The British military’s preparations for a possible collision with Argentina over the disputed archipelago have once again demonstrated that not only is the territorial conflict between the two countries not sputtering out, but it is ready to drive another nail into the coffin of the much-advertised Western “democratic peace theory.” The Empire Prepares a Counterstrike […]
Letitia James classificou o caso como "horrível" e chamou "sobrevivente" à vítima antes de liderar a investigação. Um arguido pede o seu afastamento por falta de imparcialidade nas redes sociais.
Pike said she went into the execution chamber prepared to die in peace and woke up alone and confused in a hospital bed, and now lives in constant pain.
Pike said she went into the execution chamber prepared to die in peace and woke up alone and confused in a hospital bed, and now lives in constant pain.
A investigação, em fase inicial, centra-se num possível tráfico de mulheres para a propriedade do Rei no início dos anos 2000, quando André terá recebido o casal pelo menos duas vezes.
A fotografia divulgada pelo Departamento de Estado norte-americano mostra Epstein e Maxwell na cabana de madeira que pertence à propriedade do Rei em Balmoral, numa visita provavelmente em 1999
The race for artificial intelligence (AI), or superintelligence, will be won not just by technology companies, but by the nation that can deliver reliable, affordable and secure electricity. America is in a high-stakes sprint to lead the world in AI. This technology will reshape our economy, strengthen national defense, transform manufacturing and determine which nations lead the next generation of innovation.
But Washington and Silicon Valley cannot afford to ignore a glaring bottleneck: AI runs on electricity. America must dramatically expand its power generation and delivery infrastructure if it hopes to remain the global technology leader.
Data centers are the backbone of this revolution. They require enormous amounts of electricity, reliable grid connections and specialized infrastructure. Without sufficient power, advanced AI systems are little more than expensive hardware waiting for a connection. This creates an immense opportunity for America’s electric utilities. For too long, utilities have been viewed simply as service providers. Today, they are strategic partners in America’s economic competitiveness and national security.
To win the AI race, America must unleash domestic energy production, accelerate infrastructure development, defend against cyber threats and ensure that the private sector — not residential ratepayers — finances this expansion. This is a crucial opportunity for the administration, Congress, state governments and the private sector to coordinate an energy strategy that prioritizes American competitiveness.
Let the private sector finance growth
Electric utilities possess the engineering expertise and operational experience necessary to support data center expansion. They understand regional demand, transmission constraints and the complex mechanics of grid reliability. However, building the necessary infrastructure takes time; new generation facilities, transmission lines and substations often require years of planning, permitting and construction.
Data center developers, meanwhile, want to move quickly to capitalize on the AI boom. To bridge this gap, utilities and developers must collaborate much earlier in the process, aligning construction schedules, forecasting demand and identifying necessary upfront investments. Washington can support this by streamlining permitting and reducing regulatory delays to provide long-term investment certainty.
Crucially, data center developers must bear their fair share of the infrastructure costs driven by their massive electricity demands. Residential customers and small businesses should not subsidize infrastructure built primarily to serve trillion-dollar technology companies. Long-term power purchase agreements, dedicated infrastructure investments and minimum billing commitments can ensure large customers contribute appropriately. This is an argument for responsible, pro-business growth where financial risks are not shifted onto ordinary Americans.
The White House’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge reinforces the principle that America can accelerate AI innovation without forcing ordinary Americans to subsidize Big Tech’s infrastructure demands. Electric utilities can benefit from increased electricity sales, long-term power contracts and investments in generation and grid infrastructure, provided data center developers pay their fair share of the costs.
To protect consumers, we must require transparent cost allocation, enforceable commitments from large data center customers and safeguards preventing residential ratepayers from being left with stranded infrastructure costs if projects are delayed, scaled back or abandoned.
Energy dominance requires real abundance
America cannot achieve energy dominance if it cannot generate enough electricity to power its expanding economy. Meeting this challenge requires an "all-of-the-above" strategy that evaluates energy resources strictly based on reliability, affordability and availability.
Natural gas provides essential dispatchable generation, while nuclear energy offers dependable baseline power with low operational emissions. Hydroelectric power, wind, solar and battery storage all contribute where they make economic sense. Existing coal facilities also remain part of the equation where continued operation is economic and legally compliant.
No single technology can solve every regional power challenge. Utilities need the flexibility to select the optimal resource mix for their customers. The objective is straightforward: build enough reliable generation and transmission capacity to meet rising demand without spiking energy prices. This is vital as data centers increasingly compete for power with manufacturers, hospitals, military bases and households. Energy abundance is a national security imperative.
Securing the grid from cyber threats
There is another critical threat that deserves far more attention: cybersecurity. The electric grid and digital infrastructure are deeply interconnected. Power disruptions halt essential computing services, while software incidents at technology providers can ripple back to affect critical infrastructure. Foreign adversaries and sophisticated cybercriminals understand these critical dependencies.
Electric utilities operate vital infrastructure that must withstand attacks against corporate networks, industrial control systems and substations. Concurrently, data centers face distinct risks involving cloud platforms, software supply chains and third-party vendor access. These are interconnected risks that could have significant national security consequences.
Utilities and data center operators must establish joint incident response plans, conduct realistic multisector exercises and develop secure mechanisms for sharing threat intelligence. Organizations should strengthen network segmentation, multifactor authentication and vulnerability management. In particular, utilities must ensure that a compromise of ordinary corporate IT does not provide a path into operational technology controlling the grid. A stolen password should never become a gateway to disabling the power supply.
Supply-chain security deserves equal focus. Hardware, software and remote maintenance arrangements can introduce vulnerabilities into both utility operations and data center environments. Companies must rigorously assess critical vendors and establish clear protocols for addressing compromised components.
While the federal government has an important role in providing actionable threat intelligence, cybersecurity must not become an excuse for expensive, rigid mandates. Security frameworks should remain risk-based, practical and focused on resilience.
Data centers as grid assets
The relationship between utilities and data centers should not be one-way. With the right investments, large computing facilities can help improve grid flexibility. Some AI training workloads can be shifted to off-peak hours, allowing operators to reduce consumption during periods of high demand.
Furthermore, battery storage and appropriately designed onsite generation can provide grid stability during emergencies, turning data centers into strategic assets that strengthen, rather than strain, America's energy future.
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) floated new rules to bar telecoms providers on a list of entities deemed national security threats from directly accessing US phone numbers for VoIP calls, a move slammed by Chinese authorities as unreasonable suppression of its enterprises.
Should the rules be approved at an FCC meeting in November and subsequently introduced, the curbs are intended to block access to the numbers from companies on its Covered List. This includes divisions of China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, alongside numerous vendors.
The proposal is part of an ambition by the agency to cut so-called illegal robocalls in the US and is being promoted by the authority as a national security measure.
In comments published by Chinese state news agency Xinhua today (30 October), the country’s foreign ministry representative Guo Jiakun slammed what was described as unreasonable suppression of the country’s enterprises.
He reportedly said the US had “overstretched the concept of national security and abused state power to unreasonably suppress Chinese companies”.
Guo argued such moves seriously impede normal economic and trade exchanges and “do not serve the interests of any party, including US companies and consumers”.
China plans to take measures to safeguard “legitimate rights and interests”, Guo said.
Defensive FCC chair Brendan Carr unveiled the move on 28 October, saying it would strengthen the nation’s robocall defences.
The plan would require companies to obtain national security-focused certifications to access private numbers, with changes set to be made to US VoIP numbering authorisation rules.
“We are going to enhance the vetting process that all providers must go through before they obtain access to telephone numbers,” Carr said.
“This will make it substantially more difficult for bad actors to operate in our networks. This step is part of our broader effort to look at every portion of the lifecycle of a call and make it more difficult for illegal robocalls to get through.”
The proposal is the latest FCC move targeting enterprises on the Covered List, which is largely made-up of companies from China.
Companies in the crosshairs and authorities in China have repeatedly slated such measures.
Canadian operator Rogers broadened the reach of a direct-to-device (D2D) satellite service by striking roaming deals covering key nations in and around the Pacific Ocean.
Rogers Satellite users are gaining access when in Australia, New Zealand and Japan in a move which brings the total number of non-domestic nations accessible to four.
The company lit a roaming deal with T-Mobile US earlier this year.
Rogers Satellite offers messaging and access to apps including Facebook Messenger, X and WhatsApp. There are also mapping services from Google and AllTrails, with AccuWeather providing meteorological information.
“Canadians want to stay connected wherever their travels take them,” Rogers CTO Mark Kennedy said.
Customers on Rogers’ Ultimate plans along with some Roam Like Home and Travel Passes options can access its D2D service.
The operator’s roaming arrangement in Japan looks likely to be through KDDI, which tapped Rogers to provide roaming access for its D2D users earlier this year.
Entre os principais objetivos encontram-se a redução de dependências externas e a modernização das Forças Armadas. A estratégia será revista pelo menos de quatro em quatro anos.
"Num mundo em rápida transformação, mais perigoso e mais dividido, o Canadá tem de ter capacidade para defender a sua soberania, resistir às ameaças emergentes e determinar o seu próprio futuro", afirmou Carney
Saca admitted to diverting more than $300 million in public funds during his 2004-2009 presidency.
Former Salvadoran President Elias Antonio Saca was released on Thursday after completing a 10-year prison sentence for embezzlement and money laundering involving more than $300 million in public funds.
The 61-year-old former president appeared in court to formally register his release after serving his sentence in full, without early-release benefits, his lawyer, Mario Machado, said.
Saca was sentenced in September 2018 to five years for embezzlement and another five for money laundering. Under a plea agreement, he admitted to diverting and laundering more than $300 million during his 2004-2009 administration, avoiding a potential 30-year prison sentence.
He was arrested in 2016 during his son’s wedding. Prosecutors accused him of siphoning money from the state budget for himself and others, including more than $7 million transferred to his former political party, the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).
Text Reads: Former El Salvador president Elías Antonio Saca regains his freedom after 10 years in prison! 🌟
During the trial, Saca acknowledged exploiting weaknesses in government oversight to transfer public funds to private accounts. He also disclosed that he had issued regulations allowing him to classify information about financial transactions as state secrets, shielding the transfers from scrutiny.
According to his testimony, the money was transferred over the course of his five-year presidency into 13 private bank accounts belonging to his former private secretary, Elmer Charlaix, and two other presidential staff members.
In 2019, Saca was convicted in a separate bribery case after offering $10,000 to a court employee in exchange for information about proceedings against him. A judge ruled that the additional sentence would be incorporated into his existing 10-year term.
He was also ordered to repay $260 million to the state. In another case involving the diversion of funds from Taiwan, he was sentenced to pay an additional $6 million. It remains unclear whether he has fulfilled that obligation.
Saca, a businessman and radio broadcaster who served as president under ARENA, is one of four former Salvadoran presidents to have faced corruption charges. His successor, Mauricio Funes, fled to Nicaragua in September 2016 and died there in 2025.
La 24ª edición del Diccionario presentada hoy incluye más de 6.000 nuevas entradas. Esto incluye tanto nuevas palabras como nuevas acepciones, de todo tipo. El ámbito tecnológico, lógicamente, se lleva la palma. IA aparece como sinónimo y siglas de inteligencia artificial, pero también llegan ciberataque, ciberseguridad, desconfigurar, renderizar, resetear o QR. Aunque no teníamos muy claro qué es, también aparece cúbit. Por no salir del ámbito tecnológico, los nuevos actores de la comunicación digital también llegan al DRAE: influencer, pódcast, post. Una incorporación que seguro agradece la sección de este periódico que trabaja con cámaras es fotogalería.
Recently, I was on an extended business trip across the United States that ultimately touched upon planes, trains, automobiles, ships, bridges and majestic skyscrapers. Along the way, I honestly paused in awe to marvel at modern jetliners; the engines pulling passenger and freight trains cross-country; driverless taxis; four-football-field-long megacruise ships; the George Washington and the Golden Gate bridges; and 60-story-plus office towers in New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
As I pondered them all over the course of the trip, I had two immediate thoughts. The first being that, in one way or another, those modes of transportation and that stunning and often historic infrastructure all held human life within and upon them. The second was that all were devised and built via meritocracy.
DEI, identity politics and woke dictates played no role in their construction. Nor should they ever, when what is being designed and built will eventually determine the safety of human lives.
My third and overriding thought was: "That’s all about to be thrown out the window once the ‘religion’ of wokeism comes roaring back into play across the spectrum of our lives." If you think otherwise, I most humbly believe you either have not been paying attention to current events or are fooling yourself via the cliché: "Ignorance is bliss."
To be clear, I don’t care if someone is female, male, Black, White, brown, straight, gay, trans, liberal, conservative, faith-based or an atheist. If that person happens to be the best person for the job based solely upon merit and real-world experience, they should get it. Period.
But if that person is being inserted into the flight deck of a commercial aircraft; the control tower of an airport; the bridge of a military or commercial ship; behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler; into a police force or fire department; or behind the controls of a major utility simply because of "identity politics," then the lives in the hands of those occupations are exposed to much higher risk simply to appease an ideological narrative.
There are many people — myself included — who strongly believe that DEI never went away. That it was never "defeated" or "crippled." Rather, we believe that it was placed in a purposeful "sleeper mode" by the powerful prophets of "woke" who were simply biding their time while riding out the peak influence of President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement.
If the Democrats retake control of the House of Representatives — and quite possibly the Senate — on Nov. 3, expect those identity-politics-pushing prophets to signal their various flocks to fire up the DEI machines across the corporate, academic, political, media and governmental spectrums.
As a stark reminder of the malicious power DEI can wield, we have these exposés: the first being the recent report from the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) which outlined in detail that his agency uncovered "irrefutable evidence that the nation's largest banks have denied, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses."
No surprise at all that many of those targeted were conservative or faith-based. Regarding this seemingly DEI-fueled discrimination, Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould stressed in part: "Americans should have access to financial services regardless of their beliefs, affiliations, or political views."
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital: "Debanking Americans over faith or politics is simply un-American. Expect to hear more from the Banking Committee on this important issue when Congress returns."
U.S. banks targeting elements of their own customer base because of politics and faith because they happen to operate via the dictates of woke and staffed via identity politics is not only chilling, but dangerous. And yet, such illicit conduct not only exists, but might soon be dialed up to "blast."
Going back to the DEI-compromised airline industry, we first have this recent editorial from The Wall Street Journal: "Flying the Socialist Skies at United CEO Scott Kirby wants a wealth tax. How about more leg room instead?"
Kirby, who, according to the Journal, made over $32 million in compensation last year, now wants to tackle "wealth inequality" in the United States. Of course he does. Not surprising, as he has seemingly long been a fan of woke and DEI.
Back in 2021, Kirby pushed DEI hiring practices to the max by stating in part: "Over the next decade, United will train 5,000 pilots who will be guaranteed a job with United after they complete the requirements of the Aviate program — and our plan is for half of them to be women and people of color."
Kirby continued: "We're excited that JPMorgan Chase has agreed to support our work to diversify our pilot ranks and create new opportunities for thousands of women and people of color who want to pursue a career in aviation."
JPMorgan. Interesting. Would anyone be surprised to learn that JPMorgan has also been implicated in the "debanking" scandal?
I have a wild idea for Kirby: How about hiring only the most-qualified pilots based entirely upon merit? And if half of them happen to be women and minorities, all the better.
The planes we fly; the ships we sail; the trains that move us from city to city; the bridges we cross; and the skyscrapers we ascend via elevator are all testaments to genius and meritocracy. But very soon, all may be designed and built not by the most qualified, but someone who checks an ideological identity politics box.
DEI is about to come back with a vengeance if political control switches hands on Nov. 3. If — and when — it does, the lives of countless Americans will be put at more risk in service to woke over merit.
As detenções fazem parte de uma operação chamada Lone Star Mission, realizada entre 19 e 29 de outubro. Os detidos estavam em situação migratória irregular e apresentavam registos criminais.
No decorrer da investigação criminal em torno de fraude eleitoral no Alasca, foram emitidas novas intimações a envolvidos, para depoimentos ou apresentação de documentos perante um grande júri.
A ex-vice-presidente apela à ativação do "poder do povo" nas eleições. As sondagens apontam para uma vitória dos democratas na Câmara dos Representantes. Kamala não descarta recandidatar-se em 2028.
"Sei que, para muitos de nós, o último ano e meio tem sido difícil. Mas a questão é a seguinte: esse momento acabou", declarou Harris num ato eleitoral em Macon
El jefe de la diplomacia rusa, Serguéi Lavrov, estará presente este fin de semana en la reunión de ministros de Exteriores del G-20 en Atlanta (Georgia, Estados Unidos). Y su presencia en esta cita anual, por primera vez desde el comienzo de la guerra en Ucrania en 2022, con la consternación de los representantes europeos y sin la participación de su homólogo ucranio —Kiev no forma parte del grupo de países con las mayores economías del mundo, pero había estado invitada a este tipo de citas en años previos—, agita un encuentro que comienza este viernes para tratar asuntos como ese conflicto y la ofensiva contra Irán.
Mobile World Live (MWL) brings you our top three picks of the week as a pair of US operators shrugged off SpaceX’s mobile threat, Anthropic’s IPO filing revealed mounting revenues and costs, and Amazon secured FCC clearance for its $11.5 billion acquisition of Globalstar.
T-Mobile US CEO quashes SpaceX MVNO talk
What happened: T-Mobile US CEO Srini Gopalan and Verizon CEO Dan Schulman ruled out MVNO agreements with SpaceX in their respective earnings calls, as the latter played down the threat from Elon Musk’s Starlink as it prepares to enter the US mobile market.
Why it matters: “I see no room for an MVNO with SpaceX,” Gopalan said on the company’s Q3 results call, adding a resale arrangement would be “a wholly different thing”.
Earlier in the week, Schulman argued building of a competing terrestrial network would require 65,000 to 80,000 macro sites and estimated costs of $300 billion to $500 billion over seven or eight years. “There’s no magic wand, there’s no secret sauce, there’s no shortcut,” he said. Last week, AT&T CEO John Stankey similarly questioned the threat posed by SpaceX, emphasising the time and scale of construction required to match incumbent networks.
The comments follow reports SpaceX is seeking access to at least 80,000 US cell sites as it develops Starlink Mobile, targeting an early 2028 launch for its direct-to-device (D2D) service.
According to Reuters, AT&T shares fell 5.6%, Verizon lost 1.6% and T-Mobile dropped 5% in the wake of reports on SpaceX’s cell-site plans. Bernstein analysts told the publication: “The competitive impact may still be years away, but anticipation alone, reinforced by each successive spectrum and infrastructure move, is likely to remain an overhang on sector sentiment.”
What happened: Anthropic filed to list Class A shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol ANT, disclosing a sharp rise in revenue alongside substantial infrastructure commitments and a large net loss.
Why it matters: Inits registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the AI player revealed it generated $16.3 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026, compared with $1.2 billion a year earlier and $4.6 billion for the whole of 2025. However, it reported a net loss of $80.7 billion. Compute and infrastructure costs accounted for most of its $2.4 billion cost of revenue.
Jonathan Tower, founder and managing partner of Catapult, told Fortune: “Extraordinary revenue growth doesn’t necessarily trend into extra extraordinary investment returns.” He warned investors risk “confusing the magnitude of the AI opportunity with the profitability of its participants”.
Anthropic warned in its filing: “We do not expect our revenue will continue to grow at comparable rates, and we cannot assure you that it will continue to grow at all.” It attributed its explosive growth to “early-stage adoption dynamics, the nascency of the AI market, and rapid initial customer expansion,” noting that it “may not be sustainable over time, and may decline significantly and more rapidly than we anticipate” as the market matures.
What happened: Amazon’s proposed $11.5 billion acquisition of Globalstar cleared a key regulatory hurdle after the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the deal, advancing the company’s plans to add D2D services to its Leo satellite business.
Why it matters: The FCC Space Bureau approved Amazon’s acquisition of around 25MHz of Globalstar’s mobile satellite spectrum and authorised access to its C-3 system, a 48-satellite constellation set to increase network capacity.
The deal also preserves Apple’s pact with on Globalstar for satellite features, with Amazon agreeing to maintain connectivity for current and future iPhones and Apple Watches.
The regulator explained the transaction could improve coverage in underserved areas, strengthen emergency communications and expand industrial and enterprise data services.
Earlier this year, FDM CCS Insight principal analyst Luke Pearce said the deal gives Amazon “a major shortcut in providing satellite services to smartphones” and “strengthens its position against SpaceX’s Starlink”.
Richard Haas, spectrum policy consultant at LS Telecom, argued Amazon was acquiring Globalstar “for its spectrum assets first and foremost”, noting “companies aren’t willing to wait until regulators start assigning more MSS spectrum” and were buying assets to catch up with Elon Musk’s satellite venture.
Una decena de enfermos de cáncer se ha reunido en la cafetería Smokey Row, en Ankeny, un próspero suburbio al norte de Des Moines. Han acudido para relatar su experiencia a Rob Sand, el carismático candidato demócrata para gobernador de Iowa, un estado del Medio Oeste conocido por sus interminables campos de maíz. Es uno de los territorios representativos del llamado Corn Belt, el corazón agrícola del país, que apoyó abrumadoramente a Donald Trump en las pasadas elecciones de 2024. Sand es la gran esperanza de su partido. Lidera las encuestas con cierto margen sobre su rival conservador, Zach Lahn. Está a punto de convertirse en el primer demócrata en ganar una gran elección en este territorio en casi dos décadas.
With the midterm elections approaching, data centers have become an increasingly popular political target. Politicians are raising alarms about their impact on communities, with some calling for construction moratoriums or outright bans.
There's been plenty of fearmongering. But the more Americans learn about data centers, and the more communities experience their benefits firsthand, the stronger the case for continued development becomes.
Data centers have existed for decades, but the rapid growth of artificial intelligence has dramatically increased the demand for computing power. Americans understandably have questions about what this development means for electricity prices, water supplies, and their quality of life. Newer facilities are increasingly being designed with technologies that can address these concerns, including closed-loop cooling systems and quieter operations.
Yet much of the national debate overlooks what data centers are already delivering to communities across America.
Take Ellendale, North Dakota, a town of 1,100 people. Before Applied Digital's new $11 billion data center development, the town collected roughly $400,000 annually in sales taxes. In the first seven months of 2026 alone, that figure jumped to $3.5 million.
That revenue is helping the city repave its roads and renovate its senior center. A historic opera house is being restored. For a small town, this kind of investment can transform the community for generations.
And Ellendale is far from alone.
Schools across America are seeing enormous benefits from the data center boom.
In Richland Parish, Louisiana, Meta's massive investment has helped fund an increase in annual teacher bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000.
Think about what that means for a working family. Teachers who have dedicated their careers to educating children are receiving a life-changing financial benefit, while the school district becomes an attractive destination for talented educators.
It's hard to imagine a politician campaigning against higher teacher pay or better schools. Yet those are precisely the kinds of benefits communities stand to lose when development gets blocked.
In neighboring Henrico County, local leaders used data center revenue to fund a $60 million Affordable Housing Trust Fund, helping young families and first-time buyers purchase homes.
At a time when housing affordability is dominating political conversations, building data centers is helping some communities make the American Dream a little easier to achieve.
Electricity prices are another major concern, and understandably so. Families are already struggling with higher utility bills, and the arrival of a major new industrial customer can raise legitimate questions about who pays for new infrastructure.
But the enormous, predictable electricity demand from data centers also creates opportunities to finance new generation and grid investments, spreading infrastructure costs across a larger customer base.
In Georgia, agreements involving new large electricity customers, including OpenAI, are projected to lower residential power bills by $180 annually by 2029.
With the right arrangements in place, the arrival of data centers can mean lower costs for the families already living in these communities.
And the benefits extend well beyond tax revenue and household expenses.
Trade unions have been among the most vocal supporters of data centers because of the good-paying jobs they create. Building these facilities requires years of work for skilled tradesmen, with new projects creating opportunities for the next generation of American workers.
Politicians have spent decades promising to bring back good-paying blue-collar jobs. Here is an industry creating enormous demand for exactly those workers.
Of course, developers have a responsibility to work with residents and local governments to address legitimate concerns. Communities deserve clear answers about electricity costs and water use. They should also understand how the investments taking place in their backyards will benefit local families.
But when data centers are developed responsibly, the economic benefits can be enormous. Communities are rebuilding roads and improving schools. Homeowners are seeing lower tax burdens, and skilled workers are finding new opportunities.
For decades, politicians have campaigned on championing the Forgotten Man and bringing economic opportunity back to communities that have struggled to attract investment.
Now, data centers are delivering billions of dollars in private investment to many of those very places.
We're watching a new industrial boom take shape across America, creating jobs and revitalizing communities that Washington has spent decades promising to help. Before politicians rush to stop it, they ought to take a serious look at what those communities are gaining.
In my first career, I stood in courtrooms as a defense attorney dealing intimately with the fallout of organized crime and gang violence. I have cross-examined operatives, analyzed thousands of pages of gang intelligence and witnessed firsthand the brutal efficiency of transnational syndicates. If my time immersed in the legal trenches of the gang world taught me one undeniable truth, it is this: cartels do not respect international borders. In fact, they weaponize them. For too long, the jurisdictional lines on a map have served as the greatest defense strategy for the world's most violent criminal organizations.
We have treated multinational, multibillion-dollar criminal enterprises as localized law enforcement problems. Fortunately, the landscape of international justice is shifting. The U.S.-led "Shield of the Americas" initiative, which recently designated eight major criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations, is fundamentally rewriting the playbook on how we dismantle these syndicates.
There remains one critical holdout, Brazil, whose president is not expected to join this critical coalition. Indeed, the re-election of incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva all but ensures an increase in organized criminal activity in Brazil.
To understand the necessity of this initiative, one must understand how modern cartels operate. In the courtroom, you quickly realize that the street-level gang members, like the MS-13 triggermen or the Tren de Aragua enforcers, can be the lowest rung on a massive, sophisticated corporate ladder.
These organizations operate with the logistical precision of Fortune 500 companies. They manage complex supply chains, launder money through intricate global financial networks and employ specialized cells for enforcement, distribution and corruption.
At times, our legal framework has been outmatched by their agility. A drug shipment might originate in the Andes, be financed through a front company in Central America and be distributed by local gangs in American cities. When law enforcement attempts to build a case, they can hit a variety of bureaucratic obstacles and challenges sharing evidence, securing extraditions or tracing illicit funds across different countries. The cartels know this and deliberately structure their operations to exploit operational disconnects between regional governments.
By officially designating eight major cartels and gangs, including the Sinaloa cartel, the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG) and Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists, the U.S. government dramatically altered the legal reality.
The terrorist designation unlocks a completely different enforcement arsenal. It allows for the immediate freezing of assets, imposes severe penalties for anyone providing "material support" and authorizes deep, aggressive disruption of their financial networks.
You cannot arrest your way out of a cartel problem — you must disrupt the business itself. By targeting their money and imposing serious consequences on the seemingly legitimate financial institutions that launder it, the Shield of the Americas strikes at the absolute core of cartel power. It equips law enforcement to fight proactively and focus on strategic dismantling of cartel financial infrastructure.
Hemispheric intelligence and military coordination
Equally crucial is the initiative’s mandate for unprecedented intelligence sharing and military coordination. Currently, countries like Argentina, El Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay and Chile are participating in the Shield of the Americas.
This will help break down silos where one law enforcement agency has one piece of the puzzle, while authorities in Colombia or El Salvador hold the rest. Without a streamlined mechanism to share that data, the kingpins remain untouchable.
The Shield of the Americas facilitates the real-time sharing of actionable intelligence among partner nations. This means that a cartel operative’s communications intercepted in Lima could be instantly used to disrupt a trafficking route in Central America and ultimately support a federal indictment in New York. Furthermore, joint military coordination ensures that the sheer firepower of these cartels could be matched.
The Brazilian loophole
The final critical piece of this initiative is Brazil, South America’s largest nation.
Brazil is a continent-sized nation with its own deeply entrenched criminal organizations, most notably the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and the Comando Vermelho. These groups have grown into major forces in the global drug trade, forging alliances with international cartels and expanding their reach far beyond Brazilian borders. Unfortunately, the current government has abstained from joining the U.S.-led effort, which is expected to continue in light of the recent presidential election.
Brazil’s participation would have a tremendous impact. The cartels would lose one of their most significant safe havens and operational hubs in the hemisphere. A unified front stretching from the U.S.-Mexico border down to the Southern Cone would squeeze transnational syndicates from every direction. It would close the geographical and jurisdictional gaps they have exploited for generations.
The human cost of cartel operations is staggering. Hundreds of thousands of American lives have been lost to cartel-linked fentanyl overdoses, while communities across Latin America have been destabilized by extreme violence and corruption.
The Shield of the Americas represents a profound modernization of our approach to international justice. By recognizing these cartels for the global terror threats they are, strangling their finances and uniting the hemisphere's law enforcement and military resources, we are finally fighting the battle on equal footing.
If more nations commit to this alliance, we will not just be managing the cartel problem; we will be systematically dismantling it. The cartels have operated globally for decades. It is long past time the law did the same.
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