curated news excerpts & citations
Noah Berlatsky: Musk Attacks Nyong’o For The Same Reason Hitler Attacked Jewish Art
Last week, Christopher Nolan confirmed that Lupita Nyong’o is going to play Helen of Troy in Nolan’s film adaptation of The Odyssey. Most people thought, “Helen of Troy was supposed to be incredibly beautiful; Lupita Nyong’o is incredibly beautiful—this seems like a reasonable choice.”
But a handful of people on the right, led by Nazi billionaire Elon Musk, were enraged. Lupita Nyong’o is Black. Racist pseudo-intellectuals like Musk believe that the Greeks were not just white, but transcendental icons of white culture. Casting Nyong’o, therefore, is, supposedly, an insult to whiteness, and a sign of Hollywood’s assault on Western purity and honor.
(Noah Berlatsky more…)
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Joe Wertz, Eamon Farhat, Rajesh Kumar Singh, Azman Usmani @ Bloomberg: UK and France break May records as heat scorches Europe
Driven by a heat dome, temperatures have soared.
… Tuesday, May 26, 2026, the first major heat wave of the season broke temperature records across northwest Europe, triggered water shortages in the UK and has been linked to several deaths in France.
…Amber alerts for high temperatures are in effect for western Spain, where temperatures could reach 36C today, according to Aemet. Between Wednesday and Friday, the southern basins of Guadiana and Guadalquivir are forecast to reach between 36C and 38C, while the Ebro basin could locally hit 40C.
In India, dangerously torrid daily heat has long been a climate warning and a concern. Now the country is increasingly dealing with sweltering nights too, as global warming and poor urban planning put millions at risk.
(Joe Wertz, Eamon Farhat, Rajesh Kumar Singh, Azman Usmani @ Bloomberg more…)Hans Christensen: A classic, yet highly anomalous and powerful for the time of year, heat dome has parked over Western and Central Europe.
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Ian Aikman @ BBC: Iran condemns US strikes as ‘gross violation’ of ceasefire
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Iran’s foreign ministry said it held the US responsible for the consequences of its “aggressive and unjustified actions” in the Hormozgan region, which has a coast along the Strait of Hormuz – the crucial waterway Iran has blocked causing a spike in world energy prices.It is unclear what impact the strikes will have on talks aimed to end the conflict.
“Without a doubt, the Islamic Republic of Iran will not leave any evil unanswered and will not hesitate to defend the Iranian nation,” the Iranian statement said.
(Ian Aikman @ BBC more…)Leigh Kimmins @ DailyBeast: Trump’s Brain Flips Back to the 1970s in a Ludicrous Ultimatum Misfire
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – May 26, 2026
Yesterday, federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement pepper-sprayed Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) along with demonstrators outside Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed detention center in Newark, New Jersey.
…In a second letter, Delaney Hall detainees expanded their picture of their circumstances, noting that some of them have lived in the country for more than a decade, have citizen children, and were complying with legal requirements. They noted that detainees with HIV, cancer, diabetes, and heart conditions are not receiving proper medical attention.
…… about 300 detainees at Delaney Hall began a work and hunger strike on Friday over the conditions and treatment there. From inside, they called their family members outside, who shared their stories of worm-infested food, crowded conditions, and pressure to self-deport until guards cut their access to phones and tablets. Their goal, they said, was the immediate release of young detainees, the elderly, and those who are medically vulnerable, and to bring attention to the fact that immigration judges are ignoring their cases.
On Saturday, Kim and Representative Rob Menendez Jr. visited the facility.
Kim posted on social media that the detainees had accurately represented conditions there. …
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On Monday, Kim, Sherrill, and New Jersey representatives Nellie Pou and LaMonica McIver were back at the facility along with about 150 protesters when federal agents sprayed the crowd with pepper balls and pepper spray. In a statement, DHS said: “No individuals were directly struck by pepper ball projectiles.” It then went on to call the protesters “dangerous rioters” and said their obstruction of the way out of the facility—preventing Soto’s removal—was “a federal crime.” It added that “assaulting law enforcement is a felony.”In fact, far from being a dangerous rioter, then-representative Kim was caught on film in the evening of January 6, 2021, picking up the trash the actual rioters left behind in the Capitol.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Michele Hornish: The Audacity to Show Up
(Michele Hornish more…)
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Chris Geidner: SPLC seeks dismissal of charges, citing Trump admin’s “vindictive motive to punish the SPLC”
The motion highlights other cases either dismissed by courts or by the Trump administration itself in the wake of other vindictive prosecution claims.
… the lawyers pointed, in part, to another court’s approach in DOJ’s criminal case brought against Kilmar Abrego Garcia in Tennessee, noting, “That was the process used by the court in the Abrego Garcia case.“
(Chris Geidner more…)Joyce Vance: Criminal Case Dismissed: Kilmar Abrego Garcia
Jennifer Rubin: We can do without Todd Blanche
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Joseph Cox @ 404 Media: ‘BusPatrol’ Put AI Cameras in Tens of Thousands of School Buses. Now They Want to Give Cops Access
BusPatrol plans to scan the license plates of all vehicles the buses drive past, and then let law enforcement search that data. The plan would essentially turn school buses into roaming surveillance vehicles.
(Joseph Cox @ 404 Media more…)
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Daniel Boguslaw @ Wired: US Law Enforcement Warns of ‘Anti-Tech Extremism’ as AI Hatred Grows
As Americans stew over the looming risk of job-stealing AI and data centers in their backyards, the feds are raising the alarm about a new category of threat, documents obtained by WIRED show.
(Daniel Boguslaw @ Wired more…)
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Borowitz: Trump Rushed to Hospital to Have Lindsey Graham Surgically Removed
Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting
resources tracking the “Andes” hantavirus outbreak
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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