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Alberta separatists have gone to D.C. offering fresh water and oil in exchange for American support – and Republican operatives have provided tactical assistance inside the province

"Alberta separatists have gone to D.C. offering fresh water and oil in exchange for American support – and Republican operatives have provided tactical assistance inside the province." www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

theglobeandmail.com

The elephant in the room

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Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 2h

"Trump administration refuses international election monitors for first time in over 2 decades. The decision not to invite observers from the OSCE puts the U.S. alongside Russia and Belarus, while the Justice Department prepares to deploy its own poll monitors." www.ms.now/news/trump-m...

ms.now

Trump administration refuses international election monitors for first time in over 2 decades

The decision not to invite observers from the OSCE puts the U.S. alongside Russia and Belarus, while the Justice Department prepares to deploy its own poll monitors.

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Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Paired with Selig as the sole CFTC commissioner, these are dark days indeed for financial regulation, at a moment of opaque circular exposures in AI financing, prediction markets creating entirely new categories of risk, the fusion of crypto and conventional finance in legalized stablecoins ...

ft.com

One person is now a quorum at the SEC

The Ankh-Morpork approach to US financial regulation

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Maarten Schenk @mschenk.bsky.social · 6h

Good points...

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Maarten Schenk @mschenk.bsky.social · 6h

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They claim features like deficient safety guardrails, inadequate self-harm detection, and addictive engagement represent flaws in the digital architecture itself.

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But many plaintiffs' lawyers are now pivoting to a product liability claim; they argue they aren't suing OpenAI over what the chatbot says, but over how the software was built.

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For decades, tech companies easily dismissed lawsuits using two primary shields: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (which protects platforms from being sued over content generated by third parties) and First Amendment free speech protections.

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Services, by contrast, are generally judged by a much more flexible standard of negligence.

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The distinction matters because traditional product liability law allows for strict liability. If an item is deemed a defective product, plaintiffs do not need to prove corporate intent or negligence, only that the "product" was defectively designed and caused foreseeable harm.

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deanblundell.substack.com

🚨 This isn't a good sign. "Trump Just Banned the Election Referees. Only Russia & Belarus ban OSCE election observers. Now the United States does too, 28 days before the midterms. “Refusing election observers is what countries in a position of weakness do.” deanblundell.substack.com/p/breaking-t...

BREAKING: Trump Just Banned the Election Referees. Only Russia and Belarus Have Ever Done That.

Only Russia and Belarus ban OSCE election observers. Now the United States does too, 28 days before the midterms. “Refusing election observers is what countries in a position of weakness do.”

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Our own little Donbas. bsky.app/profile/soci...

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Apparently, Water and oil do mix in Alberta. But no, Canada is not doing bulk water sales. bsky.app/profile/soci...

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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 4h

It's ironic: an academic conference on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference has itself become the subject of censorship. #Streisandeffect

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Lithuania, Canada, and EEAS pulled out of #Disinfo2026 at such short notice they didn't have time to redo the signage.

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Roman A. @romanad.bsky.social · 6h

Full support for my former colleagues at @disinfo.eu, who are rightfully standing their ground in the face of threats and censorship efforts. #Disinfo2026

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keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 5h

@globalaffairs.canada.ca - can you tell us why you pulled support from this important academic #disinformation conference at the last minute? Despite high profile gestures of solidarity with the #EU, it seem pressure from the #USA still scares you.

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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 6h

It appears that the US government pressured the Canadian and Lithuanian governments (as well as the EEAS) to pull their support and representives from the @disinfo.eu conference in Vilnius. This decision happened at the absolute last minute.

The EU disinfo lab 2026 sponsors. Three names have been tapped over

CU you can see the Canada sign has been tapped over.

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Maarten Schenk @mschenk.bsky.social · 8h

An example of FIMI (Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference) in action at the @disinfo.eu conference? Apparently someone in the U.S. did not agree with the topic of a session named "USA as a FIMI threat: acknowledge, adapt, push back" and applied pressure on the sponsors...

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Ben Shultz @benmshultz.net · 05/10/2026

Michael Shellenberger appears to be preparing another piece falsely claiming that a conference of researchers studying disinformation is tantamount to a shadowy cabal of censorship. Spoiler alert: conferences, in fact, are the definition of free speech. My response to his questions is below.

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Nicolas Hénin @nicolashenin.net · 5h

Two panels at the #Disinfo2026 conference seem to have particularly upset the MAGA people. It would be a shame if people weren’t aware of them.

Day 1, October 7, 11:45 - 12:30
Under attack: How the counter-disinformation community is dealing with US government pressure
#solutions
room: Zeta
Panel
On 23 December 2025, the US government (USG) imposed travel bans and deportation orders on five European figures - former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, Imran Ahmed, Clare Melford, Anna-Lena von
Hodenberg, and Josephine Ballon - accusing them of censoring US social media platforms.
The use of legal intimidation to wage personal attacks raises its own free-speech concerns as well as questions about the appropriate use of legal punishment in a policy debate. The United States Government's attacks to intimidate individuals and organisations are an unprecedented escalation in defense of US corporations seeking to avoid regulation and criticism. This panel will examine the chilling effect these tactics can potentially have on the community of researchers, journalists, and former government officials who fight disinformation, propaganda and hate speech online. The panel will also discuss how some are fighting back against these tactics.
Speakers:
Claire Pershan, Coalition for Independent Technology Research
Josephine Ballon, HateAid
Chair:
Gregory Rohde, EU DisinfoLab

$Day 1, October 7, 10:45 - 11:45 USA as a FIMI threat: acknowledge, adapt, push back #infospaces room: Alfa Presentations This session addresses one of the most uncomfortable questions in the counter-disinformation field today: how did the United States become a FIMI threat for Europe? The session will explore how the counters disinformation community rebuilds resilience without Washington, what solidarity looks like in a fractured transatlantic environment, and how to push back against on these operations. Speakers: Adam Fivenson, Center for Security, Innovation & New Technology at American University Alex Finley, Former officer of CIA's Directorate of Operations, Centre for Strategic Advantage Emerson Brooking, Nonresident Senior Fellow, DFRLab Chair: Carlos Hernández-Echevarría, Fundación Maldita.es$

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Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 5h

This has US fingerprints all over it. They do not want a light shone on their actions. As we have always said, FIMI research should be actor-agnostic; otherwise, you are just another combatant in the fight.

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Oil inventories in the west have been exhausted, Vitol CEO says

"Oil inventories in western countries have been exhausted as a result of the Iran war, the boss of the world’s largest independent oil trader said, warning that fuel markets are likely to remain tight going into winter. “There aren’t any more inventories to drain in the West”

equipmentfinancenews.com

Oil inventories in western countries have been exhausted as a result of the Iran war, the boss of the world’s largest independent oil trader said, warning that fuel markets are likely to remain tight ...

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Look for the Iran war to roar back into life after the midterms.

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Oil inventories in the west have been exhausted, Vitol CEO says

equipmentfinancenews.com

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Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 06/10/2026

The US will, of course, exploit this. "The separatist Parti Québécois (PQ) won Quebec’s provincial election on Monday but fell short of enough seats to govern alone, returning to power with a promise to hold another referendum on independence from Canada." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

theguardian.com

Separatists win Quebec election in test for Canada PM’s national unity strategy

Parti Québécois wins provincial election but will not be able to govern alone, as Mark Carney stresses unity in face of tariffs threat from Donald Trump

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Our own little Donbas. bsky.app/profile/soci...

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Apparently, Water and oil do mix in Alberta. But no, Canada is not doing bulk water sales. bsky.app/profile/soci...

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Alberta separatists have gone to D.C. offering fresh water and oil in exchange for American support – and Republican operatives have provided tactical assistance inside the province

theglobeandmail.com

The elephant in the room

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Theo Moudakis @theomoudakis.bsky.social · 18h

Please enjoy my cartoon for Wednesday's Toronto Star

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deanblundell.substack.com

BREAKING: Trump Just Banned the Election Referees. Only Russia and Belarus Have Ever Done That.

Only Russia and Belarus ban OSCE election observers. Now the United States does too, 28 days before the midterms. “Refusing election observers is what countries in a position of weakness do.”

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Lindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 13h

This is one really, really super dumb headline. www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr...

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“These are the crown jewels that the BND was producing,” said one former senior BND official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. “It sounds really bad.”"

wapo.st

Germany arrests former intelligence chief in espionage case

August Hanning is accused of selling state secrets to at least one foreign state. It could be the worst breach at the German foreign intelligence agency since the Cold War’s end.

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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 12h

Another corruption story, and the volume makes it hard to absorb one before the next arrives. The real work is understanding why the guardrails failed. The good news: democracies have faced corrupt regimes before, and we know how to hold power accountable.

thinkbigpicture.substack.com

Unprecedented Corruption—and How We End It

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