"Perhaps I should be terrified by this announcement from a man who, for all his sins, knows a thing or two about technology. But I’m sick of hearing about the hypothetical dangers of AI when the technology is being used to kill people today. Gates may not be directly involved in Microsoft any more, but, rather than making prophecies about the future, I’d love to hear what he thinks about the company’s role in the AI-enabled destruction of Gaza." Arwa Mahdawi

Bill Gates thinks AI could kill a billion people – but can we trust his judgment after Epstein?

Arwa Mahdawi

in The Guardian  

He knows a thing or two about tech, but what to make of the views of a man who met Jeffrey Epstein 30 times and couldn’t see what a monster he was?

The Bill Gates rehabilitation tour is in full swing. After having his carefully cultivated image tarnished by the revelation of his connection to Jeffrey Epstein, Gates lay low for a while. Now, however, the Microsoft co-founder is once again thrusting himself into the public consciousness, this time with a dire warning about AI. If left unchecked, AI could cause “a billion deaths”, Gates declared in an interview with NBC on Sunday.

Perhaps I should be terrified by this announcement from a man who, for all his sins, knows a thing or two about technology. But I’m sick of hearing about the hypothetical dangers of AI when the technology is being used to kill people today. Gates may not be directly involved in Microsoft any more, but, rather than making prophecies about the future, I’d love to hear what he thinks about the company’s role in the AI-enabled destruction of Gaza.

Another thing I’d like to hear Gates explain is why he reckons anyone should trust his judgment about anything... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/30/bill-gates-thinks-ai-could-kill-people-can-we-trust-judgment-after-epstein

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The rebranding of ‘Lake America’ is Trump’s desperate attempt to distract us. Ignore Iran, the Epstein files, and your wallet – not to mention Trump’s plummeting approval ratings

Arwa Mahdawi 

As well as being a distraction, this pathetic maneuver is supposed to be a middle finger to Canada.’ Photograph: Al Drago/Pool/Al Drago - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

 The Week in Patriarchy

 Donald Trump 

Sat 29 Aug 2026

Don’t mention the war! Or the economy, for that matter. Or the Epstein files. Or Natalie Harp. Or “affordability”, which, as Donald Trump recently said at a rally, is a word that was “never used” by the media before he took office. Best not to talk about anything that affects ordinary people or embarrasses the president, really. Instead, let’s all rejoice in Trump’s latest triumph: renaming Lake Ontario, which is shared by Canada and the US, as Lake America.

On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to America-fy the lake’s name on US maps and documents, which is an excellent use of time and resources. I suppose we can at least be thankful that the president, who is trying to slap his own name on everything from airports to the Kennedy Center, didn’t decree that the body of water be called Lake Trump.

This is not an isolated embarrassment: the Lake Ontario name change follows the president’s rebranding of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America last year. “We have a gulf and we have a lake – now all we need is an ocean. Maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific,” Trump told reporters.

Give it a few more months of the disastrous war in Iran and a bruised Trump may well make good on that threat: the man will do anything to distract from his failings.

As well as being a distraction, this pathetic maneuver is supposed to be a middle finger to Canada. Trade negotiations between the US and Canada recently collapsed, with the Trump administration imposing a 50% tariff on some goods and the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, promising a “dollar for dollar” response. One suspects that Trump thinks Lake Ontario is named after the Canadian province it borders. Ergo he reckons a unilateral name change is a good way of showing the US’s northern neighbour who is boss.

However, as Carney was forced to point out on social media, the name Lake Ontario has been used for more than 400 years and comes from the Indigenous Wendat/Huron word Ontari’io, meaning: “The lake is beautiful, the lake is big.” It predates both the Confederation of Canada and the US Declaration of Independence.

A US president ordering the name change of a Great Lake in order to antagonize one of its closest allies would have been headline news for weeks in a normal timeline. Now it’s just another Thursday. Still, this is more than a silly stunt that both Canada and the governor of New York have made clear they are going to ignore. It’s a glaring demonstration of just how desperate, isolated and out of ideas Trump is... READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/29/lake-america-trump-approval-ratings   

Israel has killed at least 100 Palestinians in Gaza in the last two weeks

This is more than 10 months into a “ceasefire”

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"His [Trump's] escalation against Iran comes as he faces mounting domestic pressure, for attacking the civil rights of US citizens in Minneapolis, amid renewed scrutiny surrounding the Epstein files, and just days after the US supreme court struck down the legal justification for his global tariff policy." Christopher S Chivvis

‘If Trump cares little for strategy, this does not make strategy irrelevant.’ Photograph: Fatima Shbair/AP

Trump wants to distract Americans from scandals at home with a diversionary war

Christopher S Chivvis

Iran strikes are attempt to hijack the global narrative and drown out Epstein and tariffs with the thunder of cruise missiles

 

Sat 28 Feb 2026 15.00 EST

In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq without deciding whether it should. The George W Bush administration failed to ask whether the costs, risks and likely consequences of regime change justified the gamble. The result was tragedy – for Iraq, for the Middle East and for America.

Donald Trump’s attack on Iran now follows the same pattern – but with an even narrower logic of performative power. In the run-up to Iraq, Washington devoted enormous energy to planning the invasion. Almost no attention was given to the more important question: was war necessary, and could it realistically produce a stable political outcome?

Now history is repeating itself. Having torn up the Iran nuclear deal and escalated pressure, the president has now initiated a military campaign explicitly aimed at regime collapse. Yet there has been no serious public reckoning with the risks, much less the plausibility of the political end state he claims to seek. By weaponising the military for the sake of the attention economy, Washington has traded grand strategy for the immediate gratification of the news cycle.

This is because the outcome of the war is less important to Trump than violent conflict with America’s enemy and the performative use of US power.

Trump’s foreign policy is not guided by a coherent theory of order, deterrence or alliance management. It is driven instead by the demonstration of dominance, the creation of spectacle and the command of the news cycle. Military force, in this framework, is not a tool subordinated to strategy. It is the strategy.

His escalation against Iran comes as he faces mounting domestic... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/28/diversionary-war-trump-wants-to-distract-americans-from-scandals-at-home?CMP=share_btn_url 

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"It’s not what we can or cannot say that matters; rather, it’s whether what we say can get any visibility at all, and whether it is able to move against the political climate imposed by those controlling platform algorithms."

What the US TikTok takeover is already revealing about new forms of censorship

Paolo Gerbaudo

Over recent days, US TikTok users have reported a number of suspicious malfunctions.’ The company’s headquarters in Culver City, California. Photograph: Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

It’s not what we can or cannot say that matters – rather, it’s whether what we say can get any visibility at all under the US-specific algorithm

We tend to think of censorship as the direct suppression of speech. We conjure images of mouths taped shut, courts seizing books and films, and journalists or activists thrown in jail to silence their voices. But what if, in a digital era governed by invisible yet highly consequential algorithms, censorship no longer revolved around the ability to speak, but rather around the visibility of content, its effective “reach”?

The launch of TikTok’s new US-specific algorithm underscores the urgency of this risk. This week, control over the platform’s operations has shifted to the TikTok USDS joint venture led by a consortium of investors that includes US big tech firms such as cloud-computing company Oracle, with the Chinese parent company ByteDance retaining a 19.9% stake. This arrangement is presented as a means of complying with US legislation introduced under former president Joe Biden, with the aim of protecting user data and preventing political interference from China. Yet many of TikTok’s 200 million US-based users now fear that Donald Trump and his allies may use algorithmic control to do precisely what China was accused of doing: interfering with political discussion by suppressing voices critical of Trump and his international allies.

Over recent days, US TikTok users have reported a number of suspicious malfunctions: videos covering controversial topics, such as the killing of Alex Pretti by a federal agent remaining under review; newly posted videos recording surprisingly low-view metrics; and allegations that it is impossible to post messages containing keywords such as “Epstein”. Drawing on these denunciations, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has called for a review into the TikTok algorithm to determine whether it complies with state law. Further, app store data shows that many users are cancelling the app and downloading alternatives.... READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/30/tiktok-us-takeover-new-type-of-censorship

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