blueworld

Spearheaded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, DOGE oversaw around $60 billion in cuts to U.S. foreign aid under the Trump administration, leaving “few surviving” USAID projects in its wake. Among the USAID programs Konyndyk said was affected was SERVIR, a program that produced detailed and advanced flood forecasting with “days lead time” that “allows people to plan and prepare for [floods].” The program also specifically monitored the “potentially dangerous glacial lakes of Nepal.”

The exchange escalated sharply when Watters pressed El-Sayed on gender-affirming care for minors. “Sex change for minors. Do you support that?” Watters asked. El-Sayed, a doctor and former public health official, responded, “I just think the government shouldn’t tell you what kind of healthcare you should have.” Watters pushed further, asking, “So you think it’s OK for a parent to slash his kid’s ding-a-ling off?” El-Sayed shot back, “Do you really want to have this conversation? Are you circumcised?”

A visibly caught-off-guard Watters replied, “Yeah, but I mean that’s a personal question, doctor.” When Watters argued circumcision is “different than castration,” El-Sayed maintained his point.

“I’m just saying that yes, circumcision is surgery on a kid’s ding-a-ling,” he said. By bringing up circumcision, El-Sayed was attempting to argue that society already accepts parental rights and medical decision-making regarding surgical procedures on a minor’s genitalia, and that the government should not single out specific healthcare choices. But his clunky comparison gave Watters an in.

The host called the comparison “wacky,” telling El-Sayed, “Michigan’s not going for that. That is sick stuff.”

The interview quickly drew a swarm of reactions from conservative media figures. YouTuber Benny Johnson wrote on X that El-Sayed had shocked Watters by “demanding to know if Fox News host is CIRCUMCISED live on-air,” adding, “I’ve never seen more of a nightmare interview.”

Commentator Nick Sortor wrote, “Abdul El-Sayed says CIRCUMCISION is the same thing as SEX CHANGES FOR MINORS. These people are SICK.”

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served as White House press secretary during Donald Trump’s first term, said, “This is the radical left. This is who they are. Insane and sad."

Commentator Clay Travis wrote, “Holy s–t, Abdul El-Sayed said circumcision is similar to sex change operations on minors.

”Former White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson piled on as well, writing that El-Sayed was “2 for 2 on comparisons that make him look like an absolute insane person.”

Conservative strategist Mike Davis was blunter still.“Goodbye, Abdul,” he wrote. “You just guaranteed your defeat. Dingaling.”

But the initial success of the X1 demonstrator does not mean Heart Aerospace is planning to commercialize an all-electric aircraft. Current battery-electric systems can only typically sustain short flights of about 100 to 200 miles, which is why they have been limited to air taxi operations by companies such as Joby and Archer.

Instead, testing of the X1 and a planned follow-on X2 aircraft will shape development of Heart Aerospace’s main offering to the airline industry—a 30-seat hybrid-electric regional airliner known as the ES-30.

That planned production aircraft for commercial flights would combine two inboard electric motors with commercial turboprop engines that run on jet fuel, enabling 125 miles of all-electric flight and 500 miles of flight range when operating in hybrid mode.

Having the extended 500-mile range would enable the ES-30 hybrid-electric airliner to operate in popular short-haul corridors that connect major US and European cities. United Airlines has committed to eventually purchasing 100 aircraft from Heart Aerospace, with other major airline customers also having signed letters of intent, according to Flying magazine.

“Everyone knows what the problem is: The organizations that bring young staffers to Washington, D.C. have spent the last decade prioritizing blind ideological loyalty instead of competence or intelligence,” said a senior GOP congressional staffer, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel issues. “We have a generation of rabid, incompetent idiots.”

Of specific concern are those labeled groypers — technically, followers of the self-described “White Identitarian” Gen Z streamer Nick Fuentes, though it’s also used as a catch-all term of abuse for young, anti-establishment right-wingers, akin to the usage of “neocon” in the other direction. Fuentes, who has millions of viewers and a deeply antisemitic and misogynistic worldview, gained celebrity among young conservatives as a pro-Trump internet personality and far-right campus agitator. He has since turned on the president for his handling of the Epstein files and his support of Israel and the war in Iran. (Fuentes did not respond to a request for comment.)

He’s so full of shit: “The technology is really simple,” he told ABC7. “A car drives by, we take a picture. It’s a static picture of a car, and then we read the license plate. That’s what the technology is – it’s actually not that complicated, it’s pretty simple.”

When in fact these use AI to build what the company calls a “Vehicle Fingerprint” to identify each car by make, model, color, body type, and distinguishing features like bumper stickers, roof racks, dents, decals, and even objects in truck beds. They can track and identify vehicles even when license plates are missing, obscured, or swapped for an 6-12 frame interaction. Moreover it is a database of metadata allowing them to characterize personality, trends, habits, and patterns across 80,000 cameras in 49 states. That’s just the plate readers.

They’ve grown to include ‘first responder’ drones, audio sensors, gunshot detection sensors, and full video surveillance in both the public and private sphere.

And worse is it’s real-time cross-jurisdictional alerting, which has seen multiple false reports.

So it’s damn well not just a static picture of a car, but surveillance capitalism.

Not without waiting the 120 days, or that’s how I’m understanding this game. And if they did, the Administration would probably do the same. It a technically correct method that skirts the spirit of the law.

They’ve been doing this with US Attorneys in several states, to get what they want. They did the same with Tessa Gormon in the same district, and Donald Kinsella in NY.

This is a good topic for LegalEagle or lawfaremedia.org or similar, so watch for something soon.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48696800

Hi,

Mullvad has two owners, founders, and CEOs - Daniel Berntsson, and me, Fredrik Strömberg. All posts I’ve seen yesterday and today, including the newspaper articles, talk about Mullvad as if Daniel is the single owner, founder and CEO. It should be obvious that Daniel’s private donation to a political party is not part of Mullvad’s values or mission.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns you’re welcome to comment on this thread, or email our customer support.

See below for the response you’ll get from support:

Mullvad is a political company. We fight for freedom of speech, freedom of information and the right to privacy. These are firmly held values of the founders of Mullvad.

Mullvad protects the right for people to express things we don’t agree with. We protect the right of everyone to access views we don’t agree with.

We also live these values by being tolerant in our daily work. Everyone is welcome to collaborate with Mullvad if they share these narrow core values. As employees, contractors, customers, suppliers, lobbyists, campaign partners or whatever it might be. No matter what their other opinions are and no matter whether the founders or anyone else in Mullvad dislike them. The founders themselves fundamentally disagree on several important issues.

This is what allows us to advance our common causes. Being in a tolerant and intellectually open environment is also liberating and promotes truth seeking.

The more people do this, the better a place the world will be.

It should be obvious that Daniel’s private donation to a political party is not part of Mullvad’s values or mission, in the same way that someone’s opinions on animal rights, taxes or public healthcare policy isn’t.

That said, if you no longer want to be a Mullvad customer for philosophical reasons, we think it’s important to honor that. In that case, reach out to support.