Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Australia has called for the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic to appear before a Senate inquiry into artificial intelligence, just days after revelations that a rogue OpenAI bot had hacked the country’s health-system database. OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei have been sent written requests to appear at the inquiry, which is to hold public hearings in the capital, Canberra, on Thursday, a spokesperson for Senator Sarah Hanson-Young of the Australian Greens party said. The inquiry is examining the potential impacts of AI and data centres on safety, data transparency, Australian communities, industries, water and energy. It is one of several state and federal inquiries into AI.” (09/27/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/27/australia-summons-openai-and-anthropic-ceos-to-appear-at-ai-inquiry
Source: Serious Trouble
“Public Disclosure of Privates Facts.” (09/25/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/public-disclosure-of-privates-facts
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Martin Di Caro
“Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent Azmat Khan says the Pentagon still obfuscates, lies, and manipulates the truth about civilian deaths in war.” (09/25/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/precision-strikes-iran-civilians/
Source: SFGate
“A Silicon Valley congressman is calling for a federal investigation into a controversial Menlo Park development, saying a Russian oligarch with alleged ties to organized crime is behind the project. U.S. Rep Sam Liccardo, a Democrat whose district covers the city, asserted in a letter Wednesday to Department of the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that the development’s land is owned by Vitaly Yusufov, a Russian whom Liccardo says has been sanctioned by Ukraine and has acted on behalf of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. He said the project’s location near tech companies raises national security concerns. Oisin Heneghan, the founder of N17 Development, the San Francisco-based developer behind the project, said in an email to SFGATE Friday that Liccardo’s allegations are ‘based on false reporting and what can only be described as NIMBY fan fiction.’” (09/25/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/liccardo-menlo-park-russia-22449265.php
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“For good or ill, individuals differ in all sorts of ways, many of them relevant to their ability to please us, the consumers. No need to stop the presses—we all know this. Yet many intellectuals want a social system premised on the principle that people are ‘equal’ not as a moral/legal presumption, but equal in intelligence, talent, energy, time preference, conscientiousness, cooperativeness, etc.—and therefore deserving of more or less equal incomes, outcomes, and opportunities. Anything short of their ideal (‘disparate outcomes’), the egalitarians tell us, must be chalked up to past or present injustice (racism, for example) and privilege, requiring coercive government intervention. That’s wokeism. People who are honest with themselves know those intellectuals are worse than wrong and that the record of their ideal in practice has been bloody beyond belief.” (09/25/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-freedom-markets-and-income-inequality
Source: The American Prospect
by Gabrielle Gurley
“On Monday, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals further confounded Missouri’s ongoing mid-decade redistricting debacle. The three-member federal panel sided with a lower federal court and directed the state to use a new map gerrymandered in 2025 and specially designed to propel Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver into retirement—part of President Trump’s effort to secure the largest possible advantages for Republicans in the midterm elections. In early September, the Missouri Supreme Court had unanimously ruled that the 2025 map could not be used without first being approved in a voter referendum, especially since People Not Politicians, the Missouri referendum advocacy group backing the map question, had met all of the constitutional requirements to secure a slot on the ballot.” (09/25/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/09/25/after-missouri-mid-decade-redistricting-may-die-a-natural-death/
Source: United Press International
“SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 ship Saturday morning from California with a secret mission for the U.S. military. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 7 a.m. PDT from Vandenberg Space Force Base for the USSF-385 mission. The rocket went in a southerly direction after launch from Space Launch Complex 4-East, according to Space Flight Now. … This mission for the U.S. Space Force is believed to be the third in a series of flights to send satellites based on SpaceX’s Starshield, which is a version of a Starlink satellite for government use.” (09/26/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/09/26/spacex-launch-secret-space-force/6701790434478/
Source: Heartland Institute
“Covering NYC Climate Week.” (09/25/26)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/covering-nyc-climate-week-the-climate-realism-show-218/
Source: The American Conservative
by Luke Nicastro
“When J.D. Vance was elected to the Senate from Ohio in 2022, he won his race by a healthy 6-point margin. Four years later, his successor in that seat—Sen. John Husted (R-OH)—is down by between 4 and 8 points, depending on the poll. Midterms are always hard for the party in power, and GOP candidates this year face a number of headwinds. But let’s be honest: It’s the war, stupid. Voters in Ohio, like voters across the country, are furious at paying more for gas (and everything else) because the president got us into an unwinnable Mideast conflict at the behest of a foreign country. They’re tired of bearing the costs, and they’re tired of being lied to. So Husted has sought to distance himself from this debacle.” (09/25/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/on-iran-republicans-want-to-have-it-both-ways/
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
“Despite rising political anxiety over the Iran war, senators on Thursday narrowly rejected a war powers resolution seeking to halt President Donald Trump’s military action, which has been largely blamed for the spike in gas prices and become a flashpoint in the midterm election. The Senate tally, 49-50, coming days after Trump’s bombastic address to the United Nations in which he threatened to ‘annihilate’ Iran, was likely the last chance for lawmakers to go on record about the war ahead of November. … This was the 14th time the Senate has considered a war powers resolution since Trump launched the conflict on Feb. 28.” (09/25/26)
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2026/sep/25/senate-again-rejects-war-powers-resolution/
