Freedom Index
The News Roundup
View More NewsGovernment censorship is deeply un-American. That fundamental principle predates the Republic, with our Founders recognizing that “the freedom of the press is one of the great[est] bulwarks of liberty.” And it is no less true today, as the Supreme Court unanimously reaffirmed only two years ago: the government may not “use the power of the State to punish or suppress disfavored expression.” NRA v. Vullo (2024). This case concerns the Administration’s sustained effort to do just that. Acting through the Federal Communications Commission, the Administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC…
In brief OpenAI said Aug. 7 it slowed Astra’s rollout after internal tests showed cyber capabilities it can’t rule out as “Critical”. Prediction market traders are betting big on an Astra release by Sept. 30. The model, reportedly OpenAI’s GPT-6, hasn’t been given a public date. Prediction market traders are pretty sure OpenAI is cooking, and it’s next big AI model could be coming sooner than you might think.A market for the most likely release date of OpenAI’s upcoming model Astra, the company’s internal name for GPT-6, gives a 59% chance of launching by September 15 and roughly 72% by…
AI & Crypto
Read MorePolitics
People hold up “mass deportation now” signs at the 2024 Republican National Convention. (Carol Guzy/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom) Standard estimates of the illegal/undocumented immigrant population in the United States range from about 11 million to 15 million. But right-wing immigration restrictionists often assert…
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Opinions & Debates
No true culture warrior worth his salt admits to reading The New York Times. Very Online conservatives refuse to read it because they think it hates Jews. Very Online progressives refuse to read it because they think it hates trans people. So intense is their loathing, it seems, that some of these hashtaggers cannot even tolerate the company of those who do read the Times. This includes one @claireyfaerie, who recently told Bluesky followers: “My parents have a [New York Times] subscription. Whenever I go to visit them and see the paper sitting on their coffee table, I remember the…
Latest News
Bitcoin’s price swings have hit a cycle low, squeezed by a market tug-of-war with no clear winner. The traders who once lived off its…
An effort by Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of now-defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, to convince a federal court to vacate his 12-year sentence…
In brief Metaplanet agreed to contribute 2,100 BTC (~$132.1 million) plus $2.5 million in cash to Nasdaq-listed Super League Enterprise in exchange for stock,…
from the oh-no-communists dept Words used to mean things. The MAGA GOP strategy lately seems to be pulling a page from the 1980s playbook…
Pump.fun remained Solana’s largest revenue generator in the first quarter of 2026, pulling in $124.7 million, more than a third of the network’s $342.2…
In brief Attackers minted 1,000 eBTC on Echo Protocol’s Monad blockchain deployment before borrowing and moving funds across chains. Echo Protocol said a compromised…
from the bad-ideas-from-terrible-people dept We’ve talked a lot about how Americans have somehow accepted the fact that our voice networks are now saturated with…
From Brooks v. Lowes Home Centers LLC, decided yesterday by Judge Jerry Edwards, Jr. (W.D. La.): In resolving a prior motion in this case,…
The crypto market structure bill saw a high-stakes, 11th-hour gambit to get Democrats on board for a bipartisan committee vote, but it might carry…
Bitget Wallet said it has integrated xStocks infrastructure, giving its 90 million users access to more than 130 tokenized stocks and ETFs through its self-custodial wallet platform.The…
In brief Bitcoin ETFs saw $648 million in outflows Monday, led by BlackRock’s IBIT with $448 million. Long-term Bitcoin holders have accumulated BTC for…
When Reason magazine celebrated its 50th anniversary back in 2018, I helped mark the occasion with a column about “the 5 worst Supreme Court…