Perspective.

https://www.bespacific.com/the-new-dark-age-the-trump-administration-has-launched-an-attack-on-knowledge-itself/

The New Dark Age – The Trump administration has launched an attack on knowledge itself

The Atlantic no paywall: “The warlords who sacked Rome did not intend to doom Western Europe to centuries of ignorance. It was not a foreseeable consequence of their actions. The same cannot be said of the sweeping attack on human knowledge and progress that the Trump administration is now undertaking—a deliberate destruction of education, science, and history, conducted with a fanaticism that recalls the Dark Ages that followed Rome’s fall. Every week brings fresh examples. The administration is threatening colleges and universities with the loss of federal funding if they do not submit to its demands, or even if they do. The engines of American scientific inquiry and ingenuity, such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, are under sustained attack. Historical institutions such as the Smithsonian and artistic ones like the Kennedy Center are being converted into homes for MAGA ideology rather than historical fact and free expression. Libraries are losing funding, government-employed scientists are being dismissed from their jobs, educators are being cowed into silence, and researchers are being warned not to broach forbidden subjects. Entire databases of public-health information collected over decades are at risk of vanishing. Any facts that contradict the gospel of Trumpism are treated as heretical. These various initiatives and policy changes are often regarded as discrete problems, but they comprise a unified assault.

The Trump administration has launched a comprehensive attack on knowledge itself, a war against culture, history, and science. If this assault is successful, it will undermine Americans’ ability to comprehend the world around us. Like the inquisitors of old, who persecuted Galileo for daring to notice that the sun did not, in fact, revolve around the Earth, they believe that truth-seeking imperils their hold on power…”

Perspective.

https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/press-release/mass-facial-recognition-roll-out-exists-in-legal-grey-area/

Mass facial recognition roll-out exists in ‘legal grey area’ due to inadequate governance, says the Ada Lovelace Institute

• The use of biometric surveillance technologies is rapidly expanding across the public and private sector – including in shops, train stations and schools.

• But there is no specific legal basis for their use, and the UK’s fragmented governance framework is failing in practice, creating legal uncertainty and undermining public trust.

• New, risk-based legislation is urgently needed to establish clear rules alongside an independent regulator to enforce them.

How could you not expect a strong reaction?

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-court-blocks-trumps-liberation-day-tariffs-2025-05-28/

US court blocks most Trump tariffs, says president exceeded his authority

… "The court does not pass upon the wisdom or likely effectiveness of the President's use of tariffs as leverage," a three-judge panel said in the decision to issue a permanent injunction on the blanket tariff orders issued by Trump since January. "That use is impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [federal law] does not allow it."

… The judges also ordered the Trump administration to issue new orders reflecting the permanent injunction within 10 days. The Trump administration minutes later filed a notice of appeal and questioned the authority of the court.