Browsed by
Category: Politics

California’s billionaire tax has the signatures to make the ballot, backers say

California’s billionaire tax has the signatures to make the ballot, backers say

The Wall Street Journal reports: Backers of the proposed California billionaire tax believe they have gathered enough signatures to get the initiative on the November ballot, according to people familiar with the campaign, likely kicking off a bruising battle over the initiative. More than 1.5 million people have signed a petition to get the one-time, 5% wealth tax on statewide ballots in November, the people said. County election officials must tally the signatures, verify them, and send them to California’s…

Read More Read More

Trump fired the entire National Science Board. Here’s why that matters

Trump fired the entire National Science Board. Here’s why that matters

John Drake writes: On Friday, April 24, 2026, the White House fired all 24 members of the National Science Board. According to the National Science Foundation website, the board’s next scheduled meeting is May 5. Most people outside the research enterprise have never heard of the NSB, so it’s worth saying what it is. The National Science Foundation Act of 1950 created NSF with two heads: a director and a board. Jointly they set the strategic direction of an agency…

Read More Read More

The billion-barrel Hormuz oil shock is about to crash demand

The billion-barrel Hormuz oil shock is about to crash demand

Bloomberg reports: The Strait of Hormuz oil shock has yet to crash demand as the rich world borrows from its stocks and pays up to secure supply. Traders are now sounding the alarm that a harsh adjustment is coming. The longer the vital oil channel doesn’t reopen, traders say, the more consumption is going to have to recalibrate lower to align with supply that’s dropped at least 10%. And for that to happen, people will have buy less, either through…

Read More Read More

Iran caused significantly more damage to U.S. military bases than publicly acknowledged

Iran caused significantly more damage to U.S. military bases than publicly acknowledged

Defence Security Asia reports: The emerging picture of Iranian retaliation against American military bases across the Gulf suggests that the real military cost of Operation Epic Fury may be significantly higher than Washington has publicly acknowledged, with infrastructure damage, aircraft losses, and operational disruption now measured in billions of dollars. Multiple U.S. officials, congressional aides, and individuals familiar with classified damage assessments indicate that Iranian strikes hit dozens of targets across at least seven countries in the Middle East, challenging…

Read More Read More

The generals who are now running Iran

The generals who are now running Iran

The New York Times reports: When Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled Iran as the supreme leader, he exerted absolute power over all decisions about war, peace and negotiations with the United States. His son and successor does not play the same role. Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the son, is an elusive figure who has not been seen and whose voice has not been heard since he was appointed in March. Instead, a battle-hardened collective of commanders in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps…

Read More Read More

Lockheed Martin CEO tells investors war-driven boost in defense spending presents ‘golden opportunity’

Lockheed Martin CEO tells investors war-driven boost in defense spending presents ‘golden opportunity’

The Street reports: There’s a phrase that doesn’t come up often in defense contractor earnings calls: “golden opportunity.” It’s the kind of language that gets people’s attention. Lockheed Martin (LMT) CEO Jim Taiclet used it anyway. Speaking to investors on the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call Thursday, April 23, Taiclet did not attempt to be subtle about what the current political environment means for the world’s largest defense contractor. With the Iran war driving Pentagon spending, a Trump administration that…

Read More Read More

The inside story of five days that remade the Supreme Court

The inside story of five days that remade the Supreme Court

The New York Times just obtained secret Supreme Court memos that expose how John Roberts built the shadow docket out of spite. Leah Litman and Steve Vladeck break it down:   The New York Times reports: Just after 6 p.m. on a February evening in 2016, the Supreme Court issued a cryptic, one paragraph ruling that sent both climate policy and the court itself spinning in new directions. For two centuries, the court had generally handled major cases at a…

Read More Read More

The AI industry is discovering how much it is hated by the public

The AI industry is discovering how much it is hated by the public

The New Republic reports: On April 10, the house of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was attacked with a Molotov cocktail by 20-year-old Daniel Moreno-Gama. The suspect, who was arrested the same day, had written a manifesto warning of the existential threat of artificial intelligence. In his missive, he advocated for killing the CEOs of AI companies, and he referred to himself as “butlerian jihadist” on Instagram (a reference to a war against machines in Frank Herbert’s Dune universe). Three days…

Read More Read More

‘The damage is done’: Global oil crisis has changed fossil fuel industry for ever, IEA chief says

‘The damage is done’: Global oil crisis has changed fossil fuel industry for ever, IEA chief says

The Guardian reports: The oil crisis triggered by the Iran war has changed the fossil fuel industry for ever, turning countries away from fossil fuels to secure energy supplies, the world’s leading energy economist said. Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), also said that, despite pressure, the UK should forgo much of its potential North Sea expansion. Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, Birol said a key effect of the US-Israel war on Iran was that…

Read More Read More

Iran deploys more mines in the Strait of Hormuz, sources say

Iran deploys more mines in the Strait of Hormuz, sources say

Axios reports: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy laid more mines in the Strait of Hormuz this week, according to a U.S. official and a source with knowledge of the issue. Why it matters: The military standoff in the world’s most important oil chokepoint is escalating, with Iran laying mines and attacking commercial ships on one side and the U.S. tightening its naval blockade on the other. After being briefed on the new developments, President Trump ordered the U.S. Navy on Truth Social on Thursday to “shoot and…

Read More Read More

World’s top producer of condoms raises prices by up to 30% as Iran war rattles supply chains

World’s top producer of condoms raises prices by up to 30% as Iran war rattles supply chains

The New York Times reports: The world’s largest condom maker is raising prices of its products by up to 30 percent, warning that shortages of raw materials and chemicals because of the Iran war could disrupt production. The Malaysian condom company, Karex, which produces about five billion condoms a year, blamed a surge in raw material prices, global shipping disruptions and higher freight costs for the price increases. The de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz has led to…

Read More Read More

Graham Platner went to hell and back. He has a simple message for Democrats

Graham Platner went to hell and back. He has a simple message for Democrats

Ben Rhodes writes: Americans have a dysfunctional relationship with 21st-century wars. Most of us do not fight in them, see the carnage or live with their physical and psychological ruins. Yet we cannot heal our own nation unless we reckon with their monstrous futility. For Graham Platner, that reckoning began when he was a 20-year-old infantryman in Iraq. His company was constructing a patrol base near Falluja. To build it, they hired locals who often brought their kids to the…

Read More Read More

Betrayed: Trump is said to be in talks to send Afghans who aided U.S. forces to Congo

Betrayed: Trump is said to be in talks to send Afghans who aided U.S. forces to Congo

The New York Times reports: After halting a U.S. resettlement program for Afghans who helped the American war effort, President Trump is in talks to send as many as 1,100 of them to the Democratic Republic of Congo, an aid worker briefed on the plan said Tuesday. The group includes interpreters for the U.S. military, former members of the Afghan Special Operations forces and family members of American service members. More than 400 children are among them. The Afghans have…

Read More Read More

The conspiracy theory lurking behind Tucker Carlson’s apology

The conspiracy theory lurking behind Tucker Carlson’s apology

Michelle Goldberg writes: Tucker Carlson, you might have heard, is sorry. Early this week he posted a long conversation with his brother, Buckley, a former Trump speechwriter, in which they tried to make sense of the wreckage of the second Donald Trump presidency. “We’re implicated in this, for sure,” said Tucker. A few moments later, he added: “It’s a moment to wrestle with our own consciences. You know, we’ll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be,…

Read More Read More

Downing Street says Falklands sovereignty rests with UK after report of Pentagon ‘review’

Downing Street says Falklands sovereignty rests with UK after report of Pentagon ‘review’

BBC News reports: Sovereignty of the Falkland Islands “rests with the UK”, Downing Street has said, following a report the US could review its position on Britain’s claim to the territory. An internal Pentagon email reported by Reuters suggested the US was considering options to punish Nato allies it believed failed to support its war on Iran. The options discussed also included seeking Spain’s suspension from Nato over its opposition to the war. BBC News has not been able to…

Read More Read More

The looming food crisis: Why the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is disrupting global agriculture

The looming food crisis: Why the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is disrupting global agriculture

  The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have raised fuel costs and caused shortages of key fertilizers around the world, wreaking havoc on the agricultural industry. Adam Hanieh, director of the SOAS Middle East Institute at the University of London, says the effects could be felt for a long time, particularly in the Global South. “About a third of the world’s basic fertilizers now pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” says Hanieh, who…

Read More Read More