• Democracy • Technology

    ‘Startup Nation’ Groups Say They’re Meeting Trump Officials to Push for Deregulated ‘Freedom Cities’

    CAROLINE HASKINS AND VITTORIA ELLIOTT

    Wired

    Trey Goff, the chief of staff of the startup nation known as Próspera, tells WIRED that he and other Próspera representatives working under an advocacy group called the Freedom Cities Coalition have been meeting with the Trump administration about the idea in recent weeks. He claims the administration has been very receptive. In 2023, Trump floated the idea of creating 10 freedom cities. Now, Goff says that Próspera’s vision is to create “not just 10, but as many as the market can handle.”

    Published On: 03/07/2025

  • Journalism • Press Freedom

    Shattered by a perfect storm: How Trump’s cuts are crippling journalism beyond the United States

    Gretel Kahn, Marina Adami, Eduardo Suárez

    Reuters Institute

    Before Trump’s inauguration, the US government supported independent journalism in more than 30 countries. Most of this funding was channelled through USAID. According to a USAID factsheet recently mentioned by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and now taken offline, the agency funded training and support for 6,200 journalists and assisted 707 outlets.

    Published On: 03/07/2025

  • Corruption • Legal

    Trump’s Biggest Corruption is Flying Under the Radar

    Chris Murphy

    Chris Murphy's Substack

    It’s all just a shameless scheme for Trump to legalize large scale bribery, and shockingly, very few people seem to have taken notice.

    Published On: 03/07/2025

  • Democracy

    Is Trump preparing to invoke the Insurrection Act? Signs are pointing that way

    Brett Wagner

    San Francisco Chronicle

    The clock is ticking down on a crucial but little-noticed part of President Donald Trump’s first round of executive orders — the one tasking the secretaries of the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to submit a joint report, within 90 days, recommending “whether to invoke the Insurrection Act.”

    Published On: 03/05/2025

  • Canada • Global

    Civil Society Groups Call for Immediate Suspension of Safe Third Country Agreement with United States of America

    Rainbow Railroad

    rainbowrailroad

    Canada cannot, in good conscience, continue to turn away refugees at the Canada-U.S. border.

    Published On: 03/04/2025

  • Democracy

    Insurrection Act of 1807

    Wikipedia

    Wikipedia

    The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a United States federal law[1] that empowers the president of the United States to deploy the U.S. military and federalized National Guard troops within the United States in particular circumstances, such as to suppress civil disorder, insurrection, or rebellion.

    Published On: 03/04/2025

  • Disinformation • Safety

    How MAHA Poisons the Food Movement

    Tom Philpott

    Mother Jones

    RFK Jr. could make legitimate critiques of the ways we grow and process food appear crackpot.

    Published On: 03/04/2025

  • Democracy • Technology • Threat Management

    Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats

    Stephanie Kirchgaessner

    The Guardian

    Recent incidents indicate US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cybersecurity threat, marking a radical departure: ‘Putin is on the inside now’

    Published On: 03/01/2025

  • Democracy

    Wreckage, Rapists, and Resistance: Week Six of the Coup

    Rebecca Solnit

    Meditations in an Emergency

    Great uprisings are often both carefully prepared for and essentially unpredictable. It's as if the fuel has been gathered for a bonfire but a lightning strike suddenly ignites it.

    Published On: 03/01/2025

  • Legal

    Energy Transfer’s High Stakes Legal Attack on Greenpeace

    Janine Jackson

    FAIR Counterspin

    ...this case is one of the most extraordinary examples of abuse of the US legal system that we have encountered in at least the last decade. And anyone who is concerned about protecting free speech rights, or is concerned about large corporations abusing their power to silence their critics, should be paying attention to this case, even though it’s happening in North Dakota state court." -- Kirk Herbertson, EarthRights International

    Published On: 02/28/2025

  • Democracy • Journalism

    Donald Trump Is Turning the Press Pool Into a MAGA Echo Chamber

    Eric Lutz

    Vanity Fair

    Leavitt insisted the change was a “long overdue” corrective to an “outdated” system, which gave “left wing stenographers” a “monopoly” on access. But the real message behind the move was plain: The Trump administration will punish news organizations for unfavorable coverage and uncomfortable questions.

    Published On: 02/26/2025

  • Democracy • Legal

    FCC’s Knives Are Out for First Amendment

    ARI PAUL

    FAIR

    Brendan Carr, newly appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission, is waging a war on the news media, perhaps the most dangerous front in de jure President Donald Trump and de facto President Elon Musk’s quest to destroy freedom of the press and the First Amendment.

    Published On: 02/26/2025

  • Democracy • Press Freedom

    White House wrests control of presidential press pool from correspondents

    BRIAN SNYDER

    REUTERS

    The pool has traditionally been overseen by the WHCA to ensure that access isn’t limited to those covering the sitting administration favorably.

    Published On: 02/25/2025

  • Democracy

    How Dan Bongino Went From Infowars to FBI Deputy Director

    DAVID GILBERT

    Wired

    Dan Bongino rose through the ranks of right-wing media thanks to his unflinching loyalty to Donald Trump and willingness to push baseless conspiracies—including about the FBI.

    Published On: 02/24/2025

  • Democracy

    Reichstag Fire 2.0: Will Trump Use a Crisis to Kill Democracy?

    THOM HARTMANN

    The Hartmann Report

    There’s a long history of leaders using national emergencies to raise their popularity, expand their own power, overwhelm opposition politicians, scapegoat minorities, suspend constitutions and elections, and provide a legal façade for ending or weakening democracy.

    Published On: 02/24/2025

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