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Category: Politics

‘There is no breaking point’: The problem with Trump’s plan to economically strangle Iran

‘There is no breaking point’: The problem with Trump’s plan to economically strangle Iran

Politico reports: President Donald Trump is waiting for Iran to cave to his economic pressure. Tehran may be willing to wait even longer. Even as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promises a level of economic isolation “never seen before,” former Trump administration officials, U.S. ambassadors and other Middle East experts are skeptical that tightening the economic vise will force Iran to relinquish its desire to toll ships passing through the State of Hormuz and make the other concessions Trump is demanding…

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Trump administration moves to allow roads and logging in pristine national forests

Trump administration moves to allow roads and logging in pristine national forests

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration on Tuesday advanced a plan to open nearly 45 million acres of wilderness in national forests to road construction and logging, removing protections that had been in place for a quarter century. The proposal by the U.S. Forest Service would repeal the 2001 “roadless rule,” enacted during the Clinton administration to preserve the wild nature of forest land. It comes as President Trump pressures the agency to increase logging and to thin…

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Russians pull billions from banks, amid fears the Kremlin will seize deposits for war in Ukraine

Russians pull billions from banks, amid fears the Kremlin will seize deposits for war in Ukraine

The Washington Post reports: Russians are pulling billions from the country’s banking system ― a record cash outflow amid intensifying Ukrainian drone attacks and rising fear that the Kremlin could start seizing deposits to finance its war. Nearly $3.4 billion (286.4 billion rubles) was withdrawn in the first two weeks of August, on top of the $7.3 billion withdrawn in July and more than $4.5 billion in June, according to Russian Central Bank data. Total withdrawals this year could nearly…

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In a major shift, Gov. Josh Shapiro restricts data center development in Pennsylvania

In a major shift, Gov. Josh Shapiro restricts data center development in Pennsylvania

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a sweeping executive order on Tuesday dramatically restricting data center development in Pennsylvania, marking a major shift from his initial embrace of the increasingly unpopular projects. Shapiro, a first-term Democrat running for reelection and a rumored 2028 presidential contender, had been an early champion of data center development in the state, including a $20 billion commitment from Amazon to build at least two data centers in Bucks and Luzerne Counties. Now he…

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How Israel is trying to shape what AI tells users about Gaza

How Israel is trying to shape what AI tells users about Gaza

Politico Influence reports: Israel has launched a new campaign to influence how large-language models like ChatGPT are answering questions about Gaza and the Israel Defense Forces amid declining public support for the country across the U.S. political spectrum. — French PR firm Havas Media, which runs the lion’s share of Israel’s Foreign Agents Registration Act-registered foreign influence work in the U.S., appears to have stood up an “institute” aimed at feeding LLMs positive information about Israel via one of its subcontractors, boutique ad agency Piro, Inc. — In a…

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Politics drove antisemitism probes against Ivy League schools, DOJ whistleblower says

Politics drove antisemitism probes against Ivy League schools, DOJ whistleblower says

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration task force charged with investigating antisemitism on Ivy League campuses pressured universities into punitive settlements despite turning up little to no evidence of systemic abuse, according to a whistleblower complaint made public Tuesday. The complaint — filed by Haley Van Erem, a former career attorney in the Justice Department’s civil rights division who said she was involuntarily detailed to work on the probes last year — alleged that the outcomes of investigations into…

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Trump admin has deleted or altered nearly 400 datasets, endangering public health, education and more

Trump admin has deleted or altered nearly 400 datasets, endangering public health, education and more

The Guardian reports: A database of federal law enforcement officer misconduct records. A survey measuring physical, sexual and emotional violence against children and youth. Real-time pollution readings collected by air quality monitors from US embassies around the world. These are among the hundreds of federal datasets that the Trump administration has taken down or altered as part of its aggressive campaign to wipe all mentions of data findings that do not align with the administration’s priorities. Over the past year…

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Trump’s plan to paint the Eisenhower building: Abject stupidity, or, territorial marking?

Trump’s plan to paint the Eisenhower building: Abject stupidity, or, territorial marking?

The New York Times reports: A judge ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration could inch forward on a plan to paint the gray granite exterior of the Eisenhower Executive Building white. In an order from the bench in Federal District Court in Washington, Judge Dabney L. Friedrich said that initial tests to evaluate how the paint would affect the building’s walls and other preparations would not directly harm preservationist groups who sued to stop the effort. But she warned…

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Trump bows to pressure from Kim Jong Un, scales back military exercises with South Korea

Trump bows to pressure from Kim Jong Un, scales back military exercises with South Korea

The Associated Press reports: North Korea on Friday threatened unspecified stern steps against the United States and South Korea ahead of their upcoming military drills, which Pyongyang called a war rehearsal that would be more provocative than last year. The warning is typical of the harsh rhetoric that North Korea often deploys ahead of major U.S.-South Korean military exercises and suggests the country could conduct more missile tests in coming days. Experts say North Korea has often used its rivals’…

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Trump’s Oman bombing threats have a golf course problem

Trump’s Oman bombing threats have a golf course problem

Russ Choma reports: On Monday morning, President Donald Trump issued a blunt warning to America’s erstwhile ally: “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them.” It was another one of his un-diplomatic jabs at a longtime friend—this time for the possibility that Oman might prove helpful to Iran in ending the war. But if Trump’s aggressive, crude attitude towards an ally isn’t confusing enough, it’s also another example of how Trump’s sprawling efforts at personal…

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Israel’s security minister Ben-Gvir advocates killing ‘30 to 40’ people in Gaza nightly

Israel’s security minister Ben-Gvir advocates killing ‘30 to 40’ people in Gaza nightly

The Associated Press reports: An extremist Israeli lawmaker in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition publicly advocated for killing “30 to 40” people in Gaza each night, comments that surfaced Sunday and were quickly shared by Palestinian media. Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir made the statement while speaking to a former Gaza-held hostage, Rom Braslavski, on Braslavski’s podcast. The two were discussing Israel’s recovery from the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, when Ben-Gvir criticized Israel’s recent drawdown of strikes…

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Trump’s billionaire boy’s club

Trump’s billionaire boy’s club

Public Citizen: A new investigation by Public Citizen reveals that 57 individuals within the Trump administration, excluding President Trump, are individually worth as much as $100 million, eight of whom are billionaires. The analysis underscores the growing economic divide between the average American worker, who earns $65,000 a year, and the politically-connected individuals who hold the power to address the economic strain facing the general populace. Of the 57 ultra-wealthy individuals identified, 31 have personal assets exceeding $100 million, while the…

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China wants to shape what the world’s AI knows

China wants to shape what the world’s AI knows

The New York Times reports: When ChatGPT was still a new technology, researchers in Beijing tested how well it handled Chinese-language questions. Their response to its results was telling. The chatbot described the former N.B.A. star Yao Ming as the first Chinese woman to play professional basketball in the United States. It confused two classic works of Chinese literature, “Journey to the West” and “Dream of the Red Chamber,” which were written two centuries apart. The researchers at the Beijing…

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‘Godfather of AI,’ Geoffrey Hinton, predicts mass unemployment is on its way

‘Godfather of AI,’ Geoffrey Hinton, predicts mass unemployment is on its way

Fortune reports: The long-term impact of AI is one of the most hotly debated topics in Silicon Valley. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicts every job will be transformed—and likely lead to a four-day workweek. Other tech titans go even further: Bill Gates says humans may soon not be needed “for most things,” and Elon Musk believes most humans won’t have to work at all in “less than 20 years.” While those predictions might sound extreme, they’re not just plausible, they’re…

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Ukraine disables 7 of 10 of Russia’s largest logistics centers for Wildberries online retailer

Ukraine disables 7 of 10 of Russia’s largest logistics centers for Wildberries online retailer

🔥 The largest Wildberries logistics hub in all of Russia has been finally destroyed.Koledino, Moscow. Wildberries appears to have made a conscious choice not to empty this warehouse despite knowing Ukraine will destroy it like all others.Expect $1.5+ billion in damages. pic.twitter.com/SISsou9uU2 — Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) August 16, 2026 Kyiv Post reports: The Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced on Sunday, Aug. 16, that recent operations have disabled seven of the ten largest logistics centers belonging to the Russian e-commerce company Wildberries….

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Sailors’ families denounce Trump and Hegseth for ‘dismissing their experiences and calling them liars’

Sailors’ families denounce Trump and Hegseth for ‘dismissing their experiences and calling them liars’

The Guardian reports: Naval families with loved ones deployed for months on US warships amid the Iran war have reacted with fury to Donald Trump and the defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s dismissal of their concerns about the extreme pressures and dire conditions they are enduring. The Guardian has talked to three naval families who have been following the physical and mental stresses bearing down on their relatives with mounting alarm. The families, with loved ones on board the USS Abraham…

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