Source: Quillette
by Michael Morgenstern
“What happens when human manipulation arrives at its Claude Mythos moment?” (04/14/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/04/15/move-37-and-the-coming-mindhack-claude-mythos-anthropic-ai/
Source: Reuters
“A Milan court on Tuesday accepted a class action brought by a consumer group against Meta Platforms over the theft of personal data suffered by Facebook Italy. According to the court order, the data scraping incident, which took place between January 2018 and September 2019 and was disclosed by Meta in 2021, affected around 533 million Facebook users globally. The CTCU consumer association is seeking compensation on behalf of social media users who lost, or feared losing, control over their personal data in breach of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).” (04/14/26)
Source: Cato Institute
“Who Actually Pays Federal Taxes?” (04/14/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/who-actually-pays-federal-taxes
Source: The Hill
by Ryan Ellis
“It’s tax time, and talk of budget reconciliation is in the air on Capitol Hill. There is no better time than now to tackle one of the more bizarre features of our tax code: a phantom capital gains tax on mutual fund savers. Most taxpayers assume confusing tax rules have at least one constant: that capital gains tax is only owed when an asset is sold. If only that were true. Each year at this time, millions of Americans open their brokerage statements and find capital gains reported in Box 2a of their 1099 tax forms, despite never having sold a single share of stock or a mutual fund.” (04/14/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/5828953-phantom-capital-gains-tax/
Source: TomDispatch
by Douglas H White
“I was born in the American South in 1942 ‘in the land of the free and the home of the brave’ (as the final stanza of the national anthem puts it). Francis Scott Key wrote those words in 1814. However, they were not true then, or in 1942, or today in Donald Trump’s all too reactionary America. My Blackness consigned obstacles to me (as it would have in 1814 and 1942) that White people simply don’t have. Let me explain. Throughout the 1950s, living in a segregated project in Kinston, North Carolina, there were several odd characters who (I now understand) were mentally ill.” (04/14/26)
Source: UnHerd
by Anonymous Seafarer
“I have worked on board tankers for almost 20 years, which means that difficult situations are nothing new. I’ve encountered difficult captains, old vessels, and truly exhausting voyages across incredible distances. I’ve experienced bullying and harassment, and even been uncomfortably close to piracy. At a port in Nigeria, I once loaded a tanker while pirates raided ships within miles of us; and I passed through the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, in 2008, when its security corridor was in its infancy. As we sailed, my crewmates and I could see the pirate skiffs prowling, waiting for a ship to hijack. But the Strait of Hormuz crisis is something else entirely.” (04/14/26)
Source: SFGate
“Pope Leo XIV arrived Wednesday in the central African nation of Cameroon with a message of peace for its separatist region and for talks with President Paul Biya, the 93-year-old leader whose grip on power was extended for an eighth term in a widely disputed election last year. Cheering Cameroonians lined the road into the capital Yaounde from the airport, two and three deep in places, dancing and waving palm fronds as the pope’s motorcade whizzed by. Many women dressed in identical bright dresses and stood behind banners announcing the name of their parish, while billboards splashed posters of the pope and Biya under the banner ‘Land of Hope.’ The Vatican says fighting corruption in the mineral-rich country and insisting on the correct uses of political authority are expected to be themes of Leo’s visit. Leo was traveling from Algeria, the first stop on his four-nation Africa tour.” (04/15/26)
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Eric Swalwell’s Dramatic Fall from Grace (with Juliegrace Brufke).” (04/14/26)
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/eric-swalwells-dramatic-fall-from
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“In the guise of investigating ‘potentially unlawful advertiser boycotts,’ the commission is punishing the organization for its views.” (04/14/26)
Source: In These Times
by Meghan Schneider & Cass DiPaola
“Our dependence on fossil fuels does more than pollute our air. It destabilizes the world and empowers the ultra-wealthy to profit off of that volatility, leaving working families to pay the price. This dynamic has been on full display since President Trump’s attack on Iran. Trump’s invasion of one of the world’s most oil-rich regions jolted energy markets, sending gas prices soaring to the highest level in either of his terms. In 2024 he campaigned on cutting them in half. Instead, Americans are now on track to pay roughly $720 more for gasoline this year. The full cost to working families will be much steeper as high gas prices drive up prices on consumer goods across the board.” [editor’s note: And additional taxes will drive those prices even higher, geniuses – TLK] (04/14/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/corporations-iran-war-trump-hormuz