St. John Barned-Smith

Videos of emaciated hostages condemned as Red Cross calls for access Hamas said it would allow Red Cross access if humanitarian aid corridors were opened into Gaza.

Leaders condemn videos of emaciated hostages as Red Cross calls for access

www.bbc.com/news/article...

ICE crackdown imperils Afghans who aided U.S. war effort, lawyers say Advocates fear President Donald Trump’s ambitious deportation plan jeopardizes Afghan interpreters and other allies who worked for U.S. troops during the war.

A disgrace.

“One former interpreter for U.S. forces in Afghanistan was detained by immigration agents after he showed up for a routine green card appointment. A second was arrested just minutes after attending his first asylum hearing in San Diego.”

www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

Surfing dogs dodge big waves before huge crowd at Pacifica’s world championships More than a dozen canines competed before thousands of spectators Saturday in Pacifica’s annual World Dog Surfing Championships.

Surfing dogs dodge big waves before huge crowd at Pacifica’s world championships www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

University sidelines scientist who exposed toxic metals in Lake Maurepas The SELU scientist who discovered alarming levels of toxic chemicals in Lake Maurepas was abruptly removed from her research position without explanation.

A university scientist who discovered alarming levels of toxic chemicals in a lake in southeastern Louisiana was abruptly removed from her research position this week without explanation

I’m a serious journalist reporting on serious things 💀🦮🏄‍♂️

The Disappearance of the World’s Greatest Free Diver Natalia Molchanova excelled at one of the world’s most dangerous sports. Now she has vanished in the water.

Natalia Molchanova excelled at one of the world’s most dangerous sports. Then she vanished in the water.

The eight former nuns sit behind a grille, which separates the nuns from visitors, as they give a press conference at the Santa Clara Monastery in Beldorado, northern Spain, on July 29, 2025.

A Spanish court has ordered a group of nuns excommunicated from the Catholic Church to be expelled from their convent, according to a legal ruling viewed by AFP Friday.
u.afp.com/SM3S

The majority of traffic from Elon Musk's X may have been fake during the Super Bowl, report suggests These numbers are legitimately shocking.

"According to [cybersecurity firm] CHEQ, a whopping 75.85 percent of traffic from X to its advertising clients' websites during the weekend of the Super Bowl was fake."

mashable.com/article/x-tw...

A post from Jaju Pierogi that says "In solidarity we will also not be serving pierogi to Dershowitz."

Pierogi makers united against fascism

Virginia Giuffre’s brother: I think we were shocked by it—especially the use of the term “stolen.” Because she’s not an object. She’s a person. Someone who was recruited at Mar-a-Lago—his property… it just kind of makes us wonder… how much he knew

Thailand and Cambodia Reach Trump Trade Deals, U.S. Official Says

Incredible stuff here.

“A senior Cambodian official involved in the negotiations said he had not been informed of a deal yet. Thailand’s finance minister said that the country expected to hear within 24 hours.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/b...

Journalist Discovers Google Vulnerability That Allowed People to Disappear Specific Pages From Search Negative articles about a tech CEO vanished from Google after someone made fraudulent requests using the Refresh Outdated Content Tool.

This is extremely bad: Journalist Jack Poulson discovered a vulnerability in Google that was being exploited to get his reporting about a CEO deleted off of the search rankings.

This is a wet dream for reputation management companies, censorious regimes, etc

www.404media.co/journalist-d...

California under tsunami advisory after magnitude 8.8 quake in Russia California and the entire West Coast from Washington to the Mexico border have been placed under a tsunami advisory after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake rocked Russia. Hawaii is under a tsunami...

California under tsunami advisory after magnitude 8.8 quake in Russia www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

Well that’s not ideal

Author of Texas Abortion Ban Denies He Paid for Abortions Amid Bombshell Allegations from Former Exotic Dancer Capriglione authored Texas’ “trigger ban,” which banned abortion when Roe v. Wade was overturned. He announced he wouldn’t seek reelection.

Author of Texas Abortion Ban Denies He Paid for Abortions Amid Bombshell Allegations from Former Exotic Dancer thebarbedwire.com/2025/07/25/t...

If you look at the Epstein story through the lens of his victims and their life stories you get a story about every powerful institution in public life failing on any measure of accountability but repeatedly being outmatched by the courage of teenagers, sex workers, and runaways

Disgraced S.F. permit expediter settles city fraud case for $1.4 million This settlement stems from a 2018 lawsuit that claims Rodrigo Santos defrauded the city by submitting false plans and endangered the public by excavating under San Francisco homes without permits.

Disgraced S.F. permit expediter settles city fraud case for $1.4 million www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/r...

Texas Senate passes ‘Uvalde Strong Act,’ requiring police coordination The bill seeks to better prepare law enforcement agencies to respond to mass shootings and avoid a repeat of the 2022 massacre in Uvalde.

The #txlege this year passed the "Uvalde Strong" act, a weak-kneed, do-nothing bill mandating cops hold annual meetings to coordinate on school shootings. Now, in the special, Abbott has proposed a MUCH more consequential bill: SB 14, making records about Uvalde and most police misconduct secret.

Trump's top federal prosecutor in L.A. struggles to secure indictments in protest cases U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli has aggressively pushed for indictments in the high-profile prosecutions of people arrested during demonstrations against federal immigration actions in Southern California, le...

www.latimes.com/california/s...

Texas Official Blames Forecasts for Delayed Floods Response Models predicted a few inches of rain instead of the torrential onslaught that devastated Central Texas earlier this month, he said.

The buck stops ... somewhere over there, far away from me.

Whether it's Snowpocalypse, Uvalde, flood response, doesn't matter: The response from Texas state officials is always the Spiderman meme.

Latino tenants sued their landlord. A lawyer told them they would be 'picked up by ICE.' When a Latino tenant filed a lawsuit against a landlord and real estate agent for selling the home she was evicted from, an opposing lawyer suggested she'll likely be deported by ICE before trial.

A Latino family in L.A. sued over an illegal eviction. The landlord's lawyer, Rod Fehlman, warned in an email that they'd "likely be picked up by ICE and deported prior to trial thanks to all the good work the Trump administration has done."

The kicker? Every member of the family is a U.S. citizen.

A New Era for WIRED—That Starts With You As of today, there are even more ways to enjoy WIRED’s journalism, including premium newsletters and livestream Q&As. Join us.

Wired rules. Just an incredible group of journalists who are completely meeting the moment. And you can subscribe for $2 a month, which is insane www.wired.com/story/a-new-...

The longer I've been a journalist, the more I feel disillusioned by the capacity of journalism to mislead through a false pretense at objectivity--effectively platforming unhinged views or whitewashing such views in the name of being "fair and balanced"

Mike Johnson on canceling Congress until September: "We're not going to play political games with [Epstein]"

Popular S.F. teacher and coach brutally attacked and robbed while visiting Italy The 29-year-old calls his survival a “miracle” after his throat was slashed during a robbery on a train outside Milan.

Popular S.F. teacher and coach brutally attacked and robbed while visiting Italy www.sfchronicle.com/crime/articl...

Journalists: Requesting Public Records for Criminal Justice Stories Use these tips from investigative reporter Alysia Santo to map out the systems you must unlock to get the documents you need.

"Journalists: How to Get Records the Criminal Justice System Doesn’t Want You to Have"

To paraphrase Orwell (bc I'm too lazy to look the quote up), journalism is printing things people in power don't want you to print. Everything else is public relations.

The Texas Ethics Commission seems to have taken officeholders Personal Financial Statements offline and you now have to ask for them with an open records request.

The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy—like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair. The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” In an interview with the Journal on Tuesday evening, Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said.

The WSJ story is out.

“Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

These senators have all abdicated their solemn responsibility of being advocates and representatives for the people and it fucking shows. Also how the media has consistently failed FOR MORE THAN A DECADE to explain the purpose of CPB is one of my biggest pet peeves in life.