Is life getting better in NSW? Here’s how the government is finding out
The state has been measuring our wellbeing, not just budget dollars and cents. ⌘ Read more

Infrastructure funding changes ‘a long way from workable’
It is not a good start to the morning after Budget Day when you get told off by a government department.

“Thank you for your reporting on the Incentives for Growth Fund,” began the polite email from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). ⌘ Read more

Best of cartoons, June 8, 2026
The news of the day as interpreted by our talented artists, illustrators and cartoonists. ⌘ Read more

Melbourne brothel owner among funders of ‘Ditch the Witch’ billboards against Allan
The controversial slogan was heavily criticised as sexist by the premier and other politicians on Sunday. ⌘ Read more

Melbourne brothel owner among funders of ‘Ditch the Witch’ billboards against Allan
The controversial slogan was heavily criticised as sexist by the premier and other politicians on Sunday. ⌘ Read more

Pentagon raised threat of Israeli spying on U.S. to highest level, sources say
Article URL: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/pentagon-raised-threat-israeli-spying-us-highest-level-sources-say-rcna348565

Comments URL: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48427523](https://news.ycombinator.com … ⌘ Read more

Anti-Vax Dating Apps Are Going IRL. People Are Mad as Hell About It
Unjected and PureBlood.Dating are hosting in-person meetups—and have transformed the dating landscape into a political battleground over bodily autonomy. ⌘ Read more

The TikTok Ban Was Never About TikTok
A new documentary chronicles how the app became a stand-in for American anxieties about social media, China, and political power. ⌘ Read more

WH proposes rules giving political appointees final approval on research grants
Article URL: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/white-house-proposes-new-rules-giving-political-appointees-final-say-on-research-grants/

Comments URL: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48331511](https://news.ycomb … ⌘ Read more

Polit-Erosion in der Türkei: Cengiz Günay im Studio ⌘ Read more

Budget 2026’s thorny political issues
This week’s pre-election Budget suggests the Government believes it will have done just enough to win on Nov 7 this year and is instead setting itself up for the 2029 election, promising looser purse strings then.

That is a confident call. ⌘ Read more

A fiscally prudent, politically neutral Budget
Every Budget should have a politically impactful surprise.

In Budget 2026, the biggest surprise is the forecast of impressively large Budget surpluses as far as the eye can see from 2028/29. ⌘ Read more

Justice Dept. Is Said to Open Criminal Inquiry of E. Jean Carroll
Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/us/politics/criminal-inquiry-e-jean-carroll-trump-accusations.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48303131

Points: 17

# Comments: 4 ⌘ Read more

Griechischer Ex-Regierungschef Tsipras vor Polit-Comeback ⌘ Read more

The political polarization of health outcomes in the USA
Article URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-026-02474-9

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48260331

Points: 10

# Comments: 1 ⌘ Read more

Gas users’ Budget hopes collide with subsidy politics
Budget 2026 will be revealed on Thursday, with much of the energy sector hoping for help, though many are likely to be disappointed.

Solar supporters, biomass proponents and other energy players have all been looking for financial assistance or more favourable policy settings. ⌘ Read more

Curtis Yarvin and the Political Evolution of Silicon Valley Reactionaries
Article URL: https://www.dontbeasucker.blog/p/the-butterflies-in-your-stomach

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48229260

Points: 18

# Comments: 3 ⌘ Read more

For the love of a Marsden Point rail spur: Winston and Wayne write to one another
For the love of a Marsden Point rail spur, Rail Minister Winston Peters and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown have been penning polite but corrective letters to one another.

Peters wrote to Brown last week after … ⌘ Read more

My Net Worth: Jacob Rajan, Indian Ink co-founder
Jacob Rajan co-founded the Indian Ink Theatre Company with Justin Lewis nearly 30 years ago, with the hit play Krishnan’s Dairy. Their 12th original production, Balloon Dog , begins a tour of New Zealand and Australia on May 16.

I was born in Malaysia, but both my parents are from Kerala in Southern India. The political situation in Malaysia was that if you … ⌘ Read more

PlayStation3 Emulator Devs Politely Ask Contributors to Stop Submitting ‘AI Slop’ Pull Requests
Open-source PS3 emulator RPCS3 “has been around since 2011,” Kotaku notes, and has made 70% of the PlayStation 3’s library fully playable, “bolstered in part by the many users who contribute to its GitHub page.” But their dev team “took to X today to very kindly and civilly request that … ⌘ Read more

Right-to-Repair Laws Gain Political Momentum Across America
“California, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Connecticut, Oregon and Washington have all passed comprehensive right-to-repair regulations,” reports CNBC, “covering everything from consumer electronics and farm equipment to wheelchairs and automobiles.”

And the consumer movement “continues to gain political momentum” across America…

As of this year, advo … ⌘ Read more

AI Tool Rips Off Open Source Software Without Violating Copyright
A satirical but working tool called Malus uses AI to create “clean room” clones of open-source software, aiming to reproduce the same functionality while shedding attribution and copyleft obligations. “It works,” Mike Nolan, one of the two people behind Malus, who researches the political economy of open source software and currently works for … ⌘ Read more

Google’s Internal Politics Leave It Playing Catch-Up On AI Coding
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: At Google, leaders are anxious about falling behind in the race to offer AI coding tools, especially as rivals like Anthropic PBC offer more effective and popular tools to businesses, according to people familiar with the matter. The search giant is now working to unite some of its coding … ⌘ Read more

Before Webcomics: Selling Political Cartoons On BBSes In 1992
Slashdot reader Kirkman14 writes: A year before the Web opened to the public, Texas entrepreneur Don Lokke was trying to syndicate weekly political cartoons to bulletin board systems. His “telecomics,” as he called them, represent an overlooked early experiment in online comics. Lokke launched his main series, “Mack the Mouse” at the height of the 1992 … ⌘ Read more

@movq@www.uninformativ.de with the current regime, everything is, to put it politely, rather odd, and in disarray. They have yesterday’s window, otherwise the next one was on the 12 of April, or something like that. We knew it was going up for a few days, but we are used to that kind of thing, so it is not that super exciting any more. LOL.

Yeah, I saw it in person.

US Car Buyers Envy What They Cannot Have: Affordable Chinese EVs
Many U.S. consumers are increasingly interested in lower-cost Chinese electric vehicles but steep tariffs and political resistance are keeping them out of the market. A recent survey from Cox Automotive found that 40% of respondents support allowing Chinese auto brands into the U.S. market. Reuters reports: While Chinese autos hit the highways of … ⌘ Read more

Chinese Official’s Use of ChatGPT Revealed a Global Intimidation Opperation
New submitter sabbede shares a report from CNN Politics: A sprawling Chinese influence operation – accidentally revealed by a Chinese law enforcement official’s use of ChatGPT – focused on intimidating Chinese dissidents abroad, including by impersonating US immigration officials, according to a new report from ChatGPT-make … ⌘ Read more

Meta Begins $65 Million Election Push To Advance AI Agenda
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Meta is preparing to spend $65 million this year to boost state politicians who are friendly to the artificial intelligence industry, beginning this week in Texas and Illinois, according to company representatives. The sum is the biggest election investment by Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagra … ⌘ Read more

Apple Accuses European Commission of ‘Political Delay Tactics’ To Justify Fines
Apple has accused the European Commission of using “political delay tactics” to postpone new app marketplace policies and create grounds for investigating and fining the iPhone maker, a preemptive response to reports that the commission plans to blame Apple for the announced closure of third-party app store Setapp.

M … ⌘ Read more

‘America Is Slow-Walking Into a Polymarket Disaster’
In an opinion piece for The Atlantic, senior editor Saahil Desai argues that media outlets are increasingly treating prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi as legitimate signals of reality. The risk, as Desai warns, is a future where news coverage amplifies manipulable betting odds and turns politics, geopolitics, and even tragedy into speculative gambling theater. … ⌘ Read more

More US States are Putting Bitcoin on Public Balance Sheets
An anonymous reader shared this report from CNBC:

Led by Texas and New Hampshire, U.S. states across the national map, both red and blue in political stripes, are developing bitcoin strategic reserves and bringing cryptocurrencies onto their books through additional state finance and budgeting measures. Texas recently became the first state to purchase bitc … ⌘ Read more

Congressman Introduces Legislation To Criminalize Insider Trading On Prediction Markets
Ritchie Torres has introduced a bill to ban government officials from using insider information to trade on political prediction markets like Polymarket. The bill was prompted by reports that traders on Polymarket made large profits betting on Nicolas Maduro’s removal, raising suspicions that some wage … ⌘ Read more

Corporation for Public Broadcasting To Shut Down After 58 Years
After Congress approved President Donald Trump’s rescission package eliminating federal funding, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting voted to dissolve after 58 years, rather than continue to exist and potentially be “vulnerable to future political manipulation or misuse.” The shutdown leaves hundreds of local public TV and radio station … ⌘ Read more

A Decade of BBC Question Time Data Reveals Imbalance in Journalist Guests
A new study [PDF] from Cardiff University analyzing a decade of the popular topical debate programme BBC Question Time found that the broadcaster’s flagship political debate show relies disproportionately on journalists and pundits from right-wing media outlets, particularly those connected to The Spectator magazine.

Research … ⌘ Read more

Political Beliefs ⋙ Science ⌘ Read more

State of Play: Who Holds the Power in the Video Games Industry in 2025?
The video games industry in 2025 finds itself caught between the familiar forces of consolidation and job losses that have plagued creative industries, and a newer development: governments and the ultra-wealthy have begun treating games as tools of political influence. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund closed a $55 billion deal fo … ⌘ Read more

Pro-AI Group Launches First of Many Attack Ads for US Election
“Super PAC aims to drown out AI critics in midterms,” the Washington Post reported in August, noting its intial funding over $100 million from “some of Silicon Valley’s most powerful investors and executives” including OpenAI president Greg Brockman, his wife, and VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. The group’s goal was “to quash a philosophical debate … ⌘ Read more

Are Warnings of Superintelligence ‘Inevitability’ Masking a Grab for Power?
Superintelligence has become “a quasi-political forecast” with “very little to do with any scientific consensus, emerging instead from particular corridors of power.” That’s the warning from James O’Sullivan, a lecturer in digital humanities from University College Cork. In a refreshing 5,600-word essay in Noema magazine, he notes t … ⌘ Read more

US To Mandate AI Vendors Measure Political Bias For Federal Sales
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. government will require artificial intelligence vendors to measure political “bias” to sell their chatbots to federal agencies, according to a Trump administration statement (PDF) released on Thursday. The requirement will apply to all large language models bought by federal agencies, wi … ⌘ Read more

The great scroll off: Inside Australia’s world-first teen social media ban
How grieving parents, media campaigns, and political opportunism collided to create the world’s most ambitious - and contentious - experiment in digital regulation. ⌘ Read more

Democrats Warn Their Party May Try To Unravel Any Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery Deal
As the battle over Warner Bros. Discovery grows, two Democratic lawmakers are warning that their party may try to block or unravel any
acquisition by Paramount when it returns to power. Semafor: In a letter to the WBD board and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent first shared with Semafor, Reps. Sam Li … ⌘ Read more

Live: PM says Australian families ‘taking back power’ from social media companies
The prime minister says Australian families are “taking back power” from social media companies as the under-16s ban kicks off today. Follow live. ⌘ Read more

Farmers say Australia needs government will to unlock biofuel potential
Fuels produced from waste and agricultural feedstock are tipped to play a role in cutting emissions, but a leading Victorian farmer says political will is required to seize the opportunity. ⌘ Read more

One Nation part of global populist movement in politics, Barnaby Joyce says
In his first interview since formally joining One Nation, Barnaby Joyce says he sees comparisons between his new party and Britain’s far-right Reform UK party under populist leader Nigel Farage. ⌘ Read more

Illegal seafood and ALP fundraisers etched into iconic restaurant’s fame
For four decades Lagoon Restaurant has been one of Wollongong’s most iconic and controversial establishments, enjoying a prime seaside location and a close relationship with the city’s political class. ⌘ Read more

How 4ZZZ kept Brisbane loud and proud with the help of bands, battles and beer
Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ has withstood political, social and financial pressure for 50 years and it’s still thriving as a loud and proud beacon of counterculture. ⌘ Read more

Porridge is on the menu but budget politics is about to get spicier
How does a treasurer tell households the government will no longer continue a $300 energy rebate when it’s happy to blow $100,000 on three flights? ⌘ Read more

AI Chatbots Can Sway Voters Better Than Political Ads
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: New research reveals that AI chatbots can shift voters’ opinions in a single conversation – and they’re surprisingly good at it. A multi-university team of researchers has found that chatting with a politically biased AI model was more effective than political advertisements at nudging both Democrats … ⌘ Read more

Israel’s contentious participation in Eurovision traces back to the 70s
Eurovision strives to put pop before politics, but it has repeatedly become embroiled in world events, particularly relating to Israel. ⌘ Read more

Republicans Drop Trump-Ordered Block On State AI Laws From Defense Bill
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A Donald Trump-backed push has failed to wedge a federal measure that would block states from passing AI laws for a decade into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday that a sect of Republicans is now … ⌘ Read more