'We know these services are needed'

'A lifeline cut — ending LGBTQ youth suicide support puts lives at risk'

Tamir Aldad at Newsweek

Terminating the "national LGBTQ youth suicide lifeline rolls back a vital lifeline for a group of young people who already experience mental health distress at alarming and disproportionate rates," says Tamir Aldad. Despite the "obvious need for and apparent success of the LGBTQ suicide lifeline, this critical support for LGBTQ kids will be shut down in less than a month." The "youth suicide lifeline service is simply good public health policy" that "supports vulnerable kids and saves lives."

Read more

'The Diddy verdict is the latest gruesome marker of a post-#MeToo era'

Moira Donegan at The Guardian

Even "according to the version of events" that Sean Combs "himself has admitted to, the musician is abusive, cruel, manipulative and violent toward women," says Moira Donegan. It is "almost banal, by now, to observe that we are in the midst of a #MeToo backlash, and that the brief span" when "men were held momentarily accountable for their sexual abuse and exploitation of women has been replaced with a sadistic and gruesomely triumphant restoration of the status quo ante."

Read more

'Democrats should become the pro-porn party'

Elie Mystal at The Nation

Democrats "should embrace pornography and other examples of sexiness and smut under the umbrella of free speech," says Elie Mystal. They "must be the party of free speech and artistic expression. That is the liberal position." Young men have been "led to believe that Republicans are the protectors of free speech." Democrats "can speak to people who honestly believe that freedom of thought and expression are under attack in this country, because it is under attack — from Republicans."

Read more

'Why the US should build data centers in Dubai and Riyadh'

Mohammed Soliman at Foreign Policy

The "UAE and Saudi Arabia, and the broader Gulf region, are positioning themselves as potential backends of AI for emerging markets across Asia and Africa," says Mohammed Soliman. They are "laying the groundwork for a U.S.-aligned model of AI partnerships that could, over time, outpace China in the global AI race." The "U.S.-UAE and the US-Saudi partnerships shouldn't be viewed as offshoring compute capacity — this is capacity that didn't exist in the first place."

Read more