Source: Yahoo! News
“Pakistan has launched fresh airstrikes in Afghanistan, targeting the alleged hideouts of Islamist militants blamed for deadly cross-border attacks, officials said on Thursday. At least two hideouts were targeted in the provinces of Helmand and Kunar in early morning airstrikes, Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said. At least 22 militants were killed and their arms and ammunition were destroyed, Tarar said in a statement. Afghanistan’s Taliban government, however, said homes were hit in the strikes, killing nine civilians, including women and children.” (10/01/26)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/pakistan-launches-fresh-airstrikes-afghanistan-063333391.html
Source: The American Conservative
by Luke Nicastro
“In 1626, England’s Parliament sought to impeach the Duke of Buckingham, a widely despised advisor to King Charles I. The king moved quickly to shield his favorite; on hearing the news, he said curtly that Parliament would sit ‘not a minute’ more and gave orders for its immediate dissolution. Exactly four centuries later, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) has taken a page from the Stuart playbook, dismissing our own legislature (or at least, its lower chamber) to protect an unpopular official. … even an unsuccessful impeachment measure would be politically embarrassing, both for Johnson and the White House. But there may be another reason the GOP establishment went to such lengths to scuttle the vote. Already Democrats are salivating over the prospect of wielding state power against their political enemies, should they regain power.” (09/30/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/why-a-hegseth-impeachment-terrifies-the-gop/
Source: The Hill
“Senate Democrats on Wednesday blocked a bill sponsored by vulnerable GOP incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts (Neb.) to restrict members of Congress from buying new stocks of publicly traded companies, arguing the legislation didn’t go far enough to crack down on possible corruption. The Stop Insider Trading Act failed by a vote of 53-47. No Democrat voted in support of the measure. It needed 60 votes to advance on the Senate floor. Ricketts, who is facing a competitive race in Nebraska, argued before the vote that his bill would ‘ban congressional insider trading’ and touted it as a ‘commonsense’ reform that ‘we need to pass.’ It passed the House in July by a vote of 232-198 with the support of 13 Democrats.” (09/30/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/6120528-senate-blocks-gop-stock-bill
Source: Semafor
by David Weigel
“As they prepared for Republicans to drop another billion dollars of ads on their heads this summer, Democrats passed around fresh advice on gender politics. A memo from the Transgender Freedom Alliance, based on focus groups and polling in battleground states, warned that Democrats lost ground if they ignored anti-trans attacks — ubiquitous GOP ads about ‘boys in girls’ sports’ and ‘child sex changes.’ The group advised Democrats to respond, then accuse Republicans of being ‘focused on transgender people instead of helping you.’ Right now, as they compete for states that Trump won by double digits, Democrats are feeling great about that guidance.” (09/30/26)
https://www.semafor.com/article/09/30/2026/how-democrats-learned-to-stop-worrying-about-gender-politics
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“On Monday, the largest rocket ever built reached low earth orbit (about 170 miles above Earth’s surface) for the first time. That same day, back on terra firma, a massive, custom-built machine that can bore 280 feet below the surface was ceremonially switched on to launch an ambitious tunneling project. Despite an engine failure and a shortened mission time frame, SpaceX’s Starship successfully launched 26 satellites. The company’s next challenge will be returning the rocket back to its launch area in Texas. On the East Coast, meanwhile, the $16 billion Hudson Gateway project to build two new rail tunnels linking New Jersey and Manhattan has faced its share of technical and funding challenges. When completed, it will supplement the under-river railway links that were a technological marvel in their time – more than a century ago.” (09/29/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0929/Innovation-s-secret-sauce-Less-fear-more-forgiveness
Source: Yahoo! News
“Before Stonehenge was raised, before Egypt’s first pyramid broke ground, before the Nazca people drew their famous lines across the Peruvian desert, someone in what is now southern Arizona shaped a 272-foot fish into the earth. On April 23, 2026, a border-wall contractor drove heavy equipment across it. Conservation advocates describe the damage as irreparable. … The Las Playas Intaglio sits inside the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, west of Ajo, Arizona. A geoglyph is an image made by scraping or arranging the desert surface; this one, shaped like a fish, stretches roughly 272 feet in length. … Earlier estimates placed the carving at roughly 1,000 years old. Archaeologists David S. Whitley and geologist Ronald I. Dorn …. revised that estimate dramatically. Their findings, published in The SAA Archaeological Record in September 2026, date the intaglio conservatively at 6,500 to 7,300 years old, with the possibility it is closer to 7,500 years old.” (09/30/26)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/trump-border-wall-construction-destroys-151232210.html
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders getting slammed for her recent anti-welfare ad.” (09/30/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/6101141-rising-september-30-2026/
Source: Expression
by Jacob Mchangama
“He called free speech ‘the dread of tyrants’ and a ‘sacred right.’ The Civil War tested that principle. Did it extend even to supporters of the Confederacy?” (09/30/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/was-frederick-douglass-a-free-speech
Source: Liberalism.org
by Matt Zwolinski
“Ask someone what a classical liberal believes, and you’ll get a familiar list. Classical liberals stand for private property. They stand for free markets and limited government. They believe in the rule of law, free trade, free speech, and religious toleration. Give or take an item or two, you’ll find something like this list in any textbook summary, or on the ‘about’ page of most classical liberal think tanks. And it’s a good list, as far as it goes. Each of those commitments has a long history in the tradition, and each has been defended by some of its best minds. The problem with the list is what’s not on it: democracy.” (09/30/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/democracy-belongs-on-the-list
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“It pisses me off whenever I see someone claiming that ‘AI music’ is about to make normal music obsolete. There is no such thing as ‘AI music’ or ‘AI art’. AI cannot make music. It cannot create the experience of an artist using skill and intention to transport something from inside them into an audience through vibrations in the air. It can only mimic the noises of that encounter. It’s like someone going ‘There’s no need to converse with anyone anymore because they’ve invented a machine which makes noises that sound like human speech!’ You’d want to tell them ‘Hey, that’s not the same thing mate. You’re talking about a completely different experience which in no way satisfies what people are looking for in a conversation.'” (09/30/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/09/30/saying-you-listen-to-ai-music-is-like-saying-you-have-an-ai-girlfriend/
