Trump's governing template, Project 2025, has unleashed a coordinated assault on democracy, rights, and pluralism both at home and abroad. Our hidden gem of the week maps the export of this Heritage Foundation–led playbook worldwide. By @globalextremism.bsky.social buff.ly/ymZeuo5

Those little girls didn't stand a chance!

"Palantir CEO Alex Karp thinks his AI technology will lessen the power of 'highly educated, often female voters, who vote mostly Democrat' while increasing the power of working-class men." Remind me again why Labour is shoving vast public contracts down its throat?

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention “believes that the U.S. is squarely within the early to middle stages of a genocidal process against trans people, the goal of which is to completely erase transgender people not only from public life but also from existence in the U.S. & globally”

I really wanted to know more about Renee Good, killed by ICE in January. Fortunately, my editor allowed me to take some time to do a deep dive into who she was before she died. Read and listen to what I found out about her from her Colorado tribe here: www.cpr.org/2026/03/11/r...

The Russians are increasingly trying to destabilise the Baltic States, which they view as their 'provinces'. Currently, the narrative that the Estonian state is preparing a genocide against the Russian-speaking population is being circulated in Estonia’s Russian-language information space.

Sánchez: “You may have heard that Spain is alone. They’re the same people who said that when we recognized the State of Palestine, and then others followed. “We are not alone — we are the first. Those who will end up alone are the ones defending the indefensible.”

I think the secretary of defense should not be a psychopath

"A classified report by the National Intelligence Council" completed a week before the war "found that even a large-scale assault on Iran launched by the United States would be unlikely to oust the Islamic republic’s entrenched military and clerical establishment." Gift link: wapo.st/4lcrq3M

The Belgian Armed Forces, with assistance from the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, have intercepted and boarded an oil tanker identified as part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet.” The ship is now being escorted to the port of Zeebrugge, where authorities intend to impound it.

What a time to be alive

This is pretty much exactly what I expected and why I argued to my research group that to the extent we decide to use AI models, we must explore options to run them locally, maintain control and ensure that we can switch models easily. Large corporate providers fundamentally cannot be trusted.

A must-read if you haven't already: @kalish.bsky.social interviewed a dozen people, and sorted through 1,000+ pages of court documents and other records, to present a ton of new reporting re: ICE's cruel treatment of trans detainees. www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition. Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The difference between plastic surgery & gender-affirming surgeries is the level of regret. The dissatisfaction rate for nose jobs is 15.4%. In contrast the regret rate for gender-affirming surgery is less than 1% pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23277618/

Anne Frank died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen

Putin appears in the Epstein files 1,000 times. Masha Drokova (here) and Jagland, former prime minister of Norway, coordinated their financial plans. These alliances—between oil and sex, pedofiles and crypto-utopians, corrupt and ‘clean’ governments—paved the way to the current ordeal

straight up Gestapo shit

Bravo, Wall Street Journal Videos Contradict U.S. Account of Minneapolis Shooting by Federal Agents "See how immigration officers escalated a fatal confrontation Saturday" Gift link: www.wsj.com/us-news/vide...

Includes European media

“Hans…Are we the baddies?”

Alex from our time working together, while he was in nursing school. Later, he moved to ICU, working as a nurse to support critically ill Veterans. He had such a great attitude. We’d chat between patients about trying to get in a mountain bike ride together. Will never happen now

Trump posts an image depicting Canada and Greenland as part of the United States

When you think about it, it was a pretty sly move by the Norwegian prime minister to make public his text conversation with Trump -- the one that revealed how Trump's pique over the Nobel prize is fueling his designs to take over Greenland. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/u...

Considering they decided not to give me the MacArthur Genius Prize, I no longer feel an obligation to be a pure genius

Students know what’s up. This sharp seventh grader raises the obvious question about what teacher use of AI implies for student usage.

Important work has been done on this for civil society, with regard to documenting crimes for the international criminal tribunals - applicable mutatis mutandis: www.icc-cpi.int/sites/defaul...

I wrote about @reproutopia.bsky.social's excellent book "Enemy Feminisms: Terfs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation" for the new @nplusonemag.com

I know there are a lot of big stories. And I have long ago learned not to over-react to crazy things Trump says. But him telling the NYT that the only limitation on his power is his own conscience is profoundly disturbing. Because that is dictator territory. And because he has no conscience.

Jonathan Ross told a federal court in December about his professional background, including “hundreds” of encounters with drivers during enforcement actions, according to testimony obtained by WIRED. www.wired.com/story/ice-ag...

The best of the Venezuela columns so far because it sees the fascism, kleptocracy & end times dystopian background of the moment. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

According to the German news magazine Der Spiegel & repeated here by Le Monde, the Trump administration has threatened to impose sanctions on the French judges handling the domestic criminal case against Marine Le Pen. I’m not outraged; I’m enjoying imagining EU sanctions on Sam Alito.

Why should Trump stop at Venezuela? They’re champing at the bit for territorial expansion. Katie Miller, Stephen Miller‘s wife, posted a map of Greenland marked as a US territory with the words „SOON“.

New Interview: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

The Putinization of US foreign policy continues apace.

Most likely the most important thread all year, yes 2025. “All (LLM authored books) promoting propaganda reflecting talking points of the UAE, Israel and right wing European movements” If they are using AI and LLM to create propaganda elsewhere, you know they’re using it everywhere.

More than 30 immigrants have died in ICE custody in 2025 That’s the most in over 20 years

The nyt’s first story on the Cass report didn’t come out until the next day, when it portrayed the document, falsely, as part of a movement in Europe to restrict care. No such movement existed. France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria were taking positions in opposition to Cass and in line w doctors

"I understand Belgium is under a lot of pressure from Russia...but also from the United States" says @KajaKallas "In order to get off that pressure we should have a European proposal. Then 🇧🇪 will just abide by the law, and whoever has any concerns can go to court against 🇪🇺"

Mensen die veilig in het Westen roepen dat Oekraïne maar moet inbinden, laten vaak het lot van een paar miljoen Oekraïners volledig buiten beschouwing. En dat is niets anders dan een koloniaal bewind. Vooral mensen die menen tegen kolonialisme op te komen, vallen door de mand.

In a surprise move, Italy has tonight joined Belgium in its opposition to sending Russia's frozen assets to Ukraine, asking for alternative options at next week's🇪🇺summit Meanwhile, Brussels was informed that the new🇺🇸peace deal draft says Ukraine will joint the EU in a year - logistically impossible

An investigation by Bellingcat and Lloyd’s List found that Saudi Arabia joined the countries importing grain directly from a sanctioned port in occupied Crimea. Meanwhile Russia attempts to secure recognition of the Ukrainian territory via a US-led peace plan. www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/12...

NEW: We took a deep dive into ICE's data dragnet: the data brokers, biometrics tools, and license plate readers powering Trump's deportation effort. Some of the contracts are for tools previous administrations deemed too intrusive.

The Trump administration is sending draft age Russian asylum seekers back to Russia via Cairo, where they are given military summons upon arrival. Pressing for a peace deal while feeding the war machine. www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/12/10/a...

Loved this profile of the mother+son duo helping bring wildflowers back to L.A. fire-ravaged neighborhoods (and there's a link to support their mission, timely for Giving Tuesday!!) via @jmarantosplants.bsky.social www.latimes.com/lifestyle/ne...

They were 8 and 11 years old

Update #Serbien: Es finden weiterhin täglich diverse Aktionen und Proteste statt. Dijana Hrka, Mutter eines der Opfer, befindet sich im 15. Tag ihres Hungerstreiks vor dem Parlament. Es sind stets (mal mehr und mal weniger Menschen bei ihr). Die Lage ist politisch weiter angespannt, aber ruhig. 1/x