Alex Pigman
alexrpigman.bsky.social
Alex Pigman
@alexrpigman.bsky.social
Tech reporter at AFP in Washington DC, ex Brussels and Paris
Signal: alexrp.99
Reposted by Alex Pigman
A terrific AFP fact check uses reverse image searches to expose how a White House video took scenes from Florida, Texas, South Carolina and Nebraska and lied that they showed "Chicago is in chaos."
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
October 16, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Alex Pigman
NEW:

A dramatic voiceover video the White House and Donald Trump shared last week claiming to show "chaos" in Chicago is littered with outdated footage from Florida, Texas, South Carolina, Nebraska, California and Arizona, an AFP investigation found.

factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
October 14, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Reposted by Alex Pigman
Anyone who pledges to do whatever it takes to backstop Argentina's currency and economy has not quite internalized what that job entails.
"'Argentina is a systemically important U.S. ally in Latin America, and the U.S. Treasury stands ready to do what is needed within its mandate to support Argentina,' Mr. Bessent wrote on social media."

The history of the past 20 years shows that the former is untrue and the latter implausible.
U.S. Pledges Support for Argentina’s Economy and a Trump Ally in Crisis
www.nytimes.com
September 22, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Reposted by Alex Pigman
The “American Dream” has long held the U.S. back from developing a more equal and fair society. So, its decline is good news.
Exclusive | Americans Lose Faith That Hard Work Leads to Economic Gains, WSJ-NORC Poll Finds
Trump is contending with a disconnect between the nation’s sour outlook and traditional measures showing a robust economy.
www.wsj.com
September 7, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Alex Pigman
BREAKING Trump accuses Xi, Kim and Putin of conspiring against US at Beijing meeting
September 3, 2025 at 1:45 AM
This headline feels very December 2022, which is a problem when we’re 100s of billions of dollars in investments later.
August 31, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Reposted by Alex Pigman
BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.
July 8, 2025 at 3:31 PM
The threatened US tariffs on Cambodia seem particularly devastating even though its trade negotiator calls 36 percent a "huge victory"
Cambodian garment workers fret Trump's new tariff threat
As Cambodian garment workers took breaks from toiling in sweltering factories on Tuesday, they feared for their jobs after US President Donald Trump's threat to impose a 36 percent tariff."I fear that...
uk.finance.yahoo.com
July 8, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Yes there is the "TRAIN WRECK", but Trump's response to Musk's third party gambit is still pretty measured and Musk seems to know that.
July 7, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Alex Pigman
❗️NEW: VDL appears to step back from her proposal to lower oil price cap: “In the last days, we’ve seen the price has risen so the oil price cap does serve its function…At the moment, there’s little pressure” on lowering it, she told AFP, EFE & me @ G7

+ our Live: www.bloomberg.com/news/live-bl...
Live: Updates From G-7 Summit
Live News as Leaders Meet at G7 Summit in Canada
www.bloomberg.com
June 17, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Five days after the Musk clash, Trump’s AI Czar David Sacks is alive and well and carrying out his official functions. He just spoke at the AWS summit in DC
June 10, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Europe begins a long walk to a minimum age on social media law @afp.com
New push in Europe to curb children's social media use
From dangerous diet tips to disinformation, cyberbullying to hate speech, the glut of online content harmful to children grows every day.It is currently investigating Meta's Facebook and Instagram, an...
www.yahoo.com
June 6, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Alex Pigman
Turned on local news here in DC and it's just playing Swan Lake over and over?
June 5, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Reposted by Alex Pigman
Redpanda's CEO and founder, @emaxerrno.bsky.social, recently took Centre Stage at @websummit.bsky.social Vancouver with David Shim and @alexrpigman.bsky.social to dissect the age of #AI agents. 🤖

They dove deep into defining agents, tackling #data infrastructure hurdles, & the enterprise impact. 🧠
Alex Gallego | Web Summit Vancouver Talk: The age of agents
YouTube video by Redpanda Data
youtu.be
June 5, 2025 at 3:33 PM
21st century Elvis…

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/u...
On the Campaign Trail, Elon Musk Juggled Drugs and Family Drama
www.nytimes.com
May 31, 2025 at 4:30 AM
Vancouver
May 30, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Reposted by Alex Pigman
What’s interesting/ignorant about this is that we *do do the big things here - the AI and the weapons systems. And we don’t do T shirts and textiles at scale.

Once again, he has no idea how any of this works.
Trump: "We're not looking to make sneakers and t-shirts. We want to make military equipment, we want to make big things. We want to do the AI things with the computers. But the textile -- you know, I'm not looking to make t-shirts, to be honest. I'm not looking to make socks."
May 26, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Reposted by Alex Pigman
Seriously build some fucking houses blue states.
May 25, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Ad spot this morning on a local DC radio station extolling the virtues of glyphosate.
A White House report released by President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday raises concerns about the potential health effects of some pesticides on American children, but it stopped short of calling them unsafe. Here's what the science says about the risks.
What a White House Report Says (and Doesn’t Say) About Pesticides and Health
www.nytimes.com
May 22, 2025 at 8:47 PM
The social safety net of the college educated American is their job and 401k so everything is tied to Wall Street - number must go up. The idea of collective or national welfare is historical artefact, the stuff of legend.
May 22, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Reposted by Alex Pigman
You know who pointed me to learn what I could about Cardinal Prevost? The @chicago.suntimes.com Robert Herguth, who knows all the things. chicago.suntimes.com/religion/202...
From Chicago's south suburbs to helping choose the next pope
Cardinal Robert Prevost joins the conclave Wednesday to pick Pope Francis' successor. His rise in the faith began at a South Side church. "Even as a young teenager, he knew what he wanted to do and wh...
chicago.suntimes.com
May 8, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Related/unrelated: Would the British be more welcoming than Canadians of becoming 51st state?
🔴 UK & US are close to a trade agreement, the pact set to be signed this week, and would lower UK steel and car export tariffs - FT.
May 6, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Alex Pigman
“Shipping ports are empty across the United States. Nothing is coming in. Businesses have cancelled the remainder of their 2025 orders.”

(h/t FreightWaves)
May 2, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Reposted by Alex Pigman
#BREAKING TikTok fined 530 million euros ($600 million) over China data transfer: EU watchdog
May 2, 2025 at 10:21 AM