DISASTROUS. This means they will send people to horrific situations with no due process — in direct violation of promises the Solicitor General made to the Court in previous cases. This greenlights sending people to be enslaved in Libya or tortured in any random foreign country.

Steve Vladeck@stevevladeck.bsky.social · last yr.

#BREAKING: Over a (sharp) public dissent from the three Democratic appointees, #SCOTUS clears the way for the Trump administration to remove migrants to third countries *without* giving them an additional opportunity to contest whether they face persecution or other forms of mistreatment there:

You’ve seen the “don’t share this code with anyone” SMS messages when you log in to your most sensitive online accounts: banking, messaging, #Google , #Meta, #Amazon. But who else might have seen them before you?

We got unprecedented access to the AI model that Amsterdam developed to try to fairly detect welfare fraud. The result is one of the first in-depth looks at a system using responsible AI guidelines—and what happens when those big promises meet messy reality.

Inside Amsterdam’s high-stakes experiment to create fair welfare AI

The Dutch city thought it could break a decade-long trend of implementing discriminatory algorithms. Its failure raises the question: can these programs ever be fair?

technologyreview.com

Most reporting on AI examines worst-case systems deployed under the guise of efficiency. But what would a good faith effort at Ethical AI look like? For two years, we’ve been looking over the shoulder of a city trying to do things differently.

So happy that our project «Inequality for the law» is on the shortlist. 🏆 Lucky to have been collaborating with the talented people at @lighthousereports.com. @elenadebre.bsky.social @gabrielgeiger.bsky.social @jusbraun.bsky.social

Global Investigative Journalism Network@gijn.org · last yr.

💫 NEW! GIJN, the new home of the Sigma Awards, is proud to announce the 2025 shortlist for the best data journalism projects and portfolios in the past year. 👏 50 data journalism projects from 24 countries made it to the final round of the competition. https://twp.ai/9PSjQG

🎙️ New episode of #Backlight is out! Want to dig deeper into financial investigations, but not sure where to start? In our latest episode, @margotgibbs.bsky.social and @giacomoza.bsky.social share how reporters can use financial clues to crack open investigations.

Become a moneytrails expert

Find out what it takes to lead financial investigations with tips from Lighthouse reporters.

lighthousereports.com

NEW: @bloomberg.com analysis of +13 years of ICE detentions shows immigrants transferred to the South and SW from interior US at unprecedented rates. Reducing the odds of winning their cases. w/ @elenamejia.bsky.social @racheladhe.bsky.social @pollymosendz.bsky.social bloom.bg/43am95w

It shouldn't matter if Trump’s victims have criminal records. If we only defend the “innocent,” the fascists will argue that their victim “was no angel.” An anti-fascist rhetoric that carves out exceptions for imperfect victims is a gift to our opponents. New from me for @us.theguardian.com:

What is a ‘criminal’ immigrant? The word is an American rhetorical trap | Jonathan Ben-Menachem

Labels like ‘gang members’ and ‘terrorist supporters’ are an easy way to make humans disposable

theguardian.com

Good job, Stanford admin. More of this. “America’s univs are a source of great national strength, creating knowledge and driving innovation and economic growth,” they also wrote. “This strength has been built on government investment but not government control.“ stanforddaily.com/2025/04/15/l...

Stanford president and provost back Harvard in funding fight

The president and provost said Harvard’s rejection of government demands was “rooted in the American tradition of liberty.”

stanforddaily.com

Europe frames migration as a crisis—but this masks the reality of its aging population and skills shortages. Over 18 months, with 20+ journalists, across 7 countries we answered: What’s the true cost of shutting migrants out of jobs? Hear from the reporters:

The cost of Europe’s structural racism

Europe frames migration as a crisis—but this masks the reality of its aging population and skills shortages.

lighthousereports.com

Many people rightly point to the core role that mainstream right parties play for defending liberal democracy against the far-right threat. However, solely focusing on the centre-right ignores the errors that leftwing parties have committed that have empowered the far right. A few thoughts …

I just sent our university president and provost an urgent request to defend First Amendment freedoms at Stanford, given this administration’s willingness to punish those who disagree with it. I urge you to do the same with your university leaders.

Here’s the reality: This government—despite what they’d have us believe—cannot simply do whatever it wants. The moment we accept that bullshit, we become complicit in this blatantly authoritarian move by the president and his administration. With a loud, collective voice, we must say: fuck this!

Prem Thakker ツ@premthakker.bsky.social · last yr.

UPDATE—Mahmoud's attorney says they do NOT know where he is. They were first told he was sent to an ICE facility in Elizabeth, NJ. But when his 8-month-pregnant wife tried to visit him, she was told he's not there. They've received reports he may be sent as far away as Louisiana.

Bellingcat's new US division is looking for an executive director to make Bellingcat US the best Bellingcat it can be. Details of the role and compensation can be found here: www.on-ramps.com/jobs/3408

Bellingcat US | Executive Director

On-Ramps is a full-service executive search firm that exclusively serves the social sector, working with innovative, mission-driven organizations across diverse issue areas.

on-ramps.com

I’ll keep pushing this line of analysis because I’m increasingly convinced the clearest path out of this mess is for Dems to adopt a relentless anti-corruption, anti-inequality, anti-oligarchy, pro-democracy platform. The Dem leadership hasn’t realized it yet, but they’re now a reform party.

Adam Bonica@adambonica.bsky.social · last yr.

How many federal workers would DOGE need to fire to make up for Musk not paying his fair share of taxes? Answer: 677,000. That's 44% of the entire non-DoD federal workforce. Again, this power grab is not about the budget. It’s about politics.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/w...

New episode of #Backlight is out! This month, we are talking about how journalists can incorporate AI reporting into their beat and hold companies and governments to account.

Don’t leave AI reporting to the experts

You don’t have to be a tech reporter to cover AI

lighthousereports.com

If you’re a reporter looking to take on AI accountability investigations, consider giving this a listen!

Lighthouse Reports@lighthousereports.com · last yr.

New episode of #Backlight is out! This month, we are talking about how journalists can incorporate AI reporting into their beat and hold companies and governments to account.

The IRS was a simple test for DOGE: was it really interested in efficiency and state capacity? If so, you support the tax enforcement, the biggest ROI in govt. Or did it want to minimize parts of the state that bothered billionaires? We have our answer. open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

Jacob Bogage@jacobbogage.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨NEWS: Massive layoffs are about to hit the IRS -- around 10,000 employees -- potentially in the middle of filing season. Of particular interest to the DOGE: Cutting IRS enforcement capabilities. -- with @jeffstein.bsky.social + Hannah Natanson

New paper with @ankuepfer.bsky.social accepted at EJPR🎉 When do MPs debate each other & when do they avoid discourse? Applying a new framework to study the emergence of elite discourse, we find that ideology and gov/opp dynamics shape MPs incentives to seek & avoid dialogical interactions. #polisky

Ich musste an diese Kontroverse um Laschet denken und wie ähnlich die Struktur der Position der CDU heute ähnelt: Die CDU würde nie mit der extremen Rechten zusammenarbeiten, sonst würde sie die ja normalisieren. Das hat sie ausgeschlossen. Also kann, was passiert ist, keine Zusammenarbeit sein.

Wow! Demo für Demokratie in München: „Die Polizei spricht von 200 000 Menschen, die Veranstalter sogar von 320 000 Teilnehmern.“

The list is mostly black people. This is KKK shit folks. Out in the open.

NBC News@nbcnews.com · last yr.

Federal health workers are expressing fear and alarm after a website called “DEI Watch List” published the photos, names and public information of a number of workers across health agencies, describing them as “targets.”

NEW: A 25-year-old engineer tied to Elon Musk now has direct access (admin privileges) to a Treasury Department system that controls Social Security payments, tax returns, and more. W/ @telliotter.bsky.social, @leahfeiger.bsky.social, @timmarchman.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

A 25-Year-Old With Elon Musk Ties Has Direct Access to the Federal Payment System

The Bureau of the Fiscal Service is a sleepy part of the Treasury Department. It’s also where, sources say, a 25-year-old engineer tied to Elon Musk has admin privileges over the code that controls So...

wired.com

Norway’s criminal justice system has often received high praise for its equity and fairness; it has rarely been under scrutiny in data-driven criminal justice journalism.

In 2022, Frank went to prison. A richer man convicted of the same crime went free.

In 2022, two men were convicted for driving under the influence. Frank in a cheap, old car, unemployed with debt. Jakob in a new, expensive Audi, worth millions. Their cases were nearly identical, but their sentences could not have been further apart.

The crimes you’re convicted of should determine your punishment, not who you are. But even in Norway – one of the “fairest” criminal justice systems – @lhreports.bsky.social & NRK reveal that there are disparities in sentence length by income and gender www.lighthousereports.com/methodology/...

How we investigated sentencing bias in Norway’s criminal justice system

Norway’s criminal justice system is regularly hailed as a model — but is it truly impartial?

lighthousereports.com

The Internet Archive has to date downloaded 500 terabytes of US government websites, which it crawls at the end of every presidential term. The whole archive is fully searchable. This effort's housed by a donation-funded nonprofit, not a branch of the US government. blog.archive.org/2024/05/08/e...

It is simply not enough for universities to say, “Our grants & research offices are looking into how research will be affected by the latest directive.” University leaders must actively and very publicly make the case for the kind of work many of us do. The silence on this front is deafening.