The AI industry has been pushing a narrative that the technology is a “black box” whose inner workings are so complex that they remain unknown even to the people making it. But another black box of AI is the underlying cost of the technology, and, specifically, what the AI boom is costing people who live near massive data centers. The data centers and energy plants that power large language models and other generative AI tools are subject to contracts cloaked in non-disclosure agreements and in many cases shielded from public scrutiny on the pretext that they contain competitive information.
A new report written by consultancy Synapse and commissioned by advocacy groups Earthjustice and Environmental Advocates Mississippi attempts to calculate the cost of 3 planned Amazon data centers to Entergy Mississippi customers, who share an energy utility with the centers. These hidden costs may offer a window into the broader burden borne by residents living near data centers around the country. The report estimates that residential customers of Entergy Mississippi, one of the state’s regional energy monopolies, have paid $38 million as of March 2026 for infrastructure and other costs related to data centers and will have paid $74 million by the end of the year.
He entered a guilty plea on Thursday after reaching a deal with federal prosecutors that avoids the possibility of a death penalty trial.
Vance Boelter, the man accused of killing a former Minnesota House speaker and her husband last year in what investigators called a targeted act of political violence entered a guilty plea on Thursday after reaching a deal with federal prosecutors that avoids the possibility of a death penalty trial, reports NBC News.
A handwritten letter reportedly found in Boelter’s abandoned car contained a series of claims about Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, alleging he “wanted me to kill” U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith so Walz could run for a Senate seat.
He appeared in an orange jail jumpsuit and confirmed in court that he carried out the crimes. When asked by the judge if he conducted surveillance on the victims beforehand, Boelter said, “yes.”
On Sunday, CNN’s State of the Union hosted Representative Veronica Escobar (D-TX) and seemed to have either forgotten about or ignored the defamation lawsuit that befell ABC and Good Morning America/This Week co-host George Stephanopouloswhen he falsely accused President Trump of rape. Escobar did just that.
Thankfully, Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-SC), who was there when Stephanopoulos committed his expensive faux pas, was not having any of it.
Co-host Dana Bash began by playing a clip of Platner responding to “new accusations from former girlfriends” alleging “unsettling behavior.” Since both Platner and Escobar are in the same political party, Bash asked Escobar for her reaction to the accusations.
The second largest teachers union in the U.S. may be using pensions to advance their political agenda, an education watchdog suggests.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has advocated for fossil fuel divestments, pro-DEI boycotts and other pressure campaigns, Consumers’ Research told acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling in a letter Thursday. The letter requests an investigation into whether AFT is influencing public pension trustees to go beyond their fiduciary duties and use their position to invest in the union’s political priorities.
Millions of educators rely on public pension fiduciaries to retire. While AFT doesn’t directly control public pension funds, over 50 AFT-affiliated trustees serve on 27 public pensions funds, according to the letter.
Students for Life of America (SFLA) President Kristan Hawkins praised the 14 State Attorneys General who signed onto a letter sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) led by Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway.
The letter adds new voices to a growing coalition, built by SFLA, calling for accountability and information about the extent of abortion water pollution, permitted by negligent FDA polices and the failure of the Trump Administration to enforce the Comstock Act that says abortifacients cannot be delivered in the mail.
Three Indian mariners aboard the Palau-flagged M/T Settebello were killed on Tuesday night when the United States Navy fired on the vessel for ignoring the U.S. blockade on Iran. As the Washington Examiner previously reported, the Navy fired precision strikes at the engine room of the Settebello to disable the vessel. The incident occurred as the U.S. conducted self-defense strikes against Iran for deploying a drone that took down a U.S. Army Apache helicopter on Monday.
Sarbananda Sonowal, India’s minister of ports, shipping, and waterways, announced the casualties in a social media post on X early Thursday morning.
“It is deeply unfortunate to learn of the tragic incident aboard the Palau-flagged MT Settebello,” said Sonowal. “Sadly, three Indian seafarers initially reported missing are now confirmed dead after bodies have been located and identified.”
It is deeply unfortunate to learn of the tragic incident aboard the Palau-flagged MT Settebello. Sadly, three Indian seafarers initially reported missing are now confirmed dead after bodies have been located and identified.
This is a profound loss to our maritime family. The…
— Sarbananda Sonowal (@sarbanandsonwal) June 11, 2026
Legacy media don’t describe. They exist to prevent description, corralling and deflecting. In the famous description from Iowahawk, “Journalism is about covering important stories. With a pillow, until they stop moving.”
Four states held primary elections on June 9, and on the morning of June 10, they were either ahead in their count or about as far along in their count of ballots as California, which held its primaries on June 2. These screenshots from live election results at the NBC News website are both from Wednesday morning at 9:30 PT:
California counts far more slowly than anyone else in the country, and California’s results have the most remarkable tendency to drift: What the outcome looks like on election night has nothing to do with the final outcome. Famous 2010 election outcome summarized in a single headline about the 2010 state’s attorney general race: “When Kamala Harris lost on election night, but won three weeks later.”
US Central Command, the US military combat command responsible for Middle East operations, followed up by launching what its press release described as “self-defense strikes against Iran, June 9, at the Commander in Chief’s direction in response to yesterday’s downing of a US Army Apache helicopter.”
Belfast attack suspect was granted asylum based on controversial fast-track questionnaire– rmx.news News Source EXCERPT:
The Sudanese asylum seeker charged in connection with the attempted beheading in Belfast on Monday was granted refugee status in Britain through a fast-track Home Office process that avoided a full face-to-face interview.
The Daily Mail reported on Thursday that the 30-year-old suspect, identified as Hadi Alodid, was allowed to remain in the U.K. after completing a 10-page questionnaire under the Streamlined Asylum Process, a system introduced under the then-Conservative government to help clear tens of thousands of unresolved asylum cases.
Alodid’s case was reportedly handled under the scheme, which was set up as ministers sought to reduce a backlog of 92,000 claims. The process was overseen by then-home secretary Suella Braverman and then-immigration minister Robert Jenrick, both of whom have since joined Reform UK, the party topping national polling in Britain.
According to the tabloid newspaper, the fast-track programme was known inside parts of the Home Office as the “grant 0factory,” allowing applicants from countries with very high asylum grant rates to have their claims processed without the usual in-person interview.
It initially applied to selected nationalities and was later extended to Sudanese applicants in June 2023. Alodid had travelled from Dublin to Belfast by bus in February of that year and was granted a five-year refugee visa in September 2023.
The Streamlined Asylum Process also covered applicants from countries including Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, and Yemen, despite significant security concerns surrounding particular entrants from those countries.
Migration Watch UK, which campaigns for stricter border controls, warned at the time that the scheme was a “dangerous folly” and an “asylum amnesty in all but name.”
A Conservative source told the Daily Mail that the policy had been driven by then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak despite internal resistance at the Home Office. “The Home Office at the time did not want to do the fast-track scheme, but Rishi forced it on them,” the source said.
The revelation that the suspect was offered an easy ride into Britain prompted an angry response from Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe, who said Jenrick and Braverman had “serious questions to answer” over the system introduced while they were in government.
“This is traitorous,” he wrote on X, before calling for the asylum system to be abolished, mass deportations, and a referendum on the death penalty for offenders who carry out extreme knife attacks in Britain.
Alodid has now been charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie, 44. The victim reportedly lost his left eye and suffered wounds to his neck and back.
Maitiu Mag Tighearnan, a 32-year-old father, has been praised after intervening in the attack with a hurling stick. Tighearnan said he had arrived at the scene by chance and acted to “protect a young lad.”
“This was late at night, and so we thought we better go and break it up,” he said. “He shouted to me that the man attacking the other had a knife and to get something to help. At this point, I thought someone was going to lose their life.”
“Instinct took over and I ran over and I smashed this guy over the head with a hurling stick,” he said. “Right on the flat side, about three times. As hard as I could.”
“I just hope the victim pulls through and manages to recover as best he can,” he added.
The Daily Mail also reported that Ogilvie had survived a horrific attack in Scotland 25 years earlier. In 2001, he was tortured and set on fire in a flat in Livingston by drug dealer David McLeave, who was later jailed for 14 years by the High Court in Edinburgh.
According to the report, Ogilvie had been given the drug GHB, burned with a cigarette, stripped, doused in aftershave, and set alight while unconscious. He fled back to Northern Ireland after the attack and later reported the ordeal to authorities.
Houses are being burned down in Belfast in response to yesterday’s attempted beheading of a man by a Sudanese migrant.
Videos are surfacing of several HMOs (Houses in Multiple Occupation — properties frequently contracted by the UK Home Office to accommodate asylum seekers)… pic.twitter.com/X7kD94nWX9
Monday’s attack sparked major unrest in Belfast, where homes and cars were set alight after hundreds of people took to the streets on both Tuesday and Wednesday night. Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) — properties whereby several unrelated individuals share facilities, a type of arrangement frequently used by the Home Office to accommodate asylum seekers — were targeted in attacks.
WASHINGTON — Spiking gas prices pushed inflation to its highest level in three years last month, a headache for the Federal Reserve and a potential political challenge for the Trump administration as midterm elections near.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in May from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday, up from 3.8% in April and the third straight increase. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.5% last month, after big gains of 0.6% in April and 0.9% in March.
Rising inflation has soured many Americans on the economy, as the cost of gas, groceries, and other necessities hammer many Americans financially.
Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 2.9% in March from a year earlier, up from 2.8% in April. On a monthly basis, core prices increased a modest 0.2%.
Five commuters were stabbed at New York’s Penn Station late Sunday night in what is being described as a ‘random attack’ by a ‘deranged man.’
That suspect, fortunately, is in custody. For all the good it will do with NYC’s revolving-door ‘justice system,’ that is.
The bloody crime has raised concerns about security, as President Trump will be above Penn Station tonight for Game Three between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs.
Those five people were taken to the hospital, and one reportedly has serious injuries.
O’Keefe Media Group released a photo Tuesday that it said showed multiple California ballots inside a Los Angeles County library safe days after polls closed in the state’s primary elections.
The image was reportedly taken Friday inside Stevenson Ranch Library near Santa Clarita, three days after voters went to the polls.
James O’Keefe said the photo was sent to his organization from inside the library and allegedly showed ballots stored in the same safe used by the facility for other items, including cash.
“Multiple CA Ballots Found Inside LA County Library.
We have just received this picture from within Stevenson Ranch Library near Santa Clarita, CA. The photo allegedly shows multiple ballots inside of the libraries own safe, this is where the library keeps other things such as cash.
This picture was taken last Friday. We are hopeful these ballots made it to the right processing centers.
If you have any tips about election fraud in CA or Los Angeles email us at [email protected] or text our Signal at 9144919395.
Public domain DVIDS/U.S. Army photo by Keith Garner showing an AH-64 Apache firing during a live-fire exercise.
President Trump is putting Iran on notice after Tehran dragged out negotiations and the region lurched into another round of strikes.
The warning came after an American Apache helicopter was downed near the Strait of Hormuz, according to the New York Post.
Trump’s message was blunt: Iran waited too long.
Iran’s Military is a complete and total mess. Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn’t even exist anymore – They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!! They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would… pic.twitter.com/wW9ULVRoMC
Police have arrested a Sudanese male on suspicion of attempted murder after what has been called an attempted beheading on the streets of Belfast.
The PSNI were cagey in their earlier statement when they called their suspect merely a man “believed to be Somalian”. This caution seems to have been justified as they’ve now rectified that, saying in a new statement that’s just been published that they can “confirm that the man in custody is Sudanese and not Somalian, as initially believed”. The force cited a “fast-time investigation” and said further updates would follow.
There was also a minor update on the victim, with the police saying they confirmed “that the injured man remains in a serious condition in hospital”. They also noted “inaccurate online posts regarding the victim’s condition”, but without any further context.
We’ll keep the updates coming as we get them.
The man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder over a brutal attack in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the United Kingdom on Monday night has been revealed to be a “believed to be Somalian” in his 30s, police said. An update from the Police Service of Northern Ireland on Tuesday morning said the man had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder on Kinnaird Avenue, north Belfast, around 22:30.
An injured man, unidentified other than to say he is in his 40s, was transported to hospital. He is in serious condition and police say he has received “significant injuries to his face, neck and back”.
The PSNI declared a critical incident after the attack and a spokesman said an investigation is underway to determine a motive. They said: “This brutal attack will have sent shockwaves through the community causing real concern. I want to reassure the local community that we are treating this attack with the utmost seriousness. Our investigation is continuing at pace. Community safety is our priority and we are currently engaging with local representatives and residents to provide reassurance and support.
“Our officers were on the scene within minutes and we wish to acknowledge the members of the public who strived to save the man from further attack. Their willingness to step forward to help another person shows incredible bravery and community spirit.”
Manhattan’s average one-bedroom apartment now costs more than $5,000 a month, and critics say the real culprit is not landlord greed. It is government failure.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani rolled out his housing proposal, “Block by Block: The Housing Plan for a New Era,” on May 20, promising to build 200,000 “affordable” rent-controlled homes and preserve another 200,000 existing units over the next decade.
The price tag is just as sweeping as the promise: $22 billion in taxpayer money over five years.
But critics warn the plan looks less like a solution and more like a government takeover of the housing market, with City Hall doubling down on the same policies that helped create the crisis in the first place.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — the law that allows the government to spy on foreign targets overseas, including their communications with Americans — has a looming deadline.
Supporters call it essential to national security. Critics call it “Big Brother.”
Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), one of the effort’s loudest voices, was blunt on X: “The government has no right to your private communications without a warrant. FISA needs serious reform. Full stop.”
“The Freedom Caucus is America First more than anyone else, as far as I’m concerned,” Self added.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A man charged in the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee on a North Carolina commuter train cannot currently stand trial because of his mental illness and will undergo medical treatment to try to restore his competency, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Decarlos Brown Jr., 35, faces a federal charge of causing death on a mass transportation system in the killing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, a charge that is punishable by death. A separate state case against Brown in which he is charged with first-degree murder is on pause pending the outcome of the federal case.
At the request of Brown’s attorneys, U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell found that their client is not currently competent to stand trial and ordered him to spend up to four months in a prison medical facility to try to restore his competency.
The Southern Poverty Law Center spent decades branding conservative and Christian groups as hate. On Tuesday its own leadership was the one answering questions under oath.
SPLC interim CEO and President Bryan Fair testified before the House Judiciary Committee at a hearing titled “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate, Part II.”
The hearing landed less than two months after a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, returned an indictment charging the SPLC organization with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a new superseding indictment from a grand jury against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), alleging millions of dollars were secretly funneled to extremist groups.
According to Just the News, the indictment alleges the SPLC used $4.1 million in tax-exempt donations to pay individuals inside extremist organizations and influence members to join hate groups.
DOJ issues indictment against the dark money laundering operation, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
The SPLC got caught taking money from donors to stage hate crimes and was really funding the same hate it claimed to fight.
The Israeli ambassador to the United States is slamming Hezbollah’s rejection of a peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon, saying they are “trying to destroy that hope.”
“There was real hope at the negotiating table for a new chapter of security and peace,” Ambassador Yechiel Leiter wrote on X. “Hezbollah and Iran are trying to destroy that hope. They must not succeed.”
Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based, Iran-backed militant group, was not involved in the negotiations taking part in Washington over the last several days, though it is the one striking Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
“Israel will defend its citizens,” Leiter wrote. “Lebanon deserves a future shaped by its government-not by an Iranian-backed terrorist organization.”
Nithya Raman speaks at her election night event as early Los Angeles mayoral returns show Spencer Pratt ahead of her.
Spencer Pratt’s stunning Los Angeles mayoral surge now has a viral election-night reaction to go with it.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman became visibly emotional as the early mayoral numbers put Pratt in second place and left her runoff path looking increasingly difficult.
The video does not show a race that is officially over. It does show the moment the progressive favorite realized the math was moving hard against her.
Adam Hamawy, a controversial candidate who previously volunteered with an al-Qaeda-linked group, has won the Democratic primary for retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman’s (D-NJ) seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Hamawy, who was endorsed by the so-called “Squad,” became a lightning rod for criticism on the campaign trail due to his intense criticism of Israel and his having volunteered with the Benevolence International Foundation in Bosnia, per the New York Post:
An Iraq War veteran, Hamawy has made national headlines for saving Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s (D-Ill) life after a helicopter crash as well as for his volunteer work in the Gaza Strip.
The CEOs of several major artificial intelligence companies are urging members of Congress to adopt new laws that would make it harder for bad actors to develop biological weapons using their technology.
Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and Microsoft AI’s Mustafa Suleyman are among the signatories on a public letter calling for laws requiring companies that sell synthetic DNA and RNA to screen customers and orders to prevent the misuse of genetic material.
Organized by the nonpartisan Institute for Progress and the right-leaning Foundation for American Innovation, the letter acknowledges that given the pace of AI development, “there is a real possibility that the knowledge barriers which have historically prevented bad actors from obtaining biological weapons will meaningfully erode.”
It’s amusing, but Newsweek explains the elections in Colombia this way:
Colombia’s pro-Donald Trump candidate Abelardo de la Espriella won the first round of the country’s presidential election on Sunday and will now face left-leaning senator Iván Cepeda in a runoff later this month.
The secondary market for decades old, low-tech John Deere tractors has been booming for years as farmers have sought reliable tractors that they can actually fix without having to deal with John Deere’s repair monopoly. A Canadian company has seen that demand and came up with a radical thought: What if they made a new, repairable, “no-tech” tractor to solve what has become a gigantic pain point for farmers?
Alberta’s Ursa Ag says that it has been inundated with demand after announcing its tractor, which costs roughly half as much as a Deere and has the benefit of not being a repair nightmare. We have for years covered the frustration that farmers have felt as they have been locked out of their Deere tractors with digital rights management systems that prevent them from fixing their machinery, tractors that won’t run because of minor sensor failures, and crops that literally die on the vine as they wait for an “authorized” repair person to fix tractors during critical harvesting periods.