Risk faced by supertankers in Strait of Hormuz is making oil shipping more expensive than space flight

Risk faced by supertankers in Strait of Hormuz is making oil shipping more expensive than space flight

Bloomberg reports: As US President Donald Trump threatens renewed attacks against Iran, Tehran’s intermittent strikes on commercial vessels have left the two sides locked in a painful economic standoff. For Iran, the US blockade of its oil exports has snuffed out a key part of its military funding and severely hobbled the $300 billion economy, with only a tiny fraction of the prewar 2 million barrels per day are leaving the country via land routes. And for the US, the…

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Haley Stevens endorses ‘rubber stamp’ for ‘Trump’s dangerous agenda’

Haley Stevens endorses ‘rubber stamp’ for ‘Trump’s dangerous agenda’

Mike Rogers will be another rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s dangerous agenda. We can’t afford to give MAGA another Senate seat in November. #MISEN — Haley Stevens (@HaleyforMI) August 1, 2026 Q: Do you plan to reach out to Haley Stevens? Trump: Yes, to thank her. Q: Do you think she should be a member of the Republican Party? Trump: I’d love to have her. Johnson: I sent her a note. https://t.co/dF3X4HTgxc — Acyn (@Acyn) November 1, 2026 Congresswoman Stevens…

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Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall MD says about the patients he sued: ‘I never had anyone arrested’

Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall MD says about the patients he sued: ‘I never had anyone arrested’

The New York Times reports: About two weeks ago, Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, an embattled Republican, approached the senior leadership of his campaign with an idea. Mr. Marshall, an obstetrician facing re-election, wanted to film an ad responding to all of the attacks he was taking on medical debts. Back when he was a full-time doctor, Mr. Marshall filed lawsuits against more than 700 patients, seeking payments of their debts, and at least 81 were arrested when the patients…

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The U.S. is bullying Europe like never before

The U.S. is bullying Europe like never before

Anne Applebaum writes: At a dinner in Athens in March, Kimberly Guilfoyle, then the U.S. ambassador to Greece, made a statement that elegantly combined arrogance with menace. According to The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, Guilfoyle referred to the troubles of Romania’s governing coalition and, with Greek politicians in the room, took credit for its impending collapse: “We can do that to any country we want,” she said. “We can do that here.” Guilfoyle was subsequently disgraced for…

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PM Tusk defends overhaul of Poland’s constitutional court despite protests

PM Tusk defends overhaul of Poland’s constitutional court despite protests

The Guardian reports: Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, has vowed to see through a contested overhaul of the country’s constitutional court, declaring that “in certain matters, there can be no compromise”. In a prime-time television address on Saturday night, Tusk was defiant, despite overnight protests that saw riot police drafted to protect the court’s building, saying the shake-up was vital to restore a tribunal crippled by years of political disputes. Paralysed for more than a decade, the court sat at…

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Sam Altman: All the RAM should belong to me, so I can charge people to use it

Sam Altman: All the RAM should belong to me, so I can charge people to use it

Tom McKay writes: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is really gunning for villain-of-the-year status with PC gamers in particular, but owners of pretty much any computing device everywhere. Altman appeared on Stripe cofounder John Collison’s Cheeky Pint podcast this week, sipping beers and weighing in on the state of AI. Gizmodo covered and analyzed the bulk of Altman’s remarks here, though another moment from the podcast is worthy of a shout-out. Altman thinks it’s “quite terrible” that individual device owners and/or…

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Crows’ decision-making speed twice as fast as humans’ due to more efficient neural circuits

Crows’ decision-making speed twice as fast as humans’ due to more efficient neural circuits

Science Alert reports: Two male crows have performed better than humans and monkeys in a classic psychology task designed to test how the brain makes decisions based on what it sees. In prior experiments, corvids (a family of birds that includes crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, and jays) have shown a range of remarkable mental abilities once thought unique to primates. New Caledonian crows build compound tools and plan three steps ahead; western scrub jays have episodic-like memories; ravens are “smart…

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Haley Stevens needs to put the political theater away and get out of the way

Haley Stevens needs to put the political theater away and get out of the way

Jeremy Allen writes: Some moments in politics are bigger than politics, and good leaders know that. Sometimes you have to put personal feelings aside, recognizing the stakes, and understanding that the people you’re supposed to represent have bigger problems than your bruised political ego. Congresswoman Haley Stevens appears to be struggling with that assignment. With Election Day approaching, Stevens has reignited a fight with Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, the candidate who defeated her in August’s Democratic primary. Instead…

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The price of defying AIPAC

The price of defying AIPAC

  As the United States approaches the midterm elections, a new wave of progressive candidates is challenging the Democratic establishment, campaigning on affordability, medicare for all, and opposition to big money in politics. But with divisions deepening over capitalism, US foreign policy and support for Israel, can the Democratic Party embrace its growing left wing? And even if progressives win elections, can they deliver meaningful change for working-class Americans? This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks with former US…

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AIPAC isn’t retreating. Here’s how it’s already shaping the next Congress

AIPAC isn’t retreating. Here’s how it’s already shaping the next Congress

The Intercept reports: In the words of the biggest name in the outside elections-spending game, “Being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics.” This midterms cycle, however, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s strategy seems to suggest the opposite. Contrary to its signature slogan, AIPAC’s name has become anathema to voters across the political spectrum repulsed by Israel’s genocide in Gaza and frustrated by Washington’s outpouring of military aid for a foreign government while domestic costs soar. So it’s going…

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Data center utility execs maxed out donations to Sen. Dan Sullivan

Data center utility execs maxed out donations to Sen. Dan Sullivan

The Alaska Current reports: Within a nine-day period last spring, executives tied to a data center utility investor with major public projects in the Arctic dumped more than $50,000 into Alaska’s tightly contested US Senate race between Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola. The money flowed to Sullivan shortly after he successfully pushed the military to open up Alaskan Air Force bases to data center developers. Federal Elections Commission filings show the donations occurred between April 23 and…

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How Trump is dismantling America’s scientific research machine

How Trump is dismantling America’s scientific research machine

The New York Times reports: The warning, buried in an obscure government report this summer, was unflinching. The Defense Department’s vaunted network of research laboratories — whose scientists helped develop satellite communication, radar technology, and even the computer mouse — was in trouble. The labs lost a significant share of their staff last year, largely in response to the Trump administration’s efforts to thin the federal work force, the report found. Refilling critical positions was proving difficult due in part…

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Milorad Dodik, a pro-Russia strongman, at Mar-a-Lago

Milorad Dodik, a pro-Russia strongman, at Mar-a-Lago

Isaac Stanley-Becker writes: In the days after Tuesday’s midterm elections, luminaries of the MAGA movement will gather at Mar-a-Lago to turn their attention to 2028. Speakers will include a Cabinet secretary, the head of the Domestic Policy Council, and several members of Congress. Also present will be Milorad Dodik, the pro-Russia strongman who has bragged about spying on Americans and recently called Russian President Vladimir Putin “one of the most peace-loving leaders of our time.” Dodik is the de facto…

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Twenty-eight years walking across the globe and discovering the kindness of strangers

Twenty-eight years walking across the globe and discovering the kindness of strangers

Jonathan Wolfe writes: Karl Bushby’s plan to walk across the globe began with a note in a birthday card. It was the mid-1990s and Mr. Bushby was a paratrooper in the British Army, obsessed with endurance tests. He was trying to find the longest distance he could travel by foot, but none of his options felt challenging enough, maxing out at a few thousand miles. Then his father suggested in the card that he look into traversing the Bering Strait…

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