This is indeed wild, literally unprecedented in historical statistics. Since the 1850s at least, the ratio of wounded to killed has been *at least* ~2:1 even in the militaries and campaigns with the worst medical care. A historical rule of thumb used to be 3:1; for US in Afghanistan, it was 9-11:1.

Trump administration official told GOP ally that big payouts were coming for Jan. 6 defendants.

FTR I think more people should sue Matt Taibbi for defamation because he’s a dishonest POS. The fact that he *cut an email in half* to intentionally lie about Stanford “demanding the censorship of true stories of vaccine side effects” should’ve been career-ending. open.substack.com/pub/reneedir...

It is about fucking time. More of this!

New Evidence Data Centers May Cause Hotter Weather

Bezos on CNBC: "You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not gonna help that teacher in Queens. I promise you."

and now, your moment of zen. 🎥 (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYhEwUvv67q/)

Razorbills have the slickest design in the animal kingdom. They look like they were made by Yves Saint Laurent

Yes, I'm suing Matt Taibbi.

I wrote about this in my book on political influencers as the new propagandists. Paperback out in a two months with a new chapter pointing out the obvious: it’s only gotten worse since 2024 🤷🏻‍♀️

Despite rise in oil prices Russian fiscal deficit doubled year on year in Jan-Apr • Spending rose by 16% yoy in Jan–Apr, fuelled by military expenses • Liquid reserves of sovereign fund have shrunk by 60% since '22; they represent just three months of fiscal deficit www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

⚡️Syrskyi reveals how many Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine since beginning of 2026. Since the beginning of 2026, Russia's total losses have exceeded 141,500 military personnel, of whom more than 83,000 were killed, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on May 20.

Last year I put together a guide to help people get off US tech — and that includes Google. There are a lot of alternatives there they will help you make a plan to pull away from Google services, and all the rest of them too.

BREAKING: Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges, two law enforcement officers who clashed with Jan. 6 insurrectionists, have sued to block the Trump 'slush fund'. They're asking a federal judge to find the creation of the fund illegal and reverse any transfers that Treasury has made to DOJ to implement it.

Russia has begun a nuke exercise, possibly timed to coincide with Putin visit to China. www.defensenews.com/global/europ... So this is a good time to link to our new Russia Nuclear Notebook with overview and trends: • PDF: www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.... • Web: thebulletin.org/premium/2026...

Greek 🇬🇷 now openly declaring war on the EU Public Prosecutor. Its obstruction of EPPO's work fully justifies the freezing of EU funds for GR. But @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu @eppgroup.bsky.social remain silent and shield their party friends MAGA style.

Cannes Jury Sneaks Off To Watch ‘Mortal Kombat II’

Again, this Trump IRS thing is not a “settlement” or a “deal” or something with any legal basis at all. It’s pure corruption; colluding with his Acting AG to loot the Treasury; pay off his mob; and preemptively immunize himself and his heirs against investigation for fraud.

My cover story for the June issue of @sciam.bsky.social is up! I went on a quest to separate out hype from reality in quantum computing, and this was the result.

That's why it's bizarre to see news outlets rushing headlong toward AI. Check out this AI generated summary of the "Hondurasgate" scandal. The headline and lede make it sound as if the Mexican president is dismissing the scandal as a "smear." *That's not what she said* www.msn.com/en-us/news/i...

What I don't understand is how anyone doing non-fiction doesn't seek out primary sources and then triple-check them. How do you end-note a statement that doesn't exist? Even if you used an LLM for first-cut research, it would still be on you to distrust and verify.

Using chatbots for nonfiction and journalism seems like playing Russian roulette with a semi-automatic firearm. Writing is hard enough without a minefield of fabricated quotes and flagrant plagiarism. Also, the cognitive offloading seems to weaken discipline. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/b...

And we're all just tolerating it. What can we do, that we're not doing? Well that's the question. What's the answer? I'd like to know, myself.

"The author of a nonfiction book about the effects of artificial intelligence on truth acknowledged on Monday that he had included numerous made-up or misattributed quotes concocted by A.I." 🫠🫠🫠

Since the war began on March 2, more than 3,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, the country's health ministry reported in its latest casualty toll on Monday.

QUINTANILLA: According to the filings, the president has been trading some Intel in the quarter JIM CRAMER: Yeah, uh, yeah, hmm FABER: Got nothing to say? CRAMER: Uh, uh, yeah, whoa, yeah. FABER: Don't worry. We're not having technical difficulties, but we gotta go

by punK #art

DoGE "accidentally" cancelled Ebola protection whilst raiding voter data.

A good friend just described the day before a book launch as "The calm before the calm."

"Around 3% of Russia’s pre-war male population of fighting age has been killed or wounded," the Economist estimates in its latest tracker: www.economist.com/graphic-deta...

So you CAN get reparations you just have to be a reactionary white person who tries to overthrow the government because black votes shouldn’t count

This Week's Playlist

Great scoop by @annasophiegross.bsky.social:

You can set your watch by this stuff.

It’s genuinely interesting that despite so much open source intelligence, all the satellite photos, etc and so much coverage (more than of any other previous military conflict I’d guess) - Saudi and the UAE can carry out air strikes and no one reported it at the time?

The influencer grift is not new, and it’s probably not going away, but here’s a good reminder that some of these people are simply for sale to the first/highest bidder. Gift Link: Political Money Is Flowing to Influencers. But From Whom? www.nytimes.com/2026/05/16/b...

Immigration make Britain brilliant

Between January and April 2026, all Proton Pass apps undertook a comprehensive independent security assessment; it was found to be exceptionally robust. Read more: https://proton.me/business/blog/proton-pass-audit-2026

Moscow is threatening Armenia over its European pivot and running a coordinated disinformation campaign to delegitimize Pashinyan ahead of June elections — aiming to derail Yerevan's EU rapprochement before it becomes irreversible.

#LeCollimateur se penche aujourd'hui sur la longue histoire des représentations stratégiques aux États-Unis, en se penchant sur le sentiment de vulnérabilité paradoxal de l'hyperpuissance américaine, avec @joeguiffard.bsky.social (@ifgeopolitique.bsky.social) lerubicon.org/collimateur-...

Tech Policy Press fellow Tatiana Dias, covers the rise of “Dona Maria,” an AI-generated political influencer created by a Brazilian Uber driver that is reaching millions online, highlighting the challenge deepfakes and synthetic content pose ahead of the 2026 election.

Far right violence against asylum seekers in the Netherlands. After a fire was started near the municipal building that currently housed 15 asylum seekers, far right protesters attacked police and obstructed firefighters. Fortunately, eventually the fire was put out. nos.nl/artikel/2614...

INTERVIEW: Sa’ar warns EU against anti-Israeli ‘obsessive approach’

Among those who are listed to be studied is Giovanni Gentile, an influential idealist philosopher who went on to become minister of education under Benito Mussolini and to co-author the 1932 work The Doctrine of Fascism with the dictator. www.irishtimes.com/world/europe...

Taking a decisive step for justice 🇺🇦 We are joining the Special Tribunal to prosecute the crime of aggression against Ukraine and ratifying the International Claims Commission to ensure victims are compensated. Holding Russia accountable is the only path to peace ↓ link.europa.eu/cKFkKX

State media control impacts the output of U.S.-based LLMs. Training data for LLMs does not just fall from the sky, our research finds. See the data here: goodauthority.org/news/state-m...

NEW from me: María de Jesús Estrada Juárez was brought to the US from Mexico when she was 15, and later received protection under DACA. But when she went to interview for her green card in 2025, she was deported anyway. She thought she was doing everything right. www.wired.com/story/a-woma...

My latest in @newyorker.com, featuring an interview with @jmalbares.bsky.social, Spain's foreign minister: “Sometimes I see people saying, ‘Well, there is an old order, and there is a new order.' No, there is a rules-based order, or there is the chaos of war, and that’s a choice."

The chair of the Federal Communications Commission on making the agency more ‘aggressive’, his fight with Disney and playing golf with the president — over Lunch with the FT: ft.trib.al/rzbcEFS