curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
Tim Lister, Nadeen Ebrahim, Aida Karimi @ CNN:
An agreement on the Strait of Hormuz is taking shape – but not one Trump wants
Iran is finalizing a deal with Oman on new shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz, but an agreement between the two coastal nations would not by itself reopen the waterway as US President Donald Trump hopes.
The talks are critical because they could resolve disputes over shipping arrangements that have disrupted global trade. But Iran says the United States must meet additional conditions before vessels can transit freely.
Tara Copp, Natalie Allison, Noah Robertson @ Washington Post: President Trump demanded answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over extreme munitions shortages
Decoding Fox News: Fox News: Dr. Fauci’s Diary Will Not Make the Iran War Go Away
Tom Schaller: Relitigating Trump’s old failures to distract from new ones
Andy Borowitz: Iran Says it Will Reopen Strait if Trump Admits He Lost in 2020
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Steve Rose @ Guardian:
‘If we don’t fight back, we don’t have a future’: the journalist taking on the ‘tech fascists’ of Silicon ValleyAs Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and their peers have grown richer and more influential, Gil Durán argues they have all but abandoned democracy – and found the perfect government to enable them
In April, Gil Durán was permanently banned from Elon Musk’s X for posting just two words. Durán was responding to a post from the tech company Palantir outlining its 22‑point “technological manifesto”, which praised American “hard power”, western culture and AI weapons, denounced inclusivity and called for compulsory national service. Durán responded: “TLDR: Fascism” (TLDR is short for “too long, didn’t read”).
Durán didn’t break any of X’s written rules …
(Steve Rose @ Guardian more…)
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James Eagle: Productivity growth has outrun real wages in the US and UK
… In theory, rising productivity creates room for higher wages, stronger profits and better living standards. But it does not guarantee that the gains will be shared equally.
These two Financial Times charts examine that question for the US and UK. They show that labour productivity has risen considerably faster than the purchasing power of workers’ hourly compensation over long periods.
(James Eagle more…)
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Paul Krugman: The Good News Trump Won’t Mention
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Brian K Sullivan, Alastair Marsh, Michelle Ma @ Bloomberg:
Wildfires in US Leave Portland With World’s Worst AirSmoke from fires burning across the Pacific Northwest has triggered pollution alerts in the US and Canada. In today’s edition, we detail how the blazes mean Portland currently has the worst air quality among the world’s top cities.
In an interview ahead of COP31 in Turkey in November, the summit’s president, Murat Kurum, tells us he’ll press nations to boost demand for carbon credits. And we also examine exactly how much water the rapidly expanding data center sector will consume.
(Brian K Sullivan, Alastair Marsh, Michelle Ma @ Bloomberg more…)
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Joseph Cox @ 404 Media: Cities Are Ditching Flock, Immediately Replacing It With Axon License Plate Readers
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Dell Cameron, Maddy Varner @ Wired: DHS Is Hiring Bounty Hunters to Find and Photograph Deported People’s Homes Abroad
Homeland Security told immigrants that leaving the US would wipe out fines it claims they owe. Now it wants private investigators to find them in their home countries and collect.
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Alex Janin @ WSJ: Doctors Don’t Want Patients to Read Test Results With AI. They’re Doing It Anyway.
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Rob Taub @ NewsNation: Cyclospora has expanded to fruit, other vegetables: Ex-CDC director
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Sarah Jones, Jason Easley: The BBC Gets A Big Win In Trump Defamation Case
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – August 6, 2026
Sixty-one years ago, on August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. The need for the law was explained in its full title: “An Act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution, and for other purposes.”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting
resources tracking the “Andes” hantavirus outbreak
Apocalypse Early Warning System
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
Mike Ludwig @ truthout: ICE Says 51 People Died in Custody Under Trump. Experts Say That’s an Undercount.
ICE Accountability Project
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Ximena Bustillo, Jasmine Garsd @ NPR: Deaths of migrants in ICE custody hit record high under Trump
- August 1: Edwin Lopez-Cornejo
- July 14: Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran
- July 13: Joan Sebastian Guerrero
- July 7: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
- June 4: Mamuka Artmeladze
- 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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