Russia Is Suspected to Be Behind Breach of Federal Court Filing System; The New York Times, August 12, 2025

Adam Goldman Glenn Thrush and Mattathias Schwartz , The New York Times; Russia Is Suspected to Be Behind Breach of Federal Court Filing System

"Investigators have uncovered evidence that Russia is at least in part responsible for a recent hack of the computer system that manages federal court documents, including highly sensitive records that might contain information that could reveal sources and people charged with national security crimes, according to several people briefed on the breach.

It is not clear what entity is responsible, whether an arm of Russian intelligence might be behind the intrusion or if other countries were also involved, which some of the people familiar with the matter described as a yearslong effort to infiltrate the system. Some of the searches included midlevel criminal cases in the New York City area and several other jurisdictions, with some cases involving people with Russian and Eastern European surnames.

The disclosure comes as President Trump is expected to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, in Alaska on Friday, where Mr. Trump is planning to discuss his push to end the war in Ukraine."

Man develops rare condition after ChatGPT query over stopping eating salt; The Guardian, August 12, 2025

Dan Milmo , The Guardian; Man develops rare condition after ChatGPT query over stopping eating salt

"A US medical journal has warned against using ChatGPT for health information after a man developed a rare condition following an interaction with the chatbot about removing table salt from his diet.

An article in the Annals of Internal Medicine reported a case in which a 60-year-old man developed bromism, also known as bromide toxicity, after consulting ChatGPT."

The Era of A.I. Propaganda Has Arrived, and America Must Act; The New York Times, August 5, 2025

Brett J. Goldstein and Brett V. Benson , The New York Times; The Era of A.I. Propaganda Has Arrived, and America Must Act

"To counter the growing threat of A.I.-driven foreign influence operations, a coordinated response is essential. Academic researchers must work urgently to map how artificial intelligence, open-source intelligence and online influence campaigns converge to serve hostile state objectives. The U.S. government must take the lead in disrupting the infrastructure behind these operations, with the Defense Department targeting foreign influence networks and the Federal Bureau of Investigation working closely with digital platforms to identify and counter false personas. The private sector needs to accelerate A.I. detection capabilities to bolster our ability to detect synthetic content. If we can’t identify it, we can’t stop it.

We are entering a new era of gray-zone conflict — one marked by information warfare executed at a scale, speed and degree of sophistication never seen before. If we don’t quickly figure out how to defend against this kind of A.I.-driven influence, we will be completely exposed."

Justice Department Declares DEI Unlawful; Inside Higher Ed, July 30, 2025

  Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed; Justice Department Declares DEI Unlawful

"More than three months after a federal court struck down an Education Department directive that barred any practices that consider race at colleges across the country, the Department of Justice declared Wednesday that diversity, equity and inclusion practices are unlawful and “discriminatory.” 

But the agency’s memo goes even further than ED’s guidance, suggesting that programs that rely on what they describe as stand-ins for race, like recruitment efforts that focus on majority-minority geographic areas, could violate federal civil rights laws. The directive applies to any organization that receives federal funds, and DOJ officials warned that engaging in potentially unlawful practices could lead to a loss in grant funding.

Other examples of “potentially unlawful proxies” include requirements that job applicants “demonstrate ‘cultural competence,’ ‘lived experience,’ or ‘cross-cultural skills’” or narratives about how the applicant has overcome obstacles, Attorney General Pamela Bondi wrote."

Trump Is Squandering the Greatest Gift of the Manhattan Project; The New York Times, August 12, 2025

 Garrett M. Graff , The New York Times; Trump Is Squandering the Greatest Gift of the Manhattan Project

"The Manhattan Project was a towering achievement, one of the great stories of human effort and accomplishment. Yet the Trump administration has been systematically dismantling the culture of research that the Manhattan Project and World War II bequeathed us, a culture that propelled American prosperity.

At no other time in modern history has a country so thoroughly turned its back on its core national strengths. The very elements that made the Manhattan Project such a success are today under assault. With devastating cuts to science and health research, the administration is turning its back on a history of being powered and renewed by the innovation and vision of immigrants. What America may find is that we have squandered the greatest gift of the Manhattan Project — which, in the end, wasn’t the bomb but a new way of looking at how science and government can work together."

Adidas Apologizes After Mexico Criticizes Oaxacan-Inspired Shoe; The New York Times, August 11, 2025

 Michael Levenson , The New York Times; Adidas Apologizes After Mexico Criticizes Oaxacan-Inspired Shoe

"President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico displayed an image of a pair of Adidas Oaxaca Slip-Ons at a news conference on Friday and said that Adidas and other companies were “usurping the creativity” of Indigenous communities.

She said that the government of Oaxaca had begun talks with Adidas aimed at reimbursing Indigenous communities for the use of their “collective intellectual property” and that Mexico was prepared to take legal action.

Mr. Chavarria, the son of an Irish American mother and a Mexican American father, issued an apology on Saturday, written in English and Spanish and addressed to “the people of Oaxaca.”"

What Deepfake Scams Teach Us About AI and Fraud; ABA Journal, June 10, 2024

 Jeffrey M Allen, ABA Journal; What Deepfake Scams Teach Us About AI and Fraud

"How Can Lawyers Help? Start with Awareness

Whether you work in elder law, family law, estate planning, or general civil practice, you’ve probably encountered lonely, grieving, or emotionally raw clients. The very people scammers like to target.

Attorneys can protect clients (and themselves) by:

• Spotting the red flags. Does the story sound dramatic, urgent, or secretive? That’s a clue.
• Verifying everything. Real celebrities don’t DM strangers asking for cash. If a story seems off, it probably is.
• Watching for payment via crypto or wire transfer. Once it’s gone, it’s almost impossible to recover.
• Encouraging clients to slow down. Scammers rely on urgency. A second opinion can stop a scam from progressing.

What Should Lawmakers Do?

There’s no silver bullet here, but the legal system should adapt.

• Modernize fraud and impersonation laws to include AI-generated deepfakes and synthetic media explicitly.
• Increase platform accountability. Social media and messaging platforms should be required to detect and remove known scams more quickly.
• Encourage cross-border enforcement agreements to track international fraud rings more efficiently."

Opinion | Federal Justice Department twists attorney ethics into misconduct; The Minnesota Star Tribune, August 10, 2025

Rob Doar , The Minnesota Star Tribune; Opinion | Federal Justice Department twists attorney ethics into misconduct

"As a bilingual advocate working in public defense, I regularly represent Spanish-speaking clients in Minnesota, many of whom have varying immigration statuses. My job is straightforward yet demanding: ensuring my clients receive competent, fair and loyal representation. My ethical obligations are clear: I must protect my clients’ rights, safeguard their interests and work tirelessly to resolve their cases justly. For many public defense clients, the stakes couldn’t be higher, as a criminal conviction could result in devastating immigration consequences.

“A lawyer must, to the extent consistent with the lawyer’s other legal duties, act with reasonable diligence and promptness to advance the client’s lawful objectives, as defined by the client.”

The Harvard-Trained Lawyer Behind Trump’s Fight Against Top Universities; The New York Times, August 11, 2025

Michael C. Bender, The New York Times; The Harvard-Trained Lawyer Behind Trump’s Fight Against Top Universities

"When President Trump wants to rattle academia, he turns to his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller. And then Mr. Miller turns to May Mailman.

Ms. Mailman, a 37-year-old Harvard-trained lawyer, is the most important, least-known person behind the administration’s relentless pursuit of the nation’s premier universities. The extraordinary effort has found seemingly endless ways to pressure schools into submission, including federal funding, student visas and civil rights investigations.

Her hand in deploying these levers of power was evident from the beginning of Mr. Trump’s second term. As his ambitions around reshaping higher education expanded, so did her remit. She is credited as an animating force behind a strategy that has intimidated independent institutions and undercut years of medical and scientific research.

The policies Ms. Mailman helped devise — and is now leveraging as she leads the White House’s negotiations with colleges — have sent shock waves through higher education, dividing faculty and alarming some students who see an effort to silence dissent. The aggressive tactics could have far-reaching implications for the future of academic freedom, the admissions practices at the most competitive colleges and the global reputations for some of the crown jewels of the nation’s university system."

Invention-Con 2025: Empowering American ingenuity and innovation; United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), September 9-10, 2025

 United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ; Invention-Con 2025: Empowering American ingenuity and innovation

"Do you want to grow your intellectual property (IP) knowledge and gain access to IP and business experts, accomplished innovators, and inspiring entrepreneurs? Join us for the USPTO's free flagship conference for inventors, makers, and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss Invention-Con 2025, coming to you virtually September 9-10 from 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. ET daily. Tailored for the independent inventor and entrepreneur community, our marquee event brings inspiration and IP experts directly to you.

• Learn from accomplished innovators, inventors, entrepreneurs, and business owners how to use IP to achieve success.

• Discover resources available to assist at every stage of your journey.

• Connect with IP and business experts who can help you develop a strategy for your innovation, from idea to market."

How Short-Term Thinking Is Destroying America; The New York Times, August 11, 2025

 Ben Rhodes , The New York Times;  How Short-Term Thinking Is Destroying America

"Unsurprisingly, the second Trump administration has binged on short-term “wins” at the expense of the future. It has created trillions of dollars in prospective debt, bullied every country on earth, deregulated the spread of A.I. and denied the scientific reality of global warming. It has ignored the math that doesn’t add up, the wars that don’t end on Trump deadlines, the C.E.O.s forecasting what could amount to huge job losses if A.I. transforms our economy and the catastrophic floods, which are harbingers of a changing climate. Mr. Trump declares victory. The camera focuses on the next shiny object. Negative consequences can be obfuscated today, blamed on others tomorrow."

Cat soap operas and babies trapped in space: the ‘AI slop’ taking over YouTube; The Guardian, August 11, 2025

Priya Bharadia , The Guardian; Cat soap operas and babies trapped in space: the ‘AI slop’ taking over YouTube

"One expert said AI video generators herald the next wave of internet “enshittification”, a term first used by the British-Canadian author Cory Doctorow. Coined in 2022, Doctorow used it to describe the decline in quality of users’ online experiences, as platforms prioritise profit over offering high-quality content.

“AI slop is flooding the internet with content that essentially is garbage,” said Dr Akhil Bhardwaj, an associate professor at the University of Bath’s school of management. “This enshittification is ruining online communities on Pinterest, competing for revenue with artists on Spotify and flooding YouTube with poor quality content.”

“One way for social media companies to regulate AI slop is to ensure that it cannot be monetised, thus stripping away the incentive for generating it.”

Ryan Broderick, the author of the popular Garbage Day newsletter on internet culture, is scathing about the impact of AI video, writing last week that YouTube has become a “dumping ground for disturbing, soulless AI shorts”.

Lost in the wild? AI could find you; Axios, August 10, 2025

• Ashley May, Axios ; Lost in the wild? AI could find you

"Hikers stranded in remote areas with no cell service or WiFi might have a new lifeline: AI.

The big picture: AI is helping some rescue teams find missing people faster by scanning satellite and drone images.

Zoom in: "AI's contribution is that it can dramatically reduce the time to process imagery and do it more accurately than humans," David Kovar, director of advocacy for NASAR and CEO of cybersecurity company URSA Inc., tells Axios.

Context: It's just one of many resources rescue teams use to help them, Kovar stresses.

AI already is eerily good at geolocating where photos are taken.

• Last month, the body of a hiker lost for nearly a year was found in Italy in a matter of hours after The National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps used AI to analyze a series of drone images.
• 
  

The intrigue: We also know when people are given the option to share their location as a safety measure, they do it.

What's next: AI agents could be trained to fly drones via an automated system. It's a theory Jan-Hendrik Ewers made the subject of his PhD at the University of Glasgow. 

• "You could have a fully automated system that monitors reports and triggers drone-based search efforts before a human has lifted a finger," Ewers tells Axios.
• 
  
• Barriers to implementing this kind of system are many: money, politics and the fact that when lives are at stake, relying on experimental AI could complicate efforts. 
• 
  

The other side: Some lost people don't want to be found. And, lost people can't consent.

• Nearly everyone will want this help, but "there will be cases where, for example, a person who is a victim of domestic violence says she's going out hiking, but she's not. She's not intending to come back," Greg Nojeim, senior counsel and director for Democracy & Technology's Security and Surveillance Project tells Axios.
• 
  

AI ethics depend on the circumstances, and who is using it, William Budington, senior staff technologist at nonprofit advocacy organization Electronic Frontier Foundation, tells Axios.

• If it's used to save lives and private data used in a rescue operation is wiped after a hiker is found, there is less of a concern, he says.
• 
  
• "But, using it to scan images or locate and surveil people, especially those that don't want to be found — either just for privacy reasons, or political dissidents, perhaps — that's a worrying possibility."

Boston Public Library aims to increase access to a vast historic archive using AI; NPR, August 11, 2025

Chloe Veltman, NPR ; Boston Public Library aims to increase access to a vast historic archive using AI

"Boston Public Library, one of the oldest and largest public library systems in the country, is launching a project this summer with OpenAI and Harvard Law School to make its trove of historically significant government documents more accessible to the public.

The documents date back to the early 1800s and include oral histories, congressional reports and surveys of different industries and communities...

Currently, members of the public who want to access these documents must show up in person. The project will enhance the metadata of each document and will enable users to search and cross-reference entire texts from anywhere in the world. 

Chapel said Boston Public Library plans to digitize 5,000 documents by the end of the year, and if all goes well, grow the project from there...

Harvard University said it could help. Researchers at the Harvard Law School Library's Institutional Data Initiative are working with libraries, museums and archives on a number of fronts, including training new AI models to help libraries enhance the searchability of their collections. 

AI companies help fund these efforts, and in return get to train their large language models on high-quality materials that are out of copyright and therefore less likely to lead to lawsuits. (Microsoft and OpenAI are among the many AI players targeted by recent copyright infringement lawsuits, in which plaintiffs such as authors claim the companies stole their works without permission.)"

Trump threatens Harvard patents worth hundreds of millions; Politico, August 8, 2025

 JUAN PEREZ JR., Politico; Trump threatens Harvard patents worth hundreds of millions

[Kip Currier: Trump's unsubstantiated and unwarranted threats to seize Harvard's patents look like another tactic out of Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban's road-to-authoritarianism break-the-universities playbook.

Stand tough, Harvard!]

[Excerpt] 

"The Trump administration is threatening the status of Harvard University’s lucrative patents as it continues to engage in hardball negotiations with the Ivy League school.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick declared Friday that the administration is launching an immediate review of the intellectual property Harvard has derived from federally funded research grants, in what amounts to yet another display of White House power over higher education institutions...

The university defended its research enterprise and denounced the Trump administration’s tactic on Friday.

“This unprecedented action is yet another retaliatory effort targeting Harvard for defending its rights and freedom,” a university spokesperson said in a statement to POLITICO. 

“We are fully committed to complying with the Bayh-Dole Act and ensuring that the public is able to access and benefit from the many innovations that arise out of federally funded research at Harvard.”

How RFK Jr. Mastered Fake Science—and Screwed Us in the Process; The Bulwark, August 10, 2025

JONATHAN COHN , The Bulwark; How RFK Jr. Mastered Fake Science—and Screwed Us in the Process

"The year is 2035 and the world is dealing with another pandemic, only this time it’s even worse. A bird flu strain has made the leap that scientists have long feared, evolving into a virus that spreads as quickly as COVID-19 but kills at a much higher rate. Businesses and schools have shut down. Economies have crashed. The infected are overwhelming hospitals.

In a virtual press conference, officials announce that there is hope, because the same kind of vaccine that got us through COVID will work this time as well. The catch is that it will take a few more months to develop and produce. And the death toll, already in the millions for the United States alone, is rising fast.

A reporter on the zoom call asks: Why will it take so long? Well, the officials explain, we had a chance about a decade ago to prepare for this by creating a ready-to-deploy vaccine platform that would have shaved months from the process. But our predecessors who were in charge back then killed the funding. So we don’t have that head start.

EVERYTHING ABOUT THE ABOVE SCENARIO is hypothetical—except the final part about the funding. That part happened last week.

On Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the Trump administration was canceling about half a billion dollars of federal contracts with companies and institutions that have been working to develop the next generation of mRNA vaccines.

MRNA stands for messenger RNA, the naturally occurring genetic material that cells use as their guide for making proteins. Vaccines with mRNA have a synthetic version of the material, with “coding” instructing cells to manufacture proteins that are part of viruses or other hostile elements, so that the body’s immune system can learn to recognize and fight them."

Digital resurrection: fascination and fear over the rise of the deathbot; The Guardian, August 10, 2025

Harriet Sherwood, The Guardian; Digital resurrection: fascination and fear over the rise of the deathbot

 "Only a few years ago, the idea of “virtual immortality” was futuristic, a techno-dream beyond the reach of ordinary people. Now, interactive avatars can be created relatively easily and cheaply, and demand looks set to grow...

“Human beings have been trying to relate to the dead ever since there were humans,” said Michael Cholbi, a professor of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and the author of Grief: A Philosophical Guide. “We have created monuments and memorials, preserved locks of hair, reread letters. Now the question is: does AI have anything to add?”"

News Corp CEO Robert Thomson slams AI firms for stealing copyrighted material like Trump’s ‘Art of the Deal’; New York Post, August 6, 2025

 Ariel Zilber, New York Post ; News Corp CEO Robert Thomson slams AI firms for stealing copyrighted material like Trump’s ‘Art of the Deal’

"The media executive said the voracious appetite of the AI firms to train their bots on proprietary content without paying for it risks eroding America’s edge over rival nations.

“Much is made of the competition with China, but America’s advantage is ingenuity and creativity, not bits and bytes, not watts but wit,” he said.

“To undermine that comparative advantage by stripping away IP rights is to vandalize our virtuosity.”"

AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified; Ars Technica, August 8, 2025

 ASHLEY BELANGER, Ars Technica ; AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified

"AI industry groups are urging an appeals court to block what they say is the largest copyright class action ever certified. They've warned that a single lawsuit raised by three authors over Anthropic's AI training now threatens to "financially ruin" the entire AI industry if up to 7 million claimants end up joining the litigation and forcing a settlement.

Last week, Anthropic petitioned to appeal the class certification, urging the court to weigh questions that the district court judge, William Alsup, seemingly did not. Alsup allegedly failed to conduct a "rigorous analysis" of the potential class and instead based his judgment on his "50 years" of experience, Anthropic said.

If the appeals court denies the petition, Anthropic argued, the emerging company may be doomed. As Anthropic argued, it now "faces hundreds of billions of dollars in potential damages liability at trial in four months" based on a class certification rushed at "warp speed" that involves "up to seven million potential claimants, whose works span a century of publishing history," each possibly triggering a $150,000 fine.

Confronted with such extreme potential damages, Anthropic may lose its rights to raise valid defenses of its AI training, deciding it would be more prudent to settle, the company argued. And that could set an alarming precedent, considering all the other lawsuits generative AI (GenAI) companies face over training on copyrighted materials, Anthropic argued."

Scientists decry Trump energy chief’s plan to ‘update’ climate reports: ‘Exactly what Stalin did’; The Guardian, August 7, 2025

Mark Oliver , The Guardian; Scientists decry Trump energy chief’s plan to ‘update’ climate reports: ‘Exactly what Stalin did’

"The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, is facing growing criticism from scientists who say their “worst fears” were realized when Wright revealed that the Trump administration would “update” the US’s premier climate crisis reports.

Wright, a former oil and gas executive, told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins earlier this week that the administration was reviewing national climate assessment reports published by past governments.

Produced by scientists and peer-reviewed, there have been five national climate assessment (NCA) reports since 2000 and they are considered the gold standard report of global heating and its impacts on human health, agriculture, water supplies and air pollution.

“We’re reviewing them, and we will come out with updated reports on those and with comments on those reports,” said Wright, who is one of the main supporters of the administration’s “drill, baby, drill” agenda to boost fossil fuels, which are the primary cause of the climate crisis.

Wright was speaking days after his agency, the Department of Energy, produced a report claiming concern over the climate crisis was overblown. That energy department report was slammed by scientists for being a “farce” full of misinformation."

The Smithsonian Changes Its Description of Trump’s Role on Jan. 6; The New York Times, August 8, 2025

 Graham Bowley, The New York Times; The Smithsonian Changes Its Description of Trump’s Role on Jan. 6

"The Smithsonian put up new text on Friday that changed its description of President Trump’s impeachment following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol."

He could have been the GOP’s voice on crime, but his faith intervened; The Washington Post, August 7, 2025

 Emily Davies, The Washington Post; He could have been the GOP’s voice on crime, but his faith intervened

"“I want the world to know that I’ve forgiven Glynn,” Todd recalled saying to his parents, “and because of that, there have been benefits given to me.”

Incarceration, he felt, may not be the way to bring his assailant closer to God. Neal, now 44, already had served 13 years in prison after being convicted of luring two North Carolina women into prostitution in the District and repeatedly beating them when they resisted having sex with strangers, court records show. Neal, whose attorneys did not return requests for comment, was released on March 24, 2023 — the day before Todd was attacked.

“That clearly did not work,” Todd recalled telling his parents, meaning Neal’s years behind bars.

“At the same time,” he said to them, he recalled in an interview, “I also don’t want the world to misperceive forgiveness as ceding that this is okay.”"

Sued for Playing With Toys?; The New York Times, August 5, 2025

 Chantel Tattoli, The New York Times ; Sued for Playing With Toys?

"When Paul Welander, a health care worker in Britain, heard about a lawsuit that the maker of Calico Critters toys recently filed against a social media content creator, he wasn’t totally surprised.

The critters, introduced in 1985, are tiny velvety-bodied animals — rabbits, mice, moles, bears, beavers, badgers, pigs, penguins — dressed in modest clothes and sold in sets as families.

The lawsuit alleges that the creator committed copyright and trademark infringement by making videos that portray the twee toys in scandalous situations: having affairs, driving drunk, taking drugs. Videos not unlike the crassly captioned pictures of the toys, also known as Sylvanians, that Mr. Welander, 51, started sharing on social media back in 2016."

Fraudulent Scientific Papers Are Rapidly Increasing, Study Finds; The New York Times, August 4, 2025

 Carl Zimmer, The New York Times; Fraudulent Scientific Papers Are Rapidly Increasing, Study Finds

"Even as paper mills have worked to keep their efforts hidden, Dr. Abalkina has traced the output of companies in Russia, Iran and other countries, and found thousands of their papers in print. “You learn to see the patterns,” she said.

Dr. Amaral and his colleagues have now analyzed those patterns, using network theory and other statistical techniques. “We tried to give a picture of what’s below the surface,” said Reese Richardson, a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University and an author of the new study.

For their analysis, the scientists built a database of more than a million scientific papers. They searched for the papers in online forums where sleuths share duplicated images and tortured phrases, as well as the Retraction Watch Database, maintained by the Center for Scientific Integrity.

The researchers compiled a list of 30,000 papers that have either been retracted or show signs of having come from a paper mill. They discovered connections between the papers that strongly hinted that they were the product of large-scale fraud. Many of these connections linked clusters of editors and authors who often worked together.

“There are huge networks that are very densely connected, where they’re all sending their papers to one another,” Dr. Richardson said. “If that’s not collusion, I don’t know what is.”"

FACT FOCUS: RFK Jr.'s reasons for cutting mRNA vaccine not supported by evidence; AP, August 6, 2025

MELISSA GOLDIN , AP; FACT FOCUS: RFK Jr.'s reasons for cutting mRNA vaccine not supported by evidence

"Although mRNA vaccines saved millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. incorrectly argued they are ineffective to justify the Department of Health and Human Service’s recent decision to cancel $500 millionin government-funded research projects to develop new vaccines using the technology.

The longtime vaccine critic said in an X video posted Tuesday evening that mRNA vaccines do not adequately prevent upper respiratory infections such as COVID-19 and the flu, advocating instead for the development vaccines that use other processes.

COVID-19 is the only virus for which real-world data on mRNA vaccine effectiveness is currently available, as mRNA vaccines for other diseases, including the flu, are still under development. The two scientists whose discoveries enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 won a Nobel Prize in 2023 for their work."

What if You Can’t Believe the Official Numbers?; The New York Times, August 8, 2025

 Jeff Sommer, The New York Times; What if You Can’t Believe the Official Numbers?

"Imagine living in a country where you can’t trust the government’s numbers."