Power, corruption & lies
President Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace” would have him serve as chairman for life. / The New York Times [$]
Deducing what the US is now, exactly—a kakistocracy, a kleptocracy, or a fascist state—one thing’s for certain, Trump can only be a dictator if you let him. / The Atlantic [$]
See also: “The unipolar world, what was left of it, has died—of suicide, not murder.” The 20th century is long gone, as is America’s place in the world. / Systematic Hatreds
The White House wants regime change in Cuba by the end of the year. / The Wall Street Journal [$]
Minnesota schools describe how ICE is kidnapping students, going as far as using a five-year-old detainee as “bait” to lure his family members. / Sahan Journal
See also: “It’s sad and it’s angering.” A Minneapolis high school journalist documents an ICE raid at her school. / The Guardian
Hundreds of Minnesota businesses will close on Friday as part of a general strike in protest of the ICE occupation. / Bring Me the News
Distributing whistles and protest materials, as well as taking to the streets: how indie bookstores in the Twin Cities are standing up to ICE. / Literary Hub
Related: How you can support Minnesota right now. / Stand With Minnesota
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Apparently at Trump’s behest, the FCC is reviving the “equal time” rules for political candidates’ appearances on talk shows. / NBC News
The complicated history of Martin Niemöller, the pastor who wrote “First They Came…” and was legitimately a thorn in Hitler’s side, yet espoused antisemitism after his arrest. / The Nation
In an experiment to see how LLMs perform independently, researchers learn Claude beats ChatGPT and DeepSeek at Dungeons & Dragons. / Semafor
To save the Great Barrier Reef, Australia is undertaking the “largest collective effort on Earth ever mounted to protect a reef.” / Vox
Even a 25% increase in animal protein intake like the new food pyramid recommends would need 100 million extra acres of agricultural land—about the size of California. / The Guardian
Joshua David Stein reveals the Stranger Things cookbook that might have been, complete with an intricate backstory and a lot of poetry. / The JDS Newsletter
“Our AI has turned your article about convex-constrained nonlinear functions into one simple trick to lose belly fat.” Always read the terms of service. / McSweeney’s
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