Fears of Iranian chemical weapons: Israel’s warning to Washington
Israel has provided the United States with intelligence indicating that Iran intends to use chemical weapons against its enemies, according to a report by The New York Times.
The intelligence, portions of which were also shared with officials in Gulf states, has sparked disagreements among American officials over both the credibility of the threat and the motivations behind Israel’s warning.
According to the report, some U.S. officials who reviewed the intelligence expressed skepticism, suggesting that the warning could be part of a broader Israeli effort to pressure President Donald Trump into resuming large-scale military operations against Iran.
Joe Rogan warns ‘woke’ ideology is replacing God on the left and entering into Christianity
Podcaster Joe Rogan argued Saturday that progressive ideology has replaced religion for many on the left and that some are injecting their political beliefs into Christianity.
Rogan said he believed the left was “much more loony” than the right because a large portion of the left has embraced secularism.
“Like when you think about the left, you generally don’t think about like Christianity or any religion really. It’s more of like a science-based like, ‘We’re too smart for that thing.’ And I think they’re just lost,” Rogan said on his podcast. “There’s no moral scaffolding to hold on to.”
Rogan went on to argue that having a shared code like the Ten Commandments and showing humility toward a higher power are good for society. He said that for many liberals, far-left political ideology has become their new religion, to the point where they try to inject their liberal beliefs into traditional Christianity.
“Another thing that’s interesting with the religious thing when it comes to the left is there’s been this larger than normal presence of these, like, LGBT pastors and these people that are promoting a very different Christianity,” Rogan said. “They’re talking about things that, you know, biblical scholars are like, ‘Hey, wait, what page is this on? What? Where does it say abortion’s OK? Like, how are you getting to that? Where does it say God’s non-binary?’”
French blood banks hacked in latest cyber-attack on Europe
France’s national blood service has said hackers accessed control systems and boosted temperatures at three cold stores stocking vital blood products, in an apparent escalation of recent cyber-attacks on fridges and freezers across Europe.
The French blood service (EFS) said temperature and defrosting thresholds had been raised to “very high levels” in the attack, adding that its alarm systems had allowed technicians to intervene before the products were compromised.
Virginia Voters Enshrine Abortions Up to Birth in State Constitution After Pro-Abortion Groups Poured Millions into Campaign
Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment Tuesday that embeds a “fundamental right” to abortion up until the moment of birth, after pro-abortion groups spent millions of dollars on advertising.
US Space Force Declares Far Side of the Moon a “Warfighting Domain,” Weighs Launch of Five Military Lunar Satellites
The far side of the Earth’s Moon could become a new theater of war — at least if the Trump administration has anything to say about it.
According to the magazine Air and Space Forces, the US Space Force under Donald Trump is weighing whether to launch five satellites to cislunar space by 2029 — a decision which would see American military craft orbit around the far side of the Moon.
That news came via a bulletin to aerospace manufacturers, advising the industry that the Pentagon is now “notionally interested” in launching what would essentially be reconnaissance flights to slingshot around the Moon.
As Air and Space reported, the notice stated that “these vehicles may serve as seed vehicles that will inform the acquisition strategy for a potential future proliferated cislunar constellation. The government is looking for information on industry’s ability to provide a rapid, low-risk solution” for a recon trip to the far side of the Moon.
Google Announces It’s Shutting Off Search Engine Access for Schools That Ban AI
Schools across the country have long grown dependent on Google, from its eponymous search engine to services like Gmail and Chromebooks, the company’s cheap laptops that have become commonplace in classrooms.
But it’s a fraught relationship that’s now seriously being tested as teachers start to suspect that the AI use is wreaking havoc on the impressionable minds of their students. The tech has been shown to erode young people’s critical thinking skills, cause their testing skills to plummet, and — at the extreme end — drive them into isolation and AI psychosis.
Google is now putting on brass knuckles to keep its AI in schools, saying that it’ll be unwilling to support schools that move to block AI entirely. As the New York Times reports, the tech giant is revoking access to Google Search, the most important gateway to information on the open web, for any schools looking to restrict AI.
Papua New Guinea’s voluntary digital ID is becoming harder to avoid
When the Papua New Guinea cabinet approved the National Digital Identity Policy 2025 late last year it set out fundamental guidelines. When launching the policy, acting minister for ICT Peter Tsiamalili Jr. hailed it as a transformative moment for the region.
“We are not just catching up—we are setting a new standard for digital governance in the Pacific,” Tsiamalili said in a government announcement. “This is about building trust, protecting rights, and unlocking opportunities for every citizen.”
That part about building trust — is it just rhetoric? The policy makes an explicit commitment to inclusion, accessibility and non-discrimination, promising access regardless of geographic location, socioeconomic status, disability or lack of prior documentation.
It promises that the system will ensure inclusive access regardless of “geographic location, socioeconomic status, disability, or lack of prior documentation.” It then quickly proceeds to describe active measures to provide for such cases while the final sentence of the subsection declares an unequivocal protection.
“Additionally, no one will be denied essential services due to a lack of a digital ID,” it says.
Utah Begins Enforcing Online Age Verification
The state of Utah is moving to enforce a part of its online age verification law that a federal court has not blocked – and that means that adults will have to start proving their age in order to access “adult” sites.
Utah’s Department of Commerce and Division of Consumer Protection announced on Friday that it will start enforcing the age verification requirement from Monday, November 2, as it applies to sites that the law, SB 73, says must implement “reasonable age verification methods.”
This is happening while a federal court is still blocking another part of the same law, and a lawsuit against it is paused. The law says that sites where more than 33-1/3% of total material is what it considers to be “material harmful to minors” must make sure that people under 18 cannot access that content.
They must do it by using “reasonable age verification methods.” The law spells out what it means by that: a “Digitized identification card,” a third-party service that checks a user’s details against a database “regularly used by government agencies and businesses for the purpose of age and identity verification,” “any commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data,” or any method the division sets by rule.
Oh yeah, there was an election… Democrats win Senate and House, taking control of Congress from Republicans
Democrats have regained control of Congress, winning back the U.S. House and Senate as Republican midterm losses mount.
Coming into the night, Republicans held 53 of the Senate’s 100 seats, compared with 45 held by Democrats. To wrest back control of the Senate, Democrats needed a net gain of at least four seats. As at 6 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the Democrats had won 54 Senate seats to the GOP’s 44.
Democrats won a series of key Senate seats. In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed defeated Mike Rogers in one of the most closely watched races. James Talarico beat Republican Ken Paxton in Texas, becoming the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in the Lone Star State since 1988.