curated news excerpts & citations
James Eagle: TSMC is turning AI demand into monopoly economics
TSMC’s first quarter was not just strong. It was a reminder that the AI boom is being monetised first by the companies that make the physical bottlenecks. …
The remarkable part is the margin structure. …
The risk is geopolitical as much as financial. TSMC is no longer merely a supplier to Apple, Nvidia and AMD. It is infrastructure for the AI economy. That makes its profits extraordinary, but also makes its concentration in Taiwan impossible to ignore.
Alexander Hanff: Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent. At a billion-device scale the climate costs are insane.
Lance Whitney@ ZDNET: Why Chrome may have quietly downloaded a 4GB file to your PC – and how to get rid of it
Alastair Marsh, Brody Ford @ Bloomberg: Microsoft Reconsiders Clean-Energy Pledge Made Harder by AI
The tech giant may drop one of the industry’s most ambitious climate targets
Hadas Gold @ CNN: Microsoft, Google and xAI will let the government test their AI models before launch
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Vivek Krishnamurthy @ Conversation: The method in Iran’s madness? Closure of Strait of Hormuz echoes a centuries‑old Danish play − and is a tragedy for the world order
(Vivek Krishnamurthy @ Conversation more…)Peter Eavis @ NY Times: Attack on French Cargo Ship Highlights Continued Risks in Strait of Hormuz
U.S. Central Command and the ship’s owner disagreed on whether the vessel coordinated safe passage with the United States military.
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Evan Hill, Jarrett Ley, Alex Horton, Tara Copp, Dan Lamothe @ Washington Post: Iran has hit far more U.S. military assets than reported, satellite images show
Imagery published by Iranian state-affiliated media and verified by The Post shows damage to at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S. military sites.
(Evan Hill, Jarrett Ley, Alex Horton, Tara Copp, Dan Lamothe @ Washington Post more…)Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – May 6, 2026
Global affairs journalist David Rothkopf wrote today in The Daily Beast: “Not since Vietnam have we seen a more systematic effort by an administration to lie about the nature, costs, consequences, and results of a war than we have seen from the White House on Iran.”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Dean Blundell: Trump Says The Pope Wants Iran To Have Nukes. Rubio Says Trump Never Said It. He Did, And Here’s WHY.
A man who couldn’t pass a Sunday school quiz is now picking a holy war with 1.4 billion Catholics to bury Epstein, sell a war for oil, and protect a war criminal in Tel Aviv. Let’s go to the receipts.
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The Trump regime is run by Christian nationalists who consider Catholicism a rival firm.
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Heather Delaney Reese: Trump is poisoning our youth
This morning, with children carefully placed as props by his side, the President of the United States sat in his high-backed leather chair inside the Oval Office while cameras recorded every word that was said. …
I have thought about how to share this because it’s not an exact comparison, but it echoes loudly of the Hitler Youth movement. The Hitler Youth program was never simply about health or athletics. It was a militarization pipeline disguised as youth development. …
And that is what made today so deeply unsettling. This was never just about helping children live healthier lives. The central metric was whether enough American children are physically fit enough to serve the military. And once you hear it through that lens, the entire event looks very different.
(Heather Delaney Reese more…)
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Ken Klippenstein: Pre-Crime Strategy Unveiled for Leftist “Extremists”
The White House declared war on the American people today, labeling its political opponents as terrorists, including “Left-wing extremists.” The new label also claims that there are “deepening alliances” between “the far-left and Islamists” — or pro-Palestinian protesters.
The language is contained in the White House’s newly released National Counterterrorism Strategy. It is the first National Strategy to be unveiled since 2021, when the Biden administration issued its document. The Strategy identifies the “left-wing,” “anti-Fascists,” “Anarchists” and “radically pro-transgender” ideologies as threats equivalent to jihadi groups like al Qaeda and ISIS, or narco-traffickers.
(Ken Klippenstein more…)
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Shanley Hurt: Trump’s DOJ Shows Up Just in Time for Big Oil
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Chris Iorfida @ CBC: Canadian sues U.S. Homeland Security, which allegedly sought his Google data after critical social media posts
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Christina Jewett @ NY Times: F.D.A. Blocked Publication of Research Finding Covid and Shingles Vaccines Were Safe
The agency’s scientists and data contractors reviewed millions of patient records for studies that were pulled back before release.
(Christina Jewett @ NY Times more…)Paul Krugman: MAGA Will Kill Many Americans
Duaa Eldeib @ ProPublica: Babies Are Bleeding to Death as Parents Reject a Vitamin Shot Given at Birth
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Katelyn Jetelina, Heidi Moseson, PhD MPH @ Your Local Epidemiologist: Abortion pills: An option not talked about enough
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf @ Contrarian: The Fifth Circuit Proves Abortion Is on the Ballot this November
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Gideon M-K: You Probably Don’t Need To Stress About Hantavirus
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Jeff Cohen: I Detest Billionaires: My Journey to Supporting One for Governor of California
(Jeff Cohen more…)Robert Reich: Sergey Brin Is Making the Case for Why We Need a Wealth Tax
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Decoding Fox News: Fox News Finally Realized Conspiracy Theories Can Hurt Trump
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 5/3/26
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Molly Buckley @ EFF: California’s Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Social Media Ban
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Borowitz: Is Trump Like Napoleon?
Yes, but not that Napoleon.
According to a new report in The Atlantic, Donald Trump thinks he’s one of history’s great conquerors—like Napoleon.
“He’s been talking recently about how he is the most powerful person to ever live,” a confidant said. “He wants to be remembered as the one who did things that other people couldn’t do, because of his sheer power and force of will.”
(Borowitz more…)Ashley Parker, Michael Scherer @ Atlantic: The YOLO Presidency
Trump is focused on becoming one of history’s “great men.”
Apocalypse Early Warning System
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE Accountability Project
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Ximena Bustillo, Jasmine Garsd @ NPR: Deaths of migrants in ICE custody hit record high under Trump
- April 16: Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt
- March 25: Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
April 1 – Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz @ AP: Death of a refugee left at a Buffalo doughnut shop by Border Patrol is ruled a homicide - January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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