Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Sophia Goodfriend
“Since mid-October, some 200 U.S. military personnel have been working out of a sprawling warehouse in southern Israel, around 20 kilometers from the northern tip of the Gaza Strip. The Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) was ostensibly set up to facilitate the implementation of President Donald Trump’s 20-point ‘peace plan’ — whose stated aims are to ‘disarm Hamas,’ ‘rebuild Gaza,’ and lay the groundwork for ‘Palestinian self-determination and statehood’ — which last week received the endorsement of the UN Security Council. Yet while no Palestinian bodies have been involved in the conversations surrounding Gaza’s future, at least two private U.S. surveillance firms have found their way into the White House’s post-war designs for the Strip.” (12/10/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/surveillance-gaza/
Source: SFGate
“South Carolina’s stalled nuclear power project could finally finish construction as a private company has offered to pay $2.7 billion to the state-owned utility and a small share of the power if they can reach an agreement to get the two reactors up and running. The half-built reactors ended up so far behind schedule that the project was abandoned in 2017. However, the potential deal is a long way from complete. There will be up to two years of negotiations between utility Santee Cooper and Brookfield Asset Management on the thousands and thousands of details. The deal would also let Brookfield keep at least 75% of the power generated by the new plant that they could mostly sell to whom they want, such as energy-gobbling data centers. The exact amount of the rest that Santee Cooper receives would be determined on how much the private company has to spend to get the reactors running.” (12/09/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/south-carolina-s-abandoned-nuclear-plants-could-21232791.php
Source: The Dispatch
by Yascha Mounk
“Community colleges, historically black institutions, and big public schools are now heavily female. So, increasingly, are the country’s most selective private universities. Women make up the majority of incoming students at every Ivy League school except Dartmouth. If they were to admit applicants without considering their sex, the best schools in the country would end up with incoming classes that have an even greater predominance of women than they already do. So, largely unnoticed by the public, they have started to embrace a solution to this supposed problem that is simple, effective, and manifestly unjust: affirmative action for men.” (12/10/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/university-college-gender-discrimination-men-admissions/
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“The Golden Globe nominations came out on Monday, and two films dominated: One Battle After Another with nine nominations and Sinners with seven. On the television side, The White Lotus led with six nominations. These productions have something in common: They are all products of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which has also dominated the box office this year. A record seven straight Warner Bros. releases debuted with more than $40 million in receipts in their opening week this year, the most consistent run of success in movie history. This all begs the question: Why did a critical darling and commercial juggernaut publicly auction itself off, and why is it now caught in a bidding war between Netflix, with which Warner Bros. agreed to a merger last week, and Paramount, which made a hostile takeover bid on Monday?” (12/10/25)
https://prospect.org/2025/12/10/why-is-warner-bros-for-sale-at-all/
Source: US News & World Report
“Guinea-Bissau’s military junta adopted a 12-month transitional charter that bars the interim president and prime minister from running in the next elections, two weeks after officers staged a coup that suspended the constitution. The 29-article charter, published on Tuesday, requires presidential and legislative elections to be held at the end of the one-year transitional period, with the polling date to be set by the transitional president. Army officers in Guinea-Bissau, branding themselves the Military High Command, toppled President Umaro Sissoco Embalo on November 26 and installed Major-General Horta Inta-a as interim president the following day. … The Military High Command will control legal and institutional reforms during the transition, including drafting revisions to the suspended constitution, setting up a new Constitutional Court, changing regulations for political parties and overseeing the appointment of new electoral officials, according to the charter.” (12/10/25)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-12-10/guinea-bissaus-transitional-military-adopts-charter-barring-leaders-from-elections
Source: Washington Post
“Science fiction writer Neal Stephenson predicted the metaverse, wearable tech and artificial intelligence long before those technologies arrived. What does he think of it all now? Host Megan McArdle talks to Stephenson about the future of AI, education and social media — and how his fiction became a window into the culture of Silicon Valley.” (12/10/25)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/impromptu/the-scifi-writer-who-predicted-the-future/
Source: Law & Liberty
by Brian Domitrovic
“The American economy in the quarter century after 1865 remains without exaggeration the greatest example of material development and the expansion of mass prosperity in world history. We cannot compare ourselves favorably to the best economy that ever was, namely the Gilded Age (the term comes from a Mark Twain book of 1873), but we can and should aspire to emulate the best. If we are not in a new Gilded Age today — we are not, because we are not growing enough — it would be commendable if we aspired to be. Perhaps the HBO series (which takes place in the 1880s) is striking a chord because we were once that good, and we know we can be again.” (12/10/25)
https://lawliberty.org/gilded-glory/
Source: Fox News
“Australia’s landmark new social media age law is set to go into effect, barring anyone under 16 from holding an account as the government moves to enforce one of the world’s strictest online safety measures. The Australian government’s Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act, passed in November 2024, will start being enforced on Wednesday. ‘From December 10, if you’re under 16, you’re no longer allowed to have a social media account,’ said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a video statement that was played in classrooms ahead of the social media restrictions, according to 9 News Australia. ‘You’ll know better than anyone what it’s like growing up with algorithms, endless feeds and the pressure that can come with that.’ The platforms that will be banned for youth in Australia are Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.” (12/10/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/world/australia-begin-enforcing-social-media-law-banning-children-under-16-major-platforms
Source: The American Conservative
by Harrison Berger
“Just a year ago, a series of pardons signed by President Joe Biden, apparently executed through the ‘autopen’ and seemingly without his direct involvement, rightly became the subject of intense scrutiny from conservative media. Right-wing stars Megyn Kelly and Steve Bannon among others bashed the autopen pardon of a convicted killer from Connecticut, Adrian Peeler, even proposing legal theories for how Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Justice Department might be able to undo Biden era pardons. Yet one month ago, Trump unwittingly mimicked Biden’s inattentiveness when, after pardoning Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes that he did not even know who the crypto exchange founder was. … while conservatives had no trouble denouncing Biden’s autopen pardons, the same standard of scrutiny is overdue for the clemency system now operating inside this administration.” (12/10/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trumps-clemency-machine-deserves-more-right-wing-scrutiny/
Source: United Press International
“Florida is suing three major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, accusing them of pushing misinformation about gender-affirming care to drive demand for their members’ services and generate profit from membership sales. The lawsuit was announced Tuesday by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in a video statement, naming the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the Endocrine Society and AAP as defendants. ‘We believe these organizations fail to disclose the risks, limits and evidence when promoting so-called gender-affirming care for children,’ he said. … All three defendants have previously come out against legislation seeking to interfere in the healthcare of children.” (12/10/25)
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2025/12/10/Florida-sues-WPATH-AAP-gender-affirming-care/7891765339051/
