Friday, July 31, 2026
Record renter-owner wealth gap leaves many priced out : NPR
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/30/nx-s1-5910711/renter-owner-wealth-gap
A quarter of young Africans believe USAID cuts could be positive, survey finds
Mortgage rates hit a one-year high : NPR
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/30/nx-s1-5913851/mortgage-rates-one-year-high-july-2026
US borrowing costs hit 19-year high as Fed holds interest rates
Russia accused of violating Polish airspace after missile explodes near village
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/30/ukraine-russia-missile-strikes-attack-kyiv
Detroit invests millions to get families into permanent housing
Two more federal appeals courts reject ICE mass detention policy - POLITICO
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/30/ninth-circuit-ice-detention
Freedom 250 seeks $10 million more for July Fourth celebrations : NPR
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/30/nx-s1-5913172/freedom-250-july-fourth-10-million
Students created AI rules they hope schools will adopt : NPR
"There's nothing that says students need to be proficient before using it," Herrera told her subcommittee colleagues. "It's basically saying they can use it whenever. Which I think is a misuse of it."
Her subcommittee's proposed solution: require schools to teach AI literacy as soon as devices are introduced in the classroom, including misinformation, plagiarism, bias in AI design, student privacy, appropriate academic use and AI's environmental impact...
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/30/nx-s1-5853571/students-set-ai-policy
US launches fresh strikes on Iran after days-long pause, amid fears the war is widening
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/30/us-strikes-iran-war-widening-iraq
Where do primary candidates stand on issues? (Michigan Governor race)
Invasive mile-a-minute weed confirmed in Jackson County
Senate education committee blocks parts of Trump’s Education Department breakup - Live Updates - POLITICO
Republican disenfranchisement bid drives Black voters to polls, study finds
A new analysis of Black voters in the south indicates that Republican attempts to dilute their political power is driving them to the polls in larger numbers and shifting their counties further left.
After the supreme court effectively gutted section 2 of the Voting Rights Act protections in late April, Republican legislatures across the south rapidly pushed to disenfranchise Black voters by redrawing congressional maps. Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama all immediately worked to pass new maps, while the Mississippi governor has said that he wants legislators to redraw maps before the upcoming midterm elections...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/30/black-voters-south-republican-maps
Thursday, July 30, 2026
US joins forces with Saudis to strike Tehran-backed militias in Iraq
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/29/iran-missile-attack-us-base-forces
Finance Democrats say they'll demand vote on Trump audit immunity - Live Updates - POLITICO
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/07/29/congress/trump-audit-immunity-vote-01015286
Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment in Rand Paul Senate hearing : NPR
A spokesperson for Fauci sent a document fact-checking Paul's claims and a letter written by Fauci's legal team to Paul last month. In that letter, Fauci's lawyers wrote Paul was waging a "years-long public crusade" against Fauci.
"You are single-mindedly fixating on seeing Dr. Fauci prosecuted for imaginary crimes, and you are so invested in that outcome that you have created a personal brand around it," says the letter, which NPR reviewed…
California’s largest ICE facility neglected detainees’ medical needs, monitor finds
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/28/california-ice-detention-healthcare-violation
Republicans start pondering another debt limit hike as midterms loom - Live Updates - POLITICO
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/07/29/congress/debt-limit-reconciliation-01015197
US bans humanoid robots from China, citing ‘unacceptable risks’
“Advanced robotic devices collect data that could be leveraged by malign actors to surveil Americans, enhance the capabilities of foreign intelligence services, or to remotely commandeer the robots,” FCC officials wrote in their determination of the threat posed by robots.
In addition to the humanoid robots, the FCC also barred connected power inverters, which enable renewable energy sources and batteries to connect to grids and datacenter equipment.
The restrictions point to the Trump administration’s goal of elevating technology made in the US, along with driving firms to shift manufacturing to be done locally...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/28/fcc-ban-humanoid-robots-china
Trump reportedly pushing RFK Jr to cut vaccines more aggressively
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/28/trump-rfk-jr-cutting-vaccines
Divided Fed holds interest rates steady : NPR
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/29/nx-s1-5910558/federal-reserve-interest-rates-inflation
More Americans are going bankrupt. What does that mean? : NPR
Experts say this shows that a growing number of Americans have reached the point where the pressure of their debt has overcome the stigma of bankruptcy.
"It's telling us that consumers are having a harder time coping with their financial obligations," said Sasha Indarte, a professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School...
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/29/nx-s1-5896065/personal-bankruptcy-rates-rising
Trump announces $22bn plan to rebuild Dulles international airport
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/29/trump-dulles-airport-22-billion-dollar-plan
Several US schools to install pepper-spraying drones to respond to school shootings
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/jul/28/school-shootings-pepper-spray-drones
Anthony Fauci’s high-profile Senate hearing: what we learned
Canceling grants based on political priorities, trialled at the National Institutes of Health in 2025, are now the basis of a proposed rule that would bring the $1tn entire federal grant-making apparatus under the control of political appointees.
Wednesday’s hearing was another example of how criticizing scientists has become an important outlet for the party – and where relitigating the Covid crisis justifies skepticism of a broad range of science.
“For the past 18 months, the Trump administration has been engaged in a campaign to rewrite this history,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat of Connecticut, about the darkest days of the pandemic, when hospitals overflowed and researchers worked on hyper-speed to understand the virus. “Today’s proceeding, I fear, is part of that effort.”…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/29/anthony-fauci-senate-covid-hearing-takeaways
US-Saudi strikes in Iraq push region into ‘uncharted territory’, analysts warn
Trump administration needs to stop ‘public harassment’ of Fauci and scientists, open letter says
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/28/trump-administration-fauci-scientists
The Great Lakes’ most emblematic fish could be consigned to history books
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/29/lake-whitefish-great-lakes-invasive-mussels
Anthony Fauci to face grilling from Senate Republicans on Covid pandemic
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/29/anthony-fauci-senate-hearing-covid
Trump overrode his own agencies to deny four Democratic disaster requests - POLITICO
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/29/fema-democratic-disaster-requests-trump-01013938
The professor facing prison in ‘antifa’ case: ‘They want to scare all who oppose ICE’
Davis, the government says, has attended and facilitated meetings about protests and discussed his “anti-authoritarian” ideology with other activists. He is not accused of violent acts, taking any specific actions at protests nor having any encounters with ICE agents.
He is facing six years in prison.
“It’s petty revenge,” Davis said. “They’re trying to portray being part of a community as an illegal conspiratorial act.”…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jul/28/ice-protests-antifa-minnesota?
God Is A Bedtime Story - Jun 11 (Jon Cohen, Unconvinced on YouTube)
Time to stop believing in magic.
Come and discuss!
Timestamps
00:05:30 – Rimas – Argues that religion is more dangerous than a bedtime story because children are taught myths as reality, sharing examples from Islamic schooling where science and religious claims directly conflicted.00:11:08 – Jack – After audio glitches, atheist caller asks about divine command theory; the hosts explain why God’s commands would still be subjective preferences and cut the technical friendly discussion short.
00:19:13 – Leaf – Says God is more like a horror story than a bedtime story, leading to discussion of children’s credulity, religious fear, and why indoctrination depends on teaching stories as fact.
00:33:02 – David – Challenges the bedtime-story framing, asks about agnostic atheism versus atheism, then debates God as tradition, definitions, burden of proof, and fine-tuning/design arguments.
00:58:43 – Dr. Digg – Noticed in the queue after David’s call, but missed before joining; the hosts invite her to try again later.
00:59:14 – Jerbear – Asks about The Satanic Temple; discussion covers secular pushback against religious power, Baphomet displays, religious freedom versus religious preference, and trolling religion through equal access.
01:05:11 – Six Spiritual Six Scribe Six – Challenges the claim that atheism is the default by describing early memories of a spiritual connection; the hosts discuss false memories, child development, born-atheist language, imagination, and testing ideas against reality.
01:20:48 – T – Briefly joins to point out the Pigeon Lady fundraiser link is in Discord, joke about John being an AI/cyborg, and help with stream logistics.
01:24:56 – Austin – Offers a taste analogy for subjective morality, arguing that rejecting objective morality does not make harm arbitrary; the hosts discuss shared values, wellbeing, empathy, and evaluating actions within chosen goals.
01:41:29 – Matthew – Returns to discuss theist claims that God grounds objective morality and how morality, God’s nature, free will, heaven, and “because God says so” fail to escape deeper problems.
01:52:59 – Nicholas – Initial audio attempt fails, then he reconnects to explore a non-tri-omni God, divine subjective morality, hell as coercion, and whether weakening God’s properties makes the concept any more useful.
02:13:26 – Too Skinny To Be Fat – Discusses deconstruction and a worried Christian mother; the hosts advise boundaries, love, therapy, and accepting that some family religious differences may remain unresolved.
02:21:50 – Pigeon Fluff / Darvi – Introduces herself as the Pigeon Lady, thanks the community for fundraiser support, defends pigeons, and shares that reading the Bible as a Christian-raised child helped make her an atheist.
02:26:19 – Mikhail – Muslim-raised caller deconstructing his faith asks why the channel focuses on belief being involuntary; discussion covers willful denial, genuine disbelief, religious guilt, repeated debate topics, and objective morality.
02:43:41 – Aether – First attempt to reconnect fails due to audio/video problems.
02:45:29 – Aether (return 2) – Discusses hell, annihilationism, resistant versus non-resistant nonbelievers, proportional punishment, mortal sin, church doctrine, and whether “resistant” nonbelief really deserves annihilation.
03:05:42 – Greg – Starts with evolution and religious demographics, then slides into Muslim/white-population conspiracy claims; the hosts distinguish genetics from culture and end the call over racist framing.
03:30:46 – Mullers – First TikTok attempt fails when the platform cannot bring him in.
03:31:31 – Kelly Weber – Responds to Greg by discussing religion, high birth rates, cultural reproduction, and indoctrination without turning demographic concern into racism.
03:37:12 – Mullers – Asks what “God is a bedtime story” means, then discusses symbolism, Jesus’ message, inner voices, morality without God, humanism, and why symbolic readings do not make religious claims true.
04:12:30 – Steph – Briefly thanks the hosts and raises concern about chat moderation during bigotry call-outs; the hosts suggest handling mod criticism by DM and acknowledge how difficult moderation is.
04:16:11 – DMC – Debates materialism, consciousness, free will, objective morality, divine purpose, the God of Israel, suffering, skin cancer, and the “seesaw” problem for God’s goodness and power.
04:51:46 – Esspresso Jack – Responds to Greg by explaining white nationalist/replacement-theory signals, racist misuse of statistics, and the difference between social causes and racial explanations.
04:56:34 – PVG – Briefly notes that Scientific Snitch/Ella was in the queue and recommends her and Dr. Digg as strong science voices on race, biology, and pseudoscience.
04:59:33 – Dang the Host Does Exist – First attempt fails because the mic/audio does not work.
05:00:09 – David Timson / Tim Davidson – Friendly caller reveals he is Tim Davidson from chat, thanks the hosts, jokes about his bad-joke lineage and M’s distinctive voice, and praises the community.
05:05:04 – Dang the Host Does Exist (return 2) – Christian caller argues God must be good and eternal, then debates omniscience, omnipotence, young-earth creationism, Genesis, Exodus archaeology, Noah’s Ark, and whether biblical myths undermine Bible-based claims.
05:47:27 – Kradrol – LDS caller says God would be a terrible bedtime story, agrees atheists are rational without personal experience, explains reliance on testimony and Book of Mormon claims, and outlines an LDS afterlife as teaching/reeducation rather than torture.
05:55:12 – Rasol – Challenges the bedtime-story metaphor as unjustified; discussion turns to Bible mythology, talking donkeys, magic, whether mythic stories justify skepticism, and ends in a hostile crash-out.
06:12:05 – Marquise GT – Questions calling biblical miracles “magic” when modern technology can also seem amazing; the hosts distinguish explainable technology from miracle claims and discuss coincidence, miracles, and biblical magic.
06:28:21 – Anna Banana – Brought in from TikTok, but appears to have joined accidentally and does not respond before being dropped.
06:29:00 – Shorebag – Questions how confidently the hosts reject biblical miracles, then discusses certainty, evidence, teleportation, alien-tech possibilities, mockery, tone, anger, and the distinction between miracles and magic.
06:54:39 – Gohan – Returns to discuss natural evil, fine-tuning, earthquakes, tsunamis, childhood suffering, God’s power, logical possibility, and why the hosts think fine-tuning does not solve the problem of evil.
07:26:37 – K – Challenges the implication that God is fictional, asks about evidence and probability, then tries to present a composition/essence argument before the hosts end it due to time and complexity.
Interview:
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Americans feel pinch of continued Iran war: ‘It’s screwed everything up’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/28/us-iran-war-cost-of-living
Senate Democrats announce $40M ground game spend in 10 battlegrounds - Live Updates - POLITICO
Federal Judges Criticize Trump’s Justice Department for “Unethical” Conduct — ProPublica
https://www.propublica.org/article/justice-department-presumption-of-regularity
Trump administration forced treatment on hunger striker in ICE detention, document reveals
‘A disaster for America First’: Trump allies fear Netanyahu meeting will pull US deeper into war with Iran - POLITICO
“I think all of President Trump’s most ardent non-‘Israel First’ supporters are furious,” said former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. “Netanyahu has had twice as many visits to the White House in 18 months as Churchill had in all of World War II — with every one of them a disaster for America First.”…
“Netanyahu is going to argue for the essential logic of escalation, which — if Trump is not willing to give the [memorandum of understanding] a chance and if Trump is not willing to walk away from the conflict entirely without a resolution — then I think we probably will escalate, and that’s what we’ve been seeing these last couple of weeks,” Mills said…
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/28/trump-netanyahu-allies-worry-iran-01013125
A For-Profit Hospital Slashed Costs. Then a Patient Froze to Death on Its Roof. – Mother Jones
El-Sayed and Stevens debate aid to Israel, campaign donations in final debate
“I want your tax dollars spent in Michigan to provide schools in Michigan, to build healthcare in Michigan, to build roads in Michigan, and I think that money sent over there to kill kids and women is the worst use of our tax dollars,” he said.
Stevens called El-Sayed “a celebrity candidate” looking to build a podcast audience with no practical experience in governing. Stevens also said she has a track record as a policymaker familiar with manufacturing issues and winning tough races in a swing congressional district...
US airman accused of ‘spree’ of rapes on sleeping women avoided UK courts
In recent weeks the Guardian has reported on the cases of Jacob Wulfson, a US fighter pilot who strangled a British woman in his apartment in Cambridge; Tyrion Davis, an American airman who sexually assaulted a British woman in Brandon, Suffolk; and Hannes Marschalek, a US airman who allegedly exposed himself to a 16-year-old girl and four young women in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, in 2022.
In all the cases, US airmen avoided the British justice system after the local police force chose to cede control of the investigation to American military police...
Why so many American Jews are turning away from Israel
Trump’s New Ridiculous and Dangerous Red-baiting – Mother Jones
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/07/trump-redbaiting-communism-republicans/
AI sell-off intensifies as investors ditch chip stocks
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jul/28/ai-sell-off-chip-stocks-sk-hynix-samsung
Beshear urges McConnell to provide more info on his health or resign - Live Updates - POLITICO
The IRS Is Imploding – Mother Jones
“In many years of paying taxes, I’ve never had a problem with the IRS. So, I was surprised to receive a letter dated May 25 informing us that my husband and I owe lots more money than we had paid for our 2025 taxes—and of course interest and fines. After reviewing the somewhat cryptic letter, we realized that we did not, in fact, owe any money. The IRS had simply failed to credit quarterly payments that we’d made on time. Because we had all the bank records, it seemed as if this would be a relatively straightforward problem to fix—until I picked up the phone and called the IRS.
“Two hours on hold later, I gave up. When I tried again a few days later, the outgoing message informed me, “Due to the high call volume, we are unable to answer your call. Please call back later today or tomorrow.” And I was disconnected…”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/07/the-irs-is-imploding/
Records Reveal How Homeland Security Agents Surveilled ICE Protesters – Mother Jones
“When you are recording information about people’s political activities, you know that that is the first step towards acting on that speech,” Steinbaugh said. “And what the government then does with that information can have a real chilling effect.”
On July 24, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and three legal observers filed a First Amendment lawsuit against DHS, alleging the agency has “adopt[ed] a secret Protester Surveillance Policy enabling its agents to first collect records on Americans engaging in First Amendment exercise and then maintain them in DHS systems, where they can be used to retaliate against those Americans.”…
Fauci expressed disillusionment with ‘rambling, crazy’ Trump in journal
In October 2020, Fauci wrote: “As the [presidential] election nears, the cases increase and surges are inevitable as we enter cooler weather. Trump is on the campaign trail spewing nonsense. He is really out of control. A true embarrassment.” By March 2021, having watched Trump attempt to retain power despite electoral defeat in a way that reminds him “historically of Hitler”, Fauci writes: “He is truly an obnoxious adolescent.”…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/27/anthony-fauci-trump-covid-journal
Pulte boasts about dramatic ODNI cuts as he nears the end of his time at the agency - POLITICO
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/28/bill-pulte-national-intelligence-cuts-01013404
Nick Adams’ FLAG Charity Spends Very Little on Civics Education, Records Show — ProPublica
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-nick-adams-state-flag-charity-civics-state-department
Obama’s Interior Secretary Goes Off on Trump & Talks His New Book (Find Out podcast)
From there it gets personal: Salazar talks about his debut book and swaps old stories with Tim about pickup basketball games at the Department of the Interior — including the time he tried to recruit Reggie Love and had to be talked into building Interior's first digital program back when he could barely turn on an iPad.
Interview:
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