ICE offers up to $280 million to immigrant-tracking ‘bounty hunter’ private surveillance firms

ICE offers up to $280 million to immigrant-tracking ‘bounty hunter’ private surveillance firms

Wired reports: Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expanding plans to outsource immigrant tracking to private surveillance firms, scrapping a recent $180 million pilot proposal in favor of a no-cap program with multimillion-dollar guarantees, according to new contracting records reviewed by WIRED. Late last month, the Intercept reported that ICE intends to hire bounty hunters and private investigators for street-level verification work. Contractors would confirm home and work addresses for people targeted for removal by—among other techniques—photographing residences, documenting comings and…

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Censoring remarks on Trump: The BBC succumbs to the ‘paralysing cowardice’ of today’s elites

Censoring remarks on Trump: The BBC succumbs to the ‘paralysing cowardice’ of today’s elites

The Guardian reports: The BBC has been plunged into a new row over its treatment of Donald Trump, after an academic accused it of censoring his remarks about alleged corruption by the US president. Rutger Bregman, a Dutch author and historian, said the BBC had removed a “key line” from a flagship address he had been invited to give by the corporation. Bregman, who is giving the BBC’s prestigious annual Reith Lectures, said his claim that Trump was “the most…

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Brazil’s former president Bolsonaro to start serving 27-year sentence over coup plot

Brazil’s former president Bolsonaro to start serving 27-year sentence over coup plot

The New York Times reports: Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to start serving a 27-year sentence for overseeing a failed plot to hold onto power after losing the country’s last election. After the nation’s top court rejected an initial appeal by Mr. Bolsonaro’s lawyers challenging his sentence, the court ruled that he will begin serving his sentence at a federal police facility in Brasília, the capital. Mr. Bolsonaro is already in custody at that same…

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A cell that lacks any metabolic genes is a new addition to the spectrum of life

A cell that lacks any metabolic genes is a new addition to the spectrum of life

Jake Buehler writes: Life’s fundamental structure is the cell, and so the main things that a cell does — processing biomolecules, growing, replicating its genetic material and producing a new body — are considered hallmarks of life. But earlier this year, scientists discovered a cell so severely stripped of essential functions that it challenges biologists’ definitions of what counts as a living thing. The species is a single-celled organism known only by the mysterious sequence of its genetic code. Its…

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Ukraine: Trump’s national security team is ‘working cohesively towards a shared goal.’ Or, creating chaos

Ukraine: Trump’s national security team is ‘working cohesively towards a shared goal.’ Or, creating chaos

Politico reports: Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, an unusual choice to play diplomat, spent two days last week delivering a tough message to Ukraine and its European allies: Accept the offered 28-point peace proposal by Thanksgiving, or else. Then, Secretary of State Marco Rubio showed up. Rubio’s arrival in Geneva on Sunday, to join Driscoll and resume discussions with senior Ukrainian officials, changed the tenor of the conversations. The Trump administration team backed away from a firm Thursday deadline and, in…

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Trump regime’s threat to refugees in U.S. viewed as ‘unspeakably cruel’

Trump regime’s threat to refugees in U.S. viewed as ‘unspeakably cruel’

CNN reports: The Trump administration is moving to reinterview certain refugees who were admitted to the United States under former President Joe Biden as part of a comprehensive review of their cases, according to an internal memo and a source familiar with the plans. The effort marks an unprecedented step in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown — this time, targeting one of the world’s most vulnerable populations. Refugees must show that they were persecuted or face persecution in their home…

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The bad reasoning in the Meta antitrust ruling isn’t even the worst part

The bad reasoning in the Meta antitrust ruling isn’t even the worst part

Tim Wu writes: On Tuesday, the federal judge James Boasberg dismissed the U.S. government’s main antitrust case against Meta, ruling that the company, worth more than $1.5 trillion, does not possess a monopoly in personal social networking. He did so in the face of strong evidence to the contrary, not to mention common sense. But to dwell on the shortcomings of Judge Boasberg’s reasoning is to overlook something even worse: the message that his ruling sends to the country. The…

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Elon Musk’s X where nothing is as it appears and everything is possible

Elon Musk’s X where nothing is as it appears and everything is possible

Charlie Warzel writes: Over the weekend, Elon Musk’s X rolled out a feature that had the immediate result of sowing maximum chaos. The update, called “About This Account,” allows people to click on the profile of an X user and see such information as: which country the account was created in, where its user is currently based, and how many times the username has been changed. Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, said the feature was “an important first step…

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Michael Popok on the dismissal of the Comey and James indictments

Michael Popok on the dismissal of the Comey and James indictments

  In a stunning reversal of fortune for Trump and his DOJ, a federal judge has not only declared Lindsey Halligan illegally appointed as a prosecutor, but she has dismissed both the criminal indictment against Former FBI Dir. James Comey and current NY Attorney General Tish James. Popok explains what that means for the DOJ, the “new” prosecutor to be appointed, an attempt to indict Comey and James in the future, and so much more.

Republican voters increasingly disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy

Republican voters increasingly disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy

Axios reports: Voters increasingly disapprove of the way President Trump is handling the economy and believe his policies are raising prices, according to a new poll from CBS News/YouGov. Why it matters: The discontent is also showing up in significant numbers among Republican voters, as the affordability crisis is affecting sentiment within Trump’s own base. By the numbers: Trump’s approval on the economy has fallen to 36%, down from 51% in March, per the poll. A majority say his policies are raising food and grocery costs….

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Genetic traces of a long-lost people found in South America

Genetic traces of a long-lost people found in South America

Science Alert reports: Traces of a previously unknown group of people, genetically distinct from their neighbors, have persisted for at least 8,000 years in the central Southern Cone of South America, and Argentina in particular. It’s believed to be among the last places humans reached in our species’ expansion across the world: Some of the earliest evidence of human presence in the continent’s southernmost reaches dates to around 14,000 years ago, though this is greatly debated by archaeologists. And yet,…

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The Epstein class

The Epstein class

Anand Giridharadas writes: As journalists comb through the Epstein emails, surfacing the name of one fawning luminary after another, there is a collective whisper of “How could they?” How could such eminent people, belonging to such prestigious institutions, succumb to this? A close read of the thousands of messages makes it less surprising. When Jeffrey Epstein, a financier turned convicted sex offender, needed friends to rehabilitate him, he knew where to turn: a power elite practiced at disregarding pain. At…

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The night America’s doomed ruling class gorged on lamb, blood, and oil

The night America’s doomed ruling class gorged on lamb, blood, and oil

Will Bunch writes: Apparently, time really does heal all wounds — even those caused by the bone saw of a murderous prince and his personal goon squad after they hacked an intrepid Washington Post opinion journalist into pieces for speaking the truth about a corrupt and contented regime. It’s hard to believe now, but there was actually a very brief time — in 2018, to be exact — when corporate America and even some political leaders pretended to have enough…

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Rubio insists U.S. ‘authored’ the Ukraine peace plan, despite contradictory reporting

Rubio insists U.S. ‘authored’ the Ukraine peace plan, despite contradictory reporting

The New York Times reports: Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that the United States “authored” a 28-point peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, after a Republican senator asserted that Mr. Rubio had distanced himself from the proposal and called it a Russian initiative. Mr. Rubio made the assertion on social media after Senator Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota, said Mr. Rubio had earlier on Saturday held a call with a bipartisan group of U.S….

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