The Cockroach Janata Party, founded by young Indians frustrated with a weak labor market, successfully forced the resignation of a top government official—a shocking concession from an increasingly authoritarian government. What does the movement mean for Modi? www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

What Do India’s Gen Z Protests Mean for Modi?

The Cockroach Janata Party, founded by young Indians frustrated with a weak labor market, successfully forced the resignation of a top government official—a shocking concession from an increasingly authoritarian government. What does the movement mean for Modi?

newyorker.com

‼️On Today's @msignorile.bsky.social Show‼️ @owillis.bsky.social of @dailykos.com @telliotter.bsky.social of @wired.com @abbyvesoulis.bsky.social of @motherjones.com 🔊Listen Here: Signorile.com 📞Join the Conversation: (866) 997-4748

A book seller told 404 Media that, normally, on a good week, he’d sell about 20 books. Since April, he has regularly sold hundreds of books a week. While the seller didn’t have clear evidence that the purchases were being made by AI companies, the purchases made him suspect that they were.

AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop

ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients “the optics problem is real.”

404media.co

SCOOP: A little over a month ago, the Pentagon was bragging that half its workforce was using AI. Now the army is saying they’re burning through tokens and need to limit use. For @wired.com www.wired.com/story/the-ar...

The Army Is Burning Through Its AI Tokens

Members of the Army received an email informing them that they were rapidly depleting their AI tokens, and needed to limit use.

wired.com

I'm heartbroken to share that Marvin (known to readers of There Is No Place for Us as Maurice) died earlier today in a workplace accident. He was 43. Natasha (Natalia in the book) asked me to share this news because she is too devastated to do so herself. We are all in shock.

ICYMI last week @wired.com: ICE is renewing its contract with Thomson Reuters for accessing some their suite of proprietary databases. In the description, ICE says the tools will be used to ID "unaccompanied minors" and identify fraud. w/ @carolinehaskins.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/ice-un...

ICE Is Using Data Broker Tools to ‘Identify Unaccompanied Minors’ and ‘Fraud’

A newly renewed, $25 million-per-year contract with a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters further expands the power of ICE under the Trump administration.

wired.com

NEW: A renewed ICE contract with a top data broker points to the agency using surveillance tools on unaccompanied minors as well as their sponsors, traditionally the remit of the Office of Refugee Resettlement at HHS. @carolinehaskins.bsky.social and @telliotter.bsky.social report:

ICE Is Using Data Broker Tools to ‘Identify Unaccompanied Minors’ and ‘Fraud’

A newly renewed, $25 million-per-year contract with a subsidiary of Thompson Reuters further expands the power of ICE under the Trump administration.

wired.com

And if you're someone working in gov/immigration/tech/etc and you want to talk, you can find me on Signal at Vittoria89.82

Vittoria Elliott@telliotter.bsky.social · 3w ago

NEW with @carolinehaskins.bsky.social: ICE is renewing its contract with Thomson Reuters for accessing some their suite of proprietary databases. In the description, ICE says the tools will be used to ID "unaccompanied minors" and identify fraud. www.wired.com/story/ice-un...

NEW with @carolinehaskins.bsky.social: ICE is renewing its contract with Thomson Reuters for accessing some their suite of proprietary databases. In the description, ICE says the tools will be used to ID "unaccompanied minors" and identify fraud. www.wired.com/story/ice-un...

ICE Is Using Data Broker Tools to ‘Identify Unaccompanied Minors’ and ‘Fraud’

A newly renewed, $25 million-per-year contract with a subsidiary of Thompson Reuters further expands the power of ICE under the Trump administration.

wired.com

NEW with @carolinehaskins.bsky.social: ICE is renewing its contract with Thomson Reuters for accessing some their suite of proprietary databases. In the description, ICE says the tools will be used to ID "unaccompanied minors" and identify fraud. www.wired.com/story/ice-un...

ICE Is Using Data Broker Tools to ‘Identify Unaccompanied Minors’ and ‘Fraud’

A newly renewed, $25 million-per-year contract with a subsidiary of Thompson Reuters further expands the power of ICE under the Trump administration.

wired.com

NEW: ICE is expanding its powers by using tools from the subsidiary of data broker giant Thompson Reuters to "identify unaccompanied minors" and purported "fraud" suspects. @carolinehaskins.bsky.social and @telliotter.bsky.social report: www.wired.com/story/ice-un...

ICE Is Using Data Broker Tools to ‘Identify Unaccompanied Minors’ and ‘Fraud’

A newly renewed, $25 million-per-year contract with a subsidiary of Thompson Reuters further expands the power of ICE under the Trump administration.

wired.com

NEW w/ @telliotter.bsky.social: ICE renewed its contract to buy data from Thomson Reuters at an upped rate of $25 million/year Now, ICE says, it has an urgent, “multiplied” need for data to ID “unaccompanied minors” and anyone involved with “fraud of government funds": www.wired.com/story/ice-un...

ICE Is Using Data Broker Tools to ‘Identify Unaccompanied Minors’ and ‘Fraud’

A newly renewed, $25 million-per-year contract with a subsidiary of Thompson Reuters further expands the power of ICE under the Trump administration.

wired.com

A statement from WIRED leadership.

Wow. The ICE shooter in Maine asked his ex-wife to "to lie for him and to cover for his character." She said he was abusive and had previously reported concerns about him to his military superiors. He was also a volunteer firefighter, but was removed after several spats with department leadership.

ICE agent who killed man in Biddeford identified as former Maine law enforcement officer

An ex-wife told the Press Herald that David Brouillette called her and admitted he was the ICE agent who shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero.

pressherald.com

If you've ever tried to cancel your @nytimes.com subscription, you know that they're gonna haaaaaate @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social's "click to cancel" rule.

Have you been affected by Trump's funding cuts? I'd love if you'd share your story here. Any cut counts, including the ones allowing the Cyclospora parasite to sicken thousands of people with explosive diarrhea.

Big Beautiful Disaster: One Year On

Reporters at The American Prospect want to hear from you about how the funding cuts in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill have affected you since they were enacted a year ago. Please share your stories he...

forms.gle

“People say technology is just a tool that you can do good things or bad things with. That often is said to hide the ways in which technology makes certain realities more or less likely. So when you design tools in particular ways, there are foreseeable uses of those tools.” @hartzog.bsky.social

Please Stop Making Me Opt Out of AI

I’m sick of “opt-out” toggles for automatically enabled generative AI features. It’s past time to make “opt in” the default setting for sensitive features.

wired.com

Several friends experienced pretty terrible depression + other side effects on birth control, and often women are left to navigate this alone, both medically and in partnerships. The piece threads the needle of valid critique while acknowledging we’re in precarious waters on this topic politically.

Mother Jones@motherjones.com · 3w ago

The uncomfortable truth about birth control

Members of DOGE who were working at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) used artificial intelligence to inform policy decisions. Now, the agency appears to be denying FOIA requests about it.

DOGE Used AI for Housing Policy. The Government Won’t Say How

In response to a public records request, HUD has withheld documents about DOGE’s use of AI—in part by citing a privilege that doesn’t exist.

wired.com

today, ny becomes the first state with a statewide data center moratorium even though the hochul data center pause is less aggressive than ny's data center moratorium bill passed in may, it's still "a gigantic step forward," one advocate told me

New York Governor Signs First Statewide Data Center Moratorium

“We have no choice but to address the challenges created by these massive facilities,” New York governor Kathy Hochul said. The executive order will pause construction for one year.

wired.com

NEW: Last year, DOGE brought in a UChicago student to create an AI tool to work on HUD policy. But when @democracyforward.org filed a FOIA request for details about what exactly was going on, many of the documents were withheld, some citing a non-existent AI privilege. www.wired.com/story/doge-d...

DOGE Used AI for Housing Policy. The Government Won’t Say How

In response to a public records request, HUD has withheld documents about DOGE’s use of AI—in part by citing a privilege that doesn’t exist.

wired.com

NEW: DOGE used AI for housing policy. The government won't say how. read @telliotter.bsky.social's latest:

DOGE Used AI for Housing Policy. The Government Won’t Say How

In response to a public records request, HUD has withheld documents about DOGE’s use of AI—in part by citing a privilege that doesn’t exist.

wired.com

NEW: The Trump admin had a UChicago undergrad/DOGE operative use a chatbot to work on housing policy. The details are a bit of a mystery, because HUD withheld docs in response to a @democracyforward.org FOIA, among other things citing nonexistent AI privilege. @telliotter.bsky.social reports:

DOGE Used AI for Housing Policy. The Government Won’t Say How

In response to a public records request, HUD has withheld documents about DOGE’s use of AI—in part by citing a privilege that doesn’t exist.

wired.com

NEW: HUD appears to be making up FOIA exemptions. @telliotter.bsky.social with the scoop: www.wired.com/story/doge-d...

DOGE Used AI for Housing Policy. The Government Won’t Say How

In response to a public records request, HUD has withheld documents about DOGE’s use of AI—in part by citing a privilege that doesn’t exist.

wired.com

Companies will once again be allowed to scan citizens’ personal texts, emails, and social media messages to find child abuse material online. www.wired.com/story/a-majo...

A Majority of European Lawmakers Voted Against Letting Big Tech Read Our Messages. They’re Going to Anyway.

Companies will once again be allowed to scan citizens’ personal texts, emails, and social media messages to find child abuse material online.

wired.com

Correction, to this since Bluesky doesn't allow edits: it was the GAO spox who said this!

Vittoria Elliott@telliotter.bsky.social · 4w ago

But that still doesn't account for why the report focused more on the claims that DOGE members didn't access NLRB systems rather than the fact that the agency seems to have deleted important information before investigators to examine it.

NEW: Last year, a whistleblower alleged that members of DOGE had accessed, and potentially exfiltrated data from the National Labor Relations Board. The claims spurred an investigation from the Government Accountability Office, which published a report in April... www.wired.com/story/federa...

Federal Investigators Say Certain DOGE Records Were Deleted

A government report claims DOGE didn’t access sensitive systems. It also says the agency deleted records that would show if they had.

wired.com

Firefighters responded to a distressed elder’s 911 call and decided to flip her house. www.sacbee.com/news/local/a...