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Category: Politics

Trump champions data centers as Republicans turn against them

Trump champions data centers as Republicans turn against them

The Washington Post reports: As voters in both parties grow anxious about the rapid build-out of data centers, President Donald Trump remains one of the tech industry’s most prominent champions — putting him increasingly at odds with members of his own party. Nowhere is that divergence clearer than in Texas, where Trump travels Thursday to campaign for Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general and Republican Senate candidate. The state has courted some of the country’s biggest data center projects, but…

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Max Tegmark: Why is AI unregulated?

Max Tegmark: Why is AI unregulated?

  The biggest danger facing mankind is a machine that can “outsmart the whole species”, argues Max Tegmark, professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founder of the Future of Life Institute. Tegmark tells host Steve Clemons that governments and tech companies are in a “race to replace” human labour, instead of solving human problems. “It’s aimed at getting more money and power to a very small number of individuals,” he says. But a slew of suicides…

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Democrats will force Senate vote on Israel’s human rights practices

Democrats will force Senate vote on Israel’s human rights practices

The New York Times reports: Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, on Thursday plans to introduce a resolution that would order the Trump administration to provide Congress with a detailed accounting of Israel’s human rights practices in the West Bank, laying the groundwork to force a vote on the matter in coming weeks. The measure, the latest bid by Democrats in Congress to challenge the policies and actions of Israel’s government, invokes a provision of the Foreign Assistance Act…

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Not American enough: The campaign to create second-class citizens

Not American enough: The campaign to create second-class citizens

Toluse Olorunnipa writes: For Carlos Alemán, the pinnacle of the dozen years since he became a U.S. citizen was the night in 2020 when he was elected to serve on the city council of Homewood, Alabama. One of the lowest moments came earlier this year, when he learned that some of the most powerful people in his state are attempting to ban immigrants like him from pursuing higher office. “It seems to be part of a project to reject anyone…

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U.S. intervened in criminal probe of the ‘most effective ATM machine from Venezuela to the external world’

U.S. intervened in criminal probe of the ‘most effective ATM machine from Venezuela to the external world’

The Washington Post reports: Senior U.S. officials intervened in an international criminal investigation into a Venezuelan businessman who was enlisted by the Trump administration to help assert control over Venezuela’s government and oil industries, according to two people familiar with the matter. The officials lobbied to resolve the case in Switzerland in a way that would avoid criminal charges and end travel restrictions against the Britain-based businessman, Alejandro Betancourt, and they have not acted on a Swiss arrest warrant against…

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‘Thin air,’ real money: Trump’s crypto products have left investors at least $4.7 billion underwater

‘Thin air,’ real money: Trump’s crypto products have left investors at least $4.7 billion underwater

Public Citizen reports: “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” President Donald Trump tweeted in July 2019. “Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.” Seven years later, Trump has become the world’s foremost crypto salesperson, hawking nonfungible tokens, meme coins, governance tokens, stablecoins, and shares in a digital-asset treasury. What changed? The president realized there…

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New tariffs and expired tax credits put a dent in U.S. solar panel sales, but there’s reason for optimism

New tariffs and expired tax credits put a dent in U.S. solar panel sales, but there’s reason for optimism

By Dan Gearino August 27, 2026 This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. Rooftop solar installers feel like a dog that’s been repeatedly kicked. President Donald Trump has made solar more expensive—or at least slowed the long-term decline in costs—by imposing tariffs on imported photovoltaic panels and other parts. Trump also signed a measure last year that phased out the main…

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Trump’s trade war on Canada has virtually no support

Trump’s trade war on Canada has virtually no support

Zack Beauchamp reports: President Donald Trump seems dead set on escalating his trade war with Canada. And no one is really sure why. On Monday, Trump threatened another round of 50 percent tariffs on top of the ones he just implemented — this one targeting Canada’s auto industry, which is so deeply integrated with its American counterpart that large duties would do major damage on both sides of the border. By Tuesday morning, he had begun musing about renaming Lake…

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Iran has caused ‘billions’ in damage to American intelligence assets, report says

Iran has caused ‘billions’ in damage to American intelligence assets, report says

The Independent reports: Iran has caused “billions” of dollars in damage to U.S. intelligence infrastructure, according to a new report, which comes as the war continues to drag on with no clear end in sight. Iranian drones and missiles have struck “intelligence posts and surveillance hardware in the Middle East that is more extensive than any destruction America’s spy agencies have endured,” NBC News reported, citing four unnamed sources. The damage is expected to cost billions to repair. A CIA…

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CIA chief used Moscow visit to warn Russia against attacks on NATO allies, helping Iran

CIA chief used Moscow visit to warn Russia against attacks on NATO allies, helping Iran

Politico reports: CIA Director John Ratcliffe warned Russian officials in Moscow this week not to escalate conflict with America’s NATO allies, in particular Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, in response to Moscow’s stalemated invasion of Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the matter. The U.S. spy chief also used the rare, unannounced trip to the Russian capital on Tuesday to press Russia to reduce military and economic support for Iran, according to one of those two people and a U.K….

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U.S. issues sanctions against UK-based direct action group Palestine Action

U.S. issues sanctions against UK-based direct action group Palestine Action

The Guardian reports: The US ⁠has ​issued sanctions against ⁠the UK-based direct action organisation Palestine ⁠Action, describing it as a “transnational terror group”. The US Department of the Treasury labelled Palestine Action a specially designated global terrorist on Wednesday, which allows the US to freeze the assets of foreign individuals and entities. Palestine Action became the first direct action group to be proscribed under the UK’s Terrorism Act in July last year, placing it alongside the likes of Islamic State…

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‘AI is going to be a massive issue for the presidential election’

‘AI is going to be a massive issue for the presidential election’

Politico reports: The intensifying late-summer backlash against data centers is inspiring panic among some corners of the tech sector — amid fears that the industry is mishandling a political crisis that will stretch into 2028 and beyond. Those worries have deepened in recent weeks as politicians across the political spectrum embraced various curbs on data center construction, with Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, potential Democratic White House hopeful Josh Shapiro and Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers being among the…

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In effort to promote AI, EPA moves to cut out public input on data centers

In effort to promote AI, EPA moves to cut out public input on data centers

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration is moving to make it harder for communities to weigh in on proposed data centers, even as a backlash against the behemoth projects grows across the country. The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate a federal requirement that states publicize and solicit public input on applications for air pollution permits for a range of industrial facilities, including new data centers and the power plants needed to run them. The move could prevent…

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Canada has one important edge in the North American trade war: unity

Canada has one important edge in the North American trade war: unity

Politico reports: President Donald Trump is threatening Canada with economic destruction amid an escalating trade war. He’s not factoring in one key U.S. disadvantage. Americans are not nearly as gung-ho for a tariff stand-off as their northern neighbors, who have been seething for months over Trump’s rhetoric against their country. “The U.S.A. will always be far bigger, richer, and stronger than Canada,” Trump wrote in a second Truth Social post. “Someone should get these clowns to ‘fall in line’ or,…

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Judge issues setback to Trump administration plans to restrict mail-in ballots

Judge issues setback to Trump administration plans to restrict mail-in ballots

The Washington Post reports: A federal judge in Massachusetts on Tuesday issued a setback to the Trump administration’s plans to issue sweeping new restrictions on mail-in balloting for November’s crucial midterm elections. The ruling is not the final word in a complex and rapidly escalating legal fight over the president’s executive order that would bar the U.S. Postal Service from sending mail-in ballots to voters not on lists of citizens created by federal agencies. A separate case challenging the order…

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The Qataris gave Trump a $400 million airplane. He crippled their country in return

The Qataris gave Trump a $400 million airplane. He crippled their country in return

Shane Harris writes: Donald Trump really wanted the plane. The Qataris had flown the $400 million Boeing 747 to West Palm Beach just after he returned to the White House so he could run his hands over the soft leather chairs and inspect the sycamore- and wacapou-wood veneers. A sales brochure had described the en-suite master bathroom, with its mother-of-pearl inlays, as “almost a piece of art.” The plane was a flying palace fit for a Persian Gulf monarch, or…

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