Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Thorin Klosowski

“The Financial Times reports that the U.K. is once again demanding that Apple create a backdoor into its encrypted backup services. The only change since the last time they demanded this is that the order is allegedly limited to only apply to British users. That doesn’t make it any better. The demand uses a power called a ‘Technical Capability Notice’ (TCN) in the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Act. At the time of its signing we noted this law would likely be used to demand Apple spy on its users. After the U.K. government first issued the TCN in January, Apple was forced to either create a backdoor or block its Advanced Data Protection feature — which turns on end-to-end encryption for iCloud — for all U.K. users. The company decided to remove the feature in the U.K. instead of creating the backdoor.” (10/01/25)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/uk-still-trying-backdoor-encryption-apple-users

Source: Reason
by Christian Britschgi

“The consistent rhetoric around government shutdowns, even if the parties and issues are reversed, betrays a common view of Congress’ role in our constitutional design: Lawmakers should shut up and fund the government. When they don’t do that, and the government shuts down, they’ve failed to do their job. This view couldn’t be more backwards about how our constitutional scheme, with its separate branches, divided powers, and limits on the power of the executive and majority parties, is supposed to work. The whole reason for Congress having the power of the purse and holding regular votes on how much money to give the president to spend is to give it the opportunity to say no sometimes.” (10/02/25)

https://reason.com/2025/10/01/government-shutdowns-are-an-example-of-congress-doing-its-job/

Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander

“There’s a joke about three mathematicians who spot a black cow on a train ride through Scotland. One of them says ‘I see the cows in Scotland are black.’ The second objects ‘Technically, we only know that there is one black cow in Scotland.’ The third objects ‘Technically, we only know that there is one cow in Scotland, at least one side of which is black.’ This is the level of paranoia we should deploy against claims of ‘over a hundred and fifty eyewitnesses.’ Technically, we only know that there’s a book containing the sentence ‘there were over a hundred and fifty eyewitnesses!’ (technically, you just know that Astral Codex Ten says there’s a book containing the sentence ‘there were over a hundred fifty eyewitnesses.’)” (10/01/25)

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-fatima-sun-miracle-much-more

Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen

“We have seen enough Donald Trump–branded consumer pitches (Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, Trump Airlines, Trump Watches) to know that the quality of the service is less important than giving the impression of something legitimate. That’s the spirit with which we should approach TrumpRx, an alleged website where Medicaid patients can purchase low-cost prescription drugs. At a Tuesday press conference, Trump announced a TrumpRx.gov website set to launch in early 2026, with characteristically few details. There is no language about TrumpRx at the Department of Health and Human Services or its agencies, only a fact sheet at Whitehouse.gov. The only indication of what drugs will be available is vague language about ‘a large majority’ of primary care treatments and ‘some select specialty brands.’ The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced a voluntary agreement to supply drugs for the website, but that agreement, Pfizer said, will be kept secret.” (10/02/25)

https://prospect.org/health/2025-10-02-trumprx-pretend-solution-high-drug-prices/