‘Uber for nurses’: gig-work apps lobby to deregulate healthcare, report finds Growing use of AI tech comes at expense of workers’ rights, protections and pay, report warns

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

WTF News 🗞️

Disabled Veterans arrested today at the nation’s Capitol for protesting the Iran war.

"The average IQ in Somalia hovers around 70, and that's the threshold for mentally handicapped ... they're a net drain on the society" -- even by MAGA standards, the unvarnished racism of this interview of Rep. Brandon Gill by Benny Johnson is breathtaking

US spending on ‘reckless’ Iran war could have saved 87m lives, says UN Head of UN’s humanitarian agency frustrated that $2bn weekly cost of conflict comes amid big cuts to aid budgets

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

When the markets start to get a whiff of the true rotting core on Palantir...
@edpoole1975.bsky.social @zackpolanski.bsky.social
@goodlawproject.org

Israeli Soldier in Lebanon Sledgehammered a Statue of Jesus

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/w...

In the same manifesto, Palantir's owners argued that we need a national military draft, that soft power is over, and that we were too hard on Germany and Japan after World War II. I don't think that company should be allowed to exist anymore.

Marina Bolotnikova | Substack Senior reporter @ Vox thinking about factory farming & animal rights, agriculture, science & its discontents, cities, housing, transit and ✨ideas. Click to read Marina Bolotnikova, a Substack with hun...

Read Marina Bolotnikova's brilliant analysis of last week's stunning open rescue of beagles at Ridgland Farms, outside Madison, Wisconsin. Subscribe to her new Substack!

mbolotnikova.substack.com?r=22dwhy&utm...

Steven Pinker Doesn’t Know Anything About Marxism Bill Gates’ favorite writer keeps spewing out lazy clichés about Marxism being a “disaster” whenever it’s “implemented.” But he’s way off-base, and Marx deserves better critics.

Steven Pinker is the Alex Jones of the centrist intelligentsia.

"Bill Gates’ favorite writer keeps spewing out lazy clichés about Marxism"
www.currentaffairs.org/news/steven-...

Activists Tear-Gassed at Failed Raid of Beagle Research Facility

YES--we need more targeted, strategic direct actions to liberate animals.

"Some 1,000 protesters tried to storm a private breeding and lab facility in Wisconsin in an effort to steal thousands of beagles that are bred for medical experimentation."

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...

Police use gas and rubber bullets on activists at beagle facility in Wisconsin Law enforcement rebuffs protesters at breeding and biomedical research farm amid attempt to remove dogs

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Why Meat Still Holds Power in China Herbiⓥore published a post on Ko-fi

In China, people were more likely to choose plant-based meat when they thought others approved of it. That is how meat keeps its grip too. Not because it is necessary, but because culture keeps presenting the use of animals as ordinary.

Link to my recent interview on the Vegan Nation radio show (WCUW, Worcester, Massachusetts), with the wonderful Marlene Narrow.

www.wcuw.org/vegannation_...

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/o...

Lewd messages linked to University of Michigan regent who led campaign against pro-Palestinian students Jordan Acker, who pushed legal action against protesters, is running for re-election in race reflecting tensions on Israel

"Acker is known to be a confrontational, pro-Israel leader" who "helped recruit the attorney general to bring highly unusual prosecutions against students, and, while he was on the board, it led a sprawling undercover surveillance operation against the students."
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Terrifying warning as Atlantic Ocean current may collapse by mid-century The global climate crisis is causing a critical Atlantic Ocean current system to weaken much sooner than previously predicted, according to a study published on Thursday. If it stops, scientists say i...

Terrifying warning as Atlantic Ocean current may collapse by mid-century

www.rawstory.com/atlantic-oce...

Japanese doctors warn Iran war threatens medical supplies Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi orders release of glove stockpile as concerns grow across Asia

Last week we read about the US and Israel's war causing shortage of helium needed for MRI scans, and now supply bottlenecks for essential medical equipment like gloves and syringes:

Israel Will Keep Occupying Lebanon Despite Ceasefire News of less violence is welcome, but let’s be clear what Israel thinks in Lebanon when its Gaza “ceasefire” has meant continued genocide.

Israel Will Keep Occupying Lebanon Despite Ceasefire @theintercept.com theintercept.com/2026/04/16/l...

ICE smashed her car windows on the way to the doctor. Now she's fighting back. Aliya Rahman is one of hundreds of people filing personal injury claims against federal agents.

In January, Aliya Rahman was on her way to a doctor’s appointment when ICE agents smashed the glass out of her car windows, pulled her out of her car, and hauled her down the street by her arms and legs.

Now, Rahman plans to ensure her ordeal comes at a cost to the agency that harmed her.

Hampshire College was ‘a magical place’ for a progressive education. It couldn’t survive this era Hampshire is latest school to fall to declining enrollment amid a decades-long crisis affecting liberal arts colleges

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Corporate America Aims to Preserve Profit Streak During War in Iran

War is good for US corporations.

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/b...

Vance Heckled in Antiwar Protest at Turning Point USA Event

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/u...

Gallego Dismissed Rumors of a ‘Flirty’ Swalwell, Highlighting a Culture of Silence

Same old same old same Old Boy's network.

Gallego Dismissed Rumors of a ‘Flirty’ Swalwell, Highlighting a Culture of Silence www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/u...

US DoJ files for overturning January 6 convictions for far-right groups’ members Filing seeks to overturn seditious conspiracy charges of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers members who laid siege to US Capitol in 2021

Trump, Bannon, Miller, et al., are playing the long game. We are already in Agamben's "state of exception," we just don't know it yet.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

From Molotov cocktails to data center shutdowns, the AI backlash is turning revolutionary | Fortune Gen Z is furious about AI, and so is the American countryside.

“‘I think the vast majority of people who are angry at AI are regular consumers,’ Hanna said. ‘People who were promised one thing, especially online, and they’re just getting a completely different experience.’”

Hampshire College Will Close Amid Student Enrollment Declines

Ken Burns, on the shocking closure of my alma mater:

“I think there’s an inability for those people who have wealth in the country to understand and value something like Hampshire.” A "transformational education...has been hijacked by the transactional."

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/u...

The Horrors That Could Lie Ahead if Vaccines Vanish Researchers at Stanford University modeled how many people could die or be disabled in 25 years if vaccines for polio, measles, rubella or diphtheria were no longer available.

A model by Klang and Lo shows that if current vaccination rates drop by half, polio, measles, rubella or diphtheria could return. Most of us are already vaccinated. But when more babies go unvaccinated, a larger share of them & others will be susceptible.
🧪 projects.propublica.org/childhood-va...

Okay, there are some rare uses of AI I am down with.

To state the obvious, the US has no moral or legal right to deny Iran a nuclear bomb when it itself has over 5,000 nukes and when Israel (found by human rights group to have committed genocide and ethnic cleansing) is allowed to maintain its own arsenal of 100s of nukes, including neutron weapons.

Iran war could plunge 32 million into poverty, says United Nations ‘Development in reverse’ taking place involving rising energy and food costs and weaker economic growth

"Iran war could plunge 32 million into poverty, says United Nations."

The problem isn't just individuals like Trump/Orban/Erdoğan--it's a political and economic order that gives leaders and capitalists the power to unilaterally determine the lives of billions.

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...