mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06newsroom veteran, fledgling cellist, former emt | he/they | views my own | RT ≠ endorsement | ex CNBC, WWD, TODAY show, NBCNews, Associated Press, Arizona Republic etc
All four supporting acts for upcoming dates of Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour have withdrawn in solidarity with fellow opening act Macklemore, as backlash grows against his removal from the tour over onstage comments in support of Palestine.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/15/ed-sheeran-macklemore-palestine-openers-finneas
Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel laureate known as the “Godfather of AI,” issued an ominous warning to lawmakers: Congress may only have one year left to implement safeguards on artificial intelligence before it loses control of it.
Once each semester, Grit Matthias Phelps, a German language instructor at Cornell University, introduces her students to the raw feeling of typing without online assistance. No screens, online dictionaries, spellcheckers or delete keys. https://apnews.com/article/typewriter-ai-cheating-chatgpt-cornell-ce10e1ca0f10c96f79b7d988bb56448b
A national majority vote for president is one step closer to reality after the Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, signed the national popular vote bill into law, joining an interstate compact with 17 other states and the District of Columbia. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/14/majority-vote-for-president-us-constitution
The U.S. national debt now exceeds 100% of gross domestic product, crossing a once-unthinkable threshold, on the way toward breaking the record set in the wake of World War II. https://www.wsj.com/economy/u-s-debt-tops-100-of-gdp-81c013d7
New York has installed 8 gigawatts of distributed solar energy, putting the state ahead of schedule toward its goal of reaching 10 gigawatts by 2030, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced July 2. https://www.fingerlakes1.com/2026/07/03/new-york-reaches-8-gigawatts-of-distributed-solar-energy/
In total, the DOJ quietly closed more than 23,000 criminal cases in the first six months of President Donald Trump’s administration, abandoning hundreds of investigations into terrorism, white-collar crime, drugs and other offenses as it shifted resources to pursue immigration cases, according to an analysis by ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doj-immigration-bondi-declinations-criminal-investigations
Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress who traveled the globe to advocate for a more aggressive U.S. foreign policy, has died after a “brief and sudden illness,” his office said. He was 71. https://apnews.com/article/lindsey-graham-dies-south-carolina-bfa556e170f2df22ce9ffc7165da3dfa
Trump entered his war of choice against Iran without consulting global allies, but as he weighs an exit from the conflict, he is making it clear that he is expecting the world to help him fix the unintended damage that it has caused. https://apnews.com/article/iran-war-trump-europe-nato-strait-hormuz-f6aeaa9a8dad050a54a26ba339af4545
Here’s how it works: On the Meta AI app, a user can tag a public Instagram account and direct the chatbot to create new A.I. photos based on photos from that person’s account. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/08/technology/meta-instagram-ai.html
Today was a solid victory for democracy and a clear defeat for the forces of authoritarianism — in Hungary, in Europe, and in America.
“Monitoring the Situation,” as the temporary facade outside read, became hard to do inside, with no power or Wi-Fi running to any of the TVs that lined every wall of the restaurant. That meant no X feeds. No stock market reports. No flight trackers. https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/sports-gambling/polymarket-dc-bar-monitoring-situation-rcna264144
Sussex County Republican Chairman Joseph LaBarbera, 50, of Hardwick, was arrested this weekend after a road rage incident ended in the brandishing of a handgun, police said. https://patch.com/new-jersey/hopatcong-sparta/sussex-co-gop-chairman-pointed-gun-child-road-rage-incident-police-say
Trump’s surprising claim this week that talks with Iran were yielding great progress has only raised more confusion over a war whose goals were already unclear. The most basic question: What talks? https://apnews.com/article/iran-war-us-talks-trump-israel-767a154363f4aed9c8af36966c4f701a
Jackson Mayor Jennifer Kuhn has received misogynistic and antisemitic Facebook messages, unsettling voicemails and an unsigned package of gummies in the shape of male genitalia in recent months in the politically volatile town.
Iranian state-linked media reported Monday that regime officials deny any talks with Trump’s administration have happened, directly contradicting the president’s claim that conversations over the past two days led to a pause in planned military strikes. https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/iran-denies-talks-with-us-even-took-place-as-state-media-claims-trump-backed-down-in-fear/
Where will the demand for AI come from if AI erodes what remains of the American middle class and much of the working class?
https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/whos-gonna-buy-all-the-ai-stuff
An NYPD officer has been charged with rape and sexual misconduct against a child after an investigation by the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, police said. https://gothamist.com/news/nypd-officer-charged-with-rape-of-a-minor-after-internal-affairs-investigation
“Spending $700 million to bail out the coal industry is like throwing a lifeline to a ship that has already sunk.” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/06/first-time-americans-getting-more-electricity-solar-coal/
“We could call them super-extremes or mega-extremes,” University of Exeter climate change and Earth system science chair Tim Lenton told Bloomberg. “We’re starting to see extremes on a spatial scale and a magnitude that’s really surprising.”
https://futurism.com/science-energy/climate-scientists-aghast-bad-fast
The US government is seeking to join Elon Musk's legal challenge to overturn a €120m (£105m) EU fine against X over its blue tick badges.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/us-backs-elon-musks-bid-094839033.html
"The USSS erased those messages after OIG requested records of electronic communications from the USSS, as part of our evaluation of the events at the Capitol on January 6." https://www.npr.org/2022/07/14/1111618620/secret-service-erased-texts-from-two-day-period-spanning-jan-6-attack-watchdog-s
Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation. Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego.
— Jean Arp
Progressive candidates beat opponents backed by or aligned with Moms for Liberty in school board races across the state – in many cases reversing gains made by the group in 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/18/florida-activists-rightwing-school-boards
Flights are grounded through at least 1:45 p.m. At Newark, 179 flights have been canceled and 224 are delayed as of 1:10 p.m. due to a ground stop caused by an equipment failure. https://www.nj.com/news/2026/09/newark-hit-again-as-equipment-failure-halts-flights-at-3-airports-monday.html
For the second time this week, slow-moving thunderstorms have been dumping massive amounts of rain over parts of central and southern New Jersey Thursday afternoon, triggering flash flood warnings and emergency mobile alerts because of rapidly rising water on roads. https://www.nj.com/weather/2026/07/flooded-roads-cars-stuck-in-water-in-nj-as-life-threatening-thunderstorms-drop-heavy-rain.html
France, Germany, and Denmark all saw their highest temperature ever, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Now, new data shows that western Europe set another record: its hottest June ever.
https://grist.org/extreme-weather/western-europe-just-set-the-record-for-its-hottest-june-ever/
Two people were killed when a passenger jet struck a Port Authority vehicle late last night, according to two sources familiar with the investigation. They are the pilot and co-pilot, the sources say.
Reuters reported last week that after The Daily Mail’s story, Banksy changed his legal name to David Jones — the second most-popular name in Britain. It’s also the given name of another rock star, the late David Bowie, whose Ziggy Stardust avatar inspired a 2012 Banksy painting of Queen Elizabeth II. https://apnews.com/article/banksy-art-gunningham-identity-bca10c147d7ea97bdbb23058cfd613b5
Democrats in Maine on Wednesday accused Republican senator Susan Collins of corruption after a major media outlet reported that the FBI had proposed investigating her for allegedly accepting bribes – before Donald Trump derailed the inquiry. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/23/susan-collins-corruption-allegation-report-propublica
More than 400 Transportation Security Administration workers have quit since a partial government shutdown that began on Feb. 14 left them working without pay, the Department of Homeland Security said. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/400-tsa-officers-quit-shutdown-rcna264581
‘AI granny’ Daisy is the latest weapon in the fight against phone scammers. Developed by British telecom company Virgin Media O2, the lifelike AI chatbot keeps fraudsters busy with endless chatter, protecting real people from falling victim. https://apnews.com/video/artificial-intelligence-laptops-generative-ai-united-kingdom-3a34986cba9d48eda13391dfc8d7a766
The world's leading artificial intelligence companies warned the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday of the risks posed by AI to humanity, appealing for governments to work together to manage the increasingly powerful technology. https://www.reuters.com/business/ai-leaders-brief-un-amid-warnings-technology-could-slip-beyond-human-control-2026-09-23/
Escalating infrastructure attacks by both Russia and Ukraine are leaving civilians increasingly vulnerable as winter approaches, United Nations investigators warned Mon Sept 21, expressing fear of a repeat of last winter’s suffering. https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/ukraine-civilians-face-rough-winter-amid-russian-infrastructure-attacks-un-probe
Fourteen Russian spy satellites moved over a US military base in Saudi Arabia two days before a devastating attack by Iran. https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/16/world/video/russia-spy-satellites-iran-intelligence-strikes-us-assets-digvid-invs
Last week, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the outbreak is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever recorded on the continent, with 1,830 confirmed cases in Congo, including 648 deaths. Cases have also been confirmed in neighboring Uganda. https://www.nbcnews.com/world/africa/us-citizen-working-humanitarian-organization-tests-positive-ebola-dr-c-rcna587233
“These nor’easters are beach eaters.”
Pentagon investigators have discovered that flawed intelligence, outdated imagery and an overreliance on AI contributed to a missile strike that killed 123 children in Minab.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has welcomed the European Union's ambition for Canada to become its first "associate member", calling for closer cooperation on defence, critical minerals and energy security. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwly7vkke4jxo
A jury on Tuesday found Meta violated New Mexico law in a case accusing it of failing to warn users about the dangers of its platforms and protect children from sexual predators. https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/24/tech/meta-new-mexico-trial-jury-deliberation
MAGA conspiracy theorists are already suspicious about Sen. Mitch McConnell’s proof-of-life photo from his hospital bed. https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-calls-bs-on-mitch-mcconnells-proof-of-life-stunt/
Rapper Macklemore is launching a "Free Palestine" tour, days after being dropped from Ed Sheeran's Loop Tour following pro-Palestinian comments he made onstage earlier this month.
U.S. democracy has reached its lowest levels in 50 years, according to a new global report that tracks democratic performance around the world. https://www.npr.org/2026/09/15/nx-s1-5969741/state-of-u-s-democracy-reaches-new-low-report-finds
Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has been in the hospital since June 11 with an undisclosed medical diagnosis, said in a statement Sunday that he suffered a fall last month that left him briefly unconscious and landed him in the hospital. https://abcnews.com/Politics/sen-mitch-mcconnell-hospitalized-due-fall-month/story?id=134699885
Prime Minister Mark Carney said in October that the Israeli leader will be arrested if he enters Canada. https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/israel-hamas-war/article/netanyahu-crosses-canadian-airspace-with-arrest-warrant-in-effect/
