🚽 What's a high-tech toilet?

No Kings Protest Expected To Be Big in Seattle

This weekend, the U.S. is expected to see over 3,000 protests against President Donald Trump’s administration, and Seattle will be a significant part of that, with tens of thousands expected to show up. It could be the largest protest in Seattle history. [Seattle Times]

• A rebuke to Trump: No Kings is pushing back on ‘masked secret police…a catastrophic war…attacks on our freedom of speech, our civil rights, our freedom to vote,’ and more, according to Indivisible, one of the main organizers.
• Events all over the state: Seattle is just one of many protests that will be happening across the state and city. Mobilize.us has a full list.
• Counter protest in Olympia: The Washington State Republican Party will hold a rally against Governor Bob Ferguson in Olympia, which is focused on his recent signing of the ‘millionaires tax,’ which they call ‘illegal and unconstitutional.’ [Washington State Republican Party]

🚻 High Tech Toilets: The Pioneer Square Preservation Board has approved two high-tech restrooms to be installed in the historic area, with hopes they will be ready to go by the World Cup. The two bathrooms are part of eleven proposed toilets from Throne Labs (lol) around the area that have inexpensive plumbing and an app system, which can track if someone stays in the unit too long or damages it. Those without a cell phone can receive an entry card. [PubliCola]

👓 Meta Layoffs: Layoffs at Meta continued this week. Hundreds of employees were let go. It’s unclear what percentage of those were Seattle-based. In 2022, when Meta was pushing its VR, they were expanding considerably in Seattle, but since then, they have left development on one of the two Frank Gehry-designed buildings unfinished and vacated an office in South Lake Union. These cuts come as Meta is one of the losers of a social media addiction lawsuit and as WA unveils its first AI chatbot safety law. [Seattle Times]

🇵🇸 UW Protestors Plead: Members of the Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return UW (Super UW) plead not guilty to first-degree criminal trespassing in court on Wednesday morning. We spoke with two of the protestors earlier this year who occupied the IEB building on the UW campus. [KOMO]