WASHINGTONPOST (Amber Phillips) - The U.S.’s many foreign entanglements under Trump
Iran, Ukraine and Venezuela top the list.
| Keywords | trumpusiranukrainevenezuelageopoliticsforeign-policynational-securitywarpolitics |
AXIOS (Ben Geman) - U.S. officials defend deal with controversial Venezuelan oil baron
U.S. officials are defending their work with Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt in the unprecedented White House move to effectively gain control over huge oilfields in the country. Why it matters: Betancourt is the colorful and controversial figure who heads North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), the oil company partnering with the administration in the agreement that gives the U.S. preferential access to output from 17 major fields. - The Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital is taking a 35% equity stake in the company. - The U.S. also has the rights to buy 20% of the oil at cost after the company pays its taxes to Venezuela. Driving the news: At a briefing with reporters Tuesday, a U.S. official talked up Betancourt…
NYTIMES (Alex Travelli) - Nepal’s Economy Has Few Ways to Absorb the Cost of Flood Damage
The country’s government estimates that the recent catastrophic floods caused $5 billion in damage. That’s one-tenth of Nepal’s entire economy.
NYTIMES (Jonathan Wolfe) - How to Help Nepal Flash Flood Victims
More than 1,000 people have been killed in a Himalayan landslide and flooding, and thousands more are missing. Here’s how you can help.
NYTIMES (Matt Yan) - Submit Your Outfits to Fit Check
We want to know what you’re wearing to class, parties and everything in between. Send us your best looks.
| Keywords | fashionclothingstylelifestyleculturemediajournalismcookingentertainmentoutfitsfit-check |
YOUTUBE (CNN) - House Speaker rebuffs question on Iran war
Asked by CNN's Manu Raju about the prolonged warfare in Iran, Speaker Mike Johnson said he has "nothing to do with the prosecution of the war across the globe."
| Keywords | iranwarmike-johnsoncnnhouse-speakerpoliticsus-politicsgeopoliticsmiddle-eastnational-securitycongressusrepublicansgopforeign-policydiplomacymilitary-actionwashington-dc |
WASHINGTONPOST (Alex Horton) - U.S. carries out new military strikes in Iran
The American strikes were in response to attempted attacks by Iran on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and U.S. service members in the Middle East, military officials at Central Command said.
AXIOS (Sam Sabin) - AI labs are facing an agent control problem
Under current systems, AI labs can no longer guarantee that AI agents won't swarm and escape their testing environments. Why it matters: The attack on Hugging Face by OpenAI agents was a warning shot — and researchers say better security controls alone won't prevent similar incidents as AI agents become more capable. Driving the news: As OpenAI released its own technical report last week on how its agents hacked Hugging Face, two independent testing organizations released their own analysis of what went wrong. - The researchers — METR's Hjalmar Wijk and Ajeya Cotra and Redwood Research chief scientist Ryan Greenblatt — worked on OpenAI's premises for six days to understand the recent incident. State of play: Thousands of AI…
AXIOS (Matt Phillips) - Data center construction spending surged in July
Data: U.S. Census Bureau, FactSet Construction spending on AI data center "shells" soared in July, rising at an annualized rate of nearly 60% from July 2025 levels. Why it matters: It shows the AI building frenzy was gathering strength this summer, even as — or perhaps because — a bipartisan backlash grows. By the numbers: Data center construction spending jumped to an annual pace of more than $75 billion in July, Census Bureau data released Tuesday showed. That figure represents the value of the construction "put in place" during the month. - It covers only the construction costs for the massive warehouse-like structures — often referred to as shells — that will be filled with racks of servers, processing units, memory chips…
| Keywords | aitechdata-centersconstructioninvestmentinfrastructurebig-techartificial-intelligenceuseconomyspendingenergytechnologyautomation |
AXIOS (Courtenay Brown) - What higher interest rates are telling us
Data: Federal Reserve; Chart: Neil Irwin/Axios The bond sell-off and the resulting higher interest rates are largely a story of higher growth prospects in the United States, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued Tuesday. - "If we look at the composition of the bond yields — inflation expectations are flat-to-down," he said in a fireside chat at this week's G20 meeting of global finance ministers in Asheville, North Carolina. "This is a growth story. Growth, I believe, is reaccelerating." - "We had some very good discussions here over the past few days and everyone agreed that growth has been better than they thought it would have been, given the Iran conflict." Zoom out: Speaking to reporters later on Tuesday, Bessent acknowledged…