The Doomscroll News Report

Hanna and Amanda talk about yet another right wing populist victory amid a recurring global trend, as well as the new lawsuit filed by Jane Doe against the Cornell 7.

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German security agencies face dilemma after victories for far right and far left

Germany’s AfD is so extreme it’s putting off other far-right parties

How the anti-AfD firewall broke German politics

What we know about Cornell University frat house rape investigation

This week we had an amazing interview with The Vice president of the Center for European Policy Analysis Christopher Walker about the information warfare issue facing… well, basically everywhere Hanna. We also breifly cover the White House press ban, with a little guessing about what will come of the second Trump-Xi meeting.

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News Salad: 1. What is the White House pool and why is it in a row with Trump? (Henri Astier and Ione Wells, BBC), 2. Judge lifts Trump ban on CNN, MS NOW, Politico from White House (Sam Meredith and Dan Mangan, CNBC), 3. A diplomatic split screen as Trump and Xi meet (Antoni Slodkowski, John Irish and Tom Balmforth, Reuters)

Interview with Walker: 1. War Without End: Understanding Russia’s Shadow Warfare (Sam Greene, Andrei Soldatov, and Irina Borogan, CEPA)

This week, hosts Amanda and Hanna are tackling a few recent topics (the Ed Sheeran tour debacle, and Anthropic's media disaster or strategy ahead of it's IPO release), before getting into two topics Amanda has wanted to pop off about for a long time: The slow death of physical media with Sony’s announcement that they’ll no longer be producing game discs, and the "old-igarchy" in the USA with Mitch McConnell's shocking reappearance into American politics, for better and seemingly much, much worse.

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News Salad: 1. All supporting acts withdraw from Ed Sheeran’s tour in solidarity with Macklemore (Adrian Horton, The Guardian), 2. Anthropic IPO won't be slowed by safety uproar (Axios), 3. AI fears send cybersecurity stocks higher (Axios)

Sony vs digital ownership: 1. Physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles (Sony announcement), 2. PlayStation wants to prove in court that you don't own your digital games (Polygon), 3. Sony says it will stop producing physical discs for PlayStation games (NPR), 4. John Oliver on ‘smart’ appliances: ‘Spying on you through the washing machine’ (The Guardian)

The old, old senate: 1. Mitch McConnell returns to Senate after fall that led to an extended medical absence (NPR), 2. Legal historian’s new book argues older Americans control power, wealth — and lack sense of urgency to fix nation’s most pressing problems (Samuel Moyn, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Harvard Gazette), 3. This Congress is one of the oldest yet. Most Americans think that’s a problem, a new CNN poll shows (Rhyannon Bartlett-Imadegawa and Jennifer Agiesta, CNN)

Hanna and Amanda take a pulse check on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which has now passed six months; they also talk drones, especially Taiwan's current focus on them and what sort of drone tech China might be working on. Finally, they remember feminist icon Gloria Steinem, who passed away early this month.

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Oil rises past $100 a barrel after the latest wave of Middle East attacks

The US wants to manage the stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran wants to break it

US, Iran engaged in tanker war: Where is the months-long conflict headed?

China’s WZ-X drone hints at an unmanned stealth bomber

China’s Huge WZ-X Stealth Drone’s Strange Wing Configuration Confirmed

Drone intrusion temporarily shuts Taichung air base

‘Courage and contradictions’: what Gloria Steinem meant to feminist writers from around the world

This week, hosts Amanda and Hanna are tackling: The devastating landslide on the Tibet-Nepal border, and how it’s testing Nepal’s new government, before a deep dive into the camera company FLOCK and why we can’t escape it on our newsfeeds, before ending with a follow-up to a previous story about the landmark META settlement!

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Nepal-Tibet disaster: 1. Nepal declines foreign rescue teams, says its own security agencies can handle operation (Anil Giri, Kathmandu Post), 2. Nepal has not rejected foreign rescue aid, says foreign minister (Rajesh Mishra, Kathmandu Post), 3. Nepal floods test PM Balen's young government (Lekhanath Pandey, DW), 4. Nepal's young PM faces gravest test after flood catastrophe (AFP, France24)

Flock vs the USA: 1. How Flock Cameras Took Over America (NYT The Daily Podcast), Why the Flock Backlash Has Gotten So Intense (The Atlantic), 3. Their cities dropped Flock surveillance cameras. They’re still being watched (Sanya Mansoor , The Guardian), 4. Hawley launches investigation into Flock cameras’ massive surveillance program (Alexander Bolton, The Hill)

Meta settlement: 1. Meta agrees to pay $18 billion to settle US lawsuits over children's social media addiction (Diana Novak Jones, Jonathan Stempel and Greg Bensinger, Reuters)

Hanna and Amanda talk about the impending El Niño, Sam Altman and OpenAI getting hit with a lawsuit alleging ChatGPT consitutes a public nuisance, and American country music icon Dolly Parton, who last Wednesday passed away at the age of 80.

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WMO: Likelihood increases of El Niño

What is El Niño and how is it influenced by climate change?

Scientists warn El Niño could intensify climate extremes in 2026

Has climate change already affected ENSO?

Florida sues OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, accusing them of putting profit over safety

Florida Goes To Court And Asserts That OpenAI And Sam Altman Are Legally A Public Nuisance

Attorney General James Uthmeier Files First-in-the-Nation State-Led Lawsuit Against OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman for Deceptive Practices and Harms to Floridians

Dolly Parton, country star, actor and philanthropist, dies aged 80 after cancer diagnosis

This week, hosts Amanda and Hanna are tackling some bummers (what's new?) with Hong Kong Tiannanmen Square activists sentenced for sedition and increased violence in increasing West Bank settlements, paired with a potential scientific breakthrough -- a made-to-order skin cancer vaccine!

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Hong Kong: 1. Hong Kong Tiananmen activists found guilty of national security charges (Al Jazeera), 2. Hong Kong's Tiananmen activists convicted in national security trial (BBC Chinese)

The West Bank: 1. European leaders demand Israel halt controversial E1 settlement project in West Bank (Euronews), 2. A nation divided: What do Israelis want in October’s elections? (Simon Speakman Cordall, Al Jazeera), 3. Israel re-establishes closed West Bank settlement, defying growing international protests (Lucy Williamson, BBC), 4. US envoy Huckabee tells Israeli settlers not to take Palestinian Americans' land (Alexander Cornwell, Reuters), 5. Israel deliberately targeting children in ongoing genocide against Palestinians, UN commission finds (Zeena Saifi, CNN), 6. Netanyahu rejects US-led 15-point Gaza peace plan in rare public break with Trump (Andrew Roth, The Guardian)

Skin Cancer Vax: 1. Vaccine breakthrough stops cancer returning in trial (Joe McFadden, BBC)

This week, hosts Hanna and Amanda tackle the moves the Trump administration is making against birth tourism, who Count Binface is and what that represents in the world of British politics, and finally, a bit about the total solar eclipse that took place over parts of Spain and Portugal.

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This week, hosts Amanda and Hanna are tackling: The mass migration in Ceuta, and the misinformation, and fearmongering bookend-ing the border rush, and how Cuba is now 6 months into having basically no power at all.

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Mass migration in Ceuta: 1. How misinformation drove thousands to rush Ceuta's border (Reuters), 2. Why is Ceuta a migration flashpoint and how were so many people able to cross from Morocco? (Angela Giuffrida, The Guardian), 3. The fallout from the Ceuta border rush shows extreme, populist views are now mainstream (Issy Ronald, CNN), 4. Runaway online rumors sparked frantic rush by migrants to the Spanish territory of Ceuta (Akram Oubachir, AP)

US blockade on Cuba con't: 1. Cuba’s power grid collapses again despite restoration efforts (Al Jazeera), 2. Storms disrupt Cuba’s power restoration, operator says, less than a day after sixth nationwide blackout (Diego Mendoza, CNN), 3. ‘We count every litre’: how Cuba’s energy crisis sparked a daily struggle for water (Lucien Migné, The Guardian), 4. 2026 Cuban Crisis / 2026 United States Fuel Blockade on Cuba (Wikipedia)

This week, Hanna and Amanda talk thwarted attempts to enjoy salad stateside, the Hugging Face hacking incident, and Gen Z protests again, this time in India.