Alexa Olesen

Apple pulls ICEBlock from the App Store ICEBlock reportedly has 1.1 million users.

“Apple made similar claims in 2019 when it removed HKMap, an app that allowed Hong Kong protesters to trace the movements of law enforcement … At the time, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle spoke out against ‘Apple’s censorship of apps.’”

These alien planets are astronomers’ favourites: here’s why Space scientists look back on 30 years of exoplanet discoveries — from rows of massive ‘super-Earths‘ to worlds with perfectly synchronized orbits.

This week (!) is the 30th anniversary of the announcement of 51 Pegasi b, the first exoplanet found orbiting a star like our Sun - since then, we've found over 6,000!

To celebrate, @alexwitze.bsky.social and @nature.com collected some astronomers' favourite planets:

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

South Shore Residents Return To Ransacked Apartments After ICE Raid: 'It Looks Like Hell' A "now renting" sign outside touts granite countertops. Inside, residents are trying to make sense of the raid that made their already neglected building even worse.

ICE is running around Chicago harassing people for not being white.

Just a year ago, that was illegal in the United States and now it’s commonplace.

That’s not making America great again.

It really does not get more explicit than Trump telling top active-duty military generals that they will need to participate in occupations of large cities run by his political opponents as part of his "war from within"

“To us, masks are associated with cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan. In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police.”

- Judge William Young, September 30, 2025

Another violent attack by an ICE officer on a civilian at 26 Federal Plaza—this time on a journalist, who had to be carried out on stretcher.

Another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy.

People of Illinois, we need your help.

Get your cell phones out – record what you see. Put it on social media. Peacefully ask for badge numbers and identification. Speak up for your neighbors.

We need to let the world know this is happening – and that we won’t stand for it.

“The Destruction of NASA’s Mission” Whistleblowers reveal OMB’s Unconstitutional Plot to Gut the Agency

New from Committee on Commerce, Science, Transportation Ranking Member Maria Cantwell.

NOTE: This is indeed what I have seen going on inside NASA.
🧪🔭

www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil...

Court-watchers confirm this cruel ICE agent has been reinstated.

Last week, in the briefest moment of decency, violently throwing a woman to the floor was “beneath the men and women of ICE.”

This week, it’s back to business as usual. The cruelty, after all, is the point.

I Watched This Kim Jong Un Documentary So You Don't Have To what we can learn from North Korean propaganda on Kim's visit to Beijing & the contrast between Putin and Xi

I wrote a new Substack about Kim-Xi-Putin vibes in Beijing, and to my surprise it ended up being mostly about hands.

Shoutouts @vanjackson.bsky.social @sheenagreitens.bsky.social @victordcha.bsky.social @colinzwirko.bsky.social @josephtorigian.bsky.social

substack.com/home/post/p-...

I don't know how, but somehow I managed to get into a pick-up session and took control of a robot in Beijing in a boxing match. I got to knock out my opponent. This may be the most Bay Area Friday night activity I've ever done.

A double standard about contamination is keeping us from verifying signs of Martian life A double standard about contamination is keeping us from verifying signs of Martian life

Life on Mars? "China’s Tianwen-3 mission aims to launch in 2028 and return samples by 2031. If China succeeds first, it will claim the greatest scientific discovery of all time." spacenews.com/a-double-sta...

It is time to Abolish ICE.

It is an ongoing violation and shame to the US and its values.

China, world’s largest carbon polluting nation, announces new climate goal to cut emissions China, the world’s largest carbon polluting nation, has announced a new climate fighting goal to cut emissions by 7% to 10% by 2035.

China, the world’s largest carbon polluting nation, has announced a new climate fighting goal to cut emissions by 7% to 10% by 2035.

Rail travel is booming in America More trains mean more riders

"In the nine months to July, 28.6m people took a train ride, a 6% increase on the same period last year. That puts the firm comfortably on track this financial year to record the most journeys in its 54-year history. Its fare revenue grew by 11% in the year to June."

Congressional candidate thrown to ground during protest outside ICE facility Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old Democratic candidate running for Illinois’s 9th Congressional District seat, was among the demonstrators who clashed with federal agents.

Federal agents clashed with protesters and threw a congressional candidate to the ground Friday morning during a protest outside a Chicago-area ICE detention facility.

Literally when private equity took them over due to bankruptcy www.glassglobal.com/news/financi...

Pair of 🇨🇳 PLA Strategic Support Force missile tracking ships Yuan Wang 6 and Yuan Wang 7 heading out into the middle of the Pacific. Perhaps in prep for some kind of missile test.

Pair of 🇨🇳 PLA Strategic Support Force missile tracking ships Yuan Wang 6 and Yuan Wang 7 heading out into the middle of the Pacific.

Perhaps in prep for some kind of missile test.

Israeli Strike Kills 4 Al Jazeera Journalists, Network Says Anas al-Sharif, a well-known correspondent, was among those killed. Israel said it had targeted Mr. al-Sharif, claiming he worked for Hamas, which he had denied.

An Israeli strike near a hospital in Gaza City killed four Al Jazeera journalists. Anas al-Sharif, a well-known correspondent, was among those killed. Israel said it had targeted al-Sharif, claiming he worked for Hamas.

Why you might not know that 2024 was America's safest year since the 1960s An overwhelming majority of Americans, 64 percent, believe that crime increased across the country in 2024, according to a Gallup survey conducted late last year.

1. This week, the FBI released its comprehensive crime report for 2024, which revealed that both VIOLENT CRIME and PROPERTY CRIME reached their LOWEST LEVELS SINCE THE 1960s

This a massive story. But you might not have heard about it, even if you follow the news closely.

Here's why.

Jennifer Saunders in an oversized mustard shirt dress and Joanna Lumley in an 80’s style suit jacket from an episode of AbFAb

Me three months ago:

EXCLUSIVE: Someone Waived Ghislaine Maxwell's Sex Offender Status to Move Her to a Minimum Security Camp in Texas According to sources, you can't move someone with a Public Safety Factor (PSF) designation - which Maxwell had - without waiving it. That's what happened here.

BREAKING: EXCLUSIVE: A higher up at the Bureau of Prisons WAIVED Ghislaine Maxwell's sex offender status in order to transfer her to a minimum security camp in Texas, per source. My latest: www.muellershewrote.com/p/exclusive-...

Kudos to the Chinese deep diving submersible Fendouzhe and team (which have also been to Challenger Deep where we didn't see anything like these creatures)!
www.bbc.com/news/article...
🌊 🦑

“Since AFP was founded in 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, some have been injured, others taken prisoner.

But none of us remember witnessing colleagues die of hunger"

Who's watching city hall? Nobody—and that should scare you Dave Busiek: A study released this month details a shocking decline in the number of journalists covering local news today.

New post by Dave Busiek: A study released this month details a shocking decline in the number of journalists covering local news today.
(Iowa's decline is bad but it's even worse in many other states)
#media #journalism
www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/07/19/w...

Army veteran and US citizen arrested in California immigration raid warns it could happen to anyone A U.S. Army veteran arrested during an immigration raid at a California marijuana farm says he was sprayed with tear gas and pepper spray before being dragged from his vehicle on his way to work.

ICE detained a veteran and U.S. citizen for three days.

They didn’t let him contact his family or a lawyer. They didn’t let him change or shower. They didn’t give him a reason for his detention.

Under this regime, no one is safe. apnews.com/article/us-a...

The leap from this to the systems Chinese police use for social engineering in Xinjiang and Tibet is exceedingly small

I just left the Everglades Immigrant Interment Camp. No, I’m not using their ridiculous name. It was a very tough to witness humans in those cages. Every Floridian should be ashamed that our taxpayer money is being used for this.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz after touring "Alligator Alcatraz": "These detainees are living in cages. The pictures you've seen don't do it just. They are essentially packed into cages. 34 detainees per cage...they get their drinking water & they brush their teeth where they poop, in the same unit"