curated news excerpts & citations
James Eagle: The AI productivity boom may already be fading
The seductive story is that AI is about to lift America into another productivity boom. The harder lesson from this chart is that productivity booms do not simply arrive. They diffuse, disappoint, accelerate and fade. Computers and the internet both raised output per hour, but only after businesses reorganised around them. Then the gains slowed.
…
The missing half of the story is decline. Oil shocks, financial crises and weak investment can all crush productivity growth, while even successful technologies eventually become ordinary. AI may yet deliver a genuine boom. But history warns that the question is not only how fast productivity rises, but how long the rise can survive.
Tobias Mann @ Register: AI is getting expensive, but relief is on the way – just not for you
New hardware promises greater efficiency, user experiences, and most importantly larger margins
Bradley Olson @ WSJ: SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI’s Sprint to Go Public Defines the AI Boom’s Big Day
Silicon Valley’s hottest startups are competing fiercely as big tech companies contend with fickle investors and hard choices
Samantha Cole @ 404 Media: How Deepfakes Tore a High School Apart
After five teen girls were targeted by AI-generated child sexual abuse material, Radnor Township High School in Pennsylvania has become a case study in how schools and police around the country grapple with how to response to deepfake crimes involving children.
-
Devjyot Ghoshal, Ahmed Rasheed, Parisa Hafezi, Gavin Finch, Saurabh Sharma @ Reuters: Iran is consolidating control of Hormuz with island checkpoints, diplomatic deals – and sometimes ‘fees’
Iran is enforcing a multi-tiered system for clearing vessels through the Strait of Hormuz as nations try to replenish dwindling energy supplies throttled by the war. The U.S. has warned against complying with Iran’s controls. Some shippers and governments are taking the risk.
(Devjyot Ghoshal, Ahmed Rasheed, Parisa Hafezi, Gavin Finch, Saurabh Sharma @ Reuters more…)
-
Laura Millan, Olivia Raimonde, Zahra Hirji, Jennifer A Dlouhy @ Bloomberg: Middle East War Risks Creating an Environmental Disaster
There’s been an increasing amount of oil slicks.
The war in Iran is causing more oil to leak into the sea. It’s a cause of concern for ecologists and experts using satellite images to track the increasing amount of slicks.
(Laura Millan, Olivia Raimonde, Zahra Hirji, Jennifer A Dlouhy @ Bloomberg more…)
-
Daniel Montaño @ NPR: Amid allegations of abuse on Epstein’s ‘Zorro Ranch,’ New Mexico opens new probes
On International Women’s Day in March, hundreds of protesters caravanned out to a spot in the desert outside of Santa Fe. Their gathering place was a ranch in the high desert of New Mexico that once belonged to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
One of the demonstrators at the rally at the ranch was Virginia Giuffre’s brother, Sky Roberts.
Giuffre, who died by suicide in 2025, was one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers and said she had been sexually abused at the ranch. Roberts referred to two investigations recently started by New Mexico officials.
(Daniel Montaño @ NPR more…)
-
Lev Parnas: Trump Got the Red Carpet. Putin Got the Real Deal
As soon as Trump left Beijing, Putin walked in — and Xi sent the world a message: Trump gets the pageantry, while Russia and China build the power structure behind the curtain.
-
Clare Bayard @ People's International: From ICE to Iran, veterans are challenging US militarism
Antiwar veterans are leveraging their unique credibility to oppose the war in Iran, stop ICE and support active duty resisters.
(Clare Bayard @ People's International more…)
-
Carlos Greaves: To Distract From the War With Iran, We’re Starting a War With Cuba
-
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – May 21, 2026
Congress left for the holiday weekend a day early today after a number of Republican members of Congress appear to have mutinied against President Donald J. Trump and his loyalists.
Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund and his agreement with acting attorney general Todd Blanche that the government would not prosecute him or any of his associates for crimes related to tax laws apparently were a bridge too far for a number of Republicans, especially as his job approval rating has fallen to a grim 34%.
Republican senators met for nearly two hours today with acting attorney general Todd Blanche in a meeting that Andrew Desiderio of Punchbowl News reported was “incredibly hostile.”
Republicans were angry they had no advance warning about the plan, questioned the legal basis for the fund, were unhappy with Blanche’s descriptions of how payments would work, and said they wanted no part of it. …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Allison Gill: I’ve Filed a Claim with Todd Blanche’s $1.776B Slush Fund. I’m Seeking $8.647 Million in Damages
Thanks for your overwhelming support of my slush fund claim. I’ve received numerous requests for a template so others can file their own claims, so I’m posting the text here. It’s important to understand that a lot of the verbiage is unique to my situation because I have a pending lawsuit, so you’ll need to craft it to your specific demands.
Jim Acosta: I’d Like to Apply for the Anti-Weaponization Fund
Jason Easley: Trump’s Slush Fund Demand Just Completely Backfired
Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund has caused such chaos among Senate Republicans that they are leaving until June and not passing the reconciliation bill.
Justin Hansford, Adom Cooper @ Root: Trump Just Helped Make the Case for Reparations for Black People
Donald Trump’s plan to compensate January 6 rioters proves that the question of reparations is less about capacity and more about political will.
-
Kenneth Vogel, Christina Stewart @ NY Times: A $5 Million Donation From Big Tobacco Preceded F.D.A. Vape Decision
Reynolds American’s contribution to MAGA Inc. came about one week before the Trump administration announced a new policy on e-cigarettes the company had sought.
-
Jennifer Rubin: Trump Is a Big Fish in a Small MAGA Pond
Trump’s ‘wins’ should delight Democrats
The legacy media never tires of telling us that Donald Trump has an iron grip on the MAGA Republican Party. Yes, he certainly can knock off infidel Republicans in red state primaries. However, the underlying assumption of these stories — that Trump remains a powerhouse in American politics — defies reality. Instead of a colossus, he has become a big fish in a shrinking, fetid pond of MAGA loyalists.
In doing so, he cuts off an escape route for Republicans in general elections, making it virtually impossible for Republicans to create any daylight between themselves and Trump as the latter hits new polling lows each week. The primary results Tuesday and his decision to endorse MAGA scandal-plagued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hold several critical lessons as we move closer to the midterms.
(Jennifer Rubin more…)
-
Liz Dye: Judge Shreds Trump Demand To Destroy Official Records
It didn’t work for Nixon, but it might work for us…
(Liz Dye more…)
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
Leave a Reply