Extra, Extra
Making a Killing: “Barack Obama and George W Bush have criticized the closure of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), as a study warned it could result in ‘a staggering number’ of avoidable deaths – more than 14 million over five years.
+ Me the People: “In his capstone paper for the class, Mr. Damsky argued that the framers had intended for the phrase ‘We the People,’ in the Constitution’s preamble, to refer exclusively to white people. From there, he argued for the removal of voting rights protections for nonwhites, and for the issuance of shoot-to-kill orders against ‘criminal infiltrators at the border.'” NYT (Gift Article): A White Nationalist Wrote a Law School Paper Promoting Racist Views. It Won Him an Award. (Surprised Stephen Miller hasn’t hired this guy yet.)
+ It’s Time to Cease: “Israeli forces killed at least 74 people in Gaza on Monday with airstrikes that left 30 dead at a seaside cafe and gunfire that left 23 dead as Palestinians tried to get desperately needed food aid, witnesses and health officials said.” Israel had every right to defend itself after Oct 7. Israel has every right to act to protect itself against a nuclear-hungry foe that has repeatedly expressed its desire to destroy the country. Israel has every right to demand the hostages are released. But how do actions like these further any of the country’s legitimate goals?
+ Scrape Scrap: Cloudflare will now block AI crawlers by default. “The internet architecture provider will also let some publishers make known AI scrapers pay to crawl their sites.”
+ Thai Breaker: “Paetongtarn has faced growing dissatisfaction over her handling of the dispute, which involved an armed confrontation on May 28, in which one Cambodian soldier was killed. In a call with Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen, she attempted to defuse tensions — but instead set off a string of complaints and public protests by critics who accused her of being too fawning.” Court suspends Thailand’s prime minister to investigate a leaked phone call. (She should just say it was a perfect phone call. That seems to work.)
+ Oh the Humanity: “As the pace of AI progress accelerates, developing superintelligence is coming into sight. I believe this will be the beginning of a new era for humanity, and I am fully committed to doing what it takes for Meta to lead the way.” Zuck is spending hundreds of millions to hire top talent away from OpenAI and others. (Funny how we still need to hire humans to win the AI race.) Mark Zuckerberg sees ‘the beginning of a new era’ for humanity in superintelligence. (Oh shit.)
+ Jimmy Infamy: “Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who became a household name amassing an enormous following and multimillion-dollar ministry only to be undone by his penchant for prostitutes, has died.” (If he had been born a few years later, he probably would have a cabinet position right now…)
+ Overboard: Disney cruise ship rescue team saves girl who fell overboard and father who jumped after her.
