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Category: Politics

Trump doesn’t plan to reimburse taxpayers for propaganda ads

Trump doesn’t plan to reimburse taxpayers for propaganda ads

The New York Times reports: A day after President Trump said his super PAC would pay for television ads promoting him that had been funded by taxpayers, White House officials said the group did not plan to reimburse the government for the more than $10 million it had already spent on the ads. Mr. Trump announced on Monday evening that he was planning to have his super PAC, MAGA Inc., pay for the ads, which had drawn backlash from members…

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CIA report warns Israel could head toward civil war and total collapse

CIA report warns Israel could head toward civil war and total collapse

Drop Site reports: Israel is at risk of civil war or state collapse, a classified CIA assessment warns, as years of genocide in Gaza and war in Lebanon and Iran deepen political, economic, and social fractures within the country. The August report, titled “Fracture From Within,” was compiled by experts in the CIA’s Red Cell, according to two U.S. sources who described the contents of the report to Drop Site News. The Red Cell, which is the unit responsible for…

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Sam Altman might accept the ‘bad things’ that come with AI, but he doesn’t speak for everyone

Sam Altman might accept the ‘bad things’ that come with AI, but he doesn’t speak for everyone

Fast Company reports: For the past month, slowing the development of artificial intelligence has been at the forefront of AI discourse. After a former OpenAI and Anthropic employee left the industry in September citing that “neither company is acting responsibly,” AI leaders and everyday citizens alike sounded off on the potential of an AI-powered doomsday. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei responded with an essay about the importance of “pacing the frontier,” or slowing AI development to prioritize safety. At the time,…

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Only one GOP Supreme Court justice needs to flip for Big Oil to face climate accountability

Only one GOP Supreme Court justice needs to flip for Big Oil to face climate accountability

Slate reports: The Supreme Court officially began its new term on Monday morning with oral argument in Suncor Energy v. Boulder County. Befitting an institution with vast power over the public despite historically low public support, the court’s opening case this term is about elite impunity: Suncor will determine whether communities may sue oil and gas companies in state court and hold them financially responsible for literally fueling climate change. Back in 2018, Boulder County filed a lawsuit in a…

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DOJ sued by NAACP for records on ‘unprecedented’ plan to deploy 1,000 election monitors in midterms

DOJ sued by NAACP for records on ‘unprecedented’ plan to deploy 1,000 election monitors in midterms

Democracy Docket reports: The NAACP sued the Trump administration Friday, seeking records about its plan to deploy roughly 1,000 federal personnel to polling places during the 2026 midterms. The planned effort represents an extraordinary expansion of federal election monitoring. It has already sparked confrontations with state officials and concerns about voter intimidation. The civil rights organization filed its lawsuit in federal court, one month before the Nov. 3 election. The case seeks to force the Civil Rights Division of the…

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The long and extremely urgent to-do list if Democrats win control of Congress

The long and extremely urgent to-do list if Democrats win control of Congress

Norman J. Ornstein writes: In the 1972 movie The Candidate, Bill McKay, played by Robert Redford, shockingly wins a Senate seat. Surrounded by ecstatic staff and volunteers, a stunned and panicky McKay pulls aside his manager and asks, “What do we do now?” That will be the relevant question for Democrats in the House and Senate if the wave election that looks increasingly possible comes true and they win control of both houses of Congress. There will be initial euphoria…

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Saudi-backed Yemeni government declares war against Houthis, widening crisis

Saudi-backed Yemeni government declares war against Houthis, widening crisis

The New York Times reports: The Saudi-backed government of Yemen on Sunday announced a major military campaign against the Houthi militia, a key Iranian ally, plunging the Middle East even deeper into war. In a televised speech, Rashad al-Alimi, the leader of the internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government, said that the government was seeking to reclaim all the territory it had lost to the Houthis over the past 12 years. The government and the Houthis have been engaged in fierce battles…

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Trump wants control of South America. If Bolsonaro Jr wins in Brazil, that could become a reality

Trump wants control of South America. If Bolsonaro Jr wins in Brazil, that could become a reality

Steve Bloomfield writes: Donald Trump has enjoyed very few foreign policy victories since returning to power. From failed wars to failed peace processes, his second term in office has been marked by one costly blunder on the world stage after another. In Latin America, though, the US president has a different story to tell. His administration’s national security strategy outlined how the US wanted to “restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere”. It was a brazen document, laying out how…

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AI infrastructure buildout surpasses every prior investment in American history, posing systemic risks

AI infrastructure buildout surpasses every prior investment in American history, posing systemic risks

Quartz reports: A new Brookings Institution study finds that the U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout is on pace to consume a larger share of economic output than any prior technology rollout in American history, including railroads, the interstate highway system, and the internet — while the financing structures underpinning it carry systemic financial risks. The study — authored by Columbia Business School finance and real estate professor Stijn van Nieuwerburgh — puts total spending on data centers and related AI…

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Dean Baker: If AI is crashing, the story should be jail in, not bail out

Dean Baker: If AI is crashing, the story should be jail in, not bail out

Dean Baker writes: We can’t know yet whether the Oracle meltdown, and the AI leaders’ admission that they don’t know what they are doing, will be enough to force the big money actors in the stock market to look at arithmetic, but we can hope. And if they do see reality, and the bubble begins to deflate, and the big AI companies head towards bankruptcy, we can predict what the politicians they bought will look to do: give them huge…

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I quit OpenAI because its culture is broken — the time for trial and error is over

I quit OpenAI because its culture is broken — the time for trial and error is over

David Robinson writes: What I’m about to tell you has, I realize, become something of a cliché: I resigned this week from OpenAI. I led the writing of the safety reports we published with each major launch. Now I’m joining a parade of former colleagues—at OpenAI and the industry’s other leaders—who have decided that the current path is unacceptable. I agree with other recently departed staff that the companies building this technology aren’t being nearly careful enough. But I believe…

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Zohran Mamdani is elevating politics by filling potholes

Zohran Mamdani is elevating politics by filling potholes

Lydia Polgreen writes: A few days before the leaders of the world streamed into the cavernous, marble-lined General Assembly Hall to deliver their speeches on the grave crises convulsing our combustible world, Mayor Zohran Mamdani offered his own, somewhat surprising solution to the problem of rising authoritarianism: filling potholes. “If politics cannot deliver on the block where you live, why would you trust it to deliver anywhere?” Mamdani asked a gathering of mayors from big cities across the world, explaining…

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Trump demanded that taxpayer money be used for TV ads praising him

Trump demanded that taxpayer money be used for TV ads praising him

The New York Times reports: President Trump personally instructed his budget director to use taxpayer money for TV ads praising him and his presidency, setting in motion a $20 million contract that used funds from the Department of Homeland Security, according to people familiar with the matter. The ads have run across cable and network television — on Fox News, CNN and MS Now, with football games on Fox and with national newscasts on CBS, ABC and NBC, including “Meet…

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Economic strain is pitting China’s people against each other

Economic strain is pitting China’s people against each other

From Beijing, Helen Gao writes: For years, the mood in China has been darkening. A weakening economy has left many disillusioned, a state of mind expressed privately and across the heavily controlled internet in lowered expectations and quiet anxiety. Some of that may now be surfacing in more troubling ways. In March, a man drove a heavy construction vehicle through an outdoor market in a Beijing suburb, reportedly killing several people. In June, a small aircraft crashed into a prominent…

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ICE has been dumping protester photos into a Palantir database

ICE has been dumping protester photos into a Palantir database

Wired reports: An explosive and newly partially unsealed court filing alleges that the US Department of Homeland Security built up dossiers on ICE observers—including their photos, license plate numbers, and other information—and stored them in a system called the Investigative Case Management database, which was built by Palantir. Palantir did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for DHS calls the case “meritless” and says that “the underlying lawsuit is based on the lie that there is a…

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Amazon’s $1 billion plan to combat data center backlash draws more backlash

Amazon’s $1 billion plan to combat data center backlash draws more backlash

Ars Technica reports: On Friday, Amazon committed to donating more than $1 billion over the next five years to communities neighboring data centers. In a press release, Amazon Web Services’ CEO Matt Garman said that communities would decide how to prioritize funds across “education, job training, energy affordability, water, and energy preservation, and local priorities.” Laying out other community commitments, Amazon also promised to ensure data centers wouldn’t increase power bills or wipe out local water supplies. Regarding the latter,…

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