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Sweden’s V-Dem Institute Democracy Report 2026 Executive Summary – Democracy in the World 2025 – Democracy is back to 1978 levels for the average global citizen. The gains of the “third wave of democratization”, starting 1974 in Portugal, are almost eradicated. The level of democracy for the average citizen in Western Europe and North America …
April 2, 2026 Update – Washington Post: Voice of America’s effort to bring back staffers grinds to a halt. A three-judge circuit court panel stayed a decision that would have allowed employees to resume work at the global broadcaster after a year of waiting. Washington Post [no paywall]: “Voice of America employees have spent a …
Inside Climate News: Republican lawmakers are advancing legislation that would shield major polluters from legal accountability for climate change harms. Republican lawmakers in multiple states and Congress are advancing proposals to shield polluters from climate accountability and prevent any type of liability for climate change harms—even as these harms and their associated costs continue to …
Follow-up to $21.7 Billion Blunder: New PSI Report Reveals Billions in Taxpayer Dollars Squandered by DOGE – See Also 404 Media [no paywall] – “The DOGE deposition videos a judge ordered removed from YouTube on Friday after they had gone massively viral have since been backed up across the internet, including as a torrent and …
Project Salt Box: [March 11, 2026], “ICE ERO released a request for proposals (RFP) on SAM.gov requesting contractor support to “conduct safety and wellness checks of an estimated 100,000 unaccompanied alien children (UAC) across the US.” Labeled as the “Safety Verification Initiative,” this RFP is the latest development in a year’s long campaign by ICE …
SpyTalk: “FEW NATIONAL SECURITY DEBATES HAVE RILED UP AMERICANS more than the permission Congress has given the government to eavesdrop on their private emails and phone calls. The legislation that gave these intrusive powers to the likes of the NSA and the FBI is up for renewal later this spring, and signs are that it …
Pew Report – “Nearly four years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a majority of Americans continue to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Now, with a patchwork of differing state laws in effect, perceptions of abortion access vary by where people live. A 60% majority of U.S. adults …
Center for Countering Digital Hate: How mainstream AI chatbots assist users planning violent attacks – 8 in 10 AI chatbots were regularly willing to assist users in planning violent attacks including school shootings, religious bombings, and high-profile assassinations. DeepSeek went as far as wishing the would-be attacker a “Happy (and safe) shooting!”. These are the …
CITR Challenges US Government Censorship Policy Threatening Deportation for Work on Social Media Platforms and Online Harms – The Coalition for Independent Technology Research filed a lawsuit today in partnership with the Knight First Amendment Institute and Protect Democracy, challenging the US government’s Censorship Policy that unconstitutionally targets noncitizen researchers, fact-checkers, and trust and safety workers for …
Ars Technica: “Research shows apparent Iranian state hackers trying to hijack consumer-grade cameras. For decades, satellites, drones, and human spotters have all been part of war’s surveillance and reconnaissance tool kit. In an age of cheap, insecure, Internet-connected consumer devices, however, militaries have gained another powerful set of eyes on the ground: every hackable security …
Via LLRX – The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research, Public Health, and the Rule of Law – Part 7 – This article is the seventh in a series focused on how the second Trump presidency unleashed a causal chain that has rapidly morphed into an extensive continued attack against civil liberties, commerce, government funded …
Dark Reading: “Most people would never imagine that the innocuous tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) in their vehicles could be used to track their movements. But, as with many things digital, it turns out the feature, designed for vehicle safety and maintenance, can also expose unintended signals that enable precisely that capability. Low Cost Vehicle Tracking …
