a lot of bullshit” from Putin. Today, he authorized a significant shipment of U.S. defensive weapons to Ukraine via NATO and threatened Russia with new tariffs…

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Trump’s assault on free speech

Trump’s assault on free speech

David A. Graham writes: Not that long ago, believe it or not, Donald Trump ran for president as the candidate who would defend the First Amendment. He warned that a “sinister group of Deep State bureaucrats, Silicon Valley tyrants, left-wing activists, and depraved corporate news media” was “conspiring to manipulate and silence the American people,” and promised that “by restoring free speech, we will begin to reclaim our democracy, and save our nation.” On his first day back in office,…

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Two-thirds of the DOJ lawyers defending Trump policies in court have quit

Two-thirds of the DOJ lawyers defending Trump policies in court have quit

Reuters reports: The U.S. Justice Department unit charged with defending against legal challenges to signature Trump administration policies – such as restricting birthright citizenship and slashing funding to Harvard University – has lost nearly two-thirds of its staff, according to a list seen by Reuters. Sixty-nine of the roughly 110 lawyers in the Federal Programs Branch have voluntarily left the unit since President Donald Trump’s election in November or have announced plans to leave, according to the list compiled by…

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Karen Hao on how AI is threatening democracy and creating a new colonial world

Karen Hao on how AI is threatening democracy and creating a new colonial world

  The new book “Empire of AI” by longtime technology reporter Karen Hao unveils the accruing political and economic power of AI companies — especially Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Her reporting uncovered the exploitation of workers in Kenya, attempts to take massive amounts of freshwater from communities in Chile, along with numerous accounts of the technology’s detrimental impact on the environment. “This is an extraordinary type of AI development that is causing a lot of social, labor and environmental harms,” says…

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America’s allies want to redraw the global trade map, minus the U.S., with Europe at the center

America’s allies want to redraw the global trade map, minus the U.S., with Europe at the center

The New York Times reports: Trade chaos is forcing America’s allies closer together, and further from the United States. And as that happens, the European Union is trying to position itself at the center of a new global trade map. The bloc learned this weekend that Washington would subject it to 30 percent tariffs starting Aug. 1. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the E.U. executive branch, responded with a pledge to keep negotiating. She also made it clear…

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Trump is attacking weather science and weakening disaster response capabilities

Trump is attacking weather science and weakening disaster response capabilities

The New York Times reports: In an effort to shrink the federal government, President Trump and congressional Republicans have taken steps that are diluting the country’s ability to anticipate, prepare for and respond to catastrophic flooding and other extreme weather events, disaster experts say. Staff reductions, budget cuts and other changes made by the administration since January have already created holes at the National Weather Service, which forecasts and warns of dangerous weather. Mr. Trump’s budget proposal for the next…

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ICE campaign of violence and intimidation will lead to more deaths and disappearances

ICE campaign of violence and intimidation will lead to more deaths and disappearances

Natasha Lennard writes: After weeks of brazen rights violations and outright impunity from America’s secret police force, a federal judge in Los Angeles on Friday issued a sharp rebuke of the racist tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong blocked ICE’s “roving” patrols in Southern California, halting agents from carrying out unconstitutional arrests based on racial profiling alone. Going forward, they’ll need to have specific grounds for believing someone to be undocumented before they can…

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