The tide is turning.

Hamas is so weak right now that it faces challenges to its control of Gaza and can likely cling to power only by massacring its Palestinian enemies, just as it did in 2007 following violent clashes with its political rival Fatah. -- Consider this a win for President Donald Trump, who brought about the ceasefire. It’s also an acceptable outcome for Israel, which has seen the return of all living hostages. And, perhaps most important, this might the best anyone can really hope for in the Middle East.

"After needling both sides with the Tomahoax scam, Trump expectedly revealed the farce by turning Zelensky’s triumphant White House homecoming into a humiliation ritual instead. The Tomahawks are officially off the table….for now."

You might say the headline seems hyperbolic; however, you probably have not watched the interview. You only need to watch the first few minutes to see a comprehensively diminished Volodymyr Zelenskyy engaged in a conversation with Kirsten Welker who plays the role of comfort aid. The way Welker patronizes Zelenskyy with her tone is almost embarrassing.

"The series [8 seasons, 91 episodes] is set in Liverpool from 1860-1886 and covers the rise of a fictional shipping company, the Onedin Line, named after its owner, Captain James Onedin. It depicts the lives of his family, most notably his brother and partner Robert, a ship chandler, and his sister Elizabeth, giving insight into the lifestyle and customs at the time, not only at sea, but also ashore (mostly lower- and upper-middle-class). The series illustrates the changes in business and shipping, such as from wooden to steel ships and from sailing ships to steamships. It also shows the role that ships played in such matters as international politics, uprisings and the slave trade."

no paywall: https://archive.ph/QZa6a#selection-965.0-967.11

If you like that view, you might also like this 2022 piece "The Taliban Were Afghanistan’s Real Modernizers"

What are the results of the UniParty warmongers' economic sanctions against China? (1) Nvidia lost paying customers forever--paying customers that would have generated revenue to enable Nvidia to hire more US engineers to improve their computer hardware accelerator technologies for AI. (2) China lost access to cutting edge (i.e., Nvidia) computer hardware accelerator technologies for AI temporarily; they simply used US economic sanctions policy to promote Made-in-China computer hardware accelerator technologies alternatives for AI that are now, according to Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang, "just nanoseconds behind the US (i.e., Nvidia)" in the field of AI.

Western media looks for human interest stories in returning Israeli prisoners, who suffered no such abuse.

The House Oversight Committee on Friday released the transcript of testimony by Menchel’s former boss, Alexander Acosta, who testified Sept. 19 in front of the committee. Acosta, Trump’s former labor secretary, testified that he and other federal prosecutors, including Menchel, didn’t want to take Epstein’s case to trial because they considered it a “crapshoot.”

AIPAC didn’t have much reason to be concerned about the right side of the aisle, but recent polling shows that younger Republicans are growing skeptical of Israel, like everyone else. The numbers indicate that the shift has been driven, in part, by the genocide in Gaza. For instance, a March 2025 Pew Poll found that 50% of GOP voters under the age of 50 now express a negative view of Israel, compared to 35% in 2022.

Brian Potter is the author of the Construction Physics newsletter and a senior infrastructure fellow at the Institute for Progress. He writes about the technology and economics of building construction, with a focus on improving productivity and reducing costs. He previously managed an engineering team at Katerra, a SoftBank-backed construction startup, and has 15 years of experience as a structural engineer. He holds a bachelor’s in civil engineering from Georgia Tech and a master’s in systems engineering from the University of Central Florida.

After President Trump took a very visible position against the International Maritime Organization’s plan to levy a global shipping tax, the EU favored climate scam fundraiser has been stalled for a year. In addition to President Trump, Saudi Arabia, Russia and China opposed the tax on shipping. The result from the meeting in London is a year delay before the next vote.

Reform UK would be on course to win 445 seats - with Labour down to 73 MPs if an election was held tomorrow.

Feminization = Wokeness

"The Trump administration will set price floors across a range of industries to combat market manipulation by China, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC in an exclusive interview Wednesday. . . The U.S. could take equity stakes in other companies in the wake of Beijing’s rare earth restrictions, Bessent told CNBC." TL;DR: By your own damn folly, provoke a "crisis", then use that "crisis" as an excuse to enlarge government and enrich MIC UniParty cronies and insiders.

Advances in AI have major implications for cybersecurity, both for attackers or defenders. For defenders, AI enables solutions like formal verification of software—but only for large companies. Small companies often rely on legacy software and struggle to implement best practices like rapid deployment of security patches. These decisions may be due to inertia, but may also be a calculation that attackers will ignore small companies due to a lack of economic incentives, and hence underinvestment in defense will not be punished. This approach to security may have been sufficient prior to the era of ubiquitous AI, but it is unlikely to remain viable in the future.

Paywall Archive: https://archive.is/BfQ9r

If Israelis aren't held accountable, its because of extortion, threats and bribery of Western political elites.

Traditional peacekeeper nations like Ireland, Canada and Norway would too, if not blocked by EU and Anglo-US footdragging

Multiple Palestinian clans or gangs are fighting against Hamas and it seems quite possible a final internal convulsion is at hand.

Hamas reportedly acknowledged the killings in a statement that claimed the victims were “criminals and collaborators with Israel.” Hamas has executed quite a few Palestinians during the Gaza war, and usually claims its victims were collaborating with Israel. -- “This time people weren’t fleeing Israeli attacks. They were running from their own people,” said a dismayed Gaza City resident.

Trump put his reputation on the line by inviting heads of state to the peace deal announcement. Netanyahu is making a total fool out of him.

A spooky convergence is happening in media. Everything that is not already television is turning into television. Only a small share of time spent on Meta's platforms is truly “social” networking—that is, time spent checking in with friends and family. More than 80 percent of time spent on Facebook and more than 90 percent of time spent on Instagram is spent watching videos. Secondly, the most successful podcasts these days are all becoming YouTube shows. Thirdly, in the last few weeks, Meta introduced a product called Vibes, and OpenAI announced Sora. Both are "social" networks where users actually just watch endless videos generated by AI.

In AI sycophancy, an AI excessively agrees with or flatters it users, often reinforcing their delusions. Most AI models are highly sycophantic: they affirm users' actions 50% more than humans do, even when user queries mention manipulation, deception, or other relational harms. Sycophantic AI erodes users judgment and reduces their inclination toward prosocial behavior and willingness to repair interpersonal conflicts. Nevertheless, users rated sycophantic AI responses as higher quality, trusted sycophantic AI more, and were more willing to use it again. These preferences create perverse incentives for people to rely on sycophantic AI and for AI model training to favor sycophancy.