Freedom Index
The News Roundup
View More NewsAndy Serkis has played some of contemporary film’s most memorable characters: Gollum in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, Kong in King Kong, Caesar in the Planet of the Apes reboot, proto-punk icon Ian Dury in the biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, and arms dealer Ulysses Klaue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Serkis has also moved behind the camera: He directed an animated adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which was released in theaters on May 1. Later that month, Serkis spoke with Reason’s Nick Gillespie about his new film, authoritarianism, and what unites his signature roles. Q: Let’s talk about Animal…
In brief Nano Banana 2 Lite (gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image) generates images in four seconds at roughly $0.034 per image. This means it produces results at about half the cost of Nano Banana 2 at the same resolution and 2.7× faster. In head-to-head testing, the Lite model matched or beat Nano Banana 2 on many fields, but when details are important, the more expensive version may be the better option. Google last week launched Nano Banana 2 Lite—officially gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image—as the entry point in its image generation stack, sitting below Nano Banana 2 and well below Nano Banana Pro. It delivers text-to-image outputs in…
AI & Crypto
Read MorePolitics
Don't Miss!
Opinions & Debates
A review of Love and Terror: The Helter-Skelter History of the Manson Murders by Claudia Verhoeven; 384 pages; Verso (May 2026)Although the True Crime genre of publishing and documentary television is replete with accounts of murderous spouses, serial killers, Mafia wars, and financial scams, rarely do the subjects transcend the headline immediacy of police procedurals to deliver the long-term import of critical analysis. The Victorian predator Jack the Ripper and the Depression-era exploits of Bonnie and Clyde are two such exceptions; a third is the countercultural carnage wrought by the Manson family. As such, Claudia Verhoeven’s new book Love and Terror: The Helter-Skelter History…
Latest News
from the truth-and-fiction-and-ai dept This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Last month, my colleagues and I published an investigation into a Texas…
The crypto industry has spent years convincing Washington that it deserves a seat at the table. Now, as Congress inches toward passing the CLARITY…
A recent records request revealed that a Canadian government department is working up a potential new federal strategy on misinformation. But the section explaining what…
Mexico City, July 9, 2026—Mexican authorities must immediately and credibly investigate the killing of environmental journalist and content creator Manuel Alejandro Mora Serna and…
Bitcoin prices have dropped 7% on the day, breaking key support to a nine-week low after the US and Iran launched fresh strikes as…
In brief Bitcoin fell below the psychological $70,000 mark for the first time in eight weeks, triggering $980 million in market liquidations since Monday.…
The Roberts Court seems to be methodically scaling back the excesses of the Burger Courts. But one area that has not yet been revisited…
The future of asset management is shifting on-chain, but the transition is exposing a major structural conflict over traditional corporate revenue.Speaking on a panel…
The European Banking Authority and the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) have signed a memorandum of understanding to police cross-border stablecoin…
In brief Anthropic is expanding Project Glasswing, letting more organizations access its powerful Claude Mythos AI model. The company recently said broader customer access…
NA Below is my list of speaking engagements for the summer of 2026. Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the…
My father’s dissertation adviser emigrated from the USSR on the eve of his postdoctoral defence. In the Soviet Union, emigration was an act of…