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Category: War

9/11 triggered a ‘war on terror’ that was never winnable

9/11 triggered a ‘war on terror’ that was never winnable

Robin Wright writes: Twenty-five years ago, President George W. Bush made a sweeping pledge shortly after Al Qaeda’s airborne hijackers slaughtered almost three thousand people, from more than a hundred countries, at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania, on September 11, 2001. “Our war on terror begins with Al Qaeda, but it does not end there,” he told a joint session of Congress, about the deadliest terrorist attack in history. “It will not end until every terrorist…

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Behind the scenes, JD Vance gathered unvarnished views of the Iran war

Behind the scenes, JD Vance gathered unvarnished views of the Iran war

The New York Times reports: Vice President JD Vance took the unusual step over the spring and summer of calling U.S. military commanders in the Middle East, Europe and Asia directly, seeking their unvarnished assessments of the Iran war, according to current and former officials. Mr. Vance, who opposed the war from the outset and was charged by President Trump with helping to end the conflict, wanted the commanders’ individual judgments, in their own words, before they were consolidated into…

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Oil’s rise past $100 per barrel deepens GOP’s midterm elections challenge

Oil’s rise past $100 per barrel deepens GOP’s midterm elections challenge

The Washington Post reports: As Republicans gather with President Donald Trump in Dallas this week in an effort to boost their sagging midterm elections prospects, their political challenges mounted with an ominous number flashing across financial terminals and news sites: $100. Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, crossed that threshold Wednesday amid fresh fighting in Iran, dimming the GOP’s hopes that the high gas prices driving voter frustration would ease before ballots are cast. The elevated oil price is…

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The Pentagon asked OpenAI for artificial intelligence designed to rarely say no

The Pentagon asked OpenAI for artificial intelligence designed to rarely say no

The Intercept reports: The Department of Defense asked OpenAI to provide the U.S. military with a special version of its artificial intelligence technology designed to turn down the military commands as infrequently as possible, according to documents obtained by The Intercept. The desire for a custom AI tool with “minimal refusal rates” to Pentagon commands was revealed in files released to The Intercept as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking information about the military’s secretive deals with…

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Iran war drives $100 billion in extra energy costs for U.S. consumers

Iran war drives $100 billion in extra energy costs for U.S. consumers

Axios reports: The war in Iran has now cost U.S. consumers $100 billion in higher energy prices, and the bill is rising another $1 million about every two minutes, per a real-time estimate from Brown University as of Monday morning. Why it matters: Energy inflation shows up across the entire economy, and the recent surge in diesel prices in particular threatens to have a dramatic impact on freight and travel in the weeks and months to come. By the numbers: The Iran War Energy…

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As farmers go broke amid rising gas prices, Secretary of Agriculture Rollins profits off them

As farmers go broke amid rising gas prices, Secretary of Agriculture Rollins profits off them

By Georgina Gustin September 6, 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. As farmers grapple with soaring diesel and fertilizer prices and the Department of Agriculture yanks support for cheaper, renewable forms of energy, the agency’s chief, Brooke Rollins, is carrying millions in highly profitable oil and gas investments. In disclosure reports filed in July, Rollins indicated that she and…

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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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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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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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EU struggles to find an effective response after Germany blames Russia for a foiled drone attack

EU struggles to find an effective response after Germany blames Russia for a foiled drone attack

The Associated Press reports: The European Union on Wednesday weighed how best to respond to an attempted drone attack at a German airport blamed on Russia but struggled to find new ways to meet the challenge without resorting to military means. The German government said Tuesday that Russia was responsible for the failed attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport on Aug. 4 using a drone laden with explosives and announced it would shut down a Russian consulate among other measures. The nature…

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Moscow’s ‘meat grinder’: Russia ‘losing 6,000 more troops in Ukraine each month than it can recruit’

Moscow’s ‘meat grinder’: Russia ‘losing 6,000 more troops in Ukraine each month than it can recruit’

The Guardian reports: Russia is losing about 6,000 more troops in Ukraine each month than it can recruit, western officials have said. While Russia is still acquiring new battlefield recruits at speed, with an estimated rate of 1,000 a day, in the last two months even this has not been sufficient to replace those killed or injured. “We estimate that the gap between the number of people Russia is losing to casualties and the number they’re being able to recruit…

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Netanyahu’s ‘total victory’ vow kept him in power. Now it may be his undoing

Netanyahu’s ‘total victory’ vow kept him in power. Now it may be his undoing

Meron Rapoport writes: A little over a month after October 7, 2023, Israel’s Channel 12 published its first Knesset seat projection following the Hamas attack. Unsurprisingly, the results were catastrophic for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His Likud party, which had won 32 of the Knesset’s 120 seats in the election only a year earlier, was polling at just 17 seats — close to its worst-ever showing. The governing coalition, which totaled 64 seats, had dropped to 45 in the poll….

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Military leaders warn Hegseth against extending Iran war operations

Military leaders warn Hegseth against extending Iran war operations

The Washington Post reports: Several U.S. military leaders have advised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the U.S. homeland, according to people familiar with a recent assessment prepared for the Pentagon chief. The warnings — detailed for Hegseth by the heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force and the four-star commanders overseeing U.S. operations throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America — appear in…

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The Pentagon: The $1 trillion black box

The Pentagon: The $1 trillion black box

By Jesse Coburn and Ruth Talbot This story was originally published by ProPublica The sums are vast, but the explanations for the spending range from vague to inscrutable. Consider these items in the law that funded the Department of Defense this year: For “Other Procurement, Air Force”: $32.6 billion. For “Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide”: $35.2 billion. And for “supplies and associated support services” related to U.S. Code Title 10 Section 3601 subsection(c)(3)(B) clauses (i) through (iv): a mere…

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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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