Dreaming of electric sheep
Even as a decline in illegal border crossings is a gift for Trump, it makes it harder for ICE to put up the arrest and deportation numbers it wants. / The Washington Post [+]
More journalists were killed in 2024 than ever before, and Israel was responsible for two-thirds of those deaths. / Democracy Now!
Will the IMF survive Donald Trump's presidency? Only if it can avoid—or at least limit—arm-twisting by the world's big three economies. / The London School of Economics
How Trump is weaponizing financial payments—potentially to the point where the administration could target organizations it opposes. / Programmable Mutter
Anyway, the IRS is reviewing a request from DOGE to provide access to a classified system that contains personal taxpayer data. / The Guardian
See also: "Right now it feels like we're being hacked from the inside." The federal tech workers facing down DOGE. / Blood in the Machine
Full authoritarianism in the US is unlikely. The more probable scenario is competitive authoritarianism—here's how other countries have managed to fend it off. / The Detox with Neil Abrams
Checking in on how the party of the working class has helped American workers, one month in. / How Things Work
"Many in the mountains find it hard to trust government and city people who want to tell them how to take care of the land." Pitchaya Sudbanthad on Thailand's wildfires. / Orion
The lie we've been told about recycling is worse than we thought: It's poisoning residents where the world's plastic refuse is dumped. / The New York Times [+]
"It still boggles my mind that my books end up being classified as dystopian literature." Fernando A. Flores's new novel is about Elon Musk's Texas. / Texas Monthly
Helped by Peter Thiel and Y Combinator, an initiative to push Christianity to Silicon Valley via direct-to-consumer marketing. / The New York Times [+]
"You gotta take care of your own soul, and I'm writing this because I want to clarify mine." On AI, and more importantly: Is it OK? / Robin Sloan
Rooster fans: From John Warner, here's an inside look at the Tournament of Books and the ideal book review. / The Biblioracle Recommends
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Your headlines are sourced and composed by Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack (☜), Monday through Friday. View this edition and the latest headlines at TMN.