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In its desperate fight to stop Abdul El-Sayed, could AIPAC spend itself out of existence?

In its desperate fight to stop Abdul El-Sayed, could AIPAC spend itself out of existence?

The New York Times reports: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has told allies that it is considering a major financial campaign to support the Republican Senate nominee in the Michigan general election this fall, after it failed its biggest test of the primary season on Tuesday. AIPAC’s super PAC spent $32 million in an unsuccessful effort to boost Representative Haley Stevens over Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a relentless critic of Israel, during the state’s Democratic primary. After Dr. El-Sayed’s victory,…

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AI just created viable viruses that don’t exist in nature

AI just created viable viruses that don’t exist in nature

Carl Zimmer reports: For the first time, scientists have used artificial intelligence to create new kinds of viruses, raising hopes for medical advances while also raising the disturbing possibility that the technology could someday be used to invent dangerous pathogens. Synthesizing viruses from scratch is hardly new. Researchers long ago learned how to manufacture viral genomes; they are used to investigate antiviral drugs and vaccines, as well as to learn how viruses work. But the new study, published Thursday in…

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AI sends global crime syndicates into fraud nirvana

AI sends global crime syndicates into fraud nirvana

Dark Reading reports: In bad news for financial institutions, online retailers, cryptocurrency exchanges, and people in the dating pool who rely on identity verification to make sure they’re not getting taken for a ride, global fraud gangs are aggressively industrializing their scam efforts. That’s according to Eric Huber, senior manager for adversary intelligence and disruption at TD Bank, who said that major centers for organized crime specializing in financial fraud (notably in Southeast Asia and West Africa) are bypassing “know…

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Trump, Hegseth clashed at Camp David over extreme munitions shortages

Trump, Hegseth clashed at Camp David over extreme munitions shortages

The Washington Post reports: President Donald Trump’s frustration over the Iran war boiled over at Camp David last week, where he demanded answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on why he had apparently been misled on extreme munitions shortages that now threaten to limit military options with Iran, two people familiar with the exchange told The Washington Post. The encounter took place on the sidelines of his Cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday where Trump vented at Hegseth that…

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IRS workers group joins Jan. 6 ‘slush fund’ suit, seeking to block Trump audit carve-out

IRS workers group joins Jan. 6 ‘slush fund’ suit, seeking to block Trump audit carve-out

NBC News reports: An organization representing career Internal Revenue Service employees has joined a lawsuit over the contentious settlement reached in connection with President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS, challenging a carve-out that would give him and members of his family immunity from certain tax audits. A Jan. 6 prosecutor fired by the Trump administration and others previously sued to block a fund that could have gone to Trump allies who said they were victims of weaponization, potentially including…

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New study points to two origins of life on Earth

New study points to two origins of life on Earth

Smithsonian magazine reports: Among biologists, few questions have been debated as fiercely as the origin of life. How did self-sustaining organisms, capable of transforming molecules to capture energy, arise on the primitive Earth? Before any cells existed, scientists suspect chemical reactions occurred around deep-sea hydrothermal vents, where heat and high pressures led to spontaneous chemistry that was sped up, or catalyzed, by metals in Earth’s crust. One possibility for the origin of life is that, over time, these relatively simple…

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How Trump’s petty vengeful Reflecting Pool obsession has harmed the lives of law-abiding Americans

How Trump’s petty vengeful Reflecting Pool obsession has harmed the lives of law-abiding Americans

  The Washington Post reports: Attorneys for the former Olympian who had been accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool are asking a judge to ensure federal prosecutors don’t have a chance to reopen the case against him. In a court filing Tuesday, attorneys for David Hearn pushed back against the Justice Department’s move to dismiss the charge against their client “without prejudice,” which would allow the department to prosecute him later. Lawyers Norm Eisen, Mary Dohrmann and Steve…

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El-Sayed wins Michigan Democratic Senate primary in blow to AIPAC

El-Sayed wins Michigan Democratic Senate primary in blow to AIPAC

The New Republic reports: Abdul El-Sayed has won the Democratic nomination for the Senate in Michigan, narrowly defeating Representative Haley Stevens in a close contest. Decision Desk called the race for El-Sayed Tuesday morning, projecting him as the winner with 48.52 percent of the vote to Stevens’s 47.47 percent. El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and the former Wayne County health director, edged out Stevens despite her receiving heavy financial backing from groups aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. El-Sayed now…

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ICE built a $258 million social media surveillance machine to monitor its online critics

ICE built a $258 million social media surveillance machine to monitor its online critics

Gadget Review reports: A critical Reddit comment about immigration enforcement can, four months later, bring plainclothes agents to a poster’s door carrying a printout of the post — a scenario no longer hypothetical. According to the Wall Street Journal, ICE has built a funded, contractor-powered surveillance operation that monitors social media around the clock — not just for credible violence, but for speech that challenges the agency’s mission. Since early 2025, DHS has fired off hundreds of administrative subpoenas to…

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What Trump can learn from Eisenhower and the Suez crisis

What Trump can learn from Eisenhower and the Suez crisis

Trita Parsi writes: Oman and Iran appear close to a temporary arrangement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, potentially providing both an exit from the current round of fighting and the foundation for a more durable maritime order. Washington should welcome such an agreement—even if it acknowledges a degree of Iranian authority in administering traffic through the strait—because US interest dictates that open and non-discriminatory passage must be given priority over control. The emerging formula would reportedly divide responsibility for…

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Trump announced a peace plan for Gaza. Israel responded with increased bombing

Trump announced a peace plan for Gaza. Israel responded with increased bombing

The New York Times reports: Soon after President Trump announced a new plan last week to deliver peace and security in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave instead experienced a spike in deadly Israeli bombings, which threatened to undermine hopes for long-awaited progress. On Sunday, Israeli strikes killed 18 people, according to the health ministry in Gaza, making it one of the deadliest days there since a troubled cease-fire came into force in October. Gaza health ministry data from the conflict does…

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Ecuadorian prosecutor assassinated while investigating U.S. boat strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean

Ecuadorian prosecutor assassinated while investigating U.S. boat strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean

  Camila Lourdes Galarza reports: Alexandra Bravo, the prosecutor assigned to investigate U.S. strikes on three Ecuadorian boats and the 36 survivors’ subsequent accounts of torture and kidnapping, was shot dead in the coastal city of Manta last month. According to police, on June 14 a hitman aboard a black motorcycle opened fire on Bravo as she and her sister were leaving a café at about 11 a.m. Bravo’s sister, who jumped to protect her, was also killed in the…

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Unprecedented images may explain one of greatest mysteries of the Sun

Unprecedented images may explain one of greatest mysteries of the Sun

Ian Sample writes: Golden bands and swirling vortices have been spotted on the sun in the most detailed images ever captured of the turbulent surface of our home star. Astronomers observed the sun with the Inouye solar telescope in Hawaii, the world’s most powerful solar telescope, and saw new features smaller than 20km (12 miles) across in a magnetically active region close to a sun spot. The unprecedented pictures show processes on the surface that are likely to explain the…

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An emerging deal with Oman could cement Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz

An emerging deal with Oman could cement Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz

The New York Times reports: Iran and Oman are closing in on an agreement to reopen shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian and American officials, but if the accord goes into effect it could come at a high price — ratifying Tehran’s control over what, before the war, was an open, international waterway. As described by officials familiar with the emerging accord, vessels heading into the Persian Gulf will transit a channel controlled by Iran, and…

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