cross-posted from: ibbit.at/post/91485

Just over nine months after President Donald Trump returned to office and pardoned his supporters who stormed the US Capitol, one of the Republican’s top aides suggested that federal law enforcement may arrest Democrats standing up to the White House’s anti-migrant agenda, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. Asked about the administration’s willingness and federal authority to arrest the…

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From Truthout via this RSS feed

Stephen Miller Threatens to Arrest Illinois Governor JB Pritzker

Miller told Fox News the threat “applies to any state official, any local official” who impedes ICE’s assaults.

^{Jessica Corbett (Truthout)}

Imagine a browser that doesn’t just show you the web — it understands it.
A browser that researches, summarizes, writes, and even completes your tasks for you.
That’s Comet, the brand-new AI browser powered by Perplexity — and it’s changing the way we experience the internet.

💡 A New Kind of Browser Experience
Most browsers were built for searching. You type. You scroll. You click. You repeat.

But Comet is built for doing.
It transforms your browsing into a smart, conversational, action-driven experience. Whether you’re working, studying, shopping, or planning a trip — Comet does more than just open tabs. It gets things done.

💬 “Comet is not just a browser. It’s your AI-powered co-pilot for the web.”

🚀 Here’s Why You’ll Want to Try Comet Today
1️⃣ One Month of Pro Access — Absolutely Free
Right now, Comet is offering 1 month of Comet Pro free for every new user.
That means you get to experience all premium features — faster AI answers, deeper research, agentic actions, and full automation — at zero cost.

No hidden conditions. Just pure AI browsing magic.

2️⃣ Browse with Answers, Not Links
Ever Google something and open 10 tabs before finding the answer?
Comet fixes that. It gives you direct, cited answers instantly — powered by Perplexity AI — and lets you ask follow-up questions like a real conversation.

No more hunting through endless pages. You ask. Comet answers.

💬 “From confusion to clarity — all in one tab.”

3️⃣ Your AI Assistant That Takes Action
Comet isn’t just smart — it’s capable.
It can summarize pages, draft emails, plan itineraries, and even execute actions like bookings and online tasks (with your permission).

So instead of switching apps or copying text between tabs, Comet handles it all in one place.

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Comet is built on Chromium, meaning it supports all your Chrome extensions and works just like Chrome — but smarter, cleaner, and faster.

It’s familiar where you want it to be, and revolutionary where it counts.

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Comet gives you full control over what’s shared or remembered.
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Students, professionals, and curious minds — you’ll love this.
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Let’s face it: the world moves fast.
AI isn’t a luxury anymore — it’s a necessity. While other browsers wait for you to act, Comet acts with you.

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💬 “Comet is to Chrome what the smartphone was to the flip phone — a complete leap forward.”

🧭 Why You’ll Love It After Just One Day
✨ Pages summarized instantly
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cross-posted from: infosec.pub/post/36690409

This story may be characterized as Corporate Power is Protected as defined in The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino is under intensifying scrutiny in Chicago after he was recorded on Thursday throwing what appeared to be a tear gas canister at protesters, leading attorneys to accuse him of violating a temporary restraining order that bans the use of tear gas, pepper spray and other tactics against journalists and protesters unless under imminent threat.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Bovino was struck in the head by a rock thrown by "hostile and violent" protesters, though several witnesses challenged that contention.

On Friday, Bovino was ordered to appear before a federal judge on Tuesday.

Illinois officials issue orders and file lawsuits as protesters clash with immigration agents

Demonstrations have led to federal agents firing pepper balls and tear gas as protestors attempt to block access to the immigrant processing facility near Chicago.

^{Natasha Korecki (NBC News)}

There are many ways to characterize Proposition 50, the single ballot initiative that Californians will be voting on this election season.

You could say it’s about redrawing congressional district lines outside the regular once-a-decade schedule. You could say, more precisely, that it’s about counterbalancing Republican efforts to engineer congressional seats in their favor in Texas and elsewhere with a gerrymander that favors the Democrats. You could, like the measure’s detractors, call it a partisan power grab that risks undermining 15 years of careful work to make California’s congressional elections as fair and competitive as possible.

The way California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and the Democrats are selling it to voters, though, boils down to something much simpler and more visceral: it’s an invitation to raise a middle finger to Donald Trump, a president fewer than 40% of Californians voted for and many loathe – for reasons that extend far beyond his attempts at election manipulation. For that reason alone, the yes campaign believes it is cruising to an easy victory.

“There’s actually a double tease here,” said Garry South, one of California’s most experienced and most outspoken Democratic political consultants who has been cheer-leading the measure. “Trump and Texas, the state Californians love to hate. How can you lose an initiative that’s going to stick it to both?”

Strange times we're living in.

How ‘screw Trump’ messaging may help California’s Proposition 50 prevail

Republican opposition to the effort to give House Democrats more safe seats may be no match for the fact that Californians really don’t like Trump

^{Andrew Gumbel (The Guardian)}

Hey all,

I just saw that Perplexity (the AI search company) released their own browser called Comet.

Here's the main link: perplexity.ai/comet

It looks like they are pushing hard for new users. The invite I saw mentioned that you get 1 month of Perplexity Pro for free just for downloading it and asking one question.

Seems like a decent incentive to try it out.

Has anyone here actually done it? Is the browser itself any good, or is this just a gimmick to get more Pro subscribers? Wondering how it compares to using the regular Perplexity site.

Republican opposition to the effort to give House Democrats more safe seats may be no match for the fact that Californians really don’t like Trump

There are many ways to characterize Proposition 50, the single ballot initiative that Californians will be voting on this election season.

You could say it’s about redrawing congressional district lines outside the regular once-a-decade schedule. You could say, more precisely, that it’s about counterbalancing Republican efforts to engineer congressional seats in their favor in Texas and elsewhere with a gerrymander that favors the Democrats. You could, like the measure’s detractors, call it a partisan power grab that risks undermining 15 years of careful work to make California’s congressional elections as fair and competitive as possible.

The way California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and the Democrats are selling it to voters, though, boils down to something much simpler and more visceral: it’s an invitation to raise a middle finger to Donald Trump, a president fewer than 40% of Californians voted for and many loathe – for reasons that extend far beyond his attempts at election manipulation. For that reason alone, the yes campaign believes it is cruising to an easy victory.

How ‘screw Trump’ messaging may help California’s Proposition 50 prevail

^{Andrew Gumbel (The Guardian)}

Amazon strategised about keeping the public in the dark over the true extent of its datacentres’ water use, a leaked internal document reveals.

The biggest owner of datacentres in the world, Amazon dwarfs competitors Microsoft and Google and is planning a huge increase in capacity as part of a push into artificial intelligence. The Seattle firm operates hundreds of active facilities, with many more in development despite concerns over how much water is being used to cool their vast arrays of circuitry.

Amazon defends its approach and has taken steps to manage how efficient its water use is, but it has faced criticism over transparency. Microsoft and Google regularly publish figures for their water consumption, but Amazon has never publicly disclosed how much water its server farms consume.

When designing a campaign for water efficiency, the company’s cloud computing division chose to account for only a smaller water usage figure that does not include all the ways its datacentres use water so as to minimise the risk to its reputation, according to a leaked memo seen by SourceMaterial and the Guardian.

Here's something I wasn't even aware of: Amazon is in the agriculture business!

As well as choosing not to disclose water use from electricity generation, Amazon has estimated its larger “indirect” water footprint, the document shows. This extra usage, which falls under a classification known as “scope 3”, includes water for production and construction – in Amazon’s case, mostly irrigation of cotton plantations supplying its fashion brands, and vegetables for its grocery arm, Amazon Fresh.

"Plantations" has nothing but positive connotations.

Amazon strategised about keeping its datacentres’ full water use secret, leaked document shows

Executives at world’s biggest datacenter owner grappled with disclosing information about water used to help power facilities

^{Luke Barratt (The Guardian)}

https://presearch.com/

https://www.techspot.com/news/110002-ai-assistants-misrepresent-news-stories-almost-half-time.html

Hey all,

I just saw that Perplexity (the AI search company) released their own browser called Comet.

From the site, it looks like it's heavily focused on being a "Personal AI Assistant" that can organize tabs, draft emails, and even build websites.

Here's the link: perplexity.ai/comet

I'm curious if anyone has actually tried it. Is this a genuine browser competitor, or is it more of an experiment? Wondering how it compares to using an AI sidebar in a browser like Edge or Arc.

What are your thoughts?

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-china-seek-avoid-trade-war-escalation-salvage-trump-xi-meeting-malaysia-talks-2025-10-25/

The oil giant said requirements that companies calculate new details about greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks violate Exxon’s free speech rights.

It's not like accounting standards aren't a thing in a whole variety of businesses. But that's somehow not a violation of free speech rights.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/climate/exxon-california-lawsuit-free-speech.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wE8.lG03.DiqyykWAm7mD

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-10-25/tariffs-and-climate-change-push-coffee-prices-up?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2MTQwMjgxMywiZXhwIjoxNzYyMDA3NjEzLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUNE9QOERHUEZITjUwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDMkYxNDM5NTYzRjg0QTBFOEIxNzA5MzY0RjMyQ0JFOCJ9.GSV16UXKya1o1K-rVT-a7fdHvAPuiZEzj2YxqDMRTAg

Some carmakers and energy executives say the plan would trigger costly litigation and spur individual states to create a patchwork of tighter rules.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/climate/endangerment-finding-auto-energy-lawsuits.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wE8.COL0.rmHskhpcighH

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/climate/endangerment-finding-auto-energy-lawsuits.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wE8.COL0.rmHskhpcighH

Domenica prossima, al vostro risveglio, potrete ascoltare la seconda puntata del nuovo #podcast in cui, girando per l'Europa, cerco una nuova casa.

Non cerco un edificio (quello arriverà dopo), ma un posto dove il Cuore voglia stare e la Ragione non abbia niente da obiettare.

E' una sfida, è una necessità, è un progetto di lungo termine ma che devo portare a compimento.

Comincio raccontandovi di quando, con tanta aspettativa e speranza, ho messo piede nell'isola più remota delle #Canarie, un'isola particolarissima che...

Potete ascoltare il podcast sulla vostra piattaforma audio preferita, su Youtube nel canale "Verso Casa" e naturalmente qui nel Fediverso, all'indirizzo castopod.it/versocasa

Se vi va, potete anche seguire l'account @versocasa@castopod.it

The problems with generative AI are endless. The environmental costs of the technology have been well litigated these past couple years, as the data centers that power it demand vast quantities of water and obscene amounts of electricity that creates pressure to build out even more fossil fuel power generation at a time we should be doing the very opposite. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Long before [Irish presidential candidate Catherine] Connolly was targeted by a political deepfake, a far wider swath of people — particularly women and girls — were the victims of nudify apps and explicit deepfakes made possible by image generators powered by generative AI models. More recently, a wave of stories have been published about the mental health risks that can come with forming a dependence on chatbots, including everything from breakdowns and institutionalization to the worst possible outcome of young people taking their own lives — sometimes even with coaching from the chatbot on how to do it.

Governments are belatedly waking up to the harms of social media, particularly as the companies prioritize profits and shareholder value above any other possible metric. Companies no longer care about the individual harm their products can cause, or the political and societal disruptions they can contribute to. Political leaders’ policy responses are open to criticism, like why so many are focusing on age limits rather than much wider regulation that recognizes it’s not just teenagers being harmed by how companies govern their platforms. But it’s quite clear action must be taken to rein in these sources of social disruption.

Social media regulation took far too long to arrive, and even then, it came in an imperfect form. But governments don’t appear ready to grapple with the reality that chatbots and image and video generators are speedrunning the harms caused by social media. The deceptive critical framing of the superintelligence argument has sent governments chasing that red herring as they try to present themselves as being friendly to tech investment to attract a small slice of the trillions of dollars being shelled out on generative AI and data centers. In short, they’re sacrificing the wellbeing of their citizens and arguably the foundations of a democratic society for a chance at short-term investment.

Generative AI is a societal disaster

Governments are deluding themselves into believing investment justifies allowing AI to upend society

^{Paris Marx (Disconnect)}

Earlier this month, Tesla rolled out a new firmware update that added a pair of new driving modes for the controversial full self-driving (FSD) feature. One, called “Sloth,” relaxes acceleration and stays in its lane. The other, called “Mad Max,” does the opposite: It speeds and swerves through traffic to get you to your destination faster. And after multiple reports of FSD Teslas doing just that, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants to know more.

In fact, “Mad Max” mode is not entirely new—Tesla beta-tested the same feature in Autopilot in 2018, before deciding not to roll it out in a production release after widespread outcry.

These days, the company is evidently feeling less constrained; despite having just lost a federal wrongful death lawsuit that will cost it hundreds of millions of dollars, it described the new mode as being able to drive “through traffic at an incredible pace, all while still being super smooth. It drives your car like a sports car. If you are running late, this is the mode for you.”

Earlier this month, we learned that the NHTSA had opened a new preliminary investigation into Tesla following dozens of complaints of its EVs running stop signs or crossing into oncoming traffic while operating under FSD. Now, according to Reuters, NHTSA is seeking more information from the automaker about “Mad Max” mode.

Tesla’s “Mad Max” mode is now under federal scrutiny

The new mode added in the latest update will speed and weave through traffic.

^{Jonathan M. Gitlin (Ars Technica)}