“A Philippine court on Thursday convicted a journalist on charges of financing terrorism and sentenced her to more than a decade in prison, in a ruling that rights and press groups said was a blatant attack on press freedom. The Regional Trial Court in Tacloban City gave the journalist, Frenchie Mae Cumpio, and her former roommate Marielle Dumaquil a jail sentence of 12 to 18 years, the maximum allowed. But the women, who have been in prison since they were arrested in 2020, were acquitted of charges of possessing firearms and explosives. … The authorities said [Cumpio’s] coverage of the community and local politics was biased in favor of communist insurgents, who have long had a presence in the region. She was convicted of being a conduit for funds for the rebels.” (01/22/26)
“A federal jury on Thursday found Walmart negligent for selling a shotgun used in a suicide and awarded the family of the victim — who worked at the store — millions in damages. The verdict followed a 10-day civil trial in Maryland that focused on communications among employees inside a Walmart store 45 miles south of Washington. The family of the 23-year-old who took his life, Jacob Mace, said store managers knew Mace was suicidal and did nothing to ensure that he couldn’t buy a gun from the store. Walmart argued that the managers didn’t know Mace’s intentions and that he legally bought the gun after clearing a federal background check.” [editor’s note: If the guy wanted to kill himself, how is Walmart responsible? Does his family claim he was their property? – TLK] (01/22/26)
“The Trump predation does not mark a departure from Western history; it signals the end of its traditional justifications. For centuries, Western ruling elites relied on intricate theological and philosophical frameworks to justify predation—the taking of foreign resources through force, deception, or coercion. During President Donald Trump’s tenure, these frameworks are no longer necessary. Predation persists, but its rhetorical disguise has been stripped away. What remains is the U.S. asymmetric power advantage, openly asserting itself against weaker targets like Venezuela, while remaining cautious around stronger foes like China. To understand Trump’s predatory stance toward Venezuela, Greenland, and possibly other targets, one must resist the urge to see it as abnormal.” (01/22/26)
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Corynne McSherry & Rory Mir
“In the Netflix/Spotify/Amazon era, many of us access copyrighted works purely in digital form – and that means we rarely have the chance to buy them. Instead, we are stuck renting them, subject to all kinds of terms and conditions. And because the content is digital, reselling it, lending it, even preserving it for your own use inevitably requires copying. Unfortunately, when it comes to copying digital media, US copyright law has pretty much lost the plot.” (01/22/26)
“Trump has this bizarrely durable ability to win by losing. He can be so appalling in his behavior, so simultaneously aggressive and craven, demanding to get his way in everything one minute then desperate for a deal — any deal — the next that one might easily forget whether he’s actually achieved any objectives at all in substantive terms. More often than not he does nothing but set his own declared aims back — and yet his domestic opponents, trying to block him as he lunges about, often wind up in such contorted positions themselves that with the next lunge he can push them over.” (01/22/26)
“Ursula von der Leyen comfortably survived a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament on Thursday. A large majority of members of the European Parliament backed the center-right European Commission president in a confidence motion brought by the far-right Patriots for Europe group. Of the 720 EU lawmakers, 565 showed up to vote. Only 165 backed toppling the Commission, with 390 voting against and 10 abstaining. Von der Leyen was not in Strasbourg for the vote. The motion’s proponents argued that von der Leyen and her team of commissioners should be dismissed over their handling of the EU–Mercosur trade deal, which they claim undermines European farmers by opening up the European market to unfair competition.” (01/22/26)
“Popular historian Joseph J. Ellis’s latest book, The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding, examines the persistence of slavery in the wake of the American Founding and the American Revolution’s impact on American Indians. Expulsion of the British from the Thirteen Colonies and John Jay’s diplomatic masterstroke yielding the Mississippi River rather than the Appalachian Mountains as America’s western boundary would have effects on blacks, Indians and ultimately the American Union that no one could have foreseen. This is what Ellis considers ‘the tragic side of the American Founding.’ What is new about Ellis’s telling of this tale is that he apportions responsibility differently than has become customary in recent years.” (01/22/26)
“Amazon is planning a second round of job cuts next week as part of its broader goal of trimming some 30,000 corporate workers, according to two people familiar with the matter. The company in October cut some 14,000 white-collar jobs, about half of the 30,000 target first reported by Reuters. The total this time is expected to be roughly the same as last year and could begin as soon as Tuesday, the people said, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss Amazon’s plans. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.” (01/22/26)
