Marc Elias writes: We are less than two months until Election Day for the most important midterms of our lifetime. Ballots have already started to be sent out. The threats to free and fair elections are real and growing more serious by the day. What once seemed like an abstract threat has now become concrete. The risk of a rigged election is no longer unthinkable. The need for action can no longer be delayed or denied. I have often said…
The Guardian reports: Israeli “terrorists” are conducting ethnic cleansing in the West Bank with the tacit backing of the government, the UK foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, has said as he announced sweeping sanctions, alongside France and Canada, on trade with Israeli settlements. In the strongest condemnation ever issued by the UK government, Miliband said the government would now take the official position that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was unlawful in its entirety, saying such acknowledgment was “the least…
The Guardian reports: Benjamin Netanyahu was personally alerted by the president of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a large-scale offensive against Israel a week before its 7 October 2023 attack, but did not act on the warning, according to a book by Haaretz reporters. The claim, which comes amid a crucial election campaign, prompted Israeli opposition leaders to describe the prime minister as “unfit” for office, even as Netanyahu denounced the report as an “absolute lie” and…
The Intercept reports: The Department of Defense asked OpenAI to provide the U.S. military with a special version of its artificial intelligence technology designed to turn down the military commands as infrequently as possible, according to documents obtained by The Intercept. The desire for a custom AI tool with “minimal refusal rates” to Pentagon commands was revealed in files released to The Intercept as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking information about the military’s secretive deals with…
The Guardian reports: Elon Musk is sowing “deliberate division” via his social media platform X that will be catastrophic unless regulated, the mother of one of the 14 confirmed children fathered by the world’s richest man has warned. In Musk, a new documentary by veteran film-maker Alex Gibney, former Maga influencer Ashley St Clair says Musk told her in a text message he wanted to have a child with her because he needed to have “a legion of children before…
David Brooks writes: As we learn to think more and more highly of the bots, I suspect we will learn to think less and less highly of our fellow humans. Over the past few years, Hye-young Kim and Ann L. McGill have been studying what happens when people attribute human traits to AI. As people do this, Kim and McGill have found, they are more likely to dehumanize their fellow humans. For example, they are more likely to approve of…
Kai Williams writes: Just last week, at the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, a robot ran 100 meters in 8.86 seconds, crushing Usain Bolt’s human world record of 9.59 seconds. At last year’s competition, the fastest robot took more than 20 seconds to run 100 meters. Demonstrations like these have impressed a lot of casual observers — and created a lot of anxiety about future job losses. If humanoid robots can already serve people drinks, perform elaborate dance…
More Perfect Union: Gen Z uses AI the most yet trusts it the least. We sat Bernie Sanders down with them for a messy debate that isn’t happening in the public right now. If we’re going to live with AI and push for a future that benefits working people, we need more conversations like this one.
Sam Kiley writes: The success of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in state elections could herald a disaster for Ukraine, a European victory for Vladimir Putin, and a stampede of greed over democracy orchestrated by one man. Kirill Dmitriev is to Donald Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, what Putin is to the 47th president – their favourite and much favoured Russian. What Putin gives Trump – the thrill of proximity to unlimited power – Dmitriev offers to…
NBC News reports: It is now the least rewarding time to be a worker in the U.S. economy since the government started keeping track. The share of economic growth captured by labor in the form of compensation like wages fell to a record low last quarter, hitting 52.8%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which began recording the statistic in 1947. In other words, even as the economy continues to grow, worker pay comprises an ever smaller slice of…
Axios reports: The war in Iran has now cost U.S. consumers $100 billion in higher energy prices, and the bill is rising another $1 million about every two minutes, per a real-time estimate from Brown University as of Monday morning. Why it matters: Energy inflation shows up across the entire economy, and the recent surge in diesel prices in particular threatens to have a dramatic impact on freight and travel in the weeks and months to come. By the numbers: The Iran War Energy…
By Georgina Gustin September 6, 2026 This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. As farmers grapple with soaring diesel and fertilizer prices and the Department of Agriculture yanks support for cheaper, renewable forms of energy, the agency’s chief, Brooke Rollins, is carrying millions in highly profitable oil and gas investments. In disclosure reports filed in July, Rollins indicated that she and…
William Dalrymple writes: At noon on Feb. 13, 1788, huge crowds gathered outside Parliament to witness members of the House of Lords process into Westminster Hall. They were there to impeach the man who ran much of India as the East India Company’s governor general of Bengal. This was the moment when the British state finally flexed its muscles to take on the greatest corporate oligarch of his day, the Elon Musk of 18th-century London. In addition to about 170…
Nicholas E Low writes: It looked like a piece of driftwood floating in muddy floodwaters. But then it grew a pair of eyes that peered above the waterline. As the canoe came closer, the crocodile struck, attempting to topple it. Not knowing what else to do, the woman inside paddled toward a set of trees with branches hanging over the water. When she jumped to grab one, the crocodile leapt, too, pulling her underwater into a death roll. ‘That was…