AI and automation cut 54,836 U.S. jobs in 2025


By Dr. Tim Sandle
SCIENCE EDITOR

DIGITAL JOURNAL
March 15, 2026


Amazon. — © AFP Behrouz MEHRI

In 2025, AI has been a significant factor in the U.S. job market, leading to thousands of layoffs. Major companies like Amazon have cut thousands of roles, citing AI as a key factor, according to The Guardian.

Layoffs are accelerating fast in the U.S., and 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most disruptive job-loss years in decades. This is based on the trajectory established in 2025.

For example, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a study in November showing that AI can already do the job of 11.7% of the U.S. labour market and save as much as $1.2 trillion in wages across finance, healthcare, and other professional services.

In the second half of 2025, the company J&Y Law analyzed federal labor records, monthly job-cut reports, and employer disclosures to understand what’s driving this surge. What stands out is not just how large the numbers are, but how persistent and uneven the losses have become across industries and regions.

This matters now because layoffs are rising while hiring is barely moving. Through July 2025, employers created only 86,132 new jobs, even as layoffs continue at roughly 1.6 million per month, a gap that signals a labour market losing workers faster than it can replace them.

U.S. Job Cuts by Sector and Region, 2025 (Year-to-Date):

Sector / Region	2025 Job Cuts	YoY Change	Primary Driver
Government	308,167	+703%	Automation upgrades, federal restructuring
Technology	154,445	+36%	AI adoption, role consolidation
Retail	92,989	+249% (July)	Automation, store closures
Nonprofit	17,826	+413%	Funding pressure, automation
Automotive	4,975	Highest since Nov 2024	Tariffs, automation
Washington, D.C.	434,385	+219%	Federal job cuts, automation
Eastern U.S. Total	540,539	+173% vs 2024	Government concentration

Layoffs have become structural, not temporary

With more than 1.2 million job cuts announced and monthly layoffs averaging 1.6 million, employers are making long-term reductions, not short-term corrections. Historically, this pattern appears when companies expect slower demand to last, not rebound quickly.
Government and policy decisions now drive national job losses

Government job cuts reached 308,167 in 2025, surpassing those in every private-sector industry. Between January and July alone, 292,294 federal and government-linked jobs were eliminated, marking a shift from past downturns that private companies led.
AI and automation are eliminating jobs faster than the market can adjust

At least 54,000 layoffs were directly tied to automation or AI, while tech job losses climbed 36% year over year. Retail followed with a 249% spike in July layoffs, showing that automation now affects white-collar, service, and logistics roles at the same time.
Why This Matters Now

Layoffs tied to AI are accelerating into late 2025 instead of slowing. July’s 62,075 job cuts, up 140% year over year, show momentum is still building. With hiring plans falling to their lowest level since 2010, workers displaced by automation are facing longer unemployment spells, making these numbers a critical early warning signal for 2026 workforce planning and policy coverage.

Job losses rise in the US: Government workers are hit hardest


By Dr. Tim Sandle
SCIENCE EDITOR

DIGITAL JOURNAL

March 14, 2026


The entire US House and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate are up for grabs in November, along with 39 state and territorial governorships - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File WIN MCNAMEE

Layoffs are accelerating fast in the U.S., and 2025 is shaping up to be one of the most disruptive job-loss years in decades. More than 1.2 million job cuts were announced, pushing layoffs well beyond what most workers or policymakers expected coming into 2026 (as reported by the New York Times).

In the second half of the year, J&Y Law analysed federal labour records, monthly job-cut reports, and employer disclosures to understand what’s driving this surge. The data has been published in March 2026.

What stands out is not just how large the numbers are, but how persistent and uneven the losses have become across industries and regions.

This matters for U.S. society because layoffs are rising while hiring is barely moving. Through July 2025, employers created only 86,132 new jobs, even as layoffs continue at roughly 1.6 million per month, a gap that signals a labour market losing workers faster than it can replace them.

For example, 1,206,374 job cuts were announced in the U.S. in 2025, ranking it the 7th worst year since 1989. The review of the year further finds that 62,075 layoffs occurred in July 2025 alone, up 140% year over year.

Another way of expressing the data is with 1.6 million workers are being laid off per month, equal to 19.2 million annualised. In terms of specific sectors, 308,167 government jobs were cut in 2025, the highest of any sector. After this, 154,445 technology jobs were eliminated, a 36% increase from 2024.

The situation for 2026 remains problematic, not least through advances in technology. For instance, 54,000 layoffs were explicitly linked to AI or automation adoption.

The key trends are outlined in the following table:

U.S. Job Cuts by Sector and Region, 2025 (Year-to-Date)

Sector / Region	2025 Job Cuts	YoY Change	Primary Driver
Government	308,167	+703%	Automation upgrades, federal restructuring
Technology	154,445	+36%	AI adoption, role consolidation
Retail	92,989	+249% (July)	Automation, store closures
Nonprofit	17,826	+413%	Funding pressure, automation
Automotive	4,975	Highest since Nov 2024	Tariffs, automation
Washington, D.C.	434,385	+219%	Federal job cuts, automation
Eastern U.S. Total	540,539	+173% vs 2024	Government concentration

What This Data Reveals

Layoffs have become structural, not temporary

With more than 1.2 million job cuts announced and monthly layoffs averaging 1.6 million, employers are making long-term reductions, not short-term corrections. Historically, this pattern appears when companies expect slower demand to last, not rebound quickly.
Government and policy decisions now drive national job losses

Government job cuts reached 308,167 in 2025, surpassing those in every private-sector industry. Between January and July alone, 292,294 federal and government-linked jobs were eliminated, marking a shift from past downturns that private companies led.
AI and automation are eliminating jobs faster than the market can adjust

At least 54,000 layoffs were directly tied to automation or AI, while tech job losses climbed 36% year over year. Retail followed with a 249% spike in July layoffs, showing that automation now affects white-collar, service, and logistics roles at the same time.

Why This Matters Now Layoffs tied to AI are accelerating into late 2025 instead of slowing. July’s 62,075 job cuts, up 140% year over year, show momentum is still building. With hiring plans falling to their lowest level since 2010, workers displaced by automation are facing longer unemployment spells, making these numbers a critical early warning signal for 2026 workforce planning and policy coverage.

How AI will reshape work: Anthropic identifies the most exposed jobs

Copyright Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

By Servet Yanatma

Published on 14/03/2026 - EURONEWS

AI giant Anthropic compared observed AI exposure and theoretical AI capability in the labour market. The analysis shows that AI is still far from reaching its theoretical potential.

The impact of Artificial Intelligence on jobs has become one of the defining debates of the moment, with international organisations, academics and hiring companies regularly publishing projections on which professions are most at risk.

A new entry in that crowded field now comes from one of the AI giants itself.

Anthropic, the company behind Claude, has published a report titled Labour Market Impacts of AI: A New Measure and Early Evidence, based on its own real-world usage data.

Theoretical capability vs observed exposure

The report introduces a new measure called "observed exposure" — designed to quantify not just which tasks large language models could theoretically speed up, but which are already being automated in practice.

The distinction matters: theoretical capability reflects what AI could do while observed exposure reflects what it is actually doing.

Highest theoretical AI coverage: Computer, math, business and finance

The theoretical AI coverage exceeds 80% in several occupation groups among the 22 analysed. Computer and math, as well as business and finance occupations have the highest theoretical AI coverage both at 94.3%.

Other groups with theoretical capability above 80% include management (91.3%), office and administrative support (90%), legal (89%), architecture and engineering (84.8%), and arts and media (83.7%).

In five additional occupational groups, scope for LLM penetration exceeds 50%.

These include life and social sciences (77%), sales (62%), education and library occupations (61.7%), healthcare practitioners (59.9%), and social services (50.5%).

The red area above, based on data from the Anthropic Economic Index, shows how people use Claude in professional settings.

“As capabilities advance, adoption spreads, and deployment deepens, the red area will grow to cover the blue. There is a large uncovered area too; many tasks, of course, remain beyond AI’s reach—from physical agricultural work like pruning trees and operating farm machinery to legal tasks like representing clients in court,” the report said.

Lowest ‘potential’ include transportation, agriculture and food

Theoretical AI coverage is lowest in ground maintenance where only 3.9% of jobs in this group are theoretically open to AI usage.

Transportation (12.1%), agriculture (15.7%), food and serving (16.9%), construction (16.9%), personal care (18.2%), installation and repair (18.4%), and production (19%) also have significantly lower theoretical AI coverage, all below 20%.

This suggests there may be less potential space for AI use in these sectors.

Theoretical AI coverage is also lower in healthcare support (28.5%) and protective services (31.6%).

Highest observed exposure: Computer, math, office and admin

The more important question is to what extent theoretical capability has turned into observed exposure, showing AI displacement risk.

Computer and math occupations have the highest observed AI coverage at 35.8%, followed closely by office and administrative roles (34.3%).

Business and finance (28.4%) and sales (26.9%) are also close to these levels.

Legal (20.4%), arts and media (19.2%), and education and library occupations (18.2%) also have relatively high observed AI exposure at around 20%.

Observed exposure as a share of theoretical AI capability

The ratio of observed exposure to theoretical capability shows to what extent this potential is already being used.

Sales tops the list at 43% (27% vs 62%), followed by office and administrative jobs (38%) and computer and math occupations (38%).

Observed exposure as a share of theoretical AI capability is 30% in business and finance, and in education and library occupations.

While architecture and engineering have very high theoretical capability (85%), the ratio is just 5%

Most exposed occupations: Computer programmers and customer service representatives

Among individual occupations, computer programmers show the highest observed AI exposure at 74.5%.

Customer service representatives (70.1%), data entry keyers (67.1%), and medical record specialists (66.7%) also rank among the most exposed.

Market research analysts and marketing specialists follow at 64.8%, along with sales representatives in wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products (62.8%).

The data also sheds light on who is most exposed. Workers in the highest-risk professions tend to be older, more educated, better-paid and more likely to be women.

Yet so far, at least, exposure has not translated into unemployment.

The report found no systematic increase in joblessness among workers in heavily exposed occupations since late 2022, though it did find suggestive evidence that hiring of younger workers has slowed in those same fields — a detail worth watching.

US mayors push back against data center boom as AI backlash grows

By AFP
March 14, 2026


Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix says people are growing tired of seeing data centers multiply in their communities - Copyright AFP Patrick T. Fallon

Alex PIGMAN

Data centers were supposed to be a gift. In cities across the United States, more and more mayors are treating them like a problem.

With the midterm election season approaching, big tech’s promise of a windfall of jobs and tax revenue has given way to talk of polluting gas turbines, strained power grids and a growing sense that the AI revolution is being built on the backs of regular citizens.

The issue has grown large enough to reach the White House, where President Donald Trump this month assembled big tech companies to demand that they bear the exorbitant cost of powering the new data centers breaking ground in communities across the nation.

“Most talk has been, ‘hey, this is the future, this is economic development, we need to go as far and as fast as we can,'” Tim Kelly, the mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee, told AFP on the sidelines of the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas.

“I wouldn’t say I necessarily disagree with that, but I think now it’s starting to get interesting,” he added.

At the top of many people’s minds is Elon Musk’s xAI, which has gone the farthest and at dizzying speed in building AI infrastructure in Memphis and neighbouring Mississippi.

To meet its massive energy demands, xAI has been running at least 18 methane gas turbines at its South Memphis site — sometimes without permits — accused of pumping out pollutants in predominantly Black neighbourhoods already burdened by industrial pollution.

This week, Mississippi’s environmental regulator gave its green light to the gas generators at a site despite fierce local resistance.

Microsoft, Google, Meta and Amazon are also scouring the country to build out the sprawling windowless concrete structures, driven by the insatiable computing demands of AI.

Phoenix has become a prized destination, thanks to generous tax incentives, low regulation and the construction of new semiconductor plants.

But Mayor Kate Gallego says the local population is growing tired of seeing data centers multiply in their communities, straining water supplies and a power grid that are already at breaking point.

“When you suddenly have transmission equipment in your front yard, that, for many people, does not make it more desirable,” she told a SXSW audience.

Her frustration with the industry goes beyond power lines. Arizona’s largest utility, APS, says it cannot accommodate all the demand — if every data center seeking to locate in its service area were approved, electricity demand would reach 19,000 megawatts, more than double the grid’s record peak.

“We are in constant battle with our utility provider,” said Larry Klein, the mayor of Sunnyvale, in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley.

– We are not here –

Gallego said she often discovers a tech company has arrived in town only by checking the utility’s latest list of biggest customers — the result of non-disclosure agreements that leave citizens in the dark until it is too late.

“There’s a real spectrum of companies — some are proud to be your partners, and others would just prefer you not even acknowledge that they’re there,” she said, pointing to Microsoft and Google as more transparent operators.

Mayors warn that the data center issue is becoming a symbol of Americans’ growing doubts about AI more broadly.

An NBC News poll released this month found 57 percent of registered voters saying the risks of AI outweighed its benefits, compared with just 34 percent who said the opposite.

“I’m not a Luddite,” Kelly said. “But I do think these are the right conversations to figure out how we manage this.”

New York Residents Are Fighting a Data Center Backed by a Billionaire Trump Ally

Residents in Western New York are opposing a data center backed by an Epstein-tied private equity firm.

By Derek Seidman ,

Truthout

March 15, 2026

Marc Rowan, Co-Founder and CEO, Apollo Global Management, speaks at the 28th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, on May 5, 2025.

Patrick T. Fallon /PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images


Truthout is a vital news source and a living history of political struggle. If you think our work is valuable, support us with a donation of any size.

Abattle over a data center complex in rural Western New York may seem like a purely local affair. But an analysis of the project’s owner reveals ties that include the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, the government’s crackdown on U.S. campuses, and the imposition of neocolonial rule over Gaza.

Over the past year, residents of Genesee County, New York — located between Buffalo and Rochester — have strongly opposed a proposed data center that is being pushed by county officials and backed by Stream Data Centers, a Texas-based developer of hyperscale data centers. Community members say the data center will bring noise, pollution, and higher electric bills, while endangering nearby wetlands and wildlife and threatening the sovereign territory of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation.

But opponents of the data center are up against a much bigger force than Stream Data Centers.

Community members say the data center will bring noise, pollution, and higher electric bills, while endangering nearby wetlands and wildlife and threatening the sovereign territory of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation.

The parent company of Stream is Apollo Global Management, one of the world’s biggest private equity firms. The Wall Street giant has faced controversy over ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Moreover, the CEO and public face of Apollo, mega-billionaire Marc Rowan, is a powerful insider who’s shaped the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against universities and is helping oversee the new “Board of Peace” in Gaza.

The entry of a massive Wall Street firm’s portfolio company into a rural and thinly populated area is jarring to local residents in Western New York, who are facing an enormous power structure with arms extending to the heights of government and across the world.

“It feels like this insatiably hungry machine that’s just steamrolling whatever’s in its path,” Adrienne Yocina, who lives a few miles from the site of the proposed data center, told Truthout. “But this place is too beautiful to be another victim of that.”
STAMP Data Center

The proposed data center complex is being backed by the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC), a public agency that offers tax breaks and other economic incentives to attract private business.

STAMP (Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park) is a mega-industrial site that was proposed and developed by GCEDC. It’s existed for about two decades — with little to show, many argue. Around a year ago, the GCEDC turned to a new hope for STAMP — data centers — and selected Stream Data Centers as a future tenant.


“It feels like this insatiably hungry machine that’s just steamrolling whatever’s in its path.”

The proposed data center has been mired in controversy. Facing opposition and litigation, Stream withdrew its initial $6.3 billion proposal made in early 2025, only to come back with a bigger, more expensive $11.2 billion proposal, which has now grown to $19.5 billion. Stream says it’s developing the data center “in direct collaboration” with an undisclosed but “prominent” Fortune 50 company.

Community members have staunchly opposed the data center, worrying it will bring noise and pollution and drive up electricity costs. The Sierra Club and the Tonawanda Seneca Nation — a sovereign Indigenous Nation in Western New York, whose reservation shares a border with the STAMP site, itself located in the Seneca Nation’s unceded territory — have opposed the project, arguing it could harm nearby wetlands and wildlife.

Critics have also raised concerns over conflicts of interest in the environmental review of the data center and lambasted the huge public subsidies the project could receive, reported the Buffalo-based watchdog news outlet Investigative Post.

Yocina, who is disabled, has lived in Indian Falls, a hamlet a few miles from STAMP, for 15 years. She’s active with local groups opposing the data center, including the ReThink STAMP campaign.

Yocina said her electric bill recently shot up, and she worries the data center will make it worse. “They’re going to jack up my electric bill even more,” she told Truthout. “That’s really motivated a lot of people around here.”

She’s also upset about the public money that could subsidize the data center. “They’re asking for $801 million in subsidies,” she said. “That’s our money. The audacity to ask for that much money while I’m struggling to pay my electric bill.”


“There’s unity happening here. This is a bipartisan issue. Everybody is against this data center.”

Yocina’s mention of $801 million in public subsidies is a reference to the package of tax exemptions the GCEDC is offering to Stream — a number that Stream is now looking to increase to a whopping $1.44 billion.

Despite the opposition to the data center, the GCEDC unanimously approved a motion on February 5, 2026, to start reviewing a financial assistance application from Stream.
Apollo Global Management

Tucked into Stream’s STAMP data center proposal is a short clause that notes the company is “strategically backed by Apollo Global Management-managed funds.”

Apollo is one of the world’s top private equity firms, overseeing $908 billion in assets. Apollo CEO Marc Rowan is worth over $7 billion, and he’s spent tens of millions of dollars in recent months and years buying up properties near the Hamptons, the elite enclave of Long Island.

“It’s almost impossible for me to even think about having that much money,” said Yocina. “I just feel like $37,000 a year” — the per capita income of Genesee County – “compared to Marc Rowan is an unfair fight.”

Like other private equity firms, Apollo has faced criticism over its management of its holdings, such as hospitals and for-profit colleges, and for labor policies among its portfolio companies. And also like other private equity firms, Apollo is aiming to profit off the AI and data center boom.

In November 2025, Apollo completed its acquisition of Stream Data Centers. Apollo executives view their new portfolio company as a hands-on and strategic investment.

One Apollo statement said that Stream will allow the firm to “potentially deploy billions of dollars into next-generation digital infrastructure,” while Apollo president Jim Zelter declared that “Stream Data Centers strengthen our presence in digital infrastructure.” Goldman Sachs, who advised Stream on the majority investment from Apollo, emphasized that Apollo will “help Stream execute on a multigigawatt development pipeline” and that Stream will provide Apollo “with an ‘origination engine’ for deploying capital.”
Apollo and Jeffrey Epstein

Apollo has also faced controversy over its top executives’ ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Most notably, Apollo’s cofounder and longtime former CEO Leon Black left the firm in 2021 after revelations that he was Epstein’s main client. Black paid Epstein $158 million to avoid as much as $2 billion in tax payments. As Bloomberg reports, the newly released Epstein files show “how enmeshed” Epstein “was in Black’s financial and personal lives,” noting that “[i]n Epstein’s world, few billionaires loomed as large as Black.”

Bloomberg referred to Epstein as“Black’s stealthy do-it-all fixer” and added that “the convicted sex offender arranged family portraits, helped the billionaire leverage up a vast art collection” and “obscured some of his most sensitive secrets.” The New York Times reports that “[t]he two men often socialized and dined together.”

With the release of the Epstein files, the Financial Times reports that “[t]op Apollo Global Management executives including chief Marc Rowan held wide-ranging discussions over the firm’s tax arrangements” with Epstein throughout the 2010s, despite Apollo’s previous claim that it “never did any business.”

Rowan “repeatedly corresponded with Epstein” over financial matters and forwarded an internal document to Epstein in March 2016, said the Financial Times. An investigation by the Daily Penn — the paper of Rowan’s alma mater — found that Rowan “remained in contact with Epstein between 2013 and 2016” and that emails reveal “discussions about a potential purchase of Rowan’s private jet and multiple plans to meet for breakfast at Epstein’s home.”

“It’s hard not to see these rich, powerful men in suits just continuing what Epstein did, and this insatiable hunger for more power and money,” Yocina told Truthout. “In Genesee County, we weren’t expecting this.”

Truthout reached out to both Apollo and Stream Data Centers for comment about this article but did not receive responses from them.
Campus Witch Hunts and Higher Ed “Compact”

Rowan’s influence stretches well beyond the business world. He’s been a driving force behind the Trump’s administration’s pressure campaign against U.S. universities as well as efforts to stifle campus Palestine solidarity efforts.

In September 2023, Rowan opposed a Palestinian literary festival scheduled at Penn, and following the October 7, 2023 attacks, Rowan “led a crusade” against Liz Magill, then president of the University of Pennsylvania, “[a]rguing that Penn had become a bastion of antisemitism,” sending “daily emails to trustees to protest the school’s direction,” according to The New York Times.

Rowan chairs the board of Penn’s prestigious Wharton business school and has donated tens of millions of dollars to the school. As part of his pressure campaign, Rowan “[curbed] his contributions and [beseeched] other donors to do the same,” reported the Times.

Ultimately, Magill resigned in December 2023 after facing a congressional committee chaired by hard-right North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx. In the following weeks, Rowan and his wife donated $13,200 to Foxx and Rowan cohosted a fundraiser with “critical Penn donors” for Foxx.

Rowan is also widely reported as a key architect of the Trump administration’s campaign against higher education, which has included staging investigations into universities over allegations of antisemitism and fraud, and strong-arming rollbacks of so-called “woke” programs by threatening massive funding cuts.

In October 2025, The New York Times referred to Rowan as “the billionaire behind Trump’s deal for universities,” stating that Rowan “was regarded as a central force” behind a document, circulated “at the behest” of Rowan, that became the blueprint of the administration’s campaign against universities.

“The ideas that flowed from Mr. Rowan and his allies are now the backbone of a potentially far-reaching administration effort to tie campus policies to Mr. Trump’s agenda and the federal government’s financial might,” The New York Times asserted.

The administration’s assault on higher education, led by Trump aides like Stephen Miller, has included attempts to pressure universities into signing a “compact,” which Rowan helped write, that would condition federal funding on alignment with Trump’s policies — what one law school dean has called “extortion, plain and simple.”
Weaponizing Antisemitism

News reports have also tied Rowan to broader efforts to paint opposition to Zionism and Palestine solidarity efforts as forms of “antisemitism.”

A New York Magazine investigation into the rightward turn of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) suggested that Rowan has shaped the group’s focus on the “radical left” as the face of antisemitism.

“Current and former ADL employees repeatedly mentioned one name in connection with this idea: Marc Rowan, the Republican megadonor and CEO of Apollo Global Management,” said the investigation, with staffers implying that ADL President Jonathan Greenblatt’s desire to secure funding was involved.

A Jewish Currents investigation into the ADL’s methodology for auditing “antisemitic incidents” argued that a 2023 report misclassified “more than a thousand items” as antisemitic, all of which were “cases of speech critical of Israel or Zionism.”

In a recent speech during a fundraiser for the UJA-Federation of New York, whose board Rowan chairs, Rowan alluded to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as “someone who uses antisemitism in their campaign and normalizes antisemitism” and stated that “he is our enemy.”

Rowan’s statements, which equate Mamdani’s criticism of Israel with antisemitism, appear at odds with the views of at least a large plurality of New York City Jews, who voted in significant numbers for Mamdani.

During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani criticized Israel’s genocide in Gaza and stated his support for universal rights and equality for Israelis and Palestinians.
Board of Peace

Rowan is also a member of the executive board of Donald Trump’s new “Board of Peace” and a member of Trump’s “Gaza Executive Board.”

Trump’s “Board of Peace” is dominated by authoritarian leaders. “The board seems designed above all to assert Trump’s primacy in world affairs” and “to serve private interests close to the president,” wrote the Financial Times. As part of its seven-member executive board, Rowan sits alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The “Gaza Executive Board” that Rowan also sits on is a subset of the “Board of Peace,” which will reportedly “assume full legislative, executive, and judicial control over Gaza, including ‘emergency powers,’” according to Drop Site News.

At a recent “Board of Peace” meeting, Rowan raved about the “tremendous” potential for Gaza’s reconstruction, including “$50 billion on a conservative basis” for “the coastline alone” and “$115 billion of value” in total that “just needs to be unlocked and financed.”

Human rights attorney Diana Buttu has referred to the “Board of Peace” as “neocolonialism in the 21st century,” saying its “aim, of course, is to try to erase Israel’s crimes and to turn them into a money-making real estate venture for Trump, Kushner, and their cronies.”
“Everybody Is Against This Data Center”

Local organizing against data centers and opposition to political repression, militarism, and occupation may seem like distant struggles from each other. In fact, they’re increasingly linked.

Artificial intelligence — powered by data centers — is being ever more integrated into U.S. and Israeli military campaigns and surveillance efforts. Israel has used AI during its annihilation campaign in Gaza and its occupation of the West Bank. The Pentagon has been pushing for deeper integration of AI into its surveillance and war apparatus, and it’s using AI in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Authorities have used AI to surveil pro-Palestine protesters in the U.S., including on campuses.

Back in Western New York, organizers against the STAMP data center are focused on impacting current siting, environmental and financial incentive reviews and showcasing the wide opposition to the project, while also imagining the region they actually want — one where $1.44 billion could go toward local needs rather than corporate subsidies.

In doing all this, they’re up against a force much more powerful than just Stream Data Centers and local officials: the well-connected Wall Street powerhouse firm, and its influential billionaire leadership, that sits atop the data center’s ownership chain.

But communities across the U.S. are rising en masse against the data center boom. In Wisconsin, residents recently stopped a data center project owned by Blackstone — a private equity firm even more powerful than Apollo.

Yocina sometimes feels overwhelmed when she thinks about the forces her community is up against. But she also remains undaunted.

“They think that we’re all just stupid country bumpkins,” she said. “But they’re underestimating us. There’s unity happening here. This is a bipartisan issue. Everybody is against this data center.”

 

This AI tool can detect domestic abuse risk years before victims seek help

Copyright Canva

By Roselyne Min

Published on 15/03/2026 - EURONEWS

The new AI system can detect patterns of physical trauma linked to abuse and allow healthcare professionals to intervene earlier.

Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool designed to help doctors identify patients who may be at risk of intimate partner violence (IPV), potentially years before victims seek help.

Researchers in the United States trained a machine learning model using data collected during regular hospital visits. The study was published in the journal Nature.

Intimate partner violence refers to abuse from current or former partners and can lead to severe injuries, chronic pain, and mental health disorders.

According to a report from the European Commission, 18 percent of women who had ever had a partner said they had experienced physical or sexual violence by their partner in 2021.

Current screening for domestic abuse in hospitals usually relies on doctors asking patients questions about their safety at home. But many victims do not disclose abuse because of fear, stigma or safety concerns, leading to cases often going undetected.

Related

• Eight in 10 popular AI chatbots would help teenagers plan violent attacks, report finds

The research team used several years of records from nearly 850 women who had experienced intimate partner violence and more than 5,200 patients of similar age in a control group to build three different AI systems to test how well the technology could identify people at risk.

The first system analysed structured hospital data such as age, medical history, and other standard patient information. The second one looked at written medical notes, including doctors’ observations and radiology reports. The third system combined both types of information.

All three models performed strongly, but the combined system proved the most accurate. It correctly identified risk in 88 percent of cases.

The tool was also able to flag potential abuse more than three years before many patients later entered hospital-based domestic abuse intervention programmes.

By analysing large amounts of hospital data at once, the new AI system can detect patterns of physical trauma linked to abuse and flag patients whose records resemble those seen in confirmed abuse cases, allowing healthcare professionals to intervene earlier.

“This clinical decision support tool could make a significant impact on prediction and prevention of intimate partner violence,” said Qi Duan, the program director of the division of health informatics technologies at the US National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB).

“Given the prevalence of cases, the tool could be a game-changing asset to public health,” Duan added.

Researchers say that the technology is designed to support clinicians rather than replace their judgment. It does not diagnose abuse or force patients to disclose information. Instead, it provides a signal that may help doctors approach the topic carefully and offer support if needed.

“Our work represents a shift towards recognising risk earlier using information already present in healthcare data,” said Bharti Khurana, an emergency radiologist at Mass General Brigham and associate professor at Harvard Medical School.

Researchers say they are planning to integrate the technology into electronic medical record systems so hospitals can receive real-time assessments during routine care.

Op-Ed: Kharg Island Strikes Have Little Effect if Iran's Tankers Sail On

Strikes on Kharg Island, March 13 (CENTCOM)

Published Mar 15, 2026 2:11 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

It is unclear what the aim was behind the overwhelming air attack mounted against Kharg Island on March 13, which President Trump has described as “one of the most powerful bombing raids in the history of the Middle East.” The raid however was restricted to the military sites and emplacements manned by the IRGC to defend the island, and apparently was designed not to damage the oil infrastructure of the terminal – which is believed to be still operational.

Whereas strike packages to reduce Iranian military capability have proven to be highly effective - having for example demonstrably reduced the Iranian capability to launch missiles and drones - strikes to rein in Iranian military ambitions have had less clear-cut effect. The Kharg Island raid has not apparently had the desired consequence of persuading the Iranians to reopen the Straits of Hormuz, as the Iranian leadership appears willing to tolerate the loss of its own military manpower.

If the raid to destroy Kharg Island’s military defenses was a precursor to occupying the island, it should be appreciated that any occupying force would then immediately become a target for an Iranian counter-attack. The Iranians have demonstrated by well-targeted attacks on the US military across the region would be casualty-heavy – all the more so because the island is a relatively small area, and difficult to maneuver within in a tactically-advantageous manner. The terminal facilities would inevitably be destroyed, and hence rendered useless as a bargaining chip to bring the Iranians to the negotiating table.

In contrast, halting the operations of the terminal while keeping it intact would be a powerful lever to use against the Iranians. The Iranian regime needs money to keep itself in power, both to finance its repressive internal security operation and to restore all the offensive military capability destroyed in recent days, but also to support the subsidies and economic measures needed to keep ordinary Iranians under control; without subsidies and bribes to keep the internal security apparatus operational, anti-regime sentiment would likely become unstoppable.

However, the island does not need to be occupied to close down the operations of the terminal; with both air and naval superiority already achieved, the US military command could simply declare the island a no-go area for tankers, at very little risk to US personnel, thereby shutting down loadings and depriving the regime of the revenues it currently obtains by exporting its oil into the world market. At the same time, the offshore loading terminal at Kooh Mobarak on the Jask peninsula outside the Gulf should also be closed down.

Moreover, Iran-linked shadow fleet tankers are still able to ply their trade without hindrance, notwithstanding the de facto state of war which exists between the United States and Tehran. If a shut-down of Kharg Island was forced upon the Iranians, coupled with seizures of shadow fleet tankers in transit, the financial pressures would be felt quickly on the home front. Any loss of their ability to maintain their repressive grip on the country would force them to the negotiating table, their key strategic goal being to protect the regime.

The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.

Iran is Making Unimpeded Use of the Strait of Hormuz

Tankers still loading at Kharg Island, seen on March 7 in the last satellite imagery obtainable (Sentinel-2)

Published Mar 15, 2026 12:52 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

Getting a clear picture of what traffic is currently passing through the Strait of Hormuz is difficult at present for the external observer. The US military and the Omani coast guard will have a complete picture, but ship trackers used to dependency on AIS signals are now deprived of their primary source of information, as vessels passing through the strait are clearly not wishing to advertise their presence and are traveling with AIS systems switched off. 

However, it is possible to discern the general pattern of movement. Iranian ships, or ships licensed by the Iranian authorities, are hiding their identities and are passing through the strait. A small number of vessels not approved by the Iranians are making the passage, but at high risk of being attacked.

In effect, the strait is open to Iranian or Iranian-approved traffic, and largely closed to others, meaning that the Iranians are suffering little economic damage – and may indeed be benefitting from high oil and gas prices - while the Gulf States are blockaded.

With Iranian approval, two passages have been made by laden Indian-flagged LPG tankers, the Shivalik (IMO 9356892) and the Nanda Devi (IMO 9232503), both owned by the parastatal Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), India’s largest shipping company. Both ships are known to have loaded Qatari gas at Ras Laffan beforehand. The two SCI ships were escorted through the strait by the Indian Navy. Lloyd's List Intelligence also reported that an unidentified crude tanker laden with Saudi oil had also transited en route to India in the same time period.

The VLCC Smyrni (IMO 9493779), Liberian-flagged and managed by the Greek shipping company Dynacom, transited the strait en route to Mumbai sometime after March 5, laden with Saudi oil. It is not known if it had some form of permission based on the Indian destination of its cargo. Other Dynacom-managed ships are also believed to have made transits.

The Guinea-flagged oil products tanker Ocean Guardian (IMO 9267948) from Basra, Iraq transited eastwards on March 12. The Ocean Guardian, formerly the Danube, is OFAC-sanctioned with a classic shadow fleet history.

Another Basra-associated, OFAC-sanctioned oil products tanker, the Aruba-flagged Blooming Dale (IMO 9125724) was on March 13 transiting eastwards in the strait. The Belize-flagged bulk carrier Rozana (IMO 9198381), a frequent visitor to Russia, also seemed able to make an unhindered eastward passage of the strait on March 7.

The Iranian ambassador to Iraq has said that Iraqi-owned vessels are allowed passage if they are not US or Israeli-linked. ISW reported also that the Turkish Transport Ministry had allowed an unidentified Turkish-owned ship to leave the Gulf, and on March 7, the Panama-flagged but Turkish-owned LPG Bogazici (IMO 9237747) was seen entering the Gulf, hauling Emirati gas to India. The Marshall Islands-registered bulk carrier Iron Maiden (IMO 9691149) seems to have slipped through the strait heading for Singapore on March 4 by describing itself as "all Chinese-crewed" - a practice seen previously during the Red Sea crisis. 

Overall, this is an incomplete and somewhat confusing picture. Lloyd's List Intelligence has picked up nine dark fleet transits of the strait in March, but assess that in total there have been 45 such transits - and probably much more. Lloyd's List has also detected movements out of the Gulf of at least one Iranian container ship. Sky News' Data & Forensics team estimates that 13 ships have transited the Strait of Hormuz from March 2-9. In among these ship movements are Iran-linked shadow fleet tankers, which are still loading crude oil at Kharg Island, Iran’s primary export hub.

It would be safe to conclude that while access needed by GCC states and the wider world has been choked off, Iran is enjoying economic and political benefit from the traffic it is allowing through the strait. This Iranian-sanctioned traffic is at well below pre-war levels, but is nonetheless keeping Iran afloat.

In contrast, the effects on those denied access are economically punitive and getting increasingly worse. It is also politically corrosive to the American war effort: those states suffering from the Iranian blockade are now agitating for an early end to the war, before U.S. aims are achieved.

The obvious solution is not the easiest. A military operation to lift Iranian control over the strait would be a complex and challenging, and it is not clear if there are sufficient naval forces available to conduct convoy operations successfully. Even if escorts were available, independent estimates suggest that the logistical math of convoy operation would restrict tanker traffic volume to a small fraction of normal levels, per Lloyd's List. 

The alternative would be to impose an economic blockade and to interdict Iranian ships. This latter course has the benefit of hitting the finances of the Iranian regime, which needs money both to maintain its machinery of state suppression and to keep the Iranian economy afloat through subsidies. Militarily, now that the United States has swept the Iranian navy from the seas, it has an interdiction tool available for the task: the expected arrival in theater of the 2,200 Marines of the 31st MEU. Such an operation would require political patience, a commodity which currently is in short supply, and would strain the U.S. operating model of involving Coast Guard law enforcement in every vessel boarding. 

Iran also has a Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) off the Kooh Mobarak oil storage facility on the Jask peninsula outside the Gulf, built in order to reduce dependency on Kharg Island. It takes generally two days to load a VLCC tanker moored at the SBM. But since it was opened in July 2021 by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the facility has only been used sporadically, reflecting construction problems with Iran’s crude pipeline infrastructure serving the Jask terminal. The SBM does not appear to have been used at all in January and February this year.

The VLCC Dune (IMO 9569712) loading at the Kooh Mubarak SBM on October 4, 2024 (Sentinel-2/CJRC)

Sufyan And The Mahdi-Messiahs – OpEd

March 15, 2026 
By Rabbi Allen S. Maller


The Mahdi (“the Guided One”) is a messianic figure in Islamic eschatology, believed to be a descendant of Muhammad who will appear at the End of Times to rid the world of tyranny, evil, and injustice. He will establish a just, unified Islamic world before the Day of Judgment.

In more than 15 Ahadith (Islamic Traditions) found in the Sahih of Imam Bukhari, Sunnan of Imam Abu Dawwud, Jamii of Imam Tirmidhi and others, Prophet Muhammad said that Islam has a specific lifespan on earth, These Ahadith state that Allah gave Islam 1500 years; and we are now in the years of the 1440’s.

The Sufyan is a descendant of Abu Sufyan who will emerge before Imam Mahdi from the depths of Damascus (or Iran). The Ahadith regarding the Sufyani specify that he is a tyrant who will spread corruption and mischief on the earth before Imam Mahdi comes. Sufyan will kill children (Demonstrators) and rip out the bellies of women (for singing music) for during the Iranian Revolution, Khomeini said: “…music is like a drug, whoever acquires the habit can no longer devote himself to important activities. We must completely eliminate it.”

So human society changed more rapidly, violently and fundamentally in the last century of the second millennium than ever before in history. Doctors saved the lives of millions. Dictators sacrificed the lives of millions. Populations exploded and birthrates declined. Technology produced both worldwide prosperity and pollution at the same time.

Knowing all this, should we look upon the first century of the third millennium with optimistic hope or with fatalistic trepidation? Are the world and our society heading towards a wonder-filled new age, or toward a doomsday; or are both occurring concurrently because breakdown is always a prelude to breakthrough?

Many who believe in the Biblical vision of a Messianic Age use the insights of the Prophets of Israel to provide guidance in understanding the social, economic, scientific and cultural upheavals sweeping society. Usually it is the dramatic dangers of the pre-Messianic tribulation that are emphasized. I will focus on the positive signs developing throughout the world that accord with the Messianic vision of the Biblical Prophets.

In most religious traditions, redemption is defined only in terms of individual enlightenment or personal salvation. However, the Biblical Prophets of Israel conceived redemption as a transformation of human society that would occur through the catalyst of the transformation of the Jewish community. This transformation, which will take place in this world at some future time, is called the Messianic Age.

The transition to the Messianic Age is called the birth pangs of the Messiah. The birth of a redeemed Messianic world may be the result of an easy or difficult labor. If everyone would simply live according to the moral teachings of his or her religious tradition, we would ourselves bring about the Messianic Age.

But, if we will not do it voluntarily, it will come through social and political upheavals, worldwide conflicts and generation gaps. Messiahs refer to agents of God who help bring about this transformation. The Jewish tradition teaches that each agent of God (there may be two or three such agents) will be a human being with great leadership qualities similar to Prophets Moses and Mohammed.

The arrival of the Messianic Age is what’s really important, not the personality of the agents who bring it about, since they are simply the instruments of God, who ultimately is the real Redeemer.

The majority of Christians, Jews, and Muslims do not believe that all of humanity is moving closer and closer to a catastrophic Judgement Day. The minority who do think that Judgement Day is coming soon share the usual negative, fear-filled views of most end-times thinkers: Christians, Jews and especially Muslims, who do believe that: “The hour (of Judgement) is near” [Qur’an 54:1]; and ˹The time of˺ people’s judgment has drawn near, yet they heedlessly turn away.” [Qur’an 21:1]

According to a 2012 poll by the Pew Research Center, at least half of Muslims in nine Muslim-majority countries believe that the coming of the Mahdi is “imminent,” and could happen in their lifetime. Another world-wide Pew Research Center poll found that belief in the Mahdi’s imminent return was; 57% in Southeast Asia, 60% in South Asia, and 51% in the Middle East and North Africa.

The Messianic Age is usually seen as the solution to all of humanity’s basic problems. This may be true in the long run but the vast changes the transition to the Messianic Age entails will provide challenges to society for many generations to come.

For example, the Prophet Isaiah, 2700 years ago, predicted that someday there would be a radically new world in which Jerusalem would be fulfilled with joy for “no more shall there be in it an infant that lives only a few days.” (65:20) Before the mid 19th century the annual death rate for humans fluctuated from year to year but always remained high, between 30 and over 50 deaths per 1,000 individuals.

A century ago, the infant mortality rate in Jerusalem (as in most of the world) was 25-30%. Now it is less than 1%. For thousands of years almost every family in the world suffered the loss of at least one or two infants; now it happens to less than one out of a hundred babies. If this radical improvement had occurred over a few years, it would have greatly impressed people. But since it occurred gradually over several generations, people take it for granted.


Also, it seems to be part of human nature that most people focus on complaining about the less than 1% that still die (an individual family tragedy heightened by the fact that it is unexpected because it is so rare) rather than be grateful that the infant mortality rate has been reduced by over 95%. These improvements in human health are unprecedented in human history.

Truly we will be coming close to Isaiah’s prophecy, “One who dies at 100 years shall be reckoned a youth, and one who fails to reach 100 shall be reckoned accursed.” (65:20) such radical change will necessitate major changes in the way we think and act when faced with decisions about life and death. Yet who among us would want to return to the high mortality rates and early deaths of previous centuries? The challenges we now face are not those of survival, but of opportunity.

The fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy has thus gone unnoticed and uncelebrated. But even when the events are rapid and dramatic, people rarely connect them to their Messianic significance for very long.

The amazing rescue of 15,000 Ethiopian Jews in an airlift lasting less than 48 hours stirred and inspired people for a few weeks. Subsequently, the difficult problems the newcomers faced (similar to those of the 900,000 recent Soviet immigrants) occupied the Jewish media. Now both are taken for granted. The miracle has become routine. But if you had told the Jews of Ethiopia two generations ago that they would someday all fly to Israel in a giant silver bird, they could only conceive of this as a Messianic miracle.

If you had told Soviet Jews a generation ago that the Communist regime would collapse, the Soviet Empire disintegrate, and hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews would emigrate to Israel, they would have conceived it only as a Messianic dream.

In our own generation therefore we have seen the dramatic fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: “I will bring your offspring from the (Middle) East and gather you from the (European) West. To the North (Russia) I will say ‘give them up’ and to the South (Ethiopia) ‘do not hold them’.

Bring my sons from far away, my daughters from the end of the earth.” (43:5-6) In 1948 only six percent of a global Jewish population of 11.5 million lived in Israel. Today 45% of the world’s 15 million Jews reside in the Jewish state.

Isn’t it amazing how people adjust to living in a radically new world and forget the past. Indeed, the Prophet Isaiah himself said, “Behold, I create a new Heaven and a new Earth, and former things shall not be remembered.” (65:17)

Where does the final Messiah fit in with all of this? He will still have lots to do when he arrives. Most Orthodox Jews would not commit themselves to any individual as a Messiah unless he successfully rebuilds the ancient Temple in Jerusalem, fulfilling the prophecy of Zachariah, “He shall build the Temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, he shall sit on the throne and rule, there shall be a priest before the throne, and peaceful counsel will exist between both of them.” (6:13)

Now that a large part of the Jewish people have returned to the Land of Israel, and resurrected a Jewish State, one might think that rebuilding a temple of the site where Solomon originally built one almost 3,000 years ago, would be relatively simple.

But a Muslim Shrine presently occupies the site called, The Dome of the Rock. Often erroneously called the Mosque of Omar, it is not a mosque, and it was not built by Omar. It was built in 691 by Abd-Al-Malik and it is regarded by Muslims as the third holiest site in the world. Any attempt to replace the Dome of the Rock would provoke a Muslim Holy War of cataclysmic proportions.


There is, however, a lot of vacant land on the Temple Mount, and a Jewish house of worship could be built adjacent to the Dome of the Rock provided the Muslims would cooperate.
Most observers agree that anyone who could arrange such Jewish-Muslim cooperation would really be the Messianic Ruler of Peace (Isaiah 9:5) Christian support for such a cooperative venture would also be very important, and anyone who can bring Jews, Christians and Muslims together in mutual respect and cooperation would surely fulfill the greatest of all Messianic predictions:

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning knives; nation shall not take up sword against nation, they shall never again teach war.” (Isaiah 2:4)

Indeed, such Jewish/Christian/Muslim cooperation would not be possible without great spiritual leadership in all three communities. Thus, each community could consider its leadership to be the Messiah. The Mahdi for example, “…will judge among the people of the Torah according to the Torah; among the people of the Gospel according to the Gospel; among the people of the Psalms in accordance with the Psalms; among the people of the Qur’an in accordance with the Qur’an.” Says a Hadith from Imam Mohammad Baqir from Nu’mani, Kitab al-ghayba, p.237.

This would fulfill the culminating verses of Isaiah’s Messianic prophecy as enlarged upon by Micah (4:3-5), “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning knives. Nation shall not take up against nation, they shall never again teach war, but every man shall sit under his grapevine or fig tree with no one to disturb him, for it is the Lord of Hosts who spoke. Though all peoples walk each in the name of its God, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.”

Perhaps the Abraham Accords in the Mid-East will start a swing towards optimism and the fulfillment of another prophecy of Isaiah: “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.”…(Isaiah 19:23-5)

There will be no peace until both Palestinians and Israelis declare the chant ‘From the river to the sea’ becomes an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, and not death, destruction, or hate. We can make it truly aspirational by making it focus on both peoples first, and the land second. “From the river to the sea Palestinians and Israelis should be freed of hatred and suffering by ‘a two state for two peoples sharing of the land peacefully solution.'”

If each religious community truly follows the best of its own religious teachings; the final Messiah and Mahdi will surely have arrived, and peace will be established worldwide.


Rabbi Allen S. Maller

Allen Maller retired in 2006 after 39 years as Rabbi of Temple Akiba in Culver City, Calif. He is the author of an introduction to Jewish mysticism. God. Sex and Kabbalah and editor of the Tikun series of High Holy Day prayerbooks.