How UK bureaucracy enables Israel’s genocide

How UK bureaucracy enables Israel’s genocide

Katie Fallon writes: For the last four years, my job has been to comb through government statements, along with policy and legal documents, and then brief members of parliament on exactly what linguistic and legal gymnastics the government of the day is using to justify exports of military equipment – despite evidence that these exports are likely to be used in war crimes. At a certain point, I recognised these documents and legal arguments for what they really are: the…

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The untold saga of what happened when DOGE stormed Social Security

The untold saga of what happened when DOGE stormed Social Security

By Eli Hager This story was originally published by ProPublica On Feb. 10, on the third floor of the Social Security Administration’s Baltimore-area headquarters, Leland Dudek unfurled a 4-foot-wide roll of paper that extended to 20 feet in length. It was a visual guide that the agency had kept for years to explain Social Security’s many technological systems and processes. The paper was covered in flow charts, arrows and text so minuscule you almost needed a magnifying glass to read…

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The billionaires fueling the quest for longer life

The billionaires fueling the quest for longer life

The Wall Street Journal reports: How much would you invest in the possibility of living to 150 or beyond? Or having 20 extra healthy years? For the ultrawealthy, it’s more than $5 billion over the past 2½ decades, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of longevity investment deals in PitchBook, public company statements and regulatory filings. Silicon Valley giants Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, Yuri Milner and Marc Andreessen are among the boldface names behind the influx of money in…

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What happens if AI turns out to be an economic failure?

What happens if AI turns out to be an economic failure?

Rogé Karma writes: If there is any field in which the rise of AI is already said to be rendering humans obsolete—in which the dawn of superintelligence is already upon us—it is coding. This makes the results of a recent study genuinely astonishing. In the study, published in July, the think tank Model Evaluation & Threat Research randomly assigned a group of experienced software developers to perform coding tasks with or without AI tools. It was the most rigorous test…

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Republicans brace for redistricting ‘catastrophe’ in California

Republicans brace for redistricting ‘catastrophe’ in California

Politico reports: Republicans wield almost no power in California. But as a moribund state party gathered here over the weekend, it confronted an even grimmer reality now suddenly settling in: If the state gerrymanders its congressional map, they’ll practically be an endangered species. “It’s a guillotine,” said Dale Quasny, a party delegate and real-estate broker from suburban Los Angeles County. “We won’t be able to pick up the pieces and move forward. I mean, we were making a little headway,…

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Trump is following Perón’s path to economic failure

Trump is following Perón’s path to economic failure

Scott Lincicome writes: When the populist strongman Juan Perón ran Argentina’s economy from his presidential palace in the mid-20th century—personally deciding which companies received favors, which industries got nationalized or protected, and which businessmen profited from state largesse—economists warned that the experiment would end badly. They were right. Over decades of rule by Perón and his successors, a country that had once been among the world’s wealthiest nations devolved into a global laughingstock, with uncontrollable inflation, routine fiscal crises, rampant…

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With GOP acquiescence, Trump tramples Congress’s power

With GOP acquiescence, Trump tramples Congress’s power

The New York Times reports: The Pentagon barred the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee from making an oversight visit to a military spy agency. Armed forces off the coast of Venezuela began a military campaign against alleged members of a drug cartel without any authorization from Congress, and without notifying key members. The White House informed Congress it planned to use a rare maneuver to skirt a vote and cancel nearly $5 billion in foreign aid funding that…

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‘This is Putin’s response to calls for peace’: European leaders condemn Russia’s latest mass attack on Ukraine

‘This is Putin’s response to calls for peace’: European leaders condemn Russia’s latest mass attack on Ukraine

The Kyiv Independent reports: Russia launched a large-scale overnight attack on Ukraine on Sept. 7, killing at least four people and injuring more than 40, prompting swift condemnation from Kyiv’s European partners. The attack, one of the most severe in recent months and which claimed the life of a 3-month-old baby, came as Ukraine’s allies seek to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into pursuing a diplomatic resolution of the war by imposing additional sanctions on Moscow. As Western partners explore…

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Russia steps up disinformation operations as Trump abandons resistance

Russia steps up disinformation operations as Trump abandons resistance

The New York Times reports: Since returning to the White House in January, President Trump has dismantled the American government’s efforts to combat foreign disinformation. The problem is that Russia has not stopped spreading it. How much that matters can now be seen in Moldova, a small but strategic European nation that has since the end of the Cold War looked to Europe and the United States to extract itself from Moscow’s shadow. The Trump administration has slashed diplomatic and…

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U.S. mines are literally throwing away critical minerals

U.S. mines are literally throwing away critical minerals

Grist reports: The United States is home to dozens of active mines. Some extract copper, while others dig for iron. Whatever the resource, however, it usually makes up a small fraction of the rock pulled from the ground. The rest is typically ignored. Wasted. “We’re only producing a few commodities,” said Elizabeth Holley, a professor of mining engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. “The question is: What else is in those rocks?” The answer: a lot. In a study…

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‘The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city’

‘The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city’

CNN reports: President Donald Trump posted a meme on social media Saturday saying that Chicago “will find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” as the city’s officials brace for an immigration crackdown. “I love the smell of deportations in the morning … Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” the post reads. Trump signed an executive order Friday to rebrand the Pentagon as the “Department of War.” The post includes what appears to…

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The Epstein cover-up is an affront to American democracy

The Epstein cover-up is an affront to American democracy

Rebecca Solnit writes: Rape is a crime against democracy in the most immediate sense of equality between individuals and the premise that we’re all endowed with certain inalienable rights. Most rapists operate on the premise that they can not only overpower the victim physically, but can do so socially and legally. They count on a system that discounts the voices of victims and only too often cooperates in silencing them, through shame, intimidation, threats, discrediting, the obscene legal instrument known…

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Trump’s attack on Fed Governor Lisa Cook is an attack on Black women

Trump’s attack on Fed Governor Lisa Cook is an attack on Black women

Anna Gifty writes: On August 20, news broke that Governor Lisa Cook is being probed for “mortgage fraud” by Attorney General Bondi. Since then, the president has issued multiple statements about his unprecedented plans to fire Governor Cook, and a criminal investigation of her has been officially launched by the Department of Justice. It’s clear one of the primary reasons the president wants to oust Governor Lisa Cook is because of his fixation on interest rate cuts. He sees her…

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Trump breaks from RFK Jr. on vaccines: ‘Pure and simple, they work’

Trump breaks from RFK Jr. on vaccines: ‘Pure and simple, they work’

Axios reports: President Trump said he’s supportive of vaccines on Friday, breaking with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Why it matters: Kennedy has faced widespread criticism for his new vaccine mandates and staffing shake-up at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Driving the news: Trump was asked Friday during an Oval Office meeting about Kennedy’s vaccine mandate changes, which include limiting which children are eligible for vaccines. “I think you have to be very careful when you say that some people don’t have to be vaccinated,”…

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