Trump’s presidency is what evil looks like: absurd, frightening, cruel | Nesrine Malik Commentators have said that the US president’s clownishness and lack of ideology somehow make him less dangerous. They’re wrong, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

Trump’s presidency is what evil looks like: absurd, frightening, cruel | Nesrine Malik

Myanmar military regime widens sanitary towel ban, claiming rebels use them for first aid Activists say clamp down on period products to target insurgents is gender-based violence and violates rights

Myanmar military regime widens sanitary towel ban, claiming rebels use them for first aid

‘We wasted a lot of lives’: CIA spymaster’s caution over past Iran intervention resurfaces from beyond the grave A documentary about Peter Sichel – the ‘Jewish James Bond’, whose wine portfolio boasted Blue Nun – includes striking mea culpas about the cost and efficacy of US involvement in the Middle East

‘We wasted a lot of lives’: CIA spymaster’s caution over past Iran intervention resurfaces from beyond the grave

Tory MPs talking about Erasmus as if it’s a sleeper cell recruitment programme.

"Sweden agreed with the BND, Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, that Russia was understating its budget deficit by $30bn, and had also noticed some financial indicators that could point to a future banking crisis" www.ft.com/content/04a9...

Ransomware attack continues to disrupt healthcare in London nearly two years later More than 18 months after a ransomware attack disrupted care at hospitals in South East London, documents show at least one NHS trust is still working without fully restored systems and managing large...

ICYMI: Nearly two years on from the devastating ransomware attack affecting hospitals in South East London, the ongoing - yes, ongoing - impact to blood testing has led to more than 120 patient safety incidents in which incorrect, unavailable or delayed pathology results have impacted care.

"There's no need to make a sensation out of Vitkov and Kushner's visit. Their arrival is for their benefit, not ours." - Zelensky.

Trump signs a new executive order on voting. Experts say he lacks the authority Trump's executive order seeks to create lists of U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote in each state and instruct the U.S. Postal Service to send mail ballots only to verified voters.

Likewise, Trump’s executive order requiring the USPS to refuse to deliver some ballots based on merged DHS and Social Security data immediately drew lawsuits from the Democratic Party, the NAACP, and several states. www.npr.org/2026/03/31/n...

Tracker: DOJ Lawsuits Seeking States' Sensitive Voter Data As part of President Trump’s efforts to expand federal control over the country’s historically state-run election infrastructure, the U.S. Department of…

But there was better news on the voter data front! Although the administration sued a 31st state for its complete voter rolls, it hasn’t yet obtained *any*, and five of the cases have already been dismissed. statedemocracy.law.wisc.edu/our-work/tra...

Trump’s Personnel Agency Is Asking for Federal Workers’ Medical Records - KFF Health News The administration is asking insurers that cover federal employees and retirees to hand over details about their medical visits, their pharmacy claims, and more.

Similarly, OPM notified health insurance companies in December that it will begin demanding detailed personal medical data on federal employees and retirees. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Treasury is creating a database with pandemic aid recipients’ sensitive information Critics say the scope established in the agency’s systems of record notice “is an astonishing and dramatic departure from prior Treasury practice.”

We learned that the Treasury Department plans to create a database of aid recipients with an unprecedented and alarming level of detail. www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

Now that the Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to refund companies what they paid in tariffs, yet there are still tariffs in place, what's the plan? Consumers continue to fork money over to corporations who will later get another refund?

How Thomson Reuters Powers ICE and Palantir Thomson Reuters’ data, which can include peoples’ addresses and details on their ethnicity, is linked to tools used by ICE.

ICE has been purchasing people’s addresses, car registrations, and ethnicity details from data broker Thomson Reuters. Internal whistleblowers say company databases were used to track license plates and more in Minnesota this January. www.404media.co/how-thomson-...

In 2022, SpaceX was charged with illegally firing workers who spoke out against Elon Musk.

Then, Elon Musk helped elect Donald Trump, and Trump's labor board dropped the charges.

Was this a political favor? I'm pressing for answers.

The Onion says it has struck a deal to take over Infowars The move would allow the satire site to turn Alex Jones' conspiracist creation into a parody of itself.

After years of legal action, the Onion says it has reached an agreement with a bankruptcy receiver to license the Infowars site.

Have been waiting for this... and it is fucking amazing.

Florida man shocked to learn that when you don't pay taxes you pay more for everything else.

The American Library Association has released its list of the most challenged books of 2025 The ALA says 4,235 titles were challenged at libraries across the country – the second-highest year on record. Forty percent of the challenged works involved LGBTQ+ subjects or the experiences of people of color.

The ALA says 4,235 titles were challenged at libraries across the country – the second-highest year on record. Forty percent of the challenged works involved LGBTQ+ subjects or the experiences of people of color. n.pr/4vFxjvp

the penne opticon

How Independent Journalism Outlasted the Orbán Regime - VSquare.org Budapest is celebrating the fall of the Orbán regime. Preliminary data confirms a massive generational shift: for many, Orbán’s 16-year rule had spanned their entire adult lives.

💥 Budapest is celebrating the fall of the Orbán regime. Driven by a surge of young Hungarians—first on the streets, then at the ballot box—the message was a deafening “Russians, go home.”

VSquare.org

Victoria Toensing @VicToensing Hubby being sworn in as Counsel to the Attorney General. 4:04 PM · Apr 20, 2026 · 6,199 Views Jason Reding Quiñones, the US Attorney in Miami, swearing in a much shorter Joe DiGenova.

Joe DiGenova, whose wife once solicited payments from foreigners to lie about Joe Biden in 2019, just got sworn in to investigate things those things he lied about in the past.

Over the weekend I laid out why this is so problematic.

emptywheel.net/2026/04/19/t...

It's a sociopolitical DDOS attack.

"This couldn’t be a simpler scandal to sum up for the American people, if anyone cared to do so: This is Donald Trump ordering the looting of the public treasury for his own benefit."

Reform’s Richard Tice posts picture with telltale signs of AI manipulation, say experts Deputy leader’s image on X was almost certainly generated or altered using AI, according to Peryton Intelligence

'Reform’s Richard Tice posts picture with telltale signs of AI manipulation, say experts.
Deputy leader’s image on X was almost certainly generated or altered using AI, according to Peryton Intelligence'

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

A clip from The New York Times reads: "But only the entities that officially paid the tariffs are eligible to recover that money. That means that the fuller universe of people affected by Mr. Trump’s policies — including millions of Americans who paid higher prices for the products they bought — are not able to apply for direct relief. The extent to which consumers realize any gain hinges on whether businesses share the proceeds, something that few have publicly committed to do. Some have started to band together in class-action lawsuits in the hopes of receiving a payout."

The average American family paid $1,700 in tariffs last year, according to the bipartisan Congressional Joint Economic Committee. Few will ever see any of that money back. The refunds will go to companies, if doled out at all. What a joke.

Speaking Sunday on CNN, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright stated that Americans should not expect the current rise in gas prices, spurred by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, to return to under $3.00 a gallon until later this year or potentially even 2027.

Original post

A Russian woman from Tuapse no longer likes living there. She says some drones are bothering her.

Trump Library Saga Takes Dark Turn: Where Did Millions in Funding Go? Four huge media conglomerates forked over $63 million in “settlements” earmarked for Trump’s presidential library. Democrats are trying to track that money—and the latest developments don’t inspire co...

SCOOP --> Paramount, Meta, and X are refusing to say what happened to their huge contributions to Trump's presidential library after Sen Elizabeth Warren raised questions about its fund getting dissolved. Ds say tens of millions remain unaccounted for.

Details here:
newrepublic.com/article/2092...

There is no doubt that the reliability of the USA since Trump has taken office has massively suffered, politically, economically and militarily. It will eventually lead to more countries detaching themselves from Washington.

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"Silicon samples" are becoming more and more common in research and polling.

One problem: depending on the analytic decisions made, you can basically get these samples to show any effect you want.

The updated version of this preprint is now online!

THREAD🧵

arxiv.org/abs/2509.13397