Alex Gladstein

✌️

👻BOO!👻

We're almost half-way through the month, and you still haven't read our new issue? That's SCARY! 🎃🍂 Read it FREE while you still can (through October 30!)

muse.jhu.edu/issue/5...

Spot Gold hits record high at $4,125.30.

Satellites Are Leaking the World’s Secrets: Calls, Texts, Military and Corporate Data With just $800 in basic equipment, researchers found a stunning variety of data—including thousands of T-Mobile users’ calls and texts and even US military communications—sent by satellites unencrypte...

Researchers pointed a satellite dish at the sky for 3 years and monitored what unencrypted data it picked up. The results were shocking: They obtained thousands of T-Mobile users' phone calls and texts, military and law enforcement secrets, much more: www.wired.com/story/satell... 🧵👇

British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah to be freed from prison Reports say writer, who has served six years for liking a Facebook post, has also been given a presidential pardon

Thrilled that Alaa will be free. Heartbroken at the costs paid by his family and everyone that loves him: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Empowering Human Rights Through Bitcoin And Open Source Software The partnership between HRF and bitcoin nonprofits focused on FOSS showcases the transformative power of financial technology in advancing human rights causes.

Bitcoin often makes headlines when its price in $$$ rises.

But the real power of Bitcoin lies in its use-case as freedom money.

When your friends ask you “Why Bitcoin?” show them this:

Cc @hrf.org @gladstein.bsky.social

www.forbes.com/sites/digita...

Border patrol walking McArthur park here in LA

Bitcoin is freedom money

Crypto is not

Any questions?

Graph from NetBlocks showing network connectivity by region in Palestine from June 5, 2025, to June 19, 2025. The y-axis represents normalized connectivity, ranging from 0% to 100%, and the x-axis represents the dates. The green line representing operator Paltel's (AS12975) connectivity remains stable at around 100% throughout most of the time period, with a sharp drop on June 10, a second sharp drop on the night of June 11, caused by a cut in one of the main routes due to ongoing aggression, a third drop on the early morning of June 16 after a total recovery on the night of June 14, and a fourth drop on June 17 after a total recovery on the night of June 16. The minimum and current connectivity levels are indicated as 13% and 59%, respectively. The chart has a dark background with red horizontal arrows labeled 'INTERNET CUT' indicates the period of disruption and a red circle highlighting the decline at the end of the period.

⚠ Update: Live metrics show the internet blackout in the central and southern #Gaza has now passed 56 hours; the disruption continues to severely limit visibility into events on the ground 📉

I'm looking forward to talking about innovative ways funders can fund frontline organisations working in repressive environments at #oslofreedomforum @osloff.bsky.social today with @gladstein.bsky.social @hrf.org

BREAKING: The United Kingdom has overtaken China as second-largest foreign holder of US Treasury Securities

NEW: #Google's #Android 16 to feature optional high security mode. Cool!

It's the 'turn this one thing on if you face elevated risk' that we've been asking for from Google.

Bunch of requested features that address the kinds of threats we worry about.

Let's dig in a bit 1/

BREAKING:

For the first time in its history, Moodys has downgraded the credit rating of the United States from AAA to AA1.

Bitcoin is an extremely simple thesis

If you think governments will stop debasing and debanking: number go down

If you think they won’t stop debasing and debanking: number go up

Now what’s more likely?

Gumbo

Government debt getting murdered. UK 30-year yields at highest level since 1998

Now that we have passed midnight, President Trump’s tariffs, the highest since 1909, are now in full effect.

Trump administration deports gay makeup artist to prison in El Salvador A gay man with no known criminal record sought asylum in the U.S. He's since become one of 238 Venezuelan migrants deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador by the Trump administration.

60 Minutes could find no criminal records for 75% of the Venezuelans the U.S. sent to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador. https://cbsn.ws/4clubLP

‘Climate of fear’: Montreal doctor says NYU cancelled her presentation A Montreal doctor says her presentation at NYU was abruptly cancelled and believes the university did so out of fear of being pressured by the Donald Trump administration.

NYU canceled a planned speech by the former president of Doctors Without Borders because she planned to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and cuts to US AID.

This is what actual campus censorship looks like.

Video of the international student at Tufts being arrested by "federal authorities" in Massachusetts has been released and it's terrifying.

They're not even uniformed officers. Just secret police thugs in hoodies and masks.

From WCVB: youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY

UW just released this video with me about the philosophy of bitcoin.

“Bitcoin is there for anyone who feels like at some point they might need resistance money… If you think some day you may end up on the margins, you should know how to acquire and use bitcoin.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBum...

One of Bitcoin’s greatest assets is a fifteen-year-long stockpile of wild and empirically falsified predictions from deranged critics.

What they don’t understand (clearly they haven’t seen my office door) is that critical pressure makes bitcoin stronger.

To the frustration of the great majority of Bluesky users, this Bitcoin thing refuses to go away

Maybe it’s time to slow down and take a look at what is happening around the world carefully instead of dismissing it 😉

I don't want my appliances to be connected to the internet. I don't want them to have blinky lights or touch screen controls or be accessible by phone. All I want is for them to do the one thing they are supposed to do, and to beep less.

Hear that, manufacturers? Less beeping.

EXCLUSIVE: White House in talks to have Oracle and U.S. investors take over TikTok The aim is to place oversight control in the hands of American software company Oracle and other investors. Under federal law, TikTok must split apart from China, or face a nationwide ban.

Scoop: People involved in WH discussions about TikTok say Oracle and Microsoft having talks about taking control of TikTok’s global operation, with ByteDance retaining minority stake www.npr.org/2025/01/25/g...

How to Dictator-Proof Your Money | Journal of Democracy Cash is king, even if you are an activist leading a democratic movement against some of the world’s worst dictators. That’s why Bitcoin has quickly become the currency of choice for dissidents working...

www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclu...

Services not available Our services are not available in your country or region. You can still go to Settings and privacy to manage your account, security settings, or privacy settings. Close app

BREAKING

TikTok has shut down in the United States.

CapCut, the editing software TikTok owns, has also shut down.

They have also been removed from the App Store.

How to Dictator-Proof Your Money | Journal of Democracy Cash is king, even if you are an activist leading a democratic movement against some of the world’s worst dictators. That’s why Bitcoin has quickly become the currency of choice for dissidents working...

Here are dozens of ways people use Bitcoin worldwide in not just “legitimate” but truly noble ways to protect democracy and resist authoritarian power:

www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclu...

Governments stockpiling Bitcoin was always going to happen, if Bitcoin was going to be successful

The “risk” would be Bitcoin failing, not being valuable, and governments not wanting to stockpile it

President Biden set to issue a pardon of his son Hunter Biden The president is expected to announce his decision Sunday night, according to a senior White House official.

BREAKING

President Biden has decided to grant his son Hunter Biden a pardon in his two federal criminal cases.

This is a reversal from his previously publicly stated position on granting clemency to his son.