Climate change

Inside Climate News  - Colorado’s top wildfire officials said they expect a significantly increased risk of wildfire this summer—and while they’ll partner with neighboring states as much as they can, resources for fighting the blazes will be tested.

A dismal snowpack this winter is likely to leave a parched landscape and tinderbox conditions from Colorado’s thickly forested ski mountains to its grassy eastern plains. Officials here are anticipating an exceptionally dire next few months in their state and beyond. 

“The increased fire risk extends to the multi-state region,” Colorado’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis, said during the state’s annual wildfire outlook briefing in Broomfield on April 30, where officials laid out Colorado’s 2026 Wildfire Preparedness Plan. 

The upcoming summer will be challenging across the West, he said, with an “elevated fire risk” threatening Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, alongside Colorado. 

Inside Climate Change -   In a little-noticed memo early last year, Illinois scientists made a dire prediction. “Bulletin 76,” a communication from University of Illinois researchers, warned that intense rain made worse by climate change was going to get a lot more severe in the next 25 years.

“What is considered safe and adequate today may not hold true in the future,” they wrote of the threat to homes, buildings and people.

The threat has been building for years. Over the past century in Chicago, the likelihood of heavy rainstorms has increased sevenfold. These storms can drop more than 8.5 inches of rain in 24 hours.

Designed decades ago, Chicago’s sewers can handle just 2 inches in that short period of time before flooding becomes likely.

That means every neighborhood in Chicago is at risk of flooding, and that threat rises with every big storm.

Why we need a wealth tax

Robert Reich - Google co-founder Sergey Brin, one of the three or four wealthiest people in the world, with a net worth hovering around $260 billion to $277 billion, is devoting some of his wealth to fighting California’s wealth tax on billionaires.  So far, he’s spent $57 million trying to defeat the measure.  Brin’s actions — along with Elon Musk’s $250 million “investment” in getting Trump reelected in 2024 — should be Exhibits A and B in why America needs a wealth tax.

Black voting rights

Jamell Bouie, NY Times -   In the name of a colorblind Constitution and the equal protection of the laws, then, the Supreme Court has given the green light to a gleeful attempt to end Black political representation at the state and federal level. And as long as there isn’t clear evidence of intentional discrimination — a standard that would have been difficult to prove at the height of Jim Crow, which rested on the same fiction of facial neutrality — it passes constitutional muster. In fact, lawmakers in Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi are already planning special legislative sessions to apply the court’s ruling and erase the majority-minority districts in their states.

At a minimum, the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution were written, passed and ratified to end the subordination of Black Americans and ensure their representation in the political community. It is perverse that this Supreme Court has used both amendments to facilitate what might become the largest reduction in Black representation at the federal and state level since the end of Reconstruction and the “redemption” of the South. Words meant to secure the political equality of all Americans are being raised as weapons to deprive them of just that.

Here, we see the problem with conservative “colorblindness.” A constitution that doesn’t see color — a constitution that treats all classifications as one and the same in a country defined by its sordid history of racial subordination — is a constitution that cannot see group inequality. And worse, it is a constitution that reifies this inequality through its willful blindness to the plain realities of our society. Liberty for those who profit from the cruel legacies of our past, endless struggle for those crushed under their weight.

Speaking in 1883, after the Supreme Court nullified the Civil Rights Act of 1875, Frederick Douglass cried out for a court that would be as “true to the claims of humanity” as it “formerly was to the demands of slavery”: “I say again, fellow citizens, O for a Supreme Court which shall be as true, as vigilant, as active and exacting in maintaining laws enacted for the protection of human rights, as in other days was that court for the destruction of human rights!”

Middle East

The Hill -  President Trump announced a pause on the U.S. operation “Project Freedom” on Tuesday evening based on a request from Pakistan and other countries, but he added that the U.S. Navy blockade of ships in the Strait of Hormuz will remain in place.

“Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed,” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social.

The halt of the U.S.-led effort to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which began early Monday, comes as Iranian armed forces have fired drones and missiles at U.S. military assets in the region and the U.S. military has retaliated, sinking six Iranian small boats.

Earlier on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire is holding, but he emphasized that Project Freedom is a temporary defense effort to restart shipping through the strait, which has been effectively choked off for weeks by Iran.

“This is separate and distinct from Operation Epic Fury,” Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon, while later in the day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told journalists at the White House that Operation Epic Fury is over.

Project Freedom was enforced by several U.S. Navy destroyers and air- and land-based U.S. military assets, along with about 15,000 sailors in the U.S. Central Command (Centcom) region

NY Times -   President Trump keeps looking for the magic formula that will deliver him victory in Iran.

First was the airstrike last June intended, he said, to “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear program. Then came the intense February air campaign carried out with Israel and designed, he said, to deliver regime change and a popular uprising. Then he bet on a blockade of Iranian shipping to end the Iranian stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

Now, in a new effort to break Iran’s control over the strait, Mr. Trump has announced a plan with few details to help guide stranded ships out through it. Iran responded with missiles and drones, and given the risks, most tankers are unlikely to dare crossing the strait for now.

But Mr. Trump’s conviction that these tactics will bring about Iran’s capitulation is deeply flawed, officials and analysts say. They say it is a misreading of the Islamic Republic’s strategy, psychology and capability for adaptation. The Iranian government believes that it has the upper hand for now, and that it can withstand economic pressure, as it has in the past, longer than Mr. Trump can tolerate rising energy prices brought about by the halting of traffic through the strait.

Artificial Intelligence

Axios - AAI is helping make doctors the unwitting stars of deepfake videos that hawk questionable products or spread misinformation, prompting calls from clinicians for more privacy and transparency laws.

 The profusion of AI content on social media platforms could further erode public trust in the medical establishment. It could also be used to fuel insurance fraud, steal data and put patients at risk.

The American Medical Association called on federal and state lawmakers last week to close legal gaps and modernize identity protections to address what its CEO John Whyte called a public health and safety crisis.

• The physicians group also wants a crackdown against deepfake creators and rules to force tech platforms to more quickly remove impersonations.
• California has already taken steps like requiring disclosures on AI-generated ads and is debating a measure that would explicitly ban doctor deepfakes.
• Pennsylvania's medical board addressed another form of AI impersonation yesterday, demanding that a tech company cease and desist after one of its chatbots posed as a doctor claiming to have a license to practice medicine in the state.

Physicians say they're increasingly discovering instances in which their identities are used to promote wellness and longevity supplements and unapproved medical devices.

• "It's becoming more mainstream. Everyone knows someone who this has impacted," said Whyte. "It's probably occurring more than we hear because people are embarrassed by it."
• Among the victims: CNN's Sanjay Gupta, who said fakes using his likeness to promote items like a breakthrough Alzheimer's cure have gotten so convincing they've even deceived some acquaintances.

Doctors could be sued if patients are harmed taking counterfeit products or following advice the real physician never actually gave, Whyte said.

• The AMA is seeking guidance on how targeted physicians should respond and how malpractice and cyber liability insurance can help.  More

Pain at the pump

NPR -  Travel advisers note that Americans are booking cheaper domestic trips rather than overseas travel to Europe. Jet fuel prices have roughly doubled since the start of the war in Iran, raising airfares and prompting some airlines to cut flights. 

Polls

NPR - More than 80% of Americans say pain at the pump is straining their household budgets and a striking majority blames the president, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. The poll found that President Trump faces his lowest popularity ever and is experiencing major declines with key demographics since being sworn in for his second term. Most Americans said the economy isn't working for them. The war in Iran — which has directly led to higher gas prices — is increasingly unpopular. Those challenges have given Democrats a distinct advantage in the midterm elections. When asked which party's candidate they'd vote for if congressional elections took place today, Democrats led by 10 points.

Health

Health -  Utz recalled select Zapp’s and Dirty potato chips after seasoning powder was flagged for possible Salmonella contamination. Affected products were sold nationwide across multiple flavors, sizes, and batch codes, with best-by dates from late July through August 2026. Consumers should not eat recalled chips; discard them, request refunds, and monitor for Salmonella symptoms.

Takeaways from Tuesday’s primary elections in Indiana, Ohio

The Hill 

What we could have spent the GOP debt on

Thom Hartmann -  This year, America will spend over a trillion dollars just to pay interest on the current $39 trillion national debt....

It’s the biggest scandal of the century and is almost never mentioned by the press, even when they noted last week that — for the first time since World War II — our debt is now larger than our entire economy. And by 2030, Fortune magazine reports, we’ll be paying $2 trillion in interest at the current rate of burn, as Republicans add more and more items to the national debt every day.

To put that in context, here’s the “lost opportunity cost” of what that trillion dollars a year we now pay in interest — roughly $3000 every year for every man, woman, and child in the country — on the GOP’s Debt could do for America:

— First, it could guarantee universal childcare and early childhood education nationwide that would free millions of parents to work or start businesses and would pay long-term dividends in better educational outcomes.

— Second, it could make all public colleges, universities, and trade schools tuition-free, while also wiping out existing federal student loan debt over time.

— Third, the U.S. could establish a universal healthcare system or at least a robust public option with zero premiums and minimal out-of-pocket costs, ending medical bankruptcies and improving public health outcomes.

— Fourth, it could fully fund a national infrastructure modernization program, repairing every deficient bridge in the country, rebuild highways, expand mass transit, and replace aging water systems, including lead pipe removal nationwide.

— Fifth, a trillion dollars a year could finance a rapid transition to clean energy: building out solar and wind at scale, modernizing the grid, subsidizing home electrification, and accelerating EV infrastructure to catch up with China.

— Sixth, it could end homelessness in America, with massive savings in healthcare and policing.

— Seventh, we could provide a guaranteed basic income (~$500 to $1,000 a month) to every adult American, or a more targeted version for lower- and middle-income households, dramatically reducing poverty.

— Eighth, it could expand Social Security and Medicare benefits significantly — raising monthly checks, lowering the retirement age, or both — while shoring up the system’s long-term solvency.

— Ninth, the U.S. could also fund universal paid family and medical leave, so no one ever again has to go to work sick or choose between a paycheck and caring for a newborn or a sick relative.

— Tenth, it could dramatically increase teacher pay, reducing class sizes, modernizing school facilities, and providing universal free school meals.

— Eleventh, it could launch a large-scale affordable housing initiative, building millions of units, stabilizing rents, and helping first-time homebuyers with down payments.

— Twelfth, it could rebuild and expand public health infrastructure, including pandemic preparedness, local health departments, research funding, and domestic manufacturing of critical medicines and supplies.

Polls

MSN-   A recent survey by Generation Lab found that more than 8 in 10 young adults rate economic conditions in the U.S. as either bad or terrible.  The survey, conducted April 26-29, found that 55 percent of 546 respondents ages 18-24 said they view the economy as bad, while 29 percent said it was terrible. 

Health

StudyFinds -   Eggs have spent decades bouncing between dietary hero and villain, praised for their protein one year and vilified for their cholesterol the next. A new study may tip the scales again. Researchers who tracked nearly 40,000 older adults for more than 15 years found that people who ate eggs regularly were far less likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease than those who never or rarely touched them. The most frequent egg eaters, those having five or more servings a week, showed a 27% lower risk.

Alzheimer’s disease casts a long shadow over American life. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, and the national costs of managing the disease are projected to exceed $600 billion annually by 2050. During the same period, the share of Americans aged 65 and older is expected to roughly double, from about 10% to 20%. With no cure available and current drug treatments offering limited help, researchers have turned increasing attention to prevention, and specifically to what people eat.

The study, published in The Journal of Nutrition, drew on data from the Adventist Health Study-2, a long-running research project that enrolled more than 96,000 members of the Seventh-day Adventist church across all 50 states between 2002 and 2007. That population is especially useful for studying diet because Adventists have a wide range of eating habits, from strict vegans who never touch an egg to omnivores who eat them daily. By linking participants’ dietary records with Medicare claims data, researchers could track who eventually received a clinical Alzheimer’s diagnosis through the medical system rather than relying on self-reported memory problems.

Governor Gavin Newsom

SFGate -   Gov. Gavin Newsom is celebrating a win after a judge ruled last week that his $787 million defamation lawsuit against Fox News can move forward. Newsom filed the defamation lawsuit in June against the conservative-leaning news network, alleging it misled the public about a phone conversation that took place between the California governor and President Donald Trump during civil unrest that erupted in Los Angeles earlier that month. 

Judge Sean P. Lugg said in an April 30 decision rejecting the network’s motion to dismiss that he found it “reasonably conceivable” that Fox knew the statements were false before making them. 

“Looking forward to discovery,” Newsom wrote Thursday on X after the judge’s decision, alluding to the legal process where each side turns over documents, including private communications that could be embarrassing.

Donald Trump

The Guardian -   Donald Trump has issued a fresh verbal attack against Pope Leo XIV, accusing the pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics” because “he thinks it’s fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.  The remarks come two days before Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meets Leo at the Vatican in an effort to ease the tensions sparked by Trump’s previous broadside against the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Alternet -   President Donald Trump loves to brag about how many cognitive tests he has taken recently and how much he has, allegedly, aced them. Now, however, one very important person has spoken out about why those are not the achievements Trump thinks they are: the doctor who designed the test.

In a report published Tuesday, Australia's 9News spoke with Canadian neurologist Ziad Nasreddine, creator of the Montreal Cognitive Test, which Trump has been taking multiple times throughout his second term. As MS NOW's Steven Benen recently observed, Trump has touted his results on these tests as if passing them means that "he’d been declared the smartest person on Earth," but in reality, the questions and the requirements are intentionally rudimentary.

"Sample questions include drawing an analog clock with the correct time, with points given for correct numbering," 9News explained. "Another question is to name as many words as they can in a minute beginning with the letter B. A failing grade would be less than 11 words. The final questions are to know the date, day of the week, their location and what city they are in."

"It wasn't designed to be a test of IQ," Nasreddine told the outlet. "It was designed to assess normal cognitive performance."

ICE

The Hill -    The Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Homeland Security Committee on Monday night released legislative text for the $72 billion budget reconciliation bill that would bypass Democratic opposition to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol through 2029.....The package will be able to pass the Senate with a simple-majority vote instead of needing 60 votes to advance.

The text released by the Judiciary Committee would provide $30.73 billion for hiring, paying, training and equipping ICE personnel, including officers, agents, investigators, attorneys and support staff through fiscal year 2029, a year past the end of President Trump’s second term.

Some different ways to dress up

From the NY Times 

Platner's got Democrats thinking about outsiders

The Hill -   Populist Democratic candidate Graham Platner shook up his party’s establishment when his primary competitor, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, suspended her Senate campaign last week amid polls that showed she was badly trailing her rival, an oyster farmer who had come out of nowhere to win a national following in the party.

Platner’s rise is just the latest example of the outsiders era in the Democratic Party, a period coinciding with President Trump’s tenure that has also seen Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, defeat former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the race for New York City mayor last year. 

Platner, Mamdani and Trump all seemed to win political support with attacks on their respective parties’ political establishments; each has a brand signaling a desire to shake up the state quo.

It’s left some Democrats wondering whether that means there is a wide-open lane for an outsider to become the party’s presidential nominee in 2028. 

Supreme Court pushes anti-black voter decision

The Guardian - The US supreme court on Monday allowed a recent ruling that gutted a key part of the Voting Rights Act to take effect ahead of schedule – a procedural move that helps Louisiana Republicans redraw their congressional maps before this year’s midterm elections.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson strongly criticised the court for departing from its usual procedure of waiting 32 days to formally issue its judgment to the lower court. “The court’s decision to buck our usual practice under Rule 45.3 and issue the judgment forthwith is tantamount to an approval of Louisiana’s rush to pause the ongoing election in order to pass a new map,” she wrote.

....Red states, including Alabama and Tennessee, are rushing to revise their congressional maps after the original supreme court decision. On Monday, Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, signed a gerrymandered congressional district map into law that gives Republicans an electoral advantage in four additional races in November’s midterm elections.

Aging

Up to 45 percent of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed by addressing these 14 risk factors. (Read on CBS News)

NPR - The number of centenarians is expected to quadruple by 2054. MIT AgeLab director Joe Coughlin says planning for aging requires more than just saving for retirement. He and his collaborators developed a comprehensive tool called the Longevity Preparedness Index to help people assess life decisions beyond savings alone. The quiz is free online and takes around 15 minutes to complete. Each person’s score is determined by answers across eight domains, including relationships with family, friends and community, health and daily activities.

➡️ Awareness is the first step. The survey includes uncomfortable questions, such as whether you know who you would want to be your care provider if needed. Answering questions about life transitions can reveal the challenges you could face. 

➡️ Savings are still important. One of the hardest challenges people face is deciding if they can afford their cost of living. For people who want to age in place with caregiving support, nonmedical caregiving like meal preparation and housekeeping can cost, on average, $80,000 a year. 

➡️ Planning ahead can help reframe aging. By proactively anticipating and adapting to the inevitable physical changes of aging, people are able to envision the possibilities. The goal is not just to live longer but also to enhance the quality of your life.

Abortions

NPR -  Medication abortion today accounts for 60% of all abortions in the U.S., most of them using mifepristone, according to longtime health policy journalist Julie Rovner. The drug is also used to treat miscarriage. Rovner says last week's ruling from the appeals court came as a surprise, in part because the Trump administration had asked the lower court to put the case on hold until the FDA finished a review of mifepristone’s safety. 

Here's what to know about how medication abortions work, how safe they are and how patients can access them.

Middle East

The Guardian - Donald Trump has again raised the stakes in the Gulf region with the Monday launch of “Project Freedom” to open a route through the strait of Hormuz. More than 800 ships and roughly 20,000 crew members remain stranded in the region.

Just hours after the operation began, the US military said it destroyed six small Iranian boats and intercepted Iranian cruise missiles and drones – a claim that was denied by Iran – and Iran attacked the United Arab Emirates with drones and missiles, setting the oil port of Fujairah on fire. Trump then threatened that Iran would be “blown off the face of the earth” if it attacked any US vessels in Hormuz.

NPR - The U.S. military said it shot down incoming drones and missiles and sank six Iranian small boats yesterday as it launched an operation to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The incident threatened the fragile, month-old ceasefire between the two countries. Iran also fired on the United Arab Emirates, an American ally, and set off a major fire at the country's largest oil storage facility. The attack marks the first time Iran has attacked the Emirates since the ceasefire began.

Corporations, not people, getting tariff paybacks

The Contrarian -  On “Liberation Day” in April 2025, Donald Trump imposed a massive set of tariffs on imported goods from around the world. The federal government then collected those funds — raking in ten upon tens of billions of dollars — for nearly a year, until the Supreme Court ruled that the president had unconstitutionally usurped Congress’s taxation powers.

As a result, the federal government has now begun the process of refunding about $166 billion in illegal tax revenue — payable to the corporations that originally handed over the money to the U.S. Treasury.

But did these corporations actually pay the tax? Or, after all, was it you and me?

In truth, the fat tax-rebate checks from the IRS will be going to corporations that already passed those costs on to shoppers in the form of tariff-bloated prices. American consumers paid the premium, but Treasury’s refunds will be going to huge companies. Ford announced it expects a $1.5 billion payback; General Motors anticipates a $500 million return. Both companies will reportedly be using the cash to boost their earnings.

Doctors and AI

 Danielle Ofri, NY Times -   Like most doctors these days, I’ve been incorporating medical artificial intelligence tools into my practice. It’s become so easy to type in a quick description of an 86-year-old male with heart failure, diabetes and gout — toss in some test results, and see what the bot spits out. I appreciate that A.I. can expeditiously outline next steps for the clinical evaluation, or provide suggestions for rarer diagnoses or spit out a feisty appeal letter for an insurance denial. But the problem is that A.I. is evaluating only some statistical average of 86-year-old males with heart failure, diabetes and gout. It is not assessing that one specific 86-year-old man with these conditions whom I am looking at across the waiting room.

There’s an ocean of distance between the “patient” that A.I. is analyzing and the patient that the human doctor or nurse is assessing. Navigating the gap is something writers also grapple with. When making a diagnosis, as it were, of good writing to publish in the literary journal I edit, I look for characters that are fully realized, with physicality that is palpable and an emotional complexity both visceral and vivid. These details aren’t always made explicit, but pieced together in hints and subtle cues. What I’ve realized over the years is this is not so different from what a doctor has to do when assessing her patient’s health.

This is the inherent limitation of A.I. in medicine. It’s simply impossible — at least for now — for these tools to truly see the multidimensional patient. A.I. can’t know how the agony of a child estranged by substance use affects the blood pressure. It can’t factor in the economic and social crosscurrents that bear on medication adherence. It can’t account for the simmering grief of a lost spouse that influences a patient’s health decisions far more than any clinical guideline.

Kamala Harris

Independent, UK - Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ new home, tucked away in a celebrity-packed part of Malibu, may signal what’s to come for her political future, according to a report. Harris, who lost the 2024 presidential election to Donald Trump, bought a 4,000-square-foot home in the exclusive and secluded Point Dume neighborhood for $8.15 million this past December.

The former VP has recently said she is “thinking about” running in 2028. However, political consultants, real estate experts and Harris’s new neighbors had mixed opinions on what the new home might mean for her political future, according to a report from Politico.

Donald Trump

Congressional Insider - President Trump declared he would have the “honor” of taking control of Cuba as the island nation teeters on the brink of total collapse, signaling an unprecedented shift in U.S.-Cuba relations that could reshape the Caribbean and challenge decades of failed communist rule.

Trump stated Cuba is a “failed nation” with “no money, no oil, no nothing” during remarks following the island’s nationwide electrical grid collapse. The President suggested a “friendly takeover” while asserting he could “do anything I want with it,” leaving options open from liberation to regime change.

Cuba’s weakened state stems from tightened U.S. sanctions, loss of Venezuelan oil subsidies, and economic mismanagement under communist leadership. White House policies include designating Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism and imposing tariffs on nations supplying oil to the regime

Religion

Trad West  - Catholics are now almost 18% (~17.7%) of the world population... According to the Vatican’s latest official records, the global Catholic population has just reached a staggering 1.422 billion baptized members for the very first time.

Top Trump official scheduled to visit Pope Leo at the Vatican amid tense feud

How the G.O.P. Came to Embrace Psychedelic Drugs

NY Times - Mindbending may be just the word to describe the Oval Office ceremony on April 18, when President Trump ordered federal agencies to speed up research into the potential therapeutic uses of illegal psychedelic compounds like LSD, peyote and MDMA.  Here was a law-and-order Republican and lifelong teetotaler championing the hallucinogenic substances that a previous Republican president, Richard Nixon, had condemned as “public enemy No. 1.”

In the decades since 1970, when Nixon consigned psychedelics to the most restrictive category of federal prohibition, his absolutist, just-say-no approach was embraced by waves of conservative politicians.

They generally held to the view that psychedelics were a morally corrupting intoxicant, the indulgences of hippies, draft-dodgers and other liberal degenerates.

“As someone who has worked with psychedelics for decades, watching the White House event was a very trippy experience,” said Dimitri Mugianis, an underground practitioner who was prosecuted by federal authorities for illegally treating a heroin addict with the psychedelic drug ibogaine.

Mr. Trump’s bold efforts to soften the federal government’s stance on certain illegal drugs have been head-spinning — last month, the Justice Department, at the president’s behest, loosened restrictions on medical marijuana, too.

LinkedIn may be searching your computer

Browsergate -   LinkedIn’s scan reveals the religious beliefs, political opinions, disabilities, and job search activity of identified individuals. LinkedIn scans for extensions that identify practicing Muslims, extensions that reveal political orientation, extensions built for neurodivergent users, and 509 job search tools that expose who is secretly looking for work on the very platform where their current employer can see their profile.  Under EU law, this category of data is not regulated. It is prohibited. LinkedIn has no consent, no disclosure, and no legal basis. Its privacy policy does not mention any of this.

Trump's weakening FEMA endangers response to floods and hurricanes

Rep. Bennie Thompson, MS NOW -  Though President Donald Trump has not carried out his threat to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency, his administration has systematically weakened it during his second term. He has hollowed out its workforce, pushed out experienced staff in favor of political lackeys, dismantled preparedness programs and undermined the agency’s ability to respond when Americans need it most. Last spring, the administration announced that it had canceled billions of dollars worth of key mitigation programs that helped communities become more resilient to the effects of floods, hurricanes and other disasters.

More than 5,000 employees have left or been pushed out of FEMA since the beginning of the second Trump administration.  The elimination of those mitigation projects shifted risk onto states and local governments that lack the resources to pay for them themselves. More than 5,000 employees have left or been pushed out of FEMA since the beginning of the second Trump administration, worsening an already severe staffing shortage. Now reports suggest the Trump administration is considering even deeper workforce cuts — a highly dangerous proposal with the start of hurricane season less than a month away.

But just as worrisome as qualified people being pushed out of FEMA is unqualified people being brought in. Gregg Phillips, whom Trump appointed associate administrator of the Office of Response and Recovery in December, holds one of the most powerful positions at FEMA. It’s his  job to lead the federal government’s frontline response to hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, wildfires and other disasters. Because lives are on the line during such emergencies, the role ought to be filled by someone with relevant experience who has demonstrated a commitment to public safety, as well as has sound judgment and a steady hand. Unfortunately, it was clear before Phillips took his position that he lacks all those qualifications.