A top supervision examiner at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) warned staff they would face "most unpleasant" consequences if they were too aggressive in ​their oversight of financial firms, according to an internal... TAT: [Corruption | Weakening civil rights | Hollowing state]

EXCLUSIVE: US consumer watchdog supervisor warned staff of 'unpleasant' fallout if they go too hard on firms

The threat, which Reuters is reporting for the first time, was emailed to many ‌of the agency's mid-level supervision staff as they were preparing to resume inspections of financial firms.

reuters.com

The family of a man from El Salvador, who died in ‌a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in New Jersey, alleged medical negligence during his custody and demanded an independent investigation into his death. He died a... [link] TAT: [Nationalism | Weakening civil rights]

Proud to have been part of this submission to SCOTUS to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their decade-long disinformation about climate change. With @naomioreskes.bsky.social @geoffreysupran.bsky.social and others www.ucs.org/about/news/a...

Experts File Friend-of-the-Court Brief in Suncor v Boulder Documenting Companies’ Climate Deception

Experts File Friend-of-the-Court Brief in Supreme Court Case Documenting Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil Decades of Climate Deception

ucs.org

An instructor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore who only just received a “teacher of the year” award has been arrested by federal immigration agents under the command of the Trump administration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials detained Berhanu Kibre... TAT: [Nationalism]

University of Maryland ‘teacher of the year’ detained by ICE in Texas

DHS said pharmacy instructor Berhanu Kibret overstayed visa and arrested him at Dallas-Fort Worth airport

theguardian.com

Vice President Vance, President Trump and other senior Republicans used the (temporary) migrant influx into Cetua, part of Spain in North Africa, to stoke anti-immigrant sentiment and justify their own anti-immigrant policies. Vance falsely suggested ... TAT: [Nationalism | Controlling information]

Trump wades into Ceuta ‘catastrophe’ as US blames ‘radical left-wing policies’

Former Trump adviser Elon Musk compared the migrant crossing to the 2013 zombie film ‘World War Z’

independent.co.uk

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is at risk of having “critically low” staffing levels if there’s a major disaster, according to a nonpartisan congressional watchdog. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a report issued Tuesday that in Fiscal Y... TAT: [Hollowing state]

FEMA risks having ‘critically low’ staffing levels this hurricane season: GAO

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is at risk of having “critically low” staffing levels if there’s a major disaster, according to a nonpartisan congressional watchdog. The Government A…

thehill.com

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told faith leaders he is planning to roll back abortion access even in states that have laws protecting it. The 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organizati... TAT: [Weakening civil rights | Attacking science | Undermining democracy]

Blanche pledges to make Dobbs decision ‘permanent’ in every state

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told faith leaders he is planning to roll back abortion access even in states that have laws protecting it.  On a private call last week hosted by the Whit…

thehill.com

The head of the Dept of Education Linda McMahon, in an open letter to college leaders asked them to respond to concerns over academic standards, admissions procedures and tuition costs. University presidents and governing boards are asked to address seven subjects — in... TAT: [Attacking education]

After Colleges Reject ‘Compact,’ Trump Officials Try a Letter

The open letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon fell far short of the attempt at a compact last year that dangled research money in return for embracing the Trump administration’s agenda.

nytimes.com

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed a memo formally rescinding the $1.776 “anti-weaponization” fund, but which leaves intact immunity for Trump by barring the federal government from any investigation, review or prosecution of any action by Trump... TAT: [Corruption | Undermining democracy]

Blanche order keeps intact immunity deal barring investigation of Trump and his family

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s Sunday night memo formally rescinding the $1.776 “anti-weaponization” fund leaves intact another key provision for President Trump: an order offer…

thehill.com

The Trump Justice Department agreed to pay a seven-figure settlement to anti-abortion activist Paul Vaughn, who had been convicted by a jury of conspiring to block access to an abortion clinic before being pardoned by President Trump. The payment, made t... TAT: [Corruption | Undermining democracy]

With Blanche Nomination at Stake, Payouts to Trump Allies Continue

A seven-figure settlement was announced hours before senators skeptical about the so-called weaponization fund delayed a crucial vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination to be attorney general.

nytimes.com

I did not work countless hours in an ICU full of proned patients and go back to my hotel crying because we lost more patients in a day than a typical week to hear a moron with a worm in his brain say that the ICU's were empty. I AM SO FUCKING ANGRY.

Dr. Lucky Tran@luckytran.com · 3d ago

I worked for New York’s largest medical center at the start of the pandemic. There were morgue trucks on the streets. They set up emergency medical tents in Central Park. Healthcare worker colleagues died. It is horrific that RFK Jr is on national TV lying that ICUs were empty.

Unusually hot & dry conditions worldwide have fueled a deadly wildfire season, costing lives and destroying communities. “If these infernos don’t bring policymakers to their senses and force necessary changes to grapple with the fossil fueled climate crisis, what will?” writes UCS's Rachel Cleetus:

A World Ablaze: The Climate Future We Feared is Here - Union of Concerned Scientists

Unusually hot, dry conditions across many parts of the world—including in Algeria, Canada, France, Greece, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia, and the western United States—have set the stage for the catastrophic wildfire season underway now. Just over this weekend, rapidly spreading wildfires have exploded around Spokane, Washington, forcing nearly 65,000 people to evacuate thus far. Unrelenting hot dry weather, supercharged by climate change, is contributing to the dangerous conditions causing these fires.

blog.ucs.org

This is what happens when anti-racism norms erode, and elites bear a lot of the responsibility for norm erosion, as they have disproportionate power to set and enforce norms

Charles EP Murphy@cepmurphy.bsky.social · 2d ago

news.sky.com/story/nhs-st... stereotypically this has been seen as Old People, but not only would the old people of now have often been born post-Windrush, lot of this will be younger people who've always lived in a diverse Britain. The guy with a pregnant wife likely millennial at oldest

There's a missing rung on the academic career ladder in Austria and Germany. Historically there wasn't a position like assistant professor or lecturer, so the jump from postdoc to professor was — and mostly still is — huge. Between 70% and 80% of academics in Austria don't have permanent jobs.

Academics in Germany and Austria are stuck in job limbo

Also: Montana's "right to try" law for experimental cures, UK science gets reshuffled, a university sues Anthropic over patents, and more from last week

reviewertoo.com

New post out: There's going to be a lot of talk about wealth taxes in the run up to the budget. So we asked one of the country's leading experts to give us a ten year plan for doing it right. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...

The right way to tax wealth

A 10 year programme for an incoming government

open.substack.com

The current water level of the Rhine in Cologne is 67 centimeters.

Touched that Everything Must Go is quoted in this v good New Yorker piece on the reasons behind Europe's wildfires www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Why Is Europe Burning?

“This is a structural issue in society,” a Spanish firefighter said, about worsening wildfires across Europe. “We’ve turned our backs on the mountains, on nature—and cities have never been so affected...

newyorker.com

NEW How the BBC turned the litigation table on Trump The president now faces a dilemma about revealing his business records By me at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

With the exception of the very top of your cohort and the very bottom, both of whom need specialist attention of very different kinds, all the studies — all of them — say selection is bad bad bad for children.

Our refreshed Met Office Academic Partnership (MOAP) brings together a renewed line-up of world-class university partners to drive innovation in weather & climate science. This ambitious new chapter will strengthen our future science capability. Find out more 👇 www.metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2026/am...

Thank you to 'The Archer' newspaper for featuring the SPROCKET Hub and quoting @kallmemeg.bsky.social Read the full August issue here: the-archer.co.uk/archive.php?... (we are on page 6) @chrischirp.bsky.social @uclmaps.bsky.social @uclpophealthsci.bsky.social @uclbrainscience.bsky.social

Beyond the battlefield: should we be rethinking National Security in an age of drought? aoav.org.uk/2026/beyond-...

Beyond the battlefield: should we be rethinking National Security in an age of drought? - AOAV

As drought exposes the fragility of Britain’s water and food systems, the government’s defence-spending surge raises a larger question: whether national security is still being defined too narrowly fo...

aoav.org.uk

"Kew Gardens has had a weather station since 1871. This July was, based on third party analysis of Met Office data collected at the site, the first calendar month on record where no rainfall was measured at Kew."

London's first month without rain

Plus: There's nowhere to bury the dead • London wants to keep its money • When will it stop being so damn hot • Who is to blame for turning off the air conditioning in the tower block?

londoncentric.media

I'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.

In attempting to rewrite the history of the US Covid-19 response, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday pinned the blame for pandemic lockdowns on Dr. Anthony Fauci, while simultaneously r... TAT: [Attacking science | Controlling information | Suppressing dissent | Undermining democracy]

RFK Jr. targets Fauci and pushes medical misinformation in fiery CNN interview | CNN Politics

edition.cnn.com

A US reporter, who had been targeted online by right-wing influencer Laura Loomer over a report from Iran, was flagged for 'secondary inspection" by border patrol agents on re-entry to the US. He had his phones seized, which were returned a we... TAT: [Controlling information | Suppressing dissent]

US reporter fighting back after border patrol seized his cellphones

Max Blumenthal says he was singled out at airport after Trump ally Laura Loomer targeted him in online posts

theguardian.com

Trump vowed to revive the controversial $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund, designed to compensate political allies for political lawfare. Its revival is tied to Todd Blanche's nomination for Attorney General and a dispute between Trump and two Republican ... TAT: [Corruption | Undermining democracy]

Trump vows to push $1.8bn slush fund as Senate committee set to reconsider AG nomination

After declaring ‘anti-weaponization’ fund ‘dead’, Trump reverses and says he’ll revive it despite Senate opposition

theguardian.com

I didn't mean to start a Bluesky Covid spat this weekend... perhaps next Friday I'll do a thread on Brexit instead.

President Trump publicly contradicted his own Justice Department after federal prosecutors withdrew vandalism charges relating to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, having concluded that the damage resulted from a bo... TAT: [Controlling information | Suppressing dissent | Undermining democracy]

In Dropping Reflecting Pool Case, Pirro Draws Trump’s Wrath

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, blamed shoddy construction, contradicting President Trump’s pet theory. Mr. Trump said he disagreed “100%” with her.

nytimes.com

Federal prosecutors moved to dismiss criminal charges against a man accused of vandalising the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after concluding that the damage had been caused by faulty installation by government contr... TAT: [Controlling information | Suppressing dissent | Undermining democracy]

Charges Dropped Against Ex-Olympian David Hearn Accused of Damaging Reflecting Pool

A former Olympian will not face trial after federal prosecutors acknowledged that the Trump administration’s claims of vandalism were false.

nytimes.com