The week's doomscrolling in review: Issue 3
Another week's run through the headlines that capture the mudslide of carnage, corruption and 'banality of evil' that you can say is why you still drink.
Welcome to the third instalment of the weekly scroll of doom, in which I curate or just text vomit what horrors in the news feed have caught my fleeting attention. This week I've gone for a Monday-Friday approach, eschewed commentary and am letting headlines speak for themselves. They are listed in order of my coming across them, not publishing date. This is basically how things landed during pre-work coffee scrolling or late-night insomnia sessions. Enjoy.
Monday
- Microplastics may affect weather and climate by producing clouds, researchers find — PBS
- Sudan: Rapid Support Forces Target Civilians — Human Rights Watch
- A Dark Reminder of What American Society Has Been and Could Be Again — The New Yorker (intermittent paywall)
- What SCOTUS just did to broadband, the right to repair, the environment, and more — The Verge
- Congress Is About to Gift Trump Sweeping Powers to Crush His Political Enemies — The Intercept
- US election answers the question: how do you spend a billion dollars? — The Guardian
- A new era dawns. America’s tech bros now strut their stuff in the corridors of power — The Guardian
- Myanmar’s New Network Insurgency — Irrawaddy
- Here Are the Secret Locations of ShotSpotter Gunfire Sensors — Wired
- Sudan: Rapid Support Forces Target Civilians — Human Rights Watch
- To Buy a Mountain Range: A group of billionaires is maneuvering to secure acres of prime public land in Montana for personal use. Can anyone stop them? — NYmag (soft paywall)
- Weather extremes influence illegal migration and return between the U.S. and Mexico, study finds — PhysOrg
- Dems roll the dice with another SCOTUS seat; What could possibly go wrong? — Public Notice
- Biden admin to support controversial UN cybercrime convention — Politico
- From Trump’s victory, a simple, inescapable message: many people despise the left — The Guardian
Tuesday
- China’s New Effort to Achieve Cyber Sovereignty — OTF
- Anti-slavery measure Prop. 6 fails, allowing forced labor to continue in California prisons — Cal Matters
- Is the red heart emoji MAGA? ❤️ — User Mag
- Second-Generation Americans: What to Do When Loved Ones Are Sharing Misinformation — the Markup
- The WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself From Government Surveillance — Wired, obvs. (Paywall removed on article because Trump)
- Journalism's fight for survival in a postliterate democracy — Matt Pearce
- Extortion by Passport (for Turkmenistan citizens) — Human Rights Watch
- Russia Attempts to Collect Its Winnings — Empty Wheel
- The Internet is Shrinking — Joan Westenberg
Wednesday
- Breaking Down Earth Estries' Persistent TTPs in Prolonged Cyber Operations — Trend Micro
- Related: The History of Estries, aka Jewish Vampires — Hey Alma
- At Mar-a-Lago, ‘Uncle’ Elon Musk Puts His Imprint on the Trump Transition — NYTimes (gift link)
- What Does “Lived Experience” Really Mean? — Filter
- Europe must build resilience against Trump’s America – and welcome those desperate to flee it — The Guardian
- Cattle, crops and ancient olive groves: Lebanon’s farmers ‘lose everything’ to Israeli bombs — The Guardian
- Israel’s true objective in northern Gaza? Removing Palestinians – and annexing the territory — The Guardian
- Related: Biden administration will not limit arms transfers to Israel — The Guardian
- Note: This comes after the deadline that the White House gave Israel to improve access to humanitarian assistance in Gaza, with Biden suggesting military aid would be cut if it failed, which Netanyahu has ignored.
- Related: The exile of Mosab Abu Toha: how a Gazan poet was forced to flee his home — The Guardian
- Related: Biden administration will not limit arms transfers to Israel — The Guardian
- “My life was completely destroyed”: Technology-facilitated gender-based violence in Yemen — Amnesty International
- The Global Index on Responsible AI — Global Center on AI Governance
Thursday
- The Onion Buys Infowars, Alex Jones’s Site, Out of Bankruptcy — NYTimes (gift link)
- AI travel influencers are here. Human travelers hate it. — WaPo (gift link)
- Israeli Right, Pushing to Annex West Bank, Sees Allies in Trump’s Picks — NyTimes (gift link)
- Trump pick resurfaces questions about Tulsi Gabbard’s 2017 Syria visit — WaPo (gift link)
- Related: Tulsi Gabbard’s Nomination Is a National-Security Risk — The Atlantic (paywall!)
- Iran announces ‘treatment clinic’ for women who defy strict hijab laws — The Guardian
- Lawyer allegedly hacked with spyware names NSO founders in lawsuit — TechCrunch
- “Hopeless, Starving, and Besieged” - Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza — Human Rights Watch
- There’s a plan in case Senate Republicans aren’t as pliant as Trump wants — WaPo (gift link)
- RSF presses criminal charges against X (formerly Twitter) for its participation in identity theft and spreading disinformation — Reporters Without Borders
- Trump Threatens New York Times, Penguin Random House over Critical Coverage — Columbia Journalism Review
Friday
- The Most Dangerous Domestic Antiterrorism Bill Since The PATRIOT Act — Forever Wars
- Beyond Ukraine and Gaza: five consequences of overlooking other conflicts — The Conversation
- UN Special Committee finds Israel’s warfare methods in Gaza consistent with genocide, including use of starvation as weapon of war — OHCHR
- Trans Americans brace for Trump’s ‘sinister’ return: ‘It’s almost intolerable’ — The Guardian
- The Great Migration to Bluesky Gives Me Hope for the Future of the Internet — 404 Media
- New Trump admin would try to prosecute journalists, former Trump adviser says — CNN
And that's it for our third weekly doomscrolling review. Until next time, I leave you with this absolutely bad ass display of filibustering by Māori party MPs in New Zealand's parliament this week, protesting a hateful bill tabled by the the libertarian Act party that seeks to overturn the treaty that protects Māori rights. There is no negotiating with people who mean to do you harm, only resistance or surrender.
@whakaatamaori Parliament suspended as Māori MPs perform haka joined by public gallery. @Te Ao with Moana @Te Ao Māori News @TUKU ♬ original sound - Whakaata Māori
