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    On Polymarket, ‘privileged’ users made millions betting on war strikes and diplomatic strategy. What did they know beforehand?

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    The prediction market’s disciples and CEO believe its an unbiased way of knowing the future. But experts warn users could reshape the world to win bigIn the early hours of 13 June, more than 200 Israeli fighter jets began pummeling Iran with bombs, lighting up the Tehran skyline and initiating a 12-day war that would leave hundreds dead.But for one user of the prediction market Polymarket, it was their lucky day. In the 24 hours before the strike occurred, they had bet tens of thousands of dollars on “yes” on the market “Israel military action against Iran by Friday?” when the prospect still seemed unlikely and odds were hovering at about 10%. After the strike, Polymarket declared that military action had been taken, and paid the user $128,000 for their lucky wager. Continue reading… More

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      The slopaganda era: 10 AI images posted by the White House – and what they teach us

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      Under Donald Trump, the White House has filled its social media with memes, wishcasting, nostalgia and deepfakes. Here’s what you need to know to navigate the trollingIt started with an image of Trump as a king mocked up on a fake Time magazine cover. Since then it’s developed into a full-blown phenomenon, one academics are calling “slopaganda” – an unholy alliance of easily available AI tools and political messaging. “Shitposting”, the publishing of deliberately crude, offensive content online to provoke a reaction, has reached the level of “institutional shitposting”, according to Know Your Meme’s editor Don Caldwell. This is trolling as official government communication. And nobody is more skilled at it than the Trump administration – a government that has not only allowed the AI industry all the regulative freedom it desires, but has embraced the technology for its own in-house purposes. Here are 10 of the most significant fake images the White House has put out so far. Continue reading… More

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      Why Democrats are suddenly embracing universal childcare

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      Candidates are putting universal childcare on platforms, and strategists say it could be a winning issueWhen Francesca Hong ran for the Wisconsin state assembly in 2020, childcare was not front and center in her campaign. Now, the Democratic representative, restaurateur and mother is running for governor. And she has said that a universal childcare bill would be among the first measures she would like to sign into law if she becomes her state’s chief executive.“We’re in a childcare catastrophe. We haven’t invested enough in this infrastructure,” Hong said in an interview with the Guardian. “Universal childcare meets the moment of the crisis we’re in, with the speed and scale to spread across the state.” Continue reading… More

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      The womanosphere urges dubious followers to back ICE: ‘Don’t let compassion cloud you’

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      Conservative figures such as Riley Gaines and Allie Beth Stuckey are urging their followers to ward off empathy for victims of ICE’s crackdownRiley Gaines, the former collegiate swimmer turned anti-transgender activist, makes motherhood and femininity a core part of her brand. Her husband, Louis Barker, is a naturalized US citizen who moved to this country from the UK. The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Margot, in September; Gaines said there was “nothing” she would not do to protect her baby. But do not think that Gaines is at all sympathetic to families targeted by ICE.This weekend, Gaines spoke on her podcast about Liam Ramos, the five-year-old boy taken by ICE agents from his driveway in Minneapolis. Images of Liam, clad in snowpants and wearing a blue hat with bunny ears, being held by a federal agent prompted widespread disgust in the US. How could a preschooler be considered one of the “dangerous” criminals Trump’s administration rails against? Continue reading… More

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      Wall Street landlords have met a surprising opponent in Trump. So why is Starmer courting them? | Adam Almeida

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      To win votes, Trump can afford to face up to corporate power – to deliver his promised 1.5m homes, Starmer can’tIn an incredibly polarised society, there are fewer and fewer things that seem to unite both sides of the aisle in the US political system. Yet it turns out that an objection to Wall Street’s grand heist of single-family homes has done just that.We might expect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren to rail against the incursion of institutional investors into residential real estate markets, causing rent prices to jump and effectively locking millions of households out of home ownership. However, I admit I was surprised to see JD Vance and Marjorie Taylor Greene striking a similar note. But I was completely dumbfounded to see the real estate tycoon and Wall Street darling Donald Trump sing from the same hymn sheet.Adam Almeida is a writer and researcher living in London Continue reading… More

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      From Trump’s rejected treaties to our daily lives, we’re building walls around ourselves | Anand Pandian

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      Martin Luther King Jr knew that ‘whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly’. But we Americans are denying that realityThe United States seems determined to turn its back on the rest of our planetary neighbors. The Trump administration’s recent decision to withdraw from 66 international treaties, conventions and organizations is striking for the range of its rejections. Everything from the global treaty on climate change to multilateral efforts to address migration and cultural heritage, clean water and renewable energy, and the international trade in timber and minerals has been summarily dismissed as “contrary to the interests of the United States”.It’s no surprise that an administration hellbent on physical walls around the United States would also put up such walls of indifference, as if all of these longstanding collective efforts were simply “irrelevant” to our interests as a country, as the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, put it in a public statement. And yet, as we know, the reality of contemporary life on Earth is so profoundly otherwise. How has the truth of our interconnectedness with others elsewhere become so difficult to grasp in the United States? Continue reading… More

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      ‘It’s whiplash’: reversed cuts ‘incredibly disruptive’ for US mental health and substance abuse programs

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      Grantees outline risks to vulnerable populations over uncertainty of funds creating gaps in care A counseling program in Alabama for people with HIV, helping them get into treatment and housing. A training program in New Hampshire for first responders learning how better to respond to people in mental health crises. Mental health counseling for children in Tennessee experiencing trauma.On Wednesday, the funding for these and thousands of other programs was rescinded. The halt affected about 2,800 organizations across the nation offering mental health and substance use services, often on the front lines of the dual crises, in partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (Samhsa). Continue reading… More

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      Kids with brain cancer were already in a life and death struggle. Then came Trump

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      The US president vowed to ‘end childhood cancer’. But his administration is dismantling the search for a cure and sending families scrambling for treatmentFor seven years, Jenn Janosko cared for children with cancer on the ninth floor of New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital.It’s the happiest sad place she knows. Continue reading… More

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      Trump’s planned limits on US property investing could spur foray into UK housing market

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      Ban on private equity firms buying single-family homes in US raises concerns instututions could boost deepen housing crisis on BritainLeading US investors and private equity firms could step up their foray into UK new-build housing after Donald Trump’s move to ban institutional companies from buying single-family homes in the US, raising concerns that investors could “cut corners and increase rents”.The US president said last week that he would ask Congress to codify the measure as he tries to address concerns that families are struggling to buy or rent a home. The median property sale price was $410,800 (£305,000) last year, according to the US Census Bureau. Continue reading… More