Reading archive 2025-10-23

This Post Should Have Been Shorter

Musk doubles down in fight with Trump administration, risking his empire: The tech executive has shown little sign of backing down from a battle over the future of NASA. It has spilled into the Transportation Department, which oversees regulation for Tesla.

Study finds mRNA coronavirus vaccines prolonged life of cancer patients: Health records of more than 1,000 cancer patients receiving immunotherapy for lung and skin cancer showed they gained additional benefit after vaccination. - "'RNA preceded DNA evolutionarily, so cells don’t like RNA from the outside world coming in,' said Elias Sayour, one of the authors of the new paper and a pediatric oncologist at University of Florida Health. 'So when that happens, that sets off all the alarms of the human body. The 911 signals we’re in trouble.'"

Trump is ignoring the real threat matrix: A puzzling pivot to the Caribbean increasingly leaves Europe to answer Putin’s aggression on its own. - "'Great-power suicide' is how former CIA director William J. Burns described the self-inflicted damage to national security resources in a recent article for the Atlantic. 'We’ve put at risk the network of alliances and partnerships that is the envy of our rivals. We’ve even gutted the research funding that powers our economy,' he wrote.

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"This politicization of U.S. intelligence has begun to erode the confidence of partners. The two leaders of the Dutch intelligence agencies told a Dutch newspaper last week that they were reducing the amount of intelligence they shared with the CIA and National Security Agency. 'We sometimes don’t tell things anymore, that is true,' said Peter Reesink, head of the military intelligence agency. 'We are very alert to the politicization of intelligence and to human rights violations,' explained Erik Akerboom, head of the civilian spy agency."

Frustration grows over Trump bailout of Argentina: Republican officials are speaking out, but Trump says cattle ranchers don’t understand how much his policies have helped them.

I want the GOP to keep control of the House. But not this way.: My fellow Indiana Republicans shouldn’t cave to White House pressure to redistrict.

Putin says U.S. sanctions are ‘serious’ but won’t make Russia stop war: President Donald Trump’s sanctions against two of Russia’s largest oil companies come as the European Union passes its 19th package targeting the energy sector.

Russia acquired Western technology to protect its nuclear submarine fleet: Russia secretly used front companies to buy Western technology and erect a surveillance net in the Arctic where its submarines operate, an investigation shows. - "At the center of the Harmony procurement network was a company, Mostrello Commercial Ltd., that was headquartered in Cyprus, which is part of the European Union, but served as a front for Russia’s military industrial complex, accounting for tens of millions of dollars in purchases of sensitive equipment, according to court records and other documents. Russia did not respond to requests for comment."