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Alaska Republicans scramble to educate voters on suspected Dem plant as 'ballot fatigue' threatens race
Dan Sullivan faces voter confusion from a candidate look-alike sharing his name as Alaska's ranked choice voting system adds complexity to the Senate race.
Trump threatens lawsuit against nonprofit that questioned whether National Guard plan lessened crime
The letter gave the Washington, D.C.-based Center for American Progress until the end of business Friday to issue the retraction or face a $5 billion lawsuit. The center declined.
Proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger threatens 4,500 Los Angeles County entertainment jobs
Local officials and labor leaders warn that proposed studio consolidation could wipe out billions in business revenue and devastate local vendors. By A new economic report warns the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger puts 4,500 direct Los Angeles County jobs and billions in revenue at risk.
Trump Threatens Defamation Suit Over National Guard Report, Aiming to Intimidate a Critic
It was the latest example of President Trump’s bid to use the legal system against those who voice unflattering facts and opinions generally protected by the First Amendment.
Trump Threatens Economic Pain for Countries That Help Iran
The president did not specify what actions he would take, and he has on other occasions abandoned threats to dramatically escalate the war with Iran.
Trump threatens 'unprecedented' economic consequences for any nation aiding Iran
Trump declared "economic warfare" against Iran, warning that any nation or business providing a financial lifeline to the regime will face severe, unprecedented sanctions.
Drive for nuclear power boosts uranium industry — and tribal health concerns in southwest
For decades, White Mesa uranium mill has sparked debate over whether radioactive contamination threatens human health by getting into the water and air.
GTA 6 Gameplay and Map Appear to Leak Online, Group Reportedly Responsible Threatens Rockstar Over All-Digital Future
Grand Theft Auto 6 appears to have suffered yet another significant leak after what looks like legitimate gameplay videos and an image of the full map appeared online. Rockstar has yet to comment.
Autonomy Is the Pulsing Heart of Science
Attempting to change the norms of scientific funding, organization, and incentives threatens to derail the benefits of science to society.
Trump threatens to bomb Oman if it 'gets in the way' of US-Iran talks
President Trump threatened military action against US ally Oman if its negotiations with Iran interfere with U.S. efforts to reach a deal with Tehran.
Poor genetic health threatens many species
Four experts explain what genetic health is and why it matters for our most vulnerable wildlife.
Trump Team’s Use of Arcane Budget Rule Threatens Medicaid Coverage
The decision by federal officials, citing authority granted under President Donald Trump’s signature tax-and-spending law, suggests the GOP-led state’s predicament could foretell other repercussions in how states are allowed to run the program under federal waivers.
Mark Cuban tells Ro Khanna 'you don't understand business,' threatens investment shift over billionaire tax
Mark Cuban warned Rep. Ro Khanna that California's proposed billionaire tax could drive startup founders out of the state, vowing to avoid investing there.
Opinion: Black Atlanta must decide its own political future
Black Atlanta residents built their prosperity through hard work and discipline. The rise of democratic socialism threatens the progress made over several generations.
Trump Team’s Use of Arcane Budget Rule Threatens Medicaid Coverage
Coverage for hundreds of thousands of Arkansas Medicaid enrollees next year is in question after the Trump administration refused to renew a key state waiver. The state might not be the last to have to adjust to an arcane rule change under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Tylenol precedent threatens to tighten science vetting in Camp Lejeune toxic water trials
In a national lawsuit, parents claimed taking acetaminophen during pregnancy caused their children to develop autism or ADHD. A higher appeals court recently issued a major ruling on how strictly trial judges must vet medical experts and scientific data before a jury is allowed to hear it. Now, federal lawyers have formally flagged that case for the Camp Lejeune judges, hoping to tighten restrictions on what science is allowed at trial.
What Can Fans Expect From Reed Sheppard This Upcoming Season?
As a crowded backcourt threatens his minutes, the bulked-up sharpshooter must trade finesse for physicality to anchor Houston’s rotation and emerge as a Sixth Man contender.
Avon farm owner says road construction project threatens nearly 175-year-old business
The fifth-generation owner of Pickering Hill Farms says a road construction project on Detroit Road has blocked access to his parking lot for more than 100 days, cutting into business during the farm’s peak season.
The creatures born from code: Generative AI threatens to upend citizen science records
You need to tread carefully among the leaf litter of the Indonesian scrubland and its tropical rainforests. The dead leaves might seem caught in a gentle breeze, but there's more here than meets the eye. ...
Man with two swords threatens officers during Eaton Rapids mental health crisis
A man carrying two swords was taken into custody Wednesday morning in Eaton Rapids after police said he threatened officers while appearing to experience a mental health crisis.
Africa doesn’t just need more startups. It needs ways to help viable businesses survive
The frequent closure of African small businesses threatens the fabric of entrepreneurship on which the continent relies – but the diaspora could step in.
Malay nationalism surge threatens to end Malaysia’s reform experiment
Since becoming prime minister in 2022, Anwar has struggled to win over support from Malaysia’s Malay-Muslim majority.
Coby Bryant Injury Threatens Bears-Seahawks Reunion
Coby Bryant’s Chicago debut hits a painful pause, but the former Seahawks safety could still return in time for a heated Week 8 reunion with Seattle this fall.
Massachusetts marijuana repeal effort threatens social equity businesses
A November ballot question could end recreational marijuana sales, potentially sinking dozens of businesses in the state's social equity programs.
Time for Andy Burnham to smile on UK science
Waning support for basic research threatens Britain’s technology ambitions
Uefa threatens Fifa with legal action over investment plan
Uefa threatens legal action over Gianni Infantino's scrapped plans to sell off stakes in Fifa competitions to private investors.
Trump threatens to revive controversial $1.8bn compensation fund
"It will immediately be back on the table, and I will get it done," the president wrote.
FIFA insists 'nobody is selling football' after UEFA threatens to boycott tournaments if plans to sell off stake in World Cup go ahead
FIFA: Nobody is selling football. This is not something FIFA would ever entertain; UEFA reacted furiously to FIFA plan to seek private investment in competitions including World Cup; FIFA president Gianni Infantino has publicly backed the plan
Change to Census Data Processing Methods Threatens Health Policy Research and Federal Data Systems
On June 4, 2026, the Commerce Department issued Department Administrative Order (DAO) 216-26, Disclosure Avoidance for Statistical Products, which bans a class of privacy techniques called “noise infusion” in all data products coming out of the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). This order, which was made effective immediately without opportunity for […]
The new "science golden age" looks suspiciously like a grift
This edition of PN is made possible by paid subscribers. Become one ⬇️ 🚀 Subscribe to PN 🚀 The Trump regime is trying to usher in a “Golden Age in Science” where scientific research is run like a Trump family business, artificial intelligence is all that matters, profit is everything, and expertise is for chumps. Or at least that’s the vision emerging from a new 123-page “Report to the President” from Michael Kratsios, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In a normal administration, you could probably skip over learning about a science policy document — but this is no normal administration, and this is no normal science policy document. Instead, it’s Trump’s attempt to end the actual golden age of science that was kicked off in 1945 with the publication of '“The Endless Frontier” by Vannevar Bush. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/harmeet-dhillon-portland) [ Harmeet Dhillon demonstrates danger of posting through it ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/harmeet-dhillon-portland) Liz Dye · Jul 29 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/harmeet-dhillon-portland) Bush, at President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s request, laid out a vision of federal support for science that centered on funding universities to do basic research, saying that as long as those institutions were “vigorous and healthy and their scientists are free to pursue the truth wherever it may lead, there will be a flow of new scientific knowledge to those who can apply it to practical problems in Government, in industry, or elsewhere.” Kratsios’s report is supposed to be the successor to Bush’s, and even apes the format, but this isn’t really a document about science policy. It’s one about ending science research as we know it in favor of shoveling cash at big tech companies. While it might be temping to wave this away as an aspirational policy document, Trump has already begun to shift billions in research funds to AI projects and has taken a hatchet to science funding across the board. He’s teed up the shift Kratsios proposes here, and since neither Congress nor the Supreme Court seem inclined to stop him from doing whatever he wants with taxpayer money, it isn’t doomering or hyperbole to say we are staring down the barrel of a world where the only “science” the government intends to support is for-profit tech and defense advancements. Science for dummies Part of how you can tell this isn’t a document about science is that you are immediately faced with an absolute wall of business-speak of the worst sort. Did you know we must “tightly couple our science and technology enterprises to ensure that groundbreaking ideas invented in the United States are rapidly prototyped, tested, manufactured, and scaled domestically”? You do now! That tone isn’t surprising, because Kratsios has no background in science or research. He has a bachelor’s in political science and spent most of his career working for Peter Thiel at Thiel Capital. After a stint in the first Trump administration as Chief Technology Officer, where he also did not do any science, Kratsios was tasked in 2020 with overseeing the Pentagon’s research budget for a brief time, a position that, as the Wall Street Journal put it, “carries a great deal of power in terms of dictating investment allocations.” He spent the Biden years at Scale AI as “head of strategy,” which you will also note is neither a science nor a research job. But Scale AI has contracts with the Department of Defense and, as the Washington Post wrote in 2023, “has been aggressively pitching itself as the company that will help the US military in its existential battle with China.” And now you have the necessary background for our new golden age, which is going to be a golden age of taking money away from scientists and universities and giving it to companies like Scale AI. A note from Aaron: Working with brilliant contributors like Lisa takes resources. If you aren’t already a paid subscriber, please become one to support our work. 👇 Subscribe In a genuinely galling move, Katsios spends a lot of time slamming universities because of “administrative burdens on researchers” and the “well-documented inefficiencies” in academia, the message being that those damn universities waste the time of amazing researchers with paperwork. Except it’s the administration that is attempting to impose inefficient, unnecessary burdens on those researchers with a proposed Office of Management and Budget rule that would require senior political appointees to approve every science grant and ensure it aligns with Trump’s personal priorities. Researchers would also have to seek prior government approval to attend conferences or publicize their research. And political appointees could terminate any grant at any time if they feel like it. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/omb-rule-science-funding) [ The murder of expertise ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/omb-rule-science-funding) Lisa Needham · Jun 11 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/omb-rule-science-funding) But when it comes to AI, we’re going to “restore permissionless innovation.” The report proposes to give lucky ducky innovators a pile of cash up front for grants lasting five years or longer, saying “awards should be fully-funded in year one, with all resources earmarked upfront, to minimize administrative burdens and reduce pressure for researchers to generate intermediate results to secure continued funding.” Yeah, wouldn’t want to have to make the Very Special Tech Bros show results or get money parceled out year by year like the plebes at universities. The report also proposes that we should have “fast grants” with “simplified applications requiring just a few pages of writing” because that is definitely how science works, just writing a bit off the dome and getting some cash. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-ai-action-plan-altman-llms) [ Tech elites are turning AI into ChatGPTrump ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-ai-action-plan-altman-llms) Paul Waldman · July 29, 2025 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-ai-action-plan-altman-llms) Oh, and we should have prizes and challenges, where multiple teams compete. The proposed prizes include incentives like “advance procurement commitments,” which means the federal government agrees to buy whatever is being developed. There’s also “regulatory fast-tracking,” making sure all those great AI thingies don’t have to wait too long to be unleashed on a market. These aren’t incentives to do science. These are incentives to develop things with tax dollars that you can then sell to the government for more tax dollars. In the suggestion that might be the most unhinged, the most very opposite of how both government and research work, our new age will include “golden tickets.” That’s where an individual reviewer in an agency — yes, just one person — can “recommend unconventional proposals that may not pass consensus-driven review panels” because somehow this will “surface valuable ideas too divisive for committees and attract higher quality reviewers by empowering them to exercise independent scientific judgment.” Yes, that’s saying that a random person in an agency should be able to shovel money at some idea even if it can’t pass a review panel, and that the opportunity to do so will attract better employees because apparently all the best minds in science are chomping at the bit to be allowed to unilaterally fund AI research based on their personal vibes. But that isn’t at all how actual science works, and actual scientists aren’t unhappy about review panels. They work collaboratively, not siloed in some secret race to create the next AI chatbot. A 2020 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research examined whether peer review panels succeed in helping agencies predict which research ideas will best advance science. Peer review was better at finding “diamond in the rough” applicants than a single government program official. How about that. Trump always wants a taste It’s painfully clear that what Katsios is trying to do here is turn the whole of government science research and funding into the sort of “move fast and break things” paradigm that is the hallmark of big tech. That method works to line the pockets of tech executives, but it isn’t science. There’s a reason the government funds different kinds of research than private tech companies do. What Katsios either fails to understand or deliberately ignores is that the federal government is the main funder of basic research precisely because it can take a long time for it to bear fruit and is not intended to be profitable as such. “Basic” here does not mean rudimentary or simple, but rather research that is designed to advance scientific knowledge instead of achieving a specific outcome or product. Big tech companies don’t widely fund that sort of research, because it doesn’t make them money. Industry dollars account for only about 20 percent of basic research funding, while the government contributes around 60 percent. Big tech companies and startups do, however, rely on and benefit from that basic research. A 2019 study found that 35 percent of all patents obtained by venture-backed startups from 1976 to 2016 cited federally supported research. Basic research funded by the NIH contributed to every single drug the FDA approved from 2010 to 2016. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-saudi-nuclear-deal) [ The Saudi nuclear farce and governance by whim and meme ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-saudi-nuclear-deal) Noah Berlatsky · Jul 27 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-saudi-nuclear-deal) Unlike inventing the next ChatGPT, actual science is slow and iterative. Government funding of research that, on its face, would not appear to lead to any big new invention is actually what underpins those big new inventions. If the government hadn’t funded research into desert lizard venom, we wouldn’t know about semaglutide, and we wouldn’t have Ozempic. If research scientists hadn’t studied how bees optimize nectar foraging within a colony, we wouldn’t have the algorithm that assigns internet traffic across computer servers. The report assiduously ignores that a symbiotic, profitable relationship between the federal government, universities, and private companies already exists. Each federal research dollar generates about $1.50 to $3.00 in long-term economic benefits. The $36 billion the government awarded in NIH research funding in fiscal year 2025 generated $94 billion in new economic activity. Trump’s proposed new golden age is intended to strip those billions from universities, resulting in the dismantling of departments and the shuttering of labs. But Katsios has a plan for that: Universities should just become trade schools to churn out no-show STEM degrees! “Require universities and community colleges to embed practical technical training and externships into STEM curricula. Let hands-on experience and industry credentials count toward degrees.” It’s quite the feat to, on the one hand, strip schools of funding for scientific research while simultaneously demanding to control what is taught and, oh, also, colleges need to give degrees to employees at big tech companies just for being employees at big tech companies. The new golden age would also exacerbate the brain drain Trump’s policies have already caused. Nature found that in the first quarter of 2025, US scientists submitted 32 percent more job applications abroad than in 2024. A March 2025 poll by Nature of roughly 1,600 scientists found that over 1,200 said they were considering leaving the country. Europe is investing $565 million to make it a “magnet for researchers” and provide funding for scientists who relocate. The new golden age is also about embedding Trump’s xenophobia into the fabric of American science. The report complains of an “over-reliance on foreign students” that “creates a security challenge our institutions are ill-equipped to address” and that a “reliance on foreign talent sidelines American students.” This is, to put it mildly, nonsense. International students pay far higher tuition and often receive no financial aid. Their tuition dollars are what make it possible for American students to get financial aid. In the 2023-2024 school year alone, international students contributed $43.8 billion to the US economy and supported over 378,000 jobs. Those 1.1 million international students accounted for only six percent of the total number of students in higher education that year, but were such an economic engine that for every three international students, one job was created or supported. It’s impossible not to wonder whether part of Trump’s loathing for universities and their leading role in scientific research is that there is no way for him to corrupt the process and make money off it in the same way he can by giving millions and billions to Silicon Valley types who, in turn, give him millions in cash. There’s no way for his children to invest in universities that the government then gives no-bid contracts to, fattening the family’s bottom line, which is pretty much the Trump sons’ current venture capital practice. Trump and Katsios’s view of science is narrow, cramped, and wrong. We’re not in a crisis, we’re not a failed state. We’ve been a science superpower for decades, and the only thing that threatens that is Donald Trump. Tech bros are already living high off the hog in this administration. They don’t need any more of our tax dollars. Hopefully this new golden age never comes to pass. Thanks for reading Public Notice. This post is public so feel free to share it. Share We’ll be back with more tomorrow. If you appreciate today’s PN, please do your part to keep us free by signing up for a paid subscription. 🚀 Subscribe to PN 🚀 Thanks for reading, and for your support.
After Hobbes vs Rousseau: Politics must move beyond human nature
Since the great debate between Hobbes and Rousseau, our political theory has been organised around a single question: is human nature essentially good or essentially corrupt? Graham Harman, the philosopher behind object-oriented ontology, argues that this is simply the wrong question to be asking. The real forces governing our collective fate - climate change, artificial intelligence, geography, and pandemics - are non-human; therefore, questions about human nature are not the central ones. Instead, Harman proposes a politics reorganised around our relationship to non-human objects and environments, in which quasi-government institutions incentivise and deter actions with the aim of extending the survival of the human race. “It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” This has become one of the most popular phrases among twenty-first-century intellectuals. Often misattributed to Fredric Jameson, it has been warmly embraced by such influential authors as Slavoj Žižek and the tragically departed Mark Fisher, and has fueled the notion that the major problem with the political Left is that it simply needs to become more speculative and creative. Naturally, this is never a bad idea in any human pursuit. But what if the political distinction between Left, Right, and Center itself results from a failure of imagination? SUGGESTED READING Hobbes vs Rousseau: are we inherently evil? By Robin Douglass This particular division has been with us only since the summer of 1789. During the simmering prelude to the French Revolution, it referred originally to the physical position in the National Assembly of radical figures on one side and loyal monarchists on the other. These positions are linked with two entirely different camps of modern political theory. On the Left we find a series of authors ranging from the moderate (Locke) to the supercharged (Rousseau) to the truly radical (Marx), all of them contending that exploitation of the many by the few justifies revolutionary overthrow of the existing order. On the Right they are countered by the likes of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Schmitt, a group of thinkers convinced that corrupt human nature can be tamed only by force. In the words of the Nazi supporter Schmitt: “One could test all theories of nature and state and political ideas according to their anthropology and classify these as to whether they consciously or unconsciously presuppose [humans] to be by nature evil or by nature good.” This is the division we continue to face today, even in the daily retail politics of Western democracies.___Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims.___The most refreshing feature of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s 2021 book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity was their awareness that the forced choice between Rousseau and Hobbes (as they put it) is no longer sufficient. Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims. Far from being stationed “beyond good and evil,” we seem to be fully entangled with both. We are not naturally good or evil, Graeber and Wengrow contend, but naturally experimental and imaginative. They rest their case on the archaeological record, which seems to bear witness to numerous episodes of seasonally shifting governments and festivals, which vacillate in the same society (even in the same year) between the egalitarian and the dictatorial. Such praise of political experiment makes a good fit with the generally anarchist position defended by these authors. Yet it is also what I find most disappointing in their position. Although they are right that the forced choice between Hobbes and Rousseau falls short of what our new situation requires, the authors simply replace it with praise for the human being as a political tinkerer and performer. In other words, they give us just another theory of human nature, one that would not have been out of place in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. What other options might we have?___The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature… We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them___One fresh approach would be to treat politics within a broader framework than human nature, given that the polis does not exist in a vacuum filled exclusively with people. When Bruno Latour went to observe the baboons of Kenya with the San Diego anthropologist Shirley Strum, they jointly concluded that these primates were more socially interdependent than our own species. Each baboon is so reliant on the dynamics of the group that they find themselves locked into constant surveillance of their potentially dangerous peers. The group structure turns out to be inherently volatile. Humans, by contrast, are able to stabilize their societies to a large degree through the mediation of inanimate objects. Although one’s position in society may seem to fluctuate over time, considerable stability is produced through such items as apartment keys, wedding rings, and identification cards, all of them serving to secure us a place distinct from that of our fellows. The Italian philosopher Maurizio Ferraris has written at length about the crucial role of documents in establishing social relations, making him a hero among notaries in his country. Proper names and license plates cement our position amidst other humans, as do symbolic achievements such as graduation from a top university or distinguished wartime service with its various medals and ribbons. None of this is found among baboons, despite their closeness to us on the evolutionary tree: after all, we did share a common ancestor just 25 to 30 million years ago. SUGGESTED VIEWING The goodness paradox With Richard Wrangham The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature, whether understood in the manner of the Left or of the Right. We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them. But initially, it is true, we face non-human things primarily in the form of constraints. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to form a human civilization underwater, deep underground, atop Mount Everest, or in outer space. Human dependence on the non-social background takes on subtler form in discussions of political geography, especially unloved on the more idealistic Left. Consider the luckless position of Poland during World War II, sandwiched between Hitler on one side and Stalin on the other. By contrast, note the good fortune of the United States in not having a military peer positioned on any land border. Anglo-American geopolitics, since the writings of the American naval commander Alfred Thayer Mahan and the British geographer Sir Halford Mackinder, has been wedded to the notion that one or more liberal offshore naval powers should prevent any authoritarian “heartland” regime from gaining effective control of Eurasia. That remains the case whether the opponent is the impatient Napoleon, the swashbuckling German Kaiser, the villainous Hitler, the murderous Stalin, or the industrial juggernaut Chinese. In their current Foreign Affairs article “Heartland vs. Rimland,” Michael Beckley and Hal Brands analyze the current and coming state of the world on the basis of these same rather durable principles. In recent years a similar outlook has been embraced, in inverted form, by the Putin-loving Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, an icon of the Rightist intellectual underworld. For Dugin, the Anglo-Saxons are an evil force bent on destroying the spiritually superior people of the land: much like Athens in its failed war with Sparta, or Carthage in its eventual collapse against Rome. But the shared notion on both sides is that any strategy that fails to take geography into account is likely to end up as a defeated form of excessive optimism.___When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole.___More striking for us today than geography is the non-human object called climate, which threatens rimland and heartland equally. Even if we contend that humans are one hundred percent responsible for triggering the climate crisis, it remains non-human in the sense of being an independent force beyond our effective control. In a major work published just before his death in 2002, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, the American paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould noted the tendency of evolutionary theorists to focus too closely on the fate of individuals in view of their successful or failed adaptation to circumstances. With climate change, however, we confront a force that goes well beyond the scope of any individual life. Whereas Richard Dawkins extended evolutionary questions downward from individuals to the sub-individual gene, Gould pushed it upward, speaking of entire species or clades as impacted by environmental change. The asteroid that struck the Yucatán 66 million years ago is only the most famous example of this sort. In the wake of that catastrophe, large animals needing abundant supplies of food were at a fatal disadvantage by contrast with the smaller birds and mammals of the planet. When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole. The effect is to shift our attention away from individual beings towards the survival of the group.In the United States in particular, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked considerable backlash among those who asserted a nearly absolute degree of individual freedom. In California I encountered those who demanded that their businesses be allowed to reopen, that it was enough to cover their mouths but not their noses, or that they should have the right to enter any public area despite refusing vaccination. Yet public health is probably the clearest argument against libertarianism, which often merely asserts the autonomy of individuals against any claims of the commons. In normal times the individual is worth defending; under conditions that threaten the survival of part or all of our species, compulsion may be our only resort, as with perfectly reasonable blackouts and rations in wartime. To rebuild human society under the constraints of climate change will be one of the great challenges of the century to come, as will our improvised grappling with artificial intelligence. Such phenomena pose existential risks for humanity, and leave far less room for tolerance of individual brattiness. Cases are mounting of devastating wildfires caused by arson. Recently it was reported that there is even a website where one can bet on the location of coming wildfires, raising the specter of deliberate blazes set to collect on wagers. The death penalty has steadily lost support in a world where many stress the infinite value of human life. But if we focus instead on entire ecosystems, those who purposely burn the forests may begin to look worse than serial murderers.___The politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere.___So far I have spoken of force, authority, and punishment: measures sure to have greater appeal to those who identify with what we know as the Right. But other implications of the post-anthropocentric world are likely to have different backers. If non-human objects are seen as structuring political space, it stands to reason that they can no longer be introduced solely by the pace of technical breakthrough. Fields ranging from cybernetics to energy will demand increased politicization once they are reconceived not just as products of individual human investment, but as renovations of collective political geography. This need not involve world government, with its inherent risk of tyranny, but may involve quasi-governmental enforcers of prestige along the lines of a less corrupt FIFA or International Olympic Committee, punishing deviant states not with violence but with less tangible incentives.Politics will never lose its historic links with conflict and faction. But rather than factions aligned by differing theories of human nature, the politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere. This will prove just as incommensurable with the modern Left/Right spectrum as a globe is with a two-dimensional map.
The shrinking world of former president Joe Biden
Cancer treatment has sharply limited Biden’s post-White House life even as his upcoming memoir threatens to reopen debates over his health and presidency.
The shrinking world of former president Joe Biden
Cancer treatment has sharply limited Biden’s post-White House life even as his upcoming memoir threatens to reopen debates over his health and presidency.
Sweeping, strafing and suppression: Total War: Warhammer 40,000 threatens to blow up Total War's combat fundamentals
Creative Assembly show off Total War: Warhammer 40,000's ranged combat and unit behaviour in detail in a new livestreamed battle.
After Apartheid: South Africa's New Politics of Belonging
Anti-immigrant sentiment threatens to upend South Africa's inclusive democracy.
The Global Second-Hand Video Game Market Is Valued at $7.2 Billion, but Sony's Decision to Kill PlayStation Discs Threatens to Destroy It, Analysts Say
Sony’s decision to end production of PlayStation discs for new games from 2028 threatens to destroy the second-hand market, analysts have said.
Sony’s 'ironic' PlayStation disc decision upends gamer conventions and threatens a $7 billion resale market
In 2013, Sony tweaked Xbox by showing how easy it was to share a PlayStation disc. Now, gamers say Sony has become exactly what it mocked.
Trump’s latest Canada tariffs raises concerns about Ohio economy
The tariff threatens to trigger a trade war with the U.S.’s second-largest trading partner—and Ohio’s largest.
Trump’s latest Canada tariffs raises concerns about Ohio economy
The tariff threatens to trigger a trade war with the U.S.’s second-largest trading partner—and Ohio’s largest.
Meta’s AI Push Threatens Shopify’s Core Business, Analyst Warns
Shopify gets a downgrade, with an analyst writing that Meta Platforms could do serious damage to the e-commerce platform provider.
Trump threatens National Academies with debarment. Here's what it is.
The president invoked an obscure process to review the institution's federal grants over what he says is "climate fraud."
Science and the public are learning the wrong lessons from Covid
“Post-pandemic polarization threatens to lock our memories into attractive, untrue conclusions that will leave us unprotected next time,” write Marc Lipsitch and Sara Cody.
Trump enters an uncertain moment in Iran war that threatens to become a quagmire
Angered by the deaths of three U.S. service members but facing the war’s unpopularity at home, Trump has limited options before him.
The science of Alaska’s bees: What researchers are learning
Volunteers across Alaska are collecting thousands of bee specimens to document the state's native pollinators as warming threatens their survival.
North Africa’s drying desert threatens Europe’s health
Catch up quickly on the global stories that matter
WATCH: House Dems dodge questions on socialist agenda that threatens to abolish key institutions
House Democrats dodged questions about the DSA's new platform calling to abolish the Senate, presidency, and Supreme Court for a parliamentary system.
Japan passes legislation banning violation of national flag
Critics claim latest element of PM Takaichi's conservative drive threatens free speech, invites political abuse.
How Sport Will Change on a Hotter Planet (We Might Have to Move the Olympics) | Climate & Energy for July 16
Plus: The Strait of Hormuz isn’t going back to normal, and the Chinese EV wave threatens Volkswagen’s vast, well-paid workforce
Sheikh Hasina’s return bid threatens to upend Bangladeshi politics
The ousted leader, who has been sentenced to death, plans a December homecoming in a high-stakes bid to resurrect her banned party.
Wildfire smoke and bad air quality threatens sports: Yankees, Blue Jays, World Cup Final, Phillies-Mets and more games to watch closely
The haze is noticeable in a number of cities.
Iranian newspaper threatens Chancellor Merz
A major Iranian newspaper has published a threat of "retaliation" against German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Politicians have expressed concern, and the German government has issued a cautious response.
New lawsuits over NCAA eligibility are likely only the beginning
After a judge in Ohio ruled in favor of 24 athletes seeking eligibility, a new lawsuit threatens the NCAA's "five years to play five seasons" rule.
‘The end of American science as we know it.’ White House funding plan sparks alarm
A Trump administration proposal would vastly expand political oversight of federal grants. Critics say it threatens “science as we know it.”
India's TCS rejigs leadership team, creates new business units
Tata Consultancy Services announced a top-level leadership reshuffle and formed five new business units focused on growth in the U.S. West Coast market and its ServiceNow practice as AI threatens to disrupt the $315 billion Indian IT sector.
Big Medicine threatens your wallet and your health. But there is a solution.
The Break Up Big Medicine Act has bipartisan support, and builds on new laws restricting pharmacy benefit managers.
Trump-aligned House holdouts accused of holding 'life-saving' veterans bill 'hostage' over SAVE America Act
House Republicans' standoff over the SAVE Act threatens to derail the largest veterans benefits expansion in over a decade as time runs out.
Trump threatens Iran after open calls for the U.S. leader's assassination
President Donald Trump made the threat on Truth Social, responding to Iranian threats against him.
Cutting federal science funding threatens Kansas’ economic power
Sen. Jerry Moran stood up for vital research done in his state. We need everyone to follow his lead. | Opinion
White House Moves to Control Federal Science Grants as RFK Jr. Threatens Scientific Journals
A proposed tax bill could raise premiums on privately insured Californians, and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes aim at medical journals.
Denmark says it will defend Greenland as Trump threatens to revive NATO crisis
Shortly after arriving at a NATO meeting in Turkey, Trump restarted the divisive fight, telling reporters that Greenland “should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark.”
Graham Platner's New Scandal and Authenticity's Limits
He said there wouldn’t be any more scandals, but a new Politico report threatens to end his Senate campaign in Maine.
Leak suggests Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S27 Pro faces a serious hardware identity crisis
The Galaxy S27 Pro could be a non-S Pen alternative to the S27 Ultra, but a regional Exynos-Snapdragon chip split threatens that promise.
A heat dome with extreme temps threatens Fourth of July weekend
The heat dome arrives just before the Fourth of July weekend, when AAA predicted 72.2 million Americans would travel.
Why the Supreme Court’s ruling could deepen Democrats’ fundraising woes
The Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday to loosen campaign finance laws by allowing party committees to coordinate with candidates is a boon for Republicans and threatens to deepen Democratic fundraising woes.
Political Control of Research Funding Threatens Sound Science
Decades of federal research funding have led to breakthroughs in medicine, technology, and environmental science. A new OMB proposal aims to derail all of this through political interference.
Trump threatens 100% tariffs on Europe if countries tax digital services
He added that the new tax would supersede any previously negotiated trade deals
Trump threatens 100% tax on European imports if countries impose tax on digital services
“Please let this statement serve to represent that any Country that imposes such a Tax will immediately be met with a 100% TARIFF on any and all Goods sent to the United States of America,” Trump wrote in a post on social media.
Trump threatens serious criminal penalties for those he says ‘vandalized’ the Reflecting Pool
President Donald Trump called Monday for those he accused of vandalizing the newly renovated, and now quickly deteriorating, Reflecting Pool on the National Mall to face serious criminal charges that could result in lengthy prison sentences.
Trump threatens 100% tariff on French wines over digital services tax before G7 summit
President Donald Trump warns France of 100% tariffs on wine and champagne if Macron does not drop the 3% digital services tax on American technology companies.
Creeping screwworm: Trump's new political pest
A deadly pest threatens the cattle industry — and Trump's political outlook.
As Global Warming Threatens Corals Worldwide, Woods Hole Scientists Search for ‘Super Reefs’ That Can Take the Heat
If protected, researchers say these coral strongholds may help repopulate more degraded reefs across the Central Pacific.
Slow ICE reporting on infectious illnesses threatens El Paso outbreak response, health authority says
El Paso’s top public health official warned that delays in ICE reporting of infectious illnesses at detention facilities are hampering outbreak response efforts and endanger the broader community.
Political blame game follows as screwworm parasite threatens cattle in Texas
Screwworms are on their way to becoming a billion-dollar international problem but can be contained if ranchers are vigilant, watch their herds and other wildlife, and quickly treat any infestations, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said.
'Still very immature': Texas sports bar owner sounds alarm on NFL's streaming pivot
Texas restaurateur Jim Hallers warns Congress that NFL streaming fragmentation threatens sports bars, citing $30,000 to $40,000 upgrade costs per venue.
Alaska election official threatens to disqualify challenger Dan J. Sullivan in race against Sen. Dan Sullivan
A top Alaska elections official has threatened to disqualify from the state’s August primary a US Senate candidate who shares the same name and party affiliation as incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan.
New federal rule proposal threatens to reshape how U.S. science research is funded
A proposed White House rule would let political appointees override scientific peer review and control science funding decisions, writes Jeffrey Woytach of LaGrange in a letter to the editor.
Political blame game follows as screwworm parasite threatens cattle in Texas
The USDA launches a $1 billion plan to fight the spread of livestock-killing screwworms.
Political blame game follows as screwworm parasite threatens cattle in Texas
The return of the screwworm parasite to the U.S. has some politicians trying to figure out who to blame
Political blame game follows as screwworm parasite threatens cattle in Texas
The return of the screwworm parasite to the U.S. has some politicians trying to figure out who to blame
Texas Tech's decision on Brendan Sorsby threatens to throw a live grenade into college football powder keg
With the Big 12 and national college football landscapes hanging in the balance, Texas Tech can't afford to take a chance on playing Sorsby
UnitedHealthcare contract dispute threatens in-network care at another Pennsylvania health network
Less than two months after Lehigh Valley Health Network became out of network for UHC commercial plans, Main Line Health is warning its patients that a similar outcome is possible.
Politics & Power: Supreme Court’s Callais ruling narrows Voting Rights Act, threatens minority representation
Exclusive: Political pressure threatens to undercut EPA science evaluating chemical safety for consumers, sources say
Inside the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, scientists say they’re under pressure to alter safety reviews of chemicals commonly found in consumer products like household cleaners and cosmetics to make risks to human health and the environment disappear on paper.
Exclusive: Political pressure threatens to undercut EPA science evaluating chemical safety for consumers, sources say
Inside the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, scientists say they’re under pressure to alter safety reviews of chemicals commonly found in consumer products like household cleaners and cosmetics to make risks to human health and the environment disappear on paper.
Opinion: Proposed rule to politicize federal research grants threatens science
A retired NM professor warns a proposed regulation could put political appointees in charge of approving basic research grants.
Poor sleep threatens health, society and the economy
An increasing number of people are suffering from sleep deprivation, difficulty falling asleep, or interrupted sleep—with consequences for health, society, and the economy. An international research team ...
As Iran threatens regional fuel shipping, Azerbaijan becomes Israel’s gas buffer
Backup supplies from SOCAR are giving Egypt and Jordan alternatives when Israeli gas exports are disrupted, while keeping Israel linked to regional customers that may avoid direct purchases.
Will Mike Evans Regret Leaving Buccaneers for 49ers?
A franchise icon departs Tampa Bay chasing a second ring, but a blockbuster trade by a division rival threatens to derail Mike Evans' championship plans in San Francisco.
Starlink is SpaceX’s Best Business. It Threatens Verizon, AT&T, Comcast.
Powered by a network of 10,000 satellites, Starlink recently hit 12 million subscribers globally including about a quarter in the U.S.
Max Verstappen Demands a “New Back” As Red Bull’s Brutal RB22 Suspension Setup Threatens Monaco Disaster
Max Verstappen isn’t mincing words about the brutal physical and mechanical toll the 2026 Red Bull RB22 is taking on his body. As Formula 1 heads into the tight, unforgiving streets of the Monaco Grand Prix, the world champion’s frustrations…
Franklin Templeton says Wall Street fears blockchain because it threatens its profits
Jenny Johnson, Franklin Templeton's CEO, said blockchain and crypto threaten a huge number of business models that exist today in traditional finance.
Unincorporated Bensenville residents say 'nightmare' rat infestation threatens their health, safety
People living in a neighborhood in unincorporated Bensenville say a rat infestation is a threat to their health and safety.
Viaducts connect this Oak Cliff restaurant to downtown. Rerouting could cost business
La Comida struggled for three years after moving to Oak Cliff. Now it has solid footing, but the proposed Jefferson Boulevard construction threatens business.
"They will ruin my life": Microsoft threatens to wield 'Digital Crimes Unit' over zero-day exploit disclosures — causing uproar in the cybersec community
Microsoft's approach to working with security researchers has long been controversial, but some of its recent language has alarmed some commentators.
Verra Mobility’s Toll Business Is In Focus. Why Analysts Are Downgrading the Stock.
Analysts said the loss of a contract with Avis Budget threatens the smart mobility tech company’s ties to other rental car customers.
Microsoft 0-day feud escalates as researcher threatens another Windows exploit dump
Six 0-days, three under active exploitation, more to come on July 14?
Microsoft Threatens Researcher Over Bug Reports, Triggers Cybersecurity Uproar
Microsoft says it will coordinate 'as needed with law enforcement' after a disgruntled researcher exposed Windows bugs without proper coordination.