News From Around the Web
#1 Congress Passes Sweeping US Sanctions Bill Targeting Russia - Al Jazeera Staff and AP, Nick Sortor, Speaker Mike Johnson, NEXTA, POLITICO, and Thomas Massie on X
The United States House of Representatives has passed a bipartisan sanctions bill targeting Russia over its continued war in Ukraine. Lawmakers on Wednesday voted to send the sweeping legislation, championed by the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, to US President Donald Trump’s desk, ending more than a year of delays and obstacles. The final vote was 262 to 159. It had already passed in the US Senate...
#2 House Overwhelmingly Passes Bill to Shield Ratepayers From Data Centers - Nico Portuondo and Amelia Davidson for POLITICO, Joseph Barracato, ArgentAquila, Virginia News Vangaurd, India Abroad, John Morgan, and Urszula/Nick Sorter on X
House lawmakers on Wednesday easily passed the first major legislative action to address the costs of the AI boom, a bill intended to shield Americans from potential energy costs associated with data centers. The Ratepayer Protection Act, which has become the House GOP’s signature legislation to address the costs of the data center build-out ahead of the midterm elections, was passed in a broad bipartisan vote of 417-3. “Large load data centers must cover the full costs of any system updates they require, not families or small businesses. We cannot accelerate this growth on the back of Americans working hard to pay their electric bill at the end of the month,” said Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.), the main co-sponsor of the bill alongside Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.)...
#3 OpenAI Flags 6 New Incidents of ‘Concerning’ Behavior and Unveils Plan to Track It - Mithil Aggarwal for NBC News, David Larson, O.C. Register, Zacky vincent, Americaforever, and Mario Nawfal on X
OpenAI has disclosed six new incidents of “unexpected or concerning” behavior by its artificial intelligence models. As industry worries swell over the technology’s rapid progress, the company also unveiled a new framework for tracking and reporting these instances of what it termed “misalignment.” The announcement late Wednesday follows mounting public calls for a slowdown in the pace of the technology’s development, with U.S. tech bosses voicing grave safety concerns including the risk of human extinction...
#4 They Are Not Selling A Better Tool - Tracy Beanz and Michelle Edwards for The HighWire, Danica Tormohlen, LEKISHA R TURNER, Masfiq Mahmud, Jim McCarthy, and Daily Express on X
Thanks to the news of the day back then, I had a specific fear as a kid. No, I wasn’t afraid of the dark. And it wasn’t spiders or the alien-looking beings that I swear I saw swinging in the weeping willow tree in my backyard in the middle of the night. My enormous fear was that the world was going to end soon, on a schedule that I couldn’t see, but that the Fellowship of Christian Athletes coach felt he must warn us about one morning in a before-school huddle in 6th grade. Like most childhood fears, it eventually went away. But then, earlier this month, a man who helped build the most advanced AI on earth quit his job, went online, and said more or less what my 11-year-old self was once quite afraid of. That the people racing to build AI believe it could kill us all—destroy humanity—and they are doing it anyway. Destroy humanity. As a mother, that thought is frightening...
#5 Paramount’s California Future in Doubt Amid Escalating Legal Fight - Stepheny Price and Lorraine Taylor for FOXBusiness, D.R. Couric, Spencer Pratt/TMZ/Slammer Offroad, The Post Milennial, ToonHive/M3LEE, and ihatecommies on X
California officials responded Wednesday to reports that Paramount is preparing to ditch the state, though the company declined to comment, and no official announcement has been made. Officials inside Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ office and California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office were told Paramount planned to announce Tuesday that it was leaving the state, sources told TMZ. The announcement never came, and the outlet said it was unclear whether the company changed course or merely delayed the decision. Separately, Politico is reporting that Paramount is actively looking for office space in Nashville.Paramount declined to comment when reached by FOX Business...
#6 Trump Says Kennedy Center Could Be ‘Ripped Down’ if He Doesn’t Get ‘Recognition' - ABC News, The White House, Acyn, Eric Daugherty, Mario Nawfal, and The Gateway Pundit on X
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the Kennedy Center could "close" or be "ripped down" if his administration doesn't receive recognition on the performing arts center as tensions over his name being removed mount. "I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition. Because frankly, if we don't do that, it's going to close. It'll end up being ripped down," the president told reporters on the tarmac in North Carolina. Trump claimed that the Kennedy Center was a "mess" without his intervention and "has lost 10s of millions of dollars, even hundreds of millions of dollars," comparing it to New York's Carnegie Hall...
#7 Fed Changes Course, Hikes Interest Rates for First Time in Three Years - Tim Smart for U.S. News and World Report, Q Shadow Walker, Mike, Aaron Harme, economist/Bitcoin, and (BCT) BA$H CRYPTO TRADING PR. on X
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Kevin Warsh speaks during a news conference at the Federal Reserve in Washington. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter point on Wednesday in the first change in monetary policy since Kevin Warsh became chairman in May. The decision was expected, and markets reacted cautiously with stocks largely unchanged while yields on government bonds fell slightly.
“The Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates by 25 basis points reflects the reality that inflation remains too high,” Steve Rick, chief economist at TruStage, wrote. Consumer prices rose 3.4% over the past year in August, still well above the Fed’s 2% target, while higher energy prices have created another source of inflationary pressure. The Fed is putting its foot a little more firmly on the brake to reinforce its commitment to price stability.”
#8 Carney Welcomes a Proposal for Canada to Become EU Associate Member - Rob Gillies for AP, WORLD NEWS, Armin Ronacher ⇌/Polymarket/Pavel Hegler, Dan Popescu/CNN Breaking News, and Tom Nugent on X
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday embraced the prospect of his country becoming the European Union’s first associate member, saying closer ties with the continent would ensure no country could control Canada’s markets or undermine its sovereignty. Carney’s speech to the European Parliament repeatedly extolled cooperation between Europe and Canada — but the relationship with the U.S., which has defined Canada’s economy for decades and has increasingly soured, hung over the address. Trump’s tariffs, demands for economic concessions, and repeated talk of making Canada the 51st state have pushed Ottawa to reduce its dependence on its neighbor and seek a far deeper economic, security, and political relationship with Europe...
#9 Trump Administration Paid $9.5 Billion in Leave for Federal Employees in 2025, Due to Doge-Era Buyout Program - Aaron Navarro for CBS News, Dewey Moede, The Godless Liberal 2.0, Lysendria, Joe Wiggins, and Old Man Lefty on X
The Trump administration spent $9.5 billion on employee administrative leave costs in 2025, a sixfold increase from 2023 that was spurred by the administration's push to cut down the federal workforce. According to a Government Accountability Office report published Tuesday, the use of paid administrative leave increased by 435% from 2023 to 2025. They calculate that $6.7 billion of this was due to employees who opted into the Deferred Resignation Program, the administration's buyout offer to federal employees that was part of efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to shrink the government. By comparison, administrative leave salary costs for 2023 and 2024 combined were $3.2 billion, according to the GAO's report...
#10 US Officials Suppressed Warnings Over Flawed COVID Vaccine Safety Algorithm - Eureka Alert BMJ Peer-Reviewed publication, Andrew Zywiec, M.D./Unjected Official,
React19 - Official, Adam Urato, MD, Retsef Levi, and Yaffa Shir-Raz on X
US health officials knowingly relied on a compromised algorithm to detect signals of harm from mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and silenced efforts to fix it, finds an investigation published by The BMJ today. The findings are based on government emails released under the Freedom of Information Act and in response to US Senate investigators, as well as exclusive interviews with public health officials and other scientists by investigative journalist David Willman. Before rolling out COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assured healthcare professionals and the public that its Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) could quickly spot any potentially harmful reactions following vaccination...
