Source: In These Times
by Sarah Lazare
“Hossam Nasr was never under the impression Microsoft is a force for good, but says he ‘did genuinely believe it to be one of the lesser evil big tech companies’. So when he graduated with a computer science degree, he took a job there and moved to its Seattle campus in 2021. ’I sort of felt like I had to work at a big tech company,’ he recalls, ’because that was the definition of what success in my field looks like.’ To his horror, he discovered the cloud storage service he worked on, Azure, provided the Israeli military with artificial intelligence tools essential to the post-October 2023 onslaught on Gaza. He says he was unaware his labor had been contributing to the very military operations filling his social media feed with massacres at refugee camps, bombed-out apartments, and lifeless children pulled from the rubble.” (07/08/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/ai-military-tech-workers-palantir
Source: CNBC
“Apple on Friday sued OpenAI in federal court in Northern California, alleging trade secret theft, saying that the artificial intelligence lab took the iPhone maker’s intellectual property in order to develop its own consumer hardware. ‘This much is clear, however: at every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing Apple’s trade secrets and confidential information,’ the company said in a legal filing. It’s a shocking reversal for the two companies, which entered into a high-profile partnership in 2024, when ChatGPT was integrated into the iPhone’s operating system. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman visited Apple’s headquarters for the announcement. But relations between the two companies have chilled since OpenAI announced plans to enter the hardware industry last year, when it bought former Apple designer Jony Ive’s startup, called IO Products, for $6.4 billion.” (07/10/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/10/apple-openai-lawsuit-trade-secrets.html
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Corporatism Is The Problem … But Disappearing Freedom & True Capitalism Are Blamed.” (07/10/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1RJZzzQqoBVJB
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“Trump reminds one of a baseball team that, after losing 1–0, claims victory because it outhit its opponent—and demands a rematch. The lesson that the rest of the world has learned seems to have escaped him. Iran’s military and its infrastructure have indeed been pummeled, but Iran has not lost the war.” (07/10/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/delusional-leaders-are-dangerous-leaders/
Source: Associated Press
“The United States launched new airstrikes against Iran early Thursday, and Tehran responded by targeting U.S.-allied Mideast countries in an exchange of fire that threatened an interim deal intended to help end the war in the Middle East. Back-and-forth attacks, including a day earlier, have repeatedly threatened the ceasefire. But Thursday’s appeared bigger all around, with sirens sounding at least three times in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters, and missiles targeting Kuwait and Qatar. … An Iranian official accused the U.S. of launching an airstrike later Thursday targeting the area around Iran’s sole nuclear power plant, and other explosions were reported elsewhere in the country during the afternoon.” (07/10/26)
https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-israel-war-oil-july-9-2026-0472764b119d7aa204de4f7f5e44a9bf
Source: Reason
by Peter Suderman
“This week on social media, the Trump administration touted the launch of Freedom Fuel, a network of gas stations ‘lowering the price at the pump to $3.47 for our 47th president.’ … Inevitably, this initiative produced cries of socialism and comparisons to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s sure-to-be-a-boondoggle government-run grocery store initiative. But these comparisons were misplaced, at least if the Trump administration is to be believed. According to CBS News, the Freedom Fuel network ‘is private and owns 25 filling stations across New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The spokesperson said the Trump administration is not involved with the company and is not subsidizing the gas stations.’ So this probably isn’t a case of government-run gas stations. Instead, it’s another familiar feature of Trump-era politics and media: something happening that has little to do with the White House—and Trump taking credit.” (07/09/26)
https://reason.com/2026/07/09/freedom-fuel/
Source: Cato Institute
“Injuries and Usurpations, 250 Years Later.” (07/09/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/injuries-usurpations-250-years-later
Source: CoinDesk
“Bitcoin’s best session of the week came out of Seoul and Tokyo. The largest cryptocurrency rose 3.5% to nearly $64,000 on Friday, recovering the ground it lost when President Trump warned that strikes on Iran could intensify. It traded as low as about $61,850 before buyers returned, and roughly $28 billion changed hands over 24 hours. Bitcoin is up 4.2% on the week, CoinDesk data shows. Ether rose 2.6% to $1,760 and is up 4% on the week. Solana added 2.6% to $78 while still carrying a 2.1% weekly loss, the only major that has not clawed back to green. XRP gained 2.2%, TRON climbed 1.2% and leads the majors at 4.7% over seven days, hyperliquid’s HYPE added 1.8% to $68, and dogecoin rose 2.6% while remaining 0.8% underwater on the week.” [editor’s note: As of 5 am Friday when I found this story, BTC was trading at $64,200 – TLK] (07/10/26)
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/07/10/bitcoin-zips-to-nearly-usd64-000-as-chip-rally-and-yen-strength-drive-gains
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Every American continues to pay at the gas pump and the grocery store for this idiotic, illegal war. Some Americans have paid, and more may pay, with their lives before it’s over. And when it’s over, the US will be worse off than before. End this nonsense now.” (07/09/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20754
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Ukraine’s military has intensified its attacks near Russian-annexed Crimea, following up strikes on Russia’s land corridor to the peninsula by targeting maritime supply routes as well. Ukraine’s drone force commander Robert Brovdi, also known as Magyar, says at least 25 ships have been hit and set on fire over the past four days in the Sea of Azov, the inland sea linked to the Black Sea by the Kerch Strait.” (07/09/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70yd1g67z5o
