The big sigh

“I’ve learned to be extremely wary of anyone whose eyes show panic and fear when they’re holding a gun.” Staring down agents at a Home 2 Suites in Minneapolis. / Welcome to Hell World

Watch: A Marine explains the battlefield tech spotted in Minneapolis, including gear that he  wasn’t even allowed to have on the front line in Afghanistan. / The New York Times

ICE has violated 96 court orders so far in Minnesota. / The Hill

For every dollar the largest ICE detention facilities donated to GOP campaigns in 2024, they could see at least $11,000 in increased annual revenue this year. / Jacobin

“His mother always ensured he had a tidy haircut and a clean room.” I grew up with Alex Pretti. / The Verge

A pair of college freshmen have built an interactive map that scours multiple data sources to track ICE activity across the US. / The Rice Thresher, icemap.dev

A buying guide to gas masks “for the specific purpose of living under state repression.” / The Verge

The FBI searched an election office in Fulton County, reportedly looking for “a number of records related to 2020 elections.” / Reuters

Following a multi-year drop due to Covid and overdose deaths, Americans’ life expectancy climbed in 2024 to 79 years, an all-time high. / NPR

Polio was that bad: “Eventually, we could find ourselves back in the same situation as in the early 1950s.” / The Atlantic [$]

The Doomsday Clock has now reached 85 seconds, the closest it’s been to midnight since it started ticking in 1947. / Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

See also: In an exercise that may be “a more organized doomscrolling,” the granddaughter of a nuclear weapons scientist investigates how the Doomsday Clock is set. / Popular Mechanics

A space historian learns the “Remove Before Flight” tags he purchased off eBay were from Challenger. / Ars Technica

As biodiversity loss worsens in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, mosquitoes begin to show a distinct preference for human blood. / Frontiers

Anthropic is found to have “destructively scanned” millions of books to feed its chatbot. / The Washington Post [$]

Designers tackle a thorny subject: Should you be publicly anti-AI? “There is a huge market for human-made art and design.” / Creative Boom

As music platforms choose sides on AI, some musicians and label heads question what gets lost—or gained—from bans. / Pitchfork

See also: Released in the early 1970s, the Triadex Muse was the first algorithm-based sequencer for home consumers, and a forerunner of generative music. / Computer History Music

Meta is spending millions to convince residents in small-town America that the data centers coming their way are good, actually. / Mother Jones

The Supreme Court will hear a case alleging that by sharing users’ viewing histories with Facebook, Paramount violated a 1988 law protecting videotape rental data. / JURISTnews

A stolen 1633 Rembrandt frequently shows up in movies—most recently in Wake Up Dead Man—though let’s assume they’re reproductions. / Artnet

In the members area, unlocked links from the Atlantic and the Washington Post ↓