AI is a bubble. Everybody knows it’s a bubble. The market is running on magical thinking... The House of Ellison is on the Brink: Everything the world’s briefly richest man built is failing at once.

"Ellison’s devotion to Israel is the least hidden thing about him. He made the largest single gift in the history of Friends of the IDF; Netanyahu is a personal friend; as far back as 2015 he was privately vetting Marco Rubio for loyalty to Israel in emails with Israel’s UN ambassador. Since 2021 he has given or pledged £257 million to the Tony Blair Institute — and when the Guardian reported that institute staff had taken part in a project reimagining postwar Gaza as a “Trump Riviera,” the money trail behind the institute ran straight back to him. Weiss, the family’s pick for CBS, is known above all for her advocacy on the subject.

He is entitled to his cause. The empire has been a catastrophe for it. After thousands of film workers signed a pledge to boycott complicit institutions, Paramount stood publicly accused of maintaining a blacklist of talent who criticized Israel. His move on TikTok spawned a national campaign to take the platform back. Every property he adds attaches his politics to it, and audiences keep responding the same way: by leaving. The machine he built to protect the cause now generates evidence against it. He bought the microphone, and the room walked out...."

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-house-of-ellison-is-on-the-brink 

The House of Ellison is on the Brink

Everything the world’s briefly richest man built is failing at once.

Mike Brock

Jul 28, 2026

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Tallying the global cost of the US-Israel war against Iran From thousands of lives lost to an economic shock likely to plunge millions into poverty, the world is paying dearly

Among the lives lost were 120 primary schoolchildren killed on the first day of the war in Iran.

Photograph: Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News/WANA/Reuters

By Oliver Holmes, graphics by Paul Scruton

Mon 15 Jun 2026

It would be hard to find a human on Earth unaffected by the US-Israel war against Iran. Several thousand have been killed. Millions more pay are paying each day in steeper food prices or at the petrol pump, and as inflation eats away at the value of their earnings.

For many, the final bill has not yet come, but it will eventually. They will pay for the long-term damage caused by the biggest threat of all to the global economy: uncertainty.

Uncertainty is hard to measure, but one way is to look at geopolitical risk, which stalls investment and employment. The US Federal Reserve economists Dario Caldara and Matteo Iacoviello have created an index that tracks reports of global tension. It shows the Iran war has been more destabilising than the Covid-19 pandemic, but on a par with either the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 or that of Iraq in 2003.

So how does the world tally the cost of this war? Some costs are easier to calculate than others, such as bills for surface-to-air missiles that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Others are harder to quantify, including the damage caused to Iranian and Lebanese hospitals and power networks. Much cannot be valued at all – the lives lost, including the 120 primary schoolchildren in Iran killed on the first day of the war.

Then there are hypothetical costs. A senior UN aid official framed the conflict in terms of opportunity cost, noting that the $2bn (£1.5bn) a day spent on military operations could otherwise cover lifesaving aid for roughly 87 million people.

And what about the beneficiaries of this war, the oil companies and the shareholders of arms manufacturers?

Here are some ways the impact of the war has been assessed: 

READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/15/tallying-the-global-cost-of-the-us-israel-war-against-iran

   [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]  

Military spending worldwide hits record $2.7 trillion in 2024 amid intensifying wars and rising geopolitical tensions worldwide... “The world is spending far more on waging war than in building peace,”

“When people’s lives improve, when they have access to education, healthcare, economic opportunities and when they can live lives of dignity and self determination, we will have more peaceful societies and a more peaceful world.” 

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies] 

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/09/1165809 

Military spending worldwide hits record $2.7 trillion

Unsplash/Andre Klimke

An attack helicopter flies in Afghanistan. (file)

By Ileana Exaras

9 September 2025 Peace and Security

Global military spending reached an unprecedented $2.7 trillion in 2024 amid intensifying wars and rising geopolitical tensions worldwide. 

“The world is spending far more on waging war than in building peace,” the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at a press briefing for his new report on the threat posed by the steady rise in military expenditure.

Spending on security needs increased across all five global regions during 2024, marking the steepest year-on-year rise for at least the last three decades. Compared to the $2.7 trillion directed to military budgets, the world could eliminate extreme poverty for just under $300 billion.

“A more secure world begins by investing at least as much in fighting poverty as we do in fighting wars,” said Mr. Guterres.

A choice between aid or arms

The alarming amount spent on arms-related costs last year alone is 750 times the 2024 UN regular budget. It also equates to almost 13 times the development assistance provided by the OECD’s development assistance committee in 2024, indicating a stark trade-off between military expenditure and sustainable development.

“Redirecting even a fraction of today’s military spending could close vital gaps – putting children in school, strengthening primary health care, expanding clean energy and resilient infrastructure, and protecting the most vulnerable,” said Mr. Guterres.

For a small portion of what was invested in militaries this past year – and the previous decade – the world could fund education for every student in low and lower middle-income countries, eliminate child malnutrition globally, fund climate change adaptation in the developing world, and bring the international community closer to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN estimates.

“Rebalancing global priorities is not optional – it is an imperative for humanity’s survival,” said the UN disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu at the press briefing.

‘Sustainable development is in jeopardy’

With only one of the five of the SDG targets on track, Mr. Guterres stressed that “our shared promise of sustainable development is in jeopardy.”

While more is being spent on militaries, less is being spent for social investment, poverty reduction, education, health, environmental protection and infrastructure – hindering progress on nearly all the SDGs and undermining the UN Charter, the UN’s cornerstone document. 

“But we know that development is a driver of security and multilateral development cooperation works,” said UN Development Programme (UNDP) deputy chief Haoliang Xu.

“When people’s lives improve, when they have access to education, healthcare, economic opportunities and when they can live lives of dignity and self determination, we will have more peaceful societies and a more peaceful world.”

A new security approach

"Investing in people is investing in the first line of defense against violence in any society,” said Mr. Guterres.

The report calls for a more human-centered and multidimensional approach that prioritizes diplomacy, international cooperation, and paves the way for sustainable development.

In a vicious cycle, lack of economic opportunity, poverty, and underdevelopment breeds instability – fuelling violence and a rise in State expenditure on the military, the UN report contends.

Investing in development and sustainable security has the potential to stop today’s arms race and alleviate the need for military spending. 

“The evidence is clear: excessive military spending does not guarantee peace,” said Mr. Guterres. “It often undermines it – fuelling arms races, deepening mistrust, and diverting resources from the very foundations of stability.”

• disarmament

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies] 

https://news.un.org/en/tags/disarmament 

CTBTO

Nuclear weapons are ‘one-way road to annihilation’ warns Guterres

24 February 2025

Peace and Security

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday warned that the risk of nuclear conflict is rising – as global security arrangements unravel and military spending soars – urging governments to push for total disarmament.