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Hegseth wants to remake the U.S. military in his own adolescent image of masculinity

Hegseth wants to remake the U.S. military in his own adolescent image of masculinity

Garrett Graff writes: Ahead of his book launch next month, I interviewed Jasper Craven last week for Long Lead’s newsletter, Depth Perception. Jasper has made a career out of what he describes, dryly, as “veterans’ issues in the age of forever wars,” but much of his beat turns out to provide insight into what I called “a sprawling crisis in masculinity that’s fueling an interconnected toxic stew of misogyny, internet culture, gambling, and violence.” His beat is where the Venn…

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Iran’s president addresses ‘the people of the United States of America’

Iran’s president addresses ‘the people of the United States of America’

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian posted the following message on X: In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful To the people of the United States of America, and to all those who, amid a flood of distortions and manufactured narratives, continue to seek the truth and aspire to a better life: Iran—by this very name, character, and identity—is one of the oldest continuous civilizations in human history. Despite its historical and geographical advantages at various times, Iran has never,…

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Trump’s anti-voting order may backfire, damaging DOJ’s voter roll campaign

Trump’s anti-voting order may backfire, damaging DOJ’s voter roll campaign

Democracy Docket reports: President Donald Trump’s executive order on mail voting is highly likely to be declared unconstitutional and blocked by courts. But it might also screw up the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) 30 ongoing lawsuits for state voter rolls. Legal experts say the voter suppression diktat may be as strategically foolish as it is doomed. “The only real legal effect of this executive order might be to kill the remaining DOJ lawsuits seeking to seize voter data,” said David…

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Why batteries may save the world

Why batteries may save the world

Paul Krugman writes: The war goes on, and so does the global energy crisis. In fact, I believe that prices of oil futures remain too low given how much spot prices will need to rise to resolve the shortages that will hit once oil supplies that were shipped before the Strait of Hormuz was closed are exhausted. But a better future is coming, despite Donald Trump’s assault on renewable energy as he tries to drag us back into the fossil…

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Physicists have found something (which is nothing) that can move faster than light

Physicists have found something (which is nothing) that can move faster than light

Science Alert reports: For the first time, physicists have observed that ‘holes’ in light can move faster than the light itself. They’re known as phase singularities or optical vortices, and since the 1970s, scientists have predicted that, just as eddies in a river can move faster than the flowing water around them, so too can whirlpools in a wave of light outrun the light they’re embedded within. This does not break relativity, which states that nothing can travel faster than…

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How the Ukraine and Iran wars are starting to overlap

How the Ukraine and Iran wars are starting to overlap

Julian Borger and Pjotr Sauer write: The Iran and Ukraine wars are becoming more intertwined with every passing week – to the point that some analysts argue the two conflicts are beginning to merge. Quite how each war will affect the trajectory of the other is hard to predict, but it is already clear that their interconnectedness is drawing more countries into both cauldrons, extending an arc of instability that straddles Europe and the Middle East. From Ukraine’s point of…

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How Iran’s Hormuz blockade chokes global trade beyond oil and gas

How Iran’s Hormuz blockade chokes global trade beyond oil and gas

RFE/RL reports: When an Indian tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) passed through the Strait of Hormuz recently, its progress was followed by excited live TV news coverage. “Its position was received eight minutes ago. It’s currently at 12.5 knots and is moving at 154 degrees. It’s reported ETA in India is at 9.30 p.m. tomorrow,” reported one journalist, providing running commentary while following a tracker app. Later, videos showed the ship with a military escort from the Indian Navy…

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The war you’re not allowed to see: How the UAE rewrites the story of Iranian strikes

The war you’re not allowed to see: How the UAE rewrites the story of Iranian strikes

Sebastian Vandermeersch reports: Bellingcat has identified several high-profile incidents where authorities in the United Arab Emirates have downplayed damage, mischaracterised interceptions and in some instances not acknowledged successful Iranian drone strikes on the country. A review of official statements shows that the public account does not always align with what can be observed through open sources. This comes as the UAE faces sustained aerial attacks on civilian and economic infrastructure, challenging its image as a secure global hub for business…

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Trump’s purge might be just beginning

Trump’s purge might be just beginning

Ashley Parker and Sarah Fitzpatrick write: After Pam Bondi’s ouster today, which followed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s firing last month, Cabinet secretaries and other senior administration officials were anxiously eyeing their phones, wondering whether they’d be next. One top official didn’t have to wait long: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed the chief of staff of the Army, General Randy George. Several people familiar with the White House’s plans told us that there are active discussions about others…

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Unmasking the paramilitary agents behind Trump’s violent immigration crackdown

Unmasking the paramilitary agents behind Trump’s violent immigration crackdown

Wired reports: In the early morning last September 30, hundreds of federal agents swarmed the South Shore Apartments, a beige brick building on Chicago’s South Side. As feds in body armor rappelled down from a Black Hawk helicopter overhead, others crashed through the building’s doors with battering rams, rounding up residents at gunpoint. A group of burly, masked agents wearing helmets and bulletproof vests, and toting suppressor-equipped M4 rifles, moved through the hallways in a rapid, tightly organized file. Padraic…

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Why we went looking for national defense areas along the U.S. southern border

Why we went looking for national defense areas along the U.S. southern border

By Agnel Philip This story was originally published by ProPublica Our reporting started, like much of our work, in a spreadsheet. As I parsed through federal court data, I noticed something odd: Within months of President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, prosecutors began filing obscure charges related to trespassing on military property — so many, in fact, that more cases were filed in 2025 than in the prior decade. Nearly all of these charges originated from cases along the…

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Scientists have found an alarming environmental impact of vast data centers

Scientists have found an alarming environmental impact of vast data centers

CNN reports: The vast data centers that power artificial intelligence guzzle huge amounts of energy but they also have another alarming impact, according to new research. They are creating “heat islands,” warming the land around them by up to 16 degrees Fahrenheit, and making life hotter for more than 340 million people. There are still big gaps in our understanding of the impacts of data centers, even as they boom in number, said Andrea Marinoni, associate professor with the Earth…

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As public anger rises, even TMZ is channeling the national discontent

As public anger rises, even TMZ is channeling the national discontent

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Russell Berman write: For a brief moment last week, Congress started to do something productive. The Senate, after weeks of bickering and fruitless negotiations, unanimously approved legislation to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, taking a small but meaningful step toward resolving one of the many crises that have sprung up like targets in a game of whack-a-mole during President Trump’s second term. All that stood between tens of thousands of federal employees and…

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Rubio co-sponsored law that blocks Trump from pulling out of NATO

Rubio co-sponsored law that blocks Trump from pulling out of NATO

Bloomberg reports: President Donald Trump’s threat to exit NATO as retaliation for the bloc’s failure to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz faces a major obstacle — one that comes from his very own Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. Rubio as a Republican senator from Florida sponsored bipartisan legislation that bars presidents from unilaterally withdrawing the US from the security alliance without the approval of Congress. The measure, co-sponsored with Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, was included in the…

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