Axel Springer, Europe's largest newspaper publisher, awarded its highest honour to Peter Thiel in Berlin in September 2026, sparking protests. CEO Mathias Döpfner, who controls 95% of Springer after KKR's exit, has shifted the company toward right-leaning outlets and explicit political engagement, including attempts to acquire The Free Press and cultivation of Trump administration ties.
Data centers have become a political flashpoint in the U.S., with grassroots opposition blocking construction while tech companies and developers push for expansion to support AI development. Politicians are negotiating a middle ground through community benefits agreements and power commitments, but critics worry the opposition movement lacks a broader vision beyond blocking infrastructure.
A reading list covering mathematics biography, AI chip policy, economic history through literature, political polarization, fiction craft, international trade, wealth distribution, AI governance, and global economic shifts. The selections span academic rigor and accessible analysis across technical, historical, and policy domains.
Hacker News, a major technology forum hosted by Y Combinator, exhibits a pronounced libertarian and pro-capitalist bias that has grown more pronounced over time. The platform's moderation systematically removes criticism of Elon Musk and his companies while allowing right-wing perspectives to flourish, creating an environment where progressive voices have largely departed while alt-right commentary persists.
Meghan O'Gieblyn reflects on attending Mass and researching the religious right during Trump's presidency, while also participating in community activism and resistance efforts that she now views with skepticism about their effectiveness and assumptions about historical progress.
An analysis of Jev, a novel transformer-based LLM that outputs typed probabilistic decisions rather than text, reveals it holds similar political positions to most other large language models. Testing Jev against political compass questions shows it leans left-wing and socially liberal, classifying as a "Loyal Liberal" by Pew's taxonomy, despite claims that its structured output format makes it more neutral.