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USAID hired the right-wing influencer, Mike Benz, responsible for its decimation

USAID hired the right-wing influencer, Mike Benz, responsible for its decimation

Isaac Stanley-Becker writes: If the U.S. Agency for International Development is a front for the CIA, we’re about to find out all about it. A new official inside the agency is prepared to blow the lid off the whole conspiracy. That official is Mike Benz, a right-wing influencer who popularized the notion that Taylor Swift is a secret NATO asset and once wrote, under a pseudonym, “I want white identity politics to grow like wildfire.” Benz rose to prominence last…

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America’s largest bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI

America’s largest bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI

Joel Khalili reports: One afternoon in June 2024, I stood up against the fence of a sprawling industrial facility a few miles outside of Corsicana, Texas. Over a metal gate, I watched a bright yellow excavator claw at the dirt and flatbed trucks shuttle to and fro. A hangar-like structure with a gleaming white roof stretched hundreds of meters along the opposite perimeter. The company that owned the plot, Riot Platforms, was busily constructing the world’s largest bitcoin mine. A…

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Thanks to Trump, the world’s largest superyachts are increasingly being bought by Americans

Thanks to Trump, the world’s largest superyachts are increasingly being bought by Americans

The New York Times reports: Today’s superyacht buyers are younger and richer than they were a decade ago, and they’re increasingly American, enriched by the pandemic business boom, a roaring stock market and deep tax cuts. Rather than wait for a gilded retirement, they are buying in their prime, looking for a plaything with all the trappings of home. They’re tethered to the world with Starlink internet while they play in St. Barts or Sardinia, or venture to more out-of-reach…

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Decolonise political thought. Africa’s alternatives to liberalism

Decolonise political thought. Africa’s alternatives to liberalism

Gabriel Asuquo writes: When African nations such as Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon claimed independence in the mid-20th century, they inherited more than borders and fragile institutions; they also inherited a political philosophy. Liberalism, born of Europe’s Enlightenment, was presented as the universal grammar of progress. It came clothed in the language of democracy, development and human rights, promising that multiparty elections, private property, free markets and individual rights would secure for Africa a swift entry into modernity. Yet, decades…

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Cutting calories by 30% may be sufficient to shield the brain against aging

Cutting calories by 30% may be sufficient to shield the brain against aging

Science Alert reports: A calorie-restricted diet could slow down the aging that naturally happens in the brain as we get older, according to a new study of rhesus monkeys, and the findings could also be relevant to brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Researchers led by a team from Boston University analyzed the brains of 24 rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) that had been fed calorie-restricted or standard diets for more than 20 years. After these lifelong dietary differences, the researchers found…

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Trump bets the GOP, his presidency, and the future of America on AI

Trump bets the GOP, his presidency, and the future of America on AI

Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write: President Trump is betting his presidency — and the future of the GOP — on lightly regulated, fast expansion of AI. Why it matters: Yes, Trump zigs and zags into countless political and diplomatic issues. But none comes close to his sustained, and surging, all-in alliance with tech billionaires and AI companies reshaping the U.S. economy. He won on the backs of working-class MAGA. But he governs, socializes and surrounds himself with tech swells and moguls. From…

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Tech billionaires already captured the White House but they still dream of becoming unfettered rulers

Tech billionaires already captured the White House but they still dream of becoming unfettered rulers

Vittoria Elliott writes: The shirtless man in the golden mask and cape has plans to lead his own country one day. There is no location yet, but it will be a crypto- and AI-powered paradise of medical experimentation, filled with people who want to “make death optional,” he says. For now, though, he’s leading a sparsely attended rave on the second floor of a San Francisco office building. A DJ is spinning at one end of an open room. A…

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The newsroom’s AI has a hidden political agenda

The newsroom’s AI has a hidden political agenda

Parker Molloy writes: In October 2023, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned that “AI will be capable of superhuman persuasion well before it is superhuman at general intelligence, which may lead to some very strange outcomes.” Two years later, we’re watching those strange outcomes unfold in real time. And in 2026, they’re going to collide with journalism in ways most reporters won’t even notice. Here’s what’s happening: The Trump administration has been systematically pushing to reshape AI systems according to its…

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CIA torture techniques were used to punish migrant detainees at Alligator Alcatraz

CIA torture techniques were used to punish migrant detainees at Alligator Alcatraz

Spencer Ackerman writes: One of the most horrific torture methods that the CIA employed in its post-9/11 incommunicado “black site” torture chambers was the Confinement Box. Not many detainees in CIA custody experienced the Box. The most prominent of them is the man known as Abu Zubaydah, the first CIA detainee post-9/11 and someone the agency used as a guinea pig for all who came into their custody later. What follows is not pleasant reading. For 20 days in August…

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Hegseth said military should refuse ‘unlawful’ Trump orders in 2016 interview

Hegseth said military should refuse ‘unlawful’ Trump orders in 2016 interview

The Guardian reports: The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, stated repeatedly in 2016 on Fox News that US service members should refuse “unlawful” orders from a potential president Trump – exactly the position he called “despicable” when Democratic lawmakers said it last month. The debate about whether US soldiers should refuse illegal orders is now at the center of a fiery political dispute over the US killings of alleged drug traffickers in boats off the coast of Venezuela and Colombia….

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Eugenics: Child deaths projected to rise for first time this century, as aid cuts reverse decades of progress

Eugenics: Child deaths projected to rise for first time this century, as aid cuts reverse decades of progress

Sara Herschander writes: The world is a much better place than it used to be, especially for young children. Insecticide-treated mosquito nets and novel treatments have made malaria much less deadly for millions of kids. Many countries now have the tools and techniques they need to nurse even very premature babies back to health. And the stupendous rise of vaccines against deadly diseases — like measles, diphtheria, and pneumonia — have prevented countless children from getting sick to begin with….

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ProPublica: Trump’s own mortgages match his description of mortgage fraud, records reveal

ProPublica: Trump’s own mortgages match his description of mortgage fraud, records reveal

By Justin Elliott, Robert Faturechi and Alex Mierjeski This story was originally published by ProPublica For months, the Trump administration has been accusing its political enemies of mortgage fraud for claiming more than one primary residence. President Donald Trump branded one foe who did so “deceitful and potentially criminal.” He called another “CROOKED” on Truth Social and pushed the attorney general to take action. But years earlier, Trump did the very thing he’s accusing his enemies of, records show. In…

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Trump’s national security strategy is now aligned with Russia’s vision, Kremlin says

Trump’s national security strategy is now aligned with Russia’s vision, Kremlin says

The Guardian reports: The Kremlin has heaped praise on Donald Trump’s latest national security strategy, calling it an encouraging change of policy that largely aligns with Russian thinking. The remarks follow the publication of a White House document on Friday that criticises the EU and says Europe is at risk of “civilisational erasure”, while making clear the US is keen to establish better relations with Russia. “The adjustments that we see correspond in many ways to our vision,” the Kremlin…

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Trumpian corruption is worse than Ukrainian corruption

Trumpian corruption is worse than Ukrainian corruption

Anne Applebaum writes: A few days ago I called Oleksandr Abakumov, a senior detective at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. I wanted to ask him about his investigation into a kickback scheme in his country’s energy industry. While we were talking, I got interested in Abakumov himself. As he was explaining his motivations, I was struck by the surprising contrast between people like him—the Ukrainian civil servants and civil-society activists who have been demanding transparency from their leaders for…

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