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Revenge Quitting: Why Workers Are Ditching Their Jobs (Maria)

The author writes, “A new generation of workers leaving their jobs with viral aplomb. The phenomenon of revenge quitting, where frustrated or unhappy employees show how they really feel about their workplaces, is on the rise. … The employer-rating site Glassdoor warned late last year that ‘a wave of revenge quitting [is] on the horizon’ in 2025 amid falling employee satisfaction.”

Grand Designs: The Loss of American Freedom (DonkeyHotey)

The author writes, “Exactly seven months into Trump’s second term, we have reached 1000 authoritarian actions. Here I lay out the enormity of what has happened.”

Colleges See Significant Drop In International Students as Fall Semester Begins (Dana)

From NPR: “Over the last six months the Trump Administration has clamped down on international student visas, temporarily pausing and then revamping the student visa interview process and bringing more scrutiny to the vetting system. That led to long delays and meant many accepted students couldn’t get appointments at embassies or consulates in time for the start of the fall semester. … Last year more than a million international students studied in the US, contributing about $43 billion into the U.S. economy. But [the Association of International Educators] predicts a drop of about 150,000 new international students this fall, leading to a decline of about 15% overall. If that happens, local economies could lose as much as $7 billion in spending and more than 60,000 jobs.”

Pentagon Document: US Wants to ‘Suppress Dissenting Arguments’ Using AI Propaganda (Sean)

From The Intercept: “The United States hopes to use machine learning to create and distribute propaganda overseas in a bid to ‘influence foreign target audiences’ and ‘suppress dissenting arguments,’ according to a U.S. Special Operations Command document reviewed by The Intercept. The document, a sort of special operations wishlist of near-future military technology, reveals new details about a broad variety of capabilities that SOCOM hopes to purchase within the next five to seven years, including state-of-the-art cameras, sensors, directed energy weapons, and other gadgets to help operators find and kill their quarry. Among the tech it wants to procure is machine-learning software that can be used for information warfare.”

How Can England Possibly Be Running Out of Water? (Laura)

From The Guardian: “During the drought of 2022, London came perilously close to running out of water. Water companies and the government prayed desperately for rain as reservoirs ran low and the groundwater was slowly drained off. Contingency plans were drafted to ban businesses from using water; hotel swimming pools would have been drained, ponds allowed to dry up, offices to go uncleaned. If the lack of rainfall had continued for another year, it was possible that taps could have run dry. That, however, was just a taster of what could come down the line. On Tuesday, the government announced a ‘nationally significant’ water shortage in England, which means the whole country is at risk of running out if the dry weather continues.”

Ancient DNA Finally Solves the Mystery of the World’s First Pandemic (Mili)

The author writes, “Scientists have finally uncovered direct genetic evidence of Yersinia pestis — the bacterium behind the Plague of Justinian — in a mass grave in Jerash, Jordan. This long-sought discovery resolves a centuries-old debate, confirming that the plague that devastated the Byzantine Empire truly was caused by the same pathogen behind later outbreaks like the Black Death.”