“An overnight Russian attack on Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region injured three people and targeted energy facilities of the state railways, according to local officials. The attack on Dnipro, which injured three women who were hospitalized, also blew out over 100 windows in the city’s apartment buildings, governor Serhiy Lysak wrote on Telegram. The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that Russia launched one ballistic missile and 117 drones to attack Ukraine overnight.” (03/13/25)
“When I first arrived in the United States, less than two decades ago, the assumption that WASPs were the true rulers of America remained widespread, and there was still some real grounding for it. In politics, their ranks comprised the president, the vice president, the treasury secretary, the secretary of the Interior, both the Senate majority and minority leaders, and at least a good dozen senators. Three out of nine Supreme Court justices were WASPs, as were three out of five CEOs of the largest publicly traded companies. Since then, the influence of WASPs in American life has — largely unremarked by the general public — cratered.” (03/13/25)
“Alibaba Group on Thursday launched a new version of its artificial intelligence assistant app that will be powered by its own flagship Qwen AI reasoning model, amid a heating global race to produce next-generation tech. The launch is the company’s latest effort to gain an edge amid growing competition on the AI application front, further intensified by the emergence of DeepSeek’s blockbuster R1 model model earlier this year. Up till now, Quark, which was launched in 2016, had been using the app’s own AI models, known as QuarkLLM. The updated version will integrate functions including a chatbot, deep thinking, task execution into a one-stop app, Alibaba said Thursday.” (03/13/25)
“The White House has directed the U.S. military to draw up options for increasing the American troop presence in Panama to achieve President Trump’s goal of ‘reclaiming’ the Panama Canal, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the planning. During a joint address to Congress last week, Trump said, ‘to further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal.’ Since then, administration officials have not said what ‘reclaiming’ means. U.S. Southern Command is developing potential plans that vary from partnering more closely with Panamanian security forces to the less likely option of U.S. troops seizing the Panama Canal by force, the officials said. Whether military force is used, the officials added, depends on how much Panamanian security forces agree to partner with the U.S.” (03/13/25)
“Washington, D.C.’s empty federal office buildings rank high among the most visible examples of wasteful government spending. Where else can you find blocks of high-dollar real estate going virtually unused by the very bureaucrats for whom these buildings are supposed to be the nerve centers for their supposed vital functions? Well, as it turns out, you can find similar examples of federal government waste all across the country. Bureaucrats don’t just pay millions to not use their own buildings. They also pay millions in service contracts to outside organizations for facilities they don’t use either.” (03/12/25)
“If you think tariffs are painful, try watching President Donald Trump’s aides and supporters attempt to defend them. Whenever they come up with a rationale for his policies, however dubious, he immediately says or does something to contradict it. They say Trump’s trade strategy is all about containing China — then he slaps tariffs on the allies we would need to do so. They explain that the law lets him impose tariffs on Canada to protect our national security, only for him to let slip that he’s mad about Canadian dairy policies. The truth is that Trump just likes tariffs and people who tell him they make sense. His trade adviser, Peter Navarro, thinks imports harm the economy because he doesn’t understand how gross domestic product data is calculated. The administration has no grand trade strategy. But the demand for sophistry in defense of Trump’s tariffs is apparently inexhaustible.” (03/12/25)
