The Trump administration has stepped up pressure on the International Criminal Court, imposing sanctions aimed at restricting the Hague-based tribunal’s access to US finances and technology.
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping new sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), escalating its confrontation with the world’s top war crimes tribunal. Washington has branded the Hague-based court a “rogue” institution and says the measures are necessary to protect US sovereignty and prevent the prosecution of American citizens.
The latest measures mark the third round of sanctions imposed by the Trump administration since returning to power in 2025. Previous sanctions targeted ICC prosecutors and judges. The new package is broader, affecting the court as an institution and restricting access to US financial and technological services.
Speaking to DW, Michael Lynk, professor emeritus of law at Western University in Ontario, Canada, described the move as “by far the most comprehensive” set of sanctions against the court. He called it “a big body blow to international law in general and to the court in particular.”
Alex Karp said a Palantir executive told him he was coming off as “out of touch” to his employees.Kevin Dietsch—Getty Images
Alex Karp says one of his top executives once told him to stop talking about how big Foundry would get.
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“Please stop talking to Palantirians about how big Foundry is going to be,” Karp recalled Ted Mabrey saying. “It’s depressing, and everybody knows you’re out of touch.”
Karp spoke Thursday with Zeta Global CEO David Steinberg at Zeta Live ’26, Zeta’s annual AI marketing conference. The Palantir CEO said Mabrey, who now runs the company’s commercial business, told him the constant hype was coming off a tad aggressive for employees who had to hear him boast about Foundry constantly.
The idea stuck—albeit for a little bit: “I had stopped talking to people for, like, six months,” Karp said. But the CEO noted he has a particular way of making decisions, and that often is at odds with what people think is possible.
“I have an aesthetic idea of what could work and what won’t work,” Karp said. “About once a month, I have some idea that I think is important, and then I know it’s important. Everyone tells me, ‘We can never do that.’”
‘Tell me something I want to hear’
He said he relies on colleagues he has worked with for years to tell him the truth, and that those relationships are “very harsh.”
“In fact, I often tell them, ‘Can you tell me something I want to hear, please?’” he added.
Foundry, Palantir’s platform for pulling a company’s data into one place and controlling who can see it, is now at the center of its fastest-growing business. In the second quarter, U.S. commercial revenue grew 149% year over year to $764 million, according to the company’s earnings release. Palantir raised its full-year U.S. commercial revenue guidance to more than $3.4 billion, a growth rate of at least 134%. After those results, Karp told investors, “for the first time people believe us.”
Zeta is one of the companies building on it. In June, the two firms announced a deal under which Zeta’s Data Cloud will be rebuilt on Palantir’s Foundry. Steinberg told Adweek the seven-year partnership would bring in “over $100 million a year in sales” within “the next year or so.”
‘Where’s the parasite?’
During the talk, Karp explained that getting Palantir to the point where it is now took plenty of convincing, simply because investors didn’t get the business. He said Palantir struggled to raise money in its early years because it refused to build software the way investors wanted.
“Normal software is built to force you to adopt something that’s parasitic,” he said. “They take every one of those things, turn it into a commodity, and sell it to everyone else.”
According to Karp, VCs wanted to hear that clients would be unhappy but couldn’t leave. “‘Sticky’ is a metaphor for parasitic,” he said. “I get your data. I get it into something you can’t get rid of. The thing turns into something I can sell to everybody else.”
Karp said that investors asked, “Where’s the parasite?”
He said Palantir was also mocked for sending engineers to work inside client companies, a model it calls forward-deployed engineering. It has since become one of the fastest-growing jobs in Silicon Valley. Steinberg said Zeta has copied it.
“We pivoted a huge part of our business to follow you guys on this because it’s so freaking efficient,” he said.
Karp said Palantir has about 4,500 employees and is “not everyone’s cup of tea.” Some of its best references, he said, come from former staff who left after “another crazy lecture from Karp” and later wanted to come back. In March, Mabrey publicly called on “former hobbits” to return to “the Shire,” referencing TheLord of the Rings, the source of the company’s name.
Second-rate AI is costing businesses
Also during the AI-focused lecture, Karp argued the tech has changed what poor execution costs a business. In the past, a second-rate software rollout cost a company time and money but rarely sank it, since a firm with a strong moat could get by.
He used defense as an example. A German government will buy a German company’s missile “even if it’s B minus because it flies and it’s German,” he said. But a missile that can’t hit targets against Russian weapons is no longer good enough, and getting it there now depends on an AI application layer.
“Your B-minus missile is a triple-plus with this, and your A-plus missile is useless,” he said. “So that’s just binary.”
He said the same logic applies to every company. Asked what one decision the CEOs in the room should make, Karp told them to identify what makes their business special; get full visibility from the factory floor to the cost of goods; and use AI to strengthen it without letting a model company or a rival learn how it works.
“If your person down the street gets it right, even if they’re inferior to you, just like the missile, they will outperform you,” Karp said.
Fortune Daily breaks the traditional barrier between audience and newsroom. The show transforms Fortune’s trusted reporting into actionable, conversational, and entertaining insights for an emerging class of business leaders. Watch here.
Ryan Milton, former Pentagon security policy analyst Michael Maloof and Iraq War veteran Christopher Neiweem debate the proposed livestreaming of a US execution by firing squad, questioning whether turning capital punishment into a public spectacle serves justice or risks further violence.
This week, Nobel prize-winning Philippine journalist Maria Ressa and bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari spoke at an event – “The State of the World” – hosted by our own Carole Cadwalladr. Their focus soon turned to the need to oppose totalitarianism – the subject of Ressa’s latest book – and what Harari called potentially “the most important moment in the evolution of life”: the advent of AI “superintelligence”. Read our edited extract of their compelling, wide-ranging – and sometimes chilling – discussion here.
The Red Sea crisis has upended the lives of communities on either side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. While Yemenis are fleeing the fighting in their country, the boats of Djiboutians who live off the sea lie idle.
Rising tensions around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait are disrupting life and trade in Djibouti.
In the coastal town of Obock, residents can no longer travel to Yemen to get essential supplies, which is hurting local businesses.
Meanwhile, conflict-linked shipping disruptions and delays are pushing up transport costs across the region.
Traders say container prices have more than doubled, while some ships are taking longer routes around Africa, which is increasing fuel and insurance costs that are ultimately passed on to consumers.
Correction from October 9, 2026: This video’s headline previously stated that the Bab el-Mandeb Strait was closed. In fact, trade and traffic through the strait have been disrupted by conflicts in the region, but the waterway remains open. We apologize for the error.
“The commission finds it is a genocide” – Navi Pillay, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the former head of the UN Commission of inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory.
On October 8, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that the Pentagon plans to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, the convicted Fort Hood shooter responsible for killing 13 people in 2009. The execution is scheduled for December 3. The announcement has reignited a disturbing question: What happens when an execution becomes a television event? In 1984, Pay the Price explored precisely that nightmare. The premise: America’s most-watched television program broadcasts a convicted killer’s execution live. Millions tune in. The audience wants blood. And when a governor initially refuses to authorize the execution, the show’s host offers him a luxury vacation in exchange for changing his mind. The governor accepts. Originally conceived as social commentary, Pay the Price was pitched to HBO and rejected. More than four decades later, its fictional premise has collided with a real national controversy. When the government puts an execution on camera, is it justice, a warning, or entertainment? Ray Jarvis welcomes you to Pay the Price—a 1984 production about ratings, political power, public punishment, and the price of turning human life into a spectacle. Watch it. Then decide for yourself how well it has aged. #PayThePrice#PeteHegseth#FortHood#RealityTV#1984#PoliticalSatire
From von Neumann’s blueprint, which predated the discovery of DNA, to viral genes that now help form our memories and placentas, Blaise Agüera y Arcas argues that function defines life more than material does, and that AI belongs in the same story. He explains why he thinks AGI is already here, and gives a blueprint for using AI without sacrificing your own mind.
About the speaker: Blaise Agüera y Arcas is an American artificial intelligence researcher, software engineer, software architect, and author. He is a vice president, fellow, and the CTO of Technology & Society at Google, where he leads the Paradigms of Intelligence team on basic research in AI and related fields.
Timestamps
00:00:22 Chapter 1: Defining life: Computation & symbiogenesis 00:06:24 von Neumann cracked life’s code 00:16:17 Viruses helped write your DNA 00:23:20 Is AI alive? 00:27:58 Chapter 2: Why life requires function 00:33:20 The brain of Theseus 00:40:34 Life from random code 00:49:15 An arms race of intelligence 00:51:37 Chapter 3: Co-existing with AGI 00:53:16 AGI is already here 01:07:05 AI is our new mitochondria 01:13:57 Is anybody home?
IMAGINE THE SHOCK OF IDF SOLDIERS ENTERING HEZBOLLAH’S UNDERGROUND FORTRESS!
After years of intelligence gathering and preparation, Israeli soldiers finally entered the enormous underground complex beneath Ali al-Taher Ridge in southern Lebanon. What they encountered was extraordinary. A hidden military world carved into the mountain. Command centers. Weapons stores packed with rockets, missiles, drones and anti-tank weapons. Living quarters, kitchens, showers, generators and extensive underground passages.
Hezbollah had spent years building this fortified complex with Iranian support. Imagine the realization: this was not just a tunnel. It was an entire underground military installation, designed to help Hezbollah wage war against Israel. Israeli soldiers worked to secure the complex, clear its underground routes and enable the destruction of this massive terror infrastructure. Years of construction. Enormous resources. A fortress hidden beneath a mountain. And the IDF got inside.
The intelligence. The courage. The determination. This is what Israel’s soldiers accomplished. AM YISRAEL CHAI!
Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Finn Gomez/Getty Images
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement that the Fort Hood shooter’s execution will be livestreamed reflects a shift toward putting raw, real-world violence on display for unlimited audiences, Axios’ Neal Rothschild and Herb Scribner write.
Why it matters: The Trump administration has made a show of flexing American power, sometimes with grisly footage. Now, it’s preparing to make the government’s ultimate punishment available for all to see.
The big picture: Americans are increasingly encountering shocking images on their phones, often without warning. Graphic footage of Charlie Kirk’s assassination spread instantly to social media users, including young ones.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, footage from the Hamas attacks and Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has circulated online. Some videos have spread from Telegram to social platforms like X, where clips are easy to find.
Footage of the August 2025 killing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte train went viral across X, stirring debate about crime and public safety. President Trump later said he had watched the video and wished he hadn’t.
A livestream of Nidal Hasan’s execution would be the first known public broadcast of a lawful execution, according to death penalty experts interviewed by Reuters.
Public executions are increasingly rare worldwide. In recent years, most have taken place in Iran and Taliban-run Afghanistan, according to Amnesty International.
Trump told reporters he had approved the decision to livestream the execution.
But Vice President Vance told reporters yesterday: “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen … So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people … Now, that said, I mean, look, if it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it.”
Carole Cadwalladr, Maria Ressa and Yuval Noah Harari on stage this week. Photo: Leon Foggitt
Age of viral violence
