Marco Rubio was very impressed with the ceiling and light fixatures inside the Great Hall of the People.

Because we get asked a lot. The Technological Republic, in brief. 1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation. 2. We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps. Is the iPhone our greatest creative if not crowning achievement as a civilization? The object has changed our lives, but it may also now be limiting and constraining our sense of the possible. 3. Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public. 4. The limits of soft power, of soaring rhetoric alone, have been exposed. The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software. 5. The question is not whether A.I. weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose. Our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed. 6. National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost. 7. If a U.S. Marine asks for a better rifle, we should build it; and the same goes for software. We should as a country be capable of continuing a debate about the appropriateness of military action abroad while remaining unflinching in our commitment to those we have asked to step into harm’s way. 8. Public servants need not be our priests. Any business that compensated its employees in the way that the federal government compensates public servants would struggle to survive. 9. We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness—a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche—may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret. 10. The psychologization of modern politics is leading us astray. Those who look to the political arena to nourish their soul and sense of self, who rely too heavily on their internal life finding expression in people they may never meet, will be left disappointed. 11. Our society has grown too eager to hasten, and is often gleeful at, the demise of its enemies. The vanquishing of an opponent is a moment to pause, not rejoice. 12. The atomic age is ending. One age of deterrence, the atomic age, is ending, and a new era of deterrence built on A.I. is set to begin. 13. No other country in the history of the world has advanced progressive values more than this one. The United States is far from perfect. But it is easy to forget how much more opportunity exists in this country for those who are not hereditary elites than in any other nation on the planet. 14. American power has made possible an extraordinarily long peace. Too many have forgotten or perhaps take for granted that nearly a century of some version of peace has prevailed in the world without a great power military conflict. At least three generations — billions of people and their children and now grandchildren — have never known a world war. 15. The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone. The defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price. A similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism will, if maintained, also threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia. 16. We should applaud those who attempt to build where the market has failed to act. The culture almost snickers at Musk’s interest in grand narrative, as if billionaires ought to simply stay in their lane of enriching themselves . . . . Any curiosity or genuine interest in the value of what he has created is essentially dismissed, or perhaps lurks from beneath a thinly veiled scorn. 17. Silicon Valley must play a role in addressing violent crime. Many politicians across the United States have essentially shrugged when it comes to violent crime, abandoning any serious efforts to address the problem or take on any risk with their constituencies or donors in coming up with solutions and experiments in what should be a desperate bid to save lives. 18. The ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away from government service. The public arena—and the shallow and petty assaults against those who dare to do something other than enrich themselves—has become so unforgiving that the republic is left with a significant roster of ineffectual, empty vessels whose ambition one would forgive if there were any genuine belief structure lurking within. 19. The caution in public life that we unwittingly encourage is corrosive. Those who say nothing wrong often say nothing much at all. 20. The pervasive intolerance of religious belief in certain circles must be resisted. The elite’s intolerance of religious belief is perhaps one of the most telling signs that its political project constitutes a less open intellectual movement than many within it would claim. 21. Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful. 22. We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what? Excerpts from the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, by Alexander C. Karp & Nicholas W. Zamiska techrepublicbook.com

Condanniamo fermamente l’uso manipolatorio della recente copertina de L’Espresso. L'immagine distorce la complessa realtà con cui Israele deve convivere, promuovendo stereotipi e odio. Un giornalismo responsabile deve essere equilibrato e corretto. #MediaResponsibility

IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency says offices and infrastructure run by US tech firms with Israeli links including Google, Microsoft, Palantir, IBM, Nvidia and Oracle are “Iran’s new targets”. They are located in Israeli cities, as well as in some Gulf countries. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.news/apjw94?update=43880…

It pains me to share the news of the passing of Professor Walid Khalidi. Professor Khalidi is the best teacher one could have; in his class at AUB, “the Arab World and the West” he taught us about the Nakbah and warned us about the pitfalls of emotional polemics in arguing for Palestine and cautioned us sternly against antisemitism. He rebuked a student who invoked the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and explained to the class that this forgery should never be mentioned in discussion about Israel or Zionism. I have been in touch with him more in recent years and saw him twice in Cambridge in the last three years. He had a remarkable memory and wrote his memoirs (in English). He shared with me one chapter dealing with British spy, Kim Philby, who Khalidi befriended when the former was correspondent of the Economist in Beirut. He refuted the notion that Palestinian fled their homeland voluntarily in 1948 in an article about Plan Dalet in 1961–decades before new Israeli historians. Condolences to his family, students, and all who care for Palestine. He devoted his entire life for Palestine and the history of Nakbah. He founded the Institute for Palestine Studies in 1963–the first Arab think tank. Albert Hourani used to say: nobody knows about the Nakbah more than Walid Khalidi. (With Walid Khalidi and dear friend, Hani Salam, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.)

#GazaGenocide‌ 21.07.2025

For Lebanon we must act. Everything must be done to prevent this country, so close to France, from once again being drawn into war. The Lebanese have a right to peace and security—like everyone in the Middle East. It is to halt the war and prevent the worst that, following my exchanges with President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, I spoke today with Lebanon’s highest authorities in order to establish a plan to bring an end to the military operations currently being carried out by Hezbollah and Israel on either side of the border. Hezbollah must immediately cease its fire toward Israel. Israel must refrain from any ground intervention or large-scale operation on Lebanese territory. The Lebanese authorities have given me their commitment to take control of the positions held by Hezbollah and to fully assume responsibility for security across the entire national territory. I give them my full support. France will strengthen its cooperation with the Lebanese Armed Forces and will provide them with armored transport vehicles, as well as operational and logistical support. The French detachment within the United Nations Force in Lebanon is also continuing its mission in the south of the country. Concerned about the displacement of tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians currently fleeing the south, I have decided on the immediate dispatch of humanitarian aid for them. Several tons of medicines are being transported, along with shelter solutions and assistance. This is a testament to the friendship the French feel toward the Lebanese. At this moment of great danger, I call on the Israeli Prime Minister not to expand the war to Lebanon. I call on Iranian leaders not to further draw Lebanon into a war that is not its own. Hezbollah must renounce its weapons, respect the national interest, show that it is not a militia taking orders from abroad, and allow the Lebanese to come together to preserve their country.

A graphic the U.S. military is sharing on the operation.

BREAKING: Poland will eventually seek to obtain its own nuclear weapons - Bloomberg

"The civilized have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their "vital interests" are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death: these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the "sanctity" of human life, or the "conscience" of the civilized world." - james Baldwin, The Devil Finds His Work.

Mayor of Tel Aviv: As a result of Iran's attacks, 200 buildings have been destroyed

Columbia University Reaffirms Zero Tolerance for Unaffiliated Group “CUAD”: communications.news.columbia…