Free for ALL Friday!
It's Free for All Friday!
It’s Free for ALL Friday! Each week I keep track of some of the off-the-path things I've found, and work extra-hard to make sure you never hit a paywall, using my own subscriptions, gift links, and other (legal) hocus-pocus.
Former Prince Andrew Arrested in Britain Over Epstein Ties
Utterly amazing. The UK’s approach to this seems very different from that in the United States.
The British police on Thursday evening released Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, after taking him into custody for several hours, intensifying a long-running crisis for the monarchy over his ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The detention and questioning of Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor, once seen as a dashing war hero and the favorite son of Queen Elizabeth II, was a staggering blow for the monarchy. It was the first time in modern history that a member of the British royal family had been arrested. The last time was in 1649, when Charles I was executed for treason during the English Civil War.
The authorities said they had arrested Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicions of misconduct in public office, without providing details. The arrest came amid reports that the former prince had shared confidential information with Mr. Epstein while serving as a British trade envoy.
In a remarkable written statement, King Charles confirmed his brother’s arrest and said he supported a “full, fair and proper process” regarding the investigation, adding: “Let me state clearly: The law must take its course.”
Former Prince Andrew Arrested in Britain Over Epstein Ties - New York Times
Mark Carney Joins Hands With Canada Opposition Leader as He Pays Tribute to School Shooting Victims
This happened a week ago — but I read it after realizing that the prime minister and opposition leader in Canada stood together and literally held hands at the invitation of a local indigenous leader, albeit at a very somber event. Can you imagine this happening in the USA right now, at any level?
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has told residents of Tumbler Ridge that the country is “with you, and we will always be with you”, during a candlelight vigil for the eight victims of a mass shooting that has shattered the small mining town.
The prime minister, holding hands with opposition leader Pierre Poilievre and Mary Simon, governor general of Canada, while flanked by First Nations chiefs and local officials, paid tribute to the families enduring the loss of loved ones, after the shooting at a local school that has become one of the most deadly attacks in Canadian history.
Last week, an 18-year-old transgender woman opened fire at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, killing five students and a teacher, after earlier killing her mother and stepbrother at home. The attacker then took her own life.
Mark Carney Joins Hands With Canada Opposition Leader as He Pays Tribute to School Shooting Victims - The Guardian
The Accomplice Who Was Going to Testify Against Jeffrey Epstein—Then Went Dark
French model scout Jean-Luc Brunel was negotiating to provide prosecutors with evidence against the sex offender in 2016—three years before he was finally arrested—but ultimately backed out
Jean-Luc Brunel was ready to turn on the man who had been his patron and partner. The French modeling scout was prepared to tell prosecutors what he knew about Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking.
Brunel was secretly negotiating in 2016 with lawyers representing Epstein’s victims, according to newly released Justice Department files. Brunel’s lawyer told them his client recruited girls for Epstein and had incriminating photographs. They discussed a date for Brunel to walk into the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York—in exchange for immunity.
“One of Epstein’s bfs, Jean Luc Brunel, has helped get girls. He is wanting to cooperate,” according to handwritten notes taken by a federal prosecutor in February 2016. “Brunel is afraid of being prosecuted.”
And then Brunel went dark.
Epstein had discovered that negotiations with Brunel were taking place, the files show. On May 3, he fired off an email to Kathy Ruemmler, an attorney he corresponded with regularly. He wrote that Brunel was planning to go to the U.S. Attorney’s office the following week and one of Brunel’s friends had “asked for 3 million dollars so that Jean Luc would not go in.”
The Accomplice Who Was Going to Testify Against Jeffrey Epstein—Then Went Dark - Wall Street Journal
The Newest Old Tech in Warfare: Balloons
Reinvented as long-range drone-launchers, high-altitude balloons are extending the reach of Ukrainian attacks in Russia and of American surveillance.
A military technology from the French Revolution is finding new life on the modern AI-powered battlefield.
From Russia’s war in Ukraine to the Pacific Ocean, balloons are making a comeback, boosted by high-tech innovations in sensors, autonomy and materials. The low-cost, floating systems can spy, link communications networks and transport payloads. They barely show up on radar and soar high above electronic-warfare transmissions that fry other airborne devices.
They also carry weapons, including one-way attack drones, thousands of miles to hit faraway targets, causing destruction and sowing fear far from the front lines.
Militaries large and small are paying attention. High-altitude balloons are slated to be part of U.S. Army exercises in Nevada and across Europe in April, and the service is preparing to test swarms of balloons in the Pacific late this year. European allies are testing balloons for a variety of military roles.
“Anything you can do off an airplane, you can do off a balloon—and most countries aren’t looking for it,” said Peter Phillips, a former U.S. Senior Special Operations Officer who worked with balloons.
The Newest Old Tech in Warfare: Balloons - Wall Street Journal
A Defector Explains the Remote-Work Scam Helping North Korea Pay for Nukes
Kim Jong Un’s cyber operatives have faked their way into IT jobs at American firms and elsewhere, pocketing big revenue for regime.
On a California-based company’s internal directory, he was just another face in the grid of remote workers—a prolific software developer with a polished LinkedIn profile and an IP address tracing back to the Midwest.
In reality, the man behind the coding lived in a state-run dormitory in China. His name was Anton Koh. And he wasn’t Chinese.
Koh belonged to a pipeline of elite North Korean cyber operatives, identified, trained and dispatched overseas by the Kim regime. Their mission: generate hard currency for Pyongyang by stealing foreigners’ identities to land remote IT jobs—with no gig more coveted than those from the U.S.
Koh, who defected to South Korea in recent years, provides a rare window into Kim Jong Un’s digital warriors, who have managed to infiltrate hundreds of Fortune 500 companies, according to estimates from Google’s Mandiant division.
More than 40 countries have been targeted or involved in North Korea’s cyber work, according to a U.S.-led consortium of 11 nations. The cyber agents are largely based in China and Russia, where the internet connection is stronger and won’t trace back to North Korea. They generated up to $800 million for the Kim regime in 2024, the group said.
A Defector Explains the Remote-Work Scam Helping North Korea Pay for Nukes - Wall Street Journal
The Worst-Case Future for White-Collar Workers
The well-off have no experience with the job market that might be coming.
White-collar workers are getting nervous, with good reason. Sure, 98 percent of college graduates who want a job still have one, and wages are ticking up. Sure, some companies that cite the labor-saving, efficiency-promoting effects of ChatGPT and Claude as they let employees go are just “AI washing”—talking about algorithms to distract from poor managerial decisions.
But the labor market for office workers is beginning to shift. Americans with a bachelor’s degree account for a quarter of the unemployed, a record. High-school graduates are finding jobs quicker than college graduates, an unprecedented trend. Occupations susceptible to AI automation have seen sharp spikes in joblessness. Businesses really are shrinking payroll and cutting costs as they deploy AI.
Maybe algorithm-driven changes will happen slowly, giving workers plenty of time to adjust. Maybe white-collar types have 12 to 18 months left. Maybe the AI-related job carnage will be contained to a sliver of the economy.
I don’t think anyone knows what will happen, or even what is happening now.
But if white-collar layoffs cause a downturn, Washington might not be able to restore hiring and lift consumer spending as it has done before.
The Worst-Case Future for White-Collar Workers - The Atlantic
No Views, No Hikes, Just Zzzs: Welcome to the Sleepcation
Tired of being tired, travelers are booking REM-fueled trips; ‘The best sleep of my life!’
Kaitlyn Rosati’s latest getaway featured none of her usual hallmarks of adventure. There were no predawn hikes or multicity tours. Her itinerary involved one activity only: sleep.
Rosati slept for 16 hours on the first night of her stay at a hotel in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., last year. When she woke up in the early hours of the afternoon, she had breakfast, took a bath, then headed straight back to bed for a four-hour nap.
“I’m hooked, this is awesome,” she said after the first night of her stay. By the second day, Rosati didn’t bother leaving her bed at all.
A growing cohort of Gen Z and millennial travelers are choosing REM-fueled trips they’ve dubbed the “sleepcation.” For them, the ultimate vacation luxury isn’t a nice view—it’s a mattress.
Hotels are leaning in. Rosati, 35, signed up for a special sleep package that, for an extra $99, kitted her room out with CBD gummies, skin-care products, bath bombs, weighted blankets and satin lavender eye masks.
For the hospitality industry, the sleepcationer is a dream demographic. A guest in bed isn’t wearing down the lobby or requiring a concierge.
No Views, No Hikes, Just Zzzs: Welcome to the Sleepcation - Wall Street Journal