Maya Pontone
@mayapontone.bsky.social
arts & culture journalist signal @petridishemoji.98 email me! maya(at)mayapontone(dot)com
Listen to the latest from @revealnews.org, on a harrowing journey to deliver aid to Gazans: “We were at gunpoint; like, you could see the laser on our chest.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Activists tried to deliver aid to Gaza. They were met with drone attacks and imprisonment.
Activists sailed to Gaza to deliver aid, but were met with drone attacks and imprisonment. An exclusive look at the Global Sumud Flotilla.
motherjones.com
The hate crime charge against Alexa Wilkinson for photographing vandalism of the New York Times building is a dangerous precedent, no matter what you think of Wilkinson.
Journalist or not, photography isn’t a hate crime
Gatekeeping over hate crime charges misses the forest for the trees
freedom.press
If sandwich shops don’t start offering a sandwich named “the acquittal” then what are we even doing
By this time next week, the estimated deaths due to the illegal destruction of USAID and the shuttering of its aid efforts will breach 400,000. More than 260,000 will be children. Source: www.bu.edu/sph/news/art...
Tracking Anticipated Deaths from USAID Funding Cuts
Brooke Nichols has launched online tracking tools that capture estimated increases in mortality and disease spread for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases as a result of the near-total...
bu.edu
Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.
Jack Jenkins@jackjenkins.me · 10mo agoNEW: I spoke to clergy and faith leaders who've joined protests at the Chicago-area ICE facility. Three say they've been shot with pepper balls, sometimes while praying. All say ICE is also violating their religious freedom, and one is arguing it in court. religionnews.com/2025/10/07/i...
And if you subscribe to Hyperallergic you'll see that we ran a report on the rise of NYC's clowning culture a whole year ago! hyperallergic.com/932760/insid...
Inside Brooklyn’s Very Own Immersive “Clown Cult”
The bi-monthly variety show gathers both newcomers and veterans of the craft to help participants discover “the power in cringe.”
hyperallergic.com
Nick Pinto@nickpinto.bsky.social · 10mo agoSubscribe to @hellgatenyc.com, support worker-owned local journalism, and get your NYC clowning renaissance news two months before the NYTimes tumbles to it! hellgatenyc.com/everyone-is-...
Please use alt text when posting illustrations or photos or other images. I realize it feels like an inconvenience if you didn't ever do it at the other place, but folks who need it are a zillion times more inconvenienced every single day.
Any US-based museum workers out there interested in speaking with me about their workplace protocols for immigration enforcement-related searches, send me a message or DM me for a story! Anonymous tips welcome!!
NYC Mayor Eric Adams has been reluctant to abandon his reelection bid — but an influential post in Trump’s administration could incentivize him to bow out.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams faces a decision: A Trump administration post to drop his reelection campaign
The embattled New York City mayor was offered a HUD post, a person familiar with the talks tells POLITICO.
politico.com
Trump’s plan to rig the 2026 midterms became crystal clear on Wednesday, as Texas Republicans introduced a new congressional redistricting map that would give their party five new seats in the US House, making it much more difficult for Democrats to retake the chamber next November.
Trump’s Texas gerrymander Is supercharging a new war on democracy
Texas Republicans just unveiled a shocking plan to give their party five new House seats.
motherjones.com
The whooping cough vaccination rate for Washington state kindergartners in 2023-2024 was 90.2%, slightly below the U.S. rate of 92.3%. But in 4 counties, the rate for children ages 19-35 months was around 30%. In one county, it was below 12%. (Published April)
“Not Just Measles”: Whooping Cough Cases Are Soaring as Vaccine Rates Decline
While much of the country is focused on the spiraling measles outbreak, experts warn that whooping cough and other preventable diseases could get much worse with falling vaccination rates and Trump’s…
propublica.org
There is currently an NWS flash flood warning in effect for all five boroughs of NYC. But no City agency has posted it on this platform. Please help spread the word. “If you live in a basement apartment or low-lying area, be ready to move to higher ground.”
A reminder: FEMA is no longer going door-to-door to assist disaster victims [From our Climate Desk partner @wired.com]
FEMA will no longer go door-to-door to assist disaster victims
The move, says one agency worker, will “severely hamper our ability to reach vulnerable people.”
motherjones.com
Statement from @cairnational.bsky.social: "These posts represent the same Islamophobic playbook from the same bigots we see almost any time a Muslim runs for public office." (1/2)
Julianne McShane@juliannemcshane.bsky.social · last yr.New @motherjones.com: Conservatives are already losing their minds over Mamdani's apparent win Elise Stefanik, Laura Loomer, and Charlie Kirk posted Islamophobic smears despite reports that Mamdani has faced threats and Islamophobic attacks prompting a police investigation
When the California biotech firm filed for bankruptcy, there was one looming question for customers: What's going to happen to my data?
How to delete your 23andMe data after the company filed for bankruptcy
When the California biotech firm filed for bankruptcy, there was one looming question for customers: What's going to happen to my data?
npr.org
read this report!! by @isafarfan.bsky.social regarding Mahmoud Khalil's imprisonment by immigration officials and its connections to his suspension by Columbia University last spring theintercept.com/2025/03/19/c...
Columbia Apologized to Mahmoud Khalil in May 2024 for One-Day Suspension
Marco Rubio justified Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest using the same protest charges Columbia brought against him that were dismissed a day later.
theintercept.com
This reads like the opening paragraph of a novel so bleakly dystopian you'd put it down after five pages
🚨BIG SCOOP: Musk’s DOGE Teen Was Fired By Cybersecurity Firm for Leaking Company Secrets Edward Coristine posted online that he had retained access to the firm’s servers. Now he has access to sensitive government information. 🎁 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Musk’s DOGE Teen Was Fired By Cybersecurity Firm for Leaking Company Secrets
Edward Coristine posted online that he had retained access to the firm’s servers. Now he has access to sensitive government information.
bloomberg.com
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this exactly what Musk did at Twitter?
Marisa Kabas@marisakabas.bsky.social · 2y agoNew — Sources tell me OPM is preparing mass firing of probationary employees after agencies submitted lists of them last week without context. If supervisors want to keep someone on, they need to write a short justification. Directive was high level. They were told not to put any of this in print.
Tariffs are taxes. "Trump insists that tariffs are paid for by foreign countries. In fact, its is importers — American companies — that pay tariffs, and the money goes to U.S. Treasury. Those companies, in turn, typically pass their higher costs on to their customers in the form of higher prices."
Trump favors huge new tariffs. How do they work?
Former President Donald Trump has proposed a 60% tariff on goods from China and a 20% tariff on everything else the United States imports. This week, he raised the ante still higher.
pbs.org
Our latest scoop: Government tech workers are having to defend their projects to random Elon Musk bros. A recent high school graduate and former Neuralink intern has been joining meetings to review lines of code and other work history of career public servants, sparking chaos. wrd.cm/40SsDVz
Government Tech Workers Forced to Defend Projects to Random Elon Musk Bros
A recent high school graduate and former Neuralink intern has joined meetings to review lines of code and other work history of career public servants, sparking chaos at a major government agency.
wrd.cm
Per a Smithsonian spokesperson: "Our Institution is fully committed to excellence in our workforce, free from discrimination and harassment. We are closing our Office of Diversity but retaining our efforts at visitor accessibility as it serves a critical function."
Hyperallergic@hyperallergic.com · 2y agoThe Smithsonian Institution reportedly told staff members that it is closing its DEI office to comply with an executive order issued by President Donald Trump.
NEW: My longform report on the field of genocide studies is now unpaywalled. What happens when institutions that grew out of the study of the Holocaust—where Israel is often understood as the survivors' state—must grapple with Israel committing genocide? jewishcurrents.org/can-genocide...
Can Genocide Studies Survive a Genocide in Gaza?
A discipline born from the study of the Holocaust faces its contradictions as Israel stands accused of the “crime of crimes.”
jewishcurrents.org
The trailblazing painter Jo Baer, who rejected Minimalism for self-described “radical figuration,” has died at 95.
Jo Baer, Painter of “Radical Figuration,” Dies at 95
“There was an awful lot going on in the world, and I didn’t just want to sit there and draw straight lines,” the artist said of her turn away from abstraction.
hyperallergic.com
In this Indiana diner everyone has three questions: How's the breaded tenderloin? Is the quarry hiring? And when do I get to pay 25% more for my tariffed coffee to teach Colombia a lesson?
ICE is trying to deport Native American people to Mexico. This one from the Mescalero Apache Tribe. That's right. People indigenous to the United States, tribal members. ICE is trying to remove them from the US. This is the second verified incident I've heard about. We were here 1st. #ICE
