- In addition to the surviving hostages they have released, Hamas has released the bodies of 10 others, but say that they'll need specialized equipment to recover the rest due to them being buried in rubble. The Israelis also claim that one of the bodies they returned was not one of the hostages. Hamas also accuses Israel of violating the ceasefire by killing at least 24 people since Friday. It's almost as if Netanyahu doesn't really want the ceasefire to last (not that Hamas likely does either).
- The US Supreme Court is hearing a legal challenge to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which limits states' ability to gerrymander based on race. Not surprisingly, it is widely expected that the court will rule in favour of the challenge. The potential impact of this is hard to overstate - in parts of the country the Democrats could be virtually shut out. On the other hand, some are pointing out that blue states could play the same game. This could conceivably work in the Democrats' favour - but at a cost of reducing the diversity of Congress overall. Ultimately, though, I think that debate is pretty much academic - I don't see any scenario in which next year's midterms are sufficiently free and fair for the Dems to have any real chance of regaining control of either house of Congress no matter what some blue states try. Heck, I'm not 100% certain if there will be any midterms. I'd like to be proven wrong on that; I guess we'll know in just over a year.
- As of next month, the most populous and wealthiest US state will no longer be using coal to generate electricity. Some of this capacity is being replaced by natural gas, and some by hydrogen of unspecified origin (note that a lot of hydrogen is produced using carbon-heavy techniques), but a lot of it is because of huge improvements in renewables. California is also the first state to prohibit the use of AI to replicate real people. And Hollywood is having second thoughts about the technology given its implications for their intellectual property.
- Nearly every news media outlet in the US has refused to agree to new rules set by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, despite being told that they will have to turn in their Pentagon press passes if they don't sign on. This includes not only those you'd expect such as the New York Times, CNN, and NBC but also rightwing outlets like Fox News and Newsmax; only the One America News Network agreed. The rules prohibit reporters working at the Pentagon from using any "unauthorized" material for their work, even if it is not classified material.
The Centers for Disease Control has lost some 25% of its workforce to the Trump regime's purges. Damage from a loss of expertise like that could take decades to repair, if ever.
- The antivaxxer, far-right activist, and multiple times failed political candidate Patrick Allard has lost his defamation suit against the Manitoba NDP. Allard had sued after the party described him as someone who spouts "racist rhetoric" during the 2022 byelection campaign in Fort Whyte. The judge acknowledged that the statements the NDP was referring to were sufficiently vague to have some plausible deniability, but concluded that the doctrine of "qualified privilege" applies here. The judge also noted that Allard had breached a court rule by leaking texts that had surfaced during the trial to the Winnipeg Sun.
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