https://twitter.com/UTVNews/status/2093061325874200583/video/1

https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/2092606385125048351/video/1

Elon Musk says the AI boom hits a WALL this year when we run out of power to run the chips. 1. Utilities are shredding decade-old capacity plans. He says the whole industry is about to learn a hard lesson in hardware. Chip output is exploding, but electricity is nearly flat everywhere outside China. So the two lines cross this year. He says by the end of the year, we will be making more AI chips than we can actually turn on. Millions of them pile up with nowhere to plug in.

In his words, the bottleneck for the next year is not chips, it is raw power. Whoever can turn on the most chips fastest wins the race. In the end, the AI race comes down to one thing: Raw electricity. — Elon Musk (.

@elonmusk) on Dwarkesh Patel’s (.

@dwarkesh_sp) podcast

https://twitter.com/GeniusGTX/status/2093005967697014811/video/1

414,783 views Aug 6, 2026

The poor bore the brunt of the subprime and credit crisis of 2008. Then, it was the turn of the middle class. The impoverishment of the American middle class was brutal. In a country which established liberalism as a creed, there was no safety net. This 2012 documentary looks at the victims of this crisis. For those who lost their jobs, the consequences were instantaneous and dramatic. Larry Dodson, 52, used to manage a large customer service department. But two years ago, he lost his job and house. Today, he lives in a motel room with his wife and two children and scrapes by on $820 dollars a month, welcoming tourists to Disney World.

After he has paid the motel fees, he’s left with just $70 for food and other necessities.

Terry used to be a sales manager and enjoyed a good life until he was made redundant. He ended up roaming from motel to motel in his car and eventually was judged ’economically incapable’ of raising his six children. The three eldest were placed in foster care.

There are currently 1,800 children growing up in the motels around Disney World. They move from school to school as their parents are forced to find cheaper accommodation. We spent six months following the daily lives of families like these, affected by the crisis. This documentary was produced by Babel Press and directed by Philippe Levassour. It was first released in 2012. —–

What does the American Dream really look like today? Stateside Stories documents everyday life across America, through the eyes of journalists from around the world. A portrait of a nation as diverse as its people. Stateside Stories explores the lives of families displaced from their homes, now navigating life in budget motels and vehicles. These individuals strive to maintain normalcy and economic stability while facing the daily challenges of the modern American housing crisis and limited social support systems.

Iran has reportedly restored 40% of the damaged capacity at South Pars.

South Pars is part of the world’s largest natural gas field, shared with Qatar, and it took a major hit from Israel back in March.

Iran may have brought it back 40%, but the damage is apparently much worse than the number makes it sound…

Iran’s deputy oil minister says fully rebuilding the affected sites will take at least 2 years.

That’s a long repair job for an “economic outcast” to have to wait around for…

Source: CNN / Writer: Daniyal

Russia Targets Coastal West Africa As It Loses Ground In Sahel

 August 27, 2026

By Africa Defense Forum

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Key Takeaways:

• After Russian-backed security efforts failed to stop expanding Sahel jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, analysts say Moscow is shifting toward influence operations aimed at coastal West African democracies.
• Leaked “Project Afrika” documents describe a Russian network planting hundreds of propaganda articles in regional media and paying outlets—such as Senegal’s PressAfrik—to push narratives that boost military rule and undercut trust in democratic institutions.
• Experts argue information campaigns cannot replace battlefield or development results; coastal states are urged to expose inauthentic narratives and resist authoritarian messaging while Russia’s physical expansion remains limited where institutions are stronger.

A string of devastating attacks by Sahelian terror groups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have shown Russian mercenaries’ inability to provide security. Now, Russia appears to be pivoting to an alternate strategy.

Joseph Siegle, director of research at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, said the Kremlin is using its well-established blueprint of deploying propaganda and false information as a precursor to expanding its presence.

The target: coastal West Africa.

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“Russia’s Sahel strategy is collapsing, but that hasn’t slowed its ambitions in Africa,” he wrote in a July social media post. “Even as its influence in the Sahel unravels, Russia is doubling down on fomenting distrust in democratic institutions and building the case for military rule — in an effort to gain a foothold in coastal West Africa’s democracies.”

This year, terrorist groups affiliated with al-Qaida have mounted audacious attacks on Bamako, Mali, and Niamey, Niger, while choking off Mali’s capital from fuel and other critical deliveries. In all three junta-led countries, competing terrorist groups have expanded territorial control over large swaths of countryside.

Meanwhile, Siegle said: “Social media accounts linked to Russia and the juntas extol the fictional development and stability realized under the military regimes.”

A 1,400-page data leak obtained by pan-African media outlet The Continent and shared with several international newsrooms detailed a Russian influence network that referred to itself as “The Company.” The documents revealed how Russian agents have planted hundreds of articles in West African media outlets as part of its ongoing “Project Afrika,” wherein the network identifies, recruits and co-opts journalists, activists and nongovernmental organization members.

According to the documents, the Company planted 644 articles containing propaganda or false information in at least 35 media outlets across Central and West Africa between June and November 2024. The campaigns cost more than $300,000.

Senegal is a key target of the Kremlin with its Atlantic Ocean access and shared border with Mali, but its relatively stable democracy stands in the way. In March, France 24 reporters told Ibrahima Lissa Faye, news director of the Senegalese media outlet PressAfrik, that his news site had published 13 articles featuring Russian propaganda.

“These articles appear to have slipped through our editorial validation process,” Faye told France 24 television for a July 17 feature. “When you read articles like this, you definitely get the impression they are intended to manipulate opinion. We immediately unpublished the articles because they got onto the site without our knowledge.”

Leaked documents showed that the Russian company paid PressAfrik $6,500 to publish the 13 articles, but Faye denied that the money ever reached the outlet’s bank account.

Russia’s influence in the region has been amplified by coordinated false information projects, including pro-Russia media outlets and online campaigns on Facebook, TikTok and Telegram that can overwhelm the information landscape. But Jean-Hervé Jezequel, Sahel project director for the Crisis Group think tank, said Russia’s desire to expand its physical presence is limited by a lack of opportunities in the region’s more secure countries.

“The expansion of Russian influence in coastal West Africa has been less impressive so far than in the central Sahel,” he wrote in a February essay for the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “This may reflect a structural limitation: Russia’s appeal is strongest where violence and political disorder open doors, and weaker where political institutions remain relatively resilient.”

Jezequel believes that Russia may already have reached the height of its appeal as a security and economic partner. Its military presence has not decisively turned the tide of terrorism in the Sahel, and its tattered war economy limits it from offering development aid or large-scale reconstruction.

“Information campaigns can help sustain its image, but they cannot substitute for concrete results on the ground,” he wrote.

Siegle urged “democratically oriented governments” in coastal countries targeted by Russia such as Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal to band together to expose the Kremlin’s “Project Afrika.”

“African democrats and international proponents of stability have an imperative to support the West African countries targeted by Russian destabilization,” he wrote. “Toward this end, they should collectively work to expose inauthentic Russian-sponsored narratives and educate citizens to resist the siren call of authoritarianism. West Africa’s legacy of military government is already long and dark enough.”

About Africa Defense Forum

The Africa Defense Forum (ADF) magazine is a security affairs journal that focuses on all issues affecting peace, stability, and good governance in Africa. ADF is published by the U.S. Africa Command.

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Sweden is officially trading screens and tablets for physical books and handwriting to reverse a decline in reading skills. Once at the forefront of hyper-digitalized learning, Sweden is engineering a dramatic pivot back to the basics in its classrooms.

Concerned that an overreliance on digital tablets and screens has eroded reading comprehension and foundational writing skills, Swedish education officials are investing heavily in traditional printed textbooks.

The national strategy aims to phase out digital devices for children under the age of six entirely, following a drop in international reading assessment scores. Experts point out that while technology was championed to level the playing field, its unrestricted use has instead led to shorter attention spans and reduced retention among younger learners.

Scientific evidence strongly supports this retro transition. Research indicates that the physical act of handwriting activates complex neural networks governing motor skills, vision, memory, and language—cognitive benefits that are largely lost on a keyboard.

Furthermore, reading from a printed page provides critical spatial cues that aid comprehension, unlike digital screens that often subject students to cognitive fatigue and constant distractions. While computers and tablets remain valuable tools for research and collaboration, educators worldwide are watching Sweden’s massive reinvestment in physical books as a potential blueprint for a more balanced, science-backed approach to modern schooling. source: The Guardian. Switching off: Sweden says back-to-basics schooling works on paper.