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In response to lawmakers’ ongoing questions about ICE’s surveillance practices, a previously unpublicized letter to Congress reveals Homeland Security officials are taking an increasingly evasive approach when asked if the Trump administration created a database of protesters labeled as “domestic terrorists.”

The administration has repeatedly denied that DHS maintains a specific database of US citizens who protest ICE operations or photograph federal agents. But this letter, which was addressed on May 22 and comes amid mounting litigation over ICE’s alleged intimidation of protesters, appears to sidestep the question of a standalone protester database entirely.

“ICE does not independently approve adding individuals or entities to the U.S. government’s Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS),” John Cooper, Assistant Director of ICE’s Office of Congressional Relations, wrote in response to a February inquiry from Sen. Ed Markey (D–Mass.).

The TSDS is a publicly known, interagency terrorist watchlist that is not maintained by ICE and was not the subject of Markey’s questioning. The letter is the first time ICE has publicly mentioned the TSDS in response to questions about a potential protester database.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In February, Todd Lyons, then-acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, appeared before the House Homeland Security Committee and testified emphatically that ICE was not surveilling US citizens.

“There is no database for protesters, sir,” Lyons told Rep. Lou Correa (D–Calif.), who asked Lyons about threats ICE agents made on camera to legal observers in Maine. “I can assure you there is no database that’s tracking United States citizens.”

“The public deserves clear and consistent answers about ICE’s surveillance activities and its infringement of Americans’ civil liberties.”

Lyons echoed these statements again in an April 21 letter to Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D–Fla.). But this time, he added a caveat for law enforcement investigations: “Where individuals decide to go beyond protected speech and commit crimes against federal personnel and property or threaten, or forcibly impede, assault, or interfere with lawful operations, ICE remains steadfast in exercising its authority to investigate and prosecute violators.” Put simply, Lyons denied that ICE was keeping a “separate, standalone database” of protesters, but admitted the agency had “collected information” on citizens suspected of breaking federal law.

These carve-outs were already broad and vaguely defined enough to raise concerns among civil liberties advocates. Now, while evading Markey’s specific questions about an ICE database, Cooper’s letter raises new concerns that anti-ICE protesters and legal observers are, in fact, being added to the TSDS based on so-called “antifa” activity.

Cooper’s May letter went on to cite a “whole-of-government process,” administered by the FBI, in which nominations to the TSDS are reviewed and approved “based on federal criteria derived from statutory definitions of terrorism.” Notably, President Trump designated “antifa”—which is not a single group and generally defined as anyone who is against fascism—as a domestic terrorist organization in September. And in May, as my colleague Sophie Hurwitz reported at the time, the White House released a new counterterrorism playbook that “prioritize[s] the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist.”

Today, in a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Acting ICE Director David Venturella, shared exclusively with Mother Jones, Markey and Rep. Frost are demanding answers.

“ICE’s shifting and carefully worded responses prevent Congress and the public from determining the extent of ICE’s surveillance activities,” Markey and Frost wrote. They pressed Mullin and Venturella on whether “DHS, ICE, or any component agency of DHS” is “maintaining their own database, list, or record of individuals engaged in protest activity, outside of the TSDS” or creating any “record of individuals identified as threats to officer or facility safety, including those who have not been accused of any crime.” The congressmen also requested a copy of an internal ICE memo, first reported by CNN in January, that instructed agents to “capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors, etc.” for inclusion in a “consolidated form.”

“These attempts to evade congressional oversight are unacceptable,” Markey and Frost wrote. “The public deserves clear and consistent answers about ICE’s surveillance activities and its infringement of Americans’ civil liberties.”

⚡ Quick Take

• The cult 1960s vampire soap opera Dark Shadows is getting a revival from Warner Bros. as an adult-oriented animated series.

The popularity of the vampire genre goes in cycles. In the late 2000s, it was all about Twilight and True Blood. Then, it crawled back into the grave for a time. Now, thanks to shows like The Vampire Lestat, and musicals like The Lost Boys, the undead are cool once again. So Warner Brothers is looking to bring back another once-popular vampire series from its vaults. It was announced at the Annecy Animation Film Festival, via The Hollywood Reporter, that the 1960s cult TV series Dark Shadows, which made a household name for the vampire Barnabas Collins, is getting reimagined as an adult animation series. Lisa Holdsworth, a writer on Discovery of Witches, will executive produce and be the showrunner on the series.

Warner Bros.

Originally running from 1966 to 1971, Dark Shadows was a gothic soap opera centering on a New England family. The series originally aired on ABC during weekday afternoons. But early on, ratings began to slip. So the show introduced a new lead character, the 18th-century vampire Barnabas Collins, played by Jonathan Frid. The show then tripled in popularity, becoming a serialized saga about not only vampires, but witches, ghosts, and time travel. It even spawned two movie spinoffs in the early ’70s. It was probably the first sympathetic vampire portrayal in mass media, a decade before Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire arrived in 1976.

A Primetime revival aired in 1991, but it lasted only one season. Tim Burton, who loved the show as a child, made a live-action film based on Dark Shadows starring Johnny Depp in 2012. But the comedic take flopped, putting the franchise back in the ground again. But transforming it into an adult animated series is a logical way to revive the series, so the creators’ imaginations can run wild, with less of a worry about budget. Although not confirmed, one imagines this is meant for HBO Max, although, like Warner Animation’s Batman: Caped Crusader, it could run on another streamer. We imagine we’ll learn more about this new take on Dark Shadows very soon.

The post DARK SHADOWS Getting Revived as Adult Skewing Animated Show appeared first on Nerdist.

SpaceX reportedly showed investors a "handset-like" AI device before going public. It could be another signal SpaceX wants to expand into wireless.

The actor and investor is joining forces with Morgan Beller, who was previously a GP at NFX, to invest in early-stage startups.

The White House will not renew the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, effectively ending the country’s trilateral economic pact with its closest neighbors and allies.

“The United States did not agree to renew the USMCA in its current form,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement Wednesday, the deadline to renew the 16-year arrangement. Greer added that, despite the lapse, the USMCA would remain “in force pending resolution of these issues or until the Agreement’s termination.”

“The United States will continue to engage with Mexico and Canada to address the Agreement’s shortcomings and our trade deficits with these countries,” he said.

The USMCA will automatically expire July 1, 2036, unless all three member countries come to a new agreement.

Donald Trump initially lauded the deal when it was negotiated under his first administration in 2018 as a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement. It went into full effect on July 1, 2020, and was designed to assist North American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses by creating a “more balanced, reciprocal trade” that would support job growth across the continent, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Since then, the U.S. has exported trillions of dollars worth of goods and services through the arrangement, though that was apparently not enough to prevent Trump from souring on the trinational accord.

Trump opted instead to impose unprecedented duties and tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods after he returned to office in 2025, tearing the deal to shreds in the process. On June 10, the president insisted that the U.S. should have a more level playing field with its trade partners, claiming that America doesn’t need its neighbors’ goods and services.

“We don’t need anything that Canada has. We don’t need anything that Mexico has, but they need everything that we have,” Trump told reporters at the time. “And they have to treat us better.”

Canada and Mexico are two of America’s top trading partners, cumulatively accounting for about a third of all U.S. exports, per the U.S. Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade statistics. Annually, the deal has provided the infrastructure for roughly $2 trillion in annual trade, according to data obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

But the lapsed trade agreement sets the stage for a larger debate over American economic relations that some economists estimate could take a long time to pin down. In the meantime, regional economies are expected to suffer from the lingering uncertainty.

Kelly Ann Shaw, who served as deputy director of the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term, told the Journal that the U.S. will likely morph the deal into something that could look much different from the USMCA.

“That process will carry on throughout the rest of the summer, if not into the end of this year,” she said.

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Donald Trump has promised the July 4 fireworks display in Washington will be the largest in world history. There will be a parade, a 17-plane flyover, and a “spectacular Trump rally” featuring a lengthy speech by the president. The private company producing these festivities, Event Strategies, Inc., is no stranger to massive gatherings on the National Mall. Five years ago, the same firm helped organize Trump’s January 6, 2021, rally at the Ellipse, which preceded that day’s attack on the US Capitol.

Since Trump returned to the White House, Event Strategies, sometimes known as ESI, has received tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts from government agencies to organize anniversary events, often without completive bidding. The company also has a large contract with Freedom 250—a semi-private entity that receives public funding. Working under Freedom 250, Event Strategies is managing events including the July 4 rally, the ongoing Great American State Fair, the “Rededicate 250” prayer event on the National Mall, and other gatherings.

“This is typical behavior from the Trump administration, where everyone feels they have license to do sleazy self-dealing.”

Event Strategies won those contracts while one of its partners, Justin Caporale, holds a second position. Trump in late 2024 announced that Caporale would work for his “external operation” as “Executive Producer for Major Events and Public Appearances.” In practice, that means that Caporale is Trump’s “events guy,” a person familiar with White House planing for the anniversary said. Caporale helps Trump plan 250th anniversary celebrations and other public events, often attending meetings in the White House, the person said. His work has reportedly involved drafting budgets for anniversary spending.

Caporale is not a government employee. But his advisory role for the president’s “external operation” means he has helped to plan the same Freedom 250 festivities that the administration is paying Event Strategies—Caporale’s private firm—to carry out. Government contractors often advise federal agencies, but it is highly unusual, at least until now, for them to have regular presidential access, and to wield influence over decisions that could affect their own bottom line.

Caporale and Event Strategies haven’t been accused of breaking any laws. But critics argue that the set-up is vulnerable to abuse at a time when the president and his allies are routinely profiting from government power.

“It is clear that such a backdoor arrangement for White House advisory personnel creates the opportunity for the appearance of impropriety, the avoidance of which is a bedrock principle of all federal ethics law,” said Toni Aguilar Rosenthal, a program director at the Revolving Door Project, a nonprofit group.

“It’s just unethical,” said Craig Holman of the watchdog group Public Citizen. “This is typical behavior from the Trump administration, where everyone feels they have license to do sleazy self-dealing.”

Caporale did not respond to inquiries. The White House press office has previously said that the White House had no role in federal agencies awarding contracts to Event Strategies. But the White House did not respond to questions from Mother Jones about what exactly Caporale’s events work for Trump entails, or whether he influenced Freedom 250’s hiring of Event Strategies under its separate contract for massive DC events related to the anniversary.

Danielle Alvarez, a spokesperson for Freedom 250, defended the group’s employment of Event Strategies, arguing the company is uniquely suited to organize semiquincentennial events. “There are few firms in the world that can do this,” Alvarez said. “ESI is one of those firms. They do an excellent job at executing events.”

Donald Trump reads a note that Justin Caporale handed on stage at a campaign town hall at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center & Fairgrounds, 2024.Alex Brandon/AP

Freedom 250 won’t say exactly how much it is paying Event Strategies or any other vendors. The person familiar with anniversary planning said the firm’s profit comes from receiving a small percentage, around 3.5 percent, of the money it gets from Freedom 250 to stage events. That gives the company, and Caporale, an incentive to push for big, expensive celebrations—on American taxpayers’ dime.

Trump aides set up Freedom 250 as a limited limited liability corporation operating through the National Park Foundation, a nonprofit partner of the National Park Service. Based on that structure, Freedom 250 has asserted that, even as it spends taxpayer dollars, it does not need to tell Congress how it is using those funds.

“They have done a very clever job of hiding where the money is going,” said Alan Zibel, research director for Public Citizen. “The opaque nature of this arrangement makes public scrutiny all but impossible.”

ESI was launched 26 years ago by political operatives with experience in campaign advance work—that is, organizing candidates’ campaign appearances and other events. The company hitched up with Trump in 2015, helping to arrange his “golden escalator” campaign launch. It has since won steady work from all three Trump campaigns, and it’s been paid more than $67 million by political committees backing Trump, the New York Times has reported.

In late 2020, Turning Point USA and Women for America First—right-wing groups that had received funding from Julie Jenkins Fancelli, a Publix grocery heir—hired Event Strategies to arrange a rally Trump had announced for January 6 in Washington. With his infamous “Be there, will be wild!” tweet, Trump summoned supporters to assemble to oppose the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. The president worked up the crowd with false claims that he had actually won the election, and he urged them to march “peacefully” on Congress. More than 2,000 of his supporters ultimately stormed the Capitol.

Event Strategies was paid about $688,000 for work that included handling lights, staging, trash, and other details for Trump’s Ellipse rally, Mother Jones has reported. The firm appears to have spent a bit over $500,000 of that money to pay subcontractors.

None of the company’s employees were charged with wrongdoing. In a subsequent deposition, Caporale distanced the firm from the riot, which he called “a disgusting display that should’ve never happened.”

The House January 6 committee, in its final report released late 2022, cited a December 29, 2020 text in which Caporale told an associate that the Ellipse rally would be “a call to action to march to the [C]apitol and make noise.” That’s an indication Caporale was aware that Trump planned to urge the assembled crowd to advance on the Capitol and pressure lawmakers to allow him to remain in office.

“There are few firms in the world that can do this.”

Event Strategies continued working for Trump after January 6. And following his victory in 2024, Trump credited Caporale with helping to arrange “viral” events, including an appearance in which Trump was photographed behind the wheel of garbage truck. Caporale was also reportedly involved in a controversial incident in which Trump filmed a campaign video at Arlington National Cemetery. During the incident, another campaign staffer allegedly pushed aside a female cemetery employee who tried to stop Trump from using what many Americans consider a hallowed ground as a campaign backdrop.

Trump’s second presidency has provided a bonanza for the company, allowing it to shift from campaign events to federal government work.

After receiving less than $200,000 in federal contracts over the last decade, Event Strategies since last January has received nearly $40 million from the government, according USA Spending, a database of federal contract awards. That includes a $15 million contract the State Department gave the group in June for “event planning.” The department did not answer questions about the contract.

Wired has reported that most of ESI’s federal contracts are for anniversary events. And many were awarded with limited competition. According to the New York Times, five of the firm’s contracts were awarded without the agencies seeking competing bids. The agencies instead signed so-called sole-source contracts with the firm, citing rules that allow doing so in cases where there is an urgent need, or where the government determines only one specialized vendor can do the work.

When Trump took office, America250—a congressionally chartered nonprofit—had already spent more than a decade planning events to mark the country’s 250th anniversary. By statute, America250 is bipartisan and reports to a commission that includes lawmakers from both parties.

Still, America250 last year attempted to appease the new president. It hired a slew of Trump-linked operatives, including former Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita, former Fox News pundit Monica Crowley, and Caporale. As Mother Jones first reported, the group also tapped Event Strategies to stage events, including the June 2025 military parade on Trump’s 79th birthday.

Rather than agree to anniversary celebrations that Democrats could swallow, Trump aides created Freedom 250.

But those efforts were insufficient for Trump. As he pressed for increasingly partisan and garish events to mark the anniversary, America250’s board eventually pushed back hard enough to interfere with the president’s ambitions. Rather than agree to anniversary celebrations that Democrats could swallow, Trump aides created Freedom 250—an alternative entity that allowed Trump to stage events that resemble his self-aggrandizing campaign rallies.

Freedom 250 soon tapped Event Strategies to function as its general contractor for anniversary events. That work has been is extensive. For instance, Freedom 250 has received $14 million in federal funds to dispatch a small fleet of so-called Freedom Trucks to travel the country, displaying AI-supported history lessons on the nation’s founders that were crafted by two conservative organizations, PragerU and Hillsdale College.

Critics argue the trucks offer a sanitized version of American history, ignoring Native Americans, women’s rights, and the impact of slavery. Freedom 250 didn’t directly hire staffers for the trucks. The people driving those vehicles, and interacting with visitors, work for Event Strategies, two of them told me at a recent event.

Event Strategies is just one of a host of firms and people with ties to the administration that appear to be benefitting from anniversary events. Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project, in a June report, said that the administration has awarded more $100 million in grants and federal contracts “to a network of politicized entities” run by Trump allies for the celebrations.

Freedom 250 also employs Campaign Nucleus, a company run by Brad Parscale, a former top Trump campaign official, to provide a communications platform. Parscale’s work for the group comes while he also works as a registered agent for Israel. LaCivita and former Trump fundraiser Meredith O’Rourke also have key roles with Freedom 250, though Freedom 250 says they are unpaid.

Freedom 250 is paying contractors, at least in part, with federal appropriations. It has reportedly received at least $79 million in federal funds. But the group is also raising money from corporate donors, including many with interests before the administration.

United Airlines was added to a list of Freedom 250 donors in April, a few months after the airline reportedly pitched the Trump administration on supporting a United merger with American Airlines, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibly and Ethics in Washington has noted.

Various companies have also donated to Freedom 250 while mounting lobbying campaigns to influence federal officials. They include Palantir, the much-maligned federal contractor lobbying to boost its image; defense contracting giant Northrup Grumman; RTX, formerly known as Raytheon, another federal contractor; and mining giant Mosaic, which is seeking federal approval to expand a waste pile in Florida. Penske Corporation, the trucking and auto company owned by Trump ally Roger Penske, gave to Freedom 250 while it also stepped up its lobbying on trucking regulations and electric vehicle legislation.

Then there’s the UFC fight that Trump hosted on White House grounds on his 80th birthday, which was organized as part of the 250th celebration. That spectacle offered UFC chief executive Dana White, a Trump donor, and Paramount Skydance Corp—controlled by Trump backers Larry and David Ellison—a valuable benefit, a lawsuit by the Public Integrity Project charged. The sponsors received “unfettered access to the White House and Lincoln Memorial to stage a private, for-profit sports event, with all the promotional and branding opportunities that accompany such access,” according to the suit, which was dismissed by a judge.

Another Freedom 250 sponsor, ScottsMiracle-Gro, sells the weed-killer Roundup, which includes glyphosate—a chemical that the EPA says is safe but that lawsuits have alleged may cause cancer. The company is helping fund Trump’s anniversary events while its lobbyists push the administration to limit pesticide regulation. In February, Trump signed an executive order calling for boosting production of glyphosate, a move that could help ScottsMiracle-Gro.

After the UFC fight trashed the White House lawn, ScottsMiracle-Gro said it was donating $1 million worth of labor and materials to restore the grass. The White House promoted a gushing Fox News story about this pledge, providing what looked like free advertising for the company.

Last month, various performing artists—including Young MC, Martina McBride, and the current Milli Vanilli—backed out of Freedom 250’s Great American State Fair over concerns about the event’s partisanship. So Trump turned the fair’s opening night into a rally, featuring a speech in which he celebrated his own record. And Freedom 250 booked country music signer Alexis Wilkins, the girlfriend of FBI director Kash Patel, to perform the national anthem. Wilkins said she was not paid. But the televised event offered valuable publicity to Wilkins, whose music has so far won less notice than her relationship with Patel.

Happy birthday, America.

On Tuesday, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) held a House oversight hearing on MKULTRA, the notorious and failed CIA mind control program that is believed to have operated from 1953 to 1973. Luna heads the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets; the two witnesses called were authors who both wrote excellent books on different aspects of MKULTRA, and who used their testimony to call for the declassification of more documents related to the program.  But Luna, a Trump loyalist, muddied the proceedings by trying to link MKULTRA with her own pet conspiracy theories. She made it clear that she thought MKULTRA could still be active today, asking one witness if USAID, the international humanitarian aid organization dismantled by the Trump administration, “may have been used overseas” on “prisoners of war” to further the CIA program, a suggestion for which she provided no direct evidence.

As with a hearing she held on the JFK assassination last year, Luna implied that the MKULTRA hearing was merely the opening salvo, and that further revelations about bygone conspiracies would come. She said that she had “received reports” about “new MKULTRA boxes that were discovered,” and that the CIA was in the process of declassifying what was in those files, which appeared to relate to a “forgery program that was being housed under MKULTRA.” Luna promised that the documents would be released as soon as possible. 

“Why were they talking about COVID and Anthony Fauci at a hearing about MKUltra?”

It was obvious to knowledgeable observers that Luna would likely use the hearing to promote conspiracy theories. Mike Evans, an author at the National Security Archive at George Washington University, warned as much in a blog post earlier this week. (The National Security Archive is an NGO that focuses on government transparency and holds a large collection of declassified government documents.)

“Instead of focusing on the real and enduring secrets surrounding MKULTRA, there are strong indications that Luna will use the hearing as a platform to incite panic about vaccines, something she has done time and time again,” Evans wrote. “Luna’s preoccupation with the perceived dangers of ordinary vaccines was also what originally inspired her to call for a hearing on MKULTRA, according to a February 24 post to her account on X.com.”  

One of the authors called to testify was Dr. Stephen Kinzer, the author of Poisoner In Chief, a book about Sidney Gottlieb, the infamous chemist who headed the CIA’s Technical Services Division in the 1950s and 1960s and oversaw both MKULTRA and multiple attempts to kill or discredit Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The other was Tom O’Neill, author of Chaos, a book that documents his decades-long quest to determine whether Charles Manson or members of his murderous Family may have been subject to CIA experiments, served as FBI informants, or both. 

“I would urge this committee to fill out all the blank spaces in the documents that we have,” Kinzer said in his opening statement.

The task force, Kinzer added, “could also consider trying to determine whether some new incarnation of MKULTRA exists today,” arguing that some kind of mind control technology could exist that did not in the ‘60s and ‘70s. “In the many decades since then, there have been enormous advances in cybertechnology and artificial intelligence, in neuroscience; covert agencies may have access now to tools for mind control that Sidney Gottlieb could not even have imagined.”

The question of whether mind control “might now be possible under our new circumstances,” Kinzer said, “is something that has presumably occurred to scientists who work for secret services, including our own.” 

O’Neill also pointed out that a key promise of the 1977 hearings into MKULTRA and other governmental abuses was never fulfilled. “Committee members like yourselves,” he told the panel, “promised that the victims of MKULTRA would be identified, compensated and provided lifetime medical care. None of that ever happened.” Later in his remarks, O’Neill also argued that the documents that have thus far been discovered, “warrant a thorough reexamination of what this program accomplished, what Congress was told, and what may still remain hidden.”

Luna also noted during the hearing that more documents related to MKULTRA could and should be declassified, but presented an incomplete picture of what’s been released already. Documents about MKULTRA released by a Senate committee beginning in 1975. Two years later, in 1977, records containing far more detailed revelations were made public, including that the CIA had given drugs like LSD to unwitting civilians. One particularly infamous operation related to MKULTRA was Operation Midnight Climax, in which sex workers in CIA safehouses drugged patrons with LSD while CIA agents watched behind two-way mirrors. At least one person is known to have died as a result of MKULTRA: Frank Olson, a CIA scientist who was drugged with LSD at a CIA meeting in 1953 and either jumped or was pushed from a hotel window the same night. His death remains one of the most hotly-contested and infamous incidents in US intelligence history. (Gottlieb, meanwhile, the architect of MKULTRA, was allowed to retire quietly after his time in the CIA, living in rural Virginia, taking up folk dancing and breeding goats.)

During a 1977 hearing, the late-Sen. Edwardy Kennedy (D-Mass.), denounced MKULTRA’s bizarre and unethical pseudo-experimentation in stark terms. 

“The Agency itself acknowledged that these tests made little scientific sense,” he said. “The agents doing the monitoring were not qualified scientific observers. The test subjects were seldom accessible beyond the first hours of the test. In a number of instances, the test subject became ill for hours or days, and effective followup was impossible. Other experiments were equally offensive. For example, heroin addicts were enticed into participating in LSD experiments in order to get a reward—heroin. Perhaps most disturbing of all was the fact that the extent of experimentation on human subjects was unknown.”  

The present-day hearing was considerably less focused, and no one involved—elected officials or witnesses—seemed able to answer the questions they were raising, particularly about whether MKULTRA or a similar program might still exist in some form. House Democrats also didn’t appear to know what to do with this strange event; they called as a witness a former NIH employee, Dr. Elizabeth Ginexi, a research psychologist who had no specific knowledge of MKULTRA, but who warned that the agency is being stripped, warped, and politicized beyond recognition. 

In response to Ginexi’s presence on the panel, Republicans grilled her about Anthony Fauci and the origins of Covid. “Do you believe the NIH or Dr. Fauci lied to the American people about Covid?” Rep. Nancy Mace, (R-SC) asked, in one representative exchange.

“No,” Ginexi replied. 

Mace questioned why Ginexi had been sent to participate in the panel at all, if she wasn’t an expert on MKULTRA. Ginexi responded that she’s an expert on human subjects research; not appearing to understand the connection, Mace moved on.

Ginexi also tried to tell the members of Congress that canceling government-backed clinical trials, something that’s happened repeatedly under the Trump administration, was harming people’s trust in science and in the government, and would make it hard to recruit patients for such trials in the future. Republican members of Congress seemed uninterested in discussing that idea, instead focusing repeatedly on Covid and Covid conspiracy theories.

“You just brought up trust,” shot back Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.). “Do you think the NIH has a trust problem, based on how they handled Covid?” 

“No, I do not,” Genexi responded. “I think the NIH is beloved by the American people because we know about the advances in human health and cancer treatment and heart disease and diabetes and all the health gains the research has produced.”

“Well I think you’re wrong, ma’am,” Crane responded. “I think the public has a serious mistrust issue with the NIH. Do you deny that the NIH tried to cover up the origin of Covid?” 

Mike Evans of the National Security Archive told Mother Jones on Wednesday that the hearing had proceeded more or less as he expected. 

“I think that the two main witnesses did their best to stay focused on what the committee can do to illuminate the historical record,” he told me in an email. “But l just don’t think that this is a sincere effort by the Task Force to do that. Why were they talking about COVID and Anthony Fauci at a hearing about MKULTRA?”

Evans was also confused by Genexi’s inclusion: “I also have to say that I found the decision by the minority members to call a former NIH staffer with no background in researching MKULTRA to be rather baffling. I still don’t understand why they did that.”

By far “the most underwhelming part,” Evans added, was Luna’s announcement that files will be reviewed related to an apparent forgery program. “What does that have to do with MKULTRA or CIA mind control efforts?” he asked. “That’s just basic intelligence tradecraft. My guess is that CIA felt like they needed to produce something to satisfy the task force, but if that’s the extent of it, then these hearings were a total failure.”

“In the end, the hearing didn’t break any new ground as far as I can tell,” Evans added. None of what was presented at the hearings, he said, “is really new. So why are they holding hearings now?”

In all, the hearing was a neat demonstration of current Republican priorities, their interest in promising disclosures that never really come, as well as their energetic embrace of any conspiracy theory that does not directly implicate Donald Trump. A neat, if accidental, encapsulation of what happened during the hearing was provided by Kinzer, the Poisoner in Chief author, near the end of the proceedings. 

“There’s a reason why conspiracy theories are so widespread in America,” Kinzer told Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.). “It has to do with the dissociation between what we say we are and do, and what we really are and do. This has become more and more clear to more and more people. Therefore, they’re suspicious of nefarious dealings by the US and they’re also suspicious of other things that aren’t nefarious at all.”  

⚡ Quick Take

• The second episode of X-Men ’97 season two changed the iconic opening credits to showcase X-Force.
• The episode, “A Force to be Reckoned With,” is all about Cable’s team of Mutant mercenaries.
• The government-sponsored X-Factor are the antagonists.

After two long years, X-Men ’97 is finally back, and they dropped us right in the middle of the action with our time-lost X-Men. But it was the second episode of the season, “A Force to be Reckoned With,” that was perhaps the most fun, because it introduced us to the animated version of X-Force. And as X-Men ’97 often does, it gave us a new opening credits scene just for this episode, focused solely on the cyborg soldier Cable’s mutant black ops squad. But the amazing theme music is thankfully the same. You can watch the X-Force ’97 opening credits below:

X-Force '97 Opening Theme (X-Men '97 Season 2) pic.twitter.com/xuBn6B7pR7

— Blaze Binges (@BlazeBinges) July 1, 2026

So what’s different in this opening sequence? Quite a bit. We see Cable, a.k.a. Nathan Dayspring Summers, fighting off a battalion of Sentinels. Jubilee’s intro in the credits is much the same, with the young X-Man lighting off fireworks. However, her costume is different. Sunspot is wearing his ’90s Marvel Comics uniform, and finally lands a spot in the opening credits. Psylocke prowls the rooftops of Japan, and Archangel flies into the sky and shoots razor-sharp projectiles from his wings. We then get clips from past X-Men: The Animated Series episodes, like Cable fighting Apocalypse, and Warren Worthington’s transformation into Archangel.

Marvel Television

The opening credits also fill in some missing story beats from the actual episode. We see Psylocke training Jubilee in a combat scenario, with Jubilee blindfolded, Luke Skywalker style. It looks like they are in a military hangar somewhere. After all, without a Danger Room, X-Force had to train somewhere. Finally, the famous “running at each other” moment before the title card goes up is now X-Force vs. Apocalypse and his Horsemen, instead of the X-Men vs. Magneto’s forces. Now, X-Factor also played a big role in this episode. Does that mean they’ll get a title credits scene of their own? We’ll have to wait and see as X-Men ’97 season two continues.

The post X-MEN ’97’s Opening Credits Turned to X-Force for An Episode appeared first on Nerdist.

When it comes to the Supreme Court, no amount of treats is enough for President Donald Trump. Sure, they gave him blanket immunity from his myriad crimes, paving the way to retake office. Sure, they just gave him nearly unlimited power to reshape the administrative state and turn it into his personal fiefdom/dumping ground for exceedingly online groypers. And sure…

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The AI neocloud provider, which specializes in hosting open source models, last raised at a $3.3 billion valuation in early 2025.

A cartoon by Tim Campbell. Related |…

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AI answers are killing content publishers, as they cause readers to stay on Google or on the chatbot of their choice, rather than navigating to dedicated websites. The end result could be catastrophic for the open web. Alex Chan, assistant professor at Harvard Business School, floats that prediction based on an economic model he describes in a paper titled "AI and the collapse of the www." A paper from Saharsh Agarwal, assistant professor at the Indian School of Business, and Ananya Sen, associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University entitled "The Impact of Google AI Overviews on Publisher Traffic and User Experience: Evidence from a Field Experiment," shows that Google AI Overviews "reduce outbound organic clicks by 39.8 percent and increase zero-click searches by 34.5 percent, without affecting sponsored clicks or overall search frequency." A zero-click search is what happens when a search user's query gets answered on the search results page, so there's no need to click through to a source website. "Overall, the results suggest that [AI Overviews] divert traffic away from publishers without improving the user experience or quality of engagement for websites," conclude Agarwal and Sen. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has argued otherwise, to some skepticism and despite Pew research to the contrary. Chan, from Harvard Business School, undertook his research to explore what has to be replaced to reimagine the market that AI is destroying. The open web, he begins, is based on a bargain: "Publishers produce content. Search and social discovery send users to that content. Visits generate revenue." In doing so, web visitors also generate information about informational quality through their clicks, subscriptions, and other interactions. These signals, he observes, help future visitors and search systems find quality sources. "Generative AI changes this bargain," Chan continues. "An AI answer can use publisher content while keeping the user in the AI interface. Users may be better served in the short run. But the source may lose the visit, the revenue from the visit, and the source-level signal that the visit would have produced." Chan's exploration of the topic is noteworthy because it looks beyond the revenue impact of diminishing visitor traffic – something industry players like Cloudflare are already trying to address. It also identifies other economically valuable signals lost to AI answer systems, what he refers to as "durable attention capital." This includes: subscribers, repeat readers, backlinks, bookmarks, reputation, and search authority. Chan characterizes his argument as a more disciplined version of the AI-will-make-the-web-collapse scenario. He's not saying every website will vanish, that all AI reduces the diversity of information, or that search is doomed. Rather, he contends, "when an AI platform diverts the revenue and measurement events without replacing them, costly human information may fall below replacement." Really, though, that is the web collapse scenario. AI answers make it uneconomical for people to produce content and their disincentive in doing so prevents the formation of quality and trust signals that add value to their work. To restore a functioning market, Chan says, the answer shouldn't be a "visitor replacement royalty" that AI search services pay to websites or a ban on AI answers. That just props up the traditional model. Instead, he argues that the focus should move toward the new point of attention – which for some queries may be AI answers – while finding a way to distinguish between costly human information and cheap AI imitation. He concludes, "Provenance, diversity prices, exploration credits, and informative audits are needed to restore the broader ecosystem: quantity, quality, diversity, source-level signals, and the conventional-search discovery channel that prevents self-reinforcing migration into AI answers." That may be more difficult than it sounds. Distinguishing between AI- and human-authored content can be quite challenging. And to the extent that there's potential profit in selling low-cost AI output as premium human-authored content, expect active resistance to labeling or other mechanisms that threaten slop arbitrage. ®

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“He comes home every day confident, happy and positive. It’s a bit of magic.” – Natascha, Gateway Parent

At Gateway School, magic happens daily in our Kindergarten program. With an emphasis on exploration, discovery, and hands-on learning, everyone at Gateway turns your child’s natural curiosity into a lifelong love of learning.

What makes Gateway’s Kindergarten so special?

Here are ten reasons parents and students fall in love with Gateway:

1. The Gold Standard in Education
   Gateway is the only K-8 school in Santa Cruz County accredited by both the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), ensuring a top-tier, well-rounded education.
2. Specialist Programs that Inspire
   From Spanish and Art & Technology to Life Lab Science, Music, and Physical Education, our weekly specialist programs are taught by experts who bring their passions to life, sparking inspiration in every child.
3. Fluent Futures in Spanish
   Our robust Spanish program starts in Kindergarten and continues through 8th grade, preparing graduates to excel in advanced high school courses and beyond.
4. Hands-on, Minds-on Learning
   Imagine your child learning science by growing a garden or solving math problems through building projects. Gateway’s experiential approach helps students think critically, collaborate effectively, and retain knowledge with joy.
5. The Power of Play
   At Gateway, play is more than fun—it’s essential. From creative free play to structured activities, our program fosters healthy brain development and essential life skills. As Zoe, class of 2031, puts it: “Play might actually be learning!”
6. Big Buddy, Little Buddy
   Through our cherished Buddy Program, Kindergarteners are paired with 4th and 8th grade students for shared activities and mentoring. These connections build confidence, nurture empathy, and strengthen our school community.
7. Small Classes, Big Attention
   With an average class size of just 15 students and a student-teacher ratio of 7:1, every child receives personalized support. Each classroom has both a full-time teacher and a full-time assistant, ensuring that every child feels seen and heard.
8. Kindy Island: A Place to Imagine
   Kindergarteners have their own special space—Kindy Island—designed for safe, imaginative play. It’s a sanctuary where creativity knows no bounds.
9. Whole-Child Focus
   Social-emotional learning is seamlessly woven into daily routines. From developing empathy to building resilience, we nurture the emotional well-being that underpins academic success.
10. A Community that Cares
    Gateway is more than a school—it’s a family. With close-knit relationships among students, faculty, and families, we create an inclusive environment where every voice is valued.

Discover the Gateway Difference

When your child steps into Gateway’s Kindergarten, they’re stepping into a world of endless possibilities. From the first day, they’ll grow confident, happy, and curious, just like Natascha’s child. Come see the magic for yourself!

Learn more or register for a tour at gatewaysc.org, or admissions@gatewaysc.org

The post 10 reasons Gateway School’s Kindergarten is the perfect start for your child appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Top 10 exciting job opportunities in Santa Cruz County – Apply today!

Are you searching for your next career move in Santa Cruz County? Look no further! We’ve curated a list of the top 10 job opportunities recently posted to our job board, spanning various industries and roles. Whether you’re a recent graduate, seasoned professional, or someone seeking a fresh start, Santa Cruz has something to offer for everyone.

1. Pastry & Kitchen Manager at The Penny Ice Creamery
2. Assistant Manager of Operations at The Quail
3. Maintenance Engineer at The Quail
4. Caregiver for Seniors – Part Time at Home Senior Care, Inc.
5. Accounting Technician at County of Santa Cruz Human Resources Department
6. Shop Manager at The Penny Ice Creamery
7. Short Term Camp Bus Driver at Camp Ramah in Northern California
8. Forest Stewardship Manager at Sempervirens Fund
9. Project Manager 1 at MYNT Systems
10. Residential Community Service Supervisor at UC Santa Cruz

Why work in Santa Cruz County?

Santa Cruz County boasts a vibrant community, picturesque surroundings, and diverse career opportunities. From academic roles at UC Santa Cruz to impactful positions in healthcare and local government, the perfect place to support both your professional growth and work-life balance.

Ready to take the next step?

Apply for these exciting job opportunities in Santa Cruz County today!

FIND MORE ON THE LOOKOUT JOB BOARD >> Looking to hire? Build your team with us

• List your open positions: Amplify your job listings to reach engaged Santa Cruz County job seekers – post your job today.
• Save with job bundles: Purchase a job board bundle of 4 or 8 listings and save 25%. Redeem your jobs anytime. Bundles never expire. Get Your Bundles Here.
• Exclusive discounts for Marketing Partners: Are you a Lookout Marketing Partner? Contact your representative today to access your exclusive discount.

Questions about the job board? Reach out to Brittany at brittany@lookoutlocal.com.

The post 10 Hot Jobs in Santa Cruz County: Week of July 2 appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Cloudflare is giving AI companies until September 15 to separate web crawlers used for search from those used for AI training and agents, or risk being blocked by default on many publisher sites.

⚡ Quick Take

• PlayStation will stop making physical game discs.
• New games made after January 2028 will not have a physical option.
• Digital downloads account for 80% of PlayStation game purchases.

Now’s the time when Grandpa Kyle gives you a tale of the 1990s. Back then, if you were lucky enough to have a home video game console, you coveted your library of games. You’d have to keep them free of dust, you’d add new ones and make room on your shelf or cupboard. And renting a new game? Oh, it would make or break a weekend. If you didn’t have the game in your hands, you couldn’t play it. Cut to now when the rise of digital downloads has made owning a physical copy of a game rarer and rarer. Add the word “obsolete” when discussing physical games and that’s where we are now as PlayStation has announced it will no long produce physical game discs.

The news comes via a blog post on the PlayStation site. Physical copies will cease production beginning January 2028.

Sony

Sid Shuman, Senior Director of Sony Interactive said, in part:

In response to shifting trends in consumer preference, new games will be released on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only.

Shifting trends is right. Digital downloads of new games has completely overtaken physical, as a tweet from Daniel Ahmad illustrates. What started as roughly 10% of sales in the PS4 days has ballooned to 80% of total game sales, DLC not included.

It's no secret that digital captures a higher % of full game sales each year (no, this figure doesn't include DLC).

What started during the PS4 (less than 10% digital at the start), has evolved into 80% of full game sales being digital on an annual basis. pic.twitter.com/fn2bpDo5sB

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) July 1, 2026

Evidence and behind the scenes scuttle also indicates PlayStation 6 and Xbox’s Project Helix will not have a disc drive option. If you, like me, use your PlayStation has 4K disc player in addition to a way to play games, you’re SOL.

So, what does this all mean? If 80% of players already download their games rather than buy them physically, this doesn’t seem like that big of an issue, right? Well, it goes toward a growing trend of the ephemeral nature of media. Maybe not the huge, giant popular titles, but smaller games, indie games, or weird games might suddenly disappear from your library when Sony loses a license. This happens all the time. You can never actually own digital media. You merely rent it. A $70+ rental.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

The post PlayStation Will Cease Physical Disc Production by 2028 appeared first on Nerdist.

The City of Santa Cruz announced Tuesday that it has won a lawsuit brought by industry groups over Measure Z, the sugar-sweetened beverage tax that voters approved in November 2024. The city expects an appeal.

Honda wants in on the lucrative energy storage market. This week it began producing batteries destined for data centers, not driveways.

In an appearance on Fox News, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin discussed whether immigrant women should be subject to some sort of pregnancy screening. The topic came up as Mullin and “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade discussed ways to follow up the Supreme Court decision reaffirming the right to birthright citizenship, which an executive order from President Donald Trump had…

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