Nearly five years into its fight for national survival, Ukraine has entered a moment of intense vulnerability, under growing pressure not only from Russia but also now from the United States.

A double blow came overnight on Wednesday.

Ukraine said that its military, with no warning, had lost some critical access to a military version of Starlink, a pillar of its battlefield communications. Kyiv relies on the satellite internet network, known as Starshield, which is paid for by the Pentagon. That led Ukrainian officials and analysts to surmise that the restrictions had come from Washington, as President Trump is locked in his latest feud with Ukraine’s leadership.

At the same time, Russia unleashed dozens of ballistic missiles in a broad attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure early Wednesday, cutting power to 600,000 people in the capital, Kyiv. It was a dark omen for a rapidly approaching winter in which Russia is gearing up to try to push Ukraine to the breaking point as Kyiv runs low on lifesaving air defenses.

It was unclear how long the Starshield restrictions would remain in place. Still, the Trump administration’s treatment of Ukraine has caused outrage in a country already reeling from a string of challenges.

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Ukraine’s Vulnerability Grows as Starlink is Restricted and Russia EscalatesKyiv has found itself increasingly vulnerable. A huge attack cut power to 600,000 people there, and a Pentagon-funded satellite program appeared to be curbed without warning. https://t.co/igpM7s86S9

— Sjoerd Nolf (@SjoerdNolf) October 14, 2026

Top executives at Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI companies are privately gaming out scenarios for a public and political revolt after a catastrophic AI event. These officials anticipate a large-scale event, most likely a cyberattack, that shuts down access to financial services, internet connectivity, or even power and water.

The first example of significant real-world harm caused by unsafe AI would turn an already wary public further against the technology and its leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, as well as President Trump for his reluctance to regulate it.

While scenario planning is common within many companies and national security settings — the Pentagon has been running war games for decades — the difference is that many top AI researchers and executives believe a major incident is inevitable.

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⚠️ 🤖AI companies plot "the day after"Top executives at Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI companies are privately gaming out scenarios for a public and political revolt after a catastrophic AI event. Why it matters: These officials anticipate a large-scale event, most likely a cyberattack, that shuts down access to financial services, internet connectivity, or even power and water. The first example of significant real-world harm caused by unsafe AI would turn an already wary public further against the technology and its leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, as well as President Trump for his reluctance to regulate it. Threat level: While scenario planning is common within many companies and national security settings — the Pentagon has been running war games for decades — the difference is that many top AI researchers and executives believe a major incident is inevitable. "OpenAI conducts preparedness exercises where teams discuss and work through a range of potential scenarios," a company spokesperson said. "These scenarios are not treated as inevitable, but are meant to help us prepare for a variety of circumstances." Anthropic declined to comment. Zoom in: The blame game will start whether a rogue-agent swarm breaks containment from an internal testing environment or a bad actor finds unexpected ways to use available models. A recent campaign targeting South Korean financial organizations — including reported breaches at two banks — shows the damage one person can do. A hacker from China allegedly used AI tools from China-developed models, including DeepSeek, to steal data from tens of thousands of bank customers. The attacker used Claude Code to ask for help finding places to sell the stolen data, according to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Top AI planners assume Democrats, ascendant after the midterms, will move fast to shut down AI but will face significant challenges. An aging Congress, out of touch with the AI revolution, could find itself out of its depth. The global economy is now heavily intertwined with an AI infrastructure buildout. Slowing it down could hit an already fragile economy hard. Too many open-weight models can already be freely downloaded and used to cause harm, a problem most cybersecurity pros see as solvable only by using AI to fight rogue AI. Between the lines: The planning involves red-teaming for worst-case scenarios. It focuses mainly on racing to educate members of Congress. Company executives know regulation has no chance of passing right now, but still want to shape the legislation and policies U.S. leaders will turn to after a first catastrophic event. What we’re watching: Many AI industry insiders told Axios they believe a major event will occur in the next six to 12 months. Even with Democrats in control of the House and Senate, the companies see fractured politics as the norm, including within the Democratic Party. Some of the most heavy-handed Democratic proposals include banning superintelligence or pausing advanced AI development. Others have bipartisan support and even some industry buy-in, including a required kill switch on advanced AI. But experts have questioned the viability of trying to turn off all AI systems. The bottom line: In a real crisis, Washington can set partisan differences aside. One Democratic aide pointed to cooperation during COVID and the 2008 financial crisis. AXIOS

— Ares, Information Service (@Aresinfoservice) October 10, 2026

For months, Ma Yongjian didn’t tell his parents where he was.

Halfway through a master’s degree in computer science, the 27-year-old stopped going to class last year. Software engineering used to be a safe career choice, but the rise of artificial intelligence and a wave of layoffs at Chinese tech companies left Ma convinced he wouldn’t be able to land a good job. He no longer saw the point of studying. 

When his roommates left their dorm each morning, Ma would wander Beijing, sitting in parks and looking at stray cats. Earlier this year, he escaped to Dali, a magnet for drifters in China’s Yunnan province known for its scenic mountains and slow pace of life.

His parents thought he was still in grad school. He didn’t want to worry them.

“Before, everyone expected life would keep getting better, your income would keep growing. Now, it’s different,” said Ma. “When you look at the future, there isn’t much hope.”

A generation born during China’s boom years is now entering adulthood with dwindling opportunities, fiercer competition and a growing sense of despondency that years of hard work have left them no better off than their parents—and, for some, back living with them. Steady jobs are hard to get, pushing millions into the precarious gig economy, while others buckle under a cutthroat work culture.

A weakened economy has shrunk the job market, just as record numbers of college graduates are looking to start their careers. 

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China’s Weakening Economy Is Creating a Lost Generation—Young people were taught hard work guaranteed a bright future. They feel burned out and betrayed as good jobs become harder to get. @hannahmiao_ @GillSabrie https://t.co/Jdyyo9hqou https://t.co/Jdyyo9hqou

— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) October 13, 2026

During the summer murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, bettors wagered more than $100,000 on the verdict. Since a deadlocked jury forced a mistrial in early September, more than $500,000 in additional bets have been placed on whether the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her children will eventually be convicted.

In Utah, a trial date hasn’t been set yet for Tyler Robinson, who stands accused of killing conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at a university event last year. But even before Robinson formally entered a not guilty plea last month, more than $300,000 had been wagered on the outcome. 

In both cases, the bets were available on an offshore platform run by Polymarket. The site also has hosted bets on the federal prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Combs and the government’s current case against ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Prediction markets are raising novel ethical concerns and insider-trading risks on everything from corporate auditing to U.S. military operations. Those headaches are now at the courthouse door, presenting particularly unusual challenges for the justice system.

“When the public treats a courtroom like a casino, due process is susceptible to corruption,” said C. Melissa Owen, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

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Prediction markets are raising insider-trading concerns about jury cases https://t.co/YF4hIoWmlc via @WSJ

— Peter Dugas (@regintel2000) October 12, 2026

Given the lack of evidence of any mass radical ideology of Christian nationalism, then, why does that narrative gain so much traction in today’s discourse? We can point to a few reasons. 

First, as the country has become more progressive in many ways, those who support the idea of a Christian nation are now further from the mainstream and thus look more extreme than they used to even if their views haven’t much changed. 

Second, there is a group of politicians, theologians, and right-wing influencers who really do advocate for radical ideologies that can be reasonably labeled “Christian nationalist” in the most alarming sense of the phrase. It’s easy to confuse those very visible cases with the more moderate expressions we find in population data. 

Third, it’s fair to say that the image of right-wing politics has gotten uglier over the past decade, meaning politically conservative Christianity suffers from guilt by association.

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Racist theocrats do exist in America. But most conservative Christians—even those who want a “Christian nation”—don’t share their beliefs or goals.Sociologist of religion Jesse Smith examines 3 myths about Christian nationalism: https://t.co/xMKPQy6JJ4

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) October 12, 2026

Eating out less? Fine. Putting off a haircut? They’ll survive. Living with parents a little longer? Apparently doable.

Gen Z is cutting back, but not necessarily to save for the house, car, and family that once defined the American Dream. For many young adults, the thing worth protecting is travel—even as trips get more expensive. Average U.S. travel costs in August were 9% higher than a year earlier, according to NerdWallet’s Travel Price Index, with airfares up 23.4%.

Yet nearly 44% of U.S. Gen Z travelers say they frequently or very frequently take spontaneous leisure trips, compared with 25.2% of American travelers overall, according to Future Partners. If travel is getting more expensive but remains a priority, something else has to give.

Housing, the centerpiece of the old American Dream, may be where that shift is clearest.

Among Gen Z renters, 83% say renting allows them to save for life experiences rather than tie up money in homeownership, according to a January 2025 survey of roughly 2,000 Gen Z renters by property management software company Entrata and Qualtrics.

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Owning a Home Feels Out of Reach — So Gen Z Is Spending Big in Another AreaRead more: https://t.co/xU7REuCLoq

— Entrepreneur (@Entrepreneur) October 7, 2026

“The Green Party’s motion declaring Zionism to be racism touches on questions of profound moral and political complexity. For my own part, I do not believe that Zionism can simply be equated with racism. I recognise the ways in which the policies and actions of successive Israeli governments have contributed to dispossession, inequality and the denial of Palestinian rights, and I believe these must be confronted honestly.

“I am also concerned that this motion may leave many Jewish people feeling misunderstood, marginalised or unwelcome within a political movement that should be committed to the full participation and equal dignity of all communities. 

“At the same time, we should recognise what Zionism means for many Jews: a profound longing for safety, belonging and self-determination, shaped by centuries of persecution and the Holocaust. That history cannot simply be dismissed. Nor can acknowledging it be allowed to obscure the equal dignity and rights of Palestinians. Both peoples have legitimate claims to safety, freedom and a future in which they can flourish.

“This matters particularly in Britain….”

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‘Antisemitism is evil, it must be confronted wherever it appears’The Bishop of Willesden, Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy, the Church of England’s Lead Bishop for Interfaith Engagement and Vice-Chair of the Commission on Interfaith Relations, spoke at the Standing Strong: Extinguish Antisemitism rally in London earlier this week.Read the full address at: https://t.co/Rmkhfn7r55@Lustherev #antisemitism #interfaith #HopeNotHate

— Woolf Institute (@Woolf_Institute) May 15, 2026

The global surge in interest rates has exposed…[France], once considered an oasis of relative stability in Europe’s financial markets, as one of the continent’s weakest links. France now pays more to borrow than former crisis hot spots like Greece and Italy. Its government is running a budget deficit surpassed only by the United States among its peers. 

Last week, a slow-burning selloff in France’s government bond market took an alarming turn as it spread across the continent, reviving memories of the eurozone debt crisis last decade. France’s 10-year borrowing cost has risen toward 5%, the highest level since 2002.

Investors are bracing for things to get worse. The rise in rates is saddling the government with higher costs just as it needs to refinance a mountain of debt borrowed during the era of ultralow interest rates. France has more than $1 trillion in debt coming due by 2030, and next year is set to sell a record of about $380 billion in debt into a market where once-reliable sources of demand have evaporated.

France’s central bank is no longer buying government bonds and is instead letting its portfolio shrink as bonds mature. Once-steady investors like Japanese asset managers have also stepped back. Hedge funds that have stepped into the void have been burned by the recent volatility.

“France has been this free rider in Europe for years, if not decades. It has gotten away with fiscal murder,” said Kevin Thozet, a portfolio adviser at the French asset manager Carmignac. “It worked as long as people were not noticing. Now people have started to notice.”

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After years of overspending, France has emerged as one of Europe’s weakest links. Investors are bracing for things to get worse. https://t.co/MGG0wEfhzS

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 6, 2026

Flávio Bolsonaro dealt President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a bruising first-round defeat Sunday, finishing ahead of the leftist leader and putting Brazil’s right within reach of taking back power in Latin America’s largest nation.

Flávio Bolsonaro, a 45-year-old senator and the eldest son of imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro, received 47.3% of votes, short of the 50% needed for an outright victory, while da Silva got just 44.8% with 98% counted late Sunday. Other right-wing candidates won a combined 5%, leaving the 80-year-old incumbent fighting for his political survival ahead of the Oct. 25 runoff.

The result—and major victories by conservatives in concurrent congressional and state elections Sunday—underscored the strength of right-wing sentiment in Brazil that none of the major polls had managed to capture. On the eve of the vote, Datafolha had put Bolsonaro at 42% of votes against 45% for da Silva.

Brazil’s right has gained ground in recent years, fueled by anger over violent street crime, the growing political clout of evangelical Christians and frustration among businesses and middle-class voters over taxes, spending and the left’s stewardship of the economy.

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Brazil’s election is another example where a right wing candidate does better than the polls suggest. That was true for Trump in 2024 and for the AfD in Germany’s recent state election. Stigma means the polls systematically undercount the right’s support. https://t.co/qd9wq29vpE

— Robin Brooks (@robin_j_brooks) October 5, 2026

The federal government’s budget deficit is the amount by which spending exceeds revenue; in 2026 that is projected to be $2.1 trillion. The government’s budget debt is the total amount owed to creditors; in 2026 that is projected to be $32 trillion. Those are big numbers. If you personally owed someone $32 trillion, you (and your creditor) might be a bit concerned. 

Obviously, the U.S. government has more resources than you do, so we need a different gauge. The most often-used measure compares the size of the debt to GDP, which measures the total amount of production in the country. The CBO estimates that in 2026, the debt-to-GDP ratio will be around 101 percent. (The only time it was higher—106 percent—was at the end of World War II.) If the U.S. government wanted to pay off its entire debt right now, it would need all of the income generated in the entire economy this year. That seems very alarming until you remember that the government doesn’t have to pay off its entire debt this year. If you have a home mortgage, it is likely that the value of your debt exceeds your current income, but you aren’t worried because you do not have to pay off the entire debt today. 

Nevertheless, when the size of government debt is equal to the size of the GDP, many people get worried. Reinhart and Rogoff, for example, showed that when debt-to-GDP ratios are higher than 90 percent, economic problems arise. But a country with the economic size and power of the current United States can presumably weather a higher ratio than the norm. Theoretically, there is a debt-to-GDP ratio that will create problems even in the largest economy in the world, but we have no way of precisely determining that limit from the experience of smaller countries in the past. 

While it is hard to estimate the effect of the existing debt-to-GDP ratio, the trajectory of that ratio is noteworthy.

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Bad news – we cannot grow our way out of the debt. pic.twitter.com/5fWs28zRIX

— Marc Goldwein (@MarcGoldwein) September 24, 2026

America’s landscape is undergoing one of the largest transformations in decades. The country houses nearly 100 hyperscale data centers, which consume at least 100 megawatts of power at peak operation — enough to power about 80,000 homes.

There are another 120 under construction, according to Cleanview, a market intelligence company tracking data center development. Four hundred and sixty more are planned. Roughly 40 percent of today’s hyperscale data centers were built on previously developed land. The rest took over farmland, shrubland and forest.

Data centers have existed for years but have never been quite this large. “Traditionally it’s just one building situated in an urban area,” Adams said. Now, hyperscalers start with one building and then expand to “two, three, four, five, six buildings.” Meta is constructing a data center campus called Hyperion on a tract of land in rural Louisiana that will dwarf Manhattan’s Central Park. The project is huge but may soon be overtaken. If all the data centers currently planned are built on schedule, according to Cleanview’s data, by 2030 the Hyperion campus will rank only at No. 5 in the U.S. by square footage.

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America’s landscape is undergoing one of the largest transformations in decades.

To meet the insatiable demand for computer processing to power AI, tech companies and their developers nationwide are building ever-larger data centers. https://t.co/dGFucHTl8D

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 28, 2026

Some computations are so hardcore that it takes a facility of extraordinary power to even think about running them.

These are the supercomputers – massive facilities humming with the corpulence of their GPUs and CPUs, crunching applications that would take a desktop computer hundreds to thousands of years.

A commercially accessible quantum computer has just accomplished a feat that suggests this newer technology could one day leave supercomputers in the dust.

In just 19 seconds, IBM’s Nighthawk r2 processor generated a million samples – a task estimated to take a supercomputer around 110 years.

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A Quantum Computer Just Did in 19 Seconds What Could Take a Supercomputer 110 Years https://t.co/sdqaoE9yKO

— Randy Kemp (@randylewiskemp) September 29, 2026

A.I. has made the gap between policymaking and technology one of the widest ever, according to more than 20 interviews with lawmakers, technologists and policy experts. Many governments are torn between wanting to harness A.I. and fearing its risks. And they are further mired by national politics, limited technological know-how, geopolitical divisions and reluctance to fall behind in a race that could shape economic power and national security for decades to come.

Many countries are waiting for the two leading A.I. nations — the United States and China — to take a cue from their A.I. policies. Yet in the United States, the Trump administration has been divided over A.I. safety, with President Trump saying regulation would hurt innovation and cede ground to China. China itself has imposed some rules on A.I., especially to censor chatbot content, but also raced ahead with development.

“There’s this assumption that there are adults in the room on this issue, but there are no adults in this room,” said Sean Ó Heigeartaigh, director of the AI: Futures and Responsibility Program at the University of Cambridge, who is a member of a European Union advisory board on A.I. “That is what makes all of this so completely terrifying.”

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The title of James Patterson’s and Thomas Howes’s book Why Postliberalism Failed is not inspired by a belief that the contemporary American postliberal movement (made most famous in Patrick Deneen’s book Why Liberalism Failed) has collapsed. Quite the contrary: the authors believe that, in spite of an apparent retreat of postliberalism, the movement continues to influence contemporary American political discourse. Indeed, people who have publicly endorsed it (and who continue to defend postliberal positions) are in positions of the highest power in the U.S. government. All the more reason, Patterson and Howes argue, to understand what makes postliberalism tick. 

The authors helpfully summarize the whole postliberal platform (not just its integralist wing, the subject of Kevin Vallier’s excellent book All the Kingdoms of the World), which is diffused throughout hundreds of articles, social media posts, and several books. Postliberals reject liberalism’s protection of individual liberty as a precursor to communism, atheism, and other ills; they instead “advocate for restoring a divinely ordained hierarchy, with the Church providing spiritual rule and the state political rule.” (In theory the state submits to the Church if the two bodies disagree.) Demoting individual freedom means centrally organizing the economy (“in collaboration with state-approved guilds or cartels”) and concentrating all political power in a unitary executive that governs through bureaucracy (hence many postliberals’ sympathy for China’s present government). Unlike conservatives, who (out of respect for everyone’s freedom and dignity) try to effect political change through constitutional processes, postliberals employ cultural Marxist tactics, “us[ing] political power to reward their friends and crush their enemies.” They accept the administrative state and seek to populate it with their own numbers, “put[ting] that bureaucracy to work providing a kind of right-wing welfare state.” Whereas progressives use federal bureaucracy to advance sexual liberationism, many postliberals would use it to advance patriarchy. Finally, postliberalism rejects America’s responsibility for helping to uphold the law of nations; the United States should be neutral in all global conflicts, they say, even if that means allowing stronger countries to annex weaker ones. 

One of the book’s greatest achievements is to show in detail the similarity between contemporary postliberal theory and dozens of regimes that have actually existed in relatively recent history (although not in the memory of young postliberals), all of which failed to usher in the Christian society they promised (hence the book’s title). Contemporary postliberalism is not a discovery made by the American New Right in the last two decades; postliberalism has been a constant temptation of Western conservatives, especially religious ones, at least since the French Revolution. We’ve been through all this before, and it has always ended badly. 

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John Doherty of @WitherspoonInst reviews @ThomasDHowes and @McGillPatterson’s Why Postliberalism Failed @PublicDiscourse — https://t.co/ME7aLT2aOF

— Matt Franck (@MatthewJFranck) September 24, 2026

Robots — the sector Mr. Xi first championed in his 2014 speech — have been a particular success. China has more than 2 million robots in its factories, more than in the rest of the world combined. Some Chinese researchers have argued that robots may be more promising for achieving general-purpose intelligence than large language models — Silicon Valley’s chosen method — because they can learn from interactions with the physical world.

Those rapid gains have fueled anxiety in Washington, where fears of being overtaken by China have become the main argument against reining in A.I. A congressional advisory group warned that China’s quick adoption of A.I. in robots and other practical applications would generate huge amounts of new data that could then be used to further improve its models. In July, the U.S. government proposed restricting imports of humanoid robots, a move Beijing denounced as discriminatory.

For people like Mr. Liang, the robotics company founder in Shenzhen, the signs of China’s progress are already all around.

He still admires American entrepreneurs, but he no longer looks only to them for inspiration. He wears smart glasses from Huawei. He has hired interns from American universities who are eager to learn from China’s robotics expertise.

“Before, we all used American technology as the benchmark, and we’d joke about ‘C-to-C’: ‘copy to China,’” Mr. Liang said. “I think it’s the mission of this generation of Chinese entrepreneurs to let the world know that some Chinese companies are different.”

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How China’s Leader Plans to Win the Future With A.I.

A decade ago, Xi Jinping asked if China could master A.I. His push is remaking the economy, challenging the United States and keeping society under control. @vwang3 https://t.co/1NxAUK6oSR via @NYTimes

— Ashis Basu 🇨🇦 ashis.bluesky.social (@BasuAshis) September 23, 2026

Financing the AI buildout projects that AI investment in data center buildings, power systems, networking infrastructure, and specialized chips and other equipment will total an enormous $10.3 trillion from 2025 to 2032, or an average of 3.63% of U.S. gross domestic product per year.

“The projected buildout would be larger relative to the economy than the major U.S. canal, railroad, electrification, highway, and telecommunications investment booms,” writes the author, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh of Columbia University.

The paper warns that the risks embodied in the AI investment race are migrating from transparent on-balance sheet financing by major corporations to opaque off-balance sheet financing through joint ventures, private credit, securitization, special-purpose vehicles, lease commitments, loan guarantees, and other structures.

These off-balance sheet arrangements then depend on AI companies’ cash flows and collateral values, which are subject to “uncertain AI demand, rapid technological change, timely access to power and hardware, and the continued credit quality of a small number of [data center] tenants,” Nieuwerburgh writes.

Read it all.

Financing the AI buildout will total $10.3 trillion from 2025-2032, or an average of 3.63% of US GDP each year: study. That "would be larger relative to the economy than the major US canal, railroad, electrification, highway, & telecom investment booms" https://t.co/RCT3oaG4VS

— Lisa Abramowicz (@lisaabramowicz1) September 24, 2026

More than six years after the Covid-19 pandemic emptied offices around the world, the bet that time would heal the US commercial real estate market is ending. For years, lenders extended troubled loans rather than crystallize losses, on the assumption that lower interest rates and returning workers would eventually rescue them. But borrowing costs have stayed persistently high, and the Federal Reserve’s rate hike last week — and the prospect of more to come — means little relief is in sight. Billions of dollars of property loans are maturing and patience is running out.

“I joke that sometime between last year and this year was when hope that rates would decline died,” said Josh Morris, partner in global real estate at Davidson Kempner Capital Management. “There’s broader acceptance of the reality that we’re in a different regime than we were previously.”

The strains are particularly apparent in the mortgage-backed securities market, where the delinquency rate for US office CMBS reached 12% last month, according to Trepp, near a record and above levels hit in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis.

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America’s office bust is entering a new phase. With interest rates staying high and billions in debt coming due, landlords face a choice: put more money into struggling towers or walk away https://t.co/7wraxSjl5p

— Bloomberg (@business) September 21, 2026

The roughly 4% unemployment rate measures something very different from what people often hear in the mainstream media or from well-meaning thought leaders: “all-time low,” “full employment” and similar descriptions.

They are mistaken.

The government also reports a measure called U-6. It includes the unemployed people, those “marginally attached” to the labor force and people working part time who want full-time work. The U-6 measure raises the 4% to about 8%….

The monthly number today of about 4% represents roughly 6.5 million Americans who are unemployed, looking for work and not working.

When including prime working-age (25-54) men and women “not working,” what I call real unemployment is closer to 12%. About 22 million out of work.

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@cspanwj Unemployment: A National Misunderstanding Most of us accept use the term, &, most of us are sure this is correct. But we know there are more important measurements that suggest different gov't actions. https://t.co/ou67ovSHP5

— 34Hunter (@mikefreema38742) September 21, 2026

Iran, China and groups in Israel used artificial intelligence in novel ways in recent months to create first-of-their-kind influence campaigns on social media, ratcheting up concerns among U.S. officials and security researchers about the fast-evolving technology.

The countries and groups combined A.I. tactics to ramp up the speed and scale of online campaigns beyond what people could easily achieve and with minimal human interaction, U.S. officials and security researchers with knowledge of the efforts said.

First, the countries and groups turned to Chinese “open-source” A.I. models, which are increasingly powerful systems that are freely available to download and modify. Then they used those A.I. models to create “agents,” which are bots that can operate software and complete tasks on their own.

Once hundreds of those A.I. agents were let loose, they autonomously opened networks of fake accounts on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok, the officials and security researchers said. The agents then rapidly seeded the fake accounts with false posts about politics and current events to sway opinions and inflame issues.

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Mr. Kramer doesn’t shy away from pointing the finger at Germany’s newer demographic sources of antisemitism, even as he cites the latest official figures, which show right-wing extremism as the single largest identifiable source of antisemitic crime. In 2024, he says, 48.4% of antisemitic offenses were classified as right-wing, compared with 31.1% as fueled by “foreign ideology” and 11% by “religious ideology.” He stresses that “antisemitism linked to Islamist and anti-Israel milieus has risen sharply since Oct. 7 and is now a major part of the threat picture.”

And so, 25 years after it opened, Berlin’s Jewish Museum must face up to an existential challenge. It’s no longer enough to “explain Jewish culture to Germans from a Jewish perspective,” as Ms. Berg describes the institution’s founding mission. It must adapt to—and push back against—a spate of ugliness and violence in Germany that flows from sources old and new, from a resurgent right that many believe is nostalgic for a Nazi past and from an arriviste cohort of Islamist Jew-haters who teem in Germany’s cities.

“We cannot ever be complacent,” Ms. Berg says, as she navigates the barriers outside her buildings, each bollard proof of how hard it is for a German Jew to live in peace.

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Fun Fact: Daniel Libeskind, who designed the Jewish Museum Berlin, and the National Holocaust Momument in Ottawa, is the uncle of Canada's NDP leader, @avilewis. https://t.co/edrdD9AwDz

— Phil Pothen 🇨🇦 he/him (@pothen) September 9, 2026

Julian Atkins, the Church of England’s Net Zero Carbon Programme Director, said: “As Christians, we believe we have a responsibility to care for God’s creation and to bear witness to the love we have for our neighbours, particularly those who are most vulnerable to the devastating effects of climate change. That is not about politics, but about living out our faith in a practical and demonstrable way. 

 “Across the country, parishes are taking action in ways that make sense for their own buildings and communities – raising money locally, making buildings more energy efficient and finding other practical solutions to reduce carbon emissions. 

“We are deeply grateful to all our many committed volunteers who make this possible. Our role through the national Net Zero Carbon Programme is to create the conditions and provide the funding and expertise to help them do that. 

“For many churches, this is about much more than reducing carbon.

“It is about creating warmer, more welcoming buildings that can serve their communities well, while using resources wisely and, where possible, reducing energy costs so that more can be invested in mission and ministry. 

“That is why this work matters. 

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As energy prices surge, I spoke to churches that have got rid of oil fired boilers in favour of 'green' heating alternatives and energy efficiency measures, backed by the @churchofengland Net Zero carbon programme. https://t.co/aYXtN5nTsp via @churchofengland

— Martha Linden (@MarthaJLinden) September 16, 2026

“It’s like the countries don’t trust the U.S.,” said Daniel Tannebaum, a partner in Oliver Wyman’s finance and risk practice who served at the Treasury Department as the Office of Foreign Assets Control compliance coordinator for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. “I do think that there is a fear factor.”

That fear factor is also creating blowback for American companies that are trying to do business abroad.

Mr. Tannebaum, who is a partner in Oliver Wyman’s risk and public policy practice, said that the aggressive use of tariffs and export controls by the United States has made European countries and companies wary of adopting American technology for sensitive industries such as artificial intelligence. They worry that if they are dependent on the United States for such infrastructure it could be used against them if Washington decides to ban or disable the technology, as it has done during disputes with China and Russia.

All of this has contributed to an erosion of America’s status as a safe haven.

Read it all.

The World Economy Is Becoming Wary of the U.S. https://t.co/BkvAF43pOj via @NYTimes

— John Bresnahan (@bresreports) September 16, 2026

The Prime Minister has pledged to change what he calls the “unacceptable” law that prohibits Roman Catholic and Jewish Prime Ministers from advising the Crown on ecclesiastical appointments.

In a statement to the House of Commons on Thursday of last week, Andy Burnham, who is the first Prime Minister to be a Roman Catholic on taking office (News, 4 September), said that the restrictions were an “antiquated and archaic anomaly”.

The “restrictions set out in the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 and the Jews Relief Act 1858 prevent persons professing the Roman Catholic and Jewish faiths only from advising the Sovereign on appointments to the Church of England and Church of Scotland”, he said.

As such, Mr Burnham had transferred his constitutional responsibility for advising the Sovereign on church appointments to the Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Alex Norris.

Read it all.

EXC: Legislation to remove the constitutional bar on Catholics advising the King on Church of England appointments being introduced in the Commons tomorrow

It’s our first Catholic prime minister’s first billhttps://t.co/ojXo0L6Yuv

— Patrick Maguire (@patrickkmaguire) September 14, 2026

MPs have voted against proposals to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales, bringing the latest effort to change the law to an end.

Following a debate in which both sides made emotional speeches, the House of Commons voted 286 to 270 – a majority of 16 – against the proposed legislation.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would have allowed adults with fewer than six months to live to apply to be given help to end their own life, subject to certain safeguards.

A similar bill in the last parliamentary session was supported by MPs before stalling in the House of Lords. The decision from MPs on Friday rules out the prospect of changes to the law on assisted dying in the short term.

Read it all.

The assisted suicide Bill is dead. After two years of debate, MPs have rejected it by 286 votes to 270.

A victory for vulnerable people — and a reminder that bad legislation becomes harder to defend the more closely it is scrutinised, writes @AdamPollockhttps://t.co/d7JZTQ5iiU

— The Critic (@TheCriticMag) September 12, 2026

O Lord, our heavenly Father, by Whose providence the duties of men are variously ordered: grant to us all such a spirit that we may labour heartily to do our work in our several stations, as serving one Master and looking for one reward.  Teach us to put to good account whatever talents Thou hast lent to us; help us to overcome all sloth and indolence; and enable us to redeem our time by zeal and patience; through Thy Son, our Saviour.     

–Frederick B. Macnutt, The prayer manual for private devotions or public use on divers occasions: Compiled from all sources ancient, medieval, and modern (A.R. Mowbray, 1951)

St. Paul’s Church at Jarrow in Northumberland. The chancel is Anglo-Saxon in date, and formed part of the double monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow founded by Benedict Biscop during the C7th, and also home to the Venerable Bede. 📸 My own. #SteepleSaturday #Jarrow #Northumberland pic.twitter.com/jJSa71NoeZ

— Kevin Wilbraham (@KPW1453) September 12, 2026

The Man Behind the Red Bandana from Drew Gallagher on Vimeo.

From there:

I got up and turned on the TV, and there was just this big black hole in the World Trade Center. And there was just smoke billowing out of it. I called my sister Cathy I said, “You might wanna wake up, turn in your TV and take a look at what they’re showing.” The commentator’s saying that it’s an American Airlines plane. And I casually asked Cathy, I said, “Do you know where Betty is?” And she says, “Betty’s supposed to be flying out of Boston.” And I said, “Do you think Betty is on that plane?” We just didn’t know. So I left a phone call on her cellphone, just asking her when she’s landed or anywhere you’re on the ground, to just give us a call and tell us you’re okay. And there was no call from Betty. I called American Airlines, and it was only then that it was confirmed that Betty was on the flight.

I just want to add, through your passing, Betty, our family’s gotten very very close. Dad, who’s quite stoic, doesn’t really say a whole lot, man of the family, one day told us that he cries himself to sleep. Even to this day, he just keeps staying up watching TV, hoping somehow that you’ll reappear. And we’re all still waiting for that phone call from you to tell us that you’re okay. We just miss you a whole lot.

You may find the transcript of Betty Ong’s conversation reporting the hijacking from the American airlines plane here.

Every year on 9/11 I take the kids to ground zero to write down names engraved in the memorial. Then we go home and look them up to talk about their stories. Today, my youngest was writing a name when a woman walked up and asked her what she was doing. When she explained, the… pic.twitter.com/Xd8ZknmOX1

— Samantha Steele Ponder (@samponder) September 12, 2026

This site is intended as a place to remember and celebrate the lives of those lost on September 11, 2001. It includes Guest Books and profiles for each of those lost.

It is well worth your time to explore it thoroughly today.

September 11, 2001, as reported the next day by the New York Times: pic.twitter.com/DH6QUFnDgo

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) September 11, 2026

“The cloudless sky filled with coiling black smoke and a blizzard of paper—memos, photographs, stock transactions, insurance policies—which fluttered for miles on a gentle southeasterly breeze, across the East River into Brooklyn. Debris spewed onto the streets of lower Manhattan, which were already covered with bodies. Some of them had been exploded out of the building when the planes hit. A man walked out of the towers carrying someone else’s leg. Jumpers landed on several firemen, killing them instantly.

“The air pulsed with sirens as firehouses and police stations all over the city emptied, sending the rescuers, many of them to their deaths. [FBI agent] Steve Bongardt was running toward the towers, against a stream of people racing in the opposite direction. He heard the boom of the second collision. “There’s a second plane,” someone cried.”

–Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (New York: Random House [Vintage Books], 2006), pp.404-405

11 Sept 2001: Al-Qaeda conducts #terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York City and the #Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia by flying planes into the buildings. A fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania. The White House or #Capitol was the likely target of that… pic.twitter.com/GxvhseKBbL

— Today In History (@URDailyHistory) September 11, 2026