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One-state solution gains growing support among Jewish Americans

One-state solution gains growing support among Jewish Americans

JTA reports: For much of the modern history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the phrase “one-state solution” was a fringe idea, especially among Jewish supporters of Israel. The proposal that Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs would live under one government was largely seen as the very antithesis of Zionism, which asserts the legitimacy of Jewish nationalism and the right to establish a Jewish-led state in Jews’ ancestral homeland. That is changing — at least in some corners of the Jewish world….

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Gaza flotilla activist recounts being raped by Israeli prison guards

Gaza flotilla activist recounts being raped by Israeli prison guards

The Guardian reports: The third time Anna Liedtke was subjected to an illegal strip-search in Israeli detention, female prison guards forced her on to her knees, covered her mouth to stop her screaming and raped her, according to interviews and a criminal complaint filed in Israel. She described hearing male guards laughing during the attack, which she believes they watched and may have filmed. It took place in an area separated from the prison hallway by a partially drawn curtain…

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Generative AI is a shockingly inefficient trillion-dollar project

Generative AI is a shockingly inefficient trillion-dollar project

Alex Reisner writes: As they scramble to keep their systems online, AI companies are making things expensive for the rest of us. Large language models such as ChatGPT and Claude are so resource-hungry that tech companies may be purchasing 70 percent of the world’s supply of high-end computer memory, causing a shortage. As a result, the prices of computer memory and storage are skyrocketing: Hard drives that I bought for my reporting two years ago for $350 each were $800…

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Bipartisan group of senators introduces legislation to avert looming Social Security shortfall

Bipartisan group of senators introduces legislation to avert looming Social Security shortfall

The Associated Press reports: With Social Security’s looming insolvency date roughly six years away, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a proposal Tuesday to grapple with one of the most consequential financial challenges facing the federal government. The Protecting Retirement Opportunities and Maintaining Income Security for Everyone, or PROMISE Act, comes on the heels of the latest Social Security Board of Trustees’ annual report, which found that Social Security’s retirement trust fund is projected to face a funding shortfall in…

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Landmaxxing: The latest need for misanthropic billionaires who can’t get enough

Landmaxxing: The latest need for misanthropic billionaires who can’t get enough

The Real Deal reports: Buying mansions here and there is not enough for the uber-rich. “Landmaxxing,” or buying up adjacent properties to assemble sprawling private compounds, has been a major part of the ultra-luxury market this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Compounds are increasingly in demand, and some of the business world’s biggest names are leading the trend. In South Florida, Citadel billionaire Ken Griffin dropped more than $450 million to piece together a 27-acre Palm Beach compound. Griffin…

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Why Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz after decades of holding back

Why Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz after decades of holding back

By Ben Soodavar, King’s College London US forces have struck hundreds of Iranian targets – including in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas – over three consecutive nights in a bid by the US president, Donald Trump, to regain some modicum of control over the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has also inscribed the US as the “guardian” of the vital waterway. He has revived a naval blockade of Iranian ports and briefly demanded a 20% charge on all cargo…

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ICE orders suspension of most vehicle stops after two killings in a week

ICE orders suspension of most vehicle stops after two killings in a week

Nick Miroff writes: Late last night, at the end of a day that started with the killing of a 26-year-old Colombian man in Maine, the second fatal shooting involving a vehicle stop in a week, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Liana Castano sent out an email to top ICE supervisors around the country. “Effective immediately,” Castano wrote, “vehicle stops are suspended until further notice.” It was an extraordinary directive to ICE officers on the street, essentially telling them to…

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Judges grow increasingly skeptical about DOJ’s use of grand juries

Judges grow increasingly skeptical about DOJ’s use of grand juries

Politico reports: An “arbitrary fishing expedition.” “An unconstitutional effort to coerce.” “A convenient pretext for launching a criminal investigation.” Federal judges are increasingly peering under the hood at the Trump-led Justice Department’s use of grand juries aimed at well-known adversaries of President Donald Trump. And they don’t like what they’re seeing. These judges are scrutinizing the conduct of federal prosecutors and the legitimacy of high-profile probes that appear to stem from Trump’s personal vendettas or his efforts to bend perceived…

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White House explores entrenching U.S. concentration camps worldwide

White House explores entrenching U.S. concentration camps worldwide

Andrea Pitzer writes: Last week, I got a message from journalist Charles Davis. He asked me to comment for an article about a call for contractors he’d noticed on Sam.gov. The U.S. government, it seemed, was looking for businesses to partner with the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, and to fulfill other U.S. Government operational needs overseas. This particular search for partners to collaborate with DHS was framed as maintaining a fleet of aircraft for use in its operations….

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‘Stop threatening your friends’: Idaho fires back against Trump DOJ’s threats over noncitizen voting

‘Stop threatening your friends’: Idaho fires back against Trump DOJ’s threats over noncitizen voting

Democracy Docket reports: Idaho’s Republican attorney general’s office accused President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice of potentially violating state ethics rules by threatening the state’s top election official with a criminal prosecution while suing him for the state’s voter rolls. In a sharply worded letter sent Friday, the office of Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador told DOJ Civil Rights Division chief Harmeet Dhillon to stop contacting Secretary of State Phil McGrane (R) directly and urged the department to dismiss its…

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Wisconsin election commissioners refer complaints, say Elon Musk violated state’s bribery law

Wisconsin election commissioners refer complaints, say Elon Musk violated state’s bribery law

WISN 12 reports: The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission has referred two complaints to the Brown County District Attorney after finding probable cause that Elon Musk violated the state’s election bribery law ahead of the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court election. The commission voted 5-1 in closed session late last week to find probable cause that Musk, the tech billionaire and one-time advisor to President Donald Trump, violated state law “by making a social media post that offered one million dollars to…

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Silicon Valley has a science fiction problem

Silicon Valley has a science fiction problem

Ali Rıza Taşkale writes: In January 2026, Elon Musk stood before the US Secretary of Defense and senior Pentagon leaders at the SpaceX Starbase in Texas. ‘We want to make Star Trek real, OK?’ he declared. ‘We want to make Starfleet Academy real. So that it’s not always science fiction, but one day the science fiction turns to science fact, and we have spaceships going through space. Big spaceships!’ He painted a vivid picture: exploring alien civilisations, humanity spreading across…

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Judge slams Trump’s IRS lawsuit as ‘improper,’ refers acting AG Blanche to bar to face sanctions

Judge slams Trump’s IRS lawsuit as ‘improper,’ refers acting AG Blanche to bar to face sanctions

Democracy Docket reports: President Donald Trump and his two eldest sons’ $10-billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was brought for “an improper purpose,” a Florida-based federal judge ruled. The judge also recommended attorney sanctions for the Trumps’ lawyers. In a blistering ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued the strongest rebuke of Trump’s lawsuit from the judiciary yet, characterizing it as an unparalleled expression of self-dealing. “The nature of the suit itself and the conduct of the…

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Driver in Maine, not target of a warrant, shot and killed by ICE in front of three-year old daughter

Driver in Maine, not target of a warrant, shot and killed by ICE in front of three-year old daughter

The Daily Beast reports: An ICE-involved shooting has left one man dead in Maine, with an eyewitness saying he was killed in front of his three-year-old daughter, who was wearing Bluey pajamas. The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition identified the victim as a 26-year-old Colombian man. The group said he was authorized to work in the U.S. and had been issued a Social Security number. He was reportedly heading to work at the time he was shot. The account appeared to…

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