Are the people being held at Guantanamo the “worst of the worst?” It’s hard to tell, since officials are not releasing details either about who they are, or what they’re supposed to have done. Luckily, @ProPublica and Texas Tribune are on the case. So far, their reporters have spoken to the families of two Venezuelan detainees whose only crime is illegal entry, and one who picked up a charge during detention. Those being held have not been able to speak to their families, nor to attorneys. “Never before have people been taken from U.S. soil and sent to Guantanamo, and then denied access to lawyers and the outside world,” said Lee Gelernt, the lead attorney in the ACLU case. “It is difficult to think of anything so flagrantly at odds with the fundamental principles on which our country was built.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-administration-migrants-guantanamo-bay

#Guantanamo #Gitmo #Immigration #Venezuela #TrumpAdministration #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Canada’s getting a fentanyl czar, and thank goodness for that — after all, who else will deal with the massive flood that enters the U.S. through its northern border. (Last year it was 43 pounds, less than the weight limit for a single suitcase on Air Canada.) For @thetyee, Dr. Steve Burgess (not a real doctor) ponders what kind of uniform such an official might wear (shiny buttons), and why the role of fentanyl czar is appealing. “A lot of people were interested in the job because it seemed it would mostly consist of sitting around, eating Canadian-style Cheezies, bingeing ‘Letterkenny’ and occasionally yelling out the window, ‘I better not see any fentanyl heading south! Don’t make me put on my shiny uniform and come out there!’” he writes.

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025/02/12/Please-Advise-Fentanyl-Czar/

#Canada #Tariffs #Fentanyl #FentanylCzar #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Could spooky floating lights in South Carolina be earthquake farts? Our @ScienceDesk shared this story from Science News about Earth’s gassy problem.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/earthquake-lights-spooky-south-carolina

#Science #Geology #EarthSciences #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

No humans were harmed in the making of the True Crime Case Files YouTube channel. Why? Because all the murder victims and storylines in 150 videos with names like “Sheriff Murdered After Affair With His Secretary Got Exposed” and “Wife Secret Affair with Neighbor’s Teenage Daughter Ends in Grisly Murder” were AI-generated. @404mediaco spoke to the founder of the channel, which had millions of views before it was taken down, about where he got the idea, and what he was trying to achieve (he claims a noble goal).

https://www.404media.co/a-true-crime-documentary-series-has-millions-of-views-the-murders-are-all-ai-generated/

#Tech #Technology #TrueCrime #Television #Entertainment #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Boca Chica Beach in the RIo Grande Valley, Texas, has been a secret place for generations of locals to fish, barbecue and camp. And then SpaceX came to town. @TexasObserver writes about how the launchpad and production facility for Elon Musk’s space-technology company loom over Boca Chica, and the efforts of some residents to resist further development.

https://www.texasobserver.org/remembering-boca-chica-beach-before-spacex/

#Texas #BocaChicaBeach #SpaceX #ElonMusk #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Rotting logs contain multitudes. @KnowableMag reports on how they’re home to critters, bacteria, fungi and more — and scientists are only scratching the surface of how the vital ecological process of breaking down wood works.

https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2025/rotting-logs-mini-ecosystems-habitat-and-food

#Science #Ecology #Biology #Forests #Fungi ##Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has a history of removing elected officials from office or suspending them if they don’t comply with his agenda. It’s only getting worse as President Trump’s immigration crackdown kicks into gear. “This is a governor that looks for any reason to remove people when he can,” state Representative Anna Eskamani, a Democrat, told @bolts “It speaks to a trend of the consolidation of power among the few. It is incredibly unsettling to have that happen to our democracy.”

https://boltsmag.org/florida-republicans-immigration-deal/

#Florida #RonDeSantis #Immigration #Deportation #USPolitics #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

President Donald Trump is promising to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine — with the participation of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, but without Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that’s not acceptable to him. @timkmak’s Counteroffensive looks at another country, Finland, which preserved its independence 80 years ago after war with Russia by giving up land and declaring neutrality. Will Ukraine be forced to do the same? https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/will-ukraine-be-forced-to-become

#Ukraine #Finland #UkraineRussia #Trump #Putin #Zelenskyy #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Of the 94 movies at the recent Sundance Festival, three came from Africa. For @thecontinent, Wilfred Okiche looks at Kenyan documentary “How to Build a Library,” Tunisian coming-of-age story “Where the Wind Comes From,” and “Khartoum,” which was made by four Sudanese filmmakers and a Brit, and tells the stories of five people who escaped to East Africa after the military coup in their home country.

https://continent.substack.com/p/review-africa-at-sundance-libraries

#Film #Documentary #Entertainment #Movies #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Are you marking Valentine’s Day this year? @TheConversationUS looks at how Victorian London went gaga for greeting cards. Back then, you were expected to send a Valentine in return regardless of your feelings, which meant you could buy cards with messages that proclaimed mutual admiration, encouraged patience, or politely discouraged future attention.

https://theconversation.com/how-valentines-day-was-transformed-by-the-industrial-revolution-and-manufactured-intimacy-247441

#History @histodons #ValentinesDay #GreetingCards #Lifestyle #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Lastly, nobody reacted to this when our @CultureDesk shared the story but we thought it was fascinating. Back in the early 2000s, American elementary school students used to stack cups in gym class, and it was all down to a clown-turned-teacher named Bob.

https://defector.com/if-you-ever-stacked-cups-in-gym-class-blame-my-dad

#LIfestyle #UnitedStates #School #Education #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

@Flipboard @TheConversationUS nope

@Flipboard @TheConversationUS

Looking at thyself within the glass,
You appear lost in admiration;
You deceive yourself, and think, alas!
You are a wonder of creation.

😁 The Valentine for a narcissist !

@erikcats Same here!