PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.
|
Listen To This Story
 |
‘No Other Option:’ Signal Blocks Microsoft Windows 11 Recall AI Tool (Maria)
The author writes: “Signal Messenger is warning the users of its Windows Desktop version that the privacy of their messages is under threat by Recall, the AI tool rolling out in Windows 11 that will screenshot, index and store almost everything a user does every three seconds. Effective immediately, Signal for Windows will by default block the ability of Windows to screenshot the app.”
‘Reeking Corruption’: 16 Senate Dems Join Republicans to Advance Trump Bill (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “Despite concerns that it does not address U.S. President Donald Trump’s ties to the crypto industry, 16 Democrats in the Senate voted with most Republicans on Monday to advance a bill that creates a regulatory framework for stablecoins, digital assets whose value is tied to traditional currency, such as the U.S. dollar, or a commodity like gold.”
Against a Defiant White House, the Courts Should Use This Powerful Tool (Gerry)
From The Washington Post: “The American experiment is driven by three branches of government. In this unprecedented moment, one of those engines has flamed out (looking at you, Congress), and another is barely sputtering (hello, executive). But there’s more power in the third than we realize. Though Alexander Hamilton called the judiciary the ‘least dangerous’ branch, the courts’ centuries-old civil contempt authority makes it plenty mighty when it wants to be.”
The Big Takeover: The Secret Plans to Give Trump Command of America’s Police (Dana)
From the Phoenix News Times and Cochise Regional News: “Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, his administration has ruthlessly prosecuted his promises of mass deportations. … Trump has done much of this in defiance of the judiciary, while claiming an amount of executive power previously unseen in American history. … These anti-immigrant measures echo a plan that was meticulously crafted, out of public view, over at least the year preceding this Trump presidency. The purpose of that plan is to drastically restructure domestic law enforcement under the command of the president. The president would then have the machinery to target immigrants en masse and to crack down on those who oppose him.”
Village of Dolton Plans to Take Ownership of Pope Leo XIV’s Childhood Home (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “The Village of Dolton plans to take ownership of Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home through eminent domain. Despite the current owner’s plans to sell the home to the highest bidder in an auction next month, the village ‘intends to purchase the home either through direct purchase or through eminent domain powers,’ village attorney Burton Odelson wrote in a letter Tuesday. The pope’s parents purchased the home, at 212 E. 141st Place, new in 1949, paying a $42 monthly mortgage. The current owners purchased the home intending to flip it and sell it. They renovated the home last year and on May 5, put it on the market, listing it for $219,000.”
‘A Cemetery of Trees’: Vast Green Expanses Turned to Dust as Loggers Plunder South America’s Gran Chaco (Laura)
The author writes, “The Gran Chaco is South America’s second-largest forest after the Amazon; its 100m hectares (247m acres) stretch across Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Bolivia. It is also one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world — host to more than 3,400 species of plants, 500 birds, 150 mammals, 120 reptiles and 100 amphibians. But as agricultural and logging industries have encroached on the territory, it has also become one of the most deforested places on Earth.”
New ‘Superdiffusion’ Proof Probes the Mysterious Math of Turbulence (Sean)
From Quanta Magazine: “Turbulence is a notoriously difficult phenomenon to study. Mathematicians are now starting to untangle it at its smallest scales.”
