Authored by Peter Berkowitz via RealClearPolitics,

As artificial intelligence extends to every corner of contemporary life, it brings remarkable capabilities and opportunities – along with dangers that strike at the foundations of individual freedom, human dignity, and the common good.

Many incline to either extol AI’s blessings or condemn it as a curse. The savvy who learn from experience recognize that like all tools and contrivances, AI can be used for good and bad. Students of history grasp that as with numerous technological breakthroughs over the last 100 years – perhaps more so – AI promises unprecedented benefits while posing catastrophic peril to the future of human civilization.

What is artificial intelligence?

Three major artificial intelligence platforms – ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, all large-language models colloquially referred to as AI – to which I put the question agreed: AI consists in machines’ ability to perform tasks such as perceiving, learning, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making that normally require human intelligence. All three AI platforms stated that narrow or weak AI, the familiar and currently available form of artificial intelligence, executes one task well. The platforms added that computer scientists are pursuing general or strong AI (also known as artificial general intelligence or AGI) which, like a human being, would understand, learn, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks. Gemini and Grok noted – and ChatGPT concurred in response to my follow-up query – that researchers contemplate a third kind, superintelligent AI (also called artificial superintelligence or ASI), that would surpass human intelligence in virtually every aspect and in almost all ways.

To my initial inquiry, Grok volunteered observations on “common misconceptions.” AI can already accomplish wonderful things: write essays, computer code, music, legal briefs; pass bar exams, medical licensing tests, and Ph.D.-level science exams; generate photo-quality images and realistic videos; and hold conversations that feel human. But, reported Grok with seemingly sly modesty, “AI is not ‘alive’ or conscious (as far as we know in 2025).” Still, Grok acknowledged – as if describing a mental-health patient – AI hallucinates, errs, and lacks real-world grounding. And Grok helpfully summarized: “Artificial intelligence today is software that mimics cognitive abilities through massive statistical learning, not through human-like consciousness or general reasoning from first principles – yet it’s already transforming almost every industry.”

As it promises to sweep across and remake not only industries but also moral and political life, AI’s perils – some observable, some looming – come into focus.

AI provides a crippling crutch. Reliance on artificial intelligence, especially among the young, stunts creativity and judgment. Adults’ use of AI as a substitute for friends and therapists erodes empathy and human connection.

AI strains resources and damages the environment. The colossal data centers that handle artificial intelligence’s massive computational demands consume huge amounts of electricity and require immense quantities of potable water to prevent overheating.

AI diminishes human control and creates acute vulnerabilities. Artificial intelligence involves not one big machine but rather incorporates millions of interconnected devices distributed over vast geographical areas. As AI supports a growing number of crucial operations – government, national security, energy, telecommunications, transportation, health, finance, and more – the nation will increasingly depend on prodigious computer networks whose operations and output computer scientists can’t fully anticipate or account for.

AI displaces workers and diminishes human capabilities. Artificial intelligence will take over numerous jobs at which it outperforms the workers it has made unnecessary, while carrying out other activities more cheaply and efficiently but less responsibly than the professionals who will lose their livelihood. Skills and qualities essential to citizenship and human flourishing – not least reading, writing, and judiciousness – will atrophy.

AI blurs true and false. Able to present deepfakes as real and real images as deepfakes, artificial intelligence undermines the reliable information and shared reality on which free and democratic government depends.

AI facilitates the concentration of wealth and power. Government’s growing reliance on artificial intelligence entwines the public sector and the private sector, shifting influence and control from elected officials to giant corporations that write computer software, host clouds, and manage physical infrastructure.

And AI opens the door to doomsday scenarios once confined to science fiction. Artificial superintelligence incorporated into robots and weapons systems may conclude based on calculations that it conceals from the human beings who built it that wiping out this people, that nation, or these civilizations will yield the greatest good for the greatest number.

This brief parade of horribles – potential as well as actual – underscores the need for serious thinking about the AI challenge. Eminent figures from high-tech, religion, and the world of letters have taken notice and stepped up – to focus attention, frame the issues, and summon to action.

On Nov. 11, accepting the Hudson Institute’s Herman Kahn award, Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp argued that AI was central to America’s national security. Turbulence lies ahead because technology “is going to change everything politically” and “there are dangers in AI,” warned Karp. To navigate the turbulence, he counseled, it is urgent to “understand and embrace the superiority of America and its culture.”

Echoing Abraham Lincoln, Karp stated that the United States is special because it was founded on the conviction that “the rights we have in this country are inalienable and they are given to us by God.” It follows, according to Karp, that no machine, however intelligent, can possess what God alone has the power to confer – an essential dignity expressed in the rights inherent in all persons.

The superiority of America’s moral and political principles, however, has never been enough to fend off the enemies of freedom. The United States preserves its superiority also thanks to prowess in “controlling the violence,” argued Karp. Americans earn the privilege of respecting the rule of law at home by prevailing on the battlefield abroad.

China, in Karp’s view, presents the primary threat to American freedom. Were the Chinese Communist Party to succeed in its quest for AI dominance, the CCP would decisively infuse international relations with authoritarian norms and comprehensively reshape world affairs to serve authoritarian interests. Consequently, argued the Palantir CEO, the United States must persevere – guided by the nation’s founding commitment to basic rights and fundamental freedoms – as the world’s “dominant technological culture in the world.” That requires excelling at AI.

A few days before Karp’s speech, an address by Pope Leo XIV was read aloud at the Builders Artificial Intelligence Forum held at the Pontifical Gregorian University. The pontiff praised the participants – organizers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and clergy – who had gathered in Rome “to ensure that emerging technologies remain oriented toward the dignity of the human person and the common good.” This called for examination of “not merely what AI can do, but who we are becoming through the technologies we build.”

The AI challenge represents, for the pope, the latest round in the age-old “dialogue between faith and reason.” Although a new technology, AI, “like all human invention, springs from the creative capacity that God has entrusted to us (cf. Antiqua et Nova, 37),” he stressed. “This means that technological innovation can be a form of participation in the divine act of creation.” Like all human invention, AI “carries an ethical and spiritual weight, for every design choice expresses a vision of humanity.” To foster wise choices, the pope summoned “all builders of AI to cultivate moral discernment as a fundamental part of their work – to develop systems that reflect justice, solidarity, and a genuine reverence for life.”

In contrast to high-tech titan Karp and the Bishop of Rome, both of whom want to harness AI to advance individual freedom, human dignity, and the common good, author Paul Kingsnorth maintains that artificial intelligence represents an all but unmitigated evil. His new book, “Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity,” has little to say directly about AI. But it offers rich psychological, neurological, cultural, autobiographical, ethical, political, and theological explorations of modernity’s internal dynamics, which, he believes, culminate in AI’s transformation of human beings into its servants. Kingsnorth’s explorations form an elaborate lamentation on what Nietzsche in the 19th century called “the death of God” and the German sociologist Max Weber in the 20th century described as “the disenchantment of the world.” They also recount Kingsnorth’s long, inspiring journey – intellectual, moral and political, religious – in search of a way amid modern technologies’ seductions and ructions to live in harmony with our essential humanity. His reflections are at once lyrical and erudite, illuminating and harrowing, compelling and overwrought.

By “the Machine,” Kingsnorth means not in the first place technological progress or politics dedicated to it, but rather a spiritual crisis born and bred in, and transmitted globally by, the West. The modern scientific spirit, he argues, manifests an instrumental orientation toward the natural world that relentlessly reduces human beings to natural objects, and therefore subject to control and manipulation no more and no less than any other particle or complex of particles. Left and right today, Kingsnorth maintains, serve the Machine’s degradation of human beings to mere things: Postmodern progressives work furiously to dissolve traditional constraints and abolish natural limits while pro-free-market conservatives spread the Machine’s ineluctable logic and dehumanizing imperatives around the world.

All is not lost, though, for Kingsnorth. Notwithstanding his darkest moments, he exhorts readers to “Remain human despite it all.”

Americans may even turn matters to the nation’s advantage by mustering the wherewithal to fashion an education that acquaints students with America’s roots and the West’s enduring heritage: inalienable rights and the forms of government that secure them, human dignity, and the common good. Such an education would greatly improve the nation’s chances of clarifying AI’s blessings and curses and putting today’s most astonishing and terrifying technology in the service of properly human purposes.

The Washington Post dropped a bombshell last week, claiming Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered a second missile strike on a drug boat in September to make sure survivors were killed. “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. ‘The order was to kill everybody,’ one of them said,” WaPo claimed, relying entirely on anonymous sources. 

Hegseth promptly denied the report in a post on X.

“As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland,” he wrote. “As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.’ The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.”

Hegseth also argued that the country is finally seeing the difference between weak leadership and real enforcement, adding that Biden administration used “kid gloves,” and let millions of people pour into the country – including “dangerous cartels and unvetted Afghans,” which brought chaos into communities. He contrasted that with Trump’s approach, noting that “the Trump administration has sealed the border and gone on offense against narco-terrorists,” and drove the point home with his blunt line: “Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them.”

He stressed that current missions in the Caribbean follow the law, explaining that operations are “lawful under both U.S. and international law” and cleared by top military and civilian attorneys. He closed by praising the men and women of SOUTHCOM, saying they risk everything to keep the country safe from narco-terrorists and declaring he will “ALWAYS have their back.”

Despite the denial, Democrats pounced on the report. 

“I served on active duty as a JAG for four years, and then an additional 21 years in the reserves. And let me be very clear: Killing shipwrecked survivors is a war crime,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) told reporters on Monday. 

“The Department of Justice must conduct an investigation into the war crime and hold all of those accountable — including Sec. Hegseth. He allegedly said, ‘Kill them all,’” Lieu, the vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, continued. “If the Trump administration does not hold the people accountable, I guarantee you a future administration will do so. Because there is no statute of limitations for war crimes.”

The problem, however, is that the story is false. The New York Times investigated and debunked The Washington Post’s claim. 

According to five U.S. officials, who spoke separately and on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter that is under investigation, Mr. Hegseth, ahead of the Sept. 2 attack, ordered a strike that would kill the people on the boat and destroy the vessel and its purported cargo of drugs.

But, each official said, Mr. Hegseth’s directive did not specifically address what should happen if a first missile turned out not to fully accomplish all of those things. And, the officials said, his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast.

Admiral Bradley ordered the initial missile strike and then several follow-up strikes that killed the initial survivors and sank the disabled boat. As that operation unfolded, they said, Mr. Hegseth did not give any further orders to him.

The Times stopped short of calling the Post’s reporting a fabrication, but they couldn’t find even one anonymous source to back up the claim that Hegseth watched survivors clinging to wreckage and then ordered them killed. 

Administration tracking shows roughly 80 narcoterrorists killed in the Caribbean and Pacific since early September. After the September incident, protocols shifted to focus on capturing survivors. In an October strike, two survivors were detained and transferred to Ecuador and Colombia. U.S. officials told the Times they intercepted communications tying at least one survivor to traffickers. Lawmakers have asked for the execution order, but the administration hasn’t handed it over.

The White House says it has launched 21 operations since September 2, with 83 fatalities. And with major outlets contradicting each other on claims about kill orders, Washington stays locked in outrage mode rather than grappling with a more mundane operational reality.

“We’ve only just begun striking narco-boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean because they’ve been poisoning the American people,” War Secretary Hegseth said Tuesday during a Cabinet meeting.

The U.S. Transportation Department is now moving aggressively to correct the non-domiciled commercial driver’s license (CDL) crisis created under the Biden-Harris regime years, a period when these CDLs were effectively handed out like candy to unqualified migrant drivers, fueling a wave of carnage on America’s highways.

The latest enforcement action comes from Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, who announced the removal of nearly 3,000 CDL training providers from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Training Provider Registry (TPR) for failing to meet the Trump Administration’s standards of readiness, with another 4,500 providers put on notice for potential noncompliance.

“This administration is cracking down on every link in the illegal trucking chain. Under Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, bad actors were able to game the system and let unqualified drivers flood our roadways. Their negligence endangered every family on America’s roadways, and it ends today,” Duffy stated, adding, “Under President Trump, we are reigning in illegal and reckless practices that let poorly trained drivers get behind the wheel of semi-trucks and school buses.”

On X, Duffy quoted an AP News story that said as many as 44% of the 16,000 truck driving schools nationwide face immediate closure. He said, “The days of a ‘Wild Wild West’ trucking industry are over under the Trump administration.”

🚨HUGE ALERT🚨 @USDOT is giving THOUSANDS of trucking schools 30 days to comply with federal rules for drivers or they may be forced to close down.

The days of a “Wild Wild West” trucking industry are over under the Trump administration 🚛 https://t.co/ZRWebpTXij

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) December 1, 2025

The continued crackdown follows a series of 80,000-pound big rig crashes with migrants behind the wheel. These crashes have killed Americans.

The latest:

• DHS Confirms: Illegal Alien Trucker Who Killed 3 In California DUI Crash Entered U.S. Via Biden’s Open Borders

• Florida Highway Horror: Migrant Truck Driver Leaves 3 Americans Dead Amid CDL Crisis

• Advocacy Group Calls For U.S. Probe On Non-English Speaking Migrant Truck Drivers After Deadly Austin Crash

Duffy has been leading the charge to correct this crisis on America’s highways:

• English Trucking Rule Takes Effect, Federal Probe Begins Of Sanctuary State Migrant CDL Pipeline

• “This Cannot Happen Again”: Sec. Duffy Readies Major Action Against Rogue States Amid Migrant CDL Crisis

• U.S. “Pauses Issuance Of Worker Visas For Truckers” To Address Illegal Alien CDL Crisis Killing Americans

• Transportation Sec. Duffy Takes Emergency Action To Protect Americans From Non-Domiciled CDL Crisis On Highways

Separately, the State Department has been investigating the matter, and the Department of Homeland Security is auditing trucking firms in California owned by migrants. The desperate calls for urgent action all began with the trucking advocacy group American Truckers United earlier this year.

🚨Non-Citizen Truck Drivers Involved in Highway Crisis

This is an urgent wake-up call for every American. Our highways are no longer safe. Reckless immigration policies and weakened licensing standards have unleashed a deadly crisis on our roads. pic.twitter.com/NXrQTivkos

— American Truckers 🚛🦅 (@atutruckers) July 10, 2025

ATU’s research has found that the Biden-Harris regime and rogue sanctuary states enabled the trucking industry to be flooded by migrants, some of whom should’ve never been behind the wheel of a big rig.

Duffy continued.

🚨🚨It just keeps getting worse for @GovTimWalz.

Just one day after 400 BRAVE employees from @MinnesotaDHS exposed “massive fraud,” @USDOT has discovered that ONE THIRD of non-domiciled CDLs were issued ILLEGALLY in the state.

MINNESOTA: You’re on notice. You have 30 days to… https://t.co/EDsPx9lQKg

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) December 2, 2025

Thank ATU for their hard work this year in exposing and advising the federal government on how to correct yet another nation-killing policy by Biden-Harris.

By Ethan Howland of UtilityDive

• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should tell the PJM Interconnection that it can only add large data centers to its system when they can be reliably served, according to a complaint filed Tuesday at the agency by the grid operator’s market monitor.

• PJM is considering proposing to allow data center loads that it cannot serve reliably and that will require periodic blackouts for data centers and other customers, Monitoring Analytics, the grid operator’s market monitor, said.

• “That result is not consistent with the basic responsibility of PJM to maintain a reliable grid and is therefore not just and reasonable,” Monitoring Analytics said.

The market monitor contends that PJM Interconnection – the largest power grid in the United States, which runs the grid and wholesale power markets in 13 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states and the District of Columbia and serves 65 million customers – has the authority to require that large new data centers wait in a queue to be added to the system until there is adequate generation and transmission to serve those facilities, according to the complaint.

However, during PJM stakeholder discussions this fall on potential large load interconnection rules, PJM staff and many stakeholders were unwilling to say that the grid operator has that authority, the market monitor said.

“If PJM has an obligation to provide reliable service to all PJM loads, is it just and reasonable for PJM to add new loads that it cannot serve reliably?” Monitoring Analytics asked. “The answer to that question is no.”

The complaint was filed days after PJM stakeholders failed to agree on a new framework for adding data centers and other large loads to PJM’s system. During the stakeholder process, Monitoring Analytics proposed that data centers be required to have matching, new power supplies before they are allowed to interconnect to the grid.

PJM’s board plans to develop a large load interconnection proposal and file it for approval by FERC.

It would make the board’s job “significantly more manageable” if FERC indicates that it intends to rule on the complaint and then rules in the near future, Monitoring Analytics said.

“PJM markets face an urgent need for immediate clarification of PJM’s authority over the interconnection of large new data center loads,” the market monitor said.

Large data center load additions in PJM have been driving up transmission costs as well as energy and capacity prices, according to the market monitor.

Existing and expected data center loads increased PJM’s capacity revenues in its last two capacity auctions by $16.6 billion, Monitoring Analytics said. “This total will continue to grow until the issues associated with the additions of large data center loads are addressed,” the market monitor said.

PJM is reviewing the complaint, Jeffrey Shields, a spokesman for the grid operator, said. PJM runs the grid and wholesale power markets in 13 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states and the District of Columbia.

A powerful nor’easter traversed the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Tuesday, mostly bringing rain to the I-95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to New York City. Farther inland, however, from Scranton to Albany and up into Maine, colder air collided with moisture, blanketing these areas with accumulating snow.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy issued a state of emergency in the northern part of the state, including Hunterdon, Morris, Passaic, Sussex, and Warren counties. He urged drivers in the area to “exercise caution, remain alert, and follow all safety protocols.”

Today’s snowfall is confined to a narrow but intense band stretching from the Ohio Valley through central Pennsylvania and the Catskills into interior New England. Meanwhile, areas along the I-95 corridor will see mostly rain.

CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam said the storm could intensify into a bomb cyclone if its pressure continues to drop as it approaches the coast, which would bring even stronger winds along with torrential rain and snow.

Millions are under winter weather alerts from Ohio through Maine.

Looking ahead, AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno warned of another wintry system arriving late Friday into Saturday that could bring snow to parts of the Northeast.

“Should the cold air push too forcibly into the Northeast late in the week, the storm will escape out to sea with mostly rain for the Southeast and perhaps a narrow zone of snow, ice, and rain or snow on its northern edge,” Rayno said.

He noted, “However, should the cold air sit back just a bit in the Northeast and let the storm strengthen as it nears the Atlantic coast, it could turn into a heavy snow accumulation from the southern Appalachians and Piedmont all the way to the interior mid-Atlantic and much of New England.”

Earlier, NatGas futures rose to a three-year high on new models suggesting colder weather across the eastern two-thirds of the country for Dec. 6 to 10, with additional cooling expected from Dec. 11 to 15. Read the report.

La Nina winter is here. 

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Pfizer’s experimental influenza vaccine will not receive approval absent new data proving that it protects seniors against the flu, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration suggested in a new interview.

The messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) shot “failed in seniors,” Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA commissioner, said during an appearance on Nov. 29 on Fox News.

“The trial showed zero benefit,” he said.

“We’re not just going to rubber-stamp new products that don’t work, that fail in a clinical trial. It makes a mockery of science if we’re just going to rubber-stamp things with no data.”

Pfizer’s media team did not respond to a request for comment.

The experimental mRNA shot performed better in a trial than an already-approved vaccine from a different company among healthy people aged 18 to 64, researchers with Pfizer and other organizations said in a recent paper published by the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

The researchers did not mention that among vaccinated seniors, or people aged 65 and older, in the same trial, 0.5 percent suffered influenza-like illness and had laboratory-confirmed influenza cases. That was the same percentage as recipients of a licensed vaccine.

Many more seniors—68.7 percent—reported adverse reactions within seven days of Pfizer vaccination compared with just 25.8 percent of recipients of the existing vaccine, the results also showed.

The results from the seniors in the trial were posted to ClinicalTrials.gov earlier this year and highlighted following publication of the paper by independent journalists and members of the panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines, including Retsef Levi, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“I find this to be a major integrity failure in the peer-review process. The NEJM editorial board should provide a clear explanation how this failure has occurred and … require the authors to correct the current articles and report on the entire results of the trial,” Levi told The Epoch Times in an email.

“The study authors are best able to answer your question,” a spokesperson for the journal told The Epoch Times in an email when asked why the results for seniors were not included in the paper.

The study’s corresponding author, who works for Pfizer, did not return an inquiry.

Makary’s comments came after Dr. Vinay Prasad, who heads the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, wrote in a memorandum that officials will be revising the current framework for influenza vaccines, which he called “an evidence-based catastrophe of low-quality evidence, poor surrogate assays, and uncertain vaccine effectiveness measured in case-control studies with poor methods.” He indicated that more details would be forthcoming after internal conversations.

The current framework features annual approvals of updated shots that target strains projected to circulate.

The FDA says on its website on a page updated in 2024 that FDA-approved flu vaccines “are safe and effective.” Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that the vaccines’ effectiveness against influenza since 2009 have ranged from 19 percent to 60 percent.

Prasad also said that for most new vaccines, officials will be requiring randomized trials that provide evidence of efficacy based on clinical endpoints, which can include prevention of disease.

Dr. Robert Malone, who leads the CDC advisory panel’s influenza workgroup, told The Epoch Times that the memo means “the entire influenza vaccine, annual vaccination enterprise is now subject to major disruption.”

Former European Commission vice-president and ex-head of the EU’s foreign service, Federica Mogherini, has been detained as Belgian authorities investigate alleged misuse of European Union funds, Belgian and French media reports have revealed Tuesday.

Homes and offices are reportedly being raided in connection, though no formal charges were immediately made public for Mogherini. The action includes Belgian police searches at the Brussels headquarters of the European External Action Service (EEAS), which Mogherini led for a half-decade, from 2014 to 2019.

Police were also seen searching offices at the College of Europe in Bruges, where she has served as rector since 2020. The probe is reportedly related to her long stint overseeing the financing of the what serves as an academy for young diplomats.

Another College of Europe employee who serves in an executive office was also detained, as well as top European Commission official Stefano Sannino, who was previously the EEAS secretary-general under Mogherini.

Police have recovered documents said to be related to the three detained officials’ potentially criminal activities, based on suspicion of procurement fraud, corruption, and conflicts of interest.

Belgian police confirmed an investigation was ongoing “to assess whether any criminal offences have occurred”, adding: “All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty by the competent Belgian courts of law.”

The case may center on the college’s purchase of a building and involves several millions of euros. According to details in The Guardian:

The case is an unprecedented investigation by the European public prosecutor’s office (EPPO), the only EU body that handles criminal cases, which was launched in 2021 to combat cross-border fraud involving EU funds. The EPPO can bring criminal cases in courts in any of the 24 EU member states that have joined it, including Belgium.

The case centres on whether the College of Europe and or its representatives were informed in advance about the tender for a training programme for young diplomats before the official launch of the bidding process.

The EPPO said it had “strong suspicions” that the rules on fair competition had been breached and that confidential information had been shared with one of the candidates taking part in the tender. The College of Europe in Bruges was awarded a contract to run the European Union Diplomatic Academy in 2021-22 after a decision from the EU foreign service. The EPPO said immunity of the three suspects had been lifted at its request.

The arrested officials are suspected of trading in confidential information and breaching fair competition laws.

Another source reviewing the probe details the following:

The probe reportedly focuses on the college’s €3.2 million ($3.7 million) purchase of a building on Spanjaardstraat in Bruges, in 2022, shortly before receiving €654,000 in funding from the EEAS. Authorities suspect the institution may have had access to confidential information, undermining fair competition. 

An EU diplomat has been cited in The Guardian praising the European public prosecutor’s office as it “is not afraid to go after big names.” The diplomat added: “If the allegations are true, they should be severely punished to send a clear message that any type of corruption is not tolerable in the EU.”

#BREAKING: Belgian police have detained former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini in a fraud case.

She served as the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy from 2014 to 2019.

BOOM! pic.twitter.com/zfnkxdO8L8

— Russian Market (@runews) December 2, 2025

As for the College of Europe, many of its graduates go on to senior roles within European institutions and political bodies. All of this is certain to spur on suspicion among sectors of the general public that EU elite circles could be a hotbed for corruption, given billions in public funds are constantly doled out and transferred this way and that.

Authored by Micah Zimmerman via BitcoinMagazine.com,

Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee have released a 50-page report detailing what they describe as a systematic debanking effort by Biden-era regulators, dubbed “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.” 

While many of the findings — such as the Fed, FDIC, and OCC pressuring banks away from crypto through informal guidance, and the SEC’s “enforce first, make rules never” approach — were previously known, the report now places them squarely in the Congressional record.

The report identifies at least 30 entities that were effectively “debanked” through informal regulatory guidance and supervisory pressure. These businesses, the Committee claims, were forced out of the U.S. banking system without formal enforcement actions.

Government coercion, biased enforcement, and private pressure — all while denying

According to the document, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) employed a range of tactics to influence bank behavior. 

These included “non-objection” letters, “pause” letters, and other forms of informal guidance designed to make banks hesitant to engage with crypto companies.

Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allegedly adopted a policy of “enforce first, make rules never,” using selective enforcement rather than clear regulatory frameworks to restrict digital-asset activity. 

The report highlights SAB 121, an SEC guidance that effectively blocked banks from offering custody services for crypto assets.

The report paints a picture of regulators publicly denying any bias against digital assets, while privately pressuring banks to sever ties with crypto firms. The report reads that while regulators consistently denied discouraging digital-asset activity, the evidence collected by the Committee shows a pattern of private pressure and informal coercion. 

Committee Republicans argue these actions represent a revival of Operation Choke Point, a controversial program from the early 2010s that used regulatory and reputational pressure to discourage banks from serving certain high-risk industries. 

The report asserts that the tactics used against crypto firms echo the same methods: informal guidance, opaque supervisory expectations, and reputational risk warnings.

“The lack of clear rules combined with aggressive enforcement has created a chilling effect on the digital-asset sector,” said a Committee spokesperson. “Legitimate American businesses were forced to move abroad or shut down, not because of wrongdoing, but because of regulatory overreach.”

Crypto firms struggled to keep bank accounts

The report includes anecdotal accounts of firms that struggled to maintain bank accounts despite following all applicable laws.

One executive described repeated requests for documentation, sudden account closures, and vague warnings from compliance officers citing regulatory “uncertainty.” 

Another recounted being effectively cut off from the U.S. banking system after submitting a routine regulatory filing.

Republicans on the Committee argue that this environment has stifled innovation and driven financial activity offshore.

They call on Congress and the Biden administration to reverse these policies, provide explicit guidance, and ensure that legitimate crypto firms can access banking services without fear of arbitrary pressure.

The Committee’s full report is available in full on the House Financial Services Committee website.

The Department of Homeland Security has released a statement admonishing NYC officials after cataloging nearly 7000 illegal migrants that have been released from holding facilities instead of retaining them for ICE arrest.  

New York’s failure to honor ICE detainers has resulted in the release of 6,947 criminal illegal aliens since January 20th. The crimes of these aliens include 29 homicides, 2,509 assaults, 199 burglaries, 305 robberies, 392 dangerous drugs offenses, 300 weapons offenses, and 207 sexual predatory offenses.  The predators were released back on the streets without any notification to ICE, a trend which has led to many violent repeat offenses in the past.  

Furthermore, DHS reports that New York is holding another 7113 illegals with dangerous criminal backgrounds and they are refusing to release the prisoners into ICE custody.  The crimes of these aliens include 148 homicides, 717 assaults, 134 burglaries, 106 robberies, 235 dangerous drugs offenses, 152 weapons offenses, and 260 sexual predatory offenses.  DHS officials fear that the criminals will also be set free in the near future.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons sent a letter to New York Attorney General Letitia James calling on her to put the safety of Americans first and honor ICE arrest detainers.  

“Attorney General James and her fellow New York Sanctuary politicians are releasing murderers, terrorists, and sexual predators back into our neighborhoods and putting American lives at risk,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “We are calling on Letitia James to stop this dangerous derangement and commit to honoring the ICE arrest detainers of the more than 7,000 criminal illegal aliens in New York’s custody. It is common sense. Criminal illegal aliens should not be released back onto our streets to terrorize more innocent Americans.”

The stupidity of open borders activism becomes apparent when examining the real world consequences of unrestricted and unvetted immigration.

Prominent examples of criminal migrants released by sanctuary cities include José Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan national who entered illegally, was arrested on misdemeanor charges (shoplifting and permitting an unlicensed person to drive). Local authorities in Athens, GA did not notify ICE despite a detainer request.  Ibarra later murdered 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley during her jog on the University of Georgia campus, beating her to death. 

Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, a Salvadoran national with prior gang ties, was arrested in El Salvador for an unrelated assault but fled to the U.S. After a minor arrest in Maryland, local officials released him without ICE involvement due to limited sanctuary cooperation.  Martinez-Hernandez raped and murdered 37-year-old mother of five Rachel Morin while she was jogging on a trail in Bel Air, Maryland.

Victor Aureliano Martinez Ramirez, a Mexican national with prior arrests for drug and sexual assault charges (reduced to misdemeanor), was released from Santa Barbara County Jail despite an ICE detainer.  Five days post-release, Martinez Ramirez allegedly raped, tortured, and murdered 64-year-old Marilyn Pharis in her home, stabbing her multiple times. He faces numerous charges along with a co-defendant, Jose Fernando Villagomez. 

Franklin Jose Peña Ramos (Venezuelan) and Johan Jose Rangel Ayala (Venezuelan) were apprehended at the border in March 2024, released with Notices to Appear under CBP’s parole program, and not detained further despite initial screening. Houston’s limited sanctuary practices allowed community release without ICE follow-up.

In June 2024, the duo allegedly bound, raped, and drowned 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray under a bridge.  The list of incidents involving migrants released by Democrats goes on and on.

The track record is a horrific reminder that leftist officials are willing to double down on their ideology even if it results in brutality against their own citizenry.  They do not care.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declared a “code red” on Monday, telling employees that ChatGPT needs serious improvement in terms of user experience – including personalization features, speed, reliability, and allowing it to answer a wider range of questions.

In a companywide memo, Altman also said that OpenAI would be pushing back work on other initiatives, including advertising, AI agents for health and shopping, and a personal assistant called Pulse, the Wall Street Journal reports. And with hundreds of billions of dollars committed to future data-center investments, they need to remain on top at all costs. 

The company will now hold daily calls with the team responsible for improving the chatbot, while OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT, Nick Turley, said Monday on X that the company is now focused on making GPT feel “even more intuitive and personable.” 

The announcement comes days after a report in the Financial Times warning that OpenAI rivals from Google and Anthropic are catching up in terms of features and popularity. 

Three years on from the debut of its popular chatbot, the $500bn start-up is grappling with the reality of soaring data centre costs, the technical challenges of remaining at the frontier of AI and the constant battle to retain key talent.

It is also facing a resurgent Google, with the release last week of Gemini 3, Google’s latest large language model, which is considered to have leapfrogged OpenAI’s GPT-5 and achieved gains from the model training process that have eluded OpenAI in recent months.

“It’s quite a strong difference with the world we had two years ago where OpenAI was leading ahead of everyone else,” Thomas Wolf, co-founder and chief science officer of open-source start-up Hugging Face told FT. “It’s a new world.”

Gemini’s user base has been rapidly growing since the August release of an image generator – Nano Banana. According to Google, monthly active users have also grown from 450 million in July to 650 million in October. 

Anthropic, meanwhile,  is also growing in popularity among business customers. 

Last month Altman told employees that OpenAI would “need to stay focused through short-term competitive pressure . . . expect the vibes out there to be rough for a bit.” 

Meanwhile, OpenAI is at a disadvantage – not only are they not profitable, they have to raise money at a near-constant pace to keep their heads above water – something Google and other tech firms that fund growth with revenues don’t have to worry about. OpenAI is also outspending its main startup rival, Anthropic, and needs to grow revenue to roughly $200 billion to even have a chance at turning a profit in 2030. 

Google told the Financial Times that their Big Tech group had “pushed our performance quite significantly” by training their AI models using Google’s own bespoke chips. 

“Being able to connect with consumers, customers, companies, at that scale is really something that we can do because of that full stack integrated approach that we have,” said Koray Kavukcuoglu, Google’s AI architect and DeepMind’s chief technology officer.

That “full stack” includes its custom tensor processing unit chips, which allowed Google to train Gemini 3 without needing to rely on the costly Nvidia chips that most of the AI industry uses. “I think we have a unique approach there,” said Kavukcuoglu.

Google “always had these muscles to flex”, said Michael Nathanson, co-founder and analyst at MoffettNathanson, an equity research firm, adding that the IO event showed that “they really managed to find their product footing”.

“The pressure has definitely flipped to Sam Altman and his ability to monetise and keep all the plates spinning,” said Nathanson. -FT

As Google’s Gemini showed a potential step-change improvement vs ChatGPT, the market has found itself mis-aligned and mis-priced for that…

And now, Altman is starting to panic…