SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " Unite " 3,399 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
New York among state suing over Trump’s new tariffs, calling them 'pretext'
The United States last month imposed double-digit tariffs on 59 countries and the European Union.
Chartbook 464 The"China squeeze" - the politics of development counterfactuals.
There are three types of China shock discourse. Each has a distinct temporal register. China shock 1.0 was a phrase coined by US academics in the 2010s to retrospectively summarize the impact on particular US labour markets, which they identified through painstaking empirical investigation. China shock 2.0 on everyone’s lips in Europe in the mid 2020s is an alarm raised by trans-Atlantic policy thinkers warning of a coming disaster which they project onto Europe’s ailing car industry. The third type of China shock discourse - commonly known as the “China squeeze” launched most recently by Indian economists Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian in the pages of Foreign Affairs - mobilizes a different, more speculative temporal register: the counterfactual realm of alternate history. The China squeeze argument asks not what has happened, or what is going to happen, but what might have been. Specifically, what options for economic development might have been open to Global South economies like India or the economies of sub-Saharan Africa, had it not been for China’s spectacular industrialization since the late 1990s and the persistent competitiveness of China’s manufacture in low-skilled segments. Chatterjee and Subramanian’s argument is that whilst China has built a powerful position in electrical machinery and other high-skill manufacturing, which is now delivering China Shock 2.0, it also continues to run a trade surplus in low-skill, labour-intensive manufacturing. This surplus is large and has remained largely unchanged in fifteen years. Indeed, in the 2010s, in trade with low-income countries, China’s surplus rapidly increased. On their reading, this squeezes low-income producers in low-skill sectors in which they “should” be able to compete. Source: “China’s Mercantilist Squeeze on Developing Countries” Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian. Peterson Institute for International Economics 26-7 May 2026 Chatterjee and Subramanian’s wording is telling: (emphasis mine) The canonical trajectory of economic development in the post-World War II period is for countries to transition from agriculture to manufacturing, first in low-skilled manufacturing and then later on to high-skill manufacturing (Herrendorf, Rogerson, and Valentinyi 2013). At the global level, this implies that high-income countries (HICs) that once specialized in low-skilled activities cede manufacturing export space to poorer countries that come along to occupy that space. In 1965, advanced economies accounted for about 60 percent of global value-added exports in four key low-skilled manufacturing sectors, i.e., apparel, leather, textiles, and footwear. Over time this share declined and began to be occupied first by the East Asian tigers and, beginning in the late 1990s, by China. Today China accounts for about 50 percent of the global market. The question is whether China, with its rising prosperity, is continuing to behave like its richer counterparts and ceding export space to poorer followers or to behave unlike them and continuing to occupy space. In terms of the conceptual maneuvers it performs, of the three China shock discourses, the “China squeeze” argument is by far the most ambitious. After all, it bases its critique of China on a counterfactual imagining of the world. Like any counterfactual argument, to construct this alternative reality it must rely on a heuristic model. To make their argument Chatterjee and Subramanian mobilize two key claims. The first reference point is the actual history of rich-country industrialization, what they refer to as the “canonical path”. The idea is that countries transition from agriculture to light industry and low-skilled manufacturing and from there up the value chain. To make this useful as a standard of comparison and a means to construct a normative standard, they adjust sectoral export shares for two factors: 1. the underlying level of economic development of the exporting country, as measured by national income and 2. the degree to which the sector in question is internationalized. The idea being that for a high income country to have a high export share in low-skill sectors is anomalous and even more so if that particular product is highly internationalized and thus suitable for being “conceded” to lower-income competitors. Where should this process end? Here Chatterjee and Subramanian introduce their second benchmark. Their normative idea of a global development path is one in which, in due course, low-skill manufacturing exports are distributed in proportion to a country’s share in the global labour force. They imagine, in other words, a world of proportional, polycentric global development without much national specialization in low-skill manufacturing. A useful benchmark is that, in labor-intensive manufacturing sectors, a country’s share of world exports should be broadly commensurate with its share of the world’s low-skilled labor endowment. … In the Heckscher-Ohlin model, this would be true if value added per worker and export propensities, i.e., fraction of output that is exported, are the same across countries. It is this pleasant liberal vista of orderly global development, progressing towards a general distribution of low-skilled manufacturing against which they judge reality and conclude that the low-income countries are suffering a “China squeeze”. China is not exiting low-skill sectors fast enough Allowing for its gdp level and the degree of globalization, China’s share of low-skill manufacturing exports is far higher than it “should” be. Relative to population, its low-skill share of exports is far too high. That in turn yields the conclusion that huge numbers of jobs - the authors suggest tens of millions - are being hoarded by China. For the four sectors captured in figure 4, this excess in value-added exports is $110 billion in 2022. For all low-skilled sectors overall captured in appendix figure D.1, excess value-added exports amount to $365 billion. The crowding out of LMIC exports by China is therefore substantial. Both these claims have in common that they are strong structuralisms. The first is that development paths ought to resemble each other. The second is that broadly speaking as far as low-skilled manufacturing is concerned, all countries are alike. If the world currently diverges from the distribution of trade implied by these assumptions, if China is not following the advanced economy path and has huge exports, this must be the result of “policy”, which the authors then put in question as illegitimate or unfair. Thus the naturalistic construction of a canonical path leading to a “level” distribution of low-skilled manufacturing reveals itself to be a polemical tool. From the point of view of China shock polemics, this discourse is no doubt welcome. But as an account of economic history, it must surely be regarded as nothing short of bamboozling. Development paths do not follow a regular, natural sequence. As David Fishman put it aptly, “development is not a queue”. They are always and everywhere, through and through political. Development is not so much a process, as a project. Each such project is more or less well adjusted to its context. As Gerschenkron taught uneven and combined development implies differentiation rather than simple imitation on a single parth. It may be true that Europe and the US exited relatively early from low-skill work. But clearly technology has changed. As C&S themselves point out, China no longer enjoys a low wage environment. Do they really believe that such huge differences can be accounted for either by industrial policy, which as they admit does not operate powerfully in low-skill sectors, or by exchange rate manipulation? What is overwhelmingly dominant in explaining the persistence of “low-skill” manufacturing in China are surely the network effects of complex supply chains. Indeed the label of “low-skill” may miss the point. The degree of globalization which Chatterjee and Subramanian decide to conjure away in their model of the development path - to allow for the fact that Europe and American textiles exporters did not enjoy just-in-time logistics in the 1950s - obscures the point that the networks through which Chinese factories supply the world are themselves key parts of the low-skill industrialization project. China isn’t knocking out 1970s style “cheap”. It has redefined the entire product cycle. C&S’s casual reference to “T-shirts” is telling. In today’s “fast fashion”, there is weight on both terms. Fashion and fast. China’s success in delivering on both at unprecedentedly high speed and at unprecedentedly low cost, isn’t a low-skill operation at all. If we see development trajectories not as the serial repetition of the same, but as distinctive, crafted projects that cumulate in complex agglomerations of skill, technology and labor, then this explains why the assumption that low-skilled manufacturing should follow the distribution of population flies in the face of all experience. As countless cases attest, low-wage, low-income developed economies are not by themselves the makings of a competitive production base. As Leon Liao puts it quite fairly: “International trade has never been allocated according to population. A country’s population gives it no natural claim to an equivalent share of global exports." And the remarkable fact is that Subramanian alone and with co-authors has long been making this point, not to pillory China, as is the case of the tendentious _Foreign Affair_s and Peterson pieces, but to highlight the great counterpart to China’s industrial success, namely India’s relative failure. The much-quoted Foreign Affairs piece showed low-skill export shares only for China, not for India. If you put both countries in the picture as Chaterjee and Subramanian have done on other occasions, the picture looks like this. China is far above the line, but India, almost as large in terms of population, is no less anomalous, just in the opposite direction. As far as global populations are concerned, and the imagining of tens of millions of “squeezed” jobs, it is this Sino-Indian pair that account for a huge share of the action. What this graph reveals is not China’s cheating, but India’s “greatest development failure”, at least this is the argument made Arvind Subramanian, this time in co-authorship with Devesh Kapur, in their major book, A Sixth of Humanity. Independent India’s Development Odyssey which appeared with Oxford University Press earlier this year. In this highly critical work on India’s development, China is repeatedly evoked, not to criticize but as a benchmark against which to illuminate what India’s political economy has not delivered i.e. large-scale formal employment for hundreds of millions of citizens. Kapur and Subramanian leave no doubt, if you want to understand why China, not India was the main driver of manufacturing globalization from the 1980s, don’t look to slots opening up in the division of labour thanks to the liberal mindedness of advanced economies, look to the contrasting political economy of the Maoist PRC and India’s post-independence political economy. As Kapur and Subramian note: The great divergence between China and India did not begin in 1978 with the Deng reforms—it was well underway by then. In one of the great ironies of modern history, the conditions created by Maoism turned out to be a great launching pad for industrial globalization. As the comparison of India and China in 1980 makes clear, to imagine manufacturing would be equally distributed when populations are so differently endowed in terms of educational and nutritional is fanciful. Here is the data from Kapur and Subramanian, data which I explored back at the very beginning of Chartbook. As Kapur and Subramanian insist, the striking fact is that even as India’s growth accelerated from the 1980s, structural change has not. Formal employment in India lags woefully behind. Why? As Kapur and Subramanian note, the path-dependent impact of India’s poor early start was devastating. The list of factors they mention is long and weighty: We argue for a new five-fold explanation applicable at different stages of Indian history: in the initial stages, the legacy of two key pre-1980s policies, the neglect of agriculture and the strangling of the domestic private sector, were critical. The failure of broad-based agricultural growth militated against rural industrialization, which would have been devoted to satisfying local needs that would have necessarily been labour intensive. Then, when the boom came after 1980, the thicket of regulation and broader labour protections that were legislated prematurely in a nascent democracy, underpinned by a deep ideological aversion to private capital in general and big capital specifically, became a barrier to attaining the size that would be necessary to compete globally. Similarly, the reforms after 1991, while wide-ranging, did not quite encompass non-tradeable inputs critical to manufacturing, namely, land, logistics infrastructure and power. A combination of low investment (logistics infrastructure), regulation (land) and the continued monopoly supply by state governments (power), combined with residual socialism, kept costs at 75–100 per cent above efficient supply. These factors were compounded on the supply side by the government, which dominated the formal labour market and established exorbitantly high wages at the lower end of the skill spectrum. This made their employment in the labour-intensive sector by the private sector less attractive. Finally, when the services sector and its exports boomed, wages soared even further via a Dutch Disease effect: one successful tradeable sector killed and cannibalized another less-skilled tradable sector, namely, manufacturing. Thus, scarcity-inducing policies of the planning era, precocious democracy and a Gandhian aversion to size; inefficient, monopolistic supply of critical non-tradable inputs; the behemoth of government; and super-successful skill-intensive services successively undermined India’s unskilled labour employment opportunities. The employment failure seems to have been over-determined. … Less quantifiable but no less important are some of the sociological factors that have undermined manufacturing and factory jobs. Take the impact of the success of the IT sector—located in urban areas with better working conditions, such as air-conditioned offices, good schools for children and attractive entertainment options. It became a more attractive place for engineering and management graduates to flock to. … Consider manufacturing and female employment. Indian society makes it difficult for women to work, reflected in India’s unusually low female labour force participation (elaborated in Chapter XIII). Indian society, in particular the routine harassment of women in public spaces, makes it even more difficult for them to travel long distances to take up work.37 Combined with onerous regulations on creating hostels and dormitories for women—which, in turn, prevents multiple shifts of operation—factories need to be located in areas with a large female labour pool. While firms can take apparel plants to female labour or bring them to the plants by building large-scale dormitories, this raises costs. If there was a case for subsidies to encourage labour-intensive manufacturing, housing subsidies to build dormitories for women workers would be a good place to start. All of this meant, that when opportunities did open up, in part thanks to adjustments in China, India was in no position to take advantage. Here is the account of the 2020s from Kapur and Subramanian. It stands in dizzying contrast to the one-sided, “China squeeze” argument delivered in the Peterson and Foreign Affairs pieces: In 2022, for example, India’s share of global exports in clothing (the canonical labour-intensive sector) was 3.1 per cent compared to 32 per cent for China. This is extremely disappointing because China started vacating export space in this sector after the Global Financial Crisis as its wages started rising; it then vacated further space in the aftermath of geopolitical developments that led investors to seek alternative investment locations. Between its peak and today, China lost about 7.5 percentage points of global export share (worth about $43 billion in 2022); over this period, India’s export share remained stagnant at 3 per cent, while that of Vietnam and Bangladesh rose by 3.5 to 4 percentage points. China’s loss did not translate into any gain for India in terms of low-skill exports and employment. Put differently, when the conditions for dynamism and prosperity were established after 1991, and even more tantalizingly when the global export opportunities opened up, it was as if India was a high-wage economy and only skilled labour could benefit from the dynamism. It had converted its physically abundant unskilled workforce into an economically expensive resource, penalizing its use. It is not my mission here to argue for or against Kapur and Subramanian’s interpretation of India’s development trajectory. The point in this context is simply that the “China squeeze” such as it is can only be understood, in relation to the heavy burden of domestic constraints that Kapur and Subramanian so unsparingly enumerate. I am concentrating here on India because it is the great counterpart to China and the unspoken reference point of the “China squeeze” discourse. But the point is more general. Can anyone with a straight face suggest that the main problems afflicting the development of South Africa or Nigeria, the great centers of mass underemployment in sub-saharan Africa, are cheap competition from China driven by Beijing’s industrial policy and an undervalued RMB? Likewise, is the main problem of the American working-class the threat of Chinese competition or the manifest crisis of social reproduction in the United States itself? The point here, as in the discourse around China shock 2.0 in Europe, is to insist that we should not normalize the world and pathologize China, without actually investigating what is going on in America’s industrial wastelands, the German car industry, or India’s lopsided labour market. One-sided pathologization should be understood for what it is, a polemical gesture. Concepts like China shock and China squeeze are, what Reinhart Koselleck, following Carl Schmitt, would have described as “asymmetrische Kampfbegriffe”, or “asymmetrical counter-concepts” or “asymmetrical combat concepts”. If the function of arguments like the “China squeeze” is to alert elites in the rest of the world of the need to rejuvenate and energize their development projects, so be it. But let us see the resulting discourses as the mobilizing interventions that they are. Interestingly, a significant slice of China’s public sphere - the so-called industrial party - have been obsessed for the last twenty years with precisely these questions of counterfactual economic history. Since the mid 2000s, a massive online discourse developed around an alternative history in which Chinese techno-patriots were asked to imagine how they would proceed if they had the possibility of traveling back in time to transport modern technology into the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) thus averting the “great divergence” of the 18th and 19th centuries. It is a fantasy of course, but also a goad. The point was not directed at Westerners. The alternate history is dramatically nationalist, but few n the West had even heard of it until recently. The adherents of the industrial party are not liberal moralists. They don’t project natural ladders of international development and ask why others don’t cede space. They take the Realpolitik of global economic development for granted. Their pointe was directed against fellow Chinese. The rallying cry of the alternative narrative was this: Now that we are beginning to gain steam and push forward on our national development path, now that we are breaking out of the inferior position assigned to us even in the early years following WTO accession, do not lose yourself in humanistic imaginings about better futures. In the spirit of Deng, they called on China to embrace the hard truth of development. Perhaps one might of the Industrial Party as a cultural trend born out of desire for symbolic revenge against those who had inflicted the century of humiliation. In terms of the various temporalities of the “China shock” - retrospective, prospective and counterfactual - one might think of the Industrial Policy discourse as truly speculative, conjuring up the China shock that never was. Or perhaps one might better think of it as imagining a world in which a powerful China was no shock at all, but simply a defining fact of modern history. I love putting out Chartbook. I am particularly pleased that it goes out for free to thousands of subscribers around the world. But, writing this newsletter takes a lot of work. If you are enjoying it and would like to support the project, sign up for one of the subscription options here. It is the equivalent of a fancy cup of coffee per month! Subscribe
Newcastle captain to hold Arsenal medical after £75m fee agreed
Arsenal have agreed a fee for the signing of Bruno Guimaraes, with details of the deal emerging and the player receiving permission from Newcastle United to hold a medical.Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Im...
Singapore's UOB to shed asset management arm for $433.5 million to focus on wealth management
Singapore lender United Overseas Bank said on Wednesday that it had agreed to sell its asset management business to a unit of European insurer Allianz for S$555 million ($433.49 million).
Rabbit fever cases detected in US. How to check for symptoms
Cases of tularemia, or rabbit fever, have been detected in the United States. Here are symptoms and where the rare disease has been reported.
The oldest colleges in every state
The oldest college in the United States is Harvard University, founded in 1636.
At colleges, the AI boom means everyone wants to dabble in computer science
As enrollment in traditional computer science programs declines, universities across the United States are rapidly expanding artificial intelligence education to include students from diverse majors like music and psychology.
Man United announce record-breaking sponsorship deal with betting firm
Manchester United have signed a lucrative sponsorship deal ahead of the new season
The best hospitals in the United States for heart care
U.S. News & World Report has released its latest ranking of the top U.S. hospitals for cardiology, heart surgery and vascular surgery. There are similarities—and some key differences—between this year's list and last year's list.
25 states sue over Trump administration's latest tariffs, citing Supreme Court ruling
The United States last month imposed double-digit tariffs on 59 countries and the European Union, charging that they had not done enough to crack down on imports produced by forced labor.
How STAT News reporters investigated UnitedHealth’s health care empire
The eight-part award-winning series, "Health Care's Colossus," shows how UnitedHealth used its leverage to dominate the health care market.
Nurses deliver petition opposing CommonSpirit Health’s planned layoffs of frontline health care workers
RNs delivered a petition to their employer opposing CommonSpirit Health’s planned layoffs of more than 175 frontline health care workers signed by more than 5,000 nurses. The nurses held a rally and press conference to protest the proposed layoffs at 17 hospitals in California and their impact on patient safety. The nurses are demanding that CommonSpirit Health immediately rescind the layoffs.
Tommy Sullivan and John Ziegler to Perform at LI Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame on Aug 16th
As part of the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame Soundtrack to Summer Series, Musician Tommy Sullivan (a member of the Brooklyn Bridge) will perform LIVE music and Comedian John Ziegler will open with comedy set at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in Stony Brook Village (97 Main Street, Stony Brook, NY) on Aug. 16th from 3-4pm. The event is free for members or with general admission ticket purchase or $10 at the door concert ticket purchase. For details on this and upcoming events please visit https://www.limusichalloffame.... About Tommy Sullivan A life-long Long Islander and proud U.S. Army veteran, Tommy Sullivan enlisted in 1965 and was accepted to the United States Military Academy Band, where he created the first official rock group at West Point. Reentering civilian life in 1968, he helped create the Rhythm Method, a 7-piece Long Island band which was discovered by Johnny Maestro, then singing lead with the Del-Satins. The combined groups became the Brooklyn Bridge. As band leader and musical director, Tommy penned the group’s horn arrangements on every Bridge hit, including their gold record, Worst that could happen. Upon leaving the Bridge, Tommy co-founded Atlantic Records’ supergroup Ramatam, which was Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell’s first group following Hendrix’ death. For the second Ramatam LP Tommy wrote and orchestrated original material which featured select members of the NY Philharmonic Orchestra. Together with Johnny Maestro, Tommy co-produced Johnny’s final CD, Peace on earth. The critically acclaimed album features Tommy’s arrangements & orchestrations, plus several of his original songs. A Charter Inductee to the LI Music Hall of Fame, Tommy Sullivan continues to write, record, arrange and produce records, serve as musical director/ arranger/conductor for projects across many musical genres plus donates dozens of performances annually for numerous charity events. Tommy Sullivan’s dynamic and unique one-man show, A thousand memories, featuring his vocals and performances on four instruments, has been packing concert auditoriums, nightclubs, private parties–even vineyards-for the past several years. John Zeigler Born and raised in New York, John has performed stand-up comedy for close to 20 years and was the winner of the 2016 "Funniest Comic on the East Coast" Contest at Mohegan Sun. John's opened for such comics as Sebastian Maniscalco, Gilbert Gottfried, Jim Breuer and Robert Klein. He currently headlines clubs across the country and regularly tours with legendary comedian Bobby Collins. John recently released his Dry Bar Comedy Special and Getting My Affairs in Order.
Upcoming Science Cafe
BAR HARBOR—Join us for a fascinating Science Cafe with environmental toxicologist Nishad Jayasundara, Ph.D., as he explores how everyday contaminants and other stressors such as heat exposure may be quietly influencing kidney health. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects nearly 1 in 7 adults in the United States—and more than 840 million people worldwide. While factors like diet and genetics are well known, scientists are increasingly uncovering another important piece of the puzzle: environmental exposure. Drawing on his team’s research, Dr. Jayasundara, Maine INBRE alum as a College of the Atlantic undergraduate student and past MDI Bio Lab Visiting Scientist, will share how early-life exposure to environmental toxins can disrupt kidney development, and may affect kidney structure and function in adults. Blending cutting-edge research with real-world relevance, this Science Cafe will shed light on an important and often overlooked contributor to human health—and what it could mean for communities around the world. Monday, August 17, 2026 at 5 p.m.Hybrid event at Maren Auditorium and via Zoom Register Now What Are Science Cafes? MDI Bio Lab’s Science Cafes provide an informal introduction to ground-breaking biomedical research by its scientists, scholars from near and far and from local experts in other fields as well. Each Cafe lasts about one hour; the floor is open for questions and discussion. It can get lively and it’s always engaging. MDI Science Cafes are open to the public and free of charge. For more information, or to watch past events, visit our website. The MDI Science Cafe Series is brought to you by Cross Insurance. Subscribe Share Leave a comment
Amid trend in health optimization, Berkeley scientists focus on brain optimization
What’s a healthy body without a healthy brain? Neurologists, neuroscientists and psychologists unite to find metrics for brain health and effective training to improve it.
Hughes files for bankruptcy after GEO business loses ground to Starlink
EchoStar’s Hughes geostationary satellite broadband business has filed for bankruptcy in the United States after years of mounting competition from SpaceX’s Starlink constellation.
Inside Liverpool's summer so far
BBC Sport's Aadam Patel reports on the latest from the Liverpool tour of the United States.
As Global Land Degradation Accelerates, WCS Brings Science and Wildlife Conservation Expertise to UNCCD COP17 in Mongolia, August 17-28
ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia, August 3, 2026 — As land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change increasingly threaten ecosystems and communities around the world, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) will urge governments at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United
As Global Land Degradation Accelerates, WCS Brings Science and Wildlife Conservation Expertise to UNCCD COP17 in Mongolia
ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia, August 3, 2026 — As land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change increasingly threaten ecosystems and communities around the world, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) will urge governments at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United
Will Rupert Lowe and Nigel Farage unite the right in British politics?
Restore Britain leader has made a surprise offer of cooperation with Reform but some say it’s a trap
AIPAC Spending Dominates Michigan Senate Campaign Race
AIPAC's political arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP), has spent more than $30.6 million on the Michigan race.
Man Utd boss Skinner steps down before WSL season
Manchester United manager Marc Skinner steps down from his position before the start of the Women's Super League season.
AMC Entertainment Shatters Weekend Revenue Records – Sets the Highest Weekend Revenue Mark in the Company’s 106-Year History
More than 10.2 million moviegoers attended AMC Theatres in the United States and ODEON Cinemas internationally from Wednesday through Sunday…...
Microsoft Raises Xbox Prices by Up to 43% in Europe and UK
Microsoft is significantly increasing the prices of its Xbox gaming consoles starting August 1st across the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom. We were aware that the pricing strategy for the United States market involves an increase of up to $150, depending on the SKU. However, it...
SD United wins Fastpitch Northern National championship
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — SD United scored 15 unanswered runs to cruise to victory over SD Players in the Fastpitch Northern National championship on Sunday afternoon. The Players took a five-run lead in the top of the first inning but United came back ablaze, putting up five runs of their own to tie the […]
Native entrepreneurs don’t need discovery. They need opportunity.
Native entrepreneurship predates the United States. Rod Wilson argues the Native American Entrepreneurial Opportunity Act should remove barriers, not create opportunity.
Federal Policy Priorities To Strengthen Rural Health and Maximize Rural Health Transformation Program Investments
Executive Summary Rural health care in the United States is at an inflection point. The Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), enacted as part of H.R. 1, is a $50 billion, five-year investment designed to help states improve access, quality, and outcomes by transforming rural health care delivery. This investment takes place alongside an estimated $137 … Continued
Arkansas youth gather in North Little Rock for free mental health symposium to fight stigm
‘Cats,’ ‘Phantom’ and ‘Les Miz’ musicals briefly reunite in New York
Three musicals that once ruled Broadway are briefly sharing New York again, though none has returned in its original form.
Historic preservation supporters organize to oppose Trump changes
Historic preservation organizations in Colorado Springs, the remainder of Colorado and across the nation are organizing to resist a recent effort to relax and weaken historic preservation laws in the United States. In Washington, D.C., the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) has adopted a plan that will greatly reduce the powers of the United […]
Hospitals Can Save the Environment and Your Health — Or At Least Not Make Them Worse - Petrie-Flom Center
The provision of healthcare is responsible for roughly 8.5 percent of total carbon emissions in the United States. In turn, carbon emissions cause climate change and harm human health.
Inside the disunited United States that shadows the WNBA
Sophie Cunningham said what she said about transgender women in sports. Now others want their say, whether the WNBA wants to hear them or not.
Salah close to Trabzonspor move
Mohamed Salah edging towards a move to Trabzonspor, Bayern Munich keen on Manchester United striker Benjamin Sesko and Man City boss Enzo Maresca wants to work with Chelsea winger Pedro Neto again.
Xbox Series Prices Surge up to €200 in Europe as Microsoft Refuses to Bankroll the Troubled Division
Microsoft has raised Xbox Series S|X prices by up to €200 in Europe and £170 in the United Kingdom, making its sales prospect even more dire.
Harlem using history, art to drive business
New York City officials united in Harlem July 31 to announce Manhattan grants to improve the public realm and shined a spotlight on a large Harlem mural, half
Small business owners reunite for a second chance as The Collective Boutiques opens on Barnes Road
Vendors are moving back into the former Painted Tree boutique’s location on Barned Road this week, as a new company named The Collective Boutiques prepares to open its doors.
An Interview with Planetary Politics Director at New America Heela Rasool-Ayub
Heela Rasool-Ayub is director of the Planetary Politics initiative at New America. Before joining us for “Can the Energy Crisis Finally Unite Us?,” co-presented by Thomas Mann House and Zócalo Public Square in partnership with ASU Global Futures Laboratory and the Palisadian-Post, she joined us for a chat about economist Joseph Stiglitz, Afghan food, and the highlands of Ethiopia.
A London Startup Is Selling Permanent Stick-On Tattoos—and It Wants to Do Mail Order
Concerned parents of the world, unite.
City builds game plan for hockey, entertainment center
Moving ahead toward bringing a United States Hockey League franchise to the city, the Simi Valley City Council has created a work team to explore a proposed are
DHS blocks 43 Chinese companies from conducting business in the United States in historic move
The companies are blocked from importing products to the United States.
Registered nurses to protest layoffs at 17 CommonSpirit Health hospitals in California
Registered nurses will hold a press conference and rally at California Hospital Medical Center, in Los Angeles, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 3, to protest owner and operator CommonSpirit Health’s planned layoffs at 17 hospitals in California. Nurses say layoffs will jeopardize patient care and harm communities.
$4 Million Commitment Will Help UT Health Sciences Expand Health Hubs to Bring Preventive Care to More Communities Across Tennessee
Community and healthcare leaders, friends and partners of UT Health Sciences gathered to celebrate UnitedHealth Group’s announcement of a $4 million commitment to expand the neighborhood health hub model developed at the university from five to 13 across the state by the end of 2027.
Govs. Wes Moore & Kevin Stitt on dignity in politics: Full panel
Gov. Wes Moore (D-Md.), Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-Okla.) and UNITE CEO Tim Shriver join Kristen Welker for a Common Ground conversation on restoring civility and dignity in politics.
We toured United's fanciest Airbus jet yet; see inside the A321XLR
The Airbus A321XLR underscores United's continued push to court higher-paying travelers as demand for more comforts grows.
UN, scientists warn that strong El Nino will add fuel to ‘a planet already on fire’
The United Nations warns that a strengthening El Nino is intensifying global weather extremes and is adding fuel to a planet that it says is already on fire.
Wildfire smoke poses hidden health threat
Wildfires are often associated with the destruction they leave behind, but the smoke they produce can pose a serious health threat far beyond the fire zone, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
Analysis | Trump’s poll numbers just took another turn for the worse
The president of the United States is more unpopular than he has ever been, according to a series of polls of American voters ahead of the 2026 midterms.
United Way fund available to help Ely-area small businesses impacted by wildfires recover
Small business owners can begin applying for the aid today, Friday, July 31, and all local organizations actively responding to the wildfires are eligible to request funding, too.
The Federal Government’s $33.6 Trillion Health Care Problem
The Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) latest report on federal health-insurance subsidies estimates the federal government will subsidize health coverage by approximately $2.4 trillion in 2026, by $3.9 trillion by 2036, and by a total of $33.6 trillion over the intervening decade. For all the focus on health care costs in the United States, CBO’s new […]
LMH Health doctors provide insight into taking care of your heart
Heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the American Heart Association’s 2026 annual report. Despite advances in technology and treatment, prevention and early detection are essential. It’s important to know more about a heart-healthy lifestyle and the signs and symptoms to look for. For those without heart […]
Senate committee looks to stop AI-enabled fraud against older adults
AI-enabled fraud is projected to reach $40 billion in the United States next year
Jonathan Taylor Thomas reunites with 'Home Improvement' cast in rare photo
It may not be a reboot, but the cast of "Home Improvement" is getting the gang back together.
The new "science golden age" looks suspiciously like a grift
This edition of PN is made possible by paid subscribers. Become one ⬇️ 🚀 Subscribe to PN 🚀 The Trump regime is trying to usher in a “Golden Age in Science” where scientific research is run like a Trump family business, artificial intelligence is all that matters, profit is everything, and expertise is for chumps. Or at least that’s the vision emerging from a new 123-page “Report to the President” from Michael Kratsios, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In a normal administration, you could probably skip over learning about a science policy document — but this is no normal administration, and this is no normal science policy document. Instead, it’s Trump’s attempt to end the actual golden age of science that was kicked off in 1945 with the publication of '“The Endless Frontier” by Vannevar Bush. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/harmeet-dhillon-portland) [ Harmeet Dhillon demonstrates danger of posting through it ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/harmeet-dhillon-portland) Liz Dye · Jul 29 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/harmeet-dhillon-portland) Bush, at President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s request, laid out a vision of federal support for science that centered on funding universities to do basic research, saying that as long as those institutions were “vigorous and healthy and their scientists are free to pursue the truth wherever it may lead, there will be a flow of new scientific knowledge to those who can apply it to practical problems in Government, in industry, or elsewhere.” Kratsios’s report is supposed to be the successor to Bush’s, and even apes the format, but this isn’t really a document about science policy. It’s one about ending science research as we know it in favor of shoveling cash at big tech companies. While it might be temping to wave this away as an aspirational policy document, Trump has already begun to shift billions in research funds to AI projects and has taken a hatchet to science funding across the board. He’s teed up the shift Kratsios proposes here, and since neither Congress nor the Supreme Court seem inclined to stop him from doing whatever he wants with taxpayer money, it isn’t doomering or hyperbole to say we are staring down the barrel of a world where the only “science” the government intends to support is for-profit tech and defense advancements. Science for dummies Part of how you can tell this isn’t a document about science is that you are immediately faced with an absolute wall of business-speak of the worst sort. Did you know we must “tightly couple our science and technology enterprises to ensure that groundbreaking ideas invented in the United States are rapidly prototyped, tested, manufactured, and scaled domestically”? You do now! That tone isn’t surprising, because Kratsios has no background in science or research. He has a bachelor’s in political science and spent most of his career working for Peter Thiel at Thiel Capital. After a stint in the first Trump administration as Chief Technology Officer, where he also did not do any science, Kratsios was tasked in 2020 with overseeing the Pentagon’s research budget for a brief time, a position that, as the Wall Street Journal put it, “carries a great deal of power in terms of dictating investment allocations.” He spent the Biden years at Scale AI as “head of strategy,” which you will also note is neither a science nor a research job. But Scale AI has contracts with the Department of Defense and, as the Washington Post wrote in 2023, “has been aggressively pitching itself as the company that will help the US military in its existential battle with China.” And now you have the necessary background for our new golden age, which is going to be a golden age of taking money away from scientists and universities and giving it to companies like Scale AI. A note from Aaron: Working with brilliant contributors like Lisa takes resources. If you aren’t already a paid subscriber, please become one to support our work. 👇 Subscribe In a genuinely galling move, Katsios spends a lot of time slamming universities because of “administrative burdens on researchers” and the “well-documented inefficiencies” in academia, the message being that those damn universities waste the time of amazing researchers with paperwork. Except it’s the administration that is attempting to impose inefficient, unnecessary burdens on those researchers with a proposed Office of Management and Budget rule that would require senior political appointees to approve every science grant and ensure it aligns with Trump’s personal priorities. Researchers would also have to seek prior government approval to attend conferences or publicize their research. And political appointees could terminate any grant at any time if they feel like it. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/omb-rule-science-funding) [ The murder of expertise ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/omb-rule-science-funding) Lisa Needham · Jun 11 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/omb-rule-science-funding) But when it comes to AI, we’re going to “restore permissionless innovation.” The report proposes to give lucky ducky innovators a pile of cash up front for grants lasting five years or longer, saying “awards should be fully-funded in year one, with all resources earmarked upfront, to minimize administrative burdens and reduce pressure for researchers to generate intermediate results to secure continued funding.” Yeah, wouldn’t want to have to make the Very Special Tech Bros show results or get money parceled out year by year like the plebes at universities. The report also proposes that we should have “fast grants” with “simplified applications requiring just a few pages of writing” because that is definitely how science works, just writing a bit off the dome and getting some cash. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-ai-action-plan-altman-llms) [ Tech elites are turning AI into ChatGPTrump ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-ai-action-plan-altman-llms) Paul Waldman · July 29, 2025 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-ai-action-plan-altman-llms) Oh, and we should have prizes and challenges, where multiple teams compete. The proposed prizes include incentives like “advance procurement commitments,” which means the federal government agrees to buy whatever is being developed. There’s also “regulatory fast-tracking,” making sure all those great AI thingies don’t have to wait too long to be unleashed on a market. These aren’t incentives to do science. These are incentives to develop things with tax dollars that you can then sell to the government for more tax dollars. In the suggestion that might be the most unhinged, the most very opposite of how both government and research work, our new age will include “golden tickets.” That’s where an individual reviewer in an agency — yes, just one person — can “recommend unconventional proposals that may not pass consensus-driven review panels” because somehow this will “surface valuable ideas too divisive for committees and attract higher quality reviewers by empowering them to exercise independent scientific judgment.” Yes, that’s saying that a random person in an agency should be able to shovel money at some idea even if it can’t pass a review panel, and that the opportunity to do so will attract better employees because apparently all the best minds in science are chomping at the bit to be allowed to unilaterally fund AI research based on their personal vibes. But that isn’t at all how actual science works, and actual scientists aren’t unhappy about review panels. They work collaboratively, not siloed in some secret race to create the next AI chatbot. A 2020 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research examined whether peer review panels succeed in helping agencies predict which research ideas will best advance science. Peer review was better at finding “diamond in the rough” applicants than a single government program official. How about that. Trump always wants a taste It’s painfully clear that what Katsios is trying to do here is turn the whole of government science research and funding into the sort of “move fast and break things” paradigm that is the hallmark of big tech. That method works to line the pockets of tech executives, but it isn’t science. There’s a reason the government funds different kinds of research than private tech companies do. What Katsios either fails to understand or deliberately ignores is that the federal government is the main funder of basic research precisely because it can take a long time for it to bear fruit and is not intended to be profitable as such. “Basic” here does not mean rudimentary or simple, but rather research that is designed to advance scientific knowledge instead of achieving a specific outcome or product. Big tech companies don’t widely fund that sort of research, because it doesn’t make them money. Industry dollars account for only about 20 percent of basic research funding, while the government contributes around 60 percent. Big tech companies and startups do, however, rely on and benefit from that basic research. A 2019 study found that 35 percent of all patents obtained by venture-backed startups from 1976 to 2016 cited federally supported research. Basic research funded by the NIH contributed to every single drug the FDA approved from 2010 to 2016. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-saudi-nuclear-deal) [ The Saudi nuclear farce and governance by whim and meme ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-saudi-nuclear-deal) Noah Berlatsky · Jul 27 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-saudi-nuclear-deal) Unlike inventing the next ChatGPT, actual science is slow and iterative. Government funding of research that, on its face, would not appear to lead to any big new invention is actually what underpins those big new inventions. If the government hadn’t funded research into desert lizard venom, we wouldn’t know about semaglutide, and we wouldn’t have Ozempic. If research scientists hadn’t studied how bees optimize nectar foraging within a colony, we wouldn’t have the algorithm that assigns internet traffic across computer servers. The report assiduously ignores that a symbiotic, profitable relationship between the federal government, universities, and private companies already exists. Each federal research dollar generates about $1.50 to $3.00 in long-term economic benefits. The $36 billion the government awarded in NIH research funding in fiscal year 2025 generated $94 billion in new economic activity. Trump’s proposed new golden age is intended to strip those billions from universities, resulting in the dismantling of departments and the shuttering of labs. But Katsios has a plan for that: Universities should just become trade schools to churn out no-show STEM degrees! “Require universities and community colleges to embed practical technical training and externships into STEM curricula. Let hands-on experience and industry credentials count toward degrees.” It’s quite the feat to, on the one hand, strip schools of funding for scientific research while simultaneously demanding to control what is taught and, oh, also, colleges need to give degrees to employees at big tech companies just for being employees at big tech companies. The new golden age would also exacerbate the brain drain Trump’s policies have already caused. Nature found that in the first quarter of 2025, US scientists submitted 32 percent more job applications abroad than in 2024. A March 2025 poll by Nature of roughly 1,600 scientists found that over 1,200 said they were considering leaving the country. Europe is investing $565 million to make it a “magnet for researchers” and provide funding for scientists who relocate. The new golden age is also about embedding Trump’s xenophobia into the fabric of American science. The report complains of an “over-reliance on foreign students” that “creates a security challenge our institutions are ill-equipped to address” and that a “reliance on foreign talent sidelines American students.” This is, to put it mildly, nonsense. International students pay far higher tuition and often receive no financial aid. Their tuition dollars are what make it possible for American students to get financial aid. In the 2023-2024 school year alone, international students contributed $43.8 billion to the US economy and supported over 378,000 jobs. Those 1.1 million international students accounted for only six percent of the total number of students in higher education that year, but were such an economic engine that for every three international students, one job was created or supported. It’s impossible not to wonder whether part of Trump’s loathing for universities and their leading role in scientific research is that there is no way for him to corrupt the process and make money off it in the same way he can by giving millions and billions to Silicon Valley types who, in turn, give him millions in cash. There’s no way for his children to invest in universities that the government then gives no-bid contracts to, fattening the family’s bottom line, which is pretty much the Trump sons’ current venture capital practice. Trump and Katsios’s view of science is narrow, cramped, and wrong. We’re not in a crisis, we’re not a failed state. We’ve been a science superpower for decades, and the only thing that threatens that is Donald Trump. Tech bros are already living high off the hog in this administration. They don’t need any more of our tax dollars. Hopefully this new golden age never comes to pass. Thanks for reading Public Notice. This post is public so feel free to share it. Share We’ll be back with more tomorrow. If you appreciate today’s PN, please do your part to keep us free by signing up for a paid subscription. 🚀 Subscribe to PN 🚀 Thanks for reading, and for your support.
After Hobbes vs Rousseau: Politics must move beyond human nature
Since the great debate between Hobbes and Rousseau, our political theory has been organised around a single question: is human nature essentially good or essentially corrupt? Graham Harman, the philosopher behind object-oriented ontology, argues that this is simply the wrong question to be asking. The real forces governing our collective fate - climate change, artificial intelligence, geography, and pandemics - are non-human; therefore, questions about human nature are not the central ones. Instead, Harman proposes a politics reorganised around our relationship to non-human objects and environments, in which quasi-government institutions incentivise and deter actions with the aim of extending the survival of the human race. “It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” This has become one of the most popular phrases among twenty-first-century intellectuals. Often misattributed to Fredric Jameson, it has been warmly embraced by such influential authors as Slavoj Žižek and the tragically departed Mark Fisher, and has fueled the notion that the major problem with the political Left is that it simply needs to become more speculative and creative. Naturally, this is never a bad idea in any human pursuit. But what if the political distinction between Left, Right, and Center itself results from a failure of imagination? SUGGESTED READING Hobbes vs Rousseau: are we inherently evil? By Robin Douglass This particular division has been with us only since the summer of 1789. During the simmering prelude to the French Revolution, it referred originally to the physical position in the National Assembly of radical figures on one side and loyal monarchists on the other. These positions are linked with two entirely different camps of modern political theory. On the Left we find a series of authors ranging from the moderate (Locke) to the supercharged (Rousseau) to the truly radical (Marx), all of them contending that exploitation of the many by the few justifies revolutionary overthrow of the existing order. On the Right they are countered by the likes of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Schmitt, a group of thinkers convinced that corrupt human nature can be tamed only by force. In the words of the Nazi supporter Schmitt: “One could test all theories of nature and state and political ideas according to their anthropology and classify these as to whether they consciously or unconsciously presuppose [humans] to be by nature evil or by nature good.” This is the division we continue to face today, even in the daily retail politics of Western democracies.___Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims.___The most refreshing feature of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s 2021 book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity was their awareness that the forced choice between Rousseau and Hobbes (as they put it) is no longer sufficient. Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims. Far from being stationed “beyond good and evil,” we seem to be fully entangled with both. We are not naturally good or evil, Graeber and Wengrow contend, but naturally experimental and imaginative. They rest their case on the archaeological record, which seems to bear witness to numerous episodes of seasonally shifting governments and festivals, which vacillate in the same society (even in the same year) between the egalitarian and the dictatorial. Such praise of political experiment makes a good fit with the generally anarchist position defended by these authors. Yet it is also what I find most disappointing in their position. Although they are right that the forced choice between Hobbes and Rousseau falls short of what our new situation requires, the authors simply replace it with praise for the human being as a political tinkerer and performer. In other words, they give us just another theory of human nature, one that would not have been out of place in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. What other options might we have?___The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature… We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them___One fresh approach would be to treat politics within a broader framework than human nature, given that the polis does not exist in a vacuum filled exclusively with people. When Bruno Latour went to observe the baboons of Kenya with the San Diego anthropologist Shirley Strum, they jointly concluded that these primates were more socially interdependent than our own species. Each baboon is so reliant on the dynamics of the group that they find themselves locked into constant surveillance of their potentially dangerous peers. The group structure turns out to be inherently volatile. Humans, by contrast, are able to stabilize their societies to a large degree through the mediation of inanimate objects. Although one’s position in society may seem to fluctuate over time, considerable stability is produced through such items as apartment keys, wedding rings, and identification cards, all of them serving to secure us a place distinct from that of our fellows. The Italian philosopher Maurizio Ferraris has written at length about the crucial role of documents in establishing social relations, making him a hero among notaries in his country. Proper names and license plates cement our position amidst other humans, as do symbolic achievements such as graduation from a top university or distinguished wartime service with its various medals and ribbons. None of this is found among baboons, despite their closeness to us on the evolutionary tree: after all, we did share a common ancestor just 25 to 30 million years ago. SUGGESTED VIEWING The goodness paradox With Richard Wrangham The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature, whether understood in the manner of the Left or of the Right. We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them. But initially, it is true, we face non-human things primarily in the form of constraints. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to form a human civilization underwater, deep underground, atop Mount Everest, or in outer space. Human dependence on the non-social background takes on subtler form in discussions of political geography, especially unloved on the more idealistic Left. Consider the luckless position of Poland during World War II, sandwiched between Hitler on one side and Stalin on the other. By contrast, note the good fortune of the United States in not having a military peer positioned on any land border. Anglo-American geopolitics, since the writings of the American naval commander Alfred Thayer Mahan and the British geographer Sir Halford Mackinder, has been wedded to the notion that one or more liberal offshore naval powers should prevent any authoritarian “heartland” regime from gaining effective control of Eurasia. That remains the case whether the opponent is the impatient Napoleon, the swashbuckling German Kaiser, the villainous Hitler, the murderous Stalin, or the industrial juggernaut Chinese. In their current Foreign Affairs article “Heartland vs. Rimland,” Michael Beckley and Hal Brands analyze the current and coming state of the world on the basis of these same rather durable principles. In recent years a similar outlook has been embraced, in inverted form, by the Putin-loving Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, an icon of the Rightist intellectual underworld. For Dugin, the Anglo-Saxons are an evil force bent on destroying the spiritually superior people of the land: much like Athens in its failed war with Sparta, or Carthage in its eventual collapse against Rome. But the shared notion on both sides is that any strategy that fails to take geography into account is likely to end up as a defeated form of excessive optimism.___When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole.___More striking for us today than geography is the non-human object called climate, which threatens rimland and heartland equally. Even if we contend that humans are one hundred percent responsible for triggering the climate crisis, it remains non-human in the sense of being an independent force beyond our effective control. In a major work published just before his death in 2002, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, the American paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould noted the tendency of evolutionary theorists to focus too closely on the fate of individuals in view of their successful or failed adaptation to circumstances. With climate change, however, we confront a force that goes well beyond the scope of any individual life. Whereas Richard Dawkins extended evolutionary questions downward from individuals to the sub-individual gene, Gould pushed it upward, speaking of entire species or clades as impacted by environmental change. The asteroid that struck the Yucatán 66 million years ago is only the most famous example of this sort. In the wake of that catastrophe, large animals needing abundant supplies of food were at a fatal disadvantage by contrast with the smaller birds and mammals of the planet. When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole. The effect is to shift our attention away from individual beings towards the survival of the group.In the United States in particular, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked considerable backlash among those who asserted a nearly absolute degree of individual freedom. In California I encountered those who demanded that their businesses be allowed to reopen, that it was enough to cover their mouths but not their noses, or that they should have the right to enter any public area despite refusing vaccination. Yet public health is probably the clearest argument against libertarianism, which often merely asserts the autonomy of individuals against any claims of the commons. In normal times the individual is worth defending; under conditions that threaten the survival of part or all of our species, compulsion may be our only resort, as with perfectly reasonable blackouts and rations in wartime. To rebuild human society under the constraints of climate change will be one of the great challenges of the century to come, as will our improvised grappling with artificial intelligence. Such phenomena pose existential risks for humanity, and leave far less room for tolerance of individual brattiness. Cases are mounting of devastating wildfires caused by arson. Recently it was reported that there is even a website where one can bet on the location of coming wildfires, raising the specter of deliberate blazes set to collect on wagers. The death penalty has steadily lost support in a world where many stress the infinite value of human life. But if we focus instead on entire ecosystems, those who purposely burn the forests may begin to look worse than serial murderers.___The politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere.___So far I have spoken of force, authority, and punishment: measures sure to have greater appeal to those who identify with what we know as the Right. But other implications of the post-anthropocentric world are likely to have different backers. If non-human objects are seen as structuring political space, it stands to reason that they can no longer be introduced solely by the pace of technical breakthrough. Fields ranging from cybernetics to energy will demand increased politicization once they are reconceived not just as products of individual human investment, but as renovations of collective political geography. This need not involve world government, with its inherent risk of tyranny, but may involve quasi-governmental enforcers of prestige along the lines of a less corrupt FIFA or International Olympic Committee, punishing deviant states not with violence but with less tangible incentives.Politics will never lose its historic links with conflict and faction. But rather than factions aligned by differing theories of human nature, the politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere. This will prove just as incommensurable with the modern Left/Right spectrum as a globe is with a two-dimensional map.
Why Americans are leasing fewer cars
Vehicle leasing has declined in the United States in recent years, curbing what has long been a preferred route to new wheels for many car shoppers.
With future of U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade in limbo, Texas businesses navigate choppy waters
The Trump administration announced July 1 it would not renew the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Rising uncertainty has led businesses that depend on the trade pact to pull back on investment in Texas, experts say.
Introducing: The TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph x Team Ikuzawa, A Glassbox Inspired by Japanese Racing Heritage
TAG Heuer, Team Ikuzawa and Bamford Watch Department reunite for a second edition, this time based on the 39mm Carrera Glassbox Chronograph.
'Transition moments were exciting'
Bristol City head coach Michael Skubala liked the intensity in his side as they beat Newcastle United 4-1 in a pre-season friendly.
Political Science 101: Socialism vs. Communism
Now, either the President of the United States doesn’t understand the differences between democratic socialism, which is an economic philosophy that is gaining some momentum on the far left right now, particularly among younger voters, and communism; or Trump is merely slinging emotionally-charged rhetoric at people who also don’t understand the distinctions. There is a word for that technique; it’s called “propaganda.”
United need winning edge to avoid 'meh' season
Dundee United's campaign last season fell in to the 'meh' category. The United fans will be hoping there is more to get them excited this time round. The challenge now for United will be turning a few more of those draws into wins.
California’s hostage crisis shows political violence is at a breaking point
Ideological violence in the United States continues to evolve in ways that make ordinary Americans increasingly vulnerable.
DoorDash is building its own drone delivery business
DoorDash has received FAA approval to operate a commercial drone delivery service in the United States.
What's the Antidote to Political Polarization?
As the United States commemorates 250 years of independence in 2026, the landmark event has arrived during a time of increased political polarization. According to a recent Pew Research Center study, 69% of Americans are dissatisfied with how things are going in the U.S., and 59% believe the country’s best days are behind it. Yet a majority (68%) still feel hopeful about the nation’s future. Bestselling author, social scientist, and Vanderbilt University professor Dr. Arthur Brooks shares that optimism—in part because he sees a clear path out of the divisiveness.
Will Beyoncé and Lady Gaga Reunite for “Get Me Bodied” Remix?
Beyoncé registered a version of her song "Get Me Bodied" with Lady Gaga.
Eagles, defensive tackle Jalen Carter agree to record $152M extension
The Philadelphia Eagles and Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jalen Carter agreed to a four-year, $152 million extension, Rosenhaus Sports said Tuesday.
USA's Sebastian Berhalter Joins Middlesbrough From Vancouver Whitecaps
United States midfielder Sebastian Berhalter has transferred to English Championship side Middlesbrough from the Vancouver Whitecaps, announced by both clubs Tuesday.
Trump Administration Releases New Government-Wide Policy to End Dangerous High-Risk Research
HHS applauds the release of the Trump Administration’s new United States Government Policy for Stopping High-Risk Life Sciences Research.
Voices In Science Lecture Aug. 13: Learn About New Mexico 250 Years Ago By State Historian Rob Martínez
NMDCA News: As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science (NMMNHS) is thrilled to welcome State Historian of New Mexico Rob Martínez for a lecture discussing what the Land of Enchantment looked like in 1776. Voices in Science: New Mexico 1776. Celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary […]
Rise in US preteen suicide rate alarms mental health experts
The number of preteens — ages 8 to 12 — who die by suicide in the United States each year is relatively small. But the total in 2025 was 194 — the most since at least 2001, according to preliminary data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Stellantis Announces Agreement to Sell Free2move’s Car-sharing Business to Mutares
Free2move provides free-floating car-sharing services in Europe and the United States Stellantis will prioritize continuity for cu
Betye Saar dead: Assemblage artist 'liberated' Aunt Jemima
Betye Saar, a Los Angeles artist who transformed collections of bigoted bric-a-brac — Sambo dolls, ceramic mammies, and crude renderings of pickaninnies — into potent works of assemblage that mined the searing history of race in the United States, and whose works would influence generations artists in her wake, has died.
As Communities Unite Against Europe’s Wildfires, Politicians Trade Blows
Spain’s center-left accused conservatives of underfunding the disaster response, while critics of France’s government decried delays.
GalaxyCon Raleigh unites fans through cosplay, fandom and community
An annual convention brought together actors, artists, entertainers and fans in downtown Raleigh. GalaxyCon Raleigh, a four-day ‘festival of fandom’, took place at the Raleigh Convention Center from Thursday through Sunday.
Millions more Americans may now be eligible for statins. What the new cholesterol guidelines mean
Updated cholesterol guidelines could make more than half of adults ages 30 to 79 in the United States eligible for statins. Here’s what patients should know.
Nick Woltemade told he's free to leave Newcastle on loan
Newcastle United are planning to send Nick Woltemade out on loan for the 2026/27 season, according to The Athletic.The Premier League club have already informed the German forward of their decision, w...
Gossip: Zirkzee wanted by Juventus
Serie A side Juventus are working on a deal to sign forward Joshua Zirkzee from Manchester United. (Gazzetta dello Sport - in Italian)
Scientists Found a Genius Way to Remove 'Forever Chemicals' From Soil
It's a really, really big mess we've made.
Matches To Make After Busy Combat Weekend
UFC Abu Dhabi went down yesterday (Sat., July 25, 2026) inside Etihad Arena (a.k.a. Fight Island) in United Arab Emirates which saw Magomed Ankalaev stop Bogdan Guskov in the fifth and final round of their Light Heavyweight main event (highlights). But UFC wasn’t the only show on during a busy sports weekend that also included […]
United reportedly approached Delta Air Lines about a potential merger
The reported tie-up would have combined two of the nation’s largest airlines, but the preliminary discussions did not advance and both carriers ultimately moved on.
LIV Golf United Kingdom Best Moments ⛳️ Golf on FOX
Check out the best moments from LIV Golf United Kingdom!
Pirlo position further weakened by fresh Russian gambling revelation
Andrea Pirlo’s hopes of becoming Italy coach took another battering after FC United owner Sergey Lomakin denied he was behind the contract with Russian gambling company Fonbet.The global brand ambas...
VT’s big names in politics; Examining the past 250 years in state governance
VERMONT — While the United States celebrates its 250th year as a nation, Vermont technically has one more year to wait.
United quietly pursued a merger with Delta last year: report
The Wall Street Journal reports Chicago-based United Airlines approached Delta last year about a merger, but talks ended before advancing.
The false dichotomy between capitalism and socialism in US politics
Opinion: The political debate in the United States over capitalism and socialism is centered on an over-simplified and false dichotomy, writes Dave Anderson.
Exclusive | United Approached Delta Last Year About Merging Airlines
United Chief Executive Scott Kirby called Delta’s CEO to discuss a potential deal but the talks didn’t progress, according to people familiar with the matter.
Who are Newcastle United (Part Two)?
This has been a difficult week, with thoughts very much dwelling on a pair of Newcastle United heroes. The loss of Kevin Keegan hit me like a ton of bricks.
MLS eyes $400 million TV deal amid crowded soccer landscape
Major League Soccer is hoping to capitalize on growing interest in soccer in the United States while nearly tripling the value of its next media rights deal. According to ESPN’s Ben Strauss, MLS is targeting annual rights fees between $400 million and $500 million when its exclusive agreement with Apple expires after the 2029 season.…
Google Maps "2026 Update" Now Rolling Out, Also Available on Android Auto and CarPlay
Immersive navigation started showing up for more users, though the availability is limited to some region, most of them in the United States
US measles cases reach 35-year high, for second record-breaking year in a row
Measles has continued its historic resurgence in the United States this year, with a second record-breaking year in a row.
Carlisle sign defender Duru on one-year deal
Carlisle United sign former Blackburn defender Leo Duru on a one-year contract, with the option of a further year.
‘E pluribus unum’ is not a slogan. It’s a choice
Like two sides of a coin imprinted with the nation’s motto, “e pluribus unum” — out of many, one — America’s political factions are cast in opposition, but they are intrinsically bound together as parts of a larger whole. From the beginning, the United States has aspired to build a more perfect union. When our founders […]
Some people are getting shut out when it comes to GLP-1 drugs. Here’s why.
People with obesity in the United States are being sorted between haves and have-nots.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope reportedly negotiating buyout with Grizzlies, intends to reunite with LeBron James on Sixers
The two won a title together with the Lakers in 2020.
ESPN lines up six European preseason matches following World Cup
The World Cup may be over, but ESPN is betting that viewers are still interested in soccer by televising six preseason matches featuring European clubs touring the United States. The matches will see Liverpool FC, Wrexham AFC, Leeds United and Sunderland AFC playing in Nashville, New York City, Chicago, Tampa, and Philadelphia. Of the six…
New business numbers should be source of optimism
We know and share in the pain that fluctuating energy costs and gas prices and a decade of rising prices for groceries and other costs of living have inflicted on our nation and region. A Center Square article in Tuesday’s edition of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette offered some good news: The United States has seen nearly […]
Understanding the ERC Pleading Standard: Federal Claims Court Deferral in I Health and Life Insurance Services
I Health and Life Insurance Services v. United States, No. 25-1315T, United States Court of Federal Claims, July 23, 2026 For tax professionals advising clients on the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), the litigation landscape continues to evolve, establishing rigorous pleading and evidentiary stan
WATCH: Trump touts new nuclear reactors in his push to speed up domestic power
President Donald Trump hosted executives from nuclear power companies Friday in the Oval Office to celebrate a new milestone in the White House’s push to accelerate the growth of nuclear power in the United States.
ULA deals with financial challenges caused by Vulcan grounding
United Launch Alliance’s corporate parents have guaranteed a loan to the company as it addresses “financial challenges” caused by the Vulcan grounding.
Trump warns China and Russia not to ‘give or sell’ weapons to Iran
President Donald Trump says it would be “very bad” for Chinese President Xi Jinping or Russian President Vladimir Putin if Washington discovers they are supplying weapons to Tehran as the war between the United States and Iran escalates. “President Xi, at our recent meeting in Beijing, China, told me that he would not, under any […]