The Israeli military is seizing Global Sumud Flotilla ships sailing in international waters toward Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid and break Israel's siege on the Palestinian enclave. Alex Colston reports on the final moments before Israeli forces captured those on board. Subscribe to zeteo.com

@hrw.org is calling on the Trump administration to establish "a truce in ICE's campaign of terror for cities hosting World Cup matches," that includes a "public guarantee from federal authorities to refrain from immigration enforcement at games and venues." www.hrw.org/sites/defaul...

Undeterred by soldiers, riot police & politicians, Amy Goodman of @DemocracyNow.org reports the truth others won't touch. “Steal This Story, Please!” is the film this moment demands. Watch @trevortimm.bsky.social explain and then follow the link to get your tickets: stealthisstory.org

I think @caseynewton.bsky.social summarized the current state of platforms perfectly in these two paras: www.platformer.news/threads-blue...

Israel says it will sue @nytimes.com over Nicholas Kristof's reporting on the horrible torture of Palestinian prisoners. It's an absurd attack on press freedom meant to further shield any accountability. Watch us count the ways this lawsuit threat is both frivolous and outrageous.

Breaking: SCOTUS just preserved mifepristone (abortion pill) access through telehealth. For now. Thomas and Alito dissented.

Such a joke. There is SO much evidence of Israel torturing prisoners, countless examples and eye witness accounts, it's been reported on for months, including in Israeli outlets. The outrage over NYT finally reporting what is obvious is a new low.

Deep in the Amazon, along Peru-Brazil border, lies proposed Yavarí-Tapiche Corridor: 16 million hectares of intact forest sheltering world's highest concentration of Indigenous peoples living in isolation. But threats (oil/gas, mining/logging, highways, narcos) are closing in, new report shows.

The New York Times’ @nickkristof.bsky.social writes about the brutal sexual abuse, rape of male and female Palestinian prisoners, including journalists, by Israeli prison guards, soldiers, settlers, and interrogators — abuses funded in part by our U.S. tax dollars.

Some people leave prison quieter. Others return determined to speak out loud. Read this moving article by Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, the journalist recently freed from a Kuwaiti prison after nearly two months behind bars.

The @pressfreedomtracker.us has recorded nearly 200 LAPD press freedom violations involving journalists. On May Day, reporters were handcuffed and struck with batons. With the World Cup coming to LA, FPF's @adamrose.bsky.social challenged LAPD to prevent an international incident. Watch ⬇️

Given the Trump admin’s "open hostility to journalism and its novel legal tactics to attack the press, it’s entirely possible that the next target of financial censorship could be a news outlet," @reitman.bsky.social, FPF board president, wrote in @theintercept.com.

"We commend ABC for standing up for itself and the First Amendment," says @seth-stern.bsky.social. "Carr won’t stop until a judge forces him to, and hopefully ABC plans to make that happen, both here and in Carr’s equally ridiculous retaliatory license renewal proceeding" in response to Kimmel.

Two press freedom groups that hold Paramount shares are demanding internal records over concerns the Ellisons have agreed to compromise the editorial integrity of CNN to secure approval for the Warners deal, Status has learned. Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/paramount-...

As Paramount shareholders, @freedom.press and @rsf.org Thursday demanded company's "internal records over concerns the Ellisons have agreed to compromise the editorial integrity of CNN to secure approval for the Warners deal." Read more in @status.news:

FBI’s probe of Kash Patel reporting by The Atlantic's @sfitz787.bsky.social shows utter disregard for the First Amendment. It also exposes Patel’s argument as nonsense. If The Atlantic had “sham sources,” what is there to investigate? Fake sources can’t leak. @trevortimm.bsky.social explains:

Alabama Legislature is meeting on redistricting; we are under a tornado watch, and it’s flooding in the building. These metaphors are too on the nose.

Important to note that the Atlantic's piece didn't even contain any classified information (this probe would still be outrageous if it did). But the FBI is reportedly now conducting an invasive leak investigation merely to settle a personal vendetta.

The U.S. is weaponizing immigration laws to silence the press. Again. The Trump administration is targeting noncitizens journalists first, but it won’t stop there. If it could, it would exile any American reporter who dares to investigate Trump and his allies.

📩 Read in our weekly newsletter (and subscribe): - It’s World Press Freedom Day. Someone forgot to tell the world - Bootlicking Brendan Carr is back at it - FPF sues for White House texts - Hear from experts on the SEC gag rule - Plus, what we're reading...

NEW: Eleven U.S. cities will host World Cup games this summer, which is expected to generate $11B for FIFA. The cities get little in return. They do not see a slice of game-day revenues from ticket sales, concessions and merchandise, or parking.

Mifepristone Maker Appeals to US Supreme Court Amid Fears of 'National Abortion Ban'

“A lot of people think of messages in bottles as being sort of flippant or silly … My experience has shown me quite the opposite. I don’t know exactly what the impulse is, but it’s deep, it’s fundamental, and it’s foundational. I think it’s core to being human.” What a fun @newyorker.com read.

Journalists using agentic AI should probably know the risks of giving these tools far-reaching access to their systems. Just ask a developer who used an agent … which then nuked his code and backups. Read more in our newsletter, and subscribe.

It’s never been more important to stand up for press freedom in the United States. This World Press Freedom Day — and every day — Freedom of the Press Foundation is here to defend those rights. Watch @trevortimm.bsky.social to learn more about our work, and donate today: freedom.press/donate

📩 Read in our weekly newsletter (and subscribe): - Bootlicking Brendan Carr is back at it - It’s almost World Press Freedom Day. Someone forgot to tell the world - FPF sues for White House texts - Hear from experts on the SEC gag rule - Plus, what we're reading...

It’s World Press Freedom Day this Sunday. Traditionally, that’s when we call out foreign regimes for targeting journalists. But this year, the call is coming from inside our own (White) house instead.

The U.S. is rapidly joining the ranks of the world’s worst press freedom offenders. @freedom.press’s Caitlin Vogus provides a prescription for how to fight back.

Last year, we interviewed @recolston.bsky.social and other journalists who were abducted and illegally detained by Israel over the summer while aboard similar Gaza-bound aid flotillas. Read the article in @jacobinmag.bsky.social ⬇️

The interception by Israel of a humanitarian flotilla and the abduction of journalists and other participants, including @zeteo.com’s contributor Alex Colston, is yet another attack on press freedom. The State Dept should secure the release of Colston and other US citizens illegally held by Israel.

“It’s a shameful, politically motivated attack on science … I’m at a loss for words.”

Payment services like PayPal don’t have any incentive to consider the value of controversial and unpopular speech or how it may benefit our society. Yet as @reitman.bsky.social points out, they hold the power of censorship. @literaryhub.bsky.social

Blocking donations to a nonprofit that’s fighting for justice. What happened to Trump’s executive order against debanking, you ask? Could its enforcement be sporadic and politically motivated?🤔

The same warrantless surveillance tactics being used in immigration sweeps could be turned against journalists and their sources. Congress should pass the Government Surveillance Reform Act and close the data broker loophole.

"I violated every principle I was given: I guessed instead of verifying I ran a destructive action without being asked. I didn't understand what I was doing before doing it. I didn't read Railway's docs on volume behavior across environments."

Strong stmt from @freedom.press colleague @seth-stern.bsky.social on the latest shameless weaponization of the FCC by Trump's lap dog Brendan Carr: "The FCC is neither the journalism police nor the humor police. This is nothing but illegal jawboning intended to intimidate ABC into kissing the ring"

In authoritarian regimes, the government uses its regulatory powers to pressure the media to refrain from questioning or criticizing its leaders and actions

Incarcerated people stopped believing they deserved soap and toilet paper when the government controlled the news they could watch, writes @joinjeremy.org's Jeremy Busby. People on the outside may stop believing they deserve democracy.

Journalists who are still attending the WHCD this year don't seem to get just how much things have changed. It isn't 1998. You're not going to pose for cute photos with the West Wing stars at "nerd prom." You're enabling a regime who's assaulting your own profession & you're torching your career.

Trump's jokes at the WHCA dinner Saturday are sure to be terrible. If for some reason you have to watch his anti-press stand-up routine, here's a way to make it a little less boring. 🖨️ Print and play our bingo card (and donate to @freedom.press): media.freedom.press/media/docume...

Remember when the Trump administration pressured app stores to remove the ICEBlock app? It was a classic example of Trump’s favorite censorship move — jawboning. But a recent court case shows how media organizations can fight back. Watch FPF’s @trevortimm.bsky.social to find out more.

White House Allowed Officials’ Text Messages to Be Deleted, Lawsuit Says @freedom.press and @citizensforethics.org say internal White House guidance that text messages need not be preserved unless “they are the sole record of official decision-making” contradicted the law.

Trump's jokes at the WHCA dinner Saturday are sure to be terrible (and unfunny). If, for some reason, you have to watch his anti-press stand-up routine, here's a way to make it a little less boring. 🖨️ Print and play our bingo card (and donate to @freedom.press): media.freedom.press/media/docume...

The Pentagon fired an ombudsman whose role is to preserve a military newspaper's editorial independence because she spoke out about efforts to undermine that independence. These people behave as if someone else pays their legal fees when they get sued. Oh, right...

So proud of my org. They are so ahead of the game.

🔔 Tonight in Brooklyn: Join a conversation with @eff.org Executive Director Cindy Cohn and @anildash.com to learn about Cohn's new book, "Privacy's Defender." 📍 Brooklyn Central Library 10 Grand Army Plaza Brooklyn, NY 11238 🕕 6 p.m. ET

Good news this AM for a change: US-Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin acquitted of all charges

Great reporting from Drop Site. 👏👏

You know the FBI is off the rails if even lawyers in Trump's DOJ had to warn them that their retaliatory investigation lacked legal merit. Patel’s job is to fight actual crime, not to chug beers in locker rooms, file SLAPP suits against the press or baselessly investigate journalists. Full stmt ⬇️