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China gains major edge on U.S. during Iran war, intelligence report finds

China gains major edge on U.S. during Iran war, intelligence report finds

The Washington Post reports: A confidential U.S. intelligence analysis details how China is exploiting the war in Iran to maximize its advantage over the United States across military, economic, diplomatic and other fields, said two U.S. officials who have read the report. The assessment, the officials said, was produced this week for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, and has raised alarm within the Pentagon about the geopolitical costs of Washington’s standoff with Tehran as…

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White House to host 9-hour prayer festival for shameless hucksters promoting Christian nationalism

White House to host 9-hour prayer festival for shameless hucksters promoting Christian nationalism

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration is hosting an all-day prayer festival on the National Mall on Sunday that organizers say will reflect the country’s Christian origins and, they hope, spark “a movement of renewal” in America. “Rededicate 250: National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” is partly funded by millions in public dollars earmarked for the nation’s 250th birthday celebration, organizers said. It will feature mostly evangelical Protestant leaders and members of the Trump administration, many of whom…

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Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson urges public to back judicial independence

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson urges public to back judicial independence

Politico reports: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson urged Americans on Tuesday to defend the judicial system against salvos that jeopardize its independence, warning that such threats have the potential to do serious damage to American democracy. “Equal justice under law is a key tenet to freedom in our society, and in order to have that, you have to have an independent judiciary — one that is not beholden to the political branches or beholden to people,” Jackson said during an appearance…

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Backlash as Utah approves datacenter twice the size of Manhattan

Backlash as Utah approves datacenter twice the size of Manhattan

The Guardian reports: A plan to create one of the world’s largest datacenters, a gargantuan project spanning an area more than twice the size of Manhattan, has provoked a furious public backlash in Utah amid concerns over its vast energy use and impact upon the state’s stressed water supplies. The Stratos artificial intelligence datacenter footprint will cover more than 40,000 acres (62 sq miles) over three sites in Box Elder county in north-western Utah. The facility will require about 9GW…

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What does the Anthropocene look like from below the Earth’s surface?

What does the Anthropocene look like from below the Earth’s surface?

James Dinneen writes: When Soviet engineers began to drain the Aral Sea in the 1960s, they could hardly foresee the scale on which their handiwork would alter the planet. The goal was to irrigate large areas of what is now Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to grow cotton, part of a utopian project stretching back to czarist Russia to civilise the ‘backward’ regions of central Asia. Achieving this meant diverting most of the two rivers that fed the Aral Sea, which was…

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Chinese view Trump as an ‘accelerator of American political decay’

Chinese view Trump as an ‘accelerator of American political decay’

The New York Times reports: When President Trump visited China in late 2017, Xi Jinping welcomed him with a grand display of Chinese history and culture: a four-hour private tour of the Forbidden City culminating in a performance by the Peking Opera. Eight years, a pandemic and two trade wars later, Mr. Trump is returning to Beijing, where the theme of future dominance, not ancient majesty, has filled domestic and international headlines with articles about dancing robots, drone swarms and…

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Ukrainian long-range drones are turning Russia’s size into a weakness

Ukrainian long-range drones are turning Russia’s size into a weakness

Peter Dickinson writes: For centuries, Russia’s colossal size has been widely regarded as the country’s greatest asset. From Charles XII of Sweden to Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler, a long line of would-be conquerors have invaded Russia only for their armies to swallowed up by the vastness of the country. Ukraine is now attempting to turn this military logic on its head with a strategic bombing campaign that aims to exploit Russia’s immensity and transform it from a key strength…

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U.S. and Iran are locked in a stalemate that’s neither peace nor war

U.S. and Iran are locked in a stalemate that’s neither peace nor war

The Wall Street Journal reports: The U.S. and Iran are locked in a diplomatic stalemate over issues that have bedeviled the two sides for years, as the conflict settles into a gray zone that is neither war nor peace. The cease-fire is entering its second month and, despite sporadic violence, has now lasted almost as long as the fighting which preceded it. There is little to indicate that either the U.S. or Iran is ready to compromise, but neither wants…

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Saudi Arabia launched covert attacks on Iran as regional war widened, sources say

Saudi Arabia launched covert attacks on Iran as regional war widened, sources say

Reuters reports: Saudi Arabia launched numerous, unpublicized strikes on Iran in retaliation for attacks carried out in the kingdom during the Middle East war, two Western officials briefed on the matter and two Iranian officials said. The Saudi attacks, not previously reported, mark the first time that the ​kingdom is known to have directly carried out military action on Iranian soil and show it is becoming much bolder in defending itself against its main regional rival. The attacks, launched by…

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Political violence serves an authoritarian agenda

Political violence serves an authoritarian agenda

Adam Serwer writes: People keep trying to kill the president. The closest call came in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024, when Donald Trump (then a candidate) had his head grazed by a bullet. Other apparent attempts include an incident at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, and possibly another that resulted in a Secret Service shooting at Mar-a-Lago in 2026. The latest would-be executioner, at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, was stopped long before he got anywhere near…

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What happens when a language goes extinct?

What happens when a language goes extinct?

Sophia Smith Galer writes: We are lucky to know anything at all about the Ubykh language. In the 1800s, tens of thousands of people spoke it on the Black Sea coast. When Russia conquered the region, the Ubykhs resisted until they were forced into exile in the Ottoman empire. Transported thousands of miles by a traumatised community now scattered across Turkey, Ubykh survived until 1992 when its last fluent speaker died. It was one of at least 244 languages that…

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Putin can no longer hide the war’s consequences from the Russian public

Putin can no longer hide the war’s consequences from the Russian public

Anne Applebaum writes: Four years ago, President Vladimir Putin offered Moscow and its business elite a de facto deal: Support my war in Ukraine, and in exchange you won’t have to think about it. In the past week, that deal was broken. Not that Moscow was ever fully immune: As long ago as May 3, 2023, the first two Ukrainian drones to reach Moscow exploded over the Kremlin, doing no damage but revealing that the capital’s air defenses weren’t as…

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UAE has been secretly carrying out attacks on Iran

UAE has been secretly carrying out attacks on Iran

The Wall Street Journal reports: The United Arab Emirates has carried out military strikes on Iran, people familiar with the matter said, casting the Gulf monarchy as an active combatant in a war in which it has been Iran’s biggest target. Its military is well-equipped with Western-made jet fighters and surveillance networks. And the attacks suggest the country is now more willing to use them to protect its economic power and growing influence across the Middle East. The strikes, which…

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