Trump and GOP join Big Oil’s all-out push to shut down climate liability efforts

Trump and GOP join Big Oil’s all-out push to shut down climate liability efforts

Inside Climate News reports: As efforts continue to hold some of the world’s largest fossil fuel corporations liable for destructive and deadly climate impacts, backlash from the politically powerful oil and gas industry and its allies in government is on the rise, bolstered by the Trump administration’s allegiance to fossil fuels. From lobbying Congress for liability protection to suing states over their climate liability laws and lawsuits, attempts to shield Big Oil from potential liability and to shut down climate…

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Chatbots are pushing sanctioned Russian propaganda about Ukraine

Chatbots are pushing sanctioned Russian propaganda about Ukraine

Wired reports: OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, DeepSeek, and xAI’s Grok are pushing Russian state propaganda from sanctioned entities—including citations from Russian state media, sites tied to Russian intelligence or pro-Kremlin narratives—when asked about the war against Ukraine, according to a new report. Researchers from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue (ISD) claim that Russian propaganda has targeted and exploited data voids—where searches for real-time data provide few results from legitimate sources—to promote false and misleading information. Almost one-fifth of responses to…

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The myth of Israeli innovation

The myth of Israeli innovation

Rhys Machold writes: On June 4th, The Times of Israel reported that in 2024, annual Israeli arms exports had reached an all-time high of $14.8 billion, with Europe buying 54% of the weapons. The article noted that Israeli officials had previously been concerned that Western European allies may cancel weapons deals or sanction Israeli manufacturers over the country’s war of extermination in Gaza. Once the record-breaking export figures came out, however, Israel’s war ministry publicly argued the opposite, claiming that the campaign in Gaza…

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Northern Hemisphere absorbing more sunlight than Southern, and clouds can no longer keep the balance

Northern Hemisphere absorbing more sunlight than Southern, and clouds can no longer keep the balance

Live Science reports: Years ago, scientists noted something odd: Earth’s Northern and Southern Hemispheres reflect nearly the same amount of sunlight back into space. The reason why this symmetry is odd is because the Northern Hemisphere has more land, cities, pollution, and industrial aerosols. All those things should lead to a higher albedo — more sunlight reflected than absorbed. The Southern Hemisphere is mostly ocean, which is darker and absorbs more sunlight. New satellite data, however, suggest that symmetry is…

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It’s Trump’s casino economy now and you will probably lose

It’s Trump’s casino economy now and you will probably lose

Kyla Scanlon writes: Step into the casino that now passes for the American economy. Donald Trump campaigned on bringing back American manufacturing and rebuilding what America once was — factories, workers in hard hats — from the ground up. But the investment needed to get there, in both the factories and the workers, hasn’t happened. What he has ushered in instead is a casino economy, built on speculation and risk. Across markets and policy, wagers on the future are being…

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The peril of a White House that flaunts its contempt for the law

The peril of a White House that flaunts its contempt for the law

Charlie Savage writes: Since he returned to office nine months ago, President Trump has sought to expand executive power across numerous fronts. But his claim that he can lawfully order the military to summarily kill people accused of smuggling drugs on boats off the coast of South America stands apart. A broad range of specialists in laws governing the use of lethal force have called Mr. Trump’s orders to the military patently illegal. They say the premeditated extrajudicial killings have…

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This county was the ‘model’ for local police carrying out immigration raids. It ended in civil rights violations

This county was the ‘model’ for local police carrying out immigration raids. It ended in civil rights violations

By Rafael Carranza, Arizona Luminaria This story was originally published by ProPublica Manuel Nieto Jr. and his sister had just pulled into a gas station to buy cigarettes and Gatorade when he noticed a sheriff’s deputy standing over two Latino men on the ground. Their north Phoenix neighborhood was on alert. Sheriff’s deputies had been targeting day-labor centers in the area and making traffic stops — arresting people who couldn’t prove their immigration status. They had one thing in common:…

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As U.S. cattle ranchers struggle, Trump wants to Make Argentina Great Again

As U.S. cattle ranchers struggle, Trump wants to Make Argentina Great Again

The Hill reports: President Trump is breaking from his “America First” trade agenda and feuding with some of his most loyal supporters in a fight over U.S. beef prices. Trump has centered his economic agenda on reducing the U.S.’s reliance on cheaper foreign products and boosting domestic production of goods and food. But the president’s plan to boost imports of Argentinian beef while urging American suppliers to lower their prices marks a sharp departure from his platform. The dispute is…

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U.S. hits $38 trillion in debt, after the fastest accumulation of $1 trillion outside of the pandemic

U.S. hits $38 trillion in debt, after the fastest accumulation of $1 trillion outside of the pandemic

The Associated Press reports: In the midst of a federal government shutdown, the U.S. government’s gross national debt surpassed $38 trillion Wednesday, a record number that highlights the accelerating accumulation of debt on America’s balance sheet. It’s also the fastest accumulation of a trillion dollars in debt outside of the COVID-19 pandemic — the U.S. hit $37 trillion in gross national debt in August this year. The $38 trillion update is found in the latest Treasury Department report, which logs…

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Will AI avoid the ‘enshittification’ trap?

Will AI avoid the ‘enshittification’ trap?

Steven Levy writes: As companies like OpenAI get more powerful, and as they try to pay back their investors, will AI be prone to the erosion of value that seems endemic to the tech apps we use today? Writer and tech critic Cory Doctorow calls that erosion “enshittification.” His premise is that platforms like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and TikTok start out aiming to please users, but once the companies vanquish competitors, they intentionally become less useful to reap bigger profits….

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America is sliding toward illiteracy

America is sliding toward illiteracy

Idrees Kahloon writes: The past decade may rank as one of the worst in the history of American education. It marks a stark reversal from what was once a hopeful story. At the start of the century, American students registered steady improvement in math and reading. Around 2013, this progress began to stall out, and then to backslide dramatically. What exactly went wrong? The decline began well before the pandemic, so COVID-era disruptions alone cannot explain it. Smartphones and social…

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‘The greatest hunger catastrophe since the Great Depression’ as Americans brace for food stamps to run out

‘The greatest hunger catastrophe since the Great Depression’ as Americans brace for food stamps to run out

The Guardian reports: Two decades ago, Sara Carlson, then a mother of three, was newly single because of a traumatic event, and the US’s food stamp program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), helped her feed her children with free food supplies. “I wouldn’t have been able to afford to live,” said Carlson, 45, who lives in Rochester, Minnesota, and now works as an operations manager for a wealth-management firm and serves on the board of Channel One…

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Majority of Black and Latino Americans feel like strangers in their own country, poll finds

Majority of Black and Latino Americans feel like strangers in their own country, poll finds

Axios reports: Black and Latino Americans are reporting record levels of alienation and pessimism about the nation’s direction, as President Trump tightens his focus on immigration enforcement and civil rights rollbacks, per a new poll. Why it matters: More Latinos and Black voters supported Trump in 2024 than in his two previous presidential runs, but early into his second term the sense of exclusion has deepened among communities of color. The big picture: Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction, fueled…

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Ten effective things citizens can do to make change in addition to attending a protest

Ten effective things citizens can do to make change in addition to attending a protest

A crowd gathered for a “No Kings” protest on October 18, 2025 in Anchorage, Alaska. Hasan Akbas/Anadolu via Getty Images By Shelley Inglis, Rutgers University What happens now? That may well be the question being asked by “No Kings” protesters, who marched, rallied and danced all over the nation on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. Pro-democracy groups had aimed to encourage large numbers of Americans to demonstrate that “together we are choosing democracy.” They were successful, with crowds turning out for…

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