Houthis’ lightning advance means a third of the world’s oil shipments is now under threat

Houthis’ lightning advance means a third of the world’s oil shipments is now under threat

Robert F Worth writes: As recently as last week, the Iran war appeared to be turning slightly in America’s favor. The Houthis—the Yemen-based militia that is Iran’s most formidable remaining ally in the Middle East—were under pressure from their local rivals, and the Saudi air force was pounding them with air strikes. The president of Yemen’s internationally recognized government issued a triumphant statement declaring that the Houthis’ miscalculations “will open the door to their complete collapse.” With their Houthi partners…

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U.S. diesel price tops $6 per gallon, a record high as Ukraine and Iran wars ripple through economy

U.S. diesel price tops $6 per gallon, a record high as Ukraine and Iran wars ripple through economy

CNBC reports: U.S. diesel prices hit $6 per gallon on Friday for the first time ever, as fuel supply disruptions triggered by the Ukraine and Iran wars raises transportation costs across the entire economy. Truckers and farmers are paying about 63% more to fill up their semis and tractors than they did at this time last year, according to data from AAA. The average price nationwide is now about $6.06 per gallon. Prices are even higher in California, the biggest…

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Trump has no concerns over AI’s existential risks and Congress is sleepwalking into a crisis

Trump has no concerns over AI’s existential risks and Congress is sleepwalking into a crisis

Politico reports: President Donald Trump downplayed concerns about the catastrophic risks of artificial intelligence raised this week by some AI researchers, saying late Thursday he was focused instead on the U.S. losing its edge in the tech arms race. Asked whether he has concerns about existential risks posed by AI, the president said, “No, I don’t have any. “I have concerns that if we don’t win AI, we’re going to be put in a very bad position,” Trump told reporters…

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Sam Altman’s protection racket: Sell AI to utility companies to guard against the threat from AI

Sam Altman’s protection racket: Sell AI to utility companies to guard against the threat from AI

Politico reports: OpenAI has met with representatives of multiple top power companies to discuss methods of securing the electrical grid, the artificial intelligence firm told POLITICO — conversations that occurred amid a continuing series of revelations about its own products’ role in a sprawling cyberattack. CEO Sam Altman has also offered one possible solution to the cybersecurity risks: OpenAI’s own cyber services. The energy security discussions, two of which were not previously reported, started July 20. Altman most recently met…

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How Israeli defense firms are powering European security

How Israeli defense firms are powering European security

Politico reports: On the last day of August, a group of Greek military officials arrived in Tel Aviv, led by Major General Ioannis Bouras, to sign what would become one of the largest defense export deals in both countries’ histories. The €3 billion agreement — called Achilles Shield — will provide a suite of Israeli tech to protect Greece against a wide range of threats, including missiles, aircraft and drones. The deal is the latest installment in a growing relationship…

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9/11 triggered a ‘war on terror’ that was never winnable

9/11 triggered a ‘war on terror’ that was never winnable

Robin Wright writes: Twenty-five years ago, President George W. Bush made a sweeping pledge shortly after Al Qaeda’s airborne hijackers slaughtered almost three thousand people, from more than a hundred countries, at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania, on September 11, 2001. “Our war on terror begins with Al Qaeda, but it does not end there,” he told a joint session of Congress, about the deadliest terrorist attack in history. “It will not end until every terrorist…

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Rope, twine and thread: Invisible technologies of the Stone Age

Rope, twine and thread: Invisible technologies of the Stone Age

Benjamin Taub writes: When an abstract-looking ivory artifact emerged from the Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany in 2015, archaeologists didn’t know quite what to make of it. Previously, this same cave had yielded what may be the world’s oldest musical flutes, as well as one of humanity’s earliest pieces of figurative art, the iconic Venus of Hohle Fels. At first glance, this strange new discovery — a 20-centimeter rod perforated with four small holes — seemed comparatively unspectacular. But…

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Anthropic says it blocked possible efforts to build biological weapons

Anthropic says it blocked possible efforts to build biological weapons

The New York Times reports: Anthropic said it had disrupted several potential plots this year by scientists who used its leading artificial intelligence models to conduct research that could have helped develop biological weapons. In a report describing misuses of its A.I. models, Anthropic said it could not determine whether the research served a legitimate or nefarious purpose because valid biological inquiry — the kind that can lead to breakthroughs like vaccines — can also help engineer dangerous pathogens. In…

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More Anthropic researchers warn of AI’s perils as Musk terms fears a ‘psyop’

More Anthropic researchers warn of AI’s perils as Musk terms fears a ‘psyop’

The Guardian reports: A day after a former researcher at Anthropic made an apocalyptic declaration about artificial intelligence, more researchers and staff members at the AI startup publicly agreed with him and posted their own dire warnings. In response, Elon Musk and other conservative figures on X, formerly Twitter, called the chorus of concerns a “setup” and a “psyop”. The Anthropic insiders fear the technology they are building could become so advanced and dangerous as to cause human extinction within…

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Republican chief election officials say it is too late to implement Trump’s mail ballot order

Republican chief election officials say it is too late to implement Trump’s mail ballot order

Politico reports: Republican chief election officials from seven states said that it’s too late for President Donald Trump’s mail-in ballot order to be implemented before the midterm election, urging the Supreme Court to not allow the rule to go into effect in a brief submitted to the court on Wednesday. Trump’s order, signed in March, aimed to crack down on mail-in voting and assert federal control ahead of November’s election. In August, the U.S. Postal Service released a final rule…

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Trump’s $1 trillion-plus bribery plan meets immediate bipartisan pushback

Trump’s $1 trillion-plus bribery plan meets immediate bipartisan pushback

18 U.S. Code § 597 – Expenditures to influence voting: Whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure to any person, either to vote or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against any candidate; and Whoever solicits, accepts, or receives any such expenditure in consideration of his vote or the withholding of his vote— Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if the violation was willful, shall be fined…

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Behind the scenes, JD Vance gathered unvarnished views of the Iran war

Behind the scenes, JD Vance gathered unvarnished views of the Iran war

The New York Times reports: Vice President JD Vance took the unusual step over the spring and summer of calling U.S. military commanders in the Middle East, Europe and Asia directly, seeking their unvarnished assessments of the Iran war, according to current and former officials. Mr. Vance, who opposed the war from the outset and was charged by President Trump with helping to end the conflict, wanted the commanders’ individual judgments, in their own words, before they were consolidated into…

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Appeals court rejects ICE detention policy, setting stage for SCOTUS

Appeals court rejects ICE detention policy, setting stage for SCOTUS

Politico reports: A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected ICE’s effort to detain millions of people without bond, comparing it to the “historical stain” of Japanese internment during World War II. “Mass detention of marginalized individuals without due process harkens back to some of the darkest moments in our country’s history,” 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Nicole Berner, a Biden appointee, wrote in a 2-1 majority opinion joined by Judge Barbara Keenan, an Obama appointee. “Those shameful and abhorrent…

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Civil libertarians knew this would happen. We should have listened in 2001

Civil libertarians knew this would happen. We should have listened in 2001

Radley Balko writes: Six weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress passed the Patriot Act. The vote was 357-66 in the House, and 98-1 in the Senate. Sen. Russ Feingold (D., Wis.), the chamber’s lone dissenter, said later that many of his colleagues hadn’t bothered to read it. The law granted sweeping powers to the federal government. It gave agents new authority to use secret search warrants on Americans and made it easier to monitor them around…

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