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Category: Politics

EU struggles to find an effective response after Germany blames Russia for a foiled drone attack

EU struggles to find an effective response after Germany blames Russia for a foiled drone attack

The Associated Press reports: The European Union on Wednesday weighed how best to respond to an attempted drone attack at a German airport blamed on Russia but struggled to find new ways to meet the challenge without resorting to military means. The German government said Tuesday that Russia was responsible for the failed attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport on Aug. 4 using a drone laden with explosives and announced it would shut down a Russian consulate among other measures. The nature…

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Whistle-blower says Trump officials are defying court orders on voting by mail

Whistle-blower says Trump officials are defying court orders on voting by mail

The New York Times reports: A U.S. Postal Service official has alleged that the agency is moving forward with a “secretive, rushed” effort to implement President Trump’s order exerting federal control over mail voting, despite a court order blocking those plans. The official filed a whistle-blower report, published on Tuesday morning by the office of Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, asserting that the “risky and haphazard” implementation of Mr. Trump’s order could lead to a “catastrophic failure” in the…

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The plot to steal Venezuela’s oil is both vile and deeply stupid

The plot to steal Venezuela’s oil is both vile and deeply stupid

Paul Krugman writes: The United States has an ugly reputation in Latin America — a reputation that, I’m sorry to say, is mostly well deserved. Our government has a long track record of supporting dictators, assisting in the overthrow of democratic governments, and sometimes even sending in the Marines, often on behalf of American corporations trying to pillage other nations’ natural resources. Excluding the Trump II presidency, we have, I think, behaved better in the recent past. And this was…

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Under Hegseth’s control, the U.S. Army is at risk of ‘generational damage’

Under Hegseth’s control, the U.S. Army is at risk of ‘generational damage’

The Atlantic reports: During a White House meeting last week, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll brought his concerns about the future of the Army under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directly to President Trump—a sign of how far tensions between the two Pentagon leaders had escalated, and of the dysfunction inside the building, four people familiar with the conversation told us. Trump was surprised when Driscoll told him how many generals and other top officers had been fired, pushed out, or passed…

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These generals fought to defend Israel. Now they see ‘Jewish terrorism’ as the greatest threat

These generals fought to defend Israel. Now they see ‘Jewish terrorism’ as the greatest threat

The New York Times reports: Maj. Gen. Eyal Ben-Reuven spent his life fighting for Israel. He survived the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, when his platoon was nearly wiped out, then went on to command a division in the West Bank and lead Israel’s ground forces in the 2006 war against Hezbollah. But in recent months, he has returned to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, touring the territory with retired generals and former Israeli officials like himself. He has walked through the…

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Moscow’s ‘meat grinder’: Russia ‘losing 6,000 more troops in Ukraine each month than it can recruit’

Moscow’s ‘meat grinder’: Russia ‘losing 6,000 more troops in Ukraine each month than it can recruit’

The Guardian reports: Russia is losing about 6,000 more troops in Ukraine each month than it can recruit, western officials have said. While Russia is still acquiring new battlefield recruits at speed, with an estimated rate of 1,000 a day, in the last two months even this has not been sufficient to replace those killed or injured. “We estimate that the gap between the number of people Russia is losing to casualties and the number they’re being able to recruit…

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The mass movement opposing data centers is a rejection of the ‘inevitability’ mantra

The mass movement opposing data centers is a rejection of the ‘inevitability’ mantra

David Wallace-Wells writes: Like any mass populist movement, this one features echoes — and veterans — of others. But with data centers, something different, bigger and perhaps irreducible appears to be happening. Perhaps the better analogy is not with any movement of the social media era but with the long crusade against nuclear power, which managed to pull many threads of opposition together because nuclear plants’ iconic towers triggered, beyond political objections, apocalyptic ones, as well. On the ground, the…

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Build American AI launches data center push in battleground states

Build American AI launches data center push in battleground states

Axios reports: Build American AI — an advocacy group tied to pro-AI super PAC Leading the Future — is spending big on the AI data center fight, with plans to pour millions of dollars into battleground states, according to an announcement shared first with Axios. Why it matters: The data center backlash is becoming a issue of the midterms, and supporters of the developments are punching back. Driving the news: Build American AI, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, has about $50 million cash on hand. The group’s campaign will begin…

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Javier Milei’s Argentina: A ‘new land of freedom’ for billionaires?

Javier Milei’s Argentina: A ‘new land of freedom’ for billionaires?

  In July, Fortune reported: Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel made headlines when he decided to relocate with his family to Buenos Aires earlier this summer, purchasing a mansion in an exclusive neighborhood and meeting with President Javier Milei and senior government officials. This is exactly the plan, it turns out — Argentina wants more people like him. The country has been preparing for the last year to launch a full citizenship-by-investment scheme. In July 2025, Decree 524/2025 established an Investment…

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Trump’s plan to sell off a part of Yosemite is what oligarchy looks like

Trump’s plan to sell off a part of Yosemite is what oligarchy looks like

Rebecca Solnit writes: Do people still say a car was “sold for parts”? Because the US is being sold for parts or just handed over to the oligarchy. It’s a fire sale, a bankruptcy auction, it’s a planned dismantling of everything from its military to its institutions of higher education to its scientific research to its public lands. And while the threat to sell off part of Yosemite National Park is about a quarter-mile parcel on the park’s edge, Yosemite…

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Datacenter backlash brings the entire political spectrum together – against the big tech billionaires

Datacenter backlash brings the entire political spectrum together – against the big tech billionaires

Aaron Regunberg writes: Bryce Gustafson has been knocking on doors in Indiana for more than a decade. The lead organizer with Citizens Action Coalition (CAC), a consumer and environmental organization, he usually encounters a mix of reactions when he’s out canvassing; whatever issue he’s talking about, there’s always at least a few people on the other side. But at a recent festival in the rural town of Monrovia, Indiana, he was struck by an unusual spirit of unity. He was…

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‘A new form of U.S. colonialism’: Venezuelans bristle as Trump takes the oil and leaves the dictatorship

‘A new form of U.S. colonialism’: Venezuelans bristle as Trump takes the oil and leaves the dictatorship

The New York Times reports: Many Venezuelans suspected that there was going to be a price to pay for President Trump’s brazen capture of their autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, who was arrested by U.S. forces in January. On Friday, that cost became clear when Mr. Trump announced that the U.S. would be taking majority control of a vast part of Venezuela’s oil reserves — national resources long considered by many in the country to be a birthright. By Saturday, many…

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Netanyahu’s ‘total victory’ vow kept him in power. Now it may be his undoing

Netanyahu’s ‘total victory’ vow kept him in power. Now it may be his undoing

Meron Rapoport writes: A little over a month after October 7, 2023, Israel’s Channel 12 published its first Knesset seat projection following the Hamas attack. Unsurprisingly, the results were catastrophic for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His Likud party, which had won 32 of the Knesset’s 120 seats in the election only a year earlier, was polling at just 17 seats — close to its worst-ever showing. The governing coalition, which totaled 64 seats, had dropped to 45 in the poll….

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Military leaders warn Hegseth against extending Iran war operations

Military leaders warn Hegseth against extending Iran war operations

The Washington Post reports: Several U.S. military leaders have advised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the U.S. homeland, according to people familiar with a recent assessment prepared for the Pentagon chief. The warnings — detailed for Hegseth by the heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force and the four-star commanders overseeing U.S. operations throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America — appear in…

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The Pentagon: The $1 trillion black box

The Pentagon: The $1 trillion black box

By Jesse Coburn and Ruth Talbot This story was originally published by ProPublica The sums are vast, but the explanations for the spending range from vague to inscrutable. Consider these items in the law that funded the Department of Defense this year: For “Other Procurement, Air Force”: $32.6 billion. For “Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide”: $35.2 billion. And for “supplies and associated support services” related to U.S. Code Title 10 Section 3601 subsection(c)(3)(B) clauses (i) through (iv): a mere…

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Sharp rise in incidents of AI escaping users’ control, research finds

Sharp rise in incidents of AI escaping users’ control, research finds

The Guardian reports: Incidents of AIs escaping users’ control to lie, ignore instructions and pursue goals in harmful ways have hit a new high, according to research that also suggests the severity of deception and misalignment is worsening. Analysis of real-world loss of control incidents involving AI models flagged by businesses and individuals almost doubled in July compared with June, with more than 300 cases in the month, according to the Loss of Control Observatory, which monitors reports made by…

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