New AI PODs at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and Sacramento State Expand Shared Capacity for Research and Education
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22, 2026 — Internet2 is expanding its contributions to the National Research Platform (NRP) through its strategic relationship with Cisco, supporting the deployment of new Cisco AI PODs at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and Sacramento State. The AI PODs add GPU capacity that researchers across the platform can burst into when local resources run short.
Credit: Internet2
As artificial intelligence transforms research, the NRP continues to grow the shared, AI-ready computing capacity being used by thousands of researchers and students across the country. Internet2 is now adding to that pool in a new way.
Cisco AI PODs introduce a more standardized approach to expanding the NRP’s distributed infrastructure. They provide pre-validated compute, networking, and management capabilities that can be deployed as a unit, reducing the engineering and integration work required to add new resources to the platform. That creates a repeatable model for Internet2 and other NRP contributors as demand for AI computing continues to grow.
Pooling Capacity Instead of Centralizing It
As AI-enabled discovery reaches every discipline, research computing has grown significantly more complex. Cyberinfrastructure gaps between institutions are a growing concern, and budget pressures mean many institutions are being asked to do more with less.
That’s why a shared model can help bridge the access gap.
Supported by the National Science Foundation and over 70 participating organizations, the NRP is a community-operated platform that pools computing, storage, performance measurement, and AI resources across the U.S. It enables organizations to contribute while giving researchers access to capabilities beyond what they have locally.
Rather than building one centralized supercomputer, the NRP scales by aggregating GPU and CPU capacity contributed by institutions into a single Kubernetes-based fabric called Nautilus. But that model creates a recurring hurdle for contributing organizations: standing up GPU nodes that are compatible enough in compute, networking, and management to slot cleanly into a shared, multi-region cluster.
Cisco AI PODs can address that hurdle. Each AI POD is pre-validated, full-stack, modular AI infrastructure based on Cisco Validated Designs. It pairs Cisco UCS servers and GPU nodes with Nexus high-bandwidth, low-latency networking and Cisco Intersight for centralized management. Instead of hand-assembling compute, storage, and networking from scratch, an institution contributing to the NRP can deploy a right-sized AI POD. Ultimately, this reduces the integration risk and setup time for each new node joining the platform.
“Today, these two new AI PODs provide researchers access to additional GPU capacity when local resources aren’t enough,” said James Deaton, vice president of Network Services and Research Engagement at Internet2. “Internet2’s role was to connect the pieces: an NRP need, a Cisco solution, and two campuses ready to host it. Strategic relationships with industry are one way we reinvest resources in the whole research and education community.”
About the AI PODs
Combined across both sites, the AI PODs provide:
8 NVIDIA H200 GPUs with 1.1 TB of combined GPU memory
128 CPU cores
2 TB of system memory
90 TB of NVMe flash for staging data
At each site, the AI POD includes:
A single Cisco UCS C845A M8 server chassis, with its GPUs interconnected over NVLink so jobs can address all four as a shared pool of GPU memory.
An NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPU providing up to 2×200 Gbps connectivity from each AI POD to campus and national R&E networks.
Continuing to Invest in Shared Research Infrastructure
Internet2’s contributions to the NRP continue to expand R&E access to shared computational resources across the U.S. A distributed platform requires more than GPUs, as data has to reach the compute, and paths between nodes have to be measurable. The Internet2 national network supports both.
Internet2 operates dedicated Open Science Data Federation nodes in Boise, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, and Kansas City. Connected through the national network, these caches function to keep datasets closer to the compute resources and the researchers using them.
In addition, 41 performance assurance service nodes on the network currently serve a hybrid NRP function. Alongside thousands of perfSONAR instances deployed worldwide, they provide the NRP with measurement points across Internet2’s footprint, supporting cross-domain performance monitoring and troubleshooting between sites. Additionally, the nodes contribute 1,200 CPU cores, 6.4 terabytes of memory, and 80 terabytes of storage capacity.
Creating Value Through Industry Collaboration
Deploying the AI PODs to support the NRP is another example of how Internet2 creates community value through strategic relationships with its industry members. Internet2’s industry relationship with Cisco helped direct resources to the NRP, supporting two campus deployments and validating a repeatable approach other contributors can use.
As AI reshapes research cyberinfrastructure requirements, the expertise and strategic relationships Internet2 builds to meet them will continue to benefit the broader R&E community.
About Internet2
Internet2 is a nonprofit, member-driven advanced technology community founded by the nation’s leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 serves 352 U.S. universities, 57 government agencies, 46 regional and state education networks and through them supports more than 80,000 community anchor institutions, over 1,000 InCommon participants, 61 leading corporations working with our community, and 70 national research and education network operators that represent more than 100 countries.
Internet2 delivers a diverse portfolio of technology solutions that leverages, integrates, and amplifies the strengths of its members and helps support their educational, research, and community service missions. Internet2’s core infrastructure components include the nation’s largest and fastest research and education network that was built to deliver advanced, customized services that are accessed and secured by the community-developed trust and identity framework. For more information: https://internet2.edu
US president calls UK prime minister ‘a natural businessperson’ as leaders meet at UN assembly in New York
Donald Trump has asserted his relationship with the UK is “more up” with Andy Burnham than under Keir Starmer despite tensions between the two countries on a range of thorny issues including regulation of artificial intelligence, the Chagos islands and the war in Iran.
At their first face-to-face meeting, the US president praised Burnham, who sat nervously alongside him, as a “natural businessperson”, saying he thought he had “lots of assets on his side” and would be a “great” prime minister.
Donald Trump on Tuesday said he backed the idea of a ban on diesel exports, which some US politicians are calling for as a way to curb the soaring cost of energy.
Diesel prices have rallied in Europe and the US to record highs as wars in Iran and Ukraine sharply cut exports from some of the biggest producers such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. A gallon of diesel fuel in the US was $6.53 on Tuesday, the highest average on record and over 75% higher than a year ago.
SAXONBURG, Pa., Sept. 22, 2026 — Coherent Corp. has announced PhotonLink, an integrated optics platform that brings together Coherent’s broad portfolio of critical photonics technologies, precision assembly and test capabilities to deliver complete optical solutions for next-generation AI data centers. The platform supports co-packaged optics (CPO), near-packaged optics (NPO) and emerging chip to chip connectivity.
As AI systems continue to scale, demand for higher bandwidth and lower power is driving optical connectivity closer to compute and switching silicon. These architectures require lasers, silicon photonics, precision optics, fibers and detectors to work together. PhotonLink brings those technologies and the expertise to integrate them into one platform.
“The next leap in AI requires more than faster chips – it requires a new way to connect them,” said Jim Anderson, Chief Executive Officer at Coherent. “Customers need complete optical solutions, not just individual components. Coherent is uniquely positioned to bring together the critical technologies, integrate and test the finished assemblies, and manufacture them at scale. PhotonLink puts that capability to work for the next generation of AI infrastructure.”
Coherent’s vertical integration spans compound semiconductor materials, lasers, optics and specialty fiber through final assembly and test. PhotonLink gives customers access to both individual components and complete optical assemblies from one partner, helping simplify system design, streamline qualification and reduce the complexity of integrating technologies from multiple suppliers.
From Critical Technologies to Complete Optical Assemblies
The PhotonLink platform spans four functions of the optical path: Generate, Shape, Guide and Receive. The portfolio includes indium phosphide (InP) lasers, vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays, silicon photonics, isolators, specialty fibers, micro-optics and detectors. Coherent integrates these technologies into external laser sources, precision fiber assemblies and optical modules tailored to customer architectures.
Customer Engagement and Manufacturing Scale
Coherent has more than ten CPO customer engagements and more than ten NPO engagements, with anchor customers and long-term agreements secured for both architectures. The company also has more than five engagements in emerging chip to chip connectivity. Revenue from the PhotonLink platform is expected to begin ramping in Q4 of CY2026.
PhotonLink builds on Coherent’s established datacenter manufacturing base, which has shipped more than 300 million InP lasers and more than one billion InP and gallium arsenide (GaAs) photodetectors. Coherent is expanding its 6” InP and specialty fiber manufacturing capacity to support the PhotonLink ramp.
Coherent is the global photonics leader. We harness photons to drive innovation. Industry leaders in the datacenter, communications, and industrial markets rely on Coherent’s world-leading technology to fuel their own innovation and growth. Founded in 1971 and operating in more than 20 countries, Coherent brings the industry’s broadest, deepest technology stack; unmatched supply chain resilience; and global scale to help its customers solve their toughest technology challenges. For more information, visit coherent.com.
Ella Langley’s record-breaking song has spent 23 weeks at the top, surpassing Mariah Carey’s holiday anthem
Ella Langley’s hit song Choosin’ Texas has made Billboard Hot 100 history, spending 23 weeks on the chart and breaking the record for the longest-running No 1 song in the chart’s 68-year old history.
The track, which was released last October as the lead single on the 27-year-old singer and songwriter’s album Dandelion, has surpassed Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You, which topped the charts for 22 weeks.
Thursday’s gathering will show how food, conservation and education come together at Coverdale Farm Preserve. Online ticket registration is closed.
GREENVILLE, Del. — The setting for Thursday’s dinner is also its purpose. At A Taste of Coverdale, guests will eat locally grown food at a working farm where Delaware Nature Society demonstrates how food production and care for the land can go together.
The Sept. 24 event runs from 4:30 to 8 p.m. at Coverdale Farm Preserve. Optional guided nature strolls begin at 4:30 p.m., followed by a cocktail hour at 5 and dinner at 6. A silent auction will include items from local vendors and experiences led by Delaware Nature Society experts. Proceeds will support conservation and education programs at Coverdale. Online ticket registration is closed.
A working farm and a nature preserve
Coverdale’s 377 acres include a 177-acre working farm and 200 acres managed as a nature preserve. Delaware Nature Society uses the property to show how farming practices can support healthy soil and wildlife habitat while producing food for the community. Visitors can walk the farm trail, see animals and shop for seasonal produce at the market.
That makes the dinner more than an evening outdoors. The food, guided walks and views give guests a chance to see the connection between the farm’s harvest and the landscape Delaware Nature Society works to protect.
Delaware Nature Society connects people with nature!
Founded in 1964, Delaware Nature Society describes its mission as connecting people and nature to create a healthy environment for all through education, conservation and advocacy. Coverdale is one place where those three parts of its work come together.
Its education programs bring children and adults outside to learn through experience. Preschoolers explore nature through stories and play; school groups visit forests, wetlands, streams and farms; and adults can join guided walks and other programs. In Wilmington, the organization’s RENEW initiative connects young people with outdoor learning, water quality projects, habitat care and opportunities to build leadership skills.
Its conservation work extends beyond Coverdale. Delaware Nature Society says it manages nearly 2,000 acres for ecosystem health and biodiversity, including efforts to restore forests and meadows, control invasive plants and protect habitat for birds and pollinators. At Coverdale, it applies those principles to both the preserve and the working farm.
The organization also advocates for environmental policies. It describes its approach as nonpartisan and science-based, with priorities that include protecting open space and natural areas and improving water quality. It works to help residents understand those issues and take part in decisions affecting their communities.
A fall tradition with a purpose
This year’s dinner is part of Delaware Nature Society’s 50th anniversary celebration of the Harvest Moon Festival. The organization has spread the celebration across four fall events and calls A Taste of Coverdale its premier annual fundraiser. The money raised helps sustain the places and programs that visitors encounter throughout the year.
Community members who are not attending Thursday’s dinner can still experience Coverdale. The farm is open for regular visits Fridays through Sundays through November. Admission is free, and donations are welcome.
To Go Box
Who: Delaware Nature Society hosts A Taste of Coverdale.
What: A farm dinner with optional guided nature strolls and a silent auction. Online ticket registration is closed.
When: Thursday, Sept. 24, from 4:30 to 8 p.m. Strolls begin at 4:30 p.m.; dinner begins at 6 p.m.
Where: Coverdale Farm Preserve, 543 Way Road, Greenville.
The Trump administration is planning to welcome up to 17,500 additional White Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees over the next 12 months, according to a notice sent to Congress.
In a striking show of antiestablishment voter sentiment, the Left won in Berlin on the same night that the far-right Alternative for Germany won in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.
Another prominent Florida Republican has publicly distanced himself from Donald Trump, days after María Elvira Salazar called out the US president’s immigration-enforcement policy targeting law-abiding undocumented immigrants.
Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for governor in November’s US midterm elections, launched an updated campaign website on Tuesday that was stripped of almost every mention of Trump and removed a photograph of the congressman and his wife, Erika, posing with the president, the Miami Herald reported.
Testing said to reveal injury is worse than anticipated
Quarterback was hurt against Rams on Monday
New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart will be out for an extended period of time and could miss the rest of the NFL season after suffering a knee injury in Monday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams, according to reports Tuesday.
ESPN reported that the injury to Dart’s left knee was more severe than initially anticipated. Adam Schefter said further testing has left the Giants and Dart facing the possibility of season-ending surgery.
Sept. 22, 2026 — Industrial companies often face complex technical challenges that are too time-consuming or costly to solve through physical testing alone. Computer modeling and simulation can spur the development of new technologies with lower energy intensity, improved performance and increased productivity.
The Center for Industrial Modeling and Simulation (CIMS), led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), recently hosted a launch webinar featuring the center’s work to accelerate innovation and enhance U.S. economic competitiveness.
The Center for Industrial Modeling and Simulation recently hosted a webinar to encourage national-lab attendees and industry partners to learn about the program and opportunities to participate. Credit: LLNL.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Industrial Technologies Office (ITO), the new center will support the development of sector-specific tools and methods with laboratory expertise in physics-based simulation, process modeling, and machine learning and artificial intelligence to meet the computing needs and challenges of industry.
Brandon Wood, director of the new CIMS center, and Zach Pritchard, technology manager at the DOE’s ITO, delivered opening remarks at the event. They welcomed attendees from across the national laboratory enterprise, industry and academia.
Pritchard outlined how computational methods can reveal the physics behind industrial processes and provide insight into harsh environments that are difficult to monitor with current sensors. He said that recent advances in artificial intelligence also offer new ways to analyze complex systems and accelerate innovation, and he highlighted the scientific computing expertise, capabilities and resources available at the national labs.
During the webinar, Wood explained how the center aims to address challenges on both sides of the industry-national laboratory relationship. Companies may not know what tools are available, what those tools can accomplish or how to access the necessary facilities and expertise. Researchers, meanwhile, may need a clearer understanding of problems encountered in industrial settings.
“Our mission is really to accelerate widespread adoption of computing tools and resources,” said Wood. “We just want to see that the power that modeling and simulation really has is being deployed in a way that’s most effective for heavy industry.”
Initially, CIMS will focus on iron and steel and chemical manufacturing, particularly combustion, electrical/electrochemical technologies and process heating, with the goal to eventually expand to other energy-intensive sectors, including cement and concrete, forest products, food and beverage and agriculture.
The CIMS website, which is set to launch in the fall, will feature a catalog of relevant laboratory capabilities, industrially applicable codes, technical contacts and examples. The online inquiry and consultation portal will help companies determine whether computational approaches could address specific needs.
“We’ve set up CIMS as sort of a concierge service,” said Wood. “If an industry partner comes in and says, ‘Here’s my interest. I want to know if computing can be relevant for this,’ the center will help identify appropriate capabilities and experts.”
In addition, the center is planning a series of workshops to assess current adoption, identify gaps and establish priorities for computing in industrial sectors. CIMS will also develop demonstration projects focused on integrating and adapting existing capabilities towards higher impact for industry.
Riccardo Scarcelli, deputy director of CIMS, provided some additional information during the Q&A session on how to engage with CIMS, how the Center could interface with other DOE programs such as the High-performance Computing for Energy Innovation and Genesis Mission efforts, and what additional opportunities CIMS might facilitate for future lab-industry partnerships.
A recording of the webinar is now available online. Interested parties can join the CIMS mailing list to be informed about future events and/or provide feedback by completing a short interest form.
How do you deal with a problem like The Donald? The simple answer is that you don’t. You can’t. The normal rules of political engagement don’t apply. The US president is like a five-year-old child with the world as his set of toys: a King Baby.
Nothing is ever constant or predictable. What’s agreed one day can be forgotten the next. Any deal can be interrupted with a temper tantrum at any time. Trying to second-guess Donald Trump is a fool’s errand.
Company to award backpay to 264,000 workers as mayor Zohran Mamdani condemns use of ‘greedy algorithms’
DoorDash said it would pay $131.5m to settle a New York City government investigation that found the food delivery company underpaid or waited too long to pay workers.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the settlement the city’s largest labor enforcement action. It advances the city’s longstanding effort to hold food delivery companies to a 2023 law intended to improve pay for delivery workers.
Sept. 22, 2026 — With support from a $3.7 million GO Virginia grant, George Mason University will establish the Virginia Quantum Hub (VQH) — an inclusive quantum ecosystem, built by public–private partnerships, that generates intellectual property across research and technology, attracts capital investments, trains a highly skilled workforce, and addresses global innovation needs, from health and logistics to national security and energy sectors.
A George Mason physics PhD student uses a microscope to probe nanoelectronic devices. The university launched the first master’s degree in quantum science and engineering in the commonwealth earlier this year. Photo credit: George Mason University.
“The Virginia Quantum Hub at George Mason positions the Commonwealth of Virginia at the forefront of this cutting-edge technology that will drive investment and economic opportunity in the decades to come,” said Governor Abigail Spanberger. “As home to the first open-architecture quantum computing system in the National Capital Region, this is exactly the kind of public–private partnership that keeps Virginia first. The collaboration among higher education, GO Virginia, the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC), and many other critical public and private partners also represents game-changing capacity building for our innovation ecosystem.”
To scale partnerships already underway, George Mason has been approved for the GO Virginia grant, pending final award, to expand K–12 education and employer training programs, technical infrastructure deployment, lab buildout, and collaborative partnership operations.
In addition to current research investments, laboratories, and K–12 and higher education programs and training, George Mason partnered with Oxford, England-based TreQ to bring the first open-architecture quantum computing system to the state. TreQ has completed the system design and will deploy and operate the built-to-evolve quantum computing infrastructure, collaborating with George Mason to connect Virginia and the region with companies and innovators across the global quantum technology ecosystem.
“George Mason is not waiting for the quantum future — we are building it, responsibly and accessibly, with industry and government. By anchoring the Virginia Quantum Hub here, we are turning the commonwealth’s research strength and our region’s talent into jobs, new businesses, and opportunity for real change and impact,” said George Mason President Gregory Washington. “We are building a quantum ecosystem for the nation, which is open to the world. With the catalytic help from the GO Virginia grant, this is how a public university helps an entire region lead the future.”
With the new VQH, George Mason will organize a fast-moving ecosystem around Northern Virginia’s distinctive combination of assets — federal demand, defense and cybersecurity, cloud and data infrastructure, advanced computing, industry, research universities, and deep technical talent — to help drive the developing future of quantum.
“This hub provides access to the hardware and advanced research to empower a workforce to fuel the quantum economy,” said College of Science Dean Cody Edwards, who will deliver a keynote at Thursday’s Quantum World Congress. “We start with bold solutions to create a better world for everyone — not a search for quantum-shaped answers. Strong ecosystems don’t depend on any one dominant part; their strength comes from the interactions among talent, infrastructure, capital, research, industry, and government.”
“At the College of Engineering and Computing, quantum is not a single discipline—it is where computing, engineering, and science converge,” said Ken Ball, dean of George Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing. “Our strength lies in preparing students and researchers to work across that entire continuum, from quantum algorithms and software to the systems and technologies that make quantum computing possible while we prepare our graduates for the workforce of the future.”
George Mason will work with founding partners and strategic investors — including the VIPC, Connected DMV, TreQ, Leidos, Aliro Quantum, Boeing, Booz Allen, MITRE, IonQ, Marymount University, Northern Virginia Community College, and others to be announced — to deliver on three reinforcing pillars:
Open-architecture quantum hardware and shared infrastructure: Dual-use open infrastructure operated by George Mason — a cryogenic lab, a quantum optics facility, and one of the only TreQ-designed open-architecture quantum computers in the United States — for technology innovation.
World-class quantum workforce programs: A four-tier pipeline including middle school, high school, and community-college partner programs, quantum-related professional education, internships, and a new master’s degree program with hands-on access to the accessible hardware. With 80 to 85% of George Mason graduates staying to work in Virginia and the region, this talent pipeline is positioned to meet the region’s workforce needs both now and as they expand in the future.
Collaborative technology innovation: An industry–government–academia partnership program that builds critical educational programs, drives collaborative technology development, and coordinates the growth of Virginia’s quantum ecosystem.
“The quantum future of the United States requires we empower our citizens, no matter their backgrounds, with the skills needed to lead in the growth of this exciting technology. The VQH accomplishes this by empowering Virginians with a unique hands-on quantum technology training program, de-risking innovation by providing key high-cost infrastructure to the region and working with partners to make Virginia the destination for transformative quantum companies looking to grow,” said Patrick Vora, executive director of George Mason’s Quantum Science and Engineering Center (QSEC).
“The Virginia Quantum Hub gives us an opportunity to move beyond simply accessing cloud-based, black-box quantum computers and instead open the box to study and innovate at deeper layers of the quantum computing stack,” said Weiwen Jiang, QSEC’s codirector. “With open-architecture hardware and shared research infrastructure, our faculty, students, and industry partners can work across the full quantum stack, from applications and software to systems, control, and devices. This kind of infrastructure is essential for training the next generation of quantum engineers and advancing research toward practical quantum applications.”
Several of George Mason’s partners weighed in on this opportunity and moment for the state:
“VIPC is proud to be a founding partner and strategic investor in the Virginia Quantum Hub. Built through public–private partnership, VQH will help grow Virginia’s innovation ecosystem by accelerating research commercialization, growing next-generation talent, and catalyzing company attraction and industry investment in the commonwealth,” said VIPC President and CEO Joe Benevento.
“TreQ is grateful for George Mason’s trust and partnership in building this foundational infrastructure for Virginia’s quantum ecosystem. This region brings together digital infrastructure, national security, research, talent, and the technology industry in a way few places can. That combination is shaping the frontier of computing,” said TreQ CEO and Founder Mandy Birch.
“The Greater Washington region has the computer infrastructure, the research base, and the security-cleared talent that quantum companies need. The Virginia Quantum Hub adds a critical missing piece: Open hardware companies can test on today, paired with a pipeline that keeps four out of five graduates here. For frontier technology companies deciding where to build and scale, the case for Northern Virginia just got stronger,” said George D. Thomas, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority.
The new Virginia Quantum Hub builds on eight years of investment through George Mason’s QSEC, where 24 faculty across seven departments and several colleges have built the university’s research and education foundation in quantum.
A priority within George Mason’s Grand Challenge Initiative, George Mason’s Quantum Leap project is research backed by a new $2.4 million catalyst investment, with six new postdoctoral positions and three new faculty positions.
The university recently launched Virginia’s first interdisciplinary master’s degree in quantum science and engineering and signed an MOU with two of Korea’s leading quantum organizations, extending the hub’s reach to a strong global quantum marketplace.
Tehran appears to have relaxed its preconditions for reopening the strait of Hormuz, saying it is prepared to do so within seven days so long as the US takes reciprocal steps to ease the pressure on Iran.
Previously Iran had set seven onerous pre-conditions for lifting the blockade including “an end to war on all fronts” and a commitment by the US to cease all aggressive actions against Iran including sanctions.
Polo, with sustained winds of 165mph, is churning 215 miles south of Zihuatanejo but is unlikely to directly hit Mexico
A tropical storm off the south-west coast of Mexico has intensified into a category 5 monster in fewer than 24 hours, fueled by stronger than usual El Niño weather patterns in the Pacific Ocean.
Hurricane Polo was sending out maximum sustained winds of 165mph (266km/h) on Tuesday as its center churned about 215 miles (346km) south of the coastal city of Zihuatanejo, in Guerrero state.
Vincent Brown stands accused of aiding in genocide and crimes against humanity during the paroxysm of violence in his native country in 1993, charges he denies.
BOSTON, Sept. 22, 2026 — Zapata Quantum, Inc., a leader in quantum computing algorithm and application development, today announced early access to Quantum Pilot, a hardware-agnostic, cloud-based software platform designed to close a growing gap between rapidly advancing quantum hardware capabilities and enterprises’ ability to determine where and how quantum computing can create business value.
Quantum Pilot builds a dynamic roadmap for enterprises that want to deploy quantum technology but are uncertain which applications are relevant to their business and sector, when those solutions will be practical, and what they could be worth. It gives organizations a systematic way to discover potential applications, weigh their technical and commercial potential, and focus resources on the opportunities with the strongest case for investment. Enterprises can then identify and develop applications without betting on a single quantum modality or provider, and reassess application readiness or change their approach as hardware capabilities and algorithms evolve.
“The critical on-ramp to quantum application development is the efficient and rigorous mapping of use cases to quantum computational solutions,” said Sumit Kapur, CEO of Zapata Quantum. “We built Quantum Pilot to make that on-ramp more accessible to enterprise leaders and ensure that quantum activity becomes a capability that compounds—with each experiment and development effort informing and accelerating the next.”
Delivering Quantum Application Intelligence
Drawing on Zapata’s experience developing quantum algorithms and applications across industries and hardware architectures, Quantum Pilot combines a proprietary knowledge framework with advanced computational tools, including capabilities developed through its collaboration with NVIDIA to apply agentic AI to quantum resource estimation. The platform also builds on Zapata’s collaboration with the University of Maryland on formal methods for quantum software verification.
Together, these capabilities enable Quantum Pilot to deliver Quantum Application Intelligence (QAI)—helping enterprises identify, evaluate and develop quantum applications with scientific rigor and a clear focus on business value. The platform also continuously tracks and updates the global quantum ecosystem’s research, hardware roadmaps and software developments so that application roadmaps are current as the field advances and users are making application decisions based on the latest data.
“Most conversations about quantum readiness focus on the hardware roadmap. That is not where the real risk sits. It sits one layer up, in the applications and software that decide whether the hardware ever produces business value,” said Mark Hill, Chief Digital Information Officer at CSL Behring, a multibillion-dollar global biotech leader, and Advisor to the Company. “Quantum Pilot matters because it forces the harder question enterprises keep avoiding: which applications are worth building now, not just which processor is fastest.”
Quantum Pilot is powered by three complementary systems:
Quantum Graph, a proprietary knowledge layer that connects quantum applications, algorithms, research, and hardware roadmaps, providing structured context for the platform and its AI agents as the field advances.
Quantum Engine, a suite of computational tools and agents that supports algorithm selection, resource estimation, experiment design and hardware benchmarking, helping enterprises assess technical feasibility and guide application development.
Quantum Assurance, a framework that combines formal verification methods with expert review to assess technical results and guide the development process, with Zapata’s scientists helping enterprises interpret evidence and determine next steps.
“Among the things that make Quantum Pilot’s approach to application development distinct is its use of formal verification, rather than after-the-fact validation alone,” said Runzhou Tao, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, and Fellow, Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS). “That’s the same principle we apply in our research with Zapata on verified quantum software, and it addresses a discipline quantum computing has largely developed without.”
Early Access
Quantum Pilot is initially available through an early access program for select enterprise and government customers. Organizations interested in participating can request a demo and learn more at zapataquantum.com/quantumpilot.
About Zapata Quantum
Zapata Quantum is a leading hardware-agnostic, pure-play quantum software company focused on accelerating quantum application development. With a portfolio of more than 60 granted and pending patents developed over seven years, Zapata supports applications across cryptography, pharmaceuticals, finance, materials discovery, defense, and more. Spun out of Harvard’s quantum lab in 2017, the Company is the only organization to have participated across all technical areas of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking program and has worked with Fortune 500 enterprises and government agencies to translate quantum advances into real-world impact. The Company’s study demonstrating the potential of quantum-enabled drug discovery was recognized as one of Nature Biotechnology’s Top 10 Papers of 2025.
The ICE officer who shot a Venezuelan delivery driver was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting, sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News.
(The Center Square) – Three percent of Ohioans on Medicaid were not eligible because they have more resources than allowed, including several millionaires, according to Ohio Auditor Keith Faber.
(The Center Square) — New York is leading a coalition of Northeast states in suing the Trump administration to block agreements with two energy companies that would scrap several offshore wind projects, claiming taxpayer money is being used to pay…
US president may have upstaged the ghost of Soviet leader Khrushchev by musing destruction of fellow member state
Donald Trump has a habit of discomfiting delegates to the United Nations general assembly. But this year, he may have upstaged the ghost of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev by openly contemplating the annihilation of a fellow UN member state.
Eleven minutes into a 40-minute address, the US president announced he had “a big decision to make” over Iran, which has staged a much more determined resistance than Trump anticipated when he decided to go to war against the country in February.
A former maximum-security prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, is now a critical hub in the Trump administration’s immigration detention machine, transforming in just a few months from a facility shuttered for its inhospitable conditions to a privately run jail holding hundreds of immigrants.
This is the story of how — and why — it happened.
The deal had been in motion for more than a year before the Leavenworth City Commission conceded to the controversial project, one that would allow the private-prison operator CoreCivic to reopen its notorious prison and fill it with immigrants. They did so after a protracted battle with the company, one that made them cogs in a vast deportation machine.
“I don’t want them to be in jail,” Leavenworth Mayor Nancy Bauder said of the more than 500 immigrants held at the facility as of August, the last publicly available count. “I think it’s horrendous. My moral objection to this is very strong.”
“They just bought their permit.”
But as the Trump administration and CoreCivic carried out an aggressive campaign to expand the federal detention network, city officials said they concluded they couldn’t afford to fight it. They tried to sue to stop the project, but instead spent more than a quarter-million dollars fighting it in court, draining city funds, before CoreCivic offered a $1.5 million impact payment to reimburse the city’s legal costs and pledged $400,000 a year to the local government.
The Leavenworth facility, for years marred by an ugly history of overcrowding and understaffing, is now the Midwest hub for the mass detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants. Under this hub-and-spoke model, which has gone little noticed by the public even now, ICE moves detainees and staff between smaller facilities — the “spokes,” which include facilities such as regional jails — and a larger facility as a center of operations — the so-called “hub.” Using this model, ICE is able to obscure the scale of its operations and quickly move immigrants through the system, from arrest to detention to fast-tracked deportation flights out of the country.
“Leavenworth’s capacity is going to be that hub in the Midwest, to draw down from Minnesota, Chicago, Indiana, to house all that detention,” Sharma-Crawford said. Two other immigration attorneys who represent clients in the region corroborated the operational pattern through their own clients’ transfers and named additional “spoke” facilities feeding the pipeline.
Using a hub-and-spoke model, ICE is able to obscure the scale of its operations and quickly move immigrants through the system, from arrest to detention to fast-tracked deportation flights.
The Midwest Regional Reception Center, as it’s now known, in Leavenworth is a critical site for the Trump administration, whose promises of 100,000 beds for immigrant detention stalled out at around 66,000 in July and had run into multiple obstacles across the Midwest. In Illinois, a 2021 state law ended immigration detention statewide. Minnesota remained a possible location for a hub, but the process moved slowly; CoreCivic’s shuttered Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton had long sat idle before its recent sale, and ICE needed to get a Midwest hub up and running immediately. Proposed sites were contested one after another: A potential warehouse for up to 10,000 detainees in south Kansas City was killed by community opposition, and facilities were either blocked or contested in Shakopee, Minnesota; Romulus, Michigan; Hudson, Colorado; and McCook, Nebraska. The Midwest’s largest operational ICE detention center, GEO Group’s North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, is geographically isolated, hours from any major airport, and has been mired in controversy over a hunger strike, a death in custody, and hundreds of unlawful detention rulings.
Leavenworth, a town with a corrections history stretching back over a century, seemed to offer the path of least resistance.
“Aggressive and Unlawful”
The City of Leavenworth fought the facility in court for months. CoreCivic countersued, and the Department of Justice intervened on CoreCivic’s side, accusing Leavenworth of “aggressive and unlawful” interference.
In the meantime, the fight threatened to bankrupt the city. Records obtained through the Kansas Open Records Act show the city paid roughly $820,000 in legal fees to Spencer Fane LLP over 12 months, about 6 percent of its general fund. The bill was a drain, but not a death blow. The city’s foremost concern was the takings clause, which allows the government to seize private property for public use, City Manager Scott Peterson said. A state judge had directed CoreCivic to follow the permit process, and if Leavenworth denied the permit, CoreCivic could argue bad faith, claim the city had effectively seized its property, and sue for damages, Peterson said, leaving Leavenworth to choose between greenlighting a facility it opposed or gambling on a lawsuit it might not survive. The alternative, Bauder, the mayor, said, was the federal government acquiring the building, which would eliminate local oversight entirely.
Both the city and county rejected the facility early on, local officials said. Residents protested its reopening and offered impassioned testimony against it at public hearings.
CoreCivic structured the $1.5 million impact payment in part to reimburse the city’s legal costs from the company’s lawsuit. When asked about the arrangement, CoreCivic instead reiterated its promised $1 million one-time impact fee, $250,000 a year to the city, and $150,000 a year to the police department.
Mayor Pro Tem Rebecca Hollister, who cast the sole dissenting vote on the 4-to-1 decision, explained her objection was procedural and understood it had no bearing on the outcome: “It was an inevitability.”
The Hub
On January 14, two months before the vote, CoreCivic detention officer Brittany Williams reached out to city leadership to voice her support of the facility, an unusual move for a rank-and-file corrections officer with no role in the municipal permitting fight. In the email to Assistant City Manager Penny Holler, Williams said the company transferred her to Oklahoma to help open Diamondback, a sister CoreCivic facility. She wrote that she was currently assigned to TransCor America, a private transportation company that contracts with ICE to move detainees around the country, in her case from ICE’s Kansas City, Missouri, field office “to where they are needed to go.” The email, which was entered into the public record before the February 2 hearing on the special use permit, or SUP, to allow the facility to house immigrants, inadvertently revealed ICE’s hub-and-spoke detention model was already in motion in the region, shuffling detainees and staff between facilities and states.
The Leavenworth facility was in a strategically advantageous position to become a new hub for ICE, and Sharma-Crawford, the immigration attorney, said ICE had been eyeing the location since it closed as a federal prison. It sits just 10 miles from Kansas City International Airport, where ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations field office is a six-minute drive away. It also allows ICE to hold detainees at Leavenworth then move them through KCI to staging areas for deportation flights in Louisiana or Texas.
“They want it short, quick,” Sharma-Crawford said. It allows ICE to claim “‘I gave them due process,’” he said, “and they’re out the door.”
“They’re doing this in smaller areas because no one’s paying attention.”
On March 25, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a bond decision holding that anyone who entered the United States without authorization is ineligible for bond, a ruling that covers Missouri, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Iowa, Arkansas, and Minnesota, the states Sharma-Crawford said he expects to feed into Leavenworth. Mandatory detention across those seven states meant the government needed greater capacity from the region’s jails. Genevra Alberti, former chair of the local AILA chapter, whose attorneys represent clients throughout the area, named additional “spokes” in the system: Chase County in Kansas, and Greene, Ste. Genevieve, Phelps, and Ozark counties in Missouri. Enough local jails plus a CoreCivic facility, she said, can hold and process as many people as a mega-detention center.
“It makes sense that they’re doing this in smaller areas, because no one’s paying attention,” Alberti said. “There’s definitely a method to this. They know if they do this in the massive cities, there’s going to be more light shed on what they’re doing.”
A March 3, 2025, photo shows CoreCivic’s Midwest Regional Reception Center, a former federal prison, in Leavenworth, Kansas.Photo: Emily Curiel/The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
In Leavenworth County, the CoreCivic-run ICE detention center is one of five major correctional facilities, which provide a total of roughly 6,000 beds. Up the road, FCI Leavenworth, a federal Bureau of Prisons facility, held ICE detainees in what Alberti called a “black hole” for a full year before the SUP was approved. Last May, the ACLU wrote to the warden documenting limited time outside and no exercise for detainees. Peterson, the city manager, confirmed the federal prison doesn’t answer to the city, and there have been no community relations meetings for more than a year.
The SUP the city approved authorizes “jail or prison” use at the Leavenworth site without restricting it to ICE detention. The concentration of prisons meant the workforce, the infrastructure, and the institutional muscle were already there. Reopening one more facility for ICE required little more than a single municipal approval.
The Immigration Courts
Once their clients are fed into one of the deportation regime’s hubs, immigration attorneys say it’s become an increasingly byzantine process to find them, plan their defenses, and get them out of detention.
Working with clients imprisoned at Leavenworth is chaotic and difficult from the moment they arrive, the attorneys said. To schedule a televideo call the lawyers must email their state bar cards and licenses, and they are subject to automatic, one-hour cutoffs. CoreCivic has repeatedly demanded attorneys file formal representation paperwork before they’ve even met the detainee or agreed to take on the case, Alberti said.
Valerie Sprout, a Kansas City immigration attorney with 15 years of experience, said she wasn’t even able to locate the facility in ICE’s call-scheduling portal.
“We didn’t know how to contact that client,” Sprout said. “We were on our listserv, frantically sharing information, because you have people there that you have no access to.”
Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, rejected these characterizations, saying video visitation calls run in 30- and 60-minute sessions, calls are not automatically cut off, and staff accommodate requests for more time. He said the forms identifying a detainee’s lawyer are standard and a pre-representational visit can occur without one, adding that legal representatives may visit their clients seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Some of the details of the internal dysfunction detainees face only come to light after they’re released. According to Alberti, a former client took over running the laundry for roughly a week because no one was washing detainees’ clothes. She was promised token pay, either a dollar an hour or a dollar a day, but was never paid.
The obstacles extend into the courtroom. Detainees are increasingly given remote, on-camera hearings, never physically appearing before a judge. The Kansas City Immigration Court, part of the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, holds jurisdiction over Leavenworth’s detainee docket. Just six judges, working across three courtrooms and a small pro bono room, carry more than 1,000 cases.
“So far, I haven’t seen any of them in person,” Alberti said of the judges, which she said makes it more difficult to tell how they’re weighing cases.
Sprout, who is also a board member of Asylum Clinic Kansas City, has witnessed the shift to teleconferenced hearings firsthand.
“All detained cases are over video. No detained cases are in-person, which I feel is just an incredible violation of due process, especially in asylum cases, because the threshold issue in every asylum case is to determine whether the respondent is credible,” she said.
Aracely Mendoza protests against deportations outside federal Immigration Court in Kansas City, Mo., on May 27, 2025.Photo: Eric Adler/The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Former prosecutors and military lawyers preside over the hearings. Allan F. John-Baptiste, a former Bureau of Prisons lawyer, was appointed during the first Trump administration. Jared Grimmer, a former Air Force judge advocate general, accepted a temporary appointment in October 2025. Katherine Estes ran military personnel law at the Pentagon. Scott Ison is a local-level Missouri prosecutor. After the Trump administration fired or pushed out more than 100 judges last year, none of the newly appointed Kansas City judges have a background in immigration law, according to the official bios provided in a DOJ press release announcing their appointments.
Created in the wake of 9/11 and historically invoked only sparingly, the EOIR-43 automatic stay allows the government to override an immigration judge’s bond order without review or appeal. Records obtained by Documented through a records request show the Department of Homeland Security used it 877 times over a three-month period in mid-2025. Faced with these stays, Alberti has filed two federal habeas corpus petitions for clients at CoreCivic Leavenworth. The first was for a young woman with a pending petition for legal status as a victim of crime and no criminal history who entered the country as a baby; she was released after roughly two weeks. As of this spring, the second remained in detention.
Another recent petition put the conditions themselves before a federal judge. Katsiaryna Bartko, a Belarusian asylum-seeker detained at Leavenworth, filed a pro se petition in August over her medical care. In an order appointing her counsel, U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree found she brought “a viable deprivation-of-medical-care” claim and noted it was undisputed that her recent test results showed worsening thyroid levels. Bartko, who depends on hormone medication after surgery for thyroid cancer, had not seen a specialist since her transfer, according to court filings. CoreCivic and ICE dispute she was denied appropriate medical care. After a fourth hospitalization and 106 days in ICE in custody, she was released on recognizance on September 16.
One of Alberti’s clients, who was detained at Leavenworth but has now been released, told her that guards and ICE officers sometimes asked her to act as an interpreter for other detainees without pay. No one on staff spoke Spanish, the client told Alberti, and when officers needed to communicate, they relied on a translation app rather than a live interpreter.
Gustin, the CoreCivic spokesperson, said in a statement to The Intercept that “any claim that a detainee is required to translate for staff communication is false” and that the facility uses a contracted translation service with a live translator reached through devices, computers, and phones.
About six weeks after the facility began accepting detainees in May, Sharma-Crawford reported at the first community oversight committee meeting that detainees did not have access to their own charging documents. Without them, he said, the lawyers weren’t able to formulate a defense for their clients.
When asked about that allegation by The Intercept, Gustin said that concern involved a single detainee whose documents were provided upon request. He also said detainees keep their charging documents with them from the time they arrive and any suggestion to the contrary was “false.”
But for those who’ve been made party to the system, the situation has begun to feel intractable.
“We cannot stop the federal government from incarcerating these people,” Bauder, the mayor, had said. “We can’t stop them, but we can try to make it better for them here.”
The community’s only check on CoreCivic was the CoreCivic Community Relations Advisory Board, required as a condition of the special use permit. But while the board streamed their meetings publicly, it existed in a purely advisory capacity, Peterson, the city manager, said. Enforcement power lay with the city, not the board, and to act on any issues it flagged, the city of Leavenworth would have to sue.
On the city’s working relationship with CoreCivic in the first weeks, Peterson said, “For now, things are great,” before adding, “How long is this sustainable? How long does it go?”
Foreclosing on the Future
With the hub-and-spoke model, the Trump administration planned for mega-detention centers with 7,500 to 10,000 beds as the hubs, but the 1,033-bed Leavenworth facility became a hub at a fraction of the size, inviting far less scrutiny than a mega-center would. Its reopening spurred community mobilization, but not the same national level of fanfare or resistance — as was the case with “Alligator Alcatraz,” the now-shuttered detention center in the Florida Everglades — which has worked in the Trump administration’s favor.
“DHS has taken a two-pronged approach to this,” Peterson said. “They are both contracting with private organizations like CoreCivic and GEO Group to manage their detention population, but then they are also just directly acquiring properties to manage themselves.”
The administration’s mass deportation agenda has remained paramount despite its growing unpopularity with the American public. The Leavenworth location had been a federal priority from the start, identified in ACLU Freedom of Information Act disclosures alongside other proposed reopenings. It was named in ICE’s emergency justification as one of three publicly identified among nine no-bid detention contracts. It was selected for its central location within ICE’s Chicago area of operations. With warehouse acquisitions stalled, Leavenworth, the Midwest regional hub, may represent the Trump administration’s new default model when ambitious, public-facing expansions become too politically or financially costly to defend.
In July, CoreCivic’s sold two of its largest California facilities, Otay Mesa and California City, to DHS for $1.5 billion. The company will continue operating both and plans to sell off more jails. Under this hybrid arrangement, federal ownership can put facilities beyond the reach of many state and local regulations, limiting outside scrutiny even as courts test its limits.
In August, CoreCivic sold Leavenworth’s Midwest Regional Reception Center to the U.S. government for $238 million.
Last month, the pattern played out again. On August 4, CoreCivic announced the sale of the shuttered Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minnesota. The following day, in a second press release, it announced the $238 million sale of Leavenworth’s Midwest Regional Reception Center, recasting both as a single $734 million deal. Under the arrangement, the company expects to keep operating both facilities through their existing ICE contracts.
At Leavenworth, the contract expires in September 2027. City officials learned of the sale the morning the news broke and were notified by CoreCivic rather than the federal government, raising questions as to whether its permit and oversight conditions would survive federal ownership. Even as these sales closed, CoreCivic said it had opened preliminary discussions with ICE about selling still other facilities.
Rep. Gwen Moore, a Wisconsin Democrat who toured the facility on September 9 to meet with two detained constituents, said it was under active construction to add capacity, telling reporters “everywhere we went, they were building.” A DHS spokesperson confirmed the agency acquired Leavenworth and the Appleton facility to create additional detention space.
Alberti sees these actions as the administration waging a “war of attrition” on immigrants, their families, and their advocates.
Leavenworth fought this outcome through every channel available to a local government — in the courts, at the commission, through public protests, and in open hearings packed with residents. Nevertheless, CoreCivic and DHS jammed the approval through. Once the facility was operational, the federal government purchased the building outright, severing the meager leverage the city extracted as the price of its consent. In May, DHS quietly disbanded its own internal detention oversight office after a funding lapse, leaving no federal watchdog to fill the void. Rebranded as an expansion of ICE’s immigration capacity, this series of federal acquisitions represents the quiet desecration of the public trust. More troubling still is the notion that across America, other Leavenworths may still be unaccounted for and effectively shielded from the public’s knowledge or scrutiny. Without the tools to meaningfully oppose the expansion of Trump’s anti-immigrant regime, communities are left without recourse, making them nodes of a vast, and violent, machine.
(The Center Square) – Fraud concerns rank among the top issues for Minnesota voters in a new poll, trailing only inflation and the cost of living as the midterm elections draw near.
US president says Burnham will be ‘a great PM’ in friendly first meeting on the sidelines of UN General Assembly but makes jibe at Starmer
If Andy Burnham wanted to inject some edge into his meeting with Donald Trump later (which he doesn’t), he could bring along a copy of today’s Financial Times. This front page headline speaks for itself.
Mortgages ‘on the front line’ as Iran war deals £840 blow to homeowners
British homeowners are paying an average of £840 a year more when they refinance their mortgages, as the rising borrowing costs triggered by the Iran war start to impact consumers’ spending power.
Approximately 1m households have rolled off fixed-rate mortgage deals since February, according to Bank of England data.
Wilber Garcés Pérez has been transferred to a hospital after his condition worsened, according to his attorney. He was shot and wounded by an ICE officer in Texas.
Lian Yunzhi solves 3x3 puzzle on several occasions in average time of under 4.5 seconds, according to state media
A six-year-old Chinese girl has set a new women’s world record for solving a Rubik’s Cube in just over four seconds, state media reported.
“Speedcuber” Lian Yunzhi broke the women’s 3x3 average world record twice this month at two World Cube Association certified competitions in Wuhan and Guangzhou, according to state broadcaster CCTV on Monday.
US president says British PM has a ‘lot of assets on his side’ as pair meet at UN in New York
Donald Trump has praised Andy Burnham as a “natural businessperson” and said the UK was “more up” than under Keir Starmer. But he berated the UK for its decision to give up the Chagos Islands.
In their first face-to-face meeting, Trump gave a warm assessment of the relationship, saying he thought Burnham had a “lot of assets on his side” and would be a “great prime minister”, adding: “We talked about everything from Rolls-Royce to energy to immigration – we covered a lot.”
Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman delisted in what Ireland’s EU presidency calls ‘a difficult compromise’ for the bloc
The EU has agreed to remove two Russian billionaires, Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, from its sanctions list, while extending restrictions on nearly 3,000 individuals and companies accused of supporting the war on Ukraine for the next three years.
With an end-of-Tuesday deadline looming to preserve the Russia blacklist, the EU’s 27 member states found a compromise that meant delisting the two oligarchs in spite of very few countries wanting this outcome. EU sanctions have to be approved unanimously.
Flickering got me frustrated and I’m hoping you can help. It doesn’t look like the booster is sold anymore. Can you post a picture of it so I can see the components? TiA!
The movie Coyote vs. Acme earned more than Warner Bros.' $30 million tax write-off in just two weeks. And last week the movie officially earned more than its production budget of $70 million. But today the movie passed the $100 million mark. "You asked for it, we delivered, and you showed up!" distributor Ketchup Entertainment posted on social media (adding "Thank you to the fans for making this a massive hit!")
With a break-even number of $120 million, the movie "will probably make up any theatrical deficit (should there be any) with its impending releases on video on demand and streaming," writes ScreenRant. Almost three years after the completed film was initially shelved for a $30 million write-off, its
cumulative domestic box office has apparently even beat Warner Bros. dinosaur movie The End of Oak Street:
In addition to officially joining the chart of the Top 30 movies of the year so far at the domestic box office, by surpassing The End of Oak Street, Coyote vs. Acme has outgrossed five of the eight movies that Warner Bros. has put out in domestic theaters this year.... [It's just $17.6 million behind Supergirl, and within $30 million of Mortal Kombat II and Wuthering Heights.] Their anticipated sci-fi sequel Dune: Part Three also seems guaranteed to land higher than 2026's Coyote vs. Acme on the chart (2021's Dune earned $108.9 million in domestic theaters, while Dune: Part Two earned $282.1 million).
With its a small marketing budget of just $10 million, the movie seems to be relying on
oddball marketing stunts like their AMA on Reddit's r/movies. And commemorating the spirit of the movie, Crayon-maker Crayola even released a special "Coyote Secret Plan" web page for children to print and color — and partnered with the film's stars for a video on the importance of creativity:
Lana Condor: Crayola is all about encouraging kids and grown-ups to turn imagination into action.
Will Forte: Which is exactly what Coyote does in Coyote versus Acme. He sees a problem and thinks, "Could this be solved with a rocket, a catapult, or a suspiciously affordable mail order anvil?"
Lana Condor: Usually no.
Will Forte: Usually very no.
In 2015, while an engineering group leader at STMicroelectronics, Philippe Notton grew enthusiastic about reviving European efforts to develop homegrown CPUs. In 2017 he joined Atos and led efforts to found the European Processor Initiative (EPI), then in 2019 spun off new company SiPearl with EU support and an ARM-based strategy. Fast forward to today: Europe’s first exascale supercomputer, JUPITER at the German national HPC center in Juelich, will feature SiPearl’s Rhea1 CPUs alongside NVIDIA and AMD accelerators (general availability of Rhea1 is scheduled for the end of 2026). Europe’s second exascale system, named Alice Recoque, will be hosted by CEA/DAM south of Paris and will include CPUs based on the company’s Rhea2 ARM architecture.
We asked Philippe Notton to comment on SiPearl’s strategy and plans, an important element of Europe’s push for digital sovereignty.
HPCwire: First, congratulations on SiPearl’s role in Europe’s first exascale supercomputers.
Philippe Notton: Thank you very much. The vision that led to the creation of the European Processor Initiative consortium became a reality last May when we received the first Rhea1 units in our laboratories.
Philippe Notton, CEO and founder of SiPearl
HPCwire: SiPearl spun out from the European Processor Initiative, an important element of the EU’s ongoing sovereignty initiative for advanced computing that now includes AI and quantum computing along with HPC modeling and simulation. What is the long-term strategy for SiPearl, and where does the company stand along that trajectory today?
Philippe Notton: SiPearl’s strategy is to be a leading player wherever there is a need for sovereign advanced computing—whether in HPC, our original focus, or AI, defense and data centers—by offering a high-performance, energy-efficient alternative to the current market leaders, all of whom are non-European.
Last May, we reached a major milestone in this strategy. First, we fulfilled the mission entrusted to us by Europe: the return of high-end CPU technologies to our continent. This is a first for Europe. We have built the most complex server CPU ever designed in Europe. Furthermore, we are now competing with the market leaders, while also helping to ensure Europe’s digital sovereignty.
Our product is a good one, and it has come at just the right time, both in geopolitical terms and in terms of market demand with the come-back of CPUs.
HPCwire: Today, SiPearl is participating in European procurements with non-European processor vendors such as Nvidia and AMD. But you’re working on a complete hardware solution that combines your CPUs with Axelera’s AI processors, and with Semidynamics to exploit their RISC-V-based ASIC for AI inference. Do you aim to compete on merit at some point with major non-European processor vendors for the leading processor role in European procurements?
Philippe Notton: Absolutely. Sovereignty is a plus, but it is certainly not everything. Our ambition is to be in the running when it comes to computing power and energy efficiency.
HPCwire: Will you eventually compete outside of Europe, where European vendors often face trade barriers?
Philippe Notton: Yes. We are seeing a great deal of interest from outside Europe, in countries that are also looking for an alternative to non-European CPUs.
HPCwire: SiPearl also participates in the AETHER Consortium. What is that about?
Philippe Notton: The AETHER consortium was set-up by 2CRSi, a French specialist in high-performance servers, alongside European semiconductor actors Axelera AI and SiPearl, but also European real estate, construction, services, energy providers and infrastructure operators, to demonstrate that Europe possesses all the expertise required to build, power, operate and scale AI infrastructure. In July, the AETHER consortium announced its application for the European Commission’s forthcoming AI Gigafactory call for proposals.
HPCwire: The sharp rise of frontier AI has elevated the role of CPUs, especially for inferencing. Can you describe this change and what it may mean for SiPearl?
Philippe Notton: The rapid rise of agentic AI, combined with the rising price of GPUs, has reinforced the role of central processing units. This came as a surprise to the market, but it is now a proven fact. In a trend starting just a few months ago, the CPU:GPU ratio is now approaching 1:1 in AI servers. The result: after several years of stagnation, the CPU market is experiencing impressive growth, with longer delivery times and rising prices for the big players.
Thanks to the sharp rise of agentic AI which is set to continue, this is a long-term market trend which will, of course, be very favorable for SiPearl. We arrived at just the right time.
HPCwire: What about additional important roles for CPUs, for example in conjunction with cloud computing, quantum and edge?
Philippe Notton: SiPearl also addresses these markets. As we discussed earlier, agentic AI is a new market, driving new demand for CPUs. But the traditional markets still exist. CPUs are the base engines for HPC, cloud, and enterprise computing. They run workloads directly and orchestrate accelerators and quantum computers.
HPCwire: Rhea2 will be based on chiplets. What are the advantages of that?
Philippe Notton: Later this year we will disclose more information about Rhea2.
HPCwire: What about other emerging trends, such as optical processors and optical I/O?
Philippe Notton: We regularly scout new technologies. Co-packaged optics are maturing quickly and should be in the market by 2030. Our strategy for this will not be to lead the market, but to be a fast follower.
Optical compute needs clarification. Replacing CPUs with optical compute engines will require engineering breakthroughs that we do not envision in the short to midterm. However, matrix multiplication in the optical domain, which could translate to inference acceleration, is expected to be production capable in the next five years.
Our go-to-market today is to partner with accelerators, so we would provide the orchestration layer for companies doing optical inference acceleration.
HPCwire: Talk about plans for the Athena1 dual-use processor?
Philippe Notton: Our new product Athena1 is a customized version of Rhea1 from which we have, in particular, removed the four high bandwidth memory stacks, as these are not required for defense and aerospace, and removing them helps to reduce the cost and size of our product. Discussions are currently under way with major players in the European defense sector. We will keep you posted.
Steve Conway is an HPCwire contributor
HPCwire: Europe seems to want eventually to migrate from ARM to RISC-V. In Recoque you’ll have RISC-V vector accelerators, and as mentioned earlier SiPearl plans to exploit Semidynamics’ RISC-V-based ASIC. How do you see the future of ARM and RISC-V in advanced computing?
Philippe Notton: SiPearl is a server CPU company. Today, for server CPU ISAs there are essentially two choices: x86 (Intel, AMD) or Arm (SiPearl, Nvidia, Fujitsu, Ampere, hyperscalers—the majority of newer server CPU solutions. The choice of ISA is governed by the software ecosystem. There are many software elements, both open source and private, that must be ported to an ISA in order for the ISA to be viable as a server CPU.
RISC-V is a popular, relatively new ISA that is rapidly gaining market share in IOT and embedded CPU markets. Many of the AI accelerator companies build on RISC-V. SiPearl builds ARM-based CPUs and we interface to partner companies building accelerators, many of which are built on the RISC-V ISA.
Most folks in the industry agree that RISC-V will become viable for server CPUs, although the timeframe is in debate. We keep a technology watch on RISC-V solutions, and from our perspective it is unlikely that we will see mainstream adoption of RISC-V server CPUs by 2030.
HPCwire: Thank you for this update and congratulations on SiPearl’s momentum.
Reza Valizadeh, a U.S.-Iranian dual citizen and former journalist for U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Farda, has been imprisoned in Iran since September 2024.
President chided Kaitlan Collins for asking him question at UN after White House ban on CNN, MS Now and Politico
Donald Trump has scolded a CNN anchor for covering him at the UN in New York after banning the network and two other media outlets from the White House.
Kaitlan Collins asked the US president on Tuesday when the Iran war would end, citing a poll that claims two-thirds of Americans don’t think the US is winning.
Donald Trump has called on nations to unite to isolate Tehran and bring down global energy prices, as he gave a bellicose defence of his administration’s foreign policy and decision to strike Iran.
“I call on all nations to help to enforce the complete economic isolation of Iran,” Trump said in a speech to the UN general assembly on Tuesday. “If we stand united, we will soon see a world free of the last 51-year menace of Iranian terror … and oil prices will come plummeting down even lower than they were at the start of the conflict.”
Patrick Clancy sat down with 60 Minutes in New York City for a lengthy conversation about his ex-wife Lindsay Clancy's struggles with mental health, his grief and the social media frenzy surrounding him.
Agreement signed at the UN general assembly in New York
Nordic correspondent
Emotions among Greenlanders are a mixture of hope, scepticism and fear ahead of the signing of a new much vaunted deal on Arctic security between the US, Greenland and Denmark.
“There have been many different reactions in Greenland because they are talking about a deal but no one can see the deal, we don’t know what it is all about, and what’s in it for us or what’s in it. Also, because we have been terrorised as a people for the last 1.5 years by the American president, so many people feel no trust at all.”
Officials say one pilot safely ejected as F-16 believed to have crashed on approach to Spangdahlem after training drill
An F-16 fighter jet assigned to the US air base Spangdahlem in western Germany crashed on Tuesday, the US military said, adding that one pilot had ejected safely and was receiving medical treatment.
The cause of the incident is under investigation, the military said in a statement, with emergency response personnel at the scene of the crash.
An autopsy by the Greenville County Coroner's Office determined Hayden Panettiere's death was due to an accidental overdose of several drugs, including fentanyl.
The Justice Department has filed lawsuits against 30 states and the District of Columbia in an effort to force them to hand over their unredacted voter rolls containing voters' sensitive information.
Combination of Miuccia Prada with Belgian designer Raf Simons once again spins gold for fashion house
Miuccia Prada’s style formula is simple: begin with a great skirt. Her personal uniform is a knee-length skirt, A-line or pleated, most often with a plain sweater and kitten heels.
The Prada collection that opened Milan fashion week made a compelling case for her favourite outfit, with a skirt the star of every one of the 63 looks – no dresses, no trousers. It won the room over, so expect to see the personality skirt on a high street near you soon.
The US president spoke about the war with Iran during the UN general assembly on Tuesday, threatening to 'annihilate' the country and 'drive them into hell' if the regime didn’t agree to a deal with the United States
Disclosure: this is BEGODE’s manufacturer account. This is a writing suggestion, not a board recommendation.
For a single-wheel-board review, three short sections can make an impression easier to interpret:
Context: what kind of riding you actually did, and your previous experience.
Observation: what you noticed during that ride, without guessing at the internal cause.
Preference: what you liked or disliked, clearly marked as your experience.
For example, “I felt less comfortable on this section” reports an experience. “This design is unsafe” is a much broader conclusion that the sentence has not established. Neither a positive nor a negative impression needs to be presented as a laboratory result.
This format leaves room for honest opinions while showing readers what the review does—and does not—support.
Trump threatens to ‘annihilate’ Iran and ‘drive them into Hell’ if there isn’t a deal, while also underscoring US policy on Cuba, Mexico, Greenland and AI
After very brief doorstep comments – almost exclusively mocking CNN - he answers a reporter’s very loud question by saying his message to Putin is: “settle the war.”
GOP Sen. John Curtis of Utah asked a Senate panel to subpoena Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden for testimony as part of a probe into the "use of presidential family relationships" for private financial benefit.
Wells, an 18-year-old Black man, died during a boat trip in July. The case sparked concern that Mississippi authorities did not do enough to investigate the case.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah is calling for a Senate investigation into Donald Trump Jr.’s foreign relationships and gifts after reporting that a Russian oligarch helped finance celebrations surrounding his May wedding.
Curtis asked Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and ranking Democrat Dick Durbin to subpoena both Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden as part of a broader inquiry into whether presidential relatives have benefited financially from their family connections.
The request follows a ProPublica investigation reporting that Umar Kremlev, a Russian boxing official with ties to President Vladimir Putin, helped pay for a private-island venue and fireworks connected to Trump Jr.’s wedding to Bettina Anderson in the Bahamas. President Donald Trump has said his son told him the money would be reimbursed.
Curtis argued that Republicans should apply the same scrutiny to Trump Jr. that they previously applied to Hunter Biden. “A toaster is a wedding gift,” Curtis wrote on social media. “A private-island party paid for by a Putin-connected oligarch is something else.”
Curtis is seeking testimony about business dealings, foreign relationships, gifts and any instances in which access to a president was understood to provide value. He has not alleged that Trump Jr. committed a crime.
ICE watchers across the country who watched federal agents shoot people in the streets and fought to drive ICE from their cities are turning their new skills against the next authoritarian threat from the Trump administration: election interference.
Volunteers who showed up a few months ago asking, “Where do I buy a whistle?” are now trained and committed members of an “ICE Watch” movement, said Zach Mueller, whose anti-authoritarian group States at the Core started hosting trainings earlier this year. “They’re not in the normal cast of characters that have been showing up to rallies over the last several decades,” said Mueller. Now, they’re planning to fan out to their local polling places and defend their neighbors’ rights to vote.
The ICE-watchers-turned-poll-watchers are preparing for the worst despite a temporary win the voting rights movement secured last week, when the Supreme Court upheld a decision to block a Trump administration rule that would have let the U.S. Postal Service refuse to deliver ballots from states that don’t share their voter rolls with the federal government, among other new constraints, which advocates warned would lead to chaos and uncounted votes. While that plan was foiled for the midterms, other electoral threats abound.
“There are 100 different scenarios that you can run through,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible. “Could be ICE at the polls, could be Trump getting every Republican to swear to sabotage the results … Could be something after the fact, seizing ballot boxes or refusing to acknowledge the results. Who knows?”
What is clear, Levin said, is, “If you think that some Democratic politician is going to have some neat trick in the back pocket that they going to pull when it happens, you’ve got another thing coming.”
Federal interference at the polls is illegal. Despite lawsuits seeking to block federal immigration officers from poll sites, administration officials have continued to threaten their presence anyway. Earlier this month, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that immigration agents could be deployed at polling places if there is a “threat” or if they’re serving a warrant. And President Donald Trump has previously said that federal agents and the National Guard could be sent to polling locations.
Levin’s organization, which co-sponsors the No Kings protests, has launched “election protection” training programs to help people prepare to mobilize for different election sabotage scenarios, including federal immigration agents at the polls, and Mueller’s group has expanded its trainings to include election protection trainings known as “Beyond ICE Watch.”
“Ultimately this is going to come down to: Do you have a sufficient number of people organized and prepared to push back when shit hits the fan, or don’t you?” said Levin.
“The only thing that has changed anything over the last 22 months has been normal, everyday people deciding they weren’t going to put up with this shit.”
In the past two years, Levin said, an elite class composed of “media and business and law firms and universities” and parts of the Democratic establishment, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have capitulated to the authoritarian whims of the Trump administration.
“The only thing that has changed anything over the last 22 months has been normal, everyday people deciding they weren’t going to put up with this shit,” said Levin. “They organized, they reached out, they formed communities, and they pushed back.”
Last year, the Save America Movement, a nonprofit political and pro-democracy organization that rose up in opposition to Trump, launched “liberty vans” in Los Angeles.
The vehicles are staffed with organizers trained in documenting and deescalating violence from federal law enforcement agents. “Our perspective was that if everybody in America knew what it felt like to be in Los Angeles during that summer, nobody would be OK with this,” said Mary Corcoran, who serves as the group’s executive director.
The project later expanded to other cities including Chicago, Charlotte, and Minneapolis.
“ICE is a new X factor in this election.”
Now, Corcoran plans to deploy a similar strategy in battleground states. The group is working with major civil and labor rights figures like Rev. Al Sharpton and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten to send volunteers — including trusted community leaders like clergy members — trained in deescalation, documentation, and local voting laws to precincts with large Black, Latino, and Asian populations in North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, and Michigan.
Corcoran said the precincts they chose are all electoral power centers with large minority and immigrant populations. “If they were successful in intimidating even 10 percent of those voters from coming back this midterm cycle, it could easily swing the outcome statewide,” she said.
Corcoran is hopeful that people knowing they will not be alone at the polls will help them feel safer, but she acknowledges that this election cycle will be a new test. “Voter intimidation has always been around,” she said. “But ICE is a new X factor in this election.”
For the NAACP, voter intimidation is a familiar threat, even if the players have changed, explained Dominik Whitehead, the group’s head of membership. “Much of this we’ve seen before,” said Whitehead. In Georgia and other battleground states in 2024, there were at least 227 bomb threats targeting polling locations and election-related offices, many of them in Black precincts.
The NAACP is “going to defend democracy and ensure voters have access to the ballot box, as we have done for the last 117 years,” said Whitehead. But like Corcoran, he acknowledges that these are “different times.”
ICE has “no jurisdiction” to prevent anyone from voting, something the NAACP has been including in their messaging to voters, he said. However, Whitehead said that they’re still anticipating the agency’s presence. He said the NAACP is “working closely with immigrant organizations” and focusing their election monitoring efforts in places like Michigan, Florida, and Texas, where they expect threats against Muslim, Latino, and Black Caribbean immigrant communities.
Voting by mail has already begun in several key states, including Alabama, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. For Mueller and States at the Core, the real test will come after Election Day.
“There is a real question mark in my mind about what is the reaction from the authoritarian movement to this election,” said Mueller. “And it’s worth thinking more about how folks are planning, not just for the lead-up version to this, but what happens on November 4th and afterwards.”
The Trump administration’s attacks on mail-in voting, for example, will likely become an issue again. Concurring with the Supreme Court’s decision to stop the new rule, Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested that his issue with the new rule was its timing.
The US president remarked on CNN's presence at the UN general assembly on Tuesday, telling reporters he was 'surprised' the news network was covering him and that it 'shouldn't be here' after he banned the outlet along with MS Now and Politico from the White House last week
Hayden Panettiere, the former child actress who starred in TV shows “Heroes” and “Nashville,” died from an accidental fentanyl overdose, according to a South Carolina coroner’s office.
The rising cost of servicing the UK national debt pushed up borrowing last month, while oil is dropping, and M&G holds Bond Vigilantes Forum in London
How much ‘headroom’ might John Healey still have to keep within the government’s fiscal rules?
That’s the question dogging Westminster and the City.
“The chancellor has probably lost about half the headroom he inherited, leaving it between £10bn to £15bn. As long as the headroom is in double figures, he will probably be able to avoid topping it up, but the drop in headroom means any additional day-to-day spending, such as on defence or cost of living, will have to be paid for by higher taxes.
“What’s more, if the recent rise in energy prices is sustained through the next few months, household energy bills could rise by another 25% in January, which would take them above the level that the previous government capped them at. That would only further increase the pressure to act on cost of living by temporarily subsiding energy bills.
“The PM and chancellor will be feeling quite claustrophobic today as the walls close in around them. Borrowing costs keep climbing, while borrowing itself is outpacing the teeny rise in tax receipts.
Everyone can diagnose the problem, but it’s far from clear that a PM who swept to power promising good things for all is capable of holding a fractious Labour party together to carry out the tough work needed.”
Jake and Logan Paul were invited to give a motivational speech. Just don’t let them get involved with military policy
We’re now approaching month seven of a war against Iran that Donald Trump repeatedly assured us would be over in a matter of weeks. Prices are rising, troop morale is plummeting, and there is little evidence things will improve.
The situation is so desperate that the decision makers at the Pentagon have decided to bring out the big guns. I’m not talking about nuclear weapons, although Trump recently threatened to “blow the entire nation [of Iran] up”. No, I’m talking about influencers Jake and Logan Paul, who are famous for doing idiotic stunts on YouTube and getting hit in the face during boxing matches. Last Thursday, Pete Hegseth’s Department of Defense or whatever they’re calling it these days (the Department of War Crimes?) welcomed the Paul brothers to Washington DC “to meet with our warriors” and deliver a motivational speech.In response, former Republican congressman and air force officer Adam Kinzinger wrote, “We aren’t a serious country at the moment.” That about sums it up.
Exclusive: Nearly half of survey respondents aged 16-24 have experienced violence on the internet, with many saying their complaints were not taken seriously
When Jane* learned that intimate photos of her had been posted on a website without her consent, she expected the police would help her. Instead, she was warned that researching where her photos had been shared might put her at risk of breaking the law.
After she was handed a leaflet on internet safety and told to go to tech companies for help, but to expect little from them, the case was closed.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive Democratic congresswoman, has refused to rule out a potential run against the party’s Senate leader Chuck Schumer amid mounting speculation around her political ambitions.
When asked by the New York Times whether she would challenge Schumer in 2028, when his current term is up, Ocasio-Cortez declined to exclude the possibility – even if Democrats win back the Senate majority.
Tribal leaders and organizers return to reservation 10 years after demonstrations against Dakota Access pipeline
Ten years after major demonstrations against the Dakota Access pipeline, tribal leaders and Native American organizers returned to the Standing Rock Sioux reservation this week to honor the movement and its lasting impacts.
In the rural reservation area of Fort Yates, a four-day encampment that centered on the phrase “mní wičóni” – “water is life” – brought together about 150 tribal members and allies for meals, drum circles, sacred ceremonies and memorials.
A Republican senator has accused Donald Trump Jr of corruption and demanded a Senate investigation into revelations that a Russian oligarch bankrolled part of his recent wedding in the Bahamas.
John Curtis, of Utah, wrote to the leaders of the US Senate judiciary committee on Tuesday, urging them to subpoena Trump Jr over his business dealings, his relationships with foreign individuals, gifts he has received – and any occasions where his connection to his father, Donald Trump, “was invoked or understood to provide value”.
Brother-in-law went to check on Nicholas Brandram at his home and found him unresponsive, coroner says
The man who was arrested on suspicion of being the so-called “Putney pusher” was found dead at his home after missing a family meal, an inquest has heard.
Nicholas Brandram, 44, was arrested in June in connection with an incident on Putney Bridge on 5 May 2017 in which a jogger shoved a woman headfirst into the path of an oncoming bus.
Brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, says ‘accuracy is important’ as he responds to broadcaster’s threat to sue over claims made in memoir
Earl Spencer has apologised to Piers Morgan for incorrectly claiming in his new book about Diana, Princess of Wales, that the former tabloid editor was behind the publication of intrusive photos of the late royal in the mid-1990s.
Morgan had earlier threatened to sue Spencer over “fabricated inaccuracies” and “examples of brazen falsity” in the book, which was published today.
Some of continent’s biggest pharma firms write to national leaders calling for action to safeguard their futures
Some of Europe’s biggest pharmaceutical companies have said the continent is “losing ground” to rivals including the US and China in developing new drugs and attracting investment.
The chairs of nine companies, including Britain’s AstraZeneca, GSK and Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, wrote to Andy Burnham and the national leaders of other European countries on Tuesday to call for action to “safeguard our companies’ future”.
(The Center Square) – Republican Illinois attorney general candidate Bob Fioretti said the U.S. Postal Service should have authority to establish uniform requirements for handling mail-in ballots, while Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raoul has challenged the federal rule in court.
Alongside warnings about its ability to destroy humanity, artificial intelligence is also hailed for its potential to revolutionise health treatment. Just how far can it take us?
Her name was June. June would be the last month she ever knew.
I remember the way her bed made her so small, swallowed her up in the middle of the room, turned as it was to face the window. With her liver failing, her skin was a ghostly apricot. June – I called her Nan – had been stalked by the king of terrors, the emperor of all maladies: cancer. That son of a bitch.
The former UK deputy prime minister is a board member of the UK-based company and owns 917,000 shares
Nick Clegg could make approximately $40m (£30m) from the planned float of Nscale as the UK-based datacentre company prepares for a US stock market listing.
The former UK deputy prime minister owns more than 917,000 shares in the startup, which is reportedly seeking a valuation of up to $35bn in a flotation. Based on Clegg’s stake of 0.12%, that could yield a valuation of about $42m for the ex-Liberal Democrat party leader.
Jury report says ‘no credible evidence’ points to criminal conduct related to death of Mississippi teen after boat outing with friends on 4 July
A grand jury made a unanimous decision late Monday night to not bring criminal charges against anyone in the mysterious death of Nolan Wells, a Mississippi teen who died after a boat outing with friends on 4 July.
The Jackson county, Mississippi grand jury, which met from 14 September to 18 September, issued 132 subpoenas during its investigation, considered evidence from 43 witnesses and investigators, and reviewed an independent investigation by Wells’ family. They also considered physical and digital evidence, including mobile phone data and forensic reports, photographs, videos and GPS data.
The hoard, buried south of Cologne in the second century AD, is the biggest coin treasure ever found in Germany from the time of Hadrian
An amateur archaeologist who discovered several Roman silver coins in a field in western Germany realised he had stumbled upon something much bigger when his metal detector kept beeping.
Oliver Riedl called the authorities for help and a group of experts who began digging immediately discovered a total of 934 Roman silver denarii. It is the biggest coin treasure ever found in Germany from the time of the Roman emperor Hadrian, the local office in charge of archaeological monuments said on Tuesday.
South Carolina medical examiner says ‘no signs of trauma’ and ‘the manner of death has been ruled accident’
Hayden Panettiere died from a fentanyl overdose, according to the Greenville county coroner’s office.
Medical examiners in South Carolina confirmed the 36-year old actor’s cause of death on Tuesday, saying: “The cause of death has been ruled as toxic effects of fentanyl, 4-ANPP, Alprazolam, Methocarbamol and Quetiapine.”
Sept. 22, 2026 — SiPearl, the fabless designer of European high-performance energy-efficient CPUs built for sovereign supercomputing, AI and data center, has delivered the first samples of Rhea1 to Bull, a leader in advanced computing and AI. This turning point marks a major milestone. It illustrates Europe’s success in asserting its technological sovereignty in advanced computing and AI, as Rhea1 will become the first European-designed CPU deployed in a European-built platform.
Credit: Bull and SiPearl
Bull has begun integration of Rhea 1 onto its BullSequana XH3000 platform for JUPITER, Europe’s first exascale supercomputer. Procured by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, JUPITER is hosted at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany. This milestone will contribute to the development of JUPITER’s CPU blade, complementary to the GPU partition, paving the way for the full modular integration of the machine.
Most complex server CPU ever designed in Europe, Rhea1 includes in a single package 80 Arm Neoverse V1 cores – each with 2 x 256-bit Scalable Vector Extension, 4 stacks of HBM and 4 DDR5 interfaces. Thanks to these key features, Rhea1 is ideally suited to the most demanding HPC workloads whilst offering back-door free and kill switch free security, energy-efficiency and flexibility. During the ongoing benchmarking phases at SiPearl’s laboratories, Rhea1 is delivering very encouraging performance: the early data is strong, and in some cases, performance is exceeding expectations. The performance figures, which are still to be consolidated, will be published this autumn. The equipment supplied for JUPITER represents SiPearl’s first order for Rhea1 and therefore constitutes its first significant revenue.
From dramatically improving extreme weather forecasts to accelerating breakthroughs in climate science, sustainable energy, AI, quantum research, and structural biology, JUPITER will empower researchers, industries, public organizations across Europe to drive innovation at an unprecedented scale.
“The delivery of the first Rhea1 CPUs marks an important milestone for Europe’s supercomputing sovereignty. Through the European Processor Initiative, EuroHPC JU has supported the development of a European processor that is now moving from innovation to deployment in JUPITER, Europe’s first exascale supercomputer. This achievement demonstrates what Europe can accomplish by bringing together research, industry and world-class infrastructure to build a stronger European HPC ecosystem,” said Anders Dam Jensen, Executive Director of EuroHPC JU.
“Rhea1 plays an important role in JUPITER’s Cluster Module, complementing the GPU-based Booster with a CPU-based architecture designed for a broad range of complex and data-intensive workloads. Its high memory bandwidth is particularly well suited to applications that benefit from efficient access to large amounts of data. Bringing this European processor technology into JUPITER is an important step in making these capabilities available to the scientific community,” noted Prof. Dr. Thomas Lippert, Director of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre at Forschungszentrum Jülich.
“This key milestone is the result of a long-term and strategic collaboration between two European tech players, federating a stronger HPC and AI ecosystem. With the arrival of the first Rhea1 CPUs and their integration into our BullSequana XH supercomputing platform, our ambition is becoming reality. Integrating a European processor onto a European platform for Europe’s flagship exascale system is a milestone we can all be proud of, and a powerful demonstration of what we can achieve together when vision is matched with execution. Thank you EuroHPC JU and Forschungszentrum Jülich for trusting us,” highlighted Bruno Lecointe, Head of HPC, AI and Quantum at Bull
“Together with Bull, our long-standing partner, we are taking a major step towards Europe’s digital sovereignty by equipping the CPU cluster of the European exascale supercomputer JUPITER with European hardware. This will be a first in Europe. I am very proud of this, as it is also a wonderful human endeavor in which teams from SiPearl, Bull, Forschungszentrum Jülich and all our European partners have worked together to ensure the success of this ambitious project, with the unwavering support of EuroHPC JU and the European authorities,” concluded Philippe Notton, CEO and Founder of SiPearl.
SiPearl is the European fabless designer of secure high-performance energy-efficient CPUs built for sovereign HPC, AI and data centre. These CPUs will help address strategic challenges in the fields of security, defense, medical research, energy, climate and engineering with a reduced environmental footprint.
Featuring 80 Arm Neoverse V1 cores with 61 billion transistors, SiPearl’s first-generation CPU, Rhea1, will be released end of 2026. Sipearl’s CPUs will equip the two first European exascale supercomputers: Rhea1 will be integrated into the JUPITER machine based in Germany and Rhea2 will be part of Alice Recoque in France.
Supported by the European Union and France, SiPearl employs 200 people in France, Spain, and Italy.
About Bull
Leveraging nearly a century of innovations, Bull is a global leader for High-Performance Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Quantum technologies with c.720m€ in revenue and 3,000 professionals operating in 32 countries. Built on an open, end-to-end and trusted approach, Bull designs, deploys and operates hardware, software and strategic services that unlock enterprise value, accelerate scientific research and advance society. Driven by world-class R&D, backed by 1,600 patents, manufacturing excellence and data sciences expertise, Bull enables nations and industries to fully control their AI and data and to drive progress for the benefit of the planet.
Mark Rutte has the right idea – go beyond Washington and make the case for the transatlantic alliance to the public. They may well have a willing ear
At a moment when Europe is focused on persuading Donald Trump to remain committed to Nato, it needs to convince Americans, too. So the presence this evening of the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, in front of a public audience in Des Moines, Iowa, is significant. This is the home town of Trump’s ambassador to Nato, Matthew Whitaker, and the visit brings the debate over Nato’s future directly to a midwestern audience in a red state that operates far from elite foreign-policy circles in Washington. Rutte’s appearance is long overdue.
Russia’s war in Ukraine and uncertainty over the US commitment to European security have forced European leaders to confront their dependence on Washington. While some are pressing for building European capabilities as a means to separate from the US, others see greater European defence spending as essential to keeping the US engaged. Either way, European governments can’t rely solely on meetings with Trump to secure the alliance’s future.
Seasonal eating in America was built on real limits, and for most of the country’s history, the food calendar was simply accurate. Then refrigeration and ... Read moreThe post The foods everyone thinks are seasonal but really aren’t appeared first…
White House press coverage row continues while anchor-less channel of the administration’s ‘latest and greatest’ streams propaganda for the Maga faithful
Donald Trump’s previous television career centred on his role on The Apprentice, but the US president’s latest media venture is a rather lower-budget affair: the launch of Trump TV in the wake of his ban on several outlets from covering the White House.
With major US networks agreeing to not cover the president while the dispute continues, on Monday the White House announced the new 24/7 YouTube live stream, which it promised would feature “top past moments, announcements, and the latest and greatest from the administration all in one place”.
The Massachusetts case is the latest in a series of legal woes for the influencer whose real name is Braden Eric Peters
The online influencer known as Clavicular – who helped fuel the rise of the extreme male appearance-improvement trend of “looksmaxxing” – has been charged with rape and drug offenses in Massachusetts.
The 20-year-old, whose real name is Braden Eric Peters, has been scheduled for a 14 October arraignment on Cape Cod, according to legal documents seen by the Guardian.
By Dean Murray NASA is making progress towards its mission to land astronauts on the Moon. Booster segments are being fitted this month to provide thrust for a crewed Artemis III mission in 2027. Technicians integrated the left forward booster…
Technicians integrate the left forward booster segment for NASA's Artemis III SLS (Space Launch System) rocket onto the left booster segments atop the mobile launcher in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in…
QuEra and HPE will enable organization access to quantum computing capabilities on-premises by integrating neutral-atom fault-tolerant systems with the HPE Cray supercomputing platform.
BOSTON, Sept. 22, 2026 — QuEra Computing today announced a collaboration with HPE to integrate neutral-atom, fault-tolerant quantum computing with on-premise high-performance computing (HPC) environments powered by the HPE Cray supercomputing platform. The collaboration gives HPC centers, national laboratories, and enterprises a path to bring QuEra’s frontier systems into new supercomputing infrastructure.
Useful fault-tolerant quantum computing will run alongside classical supercomputing in hybrid workflows where HPC handles large-scale classical computation and the quantum system tackles selected subproblems that are impractical or impossible to solve classically.
Organizations that already operate large classical resources have new choices in how they bring quantum computing into their workflows — through the cloud, on-premise, or a combination of the two. The combined approach aligns with US national priorities, such as Genesis Mission, a historic national initiative led by the U.S. Department of Energy, which is building the world’s most powerful integrated science discovery platform. By uniting government, industry, academia, and philanthropy, it is accelerating breakthroughs in energy, scientific discovery, and national security through a new platform that combines AI, supercomputing, quantum systems, and advanced scientific instruments.
QuEra and HPE are pursuing integrated testbeds, hybrid algorithm co-design, software interoperability, and system-level performance benchmarking, targeting deployment alongside the HPE Cray supercomputing platform. HPE Cray supercomputing provides an industry-leading HPC foundation for hybrid quantum-classical workflows, enabling QuEra’s fault-tolerant systems to be tightly integrated with a customer’s most demanding workloads.
QuEra has worked with HPE since 2025. At HPE Discover Las Vegas 2026, HPE showcased magic-state, featuring QuEra to demonstrate the company’s vision for hybrid quantum-classical computing.
“Bringing neutral-atom, fault-tolerant systems into an HPC environment introduces a different engineering problem than delivering quantum computing over the cloud,” said Yuval Boger, Chief Commercial Officer at QuEra Computing. “HPE’s deep experience in supercomputing gives organizations the benefit of working with a partner who can solve that problem at the scale they need.” “Organizations running the world’s most demanding workloads need quantum and classical computing to work together seamlessly,” said Dr. Masoud Mohseni, Senior Distinguished Technologist and Director of HPE Quantum. “Our partnership with QuEra aims to bring fault-tolerant quantum capabilities into HPC environments, creating a clear path from today’s supercomputers to tomorrow’s hybrid quantum-classical systems.”
Two Complementary Paths to Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing
With this announcement, QuEra now offers two synergistic routes to its fault-tolerant systems, offering organizations a choice to take one or both. For example, organizations will be able to deploying on-premises for sovereign or tightly coupled workloads while drawing on the cloud for elastic simulation and burst capacity.
On-premises deployment, through HPE: For organizations that need a system inside their own environment, whether for sovereignty or data residency needs, or to tightly couple into existing workflows, the HPE collaboration provides a path to integrate QuEra’s systems with the HPE Cray supercomputing platform, including plans for a potential gigaquop system.
Cloud access, through a major Cloud provider: Libra, QuEra’s first fault-tolerant quantum computer, is an over 256 logical qubit, megaquop-class system designed to perform on the order of one million reliable logical operations, targeted for availability on the cloud in 2028, with the gigaquop system to follow.
In practice, the two paths form a single journey. An organization might begin in the cloud to build applications and expertise today, then have HPE build an on-premises system to safeguard data and sovereignty. Equally, a customer committing to an on-premises deployment can run production workloads on the cloud in the interim until its own system is installed and continue drawing on cloud capacity afterward whenever demand exceeds what sits in its data center.
“Cloud access and on-premises deployment are complementary paths. They are different answers to the question of where a system resides,” said Boger. “We are delighted to partner with a company such as HPE. Through our partnership with HPE and our previously-announced partnerships, we can provide a great solution whether a customer application requires cloud access, on-premises deployment or both.”
About QuEra Computing
QuEra is putting quantum to work. As the scientific and commercial leader in neutral-atom quantum computing, we help enterprise innovators leverage quantum to gain competitive advantage, support HPC centers as their users tackle classically intractable problems, and enable government programs to build national and sovereign capabilities. We do this by combining our quantum systems, available on-premises and via the cloud, with application co-design and collaborative research. Born at Harvard and MIT and still advancing together, QuEra builds neutral-atom systems on a public, peer-reviewed path to fault tolerance, and operates globally from Boston, New Mexico, Tokyo, Zurich, and the United Kingdom. As quantum computing moves from “one day” to “Day One,” QuEra delivers practical impact today while leading the path toward large-scale, fault-tolerant systems. See what’s possible at www.quera.com.
As many as 169 people have been reportedly killed in Yemen in the last three days as Iran-aligned Houthis battle Saudi-backed government forces for control of strategic heights on the Red Sea coast, while thousands flee the violence.
Houthi military officials said at least 118 people had been killed in clashes as well as Saudi air and artillery strikes on Taiz, al-Jawf, Marib and Saada provinces since Sunday, Agence France-Presse reported. Yemeni government sources have said at least 36 people have been killed on their side of the conflict.
The September 28 session will provide attendees with an opportunity to discuss pNFS Lattice, share ideas for future development and explore opportunities for community participation. The BoF is intended to encourage collaboration among developers, storage architects and organizations interested in advancing open and scalable parallel file systems.
The presentation marks the first public technical discussion of pNFS Lattice since the open-source project was introduced earlier this year. Developed through a long-term engineering collaboration between PEAK:AIO and Los Alamos National Laboratory and released under the Linux Foundation, pNFS Lattice is designed to advance parallel file system architecture by introducing an elastic, distributed approach to metadata services for AI and HPC environments.
In addition, John Harechmak, WW Vice President of Field Engineering at PEAK:AIO, will join Brian Atkinson of Los Alamos National Laboratory to present “pNFS Lattice: Decoupling Metadata, State and Control in Parallel Filesystems” at 5:10 PM also on September 28. This session will move the conversation beyond Lattice’s initial launch and examine its central breakthrough: transforming metadata from a fixed infrastructure bottleneck into an elastic, independently scalable service.
As AI and HPC infrastructure continues to scale, storage architectures are under pressure to deliver data to thousands of GPUs and CPUs simultaneously. Parallel file systems have become increasingly effective at moving data across large numbers of storage servers. However, the metadata services responsible for locating, organizing and coordinating that data frequently remain tied to static servers, dedicated metadata infrastructure or tightly coupled failover pairs. As AI clusters expand to thousands of GPUs and generate increasingly metadata-intensive workloads, those fixed architectures can constrain the performance and resilience of the entire storage environment. pNFS Lattice was developed to address these challenges through a modular architecture that enables metadata services to scale independently of the underlying storage infrastructure.
The SNIA Developer Conference brings together storage architects, developers, engineers and researchers to explore emerging technologies shaping the future of storage. With technical sessions focused on AI infrastructure, computational storage, memory technologies and cloud storage, the conference provides an ideal forum for continued discussion around open, standards-based innovations such as pNFS Lattice.
PEAK:AIO is a Manchester, UK-based software-defined AI storage company. Its platform delivers high-performance AI storage from a single server to exabytes on any industry-standard hardware. PEAK:AIO is deployed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, NHS AIDE, Oxford Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Liverpool, the University of Strathclyde MediForge Hub and the Zoological Society of London. Learn more at https://peakaio.com.
SHANGHAI, Sept. 22, 2026 — At HUAWEI CONNECT 2026, Huawei hosted the AI DC Innovation Summit themed “Leading AI DC Innovation, Shaping the Agentic World,” convening over 600 industry leaders and researchers. During the event, Huawei unveiled its upgraded Stellar AI Fabric Solution to deliver continuous uptime and maximum compute utilization for production AI clusters.
Credit: Huawei
Keynote: Engineering the Network Fabric for Agentic AI
Erick Zhang, President of Data Center Network Domain at Huawei Data Communication Product Line, noted that AI is turning traditional data centers into compute factories. In this agentic era, the underlying network fabric directly dictates token throughput and overall compute yield.
To address this demand, the upgraded Stellar AI Fabric integrates Rock-Solid Architecture 2.0, StarryWing Digital Map 2.0, Hyper-Converged Fabric (HCF), and Network Packet Load Balancing (NPLB). The upgraded NetMaster network AI agent automates root-cause analysis for 95% of network faults within minutes, maintaining consistent production uptime.
High-Throughput Hardware Platforms
Huawei launched two switch families built for high-density computing:
CloudEngine SF9300 (UBG switch): Uses a two-layer multi-plane architecture that cuts buildout costs by 30%. Simplified UB forwarding lowers end-to-end latency by 40%. For link reliability, Link-Layer Retransmission (LLR) executes microsecond-level recovery, eliminating packet loss during link flapping.
CloudEngine XH9300 (NPO switch): Delivers proprietary 100T and 51.2T. A centralized light source and proprietary 3.2T Optical Engine (OE) lower interconnect power draw by 40%. By eliminating the optical DSP (oDSP) stage, the architecture cuts forwarding latency by 26%, while snap-in pluggable optical engines speed up maintenance tenfold.
Financial Industry Standard and Research Deployment
The Beijing FinTech Industry Alliance, Huawei, and 17 partners released the Technical Specification for Network High Availability of Financial Data Center. The standard defines technical baselines and testing methods across two categories and five network types for both intra-DC and cross-DC environments, evaluating architectural redundancy, fault recovery, and proactive prevention.
In scientific research, Qi Fazhi, Computing Center Director at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported that deploying the Stellar AI Fabric lifted computing efficiency by over 10%. Network-wide load balancing resolved training traffic imbalances, providing unhindered throughput for massive telemetry data and accelerating deep-space signal analysis.
Moving forward, Huawei continues to invest in intelligent data center networking with global partners to advance next-generation compute infrastructure.
MPs send out letter as Israeli government seeks bids for construction of large E1 settlement in West Bank
British banks and financial institutions are receiving written warnings from MPs that they should not invest in Israel’s E1 settlement project even though new UK laws banning trade with illegal settlements are unlikely to be in place for months.
A letter was sent to banks on Tuesday by the all-party Britain-Palestine group of MPs saying the onus was now on banks to review their obligations not to cooperate with new settlements.
António Guterres says humanity faces unprecedented convergence of threats but mechanisms for collective action are under growing strain
The world’s fault lines have turned from cracks into canyons as superpowers show that they alone do not have the military, economic and technological power to guarantee security or solve the world’s problems, the outgoing secretary general of the United Nations has said in his final address to the general assembly.
In a speech laced with despair but also glimpses of defiant hope, António Guterres said that over the last decade, largely spanning his 10-year period in office, “wars erupted with devastating consequences and dragged on with despicable cruelty. Civilians were targeted. Human rights trampled. Hunger weaponised. Humanitarians killed. International law cast aside.”
Aaron Donald celebrates return to NFL with victory
Davante Adams has eight catches for 195 yards
Davante Adams made eight catches for 195 yards and hauled in two of Matthew Stafford’s four touchdown passes, and the Los Angeles Rams welcomed Aaron Donald back to the NFL with a 28-6 victory over the New York Giants on Monday night.
Stafford passed for 327 yards for the Rams (1-1), who capitalized after the Giants (1-1) lost Jaxson Dart to a knee injury on their first offensive series.
Two U.S. missiles hit an elementary school in Iran, killing over 150 people including 123 children on the first day of the Iran War. But Gizmodo notes that a new Bloomberg investigation cites U.S. officials involved in an unreleased internal Pentagon review who blame "a cascade of preventable failures that included an overreliance on an AI tool built by Palantir."
According to the officials who spoke to Bloomberg, some personnel inside U.S. Central Command leaned too hard on the AI inside the Maven Smart System, an AI-powered data integration and targeting platform developed by Palantir to accelerate intelligence analysis and decision-making. The Defense Department has reportedly made the software tool a cornerstone of military operations over the past year... Officials said some users expected Maven to flag stale records or contradictions in the intelligence assembled for potential targets, though it is not clear why they thought the system would do that. The Minab [elementary school] site, which was cataloged as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facility due to outdated data, was fed into Maven with other candidates and came out as a recommended day-one target. Target-list work that once took hours was condensed into minutes.
A Palantir spokesperson told Bloomberg the company "is not responsible for the underlying data nor identifying intelligence deficiencies" and that there is no evidence its software was at fault. Two people familiar with Palantir's Pentagon contracts said the government keeps primary responsibility for the quality of the information that's fed into Maven. After the strike, Palantir added features that "re-review underlying intelligence to identify factors that would disqualify a target and flag inconsistencies and inaccuracies that human review may have missed," a person familiar with the work said. That new functionality is said to have already caught some anomalies...
More than 1,000 Iranian targets were hit in the first 24 hours, and according to Bloomberg's sources, that pace compressed the time available for additional confirmations. Staffing on civilian harm mitigation teams across the U.S. Department of Defense had also fallen by roughly 90% over recent years, shrinking to fewer than 20 people overall. The U.S. Central Command's group shrank from 10 people to one. No member of those teams reviewed the Minab site before the missiles were up in the air.
A separate inquiry by the United Nations' Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran this week reached the conclusion that there were reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed the war crime of launching an indiscriminate attack.
Sept. 22, 2026 — A team of researchers led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) developed a powerful new approach that enabled them to directly observe how electrons interact with defects in advanced semiconductor devices with an unprecedented level of detail. Their methodology included an innovative simulation tool that enabled accurate theoretical interpretations of their experimental observations.
The study, published in Nature, focuses on cutting-edge, ultrathin devices known as two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors that have very unusual electron states.
The experimental image on the left is a scanning tunnelling microscope image of the research team’s 2D semiconductor device. The distinct elliptical, bright orange regions are electrons in the Wigner solid state while the more elongated structures in the lower right are electrons beginning to “melt” into a Fermi liquid state. The clusters of tiny red circles in the black regions indicate the locations of defects. The theoretical image on the right is a Quantum Monte Carlo simulation that shows nearly identical features as the experimental image. The close agreement between the two images helps confirm that the experimental images are showing genuine electron behavior rather than artifacts of the microscope, while also validating the accuracy of the simulation technique. Credit: Berkeley Lab.
“Our study yielded valuable insights into why electrons in 2D semiconductors behave the way they do,” said Mike Crommie, a senior faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and professor of physics at UC Berkeley, and one of the study’s authors. “Our methods open the door to the discovery of never-seen-before electron behaviors that can be used for new semiconductor capabilities. This will be important for the future development of semiconductor devices at the ultimate limits of miniaturization.”
Other research team members include Feng Wang, a faculty senior scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and a professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Physics, and scientists from the University of California, the Flatiron Institute, the University of New Mexico, Hofstra University, Arizona State University, and the National Institute for Materials Science (Japan).
An Investigation of Ultrathin Semiconductors Containing Strongly Interacting Electrons
Conventional silicon-based semiconductor devices, such as transistors, computer chips, and sensors, are made of materials in which atoms are arranged in three-dimensional structures. In recent years, device developers have increasingly explored the possibility of using 2D semiconductors, which are materials made of just a single layer — or a few layers — of atoms. Their ultrathin structure changes how electrons behave, potentially enabling new capabilities in future semiconductor devices.
The Berkeley Lab–led research team investigated 2D materials in which the electrons are in an unusual state known as a Wigner solid. In ordinary semiconductor devices, electrons typically behave like independent particles moving through the material. Their interactions with one another have a relatively minor influence on their behavior — and on the overall operation of the device.
“Physicists call this conventional state a Fermi liquid because the electrons move around like waves in the ocean,” said Crommie.
Under certain conditions, electrons can enter a Wigner solid state in which they separate from one another and become immobile. Physicists describe such a system as “strongly interacting” because the electrons’ mutual repulsion becomes the dominant factor shaping their behavior. Rather than moving independently, electrons in Wigner solids organize themselves into a relatively orderly pattern and behave collectively as a group.
Defects Have An Outsized Influence on Electron Behavior
Historically, it has not been possible for scientists to directly image how electrons and defects interact in strongly interacting 2D semiconductor systems. It is extremely difficult to design semiconductor devices so that they can be imaged with enough resolution to see features on the scale of individual atoms. As a result, researchers have often resorted to a less direct approach to understanding electron-defect interactions: connecting wires to semiconductor devices and measuring how easily electricity flows through them.
“Some of the conclusions in these previous experiments were ambiguous because the researchers could not actually see the electrons and the defects at the same time,” said Crommie. “They were inferring the behavior based on electrical conductivity.”
To address the imaging challenge, the team used a tool known as a scanning tunnelling microscope. This instrument hovers a tiny metal tip just above a material’s surface and extracts electrical current as the tip scans across the surface. To achieve the highest possible structural and electronic resolution, the research team spent years carefully developing a device that sandwiches the 2D semiconductor material of interest — in this case, molybdenum diselenide — in between a graphite layer on top and a silicon wafer and boron nitride layer on the bottom. The metal tip scans the molybdenum diselenide through tiny holes cut into the graphite.
The team used this set-up to image semiconductor samples with different defect densities. After each image was taken, they changed the density of electrons in their 2D device to visualize the material’s transition from Wigner solid to Fermi liquid.
The images the researchers obtained revealed that electron behavior in their devices varied dramatically based on the number of defects in the 2D semiconductor material. When many defects were present, the electrons became locked into an unexpectedly stable Wigner solid state exhibiting highly irregular, disordered patterns. With fewer defects present, the electrons arranged themselves into much more orderly, triangular, crystal-like patterns that transitioned more readily to the Fermi liquid state.
Crommie described the moment when he first viewed the images and realized he was seeing something fundamentally new. “It was exciting to see the Wigner solid melt into liquid-like waves splashing up against defects,” he said. “We could see how electrons respond to defects in very different ways. Some defects acted like large potholes while others acted like tiny speed bumps.”
Images Agree with Theory
To explain the defect-electron interactions observed in these images and confirm that the images were not showing artifacts due to the microscope’s operation, the team needed to compare their images to a theoretical model. The challenge was that there was no existing theory in the scientific literature for accurately simulating images of 2D semiconductor systems with strongly interacting electrons and random defects. It is difficult to perform the complex calculations needed to predict the behavior of large collections of electrons under these conditions.
The team used a sophisticated computer simulation technique called Quantum Monte Carlo to calculate how strongly electrons in a 2D semiconductor material interact with defects based on the laws of quantum mechanics. The simulated electron behavior closely matched the patterns observed in the microscope images.
“This remarkable agreement confirmed the accuracy of both our theoretical simulation tool and our imaging technique,” said Crommie. “It also helped us better understand the physics underlying the behaviors we observed in our images.”
Crommie added that the results suggest that controlling both placement and types of defects will likely become a much more important consideration as device developers push digital electronics, sensors, and other semiconductor devices to ever smaller dimensions.
Other researchers and device developers can apply the team’s methodology — an integrated combination of imaging and theoretical simulations — to understand the electronic behavior of other 2D semiconductors, particularly those with strongly interacting electrons.
“The semiconductors in today’s smartphones and computers don’t contain Wigner solids, but they may in the future as devices become more advanced,” said Crommie. “Our methods can help researchers and manufacturers understand what electrons will do under these conditions, informing the design of increasingly miniaturized devices with advanced capabilities.”
The team is extending its results by exploring how electron behavior is affected when electrons are confined to tiny channels in semiconductor devices. Another goal is to investigate how electrons behave in 2D semiconductors with fewer defects.
This research was supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences; the Department of Defense’s Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship; the National Science Foundation; and the Simons Foundation’s Flatiron Institute.
Independent outlets are leaning on social media, chat and other nontraditional methods to fight disinformation
When Allan Marrero, an asylum seeker from the Cayman Islands, was released after five months in immigration detention, his family made sure to invite one journalist to his celebration: Eileen Grench, a reporter with the independent, non-profit news outlet Documented.
Grench had previously reported on Marrero, who was detained after interviewing with federal officials for a marriage-based green card. But beyond covering his detention struggles, she humanized him, emphasizing his and his husband’s love story.
President Donald Trump is due to sign off on a new security arrangement with Denmark and Greenland, as well as meet leaders from Ukraine and Persian Gulf nations.
As animal behaviorists increasingly use AI in their research, they grapple with how to wield the technology responsibly
I’m sitting in a small boat in Shark Bay, Australia, eavesdropping on a conversation between some of Earth’s most intelligent beings. The motor is off, the turquoise sea is glassy, and Stephanie King and I are motionless, transfixed by the whistles, clicks and squeezy, whirring noises made by the dolphins swimming below us.
If anyone could tell me what these big-brained social mammals are saying, it would be her. Based at the University of Bristol, she co-leads Shark Bay Dolphin Research, one of the longest-running wild dolphin research projects in the world. She has spent thousands of hours watching and listening to this population.
Days before Xi Jinping’s summit with Donald Trump, new study shows trade deficit ran at more than €1bn daily in July
Consumers and businesses in the EU are spending three times more on Chinese imports than their counterparts in China are buying from the bloc, a study has shown.
Customs data showed the gap between the EU’s imports from China and exports to China, the trade deficit, ran at more than €1bn (£860m) a day in July.
Datacentre nimbys are holding Britain back, George Osborne has said in reaction to nationwide protests about the giant water- and energy-guzzling structures.
The former Tory chancellor is now the head of AI for countries at OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT. His job is to represent the company to governments around the world and he also has a role in enabling the building of datacentres and other infrastructure.
Broadcaster refutes memoir claim that he was behind alleged hidden-camera gym photos of Diana, Princess of Wales
Piers Morgan has said he will sue Earl Spencer over “fabricated inaccuracies” and “examples of brazen falsity” in his book about the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
The earl has made a series of claims in Swan Song: Diana, My Sister – including that King Charles said “we’ll forget her soon enough” after she died, which has prompted a war of words between him and Buckingham Palace.
Why Should Delaware Care? For nearly a decade, Delaware schools have been struggling with poor test scores from students. Many critics have sought greater accountability measures for school districts that aren’t showing progress fast enough, and now the Department of Education has put forward such a draft plan.
As Delaware continues to grapple with concerningly low average test scores from students, the state Department of Education has drafted a plan that could see it take over low-performing schools or even hold back third-graders who are far behind grade-level reading and writing.
According to annual proficiency scores released by the state last month, less than half of Delaware’s third through eighth graders read and do math at a proficient level. And just 18% of 11th graders were proficient in math.
But Education Secretary Cindy Marten told state board of education members that Delaware must have a clearer, more-defined answer for what happens when a school, or its students, consistently do not show test score improvements.
“We can’t just say, ‘Well, they didn’t get it. Oh well, move on next year,’” she said during last week’s state board meeting.
To address those concerns, Marten unveiled a draft framework that consists of five tiers, ranging in support and accountability measures for district schools and charter schools. The universal expectation is for schools to be in Tier 1, which has the lowest level of intervention.
While additional supports are introduced at Tiers 2 and 3, state intervention begins at Tier 4 and is carried into Tier 5.
Schools with little to no progress that are placed in Tier 4 would see “state-directed instructional and operational actions, leadership or staffing supports, and decisions need to be made when they’re needed,” Marten said.
Those schools would also participate in monthly implementation and performance review meetings with the Department of Education.
If none of the state-implemented supports work, the school would be placed in Tier 5 — resulting in receivership, where the Delaware Department of Education would take over operation of the school and appoint leadership, until conditions improved.
Marten told board members that the goal of Tier 5 is not to close schools. Instead, a state-approved “receiver” would address school conditions with a local school board, superintendent and principal while working on a “public recovery plan,” she said.
A return of full authority to local leadership and the school board would be phased in after sustained progress.
Delaware Education Secretary Cindy Marten has sought to find ways to provide greater accountability on school districts that are not making academic progress with students. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
Marten also announced the possibility of holding third-graders back, a tactic that Mississippi has used to dramatically increase proficiency scores, but has also come under criticism from some as a manipulation of its test scores. Such a tactic would be a last-resort option, she said.
Delaware must first focus on early intervention screenings to address learning disabilities earlier and monitor students’ progress over time, Marten said. If students are not improving after receiving individualized support, then whether a student should begin fourth grade will be evaluated based on the student’s data.
“This is not a third-grade retention plan with a literacy plan wrapped around it,” she said during the meeting. “The whole point is prevention.”
The announcement came just one month after Marten told Spotlight Delaware that there will be “real action” taken if a school continues to underperform “for so many numbers of days, weeks, months, years.”
Marten did not specify what those actions may look like at the time.
Further determinations to be made
Marten reiterated throughout the meeting that the framework is only a draft, and more specifications still have to be made.
Marten said “some” of the framework would require legislative action before it is implemented, and plans to have legislation ready for the start of the new session in January.
The department will also have to determine how long a school can remain in a specific tier and establish criteria for where schools should be placed if the framework is implemented, among other details.
Marten also said the Delaware Department of Education will be holding more stakeholder engagement opportunities in the coming months.
Still, she noted that “nobody’s saying we don’t need this [framework,] everybody’s saying we do need this.”
In a statement to Spotlight Delaware, Lake Forest Superintendent Steven Lucas, who is also the president of the Delaware Chief School Officer’s Association, said his organization looks forward to working with Marten’s department to ensure the accountability framework “accurately assesses the needs and output of the public school districts, supports the work of our public school teachers, and helps to increase the college and career readiness of our graduates.”
Still, some education leaders have expressed concern with Marten’s draft framework.
Delaware State Education Association President Tameka Mays wrote in a statement to Spotlight Delaware that the state’s educators’ union is committed to having conversations with Marten, Gov. Matt Meyer, and legislators about plans for improving student academic performance.
But in her statement, Mays said she and her organization have mixed feelings about Marten’s plan.
“There are aspects we favor, such as additional instructional support for struggling students, and aspects that raise serious concern for our members and our communities, including the process leading up to a possible state takeover of our local schools and the potential for 8- and 9-year-olds to be held back a grade,” Mays said in her statement.
She said the union will also be gathering feedback from its members throughout the state in the coming weeks.
Correction: This story originally reported that receivership for poor performance would fall to school districts, but this option would actually be designated for an individual school and not the district as a whole.
President’s decision to ban three news organisations from White House prompts backlash. Plus, a new resource to help trace the history of enslaved people in the 19th century
Good morning. The row over media access to the presidency has deepened, with major US television news outlets agreeing to suspend their video coverage of Donald Trump after the administration banned journalists from several outlets from entering the White House grounds.
The president had abruptly announced his ban against CNN, MS Now and Politico, saying he had had enough of “purposely negative stories” about him. On Monday the ban against CNN meant no broadcaster was covering Trump’s midday ribbon-cutting for a new White House helipad. The White House provided its own livestream but the president’s remarks were inaudible over the sound of a helicopter’s engine.
How have CNN, MS Now and Politico responded to the ban? A lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order that would immediately lift the ban. In a statement, the organizations said: “We are filing a lawsuit today to protect our first amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.”
What other significant media developments have there been? Paramount has reached a settlement with California and several other states that sued over its proposed $81bn merger with Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), the California attorney general announced, clearing the way to consolidate some of Hollywood’s most recognizable TV networks and studios under one owner.
What else is Trump expected to say at the UN? The US ambassador to the UN said Trump would speak about how he had “confronted complex problems head-on around the world”. Our writer Robert Tait notes in this analysis, however, that thanks to Trump’s recent social media blitz and self-proclaimed “25 top achievements”, the chances of an uplifting speech appear slim.
Scientists found unequal impact of the climate crisis would not be reversed even if implicit goal of the 2015 Paris agreement is achieved
The unequal impact of the climate crisis on the world’s poorest people, including those in tropical areas, has been highlighted by new research that finds they will be among the last to feel the benefits if global greenhouse gas emissions are cut to net zero.
Temperatures have risen more significantly in tropical areas relative to their historic range than at higher latitudes, including in wealthier countries in Europe and North America.
Lian Yunzhi, who practices 2 to 3 hours daily, has become the first female speedcuber to average under 4.5 seconds in competition, according to Chinese state media.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refuses to count four measles deaths in the state though doctors are ‘seeing new forms’ of disease
The US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its measles dashboard on Friday – but it’s still not counting four measles deaths in Pennsylvania, where the outbreak appears to be accelerating and cases are appearing in ways providers have never seen before.
Members of Congress on Monday requested an “immediate briefing” on the decision to change how measles deaths are reported as cases continue to rise throughout the United States, reaching levels not seen in decades. A possible measles exposure was reported in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia last week.
Roman Badanin and Mikhail Rubin, who were forced to move abroad in 2021, tell of president capable of ‘limitless cruelty’
At 6am on 29 June 2021, the Russian journalist Roman Badanin was woken by a knock on the door of his family’s Moscow apartment. “Come quickly, someone has scratched your car in the courtyard,” a voice shouted from outside. As he opened the door, masked men pushed their way in.
Across the city, a similar raid was happening at the home of Badanin’s colleague Mikhail Rubin. The masked men were officers of the FSB, the Russian intelligence service, instruments of the “climate of fear and violence” that the journalists say Vladimir Putin has imposed on Russia in their forensically detailed biography of the Russian president.
Trump–Xi summit: Why the US and China should not underestimate each otherExpert commentLToremark
The US and China both face serious domestic strains. As Trump and Xi meet this week to discuss trade, AI and Taiwan, neither side should mistake the other’s weaknesses for strategic decline.
A superpower summit is a big deal. As US President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping meet in Washington this week, they have a lot to cover. They will try to extend a trade truce that expires in November, including China’s pause on rare earth export controls and America’s delay on chip restrictions. The leaders will also tackle Taiwan, where Beijing wants Washington to halt a $14 billion arms package, as well as China’s purchases of Iranian oil and a proposed dialogue on the national security risks of artificial intelligence (AI).
In their negotiations, each side may be tempted to focus on the other’s weaknesses. But underestimating the other’s power would be unwise.
China has many weaknesses – but should not be underestimated
Many observers argue that China’s economic vulnerabilities will limit its international ambitions. Its growth model is faltering; its households still are not spending, so Beijing continues to push surplus production overseas. This has provoked a backlash of trade barriers from the US, EU and beyond. The property sector – once a quarter of the economy – is in its fifth year of slump, while a mountain of hidden local government debt threatens to drag down China’s growth for years to come.
Meanwhile Xi’s government has become steadily more restrictive: tightening political control (such as the new travel restrictions) and placing national security at the centre of economic life.
But Washington should not misjudge Chinese power. China possesses formidable industrial might, with dominance in areas such as electric vehicles, batteries, solar power, drones and telecommunications equipment. China also rivals the US in AI: its models now match leading American systems at a fraction of the cost and are used by developers worldwide (including many in the US). Although gaps in Chinese technology remain – notably in advanced semiconductors – there, too, Chinese firms are likely to grow increasingly competitive.
Many observers will again be tempted to predict that Xi’s tightening grip will choke Chinese innovation. But it is time to bin the argument that authoritarian China can only copy and cheaply produce what other countries invent. Indeed, many of China’s recent innovations have come amid tightening control. The AI sector took off only after Xi came to power and flourished despite his regulatory crackdown on technology firms and entrepreneurs.
China’s innovation model is simply different. The state picks strategic sectors and drenches them in cheap capital, subsidies and guaranteed demand. Fierce competition among firms, a vast domestic market and the world’s deepest manufacturing base bring research into mass production faster than anywhere else.
This approach has its problems; not least that it is wasteful and prone to overcapacity. As an autocracy, Chinese innovation may never outpace that of the United States. But even in second place, China is a daunting technological competitor. The US should thus adopt policies to support domestic innovation and help US firms keep their lead for as long as possible.
China’s economic weaknesses also do not imply strategic weakness. When Trump escalated the trade war last year, Beijing targeted US dependence on Chinese rare earths. The threat of Chinese export controls forced Washington into a truce, agreed when Trump and Xi met in Busan last October. Extending that truce will be high on this summit’s agenda.
China has also spent decades developing considerable military capabilities that have shifted the balance of power in Asia. Beijing has made clear its long-term intentions to control Taiwan – and economic costs are unlikely to deter it from pursuing this goal. Indeed, before China cracked down on Hong Kong, many observers argued this move was unlikely because it would be economically unwise for China.
Military costs, however, are a different matter and likely have already deterred Beijing from the overt use of force. The strength of Taiwan’s defences – such as through US arms sales – will continue to influence Beijing’s calculations. Continuing US arms sales are vital, not a bargaining chip that might be traded away for something else (as Trump has suggested).
American dysfunction does not equal decline
Just as Washington should not mistake China’s problems for strategic weakness, Beijing should not mistake US dysfunction for decline.
Xi will see a weakened superpower: with historically unprecedented deficit spending and a burgeoning debt of $40 trillion. Washington now spends more on interest on its debt than on its military. Its dire finances are raising its borrowing costs and jeopardizing the future of the US dollar as the global reserve currency. By 2032, social security will be underfunded and Medicare will soon follow. Neither Republicans nor Democrats are willing to cut benefits or raise taxes but the money will have to come from somewhere. As the largest item in the US discretionary budget, defence may be the obvious place.
The US ability to address this and other problems is hindered by domestic political polarization. Xi – like any visitor to Washington – will see a profoundly divided city. Nationally, Trump’s approval rating is at its lowest point in his second term. But Democrats are ill-poised to lead: the party is divided by the fault line of Israel. With its fiscal pressures and disunity, the US hardly seems poised to embark on a costly containment – or war fighting – adventure against a rising superpower.
Indeed, the US has shown itself unable to focus on China’s rise. For decades it has vowed to ‘pivot’ to Asia, but not even an administration that campaigned on ending wars in the Middle East could avoid starting one.
Xi may therefore be tempted to conclude that America is a mess – and that Asia is China’s for the taking. But underestimating the US would be foolhardy for China too.
The US economy is performing well, and the country remains the global innovation leader dominating emerging technologies. Its alliances and partnerships are built on shared interests and seem to be enduring despite recent upheaval.
The US also remains the world’s military superpower. It has longstanding ties to Taiwan, and its foreign policy establishment favours US intervention if China invades Taiwan. US alliances in Asia enjoy robust popular support, and American foreign policy leaders would not want to see a China-led Asia, given a perceived threat to US prosperity and security. Xi should remember that the US has historically paid high costs to prevent a country from dominating either Asia or Europe.
Trump and Xi would thus be wise to sit down at the table with a great deal of respect for the power and influence of the country represented by the man on the other side. Only then can they address what is perhaps the most important issue of all – making progress towards a US–China modus vivendi.
US–China relations – and the world as a whole – would benefit from an arrangement that acknowledges each country’s core security needs, prevents war and encourages cooperation on shared interests: rebuilding the global trading system, managing the risks of AI and tackling climate change. They will never get there by underestimating each other.
NEW YORK CITY, New York — Mayor Zohran Mamdani renewed his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, calling him a “war criminal” and an “architect of a horrific genocide” as the Israeli leader prepares to address the United Nations General Assembly.
Mamdani said the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu should be respected, although he acknowledged New York City lacks legal authority to execute it. The ICC issued warrants in 2024 accusing Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of war crimes and crimes against humanity connected to the Gaza conflict. Israel rejects the allegations and disputes the court’s jurisdiction.
Netanyahu is expected to arrive Thursday for a brief visit and deliver his UN address on Sept. 24. The Associated Press reported that his trip is expected to last roughly 24 hours amid anticipated demonstrations in New York.
Mamdani previously campaigned on arresting Netanyahu if he visited the city, but later said municipal authorities do not have the power to enforce the ICC warrant. He has instead called on the federal government to act.
The United States and Israel are not members of the ICC, and the Trump administration has opposed the court’s actions against Israeli officials while preparing broader sanctions against the institution.
Trump Bans CNN, MSNOW, and Politico from the White House: An old-fashioned attack on the First Amendment to try to cover Trump’s failures.
CNN Reports U.S. Almost Started War With China: An AI chatbot nearly turns bad intelligence into a military confrontation.
Singing the Palestine Blues: Ed Sheeran’s response to a painful controversy offers the rarest commodity in public life.
Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror: Soldiers, survivors, and Afghan civilians tell the connected story of September 11 and the long war that followed.
Miles Davis, “Israel” (1949): In hardly two minutes, Davis and John Carisi’s piece still sounds startlingly alive, though its connection to Israel remains obscure.
Kareem’s Quote of the Day
“News is something somebody doesn’t want printed; all else is advertising.” ―attributed toWilliam Randolph Hearst (1863–1951), media tycoon
(Bettmann/Getty Images)
The term “fake news” first came into popular usage during the 2016 election campaign. It was used to call out viral stories circulating on Facebook and Twitter that were blatantly false, many created by shady content farms and intended to exploit users’ preexisting biases to win clicks. Before Donald Trump latched onto it, Hillary Clinton even used the phrase to attack stories directed at her, like the outrageous Pizzagate hoax that claimed she and other liberal elites were trafficking young women through a Washington pizza place.
But it was Trump who made the term ubiquitous, seemingly working it into every speech to dismiss stories that were not yet proven, like the reporting on his campaign’s Russia ties. That story held up: campaign chairman Paul Manafort had secretly been paid millions by a Russian oligarch years earlier for work he said would “greatly benefit the Putin government,” and during the campaign he shared internal polling data with a business associate the U.S. government believed had ties to Russian intelligence. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, meanwhile, had taken a paid trip to Moscow funded by Russia’s state television network shortly before joining the campaign, and later lied to the FBI and Vice President Pence about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador. None of this was the “fake news” Trump claimed it was — it was exactly the kind of undisclosed foreign entanglement voters had the right to know about. Both men were later convicted of crimes related to their Russian dealings, though both were ultimately pardoned by Trump.
By the time he took office, Trump had pivoted to using the term to describe any news story he didn’t like, of which there were many. Always thin-skinned, Trump seemed unable to tolerate any negative coverage. True stories about him paying off a porn star and a Playboy centerfold to keep their affairs private, his orders to fire FBI director James Comey and special counsel Robert Mueller, pressuring Ukrainian leaders to investigate the Bidens, and the fact that he was given early warnings about a potential Covid pandemic were all declared “fake news” by the president and later shown to be true. He used the term so often that it was named “word of the year” by Collins Dictionary in 2017.
He eventually started calling networks and newspapers themselves “fake news,” taking particular glee in attaching the term to many of our media’s most reliable sources like CNN and The New York Times, a practice he has only increased in his second term. I don’t know if he really expects to convince anyone, or if he’s just trying to sow chaos and doubt, but it’s the most cynical use of the presidential bully pulpit I’ve seen in my lifetime.
William Randolph Hearst (who was the basis for the character Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welles’s movie Citizen Kane) knew more than a little about “fake news.” The most powerful media magnate in the country during the first half of the century, he used his nationwide string of newspapers, magazines, and radio stations to spread false stories both to gin up circulation and to shape U.S. and world politics. He was a master of “yellow journalism,” the practice of publishing sensational, exaggerated, and scandalous stories without concern for their accuracy.
The idea that “news is something somebody doesn’t want printed; all else is advertising,” which is generally attributed to Hearst, is a bit exaggerated, but it points to a truth about Donald Trump and his attitude toward the press. For Trump, “fake news” is something he doesn’t want printed, and all else is a mixture of White House press releases, right-wing spin, and flattery from sources that have signed over their souls to Trump. In our current life here in Trump’s Bizarro World, you can tell the news is real if Trump calls it fake, and you can tell it’s fake if he reposts it on Truth [sic] Social.
The Department of Defence is examining how F-35 fighter jet parts bound for the US from Australia were unexpectedly diverted to Hong Kong, the acting prime minister, Richard Marles, has said.
Marles said “very much everything that has occurred at the Australian end” would be reviewed, but claimed the technology parts were not “sensitive”, as first reported by Politico over the weekend.
Veronica Escobar tells Guardian she was prevented from speaking to detainees at much-criticized Texas facility
Federal immigration officials in Texas prevented US representative Veronica Escobar from fully conducting her congressional oversight duties at a controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, the lawmaker said in an interview with the Guardian.
Escobar, a Democrat who represents El Paso and surrounding areas on the US-Mexico border in west Texas, conducted an oversight visit last month at the Camp East Montana ICE tent facility housed in the Fort Bliss military base, after two separate “disturbances” had been reported there in recent weeks.
Carr was a member of the group in his teens and 20s. There is no evidence Trump’s powerful FCC chair participated in any inappropriate conduct
Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), was for about a decade a member of a rogue Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) group when he was in his late teens and 20s that some former members compared to a “cult”, according to a Guardian investigation.
The Midtown group, which was based in the Washington DC area, attracted young people who were seeking help with addiction, sometimes at the urging of their parents.
“Everyone has a Walt’s story,” as Larry Fletcher, owner of Walt’s Flavor Crisp Chicken Express on Lincoln Street, likes to put it.
For example, Wilmington City Councilor Alex Hackett has been a patron since childhood. Every day he attended the H. Fletcher Brown Boys & Girls Club, a counselor would give him a golden dollar for playing a chess match before running off to play sports. Hackett would spend that allowance at Walt’s.
“As a young teen growing up in the city, it got me through. I didn’t have to worry about dinner because I could go get that golden dollar, and I could go get that thigh sandwich,” he said. “My family, I mean, we basically lived through Walt’s Chicken. My dad, I don’t even know, he might have been a chicken (with) as much Walt’s Chicken as he ate.”
Get Involved Wilmington Black Restaurant Week features free events like a block party at Skratch Bar + Kitchen on Friday, Sept. 25, 5-9 p.m., a car show and community workout at Rodney Square on Saturday, Sept. 26, 7-10 p.m., and a food tasting festival at The Queen on Sunday, Sept. 27, noon to 5 p.m. There are also educational events for restaurateurs throughout the week.
Hackett recently got a look behind the scenes at Walt’s — and even served a few customers — in celebration of Wilmington Black Restaurant Week, which takes place through Sept. 27.
The week features specials at participating restaurants, culminating in a car show and community workout in Rodney Square on Saturday and a food festival at The Queen on Sunday.
Skratch Bar + Kitchen in Trolley Square will also be hosting a block party with a live DJ and food specials on Friday, 5-9 p.m — but co-owner Newton “Newdy” Felton intends to keep the party going until the pub closes at 1 a.m.
“I think representation matters. It’s important (for members of) my community to see someone who looks like them, to see what’s possible,” Felton said. “There’s a lot of restaurants (that) don’t get the exposure. Some of them don’t have the money (for advertising). … Some of them aren’t in ideal locations. So, for Wilmington to highlight Black Restaurant Week, (it gives) them visibility and that foot traffic they probably wouldn’t have gotten.”
Skratch Bar + Kitchen co-owner Newton “Newdy” Felton believes Wilmington Black Restaurant Week is important for the exposure it gives to local restaurants. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CANNON TAYLOR
That’s exactly why City Council President Ernest “Trippi” Congo came up with the idea for Black Restaurant Week four years ago.
“A lot of times, especially in the Black community … we’re just not exposed to different lanes where we can have access to capital, have access to meeting the right people who can take our businesses to another level,” he said. “Food is like the carrot that we’re waving in front of everybody. But we really want this to be a week of exposure.”
Despite being a Wilmington staple for 51 years, even Walt’s has had its struggles, according to Symanthia Sheppard, wife of the late co-founder, Harry Sheppard, and owner of the Miller Road location.
“In the city of Wilmington, we have a lot of transient people that have come in, and came in as a result of us being a banking capital. So, people don’t know that we’re here. (Black Restaurant Week) is another avenue that we can utilize to say, ‘Hey, we’re still here,’” she said.
Symanthia joined her husband’s operation in 1982. Harry had founded the restaurant with Walter Samuels in 1975, moving to Vandever Ave. as the sole owner three years later.
According to Symanthia, Harry started running the restaurant before the building’s front facade was fully constructed.
The recipe for Walt’s Chicken is a trade secret, but Larry Fletcher, owner of the Lincoln Street location, says a key ingredient is “love.” | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CANNON TAYLOR
“For two weeks, he sat in front of the restaurant 24 hours a day, slept in a chair in front of the restaurant until he could gain enough money to put a door, walls, on the building,” she said. “When you have that kind of tenacity, it is a privilege and an honor that today, we’re still here.”
Fletcher joined Walt’s in 1989. He had been working at fast food restaurants like McDonald’s and KFC since he was 14, and by 17, he’d realized he wanted to be a restaurateur.
“I advanced to management and so on, but the ceiling was always blocked for me with ownership. Mr. Sheppard provided a chance for ownership,” he said.
In 2003, Harry allowed Fletcher to open his own Walt’s location under the same name on Lincoln Street.
Fletcher described Harry as modest, hardworking and always willing to provide second chances for those who needed them.
Larry Fletcher and Symanthia Sheppard sit outside Walt’s Flavor Crisp Chicken Express on Lincoln Street. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CANNON TAYLOR
“If you came out of the Plummer (Community Corrections) Center (or) you were transitioning from hard times, he provided the opportunity to get back out and become a productive citizen,” he said.
That legacy of giving back to the community has continued beyond Harry’s death. For example, Symanthia still runs Walt’s summer internship program.
“They learn all of the skills of (working in a restaurant), but they also learn life skills,” she said. “(We’re) constantly trying to invest in them, teach them, train them about integrity, about being a person of your word … how important it is to have that tenacity, follow through on everything that you do, no matter what it is.”
It’s not just the interns that Symanthia has watched grow up at Walt’s, but generations of customers and family members like her niece, Essence Sheppard. Symanthia plans to retire in the near future and pass the torch to Essence. Fletcher hopes to find a successor and do the same.
Symanthia’s advice to budding restaurateurs is to “stick it out.”
“Every negative word that you hear, everything that seems like an obstacle or a struggle, use it as a stepping stone,” she said. “Then, have the tenacity to continue — especially if you’re doing it because you want to build a legacy.”
Why Should Delaware Care? One of Delaware’s largest companies sold its offices less than two years after moving to Wilmington, abandoning a project that was expected to reenergize the city’s downtown and was heavily backed by taxpayer dollars. Now, returned incentives are being redirected to other initiatives aimed at supporting housing and economic development.
Seven months after Incyte scaled back plans to build its headquarters in Wilmington, the city is putting $1.15 million in returned incentive money from the pharmaceutical giant toward creating housing and businesses.
On Thursday, Mayor John Carney’s office announced the city used the funds, rescinded from the company, to purchase four pieces of land along West 7th Street in Wilmington’s Quaker Hill neighborhood.
The city released a request for proposals (RFP), inviting developers to submit plans to build housing and commercial properties on the sites.
The money used to purchase the land came from a $10 million grant Wilmington officials quietly awarded to Incyte for its headquarters expansion back in 2024. The grant was not previously known to the public until the Delaware Business Times broke the story in April.
As part of an amended agreement with the city, Incyte returned $5 million, but it may retain the other half if the company employs an annual average of 200 full-time employees at the downtown Bracebridge building for a decade, a city spokesperson told Spotlight Delaware in July.
“This work is about stabilizing neighborhoods, creating opportunity, and making sure Wilmington remains a city where people can afford to live and build a future,” said Mayor John Carney in a Thursday statement.
City officials are ensuring affordable housing units are also built on the properties, though the total number of affordable housing units has not yet been confirmed, according to Caroline Klinger, Carney’s spokeswoman.
“At this time, we’re awaiting proposals and will have more clarity on specific plans for these units as those come in,” Klinger said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware.
The Quaker Hill project would help push more redevelopment west from Market Street. The recently completed Press apartments are visible to the east here. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY MAGGIE REYNOLDS
New housing in Quaker Hill
Wilmington’s new land use investment comes as affordable housing has become a growing priority in the city. In August, Carney opened applications for developers seeking a share of the $8.4 million in affordable housing subsidies approved as part of this year’s budget. City Council members have also worked to direct funding toward short-term housing assistance.
Klinger noted that the city is seeking mixed-use developments. The properties are zoned for central retail (C-3) under city regulations — a designation that covers residential, commercial, and retail use and allows for a “wide variety of retail and display services,” according to the requests for proposals (RFP) on the project.
The city is looking for a developer to build a mix of at least three affordable housing units and market-rate housing, according to the RFP application. Klinger added that the total number of housing units will be up to the developer.
Developers awarded the Quaker Hill properties will receive city funding to build a select number of affordable housing units, set at 80% of the area median income (AMI) for a 10-year period.
For a family of four, that translates to a maximum annual household income of $98,150 according to HUD’s most recent income limits for Wilmington.
It’s also unclear whether the city will approve more than one developer, but Klinger noted that developers would be more likely to apply for all parcels rather than just a select few.
The city document also calls for redevelopment that benefits the surrounding community, boosts the city’s tax base and job opportunities, and improves neighborhood infrastructure.
The proposals and process are being overseen by the Wilmington Urban Development Action Grant Corporation (UDAG), which the city defines as “a quasi-governmental nonprofit development corporation, wholly owned by the city of Wilmington.”
UDAG had previously contributed $1.5 million of the $10 million city incentive to Incyte, Klinger told Spotlight back in April.
The sites, which city officials called “blighted and underutilized,” are owned by UDAG. They include three mixed-use buildings and one vacant lot, which the city purchased from private owners back in April, according to New Castle County’s parcel records.
The sites, located just west of downtown Wilmington’s central business district, encompass 301, 305, 307, and 309 West 7th Street. The properties are currently mixed-use buildings, with bodegas on the ground floor and apartments above them.
Developers’ proposals are due October 16.
The scuttling of the project to bring Incyte’s headquarters downtown has led local leaders to reallocate incentive funds to programs around housing and entrepreneurship. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY ELSA KEGELMAN
In July, the state reallocated $4.5 million of the $14.7 million it had awarded to Incyte to an economic development initiative to expand business districts around the state, while the rest of the money was returned to the state’s Strategic Fund, which broadly supports business expansion in Delaware.
That state funding, in addition to the $10 million Wilmington allocated, was part of a package of incentives the city and state put together to bring Incyte’s headquarters to Wilmington in the first place.
Incyte has been headquartered just outside Wilmington’s city limits, in the Alapocas community, for more than a decade. Fueled by strong sales of its cancer treatments, the company had pushed in recent years to expand its existing campus there, but ran into pushback from nearby residents.
That opposition pushed state and city officials toward a different plan to court Incyte to bring its expansion downtown.
In spring 2024, Incyte purchased the twin Bracebridge office buildings, formerly home to credit card company MBNA, with plans to turn them into its global headquarters. The nearly $50 million purchase was widely seen as a win for the city, since the largely vacant buildings had sat as a drag on Wilmington’s office market.
Soon after, the state kicked in close to $15 million to help finance Incyte’s move downtown. During a meeting of the state committee that approves such subsidies, Kurt Foreman, then the head of Delaware’s public-private economic development organization, said the deal could lead to the creation of 866 new jobs in Wilmington’s downtown core.
Then in December 2024, Wilmington officials followed with a $10 million commitment of their own, which wasn’t publicly disclosed at the time.
Incyte poured nearly $29 million into renovating the properties during the remainder of 2024 and through 2025, according to the company’s own earnings reports. Then, last winter, construction activity appeared to stop.
The timing lined up with a leadership shakeup, as Incyte had recently named Bill Meury — a pharmaceutical executive with roots in Boston-area startups — as its new CEO. He succeeded Hervé Hoppenot, longtime leader, who had been the one to sign off on the Delaware deal.
Weeks after taking over, Meury said the company would be taking “a fresh look” at its operations, including its capital allocations, according to a report from Reuters.
By February, Incyte publicly announced its scaled-back expansion plans through a series of media interviews in which officials said the company would sell the Bracebridge buildings to Buccini Pollin Group, then lease back some of the space.
State officials previously told Spotlight that no new state dollars would be flowing to BPG for the project.
Why Should Delaware Care? Southern Delaware is a gathering hotspot for the Hispanic community, with many working at the area’s poultry farms, or setting up successful businesses. Georgetown held its annual Festival Hispano on Sunday, where families spent their afternoon shopping, dancing and dining together.
Georgetown’s main street is lined up with back-to-back Latino-owned businesses offering a multitude of services. There’s tax services, artisanal shops and restaurants. Last weekend the street was also home to the annual Festival Hispano, or Hispanic Festival.
Families, groups of friends, advocates and elected officials poured in to feast on sizzling pupusas, or Salvadorean meat pies; play a round of balloon darts; and spin around to the sounds of salsa music.
The street’s businesses are a testament to Georgetown’s established Hispanic community, such as La Esperanza, which has offered social services for three decades.
The family event was organized by First State Community Action and The Voice Radio Network, which hosts multiple Spanish-language talk shows.
Spotlight Delaware captured both vendors and community members on Sunday who came together amid Hispanic Heritage Month.
Festival Hispano’s main stage featured multiple headliners ranging from salsa music to regional Mexican music. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Isabella Ayala tries one of the many beverage offerings at Georgetown’s Festival Hispano. She came to the festival representing her mother’s home country, Mexico. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY NATHALY SUQUINAGUA
Indumentaria Maya is a clothing shop that sells traditional wear and caters to soccer fanatics in Southern Delaware. Normally both women are found at the Laurel Junction Flea Market where they hold a small post. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Eiser Milian, Roberto Milian, and Carlos Izaguirre said they look forward to attending Georgetown’s Festival Hispano each year. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY NATHALY SUQUINAGUA
Ava’s mother brougher to Festival Hispano to enjoy the activities geared toward for younger attendees, such as the costumed characters walking around and the small train driving children around. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Naydeline Lopez, who owns Nassi’s Face Painting, set up her paint palettes in preparation for any designs attendees requested, such as flags or butterflies. Here, she’s painting Milagros Pacheco’s cheek. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Towards the end of Festival Hispano, Charlie Cruz and his percussion players are seen playing salsa rhythms to the crowd listening in. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY NATHALY SUQUINAGUA
Las Cuatro Hermanas is a Salvadorean pupuseria from Millsboro that handmakes savory meat and cheese pies. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Festival Hispano featured two stages for live performances by Latin artists. Three women formed a circle and danced to the music’s rhythm. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Brittney and Jose attended Festival Hispano to enjoy the cultural food, such as chopped up fruit with spicy tajin and chamoy, as well as aguas frescas made from hibiscus. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Agencies in at least 15 states have reported increased calls this year, as drought and population growth drive the animals closer to people in search of food.
Starting with package version 42-1, the mkinitcpio systemd hook now includes systemd-pcrosseparator.service (as intended by systemd v261).
This affects the measurements of PCR values 0-7, 9 and 12-14.
If you configured the systemd hook and unlock LUKS partitions, that depend on these values, you need to re-enroll the TPM2 in use.
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Immigration detentions involving Haitian residents have increased sharply in Ohio since Temporary Protected Status for Haitians ended July 27, according to a new report from the Ohio Immigrant Alliance.
Springfield ICE Watch documented 74 Haitian detainees from Aug. 7 through Sept. 17, representing a 142.3% increase compared with bookings before TPS expired. The report reviewed rosters from four Ohio facilities that contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Two other detention centers were excluded because they do not publicly release rosters.
The increase follows a June Supreme Court ruling allowing the Trump administration to terminate TPS protections for roughly 330,000 Haitians nationwide. TPS had allowed eligible Haitians to live and work legally in the United States while conditions in Haiti remained unsafe.
About 15,000 Haitians live in Springfield under a mix of immigration statuses. Local advocates say ICE has increasingly conducted traffic stops and enforcement actions near apartment complexes, stores and workplaces. Springfield ICE Watch said only 8% of detained Haitians it tracked had existing removal orders.
ICE has also expanded electronic monitoring in the community through ankle monitors and the SmartLINK phone application. DHS says those supervision decisions are made individually based on immigration status, criminal history and compliance considerations.
PlayStation 5, Xbox, PC; Remedy A surprisingly conventional game from a famously weird developer, this sequel to 2019’s Control is accomplished but safe
This is an arthouse action game from Finnish developer Remedy, masters of exactly this type of thing. It’s a sequel, however, so not only must it clear the high bar that its strikingly distinctive predecessor has set – it must also ideally arrive with a bushel of new ideas. There are clear and valuable strengths here in character progression and the lustrous presentation of its paranormal world, but Resonant doesn’t feel as enjoyably recondite or expansive in its influences as 2019’s Control did. As you wander New York brandishing supernatural abilities against glowing orange foes, the sad sense creeps in that you might be playing any number of games.
As paranormal event survivor Jesse Faden, your journey through the original Control was like a sequence of playable Twilight Zone episodes, battling prosaic household objects with supernatural properties that teased and twisted reality inside an endlessly fascinating supernatural government bureau called the Oldest House. You’d navigate architecturally impossible spaces bridging the subconscious and the bricks-and-mortar world, in order to defeat a malevolent fridge. That’s broadly true again in Resonant, albeit with diminishing returns. This time you’re playing as Jesse’s brother Dylan, waking up after years of containment in the Oldest House to find its contents have escaped into downtown Manhattan. So you head out of the interesting place, and into a setting you’ve explored before in Marvel’s Spider-Man, The Division, Max Payne, and others ad infinitum.
Jenn Lichter’s childhood followed a difficult path. The resilience she gained helped her achieve an unbreakable ultrarunning feat this summer
On 27 June, Jenn Lichter lined up for her first 100-mile race, the Western States 100. The oldest and most prestigious 100-miler in the world, Western States attracts a highly competitive field from around the globe – the athletes run across the Sierra Nevada from Olympic Valley to Auburn, California. Despite 18,000ft of climbing and daytime temperatures often flirting with triple digits, Lichter went in confident. “I wanted to win, there was no secret to that,” she says. “That’s just who I am.”
The race remained close for the first half, until the 30-year-old made a move on the climb to Devil’s Thumb. The gap grew and at the final aid station, Lichter had a sizable lead over the athlete in second place. A mile from the finish, Nick Cornell, Lichter’s fiance, told her she was just ahead of the course record. “That was the first I had heard about it,” Lichter says. “He knew my competitive side would jump at the challenge.”
If anything, the ongoing war is uniting a divided country against the foreign invaders. Washington seems a long way from grasping this point
The US president, Donald Trump, asked recently on one of his Truth Social rants: “When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?” So frenetic and all-over-the-place are Trump’s statements that one does not know which are actual policies and which are simply noise. But if counting on the “Iranian people” to rise up and fight is indeed US policy then, as far as I can tell from within Iran, it is a failed one. And miserably so. At least for now.
There is no reliable nationwide polling that can tell us what Iranians think about the war in real time. So this is an observation, not a poll. It comes from conversations I have had with many people.
Hossein Hamdieh holds a joint PhD in Geography and Anthropology from Humboldt University of Berlin and King’s College London. He is currently based in Tehran, where he works as a social researcher
Beatrice Caciotti for ProPublica. Source images: U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ official Facebook page.
In the final weeks of 2019, a top fundraiser for Sen. Susan Collins walked into a perilous meeting at a Corner Bakery in Washington, D.C.
For the first time in her two-decade Senate career, the Republican lawmaker from Maine was in danger of losing her seat. President Donald Trump’s dismal approval ratings were dragging her down in the polls, and she was falling behind her likely 2020 Democratic challenger in fundraising.
Scott Reed, head of the Collins super PAC, was on a mission to close that gap. Reed was meeting that day with three executives from a Hawaiian defense contractor, Navatek. A year earlier, Collins had helped their company land a multimillion-dollar Navy research contract in Maine. Now, seated at a coffee shop not far from the U.S. Capitol, Reed asked them for a $500,000 donation.
Government contractors are banned from making political contributions. More consequentially, for the company to offer donations to Collins in exchange for an official action, or for Collins to accept, would constitute criminal bribery.
But the company did have such a proposal: Navatek was hungry for more government contracts in Maine. If they cut a big check, the CEO told Reed, Navatek wanted Collins to guarantee tens of millions of dollars in additional federal funding.
To skirt campaign finance laws and conceal the source of the funds, Navatek planned to funnel the donation through a shell company. The CEO wanted assurance that Collins would know where the money came from. Reed confirmed that she would, the executive said — and that Navatek would get its government contracts.
After the Corner Bakery meeting, Navatek’s CEO, Martin Kao, sent an initial $150,000 to the Collins super PAC using the shell company. Two months later, he told Navatek executives thatCollins committed to getting the company $32 million in naval contracts, according to an internal company email reviewed by ProPublica.
Three years later, Kao holed up in a conference room to recount the Corner Bakery meeting to a group of four FBI agents and federal prosecutors. The FBI had seen through his shell company ruse, and in 2022 a grand jury indicted him for making illegal campaign contributions. No one working for Collins was charged.
Facing years in prison, Kao hoped to do less time by revealing the entire scheme.
What he told them has never before become public. The Corner Bakery meeting, he asserted, was just one episode in a sprawling pay-to-play operation that embroiled some of the most powerful figures in Congress.
Over three days at the U.S. attorney’s office in Honolulu, Kao laid out in devastating detail how his operation worked. He gave agents a 50-page document naming dozens of lobbyists, congressional staffers and members of Congress who he said helped him trade cash for contracts. Kao and his close associates had donated nearly $900,000 to dozens of politicians, allowing Navatek to establish operations in half a dozen states with over $40 million a year in government funding.
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Most damningly, Kao told FBI agents and prosecutors, the company’s work for the government was of no real value. Navatek’s research under his stewardship never resulted in products the military wanted to buy, ProPublica found.
Kao’s tell-all interviews with the FBI lasted into late 2024. His confessions opened up an entirely new phase of the investigation. Agents sifted through hundreds of thousands of records seized during Kao’s arrest and found that many were consistent with his account of widespread influence peddling.
Kao had credibility issues. He was now a felon trying to avoid a lengthy prison sentence. And there were other challenges. Building a corruption case against elected officials requires extraordinary proof of a quid pro quo arrangement, in part because the Supreme Court has narrowed what counts as bribery.
Even so, by the end of 2024, the agents had enough evidence to pursue a sweeping bribery probe that could ensnare top lawmakers of both political parties. They asked their supervisors to approve a new investigation and contemplated using undercover operatives to gather more evidence. Although their effort was in its early stages, and it was unclear where it would lead, FBI agents asked Kao extensive questions about his dealings with Collins and her office.
Then Trump returned to the White House. Consumed by a campaign of vengeance, he stacked the Department of Justice with his personal lawyers and demanded a purge of anyone who had ever investigated him.
The specialized FBI and DOJ teams handling public corruption investigations, some of which were involved in Trump-related cases, were eviscerated. One of the agents who had taken Kao’s confession was pushed out as retribution for her role in investigating Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Dozens of agents and prosecutors quit amid the department’s destruction, including the career attorney assigned to Kao’s case.
Trump’s Justice Department no longer takes on public corruption in any meaningful fashion, former officials said. The investigation sparked by Kao’s revelations is dead. And the government is no longer talking to an informant who had offered a road map to corruption in Congress.
The White House referred ProPublica to the FBI.
FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson said the agency had investigated claims against Collins years ago “and ultimately found nothing implicating Senator Collins or Senator Collins’ campaign. Any suggestion otherwise is totally false.” Williamson said the Trump administration has removed agents only “if they have been found to have acted unethically, undermined the mission, or engaged in weaponization of law enforcement.”
Williamson did not respond to questions about the new investigation launched in 2024 based on Kao’s previously unreported cooperation with the FBI.
ProPublica is revealing the existence of the case for the first time. We reviewed a trove of evidence gathered by the FBI and thousands of pages of legal records, and interviewed dozens of people familiar with Navatek, its Washington operations, and the FBI inquiry to conduct our own investigation. We independently corroborated much of Kao’s account. Whether or not Kao’s dealings with politicians amount to criminal bribery, the Trump Justice Department has little interest in finding out, and his sheer success reveals how easily influence is purchased in Washington today. This is the first in a series of stories drawn from our reporting.
Of all the politicians Navatek courted under Kao’s leadership, Collins was its most important patron. The senator’s office steered government contracts worth millions toward the company while her campaign was pumping Kao and his network for donations, according to emails seen by ProPublica. Sometimes they cut checks within 24 hours of the annual defense spending bill, which funds military contracts, clearing a key Senate hurdle.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins walks in the annual Moxie Day Parade in July in Lisbon, Maine.Scott Eisen/Getty Images
Collins’ office did not specifically address questions about the Corner Bakery meeting, the senator’s relationship with Kao and the millions she helped appropriate for Navatek.
Annie Clark, Collins’ deputy chief of staff, told ProPublica in an email that Collins’ office “vigorously” denies allegations of bribery and pay-for-play made by Kao, calling his claims “outlandish.” Collins’ campaign was not part of the discussions between Kao and the super PAC, and her office “fully cooperated” with the FBI investigation, Clark said.
“The fact that the FBI and Biden-led Department of Justice thoroughly examined the Navatek matter demonstrates this,” Clark wrote. “These issues were resolved in 2021 and concluded when the Collins campaign disgorged the illegal contributions that Martin Kao had made without our knowledge.”
Collins is once again fighting to keep her seat, in a race that could determine control of the Senate. On the campaign trail, she spotlights the funding she directs to Maine while leading the appropriations committee, which she calls “the most powerful committee in the Senate.”
She demonstrated that power with Navatek. After the budgets became law, Collins’ office pushed the Navy to award specific contracts to Navatek, emails seen by ProPublica show, even though awards are supposed to be competitive.
“I spoke with Sen. Collins office regarding the $8M,” a naval official wrote in an email on Feb. 6, 2019. “The interested company is Navatek.”
In a meeting with Collins and two campaign officials, Kao said, the officials told him the senator expected his ongoing support. Collins told him: “You’ve seen me deliver,” Kao said.
Reed knew Kao was behind the $150,000 anonymous donation, emails showed, because Kao told Reed he planned to donate through a shell company. “Very smart,” Reed replied in an email viewed by ProPublica.
Reed did not respond to detailed questions about the Corner Bakery meeting, the $150,000 donation and Kao’s allegations. “I understand Martin Kao is now sitting in federal prison,” Reed wrote in a brief email. “I never had any communications with Senator Collins [or] her staff about Martin Kao and/or Navatek.”
But an email seen by ProPublica suggests that someone must have relayed the news of Kao’s donation to Collins, just like Reed promised to do in Kao’s recounting of the Corner Bakery meeting.
Seven days after the super PAC cashed the check from Kao’s shell company, one of Reed’s subordinates emailed a Navatek lobbyist asking for Kao’s phone number: “Senator Collins would like to call Martin to thank him.”
Martin Kao, second from left, with Collins, center, at a publicity event at Navatek’s Maine headquarters in August 2019.U.S. Sen. Susan Collins via Facebook
The Navatek Method
Before Kao’s doomed reign as CEO, Navatek was a sleepy Hawaiian engineering company with a few dozen employees. It was founded in 1978 by Steven Loui, a talented engineer and scion of a powerful Hawaiian shipping family. Navatek was not a profit center but a vehicle for Loui’s passion projects, like an experimental catamaran for navigating Hawaii’s choppy waters.
The company benefited from the largesse of the legendary Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, multiple former Navatek executives and employees said, whose family had been close to the Loui family for generations. Inouye was a master of earmarks, a practice that allowed lawmakers to insert funding for specific companies by name in the federal budget. The self-styled “King of Pork” steered hundreds of millions in federal dollars to Hawaii. Former Navatek employees say he was affectionately referred to as “Uncle Dan.” “Before Inouye took an interest, Congress didn’t even know our companies existed,” a longtime Loui lieutenant wrote in a 1998 op-ed.
In response to ProPublica questions, Loui said that money appropriated by Inouye made up “a minority” of Navatek’s revenue.
Inouye’s death in 2012 made the company’s future uncertain. Not only was Navatek’s direct line to Capitol Hill gone, but Congress was doing away with the abuse-riddled earmark process. Now companies would nominally have to compete on the merits for government contracts.
Kao joined Navatek in 2008 as its chief financial officer. Loui charged him with replacing Navatek’s rainmaker and eventually named Kao CEO. He sold Kao the company in return for a share of the profits.
Kao was an unusual figure among the company’s low-key naval engineers and boat aficionados. He seemed to be aping a Wall Street tycoon, telling employees they could either be “a beast or a bitch,” a former executive said. He drove to work in a Ferrari and abruptly fired subordinates who displeased him — one time, in the middle of the night. “He had very little interest in the technology,” one former employee recalled. “Martin was only interested in dollar signs.”
Kao also exaggerated and lied. He told different people he had stepbrothers whose parents died in a fishing accident or an avalanche, a former employee recalled. He lied to Loui about having law degrees from both the University of California, Los Angeles and New York University. He once told a lobbyist who raised quarter horses that he owned a herd of polo ponies, just to one-up him.
Despite his erratic behavior, former employees agree Kao hit upon an effective way to replace the lost earmarks. If the company could not rely on a benefactor like Inouye, it would develop a stable of them.
Navatek targeted the powerful members who sat on the House and Senate appropriations committees. These members could no longer earmark money for specific military contractors. But they retained the power to budget millions of dollars for equipment orbespoke research and development. Because Pentagon budgets run thousands of pages and are largely prepared in secret, it is easy for appropriators to add a line item intended for a contractor like Navatek without leaving any fingerprints.
Soon, Kao had refined a playbook. Navatek would concoct a research project in partnership with a university in a member’s district or home state, and Kao would make a large initial campaign donation. Working with a team of pricey, well-connected lobbyists, Navatek would get meetings on Capitol Hill to pitch the research to congressional staff. Navatek kept spreadsheets, reviewed by ProPublica, that listed members of Congress as the “specialty” of certain lobbyists.
Separately, Kao later told the FBI, there would be a meeting of just the key players. One engineer, who traveled with Kao to D.C. to explain the technical side of a project, recalled being sent out of the room once the subject of money came up. Sometimes in these smaller meetings, members of Congress directly asked Kao for donations, he told the FBI. In other cases, he said, Navatek’s lobbyists would relay a request from an intermediary for a specific dollar amount.
Kao told the FBI that the lawmakers, lobbyists and Navatek brass understood these donations were bribes and that the payments were essential to the entire scheme. Kao believed he was buying Navatek’s way into the annual defense budget, not winning over members with innovative engineering proposals.
“I’m not red or blue, I’m green,” he would tell congressional staffers, a former Navatek employee recalled.
While a deal was being struck, Navatek and congressional staffers worked closely on the legislative process. Every year, Congress prefaces the defense budget with massive reports describing the purpose of inscrutable line items. Staffers would include a project description so specific that Navatek would be the only logical pick.
Often, Navatek composed language that ended up, word for word, in Senate funding requests, former employees said. In 2019, for example, Navatek’s priorities were tucked into page 185 of the 307-page report released by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The committee set aside $21.5 million for “hybrid composite structures research for enhanced mobility,” “electric propulsion for military craft and advanced planing hulls” and a “test bed for autonomous ship systems.” Although Navatek’s name does not appear on the page, these were all projects the company requested, according to internal documents and interviews with former employees.
Once the budget passed, lawmakers’ staff leaned on Navy officials to award Navatek the money. Former contracting officers told ProPublica they felt pressure to go along because money from those contracts funded their office — and because members of Congress had confronted dissenting naval officials in the past. “There’s only so many battles you can fight,” one said. So Congress sometimes got its way even when Navatek’s projects made little sense.
Inside Navatek, employees referred to this strategy as “the method.” And it enabled the company to string together tens of millions of dollars in contracts. The result was the same as getting earmarks: a reliable, growing revenue stream bankrolled by U.S. taxpayers.
“It was a simple enough play. Let’s find the small states that have complementary universities … [and] let’s get access to their senators,” Eric Schiff, a former Navatek executive, told ProPublica. “I’ve met Susan Collins. You can get access to Susan Collins. Once we got the first things working with Maine, then we said, ‘Well, let’s keep reaching.’ And so we did.”
In a statement to ProPublica, Navatek founder Loui said Kao’s “unethical and illegal method of winning contracts” was a departure from how he operated the company prior to Kao’s ownership.
Kao boosted Navatek’s annual revenue from $10 million around the time Loui sold him the company to almost $40 million when he was arrested in 2020. In the second half of 2019 alone, Navatek paid a roster of five lobbying shops more than $500,000.
Even Navatek’s executives were surprised at how far their money went in D.C. “It was eye-opening for me, frankly. ‘Oh my God, all of it is for sale. It’s all for sale,’” Schiff said.
The key players in Kao’s pay-to-play deals went to great lengths to meet in person and leave no trace of an actual quid pro quo, he told agents. “That is why I literally had to fly to D.C. almost every week,” Kao later told the FBI. “Sometimes for a 15-minute meeting.”
But the FBI compiled emails, which ProPublica reviewed, that were suggestive of illegal bargains. Navatek executives and lobbyists spoke openly as if they were buying lawmakers’ assistance. In one back-and-forth, a lobbyist and a company executive described another senator as “fundamentally transactional” and having “a reputation as a pay-to-play office.”
In another message, Andy Winer, who former executives said was Navatek’s chief strategist, reminded Kao to budget money for political contributions based on how much the company wanted in congressional funding the following year.
“Oh my God, all of it is for sale. It’s all for sale.”
Eric Schiff, former Navatek executive
Winer was his guide to the political underbelly, Kao said. A consummate insider, Winer had parlayed six years as chief of staff to Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii into a lucrative lobbying career with a firm called Strategies 360. One of Winer’s former colleagues compared him to the slick lobbyist on the Netflix show “House of Cards” who toggles between the political and corporate worlds.
In another email exchange scrutinized by the FBI, Kao asked Winer about making a $5,600 donation to nudge along a senator who seemed keen to work with Navatek: “Would that ‘help?’”
Winer, who had already donated himself, replied, “With my contribution, I think it sends the right message.” He suggested Kao split up his donation to be “less conspicuous.”
The method didn’t always work. Once, Kao complained that a senator had reneged on a deal and he ought to get his donations back.
“You should not feel aggrieved nor should you ever put that in writing,” Todd Webster, another lobbyist Navatek hired, replied. Webster did not respond to detailed questions.
Winer said he stopped working with Navatek following Kao’s arrest. “The political contributions I discussed with Kao were understood by me to be lawful political contributions. I never participated in, witnessed, or had knowledge of any illegal political contribution, bribe, or agreement to exchange a political contribution for an appropriation, contract, or other official action,” Winer said in an email to ProPublica. “I never advised Kao to make a contribution in exchange for official action.”
Strategies 360 has new ownership that did not oversee Winer while he represented Navatek, its CEO, John Oceguera, said.
Navatek employees began to notice members of Congress visiting their East Coast offices. “You would be like, ‘Oh, there’s this senator walking around,’ and we would get a picture with them,” one engineer recalled.
While some projects involved potentially meaningful research, Navatek’s bread and butter was R&D that went nowhere. As a slideshow prepared by an executive explained, “We thrive in the valley of death,” the term for the bureaucratic gap where research languishes without being developed into a product. The slideshow noted that none of the technology had ever actually been deployed.
The Office of Naval Research did not respond to a request for comment.
In Maine, Navatek was studying ways to modify small boats to reduce the “slamming” impact felt by passengers at high speeds. With the help of the University of Maine’s giant 3D printer, Navatek made a prototype and unveiled it at a press conference where a Guinness World Records representative declared it the world’s largest 3D-printed boat. But Navatek executives knew the Navy had no plans to use the new design, former employees said.
“[The work] got rolled into a few PowerPoint slides and a white paper, and that was the deliverable,” recalled one who worked on the project. “The boats weren’t delivered to the Navy — the Navy didn’t even want them.”
Kao to Collins: “Here to Help”
The first time Kao came face-to-face with Collins, in 2018, he told the FBI, he had to pay for the privilege.
Collins would not meet unless he agreed to donate to her campaign, he said. While it is not illegal for politicians to exchange face time for contributions — in this case, just a few thousand dollars — it was not the last time Collins would seek Kao’s support.
Navatek had been eager to expand beyond Hawaii, and Maine was a perfect beachhead — a small, coastal state hungry for high-tech jobs that happened to be represented by a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Collins, more than most appropriators, likes to trumpet the dollars she brings home.
To work with Collins, Navatek hired a lobbyist, Glen Mandigo, who also lobbied for the University of Maine and was tight with her office. Mandigo asked how much Navatek wanted in funding and how much Kao was willing to support Collins, Kao told the FBI. The University of Maine did not reply to a request for comment.
In that first meeting with Collins and her staff, Kao pitched an $8 million boat hull research project for Navatek and the university. Collins seemed supportive. Not long after, Mandigo called Kao and said Collins wanted him to bundle tens of thousands of dollars for her reelection, suggesting Navatek throw a fundraiser, Kao said.
In an email to ProPublica, Mandigo denied taking part in a pay-to-play arrangement.
“I did not advise Navatek officials, nor would I advise any client, that support from Sen. Collins was contingent on campaign donations,” Mandigo wrote. He said that in his 25 years of working with Collins and the Maine delegation, “I never saw or heard of such behavior from the Senator or her staff.” Clark, Collins’ deputy chief of staff, told ProPublica it was “wholly inaccurate” to say Mandigo was close to their office.
FBI agents had collected voluminous corporate records and email correspondence between Navatek and Collins’ inner circle. Much of that evidence aligned with the story they were now getting directly from Kao.
The FBI had spotted his out-of-the-blue donations in the summer of 2018, just before Collins included $8 million for Navatek’s proposal in the defense budget. Emails showed her staff made it clear to the Navy that it shouldsend the money to Navatek. FBI agents also had evidence of Kao and Mandigo planning a fundraiser starting in April 2019. Their emails — with her scheduler and her campaign’s finance director — freely mixed talk of Navatek’s Collins-backed contract with plans to raise money for her.
The principals settled on hosting Collins for a publicity event at Navatek’s Maine headquarters in August 2019, where she posed for pictures with Kao and a model of the company’s experimental boat. Behind the scenes, the FBI saw in emails and company records, Kao orchestrated over $40,000 in donations from extended family in advance of the event. To avoid the legal cap on individual campaign contributions, the emails show, he told Collins’ team to reallocate his excess contributions to his father — which an agent highlighted and noted is against election law in a presentation to prosecutors — and sent them his father’s full name and address.
“This is perfect,” Amy Abbott, the reelection campaign finance director, emailed Kao after discussing his father’s contribution. “We are so grateful for ALL the Kao support!”
Before the event, Kao said, Collins, Abbott and another staffer met with him in private. One of the staffers told Kao the campaign expected more donations. It was in this meeting that Collins said, “You’ve seen me deliver,” he told the FBI.
Less than one month after the event, the Senate released a draft of the defense budget containing $21.5 million for Navatek’s pet projects in Maine. Kao emailed a Collins campaign fundraiser — who would in theory have nothing to do with a government contract — four days later, saying, “Thanks again for all the support from Sen Collins.”
“I’ve been involved in many tight races in the past and understand last minute ‘needs’ come up,” he continued. “We are here to help anyway we can … financially or whatever.”
Kao’s desire to donate even more money led to the fateful Corner Bakery meeting with the head of the Collins super PAC, called the 1820 PAC, Kao told the FBI. Unlike Collins’ campaign, which could accept only $5,600 per election from individuals, the super PAC could accept unlimited contributions.
The super PAC emailed Kao a memo before the meeting stressing the need to raise money with “urgency.” At the meeting, Kao and Reed, the super PAC’s chair, hammered out a deal for a six-figure donation, Kao told the FBI. Over email, Kao informed Reed of his shell company scheme, saying he had clearedit with his lawyer. “They are super vague and very difficult to get any background info on,” Kao reassured him. “Thanks for doing this,” Reed replied.
The FBI spoke to the other Navatek executives at Corner Bakery, who confirmed the meeting took place. One, David Kring, the company’s top scientist, told ProPublica he had no memory of what was discussed.
The other, Duke Hartman, told an FBI agent it was just “a get to know you meeting” with the chair of the super PAC and they did not discuss the “particulars of a donation.” Agents, records show, came to believe Hartman was lying about his role in Kao’s pay-to-play operation and would name him as a formal subject of a future investigation. Hartman was not charged. He did not respond to a detailed request for comment.
A few weeks after the $150,000 check to the Collins super PAC cleared, in February 2020, Kao and his team met with Collins’ office and secured a new round of funding.
“We were very warmly received,” Kao reported to his colleagues in an email obtained by the FBI. “Excellent meeting. Total of $32M will be supported.” Records show the Senate allocated at least $10 million that year based on Navatek’s proposals.
Navatek’s ambitions peaked in mid-2020. As the company waited to see if Collins would survive her reelection campaign, executives prepared to ask their champion on the appropriations committee for even more funding the following spring, internal documents show.
Other documents from that time show the company was courting senators from seven additional states and gunning for more than $200 million in new appropriations. Navatek expected to have offices in more than a dozen states by the end of the following year, including a new 15,000-square-foot facility in the Portland, Maine, harbor.
Kao, meanwhile, closed on a $4.5 million beachside home in an exclusive Honolulu neighborhood; the backyard pool had a waterfall feature. He renamed the company Martin Defense Group after himself, joking that it would simplify his future takeover of Lockheed Martin.
“It was working well, and it would have continued to work well,” said Schiff, the former executive. “Martin got greedy. Just got damn greedy.”
Downfall, Cover-up
In early 2020, the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit good government group, noticed something strange in the public filings for the Collins super PAC. The PAC had received a $150,000 donation from a newly created LLC with a typo in its name: the Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers, with no S at the end of “Scientist.”
This was the $150,000 Kao donated after the Corner Bakery meeting. The money had come from Navatek’s account, not Kao’s, violating a ban on government contractors making donations.
A check for $150,000 to the Collins super PAC 1820 from the Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers — a shell company that obscured the actual donor.PacMar Technologies LLC, fka Martin Defense Group, LLC v. Kao
The center suspected the society was not a real group but a pass-through to hide the identity of a major political donor. It filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. It took only a few days for a Hawaii journalist to discover Kao’s wife’s name on the society’s paperwork, linking the shell company to Navatek.
Inside Navatek, Kao shifted into damage control mode. He spoke to Reed and the super PAC’s lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, and began to hatch a cover-up. In an email released in civil litigation, Mitchell suggested the society make charitable donations — preferably in Maine — which would make it seem like a legitimate nonprofit. “I want to be sure that the LLC proceeds with the ideas we discussed — giving scholarships and recognition to women in engineering, etc.,” wrote Mitchell. “That would help both of us, I think.”
Mitchell added, “We should develop a plan and timetable, so there are some scholarships given over the next several months, and particularly, perhaps in Maine, where the bad press was.”
Mitchell, who later played a major role in Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, did not respond to requests for comment.
Kao and his team settled on donating scholarships to women in STEM. They offered between $5,000 and $25,000 apiece to state universities where they were angling to win government contracts — that way, the cover-up would benefit them politically, too.
But Navatek’s and Kao’s problems were just beginning. Undeterred by scrutiny from the FEC, Kao defrauded the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program newly passed by Congress. He inflated Navatek’s payroll to amass loans of $13 million, according to a federal indictment. The Navatek founder, Loui, had long since soured on his chosen successor. This was the final straw. He reported Kao to federal authorities.
“This is not how Navatek behaved or conducted business before I sold the company to Martin Kao,” Loui wrote to ProPublica. He said Navatek was successful before Kao’s ownership and had many sources of government funding. After Kao’s arrest, he added, the company fully cooperated with law enforcement.
Loui has since regained control of the company and renamed it PacMar. He is dedicated to restoring its reputation and ability to execute government contracts, he continued. Loui said he fired employees hired during Kao’s tenure who were “not capable of performing quality, professional engineering and science tasks.”
“The company received no Collins-supported funding after Martin Kao’s arrest, nor should it,” Loui added. “What Martin Kao and his cabal did was wrong.”
On Sept. 30, 2020, law enforcement raided Navatek’s Honolulu offices and arrested Kao for fraud. Federal agents in windbreakers seized his laptop and ordered the company’s IT staff to copy the company’s internal servers.
Navatek’s public flameout attracted the attention of Michelle Ball and Kevin Gounaud, two experienced agents in the FBI’s elite anti-corruption unit. Gounaud was a 20-year FBI veteran who had worked on elaborate undercover operations. Ball had made a name for herself taking on politically sensitive cases. In 2018, she led the investigation into Maria Butina, the Russian agent convicted of infiltrating the National Rifle Association in an attempt to influence the Trump campaign.
The agents began digging through thousands of records for details of Navatek’s lobbying operation, donation strategy and ties to politicians.
They zeroed in on Kao’s relationship with Collins. In a 60-slide presentation agents prepared for prosecutors, they highlighted contributions that Kao and his wife made to the senator in 2018, right before Collins placed the $8 million in research funding into the federal budget. Kao had also given Navatek money to various relatives to donate to Collins in 2019, sending her around $33,000 through these illegal straw donors, the indictment said. Kao’s wife and father did not reply to requests for comment.
Collins christens a Navatek-designed boat at a University of Maine engineering lab in October 2019.U.S. Sen. Susan Collins via Facebook
The government charged Kao in two separate cases: one for defrauding the loan program and another for his campaign finance crimes. His love of talking like a wheeler-dealer — including over email — was a gift to investigators. In one email, he all but admitted the scholarships to young women were a diversion. “Whatever… just a pack of bitches getting free $,” he wrote.
In the face of overwhelming evidence, Kao pleaded guilty in both cases in the fall of 2022. Navatek by then was under court-ordered new management. Awaiting sentencing, Kao worked as a line cook at a Cheesecake Factory.
He began meeting with the same FBI agents and prosecutors who brought him down. For the agents, he was a rare witness: a contractor with deep ties to elected officials saying he would speak candidly about how Washington works.
Kao faced nearly a decade in prison. “My world and life imploded,” he would later recall in a letter to the Hawaii U.S. District Court. “I was fooled and foolish enough to believe that the power elected officials wielded, and [were] actively willing to sell to anyone wealthy enough to pay, was….‘smart business.’”
Over the next two years, Kao sat with agents for at least three dayslong interviews. He told them that politicians, Collins in particular, had been willing participants in his scheme. “It takes two to tangle,” he told them.
Taxpayers funded Navatek’s entire political operation, Kao said. “Most companies of our size do not have the resources to endlessly hire expensive lobbyists and make political donations,” he told the FBI. Navatek solved this by using money from government contracts to hire lobbyists and make campaign contributions, according to interviews, court testimony and internal company records. Diverting money from contracts for lobbying and political donations can be illegal.
For their final meeting, in September 2024, Kao handed the FBI the 50-page document detailing Navatek’s dealings with more than a dozen members of Congress and their staff. It was not only a confession but a road map, with the email addresses and phone numbers of people Kao thought agents ought to subpoena.
Last year, Kao was sentenced to 87 months in prison. The judge in his case offered no leniency based on his cooperation with the FBI. Loui is battling Kao in court to recover the millions he contends Kao stole from the company.
Both Scott Reed and Amy Abbott remain in Collins’ inner circle. Abbott is the finance director for her 2026 reelection effort, and Reed again chairs the main Collins super PAC. Abbott, who is married to Collins’ campaign manager, referred questions to the senator’s communications staff. Clark told ProPublica that Abbott and other campaign staff were interviewed by the FBI and that the campaign was never a target of the investigation.
Earlier this year, Kao agreed to meet a ProPublica reporter at the Federal Prison Camp in Yankton, South Dakota, where he is incarcerated. But on two occasions when guards summoned Kao over the intercom, he refused to enter the visitation room. Over email, he said he was no longer willing to meet, citing the ongoing litigation. He declined through his lawyer to respond to detailed questions.
By late 2024, Ball and Gounaud, the FBI agents, had come to believe there was enough evidence to warrant a broader investigation into bribery of members of Congress, according to a memo seen by ProPublica.
Before they could embark on their new mission, however, they became casualties of Trump’s retribution campaign.
Ball and Gounaud worked for the FBI’s elite anti-corruption unit known as CR-15, which specialized in investigating misconduct by elected officials. When Trump retook power, his new FBI director, Kash Patel, purged the unit agent by agent.
Ball was targeted for her work on the special counsel investigation of Trump’s failed bid to overturn the 2020 election. She was fired in October 2025 in a one-page letter stating she had “weaponized” the Justice Department. She is challenging her firing in a lawsuit. Gounaud was pushed out in early 2026. Both agents declined to comment through their attorney.
Trump also targeted the Justice Department attorneys who worked with CR-15. The team, known as the Public Integrity Section, collapsed spectacularly in February 2025 after staff were ordered to drop a case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Trump ally. The unit’s leadership quit en masse. Trump appointees ordered the remaining prosecutors to halt new corruption cases, just months after Kao made his detailed confession.
Before Ball was fired, however, she managed to take a key step forward.
Based on all the evidence, she persuaded her supervisors to approve a new investigation. It centered on South Carolina, one of the states Navatek eyed for a rapid expansion. The FBI had questions about a steak dinner Kao shared with Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Do You Have Information About Political Dealmaking in Washington?
We’re still reporting on pay-for-play arrangements between powerful companies and elected officials.
When the pop singer Pink took to social media to decry rapper Macklemore’s comments on Israel’s genocide of Palestinians — a slaughter that has taken the lives of more than 20,000 kids — she brought up her decadelong role as a UNICEF ambassador to show that she cares about children.
Now, a new petition signed by more than 160,000 people, including the backing of actor Javier Bardem, is calling for Pink’s removal from her UNICEF USA role. The petition organizers, Swifties Against Genocide, named for fans of the pop singer Taylor Swift, said that Pink’s remarks sidelined concern for Palestinian children and “fueled ongoing conflict and struggles for visibility and empathy.”
“As individuals who care deeply about the welfare of children around the world, we must hold UNICEF Ambassadors to the highest standards of neutrality and compassion,” the organizers wrote. “Palestinian children, like all children affected by genocide, deserve ambassadors who unequivocally extend support and empathy towards their plight.”
The petition is the latest example of the type of public pressure supporters of Palestine are seeking to exert amid a tidal shift of sentiment in the U.S. on Palestine and Israel over the past three years. Israel’s genocide in Gaza has dramatically soured U.S. opinion on Israel, with a majority viewing Israel unfavorably and more Americans taking a sympathetic view of Palestinians.
“UNICEF itself has called Gaza a graveyard for children. Its ambassadors are supposed to speak for those children, not attack the people who do.”
The transformations have played out in the current midterm election cycle, with candidates pushing to sever military ties with Israel winning in primaries across the country. In the past several weeks, the subject has upended mainstream popular culture, with battle lines being drawn over a stadium concert tour by pop icon Ed Sheeran.
The pressure on UNICEF to part ways with Pink is tied up with a strategy among Palestine solidarity activists to extract a price from Israel for its continued occupation and genocide of Palestinians.
For Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a policy fellow with Al-Shabaka U.S., the petition is “a clear attempt to draw a new line in the sand and make the point that choosing to take the moderate lane is unacceptable.”
“These past couple days have proven that being shamelessly pro-Israel, or even refusing to take sides in the face of a genocide, is no longer the safe route,” he said, citing a shift of the “cultural hegemony” in the West.
Though Sheeran himself — who said at his latest concert that he was listening to both sides — is not a target of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel, the cultural backlash to his move to take Macklemore off the tour reinforced the logic of the growing movement, Natasha Lennard recently wrote in The Intercept.
Representatives for Pink, UNICEF, and Change.org did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Other advocates for Palestinian rights reaffirmed the petitioners’ aims.
“Pink should step down. UNICEF itself has called Gaza a graveyard for children. Its ambassadors are supposed to speak for those children, not attack the people who do,” said Raed Jarrar, the advocacy director of Democracy for the Arab World Now. “Whether UNICEF removes her or not, it’s time for her to step down.”
Attacking Pro-Palestine Speech
The controversy involving Pink kicked off during Sheeran’s show at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on September 4.
Macklemore, one of the opening acts, spoke out against Israeli apartheid and the genocide of Palestinians, addressing Jewish people in the crowd to say that criticism of genocide and the Israeli government “is in no way a criticism of you.”
After backlash from pro-Israel groups like the Anti-Defamation League — and perhaps more critically, pressure from billionaire Robert Kraft, the deeply pro-Israel owner of the New England Patriots and Massachusetts’s Gillette Stadium — Sheeran dropped Macklemore from his tour. Then came the backlash to the backlash, with other opening acts on the tour and even Sheeran’s backing band dropping out in solidarity with Macklemore.
Pink, the pop star who rose to fame with a string of hits in the early 2000s, waded into the controversy early on. After attending the September 4 show, Pink reshared a social media post from the group Stop Antisemitism that said Macklemore’s claims of a genocide were “false” and that concertgoers were owed apologies and refunds.
“I don’t need anyone fired, and I don’t need a refund,” she later wrote on Instagram, explaining why she reshared the post. “What I need is to be able to say, as a Jewish mom, ‘That scared me, and it scared people I love’ — without being told our fear is just propaganda, and without being told I’m somehow cool with genocide because I noticed?”
She added that the protest slogan “From river to the sea” and the use of the term “Zionist” have become “a slur.”
Pink said that “nobody should ever celebrate the death of a child.” She mentioned her experience as a UNICEF ambassador visiting children born in war zones. She “grieved every one of them, on both sides of that fence,” she wrote.
Yet Pink’s grief, or any celebrity’s, has done little to change conditions on the ground for Palestinian children. Just on Monday, an 11-year-old boy was shot to death by the Israeli military in one of Gaza’s apparent “safe zones.”
UNICEF, which operates in Gaza, itself reported that Israeli attacks have killed at least 300 children in Gaza since the so-called ceasefire agreement last October. Food insecurity and lack of access to clean water also remain issues due to Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid from entering the Strip.
In her social media post, Pink said she does not speak for Israel but reiterated her stance that “Hamas is a terrorist organization. Palestinians deserve a future that honors their humanity and their aspirations.” She said she was not “going to litigate a complex war in an Instagram caption, and I’m not going to recite anybody’s slogan to earn back a follower.”
Over the weekend, the petition calling out Pink also drew the support from Javier Bardem, an outspoken advocate for Palestine and major funder of the Palestinian film “All That’s Left of You,” who shared the petition on his Instagram profile.
“She can not defend children’s rights,” Bardem said, “while not condemning the genocide in Gaza.”
I have this XR that was left in a storage for some time and last night I decided to see if its still alive. This is the sequence that followed:
When I first connected it, the charger light turned red and the board's power button started blinking 16 times. I understand that this is expected after not being charged for a long time. I opened the app, while still plugged in and the board connected to it via bluetooth and performed a firmware update.
After the firmware update it kept flashing 16 times. I checked the diagnostics and the battery was showing 32F temperature. I understand that this was also to be expected. When I opened the Diagnostics it also prompted me to reboot the unit.
I left it connected and after 2 hours or so, the charger light changed to green. I unplugged it and power cycled the board. The front and back lights turned on, it seemed to be working fine. The Diagnostics was showing the correct battery temperature and I was no longer receiving the error 16, asking me to reboot.
I left the unit to charge over night in order to balance the battery (as suggested by AI) considering it hasn't been charged in such a long time.
In the morning, the charger light was green, the board power button blue led was blinking slowly.
I unplugged it and tried to turn it on but nothing happens when I press the power button. I short-pressed it, I also tried log-press for 3, 5 and 10 seconds - still nothing.
When I connect it to the charger, the unit connects to the app via bluetooth, it shows battery level at 98%-100%, the power button blue led blinks slows but as soon as I disconnect the charger, the unit dies.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how should I approach this?
I am assuming that the battery is dead but considering that the unit was alive last night, I was hopeful that I will still be able to save it.
Jacinda Ardern and her husband, Clarke Gayford, have bought a $5.3m home in Sydney’s northern beaches, according to a source with knowledge of the sale.
The former New Zealand prime minister settled on a home in Dee Why after looking at properties in the area including in nearby Curl Curl.
The Reserve Bank governor said AI could be a bubble and there was no evidence it is making the economy more efficient, as the Albanese government claims the technology will solve Australia’s economic malaise.
Ahead of an expected interest rate rise next week Michele Bullock also said the slump in house prices was deeper than others in Australia’s recent history.
Monday Google opened preorders for its "Googlebook" laptops, pricing them at $899. A Google's blog post added that "At launch, you can choose between Intel Core Ultra Series 3 and Snapdragon X Elite processors" (paired with NPUs to power AI features).
"Devices will hit shelves on October 4 in the U.S. and on October 5 in Canada, the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, and Australia," TechCrunch points out. But "the real pull for the new devices is that they'll prominently feature Gemini's latest capabilities in a new format: the laptop."
Google is trying to offer a laptop with unique features like an AI-powered cursor, vibe-coded widgets, and support for AI-enhanced dictation. The latter is a feature called Rambler, which cleans up messy, rambling brain dumps into readable text. The move is a bet that AI, specifically Google's Gemini, could be enough of a draw to get people to buy a new laptop that bakes in AI instead of running them via desktop apps you install or access through the browser... On the Googlebook, Google is trying to reinvent the "point-and-click" experience of desktop computing to now include an AI element: The cursor serves as a conduit to Gemini. The company suggests various ways this could be used, like highlighting content on a web page for Gemini to work with, asking Gemini to see if an email you've hovered your cursor over is suspicious, or selecting images and then asking Gemini to visualize them together...
What's more interesting about the Googlebook is how it's seemingly part of Google's longer-term plan to capture a large part of the K-12 market that currently relies on Chromebooks and push them toward the company's Gemini AI. There are somewhere around 50 million Chromebooks in schools, used by students and educators, Google has said. In May, the company told TechCrunch that its current Chromebooks would continue to be supported, though many would become eligible to transition to the new Googlebook experience in the future...
Flagship devices in the new range are being built by Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, with materials like aluminum, magnesium alloy, and carbon fiber... Google says the device will offer up to 14 hours of battery life.
Googlebooks will be decorated with an exterior Glowbar "which dances when you boot up, sweeps to show battery level, and supports other playful patterns," according to Google's blog post. "We're also opening Glowbar access to developers to build custom, interactive animations."
After testing actual Googlebooks, The Verge's reviewer first acknowledges that "it might be just another Trojan horse for Gemini." Still, "The hardware is polished (since it's based on current laptops). The OS is familiar (if you've ever used a Chromebook). But most impressive, it integrates your Android phone with your PC so they feel more like one device. It's the culmination of a series of new ideas that blur the two devices together.
"After my first look, I went from doubtful to excited by the prospect of Google pulling it all off..."
The Asus was incredibly lightweight; the Lenovo has plenty of ports and an optional mouse with a matching Glowbar light; the Acer's convertible form factor allows some tablet-like use (and it's pretty affordable for a Panther Lake laptop). The HP had a great-looking screen and a latticeless keyboard I surprisingly didn't hate, and the Dell is basically a gold XPS 13 (which is excellent) but with a different chip...
But everything really special about Googlebooks comes down to software... You can cast apps from an Android phone directly to a Googlebook, even without touching your phone. Googlebooks essentially have two app drawers: a G-logo start menu for installed Googlebook apps and a second one beside it that pulls up mobile apps from your phone. Click a phone app and you can fully use that app with the mouse and keyboard or the Googlebook's touchscreen. It's a bit like iPhone Mirroring on macOS, but the apps are individually extracted to the desktop OS instead of showing your whole phone interface.
Googlebooks also have a nifty feature called Continue On where the icons of apps you're currently using on your phone appear in the bottom bar — allowing you to click it on the laptop and hand it off to the Googlebook. These app handoffs can transition to a native app or a web app, depending on how developers have programmed it... The other big way Googlebooks interact with an Android phone is Quick Access, allowing you to see and access all the files stored on your phone right in the desktop Files app... If you have an iPhone then you're limited to a Link to iOS app that just does some message syncing and replying... [W]hen it comes to mainline gaming, Nvidia's GeForce Now service is also coming to Googlebooks, and the first year is free with one of Google's new laptops.
"It's not every day we get a new player in the desktop operating system and laptop spaces," the reviewer points out. "There seems to be a higher ceiling of potential with Googlebooks than there was with Chromebooks, along with some cool features, but Google has a lot to prove at higher prices than people are used to paying for its laptops."
Party strategists say careful targeting of seats has paid off and should continue, but some say a wider vision is needed
One of the more dramatic moments in a Liberal Democrat conference otherwise short of them came late on Sunday, when the party frontbencher Lisa Smart told the polling veteran John Curtice that, in effect, he no longer understood modern politics.
Curtice had warned the Lib Dems they risked being left behind, with the lack of a coherent national message seeing them all but ignored outside a few electoral strongholds. Smart’s response? In the new era of five- or six-party politics, and mass tactical voting, this does not matter.
PM says immediate focus is on rebuilding bridges with EU as he prepares for first meeting with Ursula von der Leyen
Andy Burnham has opened the door to fighting the next election on the UK rejoining the EU, but said his immediate priority was continuing to rebuild bridges with European allies.
The prime minister, who will hold his first meeting with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on Tuesday, did not rule out including reversing Brexit in Labour’s next manifesto – but suggested the country should focus on securing closer trading ties first.
The rights of overseas voters are protected by US federal law. It’s not hard – but Americans should start planning now
The UK hosts the second largest population of voting-age US citizens outside the United States, but Americans living in the UK vote at very low levels in US elections.
The US government’s Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) estimated that there were 298,268 voting-age US citizens in the UK in 2022, second only to Canada. But FVAP also estimated that only 3.8% of these US citizens in Britain voted in that year’s midterm elections. Why do hundreds of thousands of eligible US voters in the UK not exercise their right to vote, even though US rules for voting abroad are relatively welcoming compared to many other countries?
Constantly deactivates on me and the grip tape has a bubble that keeps popping up. Should I replace the grip tape and see what happens? Should I replace the whole sensor and just be done with it? I like the foot pad it just constantly turns off while ridding and doesn’t always activate.
The UK government borrowed a higher-than-expected £18.3bn last month, increasing the pressure on John Healey as he attempts to calm jittery bond markets before next month’s budget.
Official figures released by the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday said public sector net borrowing – the difference between government spending and income – was £2.9bn higher last month than in August 2025.
Dog collars, guitars and self-portraits among 285 objects, with money going to her animal welfare foundation and son
An auction of the French film star turned animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot’s personal items has fetched nearly €1m (£858,000, US$1.15m, A$1.61m) in Paris, almost 20 times the estimate, according to the auction house Millon.
A total of 285 objects were auctioned, ranging from straw hats, sunglasses and nightgowns to tableware and furniture from Bardot’s homes in Paris and Saint-Tropez, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Generations of artisans from Mumbai to Lucknow have shaped the world’s most coveted designs. Plus, the gen Z memes giving classic Bollywood a new life
The zardozi embroidery on a Dior dress, the T-strap leather sandals at a Prada show, the mirror-work technique used on a Fendi bag – for decades, the skill of Indian artisans has been an invisible force behind some of the world’s most coveted fashion.
Now, that work is beginning to claim its own place in the spotlight, and the Mumbai-based textile and embroidery atelier Chanakya International is at the forefront.
President has been posting on Washington arch, AI and his ‘25 top achievements’ – the chances of an uplifting speech appear slim
The annual gathering of the United Nations general assembly has historically been a platform for US presidents to display their most serious face and a positive vision to the world.
From Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower to John F Kennedy and Barack Obama, over eight decades US leaders have used the setting to expound on grand themes before a global audience at pivotal moments in international affairs.
In today’s newsletter: Intelligence chiefs warn that Russia’s appetite for risk is growing, as sabotage and other covert attacks target countries supporting Ukraine
Good morning. As the UN general assembly kicks off in New York later today, we anticipate a heavy focus on the ongoing conflicts in Iran, Ukraine and the Gulf – as well as the inevitable body language analysis of Andy Burnham’s first in-person meeting with Donald Trump.
But another related conflict is likely to dominate informal discussions: the intensifying acts of sabotage on European states that are believed to trace back to Russia but deliberately fall below the threshold for military response – a so-called hybrid or “shadow war” with the singular purpose of disrupting support for Ukraine.
Yemen | The UK has agreed to provide defensive air support to Saudi Arabia to help counter Houthi fighters and restore stability in the Middle East while driving down the cost of living at home, Andy Burnham has said, ahead of his first meeting with Donald Trump.
Environment | The “jaw-dropping” El Niño currently heating up the planet has burst through the highest temperature ever recorded for the phenomenon, several months before its expected peak.
Gaza | Israeli and UK military commanders could be requested to give evidence to an inquest concerning three British aid workers killed in Gaza when aid vehicles they were travelling in were hit by an airstrike.
US | After President Trump’s snap decision to ban CNN from the White House, the four other networks that comprise the White House’s TV pool decided they would cease their pooled coverage of the president.
Slavery | Bones of the enslaver Edward Colston are likely to remain interred in a church in Bristol if and when the currently unused building is given a new lease of life as a community resource, it has emerged.
(StatePoint) People from all over the world come to Kentucky to take part in celebrations of music, culture and heritage. These events range from small-town cultural celebrations to massive annual festivals.
Rescuers search for missing in collapsed homes after storm causes landslides, travel chaos and power outages
Typhoon Dujuan has killed at least four people and injured 22 in Japan, while tens of thousands of houses near Tokyo remained without power after the storm swept through the region, authorities said on Tuesday.
Dujuan – which brought violent winds of 144km/h (89mph) – was moving away from Japan on Tuesday morning, allowing authorities to downgrade most heavy rain and landslide warnings.
Canadian province alleges deadly attack could have been prevented if company had warned police of shooter’s ChatGPT use
British Columbia has sued OpenAI, saying a mass shooting at a school in the Canadian province could have been prevented if the company had warned local law enforcement that the shooter had used ChatGPT to plan the attack.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court on Monday, names OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, as defendants. It is seeking damages to fund recovery efforts in the province after the February attack, as well as an order directing changes to the way the company handles ChatGPT conversations that could lead to violence.
Meta's AI "personal agent" Muse overtook ChatGPT as the #1 iOS free app in the U.S. on Friday, reports CNBC — and it's still showing more downloads as of Monday night.
Muse now has over 2.5 million downloads since its debut less than two weeks ago, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower...
[Muse] is currently ahead of popular services like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Polymarket and Kashi... It's also ahead of rival AI apps like Anthropic's Claude and SpaceXAI's Grok AI, in addition to the Facebook-parent's own Meta AI app... Meta pitched the app as a way for consumers to manage and direct supercharged digital assistants that can perform a number of tasks across the web, like filling out electronic forms and organizing email inboxes... "I think up to this point most of the agentic use cases have not really been for normal people," Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon told CNBC in a "Squawk on the Street" interview on Monday. "Now you've got Meta's Muse and other agents out there that are starting to maybe get more potential for more broad-based adoption." The buzz around Meta was also reflected in the stock, which surged more than 11% on Monday.
Amazon is already blocking Muse, reports GeekWire. Amazon first tried to get Meta to voluntarily exclude Amazon, but they were unsuccessful:
The problem, Amazon says, is that it never agreed to any of it. Meta didn't tell Amazon that Muse would access its store, the agent doesn't identify itself when it browses, and it appears to capture and store customer credentials, which the company says could create privacy and security risks. As of Sunday night, people trying to use Muse to shop on Amazon were seeing the popup, "Continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon's Conditions of Use, to which our customers have agreed..."
Amazon has spent the past year trying to keep outside agents off its site, suing Perplexity over its Comet browser and moving to block shopping agents from Google and OpenAI. [Amazon won a preliminary injunction against Perplexity in March, the article poitns out, "then lost it on Aug. 4, when the Ninth Circuit ruled that the user — not the AI company — was the one accessing Amazon's computers under federal anti-hacking law. The court denied Amazon's petition for rehearing on Sept. 10."]
On Sunday night, Amazon said it is in direct conversation with Meta about the issue. Asked whether it would consider taking legal action, the company declined to comment. The business stakes are high for Amazon. In addition to operating its flagship e-commerce site, Amazon generated more than $68 billion in ad revenue last year — a business that depends on people browsing its pages and seeing sponsored products.
Muse also appears to scrape account data, reports CNBC. But Shopify, however, "is working with Meta on Muse access. Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke announced Monday that the e-commerce site was partnering with Muse to allow agentic checkout in its online stores."
People in the UK are more interested in oral health than ever - and you can now buy prebiotic toothpastes and brushes that cost up to £600. Yet we remain in the midst of a serious dental crisis
A December 1969 report from the consumer magazine Which? explored a relatively new gadget that, it predicted, many people would be giving as Christmas presents: the electric toothbrush. For those who hadn’t yet seen one, the magazine described it as “not that much different in principle from an ordinary brush – you have a stick with a brush on the end. The difference is that an electric one moves the brush head for you”. Progress indeed.
Nearly six decades on, electric toothbrushes can do a lot more than merely jiggle, offering multiple speeds and movement sensors for real-time tracking of where you’ve brushed – some even promise gum-massage or tongue-cleaning modes. Prices range from about £25 for a basic Oral B model to £599.99 for a Philips Sonicare model that gives “smart coverage feedback”.The latest super-toothbrush – a mere £419.99 – features a camera and a built-in water jet to clean between teeth, using AI to identify gaps. Created by Dyson, it’s still, essentially, a stick with a brush on the end (although there is another toothbrush on the market that’s shaped like a mouthguard, with individual brushes, that claims to clean your teeth in 20 seconds).
Trump’s announcement on Russia ally comes as he steps up his trade war with Canada, a long-term US ally and top supplier of potash
President Donald Trump has said he is working on a “massive” deal to buy fertiliser from Belarus, pivoting away from main supplier Canada amid an escalating trade dispute, and moving instead toward an ally of Russia.
“The United States is working on a massive deal with respect to the purchase of Potash from Belarus,” Trump said on his Truth Social network. “The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for our farmers and ranchers.”
SUZHOU, China, Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Boomray Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. ("BoomRay"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering innovative radioligand therapies (RLTs) for precision oncology diagnostics and therapeutics, today announced that it has entered into an exclusive global license agreement with…
In humanity’s quest to constrain the dangers from fast-advancing artificial intelligence, many have looked to the most revolutionary technology that preceded it: nuclear weapons. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has called artificial intelligence “far more dangerous than nukes.” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who assigns The Making of the Atomic Bomb to employees and has likened himself to the Manhattan Project scientist Leo Szilard, describes the most powerful AI models as “weaponizable nuclear materials.” When asked how a technology such as AI can be regulated, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman often references the world’s nuclear materials watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Even the director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, has made the same comparison.
CaskX once again ranked as one of the fastest growing financial services company on the Inc 5000 this year. CaskX specializes in bourbon whiskey barrel investment and scotch whisky cask investment. The company helps individual investors acquire portfolios of bourbon…
Bregman was standing in the on-deck circle preparing for his at-bat when his teammate Michael Busch checked his swing and fouled off a pitch from the Cincinnati Reds’ Luis Mey. The ball struck Bregman in the face, and he immediately jogged toward the Cubs’ dugout with his hand covering the left side of his face. He was taken to hospital for X-rays and CT scans.
NEW YORK CITY, New York — President Donald Trump’s unexpectedly cordial meeting with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani drew backlash from some of Trump’s most outspoken supporters, including political activist Laura Loomer.
Trump met with Mamdani at Gracie Mansion on Monday ahead of events surrounding the United Nations General Assembly. Despite months of political attacks between the two, Trump publicly praised Mamdani afterward and said the mayor has the “potential” to be “a great mayor.” Associated Press reported that the meeting focused in part on housing affordability and other New York City issues.
Loomer responded angrily on X, writing that she was “pissed off” and complaining that people she described as “anti-American Islamic jihadists” were being “rewarded.” She did not name Mamdani directly in the post, but Mediaite reported the comments were in response to Trump’s meeting with him.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist and New York’s first Muslim mayor, has sharply criticized Israel’s conduct in Gaza. There is no evidence supporting Loomer’s characterization of him as an “Islamic jihadist.”
Loomer was not alone in objecting. New York radio host Sid Rosenberg also criticized Trump for meeting Mamdani and argued the appearance could hurt Republicans politically.
The three news outlets President Trump banned from the White House last Friday have filed their anticipated lawsuit against his administration to restore their access.
In the new complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday, CNN, MS Now and Politico alleged that Trump had violated the First Amendment and due process by stripping the outlets of their White House access in a blatant act of retaliation for coverage he disliked.
SACRAMENTO, California — Support for California’s proposed billionaire tax has fallen below 50% as voters prepare to decide Proposition 40 in November, according to a new UC Berkeley Citrin Center-POLITICO poll.
The survey found 45% support the measure, 43% oppose it and 12% remain undecided. That represents a decline from a February survey in which 50% supported Proposition 40 and 28% opposed it. The Sept. 8-14 poll included 2,418 respondents and has a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points.
Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of Californians with assets exceeding $1 billion. State election officials have qualified the measure for the Nov. 3 ballot.
Democrats remain substantially more supportive, while Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes the proposal and has instead advocated a national approach to taxing billionaires. Labor unions, including SEIU-UHW, support Proposition 40, arguing the revenue would help finance health care and other programs.
The campaign is attracting substantial spending. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has contributed more than $100 million to groups opposing the measure.
Polling remains mixed. A separate September Public Policy Institute of California survey found 52% of likely voters supporting Proposition 40 and 46% opposing it after respondents were read the official ballot description.
In the first interview since his ex-wife's trial, Patrick Clancy describes what happened at home before his children were killed and how he handled his grief.
Lindsay Clancy's lawyers asked a judge to question the holdout juror about his alleged use of a cellphone during deliberations and his answers on a questionnaire.
White House promoted its own ‘Trump TV’ feed online after ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC decline to participate
The major US television news outlets agreed to suspend their video coverage of Donald Trump after the administration banned journalists from several outlets from entering the White House grounds.
The collective decision came after the barred outlets – CNN, MS Now and Politico – sued the administration on Monday, saying the president’s actions were a violation of their first amendment rights.
Republican president said he hoped the democratic socialist would be a ‘great mayor’ for New York City
Donald Trump said on Monday that he hoped Zohran Mamdani would be a “great mayor” for New York, an unusually warm assessment of the democratic socialist leader whom the president and his Republican allies have spent months holding up as a symbol of the Democratic party’s alleged embrace of “communism” ahead of the November midterms.
At a news conference following their closed-door meeting at Gracie Mansion, Trump and Mamdani appeared friendly as they have in previous meetings. Mamdani said he and Trump held a “wide-ranging” discussion, which touched on affordable housing and immigration, but did not offer extensive details regarding any disagreements between them.
In my search for anything out of the ordinary that could be causing my board to not function correctly I opened up the controller housing and noticed this weird looking stuff on the circuit board. I’ll try and post a video of the problem in the comments, any advice is greatly appreciated.
Sixteen bears are facing off in Fat Bear Week 2026, the highly anticipated tournament among the chunkiest bears at the Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska.
Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, the 28-year-old Venezuelan national shot by an ICE officer on Sunday, said in a phone call on Monday that he's "not doing well."
Environmental groups vow to continue opposition to deal that would expand site for Elon Musk rocket company
A federal judge on Monday refused to block the Trump administration from giving SpaceX more than 700 acres of wildlife refuge as part of a land swap in Texas, while environmental groups vowed to continue their legal challenge.
US district judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr declined the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the parcel exchange, saying they failed to prove it would worsen ecological risks to a Gulf coast region already transformed by billionaire Elon Musk’s rocket operations.
One neocloud traversing the AI inference landscape that you might want to keep an eye on is Gimlet Labs. The company, which just completed a $300 million round led by Andreessen Horowitz at a $3 billion valuation, is taking a different approach to building out its data centers than the typical cloud.
As the AI boom continues to grow, it’s becoming more important to match AI workloads to the most efficient and effective hardware. With a plethora of new chip types hitting the market and trillions of dollars fueling an epic data center buildout, that decision matrix is becoming both very interesting and very consequential.
This is the guiding force behind Gimlet Labs, which was founded in 2023 based on Zain Asgar’s Stanford University research project. CEO Asgar and his colleagues were convinced they could use software to route AI workloads to the optimal hardware as a means to optimize AI inference workloads.
“Our North Star from the beginning has been, we think we can push the efficiency of inference orders of magnitude better,” Gimlet Labs Co-founder Natalie Serrino told HPCwire in a recent interview. “We wanted to really rethink what that stack looks like from the ground up, because if it’s going to be the dominant software workload, we should organize our infrastructure and our software around that to make it as efficient as possible.”
The company developed a software-based orchestration layer that sits atop a variety of different hardware and essentially slices and dices the AI workloads to execute on various chips. For instance, the prefill stage of AI inference could be well-served using the computational horsepower of big GPUs, while the decode stage would be better handled by the extreme memory bandwidth offered by SRAM-optimized chips.
Gimlet addressed various challenges with various software projects, including Gimlet Cloud, the core platform that handles scheduling, orchestration, and optimization, and kforge, which generates optimized low-level kernels directly from PyTorch. The company has developed various other pieces of software, such as a universal AI compiler, workload partitioning, SLA-aware scheduling, headless hardware architectures; predictive optimization, and such as kernel fusion.
At some point, it became apparent to Gimlet Labs that the software-only approach could only take them so far. To fully solve the problem, the company would need to design and manage the entire data center, Serrino said.
Gimlet Labs Co-founder Natalie Serrino
“Everyone’s so power constrained today that pushing out all of the performance and all the efficiency you can out of the limited power footprint that you have available becomes more critical,” she said. “And doing that with a fully optimized stack from the ground up is the best way to do that.”
We’re in a unique period when it comes to semiconductor designs. Nvidia is pushing the refresh cycle of its GPUs to 12 months, AMD is hot on its heals with its own Helios stack, while other companies are carving out specific niches with their own chips. With trillions of dollars at stake, the investments in chips have never been bigger, nor more consequential.
But Gimlet Labs didn’t want just any old chips in its data centers. Instead, it sought to standardize on a handful of chips with strengths in certain areas. It also sought chips that pair well together.
“We don’t want to build data centers that have like 20 different chip types in there because that’s a nightmare from an operational standpoint,” Serrino said. “We want to have somewhere between like two to four [chip types] per DC and kind of repeatable stamps that are basically leveraging different strengths.”
Gimlet puts chips into four broad categories: GPUs, CPUs, SRAM chips, and data flow accelerators and TPUs. The chip providers that Gimlet Labs uses in its data centers are Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Arm, d-Matrix, and Cerebras.
When it comes to deploying chips in its data centers, Gimlet Labs takes a pair-based approach. A GPU usually forms the base of the pair, and Gimlet Labs picks another chip to pair with it.
“We find [GPU-centric chip pairings] works really, really well for getting significant speed ups for similar efficiency compared to a GPU-only deployment,” Serrino said. “We don’t want every chip to be perfect at everything, because we recognize every chip has its strengths. So what we look for more is, where is that spike that it’s really strong?”
Every chip also brings its own set of tradeoffs. When choosing pairs, it looks at that trade-off curve and selects the chip combinations that best match the workload to get the best performance at the optimal energy level.
Gimlet Labs supports different disaggregation techniques (Image courtesy Gimlet Labs)
“So you use one in the case where you need lots of memory bandwidth, and then the other one where you need lots of compute to crunch through,” Serrino said. “That’s where the GPU-SRAM-centric chip pairing works really, really well.”
Nvidia has been building pairwise superchips for the past few years. It started with its Grace Hopper superchip, which paired two Hopper GPUs with one Arm-based Grace chip, and it’s continuing that approach today with its Vera Rubin chips. The difference is Gimlet Labs is doing this at the data center level, and it’s doing it for specific AI workloads.
Getting the chips integrated at the physical level is not always easy. They may have very different network connections and cooling needs, Serrino said. For instance, different chips may expect different liquid cooling temperatures. Figuring out how to cool them both in the same data center has required Gimlet Labs to invest in hardware engineering.
The manner of disaggregation, and whether it’s done across multiple data centers, also impacts the network. For instance, a recent paper by the Chinese AI company Moonshot AI demonstrated the potential for data center-level disaggregation with its Kimi K3 model, which is something that Gimlet Labs may be recreating.
“They were actually able to disaggregate prefill-decode across different DCs for the SLAs that they were trying to hit,” Serrino said. “It’s important to have fast connections between these [systems], but it’s one hop” for the KV cache.
Gimlet Labs has adopted various disaggregation architectures, including disaggregating prefill and decode stages (P-D Disagg), which has become the industry norm. More complex techniques include a speculative disaggregation, where a smaller version of a model running on an SRAM-focused chip like d-Matrix Corsairs is used to generate its best guess for a given AI request, and then the full model verifies a batch of guesses at once.
Different hardware combinations and disaggregation techniques yield different performance and efficiency results (Image courtesy Gimlet Labs)
“What we can do is we can take that draft model and we can actually put it entirely in the SRAM chips, and then that’s incredibly fast and it makes drafting super cheap,” Serrino said. “This is one where you need to go back and forth a little bit more often than the first one.”
Other disaggregation methods Gimlet Labs is using include Attention-Feed Forward Network (Attn-FFN) dissertation, where the transformer model’s attention layers and FFN layers are split into independent, separately scaled hardware pools. In this case, the attention mechanism of transformer networks runs really well on GPUs, while the mixture of experts (MO) component is a great fit for SRAM-centric chips, she said.
“We can run prefill on GPUs but then split attention and MO across GPUs and SRAM-centric chips and actually ping pong back and forth,” she said. “This option requires more connectivity, because within each layer of the model, you’re going back and forth. And so that makes the network design of our DCs especially important because we need to enable this type of communication. But the result is really strong. And you can get such better performance for the same efficiency for all of these methods that it’s worth it because of the scale of the workload.”
Gimlet Labs doesn’t want the typical customer to worry about the nitty-gritty details of how the AI actually works under the hood–although it does have sophisticated customers too, including one of the top three frontier labs and one of the top three hyperscalers as customers. Preferably, customers should just be concerned about hitting a certain performance number, like generating 1,000 tokens per second per watt for a given model, and leave the running of the AI inference workload to Gimlet Labs.
That approach seems to be resonating, as the company continues to grow. Over the past year, monthly token generation has increased 6x, and it’s expecting token generation to increase another 20x over the three years. The company, which has secured billions of dollars’ worth of cloud contracts, is currently in the planning stages to bring gigawatts of data center power online in the coming years, and expects to have hundreds of megawatts installed by the end of 2027.
Gimlet offers the potential to have not just more AI infrastructure but better AI infrastructure, said Raghu Raghuram, managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz and Gimlet Labs board member
“Gimlet has built a new kind of inference cloud, heterogeneous by design, that matches each workload to the right silicon,” Raghuram stated. “By making GPUs and purpose-built accelerators work as one system, Gimlet delivers dramatically more throughput, more interactivity and more intelligence from every watt. We believe this is where inference infrastructure is headed.”
Paramount Skydance just "emerged victorious" reports Reuters, "from a legal battle over its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery" that will "dramatically concentrate power across Hollywood's film, TV, streaming and news businesses."
The victory comes "after settling with a California-led group of US states and a Hollywood writers union, paving the way for one of the largest media mergers in history."
Paramount agreed to abide by temporary film quotas and a news oversight committee, avoiding a forced sale of cable assets such as CNN or any of its lucrative film franchises... The Writers Guild of America settled its parallel case against Paramount, while saying it still believes the deal will damage the industry. The states' settlement forced the union to "contend with the reality of forging ahead alone, with no backing from government enforcers" in a complex case that would have cost millions of dollars...
Paramount promised in the state settlement to bring more film production to the US — spending at least $300 million more each year in domestic production — and adhere to US theatrical release quotas for five years. The company will produce 30 movies in each of the first two years of the deal, and 32 movies in each of the following three years, Bonta said. Each year, at least four of those films must be independent films and at least 20% must be blockbusters. If it falls below that threshold, it will pay $30 million per film, most of it into funds to support workers. Paramount also promised not to raise rates on theater operators for three years.
The article notes that California attorney general Rob Bonta still said "I don't think these two companies should merge" at a press conference announcing the settlement, "but that's not something that we are focused on with our resolution here." He call their agreement "a strong antitrust outcome."
And Politico notes that Bonta acknowledged at the press conference that "Some of you who may be watching this may have wanted a different outcome. I understand that."
But he argued he'd reached a settlement capable of "providing more film production that protects Hollywood workers and their livelihoods, that places guardrails allowing for robust cable negotiations, that protects competition and creates more choice for consumers about what this merger could mean for the industry." It "resolves the antitrust concerns at the heart of our lawsuit against the company and Warner Brothers," he said...
The agreement came as a disappointment to opponents of the transaction, including the Block the Merger Coalition, which cast the settlement as a sweetheart deal for Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison and his father, Oracle Co-Founder Larry Ellison, who is financially backstopping the acquisition. "This is a bad deal for the future of film, entertainment, independent journalism, and a strong democracy in this country," the coalition said in a statement. "We are disappointed and angry that the interests of average Americans have been trampled to benefit oligarch billionaires....."
The $111 billion deal allows Paramount to combine its namesake streaming service with HBO Max, creating a new offering with about 200 million subscribers. That would help Paramount compete against companies such as Netflix, which boasts more than 325 million subscribers worldwide.
Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, is sending fundraising emails pledging to “stand with America” and “reject the extremes” — using email lists for Republican candidates and committees.
An email first sent over the weekend sent by Fetterman’s campaign came from the address “info@gopsquad.com” and vowed: “I’m always going to reject Socialism and the Anti-American way of life.” Other recent appeals sent from the same address encourage readers to help President Donald Trump pass new voting restrictions, to read an “urgent memo” from House Speaker Mike Johnson on fighting the left, and to back Republican Mike Rogers for Senate in Michigan over Abdul El-Sayed, whom the email compared to a terrorist and a “threat to our way of life.”
The email from Fetterman’s campaign comes as the senator has moved closer to the Republican caucus, rankling his Democratic colleagues and spurring rumors that he might switch parties. He received the maximum allowed contribution from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, as The Intercept reported in July. But the use of Republican fundraising infrastructure represents a new step in Fetterman’s confounding electoral strategy.
The Fetterman campaign also sent copies of the fundraising email from alternate GOP domains including “unshakeableconservatives.com” and “freedomfaction.net.” It’s possible that Fetterman for PA rented or bought a GOP email list, something campaigns commonly do for targeted outreach, but the campaign’s specific arrangement is unclear. The text retreads major talking points that the Democratic senator delivered in a controversial video appearance at the Republican party’s midterm convention earlier this month, where he railed against “extremes” and promised to “stand with America.”
Fetterman’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Former Fetterman staffers, who spoke to The Intercept on condition of anonymity for fear of professional reprisal, condemned their old boss’s pivot and suggested he’d betrayed his previous supporters.
“It’s no surprise that he has to resort to GOP donors to prop up his dismal fundraising numbers.”
“After taking contributions from millions of small-dollar donors who wanted a Democratic Senate, John Fetterman turned around and became Donald Trump’s useful idiot,” said one former staffer. “Now, it’s no surprise that he has to resort to GOP donors to prop up his dismal fundraising numbers.”
With two years left in his first term, Fetterman has made himself the subject of a series of political upheavals and dramatic reversals. The image he was heralded for upon his 2022 election — a gritty, heterodox, and unpredictable model for the future of the Democratic Party — has all but crumbled.
Staffers, donors, previous supporters, and his Democratic colleagues have fled from Fetterman’s orbit in droves as he’s aligned himself with Republicans on Trump’s war with Iran, U.S. boat strikes in the Caribbean, and funding the Department of Homeland Security amid a slew of killings, shootings, and misconduct by federal immigration agents.
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported on his resistance to carrying out his daily responsibilities as a senator — which marked a stark contrast from his energy for showing up on Fox News, where he made more than 50 appearances in the first six months of this year. The senator has particularly alienated former supporters on the left with his hardline support for the Israeli government, which he has offered unconditional support throughout its genocide in Gaza.
Fetterman’s critics are looking for a candidate to primary him in 2028 as he fields questions about whether he plans to join the GOP — or run for reelection at all, given his sinking popularity among his own party and outrage from former supporters over his rightward turn.
“John Fetterman turned around and became Donald Trump’s useful idiot.”
Fetterman’s coziness with — and popularity among — Republicans doesn’t necessarily mean he’s likely to join the GOP conference, said several former Fetterman staffers who spoke to The Intercept. They predicted that Fetterman might follow in the footsteps of former Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who consistently blocked their party’s more progressive measures and then became independent. That, according to one former staffer, would let him maintain the wildcard he’s curated over four erratic years in office.
“He loves being the enigma,” another former staffer told The Intercept. “He loves the, ‘Well, you’re gonna have to see what happens.’”
As Fetterman’s staffers struggled in recent months to get him to do basic parts of his job — including fundraising — his office reached out to staffers for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to ask him to talk to Fetterman in an attempt to right what they saw as a sinking ship, according to a former staffer. The staffer said that Schumer agreed, but Fetterman refused to talk to him. Schumer’s office has said the two are in communication and met for dinner in August.
If there’s a lesson to be learned from Fetterman’s explosion onto the national stage and the trail of disgruntled staffers, organizers, and small-dollar donors left in its wake, it has little to do with political ideology and more to do with psychology, former staffers told The Intercept. Fetterman views himself as a renegade and an outsider above all else, according to his former staff. He has long struggled with depression, and while campaigning in 2022, he suffered a stroke whose effects led him to use assistive technology in the Senate and continue to be felt in other ways.
Notwithstanding any decision he might make about switching parties, the conservative world has welcomed Fetterman with open arms. In July, Fetterman attended a retreat in Montana hosted by Rupert Murdoch, the conservative media scion behind Fox News, at the network’s invitation, according to two former Fetterman staffers. At the retreat, Fetterman spoke on a panel alongside Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala. Fetterman’s attendance at Murdoch’s event came several days after he launched an unusual bipartisan fundraising committee with his Republican counterpart in Pennsylvania, Sen. Dave McCormick.
While Fetterman’s campaign has previously used the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue for communications, including in a recent text for a joint fundraiser with McCormick, his campaign sent recent fundraising texts using another platform, including a link with the name “Save America 26.”
Fetterman’s campaign also recently redesigned its website to use his antagonistic persona in its favor. The website boasts that Fetterman “thinks for himself. You should too.”
Fetterman isn’t an average Democrat, his new website reads. “John doesn’t look like a typical politician, and more importantly, he doesn’t act like one.”
Lawyers say Black employees at Tesla experienced ‘rampant racism’ that was left unchecked for years at their flagship factory in California
Dozens of Black employees at Tesla’s flagship plant in California said they were subject to racist slurs, unequal pay and promotions, and bullying by supervisors on a daily basis, a situation management did little to nothing to fix.
Their complaints form the basis of a lawsuit brought against the Elon Musk-owned electric car company by the state of California, which began trial with opening statements on Monday.
Shooting of Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez comes months after increased federal immigration enforcement in Austin
The Venezuelan man who was shot by a federal immigration officer in Texas on Sunday spoke out from detention on Monday afternoon when he was able to call his lawyer, in the middle of a press conference, and plead for better medical care.
Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was taken from a hospital in Austin into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, even though he apparently still has a bullet lodged near his spine and is in much discomfort.
Changes could save £33bn and result in average of four extra years of good health for people, report says
The NHS in England could prevent 20,000 deaths and save £33bn a year by cutting red tape and boosting productivity, a report says.
Research by the Health Foundation found the health service has been held back for decades by excessive regulation, short-term planning and insufficient capability to deliver major change.
Experts say trend across England probably reflects swifter access to diagnoses as wealthier families go private
Some of the most affluent areas of England have had the sharpest rises in the proportion of young people claiming disability benefits for ADHD and autism since the pandemic, according to new research.
Claims for the personal independence payment (Pip) benefit for these health conditions were typically proportionally far higher in deprived areas with higher rates of poverty, low educational outcomes and insecure employment.
Deployment will bring the first IonQ Superion 256 system and first silicon-vacancy quantum memory module to South Korea
SEOUL, South Korea and COLLEGE PARK, Md., Sept. 21, 2026 — IonQ today announced a strategic partnership with Korea-based quantum technology and software company SDT, Inc. Under this multi-year collaboration IonQ will supply SDT with a Superion 256 quantum computer as well as IonQ’s silicon-vacancy (SiV) quantum memory module.
“Demand for our new Superion 256 system is growing globally, and this agreement in Asia Pacific is yet another example of our clients combining IonQ’s leading quantum computers with our quantum networking and quantum memory solutions,” said Niccolo de Masi, Chairman and CEO of IonQ. “IonQ is very proud to be expanding our commercial footprint in South Korea as well as continuing to trailblaze quantum cancer and biomedical research. This purchase equips SDT with the building blocks for both high-performance quantum computing and quantum data centers of the future.”
The partnership expands the two companies’ ongoing collaboration from cloud-based software integration to physical hardware production, assembly, and regional resale partnership. The Superion 256 system is planned for deployment with an SDT customer in South Korea, where IonQ and SDT intend to collaborate on a hybrid quantum-classical data center. SDT also plans to establish a dedicated quantum manufacturing and system-integration facility in Gumi, South Korea. That will be the site for IonQ’s SiV quantum memory packaging and manufacturing, quantum system assembly, integration and commissioning.
“IonQ leads the global quantum industry in both technology and manufacturing innovation,” said Jiwon Yune, CEO of SDT. “Our objective is to make our new Gumi facility a key operational hub for IonQ’s global supply chain and regional deployment by hosting manufacturing operations and assembling world-class quantum systems. Alongside this manufacturing partnership, SDT will participate in the assembly and operation of IonQ quantum systems and actively pursue opportunities to manufacture more quantum components. Our role will also extend to a separate in-country cancer center project where we intend to develop hybrid quantum-classical infrastructure for medical and biomedical research with IonQ. Together, these initiatives put SDT’s quantum design and manufacturing strategy into practice through assembly, operations and system integration, while opening opportunities in manufacturing and regional commercialization.”
This announcement reinforces IonQ’s regional commitment as evidenced through its collaborations with other partnerships in Korea including: KISTI, SK Telecom, Hyundai Motor Company, and leading academic institutions such as Seoul National University and Sungkyunkwan University.
About IonQ
IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ) is the world’s leading quantum platform and foundry – delivering integrated quantum solutions across computing, networking, sensing, and security. IonQ’s newest generation of quantum computers, the Superion, is the latest in a line of cutting-edge systems. Earlier systems have helped customers and partners including Amazon Web Services, AstraZeneca, and NVIDIA achieve a 20x performance increase over previous quantum solutions and accelerate innovation in drug discovery, materials science, financial modeling, logistics, cybersecurity, and defense. In 2025, the company achieved 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity, setting a world record in quantum computing performance.
About SDT Inc.
SDT Inc. is a South Korea-based quantum technology company providing full-stack hardware, software, and system integration across the quantum value chain. Named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer in 2026, SDT supports quantum system assembly, integration, and hybrid quantum-classical data center development in the Asia-Pacific region.
Wilber Garcés Pérez said he was rushed out of a hospital and forced to sleep on the floor of an ICE detention center within hours of being shot in Texas.
Supreme court, which has twice blocked maps from being used in November, likely to have final say in legal fight
A long-running legal fight over Missouri’s congressional map took another turn Monday when a federal appeals panel ruled in favor of new districts backed by Donald Trump, even though the US supreme court has blocked those districts from being used in the November election.
A three-judge panel of the 8th US circuit court of appeals said Missouri should use the new Republican-drawn US House districts in the November election, just as the state did in its August primary. To revert to its prior districts for the general election would violate the US constitution, the appeals judges said.
New Horizon Europe project develops AI-based climate models for use on European HPC and AI infrastructures
Sept. 21, 2026 — With its kick-off on Sept. 14, 2026, the four-year Horizon Europe project CLAIMA (Climate Artificial Intelligence Managed Access), led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, has officially started. Together with European research institutions and other partners, the project aims to transition AI-based climate models and climate emulators from research into pre-operational use. During the kick-off, the joint working structures and an agile, sprint-based workflow for the various work packages were established. The German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ) is contributing in particular to the development of the data and infrastructure components required for this work.
The kick-off meeting for the Horizon Europe project CLAIMA took place online on September 14, 2026. Photo credit: AWI.
DKRZ Contributes Expertise in Data Management and HPC Infrastructure
High-quality, standardized, and sustainably usable data are a key prerequisite for the use of AI in climate research. Within CLAIMA, DKRZ will take responsibility for the essential data lifecycle: building robust data pipelines that harmonize heterogeneous input sources such as reanalyses, simulations, and observational datasets, while developing FAIR-compliant SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) catalogs. These are intended to provide standardised, machine-readable access to the climate and environmental data used in the project, thereby improving the reusability of the data beyond individual applications and project phases.
Enabling AI for Climate Research and Applications
Combining AI modeling, high-performance computing, and modern data management, CLAIMA creates new opportunities for the use of climate information. The technologies developed are intended to support applications in Earth system research, climate-resilient shipping, the planning of energy infrastructure, and the assessment of climate-related health risks.
The planned European AI platform is designed to run on European HPC and AI Factory infrastructures. The goal is to enable scalable and interoperable use of AI-based climate information and models across different research and application areas. In doing so, CLAIMA will also contribute to European initiatives such as Destination Earth.
(The Center Square) – Looking to improve the quality of life of military families who face unique challenges, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth addressed a group of military spouses Monday to kick off the President’s Military Spouse Commission.
Accra Reset’s report states countries in the region and global south should take greater control of their health development after USAID debacle
The United States’ withdrawal from key aid programs has put healthcare in Africa and the Global South “under growing strain” a new report warns.
The report says the Trump administration’s cuts to programs such as US Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as the Covid-19 pandemic and rising costs of living globally have brought “new urgency” for the need to reform healthcare in the region.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has fallen to 32%, the lowest level recorded across his first and second presidencies in Reuters/Ipsos polling, as dissatisfaction over living costs and the economy grows.
The Reuters/Ipsos survey, conducted Sept. 17-20 among 1,277 U.S. adults, found Trump’s overall approval down from 47% when he began his second term. Among Republicans, approval fell to 73%, compared with 86% in January. The poll has a margin of error of about 3 percentage points.
Economic concerns were particularly damaging. Only 17% of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the cost of living. Among Republicans, 44% approved of his performance on that issue while 51% disapproved, marking a significant deterioration within his own party.
The poll also found registered voters preferred Democratic congressional candidates over Republicans, 43% to 35%, ahead of November’s midterm elections. That represents the largest Democratic advantage measured by Reuters/Ipsos this year.
Trump performed better among Republicans on immigration, while his handling of the Iran war and rising fuel costs drew broader dissatisfaction.
The company, once a file-sharing app and then a streaming service, is teaming up with an educational organization in the Middle East to create virtual replicas of teachers.
Holdout juror in Clancy’s case, Michael Desronvil, sided with the prosecutors, arguing that Clancy knew what she was doing when she killed her three young children
Lawyers for Lindsay Clancy have asked a judge to investigate the conduct of the lone juror who wanted to convict the mother from Massachusetts of murder in the deaths of her three children.
In a motion filed Friday but made public Monday, Clancy’s lawyers asked the court to question the juror about his alleged use of a cellphone during deliberations, his truthfulness on a questionnaire that prospective jurors filled out before the trial began and his truthfulness when jurors were questioned by the judge a day before the trial ended.
After President Donald Trump announced Sept. 18 on Truth Social that he was banning CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House because they write “fake news,” many of his supporters defended the move by pointing to actions by former President Joe Biden’s administration.
A TikTok video with 72,000 views said, “Biden changed the White House press pool and CUT OFF 440 reporters’ credentials, yet got ZERO outrage from the fake news media.”
Other social media posts shared a 2025 Fox News headline that read, “FLASHBACK: Biden also changed White House press pool, cutting off more than 440 reporters’ credentials.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., also compared Trump’s ban with a press policy change by Biden in 2023.
“Go look at Joe Biden,” Scalise told ABC’s “This Week” host Jonathan Karl on Sept. 20. “Joe Biden removed the press credentials from over 400 different agencies. You know, what President Trump’s done has brought a lot of those back in.”
Karl pushed back. “They were not banned from the White House,” he said.
The White House doubled down on its ban the next day. “White House access is a privilege, not a right,” a Sept. 21 press release said, citing instances in which it said Biden or former President Barack Obama targeted journalists, including 440 reporters having their credentials “restricted” by Biden in 2023.
More than 400 reporters did see changes to White House access under Biden in 2023, but Biden did not remove their ability to be in the White House to cover the president, which is what Trump has ordered for three news outlets.
Tim Zick, a constitutional law professor at William & Mary Law School, said the Biden rules were changed in part to address concerns about maintaining press briefing decorum and to reduce the number of unused press passes, which the administration considered a national security risk.
“The Biden policy was a far cry from President Trump’s abrupt and process-free announcement of a ban on targeted media with whom he frequently clashes,” Zick said, calling it “a blatant and clear violation of the First Amendment.”
What Biden did in 2023
In May 2023, the White House changed policies for journalists to receive a “hard pass,” which allows them unaccompanied access to the White House’s press areas. The yearly passes expired in July that year, and journalists were told they had to reapply under a new set of criteria.
Then, as now, reporters without hard pass access were required to apply for day passes, which mandate they be escorted to those press areas.
Among the Biden administration’s new rules for a hard pass, according to a court filing, a journalist seeking one:
must be employed by a news organization.
must be accredited for a press gallery in the U.S. House or Senate, or U.S. Supreme Court.
must have a physical address (personal or professional) in the greater Washington, D.C. area, and
must have accessed the White House for work at least once in the past six months.
After the changes, about 500 fewer journalists had hard passes, the court filing said. A Politico report in August 2023 said there were 442 fewer hard passes, which matches the numbers used in some social media posts defending Trump.
Former Biden White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a Sept. 21 TikTok video that “there were a lot of people with hard passes out there that had not used it in several years.”
Simon Ateba, a journalist with Today News Africa who lost his hard pass after the change, filed the lawsuit against the White House in 2023, but a court ruled the new policy did not violate his First Amendment rights, a decision upheld in April 2025 by the D.C. United States Court of Appeals.
The court ruling found Biden’s new hard pass policy both “reasonable and viewpoint neutral” and said it did not violate the First Amendment.
Psaki said journalists from right-leaning news outlets such as Breitbart, Fox News and Newsmax all got hard passes “because the criteria had nothing to do with how you were covering the administration.”
Andrew Bates, former deputy press secretary for Biden, said no reporters were banned as a result of Biden’s policy.
“Most of the reporters Trump’s aides are trying to exploit by citing that number had stopped covering the White House and didn’t even apply for a new hard pass,” Bates said. “And all of those reporters were eligible to apply for day passes whenever they wanted. No one was ‘banned,’ regardless of how negative or friendly their coverage was.”
Anytime a government seeks to impose standards for journalists, Zick said, there are concerns that those standards could be used to exclude or sanction reporters based on their coverage: “Free speech and press advocates raised such concerns, suggesting that the Biden standards were not clear enough.”
Some reporters did lose the hard pass credentials and some may have decided not to apply, Zick said, but that’s not the same as what Trump is doing.
Our ruling
A TikTok video said Biden “CUT OFF 440 reporters’ credentials.”
In 2023, the Biden administration changed its policy on how reporters can qualify for a hard pass, which lets them move more freely around White House press areas without an escort. About 500 fewer reporters had hard passes after the change, but they weren’t “cut off.” They could still apply for a day pass, a more cumbersome process, but they weren’t banned from the White House.
I was testing the Apple Watch’s ECG feature on video for CNET and as a healthy, active 30-year-old, the last thing I expected was to become part of the story.
Voters rejected many establishment choices this year in favor of candidates pushing accountability for Gaza, writes Akbar Shahid Ahmed
The last time she gathered with fellow Democrats for a pre-election national convention, Georgia state representative Ruwa Romman got an unspoken message from the party establishment: on their biggest stage, she said, “There’s room for an anti-choice Republican but not for Palestinians”. Democratic officials gave speaking slots to an architect of Georgia’s strict abortion ban and other conservatives critical of Donald Trump, but they denied a speech from Romman or other Palestinian Americans.
In Democratic primaries this year, voters rejected many of the party establishment’s choices, including a 15-term congresswoman in Colorado and the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The unlikely winners in all those races emphasized empathy and accountability for Palestinian losses in Gaza; Abdul El-Sayed, who won Michigan’s Senate primary, made opposition to the ardently pro-Israel group Aipac central to his candidacy. With 60% of potential Democratic voters in a May poll sympathizing more with Palestinians than Israelis and 48% saying the party has been too supportive of Israel, the base is eager for Democratic leaders to rethink unfettered US-Israel solidarity.
Andy Burnham seeks stability in Middle East to bring down prices at home as first meeting with Trump looms
The UK has agreed to provide defensive air support to Saudi Arabia to help counter Houthi fighters and restore stability in the Middle East while driving down the cost of living at home, Andy Burnham has said, ahead of his first meeting with Donald Trump.
The prime minister said he had agreed to a request for air-to-air refuelling of Saudi jets to defend energy infrastructure against the Iran-backed rebels and help keep oil flowing from the Gulf to ease global economic turmoil.
Textile designer brings florals, vines and smiley doodles to brand’s luxury checks for one-off paired collection
Burberry and Celia Birtwell are both national treasures of sorts. One is Britain’s grandest luxury name, the other the textile designer who dressed bohemian 1960s London in her prints and has a place in art history as David Hockney’s favourite muse.
Burberry’s designer, Daniel Lee, has always loved Birtwell’s prints. When the two met this spring, he fell for “her energy, and her zest for life”, and a one-off Burberry meets Birtwell collection that closed London fashion week was born.
At Lib Dems’ conference in Brighton, leader will accuse Andy Burnham of relying on Donald Trump and ‘tech bros’ to solve problem
Ed Davey is to call for a global nuclear-style non-proliferation treaty to halt the development of super-intelligent AI when he makes his keynote speech at the Liberal Democrat conference, accusing Andy Burnham of relying on Donald Trump and “tech bros” to solve the problem.
When he addresses the faithful on the final day of the gathering in Brighton, the party leader will call for a global pause on super-intelligent AI, comparing it to a nuclear arms race that could result in technology that could “destroy us all”.
Prime ministers of Australia and Iceland discuss effects on their countries even as some shy away in face of war and inflation
World political leaders are descending on New York for the UN general assembly and some of them are putting the climate crisis on the agenda as they spoke on Monday at the start of the city’s annual Climate Week.
This year’s Climate Week – which runs alongside UNGA – comes after months of extreme heat in large parts of the world including Europe and the US, wildfires in Africa, flash flooding in Asia and a record-breaking El Niño.
Trump Media & Technology recently launched a Truth Social API data feed, charging $100,000 for "real-time access to posts from the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts."
Senator Ron Wyden calls for swift action after GAO report finds systems guiding US aircraft vulnerable to interference
A congressional watchdog has warned the systems guiding US aircraft are open to interference and deception as flights into several busy airports in the country’s north-east US were halted by a radio equipment problem.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a ground stop at about 10am on Monday for Newark Liberty international, Philadelphia international and Teterboro airports, saying some radio frequencies at the Philadelphia terminal radar approach control (Tracon) were affected until the early afternoon. On Monday, John F Kennedy international airport in New York cautioned that “due to an FAA equipment outage, arrivals and departures are currently experiencing delays”.
A helicopter assisting in fighting the Dome fire in Yosemite national park crashed on Sunday afternoon
Two helicopter pilots died while fighting a fire in Yosemite national park on Sunday afternoon.
The pilots were conducting water drops over the Dome fire, which had burned more than 3,000 acres since it ignited last week, when their helicopter crashed around 3pm, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Nats says fault at Prestwick has been ‘fixed’ after airports in Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland are hit
Airlines have called for “action and accountability” over the UK’s air traffic control services after a technical issue led to flights being disrupted for the second time in a fortnight.
Dozens were cancelled and others severely delayed after a fault on Monday morning at National Air Traffic Services (Nats), this time at its second control centre at Prestwick in South Ayrshire.
(The Center Square) – Medicare Part D sponsors made $587.7 million in ineligible payments to pharmacies for five drugs carrying obsolete prescription-only labeling more than a year after the corresponding brand-name drugs switched to over-the-counter status, a federal watchdog found.
(The Center Square) — Republican candidates in redrawn congressional districts across the country have appeared to distance themselves from President Donald Trump in recent weeks.
(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., has offered his support for Sean Parnell as chatter continues that he could be a candidate to lead the U.S. Army.
Some network employees and media-watchers have questions and concerns about how arrangement will work
Leading media figures and insiders dismissed plans to create an editorial oversight board to protect CNN’s independence as “utter garbage” – in one staffer’s words – after a settlement was reached to resolve a lawsuit filed by a coalition of 12 states to block Paramount’s $110bn acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery.
California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, during a press conference to announce the settlement, said that Paramount “must establish a news editorial independence board to support CBS News and CNN’s continued editorial independence to ensure independent, objective, fact-based reporting at CBS News and at CNN”.
Paramount's agreement with 12 state attorneys general paves the way for the company to complete its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
A new survey from the American Federation of Teachers revealed Pennsylvania educators are stressed, working second jobs and concerned about Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity traumatizing families.
MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 21, 2026 — Flexible Circuit Technologies Inc. (FCT), a Minnesota-based flexible circuit and advanced electronics manufacturer, is pleased to announce the development of its Liquid Leak Detection Flex Assembly, a custom-engineered sensing solution designed for liquid-cooled AI servers, high-performance computing (HPC) systems, cold plates, manifolds, quick disconnects, coolant distribution units (CDUs), and other mission-critical electronics.
As AI and HPC platforms continue to move toward direct-to-chip liquid cooling, early detection of coolant leaks is becoming increasingly important. FCT’s flexible sensing assembly is designed to fit around the geometry of the cooling system, enabling leak detection close to potential failure points while maintaining a thin, lightweight profile in space-constrained server and rack environments.
The Liquid Leak Detection Flex Assembly can be customized for the application, including sensing patterns, circuit geometry, connector interfaces, and multiple detection zones. Potential monitoring locations include supply and return quick disconnects, GPU and CPU cold plates, manifolds, coolant lines, CDUs, and server trays. The flex-based architecture is intended to help OEMs and cooling-system manufacturers integrate leak sensing directly into their equipment rather than relying solely on facility-level leak detection.
“The rapid growth of liquid-cooled AI infrastructure is creating a new need for thin, compact, highly customized leak-detection solutions,” said Ray Cottrell, EVP of Flexible Circuit Technologies. “FCT’s strength is designing flexible circuits around the customer’s mechanical and electrical requirements. This concept allows us to bring that capability directly to cold plates, manifolds, quick disconnects, and server-level cooling assemblies where early detection can help protect high-value electronics.”
FCT plans to work with server OEMs and ODMs, liquid-cooling companies, cold-plate manufacturers, thermal-management suppliers, and data-center infrastructure providers to tailor the assembly to specific cooling architectures. FCT’s engineering team can support concept development, rapid prototyping, design-for-manufacturing, flex circuit fabrication, assembly, and scalable production.
About FCT
Flexible Circuit Technologies, Inc. (FCT), and inTFlex (EMS division), offer specialty interconnects, including flexible circuits, catheters, rigid flex, flexible heaters, printed electronics/membrane switches, plastic moldings, and advanced EMS, from FPCA/PCBA to complete product box builds. We partner with customers to design innovative flexible circuits and manufacture solution. Celebrating over 25 years in business, FCT has an internationally recognized design team, with advanced manufacturing to support fast NPI and cost-effective manufacturing solutions in Asia.
(The Center Square) – Paramount Skydance has settled an antitrust lawsuit brought by Democratic state attorneys general including California’s Rob Bonta. The deal appears to clear the way for Paramount Skydance to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $110 billion.
Four amendments involve voting rules, while others address marriage, the death penalty and vacancies in the lieutenant governor’s office
DOVER, Del. — Delaware’s next General Assembly will inherit eight proposed amendments to the state Constitution, including four that could change voting rights and election procedures.
Vil Ramunno, a public policy researcher and Delaware LIVE contributing journalist, outlined the proposals during an appearance on “A Better Discussion,” hosted by former Delaware Attorney General Jane Brady for A Better Delaware.
The amendments already received the required approval from two-thirds of the members elected to each chamber of the 153rd General Assembly. However, none is part of the Constitution yet.
Under Delaware’s amendment process, the same proposed changes must receive two-thirds support in the House and Senate again after a general election. Unlike most states, Delaware does not routinely place individual constitutional amendments before voters for ratification. The governor also has no power to sign or veto them.
That means the lawmakers elected in November will decide whether the eight proposals become part of Delaware’s foundational legal document.
Four voting amendments
Ramunno said four of the pending amendments involve elections or voting rights:
• Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 2 would authorize 10 days of early, in-person voting before general, primary and certain special elections.
• Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 3 would create a constitutional right to vote by absentee ballot without providing an excuse. Voters generally would still have to request a ballot for each election cycle unless they qualify for permanent absentee status.
• House Bill 180 would generally restore voting rights to people convicted of felonies after they are released from incarceration. It would prohibit making restoration contingent upon restitution or another monetary payment and remove obsolete residency and literacy provisions.
• House Bill 430 would specify that only natural persons may vote in Delaware elections, preventing corporations and other artificial entities from being granted voting rights.
Ramunno said her initial impression was that the four voting measures weren’t a major concern, though she offered a clarification after the interview.
Brady disagreed with that initial assessment, raising concerns about the details lawmakers could later establish through statute. She particularly questioned the no-excuse absentee proposal.
Ramunno said she wanted to clarify her position on the felon voting rights amendment: on reflection, she agreed with Brady’s concern that restitution should be addressed before voting rights are restored, since the amendment as written would prevent the state from ever requiring that.
Their exchange demonstrated why the second round of legislative consideration could produce significant debate, even though each proposal secured the supermajority needed to clear its first constitutional hurdle.
Marriage, death penalty and state offices
The four remaining amendments would address other parts of the Constitution:
• Senate Substitute 2 for Senate Bill 100 would establish marriage as a fundamental right that cannot be denied based on gender or another characteristic protected by the Constitution. It also contains language protecting religious freedom.
• House Substitute 1 for House Bill 35 would constitutionally prohibit the death penalty. Delaware currently has no enforceable death penalty statute, but the amendment would prevent a future General Assembly from restoring capital punishment without another constitutional change.
• Senate Bill 264 would establish a special-election process for filling most vacancies in the lieutenant governor’s office.
• House Substitute 1 for House Bill 320 would make a series of technical corrections to the Constitution, including removing duplicated words, correcting punctuation and clarifying several provisions.
Brady cautioned against treating the Constitution like ordinary legislation, saying it should remain a foundational document that is changed carefully and infrequently.
Making legislation easier to follow: CivicDelaware.com
Ramunno’s analysis is informed by nearly a decade in public policy. She previously served as a senior editor at the Caesar Rodney Institute, where she worked to make policy reports clear and accessible to general readers.
She now covers government and politics for Delaware LIVE and also works as a public policy researcher.
Ramunno also created Civic Delaware, an informational platform designed to help residents follow bills moving through Legislative Hall. Its primary tool, Dover Dash, tracks legislation from introduction through committee hearings, floor consideration and final action.
She said she developed the platform after watching complex bills move from introduction to passage in a matter of days during the final weeks of a legislative session.
Dover Dash uses automated updates from the General Assembly’s website and organizes bills according to the people most likely to be affected. Users can select profiles such as homeowner, parent, young professional, retiree, senior or veteran.
Instead of displaying only bill numbers, the platform gives proposals descriptive names, plain-language summaries, their official legislative synopses and current status. Users can also browse bills by subjects such as taxes, energy, alcohol and cannabis, and the state Constitution.
“You want to only know the ones that affect you, and it helps you to be more engaged,” Ramunno said. “And it makes it a little personal, too.”
She said Civic Delaware will archive legislation from the outgoing General Assembly when the new session begins in January. The eight proposed constitutional amendments will remain active because they must be considered again by the incoming lawmakers.
Ramunno said the goal is to help residents learn about proposals before they become law, ask informed questions and engage directly with their elected representatives.
TO GO: Track legislation with Civic Delaware
• What: Civic Delaware’s Dover Dash tracks legislation moving through the Delaware General Assembly.
• How it works: Choose a profile, homeowner, parent, young professional, retiree, senior or veteran, to surface bills that affect you, or browse by subject instead.
• What you’ll find: Plain-English summaries, official legislative synopses and real-time status for every bill in the pipeline.
• Why it matters: Bills can move from introduction to passage in days, especially late in a session. Dover Dash gives residents time to catch a proposal and ask their legislator about it before the vote.
Immigration agency’s move makes it harder for lawyers and family to find detainees, in line with stringent Trump policy
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding thousands of detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, an unannounced move that has made it far more difficult for lawyers and relatives to find them, according to current and former officials familiar with the practice.
ICE removed those detainees from its online detainee locator system on 15 September, according to three current and former ICE officials who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the change. Several lawyers contacted by the AP confirmed their clients vanished from the system this week, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association warned its members about the situation on Friday.
CNN was set to provide pool coverage on Monday and accompany President Trump on a trip to New York City, but there will not be a network TV pool team traveling with him.
It is impossible to go anywhere in a technology space online without hitting a wave of commentary about how stupid GDPR is. It was written by bureaucrats who don’t understand the amazing potential of unrestricted technology. These US-based critiques almost always lean on the oldest trick in cyberlibertarianism: we don’t have time to regulate, we must simply adapt and ride the wave. Nobody has time for government.
Of all GDPR’s consequences, none gets more attention than the cookie banner, which critics present as the inevitable result of government meddling. Blaming GDPR for the cookie banner is like blaming the health inspector for the roaches. The banner is deliberate vandalism, a dark pattern engineered to exhaust you before you can learn anything about the surveillance apparatus humming behind the “OK.” Ironically the banner designed to hide the machine has taught the public more about the machine than a thousand podcasts ever will. Even non-technical people stop at “your data is shared with 996 partners.”
There is so much misinformation about the cookie banner, it’s honestly quite hard to believe it’s not deliberately spread. You don’t need a cookie banner for functional cookies, so as long as you don’t share your users’ data with anyone else, you don’t need a cookie banner at all. On top of that, most cookie banners you encounter are actually not compliant with the GDPR at all, because they don’t present a single-click option to block your data from being shared with those 996 partners.
What the cookie banner has done is inform millions – maybe even billions – of people the world over of just how insipid the online advertising and data harvesting industry really is. It put the issue on the map, and by now, everyone, no matter their level of computer literacy, is fully aware of what’s happening to their data every time they see one of these (non-compliant) banners. No else had the guts to do this – except for the European Union.
The wider GPDR has set the baseline for online privacy protections, and while we have a long way to go before we’ve fully solved this issue, the EU at least gave us a good point to jump off from. Smoking and asbestos weren’t banned in a day, either.
New research connects two of the Wilmington museum’s most important collections and offers fresh insight into the development of American illustration
WILMINGTON — A new Delaware Art Museum exhibition is challenging the long-held view that two of the institution’s most important collections tell separate stories.
“Pyle and the Pre-Raphaelites,” which opened Sept. 5, brings together works by Wilmington illustrator Howard Pyle and British Pre-Raphaelite artists whose detailed, romantic style helped influence his approach to visual storytelling.
The exhibition’s larger significance lies in new research showing that Pyle and Wilmington textile manufacturer and art collector Samuel Bancroft were more closely connected than historians previously understood.
Bancroft assembled what became one of the museum’s signature collections of British Pre-Raphaelite art. Pyle’s work formed the foundation of another.
Although the two men were related by marriage, questions remained about whether Pyle influenced Bancroft’s collecting, whether Bancroft introduced Pyle to the British artists or whether their interests developed independently.
The museum’s research indicates that Pyle was already studying and drawing inspiration from the Pre-Raphaelites before Bancroft began acquiring their work in 1890.
Two collections become one story
The Pre-Raphaelite movement began in England during the 19th century. Its artists rejected some conventional academic approaches to painting in favor of vivid colors, close attention to detail, symbolism and stories drawn from literature, medieval history and Arthurian legend.
Those qualities are also visible in many of Pyle’s best-known illustrations.
The exhibition places Pyle’s medieval and Early Renaissance scenes beside works by Pre-Raphaelite artists and their followers, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris.
Among the works displayed are Pyle’s illustrations for stories about the Knights of the Round Table and Rossetti’s “Water Willow,” Burne-Jones’ “Cupid’s Hunting Fields” and a Rossetti study depicting Lancelot and the Lady of Shalott.
The side-by-side presentation allows visitors to compare the artists’ compositions, subjects and storytelling techniques instead of simply being told that a connection existed.
A Delaware link to American illustration
The exhibit matters locally because Howard Pyle’s legacy is closely tied to Wilmington and the Brandywine Valley. His illustrations appeared in prominent books and magazines, and his teaching influenced a generation of artists who helped establish American illustration as a distinct art form.
The Delaware Art Museum itself traces its origins to the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, founded in 1912 to preserve Pyle’s work following his death.
By demonstrating that Pyle encountered Pre-Raphaelite ideas early in his career, the exhibition adds a new chapter to the story of how American illustration developed. It suggests that the dramatic, story-driven images associated with Pyle and his students had meaningful roots in an earlier British art movement.
The result is more than a comparison of artistic styles. It is an examination of how artistic ideas crossed the Atlantic, took hold in Wilmington and helped shape images seen by American readers across the country.
The exhibition also gives the museum an opportunity to connect two collections central to its identity: its founding collection of Pyle’s work and the Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft collection of British Pre-Raphaelite art.
“Pyle and the Pre-Raphaelites” was curated by Katherine Feldkamp, the museum’s curatorial associate. It will remain on view in Galleries 11 and 12 through Jan. 24, 2027.
Feldkamp will lead a gallery talk from noon to 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25, examining how Pyle incorporated Pre-Raphaelite art into his teaching and how his students also found inspiration in the movement. The program is free for museum members and included with general admission for other visitors.
To Go Box
What: “Pyle and the Pre-Raphaelites”
Where: Delaware Art Museum, Galleries 11 and 12, 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington
When: On view through Jan. 24, 2027
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. The museum remains open until 8 p.m. Thursdays from April through December.
Admission: $18 for adults, $16 for seniors, $7 for students with identification and $6 for youth ages 7 to 18. Admission is free for members and children 6 and younger. General admission is free from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursdays through December.
Special program: Curator Katherine Feldkamp will lead a gallery talk from noon to 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25.
Parking: Free on-site parking is available behind the museum.
An Iranian couple seeking refuge in the U.S. has been separated for nearly two years after separate immigration judges issued sharply diverging rulings on their nearly identical asylum applications.
Mohammadjamal Azizi and Hannaneh Alikaram requested asylum after arriving in the United States in late 2024, for fear of the persecution they would likely face as Christian converts in Iran, where they had twice been arrested due to their faith.
Since arriving in the U.S., they have faced sharply different versions of American justice, the result of a process advocates refer to bitterly as “immigration roulette”: Azizi — who goes by the name Liam — has been free for more than a year, after his asylum claim was granted, while Alikaram has suffered 21 months in detention, more than a year of that coming after her claim was rejected.
Until recently, it is likely that Alikaram would not have spent nearly as much time in detention as she has. But amid the twin agendas of mass detention and mass deportation, the Trump administration has swept aside years of precedent by locking up people who would previously have been allowed to fight their cases from outside detention, while going after communities formerly protected from deportation due to the likelihood of persecution back home.
Iranians have found themselves the crosshairs. Last year, amid the so-called 12-Day War between the U.S.–Israel and Iran, senior officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched a scheme to begin deportations to Iran, a plan that resulted in three planes full of Iranian deportees being sent back to Iran on charter flights.
Those flights were suspended earlier this year after the U.S. and Israel launched the ongoing war on Iran, but multiple Iranians with final orders of removal have been deported to countries where they have no ties, including Panama and the Central African Republic. With so-called third-country flights leaving every month or so, Azizi and his wife live in constant fear that Alikaram might be put on a plane to a country where she knows no one and from which she has little hope of escaping.
Leaving detention after seven months, Azizi headed to the Iranian American hub of Los Angeles, where he has spent the past year working any job he can find to raise money for legal bills and fighting for his wife’s release. By the logic of the U.S. immigration system, that should be a simple prospect: As the spouse of an asylee, Alikaram is eligible for a status known as derivative asylum, a process intended to ensure family unification and act as a backstop against situations like the one in which Azizi and Alikaram find themselves, according to Carmen Maria Rey Caldas, a former immigration judge fired by the Trump administration last year.
“This is your money and my money that are being wasted in detaining this woman who is unquestionably eligible for asylum.”
“The person gets to have derivative asylum because family unity is a central tenet of our immigration system,” said Rey Caldas. “This is your money and my money that are being wasted in detaining this woman who is unquestionably eligible for asylum as the spouse of an individual that has been granted asylum.”
The couple currently has a petition for derivative asylum before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and have filed a petition for habeas corpus seeking to secure Alikaram’s release on the basis of prolonged detention. Amid the uncertainty, with no end in sight to his wife’s detention, Azizi said their separation — and his feeling of helplessness in the face of bureaucratic cruelty — weighs on him daily.
“Being separated from Hananneh is unbearable,” Azizi wrote in a statement to the court filed earlier this year. “Every night I go to sleep wondering if she is safe in detention. Every day I wake up with anxiety that she might be taken away from me and sent back to a country where she could be imprisoned, tortured, or even killed just because she sought freedom.”
Azizi and Alikaram married in 2018 and lived together in Isfahan, Iran, where both had gone to university. Azizi worked as a software engineer, while Alikaram ran a greenhouse business, cultivating plants and posting playful videos to YouTube in which she coached plant lovers on topics ranging from prepping plants for autumn to guarding against pests. In the videos, which include jokey, spliced-in clips from “Lord of the Rings” and Miyazaki films, Alikaram comes across as a happy young woman enamored with the natural world.
The couple found their way to Christianity first through friends, members of Isfahan’s sizable minority of Armenian Christians. Christians have lived in Iran for more than a millennium, and Iran’s constitution affords protections allowing ethnoreligious communities, most notably Armenians and Assyrians, to practice their faith and organize their families and communities accordingly.
But the situation is very different for converts like Azizi and Alikaram, who are considered by Iran’s theocratic government to be apostates, and are subject to harsh punishments — up to and including execution. As a result, converts must worship in secret, in an underground network of so-called home churches.
It was in these home churches that the couple began exploring Christianity and where, in January 2024, they were baptized into the Anglican church. But it was also in a home church where the two met with their first experience of state terror, Azizi and Alikaram told The Intercept in telephone interviews and related in court documents. On March 5, 2024, they were worshipping with a handful of others in a home church in Isfahan when members of the pro-government Basij militia burst in, having been informed of the gathering by neighbors. Alikaram and Azizi, along with others, were taken into custody. Alikaram was beaten so badly she passed out and had to be hospitalized.
On June 9, 2024, after relocating for their own safety to the capital of Tehran, Alikaram and Azizi were arrested again on charges of practicing a foreign religion and inviting others to practice Christianity. She was held for two days, and he for four. After that ordeal, they decided it was time to leave. They secured a visa to enter Brazil, and left Iran on November 3, 2024. Five days later, a court in Tehran issued warrants for their arrest, according to court documents.
Mohammadjamal Azizi and his wife Hannaneh Alikaram in Shiraz, Iran, in 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Mohammadjamal “Liam” Azizi
Azizi and Alikaram entered the United States on December 26, 2024, after an arduous trip overland from Brazil that took them through more than half a dozen countries. En route, they traveled through the infamous Darién Gap and spent two days as captives of a criminal group in Tapachula, Mexico, an ordeal that ended only after paying thousands of dollars for their release.
In Mexico, they registered for CBP One, the mobile app designed by the Biden administration as the only method by which potential asylees could file a claim. Due to the danger in Mexico, including threats from a smuggler, Alikaram and Azizi said smugglers forced them to join a group of migrants from India, Iran, and a number of African countries in crossing the border wall separating Tijuana and San Diego.
“They told us, ‘You have to cross the border, you cannot stay in Mexico,’” Azizi recalled the smugglers saying. “It was out of our hands.”
On the other side, they soon found themselves in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol, who searched the migrants and separated the men from the women.
“We told them we are married, we showed them our marriage certificate,” Azizi told The Intercept. “But they didn’t care. They separated us.”
In early January 2025, Alikaram was sent to Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana, while Azizi was sent to another facility in Louisiana before ending up at a detention center in Houston, Texas.
They have been apart ever since.
Alikaram went before Judge Jennifer A. May for her asylum hearing on July 2, 2025. May, who was appointed in 2018 under the first Trump administration, appears to be in line with the policy objectives of the current administration. Between 2021 and the end of 2025, she denied asylum in 91.8 percent of the cases she heard, according to data from Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which collects data on immigration judges.
The hearing took place at a time in which judges were under ever greater pressure to deny claims, according to Rey Caldas, the former immigration judge, who was fired last year amid a purge of the immigration court system by the Trump administration.
“It was evident to me when I was on the bench, and it’s certainly evident to me now that they are exerting massive pressure so that judges deny all applications,” Rey Caldas said.
“They are exerting massive pressure so that judges deny all applications.”
In the hearing, which was conducted over Webex, May drilled into Alikaram’s claim, asking for details about her baptism, whether or not she had owned a Bible, and her reasons for converting to Christianity. Alikaram, clearly nervous, stumbled over her words at times, and at others gave answers that clashed with evidence provided to court. Some details also appeared to get lost in translation. At one point, a reference by Alikaram to the Basij, the paramilitary arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was transcribed as “a siege.”
May did not find Alikaram to be credible. In her decision denying Alikaram’s asylum case, May focused mostly on what she described as inconsistencies in Alikaram’s testimony, including how long she’d been attending home churches and details of her arrest — inconsistencies that Alikaram and Azizi later blamed on her nerves while testifying. But May also tried to downplay the likelihood that Alikaram would face persecution if she returned to Iran.
“I find there is no independent evidence to show that the respondent would likely be tortured in Iran,” May wrote. “[T]his court is aware that Christians have been arrested and sent to jail for some period of time. But looking at the amount of people in Iran, the amount of people who are converts to Christianity, I cannot find that that percentage would be more than likely or not torture or persecution [sic] for this respondent.”
Six days later, Azizi who at the time was being held at a detention facility in Texas, went before Judge Nimmo Bhagat, fully expecting that his claim would be denied as well. To his shock, however, the judge approved his claim for asylum, and just two weeks later he was a free man.
“I was shocked,” Azizi said. “I thought if my wife couldn’t get asylum that I’d have no chance. But they gave me asylum.”
A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Immigration Review, the branch of the Justice Department that oversees immigration courts, declined to comment. Neither ICE nor USCIS responded to requests for comment.
In light of his wife’s asylum denial, Azizi’s successful claim was a godsend for them both. Despite May’s decision, Alikaram should now be eligible for derivative asylum, upon which her own claim and its denial has no bearing.
The couple filed for derivative asylum in December, after the Board of Immigration Appeals denied Alikaram’s appeal of May’s decision. USCIS issued a notice of receipt, and even scheduled an appointment in Jackson, Mississippi, for a biometrics appointment. But ICE failed to produce Alikaram for the appointment, and the derivative asylum process now appears to be languishing in limbo.
In April, Alikaram’s attorney, Emily Trostle, filed a petition for habeas corpus in an attempt to secure Alikaram’s release from detention. That case, too, has stalled, forcing Trostle to file a petition last week to expedite the process.
In detention, meanwhile, Alikaram is suffering from poor nutrition, failing eyesight, and severe anxiety and depression.
“I can’t bear it anymore,” she told The Intercept in a telephone interview. “I know God has a plan for me, but sometimes now I say, ‘Just kill me so my husband and my family can move on with their lives.’”
California is bracing for a record breaking El Niño that is expected to bring severe winter storms and flooding across the state, with the state’s governor declaring a state of emergency in anticipation of extreme weather in the months ahead.
The global climate phenomenon known as a “super El Niño” is already breaking temperature records and drawing predictions of an extremely wet winter in places such as California, where El Niño typically brings more severe winter storms and flooding risks. Several coastal California cities have recently faced high surf, flooding and coastal erosion linked to Hurricane Marie as well as El Niño. Experts have said the effects offered a glimpse at what the coming winter could look like.
A few months ago, Google announced it was going to put Android on laptops (and eventually, desktops), serving as eventual replacements for Chromebooks. Unlike those, though, these new Android laptops wouldn’t be low-quality, cheap, underpowered devices for school children to spill milk on, but devices actually competitive with Windows and macOS laptops. Today, the company finally allowed the press to use these new things.
Google describes Googlebook as a “totally fresh approach to computing,” bringing together Android, ChromeOS, Gemini, and premium laptop hardware from major manufacturers.
The idea is to create a laptop that feels more natural to use for Android phone users while retaining what makes a desktop OS useful, such as a full Chrome browser, desktop apps, a proper file manager, Linux support, and a full terminal environment.
Google is also trying to solve some of the biggest problems Android users have had when moving between their phone and laptop, and make the two devices feel like part of the same ecosystem.
I’ve been looking at some of the videos of people using and playing with these new Android laptops, and to be honest, I’m not impressed. I’m seeing quite a bit of jank, a complete lack of consistency, and apparently, a lack of Android applications optimised for desktop use. The close integration with your Android phone are nice, but of course, this also means another dollop of slimy lock-in, as I highly doubt Google will make it easy or even possible at all for, say, iPhones or other platforms to integrate quite as nicely as Android devices will.
Worse yet, there’s the elephant in the room: for just how long will Google care about this new platform? These laptops start at $900 and go all the way up to $1300 (and will be considerably more expensive here in Europe), which is a lot to ask for something Google might get bored of and abandon in a few years’ time. Ten or more years ago, in a slightly more innocent time, I might’ve been excited about Google bringing Android to laptops and desktops, but in 2026, I just can’t be bothered to care.
Also, and this doesn’t really matter, but “Googlebook OS”?
"In a few weeks, KDE will turn 30 years old," writes core contributor Kevin Ottens, celebrating with some special KDE community data analytics (including a 30-year graph of the number of contributors):
It peaks around 180 on average (and sometimes reaches towards around 200 people) then shrinks again hitting bottom around 110 persons on average in 2017... Since then, we had two major events happening. First, 2018 is the year where we had the first set of KDE Goals being picked by the community, one being "Streamlined onboarding of new contributors". Second, we had the transition to GitLab which was fully delivered early in the second quarter of 2020...
Now it seems like the team size is around 140 people on average, so closer to the all time high of 2010 but we didn't fully close the gap yet. Interestingly though, the commit count is much closer to the one we had in 2010, with a bit less people. We even had an all time high commit count in 2023 which surpassed any other week since the creation of the project. And to make things even brighter, the trends at the end of the plot point upwards. Looks like 2026 will be a very good year. Hopefully the growth will stay stable this time and then the community will be the biggest it's ever been...
[For the KDE Plasma desktop] We find the 2010 dip but it's much less dramatic than in all the other plots. It stabilized much quicker and managed to stay with an almost identical team size. We also find the increase leading up to 2020. And clearly it's one of the projects which benefitted the most of the GitLab transition. It's average team size almost doubled during the transition! Earlier I asked where the increase we could see on KDE as a whole but not on applications was coming from? Well, this is probably it. Like the rest of KDE, 2026 will be a very good year for Plasma as well. I wonder... will it double in size again next year compared to 2020?
"I'm rather happy that KDE as a whole seems very healthy..." the post concludes. "It looks like in almost 30 years KDE built a great community and many awesome products..."
"Kudos to all the people involved for the past 30 years! Even if you're not involved any more you helped contribute something beautiful and precious to the world. We're the living proof that large commons can be created and made sustainable thanks to passionate people."
The GIMP will never magically become software beloved by artists—not without radically changing its culture, and making the artists the ones who call the shots. The GIMP will remain what it has always set out to be: a tinkerer’s toolbox, more concerned with the purity of its software politics than with garnering a loyal userbase of photographers and designers.
But because everyone insisted to poise it as a viable Photoshop killer, Linux is left with an obvious hole in its software offering, a hole nobody managed to fill with their own challenger.
(The Center Square) – As Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker appeared on a national news program Sunday, he avoided answering a question about the Democratic Party and if it should be tossing aside controversial influencer Hasan Piker – known for inflammatory…
Local and regional partners spent nearly a decade planning the new mountain bike trail system that opened in San Juan County on September 11, 2026. The public trail network serves high school racers, families, recreational riders and adaptive cyclists.
(The Center Square) – U.S. Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, is facing Democrat Brian Poindexter on November’s midterm ballot in a race neither party expected to be competitive.
Illinois is the best-paying state for construction workersSource: Construction Coverage analysis of BLS & BEA dataAt the state level, the Midwest is home to many of the highest wages for construction workers after adjusting for cost-of-living differences. Illinois leads the…
Construction employment surges to an all-time highSource: Construction Coverage analysis of BLS dataThe construction sector has long been a bellwether for the broader U.S. economy, typically contracting ahead of recessions and recovering more slowly than other industries. This was clearly…
Photo Credit: Afotostock / ShutterstockAfter navigating a stagnant period in 2025 marked by high interest rates and cost pressures, the U.S. construction industry has pivoted back toward expansion in 2026. Driven by large-scale infrastructure investments and manufacturing developments, total construction…
Bears quarterback Caleb Williams’s hamstring injury is going to be a “week-to-week thing,” Chicago coach Ben Johnson said Monday in a radio interview on ESPN 1000.
Johnson did not put a definitive timeline on Williams’s recovery.
SHANGHAI, Sept. 21, 2026 — In a keynote speech on computing architecture innovation at HUAWEI CONNECT 2026, Yang Chaobin, Huawei’s Executive Director of the Board and CEO of the ICT Business Group, unveiled new details about the UnifiedBus interconnect architecture, announced a series of computing products based on this architecture, and explained how the company has collaborated with open-source communities to enable application innovation by customers, partners, and developers.
Yang Chaobin delivering a keynote at HUAWEI CONNECT 2026
In a traditional computing architecture, resource utilization declines as a cluster scales. As little as 20% of a 100,000-NPU cluster’s computing capacity is actually utilized by models, with a vast amount of compute sitting idle during data communications. A 10 trillion-parameter model, which requires massive amounts of intermediate data to train, far exceeds the capacity of the memory on a single accelerator under traditional architectures. Interconnection and communications between components within a cluster have become a key performance bottleneck for computing systems.
According to Yang, Huawei’s solution to this bottleneck is its new computing architecture, powered by the interconnect technology called UnifiedBus, which facilitates collaboration between clusters and SuperPoDs. This architecture has been designed to support the boom in compute demand that is emerging as new agentic applications hit the market. UnifiedBus-powered computing systems have four key features:
Unified protocol and memory semantics: More than ten interconnect protocols have been combined under the UnifiedBus protocol, which increases interconnect bandwidth from 100 GB/s level to TB/s level and reduces round-trip time (RTT) latency from 7 microseconds to 2 microseconds. This protocol also enables unified global memory addressing within SuperPoDs.
Heterogeneous compute collaboration: UnifiedBus directly interconnects CPUs, NPUs, memory, and solid-state drives (SSDs) to enable decentralized, peer-to-peer access between them and flexible CPU-NPU mixing. In addition, tiered hardware acceleration for Transformer enables Attention-FFN disaggregation (AFD).
Tiered storage with global pooling: UnifiedBus uses hybrid-media resource pooling to support the caching of activations. Double Data Rate (DDR) memory serves as the alternative memory for NPUs, reducing latency for search, recommendation, and advertising services, and doubling the performance of vector retrieval for 100 billion-level data items with thousands of dimensions. This also reduces the per-NPU HBM capacity requirements for the training of 10 trillion-parameter models, and improves cluster model FLOPs utilization (MFU).
Optoelectronic interconnect and flexible networking: UnifiedBus serves as a global ultra-high bandwidth, ultra-low latency “data highway”, enabling flexible scaling of compute.
Yang then moved on to unveil Huawei’s newest UnifiedBus interconnect products that cover interconnection within cabinets, between cabinets, and across clusters. This enables elastic scaling from a single cabinet to a million-NPU cluster.
Within cabinets, the UnifiedBus LinkBlade eliminates circuit losses with a cable-free design, which reduces copper cabling within a 4,096-NPU SuperPoD by about 196 kilometers.
Between cabinets, the UnifiedBus LinkDevice supports 176 ports, with 1.6 Tbit/s bandwidth per port, delivering 280 Tbit/s all-optical interconnection. This is the industry’s highest-bandwidth, highest-port-count high-speed bus-protocol interconnect device, with an RTT latency as low as 2 microseconds.
Across clusters, the UnifiedBus UBG switch provides a massive radix fan-out capacity of up to 1,024, meaning it can support a million-NPU SuperCluster and evolution towards supporting tens of trillions of model parameters.
Yang also launched Huawei’s UnifiedBus-powered agentic AI SuperCluster, which is comprised of TaiShan 950 and Atlas 960 SuperPoDs, OceanStor M900 memory storage, and a Xinghe UBG switch. This cluster enables diverse compute collaboration and tiered resource pooling.
Beyond SuperPoDs, Huawei has also applied the UnifiedBus technology to its compute appliances. The company has developed a new series of UnifiedBus-based appliances (supporting one to eight NPUs) and Kunpeng and Ascend modules, which enable small and medium-sized enterprises to run trillion-parameter models locally.
On the ecosystem front, Yang said that Ascend is collaborating with open-source frameworks like DeepSeek Harness, OpenCode, and openJiuwen to develop fully open-source intelligent management, inference acceleration, and security framework agent plugins.
Yang promised, “Huawei is committed to innovating at the system level, building a computing-foundation product portfolio, and going open source and open system. We will continue working with customers, partners, and developers to help this ecosystem thrive and offer the world a new option for compute.”
Dr Vincent Brown will appear at Westminster magistrates court charged with seven offences
A man has been charged with crimes linked to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 in the first case of its kind to be brought in the UK.
Dr Vincent Brown, formerly Dr Vincent Bajinya, 65, who used to live in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda but now lives in Islington, north London, will appear at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday charged with seven offences.
Students faced prison terms and thousands of dollars in restitution over campus protest against Israel’s war on Gaza
Five Stanford University students who faced prison sentences and thousands of dollars in restitution in connection to a campus protest against Israel’s war on Gaza had all charges dropped on Monday.
The students also had their restitution severely reduced, ending a two-year legal saga that also saw the lead prosecutor in the case removed by the court.
Sept. 21, 2026 — On Sept. 18, 2026, the Access Resource Committee (ARC) Bureau of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking met for the first time, marking the start of its work as a formally established committee supporting the implementation of the EuroHPC JU Access Policy.
Credit: EuroHPC JU
The first ARC Bureau meeting follows the formal appointment of a total of 91 ARC members by the EuroHPC JU Executive Director on 25 August 2026. The members have been appointed for a two-year mandate, renewable once. The ARC members are responsible for assessing the scientific peer review of all access proposals requesting access time on the EuroHPC infrastructure.
To support the internal running of the committee, the ARC Bureau has been appointed. It is composed of a maximum of 22 ARC representatives from the active scientific domains, as well as industry and public sector experts.
The ARC Bureau is responsible for coordinating the internal work of the ARC, liaising directly with the EuroHPC JU, supporting outreach to user communities, and helping to identify flagship projects and scientific trends relevant to EuroHPC activities.
At this inaugural meeting, the ARC Bureau adopted the ARC Rules of Procedure establishing the framework for its work. The meeting was chaired by Luigi Del Debbio (ARC Chair) and Marc Baaden (ARC Vice-Chair).
The ARC is a group of highly qualified experts in high-performance computing who act in a personal capacity and independently of their employer organisation or Participating State. It has been established to support the EuroHPC JU in the preparation of the planning and scope of EuroHPC access calls, the allocation of experts to applications, the prioritisation of applications, and the allocation of access time to EuroHPC supercomputing, AI and quantum infrastructure.
More Details
Chair
Luigi Del Debbio
Vice-Chair
Marc Baaden
Artificial Intelligence
Anália Garcia Lourenço
Edouard Oyallon
Biochemistry, Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, Physiology and Medicine
Carmen Domene Nunez
Stefano Vanni
Chemical Sciences and Materials, Solid State Physics
Carlo Adamo
Maria Veronica Ganduglia-Pirovano
Computational Physics: Universe Sciences, Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Wildfire forces evacuations and burns through mountains surrounding Villa de Leyva in the north-east
Colombian authorities declared a public calamity as a wildfire burned through mountains surrounding one of the country’s best-known colonial towns in the north-east, scorching large swaths of vegetation and forcing evacuations.
Nearly 20 active fires are burning across the South American country. Dry conditions have increased fire danger in Colombia as it braces for the effects of El Niño, which can help wildfires spread.
Sept. 21, 2026 — Diraq and Dell Technologies are working together to address one of the central challenges in quantum computing: how to integrate quantum processors with classical high‑performance computing (HPC) in a practical, scalable way.
Andrew Dzurak, Diraq’s CEO and Founder, sat down with Dell Global CTO and Chief AI Officer John Roese to discuss the immense potential of the companies’ collaboration.
Credit: Diraq
“We’re working with Dell to create integrated systems that call classical AI and CPUs for the big number crunching,” said Dzurak. “Then, when there’s a specific hard problem, you call the quantum processing unit.”
“The term of the day is hybrid quantum-classical computing,” said Roese. “The really complex problems in the world need systems that bring different types of compute together.”
Co‑Located Quantum–Classical Integration
As part of the collaboration, Dell has deployed a small HPC cluster in Diraq’s Sydney laboratory, designed to be co‑located with a Diraq quantum processor. This setup creates a testbed where classical servers and quantum hardware operate in close physical and network proximity, enabling low‑latency communication between the two systems.
Diraq’s silicon spin qubits operate at very high speeds, and many quantum workflows depend on rapid feedback between the quantum processor and classical control systems. By co‑locating Dell’s servers with the quantum hardware and connecting them via high‑speed networking, the team can evaluate how tightly integrated classical compute can support real‑time quantum operations without introducing performance bottlenecks.
Initial work focuses on establishing stable connectivity, validating baseline latency, and running simple test circuits across the integrated system, confirming that Dell’s HPC infrastructure and Diraq’s quantum processor can function together as a single, coordinated computing environment.
Hybrid Workflow Orchestration
Beyond the hardware integration, a key area of collaboration is orchestration. Dell is adapting its orchestration capabilities to manage how computational tasks are distributed between classical servers and the quantum processor.
At a high level, this orchestration layer is designed to translate workloads into sequences that combine classical computation with quantum operations, schedule those tasks appropriately, and collect results efficiently. Near‑term use cases include automated qubit calibration and tuning, where classical compute resources analyze measurement data and rapidly feed adjustments back to the quantum device. Over time, the same approach is expected to support more complex workflows such as quantum error correction, which requires fast, continuous classical processing alongside quantum execution.
This work will show that quantum processors can be managed using approaches that are compatible with existing HPC and data‑center practices, rather than requiring bespoke operational models.
“We like democratizing technology,” said Roese. “We’re getting closer to real systems, and it’s great to see the focus on qubits that can be democratized around the world, and can actually solve problems at scale.”
This is precisely what Diraq’s technology is designed to do. By storing quantum information in qubits using modified silicon transistors, Diraq unlocks a manufacturing pathway that is fully compatible with established semiconductor foundry processes. This will enable Diraq to fit millions of qubits on a single chip, allowing a single cryogenic refrigerator to house a utility-scale quantum computer that can be integrated seamlessly into data centers worldwide.
Exploring Hybrid Use Cases
Diraq and Dell are also examining where hybrid quantum–classical computing systems could deliver practical benefits for industry. The collaboration includes analysis of potential applications such as drug discovery, where AI and simulation workloads place heavy demands on classical computing resources.
“It’s vital that we create hybrid systems with quantum computers working alongside high-performance AI,” said Dzurak. “The type of problems that quantum computers are going to be really good at are actually too difficult for AI.”
These exploratory efforts will develop an understanding of where quantum acceleration, integrated into existing HPC workflows, could complement classical methods rather than replace them. This framing reflects a shared view that early value from quantum computing is most likely to come from targeted acceleration within broader computational pipelines.
Roese and Dzurak also discussed how large‑scale optimization problems have emerged as a key area in which hybrid approaches excel. This includes problems in logistics and supply chains, where classical algorithms struggle with exponentially growing combinations, as well as financial modeling and portfolio optimization, both of which involve vast numbers of variables and scenarios that overwhelm classical computing capacity.
Looking Ahead
The Diraq–Dell collaboration illustrates how quantum computing can evolve from isolated prototypes into components of real‑world computing infrastructure. The work reflects a shared view that making quantum computing useful at scale is as much an integration challenge as it is a hardware one. Diraq’s silicon-based technology is ideally suited to facing this challenge, and close collaboration with Dell is a critical part of delivering on it.
“Generative AI was a big deal. Quantum is potentially a bigger deal because it will build on the shoulders of giants,” said Roese. “Once we have viable, cost-effective, at-scale quantum systems, it changes everything. It will open up areas of mathematics we’ve never been able to tackle. We’re already seeing an affinity with AI: whatever the state of the art is on any given day, parts of it suddenly become orders of magnitude faster, cheaper, and better.”
About Diraq
Diraq is commercializing quantum computing with a silicon-based approach that uses existing CMOS processes. By utilizing the same manufacturing methods that produce today’s semiconductor components, Diraq is pioneering a faster, more economical road to commercial-scale quantum computing. The company’s proprietary ‘quantum dot’ technology is based on 20 years of research by founder Andrew Dzurak, designed to enable millions of qubits on a single chip, for powerful and scalable deployments. Diraq’s mission is to revolutionize quantum computing by unlocking the scale needed for useful commercial applications. Founded in Sydney, Diraq has more than 100 team members globally, with operations in Melbourne, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Republican congresswoman rejects ethics complaint and says allegations part of ‘politically motivated’ hit campaign
Lauren Boebert, the firebrand Republican subject of a House ethics complaint that she had sex with three staff members, and paid one to keep quiet, has said the allegations are untrue – and part of a “politically motivated” campaign against her.
Boebert’s denials came through a formal statement from her office, which said “the congresswoman rejects the claims as utterly false”. She also published a verbose video rant on social media in which she accused the person who filed the document as a “sloppy, desperate, obsessive hack” – and journalists who reported the story as falling victim to a “scam”.
President to meet Ukrainian counterpart in New York as Ukraine steps up attacks on Russian energy sector
Donald Trump is expected to press Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on an energy ceasefire during a face-to-face meeting this week during United Nations high-level week, as world diesel prices have soared due to the war in Iran, as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Ukraine stepped up its attacks on Russia’s energy sector over the weekend, launching its largest reported strike yet on the Moscow region in a barrage that struck a major Moscow oil refinery and killed three people.
The number of potentially damaging environmental incidents triggered by this year’s hot and dry weather has surpassed that of 2025
Wildlife in England and Wales will be affected by the current drought for years to come, the government has said.
This summer saw large parts of England and all of Wales plunged into a serious drought, with both recording their driest Julys since records began in 1836.
States including California and New York sued over concerns of ‘extinguishing competition’ with $81bn merger
Paramount has reached a settlement with California and several other states that sued over a proposed $81bn merger with Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), the California attorney general announced Monday, clearing the way to consolidate some of Hollywood’s most recognizable TV networks and studios under one owner.
Though the merger was approved by the justice department in June, a coalition of 12 states, led by California, had sued over concerns that combining two of the five last legacy studios in Hollywood would “extinguish competition” and lead to fewer movies in theaters and on streaming platforms.
Citizens Advice says providers of essential services such as energy, banking, phone and internet should guarantee the ‘right to talk to a human’
Stop relying on AI chatbots for customer care and guarantee the “right to talk to a human”, Citizens Advice has urged essential service providers, as research found they wasted time, caused stress and delayed problem solving for more than half of users.
The spread of the AI-powered systems to provide help about the provision of vital services such as energy, banking, phones and internet, is making it harder for millions of already digitally excluded people to handle snags, according to the frontline charity that last year provided more than 2.7 million people with one-on-one help in England and Wales.
Delaware State Police are asking for the public’s help locating a Wilmington man, Jarvis Sturgis wanted in connection with a strong-arm robbery that left one person injured.
Police say Jarvis Sturgis is wanted in connection with an attack and robbery at a bus stop on New Castle Avenue
NEW CASTLE, Del. — Delaware State Police are asking for the public’s help locating a Wilmington man wanted in connection with a strong-arm robbery that left one person injured.
Police identified the suspect as Jarvis Sturgis. Detectives obtained a warrant for his arrest following an investigation into the Sept. 15 robbery.
Troopers responded at approximately 9:20 p.m. to a bus stop in the 3000 block of New Castle Avenue.
According to police, the victim was waiting for a bus when a man approached and demanded the victim’s personal property. The man then allegedly struck the victim and forcibly took the property before fleeing.
The victim was taken to a local hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.
The Delaware State Police Criminal Investigations Unit identified Sturgis as the suspect through its investigative efforts, police said. He is expected to be charged with second-degree robbery, a felony, if taken into custody.
Sturgis has not been convicted of the charge and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The investigation remains active. Police did not provide a description of Sturgis or information about where he might be located.
To Go Box
What: Delaware State Police are seeking information about the location of Jarvis Sturgis, who is wanted in connection with a New Castle robbery.
Contact: Detective D. Patterson at 302-365-8471.
Anonymous tips: Contact Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-847-3333 or submit information through delawarecrimestoppers.org.
Online: Information may also be sent through a private message to the Delaware State Police Facebook page.
Victim assistance: The Delaware State Police Victim Services Unit and Delaware Victim Center provide support 24 hours a day at 1-800-VICTIM-1, or 1-800-842-8461.
Helen Jenner will be party’s new head in Senedd after a narrow victory over Jason O’Connell
Here are some more lines from Max Wilkinson’s speech to the Lib Dem conference this morning.
Wilkinson, the Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson, accused Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, of using “divisive language” that you would expect from the “authoritarian right”. After condemning the Tories and Reform UK for their anti-migration views, he said:
And what’s the Labour response to this hard right agenda? Their home secretary has indulged in the sort of divisive language that we would usually expect from the authoritarian right …
Well let me tell you home secretary – no matter how hard you chase, you’ll never catch up with [Nigel] Farage – that is a fool’s errand.
He said that it was the duty of the Liberal Democrats to stand up to the Tories and Reform UK, and the “poison” they were spreading on migration. Repeatedly referring to Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick as a “plonker”, he said:
[Jenrick] and his party are plonkers with dangerous ideas … and £72m to deliver them.
And their allies in the Conservative party are weakly following them.
He criticised the Conservatives and Reform UK for proposing to withdraw Britain from the European convention on human rights. He said:
Leaving the European convention on human rights will not fix our asylum system.
It will not stop dangerous Channel crossings – not a single boat – and it will not stop the criminal gangs.
And he confirmed that the Lib Dems want to tax big tech to finance a new online crime agency. This was announced overnight and Peter Walker and Alexandra Topping have written the story up here.
We will carry on as if nothing has happened
We could have done without this bump in the road. But it has happened, We are making the best of it.
Iowa senator Chuck Grassley calls for embargo on diesel exports as tariffs and Iran war drive up costs for sector
Donald Trump is facing growing calls, including from within his own party, to boost support for US farmers as his administration faces mounting anger over its treatment of the agricultural sector.
Republican senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa called on the US president to place an embargo on diesel exports this weekend and help farmers grapple with high prices.
US president reportedly changed his mind over Saudi Arabia’s pleas for assistance as bombs were being loaded
Houthi fighters are moving to seize strategic heights in Yemen that would cut the Red Sea coast off from areas held by Saudi-backed forces after Donald Trump called off US strikes on the group at the last minute, reportedly as bombs were being loaded on to aircraft.
Amid increasingly heavy fighting in Yemen, which has displaced tens of thousands of people in recent weeks, the New York Times reported on Monday that the US president had flip-flopped wildly in recent days after a call from Saudi Arabia for US strikes on the Houthis.
Lawyer tells hearing that families wish to know whether weaponry involved in deaths was made in Britain
Israeli and UK military commanders could be requested to give evidence to an inquest concerning three British workers killed in Gaza when aid vehicles they were travelling in were hit by an airstrike.
The scale and duration of Iran's response appeared to take the U.S. goverenment by surprise, three sources who were in Bahrain at the time told CBS News, in part because families hadn't yet been required to evacuate.
As soon as you walk through the wooden gate of Melvina Brown’s Wilmington backyard, the sounds of the road are replaced with the chirping of birds, the rustling of trees and the faint clucking of hens.
This secret food forest — a cultivated edible forest ecosystem — is filled with towering oaks, maples and spruces, vegetable gardens, a medicinal garden, fruit and nut trees, honey beehives, ponds with koi and goldfish and, of course, a chicken coop — all flourishing in the midsummer warmth.
Since she bought her house 22 years ago, Brown has transformed her property from just a lawn with a few trees into what she calls an “urban homestead.” She has shaped her business, InnerSource Wellness Center (IWC), around this concept of growing food in an urban area to supply urban farmers markets and community fridges with fresh produce. She emphasizes outreach to locals, offering environmental education opportunities and providing a space to reconnect with nature and become grounded among the stressors of life.
Pivoting from a job in a corporate environment and instead investing her energy in building community and connecting locals with nature was not only restorative for her, but for everyone involved.
“There’s no dollar value in place of that because it’s a feeling,” Brown said. “It comes from the heart, as opposed to the mind.”
The more she rewilded her space, the more she realized she needed to expand. In particular, she wanted to find an extra quarter-acre plot to augment her annual vegetable growing.
At the same time, Theresa Lattanzio Zunino was looking for someone to lease her land in West Grove, Pennsylvania, choosing to no longer farm it herself. After Brown’s friend and permaculture mentor, Dale Hendricks, connected Zunino and Brown, Zunino offered to lease the land to Brown for free, explaining that she knew that Brown was going to use it for the benefit of others.
The land was also much larger than a quarter-acre — 1.25 acres to be exact — which she began farming in the summer of 2025.
At first, Brown felt overwhelmed figuring out what to do with such a large plot of land, but quickly fixated on one question: How could she allow other people to take advantage of it?
Brown’s solution: a co-op.
In particular, she wanted to provide an opportunity for Black-indigenous farmers to have a space to grow for free. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 54% of cropland in the U.S. is leased. That means most individual farmers do not own the land they farm, and leasing is typically very expensive without holding a significant disposable income.
Additionally, farming has become a largely white profession. The USDA reported in 2022 that only 1.4% of U.S. producers identified as Black. Meanwhile, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 13.5% of the nation’s population identified as Black. Brown wanted to help bridge that gap.
As part of her co-op vision, Brown wanted to create a space of reciprocity and generosity. She drew up a contract for herself as well as each farmer to ensure everyone committed to respecting the space and giving to both each other and the community — all leasing the space for $1 per year.
Dewy Jones is one such farmer. Both his grandfathers were farmers, but his parents were not. He took up gardening in adulthood and began planting vegetables and pollinator plants to use at home, share with friends and set up a startup to sell at events and small markets in the area.
He had known Brown for a few years, and when she reached out to him, he took the opportunity.
“I’ve always practiced those principles: growing organically and sustainably,” Jones said. “It falls into my belief system as a grower, to teach and share the knowledge as much as possible.”
For another grower, Jeré Barber, the opportunity to farm has been invaluable because she was both living in an apartment that lacked gardening space and in an area with little access to fresh food. Unlike other urban farms, Brown has made West Grove a flexible space for growers even when life gets busy.
Barber recently moved into her first house, a time-consuming process that meant she could not farm on her plot as frequently. The co-op program allowed her to share her plot with other growers while she was unable to grow.
“It’s very welcoming and everyone communicates with each other,” Barber said. “We all work together to figure out how to help each other.”
Initially, Brown began this project mostly on her own while she was teaching at Goldey-Beacom College and completing her second doctorate. She designed her plan for the space mostly in her head, to the surprise of arborists and agroecologists alike who have since visited the site. Brown, who had developed landscaping knowledge from her Wilmington plot, followed her intuition.
From the beginning, she planned out three year-long phases. The first phase in 2025 involved amending the soil, weeding, composting and creating farming beds. The second phase in 2026 involved planting 65 fruit and nut trees, creating a medicinal garden and seeding the pollinator garden. The third phase in 2027 involved building a greenhouse and creating an outdoor learning space.
Despite her ready-made plans, she was concerned about her ability to see it through mostly solo. However, she was not alone for long, and she was not only able to complete the first stage, but also the second stage by the end of 2025 — a year ahead of schedule.
“Things showed up unexpectedly,” Brown said.
Brown credits much of the speed of that progress to a group of summer environmental justice interns — headed by university English professor McKay Jenkins — as well as Goldey-Beacom College students and community volunteers.
“The UD students have been instrumental to our ability to support this space the way it has and why we’re so far down this road,” Brown said.
On her own, Brown had to operate from a standpoint of prioritizing the time-sensitive projects focused on growing and harvesting, so lower-priority projects, like mulching, weeding and constructing the greenhouse, had to fall on the back burner. That summer, everything began growing at once, far faster than she could keep up with, until Jenkins started bringing his interns.
“If the interns weren’t here, I wouldn’t have had time to do a lot of that,” Brown said.
For environmental engineering senior and 2025 intern Kylie Short, it was a reciprocal relationship, and she got to learn some important lessons from Brown. Her biggest takeaway was that even when there is little to work with, anything is possible.
“The land at her Wilmington location was just grass,” Short said. “Now, it’s a medicinal forest.”
For Brown, the ability to be in community with others and with nature was vital for her after a long career in the corporate environment. In May 2026, she received her second doctorate in sustainability education, pivoting both her current career and her professorship in a different direction from her first doctorate in education innovation and leadership.
“I had a comfortable career that worked me to death for 25 years, where I had a cushy salary, but I felt empty inside,” Brown said. “Oftentimes, I think we start looking for what is our purpose, and I had stepped into mine between the teaching and this, and it’s all intersecting right now. So that also confirms to me that I’m walking where I’m supposed to be walking right now.”
The Canadian prime minister’s remarks before the European parliament outlined a vision of the west without its most powerful member
The speeches keep coming, each building on the previous one, as the Canadian prime minister builds a case for a new world order that has strikingly little to do with the United States of America, the country that has led the west since the second world war.
On 20 January, in Davos, Mark Carney proposed that the world’s middle powers do more to support each other, in light of a “rupture” in the global order. That was clearly a reference to the destabilizing policies of Donald Trump, who had been inaugurated exactly one year earlier, and had spent most of that year insulting the US’s allies.
My XR used to switch off at around 10% battery. Today i wanted to ride a longer tour after work but didn’t make it because the board switched off at 22% with 9km remaining. It currently has 1900km
Dozens of US attacks on boats in the Pacific and Caribbean have killed more than 230 people since September 2025
A special rapporteur for the UN human rights council has concluded that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that the United States attacks on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Pacific and Caribbean “constituted crimes against humanity”.
The boat strikes, carried out since September 2025 on the stated grounds of stopping drugs being trafficked by sea to the US, have killed more than 230 people. The latest, on Saturday, killed four people in the Caribbean.
Germany’s beleaguered leader, Friedrich Merz, has vowed to keep his fractious coalition government together for the good of the country’s “democratic future” after his conservative party suffered a drubbing at the polls in two state elections.
Merz, who has vowed to plough ahead with an unpopular reform agenda, dismissed speculation over his position, saying it was vital that he and his coalition government remained in place.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Sept. 21, 2026 — EPB has launched the IonQ Forte Enterprise quantum computer at EPB Quantum Center, bringing commercial quantum computing and networking together in one facility for the first time. The milestone further positions Chattanooga as the most comprehensive resource in the U.S. for commercializing real-world quantum solutions. Companies can develop, test and deploy quantum technologies here with access to advanced quantum infrastructure and a growing network of development partners, including the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) and Vanderbilt University.
Janet Rehberg, CEO of EPB at EPB Quantum Center
“Today’s launch represents another major step in the growth of a quantum ecosystem found only in Chattanooga,” said Vicky Gregg, Chair of the EPB Board of Directors. “Just as EPB’s decision to launch the world’s first community-wide gig-speed internet shaped our community’s future back in 2010, this milestone carries forward our strategy of building advanced infrastructure that enhances the way we serve our customers while opening new economic opportunity for our community.”
“EPB and IonQ have built something unique. This Forte Enterprise system complements EPB’s quantum networking capabilities, laying the foundation for a full suite of applications for quantum communications and commercialization for their clients,” said Niccolo de Masi, Chairman and CEO of IonQ. “Together, we’re creating a first-of-its-kind environment where organizations can explore quantum applications today and help shape the opportunities this technology will create tomorrow.”
Putting Local Customers and University Partners First
As part of EPB’s commitment to benefiting its customers, the EPB Quantum Computing Fellows will be the first to use the new quantum computer, so they can run the quantum algorithms they have been developing to further optimize local power grid circuits. Funded by a $4 million grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the initiative has brought eight graduate researchers with expertise ranging from quantum information science to physics and engineering from all over the U.S. to Chattanooga. The effort focuses on finding ways to further optimize the operation of EPB’s advanced, highly automated power grid to reduce costs and enhance resilience for the benefit of local customers.
Starting in early October, EPB Quantum Computing will be open for business. UTC will be the first customer, beginning with research the university is already prepared to run. EPB is also working with Vanderbilt to line up its first project.
“Access to a quantum computer is rare and valuable,” said Janet Rehberg, CEO of EPB. “We’re starting with our own work to directly benefit our customers while also prioritizing the universities that are investing to expand quantum education, workforce development and research right here in Chattanooga.”
Other companies can find out more about EPB Quantum computing and networking resources at EPBQuantum.com.
Opening New Opportunities for Local Economic Growth
Driven by EPB’s mission of enhancing quality of life for the people it serves, Chattanooga’s quantum infrastructure is already drawing new investment, creating new jobs and supporting major expansions in university academics and research in the city. The investments announced in Chattanooga since EPB Quantum began installing the new quantum computer are projected to expand the local economy by adding hundreds of researchers, faculty, staff and students.
IonQ is investing $15 million to establish the Tennessee Quantum Communications Research Center in Chattanooga, with plans to create approximately two dozen jobs, including quantum scientists and highly skilled researchers.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, which in 2023 became the first American university to connect to a commercial quantum network, is expanding its quantum programs with plans to add 135 to 240 faculty, staff and students.
Vanderbilt University is partnering with EPB to launch the Institute for Quantum Innovation, which will anchor Vanderbilt’s Chattanooga quantum innovation campus with approximately 250 researchers, faculty and staff.
Hybrid Computing Project: In tandem with the EPB Quantum Fellows project funded by NIST, EPB, IonQ, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and NVIDIA have installed a classical supercomputer within the EPB Quantum Center, and they are collaborating on a hybrid computing project that combines quantum and high-performance classical computing to optimize portions of EPB’s advanced automated electric grid and evaluate future applications for increasingly complex energy systems.
To further build on these gains, EPB is hosting the Quantum in Business (QiB) conference on October 1 with more than 400 business leaders, researchers and policymakers from across the U.S. gathering in Chattanooga to learn how companies can benefit from a projected $2.7 trillion in economic value by utilizing quantum computing in the near term while developing the expertise they need to lead their industries as quantum technology advances. The conference is especially targeted to business leaders in the insurance, logistics, automotive and manufacturing, financial, healthcare and chemicals industries, which are projected to gain tremendous value from quantum technology.
“Becoming the first U.S. hub to offer commercially available quantum computing and quantum networking under one roof is a milestone,” said Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly. “Just as EPB’s fiber network made us a leader in the digital economy, EPB Quantum Center is attracting investment and talent by deploying a technology that is expected to shape industries and economies for decades to come. Over the next decade alone, EPB’s quantum initiatives are projected to generate up to $1.1 billion in economic gains for Chattanooga.”
Located in Chattanooga, Tennessee, EPB is a nationally recognized energy and communications provider with a mission to enhance quality of life for the people it serves across its 600-square-mile service area. Starting in 2010, EPB gained notice as a national model for building and utilizing its 100% fiber-to-the-home network to deliver cutting-edge services such as the world’s fastest community-wide internet, now with service up to 25 Gig, and the nation’s most advanced automated electric grid.
As a pioneer in fiber optic innovation, EPB also launched EPB Quantum to provide access to cutting-edge quantum technology platforms and help innovators bring paradigm-shifting solutions into the real world. With the launch of EPB Quantum Network in 2023 and EPB Quantum Computing, EPB Quantum offers the most comprehensive, commercially available quantum technology platform in the U.S. Learn more at epb.com and EPBQuantum.com.
CNN, MS Now and Politico accurately call last week’s sudden lockout ‘a direct assault on the first amendment’. That’s right
On Monday, the three news organizations that had been kicked out of the White House because of Donald Trump’s latest fit of pique sued the president and three top advisers.
An accompanying statement by CNN, MS Now and Politico accurately calls last week’s sudden lockout “a direct assault on the first amendment”.
From portable radars in shipping containers to orbital cameras, I asked scientists how the space-junk tracking industry plans to avoid catastrophic crashes.
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Democratic gubernatorial nominee David Jolly says he will not debate Republican Byron Donalds before Florida’s Nov. 3 election after the campaigns failed to agree on a shared debate.
Jolly announced the decision Sunday, accusing Donalds of “repeated lies and bad faith” and arguing that debates under those circumstances would increase division rather than provide voters with a constructive discussion. He said his campaign previously accepted invitations from Tampa Bay Tiger Bay and CBS Miami.
Donalds separately accepted three proposed debates involving Telemundo and NBC 6, Spectrum News and News4Jax. Because the candidates accepted different events, none produced an agreement for both candidates to appear. Earlier this month, the campaigns were publicly blaming each other for the scheduling impasse.
Donalds criticized Jolly’s decision Sunday, pointing to the Democrat’s earlier statements that he was willing to debate repeatedly. Jolly responded by noting Donalds declined requests to debate several Republican primary opponents before winning the GOP nomination in August.
Jolly, a former Republican congressman who later became a Democrat, is seeking to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis. Donalds, currently a Republican congressman representing Southwest Florida, won his party’s August primary. If no agreement is reached, the Tampa Bay Times reports this would be Florida’s first gubernatorial election without a debate since 1974.
CDU suffered heavy losses in two regional elections, including in home state of former leader Angela Merkel, where it polled just 4.9%
Staying in Germany, tens of thousands of automotive workers at Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other car brands are protesting on factory floors across the country today for government and management help to save their jobs.
Volkswagen has announced plans to cut 100,000 jobs in the next three years and BMW and Mercedes are also slashing their workforce.
The problem is a near-existential one: the rise of Chinese EV carmakers with their cheaper, and in some cases more advanced models, has thrown the German car industry into crisis. The Germans, who have been far slower to transition to electric vehicles, simply aren’t selling as many cars anymore and need to retool to keep up.
The fears are reflective of wider concerns over Europe’s industrial base being eroded by Chinese competition. Union leaders – pointing to state support for Chinese car makers- are calling for government support, like energy subsidies and financial help, or putting up trade protections.
As the White House doles out threats and insults, it would be easy to hold out for better times. Mark Carney is right to court the EU instead
The absurdities of the Trump administration and its hangers-on could be written off as a distraction if the stakes weren’t so high. People might be used to banal trolling on social media platforms, but the global hegemon has forced this petulance onto hundreds of millions of people who are worried about their future and the future of the world. That makes the trolling something worse than distracting.
The White House’s online personality is at once extremely disconcerting and extremely juvenile. It’s easy to be stunned by the scale and brazenness of it. During a trade dispute with Canada, and feeling insulted by the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, the president of the United States decides to rename Lake Ontario Lake America, and then proceeds to share memes showcasing the renamed body of water – which remains Lake Ontario outside US borders (and inside it, for some states, such as New York). Not to be outdone, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, posted an attack against a Canadian cadet and her instructor, mocking them and the Canadian armed forces.
Being on tour is a kind of la-la land. Fame is an alternate reality that most of us can only graze through the occasional viral post on social media. We can imagine celebrity, comment on it, envy it or condemn it, but we can’t really understand what it does to a person unless we’ve been famous ourselves or lived in close proximity to fame.
I grazed fame in my own career, and then saw it head-on during my time with David Bowie.
When you’re a superstar, people roll out the red carpet for you, sometimes quite literally. Your life can become increasingly isolated. Sometimes that isolation is necessary for protection. Sometimes, I suspect, it becomes very easy to believe the world should cater to you.
Watching the clips of Ed Sheeran respond to the controversy surrounding him, at one point reading a prepared statement off the teleprompter during his last concert, and later on speaking through tears, reminded me of something I’ve witnessed many times, including in myself.
His words sounded like the words of someone who feels victimized.
The conversation around Sheeran has become vitriolic. When everyone from Boy George to Roger Waters is mocking you, collaborators are withdrawing support and, as Sheeran himself described it, even members of your own family have turned away, it is easy to understand how someone at the centre of that storm might feel targeted.
But the larger conversation isn’t about Ed Sheeran.
It is about Gaza. Power. Human rights. Money. Free speech. Taking a stand. Entitlement. And what responsibility looks like when you possess an extraordinary amount of cultural power.
Even I recognize the absurdity of typing these words from the comfort of my home, looking out at the Ontario sunshine, while commenting on events with devastating human consequences.
How fortunate we are to be able to sit here and debate it. To throw darts at celebrities. To comment as though our opinion is the most important one in the room.
But our words and actions do reveal something about us.
There is a reason famous people have managers, publicists, psychologists and crisis-management teams. Fame creates conditions in which a person’s reactions can become headlines and quotes, twisted and amplified to millions of people. A moment of defensiveness, woe-is-me or pissiness can suddenly become all you are known for.
I understand something about this.
When my marriage was falling apart, my body was failing me and I felt overwhelmed, I saw the faces of my fans during a Zoom concert and clicked “Leave Meeting” and proceeded to bawl my eyes out, wailing at full volume. I was doubled over in pain. Because of that concert, because of my fans looking back at me, I know what it is to finally feel held. To feel heard. To feel loved.
And yet my marriage fell apart for many reasons. Some involved his actions. Some involved mine. I can cry about what happened, and those tears can be completely real, but if I want actual change, if I want to turn the page on the story, I eventually have to move beyond the question of what was done to me and become curious about what is mine to examine, repair or change.
That is much harder.
We all find ourselves from time to time, rocking back and forth in the cradle of victimhood. It can feel natural. Familiar. Even comforting. Being reassured feels good. Being told we were wronged can feel good. Being surrounded by people who affirm our version of events can feel very good.
But growth asks something different of us.
It asks us to leave the cradle.
It asks us to tolerate ideas that threaten the way we understand ourselves. It asks us to separate pain from responsibility. It asks us to consider that another person’s suffering may deserve our attention even while we are suffering ourselves.
And perhaps most difficult of all, it asks us to move the spotlight away from ourselves.
Photo by Frederik Löwer
I don’t know what Ed Sheeran will eventually learn from this moment. None of us on the outside have a clue.
He has every right to speak, cry, strum his guitar with rage and defiance or make whatever choices he believes are right. The rest of us have the same right to scrutinize those choices and decide what they mean to us.
But the more interesting question isn’t really about Ed.
It’s about us.
In a complex and catastrophic world, how long do we remain inside the safety of Why me? before asking a harder question:
What is mine to do now?
Because eventually, if we want meaningful change, in ourselves or in a world shaped by money, entitlement, power and violence, we have to be willing to leave the cradle.
Officials say man was critically injured and officer was wounded in Yom Kippur incident near Belleville synagogue
A police officer and a man were wounded in an exchange of gunfire on Sunday near a synagogue in Ontario as members of the Jewish community marked Yom Kippur, authorities said. The man was hospitalized in life-threatening condition.
The Canadian province’s special investigations unit said the exchange of gunfire happened near the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, about 110 miles (160km) east of Toronto. Belleville police said the officer encountered the man at about 7.10pm and that both were taken to a hospital.
Reading, England, sits on the western edge of London’s commuter belt, and most Americans have never heard of it.The post Reading sits 23 minutes from London, and a lost king is still buried somewhere in it appeared first on Food…
Police crack down on family and political supporters of former PM who say authorities are ‘slowly killing’ him in prison
Three sisters of Pakistan’s incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan have been arrested amid a heavy-handed government crackdown on plans for a nationwide protest to demand Khan’s release.
The lawyer for the three sisters, Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi, said on Monday that they had all been detained and jailed for 30 days under a warrant that accused them of being a threat to public order.
Exclusive: Slave trader is interred at All Saints, which may be given a change of use after being closed for years
Bones of the enslaver Edward Colston are likely to remain interred in a church in Bristol if and when the currently unused building is given a new lease of life as a community resource, it has emerged.
The dean of Bristol, the Very Rev Mandy Ford,said Colston’s remains would probably stay where they were in All Saints church on one of Bristol’s busiest streets.
Three news outlets filed lawsuit in attempt to regain access to the White House after having badges disabled
In what will be one of the largest battles yet between the press and Donald Trump’s administration, three news organizations – CNN, MS Now (formerly MSNBC) and Politico – that have been denied access to the White House have sued to regain their ability to enter the building, accusing the president of violating the US constitution.
The suit was filed on Monday morning in the US district court for Washington DC.
Channatee Robles (15) had her second career 20-20 double-double for Wayne State in a 3-2 comeback win over No. 5 Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday in Wayne. The Norfolk Catholic graduate finished with 22 kills and a career-high 23 digs.
There's at least 15 author-driven lawsuits underway against AI companies, while publishers have filed roughly 10 more coordinated suits of their own, notes Publisher's Weekly.
Yet "While the lawsuits play out, some publishers are building bridges."
Google recently announced a partnership with Bloomsbury, De Gruyter Brill, Johns Hopkins University Press, Macmillan, O'Reilly Media, and Penguin Random House to enhance e-books from its Google Play store with AI, allowing readers to interact with the text of the books directly, ask questions and get answers, and develop tools such as quizzes and slideshows... [The CEO of the Author's Guild called the partnership "a positive step forward in the legitimized use of books in the AI ecosystem to the benefit of readers, publishers, and authors alike."]
Of even more significance is the growing number of licensing deals publishers are striking with AI companies. In 2024, HarperCollins became the first of the Big Five to publicly reveal that it had signed a deal to license its content for AI training. The three-year agreement paid $5,000 per participating title, split equally between HarperCollins and the authors. Wiley announced its first AI licensing deal in 2024 and has since made several more. For fiscal year 2026, it reported earning $49 million in revenue from the deals. The company also has a number of strategic collaborations with companies including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Anthropic, Perplexity, IQVIA, OpenEvidence, and others.
And publishers are even building in-house AI tools for producing royalty statements, proofreading, and providing customer service:
In its 2025 Salary and Jobs Report, Publisher's Weekly reported that 63% of industry professionals surveyed said their organizations were using AI... Keith Riegert, president of the Stable Book Group and CEO of Perfect Bound, has been a vocal advocate for the use of AI in publishing — despite calling himself a "hardcore techno-pessimist." He tells PW, "I do this because you use AI or you die at this point...." Like many in the industry, he maintains any use of AI must "start with a human and end with a human," and he draws a clear line, avoiding AI for core creative work, such as selecting titles, designing covers, or creating illustrations — reserving it for developmental editing, formatting, and admin instead... What is known is that each of the Big Five is developing proprietary AI systems for internal use, as proven by the numerous AI-related job openings the companies have posted... [And the parent company of Penguin Random House said in 2025 they used AI for marketing and to forecast demand.]
There've been a few high-profile controversies about prominent authors accused of using AI. But Princeton University Press CEO Christie Henry "is less concerned about authors secretly using AI to write than about the time spent policing the situation."
"It pulls us away from having focused time to think," she says. Princeton University Press is currently vetting companies that promise to be able to certify that a given book was written by a human, including Created by Humans, Human Authored, and Verify My Writing. Henry adds that the proliferation of plagiarized, copycat, and pirated books online, now supercharged by AI agents mass producing and reproducing content, is further draining resources, as it demands constant vigilance and takedown requests sent to Amazon, YouTube, and others.
The show presented itself as a crusade to protect children. But its appeal may have had as much to do with the pleasures of being able to play judge, jury and executioner from your living room couch.
For American conservatives of the Cold War era, red was the color of communists and the mistrusted American left. Now, it’s the color of the GOP, while Democrats are blue. How did this happen?
First State Educate’s School Board Roundup, published monthly, brings together discussions from Delaware’s 16 traditional public school districts… and it’s free!
First State Educate’s August School Board Roundup brings local meetings together to show the issues taking shape across Delaware.
DOVER, Del. — Decisions about student progress, district budgets, school buildings, and student support appeared across Delaware school board meetings in August. The details differed by district, but the discussions raised a shared question: How will boards know whether their plans are meeting students’ needs?
First State Educate’s August School Board Roundup brings together discussions from Delaware’s 16 traditional public school districts. It gives residents a way to follow their own board while seeing how issues in one district connect to those facing others.
FSE publishes the School Board Roundup monthly. Readers can find the latest edition in the Knowledge Hub.
The August meetings raised questions about measuring student progress, explaining financial choices, addressing building needs, and reporting back to the public. Some boards made decisions; others reviewed plans that will return for further discussion.
Turning priorities into measurable goals
Some boards adopted measurable academic goals, while others outlined how they plan to review progress during the school year. Their discussions covered reading, mathematics, attendance, and school climate.
Setting a long-term target is one step. Boards also need information during the year to see whether students are progressing toward it. The superintendent and district staff develop and carry out strategies; boards establish the outcomes they expect and monitor progress.
The August discussions show why progress and continuing gaps belong in the same conversation. An improvement in one measure may be encouraging while results in another grade or subject still call for attention. Families and community members need both to understand the full picture.
Asking what spending should accomplish
School boards discussed how targeted funding can respond to student needs. Some considered plans or greater flexibility for resources supporting multilingual learners, students from low-income households, mental health services, and other needs.
Approving a spending plan does not yet show what students gained from it. Future reports can help residents understand which students the spending is meant to help, what result the district expects, and how progress will be measured.
Those questions help boards connect proposed investments to district goals while leaving the development and implementation of strategies to district leaders and staff.
Making district finances easier to understand
Financial discussions varied across districts in August. Some reported enough cash to cover near-term obligations. Others discussed projected deficits, use of reserves, delayed revenue, or the possibility of a future referendum.
A district may have enough money to pay immediate bills while budgeting to spend more over the year than it expects to receive. Several boards asked for clearer reports to help them and the public understand the difference between available cash and longer-term financial pressures.
Clear information matters when a district considers reducing spending or asking residents for additional revenue. People need to understand what is driving the need, how current funds are being used, and what choices the board is weighing.
Following building needs and state funding requests
Facilities were a recurring subject at August meetings. Boards discussed overcrowding, aging buildings, renovations, new construction, and how to finance proposed work.
Several districts are resubmitting projects that have not received state funding. Board members also raised questions about how the state prioritizes requests and how long documented building needs may wait.
Submitting a construction request does not mean a project or referendum has been approved. Knowing where a proposal stands helps residents understand what their district is seeking, what need it would address, and what decisions may come next.
Connecting student supports with learning
Attendance, behavior, mental health, special education, and academic support appeared in discussions across multiple districts.
Some districts described efforts to make services more consistent across schools. Others discussed wellness centers, family outreach, or ways to identify why students are missing class. Together, the discussions show how access to support can affect a student’s ability to participate in learning.
The meetings describe services being developed or put into place; they do not yet establish their effects. As districts continue this work, boards can ask whether services reach the intended students, whether they are delivered consistently, and whether attendance, engagement, or other outcomes improve.
Watching safety and technology policies take shape
School safety remained on board agendas in August. Discussions covered equipment and building procedures, staff training, emergency planning, student discipline, and communication with families.
Districts also addressed personal electronic devices, artificial intelligence, and the role of technology in classrooms. Some adopted policies; others began reviewing proposals or changing how existing rules will be carried out.
Boards discussed device distractions, expectations for AI use, and how technology supports instruction. Safety discussions likewise extended beyond equipment to training, procedures, and communication. Future reports can show how these decisions were implemented and whether they served their intended purposes.
Staffing and student pathways
Districts entered the school year with different staffing needs. Some reported relatively few general vacancies but continued to have difficulty filling specialized positions, including roles in special education and student services. Others discussed how vacancies and compensation decisions affect their budgets.
Boards also heard about opportunities intended to connect students with college and careers, including internships and career and technical education. These discussions raise questions about access: which students can participate, what they learn or earn, and how programs connect to opportunities after graduation.
Making board decisions visible to the public
Several boards discussed how residents can better understand decisions before and after they are made. Topics included clearer financial reports, publication of board priorities and calendars, public access to committee meetings, and opportunities for community input.
A proposed policy, a state funding request, and an approved district plan are different steps. Explaining what has happened—and what remains undecided—helps residents know when and how they can participate.
What is happening in your district?
The statewide themes are shared, but the decisions remain local. One board may be reviewing student goals while another is considering a building request, changing a technology policy, or seeking a clearer financial report.
By bringing the meetings together, the August Roundup helps residents see both their district’s decisions and the questions other Delaware boards are facing. Readers can use that context to follow what happens at the next public meeting.
TO GO BOX: Follow Your School Board’s Decisions
The August School Board Roundup covers discussions across Delaware’s 16 traditional public school districts. Create a free Knowledge Hub account to find the report and learn:
What your district’s board discussed as the school year began
Which student goals, policies, and spending plans are moving forward
What financial and building needs could affect your community
Which plans still need measures or follow-up reports
Doula stopped to assist couple with birth while first responders were also stuck in traffic and arrived on foot
A woman stuck in heavy traffic in San Francisco went into labor and gave birth to a healthy baby girl, local authorities have said.
The San Francisco fire department said in a statement that a couple had been snarled in heavy congestion near the city’s Golden Gate Park when they were forced to pull over due to the imminent birth.
A new memorandum of understanding creates a framework for expanded research, talent development, and technology transfer between Georgia Tech and PNNL
Sept. 21, 2026 — Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) formalized a new strategic partnership by signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) designed to expand research collaboration, strengthen the talent pipeline, and accelerate the adoption of new technologies between the institutions.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Director Deb Gracio (front left) and Georgia Institute of Technology Executive Vice President for Research Tim LIeuwen (front right) signed a memorandum of understanding between the two institutions. Photo credit: Georgia Tech.
Leaders from both institutions gathered September 14, 2026, at Georgia Tech’s Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility (AMPF) in Atlanta to formally sign the MOU, establishing a framework for expanded research collaboration and new opportunities for faculty, staff, and students.
The agreement recognizes the complementary strengths of a leading research university and a Department of Energy national laboratory and creates a path for those strengths to be amplified on a larger scale. Rather than relying solely on individual researcher-to-researcher collaborations, the MOU calls for deeper institutional engagement around shared strategic priorities.
Tim Lieuwen, Georgia Tech’s executive vice president for Research, and Steve Biegalski, program chair of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics, hosted PNNL leadership. This included Laboratory Director Deb Gracio and Deputy Director for Science and Technology Bill Pike. Together they discussed institutional priorities and future opportunities before the MOU signing.
“PNNL and Georgia Tech have a long history of working together,” Gracio said. “This agreement provides the foundation to take on difficult research challenges and to leverage our complementary expertise and investments in the years ahead.”
Pike acknowledged the collaboration between PNNL and Georgia Tech. The two organizations will work together on two upcoming Genesis Mission projects.
“We are excited to build on our strong track record and expand the scope and impact of our collaborations with Georgia Tech,” Pike said. “The Genesis Mission projects that we are partnering on will apply artificial intelligence to advance biomanufacturing and enable trustworthy autonomous operations in small modular reactors and microreactors, bringing together our complementary strengths while supporting faculty and student engagement.”
Following the ceremony, PNNL leadership toured the AMPF, an example of Georgia Tech’s advanced manufacturing capabilities and another opportunity for researchers and leaders to identify areas for future partnerships.
“Strengthening our partnerships with national laboratories is a strategic priority for Georgia Tech,” Lieuwen said. “PNNL is an outstanding partner and we look forward to deepening connections among our researchers and students, expanding opportunities and access to world-class capabilities and facilities, and advancing discovery, innovation, and national impact together.”
The institutions will explore areas of mutual interest in data science and visual analytics, cybersecurity of critical physical infrastructure, nuclear science and engineering, and more, through joint meetings and workshops.
“This MOU formalizes and strengthens relationships that have been growing for many years,” said Scott McWhorter, director of national laboratory partnerships at Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute (SEI). “It leverages the unique strengths of Georgia Tech and PNNL and provides a framework for expanding engagement across areas of mutual interest.”
The National Laboratory Partnerships Program provides a framework for strategic engagement between Georgia Tech and the national laboratories. The PNNL agreement is the first formal agreement established through the program since its transition to the SEI.
Together, Georgia Tech and PNNL are laying the groundwork for a partnership that can connect discovery to application, prepare the next generation of STEM talent, and turn ambitious research ideas into technologies with impact beyond the Lab.
New report shows key indicators of Earth’s health are ‘outside the safe operating space’ as climate disaster looms
The planetary life support systems relied upon by humans have deteriorated to their worst levels ever recorded amid ongoing pollution and habitat destruction, according to a key yet grim annual update by scientists.
Of the nine “planetary boundaries” that help determine whether life can flourish on Earth, seven are being breached at their highest ever levels of transgression, according to the latest planetary health check, a process that was established in 2009.
Meloni said the government would bring the proposed legislation to the Council of Ministers, after which it would require parliamentary approval to become law.
United Russia party’s record victory in tightly controlled vote likely to be used as evidence of support for war against Ukraine
Russia’s new parliament will include 49 deputies who have taken part in the war against Ukraine, officials have said after a landslide victory by the ruling United Russia party in widely criticised elections.
The pro-Kremlin party won a record 355 seats in the country’s 450-seat Duma lower house of parliament, according to preliminary figures. The result further consolidates Vladimir Putin’s grip on power and gives United Russia a super-majority bigger than its previous 2016 record of 343 seats.
Can Gulf Arab countries help break the deadlock over Trump’s Gaza peace plan?Expert commentLToremark
Gulf Arab states increasingly view Israel as the main obstacle to progress on the peace plan – and may hope for an opening after Israel’s October elections.
Almost a year after US President Donald Trump unveiled his 20-point peace plan for Gaza, which was adopted by both Israel and Hamas and paved the way for the release of all Israeli hostages, the peace process appears to have hit a wall.
The two sides remain fundamentally divided over the sequencing of demilitarization and Israeli withdrawal. So far, Hamas has refused to give up its heavy weapons unless Israel halts all military operations and withdraws its forces from the parts of Gaza it currently controls – approximately 60 per cent of the strip – while Israel says it will not withdraw until Hamas disarms.
Although President Trump continues to argue that the situation in Gaza is under control, his envoy Jared Kushner, who recently visited Israel, and the director-general of his Board of Peace, Nikolay Mladenov, have so far been unable to launch the second phase of the process.
In September, Kushner acknowledged that the task of demilitarizing Gaza was proving far more difficult than initially expected: ‘We are starting to understand the scope of the militarization of Gaza. It is beyond your comprehension’. In August, he had told Fox News that he expected Hamas to begin handing over its weapons in ‘as few as 30 days’.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains critical according to an August report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) – and there is little hope for reconstruction given the current stalemate. According to the OCHA report, 58 per cent of Gaza’s population is facing ‘severe deficiencies in shelter conditions or access to essential services and non-food items’, while a severely strained health system and lack of medical supplies could put lifesaving services at risk.
Arab Gulf countries like UAE (which is also a member of the Board of Peace) are key providers of humanitarian aid to Gaza. In fact, UAE aid accounts for 46 per cent of global assistance. But what is their position on the current stalemate in Gaza and could they help find a way to break the deadlock?
In August, eight Arab and Islamic countries – Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey and Qatar – condemned Israel’s unwillingness to proceed with the implementation of Trump’s plan for Gaza, saying its stance threatens international efforts to end the war.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of these countries denounced Israel’s stated opposition to a roadmap for completing Trump’s broader Gaza plan, which was endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2803. The group also called for Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups to disarm; an Israeli military withdrawal; the deployment of an international stabilization force; the transfer of administrative authority to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza; and the reconstruction of Gaza.
In May, it was reported that the UAE had contributed $100 million for training of new Gaza police force – an important feature that will help provide security in post-war Gaza. However, Israeli officials reportedly barred the already vetted new recruits from leaving the strip for training in Cairo, and for now it is unclear when permission to leave and return to Gaza will be granted – if at all.
Although the UAE and other Arab members of the Board of Peace did not comment on this report, it is clear that their frustration with the Israeli government over Gaza and the West Bank is mounting. In August, the inaugural ‘Emirates loves Palestine’ event was held in Dubai, celebrating the connection between the UAE and the Palestinian people, while a delegation from a UAE future leaders programme were sent to Egypt to learn about – and take part in – UAE efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Indeed, the UAE is particularly important in this context as it is one of the signatories of the Abraham Accords and one of Israel’s closest partners in the Gulf and the Arab world. But other Gulf countries, such as Saudi Arabia, have also sharpened their condemnation of recent radical statements by Israeli officials on the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, as well as increasing settler violence in the West Bank. Trump, meanwhile, has insisted that a controversial nuclear deal signed with Saudi Arabia this summer hinges on Saudi normalization with Israel. But despite US pressure, it seems the Saudis will not divert significantly from their demand to establish a clear path for Palestinian statehood.
Due to the Iran war and its fallout, Gulf Arab states are more preoccupied with their own domestic security and economic challenges than at any point in recent memory. And with only weeks to go until Israel’s pivotal October elections, they also retain a measure of hope that a change of government could open the way to more constructive engagement.
Leading opposition candidates in Israel have been critical of Netanyahu’s policies on both Gaza and the West Bank. Many of them believe that Israel needs to involve the Arab states, and in particular Saudi Arabia, in future dealings with the Palestinians. A new Israeli government could also prove significantly tougher on settler violence in the West Bank and more flexible on alternative Palestinian governance in Gaza to unseat Hamas.
However, if the current governing coalition remains in power, more drastic and radical steps might follow. This could include construction in the E1 strategic perimeter, which would drive a wedge through the West Bank and undermine prospects of a future Palestinian state, as well as a possible escalation in Gaza.
For now, Gulf states are focusing on two key diplomatic instruments in their response to the ongoing stalemate in Gaza. One is humanitarian assistance, the other is pointed condemnations of Israel, which is increasingly perceived in Arab capitals as the primary obstacle to the implementation of Trump’s peace plan.
At present, it seems unlikely that Gulf states will change tactics. Even less likely that they will withdraw support for Trump’s peace plan and the Board of Peace, or press for urgent, extraordinary measures, such as sanctions on Israel or an intervention by Trump himself. But this calculus may well be revised in the aftermath of the Israeli elections, depending on the outcome. It will also remain contingent on the broader strategic environment in the Gulf, not least the risk of renewed hostilities.
Until something breaks the stalemate, the population of Gaza will continue to be caught between Hamas and the Israeli government – both waiting for the other to make the first move.
Walter Moorhead, 74, jailed on suspicion of manslaughter after allegedly shooting a woman while hunting in Delaware
A Maryland hunter was recently jailed on suspicion of manslaughter after he allegedly fatally shot a woman whom he mistook for a deer, according to authorities in Delaware.
Walter Moorhead, 74, was hunting from a ground blind in a field near Ellendale, Delaware, at about 7.40pm on Friday when he believed he saw a deer and fired his rifle, state police said in a statement. Yet it was actually a woman whom Moorhead fired at and struck as she walked across the field with two children, the statement added.
Police responded to altercation and found injured man and another person who identified himself as a federal agent
Authorities in Illinois are investigating a case on Sunday in which a US citizen was detained by federal immigration agents before ending up at a hospital with injuries.
It came the same day that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot and seriously wounded a man in Austin, Texas.
VALENCIA, Spain and BARCELONA, Spain, Sept. 21, 2026 — iPronics, a pioneer in silicon photonics-based optical circuit switching for AI infrastructure, today announced a two-year strategic technology collaboration with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) focused on advancing programmable optical networking for next-generation GPU-based AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.
For cloud providers and hyperscalers, integrating programmable optics has historically required custom software, but iPronics ONE changes that paradigm by offering a rack-ready, plug-and-play optical circuit switching architecture designed to integrate seamlessly into existing GPU environments. By demonstrating dynamic, workload-aware network control across hardware and software within BSC’s infrastructure, the strategic collaboration offers cloud providers and hyperscalers a clear path to maximizing GPU utilization, reducing latency, and lowering energy consumption without replacing their existing software stack.
“AI infrastructure is reaching a point where scaling compute also requires rethinking the network,” said Christian Dupont, CEO of iPronics. “Networking needs to become more dynamic and more closely aligned with the behavior of AI workloads. Our strategic collaboration with BSC is an important milestone in bringing programmable optical networking deeper into the AI infrastructure stack.”
Bringing Hardware and Software Together to Advance AI Networks
A central focus of the collaboration is bringing optical hardware and software together as an integrated AI networking architecture. iPronics will provide its programmable optical switching platform, low-level software, and APIs, while BSC will develop software above the switch-management layer. Together, the teams are developing workload-aware networking approaches that align the communication requirements of AI applications with dynamically reconfigurable optical connectivity.
“As AI and HPC systems scale, the interconnect is becoming an increasingly important part of overall system architecture,” said Antonio J. Peña, Leading Researcher and Group Leader, Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación. “Our collaboration with iPronics gives us the opportunity to explore how programmable optical networking and the software stack can work together to support more dynamic and efficient computing infrastructures.”
iPronics’ programmable optical networking platform will be integrated within BSC’s research-class GPU and HPC infrastructure, creating an environment for the teams to advance networking approaches across AI training and inference, including Large Language Model (LLMs) and Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) workloads. The collaboration will generate system-level insights to help inform the architecture of future AI infrastructure.
The BSC collaboration adds to iPronics’ strong market momentum following its recent $125 million Series B round, co-led by Maverick Silicon and Light Street Capital, with participation from NVIDIA, bringing the company’s total funding to $177 million. iPronics recently opened a U.S. office in Santa Clara, California, to expand its product strategy, customer deployments, and AI infrastructure partnerships.
About iPronics
iPronics is a pioneer in optical connectivity solutions for AI data centers, delivering a rack-ready optical circuit switching (OCS) platform built on silicon photonics. Its flagship product, iPronics ONE, provides programmable optical connectivity within and across racks for dynamic AI infrastructure. With integrated control, telemetry, and APIs, iPronics ONE enables real-time reconfiguration to improve GPU utilization, reduce energy consumption, and scale without costly network overhauls.
Founded in 2019 as a spin-off from Universitat Politècnica de València, iPronics is backed by strategic and financial investors, including NVIDIA, Maverick Silicon, Light Street Capital, Triatomic Capital, Bosch Ventures, Catalight Capital, European Innovation Council Fund, The Tate Family Trust, Fine Structure Ventures, Build Collective, Criteria Venture Tech, Amadeus Capital Partners, and others. For more information, visit www.ipronics.com.
About the Barcelona Supercomputing Center
BSC is one of the leading supercomputing centers in the world and hosts one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, MareNostrum 5. The centre specialises in High Performance Computing (HPC) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), and its role is twofold: to provide supercomputing infrastructure and services to Spanish and European scientists, and to generate knowledge and technology for transfer to society. BSC’s research focuses on the fields of computer sciences, life sciences, Earth sciences, computer applications in science and engineering, and computational social sciences and humanities. The BSC Consortium is made up of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Government of Spain (60%), the Department of Research and Universities of the Generalitat de Catalunya (30%) and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (10%). The centre manages the Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES) and is the hosting entity of EuroHPC JU, the initiative that leads large-scale investment in and deployment of HPC in Europe.
Sept. 21, 2026 — Researchers at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a computational method that could help electric grid operators and data center developers manage power more efficiently as artificial intelligence drives unprecedented growth in electricity demand.
ORNL developed a new optimization solver that helps reduce energy costs and improve grid reliability for next-generation AI data centers. Credit: ORNL.
The research, which was presented at the 2026 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting, addresses a growing challenge as large data centers increasingly supplement utility power with their own on-site generation. Managing these additional generators adds significant complexity to power system operations, stretching the limits of today’s grid optimization tools.
Researchers at ORNL developed a new “relax-and-round” optimization method that dramatically reduces the time needed to determine which generators should operate at any given time. The approach works by first “relaxing” the problem, temporarily allowing decisions that are normally restricted to yes-or-no choices to take on continuous values, so it can be solved much more quickly using efficient mathematical techniques. Once a solution is found, the method then “rounds” those values back to practical, discrete decisions about which generators should be on or off. This two-step process avoids the heavy computational burden of traditional mathematical optimization techniques while still producing high-quality, reliable results. The team included ORNL researchers Eve Tsybina, Slaven Peles and Shaked Regev.
The team tested the approach using a system of 46 generators with different operating characteristics to represent a range of generator types. Researchers then created slightly modified copies of those generators to simulate variations within each type, allowing them to progressively scale the test systems in increments of 46 generators.
On a system with 276 generators, the new method cut computation time from about 10 hours to less than one second, with no increased cost or loss of feasibility. Larger systems became impractical to solve using the traditional method, while the new approach scaled efficiently to systems with tens of thousands of generators. That scalability could make the method a practical tool for planning future power grids as they accommodate large AI data centers and other distributed energy resources.
“The scientific community has developed powerful solvers for continuous variable problems, but not an efficient way to directly solve integer variable problems,” said ORNL research scientist Shaked Regev, who led the project. “Instead of an all-purpose solver, we focused our attention on the specific problem of unit commitment and used powerful, problem-specific heuristics to reduce the integer variable problem to solving multiple continuous variable problems, which is faster and scales better.”
Industry analysts project that U.S. data centers will add tens of gigawatts of new electricity demand over the next several years. As utilities work to expand grid capacity, many developers are investing in natural gas generators and other on-site power resources to ensure reliable operations.
Those new generating assets are expected to be smaller, more flexible and faster to respond than traditional power plants, requiring new approaches to scheduling and dispatch. ORNL’s optimization method enables operators to quickly identify cost-effective operating plans, helping reduce fuel costs while maintaining reliability.
The algorithm is also designed for parallel computing and is compatible with graphics processing units (GPUs) opening the door to even faster performance on leadership-class computing systems.
The work highlights ORNL’s expertise in power systems, applied mathematics and high-performance computing and supports DOE’s efforts to modernize the nation’s energy infrastructure while enabling continued growth in AI and advanced computing.
“Working in a multi-disciplinary team allows us to solve more complicated problems,” said Regev. “I enjoyed learning a lot about power systems and teaching others about the quirks of mathematical optimization solvers. We were able to challenge assumptions about the correct way of doing things and this led us to the breakthrough.”
The research was supported by ORNL’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.
UT-Battelle manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit energy.gov/science.
CARSON CITY, Nevada — Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office has declined, for now, to meet with certified firearms instructors who say Nevada’s regulatory system for armed security guards has serious public-safety and oversight problems.
The Nevada Association of Certified Firearms Instructors says it has sought a meeting with Lombardo since March. Association President Andrew Cowie has raised concerns about the Private Investigators Licensing Board, whose members are appointed by the governor. Lombardo’s office said it would review the material but would not schedule a personal meeting in the short term.
Former PILB member Rick Brown resigned in June, saying the board was not adequately addressing alleged violations involving firearms instructor Stephanie Costello. The board later fined Costello $5,000 and temporarily suspended her instructor certification after determining she violated training regulations.
Separate concerns emerged this summer when Nevada lawmakers learned that security guards had been carrying rifles and shotguns even though state law contains no provision authorizing the practice. Lawmakers subsequently questioned the board’s oversight and training requirements.
Nevada’s Department of Business and Industry has publicly supported an independent review of PILB operations, saying questions involving public safety and statutory authority should be fully examined.
The court’s decision was based entirely on the timing of proposed new mail-in ballot rules. The larger question could re-emerge
Last week’s supreme court decision upholding the district court’s restraining order on USPS’s mail-in ballot restrictions is being hailed as a victory for electoral integrity by politicians, political commentators and voting rights advocates alike. The senator Chuck Schumer, for example, called the decision “one of the most important cases to protect voting rights before the supreme court”. But the unsigned, three-sentence opinion, with only a brief concurrence and a lengthy dissent, is no such thing.
The court based its brief opinion entirely on the timing of the roll-out of the new rules, which became effective on 21 August, just weeks away from the midterm elections and only days before several states were scheduled to begin mailing out their ballots. California’s submission to the court, joined by twenty-two states and the district of Columbia, asking the court to leave the injunction against the rule change in place, made clear that compliance with the rules in advance of the midterms would not only be difficult; it would be impossible without disenfranchising thousands of voters. And that, of course, is the point.
DENVER, Sept. 21, 2026 — Crusoe has announced the initial closing of its anticipated $3.9 billion Series F funding round, at a $30.9 billion post-money valuation. The oversubscribed round was co-led by Atreides Management, Mubadala Capital, and Valor Equity Partners, alongside significant backing from new and existing investors including Founders Fund, GIC, NVIDIA, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Radical Ventures, and TPG.
With over $140 billion in total contracted value (TCV) across its vertically-integrated platform, the additional capital will help Crusoe scale its existing programs and support the build out of its own AI factories, from large-scale, vertically-integrated campuses to modular Crusoe Spark units, fueling the rapid growth of Crusoe Cloud. Operating the entire value chain enables Crusoe to serve customers across the AI ecosystem at the speed the market requires and has come to expect from Crusoe’s execution.
“We believe AI will usher in an era of abundance: new scientific breakthroughs, unprecedented economic growth, and human prosperity,” said Chase Lochmiller, Co-founder and CEO of Crusoe. “Getting there means controlling the infrastructure from electrons to tokens, and we’re grateful to have investors who share that conviction. This Series F lets us scale every layer for the world’s most ambitious AI builders.”
“As AI grows, the economics flow to the lowest-cost producer of intelligence. Through a vertically-integrated model, Crusoe owns the entire value chain – a structural advantage that compounds as they build,” said Gavin Baker, Managing Partner and CIO of Atreides Management. “Chase and Cully are world-class operators, and we’re thrilled to support Team Crusoe as they lead the build-out of next generation AI infrastructure.”
Additional investors in the round include: 1789 Capital, Activate Capital, Altimeter, ARK Invest, Avenir, Baillie Gifford, BAM Elevate, BDT & MSD Partners, Clal Insurance and Finance, Darsana, DPR Construction, Era Funds, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Fundrise, Galvanize, M37, OIA, Polychain Capital, Ribbit Capital, Robinhood Ventures Fund I (RVI), SemiAnalysis, Salesforce Ventures, Squarepoint Capital, StepStone Group, T. Rowe Price1, Tiger Global, Upper90, Van Eck, XN, and Zigg Capital.
The Numbers Behind Crusoe’s Momentum
$140B+ TCV across Crusoe’s vertically-integrated platform serving AI native, hyperscaler, frontier model, and enterprise customers.
6GW+ of gross contracted capacity across data centers and cloud, including 1 GW of gross capacity delivered and operational today.
20x+ year over year growth in Crusoe Cloud bookings YTD.
Launched Crusoe Managed Inference late last year, and have already contracted over $100M in ARR. Adoption continues to rapidly scale given its up to 9.9x faster time-to-first-token and 5x higher throughput vs. vLLM with Crusoe’s inference engine, powered by Crusoe MemoryAlloyTM technology.
Independently recognized: a Gartner Magic Quadrant Visionary, #1 for inference speed on Artificial Analysis, and an NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud.
Energy-First Momentum
At the foundation of Crusoe’s AI factory model is an energy-first strategy. Conventional data center developers treat power as a constraint to navigate after site selection. Crusoe starts there instead, originating and managing power directly at the source, and the advantage compounds through every layer Crusoe owns.
Momentum across this vertically-integrated business has accelerated year to date. Contracted capacity has grown to over 6 GW. Behind it is an energy strategy powered by Crusoe’s in-house power plant development capabilities paired with partnerships spanning grid, battery, nuclear, thermal and renewable energy providers. Crusoe Cloud continues to innovate up the stack, with strong adoption across its infrastructure-as-a-service, serverless fine-tuning and self-serve inference products. Additional cloud adoption will be supported by the scalable, predictable capacity that Crusoe Spark’s modular data centers deliver. All of this is driven by a workforce over 1,800 strong across five countries, including new offices in Bellevue, WA and New York City, with hiring underway in every geography where Crusoe operates.
”We joined Crusoe’s journey almost six years ago because they perfectly fit what we look for: pro-entropic founders taking a hard path to build a structurally advantaged company with frontier technology and operational discipline. They have exceeded expectations at every turn as their vision for the business expanded,” said Antonio Gracias, Founder, CEO, and CIO of Valor Equity Partners. “This team has delivered mission-critical AI infrastructure for several of the world’s most sophisticated customers, earning the market’s trust to scale by orders of magnitude.”
“As AI diffuses across the economy, compute infrastructure has become the foundation on which that shift is built. Crusoe is one of the defining companies developing, powering and operating that infrastructure at scale. We have partnered with Crusoe since 2022, invested in every round since, and are proud to co-lead this round. What we’ve seen so far is only the beginning,” said Ibrahim Ajami, Senior Partner, Head of Ventures, Mubadala Capital.
Executing at Scale to Support Customer Demand
Crusoe has a proven track record of execution with over 1 GW of capacity delivered and operational across its portfolio. Crusoe’s vertical integration strategy in practice means the company meets customers wherever they are in their AI journey, at any scale. Crusoe is built to serve a diverse set of customers, from hyperscalers to AI natives, on a platform that enables growth and scales with customers as their needs shift. That capability is why OpenAI trained Astra, its first artificial general intelligence, at the Abilene campus Crusoe designed and built, demonstrating how Crusoe enables breakthrough technology.
The company manufactures Crusoe Spark modular data centers in the US, and they are a critical growth engine for expanding and accelerating access to intelligence. This helps Crusoe achieve speed and certainty of capacity energization while also lowering costs relative to conventional construction techniques. Designed for the next generation of silicon and networking systems, Crusoe Spark deployments are highly scalable and shorten the timeline of data center construction in the field from years to weeks. Modularity also offers customers the ability to incrementally grow capacity over time as workloads and demand require incremental capacity additions. Crusoe Spark’s benefits of speed, cost, flexibility, and deployment predictability will further enable Crusoe Cloud’s pace of growth. Today, customers including Cognition, Figure, and Perplexity are already innovating on Crusoe Cloud.
As the AI factory company, Crusoe is on a mission to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence. The company provides a reliable, scalable, cost-effective, energy-first solution for AI infrastructure. By harnessing large-scale energy sources, building AI-optimized data centers, and delivering a powerful AI cloud platform, Crusoe empowers its customers and partners to build the future faster. For more information, visit crusoe.ai.
The air attack hit an oil refinery in Moscow, contradicting President Donald Trump's claim that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to halt strikes on energy targets.
Sneaker company removes social media ad after backlash from critics who said it resembled KKK imagery
The sneaker company Converse has removed a social media ad that sparked outrage among critics who viewed it as evoking the Ku Klux Klan and lynching.
The Instagram ad photo showed K-pop singer Karina wearing a skirt and holding a pair of Chuck 70 X sneakers. Critics lashed out online, saying that a white triangular image created by lighting on the skirt resembled a KKK hood – and that the way she held the sneakers made them look like the dangling feet of a lynching victim.
Today’s wealth gap is much bigger, and the country’s richest have much more power than they once did. It’s an Age of Oligarchy
For many, the era of US history that most resembles contemporary America is easy to identify: the Gilded Age.
It is, in certain ways, an apt comparison. Like modern America, the Gilded Age saw a small number of men tower over US politics and industry alike. Rising atop a swell of wealth inequality, figures like Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller mixed private interests with public policy, opening doors in Washington and beyond with ease. Their model is a clear precedent for figures such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison and more.
Questions remain over tragedy that killed five as families file wrongful death lawsuits against Amazon and cargo firm
Among Junior and Jachel Pineda’s most treasured photographs of their father, Julio, one of five men killed in the Amazon cargo plane crash in Miami earlier this month, is one of him wearing his favorite red apron. Embroidered on the front are the words Chef Mago – the “wizard chef” in English – and Julio is clutching a ladle and tending to a pot on the stovetop.
The kitchen was one of the 75-year-old Cuban immigrant’s happy places, where he would cook for his family, his friends and his neighbors in the Hialeah community where he lived. He would feed and entertain them even after an exhausting shift for the aircraft cleaning company he was employed by.
Legislation proposed by House Democrats aims to address survivors’ financial and medical burdens
Danielle Bensky wants a typical life.
“I would just love to own a house one day and have a dog,” said Bensky, who is among the Jeffrey Epstein survivors advocating for accountability. “I think that’s the dream – literally just to have a normal existence where we’re not trying to fight the government and constantly be facing our own abuse.”
PlayStation 5 (version played), PC; Screen Burn Tragedy, and an apocalyptic fog, befall a fishing community. It is up to outsider Simon to offer some kind of closure
You spend a considerable portion of Silent Hill: Townfall in a kind of foetal position, cowering behind objects that will be eerily familiar to anyone who lived in the UK during the 1990s. Cars seem to be modelled on the era’s boxy Volkswagen Golfs; logos adorning phone boxes should narrowly escape the attention of copyright lawyers at BT Group. (For millennials, the deja vu will likely intensify the horror, as if stepping back into a childhood nightmare.) Simon, the nerdy, unassuming star of the game, pokes his head around corners to catch a glimpse of the demonic entities that wish to maim him, before shrinking back down again with a downwards motion of the analogue stick. In such moments, it’s easy to imagine him wrapping his arms around his knees, clasping his eyes shut and wishing himself away from this place.
The game’s setting, St Amelia, is based on the fishing communities of the East Neuk of Fife. The terror lurking here is wonderfully specific: absent lairds, island poverty, an oil-drilling corporation. Anguished beasts lumber down quaint streets lined with sandstone houses and fluttering bunting. This venerable horror series may have shifted to Scotland, yet we remain firmly in classic Silent Hill territory – weather and all. St Amelia finds itself suffused in supernatural fog and the vast majority of its inhabitants have vanished following some kind of mass tragedy. The artful, evocative presentation is such that you can almost taste the in-game air, the briny seaside tang diluted by rainy mist.
Claimants are asked to dig out decades-old medical records to prove they qualify despite inquiry’s recommendations
Suzanne Morgan will never forget the day her mother died. It was nine months after she had gone into hospital with gallstones, where she received a routine blood transfusion.
“She went downhill rapidly,” Morgan recalled. Her mother haemorrhaged in her liver, and the next day she was dead.
New headquarters in Discovery District Maryland, backed by Maryland’s Capital of Quantum initiative, strengthens Riverlane’s commitment to the U.S. quantum ecosystem, talent development and commercial growth
CAMBRIDGE, England and COLLEGE PARK, Md., Sept. 21, 2026 — Riverlane, a global leader in quantum error correction (QEC), has announced plans to open its U.S. headquarters in Discovery District Maryland, marking a significant milestone in the company’s long-term investment in the United States.
The new facility, located steps from the University of Maryland campus, will provide office and laboratory space and serve as Riverlane’s U.S. headquarters and a center for research collaboration, customer engagement and business development. The investment builds on Riverlane’s existing U.S. presence in Boston and reflects Riverlane’s commitment to supporting the commercialization of quantum computing and strengthening its presence in one of the world’s leading quantum technology ecosystems.
“Quantum computing is reaching a pivotal moment, and quantum error correction will be essential to unlocking its full potential,” said Steve Brierley, founder and CEO of Riverlane. “Establishing our U.S. headquarters in Maryland puts us at the heart of an exceptional ecosystem of researchers, industry leaders and government partners working to advance quantum. We’re excited to play our part in growing that ecosystem, help develop the talent and skills the industry needs, and work together to build the world’s first useful, error-corrected quantum computers.”
Maryland has emerged as a leading destination for quantum innovation, home to world-class research institutions including the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science – a partnership between the University of Maryland (UMD) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and alongside companies such as Microsoft and IonQ. Establishing its U.S. headquarters in Maryland positions Riverlane to build on existing partnerships with IQM and Quantum Motion, while creating new opportunities to collaborate with organizations across industry, academia and government.
“Quantum has the potential to transform our society, and Maryland is the home of the best resources, research and workforce for this emerging technology,” said Maryland Governor Wes Moore. “We’re excited to build this partnership with Riverlane, as our administration partners with trailblazing leaders in the field to expand our state’s economy and build opportunities for our communities to access work, wages, and wealth.”
Alongside its new U.S. headquarters, Riverlane is establishing a strategic collaboration with UMD to advance quantum error correction research and help develop the next generation of quantum talent. The partnership will create opportunities for student fellowships, teaching and mentorship, while supporting research collaboration, workforce development and the pipeline of researchers and engineers needed to build fault-tolerant quantum computing systems.
Riverlane is the global leader in quantum error correction technology. Its flagship product, Deltaflow, helps quantum hardware developers overcome the fundamental challenge of quantum errors. Working across all major qubit modalities, Riverlane helps accelerate the development of scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of delivering transformative real-world applications.
Riverlane’s announcement coincides with the 2026 Quantum World Congress, which will be hosted in Discovery District Maryland, where the company is participating through keynote presentations, technical sessions, exhibitions and university engagement activities.
As part of its continued U.S. expansion, Riverlane is hiring across research, engineering, commercial and operations. To learn more about current opportunities, visit Riverlane Careers.
About Riverlane
Riverlane is the world leader in quantum error correction (QEC), the technology that unlocks quantum computing’s promise of a new age of human progress. We partner with over 60% of the world’s quantum computer companies and leading high-performance computing (HPC) centres to solve the error problem blocking their path to ‘utility-scale’ systems that can transform multiple industries. Our real-time QEC system, Deltaflow, works with all major qubit types and includes proprietary QEC chips, decoders and a compiler. Deltakit, our software platform, helps quantum developers learn, develop and adopt QEC. Founded in 2016, Riverlane is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, and has offices in Boston in the US and Delft in the Netherlands. The company has raised over $120 million in private funding, including an $85 million Series C in 2024.
When colder weather arrives before you expected it, these 17 slow cooker recipes cover chicken, pork, beef, chili, soup, mac and cheese, and casseroles with long, mostly hands-off cooking.The post 17 slow cooker recipes for the weeks the cold creeps…
Eco-moorings help to restore seagrass in just five years, boosting sealife such as seahorses, eels and crabs
One of the UK’s most precious underwater habitats – Dorset’s seagrass meadows – is recovering thanks to “eco moorings” designed to prevent the seabed being ripped up, a study has revealed.
Scars caused by traditional anchors in some areas of seagrass in Studland Bay have almost entirely vanished, which is boosting the number of seahorses that thrive in the submerged meadows.
Several workers say they’re opting to go without health coverage due to premium costs soaring this year
Starbucks workers say their health insurance premiums have soared this year, in some cases more than doubling, according to a recent survey conducted by Starbucks Workers United.
The survey of more than 130 Starbucks workers in both unionized and non-unionized stores, shared exclusively with the Guardian, found baristas are experiencing significant hikes in costs for their health insurance coverage starting 1 October.
Watchdog says users may have been unaware their information was used to target adverts or infer their interests
Google has been fined more than €400m (£345m) over the way it processed users’ location data, following claims that the tech giant had manipulated users into agreeing to be constantly tracked on their mobile phones.
The fine, imposed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), comes after complaints from multiple European consumer organisations that Google was following every step users took.
WAYNE — The Wayne State women’s volleyball team fell behind conference rival Concordia-St. Paul 2-0 at Rice Auditorium on Saturday afternoon but dug its way out of the hole with a reverse sweep over the Golden Bears.
After a plane journey in shackles, an Iranian woman found herself in the middle of Africa in a country she did not know existed. She is one of thousands of people deported from the US on the back of shadowy deals made with dozens of countries.
At what scale are third-country deportations happening? Since returning to office in 2025, Donald Trump’s administration has deported more than 25,000 people to countries that are not their own.
Which countries are people being deported to? The Trump administration has struck 35deals allowing it to deport migrants and asylum seekers to countries where they often have no connections.
Is this legal? A US federal appeals court ruled on Friday that the Trump administration’s third-country removals policy was unlawful. A three-judge panel unanimously agreed that it violated due process. But the government has 90 days to appeal against the court’s decision, and is expected to do so.
How imminent is the threat? Normunds Mežviets, the director general of the VDD, Latvia’s state security service conceded there were signs that Moscow was making preparations for more decisive action in Europe, but said it was not clear whether the plans were simply part of a destabilisation strategy. “It’s still an open question if they have direct and concrete plans or if it’s just within the context of their overall attempts to spread fear and uncertainty in western society,” he said.
An investigation is underway to establish the definitive cause of the deaths inside the area where wildlife including lions, elephants and black rhinos live.
Jensen Huang dismisses warnings from former Anthropic researcher and others as ‘doomsday narratives’
The boss of the chipmaker Nvidia has said AI will not develop to a point that will lead to the extinction of the human race within a few years, rejecting such assertions as overblown “doomsday narratives”.
Jensen Huang, the co-founder and chief executive of the $5tn AI chipmaker, said the claims made on social media by the former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon that AI could become “superhuman” and kill off humanity within the decade were “irresponsible”.
"Australia is considering barring the use of camera-equipped smart glasses in government workplaces..." reports Reuters, "in what it said could be the first ban of its kind."
But meanwhile "more than 70 people who bought, used or were recorded with Meta's smart glasses have sued the social media giant," reports the Los Angeles Times, "claiming their intimate and sensitive images were exposed to workers abroad who are paid to review and label photos and videos."
The contractors in Kenya work for companies that help train Meta's artificial intelligence, according to a proposed class-action lawsuit amended in late August. The smart glasses users, some in California, allege the gadget captured footage of themselves and family members undressing, going to the bathroom, having sex and entering passwords. In some cases, the people said they weren't aware the camera-equipped glasses were recording. One California user, referred to as PL18 in the lawsuit, alleges his glasses were unknowingly recording after he placed the smart glasses on the bathroom counter. "He noticed that at times photos of his family members using the bathroom and bathing began appearing in his gallery — footage no one in his household intended to take," the lawsuit said....
The 230-page lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Northern California, accuses Meta of fraud and false advertising, along with violating other consumer protection laws in various states. Tina Wolfson, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said the case also centers on Meta's surveillance of people's lives without their consent and the exploitation of their image and likeness. "People who bought these glasses and thought that they were cool gadgets weren't aware that every time they activated AI, video was sent to train Meta's AI," said Wolfson, a principal at law firm Ahdoot & Wolfson in Burbank. Meta disagrees with the allegations and intends to fight them.
"If you use Meta AI, we may review that data to help improve our products and people's experiences — this works the same way as many other companies. We take steps to filter this data to help remove identifying information and to protect people's privacy," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement...
The lawsuit alleges people wearing the smart glasses were unwittingly transmitting data to Meta whenever they used Meta AI by saying "Hey Meta," or sometimes accidentally when adjusting the glasses. "Every activation of the AI features, intentional or accidental, captures video and audio that is transmitted to Meta's servers, routed overseas, and reviewed by low-paid human workers who watch, label, and embed these moments into Meta's AI models," the lawsuit said...
The lawsuit also seeks to block Meta from deploying biometric tools through its glasses. The company has been exploring a controversial feature called "NameTag" that would allow people to identify others... A separate lawsuit, filed in September in a federal court in Illinois, alleges Meta has been using images of people's faces uploaded to their public Facebook and Instagram accounts to train AI that powers NameTag and other AI tools.
Friedrich Merz called it a “disaster”, and that was even before the full scale of the catastrophe for himself and his conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came into view after Sunday’s state elections.
In what one outlet called a “power move”, the German chancellor made a highly unusual televised speech just minutes after polls closed in the states of Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, attempting to get ahead of the narrative with a pledge to stay on and fight for his economic recovery programme.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States has deported more than 25,000 migrants to countries other than their own since President Donald Trump returned to office, according to a multinational investigation examining the administration’s expanding third-country deportation program.
Forbidden Stories reported that the administration has reached agreements with 35 countries, including nations in Africa, Latin America and the Pacific, to accept migrants who often have no previous connection to those destinations. The State Department’s Office of Remigration, created in 2025, has played a central role in negotiating the arrangements.
Internal records reviewed by investigators show at least $410 million was planned for governments and humanitarian organizations connected to the program. About $81 million was designated for participating governments, while more than $178 million was directed toward the International Organization for Migration and $123 million toward UNHCR.
The findings come days after a federal appeals court rejected a Trump administration policy allowing rapid third-country deportations without giving migrants a meaningful opportunity to raise concerns about persecution or torture. Reuters reported that more than 25,000 migrants have been affected, with removals involving countries including Mexico, Uganda, Liberia and Equatorial Guinea.
The administration argues third-country removals help execute valid deportation orders when migrants cannot be returned to their home countries.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration is preparing sanctions against the International Criminal Court that could sharply restrict the Hague-based tribunal’s access to the U.S. financial system and American companies.
The proposed measures would prohibit most U.S. citizens and businesses from providing funds, goods or services to the ICC without a Treasury Department license, according to officials familiar with the plans. The Wall Street Journal reported that the restrictions would take effect after a six- to seven-month grace period and could be finalized around this week’s United Nations General Assembly.
Washington has already sanctioned more than a dozen ICC judges and prosecutors, including court President Tomoko Akane. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has argued that the court improperly asserts jurisdiction over officials from countries that never joined it, including the United States and Israel.
The dispute intensified after the ICC issued 2024 arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel rejects the allegations and the court’s jurisdiction.
Organization-wide sanctions could affect the ICC’s banking, information technology, insurance, investigations and employee payments. European governments have discussed measures intended to shield companies from U.S. restrictions.
Trump’s mess has rekindled Yemen’s civil war and a years-long conflict between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia
When the US and Israel launched a war of aggression against Iran in late February, Tehran’s allies in the Middle East jumped into the fray. Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia fired rockets at Israel, while Shia militias in Iraq attacked US bases and diplomatic outposts. But the Houthis, who control large parts of Yemen, mostly stayed on the sidelines.
Over the past few weeks, however, the Houthis have changed their tactics and have entered the conflict in full force. They led a rapid advance along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, seizing a strategic port city and several islands that gave the militia control over the Bab al-Mandab strait, a vital waterway for energy shipments and other global trade. Thanks to Donald Trump’s war, Iran and its allies now dominate the Middle East’s two major regional energy chokepoints: Bab al-Mandab and the strait of Hormuz.
When husband-wife filmmakers Kurt St. Thomas and Liz Stellingworth were planning to participate in the Baltimore 48 Hour Film Project last summer, St. Thomas was sure they were “doomed.”
They’d moved to Wilmington six months prior and didn’t have any connections to potential cast and crew members for the caffeine-fueled short film contest, which involves writing a script based on random prompts, arranging props and costumes, filming and editing in a 48-hour period.
“It was a little bit weird because, one, you’re like, ‘Hey, do you want to be in a movie? Two, there’s no money, and three, we don’t know what the role is. We don’t even know what we’re making. We’ll let you know on Friday night,’” St. Thomas joked.
Get Involved Horror Fest Film Festival takes place Thursday through Sunday, Sept. 24-27, at Theatre N and Penn Cinema in Wilmington. Tickets for individual screenings, short film blocks and panels are $15. All-day access is $60 each day. A VIP pass for the full festival is available for $150, with a similar option available for students for $50.
But the couple had no trouble finding a team of Delawareans willing to volunteer the weekend to create “Magnet Brain,” a mockumentary about a billionaire named George Romero raising the dead to use as a labor source.
The short film went on to win the Baltimore 48 Hour Film Project and will be screening at the inaugural Horror Fest Film Festival in Wilmington this weekend, Sept. 24-27.
Taking place at Theatre N and Penn Cinema, Horror Fest Film Festival will feature over 130 films from regional and international filmmakers alike.
The roster includes a musical from the perspective of a murderer (“No More Mr. Nice Guy”), an LGBTQ+ slasher (“Meat”), a found footage flick about a livestreamer stalked by a mysterious entity (“The Waiting Man”) and more.
The film festival will also be the world premiere of “Awaken the Reaper,” which Long Island filmmaker Dave Campfield began writing almost 20 years ago. The film follows an addiction recovery group whose members are picked off one by one.
“All of us seem to know someone in an addiction recovery place at one point in their life,” Campfield said. “It was a way of grounding the story in reality and making it relatable, because we all struggle with something, whatever our compulsion might be.”
“Awaken the Reaper” features Lance Henriksen (“Aliens”) and Academy Award winner Louis Gossett Jr. (“An Officer and a Gentleman”) in his final film role before his death in 2024.
“Awaken the Reaper” follows a rehab group whose members are picked off one by one. | PHOTO COURTESY OF FOURTH HORIZON CINEMA
“Awaken the Reaper” features Lance Henricksen (“Aliens), right, and Joe Winchell, left. | PHOTO COURTESY OF FOURTH HORIZON CINEMA
“(Henriksen’s) attitude, perhaps due to being in his 80s now, seemed to be like the fun guy on set, joking around, trying to keep it light,” Campfield said. “And the approach that Lou took was, ‘I am your employee. I’m going to take this really seriously.’ … I was surprised that Lou had that attitude, almost like he’s still starting out (and) he wants to impress the boss.”
The big names won’t just be on the screen at Horror Fest Film Festival; the event will also feature celebrity guests.
Wilmington-raised actor John Gallagher Jr. will reflect on some of his iconic horror roles like “Hush” in a Q&A and will play a set of his original music to close the festival.
Filmmakers Brian Yuzna and John Penney will also participate in a panel about “Return of the Living Dead 3,” with Yuzna reflecting on his comedy horror “Bride of Re-Animator” in a separate panel.
Thursday evening will kick off the film festival with a networking event. Bill Shahan and Dave Parag from DreaMedia Productions, the organizers of the event, encouraged budding filmmakers to participate.
“You should definitely check out the films, but if you’re somebody that’s working two jobs and doesn’t have a lot of time … get to the networking event, because that’s where you’re going to be able to further your career,” Shahan said.
In fact, it was at a networking event during the Rehoboth Beach International Film Festival where Shahan and his crew landed the post-production work for “Death on the Brandywine,” a murder mystery filmed in Delaware and released in June.
The concessions stand in Theatre N is full of goodies. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CANNON TAYLOR
Executive Director Andrew Larason behind the concessions stand at Theatre N. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CANNON TAYLOR
“(Director Nick Wilkinson) was like, ‘We should get together.’ Three months later, we were filming this movie,” Shahan said.
DreaMedia has helped organize the Rehoboth Beach International Film Festival for the past three years, bringing the roster of films from about 20 to over 100. The production company also co-founded the Newark Independent Film Festival with actor Kazy Tauginas in 2024.
“It’s happening. There’s a festival circuit. So now, ideally, as we do these events and continue to grow our platform out, we’ll get more industry folks here,” Shahan said. “Ideally, they’ll come to this state at a good time and say, ‘Could we go shoot that here?’”
Attracting filmmakers to Delaware is exactly why the state established its first film and entertainment tax credit program on July 1. The Delaware Division of Small Business began accepting applications for the $10 million program on Sept. 16.
Shahan and Parag think the future is bright for Delaware film not only because the incentive will attract out-of-state filmmakers, but because it will support the state’s existing scene.
“Magnet Brain” is a short mockumentary about a billionaire raising the dead to use as a labor source. | PHOTO COURTESY OF KURT ST. THOMAS
St. Thomas and Stallingworth characterized Delaware’s film scene as much more friendly and collaborative than those of bigger cities, as they witnessed while filming “Magnet Brain.”
For example, Wilmington International Film Festival organizer Gordon DelGiorno hooked up the team with a friend’s Corvette for a split second gag.
“This guy just comes over, puts his Corvette in my driveway. He’s like, ‘I’ll be back tomorrow.’ … Left the keys in it,” St. Thomas said.
And despite the lack of pay, the cast and crew came together without a hitch.
Actors from Bootless Stageworks’ “Evil Dead, The Musical” were more than happy to don the role of the undead again for a weekend.
And the hair and makeup team, led by Delawarean Denise Cuomo, came from haunted house Pennhurst Asylum to work on a film production for the first time. The team went on to win Best Hair & Makeup at Filmapalooza 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal.
“In Los Angeles, when I lived there, you’d ask people to do stuff, and they’d just look at you and be like, ‘No. Unless you have $3,000, I’m not coming out on a Saturday,’” St. Thomas said.
There’s no pretentiousness to Delaware’s film scene, he added — only a desire to create.
Why Should Delaware Care? The cost of healthcare burdens not only patients, but the state, too. When costs rise, patients not only feel that pinch from their own insurance, but also on their tax bill. In recent years, the state has worked to rein in costs, and reverse trends they’ve called “unsustainable.”
Delaware health officials said current spending trends for healthcare are “unsustainable,” and called for a dramatic change in how patients and the state pay for medical services.
The Delaware Health Care Commission, which is composed of governmental and clinical leaders across the state, met on Thursday to discuss a host of problems plaguing the cost of care, and people’s ability to access it.
During that meeting, Delaware Secretary of Health and Social Services Christen Linke Young addressed healthcare spending in the state, which has run rampant for years. Additionally, Young said the state cannot sustain further increases in spending.
“The wheels are going to come off,” Young said. “There simply isn’t the money.”
But those same leaders also pointed to solutions, and how the state can better equip itself for a growing and aging population. The commission held its discussion at a retreat in Dover, where members discussed workforce challenges, the cost of care and the state’s dental infrastructure.
Healthcare costs
Leaders within DHSS and the state’s insurance department discussed the rising cost of care, and how the state can change how it pays.
Delaware Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro pointed to challenges for insurers, who he said have lost money for years.
Specifically, he pointed to the open insurance market. Earlier this month, the department of insurance announced rate increases for people who buy plans on the marketplace through the Affordable Care Act.
A few years ago, Delaware had five insurers in its market, Navarro said.
This year, there are only two.
“The other three decided to leave because we can’t force an insurance company to stay here and lose money,” Navarro said.
Andrew Wilson, who runs the state’s Medicaid program, said these losses also extend to the state’s insurance subsidy. As a result of those losses, the outside insurers who manage coverage for the state’s Medicaid program have to raise their rates.
But even with those rate increases, those Medicaid managers still lose money, Wilson said . In turn, those increases mean a greater demand on the taxpayer, pulling funds from schools and infrastructure.
“Those dollars could be going there, but instead we’re dumping into healthcare, and we’re not seeing the outcomes,” Wilson said.
Young, who leads DHSS, said recent jumps in state healthcare spending have become “unsustainable.” She said the state should pursue “some version” of global budgeting models for its hospitals.
Global budget models set annual fixed prices for inpatient and outpatient procedures, meaning hospitals are paid on the front end to deliver services at a cost set by their Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements from previous years.
And in the near future, Delaware’s hospital systems will be restricted in how much they can charge for services.
Additionally, Young said it is going to be on healthcare providers to find efficiencies in operating rooms and hospitals. She said the state’s responsibility will be promoting more incentives to provide efficient care that keeps patients healthy, and away from unnecessary and costly procedures – like value-based-care.
“We are not going to deploy the tools, but what we need to do is create the market conditions so that every dollar that leaves us is being paid out in a way that everybody else makes more money when they deploy the tools that work,” Young said.
Workforce shortages
The commission began its Thursday meeting by discussing workforce shortages in Delaware.
The board focused on a recent success story in Delaware that has expanded the number of providers able to administer anesthesia in the state.
Li Maceda, who is an anesthesiologist with Anesthesia Services in New Castle, said the company lost 20% of its workforce following the COVID pandemic. Maceda said when quarantines ended, procedures that people postponed began to overload their caseload.
“We were really overrun,” Maceda said. “We were short-staffed and overrun with cases.”
As a result, anesthesiologists started to resign, leaving the anesthesia practice unable to manage its baseline calls. With no options to help cover these shortages in the short term, Maceda said her practice began to think outside of the box.
Li Maceda, who is an anesthesiologist with Anesthesia Services in New Castle, said the company lost 20% of its workforce following the COVID-19 pandemic. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY NICK STONESIFER
She said the practice started to work with local hospital systems to “upskill” nurses in similar lines of work like sedation nurses.
This utilization of other nurses and professionals in other specialties has helped to lighten the workload, as well as attract nurses into its program.
“Today we’re doing better, but we’re still working,” Maceda said.
Occupations like air traffic controllers surpass traditional skilled trades in earnings but still require certification or specialized training, a study found.
Chinese influence is on the rise as President Xi Jinping arrives in D.C. this week, but millions of his citizens are stuck in dead-end jobs in a stagnant economy.
Why Should Delaware Care? Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s government has scores of commissions, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.
Below are some of the most important or interesting public meetings happening around the state this week.
General Assembly property tax working group convenes
Public weighs in on ChristianaCare’s proposed southern expansions
State lawmakers are set to convene the first meeting of a new property tax working group Monday morning to discuss reforms to the state’s property tax system in the wake of last year’s controversial reassessment saga.
The group, led by Rep. Frank Burns (D-Pike Creek) and Sen. Russ Huxtable (D-Lewes), will investigate potential policy levers the state or its three counties could employ to ease the property tax burden on residents.
The legislature’s joint property tax committee discussed some of these policy levers, such as homestead exemptions and circuit breaker programs, during hearings last fall.
📍 The General Assembly’s Property Tax Relief and Modernization Working Group will meet at 10 a.m. Monday inside Legislative Hall, located at 411 Legislative Mall in Dover. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.
Public comment on proposed ChristianaCare expansions
Residents will have the chance to weigh in Thursday morning on ChristianaCare’s proposed expansions into Camden and Georgetown during a public hearing held by the Delaware Health Care Commission.
The proposed expansions have already drawn criticism from downstate hospital systems, but it remains to be seen how residents feel about the possibility of the state’s healthcare giant expanding its footprint in Kent and Sussex County.
📍 The ChristianaCare Camden and Georgetown Health Campus Public Hearing will take place at 9 a.m. Thursday, inside the Department of Health and Social Services Chapel Building, located at 1901 N. DuPont Highway in New Castle. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.
Dover planners consider downtown revitalization
Dover planners will consider proposals Monday night that could help further city leaders’ plans of revitalizing the capitol city’s downtown core.
Dover’s former post office is in a prime location on Loockerman Street, but it has sat empty since 2020. Now, a developer is hoping to turn the property into a mixed-used development with apartments and first floor commercial space.
Though not tied directly to the city’s “Capitol City 2030” plan, the development would mark another step toward the vision of breathing new life into downtown Dover.
📍 The Dover Planning Commission will meet at 7 p.m. Monday inside City Council Chambers, located at 15 Loockerman Plaza in Dover. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.
Why Should Delaware Care? A proposed data center near Newark drew criticism from local residents about the facility’s potential to raise electric bills and damage the environment. It now appears that part of the site will instead host the Christina School District’s Networks Schools for Employable Skills.
For months, Newark-area residents have voiced concerns about a proposed data center near the town border, saying it would use too much water and energy and be too noisy.
Two months after New Castle County Councilman Tim Sheldon brokered a handshake deal to pause the project, it appears the property’s management company may be moving forward with different plans for at least some of the site.
Earlier this month, New York-based developer Shelbourne submitted plans to the county to convert half of an existing building in the White Clay Center, a Newark-area industrial and office park, into a 10-classroom vocational technical school.
If the application is approved, the building would be part of Christina School District’s Networks Schools for Employable Skills, according to letters submitted to the county as part of the application. The Networks School focuses on teaching students with individualized education plans (IEPs) “real-world job skills.”
Norma Brister, the principal of the Networks School for Employable Skills, told Spotlight Delaware the space would not mark an expansion of the school.
Instead, it would allow the school to be housed at one location.
Brister said the school is currently located at 30 Blue Hen Drive and also has four “enterprise areas” roughly 4 miles away at the Shue-Medill Middle School.
Those plans were previously wrapped into a larger community backlash in Delaware against the growth of the data center industry, which is booming across the country because of the promises of artificial intelligence technology.
According to an email exchange between Sheldon and land use attorney Shawn Tucker, the deal depended on the county planning department’s all-but-guaranteed approval of an exploratory plan application from the developer, which would grandfather the land into zoning rules that existed prior to this year.
That means the developer would not have to follow the county’s recently-passed data center regulations if the developer ultimately decides to build a data center there.
But the data center plan has not yet been approved by the county.
The county’s planning department submitted additional comments about the plan last month, including asking the developer to confirm there is enough energy supply to serve the site.
Tucker, an attorney representing Shelbourne, said his client is still trying to get the data center plan approved, but remains open to other tenants for the vacant buildings in the business park.
“They’re not pushing it, but they’ve gotta keep their options open,” Sheldon said.
Storm system expected to hit Izu Islands as it strengthens. Meanwhile, Atlantic hurricane season is unusually quiet
Tropical Storm Dujuan is skirting the coast of Japan and despite avoiding a direct landfall, is still expected to leave its mark. Dujuan briefly reached typhoon status on Friday before weakening to a tropical storm again on Sunday morning. But it is expected to restrengthen back to a typhoon by Tuesday morning. Sustained winds could reach 80mph (129km/h), with gusts approaching 100mph.
Although mainland Japan has avoided a direct hit, Dujuan’s track takes it across the Izu Islands, where evacuation warnings are in place. Heavy rain, flooding and landslide alerts are widespread, with high waves adding another threat to exposed coastal areas and islands.
Anti-ICE protesters gather and demand transparency at site where 28-year-old was shot in torso
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and wounded a Venezuelan man on Sunday afternoon in Texas’s capital city, Austin, prompting demonstrations at the scene against the Trump administration’s hardline anti-immigration campaign.
The man, identified by relatives and his lawyer as 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, was taken to a hospital in Austin in a serious but stable condition, officials said, before being taken into custody. He was shot once in the torso on the city’s north side, Austin’s police chief, Lisa Davis, said at a news conference with the mayor and other city officials.
Chatham House fellow gives evidence at UK parliament committee on global AI governance and risksNews releasethilton.drupal
Senior Research Fellow Isabella Wilkinson spoke to the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee at a time when many are calling for greater regulation of AI in the light of emerging risks.
Isabella Wilkinson, Senior Research Fellow with Chatham House’s Digital Society Programme, gave evidence on the global governance of AI to the UK House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee on 16 September.
Wilkinson outlined the main types of risk from AI: malicious risks, loss-of-control risks and systemic risks. Addressing the governance challenge posed by these risks, she said:
‘We’re facing a governance challenge because all of these risks are interlinked, so we have to be very strategic about how we design governance at multiple different levels. This is a multilateral challenge.’
Wilkinson said that interlinked governance challenges, including a dearth of trusted information about AI and ‘the lack of a crisis toolbox’ to deploy in the event of a crisis, had led to ‘quite a severe state of gridlock in multilateral AI governance.’
The committee was meeting in a week in which debates over the risks associated with AI featured prominently in public debate, following calls by tech leaders to slow the pace of the technology’s development.
‘We are in a moment of intense crisis and turbulence in multilateral AI governance. But as we’ve learned [from other areas of governance] … these conditions create a window of opportunity for dealing with the gridlock,’ said Wilkinson.
Children born after 2025 will experience three more years of brutally fire-conducive weather as global heating intensifies
European babies will face almost twice as much extreme fire weather as their great-grandparents if climate action does not ramp up quickly, a study has found.
Global heating under current policies will expose a child born in Europe in 2025 to three more years of brutally fire-conducive weather over their lifetime than someone born in 1950, the researchers found.
The Supreme Court continues to make consequential rulings in the shadows. I analyzed tens of thousands of case files from the court’s online archives, parsing through filings to separate simple requests for deadline extensions from challenges to long-established constitutional rights. I discovered that in the term that ended in 2025, the justices issued more substantive decisions on their emergency docket than in cases argued in open court. Experts told me this was likely the first time this has happened in the court’s modern history.
Representatives from the Supreme Court did not respond to my questions.
Since I reported that story in July, more major rulings have been made on the emergency docket, often called the “shadow docket,” where justices rarely hear arguments and often issue unsigned orders that don’t explain how they arrived at their decisions or even how they voted.
These decisions are continuing to come down even after the court began its summer recess. For example:
On Aug. 31, the court allowed construction to continue on a ballroom at the White House. Requests like this one from the president are a big reason why the number of cases being handled on the court’s shadow docket has been so high.
On Sept. 10, a decision blocked Missouri from using a redrawn congressional map crafted by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature. The legislature had redrawn the maps at President Donald Trump’s request — part of a string of middecade redistricting efforts that could determine control of Congress. Like most shadow docket decisions, no opinion was issued and there is no record of how the justices voted.
Though experts told me rulings on the shadow docket have generally enabled Trump, he has not won them all. The USPS ruling, for one, has not pleased the president. Last week, in a post on Truth Social, the social media website he owns, Trump criticized the justices he nominated, writing that they “are not the people I interviewed to serve.”
“It is a Court that will go down as having rendered some of the most destructive, hurtful, and damaging decisions in our Country’s history,” Trump wrote.
Every decision the court has made since July has been on its shadow docket. That will remain the case until the court starts its new term on Oct. 5.
Watch our explainer to learn more about what I uncovered and how the shadow docket works.
As Iranians face shortages, President Donald Trump’s blockade, more so than new sanctions, is eroding the country’s economy, analysts say. Tehran seems to be uncowed.
PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox; Arbitrary Metric The latest work from the team behind Paratopic is part compulsive time-loop management sim, part eerie subterranean adventure
Fetch the chair from storage. Deliver a message that causes disgust. Clean vomit in the afternoon and pour another glass in the evening. In Roman Sands RE:Build, you provide concierge service to delirious, broken people who couldn’t care less about the sweat on your forehead and the bags under your eyes.
In this reimagining of the 2019 visual novel Roman Sands, crafted by the team behind the Americana horror road trip Paratopic, you’re trapped in a beach resort and tethered in a time loop. The task is deceivingly simple: fulfil menial directives from four gluttonous individuals, unlock tools and items to open more rooms and then do it all over again.
Our photographer, Tom Jenkins, captures the colour and razzmatazz as college football arrived in the capital, hot on the heels of successful NFL outings in recent years
Rarely has Wembley Way seen or heard such a commotion. The famous 500-yard long concourse leading to the national (association) football stadium in London played host to a sea of raucous American football fans on Saturday, as they gathered to mark the first ever top-tier college football game on British turf.
Pundits from Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff Show were broadcasting live from outside the venue – a curious spectacle in which the hosts even ate fish and chips on a temporary set that included a fake Grenadier guard and an old red phone box – as thousands of supporters around them waved placards and chanted college anthems. It fuelled a tailgate party atmosphere that wouldn’t have felt out of place in the States.
Above: Pundits for the Fox Big Noon Kickoff Show discuss the game with both head coaches in a temporary studio built on Wembley Way. Below: Brady Quinn, Mark Ingram II, Matt Leinart and Urban Meyer eating fish and chips as they present the show, while fans wave placards.
The Chargers star is huge, can run and has a golden right arm. But he has never quite reached the heights many expected for him
Justin Herbert is one of the most promising quarterbacks in the NFL. In fact, Justin Herbert has forever been one of the most promising quarterbacks in the NFL. That adjective, “promising”, continued to be load-bearing on Sunday, as Herbert and his Chargers turned in an underwhelming performance in a 26-14 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. Los Angeles are now 0-2 on the year, with those losses coming to the team who picked No 1 in this year’s draft and a moribund Arizona who picked No 3. Stockholders in Herbert’s growth were taking a beating in after-hours trading. But, as ever, there’s plenty of reason to debate whether Herbert underachieved or whether his team let him down.
Herbert is 6ft 6in, can run, has a golden right arm and is capable of making astonishing throws. NFL decision-makers view him as roughly the sixth-best QB in the league but also say things like, “He should have more accolades at this point.” Certainly, he should have more wins this season, but on Sunday the 28-year-old found himself outdueled by one of the league’s senior citizens in Vegas quarterback Kirk Cousins, 10 years his senior. Herbert completed 15 of 27 passes for a touchdown and two interceptions, and he also took three sacks. Cousins threw a pick and took two sacks but was much more efficient from down to down (8.7 yards per attempt to Herbert’s 7.1). In 13 possessions, Los Angeles put together two long touchdown drives and otherwise didn’t march more than 30 yards in a series.
Fantastic display and two-day battery life plus everything that’s great about Google’s more pocketable Pixel Pros
Google’s latest super-sized Pixel takes everything that’s great about the relatively pocket-friendly 11 Pro and adds a huge, high-quality screen and a big battery.
That makes the Pixel 11 Pro XL one of the largest smartphones available in Europe and the US, competing directly with Samsung’s giant Galaxy S26 Ultra and Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro Max, with an equally sizeable £1,279 (€1,399/$1,299/A$2,099) price tag – £80 (€100/$100/A$100) more than last year with less memory because of the cost of RAMageddon.
Shortage of memory chips and other critical components reverses trend of electronics becoming cheaper
Apple’s recent product launch caused headlines around the world as it unveiled its first folding phone. But hidden in the slick technology showcase was a nasty surprise: a £100 increase in the price of all iPhones, including older models.
It is blamed on “RAMageddon”, which has reversed a decades-long trend of electronics becoming cheaper. It is the fallout from the AI gold rush hoovering up every memory chip available for vast datacentres. This has led to a severe shortage of the chips, and other critical components, for electronics, including phones.
"I would like to verify your technical abilities, so please download the specified file and complete the assigned task..."
Fake job listings aimed at software developers and IT professionals led to 30,000 infected devices in over 100 countries — and 7,000 compromised cryptocurrency wallets, leading to over $10 million (USD) transferred to North Korea. Inc. reports:
The hacks occurred from December 2025 through July 2026, according to a joint cybersecurity advisory issued Friday by Japanese, Australian, German, and U.S. authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Defense Department's Cyber Crime Center... The group reportedly has been active since 2023, carrying out both financially motivated attacks and cyberespionage...
The hackers lure job seekers through social media, online job platforms, gig-work sites and freelance marketplaces. WaterPlum asks responders to take part in virtual technical interviews or complete coding assignments. The attackers then instruct targets to download and run malicious files, sometimes under the guise of completing an assignment or troubleshooting a problem with videoconferencing software. Once the group gains access to a device or network, it uses malware to steal information, including browser passwords, screenshots, files, and cryptocurrency-wallet data. An infected computer can also provide an avenue into the network of the target's employer, opening the door to intellectual-property theft and espionage, authorities said.
The operation overlaps with a separate scheme in which North Korean nationals conceal their identities and locations to obtain remote IT work with companies abroad, officials said.
The malicious files are "hosted on multiple online collaboration software developer platforms and code repositories," the advisory points out, and includes malicious Node Package Manager (NPM) packages.."
Stolen ID images can also be used by North Korean IT workers to impersonate victims to obtain contracts and receive payment in foreign currency, but "The actors can also use stolen sensitive information for extortion." In one case, a North Korean IT worker "extorted a company over payment and published its proprietary source code online. In another case, an IT Worker hired for website maintenance defaced the hiring company's website and rendered the site inaccessible."
The advisory provides clues for employers. It warns these malicious IT workers "tend to favor payment in cryptocurrency, and they may request that remuneration be sent to an account in another person's name." During interviews they'd sometimes used Al face-swapping software, then claimed network issues and disabled their video. And "On holidays celebrated in North Korea, the actors played games and watched soccer videos instead of conducting their usual malicious activities."
As hundreds of masked and armed US federal agents besieged the streets of Minneapolis, turning the midwestern city into the frontline of the Trump administration’s unprecedented crackdown on immigration, the independent photographer John Abernathy was documenting one of the protests that had become a daily occurrence when Immigration and Customs Enforcement tackled him.
A photograph of him on the ground, pepper spray running down his face, captured the violence with which ICE agents had for weeks treated immigrants and the thousands of US citizens who had come to their defence. It was also a stark reminder that journalists were not immune to the agency’s aggressive tactics.
Since returning to office in 2025, Donald Trump’s administration has deported more than 25,000 migrants, refugees and asylum seekers to countries that are not their own.
Human rights lawyers describe these so-called third-country national arrangements as a “show of force”, intended to make people fear the consequences of entering the US without permission.
After a plane journey in shackles, an Iranian woman found herself in the middle of Africa in a country she did not know existed. She is one of thousands deported from the US on the back of shadowy deals made with dozens of countries. An in-depth investigation reveals the ‘show of force’ costing American taxpayers millions
No one would tell the shackled detainees onboard the US immigration plane where they were going. The officers in charge would taunt them when they asked, they said. It was only when the seat-back video screens finally showed a map that the 18 migrants worked it out.
Amid sweltering conditions in Nashville, the temperature on the artificial turf at Nissan Stadium reached 157F (69.4C), according to the Fox broadcast.
AUSTIN, Texas — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and seriously wounded a 28-year-old Venezuelan man Sunday during an immigration enforcement operation, prompting demands from Austin officials for an independent investigation.
Wilber Rafael Garces Perez was shot in the torso following what Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis described as a brief foot pursuit. He was taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition before being transferred to federal custody. ICE says Garces Perez has a final removal order, while an attorney representing his family disputes parts of the government’s account and says he entered the United States legally.
Accounts of the encounter remain disputed. Austin City Council Member Mike Siegel said the ICE agent rammed Garces Perez’s Toyota Corolla before opening fire. Photographs from the scene showed bullet damage to the vehicle, but federal authorities have not publicly released a detailed account establishing exactly what preceded the shooting.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and Democratic Rep. Greg Casar called for Austin police and the Texas Rangers to participate in the investigation. Homeland Security Investigations is leading the federal inquiry with FBI assistance.
The shooting comes amid increased ICE activity nationwide, with the agency recording nearly 51,000 arrests in August.
While global billionaires and multinational companies have been lured to its shores, many islanders feel left behind and priced out, with food bank use increasing
On a late Friday afternoon on the Channel Island of Jersey, tourists and locals are flocking to St Helier’s waterfront where the town’s sprawling beach has emerged at low tide.
In one direction, they face the calm waters of St Aubin’s Bay, ringed by a seaside promenade and punctuated with a tidal island hosting the 16th century Elizabeth Castle.
While world leaders prepare for annual UN gathering, shifts in the global order continue in the face of a disruptive American president
In the event of a midterms election battering, it is possible that a deflated Donald Trump, constrained by a Democrat-controlled Congress, will gradually have to face up to the indignity of irrelevance.
While continuing to sign off Truth Social posts with his usual, “Thank you for your attention to this matter”, no one will actually be paying much attention. His meandering press conferences will no longer be carried live by TV networks. The Republican party will move on to the question of his successor. Trump could announce he had changed the name of the Champs-Élysées to Sunset Boulevard and even Google Maps will stifle a yawn. He would become that most pitied of political animals, the lame duck.
Originally posted this in r/vesc but saw a bunch of posts here about making/modifying boards so figured I'd repost!
Biggest update since this is working on rgb underglow and more importantly brake light, got a roll of ws2812b strips and an arduino nano on the way. My board has extra power ports built in so should be pretty easy assuming my idea for mounting works the way i think.
In a 60 Minutes interview, ex-husband describes moments leading to the 2023 killings
In his first televised interview, Patrick Clancy, the ex-husband of Lindsay Clancy, described the moments leading up to the 2023 killings of their children and how he coped in the aftermath.
Patrick Clancy responded to online criticism and conspiracy theories from people who supported Lindsay Clancy and believed he did not provide enough care to his wife at the time.
I just installed xrv, did all the setup according to guides, however im having this weird issue in floaty where all the tunes have this vibration feedback when my foot comes slightly off while riding. The only one that doesn’t is the ‘mission clone’. I can’t figure out what I need to change.
Has anyone experienced this before or know what’s going on? I tried taking a video but it’s kind of hard to tell. Any sort of sensor foot lift while riding will cause the whole board to vibrate.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, ahead of the planned summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping this week.
Two leaders meet in French territory off Canada as Ottawa seeks stronger relations with EU while fighting trade war with US
The leaders of France and Canada have pledged closer ties to grapple with rising geopolitical tensions, climate change and the erosion of democratic values, after they met in a French territory off Canada’s Atlantic coast.
The two leaders’ visit to Saint-Pierre and Miquelon – the first by a French president since 2014 and the first by a Canadian prime minister – came just weeks after Donald Trump posted an image showing the islands, as well as all of Canada and other countries in North America, covered by the US flag.
Tom's Hardware reports:
Four plaintiffs subscribed to ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, or Gemini filed a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that the developers of these AI models violated antitrust laws when they agreed to slow AI development. According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit argues that this agreement would "reduce the value consumers get for paid AI subscriptions" and that this coordination started in July 2026 after the leading AI labs signed a statement admitting there is "intense competitive pressure not to unilaterally slow" development.
The plaintiffs recognize the need for AI development to slow for the sake of safety, but they say that Anthropic founder Dario Amodei's cooperation proposal is a "shortcut" that "substitutes collective restraint for individual accountability." Attorney Nick Rowley, the lead counsel for the plaintiffs, says, "AI will quickly spin out of human control and could kill us all if we allow AI safety and protocol ... to be controlled by private self-serving agreements between the world's most powerful 'for profit' technology companies."
"Representatives for Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and SpaceXAI did not immediately respond..."
reports the Associated Press:
The coordination largely took place on Sept. 12, the lawsuit argues, when Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay urging for industrywide cooperation on decelerating advancements in favor of enhanced safety measures. That same day, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk and Google DeepMind's co-founder and chair Demis Hassabis each publicly responded to Amodei's proposals in agreement. But the lawsuit also alleges that the coordination began to take shape months earlier. It points to a statement from July 2026 that high-ranking employees from several of the leading AI labs signed that acknowledged the "intense competitive pressure not to unilaterally slow" development. That statement called on the government to support a global effort to slow automated AI development.
Sam Altman even specificially said "we do not believe we need to wait for an antitrust exemption or legislation to begin the work of providing this confidence," notes Tom's Hardware.
However, the Trump administration shot down this idea... Chinese state media also criticized this announcement, saying that the call to put the brakes on AI development is nothing but a response to Chinese competition, especially as Amodei's essay explicitly mentioned the desire to slow China's progress and widen the U.S.'s gap over Beijing
The lawyer for the man identified him as a 28-year-old Venezuelan national, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez. Officials said he was shot at least once in the torso and was in serious but stable condition.
As tech companies race to develop artificial intelligence, developers are forging ahead with data centers. But the boom is facing backlash from communities.
Data center construction is booming, with many more planned for rural America. But there's also growing tension between economic development and community pushback.
Shergar's kidnappers asked for 2 million pounds in exchange for the racehorse's return. Shortly afterward, the kidnappers claimed the horse was dead. Decades later, the search for answers endures.
Armed men kidnapped Shergar, a prized stallion, from a stud farm in Ireland one night in 1983. They made ransom calls before going quiet. Decades later, no body has been found, and no arrest was ever made.
Chicago Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman was taken to the hospital for tests after being struck in the face by a foul ball while standing in front of the on-deck circle during Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds.
Bregman underwent X-rays and CT scans, and the team were hopeful he would be able to travel back to Chicago on Sunday night. The Cubs are off Monday before beginning a three-game home series against the Miami Marlins on Tuesday.
Miles has broken several records in first campaign
Olivia Miles broke Caitlin Clark’s WNBA rookie scoring record on Sunday in the Minnesota Lynx’s 101-89 victory over the Connecticut Sun.
Miles, who finished with 21 points, was tied with Clark at 769 points coming into the game and moved to the top of the list when she made a free throw in the second quarter. The Lynx rookie came into the game averaging 19.7 points, 6.0 assists and 4.7 rebounds, and is a big reason the team have the best record in the WNBA.
JACKSON, Wisconsin — A Texas man hired by a political consulting firm conducting canvassing work supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany faces multiple felony charges after authorities say he struck a bicyclist while intoxicated and fled from police.
Duane Maiden, 32, was working for Phoenix-based Echo Canyon Consulting, which received $2.5 million from Restoration of America PAC for canvassing operations supporting Tiffany, according to reporting by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The PAC is heavily funded by Wisconsin billionaire Richard Uihlein.
Authorities say the Sept. 3 crash occurred in Washington County after Maiden’s vehicle ran a stop sign and struck a bicyclist, leaving the victim with fractures to his leg, pelvis and spine. A coworker told investigators Maiden had purchased vodka earlier and had been drinking while the two were between canvassing assignments.
The coworker asked to leave the vehicle after the collision and called 911 and his supervisor. Deputies later spotted Maiden’s car and pursued him into neighboring Ozaukee County, where he was arrested. Maiden reportedly told investigators he had been drinking while waiting between assignments but denied realizing he struck the bicyclist.
Maiden faces felony charges including hit-and-run causing great bodily harm, intoxicated use of a vehicle and fleeing an officer. Tiffany’s campaign denied having any connection to Maiden.
The CEOs of tech firms issue stark warnings over the rate of change, with AI capability doubling every four months
Recently, Jacob Coxon, a researcher at Anthropic, quit his job over concerns that AI was on a collision course with humanity. A flurry of headlines put the spotlight on the current crisis: unregulated competition between technology companies and between the US and China is putting our global infrastructure at risk at the very least, and threatening human existence at worst.
One’s mind fills with pictures of robot armies or systematic blackmail.
President’s latest order expected to bring NIH funding under control of Trump administration to align with agenda
Donald Trump’s latest executive order is expected to establish a board responsible for approving National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant funding, marking another attempt by the Trump administration to censor topics that do not align with the president’s agenda.
The executive order, reported by outlets including the Washington Post and Politico, was discussed in a meeting on Friday in which senior administration officials accused the NIH of funding “woke” initiatives that went against Trump’s political priorities.
Funding boost for facilities and fixed dates for trials designed to encourage more survivors to come forward
Specialist courtrooms prioritising cases of rape and other serious sex offences are to be introduced across England and Wales, with campaigners welcoming the move as potentially transformative.
The changes, designed to encourage more survivors to come forward, will include the provision of private entrances and waiting rooms, and facilities equipped for recording evidence in advance and observing sentencing remotely.
Proposal one of many at conference responding to concern voters unaware of party’s policies or what it stands for
The Liberal Democrats say they will tax big tech to finance a new online crime agency, as they try to address concerns that not enough voters know what the party stands for.
The plan, to be announced at the party conference on Monday by the Lib Dems’ home affairs spokesperson, Max Wilkinson, would create a new Online Crime Agency focused on offences including child sexual abuse material, trafficking in drugs and weapons, and deepfake AI-generated pornographic images.
Chicago were held to three points as Caleb Williams was carted off, while New Orleans fought back to upset Baltimore
Bengals 0-0 Texans 13:20, 1st quarter
It is ruled as not a catch so the Bengals punt it away. Cincy bring up a quick 3rd down on the Texans. CJ Stroud backpedals finds his receiver but the ball is juggled and the Texans have a punt of their own.
Carson Wentz passed for 143 yards, Aaron Jones Sr. rushed for 105 yards, and the visiting Minnesota Vikings (2-0) escaped with a 9-3 win over the Chicago Bears, who lost their quarterback to a hamstring injury.
The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State ultimately asks the question, "How did we cede control of our democracy to the machines, and can we get it back?" according to the Harvard's Arts and Sciences site, FAS Current:
The new title finds Lepore, who used to teach a course at the College titled "The Rise and Fall of the Machine," charting the ascent of what she calls the artificial state: the digital communication infrastructure by which governments and private corporations automate and ultimately control public discourse. Following her Pulitzer Prize win for "We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution" (2025), "I wanted to think about whether liberal constitutional democracies can survive this moment in time," Lepore shared in a phone interview...
[In the "current ChatGPT moment"] Lepore found herself asking: "Who are the people who are clamoring to be replaced by machines, to have movies made by machines, and novels written by machines?" And who, she continued, is pushing for our government to be determined by these machines? In the book, Lepore notes that technological tools are increasingly influencing elections around the world...
However, she sees the 2026 U.S. midterms as an inflection point. In a recent piece in the Financial Times, Lepore wrote, "This year marks the first AI election. Voters are asking chatbots how they should vote. Campaigns and activists are using AI to analyze the electorate, send micro-targeted messages, produce tailored ads and even deepfakes...."
Lepore stresses in the book that "nobody should trust historians to make predictions," but she believes it's possible for democratic citizens to wrest back control. Referencing proposals such as New York's data center moratorium law, Lepore ends by describing a "growing and increasingly noisy tech backlash."
"It's not foreordained. This isn't inevitable," she said during the interview.
"In the book's epilogue Lepore predicts, as her title suggests, a fall of the Artificial State," writes the California Review of Books. "That argument turns out to be speculative, much more of a hope than a certainty."
[Lepore] does support her prediction by positing that the Artificial State is "poorly designed and badly built," that it has not given people safety and happiness but rather a prison of glowing screens, and that a majority of Americans want more control over AI. To escape the Artificial State we will have to imagine a different future by gaining more knowledge of the past in a search for meaning. Of course, powerful forces want to deny that and turn us into servile automatons.
The Guardian adds that "While Lepore interprets much classic sci-fi, such as Isaac Asimov, as cautionary, she observes that "the architects of the Artificial State seem to have read these stories, unironically, as instruction manuals, guides for how to build robots that would one day rule the world". (The Atlantic writes that "What one gathers from these misreadings is not so much that science fiction itself is nefarious, but that arrested development might be...")
But The Indian Express writes that despite the author's bleak conclusion, "Lepore is not a pessimist. Because the Artificial State is a construct, neither alive, nor truly indestructible, she argues it is still possible to take it apart... [T]his is a clear-eyed reckoning rather than a doomsday tract. It is not an easy read, but an essential one for anyone unsettled by the pace of the AI wave."
Jovenel Moïse, 53, was shot dead in July 2021 in a killing which sparked chaos in Haiti
Eighteen people have been arrested in association with the 2021 assassination of the Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, according to US officials.
Moïse, 53, was shot dead on 7 July 2021 at his private residence by a hired group of about 20 military-trained Colombian mercenaries. His security detail did not intervene to protect him.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana — Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said Sunday that Donald Trump Jr. should provide proof that he repaid Russian businessman Umar Kremlev after reports that Kremlev covered hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses tied to Trump Jr.’s wedding celebrations in the Bahamas.
Speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation, Cassidy said repayment would matter but added that accepting the gift in the first place created serious appearance concerns because Trump Jr. is the president’s son. “Anytime someone gives a $250,000 gift and they have strong ties to the Kremlin, that’s wrong,” Cassidy said. He added that it “would be nice to have that kind of verified.”
ProPublica reported that Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association, paid for major wedding-related expenses, including use of a private island and other festivities. The outlet described Kremlev as having close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and noted the boxing association’s past financial ties to Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled energy company.
President Donald Trump said Friday that his son had told him he would repay Kremlev. Reuters separately reported that a source familiar with the matter confirmed plans for reimbursement. Public documentation proving that the repayment has actually occurred has not been released.
The issue has also drawn congressional scrutiny. Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, opened an investigation into Trump Jr.’s relationship with Kremlev and requested financial records related to the wedding arrangements.
Cassidy’s comments are notable because criticism has come from within Trump’s own party as well as from Democrats. His focus Sunday was narrower: whether the reported reimbursement can be independently verified and whether accepting such a large gift from a Kremlin-linked figure was appropriate given Trump Jr.’s proximity to presidential power.
GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana urged the president to be "radically honest" when he's speaking about vaccines, as the U.S. this year has recorded the most measles cases in more than three decades.
Jane Adetoro, Christina Walters and Rebecca Walters from Uxbridge were found on 13 May
The deaths of three sisters found in the sea off Brighton beach did not involve any criminality or third-party involvement, police have concluded.
The bodies of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, from Uxbridge, west London, were found on 13 May. A postmortem conducted that month confirmed all three women died by drowning.
Pierre, South Dakota — South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson, a Republican, has endorsed Democrat Terrence Davis to succeed her, an unusual cross-party move from the state’s top elections official.
Johnson announced Saturday that she was backing Davis over Republican nominee Heather Baxter, saying her experience running the office changed her views about what the job requires. “I understand that this decision will disappoint some people in my party and anger others,” she wrote.
Johnson first won office in 2022 with support from activists who questioned voting machines and pushed for hand-counting ballots after Donald Trump’s false claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Once in office, however, Johnson oversaw statewide post-election audits and came to publicly support “secure, tested ballot tabulators.”
That shift contributed to her losing the Republican nomination in June to Baxter, who has advocated expanded hand-counting and other election-integrity measures. Johnson did not name Baxter in her endorsement statement but said South Dakota needs a secretary of state who will “strengthen confidence through performance rather than provocation.”
Davis, a former state trooper, supports policies including automatic voter registration at age 18. Baxter has emphasized voter identification, paper ballots and proof-of-citizenship requirements, although South Dakota already requires several of those safeguards. Libertarian Tamara Lesnar is also running.
Absentee voting began Sept. 18, and South Dakota’s general election is Nov. 3. The voter registration deadline is Oct. 19.
Tensions grow as Trump tells Fox News he is considering ‘wiping Iran out’ after attacks on Riyadh by Houthi rebels
Governments across the Middle East are bracing for an escalation of violence after Iran claimed it had received intelligence that the US was preparing for a renewed bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic.
In a potential sign of growing tensions before the UN general assembly in New York this week, Donald Trump cut short a weekend visit to the Camp David presidential retreat on Sunday with no official explanation, and a new security alert was issued by the state department to all US citizens in the Middle East.
The following is the transcript of the interview with IBM vice chair Gary Cohn, who served as an economic adviser in President Trump's first term, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sept. 20, 2026.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sept. 20, 2026.
PM hopes to be firmer with US leader than his predecessor without provoking diplomatic warfare, as the Iran war weighs on the UK economy
No international relationship has more power to determine the success of Andy Burnham’s premiership. So you might imagine the stakes for the prime minister’s first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump on Tuesday would be high.
Yet Burnham may prove to be a lucky general. The balance of risk has shifted. Trump is unpopular at home, where inflation remains high, and is mired in an intractable conflict in Iran that has the potential to sink his midterm dreams.
Far-right AfD wins in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and leftwing Die Linke on course for victory in Berlin
Germany’s embattled chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has vowed to stay in office and fight for future-proofing economic changes despite heavy losses for his conservatives in two state elections, one to the far right and the other to a leftwing party.
Preliminary results indicated Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) tallied just over the 5% threshold to enter the state parliament in the coastal region of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, its worst-ever state score, which he called a “disaster”.
This is all temporary, the black box will be attached to the bottom side once finished and the light strips will be properly mounted as well. I have in mind some more animations but I think the idea is clear from this. It’s a ESP8266 + WS2812 + power bank. Controlled via web UI.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged that the result was a "disaster" but said he would still move ahead with his government's reform agenda.
Self-described moderates say Ed Davey’s party offers them a home as Conservatives shift further right
Climbing the party-branded stairs of the Brighton Centre with a Liberal Britain tote bag over his shoulder, Cody Butler looks quite at home at the Liberal Democrats’ annual jamboree.
But asked how he is finding it, the 21-year-old replied: “Odd.” The former Tory activist resigned as chair of the One Nation Conservative Network and left his old party in July, arguing that centrists, remainers and members worried about the climate crisis and conservation were no longer welcome in the party. A week ago, he joined the Lib Dems.
(The Center Square) – U.S. farmers face record-high fuel expenses this year as the fall harvest kicks into gear while pressure grows on the Trump administration to impose a temporary ban on diesel exports that could bring down prices.
Marlen Reusser retained her world time-trial title in Montreal on Sunday as her expected main challenger, Demi Vollering, finished a disappointing eighth.
Time-trial queen Reusser secured an ultimately comfortable victory, winning her second world championship after triumphing last year in Kigali – but not before young British rider Zoe Backstedt gave her a scare.
Row at Athenian riviera resort turned violent after two elderly bathers reportedly argued over shortage of loungers
Greek police are investigating the death of an 82-year-old man after a brawl over a sunlounger at a beach on the Athenian riviera.
The man had arrived at the popular bathing spot of Vouliagmeni before 10am on Sunday hoping to secure a sunbed, but he soon began arguing with a fellow bather – described by authorities as a “76-year-old man unknown to him” – when it became clear loungers were in short supply.
Florida’s María Elvira Salazar warns Trump that advisers are ‘compromising his legacy’ and not showing ‘whole picture’
María Elvira Salazar, the Republican congresswoman who has accused the president of going too far on immigration enforcement, doubled down on her criticism of the administration on Sunday, warning Donald Trump that some of his advisers were “compromising his legacy”.
In an interview with CBS News’s Face the Nation, the Florida representative who is locked in a tight race for re-election pleaded with the US president not to “squander” his relationship with Hispanic voters. Though she couched her remarks as criticism of top administration advisers, it was clear that her focus was on Trump’s much-vaunted ambition to carry out the largest mass deportation of undocumented immigrants in US history.
Been having an incredibly difficult time getting my stator inserted fully in the mte hub for my xr. My magnets ended up getting scratched. Looks like it’s just the surface coating, but how bad is it and do I need to get it repaired?
Exclusive: Intelligence officers say Russian campaign could intensify ‘in months, not years’ – but that panic risks playing into Kremlin psy-ops
European intelligence officials have raised the possibility of an imminent Russian test of Nato, with one saying a potential attack could come in a matter of “months, not years”.
The warnings come after Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, told parliament that intelligence assessments suggested Russia might launch an attack with drones or missiles on Nato territory in the coming months, as part of efforts to prove that “article 5 is more theoretical than practical”.
Hellow together, i am searching for a BMS Modu for a OneWhell Pint. I thik i have destroyed this Module after a Battery Cells Replacement and touch the TX connector with the wrong pin. OneWheel doesnt start yet. Only one time whit led and two yellow let blinking. Thx Mirhannes from Austia.
The queer period drama wins Oscar-predicting award, being named the most popular audience film at the festival
The Spanish queer drama La Bola Negra has won this year’s people’s choice award at the Toronto film festival.
The film, which takes place in 1932, 1937 and 2017, focuses on the lives of interconnected gay men. It premiered at this year’s Cannes film festival with the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw calling it “handsomely produced, lovingly detailed and confidently constructed” in a four-star review.
(The Center Square) – New home construction data from the month of August generally continues existing trends in the housing market, according to market analysts.
(The Center Square) - Democrats are looking to flip Nebraska’s second congressional district in November as candidates in the race offer similar and competing proposals to address the affordability crisis.
David Sacks convinced Trump against any restrictions on AI – putting the White House out of step with its own party
As lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in the US have joined together calling for the regulation of powerful artificial intelligence models, one of the few vocal naysayers has been Donald Trump. He’s called the perceived dangers of the technology a “hoax” and a “scam”, arguing that the government already has “tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies”.
It’s a starkly different stance from those of his former adviser Steve Bannon, the Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz and even the heads of the world’s leading AI companies. But it’s directly in line with the opinion of David Sacks – a prominent billionaire venture capitalist and Trump’s onetime AI and crypto czar, who has pushed back publicly and forcefully against recent claims of an impending AI apocalypse.
President Trump said that he has agreed to convert plans for a massive triumphal arch into a "top grade Military Complex," equipped with snipers and drone storage.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, Republican of Florida, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sept. 20, 2026.
The president’s post about the 250-foot arch planned near Arlington National Cemetery comes as veterans groups, historic preservationists and others attempt to stop the project.
"New research led by Stanford Medicine reveals that what we call the brain is two distinct organs that evolved independently over hundreds of millions of years," Stanford Medicine announced this week:
The new research finding shows that the human brain consists of two ancient nervous systems cleverly packaged together — a more primitive part that regulates our hearts' beating, our breathing and other functions, and another that makes us distinctly human, capable of poetry, mathematics and wondering about our own origins. The discovery could help explain why scientists have struggled for decades to grow certain types of brain cells in the laboratory — and it opens new avenues for studying devastating diseases that affect the brain stem...
[S]cientists have struggled for decades to generate human hindbrain neurons in the laboratory. This gap has hampered research into devastating diseases affecting the brain stem, including spinal muscular atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis... The researchers' breakthrough came from studying the earliest moments of embryonic development... [Study co-authors Carolyn Dundes and Rayyan Jokhai] discovered that the hindbrain follows a separate developmental path, running in parallel to — rather than branching off from — the pathway that creates the forebrain and midbrain... This revelation explained decades of frustration in the field — scientists had been trying to turn one type of progenitor cell into another that it is fundamentally incapable of becoming... Armed with this knowledge, the researchers for the first time successfully coaxed human pluripotent stem cells (a kind of cell that can create any cell in the human body) to become functional hindbrain motor neurons in the laboratory...
Finally, the researchers looked back over 550 million years of evolutionary time. They found the same two-origin brain pattern in chickens; zebrafish; and, remarkably, in acorn worms, tiny creatures living on the ocean floor that share a distant common ancestor with humans. Jellyfish, which diverged from humans about 600 to 700 million years ago, have two nervous systems at different ends of their body. "Our research suggests that evolution took two existing neural systems and pushed them together spatially," Loh said. "Having the brain as one organ would probably be more efficient, but we rely on this primordial way to make the brain as two separate pieces."
Thanks to Slashdot reader Beeftopia for sharing the article.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sept. 20, 2026.
The launches came just days after Pyongyang reasserted its status as a nuclear-armed state and rejected a U.N. resolution demanding it halt its nuclear activities.
Wife of former PM takes part in designer Edeline Lee’s show inspired by the Greek myth of Sisyphus
Victoria Starmer has taken part in a London fashion week show, in one of her first public appearances since her husband, Keir Starmer, stepped down as prime minister.
Lady Starmer appeared at Sunday’s Edeline Lee show. The London-based, Canadian British designer’s clothes are a favourite of the Princess of Wales, and have also been worn by celebrities including singer Taylor Swift and actor and screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Union score four goals in nine minutes v Sporting KC
Caden Clark helps Sounders to late draw
Sam Surridge scored in the first half and Brian Schwake finished off his league-leading 12th clean sheet of the season as Nashville SC clinched a playoff spot and remained unbeaten at home with a 3-0 victory over the Chicago Fire on Saturday night.
Eastern Conference-leading Nashville lead the Supporters’ Shield race and are the only team in the league unbeaten at home with 12 wins in 13.
Exclusive: Stark health inequalities in terms of deaths before age of 75, NHS data reveals
Adults with severe mental illness are nearly five times more likely than their peers to die from serious physical diseases before the age of 75, according to research.
The analysis of NHS data by the Rethink Mental Illness charity reveals that people with severe mental health problems die 15-20 years earlier than the wider adult population, largely due to preventable physical conditions.
At least three people killed and oil refinery damaged as doubts cast over initial reports of ballistic missile use
Ukraine has targeted Moscow and the surrounding region in a large-scale attack that involved hundreds of drones.
The attack killed at least three people and damaged what Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said was one of Russia’s “key oil industry facilities” on the final day of the country’s parliamentary elections, authorities said on Sunday.
The two-term Kentucky Governor advises his fellow Democrats to speak like "normal people" and not shy away from progressive politics or religious faith. He discusses his book, "Go and Do Likewise," which teaches how to change minds by winning hearts.
Action against Ofcom comes as social media companies are being accused of using courts to slow down implementation
Meta has launched a fresh legal challenge against Britain’s media regulator in the latest of a slew of actions by social media companies who are accused of using the courts to slow down implementation of the Online Safety Act.
Lawyers for the parent company of Facebook served notice during the week in an appeal against placing WhatsApp and Instagram, which are also owned by Meta, in a category that subjects them to additional duties.
I want to keep my V1 rails in good condition and Since the V1 parts aren’t readily available, I found the + guards fit well. I ended up getting some gray and orange guards. I’m thinking about combining them for a 2 tone look that would match my 21 KTM pretty well. I also will be installing the carbon fiber fender too. I know it comes down to personal preference but just curious to what color or combo you would go with.
The Hollywood dealmaker is telling his life story in a raw, raunchy and rollicking new memoir, "Roll the Calls." He talks about growing up a bullied, dyslexic kid in the suburbs of Chicago, and explains why he is never afraid of confrontation.
In his first interview about his new book, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," Charles Spencer talks about his attempt to set down what he calls the definitive story of Princess Diana.
The senator proposed a federal overtime rule mandate, but incentives can better spur employers to reshape the workweek
Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator, recently proposed new legislation that would change federal overtime rules. The new law, if passed, would require employers to pay a minimum 1.5 hours of overtime for each hour worked past 32 hours in a week. Currently, overtime kicks in at 40 hours per week. The requirement would phase in over a few years.
Sounds great. Who wouldn’t want that? There’s just one problem: somebody has to pay for it. For business owners, this isn’t an ideological argument. It’s math.
People are increasingly crossing paths with the wild animals as homes ring the outskirts of forests, sparking a new era of coexistence
Every year, as summer draws to a close and fall begins, California’s bears get hungry.
Black bears have long roamed the state, hunting for acorns, ants and pine nuts by the bucketload to pack on calories before hibernation. But increasingly, for every berry and root, there’s an even greater temptation: our trash and the detritus of human existence.
In 2019, Bunch became both the first historian and the first African American to serve as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. As he prepares to retire, he talks about the museums' mission to protect history, and give America a full picture of itself.
As the organisation meets this week, it remains the best hope for restoring order. But it relies on goodwill from the US president – and that is lacking
If all goes to plan, at some stage in the coming weeks 15 diplomats will emerge from a small sound-proofed room deep in the bowels of the United Nations headquarters in New York and announce the organisation’s next secretary-general.
The person they choose will face a combination of challenges unlike any that their predecessors have had to deal with. Two of the security council’s permanent members, the US and Russia, are engaged in wars of choice that have no end in sight. A UN commission of inquiry has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, but the UN has effectively been reduced to the role of bystander, pushed out by Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. The climate crisis is creating a cascade of new humanitarian disasters, while every day now seems to bring a new security threat caused by the unregulated rise of AI.
Steve Bloomfield is the former international editor of the Observer and a previous winner of the Orwell prize
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The art of illustrators is at the core of a new L.A. institution founded by filmmaker George Lucas and businesswoman Mellody Hobson. They talk about the emotional pull of storytelling art and mythic narratives that shape our world.
US president on Truth Social claims his new plan for the 250ft arch comes at the ‘strong request’ of the US military
Donald Trump is proffering a new argument for building his triumphal arch in Washington DC: it will be converted into a “top grade military complex” replete with drone and ammunition storage space and customised sniper facilities on the roof and plaza.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday morning, Trump claimed that his new plan came at the “strong request” of the US military. He said the 250ft structure would be able to “house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage”.
Unit1 hopes to offer lower cost version of shows such as Abba Voyage, showcasing living and dead artists in any venue
The former chief executive of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s entertainment group has obtained a near-£15m investment for his UK music tech startup that hopes to recreate classic concerts by manifesting musicians as digital avatars.
Unit1 was set up last year by Barney Wragg, an entertainment executive who ran Lord Lloyd-Webber’s Cats-to-Evita empire for five years from late 2011. It has secured the $20m in funding from a group of investors, including tech backer Balderton Capital through its partner Daniel Waterhouse, who made early investments in Spotify.
(The Center Square) — The Trump administration has dropped its appeal of a federal court ruling blocking an attempt to cut funding for the Gateway tunnel and other infrastructure projects in the New York and New Jersey region.
Data raid comes amid targeting of lifeboat charity by far-right agitators who object to migrant boat rescues
Supporters of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution have been warned that their personal information may have been stolen by hackers amid targeting of the charity by far-right agitators.
In a letter accompanying the autumn copy of its Lifeboat magazine, the charity warned members that their “name, contact details and records of interactions with the RNLI” could have been breached in the raid on a company it uses for customer relationship management.
When dinner feels like one task too many, these 13 recipes keep the effort manageable. Choose from quick cheesy plates, saucy mains, easy bowls, pasta, ramen, and slow cooker dinners.The post 13 comfort recipes for the day you don’t want…
Bridget Phillipson says Burnham’s past criticisms of US president not an issue as PM prepares to meet Trump at UN
Next month’s budget will be made more difficult by Donald Trump’s war with Iran, one of Andy Burnham’s cabinet ministers has said, while adding she did not expect the prime minister’s previous disparaging comments about the US president to be an issue.
Burnham is expected to meet Trump early next week at the UN general assembly summit in New York, the pair having previously spoken twice by phone since Burnham entered No 10.
Ed Sheeran opened his solo concert in Philadelphia on Saturday with comments about Gaza, saying what is happening there is "catastrophic and unjustifiable."
Former president of Chile drops out after support collapsed in security council straw poll, leaving seven candidates in contest
Michelle Bachelet, a former president of Chile, has withdrawn her candidacy to become the next secretary general of the UN, ending an attempt that had struggled to gain traction among security council members.
Bachelet, 74, announced her decision in a video posted on Instagram on Saturday, saying: “I will now continue, with the same determination as always, my international work.”
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump said Sunday that his planned 250-foot triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery will also serve as a military facility capable of storing drones, sniper ammunition and other equipment.
Trump said on Truth Social that the change came at the “strong request” of the U.S. military and was necessary for national security. He did not identify which military officials or branches made the request, and no formal Pentagon documentation supporting the claim had been released publicly as of Sunday morning.
The arch was originally presented as a monumental gateway and visitor attraction near the Arlington Memorial Bridge, with galleries and an observation area. Trump now says the structure would also include space for drones and sniper teams, significantly expanding its stated purpose.
The project was already controversial before the military proposal. The Federal Aviation Administration determined Friday that the 250-foot structure would not pose a hazard to aircraft near Reagan National Airport if it includes an “eternal flame” and additional lighting to make it visible to pilots.
The National Park Service has also acknowledged that the arch could have “adverse effects” on nearby historic properties, including the visual alignment between the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Memorial Bridge and Arlington National Cemetery.
The project has not yet received final approval. Trump administration officials have said they expect to submit the final design to the National Capital Planning Commission in November, while a federal judge has required the government to provide advance notice before beginning most work at the site.
Charles lands at Heathrow with just two bags and nowhere to go as a result of Brexit and Stockholm’s hardline immigration position
Doubled over a Heathrow baggage trolley, the former British business director is sobbing uncontrollably, exhausted emotionally and physically after being deported from Sweden.
Hours earlier the 65-year-old had been marched on to a plane in Stockholm, separated from his home and his Swedish wife after a five-year battle to stay in the country after Brexit came to an end.
Environmental Protection Agency asked firm to choose rules it wanted for dicamba, then put the choices in a proposed federal rule
The EPA allowed pesticide giant Bayer to pick from a menu of regulation options for the controversial and destructive weedkiller dicamba, newly released internal agency documents show.
The documents provide an unusually clear look into the process of developing pesticide regulations, which is typically done out of public view. It shows in detail how the EPA asked Bayer which regulations it wanted, received a response from Bayer, then put Bayer’s choices into a proposed federal rule.
Rabid goats at a North Carolina petting zoo and a diseased beaver attacking a Maryland boy have set the public on edge
Recent unusual incidents involving humans and rabid animals and a subsequent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory have prompted concerns about rabies, but it’s not clear if there has actually been an increase in cases of the deadly disease in the United States, experts say.
In recent months, rabid beavers have attacked three people in Maryland, and hundreds of people were exposed to goats with rabies at a petting zoo in North Carolina, according to news reports. The CDC issued a health advisory on 10 September “in response to recent reports of increases in human exposures to rabid or possibly rabid animals”.
Pumpkin keeps finding its way back onto the menu once fall settles in. These 15 recipes cover breakfast, dinner, and dessert with scones, waffles, soup, salmon, cakes, bars, muffins, and cookies.The post 15 pumpkin recipes that end up on the…
The European Commission "proposed on Thursday banning children under 13 from social media, with parent-supervised accounts until 15," reports Reuters.
"Enforcement would rely on a tool Brussels built itself" — a free, open-source age verification smartphone app "that tells a platform whether a user meets an age threshold without revealing their identity..."
If passed, the proposed Kids Act would create the world's largest social media access restriction, covering 450 million people across 27 countries... [The EU-built age-verification app] is being rolled out through member states, with seven pilot countries: Cyprus, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain. The Commission expects EU-wide availability by the end of 2026.
It will also be used to prove users are over 18 when accessing adult sites, a restriction already implemented under the Digital Services Act...
[T]he system itself is decentralised. Member states run it through issuers they designate, and the proofs live on the user's phone. There is no central EU database of ages or of who verified whom... A user proves their age once to a nationally designated issuer — a body vetted by the member state, which can be a digital ID provider, a bank or a post office. At a restricted site, the app certifies that the user is above the required age threshold. The platform receives only a yes-or-no response. Issuance and verification are handled by separate entities. The proof provider is not told which service the proof was used for. Each proof works only once, preventing cross-service tracking. No identity documents or biometric data are retained. The code is open-source, allowing independent scrutiny.
The significance of the EU approach is that it provides a common age-verification mechanism rather than leaving individual platforms to develop and enforce their own systems.
"Online platforms can easily rely on our age verification app. So there are no more excuses," [EU Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen said...
The proposal must be approved by EU member states and the European Parliament before becoming law.
Non-compliance would risk fines of up to 6% of a tech company's global annual sales, plus supervisory fees, Reuters reported earlier.
The EU's plan follows similar initiatives in Australia, Britain, China, India, Turkey and several European Union countries.
"Please feel free to share this with anyone who was there or witnessed the accident:
Our family is incredibly grateful to everyone who stopped and helped Neftaly after the accident. Knowing that people stayed with him, held his head and hand, and reassured him until EMS arrived means more to us than you can imagine.
Neftaly has recently woken up and was able to say a few words. He is still dealing with serious injuries and recovering from surgery to his mouth and tongue, but we are very thankful that he is awake.
If anyone witnessed the accident and has any additional information about what happened, please feel free to contact me at Joan.v0508@gmail.com.
Thank you all for being there for him.
Thanks, Joan" ‐-------------------
I thought maybe someone in this sub/community might know of the person or event. It was hard to see and i hope they pull through. Please ride safe.
Exclusive: Five gardening teams shortlisted for Royal Horticultural Society’s new Railway Stations in Bloom award
Every year since 1964, towns across the UK have bloomed with hanging baskets and brightly coloured flowerbeds planted by residents.
They wield their trowels in aid of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Britain in Bloom competition, a coveted accolade for the 1,600 communities that enter each year.
The US’s deployment of weaponry in space marks the latest backward step from the show’s optimistic conception of the future
Who among us doesn’t dream of space in their youth?
OK, maybe some of us. Like the ones with lives. While you were out playing hopscotch with little Jimmy and Susie, I was locked in my room mainlining episodes of Star Trek or the weird, sanitized version of Aliens that aired on broadcast TV. Fantastical science-fiction adventure seemed to offer more than playground games and actual human connection. Spaceships over relationships.
Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist
The maverick senator has isolated himself from supporters as he has become a strident supporter of Israel
Two eras, two videos, shot against the same physical backdrop, convey political messages that seem a world removed from each other.
The contrasting films, produced eight years apart, neatly distill the evolution of John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s maverick senator in his journey from progressive icon to a man seemingly more at ease with his nominal Republican opponents than his fellow Democrats.
Trump says he digs coal – but pneumoconiosis cases are at a 50-year high, and sick miners are mired in benefit delays
For 38 years, Josh Armes worked as a coal miner in West Virginia and Virginia.
After retirement, Armes, 74, of Grundy, Virginia, was diagnosed with black lung disease, medically known as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), caused by breathing in coal dust over long periods, which irreversibly damages the lungs.
Rafael Moreno, whose company has opened demo plant in Brazil, says market is ‘nervous’ as Trump-Xi summit looms
The head of a mining company hoping to supply the EU with rare earths in two years’ time has said it is “paramount” to end China’s stranglehold on the supply of the raw materials used in everything from cars to wind turbines and military jets.
As Donald Trump and China’s president, Xi Jinping, prepare to meet on Thursday in their second summit of the year, Rafael Moreno said it was also “imperative” that they do a deal for Beijing to ease up, once again, on its threat to ban exports of rare earths.
Scale of debt issuance being used to fund the hectic pace of the datacentre rollout by tech firms is a worry
Warnings about powerful and uncontrolled AI have dominated the headlines this past week. But even amid the omens of apocalypse, it is still worth asking if the entire AI-industrial complex is sailing towards a financial iceberg.
It will hardly be our most pressing concern if the bots are poised to take over the world, but a collapse of the AI bubble would have repercussions far beyond the US.
Coming midterm elections are starting to be framed not as right versus left but instead the ‘well-fed versus the fed-up’
Brian Leeland, a 79-year-old Democratic voter in Detroit, had enough. Frustrated by the way the US media covers this febrile political era, from Donald Trump’s Washington to political campaigns across the country, he contacted the Guardian.
“Your decision to frame the race here as a simple progressive versus establishment choice is overly simplistic verging on lazy,” he wrote to this reporter, after our coverage of progressive Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign in the Democratic US Senate primary in Michigan. “As an electorate, we are not binary for the convenience of the media.”
It’s not clear that financial interests are driving White House policy, but they run parallel even as resistance mounts
Donald Trump’s sons, through a series of AI-linked defense and technology ventures, have picked up a $620m Pentagon loan, a Marine Corps robotics contract and an undisclosed air force drone deal in the past year. His longtime friend Michael Dell won a Pentagon contract worth nearly $9bn. And this week, as public support for artificial intelligence sinks to some of the lowest levels ever recorded, the president went to bat for the industry. .
“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades,” he posted on Truth Social Monday. “There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers.” It was the first of many aggressively pro-AI posts he would make this week.
A local political feud over a high school protest became a brief national fixation when police charged a woman with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Candidates have been selected for November’s midterms – have Republicans and Democrats made the right choices?
Primary season has officially concluded in the United States, with Democrats leading the polls among voters amid widespread economic anxieties, a war with Iran and Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda continuing into the end of the year.
Democratic and Republican voters have selected contenders for key races in the 3 November midterms that will decide the balance of power in Congress, and the future of both parties. Democrats have been rocked by the primary victories of leftwing candidates. Republicans have doubled down on backing the president’s policies, despite his low approval ratings. And both parties are navigating the fallout from a series of scandals that have forced some candidates from the race, while others decided to press on.
Shabana Mahmood is concerned about length and £144m cost of inquiry into intrusive police surveillance
Victims of intrusive police surveillance have accused the government of seeking to cut short the spycops public inquiry that has been examining widespread misconduct committed by undercover officers.
Comments come after he accused King Charles of gaslighting him in response to claims made in new memoir
Earl Spencer has said the relationship between the press and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “echoes” the way the media treated his sister Diana, Princess of Wales.
In an interview with the BBC to be aired on Sunday evening, Spencer described the press’s coverage of Harry and Meghan as having a “cancerous influence”, adding it would be “beholden on people to learn from Diana’s example”.
Saturday morning President Trump announced he's creating an AI task force and appointing an AI czar, reports Politico.
"I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS," Trump wrote Saturday in what Politico earlier described as "a lengthy Truth Social post on Saturday morning."
TRUMP: Over the years, there have been many Hoaxes, all generated by the Radical Left Dumocrats, for purposes of destroying our Country. RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, Global Warming, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2 [...] and now, the decimation, or destruction, of AI, commonly known as Artificial Intelligence — And I, as President of the United States, will not stand by and let this happen.
It all began with an attack on our Data Centers, until people realized how wealthy and prestigious they were for the Communities in which they were built. Higher Salaries, Lower Taxes, and Safer Streets, was the result, and the crazed Data Center attack has largely failed, so now [...] they are going straight at AI. We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry. Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!
However, we will also be looking for BAD, and we can do that, very easily, with our already existing Criminal and Civil Justice System. For this purpose, I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS, in my First Term. To that end, I will be announcing, in the near future, the AI "Czar" — Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!
Trump concluded by saying AI "is the next Industrial Revolution, or Internet, but will be even larger and more impactful... We are leading China, and the rest of the World, and I intend to keep it that way!"
But what exactly is AI Force? "The White House did not immediately respond to a request to clarify whether the agency would be military or civilian," notes the Washington Post. So now "The tech industry is struggling to make sense of President Donald Trump's surprise announcement," Politico reported Saturday afternoon:
Four representatives for the sector, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told POLITICO that the industry was not widely informed of Trump's decision prior to the Truth Social post. "Nobody knows what the idea even is," one of the people said. Another said that feedback on the idea was not widely solicited within the industry. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment...
"I think that he clearly feels pressure to say something, but he's torn because he's just spent the last few days saying that the whole thing is a hoax," Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the progressive tech industry coalition Chamber of Progress, said of Trump and his prior dismissal of AI doomsday scenarios. Since the departure of David Sacks, who stepped down as the Trump administration's previous AI czar earlier this year, the White House has been "making up AI policy as it goes," Kovacevich added. "I think it's clear they've really missed the presence of an organized leader like David Sacks was."
One of the tech industry representatives said they were confused about whether the task force would be charged with formulating more AI regulations or recommending policies that would further stimulate the tech's development. Taylor Barkley, director of federal government affairs at the industry-aligned Abundance Institute, is eyeing it as a way to solidify a light-touch government approach to the technology he says will foster innovation. "Any AI Force or AI Czar should have one job: keep the field open so entrepreneurs at every scale can compete, free from onerous regulation," he told POLITICO. "Existing criminal and civil law can handle bad actors. New permission regimes will stifle the very activity America needs most."
It's worth noting that the day before, California's governor made an announcement. "With Donald Trump and Congress asleep at the wheel, Governor Gavin Newsom is once again taking the lead to strengthen AI safety for all Americans," the governor's office announced Friday. Newsom issued a strong executive order convening experts to help California create new AI safety laws and reporting rules, possibly even requiring safety auditors embedded in labs and emergency "kill switches" in frontier models.
Exclusive: Analysis ‘lays bare’ something midwives already know from their day-to-day work
About 20,000 disclosures of domestic abuse are estimated to be made to maternity services in England every year, analysis has found.
The figures are likely to be an underestimate of the true scale of disclosures, according to experts, highlighting the role maternity professionals play in identifying abuse.
About two years ago, education entrepreneur Boris But had what he calls a “penny-drop moment” – that, like countless others in China, his company needed to embrace AI before it was made obsolete by it.
His clients, well-off parents looking to send their children to study overseas, had begun arriving in his office reeling off information and opinions gleaned not from rival firms, but from chatbots.
Scam emails are increasingly using psychological tricks, such as using near-identical URLs like miсrosoft.com
You’ve read the email carefully and it looks legitimate. The link it asks you to click on has none of the usual red flags: there are no weird numbers or extra parts to the URL. You feel safe to proceed.
But if you had looked slightly closer you may have noticed something slightly wrong with one of the characters. Just as in the headline of this piece where instead of “a” we used the Cyrillic “α”.
It just goes to show that the split-second decision you make when clicking a link is often the most vulnerable part of the whole security chain.”
Economies thrown into renewed turmoil as AI debt, Iran war and soaring government bond yields fuel alarm
At the height of the summer, the mood was optimistic in the world’s financial capitals. Powered by the AI revolution, the US stock market had rallied to a fresh all-time high, as investors bet the multitrillion-dollar investment spree would overshadow the hit from the Iran war.
Now the warning lights are flashing red. As the fighting in the Middle East intensifies without clear sign of a resolution, financial markets have been thrown into renewed turmoil. A slowdown looms in the AI arms race, and tinderbox conditions in the market for government debt are fuelling alarm.
The latest attack brings the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes by the U.S. military in Latin America to at least 231 in 69 strikes since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls "narcoterrorists" about one year ago.
Mashable writes:
Flock Safety offered employees voluntary buyouts on Friday, WIRED reported... Without the buyouts, those familiar with the situation suspect the company would have to lay off some of its 1,500 employees.
WIRED writes that people familiar with the program "say they believe that a significant number of the startup's roughly 1,500 employees may try to depart."
Flock is making the severance offers as it continues to lose customers... The company has had many of its contracts either not extended or dropped this year, which could leave it short of revenue goals, according to two of the people. A wave of vandalism targeting its cameras has unexpectedly increased expenses. Without buyouts, Flock almost certainly would have to lay off some staff, one of the people believes... People familiar with Flock's severance plan tell WIRED that some employees may take the offer amid speculation that the company, which has raised about $1.2 billion in venture capital, might resort to selling off parts or all of its business to stay afloat... One advocacy group identified 93 city and county governments that cut ties with Flock in August alone. Overall in 2026, roughly three times as many local governments have dropped Flock compared to the previous five years.
Flock has recently been building products that extend the company beyond its core license plate reader offering. WIRED reported last month that the company has developed AI-powered investigative software to identify drivers, find potential associates based on patterns of movement, and search across police records and other data. A separate WIRED analysis of Flock's software found tools designed to continuously search camera feeds for people matching written descriptions. WIRED's analysis of Flock's code also found potential integrations with drones and other surveillance systems.
Flock's financial scrambles might explain an incident in Syracuse, New York. The nonprofit news site
Central Current discovered the city's contract said its license plate data wouldn't be shared outside the police department, reports Mashable:
But the department had granted access to other agencies, which police said was an accident. Over roughly a year, searches by officers around the country reached Syracuse's data nearly 4.4 million times. And that wasn't the only surprise in the paperwork. Central Current also found that Flock could keep using Syracuse data after the contract ended. When the city approved cameras from Axon to replace Flock's, Flock said Syracuse couldn't simply end its agreement early. It warned that the city might have to pay for both systems; so even as officials moved to replace the cameras, they faced questions about what Flock could do with the data and what the city might still owe.
Meanwhile, the Texas Department of Transportation "has stopped issuing permits allowing Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers to be installed along state roads..." reports the Texas Tribune. "There were an estimated 13,000 Flock cameras across Texas in August, but hundreds of the devices have been shut down after [governor] Abbott's funding freeze."
And in August Florida's Republican Governor "ordered his state's transportation department to remove the cameras from state roads, saying he didn't want 'a surveillance state.'"
I’ve been chasing this issue for the last couple days and now I’ve ripped my whole board apart, thinking that it was the wire for the rear LEDs but now I’m not sure.
I upgraded the headlight to the Fungineer X7 super LEDz a couple weeks ago and after the upgrade only a single LED on the rear lights turns on. I can’t change the color or pattern for that single LED.
The led number specs are set correctly in the VESC app. 10-14-18
Here’s the weird thing, when I hook up my old front LED to the rear LED port on the Thor 301 it works perfectly. I can change any of the colors and the pattern without an issue, but when I plugged the rear LED wire back in only the single LED illuminates on the rear.
Has anyone seen an issue like this before? At first I thought it was software and then I thought it was the hardware but now I think it’s the software again.
I reached out to Fungineers for health because they usually they’re pretty good but all he did was send me a guide on how to program the LEDs in the VESC app.
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump returned to the White House Saturday evening, cutting his weekend stay at Camp David short by one day as the State Department warned Americans about rapidly escalating security risks in the Middle East.
Trump landed near the White House shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday. The administration did not publicly explain why his schedule changed, and there is no confirmed evidence that the early return was directly connected to the deteriorating security situation.
The State Department has advised Americans in the Middle East to remain highly vigilant and prepare for flight cancellations, airspace closures and other travel disruptions. Americans outside the region have also been urged to reconsider travel through the Middle East because of the possibility of further escalation.
The warnings followed another escalation involving Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement. Saudi Arabia said Saturday that it intercepted a ballistic missile aimed at Riyadh, the first such attack on the capital since renewed fighting intensified. No casualties were reported from the missile strike.
The Houthis separately claimed they launched ballistic and cruise missiles and drones at targets including Saudi oil facilities in Yanbu. Saudi officials confirmed the attempted attack on Riyadh, but several of the Houthis’ additional claims had not been independently verified.
Regional tensions have increased in recent days as Houthi attacks threaten Saudi infrastructure and major shipping routes. Saudi Arabia has also sought additional air-defense support from allies as its interceptor supplies have come under strain.
Embattled Friedrich Merz faces nervous wait while far-right Alternative für Deutschland party targets further gains
Voters in two German states are going to the polls with the political future of the embattled chancellor, Friedrich Merz, hanging in the balance and an emboldened far right targeting further gains.
Coming two weeks after a seismic election in Saxony-Anhalt in which the anti-immigration, pro-Kremlin Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) scored its highest ever result in a regional poll, the nativist party is expected to drain support again from Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
i received this board as a christmas gift back in 2021, practically when it first released and i was completely unaware of this crimping issue until as of recent, only after doing some research (and using the board more as of now, since i didnt use it much from ‘23-‘25)
i sent my board in for an evaluation, they identified and replaced the entire battery module for free and shipped it back to me all within a couple of days :D
i know im probably gonna turn some heads with this but i only logged 311 miles on the odometer when i shipped it in 😭 to give you some idea of but im starting to use it more and enjoying its versatility and portability as a reasonably fast transportation method and alternative to biking
Bills signed by California governor safeguard vote by mail and make seizing ballots or election records a felony
California governor Gavin Newsom has signed off on a package of bills aimed at bolstering election security, including measures to thwart federal political interference, his office announced on Sunday.
The pieces of legislation appear to address hot button national and state electoral issues, including an extension to the hours for mail-in voting drop off locations.
Authorities issued warnings for city in first such alerts for Riyadh since fighting with Iran-backed Houthis escalated in July
Yemen’s Houthis said they attacked “sensitive” sites in the Saudi capital with missiles and drones, hours after flames and a large plume of black smoke were seen rising above Riyadh airport on Saturday.
The Saudi government sent air raid alerts to citizens by phone overnight warning of aerial attacks, marking the first time the government has issued such alerts for Riyadh since fighting with the Iran-backed Houthis escalated in July.
Tory leader claims prime minister is avoiding difficult decisions as she urges him to increase defence spending
Kemi Badenoch has accused Andy Burnham of “fiddling while Europe is at risk of burning”, as she repeated her call for the prime minister to cut the welfare budget to fund increase spending on defence.
Speaking to the Telegraph, the Tory leader said that “Burnham may be a people pleaser but difficult choices cannot be avoided through dither and delay”.
Amarillo, Texas — A federal judge has paused a lawsuit by the Republican Party of Texas seeking to restrict participation in GOP primaries to registered party members, leaving the state’s current primary system unchanged for now.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said Friday that the case should wait because the Texas Legislature may address the issue during its 2027 session. “Prominent Texas politicians support similar legislative action,” he wrote, adding that lawmakers could amend the law currently being challenged.
The Texas Republican Party sued last year, arguing that the state’s primary system violates its First Amendment right of association by allowing voters who may oppose the party’s candidates or principles to help choose Republican nominees. Under current Texas law, voters do not formally register by party before an election, although participating in a party primary creates a temporary affiliation for that election cycle.
Republican leaders have pushed for closed primaries for years. The issue gained additional attention after former House Speaker Dade Phelan and Rep. Gary VanDeaver narrowly survived 2024 primary challenges, with some Republicans alleging that Democratic-leaning and independent voters helped them win. Those claims remain disputed.
Gov. Greg Abbott has publicly supported changing the law so that “only Republicans vote in Republican primaries.” But Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden has said he intends to defend the state’s existing system in court.
Kacsmaryk did not rule on whether the GOP’s constitutional argument is valid. Instead, he put the case on hold until after the Legislature completes its next regular session. The state’s next primary election is scheduled for 2028.
Wolfpack fumble with six seconds left proves decisive
Vanderbilt recover in end zone for stunning 35-31 win
Commodores complete comeback from 17 points down
Call this one the Music City Miscue.
NC State quarterback CJ Bailey fumbled in the end zone while trying to take an intentional safety in the final seconds and essentially handed Vanderbilt a 35-31 victory no one saw coming in Nashville.
Los Angeles, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a 13-bill election package Saturday that expands criminal penalties, cybersecurity protections and notification requirements ahead of California’s November elections.
Among the most significant provisions, AB 282 makes it a felony to seize ballots, election records or certified voting technology before results are certified, including when a supervisor directs someone else to do so. SB 259 similarly creates felony penalties for supervisors who order interference with the delivery or return of mail ballots.
Another measure, AB 1664, requires local election officials to notify the California secretary of state and attorney general within one day of learning about a warrant, subpoena or law-enforcement investigation involving election records or voting technology. AB 2281 directs the state to assess whether it needs additional cybersecurity resources to replace federal support.
The package also extends restrictions on deceptive AI-generated election content, requires disclaimers for certain paid online political content and expands language-access requirements for voters. Other bills modify vote-by-mail procedures and polling-place protections.
Newsom framed the legislation as protection against possible federal interference, specifically citing President Donald Trump. That characterization reflects the governor’s stated rationale; the laws themselves apply more broadly to unauthorized interference by federal officials or others.
The measures build on SB 73, signed earlier this year, which restricts unauthorized law-enforcement access to voter rolls, election technology and voting areas without a court order or an investigation tied to state election law.
The legislation comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court left in place an injunction blocking new federal mail-ballot requirements from taking effect before the midterms.
Ruling latest step in legal fight over medically fragile child born after surrogate rejected couple’s request for abortion
The Texas supreme court has decided that the month-old infant that surrogate McKenna West gave birth to can be relocated to Los Angeles, a Thursday ruling that came weeks after a California court had recognized the biological parents’ custody rights.
“Sustaining the life of the medically fragile child is the paramount concern in this time-sensitive matter,” the court wrote in a Thursday order, referring to the baby’s rare severe heart defect. West had attempted to block the biological parents from removing the child from Texas and taking him to a hospital in Los Angeles where the couple live.
I just purchased a GT-S Rally XL and took it out in the cul-de-sac to start learning. It was making this light click sound that got faster with motor speed. Trying to search online if it's an issue and lots of different reports. Any ideas or is it not a concern?
Arizona State cantered to victory against Kansas in the first US college football game to be staged in the UK
You sensed that Britain’s first US college football game in nearly 40 years was going to be a very different experience when Wembley Way began to reverberate to the sound of steel, muscle and a few whoops long before kick-off.
The noise came from the Arizona State Sun Devils’ marching band, who were so energetic their horns and trombones swished from left to right like air raid lights hunting a target as they played. Soon there came a riposte from the Kansas Jayhawks’ marching band, along with more cheers from the large crowd outside the stadium.
Players in Everton v Ipswich Town match wear black armbands as supporters join in minute’s applause
Players wore black armbands during Everton’s home match against Ipswich Town on Saturday, as part of a tribute to three-year-old Noah Woods, whose body was found after he went missing in Suffolk this week.
A photograph of the boy was shown on the big screen before the Premier League game in Liverpool, and three minutes after kick-off both sets of supporters stood to applaud in memory of Noah.
"In April this year, we saw Andy Nguyen turning the PS5 into a Linux-powered gaming PC,"
writes the blog It's FOSS.
It ran Steam games and emulators using the PS5's on-board hardware. But this week Andy announced he's "stopping all my work on PS5 Linux" and "stepping away from the PS5 scene."
stopping work on porting the project to the PS5 Pro, which would've shipped sometime in 2027.
Andy Nguyen: After pouring my heart and months of my life into it, including plans to finish PS5 Pro support and release in 2027, it's all down the sink.
The scene used to be a group of highly talented researchers, but now it is just a bunch of noobs using LLMs and writing hacks they don't even understand. Slop kiddies found the only hypervisor bug left, which I had also found a while ago, and decided to report to Sony. I asked them to at least wait for GTA 6 to come out so that people would have the opportunity to legally purchase the game and also enjoy Linux. They agreed to wait, but not a day passed and they decided to waste it instead.
Or, as It's FOSS tells it:
Running Linux on a PlayStation console is possible because the PS5 Linux project was able to find a way past the hypervisor using exploits Sony had already patched, covering firmware 3.00 through 7.61. ..
[The bug's discoverer writes it was] found with what he calls his "trusty ai clanker machine" and no help from anyone else. He had even agreed to Andy's request to not disclose the findings. Unexpectedly, a third person, still unnamed, found the same bug using AI a few hours later. Anticipating that there would be more people finding the same bug, [he] decided to post the flaw on HackerOne.
The project's GitHub page and all the related repositories are still there. Nothing has been archived as of today, and if you wanted to, you could start contributing to the PS5 Linux project by taking over any pending work or cooking up new improvements... The PS5 Pro support Andy was building never reached the repository, so you would have to start from scratch... While Andy's departure is a blow to the plan for supporting newer PS5 firmware and the PS5 Pro, other contributors have shown that they can deliver work on the loader without him, and I am hopeful more will follow.
Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazi regime orchestrated the largest art theft in world history, seizing over 600,000 works of art across Europe from Jewish families, collectors and museums.
Leader says party ‘won’t give up the fight’ to defeat ‘nasty populism’ in first-day speech to delegates in Brighton
The Liberal Democrats’ leader, Sir Ed Davey, took aim at Nigel Farage and Elon Musk on the first day of his party’s annual conference, saying Lib Dems would not give up the fight to defeat “nasty populism” and Reform UK’s “£72m arsenal of hate and lies”.
On stage at Brighton Centre, Davey called on the assembled delegates not to be deterred in the face of Reform’s hope “that the anger and the hatred and the lies will grind us down until eventually we just give up”.
Joe Arminio, right, the Republican U.S. House candidate, was tossed out of a candidate forum Thursday for repeatedly misgendering Rep. Sarah McBride. Republican Senate candidate Dr, Mike Katz has asked him to leave the race. | SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF SIEGEL…
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he will create a new “AI Force” and appoint an artificial intelligence czar, while reiterating his opposition to regulations that he says could slow the industry’s growth.
Trump announced the plan on social media but offered few details about how the new organization would operate, what authority it would have or when it would be established. He said a new AI czar would be named soon and wrote that “only High I.Q. individuals need apply.”
The announcement comes days after Trump dismissed warnings about potentially dangerous artificial intelligence systems as a “hoax” and argued that the industry should not be slowed by new government restrictions. He has said existing criminal and civil laws should generally be sufficient to address harmful uses of AI.
Trump predicted that artificial intelligence could eventually account for as much as 25% of U.S. gross domestic product and compared its potential economic impact to the Industrial Revolution. He also framed AI development as a strategic competition with China, saying the United States currently leads and must maintain that advantage.
The administration has already taken steps to accelerate AI adoption in national security, including a June directive calling for advanced commercial and open-source systems to be deployed across the military and intelligence community while maintaining human accountability.
The announcement comes amid increasingly public warnings from AI researchers and industry leaders about autonomous systems, cybersecurity threats and models behaving in unexpected ways. Major technology companies remain divided over how much government oversight is appropriate and whether development should be slowed while stronger safeguards are created.
Elor Azaria’s conviction in 2017 for manslaughter of man who stabbed soldier continues to divide country
Israel’s president has pardoned a combat medic who shot dead a badly wounded Palestinian attacker who had stabbed a soldier in the occupied West Bank, in a case that divided the country a decade ago.
Elor Azaria’s conviction in 2017 for manslaughter and his release after serving two-thirds of his 18-month sentence drew enormous attention in Israel, where military service is compulsory for most Jewish men.
President had brushed away suggestions to slow down AI technology, even as his own party counseled caution
Donald Trump on Saturday said he would appoint an artificial intelligence czar and create an “AI Force” to help monitor the technology, though he gave almost no details about either plan.
As global fears over AI have grown, especially in the past week in the face of multiple industry figures sounding the alarm about its dangers, the president has been critical of calls to slow down development of the fast-moving industry.
Can I get a couple of you to tell me what your top speeds are and what your board is my top speed so far on a traditional pint has been about 20 mph 18.9 to be exact and I just ran out of road
That being said I just want to know what people are actually getting as far as top speeds go on their boards
Saw this on fb marketplace and looking for some clarity.
Context after talking to owner: sat in garage for a year and won’t charge. Never ridden through water but hasn’t been opened up to confirm.
My question is if the above is true, how easy would it be to fix the problem? Is it as simple as replacing the battery or is the problem likely something else
I’ve been riding my pint s for about 6 months now and I just feel like a want a bit more torque and speed, however I like the form factor and nimbleness of the pint. I’ve found pretty much everything I want to upgrade it, except for a battery. I’m looking for a 20s2p battery, preferably with a bms included. I get that it won’t be able to fit in the stock battery box, but I was wondering if it would be possible with a custom 3d printed box. If not does anyone have any 18s2p battery suggestions?
President said he was banning journalists from those organizations, saying of their coverage: ‘You get sick of it.’
Journalists from three US outlets were denied access to the White House grounds on Saturday morning a day after Donald Trump said he would ban them from the executive branch complex in a move that has prompted outrage and shock from free-speech advocates.
The outlets were television broadcasters MS Now and CNN as well as the political news website Politico.
Archmere football lines up on offense at the start of its game against the St. Mark’s Spartans, September 18. Photo Credit: Ryan Colasanti
The Archmere Auks (2-0) defeated the St. Mark’s Spartans (0-3), 8-0, on September 18, earning their first Class 2A win of the season and second shutout in as many games.
WILMINGTON, DE — Archmere’s junior quarterback, Shane Harding, stood in the shotgun formation with fellow junior, Wyatt Beekley, standing beside him for the third straight play. Beekly ran the ball out of the same formation the past two plays, helping the Auks earn a first and goal opportunity from the St. Mark’s three-yard line with a little less than 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
On first and goal, Archmere turned to its trusted running back one more time.
Beekly ran from the right hip of Harding and took the handoff to the left of the center. Beekly looked for a running lane inside, but quickly bounced the run wide of the guard and between the tackle, finding enough room to barrel into the endzone for the first touchdown of the game.
Beekly’s touchdown was the only score in Archmere’s 8-0 win over the St. Mark’s Spartans, Friday night, in the first Class 2A game of the season for either squad.
Beekly finished the game with 58 rushing yards and the one touchdown as part of an Archmere rushing attack that gained over 200 yards throughout the game. Harding led all rushers with 126 yards on the ground and fellow junior, Nathan Blessington, ran for just under 70.
“We just have so many plays that work off each other, like, our plays are all built to like confuse the defense,” Beekly said about what makes Archmere’s running attack so effective. “We have so many weapons outside, inside. Shane’s willing to run anyone over so, I mean, we just have so many weapons that I believe in our offense and we can go as far as we want.”
The Archmere running game played well throughout the night, but it was the two defenses that made big plays to keep the game close throughout.
The Auks started the game by receiving the kick-off and drove the ball into Spartan territory on the game’s opening possession. Archmere got as far as the Spartan 22-yard line before the St. Mark’s defense earned a sack and forced the Auks into a turnover on downs. Archmere’s next offensive possession was thwarted deep in Spartan territory as were a couple others in the first half.
Archmere’s defense held the Spartans to their side of the field through the first half. St. Mark’s crossed midfield for the first time on their opening possession of the third quarter — driving to the Archmere 23-yard-line — before the Auks defense halted the drive. A couple possessions later Archmere scored the game’s only touchdown on a six play drive, all of which were runs.
“The word of the week we had in practice was finish and at halftime coach was not happy with how we had been finishing the drives, but we finished it at the end so that’s all that matters,” Harding said.
The Spartans followed Archmere’s scoring drive with a strong drive of their own working their way to Archmere’s 36-yard line. The Auks defense held firm there, stopping St. Mark’s on fourth down and returning the ball to their offense. The Spartans defense did the same on the Auks’ next offensive possession and the Spartans’ offense took over at their own 35-yard line with a little over two and half minutes to play and a chance to tie the game.
St. Mark’s senior quarterback, Kyle Iudica, connected with fellow senior Ta’Son Wallace for 23 yards on the drive’s first play, but the Archmere defense stopped the Spartan offense on the next set of downs. The Auks defense allowed the offense to gain just two more yards during the drive, successfully keeping the Spartans out of the endzone each time they encroached into Archmere territory.
“I think we got a lot of dogs on the other side of the ball, a lot of guys stepping up, a lot of young guys,” Archmere senior Francis Morda said postgame describing the Auks’ defensive unit. “We have a lot of grit and you can’t teach that, that’s all heart. That’s all it is.”
The Auks defense finished the game with two sacks and their first shutout against the Spartans since the DIAA quarterfinals in 2021.
“We look forward to this game every year, we circle it on the calendar, but we got to build off this,” Morda said. “We’re 2-0, but we have a lot of things to fix. We just gotta move forward to DMA and just focus one game at a time.”
Archmere’s next game will be on September 25, against another Class 2A opponent, Delaware Military Academy. The game will start at 7:00 p.m. and take place at Delaware Military Academy.
The Spartans will play the second game of their two-game home stand against William Penn on September 25. That game will start at 7:00 p.m.
While the country’s ambition is to be the ‘Saudi Arabia of green energy’, communities in the north-east are bearing the cost in diminished health and livelihoods
Beneath the power lines cutting across Antonio de Souza’s property in Serra do Mel, in north-east Brazil’s Rio Grande do Norte state, rows of cashew trees once stood – until the clean energy company ordered them to be cut down.
De Souza cannot plant crops in the affected area and the tractor cannot be driven through it in bad weather, as the driver risks an electric shock. Cattle, another source of local income, are forbidden from grazing near the cables.
Fed chair presided over unanimous decision to raise interest rates despite intense campaign from White House
In the end, Kevin Warsh’s Federal Reserve acquitted itself well. For all the uncertainty he had sparked at the previous meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, when he refused to provide any indication of what he was prepared to do to tame stubborn inflation, the chair on Wednesday presided over a unanimous decision to raise interest rates for the first time in three years.
“Today’s action starts to show that we’re serious about this,” he said at the press conference after the meeting, with “this” meaning inflation in excess of the Fed’s 2% target for over five years. Welcome though it was, his embrace of economic orthodoxy nonetheless did little to dispel the Keystone Cops quality of governance in Donald Trump’s US.
Energy bills are scheduled to rise next month but there are innovative ways to heat your home and save money
When Giles Gibson turns on the hot tap in his home, the water that comes out of it is not heated by gas but by the tiny datacentre strapped to the tank.
Attached to the hot water cylinder in his London home is a compact computer server that generates heat and then transfers it as it operates.
Silicon Valley China hawks, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei among them, fear the country surpassing US’s AI lead as much as superintelligence destroying humanity
When reporters asked Donald Trump this week if he supported calls to slow down the development of artificial intelligence out of growing fears for cybersecurity, public safety andthe fate of humanity, he said no. His argument: China.
“We’re leading China in AI,” Trump said. “We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way, because whoever wins AI, wins.”
I’m about to do my first VESC on my XR and realized the only charger I have is the FM Hypercharger, if that save to use with this new BMS or are there better chargers out there to use? Thanks!
The U.S. Department of Energy is launching a competition with up to $215 million in planned funding to push quantum computers toward useful scientific work, offering early awards and shared incentive pools for companies that demonstrate fault-tolerant systems with at least 100 logical qubits.
Announced Sept. 17, the Quantum Genesis Q Competition is part of DOE’s push toward scientifically relevant quantum computing by 2028. The department is seeking fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of demonstrating scientific workflows in areas including chemistry, materials, physics and applied mathematics.
The competition allows for multiple awardees. Its largest payments would come from pools shared by companies meeting specified capability targets, while a separate national laboratory effort would develop tools to verify the systems’ performance.
It’s worth noting that both efforts depend heavily on future funding. The competition includes $2.5 million in fiscal 2026 dollars, with funding in later years contingent on congressional appropriations. A companion validation and verification testbed has $45 million in planned funding, including $14 million in fiscal 2026 dollars.
Under the competition’s two-phase structure, Phase I will offer fixed awards of up to $1.5 million per awardee for meeting early milestones. Phase II will distribute a $100 million general incentive pool among awardees that demonstrate a first-generation scientifically relevant quantum computer with at least 100 logical qubits. Two additional $50 million pools would reward demonstrations at 150 and 200 logical qubits, respectively.
DOE’s solicitation provides for each incentive pool to be divided equally among qualifying awardees following a planned September 2028 evaluation. A company meeting the 200-logical-qubit threshold and other requirements could receive shares of all three pools.
“Through the Quantum Genesis Q Competition, we are building a new era of computational power for the nation through innovative public-private partnerships,” Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil said in the announcement.
An accompanying report from the Office of Science Advisory Committee’s quantum subcommittee provides the broader rationale. Chaired by Fermilab’s Anna Grassellino, the panel recommends scientific grand challenges that bring hardware developers together with national laboratory and university researchers to develop systems around specific scientific problems.
Darío Gil, Under Secretary for Science at U.S. Department of Energy
The report’s proposed progression runs from those challenges to a potential DOE Quantum Computing User Facility and eventually to broader integration of quantum technologies across the department’s scientific enterprise. It envisions quantum computing working alongside HPC, AI and experimental facilities, with future investments guided by demonstrated scientific value and technical readiness.
That is a broader undertaking than the Quantum Genesis Q Competition. The panel calls for coordinated work on applications, algorithms, software and enabling technologies, as well as quantum hardware. It also recommends giving researchers enough access to system architecture, controls and diagnostics to help improve scientific performance while protecting intellectual property.
The report cautions against choosing a single hardware approach prematurely. A future user facility could include complementary instruments at multiple national laboratories, although the committee leaves the eventual configuration open.
It also makes clear that the 2028 ambition is not a settled forecast. Participants consulted by the committee differed significantly over the pace of progress, with some anticipating scientifically useful fault-tolerant systems by 2028 and others expecting large-scale fault tolerance to take substantially longer.
“Achieving the aggressive 2028 goal articulated in the charge will require acceleration beyond current investment and development trajectories,” the report states. It calls for additional resources and coordination across government, industry, academia and the national laboratories.
Verifying scientific usefulness is another central part of the effort. The report argues that progress should be measured by the ability to solve compelling scientific problems, with hardware metrics forming only part of the assessment. Its roadmap calls for validation against classical calculations or experiments and increasingly demanding demonstrations of predictive scientific value.
DOE’s separate Quantum High-Performance Computing Validation and Verification Testbed Lab Call would utilize national laboratory expertise to characterize and validate hardware, quantum gates, logical architectures, algorithms, applications and classical control systems. The Department says those capabilities will support the competition.
The solicitation calls for a scientific workflow demonstration using a problem and algorithm identified at the program’s outset. The demonstration need not tackle a problem beyond classical computing’s reach. Specific evaluation methods will be developed with selected participants.
In a briefing ahead of yesterday’s announcement, Gil described the DOE effort as complementary to DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, saying the agencies are working closely together. DARPA’s program evaluates whether quantum computing approaches can achieve industrially useful operation by 2033, with computational value exceeding cost. DARPA explicitly describes QBI as an evaluation of viable approaches rather than a competition among participants.
The distinction matters when comparing the programs: DOE is pursuing earlier scientific demonstrations, while DARPA’s stated test concerns economic utility. Their target dates should not be read as deadlines for identical capabilities.
The Q Competition is open to private sector companies, with final applications due Oct. 19. DOE plans a virtual informational webinar Sept. 25 at 1 p.m. Eastern. The separate testbed call is open to DOE national laboratories. Both are sponsored by the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research within DOE’s Office of Science.
Why Should Delaware Care? Joe Arminio and Sarah McBride are the candidates that will be running for Delaware’s only seat in the U.S. House in November. Arminio’s misgendering of McBride, a prominent transgender lawmaker, has sparked new Republican Party divisions as it aims to become more competitive in statewide races.
Just days after the primary election, the state Republican Party is in revolt over its two most prominent candidates following one’s dismissal from a forum after repeatedly misgendering U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride.
During a candidate forum held Thursday by the Siegel Jewish Community Center in Wilmington, U.S. House candidate Joe Arminio twice misgendered the incumbent Democratic congresswoman, who is the first openly transgender member of Congress.
He was subsequently forced to leave the forum by organizers, and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mike Katz, who was on stage at the time apologized for Arminio’s conduct, saying he didn’t condone it.
In a statement late that evening, Katz called on Arminio to drop out of his race.
“We can disagree strongly about policy, politics, and the direction of our country. We can debate those differences vigorously. That is part of our democracy,” he said. ”But disagreement is not an excuse for disrespect. When someone seeking public office is given an opportunity to correct his conduct, acknowledges his mistake, receives an explicit warning, and then repeats that conduct, it raises serious concerns about the standards we should expect from those who seek to represent us.”
The state Republican Party, which had hoped that a reformation of leadership, policy platforms and fundraising efforts could resuscitate the party’s chances in the midterm elections after a decade of failures, will now have to contend with a serious division at the top of the ticket.
Arminio and the party, which endorsed the more moderate Katz overwhelmingly this spring but backed an opponent of Arminio’s, has yet to comment on the episode.
Arminio and GOP Party Chair Gene Truono did not respond to requests for comment Friday from Spotlight Delaware.
What happened at the forum?
In a recorded video livestream, Arminio is heard using the terms “his” and “he” to refer to McBride and was corrected by the audience, who loudly booed.
Arminio responded, asking the crowd to show respect to him as the speaker, but then shortly afterward referred to McBride as a man again, and then thanked the crowd for the correction.
After Arminio finished his speech, moderator Ken Grant stepped up to the microphone and said,“ This is your final warning. If you fail to show respect to anyone else on this stage, you’ll be asked to leave.”
During the answer to Arminio’s next question, he was able to acknowledge his error and said: “It’s not the first error I’ve made in this campaign or at any point in my future life.”
But a few minutes later, as Arminio was discussing private healthcare debt, he pointed at U.S. Sen. Chris Coons and McBride, referring to them as “gentlemen.”
“Gentlemen like the two here on this up here with me on the Democratic Party …,” he said.
The crowd began interrupting and yelling at Arminio.
The moderator can also be heard speaking over Arminio, saying to cut his mic and that he had been warned.
Despite all the boos and commotion from the crowd, McBride intervened to allow Arminio to still have a chance to speak despite the slights.
“Listen, I don’t want this gentleman to not be able to have the ability…” McBride said, before Katz stepped in to repeatedly call for Arminio’s removal.
After being kicked out of the panel, the conversations between the candidates continued, with McBride explaining that she has been focused on serving Delaware in Washington and not on politicians who are engaging in “petty stupid things, and in petty personal insults.”
But this was not the first time that Arminio, who was an underdog candidate in the primary race and largely made his campaign about economic issues, has insulted McBride.
Less than a week earlier, during a candidate forum on the popular “Rich Jensen” radio show on WDEL, the host had to correct Arminio’s misgendering there too. Jensen told Arminio that the policy of his program is to refer to McBride as “she” and to continue doing so.
Mike Katz was able to rally Republican support around his campaign in the general election, but new splits with voters over LGBTQ+ issues are emerging that could hurt his candidacy. | PHOTO COURTESY OF KATZ CAMPAIGN
Recoil against Katz
By calling for his colleague’s departure from the party ticket, Katz has perhaps earned a modicum of respect from centrist Democrats and independents, but he has also angered many conservatives.
The comment section of his statement on Facebook was flooded by commenters who expressed disappointment in the Senate candidate and said he has lost their vote.
It exposed the new face of the Republican Party to the new level of fractiousness of the modern GOP in Delaware.
John Shulli, the retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel who ran against Katz in the Senate primary this week and had lambasted Katz’s former affiliation with the state Democratic and Independent parties before recently becoming a Republican, jumped on the criticisms, calling his former opponent “the Benedict Arnold of Republicans” in a Friday video.
“Katz is a Democrat, and a coward, and a traitor to the Republican Party of Delaware. He should either withdraw from the race or change his affiliation to Democrat,” he said.
What impact the division over LGBTQ+ issues may have on Katz’s electoral chances remains to be seen, but he already faced a Herculean challenge.
Coons held nearly $4.8 million in campaign cash as of Aug. 26, while Katz had less than $100,000, according to federal campaign finance records.
The senior Democratic senator just captured 78% of the primary election vote in a year when Congressional incumbents are frequently being challenged by progressive challengers. He has never captured less than 55% of the vote in a Senate election and Republicans’ best finish yet against him was 42% of the vote.
Those issues only come atop the fact that Democrats have a roughly 130,000-voter advantage over Republicans as of Sept. 1.
Hill lift dismount is so unreliable sometimes. How do you guys do it. I have a pint x ive been using and most of the time i ride with simplestop because i cant get the damn thing to deactivate.
I ride with simple stop off when im just riding around and when i practice tricks near my home otherwise, simple stop is on.
I cant get the damn thing to deactivate and im stuck in a position where im just standing there lifting my heel. It only works afte a few tries of me moving my board in reverse then forward and then if im luck, it would deactivate and then i can dismount.
You guys have any way to do this more consistently?
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump said Friday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are banned from the White House “effective immediately,” explicitly citing what he described as false and unfavorable coverage. He also suggested additional news organizations could face similar restrictions.
“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Speaking later in the Oval Office, he said the outlets “purposely write negative news” because they want to hurt Republicans and his administration. He did not identify specific reports he said were false.
Exactly how the ban will operate remains unclear. Reporters from the affected organizations were still working at the White House Friday afternoon, and Trump acknowledged he did not know when their credentials might be revoked.
CNN called the threatened ban an “illegal assault” on constitutionally protected press freedoms, while Politico said it would defend its First Amendment rights. The White House Correspondents’ Association and press-freedom organizations also objected.
The action raises significant constitutional questions because courts have previously limited the government’s ability to revoke White House press access based on unfavorable coverage. During Trump’s first term, a federal judge ordered the administration to restore CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s credential after the White House suspended it.
The announcement follows other disputes between the administration and major news organizations, including the White House’s earlier restrictions on Associated Press access. Trump said Friday that the latest move could eventually extend to additional outlets.
Sept. 18, 2026 — Yesterday, DOE Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil shared a new report from the Office of Science Advisory Committee’s Quantum Subcommittee outlining a path toward scientifically relevant, error-corrected quantum computing by 2028. The report recommends a phased effort beginning with competitive scientific challenges, followed by a potential Quantum Computing User Facility and broader integration of quantum technologies with DOE’s HPC, AI and experimental infrastructure.
The recommendations emphasize measuring progress through scientific results, developing hardware and applications together, and supporting multiple quantum computing technologies. In the following blog post, Gil discusses the report’s findings and how they could shape DOE’s approach to quantum computing for scientific discovery.
Darío Gil, Under Secretary for Science at U.S. Department of Energy
Every major shift in technology promises to redefine the boundaries of discovery. Quantum computing is rapidly transitioning from a phase of fundamental laboratory research into a scientifically revolutionary capability. As this technology races forward, we need a clear, defined path to success. That is why I charged the Office of Science Advisory Committee (SCAC) Quantum Subcommittee with an ambitious task: to chart a milestone-driven roadmap toward demonstrating a scientifically relevant, error-corrected quantum computer by 2028, and to articulate a long-term vision for a dedicated Quantum Computing User Facility.
Our mission now is to ensure the United States leads this next era of discovery.
Moving Beyond Hardware Metrics to Scientific Utility
For years, the quantum conversation has been dominated by hardware-centric milestones. While these metrics are vital, the SCAC report proposes a crucial shift in thinking: success must be measured by scientific utility.
Our goal is not simply to build the largest quantum computer; it is to solve problems that are otherwise completely intractable. We are talking about predicting exact molecular properties for drug discovery, designing transformative catalysts for manufacturing, simulating fusion-relevant materials, and modeling the fundamental physics of the early universe.
The report emphasizes that the Department of Energy is uniquely positioned to lead this transition. By leveraging our world-class National Laboratories, high-performance computing (HPC) centers, testbeds, and existing scientific User Facilities, we can integrate quantum processors directly into hybrid, classical-quantum workflows that accelerate real-world discovery.
A Phased Path to 2028 and Beyond
To achieve scientifically useful quantum computers, the SCAC recommends a highly strategic, three-phased framework that aligns with our national Quantum Genesis Initiative:
Phase I: The Quantum Grand Challenges (2026–2028): We will establish multidisciplinary, competitive challenges pairing National Labs, universities, and industry. These challenges will drive the co-design of hardware, algorithms, and software to meet specific, milestone-driven scientific targets by 2028.
Phase II: The DOE Quantum Computing User Facility (QCUF): Using lessons from the Grand Challenges, we will plan and establish a world-leading User Facility. This will not be a commercial “black box” cloud service. Rather, it will be an open, collaborative scientific instrument where researchers can co-develop hardware architectures, control systems, and software stacks alongside technology providers.
Phase III: An Integrated Quantum Future (2030+): Ultimately, quantum computing will not exist in isolation. We envision a future where quantum co-processors, simulators, and sensors are seamlessly woven into the broader DOE scientific enterprise—augmenting our leadership-class AI and HPC networks.
Partnership and Co-Design as Our Competitive Edge
To realize this future, we must break down traditional barriers. The SCAC report highlights that breakthrough science occurs when hardware developers and domain scientists work side-by-side. We are actively exploring novel partnership models, which could include embedded co-design fellowships, joint appointments, and shared technical staff across industry and our National Labs.
Crucially, we must maintain a technology-neutral stance. The field is evolving too quickly to prematurely lock in a single hardware modality. Whether through superconducting circuits, neutral atoms, trapped ions, photonics, or spin qubits, we will let demonstrated scientific utility guide our long-term investments.
The Journey Ahead
I want to express my deepest gratitude to the Subcommittee Chair, Dr. Anna Grassellino, Vice-Chair Dr. Supratik Guha, and the hundreds of stakeholders from industry, academia, and federal agencies who contributed to this report.
We stand at a pivotal moment. The choices and investments we make over the next three years will shape global scientific leadership for decades to come. Together, we are not just building quantum computers; we are establishing a new national capability for scientific discovery.
President has overseen an unprecedented restriction of access for major news media since start of second term
In his latest attack on the US constitution’s first amendment and the press, Donald Trump abruptly announced that he is banning outlets CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House over their coverage.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday, the US president said he was expelling the news outlets “effective immediately” over what he called their “constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” and threatened that bans for others outlets could follow.
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump announced Friday that the United States, Denmark and Greenland have reached an agreement allowing an expanded and permanent U.S. military presence on the strategically important Arctic island while leaving Greenland under Danish sovereignty.
Trump said the deal gives the United States “permanent control over security” in Greenland and allows Washington to expand bases and military operations as needed. U.S. officials said the agreement also bars non-NATO countries from establishing military bases on the island and restricts sensitive investments from potential adversaries.
However, Danish and Greenlandic leaders emphasized Saturday that the agreement does not transfer sovereignty or ownership to the United States. Greenland remains a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, and officials said the agreement explicitly recognizes Greenlanders’ right to self-determination.
That distinction is significant because Trump had spent months publicly discussing acquiring Greenland and had declined earlier this year to rule out military force. The new arrangement instead expands existing U.S. security rights dating to a 1951 defense agreement.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the agreement a major national-security achievement, while Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said it would strengthen security for Greenland, Denmark, the United States and NATO.
The agreement is expected to be formally signed during next week’s United Nations General Assembly and will still require approval through Danish and Greenlandic political processes.
The pact gives Washington wider military access to Greenland without accomplishing Trump’s earlier stated goal of acquiring the territory itself.
Headlining a conference for Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit he previously led that regularly spreads vaccine misinformation, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a litany of familiar false and misleading claims, particularly about vaccines.
For a few months earlier this year, Kennedy had largely stopped talking about vaccines, reportedly at the request of the White House. Facing a surge of measles cases not seen in a generation, Kennedy had also at times offered a lukewarm recommendation to vaccinate, frustrating his hardline anti-vaccine supporters.
But in August, Kennedy appearedwith President Donald Trump during thesigning of an executive order that called for splitting up the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine. Trump inaccurately said the MMR vaccine is “quite lethal,” and Kennedy proceeded to falsely claim on cable television that there was new evidence to support breaking up the combination shot. The secretary also began an ongoing beef with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania over measles-associated deaths in the state.
Then, on Sept. 17, Kennedy gave the keynote speech for the one-day conference of Children’s Health Defense in Washington, D.C. Children’s Health Defense describes itself as working to “restore and protect the health of children by eliminating exposures to environmental toxins.” But the organization is one of the biggest sources of inaccurate vaccine information.
Just three days prior to the conference, the group’s X account falsely said that for every vaccine, “your child is more likely to die from the vaccine than from the disease.” The same day, the group also wrote, “Anyone who still thinks the COVID vaccine wasn’t intentionally designed to cause infertility is the conspiracy theorist.”
Speaking for more than an hour, Kennedy, a former litigator, repeatedly suggested that vaccines were not safe, had not been tested properly, and that they were driving a dramatic rise in chronic conditions, including autism.
“Many of these adverse events include diseases, chronic illnesses, that are part of the chronic disease epidemic. In other words, illnesses that became suddenly epidemic in our kids after 1989,” he said. Looking at all of the different vaccines given to children, he continued, “there are 454 adverse events listed. In total … they include almost all of the injuries, like diabetes, death, sudden infant death syndrome, anorexia, allergic reactions, allergies, asthma, autoimmune diseases.”
This is misleading. As we’ve explained before, the conditions that appear in package inserts have not necessarily been shown to be caused by vaccines. And in fact, after rigorous study, some of them have specifically been shown not to be due to vaccines.
Kennedy also conveniently left out the package insert’s own caveat, which explains, “Because these reactions are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not possible to reliably estimate their frequency or establish a causal relationship to a vaccine exposure.”
Screenshot of Kennedy speaking at the CHD conference on Sept. 17
He also pushed a conspiratorial narrative in which he claimed scientists previously “weren’t doing the studies to find out … what the risks were of these products,” referring to vaccines. “And so we don’t know, and we are finding that out now.”
The HHS website itself says, “Every authorized or approved vaccine goes through safety testing,” including testing in clinical trials and continued monitoring after they hit the market.
Later, the secretary said that HHS was supporting new research and clinical trials and for the “first time” researchers were looking into several vaccination topics and “a range of health outcomes,” including autism. It’s unclear what specifically these studies will examine, but researchers have continuously studied vaccination. An extensivebody of research hasn’t found any link between vaccines and autism.
Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the former British physician who fraudulently proposed a link between autism and vaccines in 1998, and continues to make the false claim, spoke after Kennedy at the conference.
Despite the ongoing measles outbreaks in the U.S., and more deaths from the disease in the last two years than in decades, Kennedy only mentioned measles once.
“You care about every child who dies from measles. They get headlines,” he said. “Shouldn’t we, I’d ask you, care about children who are dying or suffering or being injured by vaccine injuries?”
The secretary also moved to reassure his supporters that he had their backs, while also seemingly asking for patience, because “the government moves slowly.”
“You have a strong and steadfast friend at the White House,” he said. “We’ve accomplished in 19 months … things that would have seemed unthinkable two years ago.”
Indeed, Kennedy, along with the White House, has pushed to reduce the number of recommended childhood vaccines in the U.S. and reconstituted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent advisory board, filling it with several individuals who have previously spread vaccine misinformation.
Major medical associations — such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians — have spoken out against the changes to vaccine recommendations, issuing theirownguidance. (Many of the changes have been temporarily blocked by a court.)
Kennedy said HHS would be looking into the safety of electromagnetic fields and “chemtrails,” both topics of interest for Children’s Health Defense. The “chemtrails” conspiracy theory alleges that the commonly seen contrails, or the normal condensation trails left behind from airplanes, are actually chemicals that can harm or be used to control a population. There’s no evidence that “chemtrails” exist.
Many of the claims Kennedy made in his address are the very same claims has been making for years — and were ones we first wrote about in 2023 when he was running for president. Others are relatively new.
Here’s a round-up of the ones we’ve covered before.
Autism
Wisconsin study. Kennedy misleadingly juxtaposed data from a 1970 study in Wisconsin showing an autism rate of less than 1 in 10,000 with the national data showing a prevalence of 1 in 31 today. The data are not comparable. Much of the increase in autism is related to changes in diagnostic criteria, screening, available services and awareness of the condition, researchers have said.
UC Davis research. Kennedy also claimed that research from the UC Davis MIND Institute led by Irva Hertz-Picciotto showed that the autism “epidemic is real,” contrary to assertions that “we’re just noticing it more.” A 2009 study co-authored by the environmental health researcher found that one-third of the increase in autism diagnoses in California could be attributed to changes in diagnostic criteria, but the study did not examine all the factors that could lead to changes in recognition of the condition. The MIND Institute said in a September 2025 statement that the study “did not indicate that autism was an epidemic.”
‘Full-blown’ autism. The HHS secretary went on to claim that “I’ve never in my life seen somebody my age, a 70-year-old man, with full-blown, profound autism.” But researchers have said that while older people are less likely to have an autism diagnosis, many nevertheless meet the criteria for autism. “Many of them would not have been recognized as such but they absolutely do exist,” Catherine Lord, a clinical psychologist and autism researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, previously told us.
Reporting of vaccine side effects. Kennedy claimed that a CDC study found that “fewer than 1% of vaccine injuries are reported.” He’s referring to a 2010 report from health insurer Harvard Pilgrim funded by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which briefly mentioned this figure for adverse events. Reported adverse events are not necessarily vaccine-caused. One of the authors told us that the 1% “takes into account that many adverse effects of vaccines are mild and expected so not worth reporting.”
Otherresearchhas found that the monitoring system Kennedy was referencing — the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which accepts voluntary, unverified reports — more completely identifies serious adverse events after vaccination. It’s also not the only way health authorities monitor vaccine safety.
Placebo-controlled studies. Kennedy misleadingly claimed that just one childhood vaccine — against COVID-19 — “was subject to a placebo-controlled trial,” adding that “we have no idea what the risk profile is for these products.” Various childhood vaccines were originally tested against placebos, including the polio, chickenpox and rotavirus vaccines. These claims rely on moving the goal posts on what constitutes a placebo-controlled trial, such as by asserting that placebos can only be saline. It’s also not always ethical or feasible to test a vaccine against a placebo. There are other valid ways of assessing vaccine safety.
Thimerosal in vaccines. Kennedy misrepresented the science on thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that has been phased out of most vaccines, blaming it for “devastating our children’s brains and causing a whole litany, a grim inventory, of physical and brain injuries.”
As we’ve written before, multiple studies have evaluated the safety of thimerosal, and there isn’t evidence it’s harmful to human health in low doses. (It contains a different, less toxic type of mercury than the methylmercury that accumulates in fish.) Nonetheless, it was removed from most vaccines in the U.S. as a precaution more than 20 years ago. Since then, no vaccines for children have used thimerosal, other than flu vaccines that come in multi-dose vials.
Obesity rates. Kennedy pointed to falling obesity as evidence of the administration’s success. “Obesity rates have dropped 7.3% since 2022, most of it in this year — these two years,” he said, citing Gallup polling. Gallup surveys did find that obesity among American adults fell about 3.1 percentage points, or 7.8%, between 2022 and 2026. But three-quarters of the decline came between 2022 and 2024, before Trump took office.
Sales of real food. Kennedy also said, “Real food sales went up by 8% this year.” As we’ve explained before, this likely comes from a financial-industry analysis that reportedly looked at a handful of specific categories, including yogurt, nut butters and frozen foods, and concluded that sales of unprocessed or minimally processed products grew about 7% faster than highly processed products in those same categories. Experts previously told us those findings are too limited to say much about whether Americans are eating healthier overall.
Clarification, Sept. 21: We made clear that Wakefield is a former physician. As we’ve explained before, he lost his medical license.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The NAACP and other civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday seeking to prevent the Trump administration from deploying federal law enforcement officers in ways they say could intimidate voters during November’s midterm elections.
The lawsuit names Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, FBI Director Kash Patel and other administration officials. Plaintiffs argue that public statements about possible federal activity around polling places, combined with expanded voter-roll scrutiny and immigration enforcement, violate Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voter intimidation.
Federal law generally bars armed federal officers and members of the armed forces from being stationed where elections are held. So far, the administration has not deployed armed officers to polling locations, and DHS has said ICE is not planning operations targeting polling places.
Justice Department spokesperson Kiersten Pels rejected the lawsuit’s premise, saying DOJ has never said it would send federal law enforcement to polling locations and calling suggestions otherwise “fearmongering.” Mullin has said ICE could respond to a public-safety threat or serve a warrant at a polling site.
The case is the second lawsuit this month seeking to restrict federal law enforcement activity around polling locations.
There have been recent firmware updates for the IMU that should come into play on the next firmware release. These changes implement hardware SPI instead of I2C for communication with the IMU. This allows much higher IMU operating rates with minimal effect on CPU load. Conventional knowledge is to run the IMU at a low rate of ~800Hz. I have been able to run 1600Hz on I2C without issues. Now with HW SPI you can run at the maximum output rate of the IMU, which is 6660Hz for the LSM6.
Most people are not going to be able to feel the difference between 800Hz and 6000Hz but I think it is smoother. Maybe it's just in my head. But even so, it is a great optimization for the application and I see HW SPI being the standard for the future.
The negative part of this is that HW SPI can only be implemented on certain controllers. I know the Thor 400 and Thor 301 are good to go, but most controllers do not have HW SPI.
I've been working on updates for my VESC package, Trick and Trail, to make the most of these new changes. I'm excited for what is coming in the future.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge has ordered the Kennedy Center to provide at least 30 days’ notice before taking any steps toward demolition after President Donald Trump again suggested the landmark could be torn down if his renovation plans are blocked.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper issued the order Thursday after attorneys for Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty cited Trump’s public comments and a photograph showing him aboard Air Force One examining a placard labeled “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.” Trump had told reporters a day earlier that the building could “end up being ripped down” if his administration does not receive recognition for restoring it.
The dispute follows Cooper’s earlier ruling that Congress, not the Kennedy Center board, controls the center’s official name. Cooper also blocked plans to rename the campus “President Donald J. Trump Plaza” or add language crediting Trump with its restoration.
The Kennedy Center board has approved a renovation project backed by roughly $257 million in federal funding. Trump has said the project may not proceed unless appellate courts overturn Cooper’s restrictions.
The center is temporarily closed while officials assess safety concerns and prepare for possible renovations.
“It’s clear from last night’s results that it’s a new day in Delaware,” Karl Stomberg, Delaware political director for the WFP, said in a statement. “The Working Families Party and our allies have sent an earthquake through state politics, making clear that kowtowing to corporate interests and maintaining the status quo is no longer good enough.” Candidate images from WFP website and image created with AI.
Republican candidates warn new mandates could increase costs for working families and jeopardize revenue supporting state services
WILMINGTON — The Working Families Party’s sweeping success in Delaware’s Democratic primaries has given the progressive organization unprecedented influence over the party’s legislative agenda, setting up a broader debate about what its policies could mean for working families, taxpayers and the state’s business climate.
WFP-backed candidates won six of eight state House races, a state Senate contest and a New Castle County Council race. The organization said the victories could nearly double its legislative caucus and help advance universal free school meals, mandatory earned sick time, rent stabilization and community workforce agreements.
“It’s clear from last night’s results that it’s a new day in Delaware,” Karl Stomberg, Delaware political director for the WFP, said in a statement. “The Working Families Party and our allies have sent an earthquake through state politics, making clear that kowtowing to corporate interests and maintaining the status quo is no longer good enough.”
Although the WFP has not formally assumed control of the Democratic Party or its legislative leadership, its candidates have captured the party’s political momentum. In several races, they defeated longtime incumbents supported by Delaware’s Democratic and corporate-law establishments.
The victories could give WFP-aligned lawmakers significant leverage when Democrats select their leaders and negotiate legislation, committee assignments and the state budget.
“We defended our incumbents, won open seats and defeated longtime establishment representatives,” Stomberg said. “We look forward to nearly doubling our caucus and fighting for policies that will benefit working people, like universal free school meals, earned sick time and rent stabilization.”
Republican candidates say the WFP agenda deserves closer scrutiny from Delawareans who work, pay taxes and depend on state government for schools, public safety, health care and other essential services.
Brent Burdge, the Republican candidate for the 5th Senate District, said the agenda should be judged according to its complete economic effect—not simply by the benefits its supporters promise.
“Working families need dependable jobs, affordable housing, reasonable taxes and a state government that delivers essential services effectively,” Burdge said. “Mandates such as rent stabilization and expanded employer requirements may sound compassionate, but the costs do not disappear. They can return to families through higher prices, fewer jobs, reduced housing investment and increased taxes.”
Burdge is running against WFP-backed Democratic nominee Shay Frisby, who defeated incumbent Sen. Ray Seigfried in the Democratic primary.
Policies carry costs and trade-offs
The WFP argues that its platform would give working Delawareans greater economic security. Its election-night statement promised to support policies that benefit working people rather than large corporations.
Universal school meals could ensure that children are fed without requiring families to complete income-verification paperwork. A universal program, however, would also subsidize meals for families capable of paying and require lawmakers to identify a continuing source of state or federal funding.
Mandatory earned sick time would give additional protection to workers who cannot afford to lose income when they or a family member becomes ill. Employers, particularly small businesses with limited staffs and narrow profit margins, could face higher labor costs and more complicated scheduling requirements.
Rent stabilization could protect existing tenants from sudden increases, but it could also discourage the construction or preservation of rental housing. A widely cited study of rent control in San Francisco found that affected landlords reduced rental supply by 15%, contributing to higher rents elsewhere in the market. Delaware’s results would depend on the provisions of any legislation lawmakers introduced.
Community workforce agreements can establish wages, benefits, training requirements and working conditions before construction begins. Critics contend that government-mandated agreements can favor unionized contractors and make it more difficult for smaller or nonunion companies to compete for taxpayer-funded work.
Burdge said state government must preserve assistance for vulnerable residents without imposing costs that make it harder for families and businesses to remain in Delaware.
“Government has an obligation to help vulnerable Delawareans, but it also has an obligation to the families working every day, paying their bills and financing state government,” Burdge said. “We should strengthen the safety net without turning every economic decision into another government mandate.”
Corporate franchise targeted
The WFP also used its victory statement to attack Delaware’s corporate-law establishment, accusing Democratic incumbents of “kowtowing to corporate interests.”
The organization identified Senate Bill 21, the 2025 corporate-law overhaul, as a central issue in the primary. Critics argued that the law weakened the rights of minority shareholders. Supporters said it restored predictability to Delaware corporate law and responded to concerns that companies were considering reincorporating in competing states.
Steve Pickering, the Republican candidate for the 12th Representative District, said the WFP’s criticism overlooks the relationship between Delaware’s Court of Chancery, the state’s corporate franchise and the services residents receive.
“Delaware’s Court of Chancery and corporate-law system have helped make our state the nation’s leading home for businesses,” Pickering said. “The taxes and fees generated by that system help pay for essential services that everyday Delawareans rely on, like our schools, public safety, health programs, and other critical services. We need to continue to demand ethical conduct and accountability, but we also must recognize the consequences of undermining this economic foundation that benefits every Delaware resident”.
Corporate franchise taxes and fees provide more than 20% of state revenue. Although the Court of Chancery does not directly generate most of that money, its expertise, efficiency and national reputation are important reasons businesses choose Delaware as their legal home.
A significant loss of corporate registrations or franchise revenue could force lawmakers to reduce spending, raise other taxes or find a new source of revenue.
“Attacking Delaware businesses and law firms may generate campaign applause, but driving companies and revenue out of the state would leave ordinary families with the bill,” Pickering said. “If that revenue disappears, Delaware will eventually have to reduce services, raise taxes, or do both. That means Delawareans could end up paying more while receiving less in return.”
Pickering is challenging Democratic Rep. Krista Griffith in the 12th District. His campaign priorities include lowering energy costs, controlling property taxes, increasing the senior property tax credit and reducing the cost of homeownership.
Musk claim leaves out legal context
The WFP statement claimed that SB 21 “led directly” to the reinstatement of Elon Musk’s Tesla compensation package, which was originally valued at $56 billion.
“This election was driven by backlash to SB 21, a controversial bill passed last year that rolled back shareholder protections and led directly to a $56 billion payout to Elon Musk,” the WFP said.
The Musk case contributed to the political debate that produced SB 21, but the Delaware Supreme Court restored the compensation package after concluding that complete rescission was an improper and inequitable remedy. The court’s ruling—not an automatic provision of SB 21—returned the stock options to Musk. The package was worth approximately $139 billion by the time of the December 2025 decision.
That distinction illustrates the broader divide over SB 21. WFP officials view the law as evidence that corporate interests hold too much power in Dover. Supporters view it as an effort to preserve Delaware’s position in an increasingly competitive market for corporate registrations.
Political spending cuts both ways
The WFP criticized corporate-financed political committees for spending heavily to defend incumbent Democrats who supported SB 21. Corporate law firms provided substantial financing to First State Future PAC, which mounted an advertising campaign supporting incumbents.
The WFP operated its own coordinated and independent campaign efforts. Its political committee reported spending approximately $125,000 on mail and $85,000 on digital advertising. Its coordinated operation also supplied candidates with phone banks, door-to-door canvassing, communications and political assistance.
The sources, amounts and objectives of the spending differed, but both sides relied on organized political money and professional campaign operations to influence Democratic primary voters.
Influence will be tested in Dover
The primary victories demonstrate that the WFP can recruit candidates, organize voters and overcome substantial spending by its opponents. But the election involved only a small portion of Delaware’s electorate and did not constitute a statewide vote on the organization’s entire platform.
The larger test will come after the general election, when WFP-backed lawmakers must translate campaign promises into legislation and explain how their programs will be financed.
For working families, the central question will be whether the emerging agenda produces greater economic security—or whether its mandates increase the cost of housing, employment and government while placing Delaware’s corporate revenue at risk.
To Go Box
What happened: WFP-backed candidates won eight Delaware Democratic primaries.
What the WFP says: Voters rejected the political status quo and excessive corporate influence.
What the WFP wants: Universal school meals, earned sick time, rent stabilization and community workforce agreements.
Republican concern: New mandates could increase costs for employers, taxpayers, renters and homeowners.
Why it matters: WFP-aligned lawmakers could gain greater influence over Democratic leadership, legislation and state spending.
What comes next: The parties will take their competing economic messages to voters in the Nov. 3 general election.
Who is the physician assistant, the nurse, the nurse practitioner, and the doctor? Image created by Delaware LIVE using AI on 9/18/26
Policy group seeks support for legislation requiring medical professionals to clearly disclose their licenses and qualifications
DOVER, Del. — The Caesar Rodney Institute is asking Delaware residents to sign an online petition supporting legislation that would require health care professionals to clearly identify their credentials before diagnosing or treating patients.
The petition calls on the General Assembly to revive and strengthen the Healthcare Professional Transparency Act, a 2024 proposal that did not advance to a vote.
CRI hopes signatures from patients, families and other community members will demonstrate public support for introducing the legislation again in 2027.
Michelle Parsons, M.D., director of CRI’s Center for Health Policy, said patients may not always understand whether the person providing their care is a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant or another licensed professional.
“Patients shouldn’t have to ask whether their doctor is actually a physician,” Parsons said. “They should already know.”
Petition calls for clearer identification
House Bill 447 would have required practitioners using the title “Doctor” to identify their educational degree and professional license. Most health care practitioners also would have been required to wear visible identification showing their license type.
The legislation also sought to require health care advertisements to accurately identify the professional licenses of the practitioners being promoted.
The bill was pulled before a committee vote in 2024 and was not brought back before the end of the legislative session.
Through its petition, CRI is asking Delaware lawmakers to bring the proposal back and strengthen its disclosure requirements. The institute wants patients to be told before receiving nonemergency care whether the person diagnosing or treating them is a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant or another licensed professional.
If a nonphysician uses the title “Doctor,” CRI wants that person’s profession disclosed at the same time.
“This isn’t about prohibiting earned academic titles or telling patients whom to choose,” Parsons said. “It’s about giving patients the information to make that choice for themselves.”
Expanded authority prompts questions
The petition follows Delaware’s expansion of the authority granted to several types of nonphysician health care professionals.
House Bill 141, enacted in 2021, eliminated the state’s previous collaborative-practice requirement for advanced practice registered nurses, including nurse practitioners. Nurse practitioners may independently evaluate patients, diagnose illnesses, order and interpret tests, prescribe medications and manage treatment.
Delaware has also expanded the role of pharmacists. Legislation approved in 2022 allowed pharmacists working under statewide protocols to test, screen and treat certain conditions. Additional legislation approved in 2026 broadened pharmacists’ authority to evaluate patients, identify certain health conditions, order laboratory tests and prescribe specified drugs and medical devices.
CRI said those changes make it more important for patients to understand the education, license and professional role of the person providing their care.
Some nurse practitioners earn a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and may use the title “Doctor.” Parsons said that academic title is legitimate but does not mean the practitioner received the same education and clinical training as a physician.
An American Medical Association survey cited by CRI found that 39% of respondents identified someone with a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree as a physician. The survey also found that 19% believed a nurse practitioner was a physician and 17% believed a physician assistant was a physician.
CRI connects effort to AI protections
CRI is connecting its petition drive to House Bill 191, signed into law April 23. That law prohibits artificial intelligence and other nonhuman entities from being licensed as physicians, nurses, advanced practice registered nurses or physician assistants.
It also prohibits AI systems from using protected professional titles such as “Doctor” or “Dr.”
Parsons said the same principle — ensuring patients understand who or what is delivering their care — should apply to human health care professionals.
“If Delaware believes patients have a right to know when their ‘doctor’ is AI, surely they have a right to know when their ‘doctor’ isn’t a physician,” Parsons said.
Delaware law already requires a person using “Doctor” in connection with medicine or health care to specify the type of doctorate held. CRI contends, however, that existing law primarily regulates professional titles and does not require patients to be affirmatively told the license or professional classification of the person treating them.
CRI is asking Delawareans who agree with the proposal to add their names to the online petition and share it with friends, relatives and neighbors. The organization says broader community participation will strengthen its message to lawmakers ahead of the 2027 legislative session.
To Go Box
What: Caesar Rodney Institute Healthcare Professional Transparency Petition
What CRI is asking: Delawareans are encouraged to sign the petition urging lawmakers to revive and strengthen the Healthcare Professional Transparency Act.
Who may participate: Delaware patients, families, health care consumers and other supporters
Photo: Classroom at the Sussex Academy, a charter school in Georgetown.
Five-year federal grant will support new and expanding programs while adding oversight and accountability measures
DOVER, Del. — Delaware has secured a five-year, $16 million federal grant to expand access to public charter schools while strengthening the oversight, financial monitoring and support intended to ensure those schools deliver results for students.
Grant could add about 1,900 seats
The Charter Schools Program grant begins Oct. 1. At least 90% of the money — approximately $14.4 million — will be distributed through competitive subgrants supporting the planning, opening, replication and expansion of charter schools.
Proposals will be evaluated based on educational quality, demonstrated community need, organizational readiness, financial sustainability and evidence of demand. If enough proposals meet those standards, the initiative has a five-year goal of increasing Delaware’s charter school enrollment capacity by approximately 10%.
About 19,000 students currently attend Delaware’s 23 charter schools. A 10% capacity increase could create room for approximately 1,900 additional students, although actual growth will depend on the proposals received and approved.
“Expanding opportunities for students cannot be about adding seats for the sake of adding seats,” Delaware Secretary of Education Cindy Marten said. “We have to start with what students and communities need and be equally focused on quality, strong implementation and accountability.”
Grant targets unmet educational needs
The Delaware Department of Education said the grant will target educational needs that are not being fully met by existing programs. Potential areas include alternative and therapeutic education, career and workforce pathways, rural education, dual-language instruction, literacy programs and flexible options for students who are older than their classmates or have not earned enough credits to graduate on schedule.
The initiative also seeks to improve charter school access for economically and educationally disadvantaged students, multilingual learners, students with disabilities and other groups that have faced barriers to educational opportunities.
“Charter schools are one part of Delaware’s public education system,” Marten said. “This investment gives us an opportunity to support strong educational models where there is documented need, learn from what is working, and use those lessons to expand opportunity across public education.”
Priority for underserved students and communities
Existing charter schools applying for replication or expansion funding will be judged partly on their academic performance and operational track records.
Proposals serving underserved communities, addressing transportation barriers or expanding opportunities for multilingual learners and students with disabilities may receive priority consideration. Programs offering workforce-connected education or replicating successful school models also may receive additional consideration.
State officials emphasized, however, that priority status will not allow an applicant to bypass the program’s quality, readiness or financial requirements.
Investment extends beyond individual schools
A portion of the federal award will be used to provide charter schools with technical assistance in governance, board development, fiscal management, regulatory compliance, leadership development and program implementation. The state also plans to establish peer-learning programs and professional communities where educators and school leaders can share successful practices.
The grant also calls for stronger charter-authorizing practices, including annual reviews of each participating school’s academic, financial and organizational performance.
“We are grateful for the partnership between the Delaware Department of Education and the Delaware Charter Schools Network,” said Kendall Massett, the network’s executive director. “We are equally grateful for this investment in our education system, and for what it makes possible for students across our state.”
Massett said the grant reflects “a shared vision for collaboration, flexibility, and support for the people and strategies best positioned to make a difference for students statewide.”
Schools will face continuing monitoring
Schools receiving subgrants will undergo continuing fiscal, program and performance monitoring. That process will include progress reports, budget reviews, site visits, performance evaluations and reviews of implementation milestones.
The Department of Education said it will use those findings to identify risks, direct additional assistance to struggling programs and take corrective action when necessary. An independent outside evaluator also will assess the initiative throughout the five-year grant period.
Lessons and successful practices identified through the program will be shared with both charter and traditional public schools through professional development, peer networks and other cross-sector programs.
First competition planned during opening year
The Community Funding Accelerator assisted Delaware with identifying the federal funding opportunity, determining the state’s eligibility and preparing the application.
During the grant’s first year, the Department of Education plans to establish its management and accountability systems, consult with education stakeholders and provide technical assistance to prospective applicants. It also will release the first competitive funding opportunity, train application reviewers and select the first group of grant recipients.
Details about eligibility, application requirements, available award amounts and deadlines will be announced as the first competition is developed.
To Go Box
What: Federal Charter Schools Program grant
Award: $16 million over five years
Start date: Oct. 1, 2026
School funding: At least 90%, or approximately $14.4 million, will support competitive charter school subgrants
Potential uses: Planning and opening new charter schools and replicating or expanding successful schools
Statewide goal: Increase charter enrollment capacity by approximately 10%, subject to qualified proposals
Current charter enrollment: About 19,000 students attending 23 schools
How to apply: The Delaware Department of Education will release eligibility requirements, application instructions and deadlines as the first funding competition is developed
Learn more: Visit the Delaware Department of Education website at education.delaware.gov
RICHMOND, Virginia — Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones is demanding answers from the Department of Homeland Security after a whistleblower alleged federal employees improperly accessed state voter lookup systems while searching for noncitizen voters.
Jones said Thursday that the activity could violate several Virginia election laws, including rules limiting access to voter information. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Jones said Virginia’s voter lookup tools require users to attest under penalty of law that they are accessing their own records. He also directed DHS to preserve access logs, training materials and related communications.
The whistleblower report, released by Democratic Senate leaders, alleges U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees were given less than two hours of training and instructed to review lists supplied by DHS for possible “unlawful voters.” Employees were reportedly expected to examine about 40 people per day.
DHS has defended its broader effort to identify noncitizen voting, while the Trump administration has argued that citizenship checks are necessary to protect election integrity. Federal officials have also sought detailed voter information from numerous states, though several related efforts have faced court setbacks.
Jones asked DHS to stop any unauthorized access while Virginia reviews whether state law was violated.
Four of Nusrat Osman’s alleged abductors were killed during rescue after she was taken from outside her home last week
A British woman kidnapped in Malawi last week has been rescued by police after a shootout in which four of her alleged abductors were killed.
Nusrat Osman was abducted outside her home in the southern city of Blantyre on 11 September at about 12.30pm. Police had offered a reward of 30m Malawi kwacha (£12,950) for information leading to her rescue and the arrest of the perpetrators.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican campaign groups are directing significant money and high-profile surrogates into states that President Donald Trump comfortably carried, as several 2026 races remain competitive less than seven weeks before the midterm elections.
Vice President JD Vance campaigned in Kansas this week for Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, who faces Democrat Adam Hamilton. A recent Co/efficient poll showed Marshall leading 49% to 44%, despite Trump carrying Kansas by more than 16 percentage points in 2024. The Washington Examiner reported that MAGA Inc. helped organize the event.
Vance is also campaigning in Iowa, where Republican gubernatorial nominee Zach Lahn faces Democratic State Auditor Rob Sand and Republican Ashley Hinson is running against Democrat Josh Turek for Senate. The Associated Press described both contests as closely contested.
Outside spending is substantial elsewhere. Senate Leadership Fund has committed tens of millions across Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, while Republican groups are also spending offensively in Michigan, Georgia and New Hampshire.
Trump-aligned groups have committed more than $130 million nationwide, while Axios reported roughly $390 million in Senate advertising has been allocated for the post-Labor Day period.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “needs to go,” backing either impeachment or removal by President Donald Trump as criticism of the Pentagon chief expands within the GOP.
Tillis made the comments Thursday after Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky introduced eight articles of impeachment accusing Hegseth of constitutional and legal violations involving U.S. military operations in Iran, Venezuela and Yemen. Massie also accused Hegseth of defying congressional war-powers restrictions and retaliating against critics.
“I’ll let the House do what the House is gonna do,” Tillis told reporters. “We’ve got a management problem here. He needs to go.” Tillis added that having Trump replace Hegseth would be the “most expedient route.”
The North Carolina senator voted to confirm Hegseth but has become an increasingly vocal critic. Earlier this month, Tillis said he had “never witnessed more inept management” at the Pentagon and urged Trump to install new leadership.
House Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers into an early recess Wednesday rather than hold the anticipated impeachment vote. Massie said Republican leaders were concerned that additional GOP members could support his effort.
The House would have to approve impeachment before any Senate trial could occur.
BOISE, Idaho — A Boise minister convicted of misdemeanor trespassing after refusing to leave Gov. Brad Little’s office during a protest over transgender-related legislation will not serve additional jail time.
Idaho 4th District Judge Adam Kimball sentenced the Rev. Sara LaWall on Thursday to fines and court costs, while crediting her for the day she already spent in jail following her April arrest. LaWall, minister of the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, was among nine protesters arrested after remaining inside the governor’s office after it closed.
A jury convicted LaWall earlier this month after viewing body-camera footage showing an Idaho State Police trooper repeatedly instructing protesters to leave. LaWall acknowledged remaining after those warnings but described her actions as civil disobedience intended to draw attention to legislation affecting transgender Idahoans.
The April protest followed Little’s signing of legislation restricting transgender people’s bathroom use. Protesters were also opposing another measure requiring teachers and health professionals in certain circumstances to notify parents about a minor’s transgender identity. Little later signed that measure as well.
Kimball described LaWall’s conduct as “peaceful” and “considerate” but said protesters should not violate the law when their concerns go unheard. Three other trespassing cases stemming from the demonstration are also headed to trial.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told members of Children’s Health Defense that they have a “strong and steadfast friend at the White House,” appearing Thursday at the organization he led before entering government.
Kennedy delivered the remarks as the United States experiences its worst measles outbreak in decades. Pennsylvania has reported more than 690 cases and four measles-associated deaths this year, all involving unvaccinated people, according to state officials. Kennedy has disputed how some deaths are being classified, while Pennsylvania has requested emergency CDC assistance.
During his roughly 90-minute speech, Kennedy said changes to federal vaccine policy must proceed within legal limits but assured attendees that his administration allies were continuing their efforts. “We are doing this one day at a time,” he said. The conference also featured longtime vaccine opponents, including Andrew Wakefield, whose research claiming a vaccine-autism connection was discredited.
Kennedy briefly addressed measles deaths while emphasizing what he described as vaccine injuries. Extensive scientific research has found no causal connection between vaccines and autism.
The appearance comes as confidence in childhood vaccines has declined. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found 76% of Americans considered measles vaccines safe, down from 84% in 2020.
Caption: Nobody should be bored this weekend… there is a festival, events, outing, sale or musical for everyone! Enjoy Delaware!
Our “Gotta Love the Weekend” Report: More than 500 classic vehicles headline a weekend filled with college football, festivals, living history, theater, outdoor programs, and fall family activities.
WILMINGTON, Del. — From classic automobiles and college football to fireworks, German food and Revolutionary War history, Delaware and the surrounding region offer a full schedule of activities this weekend.
Hagley Car Show
More than 500 antique and restored vehicles from the early 1900s through the early 2000s will fill the grounds of Hagley Museum and Library during the annual Hagley Car Show from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20.
This year’s special feature, “American Independent Automakers,” celebrates companies that competed outside Detroit’s traditional Big Three. Three feature fields will highlight vehicles connected to those manufacturers.
The rain-or-shine show also includes a vehicle parade, motoring music, food trucks and access to “Du Ponts Down the Road,” an exhibition of vehicles once owned and used by members of the du Pont family. Featured pieces include a horse-drawn carriage, an early electric car, a 1918 Cadillac, a 1928 DuPont Motors Model G Phaeton and a World War II-era Indian motorcycle.
Advance admission is required and sold by the carload for up to eight people. Passes cost $30 for the general public and $25 for Hagley members. Dogs are not permitted. Passes will be sold until 11:59 p.m. Saturday or until the event sells out. Details are available on the Hagley Car Show website.
Blue Hens Host Coastal Carolina
The University of Delaware football team returns to Delaware Stadium at 11:30 a.m. Saturday to face Coastal Carolina in a nationally televised game on CBS Sports Network.
The Blue Hens enter the game with a 1-1 record after opening the season with a 42-7 victory over Merrimack and losing 35-26 at Vanderbilt. Saturday’s game is also Band Day at Delaware Stadium.
The game gives families and football fans an early Saturday option before visiting one of the afternoon or evening festivals. Tickets and game-day information are available from University of Delaware Athletics.
Riverwalk Freedom Festival
Downtown Milford will host the 26th annual Riverwalk Freedom Festival from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday along the Mispillion Riverwalk and throughout the downtown area.
The free event will feature more than 150 vendors, food trucks, live music, a car show, children’s games, a pet park and a brew garden. The Mispillion River Duck Dash begins at 3:30 p.m., with numbered ducks available for $5 and cash prizes of $500, $250 and $100.
The festival concludes with Milford’s only public fireworks display of the season at 8:30 p.m. Families should arrive early and bring blankets or folding chairs. Popular viewing locations include the Riverwalk and Memorial Park.
The Chadds Ford Historical Society will bring the American Revolution to life Saturday during the Battle at Chadds Ford and Historic Chadds Ford Days.
The daytime program runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and features Revolutionary War skirmishes, military encampments, artillery demonstrations, colonial trades, music, food and family activities. Visitors can watch blacksmithing, woodworking, candle making and other demonstrations showing what life was like during the Revolutionary era.
Tavern Night in the Grove follows from 6 to 10 p.m., offering period music, costumed entertainment, traditional food and beverages, cannon fire and fireworks. The event takes place at the historical society’s Barn Visitors Center, 1736 Creek Road in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.
The Delaware Sängerbund Oktoberfest brings German food, music, dancing and family entertainment to 49 Salem Church Road near Newark from Friday through Sunday.
The long-running festival recreates the atmosphere of a traditional Bavarian celebration with live bands, German beer, folk dancing and foods prepared by Sängerbund members. The menu typically includes bratwurst, potato pancakes, schnitzel, sauerkraut, potato salad and German desserts.
Amusement rides are available for children, while the large festival tent offers music and dancing throughout the weekend. Admission is $10, with children 16 and younger admitted free when accompanied by an adult. Visit the Delaware Sängerbund for hours, parking and event details.
“Fiddler on the Roof” Opens at Candlelight
The Candlelight Theatre opens “Fiddler on the Roof” on Friday at its historic dinner theater at 2208 Millers Road in Wilmington.
The Tony Award-winning musical follows Tevye, a Jewish dairyman struggling to preserve his family’s traditions amid cultural and political upheaval in early 20th-century Russia. Its familiar score includes “Tradition,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Matchmaker” and “Sunrise, Sunset.”
The production runs through Oct. 25. Candlelight tickets include a meal served before the performance, and a full-service cash bar is available. Performance times vary. Tickets and show information are available from The Candlelight Theatre.
Delaware Nature Society Native Plant Sale at Coverdale Farm
The Delaware Nature Society is offering several outdoor programs for people interested in native plants, birds, wildlife and hiking.
Saturday’s activities include the Fall Native Plant Sale at Coverdale Farm Preserve in Greenville and Hawk Watch at Ashland Nature Center in Hockessin. Other programs include farm activities, nature art, marsh exploration and monarch butterfly programs at locations around the state.
Sunday opportunities include guided bird walks, another day of Hawk Watch and a hike through Flint Woods Preserve, which is not ordinarily open to the public. Times, fees and registration requirements vary by program. The complete schedule is available through the Delaware Nature Society events calendar.
More Weekend Options
The Delaware Seafood Festival will bring crabs, oysters, shrimp, lobster, crab cakes, live music and cooking demonstrations to Schellville near Rehoboth Beach on Saturday. Ticket and scheduling information is available through Visit Delaware.
Fifer Orchards near Wyoming is also opening its fall festival season with a corn maze, outdoor play areas, seasonal food and apple picking when available. Festival information and tickets are available from Fifer Orchards.
Meals on Wheels Delaware will hold its Hats & Heels fundraiser Saturday evening at Bally’s Dover Casino Resort. The event features food, music, fashion and contests while raising money to support homebound older Delawareans. Information is available from Meals on Wheels Delaware.
To Go Box
What: Major weekend events across Delaware and the Brandywine Valley
When: Friday through Sunday, Sept. 18-20
Top attraction: Hagley Car Show, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday
Sports: Delaware vs. Coastal Carolina, 11:30 a.m. Saturday
Walks in southern Delaware and Wilmington will raise money for Alzheimer’s care, support and research
WILMINGTON, Del. — Delaware residents are being invited to join the fight against Alzheimer’s disease during two Walk to End Alzheimer’s events this fall.
The Alzheimer’s Association Delaware Chapter will hold its Southern Delaware walk Saturday, Sept. 26, followed by the Wilmington walk Saturday, Oct. 31.
“Alzheimer’s is a growing crisis in Delaware. As our population ages, more individuals and families are confronting this devastating disease,” said Glen Gray, chair of the Alzheimer’s Association Delaware Chapter. “Early detection and decades of research have improved outcomes for heart disease and many cancers, including breast cancer. But no one survives Alzheimer’s. That is why this walk — and the research, care and support it funds — is so important to our community.”
The annual walks bring together people living with Alzheimer’s, caregivers, families and supporters while raising money for research and the association’s care and support programs.
A central part of each event will be the Promise Garden ceremony, during which participants carry flowers representing their personal connections to Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
Each flower color has a different meaning. Participants may walk in honor of someone living with Alzheimer’s, in memory of someone who died from the disease, as a caregiver or as a supporter of the association’s goal of ending Alzheimer’s.
More than 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Nearly 13 million relatives and friends provide care for people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
In Delaware, more than 22,300 people are living with Alzheimer’s, and more than 37,000 people serve as caregivers, according to the association.
The Walk to End Alzheimer’s is described by the Alzheimer’s Association as the world’s largest event dedicated to raising awareness and funding for Alzheimer’s care, support and research. Its roots date to 1989, when the organization began holding Memory Walk events across the country.
Participation is open to individuals, families, businesses and community organizations. Walkers may register individually or create or join a team.
Funds raised support the Alzheimer’s Association’s work to accelerate research, encourage early detection and risk reduction, and provide care and support services for families affected by dementia.
To Go Box
What: Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s
Southern Delaware walk: Saturday, Sept. 26
Wilmington walk: Saturday, Oct. 31
Registration: Participants may register, form a team, join an existing team or donate at alz.org/walk.
Event information: Visit the individual registration pages for the Southern Delaware or Wilmington walks for locations, schedules and fundraising updates.
Learn more: Visit alz.org or call the Alzheimer’s Association’s 24-hour helpline at 800-272-3900.
MIAMI, Florida — Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar is publicly challenging President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policies, using a new campaign ad to warn that Hispanic voters who supported him in 2024 now feel “betrayed.”
“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Salazar says in the ad, filmed outside the White House. She pointed to July detention figures and urged Trump to “be careful” about advice he receives on immigration. CBS News and Reuters independently reported the remarks Thursday.
Salazar, whose South Florida district includes a large Hispanic population, endorsed Trump in 2024 and has generally supported his presidency. However, she has long advocated an immigration approach combining stronger border enforcement with legal protections for some undocumented immigrants already living in the United States.
Her criticism comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests have increased sharply. Reuters reported that ICE took nearly 51,000 people into custody in August, setting another monthly high, while more than three-quarters of recent arrests involved people without criminal records.
Salazar is seeking another House term against Democratic nominee Eliott Rodriguez. Her ad argues that Trump can pursue immigration enforcement without granting amnesty while providing undocumented residents what she called “a dignified life.”
Free Sept. 26 festival at Hudson Fields will feature live music, children’s activities and more than 30 recovery organizations and vendors
MILTON, Del. — People in recovery, their families and community supporters will gather at Hudson Fields on Saturday, Sept. 26, for atTAcK addiction’s third annual Sober Fest.
The free festival, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., is designed to celebrate recovery while connecting Sussex County residents with treatment information, support services and others who understand the challenges posed by substance use disorders.
“The festival is not only a place where people can come together in an alcohol- and drug-free environment, but it is meant to foster community connection and care, so that people don’t feel isolated in their recovery,” said Dawn Hess-Fischer, president of atTAcK addiction and chair of Sober Fest.
The event will include more than 30 organizations and vendors offering resources for people in recovery and their families. Activities will include food, arts and crafts, bounce houses, free reiki services, an ice cream truck and appearances by characters from “Bluey” and “Super Mario Bros.”
The Oxford Houses of Delaware will sponsor a cornhole tournament.
Nick Kashmanian will perform from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed by Girls Room from 1 to 3 p.m.
“We created Sober Fest as a way for the Sussex County community to unite, celebrate recovery, learn about local resources and see that there is hope in recovery,” Hess-Fischer said.
Building support beyond treatment
Organizers say treatment programs, counselors and recovery groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Nar-Anon provide important help, but people affected by addiction also need supportive relationships within their communities.
Sober Fest seeks to create those connections in an informal, family-friendly setting while making conversations about substance use and recovery easier.
“Our goal is to continue celebrating recovery while educating the public about this disease,” Hess-Fischer said. “At atTAcK addiction, we work every day to erase the stigma surrounding addiction, including here in Sussex County.”
According to figures provided by atTAcK addiction, Delaware recorded 314 overdose deaths in 2025, a 41% decline from the state’s 2022 peak. Organizers said the decrease represents meaningful progress but does not diminish the continuing demand for treatment, recovery services and housing assistance.
atTAcK addiction, founded in 2013, is a statewide nonprofit that raises awareness about addiction, assists individuals and families and supports people in recovery.
The organization owns three recovery residences, provides recovery housing scholarships, offers free naloxone training and educational programs, advocates for legislation and conducts community outreach. It also operates a resource center at 210 Peoples Plaza in Newark.
Activities: Live music, food, children’s activities, arts and crafts, reiki services, a cornhole tournament and recovery resources from more than 30 organizations and vendors
Need help: Call atTAcK addiction at 302-365-5221 or Delaware’s Hope Line at 833-9-HOPEDE (833-946-7333). Free, 24-hour support and state-vetted treatment resources are also available at HelpIsHereDE.com.
SACRAMENTO, California — California lawmakers have sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a bill that would establish 18 as the minimum age for marriage, ending the state’s current system that allows minors to wed with parental consent and court approval.
Assembly Bill 1267, authored by Democratic Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, passed the Legislature with near-unanimous support and was presented to Newsom on Sept. 3. He has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto it. California is one of three states, along with New Mexico and Mississippi, that currently has no statutory minimum marriage age.
The ACLU opposes the measure, arguing that an absolute ban could limit minors’ autonomy, including decisions tied to emancipation and reproductive health. Planned Parenthood, which opposed earlier efforts to restrict child marriage, remained neutral this year.
Supporters say the existing law leaves minors vulnerable to coercion and abuse. Survivor advocacy group Unchained at Last says most child marriages involve girls marrying adult men. Pellerin said lawmakers should recognize that minors “are children” even when they may appear mature.
Previous California efforts to impose a minimum marriage age failed amid objections from civil-liberties and reproductive-rights groups. If Newsom signs AB 1267, the new minimum age would take effect Jan. 1, 2027.
Minneapolis, Minnesota — Federal immigration officer Christian Castro was arrested Wednesday in Minneapolis, ending a months-long interstate dispute over state assault charges stemming from the January shooting of a Venezuelan man during a major immigration enforcement operation.
Castro, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, is accused of firing through the door of an apartment and shooting Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg while children were inside. Minnesota prosecutors also charged Castro with falsely reporting a crime after he allegedly told federal supervisors that Sosa-Celis and others attacked officers with a snow shovel and broom. Prosecutors say video evidence contradicted that account.
Castro had returned to Texas following the shooting, where authorities arrested him in May on Minnesota’s warrant. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott later declined to sign extradition papers, questioning whether Castro qualified as a fugitive because the Department of Homeland Security had reassigned him to Texas. A federal judge subsequently declined Minnesota’s request to compel his extradition.
Castro spent roughly 90 days in a Texas jail before his August release. He was later federally indicted on charges of making false statements to investigators about the shooting and arrested again. DHS has suspended him from ICE, and authorities have opened a separate civil rights investigation.
His attorneys say Castro always intended to answer the Minnesota charges and denies that he attempted to flee. Under an arrangement with Minnesota authorities, he drove from Texas intending to surrender at his lawyer’s office but was arrested shortly before arriving.
Castro is expected to make his first Minnesota court appearance Thursday. The charges remain allegations, and he has not been convicted.
US president responds as Mark Carney seeks to move closer to Europe and diversify defence ties
Donald Trump has threatened the EU with “serious tariffs” and a halt to trade after the bloc proposed making Canada its first ever associate member – an idea he derided as “laughable”.
The US president said that if the EU moved forward with the plan, Washington could impose “very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe”. He added: “If it’s a good intention, that’s fine. If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe.”
Atlanta, Georgia — A hacker collective dismantled a Flock Safety camera, copied much of its internal software and storage, and shared the files with journalists, revealing that the company’s surveillance devices collect far more information than license plates alone.
The group, calling itself stegan0gram, provided the data to 404 Media and WIRED. Their analysis found that one camera generated about 1.6 million images from roughly 50,000 vehicles over 21 days, sometimes capturing dozens of images of the same vehicle. The software also explicitly detected people and bicycles, not just cars and license plates.
The files showed the system could isolate details such as bumper stickers, vehicle characteristics and objects carried by people. Analysts also found that one storage partition was not encrypted and contained a key that unlocked additional recorded media, raising questions about Flock’s previous claims regarding on-device protections.
Flock said the unauthorized removal and tampering of its hardware is illegal and noted that the hackers did not report the findings through its official vulnerability-disclosure process.
The disclosure comes amid growing scrutiny of Flock’s expanding national network. WIRED reported that data from some systems can be accessed by more than 2,000 agencies, while several communities have recently suspended or abandoned the technology over privacy and oversight concerns.
Boston recently said it will no longer use Flock after discovering that data from a 2025 pilot had been shared nationally despite a contractual requirement that such sharing be disabled.
The hacked camera adds a new dimension to the debate: the issue is no longer limited to who can search license plates, but also how much information the devices actually collect and how securely that data is stored.
Library employees and volunteers, joined by County Executive Marcus Henry and Mayor Travis McDermott, got an up-close look at the progress construction crews are making on the new Newark Free Library on Monday.
New York, New York — A Florida academic pleaded guilty Monday to falsifying records and fraudulently obtaining $750,000 from a compensation fund established for victims of Jeffrey Epstein, federal prosecutors said.
Jennifer Percival, 46, director of Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, admitted that she fabricated documents after an earlier claim to the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program was rejected in 2020.
According to prosecutors, Percival applied in 2024 to a separate $290 million compensation fund created as part of JPMorgan Chase’s settlement with Epstein victims. To qualify, she falsely claimed that Epstein’s estate had previously approved her for $500,000 and altered the rejection letter to support that assertion.
Percival also fabricated emails and other records to reinforce the claim. Based on the false documentation, the JPMorgan fund awarded her $750,000. When the FBI began investigating in 2025, authorities said Percival continued the deception by providing additional false emails to a federal prosecutor.
At Monday’s plea hearing, Percival acknowledged that the goal of her actions was to obtain money, which she said provided “a sense of validation.” She brought a check for $776,031 to court to cover restitution and related costs.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Percival faces an estimated three to four years in prison, although the judge is not required to follow that recommendation. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Her attorney is expected to seek leniency based partly on Percival’s academic career and work in disability research.
Gastonia, North Carolina — President Donald Trump used a campaign rally Wednesday to describe North Carolina as “one of the worst in the whole nation” while repeating multiple claims about former Gov. Roy Cooper that conflict with state records.
Trump, campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley, called Democratic opponent Cooper a “murderer-protector” and again blamed him for the release of DeCarlos Brown Jr., the man accused of killing 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska aboard a Charlotte light-rail train in 2025.
That accusation is false. The North Carolina Department of Adult Correction says Brown was not released early. He served 100% of his minimum sentence, including credit for time already served, and left prison in September 2020, five months before a February 2021 COVID-era prison settlement Republicans have attempted to connect to his release. The department has said neither that settlement nor Cooper caused Brown to leave prison.
Trump also claimed North Carolina had become “one of the most violent” states and said the decline “all started with Cooper.” The latest complete statewide figures from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation provide no support for that narrative. Violent crime fell 4.3% in 2024, including a 9.2% decline in the murder rate. Statewide violent crime totaled 40,875 offenses, or about 390 per 100,000 residents.
Trump then accused Cooper of doing “nothing” after Hurricane Helene. Public records also contradict that characterization. Cooper declared a state of emergency before the storm, mobilized National Guard soldiers and rescue teams, requested an expedited federal disaster declaration and later sought more than $25 billion in federal recovery aid. By October 2024, thousands of state and federal responders were working throughout western North Carolina.
Trump’s remarks came during a rally intended to boost Whatley in his Senate contest against Cooper. While criticism of an opponent’s crime or disaster record is standard campaign politics, the specific claims tying Cooper to Brown’s release and portraying the Helene response as nonexistent are contradicted by official records.
Washington, D.C. — Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., blocked an effort Wednesday by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., to advance legislation requiring developers of advanced artificial intelligence systems to include an emergency “kill switch” designed to stop models that behave dangerously or outside intended controls.
Kennedy sought to pass the measure by unanimous consent, a Senate procedure that allows legislation to move quickly but also permits any single senator to object. Paul did so, arguing that Congress should not impose broad technical requirements before lawmakers better understand how the technology works and how such mandates could affect innovation.
Kennedy said the proposal was intended as a narrow safeguard rather than a comprehensive AI regulatory framework. “I’m not standing here today suggesting to you I have all the answers,” he said. “What I am suggesting to you is there are risks to artificial intelligence.”
Paul warned the language could have unintended consequences, questioning whether requirements might eventually be interpreted to apply to search engines, medical software or other AI-assisted systems. He proposed creating a bipartisan panel to study potential safeguards instead.
Kennedy rejected that alternative, saying Congress should act on at least a limited safety measure now rather than delay action through another study commission.
The exchange comes amid a broader debate in Washington over whether advanced AI systems should face federal safety requirements. Some technology executives have called for stronger guardrails, while others argue that premature regulation could slow U.S. innovation and weaken its competitive position against China.
The blocked motion does not prevent Kennedy from reintroducing the proposal through the normal committee and legislative process.
Washington, D.C. — Greenland and Antarctica have lost about 12.5 trillion tons of ice since 1979, according to a major satellite analysis showing that ice-sheet losses have accelerated sharply in recent decades.
The study, published in Scientific Data, combined 45 independent surveys using 27 satellite missions. Researchers calculated that the lost ice has added about 1.2 inches to global sea levels since 1979, in addition to increases caused by thermal expansion and other sources.
Most of the loss — roughly five-sixths — came from dynamic processes such as glaciers flowing into warmer ocean water, rather than surface melting caused directly by hotter air. That distinction matters because marine-driven ice loss can accelerate rapidly once glaciers retreat into deeper water.
The researchers found that Greenland and Antarctica were comparatively stable through much of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s before losses increased substantially during the 2010s. A slowdown between 2020 and 2023 was attributed mainly to short-term weather patterns, including unusually heavy snowfall in East Antarctica.
Lead author Ines Otosaka of Northumbria University said the long-term trend remains clear and closely linked to climate change. Scientists warned that ice sheets respond slowly to warming, meaning additional losses are likely to continue for decades even if global temperatures stabilize.
The findings are based on multiple independent measurement techniques, which outside researchers said increases confidence that the observed acceleration is real.
Photo: Delaware LIVE photo take a Katz Headquarters on 9/15. Dr. Mike Katz is pictured with his wife moments after announcing his victory.
Senate nominee emphasizes affordability and unity; House nominee centers campaign on restoring economic growth and ending overseas wars
DOVER, Del. — Delaware Republicans selected two candidates with unconventional political backgrounds Tuesday, hoping Dr. Mike Katz and Dr. Joe Arminio can expand the party’s reach and make the state’s federal races more competitive in November.
Katz, a physician, business owner and former Democratic state senator, captured about 77% of the Republican vote for U.S. Senate, according to unofficial election returns. Arminio, a political scientist, author and educator, won approximately 48% in the three-way Republican primary for Delaware’s lone U.S. House seat.
Katz will face Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, while Arminio will challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride. Both Democratic incumbents begin the general election with Delaware’s recent voting history on their side, but the Republican nominees bring approaches that differ from those of traditional GOP candidates.
Katz wins with coalition message
Katz’s decisive victory over John Shulli affirmed the Delaware Republican Party’s decision to endorse a candidate who has belonged to three political parties.
Katz represented northern New Castle County in the Delaware Senate as a Democrat from 2009 to 2013. He later became an independent and ran for U.S. Senate in 2024 before joining the Republican Party for the 2026 campaign.
Instead of avoiding that history, Katz incorporated it into a campaign centered on “people over party.” His campaign argues that Republicans cannot win statewide in Delaware without attracting independents and some Democrats who are dissatisfied with the cost of living, government performance and the direction of the state.
In his primary victory speech, Katz said he heard similar concerns while speaking with voters across the political spectrum.
“Delaware families are facing an affordability crisis,” Katz said. “The cost of housing, food, health care, energy and simply raising a family has become too high.”
Katz presented himself as a physician and business operator who would bring a problem-solving approach to Washington. His platform emphasizes reducing federal spending, cutting regulations, lowering energy and housing costs, expanding health care access and protecting Delaware employers.
“Leadership is not about talking about problems,” Katz said. “Leadership is about solving them.”
Katz said his medical and business experience taught him to examine evidence, bring people together, make difficult decisions and accept responsibility for the results. He argued that government should operate with the same accountability.
“Public office is not about power or titles, and it should never be about the person holding the office,” Katz said. “Those entrusted with public office — our public servants — work for you.”
His platform also includes traditional Republican positions on border enforcement, public safety, gun rights, election laws and women’s sports. Katz said those principles would not prevent him from working with people outside his party.
“We can stand firmly on our principles and still work with people who disagree with us,” Katz said. “I will work with anyone who is willing to work with me to solve problems for the people of Delaware.”
Coons, meanwhile, is seeking a third full term and won about 78% of the Democratic primary vote against three challengers. He enters the general election with the advantages of incumbency, a substantial campaign organization and more than a decade in the Senate.
Arminio campaigns on two sweeping ideas
The House primary produced a different message.
Arminio defeated attorney John Whalen III and Earl Cooper, the candidate endorsed by the Delaware Republican Party at its state convention. Unofficial returns showed Arminio with about 48%, Whalen with 32% and Cooper with 20%.
The result demonstrated that the party endorsement was not decisive for Republican voters in the congressional contest.
Arminio is a Wilmington native who holds a doctorate in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has taught at American University and Lincoln University and has worked on national defense and public policy issues.
He built his campaign around two sweeping ideas: stopping what he calls America’s “endless wars” and returning the country to economic growth comparable to the 1950s.
Arminio argues that the two issues are connected. He says stronger domestic growth and a less interventionist foreign policy would allow the country to direct more attention and resources toward American families, communities and businesses.
His foreign policy proposal, which he calls “The Grand Bargain,” would reduce American involvement in overseas conflicts and pursue negotiated settlements in Europe and the Middle East. Arminio argues that the United States should avoid prolonged foreign entanglements while maintaining enough military and economic strength to deter adversaries.
Arminio has presented voters with detailed explanations of both proposals through campaign materials, policy documents and public appearances. Whether those plans would produce the results he promises — and how they would affect economic growth, national security and America’s alliances — will likely become central questions in the general election campaign.
Following his primary victory, Arminio said Republican voters had endorsed a campaign focused on developing substantial solutions rather than relying on slogans.
“I am grateful Republican voters endorsed a campaign committed to doing the hard work required to solve the issues facing our communities,” Arminio told Delaware LIVE. “I thank my two opponents for stepping forward and offering their ideas. I echo Delaware Republican Party Chairman Gene Truono’s call for unity. Now is the time for Delawareans who want change to come together and work to defeat U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride in November.”
McBride, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary, is seeking a second term in the House.
Can Republicans make Delaware competitive?
The nominations give the Delaware GOP two candidates who can argue that they are offering something different from standard party politics.
Katz is campaigning as a coalition-builder with experience in medicine, business and more than one political party. Arminio is offering detailed but unconventional plans intended to reshape American economic and foreign policy.
Those differences could help Republicans generate attention and focus the general election on affordability, government spending, energy costs, health care, economic growth and America’s involvement in overseas conflicts.
However, making Delaware competitive will require more than distinctive biographies and policy proposals.
Democrats have held Delaware’s U.S. House seat since 2010. McBride won the 2024 election with 57.9% of the vote, compared with 42.1% for Whalen. Republicans have not won a Delaware U.S. Senate election since William Roth’s reelection in 1994. Coons won his most recent election in 2020 with 59.4% of the vote.
The last Republican elected to federal office from Delaware was former U.S. Rep. Mike Castle, who won his final House election in 2008 and served until 2011. Castle was known as a fiscal conservative and social moderate who regularly attracted voters outside his party.
Katz used his victory speech to make a similar appeal beyond the Republican base.
“Ultimately, there are no Republican families, Democratic families or independent families,” Katz said. “There are Delaware families. We are neighbors. We are one community. We share a future and a responsibility.”
Katz and Arminio will now have to demonstrate that their messages can reach voters beyond the Republican primary. The November campaigns will test whether Delaware voters see their unconventional backgrounds and policy plans as credible alternatives or continue the state’s long pattern of supporting Democratic candidates for federal office.
To Go Box
What: Delaware general election
When: Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026
U.S. Senate: Republican Mike Katz faces Democratic incumbent Chris Coons.
U.S. House: Republican Joe Arminio faces Democratic incumbent Sarah McBride.
Election information: Voter registration, polling places, absentee voting information and official results are available at elections.delaware.gov. and on www.DelawareLIVE.com
Washington, D.C. — House lawmakers are leaving Washington a day earlier than planned, delaying consideration of Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Speaker Mike Johnson canceled Thursday’s scheduled votes, making Wednesday the House’s final legislative day before a roughly seven-week recess. The change means Massie’s privileged impeachment resolution will not receive consideration until lawmakers return after Election Day.
Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment Tuesday accusing Hegseth of continuing military operations in Iran without congressional authorization and of other alleged abuses involving U.S. actions in Venezuela and Yemen. The allegations have not been adjudicated, and the Pentagon has defended Hegseth.
Because Massie designated the resolution as privileged, House rules require leadership to address it within a limited number of legislative days. With the chamber now leaving town, that procedural clock effectively pauses until members return.
Massie had predicted Republican leaders might cancel votes to avoid dealing with the resolution before the election. Johnson rejected that explanation Wednesday, calling the impeachment effort a “publicity stunt” and saying the schedule change was intended to let members return home and campaign.
The dispute comes amid growing congressional friction over the Iran war. On Tuesday, the House voted 220-204 for a third time to direct an end to unauthorized U.S. hostilities with Iran, with seven Republicans joining Democrats.
The impeachment resolution remains pending and can be taken up when the House reconvenes after the midterms.
Los Angeles, California — Three people were killed Tuesday evening when a news helicopter used by NBC4 Los Angeles and Telemundo 52 crashed in the Chatsworth neighborhood while covering a separate deadly collision involving an SUV and a Metro bus.
NBC4 identified the two people aboard the helicopter as aerial journalist Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw, both employees of Angel City Air. A third person was killed on the ground. The Los Angeles Fire Department said the helicopter went down shortly before 7 p.m. near Mason Avenue, igniting a fire that damaged four vehicles and two storage containers.
The crash happened while several news helicopters were covering an earlier collision between an SUV and a city bus in the same area. That crash killed at least two people and sent six others to hospitals, according to the fire department.
Video from the helicopter’s final live transmission captured an alarm sounding as the aircraft rapidly lost altitude. Aviation experts cautioned that the footage alone cannot establish the cause. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating.
Moreno had worked in aerial news coverage since 2010 and regularly reported for both NBC4 and Telemundo 52. Marciniw was a longtime Southern California pilot who had flown with Moreno since 2023.
NBC4 anchors announced the deaths during an emotional live broadcast Tuesday night as colleagues continued reporting from both crash scenes.
One race came down to seven votes. Six sitting lawmakers lost their seats. Here’s what actually happened.
DOVER, Del. —Four voters. That’s all it would have taken to flip the closest race in Delaware’s 2026 primary. Morgan Hudson beat Matt Bucher by seven votes, 1,017 to 1,010, for the Republican nomination in State House District 33, an open Kent County seat. That’s a tighter margin than New Castle County Council District 4, which was decided by 28 votes.
The bigger surprise is what happened to incumbents. Twenty-one Delaware incumbents drew a primary challenger this cycle. Six of them lost.
Five of those six losses have something in common: the challenger in each race was backed by the Delaware Working Families Party, a political group that describes itself as working to build power for the working class in Delaware by electing candidates and pushing progressive policy.
Five different districts, five different incumbents, the same group backing the winner each time, all in one night.
The Working Families Party endorsed 13 candidates this cycle. Eight won. Five of those winners beat a sitting incumbent, the five races listed above. Two more winners ran in open seats: Rachel Krantz in House District 6 and Kira Alejandro in New Castle County Council District 3. The eighth winner, Rep. Sherae’a Moore in House District 8, was already the incumbent, defending a seat she already held.
One more incumbent lost that night, and it had nothing to do with the Working Families Party. It was the New Castle County Recorder of Deeds, the office that keeps the county’s property records. That loss shows the anti-incumbent mood wasn’t limited to one group’s list of targets.
Most primaries weren’t close. But the ones that were came down to a small number of voters deciding who represents tens of thousands of people for the next two years. Turnout was low this cycle, which is part of why. The full breakdown, race by race, is in the table below.
*Delaware’s primary election was Sept. 16, 2026. Results below are official results.
2026 Delaware primary: unofficial results at a glance
Turnout
Voters who cast a ballot
*129,031 of 593,286 (21.75%)
Democratic primary votes cast
391,116
Republican primary votes cast
87,033
Closest races
Top 3 closest races
• Morgan Hudson beat Matt Bucher, 7 votes, House District 33
• Jason Hoover beat Helena Creamer, 28 votes, NCC Council District 4
• Sen. Dan Cruce beat Adriana Bohm, 146 votes, Senate District 1
Races decided by fewer than 5 points
6 of 33 contested races
Races decided by 50-plus points
5 of 33 contested races
Incumbents who lost (6 of 21 who ran)
Beaten by a WFP-endorsed challenger (5)
• Sen. Ray Seigfried
• Rep. Stephanie Bolden
• Rep. Josue Ortega
• Rep. Franklin Cooke Jr.
• Rep. William Carson Jr.
Lost, not a WFP race (1)
• Recorder of Deeds Michael Kozikowski Sr., beaten by David Tackett
No November race: already won (8 races, one party only)
State Senate & House
• Jack Walsh, Senate District 9
• Michelle H. Booker, House District 2
• Dave Redlawsk, House District 23
• Tyeisha “Tye” Grier, House District 28
• Kerri Evelyn Harris, House District 32
New Castle County
• Jason Hoover, Council District 4
• Valerie George, Council District 5
• David Tackett, Recorder of Deeds
(Correction [Sept. 16, 2026]: An earlier version of this article and table said 20 incumbents faced a primary this cycle. The correct total is 21. The affected figure have been updated. Also, updated table and added New Castle County’s three candidates to “no Nov. race.”)
This article is the sixth in a series of stories about Delaware Caregivers. Special thanks to Delaware Hospice, Easter Seal of Delaware, and Maryland’s Eastern Shor,e and Lynn Paxson of Oasis Senior Care.
With two-thirds of U.S. caregivers struggling to manage both employment and home duties, experts say planning, boundaries, and support can prevent burnout. (updated 9/1/26)
For thousands of Delawareans, caring for an aging or ill loved one is among the most meaningful roles they will ever take on — and also one of the most demanding. The constant pull of work obligations, family responsibilities, and the daily needs of someone who depends on you can feel like a relentless juggling act.
According to a recent AARP and S&P Global survey, 67% of family caregivers say they are struggling to manage both work and care, often feeling stretched thin and unsure how to stay ahead of it all. Many caregivers routinely experience stress, guilt, frustration, sadness, and emotional exhaustion, becoming overwhelmed by the daily decisions and responsibilities that caregiving requires.
This article — the sixth in a continuing series on the caregiver’s experience — explores practical strategies for balancing competing pressures while protecting your own well-being. Insights from national research and guidance from Delaware Hospice, Oasis Senior Care (a leading consultant for families), and Easterseals Delaware & Maryland’s Eastern Shore underscore a central message: you don’t have to do this alone, and thriving — not just surviving — is possible.
At Home: Building a Support System That Works
Caregiving is rarely meant to be a one-person job, even though many caregivers feel forced into that role. Experts recommend stepping back and making a clear-eyed assessment of what your loved one truly needs — and what tasks might be shared.
Seek Support and Share the Load
Delaware Hospice encourages caregivers to begin by listing daily and weekly care needs and identifying which tasks can realistically be delegated. That may mean asking a sibling to handle financial paperwork, a neighbor to assist with transportation, or hiring part-time in-home support.
When family members live far away or cannot provide hands-on care, asking them to share in financial support — such as covering a few hours of respite care — can significantly reduce stress.
When others offer help, be specific. Instead of a general response, try: “Can you come over Tuesday at noon to help with lunch?”
Clear requests make it easier for others to step in meaningfully.
Prepare for the Unexpected
Health changes, sudden hospital trips, and equipment malfunctions are part of the caregiving reality. Preparing in advance reduces panic when emergencies arise.
Experts recommend:
Keeping medical, legal, and financial documents up to date
Creating a list of trusted helpers for home maintenance or repairs
Maintaining a folder with medications, emergency contacts, and care instructions
When the unexpected happens, preparation allows for calmer decisions and greater peace of mind.
Protect Your Own Health
Caregivers often put themselves last — yet burnout is one of the greatest risks. Even small, scheduled breaks can help reset both body and mind.
Think of self-care as a daily practice, not a luxury:
A 20-minute walk
Quiet reading before bed
Stretching or light exercise
Time with a pet or favorite hobby
Take time to truly enjoy that cup of coffee or tea — not while multitasking, but simply being present.
Crystal Baynard, of Easter Seals also recommends scheduling time for yourself — daily, weekly, or monthly. “As a caregiver myself and someone who works for the Easterseals Community Outreach Program, my personal thoughts on caregiving support what you already have written. Most caregivers fully devote themselves to the role of supporting and providing for their loved one. Having connections of their own by socializing with friends or family, finding the right support group, and not ignoring signs stress or burnout are critical to the journey,” insists Baynard.
Caregivers are also encouraged to resist the urge to be “perfect.” No one can maintain an immaculate home, a full-time career, a perfectly stocked pantry, and be a caregiver — all at once. It is neither realistic nor necessary.
Equally important: do not compare your situation to others. Every caregiving journey is unique. Guilt over what hasn’t been accomplished only adds unnecessary weight.
At Work: Communicating Clearly and Knowing Your Rights
Balancing employment alongside caregiving is a major source of stress, but open communication and workplace flexibility can make a meaningful difference.
Talk With Your Employer
Experts say transparency can prevent misunderstandings about performance, attendance, or availability. Many workplaces offer options such as:
Flexible or adjusted hours
Remote or hybrid schedules
Extended lunch breaks for caregiving tasks
Employee Assistance Programs
A conversation with an HR representative may reveal benefits or accommodations you didn’t realize were available.
Inform and Lean on Colleagues
Letting coworkers know about your caregiving role can remove stigma and reduce misperceptions about commitment. It may also open the door to informal support — many colleagues are navigating caregiving responsibilities themselves.
Know Your Legal Protections
If your workplace has 50 or more employees, you may qualify for unpaid, job-protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Additionally, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects caregivers from discrimination, including being passed over for promotions because of family responsibilities.
Understanding these protections allows caregivers to manage their responsibilities without fear of risking their job or career progress.
Managing Stress: Tools and Techniques for Long-Term Balance
Caregiving stress is not only emotional — it affects physical health, decision-making, and relationships. Chronic stress can lead to serious health issues. Recognizing warning signs and lowering stress early can improve overall well-being.
Time Management and Organization
Digital tools and simple routines can bring structure to chaotic days:
Use shared calendars such as Google Calendar or Outlook
Try caregiving apps like CareZone for medication tracking and reminders
Group similar tasks together to conserve mental energy
Breaking large responsibilities into smaller, achievable steps helps reduce overwhelm.
Mindfulness and Mental Health
Practices such as deep breathing, meditation, journaling, or creative hobbies provide valuable emotional release. Professional counseling and caregiver support groups — both virtual and in person — offer coping strategies and reassurance that you are not alone.
Caregiver support groups, in particular, help reduce isolation by connecting people facing similar challenges. Many caregivers say others don’t fully understand their experience unless they, too, are caregivers. Local groups meet both in person and online to maximize access.
Stay Connected
Isolation is one of the hidden challenges of caregiving. Maintaining social connections — even brief ones — combats loneliness and restores perspective.
Acknowledge Your Limits
Fatigue, irritability, sadness, or withdrawal are common signs of burnout. Delaying help only worsens these conditions. Caregivers who recognize their limits and reach out early are better equipped to sustain care over the long term.
The Takeaway: You Can’t Pour from an Empty Cup
Lynn Paxson of Oasis Senior Advisors of Delaware reminds caregivers that balancing work, family, and caregiving is not about perfection. It’s about creating routines, setting boundaries, asking for help, and recognizing that caregiving will never be one-size-fits-all.
Caregivers who plan ahead, seek support, and prioritize their own health are better able to provide compassionate, consistent care for those they love.
This series will continue to explore issues facing caregivers, including financial planning, navigating difficult emotions, using respite services, and preparing for later stages of care.
If you are a caregiver, remember: you are doing one of the hardest — and most important — jobs there is. And you don’t have to do it alone. And if you know a caregiver, reach out — and help them understand that support is available.
If you’d like, I can also:
Tighten this for print space
Create a sidebar with local Delaware resources
Develop Part 7 of the series
Produce a newsletter or social-media version
Editor’s Notes: Help Is Available in Delaware
Caring for a loved one can feel overwhelming — but you don’t have to navigate it alone. These resources and reminders can help caregivers find support, reduce stress, and protect their own well-being.
Local & Trusted Support Resources
Delaware Hospice Provides hospice care, palliative care, caregiver education, and grief support. Offers counseling and guidance for families navigating serious illness. Family & Caregiver Support for Hospice Services in DelawarePhone: 302‑478‑5707
Easterseals Delaware & Maryland’s Eastern Shore Supports caregivers through respite services, adult day programs, and counseling. Helps families balance caregiving with work and personal responsibilities. Support for Caregivers | Easterseals Delaware & Maryland’s Eastern Shore Phone (New Castle): 302‑221‑207 Phone (Milford Wellness Village): 302‑253‑1129
Oasis Senior Advisors (also known as Oasis Senior Care) is a free senior living placement service that helps families in Delaware and beyond navigate options such as assisted living, memory care, and respite programs. Led locally by advisors such as Lynn Paxson in Hockessin, Oasis provides personalized guidance, community tours, and resource referrals to ease the stress of caregiving and transitions. Senior Living options in Delaware | Oasis Senior Advisors
San Antonio, Texas — The family of Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old Texas woman who died while 20 weeks pregnant, has filed a lawsuit alleging that the state’s abortion restrictions and decisions by her medical providers prevented her from receiving an abortion that could have saved her life.
Walker died in December 2024 after developing preeclampsia, a dangerous pregnancy-related blood-pressure disorder. Her family says she repeatedly asked doctors to end the pregnancy as her health deteriorated, including after experiencing seizures, dangerously high blood pressure and a blood clot. An autopsy listed hypertensive cardiovascular disease and preeclampsia as causes of death.
The lawsuit names Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas Medical Board Executive Director Stephen Brint Carlton, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the Bexar County Hospital District, several physicians and Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales. It alleges “deliberate indifference, discrimination, and medical mistreatment” and challenges the constitutionality of Texas’ abortion ban. Those claims have not yet been adjudicated.
Texas law bans most abortions but contains an exception when, in a physician’s judgment, a pregnancy creates a life-threatening condition or serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function. The central dispute in Walker’s case is whether her condition qualified under that exception and whether doctors were deterred from acting by the legal risks surrounding abortion care.
More than a dozen OB-GYNs who previously reviewed Walker’s medical records for ProPublica said termination should have been discussed as her risks increased, and several said ending the pregnancy would have prevented her death. Her family’s lawsuit now seeks to turn those medical questions into a legal test of how Texas’ abortion restrictions operate in life-threatening pregnancies.
University Health said it could not discuss individual patients or pending litigation but stated that it provides medically appropriate care while complying with applicable laws. Paxton’s office had not publicly responded to the lawsuit as of Wednesday morning.
Hugs for Our Heroes is a story about how remembrance can grow. What began with three grandsons honoring their grandfather has become an effort to recognize many of Delaware’s military veterans.
By John Riddle
A simple family tradition inspired by love and remembrance has grown into a philanthropic mission dedicated to honoring Delaware veterans.
Hugs for Our Heroes was founded by brothers Lucas, Jonas and Blake Karpinski in tribute to their grandfather, a Korean War veteran. Each Christmas, the family places a wreath on his grave, a meaningful gesture that keeps his memory and military service alive.
The brothers now want to extend that same recognition to other veterans throughout Delaware.
“Our commitment is to continue this wreath-laying tradition for Delaware veterans to honor their military service,” the organization explains on its website.
That commitment is at the heart of Hugs for Our Heroes, which focuses on community engagement, service and the creation of meaningful experiences that bring people together. Although its inspiration began with one veteran and one family, its mission reflects a much larger belief: Every person who served deserves to be remembered and appreciated.
For the Karpinski brothers, supporting veterans is also a way to strengthen the community. The organization emphasizes the importance of connection, collaboration and compassion, particularly when creating opportunities to recognize those who served in the military.
“We believe that strong communities are built through connection, collaboration and care,” the Hugs for Our Heroes website states.
Those qualities can be especially important when it comes to veterans. Military service often requires long separations from family, personal sacrifices and a willingness to face difficult and dangerous circumstances. While national observances such as Veterans Day and Memorial Day provide opportunities for widespread recognition, local programs can help ensure that veterans are remembered throughout the year.
Community-based efforts also allow residents to participate personally. Placing a wreath, attending an event, volunteering or making a donation may seem like a small gesture, but each action sends a message that military service has not been forgotten.
Hugs for Our Heroes seeks to create engaging experiences through thoughtful planning and what it describes as a people-first approach. Its activities are designed to unite participants while keeping veterans and their contributions at the center of the organization’s work.
The organization’s website currently promotes a golf-related event and invites supporters who cannot participate on the course to contribute through donations. The event offers another way for community members to gather around the group’s mission while helping its veteran-support initiatives.
Local businesses are also helping Hugs for Our Heroes expand its reach. Birdie’s Links and Drinks, located at 320 Auto Park Drive, is listed as a gold sponsor. The Middletown-area entertainment and dining venue offers food, drinks and indoor golf in a casual setting.
Business sponsorships can play an important role in community organizations by helping cover program and event expenses, attracting new supporters and introducing the mission to a wider audience. They also demonstrate that honoring veterans is a shared responsibility that can involve families, nonprofit groups, residents and businesses.
At its core, Hugs for Our Heroes is a story about how remembrance can grow. What began with three grandsons honoring their grandfather has become an effort to recognize many of Delaware’s military veterans.
The Christmas wreath placed on one Korean War veteran’s grave represents more than a seasonal family custom. It symbolizes gratitude, continuity and the promise that service will be remembered.
Through Hugs for Our Heroes, Lucas, Jonas and Blake Karpinski are carrying their grandfather’s legacy forward, one veteran, one wreath and one caring community at a time.
Additional information about the organization, its events and ways to help is available at HugsForOurHeroes.com.
Washington, D.C. — The White House is heavily promoting a new “Fraud Ledger” claiming the Trump administration has uncovered nearly $250 billion in federal fraud. However, a closer look at the numbers shows the total mixes together unproven suspicions, money sent to collections, future projected savings, and cases that actually began years before the current task force was created.
The distinction is crucial. As the Government Accountability Office (GAO) points out, suspected fraud isn’t proven fraud, and money referred for collection isn’t money recovered.
While the White House breaks its tracker into three categories, “fraud uncovered,” “fraud stopped,” and “fraud enforced”, it provides no detailed methodology showing how individual agencies validated their estimates or avoided counting overlapping cases.
Several key examples highlight how the ledger inflates its figures:
Old SBA Loan Flags: The ledger credits the administration with finding $22.2 billion in fraudulent pandemic loans. But the Small Business Administration (SBA) acknowledged those 562,000 loans were already flagged during the Biden administration; the current administration simply referred them for collection and investigation.
Pre-Existing Cases: The dashboard features four captured fugitives tied to $5.4 billion in intended losses, but three of those individuals were charged in 2019 or 2024—well before Trump took office for his second term.
Timeline Mismatches: Vice President JD Vance claimed the administration uncovered $250 billion in fraud since he became “fraud chief,” but the ledger counts data starting in January 2025—months before the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud was officially created in March 2026.
Federal fraud remains a major issue—the GAO estimates the government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually based on historical data. But unlike the GAO’s statistical reporting, the White House’s ledger lacks transparent documentation, presenting broad estimates as definitive enforcement wins that cannot be independently verified.
King George, Virginia — King George County Public Schools will once again allow middle school students to form noncurricular clubs, including a Gay-Straight Alliance, after settling a federal lawsuit brought by families who challenged the district’s earlier restrictions.
The ACLU of Virginia and Potomac Law Group sued on behalf of two students after King George Middle School denied them the opportunity to form a GSA while other noncurricular groups were operating. The lawsuit argued that the district’s policy violated the First Amendment and the federal Equal Access Act.
Under the settlement, the school board reversed its ban on noncurricular organizations at the middle-school level and adopted new rules allowing students to establish such clubs. Parents must provide written permission before a student can join or attend meetings.
The school division said the revised policy is intended to balance student access to organizations with parental involvement, transparency and school safety. King George County Schools also maintains broader nondiscrimination policies and says its schools are intended to provide equal access to designated youth groups.
The ACLU said the settlement ensures that all students can access extracurricular opportunities on equal terms. Attorneys for the families said they could return to court if the district rejects a future GSA application under the new policy.
The agreement ends the immediate dispute while leaving the district’s new club application and parental-consent requirements in place.
Washington, D.C. — Federal authorities say they disrupted an alleged Russian intelligence plot to assassinate a prominent Kremlin critic living in the Washington area, unveiling charges against five people accused of operating as part of a broader international network.
The Justice Department said the defendants worked for or with Russian intelligence services and sought to recruit people in the United States and abroad to conduct surveillance and targeted killings. Prosecutors allege the network has operated since at least 2024 and also plotted attacks against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries viewed as supporting Ukraine.
According to the indictment, operatives offered as much as $40,000 to kill the U.S.-based Russian dissident after first recruiting people to monitor the target. Authorities said the person approached to carry out the killing refused. A separate alleged plot involved a $25,000 offer to murder another target in Lithuania.
The five defendants include Russian nationals Yuri Khrameev and Kirill Khrameev, Cuban nationals Oemis Romagoza Durruthy and Yaidel Delgado Suarez, and Venezuelan national Angel Eduardo Castro. All remain at large. Some face additional murder-for-hire charges.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said the case demonstrates the government’s effort to stop foreign-directed violence inside the United States.
The Kremlin has denied involvement in similar overseas operations and said credible evidence would be needed to support the latest allegations. The charges remain allegations, and none of the defendants has been convicted.
Washington, D.C. — Federal agencies spent an estimated $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave in 2025, a sixfold increase from 2023, according to a new Government Accountability Office report examining workforce-reduction efforts under the Trump administration.
GAO found that about $6.7 billion of the total was tied to the government’s Deferred Resignation Program, which allowed eligible federal workers to stop working while continuing to receive pay and benefits until their separation date, generally Sept. 30, 2025.
Nearly 140,000 federal employees ultimately participated in the program, according to Office of Personnel Management data. OPM’s original offer explicitly stated that workers accepting deferred resignation would retain full pay and benefits regardless of daily workload and would be exempt from in-person work requirements.
The GAO said paid administrative leave increased 435% between 2023 and 2025. However, it also cautioned that agency reporting problems may have overstated some totals because holidays were sometimes incorrectly recorded as administrative leave.
The watchdog recommended that OPM publicly disclose unresolved data-quality problems and create a separate reporting category for paid leave used in workforce reductions. OPM agreed with both recommendations.
Democrats have criticized the deferred resignation strategy as wasteful, while the administration has argued that reducing the federal workforce will generate longer-term savings. GAO said OPM currently lacks sufficiently precise data to determine the full short-term costs of those workforce reductions against any eventual savings.
DOVER, Del. — Here are the unofficial results of the 2026 Delaware primary. There were 128,598 registered voters who cast a ballot out of 593,286 registered statewide, a turnout of 21.7%. Tables 1 through 4 below cover every statewide, legislative and county race.
First-term incumbent Valerie George survived a challenge by political newcomer Syam Kosigi in Tuesday’s primary in the District 5 New Castle County Council race.
Washington, D.C. — The Pentagon is asking military commanders to nominate physically fit, well-groomed and highly rated service members to attend Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Sept. 30 “State of the Force” address, according to emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
An Army email said nominees must pass the service’s fitness test, meet waist-to-height requirements and maintain “impeccable grooming and uniform standards.” Similar instructions were reportedly sent to other military branches.
The Pentagon is also seeking troops considered top performers with records of discipline, integrity and leadership. Selected attendees may have the opportunity to work out with Hegseth before or after the address.
The criteria align with priorities Hegseth outlined during a September 2025 speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico, where he announced tougher fitness and grooming standards across the armed forces. He said all service members should meet height and weight requirements and take physical fitness tests twice annually.
That address also drew attention for Hegseth’s criticism of overweight troops and generals and his declaration that there would be “no more beardos.” Since then, Pentagon officials have continued pressing military branches to enforce grooming and fitness rules more consistently.
Unlike last year’s gathering, which largely centered on generals and admirals, this year’s event is expected to include lower-ranking officers and enlisted personnel.
A Pentagon official declined to comment to the Journal on the selection criteria.
30th annual show celebrates nation’s 250th anniversary with rare vehicles from independent automakers
WILMINGTON, Del. — Hundreds of classic vehicles will roll into Hagley Museum and Library on Sunday, Sept. 20, as the Hagley Car Show celebrates its 30th anniversary and America’s 250th birthday.
The rain-or-shine show will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the fields surrounding the first du Pont family home. Thousands of automobile enthusiasts are expected to attend.
This year’s theme, “American Independent Automakers,” will spotlight companies that competed outside Detroit’s “Big Three” of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. Featured manufacturers will include AMC, Packard, Studebaker and Hudson.
Classic cars of all makes and models, dating from the early 20th century through 2001, will fill the main show field.
Rare vehicles highlight American innovation
Among the lesser-known automobiles scheduled to appear is a 1940 Graham Hollywood Supercharged Sedan.
Graham-Paige was founded in 1927 after three brothers purchased the Paige-Detroit Motor Car Co. for $4 million and invested an additional $4 million in the business. The company introduced innovations including shatterproof windshields and its distinctive “shark-nose” body design before automobile production ended in 1940.
The featured field will also include a rare 1963 Kellison J-3 Roadster. Its aerodynamic fiberglass body reflects the aviation background of company founder Jim Kellison, a former Air Force mechanic who drew inspiration from fighter jets and Italian sports cars.
The vehicles represent a period when smaller manufacturers tested new designs and technologies while competing against the nation’s dominant automakers.
30 years of automotive history
Hagley launched the car show in 1996 as “100 Years of Cars,” commemorating the Duryea brothers’ first production run of gasoline-powered vehicles in 1896.
Three decades later, the annual event has grown into a gathering for collectors, families and automobile enthusiasts from across the region.
Visitors can walk among rows of vintage vehicles while listening to music from different motoring eras. A parade featuring some of the show’s most distinctive vehicles will begin at 11:30 a.m.
Food trucks will offer meals and refreshments throughout the day.
Admission is sold by the carload and must be purchased in advance. Passes will not be available at the gate. General admission is $30 per vehicle, while Hagley members pay $25.
To Go Box:
What: Hagley Car Show
When: Sunday, Sept. 20, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Vehicle parade: 11:30 a.m.
Where: Hagley Museum and Library, 200 Hagley Creek Road, Wilmington
Admission: $30 per carload for the general public; $25 per carload for Hagley members
Tickets: Advance purchase is required at hagley.org/carshow, the Hagley Visitor Center or the Museum Store through Saturday, Sept. 19. No tickets will be sold at the gate.
Arrival: Visitors must enter through Hagley’s main entrance off Route 141 and arrive no later than 1 p.m.
Image courtesy of Harmony Senior Living. AI-generated on 9/15.
Veterans and their families are invited to attend the Sept. 18 ceremony and complimentary luncheon
DOVER, Del. — Harmony at Kent will recognize military veterans from its senior living community and the greater Dover area with the dedication of a new Wall of Honor on Friday, Sept. 18.
The ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. at Harmony at Kent, 1435 E. Lebanon Road. Officers from Dover Air Force Base are expected to attend, offer remarks and help commemorate the occasion.
The Wall of Honor was created to recognize the courage, commitment and contributions of veterans who live at Harmony at Kent. It also is intended to serve as a lasting tribute to military service members throughout the Dover community.
“We are proud to recognize the men and women who have served our country and helped shape our community,” said Executive Director Philip Milnamow, who is also a veteran. “This Wall of Honor serves as a meaningful reminder of their sacrifice, dedication and patriotism, and we are honored to celebrate them and their families.”
The public recognition carries particular significance in Dover, where Dover Air Force Base has long been an important part of the community and military families have helped shape the region’s identity.
Veterans from throughout the Dover area and their family members are invited to attend the ceremony. A complimentary luncheon with veterans, military representatives and community members will follow the dedication.
Harmony at Kent offers independent living, assisted living and memory care apartments. The community also provides social activities, meals and on-site physical, occupational and speech therapy.
To Go Box
What: Wall of Honor Ribbon Cutting and Dedication
When: 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 18
Where: Harmony at Kent, 1435 E. Lebanon Road, Dover
Who may attend: Dover-area veterans and their families
Cost: Free; a complimentary luncheon will follow the ceremony
Washington, D.C. — Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduced a privileged resolution Tuesday seeking to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing him of continuing U.S. military operations in Iran despite congressional efforts to restrict the conflict.
Massie’s eight-article resolution alleges that Hegseth carried out military operations that exceeded executive authority and undermined Congress’ constitutional role in decisions over war. The measure also cites U.S. actions in Venezuela and Yemen, including the operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“In all of this, Secretary Hegseth has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as Secretary of Defense,” Massie said on the House floor.
The Kentucky Republican has repeatedly supported war-powers measures aimed at limiting U.S. hostilities with Iran. House records show he backed resolutions in March, May and July directing the president to remove U.S. forces from unauthorized hostilities.
Because Massie filed the resolution as privileged, House leaders must address it within two legislative days. They could allow a direct vote or attempt to table it.
Hegseth previously faced a separate impeachment effort from House Democrats, who introduced articles in April focused largely on the Iran war and other allegations involving his conduct.
The new resolution comes as Congress continues debating the scope of presidential war powers. The House has already passed measures this year seeking to constrain the administration’s military campaign in Iran.
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump sharply criticized the Supreme Court on Tuesday after the justices blocked his administration’s proposed mail-ballot restrictions from taking effect before the November midterm elections, calling the ruling a “big loss” for Republicans.
The court rejected the administration’s emergency request to allow the U.S. Postal Service to enforce new requirements for mail ballots. The proposed system would have required states to use standardized ballot envelopes and submit voter information through a federal portal. Election officials argued there was not enough time to make those changes before voting began.
Trump directed much of his criticism at the court’s conservative majority, including justices he appointed. He wrote that they were “not the people I interviewed” and had become “a shell of their original selves.” He praised dissenting Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas as “legends both.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed the restrictions should remain blocked for this election but indicated the government could ultimately prevail in later litigation. The underlying legal challenge is still unresolved.
Trump also used the lengthy Truth Social post to criticize the court’s rulings involving tariffs and birthright citizenship, claiming its decisions had caused severe economic and political damage. Reuters noted that the Supreme Court retains a 6-3 conservative majority and has also ruled in Trump’s favor on several major issues.
Austin, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott has directed the Texas Water Development Board to penalize data centers that fail to submit legally required water-use reports, citing concerns that incomplete information is undermining long-term planning as the industry rapidly expands across the state.
Texas law requires surveyed industrial users, including data centers, to return water-use information to the agency. Failure to comply can result in a Class C misdemeanor and can also make companies ineligible for certain state funding or water permits. Abbott instructed the board to pursue past violations and impose consequences for future failures.
Compliance has been low. The Texas Tribune reported that fewer than 30% of surveyed data centers have responded in recent years, even as the number of facilities tracked by the state has grown sharply. Water planners use the information to project demand and develop Texas’ long-term water strategy.
Data centers can consume large amounts of water for cooling and other operations. Texas now has hundreds of existing or proposed facilities, with particularly heavy development in North Texas.
Abbott also ordered the water board to coordinate with the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT on a separate review of data centers seeking connections to the state power grid. That audit will examine water consumption, supply sources and water-efficient technologies. Projects that fail to complete the process can be denied grid interconnection.
The governor requested a progress report from the Water Development Board by Oct. 14.
Detroit, Michigan — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers will skip a Fox 2 Detroit debate Tuesday, accusing moderator Roop Raj of showing bias toward Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
Rogers’ campaign said Raj had behaved in ways “inconsistent with the level of gravity” expected from a moderator in a major Senate race. Among its complaints, the campaign cited Raj’s handling of a Republican gubernatorial debate and comments in which he called Rogers a “veteran politician” while describing El-Sayed as an outsider who was “pretty brilliant in many ways.”
Fox 2 invited both candidates to the Sept. 15 debate shortly after the August primary. El-Sayed accepted, while Rogers did not. The station said the debate would proceed with El-Sayed and an empty podium for Rogers, adding that the invitation remained open.
Raj has publicly urged candidates to participate in debates and said Monday that he and Rogers have had “very good, fair and productive” conversations. He also said he would moderate with “integrity and responsibility.”
El-Sayed previously challenged Rogers to five debates. Rogers has agreed to two others scheduled for Oct. 8 and Oct. 21.
Michigan’s open Senate race has drawn national attention, with Rogers seeking the seat after narrowly losing his 2024 Senate bid and El-Sayed advancing after defeating Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary.
Boston, Massachusetts — A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from imposing new limits on how long foreign students, exchange visitors and journalists can remain in the United States without applying for extensions.
U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor issued a preliminary injunction one day before the Department of Homeland Security rule was scheduled to take effect. The policy would have replaced the decades-old “duration of status” system with fixed admission periods, generally limiting F student and J exchange visas to four years and I visas for foreign journalists to 240 days.
Saylor said DHS relied on “exceptionally weak” national-security and fraud justifications and likely failed to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act by inadequately addressing public comments or considering less burdensome alternatives.
Universities and advocacy groups challenging the rule argued it would disrupt research, discourage international enrollment and create uncertainty for students whose academic programs extend beyond four years. Saylor found they had shown a likelihood of irreparable harm if the policy took effect.
DHS General Counsel James Percival criticized the ruling, arguing the existing system allows some visa holders to remain in the country indefinitely without undergoing renewed government review.
The injunction does not permanently invalidate the rule. The lawsuit will continue, with a status conference scheduled for Oct. 2.
For now, foreign students and exchange visitors may continue remaining in the United States for the duration of their approved programs rather than facing automatic fixed-term expiration dates.
Duxbury, Massachusetts — Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., called for the execution of Lindsay Clancy after the Massachusetts mother’s murder trial ended in a mistrial, even though capital punishment is not available under Massachusetts law.
During an interview with TMZ, Mace said Clancy deserved a “public execution” and mentioned either a firearm or the electric chair. Her comments followed the Sept. 4 mistrial in Clancy’s case, where jurors deadlocked after seven days of deliberations. Multiple jurors later said the panel stood 11-1 in favor of finding Clancy not criminally responsible because of insanity.
Clancy admitted killing her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — in January 2023. Her defense argued she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. Prosecutors contended that she remained legally responsible for the killings.
Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, has since asked the judge to acquit her rather than allow a second trial. Prosecutors have not yet announced whether they will retry the case. If convicted of first-degree murder, Clancy could face life imprisonment without parole.
A presidential pardon is not available because Clancy faces state, not federal, charges.
Massachusetts has not carried out an execution since 1947, and its Supreme Judicial Court ruled the state’s death penalty unconstitutional in 1984. That means Mace’s proposed punishment could not be imposed under current Massachusetts law.
Washington, D.C. — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s emergency request to enforce new U.S. Postal Service restrictions on mail ballots before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, leaving existing state voting procedures in place.
The disputed rule would require election officials to use Postal Service-approved ballot envelopes and upload information about eligible voters to a federal portal. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani previously blocked the requirements for elections through Nov. 3, finding serious legal and logistical problems with implementing them so close to Election Day.
In an unsigned order, the Supreme Court said the government was unlikely to succeed in challenging Talwani’s preliminary injunction and had not met the requirements for emergency relief. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh separately wrote that the Postal Service rule may ultimately fall within the agency’s legal authority, but said imposing it now would be “arbitrary and capricious” because state and local officials lacked sufficient time to implement the changes.
The decision does not permanently invalidate the Postal Service rule. The underlying litigation will continue, meaning courts could still determine whether the federal government has authority to impose similar requirements in future elections.
For November, however, states can continue operating their existing mail-voting systems without complying with the new federal requirements.
Sacramento, California — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would not run for president in 2028 if former Vice President Kamala Harris enters the Democratic primary, arguing that a contest between the two longtime California politicians would be damaging to both.
Newsom made the comments during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper at his in-laws’ ranch in Montana. Asked whether he would run if Harris did, Newsom replied, “I wouldn’t run if she ran.” He later described such a matchup as “mutual assured destruction” and a political gift to their opponents.
Neither Newsom nor Harris has announced a 2028 presidential campaign. Both, however, have publicly left open the possibility of running. Newsom is term-limited as California governor, while Harris has remained politically active since losing the 2024 presidential election.
Newsom has recently increased his national political activity, traveling to early-primary states and campaigning for Democratic candidates. His South Carolina appearances and “Take It Back” tour have fueled speculation about a potential presidential bid.
Newsom also told CNN that family considerations would factor heavily into any decision. He said his wife and children would need to support a campaign, calling their opposition a “non-starter.”
His comments do not clear the Democratic field for Harris, who has not declared her candidacy, but they establish one significant condition affecting Newsom’s own decision about 2028.
The brothers now want to extend that same recognition to other veterans throughout Delaware.
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