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Airbnb will now let you order groceries in advance and stay in hotels, too

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Airbnb started as a place to find someone’s spare bedroom, but twelve years later, it’s trying to be the only travel app you need. 

With the 2026 Summer Release update announced today, you can not just book a bedroom or a house, but also order groceries, schedule airport pickups, car rentals, boutique hotels, access the AI planning tools, and access the FIFA World Cup experiences, all within the Airbnb app. 

What new services can you book on Airbnb now?

Airbnb has already launched two new services today. The first one is airport pickups (through Welcome Pickups), which, as the name suggests, lets you book a ride from airports in 160+ cities worldwide, with 20% off on all bookings. 

Then there’s luggage storage (via Bounce), which is also live now, offering you 15% off at 15,000+ locations across 175 cities for the time before check-in and after check-out. 

One of the biggest updates, grocery delivery (via Instacart) is coming this summer, bringing food to your rented location before you even arrive or any time during the stay, with $0 delivery fee and $10 off on orders of $50 or more, in 25+ cities in the US. 

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In fact, hosts can even pre-stock the home before you check in, which might reflect in their review later. 

Can you book hotels on the Airbnb app?

Car rentals are also arriving later this summer. The app suggests a vehicle based on your group size, and first-timers get 20% credit toward a future Airbnb stay. 

In a surprising move, the platform has also started accepting bookings for boutique and independent hotels in 20 cities, including New York, Paris, London, Rome, Singapore, and Madrid, among 14 others. 

What’s good is that the company is hand-picking properties that complement the neighborhood. You also get a price match guarantee and up to 15% credit toward a future home booking. While Booking.com has mixed hotels and rentals for a decade, it’s good to see Airbnb catching up. 

As for the FIFA World Cup 2026, Airbnb, being the official Tournament Supporter, is offering exclusive experiences across six host cities, including a watch party with Abby Wambach and Julie Foudy and pitch training with Javier Mascherano.

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Research shows educational institutes must not put too much faith in AI text detectors

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Here’s an uncomfortable thought for every academic institution currently using AI detectors to police student and researcher submissions: the tools don’t work as reliably as institutions assume. 

A paper presented at this week’s 2026 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy by researchers at the University of Florida concludes that commercially available AI-generated text detectors are “poorly suited for deployment in academic or high-stakes contexts.”

That’s a polite way of saying universities are making career-altering decisions based on results from tools that are essentially unreliable.

What did the research actually find?

Patrick Traynor, Ph.D., professor and interim chair of UF’s Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering, led a team that tested the five most popular commercially-available AI text detectors. 

Using roughly 6,000 research papers submitted to top-tier security conferences before ChatGPT even arrived, they had LLMs create clones of those same papers, and then ran both sets through the AI detectors. 

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The results showed false positive rates ranging from 0.05% to 68.6%, and, even more surprising, false negative rates between 0.3% and 99.6%. That upper figure is close to 100%, meaning the worst-performing detector missed virtually all AI-generated text.

While two of the five detectors performed well initially, they were rendered largely useless after the researchers asked the LLM to rewrite its outputs using more complex vocabulary (the paper calls this a lexical complexity attack).

Why does this matter beyond academic integrity?

Traynor put it plainly: “We really can’t use them to adjudicate these decisions. People’s careers are on the line here.” An accusation of AI-generated writing in a submission can permanently damage a researcher’s reputation, but we can’t put blind trust on tools making those accusations.

The argument is that the evidence about widespread AI use in academic writing is itself unreliable. “For as many studies as we see claiming that a certain percentage of academic work is AI-generated, we actually don’t have tools to measure any of that,” Traynor added. 

His research doesn’t just critique the tools; it exposes a systemic failure of due diligence by every institution that adopted these tools without demanding evidence whether they are accurate.

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A Bipartisan Amendment Would End Police License Plate Tracking Nationwide

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US lawmakers plan to introduce an amendment Thursday at a House committee markup hearing that would prohibit any recipient of federal highway funding from using automated license plate readers for any purpose other than tolling—a sweeping restriction that, if adopted, would bring an immediate end to state and local ALPR programs across the United States.

The amendment, obtained first by WIRED, is sponsored by Representative Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican and Freedom Caucus member, and Representative Jesús “Chuy” García, an Illinois progressive whose state has become a flash point in the national fight over ALPR misuse.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will mark up the underlying bill—a $580 billion, five-year reauthorization of federal surface transportation programs—at 10 am ET on Thursday.

Neither Perry nor García’s offices immediately responded to WIRED’s request for comment.

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The amendment runs a single sentence: “A recipient of assistance under Title 23, United States Code, may not use automated license plate readers for any purpose other than tolling.”

The amendment is brief, but its reach would be vast. Title 23 funds roughly a quarter of all public road mileage in the US, including most state and county arteries and many city streets where ALPR cameras are becoming ubiquitous. Conditioning that funding on a ban of the technology would, in practical effect, force any state, county, or municipality that takes federal highway money (essentially all of them) to either remove the cameras or restructure their use around tolling alone.

The amendment’s cosponsors, Perry and García, represent opposite ends of the House’s ideological spectrum but converge on a surveillance concern that has gathered momentum in legislatures and city halls across the US as ALPR networks have quietly become a pervasive layer of American road infrastructure.

ALPR cameras—mounted on poles, overpasses, traffic signals, and police cruisers—photograph every passing license plate, log times and locations, and feed data into searchable databases shared across agencies and jurisdictions.

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In Illinois, where García’s district sits, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced last August that an audit by his office had found Flock Group—the Atlanta-based company that operates the country’s largest ALPR network—in violation of state law for giving US Customs and Border Protection access to Illinois ALPR data. Giannoulias ordered the company to cut off federal access.

Flock said at the time that it would pause federal pilots nationwide, arrangements the company had previously denied existed in what Flock CEO and founder Garrett Langley said were public statements that “inadvertently provided inaccurate information.”

Flock did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

Privacy advocates have long warned that the aggregation of license plate data amounts to a de facto warrantless tracking system. New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice has documented the integration of ALPR feeds into police data-fusion systems that combine plate data with surveillance and social media monitoring. And the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights nonprofit, has documented a range of police misuse, including the past targeting of mosques and the disproportionate deployment of the technology in low-income neighborhoods.

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Court records obtained by the EFF and reported by 404 Media last year revealed that a Texas sheriff’s deputy has queried Flock’s nationwide network—roughly 88,000 cameras at the time—to track a woman because, he wrote, she “had an abortion.”

“Flock cameras are easily abused and have already been banned in many municipalities across the nation for their failure to keep our data safe,” says Hajar Hammado, senior policy adviser at Demand Progress, who believes the Perry-García amendment is “commonsense” and says that the country has become a “mass surveillance dystopia”

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We may only have a year of the RAM crisis left if this ex-Samsung boss is right

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  • The ex-chief of Samsung’s semiconductor business has made a more optimistic prediction about the RAM crisis
  • The memory situation will improve thanks to a surge in RAM production from Chinese companies, and some deflation in the AI bubble
  • Due to those factors combined, we’re told, “There is a possibility that the market will change starting from the second half of next year or the first half of 2028.”

Could the RAM crisis be over sooner than you thought — and maybe even in not much more than a year? An ex-Samsung exec has stated that this could be a possibility.

Wccftech flagged a report from Seoul Economic Daily (via PC Gamer), which quoted Kye-hyun Kyung, who was head of Samsung’s semiconductor business until a couple of years ago.

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LG Adds ART TV Features to Select OLED and Mini LED TVs, Turning Better Displays into Better Wall Candy

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LG’s 2026 ART TV push is not just about making a television look prettier when nobody is watching Slow Horses. The bigger shift is bringing art focused display modes and gallery friendly design to higher performance models like the OLED evo AI W6 Wallpaper TV, OLED evo AI G6, and Mini LED Gallery TV AI with frame, without forcing buyers to settle for lifestyle first hardware.

Built on more than a decade of OLED development, these models are designed to blend into living spaces while presenting artwork with strong color accuracy and contrast. LG’s design approach has already earned recognition as well, with the Wallpaper TV receiving both the iF Design Award and Red Dot Design Award.

LG is not just chasing the “TV as décor” trend. It is trying to do it without compromising what made people buy OLED in the first place.

Designed for More Than Watching

LG’s ART TV lineup rethinks how a screen should live in a room. These select models are not treated as conventional black rectangles, but as displays designed to suit different spaces, whether that means reducing their visual footprint, sitting tight to the wall, or presenting the TV as a framed design element.

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The goal is simple: give customers more control over how the TV looks in the home, how it fits into the room, and how artwork is displayed when nobody is actually watching television.

Pro Tip: LG’s designated ART TVs are still real TVs. They are built for movies, TV shows, gaming, and everyday streaming, with LG’s webOS smart TV platform included.

LG OLED evo W6 Wallpaper TV

2026 LG W6 Wallpaper TV Lifestyle Angle
2026 LG W6 Wallpaper TV

With its 9mm range ultra thin profile and certified True Wireless connectivity through LG’s Zero Connect Box, the OLED evo AI W6 Wallpaper TV is designed to reduce cable clutter and visual distractions. The point is not subtle: make the screen sit on the wall like wallpaper, then let the art do the talking.

That makes the W6 a natural fit for LG’s ART TV push, especially for buyers who want the display to disappear into the room when it is not being used for movies, shows, or gaming. The W6 is available in 83 and 77-inch screen sizes.

For more details, see our companion article: 2026 LG evo W6 Wallpaper TVs Arrive With $1,000 Premium.

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LG OLED evo G6

LG G6 OLED TV at CES 2026
LG G6 OLED TV at CES 2026

The flush-fit Gallery design of G6 aligns precisely with the wall surface, creating a clean, minimal presence that fits naturally into the space. 

The LG OLED evo G6 Series provides Hyper Radiant Color technology built around the new Primary RGB Tandem 2.0 OLED panel, which LG says delivers up to 20% higher brightness than the 2025 G5 series. The G6 also incorporates enhanced color processing and a Reflection Free Premium screen coating designed to improve visibility in brighter rooms while maintaining the deep contrast OLED is known for. The G6 series is available in 97, 83, 77, 65, and 55-inch screen sizes.

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For details on the LG G6 TV, refer to our companion article: LG Reveals Pricing and Availability for 2026 OLED evo G6, C6, and C6H TVs

2026 LG Gallery TV Lifestyle
2026 LG Gallery TV

With attachable frames and a gallery style presentation, the Gallery TV treats the screen as a decorative object that becomes part of the room rather than something you try to hide.

Under the surface, it is still built like a proper TV. The Gallery TV uses Mini LED backlighting with Dynamic QNED Color and LG’s α7 AI Processor to deliver full 4K resolution with AI assisted picture processing. When it is time to stop admiring the artwork and actually watch something, it does not fall apart.

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The design stays consistent with the concept. A slim flush mount form factor keeps the panel tight to the wall, while customizable magnetic frames let users match different interior styles without overthinking it.

For more details, see our companion article: LG Unveils Art Inspired Gallery TV as It Expands Lifestyle TV Lineup at CES 2026.

Engineered to Present Art as Intended

LG’s ART TV lineup pairs design with display technology that actually matters for showing art on a screen. The point is not just to make the TV look less like a TV. It is to preserve color, contrast, detail, and visibility as room lighting changes throughout the day.

Color and Depth: On LG’s OLED ART TV models, Perfect Black, Perfect Color, and advanced color processing help artwork appear richer and more accurate, with stronger contrast and subtle tonal detail intact. The Mini LED based Gallery TV cannot produce perfect black like OLED, but LG has optimized black levels and color performance around what that display technology can actually deliver.

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Brightness and Real World Viewing: Artwork needs to remain believable in bright daylight, evening light, and everything in between. On the Wallpaper TV and G6 OLED models, Hyper Radiant Color Technology, powered by LG’s α11 AI Processor Gen3, is designed to improve brightness while maintaining accurate color reproduction. On the Mini LED based Gallery TV, LG’s α7 AI Processor handles color and brightness optimization.

Reflection Reduction: Glare is the enemy of both art and television, because nobody bought a premium display to admire a lamp reflection. Reflection Free Premium on select OLED models helps reduce glare and preserve the visual texture of artwork under changing lighting conditions. The Mini LED based Gallery TV approaches the same goal with a specialized screen developed with input from museum curators.

LG’s Gallery+ allows customers to turn their TV into a personalized art display, creating the experience of a premium gallery at home. The service offers more than 4,500 regularly refreshed visuals, spanning fine art, cinematic landscapes, animation, and ambient motion pieces.

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Pro Tip: How to Use LG Gallery+

Users can also generate custom imagery using Generative AI, display personal photo libraries, and layer the visuals with background music — either from built-in selections or streamed via Bluetooth.

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To celebrate the rollout of the 2026 Art TV lineup, LG OLED evo W6 Wallpaper TV, LG OLED evo G6, and LG Gallery TV include a complimentary three‑month LG Gallery+ subscription, giving customers in select markets access to over 5,000 curated artworks at no additional cost.

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The Bottom Line

LG is not pretending Samsung’s The Frame does not exist. That ship left port in 2017, and Samsung has been steering the ART TV conversation ever since. But LG’s 2026 strategy is different because it is not limiting the idea to one lifestyle TV concept.

By pushing ART TV features across select OLED and Mini LED models, LG is giving buyers more choice: ultra thin Wallpaper TV design, premium OLED picture quality from the G6, or a framed Mini LED Gallery TV for rooms where OLED may not be the obvious fit. That is the real point of difference.

This makes sense for buyers who want the TV to look better in the room without giving up serious movie, sports, streaming, or gaming performance. Samsung still owns the category mindshare, and Hisense, TCL, and Skyworth are now crowding the space. LG has work to do. But bringing ART TV functionality to better display hardware is a smart move, and one that could make the lifestyle TV category a lot more interesting.

Price & Availability

The LG OLED evo W6 Wallpaper TV is available for pre-order at the following prices:

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  • OLED83W6 (83-inches)  – $7,499.99 at LG.com
  • OLED77W6 (77-inches) – $5,499.99 at Best Buy or LG.com

The LG OLED evo G6 model series is available for purchase at the following prices:

The LG Gallery TV (LX7 Series) is available for pre-order at the following prices:

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Kansas City Public Schools are going all-in on Apple

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Kansas City Public Schools have procured more than 4,500 MacBook Neos as part of its transition to an “All-Apple District”

More than 30,000 Windows PCs and Chromebooks are getting the boot as Kansas City prepares to transition its public school students exclusively to Apple devices.

On Wednesday, Kansas City Public Schools elaborated on its decision to become an “All-Apple District.” The district says the move reflects its commitment to providing the highest quality education to its students.

“Students are now proud of their schools because they have the best products,” KCPS Chief Technology Officer Scott Jones said in a statement. The district believes that Apple devices have an edge over the competition, calling them “secure, durable, and reliable.”

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This isn’t the first time we’ve heard the news, either. Apple’s own CFO, Kevan Parekh, made mention that the school would be making the switch during Apple’s 2026 Q2 earnings call.

More than 4,500 MacBook Neos have been procured for students in 8th grade and up. Lower grades will have access to the district’s existing iPad and MacBook Air collection.

We may see more school districts make similar leaps in the future. Apple’s new MacBook Neo, which made its debut in March, has already become the darling of the MacBook lineup.

Its lower price point, $599, makes it a tempting purchase for casual users, students, and enterprise solutions. While many scoffed at the idea that the A18 Pro chip would be enough to lure in prospective buyers, Apple initially had difficulties keeping it on shelves.

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Daily Deal: Curiosity Stream Standard Plan

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from the good-deals-on-cool-stuff dept

Curiosity Stream offers unlimited access to thousands of films, series, and shows to satisfy your thirst for knowledge. Whether you’re a science enthusiast, history buff, or technology geek, Curiosity Stream has something for everyone. Unleash the power of on-demand streaming that allows you to choose what you want to watch, when you want to watch it, and where you want to watch it. From the comfort of your living room to the remote corners of the globe, your favorite documentaries are just a click away. It’s on sale to new users for $127.50 with code STREAM15 at checkout.

Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackSocial. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps support Techdirt. The products featured do not reflect endorsements by our editorial team.

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Canva launches in Gemini, now in all four major AI assistants

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TL;DR

Canva launched its Connected App for Google Gemini at Google I/O, completing its integration across all four major AI assistants. The tool lets users generate on-brand, editable designs from Gemini prompts, with Magic Layers converting AI images into layered files.

Canva has spent the past year quietly embedding itself into every major AI assistant. First came Claude, then ChatGPT, then Microsoft Copilot. Now Google Gemini gets the same treatment, and the strategy is complete.

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The company launched its Connected App for Google Gemini at Google I/O, giving Gemini users the ability to generate, edit, and search Canva designs directly from a conversation. The integration started rolling out with limited availability on 19 May and will expand to full availability in the coming weeks.

The pitch is straightforward. Type a prompt in Gemini, and Canva generates a design that arrives not as a flat image but as a fully editable file. If the user has a Canva Brand Kit configured, the output automatically applies stored logos, fonts, and colour palettes from the first prompt.

The most technically interesting piece is the integration with Google’s Nano Banana image model. Users can generate an image through Gemini’s native capabilities and then convert it into a layered, editable design using Canva’s Magic Layers tool. That solves a persistent frustration with AI-generated visuals: they are typically flat files that require re-prompting for every small change. Magic Layers analyses the image structure and separates it into individual, movable elements.

“We’re making design accessible wherever people start their work,” said Anwar Haneef, Canva’s head of ecosystem. The implication is clear. Canva no longer sees itself as a destination. It sees itself as infrastructure.

The Gemini launch means Canva’s design engine is now embedded in all four dominant AI assistants: Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini. Each integration works through Canva’s API, allowing the assistant to call design generation, brand kit lookup, and template search without the user leaving the conversation.

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The timing matters. Google unveiled Pics at I/O 2026, a competing AI design tool built directly into Workspace that generates graphics from text prompts. Adobe’s Firefly holds 41 per cent business adoption. And Figma just launched its own AI agent that designs on the canvas. Canva’s response is to make its tools available everywhere rather than fight for a single surface.

That approach is paying off commercially. Canva reported that nearly every marketer in its latest survey uses AI for some part of their workflow, though consumers still want the human touch. The company now claims 220 million users globally and has positioned its AI 2.0 platform, launched in March, as a full operating system for visual content creation.

Canva AI 2.0 already connects to Slack, Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, Notion, Zoom, and HubSpot through six intelligent workflows. It can generate meeting summaries from Zoom transcripts, turn customer emails into personalised sales materials, and build company newsletters. The Gemini integration adds another surface to that network.

The risk for Canva is commoditisation. If every AI assistant can generate decent visuals natively, the value of a dedicated design tool diminishes. Google’s Pics, OpenAI’s image generation, and Adobe’s Firefly are all improving rapidly. Canva’s bet is that brand consistency, editability, and template ecosystems still matter more than raw generation quality, and that being embedded everywhere makes it harder to replace.

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Trump Sued Himself And Walked Away With A $100 Million Tax Debt Erased

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from the it’s-just-so-brazen dept

There were two rumors last week regarding the supposed “settlement” of Donald Trump’s ridiculously problematic lawsuit against his own IRS, asking for $10 billion. The first was that he was going to get an agreement to drop all audits of his taxes (and the taxes of his family members and businesses). The second was that he was going to create a $1.776 billion fund to pay off January 6th insurrectionists. The first of those came true on Monday. The second came true on Tuesday.

US tax authorities will be barred from pursuing claims against Donald Trump, his eldest sons and the Trump Organization under an agreement to halt the president’s $10bn lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.

Just like Monday’s news, the framing of this is absolute bullshit. There is no “agreement to halt the lawsuit.” The lawsuit was about to be drop kicked out of court by a judge who pointed out that there is no “cause or controversy” here because Donald Trump was suing himself and had full control over both parties in the lawsuit. You can’t “come to an agreement” with yourself to give yourself a tremendous benefit from the United States government.

That’s not a thing. That’s just theft.

And while it may not be the full $10 billion he sought, it’s still a massive theft from the United States treasury. As you’ll recall, Donald Trump has insisted for years that he couldn’t release his tax returns like every single President since Richard Nixon had done, because they were being audited. But that’s also bullshit. When Nixon released his tax returns, they were being audited. And, indeed, the IRS code requires it to audit both the President and Vice President’s taxes every year.

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Reporting from a few years ago found that an audit of Trump’s taxes suggested he owed over $100 million to the US Treasury because of earlier tax fraud.

The issues around Mr. Trump’s case were novel enough that, during his presidency, the I.R.S. undertook a high-level legal review before pursuing it. The Times and ProPublica, in consultation with tax experts, calculated that the revision sought by the I.R.S. would create a new tax bill of more than $100 million, plus interest and potential penalties.

So agreeing to drop the audit entirely is, at minimum, a $100 million gift from the American taxpayer directly to Donald Trump. As a reward for tax fraud.

That seems… very bad. It’s extraordinarily, shockingly corrupt. And it’s probably not even the most corrupt thing he’s done this week.

The actual agreement from the DOJ is hilariously stupid. It’s just three paragraphs long and claims it’s part of the “settlement” of the lawsuit (which, again, cannot be “settled” because there’s only one party). The main part is this:

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The United States RELEASES, WAIVES, ACQUITS, and FOREVER DISCHARGES each of the Plaintiffs from, and is hereby FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing, any and all claims, counterclaims, causes of action, appeals, or requests for any relief, including injunctive relief, monetary relief, damages, examinations or similar or related reviews, appeals, debt relief, costs, attorney’s fees, expenses, and/or interest, whether presently known or unknown, that as of the Effective Date of the Settlement Agreement-have been or could have been asserted by Defendants against any of the Plaintiffs or related or affiliated individuals (including, without limitation, family or others filing jointly), or parties including trusts, parent, sister, or related companies, affiliates, and subsidiaries, by reason of, with respect to, in connection with, or which arise out of (1) any matters that were raised or could have been raised in the Case or the Pending Agency Claims; (2) Lawfare and/or Weaponization; or (3) any matters currently pending or that could be pending (including tax returns filed before the Effective Date) before Defendants or other agencies or departments.

Basically: clean slate for what appears to be many, many years of tax fraud. So he defrauded the American government, then used his role as the President to just wipe out any ability to hold him accountable for it.

And it’s not like everyone inside the government just went along with it. Reporting says that IRS officials were horrified by the lawsuit and pushed the DOJ to fight back against it.

I.R.S. officials prepared a 25-page memorandum outlining what they saw as flaws in Mr. Trump’s suit and advising the Justice Department to move to dismiss it, according to two people familiar with the memo. That memo was provided to Treasury officials in April, and it is unclear if they passed it along to its intended recipients at the Justice Department, according to the people, who spoke anonymously to discuss internal government deliberations.

And then, on Monday, just as this brazenly corrupt deal was being finalized, the Treasury Department’s top lawyer (hired by Trump) resigned, apparently in protest.

The Treasury Department’s top lawyer resigned Monday as the government announced a controversial settlement with President Trump, according to people familiar with his departure.

Brian Morrissey joined the Trump administration last year as the president’s pick to be Treasury Department’s general counsel, after previously serving at the agency and at the Justice Department during Trump’s first term. A former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, Morrissey didn’t respond to a request for comment late Monday. 

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MAGA world has long since baked in the idea that Trump will rob the American taxpayer blind any way he can. Most people just assumed that came with the territory. Probably fewer assumed “the territory” included filing a $10 billion lawsuit against yourself, having the judge almost throw it out because you’re suing yourself, then “settling” with yourself — and somehow walking away with a clean slate on what appears to be over $100 million in fraud-based tax debt. If this were written up as a movie, no one would make it, as the corruption is simply too over the top and out in the open. And yet, it’s real.

Filed Under: audits, donald trump, irs, tax fraud

Companies: trump organization

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The 10 Best TV Shows to Stream This Month (May 2026)

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While streaming may be the future of television, the medium itself—much like its big-screen counterpart—often leans on familiar properties, prequels, and reboots to keep things moving along. (Which explains why Yellowstone has morphed into a full-on franchise, with four current spinoffs and more on the way.)

Why does this matter to you? Because May’s best shows to stream are full of familiar titles, from Battlestar Galactica to the Duffer Brothers’ newest project … which sounds a bit like their most famous project.

Here are our picks for the 10 best shows to watch this month.

Battlestar Galactica

More than a year before Russell T. Davies rebooted Doctor Who for a whole new generation, Ronald D. Moore breathed new life into Battlestar Galactica—Glen A. Larson’s highly anticipated but ultimately short-lived sci-fi show from 1978. The revived series, in which what remains of humanity attempts to stave off extinction at the hands of a race of sentient AI beings known as Cylons, has since become one of the most critically acclaimed and influential sci-fi franchises of all time.

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Now, after a year of being MIA, Paramount+ is bringing the entire franchise—which was profoundly ahead of its time with its exploration of AI, politics, identity, and what it means to be human—to its streaming platform. In addition to the three-hour miniseries that served as the de facto pilot, all four official seasons of the series, starring Oscar nominees Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, plus Katee Sackhoff in her breakout role, are now streaming. As are the Olmos-directed feature film, The Plan, and the 2010 prequel series, Caprica. It’s all here for the bingeing.

Worst Ex Ever

Think your former partner was the worst person that ever lived? Give Netflix’s true crime docuseries a watch, then maybe reassess. Using a mix of standard talking head interviews with authorities and survivors, plus animated re-creations of the violent actions and crimes being described, the show—which dropped its second season on May 6—explores the many ways romantic relationships can turn toxic, sometimes with fatal results.

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Tennessee Book Ban Update: State Jumps The Shark By Banning ‘Roots’

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from the doomed-to-repeat-it dept

When I was in high school, part of the mandatory social studies curriculum included watching the miniseries Roots in class over the course of several days. I remember it fondly, though I did get myself into a bit of trouble in the process. Apparently shouting things like “Hey, where is Geordi La Forge’s visor?” and “Oh, look, it’s the owner of McDowell’s!” is not appropriate fodder when watching what is indeed an important cultural touchstone for American history.

The miniseries was based on a book by Alex Haley, which follows generations of African slaves descending from slave Kunta Kinte, and highlights parts of what slave life was like in that shameful part of American history. The book won a Pulitzer in 1977, while the miniseries collected 9 Emmys and a Peabody award. And one county in the state of Tennessee just banned the book in public schools.

“Roots,” the renowned 1976 novel by Alex Haley that spurred a broad awakening in African American genealogy and history, has been banned by Knox County Schools.

“Prior to its release, the impact of slavery was easy to diminish or deny by those that benefited the most from that system,” said Annastasia Williams, bookshop director at The Bottom bookstore and cultural organization.

“‘Roots’ created an opening to reengage with how the history of slavery is taught in American schools and to the American public. Haley’s work showcased the violence, brutality, and aftermath of slavery, but it also showcased the resilience and resistance of Black people and families that spans generations. Both the book and subsequent TV miniseries were cultural phenomenons that started conversations, shifted perspectives, and contributed to a collective empathy that the U.S. had not seen or heard before.”

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Knox County is apparently up to 119 total book titles banned from school libraries at this point. Nearly all of them are works that in some way engage in conversation about sexual experiences, race relations, or LGBTQ+ content. All of it is ridiculous, of course, as well as an attempt at infantilizing Tennessee children. Children, I’d be willing to wager, who are far more mature about such subjects than the dewy-eyed cretins cosplaying as functioning adults who are banning these books.

And this has to be a jump the shark moment when it comes to banning books. Roots is incredibly important as a major cultural moment in race relations and the historical understanding of slavery in America. Banning it isn’t about protecting children from inappropriate content. It isn’t about saving children from misinformation about American history. I would love to hear from anyone who wants to argue that the content portrayed in Roots is historically inaccurate. Go for it. I always enjoy someone who wants to demonstrate just how wrong they can be about something public.

This is about trying to bury the very real history of our country. Why? Because it makes some people feel bad? It makes it a bit harder to stand for the National Anthem at the University of Tennessee football game? Or maybe because a certain segment of the population would very much like to rewind the clock back to the 1800s?

Haley lived in Tennessee. There is a fucking statue of him in Morningside Park in Knoxville, within Knox County. So Knox County banned a book in schools that was written by an author who is celebrated with a statue in that same county. A statue for what?

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It seems that in the future, students in the county won’t be able to tell you the answer to that question.

Filed Under: alex haley, book bans, free speech, knox county, knox county schools, roots, tennessee

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