“One American view of China — now increasingly popular on the Left and the Right alike, especially among the hate-Trump crowd — is that the communist colossus will be forever ascendant, with continued astonishing levels of food production, ship construction, and industrial output. In this pessimistic view, China will soon replace America as the world’s predominant power. We are, supposedly, like an exhausted British Empire circa 1945, and China is the new version of the postwar American powerhouse. Yet even Beijing’s miraculous 30-year leap out of poverty into first-world affluence and Westernized power is hardly the same as parity with the US. In truth, Trump held almost all the cards at the current summit and will do so again when Xi Jinping visits the US this autumn.” (05/19/26)
“After a resounding loss Monday in his $150 billion lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, Elon Musk took to his own social media network, X, to air out his grievances with the judge presiding over the case. On Monday, a jury unanimously ruled that Musk had missed his chance to sue, deciding that the statute of limitations had passed by the time the world’s richest man accused OpenAI executives of illegally turning the nonprofit into a for-profit company. … ‘This illustrates why the ruling by the terrible activist Oakland judge, who simply used the jury as a fig leaf, creates such a terrible precedent,’ Musk wrote. ‘She just handed out a free license to loot charities if you can keep the looting quiet for a few years!’ Musk vowed to appeal the ruling in a separate post that remains on the social media network.” (05/18/26)
“Like many new technologies that hold both promise and risk, artificial intelligence might be reaching a global inflection point. Last week, for example, China and the United States agreed at a summit to start talks on defining possible guardrails for AI. Meanwhile, a global watchdog, the Financial Stability Board, has invited Anthropic to provide a briefing on how the AI firm’s latest model, Mythos, might pinpoint vulnerabilities in world financial systems. Since 2023, annual AI Safety Summits have been hosted in Asia and Europe. Even beyond such cooperation between governments, religious thinkers are stepping up to offer advice.” (05/18/26)
“The drones that targeted the United Arab Emirates’ Barakah nuclear power plant all came from Iraq, the country’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday, likely signaling that Iranian-backed Shiite militias launched the assault. Such militias launched repeated drone attacks targeting Gulf Arab states after Israel and the United States began their war against Iran back on Feb. 28. Militias in the past have provided Iran a means by which to deflect blame over such attacks. There were no reported injuries or radiological release at Barakah after the attack, which Emirati officials said hit a generator on the facility’s perimeter. The UAE, which has hosted air defenses and personnel from Israel, recently accused Iran of launching drone and missile attacks even after its ceasefire with the U.S. began April 8.” (05/19/26)
“The US Department of Justice has dropped criminal fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and some officials of his firm, days after he agreed to settle a separate civil case. Adani Enterprises, his group’s flagship firm, also agreed to pay $275m (£205m) to the US Treasury to settle a separate investigation into alleged violations of sanctions on Iran. Sources told the BBC that the Adani Group has now resolved all three legal cases against it in the US. This will pave the way for Adani to travel to the US without risk of legal proceedings. Media reports say the dropped charges reflect a broader move away from prosecuting foreign bribery cases under Donald Trump’s administration. Adani, 63, is one of the world’s richest people, worth $82bn according to Forbes. His Adani Group is one of India’s largest business conglomerates with interests in sectors including energy, ports and airports.” (05/19/26)
“A delayed shipment of medication does not make headlines. A generator failing in a maternity ward is not breaking news. A woman rationing insulin or postponing prenatal care is not framed as political violence. And yet, from Iran to Gaza, these are the quiet consequences of policies described in distant capitals as ‘pressure,’ ‘security’ and ‘strategy.’ Whether through sanctions or siege, the mechanism is different, but the message is the same: Women’s health is negotiable. The Women, Life, Freedom movement born out of Iran has captured global attention. Women in Iran are disproportionately affected by the intensity of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with stricter restrictions on their dress, behavior, and livelihoods. The Iran sanctions regime, beginning in 1979 following the US Embassy crisis, refers to the network of international economic, trade, and financial restrictions imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran.” (05/19/26)
“A biotech company that aims to resurrect lost creatures said Tuesday it has hatched live chicks in an artificial environment — a development that was met with mixed reviews from scientists and critics of its de-extinction mission. Twenty-six baby chickens — ranging from a few days to several months old — were born from a 3D printed lattice structure that mimics an eggshell, according to Colossal Biosciences. Colossal previously announced it had genetically engineered living animals to resemble extinct species, including mice with long hair like the woolly mammoth and wolf pups that take after dire wolves. Colossal’s CEO Ben Lamm said the artificial egg technology could one day be scaled up to genetically tweak living birds to resemble New Zealand’s extinct South Island giant moa, whose eggs are 80 times the size of a chicken’s and would be difficult for any modern bird to lay.’ Lamm said.” (05/19/26)
“One of the goals of President Donald Trump’s trip to China is to help ensure continued American tech dominance. One worry is that China steals our technology. But sometimes we foolishly handicap our tech companies with bad policies here at home. An example is export controls, which are a threat to U.S. dominance and limit markets for American-made tech products. The politicians and bureaucrats have decided that they, and not the free market, are best equipped to manage the global semiconductor trade. It’s not going well. We’re still winning the chip war against China, but not by much. Even after years of stringent export controls that have crushed NVIDIA and AMD’s sales into China, recent tracking shows that the U.S. lead over China in AI has almost completely evaporated. Instead of slowing Beijing down, we have effectively subsidized the development of their domestic chip manufacturing by blocking and/or taxing their American competitors.” (05/19/26)
“Surrey Police says it is investigating two separate allegations of ‘non-recent child sexual abuse’ following the US release of the files related to the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The force says that one relates to locations in Surrey and Berkshire in the mid 1990s to 2000. The other relates to the mid to late 1980s in west Surrey. No arrests have been made, it added. In a statement, police said it took ‘all reports of sexual offending seriously and will work to identify any reasonable lines of enquiry to verify information or establish corroborating evidence.’ In February, Surrey Police said it was seeking information on an allegation of human trafficking and sexual assault dating back to the mid-1990s. It said it has become aware of a redacted report which alleged ‘non-recent human trafficking and sexual assaults on a minor in Virginia Water, Surrey between 1994-1996.'” (05/19/26)
“Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is appearing on Capitol Hill for his first congressional testimony since taking the reins at the Justice Department, as the agency faces intense scrutiny over its plans to create a $1.776 billion fund to pay allies of President Donald Trump who believe they were targeted politically. … Republicans pressed acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about violent crime, drug enforcement and other conventional Justice Department topics. But for the most part, they’re steering clear of the Justice Department’s creation of a new $1.776 fund created to compensate allies of President Trump who say they’ve been mistreated by the criminal justice system and Democrats. That’s in contrast to their Democratic counterparts, who routinely pressed Blanche on the fund.” (05/19/26)
