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Foreign Affairs – From fertilisers to helium, the Third Gulf War is redrawing the map of who pays and who profits….We are accustomed to overlooking the degree to which the petroleum century, so frequently declared over, persists because hydrocarbons permeate, directly or otherwise, virtually every activity of our hyperindustrial societies. The ramifications surface in the …
Via LLRX – AI in Finance and Banking, April 15, 2026 – This twice a month column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government documents, NGO/IGO papers, conferences, industry white papers and reports, academic papers and speeches, and central bank actions on the subject of AI’s fast paced impact on the banking and finance sectors. The …
Washington Post [no paywall]: “Congress ends ban on mining near Minnesota’s pristine Boundary Waters. The Senate repealed the Biden-era moratorium that safeguarded America’s most-visited wilderness, with the measure now going to Trump for his signature. The Senate voted 50-49 on Thursday to repeal a ban on mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in …
Last month, President Trump issued a second executive order aiming to single-handedly rewrite federal election rules. The Brennan Center and other groups are challenging the action in court, as the Constitution gives only the states and Congress the power to regulate elections. Among other things, the order attempts to require the U.S. Postal Service — …
WSJ (Gift Article): Pentagon Approaches Automakers, Manufacturers to Boost Weapons Production. “The Trump administration wants automakers and other American manufacturers to play a larger role in weapons production, reminiscent of a practice used during World War II. Senior defense officials have held talks about producing weapons and other military supplies with the top executives of …
Prefacing this update to include, not referenced in this article, job applicants for federal employment are now asked to answer questions to determine loyalty to Trump and willingness to execute Trump’s Executive Orders. Via NextGov/FCW: “The Office of Personnel Management released new classification and qualification standards for technology employees on Monday that make it easier …
Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation establishing a Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office, the body and process called for in Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to enable Congress to ensure effective and uninterrupted leadership in the …
Follow up to Epstein Child Sex Trafficking At Least 1,114 Victims Only 138 Victim Interviews Release – See also – CNN Report – video: “Roughly 2,000 videos [redacted] were included among the millions of documents in the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice earlier this year. CNN reviewed these videos to better understand what …
Financial Times, John Burn-Murdoch [no paywall]: “Last year I used detailed data on the ideological positions of people who post on social media to show that they over-represent the radical right and left, confirming the polarisation hypothesis. Over the past week I have used the same dataset of tens of thousands of responses to questions …
Just Security – By Christopher Fonzone. April 15, 2026. “On April 1, 2026, the Department of Justice issued an opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) concluding that the Presidential Records Act (PRA) is facially unconstitutional because it exceeds Congress’s constitutional powers and aggrandizes the Legislative Branch at the expense of the independence and …
“With 100 Lost Species, we set out to create a digital story about extinction that people could actively explore. Developed by Immersive Garden in collaboration with 60FPS, the project examines how species disappear over time and how human decisions shape that trajectory. From the beginning, it was conceived as an open narrative, one where visitors …
Google Blog: “The Gemini app is now available as a native macOS experience, bringing you a faster, more integrated way to get help from AI right on your desktop. Share your window for instant context – With our new native desktop experience, you can share anything on your screen with Gemini to get help with …
