curated citations to news sources
Fortune: AI experts return from China stunned: The U.S. grid is so weak, the race may already be over
“Everywhere we went, people treated energy availability as a given,” Rui Ma wrote on X after returning from a recent tour of China’s AI hubs.
For American AI researchers, that’s almost unimaginable. In the U.S., surging AI demand is colliding with a fragile power grid, the kind of extreme bottleneck that Goldman Sachs warns could severely choke the industry’s growth.
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Meanwhile, David Fishman, a Chinese electricity expert who has spent years tracking their energy development, told Fortune that in China, electricity isn’t even a question. On average, China adds more electricity demand than the entire annual consumption of Germany, every single year. Whole rural provinces are blanketed in rooftop solar, with one province matching the entirety of India’s electricity supply.
(Fortune more…)
James Eagle: Grok and Claude are winning the AI race
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – August 17, 2025
On the heels of President Donald J. Trump’s Friday meeting with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, Trump will meet with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky Monday afternoon at the White House. According to Barak Ravid of Axios, Trump called Zelensky from Air Force One on the way home from Alaska. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House special envoy Steve Witkoff were also on the hour-long call. The leaders of the European Commission, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the United Kingdom then joined the call for another half hour.
In the call, Trump embraced Putin’s view of the conflict, telling Zelensky and European leaders that Putin does not want a ceasefire. Trump indicated that he is abandoning his own demand for a ceasefire and adopting Putin’s position that negotiations should take place without one. Zelensky insists on a ceasefire before negotiations. After the call, Trump posted on social media that “it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.” “All” is doing a lot of work in that sentence: it appears to mean Putin, with the possible agreement now of Trump.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Daily Beast: Zelensky Undermines Trump Before Big Meeting Even Begins
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“Peace must be lasting,” Zelensky said in his post. “Not like it was years ago, when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of our East—part of Donbas—and Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack.”He added, “Of course, Crimea should not have been given up then, just as Ukrainians did not give up Kyiv, Odesa, or Kharkiv after 2022. Ukrainians are fighting for their land, for their independence. Now, our soldiers have successes in Donetsk and Sumy regions.”
(Daily Beast more…)
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Fred Wellman: We should be judged by how we treat our fellow humans in need
Right now Trump and Republican members of Congress are telling us exactly how they should be judged and it is monstrous
The ‘canary in the coal mine’ is dying
A few of the House Republicans have been busily hitting their districts this summer trying to sell the ‘Big Billionaire Bill’ as a huge boon to average Americans. They are eagerly telling anyone that will listen how they ‘stopped’ the biggest tax increase in history; about the no tax on tips or overtime charade; and how we are all getting a tax break.Then there is the fantasy world where Trump has been going on TV and flat out lying that he signed a ‘no tax on social security’ in the bill which is a complete fabrication.
I live in Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District and our ‘Representative’ Ann Wagner has been making very targeted visits to supporters businesses and friendly venues to tout her heroic work saving the little guys with her vote for the BBB.
It would be more believable if we didn’t already know that she is estimated to be the 40th richest person in either the Senate or House, and number 11 on the list of members by increased portfolio last year according to research by Unusual Whales.
…A key early indicator of hard times is what happens at the places provide food for the neediest among us in the United States. They feel what is coming immediately and the indications are absolutely disastrous.
The proverbial ‘canary in the coal mine’ is in trouble.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Metro Columnist, and Pulitzer Prize winner, Tony Messenger has a column out today on what he has found unfolding at three area food pantries that serve the neediest members of the regions communities.
It’s bad.
(Fred Wellman more…)
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Real Clear Politics: Andrea Mitchell: DC Police Arresting Fewer People Than “Normal” After Federal Takeover
Law & Chaos: Trump Admin Beats Hasty Retreat On DC Police Order
DOJ seems leery of another contempt order.
Daily Beast: ICE Goons Tear Down Pro-Immigration Banner and Leave Sex Toy on Display
FORGOT SOMETHING?
Masked agents staged a photo op with a NSFW outcome.
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Dispatch: Douglas Wilson’s America
His work to create a confessionally Christian state is the wrong antidote to what he seeks to cure.
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Steven Beschloss: Which Side of History Are You On?
That question becomes more critical as Trump’s authoritarianism escalates
(Steven Beschloss more…)
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Silver Bulletin: How many seats will Texas redistricting cost Democrats?
It all depends on whether the GOP can hold onto their gains among Hispanic voters.
(Silver Bulletin more…)Jess Piper: They Can’t See What I See
Because they aren’t from where I’m from
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I am a rural person who does the work and listens to communities across the country and talks to rural Democrats on a near weekly basis. I know what I know. You can trust that I know these things because you know where I live and you know what I do.Here’s what I know: Democrats can’t win without being in rural spaces. There’s no way around it and you know that fact because you know who is in charge. The Republicans have the Presidency, the House, the Senate, and they have captured SCOTUS.
That wasn’t a fluke. It was decades of work by the GOP. Some of it was cheating (gerrymandering and voter suppression) but much of it was slipping in where the Democrats left off. Rural races and city council races and school board races. And then higher offices.
They started at the most local level.
It wasn’t necessarily hard work, but it was persistent work. Because they went to places Democrats had ceded. They won, and we lost.
We’ve lost nearly everything because we decided not every voter was worth the effort.
There is a way out of this mess, and it’s right in front of our faces, but I can’t get many to listen. Run everywhere. Run on every ballot and in every race. Run in races you can’t win.
(Jess Piper more…)
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Your Local Epidemiologist: Covid-19 vaccine label change, alpha-gal syndrome, leaked MAHA report, mRNA funding cuts, and… where is bird flu?
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We’re in the middle of a Covid-19 wave, with all indicators—from wastewater to hospitalizations and deaths—climbing. The pace isn’t as fast as last winter’s surge and levels remain below last summer’s wave, but the trend is clear. Wastewater data show “moderate” Covid activity in the West and South and “low” levels in the Northeast and Midwest, though rates are rising everywhere.
(Your Local Epidemiologist more…)
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ProPublica: Trump’s Rollback of Rules for Mental Health Coverage Could Lead More Americans to Go Without Care
The president, who has framed mental health as a national crisis, paused rules to hold insurers accountable for unlawfully denying coverage. And Congress cut funding to the agency that enforces insurers’ equal treatment of mental and physical health.
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UnDark: Proposed NASA Cuts Could Affect Public Health Research
From space, NASA collects data that’s crucial for public health. Potential cuts could threaten that work.
Daniel P. Johnson, a geographer at Indiana University at Indianapolis, works with a team of researchers who spend a lot of time catching blowflies, dissecting their iridescent blue-green abdomens, and analyzing the contents of their guts.
Johnson and his colleagues are tracking the spread of Lyme disease on a warming planet. But they need a lot of additional data. They get it from NASA.
(UnDark more…)
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NY Times: The Madden Sisters Don’t Want to Be Institutionalized
Medicaid pays for most of the in-home care that lets disabled Americans live independently. Will coming cuts put that care in jeopardy?
…Each woman had worked a full day that Thursday, writing emails, making phone calls and chatting with colleagues. But they needed help with the essentials of domestic living: bathing, dressing, cooking and cleaning. …
(NY Times more…)
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Fox News: Are you better off since Donald Trump took office?
Trump delivers failed leadership of golf trips and White House ballroom plans, not what voters need
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties