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Category: Politics

Iran emerges more confident after six months of war with the U.S.

Iran emerges more confident after six months of war with the U.S.

The New York Times reports: Iran has grown more confident in its ability to attack targets in the Middle East and appears determined to continue the conflict for months to frustrate the United States, according to U.S. intelligence reports in recent weeks. In many respects, the assessments reflect what has been observable on the ground as fighting erupted again after a period of relative calm. In the past week, Iran targeted ships in the Strait of Hormuz and American troops…

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A political operative on the verge of self-deportation

A political operative on the verge of self-deportation

Jesús Rodríguez writes: One recent Sunday in August, Daysi González addressed a crowd of about seventy people in a sterile conference room in New York’s financial district. The people who were gathered at tables around her, eating buffet tacos and sipping cans of Coke Zero, were first- and second-generation Americans getting ready to run for office or to work on political campaigns. Some looked younger than thirty and were dressed casually, while others already looked the part of the candidate,…

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Haitians deported from the U.S. are left broke and stranded

Haitians deported from the U.S. are left broke and stranded

The New York Times reports: Dozens of deportees are arriving in the Haitian city of Cap Haitien weekly as the Trump administration pushes to remove Haitians who lack legal immigration status in the United States, and some are now marooned in an unfamiliar place. More than 80 people were returned last week, often with only the U.S. government-issued sweatpants and T-shirts, and with immigration court documents stuffed in their pockets. Many returned broke, saying their valuables had disappeared during the…

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Pete Hegseth ‘is a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States and the world’

Pete Hegseth ‘is a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States and the world’

The Guardian reports: In a different Washington, under a different president, a return to the well-worn playbook of all-out sanctions to counter Iran might have been the signal for a publicity-hungry US secretary of defense to adopt a lower profile. But these are no ordinary times. And Pete Hegseth is no ordinary defense secretary. Barely a week after the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, unleashed a supposed “economic D-day” aimed at crushing the regime in Tehran under the weight of commercial…

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Republicans sour on the economy

Republicans sour on the economy

Axios reports: Republicans’ confidence in the economy has plummeted over the last six months at a pace unseen since Covid — reminiscent of the declines during the global financial crisis nearly two decades ago. Why it matters: Usually, the president’s party is upbeat about the economy, while the party out of power is far more downcast. What’s striking now is that Republicans have grown increasingly sour this year, even with a Republican president in office. It’s another in a long list of ominous indicators for President…

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Norway seizes Russian research ship in the high Arctic

Norway seizes Russian research ship in the high Arctic

The New York Times reports: For the past several days, Norwegian security services had been tracking a Russian research ship. It was cruising around Svalbard, an icy archipelago high in the Arctic near the North Pole that Norway controls but is governed by a one-of-a-kind treaty that gives the Russians access. On Wednesday, the Norwegians pounced. Armed with a court order that is part of a global effort to recover Russian assets, Norwegian police officers boarded the ship while it…

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In major win for voters, judge blocks Trump’s mail voting restrictions for midterms

In major win for voters, judge blocks Trump’s mail voting restrictions for midterms

Democracy Docket reports: A federal judge in Massachusetts barred the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Friday from advancing new mail voting restrictions that, if carried out, could leave vast numbers of people unable to cast a ballot by mail this fall. The decision is a massive win for access to the ballot, though the administration is all but certain to appeal. Issuing her ruling a day after a pivotal hearing in Boston, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said USPS’s rule, which…

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Trump administration rushes to Supreme Court in ongoing effort to upend midterm elections

Trump administration rushes to Supreme Court in ongoing effort to upend midterm elections

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to immediately allow new restrictions on mail-in balloting, potentially setting up a major legal clash that could affect millions of voters for November’s midterm elections. The fight could possibly upend election procedures just as states begin to send out mail-in ballots in pivotal contests that will determine control of the U.S. House and Senate. Some communities in Wisconsin mailed ballots to voters this week, North Carolina is…

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Price of diesel hits a record high

Price of diesel hits a record high

NPR reports: The price of diesel has reached an all-time high, according to AAA. The national average for a gallon is now $5.85. That exceeds the previous high in June 2022, when the average for a gallon reached $5.81 a few months after Russia invaded Ukraine, according to AAA data. The record high is significant because diesel powers much of the industrial supply chain in the United States via the “three t’s” of the economy: trains, tractors, and trucks, says…

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Arab diplomats fear Iran is widening the war — and there’s no way out

Arab diplomats fear Iran is widening the war — and there’s no way out

Politico reports: Iran’s renewed attacks against Arab countries are raising the stakes for regional powers, with some saying they are losing hope that there’s any way out of the war — and that things will get worse before the November elections. The fear is that Iran is particularly motivated to increase strikes right now — ahead of the U.S. midterms — making a widening regional conflict more likely. “Iran would like to prolong this status of controlled escalation and retaliation…

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Reform UK suspends two senior officials after undercover report on donations

Reform UK suspends two senior officials after undercover report on donations

The Guardian reports: Reform UK has suspended two senior officials after they were filmed in an undercover investigation appearing to plot to get around electoral laws on foreign donations. In a blow to Nigel Farage hours before his conference speech, the party said it had launched an investigation into the actions of James Orr, the party’s head of policy, and Dan Jukes, a senior aide to Farage, after the broadcast by Channel 4 News. Jukes and Orr were filmed by…

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Sanders proposes pause on advanced AI development and ban on ‘artificial superintelligence’ after rogue AI incidents

Sanders proposes pause on advanced AI development and ban on ‘artificial superintelligence’ after rogue AI incidents

If the leaders of the major AI companies admit that they are losing control of their extremely dangerous technology, it is time for an immediate PAUSE on advanced AI development and a permanent BAN on superintelligence. pic.twitter.com/0FQo4risiD — Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) September 3, 2026 The Washington Post reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) called Thursday for the United States to ban so-called artificial superintelligence, saying a summer hacking spree by rogue OpenAI agents had revealed…

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ICE plans to pay $5 million to create national voting database

ICE plans to pay $5 million to create national voting database

Wired reports: In a bid to tackle alleged voter fraud, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing to award a contract worth up to $5 million to a company that will create a massive national database of voters. ICE first detailed what the contract would entail in a document published last week. “The purpose of this acquisition is for the handling and secure delivery of publicly available voter registration files and voter history files to support Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) fraud…

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Gloria Steinem’s revolution is unfinished

Gloria Steinem’s revolution is unfinished

Nikki McCann Ramirez writes: Gloria Steinem never held elected office. She never ran for one, never seemed particularly interested in pursuing power inside the governing systems she strove so hard to change. Steinem was, over the course of her lifelong activism, a beacon of the manner in which Americans can shape their nation for the better, without ever having to put their name on a ballot. Steinem died on Monday at the age of 92, after nearly seven decades as…

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New mail voting rules moved forward despite USPS officials’ concerns about mass disenfranchisement

New mail voting rules moved forward despite USPS officials’ concerns about mass disenfranchisement

By Jen Fifield This story was originally published by ProPublica Top U.S. Postal Service officials tasked with issuing new regulations on mail voting expressed concerns in internal meetings about how the rules they were drafting could delay or block ballots from reaching large swaths of eligible voters for the upcoming midterms, but the rules moved forward anyway, ProPublica has learned. The revelations about the discussions, from someone familiar with the rulemaking process, come as a separate anonymous federal employee filed…

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Israel ‘seeking Trump’s support for plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza’

Israel ‘seeking Trump’s support for plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza’

The Guardian reports: Israel’s defence minister has said his country is seeking Donald Trump’s support to approve plans to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in what has widely been condemned as a potential war crime. Israel Katz said there was “no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration” during a conference hosted by the Israeli news site Ynet and the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. He said the Israeli government was “organised and prepared to get them out…

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