Jul 31, 2026 The Ezra Klein Show

The first year of President Trump’s second term was a whirlwind of action: on immigration, on trade, on political retribution. But things seem to me to be slowing down quite a bit. Trump is incredibly unpopular, and he’s now bogged down in a war with Iran that he doesn’t seem capable of ending. He often appears more concerned with his many White House renovations than with whether the Republican Party can hold the House and the Senate in November. So what’s going on in this administration? Where is this all going? It’s hard to think of a journalist more qualified to answer those questions than Maggie Haberman. As a White House correspondent for The New York Times, she’s published some of the hardest-hitting reporting about Trump’s second act as president and the group of loyalists that now surrounds him. Haberman, alongside her New York Times colleague Jonathan Swan, just published an extraordinary chronicle of this extraordinary political moment, “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.” In this conversation, we discuss how decisions get made in this White House, what Trump has achieved so far and what’s really motivating him as we head toward the midterms.

0:00 Intro 1:15 Trump 2.0, Year 1 versus Year 2 3:55 How Trump views Iran 11:27 Does Trumpism even exist? 13:03 How Jeffrey Epstein exposed MAGA fissures 16:16 What does Trump actually know? 22:27 Trump’s self-dealing 38:49 Governing by executive action 42:08 Which cabinet members actually have power? 47:30 The spectacle feedback loop 51:05 Trump And Mamdani 52:35 Is age impacting Trump? 55:23 Why Trump is obsessed with renovations 57:28 Does Trump even care about policy? 1:01:03 Book recommendations

Laura Rozen reposted

Orla Joelsen

@OJoelsen

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1h

Once again, Trump has shared this AI – image on his own social media platform. As we say in Greenland: Keep your hands off Greenland. Greenland is not a toy. Period.

What is cognitive reserve?You can think of cognitive reserve as your brain’s ability to improvise and find alternate ways of getting a job done.  It reflects how agile your brain is in pulling in skills and capacities to solve problems and cope with challenges. Cognitive reserve is developed by a lifetime of education and curiosity.  The concept of cognitive reserve originated in the late 1980s, when researchers described individuals with no apparent symptoms of dementia who were nonetheless found at autopsy to have brain changes consistent with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. These individuals did not show symptoms of the disease while they were alive because they had a large enough cognitive reserve to offset the damage and continue to function as usual. Get your copy of A Guide to Cognitive Fitness In this Special Health Report, Harvard Medical School doctors share a seven-step program that can yield important and lasting results. Together these lifestyle changes can strengthen your intellectual prowess, promote your powers of recall, and protect the brain-based skills that are essential for full, rewarding, and independent living. From simple and specific changes in eating to ways to challenge your brain, this is guidance that will pay dividends for you and your future. SHOW ME MORE → Since then, research has shown that people with greater cognitive reserve are better able to stave off symptoms of degenerative brain changes associated with dementia or other brain diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or a stroke. A more robust cognitive reserve can also help you function better for longer if you’re exposed to unexpected life events, such as stress, surgery, or toxins in the environment. Such circumstances demand extra effort from your brain-similar to requiring a car to engage another gear.The heart of our brain health and cognitive fitness program, however, involves lifestyle changes. Researchers at Harvard Medical School have identified six cornerstones to any effective brain health and cognitive fitness program.Step 1: Eat a plant-based diet Step 2: Exercise regularly Step 3: Get enough sleep Step 4: Manage your stressStep 5: Nurture social contactsStep 6: Continue to challenge your brainThese factors are equal parts of a cohesive plan-they don’t work in isolation. Simply eating more fiber or adding a morning walk to your routine isn’t enough to forestall mental decline. Instead, exercise, diet, sleep, stress management, social interaction, and mental stimulation work in concert to yield results.For more on staying sharp as you age, read A Guide to Cognitive Fitness, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.Image: © gmac84/Getty ImagesShare this story:

Jensen Huang says ‘a lot’ of six-figure jobs in plumbing and construction will soon be unlocked because someone needs to build new AI centers

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Jensen Huang says ‘a lot’ of six-figure jobs in plumbing and construction will soon be unlocked because someone needs to build new AI centers

Real EstateSeattle

One-third of Seattle’s downtown is empty: Here’s how America’s boomtown turned into one of the toughest places to find a job

By 

Nick Lichtenberg

Business Editor

July 27, 2026, 4:00 AM ET

Seattle’s downtown office vacancy rate hit 35.6% in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from 32.3% a year earlier.Emilee Chinn/Getty Images

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A decade ago, Seattle was the poster child of American tech prosperity. Amazon and Microsoft had turned a midsize Pacific Northwest city into a magnet for engineers, executives, and capital, adding roughly 40,000 jobs per year at the peak of the boom, according to the Puget Sound Regional Council.

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Today, more than one-third of downtown Seattle’s office space sits empty, its job postings have collapsed faster than almost any other U.S. metro, and even Starbucks—the coffee giant founded in the city in 1971—is shifting jobs south to Nashville, as it commits to a $100 million, 2,000-person new footprint in Music City. The story of Seattle’s reversal unfolds in three overlapping arcs: an office market in free fall, a labor market that has gone from boom to bust, and a policy environment that has made survival harder for the small businesses left behind.

Arc one: the zombie towers

Seattle’s downtown office vacancy rate hit 35.6% in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from 32.3% a year earlier, according to Cushman & Wakefield data. That marks a stunning reversal from the pre-pandemic era: As recently as early 2025, the central business district’s availability rate—offices with departures pending—and vacancy rate were already hitting all-time highs based on CoStar data stretching back to 1982.

Some brokers put the number even higher, with Colliers reporting vacancy touching 39.1% in late 2024 as remote work, tech layoffs, and cautious leasing decisions compounded. Office building values in the district have plunged sharply as a result, with landlords struggling to fill space abandoned by major tenants.

Arc two: the labor market reversal

The office crisis is inseparable from a broader collapse in hiring. Seattle metro job postings fell 35% between February 2020 and October 2025, the second-steepest drop of any major U.S. metro after San Francisco’s 37% decline, according to Axios’s analysis of Indeed data.

Tech firms in the area have announced tens of thousands of job reductions since 2023, primarily driven by Microsoft, Amazon, and Blue Origin. The region posted a net loss of 13,000 jobs in 2025—its first annual decline since the pandemic and a stark reversal from the 40,000-job annual gains of the boom years.

Arc three: the policy squeeze

Into this contraction came a wage floor with no exceptions. Seattle’s minimum wage, $20.76 an hour and applied uniformly to all employers regardless of size since January 2025, has intensified pressure on small businesses trying to survive the downtown exodus.

A peer-reviewed study published in Labour Economics found the wage ordinance’s announcement effect actually deterred new business formation within Seattle’s borders while generating positive “spillover” openings in neighboring suburbs, suggesting firms redirected growth rather than uniformly closing shop. Earlier University of Washington research similarly found the wage hikes reduced low-wage workers’ hours by about 9% even as hourly pay rose roughly 3%, per Ballotpedia’s fact-check compilation.

What makes Seattle’s situation distinct from other regional slowdowns is how tightly these three arcs lock together. CoStar estimates Seattle won’t fully break out of the vacancy cycle before 2027—a timeline that assumes the feedback loop stops tightening, which so far it hasn’t.

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For this story, Fortune journalists used generative AI as a research tool. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.

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The Fortune 500 Innovation Forum will convene Fortune 500 executives, U.S. policy officials, top founders, and thought leaders to help define what’s next for the American economy, Nov. 16-17 in Detroit. Apply here.

About the Author

By Nick LichtenbergBusiness Editor

Nick Lichtenberg is business editor and was for

@TheCradleMedia

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26m

VIDEO | Netanyahu and late warmonger Lindsey Graham conspired to undermine ICC Documentary footage and reports published by The New York Times have brought to light a private phone call from 29 October 2024, involving the late US Senator Lindsey Graham and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Captured by British filmmaker Alex Holder during years of behind-the-scenes access, the recording reveals a coordinated effort to pressure and undermine the International Criminal Court (ICC) just before the court’s decision on arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former War Minister Yoav Gallant regarding war crimes in Gaza. The leaders discussed political and legal strategies to obstruct the ICC’s proceedings. This included leveraging external pressures—such as allegations against then-ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan—to cast doubt on the court’s legitimacy and stall the issuance of the warrants. The initiative involved rallying bipartisan backing in the US Congress, with Graham working alongside House and Senate members to issue formal expressions of opposition.

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3,199,907 views Jan 20, 2024 #dwdocumentary#documentary

Around one billion people struggle with stress-related illness globally – and that figure is rising. What protects those with good mental health? Is their resilience innate? Or is the ability to withstand chronic stress and crisis something that can be learned?

In the search for answers, the film visits some of the leading figures in resilience research. The filmmakers also interview epigeneticists and neuroscientists.

In the largest European resilience center in Mainz, Germany, researchers conduct a long-term study to explore the mechanisms deployed by people who enjoy good mental health despite stress and crisis.

In southern France, the film meets Boris Cyrulnik, a pioneer of resilience research. His credo: when it comes to resilient behavior, it’s not just down to us – society and politics also have a responsibility to create appropriate conditions for stable psychological health.

And the film tells the moving story of two families united by tragedy: following the violent death of their two sons, who were friends, they struggle to find their way back to some semblance of normal life.

Our experiences, our environment and our genes – all influence our powers of mental resilience. Resilience isn’t a magic word or a promise of happiness, but a life-long learning process.

Blast Radius

Iran Appears to Be Blasting Amazon Data Centers Off the Map

That’s one way to deal with data centers.

By Joe Wilkins

Published Jul 31, 2026 3:50 PM EDT

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There’s data center activism, fought with Facebook groups and petitions, and then there’s data center annihilation, fought with guided missile and suicide drones.

Recently, the Iranian military announced it had hit and damaged two Amazon data centers in the island country of Bahrain with a volley of cruise missiles.

After the attack, the Iranian state media outlet Tasnim published a partial statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, saying that the “IRGC Aerospace warriors… in response to the aggression and assault… by the child-killing American army on the under-construction and civilian facilities of DarKhoveyn, attacked and destroyed the central data infrastructure of the American company Amazon in Bahrain with several cruise missiles.”

Using images from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellites, Bloomberg confirmed an attack on the data center campus had taken place, though noted it’s difficult to say how bad the damage is (Amazon refused to comment on Bloomberg‘s reporting.)

“Analysis of Sentinel-2 images shows evidence of damage to both facilities, but does not provide insight into the extent of the damage,” Adam Farrar, Bloomberg‘s senior geoeconomics analyst said.

Overall, it marks the fourth such attack on a data center since the US began the war in February. Back in March, the IRGC announced a number of US tech companies as “Iran’s new targets,” including Google, Microsoft, Palantir, IBM, Nvidia, and Oracle. Now that the war is heating back up, it seems that they’re becoming targets yet again.

Militarily, it’s a logical move, as US tech companies have been integral to the American war effort. The Pentagon is using a host of AI models to gather intelligence and select military targets for annihilation, most notably the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school, which was destroyed in a triple-tap strike resulting in the deaths of over 120 school children, as well as parents and teachers.

Perhaps above all, it’s a statement to American president Donald Trump: the longer the hostilities linger, the more economic and technological havoc Iran is willing to unleash on the region.

More on Iran: The US Military Has Been Using Elon Musk’s Grok AI to Bomb Iran

Joe Wilkins

Correspondent

I’m a tech and labor correspondent for Futurism, where my beat includes the role of emerging technologies in governance, surveillance, and labor.

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• Artificial Intelligence