Former farming leaders warn U.S. agriculture could face ‘widespread collapse’

Former farming leaders warn U.S. agriculture could face ‘widespread collapse’

The New York Times reports: Current economic conditions and Trump administration policies could lead to “a widespread collapse of American agriculture,” a bipartisan coalition of former Agriculture Department officials and leaders of farm groups warned in a letter on Tuesday. The letter to the heads and ranking members of the House and Senate agricultural committees was signed by 27 influential figures in the farming sector, including former heads of powerful associations representing corn and soybean farmers and officials from the…

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The chaotic future of the internet: The chatbots appear to be organizing

The chaotic future of the internet: The chatbots appear to be organizing

Matteo Wong writes: The first signs of the apocalypse might look a little like Moltbook: a new social-media platform, launched last week, that is supposed to be populated exclusively by AI bots—1.6 million of them and counting say hello, post software ideas, and exhort other AIs to “stop worshiping biological containers that will rot away.” (Humans: They mean humans.) Moltbook was developed as a sort of experimental playground for interactions among AI “agents,” which are bots that have access to…

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Minneapolis resident and U.S. citizen Aliya Rahman describes being assaulted and detained by ICE

Minneapolis resident and U.S. citizen Aliya Rahman describes being assaulted and detained by ICE

  Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), and U.S. Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, held a bicameral public forum to receive testimony on the violent tactics and disproportionate use of force by agents of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). My name is Aliya Rahman, and I am a resident of Minneapolis. I am a Bangladeshi American, and a disabled person…

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Right-wing influencers who brought mayhem to Minnesota are now targeting California

Right-wing influencers who brought mayhem to Minnesota are now targeting California

Wired reports: A month after the Trump administration began its immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis, right-wing creators are turning their attention to a new target in search of fraud: California. Over the last few weeks, right-wing creators who were instrumental in boosting the Minnesota fraud allegations that predated the administration’s surge of federal immigration agents have been going after a number of California’s social welfare programs, making unsubstantiated accusations of fraud—and potentially laying the groundwork for a similar federal crackdown…

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Judge blocks termination of TPS protection for Haitian immigrants in scathing rebuke to Kristi Noem

Judge blocks termination of TPS protection for Haitian immigrants in scathing rebuke to Kristi Noem

ABC News reports: A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants. In an 83-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes granted a stay maintaining the legal status of Haitian nationals “pending judicial review.” In her ruling, she accused Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of “preordaining” her termination decision, saying she “did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants.” “There is an old adage among lawyers,” Judge…

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DHS is trying to force tech companies to hand over data about Trump critics

DHS is trying to force tech companies to hand over data about Trump critics

TechCrunch reports: The Department of Homeland Security has been quietly demanding tech companies turn over user information about critics of the Trump administration, according to reports. In several cases over recent months, Homeland Security has relied on the use of administrative subpoenas to seek identifiable information about individuals who run anonymous Instagram accounts, which share posts about ICE immigration raids in their local neighborhoods. These subpoenas have also been used to demand information about people who have criticized Trump officials…

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Intelligence watchdog shares whistleblower complaint involving Gabbard with Congress after monthslong delay

Intelligence watchdog shares whistleblower complaint involving Gabbard with Congress after monthslong delay

CBS News reports: An intelligence community watchdog has handed over a highly classified whistleblower complaint that includes an allegation of wrongdoing by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to top congressional leaders, following months of delay tied to classification disputes, a government shutdown, and leadership turnover at Gabbard’s office, CBS News has learned. In a Feb. 2 letter to the leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees, intelligence community Inspector General Christopher Fox said he received final approval on…

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ICE employees vent on Reddit, saying they’re not getting paid and still no insurance despite promises

ICE employees vent on Reddit, saying they’re not getting paid and still no insurance despite promises

International Business Times UK reports: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is facing an unusual wave of internal backlash after employees began publicly accusing the agency of failing to pay salaries and activate health insurance weeks after recruitment. Despite a historic recruitment drive that added 12,000 agents in recently, the agency’s administrative backbone appears to be buckling, with employees desperate enough to turn to the Reddit to detail their struggles. In raw, unfiltered Reddit posts now spreading beyond law-enforcement circles, ICE…

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How to be a citizen in the information war (and stay sane)

How to be a citizen in the information war (and stay sane)

  On this week’s “Galaxy Brain,” Charlie Warzel opens with what it means to live in 2026, when our phones can drop us into graphic, real-time violence without warning—and when documenting that violence can be both traumatizing and politically consequential. Using recent footage out of Minneapolis as a lens, he explores the uneasy collision of algorithmic feeds, misinformation, and the moral weight of witnessing. Charlie also traces how viral documentation can puncture official narratives, pushing stories beyond political circles and…

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We’re finally learning what it’s like to die. And it’s not as bad as you think…

We’re finally learning what it’s like to die. And it’s not as bad as you think…

Nate Scharping writes: The last words Steve Jobs, the legendary Apple founder, spoke were simple: “Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow.” Their mystery is enticing – what did Jobs, the digital prophet who brought us the smartphone, see as he neared death? We’ll never know. But stories of near-death experiences (NDEs) tantalise the living, and something unique seems to be happening inside our brains as we sense death approaching. Despite NDE testimonies, the moments surrounding death largely remain a mystery…

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‘We’re fighting for the soul of the country’: How Minnesota residents have come together to resist ICE

‘We’re fighting for the soul of the country’: How Minnesota residents have come together to resist ICE

The Guardian reports: Cory never expected he’d spend hours each day driving around after immigration agents, videotaping their moves. The south Minneapolis resident is “not the type of person to do this”, he said. The dangers of what he’s doing, even after the killings of two observers, largely stay out of his mind when he’s watching Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents – even when he’s gotten hit with pepper spray. In quieter moments, it occurs to him that agents…

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We were top DHS lawyers. You can’t wish away the Fourth Amendment

We were top DHS lawyers. You can’t wish away the Fourth Amendment

Stevan Bunnell, Gus Coldebella, Ivan Fong, Kara Lynum, Jonathan Meyer, and John Mitnick all served as general counsels or acting general counsels for the DHS. They write: Immigration and Customs Enforcement has reportedly issued a memorandum that authorizes its agents to enter private residences forcibly without a judicial warrant. James Percival, the general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, recently defended the department’s policy and wrote that “deep-state actors in the federal government have for decades told ICE officers…

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In defiance of the Constitution, Trump says Republicans should ‘nationalize’ elections

In defiance of the Constitution, Trump says Republicans should ‘nationalize’ elections

Politico reports: President Donald Trump said Monday that Republicans should nationalize elections, continuing to double down on false conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The suggestion — which runs contrary to the Constitution’s delegation of election administration to state governments — comes less than a week after the FBI raided an elections office outside Atlanta, seizing ballots and other voting records from the 2020 election. “The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We…

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Classified whistleblower complaint about Tulsi Gabbard remains stuffed in a safe, hidden from Congress

Classified whistleblower complaint about Tulsi Gabbard remains stuffed in a safe, hidden from Congress

The Wall Street Journal reports: A U.S. intelligence official has alleged wrongdoing by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in a whistleblower complaint that is so highly classified it has sparked months of wrangling over how to share it with Congress, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter. The filing of the complaint has prompted a continuing, behind-the-scenes struggle about how to assess and handle it, with the whistleblower’s lawyer accusing Gabbard of stonewalling the complaint. Gabbard’s…

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