New gTLD Program: 2026 Round public application information, including application status.

Discover how to hit the pause button on distracting alerts without missing what's important later.

Six percent of Texas’s voters—over 1.2 million people—have had their voter registrations suspended, and many might not even know about it. The designation, which means that the voter’s county doesn’t know their address or thinks they’ve moved, doesn’t stop people from voting in November’s midterm elections, but it does make the process more difficult. If a voter shows up on Election Day and their registration is suspended, they have to fill out a “statement of residence” form, and if they’ve moved to a new county, they’ll either be required to vote in their old one or be given a provisional ballot, _The Dallas Morning News_ reported. The suspended registrations span the whole state, but also some of Texas’s largest counties, including Dallas County, where more than 129,000 voters are suspended; 56,000 voters in both Collin and Denton counties; and over 73,000 voters in Tarrant County. Voters have until October 5 to update their registrations and can check their status on the Texas secretary of state’s website, at a county election office, or by mail. But with a number as high as 1.2 million people, the message may not reach many voters in time—especially if they haven’t moved and it’s the fault of a clerical error. That margin could also be pivotal in a state where polls are close in multiple races, especially the Senate, where Democratic state Senator James Talarico has a narrow edge over Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. Texas is also cooperating with the Trump administration’s attempts to take control of elections by handing over its voter rolls. If a significant number of Texans are blocked from voting on Election Day, that could make all the difference in what the Senate looks like the next four years.

single sign on in your area

This is a story about the Democratic Party captured by its consultants, and about what happens when the pro-democracy press is asked to say so.

The U.S. State Department and U.S. Treasury placed the anarchist-aligned Italian tech support collective Autistici/Inventati on the "specially designated global terrorist" list on Wednesday. This designation makes it illegal for Americans to engage in any "transactions" with Autistici/Inventati. The U.S. government hasn't accused Autistici/Inventati of committing any crimes. Instead, the State Department announcement states that the group "builds and operates the digital infrastructure for violent Antifa cells and other far-left militants across the world," allowing these "militants" to "disseminate target information, tactical manuals and techniques, and communiqués about recent attacks" while staying "anonymous, untraceable, and beyond the reach of the law." In other words, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is attacking the group for running an online platform that the U.S. government can't spy on and for facilitating communications the U.S. government doesn't like. But precisely because Autistici/Inventati is based in another country—Italy—the U.S. government has basically unchecked power to impose counterterrorism sanctions on it. The Autistici/Inventati case has strong parallels to the recent TikTok ban: Congress banned the social media network under foreign-policy pretexts because American youth were using it to share otherwise First Amendment–protected content. As with the TikTok ban, outlawing Autistici/Inventati is a way to force users to move to services that are more easily monitored and controlled by the U.S. government. "The idea that an organization that is an alternative host—for email, websites, and other services—could be designated a terrorist organization simply for providing a service that a lot of people want…is scary," says Jillian York, director of international freedom of expression at the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation. "This may sound a little conspiratorial, but the fact that this comes from an administration that is quite cozy with Silicon Valley giants, at a time when distrust of those companies is quite high from various parts of society, doesn't seem to me a coincidence." Autistici/Inventati offers free email accounts, web hosting, videoconferencing, and other communications services on request to those who can demonstrate need and "share our principles of anti-fascism, anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia, and anti-militarism." Unlike commercial email providers, Autistici/Inventati stores only the bare minimum of user data and doesn't peek into users' inboxes, making it appealing to "paranoids," as the group describes itself. "We deny all allegations included in the statements, while we strongly affirm our dedication to providing a platform of tools for digital self-defense, addressing the need of free communication for activists and other individuals, groups and associations," Autistici/Inventati wrote in a statement in English and Italian responding to the U.S. designation. "We will not back down, we will keep doing what we have been doing all these years and we will do whatever is in our possibility to counter the false allegations made by a politically desperate administration with the sole intention of swaying people and media attention away from their own violence and warmongering." The terrorist designation will immediately cut off Autistici/Inventati's ability to collect donations, its only way to cover operating expenses, through any bank or credit card processor connected to the U.S. dollar system. It may also allow the U.S. government to seize the autistici.org domain name. The U.S. government has long argued that, because the registries for .com and .org domains are located on American soil, it is illegal to host websites for organizations under U.S. economic sanctions. Whether the designation makes Autistici/Inventati's email services illegal to use is unclear. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which the Trump administration is using to sanction Autistici/Inventati, technically exempts any "personal communication, which does not involve a transfer of anything of value" from U.S. sanctions, in order to respect First Amendment protections. The Electronic Frontier Foundation says its lawyers believe that "simply utilizing these services, while providing no financial support to them, does not constitute material support for terrorism." But Peter Harrell, a former Biden administration official who is now a visiting scholar at Georgetown Law School, writes that it's an open question how courts would rule in this case. The Treasury did not respond to a question from _Reason_ about its interpretation of the law. The Trump administration has increasingly used these kinds of foreign policy powers against dissidents, especially self-declared "anti-fascists." Last year, the National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) ordered federal agencies to prioritize terrorism from the left. Rubio designated the German "hammer gang" Antifa Ost as terrorists soon after. "There will be no refuge for violent extremists who wage war on our civilization and plot to undermine law and order, destroy critical infrastructure, assault political opponents, or conspire to conceal their crimes from authorities," Rubio told Fox News about the Autistici/Inventati designation. The administration also tied its action against Autistici/Inventati to the campaign against Israel's enemies. The Treasury announced sanctions on Autistici/Inventati alongside new sanctions on the British organization Palestine Action for "breaking into defense infrastructure and British military installations," and the Palestinian diaspora party Masar Badil for being "a front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization." The State Department's announcement, meanwhile, blames Autistici/Inventati for allowing one of its users "to publish official communiqués and calls to action for U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations," naming Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Fox News reported that the State Department announcement "reveals Portland Antifa connection to Hamas, Iran's IRGC," because of those third-party posts. Of course, by that same logic, there is a "connection" between Rubio himself and all of the same designated terrorists because their messages are disseminated on the same social media. The Treasury's announcement at least pointed to a designated terrorist organization that actually _used_ Autistici/Inventati's services: the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). But though the U.S. government considers the PKK terrorists, U.S. forces have also worked with its members and affiliates in Syria for more than a decade. Rubio met with Kurdish commander Mazloum Abdi, a former PKK member, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference earlier this year. Some people, it seems, are friendly enough to have an audience with cabinet officials, yet too dangerous to have an email address.

Comments