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What Does a Sunk Swedish Galleon Teach Us About the Perils of Ignoring Science? (Maria) 

The author writes, “The light afternoon breeze barely ruffled the Vasa’s sails as it glided out of Stockholm harbor for its maiden voyage in August 1628. With its high stern emblazoned with a gilded coat of arms, carvings and an extraordinary second gun deck, the new flagship for King Gustav’s war against Poland dazzled the cheering crowd. Two miles into the harbour, a brisk wind caught the sails.The Vasa keeled over and sank…It is now in a purpose-built museum in Stockholm where some 45 million visitors have ogled the magnificent galleon and pondered a lesson dredged from history: the perils of ignoring science.”

​​Notorious Louisiana Prison Was Chosen for Immigrant Detainees To Urge Self-Deportation, Noem Says  (Reader Steve)

From AP News: “Gov. Jeff Landry said he expects the building to be filled to capacity, expecting over 400 people to come in ensuing months as President Donald Trump continues his large-scale attempt to remove millions of people suspected of entering the country illegally. At the prison entrance a sign reads: ‘You are entering the land of new beginnings.’ The dirt road to the new ICE facility meanders past lofty oak trees, green fields and other buildings — including a white church and a structure with a sign that said, ‘Angola Shake Down Team.’ The facility is surrounded by a fence with five rows of stacked barbed wire. Overlooking the outdoor area is a tower, where a guard paced back and forth.”

Meta Opens Floodgates for AI-Generated Accounts on Facebook, Instagram (Sean) 

The author writes, “Meta’s rules state that AI-generated content should be labelled clearly on all of its platforms. Yet even with the labels, many are troubled by the potential risks: using deepfakes and artificial chatbots as a source of disinformation, relationship deceit, fraud…or worse. A lawsuit claims that a 14-year-old boy committed suicide due to generative AI, according to various reports. GenAI models are prone to misinformation. Could an influx of human-looking AI accounts expose users to harmful, inaccurate or violent posts?”

What Ghislaine Maxwell Told the Justice Department (Bethany)

From The New Yorker: “The Justice Department had once argued that Maxwell should be sentenced to at least thirty years in prison. Now its second-ranking official, who had been Trump’s criminal-defense lawyer, was aligned with a woman whose crimes the department had condemned as “monstrous.” Interrogator and witness shared the same goal—they were both there to make Trump happy—and their exchange reflected this arrangement.”

Alarm After FBI Arrests US Army Veteran for ‘Conspiracy’ Over Protest Against ICE (DonkeyHotey) 

The author writes, “Legal experts say the conspiracy charges against Mavalwalla underscore the lengths the Trump administration will go to quash protests against ICE, giving the immigration agency a free hand as it steps up raids, adds agents and seeks to achieve the president’s goal of 3,000 deportations per day. So far, the Trump administration has primarily charged demonstrators for assault and obstruction, acts that typically involve a victim and an assailant. But a federal conspiracy charge is a crime of intent. In this case, prosecutors would just have to prove that defendants agreed in concert to impede or injure an officer.”

‘Landmines Have Become the Greatest Protectors’: How Wildlife Is Thriving in the Korean DMZ (Laura) 

From The Guardian: “Stretching 155 miles across the peninsula and 2.4 miles wide, the DMZ is anything but demilitarised. It remains one of the world’s most heavily fortified borders, strewn with landmines and flanked by military installations on both sides. Yet, in the 72 years since the war ended, this forbidden strip has become an accidental ecological paradise. South Korea’s National Institute of Ecology has documented nearly 6,000 species here, including more than 100 endangered species – representing more than a third of South Korea’s threatened wildlife.”