Israel escalates Lebanon offensive as U.S. pushes for Iran peace deal

Israel escalates Lebanon offensive as U.S. pushes for Iran peace deal

The New York Times reports: Israel intensified its military campaign against Hezbollah on Tuesday, striking targets across Lebanon and advancing deeper into Lebanese territory after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to “increase the blows” against the Iran-backed group. The Israeli military said it had struck more than 100 Hezbollah sites overnight in southern and eastern Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and command centers. It also issued an evacuation warning on Tuesday for the entire city…

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Iran threatens to renew strikes against U.S. amid ongoing push for diplomatic deal

Iran threatens to renew strikes against U.S. amid ongoing push for diplomatic deal

The New York Times reports: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said on Tuesday that it would launch a “decisive reciprocal response” to any attack that violated the cease-fire, injecting more uncertainty into fragile diplomatic efforts a day after the U.S. military struck targets in southern Iran. Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, also suggested that the country could renew strikes on U.S. military installations in the Persian Gulf, which Tehran had repeatedly targeted after the United States and Israel started bombing…

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Southern Poverty Law Center seeks dismissal of ‘vindictive’ Justice Department indictment

Southern Poverty Law Center seeks dismissal of ‘vindictive’ Justice Department indictment

The Independent reports: A Justice Department indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center is part of a “top-down” campaign of retribution against President Donald Trump’s perceived political enemies and constitutes a vindictive prosecution that must be dismissed, lawyers for the nonprofit argued Tuesday in urging a judge to toss the case out. The Alabama-based nonprofit was indicted in April on fraud and money laundering charges that accuse it of misleading donors by paying informants inside white supremacist and other extremist…

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As Trump politicizes the DOJ, prosecutors struggle with grand juries

As Trump politicizes the DOJ, prosecutors struggle with grand juries

The New York Times reports: Grand juries are the heart of the criminal justice system, the inner sanctum where prosecutors, working unchecked and in secret, have enormous power to indict their fellow citizens. But under President Trump, the Justice Department has had serious difficulties presenting cases to grand juries, running into problems that would have seemed unthinkable a year ago. In the past several months, prosecutors have repeatedly failed to persuade grand juries that the cases they have brought warrant…

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Uber’s COO says it’s getting harder to justify the money spent on AI tokenmaxxing

Uber’s COO says it’s getting harder to justify the money spent on AI tokenmaxxing

Business Insider reports: A top Uber exec said AI is not giving the company bang for its buck. In a Rapid Response interview released on Saturday, Uber’s operations chief, Andrew Macdonald, said it was becoming harder to justify AI costs within the company. He said that Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga went viral after telling The Information in an April interview that Uber had already blown through its Claude Code budget for 2026. The comment led to what he described…

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Pope Leo just schooled the tech bros on Tolkien

Pope Leo just schooled the tech bros on Tolkien

Miles Klee writes: Nobody was surprised that Pope Leo XIV cited well-known saints and previous pontiffs in his first encyclical, or papal letter of spiritual guidance, “Magnifica humanitas,” released Monday. But the name that immediately jumped out to many readers is one synonymous with high fantasy literature: J.R.R. Tolkien, the Catholic author of The Lord of the Rings. Leo’s letter is concerned with “safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence,” a major theme of his first year…

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Pope Leo denounces ‘culture of power’ and new forms of ‘colonialism’ driving rise of AI

Pope Leo denounces ‘culture of power’ and new forms of ‘colonialism’ driving rise of AI

Pope Leo writes: Even today, colonialism assumes new forms. It no longer dominates only bodies, but appropriates data, transforming personal lives into exploitable information. Entire regions, especially those marked by structural fragility and limited geopolitical relevance, are currently subjected to a new mindset of extraction: that of health data, epidemiological profiles, genetic maps and demographic information. These have become the new “rare earths” of power: vital data which, once aggregated and analyzed, can be used to train predictive models, guide…

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‘If Iran gets a bomb it will be Bibi’s’: Trump’s deal outline sparks alarm in Israel

‘If Iran gets a bomb it will be Bibi’s’: Trump’s deal outline sparks alarm in Israel

The Guardian reports: When Donald Trump launched a pre-emptive war on Iran with Israel in February, many in the country hailed the campaign as the crowning triumph of Benjamin Netanyahu’s political and diplomatic career. Three months on the regime is still in power in Tehran, Trump is chasing a deal that will reopen the strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, and the reported terms have provoked alarm, dismay and anger in Israel. “Israel is completely beholden to the decisions of…

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Trump’s pressure campaign had little effect on Iran’s terms for a peace deal

Trump’s pressure campaign had little effect on Iran’s terms for a peace deal

The New York Times reports: Since President Trump announced a cease-fire with Iran in April, he has sought to force Tehran to accept his terms for a peace deal with a mixture of threats and limited military operations. But more than a month later, the contours of a deal emerging this week to end the war reflected how Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign does not appear to have decisively shifted Iran’s stance on its nuclear program. The impending deal could reopen…

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The world is heading toward a financial crisis. ‘The political fundamentals are really bad’

The world is heading toward a financial crisis. ‘The political fundamentals are really bad’

Eduardo Porter writes: A bona fide financial crisis has not broken out since the US housing meltdown of 2007. Even the Covid pandemic and subsequent upsurge in inflation didn’t lead to financial upheaval. The jitters produced by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023 were soon forgotten. Given this stability, it might take some effort to convince financial markets that another big one is around the corner. But it is. Financial markets and their regulating governments may believe they…

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Lawyers, policy experts, and business leaders react to Trump’ green card crackdown

Lawyers, policy experts, and business leaders react to Trump’ green card crackdown

Business Insider reports: President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown is triggering alarm, confusion, and fierce debate among lawyers, advocates, and many in the business world who rely on visa holders for skilled labor. On Friday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would grant “adjustment of status” — the process that allows some immigrants already in the US to apply for a green card without leaving the country — “only in extraordinary circumstances,” potentially forcing many applicants to return to…

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Fake ICE agents assault and rob immigrants amid Trump’s crackdown

Fake ICE agents assault and rob immigrants amid Trump’s crackdown

NBC News reports: A Christ figurine watches over the door as the man secures the bolts and bars that protect his home. If the locks fail, a host of archangels, holy cards and crosses stand guard on nearby walls and tables. “Most people don’t live like I do,” said the Mexican immigrant, who didn’t want to give his name out of fear for his safety. “I know they’re just pieces of wood or little locks, but they help me because…

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How ecotypes harbor the genetic memory of a species’ past

How ecotypes harbor the genetic memory of a species’ past

Marlowe Starling writes: When she was a graduate student in the 1970s, the evolutionary biologist Kerstin Johannesson regularly walked the shores of a Swedish archipelago, scanning the ground for pebbles that moved: marine snails. Her adviser, a taxonomist, had tasked her with describing the species present there by documenting their traits. She noticed that snails with thicker shells stayed on the shore, while those with thinner shells seemed to prefer wave-battered rocks, and in between the two habitats were snails…

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Trump said gas prices are ‘peanuts.’ Only if you’re rich

Trump said gas prices are ‘peanuts.’ Only if you’re rich

The Washington Post reports: Surging gas prices have hit American drivers hard — but some much harder than others. For households in the bottom quarter of the income distribution — those earning roughly $40,000 a year or less — commuting fuel costs now consume an average of about 4 percent of their income, according to a Washington Post analysis. For households in the top quarter, earning $100,000 or more, the same costs amount to less than 1 percent. The gap…

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