NEW: 150 days of Kavanaugh stops, and it just keeps getting worse. Kavanaugh stops would always be bad. As a tool in the Trump administration's authoritarianism arsenal, they are worse. The consequences are everywhere. This evening, at Law Dork:

The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions! This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/t...

I attended a meeting last week that was one of the most shocking of my career. Here’s the lowdown…. youtu.be/PctlBxRh0p4

Wikipedia itself historically relied extensively on the CIA World Factbook due to its public domain status. It still cites it in many articles -- citations like the one highlighted here now point to a "Farewell" article. Farewell, indeed.

Indeed, the goal of cancelling a @washingtonpost.com subscription shouldn't be to change Bezos' behavior (nothing will), but to direct those funds to more worthwhile news orgs (ideally nonprofits) instead.

I founded @thexylom.com to cover *global* environmental and health disparities. As regime-aligned media turn more insular, we are committed to documenting how the world is sicker, poorer, and dirtier everywhere from South Texas to South Sudan, from Nepal to Ukraine. Please support my colleagues:

INBOX: Washington Post Ukraine Correspondent Lizzie Johnson announces that she has been laid off in the middle of a below-freezing war zone without power, heat, or running water.

Jeff Bezos took over the Washington Post Editorial Board and turned it into a mouthpiece for pro-corporate, pro-billionaire propaganda. Now, WaPo is laying off hundreds of *real* journalists — including the reporter covering Amazon. Democracy dies in billionaire hands.

In light of the gutting of the Washington Post: from Jan. 3, 2025 anntelnaes.substack.com/p/why-im-qui... "The cartoon that was killed criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump."

6/ The Post has lost over 375,000 subscribers in just over a year. If 10% of those readers subscribed to The 51st instead, we could hire 10 reporters and five editors, dramatically scaling our coverage of the city at this critical time. 51st.news/signup

Most people already know that @schumer.senate.gov is the wrong leader for this moment: a bipartisan tactician working with assumptions that should have been irreversibly updated on January 6, 2021 at the _very_ latest. He may be end up being the wrong leader at the level of historical catastrophe.

Whether you subscribe to Mehdi's thing or not, there are literally hundreds of independent and nonprofit publications that are a better use for your money than Jeff Bezos' version of the Washington Post.

Pro-gun groups quickly rallied for Alex Pretti. Why didn’t they do the same for a Black gun owner?

twitter must be dead dead cause someone posted a rat coin purse that would have 2019 twitter losing its collective mind and most of the top comments are bots saying random words or people not nearly amped enough about the rat coin purse

I was interviewed for this great lil piece on how to use Signal safely and responsibly by @steviebonifield.bsky.social for @theverge.com. TLDR Signal has NOT been hacked by the FBI but public groups are *public* "Chat, if you wouldn't say it in court, don't say it in here". tinyurl.com/bdx5affn

For >10 years I’ve been on an admissions committee for a prominent science journalism fellowship. We always have around 150 applications from around the world to review for 6 spots. This year we only had 32 applications. And several we can’t review because they’re visa restricted now.

I just got tear gassed along with thousands of union members, many of whom had their families with them. Federal agents at the ICE facility tear gassed children. We must abolish ICE, DHS, and we must have prosecutions. I expect to see enforcement of our city code prohibiting the use of tear gas.

Holy Cow! This San Francisco anti-ICE protest is huge! Solidarity with Minnesota. 🤍

Nature and Science journalists denied entry to event featuring NIH Director

It's near-white out conditions in Chicago as the snow comes down, and tonight's anti-ICE/CBP rally is wrapping up in front of city hall. But not before the crowd bounces and chants, "I believe that we will win!"

Why does Pam Bondi hate Georgia Fort? "Georgia Fort is a three-time Midwest Emmy award-winning journalist who was one of two journalists in the courtroom for the sentencing of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering George Floyd." www.startribune.com/who-is-georg...

The government’s arrests of journalists @donlemonofficial.bsky.social and @bygeorgiafort.bsky.social are attacks on freedom of the press. Two federal courts flatly rejected prosecuting Lemon, but instead of accepting that humiliating defeat, the government has now doubled down. Read our statement:

Today, we’re launching Encrypt It Already, a new website pushing tech companies to deliver stronger privacy protections to their users by enabling and expanding the use of end-to-end encryption across their products or services. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

If I see you use this word, I'll block you. If you use it "satirically" I'll block you. Using it at all today is a really fine test of character. I've had some of my books edited because I used it twenty years ago and I'm ashamed today of having used it. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/u...

And so the rot of anti-intellectualism and pseudoscience spreads ever further, paving the way for the snake oil merchants of the attention economy to sell you miracle supplements and medbed cards.

Rep. Ilhan Omar attacked at town hall anntelnaes.substack.com/p/rep-ilhan-...

Today, Luke Farrell (@lukef.bsky.social) explains how complex eligibility requirements have turned America’s safety net into a lucrative revenue stream for monopolistic private contractors.

Right now, Democrats have the power to defund and abolish ICE. We should do it. This is about right and wrong—and the murder we are seeing on the streets is just plain wrong. Anyone who supports funding DHS and ICE is supporting the murder of Americans. We can stop this.

Who applies to work for ICE, _after_ seeing the suffering they have already inflicted? Who responds to recruitment posters that proclaim "We’ll Have Our Home Again", a white supremacist anthem? You can't fix this with incremental band-aids.

"The truth is paywalled but the lies are free". For stuff that remains paywalled, I'd still love to see platforms like #Bluesky partner up with select publishers to unify access under a subscription model or similar.

Libertarians like Paul can be temporary, fickle allies on some issues, while outflanking the right on others. Politically, they must be defeated. These kinds of "displays of integrity" advertise a morally bankrupt ideology: Look how principled I am. Now, let's talk about privatizing Medicare.

Street art memorializing Alex Pretti in Seattle. Per r/Seattle, it was painted on a building facing Swedish Hospital in the First Hill neighborhood www.reddit.com/r/nursing/co...

A lot more people should know about the bravery Marimar Martinez displayed in the midst of Chicago’s occupation and the murder of two observers in MSP. They tried to kill her, shooting her 5 times, and it’s a miracle she’s alive to push for transparency like this after being persecuted by the DOJ.

Exactly right. Bovino's leaving? Great, get Noem to resign. Noem resigns? Great, defund and dismantle ICE. Go after Stephen Miller too. Bring charges against ICE thugs at the state and local level. Lawsuits. New state laws restricting them. Every possible angle.

Abolish ICE is not enough. Stern words for Greg Bovino or Kristi Noem is not enough. We need prosecutions and trials. Anything short of this position fails to address the gravity of this moment.

Washington DC wildlife: Backyard cardinal snow moods this morning. 🪶

Just a suggestion: You don't have to boost the videos of Bovino, Noem, Bondi, Hegseth, Leavitt, Vance or any other members of the Trump gang. Wait until they're on trial. We know what they're going to say. They don't need more airtime to say it.

Good afternoon from downtown Chicago, where despite heavy snowfall, thousands have gathered for an anti-ICE/CBP demonstration in solidarity with the Twin Cities. More are still streaming in. Lt. Illinois Gov. Juliana Stratton just addressed the crowd, and called for ICE to be abolished.

Ah yes, we have all been waiting for the reliable moral clarity of *checks notes* health insurance company CEOs

So which politician is calling for the dismantling of the probably illegal database that ice & this government is collecting biometric data of protesters?

ICE killing #AlexPretti should remind you of police killing #PhilandoCastille. Both men had concealed weapon permits, did not draw their guns, & were killed in Minn. These homicides are the price of unaccountable policing. These deaths are variations on the same fatal theme.

Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti. "Please get the truth out about our son."

“Ice has become Trump’s private militia. It must be abolished” Re-upping this piece of mine from last year, when things weren’t even half as bad as they are now.

Alex Pretti took care of veterans as an ICU nurse. “He was a super nice, super helpful guy – looked after his patients," said @dimitridrekonja.bsky.social, who worked with Pretti both at the hospital and on scientific research. "I’m just stunned.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

If you're living somewhere outside the USA, one thing you can do is pressure your leaders to boycott World Cup and Olympic events here.

Aren't governments only supposed to last about 250 years? This is the real life version of your phone overheating and not being able to hold a charge. This is all the lights on your dashboard coming on and the car making a weird sound as it fills with smoke. We need a whole new one.

I don’t want to hear anything from an elected official unless it’s a plan to defund the DHS and impeach Noem, Bovino, etc. No texts. No emails. No talk about the economy. Step up or step off.

Today I'm remembering Philando Castile, shot in 2016 by police in the Minneapolis suburbs after being pulled over for a broken brake light. "Sir, I have to tell you that I do have a firearm on me," he said. Ten seconds later one of the cops had shot him five times. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing...

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

Our initial analysis is up. The video footage appears to show that the gun was taken away from the man before he was shot. He was UNARMED before any of the shots were fired.