MJ

About 100 transgender inmates are missing after their section of the prison was flattened, and the authorities say they are presumed dead, said Reza Shafakhah, a prominent human rights lawyer, who added that the government often treats being transgender as a crime. The chief prosecutor of the prison, Ali Ghanaatkar, despised by government critics for his handling of political prisoners, and one of his deputies also were killed. Editor 20 Wil Right

My god - Around *100* trans prisoners who were in Iran’s Evin prison are missing after the Israeli strike flattened their section of the prison. 100.

The current death toll is 79. The 100 trans people are presumed dead, which would more than double the death toll.

archive.is/2025.07.06-2...

The larger question remains: Who orchestrated the cyberattack, and to what end?

"This clash can also be explained by the likelihood that each commander had received contradictory orders, either due to direct infiltration of the command structure or because external actors were using compromised channels to issue false instructions. "

According to witnesses, al-Abdullah issued orders for a southern withdrawal, while al-Hassan commanded his forces to advance north and engage opposition units. The conflicting commands led to a firefight between the two factions that raged for more than two hours. "

"One example is the exchange of fire that erupted on Dec. 6, 2024, between forces loyal to two senior Syrian commanders in the Hama region’s Sibahi Square. At the time, at least 30,000 Syrian army fighters had gathered in the area. "

"They would have access to troop concentrations, phone conversations, text messages, photos and maps on officers’ devices, and be able to monitor military facilities remotely."

" whoever was behind the app extracted a devastating range of data from the officers’ phones, including their ranks and identities, whether they were responsible for sensitive posts and their geographical locations (possibly in real time)."

How a Spyware App Compromised Assad’s Army An investigation reveals how a cyberattack exploited soldiers' vulnerabilities and may have changed the course of the Syrian conflict

That's a hell of an investigation, and I feel it went largely unnoticed because of recent events.
"A mobile application, distributed quietly among Syrian officers via a Telegram channel [...] as a carefully planted trap."
newlinesmag.com/reportage/ho...

As he puts it: "I’m fed up with giving the platform companies advice about how to fix the internet, if we want this done right, we have to do it ourselves! ". 9/9

I'll be looking forward to the new platform that Peretti is building, because for once in a long time, there is someone in the industry who's taking things into their own hands. 8/

We need to do a better job as journalists to find and report on these stories, because they are as important, if not more, than the problems themselves. 7/

There are people endlessly working to find solutions to major issues, there are happy endings (sometimes), there are people uniting and working together to fight back. 6/

The result is an endless stream of addictive content that leaves everyone feeling depressed, scared, and dissatisfied. "

That's on point.

We tend to forget that the world is not all gloom and doom. 5/

It is not a coincidence that no matter what the message is, it always takes the same form, namely memetically optimized media that maximizes stakes and novelty, provokes anger, drives retention, and instills fear. 4/

but rather the stories that can be shaped into SNARF. This is why it seems like every election, every new technology, every global conflict has the potential to end our way of life, destroy democracy, or set off a global apocalypse! 3/

And that's a problem because most people get their news on social media.
Jonah Peretti boils it down to SNARF: Stakes/Novelty/Anger/Retention/Fear.
"The news stories and journalism that break through aren’t the most important stories, 2/

The Anti-SNARF Manifesto Most anxieties about the future are really about the present. We worry about a future where AI takes away our human agency, devalues our labor, and creates social discord.

I've been thinking a lot about the state of journalism these past months, and I always go back to the idea that even if you have the greatest content, it won't be shown on social media, because the algorithm is completely skewed to extremes. 1/
www.linkedin.com/pulse/anti-s...

🤦‍♀️

Reading about these tech geniuses descending on US government agencies to 'fix' them takes me back 2 decades to the run-up to the Iraq war.

V. good:

🧵 THREAD: Trump and Rubio have arrested the international humanitarian aid system and forced lifesaving aid programs to completely halt operations — despite an announcement earlier in the week claiming they had changed course. 1/

America’s foreign aid pause puts lives at risk Donald Trump sought disruption. He hurt America first.

America is by far the world's largest aid donor: its $68bn in spending accounts for 40% of all assistance provided by governments. Trump's abrupt cutoff of so much money hit humanitarian agencies like an earthquake. www.economist.com/united-state...

One short statement reveals: Netanyahu still accepts Hamas as Gaza's governing power ***

"Netanyahu, almost 16 months after the start of the war, is recognizing, de facto, Hamas as the governing power in Gaza... a reality he had been warned about many months ago, but refused to listen." www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

The Patriot effect: Israel’s shifting civil discourse under Netanyahu Davide Lerner explores shifting trends in the Israeli media space through the lens of Channel 14's most popular TV show.

How has Israeli media evolved during the war in Gaza?
Our Journalist Fellow Davide Lerner examined the key themes recently covered in Israel's Channel 14's flagship show to shed light on the reshaping of the country's public sphere.
Read his project
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/patriot-effe...

All in the mind? The surprising truth about brain rot Is screen use really sapping our ability to focus and lowering our IQs? The scientists who have actually analysed the data give their verdict

A rare but welcome evidence-based and nuanced exploration of tech panic - no, your smartphone/laptop is not making you stupid or 're-wiring your brain' despite endless subjective handwringing from frightened elite non-techies www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days He used the constitution to shatter the constitution.

“The big joke on democracy,” Goebbels observed, “is that it gives its mortal enemies the means to its own destruction.”

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

This chart in particular is staggering. No one in Gaza , and I mean no one, has enough access to food.

The Israel-Hamas war in maps and charts A visual guide to the conflict and its regional impact on the Middle East

These maps are super useful to put data into context. www.ft.com/content/42bb....

The Patriot effect: Israel’s shifting civil discourse under Netanyahu Davide Lerner explores shifting trends in the Israeli media space through the lens of Channel 14's most popular TV show.

"of more than 700 prime-time news items aired during the first six months of the war, only four mentioned civilian deaths in Gaza."
Israelis literally don't have access to the same news than we do.
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/patriot-effe...?

The Floods This Time: In the Mediterranean, Climate Change Is Already Here Short, heavy rainfall is typical of the Mediterranean, but nothing is typical about what has been happening there recently.

The Mediterranean region is warming 20% faster than the global average. Today, about 250 million people in Mediterranean countries reside in river basins, where flooding is more likely.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...