Weekend Reader

It’s the weekend and I hope everyone relaxes and finds antidotes to the news. As for entertainment media, there are movies and sports, so especially where the weather is bad, go ahead and binge!

(Encounter)

HEADLINES:

• How Autocrats Meddle With Elections (Atlantic)

• Democrats Need to Get Serious About Stopping Trump From Rigging the Midterms (The Nation)

• Democracy Under Occupation (Atlantic)

• School officials say missing Minneapolis girl seen in ICE detention in Texas (WP)

• Iran Refuses to End Nuclear Enrichment in Talks With U.S. (WSJ)

• Russian general shot several times in Moscow (BBC)

• The Globalization of Canadian Rage (NYT)

• Trump wanted Dulles Airport and Penn Station named after him as condition of releasing rail tunnel funds (Politico)

• Trump’s quest to name things after himself takes an even more desperate turn (CNN)

• Racist video of Obamas removed from Trump’s social account (Axios)

• Is Samuel Alito Preparing to Disrobe? (The Nation)

• Minneapolis now has daily deportation flights. One man has been documenting them (NPR)

• Justice Department Casts Wide Net on Netflix’s Business Practices in Merger Probe (WSJ)

• After Roe, Conservatives Launch Coordinated Push to Kill Marriage Equality (Daily Kos)

• 4 times as many measles cases in a few weeks than US typically averages in a whole year: CDC (CBS)

• Uber Found Liable in Rape by Driver, Setting Stage for Thousands of Cases (NYT)

• Savannah Guthrie’s demand for mom’s ‘proof of life’ is complicated in this era of AI and deepfakes (AP)

• A bonobo tea party: Study shows humans aren’t the only species that can pretend (NBC)

• The Olympics Are a Show of Global Harmony. The World Is Anything But. (NYT)

• Kid Rock’s MAGA Country Music Festival Loses Shinedown and More Artists: ‘We Don’t Want to Participate in Something We Believe Will Create Division’ (Variety)

• Moltbook was peak AI theater (Technology Review)

• I Infiltrated Moltbook, the AI-Only Social Network Where Humans Aren’t Allowed (Wired)

• Young people in China have a new alternative to marriage and babies: AI pets (WP)

• Amazon’s $200 Billion Spending Plan Raises Stakes in A.I. Race (NYT)

• TrumpRx Unveils $1 Million Citizenship Pill (Onion)