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Blanche nomination at risk of delay as Cornyn seeks assurances on Trump settlement

Blanche nomination at risk of delay as Cornyn seeks assurances on Trump settlement

The Associated Press reports: A planned vote to move forward with Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general appeared in doubt Wednesday as a key Republican senator demanded more assurances from the Justice Department about the settlement of President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. GOP Sen. John Cornyn, a crucial swing vote, told reporters he was not willing to support Blanche’s nomination until the Justice Department adequately addressed in writing his concerns about the settlement that afforded Trump…

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Data centers become the new frontlines of global power

Data centers become the new frontlines of global power

Henrique Schneider writes: Data centers have emerged as a crucial element in the realms of geopolitics, energy security and industrial strategy. On the morning of March 1, 2026, three coordinated Iranian drone strikes hit Amazon Web Services facilities in the Gulf, disrupting regional cloud services for days to weeks. The episode crystallized a transition that had been building for years: The quiet warehouses of the digital economy are now contested strategic assets. The scale of what is being built is…

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Ireland is big tech’s lapdog – and that compromises its EU presidency

Ireland is big tech’s lapdog – and that compromises its EU presidency

Johnny Ryan writes: On the face of it, Ireland behaves like a good European by being a staunch advocate of human rights and a beacon of progressivism on the western edge of the continent. But there is one vital area in which its record is less than perfect – one that should cause concern when the Irish government takes over the rotating six-month presidency of the EU on 1 July. The EU’s tech and AI rulebook will be renegotiated during…

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Oman presents Iran with Gulf-backed plan for voluntary fees to use Strait of Hormuz

Oman presents Iran with Gulf-backed plan for voluntary fees to use Strait of Hormuz

Reuters reports: Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, ​a Gulf source and a Western diplomat told Reuters on Tuesday. The plan could serve as a basis to end the disruption to trade through the strait caused by the ‌U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. President Donald Trump, who abruptly called off a two-week U.S. bombing campaign over the weekend in his latest strategic U-turn,…

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A $154 billion CEO just endorsed stripping most Americans of voting rights

A $154 billion CEO just endorsed stripping most Americans of voting rights

At Fortune, Nick Lichtenberg writes: Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke, whose company commands a market capitalization near $154 billion, told his social media followers this week that a tax-tiered voting system—one that would strip voting rights from anyone who pays no income tax—would be a “good system.” That two-word endorsement, dropped into a viral thread, has reignited a debate over wealth, power, and democracy that most Americans thought was settled more than a century ago. The proposal would invert the founding…

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This MAGA influencer runs a charity to teach kids civics. Much of the money goes to him instead

This MAGA influencer runs a charity to teach kids civics. Much of the money goes to him instead

By Kali Bomeli This story was originally published by ProPublica In a private ceremony on Sept. 17, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stood at a podium inside the National Archives building in Washington, D.C., and praised a Florida nonprofit for what he called a singular achievement in American education. The attendees were celebrating the Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness, which announced that it had reached 2 million children with civics education since its founding in 2016. “I hope you understand…

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How Trump’s ‘America First’ administration could shut U.S. scientists out of the next Nobel-worthy discovery

How Trump’s ‘America First’ administration could shut U.S. scientists out of the next Nobel-worthy discovery

By Lisa Song This story was originally published by ProPublica For decades, physicists wrestled with a fundamental mystery of the universe. They wanted to know why certain particles — like the protons in atoms — have mass, while particles of light do not. Whatever the reason was, it was crucial to understanding the origins of planets, galaxies and life itself. The leading theory stated that particles got their mass from interacting with an invisible field, later dubbed the Higgs field,…

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How the AI data center blitzkrieg advances through secrecy and backroom deals

How the AI data center blitzkrieg advances through secrecy and backroom deals

The New York Times reports: A Louisiana state legislative committee was about to consider a bill in April 2024 when Richard Nelson, then the state’s revenue secretary, received an urgent message from Gov. Jeff Landry. Get the bill passed, the newly elected Republican governor told him, because they needed it for something else. Mr. Nelson walked across a room in Baton Rouge’s towering State Capitol to the bill’s author, Chris Turner, a Republican state representative. “‘Hey, we need to hijack…

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AI industry struggles with the real stupidity of tech overlords who fail to take public opposition seriously

AI industry struggles with the real stupidity of tech overlords who fail to take public opposition seriously

Futurism reports: The tech overlords pushing the AI boom are quickly wearing out what little welcome they had. You may have noticed big-name AI labs pushing new commercials lately. Meta’s new 60-second ad spot insists that the “future is for everyone,” even as CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s personal net worth eclipses the GDP of Hungary. Anthropic’s new commercial for Claude assures viewers that there’s “hope in hard questions,” seemingly embracing the discomfort that comes when your software is used to bomb…

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Iran says it still controls Strait of Hormuz, not seeking talks, after Trump halts bombing

Iran says it still controls Strait of Hormuz, not seeking talks, after Trump halts bombing

Reuters reports: Iran said on Monday it was still in control of the Strait of Hormuz and not seeking to resume peace talks ‌with the United States, after President Donald Trump halted a two-week bombing campaign that his top brass told him had run its course. Following 13 successive nights of intensifying bombing that provoked Tehran to fire on U.S. bases in response, Trump halted the campaign over the weekend. Iran said it would suspend its own attacks for as…

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GOP senators warn of growing crisis of confidence in Hegseth as Iran war drags on

GOP senators warn of growing crisis of confidence in Hegseth as Iran war drags on

The Hill reports: Republican senators say that confidence is waning in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership of the U.S. armed forces as the war with Iran drags on without an end in sight. They are also warning that the success of a possible “massive attack” against Iran could be critical to shoring up support for the unpopular conflict. Some GOP lawmakers are questioning the administration’s failure to anticipate the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz — which has caused…

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In Memphis, an ‘anti-crime’ task force quietly turned into an ICE crackdown

In Memphis, an ‘anti-crime’ task force quietly turned into an ICE crackdown

NPR reports: When President Trump announced an anti-crime task force for Memphis last fall, federal and local officials never mentioned immigration enforcement as a goal. But the influx of federal agents into the city has led to widespread immigration arrests — a majority without criminal convictions, according to an Institute for Public Service Reporting data analysis. NPR reviewed arrest data and spoke with lawyers, immigrants, activists and community members to piece together the task force’s impact on Memphis over the…

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Why are Democrats so quiet about the Tate brothers?

Why are Democrats so quiet about the Tate brothers?

Moira Donegan writes: It’s not exactly strange that elements of the Magaverse have embraced Andrew Tate. What’s strange is that the Democrats do not seem interested in holding the Trump movement to account for it. Andrew Tate, the misogynist influencer who is accused by numerous women around the world and now British prosecutors of rape and strangulation, as well as assault, sex trafficking, possession of child abuse images and extreme pornography, and various other forms of gender violence and exploitation,…

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Gulf countries want the war to end, but can’t agree on how. ‘The GCC is nonfunctional’

Gulf countries want the war to end, but can’t agree on how. ‘The GCC is nonfunctional’

Politico reports: As the U.S. continues daily strikes on Iran, the Arab states battered by Tehran’s retaliatory attacks are trying to unite to chart a path toward peace. Longstanding tensions are getting in the way. In recent weeks, top ministers in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have posed for a photo showing their countries are reconciling; Jordan and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council have had meetings at the State Department and on Capitol Hill; and the GCC has…

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Admiral Daryl Caudle’s rise reveals the politics driving Hegseth’s Pentagon

Admiral Daryl Caudle’s rise reveals the politics driving Hegseth’s Pentagon

The New York Times reports: Adm. Daryl Caudle saw an opening to land the Navy’s top job last year, and he seized it. Before Pete Hegseth had even been sworn in as defense secretary, Admiral Caudle, then the head of a major Navy training command, offered to help Mr. Hegseth prepare for his politically contentious Senate confirmation hearing, according to current and former defense officials. The outreach was a breach of military ethics, the officials said. Senior military officers are…

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Brazil moves to ‘protect our voting system’ from U.S. interference; denies visas to State Dept. officials

Brazil moves to ‘protect our voting system’ from U.S. interference; denies visas to State Dept. officials

The Washington Post reports: Brazil has denied visas to two senior State Department officials whom the Trump administration planned to dispatch on a mission to cast doubt on the fairness and integrity of the country’s electoral system before millions of Brazilians vote in a presidential election on Oct. 4, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday. A U.S. State Department delegation, including Trump political appointees Riley M. Barnes, an assistant secretary, and Samuel Samson, a deputy assistant secretary, had planned to depart…

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