The underground bankers who reshape the flow of global money

The underground bankers who reshape the flow of global money

Miles Kellerman writes: The global financial system is a colossal factory containing an endless web of information assembly lines. Every time you tap your card on a payment terminal, whether it’s for a coffee on the way to work or a new vacuum cleaner, you are sending a new informational signal to that factory. Like raw material, that signal is then loaded on a conveyor belt where it is checked and modified by your bank, the seller’s bank, a payment…

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Danny Citrinowicz: Why Trump’s war has made Iran more dangerous

Danny Citrinowicz: Why Trump’s war has made Iran more dangerous

  What did Trump and Israel get wrong in their war with Iran, and can the remaining elements of the regime hold out? We speak to Danny Citrinowicz, the former head of the Iran branch in the Research and Analysis Division in Israel Defense Intelligence and now Senior Researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies. Citrinowicz says one of Trump’s “biggest mistakes” was assuming the regime would fall as soon as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed – when…

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Vital U.S. radar aircraft was destroyed by Iranian strike on U.S. base in Saudi Arabia, photos reveal

Vital U.S. radar aircraft was destroyed by Iranian strike on U.S. base in Saudi Arabia, photos reveal

NBC News reports: The destruction by Iran of a warning and control system aircraft on an American base in Saudi Arabia on Friday could affect the U.S. military’s ability to monitor threats — and raises questions around its preparedness for a “longer war,” experts say. Images verified by NBC News after they surfaced online appear to show much of the back end of the E-3 Sentry jet was destroyed at the Prince Sultan Air Base, the tail lying at an…

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The many ways Trump is already threatening the midterms

The many ways Trump is already threatening the midterms

Wired reports: President Donald Trump’s rhetorical war on elections has seemed to only get more serious with time. Over the past couple of months, he’s told podcaster turned FBI deputy director turned podcaster Dan Bongino that Republicans “should take over the voting” in 15 places and “ought to nationalize the voting.” He told Reuters that “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.” And he told NBC he will only accept the midterm results “if the elections…

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Welcome to a multidimensional economic disaster

Welcome to a multidimensional economic disaster

Matteo Wong and Charlie Warzel write: The global economy has become dependent on the AI industry. Trillions of dollars are being invested into the technology and the infrastructure it relies on; in the final months of 2025, functionally all economic growth in the United States came from AI investments. This would be risky even in ideal conditions. And we are very far from ideal conditions. Much of the AI supply chain—chips, data centers, combustion turbines, and so on—relies on key…

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Trump’s order on birthright citizenship would harm millions, including citizens

Trump’s order on birthright citizenship would harm millions, including citizens

Scott Titshaw and Stephen Yale-Loehr write: On April 1, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on one of the most consequential immigration cases in decades. At issue is whether President Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship can stand. The stakes could not be higher. If the court sides with Trump, the damage will ripple far beyond undocumented immigrants. It will affect legal visa holders, green-card holders and even U.S. citizens. It would also create an underclass of American-born children, some…

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The manosphere influencers who feel duped by the president they helped elect

The manosphere influencers who feel duped by the president they helped elect

Elaine Godfrey writes: About half an hour into Episode 694 of the Flagrant podcast, and after a lively debate over manscaping methods, Andrew Schulz leaned back into the couch and brought the chin-wag to a screeching halt. “Are you guys, like—do you feel existential anxiety about the war?” he asked his co-hosts. Schulz seemed to be feeling some. “Americans can’t fucking afford health care,” he said later. “They don’t care about what’s happening in Iran!” War hawks have been angling…

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Expat influencers sold Dubai to the world and were paid to look the other way. Now the dream is crumbling

Expat influencers sold Dubai to the world and were paid to look the other way. Now the dream is crumbling

Brigid Delaney writes: For people living in close proximity to a war zone, the lack of sympathy for Australian and British expats and influencers in Dubai has been, on the face of it, curious. Since their adopted home was bombed in the initial days of the war, they have faced mostly ridicule and contempt in their home countries. In the UK, the Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, called out “tax exiles and washed-up old footballers” in Dubai who “mock ordinary…

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The oil crisis is only beginning

The oil crisis is only beginning

Bloomberg reports: The biggest oil supply shock in history has reached the one-month mark. Prices have surged, growth forecasts are being cut worldwide, and shortages are emerging across Asia, from Thailand to Pakistan. But the energy industry is warning that the crisis is only beginning. In conversations with more than three dozen oil and gas traders, executives, brokers, shippers and advisers over the last week, one message was repeated over and over: The world still hasn’t grasped the severity of…

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Trump has opened up Pandora’s box in the Middle East, and possibly only Iran will benefit

Trump has opened up Pandora’s box in the Middle East, and possibly only Iran will benefit

An editorial at The Independent says: At an unfortunately timed event held in Miami to promote US investment in Saudi Arabia, the president of the United States told his audience that they could ask him about anything, even sex, and that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, although “a great son” to his father, the king, “did not think he would be kissing my ass… He thought he [Trump] would be just another American president that was…

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‘He’s lied about everything’: Iran war puts Trump on shaky ground with young MAGA men

‘He’s lied about everything’: Iran war puts Trump on shaky ground with young MAGA men

Politico reports: Joseph Bolick feels betrayed by President Donald Trump. And it’s because of the war in Iran. The 30-year-old Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran voted for Trump in 2024. But at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference gathering this week he sported a hat emblazoned with “America First” — a slogan Trump championed during his campaign, along with the promise not to start new wars in foreign countries. “He’s lied about everything,” said Bolick. “If you go into a…

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Five takeaways from the ‘No Kings’ rallies as the Midterms heat up

Five takeaways from the ‘No Kings’ rallies as the Midterms heat up

The New York Times reports: Thousands of demonstrations against the Trump administration unfolded across the country on Saturday, the third round in a nationwide series of loosely coordinated “No Kings” rallies. The day of protest, the first since October, came as the midterm election season takes shape, and as Democrats work to capitalize politically on the unpopular war with Iran. Exactly a month earlier, President Trump ordered the first U.S. strikes against Iran, setting off a conflict that has sent…

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Pope opens Holy Week condemning war waged in Jesus’s name

Pope opens Holy Week condemning war waged in Jesus’s name

Crux reports: Pope Leo XIV opened his first Holy Week as pontiff with a rebuke of those who pray for war, offering his condemnation mere days after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth prayed for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.” Hegseth – who prefers to be called the “Secretary of War” – made his prayer during a recent Christian worship service at the Pentagon, attended by military and civilian workers. Speaking during his March 29 Mass…

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We are losing our ability to think

We are losing our ability to think

Cal Newport writes: When I published my book “Deep Work” 10 years ago, I argued that email and instant messages were degrading our ability to concentrate on hard mental tasks. I recommended putting aside long stretches of time for uninterrupted thinking and treating this cognitive activity like a skill that you can improve through practice. The term “deep work” quickly entered the vernacular, and I started to hear people and companies use it without even realizing its source. But the…

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